Update

Phew! All the posts and comments are back. But I’ve yet to access how much damage has been done and have to rework on the sites look. It’s 4.17 am now and my body is asking for some rest. So, better I go to bed before I look into all this.

So, am I disappointed?

On the contrary, I’m not. In fact, I’m overwhelmed. Being a blog focusing on a niche subject of Arunachal Pradesh and having very limited reach, I was not expecting that much vote (see the result stats here) and considering the other widely read blogs to which it was pitted against, I was expecting Arunachal Diary to be in the bottom in category to which it was nominated for. But you’ve proved me wrong. Thank you guys for taking out your valuable time to vote for Arunachal Diary.

Also congratulation to all the wonderful blogs that has won the award in the categories to which their blog was nominated.

The voting has begun and will continue till 10th of December, 2009. So why wait, head over to the voting page and vote for Arunachal Diary to make your very own Arunachal Diary a winner in the “Best Group Indiblog” Category.

You can vote for Arunachal Diary here.

It took me a while to decide switching to own domain but nonetheless, it did finally…whew!

Should I allow anonymous comments in my posts and risk personal attack on me again? Would I be able to ignore the comments that is not to my taste?

Well, I need your help here. Should I or shouldn’t I re-allow anonymous commenting in my blog?

Pour in your views through comments (for those having Google/Blogger or Open ID) and through your votes (who want to share their views anonymously) in AD Poll at sidebar. Poll closes 19^th of May.

Update:

For those without Google or Blogger or Open ID and those who want to comment anonymously can make use of ‘other’ option in the Arunachal Diary Poll to put in their comments/views on whether I should or shouldn’t enable anonymous commenting

Arunachal Diary is still in hiatus(:)) and would be back soon with more news and analysis on Arunachal. Watch out.

No!

There are some departments in the state government who doesn’t seem to know what ‘Plagiarism’ is; and shamelessly uses work created by others as if it was created by them. And I feel sick whenever I come across this tagline ‘Gateway to Serenity’ -used by Directorate of Tourism, Government of Arunachal Pradesh, to promote tourism of the state in ads, their site, etc. It reminds me of how one of my friend was cheated off his work without even acknowledging him.

The story dates back to about a decade ago when the state government, in order to promote tourism of the state, decided to makeover the Department of Tourism by giving it a logo and a tagline. The Directorate of Tourism, then decided to hold a logo designing and ‘slogan’ competition-the winning entry of which would be used as the logo and tagline of the Department. Like so many other enthusiasts-professionals and amateurs alike- two very creative young boys just out of the teens also decided to vie for the prize money-the winning of which would somehow suffice their pocket money for a month or so. So they designed a logo to be submitted to the Directorate of Tourism for competition. One of them, being very good at words and creative, tried his hand at the slogan competition as well.

The day came, the logos and the slogans were displayed, judged by the experts and winners announced. Confident after the spectator’s reaction over the slogan and logos designed by them-they thought they would bag the prize; but nowhere in the winners list, their names propped up. Thinking that the best man might have won they left the exhibition, satisfied over the spectator’s reaction.

But to their horror, when the Department of Tourism finally released their logo and tagline, the tagline submitted by my friend was etched with the logo – in same font style and in bold letters-‘Gateway to Serenity’. Since, the slogan was not a prize winning entry; they went to Directorate of Tourism to enquire how his slogan is being used for the promotion of the Department? Had his slogan adjudged the best entry contrary to that declared during the day so as to be used as department’s tagline?

Worst nightmare had yet to come. The then Director of the department instead of acknowledging and telling why his slogan has been used or if it had won the best slogan award-shoo them away. The Director said, “You are such a young boy, you would get much better opportunity later.” Only he knew, the boy was a college grad, unemployed at that time, had come to know, how about his entry is being used by the Department and why he is not acknowledged about it and not to claim the prize money. (I vaguely remember, only winning entry was to be used for promotion purpose and rest other entries were not supposed to be used. There was no condition stated in the advertisement for competition that the entries would become the property of the Department and they could use it at their discretion). Wonder, what impact that incident had left in the young minds! Feeling deeply hurt, they left the office not knowing what to do. Had it been today, I’m damn sure my friend would have sued the state government for ‘Plagiarising’.

I wonder, why he was not acknowledge while his work was used? Was the entire judgment procedure biased and manipulated? Wasn’t it the moral responsibility of the department to acknowledge his work (even if it was not adjudged the best and even if it was the property of the department as is the case with some contests) when the department used it?

No, I’m not writing this post to claim for his award after a lapse of about a decade or to check if the entire judgment procedure was biased etc. But because, I feel that he was wronged and because his creativity, his psyche must have been affected with that single incident. May such incident never happen to anyone else in the future.

(logo source: Arunachal Tourism)

Looking Back

When I started this blog, I was not sure if I could keep going on writing on this blog. A time came when I thought, that’s it, I’ m no more blogging, but support from Cho and Tallo and their contribution to Arunachal Diary and the words of encouragement from you readers kept me going.

During the year the blog sported different looks (hope you liked it) and I tried to incorporate new functionality in the blog like nav tabs (check out Home and About tab above the banner)-which is has to be made functional now.

While looking back at the posts that I did during the year, I found some posts utterly silly, some which I thought was good and some really bad. Never-the-less, below are some of the posts which I personally liked.

Callousness of Deptt. of Higher and Technical Education – the reason I liked it being the first post that I did.

Become a ‘Millionaire’ overnight

Is branding of Arunachal Pradesh a parasitic state justified?

Where do we belong…India or China?-this was what came to my mind instantly when I heard about Chinese Ambassador’s claim on Arunachal Pradesh.

I saw, I analysed and I hated it

Our feathered friends are in danger

Can Tani language become a lingua franca of Tani group?

Donyi-Poloism-Is it really an indigenous faith or an alternate form of Hinduism?

What’s the Cost of Arunachal?

The Bandh Culture.

Lastly, thank you readers once again for letting Arunachal Diary cruise through a year. Do keep visiting and put in your comments.