ABSTRACT
Introduction On 25 August 2007 two bombs exploded in Hyderabad city. One was in the popular Lumbini Park, opposite the State Secretariat, and the other in a crowded restaurant, Gokul Chat, in Kothi. The total number of casualties ‘crossed’ 50 over the following week. In a few days personal video blogs were made available on YouTube.com.1 What was amazing was the coverage and the individual and collective responses. This was the second round of blasts: in May 2007 blasts in the holy Mecca Masjid, in the Old City area, claimed the lives of devotees who had come for their Friday afternoon prayers. Coupled with a frightening collapse of a flyover under construction in the crowded Punjagutta area killing a few passers-by, the explosions had, in September 2007, created a siege condition in the twin cities. Public places and sites of leisure and entertainment suddenly became possible targets, as the law enforcement authorities warned with their customary cheer after the incidents. But to return to the ‘blast blogs’: to date there are 41 video blogs, with each recording over 2,500 visits and views. People lighting candles in memory of the dead and scenes of the devastation constitute these public sites of grief. ‘Januraj’, who posted his first (and only) videoblog2 on 26 August: ‘I am dedicating this vdo to thos [sic] who left [sic] their lives in Hyderabad bomb blasts on 25/08’. Paradoxically, as Januraj’s blog suggests, these become an interesting mix of space: the private and the public where private sentiments and feelings are expressed for the world to see. The personal blog is suddenly primetime viewing for Internet users – and this is the subject of this chapter.
