BENGALURU: The past two months have been a refreshing change for Ramya Umesh. The 35-year-old recently took to blogging about parenting and issues of national interest but unlike other bloggers, Umesh writes all her posts in Kannada.
A graduate in Kannada literature, she prefers to blog in this language due her familiarity with it, and penned her first post on helicopter parenting. One post led to another and eventually, she wrote four articles, including one on how her 15-year-old son wants to become a soldier.
Umesh is part of a niche, but steadily growing, crowd that prefers to blog in regional languages.
According to Momspresso, a multilingual content platform for mothers, which Umesh also contributes to, Kannada has been the fastest growing language in South India. Co-founder Vishal Gupta says, “It’s been only three months since we launched but we already have 30 bloggers who write in Kannada,” he says.
Though the platform began with English, the language receives only 25 per cent views. “The rest 75 per cent is regional languages. Only 8 per cent people in our country read English newspapers and the same is reflecting on digital platforms as well,” he explains.
Agrees Prasanna Karthik, who started blogging in English with translations in Kannada eight months ago. Because of increased demand, he began publishing the content in Kannada.
“In a day I get about 150 to 250 views for my content in English but 400 to 500 views for posts in Kannada,” he claims. He follows other Kannada bloggers as well and often posts about women freedom fighters, everyday life and human
interest stories.
A blogger with Momspresso, Smitha Nadig N decided to write in Kannada due to her love for her mother tongue. The 30-year-old physics lecturer writes for the love of language and to improve her vocabulary. “I keep reading Kannada literature and also keep a dictionary with me at all times to check the meaning of words I do not understand,” she says.
As a mother to a six-year-old, blogging has helped her relate to other mothers too. She has been blogging for close to two months and has written over five articles.
Most of her posts focus on her experiences in life and the difficulty she faced while juggling between her work and motherhood. “Since I teach PU students, I understand the adolescent age as well and write about them too,” says the MSc Physics graduate.
Besides using blogging platforms, people also write on other social media sites to express their views in regional languages. MR Kamala, a retired college principal, uses Facebook to share her writing and reach more people. She says, “I used to write for newspapers earlier but it was difficult to get feedback from readers.
On Facebook, I can connect with the youth and Kannadigas in other parts of the globe to get instant feedback.”