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Friday, July 08, 2011

Quirky lists

It’s July 8th today: Shilpi has just reminded me that my blog is now five years old (see the post titled ‘Four years old’ written a year ago). How fast time passes, really. I can hardly believe that I have been doing this without a break for five whole years! Many thanks to all the readers who have kept me going all this time by visiting regularly and commenting frequently. I hope they too want this blog to continue for many more years, as I do.

As some people might have noticed already, I have recently added a blog titled ‘Listverse’ on my blog-roll. The fellow’s strongly idiosyncratic, of course, but he is harmless, and clever, and wicked, and though I don’t always agree with him (as I commented on his recent post about why he thinks newspapers are on the way out), I generally enjoy the slightly weird lists that he keeps putting up. He’s been teaching me a thing or two, too (as my daughter has written in her own recent blogpost). His latest post is ‘10 Industries that thrive on holidays’, and I relished the hard-hitting cynical tone so much that I must draw my readers’ attention to it (do read some of the comments, too: so many people have nothing to say to him except ‘I hate you’!).

Among other things, it should make you think: the very fact that these ten industries are thriving as never before should give the lie to the oft-repeated claim that people these days are terribly busy all the time. With so many holidays, and with so many people having both the leisure and the money to throw at all those holidays, one can only sigh to think that there used to be a time when most people had to work most of the time just to make a bare living (I have been reading Dickens lately, and his world seems light years away). That’s progress for you.

While the party lasts.

6 comments:

Shilpi said...

For some seconds I couldn't remember yesterday how old your blog was. Got confused about the years. 2006 I couldn't quite remember and 2007 while it seems to have just gone by also feels like it's from another age. I do remember when I found it though. That I do.

That Listverse blog is amusing, interesting and informative and sometimes strange (there's one about the medieval ages and why it would be better to go back to those times...). I'm very glad you put it up. Been visiting it regularly (once a day if there's a new list or to just look at ones from the archive) once I spotted it on your bloglist (read your comment on the newspapers dying!). The latest is hilarious (funnily enough I didn't think it was cynical!)...hadn't looked at the comments though. I don't think the disgruntled and angry people really got the St.Patrick's Day joke (jumping into defend the holiday and saying it wasn't set up for drinking oneself silly) or the other ones (missing the funny bone they are). That Chinese imports, border-runs and 8 gender-free gifts of gender-free made me chuckle among some other ones. Didn't quite get the parking lot congestion bit...

...but don't most people still have to work most of the time to make a bare living or a living....? Seems to me that only some people have the time and the money (and a few of them have 'jobs' too I guess) to blow away their money on the holidays and non holidays...'while the party lasts'.

A toast to (both) your blog(s): may they last and live for a while yet.

Rakendu Bhattacharjee said...

Sir,
Hearty congratulations and warm wishes. May your blogs touch many others in the year ahead. May the bees in your bonnet keep pouring honey into other souls.

Sunup said...

How fast time passes by! Anyways, happy birthday SCB! May you continue the good run and may God grant Suvro sir a happy and long life to keep you ticking!

Sunup

Debotosh said...

Sir,
I really hope that this blog continues for years to come . It has been been a steady source of information and good ideas for me !

(For some inexplicable reason the listverse blog has been blocked in my browser , hence i won't be able to comment on it - sorry !)

Debarshi Saha said...

Respected Sir,

Warm regards.Congratulations!Its really nice to hear that your blog has turned 5 years old..both of your blogs,I should say..reveal quite a bit of yourself,Sir..they are the two sides of a mirror,a non-silvered one,wherein society's queer and funny facets are revealed,along with the personal layers of your own self..I make a reference to the Mirror Of Erised,a Harry Potter item in Book 1,likening your blog in the same fashion to it..It shows people the truth..to only those who want to realize it..and not to those who perceive the truth,as they would like it to..to the latter class of people,it shows them,or offers them a view of their own world at large..

Its wonderful..I feel proud to be your student..You believed in yourself,and believed in us..which led us to believe ourselves..You are a fantastic columnist/blogger..among other achievements..more so,because you can plumb the depths of the human heart so reverently..sometimes,in an irreverent fashion..As Captain Hastings once observed about Poirot.."He is the most dangerous,when he least looks it.."

You,Sir..are the most serious..when sometimes,you least look it..

Yours obediently,
Your proud student,
Debarshi.

Suvro Chatterjee said...

Too kind, and too effusive, Debarshi! You embarrass me. I deeply respect your feelings, of course, but be warned: you are likely to be called all sorts of names by people who read your comment, because, being unable to feel good thoughts about anybody themselves, they cannot bear to hear anybody praised.