kinshuk sunilit aint no, dessert if therez no caek

From What I Say:

The voting for Indibloggies 2008 are now open. Do vote for your favorite Indian Blogs. Started in the year 2003, Indibloggies is one of the initial web awards for Indian Blogs on the blogosphere. Started as a parody of the international Bloggies, Indibloggies has sure come a long way.

The reader’s community nominated their favorite blogs in the first phase. The Indibloggies Jury then shortlisted the finalists from the many contenders for the 16 categories in the second phase. The third and final phase is now running – that of community voting – and will end on December 10th. I was glad to be a part of the jury of this Indibloggies and know that it was a very impartial and fun filled process.

The sponsors for the awards include Wordpress and Zoho amongst other sponsors. The awards are also looking for Gold and Platinum sponsors. So it might a good idea if your organization can sponsor them.

So what are you waiting for? Go and vote for your favorite Indian Blogs – the ball is in your court!

November 26, 2008 was a dark day for all of us as 10 gunmen roamed the streets of Mumbai, firing indiscriminately on anyone in sight. They molested the Indian dignity and hospitality that day. Destroyed many families, ruptured life. Today, it is a complete year and there is no justice in sight. Things havent changed. When will they?

As I have mentioned in previous posts, these days I am working on the lyrics for some songs for Manu Rajeev’s next album. One of the songs is on the subject of terrorism – a lament. Today, I share the lyrics with you. Do give your feedback. Hopefully, the song will see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Romanised Hindi lyrics, followed by (rough) English Translation:
(I had trouble writing in devanagri – every help welcome)

Kal, shor tha aur tha, jalta aasman
Kal the, sapno ke bujhate chiraag
Kal, dard tha aur tha, ye ehsaas
maine hai khoya koi apna is gham ki aandhi me

Yadon ki dastak na thi, Sapno ki aahat na thi
Gardishi gard me, mit gaya tera mera nishan

Tu hai kaisa aadmi? Teri jannat ki ye hasrat kaisi?
Mujhko mita ke, khud ko luta ke, tu kya payega?
Khoon ki ye nadiya baha ke, tu kya payega?

Apno ki aahat na thi, Lamho ki chahat na thi,
Gardishi gard me, mit gaya tera mera nishan

Tu tha kaisa aadmi? Jannat ki ye teri hasrat thi kaisi?
Sab kuch bhula ke, duniya ko jala ke tu kya payega?

Kal, lut gaya, kho gaya mera jahaan
Aansuon me beh gayi, meri pehchaan

English Translation:
Yesterday, there were shouts and cries and a burning sky
Yesterday, there were some dying hopes

Yesterday, there was pain and the numb feeling
that I have lost a dear one
in this torrent of sorrow

Memories did not beckon, dreams did not reckon
In a sad dark cloud was lost our existence

What sort of man are you? What is this desire for heaven?
By destroying me, by ruining yourself, What will you achieve?
With all this blood-shed, What will you achieve?

Kin do not beckon any more, No more is a want of moments
In a sad dark cloud was lost our existence

What sort of man were you? What was your desire for heaven?
You forget everything and just burn the world, What will that achieve?

Yesterday, was ravaged and was lost – my world
And was lost, in tears, my name

Sorry guys for not being in touch these few days. I was seriously unwell. Bam! Just like that! But these days have been exciting.

First of all let me explain to you the topography of my room – in my room there is a big window with a ledge outside it. In the initial room design, there were only the window-doors on this window and I was practically wasting the ledge space. Pigeons used this space to shit and make their nests, which was very unhygienic. So, in a flash of inspiration – the decision was taken to cover up the whole ledge space with a grill. Now, as luck might have it – there was, perhaps, a nest of pigeons on my AC. For 2 days after setting up the grill (yesterday morning), my mom and I noticed a baby pigeon inside the window.

Now we all were concerned of the pigeon-ling. Its care and nourishment. The biggest dilemma was how to ensure its safety and how to re-unit it with its mother. For we saw the mother coming to the window sill every other hour and the son (by the way, how do you check if its a male pigeon or a female one?) running towards her, both sharing some moments together and then the mother flying away and the son left stranded. We felt so sorry for the poor thing that mom and I decided that we should nurture it. I placed some rice grains and some water near it, and left it in peace. This was around 11.

I checked again around 3 and found him trying to hide behind the glass panes in the window-door due to the sun. His little cage must have been burning. The best I could do at that moment was to create a make-shift home for him using a carton box. He likes that shelter very much. It was then that we decided naming it and I came up with the name ‘Tunnu‘ – cheesy! I know! Yet all nicknames in my family are rhyming to the ‘-unnu’ sound so we went forward with it.

Tunnu has been drinking some water, but not touched any food as yet. This was worrying me very much. He should eat or how else would he have the strength to live. This went on whole of yesterday and till 2pm today.

It was then that I observed that the mother who has been coming every other hour to the window, is actually feeding the child through the grill. So now I am not very worried about feeding Tunnu, now my only concern is to how to reunite Tunnu with his mother. His beaks and claws scare me so i don’t think I would be courageous enough to lift him from the window ad place him in an open environment from where he can fly away. I am not even sure if he knows how to fly. Even if I “free” him, I am worried about his sustenance in the ‘wild’ world. The only option that seems viable to me is break open the grill so that Tunnu can learn to fly and fly to freedom one day.

Can you think of any better solution? If yes, any help is welcome.

These days with Tunnu have also been very illuminating. It is very inspiring to see pigeons exhibit complex relations. I had only heard of them, now I am seeing them first hand.

Mid-Day did an interview with me on one of the community Initiatives I am working on – Indie Game Development, India, Community. The interview is included below:

Gaming is no more a waste of time, it’s serious business. and even if it isn’t, who cares? Living by this law are the members of a freshly formed community DiningCamps. Its founder Kinshuk explains the highs of the game

Not many understand that online or console games develop intelligence, skills and decision-making power.

Especially, IT administrators give video-gamers a hard time because they consider gaming applications as a wastage of space, conducive to viruses and obviously and impedence to Internet speed.

They realise that these very geeks are probably much smarter and creative than you. Here comes a group of game developers who not only want to shed all the myths about gaming, but also give it a corporate twist.

Over to Kinshuk.

Read full interview on Mid-Day website. OR read the scan below (click on image to full view the article)

I have been working in that role and function now for almost 18 months, yet it will be a very difficult job for me to define it. Why am I attempting to define it? Well, all my friends (the Non-geeks) keep asking me – what the hell is your job profile. Guys! Read this carefully and read it Very carefully – I am going to sincerely pour out my heart for you all here – yes I am awesome!

When understanding something, I have always found it useful to begin with the language. The Word “Community Manager” literally means someone who manages the community. So, what is a community? A Community is a ‘social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage’

For a company, a community is the pool of its customers, partners, suppliers, users, and can include Similar stakeholders (government, society, really!). What is important is that these entities are brought together to co-habitat a specific region. The members also depend on the strategic objectives and direction the company wants to move.

So a community manager is someone who manages this community for a company. Savvy?

What that means is that a community manager is an interface between the company and the community. It is the community manager that gets all the conversations done. He uses the social media tools and platforms to pitch the company’s perspective to the community and brings back ideas and feedbacks from the community to the company. He represents the company in the community and the community in the company. He is the one who balances the community’s welfare with the strategic objectives of the company.

In the present day world, where technology is being abstracted within daily life at a very fast pace resulting in almost instantaneous conversations; a community manager can make all the difference between a successful company and a not so successful company (lets avoid all negative speak). He would be the one creating opportunities, brands, and customer loyalty.

In my (not the very) next post, I will talk about some specific activities almost every community manager undertakes.

Take that huh!