A couple of weeks ago I was in Nainital, attending the Kumaon Lit Fest as one of the speakers… and my session was on blogging in the digital age. That session that was shared with Philippa Kaye was scintillating and the audience loved every bit. But what I am about to tell you is what happened after we had come down from the dais and I was sipping coffee in a dark corner on the lower lawn of Abbotsford there.
M K Raina, the theatre actor who I really adore ( he was the one who gave away the first painting award that Pushkin, my son won way back in the late eighties at the Safdar Hashmi Trust function) walked up to me and said in a low voice, ‘Hello. May I ask you something?’
I turned, recognised him, and gushed, ‘Of course, sir. It is a pleasure to have you asking me something.’
‘Can blogging do what the pen does?’
Some questions appear simple but are difficult to answer. I thought for a while and then said, ‘Blogging is a medium to communicate thoughts and ideas and its tool is the keyboard. The written word in the print media is also a medium to communicate thoughts and ideas but its tool is the pen. If the person wielding the pen intends to #SpreadLove, he can… and if a blogger uses his keyboard to #SpreadLove, he can reach people globally in this digital age.’
MK said, ‘Ah! So spreading love is what matters.’
I looked up at the clear sky full of stars and added, ‘Caste, religion, and boundaries fade into nothingness when people get busy spreading love. The festive season is here and I wish we went on to #SpreadLove through our pens and keyboards.’
‘Good,’ said M K Raina, and then after some hesitation, added, ‘I am not very sure, but don’t you think the new generation uses smartphones, iPads, and Tablets and, therefore, may not be using keyboards?’
I smiled. I then told him that even smart devices have the facility of a real keyboard and not just the virtual one on the screen. I then took out my own Logitech K480 and showed him how it connected without a glitch to my smartphone and I could type without the fear of typos and misspellings that finger-typing can lead to.
‘But most important is to spread love,’ said my idol from the theatre and I nodded in agreement because only love has the power to make life endlessly delicious!
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Note for readers: Do share how you want to #SpreadLove in the comments below… or maybe tweet your idea on spreading love with the hashtag to me @arvindpassey
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Blogging in the digital age must help #SpreadLove
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Arvind Passey
10 November 2015
