Social Media Marketing

All across Mumbai the first ever Online Creative Writing Contest with widest range of subject topics.

All contents are Copyrights of TECHDIVINE Creative Services

Registrations will begin ONLINE ONLY from: 15th January, 2010 to 10th February, 2010

ONLY after confirmation is received from our end from (admin@techdivine.com) of your completion of all registration details, You can enter the contest:After which, Contest Date: Submit Online anytime between:

February 15th, 2010 to March 15th, 2010

ONLINE CREATIVE WRITING CONTEST RULES & PRIZES

Topics

Registration Process

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Kindly note, participants are eligible to enter & submit for the contest only after receiving the confirmation mail from our end from this mail id: admin@techdivine.com asking you to submit your entry and confirming your registration with us. Any entry submitted without above confirmation will be disqualified.

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ADMIN

TECHDIVINE Creative Services

Why Speed Reading?

Information, today, is pure POWER in our hands.

With so much of data out there, both online and offline we have reached a point in our lives what we can term as “information overload“.

Speed reading technique helps one to read with discipline a lot faster with good retention.

For whom?

This is very helpful for both children and adults.

It’s thus a great resource and technique for school goers, college students or working students.

How did I come across this technique?

It was purely a desperate need for me.

There was a time when I had to keep up with my studies in my management school, had to establish understanding simultaneously of the company product policies and guidelines where I was also doing my internship, plus I was habituated to reading a novel just to keep my head from spinning and to soothe my brain, with a good book at the end of the day.

I just wanted it all!

Simply put, the idea in my head was not just to clear the exams and get the job for the day done, but to understand and implement what I had learned in my class and put it to practical use at work.

This needed a good understanding of what I was reading & also good retention. This was something that most of us would face or would have faced at times.

What happened?

I cracked and I just couldn’t, it was……… It was well, pure “information overload” for me.

That’s when I came across this technique of “Speed ‘Quality’ Reading” and it helped me a lot.

So, I thought I would share some simple techniques that you may find useful even in your routine.

What does speed reading do?

Many a things; “TIME is Money”

• To start with, you can learn to read specific & important part of information more quickly.
• You may also get a better understanding of it with a disciplined practice.
• It helps one to even learn foreign languages quickly
• Today for anything and everything we just Google it online for work, fun & for learning, this technique will help us get the information quicker and only that which is practically useful.

There are lots of methods:

I am giving below few simple steps that you can follow and scan through all that Social media sites, search engines and digital content available that would add value to you & assist you in making your lives richer, more interactive and resourceful.

7 Simple steps that could help you in “Speed Quality reading”:

Use this technique in quiet places to start with. Eventually with practice you will be able to quality speed read even amidst noise around

1. Skim through your book / content / text (Skimming is visually searching the sentences of a page for clues to meaning) – You can also look for Headlines, Titles, Sub titles, text with bold, italics, underlines etc in the page first and put them together. It helps you to get a gist of the text or content immediately.
2. Use the Meta guiding technique. Use your index finger or mouse pointer or a pen, in order for the eye to move faster along the length of a passage of text. This reading dynamics system centers     on moving one’s hand across the page in order to maintain eye focus on the words. It helps to read      without getting distracted.
3. Do not Read out aloud or sub-vocalize the words, instead associate with visuals. US Air force research shows you can recognize words in less than 5/100th of second while sounding it will consume more than twice that time.
4. Slowly, increase speed in which you move your hands / finger pen etc and adapt to the speed
5. Do not repeat and slowly learn to skip words like “as, and, it, then, if” etc
6. If you are reading online or on a computer, try highlighting the text and reading it as reading white text on a dark background is easier than the reverse.
7. Start with books / magazines where there are variations in fonts and types and then you can enter into textbook & other material reading slowly.

These are some really simple techniques that have helped me, hope you find it useful too.

Link to Test Speed Reading: Try it out, its fun! CLICK HERE

Do give us your comments, suggestions & views.

You can also write to us at:

techdivine@gmail.com or admin@techdivine.com

(Do not try this if you are reading a legal document )

Enjoy!

Happy reading.

Free Resource & Steps for Speed Reading Practice

speed reading

Get going with the new wave

That’s right, the much awaited Google wave is out and the current experience in the last 3 hours or so of mine with it, tells me, the amazingly crazy genius freaks at Google could not have come up with a better name than ‘wave’.

I have hardly got the hang of it and I am already getting an amazing kick out of using the awesome applications integrated with it. A nice kick, might I add.

Tools, applications, widgets, blogging, chat, conversations, video & voice never looked better.

To start with here is the logo of the wave:

Google Wave

Now entering into the wave:

Techdivine Google Wave screenshot

One word that would describe the ultimate usability factor of wave is “Time”. Time saving seems to be the core behind the app.

Email replies have taken a new meaning to the term conversing.

Real time message typing between users  - No need to even click on send if time is a major constraint. Just type. For eg. When the users who are online are conversing with each other using Google wave, the conversations happen in real time. ie. to say in email as one types his reply to the wave started by another, the first wave creator can see the message as it is being typed in real time. The email has taken the chat system to a different level altogether.

Adding contacts to the conversation is nothing more than a single drag & drop to the wave box on top of the application.

Editing emails simultaneously by users who are part of the conversation looks great and it acts like  chat function but via email.

The amazingly magical “Playback” feature helps to show markups of editing done in earlier conversations which are to be read through are fabulous and that too in real time environments such as a meeting conversation taking place, the app just makes it remarkable. Take for example in a scenario wherein a new wave entrant has been added to the conversation who has missed out on the beginning of the discussions, all he needs to do is just hit the playback button on top and get a hang of the earlier discussions in a jiffy.

Other Features: In case of an ongoing wave, if the user does not want to type his message in real time, he can click on the check box and make it a regular email feature. Moreover, once you have finished typing you can open your contacts pop-up box and simply add as many people in just a matter of milliseconds and even make them part of the conversation and all this again in real time.

Another remarkable feature is the stupendous spell check integrated with Wave. Its probably one of the best features integrated with the wave.

The integration is so powerful with email that all tools linked like chat / real time conversations / meeting conversations / group conversations / video etc are beautifully put into one single application use and made email a conversational pleasure that saves time to an amazing extent.

Adding attachments, wow, that’s now a real joy. Just drag and drop them into your reply box. It’s done.

Creating photo albums is again just a simple drag & drop feature, plus with the new “tags” function integrated with the inbox, all apps can be now tagged and one can go to the extent of creating Weblinks / as the Google says, wavelinks to make the whole feel, like a webpage being browsed rather than images / text being searched for.

Orkut integrations again happen in real time meaning all your cool features are integrated into this feature, so a scrap is not just a scrap anymore, it becomes a wave and is stored as part of your inbox conversation.

Also to avoid too many follow ups on conversations in the inbox, one can easily unfollow a conversation that he has been part of to avoid clogging up of your inbox.

Blogging once integrated with the api of the wave again happenes in real time, i.e edits done to a blog can be seen on the google wave, pics can be edited right from your inbox and gets updated on your blog real time. So adding comments and conversing in your blog was never so easy.

The wave has some real cool apps for Mobile phones too, but I need to try them out before I make any comments on them.

To sum up the so far tested from the million other features that Google wave has to offer:

It’s a definite must have!

Summing up:

• Real time emailing and conversing
• Privacy & controls over conversations
• Splendid spell check feature happening in real time as message gets typed
• Adding any number of contacts to an ongoing wave
• Playback feature takes even a new wave entrant to the original conversation
• Superb application tools like Maps, interactive games like sudoku, conference etc can be added and played in real time with each other
• Web toolkit of Google makes tremendous contributions in taking wave to a totally new level
• Adding weblinks / wavelinks to conversations makes search & click function really easy
• Tags, tag anything & everything including videos
• Wave integrates as many tools as one can into one single application
• It is Open source, so more goodies from developers to contribute and make the pool massively huge and easy for users across the globe
• Organize and create a hierarchical tree structure of discussions easily now
• Widgets in-between the waves, makes it easy to see the comments / edits made / done / keyed in
• Drag & drop attachments to your replies / mails / waves in a single click
• Create amazingly easy photo albums / tag them, add captions and do it in real time simultaneously by all wave users who are part of that shared album
• Markups to keep track of changes during a meeting / conference wave calls

For more updates Click here & Subscribe with us

So far so great, not just good, but great!

Let’s see what more the amazing waves bring with it.

Till then happy waving!

Stay updated with the happenings of the wave!  CLICK HERE

It’s that time of the year again, Forbes is out with it’s richest people – 2009 list, both Indian & International.

What was interesting is the list of richest Indians. The story, the lifestyle, the dreams just kept flowing through our minds as we were reading scores of this information spread around all across the globe, right from Forbes issue to wiki sources to financial sites to top media news centers online, covering range of articles on these.

We ran a quick ‘Who’s your favorite top 10 of the 100 list survey across our different readers / members spread across the globe at www.techdivine.com

The survey ran across few selected of our regular readers / members (6000+) across, online with responses from 1981 members wherein we got the favorite ten picks of the 100 list.

These choices of top ten from the 100 were based on the following criteria:

Our survey ran as follows:

‘Of the 100  listed in FORBES India’s richest (list was attached), who would you vote as your personal favourite in terms of:

1. Is the most idolized of all in business & personal life
2. Is most diversified of all in terms of business
3. Widely popular
4. More media friendly
5. Known popularly for business & social: Profits & Contributions’

Favourite 10 among, Techdivine readers / members personal top ten of the forbest top 100 list were:

The business guru & messiah’s eldest , Mukesh Ambani (52)who topped the Forbes richest list with $32 billion; Anil Ambani (50) with $17.5 billion; then the man of steel himself, Lakshmi Mittal (59) with $30 billion; Azim Premji (64) with $14.9 billion; Adi Godrej (67) with $5.4 billion; Kumar Birla (42) $7.8 billion; Shiv Nadar (64) with $3.7 billion; Subhash Chandra (59) with $2.7 billion; Kalanithi Maran (44) with $2.3 billion & Shantanu Prakash (44) with $920 million.

Finally,the man who stood at number one as the favourite among top ten was none other than, one of the most respected & deeply loved, the Non-executive chairman of Infy, Narayana Murthy (63) with net worth $1.5 billion.

Indias richest top 10 picks

The top ten favourites:

Popularity voting: Topping the charts:

Most Idolized: Narayana Murthy

Most Diversified: Anil Ambani & Mukesh Ambani

Popular across the Globe: Narayana Murthy

Media Friendly:Anil Ambani

Complete Entreprenuer: Narayana Murthy

Kindly note: These are surveys taken randomly with people from across the globe registered with us as readers / members & no part of the survey is to cause any personal or professional harm  / disrupt harmony / to any of the names listed above. These votes are not connected in any way with Forbes, but are top 10 Favourites selected from the readers base at www.techdivine.com –  members personal top ten of the forbest top 100 list. We sincerely respect the business leaders from every walk of life and are proud of the names discussed above as they are our source of inspiration to grow ahead in life, both professionally and personally.

Dear readers & members, thank you for your views / mails & votes & for particiapting in this survey. Thank You.

Admin

Techdivine Creative Services

Blogging Made easy – Part 1:

About Blogging / Websites / Top websites / Buying Websites:

Thanks for the numerous responses to our earlier post “Blogging Platforms”.

Hope all of you received my replies to your queries.

For any further queries, you are free to contact us at: socialmedia@techdivine.com

Now to answer your other queries I am putting across few resources & links which I am sure will help you get a deeper insight into the same:

1. “What can I write on a blog”

One can write anything depending on his / her focus & expectation from the blog. Depending on whether you want to offer your writing to a niche market or your blog as a journal / story / personal sightings & stories or reviews for some practical tips / advice on products / services etc based on your experience, your blog needs to slowly evolve for that target audience.

You can also write biographies of people, few personal success stories with examples etc

If you are creatively inclined as in terms of traditional or graphic / photography / digital art, you might make a gallery & showcase your works too to the world across.

Writing an imaginative story, discussing case studies can also be a great way to work on a blog.

Other than these, one has the option for writing their travel adventures, their passion for music, art, cars, books, education, career, parenting and so much more.

2. “How much is a blog useful for a business”

Life is not always about selling. It’s most important aspect is to connect with people at varied levels. At the end of the day, one needs to sell too to survive. Here again, a blog is a great medium. So the answer is Very much yes.

It keeps the customers  / readers updated and their responses over a period of time generates brand loyal customers.

3. “Functions, widgets & Plugins”, what are they used for in a blog / website?

They are tools.

Some refer to them merely as decorations, while I would prefer the term organized & systematic tools for planning and getting your message across to readers / customers / target audience easily.

Eg.1. These tools, lets say a widget that allows one to scan through only a particular category topic which is of interest to him / her, would be definitely popularly used and useful as one does not then need to scan across pages which might run into scores of posts otherwise. Thus, here a “Category” widget (tool) would be great.

Eg. 2. Plugins: Ratings plugins are very common and popular allowing new users to know by a single look whether the post has got positively notable ratings / review. Though it might not always be correct, but a rating allows the user (reader) to take control.

It also shows the reader of the trust & confidence a writer has, so as to share this power of reviewing his/her write up with the world across to judge it.

http://www.simplescripts.com

Widget

Plugin - Ratings

4. What are Statistics / awstats / Hit counters

Some more examples of the same:

• Google Analytics
• Sitemeter
• Awstats
• My Blog Log

http://www.google.com/analytics

http://awstats.sourceforge.net

They tell the reader of the number of Hits / readership views on the page  / website. They can be many a times triggered or hyped but with sites such as WordPress etc, the advantage remains for the reader to know the actual readership hits as such sites do not count the admin / main authors Machine IP hits. So what you see is what really is.

Great examples are “awstats” & Google analytics. It not only gives the viewers & visitors a brief peek into the site hits, but gives the creator of the blog / site many important details to plan ahead for.

For eg. “awstats plugin / tool lets the designer of the site know not only the page hits, but also, the number of people from which country / which page has main hits / keywords / search terms used to land here/ external links / time spent of page / site / most viewed content on site and many such other important info including user id, Unique users on the site etc.

“Share” Buttons at the end of the Blog:

They let you share an interesting post with others using social networkign sites like Orkut, facebook, MySpace, email, Diggit, Stumbleupon etc

awstats

www.orkut.com

www.facebook.com

www.digg.com

www.stumble.com

http://in.myspace.com

http://blogger.com

www.linkedin.com

5. Can you name few good Blog Editors

Qumana / Illuminex / BlogJet / w.bloggar / Ecto are few which are popular.

Few links:

www.qumana.com

http://Illuminex.com

www.scribefire.com

6. What are RSS / Twitter feeds / Blog feeds / Tags: When a Blog / website says, Click here to subscribe: How does it work and what does it tell the reader. Who is it useful for, reader or blogger? What are tags in a blog / photograph? How is it useful and for whom?

New readers / even regulars many a times may not be always there to check or visit your blog.

If a reader likes a blog and you as an author / writer / publisher / content developer want your prospective and regular readers to stay in touch with your site, be updated on new blog posts, new content etc, you can add FEEDS to the site. Best Eg RSS feed / Twitter Feeds.

What it does is, it takes at times few snippets from the new blog post / or the whole post / sometimes only the headline / title of the blog as modified by the user / writer of the blog and keeps the user updated on his machine if a new blog post arrives from that site.

Thus Blog feeds are great, both for the reader and the creator as the feeds contain recently updated content from a website without having to bookmark and keep visiting to check for updates or inform of updates.

RSS (most commonly translated as “Really Simple Syndication” but sometimes “Rich Site Summary”) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works

Twitter Feeds:

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications.

Tags:

Tags are basically labels to objects. They help to describe a post / photograph / place / person / item/ object / a specific purpose and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching on clicking it. Tags are chosen informally and personally by the item’s creator or by its viewer, depending on the system. Eg. Tags on a blog post tell the users different aspects that have been part of this post (blog / write up / photograph etc)

www.twitter.com

FEEDS for website or blog

7. How does one post comment. I always find it difficult to comment, It says REGISTER first. What & how is it done?

Comments can be posted in blogs  / sites many times without having to register.

But professional blogs usually require its users to register & comment as it also helps them keep away unwanted spams and moderate comments to control the quality of comments & language used.

One can find REGISTRATION link at the website or blog Top / Bottom Side. Saying, click to register.

Many blogs today also have Register buttons as a Widget under the META section, giving the blog a more professional look.

User Registration: For Readers to comment

8. What is a domain name & Why do I need to own it. Can I get it free?

Like the old saying goes, if you want something free, buy the giant size first.

Majorly, you can get a domain name free ONLY if you buy website first. There are always exceptions. Still, having your own Domain name URL (web address – Uniform resource locator) can give a sense of professionalism to a site / blog with of course loads of control over it in terms of add-ons,  features plugins etc.

9. What is a hosting service?

A company that is letting / subletting / selling Plots of land (so to speak webspace) on the internet is a Hosting service. Eg. http://bluehost.com

Thus in order for people to find your web site on the Internet, the site has to be on a computer called a web server. The web server runs programs to serve web pages, send and receive email, look up domain names and so on. It has to connect to the Internet, preferably through a fast connection.

10. Is there a free website to create available.

Yes.

Yahoo / Tripod

www.tripod.lycos.com

http://in.geocities.yahoo.com/index.php

11. If yes, why do I need to pay for one?

If you don’t own it, it ain’t yours to control buddy.

Free websites often run their own advertisements on your created content etc. If you want to try website creation & design just to start with, you can try with free websites with Yahoo / Tripod etc. Once you are sure you can build and run the same, go ahead get one and get creative.

12. Cost of a website & a domain name.

Tricky question.

Site costs range depending on what you are looking in for. Business site/ personal site / premium packages / Deluxe and so on. It can range anywhere form say $5 to more than $1000 including web site design / maintenance etc.

Domain names usually cost around $10 with the packages of buying the websites and many offer it free once the whole webspace is purchased.

You can refer Bluehost for more such services & cost: http://bluehost.com

http://bluehost.com

13. Do I need to be a computer programmer to build a website?

No, not necessarily to start with. One can use a content management system (CMS). It is a computer software that handles the presentation of your web site’s content to your users.

Few Good CMS: Joomla, Drupal, Mambo

http://drupal.org

http://mambo-foundation.org

14. Where can I learn more about designing websites, Creating blogs etc.

CONTACT US.

We have, whole range of services with us. We can help you build one from scratch or give you access to get the ultimate pool of knowledge for the same for a training material / workshop fee.

Email: socialmedia@techdivine.com

INTERESTED In Availing of Our Professional Blogging Services: Visit us here

Keep visiting

Admin

Techdivine Creative Services

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SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletters for FREE & Stay Updated

Popular Web BLOGGING Platforms

Blogging Platforms

CLICK ON IMAGE ABOVE TO ENLARGE

Popularly Voted – Links to few:

WordPress (org)

WordPress (com)

Nucleus

Type Pad

Blogger

Drupal

Live Journal

Text Pattern

b2evolution

Xanga

Serendipity

Others Mentioned in email(s) are:

Few Others:

MySpace

dasblog

sulekha

Joomla

Blogzerk

Typo

Rediffblogs

Blogsite

mojblog

Boast Machine

Clash of the Titans, no it’s not a movie or a celebrity fight.

It’s much bigger, its real and its here.

The two OS biggies Mac and Windows fight it out again as they make an almost simultaneous launch all across.

That’s right they are both up for the grabs: MAC OS Snow Leopard and the more eagerly awaited Windows 7.

But are they worth the wait?

Before we get to that, let’s ask ourselves, were they really needed?

Well, the Mac OS Snow leopard is not, whereas the vista was messed up enough for it to recall on a savior.

Mac Snow Leopard

It seems like the Mac has been pushed in by Apple just to ‘be there’ during the mighty Windows launch.

WIN7

Now, are they worth it?

Let’s find out.

Well, this time, the look, features and price seem to be bending positively towards the surprisingly splendid OS from Microsoft and it looks it might be a little chilly for the other snowing side.

That’s right, the Windows  launch was superb, loads of freebies right from tee’s to Win7 cd’s were spawned across the mega event.

Features, Hardware support, Price, Whats really new & the final take

As for features & hardware support the Windows 7 takes the cake without doubt as it promises and showcases a  smooth run for a 64 bit & more surprisingly even a 32 bit Win user with even a P4 today whereas the Mac, well, it’s made for the Mac after all.

The new Windows media player is fantastic as it is coupled with the amazing new features. The all new pin up your task windows, play all your mp3 files without even opening the media player, the Win 7 seems to have gone all the way for the user.

Pricing of Win7 is to be more affordable compared to the Mac OS Snow leopard and as we quoted earlier, the 7 supports a decent system to run it.

Another really good feature is the one where one can hide all the other task windows whilst using the current only. Its other apps and tools like pin and snap which lets the user skillfully jump tools, use preview panes and taskbar menus are something that every user would love working with.

Superb graphics, backgrounds, themes, sleek interface, desktop utilities with highly improvised HomeGroup & library options will let every windows user take a deep breath of relief.

To top it all, it has introduced the touch screen support features too.

On the other hand, the Mac OS X being awesome on its own, the new Snow leopard offers only a few tweaks with some added built in video functionalities etc.
To sum up, even though a Mac user would always be only a Mac user, the new snow doesn’t seem to be additional or loaded with extras to qualify for a real time new OS but just a patch upgrade and a brand that tops the charts even today.

On a comparison note to conclude, Windows 7 takes the lead this time with so much to bag and so much to brag.

I guess they wanted a WIN-WIN situation & this time they just seem to have got the lucky number 7.

Happy Window shopping!

Chao!

Blessedart

Do we need to be obsessed about our career or do we just need to ensure that we have a job and do it well? Isn’t a good job synonymous with a successful career?

When we started out in the employment field in India thirty years back, job was a luxury and career a word in dictionary. Better qualifications got you a better job- a more secure job. The first thing that was mentioned on getting a job was that xxx has got a secure job. Today’s generation would be puzzled by this obsession, as job insecurity ( for a skilled and young individual in India ) is not on the horizon.

When does job translate into career? I believe that gaining expertise and higher responsibilities in one’s chosen area or allied area of expertise on a continuous basis would translate a job into career. Doing a function mechanically needing limited application of mind would perhaps indicate that stagnation has begun. Another indication would be when your immediate Superior’s job seems attractive, easy to do and more importantly having self confidence to do it well.

Do we need to be obsessed with career? In other words, is career different from our employment with the present organisation? In today’s circumstances career obsession seems to be a pre requisite for success. In today’s changing times, every organisation demands skills and talents relevant to today and not yesterday or day before. We are as good as our last victory (like our cricket team). If we do not measure up to the tomorrow’s need, then in comes a rank outsider who is seen to have those skills. Yesterday’s heroes or heroines are now to follow the new leader or well …. look elsewhere.

In such a situation what does an individual do? I believe that he or she has to continually upgrade their skills so as to be relevant to today and tomorrow. Age has nothing to do with it. It would be incorrect to say that “I am too old to learn new tricks. In my time we used to………”. These kind or dialogues would draw embarrassed silence only.

Is not the organisation responsible too? Does it have to be obsessed with its own success and survival and not care for the people who were responsible for this? Yes, it also has its responsibilities. It has to nurture and grow people who lack the obvious skills, but with some assistance could be re-deployed suitably and prove to be assets in changed circumstances also. This requires visionary skills at upper and middle levels of management and listening ability. Also the appraisal system should be have a core of honesty which has creditability within the organisation and which would inform the correct situation so far as the individual is concerned.

Well, what would you say to your young cousin who has started to examine new openings within a month of taking up a new assignment? I would say focus on career, upgrading of skills, higher levels of responsibilities, exposure to new areas and opportunities for a larger contribution to the organisation would be the key to the decision.

What do you feel? I would love to get responses to the above views- especially from the younger generation.

Balika.....

Sita (name changed) walked in yesterday when my house was full of guests. She swayed in with confidence and  disappeared into the kitchen. My guests turned to me and asked “who is that lady?” They were astonished when I said she was our maid servant. She carries a cell phone (with different caller tunes each week), dresses unlike a service providers of her ilk, oozes confidence externally. Her children go to a private school, attends tuition classes, study reasonably well. She moved to a larger hutment two years back. She has a bank account and some savings in post office.  She also has an insurance policy.

She is also a “Balika Vadhu”- that is married much before she saw her 18^th year. This is in Mumbai and not Rajasthan Surely, these kind of things happen in backward States (BIMARU States), with under educated males lording over more uneducated population. No. I found to my dismay and that of my wife, that even in Mumbai arranged marriages at teenage is not uncommon.  Another instance I saw was of reasonably good looking school going girl, who was suddenly married off  even before reaching matriculation. The change post marriage was  saddening. A confident girl had become cowed down, frightened  and bewildered woman- post a last minute miscarriage.

I am not sure what I state above is the exception or rule as in both the cases the persons were related to each other. But what is clear is that what is shown in a very beautifully bedecked manner in the TV Serial Balika Vadhu telecast in Channel “Colors”, is not some remote event fictionalised for the entertainment of  city folks. It is a reality whose impact is seen and felt- latently or otherwise by all of us.

Why do such things happen? Don’t we all witness growing opportunity around us due to continuous economic growth- simultaneously with grinding poverty.  I believe that at least some portion of the poverty is due to missed opportunities. Let us take some examples.

First is literacy and education. Most states have some minimal schooling facility to give basic literacy. To reach beyond that, the economically and socially backward segment of the population needs initiative and efforts. This initiative is often missing. Female education is the backbone of any society. This is often missing. The difference in several human index parameters  between Kerala and Uttar Pradesh could be due to this factor.

I divide skills into physical and mental skills. It needs more efforts to earn living using physical skills. Moreover, to scale up the ladder, constant improvement of skills is required. My favourite example is carpenter. The skill needed in this profession is apparent. The wages paid for a skilled ‘karigar’ is known to all. But many of us would prefer to be unemployed rather than do such a work. This brings home the point that vocational education is important as education emphasising numerical and literary skills are not meant for all.

Next, the spreading urban lifestyle dictates the need for new types of service providers. Working couple do not have time to cook food. In urban locations it is common for a service provider to come two times a day and cook basic food needed for the family. The rate is based on number of Chapatis and corresponding vegetables and dal to be prepared.

Am I pointing out isolated instances which can at best help only a small portion of the Below Poverty Line population? Perhaps it may be so. But I still believe that there are enough opportunities in India (as compared to a developed country) if mental inhibitions existing at various levels are removed.

Then why do people take a comparative level of poverty for granted. My theory is that India has always been a poor country. The politicians and others have created a myth that India was a land of milk and honey plundered by invaders and lastly by the British.  The poverty of a farmer is glorified. The loss of dignity and suffering a subsistence farmer or a person with similar economic status is rarely mentioned correspondingly.

Next, Indians are lazy and easily contented. What are our working hours as compared to USA ? The offices in USA start at dawn. Most persons are in office there  by 8 am or 8.30 am. The courts in USA start at 9 am. Most routine tasks get done in the expected way. Everything works as per a pre-determined plan. Our life is like the sporadic victories of our cricket team. One victory is enough to quench our thirst for a long time and forgive consecutive defeats.

How many reports have we seen about corruption in private sector? Are people aware that corruption exists in private sector in the same manner as in Government? So it is not that Government employees are corrupt, it is that corruption is in Indian blood- some are corruption positive and some negative.

So why do we see so much poverty? Why does  at least some portion of the economically weaker segment of the society spent money on alcoholic drinks (Sita’s husband is, in my view, an alcoholic  and earns less than Sita due to this additiction) and put in those efforts in improving skills? Why do we still read reports of oppression of Dalits in newspapers? I saw a report today which states that health workers do not touch Dalits. School children belonging to non Dalits have separate marked plates for food. If these are the issues which some portion of our population is concerned, then we deserve to see this poverty and misery.

Will it change? Hard to say…  Today’s world allows only survival of fittest. So would India grow or Pakistan grow? Obviously India as Pakistan is mired in issues irrelevant to their well being. Would India grow faster than China? Well, that deserves another blog.

Image Source: Ananthv

Pulau Tioman, The great journey!

Day 1: The Journey begins….

I waved goodbye to my parents as the bus sped away.

It was still 6:30 in the morning in Singapore and two Grade 6 classes were going to Pulau Tioman. I felt excited and happy and I was looking forward to the trip. I was soon in conversation with my friends, and before I realised, we were at the border between Malaysia and Singapore. I got off the bus; collected my passport, got it stamped, and made my way back to the bus.

In Malaysia, I mostly looked out the window and saw the beautiful trees, aligned line in line. We got off the bus, took a bio break and entered a ferry. The seats were inside the boat, but most of the students preferred to stand on the open balcony outside to enjoy the cool, refreshing, soft sea breeze.

As I got out, I just expected to have a little bit of wind blowing, but as soon as I was out, a gust of howling wind struck me. I felt delighted and enjoyed the ride all through. Tioman Island was in sight in around 3 hours. As I glanced at the island, the first thing that caught my attention was the size of Tioman. It was massive!

We handed out our luggage to another boatman who was with us and got ready for the mountain climb that lay in front of us. The climb was 8 kilometres through a jungle that was on a steep mountain. My friends company did not let me realise the severe hitting that my feet were taking during the long climb.

We reached the resort in around 3 to 4 hours. We were told our rooms and roommates and were sent to settle in. The room was extremely messy but I realised that I should come out of my comfort zone. We were instructed to take out all our snacks and put them in a large, deep orange coloured box that was placed near the place where we had our meals. This was so that the snacks didn’t attract any more bugs to our cabin.

Day 2: It’s time to play the games!

I woke up to the enchanting colours in magnificent sky. It was still the beginning of dawn and the spectacular sunrise hadn’t even started! I changed into my swimming shorts and UV top (we had to wear our swimming gear from the time we woke up till the time we were given to have showers, which was right before dinner.), I then headed out for breakfast.

Before mealtime, we were meant to take a pleasant walk to the nearby jetty and back just to energise us up a little. After having a scrumptious meal, we played a game called ‘bird on the perch’. The rules were that we first got a partner. One of us had to be a bird, and the other was the perch. Then both of us had to walk around a lengthy line in opposite directions. Whenever the person conducting the game shouted out “Bird on the perch!” the bird had to get on top the perch in such a way that no part of their body was touching the ground. The last team to do this was disqualified. My partner and me made it to the top 3.

After this electrifying game, we were split into two different groups and sent to our first activity, which was sailing for me. The other group would do something else and after lunch, we would switch activities. We were sent off to our activities, but for sailing we needed to know different safety rules. The method of sailing was explained and we were also taught how to get back into the boat if we capsized. We soon set off into the deep, dark, blue sea. I found this activity exceedingly enjoyable although I did tip over a few times J.

After a heavy lunch, we were given 2 hours of free time after which we swapped over with the other group, and did ‘beach arts’. We had to choose a person that we admire. Then you have to make an art piece, using only natural items that we found near the river. We weren’t allowed to uproot any plants or pluck any leaves.

I made a design around a growing plant using bougainvilleas, palm tree bark and mud brown leaves that had dried up in the heat. Everyone liked it and complimented me a great deal.

Then, after dinner, we played a game or two more and at 10:00, it was lights out.

Day 3: A new learning!

The routine began as the first two days, but today our first activity was going to the turtle hatchery for which we took a speedboat to the hatchery. Once we were there, we saw a few baby turtles and Jo, the blind turtle. The hatchery was a protected area with turtle eggs buried in the sand (like they usually are).

When the turtles are born, they are released into the ocean. If the turtle does not go into the water that means it has some disability.

Jo did not go into the water and that is how they found out that she was blind. We helped clean their living areas, and then we learnt about how we can help them (not using too many plastic bags, etc.) and how we could raise awareness in the community. We walked back to our resort, which was quite a long distance away. On the way across the stretched seashore, we had to pick up as much litter as we could so that the beach looked neat and so that items made out of plastic couldn’t affect the turtles. After lunch, we went to do our one star kayak training in the river. We were told different methods of kayaking and then we had to carry our kayaks into the river and we kayaked around one kilometre.

It was extraordinarily thrilling and I think that was my favourite activity in the whole trip. We also played a game. The rules were:

·     We got into teams

·     We had to be touching different ends of the river (the width, not the length which is countless miles)

·     The referee throws a buoyant yellow ball and both teams have to try and get it

·     If the ball hits you, your kayak or your paddle by someone in the opposite team, you are disqualified

·     If it misses you and falls into the water, you can fetch it and throw it at your opponents

It was a great load of fun although my muscles were pounding in pain because of the kayaking. We were given some time to swim in the sea before changing and going for dinner. After dinner we started to note down some things so that we could remember what we did in the trip later onwards. Then it was time to sleep.

Day 4: Thoughts in solace!

I opened my eyes as the teacher woke us up by knocking on the door. We were directed to wear clothes appropriate for trekking and headed out into the striking morning. After our walk, and during breakfast, we were told that we were going to trek towards a waterfall that was on a mountain nearby.

The snacks from the ‘Orange Box’ were divided and an equal amount was given to each student to carry. Later at the waterfall, we were going to have a feast where we were going to distribute the snacks.

The hike started, leading us into the jungle. We were soon deep in the forest with rocks in our way and trees all around. Suddenly, we came to a halt. Rob (from the outdoor education department at my school) explained that we were going to do an activity called SOLO. As the name suggests, we were going to spend some time (we are not sure how long as we were meant to be unconscious about time- they even asked us to give them our watches) alone in our own space. The closest person will be more than fifty meters away.

After explaining what to do in the case of emergency, we were spread across the area of 1.35 kilometres (27 people x 50 meters) and we thought our own thoughts. We were also not allowed to talk.

The jungle itself was deadly quiet, as if a tough, enchanted charm had been spread across the rough woodland. But it was also alive with noise because it was so quiet, I could hear twigs snapping, monkeys chattering, leaves flying in the strong wind that was howling in my ears. I saw trees, as I couldn’t see much; my path was totally blocked by grand, tremendous, towering trees. The most interesting thing I saw must have been the tree that was shaped like a dog. It had a hole in the branches for eyes, leaves for ears, and through another hole, I could see the emerald green leaves from the other trees behind it and the hole looked just like the mouth. I felt tired and energetic, both at the same time. Suddenly, my group appeared and I realised that my SOLO time was over.

We resumed the stride and marched over to the waterfall. We sat on some rocks and took out the snacks. After having an admirable feast, we went swimming in the flowing water. The water was freezing but it was still fun. The fall was only around 6 meters high from the ground. There was a place in the waterfall where we could climb up to and glide down, as there was a structure like a water slide. After about 30 minutes of fun in the water, we started strolling back to the other hotel where the other grade 6 class was staying (both of the classes stayed at 2 different hotels. Their hotel was near the turtle sanctuary) and had our lunch there. We returned back to our hotel, dropped our bags, changed into our swimmers and we went jetty jumping. We could jump off right from the top or from a lower area. I wanted to jump from the top one but my legs didn’t act upon my thoughts and so I got 2 jumps at the lower spot. It was still great fun. We then had dinner and then came the moment we were all waiting for…

THE BONFIRE!

The bonfire was only 20 minutes but everyone still enjoyed it, telling jokes and horror stories. We also learned a campfire song that a tribe of Africa sung every night during their campfire. They lived in the desert and they sung it so that if there were someone lost in the desert, they would know that help was near. Every one slept without any effort, as we were extremely tired.

Day 5: Taking the route back home!

That morning, we woke up earlier than usual to go snorkelling. It was exciting and adventurous. We saw schools of minuscule fish, firm coral reefs, vibrant multicoloured fish, and countless other things, which I can’t, record here because there are too many to list. We had a quick breakfast, made ourselves sandwiches for our lunch and packed them in a waxed plastic bag. We headed off to the jetty to take the ferry back to Malaysia’s mainland. The ferry and the following bus ride back to Singapore took over 9 hours. I was incredibly happy to be back home because after all it’s always, Home Sweet Home.

Thank you for reading and do let me know your comments and views on the same.

Aditya K