Unfollowing on Friday!

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Missed Call & The Greatest Indian!

I was travelling when I read a tweet that there’s some contest called “The Greatest Indian”. I thought, like scores of other lists on twitter or about twitter, this would also be some twitter contest. Secretly, now that I have 900 followers, I hoped that even I could be one of the nominees. Soon, I saw some more tweets and realized that it’s big, bigger than I thought. Quickly, I scanned through the links ( The Greatest Indian ) and the nominees (of course, this post wouldn't be there if I was on the list ), and realized the portrayed magnanimity of this.

Since that day, I have been thinking about this, and surprised with the lack of outrage over it. I am still not over with it, and here are some of my reasons.

Concept: Seems the organizers are inspired by the Indian Idol where Anu Malik & other judges decide who reaches top 20 and then they leave it to the public to vote basis caste, creed, state, sex and the X factor.

Gandhi: The very fact that we are calling this “The Greatest Indian after Gandhi” is disturbing. Why not just say - The Greatest Popular Indian – Presented by Reliance and Brought to you by the Outlook, CNN-IBN & History. Why bring Gandhi into this whole thing?

Greatness: Who defines greatness? With voting in the hands of people of today’s generation,  it’s just about popularity. And, to me, Popularity is different than Greatness. To make it easy, there’s difference between Kamaal R Khan & Aamir Khan - one of them is just popular but not great.

Nominees:  It’s baffling to note that the likes of Mother Teresa, B.R.Ambedkar & Jawahar Lal Nehru shall compete with Sunil Gavaskar, Anand, Rajinikanth & Sachin Tendulkar. Won’t be surprised if a Bombay Times reading dude thinks it’s all about choosing between Sachin & Rajnikanth with some other 40 unfamiliar names.

Jury:  Agree that there is a list of 50 nominees to choose from, but what about the Jury. Who selected them? Chetan Bhagat, Shobha De & Vidya Balan–By what standards have they become eligible to choose a successor to Gandhi

Bollywood:  Isn’t this list too Bollywood / Film Industry nominees heavy? Amitabh Bachchan, Raj Kapoor, Rajnikanth, Satyajit Ray, Lata Mangeshkar, A.R. Rahman, Kishore Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Mohammed Rafi, are 10 among the 50 names.

Missed Call: Now come on, how the hell can we decide something as important as this by “Giving a Missed Call”. Very fact that 900million Indians have access to Mobile, and Missed Call doesn’t cost a dime, takes away the seriousness out of this whole concept. 

The Aftermath:  Now imagine that some dude beats the likes of Mother Teresa & B.R. Ambedkar in this. Won’t be surprised if the Inverter or the telecom company claims that their products are endorsed by the successor of Gandhi.

I finish my rant here, just got a “Missed Call” from my driver. I leave it to all of us either to take this seriously enough or just call it another Indian Idol.

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Are you human!

I am sure you all are familiar (and bugged) with this benign looking yet extremely irritating 21st century invention called Captcha.

I am also no fan, yet I think we are underestimating the power of this amazing tool. If applied in real life, it can solve many environmental and other burning issues of recent times.

Getting straight to the point, read on!

Go Green: Next time you go to withdraw money from ATM, and it asks “Would you like a printed receipt” , saying Yes must precede doing a Captcha . I’m sure you’ll rather say No. Or, when you hit that print icon to a 40 page useless PDF manual, you must overcome this challenge. 

 Facebooking: Kind of time we waste checking others’ wedding, travel pics, there should be a captcha to be entered after every 15 minutes you spend on facebook. Now before you mindlessly “Like” that pic of the cute son of your hot classmate, do this.

 Twitter Trolling: Celebs may like to activate this for replies to them. Now imagine you want to tell Sajid Khan “Your movies suck man!” and you have to do a captcha. That’s a different thing that in case of Sajid Khan people shall solve this also.

 Watching Porn: Instead of clicking this obligatory “Continue, I’m over 18” there should be a captcha every time you want to do that stuff late evening. OK.OK. Please carry on, I understand.

Email Mania: Next time you do an avoidable “reply all”, “email joke forward”, it must throw up a captcha.

Online Shopping: I know it supports economy and all that, but what’s the fun in ordering books from flipkart which you never read but just tweet as #NowReading . Now enter this every time you order a new book before reading the older one.

The captcha images featuring here are not mine, I googled them and have used for this blog. In case copyrighted, I’ll be happy to remove them.

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Family, TV & The Dirty Picture!

A confession first, I am yet to see The Dirty Picture so still don't know how dirty it is. And, this post is not just about that. I am the same Dad who got disturbed over Vodafone TVC showing "under 10" opposite sex kids "liking" each other. I understand the outrage over our Government disallowing the movie to be telecasted at 12noon – How can bunch of people decide what we can see and what not! Other reason for some getting upset was, if there are already ~56 cuts, the picture isn’t dirty any more. Many said, the same people who were caught watching porn in the assembly, are involved in sex-tapes are now being holier than thou. Point !
 

Yet, being a Dad, I was still apprehensive about if I can see it with my 7 & 9 year old! You may disagree but, my idea of TV in a family is still that it’s about family viewing. I still think that TV programs, during day time that too on weekends, should be such that people aged 5 to 50 can watch, together.  

I’m sure all those who were outraging over “the dirty picture” ban would have watched the movie with their 7 year old daughter and 70 year old mother, right?

I’m also sure that you had an answer when your 7 year old asks “Papa, aunty kah rahee ki - "Mujhe jo chahiye, uska mazaa sirf raat ko hi aata hain" – kiska maja raat ko aata hai ” .

Won't you get disturbed when your 8 year old laughs hysterically over “Holi khelne ka shauk hai, par teri pichkari me dum nahi..!" and says, “Papa meri pichkari mein to bahut dum hai”.

Now imagine, if a 6 year old asks his Mom – “Mom, can you also make an omlette on your tummy like Vidya Aunty, please na”.

Well, personally, I wouldn’t have watched the movie with my kids or my mom – old school of thought may be. I buy your point that there is no dearth of such exposure these days, Internet, TV Ads, even cartoon shows show such kind of stuff. Yet, why make it so easy for kids that they switch on a popular channel, on a Sunday, and see Vidya Balan showing cleavage or making omlette on her tummy.

Happy to discuss.

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Following Passion - Plan B!

Enough of this crap about leave your job to "chase your dream", "do what you love" or "follow your passion". Lucky you! if your job is also your passion. Don't read further.


I am talking about being in a full-time day job,not necessarily your dream, yet pursue your passion. Leaving day job is not easy, if not home loan EMI, In-laws won't let you resign. If your Missus is convinced, desire to upgrade to iphone 5 shall bind you to your job.

Well, every one can't be Chetan Bhagat-who claims that he left his plum job to folow his passion. By the way, the kind of books he write, forget passion, I think he's again in the rat race to make money and fame. Any ways, let's not digress.

I believe that jobs are not meant for having fun, if that was the case, they wouldn't pay you. So, if you are not doing a job that's your passion, that doesn't make you a loser. 

All I suggest is: 

• Do your job well, bloody well.
• And, have fun with all the money you make from your job.

Trust me, this is as simple as I say. Let's say you're a management consultant, in-charge of selling some software to customers. That may not be your passion, yet, do it so well that they pay you well.

Now the fun begins, use that money to follow your passion. If painting is what you love, buy the best of painting accessories, hire best of the teachers and enjoy. You love photography, pick up the best SLR and go clicking. If travelling is what you enjoy, just do it.

Those, who say money can't buy happiness, perhaps don't know how to spend it.

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