The Site That Started It All

Sometime in March this year, I first visited my friend Sridhar’s site. I started reading and within a few days I had finished reading almost everything he has written on it over the last 2 years! It is fair to say that my passion for writing started sometime when I was reading those posts. I mean he writes about stuff that fascinates him. The guy writes about anything from his experiences of living in various cities of southern India to his intense objection to piracy and plagiarism. His early posts have a very e-journalish and more emotional feel about them and to date remain my favorite among the stuff he has written. I especially remember a piece in which he so honestly and sensitively wrote about why listening to Mark Knopfler pains him. I don’t know if he realizes it, but it is this ability to make the reader feel along with him that makes his writing what it is. His writing made me discover my love for the art of putting things in words. I don’t agree with a some of his views. He has torn one of my favorite movies left, right and center. And yet there is a quality of genuineness about what he writes, which makes you, respect his views and not disregard them, whatever they are. He is also very candid in his views about minorities and what happens in the name of secularism. Some of the questions he raises have made me re-examine my opinion on these issues. Sridhar has been the single biggest inspiration for me to start writing. His writing makes me believe you don’t have to be some hotshot celebrity writer to be heard. It makes me value so-called amateur writing and value it as something, which escapes the trappings of professional writing. Most of all it makes me believe that for every 100 fakes that Generation X, Y or Z seems to produce in bulk there is at least one Sridhar Subramaniam.It is due to guys like him that I still have faith, that after all, there is still hope for our generation.