Saturday 10 December 2011

People ask me why a blog???


Whenever I'm asked what I enjoy most about my profession it does not take me time to respond that I"m here, because I like writing and because I like Hindi cinema. And my job provides me with an opportunity to dabble in both.

I have been writing on cinema for almost 30 years and have been a part of the print, electronic and online media journey. I have watched the media graduate from manual typewriters and spacious tape recorders to CDs, match-box dictaphones and mobile cameras. There was a time the printed word was sacrosanct. Then came a time the electronic media invaded our lives. And today, we cannot exist without our daily posts! 



It gives me great pride to state that the publishing house I was associated with in the 1990 decade was the pioneer of this dream in India. The magazine I edited g- was the first Indian magazine to go online and Chitralekha the first proud publisher in India to go on internet. 

It was a historic moment on 19 January 1996 at the Skydome Theatre Nehru Centre , Worli. Shammi Kapoor the only net savvy celebrity and president of yahoo.com was our chief guest of the evening and amidst much fanfare had clicked the mouse and officially launched the site.

Amitabh Bachchan was the guest of honour and had attended the function with his full family and good friend Amar Singh. In his speech Bachchan narrated amusing anecdotes of his struggling experiences online. He said that while surfing a stranger got on to chat with him and asked him for a date till he typed his age and the person mysteriously disappeared.

It was a magical evening (pictures attached below) but the enormity of the moment had to dawn much later.

In these 13 years we have become so used to the net that writing on paper has became obsolete. I still prefer to write long hand on my notepad but it seems like even a conservative like me will now have to submit to technology. Change is the only permanent aspect of life so here I am ready to share my thoughts with you on my website and a blog...

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