Authors who emerge from initially doing personal diary writing and blog writing have a definite rawness about their writing and characters and a sense of naked realism about their writing . The more from the inner gut the words and the images come out the more hard hitting and raw the writings are .

I have seen that over the year of blog writing I have immersed into an author and at the same time used my writing as a personal therapy for my soul and mind . It is a way of cleaning left over emotions churning out the pent up emotion and negative thoughts and images from my mind .Feelings about myself and others in my life , dealing with mixed emotions , my writing had taken care of that and much more .Since I am alone and single my computer screen has been like a bouncing board .My pages are with whom I share my emotions and dealt with my thoughts . My writing is a reals of my emotions and suppressed feelings and helps as a great release for me . That was it acts as a inner shower our cleaning of rotten left over feelings some stored in the subconscious for year on end that I have not managed to deal with one way of the other .

In that way blog writing is like a personal shrink of sorts for me and I just let myself go , the idea is to be brutally honest to yourself and to others .   Truth in your words I paramount you don’t care who you hurt or not , one just writes to stay sane I guess .I loose myself in my writing bringing out the death of my emotions through words and sentences . The more I tap the greater the release of emotions and the garbage of the mind just gets a grand shower .

That way for me my laptop and my blog are my two best mates and act as my shrinks as well .Now having developed into a story writer that rawness adds freshness to what I write and a sense or realism in my work .

For me it is my meditation where I focus on something for a long period of time in a day with out getting distracted to any other task .I narrate as I see it , with no fluff my dialogues follow the same pattern the words are real and so are the situations .

So I would encourage all to get into blogging it is the next step from diary writing and you don’t need to spend money on shrinks or metal health doctors . Blogging is a self healing therapy for the mind and the soul , it will sort you out better than any shrink I tell you and I have seen a few in my life .One Shrink I went to all she wanted was to try and sell me her next self help book for Rs 250 , even before we started the session and then she just went on to talk as if she knew exactly what my problem was and how I should be counselled by her more often . The other Shrink went even further he did regression on me and even did an entire brain mapping of my brain , that made me even more insane along with the horrid medication that made me sleep for weeks on end and made me lethargic and drowsy , none could heal me . What I needed was writing and blogging my true emotions vented out as words as and when the feeling emerge  within me or in my mind .

Writing also aligns your thoughts and then become a kind or re affirmation . By writing down what you want , how you’re want to feel , what you want in your current life you are making affirmation to help manifest the very things into your life that your write or visualise about . In that ay blog writing is also about visualisation and affirmations . But it should be taken as a prayer and stuck to dedicatedly I can safely say not once did I need to seen shrinks in the last five years of doing blog writing .

On top of that  you can do it professionally it is an even greater boon .

My days in Varanasi are going slow as usual , I went out to see the Arti the other day , but the rest of my time was spent in my room just gazing as an old Vedic temple outside my window . There is an old ac on top of the window as the rusted grills bare testimony to its age . The Vedic temple is that of Shiva with its pointed dome and a large lifted grey cemented courtyard . There are short stairs made of black stone that take the religious worshipper to the central sanctum where the Shiva linga is established .A group of girls get together at the steps in the evening as bright street lights light up the temple courtyard . There are young teenage kids playing with bicycle wheel or fooling around with kites . My hotel window starts the temple bang on and I loose myself at times watching the people and the going’s on around the Shiva temple .

Old and middle aged men congregate in the near by scooter parking their are some scary chairs and even a bench or two where folks sit and enjoy the winter evening , some engrossed in their hobbies like playing games on Tehri mobile , the others read the newspapers and the erst just sit and talk politics or what Aditya Yoginath is going to do next and why BJP should come back to power in Maharashtra .

There is an old ragpicker who sells coal and wood for fire to the temple and to the small homes around the area . He sits on a broken stool covers with black sooth , disheveled his clothes torn and worn out . He grunts and groans at times in the evening , and also uses the nearby temple walls to take a pee , he does it all in the open , imagine taking a leak on the Shiva Temple walls . When saree dropped woman bring food , garlands and Prasad to please the lord . The temple has metal cages as gates and is closed most of the time , it is safe to say that it does not have a permanent pujari . But the love of the locals keeps the place going and has still kept its relevance in the area of Durga Kunda .

I manage to enjoy a lassi in the traditional way inside a Kullhadh , and decided to have tandoori chicken today for dinner . Roast chicken in Banaras now that’s a luxury and I will be feasting on it today itself .

Corona is almost invisible here , hardly anyone wears mask , I am told there are hardly any Corona Patients in the city . It is the metro cities you see that have international flights that’s where Corona is killing , but in Varanasi is there no signs of it and the evening Arti was a testimony of that , where thousands mingled with each other on the ghats and in the many bazaars and bylines of the city , no one was wearing masks . It’s as if the people of Kashi think that the holiness and blessedness of the place will not let the evil of Corona effect it . Kashi’s piousness and religiosity will keep the virus and its lethal impact at bay .

I for one feel free maybe a bit lethargic at times but the city is a welcome change during the winter days and I am happy that I am free of any illness . Till then it’s tandoori chicken with sweet Lassi in my room . We might be headed for Allahabad in a day our two , that is another town I have fond memories of , it will help we might record a few more audio books there .

Baskin Robbin’s is another major attraction for me , situated near my hotel I do enjoy the mango and tutti froth there , in the middle of Varanasi we have a touch of American ice cream that is itself a wonder . What more on my way from the airport I also spotted the Taj Samudra , luxury in the middle of Ghats of death this is indeed a city of dichotomies .

The new micro blogging app in India which is doing the rounds and has suddenly surged into popularity is KOO aap and has become a favourite with the politicians many of it praising it as it is the true indigenous app built to take on Twitter national and it operates in 133 distinct Indian languages .KOO was developed by Aprameya Radhakrishna it is an app available on IOS and Aneroid . The founder company just raised 4.1 million dollars from Kalahari Capital’s recently .

KOO has been the darling of the politicians who have been after Twitter and Facebook for some time and have been miffed with them for not closing accounts that attack their respective parties or do not delete posts that are anti national . KOO is a nationalistic microblogging site as that it is absolutely independent and is being promoted as an Indian twitter with more then one billion Indians not speaking English and conversing in more then 100 regional languages , the microblogging site has language options like Tamil , Telugu ,Kannada etc . It can be downloaded for free from google app stores as well . You cans end messages and voice your opinion through 400 character messages that are sent through this site .

KOO was launched in March last year as part of the Digital India Aatam Nirbhar Challenge  and has surged in popularity recently .You can share text , audio and video formats with KOO app and being in multiple languages it caters to India and Indians specifically .

Lets hope India goes KOO KOO on this app and for twitter it will really be one flew over the Loo Koo’s nest .Team for them to take on the Indian version of twitter .

The government has serious issues with end to end encryption technology used by what-sap , twitter and other social media sites like Facebook and google . Here the government is holding discussions with these IT giants to not to encrypt their conversations .End to end encryption  is when the user and the sender can have a conversation and only they can read the chat no one else  not even the service provider . The government what’s to track and trace posts that ignite violence or spread mis information it says . It is also miffed with twitter for having deleted many accounts of people who had more right wing views .This has seriously bought into question net neutrality and the freedom of social media .As social media platforms they are free and any one can propagate any ideology , idea or voice . In that regards it is the duty of Social Media sites to keep their customer conversations encrypted and away from nay outside agency .

But due to Pulwama and other terrorist activities government needs this data to catch anti national and that is where the issue is . The government has tweaked the IT act so that they are able to track the digital foot prints of posts and trace it back to these ender itself that way helping in solving cyber crimes .

Fake news , automated accounts , spreading of mis information was also discussed by Government officials who asked for encryption keys from the social media sites that operate in the country .

The cyber crime unit team also said it was unable to capture data from Apple devices as they were very secure and could not be cracked open due to password , facial and figure print recognition technology . That way government is at the mercy of the technology companies and feels they lack behind non containing cyber crimes .The battle goes on as individual privacy vs national interest becomes a technology issue .

It seems the government has sprung to action and has taken to task microblogging sites like Twitter and others , for spreading misinformation , hate , communal disharmony , revenge porn , sex videos , child pornography and anti national content and posts . The attacks on Red Fort and the hijacking of the fort by the farmers was when the government sprung to action thousands of twitter accounts where blocked and closed , these where the ones asking people to join protesters at the red fort and insight violence . The government has been very critical of toxic content and has even formed a youth and volunteer task force to read analyze and remove toxic and socially harmful content and bloc social media accounts .

The Ministry of Broadcasting has also formed a panel that will review and censor content running on OTT platforms currently , censorship has arrived on OTT and it is very bad news for freelance content providers and actors alike . More censorship emend people who do know the nuances  of  making film will have a say on what people should see and that is very bad news for OTT professionals .

Where as under article 19 (2) we have the right of freedom of speech and expression these government officials say that that right is not absolute and in many court cases it has been muzzled and suppressed as well .This is exactly what the government is doing right now in the garb of nationals security and communal harmony  . The government is again trying to tell us what we can or cannot see , say or write that to me is gross intrusion off my rights and privacy .

Where their have been government ministers who have issued statements saying they respect Article 19 (2) and everyone has a right to say as they please , their are guidelines that need to be followed and they want social media sites to make money in the country and drive FDI but they must all follow the law of the land and respect it’s cultural roots and heritage .

Government is saying there is a line in the sand and there would be fins and punishment for those who break that line , again big brother is watching the state is always on the back of its citizens and this is no exception .

Article 19 (2) of the constitution is not absolute and is subject to reasonable restrictions as well . That reasonable is decided by the judge himself who is seeing the case papers . The government is saying that in the matters of the state and national security and integrity that reasonable will be exercised and sent out a clear warning to micro blogging sites that if they do not remove objectionable content from there sites and regularly monitor there content , there would be consequences in the ambit of the law of the land .They however prised the foreign exchange and business these social media sites got to the country and urged them to do business in the country at the same time respecting the law of the land .

Woke up cosy to hear the news that news That the Indian Government has come out with the committee which will be made up of volunteers who will monitor and identify social media posts that are running on the net . With the proliferation of Cyber Crime posts that attack the sovereignty and integrity of India , attack minorities , children and woman , relate to child abuse , terrorism , disturbing communal harmony will be monitored and removed . The Committee made of educated volunteers will be called Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre and it will deal with issues of Cyber Crime .

Anyone can register for the program but it is strictly volunteer based and no money is given to the volunteer .

‘One of the important objectives of I4C is to create an ecosystem that brings together academia, industry, public and government in prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of cyber crimes,’ a document of the home ministry said.

This programmed also envisages bringing together citizens with a passion to serve the nation on a single platform and contribute in the fight against cybercrime in the country .

Day’s fly by as another morning brings sunshine for me, today was to stay indoors day. As I got up late tired from the running around of yesterday. I was appraised by the Republic news channel that one of their reporters had died of COVID the guy must be barely 35 years old, someone so young died of the virus. I was taken aback as I swept through other stories on the net celebrities like Sania Mirza talking of their battle with the dreaded virus, she describes it as a horrific experience. The virus is killing indiscriminately, as new strands and new mutations of the COVID 19 virus are discovered in counties like Britain and Denmark. The world death toll stands at 2.5 million and that’s the official toll the unofficial numbers as much as five times higher which means more than 10 million deaths and still counting.  It seems even this year will go under the grey cloud of the virus as humanity tries somehow to stay afloat and try to get things normal not with much success, the Indian economy has struck and we are still not out of the recession, the only thing to be happy about is the Stock Market touching new highs but then when did the stock market take cues from the economy it is an animal of its own free will and no one can predict the markets.

Yes, the day flew by as I munched on prawn and rice and had a few cans of coke, I quite enjoy the Hershey Bar as dessert apart from that I relaxed on my bed contemplating and giving my clothes to the laundry.

The day passed by with more news of the farmer’s protest and celebrity Twitter fights. The only fun I have is on munching chicken lollypop at my friend Dab’s ka eating joint. Apart from that life just is passing me by as I aimlessly and wilfully nestle myself in its bowls.