Govt. v/s www (the world wide web)

On a freezing Friday morning as I return back to my den from yet another soporific lecture, I ponder over the mundane nature of life over the last 2 months as it has been a long wait for my destined job which is yet to come by. If not for the internet it would have been worse... what would I do without Facebook and its apps, Twitter and its information, Gmail and the conversations, Zephyr (our download hub) and the movies & the TV series. But now the Indian govt. wants to censor the internet like China. Firstly, let me tell you I pity the Chinese youth on the amount of knowledge they are missing due to this censorship. Now, coming to the point, what would this censorship mean for us, the future of India? Lets take an example - you are a youth journalist who writes on politics and religion. Fed up of the Govt.'s policies on reservation, you write against the reservation for religious minorities. The Govt. or the religious minorities complain to the host and your blog is shut down. Is it fair? Is it even legal as per the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression? 

Lets take you to US now. The US Govt. is trying to pass SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) which is even one step ahead of our IT Act. 

What is SOPA? 

Lets say X is the owner of some kind of copyrighted material like movie, music, novel, etc. and it observes that there is a site Y operating outside of US and that site according to X seems to be infringing on the copyright by US law. In normal circumstances, X can't act against these sites as they are outside the jurisdiction of US laws. What SOPA intends to do is to not only provide some tools to X to stop such activity but also allows X to go on a witch-hunt for anyone who might even enable such activity including sites like Google, Bing, ad networks, Paypal, etc. who help the site Y do its business. Even DNS servers within US that associate Y's domain's name with actual servers can be served court orders/notices that compels them to cut off ties with Y. What SOPA does is it classifies an internet site to be dedicated to theft of US property even if it enables violation of copyright laws in US. In this scenario, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, CNN, etc. can all be shut down because user generated content may violate copyright laws.

Don't you think this is a shoot first, think later policy? I mean the site Y can be a legal site in the country it is operating in. Also what if it actually is not infringing on any copyright. Now, you may ask if they can sue back. The problem is even if Y proves itself innocent, they can't sue because as per SOPA a party can be sued only if it "knowingly materially misrepresents the violation". So, if the site X feels that there is a copyright violation, he goes on to get Y shut down and when later Y is proved innocent, X can claim that they felt so and did not knowingly misrepresented the violation, and it will be allowed to walk away free of all charges.

And on top of all these unfair clauses, a site Z can be considered illegal even if it has secured its site such that US Govt. cannot confirm the violation. This is clear intrusion of privacy and is a draconian Act.

So, my plea to the free people of the US - please ensure that you Stop SOPA and my plea to fellow Indians - let us unite in this censorship of our freedom of speech.

P.S. I hope my blog doesn't lead to blogger.com being shut down or lead to my blog being removed, after all this can be considered defamation of US policy makers or an instigation against Indian Govt. :D :P

I would like to acknowledge http://www.khanacademy.org for its highly informational video on SOPA.

The reality quotient of Fairy tales...

A sweet friend of mine updated her status on Facebook to "now believes in fairy tales" and this has kept me thinking for a while today. Do fairy tales have any relation with the real world? Do fairy tales actually tell true stories? Do fairy tales have a hidden meaning imbibed in them? So lets explore the world of fairy tales.

Since birth we are fed an amazing number of fairy tales right from Cinderella to Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves to The Frog Prince and each fairy tale has a unique flavor and a hidden lesson which brings the fairy tale close to real life experiences. Each fairy tale carries many insights. The adventures depicted in the stories are a reflection of the challenges we face in the course of our lifetime. People can have different understandings of the same fairy tale. But let me give you my insights about some fairy tales.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin might look to be a simple fictional tale on the surface but probe deeper and you will realize the lesson it depicts for us - let go of greed for money or else you will lose your most precious assets like the mayor's greed for money led to the town losing its most precious assets, it's children.

The Beauty and the Beast is a portrayal of true love. It teaches us that true love comes in everyone's life even as we keep dreaming about it all the time. 

The story of Cinderella is a lesson for us that bad times do not stay forever. We have to be optimistic and hopeful and never stop dreaming of a happy life because happiness is always round the corner.

Not only these good lessons but also the darker elements in the fairy tales have a hidden meaning, they reveal our fear. The dark forest, the wicked characters, the monsters represent the elements we fear the most. The monster might be the fairy tale depiction of the person who bullies us in childhood whereas the dark forest can be a place where we would not like to go alone. 

Learning to find the reality quotient of fairy tales is not difficult; all it takes is a little effort to understand the symbolism and to decode the message. Every tale has its own lesson like the Holy Grail which is a depiction of each one's own desire. Like the desire for love will take you through the journey of The Sleeping Beauty who waited in her sleep for her true lover who kissed her and she rose from her slumber and said, "Is it you, my Prince (charming)? You have waited a long time.” The challenge is to pay attention and understand the message imbibed because the effects of what we learn can shape the course of our lifeline ;)

Dustbowl

You may be thinking why such a title for a post. Well that, my friends, is the synonym I have given to my place of internship, Gurgaon. It's hot, dusty, expensive and boring :| 

My first tryst with this place was when I had come with my friends and fellow Markupites (members of MarkUp, the marketing club at IMT) for cold calling for sponsorships for MWC '10 and I had developed a hatred right away because the place had no proper transport system, was far too dusty and all we managed to do in the 6 hours was meet some cold people who never reverted back. 

My second encounter was when Jugal and I came to finalize the PG for stay during the internship which was quite an experience because we realized that the auto-wallahs are thieves who charge 100+ bucks for wherever you wanna go even if it's a 4km distance only. Anyways we did finalize a PG in sector 22 which I was to begin hating within a week of my stay because travelling from there to my office proved to be a pain due to the awesome traffic system (or the lack of it) prevalent in Gurgaon.

So, here I am, stuck in this Dustbowl where other than the work at office (IRIS Nation Limited is a cool place where I even get to play football :P), I am bored like hell, the only saving grace being the weekends when I went to Delhi or Chandigarh for some awesome time and the superb time I had in Amritsar with my Princess and my childhood buddy Anil (dude you rock). 

A very very important advice to anyone who intends to shift to this place: GET YOUR OWN VEHICLE!!!

Life @ IMT-G

Hey guys, been a long 3+ months since I blogged. Not that i did not have time, just that i was busy with loads of stuff at my new home - IMT, Ghaziabad.

On 20th June, 2010, I stepped into the hallowed portals of IMT-G to begin a new phase of my life. There were new faces all around except for one face, my Princess, who came along with me to kick start my journey :-)

Orientation week was kinda hectic with all kinds of sessions like introduction of faculty, clubs and committees and of course the student affairs council ;) , guest lectures on various industries, intro sessions on various subjects, outbound sessions which comprised rappelling, rope crossing and other group tasks not forgetting the yoga at 5.30am and the night long PDP at the hands of seniors which meant I had 6 sleepless nights.

Then began classes and a plethora of open houses and interviews for various clubs and committees and after several gruelling rounds of GDs and PIs, I became a MarkUpite :) Post 2 weeks of usual classes, came the first quiz and the jitters involved with giving the first exam (LOL) and then the mid-terms but it was not only about studies. I was part of the group that came 2nd in the IMT Premier League organized by Globiz ( the Int'l Biz club), participated in Mark Roadies 3.0 organized by MarkUp plus was a part of the Sec-D football team in the League of the Titans. And oh yes, the parties - MarkUp party, Sec-D party, b'day parties, JLT (just like that) parties etc. etc.

Post mid-terms got selected as POC of MarkUp for Passion 2010 and designed events, penned down write ups for Corporate brochure of Passion 2010 as part of the Creative team, finally had our freshers nite (which was quite an extravaganza), and then the end terms (results are knocking at the door :P :D)

So all in all, an exciting three months which went by in a flash but the main reason for them passing by at lightning speed was not the above mentioned events but my F.R.I.E.N.D.S. I have been lucky to have a circle of super genuine friends at the college. Mehak, Parag, Swati, Jugal, Nishant have made this ongoing journey at IMT worthy and more. Trips to RDC, Sector-10, Shipra, Delhi, etc. etc.; parties in the campus; studying for exams; impromptu dinner plans, late night adda at DLP, Nescafe & BbC; pulling each other's legs; supporting each other through thick and thin - it would never have been the same if this bunch of awesome people was not there in my life @ IMT. Love you all :)

As I am short of words at the moment, all I wanna say is that - 

Chase the dream down the highway; 

don't care when it's not going your way 

the blue sky on top, 

the rain drops on the ground, 

there's no looking back once you have turned around.

Adieu !!!!

On June 18, 2010 its gonna be time for me to leave home and the City of Joy. As I prepare myself to bid adieu with a heavy heart, I keep going down memory lane and images of the past 23 years dance in front of my eyes-

Phase One: crying at my first admission test (for St. Helens school), mom smiling proudly when I came first in all three sems at St. Helens, going to Don Bosco in the auto-rickshaws via those pot-holed roads (roller coaster ride/tokyo drift), playing cricket, football, basketball, rugby etc. etc. at school (what great fun), coming back home and running away to play again on the terrace (lol), receiving awards in the school auditorium *proud smile*, adda with friends after school/tuitions (miss it :-( ), night HRD Programme at school (a night to remember), the board examinations, the anxiety on the day of results and the relief on doing well, the disappointment of not cracking engg. exams (somehow rue it till date)

Phase Two: St. Xavier's College, bunking lectures (voh bhi kya din the), movies at INOX (watched so many during college days), new year's eve with friends at my place (just awefome), university exams (god knows how i managed to pass :D :P), interviews at SCMHRD & NMIMS

Phase Three: my workplace (got great exposure to real world business practices), 22nd birthday celebration with my princess (what a lovely surprise), Mysore-Ooty trip (ethereal beauty), mom-dad's 25th wedding anniversary (one hell of a party), the elation of scoring 99.22 in CAT (and the disappointment on not getting a single IIM call), first b-school convert (SIBM, Bangalore), IMT-Ghaziabad calling :) :)

Its an unending list of brilliant imagery and each image, a special memory etched in the mind and the heart.

I'm gonna bid adieu with mixed emotions-the joy of getting into a top 15 institute for pursuit of MBA and making my parents proud and the sorrow of going far from family and friends; the joy of getting the opportunity to breathe in a different atmosphere after 23 years and the sorrow of leaving behind the warmth of home and the city-Calcutta.

The next two years are gonna be very critical for my career and I just hope to make the best out of them. To all the people in my life, this is my final message before adieu - dream, work hard, achieve and make it large.

Lots of love,

Nilesh