Few Miles

The lunatic, the lover and the poet are of imagination all compact,” says Shakespeare in his play Midsummer Night’s Dream. And what if a person is all three combined – a lunatic mad about writing, a passionate lover who goes by the pseudonym ‘Someone is Special’ and a poet who idolizes William Wordsworth, who he calls the king of romance? Do you need to ask about his imagination? That is Saravana Kumar Murugan for you. His blog ‘Few Miles’ is a dedication to romance.

Saravana is one of the most passionate bloggers I have encountered in blog-o-sphere. He pours his heart out into every piece. His blog is indeed a delight for those who love romance. His poetry reaches straight to the heart of the reader. A purist might fault him for strong mother tongue influence in his language. But definition of poetry as per Wordsworth is “Poetry is the spontaneous outflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origins from emotion recollected in tranquility” When the powerful feelings and emotions are there, the rest is only secondary, isn’t it? Equally good are his sweet romantic stories with a sprinkling of eros. As mentioned earlier he is a very imaginative person and his imagination is on display in full flow in his fiction. He comes up with different innovative story plots centered on romance. Another area where one can see his imagination at work is the innovative use of various visual media: screenshots, videos, pictures and social networks like twitter and Facebook in his stories. He in fact has written an entire story as seen through a series of tweets by the principal characters. Of course like his poems, his stories might not find high literary standing in a traditional sense. But I would say it works well for a modern communication media like a blog and the focus audience being Indians whose native language is not English. In addition to the core theme of his blog, he also occasionally relates a few personal experiences, which are mostly quite inspirational and feelings on some issues that he feels passionate about. In these works also one can feel his strong passion.

Having discussed content at depth, let us look at the other aspects. The name of the blog ‘Few Miles’ is short, catchy and easy to remember but does not relate to the theme of the blog: romance. He has tried to maintain a romantic feel to the blog by adding soft music and having hearts all over the place. But otherwise I feel the blog overall looks too cluttered with too many widgets scattered all over the place. In my opinion, it has a too geeky feel for a romantic blog and giving it a slightly simpler look with a bit more romantic looking background will help. Navigation is good but a new reader can easily get lost on his blog due to the sheer number of widgets and options available. Interaction is one area where he wins hands down. He tries to develop a personal connect with every reader and tries to involve them closely in his blog activities.

In terms of writing style, he is good in his areas of key strength: romance. He is also good at conveying his personal passion and ambitions to the readers. But if he harbors dreams of becoming a novelist, he needs to learn to handle more complex emotions and different types of characters. The characters in most of his stories are seen through two planes: romance and career ambitions. But humans are much more complex than that. Another area that needs attention is logical consistency of plot. Blog readers with low attention spans usually are not too concerned with this aspect. But this is an area that is essential to hold a reader’s attention for extended periods of time. Descriptions are managed reasonably well but needs further strengthening in order to stand alone without the help of visual media.

Overall I would say it is a good blog to visit for those who are romantic at heart and those who like to develop a personal association with a person of great creativity and ambitions. I normally put up a selection of 5 posts from the blog I review. He has given 12 rather than 5 and I put up all 12.

11 comments:

Puru@ShadowsGalore said...

Beautiful indepth review. I need to follow Sarvana now :)

Someone is Special said...

Finally, the second most awaited review of my blog Few Miles is out, WoW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seven Months I’ve waited to read this review and I’m very happy to read a detailed review of my blog. Thanks TF, I can celebrate your words forever! Thanks for your time :)

Regarding the name of the blog, Mmm, it has a strong connection to the theme of my blog, which I will reveal when fate decides :) Regarding the widgets, I had a decent number of widgets before I started publishing ads, which is of course displayed for a cause; we shall discuss about it in chat :)

Thanks for making my day friend… Thanks once again for your time!

Someone is Special

Diwakar Narayan said...

Honest! Thought there are a couple of things I did not notice and you did :-)

umashankar said...

When TF writes a review, its best to sit up and take note! That was as entertaining an analysis as it was enlightening. I believe I will start visiting Few Miles often. Great piece of review.

sm said...

nice review

Rachna said...

Great analytical piece. I must visit Saravana's blog and see what the fuss is about :).

T F Carthick said...

Thanks Puru, Diwakar, umashankar, sm and Rachna. I am glad you all liked my review and analysis. Saravana will definitely be glad to have new visitors.

T F Carthick said...

Glad you like my review, SIS. I am happy Bloggers are satisfied with my reviews. Though I am not able to maintain quantity of review, hope I can maintain quality and your 7 months wait was worth it.

Jayashree Srivatsan said...

Hi TF

Good review with the right balance.

Anu ~*~ said...

It was a great Review !!


Simran said...

A Wonderful review by you TF!
Meeting to each and every aspect. Great job :)

About Few Miles... It is my most fav. blog. Happy to read about SiS and Few Miles.
:)

Happy Blogging!

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