Meeting of the minds behind the blog
(This is an account of the meeting of Metblog authors. While your comments are welcome, you might feel that my take is too personal.)
Every meeting of the Chennai Metblogs team is preceded by a will it happen or won’t it phase. This particular meeting, arranged in short notice, saw six of the team show up at the Vrindavan of New Woodlands for lunch.
(From left, Thennavan, Manoj, David, Me, Vatsan, Chenthil)
Apart from Manoj, I have met the rest of the gang at several meetings before this. David Appasamy, who was recently named captain, graciously agreed to lead the team. He even picked up the tab. David is the chief communications officer at Sify and often has to travel abroad. His sojourns outside India are regularly recorded here. Manoj, meanwhile, has graduated from newbie to mainstay. While discussing music, particularly plagiarism in music, Manoj lamented the lack of originality even in old timers like Saigal. He said Maiyya Maiyya, the recent chartbuster from A.R.Rehman was a lift from an Algerian tune. I am a fan. I rose to ARR’s defence. I said that ARR was largely producing original music, unlike Anu Malik. Manoj’s retort was sharp and classic. ” Even if you sleep once outside your marriage, you are unfaithful,” he said.
Among the topics discussed at the meeting were Vatsan’s ongoing hunt for a job as business analyst, his craze for biking, Thennavan’s new hectic role at an online company, Chenthil’s love for vodka (he offered to buy some Russian branded Vodka from Manoj) and David’s past dalliance with advertising.
I detest advertising. I love the creativity of it, but the marketing side to it upsets me. I was beginning to tune out when David finally called out attention to what the meeting was supposed to be about. The Chennai Metblog.
As always, we discussed commentators or rather their rudeness. Everyone agreed that personal attacks on bloggers are to be detested. We have also agreed to start deleting comments that other commentators may puke over. We do want returning visitors, and some comments, we felt were way beyond all limits of decent intervention.
This meeting was one of the rare occasions that Chandrachoodan, our past captain, is absent. It’s however heartening to note that he continues to be blogger even though he has shifted to Dubai. He recent post on Mallo vs Tamil culture is nothing short of hilarious.
The metbloggers also collectively vowed to keep the blog eclectic, newsy and filled with personal insight. You might say bah! to all that, but we nevertheless vowed to keep at it. Meeting often see a increase in group mails between metbloggers and a consequent increase in the number of posts. I hope this one too brings in a flood of new posts.
Have fun guys. I know how difficult it is to blog and really appreciate your blogs
Have fun guys. I know how difficult it is to blog and really appreciate your blogs
You all look like ass holes!!
Is it possible to join the gang? I would love to be part of this :) …..
Thanks for the eloquent truth, JJ.
Nandhu:
Could I request from Manoj, the title of the Algerian original of Maiyya Maiyya? Without taking sides, I should add that I have some minor bit of interest and knowledge in music plagiarism (a visit to my site would help, I suppose) and I’m very curious on this one, considering we’re talking of Rahman.
One possibility is that the genre of both songs could be similar, but I’d not be very surprised if its a ‘lift’ too, as Manoj chooses to put it, but at this point all this is merely a conjecture.
Manoj: If you are reading this, please help!
http://www.newstodaynet.com/09jul/ss3.htm
uday, could you write to me? my email is right here.
It is a shame that absolute freedom of comment simply does not work, and it will help keep your readers if you edit the comments.
Glad to hear that you are going to do so.
hey, you’ve put faces to the names..thanks :)and good for you, you’re taking steps to address the abuse that goes on here in the comments section..
@Karthik
Yes I have heard from the grapevine that the track has a twin brother born a few minutes earlier. However I haven’t heard anything to verify the same.
@Nandhu
So while it can be a point of discussion over lunch, it cannot be published on our widely read forum without positive proof.
Hmm. When is the next Metblogs writers + readers meet scheduled? Guess I missed the earlier one!
For every comment deemed ‘sponge worthy’ and remains un-edited, I will donate One Rupiah to the author’s
favourite charity.
For every socially unfit comment and remains un- edited or not deleted I will done Five Rupiahs to the author’s favourite charity.
For every libelous comment and remains un-edited or not deleted I will donate Ten Rupiahs towards author’s legal fund.
For every post un-worthy of Madras/Chennai grandness, and remains without any comment I
will donate Fifty Rupiahs for ‘merry making’
towards the next commentator’s gathering.
For the obscene post, that receives the most number of negative comments
I will donate One hundred Rupiahs for the ‘Bail money’ or ‘Clean the CooVum Fund’.
Finally, for the self proclaimed ‘magnificant’ writer who blocks the comments for the sake of his vedic righetousness or to maintain moral majority
I donate nothing.
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
– Benjamin Franklin
P.S. I am for Real. My e-mail address is real; If metbloggers want to collect send me an e-mail with proper reference.
Manoj: Noooooo, not the dreaded ‘grapevine’, again. Thanks, anyway!
Thennavan is looking good. David too.
Didn’t there used to be some ladies on the team?
@thad,
yes, there are still ladies on the team. they just dont show up for the meetings. we dont like that either.
@anon,
thanks. i am sure they too have been told how good they look.
@pen.org,
i dont know if u exist. that is often not the point. but that was rumsfeld talking. have u heard of the “there are known mistakes and unknown mistakes” speech? ur comment was something like that. :)
@manoj,
sorry about publishing lunch time discussions. but remember i was supposed to do just that. that is the danger in speaking to a blogger. i have lately begun to distinguish people as normal and those who blog. u shuld do that to.
Sub:Playing the same movies again and again in the Bus travels while going to one city to another city.its an irritating one…
I personaly want to post this msg : The tmail movies like : “GILLI”,”THIRUPACHI”,”SIVAGACI”,”VANATHA POLA”,”INDIAN” etc..I dont know why in many of the buses (Bangalore to chennai or trichy)the same movies can be played again and again.please stop these kind of irritating thing.please Drivers of the buses should understand passengers wishes.I mean driver can better paly some different movies else please stop playing movies in buses in night times.
Ever
Sundar