Our Responsibility in Social Media and why we should Stand-up to Trolls

Had been thinking about this for a few days now and had been inking it in the mind and finally sat down to write it down. Sorry that it’s too long. But given 144 words can be easily misunderstood , I wanted to make it as clear as possible.

When Christopher Nolan made Inception, I am not sure if he considered the easier method to plant thoughts and perception into people's heads. Rather than going through the complex dream intrusion and all that risk, the simpler technique is being perfected these days through the elementary and much more effective method of media and specifically social media for the new smart phone generation of our time.

This isn't new. Media has always played a crucial hand in determining what our perception should be. And even before that our text books of our school curriculum has been determining what our perception should be. If someone denies this fact then they are only being naive. To consider that our thoughts are our own and not induced by these external forces is living in blissful ignorance.
What is more worrying now though is what the perception agents have been doing recently. Like the agencies that can manipulate your webpage to Search Engines through the algorithms so that it comes in the top 20 pages of your search , I am sure there are professional organizations that promote someone's image in a positive way to build a brand so successful that sometimes someone can become an elected leader of the nation even.

I am not going to dive into the moralities of building someone's image positively through paid brand building. However it is extremely disturbing to see the opposite of it to slander someone without any facts whatsoever.

We have all been guilty of either resending or not rebuking forwarded messages stating some fact like statements slandering someone's image. Just cite something like Washington Journal 21st Jul 1992 - Person X was accused of involving in blah blah blah. 99% of us don't have the urge to verify those facts if they are true or not and even if the 1% do try and verify they don't spend the same amount of energy rebuking the story as false unless this person they are talking about has a brand building agency that can effectively and intelligently handle it. Perfect example is when someone published a fake story of Mr Modi sleeping in the parliament and within minutes there were multiple responses with the full video of that picture with a great story defeating that attempt.

Ok it's already gone long and I haven't even approached the subject of my post. I am extremely disappointed and frustrated with the recent negative energy that has been focussed against our entertainers. I am neither a great fan or have a massive liking to Aamir Khan or Silambarasan. But what's happened to them is tragic and if this doesn't stop here, none of us can feel safe eventually. I am just using those 2 guys as examples as they are the most recent and most disturbing.

Unless you had been living in a deserted island for the last few months most of you would know what happened to Aamir Khan for something he never even said. Yes that's right folks who still believe he said it. He didn't even say he wants to go out of the country. It was a line that was taken without it's prefix and suffix and blown out of proportions. It's like if some X says "When we went to watch this movie we had 2 ice creams in our hand, and when the movie started I was really disappointed, when one of the ice creams fell down". Next day the media and social media will pronounce "Mr X was really disappointed when the movie started" and that's all the story will be. The poor ice cream will not feature in the news anywhere.

What happened to Silambarasan a.k.a Simbu was even more tragic. To the people who do not know this story. He is an entertainer in the Tamil Movie industry with very few friends in the industry. He composes and writes his own songs in his movies at times and also releases music albums. He had written and sung a song for his own collection and had held it digitally in his private storage. The song was theoretically like "Why the hell do boys love and then mourn about the failure" . Instead of "Hell" there was a muted beep which meant it was up to someone's interpretation what the word was and if you are familiar with the word when someone says it in sentence you can understand it. Someone got a copy of the song and released it on youtube - just the audio version without his knowledge or consent. That's when the witchhunt started. He was pronounced as the ultimate sinner of all times. His effigies were burnt, police complaints were filed against him. Police registered FIR and non-bailable arrest warrants were issued against him and FIR was filed in different cities. There is a rumour that separate police teams have been setup for a nationwide manhunt. Ok that's a bit exaggerated. It was not a "nationwide" man hunt. It was state wide. As the airports were all on alert preventing him escaping the country.

He didn't release the song. He didn't promote it. But the small group of protestors blowing this out of proportion had some of these "valid" arguments against him
- Rapists in this country are raping because of this song
- Violence against women are because of this song
- Children will get corrupted because of this song
- Why did he put the song where it could be compromised

There was one guy who supported Simbu saying guys this is not a huge crime in one of the facebook posts. There were 10 people jumping on that guy and one guy was saying "I saw your profile pictures in your profile. Is that your daughter in your profile picture along with you. If your daughteh r is molested because of this song, how would you feel. Stop defending such criminals online".
There were a few side attacks on this. Music director Anirudh was accused of composing music for the song without a shred of evidence or connection. Someone posted a photo of Simbu and Anirudh sitting together on one of the copies of the Youtube Songs and that was evidence enough for everyone even though Simbu made a public statement saying Anirudh is in no way connected to this song.

Even some of the media magazines i had respected continued to write articles against Anirudh days after this. I can understand the media is biased. But didn't realize how low they were. I refused to acknowledge the term "Presstitues" until recently. But now I do.

But what about the people who do exactly the same thing in the Social Media.
This is the subject and motive for my post. They are called Trolls. But I think that is too decent a word to be used for such shameful beings.
What gives us the bloody Right to do a witch hunt on our entertainers for expressing their individual and personal opinion without pointing out or demeaning another individual?

And what's our basic motivation? Because we don't like their ideology? Or is it because we are Jealous of their success and fame?
And Why on God's name should those people do social service.
They didn't swear under an oath to protect us or serve us. Their profession is entertainment. Period. We made them demi-gods that's our mistake.
Some articles say they are influencers. What nonsense. Your news editor has 100 times more influencing power than them.

If I was one of those 2, I would have picked out the 100 most demeaning social media posts and did what Karti Chidambaram did against the guy who posted offensive message against him on twitter. He filed an FIR and the person responsible for the social media post was arrested and faced a possibility of up to 3 years in Jail.
Or the other incident where 2 girls were arrested for a facebook post linked to a Maharashtra Political Leader.

At this point some of you might be fuming about "Freedom of Speech" and "Independence" and all that crap. I fumed the same way in both those incident when the tweeter was arrested and those 2 girls were arrested.

But hold on, if Aamir Khan and Simbu didn't have their rights to "Freedom of Speech" without individually demeaning anyone, why these trolls in social media should have freedom of speech. Either you have the freedom of speech or you don't. Period. You can't have double standards.
If this article has made any impact on you, then stand up to those trolls who post demeaning and under the belt comments about entertainers or public figures in your whatsapp groups. Stand up to those people who forward insulting jokes in your facebook friend lists.
If you are one of those people who thinks Sardarji Jokes are funny despite the fact that it insults a community , then you are beyond reasoning. Move on and have a happy life.

India @ London Olympics 2012

I had thought about writing down what I thought of India's performance in the London Olympics. Personally I did not think India did very badly in the London Olympics. Obviously we didn't win the number of medals as many of the other countries did. But then, the reason that some people were attributing it to was just nonsense.


Take this article for example from Hindu.

This person probably hates cricket and blames the lack of medals on cricket. How ridiculous can this be. Cricket is a spectator sport. Its entertainment. You wouldn't be able to watch Discus throw and Javelin throws as entertainment for weeks . But that doesn't mean that people do not support or cheer for those athletes in an international event like Olympics if you win or come close to winning.

Take England or America for e.g. England is crazy about football. Barclay's Premier League lasts for months and is followed with as much fanfare as cricket is on a week on week basis. Do they follow the other sports like fencing , athletics, swimming, with the same fanfare. In my opinion not. I hadn't read about Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah as much as I have before they won in the London Olympics.


If a person is not successful at the highest level in their sport , they are not that well known. They are not followed with fanfare till they reach that point with rarest of exceptions perhaps. If Phelps was still the greatest swimmer that he was but had not won any Olympics medals that he has won , yet performed outside the olympics, would he have been as renowned as he is now. Probably not. Even in cricket we know only of the 20-30 people who play international cricket and play successfully. How many of us remember people like Sanjay Bangar for e.g. But we all remember as a nation P.T.Usha , Shiny Wilson, Ashiwini Nachappa , Milka Singh even though they have not won medals. Do we not agree they are legends? Will we ever forget Abhinav Bindra or Susheel Kumar or Vijendar Kumar. I watched Yogeshwar's bronze medal match and it will be one the best sporting moments I will remember.

In every sport the person needs to be at his best for the few minutes when he competes to win. I was very glad that almost throughout the 2.5 weeks I was able to see some indian competing, irrespective of the fact they were winning or losing. Ultimately we will get there. But many came close . Agonizingly close. Even if they did not make the finals of that event. In one of the archery qualifications we lost by 1 point out of some 140 points. And one of the indian archers hit a 5 out of 10 once. And that was the one bad shot in the match and that was it. The room for error is very less and they are competing against the best in the world.

Then there were articles on recognition and rewards for these players. Do we honestly feel that the Olympics medal winners in this era are not recognized and rewarded in India? Only in India we award even the Bronze medal winners with 50 Lakhs and give them ranks like IAS and promotion in their career. We all know about the number of university seats and jobs available for sports quota. So many atheletes get jobs in Railways and Other Services through Sports Quota and get promoted when they do well in international competitions. Not just the public sector. People like Deepika Kumari who has risen in the ranks in the Tata Group she works for by becoming the world champion even though she hasn't won the olympics medal.

From a motivation, rewards and recognition perspective in this modern Era, I do not think that India lacks behind at all. On a comparitive note, the gold medal winners for GB were not given huge cash awards and promotions. They just got Glory.

Again on the comparison, GB won only 1 gold medal in the 1996 olympics. Yet they have turned it around to win 29 this year in spite of not winning Gold in some of the most expected events like diving.

It does not mean that I think that the support for athletes is perfect. But before we finish with that, I think the main reason why we don't produce that many athletes is the Indian parents. The 2 major economic groups in india are the middle class and the lower income class. How many middle class parents want their kids to be athletes. More than 90% of the parents I have known of want their kids to be Engineer or Doctor or IT or at a minimum a college graduate to go into a decent job and for which they have to spend most of their time memorizing their text books in the name of studying in the Indian education system. (Doesn't mean that it doesn't have any merits. I am what I am because of that system.) When the parents dictate the kid's path till they are 21 years old, they don't have much choice in terms of becoming an athlete. The other group which is lower middle class, when struggling to make ends meet, would probably not even think of sports in their dreams unless the natural talent in a kid is discovered by chance and luck by someone in that field.

So the 1.2 Billion population is a myth. More than 90% of them have no interest / time in "participating" in any sport. If you are an IT professional in india for e.g. your kids are probably playing computer games and watching tv more than they actually even play outside? Apart from their School P.E class how much physical sport do they actually indulge in?

I had been supportive of the system for most part of my post. But I read one of the most disturbing articles about the Indian Beuracratic Officials administering testosterone injections for athletes and how its affecting their life. If this is true, I wouldn't want my kids to go through some thing like that for whatever be the rewards.

If anything needs to be changed, that is what needs to be changed first. This is again in the hands of the media. If NDTV has the courage to publish this article, why don't they fight for stopping it. Does the 4th estate not have the moral responsibility to challenge something more fiercely than it does currently?

Shiva Karthikeyan - An absolute entertainer

Shiva Karthikeyan at the moment is primarily a Vijay TV anchor for a few programs like "Athu Ithu Ethu"

I've been so impressed with him, that I am writing a blog post after so long.

In recent times no one else has made me laugh out loud like he has.

(Just recently subscribed to Vijay TV in UK and watching him after a long gap)

For me , he is one of the best tamil entertainers ( I don't want to call him just a comedian) in recent times.

As a comedian, I rate him well above the some of the famous recent tamil comedians.

Here are some reasons why (to the extent I have seen him)

• He is gifted with great humility. Really hope he continues to retain this forever.
• Great presence of mind and superb timing.
• Does not scold or make obscene fun of other's disabilities for the sake of comedy.
• Does not shout in high pitch voice.
• Great mimicry artist. But has curtailed his mimicry in recent times and that has made it all the more enjoyable whenever he does it.
• Does not beat / get beaten by someone in the name of comedy.
• Treats everyone with respect.
• Last but not the least - his dance :-)

For someone who started as a talent show contestant for comedians about 4 years back (Kalakka Povathu Yaaru - Vijay TV 2006/07) , his growth is astounding.

At one point I was watching him host nearly 5 tv shows in Vijay TV simultaneously.

In fact, there was a comedy spoof of Kaun Banega Crorepati in one of the kings of comedy program, where Host asks a question

"Vijay TV la Shiva Karthikeyan thoghuthu vazhangum Nigazhchi ethu". (Which program does Shiva Karthikeyan present in Vijay TV)

Participant answers

"Shiva Karthikeyan thoguthu Vazhangaatha Nigazhchi ethunnu keatteenganna sollalaam." ( If you ask me which program he doesn't present , I can answer)

This blog post is a tribute to an absolute entertainer.

Whatever he does or does not do in the future, it doesn't matter. He has entertained so far in the cleanest way possible and made me laugh.

One of his best tv show episodes I've been watching again and again recently :-)

Path breaking movie called Inbaa !

Rarely such movies come in life which changes your life forever (Or at least for a while :-) ).

Sometime back , we were told about a tamil movie by a friend who said the movie was good. So we watched the movie. It had a good cast , but what followed was an extraordinary 3 hours of movie watching. Name of the movie was Inbaa. (Starring Shyam and Sneha ).

The story left us breathless first. Rich girl , Poor Hero , girl loves hero , girl's house don't accept the love. Then hero also starts to love the girl. A few meaningless songs and sleepy fights later they are united. Bad people are all dead in the end. We watched the whole movie stunned. (I must be honest and admit that till the end of the movie, i had the slightest hope of seeing at least one tiny twist, at least one tiny fresh dialogue which never came ).

The screenplay , if there was an award to be given to the most uninteresting screenplays, this one would win it hands down.

Some questions came to mind...

1) How did the director convince the producer or financier to fund this movie ? Its pretty much possible that the producer had too much money and wanted to try and make some sort of record and make the worst film of the century possibly.

2) How did the lead cast agree to do a movie like this? I mean , I used to think well known actors listen to the story before they do a movie. Every time I imagine this sequence I burst into laughter. (" Sir ... open pannnaa.. oru rich heroine sir. Neenga oru poor hero sir. Avanga ungalai love panraaanga sir. Avanga veetla ethukku othukkala sir. Appram naduvula naalu fight podroaam, naalu song podroaam sir. Climax la neenga seanthudreenga sir. Industry la namma story thaan sir talk of the town aa irukkum " ).

3) After the movie is made, Is it not watched by the director, editor, producer and other people before it is screened. How is that not even one of them had the kindheartedness to say, ok lets not screen this movie and cause intolerable cruelty to the humankind. :)

So why is this movie path breaking and life changing. ??

- After watching this movie , i now seem to be able to tolerate some of the other movies too. Like Arasaangam etc. This movie had literally raised the bar so much, that I think I would probably enjoy Veerasamy if I watch it now. Now is that not path breaking ?

The Truth behind Harry Potter's Scar

One of the brightest members of our tea gang (His name is Sudhakar Panchavarnam) had written a spoof on Harry Potter's Scar. It was very funny but interestingly realistic. So I thought I would put it up on my blog.

Here it goes..............

Hogwarts Top Secrets revealed.

Yes !! The chamber of secrets has been opened again. But this time not by Voldemort but by me.
I happened to visit Hogwarts yesterday in dream and tried to open the chamber of secrets only to find some interesting facts. Some of them funny and some are very shocking too..
Sharing you just a few....

• Sirius Black was seriously black when born. He was turned white using color Transfiguration Potion.He applied for change of name as Sirius White, but Ministry of Magic rejected thrice.
  

• When Voldemort was born, his parents did not name him for 6 months. From then he was called 'He who has not been Named". Later when Voldemort gained power, he forced people to call himself as "He who must not be Named".

And here comes a very interesting secret behind Harry's Scar..

I found this in Dumbledore's office in a pensieve which was locked in a cupboard.
The pensieve looked untouched for ages. Curious to know Dumbldore's memories, i bent closer to the pensieve. The blue surface began to swirl. I felt my feet leaving the office floor, falling falling through whirling darkness and finally landed on a dark lane.
It took few seconds to realize i was standing in front of number Four Privet Drive.

Beside me stood three people wearing Cloak.
A tall thin very old man with half moon spectacles. A woman with emerald cloak and a hat.
Another man too big, wild and long bushy black hair and beard, holding a bundle of blankets.
Yes .. they were Dumbledore, Mc. Gonagall and Hagrid. It was the day when Voldemort tried to kill Harry Potter. Very curious to look at Harry, I bent over the bundle of blankets. The little boy was fast asleep. But to my surprise his forehead was clear and couldn’t find the Scar.. Where is the Scar i asked myself when the silence was broken by McGonagall.

"Professor. Are you sure you want to leave Harry to his Aunt and Uncle?" asked McGonagall.

“Yes Minerva. We cant get into the burden of taking care of this boy. This is the best place for him. I am keeping a letter and his uncle will explain him when is older."

“But Professor, His Aunt too has a baby of the same age. What if Dudleys swap the Child or in worst case disown Harry. How are you going to identify Harry when he is 11 yrs old.?”

"I have a way out Minerva". said Dumbledore smiling and slowly getting his hand inside the cloak.

He took out a long sword, looked more like the Gryffindor Sword. Dumbledore brought it closer to Harry.

"No Sir.. No..." Cried Hagrid.

"Professor...." said McGonagall.

With out hearing anyone, Dumbledore placed the sword on Harry's small forehead and created a mark. The skin split wide with blood rushing out. The young boy cried loudly breaking the silence.

“No..Sir..No" again cried Hagrid taking out a large handkerchief and burying his face in it.

The boy's cry still on air. Dumbledore took his wand pointed at Harry "Silenceo".

The sound vanished but the boy still cried with blood flowing down.

"Give me that potion Hagrid" Dumbledore pointed at Hagrid.

“But Sir, this is for Dragons, not supposed to be used for wizard treatment.’

“Thats ok Hagrid. Give me that for time being.”

As Hagrid handed over the Potion,Dumbledore took the potion and applied it on the wound. The blood stopped.

"Sir, this potion doesnt cure completely. The wound might pain again"

“Lets not bother about that anymore, Hagrid. We only need something to identify Harry. Its done. His aunt and uncle will take care of the wound. Minerva, Lets tell the Wizard world the scar was formed when Voldemort tried to kill him."

“But Professor...How can we lie.." said McGonagall

Dumbledore took his wand pointed at McGonagall and Hagrid, Performed a Memory charm erased all the memory related to the scar. After few seconds both stood as if nothing happened.
Dumbledore then placed the little boy in front of the house and all three stood there for a minute and departed.

On my way back from Hogwarts I realized the person behind the scar was only Dumbledore, the secret known only to him. Harry's Scar pained after 4 years in hogwarts - not because of Voldemort's link but due to improper treatment done on the wound by applying Dragon's potion.
And Dumbledore didn't look at Harry (in the Order of Phoenix) because he was guilty of what he has done, that too for a silly reason. Guilty for having given improper treatment and being the man behind Harry's Paining Scar.

Ocean Park Gandipet Hyderabad

Ocean Park

*******************************************************************************
Location , Entry Fee and Food.
*******************************************************************************

Ocean park is situtated in Gandipet. Approximately 12.5 Km from the Mumbai Road to Mehdipatnam.

Drive is relatively easy except for a few pockets of traffic. Otherwise its mostly a pleasant drive through Military area.

The route is pretty easy to obtain from maps.google.com . A simple search will get the location and direction.

Entry Fee was 120 Rs for Child and 180 Rs for Adult.
Primary reason for going was because I got the tickets free with an offer on Coke Pet bottles. :-) The exchange of tickets for the Coke Tokens was relatively hassle free.

Outside food is not allowed and there is slight frisking at the entry gate of the bags for the same.
Everything inside was 20-30% above MRP.
Water bottles were 15 Rs.
Branded Juice bottles were 10 Rs above MRP.

Moderately good food in the canteen for moderate prices.
Examples Plate Wada - 25 Rs. Plate Lemon Rice - 25 Rs. Meals - 40 Rs. Fried Rice - 60 Rs.

*******************************************************************************
Water Games , Pool Rules.
*******************************************************************************

The park has only one major Pool as such. Wave pool.
Other than that there are a 4-5 water slides.
Strict guidelines for the dress is enforced in these .
Everyone should be dressed in proper swimming dress to enter the swimming pool.
They have Swimming dress for Rent and Sale for men and women.
For women its 20 Rs rent + 100 Rs deposit. (Rent for 2 hours).
For Men they sell Cotton swimwear @ 40 Rs and Nylon @ 60 Rs.

Lockers are available @ 20 Rs (rent) + 30 Rs (deposit).
I had taken multiple lockers. Lockers look small but with some effort you can pack a medium backpack into it.

The wave pool was extremely crowded the day i visited and slightly difficult with family esp small children.

For Women and Children below 4 feet, there is a separate swimming pool.
(Men not allowed). And there are no rules on dress in that swimming pool.
It has water fountains and sprinklers and the central water drop and small slides and ideal for Children.

*******************************************************************************
Non Water Games
*******************************************************************************

There are a few (about 4) free rides like Breakdance etc.
And a few more (another 4) for children below 4 feet 2".

Apart from that there are paid rides like...
Bumper Cars (10 rs per person)
Bumper Boats (20 Rs per person)
Winch which takes you on an aerial view of the place for 5 mnts (20 Rs per person)

All the rides can be covered in one hour.

*******************************************************************************
Timings and Comments
*******************************************************************************
The Park opens @ 11 am and is open till 8 pm.
11 am is a very bad time to go as it gets really crowded near the entry.

I could have spent the whole day in water had I probably gone alone.
But since I went with the family , i regretted having gone so early on such a sunny day.

Ideally it would be better to reach there by around 2:30 to 3 pm.
They switched on the waves only between 3:15 to 3:45 . Thats the ideal time to be in the wave pool.

So you can be in the pool for 2-3 hours and then 1 more hour for the slides.

The park can be enjoyed probably for 4 hours. Anything more than that becomes a bit boring.

If you have kids and women in your group , you would be better off to send them to the separate pool for kids.

Please note most of the information is based on my memory of what I have noted down.
I might be wrong here and there possibly. :-)

Got the passport !

Finally, after almost 38 days got the passport for my daughter.
So we applied on 21-Jun-2006 and we got it on 29-Jul-2006.
But this is by no means an yardstick.

The actual duration would also depend on various other factors.
Some of which even I am not completely aware of.
My friend who applied on the same day for his daughter a few minutes after me,
had got the passport on 18-Jul-2006. That is within one month duration.

And when I checked the passport status website on that day, the status was showing that there has been a delay and passport will be despatched as soon as possible.

So basically, if all documents are in order, average despatch time for a passport is around one month.

I had already posted the Date Format inconsistency of the Passport website.

Now, I checked it 4 days after receiving the passport. The status still shows, that there has been a delay and passport will be despatched in another one week.

So the status page is not updated that promptly too.

Anyways that ends the Passport saga. :-)