Blogito Ergo Sum - January 2012

How's That?

We decided to start the new year with an issue which would split through the covers and speed beyond the boundaries of thought.

All through last year, we kept an indulgent parental eye on the way our readers fielded our offerings.

And while random strokes of imagination were enthusiastically pursued around the green expanses of thought-scape, we found a preferred inclination to the glances towards the far pavilions.

The Far Pavilion section received most rousing hits, not surprising in that cricket and literature has often danced down the wicket together in fascinating partnerships.

Hence, as the new Edition of Scroll hits the stands  we invite you to the stands as well, to revel in the tales of flannels on the green…

After all, a spot of willow on a bit of leather is not a bad way to begin the new year.

Follow on …

Arunabha Sengupta is the co-editor of Scroll and the author of three novels, the latest being The Best Seller

Blogito Ergo Sum - October 2011

What ho!


Our editorial for this issue will be brief… because, to use a cliché, the man on whom the issue is based needs no introduction.


After a year of volcanoes, wars, revolution, tsunamis, earthquakes and financial crisis, at the end of it we wanted to laugh.


And who else can make us laugh than someone who has been doing so for the last hundred and ten years?


In the words of Evelyn Waugh, “Mr Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in.”


In the current day, we do lack a world where we can delight in.


However, while delighting in the world of the great writer, we also provide a glimpse of how the world – especially the world of press and writers – made it less than delightful for him during a troubled era in the history of man and the personal history of P.G. Wodehouse.


As a special treat, we have tried to create a complete Jeeves novella. However, we ask the readers to forgive the shortcomings, since no one has ever written like him – before or since.


Pip-pip.


Arunabha Sengupta is the co-editor of Scroll and the author of three novels, the latest being The Best Seller

Blogito Ergo Sum - July 2011

We call ourselves Scroll. And with good reason.

The possibilities of the word are aplenty.
It harks us back to the rolls of ancient papyrus, the sprawling parchments, on which worked painstaking quills of venerable steadfast scribblers - striving to crystallize their thoughts.

And in the modern day, it depicts the click of the mouse or the page down keystroke enabling us to read on beyond the screen.
 
Yet, in today’s world, is it satisfying to just scroll?

In Cognitive Surplus, his engaging and optimistic story of the connected world,  Clay Shirky ends with an anecdote about the four year old daughter of his friend. In the middle of a movie she was watching on DVD with her father, she got off her couch, ran to the TV set and started rummaging among the wires behind the screen.                           

Contrary to her dad’s conclusion, she was not checking for the presence of actors back there. It was not a childish simulation of personal backstage. Instead, she was wading her way through the cables, hunting for a mouse.

She was not content with watching what was dished out; she wanted to get involved and alter the  action.

The touching story throws glaring light on the virtual reality of the current world. Culture has changed. From consumers content with lapping up the offerings of elitist producers, the world is moving towards universal contribution and involvement. Television and newspapers, erstwhile monopolies of a consumerist community, are fast giving way to a Web 2.0 powered society. Man, the social animal, is clicking his way back to a community that transcends the geographical distances. A community which they don’t just join, but play a part in scripting.

We see the results of the change everywhere – in the modern wonders of decentralised systems, from Wikipedia to the YouTube, from Citizen Bloggers  to Facebook Revolutions.

True, Cogito Ergo Sum has made way for Blogito Ergo Sum.

Predictably, as in the case of any global trend, technological upheaval and changing thought process, this socially networked world has been quickly given the status of a panacea, a silver
bullet, a philosopher’s stone that will turn all that is evil into gold, with a brief intervention of  silicon.

Our previous issues have hinted at how the current world of technological advancements helps us authors embark on the fibre optic cables to circumnavigate the ivory towers of traditional publishers.
In this issue we take a step back and look at some of the pros and cons of the socially networked world. Is it really a solution to all the problems of the world? Or are there booby-traps embedded in the enmeshed social connections?


And in the spirit of the modern collaborative cyber-sphere of social capital, we have tried to capture the thoughts and opinions of readers in our analysis – the results of which are shared in a separate article.
Enjoy scrolling.

Arunabha Sengupta is the co-editor of Scroll and the author of three novels, the latest being The Best Seller