Media Vs Real Media
I totally agree with what Savia is saying in her blog post. If media tries then it can prove to be a big source of motivation for those who are willing to do something about major problems we see, hear and read everyday. Government has already initiated involvement into media by giving out pubic announcements more often and is also constantly working towards designing new concepts like Bhagidari.
I personally think that Indian media needs to get more organized and needs to increase social contribution to what there is at the moment. If I read a news today in a newspaper it is quite hard to get further follow ups of what happened after that. I think if media reports a crime or an event then it is equally responsible to educate people with what is happening then after.
As Savia said in her blog post that she sees very few positive stories. I might not have as in depth knowledge of media as she does but I would like to express my views. In my view over a period of time Indian media to be more specific has evolved as a commercial body which is serving that sells. I would also like to quote an incident which really made me feel sad about attitude that Indian media holds. On 23rd July 2006 I has participated in a peace march as an appeal for justice to Priyadarshini and the same day happened to be one of the most biggest events in India, Prince fell in a deep irrigation shaft. When I returned from the march I turned on my television to see how media is contributing to the efforts taken by so many people today. And to my surprise all the news was taken off from almost all the leading news channels as they were busy covering rescue mission of Prince live with commentary, right from providing him with food, oxygen and to how he was killing an insect inside or how his birthday was celebrated followed by the rescue.
Mr Hooda wished a happy birthday to Prince, and shared a cake with him. He also announced a grant of Rs 2 lakh to the family of Prince and Rs 51,000 each to all those who went in the tunnel to rescue the child of an agriculture labourer.
I do appreciate the efforts taken by media for getting help and as without their efforts I doubt Government would have taken drastic steps like assigning this work to National Defense Forces as it happens to be I doubt even if India has any well trained rescue team for such situations. Needn’t be said it is quite clear how Indian news channels tried their best to encase the live action and at the same time compromising the basics.
Now or then there are new special editions being introduced to the news papers which focuses on what is going on in city, women stuff, home stuff etc. And I hope that some news paper guy actually reads what I am writing here and consider it as a suggestion to start a supplement that motivates, appreciates and reports what might not sell but will contribute to the society of which we all are part of.
And yes after reading Savia’s blog post I am definitely going to watch Blood Diamond very soon.
Schools to be ranked, more lives to end
Are we missing on the daily dose of news about students giving their lives away by surrendering in front of pressure to perform better and excel in such a competitive world of education in India. It seems yes and that we want children of India to suffer in traumatic situations. Indian’s need to accept that no scale is perfect to measure one’s ability to perform well in life. Great emphasis is already been given to academic performance which leaves students in a feeling of grief with average performance but with possible excellent skills out side the limits of what any academic system can measure or identify.
There are several unanswered questions to which Indian society must address before more students are sacrificed. Failure is never considered an option and is treated as a shameful situation and average performance is never being appreciated.
Such kind of an attitude makes us the Indians develop a conservative mentality which limits us to a scope or a horizon that is presented to us. Fear of failure has made us insecure and has reduced our risk taking capabilities, hence closing down several doors of opportunities which would definitely help India progress and provide a sense of satisfaction. When alternatives will be given a chance and a consideration, that will be a day when Indians will not give up their lives to a mere failure or to even the fear of facing one.
I asked my maths teacher in sixth class that where am I going to use algebra in real life, what is its use? The teacher answered, in your exams !!
Cat slips her walk again
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A yet another wardrobe malfunction at Wills India Fashion Week has left the fashion freaks astonished. In Rajesh Pratap’s fashion show while he himself was in Paris, Debby a Belgian model slipped off her dress accidentally on ramp which left her partially top less. Of course as soon as Debby realized she adjusted her dress back and continued with her ramp trip. Lack of time for fitting between fashion shows is said to be the whole and sole reason for such slips on ramp. Sex starved Indian media immediately picked up and a censored version of the fashion show started floating across all the major news channels. Where sex education is considered as an attempt of introducing pornography in schools, such kind of incidents in fashion shows are going to sell like hot cakes. More often considered as a popularity gimmick it rather brings embarrassment to the fashion designer for unreliability. And this incident seems to be adding to India’s own history of wardrobe malfunctions following two incidents in Lakme India Fashion Week with fashion model Carol Gracious and Gauhar Khan.
BBC video on similar incidents in India. Read more
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I let my daughter wear Kamasutra
Its obvious to get confused after seeing this banner. Kamasutra one of the leading Indian manufacturers of condoms and known for the same around the world has introduced a new range of personal care for both men and women.
Tag line here "I let my daughter wear Kamasutra" appears to be a very well planned pitch for introducing Kamasutra into an all new domain. At present Kamasutra has released a range of deodorants and after shave lotions. Products are been named very carefully keeping the brand image in consideration like KamaSutra Spark, KamaSutra Urge, KamaSutra Dare, KamaSutra Provoke and KamaSutra Intention.
Quite similarly an advertisement of undergarment company Amul became very popular where a woman is washing her husband’s underwear with really stunning expressions. Read more
As of now this fabulous concept of promoting personal care range products is limited to only movie halls, and few public places to target only well educated broadminded audience to avoid any misinterpretation of the message that is intended to be delivered. Good amount of online promotion is made on the web site by putting banner ads and showcasing all the personal care range products along with their details.
Kamasutra must have made many turned on by there late night TV advertisements and now with a difference Kamasutra is making people curious. And that is what seems to be the motive behind coming up with such a concept for promotion of the Kamasutra personal care range.
PS: Use condoms prevent AIDS
Online advertising in a soup - PPC
There are several online advertising agencies which serves advertisements on web sites. And the advertiser is charged for clicks being made on the ad, out of the amount charged a portion of it is given to the web site owner displaying those ads. More commonly know as concept of PPC (Pay Per Click).
Few smart pants have came up with a new way to fool around with online advertising agency. That is by giving away direct contact details which would not require clicking the ad. Like in the banner ad as displayed below the company is asking the viewer to send an SMS to them, the viewer will almost never click the advertisement. Leaving the advertisement agency and the web site displaying the ad been misused.
On the another hand the company who is interested in generating leads for their business is getting quality leads as the viewer will be spending money to send SMS and is more likely to be serious. At the same time also saving money as rarely there will be clicks on the advertisement which they are displaying on Internet.
Quite possibly due to advertising agency policies the advertiser had to add a text "To know more click here". But in the banner below which is exactly the size as it appeared, one can never make out its written at bottom right corner without using a magnifying lens. It seems more like "Terms and conditions apply".
For big companies if they are concerned of tracking the source of leads been generated then they might use a different channel for example a different number where the requests will be received.
Now the concern over here here is less about not getting paid for the advertisements but about displaying them for free. More importantly how online advertising industry is going to deal with such problems.
PS: Explanation for such situations is requested from Google with ticket# 228394073
Advertisement Jingle - Smart very smart
Several aspects of a video advertisement makes it distinct from others and enables it in getting a special place in hearts of its viewers.
One of them is the jingle, the catchy background music of an advertisement. Maruti Suzuki Wagon R has released a new advertisement featuring background music from a very popular Indian Sufi singer Kailash Kher.
Combined with a great concept, voice of Kailash Kher is doing magic on the small screen and suggests everyone to be different than others by find out their own way obviously with their new Maruti Suzuki Wagon R (which Maruti Suzuki expects people to buy after watching this promo) and be "smart very smart".
Ruby on Rails All rights reserved - DHH
Few weeks ago while talking with my RoR buddies we happened to have a small discussion about David Heinemeier Hansson clearly instructing everyone not to use logo of Ruby on Rails for any commercial purpose where he himself is not being involved or you may say not being benefited. While going through an article about the same I came across really interesting facts and aspects. Like Ruby on Rails identity was community funded. Undoubtedly DHH is responsible for the heights to which Ruby on Rails have reached today.
As a matter of fact on the Ruby on Rails official web site a copyrights message can also be found stating:
"Rails", "Ruby on Rails", and the Rails logo are trademarks of
David Heinemeier Hansson. All rights reserved.
Ruby on Rails I believe is one of the most successful open source projects ever and that is because of its policies especially for contribution. Rails source code is available under MIT license but the Rails identity is covered by trade mark rights. Basically a trade mark is used for a lot different purpose and it is really debatable if Rails identity should be covered under a trade mark policy or not. A trade mark is used in trade of goods to indicate and distinguish source.
Around the world already there is lot of confusion going on about trade mark for open source projects for example for overcoming Linux sub licensing and trade marking problem an entirely new concept of Linux mark was coined.
Rails is neither a product or a service its just an open source project, at least that is what everyone thinks of it, not sure about DHH. So how can one obtain trade mark or service mark for Rails. If to DHH believe, source of Rails is of himself as the usage rights remains with him and he is just sharing a few rights with others, then are all the Rails contributors crazy to be contributing in the Rails framework so that it can be distinguished as a DHH thing. Does DHH wants the world to work for him for free and yeah he doesn’t owe us a shit!!
Article by Peter Cooper on Rails trademark rights of DHH
Transfer / Send money within India
Under very uncertain and unexpected situation I was in a grave need of sending some money within India. Now the fine print is that the recipient don’t have any bank account. I started to explore options to be able to send money as soon as possible without any bank account and a scene from a movie came in my mind where the main actress Katrina Kaif receives money from London, England instantly in Punjab, India via Western Union Money transfer. I never thought before that movies can also be of some good help when you need advice. Well absolutely that scene from the movie Namaste London meant exactly what was shown, I can very well transfer the money to India, had it been I was in England or for that matter of fact any other place except India where Western Union Money transfer have agents. I scanned their entire web site to make sure that I could send money within India.
I could find several agents in India, in-fact remotest of the places were being covered including where I wanted to send money and I really do appreciate that. I called up one of the agents and enquired about sending money and oops, money can only be received in India whereas sending money from India to any where is not possible. To avoid any chances of confusion I even confirmed the same with the customer care by sending them an email. Quite surprisingly Western Union Money transfer took more than 24 hours in responding to my very simple query. And not just the customer support response time was slow, I even had the same experience with Western Union Money transfer web site, that might be temporary but it was quite sluggish.
I am really not sure about the reason behind this, even after having such a well established network of agents, why Western Union Money transfer is restricted to only incoming transfers for India. A possible reason could be the benefits of receiving funds in foreign currency or may be Reserve Bank of India regulations.
Now the next thing that clicked my mind was the traditional Indian postal department service of money order. Quite surprisingly I have never had any personal experience of this service, there was never a need before. No prize for guessing where I came to know about this money order thing, tada movies again. Reason why I said money order service of Indian postal department quite old and traditional is that the movies in which I saw people using money orders were really old ones. And provided the reputation of Indian postal department I moved to private shipping services long time ago.
Just to give it a try I went to Indian postal department web site and bingo, on the home page itself I could see a link for Instant Money Order service. In a fraction of second my point of view for Indian postal services changed to a lot better position. Now I was trying to figure out if I can use this service myself. No doubt that Indian postal department web site sucks, a really huge page loaded after taking hell lot of time. Grrrr Instant Money Order service is not available where I wanted to send money, anyhow the service still sounded quite appealing to me.
After placing request for an Instant Money Order a secret number is provided that you need to convey to the recipient and just by telling that number and showing a identity card, money can be transferred instantly to any of the Instant Money Order supported post offices.
It is quite disappointing that even after having so well rooted infrastructure of decades old Indian postal department still don’t have all the services available across all the post offices in India. I tried for all the next best possible options for me, telegraphic money order is being discontinued but is still promoted on the web site, speed post also is not available in all locations. Hence only and the last option left was normal money order service that might take up to a week’s time.
Another very big reason why I never used any of the Indian postal department services was their working hours. Usually most of the post office closes down early in evening and that too depends where it is, few of them even close down as soon as afternoon. Its really hard to leave work at job behind and make trips to the post office cause you are never sure if you will get it right the first time you will go there. But now due to competition from private shipping services the main post office of major cities are kept open till 8 in the night that makes the main post offices also known as GPO (General Post Office) working hours from 10 AM to 8 PM.
I did go to the main post office in Delhi before 8 PM but surprisingly what I came to know was that money orders can only be made till 4 PM after which speed post and postal services are only available.
Now today when I went again to the main post office of Delhi I was able to send the money order and as a coincidence I saw a man possibly not from India receiving Western Union Money transfer at the post office. It is undoubtedly a very powerful combination of Western Union Money transfer quality and well rooted infrastructure of Indian postal department. Not just that, Western Union Money transfer even have collaborated with several national banks and their branches across India.
In the end all I hope for is that the money order reaches its destination soon without any exceptions. I also do appreciate the efforts Indian postal department is taking to attract more customers by providing international level modern services with expectedly improving standard of quality.
So the moral of the story is that movies are not reality, there is lot more beyond what can be seen.
PS: Yes that was quite a fancy moral but what actually I wanted to tell was that even being India one of the most biggest / powerful nations there are still times when one has to compromise for the least best option.
I am NOT feeling lucky
Internet Email spamming is highly uncontrollable even after huge efforts around the world. Recently I received an email in my Gmail INBOX and wondering how a spam email has came in my inbox I checked it:
Increase your Size
http://www.google.com/search?q=inurl:anherbal&btnI=I=Im+Feeling+Lucky
famish grin lair
kenney
adapt
faith
The link in this message is of Google search that tries to look for "anherbal" inside URLs and by using I am Feeling Lucky feature clicking on this link will take you to the first web site that comes in search result without any confirmation.
So you really don’t know where this link is going to take you!!
And on top of that this email lands in your inbox.
This is quite a vulnerability of Google search feature called "I am feeling lucky".
Hence may be Google should validate requests for the use of I am feeling lucky feature.
DMRC concerned about environment
May be about a month ago I was talking with Sid about buying a cycle so that I could go to metro station on that. Actually metro station is quite near by from my house but still I am required to travel a little. It consumes a quite much time waiting for a bus to come. Apart from that it is also a good way of keeping my self active along with keeping the environment healthy.
I tried enquiring about parking a bicycle at the metro station but the person over there was himself not clear like what would be the charges and stuff. I got busy again with normal routine and forgot about this idea that I came up with, till a few days ago I noticed a banner at a station telling that bicycle parking is free of cost at the stations as an effort towards reducing pollution in Delhi.
Quite impressive but we are still behind as in several countries people are allowed to take their bicycle with them inside the train. For example in Germany trains have special cars for people who wish to travel with their bicycles. Well for that matter they even have cars for smokers and for those who don’t smoke at all.
Anyhow it is really appreciable that at least someone has started looking towards preserving environment as well. Though I really doubt how many people are going to switch to bicycles but at least they have a reason for it now.
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Whiz Creed is an upcoming name on Internet that is managed by an individual and is currently a place for him to share his work and point of view with others.
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