Contrasting trends in Indian web portals

While Yahoo,Bing and Flickr are censoring porn content in India,

Rediff is morphing into a soft-porn website by displaying backlessly dressed

girls on its home page.

Google Instant - The Real Beneficiary?

I think it's Google since Google Instant makes sure
that number of ad impressions go up 10 to 20 fold.

To the end user, it's more of a distraction.

ToiletWiki

Move beyond Wikileaks, here is a wiki which helps you take a leak : ToiletWiki

Indian Television needs location based Ads

Technology has advanced, and it makes no sense
to show ads for cold creams in southern parts of India,
when the mercury drops in northern states.

Update(3/12/2010) : I think one such company is Amagi, which provides
location based ads for television in partnership with many
cable operators such as Hathway, Digicable etc.

In order for them to be able to extend their business to DTH providers,
such as Airtel,Tata Sky etc., they will have to place their software into
their set top boxes, which currently do not have that much RAM.

Indian athletes need to get sexed up

Joseph Abraham - gold winner in Asiad 400m hurdles

This is Joseph Abraham, unintentionally displaying his well-chiseled bod after winning a gold for India in Asiad'2010. Even with his mustache, I will be ready to sign an advertising contract with him if he's willing to go topless in the ads.

He, along with other Indian athletes who have won medals in Asiad and Commonwealth, should be among the best paid athletes from the advertisers' point of view. Especially the female athletes, if they could project a sexy image of theirs, taking a cue from female athletes worldwide. They already have good bods, fantastic achievements. All they need is that oomph factor!

Some simple search engine optimizations for your website Tehelka.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 3:11 PM
Subject: Some simple search engine optimizations for your website
To: feedback@tehelka.com, editor@tehelka.com


Dear Sir/Ma' m,

I am a big fan of Tehelka and I read most of its content online.
Needless to say that you have an enormous corpus of very
high quality content. At the same time, I think, you have
not put enough effort towards search engine optimization(SEO).

Why do you need SEO?
 To make your website profitable, you are showing Ads.
---- To get more clicks on ads, you need more people to visit your site.
--------To get more people on your site, you need to ensure that your site
 is ranked highly in search results of Google/Yahoo etc.
------------Search engines will rank you site highly, if you follow certain simple
guidelines provided by them.

What are those guidelines?

1. The simplest of all, which Tehelka.com is ignoring is not giving a meaningful

title on every page. All your webpages have the same title : 

<title>Tehelka - India's Independent Weekly News Magazine</title>

which is useless from a user's and search engine's point of view.

So, give a meaningful title to every page. 

For e.g. this page : 

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main47.asp?filename=Ne301010Ananth_Kumar.asp

can have the same title, as that of the main article : 

Ananth Kumar fostered a revolt.  The ploy boomeranged

2. Use meta tags

Meta tags help a search engine in understanding what your web page is about.

For example : http://www.chakpak.com (a popular bollywood portal) has these meta tags on their main page: 

<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Chakpak - Your Bollywood Adda - India's most comprehensive website on Bollywood, provides encyclopedic information including bollywood news, movie videos, reviews, wallpapers, quiz, discussions & more on Indian movies, actors & actresses"/>

<meta name="keywords" content="bollywood India, bollywood online, hindi bollywood, old bollywood, Indian movies"/>

3. Use meta tags on every page : 

Not only should you use the meta tags on your home page, but

every page.

Books on SEO : 

http://www.flipkart.com/art-seo-eric-enge-stephan-book-8184048513

http://www.flipkart.com/seo-warrior-john-jerkovic-book-818404867x

In short, I want Tehelka to become so profitable, that it never has to wind up

its website to cut costs. To become profitable, you need to become popular/more accessible

without compromising on your content. With SEO, you can do just that.

Let me know if you need any more help.

--

Another Mig Crash

While appearing for various engineering entrance examinations during 12th standard,

I had appeared for NDA's entrance examination. I cleared the examination but

could not go for the interview due to time constraints.

Now looking at the number of MIG crashes, that sounds like a great decision I made.

There have been roughly 70 crashes in last 4 years, and many many more before.

I can only sympathize with the dead pilots' family and thank my stars that I am not

one of them.

Hampi - more

Queen's bath : 

Vitthal temple : 

Bazaar ouside the Vitthal temple - supposedly in the empire sandalwood was more precious and gold/diamond used to be sold by cupfuls in these bazaars. There are 3 such bazaars.

Bazaar ouside the Vitthal temple - supposedly in the empire sandalwood was more precious and gold/diamond used to be sold by cupfuls in these bazaars. There are 3 such bazaars.

Vitthal temple entrance

King's balance : 

Earlier here used to hang a balance, where king was weighed with gold/grains which was distributed among the poor.

Mango tree restaurant : 

View of Tungbhadra river from Mango tree restaurent - notice the red color of the water due to the ongoing mining nearby.

View of Tungbhadra river from Mango tree restaurent - notice the red color of the water due to the ongoing mining nearby.

Nrisimha Lakshmi Temple :

Lakshmi is missing - since that part was broken. Even the band connecting the knees was added recently.

Hampi

Numbers of some guides :
S. Chandra : +919449458740 (chandradabbi@yahoo.com)
Nagraj: +919480510871

1. Most of the temples in Hampi, have their main statues stolen/broken from their Garbhgrihas.
It's because locals/foreign attackers knew/believed that below the main statues there is lot
of gold/precious metals. Hence, in most of the temples, puja is no longer performed, since
according to Hindu beliefs, puja is not performed in temples with broken statues.

2. On the walls of the many temples, one can find images from Kamasutra - of different positions.

3. In order to find out which temple belong to which deity(since many of the statues are stolen),
archaeologists looked at the statues of the Dwarpalakas(gatekeepers). Jai-vijay indicated
a temple of Vishnu/Krishna whereas Nandi/Bhringhi indicate a Shiv temple.

4. Major expenses for this one day trip:
(i) Tatkal reservations for two in SL category, to-and-fro from Bangalore-to-Hospet (542*2 = 1084/-)
(ii) Hampi Guide : Rs. 700/-
(iii) Auto for touring Hampi: Rs. 350/-
(iv) Lunch at Mango tree (Mango lassi + Mango tree special thali + Cashew nut currey + 2 extra chapati) = Rs. 275/-
(v) Night meals at Naivedyam, close to the Hospet railway station(Rs. 170/-) (Veg Biryani, 4 Tandoori roti, Kadai Paneer)
(vi) Laxmi Guest House(Behind the tourism office, close to the Virupaksha temple), from 10AM to 6PM : Rs. 200/-


Bade Ganesh Temple : 

View of hillocks from bade ganesh temple

Bade Ganesh statue

View of hillocks from Bade Ganesh temple

Chhote Ganesh Temple : 

Chhote Ganesh Temple - Front

Chhote Ganesh Temple - Back - Parvati hugging Ganesh from behind

Choote Ganesh temple : Bade ganesh ji was a temple for the elite, so it has a Garbhgriha for the deity,
whereas this temple is open for all without any garbhgriha. Built by a trader for commoners.

Sister stones :

Underground temple :

King's palace :

Aqueduct

Secret chamber

Food plate for soldiers - made of stone - notice the 4 holes at the corners for vegetables/chutneys

Stepped stone water tank

Janana enclosure :

Mahauts' residence

Watch tower - eunuchs used to guard the Janana enclosure

Lotus Mahal

Another watch tower at Janana enclosure

Chambers for 11 royal elephants

Chambers for 11 royal elephants.

Badava Linga :

Mastakabhishek used to be performed through the star shaped roof

Badav Linga

Gopura Krishna Temple : 

Entrace of the Gopur Krishna Temple - in the left corner a Kamastura position(lady on the top)

Virupakash temple : 

One of the few temples in Hampi where puja is still performed, also famous for the inverted shadow effect of the main tower.

Programming as a mechanical job

Source : The Pragmatic Programmer

Conventional wisdom says that once a project is in the coding phase,
the work is mostly mechanical, transcribing the design into executable
statements. We think that this attitude is the single biggest reason that
many programs are ugly, inefficient, poorly structured, unmaintainable,
and just plain wrong.

Coding is not mechanical. If it were, all the CASE tools that people
pinned their hopes on in the early 1 980s would have replaced programmers long ago.
There are decisions to be made every minute—decisions
that require careful thought and judgment if the resulting program is
to enjoy a long, accurate, and productive life.

Swine flu vaccination

took it on 5th November, at Goyal hospital, Jodhpur.
It consisted of Agrippal S1 and Vacciflu-S.
Though I am not sure if it's enough to take one dose.
Somewhere I read that you need to take 2 doses
for it to be effective.

Cost : Rs. 850/-

Diwali photos

Some photos clicked this Diwali :

Rizwan

Watched this play in Rang Shankara two weeks ago.
Couldn't grasp much, but overall worth a watch.
Covers the tragic fate of Kashmiri children.

Cast and credits :
Abhijit Pakrashi
Akshay Gandhi
Ameen Haque
Anuja Ghosalkar
Arpita Phukan Biswas
Ashwini Kumar Chakre
Chanakya Vyas
Divya Jain
Jayesh Kumar sharma
Naveen kumar
Neha Bhat
Pallavi krishna
Pratyush singh
Ramneek singh
Shreekanth L. rao
Sweta Desai goudar
Tanzil rahman
Veena Basavarajaiah
Virginia Rodrigues

Munnar Travelogue

Elections are on in Kerala - even Munnar is not spared, flags of Congress and UDF are shown

I had a long weekend, 15 Oct to 17 Oct, which I tried to spend in Munnar, and it

partially worked out. Here is what I had planned originally : 

1. Bangalore to Aluva, by train(start on Thursday 21:40 and reach Aluva on Friday 09:30)

2. Aluva to Munnar, by road (finish the journey in 1 hour according to this website).

3. Spend roughly 2.5 days in Munnar and follow steps 2. and 1. in reverse order.

But as I figured out, source for step 2. was horribly wrong.

Aluva to Munnar is 120 KM, not 18 KM. And so the journey

took more than 3 hours by taxi(a bus would have taken at least

5-6 hours).

So I reached Munnar around 1AM after vomiting twice on the
way, since it was a hilly terrain and the car driver was driving at
a fast enough pace.

Animals grazing - on the way to Top station view point

Anyway, in short, I could spend around roughly 1.5 days
actually touring Munnar.

Here is some useful info :

1. Hotel Misha, (Close to the main market in old Munnar. Opposite Hotel Green Ridge.), ☎ 04865-230376/232376/230076 (mishaholidays@gmail.com), [15]. checkout: 12AM. Can be negotiated further down till Rs. 700-800/- in peak season and lower in off season. 1000

2. Rent a bike :
Rs. 350/- per day. Contact Mr. Chandran - Phone : 9447220648/ 04865-231113

Contact D. Ravichandran - Phone : 9446130363/ 04865-2331543. Rent a taxi :

For more details :
Wikitravel Munnar

Beautiful landscape of Munnar

View outside Tata Tea Museum

Echo Point, but the voice didn't echo for me and others :-)

Government has declared it as a weak bridge, but haven't stopped the traffic yet.

Rent a bike in Munnar

Contact Person : R. Chandran

Phone : 9447220648/ 04865-231113

Psychology of Debugging

Psychology of Debugging

Debugging itself is a sensitive, emotional subject for many developers.

Instead of attacking it as a puzzle to be solved, you may encounter

denial, finger pointing, lame excuses, or just plain apathy.

Embrace the fact that debugging is just problem solving, and attack it

as such.

Having found someone else's bug, you can spend time and energy laying
blame on the filthy culprit who created it. In some workplaces this

is part of the culture, and may be cathartic. However, in the technical

arena, you want to concentrate on fixing the problem, not the blame.

Source

It's a painful thing

It is a painful thing

To look at your own trouble and know

That you yourself and no one else has made it

-- Sophocles, Ajax

What happens to the Early worm?

The early bird might get the worm, but what happens to the early
worm?

From The Pragmatic Programmer(Here is the print edition)

Simplyfly

Just finished this book.

Autobiography of Capt. Gopinath.

One of the best stories I have

read in a long time.

Must read.

You can buy from here.

Strange Railway rules

I was trying to book tickets in Tatkal category at 8AM using

ngpay  app on my mobile and I got this message: 

As per the railway rules you cannot book Tatkal tickets on ngpay
between 8AM and 9AM. Please try after 9AM.

Similar restriction is imposed on Cleartrip.

So, a consumer is bound to book Tatkal tickets between

8AM and 9AM, only on IRCTC.

What a mockery of competitive trade!

Not to mention that, despite being in existence for more than a decade,

IRCTC still sucks at its User Interface and speed.

Forceful conversion to Christianity in Arunachal Pradesh

Forceful Religious Conversion Of Buddhists Into Christianity In Arunachal Pradesh

From someone

दुनिया से जो पाया था, अश्कों में मिला है
सुनते हैं कि इस पर भी ज़माने को गिला है
 - I don't know from who

A fantastic feature : HDFC NetSafe

In Short : 

1. Log in using your Debit/Credit card

number.

2. Allocate some funds towards a new credit card.

3. Create a one-time use credit card, which

expires as soon as it's used, if not used it expires

in 24 hours.

4. Unused amount will be credited back to your account.

In Long : 

Anyone with a HDFC debit or credit card, 

if you don't know about HDFC Netsafe, you

are missing something.

Often one has to submit his/her credit

card details on a website, in order

to access a certain feature. Many a times

the website saves your credit card number

and charges the same for recurring expenses.

And I don't really like that. Ideally, I would

like to create a temporary credit card, which

would expire as soon as it is used for the

first time.

That is exactly what you can do with HDFC

Netsafe. 

How to add your mobile number to Do Not Call Registry(India)

http://ndncregistry.gov.in/ndncregistry/aboutRegister.jsp

Hidden language discovered in Northeast

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_hidden-language-discovered-in-northeast_1448948

197 suicides and 1,733 deaths at India's nuclear establishments in last 15 yrs

http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/oct/04/suicides-at-indias-atomic-centres-in-15-years.htm

Suar chala space ko

Watched this play, this Saturday.

A play for kids. (some adults may enjoy it too :-))

Language : Hindi

Source

Details : 

A hilarious play about a smelly pig who travels to outer space! 

Actors play a variety of characters, including aliens, with movement 

and dance adding to the high-energy performance. Based on a puppet play,

 originally written by children during a workshop, the narrative follows a fuzzy 

logic typical of children's writing. The story touches upon friendship, 

adventure, owning up to your mistakes, taking responsibility and 

of course... the 'swine flu'!

Duration 1 hr (no interval)

Based on a concept by Poorna, Isha & Ankita
Writer & Director - Shaili Sathyu
Music concept – Mithila Lad & Hetal Varia
Music Arrangement - Kaushik Deshpande & Rahul Saxena
Choreography – Pooja Pant
Set & Props Design – Abir Patwardhan & Tanya Mahajan
Costume Design – Shama Zaidi
Graphic Design – Phagun Dhaka

Cast – Vighnesh Sinkar, Subodh Surve, Sharvari Deshpande, Siddharth Jhaveri, Navyata Malkani, John Soans, Mithila Lad, Hetal Varia and others

Excerpts from Imagining India

Imagining India

1. A Kerala communist leader E.M.S. Namboodaripad once told the sociologist

Andre Beteille that caste was irrelevant, and was 'an obsession of American

sociologists who come to study India'.

2. In India, we don't entrust our city councils with enough power. 

As a result, our cities are in a complete mess. Urban development

was always seen to be taking place at the cost of rural development.

It's obvious in the fact that in Indian cities, we don't know the names

of our mayors, since none of them has ever been famous. Unlike in

the west, where Mayor Giulani(NY), Mayor Bloomberg(NY) or 

Mayor Livingstone(London) are world known figures. 

3. Our feudal structures are still pretty much intact since our

freedom came without any big-time violence. We attained

freedom from British, not our feudal lords. 

Nairobi and Bangalore

In Simply Fly, author Capt. Gopinath compares Nairobi and Bangalore

in a certain incident. Nairobi, which is a significant tourist hub, has

two airports. While Bangalore, whose economy is four times as 

large as Nairobi, chose to close an airport when a new one

was opened ! There doesn't seem to be any logic in doing this.

English in India

While reading a book, I came across two interesting
observations about English language in India.

1. Many of us Indians oppose the English language
since it's a foreign language. But the Sanskrit
language itself, which is supposed to be the mother
of many Indian languages, is a foreign language.

Quoting from Wikipedia :
...Sanskrit arrived in what is now India and Pakistan from the
north-west some time during the early second millennium BCE.

2. Motilal Nehru, father of India's first prime minister, used to

speak English at home, even though his wife couldn't speak it.

The book that I am referring to is this.

Law/Lawyer sites for India

Of late, I have come across two web sites useful for lawyers and common people
grappling with Indian laws/law system.

I haven't tried them, so I am not sure how useful they are.

Advocate Khoj : You can search for an advocate here, an advocate can find clients here.
India Kanoon : Law search engine for common people.

Virtual knee surgery game

http://www.agame.com/game/virtual-knee-surgery.html

Pratigya

I like this daily soap.
Though it shares many annoying attributes with
other soaps, I like the raw idealism shown by two
of its characters : Pratigya and her father Professor Shyam.

Some companies working on Social games

Chakpak, Playdom, Zynga, Digital Chocolate, Playfish, PlayHooper, OxyLabs, Koramgame

Church is the second largest land owner in India

I just came across this fact yesterday.
Church is the second largest land owner in India -
next only to government.
Here are the references :
1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Koramangala to Hanumantha nagar via bus

Yesterday I traveled to Hanumantha Nagar in Banashankari to watch
a play at Kala Soudha. I faced a lot of difficulties but a helping co-passenger made
it easy(which reminded me of those days in Mumbai, where you can ask your
co-passengers for directions from any point A to any point B, and you will
always get the best answer).

So, here is the best way :
From Koramangala catch a bus to Laksandra(171,170 etc.)
From Laksandra catch a bus till Lal Bagh West Gate(many buses go there)
From Lal Bagh west gate catch a bus till Hanumantha nagar(34 and 37 go there, find out about others).

How to reach AMET University from Chennai Railway Station

Couple of months ago, I had to go to AMET university,
for admitting a relative of mine. Since it's located at
the outskirts of the city, not many locals are familiar
with it. So, when I tried to book a pre-paid auto from outside
the railway station, the person at the booking counter
was clueless, even the auto drivers were unaware.

I had called up a friend before the trip, who told me
that AMET is very close to Mayajal Multiplex. Most
of the people knew that place well. Still no auto
driver agreed in less than Rs. 450/-. So, I called
fasttrack taxi at 044 2888 9999. They charge Rs. 10/-
per km, and AMET was 35 kms from the railway station.
So, it cost us Rs. 350/-. Much cheaper than an auto
and much faster as well.

After finishing our work, we went to the Crocodile park
nearby(roughly 8-10 kms) and Kovalam beach (somewhere
in the way you have to take a turn inside).

Extremities

Watched this play today at K.H. Kala Soudha.
First of all, it was a mini-trek to reach Banashankari
from Koramangala via bus. We eventually gave up
and took an auto.

This is apparently the first performance of this play
in India. It has started in 1982. Here is the Wikipedia
link. A movie has also been made on this story.

Overall, a nice performance. Scenes between
Marjorie and Raul were really violent. At the
end both of them would have been injured for
sure, as is true for earlier performances of this
play.


Cast : Marion Ksing, Puja Goyal, Tushar Patil, Sweta
Director : Puja Goyal

Shades of Grey

Many a times, when I come across an instance of a businessperson
or politician doing some good work in India, I get puzzled.

Because, since time immemorial I have viewed them with
suspicion. They have indulged in such high magnitudes of
corruption that it's unimaginable to think of them otherwise.

Why then? Why some of them, even the corrupt ones, at times
do some good/non-corrupt work. Answer perhaps would be : the
way humans are designed - with shades of Grey.

Most of us(and exceptions prove the rule) don't come in black
and white packages but Grey. We are sometimes good and bad
at others. Likewise the politicians and businesspersons.

Gentelmen

Watched this play last Saturday at Rang Shankara.
Pretty average.

Description from some site :
Gentlemen - Play. Playwright & Director: Anil Abraham. Troupe: Global Productions, Bengaluru.

Anil Abraham's hit play returns to Bangalore after a wildly successful run in 2007 and 2008. The play often referred to as a hybrid of theatre and stand-up comedy, is about the male point of view, pun intended. A hilarious take on the men's obsession with fallacies and phalluses, Gentlemen is surprisingly honest, brutal, funny and very mischievous all at once. Gentlemen features some of Bangalore's most respected and well-known acting talent including Ashvin Mathew, Anil Abraham himself, Ajith Hande and joining the cast for the second coming are Rajeev Ravindranathan and Kirtana Kumar.

Mature Content | Entry is Strictly 18 Years & Above Only 

IIT Kharagpur had quotas for faculty's children!

http://ttrammohan.blogspot.com/2010/08/iit-kharagpur-had-quotas-for-facultys.html

Some useful sites

1. Buy technical e-books in INR

http://www.packtpub.com/

2. Micro financing - finance poor workmen in India

http://www.rangde.org/

One of my friends has invested roughly 11,000 Rs.

and has got more than 50% back already.

Vedanta

One day the news is that Anil Agarwal is all set to overtake

Mukesh Ambani as the richest Indian. Next day, Vedanta's 

bauxite project proposal is rejected.

Did RIL pressure government to do it?

Anyway, the outcome is a welcome news, as the

proposed project in Orissa's Niyamgiri would have

led to an ecological disaster.

Meaning of "Zindagi se Darte ho"

Was looking to find the meaning of some typical words

in this song from Peepli Live, 

found a good place here at BollyMeaning.

This site hosts meanings of many other bollywood songs

as well.

IMDB like site for plays in India

IMDB is a great place to keep track of the movies you have watched, want to
watch, discuss or rate them. I don't know of a similar site for theatrical plays,
at leas in India. We DEFINITELY need it.

Wiki for toilets in India

Everyone who has ever been in India, or lived almost his whole life here (like me)
knows how difficult is it to find a public toilet. The problem becomes uncontrollable
(pun intended) when you need them urgently.

This problem is much more severe for girls/women, and has been very well
addressed in this article.

As an alternate solution, which I have personally been using for a long time,
it's much easier to go in a shopping mall/restaurant or other such places
where the toilets are easily available. But one may not always know those
places beforehand.

So, I propose to make a Wiki for easily accessible toilets in India. Its Wiki
structure will ensure that the information is wide and up-to-date.

It could have entries based on areas within a city.
For e.g.

M.G. Road, Bangalore :
1. Bangalore Central Mall, 2nd floor, just turn left from the escalator.

Hosur Road, Koramangala, Bangalore
1. Forum Mall, all floors

Since the wiki will be web based, a lot of people will not be able to use it,
when they need it. So best solution will be, if one could just send an sms
for e.g. TOILET  M G Road to 1234 and get a list of all the nearby toilets.

Let's hope that it works out one day.

Munshi Premchand

Got a chance to read some of Munshi Premchands' s stories today.
They never age. As fresh as ever.

Also found an online source.

Khatijabai of Karmali Terrace - By Jayati Bhatia

I watched another solo play today,

Khatijabai of Karmali Terrace - By Jayati Bhatia.

Another nice performance.

Language : English

Venue : Rang Shankara

It's the story of a Gujarati Muslim woman living

in Mumbai(then Bombay), who has seen many colors

of life : from being an orphan to getting married to

a man twice her age to losing her son to suicide to

losing her husband to another woman, she has seen it all.

Milieu of the play is set in almost a decade after Indian

independence.

Overall, worth a watch.

Also, Jayati Bhatia has played roles in many
television serials, including Sabki Laadli Bebo.