Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Odd Man Out

Image Courtesy: Google

Blogging might be a very personal and individual affair. However, with its impact, it is not. Every word one writes and sends out to the world to judge, caress, feel and hope from, holds an unavoidable energy, a spirit, be these words in the form of blog posts or Facebook comments or a printed book. A writer’s first duty is to be respectful towards this state of being. The cosmos works the way.

I consider myself fortunate for having you here, reading with your eyes and mind, these words I typed down so affectionately and carefully. This holds me responsible for the impact of each word I write about, by default.

Whenever, I cross my path across an irresponsible blog post or comment, I think about this stand I myself took and consider myself lucky of being able to keep it in mind, all the way here. Where is the threshold of responsibility?

A lie is not relative, unlike what they teach in Universities. Holding on to a position that the writer knows untrue, but only for the comfort of someone else, is what I call an irresponsible stand. For example, if you write a sponsored review about a brand of alcohol and say that it is a very good health drink for people of every age, in order to boost the sales, you are not being responsible. As a result, your credibility as a writer is doubtful. Of course, if such a review happens to appear in a blog and people bought the alcohol brand, they would not come back to your page again. There are chances that you will receive some caustic comments. The worst is that you will forever lose your readers by telling lies and marketing products using lies. This is because your readers trusted you and you betrayed them.

Image Courtesy: Google
It is easy to be flowed away by the deluge of illusions. Still, I should say that there is a risk in shouting the truth aloud from the top of your terrace. The immensity of this risk, sometimes, keeps some people at bay from engaging themselves in the movement with truth. In order to satisfy some invisible gains, they often hold hands with lies and keep their façade foppish.

After all, writing is all about courage and going beyond inhibitions. I could see a major meltdown in such blogs and magazines in India that spread only fake truths and lies.

What did you say? What do I think about books?

I know there are many quasi-artistic writers rising in India. However, as the saying goes, not all that glitters is gold.      

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