Aditya Nishtala

My Thoughts questioning Facebook Questions.

2011-04-17T01:42:00.000+05:30

It has been a few weeks now that the Facebook questions feature has gone live to all the Facebook users. Before that , I have not used it but I heard from a few peers in the social media industry that it was going to be a cool feature. But in my experience, it really has not been effective so far.

Image via CrunchBase

I think there is a thin line between a question and an opinion poll. If all they wanted to do is to make people create polls and do some voting I guess they are already loads of applications already there on Facebook. I strongly feel the Facebook questions feature should confine to a limited number of people that could be filtered or chosen from the social graph .Though even now you can limit the question to your friends but the question here is "Are you asking the right question to the right people?". The key for the feature to be more effective is people should have the flexibility to choose whom to ask. For example, the question should be able to reach a "friend of friend" who is from a certain college, community or network. Obviously , you cannot directly approach a friend of friend who is not in your social network but they are other subtle ways to do that. May be Facebook could start using "Sponsored stories" section for this or a it can go as a "recommended question".

Image via Wikipedia

It all boils down to the news feed, the user should be given more control customizing the news feed according to his choice with reference to Facebook questions. But like all the other Facebook features which have come into place , including the news feed we might slowly start liking it.But I would still say , they should have rolled this feature exclusively for pages .

What is your experience about this feature? Do you see any positives in this feature? If you would want to tweak this feature a bit, what would you do so to make it better? Let me know in the comments sections.

How your company sales team should "not" embrace social media ?

2010-10-20T02:07:00.003+05:30

My trip to Bangalore a few weeks back was actually very eventful. It would not have been so , had I not met some wonderful people in social media there. I wanted to talk about the one I had with Lakshmi Sharath. Till then, I have known Lakshmi , more from the angle of a travel consultant who happens to get a chance to visit some awesome places and envy us by her travel updates on twitter. :)

But when I met her , I was surprised to know her deep background in the Media (TV & Radio to be more specific). Of all that we discussed , the major topics were Travel 2.0 & Social Media Industry in general. Thanks to her. But the most interesting point of discussion was her perspective on social media with a focus on content & media. I wanted to discuss one key takeaway during that discussion.

We realized that both of us have had an equal share of bad experiences with a few clients. Most of them have been because of a lack of understanding of social media clearly from the client's side. One thing which the clients never seem to get is

"You cannot think and expect that Social Media is going to do all your sales on your behalf. Period"

It is very important for companies to figure out and see how their traditional marketing route functions before they even think about social media. If they expect they could sell only on social media , thats sure fire way to fail at it. Social Media complements and enhances your already existing sales but it never sells your product on your behalf.This is a classic case with small and medium enterprises. I am pretty sure they successful SME's would have discovered where they sell best. But you also have to see what kind of value social media adds to your sales. One reason could be that an SME might not have money to have a dedicated work force on sales but this does not mean that they get into social media just because it is at no cost or low cost.

Yes, sales is possible but what also should be understood is it takes time to build your community, engage them and earn loyalty. The loyalty earned may turn into ROI or sales.

Much to my disdain, one thing which also adds fire to this whole topic is the way most of the social media folks pitch for their clients. If they (Social Media marketers) have included some global successful case studies , then it is a big "NO". I think it is time they stop luring their clients with a case study from the US which would be of very little relevance to an Indian company. I think it is time ,our folks start using some relevant Indian case study depending on who the client is. That would save the social media industry some credibility.

Which side of the coin do you represent? Are you the social media guy or the sales guy at the receiving end? Would love to hear experiences in the comments from both sides of the coin. :)

An Indian perspective on the cause "Water" -- Blog Action Day - 2010

2010-10-12T14:00:00.002+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

The Blog Action Day this year is happening on the 15th of October. The cause that is being supported this year is Water. They have in their website suggested a lot of ideas and topics to blog. Below are some of the suggested topics.

Water as a Human Right: In July, the United Nations declared access to clean water and sanitation a human right over objection from the United States. Today, nearly one billion people lack basic access to safe drinking water. More Info »

Women: In Africa, women are predominantly responsible for collecting water. They walk over 40 billion hours each year carrying cisterns weighing up to 40 pounds to gather water for their community, which is usually still not safe to drink. More Info »

Children: Every week, nearly 38,000 children under the age of 5 die from unsafe drinking water and unhygienic living conditions. More Info »

Polluted Oceans: Not only is pollution bad for the environment, it’s also expensive! Death and disease caused by polluted coastal waters costs the global economy $12.8 billion a year. More Info »

Uninhabitable Rivers: Today, 40% of America’s rivers and 46% of America’s lakes are too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life. That’s not surprising considering the fact that 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, storm water, and industrial waste are discharged into US waters annually. More Info »

Food Footprint: Do you know the water footprint of your food? For example, 75 liters of water are required to make a glass of beer and 15,500 liters to make a kilogram of beef. More Info »

Water Wars: Many scholar, researchers and political analysts attribute the conflict in Darfur at least in part to lack of access to water. In fact, a report commissioned by the UN Development Program found that in the 21st century, water scarcity will become one of the leading causes of conflict in Africa. More Info »

Water & Poverty: A lack of water contributes to poverty, with parents and children too ill or too busy collecting water to go to school and work. Water poverty also undermines progress poor countries are making on health - with half of hospital beds taken by people suffering with diarrhoea and dysentery. More Info »

Technology Footprint: On an average day, 500 billion liters of water travel through US power plants to power all the technology that we use every day. For example, that shiny new iPhone in your pocket requires half a liter of water to charge. That may not seem like much, but with approximately 6.4 million active iPhones in the US, that’s 3.2 million liters to charge those alone. More Info »

As I was pondering over what is going to be the most relevant for my blog audience i.e an Indian audience , I realize that most of these issues have to be solved globally rather than locally. I understand and see that there are things that we can do locally which can be simple things like increasing the green cover to using water for domestic purposes responsibly. The larger picture is the cause concerning "Water" must be solved inclusively. We have to treat "Water" as a problem of the whole world rather than a problem of a few countries.

I see the so called developed countries should shoulder this responsibility and take it forward as they are the ones who are actually depleting water resources of the world in a big way.Most of the statistics that have been quoted above are very relevant to the western countries. In my country, India there is no reason for us to worry about the number of iPhones or the number of jeans being produced and thereby look at the water consumed because of that. For this leap of change to happen , the only way forward is that the governments through out the world have to be willing to take this forward and constitutionally make very fundamental changes in the way they live.

Fortunately or unfortunately , we are still a developing nation and we really don't see any of the above factors going to be impacting us in the next ten years. Yes I agree that we have our own problems like a local festivals like ganesh chaturthi polluting our rivers or the need to have structured sewerage disposal. But, it is for countries like the USA to consume and use water responsibly. We have much major problems like pollution and poverty that have to dealt with immediately.

I love the whole idea of Blog Action Day that is gaining a lot of momentum because I see a wave of blog posts going to happen right from the white house to bloggers like us. Please take some time off to mention this cause in your blog which might help in raising awareness among the internet audience who in my opinion comprise of majority of decision makers in the world

28 hours of wandering - All that was left was an amazing experience and a broken clutch rod

2010-09-19T13:22:00.004+05:30

Since childhood, I had the opportunity to travel exhaustively through the north of India.Lately for the last few months, the south of India has caught my fascination. Hailing from Hyderabad, South India I always felt guilty that I could not travel much in this side of India.Though I have been to the glorious temples of Tamil Nadu , the gardens of Bengaluru and almost other famous hill stations in the south of India I have never ever had made that crazy super unplanned road trip in the south. Here I am, wanting to share one of my amazing stories in the state of Karnataka.

At the heart of the Hyderabad's dust , traffic and rush Dilsukhnagar( A major locality in hyderabad), as the weekend was dawning into our lives.We are stranded in the middle of a major traffic jam and suddenly my mind becomes completely blank. This was one of the times where your mind want to take a break and then your zany spirit shamelessly wants to unwind from the shackles of the daily wear and tear.

Ok, whenever this zany spirit in you wants to unwind , the next things you want to do is immediately call that even crazier friend of yours and this time it is Naresh and Rajeev.

Naresh : What's up
Aditya : Planning to go on an impromptu road trip. wanna join?
Naresh : Rajeev's car is free for the weekend. Let's not think. Let's just do it.
Aditya : Let's start in 15 mins. :)

and thus starts the journey!!

Three of us meet up and start discussing not the "PLACE" but which highway we need to catch. We started off wanting to get on to the Bombay highway. We had an early dinner and generally in this part of the world , the hyderabadi biryani is the ideal choice. We hit the highway by 9 in the night .

Our Beloved Indica and its owner :)

The bombay highway is by far one of the best ones for an awesome drive. No heavy traffic and also loads of time to do the usual gossip. By this time , we made our minds to detour and go into the state of karnataka. The country side of karnataka is always a pleasure to watch , observe and discover. As we headed in to karnataka , loads of college gossip made us forget the time and soon we entered into a place called Gulgarba in Karnataka. I have been to this place before but not at 1 'o' clock in the night.

As we passed the famous Dargah of Gulbarga, we noticed that there was a major festivity happening in there and amazed to see almost the whole of the town participating at 2 o clock in the night. They were dancing away to glory in the midnight and who the heck says that India does not have a good night life. I actually see more night life in the towns and villages than the metros of india. To the nuances of the typical Indian drum beats , I just wanted to get down and join them in the dance. But my sane friends have asked me to refrain from doing it as it was a completely new town and lot of the crowd was drunk. :(

So as we entered gulbarga ,we entered into a state highway of Karnataka. I took on the driver's seat from here and as Naresh and I went into endless conversations , our friend rajeev has dozed off comfortably in the back seat. We actually wanted him to sleep as we were not sure for how many hours all three of us are going to be awake tonight and even the next day one of us have to have some sleep to drive back. We were on the state highway and were ready to take another detour. This time we were aiming to reach a remote village called Ganagapur. So on the way to Ganagapur, we have observed a lot of unconventional things. Be it the horrible roads or the clamoring sound of continuous bhajans at various houses at 3 in the midnight. We were totally taken by surprise.

Top view of Bhimnal from the valleys

We visited a famous temple at ganagapur and on the way back at 5 in the morning. Now we decided we should end up in the most remote village possible. My Google maps has stopped detecting my location from here on. The real experience starts here. Through a muddy road , we struggled to go to a village called "Bhimnal". Bhimnal is a very lovely village with a fair amount of farming happening in their village. The most common observation in all these villages was that every other street had an ancient shiva temple for sure. From bhimnal ,what we saw further was only a range of valleys.

En route Bhimna Thanda

My friend Rajeev wanted to trail into those valleys no matter what. So we went further into the high terrain area. Places where walking was not possible , our dear indica was pushed through. Finally, we reached a small group of houses called the "Bhimnal Thanda". A Thanda is basically a place away from the village which is home for the untouchable or the low caste people. As we went into that group of houses, everybody got scared seeing a car that came all the distance. They got frightened as we got astonished. Astonished to see that things like untouchability are still being practiced in these places.

A view of the valleys :)

As we got down the car, we got ourselves comfortable with them. All of them could only speak Kannada and there is one person who was the head of the family. This guy could speak Hindi which made it good enough to talk. As the conversation with them unfolded, he said that his great grandfather has migrated to this place and from then on they have been living like these. And as he was taking us into the realm of the old world , we were all listening to him with utmost curiosity. In spite of no sleep through out the night, all this experience has just kept us alert and active.

Bhimnal Thanda

So on our way back , the old man joined us in the car and he suggested a much better route. Though we were fully tired we did a small hike on the valley. We're sitting on the top of the valley and suddenly when you look all around at the scenic beauty of the valleys with cows grazing the grass topped valleys. It was a sight that anyone would die for. All the tiresomeness just went by and we were on the journey back to Hyderabad. As we were on our journey back, all that we had was an amazing experience and a broken clutch rod.

Naresh with the old man of Thanda. Old man coming with us to get some kerosene for domestic purposes.

Most of the people think that travelling is about going to a distant hill station and doing the usual sight seeing and pictures. I feel travelling is about discovering the cultures and people of that place.Always making it a point to soak into the local ambience of the place. Now you might question, why the heck I would be interested in discovering places and people. If you dig deeper and see, it is not about discovering people or places it is about discovering yourself. To observe this , you need not travel to some remote village , you could do that in your city too. You will see the uniqueness and variety.

Wandering :)

Hope you had some fun reading this. By the way, when are you going to do your crazy fun filled impromptu road trip? Let me know :)

As I bid good bye, in the next blog I would talk about my other road trip to South India which was a 2222kms road trip . Stay tuned :)

The Number Game - How many twitter followers/facebook likes does your client ask for?

2010-08-28T01:02:00.001+05:30

Lately, I have heard from a quite a few social media peers here in India that clients are bent upon talking social media purely in terms of numbers. By Numbers I mean number of followers on twitter or number of likes on their facebook page. For someone who understands the very essence of social media, they would be able to see a clear distinction between qualitative and quantitative measurement. I think social media is all about focus on the qualitative aspect of measurement.

Before we get in to the qualitative and quantitative measurements, I think your prospective client should clarify a few key points. First of all, they have to clearly understand that Social Media cannot be completely outsourced and done with. Secondly, they have to understand that social media happens hand in glove with their existing traditional marketing campaigns. They cannot expect to get sales through social media. It is obvious that social media campaigns at some point get integrated into the traditional media campaigns.

As a social media enthusiast and a consultant, when I approach a prospective client and ROI is discussed. One thing I tell them clearly before I start the project is to do brand analysis and research report of company which also includes competitor benchmarking .One more important factor I always look into is the kind of database the company has. Bigger the database implies bigger the potential of people in the community. These two factors are the most important factors in the social analysis report. This report gives a clear assessment of the company’s potential on the social web and a realistic target of number of followers of fans can be allocated before starting any work for them. Doing this is very important for prospective clients as most of the companies still have a misconception that social media is all about numbers.

In addition to the quantitative digital measurement that can be done by some analytic and monitoring tools, the most important measurement is the qualitative measurement. I don’t agree on the fact that we could generalize a set of qualitative measurement standards for any brand. I think qualitative measurement is client specific and has to be tailor made for the client depending on many factors like strategic goals and the target audience of the client. This is where the actual ROI can be measured and social media progress of the company can be tracked.

To make the client company understand all the above points is a huge challenge, most of the times I end up giving a presentation about social media first and then talk about what kind of services I offer. Showing them relevant case studies will help the situation rather than showing a very general case study of a very large and famous organization and increasing their hopes.

So as a social media consultant or an enthusiast, how do you handle a situation like this, wherein your prospective small and medium sized client is going to ask you’re for 100k followers on twitter? If you have come across situations like this, I would love to hear. Please share it in the comment thread.

Anupam Mishra on traditional water harvesting methods in Rural India

2010-07-08T15:02:00.001+05:30

Today, while I was just browsing through some videos in TED. One speaker who caught my attention is the eloquent Anupam Mishra. He is an environmental activist with focus on smart water harvesting methods across water challenged desert lands of India.

Image via Wikipedia

An excerpt from the TED Website says

"Anupam Mishra travels across water-challenged India studying rainwater harvesting methods and learning from the people behind them. He presents his findings to NGOs, development agencies and environmental groups, pulling from centuries of indigenous wisdom that has found water for drinking and irrigation even in extremely arid landscapes through wells, filter ponds and other catchment systems.

A founding member of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, Mishra is working to bridge the gap between modern water management technology and india's heritage of water harvesting, so that every community is self-sustainable and efficiently safekeeping an increasingly scarce and precious resource."

In his TED talk , he cites some examples of how rural India has been using traditional water harvesting methods.

Have you observed a similar kind of water harvesting technique in an unconventional way? If so it would be interesting to hear from you.

The Social Network Saturation Point : An Indian Perspective

2010-07-01T17:12:00.005+05:30

A few days back, one of my friends who is an avid user of Twitter and Facebook started lamenting that the “Orkutization” of Facebook and Twitter has begun in India. He actually meant that people from tier-II and III cities and towns have started joining Facebook and making it the new Orkut, but I think there is also a deeper meaning to it. Let’s look at it.

Where are we heading as a country in terms of using social networks? How has web 2.0 evolved in India over this period of time?

According to the World Bank world development indicators 2008, Internet users in India are a mere 7%.Right from the days of Yahoo groups, to the Facebook and Twitter of today, it is truly outstanding that communication and interaction among people has changed from being two dimensional to multi-dimensional. At the same time, one thing which is constantly changing is how open these networks are. If we take Yahoo groups for example, people were able to share within the group and it was exclusive.

With the advent of Orkut in India, people initially resisted a lot to put personal information, their likes and dislikes, and above all, speak to one another in the open. Those who put this information were not aware that it was publicly displayed. Over a period of time, though, privacy was a bit enhanced, people started interacting and sharing just about everything. People opened up. You could initiate a conversation with anyone. Simultaneously, with it came a saturation point where people got bored of it. They wanted to grow out of it.

Do you think it is because people wanted to become more open, share and consume news and updates in a better way? If that was so, I think Orkut could never evolve and facilitate this process. It could not retain its audience and slowly the user base from the metros of India started shifting to other networks.Facebook was the ideal choice at this point of time.

Facebook is more real and trusted compared to Orkut. The thing with Facebook is, though people are real and trusted, privacy is again a big issue. It is actually more open compared to Orkut. Though people keep having privacy concerns at the start, they seem to adapt to newer ways to open up and enjoy it. The introduction of news feed into Facebook is a classic case to explain this, but today it has indeed become a huge hit among the people.

Now, people update, share things about their lives and other interesting things around them and at the same time listen and consume the same from their friends around. Facebook has done a wonderful job in retaining its audience. Though Facebook has been evolving and catering to its audience quite efficiently, will there be a time where people want to grow out of Facebook and expand?

Over the last year or so, location based social networks like Foursquare and Latitude have come up. They let you share your location to friends.With the advent of mobile internet, this is becoming increasingly popular and I am sure Facebook will make all efforts to integrate it. So when people can start tracking us geographically, we have just opened a bit more which is both scary and nice at the same time.

Is this just a trick the social networks use to make a business gain out of it? Brands all over the world are trying to leverage these social networks in the best way possible and creating a market out of it for people like us to brand them. Many brands in India might not be interested in venturing into this space thinking India is still very small in the Internet scene.But, if brands in India start taking it seriously, they can observe a distinct cultural shift in the way their companies work and brand themselves.

Creating tools to make television, mobile and radio social is the next step. As I conclude I am still wondering “Where are we heading?”. Is this some kind of revolution in how we communicate, interact and make this world a more inclusive place?

Overwhelming Orugallu and the Ramappa temple at Warangal

2010-03-08T01:52:00.000+05:30

It almost been more than a year I have been to Warangal (around 145 kms from Hyderabad) and I always wanted to put it on the blog but somehow could not. It has been a long long time I have written something on Travel and I think my last article was the awesome Himalayan Trek last summer and I am happy as always to write something on travel.

Since childhood , traditionally we have one very big outing with friends and family in the month of Nov/Dec and the picnic includes a visit to a Shiva Temple as that happens to be what is known as a karthika Masam in South Indian Tradition. So we were about 150 people friends, family and other like minded people. We hired a bus and started our journey to Orugallu (Presently called Warangal), erstwhile capital city of the Kakatiya Dynasty.

The Ramappa Temple

Historically a very significant place in terms of architecture and temples, but one place which caught my eye was the ramappa temple and lake where we spent most of our time. This temple is basically a shiva temple built by a very famous architect called Ramappa who was exclusively invited from Karnataka to build this temple that is why the name ramappa temple. The temple has amazing architecture and one important thing I observed was there was a method and structure in which the stones in the temple were carved which itseems is supposed to be the unique thing about architecture in the kakatiya dynasty.It is considered to be a very powerful shiva temple.

After finishing our lunch at the Ramappa temple we headed towards one more significant place called the Thousand pillared temple. By the time we reached the Thousand pillared temple it was almost dusk and the temple was about to close. We rushed in to have a glimpse of the thousand pillared temple.Actually the thousand pillared temple was considered to be more famous place than the Ramappa temple but ironically this temple is not so well maintained especially when it comes to the architecture which is slowly fading off due to poor maintenance.

But one interesting thing I have observed is architecturally I have seen a lot of similarities between both of these temples especially the pillars there is a certain style to it and a certain uniqueness about it. May be as a dynasty they distinctively etched out this similar pattern among temples and structures to identify themselves as the kakatiyas.

If you are around Hyderabad, it would be a perfect place for a weekend trip. The best season to go to Warangal is obviously not summer. The summers are too hot.

So have you been to warangal ? whats do you think is the best place to visit in warangal?

How a strong Internal Communications platform would enhance Social Media for your company

2010-03-05T23:06:00.002+05:30

Recently I have come across a very insightful article on Social Media for Human Resource or for that matter Social media for any other industry called "Internal Communications and Talent Acquisition/Recruitment Should be Better Friends"

An Excerpt from that article says,

"Companies that will have the greatest success leveraging social media for recruiting will be ones that start inside, where the leadership actively encourages/guides their current employees to connect internally and externally using social media (… or at the very least avert their eyes and don’t block social networks). Employees should be the most qualified, the most credible, and the best source of information about your company culture, the employment experience and why someone would want to work for you."

Before a company gets into social media it is very important for the company to have an internal communications platform to socialize, interact and be informed about what’s happening in the company. Especially if we look at a medium sized company and upwards, an internal socializing tool will be very useful for a company to know about what kind of social media activity is happening in the company.

If this is not done and the company gets into social media, the presence of the company on social media could be in bits and pieces but not as one voice of the company (which is very important in social media) and in the case of a Human Resource company, it is even more important because once HR companies do social recruiting on platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter it is very important that employees are constantly updated internally on what kind of social media activity is happening pertaining to the company. So that they would have a better idea of which employee is doing what activity and approaching whom. This will be something like a social media aggregator and also a platform where employees can share their views on this social media activity.

This also helps companies in monitoring the social media activity of the employees of the company and if needed based on this a social media policy can also be developed which is becoming increasingly important.

Certain tools like Yammer are being used by a few companies in social media for internal communication purposes but the problem with yammer is all the information shared on such platforms go to their servers which again might be risky for any company though there is a strong privacy policy.May be an open source micro blogging platform will do which I am trying to figure out.

What are your thoughts?

Do you have any idea of an internal communications platform like this?

Let me know

PAA -The Movie

2010-01-16T20:33:00.002+05:30

MOVIE : PAA

GENRE:

Intensely Emotional -Witty Humored -Well Crafted-Off Beat- Feature Film

TECHNICALITIES:

Cinematography : Amazing frames woven into a beautiful film. P.C.Sriram has done some awesome work in this film.

Screenplay : It was carefully done for the movie with an adequate dose of humor without which the film would not have attracted so many audience ( After all, most of the audience dont think it worth spending money for a teary tale and they would always want to have a fun filled entertainer.)

Editing : The potrayal of Abhishek Bacchan as a politicial could have been done better. Somehow the media thing did not really add substance to the role. Though the issue was done neatly but it did not fit in the movie.

MUSIC :

Wonderful Music & Background score. Illayaraaja has come up with a wonderful score and the best part of is the music comprehends the film throughout.

CASTING :

Vidya Balan : Perfectly suited the role and more importantly she stood understand only roles like these suit her.

Amitabh Bacchan : He was awesome in the movie. He gave attention to the slightest aspect of his character.

Did you see the movie? What do you think? Please put in subtle and finer points you've observed in the movie.

Online Child Safety - It's Impact on the Indian Child

2009-11-28T22:50:00.000+05:30

In this blog I would want to talk about Internet usage in India and its impact on the Indian child.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the statistics of internet show that the percentage of internet users in India is comparatively low when compared to the other major Asian and western countries.

But we have to very cautiously look at how online safety for children can be looked at as the percentage of child users is going to increase exponentially.India being the country with a vast section of the population being children, it is time we look at the importance of child safety in-detail.

The first and foremost thing is we have to look at the experiences and reports cited by the developed countries like USA and UK about the kind of potential dangers their children faced. That’s a smart way ahead.

Some facts I found on the internet

· Nine out of ten children aged between eight and sixteen have viewed pornography on the Internet. In most cases, the sex sites were accessed unintentionally when a child, often in the process of doing homework, used a seemingly innocent sounding word to search for information or pictures. - London School of Economics, January 2002
· 26 popular children's characters, such as Pokemon, My Little Pony and Action Man, revealed thousands of links to porn sites. 30% were hard-core. - Envisional 2000
· The diary-like blog sites, or 'spaces,' on the Web make it easy for children and adults alike to post their electronic diaries. Potentially 750 million readers could read these daily journal entries. Federal authorities believe that at least 500,000 to 750,000 predators are online on a daily basis, constantly combing through these blog sites..." - By Clint Van Zandt MSNBC analyst & former FBI profiler
· Pornographers disguise their sites (i.e. "stealth" sites) with common brand names, including Disney, Barbie, ESPN, etc., to entrap children. - Cyveillance Study, March 1999
· The majority of teenagers' online use occurs at home, right after school, when working parents are not at home. - Arbitron New Media Study, October 1999
· Parents rely mostly on personal observation and setting guidelines for their children's Internet access. One in two parents do not use any blocking or filtering software. - Family PC Survey, August, 2001

(Source: Yello Dyno)

Though most of the parents in the metros are well aware of how to filter and block potentially harmful sites . The concern is about the children and students in Tier-II cities and towns where most of the people access Internet through internet cafeterias and are more prone to visit these sites. I don’t think they would ask a valid Identification proof before they are allowed to access internet though I have seen cafeteria’s do it in Hyderabad.

The advent of Social Networking sites like Orkut, Facebook, etc. I think have mainly contributed to the increase in this percentage of internet usage. Especially the applications like Farmville and others attract children and tempt them to get into these sites.

Here are some of the interesting links and reports I have found:

Online safety for students in developing countries

Internet Safety Technical Task Force Releases” Final Report” on Enhancing Child Safety and Online Technologies

Enhancing Child Safety and online technologies- An Executive Report

Feedback from Major Social Network sites on a wide range of questions from the Internet Technical Task Force.

Child online safety ini the developing world - Project Wiki

So the bottom line is please make sure children use the internet under parental supervision and make sure they don’t get into these social networking sites.

On the contrary , I see many parents these days encourage their children to dabble with laptops and play games online (may be they have a hope that it would make their child an internet whiz kid). He could become one but what I feel is he has to go out....Play some outdoor games, make friends and get some hands on the sand. They could dabble with all the tech stuff later on....but I don't think they could get some hands on the sand later in life.

Cheers!!!

Haps mis Haps - My Weblog

2009-11-08T22:01:00.002+05:30

TITLE : "HAPS MIS HAPS"

HAPS : Fortunate or Occurrence or Happening ;

MISHAPS : Unfortunate;

Life is nothing but a perfect blend of haps and mishaps..."Opinions" are churned out from this variety of haps and mishaps...I would love to showcase select Opinions from this so called mix of haps and mishaps in this blog which should perhaps make us look beyond this dual of haps and mishaps....hmmm.....So Haps mis Haps ....no confusion and obviously a great combination.

The purpose of my blog is quite simple. It is just a tiny extension of myself. My Bundle of thoughts, emotions, ideas, likes, dislikes,pictures and videos slightly more presentable and organized than it is in my mind. Over a period of time, I would want to put in content related to various concerning issues around us.

One sure thing is I love feedback both good and bad :))....So please feel free to express your views.

Cheers!!!

Aditya Nishtala

A take on Social Networking Websites

2009-09-19T12:06:00.001+05:30

It has been almost four years since I started using social networking websites. I thought I will stop with one site but it is still going on…Thought I will just look at how it all started? Initially the two popular things were Hi -5 and Orkut.com and as I got invites for them in my mailbox I kept deleting them. Somehow I was not open to the overall concept of sharing personal and professional information which is open and accessible to friends and even strangers at that time (Not many privacy options were available in the websites). But I thought I will just open an account and see what the whole thing is about. I first joined Orkut and I think my account was dormant for quite a few months. I had barely a few internet savvy friends in my list. At that point my impression on these social networking websites was that it was more a far-fetched idea for which the Indian junta was least interested in.

But slowly it started gaining attention and people started pouring in. For me, it became interesting as I got access to friends and acquaintances that I never imagined I would meet again. So here comes social networking, things became interesting as I slowly started to know about people I connected with. People started spending time on how their profiles should look like. For the first time we got a chance to put our pictures on display to our friends and family with captions. A virtual world came into existence where you could flaunt a profile picture of a John Abraham or an Aishwarya Rai, give yourself a “My name is bond….” introduction and send a friend request to that girl or guy in your college which would at least yield in a “DO I KNOW YOU?” scrap which is more than enough to initiate a conversation.

I think people became open about things in their life and those inferior ones saw their profiles as their alter ego. I think after sometime I started getting loads of invitations from wide range of social networking sites. Some had the same concept while some tried to be different and innovative. By then I started getting bored of Orkut and I thought I would not join any other one as I thought managing one itself is too much. After a lot of resistance, I joined facebook just because all my friends were in it. It was almost same as Orkut with a few key changes; Orkut was actually more popular in India as Facebook was in the west.

I think the most important innovation in these sites was that people could actually share links on these sites. Once that happened, scope for a lot of reading happened. For the first time, people started reading and sharing blogs. You don’t have the patience to read the whole thing, welcome to micro blogging site “TWITTER”. Twitter is something where you could express whatever you want in 140 characters and you can follow or be followed by anybody in the world. It is still catching up in India but it can be a very cool thing once most of us are into it. Facebook followed and adapted a similar thing which picked up very well.

The point is you could actually market yourself in a very effective way. Let it be a person, community or a company. We have actually professionals who could help you in this; they are known as social media consultants. One of my friends from Mumbai runs a blog on social media issues and you could visit her site on priyankawriting.com. See this is what social media can do to you…marketing happens effortlessly. A lot of other networking websites have come up LINKEDIN for professional networking, GENI for genealogy and family networking and we never know your Idea could be the next best product.

The whole point is where will this virtual world take people to? Will people get bored of all this stuff one day? Will it change the very way people look at life? As people suffer from drug addiction will there be a time where people get internet addicted? I think we have to wait and watch because we are the first generation which is exposed to very rapidly changing technology. We are basking in the limelight as of now as being the most comfortable generation ever but we have to wait and watch whether we would be a happier and healthier generation.

The Humbling Himalayan Hike PART-II

2009-08-16T22:31:00.012+05:30

Hmmmm......If you remember I was actually talking about good sleep in my previous post.

Next day came........we had been to one more wonderful place called Gupt kashi.....This place was a great school of learning of Ayurveda almost 10,000 years ago. It still is said to have some of the rarest of herbs. From here I got used to things beyond logic.....on a spiritual note I got deeply soaked in the energy that place carried....I just sat wondering “Would I ever get to see places like these at any other place in the world”... after a quick one hour in the temple we were in the bus on our way to Uttarkasi.

It was a very long journey from Guptkashi and I think this was the first time in the whole journey where I stopped talking and started looking within....Silence flooded the whole bus and most of us already got a hang of the Himalayas. We landed in Uttarkasi.....mainly to visit a temple which was established by Agasthya Mahamuni I guess most of them including me would have been wondering who is this.......Thanks to Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev I got to know what Agasthya is all about........On a brief note, Agasthya was supposed to have lived for about 400 years and he was supposed have down a lot of spiritual work down south. I need not mention, even Uttarkasi was absolutely amazing.

From Uttarkashi, we proceeded to our next leap of journey i.e. to Gangothri > Bhojwasa>Gomukh>Tapovan. We halted at Gangothri and started our trek to our base camp Bhojwasa. This was a bit longer than the trek to Kedar but I felt it was easier and I think once we enter the interior parts of Himalayas; the mountains are so beautiful......like a collage of scenic paintings sketched by the creator....like the scenery which is like paradise that we forget all the pain of trekking. While trekking this part of Himalayas, you get to taste the purest of Himalayan waters. I have never tasted water so tasty and so pure ever before in my life. Once you keep getting near to the destination the costs of water and food keep getting higher. So I think that is the ideal place which would make you realize how precious and valuable water is. We reached our destination Bhojwasa.

Next day we were off to a 6 kilometres trek to Gomukh. Gomukh is the origin of the river Ganges and it is the place where ganga is the purest. People can have a dip at this point as long as they are fine with freezing water.. From Gomukh the trek to Tapovan is only for the fittest not for everyone....because Tapovan is at a very high altitude and oxygen levels are lesser than normal there. I actually was able to go half the distance to Tapovan but from there I could just not make it to Tapovan. I was very disappointed as I really longed to go there from the start of the whole pilgrimage. I think to go places like Tapovan it has to be written somewhere in us to make it there.

Tapovan is basically a small plain on the top of the mountain with green grass, blue skies, crystal clear water, spiritual seekers and sages. You actually get to see people meditating in caves there. I wanted to see all of that but I could not make it but then it is ok...better luck next time. So I came back midway, camped at Bhojwasa and started back the next day to Gangothri. Now the journey starts from Gangothri back to Rishikesh...Everybody in Bus no 10 eventually became so close we made new friends and that journey back was the most memorable drive in the entire trip. Each of us shared our experiences about the trip and as usual time flew by and we were back at rishikesh/haridwar.

Here I witnessed the Ganga aarati, a token of gratitude to the river Ganges...It was so beautiful and when the aarati was going on the entire trip just started playing in my mind and I was in tears ....tears of joy.....the whole trip made me realize that this is one pilgrimage every Indian has to do and we better do it before we are too weak or too old. It always a blessing to go on a pilgrimage with our master, we get to know the true essence of the place and of the spiritual tradition our country always had and is always going to have. I think most of us would have come to a conclusion that the Himalayas are home for gods and the sages but I realized the doors to the Himalayas are always open to those who are willing to explore the mystical country of ours. So it is my wish that everyone out there should have their own story of a Himalayan sojourn.

Thank you for your time.....as usual looking forward for your valuable feedback.

The Humbling Himalayan Hike PART-I

2009-07-19T12:47:00.006+05:30

Before you are too weak or too old you meet and merge with the beloved Himalayas – it is my wish and my blessing - Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

At last I have found time to write this very special blog. Somehow I did not find time to write this one for so long. The first time when I went to the Himalayas was in 2006 as a part of the Isha Foundation’s “Dhyan Yatra” which I feel made me realise the true essence of a pilgrimage. I actually wanted to write a very detailed travelogue then, which did not happen. But somehow it so happened I had a very fortunate opportunity to visit some parts of the Himalayas once again last month and here I am ready to give you a feel of the mesmerising Himalayan milieu.

It all started from Delhi.....We were roughly 300 people put into mini buses and a bunch of us were put into the so called BUS No -10. This bus was basically a group of like “MIND-LESS” people from Hyderabad and Mumbai who were geared up to have the best trip in their lives. Travelling on road is always so wonderful where in you get to interact with people from different walks of life. During the trip, we got to know each other and that 5 hours to Rishikesh just flew by. Rishikesh was originally a hub of Rishis(Sages) but now it is all kind of commercialized and stuff. We halted there for the night and later in the morning we got a chance to have a dip in the spine chilling Ganga. We were still in the plains and from here on we started our hilly Himalayan Sojourn.

Generally most of the pilgrims head towards Kedar from here, but we headed towards the Shrine of Badrinath. We had to pass through rudraprayag to reach Badrinath which is approximately around 150 kms on a hilly terrain. We reached Badrinath around early evening time and went on a short walk to Vyaspeeth...Legend says that Mahabharata was written here on the banks of the river Saraswati and this place is almost on the Indo China border. What a peaceful place it was!!!Late in the evening we had a bath in the hot water springs of Badrinath which is said to have a lot of medicinal values.

Next day morning was the Auspicious Vijaya Dashmi of the famous Dusshera festival. One advantage going to these places in the off season is the temples are barely crowded giving us a lot of time in the temple. We spent an hour in the temple and then later Sadhguru’s Discourse happened. The discourse gave us a deep insight in to the significance of a pilgrimage. I have travelled extensively but most of my travel was more of sightseeing and seeing diverse life styles but this was the first time I was on a pilgrimage and I was totally in love with the whole new experience.

After lunch we started our journey to Kedar, the equation on a hilly terrain is that 30 kilometres would be covered in a hour and that is if you had to cover around 370 kilometres to reach Kedar you need to travel for about 12 hours. The drives in the bus were always wonderful we were singing, talking, shouting, laughing and what not!!! We could not reach the start point of Kedar i.e Gaurikund by night so we stopped at a place called Pipal Koti which is around 40 kms away from Gaurikund.

It’s a new day and we were all geared up from the 14km trek from Gaurikund to Kedar. This was I think my first trek and that too the Himalayas...The excitement was turning up....I took a stick in my hand and I started on my mission .......whooaaaa!!!!It was all good until the tenth kilometre. I think at the end of the tenth kilometre all my excitement was totally dwindling off, physically my energies were draining off and I never was in a situation like this. Every step every breath I had to consciously pull myself up and at this moment I realised what a pilgrimage is.....it truly humbled me down....I always thought the word “SURRENDER” was only for the weak but here I am counting every ounce of energy and I finally bowed down, yes I SURRENDERED and left everything to what we refer to as god. By doing this I covered another 4 kilometres. Then came the final stretch the last kilometre and at this point all my resources physically and mentally got drained off. At this moment, I closed my eyes, waited for a moment with tears in my eyes and I decided for myself that even if I die it did not matter but I would only die at the feet of kedar.....I took a deep breath and i did not stop till I reached the kedar temple. Meeting the ultimate is not a cake walk.

I still remember I never cherished any moment like this one.......I think the whole exercise of the trek humbled me down to such an extent that I completely surrendered myself totally at the feet of kedar. That is the whole point of a cumbersome trek. The Snow clad mountains, the clear blue skies, Lord Shiva and only me. Looks like the whole thing is going beyond logic but when I was in this place I had to accept that the best things in life are beyond logic.

Next day we started on our journey back and I think you started imagining our situations......aching legs, etc..I just dropped dead on the bed.....and I think this was the best sleep I had in my life. I hope you are not having the best nap of your life listening to my story...anyways take a break.........until I fill in the next part of my Himalayan sojourn.

Cinemas, Celebrities, etc………

2009-03-19T00:51:00.002+05:30

Cinema……I have been wondering if I have seen a truly worthy one in the recent past and by the way I have started writing this post by wanting to pen down a review of some worthwhile movie but to my disdain I don't really find any . I can't really write a review of those old favourites of mine….my so called so little blog followers will vanish away not wanting to read my blog anymore. But I think I should at least crib about the movies released in the recent past at least for the pain I went through watching them. Some of which I fortunately couldn't-Thanks to my dear friends who very sincerely lend a helping hand to avoid some movies (the Telugu ones in particular).

I was once a movie buff too till recently when I was in college…..but the fun part of college was you really have some great company in the theatres wherein you can get to hear some witty on the spot comments and we could laugh all the torture away. But some movies these days are proving to be so insane that we eventually come out with a very bad head ache at our own cost.

May be the Telugu cinema has hit its low because most of the actors don't prefer celluloid anymore. These days they are sticking to a more intense, spontaneous and demanding form of the art i.e. Political Road shows (Political Drama).Each of them in their own special way doing their bit for the political parties in Andhra Pradesh .I was wondering why movie goers in A.P these days are not complaining about the kind of movies that are being made here .Maybe all of them are getting their entertainment from the news channels wherein they can see their Cinema Idols in real doing a heroic act for some political party.

The only Telugu movie which was worth a watch in the recent past was a movie called Arundhati (the story was at least believable and relevant).Wondering why I am talking about the credibility and relevance….to understand that you need to take the pain of watching one Telugu commercial entertainer.

Coming to Hindi cinema…..the saving grace for movies like Ghajini, Yuvvraj and Delhi-6 was its music. Fashion was a novel attempt portraying the fashion industry the way it is. I started liking movies in bits and pieces these days…..Raaz had a very good first half but the plot at the end was not so relevant and Dev-D had a very good concept ….a take on the present day Dev but I feel the second half of the movie was so slow…and btw I don't take the risk of talking about Chandni Chowk and Rab de Bana de Jodi respectively.

Coming to our very successful ,many award winning Cinema….Slumdog………I think an Indian would not have really like the movie so much …..May be the western world would have liked it…..for they feel the Real India is all about its slums and nothing else. I loved the story and the execution of the movie was wonderful but I feel it did not sustain interest in me. I only loved the songs….and I went to the movie solely for its musical score.

I think it's time I should stop complaining because I have some good entertainment round the corner….The pre-election stuff is there and especially if you are from Andhra Pradesh you should not complain about entertainment anymore because we even have our actors in there …and also we have our IPL coming up whose date is still not confirmed .What's with you guys??? Hope you did not get used to the same old clichéd commercial bollywood flicks like how the women got used to same old saas-bahu sops in television.

This is just the beginning-that’s RAHMAN for you

2009-02-06T17:08:00.005+05:30

"This is just the beginning"….these are the words that resonated in the hearts of many when he humbly received the golden globe for the best original music score ….and it is truly madly deeply just the beginning….when it comes to Allah Rakkha Rahman. The magic he weaves around his music is simply incredible and I stress on the word "MAGIC" because he is unpredictable and simply unassuming with every masterpiece he composes.

A few hours after he won the golden globe for the best original score in "Slumdog Millionaire", he was interviewed. What he had to say was just this "I am so happy that I have won this award not because I needed it but to fulfill the wish of all music lovers in India and hopefully Indian music will get its due now."

It makes me feel so happy and proud because he truly deserved it and what makes it more special is that most of us grew up singing and dancing to his mellifluous numbers.

When I look back and see how his soulful songs are loved, it is even the more special. I think "MUSTHAFA MUSTHAFA" was the first number I loved. Though he started with "ROJA", I was too small a kid to recognize that it was him who composed the music for it. I still remember listening and dancing to the numbers of"RANGEELA" in my cousin's house. Strangely, my cousin had two cassettes of rangeela and when I asked him the reason he told that one of them got spoilt because of repeated listening and they had to buy a new one later. That was the madness Rahman infused into hearts of many. I never got bored listening to his songs. I remember buying a "DIL SE" CD for 250 bucks in 1998 which was a very costly thing for me at that time but still the music was so moving that our first CD player at home had "DIL SE" playing all the time.

I think Rahman's USP is that he makes the music he loves and is so passionate about, not like many of the other music directors who make it for some target audience in particular. May be that might be the reason why every age group loves his music. Let it be "TAAL","LAGAAN","SWADES","RANG DE BASANTHI" and" GURU" to the latest "SLUMDOG" AND "DELHI 6" his music is truly touching

Of the many Indian icons in cinema on the global front I truly admire A.R.Rahman not only for his music but also for being a very good and modest human being. Now that he has started a music conservatory as a platform to develop Indian classical and western classical music, I feel this would truly be a contribution to Indian music and also would go a long way in establishing MODERN INDIAN MUSIC as a dominant force in days to come

Last but not the least

JAI HO!!!!!!!!!!!! For the Oscars and for the days to come..

Err….

OSCAR!!!!!!!!!!!!! in the days to come for JAI HO.

"THE YEAR OF GOOD TIMES-2009".....Greetings,Resolutions,etc

2009-01-10T13:07:00.006+05:30

Wish you all a very

HAPPY, JOYFUL, PROSPEROUS, HEALTHY and a SAFE 2009.

Most of the greetings and pleasantries exchanged in our lives in general till date were more name sake under the presumption that situations around our lives would be pretty okay and life would be pretty happy barring a few hiccups here and there. It was more a custom to greet people on a new year’s eve. But this year my Greeting really meant and hoped that every one of us should have a truly happy joyful prosperous safe and healthy new year.

On this New Year’s Eve, every time I greeted my family and friends I made it a point to first look at them with affection, give them a warm hug and then truly wish them a great year ahead. This gave me a deep sense of oneness, warmth and joy. Every time I wished someone it made my heart lighter and it made me realize how much a simple greeting can do to me in the first place and to my kith and kin.

For some reason, I wished I could just go out and greet everyone in and around my place in this way, though it sounded absurd to do it as I never did it. But what I could do was close my eyes and wish my country a happy 2009 with a deep sense of gratitude especially for those bereaved families of the Mumbai attacks, for the families of the security personnel who laid down their lives exhibiting a sense of courage and sacrifice for their country in various acts of defense and for families of all the farmers who lost their bread winners in a deliberate act of suicide.

A simple greeting brought within me a deep sense of oneness and made me wake up from my slumber.A simple greeting which was just customary until now became so transforming. Why????

Fortunately or unfortunately it’s because of the so called “YEAR BEST FORGOTTEN 2008” and the diseasters it brought with itself.Yes it is…for most people of the country it was a year of awakening from deep slumber like me….for most of them their greetings would be more purposeful this year like mine….

As history tells, it always took humanity a sufficient dosage of suffering to realize and grow in life ….until which most of the humanity would be in their self created and fancied world of theirs. Most of our leaders were born out of situations like these…..

2008 washed away all our fanciful ideas and made us look at life bare just the way it is….let it be safety and security or let it be finance and economics…it exposed all the irregularities in them …and is showed them to people just the way it is…..which in turn would pave way for a much safer country.

There have been many a year in the history of humanity that did a similar job like 2008……As most of the media proclaims it to be the “YEAR BEST FORGOTTEN 2008”. …..I would ask them to look back and see that only years like these are BEST REMEMBERED for the damage they did and for the years of prosperity they have brought with them later…

As I said leaders were born out of situations like these…..it may be ME, YOU or for that matter any one from some corner of the country this time and I am sure he would see that the very idea of India, the true essence of India, the meaning of India would not be shattered by petty acts of injustice that are being done to disturb the peace, harmony and stability between various religions of a secular INDIA.

We are in the best times of India more than EVER and if others dare to play havoc then we would ensure we are TOUGHER than never.

It is the responsibility of each citizen of the country to vote sensibly and choose a sensible leader who would make our country a safe and better place to live in. This I feel is the biggest responsibility in 2009 which would prove to be crucial for all the key factors of our country. I think this should be the 2009‘s most important resolution for people of India.

Have a great year ahead…….and make sure that people around you also would have a safe and great year ahead

Cheers!!!!!!!!!

The Time has come..Its NOW or NEVER..

2008-11-28T22:43:00.003+05:30

I think I was just dreaming a little too much in my previous post about the anti-terror measures being taken. Now let me come to the reality. I started writing my previous blog on Wednesday evening after a deep sigh of relief expressing my views in the previous post of my blog…That it has been some time we were out of these frequent blasts that have been happening in the past few months in the country .I was unaware of the blasts and this new guerilla thingy that has come up among terrorists that night. Even on Thursday I saw the newspaper and presumed that it was yet another bomb planted in some corner of the road or a recycle bin. But it was yesterday night that I realized that this was much severe incident that took place. Basically before I do the same clichéd blabbering like many others about sensitive topics of this sort, I would like to express my deepest condolences to all the people who have been victim to the one of the worst acts of bloodshed in the country and my solidarity to the police, army and security personnel and all those who put their life behind to save lives of hundreds of people.

The whole act has taken us by shock hitting us like a ton of bricks. What the hell has happened? The incident was like stripping Mumbai off its deceptive fan dangled raiment of security and exposing how terror prone the financial capital of India is? I am just worried when will this end? What kind of dire consequences people of Mumbai would have to face following the whole incident? Hundreds of people have been victim to these attacks and millions of people have noticed and are shocked by the whole event. This seems to be the goal of most of the infamous terrorist outfits in the world i.e. to be noticed and frighten the world. I think they would already be getting ready for their next target because even though the people of our country have noticed it now …..They would however forget it a few months later..That has been the reality post previous terrorist acts. No Significant measures have been taken to curb terrorism in a very determined manner….will this at least knock people’s heads now. .. Now are people of Mumbai in particular and people of India and world at large thinking about the next constructive step towards curbing terrorism.

I think the politicians have talked enough about the so called eternal spirit of Mumbai post terror attacks..Who cares if the politicians are talking about spirit of Mumbai after the incident to gain some political mileage? I would say the spirit of Mumbai was clearly seen and exhibited by the mumbaikars during the ghastly event… joining hand in hand, doing whatever they could do and most important of all maintaining peace and harmony by not creating any havoc out of anguish. This was obviously not seen by politicians because they disappeared and were totally out of scene….…..If any politician really had the balls to do something…he would have at least gone to the hospital and express his solidarity to the injured there…..He did not..He could not take responsibility for the whole incident…..people would have whacked his balls and sent him home for the good he did to Mumbai.

It’s time we stop blowing our own trumpet saying India is a prospering economy in spite of a recession worldwide…But who the hell cares???? “THE SAFETY OF THE COUNTRY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN SUCCESS OF THE COUNTRY “. What I would say to the people of Mumbai and more importantly to the people of my country is……Don’t you think the time has come to start doing something……doing something now……NOW is the time …. Don’t give a damn to the elections….elections or no elections we need change…..not a change of getting another peanut political party into power…shit is as shit does…..We don’t want some artificial change in the country …..More importantly not in our states … neither in our political parties nor in our politicians…..we need a REAL change….we need a REAL transformation in the Indian citizen..That only happens when you say “I AM THE CHANGE”…..ARE YOU?.....WOULD YOU??? COULD YOU???...THE TIME IS NOW OR NEVER.

TERRORS STRIKED MUMBAI…DID SOMETHING STRIKE THE INDIAN CITIZEN ATLEAST NOW?

Was I dreaming or was it reality???

2008-11-28T22:38:00.003+05:30

This happened around two days ago during the lunch break when Rahul and his colleagues just finished their lunch. It was already past two in the afternoon after a heavy lunch break…..let it be your first year or the twentieth year of experience….That time of the day during which you just can’t let go your lax attitude unless you own the company. That time during which people at office come up with the most interesting topics…Rahul was a fresher at office who desperately wanted to do some value added work in the office to impress upon his boss and achieve something. Some of his colleagues started their post lunch gossip…they came up with the most interesting topics ranging from cricket to movies to politics. Undeterred was Rahul, oblivious to that chitchat he continued concentrating on his work. This kind of seriousness will obviously raise eyebrows among colleagues…they go back to their gossip waiting to see for how many days this so called enthusiasm will go on.

All of a sudden Rahul hears those intolerable words (which he had to hear very frequently this year) “BOMB BLAST” in their conversation.”What? A Bomb blast again? Where?” asks Rahul. In the heart of the city at the Secunderabad Railway station says one of his colleagues. “Oh no not again” was Rahul’s reaction. People in the office started calling their loved ones and asking them about their whereabouts. All that lethargy just vanished and everyone at office were so sad recalling all those ghastly bomb blasts that happened this year especially a couple of them happening at Hyderabad. Especially, if one of those terrorist attacks happen in the metros it sounds very depressing. The reason being, you cannot really implement a proper check and fully prevent terror activities in the metros especially in public places like railway stations and shopping bazaars wherein the whole place is full of people. In a place like Hyderabad or Mumbai you could discover a thousand routes to gain entry into a famous public place like a railway station. Most of the security personnel are helpless. These terrorist acts have really raked up insecurity among the people and even the police. Recently, the Mumbai police removed all the recycle bins along major public places it seems….people were embarrassed for a few days as they did not have a proper place to dispose waste…but they gradually would have realized that some attempt towards curbing terrorist attacks like these is better than no attempt. Though it could be a very desperate act as most of the bombs are being planted or dropped in some of these recycle bins. Lately this has been their trend.

This rumor of a bomb blast spread like wildfire, people were desperately calling their family and friends to know about whereabouts .They really could not get any updates from the internet as it was too early for news sites to get updates. After sometime, one of them received a call and everybody was anxiously waiting for the news. How much causality??....How many of them injured??....which terrorist group was involved in the attack? What the hell???....and suddenly one of the guys in office got some news from a news website saying the Hyderabad administration, police and all other emergency agencies put together were conducting a mock or pseudo bomb explosion to actually see how well they managed a crisis. Rahul and all his colleagues expressed a deep sigh of relief when they heard news confirming that it was a rehearsal conducted. Actually the Hyderabad police and administration had announced a couple of weeks back in the media that a rehearsal like this would be conducted. Everybody in the city where lost in their own world until they realized that it was a mock blast. The new district collector was also said to be holding a key position in a disaster management committee…Good for the people of Hyderabad and for the people of India that such pro active exercises are being done to avoid post terror attack damage. Was I dreaming or was it reality? Let’s see……….

The Calamitous Call(Edited in response to fellow blogger's comments)

2008-11-25T21:40:00.005+05:30

The phone rings in Mr.Jagadish’s house. It is a call from USA… Jagadish picks the phone up….after a long pause a low voice responds….”Hello “.

Jagadish says “Hello”.

After one more pause the voice says “I really don’t know how to say this to you”.

Jagadish feels that something’s wrong and responds “who are you and what’s the matter?”

This time after a deep breath, a trembling voice responds “I am your daughter’s friend rahul and I am sorry to say this …………YOUR DAUGHTER IS DEAD.”

Jagadish is dumbfounded and goes into a deep state of shock and he won’t be able to speak a word for a minute. I think this would have been the worst call in his life or for that matter in anybody’s life. After trying hard, he gets back to his senses…. totally disturbed …dejected….and somehow gains the courage to respond back…”when and how this has happened”.

Rahul responds” I don’t know when and how this has happened uncle…but her body was found lying in her house about a few minutes back”. This reply made him distressed and totally out of sorts. How much a father like him could do being a thousand miles away?

He was then informed by Rahul that police have been informed and the formalities done. He was also informed to be prepared for travel to USA and asked him to wait for his next call in a couple of hours. Not having the nerve to inform his family about this ghastly incident, he just drops down on his bed. Closing his eyes, a whole lot of emotions and memories flood him. His mind unwinds her daughter’s journey abroad.

Anita was an aspiring under-grad from Hyderabad who went to pursue her masters in the USA. Thousands of enthusiastic Indian students like Anita set out on a journey to pursue their higher education in the United States of America and other countries. Most of them would have made up one big Hollywood Fairytale story of theirs even before they took off their dream destination…..Affluent lifestyles...Romantic long drives…Quality education…the Friday night Fever… safer places and what not? Like most of the Indian techies, she made it big academically. She was the most innovative student in college and won an international paper. At last, her determination and struggle in the so called Land of Opportunities was fruitful. She was offered a job in a dream company. It would have been beautiful if I could have ended this story saying “she lived happily ever after”. But it is not so.

Jagadish’s mind could not contain thoughts and visions of the incident that boomeranged his mind. Who could have killed her? What might be the reason? Was it a gang of muggers who could have killed her for some petty money or would it have been professional rivalry intended to suppress a budding engineer?

Mr.Jagadish would have been having the worst nightmare of his life and suddenly the phone rings again. A phone call would never have brought him such pain and suffering. He was informed that the murder took place two days ago in her apartment. Tears rolled down his cheeks…..and he just cries helplessly blaming himself for sending his daughter to the USA for all this to happen.

It is not that something of this kind would not happen in India….it could have…but here you could at least act on the situation. But if it is a thousand miles away, it makes you debilitated. What also worsens the situation is that they identified her dead after two days of the murder. All this is happening in a place where safety is given the top most priority. What should people do…restrain from sending their children abroad….or do they just have to be oblivious to such news as it happens to one in a bunch of thousand??? Well we really can’t come to a conclusion based on one such incident…But what I feel is for the enormous amount of anxiety our parents are going through after all these incidents…it is our responsibility as their children to sincerely rethink about our fairytale to US. Ok, if one’s really looking forward to pursue their higher education which could bring some sort of transformation in the world….then point agreed….But if you think America fascinates you and you weave a fairy tale around it…for your parent’s sake… please go for a leisure trip and come back. And if you think you could earn heaps of money….please realize that “So you earn So you Spend”. So folks unless you are a very talented girl like Anita please care to realize that you have a responsibility towards your parents who are concerned about you every moment of their lives.

THE FIRST ADDA

2008-11-16T16:32:00.000+05:30

It was during our first days of engineering. Except for a few known faces, everybody else was new to us. I was least bothered to interact with others in class except for those superficial pleasantries and introductions. Looking at people in my class, I never thought I would make friends with any of them. Outside the class we hardly met people from other branches. The only place where we had some scope for interaction was the “BUS STOP”. Bus stop is one place where we get to know people who stay in and around your place. So everybody looks forward to interact with each other. On one of the days , I could catch up with some batch mates in the bus stop. One of them I met at the bus stand was Abhishek from H.P.S. I was quite happy that I could meet a guy from a decent school with similar likes and dislikes and a guy who could make good friends with me. He was the first guy I knew in the college outside my class. He was from computer science and I was from mechanical.At the first we had nothing much to talk except for some usual chitchat.

One of the most interesting things we could talk about was obviously the seniors. Most of the time in the bus, we would be day dreaming, sleeping or getting ragged by one of the seniors. Days passed by, both of us were on and off on our college bus. One fine day, there was this guy sitting next to us who was Abhishek's cousin Anand. Anand used to come by bike for the first month or so. Later he was forced to take the bus route by his parents. I was happy that I found two guys staying near my house.In no time,We had the first internal approaching and it was mathematics.

Rahul:” Hey why don’t we guys have a group study? Maybe we could score better”

Abhishek: “fine mama (commonly used to address friends in Hyderabad).Why don’t we do that in our house??”

Anand: “Chalo then we shall meet up today evening”

Rahul quickly added saying “Why don’t we also join a computer class? We will have something to do in the evenings”

I got a big yes from both of them. There was this guy from vizag who got close to us and was transferred to my college after about a month or so. He also wanted to join us for the computer class. He was ready to travel about 10 kms to our place every day in the bus for the computer class. I still think that things like this can happen only in engineering. Where...you would go any distance for your friends. All four of us were happy and we started going to the computer class.

About two days passed by and we had a lot to talk about…Be it teachers in our class….Be it those so called ITEM SAALLE (specimen) in class, college and the bus….Be it movies…or be it dirty jokes….. .Who would be interested in a computer class when you have so much to talk …so much to argue???.....Hyderabad had always places for that typical gossip…for that chitchat...for that masti…for that fun…..supplemented with some delicious food…..irani chai…..hyderabadi biryani (double masala jamm ke).People usually call them Hang outs..I prefer calling it “ADDA”…APUN KA ADDA.

On our route to the computer class, one bright red boarding always used to catch our eyes. Written on it with big bold letters was “CHENS….THE CHINESE EATING JOINT”. One day we decided to go and try that place out for some good food and more gossip in there.

This was one of our first and most loved ADDAS. It is located in a place called bowenpally in secunderabad. They serve some delicious Chinese food at affordable prices with good privacy to throw up all the “BAATHKAANI” (gossip in Hyderabad) there .We never went to the computer class after that day. From that day onwards, we met at Chens every day, had food at seven in the evening…..so that we had enough time to digest that food by dinner time at home. We never got bored of that place ….because it brings up all the beautiful memories we had during our first year of engineering. At that point of time, we never thought we would become best friends and cherish all these memories. I always feel friends like them happen and when they happen I would say just sit back and enjoy because there is no more YOU & ME …everything just becomes WE.

This was one of the many addas we had during our engineering days. I would love to share many more stories of ours in my upcoming blogs. Hope u people liked this blog of mine. I feel everybody has a story so similar to this…hope this blog of mine would bring back those cherished memories of yours which made u smile and laugh but also glower and cry making u realize that you would never get back those good ole days of your life.

Thank you for your time and please do give valuable feedback….. : D

The Calamitous Call

2008-11-07T23:21:00.000+05:30

The phone rings in Mr.Jagadish’s house. It is a call from USA… Jagadish picks the phone up….after a long pause a low voice responds….”Hello “.

Jagadish says “Hello”

After one more pause the voice says “I really don’t know how to say this to you”.

Jagadish feels that something’s wrong and responds “who are you and what’s the matter?”

This time after a deep breath, a trembling voice responds “I am your daughter’s friend rahul and I am sorry to say this …………YOUR DAUGHTER IS DEAD.”

Jagadish is dumbfound and goes into a deep state of shock and he won’t be able to speak a word for a minute. I think this would have been the worst call in his life or for that matter in anybody’s life. After trying hard, he gets back to his senses…. totally disturbed …dejected….and somehow gains the courage to respond back…”when and how this has happened”.

Rahul responds” I don’t know when and how this has happened uncle…but her body was found lying in her house a few minutes ago”. This reply made him distressed and totally out of sorts. How much a father like him could do being a thousand miles away?

He was then informed by rahul that police have been informed and the formalities done. He was also informed to be prepared for travel to USA and asked him to wait for his next call in a couple of hours. Not having the nerve to inform his family about this ghastly incident, he just drops down on his bed. Closing his eyes, a whole lot of emotions and memories flood him. His mind unwinds her daughter’s journey abroad.

Anitha was an aspiring under-grad from Hyderabad who went to pursue her masters in the USA. Thousands of enthusiastic Indian students like Anitha set out on a journey to pursue their higher education in the United States of America and other countries. Most of them would have made up one big Hollywood Fairytale story of theirs even before they took off their dream destination…..Affluent lifestyles...Romantic long drives…Quality education…the Friday night Fever… safer places and what not? Like most of the Indian techies, she made it big academically. She was the most innovative student in college and won an international paper. At last, her determination and struggle in the so called Land of Opportunities was fruitful. She was offered a job in a dream company. It would have been beautiful if I could have ended this story saying “she lived happily ever after”. But it is not so.

Jagadish’s mind could not contain thoughts and visions of the incident that boomeranged his mind. Who could have killed her? What might be the reason? Was it a gang of muggers who could have killed her for some petty money or would it have been professional rivalry intended to suppress a budding engineer?

Mr.Jagadish would have been having the worst nightmare of his life and suddenly the phone rings again. A phone call would never have brought him such pain and suffering. He was informed that the murder took place two days ago in her apartment. Tears rolled down his cheeks…..and he just cries helplessly blaming himself for sending his daughter to the USA for all this to happen.

Mangalore Milieux

2008-10-22T14:27:00.001+05:30

It was already the end of third year of our engineering and we friends have not been to even one outing. Kamesh and I always had fascinating get-a-way ideas for our outing. Both of us always wanted something adventurous like trekking, white water rafting, and etc.We looked for a place where we knew somebody who’s local to the place. The idea struck at last, we wanted to go to Mangalore. People were looking forward to our idea of going to Mangalore which happened to be Sanket's Local. Ideas can only strike amidst exam preparation during our group studies. Our idea was instantly liked by naresh and anirudh.The tough job always was to convince Sanket and Anuraag.Sanket for hosting and planning up things in Mangalore. Anuraag was skeptical about the idea and took time to get going. We convinced them somehow and the others followed.

We had three exams left and everybody was so excited that we literally stopped studying and started planning. Exams keep coming and going, you always can have better luck next time but a memorable excursion like this can happen only once in a life time. All of us including Avinash were ready. But I still had my fingers crossed about anuraag.We booked our tickets and our planning started. I and Naresh browsed every damn website about Karnataka tourism and at last short listed places for our trip. I always wanted to trek parts of Western Ghats and we zeroed in on Chikamagalur district and nearby places.Coorg was on the list too.

Sanket's cousin Gaurav who stays in Mangalore was contacted regarding our trip. Unfortunately, we were informed that Chikamagalur was a naxalite hot bed and Coorg was more of a hill station than an adventurous one. So we asked Gaurav bhai to plan a trip for us. Meanwhile, Anuraag gave a big yes and our group of friends was complete. Exams concluded and we had three days for the trip to commence. Everybody was so excited and was eagerly waiting for the D-day to come. We just could not wait for our outing to start. After three long days, the trip unfolded. Every one of us raring to freak out. :)))

We took our train to Bangalore and from there we planned to take a bus to Mangalore through Hassan.The train arrived at Bangalore and we were on board for our journey to Mangalore on a very bad ghat road. Most of them were oblivious to those sharp turns and sudden jerks except for me and Sanket .We could not have a puke free journey and some of us had to go and beg the bus-wallah to stop for both of us. At last, we arrived at Mangalore. We had a very warm welcome by Gaurav bhai.We were literally taken by surprise, when he made an articulate travel plan and gave us a copy. That was so nice of him. Eight of us were into the Toyota qualis in no time which was supposed to be our vehicle for the trip.

Our stay was arranged at Sanket's uncle's place. As we traveled through the city of Mangalore, we were impressed at first sight. I felt the city mostly comprised of a cosmopolitan society and is very calm. As we went home, everybody got totally drenched in sweat welcoming us into the coastal city. That evening we had a quick trip to the Mangalore beach where we could witness one of the most beautiful sunsets we had seen. Later, Gaurav hosted a dinner for us in the Mangalore club that night where we chalked out our plan for the next three days. It gave us time to settle down and listen to interesting stories about Mangalore from our very special local lad Gaurav bhai.

Next day early morning we started our journey. An early morning drive is always special, but this drive made it more special as we were traveling on a particular ghat road which had backwaters on one side and the sea on the other side. We were passing through a string of beaches and the best of the lot would be the cool blue Maravanthe beach. This was enroute to our destination "Yana Caves".Yana caves, located in the forests of the Sahayadri Mountains is a trek through a set of unique rock formations. It is a very beautiful trek and it took us almost an hour to reach the destination. A trek through the forest always gives a humbling and rejunevating experience making it very memorable. There is a small beautiful temple on the top. We also had glimpse of some of the caves in the dome. Food was on the top of our list during the trip. Most of the times we had our breakfast at the trademark Kamat hotels of Karnataka. After the trek, we stayed at Murudeshwar.

The second day started with the visit to the sacred Murudeshwar temple. It is a very powerful Shiva temple on the shores of the Murudeshwar beach. From there, we went to the famous Udipi temple; it is the temple of Lord Krishna. Most of us expected for some yummy breakfast at Udipi rather than a temple. Udipi should be famous for its breakfast delicacies right? Yes it is!! Don’t forget to have your breakfast at Hotel Diana at Udipi. It’s awesome. With our stomachs more than full we embarked on our journey to our next destination "The St.Mary Islands". We were on board a medium sized motor cruise and went round the island for an hour or so. It is preferable to visit this place in and around October it seems as we could have got to land on the island then. But nonetheless, we could click some very beautiful pictures of the island. We had a glimpse of the fishing port and it is very pleasant err.. Unpleasant smell. Later, we went to the Shiva temple at Gokarna known as the Gokarna temple. It was a very powerful temple. And please don’t have food at Gokarna they are some very bad restaurants in and around. We were able to grab some snacks at the manipal campus enroute.

In the later part of the evening, we visited a light house on one of the beaches. We had an opportunity to watch a spectacular sun set atop the light house. We did not feel like coming down but we had to because the officials are very strict on closing the light house after the sunset. We came back to the Mangalore city in the night. Sanket's uncle hosted our dinner at a place called "The Village”. The food was good and the restaurant attracted good crowd. At last we called it a day after a very hectic day.

The third day was more of the local touring and visited some local temples. We tried out some local coastal eateries for lunch. In the evening we visited an ice cream parlor called "The Pabbas" a must visit eat out. We had an awesome dinner prepared for us by Gaurav bhai's mom and the time has come to bid adieu to Mangalore. Our journey was coming to an end. We planned to take a bus this time in a different route that night. I would thank Gaurav for such a wonderful trip.

The best part of a holiday is we love and cherish every moment. Jam packed schedules might physically tire us but at the end of the day you don’t feel like ending the day. We never feel like ending a holiday. This was the only excursion we had during our engineering lives. We planned many more...but they never happened. Now our engineering is done, an excursion might never happen again. But we still keep planning because there is still a hope that if it happens again it would make one more memorable holiday.

Thank you for spending your time on my blog. Please do spend an extra minute to give your valuable comments.

Aditya Nishtala

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The Calamitous Call(Edited in response to fellow blogger's comments)

THE FIRST ADDA

The Calamitous Call

Mangalore Milieux