Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Plagiarism- Indecent borrowing


Plagiarism- a term used for stealing or copying a tune/lyric /song or clandestinely lifting a paragraph or an entire chapter or editorial to show as if the work is their own handiwork.
The original work is read, heard and rehearsed ‘n’ number of times. It is possible that more effective research is made on similar lines at a later stage where innovative ideas gets metamorphosed and the resulting ‘’encompassed’’ work gets huge credibility and the author rides the horse of success to unimaginable heights and hogs all the lime-light. The euphoria continues till the bubble is burst and the facts nail the offender and subdues all unwarranted and unmerited glaze.
The recent indictment and suspension of renowned Time magazine editor of and CNN TV host Fareed Zakaria has grossly exposed the negative aspects of journalists / writers who thrive on pilfered and willfully borrowed articles. Fareed Zakara was awarded a Padma Bhushan in2010 for his outstanding Contribution to Journalism. The awarding committee which chooses the potential candidate, must be licking their wounded psyche after the shameful expose.
There have been numerous instances when top notch Indian authors/writers have bitten more than they could chew.
Kavya Vishwanathan an Indian American writer was caught red-handed, she had plagiarized pages from 5 different novels to write 1 of her own. All the copies were later recalled and consigned to the dust-bins.
Arun Purie noted editor of India today used the nefarious –CONTROL X /CONTROL V to carve out a piece of article on South Indian actor Rajnikanth by Grady Hendrix. This was perhaps the most humiliating and unpardonable crime.(Imagine an outsider having a better grasp of the subject on an Indian film star). The worst thing was Arun Purie was stubborn enough and refused to acknowledge the Crime.
VN Narayanan erstwhile editor of Hindustan Times effortlessly’’ DOWNLOADED’ an article from British Journo Bryan Appleyard and almost ‘’earned ‘’ accolades before alert and avid readers fixed him. He was of course unceremoniously shown the DOOR.
This violation of copyright/patent right has marred the image of our Country which is replete with great literary souls from Rabindranath Tagore to RK Narayan and VS Naipaul to Premchand.
Dried up ideas or lack of self motivating factors and trying to make it big in the literary world perhaps provokes these individuals to penetrate and breach the HALL OF SHAME.
In a bizarre attempt to grab success, fame and glamour our esteemed journos have taken the short cut for attaining the ‘’2’’ minutes of Fame.
The writers have failed to realize that there are hordes of avid book lovers who follow a certain trend and who create their own cult following, choosing a select brand of writers and are equally intelligent to detect such pilferage with consummate ease.
The Cut and paste authors should further realize that the thin and fragile crust of faith and astute fan following is destroyed in seconds by their malicious intent.
The painstaking efforts in initializing the original masterpiece (the original writers who use their imaginative and complex ideas to proliferate and mould the same into literary and creative art) should never be allowed to be so easily marauded or mauled by these new breed of Parasites who are into this Plagiarisation business sans any shame or guilt. 

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