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When
PatnaDaily started off, only a few brave souls
wrote in. Week after week, it was just this
small set of people writing back and forth. On
many occasions I exhorted and urged readers to
write in.
In the beginning there were a few people who
only wrote reactions - never an original
article. There were some mean-spirited ones -
who had one silver lining to their dark side -
they generated a lot of debate; and some
readers, who would otherwise not have written,
began to engage the mean-spirited ones in the
fencing match of logic and debate.
In the last six months, I have noticed that a
few more readers have started writing original
articles. The numbers of those who write
reactions only has also swelled. A few
statisticians and a few preacher-types have also
joined in, and it is all a welcome change.
I hope young minds of Bihar (I always include
Jharkhand, as I am from the pre-partition era)
are being constructively influenced by the
discussions in these columns. Discussions bring
in an appreciation of viewpoints and shape our
thinking and ultimately bring a change in
people's perceptions of us as a people.
When driving through the Hazaribagh National
Park as children, my brother and I used to peer
hard into the shade of the canopy hoping to see
a wild animal. We never did. But there were
boards along the way. One read, "Kunjon ke
vatayan se chup, utsuk aankhen rahi nihar"
(Curious eyes are looking from their concealed
positions in the jungle). Same is the case here.
A lot more than just people from Bihar (and that
is a staggering huge number) read the PD today.
They may not write, but believe me, they are
there, reading every word. I can say without
doubt that it is the "Reader's Write" section
that draws many in - just like the wildlife of
the jungle converge to drink at the watering
hole. PD has done a great service to the people
of Bihar by galvanizing the community together
in this section.
Apart from all that, another good thing has
happened. People are not taking offense to
comments that may sound unkind, but are often
merely a counter-logic and not personally
directed at the writer. Kumod Jha's articles are
wonderful and I enjoy reading them. I have seen
him take some heat - and he did so gracefully.
Kaushal Das writes well too. His objections are
to views and are not personally directed at the
author. I hope more people write more about
things other than trying to uplift Bihar. The
effort to uplift Bihar has gone on for 5000
years and it should, no doubt, go on. It should,
however, not take up the entire bandwidth of the
'Readers Write' column.
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Comments: |
I
started reading Bihar-related news
from Bihar Times roughly around
1999, or a bit later. I do not
remember the exact year it had
started. In the morning, I would go
to my office and read the news
before my day began in earnest. I
had couple of Bihari friends whom I
kept up with online. The elder, a
doctor in Patna, and the younger
one, who is doing a Multi-Media
course in London nowadays, suggested
reading the Patna Daily as well.
Until they had both suggested it, I
had no idea it even existed.
I did not pay much attention in the
beginning. It is safe to say I was a
very casual peruser. This was likely
in 2002. Over time, I have become
more attached to the articles and
editorials available here. What had
begun as something of a matter of
respect to my friends has turned
into a daily part of my routine. It
was quite a while before I decided
to post even a comment in this
forum. It was almost at the end of
last year that I became somewhat of
a regular poster to the comments
section. The thought has crossed my
mind that I could write an article
intended for the "Readers Write"
section, and I have begun working on
it. I am neither a writer by nature
or even a student of literature, so
it has taken some time, but I feel
that it will be ready in a short
while now.
I am trying to be mindful of the
things that I think will enrich
Bihar, and also the fact that I no
longer live there myself. It seems a
little odd on some level, but I have
not severed my ties to my state
simply by virtue of physically
moving away. It is deeply important
to me to maintain ties not only to
my blood family, but to my brothers
and sisters in my home state. I
appreciate that, for the most part,
the articles posted (and the
subsequent comments) are respectful
and reasoned. I am looking forward
to the opportunity to share my
thoughts with you, and to initiate
dialogue among us all. - S. M.
Khurshid Anwar - Jan.14, 2006
Aarcee, thank you for your very good
article and for giving a detailed
account of PD "Reader's Write".
Thank you also for your kind word
for me.
I was a very casual reader of
PatnaDaily for quite some time. But
never paid too much attention to PD
"Reader's Write". Actually I was not
getting any positive news about
Bihar and plenty of negative news I
was already getting from Zee TV, TV
Asia and Samachar.com.
Honestly I became interested only
after Nitish Kumar came in power and
at least we could see some
opportunity to change. Politically I
had nothing against Laloo but same
Government , Same people, same
problem same argument things were
too much monotonous.
But when I did started reading PD
"Reader's Write", I was really
thrilled. I gone back and read
several of old article including
many of your article . You are a
great contributor to PD and so is Mr
Indra ji, Mr Rajesh Chaubey , Som
Vishwakarma and also Mr Vipin Singh
ji. Rajesh Sahu, Raghu Yadav and
Nidhi Singh are also old
contributors. In one of old articles
by Nidhi Singh I was thrilled and
stunned by analysis of Veda by her.
If she is same Nidhi Singh who
participated in recent reservation
debate I can tell you we are just
sharing our view and heart at a
given time and in our heart we all
are Biharis "Hardcore BIHARI". -
Kaushal Das - Jan.14, 2006 |
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