Isspecial Cutting Chai – April 2007

One of the great benefits of blogging is that I have known a few people from all across the third rock from the Sun. Though some opinions hold that chatting and social networking lets you meet more people and make ‘friends’ more effectively. But my hobby isn’t what many mention in their profiles – “making friends.” I believe that you don’t make friends, friends just happen (no similitude to ‘shit happens’ here).

Online chatting and the current hysteria called ‘scrapping’ is necessarily (in most cases) a two-way communication. This is the advantage of blogging – though this phenomenon is very different in nature and practice from the other two mentioned above – you can’t just write (post) or just read (listen, watch). Or do both. The choice is yours. It is more democratic. Though democracy is not perfect, it is the best thing that we have now.

One of the bloggers from beyond India’s 22,716.6 kilometres of sea and land frontiers that I came to know since my early blogging days is Abaniko. He is from the Phillipines. My earliest recollection of this island nation is related to shoes, that of the former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos.

I came to know much about the archipelago and especially the people who inhabit it, through Abaniko’s posts. Though the world may be culturally and economically varied, there’s often more than one connecting thread. One would be the general antipathy towards politics and the people who run the game (or business). In a recent post Abaniko writes:

Simple. We’re not voting. Call us irresponsible, we don’t care. Voting is of no significance to us. Okay, I cannot speak for them but as for me, I don’t give a rat’s ass about elections. I admit I have become apathetic. And I won’t even apologize for it. I got tired of politics a long time ago. Did anything significant happen after the time of Marcos? Hmm?

For opening up a whole new world to me, the thirteenth Isspecial Cutting Chai (April 2007) is offered to Abaniko of Ang Anino ni Abaniko aka The Shadow of Abaniko.

I still remember his first comment on this blog, when it was known by some other name, on a post about the kurta and my liking for it.

Previous sipper Beth Loves Bollywood (March 2007)