Twenty- five Seven

Arnab’s Loud Noises replace Crackers this Diwali

October 21, 2014
Normally weeks before Diwali, the fire crackers start bursting and the noise about Diwali makes itself heard. Surprisingly this year it has been pretty quiet and I am willing to bet will be pretty silent. Is it finally dawning on people that we need peace and quiet and not NOISE to celebrate the festival of light?

Or does this mean that people don’t have money to blow on needless expenses like crackers and are tightening their belts ?

Or does it just mean that everyone has gone out of town to celebrate?

Whatever the reason, it is pretty quiet so I wonder if this message sent by a friend has any real relevance?

But nonethess, I thought it worth sharing with all those who have to fall asleep with Arnab and his gang barking in the background night after night.

Happy Diwali!

p.s. One of the best wishes I’ve received so far has been a set of coasters specially made for Fine Art Gallery by the famous artist Vaikuntam
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Happy Diwali 2014 Wishes Gif Wallpapers(happydiwali2014s.org)
When Strangers become friends

October 21, 2014

Blogadda’s latest initiative to get bloggers to collaborate over a story to #celebrateblogging was a unique idea. All bloggers who registered for this online contest were divided into teams of ten each who I presume were chosen at random (or was there an algorithm at work here?). Each team was given a set of five characters with which we had to spin a story. This collaborative effort meant that each one of us had to write a blog taking the story forward – rather like the game of “I went to market and bought a……” a popular birthday party game when I was growing up. And there was a deadline to be met which made it all the more thrilling.

The Spellbinders

When the news of our teams were announced to us, it was only a matter of minutes before some of us became active and immediately formed a group, a group name, identity and logo and began brainstorming. It was apparent that these were the younger lot with boundless enthusiasm and energy. They also had better computer skills and were very tech savvy. My team members consisted of Ankita, Ankit, Bushra, Bhavya, Deepa, Farida, Kunal,Ryan, Ritu and myself. I think I was the eldest of the team( at any rate the only grandma) and Kunal the youngest. Before the end of the second round Ryan who is a surgeon in Mangalore became a first time father. Farida is a professional counsellor and Ritu a published author. So these two became the anchors for our team and Ritu particularly did a stellar performance in steering our ship. Bhavya volunteered to be our Team Leader and Kunal was the particularly vociferous one. Bushra brought in some extra bling to our story with her observation that our team needed more soul and emotion. Deepa who was really tied up with her own personal work caused a few moments of worry with her silence but then pulled her weight with her blog posts which ensured that our team wasn’t eliminated.

The story

The moment our Whatsapp team was formed, ideas were exchanged and before we knew it our story became a thriller. Ankit wanted to add some supernatural/paranormal stuff and this was shot down, but mysteriously surfaced in the second round when it became key to our story. The first twenty four hours were spent in a lot of whatsapping and we almost missed the first entry deadline but we then managed to work out an outline for our story and each of us worked separately on our blogs so that we were ready to hit “publish” the moment we were tagged. This was a new experience for all of us and since it was a collaborative effort we wanted a consensus before publishing a blog post. So there were lots of messages going on late into the night and I even had to beg off a social engagement to make sure that I was on track with the rest of the team.

The experience

It was a unique experience all right – one that brought me into contact with nine people I’d never have met in my every day life – two bloggers from Bangalore, one blogger from Assam, two computer scientists, a surgeon, a fashionista, a psychotherapist and a professional author cum business executive.

For those two weeks we were strangers who suddenly became friends, for whom barriers of age and profession didn’t exist. We were so caught up in our story that for those two weeks all that we thought of was Shekhar and Tara and Cyrus and Jenny and not to mention Roohi the little moppet who for some strange reason became central to most stories. What was also funny was how so many teams automatically veered towards the thriller/mystery/supernatural genre. What was it that drove them so – the presence of Ashwin Sanghi and Ravi Subramaniam on the Jury?

I’ll never really know but thanks Blogadda for this wonderful opportunity to meet such wonderful bloggers and experience a truly unique online event!

This is my post recounting my experience of Celebrate the Game of Blogs with CelebrateBlogging
Writing is easy but blogging is not

October 21, 2014

As a blogger sometimes I wonder what to write about….especially when it’s for a campaign like the Write Tribe‘s Exciting October Daily writing challenge. I mean it’s hard to write about yourself all the time because who really is interested in whether you spent the night tossing and turning? Whether you had a dreamless sleep? Whether your maid ditched you at the last moment? Whether your cake flopped? Whether you achieved your life time goal of getting up and going for a 5 km walk ?

Writing a blog especially one that is personal is difficult because one has to be engaging, amusing, entertaining and informative. But how many of us are really experts that we can speak with authority on anything? It is also difficult to write about oneself without turning into a braggart or a bore. Both are equally deplorable though I suppose a braggart will at least raise eyebrows rather than a bore who will only encourage yawns.

“Writing is the easiest part of blogging “

~ Vidya Sury

Connecting with all the wonderful bloggers out there made me realise how inadequate my blogging skills were and how rudimentary my blog. Everyone else’s blogs seem to be better in terms of content and composition. Yes, I know Corinne in your latest post you said you were tired of keeping up with the blogging Joneses but it is hard not to see green when you see other bloggers blog effortlessly. How do they manage those clever headlines? How do they manage that engaging copy? How do they get the perfect graphics? And finally how do they get the time to do it all?

So last week I reached out to Vidya Sury and shared my blogging woes. Her advice was to reach out through social media, work on my blogs in terms of planning, taking original photographs, linking with relevant blogs and then ultimately just write because writing is the easiest part of blogging.

I didn’t really buy that story till I found that yes indeed, writing can be the easiest part because planning a blog especially one to follow a meme or a theme does require some thinking. Taking photographs that are artistic and relevant is another job that requires time and effort. One has to keep an eye out for the perfect photograph.

Then if one wants to link posts, one has to read and scout around for related articles.

Finally what is most difficult is fitting all this in a busy day. Somehow everyday life has the knack of knocking on your door just when you are getting in the groove. The bell will ring or the phone will ring or someone will call out for your help/assistance in finding something totally inconsequential. But then as we go to answer the call of the bell or the call of duty, the moment of inspiration is past and once again we sit back in front of the computer, trying to recall that wonderful sentence that just set the tone for your wonderful blog post!

This post is linked to Write Tribe’s ProBlogger Challenge