Twitter vs Blogging

ok..FYI, I am not absessed with Twitter.

Twitter is quick: And that’s why its called micro-blogging. Contrast this with writing a long post. I'm not saying posting is better than tweeting. But tweeting is quicker than posting. There's just a "send" button and no "publish" button. You get what I mean.Twitter is always on: Thanks mainly to my mobile phone, which is always on and with me wherever I go. I've not tried writing a blog post on my cell phone and I won't. Its too tedious.

Twitter is an ego trip: See the words "follow", "follower" and "following". And then the words "post", "comment". 50 comments on your blog-post or 50 new followers in a few days? Go figure. Its less about WHO is following you but more about HOW MANY.

Twitter is everywhere: Turn your TV on, go to CNN or BBC or even NDTV off-late. Every news-personality from Anderson Cooper to Larry King to Sanjay Gupta to Richard Quest to Nik Gowing to Vir Sanghvi to Barkha Dutt to Sardesai..all are there. And these people don’t just tweet about What they had for breakfast but also their opinion on various issues, feedback or just informative chatting with the junta following them. Its just going to get big. Blogging in that sense is not that interactive, its not real-time, Twitter is.

Twitter is voyeuristic: I just have to know what you're doing OR just have to tell you what I am doing. Digging your nose, sitting on a bus, having a miserable day, angry, happy, joy, sad. What is about our mundane lives that makes others more excited than us? Who knows. But go write a blog post that talks about what you did from morning to night. And then write 10 tweets over 10 hours. Do it & then tell me.

Twitter is a conversation: A blog post is a monologue, I am talking to myself and then followed by some more monologues in the form of comments.Twitter is a pure conversation. It happens by the minute and there is no waiting for a response. I've had long tweet debates over F1, music, films, terrorism, Conan Brian, nail-clippers, etcetera. It's the closest one can get to a real life conversation.

Twitter is about useless and sometimes useful things to share: From digging your nose on a toilet seat TO asking questions to Vikram Chandra, real-time while he hosts The Big Fight, Twitter does it all. From a one line movie review to sharing an informative link to just give an opinion to complete strangers or Shashi Tharoor, etc..alls possible on Twitter. Not on a blog post.

I don't know whether I like sharing or I just get a kick out of people staring at my life. Its addictive & fun.It's not that I'm obsessed with Twitter or that I'm bored with blogging. It's just that off-late whatever I've been thinking/doing has been expressed better in a few seconds and in a few words. Here you have to shrink everything in just few words. All your emotions, your feelings, that boring life of yours, everything. Am not saying Twitter is better than a blog-post cos’ there is a joy in writing a blog that no 140 character Tweet can replace. If Twitter shrinks your words, it shrinks your span of attention too. I will always love to blog. Personally, I don’t have most of my facebook friends on Twitter but its just the addictive fun..satisfaction I get by tweeting.

I write this on a very early Sunday morning..some might call it a very late Saturday night too. It dark outside though.

I like home. In fact I love home. And its not that I don’t like travelling. Many a times, on certain days depending on how my day is going/how my day was, I tend to travel places accordingly. Since I drive to office on my bike, I wander to many places from home to office. Sometimes its via the magnificent Machu Picchu..of course Che Guevara gives me company. Sometimes its via the sunny Spain or just yesterday..I came via the streets of Istanbul. Quite a few times I’ve also taken the Antarctica to Venice. Its simply amazing.

I take bumper to bumper traffic everyday and believe me, swimming at Baga or Bondi everyday is way better than paying attention to the honking around you. And the best time is when I wait at traffic signals. Just the other day, Linkin Park gave me a live performance in a Tibet Ashram with the Dalai Lama putting in some requests too!

I am not some kind of a ‘stay at home’ kinds. But its just ‘where to go’ issue that bother me, almost every year. The problem lies in the selection of a place to visit. I thought of Switzerland, but Mr.Advani’s comments on the Swiss bank accounts controversy has made that place a bit unfriendly! Then I thought of London but hey, who wants to go to a place which is more Indian than India itself..which has chicken tikka as its national dish and whose chefs cook more Indian food then consumed in India!

France (for wine) & Scotland (for scotch) were next line but then again..nearer home, Nasik & local bootlegger, respectively are an answer. And at a much much cheaper price. I almost finalized Greenland until I came to know that the natives there eat whale meat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and in betweens..! Malaysia, Thailand & Indonesia were on radar too but even Mr.Galgotia has been there and besides there is no point going to a place everyone knows about and about which you cant even talk about. Also, Thailand, I hear is going thru some real bad times..politically. Mexico? Hong Kong? Swine flu. Dubai is even worse in day-time temperatures. Srilanka..well don’t know who might greet me there on the airport- regular people or LTTE..am not going there dude.

With IPL going on in South Africa, I might just bump into a friend whom I’ve been ignoring for long. Half of India is there. And with films like Da Vinci Code & Lord of the Rings..Paris & New Zealand have already been covered by me..very very thoroughly. Australia..have you seen the recent movie by the same name? One would start hating the country after watching the movie. Just like I did. USA? Tell me what would I do if United Airlines files for bankruptcy while I am in mid-air?

Pakistan? Afghanistan? Iraq? These places might be a good idea cos the pictures that I click at these places would be a collector’s item in a few years..who knows I might just become a millionaire then, just auctioning those photographs. PHEW..!!!

Finally, I decided to stay at home..call up friends..have a great time just hanging out together..eating mom-cooked delicacies and learn some cooking myself. Or maybe a visit to Bombay during one of those weekends.

..Randoms..

Sunday..a day with many colours, atleast in my life. 2yrs back, same Sundays would be boring because:
Saturday used to be a chutti too, making Sunday boring, weirdly for me. But then that was some time yaar. My friends would say, “Pankaj, you’ve the world’s best job. Media, Five day working and Two days ash”. Today, its six days working and some or the other ‘official’ work on Sundays too, sometimes. I was so afraid of becoming a workaholic and aaj I am one..n believe me its not my choice, but the times are such. I am writing this in February 2009, when the so called Global recession was/is at its peak and at its peaker in the organisation I work/worked with. Its gloom all around. Everybody I talk to is either directly affected* by it OR knows someone who has been affected by it OR is afraid that it might affect him/her. And the sad part is that it is also the case with people they know or speak to!
*laid-off/lay-off


2009, they say is going to be a bad year for the world. Each passing day in O-nine is a blessing. The other day I was reading the newspaper and I remember clearly, there were 16 different news items on the same page. 9 of them were about employees being laid off, 3 were about companies posting huge losses, 2 were about companies planning to lay-off their employees. I didn’t bother to read the other 2.
रामजी करो बेडा पार ..is what I've been singing these days..!

Last one week I had were full of depression, literally. I’d never been this negative and some people tell it doesn’t suit me too. That is so true. I hate myself like that. I had become cranky, moody and everything but a smiley. So now here I am, writing this, without giving a damn about the recession shitpot thingie! *touchwood* ;)

Dev-D, that’s one movie that forced me to come out any gloomy mood. I loved the movie, although I watched it on insistence. Especially if you get into the movie-hall after 2 pegs, DEV-D WILL BE A DIFFERENT MOVIE ALTOGETHER – TRUST ME. Its soundtrack, the lyrics, all have so much meaning. You should hear the uncensored version of Emosional Atyaachar. One cant help but love it after an initial shock!

The other day I got up and suddenly it struck me that I had to go to/have work :
@ i got a call from my brother’s school principle..oops..principal, asking me to come and meet her.
@ my insurance agent is/was after me like a stalker.
@ the credit card guys were another group of stalkers.
@ the pension office
@ the RTO for my driving licence
@ the bank
@ my office was always there over my head.

Nothing new, everybody goes thru days like these but I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself to do all the work @ the same time, which in the end, remain unfinished, most of them.

The principal wanted to meet me cos, my brother is the Discipline Incharge of the school and apparently he got ‘less’ marks in the mid-terms. She said “Look Mr.Pankaj, there are two kinds of materials, Good & Bad. Bad material deserves a waste-basket and so it is always thrown there. Good material deserves applause and encouragement. Sarthak (my brother) is the third kind , definitely not the bad kinds, but a good kind going towards the waste-basket! His guitar playing skills are good and we all encourage him but it’d be better if its kept as a hobby, atleast for the time being.”
I was confused whether to be proud of him or otherwise. The way I see the world today, I always want him to get into something hatke. Although I’ve taken the Princi’s advice seriously.

They say first six months of a ‘being in love’ / relationship are always wonderful and beautiful and that every occasion: Her birthday, His birthday & Valentine’s day should all come in the first six months, cos then in the next year it all becomes ‘by the way’ kinds. Lets see!

I’ve been experiencing so many changes in my life these days. Achanak se, two close friends are hooked up in marriage, one has moved abroad, my job is nerve-wrecking. Not getting to drink even occasionally. She doesn’t live with me. They don’t sell pirated DVDs anymore. Dhobi spoiling my trousers. Badminton has ceased to exist. Social networking sites seem boring now. The world has become an expensive place. Insomnia has got Insomnier. Crap all around.
See..am getting towards the negatives again. STOP! But except the dhobi thing, everything else will be back again / better again. AM SURE ABOUT IT.

One thing that has always kept me going temporarily are text messages. From my current phone, I’ve sent more than 30,000 @ an average of 50 texts a day. It gives my instant happiness sending texts, whether it’s a forward or a Hi.

…after two days’ break..

I saw myself in the mirror today and smiled…cold again…smiled again…noticed my hair…they are this long after a gap of 3yrs. Noticed my physique - couldn’t figure out whether its skinny or lean. I’d say lean though. My eyes - too cunning, she says. My nose – quite big, some say. My height – hmmm tall, all say. My toes – disfigured, I say.

During my graduation days, my friends used to tease me for a gay..Reason being I had quite a few gay friends. My current friends tease me for a bi-sexual. Reason being, during one drunken escapades, I allegedly ‘confessed’ of being one. The funny part is I dint/don’t have a problem being teased as any. Reason being, I know when my hormones get active and definitely not when I see a hot guy…I mean a guy. I am absolutely straight and not drunk right now.

Whoever meets my mum these days, be it old family friends OR extended familywallas OR parents of ‘my friends getting married’ .. . All they want to know is “When is Pankaj getting married?” Its like they are more tensed about my marriage than my mum is. And then my mum asks me the same Q. After trying out a lot of answers to that Q..after a lot of trial & error, I’ve come up with a master reply- “Why don’t you tell them ke Pankaj already has a boyfriend & a girlfriend and that he is taking his time in deciding..whether to go ahead with him or her...!”
Used it only once and I was never asked that Q again.

Joey – “JOEY DOESN’T SHARE FOOD!”
Ross - :O
Chandler – “Sharing under wears is okay…is it then…?”
Rachel – “naaaah..Joey doesn’t share underwear..Do you..Joeyyy..?”
Monica – “O my God..Joey, are you wearing two under wears right now…and is one of them pink..?”
Phoebe – “Joey..whose underwear did I give you this morning when you came asking for one..in a towel..!!!”

Friends – I cant live without them. The above one as well as the real ones I have.

Mistakes – I’ve made many of them. Learnt from a few but not from all. Personally & Professionally.
Apologies – I am so liberal in offering them.
Anger – huh..?
Crush – never had many.
Love – hmm..Lovely!

Dancing is something I love. Its not a visual delight though! I’ve been at receiving end of a lot of comments. One of the many I remember quite clearly is “Pankaj..u can be the world’s # 1..Baarat mein naachney wala dancer. You can dance only in a baraat.”
I agree though. Thank God am born in India!!!


Sing as if no one is listening
Dance as if no one is watching
Love as if you’ve never loved before
Live as if heaven is here on earth