Invading Privacy

The ambit of our private lives is becoming shorter every passing day.The number of advertising text messages which we get in our cell phones everyday is alarming. This is a very serious issue and I have been brooding over it for quite a while now. I may or may not receive calls and messages from my near and dear ones , but I am sure to get atleast one from the advertising company daily. What is more disturbing is that these people doesn't hesitate to send the same at even midnight causing great amount of inconvenience to users.

Although this situation has been aggravating since long, but it was brought to notice by a leading newspaper and a magazine only when the VIPs weren't spared too.Recently our Finance Minister Mr.Pranab Mukherjee was interrupted by one such message during his speech in parliament.Quite understandably, Mr. Mukherjee was baffled to see this and has asked for an explanation from the mobile company. If dignitaries like him are being targeted so easily then think about the situation which common people are facing.

Its quite astonishing to see the way these mobile companies play with our private lives. They are in deal with these advertising agencies and handle our private data given by us while registering for a phone number to these agencies and that too for some exiguous amount of money. These advertising agencies , in turn, are in deal with various educational institutions,political parties, Local showrooms and shops and advertise for them. Sometimes its the users fault too when they carelessly fill forms in shopping malls, billing counters asking for their feedback and suggestions or suggesting some scheme.There have been various mechanisms to counter this problem but none have proved to be futile enough.The " Do not Send" facility incorporated by various mobile companies was one such but has completely failed to deliver.

Competition is so tough nowadays that comapanies try to enamor customers in all possible ways. This is one such handy medium of promotion. But people need to remember that there is a line drawn between private and public which should not be crossed. Advertising is necessary to make customers aware of the new services and product but clearly better methods will be appreciated.

Commonwealth Games...(OR GAINS??)

Before starting I would like to mention that today while reading an article in Economic Times ,I saw the RS. sign replaced by the new rupee symbol for the first time(the one with the Roman R and Equal to = sign).It just intuited me with vanity!!!!

Coming back to the discussion,I was mentioning about one of the fields where India still needs to take some serious lessons atleast from its neighbouring nations like China.With FIFA World Cup over already about a month ago,what should now make headlines in the sports section of every newspaper???We as cricket loving nation should have some news about the ongoing test series with Sri Lanka.OK agreed.And what else???I suppose its the right time for the media to focus on the preparations being made by the athletes participating in the Common Wealth Games 2010 and about the quality of arrangements being done for the megaevent to be held in the country in the month of October.But quite contrary to it,I see nothing of that sort in the sports section but yes a lot of spicy stuff in the front page in every news daily!

So whats its all about.One daily talks about that how the Organizing Committee(OC) has overshot the budget some blah blah times (I don't remember the exact figures) than its original estimation of $1.1 billion.It quite comically exemplifies by mentioning that a single treadmill machine which is about 7.5 lakhs in the market has actually been hired for one and a half month during the games for 9 lakhs, giving the readers a preview of how unorganized the planning has been. Then there is some baffle regarding the relay baton in London as to how the OC has digged misappropriate amount of cash from the British firm . So quite sadly,every news beleaguering the event has negativity around it.

I think its time for every Indian and the media to understand that highlighting the drawbacks will bring a bad name to the Games as well as the nation.Every big event has issues associated with it but we must try to see the favorable side of the coin. We should look at the Games Villa, the newly and well designed roads of Delhi, and the most talked about new terminal 3G of the Indira Gandhi International Airport.We have a grand new Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium which will host most of the events. There are ample of good things to look around. Just think about that hosting a games of this magnitude will put India in a strong position not just among the CommonWealth countries but among the whole world.

But unfortunately there has been nothing of this type.Most annoying part is that the leaders of national stature have been praying for the failure of these games and are even bold enough to announce it publicly. Such parochial outlook of people will never help India grow. I would rather blaming it completely on media will put some onus on the general public as well.Its because media simply sells the stuff that has market value. Like ,we as readers are the first to gather and express our outrage at any anti-national issue, here also its high time that we come up together and vow to make these games a memorable one in the international history.

What's in a Single Day?

Logically this article should have been posted yesterday, but due to some reasons it got delayed. But its a wise saying that “Its better late than never!!”, so I will follow the same. Till yesterday night, I wasn't even aware that today is the big day called "The Friendship's Day".But then one of my friends told me a strange fact that every year on the first sunday of August we celebrate this day.I inquired the theory behind this...!!! Well I could not find any concrete reason, but as expected it was a custom followed by western countries which gradually came to India.

Personally I have some reservations about celebrating friendship on any single day.The only point I see is that it brings an opportunity for all to remember their old and distant buddies atleast once a year when they might have gone unnoticed for years. But whatever the reason may be,friendship for me can never be a one day celebration. Any bond of togetherness cannot be restricted to 24 hours and if someone does have counter opinions as that mentioned before I would give them a single argument in my favour that “If you are remembering any person only for a single day in a year,he is no more your close ,it’s a mere formality which you are doing and trying to stretch a dead relation”.

In the past few months I have realized a fact.Its true that feeling of love definitely fades with distance but its just the reverse for friendship.The bond of friendship strengthens with time and distance.I have many friends of mine who are not beyond a kilometer of a range but I or they hardly care to bother about each other but there are a few special ones who are over 1000 kms far away still we make a point to converse atleast weekly if not daily.

In an era of social networking,people have an easy and convenient way to maintain contacts with each other.I have seen my siblings from age group 9-10 years to my uncles of age group 60 and above being an active member of sites like facebook.So where is the distance anyway???For me any friend of mine in US is just as far away as a friend sitting in the next city! Either you are a student or a job holder ,taking out an hour or so for your friends and keeping updates of your friends through these sites s not a big deal.

Having written so much I will not hesitate to say that today even I wished and celebrated “Friendship Day” with all my friends.Thats because I am a part of society which is bounded by rules.But celebrating any relation whther it be love ,friendship etc etc on a single day is something that can go down well with me.