From a Land Far Away, and Yet, Not.

Of letters, dispatches, and audiences.

Photo by Neven Krcmarek on Unsplash

Hello all, it is morning in India, and the opposite for you in the States, so here's wishing you a restful night with a good book, perhaps, or if you are a night owl, like I sometimes am, a chillaxing or productive hour ahead, and to the rest of you, in the UK, rest of Europe or Australia, early morning or afternoon!

Substack announced a new feature, an audience survey, - and I started to wonder - should I even ask who the audience for helloIndia is? I am not overly fond of surveys, when a conversation would do instead.

So, I thought, do you also wonder who else reads this magazine style publication ?

Hence, this post, to share and seek information.

What I know is this - because Substack provides this aggregated info in neat maps like the ones shown below - that you are in 34 US states and 37 countries.

Isn’t that cool ? (It also demonstrates Substack’s adoption as a platform.)

55% of you are from the United States and split as below:

5% are from the UK, and under 5% are from Canada, Brazil, Africa, Australia and Europe.

10% of the audience is from India but, frankly, many of them, are from my high school (hey Rosarians, love your support, no matter what I write! :-)) and the others, from the tech industry - my professional world (thank you for the support!).

I also know because of the engagement of each post that Substack enables, that only 10% of this audience engages with the content and that a tiny percentage (<2%) leave after a few posts when their curiosity is whetted.

The majority of the audience is still here, and hopefully reading, though not always in a way that I can know.

No likes, no comments, no restacks, no notes, no email replies, and no chat hellos.

I am left to wonder: Do views mean you read the post or just opened it? Is this a magazine reserved for a weekend reading hour ?

Or is it that, the words I send out, are somehow lost in your Inbox of 300 other newsletters and emails? I understand and sympathize with the issues of overflowing mailboxes which is why I wrote two articles in my other publication,

TechMadeSimple

on how to organize your Inbox for newsletter reading, and strategies to use for reading newsletters to offload your Inboxes.

I also share 27% of my audience with ‘Letters from an American,’ the most read publication on Substack which is possible to determine only due to an engaged readership and audience. The rest of the overlaps, in case you are inquisitive, are as follows.

So I am curious, if you read

helloIndia!

- Why? What resonates most?

Is there a way using a reply to this email you can let me know, if this content is in some way whetting your curiosity, are there other topics I should write about more - 40% of you love the ancient stories, and 40% like a bit of every topic. I got some fantastic comments, and guidance from you in the post announcing some changes.

While amazing to get that feedback, it still represents only 10-15% of the audience. I am so grateful for these readers and some, writers themselves, to share their joy of reading the stories.

‘SpellBound,’ (thanks Dave!) and ‘Such a joy you have brought me with this series,’ (thanks, Joyce!), and ‘I love these stories,’ (thanks Mark!). Read more reader views in ‘About.’

So, what about the remaining 90% of you? If you're reading but just lurking, that's perfectly fine—I do the same on other newsletters. However, I came to realize that if I never share my thoughts with the writers whose work I enjoy, how will they ever know? So, occasionally, I make a point to wave back and drop in to say hello on their posts, chats, or via email (yes, it's a hint ;-) ).

Though I would love to learn more, because I am naturally curious and seek to understand, I wrote this post on a whim, because I felt like sharing with you, this data.

No matter what, if you feel like sharing or not, I am grateful for your being here, and reading or feeling your way around this publication’s intent.

I started to write about my intense time living in India since my return from my life in the States and Europe, without a guidance system, as an adventure.

I have found the unplanned detours it has taken on topics I did not foresee, to be a little like India itself, the ancient and modern, competing, and reconciling sometimes poorly, and sometimes spectacularly.

I was inspired to write this accounting of my discovery because I enjoyed reading dispatches from a wonderful journalist who wrote for one of the British newspapers and was stationed in various regions of the world that appeared in airline magazines as an excerpt.

I never did tell him how much joy he brought me with his words because the way to do that was not visible, and also, because it never occurred to me that he may wish to know.

What I know now, is that the sharing was not for him, it was for me - to recognize a connection to a writer, whom I may never meet, but whose words created a sense of another world, allowed me to imagine scenes distant, of lands I would perhaps not visit, and visualize it in my mind without the aid of any images.

How wonderful is that? This is why reading is such an enjoyable activity I find, and at any given time, I have ten books around me, partially read, just opened, or being re-read.

I am on a journey of discovery in an ancient land, through writing about it, to better understand the dissonance, the dichotomy, the conundrum of the land of my birth - that still carries practices, rituals, and beliefs so embedded in its DNA, even as its workforce lives their modern lives, in high rise buildings, that at times, it is hard to tell when the ancient ends and the modern begins.

I am glad you are with me!

Stop by and say hello on the Substack chat anytime!