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February 28 Silver Lined HeartI've been extremely lazy for the last few months and hiding under the time-tested excuse of being busy. I wonder where the inspiration to share my thoughts with the world (well, whatever part of the world that actually reads my blog!) and pouring my heart out has disappeared.
A close friend forwarded this poem and it hit home so I thought I'll indulge in some plagiarism and post it on my blog. If nothing else, hopefully it would inspire me to come back and update this blog with something original. Till then, read this slowly and let it sink in...
Silver-Lined Heart By Taylor Mali I’m for reckless abandon Raise an unexpected glass to long, cold winters Here’s to the soul-expanding power See, things you hate, things you despise, But as far as what soothes me, what inspires and moves me, That’s why I’m for best friends, long drives, and smiles, The solution to every problem usually involves some kind of liquid, I’m for crushes not acted upon, for admiration from afar, I’m for evolution more than revolution I’m for the courage it takes to volunteer, to say “yes,” “I believe,” and “I will.” So don’t waste my time and your curses on verses September 15 yet another foto album...We had the ship party for the beta release of my product in a train! Spirit of Washington is a dinner train that runs between Renton and Columbia Winery. On a good summer evening, the views are gorgeous ... of course, the wine & company on the train limit the time you can spend staring out of the window.
It was a fun evening out with Marc (the other half of my team in Redmond), Kory (marketing), Jon (the do-it-all guy on the team), Sundar (my boss), Hari (his boss  ) and the content team (Jamie, Jeanie, Deb & Kathy). The wine was quite good and hence I don't remember much of that evening to blog about it. Luckily the camera didn't get high so I still have some memories to share ... check them out in the photo gallery.August 10 catching up...i've been slow at updating the blog & uploading the pics ... i finally managed to add some pics from the spain visit last year (most pics are of the gorgeous unfinished church ... sagrada familia) and also from the more recent trip to amsterdam & belgium.
i have so much to write about all these places ... i hope i get to it some time soon. till then, i'll let the pictures do the talking.
peace! June 10 how doctors blink???i guess that title doesn't make much sense but that is what i kept thinking about yesterday on my long flight from orlando to seattle ...
i just finished reading the book "How Doctors Think" by Jerome Groopman ... a book recommended during my recent course at Kellogg Business school on marketing & strategy (what's the relation? read on...). i would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to go a few levels deeper in understanding how our thought & response process works. my prof, the Mohanbir Sawhney, recommended this as a reading to understand the complex mysteries of human mind which need to be unravled before creating the messaging & value proposition for our customers (as the perceived value of a good/service can be quite different than the proposed value).
the title of the book threw me off 'cos doctors are not really my customers! however, after flipping through 320 pages of intense medical jargon, the overall theme emerged on its own ... our thinking process is modeled over a long period of time and a lot of times at subconcious level without much conscious control or modeling. we develop patterns based on our past experiences and when we encounter a new situation, our brain works at a magical speed to do pattern recognition and come up with the closest matching response. this defines how we react to a new situation.
if you've read the book "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point) - another highly recommended reading, you would relate to this theory. this book doesn't get in to the details of how our mind works as much and malcolm definitely doesn't use the medical profession as an example to explain his theory but the set of examples across the two books converge at the same point - what we call our "gut thinking", "sixth sense", "intuition" is nothing more than our mind relying on existing patterns to decipher a new situation. these patterns are formed over a period of time by reptitive action or examples - folks working in the area of artificial intelligence will understand this as "related data sets" that help form "decision trees" that aid in "pattern matching". it is quite scary to think how simple it might be for machines one day to do something similar ... but i'll leave that discussion for another post.
coming back to the two books ... how doctors think and Blink, the key difference is that while Malcolm recommends relying on this process to "think without really thinking", Jerome on the other hand warns against this. Jerome talks about the pitfalls of following this approach (it happens automatically) as it sterotypes patients and doesn't push you to think beyond what appears to be the obvious. in the medical profession, this can have serious implications and hence the argument does hold some water but what about other professions? am i being dangerously smart when i know too much about a topic that i don't need to think much about a problem to come up with an answer? or am i rightfully "blinking" to solve problems in the most intuitive way which gives me an advantage over others who are not experts in my area?
i'm not sure if i have an answer but i guess if i keep thinking and discussing about how doctors blink, my mind will form enough patterns that the answer will just come to me :). one thing is for sure though - being aware of how the underlying plumbing of our mind & thought process works definitely helps us consciously decide on whether we are blinking and when we are actually thinking. what we do after that is a choice we have to make.
March 10 love, arranged or arranged love marriage???a recent conversation with some friends made me think about the beaten-to-death topic - what is an arranged marriage? how can someone have an arranged marriage? do arranged marriages exist in the 21st century? anyone from India who has discussed the topic of marriage with their friends would know what i'm talking about.
it is very difficult for some of my friends & colleagues (especially in US) to understand the concept of arranged marriages - how can you get married to someone your parents introduce you to? how can you get married to someone you haven't been going around with for a while? how can you get married to someone you are not in love with? how can you get introduced to someone to get married???
most of my friends have had "love" marriages and then there are some who have had "arranged" marriages - if i didn't tell you who had which, you wouldn't be able to make out just by meeting them. there are cases of happy and not-so-happy marriages, regardless of how the guy n gal met. there are cases when a guy n gal met on their own and "fell in love" and decided to get married in a few weeks/months. then there are those that were introduced by their parents and "fell in love" and decided to get married in a few weeks. does it then matter how you got introduced? can't parents be like any other friends who introduce you to cool (well almost) people to meet and hook up with? i agree that when parents introduce you to someone, there are extra levels of screening much like your good friends would do when they introduce you to new friends ... ok ok i might be pushing it a little too far with this ... but you get the point.
gone are the days (at least in urban india) where your parents decide who you get married to and you just show up for your wedding. you get to meet your "would be" better-half and decide if he/she is the "one". the time window to make up your mind is usually smaller than what you would have if you were meeting people on your own without family pressure but apart from that, is the process really all that different? if "love at first sight" is true, then falling in love is time-independent process. and if it is not true, then you really need to spend lot and lots of quality time with someone to "fall" in love anyway. the concept of love is overrated anyway but i'll keep that discussion for my next post...
so, the million dollar question is - is there a difference between "love" marriages and "arranged" marriages? have modern-day arranged marriages just morphed in to "arranged-love" marriages with better pre-screening? Remember - Match.com has a paid feature for doing that ... your parents just do it for free ... and arguably do a better job at it. <flame mails can be sent to idontcare@gmail.com>
after much contemplation and after long discussions with the wise, the answer appeared to me. the much anticipated answer and one that is contrary to my arguments above, is - yes, there is a difference! confused? read on...
at least in the context of indian marriages, there is a big difference between love and arranged marriages - if you can blame your parents for your marriage, it is an arranged marriage. if not, then you had a love marriage and you gotta take the blame for it!
 this definition seems to work quite well for most people i know - what do YOU think?
p.s. as this has become an FAQ - NO, i'm not getting in to a love or an arranged marriage anytime soon. December 18 lost in translation...Some things you appreciate only once you've experienced them yourself. The movie Lost in Translation was one such experience for me ... my recent visit to Japan made me realize the importance of a common language like English!
I sometimes get in to arguments of benefits of the British rule in India and usually get beaten up quite bad. However, one thing I still stand by is the penetration of English in to Indian culture because of English colonization of India. To avoid making this post too controversial, I would say that if you plan to visit Japan, do have a translation guide handy! I was lucky to have someone translate for me at work (except that I had to speak really really slow which being Indian is anything but natural!) but I was on my own after work and someone knowledge of Japanese would have definitely helped!
Apart from the slight language barrier, Tokyo is a rocking place to be! An amazing & sometimes disturbing juxtaposition of historical culture & techie & ultra-modern lifestyle. During the day, Japan feels super busy, formal, traditional and business like where every second matters. The Tokyo nightlife (Roppongi & Shinjuku) completely resets this image with its all night parties, super modern outlook & activities (you can guess what i'm talking about!).
Apart from their deeply mysterious & well preserved culture, one thing I would definitely go back there for is FOOD! From the freshest (& scary) Sushi/Sashimi options to the best tempuras & of course, Sake!
As this was mostly a business trip, I didn't get to see places around Tokyo but that gives me another reason to go back there:). I've added a few pics from this trip for you to experience some of this but as I said before, you have to be there to truly appreciate it! September 18 love & hate relationship...... ok this one is not about people relationships but about my relationship with london... i just love london for all it has to offer and hate it for the price you have to pay for the same!
i was down in UK for an offsite with my EMEA sales team and some customer visits. i got a weekend in between the two to spend by myself. in a week i covered Reading, Greater London, Oxford and Witney (close to Oxford)... i loved every moment of it except for the moments i had to sign the credit card slips :-)
i also got an opportunity to catch up with Mukta, a friend from undergrad school ... she showed me around oxford with a pretty good narration of the historical tidbits which make oxford what it is. mukta, in case you read this - thank you! i had a great time.
i'll let the pictures do the talking instead of boring you with my recap... enjoy! August 29 the hunt has begun...i still don't believe this is happening but i finally 'met' the first person on my hunt for my "better half" (i don't understand why your spouse is called the better half but i'll leave that discussion for some other day).
given the interest level in some people (you know who you are;-) in watching me suffer through this, i'll not share any more details about this person for now ... and especially given that i've 'met' this person only over phone, it is too pre-mature anyway. i have to admit that this was the most weird phone call i've had in my life (except for the one from the cops about the ... oops that is supposed to be a secret).
so its been 2 days since i've been talking to this person and i still have no clue on what to talk about... how do you just ask questions and decide if they are right for you??? this is not an interview and i can't fire her if i make a wrong decision! and what if she fires me before that? gosh, i don't think i can even handle rejection...ouch...this is turning in to a nightmare.
phew...i think i need a break from this thought process... guess i'll have to leave this post here before if i lose it completely.
pray for me! August 27 breaking the stereotype...last month when i was in india, a good friend talked about a new "really nice" song from DJ Juggy ... and of course i didn't bother to make a note of it ... to me Juggy D is the "bale bale" guy who can't even get bhangra right. don't get me wrong...i love bhangra and i like hip hop and i like gals but for somehow i can't digest the crazy mix of these 3 in Juggy's music videos. so i automatically assumed what the new song would be like. by some crazy series of events i got to hear about this song from people i least expected to (someone is definitely running this universe...coincidences are a myth) ... so i finally managed to get my hands on this song. it is called Akheer (see translation below) and after listening to it over 100 times in one night and thanks to the "slow mode" in Windows Media Player, i finally managed to catch some of the lyrics. honestly, for a minute i was just numb... as if lightening had struck the same place twice ... these lyrics were least expected from my bhangra-pop-hip-hop brother. they went very deep ... he definitely hit a home run with this one & i learnt my lesson not to stereotype people... below is my lame attempt to translate this song... if someone has a better translation, please let me know. enjoy! Akheer (The last or The end) Jado sir to chath e lith jaye (When the roof comes off your head) Jado buliya ma naya vey (When you remember your mother) Jado loka lai tu murn turay (When you are ready to die for other people) August 20 To Marry or Not To Marry - that is NO longer the question :-(My parents were visiting from India and left last week after a short 3 week stay. I hate coming back to an empty home but more than that, I dread the idea of coming back home to a wife! No, it's not that I'm against the concept of marriage ... it's just that I don't think this would happen to me ... at least not yet.
A couple of months back, if somebody would ask me about my plans to "settle down", I would have to think if I'll ever marry. That, is no longer an option. The question at hand has changed from "if" to "when". My parents came back with me to US for a 3 week vacation after my India trip and while my mum must have gone back relaxed, I'm sure my dad went back excited! His mission accomplished - convincing me that marriage is inevitable.
It's amazing how life changes. It is even more amazing to know how small things and incidents can change life so dramatically. Over the last 3 weeks, I "discovered" loads of new cousins & family in US ... I had never met them before and would probably never get to meet them had my folks not been here. Anyway, I got to meet all of them and in some cases even stay with them for a couple of days. After a long time I got to observe "family life" closely (for those of you who don't know me, I left home when I was 18 and been living by myself ever since). What stood out the most from this experience is that things that I thought were too small in life weren't really that small. Things I thought that mattered in life or in a relationship, actually didn't (for most part) and what I thought was important to a relationship wasn't really so. Love matters but when hunger knocks on the door, love flies out of the window.
I never gave all this much thought, especially the part about what I'm looking for in a person I'm going to spend the rest of my life with. For most part, it was because I was in the denial stage... this couldn't be happening to me. Marriage is what happened to older cousins and seniors at school. I guess I'm in the acceptance stage now even though it completely freaks me out. For some reason I never thought this would happen to me... I was supposed to fall in love and then marriage would be a natural thing. Something somewhere in the universe went terribly wrong. (Well, I guess I did fall in love but I just didn't know it then... but that's a story for some other time.)
I guess I'll be more regular at blogging now ... I'll have tidbits to share about my search for the person that I'll be waking up to every morning:)
Till then! May 29 Sikhism - Faith not ReligionMy first ever "contribution" to all the material available on internet was a very modest website that I created on Sikhism. The site had a collection of stuff I had happily stolen er... sorry, borrowed from other sources. <Hey, I was 14 then and those were the days of 28.8K modems!!!> The only thing original was an article that I wrote to argue that Sikhism is not a religion as the term religion is understood today - it is a way of life and it is a faith. Anyway, this post is not about my website, my article or how I define "religion".
I was going through some websites of free thinkers and atheists, when I came across this very interesting email that was posted on one of the websites. The excerpt from the mail below is a conversation between Dr John Smith (Atheist Society US & author of The Theory of Evolution) and Ali Sina (the ex-Muslim behind the website www.faithfreedom.org). I did some basic research to make sure that these people do exist but I don't really care if this is a true email or not. What I care about is the fact that this email summarizes some very basic facts about Sikhism quite well. After reading this excerpt, I felt a sense of pride in who I am and my decision to be who I choose to be. So, check out this email:
Dear Ali, Please help us. We were very impressed with your website and agreed that religion in general is no longer needed. We can all be humanistic and live in peace and harmony. We are in the process of making a website which will hopefully help to destroy the religious doctrines which divide humanity. We were doing great with knocking out Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Baha'i, [and] even Buddhism but we have gotten very stuck with Sikhism. This religion is (to put it nicely) "a big pain in the back-side" (Please pardon the language). We have only found one site, which tries (very poorly) to argue that even this religion is not needed. But the argument is irrational and very unscientific unlike the very rational arguments you use. When we read the following from your website, we found what you said to be amazingly interesting: "Doubt Everything Find Your Own Light."
Please bear in mind that Bertrand Russell was a great philosopher and free-thinker. We have been trying for weeks now to find a way to fairly and rationally criticize and find fault with this religion but have failed. We even found out that there are many people converting to this religion in the USA and Europe as well as Russia (mostly well educated and affluent white people). We tried to find some of their literature and see what kind of claims they make, but unfortunately they have no missionary material as they do not have missionaries! People become Sikh by learning usually by chance or by coming in to contact with them. They are currently the 5 th biggest religion in the world and growing quite fast in the west and Russia. Please help us as we are stuck to give you examples of [what] they are all about. We found the following websites: http://www.sikhnet.com (this is a pretty good site and helpful); http://www.hope.at/sikhism (this site is very easy to follow. Check it out. They have a Woman's section and a Martyrs section. It looks like that you are not the only one trying to expose the falseness of Islam, Sikhs scholars did it hundreds of years ago and got killed for it!); and http://www.sikhs.org (this is the site that was on CNN when Sikhs in the USA were mistaken for Arabs and Middle Easterners and were attacked by mindless morons).Please help us out, we can't make our website about religion being the cause of war and disharmony when we have this one and only religion which makes a hell of a lot of sense! Lol. (I thought Atheism had all the answers but we're kind of stuck now.) We look forward to hearing from you. We respect your great views and want to promote them to everyone. Thank you for your time. Take care. Dr. John Smith May 27 God is crazy about you...Yes, you read the title correctly - God is crazy about you!
Seriously, just think about it:
This is better than any relationship I have ever had
 . I'm so in love with Him!Tulip Festival at a 1000 foot level...Let me start with a 1000 foot overview of the Tulip Festival - an annual festival held in the beginning of spring at a bunch of places around the world and more commonly in US to showcase miles of beautiful tulip farms. Out of all the tulip festivals across US, the one held at Skagit Valley in the Northwest region, a 45 min - 45 mile drive from Seattle is by far the best one to attend. This region is known for its flaura & fauna and the tulip farms are no exception. See http://www.tulipfestival.org/ for more details.
For a 1000 foot view of the 2006 Tulip Festival, check out the pictures below. I had seen the tulip farms from the ground before but thanks to my buddy Pannu, I got to see them in a whole new way.
April 05 Miami & Ft. LauderdaleThere is so much I want to write about this trip but really bad time at work... hopefully I"ll get back to this some day.
Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures!
First set of pics are at Miami (mostly South Beach and some at downtown). Last set is at Ft. Lauderdale where Dhruv and I met up.
Can't wait to get back there!
January 29 sideline or the play-field?i just got back after watching the new amir khan movie - rang de basanti ... based on the movie promos, we went in with the expectation that it'll be another "chilled out" flick like one of his previous movies - dil chahta hai and the first half of the movie did live up to that expectation (for the hardcore movie critics - yes, i do have more tolerance for over-dramatized situational comedy).
the story in the second half of the movie changed quite dramatically and to a topic that is very close to my heart - why do most of us spend our lives making compromises and not change the things we don't like? why do we accept things for how they are but not people for who they are? why don't we fight to change things? can we even change them? can we make a difference? can individuals make a difference or does it have to be god-sent messiahs that can change this world?
the movie might be a bit over-dramatized but it does drive the point home - it is easy to sit on the sideline and complain about things that are broken in this game called life but it takes real heroes to jump in to the field and fix them. and the best part - these heroes are ordinary people who choose to do extra-ordinary things when others don't.
i really don't know what drives these ordinary people to sacrifice everything - love, family, friends, life ... how can they believe in something so much that nothing else matters? and for what? i know that real heroes don't get rewarded in real life (at least in the worldly sense)... is there some reward waiting for them in the other world - the life after or the next life? these are some of the questions i grapple with and i'm not sure if i'll be able to answer these in this lifetime...
but every so often i come across a book, movie, song, quote or a person that gets me closer to the answer. jonathan livingston seagull was my first such step in this direction and ever since i have been fortunate enough to find more stepping stones... this movie turned out to be another. it helped me get one more step closer to the answers i've been seeking for almost forever...
more than these questions, what i really think about is - will i spend my life on the sideline or will i actually jump in to the play-field? will i ever find the one thing i believe in with all my heart that will push me in to the fight? what will that be? will that be my "purpose" in life? the very purpose i've been searching for ever since i can remember the definition of the word purpose...
while i mull over these thoughts, i'll sign-off on this blog post with a salute to the people who step up to the challenge and make the world a better place to live in for the rest of us...
God Bless Them! January 12 It's all about ATTITUDEWith every passing day, I believe more and more in the role of attitude in one's life.
Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearances or skill. More and more successful and happy people I see and observe, the more I'm convinced that ATTITUDE is what makes all the difference. The funny thing is that our attitude (and hence our success/joy) is actually in our hands - we make a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one thing WE can control and that is our ATTITUDE...
I am convinced that life is 1% what happens to me and 99% how I react to it. At the end of the day, it's all about ATTITUDE...
<i actually woke up in the middle of the night to write this.... boy, i'm losing it!!!> Last few days at India...The last few days in the India trip were spent at Delhi ... my home ... home sweet home... with folks.
I also got a chance to catch up with Norbert (who came down from IIM Calcutta), Varun (came down from IIM Lucknow) and Dhruv (all the way from Ann Arbor, Michigan!)... it was fun to meet up with them. Didn't get a chance to take much pictures 'cos the first thing we did when we met up was to go get drunk :-D
And after a few rounds of Long Island Iced Teas (or LIITs as the TGIF guy called it), it got hard to focus the camera ;-) ... so I had to steal these 4 pics from Varun's blog as it takes a lot more to get him drunk!!!
I'll keep this blog entry short 'cos now i'm back in Seattle and back at work... and Microsoft doesn't pay me to write blogs!
Dhruv/Norbert/Varun - it was great meeting up with you guys!
Cheers!
Karan
December 28 india trip...one of the few things i miss in India is the broadband availability... i just feel too lazy to upload pictures on a 128kbps connection... and yes, that is my lame excuse for not blogging for the last 2 months :-)
the india trip started out with a brief stopover at Amsterdam where i met up with an old friend - Stefanie. After catching up with some work at Microsoft Netherlands office, i got back to the hotel and then walked around Amsterdam for over 3 hours before going down to meet Stef. i usually enjoy a new city by just walking around or sitting in a coffee shop and watching people... it helps me soak in the culture, attitude and the vibes. Amsterdam has been one of the few places where i felt very comfortable despite huge crowds and tons of tourists. Check out the pics in the Amsterdam gallery...
From Amsterdam i got to New Delhi to give a surprise visit to folks... they were zapped when i reached home that night. it was well worth keeping the travel plan a secret (i usually have hard time keeping secrets)! after spending a few days at Delhi, i got back to hyderabad to catch up with work. over the course of next few weeks, i caught up with my team, remaining friends in hyderabad, the good indian food and also managed to squeeze in 2 weekend trips to delhi!
on one of these weekend trips, i went down to Patiala, Amritsar (home of Golden Temple) and Chandigarh with family (dad, mum, navneet & divya). we covered over a 1000 km and 10 families in 2 days! the best time spent was at Golden Temple (Harmindar Sahib) at Amritsar - the vibes at that place are hard to describe in words. see the attached pics of the same...
from hyderabad i got to travel to bangalore on a conference (Storage Networking Summit) where we presented my product Data Protection Manager... after spending 3 days at the conference at Leela Palace, i moved to my bro's place and spent the weekend there with navneet and divya. that was a good break from the hectic work schedule at hyderabad.
after that i spent another 2 crazy work weeks at hyderabad (with another weekend in Delhi on mum's birthday- 10 Dec) and finished off the work trip with Microsoft India's Annual Party and got back to Delhi. This trip at Delhi was short as I had to travel to Pune for a recruitment trip. In addition to the recruitment, i got a chance to catch up with Neha, Anisha & Leo. Thanks to canceled flights, i had to go to Mumbai to catch my flight for delhi. that gave me an opportunity to catch up with one of my good school friend - Nishant. We caught up on life and philosophy/ethics/morale/work over lunch and a quick drink. I then rushed to the airport to get back to Delhi.
Since then (i.e. last week), I've been at Delhi enjoying time at home with folks. Christmas was a quite affair with some family get togethers and good food. Looking forward to the New Year now...
October 23 picture perfect!one of many goals in life was to be a photographer 'cos whenever i experienced bliss, i wanted to capture that moment and freeze it in time. i soon realized that i don't have the eye for being a photographer :-0 so i didn't quite end up being one....
however, that didn't stop me from looking for other gifted people who could capture these moments and give the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words" a whole new meaning. every so often i come across a great piece of work by other photographers and then i spend hours lost in these pictures ... trying to re-live the magic moments experienced by these people and captured in these ever-so-still and yet so moving pictures...
couple of weeks back i posted an entry called "reflections" (http://spaces.msn.com/members/krazyanand/Blog/cns!1pVogjKUQYjARCDII2jPjmLg!581.entry) which was one such experience... the photographer caught some very ordinary but yet very moving experiences from my home country.
this week i came across the website of FLICKR labs (now owned by Yahoo) which hosts a great collection of photos (some uploaded by amateurs and some by super pros!) and the best of them showcased through their feature called "interestingness" (yeah, that word didn't exist but now it does) ... these photos cover varied topics (including some of my favorites like high speed photography, long exposure shots, abstract frames and nature).
 This is one website definitely worth checking out- http://www.flickr.com/explore. Exprience the bliss!
-k
October 15 personal blogs ... reality or myth?i spent a good part of this morning reading a whole bunch of personal blogs ... mostly of people i know ... guess i was trying to get a sense of what others blog about (and maybe get some dirt on them ;-) as people confess things in a blog that they won't anywhere else).
after reading a few of 'em i started wondering if i'm reading the correct blogs... did i type the wrong URL in address bar? are these the same people i know? i don't remember them being this way...
well, the URLs were definitely correct so i read on with mixed feelings... surprised, to find out so many new things about people i thought i know quite well ... disappointed, that i never got to know the "fun" or "artist" part in them when i know them in the offline world (is that the antonym of online?) ... amused at how they referred to their friends (including me!!!) in their blogs... but most of all confused - are these the same people???
all this while, i was reading blogs of people i didn't know too well (new friends, potential gfs, new colleagues...) and thought i was getting to know them well through their blogs. but after reading these blogs this morning, i'm not sure how much of an online personality corresponds to the offline personality... i guess there is not much u can tell about a person either in person or on a blog...
after struggling with these thoughts for a while, i thought i'll put this question to others (after all internet has answers to pretty much anything under the sun!)... are these personal blogs real or are they mere representations of what we want to be or of what WE think we are or of what we want others to think we are?
please help!
- a confused blogger
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