This Bond has no Limits!

Whenever I, logged into the virtual world, two things that become a rituals, first logged to a Google account and then to a social networking sites. I cannot think my life with out Google, apart from others goodies it is given me a new opportunity to express myself through my blog. For social networking sites, it is nice way to keep the relationship alive and kicking. An innovative mode to keep in touch with the friends, families, well-wishers and with your enemies too. Not always things go well, often people from different walks of life using these sites for washing their dirty linen in public, world getting heavier with bad breath. I too have a few accounts with different sites. Frankly speaking, often it is bit boring, person with whom I am relating if do not have the same wittiness or intelligence then connecting with them for long time is just like non-cordial duties than bonding.

Popularity of  these sites proved that the citizen of the earth like to bond, some for good and some for bad. Apart from many others, these social networking sites played a major role for the changes in the Arab world. Since peoples of Tunisia snatched the well-deserved democracy from their dictator and thereafter happening in the neighbouring Arab state, you cannot deny that some of the credit should be given to these social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. No doubt with seventy crore plus users Facebook is the most happening sites but my vote goes to Twitter. As an ordinary person whenever I like to express my views, the Twitter is the best place. It is like broadcasting your views without bothering about the followers or whom you are following, somewhat going through a live commentary. You can promote anything and everything in Twitter or can follow anybody and all without a colorful multiple age wall posting like others. It is rather a micro-blogging site.

In India Facebook, Twitter and Orkut are the three main sites but we have others which equally famous and may be older than these lots. The following are the list of world’s top ten.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Orkut
• MySpace
• LinkedIn
• Friendster
• Hi5
• NetLog
• Badoo
• Meetup

Top five

Facebook - It was co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. website launched in February 2004. The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students and then only for college and university students but now opened to high school students to anyone aged 13 and over. It is most used social networking sites with almost billion users.

Orkut - It is a social networking website that is owned and operated by Google Inc. Launched in 2004. Help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. The website was named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten. Although Orkut is less popular in the United States than competitors Facebook and MySpace, it is one of the most visited websites in India but 48.0% of Orkut's users are from Brazil, followed by India with 39.2%. Available in 48 languages.

Twitter - It is a website, owned and operated by Twitter Inc., which offers a social networking and microblogging service, enabling its users to send and read messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the user's profile page. Twitter was created in 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched in July. Since then Twitter has gained popularity worldwide and is estimated to have 200 million users, generating 65 million tweets a day and handling over 800,000 search queries per day. It is sometimes described as the "SMS of the Internet".

LinkedIn - It is more a business-oriented social networking site. Launched in May 2003. LinkedIn reports more than 100 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.   Linkedin has 21.4 million monthly unique U.S. visitors and 47.6 million globally.

Myspace - It was the most popular social networking site in the United States till 2008. Myspace was overtaken internationally by its main competitor, Facebook based on monthly unique visitors. MySpace's monthly U.S. unique visitors at 43.2 million. Owned by News Corporation.

Bottom Line : Next time a friend from Mars? Looking forward to it.

!!!Mingle amid news and views with lots of hues without pressing the Fuse.!!!

For the People by the People!

I am an Indian and a very proud one too; yes, there is no doubt about it but at the same time exhausted by the endless scams. India is one of such country that maintains corruption in three levels, Macro, Mini, and Micro. We forced to pay for what we already paid, a new telephone connection, job to be done at Municipality, Passport verification at police station, … forget it, I am not going to write a Mahabharata. These shameless faces are most irritated species and I consider them an unofficial beggars. Finally, there is some hope, but in a democratic country, no body can prevent you from dreaming or hoping for good, but getting it is other thing. The movement that started earlier by a few people and latest by Anna Hazare can fulfill our dream, a dream for a clean and corruption free state. Long pending Jan Lokpal Bill may finally see the light.
Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen's ombudsman Bill) is a draft anti-corruption bill. It is drawn up by some prominent civil society activists and seeking the appointment of a Jan Lokpal, an independent body that would investigate corruption cases within a short period. It is to provide the common man with direct powers to condemn the elected representative.
The Team (Ten Wise(?) Man)
Man for all Seasons		Cool as Cucumber		Kill & sooth with a smile		Clean Sheet		Find flaws in the law
Taking the bull by the horns		The Adviser		Legally Correct		Helping the helpless		Fight the Corrupt
Minister on Board
Pranab Mukherjee - Our current FM does not need an introduction. He holds a Master of Arts degree in History and Political Science & has a degree in law from the University of Calcutta. He is one of the senior most member of the National Congress Party as well as Indian Parliament. He also hold a very distinguish position in the current government - Troubleshooter. He will be the Chairman of the panel.
P. Chidambaram is an Indian politician and present Union Minister of Home Affairs. Before this, he was Finance Minister of India. He studied at Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School, Chennai. He completed his graduation in Statistics from The Presidency College, Chennai then he completed his LL.B. from the Madras Law College and a M.B.A. from Harvard. He also has a Masters from Loyola College.
Kapil Sibal - He was born in Jalandhar, he obtained his M.A. from St. Stephen, LLB from Faculty of Law, University of Delhi and LL.M from Harvard Law School in 1977. He is currently the Minister of Communications and Information Technology.
Salman Khurshid - He too is a lawyer. He is Cabinet Minister of the Ministry of Water Resources and Ministry of Minority Affairs. He has been deeply involved in writing and acting in plays since his student days in Delhi and Oxford.
Veerappa Moily is the current Minister of Law and Justice in the Indian government. He completed his B.L. from University Law College, Bengaluru
Non-Government
Anna Hazare - His name is Kisan Baburao Hazare. He studied up to 7th standard and forced to take a job due to financial problem. He started selling flower in Dadar station to support his family. Then he started as a driver in Indian Army. After voluntary retirement from the army, Hazare came to his native Ralegan Siddhi village in 1975. He started working on the development in the area for water supply, education and other basic needs. He draws his inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda - ' that the motive of his life lay in service to his fellow humans'.
Shanti Bhushan - He was a senior advocate and also was a former Law Minister of India, from 1977–1979, in the Morarji Desai Government. He is the oldest of the lot and he is going to co-chair joint drafting committee of  Jan Lokpal Bill along with Pranab Mukherjee.
Santosh Hegde is a former justice of the Supreme Court of India, former Solicitor General of India. He was appointed as Lokayukta of Karnataka state on 3 August, 2006 for a term of five years.
Prashant Bhushan - He is the son of Shanti Bhushan and by profession he is a lawyer. He is a activist too and helped people by judiciary system.
Arvind Kejriwal - A IIT Kharagpur alumni from where he has done his Mechanical Engineering. Joined Indian Revenue Service (IRS), while he was posted at the Income-tax Commissioner's Office in Delhi he realized that much of the corruption prevalent in government is owing to lack of transparency in the process. He also he campaigned for the Right to Information Act. Apart from many other awards, he also awarded Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2006. Hazare and Kejriwal are odd one out, as both of them do not have a law degree behind them.
The first meeting is already over but has doubt regarding further happening as lots of controversies cropping up with the Bhushans, specially senior Bhushan. Keeping our finger cross and hoping for better tomorrow. As a common citizen looking for the day when a corrupt administrator or a minister going dragged down and tried by a common man. It seems country does not have a woman who could have join the team, while person like Aruna Roy or Kiran Bedi was a obvious choice. !!!Citizen's ombudsman, nothing official about it! End of the road for Unofficial Beggars? yippee! yahoo!!!

Ethical, Eternal yet Ethnic!

Apart from meeting them in local bazaar, whenever I traveled by a Mumbai Local in an odd hour I bumped into them. They never bothered about the surrounding and mostly engrossed to each other. Sometime they are busy with their delicious looking homemade food. They were none other than a bunch of fisherwomen, a familiar face from any Mumbai’s fish market.

While studying Computer, my class timing was seven in the morning, the distance I had to cover was from I.I.T to Flora Fountain (now it is Hutatma Chowk). It took around one and half hour to reach my college. When I used to leave my home it was dark and most peoples around me still sleeping, as Mumbai goes to sleep well after mid-night. I was late only once that too not my fault, the train was running late. Early morning trains were not that crowded but you will never find an empty compartment at any given hour, not even the Ladies compartments. After finding a place to sit, for obvious reason, early morning breeze and the lack of sleep I always found myself sleeping. When the train reached the destination V.T. (now C.S.T) most of the days I was still sleeping and then every time I woke up with a huge pat on my shoulder and with same dialog ‘ut go, istation ali. parat janar kai?’ (Get up, last station is here, want to go back). These alarm clocks never left me behind, it was very reliable and dedicated. Those were the bunch of fisherwomen, on their way to Colaba to purchase fish.

The Mumbai’s very own fisherwomen, bold, beautiful, vicious yet friendly. They belong to ‘Koli’ community. Most of the market in Mumbai you will find women selling fish and it is not their husband they only travel early morning and late afternoon to Colaba for the fresh stock. One thing that other women or even my friends were envious about them, it was their gold ornaments. The neck-wear itself may cost around fifty thousand. I had no fascination for yellow metal but I too eying something that was their food, most of the day they used to have their lunch in train, it looked delicious, yummy.

Mumbai’s original inhabitants are East Indian or East Indians are a Marathi-speaking, Roman Catholic ethnic group, based in and around the city of Mumbai. These people are of the original Marathi ethnic group and had been evangelized by the Portuguese, while retaining much of their pre-Christian traditions. They are the most non controversial people of Mumbai. Once every fish market were ruled by the East Indian fisherwoman, now you will find a very few East Indian fisherwoman. It is not long ago that the whole Vikhorli was belongs to this community before Godrej bought it. Leave alone the fishing business, now these days you can hardly see any East Indian in Mumbai.

Koli is the language spoken by Kolis in Mumbai. Marathi is another language spoken by Agri-Koli in the interior parts of Mumbai. It is a mixture of Marathi, Sanskrit, Hindi, English and Kannada language. The Koli community has its own distinct identity and lively dances. The dance incorporates elements that this community is most familiar with - sea and fishing. The dance is performed by both men and women divided into two groups, where fishers stand in two rows holding oars in their hands.

After monsoon break, then come the ‘Narali punaw’, as per traditions Kolis know that after this day the wind strength and direction changes in favour of fishing. This is the day when Kolis celebrate the kick off of new business season. This is the day when they pray to the sea God and make puja of their boats and begins their fishing season. They break coconut and often offer a golden coconut to the sea God.

Recent past things changed for modern days fisherwomen. A plush conference room in a leading luxury hotel is an unusual meeting venue for a group of fisherwomen. However, these are no ordinary fisherwomen. They are members of Fish Suppliers, a self-help group based in a fishing village in Mahim, a suburb of Mumbai. They supply fish to three Taj group hotels in Mumbai — the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, the Taj President and Taj Lands End. Last year, they registered a turnover of Rs30 lakh. In addition, they have just bagged an annual contract for the current year worth Rs1 crore. These Macchiwalis are itself a total package, they are the lioness of Mumbai.

!!!It is not a mere Fishy affair, it is colossal!!!

Boys Do Cry!

I call myself a sport junkie and can sit through every sports but cricket is something that I can cheer all the time. During late sixties, I attached to this sport, a long journey indeed. I celebrated India’s first test victory over West Indies, two little fellows who were mainly instrumental for that Victory. They are Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath, then the West Indian bowling attack was fast, furious and awesome. First test series win over England, where Bhagwat Chandrasekhar made English batsman dancing on his fingertip and then came the biggest one, 1983 World cup. During that final, while West Indian Innings was started and Vivian Richards was hammering our bowlers all over, the telecast was of the air for unknown reason. Once he (Viv) departed by Kapil’s spectacular catch, we got back it on Doordarshan. The winning moment came with the fall of Michael Holding. Apart from Final, there were some other glorious moment too, the match between India and Zimbabwe where Kapil batted beautifully and finished with an unbeaten 175. For me that innings is the best in any world cup that played, the semifinal between India and England equally good. It was Sandeep Patil all the way and Bob Willis the captain of English team was the gracious loser not like the current lots.

T-20 never fascinated me and I cannot say that winning T-20 world cup is one of the greatest moments in Indian cricket history. I consider that, the last two series in Australia was exceptional and the ODI series win in OZ was too good.

This time around, world cup has more media attention and more money, it is pouring from the sky. Sangakara, Sri Lankan captain, cool captain indeed, this man has the guts, lying in front of 68 million people is really cool job, hats of to you Sanga, Bravo. Sanga, you can keep it up, obviously you do not bother much about India or Indian cricket but sorry to say you may be in trouble if you repeat the same act in future you will lose many friends in India and do not forget a job in IPL, it is huge one. Tillakaratne Dilshan, very good cricketer but equally very bad sportsperson. I have high regards for Sri Lankan players like Muralitharan, Jayawardene and others.

This world cup is no exception than other. Some minnows performed exceptionally well specially Ireland and Netherlands. Every match England played was a cracker and some of their player not able to handle that pressure subsequently left for their country in the middle. Both Quarterfinal and as well as Semifinal was evenly fought and tension level was very high specially India-Pakistan match.

On final day, like every Indian soul and me, with my substantial knowledge of cricket was down when Sri Lanka amass 275, chasing in Wankhede at night is not an easy task. Hoping, if and if Sehwag can give a start and stay in the middle for at least twenty overs it would be gettable but things works other way, Sehwag and Sachin departed early. It was unbelievable so it is sweeter. Dhoni had the courage which no other captain could have done at that juncture, promoted himself in the batting order, luck favoured him and as well as India. These fifteen boys had done India proud, Indians are eager to share their tears and joys. For Sachin, whatever he touched turned into gold and whatever he asked for he got it, but he deserves it. Last word for Yuvraj, you are just awesome, keep it up, you deserve it and please do not run after the Bollywood belles, not again. A million thanks to Gary Kirsten.

Nice to see that Kolkata rising above Saurav Ganguli to celebrate the moment of glory. They should learn that no individual is bigger than a country. The Flag, National anthem and Country stands above all and when whole country cheers, feeling is beyond everything.

Bottom Line : Some body can tell me the exact age of  Sahid Afridi, he yet to grow up. No one knows it better than him, how to Hisses with a GOOD HEART.

!!!In this moment, I cannot think anything apart from - India….India……India…………India!!!