My Anthem

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Blogospheric Mini-quake

BONUS POST

Desi has just visited my sifu's Screenshots just now, and following is exerpted something going on -- I label it a mini-quake in blogsophere --in the largest democrazy in the world -- INDIA.

So from JeffOoi the initial paras:

"***Posted October 12, 2005
Blogger and IBM India
This is very unfortunate for Freedom of Speech in the largest democracy on earth!

Gaurav Sabnis, an Indian blogger, had to resign from his job at IBM after linking to and praising an article criticizing an educational institute, named the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM).

Because that controversial institute happens to be an IBM client!

Gaurav was sent an email by IIPM to remove any posts that questioned the claims of the institute. To defend his position, Gaurav resigned from IBM.

However, Gaurav put it on record that he had resigned on his own accord because of "some really bizarre threats that were apparently made by IIPM to IBM".

IIPM attracted the attention of the online community when it bought a series of huge advertisements in the newspapers -- definitely not a norm in resource-strapped India -- about "how wonderful they are, and how their students get to go to the sun and moon for final placements".

Well-knowned blogger, Rashmi Bansal of Youth Curry, was one of the driving forces behind the JAM magazine that exposed IIPM's corporate ethics. She first pointed to the article JAM had written about IIPM, which answered a lot of questions but finally boiled down to one person, Aarindam Chaudhuri, or AC, whose background/ credentials are extremely suspect.

Not surprisingly, the mainstream media ignored the issue completely. "Nobody bites the hand that buys adspace, says Neha.

Now, what we heard was that even Rashmi was at the receiving end of malicious anonymous comments.

Many blogs, including Sambhar Mafia and Desi Pundit, have been following the developments closely. A lot of Indian blogs have been rallying behind Gaurav to lend him support. ***"

DESI acknowledges with THANKS plus a TehTarik Jeff's update on a very "eye-opening" issue and I wish to alert that fellow BLOGGERS do spend some time at JeffOoi's Place to follow the full story as there is an IMPORTANT LESSON for all of us -- especially those who are employees at any organisation, big or small.
Don't flame the goings-on at the workplace -- it's a no-no when it comes to naming NAMA -- because one never knows who's the "Devil-in-Disguise" (consult Elvis Presley if you have the means...)sitting in thy midst. So make it a cardinal rule, use Wordplay :)only -- Foreplay, Midplay or Postplay, to get thy message across, as long as it's better than PCK's pray=pray!:(
Blogging indeed has its own perils -- as the Indian scene shows, which is not too different from the Malaysain scene reAlly, as we both were British colonised, and BIG BUSINESS there and here are common, in reach and bi(y)te.
So THINK HARD. THINK SMART, then say an "I.S.A." before you press that PUBLISH icon. I don't wish to see any fellow Malaysian Blogger suffer a fate similar, or even nigh, to Gaurav's.

PS: GOoDDay to all my EsteemedReaders, especially to fellow (M)/fella(F) Bloggers BIG or small.
Can anyone translate "Desi Pundit"from Tamil (?) into English or Bahasa Malaysia for me?

9 comments:

Kaps said...

This is the meaning of Desi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desi

Kaps

http://sambharmafia.blogspot.com

chong y l said...

DESIDEREATA: To Mr/Ms Curiosity of Catsville

I moused on sambharmafia which led me to, yeah:)! Maaf, ia ano1 CUT&Paste!

DesiPundit
The Best of the Indian Blogosphere

About DesiPundit
This blog is set up to be the one-stop shop for the best that Indian blogosphere has to offer. We have seen blogs rise to almost qualify as a potent voice in the Indian media. However, bloggers in India haven’t got the kind of recognition (brickbats included) that their counterparts in America, Europe, or even Iran seem to have got. India has a wide diaspora audience and participating bloggers too, but the voices are too scattered. Although there are some excellent writers out there, they are frustrated by lack of readers. Everyone claims to write for sheer joy of penning their thoughts but most do not admit that they get a kick when the number of their readers increases. DesiPundit will seek to fill that void and host only external links. Yup, you are right, something like a Desi Instapundit; hence the name, Sherlock.

All you have to do to feature here is to be an Indian blogger - resident of India or not, or simply write about India. Of course, decent writing skills are expected. I will love to feature personal posts too, as long as they have a generic appeal and do not just talk about what you had for dinner. Feel free to send us tips at desipundit [at] desipundit [dot] com. We are a team of bloggers, each with our own personal blogs and specialize in individual areas of the blogosphere on DesiPundit. We scrounge around looking for fine pieces of writing, news, or even reasonable rants. DesiPundit is being currently powered by:

Patrix (DesiPundit) (politics, current affairs, society and culture, and others)
Ash (personal posts and travelogues)
Kaps (Business and Economics)
Vulturo (Technology, Internet, and Web-related stuff)
Vikram (Sports)
Debashish & Anup (Indic/Hindi)
Neha (lifestyle. movies, and desi pop culture)
DesiPundit’s Objectives are as follows:
To raise awareness on blogs in India
To lend a credible voice to Indian bloggers in the mainstream media
To provide online readers with a one-stop source of the best in Indian blogosphere
To help new bloggers with a wider audience
To support other group blogs and blog initiatives like Blog Mela, Asia Pundit, India Blogstreet, The Indian Bloggers Index, Kamat Weblogs, etc.
Be a leisurely read for a lazy Sunday morning for the week’s happenings in the desi blogosphere
DesiPundit believes the blogosphere to be an ideal forum for voicing personal opinion and we support free speech completely. The contributors are free to voice their personal opinions on the posts they link to and their words remain exactly that - their personal opinion. We may not necessarily share the opinions of the posts we link to. But above all, we support to death the individual’s right to pen down their thoughts.

Enjoy DesiPundit!

chong y l said...

PS: I've learned a lt about DesiPundit.

But can some1 tell me the "real meaning" of desi cum pundit?
It sounds somewhat eROTIC -- coming from the Land that gave the world wat? 'Kami Suka Asmara?':)

neha vish said...

Desi = Anything South Asian Really
Pundit = Expert

DesiPundit = The insider on South Asian affairs. In this case by eating more blogs than possible. :)

Anonymous said...

What's Desi Pundit then?

Hehe. Heard of pundit before but not sure what's it. :P

chong y l said...

neha vish:

Thanks a lot,
now I get the idea.

TehTarik to thee, weherever you are!:)

If thou art in KL/Seremban, give me a call, will buy thee a Nasi Lemak, then one more TehLimauIced, kurang-manis!

Do visit again, eh!

chong y l said...

kyels:

we now know "Desi" is Xplained by Neha Vish, my guess is Tamil word origin(?);
"Pundit" as Expert is then from ordinary English meAning.

See, we are all leArning everyday!

Kyels -- the curfew hours of 2400hrs apply to Uni students only (my sunny boy at 1st year LEN 2!):)

Desi -- I roam the streets until the breAk of dawn keeping Miss mOOn company!:)

neha vish said...

Desi - Comes from the Hindi/ North Indian word - Desh which means country. Desi - One who belongs to the Country. Since the word is typically used in India.. Desi has come to mean Indian.

Pundit - Incidentally is not an English world. It basically in Sanskrit/ Hindi/ A few other languages means Brahmin. Over time it has come to mean someone very knowledgable. The word entered the English lexicon pretty recently.

:)

chong y l said...

neha vish:

our paths must have crossed as I just visited your Blog, and sent thee an Email since I did not seee any Comment facility.

Thanks for thy Quick follow-up Xplanation -- so, Kyels, resident TTarik standby server -- pleAse extend another TehTarik maybe tinged with Ha-Lia! for Neha Vish all the way from the UK!:):):)

Terima kasih/THANKS (se7en times).