Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Faltu Gyaan

Someone recently pointed out that I have been writing a lot of philosophy on blog. The reason is simple - I don't have to think and write when I am writing faltu gyaan on the blog. It just comes naturally. Now isn't this a good term? This better be the header of this post and new label from now. I be a genius.

I have been writing same kind of stuff or taking part in contests. No I don't have any reason for doing so. I write whatever I feel like writing. At times I express what I feel about certain things under contests/reviews hood. But you have got to be smart enough to understand that.

Yes, no philosophy or personal post. This will be a general post. Something I used to write in those early days of blogging. Those times when I travelled, I looked at everything from a blog's subject point of view. People to things to surroundings - everything was worth writing about. I used to blog about whatever I observed. I used to observe to write. 

Then time changed. Blog became more of a personal space. And I started writing about my thoughts. Observations still continued to happen as it had by then become a habit. But this blog became more of a ranting zone. So I decided to write a general post today, which has become a kind of philosophical too. Rather a ranting one.

So the topic is - plagiarism. I have been reading a lot about it everywhere. Blog posts are copied, tweets are copied, photos are used by people without permission or giving credit to the original photographer, designers copy the outfit designs, softwares and movies are pirated and what not.

I have even written about copyright laws in one of my previous posts. I had mentioned the legal provisions regarding that and what protection the author had. But I am surprised about one thing. I know stealing is not a right thing to do, but unless you are going to make money out of it or someone else is making money out of it, making it a life and death issue is foolish. Yes my posts have been copied too and I asked them to give me credit at least or remove them from their site. They removed the posts. That's it.

At times some lines, some status messages get copied too. I have received some things written by me as an sms. And I take that as a compliment. It was anyway a line. I was not going to use it anywhere. Some people copied it, some took the pain of sending them as sms forwards and tada. I am happy even if it doesn't have my name at the end of it.

When I was in school, I had written a poem for school magazine. It later on came on a very popular website then - bluemountain.com. It didn't even have my name, but that was the happiest moment of my life - to see my poem being published on a popular website. Internet was new then, and kind of not too common. So it WAS a huge deal.

Plagiarism is wrong, but you will have to face it. If you are too sentimental about your work, publish it in a private blog and be happy. Neither it will be read nor stolen. Yes I like to give faltu gyaan for free.

Saturday, October 06, 2012

Of headaches and heartaches

I guess this is a season of sadness. So many people I know are going through a rough phase in their lives - some have serious health issues, some have family problems, some have financial crisis and some are heartbroken. And some people are not in any of these situation, but are the ones who patiently listen to whatever the other lot has to say. 

No it's not obligatory to listen to rants, but we are one selfish specie. We think about us too. We know that some day or the other we will need people too when we feel low, and we will need them too. Or we will need them when we want to share happiness. We stay around with people for one simple motive - we need them. If not now then some other time.

I guess that's where we want unconditional relationships at times. There are people you need, but you might not be able to give that back when time comes. Or maybe that's just a matter of convenience for us. Who would not like a friendship or relationship with no strings attached? But one does tend to get attached at some point in time and the same unconditional relationship becomes complicated.

Relationships are about understanding more than arrangements. When you don't expect anything from a person, you should ask yourself where you are really attached to him/her or not, for expectations are a part of affection. You want to talk to the person, or you want him/her to leave you alone - well that would be expectations too right?

We have weird ways of showing our misery. Some people cry, some just go underground, some get drunk and talk, some don't talk at all. A friend recently blamed another friend for his break up with a girl two years ago. This girl is getting married to someone else. When he got to know about it, he suddenly realized that he still had feelings for her. I guess it was convenient for him to pass on the blame to someone else, but the other person was really hurt. When we are in pain, we don't realize what we are talking about. We say things without thinking and it may leave an everlasting impact on others.

Anyway, talking about me, I used to get a headache when I was low. That kind of took away all the opportunities to express what I was feeling, for I used to be down with a headache. Even now when I am slightly stressed about work or life, I get a headache. 

And it's good to blame it on age. I am going to be 30 by this year end. I can't believe I have lived for 30 years already. It seems like such a short period. There is so much I have done already and still it's not even 1% of the things I want to do. There is still a lot of time, but if 30 years can pass without my realizing much then I am sure the next 25 30 years will pass too.

I think I should make a to do list.