HOMOSEXUALITY DECRIMINALIZED IN INDIA..:)..!

Written by Vivek Ranjan, resident of Gurugram. An unknown entity for some, but, a person with strong hold on the mother tongue, Hindi. Not many people today have this excellence in Hindi. He worked in Akashwani, Delhi in the early days of his career as a News writer.

Leave your comment as a token of appreciation for Ranjan sir!

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DLF IPL: WHERE EVERYTHING IS (MORE THAN) EXTRA!

King Khan with the West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee and the co-owner of the KKR Juhi Chawla and the Captain Gautam Gambhir. 

The hype called DLF IPL is now over. The people now will get out of their houses in the evening, the children will rush up in the parks and the shopkeepers will also start making money in this period of the day. The newspapers will not be having the Analysis and the detailed Score Sheets of the last evening games and the controversies happening in the IPL.

What we saw in this year’s IPL? Some fantastic Cricket, unfortunate match fixing allegations on some players, the rave party incident, the demolition of ‘the God of Off-side’, the title clinching of the Kolkata Knight Riders and the ‘unprecedented’ involvement of a CM in the celebration of the KKR.

The IPL TV Commercials always had some senseless taglines like: ‘Aisa Mauka or Kahan Milega’, ‘Yahaan Sab Kuch Milega Extra’, ‘Bharat Band’ etc. And in a way, these TV Commercials are giving the right message as well. The IPL gives the media everything including the match report, the thrilling moments, the controversies, the debate on the league and, thus, it matters a lot to the Media people.

The TRP Graph shows this was the best IPL of the lot and, by far, the most profitable to the BCCI. No wonder, they decided to share the revenue with the Ex-Cricketers as they might be having shortage of the space to keep their money in! 

The Champions of the DLF IPL 2012.
Source: bcci.tv

'MOBILE' IS A NECESSITY AND 'INTERNET' ON IT IS FUN!

Vodafone's advertisement creature 'ZooZoo' in a Vodafone 3G advertisement.

Mobile, used to be a device which connected a person to the rest of the world, a device which enabled a person to communicate with his kith and kin without the constraint of the distance falling in between, is not the same device any more. Today, a mobile enables a person to talk with the other person face to face, the entire world is in his pocket if the person is using the internet, the games, the music, the photography and ‘the conventional talk’, you can do anything you want to do on your phone. I googled the number of mobile phones in use in India and I found the astonishing numbers on Wikipedia which says that India is at the second position in the world and is there comfortably as the margin between the US (at the 3^rd position) and the India is near about 600 million. 76% of the Indians own Mobile phones. Who says that going by the definition of poverty (which says people living on less than 28 in urban areas and 23 in rural areas are poor) we have 30% people still poor in the country and the people who do not own a mobile, are just 24%. Interesting, isn’t it?

List of countries by number of mobile phones in use (Source: Wikipedia)

Rank	Country or region	Number of mobile phones	Population	% of population	Last updated date
	World	Over 5.6 billion	7,012,000,000	79.86	2011
1	China	1,010,000,000	1,341,000,000	75.32	March 2012
2	India	919,170,000	1,210,193,422	76.00	Mar 2012
3	United States	327,577,529	310,866,000	103.9	June 2011
4	Brazil	250,800,000	192,379,287	130.36	April 2012
5	Indonesia	250,100,000	237,556,363	105.28	May 2009

I use the social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter and a whole lot of other websites as well. I remember an instance when I was returning from my college to my home with one of my friends in his car. I connected my phone with the speakers in the car and when I reached my destination, I forgot to take the phone back. I got out and swayed my hand saying goodbye. When he went some distance far away from me, I realized the mistake and the hand which I raised to say good bye, now, I was signaling him to stop with the same. But, he didn’t see it. I stood at the same place for nearly 5-7 minutes thinking what problems I am going to face that evening because it was just a matter of the evening as we were to meet in the college the next day and I would have got the phone back. What if someone calls me, what if some important massage or a call come, how will I check the results of my test, how will I check my facebook profile and …! I was still standing at that place where I got off the car and, suddenly, I saw the car of my friend coming near to me. And I can tell you, at that time all those unanswered questions which I had in my mind got answers and I heaved a deep breath. That day I realized what an integral part a phone has become of our life.  

Where Mobile has enabled us to be in touch with our friends and relatives, Internet on mobile has given us the liberty to be in touch with the world. Mobile is the real ‘Pocket Rocket’ if ever there is one. If you want to read the news in the morning with the tea, you want to know about the weather, you got it on the Phone. You want to know what your friends are up to, want to share something with them; you got it on the phone (by using the social networking websites on the phone). Getting bored? Playing games on the phone, browsing the net or listening to the music on the phone can become a favorite pastime of yours.

I remember, my Physics teacher in my school days used to tell us his stories of his youth. In one such story he explained the first phone which he brought at the time when the device was new to the Indians. He used to stretch the fingers of his one hand straight and with his other hand on somewhere on the wrist of the hand with stretched fingers; he used to give us the idea of the size of the phone. We used to take interest in his explanations a lot. At that time, according to him, the call rates were sky high and even the local calls were priced 16/min. But today, the time has changed with the calls being priced on the basis of the seconds. The Social networking sites have provided the impetus to the popularity of the internet among the youngsters. The role of social networking sites can be understood with the help of some statistics.

Every 7^th human is on facebook.

On an average, a person spending 7 minutes on the internet spends 3 minutes of that time on facebook.

At the end of it all, I must say, Mobile is a necessity and the Internet on Mobile is Fun! 

This post is writen for the 'Internet is Fun' contest on Indiblogger. If you are an Indiblogger, do give your your hearts..:) (like) to this post. Please respond your reactions after reading the post under the Comments tab!

The first click of my Nokia X2. I'm having it at present and 'I'm lovin' it'!

IF YOU DON'T HAVE AN iPHONE, OBVIOUSLY, YOU DON'T HAVE AN iPHONE!

IS IPL A CIRCUS? WHAT DO YOU THINK? PLEASE SHARE YOUR VIEW AS A COMMENT!

If you don’t have an iPhone, well, you don’t have an iPhone. Have you heard this before? If you have, you must have discovered the humor in this statement which is the tagline of the iPhone 4S advertisement. Practically speaking, if you don’t have an iPhone, obviously, you don’t have an iPhone. So, what is the meaning of this statement? Emotional blackmailing, I guess!

Well, the nucleus of my post is not the iPhone, but, the illogical advertisements which have flooded the TV channels. Just a few weeks ago, I saw a TV commercial of IPL 5, which is being shown these days on TV, in which the IPL is compared with a 'Circus' and in that Circus there are various stalls in the name of Lasith Malinga, Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and many more. So, basically this means that the IPL is a Circus that will be organized in the various parts of the country and all the people are invited to take part in the 2 month event or I should say ‘Drama’. Indeed, it’s a drama. They say (the IPL advertisers), ‘’Aisa Mauka Phir Kahan Milega” and I say, “What Rubbish?”

The TVC of the Idea Cellular Ltd, in which Abhishek Bachchan suggests some ideas to his mates and they say in return, “What an idea Sir Ji!” A person who is short of ideas in his professional life and is going nowhere as far as his career as an Actor is concerned if is suggesting someone else then one has to say, “What Rubbish?”

The Tata Nano has a tag line “Aapki Khushiyon Ki Chaabi”. The response which the company expected from the people, clearly, they haven’t got that response. And the Tata Nano is thus a flop and the uniqueness in the shape and size and the best part, the price have not been able to help the Car to emerge as a hit. In the TVC of the Online Shopping website Quikr.com, a person wanting to sell his Computer just throws a ball upward and Enters on the laptop so that the Computer Advertisement gets published on the website. Remember, the ball he threw upward has not reached the ground yet. Then some other person using the website finds his offer interesting and offers him a deal and the ball is still in the air. Then the person wanting to sell the Computers sees the deal and finds it interesting and accepts the offer. Ultimately, he sells his Computer and, only then, ‘the poor ball’ lands in his palm.

In my Marketing Management class I learnt that the Companies always want their consumers to be aware of the qualities of their product. But, comparing IPL to Circus is not advertising by any means. This is criticism at its best! Isn’t it?

So, the advertisements are the links which connects the Producers and the Customers and if the Advertisers will mislead the Customer then that link will get weak and ultimately break-up. The First Impression is the Last Impression and we all know it. 
This post is written for Indiblogger Contest sponsered by Stayfree named Time To Change! You can hit the like button here if you liked this post!

"TEN*TEN"-DULKAR: 'CHASE YOUR DREAMS, DREAMS DO COME TRUE!'

"Enjoy the game and chase your dreams because dreams do come true. Mine did when we won the World Cup after 22 years." This is what the great man Sachin Tendulkar said after hitting his 100th ton. What is so significant about this record of 100 hundreds? Do you know? Do you have any idea? Well, almost every Indian does have! But, for those who do not have any idea or do not follow the Game of Cricket, they can get the feel. How? Pick-up a Cricket Bat in your hand and raise it above your shoulder 100 times and you will come to know at the end of it all, the significance!

Well, even then some will say, he raised his bat 200 times in his 100 hundreds: for the 100 50’s and then, for those 50’s getting converted into 100’s. Valid point isn’t it? The man has served the Game for 23 years and still says proudly, "When I consider retirement, don't worry, I will not hide it from anyone. I will play as long as I am enjoying it and as long as I can contribute to the team." This is the spirit that has induced him to go on and score those 100 hundreds.

He has shared the dressing room with three generations of Indian Cricketers and is still going strong. "I am glad about the journey. It has tested my patience, my character. So many people have had questions; I don't read any of them. Somebody who has not gone through this will have only questions, not answers. I felt even after 22 years, the cricket god was testing me over the last one year. I will be honest, I was frustrated at times, but I never gave up," Tendulkar said after the match against Bangladesh which the team lost. He has almost every international record under his belt but Tendulkar insisted that he does not play for milestones. "I've never played cricket for milestones. While playing I have ended up breaking a few records (only 'a few', naughty..:)..), but that was never my goal. I play cricket just because I enjoy the game. The 100th hundred was the most difficult."

Sachin Tendulkar is a great sportsperson, no doubt about that! But what makes him great: his records? No! His consistency for the last 23 years makes him a legend. Today, he doesn’t have that power in his arms and does not muscles the ball anymore. But, he has discovered new ways of scoring: the Upper-cuts, the Paddle sweeps, the late cuts and more to come! He scored a 100 in the IPL last year which speaks about his form and his aggression, both are intact.

May the great man Tendulkar score many more and provide many more cheering moments for his followers who love their hero, respect their God!

Do leave your comments if you have something in mind. It will be fun, believe me:)

SHOULD POLITICIANS BE ‘COUNTRY LOVERS’ OR ‘CAREER MAKERS’?

Politics, a term used to describe many aspects of Indian democratic system. Politics is the systematic establishment for the election of the Government in India, it is a bitter activity which our Politicians exercise for their mean political gains, when written in hindi, as 'Rajneeti', it becomes the name of a super-hit Bollywood movie and above all, it is a bright career option today. 

I said it is a career option, but, is it good for the Common Man if the people start conceiving it as a Career Option (I accept that many do take it as a career option today as well)? Will it help the society or will it bring the cut throat competition in this domain? I do think the competition in this field will certainly help the country both for short term and for long term. Today, the Common Man does not have many options to pick his leader from. The recent Polls is Uttar Pradesh is the recent example supporting my point. The People there had no other option but to give another chance to the Samajwadi Party (SP) to whom they gave one chance before choosing the BSP when they made a mess of their chance with their so called Gunda-Raj! The SP won in UP because the people were fed-up: by the Congress and their Seasoned or I should say, Seasonal Campaigner Rahul Gandhi, by the BJP's non-reliability and BSP's unsatisfactory performance in the past 5 years. So, who left? The Samajwadi Party which is now being called, 'Samaj-worthy' Party by many!

The first impression of the word Politics a Common Man has is a soothing belief of it being a social work and the care taking of the fellow beings by an Uncommon Man (I hope you got the meaning of this term, if not, read my previous post: Is Common Man So Common!). The Politicians, if they have that zeal somewhere in their hearts to work for their people, which has a very close resemblance to the Country Love, then the People will get what they want, that is the Jobs, the Electricity, the Infrastructure at their native place and the leader will find his Political graph elevating. But, if he has this Career Elevation in mind, then will the Common Men get the benefits which they got in the previous case when the leader was country lover? No, certainly! 

Today unfortunately, we don't have too many Country Lovers in our political community and Career Makers are many, in fact, more than many. Charles De Gaulle (1890 - 1970) was right when, out of disgust at the behaviour of French politicians said: 'I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians'. And certainly, the Elections in UP proved it again. The aggressive orations of the politicians, the open violations of the Election Commission norms do not interest the Common Man any longer. The Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Beni Prasad Verma, Sri Prakash Jaiswal and Salman Khurshid gave some controversial remarks in their UP campaigns and got some sticking of the media. One of them said that either the Congress will form the Government in UP or else there is no other option except for president's rule! So confident, must say!