Writing on the net !

My friend Sudhir Syal (techie, writer, journalist and great guy- all rolled into one), holds a very dim view of writing on the internet and on blogs in general. He is right to a large extent.

I am reproducing a comment that he made on this blog once. "I think in life, it's very important to try and be a perfectionist. To perfect an art, to set the benchmark high and to aim for quality. If there is one thing, I hate about the internet, it's the fact that it gives undue attention to talentless pretenders. Pretenders who get away with being ordinary, they can't write, can't communicate, can't command respect on their achievments alone. Why, because on the internet, quality is no longer important. Quality has no value. You scratch 5 peoples backs, they will scratch yours. And it's a vicious cycle, cause none of those 5 have any connotation or intention of ever producing something that's truly quality. And why would they, quality as someone put it is difficult to create and even more difficult to consume. I mean wouldn't it be easier, for you to put sum random photo, talk about some random event and scribble 3 lines in ordinary English? It would. It would be even more easier for 3 ordinary people to come over and put 3 ordinary comments."

But then, 5 minutes back i read this. Fantastic stuff. If you like writing that is delicate and subtle, you will like this. Anil P who mainly writes a very well known Photo Blog (here) is one of my favourite Indian bloggers and a friend as well. Actually he is "the favourite". His style of writing is very unlike mine, 'poetry in prose' is probably a good way to define it. I do not aspire to write like Anil, but I surely aspire to write with the quality that he writes with, albeit in my style (What ever that may be :-))

Mr Syal, you may say that the exception proves the rule and you will still be right - but I say for every 100 average writers, if the Internet can give us one Anil P, its a deal, my friend!

The Choice is mine

I spent the last weekend at the absolutely magnificent Club Mahindra Kodagu Valley resort at Coorg. I was part of a group of bloggers who were invited by Club Mahindra.

The entire group is featured in the picture. From left to right Srinidhi, Amogha, Apurv, Sudhir, Mridula, Arun from Club Mahindra, Kiruba, Anil, Anita, Khanjan and Joy from Club Mahindra. Hidden behind Amogha is the silent DJ Dhruv.

The group was a fairly diverse one. We had professors; marketing professionals, corp. comm. Managers, entrepreneurs, photographers, techies etc traversing a wide age as well as size band to make things even more interesting. The only common thing was that all of us were bloggers. Some were fairly evolved bloggers like Kiruba (www.kiruba.com); while there were also a recent upstarts like me.

I had a fantastic time meeting the group and it was a pleasure to interact with some of the “rascals” who were more than 10 years younger but never made me feel old. I Came back drunk on the energy and enthusiasm of the young and happening generation next. I have always maintained that the power of the untrained mind is one of the most potent forces that our country has today. Intelligent, enthusiastic and with the confidence to take on the world.

I have not had an outing of this nature for a long time. I have probably not gone out and had fun with strangers for the last 10 –12 years. As a matter of fact, most of the “new” people I have met in the last decade have been professionally and most of them have not become friends. It amazed me that for some one who is given to making friends so easily and some one who loves meeting people and analyzing social and cultural issues, this would be the case. If you had asked me 10 years ago if this would have happened, I would have laughed at you. It is amazing the price your career makes you pay.

Now, that I am back and looking at sales numbers and the media plan for next month, it just struck me that the choice to stay young is mine!