blog.ind
the browning
of blogosphere
Come
up with a topic, as bizarre as you’d
like, and there’s every likelihood
of finding a blog entry, if not
an entire blog, dedicated to it.
And like with all things cyber,
desis have been quick to create
a vast, networked realm of blogs
that covers an astonishing range
of topics concerning South Asia.
For
just about anything South Asia –
and South Asian diaspora-related
– politics, the latest music,
riffs on Bollywood, and the occasional
outlandish story about an arranged
marriage for toads – visit
SepiaMutiny.com.
If
you’re a fan of Rajni, Kamal,
Mani Ratnam or anyone else from
the world of Tamil cinema, Lazygeek’s
blog is what you need to bookmark.
Interested in rural economies, development,
and technology? Deesha.org provides
news and critical commentary.
From
personal journals of 20-year-olds
to sophisticated discussions on
affordable computing for rural development,
from tsunami activism to monitoring
mainstream media (MSM, in blog parlance),
there is interest and a dedicated
readership that literally spans
the globe. Sure, of 9 million blogs,
quite a few ramble on about seemingly
banal matters. But there are enough
people with passion and purpose
to merit blogs an alternative-media
status.
The
numbers are mind-boggling in and
of themselves. According to Technorati,
a research firm that tracks goings-on
in the blogosphere, a new blog is
created every 2.2 seconds, which
translates into approximately 38,000
new blogs each day! Technorati also
estimates that there is a new post
that enters the World Wide Web every
5.8 seconds!
Blogs
can be private or public, and are
spaces where one can easily respond
to other blogs, and, of course,
maintain a ‘blogroll’
- a listing of interesting blogs
that one visits on a regular basis.
Unlike chatting online, blogs are
not premised on real-time dialogue.
As Atanu Dey of Deesha.org points
out to Indian Life & Style:
“Chatting is ephemeral, blogs
are forever.” Not only is
a blog an ideal forum for people
interested in sharing opinions and
ideas, often, the dialogues that
develop via blogs can be just as
immersive as those in a chatroom.
As
high bandwidth connections become
accessible to increasing numbers
of people around the world, it would
appear that visions of democratization
of the Net might be closer than
most naysayers would have us believe.
Let’s not overestimate the
radical potential of blogs, or ignore
the fact that large parts of the
world still do not have electricity
and telephone connections. Let us,
however, acknowledge the cultural
and political influence bloggers
do wield. Case in point: several
bloggers received press passes to
attend the U.S. Democratic National
Convention in Boston, Mass., last
year.
Indeed,
it was the absence of a desi face
among bloggers covering the DNC
that led Abhi to initiate Sepia
Mutiny: “Sepia Mutiny came
out of a three-hour long instant
messenger chat I had with five other
bloggers I read everyday. We realized
that there is a need for a platform
for South Asian interest.”
But the little known fact is that
they had never met. “Till
today I have not met all members
of the editorial board of Sepia
Mutiny. It astounds me that we could
agree on editorial concerns without
even meeting each other,”
Abhi quips.
Similarly,
Reuben Abraham kicked off his blog,
ZooStation, in 2002, turning it
into a group blog last year. And
like Sepia Mutiny, the entire conversation
was conducted in virtual space.
Quiz him about the name of his blog
and Reuben confesses that the name
was inspired from a U2 song. “I
even went to Berlin looking for
the zoo,” he laughs, adding,
“but as a group blog, the
name makes all the more sense.”
At
first glance, it would seem that
blog names are chosen on a whim.
Abhi, of Sepia Mutiny, quickly rids
you of that illusion: “Sepia
Mutiny plays on the name given to
the 1857 uprising in India known
as the Sepoy Mutiny/rebellion. Sepia
is a shade of brown with a tinge
of red, which describes our writing
perfectly.”
Further,
in spite of the divergent interests,
topics and opinions, there is one
thing bloggers agree on: the need
to post regularly. “For people
to visit your blog, you have to
offer them something interesting.
Many people don’t realize
it, but it is very labor intensive,”
Rueben argues.
Abhi
adds: “We try to make the
information diverse. There are at
least five to six posts every day.
We have humorous stories and funny
incidents alongside serious discussion,
but behind all this our main goal
is to educate and talk about incidents
which go unreported in the mainstream.”
It
takes a few months of regular posting
and perseverance for a blogger to
get noticed. “When I started
in 2002 in India, there were about
15 bloggers in India and hardly
anyone was visiting my Web site.
I don’t know how I sustained
my interest for the first six months.
But, once I started writing about
Tamil cinema, people started responding
to my blogs,” says Guru Subramaniam.
The
Lazygeek founder agrees that most
bloggers are drawn to blogs for
the freedom the medium provides.
Imagine – no censorship, no
deadlines, and a potentially worldwide
audience. “I definitely enjoy
the autonomy and interactivity of
blogging where I’m not bound
by house styles and word counts.
And I don’t have to think
about the lowest common denominator,”
Reuben says, adding that he has
had people from “very strange
places” comment on his blogs.
And
recognition comes in unexpected
places. Lazygeek, who is currently
in Seattle on a project, had been
traveling with a colleague for two
months every day to work. One morning,
the colleague mentioned that he
reads Lazygeek.net regularly for
reviews of Tamil cinema.
“He
didn’t realize that Lazygeek
was me. So I went back home and
posted the incident on my web. The
next day he was stunned,”
Guru laughs.
Bloggers’
efforts have received ‘official’
recognition in the form of awards
in a range of categories, but their
influence is perhaps best seen in
the insistent, everyday-ness of
their work. Success stories of mobilization
around an issue abound - like the
time Sepia Mutiny played a key role
in organizing protests against a
Philadelphia radio DJ who abused
an Indian call center worker on
air. But the larger significance
of these desi blogs might rest in
the sheer range of voices that are
in conversation with each other
on a daily basis.
Terrorism
and immigration, rural development
and technology, outsourcing and
globalization, music and race relations,
cinema and cultural identity are
some of the complex issues that
inspire heated and often jargon-filled
discussions in academia. Blogs bring
these down to earth, personalize
them, and provide a space for us
to talk.
In
the process, there are pointless
shouting matches that make you want
to throw your hands up in despair.
But for the most part, bloggers
would agree, the conversations really
force people to rethink their strongest
convictions about themselves, those
around them, and the worlds they
live in.
And
what’s more, it is immense
fun! For all these reasons and more,
log on, read, comment, and who knows,
you might decide to join the rapidly
growing brigade of desi bloggers.
Sajit
of SepiaMutiny.com. The larger significance
of desi blogs might be in the fact
they articulate a range of voices
on any issue.
