For what started off as a very nice thread by Mr. Bhaskar I am sorry to see it has veered into a personal agenda battlefield. In my own way, I tried joining in on the chorus for reconciliation, but
Peace? After surrendering to goondas? Shows the mentality and the cowardice with which some are born and will die. Kick me out of the forum, but don't expect cowardice from me. I have not taken shit from powerful folks here when I did not have anything, I am not about to start now.
Attack- in this specific context? Has anyone pointed to anything real other than making an accusation that they were attacked? Someone posted a link to a thread as if that was somehow the smoking gun. Did anyone see anything specific there, or are we so brain-dead that someone shows a flag at a distance and we just start shooting instantly and emotionally? I simply asked a person to refrain from PMing me and subsequently ignored their PMs; and that justified what followed?
Attack- for six months, I followed discussions anonymously and signed in only when I could not get access otherwise. Most of the times what I observed were folks trying to win arguments by saying that they were so trained in sur and taal that they knew best. To my mind, this is intellectually dishonest and I am sorry I let it out in sarcasm. For some who might never believe it, I loved Hema but felt disdain for HOW he was being promoted. Ditto for Vinit, though I found an appealing innocence in some of the simpler "reasoning" that went with folks supporting him. For me, the ends don't justify the means- if we want to make money, that does not mean we steal in order to do so. If I otherwise liked Vinit or Hema, it was not necessary that I would like the means adopted to promote them. In fact, I switched off from them for this very reason.
Politics? We follow certain people so blindly that we align ourselves with them just on the basis of the camp they belong to, not for the ideas they represent; later we wonder what went wrong;
Devotion? If someone was really a Goddess, fine. But we are all lesser beings; surely blind unswerving unquestioning devotion in that case is no different from the folks who get recruited every day to carry out jihads?
Friendship? With people who abuse, or with others who feel happy they have black-metal-booted goons to carry out their attack, the very filth that exists in every society? Remember, we are known by the company we keep; Someone starts 20 posts conducting polls and handing out awards and we are so desperate for that "virtual-wacko-web" friendship that we throw ideas and intellectual honesty to the winds as also the opportunity to grow that comes from being challenged?
Choices? For better or worse, we are born into the family we have. But friends? We do have choices. Speaking for myself, I would rather make friends with those from whom I can learn and those whose values I can really vouch for rather than folks who can dissemble behind fake IDs and character.
Defend- these are the kind of people we choose to defend and who we are so desperate to have around? Says a lot about our own values.
Character? Where is the character when we change our affiliations based on the latest mix of folks on our buddy list, when we gang-up in groups rather than lead with ideas, when we follow people so blindly that we do not realize we have been led astray to solve someone's personal problems. I could also point to the character that it takes to build personal and professional success on the basis of hard work and ethical fair-play but that would be waving a red flag at some folks;
My address? Look it up- Amrita Shergill Marg, New Delhi; I would rather keep some of you away from my U.S. address for reasons you can understand.
Cowardice? Less said the better. But strength in recruiting people who choose to hide behind new IDs? Some folks actually have an entire army to defend them, but they choose to go the high road of thinking the pen is mightier than the sword;
Will respond to the inevitable backlash as and when I deem fit.