List of Sevens

This blogpost rolls back to 2008, almost 5 years ago since I had written this elsewhere. It still holds good today and I should probably try achieving half the things mentioned here.

Seven things that I plan to do :

1. Learn playing instruments like Guitar, Piano, Flute and fine tune my playing skills with Violin
2. Learn 5 – 6 languages including few foreign languages
3. Globe/India Trotting
4. Become an established Vocalist
5. Start a play skool for kids
6. Write a book
7. Prioritize the listed things and execute them too :)

Seven things I can do :

1. Sing (Whenever, Whatever, Wherever, However )
2. Click you. Click flicks.
3. Talk, Talk, Talk, ………. and endlessly Talk [ meaningful, technical, motivational and stupid talks]
4. Watch movies continuously for days [preferably thriller, romance, comedy]
5. Flash a smile when someone scolds me
6. Write. Write posts like this. Some better ones too.
7. Sleep like there is no tomorrow

Seven things I can’t do :

1. Stay idle – Sit simply without doing anything
2. Accept people who are dishonest and disloyal
3. Cook things that ordinary people want to eat
4. Watch the same channel for more than 15 minutes
5. Write codes – could be anything you know. like saying something, meaning something else. or the geek computer stuff. My belief is KISS – keep it simple and short
6. Perform an action without being convinced of its purpose
7. Sewing

Seven things I say most often :

1. Yay =D
2. Dude!
3. Whatever.
4. Well. Yeah.
5. Take care
6. Hmmm/Mmmm
7. Are you serious?

Seven most important people in my life :

1. Appa and Amma – For giving me everything that I did/didn’t require :D
2. Someone whose name starts with ‘D’ – not Dev D for sure. You know who you’re.
3. My teachers and gurus – For enriching lessons which makes my life more meaningful.
4. Well Wishers – For believing in me and my abilities and constantly being a source of motivation.
5. Friends – You all are the best things in my life. I love you!
6. Role models/Inspirations – to constantly learn from and remain a learner.
7. People who hurt me knowingly/unknowingly because they teach me life’s most important lessons. They really did in the past.

PowerMockup – Wireframing made simpler

Working day-in and out on prototyping design concepts/ideas/solutions using various design tools, I always dreamt of having a tool which was simpler and familiar. That’s when I learnt about PowerMockup. The name says it all. Its extremely powerful and very simple to create mockups in an effective yet not so time consuming manner.

So, what is so unique about PowerMockup?

  1. It works perfectly well on Power Point 2007,2010,2013 versions – Thus helps most non-designer users to work in their comfort zone
  2. You have ready-to-use, already-created-components (basic and common ones)
  3. Create new icons or components and add to the stencil which could be reused

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I thought it would be ideal to creat a project using PowerMockup and showcase its simplicity and effectiveness. The images attached below showcases a work flow for student login and landing page.  I could possibly do this in less than 10 minutes which would have usually taken about 2-6 hours if I had to create everything from scratch (varies from user to user’s expertise).
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If you’re impressed and feel you can make some awesome concept representations using this tool, you could download the same from here.

Essential tool for users like Project Managers, Design Strategist, Product Lead, Ideator, Speaker, Blogger, Cartoonist, User Experience Lead, Student,  Teacher and the like.

I personally thank Andreas Wulf, creator of this wonderful tool.

Concert 5 – February 2013

Thirupoonthuruthy Sri Narayana Tirtha Swamigal Trust | 17 February, 2013 | 16:15 hrs – 17:00 hrs

Violin : Ranjani Ramakrishnan
Mrdangam : Thillaisthanam Suriyanarayan

01. Bavaye Hrudaya Aravinde – Bilahari – Adhi – Narayana Tirtha (O)
02. Sri Narayana Vahana – Mukhari - Adhi – Narayana Tirtha (R)
03. Kalayata Gopi – Pantuvarali – Adhi – Narayana Tirtha (R,N,S)
04. Ehi Mudam Dehi Sri Krishna – Khamas – Adhi – Narayana Tirtha (O)
05. Pahi Pahi Jagan – Nadanamakriya – Adhi – Narayana Tirtha

Beyond Art. Business and Strategy.

So. Here is an actor. Indeed a brilliant talent. Knows acting, singing, dancing, directing, script writing, composing, editing, choreography, teaching and did I miss anything else? And, he is near perfect in everything he pursues.

I am sure you’re thinking that you know all that’s stated above and what’s so cool about this yet-another-blogpost. Well, there is.

I would like to record my perspectives here. Firstly, the movie receives a certification from Censor. Sounds good for the audience. Expectations set with DTH and there hits publicity. Everyone (barring distributors and theatre owners) is amazed by his vision to increase media revenue tapping on such favorable streams.

Few days before its implemented, Boom. He is in news. DTH can’t happen. A group protests. Public has empathized with him and for the movie. But the impact isn’t as expected. Never mind.

Next, movie is set for release across the globe. World Wide release is not a small thing. Not a god damn joke for sure. What’s done good now to make it work? Ban the movie in the name of protests from Muslim Leaders and representatives from the community that this entire movie is demeaning and offensive. Well, probably it is. I am not sure. Haven’t watched the movie yet. Conversations continue to happen around the movie.

One week later, looks like it would get released and then the government stops it. Why? Business maybe. Or personal interests. Or genuine concern of disharmony.

Through all these factual incidents, I somewhere feel that the entire movie has performed a brilliant act outside the screens too. At the same time, I empathize with the artist too. More so after the Press Conference video. Respect for the man is there. But, it’s still about personal interests. To him, his art and creativity, and to those who are stopping it, their political interests.

What has this done?

Created a brilliant promotion strategy for films and new revenue stream for businesses to happen in Media Industry

What should not happen beyond this?

No more bans in the name of geography, religion, color, creed, gender etc. Ours is the country which preached ‘Vettrumaiyil Ottrumai Thaan Bharatham’ and its high time we respect this and adopt it as a practice.

And you’ve been a sincere Kamal Fan if you reached till here.

Concert 4 – January 2013

Krishna Gana Sabha | 06 January, 2013 | 11:45 hrs – 13:00 hrs

Violin : Shraddha Ravindran
Mrdangam : Rajna Swaminathan

01. Intha Chalamu – Begada – Adhi – Veena Kuppaiyer
02. Paritana Mirchite – Bilahari – K Chapu – Patnam Subramanya Iyer (S)
03. Enneramum Un Namam – Purvikalyani – M Chapu – Shyama Sastri (R,N,S)
04. Enneramum Undan – Devagandhari – Adhi – Gopalakrishna Bharathi (R)
05. Ramani Samana Mevaru – Karaharapriya – Thisra Ekam – Tyagaraja (R,N,S,T)
06. Ehi Mudam Dehi Sri Krishna – Khamas – Adhi – Narayana Tirtha (R)

Year 2013

2013

Every year, we wish each other “happy new year”, “may you have more success, better health” and with all valuable words one can think of.

Here is praying sincerely for a better environment to live in, wishing for equality, looking forward to contribute to the needy and pledging not to contribute to inhumanity in this coming year 2013.

My apologies to one and all if I have intentionally or unintentionally hurt anyone in the previous years.

If all this got accomplished, I will be very glad to say – “Indeed, it was a happy year 2013″ on December 31 2013.

God bless all of us!

Open letter to Dear Mankind

Call me a feminist, a women with a lot of attitude, or whatever. But as a man if you do not know to respect your opposite sex who are women, who are supposedly your equal beings and if you are the kind, who will justify for fellow men who have involved themselves in sexual abuses, rapes, harassment  ill treatment of women in present and past, I will make up my mind right away that its not worth getting across my views to you.

I haven’t voiced out my concerns because of the terrible incident that has affected a 23 year old very badly and has put the entire mankind???!!! to shame. I am writing this today only because I have heard, read and also know women who have been affected throughout their life because of such evil behavior. This is only an attempt to record my observations on what every girl goes through in their day to day life.

To begin with, please give me some real cases / incidents of a woman or a girl involved in sexual violence with a man in our country. On the other hand, compare these numbers in a vice-versa scenario.

Next, it leaves me in complete disgust to learn that our hungry-craving-violent men didn’t want to leave even a 6 months old baby. I mean, why/how/what can they do with that baby? Its a god damn baby. Read BABY. Kindly explain how this baby should have behaved and protected herself so that she didn’t instigate those men who indulged in such a cruel action with her.

A women is nothing less than an object of sex – that’s the freaking truth and reality in our country. At some work places, the environment of work is so bad that she has to succumb to her bosses (who are usually men) and is left with no  support. If she is vocal about her opinion, her continuation at that work place is at stake. At night, she has to be back home by the mentioned curfew time. If she is married, she is constantly suspected of her dignity. She drinks/smokes, she is considered a bad omen. She fights for equality, its mocked as yet another mob group of women screeching for senseless demands. I do not endorse that whatever a women involves herself in, is a right thing. But the underlying truth is that she is forced into several things without a choice.

Having stated certain facts of what women go through as a routine, there are also some women who take these stigmas to their advantage and start involving in crimes that have also impacted a lot of men and led them into distress. But, in my personal view, the affected is still a majority of women in the name of sexual abuse/assault/harassment/violence.

The only hope to make this country a better place is to train our children when they are young to respect each other. But for that to happen, the kids should be allowed to grow in the first place.

Hope humanity prevails!

Disclaimer : This article is not intended to generalize men of our country. Because, I believe  there are always exceptions.