Note: ...This post is for new visitors...
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"I am still reading all your blogs. Each topic is sure to touch a part of an IIT KGP PHY dept students' heart. Thank you so much for putting those together in the lovely language. I am sure if you get them published as books, they will be a treasure to keep for any ex KGPian. Also thank you for making me 'famous' on the blog site. First time I am on media!"...................
...........................................................Dalia
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Well, Supratim limerically accused me of "craving for adoring fans".
He is a dear and shouldn't feel let down.
The operative sentence for today's blogpost has been italicized.
Media!
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In 1963 when I was a University student I sent a Letter to the Editor of Indian Express complaining about an injustice meted out to one of my brilliant classmates by our University in the matter of awarding Metcalfe Medal. My joy knew no bounds on seeing my name in print in a National Newspaper for the first time. Kids will be kids. Our University rectified the anomaly and for the one and only time in its history awarded 2 Metcalfe Medals that year for reasons too complicated to go into here.
A year later I borrowed a box camera, went to Lawson's Bay in Waltair Uplands on a picnic and clicked two Nature Beauty photos and sent them to the popular weekly Andhra Prabha. Lo and behold! They not only published them in two successive issues of which I got free copies, but also sent Rs 20/- as remuneration! That money was half the cost of the monthly 'Meal Carrier Card' of Ajanta Hotel which met the food needs of myself and two of my sisters (plus 3 guests).
While at KGP, one day, I mailed my response as Guest Contestant to a quiz on Probability posed by William Radice in his fortnightly center-spread column: "Letter from England". He printed it in the next issue with my solution as well as my name:
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http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2008/10/sholar-and-gentleman.html
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That was indeed heartening!
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After my retirement I took two whole years to settle down to writing. Gingerly one day I sent a Letter to the Editor of Deccan Chronicle (DC) on a controversial article they published earlier on Gandhi by Ferzana Versey. DC not only published my LTTE but also 'awarded' it the Best Letter of The Week Prize of a whopping Rs 300/-, which of course they never gave me.
That was however practically a resurrection for me.
Later they published a few Letters of mine on Nehru, Animal Rights etc.
Punch had an amusing: "What's that again?" column, lampooning hilarious bloomers in venerated British Newspapers, eg:
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"In suitable cases Germans are to be allowed short visits to relatives or friends in this country"
......elicited this Punch Comment: "This Side Up"
................................G H Vallins: "Good English"
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So, I thought (mistakenly) that DC would be sportive enough to publish this lampooning limerick I mailed it:
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Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Missing Comma, Hey Ramadoss!
Deccan Chronicle news banner, Page 7, Hyderabad, Thursday, 25 February 2009: "..health minister (Dr) Anbumani Ramadoss on Wednesday pressed for a National Alcoholic Policy to curb consumption of liquor in the Lok Sabha.""A comma after 'liquor'
Would suit our Speaker:
Binge Drinking
And Carousing
Can hardly keep our MP s sober!
Even sober, they crowd the Well,
And raise Cain and Hell;
Rather than booze
Let them snooze
Ramdoss should give a sleeping pill!"
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DC not only didn't publish it but blacklisted me.
Then on I wisely confined myself to blogging supressing the weakness to appear in Print Media.
But Shyamal one day forwarded one of my blogposts to The Statesman which promptly published it in its famous Now & Again column. Suddenly I found myself in the public limelight. And a couple of my later posts were also published in successive months. Just when I thought I had 'arrived' and was becoming a celebrity, the Old Maid of Chowringhee (?) found my next pieces too bawdy for her virgin taste and blacklisted me once again.
Sigh!
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Now we come to what were simplistically called 'New media' a decade ago (TV and Internet). Anything that is christened New invites hilarity. In Nellore there still is a 70-year old drab but thriving Cinema Hall called New Talkies.
My friend who was the MD of a semi-government 'do' was one day visited by the TV Crew of a Private Channel. His joy knew no bounds and he not only gave them an hour-long Interview but arranged sight-seeing and hospitality. Next week however he found to his dismay that it appeared not only highly condensed but also ghastly distorted and condemnatory.
After he narrated this incident I became s**t-scared of all New Media.
Late one evening Aniket brought a couple of his friends from BBC to my Office at KGP. They sought an Interview on some aspects of IIT. I at once forwarded them to Prof STA who was not only photogenic and media-savvy but also held a coveted Position in the Administration. STA later told me that it went well and also appeared in one of their shows. I didn't probe.
On my last blessed invigilation at IIT KGP (which I wanted to celebrate as GRBR) one sleepy summer afternoon in the Raman Auditorium where I was the all-powerful Hall-in-Charge, there barged in the crew of a Private TV News Channel with all their cameras and sound systems and hungama in place, saying they have the relevant Dean's permission to film an ongoing Exam at IIT KGP as part of their: "Life at IIT Campus".
I put my foot down and told them that they would disturb my Hall over my dead body. They argued a bit, and perhaps crossed over to the Bhatnagar Auditorium, I didn't care to know.
Nowadays I get crazy anonymous mails like the one below enticing me to make money on my blogs; (which I save but ignore):
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"Wow... this site is so popular. I just wanted to know how do you monetize it? Can you give me a few advices? For example, I use http://www.bigextracash.com/aft/2e7bfeb6.html
I'm earning about $1500 per month at the moment. What will you recommend?"
Posted by Anonymous to gpsastry at September 2, 2010 3:53 PM
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Money & me never mixed!!!
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This is for new bloggers:
My blogspot 'dashboard' says this is the 400th post. And the 'Profile Views' are a 1000 (the last hundred are mine...there should be a law against counting them).
Party Time!
Anyone in the blogging line knows it is easy to post a thousand blogs...blogspot doesn't seem to object. And it is easier to amplify the number of Profile Views; just keep clicking.
But it is not easy to find readers (there is no count for these).
Nowadays it is tough to find even ONE reader.
The epigraph (I didn't cook it up, for once) of this post shows that some of my posts ARE read.
Like that proverbial unasked kiss that is the sweeter, here is my unasked trick:
"Art is short, but Craft is daft".
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3 comments:
That last one reminds me of Ogden Nash's "Candy / Is dandy / But liquor / Is quicker"! Is there a name for this structure too (just like limerick defines a certain structure)? I have never seen any specimens of this species, save yours and Nash's.
In our University we read the aphorism:
"Art is long, Life is short'.
I as usual distorted it.
Wikipedia says:
"Ars longa, vita brevis are the first two lines of a Latin translation of an aphorism by Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates. The words are commonly translated in English as art is long, life is short. The full text in Latin is:
Ars longa,
vita brevis,
occasio praeceps,
experimentum periculosum,
judicium difficile.
In this commonly found Latin translation, the first two statements have been switched from the Greek original.
The full text is often rendered in English as:
[The] art is long,
life is short,
opportunity fleeting,
experiment dangerous,
judgment difficult."
....gps
Does following a fad diet seem like a herculean task to you? Then you should definitely try the Hoodia diet plan. Along the stems, there are rows of thorns, while the plant bears flesh-colored flowers. Quit using methods that don't work and stick with something that works naturally. It is highly recommended to take either one 750mg in the morning and another one in the afternoon, or two 400mg capsules in the morning and another two 400mg capsules in the afternoon prior to the dinner meal.
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