From the secret owl helper

The following is a descriptive behind-the-scenes account about JaagteRaho and a suggestion from active insomniac and my secret owl helper artihonrao….

Let me tell you all a story. Once upon a time, in Twittergaon there lived an Owl. Perched on a tree, it watched everyone sing “tweet – tweet – tweet – tweet” that is when it decided it was time to “Hoot – hoot”. ( Imagine the sacred owl sitting atop a tree and telling the story to us, insomniacs )

First of all: A very Good Morning to all the Insomniacs!

Now, let me say a few words about the community, as I see it … MY point of view about the whole concept of @JaagteRaho and, I am sure @meerasapra would agree. (If you are reading this post here, it means that she does)

I do not know when @JaagteRaho was formed. I just remember seeing the mention of it in one of the tweets of @niravj. I checked the profile, went through the tweets and re-tweets, searched Twitter for @JaagteRaho and soon I realized it is not just a re-tweeting bot. JaagteRaho was for real. I being an insomniac myself, decided to join the community. It took some time for me to find out who the owner of @JaagteRaho was. (Found out after reading the about page on this site). I enjoy staying awake at nights; sometimes writing and sometimes, just thinking. There are times when I want to be left alone; these are the times when I just try to mix up with the crowd, so that I am lost amidst the many. Night time is the time when it is bit difficult to find crowd, no? This community helped me during this phase. I made a few decent friends, who like me, liked to stay awake. A few shouted “Jaagte Raho” as they worked in their offices. Overall, my journey with JaagteRaho till this date has been interesting.

I must admit that I liked the way Meera re-tweeted all the messages giving them a personal touch, sometimes with just a :0) as prefix to the re-tweeted message. Even that made a lot of difference, I am sure many insomniacs would agree with this.

The community is growing day by day. I, as an active insomniac, see it growing right in front of my eyes however; it took something else to make me understand how tedious it was to re-tweet all those messages sent to JaagteRaho. Meera invited me to join her on the tree and I agreed to do it. We shared the responsibility of hooting and re-tweeting the messages. Yes, the RT’s that came from Twhirl was me. Working from behind the desk of course affected my performance as the insomniac and it was then I realized it is not an easy task. A tweet by one of my friends made me realize that I play an insomniac better than the owl

I remember reading random tweets asking where the owl was and why it has not hooted; tweets that said the hooting job should be shared; tweets that said we did not really need the owl to communicate in the community. This set us thinking.

I, personally believe that yes, we do need the owl. It would still play an important role in Jaagte Raho but there is no need, as per me, for Meera or fossileoflife or for me to re-tweet the messages. It is time my dear insomniac friends that we all join in to make it easier for the owl.

JaagteRaho is not only about one person, it is about all the insomniacs who want to tweet together, eat together and have coffee together )

Yesterday, I came across JaagteRaho page at TweetKnot, which I did not know existed. This would make it easier for the insomniacs to keep in touch with one another. Hoot messages that would be heard in the entire community. Messages that would not require re-tweeting.

There are times, circumstances when it becomes difficult for Meera to re-tweet. Sometimes, her tweetdeck does not work and then there must be times when she must be busy doing her work (though she does not mention that) …

There are times, circumstances when it becomes difficult for me to re-tweet. Multi-tasking for me gets a bit difficult and frustrating at times when I am writing. And, I have my mood-swings too…

Does JaagteRaho has to be about a few people behind the desk? Should it not be more like a place where we all participate and do our part to keep the community alive?

Please do consider what I mention in this post and join the tweetknot page to confirm your acceptance of the little idea in the little head of this part-time owl.

A wacky cartoon

shan_adhicary, a new member to our group of insomniacs created the following wacky cartoon (also cross-posted on his blog) especially for this blog…

MyTravails writes…

A intense poem has been contributed by fellow insomniac MyTravails

Did u see the tower come crashing down to the ground,
All the crystals splattered in and around;
Oh why did u have to bomb the tv station,
Now no one has entertainment,
Ha but that was a good move,
The stars had all lost their groove
And now you can see the people on the rooftop,
Wondering what to talk,
Ha its funny to see,
People being awkward in holding hands like u n me

Did u see the tower come crashing down to the ground,
All the crystals splattered in and around;
Its not like the people don’t know,
Everybody has learnt to lead nobody to follow
Ha if only people were people,
Would you think they would still kiss as little…
And now that life has come full circle
The joke’s on us and we are caught in the girdle
Ha its misty eyed to see
You’re too tired of life to love me

MyTravails blogs here.

Silence Speaks…

A beautiful poem from our first contributor and fellow insomniac Arti Honrao:

Silence Speaks…

Silence speaks to me,
Louder than words
At night everything seems so surreal
The starry night, the moon
And the breeze that plays with my hair
Nature soothes my heart
And I forget all the pain

I see her staring at me
With envious look in her eyes
She knows I am happy
And I know she is not
I simply smile and look at the moon…
my reflection
in the windowpane hides in the fog

GBU
Arti

See the original post on Arti’s blog.

Jaagte Raho: the first post

Since this is our first, I thought it was appropriate to cross-post these comic strips from my personal comic blog

I’ve been an insomniac for as long as I can remember.

These cartoons are dedicated to all those who have trouble sleeping…

Counting sheep never helps me sleep!

See also: Previous cartoon ‘Thoughts of an Insomniac’

P.S. If you’re an insomniac too, stay up with me on twitter, follow JaagteRaho!