Friday, November 16, 2012

How I Fought Plagiarism And The Ways To Curb It! - II

*             *              *

Jolly sardar stretched his hand as he saw me coming after my first lecture. Balwinder aka Ballu has been studying with me for the last one year but I have never seen such a big smile on his face while greeting me. We made a handshake.

‘What an article, sir jee?’  said he.

‘Did you read it?’ I asked him with a surprise.

‘Almost half, then, there was a power cut. But, what I read was superb. You really write well,’ he said still holding my palms.

‘Just trying my hand on blogging,’ I said as I slowly pulled out my palm from his long, heavy fingers. We both moved in opposite directions in fraction of seconds.

Although it felt great getting appreciation from my classmates but there was still a pain in me of the last night. I attended my lectures for the day and went back home.

* * *

After having my dinner for the day, I wrote a long post mentioning my blog post link, Aakash blog’s link and my grievances at indiblogger family at the facebook. Priya posted the link to other blog posts or websites from where Aakash copied his several other blog posts. Several other fbians joined our discussion on the post and started giving their suggestions. I was talking to them when suddenly a chat message popped out. It was from someone named, Namitha. I greeted her. She suggested me to post comments at Aakash’s blog and also to ask my friends to do the same. I did not understand the logic behind it. But Namitha persuaded me by saying that we should try to get so many comments there that the blogger feel ashamed of his plagiarism act. Priya was the first to comment on Aakash’s blog, followed by few others who were part of the discussion in the indiblogger family at facebook. I started pinging all my online friends and requested them to comment on Aakash’s blog. Soon Balwinder, Aastha, Naren, Aabhar and few others commented on his blog. Every comment was cursing the blogger for his act. It was total ten comments when Naren asked me to stop.

‘He might not be  aware of the evil. Is it right to post so many bad comments?’ he asked me.

‘What can we do otherwise?’ I replied with another question.

‘Can’t we wait a little? The guy does not seem to be online.’

I thought for a moment. I was of course hurt by the act but the good part somewhere deep in my heart still did not agree to hurt the ones who hurt me.

‘OK, we should stop today with the comments but if the guy does not remove his blog post after two days, we will continue with it with a faster speed,’ I declared finally.

Naren agreed for my condition with a smile. We all departed for the day and decided to act more rigorously if we did not achieve our goal after several comments.

*            * *

Few more appreciations from few others literary lovers came to my chatbox within next days. The pain was reducing gradually and slowly but I almost decided not to blog anymore. But, then she pinged. Who’s she? She is Deepika. I added her just the last day when saw a friend request from her. We exchanged the normal hi/hello stuff and then she sent me the link to a facebook profile. It was profile of Aakash Mishra.

‘Are you sure? Is he the same guy?’ I asked Deepika.

‘Yeah, I am chatting with him. :)’ she replied back.

I took Deepika’s pardon and tried to read about me of Aakash’s profile. He was some engineering student from some engineering college from the NCR region. Luckily, he was in my friend list so I was able to get all his details now. In the recent months, my friend list has been increasing with greatest speed from requests from literary lovers and people who somehow read my blog. He might be one of them. I sent the profile link to Priya. She cursed me by saying that she is seeing no input from my side to punish the culprit. I could just smile at her comment.

‘Hi,’ I wrote to Aakash.

‘Hey,’ he greeted me back.

We shared some normal conversations before I gave him my blog link asking him whether he copied my post from my blog.

‘Yes,’ he replied it without hesitation.

‘Have you heard about plagiarism?’ I asked him.

‘No,’ he replied in no seconds.

What should I say to a guy who was so innocent, who did not know the meaning of plagiarism? He just completed his higher secondary school last year and joined some engineering. He believed that knowledge is important but not the way how it is shared or from where it is copied? How could I punish such an innocent guy? We did not exchange any words for few minutes.

‘What are you doing?’ I asked him after several minutes.

‘Was searching for the meaning of plagiarism.. Is online from mobile, so, it’s taking a little time,’ he explained.

I laughed out loudly on his sentence. I took a deep breath and explained him about the act of plagiarism and the plagiarized articles. He took no seconds in deleting his copied blog post. He promised me that he will delete all his plagiarized articles in a day or two or will try to give credit to the original authors and also will renovate his blog. I felt better after two full days. We talked about several other topics. He was greatly impressed by the talks we made and asked me for a guest lecture at his college. I would have loved to have the honor. But, I spend all my lectures sleeping in the first bench. How could I give another set of students same sort of torture? It took me long to convince him that I won’t be able to come to his college for the lecture. We still chat several times on several other topics and I really find Aakash a nice guy.

So, this is my story of my plagiarized article. I hope I did not bore you much. By the way, there are a lot of ways to curb this act. There are good html codes available on internet which when you paste in your blog/website can disable right clicking of the mouse thus preventing the copying option. But if you are not comfortable so much with html codes, you can always use copyscape.com. There are limited number of times when you can use it. But, if you need an urgency for it, you can surely buy a premium copy. And, if not there are always people like Namitha who come with a boom to save bloggers like me. Go on commenting the blog. By the way, I am not using html code for this blog post, nor will use copyscape for it. Why? Because I want you to share this short story in your blog/website even without giving me a credit because some kid taught me some day that knowledge should be spread, no matter from where we copy-paste it. That’s all for today, keep blogging, keep smiling. Bbye for now.. :)

Friday, October 12, 2012

How I Fought Plagiarism And The Ways To Curb It! - I


Thanks for the great response that you all gave me for my first short story – Life after college. May be that is why I am trying to write more and more these days. I think after writing my blog for more than four months now, I can call myself a blogger. Although, I never wanted to become a blogger but still I am now. I had a dream, the dream to become an author. But the process of getting published is really very time consuming and I may also call it frustrating some time. And, I did not want to kill my passion for writing. So, that’s how I became a blogger and you are here. Hey wait, this is not a story on how to become a blogger? But, the story of a blogger through his blog. I have changed the name of the characters for any disputes. So, today let me tell you another short story. 

Following my rule of posting one or two blog posts every month, I was still confused what to write in my blog this month. Today is a Sunday and normally this is the day when I write my blog posts. I opened the word document and went deep into the ocean of thoughts and after thinking a lot posted my article named, ‘The True Meaning of Victory’.  Since, I was already late for my dinner, I went out to have it. When I returned it was already 10. Now, my blog needed some visitors. Because when you write something you want others to read it. There may be a lot of ways to drive visitors to your blog. At a later stage when your blogs becomes popular search engines play a vital role. But, my blog was still to get its popularity at Google. So, I use facebook, the love of so many youngsters these days. I am a member of more than 100 of the literary groups with thousands of members in each of them. I posted my blog link with few lines from my post in several of the groups after I updated my blog posts in my status. The people who even did not open the blog started liking my status by just reading the line from my blog. On the other tab, my gmail was open as always. I checked in my mail that a comment was written in my blog post. Just this message in my inbox brought a smile on my face. And, why not, it was less than two hrs and I received a comment on my blog. What could be better than this for a blogger?  I went to my blog and checked for my first comment. I felt like somebody has taken my kidney out of my body after reading my first comment. It said, ‘Awesome Words! I am copying it ....’ 

     All my hard work and thought process was of less importance now. The time value of 2-3 hrs that I spent this evening meant nothing. The comment was from someone named ‘Aakash Mishra’ and trust me if the guy would have been standing in front of me, I would have taken no seconds to kill him. I had a deep pain. I didn’t know how to react, what to do, whom to ask for help? I searched through the long list of my online friends and my eyes stopped at Abhinav. Abhinav is one of the leading blogger of the country and has more than 700 posts in his blog now. His admirers include leading movie actors to the bestseller authors from the industry.

I did not feel like greeting him. My first words in our chatbox were, ‘Yaar, updated my blog right now and the first comment is I am copying it. What should I do?’

‘Tell him to give credits,’ he replied back instantaneously.

I thought for a moment. Do I have a choice? With a sad mood, I wrote those words, ‘Aakash, it would be really great if you mention at the end of your post/article that it is copied from the blog followed by the link, I don't have a problem in that.. :)’ and asked Abhinav whether it is fine to post in my blog comment.

He replied with a yes and we ended our conversation by greeting each other.

I felt more upset for that moment. Allowing someone to copy from your answer-sheet in exam is easy, but allowing someone to copy it from you blog with a smiling face is very difficult. Although, I did the tough job by replying to his comment.

     However, I was not happy. Can’t anything be done with those who rob our contents? There should be a way to punish them? I had a lot of questions fighting in my mind with no answers. I felt like my head was going to burst. I shut down my laptop and kept it in my cupboard, switched off the light and rested my head on my pillow.

*             *             *

It has been almost an hour since I switched off  the light. The time can really be very slow when you have something going in your mind. I was almost tired by changing sides of my bed when the James Bond in me shouted out, ‘C’mon, you can’t let it go like that; wake up and search for the culprit; punish him or teach him a lesson.’

        I don’t know others. But the James Bond in me never listens to me after he decides about something. I woke up and in just few seconds was switching on my laptop. Aakash teasing comment was still ruling on my blog post. I clicked on to look for his blogger profile. There was no picture of the blogger and not enough detail. I started clicking on his blog shown in his blogger profile one after another but, still was unable to find mine blog post.  

‘Oh, I must use copyspace.com,’ my mind gave me a quick thought.

Copyscape.com is a website which shows the links of all the websites or blogs that are copied from a link when you paste the link on the search bar. I pasted the link of my blog post and here it was. Aakash blog’s link was shown below. I took no time in reaching his blog. My blog post was in front of my eyes with the same title, same picture, but no link of my blog in it. I went to contact us page of the blog and was disappointed not to find any details of the blogger. I flipped among different posts and pages without any use. I logged in my facebook account back and pinged Abhinav.

‘I got the blog of the guy and my post but no reference :(,’ I wrote in the chatbox.

‘If he does, it’s very nice. If not, you can do nothing. That happens bro, get used to it,’ he replied back in another second.

‘All my words, my views, my ideas,’ my pain showed in my words. ‘How can anybody post it in his/her blog?’ I questioned him although I knew he doesn’t have an answer to my question.

‘It happens, with me it happened a several numbers of times,’ he replied back.

     ‘And, even the same picture from my blog.’

     ‘The side effects of publishing our views on our blog which is open to all..’

    I gave the culprit link to Abhinav and asked Abhinav if I can somehow find his email id. None of us exchanged any words for next few minutes. I still moved from one posts to another of the blogger for may be finding even a small and minute detail of the blogger but of no use. I mean, I had only his name ‘Aakash’ and that too in a country where there is a Aakash studying with you in all your school or college days.

     ‘There are no details available about the blogger,’ Abhinav replied after few minutes.

I felt disappointed. I closed my chat window without replying him any further. I tried to look for other updates in the facebook but didn’t find anything interesting now. I saw an update from Priya. If I don’t tell about Priya the story will be incomplete. Priya is also a blogger. We are from the same city, the city of Delhi but we never met each other and enjoy our presence together at facebook. Life at facebook is so different. We don’t know each other well. We have never seen each other but still we share a special bonding with each other. Although Priya and I may be of similar ages but her profile shows she is the managing director of some magazine that I have seen only at her profile. I pinged her with my problem as she was upset with the same problem of plagiarism just few days back. She understood the whole problem and asked me to report about the plagiarism at Indiblogger Family group at facebook. My mind and body were in no mood to take more pain and so, I shifted the plan for further proceedings next day.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

So, it’s a bandh today!

“We live in India and are proud to be Indians,” all of us are used to of saying these words since our childhood. But, today I don’t feel so proud of being an Indian. Today there has been a bandh called by the opposition party in the name of hiked diesel prices, reduced number of gas cylinders, FDI in retail and so on. There has been a bandh few months back in May too. But still I am not able to understand this way of showing the protest. Is it the correct way to show our anger? I don’t want to discuss here which party is correct or which party is wrong. But these lonely roads in the city haunt me even in my dreams. 

I am not someone who gets deeply affected by the bandh or any of the hiked diesel prices, reduced number of gas cylinders or FDI in retail. I am just a common young guy who travels in the bus when required, had to rush to his hostel canteen when he feels hungry and no matter whatever the retailer charges, he will pay the price. Then, why am I mourning? I am mourning because I think about millions of young kids who woke up early this morning and rushed to their schools but had to return after seeing a big lock on their school gate. I think about that passenger among those thousands of passengers of the trains whose train was stopped by some protestor and he could not reach home on time where his mother was still ill and looking for him before she takes her last breath. I think about millions of laborers who could not go to work because of this bandh and will starve with hunger. I think about millions of shopkeepers who are forced to close their shops by some party.  I think about millions of those auto rickshaw drivers who would still be looking for passengers and so on. And, I feel so sorry because I can’t do anything for any of them. I am writing this article because once somebody told me that pen is mightier than sword and I believe if at least one of you understands my reason to write this article, the goal is achieved.

I don’t say that we should not protest against evils prevailing in the society, we should and we must.  But, I believe that bandh is not the correct way to do it. We can always opt for better ways. Maybe, we should try to protest in front of the Constitution. Maybe we should stop the vehicles of those politicians who are behind these steps and not the poor auto rickshaw-walas. Maybe we should not try to affect our daily meals but of those politicians who fill their belly to its maximum capacity before coming out for a bandh. I think then we would be able to show our protest in a better way and we all could call ourselves- “a proud Indian.”

Sunday, August 12, 2012

The True Meaning Of ‘Victory’


I always used to find the true meaning of the word ‘victory’ from my childhood. When I was a small kid, I used to top in my class exams, my teacher used to say that I was a victor and achieved victory. But then, I would look at not-so-happy face of my dear friend who was second to me in the exam. Does that mean victory comes after making someone sad? I was not sure. I tried to find it at different places, searched for it in the playgrounds of school, mark sheets of colleges and so on. But still I was not satisfied. For me, a victory does not mean to hurt someone neither does it mean to upset anyone. Some friends said me that Google is the best search engine available in the world. You feed any words in it and there will be millions of results within fraction of seconds. I searched for victory meaning in it. It said, ‘An act of defeating an enemy or opponent in a battle, game, or other competition: an election victory’. I was still not convinced. Is defeat of an opponent required to be a victor? Many years passed but I was still unable to find the true meaning of victory. Then, one day, I found it. I found it just in my home.

      My father and elder brother used to do hand wrestling from the day I was a kid. My dad is of course the strongest man I have ever seen from my childhood. I would sit by side of my brother and cheer him up. But my father would defeat him all the time and smile at us. But one day, I found my elder brother winning over my dad. And, still the same smile on my dad’s face. Who is a victor – My brother or my dad?

      We spend days eating food cooked by our mother from our childhood. We try to find mistakes in the food that mothers cooks and try to eat less by making small excuses. I and my younger sister were no different from other kids. But the day when my sister made her first chapatti and my mother ate it, she had a smile on her face. The half baked chapatti tasted her better than what I could imagine. Who is the victor – My sister or my mother?

      May be that was the day I could find the true meaning of the word ‘victory’. I think it does not mean to defeat someone, neither to show someone low in front of others. It means to bring smile on everyone’s faces that are associated with it. Hope you are smiling at the moment. Take care, bbye for now. :)

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Somewhere deep in my heart, the GOOD and the BAD fight..

I don't write a poem usually and the few I wrote still are limited to my school magazine. But, I don't know how and why a struggle between two parts of my heart finally ended into a poem. Before this poem loose its power to express and I find something more interesting to post in here, I hope it's better to share my poem with you all. Hope you all like it and share your views about the same.


Somewhere deep in my heart,
the GOOD and the BAD fight,
the one who is stronger takes my ride,

the BAD in me compares with A,
the GOOD in me says to share with A,

the BAD says, 'A has been rude',
the GOOD in me says, 'A has earlier been cute',

the BAD says, 'A has been lying to you',
the GOOD says, 'A has been caring for you',

the BAD says, 'A has made you weep',
the GOOD says, 'A has helped you on its tip',

the BAD says, 'A has hurted you',
the GOOD says to forgive A... and just smile :)

Somewhere deep in my heart,
the GOOD and the BAD fight,
the one who is stronger takes my ride...

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Life similar to a... $AmO$a ( Hat..

Sometimes deep in my head runs several questions. 'Why is life so tough?' 'Why does it gives so much pain?' 'Why can't we be happy all the time?' And, if God gave us this life to suffer, he/she would have chosen not to create us.

      Life, still seems to me a puzzle. I tried it to compare with so many things but still found it different from anything living or dead. It still seems something weird.. something that hurts. I know, I am being very sad with this post but I have my reasons for it. For the past one month, I have been suffering from illness that has made me weak and lean. I had a dream to become an author that seems distant from where I stand now. It has been tough four months after sending my sample chapters to publishers one after another; still waiting for them to reply. I do think that my life is tough. But then I rewind my life a little and look at the things I have with me. I am studying at one of the premier institutes of the country after clearing CAT. I have amazing friends who when find me sad, drag me to multiplexes for watching movies saying that they will pay for it. Haan, it's a different story that when you reach at the counter of the multiplex and wait for your friend to pay, he replies, "Pagal hai. Tere baap ki shaadi hai kya jo paise mein donga? Jaldi de! AC mei chalenge." But still it feels great when you have friends like that around you.

      How can life be a pain then? I thought life to be complex. Then, it was today's evening while walking down the road, I found something.. something very similar to what life is. You know what it was? It was a samosa chat. Yeah, you read it correct, I wrote - a samosa chat! Sounds weird, na? Look, why did it feel to me a lot similar? Life you see has all the tastes. For few if it gives a pain, its sour. For others whom you believe are born rich and enjoy all the benefits can tell, life is sweet. For others, it's tough, similar to the hard pieces of the chat that you have pain to bite in. I believe that while God was making us in plenty, he forgot to mix all the spices well. If it's easy, we enjoy life. If it's tough we curse God for that. But we don't wait for the moments when sweetness enters our life. You may be going through a tough phase now. But wait my dear friend, if it's tough for you right now, then may be you are a lucky chap. You still have a lot of sweetness left for you. Don't worry. Just enjoy your chat. :)