Being ambitious comes with a price tag – this is what I’ve learned in the past few years since I entered the realm of building companies together with others. I have been a part of building two organizations – one for my past client and the other of my own. In both cases, I’ve learned quite a lot about trust and gut feelings – both are critical to your success and peace of mind. If you trust the wrong guy, you’ll suffer and if you ignore your gut feelings, you’ll be doomed.

When you build a start-up firm, be careful about choosing people – the ones whom you should let in and whom you shouldn’t. In other words, it’s about creating a circle of trust and being judicious about who actually deserves to be in there. If you don’t trust someone much, don’t let them in. Don’t let them be associated with your organization.

During my early days of building companies, I’ve made quite a few mistakes of trusting the wrong guys all the time. So, here is what I shouldn’t have done.

Fought The Gut Feelings: When I was building a company for the first time for my client back in 2007, it was a big decision for me in terms of whom I should hire. There were quite a few things involved and I wasn’t really equipped with so much experience and confidence that I could pull it off on my own. I ended up hiring some close friends of mine whom I thought would understand my vision and co-operate with me accordingly. But it went the wrong way as they were more concerned with the money part. They clearly wanted more money than anything else although they never deserved it.

My gut feelings told me to part with them again and again, but I held those feelings back assuming things will be alright down the line. But it wasn’t meant to be – I woke up too late and realized things had been damaged beyond repair. I decided to part with the whole thing and build a world of my own – a company where there is place for mutual faith, love and prosperity. So I parted ways with them for good.

The Lesson – When you gut feelings growl, you know your enemies are on the prowl.

But more was yet to come…

Hired The Wrong Guy: With a start-up firm, you should always be careful about not hiring the wrong guy – it’s a mistake you’re bound to pay for. Hiring should be purely based on what they bring to the table, and not what their face value. Face value is important for brand endorsement, not for a start-up firm having less cash to dispense with others.

My mistake was to be over-ambitious with hiring the wrong guy without taking into consideration of how he could be productive for the company. Yes, I was right – he could never justify his salary for the entire of his tenure. Worse, he fell victim to a few people who were hell bent on bringing me down professionally. I simply should have fired him right there but I ignored my gut feelings and decided to carry on with him – another major mistake.

The Lesson – when you feel someone is going against your company, just fire him.

Associated with The Greedy: Some people are nice with you as long as you’re not prospering and keep them happy with sharing a part of what you make. I made the mistake of associating myself with one such guy who waged a fight against me at the mental level with a strategy unknown to me. He resorted to some dirty tactics of misleading the other guy right under my nose. By the time I decided to part with him, he had already done enough damage to the other guy.

The Lesson: Don’t associate with greedy people ever, least when you’re building an organization.

Helped The Jealous: They say it is great to reach out and help others out when they need it the most. But, only they need it the most and ask for it, should you reach out and help them out. Moreover, you’re not supposed to go out of your way to help someone out, because some people aren’t worth the favor and others will hit you back when they get a chance.

The Lesson: When you recognize them, don’t hesitate to take stern action and do the necessary to drive them out before they do more damage to your firm.

Involved The Convenient: Everybody loves money and wants a portion of what you make, whether they deserve it or not. Some people are ostensibly on your side as long as you serve their purpose. The moment they get a chance to join your detractors, they will at your costs. Beware of them as they are worse than your enemies.

The Lesson: Essentially, you should be straight with them whenever your gut feelings say they are talking out of both sides of their mouth.

The Circle of Trust: A start-up firm is not just an organization where anyone can work; rather it is a circle of trust and you shouldn’t let just anyone in without reading their mind upfront. While a whole of people would covet and drool over your money, you need to be careful about choosing people, whether close to you or not, who should be let in your circle of trust.

The trust-worthy people should work with passion, share your vision and be like-minded to begin with. When they work with passion, it paves the way for organizational success and helps the operation makes enough to dispense with everybody who truly deserves it. With consistent efforts from a chosen few who work to satisfy the common goal, you can choose people that deserve a part of the company’s annual profit in the long-run.

Therefore, it is important to choose people based on their personal traits as much as their inherit skills and talent.

This post goes out to all of you out there who believe in being single and appreciate the meaning of freedom to the fullest.

No matter how successful you are, you’re damned if you’re not yet married. That’s how most of them in the mainstream society perceive you. They don’t say much about them who are married but doomed though. Being single would NOT be as tough a choice to make but for the nagging people you’re surrounded by in our society.

What’s Normal isn’t Actually Quite That Normal:
We’re living in a world where people perceive you based on their preconceived notion, highly inspired by what OTHERS are talking about. We have a very few people who have the balls to question the societal stereotypes or radical beliefs that serve as a safe haven for most of them.

Consider these bullshits and you will know what I’m talking about: if you live in a city, work in the IT industry and still a teetotaler, you AIN’T normal. If you make enough money, lead a pretty normal life without feeling like owning a car or an apartment, you AIN’T normal. If you’re 30+ and still single without being in a relationship, you AIN’T normal.

Having brought up in a conservative family and in a very small town, I have seen people resort to materialistic parameters to evaluate your personal achievements in life. Even today, here in this 2-tire city, most of the youngsters are scouring for a relationship cover to give their peers an impression that they are not a loser. If you are in a relationship, you are normal. Heck, if you are in multiple relationships (open relationship), you are considered COOL.

College-going kids nag their struggling parents to buy them a swanky cell phone or a bike or the latest gadget in town to match up to their peer standard and be considered NORMAL. For most of the guys, dressing down well, riding a bike with a blazing hot chick behind (feeding her in every conceivable way) and flipping the latest smart phone are a bare minimum to be considered NORMAL.

If you don’t do any of these things, you are an ECCENTRIC. What kind of ridiculous society are we becoming a part of!

Seriously, but Are You Happy Being Married?
How many happy marriages do we know of today? Look around and you will find 7 out of every ten marriages end up miserably. Some take out their frustrations of marrying into a wrong family, some yuck it all up and pretend all is well to save their face, and others just file their court papers citing irreconcilable differences.

It’s perfectly NORMAL of you to agree with your parents’ choice while they find you a suitable life partner as per their own standard parameters – the key parameter is dowry (a societal bullshit most would secretly wish to amass as much as possible).

For the illusive rest (3 out of every ten marriages), compromise is the keyword to survival.

Life is But a Matter of Choice, Not A Compulsion
You don’t have to get married just because you have to comply with the societal bullshit. You should get married because you find a purpose in it. The problem lies in making marriage seem the whole life in its entirety while it is not. Marriage is but a simple milestone in the stream of life and can perfectly be done away with, if you don’t find any purpose in it. Being single is NOT a bane or boon – it’s just too normal a marital orientation for people to debate.

The ongoing Internet activism against SOPA/PIPA is an inspiring reminiscence of the epic movie Avatar where Jake Sully decides to lead from the front and fight a war against the military establishment to save the rich woodland and the native Na’vi tribe.

Even as the Congress has already scheduled a day to kill SOPA to mark the day for the Internet censorship, the Internet fraternity spearheaded by the likes of Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla, WordPress, TwitPic and icanhazCheezburger Network have shut down their website for a day to propagate the potential perils of the Internet censorship, should SOPA and PIPA get past the Congress on the 24th of January.

Joining this historic movement, the Internet behemoths including Google, Facebook and Twitter have also demonstrated their stand against SOPA and PIPA today.

What The Heck is SOPA/PIPA?

Today, the Internet users enjoy a great deal of liberty – the freedom of expression – by participating in many online discourses that shape popular opinion for a better and empowered future. This freedom of expression empowers the users to convey their views by contributing online content to the socials sites and other websites.

The SOPA and PIPA, if passed in the Congress on the 24th of January, will stifle the free speech you enjoy today.

If you happen to be an Internet entrepreneur or a webmaster running several websites, you may have to police your websites to comply with many complex protocols laid down by the Internet censorship laws such as SOPA and PIPA, should they be allowed to see the light of the day.

According to Wikipedia, SOPA and PIPA build a framework for future restrictions and suppression and pose fatal danger to the free and open Internet.

Can We Stop SOPA/PIPA?

Yes! If you happen to log on to popular sites like Wikipedia or Reddit today, they will serve you with a black page as a means of protest, allowing you an opportunity to join the movement. Just sign the petition to inform your local representative that they should vote against these dangerous legislations.

Here are a few links to help you sign the petition against SOPA/PIPA:

http://americancensorship.org/

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:CongressLookup?zip=751013&submit=Look+up

http://wordpress.org/

So what’s your stand on SOPA/PIPA?

On the 20th of October, 2011, when I wrote a post on my experience of using the Samsung Galaxy 750 tablet, it drew rave reviews from various visitors to my blog. Some said I’m a noob and don’t know how to use a Samsung tablet properly yet. Some said I sound like a complete liar and I’m crying like a girl who doesn’t know how to use a product properly.

Well, I know truth has a way of leaving many people disappointed, but I couldn’t really care less. My duty as a tech blogger is to inform people of my experience with gadgets and let them have their views in the comment sections.

Android, by far, is the worst mobile operating system I’ve ever used and I’m pretty darn sure many discerning users of mobile devices (both cellphones and tablet PCs) would attest to this.

Actually, the world is divided into two different types of users – ones that have never used a better OS than Android (their previous devices were either Blackberry or Noika smarphones) and the ones that used devices operating across all OS platforms.

So whom would you trust when it comes to their experience with Android OS? Of course, the latter, right?

Ok, if you are still NOT convinced, here is the feedback from the rest of world.

Android tablets were expected to give the Apple iPad fierce competition in 2011. It never happened. Here’s why Android tablets flopped. The following part of the article is a republished version of  Jason Hiner‘s article.

On smartphones, Android had just had a huge 2010 of its own. It went from virtually zero market share in January to a third of U.S. smartphone sales by the end of the year, leapfrogging the iPhone in the process. With so many of tech’s biggest hardware makers lining up behind Android tablets heading into 2011, the expectation was that Android tablets would likely leapfrog the iPad by the end of the year. At the very worst, it looked like Android tablets would pull even with the iPad and split the tablet market. Even as late as June 2011, some prominent tech commentators were still predicting that Android tablets would gobble up a huge chunk of the tablet market by the end of 2011.

It never happened.

Depending on who you believe and what exactly you count (tablets sold to retailers vs. tablets sold to customers, and whether you count Android offshoots like the Amazon Kindle Fire), Android was running on somewhere between 15% to 30% of all tablets sold in 2011. That’s respectable, right? Disappointing, but respectable. However, that’s not the whole story. It gets worse.

If we look at actually tablet usage, the numbers get really ugly for Android. Recent reports (like this one from ComScore) that track web traffic from tablets show that the iPad accounts for 95% of tablet traffic in the U.S. and 88% globally.

That means that either Android tablet sales to paying customers are much lower than previously reported or the people who buy Android tablets aren’t using them very much, or a combination of the two. Whatever the details are, it’s an ugly scenario that means Android tablets have almost no traction in the market.

So, why did Android tablets flop in 2011? There are four main reasons. Let’s count them down, and then talk about what 2012 looks like.

4. The 16×9 Problem
Google tried to get innovative with the form factor of Android tablets by giving them a 16×9 aspect ratio instead of copying the iPad’s 4×3 form factor. It sounded good. It was different. After all, 16×9 is associated with HD and 4×3 is associated with SD. The problem is that when you put a 16×9 tablet in your hands, it feels awkward. Google made landscape the default orientation so it feels like you’re holding a laptop screen that’s missing a keyboard, instead of holding a book or a magazine or a padfolio like it feels when you have a 10-inch 4×3 device like the iPad.

When you turn a 16×9 tablet to portrait mode, the screen feels oddly squished. And now, it’s going to be difficult for Google to fix the problem. The 16×9 landscape orientation is still the default in Android 4.0 and there are a ton of existing Android tablets like the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer that are locked into the 16×9 orientation, so even if Google did a software update, it wouldn’t help.

3. The Enterprise Doesn’t Trust Android
One of the ways that Android tablets were going to move a lot of units in 2011 was large orders of 1,000s of tablets to traditional enterprises like hospitals, manufacturers, and schools. Last March, I wrote about Samsung gearing up to sell a lot of Android tablets to the enterprise by setting up sales programs and preparing its sales force to handle big tablet orders. Samsung reps enthusiastically said they would contact me when they had big customers willing to talk about their tablet rollouts. I never heard from them.

By mid-2011 that didn’t surprise me because the IT leaders I spoke with were spooked about Android malware. The fact that users could click on browser links and accidentally sideload apps that could siphon data out of Android devices was not something IT pros wanted to deal with. As a result, surveys like the one from enterprise vendor Good Technology showed that 96% of tablet activations in the enterprise were iPads.

2. The Lack of Tablet Apps
Despite the 16×9 problem (and Honeycomb’s initial software glitches that Google eventually ironed out), the Android tablet platform itself isn’t all bad. I like running widgets and mini-apps side-by-side, for example. That makes Android tablets feel more like a traditional multi-tasking computer. The built-in Gmail, Google Books, and web browser apps in Honeycomb are really slick — I especially like the thumb controls in the browser. The problem is that there just isn’t enough of this stuff. Google has not created enough of its own apps and third party software developers have hit the snooze button on Android tablet apps.

Where’s the Google Analytics app or its Google+ app or its Google Finance app or its Picnik photo editing app? Instead of building its own native Android tablet apps and firing up software makers, Google seems intent on focusing app developers on building HTML5 apps that work well across tablets, smartphones, and computers. That’s an important and admirable goal, but dedicated apps can still be extremely useful for taking advantage of a platform’s strengths.

And the bottom line is that users like the simplicity and focus of having an app that they can tap and enter a dedicated environment for a particular service. Google doesn’t get that, doesn’t like it, and hasn’t pushed for it on Android tablets. The result is that Android tablets just don’t feel like they’re useful for doing much besides surfing the web.

1. The Price
When Apple first announced the iPad, I had honestly started tuning out by end of the event (there’s only so much of that “magical” and “revolutionary” nonsense you can stomach). I was ready to write an article excoriating the iPad as a badly-overpriced toddler toy when Steve Jobs announced that the price of the iPad would start at $499 (I’d expected the price tag to be $800-$1000). I immediately bolted straight up in my seat and my eyes popped open and Apple had my attention again.

To this day, I believe that the iPad’s greatest marketing strategy and the No. 1 factor in its success has been its price tag. Conversely, when Google and Motorola announced that the first big Android tablet — the Motorola Xoom — would cost $800, my immediate reaction was to shake my head and say, “DOA.” At the time, other tech analysts tried to argue that what you got for the price with the Xoom compared very favorably to the highest-priced iPad.

It was a logical argument but that’s not how most of today’s tech buyers think, and the proof is that virtually no one bought the Xoom. Eventually, other tablet makers rolled out some nice Android tablets for $400-$500 by the middle of 2011 — again, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and ASUS Eee Pad Transformer are both very attractive — but to the masses, that price tag was apparently still too much for tablets whose primary function is surfing the web.

What Now?
Even Google’s own numbers don’t paint a pretty picture for Android tablets, and the release of Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” is unlikely to help the situation much in 2012. ICS is’t about fixing the tablet problem. It’s about unifying the Android experience between smartphones and tablets. My ZDNet colleague Jason Perlow has been testing Ice Cream Sandwich on the Motorola Xoom and has concluded that it won’t fix any of these fundamental flaws with Android tablets.

Last month Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said that Google will “market a tablet of the highest quality” in the first half of 2012. It’s also been rumored recently that Google is working on a low-cost 7-inch tablet to battle the Amazon Kindle Fire, which runs a bastardized version of Android 2.3 and quickly grabbed the No. 2 spot in the tablet market at the end of 2011.

However, until Google deals with the four issues we’ve talked about here, it’s unlikely that it will change the fate of Android tablets. At the very least, Google will have to fix No. 1 and No. 2, and that might be enough to overcome No. 3 and No. 4.

If you’re scared about your privacy issues on Facebook, this post will help you get over with them for good. So, read on to achieve complete privacy on Facebook.

With over 800 million users, Facebook has clearly become people’s rooftop from where they can literally shout at the top of their voice to let the world know they’ve arrived. Strangely enough, Facebook has also turned into a tool which appeals to and interferes with emotional orientations of many users. It’s no exaggeration to say that Facebook has actually influenced human emotions quite dramatically and many users are being emotionally influenced by their very own Facebook behaviors and those of others as well.

Many Facebook users feel very special to see their Facebook notification tool go red as they get curious with anticipation to view their friends’ responses to their interactions.

Facebook is clearly controlling human emotions today, and there is hardly any doubt the most active users of Facebook take themselves too seriously on this popular platform.

I add a lot of people to my Facebook friend list every day but end up unfrending them when I realize they could see my personal status updates as well. With Facebook imposing the Timeline feature on you, the stalkers are more likely to see your personal details, status updates, photos and your interactions with other as well.

If you have a Facebook profile, it pays to remember that your behaviors could be visible not only to the close friends, but also to others including your boss, clients, co-workers, parents, employees, fiancée, spouse and kids.

It’s very normal for Facebook users to keep forgetting whom their status updates are getting exposed to. After all, more often than not, your Facebook status updates the offshoot of an immediate surge of emotional thoughts, right?

Luckily, Facebook empowers us with the ability to control what others can see. If you are one of those insanely active Facebook users, and want to manage your update visibility to others, it makes sense for you to pay attention to the following tips:

Question#1: How to Create Filter to Classify Your Facebook Friend?

• Click on Home
• Look at List Option on the Left-hand side
• Click on the More option
• It should take you to the following link  (https://www.facebook.com/bookmarks/lists)
• Create a New List
• Classify your friends according to your list

The most important thing is to remember to choose from the classified list of people before clicking on the share button.

Control Privacy When You Post:

https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy

Control Your Default Privacy:

The following images show how to customize your default settings on Facebook:

At times you hate to be tagged by friends. The following image shows you how to customize your default settings to manage the Facebook tagging feature:

Question#2:I hate to see the ticker updates of some of my friends. How should I hide it?

Here is the answer…

There’s a simple tactic – just click on the edge of your Facebook chat window and drag it far up until you the ticker is invisible to you. But if you want to permanently block the ticker feature on Facebook, the following articles would guide you well…

http://www.thesocialmediatoday.com/how-to-disable-ticker-in-facebook/

http://adblockplus.org/en/

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110828092148AAvv48N

Question#3:I want to appear online ONLY to a chosen few. How should I stay invisible to others?

Here is the answer…

https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=130254323719420

Question#4:I don’t my personal updates to be visible to my boss/clients/employees/parents. How do I make sure they don’t see my updates?

Here’s the answer…

Assuming you’ve created the list (as explained above), click on the dropdown menu beside the post option after writing your status updates. Choose from the classified list you want to share your updates with.

With inputs from @Gurudutta

Facebook Timeline is finally here! Facebook has officially rolled out the Timeline layout for everyone, months after previewing the new look at its f8 conference for developers. Users have seven days to review what they want posted to the scrapbook-like look of their new profiles before anyone else can see it, the company said in a blog post.

The new layout displays stories — statuses, pictures, shared links, notes, etc. — that branch off of a center line. Facebook has added some events to user timelines based on information it already has from profiles, such as the year users graduated college or started new jobs.

To remove or hide stories from your timeline, head to the edit (pencil) icon in the upper right-hand corner of any item on your timeline and scroll down to “Hide from Timeline.” You can also adjust the settings of which friend groups can see certain items.

Those interested in using Timeline right away can opt-in right now or wait until Facebook notifies them with a link at the top or their profile page. Facebook announced Timelines in September, but rolled the feature out slowly. If you’re just getting Timelines now, or want to speed up the switch from your existing profile, here’s what you need to know.

How to Tweak Timeline Information

Of course, some Facebook activity is best forgotten. To remove a status update, photo or other activity from your Timeline, float your cursor over the top-right corner of the update, click the pencil icon, then select “Hide from Timeline.”

Adding information to the Timeline is also pretty simple. Just hover your cursor over the line down the center of the page, so it turns into a “+” icon, then click on the kind of update you want to add. You can add events all the way back to your birth, making for a complete life story.

How to Get Timelines

Head to Facebook’s “Introducing Timeline” page, and click “Get It Now” to activate the feature. Or, you can wait to see an announcement for Timelines at the top of your profile page.

Once you make the switch, Facebook will generate a Timeline on its own, but won’t immediately publish it. You’ll have seven days to make adjustments — say, to remove references to jobs you hated or significant others you’d rather forget. After that, there’s no going back to the old profile.

Timeline Not for Brands Yet!

Mashable reports that Facebook will not be bringing the Timeline for brands quite yet. “We are currently focused on Timeline for individuals and will consider how to make consistent experiences for Pages,” a rep told the site before saying there was nothing to announce at that time.

Courtesy: washingtonpost.com and pcworld.com

Being single in a metro can be a boon or a bane too. In one front, if someone is independent, has fair amount of money in her wallet and is living in a place where she doesn’t have to really care about the mere definitions of being a girl, the boundaries of act that a woman/girl can extend up to; what else is required to live a carefree life??? In this sense she is light; meeting her own expectations of life, not bothering about others in the world. She enjoys parting late night; dawn bike drives in the calm outer ring road with one friend who might be her boyfriend. Doesn’t matter; she hardly cares about such things… She is engulfed in her own happiness and joy within each moment life is offering; may it be her 31st birthday’s or 37th.

Then there is the second type of girls who are not dudess types, more home sick, they live more time of their life memorizing the early days when she was with her family enjoying the togetherness. She finds it hard to live in a city where she can find her mom/sister in someone with whom she can share things. There she seeks someone’s presence in her life i.e. her soul mates. She remains in between her daily job and the frustration that no one is with her to share the enjoyment of her earnings in thousands or may it be in lacks..

I cannot say its even for all.. Some are cool; don’t consider their singleness an obstacle on the way of their normal life, but they do have a little underlying cultural impact of settling down within a proper age as defined by our society. But there are some for whom reaching thirty as single is like hell. They undergo immense pressure from their family, relative regarding the fact that they are unmarried and crossed just a number 30.. They feel too much stressed and depressed..

Finally the conclusion would be on a very positive note in favor of metro life that being single in your thirties is much more easier in a metro than any other small town or village. Here girls have wide spread options of spending their time by joining workout classes to weekend team outings leaving less time for them to realize that they are single.

Even though we’ve just entered the December and 2012 is exactly just 30 days away from us, it’s worth looking back and recollecting the musical memories across the year. A closer look at some popular YouTube videos this year reveals a rather remarkable shift in the musical taste of the mainstream Indian audience. From Bhaag DK Bose to Why This Kolaveri Di, the Indian mainstream music has been lyrically lenient while catching up with the young audience in an unprecedented fashion.

Let’s take a look at 8 of such YouTube videos that rocked the nation and sucked the bandwidth of many Internet users.

Song#8: Saadda Haq (1,364,989 Views)
The track Saadda Haq from the movie “Rockstar” became an instant hit with the mainstream audience, boasting of a powerful set of lyrics with a rebellious tone. Sung by Mohit Chauhan, this song was composed by Academy Award Winner A.R. Rahman who roped in Orianthi, (the lead guitarist in Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” tour) to play the guitar chords in the song. The Hook (music) ‘Sadda haq aithe rakh’ repeated many times throughout the song is in Punjabi language. It contextually means “Keep our right back from where you took it away”.

Song#7: Ooh La La (1,613,983 Views)
The movie (The Dirty Picture) is yet to be released, but the track (Ooh La La) has already swept the nation with its retro musical tempo which has a twang of 80’s Bollywood music. The massive popularity of the track has also a lot to do with the sumptuous visuals powered by the irresistible oomph of actress Vidya Balan who plays the role of Silk Smitha, the southern seductress in the 80’s. All in all, the track is catching up with the youth Internet audience for reasons that aren’t too far to seek.

Song#6: Hale Dil (1,718,252 Views)
Call it the influence of rhythm & blues on the Indian music or what you will, Hale Dil, sung by Harshit Saxena is one of those few romantic numbers in Bollywood music that bring back the romance even in the direst of the situations. For the sheer melody of the music, and of course, supported by onscreen chemistry of Emraan Hashmi and Jacqueline Fernandes, the track still remains as one of the most visually coveted music videos on YouTube.

Song#5: Dum Maro Dum (2,559,830 Views)
Arguably one of the raunchiest item numbers in the contemporary Bollywood music, and the most powerful cameo performance of Deepika Padukone, Dum Maro Dum (the name of the track as well as the movie) doesn’t just revive the charismatic charms of the golden era of Bollywood in the 80’s, but also takes the cover version of the old song to an all-new level. No wonder then why the music video has received over 2 million hits since it went online.

Song#4: Bhaag DK Bose (2,672,866 Views)
Never ever in their wildest imagination had anyone thought of this track being a chartbuster in 2011 but for the new-found musical taste of Indian youth audience that understands the sound of bass guitar, and thrives on hard rock and death metal. Bhaag DK Bose from Delhi Belly is perhaps the most effectively promotional music video which classically portrays the theme of the movie. The wide approval of the song supported by its wacky lyrics radically changed the way Bollywood music directors perceive Indian audience.

Song#3: Chammak Challo (7,724,043 Views)
What happens when the most successful musical director duo rope in an established hip-hop rapper from the US? Chammak Challo, clinically composed by the famous Vishal-Shekhar for the movie Ra.One and sung by Akon, ushered in an era of musical collaboration in Bollywood music industry like never before. Chammak Challo has been dubbed as the “trademark of Ra.One’s publicity campaign”. There are four other versions of the song in the album, including a remix by Abhijit Vaghani, another remix by DJ Khushi and an international version sung solely by Akon with no female vocals.

Song#2: Why This Kolaveri Di (11,257,490 Views)
As if the Indian music industry had saved the best to last, Kolaveri, a promotional track from the upcoming Tamil movie 3, emerged out of nowhere and achieved the significance of a national anthem among the youth audience across India. Although technically, it’s pretty rare for a regional track to gain widespread approval of such magnitude, the track “Why This Kolaveri Di” has by far risen above the regional divide between the North and South, and united the country with its hallmark simplicity in terms of lyrical interpretation and peppy melody.

Song#1: Teri Meri (17,318,141 Views)
Even as you find Kolaveri reverberating in your ears for it has barged into the cell phones of nearly everyone around you, the nation is still in reverence with the romantic track Teri Meri (from the movie Bodyguard) with its YouTube video registering massive number of hits since the song went online in August.

Back in 2006, I heard about PayPal for the first time and was pretty curious to know what it was all about. It turns out PayPal is nothing but a way to make payment or get paid over the Internet. In 2007, I created my own PayPal account and started using it for receiving small payments from my clients. Small payments were mostly for writing content for my offshore clients. I was never worried about the limitations as my monthly PayPal receipts never exceeded $500 threshold until the end of 2008.

In 2009, I started getting more business from my clients and my dependency on PayPal grew bigger. I figured that I couldn’t withdraw more than $500 to my bank account unless I removed the limitations from my PayPal profile. And back then, unfortunately, the only way PayPal would allow users to remove the limitations form their PayPal profiles was through adding a credit card.

As a matter of fact, I didn’t have a credit card as I never needed one. I felt I needed to apply for a credit card just because it would help me remove the PayPal restrictions on withdrawing funds higher than $500. It’s crazy but by asking you to add a credit card to your PayPal account, PayPal essentially wanted you to verify your true identity so it makes sure you’re a verified PayPal user.

To get around the issue, I had to open multiple PayPal accounts to receive money from my clients but it was quite awkward. But, I kept on doing it until I got myself a credit card.

Applying for a credit card wasn’t really that easy for me. My bank (HDFC) was rather skeptical about offering me a credit card as I couldn’t comply with their requirements. When both of my attempts to get a credit card yielded no results, I was forced to go for a credit card against a collateral deposit.

Finally, I got my first credit card (with a credit limit of 9000 rupees) and added it to my PayPal account to verify my account. I felt like I’d achieved a milestone!

Today, PayPal doesn’t want you to add your credit card anymore. Rather, it sends two small deposits to your account and you need to check the statements of accounts to figure out those two numbers and enter the same during the verification process on PayPal.

Doing business with PayPal hasn’t been quite a pleasing experience for me for many reasons. To begin with, PayPal is a rather rigid and selfish institution who doesn’t care about what its users stand to lose. It changes its policies at its whim and imposes restrictions on its users as and when it feels fit. After the PayPal issues in 2010 and 2011, I decided to discontinue doing business with PayPal.

The downside of ordering money via PayPal is that it makes the finalization of company accounts rather complex for your chattered account. Plus, PayPal charges you arbitrarily and converts your funds as per its own currency rate. Worst of all, it keeps changing its policy updates whenever it suits its very own commercial interests. Here’s an example:

Nearly two months ago, a client purchased a SEO campaign service ($400) from our website and paid via PayPal using his credit card. Plus, he wrote me an email asking what details he should offer to get the campaign started. I immediately replied to his email and then he disappeared for the next 30 days.

While I was wondering what might have happened, PayPal sent me an email saying the buyer has asked for a Chargeback as his credit card has been misused. Since I hadn’t begun working on his project, I had no choice but to accept the liability and make the funds available for him to take away. Shockingly enough, PayPal, after returning $400 to the buyer, deducted an additional $25 from my account to compensate for the service fees involved in the transactions! PayPal sent me an email saying it’s a company Terms of Service which I had agreed with during sign-up with PayPal.

Crazy policy, isn’t it?

I feel totally gutted after that incident and was totally disillusioned about PayPal’s operations and customer policy. Therefore I decided not to use PayPal anymore and close my account. But, PayPal didn’t let me close the account saying there are limitations on my account as my account had a negative balance (created by PayPal itself). I left the account untouched and got on with life ignoring multiple reminder emails from PayPal.

I also have a couple of other PayPal accounts without any negative balance. But, strangely, PayPal doesn’t let me close those accounts either. It says the accounts are limited because I need to verify the account with PAN card details and stuff like that.

Currently, I have stopped interacting with PayPal and been ignoring their emails like plague. I don’t want to do business with a company that sacrifices its customer’s interests for protecting its own commercial interests and keeps changing its policies to suits its own agenda time and again.

What do you think could happen next?

Have you ever experienced the similar experiences with PayPal?

Please, share them with me in the comment section below.

Are you worried about losing out on that great doorbuster deals on Black Friday?

Don’t worry, you can definitely take advantage of these Cyber Monday 2011 Tips!

Yes! Apart from buying swanky electronic gadgets at dirt cheap prices, you can also grab hot holiday travel deals at awesome discounts. According PriceGrabber, nearly 39% of consumers are planning to shop on Cyber Monday, which is as much as 37% higher than last year.

According to an infograpic by SEO.com, the total spending in November, 2010 was whopping $13.6 Billion and on Cyber Monday, 2010 alone, the consumers shopped goods and services worth $1 Billion! The consumer spending propensity towards Cyber Monday is only getting stronger each year and ComScore predicts the sales on this Cyber Monday 2011 to hit $1.2 Billion figure.

Click below for The Best Cyber Monday Deals

So Why is Cyber Monday 2011 So Popular Amongst Consumers?

Although Black Friday is fun and ushers in lucrative opportunities for consumers that yearn for shopping till they drop, many consumers finding online shopping a more convenient option for holiday shopping. And, quite a few of them also want to avoid falling victim to incidents like Pepper Spray at Walmart.

Here are some other reasons why most American adults will chose to shop online for holiday gifts:

• Get the best prices and deals (64%)
• Have the convenience of shopping from home (57%)
• Avoid crowds (47%)
• Research and find the best gifts (36%)
• Access better inventory & selection (32%)
• Save money on gas (16%)

Alright, so now that you want to make it big this Cyber Monday 2011, it’s important to note that you need to make a shopping list and have the right information before you’re ready to go online on Cyber Monday!

So, here’s how you should prepare yourself for Cyber Monday 2011:

Google It: Whether you’re looking for Xbox or Holiday Travel Deals, do a little Internet search and find out what most shopping sites are offering for Cyber Monday Deals. This could help you find out the most lucrative Cyber Monday Deals you can grab at great discounts. Plus, you will have an idea about the products and services available across the sites and compare their prices and specifications before you zero in on any specific sites to grab your deals from.

However, don’t limit your search to Google alone. While Google and Bing are two most popular search engine options for you, you should also check out CyberMonday.com, BestCyberMondaySales.com, Yahoo.Shopping.com and Shopping.AOL.com.

Here are three great sites which help you through the Cyber Monday shopping:
WalletPop.com
GottaDeal.com
CyberMonday.com

Here’s a blog post which shows a list of Cyber Monday Travel Deals for you.

Click below for The Best Cyber Monday Deals

Facebook: Facebook is a great place to catch the best sites that offer Cyber Monday Deals 2011. All you have do is friend all popular shopping sites and retail stores and follow them to find out deals available at discounts. There are many travel companies that offer incredible discounts on holiday travel packages on Cyber Monday and make sure you grab the offers while they last.

Twitter: If you are on Twitter, make sure you follow @CyberMonday , @CyberMondayNews , or @BestCyberMonday . Try following specific retailers–like @WalMartSpecials –for the latest on their 2011 Cyber Monday deals. You can also ask your other twitter followers to help you with finding the best Cyber Monday Deals.

Scam Signs: While Cyber Monday is a great time for shopping, you must be careful not to fall victim to scam sites masquerading as great Cyber Monday Deals 2011. There are a couple of things you must remember while shopping online. A genuine shopping site would never ask your credit card information or social security number via email. So never ever respond to such emails. No company would ever ask your address via email, and if you do get any email asking you for your address for FREE Shipping, ignore them. Also, be careful of look-alike sites that pretend to be offering great Cyber Monday Deals.

Cyber Monday Discount Coupons: While a lot of sites offer great discounts on their Cyber Monday deals, sometimes you can secure additional deals by abandoning your shopping card mid-purchase. Usually, the online retails would send you additional incentives (discount coupons or FREE shipping) to shop at their sites again. So you can always try out this trick.

The following video says why Cyber Monday is better than Black Friday

Click below for The Best Cyber Monday Deals