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A reader send in this sketch wishing happy birthday to DNA Bangalore. We had carried reporter's diary on our Saturday edition check out pages 7-14 and he made the sketches looking at the pics used in the entries =) What do you think?

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I see trend coming up and I don’t think it’s a trend at all — I’m talking about ‘jugaad’ here. I think it started off with this post by Sarah Lucy of TechCruch (she’s been writing a lot about startup scene in India = awesomeness) and now I see a story at Business Week on the same lines. My question… why the sudden hoopla about jugaad?

The basic funda behind  jugaad is to get the work done ASAP with minimal investments but aren’t there lot of people doing that already? The only thing new for someone from the west is the word and not the concept. Don’t believe me? Check out ‘There I’ve Fixed it‘ people have been doing all over the world through the years. It’s no different from one of the home made remedies my mom would come up with if an insect bit me. Jugaad is about meeting the demand without wasting much time.Real time blogging is jugaad. You add more info as and when it comes.

Jugaad is about satisfying the basic need, no added features, just one solid feature. It’s also about an idea, one brilliant idea which, if developed well could become something much bigger over time. To an extant Twitter two years back was jugaad. It just had one feature update your status message. No @replies, no lists, no organic RTs no nothing. It just catered to people who wanted to keep people posted about their whereabouts.

Jugaad is about desperation. I’m late for work and my vehicle just broke down. Autorickshaw refuses to go and what do I do? I hitch a ride. If you think of it, running a website via cloud is also jugaad. Going for shared hosting instead of a full server is jugaad. Using wordpress to design a website instead of developing a CMS+front is jugaad.

So why west… why go over over the top with jugaad? At best your efforts might help land the word in oxford dictionary, if it hasn’t already and may be a place in management books of the future. Apart from that the term doesn’t deserve more attention.

For a small group of people they were ‘heroes’, for us they were terrorists. Their heroes killed our heroes.

A few new heroes emerged.

Some heroes from the bigscreen became zeros overnight.

The same set of words, pictures and videos were used by media in as many combinations as they could have. But why?

The real criminal — a failed political, and intelligence system — went scot-free, after making a dozen promises.

Tears gave way to anger, to frustration, more frustration and to tears again.

The Earth has come a full cycle, so have we. But we will never forget will we? We shouldn’t, because nothing has changed.

#2611neverforget

I was at the recent tweetup with Shashi Tharoor in Bangalore, and I need to say it was one of the most enjoyable blogger/twitter meets I’ve been to. I wrote about the event in @DNA already, you can read it here and here. So the subject here is not Mr Tharoor who shares his first name with my father, but my identity crisis.

When I’m at one of these tech/social media events I feel like a double agent who is supposed to keep both sides happy. On one hand, I need to write a story about the event or spot a trend which could lead to a story; on the other hand, I’m required be my usual self, tweet-tweet at the event and interact with people I have met and those I have interacted online.

How do I prioritise? Editorji, can I take a day off today and just attend the event as a normal human being? I don’t think I can ever ask that question ever, it’s just not that simple.. never. How would it look if the sports desk takes a day off to watch ManU or Sachin (not cricket)?

Well there I was at the tweetup hearing Tharoor speak… I wrote as fast as I could, please do understand that me, pen and paper don’t get along well these days, thanks to my affair with computer. It took a while to get my hand to coordinate with paper and pen, I tried. I wrote a lot of notes, tried to write every word he spoke (big mistake!) and ended with a tired hand and aching fingers at the end of the day.

Now that’s what I ended up doing, what I really wanted to do was sit back, chill out, smile and join Manu and Nikhil as they cracked PJ after PJ and commented on every question and answer. Sheesh now that sounded nasty, trust me they weren’t nasty in any way. It was just  good humour.

Some say I’m lucky because I get to write about things I’m interested in. Really? Am I? Sure, it’s easier for me, but does that mean it’s good? I’ve heard of coders who code for fun and met a few who hate to code when not at work. I think in journalistic sense I’ll come in the latter category. Can I let my interested remain interests and my work remain my work. Because when both are mixed, at times, it becomes a heady cocktail that ends up giving me a bad hangover.

They say don’t mix business with pleasure, but it’s just the opposite when it comes to journalism and entrepreneurship. Can a film critic watch a movie without having to review it; can a sports correspondent watch cricket and not worry about all the adjectives that needs to be used in the final copy. (I think sports copies use way too many adjectives.. I’m not complaining, makes an interesting read); can a sub-editor read a newspaper without worrying about the typos and the stories missed; and finally can and would a photographer want to take a picture without worrying about perfection? The answer will be no for all these people, because that’s part and parcel of being a journalist, just like the coke ad which said eat cricket, sleep cricket, drink only coca-cola, it’s passion that drives this industry. No passion, no interest, no beat, no news.

I can’t stop writing about things that I write about as of now, because I don’t know what else I’ll write about. Is there a middle path? Any point in following it? I don’t know. But life’s an adventure, if this path doesn’t take me anywhere, I’ll clear the jungle and create a new one. In other words it’s not necessary to take the one not taken by others, you can always create your own. Just make sure it’s a 8-lane highway.

4 Liquid stages of life…
 

What a way to summarize the stages of life- without saying a word!

Posted via email from NT Balanarayan’s posterous

Posted via email from NT Balanarayan’s posterous

The problem with Google Wave
No one seems to want to use Google Wave for any serious work. Like collaboration for example.
Most of the waves I have been part of till now were more or less ‘tutorials’ or ‘this is awesome’ kind. Now that the novelty value has worn off, not more new waves in my inbox. That’s just sad!
Meanwhile my contact list in Wave is getting longer by the day. I wish there was a better method to see more contacts without having to scroll down so much. Is there any way to deactivate those profile pics?

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Do we need 3G in India? Of course we do. But looks like guys at DoT thinks they can bring it in their own swet time. PluggdIn says the auction process might be cancelled yet again. So why don't we ust skip 3G and jump staright to 4G? Much like much of India juped the landline connections? We have waited so far, we can wait for a few more months provided we get a brand new kick-ass 4G service. What say? Let the 4G handset revolution start in India!

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Have you watched Bandit Queen?
I haven’t, so I’m about to watch it at home. Went through a lot of trouble to get the DVD. That makes me think, why aren’t DVDs of good movies easily available in India?

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