What do you do when an old aunt you meet at a wedding , pokes you in the ribs and chuckles as she declares to all around her..”you’re next in line sweetie !!”…Well, what I would like to do is poke her back in the ribs..But I have a feeling that would’nt go down very well with the family. So instead what I do is smile one of my famous ’’ put-on-smiles’’ and swear to myself that when I bump into her at a FUNERAL, I’ll do what people in sitcoms and jokes always do…..poke her and chuckle..”its ur turn next , sweetie”.
Im sure you must have had those times… when you would like to say what you really wanna , but u cant, so ure forced to swallow it….. Isnt that like, really frustrating ???
And you know how you always think of a smart retort to a rude person, right after that person has left the scene ? Man ! That’s really annoying …
Well, it was when I was ranting about one such occasion to a dear old friend of mine, that I first heard of MS. He said it was the perfect site for someone like me, who apparently had so much to say, but no one to tell it to !!!! ( well, whether he was trying to drop the hint that he wasn’t particularly interested in my grouses or not..it doesn’t matter.. cos that’s how I joined MS anyway !! )
I was barely two weeks away from the biggest exams of my life…. And so I’d decided I wouldn’t join right away. ( as it is , what with test cricket live on TV, and a few rather lovely books, I was doing a wonderful job of whiling away my study time!! ).
I read about a dozen reviews on Sachin Tendulkar, my favourite cricketer, and I was positively beaming , at all the wonderful things so many wonderful ( heh heh ) people had to say about him..when suddenly I chanced upon a negative review !
Now as all my friends and family know, the one sure shot way of getting me all worked up is to criticize Sachin .
Well, that did it ! I had to leave a comment !! But aah ! U havta get registered for that, don’t you ?? So that is how , I signed up. And of course , I had to get that review on sachin in !!!!
Well. Suffice to say that it’s a miracle I actually got through those exams , considering I spent all those hours on MS !!!
Now why does it do that ? I mean, this isn’t the only interactive site around…..i have checked out a couple myself …. But I have never found anything like MS !
And its not just in the quality of writing, cos both sites I’d checked had almost professional sounding reviews ! ( which is again the key, cos when you’re reviewing something, you don’t really wanna sound like a pamphlet or a catalogue ..do you ? )
That’s why I think its so important to have that personal touch in your reviews . So that a reader knows exactly why you favour something or don’t ! For instance , say ure reviewing a big and famous actor…. You jus cant get away with saying, you think the guy is too hyped up !!!! You have tell them you don’t like his style of acting cos he tends to over do things ..or that he’s too gimmicky or whatever . ( And no, im not referring to a certain Mr. Khan here ! ) If you’re reviewing a movie its what YOU think of the movie , that would make a better review , than a plain old reproduction of the plot !!
The best thing about MS is the comfort level. At the expense of sounding a wee bit sentimental , I’ll say that this is like one big family ! One big community indeed. As one of our members wrote recently this is indeed like your lounge, or the common room of your college dorm ! There’s an amazing level of comfort here. You tend to get so familiar with the regulars that its almost like you know them personally . I mean, if I wanna read a review on movie just out , I’d go straight to Jaya’s profile , cos I know hers would be one of the first ones out , I know that Teena sri thinks as highly of Sachin as I do , I know that Lyla ( Cousin2) loves to travel as does ashford ! I know that Satishkl “LOVED” the movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham as much as I did ( heh heh ! Did’nt u , satya ? ). Okay, Okay, I know a lot more things about a lot more members , but this is supposed to be a review on MS , not on the members !!!!
Its wonderful that people have such totally diverse views on the same topic…that’s why the comments section is really the best ! Cos often that’s when you get a totally different angle on things ……and sometimes , I must admit, it does make sense from that angle too ! I think its so very nice to leave your appreciation , or your disagreement or your view on a review ! Even if it’s a negative comment, I think it says something about your review, if someone choses to leave a remark !
Tho’ I must say , ive had had this member ( now thankfully no more around ).this guy was like a stalker…..yeah a cyber stalker his sole purpose was to go around reading my reviews, giving them NR or SR and leaving nasty comments or sending me m2m’s telling me he thought I was a blot on humanity ( or something to that effect ! ) , and then plagiarizing reviews himself !!!! Anyway, that’s part and parcel of an interactive website like this one, but I don’t understand why people do things like this ! ( okay, stupid thing to say ! ) I suppose its something like being a “serial –telephone crank-caller “….a perverse pleasure !! ( and come to think of it, what with caller ID phones, a whole lot less dangerous too !!! ) ( I hope that’s not giving any ideas ! )
Writing on MS whether , my review gets an HR or not , is curiously very satisfying!! I mean, if earlier I could tell my (unfortunate) friends , exactly what I thought of the latest film, I now get to tell about ten times more people the same thing ( and without their laughing it off with “ Oh , annu, give the poor bloke ( the director) a chance” type comments !!!
So That’s what writing on MS is all about ..to me ! Im not gonna give you tips on how to write a good one or how not to write a bad one…cos everyone has his or her own style and that’s the whole fun of a site like this ! As long as you write whatever you honestly feel, I think your review would be a great one !!!!!
So hey when that old aunt pokes me next time around, im gonna murder her…..on MS that is ….I hope Aarti & Faisal accept my suggestion to have a category on “nosy , old relatives “ !!!!! :-)