Once upon a time there was the Dear Diary. Now it’s the blog. Once it was strictly private. Now it’s all about sharing and soliciting responses. From Manhattan to Mumbai, Canada to Chandigarh, everyday emotions, routines, triumphs, troubles, advice and recipes are being posted on the Net. The community has transcended all borders of caste, creed and culture. It’s the online sisterhood.

From eve teasing to blind dates, a newborn baby to mid-life crisis, heartbreaks to vehicle breakdowns—it’s all there on the blogs. No wonder that a recent global online survey concluded that worldwide women blog more than men. Persus Development Corporation found that 56 per cent of bloggers it polled were women. Only 44 per cent were men. While that may not be true of India, where it’s still believed that women lag behind men as bloggers, the number is growing.

“I blog daily and love it,’’ says 27-year-old Sakshi Juneja, who started only to counter a blogger who had run down her favourite star Salman Khan. Before she knew it, she was hooked too. “What gives me a high is the interaction with users from all over the world. It’s great fun to have people responding to your writing—even if it’s hate mail you invariably get from men when you write on contentious women’s issues. But then there are as many people appreciating your point of view,” says Juneja. The vivacious Mumbai-based marketing executive also dispels the notion that a blog is another version of the lonely-hearts club. “I have made lots of friends through my blog but that’s because I am that kind.’’

For Melody, a freelance writer in Mumbai, her blog, Voices in my Head, was a logical extension of what she had been doing since the age of seven—writing a daily diary. “Only this is more fun because it’s interactive,’’ says the 28-year-old who says that the biggest plus is that many online friends are now friends offline too. In fact, she and Juneja have been organising a regular Mumbai’s Bloggers Meet for a year now. “We’ve already had four meets,’’ says Melody. And how does it feel putting your life on public display? “You need to get only as personal as you want to,’’ says Meghna Bhat, a senior copywriter with Wizcraft.

However, stalkers are a big worry for women bloggers. “Many women do not use their real names,” says Juneja, who had a tough time shaking off a stalker from Hyderabad who had even started to post her pictures on his blog. Recently Melody also gave a presentation at the All India Bloggers Meet in Pune on how to handle stalkers.

Is this why men outnumber women in India on blogosphere? “Women are holding themselves back. I know women who are very expressive. But they don’t want to attract unwanted attention,” says blogger Kiruba Shankar. “Women are better at expressing their feelings. They convey subtle things better.” Which is perhaps why more men than women read their blogs. It’s not voyeurism either.

So be it a release, a way to de-stress, a way to solicit a view or simply to connect with like-minded people, blogging sure seems to be giving the Indian woman the space that tradition may have denied. Make that blogspace.