Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
The zen of blogging
|
Blogging is turning out to be a wonderful way of keeping in touch with friends and family
|
IT'S BEEN more than five years since Arpan, a software engineer, left for the U.S. to pursue a career in the Big Apple.
He still remembers his first homecoming. His gang of friends had turned up in strength to welcome him. After the first few minutes of camaraderie, there was absolute silence in the room.
Whatever happened to the bunch of noisy brats, wondered Arpan's mother. The reasonwas not difficult to decipher.
Though the entire gang kept in touch through e-mail initially, the frequency soon petered down when all of them got into demanding jobs.
Finally, when news came that Arpan was to fly down home, the pals knew they had to be there to receive him, but did not know what to say to each other. They hadcome a long way from being the gangly, not-so-confident college boys they were when Arpan left.
Cut to two years later and their meeting is as noisy as it used to be when they were in college.
"That's more like my children," felt Arpan's mom. And, she's thankful to the concept of blogging for getting the friends back together.
For Sudhar, who migrated to the U.S. recently, his blog provides the perfect outlet for his feelings.
"Blogs mean different things to different people. And the advantage is that you can write about `anything'. There are no rules and no boundaries. I can write a blog about how painful it is to wait for 10 minutes with three others for the office elevator and land on the wrong floor (It sucks!). This might not mean anything to you, but probably, someday in the distant future, someone who has had a similar experience might relate to it."
Another advantage, he says, is that your friends and family get to know what is happening in your life and can read it at leisure.
(A recent blog of Sudhar's speaks about the battle of wits he waged with his wife to dip into the tuck box holding the cheedais made for Krishnashtami, before it was offered to the deity.)
Timeless nature
Since every blog and comment is stored in a sequence, it can be read by anyone, anytime, and still make sense.
"Blogging actually helps," says Anant, an insurance officer. He blogs almost every day and goes through his friends' blogs too. Ask him if blogging actually helps break the ice between friends, and he says: "Not for me, for I can strike a conversation even with someone I've just met. But, many of my friends say that blogs have helped initiate conversations."
"Since blogs are posted in a series, you can gauge the state of mind of the writer and how he/she has changed over the years," he adds.
Most blogs link to other blogs. And, the freshness and naivety in the writing make them all the more attractive. To check out some blog sites, just log in to google.com and type `blogs' in the search string. You can then enter the virtual world of realistic blogs.
Blogging is also an user-friendly concept. And it does not take much time and costs absolutely nothing. So, what drives bloggers? "The feel that we've written down something that will remain forever for whoever wants to use it for whatever," says Sudhar.
SUBHA J RAO
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
|
