The long delayed Blog Mela

Greetings and Welcome to Blog Mela IV of 2005. A lot of you did write about Republic Day as I had hoped, but I won’t be able to fit all those nominations into the structure I had expected, but that’s okay because I believe that order should be discovered, not imposed. So ladies, gentlemen and others, I present to you the Blog Mela. Make sure that you set aside time for this, because there are more posts than it might seem at first glance.

Anya Mahajan wonders what exactly we are celebrating when we celebrate Republic Day. I’m afraid that’s a tough question as it would involve defining India, a job that may be beyond human capacity.

Ravages posts a picture that IMHO, captures the spirit of the Republic perfectly.

Prashant Kothari, our man in DC, posts on an article that surveys India’s and China’s economic progress.

Seven Times Six writes on ethical conceit.

Ashish Hanwadikar writes about the changes that he observed in India when he visited recently. Most of them are for the better.

Then there are the thoughts of Bhavya Khanna, on Republic Day – a must read.

Nilu writes about missionaries who take advantage of the Tsunami to convert victims to Christianity, and posts a personal recollection. JK too blogs on the same topic.

Some bloke called Sharafat Ali (is that your name or are you a big fan of Bade Miyan Chhote Miyan?) nominated the post announcing the results of the Indibloggies.

The perils of going to the loo in a paperless office. No “paperless” doesn’t mean what you think it does.

Patrix gets someone called Havoc to guestblog about a desperate date.

This would have gone into the “Vignettes” section of the Blog Mela if I had stuck to my original format. A Japanese writes about the Indian Railway experience, contrasts it with trains in Japan, in Hindi!

Chandoo takes the concept of Accounting and applies it to exams. Very interesting if you are an MBA.

Indra Sharma writes a rather fawning post about President A P J Abdul Kalam. Now I like him too, but I am seriously exasperated by our tendency to look upwards for change.

Kiran, the Brooding Dude updates us on the progress being made in infrastructure, and Dilip D’Souza reminds us of the cost and who is paying it.

The Lazy Geek posts a roundup of Sarang, IITM’s festival. But of course, it can never compare with Mood Indigo.

Anand of the now-misnamed MDEII Life posts in three parts (I, II, III) his analysis of the movie GodFather

Sandeep tears apart an article by Rajmohan in the Indian Express.

Gaurav Sabnis IMO, rather badly misunderstands the import of the Atlas Shrugged money speech as he attempts a defence of the Slimes of India.

Finally, we have Amit Varma, who tells a tale with a moral at the end, a moral you’ll have to figure out for yourself.

Well that’s all folks. I have accepted all nominations except one (I didn’t accept one because I guessed that the nominee would want me not to.) and I’ve scoured the net to find more than were nominated. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the Mela as much as I enjoyed compiling it. I may not be able to post for the next few days till I get to Ohio and settle down, so I hope that this should suffice as reading material till then.

A grossly distorted recollection of the Bloggers’ meet

The following account of the story has been written under the heavy influence of Ethiopian Qahwah. Hence it should be cross-checked against the accounts of other bloggers for veracity. But please note that Yazad and Amit partook of the same substance, hence their accounts too should be viewed with abundant caution.

Six of us Bombay Bloggers met yesterday at Chowpatty’s Coffee Day. We had a free and frank exchange of views, and we managed to find common ground on a lot of issues. In fact we decided that:

1) Motorcycle helmets should be banned for the greater common good. Wearing helmets gives riders an incentive to drive rashly, secure in the knowledge that their helmets protect them against head injuries.

2) For the same reason, car drivers should not be allowed to wear seatbelts. In fact, we should have spikes sticking out of steering wheels, as this will make drivers even more careful before they cause accidents.

I missed most of the proceedings as I had to drive a total of 120 kiometers to get to the place. (I lost the way and managed to reach Vasai). Other bloggers will be able fill in the missing details for you. They assured me that they spent the two hours I missed discussing Parsis, a subject I don’t have much of a view on. They will also be able to tell you about the mysterious person wearing dark glasses and claiming to be a New York times reporter who was watching the proceedings and taking notes. I suspect he was a CIA plant.

The fates have decreed otherwise.

I had promised to put up the Blog Mela for this week by today unless the fates decreed otherwise. As it happens, the fates have decreed otherwise. Hence it shall be put up tomorrow. In the meantime, you can still send in your entries – and if your entries have to do with the Republic Day theme, then I shall relax the date criterion.

In Ohio for three weeks

I will be in Ohio for three weeks or so starting from 2nd February as a follow-up to my paunch reduction programme. I also hope to find out firsthand who actually won the elections. In the unlikely event that anyone actually stays there and has survived the recent snowstorms, please leave a comment here.