Getting flak ... HELPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!
Whew! I am getting so much abuse (through comments at the bottom of the page and by email) I could get mentally scarred for life ... ;-)
See guys, I knew even when I wrote it that I was gonna get people calling me lots of bad names. I earn a decent bit of money and do not get a single penny from this article on Rediff. They don't pay for "guest columns" as they call it. For those who think I am doing this to get publicity, a dampener - My day to day job has nothing to do with the media and a good / bad response to this article will not get me even one rupee extra in my regular job. So chill, guys!!
I also think that the title of the article contributed a lot to making this a SRT bashing article, which it wasn't really meant to be though it uses his example. As I said before, I put in a different title and Rediff changed it. Pasted below is a mail exchange with the Rediff editor Ivan Crasto over this "title of the article".
Sigh!!! Guess the Chuckster was never meant to be popular.
Cheers
The Chuckster
***************************************************************************
From : IVANC
Sent : Thursday, February 1, 2007 7:25 PM
To : "Ranganathan Sriram"
Subject : Re: Your article
| | | Inbox
I agree with what you say, but, from experience, no one will click with just that headline. Just see the responses because of the Tendulkar headline; it would be the same even if it was Sourav or Dravid or Sehwag.
Anyway, thanks a ton; the feedback is good
Regards
----- Original Message -----
From: Ranganathan Sriram
To: ivanc@rediff.co.in
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 6:24 PM
Subject: Re: Your article
Thanks Ivan ... I appreciate it.
A request - The title u have given to the article "Love Sachin for what he was" makes it sound like a Sachin Tendulkar article, whereas the attempt made by me is to keep him as an example and talk about hero worship in cricket.
If possible, kindly change the title of the story to "Hero worship - Take a Chill Pill" or something on those lines ... otherwise, even before people read the article, they will form an opinion based on their love or hate for Sachin and reading the article will always be a bit biased after that.
Thanks and regards
Sriram
See guys, I knew even when I wrote it that I was gonna get people calling me lots of bad names. I earn a decent bit of money and do not get a single penny from this article on Rediff. They don't pay for "guest columns" as they call it. For those who think I am doing this to get publicity, a dampener - My day to day job has nothing to do with the media and a good / bad response to this article will not get me even one rupee extra in my regular job. So chill, guys!!
I also think that the title of the article contributed a lot to making this a SRT bashing article, which it wasn't really meant to be though it uses his example. As I said before, I put in a different title and Rediff changed it. Pasted below is a mail exchange with the Rediff editor Ivan Crasto over this "title of the article".
Sigh!!! Guess the Chuckster was never meant to be popular.
Cheers
The Chuckster
***************************************************************************
From : IVANC
Sent : Thursday, February 1, 2007 7:25 PM
To : "Ranganathan Sriram"
Subject : Re: Your article
| | | Inbox
I agree with what you say, but, from experience, no one will click with just that headline. Just see the responses because of the Tendulkar headline; it would be the same even if it was Sourav or Dravid or Sehwag.
Anyway, thanks a ton; the feedback is good
Regards
----- Original Message -----
From: Ranganathan Sriram
To: ivanc@rediff.co.in
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 6:24 PM
Subject: Re: Your article
Thanks Ivan ... I appreciate it.
A request - The title u have given to the article "Love Sachin for what he was" makes it sound like a Sachin Tendulkar article, whereas the attempt made by me is to keep him as an example and talk about hero worship in cricket.
If possible, kindly change the title of the story to "Hero worship - Take a Chill Pill" or something on those lines ... otherwise, even before people read the article, they will form an opinion based on their love or hate for Sachin and reading the article will always be a bit biased after that.
Thanks and regards
Sriram
posted by The Chuckster @ 9:13 PM
9 Comments:
At Thursday, February 01, 2007 10:02:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
Hi Sriram
Great Article and enjoyed reading it.. Although ,there was no need to justify your stand on the title of your article with an email proof... we may now see emails to Ivan as well ;-)
At Thursday, February 01, 2007 10:15:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
Come on Guys..Give Sriram a break.. I mean 'leave him alone'
;-)..
At Friday, February 02, 2007 5:30:00 AM,
Anonymous said…
Sriram,
Look if those were your words and Rediff had invited you to write something, you had to watch your words.
Giving half baked stories might not impress lot of people. Few people "Intelectuals" might have enjoyed the article not the rest of "Fanatics". You should have weighed your choice of words and structure of your thought.
You lost an oppurtunity to make it to next league. But definetly have succeded in pulling people's attention for wrong reason.
At Friday, February 02, 2007 7:54:00 AM,
Satya said…
""Guess the Chuckster was never meant to be popular.""
You are now popular maan! For whatever reasons! ;-)
As I said in an earlier comment, you wrote with a lot of commonsense and perspective! Unfortunately many people, some sane, some not so sane chose to look at it through their own monocles!
And hey, I dont think there is any reason to justify your article, or its purpose just because someone questioned it! After all arent blogs supposed to be for private thoughts!? You have a right to express your thoughts and people have a right to respond to them, as you have turned on the comments!
Having said that, please continue writing good stuff! All the best!
At Friday, February 02, 2007 9:34:00 AM,
Pratik said…
Hey Sriram.
That was a very good article. I'm glad you didn't have to resort to statistics to prove a point (not that your article was about cricket as such). I think it put my doubts in more perspective. It shouldn't matter what the rest think. The internet is a platform for expression of ideas and you have every right to use it, regardless of people who agree or disagree with your thoughts. blah blah blah .. you know the deal :)
You can check out my blog entry (http://write-the-other-way.blogspot.com/2007/01/present-past.html) on SRT. It's on similar lines.
At Friday, February 02, 2007 10:58:00 AM,
Cricpro said…
Hey,
I like your blog very much, I like to link my blog with yours,if you agree than link my blog to yours and i'll be linking your's to mine.
My blog is about Cricketers profiles...
http://circpro.blogspot.com
If you agrre than, just post a comment on my blog..
Looking for your reply..
At Saturday, February 03, 2007 12:11:00 AM,
Unknown said…
I've read most of Sriram's article with great interest in the past. The recent one though leaves a bitter taste.
The article "Leave Sachin alone" may have been on the lines of hero worship. But then, all articles on rediff of late (on Tendulkar) have been extreme right - ie. anti-Tendulkarish!! If there is an anti-Tendulkar section, so must exist a pro-Tendulkar section.. WHY NOT??
Its so easy being an arm chair expert. But what bothers me is that these arm chair experts believe that they know more than what a person who has played over 500 Internationals knows. They may still be right, but not "always" right. Sachin may have failed, but lets not discount that he may have been playing to a plan & it was just that the plan failed. I personally felt that the caution he showed in the III Test was warranted given the fragile Indian batting line-up, and remember he was wrongly given out. To crucify a person on this one innings is completely unjustified. Lets be a little more balanced and remember that its after all a sport!!
At Sunday, February 04, 2007 11:21:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
Hey Sriram,
That was a good, sensible article written by you. You should have guessed the reactions this article will invite. People should learn to critique the author's views rather than the author's personality. Just as we misuse the voting power in Indian democracy, we Indians tend to misuse the power of expression provided the Internet by writing bullshit rather than engaging in a meaningful discussion. The irony is that lack of education is the reason for misuse of voting power, whereas the same can not be attributed for misuse of "power of expression". In any case, keep up the good work.
At Sunday, February 04, 2007 11:55:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
Your banner says that your blogspot is about "thinking cricket", among other things.
For someone who "thinks a lot about cricket", you seem to have precious little or new to say about it....just voicing your cliched opinion (like one billion other Indians) cannot count to justify your lofty aspirations to "think a lot about cricket".
We Indians like to wax eloquent about many things.....probably because we tend to like sitting around talking about things rather than getting our hands dirty DOING them.
I just wish we don't waste "blogspace" for our trivial, academic and two-penny pursuits.
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