Kanupriya Sindhu

Here comes Mash

September 18, 2007

Looks like a carnival of social network sites is on… now joining the bandwagon is yet another big player – MASH which is the new social networking site from Yahoo. Yahoo announced its new venture MASH on Friday & currently beta version of it is on, wherein people are invited for mashing on this site. I tried visiting the site but currently it says only by invitation.

So, whats you first reaction? Atleast I reacted like eh… yet, another social networking site! How is it going to be different from the current ones? When there is already an Orkut, why do I need to move to another site unless & until there is something really different and interesting over there. Anyways apart from Orkut, there are currently n number of general social networking sites like, fropper.com, minglebox.com, facebook.com, yaari.com, zhoom.com & many such similar x, y, z.coms & not to forget those professional networking sites like linkedin.com, ryze.com etc. Well, every such new site during launch claims that its different & something really new but alas the end product is pretty much same with no innovation at all. Classical example of this is bigadda.com! They spent such huge money on advertising this site but the end product? Well, its really sad…forget about being different, bigadda is not having even those very much required social networking features also. So, gimme one good reason as to why I should migrate to some other similar site when I am already settled & happy with my friends networking on Orkut or with my professional acquaintances on linkedin?

Despite it being a very general statement, most of the site launchers are failing to understand one very basic rule – user needs some real good reason for migrating & getting hooked on to some new site. Something different, something new & something persuasive enough! All those wannabe sites who think that by just changing the UI color or the font design, they will become yet another orkut are just dreaming something near to impossible. Huh, so let’s wait & watch what Yahoo has got in store for us now. However the kind of Yahoo fan I am, I would surely expect something cool coming out of them… Hope Mash is mashing enough like other cool tools like yahoo messenger & mails J.

8 new IITs and 7 new IIMs???

August 16, 2007

Read & heard as headlines at many channels that Govt. has proposed to set up 8 new IITs, 7 new IIMs, more Institutes of Science & Information Technology…Hmmm definitely a great idea but is it possible to have more IITs & IIMs???
I guess it’s quite easy to make such announcement without considering the long-standing problems which are prevailing in our country in setting up premium institutes like IIT & IIM. Such premium institutes not only require high standard infrastructure rather they also need premium faculty too. With the current state of career in academics in India, almost 30 to 35% of the faculty seats are vacant in most of the premium institutes. Quite high standards have been laid down as recruiting criteria for faculty members at all premium institutes but there is no proper thought being given about the compensation & other benefits which these faculty members should receive. An IIT or IIM pass out fresher easily gets 2.5 to 3 times (maybe more) more salary than its faculty members plus the kind of growth which a corporate world promises or to be more relatable I should say the kind of growth which a foreign university promises to its faculty, an Indian prof can never get such growth even in premium institutes of India. Govt keeps on announcing the increase in faculty position at universities & colleges but what’s the point of such increase when a large portion of existing seats are lying vacant? How about these facts which can really leave us pondering:

Not even 1% of the current educated population in India opts for academics as their first preference of career. It is in most of the cases considered as compromise or last option of career.
In addition to the 2.5 to 3 times higher salary which a fresher draws in corporate world as compared to the faculty members who have taught him in the institutes, what is more disturbing is to have a look on the hike which these faculty members get over a period of time… On an average a professor gets a hike of Rs. 500 to Rs. 1000 in his salary & that too not annually rather in most of the cases it’s after every alternate years… In fact I remember I read it somewhere that an average IIT graduate draws more salary in his first or second year of career than an IIT director…
As per the normal standards, the teacher:student ratio in professional colleges should be 1:6 & in regular colleges it should be 1:10 whereas in India its somewhere between 1:10 to 1:14 for professional colleges & 1:20 to 1:40 for regular colleges. And this ratio trend is changing really at a worrying pace.

Considering the current salary packages, acute shortage of faculty members, ever declining interest of people in academic position & all other existing critical problems, is it possible to have new premium institutes like IITs & IIMs??? Well, I think no, atleast not till the time we have a re-look at our existing policies…

Ah, one peaceful day in my life

August 10, 2007

Last weekend after a long long time, finally we managed to a take a weekend break & decided to drive down to any location where we can get a resort booking… & finally after lots of trials & effort we managed to get a booking for 1 night at Tusker Trails in Bandipur… hah Bangaloreans & their love for weekend trips… leaves hardly any scope for any last moment booking availability.

Well, finally we managed to reach Bandipur (read more about Bandipur in my travelogue here), the place was so beautiful & drive was great but what made me super-excited was the fact that there was no mobile network available over there… Oh man, what a joy; that meant I would not receive any calls that day… Such a big relief & I just felt that this holiday would be perfect simply because I would NOT get any calls for work as well as other stupid things like credit card, personal loans etc etc… J…. Wah what a joy & it indeed proved to be such a great day, such a peaceful day without my mobile phone continuously ringing (rather screeching) in my ears. On a normal day many a times I get so irritated by the calls at all possible odd hours & this funda of 24×7 availability on official mobile phones that I just exasperatedly wonder “who the hell on this earth invented the mobile phone?”

Mobile again is also a classy example of we becoming slaves to technology. Till I guess last 4-5 years mobile phones were just “nice to have” kinda stuff in India but now if you don’t have a mobile phone you will be seen as one of those primitive men or primordial human beings. Its being categorized as one of the basic necessities of life & it has got as much “must-have” status as much as clothing & shelter have got in our lives. Well, I understand it has made our lives lot easier but I think it has made lives equally miserable too. Anybody can contact you anytime & you are left with no time for yourself ( …If I start writing the miseries which mobiles have brought to our lives, I think my list will never end). Now people just don’t talk while they need to talk rather they talk while working, driving, cooking, walking, exercising, shitting & when not!!! I sometimes wonder can we now survive without our mobile phones at all & what will happen to the world when suppose there will be absolutely no mobile connectivity for a week…JJJ… well, I don’t know about others but I think I will surely enjoy that one peaceful week.

Good Step IB Ministry

July 30, 2007

Everytime I used to see those advertisements, I used to feel so exasperated by the content of those advertisements. Absolutely pathetic, indecent & suggestive. Yup, I am speaking of Amul Macho & Lux Cozy ad The Amul macho ad shows a woman washing a mans underwear at a dhobi ghat and by looking at the underwear she gets turned on. In the other Lux cozy ad, a washerwoman comes to the apartment to pick up laundry and she finds a man standing at the gate wearing a towel. Suddenly, his towel drops leaving him only in his undergarments and the washerwoman eyes him quite suggestively. I had read many reviews of these ads claiming that these are very creatively done sexy ads, well I dont know about creativity at all in these ads, rather I found these ads to be really vulgar esp. when these ads pop up between programs which you might be watching with family members & kids who will never stop being inquisitive about the ad or will keep on repeating the jingle later like they do for all other ads.

Hmmm for once I am in favor of I&B Ministry, this time I think they have done a very righteous act by banning these ads on prime channels in prime time slots. I can see lots of opposition from many people against banning these ads & people protesting as to why cant I&B ministry stop being moral police & let the public decide what do they want or dont want to watch on television? Well, I dont think in this case I&B is acting as unnecessary moral police, or has done anything wrong as by all parameters those ads were very much indecent & double meaning ones of course there is nothing wrong in so called such sexy or funny ads but what was wrong was the placement of those ads which was very much on all main channels at peak time. Also I heard & read some comments from people saying that before banning the ads I&B should have thought of music albums & movie scenes of Sawants & Sherawats. Yes I agree some of the music albums as well as other programs being shown on TV are also obscene, but if those are not banned then does this mean that nothing else can be banned? Its definitely a good start from I&B ministry & lets hope they continue doing justice to their existence. I strongly believe that there is nothing wrong in any kind of content / messaging in ads or TV programs or cinema provided they run at the right place & at the right time everything definitely cant be shown everywhere!!!

Good Step IB Ministry

July 30, 2007

Hello world!

July 12, 2007

Hello, this is my first blog on this wordpress URL. Despite being regularly into blogging world from last 4 years, I hadn’t written much on wordpress earlier. Started with blogspot & then on O3, I had seen many features evolution as well as deterioration of blogging sites.Tired of some of the nuances of my earlier blogging site, I have decided to move my marketing posts to wordpress now.

While I will continue writing my general posts on my earlier blogs, I will write my marketing related posts on this URL now. All my earlier posts can be read here. Hope to have a great experience at wordpress J.

Wish You All A Very Happy New Year

December 29, 2006

“Another fresh new year is here . . .Another year to live!To banish worry, doubt, and fear,To love and laugh and give!This bright new year is given meTo live each day with zest . . .To daily grow and try to beMy highest and my best!I have the opportunityOnce more to right some wrongs,To pray for peace, to plant a tree,And sing more joyful songs!”
– William Arthur Ward

Well, I think this will be my last blog for this year. One more year gone, with some dreams fulfilled whereas many more still waiting to be fulfilled, with some good moments as well as some bad, some successes & some failures, some happiness & some disappointments, some smiles & some tears…but all in all I am happy that one more year has passed ahead & God has given me yet another year to carry on with my dreams…
Do you know the origin of New Year celebration? I found this info to be quite interesting, so thought of summarizing & putting up here. Well, according to online sources (Britannica, Wikipedia etc.), the celebration of the new year on January 1st is a relatively new phenomenon.

The earliest recording of a new year celebration is believed to have been in Mesopotamia,in 2000 B.C. and was celebrated around the time of the vernal equinox, ie., in Mid-March.
Then later on the early Roman calendar designated March 1 as the New Year. The calendar had just ten months, beginning with March.
The first time the new year was celebrated on January 1st was in Rome in 153 B.C. (In fact, the month of January did not even exist until around 700 B.C., when the second king of Rome, Numa Pontilius, added the months of January and February.) The new year was moved from March to January because that was the beginning of the civil year, the month that the two newly elected Roman consuls—the highest officials in the Roman republic—began their one-year tenure.
In 46 B.C. Julius Caesar introduced a new calendar & this Julian calendar decreed that the New Year would occur with January 1, and within the Roman world, January 1 became the consistently observed start of the New Year.
However, in 567 the Council of Tours abolished January 1 as the beginning of the year. At various times and in various places throughout medieval Christian Europe, the new year was celebrated on Dec. 25, the birth of Jesus; March 1; March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation; and Easter.
Finally In 1582, the Gregorian calendar reform restored January 1 as New Year’s Day & most Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian calendar almost immediately.

Since then, January 1st is observed as New Year’s Day in most of the countries. However, if we go culture wise deep, I know most of us have got different new year’s day depending upon our caste & religion but globally most of us now follow Jan 1st as New Year’s Day.
I would like to wish all my blogger friends a New Year filled with New Joy, New Hope & New Beginnings…A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU!!!

Ghar ki Murgi Daal Barabar!

November 30, 2006

Read it in ET recently as well as many other newspapers about Americans learning Hindi…Majority of the students are now enrolling for Hindi because of different reasons like increasing number of Indian friends and acquaintances, interest in Indian Culture, Bollywood movies, Hindi songs etc…Infact not only Hindi, Americans are showing interest towards other Indian languages too like Bengali, Malayalam etc.

Chalo this is definitely good…now I can see Hindi coming back to India as I am sure that when these Firangis will start speaking Hindi then we the Indians will automatically start considering Hindi to be the “In-thing”. Well, in this era of westernization, one thing which has undergone complete metamorphosis is our language of communication. Rarely one can find today’s Indian literate class communicating in Hindi these days. Forget about communicating on our own, even if people are some where forced to write or speak in Hindi in some forum, they will either very smartly say, “Sorry, I am not very fluent in Hindi” or they will make sure to speak Hindi in such a twisted accent that they can beat even Angrezs in this. And Indian celebrities ka toh kya kehna!!! Most of them can’t speak or atleast try to pose that they can’t speak Hindi at all. Somehow, celebrities esp. from films have got a larger than life kind of effect on most of us and most of us try to do things the way they generally do, so seeing their accent its very much hip these days to either say that “I can’t speak in Hindi” or speak in one of those terribly twisted tongue burr. I happened to see few episodes of this serial known as “Bigg Boss” which is airing on Sony TV these days…I think as per the rule of the game those so called celebrities are supposed to speak in Hindi only and Oh my God, what a drama they do, what an accent!!! Most of them speak Hindi as if they have straightaway landed in that house from America or England. I can understand for people there who are basically from South India and they might not be fluent but what about all others who are either from North or have spent most of their lives in Mumbai??? They speak words with such difficulty & sooo much extra effort!!!
In present age, if you speak in proper Hindi, it’s considered to be so uncool and passé and if you can’t speak proper English in one of those Yankees tones you’re considered to be behenji or bhaiyaji types. Even those who are supposedly speaking in Hindi, for them the new buzzword is Hinglish. I am not saying that speaking in English is wrong. Because of globalization and increasing number of MNCs in India, we definitely need to converse and be fluent in English. Not only our English fluency helps us in professional world rather it helps us a lot on personal front too. Adopting progressive western culture is good, but does this mean that we should be ashamed of our own basic existence and forget our roots completely? Why is it so uncool or archaic to talk in our own language? Infact this situation isn’t true only for Hindi rather its true for most other regional languages too.

But as I told earlier, I think I can see Hindi coming back to us soon…Remember what happened with certain other things for e.g., YOGA. Despite Yoga being of Indian origin and existing in our country for centuries and centuries, we never considered it to be important enough. But suddenly Yoga has become a craze, the hottest lifestyle statement, in vogue kinda thing!!! The highlighted reasons for this fad are many but the most important underlying reason is its sudden acceptance and phenomenal popularity in western countries. When Americans thought its really good, we also thought oh its really good JJJ!!! Who kahte hain na “Ghar Ki Murgi Daal Barabar…”
Let’s hope for some such revolution for our languages too!!!

I am pen!!!

November 6, 2006

I am pen, sob sob, sob…
What do you mean by “What Pen or Whose Pen”, Arey baba I am pen, your writing pen which you used to use earlier for writing…See you can’t even recognize me spontaneously now!!! Such is my poor fate now, sob sniff sniff!!!
Yes, I am crying because I am seeing my death slowly-slowly in front of my own eyes. I am undergoing the pain of self-extinction and extermination. You know there was a time when I was being considered the tongue of human mind & people used to tell “Pen is mightier than sword”, but now forget about being mighty; I don’t even find my existence on most of the workstations.
How would you feel when after enjoying a long regal life, you would see your supremacy slowly fading away? I know you will not feel good. Even I don’t feel good by losing all my power to this newer generation. I used to enjoy such imperial existence. People used to adorn me so proudly in their pockets or on their working desks. There was a time when I was being considered one of the most precious gifts for all important occasions like success in exams, competitions, first job, first promotion etc. Not only that, people used to give me as good omen to their loved ones for wishing luck like parents giving me to their kids for writing exams or teachers gifting me to their favorite students for some important contest. What a belief kids used to have in me as their “Good Luck Pen” & with what care they used to keep me for especially using at some important exams!!! Oh I can’t forget the excitements which kids used to have when they used to get me first time in their lives & how proudly they used to flaunt me in their friend circle or to their younger siblings who were still using pencils.
Now all my authority has been snatched away by this newer generation. I no longer enjoy my throne i.e., the pockets of people, I have been replaced by PDAs/Palmtops/Blackberrys & what nots!!! Now I don’t have any presence in my erstwhile kingdom i.e., workstations and office desks. While I am carelessly thrown out in outskirts i.e., drawers of workstations, my premium position has been occupied by this new age key boards. Snifffff….
I know now I am of no use to you & you don’t remember me at all, but I can’t forget the gleam which was there in your eyes on the day when your daddy gifted me to you for the first time & I still remember the proud which you felt when your teacher gifted me to you with your name etched on my body for scoring the highest marks in class. Ahhhh Good old days…An era bygone…
Sob, Sob, Sob…

P.S: This post is dedicated to my earlier hobby of collecting good pens. There was a time when I used to be very fond of pens & my near and dear ones used to gift me different types of pens. Believe me, I used to be thrilled to receive pens as gifts & used to show off my collection of pens to my friends. But now I hardly get chance to use those lovely pens. I think I use pens now only for very few specific activities like signature etc. With all these digitization & online world, my life has definitely become more comfortable but at the same time I do miss my small yet lovely hobby of writing by different pens on different occasions!!!

Job Satisfaction : Myth or Reality?

October 13, 2006

Hmmm, I am writing a blog after a long time…was caught up in so many things, increased workload, increased traffic (for past so many days, I am spending atleast 4.5 hours on road despite my home being just 14kms from my office, thanks to the pathetic roads…Phewww!!!), & increased home pressure too. But of course like everybody else, the most important thing out of all these which is controlling my life right now is my job,
Few days back, I was talking to this very close friend of mine who is sort of quite level headed & balanced in his outlook. I asked him that despite so many problems at his work front, how does he seem to be so satisfied with his job? He very simply replied in one short & sweet sentence, “JOB SATISFACTION IS A MYTH”. I was quite surprised to listen to this esp. from him as he generally seemed to be not much disturbed by his work front, & he seldom used to complain about his job. So I always used to think that he is sort of satisfied with his job. Seeing the confusion on my face, he further told me that during initial years of his job, even he used to crave for this so called “job satisfaction” thing but he learnt it hard way soon that there is no such thing existing, every job he changed was having some or other problem, so now he has given up or rather learnt adjust.
Later on I pondered over his sentence for long & even I started wondering if there is anyone whom I know who is happy & satisfied with his or her job. Frankly speaking, I get too affected if things aren’t o.k at my work front & many times despite my efforts I also don’t get this so called “job satisfaction” in my work. In my pursuit for more knowledge about this job satisfaction, I decided to check this with few more of my colleagues & friends if they feel satisfied by their jobs & are they happy with their current job, if yes, then how??? Well, well, well, I was quite astonished to find the answer as out of so many people whom I asked, I didn’t find even a single, I am repeating not even a single person who was satisfied by his or her job. The reasons were varied, but the crux was same, “Job Satisfaction is a myth”. Most of them are working because they know that they have to work for money, social status etc. etc. but none of them were so called satisfied by their corporate jobs & the reasons cited by them were either one or many of the following:

Financial incentives not proportional to the workload, low salary.
Boss is a big pain in life, too demanding.
Ever increasing workload leaving no space for personal life.
No recognition/motivation for job well done.
Sick Office Environment e.g., too political, too much favoritism.
Dumb nature of work i.e., work is too dull or boring, non-challenging.
Performance Appraisal isn’t an open system.
Poor HR policies like leave policy, concern for employees etc.
Low or zero promotion scope, too much hierarchy
Unhealthy competition, unethical rules.

Hmmm…so some are having good salary but not good work, some are having good work but not good salary, some are having both but not good boss…ha ha ha, reminds me of this sher- “Har kisi ko mukkamal jahan nahi milta, kisi ko zameen toh kisi ko aasmaan nahi milta…”, but whatever be the reason everybody supported that there is no such phenomenon as “job satisfaction” in present age!!!
Well, I am really confused now. Despite such long working hours, increased salaries, increased standard of living, why this huge dissatisfaction? Is it because of general human tendency to be dissatisfied or is it really a myth???

Update: Just heard from a friend right now that he has finally given up his corporate job to pursue his artistic dream. He was working in corporates for past 6 years & he told that not even once he experienced this so called job satisfaction from his corporate assignments, so he finally decided to take this risk & is feeling very happy right now. Well he also informed that his family is not at all happy with his decision as he isn’t able to earn sufficient money like earlier. Hmmm… I admire his courage & wish him good luck for his new journey…But I don’t know how many of us are prepared for such big risks in our lives??? What about those who are having enough responsibilities & social/peer pressure? Can they take such risk? I don’t think so…

8 new IITs and 7 new IIMs???

Ah, one peaceful day in my life

Good Step IB Ministry

Good Step IB Ministry

Hello world!

Wish You All A Very Happy New Year

Ghar ki Murgi Daal Barabar!

I am pen!!!

Job Satisfaction : Myth or Reality?

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