Sanity Insanity and Moi

This one is a general intro to blogging. Its the same one that i did at Wipro but with modifications.

I have the Calvin and Hobbes theme for this one.

This is the Blogging for Business slides. Its Dilbert themed

Never ever did i expect that something that i follow as a passion would get me a chance to conduct a session at one of the best business schools in north India.

Last week-end, i flew to Delhi and on Saturday i was at BIMTECH, Greater Noida, for a session on blogging and the monetary benefits of blogging. The E-Cell of BIMTECH had contacted Mutiny for help and i took the offer.

The session was planned at 6p.m.. You really have to appreciate the guys who study at b-schools, a session at 6p.m. was nothing for them. Other colleges too were invited for the workshop and there were indeed people present at that time of the evening on a Saturday evening.

The session kicked off after a brief intro about the speaker, ahhmmmm that’s me :), and about Mutiny and of course about my friend Mayank (yes its the StudioWordpress guy!!! - http://mayankgupta.com or http://mayank.info ). Mayank was supposed to be on time and help me out with the session, but he was caught up with an emergency Snooker game-session. Well he did turn up to save me for the last 30min :).

I started off at the same grounds from where i started the blogging session at Wipro. Telling them everything that i knew about blogging, etiquette, etc etc. But there was a flaw. Most of the people who were there didn’t know how to start a blog. By ’start a blog’ i mean they didn’t know even how to get a blog at blogger. The lesson - get to know the people and the requirements before we start.

So STOP!!! Get back to the basics. Took them through the live demo of setting up a blog in Blogger. So when all was set, and everyone was on the same page, we were back to where we stopped.

Mayank was just in time as i was getting warmed up with the business side of blogging. Talked about some of the ways that i knew about making money out of blogging. Though i have to mention that i’m too lazy for a blogger that i don’t earn as much as others do, out of blogging.

The idea of a community blog was something new to them. The facts on how Mutiny has grown and maintains itself interested them.

After that it was Mayank’s turn to help everyone with the things that he knows. The way he earns his living was interesting to listen to and i’m quite sure that it would have opened up some idea for those who were listening.

The fact that interested me a lot was the volume of idea that people had for blogging. They all wanted to blog for so many reasons and they just wanted to know how.

Put together the session was one that’s one of the most memorable. I’m taking back some very valuable learnings and some ideas with me.

More pics here

Blogging Wordshop at BIMTECH

If any BIMTECH guys are reading this, i would like you to give me you feedbacks and comments too ..

(Cross-posted here)

2007, India turned 60 and yet She has the vigor and sensuality of a 16 year old. She still has the tenacity and the power to indulge herself in anything. Indians have grown at a tremendous pace in the last 5 years.

2007 bids good bye with the threat of another election looming at large. The Nuclear deal with US is proving to be a bit costly for the Indian National Congress lead UPA Govt. With Gujarat and Himachal polls suggesting that Congress rule at the center is loosing steam, they cant afford to go on an early election. BJP did it and they lost. The question of aam aadmi, is likely to prove costly for INC. There are enough over-the-teacup discussions on politics, lets move on..

In the name of GOD, still proves to be a hindrance in development process, with politicos going to the extend of deliberately forgetting the fact about a Secular state. Wounds of past events are kept fresh. The sad part is that, even the highly educated people fall for such roadblocks. Education is still not able to curb the differences. Yes the literacy rate is up for the Nation from approx 52% in 1991 to 65% in the 2001 census. But yet we heard about infanticide in some of our modern cities.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lets Get an Audience !!!

When was the last time that Bob Dylan made a difference in the way Indians shared, listened and enjoyed music? Or when was the last time that singing ‘Knockin’ on heaven’s door’ to your girlfriend, made a difference to other music lovers? Thats the story of Muziboo. The indian music sharing site.

Yes!!! I know!!! Its INDIAN … . Something by browns for browns.

I know there is Tempostand, and whats so great about Muziboo. Both host and share music, its like the north and south indian sambar! Hell No!!!.

Tempostand is for pure podcasts. Its the best music sharing site. So one can expect a kind of quality that is inherent and not my late night gags. Its the un-crowned indian professional podcasting world. Nothing against Temostand. After all it has two of my friends involved - Woke who did the design and Ujj who did the coding.

Muziboo on the other had, as their punch line says - “Get an Audience” - is more of a community driven music sharing portal. The first of its kind in India. You can make a recording with just about anything (incl. your comb .. if that records) and upload it there. No editing no mixing nothing. Its the basement music that you get. You don’t have to be a professional singer, people are there to enjoy and appreciate your effort. It could be even your version of the hit song too. May be it could be a dedication to your girlfriend. Who knows you might find one at Muziboo???

Besides, you can form your own music community, your fans join in and you create an identity for yourself. And that doesn’t even stop there, you can start your own band and post previews of your upcoming albums too. As the next level in the features, you can expect music tutorials, create a play list of your favorite songs, share the play list and even a widget for you blog/site. Now how cool is that.

Here are the Muziboo finders :

Prateek Dayal who sang Guncha koi and Knocking on heaven’s door which lead to Nithya Dayal who has sung Yellow Submarine-Beatles , Jambalaya and Time of your life

And its the combined interest of music in them that gave birth to Muziboo. (Sounds like a Bollywood movie )

2s, Jo and me are already there - Sandil Srinivasan , Joseph Thomas and Jerry

All the music junkies out here listen to this - Barry - WonderBrawl shared by Bharat Krishna

Like it???

What are you guys waiting for? Come lets play Muziboo …

Saunday morning .. yaawwwnnnnnn!!!! .. But its the day of Barcamp… no sleep… So i dragged my ass out of bed.
Its the day of CAT exams and by the time i woke up, at around 8am all my roommates had in fact left for the test. I have to say that i was one of the first persons to reach.
After a quick lunch with Abhishek Thakkar , who is having this talk on SMS Gupshup, the SMS way of twittering, i’m back in front of the discussion boards.
What is with the WiFi???- It keeps failing at times, on systems for no reason at all and then comes up all by itself.
Now that people are finally arriving and rooms are getting booked up, i see energy again in the atmosphere.
Bloggers decided to have discussion at D4 - 11am. It turned out that Sky was already there. She was trying to set the time zone and the WiFi connection on her laptop. Then people started dropping in thinking its some discussion and Vola!!! everyone is giving a self intro.
Then Nitya of Muziboo, complained that generally indian bloggers are reluctant and unwilling to help someone. She quoted her own experience as an example.
They started the Muziboo and she personally approached bloggers and asked them to do a review on the site and its features. But unfortunately of the 100+ people that she asked only 2 did it for her. This eventually became a hot topic and there indeed some discussion on that. People started dropping by with the noise level that we created. So finally everyone was sorry for the state of affairs and promised to help each other, starting with Muziboo.
Before we knew it was Lunch time and off we go to hog like pigs …

Life hangs in a balance for 90 minutes, 5 days a week. The commute to and from office!!!  Reckless drivers and slow moving traffic. I almost loose my temper when the driver in front applies brakes. But what could be done. Nothing! The ongoing road constructions are just adding on to the problems.

What does it take people to be a little more responsible? In fact NOTHING! But we just precariously chose not to. I tried being a responsible driver, indicators while changing lanes, right speed, obeying traffic rules - till i reached the point where i almost got run over by a ‘i-dont-care-how-i-drive’ truck driver.

The policy of - ‘if you cant beat the problem, be with the problem’ - really works to your benefit here. Last day Sandil a.k.a 2S comes up with the bright idea that Mutineer’s shouldn’t break any traffic rules. Apparently he was really pissed, coz a biker hit is rear-view mirror and bent it in such a way so that the next car driver can groom himself. It seems like ‘SHE’ (his car), looks like JLo without an ear
But what could be the real solution. After much thinking i think i invented a purple cow -

Step 1 : Get the best of the speeding bikers and make them part-time traffic chasers. They go in pairs. Any one breaking the law- hunt them down and fine them.

Step 2 : The existing traffic police should take more bribes. If the fine for jumping the red signal is Rs. 200, then he should demand at least 150, so that he gets a good hand and the next time the driver will remember. Have some self-esteem dear cops.

Step 3 :  Ask people to send in pics/videos of vehicles violating traffic rules. Run a promo - “Report more; Get paid half the sum of the violations”. This can help the unemployed youths too.

Step 4 : Get the local Bhai’s help to handle the traffic at their locality. (may be not - this might spiral out of control)

Please let me make some money; Kindly don’t follow traffic rules.

(The last time i counted - i had more than 100 traffic violations in one single day - that too just to survive. That included - Overtaking from the left side, speeding, jumping traffic lights…)

Remember : In the name of Ram???
The proposed ship route over the Pak Straight between India and Sri Lanka has stirred up quite and uproar. While the government plans at reduced cost and time in traversing all long the Sri Lankan cost to reach the Bay of Bengal ports, we have the religious fanatics spear-headed by BJP, opposing it.

Now every one seems to be in a heated debate over what should be done. People are arguing whether Ram exited or not? We are deliberately owing our subordination as mere pawn in the hands of reckless politicos and in the war of Religious Rascals.

The world has seen no good when such differences are allowed to propagate. I havent understood why they hell do they have to debate over Ram’s existence? Why dont they see the teachings that he has put forward? Ram is epitomized as the perfect man, true to his word and principles and only listed in doing good and helping others.

The old has to give way for the new, whether it be the land owned by you, me or even George Bush. Then why the hell debate on it and cause interruptions in parliament. We already wasted crores of money in the form of parliament interruptions than the money ever required to feed every poor in India.

While we still debate why a bull shitting bull must die or should we waste crores, just to preserve some thing that’s  still being speculated and debated, to be made by GOD.

Ok thats it, i better head home as Bangalore is now flooded, flooding and will be flooded with the heavy down pour. All the roads are practically closed. I don’t see a solution for that any time soon. May be its the GOD’s pee that is coming down, why should we drain it anyway. Let it flood the area, spread cholera, malaria … Oh No … It started raining again and i forgot to get my kayak !!! …

Hey do drop in a line saying which was your fav foto… Foto source (Mine and Sandil)
Comment on each too..

1) An ardent blog-a-lorean

2) Its Arun guys …

3)E-Governance the panchayath way

4) Laurel and Hardy or rather Hardy and Laurel

5)Micro Microblogging

6)The Mutineers

7)bar[camp] over = camping after the bar

Awaiting comments

Two days of exhilarating bliss, a Techies-in-wonderland, final nail in the coffin for the saying “Too many cooks spoil the (what ever)“

Just that everyone had a lot of fun learning. A new definition to fun learning. It was my first barcamp and i’m already looking forward for the next one. Owning to the less number of women participants, there was this opinion of having it at Jyothi Nivas College or Mt Carmel…

I met some very interesting personalities there made hell lot of friends.

So till the next Barcamp in November