A Social Media Experiment

Yesternight (May 31, 2011) me and a couple of friends took part in a so-called  "Social Media Experiment". Here are the results of our experiment.

Objective - To create a Trending Topic on the Twitter.

Participants - @kcgadiyar, @ajay_prasad, @NishantSKumar

Background

"Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" was trending worldwide. Now why it was, was a mystery. This was the issue raised by one participant. After a bit of research work turned out the title song had been sung on some singing contest (some Indian Idol type show somehere). Inspired and motivated by this piece of info, the 3 particpants decided to create a trending topic of their own.

Search for a Topic

Suggestion to make "Ringa Ringa" video trend worldwide was immediately shot down. #dialoguesfrom80smovies was ignored (sample line - "main tera khoon pee jaaonga"). Search continued. Events happening in the world were closely examined. 

Rohan Bopanna & Aisham ul Haq Qureishi were playing in French Open  Quarter-Finals against the top seeded Bryan Brothers. A pretty close fight going on (currently tied at 5-5 in the deciding set when bad light stopped play).

So there it was, our search was over. And we found our trending topic (or rather the topic we planned to trend). It was going to be the #indopakexpress.

Process Steps

1. Use the tag in whatever tweet we made & tweet as much as you could. (Score updates; abuse Star Sports for not showing the match live; put streaming links for the match)

2. Retweet each other.

3. Ask celebs to tweet about the match.

4. Contact people using the same hashtag.

Observations

1. Search for hashtag #indopakexpress & timeline began resembling each other.

2. Aman Ki Asha fellows got involved.

3. Post midnight, celebs are not online.

Inferences

1. Limited twitter base (Ok one fellow did ask me about the streaming link, I should count that as a success)

2. Doubles tennis (Mens) does not make for a very exciting topic even though 2 countries are involved.

3. Post midnight is not the time to attempt to create a trending topic.

4. Live events need to be publicised beforehand to make them trend.

Random Observation

Today Sania Mirza is playing her doubles semi-finals while the indopakexpress vs bryanbros resumes. Now making Sania trend shouldn't be really diffcult.

Result

Attempt not successful but to be persisted with.

May Musings

May is a special month. After all it is my birth month, as I recently got reminded via an e-mail from the medical department of my office to get my periodic medical examination done. Its the month in which the number which corresponds to my age in years gets bigger. And I start giving a different answer to the question, "How old are you?" But it still is just another number.

But what else does May correspond to? It is the height of summers. The days are long and hot. Also filled with laziness as one tries to shirk all activity during the day, blaming it on the weather. I sit back and pray for the rains to come and provide relief. Yet knowing fully well, that once the rains have arrived, I'd wish for it to go away.

There was a time when May was the most anticipated month. After all it marked the start of the almost two month long summer vacations. And they were quite fun filled ones. Visiting my grand-parents's places, spending time in the company of my cousins' brigade (there were lots of us). May also meant mangoes, reading comic books (rental basis, read & return), summer special issue, that was fun life. Cable television was still in infancy, while internet was unheard of. Yet unlike today, you had the holiday specials (Chhutti chhutti) to look forward to during the day. The only major sporting event to look forward to was the French Open, only the semis and the finals were telecast then. Side benefit of watching French Open was learning two French words (jeu=game & egalite=deuce). Those were real fun days.

And so on a May afternoon, I started thinking about the older days, or rather my younger days. And I wonder, where and when did the simple fun go from life? Can take leave from work but it certainly does not have the charm of the Summer vacations. And today when the cousins gather, when discussion earlier was on the latest adventures of Super Commando Dhruv & Nagraj now we talk about work, house, rent, tax, somebody getting married etc. Too many happenings all around but nothing is eagerly awaited like the French Open 1st singles semi-final which was telecast live. Something has certainly gone missing.

And did I grow up for all this?

Jhansi Ki Rani

I found the following picture on the internet, which claims to be the picture of Rani Laxmibai, the queen of Jhansi. Seems to be taken from a newspaper article. The text below the pic reads as (translated from Hindi) "this photograph was taken 159 years ago by British photographer Hoffman. This was featured in the World Photography Exhibition held in Bhopal (India) on August 19th. This photograph was sent by a collector of antique items in Ahmedabad".

Personally, I have doubts about the authenticity of the claim. Would like to know if this is real or a fabrication.

The Umbra & Penumbra of Life

Out of Sight, Out of Mind.

This was a theory which I had put forward as an explanation for people disappearing from our lives. As life moves on your earlier closest friends fade away and get replaced by new ones. And the cycle goes on. From school to college to work, the set keeps changing.

But nowadays thanks to the increased Social networking, it is becoming easier to keep track of the people who had gone away. But thats the only thing that social networking does. Keeps track, maybe an occasional meeting but the same level of friendlines? I doubt that.

And as the time flies the close ones become less and less while the social networking circle keeps expanding. I have a theory that this could be easily explained using the Light & Shadow effect of the Umbra & Penumbra. As life moves on the closer friend circle (equated to the Umbra region) becomes smaller, while the social network friends circle (equated to the Penumbra) goes bigger and bigger.

This is a theory I had mentioned in an earlier post. Would be glad to know if anyone else believes in it.

The Cricket Song

Cricket is the flavour of the season. The world cup is on. There have been a been a few cricket themed movies  (Lagaan, Iqbal, Awwal Number, Bodyline... come to mind immediately) and a few but nothing which really invoked the cricket spirit. Then I came across this uniquely cricketing love song here.

From an old Hindi film "Love Marriage" (1959) starring the evergreen one and only Dev Anand with Mala Sinha.
With lyrics which go like
She ne khela He se aaj cricket match... ek nazar me dil bechara ho gaya LBW

Definitely worth a watch

Once Upon a Time - The Irony

Memories are a funny thing. Incidents hidden somewhere in the grey matter jump out all of a sudden and you cant help but have a smile on the face. Today was one such instance. Was chatting with a friend on the subject of IP addresses getting depleted today. The talk moved to the concept of infinity then to the subject of calculus, onwards to the oil reserves in the world getting depleted in the next 40 years (?) to the uncoventional gas sources to coal bed methane to the debate of petroleum vs mining engineering (I know pretty huge variety but it had been a very logical flow of thoughts and ideas).

Now the last point reminded me of my final year engineering days. In one of the interviews I was asked how a post-petroleum engineering life is better than a post-mining engineering life. Now like a true petroleum engineer me gave the following reasons.

1. better working conditions
2. better locations
3. higher salaries
4. technology & analysis (or something like that)

My interviewers (fellow petroleum engineers) were obviously impressed enough to give me the job. And here is what I got in the job.

1. Working in hot, humid conditions
2. Located some place which was not exactly traceable on most maps
3. A stipend as per PSU rates
4. Technology usage - I remember climbing up on X-Mas trees (oil wells not the Christmas ones) with a pressure gauge to measure the flowing pressures. (Don't want to get any technical here, so no more details but it was dirty work to say the least)

Those days are now far behind me but do provide a few stories. Cant imagine the situation could  have been any more ironical.

P.S. Readers are requested not to not use this post as any comparison index between the two streams. 

Nostalgia

Saw this video shared on facebook. The poem is hauntingly beautiful. And nostalgic.

What is it about memories of your friends from school/college days that all of a sudden they just jump into the mind. 

Goodbye 2010

Last Day of the Year MMX A.D. At the end of 2009, I had made a few promises to myself. Its time to take stock of what happened to them.

• Watch an IPL match (Done. Watched the finals & 3rd place match in the DY Patil Stadium)
• Try the random bus travel on a 20 rupees ticket (The ticket price has gone up to Rs 25, but did not do it)
• Travel in a train (Done. Only Local Train)
• Visit a new place (Done. Lonavla, Hyderabad. And on official trips visited offshore also)
• Read More (Difficult to quantify, but have done this, 1984, Thousand Splendid Suns, Catcher in the Rye, Immortals of Meluha, Love Story, Animal Farm and some  more)

So 4 out of 5 cleared. In addition blogged a lot more. In fact started a fully dedicated cricket blog. Tried a bit of photography also. Had my first ever chopper ride and then a few more. After almost 5 years since I started working I got my first increment (change of company, doing an MBA, global recession had prevented this earlier).

Lost a loved one. The same story of more people going out of life than coming in continues. However the social networking circle keeps on increasing (can relate it to the light & shadow effect of umbra & penumbra).
2010 ends with the first major change in the past two and a half years. Change of apartment.
Goodbye to another lousy year. Sometimes I do wonder why did I ever grow up?

So here are the wishes for 2011. Continue the Pursuit of Happyness. Find the 3 things to be happy (Something to do, someone to love & something to hope for).

Wishing a Happy 2011 to all readers.

Bidding Adieu...

Last Day of the Year. Arrive in office and see the following mail from a colleague who sits in an adjacent cubicle.

Sub: Bidding Adieu...

Dear All

I had been with you all for almost an year and its been the best time of my life

Though it is hard to say, this is the truth...

I know that you people

would not have expected this so soon from me....

I had been thinking of leaving for a long time…. Now that I have finalized I m telling you guys.

I'm leaving by the end of this month.

I will let you know to where I go within a few days.

Thank You for all the support and love you have given me. It was nice working with you all.

It was difficult for me to come up with such a decision but change is inevitable.

Hope u enjoyed my company .... Bcoz I very well enjoyed a lot with you guys....

Hope u will always remember me... Plz keep in touch...

All the best to you all for your future endeavors.!!!

Now this was a shocker to say the least until I scrolled down and found the following text.

With Love & Regards

Yours Only

Year 2010

Have to say this was one perfect practical joke.

10 From 2010: Songs

Time for another Ten from Twenty Ten. For this list I turned my attention towards the year's music. And frankly speaking finding 10 songs for the year was some task. This is alist of songs which caught my ear this year (nothing else). So here goes.

10. Zor Ka Jhatka - Action Replayy

Sung by Daler Mehndi, Richa Sharma. The song sounded different. And MTV/Channel V played it repeatedly as promos every morning for more than a month.

9. Udi - Guzaarish

Sung by Sunidhi Chauhan. Nice lyrics with flamenco beats.

8. Tujhe Bhula Diya - Anjaana Anjaani

Sung by Mohit Chauhan. Almost slipped unnoticed till I saw a post on facebook about this song.

7. Bin Tere - I Hate Luv Storys

Sung by Shafqat Amanat Ali, Sunidhi Chauhan. Saw the film during a flight. And this was a song played on repeat by my flatmate for a month or so.

6. Sheela Ki Jawaani - Tees Maar Khan

Sung by Sunidhi Chauhan, Vishal Dadlani. The current national obsession. Katrina Kaif was the main reason for the popularity of this song. Although women named Sheela and their relatives would certainly not like (sorry HATE)  this one.

5. Munni Badnaam Huyi - Dabangg

Sung by Mamta Sharma, Aishwarya Nigam. 2 new voices, a remixed song, with Malaika Arora gyrating to it in a Salman Khan film. The song had to be a hit. Amongst others it also increased Zandu Balm sales.

4. Waka Waka - Shakira

Shakira's song for the football world cup. From May to July this was the song everywhere. A Columbian singer singing an African song in English for a football tournament played in South Africa becoming a superhit in India. Just one word, Globalization

3. Wavin Flag - Knaan

Became popular as part of the Football World Cup. The original lyrics really convey the pain felt for his homeland Somalia.

2. Dil to bachcha hai ji - Ishqiya

Sung by Raahat Fateh Ali Khan. At present the best singer in the business. Should have been the best song in most lists.

1. Azaadiyan - Udaan

Sung by Amit Trivedi, Neuman Pinto, Amitabh Bhattacharya. A true coming of the age song. Talks about a new beginning, new thinking. And the movie is set in Jamshedpur.

Have to say this, it is a pretty bad list, summing up the state of indian music right now. Most of the songs appearing are the ones being seen on TV first. Making this list wasn't an easy task given the pretty low recall value of songs.

Hoping for a musically better 2011.