A Letter To Our Readers

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[Update: April Fool! ๐Ÿ™‚
Dear readers, let’s go over the facts one by one.

True or False: Anna and Sajit are fighting over the affections of Manish?
ANS: False. There is NO love triangle whatsoever within Sepia Mutiny. Blogging and relationships do not mix. We are professionals people.

True of False: Abhi and Vinod nearly came to blows?
ANS: False. I have never even met Vinod. However it is entirely possible that such a thing will transpire when I finally do.

True or False: Ennis has scooped Vinod on several blog entries?
ANS: False. Ennis doesn’t post often enough to cause such problems.

True or False: Sajit is moonlighting on another blog with a pseudonym?
ANS: False. It could be true but we’ll never know.

I am dissapointed in a great number of you ๐Ÿ™‚ Has our blog taught you nothing? Investigate people! Ask questions. Question the government. Only one clever commenter, instead of simply believing that our declaration was true or proclaiming confidently that it was a prank, was able to bring forth evidence. Digging back into my personal archives you would have (like her) found the smoking gun that exposed me for the fraud that I was. ๐Ÿ™‚

Don’t feel bad though. If you think YOU got badly fooled, you should hear how badly this fooled my dad. Just embarrassing.

We’re back!]

Dear valued readers of Sepia Mutiny,

I am not sure how to begin this posting so as to soften the blow for you or for myself. I am just going to announce what needs to be said and then find a way to explain it as best I can. The bloggers of Sepia Mutiny have decided after much (often heated) debate, to call it quits. Unless something drastic changes (and I have no reason left to hope that it will after the angry conference call earlier tonight) this will be the last posting on Sepia Mutiny. This announcement is particularly embarrassing in light of the fact that just last week I announced that we were going strong and had yet to “jump the shark.”ร‚ย Although I am under no obligation to explain our decision, I feel I must, even without the approval or foreknowledge of the other six writers on our site. The explanation for our “break-up” is MY version of events ONLY. I am quite certain it will result in me getting nasty messages from one or more of the other bloggers for revealing too much of their personal lives. I really wrestled with whether or not I should, but I’ve always felt that with great power comes great responsibility. You lend us your time (and tips) every day and it’s up to me to thank you in kind with the TRUTH. There were two MAIN causes for our decision. The first involved a romantic entanglement between three of our writers. Two of them on the East Coast have gotten quite “close.”ร‚ย It’s not very hard to figure out which two. Some of you have seen them together at events that we have blogged about. Similarly to what happens in rock bands, the rivalry between two of our writers, over the affections of the third, turned toxic. I know. It sounds cliched to me as well. Since most of us weren’t friends before starting Sepia Mutiny (in truth I have only met three other SM bloggers) when the cracks formed, they were not so easy to mend. The second conflict that lead to our decision is partially my fault. Last week I was up in the Bay Area for a two-day conference and used the opportunity to finally meet Vinod. Long time readers of SM will note that Vinod and I don’t agree on a gamut of political issues. Both of us had a few too many drinks at the bar while talking politics and things turned ugly (I guess it’s true that Indian men can’t hold their liquor). While trying to drive home a point with regards to the Israeli/Palestinian issue, I accidentally flailed my arms too wide and knocked my beer into Vinod’s lap. Because I was angry at the time, he mistakenly thought I did it on purpose and retaliated by throwing his beer in my face. When it was obvious that a fight was imminent the bouncers pushed us out of the bar. I think it was a silly misunderstanding but again, the fact that we weren’t friends before has made it more difficult to reconcile. Each of us is too stubborn to admit that we were wrong. There were other tiny incidents of course. All petty upon introspection. Ennis scooped several stories after Vinod had informally announced that he was going to post them. Sajit was apparently moonlighting under a pseudonym on a rival blog, posting his best material there. Again, let me stress that this is MY view of the situation. It is possible that the parties involved might retaliate by posting THEIR own versions here as well, although I hope things won’t get that ugly. The only “good”ร‚ย news is that Apul has gotten a lot of good press from SM and has been invited to write for a well known comedy show. I’m not sure why they singled him out (especially since he is just a recent addition to our crew), but I guess saying “good luck” would be appropriate.

At this point I can only ask that SM readers try to accept this decision and continue to visit each of our individual blog sites. We will still be writing with our own voices just not together in this forum.

I know what comes next may be overly dramatic but I am really torn up over this decision. I would like to end my writing with choice words from the poet William Butler Yeats:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold

80 thoughts on “A Letter To Our Readers”

  3. For someone who’s not familiar with the mutineers, and had forgotten to check the date, I would have fallen for it – except I felt 1+1 didn’t quite make three and so came here to check the comments… ’twas an entertaining fool nonetheless!

  4. Yeah, right! That means I will not be wasting my time checking your site several times every day to see if you guys have put up any updates.. Thank you so much.. ๐Ÿ™‚ C’mon people, come up with something better for all fools day..

  5. Sure Manish is a handsome guy from the pic on the front page, but Sajit and Ennis should know better. Put your petty crushes aside for the sake of the site, okay guys? Geez.

  6. You had me for the first paragraph and then…but then I checked the date….

    Its really beautiful that Apul and Manish fell in love though. And Anna, dont be jealous ๐Ÿ˜‰

  8. anyone remember a different “hoax” that debuted on april 1? it was called GMAIL. just because something happens on this stupid date, doesn’t mean it’s automatically fake.

    ANNA posted something on her diary that makes me think YOU are all fools if you don’t take this a bit more seriously. i knew she was dating someone in new york, i just had no idea it was manish. oh, and check her fotolog for pictures of the two of them. i love how everyone cynical thinks they have shit figured out…

  9. I might have been snookered if I hadn’t just finished reading the Eastern Eye over lunch, which today features the headline “India Plans Citizenship Test,” about how foreigners wanting to settle in India will have to learn Hindi, and know dates in Indian history. The whole article sounded plausible up until the last paragraph:

    “The report says taking the citizenship test will enable immigrants to learn about everyday life in India, including the latest Bollywood film stars, where to get the best masala dosas and how to chew paan effectively.”

    ๐Ÿ˜‰

  10. i knew she was dating someone in new york, i just had no idea it was manish. oh, and check her fotolog for pictures of the two of them.

    if you look at this picture of the mutineers, it is a little surprising that anna is canoodling with manish while keeping sajit at arms length…oh and someone on her diary just asked about the fat rock on her finger.

    i’m torn. i think this IS a prank, but at the same time, it’s plausible enough that manish pops the question and some other mutineer loses his shit. life is drama, people. you really didn’t think a group of indian people could adhere to working towards a common goal, did you? when has THAT ever happened.

  12. this is totally an April Fool’s Day joke!! c’mon! i can’t believe some of you are even entertaining the idea that it may be the truth. abhi and vinod almost coming to blows?? people being concerned or upset by others scooping their blog entries or moonlighting at another blog. its a pretty funny joke but also transparent. ๐Ÿ™‚

  14. lol the other blog i read regularly did this joke too.

    but i read the newspaper this morning and they had given 4 stars to a remake of Casablanca starring: Ashton Kutcher, Paris Hilton, Jack Black, among others. they had even photoshopped their faces into a “scene” from the movie. i was shocked until i figured it out, so the april fools thing was fresh in my mind.

  15. but Iรƒยขร‚โ‚ฌร‚โ„ขve always felt that with great power comes great responsibility.

    Dude, overboard much?

  16. but Iรƒยขร‚โ‚ฌร‚โ„ขve always felt that with great power comes great responsibility.

    that’s just abhi. totally consistent with him (i’ve read his blog for years now)

  17. Nice ruse folks.. you had me fooled for about 5 seconds. Keep up the good work!

  18. ‘um actually’ and ‘things fall apart’ stop trying to keep the joke alive. It is so obvious that you are of the SM bloggers.

  20. take a look at THIS

    http://www.fotolog.net/suitablegirl/

    this morning it said, PHAT as the title. i’ve followed anna’s flog for a while…thi9s is pretty consistent with how she communicates when she’s real upset. i’ll BET you there will be some post on HERSTORY in the next few days about how it all went down.

    also, she’s posted before in her diary that she was frustrated with sepia mutiny. as in over the last few months. somehow i don’t think they’d go through THAT much trouble to do a hoax, to have her set it up that early.

  24. It’s true, folks. All the Mutineers having joined Blunt Instrument. There just ain’t enough room on the web for the both of these blogs.

    Well, actually there was, but that’s because the web is really not an actual physical construct, and does not take up literal space.

    Oh, and uh. Yeah, you guys are really gullible.

  27. pretty good, guys! I fell for it, until Abhi started spelling out the reasons for the break-up…

  33. That was quite a good one! I am new to sepia, so I had no idea what Manish’s sexual orientation was, much less what Anna would do when someone tosses beer in her face (Does this not happen often? Just curious) Bottomline, I was thinking of what I can do to get my daily fix from tomorrow onwards. Cocaine did seem one of the options, but getting that is more difficult than typing http://www.sepiamutiny.com

    All right. You guys got me. I’m not infallible. In fact, this post was so good that I decided to stop lurking around in the shadows and actually post a comment. I have come out of the closet. I have seen the light. And it is neon!

  35. Ok – you had me there until you started throwing beer on one another!

    Keep up the good work guys.

    Vish

  36. Am I the only one who remained completely oblivious to the devious intentions of SM. I nearly shed a few tears to think that my SM was going to leave me compoletely.

  37. i’m normally incredibly gullible, but the moment the page loaded and i saw the dear john letter, i knew it was a hoax. go me!

  38. lol….You had me thinkin there for a min. Something was not right, could not put my finger on it. So I started working on it. The first lead, anna’s blog. I figured it out right at that moment. The pictures look fabricated. For the kinda of girl she is, she does not sound like one in romance. So got to the comments section and here it is.

    I was sad, cos just I hate sepia too much. I won’t have anybody to hate? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO you can’t do that to me sepia………please.

  39. The Mutiny crew are panicking because they know that if you do an April Fools on someone and they dont fall for it they become the April Fool

    hahaha

  40. So I started working on it. The first lead, anna’s blog. I figured it out right at that moment. The pictures look fabricated. For the kinda of girl she is, she does not sound like one in romance.

    and what the hell do you mean “the kinda of girl” i am? kindly explain before i assume something you didn’t intend. thank you.

  43. “the kinda of girl” I am in a real hurry but…lets just say “the kinda of girl” = sweet

  44. You can leave Bollywood and stop watching all those movies, but the movies and cheesy Bollywood type plots will never leave you.

  45. Okay, ha ha, mofos. Now, feed us, damn it! You all provide the sepia that’s fit to print… and we’re hungry!

  46. screw you guys! I believed the whole thing until I read the comments. I was actually angry. The only thing that is believable, now that I think about it, is that you guys were fighting over anna- because she is so fine.

  47. I don’t know, you guys.. I think they might be serious. ::tear::

    It would be a sad, sad day if SM were really to be dismantled. Say it ain’t so!

    Of course, you could chalk me off as being completely gullible, and prove me wrong. I’d go down as one of the biggest suckers for the prank.

    So what’s the real deal? Why is mum the word?

  50. Came from slashdot.org to avoid the annual April Fool’s madness, only to find the same going on over here.

    You’d think my productivity would shoot through the roof from not getting my frequent SM and Slashdot fix, but the opposite has happened… ๐Ÿ™‚

    It’s withdrawal!