I started blogging in 2015 that was the time I started travelling all around India documenting my travel journey, thus my first blog was a travel blog, and it had a very different URL it was called tikkustravelthon.in

I continued with my travel blog for over three years and then started writing travel books. In 2019, I changed the URL of my blog to anujtiiku.com and converted it into a book blog. In 2022, I turned my book blog into a e e-commerce website and started selling my books directly through my e-commerce book blog. I did that because I wanted another outlet to monetise my creative writings apart from amazon.com which I felt was very cluttered. In 2024, I further enhanced my e-commerce website and created more monetisation outlets by adding new features like renting a book and also started selling audiobooks and screensavers from my book blog.

It has been an eight-year journey for me and one of my books “Yes Sir I Killed My Dad” is being converted into a web series by none other than Netflix. I have also sold the rights to many of my books to audio platforms and online radio stores.

I have travelled to over fifty-five countries in the last eight years and have published over fifty-five books as of now. Along with that I have also given many talks in blogger conferences.

I have also used blogging to do barter and promote other brands and businesses. I did a promotion with Eat On Biryani in Allahabad. Where I made promotional videos and did blog posts to promote the Biriyani Outlet.

My next endeavour is to sell travel memorabilia through my e-commerce blog. These are items that I pick up from various countries through my travels. Now, I will be selling them through my blog as well.

I have a backend team of five people who manage my blog as well. I use freelance designers to make my book covers and get book reviews to review my books.

I also sell my books through cafes local books stores and other merchant outlets. This gives me added visibility and also some much-needed sales.

I regularly attend blogger conferences and book launches where I do reading of my books and that helps the sales as well. But it is travelling that gives me the most joy, being one with nature and looking at the Sky and the sea. Photography is another thing that I have become good at as a blogger one needs to be a good photographer as well and I have become an expert in that as well.

This gives my blog a lot of colour and it becomes very engaging for the readers. I get a lot of emails and I use customer feedback to improve my blog and that improvement leads to more stickiness of my blog. I use Razor-play as a payment gateway and all revenues come directly into my account. I stock some books especially paperbacks with me in my house and directly courier them to customers through Blue Dart. That way, I have full control of the delivery and stockpile of my books as well.

Nino told me over our many conversations, “I have two surnames, you know. One is Davitadze and the other is Makaradze. In my passport, it is Nino Makaradze.”

“One was given to me by my father, and the other is the name of a village I hail from,” Nino replied.

I noticed that the surgery to fatten her lips had made her look, at times, like the Joker in Batman. It was quite funny when one stared at them.

Apart from her tattoos, she looked to be quite a hippie babe, and that was fine by me. She dressed well, wore colorful dresses and shirts, was very appealing at all times, and full of life—very bubbly and chirpy.

Nino Makaradze, Nino Davitadze

She had a life living on her own with her black cat Sameba in her apartment near the city center, drove her white BMW, ate and dined with her relatives and her brother’s family. She worked her beat at the airport ferrying tourists across Georgia, and that was what her life was. But our little Nino wanted a change—a new life, a life that was free. Put simply, our Nino wanted wings. She wanted to fly high in the sky, soar like an eagle high above. She wanted to break free from the clutches of her ex, her brother, and her mundane, meaningless life. She wanted some zest in her life, some newness, some zest.

“Did I tell you I am Muslim? Yes! I am not Georgian Orthodox Catholic, but I respect all faiths and I know a lot about religion,” Nino told me.

“Yes, that is good. The other thing I like is that your English is good, but it is unfortunate that you did not finish law at university,” I told her.

Nino enjoyed her beer, liked to smoke a few cigarettes in the day, wore good perfume, and at times would even dress in her denim shorts—that was very sexy. She also wore contact lenses; I feel they were of the colorful variety. Our Nino wanted to look good and charm people, that was for sure. She knew she had style and oomph.

“I liked it when we meditated together. You should make it a habit; it will give you some peace,” I told Nino.

“I have no time. I am always at work, always at the airport,” Nino said, rather exasperated.

Could I be her knight in shining armor, I wonder.