Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Innovation at its Best - FT Idea Caravan!!

Ting tong!!
A mail arrives in my mailbox reminding me of the last day of the Idea Caravan contest. Being a firm believer of innovative thinking, I just thought to check out the website. Visiting the site, I came across many new ideas on the website www.ftideacaravan.com which hosted the videos of the presentations made at Franklin Templeton Investments partnered TEDxGateway Mumbai in December 2012. There were some amazing innovative thoughts, which have been a part of our daily lives, but still, have not been specifically made a part yet. This also reminds of the basic principle that solution to every problem lies within us. If we think we can do it or not, we are always right. So, it takes more of a mental approach to a problem than really keep running around to search a solution.

Though all the videos were quite impressive, I found one idea simply fantastic  and pretty useful, which was presented my Ms. Cynthia Koenig. You can visit the video at the following link:

While Ms. Cynthia was presenting the idea, my mind immediately picturised the Amul advertisement in front of me, which showed group of women carrying Indian Earthen Pots over their heads, supposedly milk as a part of their routine of earning bread, and the end of that ad displays, "Every Morning crores of Indians celebrate the Taste of India that brings economic independence to 30 lac women across 15,000 villages." Check out the ad at the link below:

I am sure, most of the readers here may have already seen this ad and relate to it.  Just a random thought, what better a change can be than changing this daily routine of these 30 lac women, which carry the pots over their heads to using 'wello', the one presented by Ms. Cynthia.

And while I am writing this post, which was supposed to be an entry to be written for The Idea Caravan contest, I am also planning to convey this idea to the Amul management, which will not only result in better health for the economically independent women, but also more time for their kids and family.

Well, while Amul Management will be conveyed this in due course, just a small appeal to you. Share this post and videos  as much as you can, since not only Amul women, but lot many other women carry pots over their heads daily as a matter of their survival which may result in health disorders for the women, and betterment of even a single woman's life through this idea will serve the purpose of writing this post.
Wello, simply lelo. 

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Teri Yaad!!

Its been quite a long time since the last one. The writer Simar had been getting wake-up wishes, and well, here he is, back from his long banvaas. Just tried to pen down few lines, nothing personal though. J

Saath chalte chalte kab raste juda huye,
yeh hmein na ho paaya tha ehsaas..
hmein toh ek aadat pad chuki thi,
har waqt tumhare rehne ki aaspaas..

Aaj bhi yehi socha krte hain hm,
tere bina kaise ji paayenge hm,
chalte chalte is baarish mein,
apne aansu bhi pi jaayenge hm..

Hansi rkhte hain hm chehre pe apne,
par khushi na hmein mil paati hai..
rooth jaati hai aksar zindgi mjse,
manane ki kala na hmko aati hai..

Mehfil mein b pata hun khud ko tanha,
hai teri kami jo mjko sataati hai..
sochu jb k kat jayegi tanhai yun hi,
teri yaad chupke se chali aati hai..

Chalte hai Dunia ki bheed mein,
par hai teri kami jo mjko sataati hai..
lage jab b kbhi k akela sa hun main,
teri yaad chupke se chali aati hai..

I hope you liked these lines. Do post in your comments. :)

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Jab We Meet!!

Since my last blog post, I had been keeping my pen busy writing a couple of poetry about the lost love, my pet area of writing about fiction, but since none of could be completed, no blog posts could be made. Par yeh mat sochna k yeh blogger fir se so gya. This time, its like toofan se pehle ki shanti. But shayad yeh shanti Indiblogger ko pasand nahi aayi and here, they come up with another blogger meet.

Another mail from Indiblogger, another meet notification and unlike last time, I had already got registered before the seats went full. Thanks to Shwetabh, who had tagged me @ fb about it. I was really excited to meet the friends I had made @ last meet and to have their feedback about the sleeping blogger's comeback post, which I had made after that meet. The excitement was visible more in the first timers' comments while they were registering themselves @ Indiblogger. Having gone through that curious-kinda feeling in the last meet, I could surely relate to them. I also reserved my day for the #FreshnHappy meet since it was supposed to be a wonderful break from everyday's monotonous-kinda routine.

Well, I reached the venue a little early, but was quite surprised to c such a large gathering. I just tried searching for some jane-pehchane chehre. But it was just Shwetabh, whom I could locate in that crowd. After a while, Karthik opened the flood gates to the hall, and all of us just rushed in to be the first movers. Shwetabh later told me, he was inspired by me to be the first mover, since it may turn out to be the Indiblogger's fb album's title photo.

In the rush of logging in, Arvind Bhai just called me up and the Zebra ka Debra effect was back. We occupied the centre table in front, so very habitual of being in the limelight. Sitting across and looking around, I hardly saw someone already known. Murtaza, Manjulika, Priyaa, Shaivi and Aishwarya Bhai, this completed my known ones' list.

The meet started with a BANG, a head-bang. Nihal came up with a crash course on head-banging. From beginners to expert in just five minutes, we had a good fun banging our heads.

Then came up the number game, just like last time, I could not get lucky getting a chance to give a number and take home some goodies. However, Anoop helped us clear all the bad air off our lungs by calling the hall to scream, since it would be the loudest scream who would get a chance. It was a good 1 minute screaming session and Shwetabh, who was just sitting in front of me, got his fingers on his ears and once I stopped, a request to me to scream a little less louder. Who cares!! ;)

30 seconds to fame, this time it had got a social touch. Every social blogger got a chance to introduce himself and the social blog. Just one word for the intros, concepts and stories of how it touched others' lives - Amazzzzinngg.. Felt proud to be a part of a responsible blogger community. :D

Then lunch time was announced, and before we could even get off the chairs, we saw a huge queue against the food tables, and this allowed us more time to chit-chat with the bloggers. It also gave me a chance to interact with Passey Sir, and well, that small interaction surely gave them an admirer. :)

Getting back to the hall after having lunch, it more of seemed like a marriage hall rather than a indiblogger meet, since most of the bloggers were still enjoying the food on the tables. A little later, as we settled, we were given a sample of Ambi Pur room freshners, a part-time fayda of attending the meets. No later were we made aware that even this was supposed to be an activity and based on the flavours of the fragrances, we were divided into groups. My Zebra ka Debra team was back again and coincidentally, we were into the same team. While the rules were announced, I was called on by Viral Fever team for some masti time off the field. Hardly, I had any clue k hone kya wala hai, but well, it was getting exciting. I was blindfolded and taken into a room. I was got involved into a conversation for about five minutes, wherein I was asked about some wonderful vacation, my experiences. I shared with them my vacation in Goa last winters with my friends.  After about 5 minutes, I was revealed the surprise and I had a beach-kinda feeling all around me, with some fish, prawns etc. lying on the table in front of me alongwith a guy sunbathing on the same sofa I was made to sit on. This was all being shot and I hardly had any idea what exactly they are going to do with that video. Indiblogger team, kindly throw some light.

Well, back into the action, I joined my team. Last time k zebra k debra were this time AmbiPandas. I was told that we are to make a Chinese Martial Arts movie and by the time I had joined them, the story had been finalized to a large extent. But the time allotted was ending with every passing second and before we could script a conclusive ending, the time got over. We kept discussing our idea while others were performing since we did take the task of directing a Chinese movie very seriously. But I don't know why no one could really understand our script (including us), since they were mostly Indians. I think I should share the script with you as well, so that Indiblogger team and other fellow attendees can at least understand our concept and appreciate the sheer talent we all displayed, but maybe a weak script (or a weak audience), it could not be communicated properly. Here's the script for our movie:

繁字 繁体字全字简笔全体字繁字 繁体字全字简笔全体字繁字 繁体字全字简笔全体字繁字 繁体字全字简笔全体字繁字 繁体字全字简笔全体字繁字 繁体字全字简笔全体字繁字 繁体字全字简笔全体字繁字 繁体字全字简笔全体字繁字 繁体字全字简笔全体字繁字 繁体字全字简笔全体字繁字 繁体字全字简笔全体字繁字 繁体字全字简笔全体字繁字 繁体字全字简笔全体字繁字 繁体字全字简笔全体字繁字 繁体字全字简笔全体字繁字 繁体字全字简笔全体字繁字 繁体字全字简笔全体字繁字 繁体字全字简笔全体字

Disclaimer: No part of the script above may be used for commercial purposes. For using it for personal purposes, a credit may be displayed alongwith. 
Note: If any of my other AmbiPanda happens to read the post, do reply in the comments.

After the activity ended, we were all made to give another try to clean off our lungs and scream our heart out. It was time for the meet to end, but not before another chhoti c pose-making activity. Activity may have been a small one, but the prize itself made it big - Nokia Lumia 720.

Ek aur meet, aur fir se no prizes. Mera number kab aayega? :-?

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Rediscovering my Passion for Blogging!!

I had been a blogger 3 years back and since then, the blogger within me had been on hibernation. Life had changed a lot since then, and there had been a lots of happenings in my life, which were worth sharing on my blog, but still possibly, a lazy animal within me had took over the ‘blogger’ thing within me.

But what you say, destiny or something else, the blogger had to get alive. Getting little filmy, ‘jab tum kisi cheez ko poori shiddat k saath chaaho toh saari kaynaat tumhein use milane mein jut jaati hai.’ In a crowded inbox, last Thursday, I happened to see an Indiblogger mail with an invitation for #HPInkAdvantage Indiblogger meet to be held on Saturday. I had heard a lot good about fun, masti and interactions at IndiBlogger meets. So, being free on the day, I had to attend that. But to my dismay, I got a Seats Full message at the registration page. However, the event was still 2 days away, and the Optimistic Simar kept hoping for someone opting out and grabbing that seat. Fortunately, on the Saturday morning, I saw two seats for the event and quickly grabbed the chance.

When I reached the venue, I saw few tables and chairs lined up for a wonderful gathering it was waiting for. I was one of the firsts to enter in the hall and login. Quite impressed with all the management and decorum, I was really excited making my debut at Indiblogger meets. I had Prashant and Sudeep sharing table with me, being alone and a debutant, the duo really made me feel comfortable and nice. Prashant shared his earlier experiences of blogger meets, and all this got us more curious for the times ahead.

And here it goes. The meet started off with a chhotu guy, getting a pair of speakers, just for being the sabse chhotu :P and mind it, he was really really chhotu, just 1.5 years old. At that moment, I was just singing the song,”Give me some sunshine, give me some rain, give me another chance, I wanna grow up once again.“ Agli baar, sabse chhotu award toh fir apna hi hai. J

The next award was for the largest family attending the meet. I kept wondering, why they need to ask that question, since each one of us qualified for that award. Each one of us was from the Indiblogger family. But well, I was not heard of during the judgement process. Ek aur award reh gea. :P

A couple of more awards and then came up the Number game. Choosing a number from 1-11 and getting the prize meant for it in the sheet with the Master of Ceremony. Fir se bad luck, whichever number we chose, somebody else got a chance to speak it and well, prize  fir se nahi mila koi. Nevertheless, the fun on trying to get a chance to speak the number was the ultimate one. Zindagi k tensions gayi bhaad mein, number bolte raho bas. :o

The Number game was succeeded by the singing part. I just thought, are we supposed to be in an audition for Indian Idol Junior, but discovered later, Indian Idol Juniors sang much better than us. Anyways, the fun quotient was higher here. We were divided into four groups on the basis of our seating and we had to choose an animal making noise for our group in the song ‘Old McDonalds hada farm, yaya yaya yaay.. We chose Zebra and discovered ‘Zebras make boo boo noise.’ We had lions behind us, who were really roaring, giraffes sitting diagonally to us and were silent. We didn’t like silent animals and hence, we ordered the chickens to dethrone Giraffes and take their places. Chickens really made a Kuckoo noise, but while singing the song, we all thought the chickens had got roasted since they were the most silent group. After the chickens, it was puppies group and puppies got the loudest, 2 mics helped them. :p

After the McDonalds song, here it came ’30 Seconds to Fame.’ We were told that we had to introduce ourselves to the fellow bloggers in the meet. From previous blogger meet posts I had gone through earlier, I had known that not everyone gets a chance in it. The Introvert and sleeping-blogger Simar just kept hoping, mera naam na aaye. And yeh lo, bomb blast, 3rd name was mine. Well, had to follow rules of the game. Introduced myself before the fellow bloggers, confessed that the blogger was on sleep mode and also promised that kumbhkaran nind se jaldi jaagega. However, it was again good to know about the fellow attendees at the meet. I got to know the book reviewers (Manjulika), movie reviewers (Mansi, Murtaza), Tech Bloggers (Prashant), Mommy Bloggers (Naam nahi yaad, apologies), Photo Bloggers (Kriti), Pro Bloggers (Passey Sir) etc. etc.

In a further series of events, the sponsor HP took up the stage and introduced their new product, the HP Ink Advantage printer. While we were attending an amazing meet, the printer was equally amazing. The lovely lady from HP showed us the features of it, and we were quite amazed with the quality of printing and going by HP claims, the economy of printing. We were also introduced for the funnnnnnn part of the meet, the B’day Party.

We were asked to be in a group of 15 and we had to plan a B’day party with a pre-decided theme. We were being given around 30 minutes to plan a B’day party. We were asked to give our group a name and guess what, I proposed our group to be named, Zebra ka Debra. Humne ek baar agar zebra ko pakad lia, uske baad hum zebra ki b nahi sunte.  The group liked it and well, that was our official name. J We really took Shahrukh Khan kinda dialogue seriously that ‘Yeh 30 minute tumhari zindagi k sabse keemti 30 minute honge and inhein tumse koi taaqat nahi cheen sakti. And here we go, the Time starts now. We got the Circus theme. Yeh zindagi ek circus hai aur hum is circus k joker, this was all we thought and started giving shape to our bday party. We were busy filling balloons, making balloon clowns, getting some fotos clicked ourselves being clowns, decorating the table, designing the invite etc. etc. apart from lot many other activities which did not feature ultimately though. The funniest part for us was that we thought we had to do the b’day party as well during those 30 minutes and we ultimately had our party majorly over by the time judgement was to be done.  No worries on which way the results went, it was meant to be enjoyed and each one of us enjoyed it to be fullest. Quoting Kriti here, we had ‘some pure unadulterated fun’.

Zebra ka Debra had taken Vidya Balan quite seriously when she said, Movies 3 vajah se hit hoti hai, entertainment, entertainment and entertainment. The fun and entertainment part was the highlight of Zebra ka Debra circus. J

After finishing our part, we also had a look at other groups’ performances. Highly innovative, highly decorated, and highly creative. That are the words I had for them. We had pirates of the carribean celebrating their bday party, we had the little mermaid in a bday party, there was a bday party wherein all the planets had also featured in.

With the announcement of bday party fun time results, we got the return gifts, IndiBlogger Tees and tasty tasty food.

Had entered in the hall akele akele and left the hall with many new friends, new experience, great memories and IndiBlogger tee as well. :p

However, before I sign out, I just want to sing the Race 2 Song,
Meri Pehli Blogger Meet,
jo rahi thi puri hit..
aur crazy quotient b tha fit,
it was fun on our mind.
Mujhe toh teri lat lag gyi, lag gyi.
Zmana kahe lat yeh galat lag gyi.
But Mujhe toh teri lat lag gyi

Already looking forward for the next IndiBlogger meet. J

And yes living up to my promise, the sleeping blogger is back.


P.S. Had no idea to carry a Digicam with me to capture the fun, so could not use any pics in the post. Anybody having the meet pics can surely share the pics, would love to retain those memories. J

Saturday, June 15, 2013

WeChat ka Dream!!

While I was into my world of dreams yesterday, I dreamt of a genie, named WeChat who allowed me few wishes if I wanted to connect with few people and have interaction with them. I just thought it to be a nice chance to interact with few personalities, which I have always been wanting to.              
1.       Madhuri Dixit – Starting with the lady luck, I asked WeChat Genie for a smile I have always been loving, Madhuri Dixit. Even while I am writing this post narrating my dream yesterday, I can see that always beautiful and awesome smile on TV. I would like to know how she can be so graceful always wearing a beautiful smile. Given a chance to interact, I will use Personal Messaging facility to seek an opportunity to meet her in person. Nevertheless, WeChat genie also told that I could use Video Chat facility to talk with her.

Jab tak in-person na sahi, tab tk Video Chat pe hi guzara kar lenge.

2.       Amitabh Bachchan – Continuing my wishlist, I asked WeChat genie to connect me with Amitabh Bachchan. I have been a big fan of his humble nature. He immediately connected me to Big B, who was supposedly busy shooting for Kaun Banega Crorepati. While I wished to connect with him to know the reason behind his humility and if the same could be incorporated into our own lives, he started asking me few questions, which I answered and I got a wild card entry to the show.  

Yeh toh Sone pe Suhaga ho gea.

3.       Chacha Chaudhary (Comics Character) – Going back to my childhood days, WeChat genie was asked to connect me with Chacha Chaudhary. I had heard that his brain works faster than computer. I just wished to know that in this era of highly fast processors, whether the fact of his brain working faster than computers still holds valid. Not only was I curious about this fact, I was equally curious to know more about Saabu, his partner, who had come from Jupiter and Raaka, his enemy who will not die due to some 'amar' dawa. Knowing more about Saabu's land, and knowing that Jupiter had life would definitely excite NASA scientists as well. I will also earn a reward for communicating the fact to NASA.

Sone pe Suhaga Part II.

4.       The inner self, Simardeep Singh – Looking to connect to people world over, I noticed we spend too less of our time interacting with ourselves, which is one of the most important interactions one should have on a regular basis. So, it was time to connect with myself.  I noticed that connecting with the inner self didn't only relax my mind, but also eased all the stress and tensions present in my mind.

Duniya bhar se milne ka tym hai, par khud se milne ko hi waqt nahi.

But before I could chat further with my inner self, my world of dreams just broke up and I woke up.  I realized that WeChat is a Global Mobile app providing chat platform to users across different platforms. WeChat offers many unique and innovative features that offer the users to get more out of any mobile chat app available in the market. I had been thinking about the contest being run by WeChat, the whole night and consequently, I dreamt of the same. But when I recollected, I remembered that I could connect with just 4 people in my dreams, so I just thought to close the list.

5.       WeChat Jury – Finally, when I began to think, that to close my list, whom I should connect to, I got along a great idea to connect with WeChat Jury, who will sit to decide the winner. I will like to know about the criteria they would be considering to choose the winner. Further, I have been listening a lot about Spot fixing in the news these days. Possibly, we can also strike a deal between us and reserve a prize for myself.

Well, that's a small list of the people I would like to connect with on WeChat, but since it is a multi-featured application, I believe it will be helping me a lot in socializing in my own unique, creative and innovative ways. Mr. Shiv Khera has said, "Winners don't do different things, they just do things differently." It seems WeChat took this quote seriously and has incorporated many new and unique features within itself to emerge as a champion app.

Sayonara.