Blog..this word is being very famous in Indian Media…be it a news channel or a news paper..everyone is getting interested in blogs..
I wanted to write about it when few of my posts were featured in Mumbai Mirror (There is nothing great in it..they do the same with other bloggers too) but for some reason I did not write it…
But today when I noticed few people coming from the newspaper site DNA, it made me write about the blogs and Indian Media…
I guess Mumbai Mirror started picking stuff from blogs and showing in one of their sections…(ofcourse with blog links)..now in print media..DNA also started the same…
In news channels..till now I have seen CNN-IBN Live getting more intrest in blogs and bloggers
It is very good to see the interests of media people in blogs…and this will let people know the voice of people…but I hope these guys don’t cross their limit and make the term blog as something BIG and great….i.e. hype it too much…
This is excellent news for Indian Bloggers and would be. Blog is a powerful tool nowadays and like the Gaurav Sabhnis indcident many issues are being propatgated through blogs.. Come on Media, Wake up to blogs!!!
Hey,
I’m an Indian Blogger. I read a similar article in the Asian Age today. Funny that I should come upon your blog. Found it through CoComment. One of the top commenters commented here.
The blogs and writers featured in the article came across as being rather lame and self promotive, which I don’t really agree with. I blog, because I like to and for my friends, not to make money or get my name chappoed in some newspaper. But it seems anyone who gets featured gets paid. Now I’m reconsidering. I’ll have to look into the copyright retention stuff. I don’t really care, but don’t want my stuff in the hands of a newspaper (corporation) either.
btw… any idea on how I could implement this follow up thing on my WordPress blog? Seems pretty cool. Not everyone uses CoComment(.com) and many commenters forget to come back.
Simran – you can use this plugin….Subscribe to comments – http://txfx.net/search/subscribe%20to%20comments%202
Thanks for the link Deep, I’ve installed the plug-in in the plugins folder and the subscription manager in the root directory. Also activated the plug in via the console, but it isn’t working. There is no “subscribe to this entry” after any of my posts. Any idea what’s up?
Hey Deep i blogged about it a month back after seeing lot of news in New Indian Express about bloggers. But India is still to wake up to bloggers revolution and yeah one question do we have any indian blogs in the A-list of technorati
Simran – You might have to add the php function in the comments.php file. check the readme file of that plugin, it must be having the instruction to do it.
Karthik – I am not sure about Indian bloggers in the list of technorati but there are MANY indian biggies or say good writers who blog…I call them hardcore bloggers who are mainly journos..
I’ll look into it. about Indian bloggers, there are billions of indian american bloggers. like OM and stuff….
I’ve done all the read me says and nothing is shwoing up. Any idea what this php function/code might be?
try putting this…in comments.php i.e. the place where u want that thing to be displayed..
hey Deep, sorry for the trouble, but it isn’t working. It’s really cool to be able to follow up on comments and that’s what I’ve been doing with this post. That’s the only reason I’m pursuing this with such determination.
Check your email…
pls light the candle on behalf of me for nata sarvabouma karnataka ratna Dr rajakumar ,the country has lost a great superstar ,he is one of kind that all his 208 films have been superhit,he increased pride of kannada,kannadigas as kannadigas,raj annavuru -kannada r faces of a coin . the country wil not produce an actor,human being ,legend of his calibre pls pls pls god giv strenth to bar this loss of fame kannada veera rajakumara neenu iruvudu sada namagagi
dear rajkumar,
iam of mad of u ,the rajkumar madness has caught me i cannot bear this,iam not able eat food,work,sleep,i cannot belive this i still feel rajkumar is alive ,in blue sky u will twinkle as rajkuamar star lik drvuva tare.
let the entire bollywood cinema,telugu cinema shuld shutdown lik tamil and kannada cinema to show respect to grat superstar annavru,east r west,south r north rajanna is a superstar—let the country especially bollywood,noth west,east india should know abt kannada,kannadigas
While Indians are rejoicing over Shilpa Shetty’s victory (triumph of good over Goody?), the celebrations would be meaningless if they were not accompanied by some soul-searching about racist attitudes within our own country. It is all very well to raise our voices against Jade Goody but, like the British, are we ready to face the issue squarely? The people of India belong to many races and cultures. Are we even aware of the prejudices we display and the cruelty we practice towards fellow citizens who happen to be dark skinned? Are we ready, like the British, to face the truth and initiate some corrective action?
If we are troubled by racism, we must begin the clean-up act with Hindi cinema which is full of situations and dialogues that can be described as racist. Millions of Indians have watched a lungi-clad Mehmood, his face daubed in black paint, prance around crazily to “Hum Kale Hai To Kya Hua, Dilwale Hai”. This indeed is the racial stereotype that Hindi cinema has projected for decades. More recently, Satish Kaushik played the role of a south Indian musician in a movie along side Govinda. Here too the make-up guys painted his face black. The dialogues in this movie, too, were loaded with crude racist remarks with Govinda and Khader Khan, another actor, heaping scorn on Satish Kaushik for being dark skinned.
I am appalled at the stereotypes that Hindi cinema and television seek to project all the time. Going by these stereotypes, all south Indians are “black” and “ugly” and all north Indians are “white” and “good-looking”. The truth is that most Indians have a dark or light brown skin tone. This is the typical skin tone across a majority of the States in all regions be it Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharastra, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh. The tone gets lighter up north in Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and darker in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. In fact, a good percentage of people in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are dark-skinned. It is, therefore, ironical and comical to find people from these States refer to the skin tone of south Indians in a pejorative way.
But the stereotypes run so deep that people from the north find it difficult to accept the fact that Indian women who have bagged the Miss World or Miss Universe titles like Aishwarya Rai and Sushmita Sen do not come from “white” northern stock. Though the Rais are from Karnataka, many in the north would like to believe that Aishwarya is a Bhumihar from Uttar Pradesh!
Hindi television has carried this trend forward. The Great Indian Comedy Show often jokes about dark-skinned people. This prejudice against dark-skinned people then gets extended to other things which constitute the ingredients of culture. You first laugh at “Madrasis” because they are dark and then make a joke of other things associated with these “dark” people – their language, their dress and their food habits. Once the “Madrasis” becomes the butt end of your jokes, you begin talking down to them.
This is what racism is all about and for centuries the Caucasians believed that while everything about them was perfect, the black, brown and yellow races were imperfect. This attitude led to colonisation and apartheid. It was only in the latter part of the 20th century that the White Man recognised the need to stamp out racism and other such prejudices and to bring in political correctness in public discourse.
When will this process begin here? Such is the power of these prejudices that it impacts the work of even established film stars like Shahrukh Khan, who is now anchoring Kaun Banega Crorepati. I was distressed to find Shahrukh Khan joke about the name of a contestant from Andhra Pradesh – Mr Ramakrishna Guggila – and his companion, Mr Venkateshwarlu Putta. Shahrukh joked about their names and hinted time and again that their names were unpronounceable. Then, without so much as a by your leave, Shahrukh told Mr Guggila that he would call him “Guggi” or just “Guggs”. As for the contestant’s companion, Shahrukh was unaware that Venkateshwarlu was one word. He kept calling him Venkatesh Warlu and eventually, unilaterally decided to rechristen him as “Venky”. But the anchor’s patronising attitude truly came out when he mockingly offered a prize to viewers who could say “Venkatesh Warlu Putta” five times without faltering.
Shahrukh Khan must learn political correctness quickly. It is foolish to rouse the “atmagouravam” of the Telugu-speaking people. In case Shahrukh does not know, an Andhra with an equally “unpronounceable” name – Potti Sriramulu – set Andhra on fire with his fast unto death to secure a separate Telugu State. Another Andhra with an even more “unpronounceable” name – Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao – launched the Telugu Desam and ousted the Congress from power in that State in 1983. This he did after Rajiv Gandhi, like Shahrukh Khan, behaved inappropriately with a fellow Andhra – Mr Anjiah – who was then the Chief Minister of the State.
Shahrukh Khan’s graceless conduct is in utter contrast to the great dignity and poise with which Mr Amitabh Bachchan anchored this programme earlier. I regard Mr Bachchan as the most evolved human being because life and professional experiences have purged his mind of prejudices and endowed him with sage-like qualities. That is why he made every contestant before him feel like a king. Delhi-bred “King Khan” must shake-off his prejudices if he is to emulate the real King of Indian Cinema.
Finally, a word about matrimonial ads. Every groom wants a “fair” bride and, therefore, products which promise to lighten the colour of the skin are much in demand across India and bear names which seek to reinforce the view that only those who are “fair” are “lovely”. So, let us cut out this hypocrisy vis-Ã -vis Jade Goody’s conduct by initiating measures that will make us a humane and tolerant society. We can make a beginning by stamping out stereotypes in Hindi cinema and television.