Hello people!!

I am here to celebrate four years of Virtual Siyahi with you all. This is my open diary blog and my first blog that I created on 27th December, 2016 with a lot of apprehensions and being completely unaware of the blogging industry.

That was the time, when I just knew that I want to write and create something of my own, today after 4 years when I am over 700 blog posts old, with 3 blogs, a youtube channel and a Podcast I know what it meant for me and how much efforts I have put to make all this work and stand together, complementing each other and holding each other with a single hook i.e Mental Health.

You know why I started writing?

I was going through deep shit in my life and I wanted to do something about it. Cliche, it might sound but it is what it is. I was undergoing a treatment so I could not go out and work, and sitting idle was only making me restless, I use to write in diary and one day I learned about WordPress blogs. Voila!

I created one with domain name as priyankaspen.com and later I named it to “Virtual Siyahi”. Even after launching Sanity Daily (my professional setup) and other platforms people still better connect with me via Virtual Siyahi. I don’t know the name just hit me, once I was writing something and I knew I had to give this a name, something related to ink and digital world because we write online, hence Virtual Siyahi means VIRTUAL INK.

I was completely unaware about the professional blogging and monetization part of a blog. But since I was putting a lot of effort in my writing, I decided to upgrade myself and learn SEO, keyword research and other things. I learned to create graphics, video editing and began to spend time understanding my audience. I am still learning.

Form my first blog

https://priyankaspen.com/2017/01/06/change-your-life-for-the-better/

To latest blog

9 Key Takeaways From The Maleficent Year 2020

Things changed, my writing style changed, my understanding about the subject changed but my determination and grit for writing remained unchanged and unaffected 🙂

It required a lot of time, patience and experiments. Few things worked, few things goofed up terribly. But I always learned something new and took a mental note of my learnings that has helped me to sustain so far.

Later in 2019, I launched my professional blog Sanity Daily, a complete mental health space. By this time, I had found my purpose through following my passion i.e writing. It gave me a different perspective and helped me identify a unique area of work that I never thought of. I took up a few courses related to mental health, I started taking sessions, webinars on stress management and mental health awareness.

Today, Sanity Daily is listed among top 100 blog in mental health category. In these 4 years of my blogging journey , one thing that I am proud of is that I never gave up, I never stopped and I never paid attention to what people say. I continued my path because I trusted where I am going and what is waiting for me is worth going through the struggle.

You all have been a major part of my 4 year blogging journey, because what is a writer without a reader. You all kept the hope alive inside me, with your encouragement and appreciation, I found courage to move on and finish what I started. With this thought I even launched my Hindi blog PriyankaNair very recently.

So with all this, I am doing my bit to raise the mental health awareness form my end and I want to continue this journey. In the end, I would say that no matter how much awards and recognition I win for my other blogs, videos or poetries, VIRTUAL SIYAHI feels like home to me, my first blog baby and it is very special to me 🙂

I am grateful to all of you and I will always be. I hope the coming year brings joy, peace and harmony in our lives. Take care.

Much love and gratitude

Priyanka