“Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow…”
– Lawrence Clark Powell (American Librarian, Writer and Critic, 1906-2001)
Courtesy: Kartik Mistry
Blog
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The Top 100 Quotes Of All Times
AskOxford Website has an interesting section called World Of Words. It contains wonderful information and resources for the wordsmiths and avid readers.
I recommend the following:
Do not be surprised to see ‘Chuddies’ in Word of the year or a quote about sex on the street!
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Hero of Trust Vote : Somnath Chatterjee
In my recent post, I had written about the Omar Abdullah and quizzed about the real hero of Parliament Trust Vote. No, it was not Manmohan Singh. The real hero was Somnath Chatterjee, the Speaker of the house.
He emerged as a person who placed the Speaker’s post and his duties above the party politics. He listened to his voice of conscience and acted accordingly. He ensured that the dignity of the post is not affected. He upheld the responsibilities entrusted to him. He fought his own partymen for safeguarding Indian democracy. Quite surprising, that we have politicians like him as well! He defies the typical politician stereotype.
Of course, Somnath Chatterjee paid the price. He was expelled from his party. The party for which he had worked for 40 years and helped it grow. The party for which he maid sacrifices. He was the uncontested and unanimous choice of all parties for the speaker’s post. His is one of the most honest and unblemished careers in Indian polity.
Cheers to Somnath Chaterjee. We need more politicians like him.
Read Somnath Chatterjee’s letter in Indian Express where he spoke for himself.
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NDTV Imagine’s Ramayan Ad
NDTV Imagine has taken an different route to promote Ramayan. It has focussed on moral values of Ramayan and decided to promote it. It is targeting parents and their children. Children are a old favorite of advertisers. They know that parents will not compromise on product or service which benefits their children.
In case of TV, children already have their Cartoon Network, Hungama and POGO etc. For education, they have the option in form of Discovery, National Geographic, Animal Planet etc. For adults, there is already a clutter of mythological serials on the television. So why will they choose Ramayan over other mythologicals?
In fact, often advertisers use children for non-children product categories as well. Children use their pester power against parents for these products and reward our marketers. In many families, children are influencers as well as decision makers.
How successful NDTV Imagine’s Ad will be? Its intentions are right. It is using the USP of Ramayan and positioning it as an alternative moral education. Will children oblige?
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Indic Transliteration @ Google Labs Is Good
Recently, I tried Google Labs’ Indic Transliteration for converting English to Hindi. The result was good. The tool also supports Tamil, Telugu, Malalayam and Kannada.
Input Text : English
hai pal pal badalte rishtey yahaan
bante bigadte armaano ke jahaan
jab hum aapko dil se yaad karenge
jaane aap honge kahaanOutput Text : Hindi
है पल पल बदलते रिश्ते यहाँ
बनते बिगड़ते अरमानो के जहाँ
जब हम आपको दिल से याद करेंगे
जाने आप होंगे कहाँExpect other Indian languages like Gujarati to be added soon. Gujaratilexicon – Utkarsh Team is also working on Gujarati Transliteration.
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Leadership : Defining Moments
The Indian Parliament had a very important debate last week. The survival of the government was in question. The built up had usual suspense, controversies, charges of horse-trading, mud-slinging etc. In fact, the session itself had huge drama with some MPs bringing cash in the parliament and alleging foul play. Well, we were not surprised 🙂
However, a few things stood out. We are all pleasantly surprised to see that there were some good discussions. Indian democracy is not dead.
An important surprise was rise of few individuals. One of the heroes of the session was Omar Abdullah. Omar Abdullah’s speech has changed the entire nation’s perception of him. It has put him in limelight as a leader to watch for. In his home state of Jammu & Kashmir, he is a hero.
Omar Abdullah said that it was an instinctive speech. He spoke from his heart. He touched upon controversial topics like Amarnath Issue, Gujarat Riots etc. He supported the trust vote. I am not commenting on the content of his speech. I am showcasing his leadership moment.
Omar’s start to the speech was exemplary. His managed to get the attention of all. It helped that his tone and style were different.
People loved his comment of the common enemies of poor. He struck a chord with the people at large. He knew that his audience was beyond the parliament house. He knew that India is a young nation with its youth having access to Nokia, Facebook and TouTube.
Of course, he spoke of his political choices and hit back at his opponents. But he did it very cleverly.
His speech was short and to the point. No preaching.
He made a mark for himself on that day and was one of the important heroes of the session and recent politics.
But the Hero No. 1 is somebody else. Any guesses?
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Randy Pausch Lives On – In Our Hearts!
Randy Pausch died on Friday in South Virginia.
Strangely, I was speaking about Randy with my friend on that friday. I gifted her ‘The Last Lecture’ book and was telling Randy’s extraordinary story. While I was describing his story, Randy was living his final moments.
Randy inspired millions of Indians through his ‘The Last Lecture’. Randy Pausch will live on – in our hearts!
Related Items:
Randy Pausch’s Lecture of Lifetime on A Blog Less Ordinary
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Ahmedabad Blasts : We Are Safe!
Serial blasts rocked Ahmedabad today afternoon. We are all safe here.
Mobile phone networks are down. We will keep our friends and family posted.
Bangalore was attacked yesterday. Jaipur was attacked a few weeks back. Clearly, India is challenged. These are testing times. Need for courage, faith and lending a helping hand. Need for keeping humanity ahead of everything.
Read Blast Note on Rediff
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EZ 7Z : Quick Archiver
EZ 7Z is a quick and easy tool for compressing and decompressing file formats on Mac OS X. I used it recently to open .7z files.
Highly recommended !
