3 Days Drama.

Since October 5th, 2009 I have been at home, having resigned from work and keeping all my fingers crossed after the October 10th, 2009's announcement of the CSIR-UGC NET results where I did crack a position. Time had not been idle, running to places with the desire to talk to the few scientists especially in the field of Cell and Molecular Biology, with my special emphasize on Cancer and related work.

But for the past one week I had almost no work, but things changed midway, when a three day drama concluding yesterday. Some regions of Indian Union have always faced terror and unrest from the Maoists since the mid seventies. They fall under POTA and are an illegal organization by Indian Law. Any person having any link with the people in the organization are considered to be terrorists, threatening the Indian Internal securities and are valid prisoners in the name of the law.

Maoists have always managed war in exile and under cover from the forests of Central India, that expands to states like West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and parts of Karnataka. This time, it was one of the major operations taking place on Tuesday, 20th October 2009. The Maoists raided the Sankrail Police Station in West Midnapore district, killing two officers and abductinf the Officer in Charge [OC], Mr. Atindranath Dutta. They also looted a national bank a block away and boarded on bikes made their way into the jungle with the booty of 10,00,000 INR [approx] and the OC. Then followed a drama....

[A few people would cursing me for using such words, but please go through and then say whether it was a drama or not. I have all the goodwill for the Dutta family, of Ahiritolla, Kolkata. But I have the "drama" desciption for the others.]

Tuesday, with the news of the abduction of the OC, the media people started contacting the Dutta family and also the Maoist leader, Kishanji for the ransom or aspects that can lead to the freedom of the abducted OC. The fight for TRP [True'st' Report Publicity] started between trhe various regional news channel who have been politically active since the Lok Sabha election. I would refrain myself from naming the channels, but they had the following news to uphold [all questions translated to english]:

1) How are you feeling? [Question asked to Mr. Dutta's wife, after the news of abduction was given her]

2) Is the government listening to the cry of the 1.5 years old daughter of the OC? [Face to Face reporting when Dutta family was inside Mr. B. Bhattacharya's room in an act of plead]

3) What do you want Kishanji? [The first question with matter being asked by a reporter over the phone. Atlast they were talking sense.]

and many more... This reminded me of "Good Reporting Advertisement" by Hindusthan Times. Have a look:

After you have enjoyed what the I mean, here is something which is more enjoyable being part of a drama. Reminded me of the Shahruk-Juhi starrer, Phir Bhi Dil Hain Hindusthani. There took was a fight between the K channel and the Q channel here its a fight between the a celestial body with time. [Wise people will know what I meant]

When the OC was being released after 54 hours of an ordeal and the ransom demand of the Maoists  was to liberate the innocent tribal women were accepted, the climax of the whole drama started with the media. The two major players in the colloqial news bandwidth started the following:

Mr. Dutta's father thanked us ... We give you the first telecast of the release... How do you feel?.... We are the first to talk with the Maoists... etc etc....

Lalgarh and the adjacent regions in West bengal are being regularly bulleted by the Internal Armed men and the Police with reply bullets from the interior of the jungle. If the Maoists are terrorists and the government thinks so much for the Internal security, even the opposition leaders, then why dont they catch hold of the leaders... pull the head and the body will coem out. Please dont tell that it isnt possible, because this time the media was constantly over the phone with the Maoist leaders for over 10 minutes on an average. With my limited knowledge about the tracking technology, I know, its possible to track a person if he or she is on a phone, single connection for over 3 minutes.... that's the  minimum requirement.

What I see is a big Hoax...! May be the biggest in this step up to the State Assembly Election in Bengal, 2011.

 Pic Courtesy: The Hindu ~ Mr. Dutta's wife and daughter to meet Chief Minister of West Bengal.

 
I bear all my sympathies with the Dutta family and for the "innocent tribal women" in Police custody, but the custodians of law, i.e the State Government and the Opposition leaders seemed very silent over the whole issue. Whatever talking was done by the Dutta family, Kishanji and the Media reporter. Does it mean, the media personnel are the people who ensures the security or are entitled to take the diplomatic decisions? Some magic happened, as if, after the Dutta family visit to the CM, the ransom to liberate the women was accepted and the IC was released. The media calls this: The First Ever Release of Prisoner of War [P.O.W] {see pic: courtesy The Telegraph, Kolkata} by the Maoists in India. Great gimmick...!!! I guess this has something to do with diversion of mind from something grave...If I knew it, I would have published it...!

....... A Few Words.

Ah... Many might have given into the idea that after my year's 100th post, I have come to a stand still. Well there you go: My 101st post for the Blogging word. Let me acknowledge the fact that a number of things have had taken place along with the recently concluded festivities of Diwali and Kalipuja as well as Bhai Phota or as other parts of India would exult to as Bhaiya Duuj. [Well there are also few candidates who might think that I have stopped Blogging for some reasons which they believe is the best they understand... well I know you will not understand, as the preceeding statement is for them who sometimes make me very important and search by my name... Thank You!!!]

A number of ideas have come across in my mind in the past 11 days, which can be jotted down as below:

1) The Austerity Drive by the Central Government has led to many MPs take the digital route into Tweeting. I thought out an unwritten article on the matter, which I think I will incorporate in a few days time.

2) The situation by the Maoists is getting worse day by day especially in Bengal. There have been deliberate attempts to upholster the whole governance in the state...lest known as to what will happen.

3) I have been busy trying to figure out how to utilize Torrent Softwares...and in the past 3 days I have tasted all the possible types starting from BitTorrent to ARES to Meu Torrent to LimeWire. Now the last option as I see is left, is the VUZE...which will hopefully make my free downloads workable!

4) On a much more personal aspect, I had a gala time with my niece @ my sister's place.

There are many things in mind..qeued up in thy mind, just to be out. Lets see how fast I can make it. Write for you soon...

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Pic: By Somnath Paul [author] October 2009.

The New Mobile Age.

Lucrative? Well I thought so....

TATA DOCOMO has come to India with the 1sec call tariff all over India. The price is: 1p/sec for a life time offer without any bonus packs. Seems great, atleast to those who have their loved ones on an STD line! The tariff comes for any and every networks all over India. With a handful galore of packages starting from 1sec ISD pulse.

AIRCEL and Tata Virgin are also not far behind in this aspect!

 

The 1 second pulse might feel sensational, but it has it's own loopholes. Seems pretty decent to use but you can get better offers with AIRTEL as well, like The Special 5 where you can call anyone @ 20p/minute. That's 1/3p per second. If you need to talk for long on a local loop-a-loop, then that's the best plan. Such a plan exists with Vodafone India as well.

Aspects:

>> Now a common man would be induced to think, just as what I am thinking: MAINTAINING TWO SETS. The 1sec plan sets for the "Others" to talk while the 20p/minute plan for the loved ones, whom we talk daily, for hours.

>>More over, with a psychology that it's just a paise per second, would accumulate an intention to talk longer times making the topic stretched and sticky [like a chewing gum]. Work will be done less, thanks to more talking and we would still keep losing our money, because, a 40% * reduction in price [per minute basis] would lead to 50% increase in talking hours, ultimately making us recharge more or equivalent to what we did before.

* Calculation:

1p/sec :: 60p/min.

 /minute:: 100p/min

 /min Reduction ::: 40p.  Equivalent to 40%

>>This is associated with another "advantage", that is 50% increase in talking would increase the risk of brain tumor and associated Parkinson's disease, if not by 20% but closer to that figure!

Becoming a Mobile junkie is not an option for any one of us I guess! Is it? We have too much work to do I guess. This is not an anti-promotion for any plans. Even I will be keeping a 1sec plan as well from today, but we must keep in mind, that such plans are for cutting costs, not to increase the talking capability, although they seem to do so!!!

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Pic courtesy: TATA DOCOMO, AIRCEL, TATA Virgin, www.toonpool.com
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Orkut "Promote": Helpful Tool.

Today, every one knows about ORKUT. The first ever massive social networking, following whose model, Facebook and Ibibo came upfront. Now-adays, both Orkut and Facebook has a fan following which also has it's regular arguments, without which the matter seems very tasteless. To help out the fans, both the portals are bringing in innovative ideas, firstly to be better and then to keep the argument on!

The initiator was Facebook. It had many interactive features and games, that one can participate and with a result, can spread the word and enable others in the friendlist to directly compete as well as others all over the world compete and make it a global phenomenon. Still, I prefer Orkut coz it seems more soothing to the eye while talking and searching out friends and contacts! Its much more composed, compared to the appearance of Facebook. But without further indulgence into the debate and getting biased towards Orkut, although I have account in both, I would love to close down into the most pertinent topic of this article: The newly incorporated PROMOTE feature by Orkut. We have all been very conscious economically spreading the word of an endeavor or anything, as an advertisement involved cost! When I started on BIOSPHERE tutorial in the April 2009, I took the painst to search out the various Biology course supported colleges in Calcutta to spread the word. Now, with Orkut's Promote option, the work is easier to do and what's more? It comes completely free! Even my friends can promote my indulgence in his / her friendlist for a better outcome! I have taken some snaps of the tool in the making and would feel good to explain them:

Snap #1:

© Somnath Paul. October 2009.

Well, the snap shows my profile on orkut, which you can avail from the blog link as well. The red encircled zone depicts a promotion of some 120G tank by Tirthankar. As I mentioned that a third person can help the publisher of the ad, to get the promoted, even if the person doesnt know the ad-giver! It is made easy with a single click on the "cool, promote it" button.

Snap #2:

 © Somnath Paul. October 2009.

This is the Tool Portal, where we have to promote our matter with the matter appearance format being encircled in blue already in the snapshot taken.

Snap #3:

© Somnath Paul. October 2009.

Snap three shows the various aspects in a finished product, from the managing portal.

     A: Cool Promote it option in the final finished advertisement.

     B: The poster / text of the advertisement. Overhere I have put forward the picture of the Biosphere poster from my "publicly" shared album on Orkut.

     C: Promotions, Viewed, Hate list [Thrash], Clicks to see. Here Shomjit, a good friend from Presidayz have done the needful.

     D: The total reach and people viewing my stuff! The dark blue means direct friends, while the degree of fadeness depicts how close the person looking at the promotion is. Mind It! Its directly proportional to the degree of fadeness!

I am loving this concept as in a span of two days of promotion I have had 131 interested people! [Updated: 08/10/09] Hope you will Promote some and me for a cause! I will do the same, as in: cool, promote it!!!