Stop being helpless....

Yesterday, August 15, 2009, was India’s 63rd Independence Day. Whole nation was indulged in the 'celebrations' on a much needed holiday, after a long week of work. Having no 'Breaking News’, the media was busy telecasting the Independence Day celebrations, along with the Swine flu pandemic updates.

After a long wait, the media got the much awaited 'Breaking News'. SRK detained by the US authorities at the Newark Airport. They created a hype of the news saying, 'SRK detained at the Newark airport, on the INDIAN INDEPENDANCE DAY'. They just wanted to project that this is a great humiliation to our country. Then they came up saying King Khan was detained jus because of his religion.

First of all I don’t understand, why does the Indian media make an issue out of a small (not even a) news? We need to understand, SRK is a star for us, Indians. For US, he is just another Indian citizen traveling to their country and they have every right to question every foreigner, visiting their country.

For them the national security is a topmost priority unlike us, who treat every single person coming to India, as a God. We, and our media, need to understand and accept that any Indian citizen can be frisked on the foreign soil. It should be OK with us, unless he is humiliated.

Instead of making an issue out of this, we should learn from them. If a 'VVIP' from the US steps on the Indian soil, we consider ourselves lucky to have the presence of the person in our country. Some days back, Mrs. Hilary Clinton was in India, and our media was so busy in running after the Secretary of State where ever she went. One of the top news papers in the country even published the menu of the dinner she had. Guys, please leave the delegates alone. It’s considered you have to publish the official news, but none of the Indians is interested in what did the delegate eats for Dinner or Lunch, or what brand of mineral water did he consume here. Has anyone seen news about Dr. Manmohan Singh’s visit to US, or any other country for that matter, being telecasted for more than 2 minutes, by the BBC or any other non-Indian new channel? Indian Media needs to grow up. There are lot many issues in India that need to be discussed.

Another point is, SRK being frisked just because of his religion. He is not the only one to be frisked. There are thousand of our fellow Muslim citizens who are frisked in the Western countries, is anyone bothered about that. I agree that it is unjust and wrong. But as I said earlier, it’s the US. They take the killing of their citizens seriously, unlike our country.

Apart from SRK, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was frisked by Continental Airlines staff at Delhi Airport , Former external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee frisked before his aircraft took off from Moscow , then defence minister George Fernandes ‘strip-searched’ in Washington. Frisking our former President, to me, is bigger humiliation as compared to SRK.

But rather than making an issue and blaming US for this, we should give our national security the top most priority when US delegates visit India. We should be strong enough to take a stance saying 'OK, you are a VVIP in you country, but when you step on our soil; you are no more than a foreign visitor to us.’ Our security persons should make sure they frisk each and every foreigner visiting our country, be it a Cricketer, or a politician or a normal citizen. Stop and frisk Mr. Bill Clinton next time he lands on the Indian soil. We should not hesitate to do so. He is an ex-president for them, not for us and he cant just walk in to our country as if he owns it. If our ex-president can be treated like this, so can be theirs. Even we have all the right to safeguard our nation and we should not think 'Why should we do this?' and 'How can we do this?'

All I feel is our media should stop all these foolish things and be responsible. And we should either treat the foreigners jus like they treat us and show them we are not helpless either and National security is a top priority even for us or else bear with the treatment. I think our 63rd Independence year will be a best time to prioritize our National Security ahead of everything else. What say?? ;) .

Zoozoos.........

The other day I was watching an IPL match. It was crunch situation for the team batting. Suddenly a wicket fell down. The tension was building up, but these SET Max guys had none of it. Casually they started telecasting the ads, one of their many sources of income. I hate these ads and TV channels when they show up at the 'wrong' time.

The 'stupid' ad started with two kind of animated characters sitting on a bench at a bus stop. One of them reading a newspaper, while other looking here and there. All of a sudden the guy reading newspaper faints and falls off the bench. Another set of characters appear on the screen, keep that fainted guy on a stretcher and take him away. The second guy sitting on the bench picks up the newspaper that is on the ground and reads it and falls down similarly. Screen goes ‘Vodafone red’ with 'Get Stock Alerts on you Vodafone' on the screen.

After that ad had disappeared from my TV screen, I suddenly realised, those characters were cute. They had changed my outlook towards them in 30 seconds. They were not at all stupid. I wish that ad should have lasted for more than 30 seconds.  I had started liking the ad and the cute ‘Zoozoo’s’ in the ad. Since then many new ads appeared after every over of the matches. But gradually I had started liking them. I eagerly waited for a new ad to appear, irrespective of the situation the match was in.

After the match I logged on to Orkut and Facebook. To my surprise, the zoozoos were spoken about all over, be it Orkut world, Facebook or Twitter and not to forget YouTube, which has all the ads uploaded. There were communities on Orkut for the Zoozoos.  I was tempted to follow Zoozoos on twitter.

Vodafone had signed up another set of 'brand ambassadors'. For people like me they are not 'God' as Sachin is, nor do they had a sweet image as that of SRK (but they have already created one), but yet they have created a great impact on the consumers.

Earlier it was the cute and faithful pug, which created all the magic for Vodafone. He used to appear everywhere, write from the hoardings to my Vodafone bill. He was found running everywhere. Now it’s the Zoozoos. Vodafone might have never attracted that amount of traffic on the website. Consumers like me, who used to login to Vodafone.in once in a month to pay our bills, have started logging in daily, jus to check if any new Zoozoo ad has been uploaded.

I received a mail the other day, claiming that those characters are not animated, but are human beings dressed up and made to behave like Zoozoos. I am not sure if this is true, but one thing is for sure, they are doing their 'job' very well. They have created the same Vodafone Impact on the people as the pug. Keep going Zoozoos and we really miss that cute pug. Hope Vodafone comes up with more ads featuring zoozoos and some with that old pug (I miss him a lot).

Be the change you want to be....

Today will decide  Mumbai and Thane's fate for next five years.

How many of us were eligible to cast our vote and how many have actually voted this time?

For us it’s just another privilege. But it’s a misconception. It’s our duty that has been given to us by the constitution.

We find everyone yelling n shouting, India can’t improve, it will remain the same, but no one thinks, what have I done for it to improve? If we keep our attitude the same, then yes! it is going to remain same. I understand, no one can contest election, but at least we can elect our representatives who will do the job. As it is rightly quoted in one of the TV Commercials, it’s a most prestigious and difficult ‘Job’ and your vote decides who gets selected for it. I don’t think it’s a big deal to spare max, an hour out of the 'Holiday' and cast your vote.

If we can’t do this, we have no right to cross question the government on what they are doing, or how useless they have been for past five years.

C'mon guys, be a part of the world’s largest democracy. Cast your vote and make a difference. Every single vote is precious and it counts.

This is not just another holiday. It’s a leave granted to us, so that we can perform our duty, so make sure you do it.

Happy Birthday Gmail!!!!!

It is 3rd April 2009. I casually logged in to check my emails as every day. I must admit that checking my gmails has been my priority for the day ever since I created a Gmail account. I check my Gmail account even before I check my office mails :), and I am very sure that many of you do the same. Once I was done checking and replying to my mails, I logged out. Ohh., Gmail has a new logo today, a candle with a shape of '5'. Hey it's Gmail’s 5th birthday. Yippee.!!!

I still remember the old days when Gmail was born. Everyone around was asking the other person, 'Are you on Gmail??'. The very next moment after an affirmative response, the person used to come up with another question, 'Can you send me an invite??'...This was the craze people had about Gmail, and it remains to continue even after 5 years.

Gmail has come a long way after that. The features that no other email service provider thought of were incorporated. Video chat, Chat from inbox, mails in regional language. Yahoo had provision to change the appearance of our inbox by changing its colours. Gmail went one step ahead and gave us themes.

Technically AJAX was never so popular before Gmail implemented it. It was then people, especially software guys like me realised the power of AJAX and how helpful it is to design the user interfaces.

Today Gmail has millions of users and fans all around the world, and the number is still growing, and will continue to grow. I am sure Gmail will come up with many new features till the next birthday and people like me will have many more topics to praise team Gmail for.
Happy Birthday Gmail, and keep up the good, sorry the best work. :)