Made for Maids

Maids form a major part of any Indian household. They are an indispensable lot that people can live without their spouse but not without their maids. Maids are feminine in nature, but most of the housemaids in cities are men. They are classified and named as ‘Ramas’ for unknown reasons. So much so that a person whom I met recently during a launch program happened to be from Dungarpur, a place in Rajasthan where most Ramas originate. He introduced his native with a disclaimer that he is not a Rama. With a Louis Philippe shirt and trouser, an expensive blazer and at the lobby of a four star hotel, I felt like slapping him when he exempted himself from the tribe as if I am a fool not to know that.

They do the daily routine chores like mopping, washing utensils, etc., which are a DIY in any western country. Mops in India are so badly designed that they don’t work under normal circumstances. Dishwashers have not been made for India since cooking here involves a lot of indiscipline, leftovers and the utensils are made of stainless steel, aluminium, copper and metals that a dishwasher refused to accept at one point of time. I am told made for India dishwashers are now available.

But what makes maids so important in an urban life is its over dependency. Cooking is an art long forgotten now. The old method of homemade food is out. Instead, it is now the servant made food that today’s generation have got the taste of. Many traditional food items have gone off the shelves of our home. Our grandmothers are now fed with Pizzas instead of they teaching their good old method of cooking.

Socially Generated Content - Paid Media

Oh. Today is Journalism day. Never knew despite being one. Always knew they had all the 365 days with them.

Paid media is a common norm among people who have no knowledge about the media. Who pays them who is being paid are all transparent to everyone but selective amnesia is a serious issue. Not a single expose has been carried out by party mouth pieces. Mainstream news streams are blamed by parties being hand in glove with other parties. Here is a useless conversation from Facebook :

Shivkumar Ganesan All this paid media should bury themselves. Violating the journalism code of conduct.

Binu Alex You mean the clear notion of Pioneer, Saamna, TV18, Niticentral. Yes I agree for the first time. And also to the perceived notion of some other media houses as well.

Shivkumar Ganesan Thank you Binu for agreeing with me for the first time I guess.

Binu Alex But it comes with a disclaimer: You should not read or share or believe in anything that the so called paid media gives to you. If media is paid, why are you reading those paid articles.

Shivkumar Ganesan I agree. But you tell me which newspapers which should I read. Media houses take one side of another. Readers like me have left with no option.

Binu Alex No. Wrong. All these months I have been trying to explain you this but you were awed by a single personality. To be objective, first thing is to remove this party politics and see the merit. And look at the merit on the basis of performance not percept...See More

Shivkumar Ganesan Please dont put the onus on me. Do you think is it possible for a common reader like me ?    6 January at 17:24 · Like
    
Binu Alex Onus is on you because you can understand and has exposure. For people with no such qualities, it is impossible, I agree

Shivkumar Ganesan Though Pioneer might have right leanings and vice versa for The Hindu. Media house keep changing their leanings now and again. I am told that firstpost.com is right leaning which from TV18 which is congress funded.
That makes reader like me confused.

Binu Alex Tv18 and first post are same group

Shivkumar Ganesan Correct. Why they are supporting opposing parties ?

Dhavan Desai Y not, ndtv, outlook , timesnow and all other mouthpieces as well.. u r being selective .. Binu Alex

Binu Alex Mukesh Ambani is the max stakeholder.

Binu Alex For records sake they are the sources with maximum exposes in the last 10 years.
Pioneer or Saamna did not expose a single scam of govt
Check your facts Dhavan Desai

Dhavan Desai Hahaha, selective manipulation at its best..
Binu Alex Just tell me where do get all the info? From the same mouthpieces
Dhavan Desai Ndtv is in losses, still running , am not sure who is paying for it..
Binu Alex Answering my query will solve it
Binu Alex That is not the answer
Dhavan Desai No, i watch them and am intelligent enough to read betn lines..
Binu Alex This is hypocrisy

NOW WITH NO CONTENT TO RESPOND, THE SUBJECT GETS CHANGED OR DIVERTED

Dhavan Desai Dekh yaar tu vapas senti ho gsya.. point samaj, war mat star kar..
Binu Alex You either don't watch them bcos they are mouthpieces or watch them and not make judgements
Shivkumar Ganesan Problem with you Binu you gets too emotional when I argue with you on paid media. Please defend for yourself dont defend for other paid media.

AND HERE COMES A THIRD PARTY

Binoy Samuel Journalism day ?? How come no body knows about this day ? Maybe Archies cards didn't get the information, otherwise they would have promoted it. So today Arnab Goswami might be at his grilling best as this day belongs to him as do all other days ! But today it is bound to be something different. Anyway, I overheard a person who was saying that he has arguments and heated discussion with his wife during the Arnab Goswami show as their quarreling voice gets subdued in Goswami's shouts of " Don't dodge the question". One more reason for TRP.

Can a state High Court in India rule for the entire Country? - SGC

Can a state High Court in India rule for the entire Country?

I was intrigued about this :
Delhi High Court allows nationwide release of Madhuri Dixit-starrer 'Gulaab Gang' tomorrow
How can Delhi HC have jurisdiction over other states? Is it Supreme Court Part II
Can Gujarat High Court allow something in Rajasthan?
If yes, why do we have hierarchy of courts in each state?
Ignorance, you know, is a bliss

I asked Aditya Yagnik, a second generation and young Law enricher and my neighbor about this and this is the series of Facebook Posts he responded to

The reason being the plaint (suit) with regard to the objection would have had been filed before the Delhi HC and the verdict has been passed by it as its due course, ofcourse there is a remedy to this, Delhi HC's order can be challenged before the Hon...See More
30 minutes ago • Like
since the dipute is pertaining to a movie release in India , in such instances it always happens that the portrayal of the movie tends to dismember or hurt the sentiments of a group of individuals, in such instances where "public interest"...See More
So other courts doesnt have this "Original Jurisdiction"?
All State HC's have the original jursidiction under Art 226

Binu Alex Which means all state HCs can have national jurisdiction.
They can pass judgements that is applicable to other states too?
What if a State wants exemption from such a ruling by saying it doesnt apply to us. For eg, if Hindi is made compulsory in India by Delhi HC, can Tamil Nadu court say, it doesnt apply to us

Aditya Yagnik Yes Delhi HC can pass judgments which can be applicable to other states
An individaul state claiming an exemption can knock the doors of their respective HC but the onus shall be on them
High Courts of the state are constituted under the provisions of the Constitution of India, hence their ruling can be made applicable to entire India if prayed for
A petition (suit) is filed in a court of law, which is followed a prayer , which herein means what remedy you seek, now if you pray for a release say within the territory of Delhi, then it can be ruled accordingly, but if prayed for an all India release, DELHI HC CAN GRANT you....
Take for instance the Naz foundation .....sec 377 IPC gay rights, that was filed before Delhi HC, and ruled by it
And also to let you know if u seek exemption in your state HC , if the judgment of Delhi is passed and that two by a division bench, it shall have a persuasive value.
Decision of any High Court binding on all subordinate authorities and Tribunals throughout India until contrary view is taken by other HC
And the bottom-line is the "prayer".. What remedy are you seeking?

Thank You Aditya. This clears my doubt

SGC Denotes - Socially Generated Content

Local Language - Socially Generated Content

When our own CM is not speaking the mother tongue in his own state for the fear of not being understood on TV in other regions, what can we expect others to preserve the language. But what Bhasha is doing is something unimaginable and something that state should have done. If we dont preserve our language - especially the spoken ones with no lipi - it will vanish

Sanjil Chandani Our CM is trying to talk to India and India still runs on Hindi...

Dhavan Desai Since when he became your CM ?

Binu Alex Whoever it may be or however bad a person be, we have to respect the chair people are voting for. Liking or disliking is a personal matter

Dhavan Desai Bhai binu, tu pehle yeah bata, koi gujarat ke bahar se aayega aur ham uske saath aisa vyavhar kare jo log tamil nadu, kerala mein karate to tere ko kaisa lagega.. in simple english, try speaking hindi not even gujarati in south and u know how they re...See More

Binu Alex Boss your outlook seems to have got narrowed down. It is only Shiv Sena and MNS allies of BJP who creates ruckus. Lakes of Gujjus live and prosper in TN and Kerala peacefully

Here the issue is language and if a person speaks Hindi at Bechraji there is nothing illegal only that it emphasized my point of language love

Hindi is a forced language in India put to practice by the likes of Nehru. Dravidian culture has nothing to do with Hindi or Urdu

Disclaimer : I am not opposed to Hindi

People in TN are opposed to Hindi not Hindi speaking people

Try implementing Tamil as official language in Gujarat

Dhavan Desai So what is the diff ? This is our national language , everyone cant speak your language and English how do u expect them to communicate? People live and prosper especially gujaratis because they adapt and adopt the culture and do not abuse the system there..

I know u r not opposed to hindi but u r opposed to namo.. which is fine..

My point to u is that dont take your hated for him to a level where u lose semblance of right and wrong..

Binu Alex That is my personal issue. I cannot be opposing him when I am asked to report on anything

Dhavan Desai Hindi is not a forced language. If u understand devnagari which is originally a lipi..and majority of Indian languages and not dravidian selective understanding have come from dev nagari..

Binu Alex My dislike is not for a person but the blind faith people put on any individual and not questioning even legitimate questions

Then technically Sanskrit should be our national language

Dhavan Desai Let me count , hindi, marathi, konkani, gujarati, marwari, sindi, kutchi..punjabi and haryanvi are from devnagari..I may have missed some..

Tu wapas galat raste pe ja raha hai..dont hold wrong end of the stick. .

So let me tell u.. sab kuch sahi hota to ram rajya or in your language utopia hota. He is also human. .give him his due.. Tell me except tripura where is the comparison. .

Binu Alex Given. Stamped and sealed

Dhavan Desai Even tripura has law and order problem. .

Nahi. Aise surrender mat kar..accept willingly.. we are in a democracy. 

Binu Alex Indo-Aryan languages is spoken by 73% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 24% of Indians. There is no consensus for a specific time where the modern north Indian languages such as Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Sindhi and Oriya emerged, Each language had different influences.

You will be surprised Hindi being strongly influenced by Persian.

Anti Hindi riots of 60s took place in TN, the Drividian movement of 60s was largely based on Anti Hindi theme. No other southern state is as hostile to Hindi as TN is. AP, Karnataka, Kerala all are fine with Hindi.

Hindi is the only language where Central govt spends hundreds of crores for nothing leaving all other languages in limbo.

Political Comfort Zones - Socially Generated Content

 Modi Denies an Interactive session

Getting out of comfy zone and answering questions not to his liking is something you have to live up with Modi - as a CM or as a PM

Bijal Shah : The issue is that our country is plagued with Critics - all types who feel that they have fundamental rights to critics anything and everything that happens / does not happen. If Modi decided to do a Google hangout he is criticized but if he avoids a FacebookTalk...still he is criticized. Who will decide his priorities...media / himself. Secondly, talk & debates do not change situations, it is the hard work, clear intentions and determination of a person that leads to change. Inviting Modi and trying to show / expose his weakness ( if any) will not lead to any gain for the country / any individuals.

Binu Alex: Vladimir Putin is hard working, has clear intentions and determination, but is his action justified? May be yes to some no to others. Just like a person's freedom fighter may be another person's terrorist. Determination has nothing to do with target.

Public figures are open to scrutiny. Private people are not. So I may choose not to open my mouth but Modi can do only at his peril. In the last decade, the PM in waiting has not conducted a single interaction with open public - leave alone any press meetings - because he cant handle uncomfortable questions. And the great walkouts when faced with such questions are legendary now.

Correct. Talks cant change the country. But if talk & debates do not change situations, why is he touring the entire country at tax payers money just talking and debating?

The Google Hangouts were talking to his supporters and obviously you cant expect them not to ask unprepared questions. As a Modi fan, if you are given a chance to ask him a question will you ask this?

Sir, અમદાવાદનાં રામોલ વિસ્તારમાં દસમા ધોરણની વિદ્યાર્થિની પર બળાત્કાર
What are you doing to stop such increasing incidents in the state?

The burden on People in Gujarat to prove the exaggerated development model to people outside is proving to be painful now

A Chennai resident actually toured Ahmedabad and wrong this first person account which many didnt like calling him moron. 

Is Modi a man of Development?

Some interesting observations

Shalin Sheth: This guy is scoring his personally. He is bullsheet to compate abad with patna. A stupid guy he is.

Bijal Shah: I agree shalin....seems to be some moron / asshole. Binu stop sharing such useless and stupid articles written to please somebody rather than presenting facts,
 
Binu Alex: BTW, who has been to Patna? I have not been and so I can’t compare?
Comparison with any other city is not the issue here. The issue is Ahmedabad is yet another city with all the advantages and disadvantages and uniqueness. Please don’t come here think...See More
 
Bijal Shah: I had recently been to Patna....it is so bad that there is just NO COMPARISON...even the railway station looked right out of the Ramsay brothers movies. As you rightly said , AHD is not Singapore....but in comparison with many metros / big cities of India, it still scores higher.
 
Nirendra Dev: the writer if exists should try fiction --- he has a bright future...can join gr magazines too
 
Shalin Sheth : Infrastructure improvement in last 10 years abad is second to delhi as accepted by union govnment. Abad third fastest growing city in the world as per forbes 2010 after chengdu and chongqing. 5th in world 2011 as per forbes. Narendra modi cant change the physique of people and so not the traffic and not cleanliness in roads. Forget patna kol bangluru and chennai has no compare. We have many over literate guys in this country like the guy who wrote this stupid article.

Puzzling. If Modi is so popular among the youths, how did NSUI swept Gujarat University elections? Diya Tale Andhera?

Samir Varier: Consolation Prize! Lol !

Rajesh Kumar Sharma:  बडे बडे खेलो मै छोटी छोटी हारे हुआ करती है .........घबराने का नहि........

(There is always a defence for every offence)

 Shape of Future "Attack on film festival in Kerala's cultural capital shows rising Hindutva presence in liberal state"

Bijal Shah: What happened, which i assume is true, is sad. But i find it very amusing the way the word - HINDUTVA is used. It is as if it means Terrorism !!! Hindutva is a feeling that should bind 100 million people in India - as in HINDUSTAN. Such trivial and regional disparity is what lets the Nation down. Condemn acts, people or organisation but NOT HINDUTVA. 

 This is a WhatsApp Rumour Mongering that went viral

Congratulations..
Aamir Khan is here with a new Entertainment package...
Satyameva Jayate from 2March..
At The End Of the Show he will ask Donations for Humanity Trust..
but, do you know who's trust is this??? What They Do & Why???
Have a Look at the Board Of Directors of this Trust ::
1. Mr. Jagabar Ali.
2. Mr. R. Hakkim Ali.
3. Mr. Fazulutheen.Members of the Board of Advisors are as follow:
1. Mr. M.L. Raja Mohamed
2. Mr. M.S. NASICK
3. Mr. A Ahmed Irzath
4. Mr. S.Abdul Basith

This website says that some of the objectives of their foundation are:-

Masjid Construction assistance. (Bore/construction helps)Placement assistance for Islamic youngsters (notifications about jobs across various geographies

DO VISIT THIS WEBSITE AND CHECK YOURSELF ""Now look at the irony here: people from all over the country belonging to different religions and communities are sending SMSs and making donations, and you can see clearly that money is spent on people of just one particular community and religion – the Muslims!!
Isn’t it unfair that first you are attracting people from different religions on emotional grounds, and when they fall prey to it and give donation, you are using that money for communal purpose without even informing the people where their money is going to be used? How will building mosques and madrasas help our nation? And if it doesn’t then why are people of this country being fooled like this and no one is raising questions? Are only Muslims unemployed in this country? If not then why this step-motherly treatment to people of other religions? See the truth at:
www.humanitytrust.com It is the Hindus who should be taking INITIATIVES in Hindustan and keep the enemy guessing. The others come in only when they see the VACUUM.
Sonia Maino, too, was sucked into this VACUUM of Hindu "Shakti".
There are not too many bad people in India, but the problem is that : There are too many good people in India, who do not speak up about bad deeds, of bad people

HINDUS BEWARE OF AAMIR KHAN'S SHOW "SATYAMEV JAYATE" | Reality Reveal Blog on Speakingtree.in - http://m.speakingtree.in/spiritual-blogs/seekers/self-improvement/hindus-beware-of-aamir-khans-show-satyamev-jayate

Now this is the fact

First of all http://humanitytrust.com doesnt exist. 
Secondly the trust that is referred to is found here
http://www.satyamevjayate.in/every-life-is-precious/humanity-trust.aspx
Dr Ajoy Mistry is the Chairman, Humanity Trust who is obviously a Hindu.
Their website address is humanityhospital.org
Look how many Muslims are there in their Managing Committee
http://humanityhospital.org/about-us/about-humanity-hospital/managing-committee.html
Rs 3.21 crore (approx.) was raised through Satyamev Jayate's viewers and Reliance Foundation by this trust and this is in public domain.
 
On 9th of March, Aamir Khan filed a defamation against this smear campaign.

Details here : http://www.kractivist.org/aamir-khan-lodges-complaint-over-defamatory-campaign-against-him-on-facebook-satyamevjayate/

Steyn on Fire

I had the privilege to watch some of the best West Indian all rounders when I was a kid.Then I enjoyed the pace of Waqar and now the true and mesmerizing bowling is of Dale Steyn. it is a pleasure to watch him run and deliver. Such a treat to watch even replays

Har Ek Friend Paseena Hota hai

I may be excused if I say 90 percent of my friends are hard core Modi bhakts. They make me sweat with their hypocrisy and constant change of goal posts. Very few among them are steadfast and stands to what they believe because they don’t have any other alternative. A few others think Modi is the answer to their problems.

But most of them have this utopian idea that Modi will do the unthinkable and convert India into a nation they dream of – what else than America. But in the last few weeks, I see their nerves breaking down. The more Modi disappears from newspapers and televisions, the more they get nervous. They always thought I am a Congress supporter. And when I was impressed with AAP in Delhi, they perceived that I am not only a Congress supporter but AAP fan too.

I receive nasty Facebook posts from these friends shooting me questions ranging from Kashmir to Teesta asking my response to it. Very typical to the Modi trolls, they fall into the same trap as others ending up confused. The same Kashmiri Pandit and 1984 riots and Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler and the list endless. An eye for an eye doesn’t make you blind but creative is that they taught me.

Since I don’t have many Twitter followers, I don’t get the unparliamentarily devised and innovative deshi barrage as some who criticize the PM aspirant gets.

Today as the AAP office got vandalized, I realised not only my friends but the entire BJP is rattled at AAP. The Chai wala slogan to make the PMO a Kitli has gone out of window, the development plank is in Sabarmati, the nationalist mood is in Narmada, there are few takers for statues, the Gujarat model of development that is supposed to be replicated elsewhere in the country is in doldrums and now the latest salvo is that the personality himself is out of radar. Does this mean you cannot have a revolution in the country by any other than Congress or BJP? Do these two parties along with sundry regional parties – whose aim is to loot their respective regions – have the sole copyrights for our life? You decide a PM aspirant and we have to follow? You spend millions in your makeover or a billion in corporate gifts to favourable businessmen and we should stand as mute spectators?

I was not a big supporter of Kejriwal when he sat on a futile fast with a person whom Indians thought was the second Mahatma. Along with this mahatma came a series of so called public figures that did nothing when they were in service other than fighting their personal cause. This included Kejriwal, of I am not wrong. But when he jumped into the politics, I became his big admirer because you cannot change a system without being in the system. Since AAP’s victory, not a day has passed when they were crucified under instructions from parties who think they have the ultimate authority to rule this country. The poor government in Delhi is fighting to counter the allegations and blame games instead of governing. The sole objective of all the sinister campaign is to stop AAP from emerging as a dark horse in parliamentary elections.

Now let me come back to the friends. They are all close buddies and despite ideological difference, we gel, dine and wine together just as Indian diplomats meet with their Pakistan counterparts.

I will be arrogant if I say most of them are blinded by idolism and false belief. To prove the point I get no answers when I ask them when they last enjoyed the development in Gujarat, the roads, the tourism, the coastal beauty. I have lived here my life – almost 4 decades. That is my age now. Take any city in Gujarat – Let’s start with Ahmdabad the showpiece and upcoming Shanghai. It is nothing but a glorified village with road encroachment as deep as the divider itself. Not a single stretch of road by any imagination where you can go smoothly. Either they are dug up or patch work is done without applying any sense. In the Contractor Economy (where contractors do work for no reason or purpose), the continuous civil work is seen as development by a few. The less you discuss on tourism, the better because there is nothing to discuss other than a Bollywood star shooting some catchy ad and aired in no other place than this state itself. Almost all the roads that the trolls claim to be smooth are national highways.

So by becoming a critic, I am becoming the enemy of the state. That is what the trolls believe. Actually in a civilized society, it should be the other way round. A critic is the mirror in which you should see the actual image. You act on genuine issues and trash the rest. But blinded souls out to make a person godly can’t understand this virtue of ground realties. For the third time, let me come back to the same friends. Some message they spread through messaging applications like What’s App is hilarious and shows the intellectual bankruptcy that we have today. So does this make me an intellectual? Even if you agree, I wont.

Earlier these messages used to be on Rahul, Sonia and Congress attacking their personal life. It also used to sing bhajans on Modi, Subramaniam Swamy and Baba Ramdev and later V K Singh for a certain period. All these Praise the Lord bhajans have disappeared all of a sudden. Now it is Kejriwal, Sisodia and his team. Their credentials, their background, their capabilities are under scanner. A few months back I got a slanderous message with a link to verify. The link, as usual, was not working. When I asked why he forwarded the message without any basis, he was at pains to make me understand that he forwarded it without even reading the message or verifying its truth. So if you happen to receive any Whats App message on any one, you will not be faulted in thinking that their popularity is gaining leaps and bounds.

Oh! For the fourth time I deviated from my friends and went on to unchartered areas. But let me take this chance of deviating for the last time because I may end up saying the same thing again and again. So let me end this useless essay. You are reading this at your own peril. Mind it.

Disclaimer: I am not AAP member, not a Cong supporter nor a BJP biter. These friends still remains the best of friends despite our daily arguments. They are the inspiration and source of this utter nonsense article whose blame I take it on me.

Refreshing and soothing, expect more

It was an April evening last summer though I don’t remember the day or the date. Summer was at its peak and I was sipping a cup of hot tea early in the morning checking mail on the iPad after I got through the newspapers. I got a response to one of the stories that was filed by one of our Content Editors. The response was not about the story but a straight lecture to me how he found our flagship portal, www.commodityonline.com, very useful but very complicated. He had to struggle to find many stories, sections and other details. ‘If you can, he urged in the mail, please make it more useful to people like me because I completely rely on your site for Commodity insights.’ I came to the office after an hour and started soul searching if we could do anything for this person. I went through comments and feedback by others and found at least two more people expressing similar views. There could be many adjusting to the complications. The reason that we had too much content and too less space to display was because our site got evolved over a period of time with new sections, new additions without evolving the basic design. We were putting more stuff into an already cramped space. That day I started my research on how we can present the information, data and the flow of insights in a way that an old man who wrote to me can easily grasp and also how a person with very little knowledge of English could grab. Same evening, I got into Fluid UI, a browser based wire framing and prototyping tool used primarily for mobile touch interfaces. Instead of having a designer working for me under my directions, I got myself into solving the real life problems faced by our current users getting into their shoes and pricking myself with problems without any solutions in sight. For the next 15 days, I drew and trashed at least 500 different prototypes but could not find one that could match what I envisaged as a killer product. Summer was at its peak and I started sitting late to find out a solution. I realized late evening time was better suited to extract more out of me and gradually this got extended to midnight. The iMac started heating up because it got overloaded with huge images and 18 hours of continuous effort. In late May with temperature touching 46 to 48 degree, I got a break in the price display page. It is easy to conceptualize but then you also have to make sure your programmer can code it. Additionally, if at all such a design is possible or not in real life. Also need to ensure all browsers and OS can adjust it. It also need to be fluid so that I can do away with the wap version and give a full version in the mobile platform itself. It also needs to be adjusting to machines like iPads. I searched through visitor behavior to learn where they remain the most. I realized they were stickier to the pricing part than the text part. The lacuna here was the missing link between the price and the related stories and insights. We wanted to plug this loophole first. I wanted the fresh idea to be drawn by a fresh mind. So I entrusted the work to a fresh designer interning with us. Thankfully our senior designer in the tech team came handy to her. In the next seven to eight months, the struggle continued. Gradually, the prototypes were coded and became reality. The idea of having infographics for language neutrality prompted us to put images to commodity names. We put the Commodity prices in bigger fonts and in a more appealing manner and linked everything that is related to the particular commodity or name within the page itself. This will save the person who emailed me the task of searching for his desired news and information. The other issue was to fix the registration page problems. More than a hundred people register for our services every day and many of them find the registration process tough. This is because we have cut the dummy registrations by adding many features. This is being eased in design but not security. Users who want to register with us will have to go through rigorous process. This is being done to cut down non-serious registrants. Since we do not make any cold calling, we need to ensure each person who registers with us gets a call within 2 hours. This new page will be launched shortly. This week, we launched the beta version which is for you to see and comment. It will take a month for us to fix the bugs and complete it and go on to the next idea. For users who were used to our old design will take a little time to come into terms with the new one. But I am sure you will like it. Thank you everyone for your feedback and continue to write to us.

Unless adapted, technology is worthless

After 10 years I landed in Bangalore couple of weeks back to a swanky airport unlike the earlier HAL one. Last time I was at the airport, I could see a couple of television sets informing the arrival and departure of flights and the entire process of information was done manually. This means a person sitting in a PC opened a Power Point and physically moved flight numbers and this was clearly visible to all and sundry at the airport.

Now things are international standards and the best thing here is the Vayu Vajra or the Bus shuttle service. I dont think any other airport has this facility. And despite being the most developed state, the condition at Ahmedabad airport is worse than the worst public bus stands. Even today, you see those primitive Rikshaw guys pouncing upon you and virtually looting you. Many taxi services and systematic planning efforts at Ahmedabad failed miserably. Passengers are now at the hands of the ruffians and despite not being able to manage this petty issue, Gujarat call itself vibrant. But then I had thought why any one from the so called software capital didnt help the airport authorities to automate the system in Bangalore. Or for that matter why the so called great institutions in Ahmedabad, CEPT, IIM, NID failed to give a solution to these problems though they are teaching their students to tackle problems a million times harsh than this?

I called from Ahmedabad to a chain called The Fern where I have a corporate membership to know if I could get corporate rate in Bangalore too. The Ahmedabad Fern staff said they dont have a hotel in Bangalore where as a Fern Hotel exists in Anand Rao circle. The Bangalore guy said they dont have one in Ahmedabad. Oooh La. Why this corporate programme then?

I looked at the Fern Citadel Bangalore site and saw a package which I asked the reception  guy to book and confirm. But he said there is no such package on their website. I went ahead booked online and got the same package. So much for Information Technology and hospitality integration.

Bangalore has changed a lot and so the new areas were alien to me. But then technology also has transformed and there is now all sorts of maps available. I chose Google and Waze to help me through the city. So without any hesitation, I started off to White Field in one of the hundreds of Volvo Services and no sooner I reached the outer ring road, my Vodafone 3G conked off. There was no data service at all. I switched on my other phone and the same result. I had shared my live location to my friend who would be coming to pick me up at Cosmos Mall. But his update showed I havent started my journey at all. The net result - we started sharing location the old way - through calls.

Whatever you term the country of, we are still a century behind where we should have been. I am now at the airport staring at the TV where Mumbai police has revealed they have cracked the Photojournalist gangrape case.

We are not concerned about all what should be. Most of our parties are fighting for petty causes and most of us just support them. I headed to Kochi where last time I was there, I didnt get any data service after Supreme Court banned Vodafone from sharing services from Idea. But to my surprise, I got it this time. may be the court has failed to get reporting from its representatives. 

Path – Record each moment of your life

What do you do when you want to record every bit of your and your dear one's life and share only those which you think is best suited to share?

This is where Path comes in (www.path.com). I have been using Path since a long time and I record every moment of my life including when I sleep and when I am awake in Path. All my fuel expenses, ODO readings, where I am and why I am there are all recorded and the best thing is I share only those which I think is necessary to share. All other activities are private to me and my family and my diaries are private to myself. I have also noted each movie I have seen. You can only have 50 people inside your network. 

In India, Path is not gaining the momentum it is gaining in the western world because we are obsessed with Facebook. We do not have the sensibility of privacy and we tend to share everything publicly. Worldwide it has more than 20 mn users and these numbers are awesome for a company which competes with the like of Facebook and Tumblr.

Available for Android, iPhone and iPad, this is a wonderful App that doesnt allow you to operate on web. You have to do everything on your mobile only. Why it is different from Facebook or Twitter? This is because it gives you the flexibility of privacy.

Now the new Path update comes with Premium subscription. It allows you to create an inner circle. It has also introduced a new feature called ‘Private Sharing’ which allows Path Users to select one friend or a number of friends that they wish to broadcast moments to. Those moments will appear in other users’ feeds with a lock in the upper right-hand corner designating that it was privately shared.

Imagine you have recorded every part of your life for a decade and after a decade imagine the feel of looking back at your life with each moment. This is where Path scores and Facebook fails.

You expect more from Path – especially for premium subscribers as it is in the process of raising up to $50 million more after total of $41 million from investors such as Redpoint, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Index Ventures, First Round Capital, Digital Garage, CrunchFund*, Jerry Murdock, Mark Pincus, Yuri Milner, Allen & Company, Greylock Partners, and other angels. Moreover it is opening its API to partner with content managers to bring more value.