With the various blogs all over, ranging from food blog, health blog, to technical blog, general blog etc. I sat to wonder…
What is a blog...and what is so special ‘bout it???
Haven’t we been writing blogs all along in our lives especially in school? since we were in class I? ...My family, My pet , My best friend...what were they? oh oh oh they were essays or compositions!’ perfecto ! but how different were those write ups from the blogs we write today!
I remember in an essay on my family – I would add in all the facts (and also imaginations) about the family. Putting an anecdote here and a narration there ,and lo and behold! my essay (or composition) is ready to be graded :-). In my blog today I would probably write something similar, in a much more informal way adding more colloquial terms and a jargon or two.
In an essay on my pet , I would narrate how my pet looks or what he does or probably how much and why I love him. Today I might have a fancy name for the same blog and might make it a little more descriptive with pictures and again those informal touches.
So, basically we have been writing blogs from the time we were 4 or 5 and as time progressed our writings became more and more creative. Imagine, if we all could preserve all that we wrote and posted each of them today.
I remember one such eassy in hindi written by my classmate in class VII on Baarish ki ek raat, during one of our exam. His was the best and I remember teacher reading it out to us. The eassy was beautiful, he had narrated how he had got stuck in the rain one night. The kind of imagination he had potrayed as 11 year old kid was inexplicable. If I got that essay today I would sell it as a movie script and make money out of it. Also, if it was to be a blog today would have several hits.
There was yet another essay that I remember Mini India - where we wrote about the train platform, how we had different people from different cultures gather at one place. Now that too could also be a good blog!
Oh! there is this famous story (again bong) where a child prepared an essay on" The Cow" for his exam and in his exam he had to write an essay on" Ganga"- The river. So what do you think the smart guy do? he said that the cow was grazing in the banks of the Ganges and started describing the cow . What grades he got - I really do not know. But to hear about it was hilarious.
Similarities between blogs and essay writing:
a. Both focus on a topic
b. Often narrates an incident or an issue
c. Often takes an emotional bend while some narrate facts
d. Creativity and language is of core importance
e. Both can be interesting and uninteresting at times
f. You read on topics and keep yourself updated to better your essays and blogs
g. Good essays are appreciated, good blogs too are
Differences:
a. Essays are ex tempo and sometimes based on what the examiner wants you to write, while you decide you want to write a blog.
b. Essays are sometimes by force, you might not want to write a particular essay, but you do your best as it fetches you marks, blogs have no such binding.
c. Essays fetch you marks and your mark sheets depend on it, while you just have hits on your blog.
d. Ya and essays don’t gets “liked” or “commented” on and does not allow you to be famous anywhere beyond your own class. While your Blog may get you so famous that u can actually compile your blogs and get them published with a lot of fanfare (Arnab Ray – the greatbong blogger is a firsthand example with his famous book “'May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss” )*
To conclude I would like to say we all can write blogs, its a form of essay writing and that's what we are attempting to do.
* mentioned by Mriduta Pal
