Aparna’s Blog

Postponing writing post after post will result in the blog becoming like how mine has – a blog getting updated once in a blue moon. But more than that, something you very badly wanted to write about once might become insignificant/out-dated at the present moment when you finally find the time or get the urge to write. I have a looot of unfinished posts in my drafts! Besides there is a chance that you might now not be able to write something the way you initially wanted to. I hate seeing my blog in this state. So, starting from today, I am going to seriously try to restore this blog to how it was quite a few months earlier. Let’s see how it goes…

P.S.: I was thinking whether to post this or not. But I wasn’t interested in postponing posting it either

Today morning, I discovered what a great combo the two make to begin the day with. Anandabhairavi varnam, santAna rAmaswAminam and Sri rAmam – 3 very, very beautiful compositions made extra pleasing by T.M.Krishna’s voice and superb singing were what gave me company while I was doing yoga and made the already rejuvenating experience an even better one. After going for class for the last several months, I have now gained the confidence that not only will I be able to do yoga on my own, but I will also do it regularly. Thanks to my laziness, being regular was what I was/am a bit concerned about. But now that I have discovered the joy of yoga+music, I guess my laziness will automatically be driven away.

Life is so very unpredictable and filled with shocking happenings causing harsh realities which you never bring yourself to accept. And yet it goes on as usual, as though nothing at all happened! All those wonderful, happy, fun-filled memories which you always knew you would have cherished for a lifetime suddenly become just that - just memories to cherish -, when you least expected it to happen. You know you will never get those good old days back ever again and that’s what is constantly there on your mind. Yet there are moments when that realization strikes you in full blow and that’s when it upsets you all the more and the pain and sorrow is back in full form. Life is good only when there is a balance between the amount of happiness and sorrow it gives. It isn’t easy to move on with life when it keeps showing its cruel side often and continues to give shock after shock.

It isn’t often that I keep PDND as my status message on GTalk. But every time I change my status to ‘PDND’, at least one person pings me & asks, ‘What’s PDND?’! Once, a Carnatic-music-crazy friend asked me, ‘Which raagam’s PDND (swarams) I am talking about’!! LOL! I think I should stop putting it as my status message.

P.S.: In case someone who doesn’t know what ‘PDND’ is, is reading this, it’s ‘Please Do Not Disturb’.

Blogging from bus continues and I am enjoying it.

The green leaves on the trees on OMR appearing greener and fresh more than usual, thanks to the raindrops falling on those. The slight cool breeze peeping through the window, which I have kept open just an inch or so. Listening to Rahman’s music made all the more blissful by Hariharan’s voice singing the beautiful lyrics of pacchai nirame Monday begins on a pleasant note Hope you all have a great week ahead!

The last thing I expected to do on a Friday morning, forgetting all thoughts about the impending weekend, was to be forced to do a lot of thinking. This is happening, thanks to all your comments for my previous post. How much ever one might support plagiarism, I don’t think it is fair to copy lines from somebody else’s post. If it’s all right to do that, then I can actually write a dozen posts here every week, copying lines from multiple sources. At the end of the day, what is achieved because of that? A link to the original post is all I expect. If you like the lines written by somebody else so much and feel that those would be the apt lines to use in your post, then go ahead and use it. But do that after giving the source of those lines.

As for there is nothing called your own thought, agreed that all thoughts are triggered from something or other. And I do agree that two people can get the same thought. But that’s irrelevant here. On a lighter note, otherwise, why would there be the saying, ‘Great minds think alike’?

Why are you making me think so much right in the morning, when there is no mistake on my part? Should I really not take this seriously? All I wanted was for the person to know that it’s not fair to copy somebody else’s work without so much as a mention about them. I would have done the same thing if the lines copied were from some other blog too. Anyway, now that I have done that, should I not do anything more about this?

The previous post was just a warm-up of sorts since I didn’t want the very first piece of my writing for the day to be started on an angry note. Nothing can match the joy of writing and seeing your thoughts, observations and experiences getting transformed into words. Sometimes, the writing turns out to be as good as you thought it would be and, sometimes, it wouldn’t turn out to be as good as you thought it would. But that is not the point of this post.

How would you feel when from one such writings of yours, a piece which you wrote with so much passion, you see many lines lifted and used directly in somebody else’s writing? And not just that, it has even won a prize too in some competition! How can people indulge in such plagiarism? When you ask the person about it, the reply you get goes something like, ‘Yes I copied some lines from your post, because those were nice’. What a lame explanation! A writing competition is meant for judging your own writing, how you write, how you express yourself and more importantly, your OWN thoughts/expressions/whatever. Not for judging something which you copied from somebody else’s writing and passed off as your own!

More than seeing my lines being used, what irritated me even more were the lame explanations that were given.