Saturday, May 14, 2011

The Curious Case of the 350 Russian Views

One wouldn't be rebuked for wondering whether or not this blog is still running. It has, after all, been more than six (!) months since the last post. Needless to say, time in my head seems to go much slower than in real (and cyber) life. I was convinced that it was just a few weeks ago that I last wrote.

My atrocious timekeeping aside, the first thing I did was to diligently check my stats to see if anyone was still reading the blog despite my neglect, and convinced that I would see no more than a whopping 0. What I saw, however, truly shocked me.

Raj Kapoor in his 'lal topi russi' in the song
 Mera Joota Hai Japani from Shri 420 (1955)
Not only do the stats say that people are still finding and regularly reading the blog everyday (shocking enough), but there were a dizzying 350 views--yes 350!--on 28 April, and that too, mainly by people in Russia.

Now, I am aware of the long fascination with Bollywood in Russia, primarily due to Raj Kapoor's showmanship and charismatic penchant for braving hard times in his films (while donning his 'laal topi russi', of course) but I am truly confused as to why the sudden surge of views in Russia on 28 April.

The referring link is to a dead URL of some sort of poll. If anyone has any idea of what may have been going on, please let me know.

In the meantime, do svidniya to all and spasibba!