When Shashi Tharoor made the “holy cow” tweet last month, thus prompting calls for his resignation from within his own party, the common man, including this author, did not understand the reasoning behind such hoopla. In fact, I’ve long been registered on Twitter.com myself, but never did I see any point in continuing to tweet on for my own communication needs or thought it should be important for others too. The 140 character limit hinders your desire to communicate effectively (that’s why it is called twitter, anyway). So, how did Tharoor’s passing comment make such a major impact, one wondered at that time.

To understand this new phenomenon about Twitter.com, I recently started tweeting regularly myself, and how surprised I have been to find the transformation this service has gone through in the last two years. The transformation that one can see through the skyrocketing user-base, the massive load of traffic twitter receives and the overall content, moods and trends being shared by its users. The first thing I did after rejoining twitter was to look out for Indian journos and cine actors, which brought me back with some interesting observations. This post is an account of the same observations I made about tweeples (twitter members), including celebs and journos, and it also highlights how useful or not tweeting can be for you. Didn’t they have Yahoo or Windows live messenger before starting to tweet? So, what was the point in developing this new platform? Let us find out the reasons of it below.

The most inviting aspect about twitter is, it makes almost all of its published content accessible. A majority of conversations can be read and reacted upon to by anyone. However, this still shall not guarantee your participation into any conversation. You won’t be able to ask  other tweeples for attention at your own will. For example, you can follow, read and respond to any tweeple, say A, B or C with extensive readership (or following), but they wouldn’t respond or accept an invitation by you to follow you, unless they found your tweets worth noticing in that crowd. The rules of engagement shall be more conducive though, for tweeples of similar professional, cultural and social backgrounds, similar followings and similar intellectual leanings.

Points you should know before starting to tweet:

- Search out for some famous names. Look out the tweeples they follow to extend your search.

- Now concentrate on tweeples following these famous names and look out for like-minded friends. Start following and request to reciprocate, if you like.

- Do not expect others to start following you, or feel hesitant about refusing some others.

- The best thing about twitter is nobody can send you direct messages, unless you started following them.

- Nothing much can be done about spamming on twitter though, as usual. Some of these spammers might prove useful, so allow them to co-exist.

Some familiar scribes and tweeples to watch out for:

Tarun Vijay

An author and journalist from Sangh’s background. Currently working as the director of the DSMRF (Dr. Syamaprasad Mookerjee Research Foundation). He tweets rarely and when does so provides mostly links to his own articles in the media.

http://twitter.com/Tarunvijay

Kanchan Gupta

A journalist of right-centrist leanings, now working as the Associate Editor of the Pioneer. Tweets heavily while into his office, and comes out as a rare right-centrist opinion from the mainstream media.

http://twitter.com/KanchanGupta

Offstumped (Nickname)

He ain’t a journo, but could be found putting across the right-centrist vision within his own fold and to the pseudo-secularist media.

http://twitter.com/offstumped

Prabhu Chawla

A senior journalist and the Editor of The India Today right now. Tweets rarely, which is understandable keeping in mind his first preference The India Today to answer his readers.

I followed him solely for his past equations with Kishoreda, but soon became hell bored. He is nothing but the usual pseudo-intellectual voice. The same kind of opinion I had to stop reading the TOI to save myself from. In this case, I “unfollowed” Nandy as well.

http://twitter.com/PritishNandy

N Ram

Tweets occasionally and generally keeps it to his profession and work.

http://twitter.com/nramind

Burkha Dutt

She has a large following and tweets regularly when not programming, like her other counterparts in the media. She talks the usual pro-UPA and the anti-BJP stuff.

http://twitter.com/BDUTT

Rajdeep Sardesai

Owns a large number of readership and tweets regularly and the usual pro-UPA and the anti-BJP stuff.

http://twitter.com/sardesairajdeep

Sagarika Ghose

Even though, she is part of the anti-BJP troika on TV with B Dutt and R Sardesai leading the charge, she is still not as stronger in her arguments as the other two and hence gets bombarded with pro-BJP tweets.

http://twitter.com/sagarikaghose

Mahesh Bhatt

I occasionally read him to laugh out at pseudo-intellectualism. He often keeps on complaining about the state oppression, and questioning the righteousness of those opposing him, which is hilarious, keeping in mind his own arrogance.

http://twitter.com/maheshNBhatt

And a shortened list of the movie-wallahs (the oldies are missing, obviously). You can follow the rest from there on. Unlike the journos, for whom tweeting is part of their jobs often resulting into verbal blows, the celebs mostly tweet in a symbolic manner to keep fan-flocks engaged. Usually, they get a massive amount of uninteresting messages, asking mostly for a hello, and therefore can not be expected to tweet any better either. Many of them (and non-celebs as well) have seemingly started tweeting only recently,  just out of curiosity.

http://twitter.com/kjohar25

http://twitter.com/AnupamPkher

http://twitter.com/Riteishd

http://twitter.com/juniorbachchan

http://twitter.com/priyankachopra

http://twitter.com/realpreityzinta

http://twitter.com/Lisaraniray

Shashi Tharoor

And finally, one of the most popular, most hyped and yet most boring Indians of them all.

http://twitter.com/ShashiTharoor

Ironically, the lesser mortals make better use of twitter as compared to more powerful ones. A row broke out recently, after the British actor and author Stephen Fry was criticized by one tweeple from Birmingham. The latter was flooded with sever criticism and abuses as the news spread out among the Stephen Fry fans. I’d like to add here though, the more knowledgeable ones often fail to impress you on twitter, may be partially due to the 140 character limit and partially because of the high expectations we might have of them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/technology/02twitter.html?_r=2

The new year of Gujarat, that normally gets observed a day after Diwali was held back this time. It finally began with Bhaidooj today.

I’ve so far loved Diwali like everyone else does, but have also since the last decade or so started disliking the amount of noise that the powerful firecrackers generate. This tendency began showing up more so, since I started meditating. I think, Indians have a lack of cohesiveness and indiscipline in their public life, which gets exposed during such public displays. The responsibility of evading firecrackers in Diwali lies solely on your shoulders therefore, and not the other way round. Watch out for, jump or duck due to them, but never do try complaining.

Diwali Candles 1

Often parents can be seen giggling around when their wards will go on rampage. The occasion becomes a license for bursting the loudest of firecrackers next to thy neighbor’s boundary wall, and not to yours own. It becomes the responsibility of those taking care of the elderlies and the critically ill, to be on their toes, or else go to hell!

Sadly enough, the nature within the urban expanse also gets traumatized due to this human misbehavior. The cuckoo living within the tree branches next to my window went silent this morning as firecrackers began going off at a frenetic pace. She normally starts with her morning Jazz just after the first twilight rays had arisen over the eastern horizon. The firecrackers terrorized and delayed her morning Riyaaz by half an hour. One can just imagine what these silent sufferers might be going through!

One can find the same incivility taking place during some other festivals as well. Some joyous folks will always overlook the midnight ban on loud speakers and make the neighboring colonies suffer throughout Navaratri. I’ve always personally found Diwali more charming, when observed as a festival of light, and tried to light a few candles myself to celebrate the occasion. At the same time, kids lighting unharmful fireworks is also a joyous sight to wish for. But, how often do we get to see such harmonious Diwalis? Instead, firecrackers with several times more than the allowed sound limit, and foolhardy ways to handle them becomes the norm of the day.

This display of rudeness in public life is indicative of the suppressed desires most eastern societies have in them. The hidden, stirring lava finds its way out one or the other way round. But, more about this later. Should stop complaining for now, lest people began calling me names. In any case, my opinion should not find many takers in a world that was full of Diwali firecrackers. So, it does not matter whether I find it the right way to celebrate Diwali or not.

Diwali Candles 2

This is first in a series of articles about Sholay, to be published here.

If you have watched Indian movies for long enough, you must have noticed the amount of belief Indian producers do have in fate. They roll out movies without any ground work, yet hope for gala box-office returns at the same time. They believe in targeting the jackpot blindfolded. Their ideas can be described at best as ill-conceived, scripts poorly written and their movie-making shoddy in nature.

What they normally seem to follow is, formula movie-making, where they have the liberty (rather compulsion) of adding as many emotional and dramatic twists in stories as they might wish to (stories that are stale as hell, anyway) and stuff in violent reprisals and half nude song items. There is no reason why such movies should be appreciated at the box-office. An industry that has not been successful in producing anything close to the Sholay cult since 1975, should seriously examine its reasons and try improving its craft.

Sholay Was No Accident

Contrary to what most Indian movie makers might seem to believe, Sholay was no one-time accident. Each scene, each action, each character, each song, the background music score, camera work and the flow and continuity of the whole movie spoke of dedicated efforts. It spoke of the time, energy and planning gone into making that epic. It also brought out some of the best performances seen in Indian movies ever, that of movie production, script writing, movie direction, music composition and the actors, a whole lot of them at their prime and in their best elements.

So, what made RGV (Ram Gopal Verma) think he could produce anything akin to Sholay? He is among the top Bollywood directors today, no doubt, but he also recently admitted how much speedily he makes those movies. How can he then think of producing a masterpiece like Sholay in four months (symbolic expression, am not considering the actual time taken for RGV’s AAG)? How can a movie-wallahs that loves announcing his next two movies beforehand, while still working on his ongoing project could think of reproducing Sholay? I never saw “Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag”, but had known its fate from the day it was announced.

I should stop now, and be back with more on this subject in the near future. Will try making a series of posts about Sholay in the next round.

PS – Btw, examine the interest taken by non-Indians in Sholay here.

So, what could have been the reason for this steep decline in my ad money? Well, it sounds a hoard of Indian festivals and the subsequent Chmpion’s League T20 cricket were to be blamed here. The keywords I use are no big earners anyway…kishore kumar songs, rafi songs, rafi vs kishore, lata kishore songs, gujarati songs, praful dave, maniraj barot, sanedo, mihir bose and several variants of osho rajneesh are some of the major keywords used for hitting my pages. I’ve also tried writing about finance and travel, but without much headway, since I do not have the necessary expertise and material to manage it right now.

This sudden fall in ad revenue showed me the significance of right keywords and the trends going on in AdWords. Obviously, advertisers have decided to bet on sports blogs, sports websites and portals with cricket news for a while, and the fall in my CTR justifies their decision as well, since the surfing focus has obviously shifted towards the Champions League for the moment.

Although, this is my personal blog, I avoid listing my personal issues here, since I know that won’t interest anyone. Yes, Big B can do it generating hundreds of responses each day. But that is another issues, he, being the very good writer and the rare Bollywood celebrity he is, can do so as long as he may wish to. However, this was  out of blue and made me lose my emotional composure without holds. It also made me laugh a little while later. I still won’t disclose the core issue here, but the manner it came across me, reminded of the Internet’s prowess and threats both.

While checking out my site stats, I came across a web-designer’s forum this evening, where I used to hang around several years ago, and from where the hit to my blog seemed to have originated. The thread in contention was started by some lady into her mid thirties. The chatter was about teenage web-designers vs oldies. While those in their 30s and above, including this blogger, made deep, thoughtful remarks, the teenagers and 20-some hanged around smiling. Then I fumbled upon something I had  spoken of a personal crisis in those days that I thought I had buried way ago. It was not in reality though, and I lost my emotional composure for a good while. The crisis had disrupted my life in those days and made me feel having drunk the toxins like Lord Shiva had during Samudra Manthan (ocean churning), which earned him the sobriquet Neelkanth, the one with a simmering, blue neck.

While surfing through the same thread I had some good laugh a little later, when I bumped in a, then 50 plus and now nearing 60, web-designer’s witty remarks. Hmm…..as they say life comes full circle, so does the Internet, hence be careful in posting your matters online.

Kishore Kumar, the only Genius I ever knew – Pritish Nandy

I thought this article, written by Pritish Nandy, who has seen Kishore Kumar from close quarters during the latter’s last years, needed to be showcased here. If you enjoyed reading the other article (rather interview) by Nandy I’d linked in my blog earlier, i.e. Hilarious Kishoreda Interview, you should also be reading this one. The earlier one was penned by Nandy in the mid-80s, while starting his journalistic career. In this one, he remembers the undiminishing Kishore Kumar in 2009, and how familiar it all sounds, with KK’s trademark humor and the unparalleled genius had had underlying throughout this story.

Besides, read this one by Lata Mangeshkar as well:

Kishoreda, please let me sing: Lata

Btw, I was saddened for the first time learning Kishoreda’s desire to sing for a pan-world audience, which I believe he thoroughly deserved since his “Main Hoon Zumroo” yodeling, and unfortunately remained unfulfilled. I’ve argued for long, the music lovers outside India have missed listening not only to him, but also several other greats from Hindi music from the 50s onwards. This was the reason I was not fully appreciative about the recent Oscars to Gulzar and Rehman, even though they fully deserved it. Yes, the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)…(hmm…how shortened a name!)….has to follow norms before giving Oscars, but equally stark should also be the facts that not only the above duo did not deserve to be the first Indian composure and lyricist to be there – there is a long list of DAADUs from the 50s onwards that can easily fill that bill – nor they were awarded for their best works – they have done far better things previously.

Should stop this whining for now though, and let you read Nandy’s article on KK.

This mainly concerns with the Indian AdSense publishers, who are yet to receive their first pay-check from Google Inc. Google sends its publishers money via BlueDart, and misses many a recipients in the due course. The reason of this waywardness could be traced in the chaotic urban growth that has taken place in the Indian cities.

For example, my present abode was surrounded by farming lands, when I landed here in 1991. Town-planners had not yet started finalizing maps for my vicinity, and hoards of cows, buffaloes and street dogs could be noticed wandering alongside the few housing colonies built by then. Eighteen years on, and how rapidly my locality has grown, with well-paved roads, mutli-stories, and commercial establishments strewn all over my neighborhood. While the postal department has not forgotten my location all these years, courier services have failed badly in this context.

The niggling issue here is, Google doesn’t allow AdSense publishers to describe their complete address. They would allow a limited space for street1 and street2 information, which does not help much in the Indian scenario. Neither does Google share the contact numbers of its clients with BlueDart, so that they can contact the recipient on failing to locate them. It is left on the AdSense user therefore to start actively pursuing BlueDart from the day payment was issued.

I decided to personally travel half the city away this time to receive my AdSense pay-check from BlueDart’s regional office, after having missed it on two previous occasions. I had to keep a watch on BlueDart’s website from the day my AdSense account added a Payment Issued link. You can remove the “0″ from check (reference) number and use it to trace your shipment on BlueDart’s website. It takes several days before they will hand over the shipment to BlueDart. However, things can move pretty fast once the shipment is mentioned on BlueDart’s website . Unless, you were assured of the delivery by BlueDart at your place, you should start speaking with them by emailing your complete address and contact number, and even try dialing up their support line, if they did not respond you within 12-16 hours. You should then ask if you should personally visit one of their centers to receive the shipment, as it won’t cost you much in time and money in India. I paid roughly a dollar on travelling five kms to receive my 160 odd bucks, and the whole process from starting to speak with them to receiving my shipment took me hardly an hour.

The BlueDart itself is an efficient and competitive courier service and you can hope to get the best support from them. What newbie AdSense users should not do is to start blaming Google Inc. or BlueDart for undelivered shipments, and start actively pursuing the later instead, soon after their payment had been released.  Hope this would help a few stranded AdSense users from India.

Image courtesy of Osho International Foundation, New York, USA.

I’ve often wondered, if there is anything we could describe as final truth in life. Whatever we might speak now should have no credibility tomorrow. I’ve seen this happening in my own case. All my past assumptions about this world and my life, which seemed faultless when I made them, have proven incorrect over the years. I had irrefutable reasons to believe in them, and they too seemed helping me at various stages of my life. However, as life passed on – and how steadfastly, intensely and uniformly it did so – so did my ideas about rights and wrongs dilute in air.

But, why should this inability of mine surprise anyone? Don’t we all face similar predicament in life at various stages? This is why many say perhaps they are learners in life until they breathed their last. The nature and expanse of this existence is so vast and so unpredictable, and the human mind so insignificant in comparison, that even to think about the so-called absolute truth is fundamentally flawed.

Even modern physics  seems to have noticed this human error, and invented the Uncertainty Principle of Quantum Mechanics to make its own life easier. (From wikipedia:) “According to Uncertainty Principle, it is, for instance, impossible to measure simultaneously both position and velocity of a microscopic particle with any degree of accuracy or certainty”.

It further adds: “This is not a statement about the limitations of a researcher’s ability to measure particular quantities of a system, it is a statement about the nature of the system itself as described by the equations of quantum mechanics.”

I disagree with the second part though, at the cost of being termed unscientific! The uncertainty, in my opinion, is not due to any of the system’s faults, but due to man-made limitations. The reach of human mind is limited and so is the scope of science, in contrast to the infinite existence surrounding us. In summation, no matter how rigorously one attempted to to understand the fundamentals of life, they won’t succeed in achieving that target ever.

What Osho Spoke about Truth

Now osho’s magical words on truth. I shall quote the following two paras from two different resources to convey Osho’s point of view.

Osho on Truth…click here

Remember the first preliminary of Atisha: truth is. You need not believe in it for it to be. Your belief or your disbelief is not going to make any difference to the truth. Truth is truth, whether you believe or you disbelieve.

But if you believe in something it starts appearing as true to you at least. That’s what the meaning of belief is: belief means to believe in something as true – you know that you don’t know, you know that the truth is unknown to you, but in your ignorance you start believing, because belief is cheap.
To discover truth is arduous, it needs a long pilgrimage. It needs a great emptying of the mind, it needs a great cleansing of the heart. It needs a certain innocence, a rebirth: you have to become a child again.

Only very few people have ever dared to discover truth. And it is risky, because it may not console you; it has no obligation to console you. It is risky: it may shatter all that you have known before, and you will have to rearrange your whole life. It is dangerous: it may destroy all your illusions, it may shatter all your dreams. It is really going through fire; it is going to burn you as you are, it is going to kill you as you are. And who knows what will happen later on?

Osho – What is Truth?…click here

The experience of truth is neither a thought nor a feeling. It is a vibrating and a throbbing of all the vital components of your entire being. It is not in you; you are in it. It is your whole being, not just an experience that is happening to you. It is in you yourself, but it is larger than you because the whole of existence is included in it as well.

You ask me for a definition of truth? There is no definition of truth. How can one’s self define one’s self? Pilate asked Christ, “What is truth?” and Christ simply looked at him and remained silent. Truth has no words, no sounds. Truth is an experience of the extreme depths of the self. It is total identification with what is.

Truth is not the opposite of untruth. The opposite of untruth is still untruth. All extremes are untruths. Truth is the mean between extremes. In other words, truth transcends all extremes.

As I see it, mankind has lost all sense of direction. And this has happened because man has chosen investigation of the physical world over exploration of his own inner being. Nothing should be more important to a man than himself. His first and fundamental inquiry should be into himself.

Unless a man knows himself all his knowledge lacks authenticity. In the hands of an ignorant man nothing can be creative, but even ignorance can become a creative tool in the hands of a knowledgeable one. If a man can understand himself, can master himself, only then will his other achievements have real merit. Unless this happens he is simply digging his own grave.

While conceding, most Kishore Kumar fans will find all his songs priceless without any doubt, one still wonders, if KK sang better than himself ever at some point of his own career? Was he more at ease, more in Mastee, more romantic, more sentimental and more transcending ever for his listeners compared to his other times?

While making it amply clear, the following is a personal opinion and carries no academic study as such to back it up, I’d be tempted in believing, Kishore Kumar sang his best from circa 1970 to 1979, more so during the mid-70s,  i.e. 72-78. There is something special about his songs from these years – the depth, intensity and flare of his voice, and the intensity of emotions and the romance he sang would often leave you ecstatic. His voice blended well with all kinds of recording methods and instruments being used in those days. He could more easily and more often transcend you, take you into an out-of-world experience through his amazing artistry. He often seemed deviating from the rehearsed compositions only to come back more exciting, overwhelming and pleasing to one’s music sense.

Did events of his life help him sing better during this period? Was he living on a different plateau during this era? He lived single from 1969 to 1976, after Madhubala’s passing away. His marital life with Yogita Bali, which he later called “a joke” in an interview, lasted just for two years from 1976 to 1978. Could it be that he was living a detached and  burden-free life in emotional sense? Men often climb up their intellectual and creative summits in around their 40s. This may start from the mid-late 30s until they managed to carry on with their jobs  (this may not apply to all cases, though). You can notice most greats giving their best renditions from the late 30s onwards. Bachchan was at his usual best from his mid 30s to mid-40s. Dharampaji’s prime acts, including Sholay, came during his mid-late 30s and the subsequent years. Shahrukh Khan has given some of his most successful movies in the same age-group. Even Rafi and Mukesh seemed to have evolved more after their late 30s. I’ve found their last numbers more audible compared to their earlier works.

Kishoreda’s Best Period (Random videos. No Order Of Songs, Moods And Years Selected)

Yeh Jo Mohabbat Hai

Waada Tera Waada

Haal Kya Hai Dilon Kaa

O Mere Dil Ke Chain

Yeh Lal Rang

Chingari Koee Bhadke

Kitne Atal The Tere Irade

Tum Bhi Chalo

Meet Na Mila Re Man Ka

Khilte Hain Gul Yahan

Dil Kya Kare

Aapke Kamrey Mein Koee

Yaadon Ki Barat

Sama Hai Suhana Suhana

Tera Mujhse Hai Pahle Ka

Waada Karo

Jai Jai Shiv Shankar

Tere Chehre Mein Vo Jaadoo

Ek Main Aur Ek Tu

Pyar Kar Liya To Kya

Tere Chehre Se

Chanda O Chanda

Koi Haseena Jab Rooth

Rote Huye Aate Hain Sab

Jiska Mujhe Tha Intezar

Leena O Leena

O Padosan Ki Ladki

Naach Meri Jaan

Priye Praneshwari

Peene Walon Ko

October Shower In Ahmedabad 1

Same Nokia N72 camera, same angle, same photo-storytelling. Though briefly, it rained heavily last night and I could not stop from uploading these images. Besides there is more about greenery post monsoon. Here, have a look at it.

October Shower In Ahmedabad

October Shower In Ahmedabad 2

October Shower In Ahmedabad 3

Monsoon Greenery In Ahmedabad 1

Monsoon Greenery In Ahmedabad 2

Monsoon Greenery In Ahmedabad 3

Monsoon Greenery In Ahmedabad 4

Monsoon Greenery In Ahmedabad 5

Monsoon Greenery In Ahmedabad 6

Monsoon Greenery In Ahmedabad 7

Monsoon Greenery In Ahmedabad 8