Monday, October 18, 2010

Quick Note

Since I have been formally outed in a rather snarky 'My moral (and monetary) victory' article by Avirook in Open. I read the 'article' as one person desperate to promote his new 'book' and a magazine desperate for people to pick up a few copies, but honestly I really don't have much to say. So you may well ask why on earth am I writing this then? This is not so much of a rejoinder, nor do I wish it to be a rejoinder. The real reason is in the last paragraph, so you can skip all the jibber-jabber in the middle.
Many people have that I sue the said parties for defamation. Honestly, that achieves nothing, and if you dish it out, you should expect to get get some back. And it ends up giving undue attention to a story that died long ago. Keep in mind that the person who wrote this piece has a history of resurrecting dead issues, not always accurately - recall the Aishwariya-Salman tapes with which HT Mumbai launched. But one bit is accurate, I'm a sweaty, fat, possibly lazy human being, with slightly dubious spelling skills, and I will not be apologetic about that. One can't be, even though I have been going to the gym of late. But as for the 'sweaty' bit, deodorant can only fight genes so far. And as for spelling, well, I get it wrong sometimes, and I only have myself to blame for ignoring the red, squiggly lines under words. But I write my own stuff.
What really was a bit irritating was that CS, that is to say, my father, was dragged into the article. Admittedly, given his political affiliation and occasional statements defending what 'we' in the 'liberal, elitist media' consider indefensible, and the all-too-frequent sniping between him and Jayanthi Natarajan, he never did have anything to do with this blog. Heck, my father despite his love affair with Blackberry's is not what you describe as a 'digital native'; and nor is he quite sure how the internet will transform journalism. Then again, he is more a politician now, and good for him. Just to clarify, I've never worked for my father, though I have contributed the occasional article to his publications. I do have right-of-centre political leanings, definitely from an economic and development standpoint, but I am not a registered member of any political party nor do I wish to be. Right now, at least.
Again, I digress. If this blog determined the course, or even had a starring role to play in the course and the implosion of a Rs 150-crore enterprise, says a hell of a lot about the power of the medium and the influence this blog wielded. I still believe what happened at NewsX was a break-down in personal equations, there was from what I believe gross misuse of funds by several parties. Certain people given their closeness to certain other people got into trouble because of that. It was mildly gratifying to know that people lost sleep over this blog rather than lose sleep because of early morning flights (I shall refrain from using another term right now).
So after a weekend of contemplation, some Nikka whiskey, much merriment and catching up on Big Bang Theory, I think I should restart the blog. Bigger and better than before. That of course requires a business plan, and I know several other people have thought of the idea, but a bit of infamy helps. There will be infrequent posts for a while, as I get things together, since I am also getting married in the meantime, but I have something up and running soon enough. Something more than a blog. As for revenge, my question is 'Why?'

Kushan

EDIT: Slight syntax corrections and to reply to Abhi, heck, if infamy means pageviews and Adsense moolah, is that evil?