Letters to the editor.

Here's a puzzle for you:
There is an article in an online news portal about OSO and Saanwariya releasing on the same day(diwali). The comments section of the article go like this:
Commenter 1: OSO seems like a masala movie, Saanwariya might be boring
Commenter 2: OSO will be a bigger hit, SRK rocks
Commenter 3: SRK is crap, he has always been doing the same roles in all his movies, he should retire
Commenter 4: Yes C3 I agree SRK is crap, in fact all Muslims are spoiling our country...they should be sent to pak
Commenter 5: All you bloody hindus don't realise that all industrialists and great people of India are muslims
Commenter 6: kaun hain yaar ye C5, isko pak bhej do and send Raja sen(a movie reviewer) back to kolkata..he is crap
and the thread continues with more pak/india and other people bashing, whereas the article was a harmless piece contemplating which bollywood movie will do better! Guess which news portal am I talking about?

Ok here's another sample:The article is about the India and US nuclear deal...all very serious business people. And what happens in the comments section? Yeah you guessed it - more pak bashing, this time along with US and taliban and how all countries except india are not 'doodh ke dhule'. And what else do I see here in comments? 'If you failed at 5th standard or uneducated, do not worry. Go to Andhra universities. You can get BE, MCA, MTech degrees for few thousand rupees and go to the USA to spoil their economy'. &%5E$*&%5E#@*&$^*& what does that have to do with the article, you say? Well I say the same thing!

So now from the samples provided above, tell me what portal am I talking about? Yeah you guessed it right fellows! Its our dear rediff.com! While I really admire the instant gratification provided by online news sites to people who want to convey their feelings about a particular issue, I am taken aback by the way this is misused by some people(and almost all rediff commenters). Its all nice that you don't have to wait for your letter to reach the editor, and then get published a month or more after the issue was raised but people! Is technology enabling us or just making us stoop to a level where we have to bash those who are not like us? Why do we have to succumb to the urge to verbally assault someone we don't even know? (why should you get that urge in the first place?). And don't even get me started on the irrelevant comments(the AP education type!).....As far as my memory goes, responding to an article is a literary activity and should create an atmosphere of debate and perspective...not meaningless chatter that is intended to spark raging tempers!

Note: The comments are a 'direct lift off ' from rediff.com.