Wednesday, May 16, 2007
EEtiquette
I have always wondered why eetiquette is so bad. It must be because of blind imitation of what the Americans do. It seems that they long ago stopped beginning an e-mail with "Dear Gruesome" or even "Hi Ghastly" and instead start off with "Plugugly:" and break the line or simply "Plugugly" without even the colon, or in the worst case simply start off with the message. Now this diease has spread even to the comments section of blogs. I, on the other hand, will resolutely oppose such barbarianism and will always start with atleast a Hi, or a Dear.
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5 comments:
You could begin your posts with "Dear reader."
Or you could recognise that comments are just that -- comments, not personal letters to you. Think of them as sub-posts of your post.
E-mail is a different matter. Different users have different expectations. In the techie community, where e-mail first became popular, brevity and informality are preferred, top-posting (quoting earlier mails at the bottom) is detested, and so on. In many current users the standards are just the opposite. One should probably decide by who one is writing to.
To use a real-life analogy: the Indian tradition would probably say that students should not address teachers by their first names; they should say "sir" (or "ma'am"). But using first names is common practice in most physics departments, including at IISc (at least when I was there). As a new student, it made me uncomfortable for about a week, then I got used to it. As a faculty member, I vastly prefer it. It would be rather retrograde to say "I will resolutely oppose such barbarism" and insist on "sir".
Hi Handsome!
Just wanted to say it, that's all. I really have nothing more to offer ...
On second thoughts, perhaps, I can offer a real comment. Could you please upload a real handsome picture of the real handsome you? The current picture in the "About Me" section sucks ...
Hi Rahul,
Thanks for your comments. I have no special views on the use of "Sir". In fact, one colleague who is much younger wrote saying that she would be leaving her comfort zone if she was to call me anything but `Sir'. I would be leaving my comfort zone if I was to refer, even almost 16 years after my Ph. D., to my boss (yes, he will always be the boss) as `Dear Qaisar' rather than `Dear Dr. Shafi'. I guess what makes us so human and lovable is our irrationality. Or does it?
Love, Anant
Hi Abi,
Thanks for your comment. I am shocked and surprised that you do not like the great act of creativity that went into generating the picture. I used the digital camera given by, yes US based doctor sister, and took a picture and used our windows PC to upload, used my stick to download and then install onto my apple and then uploaded the picture. The picture is that of the silhouette made in (I swoon whenever I think of it) no less a place than Place de Terte in (I swoon to think of it) in Paris. Furthermore, if you saw the log of Raman Research Institute, you would know where I get my inspiration from. That is about as close I will ever get to being Raman, I guess!
Love, Anant
Hi Rahul, Abi,
Just two more things: I just checked that `barbarianism' is also a kosher word. Also, my picture can only be an also ran to the wonderful portrait of that great hero of mine, Barbarindian.
Love, Anant
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