The internet is a marvellous place. It makes celebrities out of ordinary individuals. It gives people an access power that was once limited to the priviledged. So, a sweet little girl from a small town, who was rejected for Saregama finds 20 lakh fans in a matter of 14 weeks uploading six music videos. Similarly, a girl who could not adjust to her surroundings and started an online rant earned thousands of followers overnight.
I had signed up for Adsense. The wonderful program that makes you earn money for the traffic generated on your site/ blog etc. With this, started my quest for money. The so called marketing specialist in me looked at all ways to attract people to my site. However, it was not easy. I thought of singing and uploading videos. I soon realised that I would be violating Google's policy of objectionable/ harmful content if I sang. Putting up a solo harmonica show was also considered. This too, was set aside after a few tunes went bust.
I was getting impatient. And then it struck! A controversy was what I needed. It is the easiest way to attract people to you. Start a new rant and the rats follow the piper. So started the genuine search for a controversy.
There were various topics ahead of me. Yes we live in totally controversial times. A critical analysis of all possible topics ensued.
A lot of water has flown from Delhi to Madras in the past one month through various perennial and seasonal rivers. All the cargo that I wished could reach the exaltic shores of Madras has already reached in good, bad and neutral shapes. Ruled out!
Next was the band of Dr. YumYum Singh (of Twitter fame) and his friends and foes. Of people talking too much and some others remaining tightlipped. Immediately ruled out because of certain other policies that I have to abide by.
How about the historically marginalised and oppressed societies of India? How wronged was the senior IAS official who was surpassed for promotion and then declared himself "historically oppressed". Yes he was! Forced to enter IIT despite a lower rank, then forced to enter IIM, then almost shoved into the IAS and then offered promotions over his peers because he was historically oppressed. I wonder of the quantum of the burden of this history that this person is carrying, to encounter which he had to be offered everything in his life. A mere IIT or an IIM degree do him no good: he needs support throughout. However, had to drop this too as a lot of debate on this has landed us nowhere and some more insights would go unnoticed in the already saturated market.
Moving on to something more interesting, like the cause of women in our society. Similar to the above, they too have been marginalised. So they need a special place everywhere: A coach in the metro where men are beaten up (the oppressors), places in buses and trains, separate queues and yes, guys should pay the bills. We talk of women reservation to the lowest level, but it is not unusual to find a rubberstamp panchayat member who depends on her all powerful husband for all decisions. It almost makes a mockery of the entire representation talk. Here again, women from the elite levels corner almost all sops and leave their oppressed counterparts in the lurch. They find it worthwhile to fight more for a coach on the metro than the general upliftment across boundaries. But, alas, logic it is and women, those are. Topic dropped!
I thought of IIPM too. However, the prospect of having to defend myself in a faraway court in Assam deterred me. I don't mind travelling to Assam, but the entire legal tangle would wipe away all my Adsense earnings. Dropped!
I moved on to media. Yes, the same media that asks a crying gentleman, "How do you feel?", and act genuinely surprised when he cries even more. The same media which publishes the news of an actress' pregnancy above the strategic dialogue that may change how we live forever. The same media that generates controversies to cash in on them. And then it rang: Was I becoming one of it? Yes, said the mind. The entire idea dropped!
But it did leave me with a striking thought: Have we beaten to death all major issues and yet found no solutions for any of them? If 60 years after independence we are still fighting for reservations, for representation, we have not attained the "Dream Country" our fighters aspired for. We have instead become a mute and meek society that discusses issues and goes to bed thinking we have done a good job. The good job, alas, is not our job, right!
(Views are personal. Image courtesy: Callmistry)
I had signed up for Adsense. The wonderful program that makes you earn money for the traffic generated on your site/ blog etc. With this, started my quest for money. The so called marketing specialist in me looked at all ways to attract people to my site. However, it was not easy. I thought of singing and uploading videos. I soon realised that I would be violating Google's policy of objectionable/ harmful content if I sang. Putting up a solo harmonica show was also considered. This too, was set aside after a few tunes went bust.
I was getting impatient. And then it struck! A controversy was what I needed. It is the easiest way to attract people to you. Start a new rant and the rats follow the piper. So started the genuine search for a controversy.
There were various topics ahead of me. Yes we live in totally controversial times. A critical analysis of all possible topics ensued.
A lot of water has flown from Delhi to Madras in the past one month through various perennial and seasonal rivers. All the cargo that I wished could reach the exaltic shores of Madras has already reached in good, bad and neutral shapes. Ruled out!
Next was the band of Dr. YumYum Singh (of Twitter fame) and his friends and foes. Of people talking too much and some others remaining tightlipped. Immediately ruled out because of certain other policies that I have to abide by.
How about the historically marginalised and oppressed societies of India? How wronged was the senior IAS official who was surpassed for promotion and then declared himself "historically oppressed". Yes he was! Forced to enter IIT despite a lower rank, then forced to enter IIM, then almost shoved into the IAS and then offered promotions over his peers because he was historically oppressed. I wonder of the quantum of the burden of this history that this person is carrying, to encounter which he had to be offered everything in his life. A mere IIT or an IIM degree do him no good: he needs support throughout. However, had to drop this too as a lot of debate on this has landed us nowhere and some more insights would go unnoticed in the already saturated market.
Moving on to something more interesting, like the cause of women in our society. Similar to the above, they too have been marginalised. So they need a special place everywhere: A coach in the metro where men are beaten up (the oppressors), places in buses and trains, separate queues and yes, guys should pay the bills. We talk of women reservation to the lowest level, but it is not unusual to find a rubberstamp panchayat member who depends on her all powerful husband for all decisions. It almost makes a mockery of the entire representation talk. Here again, women from the elite levels corner almost all sops and leave their oppressed counterparts in the lurch. They find it worthwhile to fight more for a coach on the metro than the general upliftment across boundaries. But, alas, logic it is and women, those are. Topic dropped!
I thought of IIPM too. However, the prospect of having to defend myself in a faraway court in Assam deterred me. I don't mind travelling to Assam, but the entire legal tangle would wipe away all my Adsense earnings. Dropped!
I moved on to media. Yes, the same media that asks a crying gentleman, "How do you feel?", and act genuinely surprised when he cries even more. The same media which publishes the news of an actress' pregnancy above the strategic dialogue that may change how we live forever. The same media that generates controversies to cash in on them. And then it rang: Was I becoming one of it? Yes, said the mind. The entire idea dropped!
But it did leave me with a striking thought: Have we beaten to death all major issues and yet found no solutions for any of them? If 60 years after independence we are still fighting for reservations, for representation, we have not attained the "Dream Country" our fighters aspired for. We have instead become a mute and meek society that discusses issues and goes to bed thinking we have done a good job. The good job, alas, is not our job, right!
(Views are personal. Image courtesy: Callmistry)
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