if you wish to have your blogs reviewed beyond the widgets and templates; and re

Dear Rage,

I have read through your blogs. Read in detail many posts, scrolled through a few and glanced over some more.

First let me congratulate you, for covering issues of social, cultural and political relevance. From your posts it is more than apparent that you have a strong-thing going for the country. It is also very clear from your writing that there is a deeper personal connect, with the issues that you see and feel pained about!

I should also be very clear that I sit on the other end of the political spectrum, and therefore when you find and worry over war widows, people like me anguish over was itself. When you write about Hussain and his representation I see a marginal voice in a dominant Hindu society trying to bring representation, animism and anger of a different kind in. When you worry over Afzal and Kasab and the delay, people like me are worrying over the Indian judiciary and striking against capital punishment, but it has been an interesting exercise in reading and commenting on your blog....

I have a few questions and comments (and I do not mean it in the sense, now we begin with the arm-chair critiquing, I mean the above with all sincerity):

1. Why rage? Can't my affections and afflictions find a more substantive and constructive expression? Can't my obsession with India find a greater and deeper, and sometimes (however rare it might be) celebratory tone?
2. Don't you think that capital punishment should be done away with: I think one has no right to take what one cannot give! Should we not distinguish between revenge and handing out justice?
3. I love that you refer to all your pictures and their sources. 
4. I feel that there are many more dimensions to what you write and think about, would you like to develop a chain/serialised writing on subjects? So that as you think, read and develop your thoughts, your writing becomes more incisive, and you peel other layers of the onions? I know a lot of write from our hearts, and the immediate angry reaction becomes most vocal and written one, but there are other ways in which we think and read and write.
5. I can see that the reactions and comments are working well for you. But would you like to try and move it beyond comments and agreements, into more substantive debates. I know its hard, and I have tried and failed, but maybe your entrepreneurial mind works much better, than mine which is steeped in the old world.
6. And lastly, while a lot of the posts are labelled politics, I sense an undertone of politics being bad: petty and such prefixed to it! Why do you think so? Isn't it an integral part of our intellect and social life, does it not regulate it, don't you think its nice that dalits, women, disabled and go-greens have found an expression through politics, else they would have remained invisible, quite like the NE problem that you have written about.
7. And the last minor comment (couldn't stop without it): why so many labels? In many cases, the labels have no more than a cursory reference or tangential indication in your blog and writing. I suggest rationalising it, unless you have plans for covering more substantive posts on the subject in the future.

Cheers: CC

Dear CC,

My heartfelt thanks for reviewing my blog so sincerely! I would also take this opportunity to answer your questions as honestly as possible.

1. You are absolutely right about constructive expression my dear friend, and i believe this is more than essential for having a true connection with our motherland. I too was thinking about including it since a long time. Will soon do it. U acted as a catalyst. Its just that when i see so much potential being wasted, i feel enraged. When i see people dying without food, which generally rots in ill-kept godowns, i feel enraged... so on and so forth.

2. NO. I dont think capital punishment should be abolished. Do we think twice before supporting our army in war just because taking a life is unethical? No! We cant afford to do that. No matter how civil we are, we should not forget this is a war too. Revenge and justice are both very important for a nation. We must not learn to take body blows, rather we should learn to stand up and fight back.

3. Thanks again

4.  Yeah sure why not! I am already planning to start a serier on History and will move on from there...! Lets see what comes out!

5. I could not get your point. May be if you get time, please do explain it for me.

6. Politics as a concept is not bad at all! But our nation has the murkier version of politics. Don't you think so? Entire nation knows and thinks 'caste-based reservation' as a system is very retrogade. But no party dared to oppose the motion in parliament. Is this constructive politics? I do not oppose politics and would be shortly jumping into it, but i believe in constructive politics. The current brand of 'whatever you do is not right and i will oppose it' politics is not for me.

7. About the labels.. FRankly, i don't know what their purpose is! Initially i was said i should include every keyword which my articles has. But now i am totally clueless!!!

Thanks again for the in-depth analysis! Loved it!

Cheers!

JAI HIND

Dear Joe,

Well, first things first: our politics differ like chalk from cheese.

I can see that the liberal humanism appeals to you and it also finds a rather strong expression/impression in your writing.

On the whole, I find the style extremely racy, though I love the poems far more.

I think you capture and express way more than in a post. The one on the top about the kid and (a)dharma is a hoot!

I can also sense some unresolved life issues in your writing, and the uncertainty and the many voices are interesting, one of the famous Hindi novelist wrote extensively about how he hated certainty and enjoyed doubt, ambiguity, questioning and cynicism, from time to time.

However, a lot of your writing is also very personal, and hence needs to be understood in your context/content/reality/politics/culture and socialisation to be critiqued. Because I find that when one writes of the external world, it is much easier to comment and critique. Inner worlds need to be understood better to critique sincerely. Hence, I choose to stop here and in the hope that more of your posts will reveal the inner you and the external that shapes it...

Cheers,

Cryptic Clues

Firstly thanx for the review. And yes the uncertainity helps the creativity flow... And as such my writing are mainly things that happen between college students so the language will be quite provocative as I try to remain true to the subject as it took place... though I try to refrain from that style when I write serious articles...

And most of those personal stuff are experments to twist my own char in the fictional world & as such create extremities which is not exactly possible in real life...

Thanx again... Cheers

Joe

Dear Varsha, 

Thanks again for reviewing the blog, I had however provided a backlink to explain why Mr. Baghat and his writing are both non-literature and essentially elitist, monodimensional and belong to a dominant ideology. To my mind, the real purpose all writing, and even all art is to explore and contest our identities and subjectivities.

That little point apart, and onto your blog:

I belong to the creed of what you call whacked BMI, so the first blog is a lesson in quick depression and disinterest for me. All I can say is that, many of these are reflections of the times we live in, and if my body reflects my life and times, then so be it! So skipped that one.

The second blog is a little too recent to put it up for reviews. But nevertheless, I feel that the shorter poems are far more enjoyable. Loved the "yikes", but instead of pictures sourced from elsewhere I would have enjoyed home-shot real ones. If that is one more of your many skills, then why keep us deprived!

I don't know if I was worth the wait for this review, but really I prefer sincerity to littering the review with nice, beautiful and good: words I was taught might mean much but convey very little!

Cheers, CC

Dear Abhinav

well, I have read all three of your blogs. The second one is about the corporation you work for, though to be honest, I couldn't quite figure the purpose behind it save for as an interface between your company and the potential buyers. If you have a yes to it, then I couldn't quite figure the need for it.

On the other two, I really do not agree with the dominant, ultra masculine imagery that is being peddled by our actors, the media, global capitalism and our popular culture. For me the hungry starving emaciated tribals work, not the self-obsessed, consuming imagery of popping veins and bulging biceps. 

My only comment: why don't you illustrate these with images of your own work-outs? Makes it more real, relevant and then you are sharing parts of your own journey, as against your own knowledge on the subject. Any writing: to my mind, works best when its drawn from your lived life!

Best and cheers, CC

Dear Sanjeeta

I couldn't connect to the second of your blogs, despite many efforts. On the first one, I like your idea of promoting healthy eating for good health. It is useful that the recipes are followed by quality pics, which gives one a fair idea of reality, which recipes frequently mask!

Would you like to add some user (in this case taste) feedback. Words from your daughter will make for an interesting read.

I agree that such sites and ideas work, but what I would (and maybe this is just my "thing") really like to know a lot more about is the sociology of cooking and eating. Ways in which our food baskets have changed, how children have come to affect our eating, what is the globalisation on local cuisines, how deep are these "new" "health" recipes. What are the stories and narratives behind the earlier versions of some classic recipes? How do we transfer and learn and unlearn taste? The contradictions, culture, contrasts, colours and cuisines: the mix of it all! For example I recently came across how many Bangla new-age couples no longer pound poppy seeds, and hence poshto and the nutrients that came from poppy have gone out of our lives. Simple because we don't have grind stones, and mixers can't do this...

cheers, CC

Hi CC,

Thanks for the review. Sorry for posting the wrong link, it is

http://sanjeetakk.blogspot.com

Like the idea of adding user feedback.

Dear Naveen

You have a rather interesting title to your blog, and I really thought that it would either be records and archives of your journeys to unknown places, or that you would write unknown things about somewhat known spaces. Well, I was in for a surprise!

Secondly, I feel that your blog is too nascent, and it is a little too early with only 20 posts to provide a substantive comment on it.

However, I must say that some of the articles are quite fascinating: the one about the lakeside evening was a delight! Do you have pictures to share what you mean? Or maybe, you can delve deeper into this debate of civilisations and its contributions, by asking even more pointed and pertinent questions about this: for example, high art and high technology are commonly held as hallmarks of great civilisations. What about the civilisational values: space for resistance, nature of their polity, whether they were oppressive civilisations or not, if there was space for plurality to exist, the relationship between the civilisation and its ecology: did it preserve, protect or plunder it? And how do these notions change over periods of time in a civilisation?

I think the blog has definite potential, if only you invest more time thinking about what you write, and explore the many dimensions of the subjects.

Feel free to abandon the comments, simple personal narratives are also useful and pleasant accounts of our lives! 

cheers, CC

No one seemed to understood the reasoning behind my title. It just says that, the unknown spaces is the life and this is my journey of life, and i come across various aspects and incidents and thoughts every new day and every new moment. 

Thanks for the review and yeah, i should say while writing this, i never had these much internal thoughts and ideas about the topic, but reading your comment, yeah they are worth thinking too. And yeah, surely i will look up to may be do some work on the revolutions and evolutions of civilizations and much more. Thanks for giving a direction and an insight!  

And about the blog, yeah, i know its still in the infant period and infant mortality ain't a strange subject, so i hope my blog doesn't die out as a young one and lasts long with quality! :) I will try putting in as much time as possible.

Thanks for this invaluable review and keep visiting my blog! :)

Thanks n Cheers.

Naveen.

Thanks Neha for opening your blog for review. While the English entry was funny, I think I will let some of these pass, because you have mentioned that you "get" topics as part of your league. I hate being a judge, reviewing on the other hand involves understanding/appreciating/critiquing and contributing; which I find more relevant and appropriate.

Now on the rest of your posts, I think the quality is slightly uneven. The one on public transport in Bombay with its pictures is lovely: and I would have liked it still if it were just that; pictures speaking for themselves. You seem to have a keen eye and an excellent perception, which reflects in your writing. 

Of course, I do not agree to your post on Kasab. Rule of thumb: Don't take what you cannot give. Should we not distinguish between justice and retribution. How else would democracy differ from autocracy, liberal secular polities from religious polities? Don't you think peddling or popular opinion (in this case hanging Kasab) should be examined and debated. Death must be condemned, but in many cases it is structural violence or violent response to structural issues and inequities. Is their grief any less than ours? What about violent armies and republics? What about the terror such police, armies and paramilitary forces unleash?

Anyways, back to the review. Referencing is always good, couldn't find the source of your entries on Legal aspects of Domestic Violence for example. Ditto for the entry on tea. Also, while I appreciate the legal educative purpose of such an entry, it would have been far more relevant if it were backed by some form of narrative, rather than a loose compendium of various aspects, on which excellent readers already exist. Are you working in this area? Would you like to discuss your interest? Would you like to analyse some of the responses that you have had to this, and then what do you make of it in terms of the largely masculine, nature of our discourse?

Like the entry on tea, could have used something larger than factual description, the moods it stirs in you, the emotions, the experiences, the politics in addas of Bengal, the slurping, the frothy, the black, the green teas!

I hope you get the drift, I think the personal connection of what you write, unleashing your inner emotions and experiences, the detailing of the ideas and opinions is always welcomes.

And which ones are the posts by Guria (or is it your alter ego); that would make it a delightful reading and conversation...

Hi rahul

read your blog, and i must share that i thoroughly enjoyed your somewhat liberated, condescending manner of writing, that combines quick wit, with sharp perception. add to that the appropriate graphic content, the blog posts come alive. nice!

but while irritation, personal freedom and individuated loci, are all welcome, i suggest throwing the swear out of the window. some funky ass's is definitely unwarranted, never mind the irritation at cine disturbance. some semblance of decorum and politeness is welcome

that minor comment apart: i think you should write more on the personal connect. take the post on going green: for example: i know the things to do, and i can understand its ecological politics, but would have loved so much more, knowing of your experiences with it. how green are you? what's your carbon foot print? showers? hoses? 

ditto for the entry of work and man's evolution

the goa pics were great, i can see that some of the goan spirit (alcoholic and otherwise) has rubbed off! so, what else did it teach you? what did you leave behind?

and lastly, the one sided affair post is to monotonic, one-dimensional, populist is nature. pakistan also has a ruling elite, like us, it has liberal elite, it has secular people, terror isn't quite the war against humanity. It is, to my mind, an expression of years of cultural, economic and political repression. the baloch cause is one such, the anti-communist jehadi movement funded by the liberal west another, and so forth. And finally, in times like this, when business, politics, development and peace are all mixed, Aman ki Asha is a natural outcome. I don't support it, as well, but for very different reasons.

CC.

Thanks Man !! That was some review, You can actually take this forward and make it a paid service (I can safely say as my review is done ;-) ) On a serious note, thanks for praising my blog. As for the swear word, when i start writing a post, i go with the flow and pen down whatever is coming in my mind. Might be from next time i will do a proofread for swear words. And also will try to include the personal touch to the posts. Thanks for the review again.

Dear RSV

Just came off the blog. The first post had me stumped. Are you serious about having the blog reviewed, especially when you have announced that you closed it, already? Or was your request meant to be like a book review, already completely out in the open, no scope for changes, now could you review this please?

And finally, I can't but help say this, who says you need to present a cheerful disposition on your blog. You can equally share your frustrations and anger (that's what I do!). And why else would you call all these people your friends, if they only keep company when there's fair weather, and leave you in a lurch once its too cold and lonely...

Cheers dude, CC

Dear Aswathy

Yours is a truly beautiful blog and one that lends meaning to an exercise such as mine, which I said was meant to unearth good blogs.

You write well and simply, and the emotions sparkle through.

Having been an interested 'disability' activist, we have been trying to write about normativity, the politics behind expecting others to stick to the 'norm' or become 'normal' and the urgent need for lending a political voice to the 'disabled', which is a sure way of getting attention; and lastly about things that can be learnt from the women's movement in the country.

Anyways, while mine concerns the larger societal politics, in your case, the personal and the need to deal with it and the emotions and questions behind it helped me make lovely connections.

But please take the recipes away, they come in all of a sudden, unannounced! Or else, put them off in a separate page, or even better start a new blog! And if none of these, would you atleast like to share cooking for people with LD, how do they respond, learn and how we unlearn some of the instructions and recipes and ways. That would be useful...

Keep blogging and best wishes to you and your family,

CC

Dear Vajresh

Thanks for putting the blog up for review. I have read most of the reviews, but since our reading interests differ considerably, I will abstain from making many comments on the quality of the review itself. But I do have some other comments that I wish to share with you:

1. On the whole, your reviews are quite well written, but would you like to refer to your sources and also provide links to other reviews, of the same books if you can.
2. At present your posts carry a tag Books, but would you like to further categorise books and posts into genres and authors.
3. Also the list of the books reviewed could be linked to their posts. And I couldn't find the link to Narayan's Malgudi.
4. And finally, I find some of the reviews a little uneven. The Chandamama collection being a case for this. Why so little? for something that it has triggered the imagination of many and formed such an integral part of vernacular popular literature over the years. It has shaped notions of masculinity, courage, values, histories and femininity for many of us. Would you like to do more for this very deserving book?

cheers: CC

Dear G2,

What can I say? You have a thoroughly enjoyable website, which I think best describes it. As for the comments on the content, here goes:

1. Since you write for a large number of reasons and on a large number of things, would you like to begin to tag and label them. So that there are some broad categories of your work...
2. The posts are by and large quite creative, though you write about a somewhat small and self-obsessed world at IIT. I have also done my fair share of hostel-lling and while the initial period is rather self-consuming, there is definitely a lot more to the world.
3. Should you wish to expand your authorship, you may wish to expand what you wish to write about: retaining your style, drawing and humour.

cheers, CC

Dear Arti

Thanks for sharing your blog. I enjoyed reading your blog. Your writing is fluid, comes easy and stress free. Add to it the fact, that your posts are pretty much the right length, well serialised and organised: its a delight. On top of it, your photographs are clear. And you don't just stop at writing, but add easy travel tips on food, stay and getting around.

All well done!

I have two broad comments, and I am sure that you will find the first more relevant than the second, but I hope that you won't discard the latter. So here goes:

1. I think the writing is a little too descriptive. To my mind, each travel is also about a personal journey, in terms of how it affected us, our emotions as we traveled, our personal experiences, the transformations in our selves because of the journey that we have undertaken. This personal narratives are equally important, was it hectic, worth it, boring, restful, colours we saw, people we met, fellow travelers, lessons we learnt and so forth. Personally, I would also like to know about your personal feelings and emotions and experiences at these places: before I decide to undertake the journey myself or even assess how it worked for you. So, adding a personal touch might be very useful.
2. I feel that a lot of the descriptions are to places of prominence in the Hindu mythology. I do not have any issues, but if that is the focus when you call it "yatra", then please add a line or two in the about section or add a page on the nature of travel. and if not, then I would love to know about other religions' spiritual journeys as well.

I hope you find the comments useful. Keep writing, and keep clicking: the results are all good!

CC

Dear CC,

Thanks a lot for the review..

I really appreciate the hard work and dedication you put in to review so many blogs!

Thanks for your encouragement and your valuable suggestions.

I will definitely try to implement them in my blog sooner rather than later!

Thanks once again!!

Dear SM,

Thoroughly enjoyed your blogs. I loved your range, given that you cover such a lot of grounds. Also, the quick synopsis of some prominent national discourse, is also very useful. I do have some comments:

1. Could you please share the sources of your information, or atleast refer to them in your writing. This is always a useful practice.
2. In terms of the copied songs, you could provide youtube links to the original and the inspired version in one or two cases: proof of the pudding is in its eating.
3. Thirdly your own analysis in some of the posts is lovely, in some others it is completely absent. The one on government ministers for example, I don't quite know what is the purpose of the post really: I can also source the list from GoI website.
4. On the other hand, the one on Bhopal is a lovely entry. But I find the analysis a little too generalistic. Calling the legislative framework in the country is insufficient, the fact of the matter relates to the strong collusion between the ruling elite and the economic powers, and how the distinctions between the two blur (IPL for example) or difficult to dis-entangle (like BRTS) or resolve (Bhopal) and even the nature of scars it leaves behind. 
5. I would urge you to revisit some of your own analyses sometimes, to write in greater detail about what you think. Beyond the repository of information, I think the blog should also become your way of communicating your own thoughts to the world.

Please share them with us, CC