Whats up?!

Hey Wassssup?!

And you might say, sarcastically that you see the ceiling, up!

Whoever says this, has a point and all they see in life, may be, is the ceiling. That according to me means that, they might be looking for a secure future. They might even be looking for a roof above their head.

You might ask me, what do we actually need to see when we see up?

I would say, we need to see the SKY, when we see up!

Sky according to me is abundance, the source of endless joy and wisdom. Sky has no limits, sky has no boundaries, sky doesn't even have something called a fence that will obstruct our vision towards what we want to see. Whatever is up there, is up for our visionary delight.

We always keep telling ourselves that "sky is the limit". Do we put this in practice. Do we have that real vision in our minds?

Now, let us all practice by having Sky as the upper limits.

Now let us analyse what else can we see ''up"?

If, for example, you see the ceiling fan, that means you are limiting your vision only to one thing. And that it is revolving inside your head like that ceiling fan. That restricts your vision and hence the possibility to explore further more than that dies out.

So, don't have the vision of Ceiling Fan Up on your mind, as far as you can.

If you don't even see a ceiling, a ceiling fan or the most important and vital Sky in your mind, and all you see is blankness, it means you are either hallucinating that there is nothing which is worthy in this world, you have no vision for your life or you do not intend to have any vision for your life.

I do not believe in new year resolutions. But, since this post on this particular subject has come up in the beginning of the year, I take this opportunity to tell that let us all take this up as our resolution of the year. Let us all try and live upto our dreams, which is sky high. If we do not have any limits to what we dream., then we wont hesitate to try out new things in life. Had the human race not ventured out on trying out new things in life, we wouldn't be in the place and position where we are today.

So, pls tell me, wasssssssssuup!

New Year, New Decade, New Hope!

It is a new year and hope it is a happy one at that

:)

and it is not just a beginning for the new year... It is also the beginning of a new decade.

We all celebrated the beginning with a bang. Well almost all of us.

Hope this isnt as bad a decade as 2000-2009 turned out to be.

the decade gone past had got us reasons to be sad and angry. Be it the WTC collapse or the WMD issue, the killing of Saddam or the recession, the Copenhagen fiasco or many more similar things. India too saw a lot of trouble in terms of political confusion, the attack on Akshardham, the parliament attack, 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2002, the Mumbai floods, bomb attacks in various places like Mumbai, Gujarath, Varanasi, Delhi etc. Even Karnataka saw many troublesome days, like the political confusion created first by Kumaraswamy and then by Reddy brothers recently. The state also had its share of trouble in recent days in the form of floods in the northern part of the state. Dr Rajkumar's kidnap by forest brigand Veerappan, and later Rajkumar's death and the confusion during the cremation. The recent deaths of great Hindustani Classical Singer Gangubai Hanagal, Singer C Ashwath and the Sahasa Simha Vishnuvardhan.

I am not trying to document the incidents of the decade. This is just the recollection of the happenings of the decade in my own way.

The 2012 scare is still looming large and people have more reason to worry since that date is nearer than ever now. Dec 21, 2012 may not be the 'date' with fate. It could just turn out to be the beginning of some more trouble for the planet. This is not because the world is coming to an end. According to me, the world needs to look at the climate issues more seriously than ever, and at least the end of the World syndrome should fuel the fight against the cause of Climate Change to a large extent.

I hope Dec 21, 2012 is not the last day of the World or the Planet.

the previous sentence does not seem as optimistic as I started this article, isn't it?

Kannada Song!

Long time since I have appeared here and this particular post is also long overdue!

Kannada Rajyotsvava was on the 1st of November and this particular song had been done for the same reason. But still, since this is still November month, I deem it fit to put it up RIGHT NOW here.

:)

Please watch the video given below for which I have written the lyrics.

Hope you enjoy the song and write back to me.

I have given the lyrics of the same in Kannada. will try and put up the translation of the same soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgLiZETPRig

ಕನ್ನಡ

ನಾವಿರುವ ನಾಡು ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ
ಎಲ್ಲೆಲ್ಲಿಯೂ ನೋಡು ಮನಮೋಹಕ
ಹೆಮ್ಮೆ ತರೋ ನುಡಿಯು ಈ ಕನ್ನಡ
ಶಕ್ತಿ ಕೊಡೋ ಮಾತು ಸಿರಿಗನ್ನಡ
ನಮ್ಮ ರೋಮ ರೋಮ ರೋಮದಲ್ಲೂ ಕನ್ನಡದಾ ನುಡಿಯು
ನಾಡಿನ ಎಲ್ಲೇ ಹೋಗಿ ನೋಡು ಕನ್ನಡ ಕೇಳುವುದು

ನಾಳಿನ ಬದುಕಿನ ಹಾಡಿಗೆ ಪಲ್ಲವಿ ಬರೆಯಬೇಕಿದೆ
ನಿನ್ನೆಯ ಕನಸು ಇಂದಿಗೆ ನನಸು ಮಾಡಬೇಕಿದೆ
ನೆಚ್ಚಿನ ನೆಲದ ಹಸಿರಿಗೆ ಉಸಿರು ನೀಡಬೇಕಿದೆ
ಕನ್ನಡದಾ ಮಾತನ್ನು ನುಡಿಯುವಾ ಎಂದೆಂದೂ

ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ಮೈಸೂರು ಮಂಗಳೂರು ಧಾರವಾಡ
ಪ್ರತಿ ದಿಕ್ಕಲ್ಲೂ ಪಸರಿಸಿದೆ ಕನ್ನಡದಾ ಗಂಧ
ಪ್ರತಿ ಊರು ಪ್ರತಿ ಹಳ್ಳಿ ಎಲ್ಲರೆದೆ ಗೂಡಲ್ಲಿ
ಕ್ಷಣ ಕ್ಷಣವೂ ಗುನುಗುಡುವ ಮಾತೇ ಬಲುಚಂದ!
ಕನ್ನಡ ಉಸಿರುಸಿರಲು ಕನ್ನಡ
ಕನ್ನಡ ಪ್ರತಿ ಮಾತಲು ಕನ್ನಡ
ಕನ್ನಡ ಜೀವ ಹೋದರು ಕೇಳಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡ

ಕನ್ನಡ ಇದ ಬಿಟ್ಟು ಹೇಗಿರಲಿ
ಕನ್ನಡ ಎದೆಯೆತ್ತಿ ನುಡಿಯೋಣ
ಕನ್ನಡ ನಾವಾಡುವ ನುಡಿಯೇ

Catching them Young...

They need to catch them young. So, the political parties are trying hard to catch the youth online. I got a chance to go through a survey that was done by a company here in Bangalore.

It all started when Obama created history in the US by winning the election, that too attracting more than 67% of them online to check the details of the campaign. Even one of the major announcements by Obama during the campaigning process was online it seems. That sounds too far away for us. That’s not because we are computer illiterates. That’s majorly since our political parties are not ready for such a battle online. The election process is underway and the campaigning is already in full swing all across the country.

BJP has in fact tried to replicate what Obama had tried and tested there in the US. He had in turn succeeded, but BJP doesn’t seem to be in the same place. May be because the party has tried it, and not done a good job in that. It would have fared better if it had replicated it, if not bettering it in its implementation.

Here is how it is going with BJP. The party’s or the NDA’s Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani’s website advertisements are present in almost all the major websites and blogs from India. They are so well publicised there and the online users are logging in according to the survey. But they don’t seem to be very impressed with the way the things have been put there. Is this because of the age factor? Is this since the online crowd is usually around 15-35 and they don’t relate to a politician of around 81 years? May not be, thinks the CEO of Buzzgain, the company that has tracked the way more than 1.2 million Indian bloggers have been talking about politics. ‘It’s got nothing to do with the age, rather it depends on how well you communicate with the online brigade. Are you listening to them? Are you reacting to what they are talking about you online? Is the candidate replying to the questions posed to him online? These factors determine how you are accepted there’ Mukund Mohan, CEO, Buzzgain says.

Well, thats exactly what I was talking about. There is a thin line between copying something or just blindly following just because it has worked for someone. Even if one copies someone’s idea, the possibility of it working for them is there. But not there when one just does it and does for the heck of it. But it is too early to comment on all that. May be this will work for the party and L K Advani in the long run or in the manner in which it will strengthen what the online Indian thinks about them. But, right now things are not very good for them.

One more thing that intrigued me is that the Indian online brigade does not really want to be politically active. They might talk about it or not, they are not as active as their counterparts in the US. The number of people in the US want to discuss or debate politics is more. May be Advani’s ideas wont work because of this factor. Or even the low internet penetration in the country, which still hovers between 5-10% of the population could be a reason.

But, a crowd of more than 43 million, that is young and active online is a very important bit to talk to.

 The way the political leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh are present online is ignorable. Rather, they have some websites which are inferior in quality and may not work for them at all. They look more like basic HTML pages while their BJP counterparts have already spent quite a lot for the looks and feel of a 2.0 website.

Mukund Mohan adds one more point, and he has a point, ‘What we see is that it is more effective when anyone gets the opinion from who he knows. So, if a third person comes and tells you to vote for him, it is unlikely that you will take it up.’

Last general elections saw the foray of new trend in politics, sending SMSes asking for votes. This time Obama factor has made the parties here trying to catch up with the online brigade. But, my thinking is that, various issues like lower internet penetration, less inclination by the online users towards politics might dent the plans by the parties. Yet, the days to come will have some interesting battles to see online.

(A company into the analysis of online trends, Buzzgain has come out with a survey that shows how the online India is talking politics. Over 1.2 million blogs, microblogs and news sources gave a picture as to what the online India is talking. The highlights of the survey:

• L K Advani scores over others in terms of site visit.
• Congress takes the cake in terms of Voice of the online community.
• Youth not sure of which party to vote.
• P Chidambaram is favorite than Rahul Gandhi.)

 

A pilgrimage...

This is a photo post. I love most of the pictures I had taken in this place. Except for the ones where I am there. I will leave it to you to enjoy the photos. If you do, please let me know. If you don't, please let me know too. For, it will help me understand the good and the bads in my photography. Will write more about the journey sometime soon. It was a solo trip, one fine morning I got up, got there and came back to head to work. This is the gist. But, will tell it all very soon.

The temple entrance at Ghati Subrahmanya, a Subrahmanya temple some 15 kms from Doddaballapur. A beautiful place, not just a pilgrimage, but also a wonderful tourist spot I must say. Its just compellingly beautiful.

The Gopura (main tower). The situation was just perfect, the clear sky with those beautiful lines of clouds and the Gopura, and then the Subrahmanya's hood and the twig... It couldn't have been better.

The above three photos are, wow. Yes. For me at least. I love them since they have this element of beauty in it. They are simple. They were taken with just one click. But I love it, for, they have one empty sky  and the gopura (the tower) showcasing as to how the pinacle can be reached and you get the clear sky or the ultimate wisdom in life.

Finally, me with the Gopura (tower) in the background. Self photography. Never mind the expression on my face.

Photo credits: My new Nokia 5800 eXpressMusic Phone!

I like the phone, its capabilities as a touch phone and other features. But I hate it for its bad battery life. Oh, this is not the occassion for all that. I shall come back and shall talk it over to you. What say?

Comments are seeked and yearned for

;)

Badekkila Pradeep