Introducing the AID India Bhopal Blog

A letter from AID India.

What? - A Bhopal Blog for AID volunteers to voice their concerns

Why? - To show our solidarity and support for the victims of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy as they march for their rights

How? - A simple click and some encouraging words ....

It has been 21 years and more since the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, but the real tragedy continues on today, in the form of denial of justice and clean surroundings and water for the affected people in Bhopal. Justice delayed is always justice denied.

To address this issue, the survivors and citizens of Bhopal alongwith their supporters and well-wishers have taken out a padayatra (march on foot) from Bhopal to the national capital, New Delhi, where they hope to submit their grievances and demands to the Prime Minister of India. This is all the more ironic because their demands actually constitute those basic amenities of life that all of us, without exception, take for granted everyday - clean drinking water, clean surrounding environs and deliverance of justice.

The marchers will make their way through various communities affected by pollution including communities affected by Coca-Cola and its policies during their one-month long march on foot to the capital. They will screen various enlightening movies and hold discussions to spread awareness about what happened in Bhopal and to highlight similar problems faced by communities across the country.

You can help the citizens of Bhopal and the marchers now, with your words of encouragement and your assurance to them that come what may, we are all behind them in their time of need and in their rightful protest for what is due to them. All it takes now is a click of a mouse and a punch of keys -

Yes, now AID has launched a blog (web-log) for the latest updates from the march to Delhi and developments related to the Bhopal issue. You can leave your comments, thoughts and words of encouragement for those engaged in the battle for rights and their supporters by simply logging onto the blog and leaving your comments to the various articles.

The blog can be reached at: http://bhopal.aidindia.org/blog

You can leave your comments by clicking on the "comments" link at the bottom of each article on the blog. This is an effort to show the victims of Bhopal's Gas Tragedy that we, the volunteers of AID both in India and the US, are united as one behind them and fully support their cause and their demands for justice. All it takes is one click on your part: http://bhopal.aidindia.org/blog NOW!

You can also donate to the AID fund set up for the Bhopal victims online at: https://secure.aidindia.org/aidadmin/DonatetoBhopal.jsp and visit http://bhopal.aidindia.org for more resources.

You can also inform your friends and families about a grassroot effort which goes long way.

This is a novel opportunity for you to show that you really care about bringing justice to those that is has been denied for 21 long years now - and that they have behind them a worldwide family to support them.

An AID volunteer like yourself,
Kartik, Tempe.

the Blank Noise blogathon

We don't approve of women's day — it marginalises, we think — but we do think that sexual harassment is a problem that needs more awareness, so, here's a mail we got from one of the people behind the Blank Noise Project

To recognize Women's Day, and as part of an effort to build a core constituency that is aware of the Blank Noise Project, we're organizing a blogathon for Tuesday, the 7th of March. Blank Noise is asking other bloggers to post about their experiences of sexual harassment - as a victim, perpetrator or bystander - at work, at home or in the public sphere. On International Women's Day, which is March 8th, it would be exciting to see the theme of harassment become audible on the Indian blogosphere.

If you will participate, email blurtblanknoise@gmail.com to let us know - then on March 7th, we'll link to all the participating bloggers from the Blank Noise homepage, and hopefully it will be an archive that will help us understand and stay angry about harassment. For the time being, it would be great if participants posted on their blogs in anticipation, to spread the word. Spread the word in other ways, too.

BNP's target audience isn't really the blogging community, but the Delhi arm of the campaign is a young one and this will be a encouraging step, whether effective or just symbolic, towards interventions closer to the street.

Hit us up with any questions you have about the blogathon or the campaign as a whole.

Please use this Technorati tag on your Blog-a-thon posts: blog-a-thon 2006
Here's the code you can copy and paste: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/blog-a-thon%202006">Blog-a-thon 2006</a>

Jessica

If you're in India, and have a cellphone, and if you're unhappy about the verdict in the Jessica Lal murder case, SMS the word jessica to NDTV's 6388 number. They plan to petition for a fresh trial.

oh,

..and speaking of funny, exceedingly fine writers that make us go green (except that in this case we can't say "wish we coulda thunk that one up," 'cause no one asks us questions, period), for a laugh-your-arse off, side-splitting set of FAQs, you have to see this.

Sigh. Now no one's gonna come back here.

Procastination, thy name is Zigzackly

We've been meaning, for quite a while, to point you to some blogs we discovered (and in some cases, rediscovered) over the last month or so, but we just didn't get down to it. You'll probably know some of them, and if not, hey. it's time you waddled over to:

2x3x7

+: etcetera :+

Domain Maximus

One in a Billion

My other shoes are Manolos

Beer, anyone?

All with a great sense of humour, all exceedingly fine writers, the kind that make us go green and say "Gawrsh. I coulda thought of that." Except that we never do.

Ah well. Go. Enjoy. And y'all come back now, hmm?

Hello? Anybody there?

Damn.

30+

Somewhere around now, the li'l ticker on the right should ping 30,000 visits. Yes, we know, piddly stuff when you compare it to the A-listers, but hey, we're easy to please.

So thank you, all of you who come here looking for Nidhi Razdhan and the Family Guy and Mumbai Pervert. We couldn't 'af done it without you. *sniffle*

:( we didn't, by the way ):

Get this, we mean.

The end

“You write one more fifty-fiver, and you’re dead, mate.”

“Dude, it’s like this really cool meme! All my writer buddies are doing it!”

“I don’t care. I’m sick of it. I want to see a fully developed story. A long, meaty read.”

“I don’t care. I have to write one. I must, I — argh!”

¶ 55 words

St V

i would prefer to have done a serenade
but alas, my throat was just not made
for soothing notes and romantic ballads
it vastly prefers stuffing down salads

Nine-day wonder

We haven't infested your feedreader/browser for a bit. That's partly because of the contests we mentioned *gawd, it's Feb already?* last month. Mother and Flash Fiction are doing well, thank you, but SMS Poetry is looking kinda sickly.

The other reason we were out of your long and curlies can now be revealed. We were busy midwifing a CollaBlog (there he goes again) that will live, love, procreate, etcetera, for the duration of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. There's some cool bloggers aboard, some you'll know, some brand new, Megha's done her usual excellent job with the look, we have droned through the sermon, and said grace, and now it's over to the choir, who will take you on a mad, merry ride for the next nine days.

Brothers and Sisters, for your viewing pleasure, The Kala Ghoda Gazette.