I have begun elaborate plans to unleash the biggest weapon on your lazy asses. I call it the “Send ‘START 0′ as a text message to 1909 from ANY mobile number to stop ALL spam calls” weapon. Sorry, what? You were expecting it to have smarter name? How about ‘Your Death’? How does that sound? Good? Bad? Ugly? Honestly, does it look like I give a fuck?

Good-bye and good riddance. Fuck you.

************

To all other kindred spirits being similarly harassed by telemarketers, the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Portal of the TRAI is the answer all of you have been looking for. CLICK THAT LINK, NAO!

It is full of delight-inducing, endorphin-releasing statements such as the following:

For complaint through SMS, customer has to send SMS “COMP TEL NO XXXXXXXXXX;dd/mm/yy;Time in hh:mm; short description of Unsolicited Commercial Communication” to 1909. Where XXXXXXXXXX – is the telephone number or header of the SMS, from which the UCC has originated.

Service Provider will take action on complaint and inform the complainant within 7 days of lodging of complaint. Customers may check registration status of his complaint through the link “UCC Complaint Registration Status”.

Sweet music to my ears, aaah!!

However, a few (hundred?) years from now, assuming that most etymologies have disappeared from casual general knowledge (and judging by the current state of affairs, it seems a highly likely event) the line at the beginning of this post is likely to throw at least one person off. Were the person to be in a gullible state of mind, they would be most likely to accept the explanation without reading further or cross-referencing the little nugget for veracity.

And that, frankly, is my problem.

The world of Wikipedia has made our lives easy, no doubt. However, things are now approaching the point where Wikipedia is looked at as a source rather than a reference. You can’t tell me it doesn’t bother you? Not even the tiniest bit? Really?

Don’t get me wrong, I love me my Wikipedia! However, that doesn’t mean I take its word as holy writ, does it now? Crowd-sourced or stenographed, we all know it doesn’t take long for blind faith to turn into dogma.

No, this article isn’t about Wikipedia at all. It is, as a matter of fact, about the diminishing attitude of curiosity. Wikipedia just happened to be the simplest example I could think of. I guess what I am really trying to say is that the abundance of information has made us somewhat lethargic in our pursuit for knowledge. If link #1 satisfies what we are looking for, we won’t bother looking at links #2 to, well, whatever number your favorite search engine has decided to throw at you for the day. The days of referencing multiple sources of information for accuracy and consistency of information seem to have become as redundant as the very same sources of information in question. Research seems to now refer to merely searching again rather than investing time, effort and energy into looking for answers to questions raised by our ancients & peers.

Rather than devouring the abundant knowledge available and accessible to us these days,  we have begun to prefer it in a bits and piece-meal bytes. “Short attention spans! Blame them for all this nonsense!” will be the call that will be heard from most of those who read up to this point.

Then again, I suspect most of you who reach this point,  either:

a. skipped chunks of text in the middle.
b. skimmed through most of the ‘long-ass nonsense’.

How do I know it? Because, if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be looking for the explanation to those lyrics to “I believe” by Agnee, Parikrama & Shilpa Rao that I wrote in the middle of the blog-post and promised to explain it here, at the end.

Scroll up to check?

Really?

Don’t see it?

That’s because I never wrote anything like that in the first place. But hey, thanks for playing! :-P

Over the last few years,  I have had this happen to me on a number of occasions. Just when I think I should call it a day,  the brain starts buzzing with possibilities in haven’t considered and probabilities that merit considerable attention. What is truly irritating is the fact that these ‘flashes of brilliance’ disappear into oblivion byvthe time you are ready and fresh to start a new day.

The ideal thing to do would be to collect this information and make a note of it – write a diary,  record a memo/note-to-self,  post a blight, you get the general idea. However, the ensuing back-and-forth of opinions between the brain and a very tired body often leads to the latter being declared victorious more often and most of these ideas end up being lost for eternity or until a strange set of coincidences causes them to be invoked at some random point in time.

One reason, I suspect, is that we have genetically evolved to take an account of the day when we lay our tired bodies to rest. (The idea merits more attention when you consider the ‘life-flashing-before-your-eyes’ metaphor.) I suspect our brains have been programmed to analyze all the information collected during the day and draw conclusions relevant to our existence – either by way of opinions or ideas.

Not unlike a personal assistant would do at the end of a day at the office.

Taking the metaphor a step further, the personal assistant would probably expect you to have acted on the information provided and will not bother reminding you until you explicitly state it.

Yeah, that must be it, I guess.

WTF?!

Oh yeah, why would I need you then, PayPal? For a service that is entirely in the cloud, how can anyone claim jurisdiction/authority/taxes/etc?

The argument I am about to hear is that I am producing this content in (and from) a specific geographical region and sending it out to the world to consume. I am not selling anything to YOU. You are not buying anything from ME. When I write on my blog, my content is out there, in the cloud, available for anyone who wishes to see it.

In the age of the internet, especially the age of The Cloud, can anyone really say that a blog is from a specific geographical location, let alone a country? Why, then, should the laws of a country apply to it?

Furthermore, there’s the problem of ForEx charges. PayPal deducts a service fee on all International transactions – understandably so, I might add. So, my revenues are already down to ~95% And now, I am subject to the vagaries of the ever fluctuating ForEx market PLUS a standard ForEx transaction fee from my local bank (example: BoingBoing) which means my net revenue is further reduced!

In short, the only option left is to submit my bank account details for direct remittance which basically geographical-lizes (I know that ain’t even a word!) the earned revenue!

Why I opened a PayPal account

Short Answer: Because there was nothing else.

Long Answer: I started blogging in the early 2000s. Eventually, fascinated by web 2.0, I began blogging seriously @Corporate Spices. On a lark, I decided to sell a few ads and make some money off, half-hoping it would pay towards my hosting expenses. I chose PayPal because it was the easiest (and the only) method of accepting online payments from ad revenues, donations, etc.

Sure, their fees were a little high, but then when you are a monopoly you leave people with little choice, do you?

Why I WILL close my PayPal account

Short Answer: Because they are a bunch of spineless, penny-pinching cowards who couldn’t stand up for me and others like me.

Long Answer: I have no idea what beef PayPal has with the RBI and/or vice-versa. I have no academic knowledge of the FEMA and/or any other laws of the country that would apply in this context. I do understand and realize that there is no smoke without a fire; there has to be a cause for this effect to have happened. All I am relying on is something I was recently told by someone: “It is the spirit of the law, and not merely the letter, that we need to follow.”

The spirit of the law, as I believe, has (probably) to do with the money-laundering aspect of transactions. However, for netizens like us who use their talent online to earn and spend their revenues online, in the Cloud, does geographical location and territorial jurisdiction really apply?

How can we call ourselves a united global family if we continue to divide ourselves over various jurisdictions like these?

Honestly, I feel Julian Assange, Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij are doing a much better job of it. Can someone please hire them and do a little bit of organizational restructuring at PayPal, please?

I haven’t read half of what I should have read and half of what I have read I shouldn’t have read in the first place

I know he didn’t quite say that but I hope you get the picture. Now, without further ado, here’s my list of fifteen authors who have influenced me in some way or the other.

FULL DISCLAIMER: All author names & book names are Amazon Affiliate links. :)

1. Douglas Adams & P. G. Wodehouse

No, I am not cheating. They both occupy the top slot on my list. Even to this day, I find myself instinctively reaching for a book by one of them whenever I feel the need for inspiration and a laugh. Both turned every nuance of standard novel writing – plot, characterization, narrative – everything on its head. The protagonist was supposed to be brave & courageous, not timid and cowardly. Obstacles were supposed to be overcome by effort, not by sheer chance. Villians were supposed to be defeated not loophole-d – if that’s even a word. Humor was supposed to be planted, not derived.

And yet, we read their classics and wonder – well, we wonder whatever it is that we wonder about. :)

3. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle & Enid Blyton

Again, both of them rank high on my list for getting me hooked on to the mystery genre. The first ‘novel’ I read as a kid was a Famous Five story – as, I assume, is the case with most of you born before the nineties. That’s when J. K. Rowling took over. But, more about her later. I still refer to “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” or “The Famous Five Series,” “The Secret Seven Series” whenever I feel the need for inspiration while writing a mystery story. ;)

5. J. K. Rowling & J. R. R. Tolkien

I seem to be working in pairs – maybe that’s my Gemini nature in action. Anyway, over the last few tags I’ve realized that although most of us curse J. K. Rowling for writing mainstream fiction for YA, we also respect her for various other ‘accomplishments’ such as getting children back into the habit of reading, blah, blah, blah. I’d like to pitch in my 2 cents worth – she’s a brilliant writer who knows her shit. Harry Potter is one of the most tightly constructed series in terms of plot, characterization and narrative. I dare you to find me an inconsistency in any of the books. She knows her Chekhov’s Guns from her Red herrings.

As for J.R.R. Tolkien, the introduction to this post should say it all. And boy, does the man have an imagination or what?! Not only did he construct an entire civilization out of nothing, but he also spawned off an entire fantasy genre of mystical creatures – not to mention the Elvish language he “built” now even has a Linguistic Fellowhip offering!

7. Isaac Asimov

When it comes to serious Science Fiction narratives – this man has no parallels. Considering the sheer amount of work he has done in the Sci-fi genre, it would be a surprise if the sci-fi fan in you hasn’t come across any of his work. Look at this list of short stories by Isaac Asimov Heck, if I could write one-tenth of the number of stories he has written in his lifetime, I would consider myself successful. I haven’t even taken into account the number of books written by him. Take a look at this: A Catalogue of Isaac Asimov’s Books

8. Jeffrey Archer / Robert Ludlum / Sidney Sheldon / Frederick Forsyth / Dan Brown

No, I did not jump from twos to fives. You could pick anyone from the pentad and I’d say the same thing: They opened my eyes to the fact that imagination, when applied to the right points of space-time can yield a plot that is easier to identify with. They taught me that good mainstream fiction does not have to be science fiction, history or fantasy – it can also be contemporary. It is because of them and their stories that I found it easier to outline characters for my stories.

9. Lewis Carroll

This list keeps getting curiouser and curiouser, doesn’t it? Well, the first time I read “Alice in Wonderland,” I felt that I was not myself for I could not understand why a raven was like a writing desk. I knew that everything had a moral and that I just had to find it but try as I might I couldn’t. I tried to begin at the beginning and go on till I came to the end – where I could stop. I thought I should understand it better if I had it written in a book: but I couldn’t quite follow as he said it.

Finally I relented and proclaimed all of it as uncommon nonsense. :)

PS: I believe this page will help you, in case you didn’t understand the “uncommon nonsense” written above. Wouldn’t it be nice if something made sense for a change? :)

10. William “The Bard of Avon” Shakespeare

I will punch you in the nose if you tell me you haven’t read of / don’t know about any of Shakespeare’s works – once you come out from the rock you have been living under, that is. I once bought a very old copy of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare at the library clearance sale for a throwaway price? I gave it to one of my friends during college and forgot to take it back! Woe is me! :(

And now comes the moment where I shamefully admit to the rest of the world that I have never yet read any of Agatha Christie‘s books – I don’t know Miss Marple‘s quirks and I can’t speak in a Hercule Poirot accent. Nor can I quote from L. Frank Baum‘s “The Wonderful Wizard or Oz” The mysteries of Franz Kafka remain kafkaesquely unexplored and the subtleties of Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Andre Chekhov are often lost on me. I cannot question the philosophies of Jean-Paul Sartre or his wonderfully intelligent companion, the polyamorous Simone De Beauvoir. Somerset Maugham, Winston Churchill and George Bernard Shaw may be men of many words but I remain oblivious to them. I want to have the Dickens scared out me some day and I strongly believe that some day I and Mark – the ‘Twain shall meet!

Like I said, I haven’t read half as much as I shold have and half of what I have read I shouldn’t have read at all!

Your turn. If you’re reading this consider yourself tagged. Here’re the instructions:

• Don’t take too long to think about it.
• Fifteen authors (poets included) who have influenced you and will always stick with you.
• List the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes, and they don’t have to be listed in order of relevance to you.
• It would be lovely if you could tag at least 15 friends, including me, because I’m interested in seeing what authors my friends chose.

(If you are reading this on Facebook, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste the rules in a new note, list your 15 picks, and tag your friends.)

Both excellent, must-see videos, IMHO.

Derek’s final statement in the post was:

When you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first person to stand up and join in.

Believing in something is not enough; you also need to have someone who believes in you – the first follower. In fact, I would so far as to say that while a person becomes a leader-by-idea, the first follower is a leader-by-example.

The 1-9-90 Principle

Years back, I had a theory. It went something like this:

“Any statistical population can be divided in three groups. One percent of the entire population is the Radical Thinkers, people who dare to challenge existing belief systems. Ninety percent of the population usually ends up either following or denouncing the one percent – amusingly referred to as the Sheeple. The nine percent watches from a safe distance and forms their opinion. They are the Influencers, for their opinion determines which way the ninety percent swings.”

Although the term radical thinker is largely from a socio-historical perspective, equivalent terms are widely seen other areas, too. In geek-ology, the one percent are often referred to as the “early adopters“. They are also called the game-changers, the geniuses, the explorers, the dare-devils, the alphas, the outliers on the tails of a normal distribution curve and yet, in many ways, they are they are the leaders.

We find ourselves in each of these three groups at various stages in our lives. Sometimes we lead, sometimes we follow. In fact, you can be one of the one percent AND the ninety percent in different aspects of life – at the same point in time.

Coming back to Derek’s post, the first decile, that is the one percent “radical thinker” population plus the nine percent “influencer” population (a total of ten percent) is the “tipping point” that Derek mentions in his post – something that is quite important to viral marketing strategies.

Think about it for a minute.

When did you buy your first computer? When did you start surfing the internet? When did you get your first email address? When did you join a social network? Did you switch from one network to another?

And now, answer the question: Why?

What it means

The 1-9-90 Principle does not exalt the one percent radical thinkers, nor does it look down upon the ninety percent. Without the ninety percent, the ten percent would go nowhere. Similarly, without the one percent the ninety-nine percent would have nowhere to go. Without the one-and-ninety percent, the nine percent would be twiddling their thumbs.

Maybe the tipping point may not always be at 10 percent – it doesn’t really matter.

What does matter is, if and when you are in the nine percent, will you stand by your beliefs? When you are in the ninety percent, will you be gracious to let someone else lead you? Finally, when you find yourself in the one percent, how will you treat the other ninety-nine percent?

It doesn’t matter how passionate we can be as leaders. What matters is how passionate we can be as followers.

[PS: I just realized, the 1-9-90 principle could be a benchmark of sorts for Viral Marketers? I claim dibs! :D]

HEY, YOU! I am talking to you! Yes, YOU! Look around. Is there anyone else who’s reading this? No! So, do I have your ‘undivided attention,’ now? Sheesh, the things a poor advertisement has to do to get noticed these days!

Honestly, I already feel utterly neglected!

Alright, alright, me and my brothers do get a little cocky sometimes – especially, when we assemble in large, intimidating groups. However, I wish to clarify that we do it only as a mark of protest! It is our way of showing our strength, so to speak. How? Tell me, when the minorities are oppressed, what do they do? Gather, unite, assemble as a mark of protest, don’t they?! Why frown upon us when we do the same?

Most of the time, it ain’t our fault – some dumb fuck comes along and clumps us together in a horrible fashion! Tell us, how are we to blame for his stupidity? Why shoot the messenger? The truth is, all of us, we believe in existing independently – we hate crowds as much as the other ad. In fact, some of us were built to compete. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t co-exist, does it? So, one of us gets to be the alpha-ad for sometime! Then, after a while, someone else comes along, challenges him & takes over. Or not. Whatever.

The point is, we live by the same jungle rules that govern any civilized society.

And pray tell me, what exactly is your grouse with our cousin – the Referral? How does it matter to you if my master makes some money off a measly click of yours? You were gonna sign up to that site/download that program/buy that {insert_whatever_item_here} anyway, weren’t you? Why would you not help a fellow human being along the way & click that referring link? To be honest, this is where I prefer bots over humans – at least they don’t discriminate in such matters! I know you humans can be narrow-minded most of the time – but this takes the cake, the icing AND the cherry-on-top!

You know what really bothers me? It’s the way you treat that elitist sister of ours – CONTENT. We share the same (lesser?) visual space as she does. We express the same (better?) thoughts as she does. We convey the same (snappier?) message that she does. And yet, you go salivating at the sight of HER & look down upon US as if we were some two-bit piece of trash. Tsk, tsk, shame on you!

Tell me honestly, doesn’t it bother you when someone pays our elitist sister (yes, I am talking about CONTENT) to dress up according to their will & choice? Doesn’t it bother you even a little bit?! “Ooh look, she looks so pretty!” “Ooh, look she’s so smartly CSS-ed up!” “Ooh look, she has such beautiful, curvy words!” “Ooh, look she’s all set to go viral!”

Viral, my context!

What you don’t see is that underneath that pretty disguise, she is very much a ‘two-bit piece of trash’ just like us! But NOOOOOOOOO! She comes from the elitist user-generation, you see! She obviously has class – unlike me & my brothers. You obviously have different standards for me & her, don’t you? You fucking, elitist, neo-bourgeois, capitalist bastard.

Sigh. Forget it. You won’t understand.

You won’t understand the value of the countless hours (okay, countable minutes) that were spent by various people in crafting me. Lovingly, block by block, they constructed me – keeping in mind the various constraints set by people – not unlike you, mind you. You’ll not understand the fact that a considerable amount of creative juices were expended in making me the perfect size – clear as day, yet, subtle as, you know, whatver-it-is-that-is-supposed-to-be-subtle.

Tell me, how difficult is it to show me some respect? How intrusive am I being here, really? C’mon, answer me!

When you read about a nice holiday that someone took in Turkey, I show you quick-and-easy ways to plan the very same holiday; maybe at a fraction of the cost.
When you drool over a picture of that Lamborghini Diablo, I show you a store that sells a 1:25 replica for a bargain.
When you’re drooling over that little black dress on the official Versace e-store, I show you ‘other places’ where you can get (almost) the same dress for a lot lesser.

So, tell me now. Am I really that bad? Huh?

I mean, look at me. Here I am, all decked up, primed to perfection, chosen carefully by my masters, waiting to give you all sorts of useful information & you hardly look at me! How fair is that? Heck, I even went textual, so that I could be served contextual! I take the effort to be as non-intrusive as I can & then, you go & develop selctive blindness?

Seriously, WTF?

Would you not feel bad if the brilliantly crafted, painfully researched blog-post you wrote showed zero comments?
Would it not pain you when the poem you recite in front of (what you thought was) a discerning audience gets no applause & gets boo-ed down instead?
Does it not hurt to see zero ‘likes’ (or retweets, whichever you prefer) on that really witty status update you coined all by yourself, while a stupid spelling mistake gets, like, 42 replies?
Don’t you feel a stab of jealousy when some random picture of a cat with a ‘witteh kitteh cap-shun’ has people going ga-ga over it, while your poignantly captured frames-of-freedom lie at the bottom of the pile with 29 views – 21 of them your own?

It’s all karma – you’re paying for your sins, you know.

When you open that AdSense page of yours & look at the daily reports and see that miserable number in the eCPM column; when you see your blog has a gazillion pageviews & only a teeny-weeny-tiny-schminy percentage of those visitors have clicked on us; when you see that wretched-numbe—that-can’t-cover-your-bus-fare-home that’s your adsense paycheck – that’s karma talking, baby!

So do us all a favor, huh?

The next time you see us, don’t avoid us. We’re NOT filth & we don’t expect to be treated as such, either. On the contrary, we are honest, hard-working daily-wage earners who are putting in a lot of time & effort for our masters without taking a day off. I’m not saying you SHOULD point your mouse at my hyperlink & click – I’m just saying you could give me a fair perusal, at the very least.

If you are reading this, you must know this: I am utterly thankful to you for reading my rant. At any rate, you’re better than that asshole owner of this blog; he told me no one really wants to read what ads have to say! Very nearly killed me, that one! Listen, do me a favor, will ya? Help me prove that he was wrong? Think of it as good karma that will eventually find its way back to you. ;)

Thanks & regards,
A. D’vert
*****
DISCLAIMER: NO ads were harmed in the making/writing/drafting of this post.
(Image credit: This post on the Food Blog Alliance – do read it!)

Well, honestly, I had absolutely no idea where Hotel Sea Princess was. But I knew I had to be at #IndiMum.

I know, I know, all the jokes about it being a congregation of hot Indian mothers have been taken, and thanks to my previous job no one can fathom me going to a silence convention. Thus, there’s no option left but to explain #IndiMum right away – which, if you notice, I didn’t do. Sorry.

So anyway, #IndiMum was the twitter hashtag for the Indiblogger meet that happened at Hotel Sea Princess, Juhu on the 15th of August. Call it the Bloggers version of an AA meet if you will – at least that’s what it felt like when the introductions happened.

Wait, I’ve done that thing again, where I jump the gun, leaving you guys confused. And when I say you guys, I mean you – Shrikant, and the reading glasses – the only two things that are actually reading this. But since you are me, let me start from the beginning.

The Mumbai Indiblogger meet (henceforth referred to as #IndiMum) had already started by the time I reached the venue. The Missus had other plans initially, but tagged along just for the heck of it – or so she claims. I suspect that she did so because she didn’t want to leave me alone in the company of all the pretty ladies who’d turned up. Maybe she suspects me. Must be careful.

So I entered & spotted Sahil (@sahilk) & Poonam (@_alps) & we made our way towards them. Just in time for the introductions too, as we soon figured out. I was to introduce myself after Sahil, who was waiting for Poonam to finish hers. So I did the thing that is most typically me. I hijacked his introduction, branded him a flirt, and gained (?) brownie points with the ladies for being funny – or so I assume. I didn’t dare look at the Missus after that.

As usual, I could think of nothing funny to say, so I said a lot of things. I don’t remember any of it now. I assume that must be a good thing because I remember thinking at the time that the introduction was a pretty forgettable one, anyway. The Missus wasn’t registered as a participant but everyone prompted her to introduce herself too. She did a pretty fair job of it. In fact, if I were the suspicious types, I’d say she came prepared. Oh wait. Dang. I’m sure she suspects me. :|

After the introductions, we were given huge cards to wear around our necks. You were supposed to get the others to write comments on your card – thus making you the offline equivalent of a blog-post.

My card came out looking pretty much the way all of my blog-posts look: mostly clean, with comments ranging from the polite (“Nice meeting you!”) to the half-a$$ed (“Just wanted to spam!”) to sheer brilliance (“My husband’s actually quite sweet – don’t believe his lies!”) – okay, so the last one was written by the Missus. :|

(I think she deliberately wrote that to get back at me for writing the following comment: “Warning: She’s married to me! – @shrikant” on her comment-card. Then again, maybe she suspects me…)

Oh by-the-by, the wackiest introductions got prizes from BigRock – one of the sponsors. They also had a quiz session later and I won some goodies, too! The Missus claims I almost badgered them into giving me those. I think she says that only because she suspects I was trying to flirt with the chick who was conducting the quiz. Let me clarify that I was not – I was just trying to prove my utter intellectual superiority. :P

By this time, Gul Panag (activist, actor, animal lover, adrenalin junkie, adventurer, biker – at least that’s what her twitter profile says.) had walked in & the term “head-turner” was being defined in the Regal room of Hotel Sea-Princess, Juhu for anybody who cared*.

Gul moderated the “Battle of the Bloggers” discussion, which IMHO didn’t go all that well. The audience was divided by age rather than choice – thereby confusing both sides. The topic was something to do with Bloggers & Journalists & how blogging is the new media. Unfortunately, it got lost in translation because everyone wanted to make their voice heard and/or wanted to prove they were either:

1. Social Media experts.
2. Blogging & SEO experts
3. Preening for Gul.

Me? I preened so much that I was later used as a benchmark for the category! That said, I must state that I managed to elicit a response/compliment from Gul that went along the lines of “I like your hair-band – it looks quite hot!” Needless to say, I was slightly disappointed with her choice of words. Couldn’t she have said _I_ looked hot in the hair-band? Suffices to say, the Missus seemed pleased. More reason to think she suspects me, innit?

I must admit, Gul would have made a better moderator if she knew where to interrupt the ‘preens’. So after about 30 minutes of the preening orgy, the IndiBlogger team decided that Gul had seen enough ‘preens’ to ensure she’d rather kiss Vivek “Prince” Oberoi than any of these ‘preens’. So they called the proceedings to a close & let Gul leave. Shortly after her departure, the guys at Hotel Sea-Princess were asked to turn down the AC.

Another interesting moment of the day: The IndiBlogger team had tied up with a young director-writer-actor who wanted to show his debut movie “Soch Lo” to a ‘discerning crowd’ – or so he claimed. Unfortunately, all he got was a bunch of free-loaders like us. To me, the first look of the film was pretty decent. However, I suspect the film will be an also-ran when it releases – thanx to the low level of enthusiasm it seemed to have generated among the Indiblogger junta. Apparently, they ran a “Soch Lo contest,” too. I’m glad I didn’t participate in the contest or the Missus would have suspected me even more. Hmmm.

And that is how I lost my blogger-meet virginity / got deflowered by the Sea-Princess at #IndiMum – and that too, without getting f**ked! ;)

People I met: @sahilk, @_alps, @ideasmithy, @arcopolc, @mahafreed, @beeayeanoowhy, @teatattler, @Netra, @mohanbn – the Indiblogger of the Month, @harmanjit, @Mizohican, @sidoscope, @SnehaSSharma, @rati7, @OSMehta, @aldebaran14 among others… In fact, IndiBlogger enthusiast, @Miilee has already compiled a Twitter list of almost all the junta at #IndiMum.

Reviews of #IndiMum: Indiblogger keeps compiling all reviews of #IndiMum, here. And yes, I like the way they say:

“This meeting concluded successfully.”

—–
Footnotes:
*Not that anybody cared. I mean, people didn’t care to define the term “head-turner” is what I meant. Everyone _was_ turning their heads to look at Gul, of course… :P

Having read a few works by the two authors, enough to be acquainted with their work, I decided to read further. I am glad I did, because I was thoroughly impressed by the comparison that Stuart MacMillen made in his comic.

Wikipedia has a good primer about Aldous Huxley & George Orwell; but if you’re feeling lazy, here’s the gist of it: George Orwell was the one who wrote the classics like “1984” & “Animal Farm” which gave birth to the classic quote, “Big Brother is watching you.” Aldous Huxley, on the other hand was the man behind “Brave New World” – a book I haven’t entirely finished reading.

I hadn’t given either of the books a second thought until I found this comic – it put them in an entirely new perspective for me!

The image I have uploaded is the final strip of Stuart’s comic – but not a spoiler in any sense. The entire image is too large to display here, and I wouldn’t want to take away any credit (& traffic, too!) from Stuart.

Check out the entire article, “Amusing Ourselves to Death” at Stuart’s website Recombinant Records.

Too many things to say. Too lazy to say them all.

The most memorable birthday of my life and no pictures, whatsoever. Imagine that…

Disturbing images and worrisome thoughts.

We know what films are releasing this weekend, but we don’t know the headlines of yesterday’s newspaper.

Hungry for news, and thirsty for information. No retention, please, we’re Indian.

Babies born. Babies dead. Babies born again.

One murder per page sells so many copies. How many murders before you can sell them all?

Everybody knows what’s wrong with the world. Nobody knows what’s wrong with everybody.

They all get their 15 minutes of fame – Standing, sitting, lying down… How far does one go?

Push it to the limit. And then pull it back just a little. Call it breathing space.

The young ones learn to fly. They fall down and die. We light candles.

Assumption. Accusation. Action. Acquittal. The new cycle of life?

Music is a recourse, not a discourse.

Roads. Rages. Road-rages.

Itching for a brawl. Macho-ism? Masochism?

Curiosity. Voyeurism. Call it what you want. What’s the difference, anyway?

Yearning for Green. Searching for Peace.

Searching for Green. Yearning for Peace.

Friends. Online. Offline. Invisible. Network. Community. Scrap. Thread. Notify. Wall.

Too many things to say. Too lazy to say them all…

Or am I?