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When was the last that I thought of you...I know not...but am I the one who goes alone on this path...and should I but care only a little for the souls that follow or those as march ahead?
Mode C is a way of life, perhaps my way of life: C for Cool, C for Cold, C for Chaos, C for Calvin. Ultimately, all of it boils down to the way you look at things. Are they not how they are but just how they appear?? No...and yes...Almost all the seriously critical fundamental concepts of life...aren't they just the bogies under Calvin's bed that he is afraid of? Miss Wormwood, Susie, Mom and Dad, and of course above all, Hobbes...aren't they all merely the means that he uses to attack these bogies?
Reflecting on 'living the Calvin way', I have started to believe that life and our reaction to it can only be explained by a number of Calvin and Hobbes strips combined together. The philosophy, as I like to call it, is to know that you are not alone. It is not just my perspective alone that is going to help me fight my bogies. I will be able to inch towards the Calvin way only when I perceive the other perspectives on my way.
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Thursday, September 02, 2004
Who sets the rules of the game?
Aditya thinks that I have mellowed down and uses the metric of the number of people named to measure the duress that my pen's sting has been facing. He wonders why I have not mentioned the rift between Rohit and Nilanjan during the seminar!!!
Yash tells me that the posts have become too much of the 'one size fits all' type and there is no ripping off of the people who won't be happy unless they are ripped off (sic!)
Mayank's comments (both by his own name as well as by the name of Gumnaam...oh yes, I have means of knowing all about it) seem to suggest that my blog is fast becoming a fighting forum for the batch.
Pavithra (through her unintentional-cum-intentional pseudonym, Name) has to say that my infamous blog is busy mis-conveying my intention by plotting me as the champion of the cause...the same as her mails on loos and meal-skipping contributions to OCS wars do to her intention.
Pavan got the impression from reading my earlier blog entries that I am a little too distant. He feels that this was contrary to the requirement in the election setting at the time.
Neeta says that she is not comfortable with others reading her blog (it is beside the point, though and yet, half of the regular readers of student blogs in IIMK know about her blog) as it contains her feelings and if she knows that there are others reading the blog, she may be forced to play to the audience. Incidentally, she says she has not read the famous IIMK blogger (read yours truly) even once.
All these people seem to have a lot of time on their hands, is the first observation that I can make. Reading and in cases, writing blogs requires a lot of time and patience, which I am sure that these people do not have a scarcity of. Another thing that they have in abundance is a way of looking at things that is certainly not on the same lines as mine.
Aditya is of the opinion that in order to be really honest to my feelings (which can be nothing else but blasting others off), I need to write another private journal. I can not be writing blogs that are anything more than slander aimed at people around me.
Yes, I admit that humans are prone to baser feelings but there is a certain limit to that. As soon as a person starts being subjective towards his feelings, he is biased, judgemental, and prejudiced either against or in favor of a particular situation or person. Regardless of the names that I have taken in this blog in past, I have always tried to be as objective with my recording as possible.
There is absolutely no question of playing to the audience being an absolute essential of a publicly read blog. It is for the author to decide who the blog is meant for. The very fact that the author has decided to maintain a journal on the net and not in the confines of his/her room means that he/she is prepared for others reading and commenting on the blog. It is a little odd to imagine the possibility of someone who is so naive as to think that there can be things written about private lives without people diving head long into it with quite a good amount of salt (to go with it).
There are two options for the (in)famous blogger...that he/she decides to play along and make the blog an overtly and at times unwarrantedly, sensational account of fictitious happenings...and thus, kills the blog and the entire purpose with which he/she started out in the first place. The other option is to be true to no one but his/her own self and write what comes to the mind...irrespective of the reaction to it, to the highs or lows of reader interest. After all, the blog is meant to be an outlet for the writer, and not an entertainment channel for the reader. The reader is just an incidental convenience...incidental because that is what the blogger should limit the reader's role to...convenience because the comments on the blog can tell the blogger how far he/she is from the general perception.
I and my Mode C belong to perhaps a third category...the one where the readers are not just incidental but at the same time, do not guide the process on account of their convenience. The very fabric of this blog is to understand the other perspective and align that with the Calvin way to take on life. The rules of the game have been clear to me from the very first day...I will write things that I believe are important to me...whether it sustains the interests of the readers or appears to them as the ravings of a lunatic is something with which I will not bother myself. I have written about my deepest fears, my greatest sorrows, and my biggest achievements in this blog and if I had actually been looking for an audience, all these would have found no part to play.
All the same, I don't care a damn if others read all that I write and make it a point of judgement when it comes to me...if they are so immature, I am better off without them and their patronage. If they achieve thrills from reading my reviews or my comments on events and people, good for them...if they think that my blog is a forum for ripping off people...championing the cause...poisonous journalism...discussion forum...a publicity mechanism...too bad.
Ladies and Gentle Men, give me a breather. Comment on my posts' content as much as you want, but not on the intent because that is something you are not going to affect by even one teeny little bit.
Incidentally, this is what the result of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Personality Assessment Test has to say about my personality type:
ENTPs are usually verbally as well as cerebrally quick, and generally love to argue--both for its own sake, and to show off their often-impressive skills. They tend to have a perverse sense of humor as well, and enjoy playing devil's advocate. They sometimes confuse, even inadvertently hurt, those who don't understand or accept the concept of argument as a sport.
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