Adios Iland!

Well, let's get the obvious out of the way. As the title indicates, I am leaving iland.

This is my 2^nd and last anniversary here on iland. This is also the 2^nd anniversary of my first blog post. However, I will continue blogging at probabilityisgod.wordpress.com. In fact, I intend to restart and get better this time drawing from my iland experiences.

Now let's get to, "why am I leaving iland?" I always had issues with rediff. Long back, I read Raja Sen's review of "Race". I never read reviews in detail since they seem to give away too much. I only read the first and last few lines. But this one was a horror by any standards. He gave away the ending starting on the second line, and said that it is better to watch the movie after knowing the ending. I somehow managed to confuse myself of his words and forget the ending. I enjoyed the movie. But whatever the movie, I decided to abandon rediff movie page then. I visited that page less than 5 times since.

Also, I frequently find a conscious effort to whip up false passions and garner hits. For example, there was this headline, "Hayden calls India a third world country". Well, isn't it? The article does not show any animosity of Hayden towards India. However, there are the usual abuses at the bottom hurled at him. That is, after all one of our great pastimes.

Whatever the negatives, I had iland and the acquaintances I made here. I initially chose iland because I was new to blogging and wanted feedback. I did not think I will get it in a different setting. Iland is predominantly a Indian crowd which increases familiarity, there is a lot of personalization and even if by losing objectivity, we have lot more interactions. This, of course, removes one of the biggest advantages of blogging, which is to respond to the words and not the individuals. But then as I said, I wanted responses.

And then along came the "Array " problem. I could not view a few posts around iland and I got a couple of emails saying they could not see mine. Also some of my comments were not visible. And for whatever reason, I had very few interactions in the last few days, and there was a longish silence from many of my closest acquaintances. A reason why I had to stay around vanished with this. However, it was still a chore to move from iland and start elsewhere. I already have a base here and an identity. I needed one more reason.

Rediff provided that too. I thought I would stay if, at least, I would hear from somebody at rediff on the "Array…" problem. I did not get a response to three mails. Then, I got one from Salil who I interacted with earlier. He said he is on vacation and that somebody will get back to me. Nobody did. I really like this guy. But Salil is not rediff, and there aren't enough Salils over there. I gave myself time till July 4 (my birthday) to wait for their response and made my decision. I am moving today, on my blogging anniversary. I will have a 30-day buffering period (August 6) after which I will delete all my posts on iland.

There was a time when we would be very thankful for a platform to publish our views, even if flawed, if it came for free. It is a sign of how times have changed that we demand the best these days. I know rediff is not providing a free service. They have a way of making money through all this traffic. All the same, I thank rediff for hosting me the last 2 years and the system that made it all possible where everybody can have a voice with no discrimination whatsoever. It is one of the true triumphs of mankind.

As I leave, I also wish to thank everybody who interacted with me. I have acknowledged the various influences on my thoughts in the respective posts. It was mostly a pleasure. Specifically, I am glad to have met VT (of vixx), Ice Candy (of icecandy), TW (of thoughtworks), and Vaibhav (of justlikedat). I think I would have learnt a lot from VT who I consider, at least, an equal to me. But we had very few interactions. With all four of them, I felt that we are talking about the same thing, in spite of our disagreements, which was very refreshing. I rarely had to repeat an argument. I had limited interactions with Vaibhav. That is why his name is last of the four J TW was special because I don't agree with many of his ideas, but we managed to talk without animosity, and without any below the belt argumentative techniques which are common. Ice Candy had been a constant most of these two years, and he is probably the closest of the four. I wish I could meet these guys, sometimes. And maybe I shouldn't. Maybe, they are better in the virtual world J I wish them, and all the rest of you, fulfilment of your goals. Maybe, I will meet some of you at wordpress; maybe not. But, the rediffiland chapter ends for me. Adios!

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I dedicate this post to Kush. As I said last year, I would dedicate one post a year on my anniversary to the person who contributed most to my thinking that year. Though not very well presented, I consider "Is the Universe Deterministic?" and "The Creator-Creation Equation" the most important this year. Kush held the discussions leading to the second post. I am not on good terms with Kush. But rules are rules J and so the dedication.