May 8, 2009

RGV's Jana Gana Mana Controversy..

Posted by Ech Kay at 12:00 AM

Should RGV Have Tampered the National Anthem in Rann?

That's the question that has been on everyone's mind, ever since the promos of Ram Gopal Verma's latest flick Rann hit the airwaves.

A lot of hue and cry (by the media, quite obviously) has been raised over whether RGV should have twisted the actual words of the Indian National Anthem, which is otherwise considered to be sanctified and divine. There has also been talk about the imposition of a ban on the Jana Gana Mana song from the movie.

My question is, what sense does the National Anthem make to today's Indian? If we look back in History, the Indian National Anthem was first composed for King George V - the "Overlord of India's Destiny". It was never written with the idea that it would become India's National Anthem a few years later. A loose translation of the National Anthem goes as follows: (source : Wikipedia)

O! Dispenser of India's destiny, thou art the ruler of the minds of all people
Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, the Maratha country,
in the Dravida country, Utkala and Bengal;
It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas,
it mingles in the rhapsodies of the pure waters of Yamuna and Ganga
They chant only thy name.
They seek only thy auspicious blessings.
They sing only the glory of thy victory.
The salvation of all people waits in thy hands,
O! Dispenser of India's destiny, thou art the ruler of the minds of all people
Victory to thee, Victory to thee, Victory to thee,
Victory, Victory, Victory, Victory to thee!

Keeping such a background in mind, I don't quite feel proud of our National Anthem. I might passionately sing out the National Anthem at a multiplex screen before the movie begins, and I might feel a tinge of pride in doing so; but deep within, I know that I sing only because it is my fundamental duty. The overwhelming pride, ironically, is mostly missing. The Constitution of India can direct the citizens to respect the National Anthem - that I shall comply with. But sadly, the Constitution of India cannot direct its citizens to take pride in singing the National Anthem.

So what if RGV re articulated the National Anthem and put in a few lines of his own? After taking a look at the promos of Rann, one realises that the in-your-face lyrics of the song from the movie are an apt reminder of the murky state of affairs in the country. I don't feel that by adding a few lines to the National Anthem and composing an altogether new song, RGV has shown any kind of disrespect towards the National Anthem.

In fact, in my opinion, the song must be looked at and treated as just another (hard-hitting) movie number, interspersed with lines from the National Anthem. And more or less, that's exactly what it is. I would call it an artiste's creative liberty at its very best. The imposition of a ban would imply the demise of free speech and individual opinion.



Lyrics:

Jana Gana Mana Rann hai..
Iss rann me, Zakhmi Bharat ka Bhagya Vidhaata..
Punjab Sindh Gujrat Maratha..
Ek doosre se lad ke mar rahe hain...
Iss desh ne humko ek kiya,
Aur hum desh ke tukde kar rahe hain..
Dravid Utkala Banga..!
Khoon bahakar ek rang ka, kar diya humne Tiranga,
Sarhadon pe jung aur, galiyon me fasaad-danga..
Vindh Himachal Yamuna Ganga, mein tezaab ubal raha hai,
Mar gaya sab ka zameer, Jaane kab zinda ho aage..
Phir bhi tava shubh naame jaage.. Tava shubha ashish maange..
Aag mein jal kar cheekh raha hai, Phir bhi koi nahi bachata..
Gaahe tava jaya gaatha..
Desh ka aisa haal hai lekin, Aapas me ladh rahe neta..
Jana Gana Mangal Dayak Jaya Hai..
Bharat ko bacha le Vidhata!
Jaya He! Ya yeh marann hai..
Jana Gana Mana Rann hai..


Go ahead and listen to the song. Digest the lyrics. And deep within, feel ashamed. Jai Hind. Or should I say Jaya He?

-HK
12:00 am; 8th May '09

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May 5, 2009

25 Random..

Posted by Ech Kay at 9:55 PM

This is in response to Rupal's FaceBook note that she had tagged me on, ages ago. I had made a mental note to make my own list of 25 random things but I was too lazy to sit down and think of what to write. Finally, I gave in to the temptation of making such a list. (Thanks Sandhya, for the inspiration!) Here I go..

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.


1. I love my parents for naming me "Harshavardhan". I believe I could never have had a better name. Harshavardhan means ‘One who brings joy’. Different people call me Harshavardhan/ Kunte/ Harsh/ Hurshey/ Kuntz and HK. I prefer being called HK or Harshavardhan.

2. I consider myself to be full of life and energy. I believe that I generally spread positive energy all around. However, when I am low, I am not the best person to have around. There can be no one worse than me, then.

3. I walk with a swagger which makes people think that I might be a brash ba$tard. I love doing so, and I have been consciously working to perfect the "walk". I also wear this “Keep out of my way!” look on my face. I do it purposely, especially when I am among a group of people who I don’t know very well.

4. Those who meet me for the first time think of me as someone who is not too friendly.

5. There is always a perpetual frown on my face. Some people think I am worried about something all the time. Others think my face is made that way. I used to think otherwise. I always thought I had a smiling demeanor, until (to my utter dismay) I realized one day that it's a frown and not a smile that I generally wear.

6. I am extremely open minded. To the extent that I live with the risk of letting my brain fall out someday.

7. My parents (and my brother) have always lived by example and have put before me a set of principles to live by. I would never once go against or beyond this set of values.

8. I regard cleanliness and personal hygiene very highly. I absolutely DETEST smelly feet. And I hate it when people give me the excuse that had I stayed in an all-boys setup like a hostel, I would also have got used to such things. That's the lamest excuse anyone could ever give.

9. I am not always very meticulous. But I can be very neat and organized in my work.

10. I love power. And I absolutely LOVE to play God. I do feel power-hungry though I think I understand the immense amount of responsibility that comes bundled with it. And surprisingly, I don’t crave for power.

11. School days weren’t particularly the best days of my life. For quite some reasons I didn't enjoy my school days. Neither do I have too many fond memories.

12. My 4 years in college were by far the best days of my life. I lived life to the fullest and enjoyed myself immensely. Although, I did not take academics very seriously, looking back, I can say I have absolutely NO regrets! I did what my heart told me, and I enjoyed every moment of it!

13. I am an Internet freak. I can spend long hours scouring the Internet for stuff to download. I don’t know why, but watching the progress of a huge file being downloaded gives me a high. I’ve wasted countless days nights staring at the PC screen watching files getting downloaded. During my college days, I downloaded close to 700 GB of movies, games, music files and software from the Internet. And I’ve never felt guilty of indulging in online piracy.

14. I think I am a very keen observer. I generally observe (and confine to memory) just about anything and everything that I see around me. Having said this, I keenly observe body language, non-verbal cues, mannerisms and behaviors. It does give me a huge insight into different personality traits. When I look at someone, I try and look through that person.

15. Now this one is interesting: My first impression about anyone is always wrong. (This is probably why I don’t believe in love at first sight!).

16. I might seem to be extremely social and one who has a lot of friends, but when it comes to sharing things about me, I am very reserved. I generally don't open up very easily in front of people. I also don't trust someone very easily. I might take my time, but once I do, I don't think twice.

17. I love and respect my parents for all that they have done. They have always lived their lives to the fullest, with joy and by example. And there were never any half-measures. Never. And like all Koknastha parents, they always taught by telling us what not to do, rather than what to do.

18. I am a human first, and an Indian next. This is where all possible classification of individuals ends for me. Whether someone is an Indian or not; is from Maharashtra or UP or Bihar or some other place; whether he belongs to the "upper class" or he doesn’t; makes very less sense to me. More often than not, I don’t even think about it.

19. My typing speed is much much faster than my writing speed. Made to write fast, my handwriting gets illegible even for me to understand what I wrote. And even otherwise, my handwriting is awful.

20. I have to be kick-started to get me going. I wonder why I am so lazy.

21. I generally have an opinion about everything around me. Note that I wrote everything and NOT everyone.

22. I cry quite easily while watching movies. The public washroom scene from the movie 'The Pursuit of Happyness' makes me cry every time I watch the movie.

23. I do not possess an eye for art. I can NOT draw. I just can not. Neither can I dance – I attempted dance just once in college. I performed miserably and ended up giving “clumsy” an altogether new meaning. Since I am hopeless when it comes to being artistic, I make it a point to sincerely admire whatever piece of art I come across.

24. The only art form that I remotely understand is music. I love listening to alternative, unconventional music. Jazz, Piano, Instrumental, Ambient, Electronic are my favorite genres. I don’t particularly enjoy Rock and Metal.

25. One of the most difficult tasks for me has been gaining weight. I have tried everything that can be done to put on weight. I have resigned to the fact that I won’t be anything but skinny. Because I am thin and scrawny (scrawny – that’s JS’ word), I never even dreamt of riding a huge motorcycle. I am sometimes surprised at the considerable ease with which I can maneuver a 140 kg Honda Unicorn on the crowded roads of Pune.

Whoa! This was fun. More so because I did most of it while sitting in office :P

-HK
9:55 pm; 5th May '09.

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Mar 14, 2009

A newer start.. :)

Posted by Ech Kay at 10:27 PM

It's been more than 4 months since I published my last post here. And back then I had talked about a new start in a new place.. Unfortunately, life dragged on in the months to follow, and I couldn't quite let my creative juices flow.

Life at Tech M was an altogether new experience. It was my first tryst with the corporate lifestyle. That I could not continue with Tech M for too long, is indeed unfortunate.

I was in Nagpur for a couple of weeks after I (was asked to) quit Tech M. A little introspection made me realize that I had done nothing constructive in the past few months. Wake up - go to office - come back - sleep is all that I did in my Tech M days. Looking back, I am ashamed of myself for having wasted so much time. I didn't read many books, I didn't write on my blog, I didn't meet up with old friends, I didn't go for too many outings, I didn't follow any sport, I didn't join any of the umpteen number of activity groups in Pune.. To cut it short, I didn't live life completely..

When I decided to return to Pune, I had made this resolve to myself, that in my second stint in Pune, I'll live a more complete and meaningful life. And I've been working on this very consciously.

Fortunately, the work at DIPL, my new workplace has been cool so far. Most importantly, there's no stress, and lI get a lot of time for other activities. I have been reading, writing, creating content for HR training sessions, listening to a lot of music and I also met up with a couple of old friends in the last couple of weeks:) :) And today I managed to rekindle the fire within.. The fire to write on the blog!

Tech M is a closed chapter for me. I am now looking ahead to growing as a professional at DIPL. And I am looking to consolidate on the personal front too :) I hope this second stint is far more satisfying and rewarding..

I will make sure that I write very regularly here from now on.. CHEERS!

-HK
10:30 pm; 14th March '09

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Oct 17, 2008

A new place.. And a new start!!

Posted by Ech Kay at 11:55 PM

Finally!! I finally joined Tech Mahindra today. This has been one long wait, but the end (or should I say beginning?) came swiftly and as a huge surprise! As I went through the activities throughout the day, I kept my eyes and ears wide open for anything "interesting" and kept making mental notes of all that I saw or heard. I mainly did this because I knew that I would be writing a post here at the end of the day! :P Here's what I observed:

1. Pune city wakes up VERY late. At 9 in the morning, I couldn't find a single photocopy-shop open.
2. My first reaction after reaching the Tech M office: What if they cancel my joining and send me back? The mere thought terrified the hell out of me :D Initially I had butterflies in my tummy but the anxiety went away after a while.
3. My first reaction after entering the Tech M office: :O (The Orkut equivalent of this emoticon comes closest to how I felt at that time!)
4. On meeting Richa early in the morning: Ah I do know someone here!
5. My thoughts while we were being taken to the conference room: :O :O :O Goddamn this office is SO HUGE! And so utterly confusing too! If you want to get rid of someone, go with him to the Sharda Center Tech M office, give him the slip and quickly find your way out (DON'T attempt this, if you don't know your way around the place!). Chances are that the poor fellow might spend the entire day trying to find his way out. :P
6. Once I was inside the conference room, I quickly checked out the gals who were going to join with me. And I was disappointed. Holy shit! Not the holiest of starts!
7. The actual orientation began by around 10 am. We were instructed to fill out quite a lot of forms. The form-filling and subsequent document verification took more than 2 hours. In the meantime, we were briefed by various people. One thing that I would like to mention here: At Tech M, everyone seems to know Marathi exceedingly well. I was amazed at the ease with which the people who inducted us, spoke in Marathi. Call it the "Pune effect" or something else, but everyone seems to know Marathi here!
8. In the middle of our form-filling session, in walked a lady... (she didn't introduce herself.. Damn! She didnt.. :( I got a clue that she happened to be from the HR dept. ) I looked up and my eyes stayed fixed!! Beautiful! She made my day! Thankfully, she hung around for the rest of the day :P
9. After all the forms had been filled up and duly verified, we dispersed for lunch. In my bid to find the cafeteria, I got lost somewhere in the building! I called up Richa, and she bailed me out :P
10. Lunch was OK-ish. Not 5-star, but edible and tasty. Can't expect too much, when it's free! ;)
11. Post lunch, we gathered back to the conference room for the remaining orientation lectures and bank-account formalities. Tech M has a tie-up with Kotak Mahindra Bank (obviously) and IDBI. After the briefings by the executives of both these banks, I realized how badly (rather hopelessly) the Kotak M executives marketed their product and in contrast, how "effectively" the people from IDBi marketed theirs.
12. Post-lunch session was dull and boring. Just sat in one place, listened to the boring lectures and stared at the beautiful lady across the room ;)
13. Towards the end of the day I got my photo clicked. I'll get my employee ID card on Monday.
14. While leaving I came to this huge revolving glass door which I had to push, to get through. When it didn't budge, I shoved a bit harder... and once again, before a guy walked from behind me, swiped his ID card to open the door and let me through. I felt like a complete idiot!
15. Stupidity continued. I got lost again, while attempting to leave the building. I called up Richa, and poor thing had to hurry all the way down to find me wherever I was, and escort me out of the office :D

Day 1 in office was quite eventful. (I realized that this post sounds like a diary entry :P ) Looking forward to training from Monday. I hope I can keep up the tempo and enthusiasm. Wish me luck!

11:55 pm; 17th October '08

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Oct 16, 2008

The Coup..

Posted by Ech Kay at 5:15 PM

When Shubhi wrote her To Pune post 10 days ago, I felt elated for her. After all, her frustrating yet patient, 3-month wait had come to an end. However, I also couldn't help feeling frustrated at my own plight. I knew that I had wasted more than 5 months just waiting for joining, but the actual gravity of the situation hit me only on 5th October. Call it mere frustration or peer pressure, but somehow, I was feeling very very shitty about myself. I realized that I HAD to start looking for employment soon.

My first target was Tech Mahindra. And rightly so. I knew that Shubhi's batch was going to have vacancies (and a substantial number, at that) owing to other commitments of some of those who had been asked to join. (Shubhada got her Date of Joining as 10th October '08 @ Pune) So over the last 10 days, I concentrated all my efforts into trying to get this across to the people at Tech M, that if there are vacancies, they ought to be filled up with people who were ready to join at a short notice. I tried to garner support by getting in contact with a few of my batch-mates, who like me, were waiting for their joining. I was optimistic about their support, but I was pissed off by the negative response that I got from a friend, whom I heavily relied upon. The e-mail he wrote to me oozed pessimism, and I realized that I had to get this thing going myself.

I spent the last 10 days talking to different people at Tech Mahindra. I also spoke to my T&P Officer and my HOD and urged them to forward the data (about the people who weren't joining) to the Tech M authorities. By yesterday (15th) morning, all my hopes of an early joining had dwindled. I thought to myself that I had done all that I could do to push things, but probably all this wasn't enough.

I had all but given up, until I got a call yesterday afternoon that my joining was on and that I have to report on 17th at Pune. I immediately left by the evening train and reached Pune this morning.

Here I would like to add a note for the skeptical minds: I got a few SMSs yesterday with people asking me whether I used some kind of "setting" to force my induction. Some even asked whether I used any "contacts" to push my candidature. Some are still smarting about how I could manage to swing things my way. I would like to alleviate any doubts about my use of power, or contacts or any setting... All I used was my head, my mouth and will. My head, to play out different strategies (my old buddy Boscii will be very proud of me for this!); my mouth to talk and put into action all that I thought about; and my will to doggedly push my point even when everyone around me was being negative and un-cooperative.

So to say, I am still dazed.. I still can't believe that I landed up in Pune at such short notice. Even as I stood at the station last evening, I remember having remarked to my friends that, I never expected that I would be standing in the doorway of a train coach waving out to my friends so soon. I thought I had at least 10 days or so before I left. Looking back, I realize how many people I wanted to meet before leaving, but could not do so. It happened all too quickly for me to understand. Maybe this is how my exit from Nagpur had been planned!

As I sat back in retrospection last evening, I couldn't help but ponder about a few things. Firstly.. Not all of what you have so meticulously planned, turns out (if at all if it does) the way you want it to.

And secondly.. When you want something..badly.. very badly.. Then the entire universe conspires in helping you to get it. This originally is Paulo Coelho's philosophy which he put forward in his book "The Alchemist". When I first read the book, I left it midway and I remember having mocked at the underlying essence of the book. Not anymore. I'll make it a point to read it this time!!

-HK
5:15 pm; 16th October '08

P. S.: A special word for Shantanu: Bhai..I guess you got the point.. It all happened far too quickly.. Sorry for not informing you..! :)

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Oct 13, 2008

New theme - Bugs (IE related)

Posted by Ech Kay at 11:55 PM

It has been observed that this site shows errors (and throws up badly) when viewed in Internet Explorer (5+). From what I figured out, this is because of the JSON script that hides a part of the post.. Another script that's causing the site to throw up is the script that's handling the recent comments widget...

And I thought, I had finally addressed all the layout-related issues.. :(

Note: If you are using Internet Explorer by default, this site may not open up properly, and might even cause your browser to hold up and crash. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Kindly view this blog on either of the following browsers:
  • Firefox (All versions)
  • Opera (Tested on V9.51 onwards)
  • Google Chrome (no issues yet)
  • Maxthon (V1.6.5 onwards)
This site is best viewed on Firefox 2.0.0.17 with a screen resolution of 1024*768. I hope to sort out the IE-related issue by tomorrow morning.

-HK
11:55 pm; 13th October '08

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Oct 12, 2008

New Look v2.0

Posted by Ech Kay at 1:05 PM

It's been some while since I wrote something here. Many reasons. One of them being that I was busy perfecting the look of this blog.

Complete lack of activity has meant that I have had all the time in the world to sit and experiment with different options to change the way I display stuff on this blog. And yet I'm miles away from making "that perfectly SEO-ed blog"!



Over the last couple of weeks, I have been trying to fathom all that Matt Cutts, the SEO-guru working at Google, writes on his blog. The attention has thus been on increasing crawlability, utilizing screen space effectively, cutting down on heavy graphics and yet maintaining simplicity of design. In this regard, surprisingly, Matt's blog is minimal yet information-rich.

Google Analytics is a fascinating piece of code from the Google stable. This blog has a limited audience of perhaps a few hundred hits a month, but the reports given by Analytics have been very helpful in understanding reader habits. The bounce rate on my blog has been shamefully high. I'm looking to arrest (and reverse) that trend in the days to go. There are other issues too, which I'll address in due course of time.



A lot of work is yet to be done. And thankfully, I have all the time in the world to do it!

-HK
1:05 pm; 12th October '08

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Sep 30, 2008

A day in the wilds of Tadoba Tiger Reserve

Posted by Ech Kay at 2:00 PM

I had gone to Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve for a day-long visit on 28th. I accompanied Dr. Arunkumar Kholkute, a retired veterinarian, (and a distant relative of mine) on his official visit. Dr. Kholkute was visiting the reserve to supervise the care being given to the female elephant there, who gave birth to a calf 5 days ago. So the 5-day old elephant calf was the main attraction of the visit!

We left at around 7:30 in the morning by car and covered the distance to Tadoba in little more than 3 hours. The journey was brought to life by Dr. Kholkute and his colorful monologue about his escapades in the forests of Tadoba, Nagzira and Pench during his career as a veterinary doc. He gave delightful insights about his life as a veterinarian and the different people (and animals!) that he encountered in his life. Although he did most of the driving, I took over control of the wheel on the jungle roads. Driving on the bumpy, dusty, narrow tracks was quite an experience and my palms still hurt from gripping the steering wheel. The weather was beautiful - perfect for an outing. A cool gentle breeze and bright sunshine accompanied us throughout the day.

Once we reached Tadoba (Mohorli village), we went off to see the elephant calf. The calf and her mother had been kept isolated, away from the prying eyes of the visitors, to avoid any disturbance and trouble to the young calf. No one was being allowed to see the calf; and hordes of visitors had returned disappointed that day. Even the local newspapers haven't been allowed to click photographs of the calf.

The doc proceeded with his routine check-up of the mother elephant and her calf, while I clicked photographs. I was seeing an elephant calf for the first time in my life and I was absolutely thrilled! Watching a shaky 5-day old elephant calf from so close was the last thing I had ever imagined! As I clicked photos, the mother kept a close watch on me and reminded me to stay off. She maintained good distance between me and the calf by occasionally swaying her trunk to push me back whenever I got over-zealous.


Photos: © Harshavardhan Kunte

After the check-up was over, we proceeded on a jungle safari. We went in the Forest Rangers' official jeep. I later realized that had we taken our own car inside the jungles, every part of it would have come off because of the bumpy ride. The rickety contraption choked, coughed and spluttered before roaring to life. We left in earnest hope of sighting the tiger.

I had been to Tadoba last year too and the big cat had eluded us then as well. But this time, we had hardly gone 500 metres into the woods before we sighted a beast that from a distance looked like a tiger! At first I thought it was a dog, but on giving it a closer look, we realized that it was a leopard. It was walking away from us on the dusty road. The driver killed the engine of the jeep and allowed the jeep to roll down the road. I was too dazed to point my camera and start shooting. I was shaken back to my senses and I quickly managed to capture the giant beast on camera. It was the shot of a lifetime! Our jeep creaked as it rolled on, and the leopard kept glancing back to gauge the distance between us. I managed to click a couple of photos and a video (albeit shaky) as I dangled out of the jeep. As soon as the leopard judged that we were too near for his comfort, he leapt into the bushes and was gone in a trice. We were later told by the mahouts and guards that sighting a leopard is rarer than sighting a tiger at Tadoba.



Tiger or leopard; I was thrilled at having sighted a big cat out in the wild. I had been lucky second time round! We roamed around on the bumpy jungle roads for a good hour or so in search of the tiger, but we weren't lucky to spot one.



We returned to the base camp at Mohorli in time for lunch. After lunch , we started on our return journey back to Nagpur. On the way, we decided to get adventurous and drove in our car on one of the jungle trails. It was late in the afternoon - the time when a tiger sets out for hunting. We went along on the lookout for the tiger. A short while later we came to a spot where we heard a "call" from the monkeys. I was told that monkeys on trees give out "calls" to deer and other small animals about predators on the prowl, or other impending dangers. We stopped there for a good half an hour with bated breath and in complete silence, expecting a tiger to spring out from the bushes. Maybe there wasn't an animal there, or maybe the beast had been put off by our presence, but our patient wait drew a blank.

We left from there and again a short while later, we heard "calls" from monkeys and birds. We could also see vultures circling overhead in the sky. The foul stench of an animal hung heavy in the air. And suddenly, we heard the cry of a chital (barking deer) from the bushes nearby. We peered closer to see a quivering deer in the bushes. We waited for a long while in utter silence, expecting a feline to return, but again our wait proved futile. Perhaps our presence put off the animal. A thought crossed my mind about how much we humans were encroaching on the space of these beasts. Human interference has definitely disturbed the lives of animals in the wild.

Dejected at not having sighted a tiger, we got back on the road to Nagpur. I would like to mention a few words here about Dr. Kholkute. Dr. Kholkute served as a veterinary doctor with the Forest Rangers in areas around Nagpur. He spent long periods of his career working as a doctor in the forests of Nagzira, Bor, Tadoba and Pench. Dr. Kholkute possesses a very colorful personality and has the ability to add life to any discussion. His sense of humour and witty remarks make his company all the more enjoyable. His PR skills when he deals with the forest personnel are worth learning from. He can communicate with personnel of the Forest Rangers right from the Range Officer to the illiterate mahout in such a manner, that he endears himself to both of them. During the visit I learnt one thing from him - Never flinch, not even once, when drinking the water that they offer.

We were back in Nagpur by around 8:30 pm. This, in all probability was my last visit to Tadoba, and I managed to bring back some really fond memories of that place. I'll look forward to visiting Tadoba again, whenever I get time in the future.

-HK
2:00 pm; 30th September '08

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Sep 28, 2008

What's the ruckus for?

Posted by Ech Kay at 11:22 PM

I hate discussing cricket. We have an entire nation that thrives on discussions about the game. I hate discussing cricket, not because I can't understand the sport, but because I find the activity absolutely futile. The point that I intend to put forward in this post, is beyond the game. Understand this, and then proceed.

Of late there has been a hue and cry in the Indian media about Greg Chappell's role as assistant coach during Australia's current tour of India. Greg Chappell is expected to stay with the Australian cricket team till the end of their tour of India; and assist the Aussies in adapting to the conditions and develop their game plan.

Over the last week, the Indian media has gone to town, alleging that Greg Chappell has switched loyalties and acted unprofessionally. It is very well known that the Indian media survives on controversy and that they will blow any news out of proportion to derive maximum mileage in the form of increased audience and TRP ratings.

The media has alleged that Chappell might pass on vital information about the Indian players and playing conditions to the Aussies; which will benefit them immensely. It must be recollected that Greg Chappell was the coach of the Indian national cricket team for 2 years from 2005 to 2007. The media has harped about Chappell's unprofessional ways and has gone to the extent of terming him a "traitor" to India.

I don't see anything wrong in Greg Chappell working with the Aussies, after working as coach of the Indian cricket team. What the media needs to understand is that Greg Chappell has not acted unprofessionally in any way. He had signed a contract with the BCCI as the national coach for a stipulated period of time, and fulfilled his duties to the best of his abilities. That his tenure was marked by controversies, is another issue. Once Chappell quit his duty as the national coach, he was free to move on and join any other job of his choice. That he chose to work with the Aussies for the forthcoming tour, might have implications that he might have done so for vendetta; but then this doesn't imply that he has been unprofessional in any way.

Moreover, what if Chappell does pass on vital information about Indian players to the Aussies? In the end, once the game starts it shall all boil down to what happens in the middle. Any amount of planning is rendered ineffective once the first ball is bowled.

Here, I would like to draw your attention to India's present national cricket coach - Gary Kirsten. Kirsten took over as Indian coach at the beginning of 2008. Interestingly, his first full assignment was against the the South African team that had toured India for a test and ODI series in March 2008. Ironically, the same Indian media at that time had chattered about Gary Kirsten's presence in the Indian dressing room and how his insights about the South African players would benefit the Indians. Where had all the bullshit about loyalty and "professionalism" gone then? Even then, the South African media had not whined about Kirsten's role with the Indian side.

That the Indian media shows such double standards when dealing with individuals and events, is indeed a shame. The mediamen need to learn some professionalism themselves. Else, they'll end up getting the middle finger more often from people like Greg Chappell; which they truly deserve.

-HK
11:20 pm; 28th September '08

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Sep 27, 2008

The new template is finally up! And running!

Posted by Ech Kay at 10:01 PM

It's taken really long. A month to be precise. But I'm happy at the outcome.



I picked up this template (the current one) from a free wordpress themes website and changed the theme code to make it compatible with blogger. It wont be correct on my part to take credit for either the layout or the code. All I did was that I slogged hard, acted smart, and brought together hundreds of code snippets and put them in the correct places to get the final outcome. It was like piecing together one huge jigsaw puzzle having photographs of different characters! And after the puzzle was complete, I erased out characters that I didn't want to see, and put in a few of my own!! It has been one big mix-and-match exercise.

Here, I would like to acknowledge the help that I got from websites around the world-wide-web.

1. CSSPlay: For all CSS-related issues; Drop-Down Menu. When it comes to CSS, Stu Nicholls is God!
2. Beautiful Beta: For Blogger-Posts related issues.
3. Looks Good Works Well: For good web-design tips.
4. phydeaux3: For random wordpress-templates related problems.
5. Web Designs Tips and Tricks: For all my "silly" (And not-so-silly) doubts related to HTML and CSS.
6. http://seo.vintip.com/ - For SEO-related and Google adsense related problems and virtually every other query.
7. Mr. Matt Cutts - For his SEO-related tips.
8. Last but not the least - GOOGLE!

In fact, if I compiled all that I read from the above mentioned links, it would make the most comprehensive "Build Your Own Blogger Template" tutorial. I'll also add an elaborate post about how I went around building the template.

I call myself a software engineer. If I could say that there was a design model that I followed for developing this website, I'd call it the chiwda model! The requirements kept changing almost every hour.. The designing took far longer than it should have. And the testing hasn't quite been comprehensive. In short, I decided the requirements, designed the code; and did the testing: all by myself. So there might be quite a few issues that I overlooked and didn't address.

A special thanks to Tejas for helping me out in testing the template on IE and Firefox for basic issues. Shubhada looked over the content of the site (especially the header) and helped me in finalizing it.

The last couple of weeks came across as quite a revelation for me. I realized that I can be creative. Very creative. But only if I want to, for, I can be more lazy than I can be creative!



God lies in the smaller detail.. someone has rightly said. So in my opinion, this website isn't still complete. However, today I am pushing it live because I have already exceeded my deadline by more than 10 days! Coming up with something that is perfect and flawless is one thing, and taking ages to do so is quite another. I'll add other stuff in the next couple of days.

-HK.
10:00 pm; 27th September '08

P. S.: Please let me know, if you find dead links, or if pages don't load up, especially when attempting to write comments.

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