My 200th Post

So this blog has reached 200 posts! 200 days or more of writing-some thoughtful, some from thoughtless thoughts and everything in the course of a life that was moving parallel to what I write. There have been many times when what I wrote influenced the way I live and vice versa. From just a handful of readers for a very long time during the initial days, I was determined to welcome people into my blog-space and did manage to, if not by leaps and bounds atleast a bit... today it does feel good that my blog has been visited over 17, 000 jolly good times. 

There are things I have wished for yet have never routed for as well... like any other blogger, I too wish that there would be more people who would leave a comment, even if not a decent one atleast a deliberate one, just to show that they were here and did read and do reflect. I have also wished that there would be more members who would join the blog, just to feel that courage of added strength. People around do pour more energy into what one writes and I thank those who provide me with that synergy and wish that there was more on its way.  

There have been trials and tribulations that I too have like anyone else, and it is often this blog that comes to my rescue during trying times. This is more like a space where I can share, learn, change. Writing, I do believe is like the magicians cap, only when you put something in can you pull something out later; as a strong believer of that, visiting fellow bloggers who are quite eloquent, expressive and intelligently brilliant often has humbled me while going through the quality of their writing and the extent of their detailing, poly-dynamic views and abundance of readers and supporters which does push me to recheck my boundaries and write better. Language, communication, knowledge and the mode of expression if well chosen, can reach the sensitive part of the soul and knock to be heard, to let know of issues that are often hid in the rubbles of destruction of the voiceless, hopeless and less-looked-upon fellow human beings. The "utopia" is often considered a farce; something that only dreamers can dream of; the impossible. So should we rest all faith and settle with the mediocre?! The "ideal" is often a fantasy; a fantasy that follows us like a shadow in the reality we live in-the tall and short of it. The epicenter of the balance between reality and fantasy rests a lot on others around us who push, pull or stop us. Being able to write freely sans restraint and censorship is a blessing in today's world. Though some dogs do bark at what they are scared to face.

Intelligence, like before, is not a rare, restricted and a personal entity of the powerful alone either. Intelligence on the other hand has become a necessity for survival... and along came our need to be cunning, manipulative and twisted as well. Everyone's need his very own. So in the light of all these, my blog has reached 200. I am glad and I am happy. This is a jolly good time that I may very well use to say "Thank You All" for making this happen and your support did make it worthwhile to be in this spectrum. Thanks once again. 

Stay Off This Post

I have a confession to make. Looking at people in this blog-world, waiting for others to read their stories, people who so surrealistically provide a virtual shoulder to lean on through their comments (esp. when it is a woman), many who think that they are liberated by speaking words which they otherwise would dare not utter and others who would think vice versa, I always wonder why do people call for so much attention upon themselves? why so much attention-seeking? why so much of discontent about themselves?!

People who hint about feminism and other right-based issues, often the unaffected who pledge virtual support, people who write about nothing and go around sending 'likes', promoting others 'blog post' and even giving their diplomatically useless 'comments' in hope that their deed would be reciprocated, people who simply have nothing better to do to bring home the moolah... these are the kinds I have been seeing mostly around here (the jobless kind).

Of late, I had things to worry about. So much that I worried about where to begin. Probably I must make a priority list of things to worry about. Should I begin with my younger sibling who is going through the frustration of a divorce, or should I worry about my old-classmate who is going through the pain of seeing his daughter, barely 5-years-old, fighting cancer or should I start with my friend who just days after knowing that his wife is pregnant is in agony losing his job and with an almost empty pocket? Frustration, Pain and Agony... this list is just the tip of the iceberg of people in real life around me here who need my real shoulder and I sit here wondering over the crap "some" people often blog about and expect that "some" other to give them the support they feel they so strongly deserve. Those virtual fools!

"My cookies did not come out well (sob, sob, sob)", writes one, "Indian people are such an ugly race... and it just gets worse as you travel southwards (hahaha)", writes another, "Watched a movie yesterday... dumb! can't people make any good movies just like those old days? (my pop corn on slime tasted better)" writes yet another. And I read these like an idiot (yet another). Just look at our blog-posts in the mirror for sometime and it will tell us how pathetic we are. What a sad reflection of being wanted, being loved, such attention-seeking lost lousy souls we are! We have it all and hardly realize how lucky we are yet we complain and once we get what we want, we find another reason to complain about something that we want right now... Losers (with a capital 'L'). When the real world needs us, here we are, hiding from our duties and responsibilities, in this virtual world, connecting to people we do not know-disconnecting from everyone we do... piling reasons, lies and excuses to disappear all the while... I thought.

Then I saw people connecting in these networks, sharing their pain and suffering, agony and anxieties, frustrations and passive anger; those who have no one else to share them with, no where to go and no where to run. Those who see this outlet of thoughts as a light shining in the far-end of the tunnel, probably the only light they get to see; all that they want and all that they ask for is to escape the real world for a while... those who beg for a moment, a moment atleast, of calm and peace and I feel 'let the light shine' let the day dawn for those who find life too dark in the dusk of their life, let them who want to sublimate, exercise their right to do so and those who give them the support in whatever capacity they can, do find strength to provide through this catharsis.

In the meantime, there is someone who has written about a cupcake she has made which has not come out well and this lad who wants to show the world how patriotic he is by cheapening the other countries around us and this other gal who just joined who has written a "great post" and wants us to believe how innocent, religious and virginic she is-those three that promise us of a trust-worthy commodity (I wonder how well behaved we all pretend to be around here... like we do when we know that our parents are trying to get us into an arranged-marriage. Duh!) and I got to read them all... after all I have all the day to waste so might as well "read, promote, comment"...

p.c: http://funnnyphoto.blogspot.in/2012/03/funny-kick.html

So You DO Think That Someone Reads Your Blog?!

Percentage of people who use the internet in the world: 32.7 %

Percentage of people who use the internet in India: 10.2 %

Indian literacy rate grew to 75.06% in 2011 from 12% at the end of British rule in 1947 (with a slight change in definition though)...

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has drafted a definition of literacy as the "ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society." Wow! thus making it not just an end yet a continuous sustainable process.

The National Literacy Mission of India defines literacy as "acquiring the skills of reading, writing and arithmetic and the ability to apply them to one's day-to-day life." Thus simplified it to a certain point of vagueness making the controversial mad man in the street who could draw figures resembling letters of his name and count himself in a "literate" in Indian standards. Target achieved! India can dream on...

To take time to think a little off-beat, with just one tenth of us sitting on the internet, we all might know that most of us use the Net for checking our emails, many to just google, and most to get a glimpse of the often forbidden... that leaves just a fraction of the human lot to blog. And you and I think that we have reached a "lot" through our posts enh?! Duh!

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_India
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm, December 31, 2011
p.c: http://wearethebest.wordpress.com/2008/05/