And the race for BBM for Android and iOS begins

For years now, we lived in a world where iOs looked down upon Android and Android and Blackberry in turn were in a battle with eachother to prove who is superior and the debate went on and on. Android boasted about the variety of apps available while Blackberry boasted about its communication opeitons and that it was a true Business Phone, its another story that this Business Phone had more market amongs the college going students who used BBMto its core.

Now suddenly Blackberry announced that it will launch BBM for Android and iOS and suddenly these people who took every chance to look down upon Blackberry went crazy for BBM. Even before it was officially launched, there were unofficial apps circulated, GooglePlay was fooled with fake BBMs and there were 1.1million downloads in the time span of 8hours. And all this led to Blackberry official postponing the launch of the official BBM ( according the the tweet that they sent out ). I don’t understand why we have become so impatient? There was a time when mobile phones, instant messaging, emails didn’t exist and human beings functioned  just fine. But now when everything is so quick and fast that we all want  everything to be quick. It’s a race to get everything first. The first one to post your pin on facebook, the first one to review the app on your blog or the first one to tweet about it.  And what do you get by doing all this? A few extra likes and retweets. I don’t really think its worth it. I would rather wait for the official app and use it in a hassle free way. 

Scary Thoughts!

Around 6 -7 years back, sometime in school when I first considered being a journalist the only romantic idea in front of me was doing some hardcore journalism like exposing the corrupt politician, helping the poor get justice etc etc… the same ideas and dreams which any aspiring journalist shall have. Its the scenario now that scares me, everyday as I open the newspaper I see a new case of sexual abuse or molestation or acid attack and I shudder at the thought that the romantic idea is shattering and shattering at a point that tells me forget doing something for the country I don’t even know if I shall be safe and sound this time tomorrow.

Many rallies, protests, candlelight march happened in the city. Police also showed that such things won’t be taken lightly. People are finally getting aware and still such heinous crimes continue, don’t these people fear anyone? I am atleast glad that the girls in the city are becoming stronger by actually going and complaining and not succumbing to these things. But there is a negative side to it as well which is more dangerous is the thought that what if these people who fall down to such low standards actually go a step further and actually kill the victim so as to save them from being arrested later. So basically we live in a society where our government doesn’t provide enough security, we can’t go and expose the culprits because the results may be severe and still even if we do make a police complaint and get the caught, it will still take ages to actually see them behind bars for good. 

The Police is not God to be everywhere!!!

The recent Mumbai’s Gang Rape Case has again made the city unite together to protest against such crimes and demand strict laws against such crimes to avoid further instances. Many debates, talks, rallies happened in the last 2days and people have also blamed Mumbai Police for it, I agree to the fact that after being aware of the notorious elements that were prevalent in Shakti Mills they should have taken steps to stop it.

Nonetheless I won’t take away their credit for the commendable job they are doing with night patrols which helps keep the city safe, I have mentioned innumerable times how I am in love with the city and how I find it safe even at midnight. Many a times me and some of my friends do go for late night drives, and I should mention that there are many police checkpoints put up around the city to avoid any nuisance. So once when we had gone for a late night drive, I dozed off in the front seat while my friend was driving me home. A police saw me and stopped the car and started inquiring my friend, he also asked me a couple of questions to check if there was something wrong on learning that everything was normal he let us go. At that point the whole incident made us laugh, the friend said, “ He thought I had drugged you and was kidnapping you”. But now I realize how important that incident was… how aware and how keen the police were about women safety.

Such rape incidents shouldn’t happen but putting the blame on police won’t help, they have a lot to go through and such devilish things will stop when strict laws shall be made and executed. A grassroot level change is needed, we are supposed to educate the future generation, make them respect women, sex education should be introduced as a part of school curriculum. When the basic way of looking at a woman changes shall this thing come to an end, but this is something that shall happen over a period of time. Right now, STRICT laws is what we demand!

A Negative India

India has always been known for its rich culture, varied religions, food, language etc sadly in the last couple of years India is also being potrayed in bad light. Women safety is no doubt a big question that every Indian girl faces. It started with Delhi being called the “Rape Capital of India” on social media sites. And people’s anger did kind of calm down by showing their frustration and cursing the government online. But what disturbed me today and made me write this post is this BBC documentary that I came across on Youtube - India A Dangerous Place to Be a Woman. 

 India was knows for its culture right? Culture also includes respecting women! India was always critised for its old school thinking about women but actually naming it a Dangerous Place to be a Women? Omg! I never thought that there will come a day when ill see something like this. The documentary is also wonderfully made in which the host goes and actually talks to people who have gone through eve teasing.

 

This very documentary makes me shudder, Mumbai is a safe city that way but you never know what it will be like 5years from now. It makes me wonder if I would have the same freedom I have now then. It makes me wonder if my future daughter is going to be born in same safe India that grew up in, and trust me the thought isn’t romantic. It actually makes me shudder.  

 

Sanjay Dutt Surrenders – Media makes it a TRP race

Going to jail isn’t a very happy tast to do for anyone and the past couple of days you could easily see Sanjay Dutt trying to get him out of going to the jail, failing so he gracefully accepted that he HAS to go jail. A difficult task for him, his family and people who are close to him. But our Media doesn’t seem to understand where to draw the line. His building was filled with Media people, they followed his car till the court, trying to overtake Sanjay’s car so that they could get one shot of him. Don’t they understand that that is one of the most private and intimate moment for him with this wife and sister? Isn’t just following the car and giving live updates of where he has reached enough? Is really actually peeping inside the car justifiable? And the drama doesn’t end there, once Sanjay reached the court it took him almost 20minutes to reach from his car to the court entrance. Why you ask? Because our media people had surrounded his car completely. He came out and pleaded them to give him way so that he could go it but it went unheard. Do we really have to give him such a hard time when he is already going through a lot? And if that still wasn’t enough, they even started showing montages with the song “Nayak nahi Khalnayak hoon mein”. A certain regional news channel even made fun of the journalists running to take Sanjay’s byte, fully aware that one of their journalist was a part of the crowd as well but non the less as long as they are able to show the so called “Exclusive” footages its all fair (according to them).

Sometimes I prefer those olden days with only few TV channels and news twice a day, atleast that diminished the chances of making news just a way of getting more TRP and actual journalism was done.

I am a Media student, and I aspire to become a journalist and cover all these events, But I shudder when I see people going head over heals and not understanding that there are some lines that are to be followed. 

A Step at a Time – Ring the Bell

Violence against women has been around for a long time, we read about it in Newspapers, see it on News Channels and also talk about it and at the end it’s always, “Alas! What can we do about it; it’s not in our hand.” The most we do it discuss it on Social Networking Mediums and believe that’s enough and we have done our part. It’s this violence against women, and by that I mean the Domestic Violence that is prominent in our society that has helped give women the lower status as compared to the man. And somehow it has now even gotten into the mental psychology of the man that he can treat his wife and to an extend even his girlfriend the way he wants.

Indian society has always given women the second status, what’s with the girl leaves her house and goes to her husband’s house? (Not that I am against it, but why can't we even consider it the other way around?)

It’s true that Education plays an important role in shaping how a man behaves with his wife and other family members. I have seen many so-called educated men who treat their wife as if they are inferior to them. But being an aware and responsible citizen of India it is our duty to stop something like this if it is happening with anyone.

For starters, it is very important to make it quite clear that a certain type of jokes which portray domestic violence shouldn’t be entertained, same goes for any jokes about Rapes also.

If someone in your building/work place is facing Domestic Violence at home then talk to them, make her feel safe talking to you about it and then if possible even try to talk with her family members. Of course don’t interfere in their personal issues. But a general idea that such a thing is not good.

Talking about Domestic Violence in public gatherings and with your friends/co-workers won’t hurt as well.

And the easiest and the best way to stop a domestic violence is the “Ring the Bell” you can always get more information on this on http://www.bellbajao.org/

My Experiments with Cooking

This vacation I had decided to just relax and do absolutely nothing after all this is the last vacation of my life after this it would be all hunt for jobs and start earning and listen to mom say “Its time you get married!” so this last time I am going to do everything that I love. It started with me making a Harry Potter Wand!!! That was something I wanted to do for a long long longgg time but somehow it just didn’t happen but I am glad cause when I finally did it, it is just the best! Ill do a post on that soon. There are many other Potter related things that I am planning on doing but for now lets start with that I did today.

            I realized that its high time I start cooking, and cooking good! I don’t know I never got this feeling before that I should learn how to cook, but now suddenly I wanna know the receipe of everything that I eat. So what I ended up doing was subscribing to all the Food related channels on Youtube, Following Food Blogs etc etc. I guess this is something related to actually “Growing up”.

So today I decided to make Veg. Hakka Noodles. Quite a basic recipe really,

1.boil the noodles.

2. cut all the vegetables that you want to put in (onion, capsicum and cabbage for me)

3. drain the noodles and keep aside

4. heat up oil in another wok and put all the vegetables in and toss it up.

5. add the noodles and mix them up real nice.

6. add soya sauce, vinegar and salt.

7. add schezwan sauce if available.

8. toss up and serve J

For me, I did make a couple of mistakes like the salt was less and I sorta over cooked the noodles, but I guess I should be allowed these silly mistakes, I am still learning no? But other than that It was perfect. And in the adrenaline rush which went up inside me when my mom said, “its actually pretty good” I even cleaned all the vessels J