kinshuk sunilit aint no, dessert if therez no caek

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

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!

Afterlife is a science fiction novel I am working on. Currently in talk with some publishers (do recommend me to some if you find it worth it). This is an old copy of the initial 3 chapters as old as 2006. Will soon update with more details. Matrix and Harry Potter are acknowledged inspirations :)

Afterlife tells the story of Rahul Sharma, a prodigious software engineer from India, working for the best Virtual Reality company in the world. During his researches and his work, he designs a powerful neuro-electric simulation program, which is soon licensed as a successful MMO. The company, though, in their greed overlook common development wisdom and rush through the development cycle. The long and winding road soon brings Rahul on the crossroads where the interest of his family will conflict with the benefit of the world. he has to choose his own path, forge his own destiny. He is no hero.

On june 25th, my blog was hacked by one Mr. Rat and the Black Hacker. Genuinely and very humbly they thanked ‘the administrator for vulnerable scripts‘. Bleh! I learned some lessons then. My Plugins and Themes folders within wp-content were set to +777 which is not a very advisable setting. Now, I am wise. What followed was a series of precautions. I, now, use varied passwords for my profiles now. Simply put, I use a system of a base password + a unique site identifier – useful enough to make a unique password for all sites. And no more +777s. you can learn from my example.

Right here, in this post I will just post an update of what all has happened since.

This blog has undergone a lot of changes since then. I changed the theme – feedbacks for the previous theme were that it looked a lot more like a magazine than a personal blog. This theme fares better on that count. But I lost a lot of readers due to the hack. My subscriber count fell from 108 to 20, which is very sad. In the meanwhile, I have, also, been working on a number of new initatives:

There is Digimantra with Sachin Khosla. Digimantra is a technology blog for everyone from the newbies to the pro. I am currently looking after the Open Source and Gaming Sections of Digimantra. we also recently launched some cool services at Digimantra. Do Have a Look!

Then there is InGDIn or the Indie Game Developes India community – which I intend to make into a platform for all indie gaming action in India. Loads to do there yet. If you are interested in indie gaming, do have a look at the community.

I have also started working on The Boon Prophecy and actively looking for collaborators. The Boon Prophecy is a third person action adventure being developed by me and Yadu in the Ogre3D engine. The game tells the story of a Kargil veteran of the Indian army who faces a supernatural evil in his hometown of Sikri. Part 1 of a trilogy, it is still in the planning stage.

Not to forget, Chronosign.com is also making fast headways as a development garage of a couple of my friends. We are working on some fun Apps concepts which would be nice to use. At least we think so. More updates on this later.

Right now, I am also working on some major changes on the OSScamp community site. So keep your fingers crossed, a lot is about to come.

A lot of stuff is going on. There are good news on the front of Afterlife – the novel I was writing. I will soon share a reading draft of the same on my blog. While, i am also making some useful efforts for my career in the Music Industry.

All in all, It has been a very hectic week and I am sure there are many more hectic weeks coming. Will keep you posted.

Ciao

This post was originally published on Digimantra

On June 2nd, 2009 EA released the next chapter for one of the most popular gaming series – The Sims. The Sims 3 brings a lot of new stuff to the table, while improves on what was already there. We have a look how.
The pivotal change brought about in the series by The Sims 3 is the opening up of the neighbourhood. Never again will you go claustrophobic looking at the same set of walls every day. There is more to life than being stuck at home isn’t it. Well, that’s what EA decided and delivered a gamers’ delight. Yup! Ten minutes of Sims 3 later you will wonder how you ever played the game without the neighbourhood.

This post was originally published on Digimantra