Awonderful example of how
useful the Internet can be,
a blog has it all—from
being an online confessional
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diary to becoming a platform to
rave and rant, and critique and
praise any and every subject
under the sun. And if bloggers
were to utilise some of their free
Web hosting space to promote a
worthy cause, it just could help
someone in need
Espousing a social cause on a
blog allows a blogger to do just
that: a blogging contest in aid of
cancer awareness has been
launched in Chennai. To participate,
bloggers need to put up
content on their blogs.

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supporting the ‘Can Conquer
Cancer’ initiative. You can find
the contest at http://connexionsonline.
biz/ conxw/ican/.
What It’s About
The contest was started by Muralikrishnan
R, CEO of Quicksilver,
a placement agency. The idea of a
blog contest to promote awareness
came to him after the
tsunami of 2004. He says about it,
“The blogging circuit came alive
like never before to mobilise
resources for the tsunami-hit
regions and get help. I realised
that blogs can make a real difference
in spreading awareness and
help dispel myths—in fact, the
use of a blog can achieve much
more than an e-mail or Web site
based campaign.”
An avid blogger himself,
Muralikrishnan also manages
the promotional work of Connexions, a popular departmental
store in Chennai. Connexions,
which is a major sponsor of the
blogging contest, recently joined
hands with the Rotary Club of
Chennai Metro to promote the
“Can Conquer Cancer”
programme.
Murali further adds, “We
believe that there’s an upside to
any challenge, so when it comes
to spreading awareness about
cancer, we wanted to get everyone
involved. Essentially, we
want to spread the message that
cancer can be conquered, and get
everybody to do their bit.
“Our efforts aim at infusing a
positive attitude among bloggers
and readers and providing hope
to those battling the disease”.

Can Conquer Cancer

Connexions site states, “Blog a
smile, Blog a while, Blog whatever
you feel like, but just
remember your writing could
help someone conquer cancer.
Lend a healing touch to your
imagination and watch how far
your keyboard strokes can go
towards motivation and
support.”
The theme of the contest is
“Can Conquer Cancer.” Entries
can be in prose or verse and must
be 500 words in length. The
content must be motivational. It
can be a personal or a secondhand
experience, and has to be
original work. Even photo-blogging,
provided the photograph is
original, is permitted.
With only one entry per
blogger, the contest is open to
bloggers worldwide. However,
blogs have to be in English.
Participants are required to
include any of the “i-CAN”
banners available on the Connexions
site to show their support to
the initiative.
Entries will be judged for
originality, content, style of
language and the message they
portray. A seven-member panel of
judges including four bloggers
and three non-bloggers will review and rate contest entries.
And five winning blogs are
slated to receive various prizes
including a USB 128 MB podcast
device, 350 MB of hosting space,
T-shirts, music CDs, dinner
coupons, and more.
Moreover, all entrants will
have their blogs featured on the
popular online portal—
Sulekha.com. While contestants
retain the intellectual property
of their posts, Connexions will
use the entries as a hyperlink,feature them, or just display
them on the Connexions or any
other partner sites.
The Response
The Connexions site recorded
over 40,000 hits within the first
week of the contest being
announced. Some entries are
poignant—more so the ones that
include reminisces of the experience
of cancer patients the
participants personally knew.
Other entrants have composed
inspirational poems, narrated
incidents, and even drawn
sketches, all revolving around
the theme of combating cancer.
Smitha N, a blogger based in
the UK, says, “I have lived
through the life of someone
who faced the Big C, and I saw
her emerge though pain in such
a gallant, beautiful and smiling
way. So, I can empathise with
and feel the importance of this
initiative. More importantly, I
learnt that the big C is not that
big after all. That was the
moment I decided to celebrate
life. I am sure this initiative will
bring a few smiles to those diagnosed
with cancer, and pass the
message that they ‘can’—and
emerge unscathed!”
Another participant, Prabhu
Karthik, a software professional,
posted, on his blog, a firstperson
account of family
members and close friends
suffering from cancer.
Karthik says, “I believe blogs
provide a platform to write
about certain events that spur
you to write about them in the
first place. The reason I decided
to enter the competition was
not for the prizes, but the fact
that I would get a chance to
create awareness about cancer.
There’s a possibility that an
online search on cancer-related
issues could lead to my blog.
And if users read my posting on
cancer and are benefited by it,
in terms of information, I would
consider my work done.”
Muralikrishnan mentions
that in the future, Connexions
will try to promote other issues
such as AIDS awareness and
child abuse through more blogging
contests. In this way, such
contests would give bloggers an
insight into the pain and suffering
of fellow humans, and help
prevent and curtail that by
creating awareness.

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