Yet Another List of Ten Things To Do When Twitter Goes Down

1. Go to Facebook.com and try to use it like Twitter. So what if it is #fail

2. Did you ever notice how many birds are there in that Fail Whale Image?

3. Keep on pinging http://status.twitter.com and try to bring it down too

4. Inform @chetan_bhagat, even he can’t block this outage

5. Try to calculate how many others will be making a “10 things to do when twitter was down” list

6. Log on to Orkut

7. It’s a good time to see, if you can still reset those Yahoo and Hotmail passwords.

8. Call your girlfriend (If you have made one through Twitter) and inform her about the outage and impress her by revealing that you were the first to spot it on the twitter status page that there was actually a problem which Twitter admitted.

9. Revive your long dead blog. Like I did.

10. Try to set up a self-help group for all affected by the tragedy. Life has to go on – even without Twitter

Agyaat: What You Really Want To Know

Watched Agyaat over the weekend. RGV's latest magnum opus has been ridiculed, torn to shreds and dismissed as (one of) the most pointless movies ever made by the so called film critics. I Disagree! It's ONE brilliant piece of work I say. Actually, if you have seen the movie, very carefully, it will of course come to you what RGV has actually intended to convey. Not getting still? I'll try again.

See, If you watched Agyaat and came out banging your head, it's just because you ain't bright enough to understand the concept. Thats it! C'mon not everyone has the same IQ levels! We're different people! For example, not everyone is as brilliant as me. So, I hereby proclaim whoever found this movie pointless, they possesses the IQ of a dingbat. I would go on to say that this work of art should be scrutinized (by intelligent people) and be kept as reference material. If you still haven't got the point, let me reveal it to you anyway.

The entire film is nothing but a trailor for Agyaat 2 that RGV is making. What? Agyaat 2? (Those who don't know, you miss vital pieces of information if you do not stay till the end of the movie). So, you see, what RGV is trying to do here is to create this huge aura about this Agyaat killer thats lurking in the jungles. Its scary, it's scared of water and it doesn't help if you pray when its in front of you and about to kill you because its stupid and doesn't know God exists. Oh and those who said "they should have at least revealed what killed Setu, the director and the producer", bummers, the film is titled Agyaat. So, even RGV doesn't know what killed them. Its Agyaat for gods sake!

And this is for those who said "What a pointless movie?". Have you ever thought what your purpose in life is? Think about it. You get up every morning, go to work, return home, watch TV, spend time with friends, worry about why he/she hasn't called you yet, fret about tomorrows commute to work.. and so on? Isn't THAT pointless? And you call this movie pointless? Bloody Hypocrites.

Go watch the movie. If you ain't scared by it, it will at least make you laugh.

Tribute: Rajan P Dev

One of Malayalam Cinema's finest actors, Rajan P Dev passed away earlier today at private Hospital in Ernakulam. The actor was known for his power packed performances and his amazing adaptability to perform various kinds of roles. Be it a negative role, a positive one or a comic one, he peformed it with great aplomb.

I personally loved his style of acting and will always remember his performances in the countless movies he has acted. He had this amazing ability to make you hate him when he performed negative roles. At the same time, in some other movies you just love the man. To say that his loss is irreplaceable would be an understatement. I loved many of his films and his performances in "Thommanum Makkalum", "Chanthu pottu" and many others. In fact, to list all his peformances would be a daunting task!

The Malayalam film industry has lost some great talents in 2009. If it was Lohithadas last month, we have now lost Rajan P Dev now, exactly a month later. You will be sorely missed sir! May his soul rest in Peace.

A recent Interview of the great man below.

Singers: Get Your Pronunciations Right!

As I type this, the popular Malayalam Reality musical show, Idea Star Singer is underway. The show is extremely popular amongst Malayalees, across the globe. Starting off on a very modest scale back in 2006, the show returned the next year in a bigger format promising contestants a flat worth Rs. 1 crore. The next year the prize money was doubled to 2 crore each for one male and one female contestant.

Now to the facts as to why am I talking about this program here on my blog. To start off, I am a big fan of this show. The contestants are high quality singers and the judges are by far the best ones in the business. I have never found the judgement "biased" or anything like that. The judges go out of their way to point out mistakes and other issues with "sangathis" as they call it!

But when it comes to Hindi songs some contestants sing, I see lots of scope for improvement. Some of the contestants need more training to "shrug off" their Malayalmised Hindi accents. While some contestants do manage to shrug it off (Hats off to them! It's NOT an easy thing to do, mind you), some others need to do a lot more. Some songs sound outright ridiculous and embarrassing if you happen to watch it along with your North Indian friends.

I have no complaints against the show, but if there is one thing that needs to be done to improve the quality of the show, it should be ensured that the contestants should get their pronunciations right. It's not just about Hindi. If I sing a Marathi song, (I am a Malayalee), it may sound awesome to a Malayalee, but a Marathi manoos listening to it should not feel like kicking my butt off because I ruined his favorite song. I am a singer myself and I “know” how bad it sounds when you do not sing a song correctly (as in, with the correct pronunciation). The worst part is that performances like these are given high marks because the judges might have not heard the original song.

I am not against Malayalees (I am one too, after all and proud to be one!) or the mallu accent, but in some situations, the accent can do more harm than good. Additionally, in my experience, it is quite not an impossible task to work on your diction. You just need to listen to the original song very carefully and learn it. I would rather not sing a song at all, till I get the pronunciation right. And, this is not just limited to a Malayalee singing Hindi songs, the rule to get the pronunciations right can be extended to all languages.

Mistakes while singing is OK, but this is not! I don't know how many people agree with me on this here! Just my 50 cents worth. :)

Confessions of a Twitterholic: I Am Addicted

So, I have admitted it finally. I hereby certify myself to been addicted to Twitter. The reasons of course wil be expounded, but that comes later (in a separate post!).

When I joined Twitter back in July 2008, it was just because my colleague @shadez was there. The interesting thing about me was that, I have always been a techie (oh yeah!) but the Twitter bug never really hit me until then. In fact, I hadn't even heard of Twitter till last year. It's kinda strange but true. One of those things.. you know?

I was more busy with "traditional" geek stuff like being member of tech forums and other such communities. For example, I was quite active on Esato Forums where I was amongst the top 5 posters. In fact, I can honestly say I was addicted to Esato, prior to Twitter. Posting day in and day out since 2004. I was a lurker there long before I finally "jumped in"

Now, let's get back to Twitter. After joining in July, I was limited to a few tweets per day and followed some new people whom I personally knew. There came a time when I used to simply gawk at @shadez who was actively involved and went to tweetups, met people and stuff. It was then that it dawned on me that, this thing actually isn't as pointless as I thought it was. That was it, I started actively following interesting folks.

The moment of truth came when the unfortunate Terror attacks in Mumbai were unfolding, I watched Twitter grow from being this "tweet and meet" thing to something very serious. Infact, during the attcks I was continuously tweeting information and helpful bits of information to folks who were in Mumbai. It was also then I realised how quickly Twitter could mobilise people. Within hours of the attacks there was a centralised blog that provided updated information, all kinds of them to folks who were looking for the near and dear ones. From blood-bank addresses , blood group equirements everything was in order.

During the same time, I personally was going through a lot of stress (mushy stuff) and now I have to admit, it was some of my Twitter buddies, who have been instrumental in getting me back on track! The fun part is that most of em don't even know they have helped me out. I won't reveal their names, but you know what? There are some really nice, special peope out there.

Yes, some may argue about its pointlessness, but the beauty of Twitter is seen when you are actively involved in it. For those who came just to check out the sevice, it will obviously remain pointless. No! Seriously! Who in the right frame of mind would want to tell the world, what they're doing now? @twitter, you need to change that slogan, I say!