MY TRIBUTE TO SULEKHA!

HUNDRED BLOGS AND THOUSAND COMMENTS LATER!

           It was pure chance that I landed on Sulekha Blogs on 22 April 2007. I came chasing the writings of one Mr T Reddy( I don’t see him around now-a-days). He used to write here and then also post the same pieces on NDTV Blogs. I was also blogging on NDTV under the pen name of first ‘Yavesh Rana’ and later ‘Rajwinder Kushwaha’—not my real names though. Actually, I am not using the surname in real life but my wife, being a ‘Rathore’, insists on using it. NDTV Blogs was a good blogging site but somehow, by the end of 2006, it had become free-for-all abusive arena. I suppose it later closed down. Some of the fraternity members here are from the LOST CIVILISATION OF NDTV BLOGS. I can identify them from their writings and the profile of the comments they post.

             When I opened the link given by Reddy, I found the site intersting. I went on to its home page and registered myself on 22 April 2007. It has been one year now and I have stuffed and bored sulekha with 100 blogs and more than 1000 comments. But, as per Sulekha standards, it must be all rubbish as only two of them were featured-which is a sign of my mediocrity on Sulekha.

           Personally, it has no meaning because I have a different aim. What is more important to me is to offload cargo of emotions piled up on my chest and mind. And I am grateful to Sulekha that it has provided a platform to me TO SAY WHAT I WANT TO SAY. I have been like this through out. I don’t feel shy in saying what I want to say. If I feel I am wrong I have NO SHAME in admitting it openly and yell as to how wrong I had been.

           I am at a stage in life where I don’t get anything by showering false praises on people. But if someone is good I mince no words in acknowledging this and I state the reasons for it. No ‘one-liners’ by me.I deliberately and consciously read most of the blogs but if I do not like them, I do not comment unless I feel the blogger is awfully wrong. I don’t spare any of the posts of the so called TOP BLOGGERS. But if I do not comment, it implies it has not appealed to my literary taste-buds. Most often, they do not appeal to me—though some of them are the most admired by Sulekha population."MUJHE DEEWARON  KE RANG SE KYA MATLAB, MAI TOH DHOONDATA HUN KYA HAI UNKE ANDAR;---IMAARAT JITNI BHI UNCHI HOGI, BANEGE UTNE HI AALISHAAN KHANDAHAR”( I have no business with the outside paint, I look for inner composition ; As high as is the building, equally good will be the ruins.)

            Over the last one year,I have had a good battery of well-meaning friends on Sulekha. Initially,I was dumb stuck due to my inability to penetrate any of the established groups. My initial impressions were that the place is overflowing with two categories i.e—the IT Kids and the SOUTH INDIAN identities. Even the topics of bloggers, their discussions and debates were of their taste. Blogs used to be full of ‘mutually appreciating’ comments, showering high praises on the writers. I often read those pieces two/ three times to find out the stated ‘good’. I always failed till I realised it was the ‘MAC Effect’. The MAC acronym stands for ‘Mutually Appreciating Club’. I often, wondered if I will be able to make it here.  But they were mere fears. As time passed, people opened up—no doubts, Sulekha, still continues to be dominated by these two categories even today. My initial contacts were RRONNY, SAINIPUT ,Dr PRIYA005, SEETHA RAGHVAN, RAIPURE, ALPHACROSS and TOMBAAN. They wrote very well. But somehow except DrPriya005, all others have gone missing or changed their Sulekha identity.

           I find some of the new friends are equally very good. Amongst them, Sima Sachdev, Komlet, Namita Sachan, Ehsaas,Bina gupta, Dr Madhavi, Ashualec, Nanua, Chanchal47, Maddss123, Dsampath,Yash Chhabra, Swayamprava, Indianpolity, krishanan Bala, Sunkan, Bhavna14, NK Ravi, DownToEarth, Tanushree Podder, PoetBitterSweet, Purefriendship,The MightyPen, LotusPetals and Sablu do need a mention. I religiously read all of them and give my comments if required. All of them write thought-provoking stuff. Most of these young kids are overdoing their takes on Love & Romance. I can understand---this is the age. How I wish them to diversify before the recession of  the 'love-market' hits them!   I rarely find anyone of them getting featured regularly. It does not mean they are not good. I find their writings more intellectually stimulating than the so called FEATURED BLOGS on things like “IPL & CRICKET”. Can you imagine there are five such posts simultaneously featured on the same subject in the week ending April 28, 2007. But I am positive soon this feature will be refurbished. Even if it does not, heavens are not going to fall, and ‘Sulekha Blogs’ will continue to sparkle like the KOHINOOR.

             Some of my esteemed frieds like Dsampath, Yash Chhabra, Dr Madhavi and Maddss123  do make it to MOST VIEWED/ COMMENTED and RECOMMENDED Lists. The reasons for them to enter these coveted locations might be different. It could be because of their large network on Sulekha. But I have not understood the utility of these columns. They are only cluttering up the home page of Sulekha. There are so many repetitions in these partitions. Same name is appearing in all three. What is the object of Team Sulekha in having this, I do not understand. Are we having a popularity contest here.? THESE REPITITIONS CAN BE AVOIDED. Same is true of ‘Recent Posts’ and ‘Posts by Active bloggers’ also. I know sometimes back, there were FIRE WORKS for changing the name from ‘NOTED’ to ‘ACTIVE’. It will happen when we lose sight of SIMPLICITY and make things complicated and compartmentalise everything. Such fragmentation obliterates fair intentions and dims transparency. We can avoid this. To add to its own misery—Team Sulekha has also started ‘BLAST FROM THE PAST’. It could simply have an ARCHIVE SECTION and put them there. Those who want to carry out research, could lock themselves there. All the same it is my humble suggestion to Team Sulekha. Kindly do not read it as my attempt to pull down the edifice. Not necessarily, others ,too, will feel the same.  

               The most pleasant surprise to me is the number of poets who roam the pages of Sulekha. I find 90 percent are females. Some of my poet friends write very well in Hindi. In fact , they really touch one’s heart. I have no doubts that in times to come, some of them will be POETS EMMINENT of India. Sima Sach dev, komlet, Ehsaas,Namita sachan, Nanua, Shani Ajmera are some of the budding hindi poets. Occasionally add to them, yash chhabra,Ashualec, swayam prava and lotuspetals. I have been advising some young ones to diversify their subjects of poems. Do not get branded as a particular type of poet. They write very sensitive and emotional poems. It really sends your mind thinking. This is the great thing on SULEKHA and I say, “SHAT SHAT PARNAAM-SULEKHA” ( I salute to you Sulekha many hundred times).

           As for poetry in English is concerned, it is of very high class. Some of them are real professionals. Amongst the English poet of repute with meaningful and sensitive poetry are Dr Madhavi, Bina gupta, Yash chhabra, Bhavna 14, Poet bitter sweet, Sunkan, The Mighty Pen, Purefriendship, Down to earth and LotusPetals. All of them are passionate about the theme of their poem. There might be other good poets in HINDI/ENGLISH on SULEKHA whom I might not have read. My apologies to them for having missed them. I assure you ,generally I do not make this mistake and I do notice all good poets and visit them all the good poets of both the languages. May be pure Hindi poems I comprehend with difficulity but I do read them.

            I was basically a writer in English.  When I came chasing T R reddy on Sulekha, I found people freely writing in HINDI. This was a wonderful thing. I deeply admire Sulekha and its team for this. As I used to concoct some ‘STANZAS’ in HINDUSTANI, too, I had no difficulity in putting old wine in new bottles. See, I had the raw material, I had to just refine it and bottle it, which I did astutely. But the litmus test is always the viewership—a genuine one, who understands what you have written. To be very frank, I had a very poor readership—which is a measure of my writing flying over the heads of people as do TOM HAWKS(F-15 aircrafts) zooming in the sky. You can place me in the category of most ‘ill-viewed bloggers’. I don’t know if there are others ,too.  I wonder when would Team SuleKha add this ‘MOST ILL-VIEWED BLOGGERS’ column to the home page so that one can hope to make it to CHART BUSTER page. All the same, it is no fault of Sulekha and the readers. Perhaps, I lack marketing qualities. The marketing principle is :PUT YOUR ROTTEN EGGS IN A GLOSSY AND AN ATTRACTIVE PACKAGE AND PLACE IT IN THE SHOW WINDOW. It would sell like hot cake.

           Truly speaking, I had begun writing in HINDUSTANI, while at Bhatinda(Punjab), where I was posted  in 2000AD. An old man, Mr GS BHULLAR, around 80 years old, had  encouraged me to do so. He forced me to write them down in my diary and the practice carries on. When I came on Sulekha, I thought why shouldn’t I, also, post these ‘Hindi Contraptions’—actually a cocktail of Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and some Bhojpuri words. I posted them in ROMAN SCRIPT and later switched to DEVNAGRI, easily available on Google as “Vishalonline”.It was Yash Chhabra who guided me as to how to write in DEVNAGRI.  I was encouraged by initial friends like RRONNY, SAINIPUT,TOMBAAN and so on. Thus, I invented myself as a wordsmith of ‘Hindustani’.
            Somehow, I did not like and still do not like ‘Sulekha Forums’ because of the kind of irresponsible and indecent debates which go on there. I know most of them are well read but somehow their needle gets stuck on sex and romance. You start discussion on any subject it boils down to love, sex and romance with indecent language being used freely. It could be made a good platform for intellectual stimulation but it does not seem to be. It is not that all of them are so. There are only a few ‘handles’ who do this. But majority of them, while away their time on frivolous things. This is my opinion and not necessarily the ‘forums’ page is altogether bad. But what surprises me is when old hags use unparliamentary and abusive language there. I have often felt when a person can not argue, he either becomes abusive or starts shouting or both. There are tons of such ‘handles’ on ‘Sulekha Forums’. I am tempted to name it ‘Hide of the Perverts’.  

            I must say that one year stay on Sulekha has been not only educative but intellectually stimulating. It has been a Writer’s paradise. Once you log on to Sulekha you get on a different trance. I must salute the person or the persons/group who created this site. Despite all the cribbs of its members, including stupid me, it is a wonderful place to be around. While on cribbing, I find two articles today(28th April) on this syndromme, one by Rama Rao and the other by  PoetBitter Sweet. In fact, I had suggested on Poet Bitter Sweet’s blog that Team Sulekha must open a CRIBBER’S CORNER.  No jokes, I am serious on this. This will not only allow ordinary fellows like us to pour our hearts out  but also allow Team Sulekha to feel the pulse of its members. I am sure Neha and her team will take note of this. Perhaps,’Sulekha forums’ could be named as such.

            What were my initial impressions? Not very encouraging. I found myself a pigmy in the company of such well established and big names on Sulekha. There used to be a column of TOP BLOGGERS  and what big names? The home page was always overfilled with their so-called pearls of wisdom. I  used to read eight to nine of them everyday with serious concentration. I found them short-statured men/women propelled  up by a system called MAC. They had been there since inception so they had their ‘islands of influence’---though the appropriate word could be SYCOPHANCY but it would be too derogatory.  The system still carries on. The MAC was something like HONEY BEE SWARM. As soon as a piece of a write-up by one appeared , the swarm used to make a bee-line.The post used to burst at seams with overflowing one-liner comments. These comments used to be very funny---they still are. I sometimes wonder if the commentators have really read the whole post. The type of comments used to be full of superlatives and expletives, in one/two lines with the help of imprints of SMILEY. To write those kind of comments, one does not have to read anything other than the name of the author and just put the comments. It is INTELLECTUAL DISHONESTY, I say.  But the point was, it enhanced the NUMBER OF HITS and COMMENTS. So, in the past,  the QUANTITY and not the QUALITY was the BENCHMARK of EXCELLENCE on SULEKHA. Fortunately things have begun to be put under the scanner and Neha’s team has now become conscious of this drawback. I am sure, we will soon find qualitative change.

           It is very difficult to change established norms in a colonised set-up. And Sulekha, in the years begone, was a colony of small islands of personal loyalities/ fiefdoms. In short, the TOP BLOGGERS called their shots and TEAM SULEKHA was enslaved.One could easily remember Jailor Asrani’s famous dialogue from film ‘SHOLAY’. He had thundered in this movie, “Ham Angrezon Ke zamaane ke Jailor hain—Hamaari izzazat ke bina yahan Koi Chidiya bhi Fadak Nahi sakti”. As soon as he says this, suddenly then, a sparrow hits him on the face. But that was a movie and Sulekha was the  REAL WORLD, errrrrrrrr they say ‘Virtual world’.They were the NAWABS of Sulekha and continued to be so till october 2007. But TEAM SULEKHA broke free of them somewhere in November 2007 and it has, since,  charted an independent course. Beginning November 2007, things have not only changed but brightened up and suddenly the BIG GUNS have gone into a tailspin. People now know, NEHA and her team is riding the horse SULEKHA. Well done, Neha.

            You see Indra Gandhi abolished the privy-purses of princes in 1969, but the new princes and new dynasties have sprung up on the political map of India. So is true of Sulekha too. India is land of DUPLICITIES and Hypocrisy, you see. Constitution says abolish the caste system but it keeps it alive through ‘reservation’. It is unparliamentary to address a person of low caste by his real caste---a non-bailable warrant is issued if you make this mistake but the same very people run to officialdom and proudly announce the same caste to get that ‘Scheduled Caste Certificate’. They are fighting to abolish the CREAMY LAYER stipulation put by the Supreme Court. This is the clear cut duplicity in the making of our constitution. So is in Sulekha, too. While MAC( Mutual Appreciation Club) has suffered a set back, NWC(NetWork Clique) has replaced it. This is something like the reality shows on the TV where people are asked to vote for their favourite contestants. In such contests, most often, real talented people get eliminated, because of caste, religious and regional affinities of not so talented.  Same happens through SULEKHA  encouraged NWC. This kind of networking encourages ‘one-liner comments’ which is an ‘All- Weather-Vehicle-of-Appreciation’ (AWVA). You find these ‘AWVA–comments’, sometime attributing to the author things he might not have said. I must add here that 50percent of the comments are by the author himself. It is those "Thanx--Thanx--Thank you--Thank you. Come again. Have a nice day etc etc." kind of remarks.  The comments by readers are generally," Fantastic--fantabulous---Mindblowing---lovely write-up" etc, etc. There wil be only two to three genuine comments out of 30 odd comments counted by computer.  You see a Computer is a computer--it is GIGO--garbage in, garbage out. How will it differentiate between the real and  AWVA comments. this is an obvious limitation of the computers--though they govern our lives, today. But we ought to be warned on this serious drawback. Let us not allow life to be run by computers. 

           I say, let us be sincere. Ask yourself, do you read blog fully before you put your comments. Most of you are working professionals and you have jobs to do. Besides, you have to write your own stuff. It all needs time and serious exercise of the cereberal tissues. How can you read 30-40 blogs a day and write your comments. I am afraid you are cheating your conscience if your answer is yes. But I find some of you on the net the whole day. Reading and commenting on 30-40 blogs a day is not a joke but somehow it has become so. And some of you remain glued to SULEKHA FORUMS whole day.  I don’t know when you read them, when you write your own blogs , when you do your professional work , when you eat and when you sleep. Some of you might say it is time-management. I will only say that take care of your health—radiations will effect you—besides, being a couch potato, your brain will become malfunctioning computer.

           By the way, while on the BRAIN, let me give you a new input. A study on decision making by researchers at Max Planck  Institute for Human cognitive and brain sciences in Germany have found that YOUR BRAINS’ MAKES UP ITS MIND BEFORE YOUR MNID DOES. In otherwords, most decisions are made by the unconscious mental activity before the conscious mind comes to know. The study says that electro chemical activity in the central nervous system might be preceding the consiousness by several seconds. So, decisions are already taken before you are aware of it. How funny? Isn’t it? The researchers had found  that they could also guess what decisions a group of volunteers would make before they consciously made them. The subjects who were hooked on to a computerised scanner, were asked to decide spontaneouly whether to press the button on the right or the left and report the moment they had made the choice. As it happened the computers could predict their decision six to 10 seconds in advance with 60 percent accuracy. All this is the advantage of being on Sulekha.

           Finally, I thank Sulekha to allow me to say what I want to say—which was not possible anywhere else. I will like to remind  everyone that it was my personal opinion on the kind of activities taking place here on Sulekha. Team Sulekha can not please everyone. But it can reduce the chances of its frequent headaches by being SIMPLE and TRANSPARENT. Not necessarily my suggestions are the best but it can initiate a debate. I recommend that it should initiate a SULEKHA DEBATE before bringing in any change. If the home page can be simplified by cutting all the frills—it will be much better. In the end, I will quote a stanza from my unpublished poem  “   Your Worthy Greatness” :-

                        Thou said and forgot and forgot for ever,

                         I heard and learnt and learnt for ever,

                         Needless to say you deserve my wishes,