Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Talk to me

My last post, like many of my other posts, got me some bouquets and some brickbats from readers. Some liked the post and identified with it, while others shook their heads and walked away (I do admit it was a bit abstract though).

When you write something, it's amazing how the same written word can have so many different interpretations by different readers, and all that depends on a number of factors:

- Their relationship with you (e.g. your adoring grandmother, if she reads your blog, is rather unlikely to dismiss a post written by you as crappy, especially if she thinks that you're the best thing that happened to the world since the discovery of electricity.)

- Their state of mind when they are reading it (e.g. they have just gone through something and there is something in your post they can completely identify with, as if what you wrote just "spoke to them")

- Their attitude towards you (e.g. some bloke who does not quite like you but reads your blog to find more reasons to dislike you, will find or make up reasons to hate the post you wrote)

- Their history with you (an absolute 'freshie' on your blog is more likely to be very objective about a particular post than someone who knows how you function)

Like me, there are zillions of people blogging and reading blogs every single day. Different reasons, different writing styles and different topics are being picked to write blog posts. Zillions of posts are being loved, hated, admired, and killed every second. Once in a while, I come across a post someone wrote and say, "Wow, that's a perfect blog post." And then I wonder -- what really is a perfect blog post? Isn't a perfect blog post as much a reflection of me, the reader, as much as you, the writer? You write them, I read them, and together we make some posts perfect.

There is really no absolute perfect post, is there?

My perfect post is different from your perfect post. To me, the perfect blog post would be the one that is imperfect. For the simple reasons that it came straight from the heart. The imperfect perfect post, just like the perfect ad, would be the one that although describing the writer's own thoughts, appears to have been written for everyone. Everyone identifies with at least some aspect of it, irrespective of whether they know the writer or not. And each person who reads it, looks at it slightly differently, and feels as if it was written for him/her. As if even though it is out there for everyone to see, it has a special meaning for him/her, something hidden that was to be discovered only by him/her, a meaning others are blissfully unaware of. In other words, it "speaks to them".

Perhaps, that truly is the 'imperfect perfect post'.

This reminds me of the time when I was talking to a very dear friend over MSN. Now he's the kind of friend I can't live with, and I can't live without. We have a squabble almost every single day, but if we stop talking to each other, we're both miserable the entire day. I guess it's the kind of the connection we have. He has a videocam but I don't. Most of the time, he turns on his videocam during our conversations, and I can see (and make fun of) his expressions, but when I get angry during a conversation, I guess it frustrates him because I go all silent on him, and he can't even see the expression on my face. So he keeps asking me to get a videocam. And I keep saying "Yeah right."

So we were conversing once, and we had a tiff and both of us kinda got pissed off, and fell silent. And suddenly, out of nowhere, there it was, the little prompt at the bottom of the conversation window.

"Connection established." it said.

It was just a standard prompt written by a random programmer neither of us knew, for everyone who's ever had an MSN conversation to see. But to us, at that moment, it held a very special meaning. A secret meaning encoded in words that were visible to everyone, but it felt like only we knew the actual significance of those words. It made us smile. It got us talking again.

Connection established.

And if that was not enough, seconds later, a pop-up window with one of those annoying ads, appeared on my screen. Usually, I hate pop-ups, but this one actually made me smile. It said something my friend had been telling me for ages.

"Get a webcam!" said the irritating green cartoon character in the pop-up ad.

I burst out laughing.

Have you ever read anything that seemed like it was out there for everyone to see, but only for you to get?

Something that "spoke to you"?

(And no, I'm not talking about things like the pic below. )












55 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, I'm first! cant believe....

Let me read now :)

Ankur said...

perfection is god,,u can strive to achieve it and get it,,,but it will always be a cinch away from u:-)

Anonymous said...

// You write and I read, and together we make some posts perfect.
-Fully agree with this...

In Bangalore McDonald, there is a poster... a girl eating burger and just relishing it with her eyes closed...... whenever i see it i feel she is asking me to order one right now and enjoy!!!

Anonymous said...

Good post shiela.

Negative Creep said...

//In Bangalore McDonald, there is a poster... a girl eating burger and just relishing it with her eyes closed...... whenever i see it i feel she is asking me to order one right now and enjoy!!!//

Must be one HOT girl....

//perfection is god,,u can strive to achieve it and get it,,,but it will always be a cinch away from u:-)//

Nobody is perfect, God is perfect, hence God is a nobody...

Thanks Uncyclopedia :)

The Girl Who Sold The World said...

especially if she thinks that you're the best thing that happened to the world since the discovery of electricity
ROTFL!!!

And that connection established incident was funny! Strange how a techie line could be related to normal life...=)

Something that "spoke to you"?
Yeah, my mind...it said, "Study, loser!"

Oh, and me going out for some days...so, my temporary ta-ta to you and your bar. For posts that I'll miss, here's my advance comment on all of them:

ME FIRSTTTTT!!!!!!!! GOLD!!!!!

HA! Obviously first. Pehle hee comment jo kar diya! ;)


@Creep: God is no more a nobody. You yourself quoted Nietzsche yesterday, "God is dead". So, nobody is a "nothing-body" now.

BP said...

Hey, nice post.

//There is really no absolute perfect post, is there?

Nope, but that's okay. I think blog posts should first and foremost be true to the writer. And if someone happens to relate to it, or be entertained or moved by it, then it's a bonus.
:)

Adi Oso-Groot Finch said...

yaar kai baar to lagta hai ki tu too good hai!!

but then there are other times as well .... :P

Pujya said...

well, true nothing is 'absolute' everything is 'relative', uncle Einstein ne bola hai na....

aur cam liya ya nahi??? mat lena...the fun dies out, i know because i can identify with the situation.

oxymoron said...

Don't know why, but your post reminded me of the Asian Paints' Ad - "Har Ghar Kuch Kehta hai"

Shobana said...

came across an article sometime back abt the writers and wht their writings may imply to different readers. very true...

i guess we take wht we understand and leave the rest cos we understand things we already know or have gone through and something which we dont understand may not be meant for us to understand...i hope u understand this:D
nice pic:) i am sure i have had one suchlike urs. just don rem it.

ritzkini said...

:)
and yeah..that pic...
sharadhaksar.com..chennai-based ad-guru..digital photography god..worth a visit...
his coke ad landed him in trouble,tho..
At any given time,atleast one billboard on gemini flyover(the mecca for billboards-beats even bombay !) has one of his creations...

virdi said...

Kini, for God's sake please get your head out of Chennai and no need to show off that you know few more sites than few people here.... And stop giving information jiska koi matlab nahi hota... And no one is interested in whom you think is an advertisement guru and who is not... And no one cares about the Gemini Flyover...

You have become like Dhiman... Who gives all crap information, which you can put in the folder and delete at the end of the day... Please read Sayesha's post and this is not a comic strip which has photos... Read the post!!!

How was the lecture Sayesha?? ;-)

V..

Shobana said...

@ virdi- as if u talk sense all the time!
@ kini- loved that site. checked out all the pics. awesome work:) thanks

Anonymous said...

Moral of the story...

Door se dekha ande ubal rahe the,
Paas ja ke dekha ganje uchal rahe the

bole to different people percieve different things differently depending upon different factors.

I missed the point in the previous post, dimag se thoda paidal hoon, abstract literature bouncer ho jata hai kai baar. Jab gulzar kehta hai "thodi si zameen, thoda asmaan, tinkon ka bas ik aashiyan" to mere dimag mein ghonsle ki photo ban jaati hai =))

Duniya mein 2 tarah ke bloggers hote hain 1) jo likhte hain 2) jo dil se likhte hain. Tu dil se likhti hai, isliye mast likhti hai :)

@virdee tu bhi dil se likhta hai lekin mast nahin likhta =))

Tinku

Thanu said...

Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder.

Sayesha said...

#Mitthu,
:)

#Ankur,
Hmmm... but we can all redefine perfection and achieve our version of it! ;)

#Mitthu,
I can so identify. Some ads just talk to you, don't they?? :)

#Anon,
Shiela? But I'm Sayesha!
Oh you mean you are Shiela! :P

#Creep,
//Must be one HOT girl....

All right, have you been hanging out with my friend Vikram lately? You're beginning to sound like him.
ps: Wait a minute, you don't. Actually, you sound like any other guy! :D

#The Girl,
Hahahaha! You crazy one! See ya soon! Listen to Ian and study hard! :D

#Banana,
You've echoed what I've always said -- that blogging is like basic salary, the comments are performance bonus. Sometimes the performance bonus exceeds the basic salary, but it's the basic salary that buys you bread. :)

#Raven,
Hehehe... I know yaar! :P

#Aethyr,
Tere 'relative' Uncle Einstein ne bahut sahi baatein boli thi :)

ps: Nope, I'm not buyin' any cam-sham! Bhaav khaane mein dikkat hogi. I still want my 'chehre par smiley, MSN window par angry-face icon' wala freedom! ;)

#Oxymoron,
Which ad which ad?? Bhej na... I miss India ke ads :(

#Jade,
I understand :)

#Ritzkini,
//his coke ad landed him in trouble,tho..

Which ad which ad? Bhej na... I miss India ke ads! :D

#Virdi,
//And stop giving information jiska koi matlab nahi hota...

HAHAHAHA! This coming from you, Virdi???? HAHAHAHAHAHA! :D

//Read the post!!!

Arre baba, Kinnu posts nahin padhta... uske sar ke oopar se nikal jata hai... woh sirf pictures dekhta hai. Alphabet tak pahuncha nahin hai ab tak. Time lagega. Samjha kar! :)

//How was the lecture Sayesha?? ;-)

You tell me pappaji :D

#Jade,
Hahaha! :D

#Vikram,
//i remember whatever she said because she was very hot.

Aha! Classic example of a typical Vikram statement! :)

#Tinku,
//dimag se thoda paidal hoon, abstract literature bouncer ho jata hai kai baar.

Arre hum hain toh kya gham hain! Saadde naal raho, hum dimaag mein drill kar denge! :D

//Tu dil se likhti hai, isliye mast likhti hai :)

Thank you, Tinkuji :)

//@virdee tu bhi dil se likhta hai lekin mast nahin likhta =))

Hahahaha! Kyun waat laga rahe ho pappaji ki? Sabne already bahut li hai uski.

#Thanu,
True.. but I'd say that beauty is a combination of the beholder and the 'beholdee' :)

oxymoron said...

// bhej na
firstly-kahan se bhejon, mere paas ad nahi hai
secondly-kaise bhejon, agar ho bhi to :P
here's the full baseline:
Har rang kuch kehta hai
Har ghar kuch kehta hai

kabhi india main nahi dekhi?

Eclectic Blogger said...

yeah.. these things do happen.. and i truly believe them.. like when in those chinese restaurants, in the end they give u ur "today's fortune".. and when it reads "You and your husband will have a blissed life!".. me going.. what the!?

ritzkini said...

@virdi
never mind..somethings...never ever change..so.never ever mind
:)))
and haan,hows ur ex-flatmate dhimon-da ??
:)))

@jade
he's good,aint he..
:)

@vikki
:) bido...hum dono men yeh sab chalta rehta hai..
trying to figure out,who snaps first !
:)

@sayeshaji
ONE MORE 'KINNU',AUR TERI KHAIR NAHI !!!
Uss ROS ne meri waat laga di !
:)
nope,sorry dont have the ad..site's blocked..omantelecom ko dosh do...
:(
sharad ke site pe zaroor rahega...lotsa buckets and an empty pump...with the coca-cola logo emblazoned on the wall behind..(referred to the alleged coke-using-groundwater controversy in kerala)
:)

Raj said...

What you've written here is very true. Once you get to know a blogger well, the way you interpret a post changes completely :)

virdi said...

Chillax Junta... Saalon, woh mere se dooor chala gaya there was no one whom I could shout at, so sent this crap... Kini tu itni dooor kyun chl gaya??? :-(

Ori Abba... Ori Amma... Junta got senti... And when did I say I talk sense???

Jade... Thrrrbbbbrrrttt!! If I knew you would say this, I would have never offered you my Bhel Poori... Hmmmph!!!

Vikram... Mere yaar dil se milale dil... Just chill chill... Just chill...

Tinku... Oh teri... B*** di takki...

V..

Anonymous said...

//Tinku... Oh teri... B*** di takki...

@virdee - why did you edit bhen instead of takki? =))

Tinku

Sayesha said...

#Oxymoron,
Haven't seen it. Google videos mein bhi nahin hai :(

#Eclectic,
Hahahaha! Maybe the cookie knows something about you that you haven't yet discovered... :D

Khair, have a blissful life with your husband :)

#Ritz,
Oye I nicknamed you Kinnu, ROS didn't! Kuch annoying nicks ka credit idhar bhi diya kar yaar! :|

I can't access Sharad's site on my Mac, but I know the pic you're talking about. ROS sent it to me some time ago, along with the 'Just Do It!' one :)

#Raj,
Yeah... I guess you too read my posts differently from when you'd first stepped on to Sayeshaz? :)

#Virdi,
Ufff... tera aur Kini ka pyaar dekhkar meri ankhen bhar aayi... tum dono ki jodi salaamat rahe...

And you offered Jade bhelpuri??? Where's my PANI PURI???? :(

Aur ab tu Viks se dil milaane ki soch raha hai? Kini ka kya hoga ab??? :O

#Tinku (and Virdi),
Dekho tum dono mere sabra ka imtihaan mat lo... zordaar bhadakne wali hai Sayesha... uske bar mein gotta watch your language. :/

Anonymous said...

Saary baas!

Tinku

Shobana said...

@ sayesha- his bhel puri was totally not worth sharing. instead he started stealing my samosa chat! come to mumbai and i'll treat u with the best, eye-watering, mouth-watering pani puri:)

Anonymous said...

the pic is just, just fabulous :)

Bonatellis said...

errr, that last one was mine ... dunno how it became anonymous !!

Anonymous said...

I'm not Sheila. In ozzie slang, a girl/woman is called Sheila. So I was referring to you, Sheila.

Sayesha said...

#Tinku,
Chal tu bhi kya yaad karega, maaf kiya! :)
ps: Achha, a friend and I were discussing your age (yeah yeah don't say it. I discuss random things with my friends), and I said you're older than me, he said you're younger. Clarify kar de?

#Jade,
Oh man!!! :P ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I LOVE panipuri! And I've heard amazing things about Mumbai's PP. Aana toh padega! :P

#Bonatellis,
Wow, long time no see! :)
ps: Don't worry abt the anon thingie, blog bhoot at work. :D

#Anon,
Whoops! Sorry!
One missing comma can cause quite a misunderstanding, eh? :P

Deepa said...

Man that was a way to good ...speak up ,coz i completely agree with the fact that ..."The best to me may seem the worst to you" but yet the both of us are best of friends,with similar likes and dislikes .

Anonymous said...

You win, Im a few months older than you. 26 yrs 34 days to be precise.

what is your friends age,name,adress,phone-no..give me give me :p

Tinku

Anonymous said...

Just noticed, your friend is a he.
I'm straight like Tendulkar's straight drive. Chhad phone number wagerah :))

Tinku

Sayesha said...

#Deepa,
Thanks! :)

#Friend_who_said_Tinku's_younger_than_me,
Tinku's 26! Yipppeeeeeeeee!!! Yahoooo!!!!
Silly annoying victory dance

#Tinku,
Tuney bande ka number maanga, Sayesha ka nahin. Sayesha impressed hui. :)

ps: Belated happy birthday :)

Anonymous said...

//Tuney bande ka number maanga, Sayesha ka nahin. Sayesha impressed hui.

HAHAHA! Confusion ho gayi thi.
Waise maine tera number isliye nahin manga kyunki mujhe pata hai mere dil aa jayega tujh pe. Pyar ho jayega mujhe ek baar fir. Fir main tere ko roz roz phone kiya karunga kai ghante. Gf chhod ke chali jayegi, job ki waat lagegi, phone bill mein puri salary chale jayegi. Sadak pe aa jaunga! =))

ps: Thanks for the birthday wish :)

Tinku

Sayesha said...

#Tinku,
Hahahaha! Pyaar ho jayega it seems! Pata hai, you should give your gf this URL, so she can see your asli roop, and how you ask me for guys' contact details man! :D

Achha, aur ek clarification. Tera asli naam 'S' se shuru hota hai kya? (This is another friend's hypothesis which I gotta test. And yes, as you must have guessed by now, we do a LOT of speculation about blog readers who choose 'Others' when they comment.)

Kyun? Darr gaya? Hahaha! Mere jasoos tere chaaro taraf phailay hue hain! Muahaha! :D

Anonymous said...

//Pata hai, you should give your gf this URL, so she can see your asli roop, and how you ask me for guys' contact details man!

She calls me a gay anyway! She'll be easy with it. =))

//Tera asli naam 'S' se shuru hota hai kya?

Nahin nahin nahin! V se ... bole to Vinay. Tinku is my nickname. Btw 'Others' wala kya funda hai?

ps: public kahan bhaag gayi? why are people not commenting? Kal shaam se sirf main aur tu hi baat kar rahe hain. =))

Tinku

Anonymous said...

best thing about sayeshaz for me despite the fact that you say you may not connect with everyone with every post all of the time, has been the fact that i've been able to relate to most of your posts in such a scary way that i almost always leave your blog with a sense of 'knowing' i.e. yeh toh mein kal soch rahi thi, aur aaj sayesha ne likh daala.

In the beginning I always used to wonder ke ek ek detail joh aap likhti hain, humein lagta tha ke humaare dimaag mein aap bhoot bann kar (yah phir 'angel' bann kar :p) kahin ghoomti hongi

Lekin phir dheere dheere jaise aap ke post pardti gayi padti gayi, humein khushi hone lagi, ke humaare bahaar bhi ek aisi jagaah hai, jahaan hum khudse milsakte hain :). Acha lagaa.

Aur abh toh aap ki itni aadat padgayi hai, ke jabh bhi yahaan aati hoon apne aap se milne, aapki baaton se guftagoo karke hum khush hote hain. Ajeeb sa sukkuun hai.

The best thing sayesha bout you is:

(no - it's not the fact that I think you're a striking personality-duplicate of me or vice-versa for that matter!!)

Despite the way you make me feel about the 'similarity' of our thoughts, I know that you are SO SO unique. To be unique and yet so common - is an amazing attribute.

JAI JHARKAND!!

p.s. sorry for the post-length comment. :)

Anonymous said...

imperfection is actually good, makes you realise how insignificant you are in the whole scheme of the universe.

Anonymous said...

Wah kya shayrana naam hai!

@Agli_baar_milna_zaroor,
Batake tumne sayesha ko apni aankhon ka noor
Kar diya hai usse magroor
Ab itna bhi mat chadao usse ki vo ho jaye khajoor
Lagta hai tere shayrana naam ka mujh pe bhi ho gaya saroor
Iss'se pehle ki Sayesha aa ke kahe ho ja meri nazron se door
hum khud hi chale jate hain huzoor

=))

Tinku

Anonymous said...

hahahahahhahahahahahaha!!! What poetry!! Loved it!!!

Naam toh tinku hai aapka, lekin yeh shaayeraane andaaz mein jawaab likhaa kamaal kamaal ka!!

Tarun said...

Do imperfect comments make the perfect post imperfect?
I think I defer to u when u say,"The imperfect perfect post, just like the perfect ad, would be the one that although describing the writer's own thoughts, appears to have been written for everyone."
It doesn't appears to have written for everyone in fact it is written by keeping each type of individual in mind.
Simplicity in writing rules.

Kaala Kavva said...

once there was this kutta
he was wagging his tail
and every1 else thought he was wagging for the sake of wagging but I knew that he was talking to me and telling me
"aye hero.. ek biskut de na!"

Sayesha said...

#Tinku,
Arre itna achha naam Vinay hai, then why do you use your baby-name? No wonder my friend thought you're 23! :D

//public kahan bhaag gayi? why are people not commenting? Kal shaam se sirf main aur tu hi baat kar rahe hain.

Kyun re? Tujhe problem hai apun se baat karne mein?? :/

#Agli baar,
Though I'm kinda flattered by your comment, and glad that you find something to take home from my posts, but I'm sure we're not duplicates of each other. There must be something unique about you that I don't have and vice versa. I believe that just like two cups of tea, no two people can be exactly alike :)

ps: Aapke sheher phir se jaane ka reason miley toh milenge. :)

#Anat,
Hmmm... that's a very interesting point :)

#Tinku,
That was awesome! You rock! Sayesha gives you a standing ovation! :)

Yahan se jaane ka naam bhi mat le, oye khajoor!
Sayesha ko gussa dilayega, toh ho jayega choor choor!


#Tarun,
My point is that we do not write posts keeping readers in mind. Perfect posts are not planned to make everyone identify with it. They just happen to do so. That's why I used the term 'appears to be'. :)

//Simplicity in writing rules.

Couldn't agree more there! :)

#Ze Ex,
First of all, one chapaat to you for disappearing from my blog. I know I disappeared from yours too, but I'm heartless at home yaar! No Dell! :( Can't blog-browse at work! :(

//he was wagging for the sake of wagging

Hahahaha! Aisa bhi hota hai kya??? :D

Kathy said...

...you write ,we read and together we make some posts perfect.
That's the perfect combination coz how can we say our post is perfect if no one is reading it?"Perfect" is sometimes just like a complimenting word we use when writer post something cool and fits our taste but definitely it doesn't exist anywhere..

"Only LOVE can make everything PERFECT"!
Have a happy weekend kawaii...

love,
-kathy-

R said...

together we make some posts perfect.

Yes. Perfection is what our minds say, think, react, based on our perceptions. Very true.


Connection established.
FUNNY! Creepy! Coincidence!! :P


Have you heard Little by little by Oasis? Some words in the song say.. True Perfection has to be Imperfect...

Pujya said...

where are u??no updates?
everything ok with u|??

Siddhu said...

Sharad Haksar! Did u know that for one of his other photos, Coke sued him? And had to retract and say sorry.

Siddhu said...

Coke had to retract, not Haksar

Kaala Kavva said...

CS se maafi kee umeed rakhta hu..

aur haan aisa hota hai!
im tellin u ! it spoke to me!
it really did!

arre! why doesn't this world believe me!!!
it did!!!!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Tarun said...

All bloggers are not writers.It is hard for bloggers who are amateurs to write there post by keeping in mind people who visit a blog.It is not the most easiest thing to do.

Sayesha said...

#Kathy,
I do believe that a post can be perfect even if no one reads it, but that's one whole big discussion :) You have a good weekend too! :)

#Rohit,
Aha! Someone's back! :)
ps: Nope, haven't heard the song. Will look for it.

#Aethyr,
Hey! Everything's okay, don't worry :)
My comp just came back from Dell. Had been crazily busy at work this week, next week's gonna be worse :(

#Siddhu,
Yeah I saw the coke ad in question :)

//Coke had to retract, not Haksar

Hahahahaha! :D

#Ze Ex,
Theek hai baba I believe you! Kutte ne ki baat tujhse! Khush? :)

Sayesha said...

#Tarun,
Arre I never said anything about bloggers having to write posts for readers. One always blogs for oneself. The bonus is when someone else identifies with it.

Anonymous said...

//Arre itna achha naam Vinay hai, then why do you use your baby-name?

Im known as Tinku to my friends and family. Vinay is for teachers and now colleagues.

//No wonder my friend thought you're 23!

Hahaha!

Tinku

Sayesha said...

#Tarun,
:)

#Tinku,
:)

ps: Yes, I'm in a very smiley mood today! :P