Within few minutes, all the so-called dignitaries came out in public and showed their discontent and appealed to the public of Mumbai to remain calm & composed. Statements given out by:

Rahul Gandhi – He came out & said, Indian Govt. can’t stop all terrorist attacks and it has done a good job by preventing 99% of terror attacks due to vigilance and intelligence.

(I just want to ask…is it not the job of police or intelligence agencies to make India a terror free, to stop each & every terror-attack? Why is Govt. boasting that it has prevented 99% of the attacks? What if in future that 1%  of the terror attack kill thousands & thousands of people? Should Govt. be basking in the glory of preventing those 99% attacks or should it be taking theresponsibility of these attacks? Consider the case of America, not even a single terror-attack happened after 9/11. And, Americans just shot-dead the person responsible (Osama Bin-Laden) for those attacks outside America (in Pakistan), giving a strong message to other terrorists of the consequences of such attacks on their land. I’m not comparing us with Americans, but can’t we show some improvements? Can’t we set an example in front of the terrorists, however small it may be? In-short, I’m just asking my Policemen & Intelligence people to work efficiently & effectively without any corruption & bureaucracy. Am I asking too much?)

Manmohan Singh – He came out and condemned the blasts and the other statement that he gave was the terrorists behind these blasts will be punished severely.

(Consider the case of  Ajmal Kasab, the man behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks. He was found guilty of 80 offences, including murder, possessing explosives & waging war against the nation, which is punishable by the death penalty, but he is still enjoying the taste of Indian hospitality. What is that which is stopping us to hang him to death? Why his trial is still going on from the past 3 years as we all know what he did. Is it Indian Govt.’s laxity to deal with this issue or what? Osama Bin-Laden was brutally killed by Americans in Pakistan and here’s a terrorist in our own land which we are unable to bring him to death.)

There are some questions which needs to be answered by our Indian Govt. Is the Govt.’s role is only to come out after such attacks and form investigative teams which do nothing…or to be held accountable of such barbaric attacks?

This was just a small out-burst of what I felt about the statements made by these dignitaries. Feel free to share what you think.

Some photos of the barbaric attacks:

Image Courtesy – The Hindu Newspaper

Below are the job-openings in IBM India division. If any of you or your friends is looking for openings in one of the following fields, email your resume with 4-5 lines about the experience (in the mail body) to – ibmindiajobs@in.com

IBM India Job Openings (technical) - Right click on the image & open it in a new tab for better visibility

One of my friends is a recruiter. It will surely help her & you!

Also, don’t forget to share this blogpost’s link with your friends or you can use the sharing icons below! All the best!

Let’s come straight to the point – Why there is so much fuss about DRS these days?

Mainly because all the other test playing nations except India has welcomed it and is ready to make it a part of the judgement system. So, why does it matter too International Cricket Council (here-after ICC) as only one country (India) is opposing it? It is largely because of the consistent opposition by the world’s richest & powerful cricket board – Board of Control for Cricket in India (here-after BCCI).

What India wants?

BCCI or India wants the system to be totally error-free before it gets into the system. Even in the past, players like M.S Dhoni and Sachin Tendular have posed questions on the credibility of the system. Doni showed his anger during the world-cup match against England where Ian Bell was given not out when ball was clearly hitting the stumps. And, Tendulkar is saying that this system should include the hotspot and snicko to be full-proof.

India has also been under a lot of criticism from the Cricketing greats like Geoff Boycott and even from the current England player – Chris Tremlett. Even the ex-coach of Indian Cricket Team – Gary Kirsten praised the DRS system.

My opinion – I think India should not be too much rigid in adopting this technology when the other countries have taken a positive stance for it. Ultimately, it’s a thing that is helping to improve the umpiring decisions. The other technologies like hotspot & snicko are very expensive and there is a more likelihood that they will not be adopted in the countries like Zimbabwe or Bangladesh where their cricketing boards can’s afford. There is even more likelihood that BCCI will get isolated from other boards & will be criticized for the same.

What do you think? Does India’s stand against the DRS justified? Whether the other big test playing nations like Australia, England take a stand against India?

Additional information – Decision Review System guidelines from ICC

Sources:

a) Espnstar Cricinfo, b) Wikipedia, c) ICC, d) Telegraph newspaper UK

1) Want to take break from my work and visit Goa or Shimla or Rishikesh or Mussorie or Dalhousie or Ooty or Darjeeling (seems too desperate….hmmm)

2) Want to do an exceptional/outstanding work from my client…bole to ekdum jhkaaas work

3) Want to handle more clients/brands

4) For sometime also want to work in a different department in my company

5) Want to drink Beer with my mum

6) Want to win a social media award

7) Want to have a different hairstyle

8 ) Want to develop the habit of reading or at-least start writing a diary entry everyday

9) Want to buy a car on my own

10) Want to see my buddy in an advertising company or something that interests him

11) Last & most important – Change my facebook profile status to engaged (with the girl I love the most)

What’s ‘yours’?

These photos were taken by me during my way back to home:

Simply Awesome!

Honestly speaking I was not aware about what the Lokpal bill was and who Anna Hazare is, apart from him being a social activist. But yes, after so much of being said about him on facebook, on TV or even on twitterverse, it just took my attention with a huge surprise.

Everyone in my friend-list is now supporting his campaign against corruption. People in my office, people who I am having a small chat on phone, everyone is saying that we will go to Jantar-Mantar and join this protest to fight against ‘Corruption’. With utmost respect to Anna Hazare jee and to my friends, I just want to ask three things:

a) Have you ever tried giving a bribe to someone, may be a traffic policemen or a so-called ‘thulla’?
b) Have you ever tried giving bribe for your child’s school admission?
c) Have you ever tried giving bribe in a govt. office/organization to speed up your work?

If the answer is yes my dear, then giving bribery is also called as ‘Corruption’ and you are a part it! So, what’s the point of joining this anti-corruption campaign? What do you want to show everyone? Out of a sudden, are you a changed person now? What if, you first join this anti-corruption campaign and after some days, you caught giving bribe to any traffic policeman?

Just think over it!

P.S:  I am nowhere saying that I am against Anna Hazare jee or even his supporters. I really respect him and wholeheartedly support the way in which he and others are fighting for the whole country. It is just a small question which is bothering me. My humble apologies to anyone who find it offensive or disrespecting!

SNAP has set up its facebook page on 30^th August ’10 and till date it has 868 fans, while NMIMS’s facebook page was started on 16^th September ’10 and has 1297 fans. Then I went on to look, how these two are using these social platforms to engage with their TG.

About SNAP and its presence on social media:

• Integrated its facebook page with twitter, the tweets done on twitter are also put up as a status updates on facebook
• Mainly tweets about current affairs and general knowledge questions as they also forms a complete different section in the entrance exam
• Facebook status updates are also of the few current affairs articles ( taken from newspapers)
• Their youtube channel has videos which show about different colleges, the courses offered, student’s feedback etc.

About NMIMS & its presence on social media:

• Facebook updates are mainly of (i) Promoting their website where all the NMAT (their entrance exam) details are there; (ii) Updates on facebook are of some of the Ads that students from the institute has made; (iii) Some funny videos on MBA available on youtube
• Tweets are mainly about the details of the test / registration / different courses offered / replying to any user’s query etc.
• Don’t have any official youtube channel

My opinion: All in all, I think it’s an interesting initiative taken by both the universities to get connected with their target market (which is in abundance on these social media platforms) and make them more aware about the courses offered by them. Having an online presence and responding to students’ apprehensions directly can be a good way to engage with them. I wish them all the very best!

I would love to hear about what you think of these initiatives? Do share your opinion!

We all know about the rise of social media tools (websites) used by various companies nowadays to promote themselves and their products to the (potential) target market. But in this short-post, I’ll not go into the intricacies of explaining the ways in which these websites are used from a business perspective, but will try to explain the ‘major’ difference between twitter & facebook from a personal angle.

Twitter, a microblogging service is about connecting with the people whom you don’t know in your real life and getting into conversations with these people.  I have only 5-6 people on twitter (from a network of around 2500) whom I know in real life. So, in my opinion, twitter is just about conversations and exchange of views from one person to another.

Facebook, a complete social networking website is about connecting with the people whom you know in real life. It’s about interacting/exchanging views/discussing with people whom you already know. There are hardly 5-6 people in my friend-list on facebook whom I don’t know in person. So, in my opinion, facebook is all about getting connected with your friends/school-mates/college-mates.

So, in your opinion, what do you think is the ‘major’ difference between the two fastest growing social networking websites? Do feel free to share your opinion!

Today I watched Peepli Live! As it was an Aamir Khan movie, I was eagerly waiting for the movie to release. Last week I asked one of my close friend to make a plan to watch this movie, but he said the movie is not worth watching as one of his friend has already downloaded it from the net, watched it and gave bad reviews. So my friend was completely uninterested in watching Peepli Live, as a result I was thinking with whom should I watch it? Then i asked my best friend, my mother…..that whether she’ll accompany me or not, usually she’s never interested in watching any movie on the hall, but somehow she agreed and we went to watch the movie! Because of the heavy rain that was pouring in, we find it very difficult to reach the movie hall on time and due to it, we missed the starting 10 minutes of the movie. However the rest of the movie was very good and worth watching.

Most of the Aamir Khan movies are based on an issue or a concern that he wants all of us to think about. Like Taare Zamin Par (understanding a dyslexic child) or may be 3 idiots (putting too much pressure on the child or imposing your choices onto your children), this movie also highlights an issue which is the plight of farmers in India, but with full of humor in it. There was a farmer named Natha, who under the influence of his elder brother decided to commit suicide in the hope of getting some compensation from the government (for his family). As the news breaks out, it reaches to all the TV news channels which then started to cover the same story in a big way to get some TRPs for themselves. The whole coverage by these TV channels was with full of humor as they captured even the minute things happening in Natha’s house; it was very similar to all our Hindi News channels which don’t miss a chance to create a big hype out of anything. So in the movie they also did the same thing. As a result of TV news channels’ coverage, some Govt. officials also visited Natha’s house, from which some supported his suicide saying he is dying for a good cause and some were against it as they were afraid that it could become a big issue for the upcoming elections.

I’ll not write about each and everything that happened in the movie, but do want to narrate a scene that was in the that. What happened was that TV news channels created a big hype by making breaking news of Natha’s Shit! Yes, you heard me right!

What happened was, that Natha somehow escaped all the TV news channels’ people and even the police to find a proper place to do shit. But somehow, a TV news channel spotted him doing the same and as a result Natha ran away from that place and went into hiding! Then all TV news channels got worried as they didn’t had any news to cover, so as an alternative what they did was that they made a news out of the place where Natha did his shit, they covered the whole place, zoomed the camera on the same, and started analyzing the shit as if there was a connection between Natha’s shit and what was going in his mind for committing suicide. This all is captured in a very humoristic manner and you’ll not stop laughing during this scene.

Lastly, I’ll not tell you that whether Natha dies in the end or not, I want you to watch the movie to find out the same. All in all from my side the movie was good, worth watching and a must watch when you are with your friends. Ratings – 4 out of 5!

Do tell me after watching the movie that you liked it or not? Will be waiting for your reviews!

I have been new to social media w.r.t my job, but always been quite optimistic about its future in India. We all know that social media is already established in the developed world (US or UK), but not quite in India. Companies in India are somewhat iffy or what i say confused about the ROI from it. One of the reason is that they don’t actually know what do they want from it or what objective they want to fulfill from it? I’ll not go into the intricacies of the ROI or the objective of the companies. My purpose to write this post is to show my optimism toward this “Social Media” industry particularly in India.

Today two things happened with me, which reinforced my belief for social media:

a) When I was coming back from work, I had to go to some place for which I decided to take a new route. After driving for some time, I decided to ask for some directions at a place where 4-5 people were standing. I stopped my bike & asked a person for directions and suddenly all of them came and began to discuss among themselves the shortest route to my destination & told me the same….. This thing stayed with me in my mind. It has happened with me so many times (and probably with you too), but I hadn’t looked at it the way I am looking at it now! Recalling the incident made me wonder: Is it that the people in India are always interested in what other people are interested in & whether they always want to see where other people are heading towards? Probably YES.

b) When I was coming back from that place, I offered a lift to someone. When I dropped that person at his destination, he thanked me and also told me where he put up in Delhi and why he was going to that place. He told me his reasons for visiting that place; things which I was totally uninterested in. Oblivious to this fact, he kept telling me everything. This incident also showed me that, people in India somehow think that others would also be interested in the same things as they are. When I compare this with social media sites like twitter, Facebook etc, it is very similar to the retweet or the share option that they provide respectively. For example, we do think that if we have liked a particular video, probably others will also like it & therefore retweet or share it.

The first instance shows that if I am interested in one thing, others will also get interested in it and the second shows that others also think that if somehow they are interested in a particular thing, I’ll also be interested in it. Such thinking results in propagation of news, video or any relevant link (with respect to social media).

Both these instances today (however small or irrelevant they look) made me feel that indeed people in India are very social in nature, they do like to know what the other person is interested in and also love to tell the same thing to others.

I have put a small reason to justify my optimism for “Social media”. What do you think?