Anonymity under Attack, Once Again.

Page 3 and the paparazzi don’t amaze me anymore. What amazes me is that people care about MY identity. I think it’s a very NEPALI thing, but excuse me if I’m wrong. I mean I think the vast majority of people know how to treat anonymous blogs like anonymous blogs and repect people’s wishes about their identities. And sadly, it’s not just one or two Nepalis who’s either asked me who I was, or spread rumors about who I am, what school I went to, and whose daughter/neice/cousin I am.

I’ve made some mistakes on my part too. I’ve trusted the people I shouldn’t have. One of them was unavoidable because she inspired me to start blogging. The others- well. One has caused trouble more than once. And others comment, IN PUBLIC, whether I the person, and the blogger Maichyang are the same. It’s annoying, really. Part of the problem is that when I meet people, conversations lead to writing and I tell them I blog. Just today, I was about to do the same, and I stopped myself right on time. Telling my friends is not a problem (of course) but telling the people I meet, the just-for-a-few-days types, never again. I guess I’ve caused enough damage already, and that those people who know will continue to give others my details whenever Maichyang comes up.

This anonymity issue seems like more trouble than its worth. People who need to believe that I am Maichyang (like college admission officers) probably don’t. But as I’ve said time and again, “there is some kind of comfort in the anonymity. Especially because of my parents’ contacts, a considerable part of the community, especially those involved with media and publicity, would know me by name. So, while a large part of my readers (at least those who bother to comment) are friends who know that I am Maichyang, the anonymity shields me from other watchful eyes.” Unlike I thought though, there ARE people who want to see what I blog about in a context (for example: so and so’s daughter who studies at so and so place wrote this).

It was only yesterday that someone guessed my correct identity, and kept changing her explanations of how she knew I was Maichyang. One of the reasons she gave was my school, and the other was becasue I comment on certain blogs using my real name. On the first, I don’t remember EVER naming my school, although I have named teachers, and what I’m studying and stuff so maybe some people (God knows why they’d be interested though) can put two and two together. The second seems to be more of a no-brainer; when I comment on people’s blogs using my real name (or nicknames, mostly) I use a different email address than I use while commenting as Maichyang. The worst loophole in her “reasons” was that she made a mistake about me that proved that she knew slightly more about me than either my comments or my school could’ve told her. The mistake is proof enough that she knows my parents, and I think I know who told her.

I’m not going to go around picking fights anymore, becasue if people don’t get the message when I tell them once, they’re probably just too thick for it. But there are a few things I’d like to say to them (you know who you are), via my blog.

1. If I have decided to remain anonymous, no one else has any right whatsoever to go around telling people who I am without first asking me. Morality, anyone? If I want to reveal my identity any day, it will be up to me to do it.
2. At least other anonymous bloggers should respect my anonymity becasue they’re keeping their identitioes under the wrap too.
3. If you want to know about me, try and guess. But if you know already (and no guesswork can be good enough to guess, so you need to have people tell you) just keep mum about it. If I wanted people to know more about me, I’d do the honours of telling them myself. Thankyou.