I write this with deep pain and anger about the November 26th Mumbai terrorist attack. We Indians, excluding the traitors of our own country I mean to say the politicians, will never forget our great officers who sacrificed their lives for the country. Thank you for saving so many lives without even thinking twice about yours….
There’s a deep sense of anger in me on the corrupt political system in our country, probably a bit more of what I have on those bastards from across the border. This has been going on in our country from so many years and it’s high time we take stock of the situation and see to that it never repeats again. Every time there’s an attack or a bomb blast in our country PM addresses the nation telling that we will never bow against terror and action will be taken against those who are responsible. Mr. PM, the country is fed up with all your false assurances.
Terrorists easily enter our country with huge ammunition hijacking boats, and start attacking innocent people and storm two five star hotels, a hospital, railway station and hijack a police vehicle and start killing people, it really looks like a plot straight out of some movie but it’s really sad and difficult to come to terms with it in real life. The entire country is responsible for this, right from the politicians, intelligence agencies, the system, media and also normal citizens like us who elect these inefficient politicians.
Initially when all this started at around 9.30pm there was news that some gang war has started in Mumbai, how can it be called a gang war when some mother f*&%$ shoot at innocent unarmed people. The state government takes it so lightly and calls the union government for NSG Commandos an hour later and to top it all NSG commandos arrive at the scene only 10 hours later, so many lives could have been saved if the government had acted quickly. When all this started, there were reports that about 40 terrorists entered India and later when Operation Cyclone ended the number came down to ten, what happened to the remaining???? There are some serious lapses on part of our government and they owe an answer to all this mess.
Look at how these irresponsible politicians respond after such a big disaster, Maharastra CM tells in an interview that they had prior information about it but they weren’t specific, what does he mean??? Does he expect the terrorists to call him up minutes before the attack and give specific details? Even then they will fail, I m pretty sure. His deputy in another interview tells that these small incidents keep happening in big cities such as Mumbai… probably we should do what they do to the Defense minister in the movie Rang De Basanti to him and later tell that these incidents keep happening in big cities like Mumbai. And where the hell is Raj Thackeray??? He was telling that he would not tolerate anything against the Marathi community and he is nowhere to be seen now. Come out of the hole in which you are hiding, our brave heroes of the country have flushed out all the scum.
When they had prior information about the threat to Mumbai and about the involvement of ISI, why did the intelligence agencies not take adequate measures?? So many valuable lives could have been saved. A retired NSG commando rightly said the other day that Sandeep (NSG commando) died not because of the bullet but because of the system. It’s impossible to change the rotten system overnight. The change has to come within each and everyone of us to make India a better and safe place in the world.
When everything ended I saw a flash message on some news channel which read Mumbai Liberated…. what do they mean by it, as though those terrorists had taken control over the entire city. Yes this was the worst attack on India but those bastards had attacked only few places in a very big city. Why do the media hype it in such a big way, those coward Pakistanis will be very happy to see such messages on TV. They will feel that the entire financial capital was under their control, which wasn’t the case.
Even the common man like us, is responsible for all this. We blame our politicians for all this but we are the ones who have elected them. When anything like this happens we discuss about how bad the system is, write blogs targeting our politicians, light candles, hold placards and that is it, which we do. Eventually as time passes by, we forget everything and back to square one. Everyone wants a very good system in place but the truth is none of us are ready to clean up the mess, no one wants to get dirty. We have no right to blame the country after all, we have ourselves to blame and each one of us should start working towards making India a better country.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
TV Commercials
Most of the people hate to watch commercials in between their favorite programs but I somehow like it. People may say it’s strange but I would any day prefer watching those commercials rather than watching crap Indian soaps on T.V. Lot of creativity goes into directing a commercial. The entire info about the product should come across to the viewer within 30 seconds or so. Ad maker should see to it that the entire information of the product is put into it and it should be as short as possible. If they try to put in more information, it becomes lengthy and boring, and if they try to make it short they lose out on some information about the product. It definitely is a very tough job to balance both. With addition to it the ad has to be creative, so that it stays in the mind of the viewer for a long time.
According to me commercials can be classified into 3 categories
1.The one that is very interesting, creative and makes lot of sense and we feel like watching it over and over again.
2. Boring and which makes no sense whatsoever.
3. The normal one(straight forward), i.e. straight to the point
I feel the first two types are more effective compared to the third. If it’s interesting then we obviously talk about it and the product gets good publicity and even if the commercial doesn’t make sense we keep wondering what it was really about and we talk about the product which will help their cause. It does not mean that there will be very good sales for a particular product only if the commercial is very good. It really doesn’t work that way. Even if it’s bad it will sometimes work. Basically the commercial and the product should make an impact on the viewer so that it stays in the mind and generate sales.
I got an opportunity to attend a two day course in office last month. It was basically about Personality development and Team building. There was an activity which we were supposed to do, which was quite interesting. Each team consisted of two participants. They had given us a sheet of paper and we were supposed to manufacture a product out of it and market it to the rest of the participants. Everyone came up with their own interesting ideas and we were all ready with our products in no time but no one really knew how to market it effectively. It really is a tough job. The first team presented their product, they were straight forward in their approach and they immediately got into the technical details about their product and about advantages of buying it. There was no creativity whatsoever in their marketing style. People could find out easily the limitations of it and started questioning about it and they could not justify their claims in the end. Another team came with a simple idea, put lots of masala into it, they did not get much into the finer technical details about the product and they made it look funny and very interesting. None of us could find out the negative things about the product as we were all thinking about the way they presented it. No one really cared to know the limitations of that product. Even though the first team had a good product in hand compared to this team they failed because of lack of creativity and keeping it just simple. Any product will definitely have both advantages as well as its limitations. It depends on how well the product is put in front of the consumer. So the normal straight forward ads don’t really work.
There are a few companies from which we can expect really good commercials every single time. Some of my all time favorites are ads from Sprite, Fevikwik, Fevicol, Mentos and now the latest from Virgin is good, the one where a guy flirts with a girl in the train where virgin mobile helps him keep the mother away while he flirts with her daughter. I feel the talented ad makers should get into directing movies because they are the ones who know the value of each second unlike our movie directors.
According to me commercials can be classified into 3 categories
1.The one that is very interesting, creative and makes lot of sense and we feel like watching it over and over again.
2. Boring and which makes no sense whatsoever.
3. The normal one(straight forward), i.e. straight to the point
I feel the first two types are more effective compared to the third. If it’s interesting then we obviously talk about it and the product gets good publicity and even if the commercial doesn’t make sense we keep wondering what it was really about and we talk about the product which will help their cause. It does not mean that there will be very good sales for a particular product only if the commercial is very good. It really doesn’t work that way. Even if it’s bad it will sometimes work. Basically the commercial and the product should make an impact on the viewer so that it stays in the mind and generate sales.
I got an opportunity to attend a two day course in office last month. It was basically about Personality development and Team building. There was an activity which we were supposed to do, which was quite interesting. Each team consisted of two participants. They had given us a sheet of paper and we were supposed to manufacture a product out of it and market it to the rest of the participants. Everyone came up with their own interesting ideas and we were all ready with our products in no time but no one really knew how to market it effectively. It really is a tough job. The first team presented their product, they were straight forward in their approach and they immediately got into the technical details about their product and about advantages of buying it. There was no creativity whatsoever in their marketing style. People could find out easily the limitations of it and started questioning about it and they could not justify their claims in the end. Another team came with a simple idea, put lots of masala into it, they did not get much into the finer technical details about the product and they made it look funny and very interesting. None of us could find out the negative things about the product as we were all thinking about the way they presented it. No one really cared to know the limitations of that product. Even though the first team had a good product in hand compared to this team they failed because of lack of creativity and keeping it just simple. Any product will definitely have both advantages as well as its limitations. It depends on how well the product is put in front of the consumer. So the normal straight forward ads don’t really work.
There are a few companies from which we can expect really good commercials every single time. Some of my all time favorites are ads from Sprite, Fevikwik, Fevicol, Mentos and now the latest from Virgin is good, the one where a guy flirts with a girl in the train where virgin mobile helps him keep the mother away while he flirts with her daughter. I feel the talented ad makers should get into directing movies because they are the ones who know the value of each second unlike our movie directors.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Beginning of the END????
The hottest topic nowadays, everywhere is about the ongoing India Australia Test Series. To be fair no one had expected India to beat Australia so comprehensively. Everyone had thought that Indians would do well against them at home but looking at the way they are playing they have all the ingredients to become the No1 team in the world. This Indian team reminds me about the late 90’s Australian team where team’s success was not dependent on one individual. The only reason why they are doing well is because of the fact that the team is no more dependent on Sachin. In the late 90’s and almost till last year or so winning or losing would depend on how much Sachin would score. On top of that bowling attack was so weak, I should not be calling it an attack:-) Now if Fab four fail to score runs people like Bhajji, Kumble chip in with the bat. Also there is a lot of variety in the bowling department. But the only thing we have to see is how consistent they will be. Indian Premier League has helped India s cause which many people would think otherwise. They argue that there will be early retirements and huge unnecessary pay package. Why do we have to care about early retirements when youngsters are getting a very good platform to compete with world class experienced players and will help them in the future when they represent our country. And about the pay packages I can say only one thing to those people….. GROW UP!!!!
Australia has been hit real hard with the greats like McGrath, Gilchrist, Warne and Langer retiring at almost the same time… It’s really difficult for anyone to fill in their shoes. Probably with the success rate they had during their period no one thought about the future. They were very happy with the present and did not want to think beyond it. A smooth transition in the team is absolutely necessary, which we can now see in our Indian team. With Ganguly retiring after this series we will see more of this but it will not affect the way it has, for Australia. It’s really difficult to find replacements for players like Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly, but there s lot of talent in the youngsters and playing under them, they will learn a lot and a person like Dhoni leading them, I feel we are heading in the right direction.
Australia s problems won’t end here; in fact it has started now. They still are not able to cope with the retirements and I feel they have not yet thought about the future.Imagine players like Ponting, Hayden, Hussey and Lee retiring at the same time, i guess they will all be around for another two years and they have to look beyond these great players or else they will be in deep trouble, in fact they already are. One has to learn from the mistakes they have committed and I doubt Australians have. Is this the beginning of the end of Australia s domination over other teams???
Australia has been hit real hard with the greats like McGrath, Gilchrist, Warne and Langer retiring at almost the same time… It’s really difficult for anyone to fill in their shoes. Probably with the success rate they had during their period no one thought about the future. They were very happy with the present and did not want to think beyond it. A smooth transition in the team is absolutely necessary, which we can now see in our Indian team. With Ganguly retiring after this series we will see more of this but it will not affect the way it has, for Australia. It’s really difficult to find replacements for players like Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly, but there s lot of talent in the youngsters and playing under them, they will learn a lot and a person like Dhoni leading them, I feel we are heading in the right direction.
Australia s problems won’t end here; in fact it has started now. They still are not able to cope with the retirements and I feel they have not yet thought about the future.Imagine players like Ponting, Hayden, Hussey and Lee retiring at the same time, i guess they will all be around for another two years and they have to look beyond these great players or else they will be in deep trouble, in fact they already are. One has to learn from the mistakes they have committed and I doubt Australians have. Is this the beginning of the end of Australia s domination over other teams???
Saturday, October 4, 2008
College placements
The worst thing that can happen to us at some point of time will turn out to be the best thing that has happened to us at a later point in life.
This is how I feel after going through a very bad phase in life, probably the worst that could happen to anyone. For me personally, two years back when I was in college, not getting selected in campus was the worst thing that could happen to me but now looking at it I feel that was the best thing that happened. Life has taught me so many valuable lessons in that period. I am now a completely different person to what I was two years back. Now I look at problems in a different way. I can feel the change within me.
Before attending any campus interview I was like pretty confident that it would just be another interview. I always knew the result before attending any interview. I guess around 20 companies had come to the campus, out of which I attended only 6 companies if I am correct. I always used to turn up late for the interviews and they would not let me in. I lacked that something - लक्ष्य and for those 6 companies which I attended; I never used to get past the first round. There was no preparation whatsoever from my side, going to the interview was like going to some movie.I used to know the outcome before the written test itself but still I used to get dejected afterwards….I always used to blame my fate for that rather than analyzing the reasons for the failure. Negative feelings used to take control over me. I used to feel the pain for two days max and after that I would forget everything as though nothing really happened. Again after few days I used to attend another interview and the cycle used to repeat similarly and eventually placements had become a big joke. With all this there was a funnier side too; I still remember we were all waiting for Accenture’s results. Hr from Accenture was really hot. I still remember her, she was really one hot babe and also we knew that there would be more beautiful girls like her in that company. So I was desperately hoping that I would be selected. They started announcing the results. There were around 20 names in that list and I found my name in that list. I was overjoyed, started shouting and dreaming about all the beautiful girls who would become my colleagues one day. My happiness though was short lived. So many people had cleared the first round that day, they decided to announce only the people who did not clear the first round as the number was less and my name was in that rejected list…..all that I had dreamt…. shattered into pieces.. That was probably the worst day in my life.
I could understand the gravity of the problem only when I was once out of the college. I started to attend the off campus interviews. I applied to a number of companies through some job portals , I have really lost the count. Every day on an average I used to apply for around 15 companies and continuously for a period of 8 months. Out of which I received call letters for interviews from only 5 companies. For those companies which I attended there was one question which used to haunt me in all the interviews…” I heard campus placements in your college are very good, why ,were you not selected? “ The answer was obvious and still they would ask me such kind of ridiculous questions. If I had been selected in campus I would not have gone to their company in the first place. Not only in the interviews all the people whom I used to meet used to ask me the same question repeatedly. That part of life, when I was jobless i have had a number of bitter experiences, but on the other side it taught me some valuable lessons in life and I feel that those lessons will take me a long way ahead.
Initially nothing really changed, I was on the similar path. The same cycle used to repeat for off campus interviews too. I had the fear and confidence of failing every single time. I could not take it anymore. I had to come out of depression. So I decided one day to change everything around and started studying and make my basics right .It was not so easy. Literally I had to start from a scratch, focus both on the technical aspects as well as HR, which I did. I guess this part was the turning point in my life.
After some real hard work I could see some major change,and finally I was successful. Three companies offered me a job, and getting it was not so easy. The present company in which I am working was the toughest. There were three rounds- written, technical interview and interview with GM, the final round being the toughest. I feel there are only two things that can happen to a person…. Good or Bad….when everything that is happening to us is bad then there is only one thing that can happen after that…GOOD. So if you are going through a rough patch then get prepared to enjoy for the good things coming your way.
If I had got placed in campus, I would be working in some company and I would not have got a chance to work in the Worlds No 1 Company.Not getting placed in college was bad at that particular moment but what happened was really for good. This part of my life, now is called HAPPYNESS ;-)
This is how I feel after going through a very bad phase in life, probably the worst that could happen to anyone. For me personally, two years back when I was in college, not getting selected in campus was the worst thing that could happen to me but now looking at it I feel that was the best thing that happened. Life has taught me so many valuable lessons in that period. I am now a completely different person to what I was two years back. Now I look at problems in a different way. I can feel the change within me.
Before attending any campus interview I was like pretty confident that it would just be another interview. I always knew the result before attending any interview. I guess around 20 companies had come to the campus, out of which I attended only 6 companies if I am correct. I always used to turn up late for the interviews and they would not let me in. I lacked that something - लक्ष्य and for those 6 companies which I attended; I never used to get past the first round. There was no preparation whatsoever from my side, going to the interview was like going to some movie.I used to know the outcome before the written test itself but still I used to get dejected afterwards….I always used to blame my fate for that rather than analyzing the reasons for the failure. Negative feelings used to take control over me. I used to feel the pain for two days max and after that I would forget everything as though nothing really happened. Again after few days I used to attend another interview and the cycle used to repeat similarly and eventually placements had become a big joke. With all this there was a funnier side too; I still remember we were all waiting for Accenture’s results. Hr from Accenture was really hot. I still remember her, she was really one hot babe and also we knew that there would be more beautiful girls like her in that company. So I was desperately hoping that I would be selected. They started announcing the results. There were around 20 names in that list and I found my name in that list. I was overjoyed, started shouting and dreaming about all the beautiful girls who would become my colleagues one day. My happiness though was short lived. So many people had cleared the first round that day, they decided to announce only the people who did not clear the first round as the number was less and my name was in that rejected list…..all that I had dreamt…. shattered into pieces.. That was probably the worst day in my life.
I could understand the gravity of the problem only when I was once out of the college. I started to attend the off campus interviews. I applied to a number of companies through some job portals , I have really lost the count. Every day on an average I used to apply for around 15 companies and continuously for a period of 8 months. Out of which I received call letters for interviews from only 5 companies. For those companies which I attended there was one question which used to haunt me in all the interviews…” I heard campus placements in your college are very good, why ,were you not selected? “ The answer was obvious and still they would ask me such kind of ridiculous questions. If I had been selected in campus I would not have gone to their company in the first place. Not only in the interviews all the people whom I used to meet used to ask me the same question repeatedly. That part of life, when I was jobless i have had a number of bitter experiences, but on the other side it taught me some valuable lessons in life and I feel that those lessons will take me a long way ahead.
Initially nothing really changed, I was on the similar path. The same cycle used to repeat for off campus interviews too. I had the fear and confidence of failing every single time. I could not take it anymore. I had to come out of depression. So I decided one day to change everything around and started studying and make my basics right .It was not so easy. Literally I had to start from a scratch, focus both on the technical aspects as well as HR, which I did. I guess this part was the turning point in my life.
After some real hard work I could see some major change,and finally I was successful. Three companies offered me a job, and getting it was not so easy. The present company in which I am working was the toughest. There were three rounds- written, technical interview and interview with GM, the final round being the toughest. I feel there are only two things that can happen to a person…. Good or Bad….when everything that is happening to us is bad then there is only one thing that can happen after that…GOOD. So if you are going through a rough patch then get prepared to enjoy for the good things coming your way.
If I had got placed in campus, I would be working in some company and I would not have got a chance to work in the Worlds No 1 Company.Not getting placed in college was bad at that particular moment but what happened was really for good. This part of my life, now is called HAPPYNESS ;-)
Monday, September 29, 2008
Where Are We Heading !!!!
27th September happened to be the birthday of BHAGAT SINGH and i could not see a single news channel or a news daily remember about the great soul who sacrificed everything for the country. Incidentally few days back i read an article in some local daily which said “Students to give Gandhi jayanthi a miss, this year”because of the governments decision to pre-pone the exams to make Dasara a huge hit. Students will definitely suffer if the exams are pre-poned without prior notice but what’s wrong if Gandhi jayanthi is given a miss for the sake of Dasara.What is so special about Gandhi's freedom struggle and not with Bhagat's ??? I dont get the point... why is Gandhi known as the Father of the nation.... yes maybe rightly called so... he is the Father of all the problems we are facing today!!! Terrorism, Illiteracy, Poverty....You name it... You have it... I dont say Gandhi was not at all responsible for our independence but why is there a discrimination. Bhagat singh was just 23 years old when he was put to death.If,for a moment ,had he not been executed i 'd bet India would have got the independence somewhere around 1925-1930, and by now our's would have been a Developed country.
Can we go on a hunger strike for 116 days!!!Yeah it is something beyond imagination for us। But Bhagat singh and B.K. Dutt went on a hunger strike for 116 days... Other comrades too joined them in the strike... According to some reports Bhagat Singh was more popular than Gandhi in the country at that time and that was the reason why many in the congress were not so keen on fighting against the execution.
Bhagat singh along with his other comrades sacrificed everything for the country but sometimes i feel they should not have sacrificed their valuable lives for a country like India and for the people who are so selfish that they tend to forget the people who helped them.
In our country Bollywood Actors and Cricketers take priority over the REAL HEROES. If any one of them is celebrating his/her birthday, we can find a huge article about what they will be doing on that day, what their plans are for the future... $&*^$#&^ etc.....But not a single mention about our real heroes...... Where are we Heading ?????
Can we go on a hunger strike for 116 days!!!Yeah it is something beyond imagination for us। But Bhagat singh and B.K. Dutt went on a hunger strike for 116 days... Other comrades too joined them in the strike... According to some reports Bhagat Singh was more popular than Gandhi in the country at that time and that was the reason why many in the congress were not so keen on fighting against the execution.
Bhagat singh along with his other comrades sacrificed everything for the country but sometimes i feel they should not have sacrificed their valuable lives for a country like India and for the people who are so selfish that they tend to forget the people who helped them.
In our country Bollywood Actors and Cricketers take priority over the REAL HEROES. If any one of them is celebrating his/her birthday, we can find a huge article about what they will be doing on that day, what their plans are for the future... $&*^$#&^ etc.....But not a single mention about our real heroes...... Where are we Heading ?????
INQUILAB ZINDABAD
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