I too have noticed that the 'Reader's Write' section, which used to be a 'watering hole' which all of us visit has started to dry up. All of us have to share in the blame on this.

Seeds only germinate in good soil if water and sunlight are plentiful. Similarly, good articles appear only on a forum that encourages its stalwart authors, and where the audience (readers) are supportive instead of being critical.

It is common knowledge that when a person takes the time to sit down and write an article, all he hopes to get in form of remuneration is the satisfaction of having helped the Bihari community. If NRI writers are attacked by NRB's and the NRB's attacked by locals and if a statement like, "the sky is blue" provokes someone to contend that people of certain community have stolen more blue than their fair share, then it ends up disheartening those who care to write. They feel that they would be better off putting their effort elsewhere where there is more appreciation. The forum's keepers have to be proactive in steering debate and support those who write in. Tomes of critical advice from any quarters discourage those who write for nothing more than the 'self actualization' - the highest rung on Maslow's theory of needs.

I am saddened to see that the Anil Kumars, Kumod Jhas and the many others whose names have begun to elude me, have become quiet. I wonder what they are thinking. I surely would like to hear their perspective - if they read this and, if they still care to write again. - Aarcee - Nov. 25, 2006

What provoked people to react can be seen from the archives of PD. They were topics which were best not debated at all. Articles with intellectual content drew no comments. Want to reactivate the forum? Start a caste debate, a religion debate, a debate over what a filthy country India is and comments will pour in from everywhere. We have done all that in the past, fired volleys at each other and nothing except bad blood was gained.

Perhaps we Indians have to learn to appreciate ourselves, our community, our country, our values and each other a bit more. Throw flowers of appreciation at each other sometimes, for a change. - Rajesh - Nov. 26, 2006

Although I am not a frequent writer of this forum, however, just wanted to add that sometimes topics are too 'elite' or 'elusive' for a common man to feel connected with and therefore write anything. However, I do agree with Mr. Rajesh, that we should come out from our 'prejudiced' mentality about 'our own' caste/sub-caste/religion and be more generous and appreciative in our expression. I do feel that frequency of articles written by Patna daily readers is declining recently. - Raj, MD, Detroit, MI, USA - Nov. 27, 2006

I have found two kinds of writers on PD. Participative writers and reactive writers. Participative writers want to participate by sharing views with the rest of the world by constructively using this wonderful, far-reaching forum provided by PD. I do not have to name such writers. Just gloss over the PD archives and you will find their names all over. They are the ones who write the original articles and welcome views, how so ever divergent. They react logically to the views of others. They are the main support pillars of the forum.

You will not find the names of the reactive writers when you scan through the archives. These people rarely, if ever, write anything original. They are the ones who indulge in illogical criticism as if trying to say "Don't show off. Your views are pathetic. See I can think better than you". A childish state of mind much like Mr. Been on the TV. Their expertise is in dragging people down. They try to become conspicuous by that route. This is apparent from the, at times, insulting, foul language used by them. As per the old adage "Choro ko sare nazar ate hain chor", in their state of mind they see the world populated with people like themselves and do not contribute any original articles as they fear criticism from the numerous enemies they have created.

In my view, this forum has had to suffer on account of reactive writers who contributed little and that little was poison and indifferent people who refused to appreciate. We have to weed out or ignore the illogical, insulting comments (easier said than done) of the reactive writers and appreciate the efforts of the participative writers.

Lessons from the past : Our feelings are easily hurt. We must make doubly sure we do not hurt others, even unintentionally. We must refrain from writing anything that, even obliquely, touches caste, community, religion and topics which may possibly hurt others and start an unwanted tirade of accusations and cross accusations. I guess my suggestion to both variety of writers is "be considerate" and "be appreciative". As many participative authors have complained, intellectual articles get no comments at all. Perhaps a few words of appreciation are due from us. This is the only way the forum can survive. - Rajesh - Nov. 27, 2006

Editor's note (Nov. 27, 2006): You all have made your points very lucidly. Mr. Rajesh, however, has pretty much nailed it. Lately there has not been much activity in the Readers Write section of PatnaDaily.Com. We do have some ideas as to the reason for the decline in passionate debates that this forum once used to generate.

We are sorry Mr. Satya feels the way he does but the truth is, nothing has changed the way one sends a comment on PatnaDaily.Com. It's the same that used to be a year ago or before.

First, let us make it clear that hardly anything has changed from our side. We did ban a couple of people from participating in the Readers Write section because of their utter and so transparently obvious hatred for certain sections of the society. As we have maintained before, Readers Write is not a forum to spew communal or caste-based hate or a place to take out your personal grudge against someone. The idea was to have differing but healthy, civil debates and discussions. Unfortunately, this forum became a free-for-all, visit-and-defecate zone for many. Naturally we couldn't allow such 'drive-by shooting' by these people.

Secondly, we have decided to stay away from the backward/forward/upper caste/lower caste, Hindu/Muslim, and reservation issues. These issues have been debated, discussed, and flogged to death multiple times while only fostering ill-will amongst the participants. No doubt these issues generate much heat but they do nothing to change other person's opinion. A closed-minded person will remain a closed-minded person no matter what. At PD, we have simply ran out of patience reading hate mails and have taken a stand against any issue that we consider has the potential to be volatile.

You may recall that even an academic debate on religion or language has offended some individuals in the past. As Mr. Aarcee has aptly put, if one said the sky was blue, someone will immediately react by saying the writer was a bigot! Everything is twisted, misinterpreted, motives doubted, words put in mouth, and soon what was intended to be purely academic, the entire discussion starts to look like scenes from the Jerry Springer Show!

So while the drive-by shooters fire shots in the air and leave the crime scene, we, the people at PatnaDaily.Com, and some innocent by-standers, get caught in the crossfire. If we don't print one's letter, we immediately get labeled as anti-dalit, anti-reservation, anti-Muslim, pseudo-secular, casteists, and all other derogatory names in one's book.

We are always open to suggestions and constructive criticisms but we are not going to be intimidated by those who have their own personal/political agenda. And trust us, there are many such individuals.

Finally, we feel people have temporarily run out of interesting ideas. The sad truth about the Indian society is, if you take out caste, religion, or reservation issues from the debates, there is nothing much left to discuss. And that, to us, is the main reason this forum has started to appear dull and without any spark.

While film and music industry, and cricket matches generates some heat in some discussion forums, PD readers are somehow above that level. Every once in a while someone will talk about film, film stars, music etc but these cases are rare.

There are some regulars who contribute their ideas on how to make Bihar economically or academically strong. Unfortunately, these topics don't spark much interest and largely go uncommented. Recently we received a letter from a very irate reader who said he was "sick" (his words) of reading suggestions on how to improve Bihar and wanted us to put a ban on this regular contributor.

Incidentally, this is the same individual who has accused us of being 'casteist' in the past. Does it bother us? Not at all. We know there will always be some who will find reasons to criticize us. These self-styled well-wishers of Bihar won't do anything of their own but they have tremendous amount of time to find fault in those who are actually trying to do something for the state in their own unique ways.

So there you are. We are still waiting for some good, interesting topics. Sports, history, geography, environment, fashion, film, music, science, computers, language, literature, humor, satire, travel, festivals, bygone days, food, drinks, personal anecdotes - there is no dearth of topics if one wants to be interesting. But as we said before, if you take out caste, religion, and reservation from the equation - most of us feel lost and tongue-tied.

Decline in the subject matter of the write-ups is possible but in order to improve them, without addressing that particular area from the readers' side, such issues remain invalid. Criticism is certainly a powerful literary means to achieve better results in literary world and that must be in practice without any apprehension on the part of the reader/commentator/critic. - Madani Mohiuddin Ahmad, Riyadh, KSA - Nov. 27, 2006

I probably would not have dared to write, however, Sanjay ji and Aarcee ji, your question prompted me to write reply to this site.

I hope few people can remember me especially if they are here for some time.

One of the reason I used to write for PatnaDaily was neither to prove my literature skill nor share my knowledge of any topic nor to gain any appreciation.

One and only reason to read or write at this site was the attachment and emotional connection to Bihar. I was resolute to write on this forum infinitely.

However, it took me only few months to find out that if anything is missing on this forum then that is any attachment, any trust, any goodwill or any respect for anyone whether from Bihar or not.

I am and I was involved with several forums time to time other than PatnaDaily. I have seen fights, abuses and clashes of egos elsewhere also . However, the magnitude, nudity, and sharpness of those abuses are mind boggling.

Several times I was stunned when I saw people taking a purely benign topic, a purely academic topic, a purely innocent subject and bend it to extent that is unimaginable at least to me. Few times I even tried to interfere and pacify. In other places and other forums I was often successful. However, it proved to be a much more daunting and ultimately a futile attempt.

Any forum or institution will be successful based on a belief that most people who belong here are good people, are brother, are friends. Unless all PatnaDaily readers, writers believe that everyone here is a friend, everyone is a brother (or a sister), everyone here is for a good cause and no one has any hidden agenda I don't see light at the end of the tunnel. - Ravi Pandey - Nov. 28, 2006

While completely agreeing with the Editor's note, I would like to add 'Lalu' to the list of topics along with religion, caste, and reservation, that generated sparks in this forum.

Personally, the only reason I had been staying away from writing anything on PD is because of my interest in other topics including the Iraq war and the US policies in the Middle East, recent House and Senate elections in the US, and just seeing things unfold in Bihar. I hope Nitish Kumar is not all about talks and does in fact follow up on his promises. I realize it's a tough task for anyone who occupies that chair. What was done in last 15 years cannot be undone in 1 year or even 2 years, all political rhetoric aside. However, if things don't substantially change in Bihar by the third year, I would be as vocal against the NDA government as I was during the Lalu-Rabri raj.

I wish we could talk about some other topics like recent outrageous remarks made by Kramer (Michael Richards) of Seinfeld fame, or the controversy caused by John Kerry during a speech at a school prior to the mid-term elections in the US, or the chances of Hillary Clinton becoming the next US president. But I realize this is not the right forum to discuss these issues and that's the reason I had been on the sideline for a while. Nothing against PD or its regular contributors. - Anil Kumar - Nov. 28, 2006

Just my 2 cents - there is one another topic posted on PD by Mr. Rajkishore Prasad as 'Political Apathy Reason for no IISER in Bihar'.

This topic is a typical example of why nowadays, less and less people are getting on board of PD-Forum. Of course his topic is noble and characteristically intellectual but it will give a real hard time to read and post a reaction to it specially to a very very 'so-so kind of reader' like me. With due respect to Mr. Prasad, the issue he has described could be much shorter and still alive.

Anyway, I would like to add my suggestion on this issue - (please do not get offended, its my personal view only).

Let's keep the topic detail as sort as it can and still deliver the purpose of the issue being posted.

In general a topic of a forum attracts people of all level. So, a topic written in plain English will certainly attract more and more audiences to read and write a comment to it. We should avoid 'nested loop' style or I can say Cambridge style of English when starting a thread for common people.

As far as the quality of the topics are concern, I never felt as they are degraded. They may not be a choice in particular but most of them have been very interesting and alive.

Thanks to all of the PD forum contributors. - Naren Singh (India/USA) - Nov. 29, 2006

Just like human beings, even a robust, popular and interesting public forum such as the Readers Write section of PatnaDaily.Com, must perforce undergo a period of fatigue and repair as is the current situation.

The onus now is on the score or so of the active writers to come up with 'exciting' topics, steer clear from the same old caste-religion-communal vitriol, be more tolerant of opposing views and always remember while there are thousands like me who visit, it is the active writer who provides the impetus for us to keep coming back again and again.

On a personal note, this is my most favourite site and while I truly regret being unable to make a more substantive contribution, the continued success of this forum is very close to my heart. - Dr Ignatius Joseph, Malacca, Malaysia - Nov. 30, 2006

Discussion on this topic is now closed.