India Against Corruption - A movement of the people , by the people , for the people !

A common man raises his voice against corruption. Gets the punishment for it. Decides to call for support. And the nation rises to stand by him.



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Will you be a Valentine?

Across the world on the 14th of February, people celebrate love. Yeah, well they do celebrate Valentine's day too. I mean it is not just to remember Saint Valentine who was a martyr and died for the love of his kinsman. It is also to celebrate the existence of love.
In today's world where hatred in the form of human greed and jealousy is manifested widely through corruption, wars, riots and a false sense of ownership of material possessions, love is losing its meaning. And it is amongst all of this that a display of love, however seemingly insignificant it might be, shines in the dark. I daresay that you don't need just the one day for this.
If Saint Valentine didn't chose a day to die, why should you chose a day to love?
And don't buy expensive gifts if you can't. Give someone a timeless present, your Present! Because more than being just plain old green wads of money, time is also one of those things that is irrevocably gone once it is gone. So help your mom in getting things in order at home and then tell her that dinner was superb, and don't just say it but tell her what you liked in particular. Give your dad a call at work. Tell him something you'd only tell your best friend. Help a stranger. Smile when you thank someone. Love you country. Your school. Your wor... Maybe not your workplace. But your colleagues,yes.
Love your family, friends and above all youself without waiting for another day.
Just steal a moment, a day, any day and make it your Valentine's day!

Soulmates...

11:58 PM:
He had just lived his worst day.. Or so he hoped. Tommorrow's agenda though had some real potential to shatter this hope. And he knew he was going to have to deal with it. Tommorrow it was! No more running away from it. Without even realizing it, he had spoken the last few words aloud. The sound of his voice seemed unusually hoarse, slightly surprising him to the extent that he looked around from the corner of his eye to ascertain that nobody else was around. No one was. The dillipated villa was deserted as he had known it to be for years. Yet at this place, in all its solitude had helped him find solace amidst all his predicaments. Ironically it would be here that he would have to face the toughest challenge of his life. He walked away from there knowing he had one more night to live... to dream...
1:29 AM :
Sweat beads rolling down his temple, the soft linen pillow didn't feel so comforting to his restless mind
2:56 AM :
He had heard something. Or was it him breathing? Yes, it was definitely him breathing in short almost hurried gasps of air.
3:34 AM :
It was just a futile exercise, all of this. He picked up the weapon...and hoped he picked up pieces of himself too. This job would need the whole of him. And more probably.
4:46 AM :
The villa stood there in front of him uninviting in the moonlight. For all the beautiful memories he had here with her would be marked today.
4:48 AM :
She was there. He'd pictured this all night and had prayed that his sight would betray his vision. It was but as truthful as his love for her.
She: 'You know I love you, right?'
He:(muffled, almost choked voice)'I kn.. know'
She: 'Then you will do as I want you to do'

Her voice was ruthless, cold almost alien to his senses. He looked up. Her face glowed like it did on the nights they spent time alone at the villa lost deep into each others eyes... Chasing each other... Playing like toddlers... Teaching each other.. Living the other persons life in their minds eye.. For years.. decades.. centuries..
She : 'It would be quick and you wouldn't even know'
He : 'Quick! It is not the pain that scares me.. It is losing this! You are all I have.. No body else'
She : 'But we must complete what was such a beautiful story. The story of two beings coming together. We have lived glorious lives. It is time to depart.. Our separate ways!'
He : 'You will come back again won't you?'
She : 'Where else would a poor soul go?'
He : 'It is indeed a scary world out there. And so you will wait here.'

He drew out the weapon and pierced it through her ghastly pearly white...yet stunning beautiful body.
He : 'You know I love you, right?'
She :(muffled, almost choked voice) 'I kn.. know'
He : 'Then you will do as I want you to do.. It would be quick and you wouldn't even know'
She : 'Quick! It is not the pain that scares me.. It is losing this! You are all I have! No body else'
He : 'But we must complete what was such a beautiful story. The story of two beings coming together. We have lived glorious lives. It is time to depart.. Our separate ways!'
She : 'You will come back again won't you?'
He : (pause)
He : 'It is indeed a scary world out there. And so you will wait here.'
He departed leaving his soul behind. She stayed watching her soul drift by.

Youtube introduces automatic captioning for the deaf- Why should you get excited about it?

Youtube has come out with a brand new feature - Automatic captioning of its video to produce subtitles for the benefit of the deaf. In a nutshell, the service will produce subtitles for videos which have been spoken in fluent English. So for example , a deaf person watching a video of Obama making a speech can read about it in real time as he/she watches the video. That's cool!
But this technology if fully developed has some really deep implications on the way we use our online content. Essentially it is an extension of audio based content retrieval. Some of them I enlist here, others you are free to dream about:

Multiple language captioning: A video which has content in English language can be understood by a French person if the technology allows the bot to translate languages. That means a deaf(or otherwise) French guy can view Obama make his speech and understand it completely, all in real time.
Social Media: We already have been using videos on social networking sites for ages. How about using it for social networking? Videos uploaded online could be therefore processed for references of people within ones social circle. These references could then be used for all the millions of applications now being built on the social media platform. For example , if I'm uploading a video of my friends Ross and Chandler, then a alert could shoot off onto their (and possibly their friends) Facebook pages.
Brand management: Companies can derive useful information from user videos regarding the impact of their product has created. Obviously this application is weak in the sense that users will rather opt for textual medium(at least for a few years more) to put their feelings out in the open.
Marketing: This is one that is accompanied with any innovation in the field of information retrieval. Videos often seem to have content that is different from what their titles state. For eg, a video titles "The best hangout place in Mumbai" could talk about something different , say sea food at one particular place. In such a case it would be better to use the video itself to generate ads.
Clustering based on content: All of the above applications are more of audio based content ones. One use that is based on video content(Obviously this does not relate to this particular innovation) is grouping videos based on the spectral patterns of the content. Something similar to Image Swirl by google(Check it out here) . So outdoor videos can be separated from indoors, etc.

Well I have gone on for more than a googol pages it seems . But I'm sure you see that this technology could have far reaching effects. I'm particularly interested in the social media aspect of it since video based social networking is really not into the picture yet.. Something to watch out for...

A whacky startup idea!!

I just came across this startup while I was wasting time online the other day.
It is called PHOKATCOPY

Although the host website classified it as a web startup, it is much more than that. And I'm not very sure about the level of success of this service(although the company website quotes impressive figures-student base of 60000+ ...Wow!!) but what impresses me the most is the simplicity of the idea. It is only apt that the idea was formulated in the minds of a couple of IITD students.
The idea is basically this- Students, all kinds of them need xerox. So the company strikes a deal with some corporate biggies and puts their advertisements onto the back and front cover of the xerox to earn a profit. And then they 'share' their profit with the students in the form of a rebate(hence the "phokat" tag) plus some goodies which get by using special coupons. In addition to this they also collaborate with the colleges to widen their reach. Simple yet ingenious!
Just amazed to see what others are doing while I'm just whiling away time online. :(

Amazing ad!

This is one of the best ads I've ever seen, not just because of the concept but also the execution. And the music will definitely strike a chord.

Finally back!

Yeah .. its been a long break .. and I have absolutely no explainations for it... But this time round without hope or agenda I shall continue blogging. As far as this post goes I have nothing more to add, I'll just leave you with this thought.

You can't anything on this planet apart from gravity

By the way just registered on twitter. You can follow me if you wish to. At www.twitter.com/deepmp. Its a great service and I don't think I'm worthy enough even to testify.