Indian women bloggers in cybernation
Monday, 30 March 2009
Kalindi Sheth of WFS writes from Mumbai
A year ago, a 43-year-old homemaker from Mumbai started writing about her everyday life, and whatever touched it. Nothing extraordinary about it, except that her 'diary' was online, or was what is popularly known as a blog. She called herself Indian Home Maker (IHM), and her blog, The Life and Times of an Indian Homemaker, because it aimed to be about "the life of any middle class Indian homemaker. I know that my friends, who are also homemakers, go through similar experiences." Through her blog, IHM found not just an outlet for her thoughts but also a support system.
A subliminal trend took root in urban middle-class India as the Internet became both affordable and popular. Several women, homemakers and working professionals, the young and not-so-young, created online diaries that sometimes were an extension of their lives, and at other times, the fantasy-filled journeys of those whom they yearned to be.
For Monica Mody, 28, a writer from Delhi, who is currently studying in the United States, blogs are "nets where I collect my writings, thoughts, observations or such things as catch my eye." Mody started her first blog, 'In Small Pieces', in 2004. But three years later, she started another one. "In 2004, I was a very different person. By 2007, I had started to feel that my first blog did not reflect who I was any longer. Despite blogs being such eccentric, changeable creatures, I had somehow outgrown it," she says.
In her second blog, titled 'An Imperfect Blog', she says, "... has wanted to be about just this one thing or just that, at various points, but failed. So it has to be all and serve in many different capacities."
The title of her blog somewhat reflects what it aims to be about. "It is an imperfect blog. I update it idiosyncratically. Often or not very often, depending on my mood or what is happening in my 'real' life. Blogging is not my religion as it is for many people, and I used to feel quite upset with myself because of that. But now, finally, I own its imperfection," she says.
Often, though, like in the case of IHM, blogs start out as simple updates on their lives, and mutate into a discussion portal for issues that span the political and personal.
Like with MadMomma, 30, a blogger from Delhi and a mother of two, who started her blog in 2006 out of boredom. "It just happened. It had no aim but as it grew on me, it became about my everyday life. And my children are a huge part of my life so, naturally, I wrote many posts on them," she says, adding that she used to put up a lot more pictures and posts on them, until it became too popular. Her blog was public until a while ago but its popularity raised issues about her privacy and children's safety. "It's only for invited readers now. I write on many current issues and I hope the blog will someday tell my children not just how important they were to me, but what kind of young woman their mother was, what motivated her, guided her choices and shaped their lives in return," she says.
While blogging has helped several women find an outlet for their thoughts, and sometimes, garner support in troubled times, it is merely a tool. As Mody points out, "A bloc, is not messianic; it is not the solution to all troubles. It has allowed many adolescents, women, queer people, people with crazy/interesting hobbies, old women, right-wing fundamentalists, and so on, to record their thoughts/observations and articulate them and find sympathisers, sometimes more easily than in their immediate surroundings. Which means that blogging can be a progressive or regressive force depending on who is blogging."
However, she also concedes there are several women who don't enjoy this privilege. "It is terrible that there are women who, in their 'offline' lives, are forced because of caste, class, or other power structures to be too nice, too Indian and too coy. Who feel safer, in their virtual anonymous avatars, to express their real selves," says Mody.
But the number of women who dare to be themselves online, and in the public eye, is increasing. Aanchal Tyagi, 26, a filmmaker based in Delhi, started a blog titled 'Three Drinks Ahead', inspired by Humphrey Bogart's famous quote. "It was a place to put up poetry that I liked, or articles or interesting quotes.
Or comments on films. It was also a place that would help me clear my head and figure out where I stand" or "where I want to stand" on any issue. "I've also written about people and relationships in my life. There are posts that are just things I've been tagged by other bloggers to write about. And then, perhaps most importantly, it was a place to unwind and to connect with people I could relate to," says Tyagi who, like other bloggers, has made several friends through her blog. But she doesn't believe a blog is anything more than an easily accessible medium. "I don't think Indian women, or women from anywhere in the world, express themselves better or worse on a blog than elsewhere.
It is just one more medium, among, all the others available. But, it is one of the most personal and easily accessible mediums so, yes, in that way, more people find it easier to express themselves through their blog, or through comments left on other people's blogs," she says.
But, for women like Mody, a blog could become a heightened sense of self. In her own words, "It is the doppelganger of Monica, the poet. Monica, the feminist. Monica, the ferociously alive. Monica, the movie-lover, the book-lover."
Courtesy: News Network/WFS
A year ago, a 43-year-old homemaker from Mumbai started writing about her everyday life, and whatever touched it. Nothing extraordinary about it, except that her 'diary' was online, or was what is popularly known as a blog. She called herself Indian Home Maker (IHM), and her blog, The Life and Times of an Indian Homemaker, because it aimed to be about "the life of any middle class Indian homemaker. I know that my friends, who are also homemakers, go through similar experiences." Through her blog, IHM found not just an outlet for her thoughts but also a support system.
A subliminal trend took root in urban middle-class India as the Internet became both affordable and popular. Several women, homemakers and working professionals, the young and not-so-young, created online diaries that sometimes were an extension of their lives, and at other times, the fantasy-filled journeys of those whom they yearned to be.
For Monica Mody, 28, a writer from Delhi, who is currently studying in the United States, blogs are "nets where I collect my writings, thoughts, observations or such things as catch my eye." Mody started her first blog, 'In Small Pieces', in 2004. But three years later, she started another one. "In 2004, I was a very different person. By 2007, I had started to feel that my first blog did not reflect who I was any longer. Despite blogs being such eccentric, changeable creatures, I had somehow outgrown it," she says.
In her second blog, titled 'An Imperfect Blog', she says, "... has wanted to be about just this one thing or just that, at various points, but failed. So it has to be all and serve in many different capacities."
The title of her blog somewhat reflects what it aims to be about. "It is an imperfect blog. I update it idiosyncratically. Often or not very often, depending on my mood or what is happening in my 'real' life. Blogging is not my religion as it is for many people, and I used to feel quite upset with myself because of that. But now, finally, I own its imperfection," she says.
Often, though, like in the case of IHM, blogs start out as simple updates on their lives, and mutate into a discussion portal for issues that span the political and personal.
Like with MadMomma, 30, a blogger from Delhi and a mother of two, who started her blog in 2006 out of boredom. "It just happened. It had no aim but as it grew on me, it became about my everyday life. And my children are a huge part of my life so, naturally, I wrote many posts on them," she says, adding that she used to put up a lot more pictures and posts on them, until it became too popular. Her blog was public until a while ago but its popularity raised issues about her privacy and children's safety. "It's only for invited readers now. I write on many current issues and I hope the blog will someday tell my children not just how important they were to me, but what kind of young woman their mother was, what motivated her, guided her choices and shaped their lives in return," she says.
While blogging has helped several women find an outlet for their thoughts, and sometimes, garner support in troubled times, it is merely a tool. As Mody points out, "A bloc, is not messianic; it is not the solution to all troubles. It has allowed many adolescents, women, queer people, people with crazy/interesting hobbies, old women, right-wing fundamentalists, and so on, to record their thoughts/observations and articulate them and find sympathisers, sometimes more easily than in their immediate surroundings. Which means that blogging can be a progressive or regressive force depending on who is blogging."
However, she also concedes there are several women who don't enjoy this privilege. "It is terrible that there are women who, in their 'offline' lives, are forced because of caste, class, or other power structures to be too nice, too Indian and too coy. Who feel safer, in their virtual anonymous avatars, to express their real selves," says Mody.
But the number of women who dare to be themselves online, and in the public eye, is increasing. Aanchal Tyagi, 26, a filmmaker based in Delhi, started a blog titled 'Three Drinks Ahead', inspired by Humphrey Bogart's famous quote. "It was a place to put up poetry that I liked, or articles or interesting quotes.
Or comments on films. It was also a place that would help me clear my head and figure out where I stand" or "where I want to stand" on any issue. "I've also written about people and relationships in my life. There are posts that are just things I've been tagged by other bloggers to write about. And then, perhaps most importantly, it was a place to unwind and to connect with people I could relate to," says Tyagi who, like other bloggers, has made several friends through her blog. But she doesn't believe a blog is anything more than an easily accessible medium. "I don't think Indian women, or women from anywhere in the world, express themselves better or worse on a blog than elsewhere.
It is just one more medium, among, all the others available. But, it is one of the most personal and easily accessible mediums so, yes, in that way, more people find it easier to express themselves through their blog, or through comments left on other people's blogs," she says.
But, for women like Mody, a blog could become a heightened sense of self. In her own words, "It is the doppelganger of Monica, the poet. Monica, the feminist. Monica, the ferociously alive. Monica, the movie-lover, the book-lover."
Courtesy: News Network/WFS