WHY BLOG?
I can't understand why people blog? Why they open up lives for scrutiny? I don't understand this obsession of putting everything out there....
These were questions, thoughts, opinions that fell my way at a party a couple of nights ago. Being a better blog tracker than a blogger myself, this opened up the proverbial Pandora's Box.
Blogging for me has been an experience like no other. It has opened so many possibilities, spawned so many friendships, led to so many creative exchanges that it is now next to impossible to give it up.
Beyond what it has done for me, it's been a process of discovery of a whole new world out there. A world inhabited by real people, real places and even more real stories. It was on a blog that I first heard of Shakti Bhatt and her even more tragic demise. It was on a blog that I first heard the name Rekha and the son she's left behind. These are stories that would have perhaps been covered in the mainstream but would have been written about in as detached a manner as it gets. These would have been stories that would have had to fight for space with flowery descriptions of Ash and Abhi's wedding and who didn't get invited.
A typical obit would be something along these lines:
'Photographer ___ was an assignment from ____ to ____. The scooter she was driving had a head on collision with a ___. She worked us from ____ to ____. She leaves behind a son. She will be missed.'
Just pull out a copy of any old newspaper track the story of messengers who lost their lives on duty and see if I am far off the mark.
There are word count restraints which are of course thrown to the winds when it comes to celebrity reporting, then there's the "keep the I out of the story" that effectively robs you of the feel of the story.
Blogs have changed all of that. There can be all of "I". The writer can be the story. A post can start with a word and end with a novel. The choice is entirely the creator's. The writer can choose to be as involved with the subject. Place, settings, characters and so much more comes into play.
Articles written in magazines and newspapers find their way on blogs. Often writers will tell you a shorter version appears here, the full story is on the blog. Or that this piece appeared in xyz publication first. Stories survive beyond the paper and magazine and find a way of reaching out to you like never before.
One such amazing story is award-winning journalist Sonia Faleiro's
tale of A Revathi. A story that has spawned a book no less. A triumph of the written word like never before. And I wouldn't have seen this if it weren't for her blog.
These were questions, thoughts, opinions that fell my way at a party a couple of nights ago. Being a better blog tracker than a blogger myself, this opened up the proverbial Pandora's Box.
Blogging for me has been an experience like no other. It has opened so many possibilities, spawned so many friendships, led to so many creative exchanges that it is now next to impossible to give it up.
Beyond what it has done for me, it's been a process of discovery of a whole new world out there. A world inhabited by real people, real places and even more real stories. It was on a blog that I first heard of Shakti Bhatt and her even more tragic demise. It was on a blog that I first heard the name Rekha and the son she's left behind. These are stories that would have perhaps been covered in the mainstream but would have been written about in as detached a manner as it gets. These would have been stories that would have had to fight for space with flowery descriptions of Ash and Abhi's wedding and who didn't get invited.
A typical obit would be something along these lines:
'Photographer ___ was an assignment from ____ to ____. The scooter she was driving had a head on collision with a ___. She worked us from ____ to ____. She leaves behind a son. She will be missed.'
Just pull out a copy of any old newspaper track the story of messengers who lost their lives on duty and see if I am far off the mark.
There are word count restraints which are of course thrown to the winds when it comes to celebrity reporting, then there's the "keep the I out of the story" that effectively robs you of the feel of the story.
Blogs have changed all of that. There can be all of "I". The writer can be the story. A post can start with a word and end with a novel. The choice is entirely the creator's. The writer can choose to be as involved with the subject. Place, settings, characters and so much more comes into play.
Articles written in magazines and newspapers find their way on blogs. Often writers will tell you a shorter version appears here, the full story is on the blog. Or that this piece appeared in xyz publication first. Stories survive beyond the paper and magazine and find a way of reaching out to you like never before.
One such amazing story is award-winning journalist Sonia Faleiro's
tale of A Revathi. A story that has spawned a book no less. A triumph of the written word like never before. And I wouldn't have seen this if it weren't for her blog.
posted by Read@Peace | 12:44 AM
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