A Short Note on ‘Blogging’

A short note on Blogging

Why did i start writing this godawful thing called a blog? I’ve always wondered.

What do you write in a blog? More importantly, why does one write a blog anyway? To show off the creative writing abilities? Or opinions about things which is usually written by most bloggers, an opinion which can be credited to news articles, television shows, news channels or worse still, another blog?

Come to think of it, why would anybody want to read a blog? Like Tyler said in small print behind the cover of the Fight Club DVD, is our life so empty? Don’t we have better things to do? Isn’t this another wasted second of our lives? Does a piece of writing, which claims to be an original piece of literary work under the Copyright law regime, deserve the respect that we give to it? Take for example the blog entries I wrote masquerading as a movie review. Who am I to write anything about a movie? What qualifications do I have to judge another man’s work? I am not an actor, have no experience in directing or producing anything and lack the creativity to write a good original blog. What then gives me the right to “critically examine” another man’s work? Who am I to judge it?

And if you think carefully, the same can be extended to every damn thing one writes. South Africa defeated Australia in Australia thereby ending Australia decade old dominance over the sport? Should we rejoice over this fact? Or look back and appreciate what Australia had achieved over the past decade? Winning the World Cup without losing a single match, Winning 16 test matches in a row not once but twice! These are things that we can dream and hope India, or any other country achieves. In two years Dhoni has been treated as a cricketing Messiah and legends like Dravid and Ganguly have been kicked out. And people like us, one of the hundred million bloggers, write opinions about. I ask, is it worth writing? Blogs also include a trip to a Dhaba called Kashmiri. Or a review of a movie. Why, these things are in open. They have already been written about. And all this enthusiastic blogger has to do is read these articles, blogs, reviews and take cue. Then write a piece as his own. Originality? Maybe if that person is an experienced enough ‘CCPier’. Cut-Copy-Paste: Thats what the internet has taught college students. Wheres has the creativity?

Even Bollywood stars have taken to blogging. What do they write? Radical stuff? Different opinion? Or do they give in to public opinion? I believe its the latter.

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This brings us back to the first question; why write a blog at all?

For a first time blogger like me blogging can become an obsession. It becomes more visible when people write blogs and post it as the status in gtalk or paste the link in orkut and publicising it and declaring “Look at me! I write blogs. Its awesome. Read read!” Super cool no? Do they write something we don’t already know?

Anyway, blogging as an obsession is evident in first time bloggers. All they can think about is writing a blog. The feeling of peace while watching the pale blue sky,the moon playing hide and seek with the clouds, looking at the hills passing by when the sun has already gone down and and a silent river flows below, looking into the dark and foggy night standing at the door of a train,the feeling of peace you have clear sky and millions of stars for a roof or just standing at the balcony wearing nothing but a t-shirt in Delhi on a December night listening to some good music at midnight; and suddenly you think, “how do I write this down in my blog? Do I use this expression or that? So cool!” So much for peace! (Oh, by the way, I thought about this particular page while taking bath, traveling in the bus and just walking around. Who knows, perhaps I’ve been thinking about this page subconsciously for a even longer period. That’s what a blog does to new bloggers who actually want to write something but can’t).

But I still haven’t the question that drove this page, why write a blog at all? Honestly, I do not know.

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Everything can be justified. Blog is, after all, an opinion. And everybody has the right to have an opinion! Our Constitution provides freedom and speech and expression. And what better mode of expression that blogs?

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Of course, All of this crap doesn’t really mean that all blogs are bad. Have read blogs which were funny, interesting or simply a good read primarily cause they deal with some interesting experiences. But for that you need to put in some effort and some creativity.

That leads us to the question, do all blogs stem from an experience? And does that make writing a blog worthwhile? More importantly, does that give you the right to write anything you feel (like which most people do anyway)? Some other time.

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I realize this page stopped making sense long time ago…