Manipulation of the Manipulated(Theft in a thief’s house)!!

There has been an amusing incident in the last week, which I feel like putting forth here. A supposed “Magic Academy” had put up an enthusiastic poll on its Blog. It caught my interest when a few magician friends mentioned about it to me. The reason for my interest in this poll was quite simple – Among the four magicians named in the poll, was my father too. Widely accepted as the MOST POPULAR MAGIC SHOW with biggest magic team and with maximum infrastructure, and best of all, the team with the best public response in India, was started from scratch by my father – JADUGAR(MAGICIAN) ANAND. There were two more equally big and deserving names in the poll. It was a shock to see the fourth name in the poll, which was none other than the blog creator himself, who is also(“coincidently”) the Founder of this “Magic Academy”. In my opinion, the contestants were not fairly chosen. This dude didn’t stand a chance! Furthermore, the Blog where this poll was posted, was full of his praises and whatever photographs the dude had managed to gather from somewhere. NOT EVEN ONE SIMPLE PHOTOGRAPH OR INTRODUCTION OF ANY OF THE OTHER MAGICIANS WAS PUT ON THE BLOG. And the truth is, the other three names were of Giants in the Indian Magic Industry. Well, that was just the beginning. The polling began. I kept forgetting about the polls till the magician friends called me every two or three days to tell me the status of the poll. I really felt that not only was this poll a waste of energy for me, it was also being done in a very unethical manner due to the fact that it was being held on the blog of one of the names in the polls. I feel convinced inside me that the magician friends were also interested in the polls only to see how this MANIPULATED POLL is going to be justified for by this Blogger. It began as expected, with my father leading the poll. That remained the status quo for some days. Then one night suddenly, this dude’s votes shot up like Magic. A giant that Mr.Anand is, seemed so small when compared to this dude’s votes. Not much of a surprise if you ask me(whose blog hosted the poll anyways?). After a few days, I again got the news that my father’s votes have started increasing. Well, I am sure all Magicians know Magic! This dude was probably under the impression that since it’s his Blog, he’s the only pro. Unfortunately for him, someone somewhere planned to express to him that TWO CAN PLAY THIS GAME. As written in his afternotes (which clearly showed his state of mind), the votes started to increase more than dramatically for my father. And, on daily basis. My friends told me that after two days of this, this dude’s votes also started increasing in a similar fashion. But it seems that the pace of his increments was nowhere close to my father’s. So as some of my friends had already predicted, the dude flung the board in the air before the other side could say CHECKMATE!!! I remember having done this once in my childhood when I had ran away with the cricket ball right when I got bowled out, ending the game then and there, leaving my friends shouting – CHEATER! CHEATER!! And to hide the embarrassment, the afternotes were added, and in a very official tone. The most amusing part is the way it mentions how this incident was SPREADING SUSPICION! Spreading where? For who? Personally I found a lot of Megalomania in the whole thing. And utterly undeserved Megalomania. Still better, was a pointer to this dude’s assumptions. This dude said, bogus voting from a single IP address was made on repeated basis. Now, anyone with a little bit of common-sense and knowledge of Internet knows immediately how a polling script is programmed. Obviously, one IP address CANNOT cast votes twice!!! This dude probably feels that India’s Magicians don’t know what Internet is and how and what it is about. He used a term which I have never heard in my lifetime – INTERNET EXPERT. I might be mistaken, but I don’t think there is any profession or designation or qualification known as INTERNET EXPERT. And what an internet expert to recommend that the same IP address can vote twice? Manipulations Galore!! His afternotes, hence, sound like a justification of why he ran away with the ball when he was bowled out.Now, when I sit back and think, on hindsight I see that this dude probably used these three other big names to garner as many hits as he could to his Blog. And given the popularity of the three, it was quite an intelligently manipulated poll from the word go. I wonder what he found wrong about manipulating a manipulated poll ;-)I am also wondering whether it’s legal for him to use these names without the explicit permission from these people who are still alive and are the epitome of Magic in India. Is he ethical in attracting publicity and attention by using such names without their permissions? There is a continuous use of the word WE throughout this adventure/misadventure. Well, if this poll was manipulated by someone, EVERY aspect of the existence of this poll and this Blog itself seems like a manipulation to me. Finally, I think that if this dude was under any impression that he’s the only resourceful person at The Internet, I am sure he has learnt a lesson which the whole world ought to know – INDIAN MAGICIANS ARE AS GOOD AND AS UPDATED IN ANY TECHNOLOGY AS ANY OTHER IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!