30 minutes on Facebook

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The day is going to be hectic. Let me begin it by going through my Friends' updates on Facebook. That'll make me happy. 

30 minutes spent on Facebook:

News link shared by a "Friend". Read the title. Can't read more. Like.

34 Photos of a Friend and family vacationing in a beautiful place I will never visit in my life. Damn. Some people have everything. Like.

Philosophical update from a Friend. Read. Didn't understand. Must be something very very profound or clever. Worth a Like.

Profile update of a Friend who updates profile three times a week. Not again! Self-absorbed. Self-something. Boring! It's time I updated my profile picture. Comment: You look cute.

Status update from a Friend who has a million Friends on Facebook. He has updated three minutes ago, and there are already 247 Likes and 30 comments. Miniature celebrity. He could do without my Like or comment. Though I should admit, what he says does make sense. Ugh. 

Political mud slinging from this party to that. Nice. Pass.

Hilarious update from a Friend. Chuckle, chuckle. Clever guy. Like.

Fanatical religious update. Why did I make this person my 'Friend' on Facebook, again? Can't remember. Pass.

Blog from a Friend who blogs twice a week. There she goes again. Who does she think she is? I had Liked her post last week. I will skip this time.

Big discussion going on about the upcoming elections and the top parties. Eeek. I hate politics. I hate these people who taint my wall with politics. Scroll down.

Suggested Post. Facebook, please. You know everything about me. Don't you know I can't stand advertisements?

Someone has published a book or made a movie or done something creative. Damn, Damn. I am here too, God. Have you forgotten? Like, dammit. Like. Like. Like.

Friend has posted picture of his daughter winning an award. Cute kid. Brilliant. Like. Wish there was a better word than 'Like'. 'Delighted', perhaps. Or 'Excited'. Or even, 'Proud of You'?

'Friend' whom I barely remember bought a new car. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great news. Who cares?

Fanatic Friend has posted something offensive again. Get a life, dammit.

Scattered a few comments here and there, I hope I got them all at the right places: Beautiful. Wow. Cute. Thank you. Welcome. All the Best. Really? Great Job.

Damn. Why does everyone have such exciting lives, while I just sit here hitting Likes, Waiting?

Let me go post some brilliantly stupid, philosophical nonsense. Hah. Type, type, delete, type, edit, type.

Hit by a wave of depression.
Close Window.

Let me get back to my @#$%# work.

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Wow Me, Wow You

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A few days ago, I did an experiment. Some of my blogger friends would know what I am talking about, and some of them might even have noticed and said to themselves, "Oh, now she too has taken the wheel and headed out to the race track."

The fact is that I wanted to know how the "race" worked: and I found out that it was exactly as I had imagined it. Let's just say that a lot of back-scratching (but no back-stabbing) was involved to get my momentary "success". But it was not easy, no sir. I did not do anything illegal or wrong, but if you ask me if it was the right thing to do, I would hesitate a bit, and I would not be able to give a single word answer.

Since I am not going to explain what it all is, let me compare it with something very familiar: Facebook, where we all hang out.

Someone recently asked me if it was the "Facebook etiquette" to comment on all posts and photos and say "Wow, this is great" or ""Wow, so cute" or "Wow, you look wonderful" etc. I answered that the more you Wow someone, the more Wows you get back. Which translates to an illusion of rise in one's self-worth. (Besides, you really don't want anyone from your past to pop up and post some old foolish story on your wall and ruin your name in front of your more recent friends who think you are amazing. So the Wow is your way of saying, hey I am Wow-ing you and not ruining your name, so you better Wow me back and be decent on my timeline.)
I told you there was politics everywhere.

It is an unwritten, unspoken code. Wow me, I wow you back.

And thus, I proved - elsewhere, with respect to my blog - that the Wow-back theory works; it was not easy, it took hours of my time (did you know dishonesty and bribery are time-consuming?) and my hand began to hurt with all the mouse-clicking, but it did work pretty much. But sorry to say, it brought no happiness.

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Success - an observation

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Today, "success" is measured in numbers. Numbers that signify the attention we get, numbers that indicate the "success" we have given others. It's the result of effort we spent on bringing attention to ourselves, not merely the output of talent, or hardwork. Well, can't complain. Bringing attention to oneself requires talent and hardwork too! Not everyone can go all out and make others notice us.

If you don't do your work today, your "success" falls by a certain number. If you don't help others to attain "success", your own "success" would fall. Everyone knows what this means, but no one is unduly worried. If this is what it looks like today, then this is the one we would like to have.

This kind of success gets addictive. I had it yesterday, I want it today. I would want it tomorrow and for all days to come. And if it is not found, it becomes frustrating, depressing. I would work harder on pushing others to their success so that I can attain mine.

It's certainly about skill and talent and hardwork. But not on our product, but on getting it out for all to see.

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Once upon a time, on Facebook

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Once upon a time:

Person 1: Hey, are you on Facebook?
Person 2: No, I am not, but most of my friends are. I think I should create an account there too.
Person 1: Oh, definitely. Create an account and add me. I'm totally addicted to it. I've over a thousand friends and I am considered very popular.
Person 3 (overhearing): Who's on Facebook? Add me too.

This week:

Person 1: Hey, I haven't seen you in a long time.
Person 2: Yeah, I don't see any of your updates on Facebook either. You didn't reply to some of my messages too!
Person 1: Oh, I have been busy. I don't have time for that sort of thing, Facebook or such nonsense.
Person 2: I see a lot of people tagging you in pictures and updates.
Person 1: Yeah, isn't it boring? Those people seem to have nothing else to do but Facebook all day.
Person 3: Yeah dude, Facebook really gets on my nerves, a helluva set of self-centred people!

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Labyrinths... on Facebook

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A blogger friend of mine had suggested a long time ago that I create a Facebook page for this blog. I never got around to doing it... until now.

So if you read this blog, and like what you read, please let me know by 'Liking' Labyrinths Of Life on Facebook. Thanks!

Thank you for the suggestion, Harish.

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The Week in Tweets

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Do hop over to Eisley's blog where she is running this awesome series of posts called "The Indie Bound series". Heh heh, you spotted me there? Yes, I too have contributed to it, offering my strings of wisdom to unsuspecting readers. You can read it here. There are more blog posts in the pipeline, and Eisley introduces one indie author a day. Here is Eisley's tweet on the subject.

The little blue picture you see on the left is her new  Middle Grade Fantasy "Born to be a Dragon", the first of the Dragons Forever series. You absolutely should check out the book. My son and I finished reading it together and you should have seen his face when it was over. He is already asking for the next book, though he calls Deglan as 'Dlagan' and Lord Edric as Lord Eric. Book 2 promises more adventures for Deglan and Meia, and I am not quite sure who is awaiting it more eagerly - my son or I?

Meanwhile, all's been generally quite normal & quiet on the Home Front, (though 'Normal', 'Quiet' etc. are very relative things). The five-year-old's educational journey progresses minute by minute. I happened to tweet a couple of the gems that came out of his education. I thought it is easier to re-post them here rather than narrate the entire Mahabharat.

Posting tweets idea courtesy @vadakkus

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The Friendship Phenomenon

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If God had wanted man to have a hyperactive social life, he would have created virtual Social Networking when He created mankind, don't you think?
Yes, I thought so too.

Granted, when He started there might not have been enough people around to create a 'network'. He did spread the seeds of socialising enough to make us "Social Animals", but the Social Beasts and Monsters we turned out to be in a few thousand years of existence must have been a real shocker to Him.

Yeah, I'm talking about you, Facebook. What beasts you are turning us into! What monsters you are pulling out of the deepest and darkest corners of our hearts. What weird beings you are awakening from their safe slumber inside our minds.

We meet a lot of people in life, right from the womb. There are some who accompany us in our journey through life. With some, we're expected to part ways and move on after a while. Now imagine the whole lot of people we've known over the years sitting in our living room, staring at us? Intimidating. And what if they all start chattering?

Some people in life are meant to be kept at a distance. To their credit, many of them know where they should stand. But some don't.

Till a short while ago, I was naïve enough to think that after I find a few close, old friends, there was nothing much to do on Facebook. Maybe we'll just keep each other updated on our progress in life, I thought. I never realised this 'making friends' thing was an outward bound spiral that had no end.

Doubt not, I am an active Facebooker. But there are things that make me squirm in my seat. Like, the people who stare at me from the right frame, whom Facebook claims are people I must know. Common friends: three thousand and twenty five. I am just saying. Yes, I know them. But I tell myself, let them send *me* a Friendship request first, then I will accept. Nothing is going to make me send one to them.

Then there are Walls. What happens on the Walls do not really stay on these walls. Cold wars originate because of these public writings on the Wall.
Because one of them forgot to add an 'LOL' or a smiley to the end of their comment.
Because some thought they were still buddies they were twenty years ago and can still pat the other on the back and say nasty jokes aloud.
Because they thought the owner of the Wall can take a light joke in the right spirit.
Because someone forgot to respond to a comment on their status update.
Because someone posted a picture of you in your high school and tagged you without permission.

I know what makes me uneasy, and why. I also know that it is not going to stop me from visiting Facebook. I also know such a thing either doesn't exist, or don't have much significance in a place like Twitter. And I also know that when such things happen I will close my eyes and pretend it never happened.

After all, if the bus stop is too far and there is no auto available, you gotta walk all the way.

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A place to whine

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About 15 years ago, a person whom I would now call a Visionary, brought his team together to work on a new concept. Websites were new, and mostly belonged to organizations or stores who had something to showcase. Personal websites were few and just picking up: there were no easy tools to create them, one had to learn programming, though HTML, Javascript, CGI/Server programming et al were in their infancy, and there wasn't much one could do compared to today. Blogs were unheard of.

He designed a pick-and-choose website creation tool for users who did not know (or wish to know) anything about web development. Users could pick a template, colours, section titles etc. and add text to it. The result was two nice-looking pages to speak about themselves, ready in minutes! At the bottom of the second page, there were two boxes called 'Message Boxes.' Zoom in to these Boxes, because that is what I'm going to talk about.

Message Boxes were places where others could leave notes for the website owner, and he could reply. A very crude form, ill-organized, but yes, that was the closest one would ever have come to a ... Facebook wall. I wonder where that site would have been today, had this Visionary been surrounded by a set of people who were ready to put their faith in him. It would have developed into the first social networking site, much ahead of its time. Unfortunately for him, the negative impact - of a team that did his bidding just because they were paid for it and was not ready to expand on his dreams or improvise or innovate - finally won over, and the site stayed just as it was: under-developed. I believe we can find its remnants even today. The company that the Visionary led went on to do something mundane, commonplace that everyone else was into.

It took someone else to figure out the potential of a 'space of one's own'. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook: why are they popular today, much beyond the expectations of their creators? The reason is so simple, had it occurred to the Visionary fifteen years ago, he would have put all his money on it. He did have an inkling, apparently, but was not confident enough.

We all need a place to whine. In the olden times, the purpose was served by close friends and family. As time passed and the whining became a more desperate, elaborate requirement, the circle of friends became too small. Besides, with friends one had to occasionally listen as well. Then, as a life saver, entered the Blog, where one could whine, and not care if someone else whined as well. And soon followed Social Networking which was a whole new, endless expanse of space! Now one could really, continuously whine in peace the whole day, the whole year, and not even bother if anyone listens. Someone might, time and again, ask you what happened, and you could slip into the details or tell them to shoo, depending on your need.

If you're in search of the next big thing the world is going to drool over, make sure you allow some space for the endless whining that we ordinary folks desperately need.

If you're a visionary, you may foresee what kind of whining space the world will desire fifteen years from now. Dive into it.

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Tales... gets its own Facebook page!

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About a year ago, my friend Nikhil suggested that I create a Facebook page to promote my book (In fact, if it were not for his continuous prodding, I would not have created my Facebook profile at all!). At that time I was new to Facebook and Facebook was new to me, and page creation on FB was not at all user-friendly. Besides, it was called 'Fan page' at the time, and it sounded so very inappropriate to me. For these reasons, though I did stroll around the page creation screens of FB, I gave up after a while.

Early this month, another friend added my book to her Likes in Facebook, and I thought it is time I gave it another try. Hence, ***drum roll*** the official Facebook page for Tales from the Garden City was born.

Wow! It sounds quite something, doesn't it? "Official Facebook page" and all that. Today, I noticed that among the people who Like it, there are also a few whom I don't know personally or through Twitter/Facebook. I Double Like it!

Which is when it occurred to me that this blog being the window to my heart, I should brag about this new Facebook feat of mine. Do step over to my little book's own Facebook page, and share a thought or two. 

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The capital and small of Friendship

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There is something about Facebook that does not seem right.
Maybe something that the creators did not intend, nor imagine will get out of hand. After all, most inventions are made with the best intentions.
Or maybe, everything is perfectly right, it is just me.

When I gave in to popular demand ( actually only one or two friends made the suggestion, but 'popular demand' has such a nice ring to it ) and created my Facebook account a year ago, I did not have the slightest inkling of what I was getting into. I was actively into Twitter those days, but in Twitter, there is a certain distance in the closeness, and a closeness in the distance ( the way I perceive and peruse it ).

Initially of course, my only Friends in FB were those who I grew up with, or spent my college days with, or some of my grown-up days with. People whom I knew decades ago, and from whom I'd protected myself all these years, popped up with Friendship requests. It did not seem polite to decline them so I accepted many. Not all. No, there was no way I would let some of them into my 'Friends' list ( with the capital 'F' ), at least as per the definition of 'Friends' that I still hold on to. The world has long ago modified the definition of the word - the boundaries of 'Friendship' are becoming vaguer with each passing day - and the word has only a remote resemblance to its original self. Everyone who passes you on the corridor without a glance, let alone a smile, is your 'Friend' in Facebook. The CEO of your organisation who doesn't even know you by sight, is your Friend in Facebook. The Friends of your Friends ( real or Facebooked ) are your Friends in Facebook. All of which sound pretty okay. When someone important ( like the CEO ) posts something clever on Facebook, some of the 'Friends' feel it is their duty to 'Like' it or pass some flattering comment ( after all, their appraisals must be at stake ). That goes on in your timeline, but you just raise your eyebrows or give a knowing grin or shrug, and push it out of mind.

What alarms me is the fearful invasion of privacy ( and the lack of concern ) most people exhibit on their network. I perhaps should not be, prepared as I was for this sort of thing. *Kind of.* And it makes me feel quite old. Once my Friends' list grew beyond the borders of known friends and acquaintances, I removed all my personal stuff, including pictures, from my account. Sorry, but I still value my privacy - whatever I can salvage out of it. I still can't help it if someone decides to splash a picture I would rather restrict to my personal network and tag it with my name, or write on my wall about things I consider private, but as far as possible I want my Facebook account to be protected.

I should not expect everyone to be that stingy about their privacy but aren't there some pictures and updates that should be kept within their friend ( with the small 'f' ) circles, and not splashed to the entire community? Some of the wall messages that come up on my timeline are quite personal, they almost sound like one of the letters we used to write a decade or so ago ( can they not use the private 'message' option in Facebook? ). More alarming is to find some snaps or updates that reveal an unknown ( and unexpected ) side of a person. No, really, I can do without that knowledge. Remember the time when we were afraid to post our pictures anywhere in cyber space for fear of someone doing mischief? I belong to that era, and am not ashamed to say that I have not come very far. So it makes me feel awkward to find pictures shared irresponsibly ( and I am not talking of a few harmless family snaps ). Even worse are comments that people post on others' status messages that borders on, or spills over to, rude, often not giving a damn that the words are there for all to see. I have a few 'Friends' who are so obsessed with the number of Friends they have on Facebook that they often quote it as a proof of something ( "I am so well-connected" or to that effect ), I don't even know what. I am also told that some even play politics in FB, often taking sides with one and making another look ( and feel ) bad.

Yes, I do respect others' networking preferences, which is why I don't post this comment there: "No, it ain't cool, dude. Grow up. The message you wished to convey has been grossly distorted by the time it hit the timeline." 

On Twitter, I do expect cr@p to appear, given some of the profiles we follow, and sifting through it all is part of the specification. But isn't Facebook different? Shielding myself against what I consider a breach of privacy involved waddling in a huge set of Options and Settings, but since I believe it to be important, I did waste a lot of time in the waddling.

I am not saying that Facebook does not have its benefits ( otherwise I would not be still into it ). For example, it was almost surreal to find someone I used to know twenty+ years ago, absolutely not recognising him, and getting awed at his achievements ( and feeling very proud ). Finding old friends, promoting oneself, sharing, caring, conversing, raking old memories, are still beautiful, as long as they don't unnecessarily overlap between unconnected groups.

If you're going to tell me "all this is the beauty of it," let's agree to disagree.
And so life goes on.

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Things I didn't know about Twitter ...

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1. If a person has protected his tweets, and I do not follow him, I will not see his tweet even if he mentions me.

 

2. To get a direct link to a tweet, click on the time below each tweet (eg: "about 11 hours ago").

3. To see which tweet has been responded to, click on the "in reply to" link below each tweet.

4. If you want to know whether a person follows you, one method (among others) is to visit his/her profile and see if you can Direct Message him/her. If s/he is not following you, the DM option will not be available in the list.

5. Rogue applications that you may have unknowingly given access to need to be removed from the Settings - Connections to avoid untoward incidents.

Also read:
Are you a Twitter addict?

New to Twitter? 

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An addiction called Twitter

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You know you are twitter-savvy if you...

1. Think of posting to twitter whenever something interesting happens around you...
2. Try to compact wise thoughts and jokes into 140 chars...
3. Are elated, if someone RTs your tweet...
4. Experience heart failure, if it goes for a second RT
5. Always need the twitter application handy...
6. Are afraid to delete mails from your sent folder lest they be deleted from the recipient's inbox too - like DMs
7. Add hash tags in your SMS, chats, or mails (thought courtesy @rkartha)
8. Worry about how many interesting conversations you missed when you stay away from Twitter for a few hours...
9. Experience withdrawal symptoms at the very thought of a week's disconnect from Twitter...
10. Hook yourself to Twitter for Breaking News!

Any more? Please contribute your thoughts... :)

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The attraction of Social Networking!

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My first Newspaper Article!

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If someone tells you that social networking sites are a waste of time, refer them to me.

Once upon a time I too thought so, but no longer. They are a waste of time if all you do there is chat. Even then, one would manage to pick up some good news or information or gyan - at least to improve one's GK!

I did a U-turn regarding my take on Social Networking sites a couple of months ago when I started following the 'right' people with the 'right' interests. I was able to participate at the Bangalore Book Festival because of a chance tweet from Pothi.Com that I could easily have missed, but didn't. And now, thanks to Gopinath Mavinkurve whom I met through Blogger/Twitter, I have had my first newspaper article published, in the New Indian Express.

Curiously enough, the article is regarding Twitter!

Click to enlarge

A Great Big Thank You is due to my dear friends Prema and Ninan of Kochi who facilitated this through a friend of theirs.

Click here to read the online version: http://tinyurl.com/y89lwsp
(Again Gopinath Mavinkurve has helped locate this link!!!!!)

Do tell me if you like the article!

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The Week that Was - Changes up here

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So you noticed? I wanted to change the blog template itself, but blogger gave me no good choices. The ones available have had no update to them in more than a year, and I really don't want to change my template to something that another of my friends has.
The change in title was in the pipeline for quite a while, and when it happened, I chose to change the colour rather than select a bad template.
Do you like the new look?


I finally did something that my friend Nikhil had been suggesting all along. I created a Facebook profile. So far I had bravely repelled the pressures from my friends (including him) who tried to tempt me by uploading photos there (the darn site needs a registration before it shows us snaps), who boasted of 500 Facebook friends, and so on.

So what did I find on registering at FaceBook?
A load of old friends who prefer FaceBooking to Emailing, for reasons unknown. (I personally prefer Emails. At least, until now.)
Friends I haven't seen in 10-15 years, and barely recognise.
Friends who are in unbelievable positions in enviable locations around the World.

Having been on Twitter for a while, I took two steps back on encountering FaceBook. Twitter is so very simple, with minimal links and activities. And yet, it took me days to get used to it. In FaceBook, you can Message, Mail, Chat, Wall, Nudge, Poke, Scream, Hit, Kick, ..., besides playing a variety of games (none of which I attempted so far - I am already groggy seeing the million things in my Homepage or whatever it is called). By mistake I forgot to accept a friendship request from someone, and have no clue how to find him again.

Speak of the travails of Networking!

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Updated thoughts on Twitter

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Remember my first take on Twitter? Though much has not changed, I have started getting the swing of the thing. And yes, I have started following others and listening to them. It sure has been beneficial to me. I found a lot of good stuff about writing and other topics of my interest; many, many people share their thoughts and enlightening experiences that I hook myself to the tweets regularly for my "daily dose of wisdom." It's been interesting so far.

As the wise cbjerrisgaard had commented at that time, "Start with a small group of people you find interesting, look at who they follow, use tools like wefollow and twitter search to find the rest. Then - interact. The rest takes care of itself."

I can now understand the obsession one could have for the Tweetland chatter. There are no rules on what you tweet about, or how. Except that each message should stay in 140 characters. You broadcast anything that comes to your fingertips, and if your followers like it, they take it forward through a reply or a Re-tweet (RT). When your message is RT-ed, you will know how far it has travelled, how many people have RT-ed it. You can use Twitter to promote your product, think out loud, catch up with old friends, make new friends, get breaking news, make news, or simply spend time. The fascination that Email once held, later blogs, and then mobile text messages, is now taken over by Twitter.

Sometimes, the number of tweets at my 'Home' still overwhelms me, but if I have the time and patience to leaf through them, I find several good reads and info, enough to keep me engaged for hours on end. For instance, a few days back I read about how independent or self-published authors can put up their books for sale in the Bangalore Book Festival-'09, coming up next month (Nov 6-15, 2009, at the Palace Grounds, B'lore). A couple of months ago, when I sent an Email to the Book Fest official site, I received absolutely no response. I had almost given up on the Book Fest. So this would give me an opportunity to give my book the kind of exposure it needs - thanks to Twitter.
(Also read, Times of India article on the Book Festival.)

I was surprised to find that I do enjoy chatting with absolute strangers from different parts of the world, on topics I like. Once upon a time, the very thought would have totally put me off.

There is no place for Boredom or Idleness in the world now, when there are applications like Twitter to wallow in for hours. There only seems to be Procrastination (at least, in my case). But there are many who Tweet and Work, or Tweet at Work, or Tweet between Work, and for whom Twitter is The much-needed Energiser that drive them up the mountain.

In case you are interested, Follow me on Twitter.

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The controversial @ShashiTharoor

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A few folks up at Twitter must have looked curiously at their hit statistics last week. One million(-ish) new hits would have looked quite ordinary had not all of them come from the same Asian country called India. But the geographical pattern ends there, the pin-points of visits are spread across the sub-continent, and the clicks keep pounding at the rate of one per half-second. Did we do something extra to promote Twitter in India, last week? One of them who was using a magnifier lens would have suddenly sat up and pointed out that majority of the hits are directed towards one user's account. The user name is @ShashiTharoor.

There are a large number of uneducated people in India. Among the educated ones, very few are computer-literate. Among the computer and Internet users, an even lesser percentage are aware of social networking sites and Twitter. But last week, almost one hundred percent of newspaper-reading, computer-illiterate public of India have been introduced to the term 'Twitter', and many of them have been prowling around and wobbling their way across the Tweetland, thanks to Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs, Govt of India.

Who is Dr.Shashi Tharoor and why does he find himself so much in the controversy columns of Indian newspapers these days? A year ago, more than half the public of India had not heard his name. A handful who followed his name were aware that he was the Under Secretary General of the UN. That made us quite proud that an Indian has managed to scale such heights. The Malayali-ness of his name brought extra sense of pride to some Malayalis, too. When he left the UN and showed interest in Indian Politics, a few did frown, but most were overjoyed. So much so that his constituency, Thiruvananthapuram (TVM) went to the polling booths in never-before numbers and catapulted him to victory. The path to becoming a Minister was a logical next step and though there were apparently discontented members in the party, his people were happy.

When one basks so much in success, one often misses to see the few disgruntled, faceless entities lurking in the darkness, waiting for a suitable opportunity to trounce him. The Minister started using Twitter to promote his campaign during the election, and apparently got a little carried away by it, like every other user of Twitter, Facebook, Orkut and Blogs. In his eagerness to please his people, - and his eagerness showed when he shed his long comfortable western wear (in which he looked dashing, I may add) and decided to wear desi as long as he is in the country - he was always keeping them abreast of his movements, his work and his travels. It pays to note that he was careful to never give out a bad comment or unpleasant opinion about anyone in his tweets or to give personal comments on anything until his Party/Govt had announced a stand. To be fair to him, his comments are his most frank and careful views on what passes before his eyes, as his 2 lakh and counting (as of now) followers would testify.

It is also true that being new to the Political Scene, he did not completely and easily merge into it and his behaviour was always different from those that we had encountered for a long time. For the people, it was refreshing. For the Government, it was sometimes horrifying and blasphemous. For the Opposition, it was a potential weak-link of the Govt.

No wonder that among his so-called followers there were some who were silently weighing each word he typed and turning them in and out and trying to find different meanings using the Thesaurus. Imagine their unexpected good fortune when the Minister innocently repeated a phrase from a follower's question and answered it - he was trying to show his eager support for his Party's latest stand on Austerity (Another new word that the country has learnt last week!).
"Soup's on!" they cried and splashed it across the newspapers.
"Cattle class?"
"Holy Cow?"
They screamed.
"He is a New Yorker, he does not know the sensitivities of ordinary Indians!"
(Though, if they had really learnt to use the Thesaurus or Wikipedia, they would have realised that there is nothing to howl about.)

He had barely managed to scrape through this controversy, thanks to PM Manmohan Singh laughing it off as 'a joke', and Sonia Gandhi giving a stern warning to the Minister, when he found himself in hot soup again. This time due to the use of the term 'ridiculous' to describe his schedule.
"Have a ridiculously full schedule tomorrow with 17 meetings/engagements. You always pay a price when u come back from a trip."

"He is mocking his schedule! He is laughing at his work!" they said. There they go again, groaned his followers (and maybe he himself). Fortunately for him, this did not seem to have caught fire, and it died down as soon as it sparked (I sure hope so, maybe I speak too soon!).

There are many others - intellectuals, journos and the like - who have not voiced disagreement with Dr.Tharoor's tweets, but who would prefer to tread carefully to avoid stepping on anyone's toes. Their message to him is "Tweet less, work more." Though Dr.Tharoor has not directly replied to any of these comments as far as I know, I believe he would say, "Can one not do both?" An ordinary voter like me does not know what a Minister of State for External Affairs is supposed to be doing. He is expected to travel a great deal, meet a lot of people, have a handful of meetings and come back home once in a while? He does all that; is he not doing his work? He is new to this, for God's sake. Let's show him some patience and trust.

One cannot say that all these controversies have not affected him. He sure seems to have, consciously or not, reduced his tweets considerably.

Ah, the woes of Democracy!

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My disappointments with Twitter

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I was not impressed much with orkut when I was introduced to it years ago. Networking was all very fine, but somehow it appeared to be not my idea of making friends. So I stopped visiting orkut altogether. In the recent years, my interest was caught by blogs (the reading and writing of them). And in most of the blogs I read, I came across the inevitable "Follow me on twitter" link. I refused to be impressed, I told myself "Twitter is like orkut, I am not going to be captivated by it". But there came a day when I decided to give Twitter a try and then decide what to decide about it - it somehow sounded different from orkut and other sites. Thus was born twitter.com/jean_blore. Then came a problem. I did not know many twitterers, so I sat around wondering, what next. I tried posting a few lines on "What I am doing now" but there was no one to read me :-)

My wanderings among the tweets of others (who have 100+, 500+ and 1000+ followers) made me wonder, is anyone really reading all these messages coming from their infinite network of friends? Apparently they do, because I see replies, and if I take the trouble of switching between the tweets of two users, I can manage to comprehend an entire conversation! None of which is my business of course, but since they are in the public domain, I am free to read if I so wish.

What a bore.

The only benefit, if I may say so, that I found in my experiments with Twitter is something called twitterfeed, which scans my blog (RSS) every few hours and feeds my new posts as my tweets, to the benefit of anyone who strays into my tweet-domain by mistake. But since no one reads me on twitter, it's of no use anyway.

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