deponti

http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/author/31-deepa-mohan

I find that Metblogs has been quietly deleting some of my earlier articles, that were written with a lot of effort. VERY unethical.

I sometimes get most unwelcome comments on my Metblogs posts, but usually I let them stand. However, the Metblogs posting page had an "unpublish" option, which I have used once, when the debate became too acrimonious.

Metblogs does not pay me for posting; therefore, I think, I should have the right to delete posts if I so wish.

Recently, they changed their blog-entry page, and since I had received some offensive comment on another post, I went to delete it...and found I couldn't.

So I wrote to Metblogs asking what to do, and received this friendly reply (especially considering the fact that I have been one of the most regular contributors since I started with them)


"deleting/unpublishing/takingoffline etc is not
allowed, it's never been allowed and if you've done it before you were
breaking a very very very big rule. A rule we've gone to court over
and spent lots of money defending. Anyway, we removed the option from
the new system to prevent it entirely, so no it's not an option."

If this was a "very very very big rule" why was I never told of it? Why did the old page have an "unpublish" option that could be used by the blogger? If "it's never been allowed" why WAS it allowed?

Now you realize why my last post says, "mood: irritated"!

Metblogs was, in general, a good site, covering so many cities across the world. But they need to be more friendly to their writers if they want to retain them...I can see why so many have left!

I conducted my first two "celebrity" interviews....first, Lillette Dubey and then, yesterday evening, Girish Karnad .

Both of them are very articulate people, and having organized my questions well, I got quite a lot of info about them, for two articles....one, I thought would be a kind of "reminder" post for Metblogs, as I had put in an announcement of Karnad's new play, "The Wedding Album" (ha, that's not on the Net yet; when I googled the words, this is all I got!), which is being staged in Bangalore today and tomorrow.

But then, I decided that the article merited an appearance in a more "serious" forum, and today, Citizen Matters is running it as a curtain raiser, and I have provided a link to it on Metblogs,


here

It contains the link to the Citizen Matters article, too...only, for some reason, CM has used the word "screening" and not "staging" for a play!

I'll be going to see the play tomorrow....and I think I am going to enjoy it!


A more broad-based (don't ask, "which broad?") article, dealing with their thoughts on Bangalore and theatre in Bangalore, is in the process of being written...and will appear in Citizen Matters, too.







"http://www.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/269-wedding-album"

I am afraid that decades of life have not been able to take away my somewhat simplistic view of religions and co-existence...


http://bangalore.metblogs.com/2008/03/21/colours/

Would like your thoughts on this!

As part of the ongoing struggle to prevent our esteemed government from razing trees to make broader roads, four of us went down Kasturba Road, that abuts Cubbon Park, today. It was a wonderful walk in one sense, because starting from the Karunashraya at the corner,








( for some more pictures of Kasturba Road, click here )




Tomorrow we take our huntin'-shootin'-fishin' guest to Galibore, to show him a forest and a river where huntin', shootin' and fishin' (except for catch-and-release) are NOT permitted!

However, because of his interests, our guest is excellent at spotting birds...so he's going to be a great help in whatever photography KM and I do tomorrow!

Have a great Sunday, everyone...I love my life and I wish everyone were as happy as I am...

http://bangalore.metblogs.com/archives/2007/11/illegal_extension_of_parking_s.phtml

I am sure we can soon see gates which extend all the way up to the road, too!

Here:


http://bangalore.metblogs.com/archives/2007/11/excellent_logo.phtml


Beautifully done, wouldn't you agree?

http://bangalore.metblogs.com/archives/2007/11/the_pixetra_club.phtml


And a couple of images from the trip:






That was a view of the wooden planks leading to my cottage...




And while on the subject of "my cottage", here's the view of the Bhadra Dam catchment area that I had from there:






A lovely trip, though just for a day...

It's been a very rushed few days...here's what I attended on the 1st of November...


http://bangalore.metblogs.com/archives/2007/11/the_landmark_open_quizchowdiah.phtml


It was a fun evening....I do wish I had even an outside chance at one of these quizzes! But as I say, others' intellects flower, mine seems to cauliflower!

http://bangalore.metblogs.com/archives/2007/11/for_rajyotsava_day.phtml


I wish that we have more even, sustained development in our city and State...

http://bangalore.metblogs.com/archives/2007/10/the_ranga_shankara_theatre_fes.phtml


95% enjoyable,and the 5% is the unfriendly way they have organized the sales to the limited-audience plays at 10pm and 11pm...it is an illogical, user-unfriendly method.

We went visiting a few Puja pandals yesterday,and here are a couple of images on my Metblogs post:



http://bangalore.metblogs.com/archives/2007/10/happy_bijoya_vijayadashami.phtml



And here's a picture that has no religious overtones at all, but still speaks of festivity and happiness!





Loved the sight of them flapping in the rain-laden breeze...

http://bangalore.metblogs.com/archives/2007/10/sometimes_we_dont_maximise_eve.phtml

I think documents to do with driving should have the concerned person's blood group, and also have provision for a ICE no..(In Case of Emergency contact number)...I have written to the Regional Transport Authority and am waiting to see what would come of it....

http://bangalore.metblogs.com/archives/2007/10/another_landmark_which_may_not.phtml


Soon, like other landmarks (for example, Cash Pharmacy springs to mind...I used to buy medicines there ) this, too will be gone...sigh.

http://bangalore.metblogs.com/archives/2007/10/lovely_sketches_in_the_bbmp_of.phtml


I wonder how many more works of art languish like this in un-noticed areas....I always wonder about those works of art in the lobbies (or restrooms) of five-star hotels...how do the artists feel about it?