I now see a new and encouraging trend in a company’s efforts to be visible in the marketplace. And I’m not talking about press, outdoor, film or television. The new recipe has carefully hand-picked ingredients that can even get a steak to sizzle : bloggers. Bloggers, specially invited to a freewheeling session that is informal, interactive and informative.

I was recently invited to a product curtain raiser for bloggers and my invite gave me a sneak preview of two new Lenovo products. The new IdeaCentre A600 and IdeaPad Y650 – just off the blocks from the Lenovo launch pad. After the presentations were concluded, the bloggers were invited to test drive the two machines and interact with the Lenovo team on features, specs, support and compatibility with typical user profiles.

One of difficult things about a bloggers’ meet with a corporate agenda is the actual handling of the event – especially in terms of presentation logic. It can’t be orchestrated, or formal. It can’t be to a script. And it can’t be blow-dried. So, it has to be open-ended, freewheeling and meandering – with no timers set on presentations and discussions. And that is exactly what this bloggers’ meet was all about.

Bangalorean.

You are invited to a

PANEL DISCUSSION

CONFLICT AND THE FUTURE FOR BANGALOREANS

Facilitated by Meta-culture Dialogics

Hosted by Citizen Matters,

Bangalore’s own newsmagazine at www.citizenmatters.in

4:00 pm, Sunday, 19 October 2008

Alliance Francaise de Bangalore.

108, Thimmaiah Road, Vasanth Nagar, Bangalore

Preceded by: The documentary Bombay, Our City by Anand Patwardhan at 3 pm

Followed by: The documentary Fishers of Men by Ranjan Kamath at 6:30 pm

And an interaction with Ranjan Kamath

All are welcome!

For information: please contact: Rafael: 080 – 4117 2421 or Meera: 080 – 4173 7584

For details, visit

http://barcampbangalore.org/wiki/Main_Page

And if you want to know in detail what a Barcamp is, go to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp

I have earlier been a little hesitant to join in, thinking that it would be full of tech stuff…but each time, I found more than enough to hold and kindle my interest! It’s a great atmosphere, and one can jump into whatever one finds strikes a chord (yes, there are also impromptu jam/music sessions!)

Be there….

Lok Ayukta sleuths swooped down on the Bangalore residence of Davangere assistant commissioner (commercial taxes) Amanulla Sharief on Friday morning, They unearthed documents for property worth Rs 1.35 crore and cash from his house, whereas his entire 30 years’ earnings would have come to just Rs 30 lakh.
The Lok Ayukta also raided residences of nine officials, including an IAS officer, a deputy superintendent of police, commercial tax department officers. The raid yielded properties worth Rs 20 crore, disproportionate to their known sources of income. Read more..

What’s happening is not something new; the corruption has deeper roots in almost everything in our country, the lac of drive from political and administrative fronts to uproot the same. The need of hour perhaps is to protect the public wealth and interest rather than compromising our democratic principles and maintain the ‘chalta hai attitude’. The legal framework though has noted this down the ‘suo motto’ actions from political arena must be deep asleep over these cases for sure…

The newspaper claims itself to be ‘for Young Minds’ through provocative hoarding ads depicting a lady with news printed on her back. I guess majority would have bothered to see company behind this, for obvious reasons. In case by mistake an onlooker puts on a thinking cap, what really could he/she interpret from the ad ? We know palm-reading, mind reading etc but this ad is trying to project a new concept – ‘back-reading’.

According to me, the ad tries to convey the following …

• if you’re looking for the ‘front page hot news’, there’s no need to point that out to you.
• if you’re looking for the bulls and bears of the business news, you can see that its there in the highs and lows.
• sports is out there in the unkempt jet-black hair.
• fashion and page 3 news needs no mention. (and if you’re gonna read fashion this way, you’ll probably disagree with the cliched statement that beauty is skin-deep).
• the hands don’t carry any news obviously due to lack of space; (does it point out that this newspaper comes with ‘no strings attached’ as it is ‘hands free’ ?)

An ad which sets the though process going …nice enough! But will this create loyal subscribers ? I managed to get an invitation copy while traveling in a BMTC -Vajra (Volvo) bus.(Ads of the newspaper are in side windows of the some Volvo buses). In the first impression, the newspaper looks like a hybrid of regular daily newspaper and a tabloid. Other than this there is nothing special in the newspaper to be called “made for Young Minds”. The print quality is very bad and as a result many photographs even though coloured look abysmal. From the layout perspective, the only thing I liked was the page header section which has some easy read news in the briefs. There’s also the supplement ‘Chronicle Bengaluru’ that has nothing special to mention about.

It’s too early to comment about contents in general. but I can’t resist myself mentioning about the the editorial section because it is just disappointing, there is nothing worthwhile to read in it.
[with inputs from Sudhir]

Click on this for one of my previous postings about PfA

Here’s a marathon to bring together the City of Bangalore, to create a platform where its people can gather to show that they truly
care. PFA (People for Animals) Bangalore takes this opportunity to unite Bangaloreans in also spreading the message of conservation through protection of urban wildlife.

PFA, recognised by the Karnataka Forest Department, is an organisation where we believe and work towards being committed to the rescue and rehabilitation of urban wildlife. Through the shelter in Kengeri, the members of PFA and its volunteers have been successful in giving over 7000 avian, mammals and reptiles, a new lease on life.

The marathon, organised by PROCAM, is also a way of being the voice for the voiceless. And this can be achieved through your participation and commitment.

PFA is an officially listed NGO in the marathon and participants can choose to run as an individual or as a corporate team for the organisation. Please remember to select PFA (People for Animals) in the registration form as the NGO you wish to support.

For more information on the same please contact me on 98452-09623; the event helpline: 080 23161416 or email me at ranjanchacko@rediffmail.com

Forms are also available at various branch offices of Standard Chartered, Manipal Cure and Care outlets, Nike Outlets, Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Radio Mirchi office and The Windsor Manor, Bangalore. Those interested can also register online at www.sunfeastworld10k.indiatimes.com

Please pass this email on to your friends and spread the word.

Regards

Ranjan and everyone at PFA.

I was walking down the Jayadeva flyover when I noticed these posters:

Here’s the English one:

and the Kannada one:

I had never been aware at all that there was this kind of initiative to give some voice to some of the minority groups in our city. Unfortunately, the posters do not clearly specify where the venue is (I do not know where Bannappa Park is) and so might have lost a lot of their effectiveness in getting a gathering there.

I wonder who organized this rally and cultural event, and how it went.

Life is tough enough when one belongs to the “normal” category; I can only imagine how it must be if society in general does not accept one, and one faces derision and castigation at every turn….many people handle it by not being open about themselves. Those who are honest enough to declare themselves as being “different” are those who face the maximum difficulties.

I saw the posters too late to attend the event; but they made me think a lot about the human condition, and tolerance, or the lack of it, in our society.

Also called were Nirmit (18) and Abhijna Desai (14)…Abhijna was accompanied by her dad and her younger brother, Ganesh. Here they all are:

I have never been the subject of a photography session before and was very interested to find out how Hemant would go about it. Here’s Hemant in action:

While we were waiting for Abhijna to turn up, I looked at the statue of the great Kannada poet, Ku Vem Pu, at the West Gate:

I suppose we all thought that we would wander around, watching birds, and Hemant would shoot us while we were about it. I couldn’t be more mistaken! The ..er..focus was on the shots, not the birding activity. So, we went hunting for good “spots” where Hemant could take photos:

When Hemant decided that the angle and the sunlight and background were just right, he posed us, and started clicking while asking us to stand still. This was very funny for us..it was the first time we were standing as a group, looking up into the trees at no bird at all!

In fact, even if one of us turned to look at one of the birds in the vicinity, we were obviously disturbing the “set” of the shot, so even when I could see, out of the tail of my eye, a Chestnut-Tailed Starling in the branches of the flowering Silk-Cotton tree, I had to keep my face firmly turned towards a Jacaranda tree where there was not even a crow or a mynah present!

The only bird that I managed to take a reasonable shot of was this FERAL DUCK ( domestic ducks that have been turned loose in Lalbagh), swimming its way perkily near us:

But the beauty of the approaching summer was all around us, and here are the flowers of the Tabebuia and the Jacaranda, colouring Lalbagh with their loveliness:

A scimitar-like Gulmohar seed pod caught my eye:

and so did this burst of yellow on the shores of the lake:

Even the rock formations and grass reeds looked so lovely in the evening sunshine:

And the lotus in the lake looked still beautiful, though a little overblown by now:

Ganesh, of course, was very interested in Hemant’s camera, and was very happy to assist him with holding the flash:

Abhijna, whose earrings showed her to be a “key” person in her home,

approaches bird-watching in a most organized way. Her note-book on birds, with lovely sketches and neatly-written info, impressed me a lot. Here’s the entry and drawing about the Small Green Bee-Eater in her notebook:

As the sun set over Lalbagh,

And the light faded,

The enjoyable photoshoot came to an end…..

Hemant talked about the days when he was an artist in Mumbai and then took up photography first as a hobby, and then as a profession, and moved to Mumbai. The previous day, he had a shoot at Hosur; all in all, his job lets him meet an interesting mix of people, and a mix of indoor and outdoor shoots, too. An interesting profession to follow!

Nirmit is studying Mechanical Engineering at BIT, and is a great fan of aeromodelling, and he found a lot to talk about with Abhijna’s dad, who is into that hobby too. Abhijna studies at the Basavanagudi campus of Kumaran’s and says that she loves birding as a hobby. I found both these youngsters pretty knowledgeable about birds.

A great way to spend an evening, I think. I have no clue when the article is likely to appear in the “Mint” newspaper, but I look forward to it..because I know that Hemant has got some excellent shots!

However what is provided to us are trivial things, things that are actually not newsworthy on one side & on another completely incorrect. An apt example of one such case would be the front page picture of actress Deepika Padukone & cricketer Yuvraj Singh in today’s (5/1/08) issue of Times of India.

The purpose of putting up the picture there on the front page is still not very comprehensible. What was so newsworthy about it? The question actually is what was so newsworthy about it that it needed a front page slot?

Doesn’t a respected national level newspaper have any respect for two individual’s need for privacy? Doesn’t a respected national level newspaper have any decency & think twice about publishing a very personal moment in two individual’s lives on the front page of their daily?

Come on Times of India, you could definitely do better than that. How could you fall to such levels?

One realizes that what sells today is soft news, but have a separate section for that. Bringing your Bangalore Times content to the front page of your main paper is taking it a bit too far.

City plus, Saturday Dec 8th 2007

The stolen photo..

Being familiar with Midday using Metblog photo’s now it’s another daily trying to get their hands on the snaps (protected by creative commons). Not a good gesture from print media for sure!!