The personal aspect of our lives and the value one placed on one’s privacy seems to have disappeared! I would have resented anyone opening my diary to read it in my absence just as I would have if someone had opened and read a letter addressed to me. I was taught not to do such things to others as well.
I started writing a diary when I was 18 when I had started to formally work for a company where I had to submit daily reports. While the diary helped, it was also a source of reference to jog my memory and to record significant events.
I stopped writing a diary when I was a little older and wiser when my diary was seized by an investigating agency of the government of India when I referred it to refresh my memory about some date when I had met a government official who had sought my help. That official had landed himself in trouble subsequently and my name had come up as one of his contacts and that is why I was investigated. I realised then that the government had a right to seize my diary and invade my privacy any time it chose to and decided against maintaining a personal diary.
I did use diaries during my working days to keep track of appointments and there never was anything personal in those that could have caused me or anyone else embarrassments.
This cartoon published by my brother Arvind however reflects something that has become obvious over the last few years.
How values have changed!
That must have been a shock when they took your diary. Nothing is sacred.
Great cartoon! It’s right on.
Cheerful Monk recently posted..Some Days Are Better Than Others
I can tell you, it was. I was very young and that was the first time I had anything to do with the bureaucracy and it was quite an experience.
I’ve never kept a diary but almost everyone I know keeps or kept a day planner – of curse these days every email or post is read by some government or other
shackman recently posted..Sabbatical
I don’t think that there is any point in keeping personal diaries anymore.
When I was in about 3rd grade, I wrote my diary on the wall when I was sitting on the potty. My parents must have got a kick out of it because it never got washed away. It never occurred to me that anyone read it.
The writing on the wall? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_writing_on_the_wall)
I’ve never kept a personal diary so there’s nothing incriminating for the authorities to discover. I can’t imagine my blog would be of much interest to them, unless they’re interested in all my personal neuroses and quirky opinions.
As for online diaries, I think most people only post very routine stuff. The really sensitive personal information is still kept strictly private.
nick recently posted..Hard not to judge
You are a rather unique blogger. Amazing how you get the topics to write about!
I never had any desire to keep a diary, my life is an open book. Having grown up with four brothers, a diary would not have stayed secret for long and the boys would have had great fun with it. I do keep an online calendar whick I share with Elly. If she wants to talk to me and gets no reply and there are no appointments on the calendar, she gives me an hour and then the worry button kicks in. Her calendar lets me know when she will be busy and away from the house or office, I send an email.
Grannymar recently posted..Sleep
That is an interesting way to keep in touch with a child who lives far away. In my case, since I live with my son and daughter in law, they keep checking by very subtle telephone calls or sms messages!
i used to always keep a journal. not a diary.
the journal would be thoughts i had about things rather than what i did each day.
i no longer keep anything like that.
i suppose the blog is a personal journal now. come to think of it!
tammy j recently posted..if you still
Yes, it now is but I would not mind the government seizing my blog posts!