Neil Pasricha’s countdown of the little things that make life bearable has brought hope and cheer to millions of Netizens.

The story of Neil Pasricha and 1000awesomethings.com is something of a fairy-tale for the Internet age. Ordinary guy down in the dumps (his marriage has fallen apart and his best friend has committed suicide) decides to write a blog, one entry a day on one nice, simple, little thing that makes life bearable; the blog’s a huge hit, draws thousands of readers from all over the world, wins awards, and, more important, a book contract; the book is published, makes it to international bestseller lists, which leads to another book, and so on...

The story encapsulates the power of a simple idea, the Internet’s ability to take it to millions across time, region, religion and language — and, in the process, enrich the person who thought it up in the first place.

“I’ve been very lucky,” writes Pasricha, 30, in an email from Toronto, where he lives. “Honestly, when I first started the site I was excited when my mom forwarded it to my dad and the traffic doubled.” That was in June 2008, and the plan was to write about one ‘awesome’ thing every weekday, for the next 1,000 weekdays. Today, having come to 461 (the blog’s numbered like a countdown, so you’re counting backwards from 1,000), Pasricha has gathered upwards of 10 million hits and two Webby awards for best blog. The book’s been a hit too; translated into French, German, Dutch and Korean, this September it will hit stores in India, the country his father comes from (his mother’s from Nairobi, Kenya).

The blog’s popularity (one of the Webbies was a ‘popular choice’ award) is understandable. “In a world of rising sea levels, global conflict, and a troubled economy” — Pasricha’s words — being reminded of the simple joys of “popping bubble wrap”, of “blowing your nose under the shower”, of “coming upon money that you didn’t even know you’d lost” is, to quote from the many messages his readers post on the site, “refreshing”, “smile-inducing”, “a big fat ‘ha’” or plain “AWESOME”.

Much of it is really nice, written in lucid, sunny prose. But there are some really bizarre entries — “hearing a stranger fart in public”, “yellow teeth” and, this one takes the cake, “peeing in the pool”! And, pray, what is awesome about “old, dangerous playground equipment”?

Which brings me to the only bugaboo in this fairy-tale — let’s call it ‘the tyranny of AWESOME’. Ever since the success of his blog, Pasricha says he’s started to notice awesome things everywhere. “When I hear the sound of ice cubes cracking in my drink I think, AWESOME. When I hit a string of green lights on the way home from work I think, AWESOME! When I find the last item of my size in the store I think, AWESOME!” One school in the US even had a project asking students to come up with five things they found awesome in their everyday lives.

Surely it’s not awesome to be always looking for AWESOME?