Quick Update: BESTpedia is now on YouTube.
Please subscribe to our channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@bestpediayt
In the meantime, here’s a short video:
Category: Meta
Ten Years Of This Blog: Some Thoughts And Reflections
Around a decade ago, I encountered a severe crisis in my life. I had too much time on my hands. I had taken a backseat from actively editing the English Wikipedia, and a certain other setback in my life left me with a lot of time on my hands and I was floundering as to what to do with my time. I had just returned from an internship at a magazine (which was then using WordPress for their website) and decided I wanted to do something real with WordPress this time. I had a blog on Google’s Blogger for a decade – interestingly started in July – and well, 13-year old me was a stark contrast to 23-year old me, which is to say that 33-year old me is another story, but that’s for another day. The one thing that has stuck without any change all this while however, is my love for public transport, especially buses. In fact, the earliest news story that I can remember is of an MTC (then Pallavan) bus falling off the Ekkatuthangal bridge into the Adayar river when we lived in Chennai.
Eventually, I realised that it was high time I stopped experimenting with WordPress on XAMPP and took a split-second decision, one which I was scared that I’d regret someday. I wanted full control over my blog, and I decided to buy a domain and hosting. And thus, BESTpedia was born.
But why BESTpedia? Well it had to do with buses, and it had to do with BEST, and the lingering hangover of Wikipedia was still there. This is the ‘official version’. The real reason will remain a secret for long time.
I chose to pick a written blog over a video or any other medium, because I loved to write. I did want to start a podcast, I was good with audio editing, I even got myself a Blue Snowball iCE microphone (thanks Arun!), but then podcasts got ruined by people showing their faces on YouTube. Oh and in case you guys did miss it, I did end up being on a podcast, hosted by my namesake in 2023. You can watch it (I know, I know) here. That being said, I have been told on many an occasion that I have a face for radio, which, well, sort of inspired me to move away from video. While most people would argue that a video-based platform would be more work; trust me on this, I have been called lazy for writing, I still think writing is the hardest form of communication, no matter which language it is.
On a side note; despite what I said, I have enjoyed video editing off-late, so, yes, WE ARE ON YOUTUBE. Please subscribe to our channel here; we will be posting videos soon.
Coming back to the blog, it started out as something and has since evolved into something else. The initial struggle was quite significant, but with time, it has evolved into something else. Today, it isn’t just my blog, but has evolved into a community of sorts, thanks to several people who have helped me out with things from sourcing imagery to ideas on what to write, to actually contributing full articles, and of course, reading them. Nobody took a blog about buses seriously, but then I eventually ended up in journalism, and that made people notice, although urban planners and folks actually working in the transport sector despise me and my blog, because I write from a commuters’ perspective.
In the ten years since I this blog started, public transport has changed, the perception about it has also changed. At the same time, we’ve all grown up with our views also shifting significantly over time. I want this blog to be a reflection of that change, the evolution, although transport in principle, does remain the same.
As I sign off, I want to thank all those who have supported me over the last decade and more, especially my parents, whose reaction I dreaded when I first started BESTpedia, my friends, my mentors, and well-wishers.
I’d like to dedicate this post in memoriam to my late father.
Featured Image: BESTpedia turns ten. Image generated using Adobe Firefly with text added manually because GenAI is terrible at adding text to images.
The Rise Of GenAI And Its Terrible Effects On Blogging
Alright, please do bear with me for this rant. It has nothing to do with buses, public transport or anything else on this blog for that matter. However, it has everything to do with the blog as a concept and also the media industry in general. I spent a considerable amount of time pondering where to post this – here, on my older Blogger account, on my Medium account or on LinkedIn – and eventually chose to write this down here.
Remember when we first heard about the buzzwords like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) and other terms like neural networks, natural language processing and all? We all expected KITT from Knight Rider. Or at least expect Bonzi Buddy or Microsoft’s Clippit (also known as Clippy) to understand what we were saying and respond. Instead, what we got was well …..
Come 2010s and the possibility of AI actually generating coherent looks like a real possibility. And thus begins the so-called AI boom with an explosive number of Generative AI or GenAI products out there such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini (formerly Bard), X’s Grok and others.
Now the reason for this post is an ad that I saw earlier that irked me.
The ad was from a company called ContentGorilla that declared that ‘Manual Blogging’ was “dead” and in its caption, said ‘Why spend 2+ hours writing, formatting and SEO-optimizing a blog post’.
Now before going forward, let me iterate that there is no such thing as ‘Manual Blogging’. Let me also reiterate that I have nothing against this company in particular either. It’s just that there has been a lot of resentment among bloggers due to the rise of GenAI and this nonsensical ad just brought out that resentment, at least in me.
What is being described here as ‘Manual Blogging’ is in reality, BLOGGING. Anything else, is just junk, or spam. If you want to know why, let us just look at the etymology of blogging. The term is a truncation of the phrase ‘weblog’. It evolved from an online diary where people gave a running account of their lives. Early bloggers often referred to themselves as ‘diarists’ and ‘journalers’.
The purpose of blogging is to write. That requires passion, and not a tool to offer SEO-optimized paragraphs peppered with words to grab the attention of search engines. Bloggers write for an audience. That audience is human. We write for people. Tools that are offering to write an entire SEO-optimised blogpost? Well, you’re just doing it for another machine right? So let the machines talk to themselves, while we humans write to each other.
If it were up to whatever such GenAI programmes are offering, people wouldn’t be blogging anymore. Why should we? The purpose of blogging is to express oneself. And a machine cannot do that. It can at best create an illusion of doing so.
As this blog nears its tenth anniversary, I’d like to reiterate that I’m not using any GenAI tools for the content. I may use them for the images, but even there they are all junk.
Big Tech had already made it difficult for small bloggers like me by hurting revenue streams and censoring us. Google still refuses to index certain webpages and has stymied ad revenue by two-thirds of what it was earlier. GenAI is just making it worse for us by flooding the internet with machine-generated text that is mostly junk. If you’re main audience is a machine, then why bring the human into the picture?
The internet is getting saturated with GenAI’s junk, thus hurting those of us who have a genuine passion for the art and craft of writing.
On that note, to all those millionaire and billionaires in India who claimed that we don’t need our own Large Language Models (LLMs), I have a middle finger to offer you. I spent a good part of the day trying to generate pictures of a RuPay Card for the NCMC and even there, I was thrown Visa and MasterCards.
Featured Image: What AI thinks a person sitting in front of a screen using AI to write a blog post looks like (Llama/MetaAI)
This Blog Is Now Five Years Old
Okay, so this post should have gone out yesterday (9 July) but it didn’t. I’ve been a bit busy off late and haven’t been able to post much. I have at least six pending drafts that I intend to publish before this month ends.
I started this blog on 9 July 2015 because I wanted to write and after an internship that used WordPress, I wanted to do something of my own, with WordPress. Over the next five years there have been ups and downs, this blog has taken me places, gotten me internships and more. It also led to me picking up a career in writing (one that is no longer), but still.
I want to take a moment and thank some folks out there for their support. A shoutout to my Transit Group and its myriad members, folks who I’ve met thru my days at Swarajya and UnFound, folks that I’ve come across on Twitter, SkyscraperCity, The UnrealTimes, FEE and OpIndia, folks who have helped me out.
Anyway, I should now head back to getting those drafts published so that you folks can read it. I intend to cross the previous monthly records (10 posts in December 2015 and 12 posts in June 2020) as we continue to remain locked up due to the Wuhan Virus pandemic.
Also, a special shoutout to Sagar Aghore and his Brother P-Touch H110 for the featured image.
P.S: It is ironic that Google decided to chose this date to suspend my AdSense account. I’ve written a lot in May and June, pretty consistent and thus my traffic went up. As a result of that, ad revenue also shot up. So last month Google decided that it will play the role of the big, bad regulator and killed my ad revenue by limited the number of ads. Now, with practically zero ads on my site, it has come to the amazing conclusion that there were fraudulent clicks (WHEN THERE WERE NO ADS VISIBLE) and has suspended my account for a month.
If you want to know why I don’t trust Big Tech, especially Google, watch Season 7 of Elementary. Odker and Google are very similar.
Should I write an ‘argumentative essay’ on the benefits of land transportation?
Should I write an ‘argumentative essay’ on the benefits of land transportation?
I think I should. I really should. Another month has gone by without much on this blog. I’m sorry. Being in the media business is not an easy task.
Like last month, I did manage to get myself featured in Swarajya’s print edition this month as well; do check it out here: 70 Years After Its Creation, Pakistan Is A Failed State.
Now the important question. A while back, a friend of mine told me about a discussion she had with someone else. She told me that the topic moved towards land-based transit vs others, and referred the other person to my first article on Swarajya: Lesson From Amtrak’s Failure: Invest Heavily In Railways. She then asked me if I could write an ‘argumentative essay’ on the matter. Perhaps I should. I asked on Twitter:
Should I write an ‘argumentative essay’ on the benefits of land transportation?
— Srikanth (@rsrikanth05) September 28, 2017
The results were surprisingly positive, so yes, I am going to write one.
I intend to do it in two sections: Intercity and Intracity. I have had my had my reservations about aviation in intracity spaces, you can read about it here: Are We Ready For Three-Dimensional Transport?
So, requesting you folks to drop in a line in the comments section with additional feedback.
If I were to write a book, what should it be about?
Okie, so I apologise for not posting on the blog for the whole of August. It’s a bad habbit for a blogger. I admit, I have not written much this month either. I was down with dengue for a week (thank you Bangalore). I have, however, been featured in Swarajya’s print edition this month, do have a look here: Dharma and the Manager.
So, you now know that my writings have been featured on several other places including Swarajya, The Quint, and most importantly, the Foundation for Economic Education.
Given that I have managed get myself this far, I know that the day won’t be too far when I will be able to write for other publications.
At this juncture, I’d like to ask you, dear readers, one important question:
If I were to write a book, what should it be on?
I ran a Twitter poll on this; it surprisingly got 22 votes.
*If I were to write a book, what should it be on:
— Srikanth (@rsrikanth05) August 28, 2017
Don’t go by the poll options however, for I could only put four options there. I can write on a lot more but preferably transport and infra related.
I plan to soon write a long-form piece on a major economic concept related to transport along with another blogger, Kundan Srivastav. You can follow Kundan on Twitter, he tweets @kun_srivastav.
Till then, do drop your ideas, suggestions and more in the comments. I plan to start writing a series of essays on modern transit, maybe this can be a good start.
Newsletter: Transit Review
Yo folks,
Some of you may be happy, some may be not-so-happy about the fact that this blog does not have email newsletters. To be honest, email newsletters telling people what has been published may or may not work. However, what does work, is a newsletter, one that has some good content.
Presenting, Transit Review. (No, unlike the earlier post about a new magazine titled Transit, this ain’t no joke)
A weekly newsletter, (currently planned for the weekend) Transit Review is basically a a quick write-up of what’s going around in the commuting scene, giving what I hope can be considered a fresh new perspective of transport and commuting. After all, you need to get to work right?
I promise not to spam you, but merely make you read a small write-up (not more than 1,200 words I promise).
So if you think you’re game to be made a Transport Zombie like me:
Go ahead; sign up. Be nice, share this page as well.
Note: If you came from Facebook Instant Articles, you probably won’t be seeing the sign-up form below this. In that case, please visit the following link to sign up:
http://tinyletter.com/TransitReview
Transit Review is proudly powered by a combination of TinyLetter by MailChimp and WordPress. (Not to forget the various buses I take).
Note: Please add the following email address to your contacts to prevent the mail from landing up in your spam or promotions inbox.
Announcing A New Magazine: Transit!
Hi Folks, it is with great pleasure that we announce a new magazine: Transit!
Transit! will be a web-magazine (using the best Content Management System available – WordPress). It will be based on a Subscription model, however, BESTpedia readers and fellow bus or transport bloggers are entitled to a free subscription for one year using the code BEST100.
Our editor-in-chief will be Ravi Marathe, a retired bus conductor from Maharashtra while our columnists will include several famed transit bloggers from India. We have also invited a few from outside the country to join us.
Unlike other so called transit magazines, we will exclusively focus on transit from the transit point of view. No fake articles talking about luxurious trips only to show you land up at some exotic beach in a foreign country, because for us, luxury is when we get into a bus that doesn’t bounce, although a bouncy bus sometimes becomes a luxury.
A tentative, and badly designed logo was prepared by our inexperienced graphics team last night, and we hope a better one will come out soon.
We hope you are as excited about this as we are. Till then….
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PS: Skeptical about this new magazine? Well you should be because this report was a part of our April Fool prank. The Transit world has few takers for its own magazine. Unfortunate, but true.
My Love For Blogging And My Blog
I take on the baton of Blog Love from Ranjini.
I think it’s pretty clear now that I have come to love blogging, the ecosystem and my own blog. Why else would I be blogging if it weren’t for the fact that I love it? I’m not being compelled to blog or forced to blog, but rather, I do it because it’s something that comes from within.
I started blogging back in 2005 as a 13-year old student who had no clue about what to do in life. By that, I mean I wanted to be an engineer or a scientist but I still had no clue about what I wanted to do in order to achieve this. My blog back then was a very random blog, full of nonsense, some bits of “This-content-is-too-old-for-me” stuff, and what not. I sort of went into hibernation when I realised that I had to work hard and study.
In the midst of this working hard(ly) and studying, I ended up co-writing a humour post with my best friend Janvi titled Phases Of Study. It did what it had to do. Remind me of the time I used to write, and that I had a lot of opinions on practically everything around me.
Fast forward to two years ago. I needed a place to voice my opinions. Although I had been on Twitter since 2007, it didn’t seem to make the cut. Interning with a magazine that used WordPress made me think. I loved WordPress. I loved what it could do. It struck me: It’s now or never. Once I finish studies, a job in the media industry would never give me the time or freedom to write the way I wanted to. Thus, I started thinking, what should I blog about? I travel a lot, get bored, and then travel even more, I take the bus everywhere, even if I fly, I spend more time looking at buses at the airport than anything else. That’s it. My Eureka moment was on 3 July 2015 at around 7pm.
Blogging got me places, got me to BNLF, then an internship, then a chance to cover the CII Partnership as well as Make In India Week, and then my job. Today my boss asks me to write an article based on my experiences in transport, something that has expanded to other stuff, resulting in me writing on various topics from cashless transactions to even milk. For those who knew me in 2013; Who would have thought that a 21-year old guy who describe Toll Plazas in great detail would someday write about cows and milk? I didn’t. I certainly didn’t. I’m sure none of you reading this would have thought of it either.
But that’s how it is. Today, my blog, has turned me in a sort of expert on urban affairs, has got me published on a prestigious magazine that was mentored by none other than Rajaji who was one of India’s greatest thinkers, and has also resulted in several other economics based portals accepting my work. I’m just as surprised as you are, believe me.
But enough of me. My blog wouldn’t be my blog if it weren’t for the ecosystem. Not just readers, but other bloggers as well. I’ve been part of two BlogBuddy groups: Inking Pages and Write On, and believe me, while I may not say it, reading others’ opinions does wonders. It reminds me that there is a life beyond these four walls that I sometimes am confined to, or in case of a bus, four sides of the bus.
I love my blog. I love the ecosystem. I love everyone who has helped me become what I am today. Thank you all.
P.S: Thank you Richa. Atleast someone who understands my fascination with buses.
P.P.S: If you like what I write, please ping Janvi, and thank her. I owe a lot to her.
I pass on the baton of Blog Love to Roma.
100th post!
This is the 100th post on the blog. Yes. 100.
It has been a very interesting journey so far, blogging about buses (and stuff that have no connection to buses but still linking them to buses).
If you want to know why I love buses, I’d suggest you reading an earlier blog post: My Fascination With Buses!
At this juncture, I look back and reflect on a lot of stuff that I have done in the past and where all it has got me. Blogging (especially about Buses) has taken me places and I really am glad about it.
I managed to attend the CII Partnership Summit and Make In India Week earlier this year only because of my blogging skills. I was hired as an intern because my employers were impressed with my blog.
Last year, I managed to see Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden live (not performing music mind you) at BNLF because I was a blogger.
So, a bunch of thanks go around:
- IndiBlogger: They got the best of me on the blog. Posts for various drives and campaigns from International Toilet Day to the Chennai Floods. Yo can see my IndiVine posts here.
- BlogChatter: For their wonderful prompts and campaigns, and weekly chats. I’ve met so many fellow bloggers and learnt so much more from them. A special shoutout to my Blogbuddy teams: InkingPages (2.0) and WriteOn (3.0)!
- Swarajya: For publishing my articles on Transport and matters that affect Urban Life a lot (and for sending some traffic this way). You can read my Swarajya articles here.
- The Unreal Times: Undoubtedly India’s best satire portal, for giving me chance to make others laugh. You can laugh at my work here.
- OpIndia: I get to do the unconventional bit of writing. That unconventional stuff can be seen here.
Yes. I’ve come a long way thanks to the writing community at large, and I am really grateful to them. Thank you guys!
And now, for an image of what drove me to start this blog:
