I’ve often heard people use the term ‘big-ball-of-energy’ more than usual, but I never seemed to understand it until today. And, so, when the much waited for Bloggy Boogie, with its first workshop on ‘Creative and Engaging Blog Writing’, began.

The auditorium of St. Xavier’s College was all set, jam-packed with students, professionals, and other enthusiasts, as Mrs. Ritu Sen, the coolest English Professor ever, introduced Ana, Dr. Sudhir Sharma, Sanchit and I to the audience. Yay, we even got a bouquet of roses. I’m sniffing it as we speak.

Ana took over, and as I stated earlier, it all began with a big-ball-of-energy! To begin the Ana and I tossed around two smiley balls. The audience got up from their seats, and anyone who was hit with the yellow, energy ball, had to show their dance moves and then pass it on to another, but continue the boogie! At the end of it, we all looked like a big-ball-of-positive-energy that was grooving to Elvis Presley.

The squishy yellow balls and the audience continued grooving to Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley.

Ana said, “The purpose of this activity was to show you that this is what blogging is all about! It intends to spread happiness everywhere!”

But, I wanted to dance a little longer, Ana! I’m a little sad, but hey, when I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead! Sorry, Barney Stinson.

In conclusion, ‘Happy’ is really what matters, it’s the new rich!

The audience had now picked up pens to jot down the important information. I was moving around between the tables, feeling super duper cool. But, hey, keep that as a secret, pretty please?

We jumped to one of the most interesting activities of the session.

Ana: Now, I want you all to prepare questions you want to ask the person you have a crush on, a few questions. Prepare those questions and share it with the rest of us!

A lot of strange, cool, and common answers surfaced:

Can I have your phone number?

So, you love me, and I love you. Then what’s the problem?

Are you a bathroom singer?

Ahem, well, then Lady Boss Ana burst the bubble by adding, “Treat your audience like your crush and write your blog post for them.”

Of course, a blog post should be as personalized as possible. It should tell your story, and your audience will be intrigued to read your unique content.

While Ritu ma’am made sure the registrations were going steady; the lively audience was giving JWB the best kinda support.

We further went on to explain the difference between a Blog and an article. While a blog is a conversation, an article is a talk. A blog engages, and an article is just written, while a blog post delivers the experience, an article is an information! Opinions versus facts or visual versus textual, these are a few things that separate a blog from an article.

Ah, the next activity was my absolute favorite. Mostly, because we kinda looked stupid on the stage. #SorryNotSorry

We invited the audience to reclaim their voice with a short exercise. Like Kajol and Shah Rukh Khan in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, we asked the audience to prepare a unique way of greeting one another.

The groups did an excellent job!

And, that’s what blogging preaches! Use your signature sign-off phrase, and find your blogging-mojo!

We created crazy headlines, talked about parrotting in interviews, trigger intros for blogs. We learnt that some in the audience are big fans of Adolf Hitler. Oooooh.

While teaching them some blogging basics, we also realized, blogging is one of the coolest and most fun things in the world.

I think the students will agree?!

Join us tomorrow at St. Xavier’s College for a workshop by My Travel Diary’s blogger Parnashree Devi, she has a lot of wisdom to impart, and many fun travel stories to share. Guess who’s excited to do the boogie already! It starts at sharp 10 am tomorrow.