What do your comments say about you ?

Do you ever read the comments at the end of news articles. I do. What do you think about them or do you pay any attention to them at all?

I visit rediff.com a lot. I am not a big fan of this site. I hate the pop-ups and misleading headlines. Still more than once a day I do go there more out of habit than to get any news. And yes I am guilty of going to the entertainment section before anyplace else. I hardly watch any bollywood movies still I like to read about movies. And accompanying these articles and slide shows are the readers comments.

Here are a few of my observations: Whatever be the topic of discussion it will somehow boil down to back and forth messages about north Vs South, Hindus Vs Muslims, Good English Vs Bad English, pro-Aishwarya Vs anti-Aishwarya, loads of name calling and more than a few commenting how rediff should stop reporting about such useless news and there is so much better and more important news to report out there.

Why are we like this. For instances none of the comments of yahoo articles have such name calling or anything directed towards fellow readers. If Yahoo readers disagree with the authors. That's what they say and also add their two cents about why they disagree. But rediff is a totally different story.

Whenever movies are discussed for sure someone says how south Indian movies are superior and a north Indian calls him 'Idli-Sambar' and comment on how the south Indian actors are dark, fat and ugly. The south Indian replies back with a nasty comment.

If a Muslim reader,Muslim not based on his opinion but his name, were to offer an opinion. Somehow the topic gets twisted and turned and gets to terrorism and how the Muslims should go live in Pakistan.

And then there are comments about each others English, spelling, grammar and intention, nothing is spared. Here again there are various combinations of insults like whose English is better, the North India Vs South India conflict.

Aishwarya Rai is a category by herself. What with her wedding and all. Its like she is too beautiful to be good so she must be bad. Her intentions must be bad, how she prostrates at Tirupati is an issue, how she holds a banana or drapes a Saree is an issue.

Why Why Why
We are a country, but why are we so divided at least those readers are. All regions and religions have co-existed for centuries. Did we live with this prejudice and hatred all this time or is it just getting worse. Why does the color of our skin matter, why how our actors look matter.What if the English is bad, it is not even our language.I am guilty of this myself. Maybe one of the reasons is I am so comfortable with the language that I would want everyone including me to be good at it. Why don't we just leave Aishwarya Rai alone. I am not at all a fan of her, for that matter I am a fan of no actor or actress. And beyond all this rediff has pages and pages of news about everything. One does not find any comments for articles about our economic growth or foreign policy. By the way why click on the article named "Salman without a shirt" and gripe about how bad he is, or about him being a Muslim or even rediff for there so much more important news than this to report. Well, why click on the link at all.

And last but not the least. Why should I read those comments. Well I have stopped. Instead of getting frustrated at my fellow readers I just resist my urge to scroll to the bottom of the page to the comments !!!!