It's NOW or NEVER for the citizens of TamilNadu

The following has been written on the base of another article "The political fallout of natural disasters" that was written taking into account the Human Emotions After a disaster.

The political fallout of natural disasters

Quoting a para from the article:
"Looking at presidential elections between 1952 and 2004, they find that county-level tornado damage leads to a decline in the incumbent party’s presidential vote share. That sounds like blind retrospection, with voters blaming whoever happens to be in office when disaster strikes."

We are talking about making use of the vulnerable state of mind of the citizens to build a Political Party for the better interests of the State and its citizens. The recent floods have thrown in a lot of topics to be put on the table for a debate and the most prominent one is the efficiency of the Government (of any state as a matter of fact) in dealing with a disaster of unprecedented proportions. While we cannot completely blame the government for losses incurred due to the flooding, the government can be held accountable for its shoddy Disaster Management policy and lack of urban planning. And considering the State of TN, the government cannot blame the previous regime either because the 'party in office' was voted to power thrice since 1991. Everything happens for a reason, and perhaps an initiative now can change the dynamics of TamilNadu politics. AAP was born out of a revolution against corruption (IAC movement) and the timing of its inception was what helped its growth (mostly). Though AAP failed miserably later it can be still be used as a case-study for 'How not to mess up First-time Politics'. I believe the below reasons are good enough for a new Party to succeed.

1. The timing. Given the fact that the assembly elections are due in the next few months, there is hardly enough time for the people to forget and forgive.
2. The two top parties are levelled with corruption charges. Until the beginning of 2015, the 'Ruling party' still held the edge over other parties with several welfare schemes, but the Mathematical Joke in the verdict of Disproportionate Assets case by Justice CR Kumaraswamy left a few scratching their heads. Also acquisition of a multiplex (a threat to entrepreneurs) and the manner in which they handled the recent crisis are all setbacks for the Party in Power.
3. The insensitive manner in which all the political parties reacted to the recent disaster has left the citizens fuming (This is evident in the many videos that surfaced recently). The effectiveness of social media and the potential of the young are grabbing eyeballs and 'The need for change' is becoming the talk of the town.
4. Apart from the two giants in TN politics, the other political parties are literally insignificant and have nothing to boast of as achievements.

"Revolution isn't smashing something, it is bringing forth something."
-Joseph Campbell (American Writer)

One reason why this cannot happen is "Screw Politics.Lets all just mind our business."

The Internet owns TIME !!

I am deprived of sleep and time. Courtesy: smartphones.

The alarm on my phone went off. Two hours after dawn break, four hours after I fell asleep, fifteen snoozes later; I woke up feeling disoriented. I cursed myself yet again for sleeping so late and unplugged my mobile from the charger cable. First things first, I turned on the wi-fi connection on my mobile so that it would sync data on all apps by the time I take a leak (productivity level: unbelievable). I can never stop thinking and that sums up 80% of my problems; the two minutes in the restroom involves the first brief recollection of the happenings of yesterday that could have possibly stirred a global revolution while I was asleep. And I can only control my anticipation until I flush yesterday's beer down to the sewer. I walked to the basin picking up my phone on the way (NO ! I didn't wash my hands yet,so you might want to reconsider your thoughts of asking me for my phone) and washed my hands before I picked up the brush (brush is clean,but you wouldn't ask for my brush!!). Brushing with the right hand and browsing whatsapp on the other saves a lot of time, so by the time I am done with brushing whatsapp is off my 'must-check-apps' list. Still 48 more to go but I don't have 48 daily activities in a day (sadly). I then walk to restroom (this time you know why) with phone in hand. Before I get under the shower facebook, twitter, quora, pinterest, instagram, snapchat are off the list (I check only notifications at this point of the day and so this daily activity could be termed the most productive one). I throw my mobile onto the bed and finish bathing in 3 minutes (#done #fastestActivity #noMobileInHand). I get dressed as I reply to few priority messages on whatsapp and then get the milk from the refrigerator to pour it into a bowl of cornflakes (Quick Breakfasts are the need of the hour). The whatsapp group texts are annoying and funny at the same time (the people are annoying, the fights and gossips are funny) and I love being the ignored one in those groups. Done with breakfast. And Hola !! I am off to work !! I prefer public transport as I can travel with lot many potential girlfriends, to be film-stars, rich people with money to give-away, possible friends who can help me in a crisis, few interesting people and many other caricatures while I confine myself to the window seat browsing my mobile peacefully.

The other day a fellow traveller made a ruckus after getting pickpocketed and then there was an incident where a 20 something guy got slapped by a 18 something girl; there were no witnesses to what happened before these instances but the aftermath of these incidents were uploaded as videos and the whole world including me were passing judgements on the happenings. That's just a different story altogether. So I manage to get to office 15 minutes late and walk straight to my place (no social interactions on my way.Phew!). I hardly do anything other than check emails after which its just 8 hours of 'what to do' thoughts. My office has blocked all third-party sites because it kills productivity, so all of us have to browse them on their mobiles. The only interactions I ever come across at office is 'I am going to get some coffee, you need some?', 'there is a new chick in the office', 'we have a new manager'; sadly the latter two occurs rarely. Anyway, office hours are boring if you don't have a smartphone because I am convinced that am surrounded by idiots and conversations with any of them are pointless. There are certain apps which consume your time in hours; so while at office, when am pretty sure I got a lot of free time I set my alarm to 6pm and get on 9GAG after which comes twitter. So my day at office is done and on my way home I fall asleep in the metro (once when I was about to get down an old man told me 'must have had a hectic day at office.Get some sleep son.'), and I went and slept for 8 straight hours. And the dawn breaks and snoozing begins..

There are few days when something or the other inspires us, someone becomes a motivation factor, diabetes threat asks for exercise to be incorporated in routine and a crazy desire to enjoy life. But Ain't nobody got time for that. But of course I do my bit for the society by being a part of coastal clean-up drive, contributing and running a 3 km run for a greener city, taking pictures of graffiti and protesting on social media, sharing awareness links on my Facebook wall and signing online petitions. There are criminals, rapists, chain-snatchers, unemployed graduates, eternally aspiring film-makers, 30 year olds awaiting marriage proposals...and I am like 'I hardly get time to sleep'. My parents should be proud..!!!

JUST A CONJECTURE- the FLIPKART story

For the record; though registered in Singapore, Flipkart is an Indian company operating only in India with majority of its workforce being Indians. Why is it registered in Singapore then? For obvious reasons; less paperwork, easy to raise funds and perform acquisitions.

Now my concern; Is Flipkart losing customers more than it gains? We cannot be sure, for the time being as there isn't a worthy competitor yet. But the fact that Flipkart is indeed losing customers is undeniable and the reasons are many. When Flipkart was born, we patriotic Indians had an indomitable love towards it and went crazy over online shopping and thus Flipkart became the poster boy of Indian start-ups and e-commerce sites.(extensively used phrase for Flipkart.Sorry.Couldn't find a better fitting phrase.)

Flipkart which started as an online book store in 2007 gradually expanded their product base. In 2013, they made their entry into the android app market and now are deciding on shutting down their website and adopting a mobile-only platform. We all have been witness to the dramatic growth of Flipkart and have accompanied Flipkart through their ups and downs as Flipkart is consistently re-inventing and certain decisions have gone perfectly against them. In 2012, flipkart launched Flyte digital music store, but had to shut it down the following year as people in India never bought music when they could download or stream music for free. And in 2013 they brought in third-party sellers to get rid of inventory and to increase the number of product choices, however certain sellers did more damage than good to the brand Flipkart (fake MRPs, delivering products of a different brand than the ordered one, charging extra for delivery, delay in shipment, etcetera) forcing Flipkart to introduce seller rating-system and enforcing stricter rules for sellers to gain the Flipkart advantage. Flipkart however controls the end-to-end logistics and customer complaints which comes as a relief amidst other problems. With a hundred other online shopping portals sprouting on the web every single day and the rich Amazon and an astute Snapdeal close behind in the race for the superstar Crown, Flipkart has a lot of striving to do. And Indian customers for sure are hard to please.

Having said all these, does Flipkart still own the trust of Indian shoppers? One major setback which Flipkart faced was the "Big Billion Day" and that has been etched in history forever, a lesson which Flipkart learned the hard way. Flipkart is still facing the wrath of several customers who take up to social media when they find products with fake offers and manipulated MRPs. The BIG question is; Is Flipkart learning from its mistakes? Will they continue to reinvent to stay as favorites?

FLIPKART; will it be the greatest success story or the biggest slump story? TIME knows...

Manipulated MRP & OFFER

Flipkart's Price After Offer is the Actual Price Of Product On The Brand’s Website

Below are few links which you may refer to enlighten yourselves about the FLIP-side story of flipkart !!

First Promising Interview
Is flipkart really the best? Quorans Answer..
The eCOMMERCE Giants !!
FLIPKART exposed on FACEBOOK- one example
Big Billion blunders
Quorans Talk about 'BIG BILLION' sale
APP-only mode!! Seriously?

The guy who wouldn't say 'NO' !!

"It is almost the definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who never inflicts pain."
John Henry Newman

Being male is a matter of birth, Being a man is a matter of age but being a gentleman is a matter of choice. I would say none can teach you to be a gentleman but rather you are brought up that way or it is in your genes. So what it is to be the good guy who is loved by everyone and has very little reason to be involved in any kind of nasty situation.Nasty situation here is too mainstream as we get into the depths of it.
Tracing the gentleman right from birth, the kid doesn't cry over toys that were never bought, doesn’t complain when parents hand over your favorite toys to a  family friend’s kid that comes to your home just because that kid is younger, doesn't complain the routine dish that is on the dinner table every other day, doesn't complain the lack of new dresses as every dress was inherited from the elder ones, doesn't complain the infinite trips to holy places, doesn't complain if parents of his friends get them pieces of technology while he is still made to play with yesteryear's mechanical toys, doesn't complain if he is made to attend extra classes to improve score while his friends join karate and basketball classes, doesn't complain when he is asked to choose a high school of his parents choice, doesn't complain when he is brainwashed to see engineering as his dream career, doesn't complain when his ‘tour with friends' quota for an year ends with the first tour and is asked to study while his friends go on with hundreds of other tours, doesn't complain when he is asked to prepare for government job entrances but still asked to sit down for interviews of IT companies, doesn't complain when he gets selected for IT company and his preparations lose momentum, doesn't complain when he fails to find a job that he loves, doesn’t complain when he is used as an email-bot in his company, doesn't complain when he finds innovation at his job has already gone reached the brim and all of those were what a 12 year old could have accomplished, doesn't complain when he is used by his colleagues to skip work, doesn't complain the innumerous financial losses incurred coz of friends, doesn't complain coz he forgot to enjoy life, doesn't complain coz he forgot to find a girl of his own, doesn't complain when the girl his parents chose turns out to be a disaster, doesn't complain the failing marriage despite innumerous attempts to revive it, doesn't complain when another gentleman is born and doesn't complain when death comes so slow so as to make him realize he had not been a gentleman rather a coward who couldn't say NO.

Work is Calling !! Life can wait !!

Job hunting is very tedious and everyone knows it. So if you had a job and if you didn't like it, you obviously get a dilemma over to quit or not. As a matter of fact when you start hating your job there are zero chances of you ever liking it again. Ultimately when you raise your idea to quit, people around you would have various opinions over your decision and most would recommend you to stay as long as you find a better job or even worse ask you to stick to it and fake your loyalty to move up. The former is an acceptable opinion while the latter is a disgusting reason.

I have been through this drama as I was in a job that my mind,soul and body hated equally. And I stuck to my decision to quit. For a week I was happy that I took a brave decision, but as two weeks passed by I was wondering if it was a dumb decision. While thousands are still job-hunting I just quit a job that I had. I was an on-campus recruit and never really had a clue that I would land up in this kind of job. I was a voice agent in a tech support team for an american retail corporation. Initially I took up this job as a challenge and worked my way to it, but then I realized customer service was not my forte and guys customer service is not that easy and my end users were Americans; enough said. There was so little that I could learn from my job and within two months I knew I hated this job and by continuing here I was doing injustice to myself and my firm. I quit immediately before I was even assured a job elsewhere. I had no idea of my future. I have always taken life as it comes and even this time I hoped life would throw something at me and it did (else I wouldn't have written this article). I wrote a simple test, cleared and got into an IT company. Given the fact that I have never planned for any kind of life's events this job offer came as a surprise as me clearing the test was totally unexpected.

Now what did I do to deserve a job within two months of me quitting a high-paying job from an MNC.  I have no idea... But I knew one thing for sure. I was honest with the job I had and my decision to quit was intentional and I trusted my gut instincts. Gladly everything paid off and since am not a atheist I would even agree to the fact that the prayers of my parents and friends contributed to my success as well (all the time!!).

P.S: If you are eager to work on a Monday morning then you are having a successful career.

Admirable Movies and Despicable Awards

Asianet film fare awards 2014 is the biggest joke played by the leading Malayalam channel Asianet. None of the Asianet film fare awards ever made sense and this time it turned out more sour and boring as half of the awards didnt have any nominations and most of it were given to please the top actors and their lineage (No surprises there). They could have instead skipped the awards and made it a stage show to entertain the Dubai crowd, the TRP would have remained the same. This is not the first time that a channel is being criticized for conducting sloppy Awards function, but the fact that Asianet has remained adamant throughout the years and have adopted "Never learn from critics" attitude is surprising. The fact that Asianet is still the top selling channel is very reassuring for them.

Asianet seems to be in love with SRK as he was brought in for the second time for the annual film fare, the previous being in 2012. He was honored with awards like International Indian Icon in 2014 and Millennium Actor in 2012, the awards are as amusing as it sounds. The most annoying thing Asianet did was bring in a legend like Kamal Hassan and party all through the show with SRK. While Asianet could have at least tried to respect the hierarchy of Indian film industry, they didn't even keep up the dignity of an awards show; Kamal Hassan was given a namesake award called Best Tamil actor ( it couldn't get anymore ridiculous) and forgotten for the rest of the event. I badly wish Kamal Hassan never acknowledges any film fare invites from Mollywood anymore.

Coming to the actual purpose of the event: Awards. Asianet film fare awards are predictable like the months in a calendar year and the fact that everyone will go home with an award is like giving "Thank you" gifts at marriage parties. The best actor award is always reserved for Mamooty and Mohanlal as the primary concern is to pamper these two superstars. And film fare awards 2014 didn't see any of the other popular stars of the industry like Mukesh, SureshGopi, Jeyaram. I wonder why in the world is Asianet hosting film fare when they can't accommodate stars of the home film industry. Instead of playing hosts to gimmicks of "The Badshah of Bollywood" of whom the malayalees are already getting bored with, they could at least conduct a decent awards night and give away deserving awards at least once.

The above is the list of awards given for the best actor every year. It was 12 years back that an actor apart from the regular two won this award. Though either of these actors were deserving on some occasions, that wasn't the case every year. It explains a lot.

Conservative DAD. Liberal SON.

Old people wary of social media should at least be aware of the fact that what they see on print and visual media alone is not absolutely true and should be ready to embrace any difference in opinion with people active on social media. Television shows these days are predominantly biased on a particular issue and are merely portraying it loud. Unfortunately people judge the legitimacy of the news by the celebrity value of the journalists. And most of who are actually being questioned on their credibility. If I could name a few it would be Karan Thapar, Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Sagarika Ghose, Shobba De....Now that the terms like "Paid Media" and "Ruling Party's Spokesperson" have come into existence the actual purpose of Journalism has faded into oblivion. And its truly disheartening to see intellectual people speaking absolute nonsense and defending shitty policies.

In a country where "Freedom of speech" is just a figure of speech I guess Karan Thapar has made the most of it. Gone are the days when people blindly trusted print and visual media. And journalists like Karan Thapar would remember those as the Glory Days of their lives. Karan Thapar is a typical example of an Over Confident journalist who puts words into the mouth of the interviewee and then pulls them out. He is in fact a smart Journalist who knows how to play the cards and dominate an Interview. In all his interviews instead of asking questions he projects his perception of things and demands an explanation.

In this Interview with a BJP leader Ravishankar Prasad, Karan Thapar questions the infamous "Puppy analogy" made in a statement by Modi. Karan Thapar claims that it has caused communal issues in the country and has already sparked an outrage among Muslims against Modi. While none of his claims are true he makes an allegation that is far beyond any logical explanations that could be deciphered from the actual incident. The sad thing is certain section of the society who are at peace with everyone, after seeing this piece of interview believe that it has indeed hurt their sentiments and develop hatred against Modi and other fellow beings, meanwhile the purpose of the interview is achieved.

Media is aimed at a target audience who is susceptible to the content shown on TV and are prone to take decisions based on a fair number of opinions of their favorite TV shows.  While urban people active on social media are aware of these kinds of media drama, the majority still lurks in the dark and are hardly bothered to investigate beyond the opinion of TV shows.

There was a time when we were all awestruck by our dads inference on any political issue in the country. Nowadays its the other way around. While everyone has the right to have an opinion of his own; you can at least make your opinions loud enough to sort out any in-differences within the family.

Be aware, Be rationale.

Here is another video in which Sagarika Ghose is left speechless by Ram Jethmalani: