Pakistan and Terrorism December 24, 2008
Posted by simarprit in Uncategorized.Tags: India, Mumbai Attacks, Pakistan, Terrorism
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Do I hate Pakistan?
No.
Do I hate Islam?
No. How can I, I pray to words of several muslims in my Bani everyday (in Gurbani which I follow).
Do I hate Terrorism?
Yes.
Is Kasab a Pakistani?
Yes.
Did Kasab leave Pakistan to attack India?
Yes.
Do I hate those who support terrorism?
Yes.
So again, do I hate Pakistan?
No.
It looks like a tightrope walk to those who don’t hate Pakistan. Hundreds of questions like this come straight up. Pakistan and Terrorism are becoming synonyms, one can’t deny that. It is bad. I personally feel sad when people refer to Pakistan as cradle to modern day terrorism.
It is the land of Indus Valley Civilization.
It is the land of learning – Texala or Takshila.
For Sikhs, it all started here what is now called Pakistan.
For Secularism, it all started in Lahore – where the first secular kingdom was established by Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
For me it all started in what is now called Pakistan, my father and mother both were born there. So were all my elders.
I have my friends there.
Do I love India?
Yes.
Do I feel horrible over what happened in Mumbai and what has been happening in the past?
Yes.
Do I agree that Pakistan as a state or quite a few Pakistani nationals as individuals have been making our life difficult in India and many parts of the world?
Yes.
Does ISI support Terrorism?
Looks like, doesn’t it?
Isn’t ISI a Pakistan Government organization?
Yes it is?
Tightrope or no rope, if it looks like a duck, it walks like a duck, it quacks like a duck. It is a duck. It is a duck.
So what should Pakistan Government do?
They should own-up, and clean-up. There is no choice. If they clean-up, it will be quick and least dirty, if the world gets to cleaning it up, it will get messy, very messy.
Microblogging Platform December 23, 2008
Posted by simarprit in Uncategorized.Tags: Agile Development, Dil Khol Ke Bol, Microblogging, Portal, Twitter
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Microblogging Development Challenges
Just less than 15 days into a live microblogging site and we are already facing the heat. The platform is a challenge. It looks like it is something simple, but when you start getting to nuts and bolts of it the challenge comes back to haunt you. There is so much you can do, but one needs to remember so much to do at so little direct cost. The first constraint in any microblogging platform is that you just can’t allow the development to become expensive. A microblogging platform must be developed at zero cost and should need zero maintenance.
I know when I had just started posting on wordpress, I commented blogging is an art. Yes it is. Microblogging on the other hand is a science and microblogging platform a discovery.
We have made a first tentative list of features which we must have in our platform and that list is a wish list. It is getting longer by every passing day.
The second challenge after the zero budgeting challenge is the agile development platform which is the only choice for it. We were first planning a version every quarter, we revised it to every month and now I am sure we have no choice, it has to be a version every week. It is not a twist here and a turn here kind of version, I mean a full version with all bells and whistles.
The User Interface is a challenge in “everything computing” – when it comes to UI issues to microblogging, the issues just multiply.
As we continue to work on http://www.DilKholKeBol.com and the platform behind Dil Khol Ke Bol we would welcome all inputs and suggestions on what the most efficient microblogging site should be.
Empire of The Sikhs December 22, 2008
Posted by simarprit in Uncategorized.Tags: Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Punjab, Sikhs, The Sikh Empire
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Empire of The Sikhs, The Life and Times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh by Patwant Singh and Jyoti Rai makes an exceptional read. The book, to me belongs to three distinct categories and would attract selective readers from each. Sikhs, Historians and Wisdom Seekers. The last category of readers this book is aimed at entices me the most. I had picked it up for the first reason, but half way through the book – I concluded that I am reading it because of the third. Wisdom in any English is good, but wisdom punctuated and corrected to the closest synonym makes for an interesting reading.
I am not much of a student of History, but Sikh History for obvious reasons is close to my heart. On one side I believe that Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the Sikh Empire have not earned their rightful place in the World History, on the other side I believe Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s over expansionist reign reflected and sowed seeds for the collapse of The Empire he created within few years.
I have signed copies by the author available with me for free distribution. The book has been adopted by the G.K. Saberwal Foundation as the subject was close to our mother. The foundation carries the tasks, views and objectives which were close to her heart.
The signed copies can be currently picked from New Delhi, the arrangements are being made for their availability at San Jose CA.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh is also known as the Lion of Punjab.
Online News Headlines December 20, 2008
Posted by simarprit in Uncategorized.Tags: Headlines, Headlines India, India, Online News, Website
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When we decided to work on http://headlinesindia.com the target was clearly defined – We wanted to be a site which was made for “India on Internet” generation.
Three years back, we are there, almost there. Headlines India has become one of the finest sites in the India News business. We do not have content or sleekness offered by some of the sites owned by renowned publishing houses (as yet) but what makes us a runway success is our focus on needs of the Internet audience and our focus on giving headlines quick and brisk.
There are challenges of running a news website and these challenges get compounded where the site is being run by an internet company and not a media house or a publishing house. A technology company brings its own challenges and burden. It has abias towards technology over news, it looks at news as sensation and not as the main line business.
Headlines India is trying to cross that chasm and become a truly global Indian News Website.
Christmas Carnivals December 16, 2008
Posted by simarprit in Christmas, Festivals, websites.Tags: Christmas, Christmas Carnivals, Domain Ideas, Domain Name Selection, Domain Names, Review, websites
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How do you name a site, Simar? Why did you name your Valentine site – MyDearValentine.com? Why did you name your Christmas Site Christmas Carnivals and why not Christmas XYZ or XYZ Christmas http://christmascarnivals.com – Questions like this are put at me very often> My answer – There is a lot to naming a site and I take my job of naming a site seriously.
Let me be in the spirit of Christmas and state the story of naming of Christmas Carnivals and why it is plural and not singular.
Every year since 1941 the downtown New Delhi, referred as Connaught Place plays host to a Christmas Carnival and is all decked up for the Christmas. To us the festival of Diwali is associated with Mela, so Compare went ahead and developed a site DiwaliMela.com and as Christmas had a strong association with Carnival we desired to keep the name Christmas Carnival, however the registrar’s representative did a mistake and booked ChristmasCarnivals.com instead. By the time we realized what had happened, the name was gone. We did go ahead and block other extension .net but decided to stick with ChristmasCarnivals.com – we worked further to evolve CC as we refer it to, as the single largets place for information about Christmas. There was a big learning to do, and we did go through the whole exercise of understanding Christmas and the festivities around it.
Though the site came up in 1999, it was only in 2007 – did I actually get to see the real Christmas Carnival when I was in the United States around Christmas time. The inputs I gathered were put by the team to great use and we worked on improving CC.
I am proud of the fact that ChristmasCarnivals.com has emerged as the leading Christmas site and about a million souls from all over the world stop at ChristmasCarnivals.com.
So there is a lot to a name provided you can live to it.
So my 2 cents: Keep the domain name exactly what you want the site to be.
Kumaoni Language December 16, 2008
Posted by simarprit in Uncategorized.Tags: India, Kumaon, Kumaoni, Languages, Simarprit
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I was just looking at a post by my dear colleague Hitesh on how he is saddened with the lack of speakers of his native language Kumaoni. There are hundreds of Hitesh who feel the same. My suggestion to Hiesh and to all others who feel so is to go ahead and do something tangible to keep the language or any other inheritance which is not monetary alive.
Sikh Turban and Air Travel December 13, 2008
Posted by simarprit in Uncategorized.Tags: Airport Security, Being a Sikh, San Jose Airport, Sikh Turban, Turban, Turban and Air Travel
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I have been flying with my turban since adulthood, enough stories and memoirs – maybe they can fill a book – The Turban Travails. This one just happened.
All set to fly all the way back to New Delhi, I reached the San Jose International Airport. The airport knows me and so does the TSA staff and so does the Chemical Sensing Machine installed there. So today when I said that I will “pat my turban myself”no alarm was raised – they took my carry on luggage and I went to the die, patted my turban and offered my hands for the chemical examination. The filter paper test done, the minute filter paper was put in the machine it raised the alarm. The first alarm from the machine at San Jose Airport installed an year back. May be a false alarm. The supervisor called another “male assist” and got to his job – they gave me full body search and scanned my carry-on fully, I agreed to allow them to pat my turban this time around, of course they found nothing.
I had my task cut, how did it happen?
Ten minutes of thinking through made me laugh. I had dry lips and had applied some lip balm – the habit of moving my moustache away got the balm residue to my right thumb and index finger, adjusting my turban got it spread across my turban. When they told me to pat my turban properly – my both hands got polluted and I tested positive on the Chemical Test Machine.
Lesson learnt, all Sikhs wearing turban should apply Lip Balm after cecurity check.
Beauty Tips Hub Races Ahead December 12, 2008
Posted by simarprit in Uncategorized.Tags: Beauty, Beauty Tips, Beauty Tips Hub, Internet, Website Launch, websites
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When I was introduced to this young boy, I instinctively knew we would go a long way together.
The journey has just begun and it is very exciting. When raghav “introduced” me to a site which Compare owned (Yes, I know – I am the founder of Compare Infobase) I was thrilled. It was a great subject, great geography and we had a great name in http://www.beautytipshub.com – we couldn’t have gone wrong and we didn’t. The site did 1600 uniques today – all organic. It is the fastest ramp-up I’ve seen in along time.
Some thoughts on why we have done so well in Beauty Tips Hub:
1. Raghav had done good reserach
2. Beauty is universal
3. We knew our job
More to come…
