Musings of the Restless, Maverick and Quirky bloggers
When you look around the blogosphere, it seems everyone wants to have a distinction, even if it is to be quirky. In fact quirkiness is supposed to add a “cool-ness” factor. So, we have all sorts of people now: Mavericks, Restless, Reluctant, Random, and all types of quirky titles. Of course, there are enough bloggers out there Ranting and Raving. In fact, ranting and raving has for a long time been synonymous with blogging itself. If you get the license to write in public, then it was obvious that you had to either diss someone or something or eulogize the heck out of it. Normal discussion was left to the drab PBS or Doordarshan – however classy they may seem (PBS actually is!).
There is a Restless Housewife who has an interesting introduction for herself, and there is a Restless Mind (who of course is one of the contributors at Drishtikone) – and she obviously isn’t alone as she has company with another Restless mind – a male one this time! There is even a Photographer who is Restless.
39 year old freelance Graphic Designer, WAHM; former “bad-girl”/wild-child, born-again “good-girl”/homebody; a fun-loving goof-ball touched by darkness; chronically overly-sensitive; obsessive-compulsive; avid reader of raw, uncensored memoirs reflecting personal struggle and general dysfunction; health-conscious freak not always conscious; former evader and procrastinator; struggling daily with those and other old, bad habits; open-minded; politically and socially liberal, but personally modest and conservative; painfully passionate, sometimes tortured; spiritual but not religious; unapologetic reality TV & celebrity gossip junkie; an Indian-born, Midwest-raised, no longer confused “desi”; late-bloomer; a Fine Arts graduated, retired math geek; a distracted perfectionist; a complicated, self-proclaimed walking contradiction; self-deprecating yet self-assured; reformed; recovering; survivor; a loving and affectionate misfit; hopeful and hopeless romantic; dreamer and entrepreneur; a work in progress; a restless, but ridiculously happy housewife and extremely grateful and proud mother. (Introduction for the Restless Housewife)
While this crowd is restless, there is another bunch which is “Maverick”. One of these is not just a normal maverick, she actually happens to be a “misfit” as well. Another guy is not completely a Maverick – just that his mind is Maverick. There is an Indian blogger who actually believes that he is a “Maverick Indian“. One of my professors had once said – Whatever is true of India, the exact opposite is equally true! If that is correct, which it mostly is, then the word “Maverick” loses its meaning in India.
While there are those who want to sound and look careless or living in the fringe, there are those others who want to be taken as thoughtful – so they are a musing. Like our star contributor Purba, whose musings rock. Musing actually means:
1. Be absorbed in thought.
2. Say to oneself in a thoughtful manner.
In some semantics, it can go further than just that.. and even become “to think or meditate in silence, as on some subject”. Given Purba’s popularity and consistent high quality writing, she sure is meditating well!
Someone is musing on businesses, while a lady is happy musing in Twilight – admittedly, a great time for meditating one presumes.
What is it about blogging and the social world, that people do not want to come off as “normal”. Is normal boring? Does the name help one get a Halo of being different? Honestly, no matter how one tries to be different, I have yet to find more than a handful of blogs who write something that truly makes me go to their blogs.
I am an obvious and die-hard fan of Atanu Dey who writes on Deeshaa. I think he writes well and has something totally different to offer in terms of point of view. In the cacophony of rants and raves and not so meditative musings of restless and not-so-restless mavericks, Atanu has been my consistent favorite as he stands out with something intelligent to say. For the type of writing he does, its amazing that he is so prolific as well! As I often say, I want to write like Atanu when I grow up!
The other one from the Indian crowd I like to viist is Amit Agarwal’s Digital Inspiration. He gives something that no one gives in the technology arena. And he writes seriously and is on the money all the time.
Other than that, I don’t really make much of an attempt to visit other blogs – specially from the Indian blogosphere.
While we have tried our best to make Drishtikone as a value add blog always, one is never sure what it means to others. The effort is to say something that is not said elsewhere – at least from the way things are looked at. In other words, to put a point of view across that is not “run of the mill”. But then that is no different from the other quirky bloggers .. aint it?
For all we know, we may be another Restless, musings, Maverick wannabe! Big Deal!!