Citizen journalism threatens traditional journalism

Whose picture will make it on the front page tomorrow- A professional press-photographer or a passer-by with a camera phone?

When the next big disaster occurs, another army of citizen reporters and photographers will instantly take shape. Among them, they will produce some powerful coverage that will augment— perhaps in some cases even outshine— the reporting of journalists. But those shiny nuggets of citizen-reported news will come amid a lot of dreck: bad writing, inaccurate reporting, and outright falsehoods alongside poorly conceived and confusing photos, even Photoshop-enhanced images designed to deceive. Today’s audience for all this citizen journalism has the difficult task of trying to decide if what they read or see is accurate. Let’s face it, most of the public isn’t up to that task, and this is where professional editors need to enter the picture. Though the motto of Ohmynews is every citizen is a reporter (account of what is seen) he can’t be a journalist.

Steve Outing-senior editor for Poynter Online, an interactive-media columnist for Editor & Publisher Online, and a long-time observer of new-media trends says: “Citizen ‘journalism’ is still in its infancy—though the
Indian Ocean tsunami helped it grow up a little faster. But there are real shortcomings right now. If another tsunami- level disaster struck tomorrow, online news consumers would still have to search through a variety of far-flung sources to unearth all the eyewitness photos, videos and personal accounts that would quickly begin flowing onto and through the Internet. It wouldn’t be easy. The opportunity exists for savvy mainstream news organizations to establish themselves as the place to go for firsthand citizen and eyewitness reporting and the place where eyewitnesses know they can go to share their experiences and amateur reporting and be rewarded with a large audience. Citizen journalism might be a train coming down the media-industry tracks. But it’s not on a collision course. Mainstream news organizations and journalists just need to jump on board.”

BBC has already jumped on board. It is doing all it can to tap this vital source of news. Last summer they formed the User Generated Content (UGC) hub, a unit tasked with sifting through the material that the BBC’s audience contributes to the corporation by email and text messages. The UGC verifies its authenticity and legality and ensures that the material is swiftly passed on to various BBC news outlets. Vicky Taylor, the Editor of BBC Interactive says on the corporation’s website that though they are grateful for the high levels of public participation, they adopt a cautious approach.

“You have to be aware that people will try to send in false information and false pictures. We do not publish anything until we have seen it and checked it,” she said. 

“Most people genuinely want to see their work published in the best way possible. Very few people are trying to hoax the system, but you have to be aware of those who are,” said
Taylor.  (Turning the Digital Deluge into news by Martin Stabe / Press Gazette)

Suddenly, geography is no barrier to widespread communication. Where once, in order to speak your mind you’d need a garden fence, a box in speakers’ corner or at the very least a pub table, now all you need is a computer and an internet connection. Once you’re set up and in front of your keyboard, you are free to create a global virtual community of people who share your interests and hang to your every word if you are good of course.

On the one hand, this opportunity for unhampered vox populi is a breakthrough, a triumph for freedom of speech which has been hailed in some quarters as nothing short of revolutionary, signalling the rise of the citizen journalist and absolute freedom from the power structures that usually restrict or twist information. On the other hand, it also makes on very well aware of the values of a good editor. (Tim Worstall (2005). 2005 Blogged. The Friday Project Ltd.)

Most recent future-of –media prediction says that citizens will become some form of journalist. In this scenario, mainstream media is placed in an adapt-or-die scenario. While citizens are being described as revolutionary forces breaking down ivory towers of Journalism. Is this lowering or raising the standards of expectations from mainstream media?

People are taking over their stories, becoming their stories and sharing their stories and getting their minutes of fame. From American idol to Netflix to Blackberry ordinary citizens are deriving their fame and media trends are influencing how we consume information. The three trends define the new wave of citizen journalism that has hit this digital age.

The first is that- People want to take control of their media. If we stop and think we realise that today most cherished services don’t deliver any new content- you had cable brfore buying a DVR, you read blogs before installing an RSS reader, you bought music before getting an iPod. Yet these are the interfaces and tools that fascinate us. Why? Simply because they have figured out how to deliver content more effectively and more engagingly. They provide you with more control of your media. Empowering users-giving them control-should be single most important goal in digital storytelling says Rex Sorgatz, interactive director and freelance writer. (Nora Paul (2005). Digital Think. QOOP.Inc. 74-78)

It won’t be immediately workable for the people who already get so little attention from big media. Today citizen journalism is mostly the province of a rather narrow and privileged slice of the policy – those who are educated enough to take part in the weird conversation, who have the technical skills, and who are affluent enough to have the time and equipment. But we are leaving too many others behind in our Brave New Economy. They are everyday people, buffeted by change, and outside the conversation, to put discredit, the journalism business and society at large have not listened to them as well as it should. The rise of the citizen-journalism will help us listen. The ability of anyone to make the news will give new voice to people who’ve felt voiceless-and whose words we need to hear. They are showing us- citizen, journalist, newsmakers- new ways of talking, of learning.

In the end, they may help spark a renaissance of the notion, now threatened, of a truly informed citizenry. Self- government demands no less, and we’ll all benefit if we do it right. (Dan Gillmor (2006). We the media- grassroot journalism by the people, for the people. 2nd ed.
UK: O’Reilly.)

Second is that the audience wants to create their content. If Journalists are smirking at the downfall of their marketing departments, they must consider themselves no less guilty of imposing their own form of brand on information- in form of storytelling. Its not that a journalist way of storytelling should die or will dies but that it has to change. We have reached a critical point where readers can become writers, viewers can become editors and the entire process of content creation becomes participatory. With this model in mind, the journalists job is to create environments for stories to evolve in personal ways. We’re just beginning to see the potential of user generated narratives.

The third thing is that people want to connect with others in media communities and share information and opinions. Nano-publishing has caused a breakdown of traditional concepts like communication (one-to-one) and publishing (one-to-many). Some examples where public and personal breakdown: websites that aggregate and organize personal content into social threads (Flickr, Bloglines), private moments become entertainment experiences (reality TV, Celeb sex tapes), communication technologies making online relationships more personal (VOIP, LiveJournal), personal media devices creating global news events (Abu Garib Prisoner Photos taken with a cell phone) and rise of bloggers who review digital media devices. This means people are connecting ideas into networked conversations never seen before.

In words of Dan Gillmore author of We The Media, news is moving away from being a lecture and towards becoming a conversation. The role of journalists becomes creator of environments for unique conversations. This means as citizens change what they can do with media, journalists will need to adapt into new roles as guides, conversationalists, and facilitators.

But what are the challenges that citizen journalism faces?  Therein lies a major question about the role of public journalists. Are they merely conscientious citizens, or is there something in the role of journalists that distinguishes them from other citizens? Is the newspaper merely a recorder and reporter of events, or is it a catalyst to change?

A clear voice of opposition comes from Leonard Downie, executive editor of the Washington Post, who challenged both the methods and motives of its practitioners. “Too much f what’s called public journalism,” said Downie, “appears to be what our promotion department does, only with a different kind of name and a fancy evangelistic fervor”. (Case, 1994, p.14)

An equally critical voice came from Richard Aregood, editorial page editor of The Philadelphia Daily News. “What in God’s name are we thinking about?” he asked. He argues that the public journalism crusade is only what good newspapers have always been doing.

But William Woo former Post editor and columnist said: “yes, we have been isolated, detached, arrogant, disconnected, narrow in our definitions of what news is and what isn’t. We have thrived anaerobically, in airless environments. Damn right that we should listen to the public. But should the consensus at the town meeting automatically become our agenda, not merely in editorial support but in the expenditure of resources that determine what other stories do not get covered?” (Mixed News: The public/civic/ communitarian journalism debate. Jay Black. 1997. p 21)

It boils down to something simple: readers (or viewers or listeners) collectively known more than media professionals do. This is true by definition. They are many and we (media professionals) are often just one. We need to recognize and, in the best sense of the word, use their knowledge. If we don’t, our former audience will bolt when they realise they don’t have to settle for half-baked coverage; they can come into the kitchen themselves.

Does tabloid journalism evaluate the art of storytelling at the expense of the public role of journalism?

“If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. ‘Nothing in the paper today,’ we sigh.” -Paul Valéry

The term tabloid originates from tablet in medicine i.e., something compact and forceful (Merriam-Webster dictionary). Short articles, attractive pictures, easy to read and comfortable when riding on buses and trains with content focused on sports and scandals. 

A very simple definition of tabloids came from the British journalist John Ryan at a conference (‘Student Voice’) held at Havard (October 2000) and devoted to differences in the understanding of yellow journalism in Western countries and
Croatia: ‘A tabloid is a journalistic product that primarily deals with three S’s: scandal, sex and sports’. Another definition is by Selimas Miller who also explains yellow journalism practices in the West and talks about three basic functions of such papers. According to Miller, ‘the first function is to inform and entertain readers, the second is to sell as many copies as possible and the third is to attract as many advertisers as possible’ (Miller 2001: 283).

After defining tabloid it’s essential to define what is storytelling and why do people tell a story. Roger Schank says people think in terms of stories. They understand the world in terms of stories that they have already understood. New events or problems are understood by reference to old previously understood stories and explained to others by the use of stories. We understand personal problems and relationships between people through stories that typify those situations. Stories are very basic to the human thinking process. (Tell Me a Story: Narrative and Intelligence, 2001) Tabloid evolution dates back to the 20th century. The supermarket tabloid itself finds its origin in the fabliaux of medieval times; short tales told by professional story tellers and characterized by realistic detail and vivid observation using humor and cynicism to create stories of miracles used to explain the ever changing world. With the arising of the printing press, these ballads were converted from an oral medium to a printed one, and so began the life of the tabloid newspaper. The cautionary tale, also a staple of the ballad, fabliaux and broadside, is formed as an apocryphal tale of moral warnings, warnings by example of innocent victims of the fears of the day. The tabloid style is the most famous today because of its relation to the common man and it speaks in his tongue. Modern tabloids still have the same story elements intact where a story is told with reference to other popular tales to enable the reader to make the connection.

Elizabeth Bird observed that tabloid-style news interprets the world for its readers. Written primarily for fun and entertainment it should not be taken seriously. The tabloid journalism can be defined as combining entertainment with informational articles that allow the reader to have fun and still be informed. Playing on readers emotions, tabloid papers are designed to entertain but not enlighten or educate the readers. While the writing style is stereotypical and predictable, it often follows a divergent angle from the stories in the mainstream press, offering another perspective on the information presented. (For Enquiring Minds: A Cultural Study of Supermarket Tabloids. Knoxville: University ofTennessee Press (2002))

However the tabloid style news is condemned for decades as abandoning its journalistic and social responsibility to society. Tabloid journalism is generally considered to be synonymous with bad journalism. This assessment of tabloid journalism is not very productive from a social scientific point of view.

News as most journalists define it informative, current story. The information reported should be in the public interest and not something the public is interested in. However today material traditionally relegated to tabloid press now permeates the mainstream press.

The journalistic aspect of tabloid journalism has appeared throughout the history of journalism, and that elements and aspects of journalism defined as “bad” in its own time in many cases served the public good as well as the journalism considered to be more respectable. Tabloid journalism achieves this by positioning itself, in different ways, as an alternative to the issues, forms and audiences of the journalistic mainstream — as an alternative public sphere. But what is meant by an alternative public sphere?

Whenever a mass of people has been neglected too long by the established organs of communication, agencies eventually have been devised to supply that want. Invariably the sophisticated reader greets this press of the masses with scorn because the content of such a press is likely to be elemental and emotional. Such scorn is not always deserved. Just as the child starts his reading with fairy stories before graduating to serious study, so do the public first reached by a new agency prefer what the critics call “sensationalism”, which is the emphasis on omission for its own sake. The pattern can be seen in the periods when the most noteworthy developments in popular journalism were apparent. (Emery and Emery, 1978, p. 119)

Following Ju¨rgen Habermas, a number of media scholars have used the concept of the public sphere both to describe and evaluate the role of the mass media—particularly news—in public life. (The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere,1962). His public sphere model has been developed and updated to take into account a number of different aspects—one of the more important ones being the changing nature of the media landscape. The most important political problem facing us in the 21st century may well be that large groups of disenfranchised people (migrants and immigrants, lower-income groups) do not feel a part of the body politic, and their issues and concerns are not addressed by political institutions or media outlets. In the face of this, it would be foolish to condemn tabloid journalism.

Yet Journalists have divided views about tabloid journalism. Some believe in embracing the news with meticulous dignity and gravity, leading to creation of many sedate stories believing it is the right way to practice journalism. Some scoff at convention and civility and cater openly to basic human instincts. Readers easily become addicted to the fiery prose of tabloid style. Tabloids are extremely undervalued and most media specialists do not recognize them as journalism. Tabloid-style writing is clichéd. They always talk about the untold truth and steamy exposes. Newsweek stated that tabloids were at “the bottom of the food chain” (Quoted in Hogshire 5)

Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Columnist, defined the six elements of tabloid style news as: A flashy presentation of news in terms of audio, video and graphics; emphasis on personal background of subject: reliance on rumor or hearsay; use of dramatic re-enactments; use of sources with low or uncertain credibility; and paying for stories. (Quoted in West 1)

Popular culture has surfaced as one of the main topics of scrutiny within modern mass communication and cultural studies. Journalism’s function of storytelling unites journalism with popular culture. Storytelling both develops and restricts the possible range of meaning. Audiences can either absorb the stories and formulate their opinions- occasionally the opposite of what the writer intended- or take the story at face value and support cultural cohesion. “Journalism often does foster feelings of collective belonging- based on class, gender, sexual preference, sub-cultural lifestyle or whatever-yet this is rarely recognized and even more seldom praised. (Peter Dahlgren Democracy and the Media.
London: Sage, 1995.)

John Fiske distinguished two types of news in modern media-official and alternative. Official news is the news of the “quality” mainstream press and network television. It extends from magazine such as Times and Newsweek to current affairs television shows such as 60 minutes or Larry King live. The tone of stories is official, serious, impersonal and is intended to create knowledge and conviction. Official news is what the empowered want people to have and believe to be true. Fiske defined alternative news as divergent from the official in its choice of events and in the way it makes selection, thereby limiting coverage of overtly political news. This applies to Tabloids. (Introduction To Communication Studies, 1999, 50)

Are we an audience addicted to tabloids or is there no choice since all news is tabloid styled? Steven Winn says that “Thanks to the ever-expanding franchise of reality TV, incessant Web postings of banal gossip and bedroom photographs, confessional blogs, podcasts, even the ubiquity of camera cell phones, we’ve effectively turned ourselves from spectators into tabloid fodder. For better or worse, we’ve entered the age of tabloid democracy. The talent pool has become as broad and diverse as the audience itself.” (Steven Winn, March10, 2005). We’ve entered the age of tabloid democracy. San Francisco Chronicle)

Do we consider the audience mere spectators who take whatever is churned out or are they thinking audience clever enough to judge for themselves. Ian Connell says that tabloid storytelling does not create opinions and sentiments that are popular or widely shared. Connell described the ways in which the telling of tales is organized, thereby constructing a framework for reading. He explains that Tabloid readers have significant powers of good judgment. They do not need to follow the paper’s running order, but can go strait to gossip pages and merely glance at other pages. Readers know what to expect what types of characters and what kind of narrative twists there will be. They may not agree with everything they read and may even consider the story worthless or out of touch with their own construction of reality. (Ian Connell (1998) Mistaken Identities:  Javnost—The Public. 5 (3))

The credibility of tabloids always remains an issue even though they serve the function to entertain, inform and educate. The audience of today is a thinking lot and they know what they get when they pick up a tabloid. The tabloid doesn’t compromise public interest because the public has choice and reads a tabloid because they want lighter stories, that inform and entertain.

Would you call this Creative or crazy?

As the gates of heaven open up and the angels of glory smile on me, I know its time to say good bye…

I return their smile; I am feeling cheerful yet my hearts heavy…

Living on this earth for 25 years and calling it my home I now have to leave it to embark on a journey on a different planet.

I have heard human versions of it but am no surer that heaven is like what I think it is.

As I fly on with the newly acquired wings I look down and see a misty morning, a sun peeking just through the mountains and a warm orange glow on the horizon of the sea…

I wonder if heaven will be like this, pure and blissful, giving weary eyes the joy of a delightful sight.

I haven’t yet seen the world and I haven’t yet learnt the purpose of life, then why was my life so brief, like a glimpse of the most wonderful fairy tale land.

Living in wonderment since my days on earth began, discovering the delight of new things, new people, different shapes and sizes, colours and hues.

It felt better then heaven I think, because I don’t know about heaven and earth seems the only place I know and I find it such a delight to be in.

I think of the time I was a child, I loved to see the colours of rainbow when it rained and petrol had mixed with water.

I didn’t care about the rainbow high up there in the sky, it was mysterious but this was real and I could recreate it, it was mine to see whenever I wanted.

There was a time when I saw a tree grow up with me and I had a competition with it but it grew too big and I was a small boy still

I wanted to control it and then I thought ok I know how I can do it, I thought I was too clever as I set out to draw the tree, I could make it any size I wanted.

That’s when I realised I could make my own reality, I could make things the way I wanted them to be. If I thought I wanted a banana to be red, it could be made.

One day I was given a clay modelling set and that day was like a golden day for me because this meant my imagination could take shape and I could actually make a red banana not just on paper but something I could hold.

I couldn’t content my excitement and I started working on my fruit basket, modelling fruits to perfection as if they were real.

The first one I formed I gave it the conventional colour and then my imagination took over. So I had a red banana, a purple apple, a black strawberry and a pink pineapple.

The sense of creation of my own reality gave me immense happiness but my friends and parents thought I didn’t interpret the world as they did, I was an abnormal child.

There it was then I was taken for therapies and psychotic treatment sessions. My mind couldn’t think conventionally, I wanted to break the monotony and yet here I was labelled crazy.

As years went by and I was left to myself the treatments had a sudden toll on me and I began to get unstable. I would converse of my ideas with myself.

This gave people more reason to suspect I was mad and my parents were persuaded that I should be send to an asylum. All this while I had kept up my art and was painting the world in my colours.

The asylum made me shun life and then here I was at a young age with wings flying heavenwards wondering why earth wasn’t for me.

I loved nature the way it is and I didn’t want to change things for others I just wanted to change things for myself, interpret them differently and break the monotony. I just wanted to have fun with colours.

An Indian’s dilemma

As the issue of Racism on Big Brother becomes household gossip, India creates news in every medium and Shilpa Shetty had her 5 days of fame.

As i argue this issue with my friends a very interesting topic surfaces and then everyone here (UK) wonders about the India they see through the media lenses.

My friends are spellbound by a presenation about the type of pictures we show in Indian newspapers and here you can’t see a drop of blood in the news pages.

As the topic heats up I as a proud Indian proclaim there is nothing around that you wouldn’t find in India.

                                                             

Well my friends name a few things and they are all in India, right from snow clad mountains to deserts, draughts to tsunami and every religion to every kind of diverse culture and food.

So what doesn’t India have? Well India is Jack of all and master of none. The situation is a bit tricky with media portrayal of the country with rich culture.

I couldn’t believe my ears when i heard how people perceived my country and the impressions they had about it.

Imagine, you as an Indian are asked if you carry pots of water on your head everyday? I don’t deny that people in our villages still do that but not everyone in India does it.

But let me tell you of an incidence that a friend told me and that answered my question about why the world perceives India the way it does.

There is someone who explained to a European girl about India being governed by caste system and there being different classes and lowly professions.

And then the girl added that she was from a high class but now she mingled with friends who were also from low caste cause she was progressive.

When the European girl asked my friend if this was true none of us could control our laughter.

We couldn’t imagine someone painting such a picture of India and we call ourselves the ambassadors of a such a progressive country.

Though we explained to the girl otherwise and told her about India, I couldnt help thinking about the impression such things create in minds of people.

Guess India will always be a country that practices caste because of such people who want to say “I am upper class.”

Smile please!!!

A smile is a curve that sets a lot of things strait. Going beyond this I  would say, a smile is the beginning of  laughter that follows.

We laugh on lot of occasions and we say a lot with the way we smile. Smile is for every season and every reason.

Even when we are sad we smile a sad smile. Its like an antithesis but sad smile exists. Smile is the most useful expression to hide a feeling or convey one.

The other day i read that there are six types of smiles and each smile can be deciphered from the other if we look closely at a person.

The first smile is the true smile that comes from the heart and lights up your face. Its the sign that says i am happy and delighted. It is contagious.

The second smile is the one which says I am happy but it is a formal or a fake smile and doesnt reach the eyes. It just hovers over your lips and its strained.

The third smile is the one when u want to do something but are shy. This is used as a cover for shyness or to hide a fear. To appear cool and collected.

The forth smile is when we think of something out of the way, a bit of mischief. something is cooking up on our minds and we are pleased at ourselvrs. Its a secretive smile.

The fifth smile is meant to meant to greet or is reserved as a welcome smile. A warm friendly smile to make the other person you interact with feel welcome.

the sixth smile is a thieves smile. It is when u hide something and are trying hard not to show you have some dreadful secret which you don’t want to give away.

I found these smiles online and thought they did make sense because everyone of us has a special smile and ya there is another one which comes with Cheese… a smile exclusive to the camera which can capture it and freeze it in memory forever.

Celebrations?

New years really hold no charm for me. Its like any other day. Even if you try to make it special it doesnt really sound any different. What is fun these days? I think people have forgotten the meaning of fun. How to have fun is a question most have common answers to. The answers more or less is about lets go to some place, have dinner, go dancing in a pub and get drunk.

I donno if thats fun. Ya maybe to some thats fun. But i wonder if people really enjoy it… being admist strangers, drowning bottles of alcohol and trying to dance to the music that sounds like drums pounding in your ears.

I really dont know if people enjoy this or is it the only thing called enjoyment. I would love to know different ways that one can enjoy in. Something else besides drinking and dining and dancing admist crowds of people pushing and elbowing.

When i think of fun i cant come up with ways i would like to celebrate an occassion. What would an ideal new year for me be like? I really dont know. Or have we just forgotten to have fun, or is it just me?

Resolutions

I know its a very cliched thing to say that an year gone by and another’s here. I mean every year we say the same things. Every year we think that another year has passed us by and then start thinking what we did, how was it and what we want to do.

New year resolutions and the difficulty we have making them and then stick to them. I have never made resolutions, not because i wouldn’t stick to them but because i never knew what resolutions one makes.

Do people say they will stick to something, say they will pay more attention to their family. Cant we do it just like that. Do we need resolutions? I really dont know. There are so many things people can think of to make resolutions about, i go blank thinking of making them.

 I love sweets but i wont give up on them. Maybe conciously i would TRY and stop myself but can never stick to a resolve to not eat them or eat only so much. stopping yourself, thinking of should i have, shouldn’t i have? is the worst then just doing things and forgetting about them.

The year ends but i wouldnt say a chapter has ended and a new ones opened. Rather i would say a even great challenge awaits me and all those i faced before were small tests preparing me for greater ones.

little pleasures

I visit the sea when i need solitude and yet crave for a silent companion. A restless mind finds some peace transforming all the restlessness into the waves which take it far far away.

I use to sit at Marine Drive looking at the waves gushing on and on just like my mind. No words were necessary when the sea created the soft  music and the wind carried the tunes to my ears.                

The beach wasn’t too clean but the soft sands were comforting. Their rich brown colour facinated my eyes. U could draw any shapes into the sand,  create castels and then leave no trace of ur thoughts when u wipe it all out with a simple stroke of ur hand.

I loved the waters so full of energy and life, moving towards you to engulf you within its merry spirit. The tide broke at your feet and left you with a promise of more.

The long hours spend there with friends sitting on the high wall, making memories that i now hold onto, the best moment of my life was there. Sitting there, out of nowhere a gift I will cherish for life was received.

The well-kept secrets told, deepest of fears revealed, hopes discussed, futures planned and yet sometimes no words were needed when the sea spoke and i listened.

Sometimes just sitting there alone, contemplating, reflecting and wondering. It was always the sea i turned to for comfort because it washed away all gloom and infused me with new energy.

But today when i walk towards it the sea is no more restless, or is it just so to my eyes, the sands and beaches are clean but its not the dark brown colour that i crave for. The blue waters hold no magic and the wind howls in my ears.

Have i forgotten how to enjoy little pleasures in life or do i crave for the sea thats there and not the ocean that i can find everywhere.

Life’s lessons

“A failure is a first step to success…”

I have always got what i want, i am where i wanted to be. When i think of it its all gone smoothly so far. Always learning on the way.

Life for me so far has been a easy ride. Think of it and wish is granted. Its something i have realised. If i ask for things with all my heart i surely get them.

But does that mean when i experienced first signs of failure i didn’t ask for it with all my heart? No, it was just that i was concentrating on something else and not on what i want.

But then failures and difficulties and problems came to me because i am strong enough to accept them. I wont get bogged down by obstacles.

Thats how i look at things when the worst comes around. I know i can manage, pull out of everything and so its come to me. Not everyone is strong and so i am thankful they don’t have to bare the defeat.

Life has taught me to look at positives, to learn the good and leave out the bad. Its not idealistic but its a truth i have lived as i have gone through life.

Dreams are ideas taking shape in your mind and every dream can be moulded to reality. They are no fragments of imagination, they are the reality that you want to live.

Too many things crammed in, its difficult to desipher the meaning of what i really want to say. It simple ….

We all are confused within ourselves. We want answers to numerous questions. But if we try to work, one at a time and live our dreams, “Nothings impossible”.

 When inventing the light bulb Thomas Edison said “I have not failed. I have merely found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Many people would have given up, but Edison had the heart of ‘the experimentor’.

Nostalgia…

It’s three in the morning and my eyes refuse to rest. I sit and think of the many people I love and what they’ve been doing. Where have are lives taken us and where are we going to go from here?It’s a difficult question but some have come a long way and come still have miles to go. Some have learnt the harder way while some refuse to learn and grow up.Some are navigators of destiny while others have just left it to nature to shape them.My best friend has climbed the 1^st step and secured her destiny in matrimony. My best buddy is struggling to make his dreams come true, stretching limits and defying destiny. My friend from the school days have disappeared, keeping track is hard but I know that they are fighting it out since we were a mad bunch of warriors. The junior years were so full of dreams of what we want to do and where we want to be. Life was a blank canvas though we had some nations of what colours we want to fill it with. I wonder if everyone found the basic colour right?I found mine and yet the hues keep changing rapidly with time.Those days were total madness a time in life I want to relive again and again. Memories that refuse to dim with time like some others did. Experiences that speak of innocence and learning. Crazy things done instinctively. My friends from then have grown with me. Each one has made me realise the importance of an identity, a distinct personality that is you. Each friend from that life is unique. My closet friend then is ignoring herself for a career she always dreamt of creating.Graduation is like closing a chapter of your life and opening another. For me it was a new chapter in every aspect of life. A new journey of discovery, a process of growing up and accepting the full responsibility of yourself. The friends I met as I graduated were likeminded people, something like flocking of birds of same feathers. Here I made friends who would be maybe colleges in future or just friends who would give me a helping hand when needed the most.But they are not who I think about. I think of those friends who mean the most to me. I may not be the best friend to some but I try to be good. There are times when a friend means a lot and yet u cant say how much. You disagree, you argue, u even give up but still come back together coz u meant to be there together in ups and downs alike. There are friends who u just know will be there for u even if u call them once a year. The time and distances don’t affect that kind of friendship. I have those friends as well and today I wonder whose where and doing what? I have had the best memories with them though shared only a small piece of my life with them but they have given me a place in their hearts forever.

Friends are just friends. I am thankful there is a word called friend else it would be difficult to explain the emotions we feel. Some words really make life easy. You just say he/she’s my friend and I know what u mean…..