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There is a pigeon sitting on the tree thinking of tomorrow (But tomorrow never comes!!). The scary image of what is ahead makes it yearn for some source of solace. It looks around desperately, but is not able to find anything to comfort it. Then suddenly, it hears a loud noise from somewhere. Trying to locate the source, it sees a group of crows cawing. Left with no other option, the pigeon flies and sits on one of the branches of the tree where the “conference” is in progress. The following is the conversation going on between them:

Crow 1: Hey we are a gang! We need to go to Fruitland together definitely because it is not possible after May. We don’t even go to hunt for food together these days. We need to plan it out properly!

Crow2: But I have music classes this weekend and my professor demands me to come every day. (Note: The crow sings well and is awarded 9/10 after 4 years of tutelage).

Crow3: You can bunk one class for our sake. We have to go to the next tree atleast ya. (The next tree refers to Madras here). Please consider.

Crow 2 gets irritated as Crow 3 is a rowdy and is the “imposing” one and the discussion continues. In a while a raven ( “Andankakka”) lands on the tree and. Apparently the crows do not want it to know about their plans.

Raven: Hey do you know where I can free food? I am really hungry. (Food = gossip).

Crow3: (murmurs to itself) Why does she come now? Probably her counterpart is busy! Aarghh..

Crow1: If you want to know about free food you can go to Crow Jr. She is the info hq!

The raven departs at these words and these crows talk about how the raven intruded into their “gang’s” discussion. They decide to provoke her somehow by posing a question so that the raven doesn’t come there again. Meanwhile, the pigeon wonders why anyone would even bother associating themselves with the “gang”. When the raven returns the crows succeed in their “mission” (for what joy God knows!) and continue their monotone.
The pigeon is bored. The pigeon is sleepy... However, the pigeon has to sit on the same tree and listen to the cacophony till May of this year.

Moral : Empty Vessels make more noise...

Blogging and Freedom Of Expression

Expressing one’s thoughts and views was earlier restricted to the family or a set of few close friends unless the person was a public speaker with good credentials or a celebrity to whom people would bother to listen to. Envelopes were in vogue those days with information sealed and addressed to a particular sender. The exceptions were writers and journalists who knew what they were writing. All this was before the advent of the internet and before personal computers had much more to do than just personal things.

When Internet took over, e-mails replaced letters in the twinkling of an eye. Nowadays it is very rare to come across people who take effort to write long lengthy letters and post it. The new phenomenon of “blogging” has come to spread opinions and information at speeds and magnitudes which were unknown earlier. It has taken off as a low-cost (rather free) way for individuals to publish online. It is just enough to own a personal computer or a laptop connected to internet to make your voice heard!

That brings us back to the issue of “expressing one’s thoughts” – the freedom of expression which virtually has no limits whatsoever. When attempting to publish blogs, people tend to narrate experiences from daily life which may indirectly point fingers. As long as the sensitivities of the issue and feelings of the people referred to are taken into consideration, there will not be any controversies. There have been several discussions on whether the content of such blogs have to be regulated or not. I personally feel doing so would be denying the right to freedom of expression. Especially when blogs are viewpoints of the writer and are a means to showcase the writer’s passion, regulation of content would be discouraging.

Let bloggers blog! And in peace! We do not require any attention!!