Ideamarked: November 2010 – Nostalgia, Romance, Identity Theft, Fashion, Street Photography, Geek Humour & Kids

It has been a busy month, what with the domain issues and shifting back to WordPress. Actually, I don’t regret it. This old template (I’m hoping at least a few of you recognize it from having been my readers since then) triggers off old moods and inspiration and I feel freer to write about a lot of things that got buried under the gleaming-gloss of a fancy template and a hotshot domain name. This can only be good.

The Idea-smithy on Facebook idea continues and I’ve been posting links. It’ s a little trickier than the XX Factor Facebook page. XX Factor concerns itself with very specific topics and areas and it is is relatively easy to tell what would appeal to the readers of the blog. But The Idea-smithy is a lot broader, greyer, flexible in its nature. From its inception in 2004, it has been a rantfest, a scribble-pad, a poetry corner, a personal diary, a writing journal and a photo-blog. The posts encompass poetry, fiction, cityscapes, photographs, cartoons, humour, writing exercises, link-and-editorials, reviews and a lot of generally uncategorizable stuff.

I’m still grappling to define this blog the way I struggle to define myself. Tell me, my dear readers, old and new, what do you like about The Idea-smithy? What are your topics of choice? What do you hate? What else would interest you?

I’ve taken some chances in the first month of link-love on Facebook and here’s what I came up with. Your inputs are not just welcome, they’re vital!

• Writers, romance-lovers, diehard M&Bers, hear ye!: A writing challenge looking for synopsis and first chapter of a novel (via Harlequin Enterprises)
• This one did the rounds on email a few years ago and all of us in our twenties (then!) sighed and said, “That’s my life!!!”. A landmark net-pop culture reference: The Quarter-life crisis (via Caltech)
• A strange case of identity-theft: Is someone stealing your tweets and your identity? (via Soma Ghosh)
• Many of these gave me goosebumps. The related ‘women’s regrets’ one didn’t do that. Strange that is: The secrets regrets of men (via Lemondrop)
• OMG, if only these were available on the streets, they’d be I Style! I would love to wear The Gateway of India or even The Bandra Worli Sea-link!: The architecture of statement rings (via (via Republic of Chic)
• Whacky remixes in packaging!: Hommade Undies (via Chhavi Noticed This!)
• Toilet humour and yes, it is funny!: Accurate Toiletry Instructions (via CollegeHumour)
• Slightly outdated (which is ancient in internet terms). Appropriate for the month of the release of The Social Network: What Your Email Extension Says About You (via CollegeHumour)
• I LMAOed. Then I wondered if I was too much of a geek because I understood every single reference in there:The First Fail (via CollegeHumour)
• Mommy-bloggers, unite! You aren’t alone!: Shit My Kids Ruined (via ShitMyKidsRuined)

Space

Another day in paradise,
without you,
Is just another day,
for me.

But for you, maybe,
It’s room to breathe,
A place to think
A time to be.

What’s odd is that, in every minute,
in every possible way,
You’re always, completely you.
With or without me.

And I wonder then,
If, to matter to you,
Jailer or Alchemist
Is all I can ever be.

Indeed,
You can never lose.
For, of all things I could,
Those are things I could never be.

BlogAdda 12: “This happened today…”: Blogging An Event

As we run into the last month of the year, our calendars start to pack up. There are last-minute things on everyone’s agendas to be ticked off before we go off on holiday. There are parties to attend and people getting married. It’s a busy month and (hopefully) a good one for everyone around.

My twelfth BlogAdda post and the last one for this month is up. This week I talk about something every blogger faces at some point of time – covering an event. It could be a personal do like a wedding or a party. Or it could be a professional one like a conference or a seminar. It could even carry semi-journalistic tones if you’re invited to a press conference to write about it. Writing about a one-time event has its own special nuances and that’s what this post is about.

(Click here to real the full post on BlogAdda)

Playground Politics

A very friendly place where nobody is your friend, can be a very scary place indeed. Like a mad funhouse. Or the Palace of Mirrors.

…or so I thought, back in 2006. Well, guess what? I own the circus now. It’s still not friendly. Or sane. But it isn’t scary. The shivers persist, though.

Kite

In the midst of a crowd
And imprisoned behind the bars of indifference
You still reached out your heart to me
Through the tiny windows of your eyes

And in that look, that one look,
I caught hold,
swearing I wouldn’t let go
Till I’d traced it to its source

At the other end of that glance,
What I found,
Tied me to you
Profoundly, irrevocably

But know this,
My memories of freedom come with me
And someday they’ll be yours too
And till then, the dream of wings will carry me out

You with me.
Because, like I said,
I won’t let go
Irrevocably, profoundly

BlogAdda 11: Reader Devo Bhava!

My post on BlogAdda this week, talks about building a relationship with your reader community. This would seem a little odd to people who knew me 6 years ago, in my early blogging days. Yes, I used to be a touch-me-not blogger who wouldn’t respond to comments or any correspondence from my readers. But much has changed since then, my own attitude the least of them all.

This is the era of connections, of actively seeking them out and building on them. It benefits the people at both ends of the connection. Do read this post and let me know what you think!

Also, since this is a free WordPress domain and I don’t enjoy the benefit of the In Series plug-in anymore, here are the earlier articles for your reference.

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Other articles in this column:

1. Checklist For A Blogger
2. Building Access: Feeds & Link-sharing
3. Protecting Your Privacy
4. Is Your Blog Facebooked?
5. The Twitter Birdie At Your Blog
6. Dress Up Your Blog
7. Dear Reader, Stay Awhile Longer
8. Group Blogs: Becoming A Part Of The Online Community
9. The Internet Undesirables
10. Blogger Profiles: Creating An Identity For Your Blog
11. Reader Devo Bhava!
12. “This happened today…”: Blogging An Event

I believe that the audience is an integral part of any artist’s performance. In the case of a writer (or specifically, the blogger), the readers play this role. Any blogger who says that they don’t care about readers, has to be lying. If you didn’t care, you’d write in a private diary, not on a website visible to the whole connected world! So you can see why a blogger needs to establish a tangible connection with his/her readers. A good blogger ensures that his/her content is fresh, top-quality and recent. A great blogger goes the extra mile by thinking about how to make the blog, a real experience for the reader.

(Click here to read the full post on BlogAdda)

Sieve

How difficult it is to love you
And how easy it is to hurt you

When my heart,
All it is, is a sieve

Shot with tiny holes,
Nothing ever stays

Will you?

BlogAdda 10: Blogger Profiles – Creating An Identity

This week I post my tenth column in the BlogAdda series and this time I talk about one of the fundamentals. The ‘About Me’ section also known as a bio is a much neglected but very important part of a person’s online presence. It is the first communication about you to your readers and defines your blog. In my column I cover the basics that a bio should have and a few other things that it could include.

When I find myself grappling with a problem, especially a creative one, I go back to my basics, my fundamental assumptions. New ideas usually emerge from there. While thinking about what to talk about in this column for bloggers, I went back to my first post listing the basic 10 essentials for a blog. And in that, I found my answer.

Number 3 on that list is the Blogger Profile. Does that merit a column? Let’s see. How long does it take to describe a person, to define his identity, to etch out her life? How long does one have? A Blogger Profile (or the About section as it is known in certain places) is an introduction, a description and a definition. It can also be a portfolio, a marketing tool, a showcase or a resume. This is the place you go to when you’re facing an identity-crisis of sorts, about your blog.

(Click here to read the entire post on BlogAdda)

Conversations

Some conversations are traps, some are escapes

Some are tunnels leading into dark corners
Some are treasure hunts turning up duds
Some are potholes ending in pots of gold

Some are mere rituals
Some are verbal dances

But only sometimes, are they communication.

BlogAdda 9: The Internet Undesirables

I love my blog and my seven-year experience of blogging has been nothing short of fulfilling. But I’ve had my share of unsavory experiences, unexpected at the time and that taught me a little about protecting myself (if not human behaviour). In my BlogAdda column this week, I talk about some of the undesirable elements one could encounter as a blogger. Where possible, I’ve made suggestions on handling these but most of these don’t have foolproof solutions. Still, I was taken unawares when each of these happened to me so I figure, forewarned is forearmed.

I’ve discussed ways to protect your privacy but those are not foolproof. In every case, your own judgment is your best bet. If you’re stepping out of your house, you should know about the dangers that could befall you. Similarly, if you’re on the internet, you’d do well to be mindful of its pitfalls. Even if you don’t always have a way to avoid them, forewarned is forearmed. Here are some of the strange creatures you might meet in the dark alleys of the internet:

(Click here to read the whole post on BlogAdda)