Vignetting Life » Observations

The Odyssey

Aditya Sengupta — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:45:56 +0000

We had made this video more than a year ago for the send-off of our seniors’ batch. It was recently posted on the Institute Facebook page. Here is the text of the poem I had written for those who wanted it (appears at the end of the video). The poem holds true even for my batch- I like to think it’s timeless:

What a journey this was, all the way through
We’ve had so much to see and do
So much we’ve done along this path
So much we’ve learnt from the very start

We’ve learnt the difference between boys and men
The value of a word, the strength of a pen
We’ve learnt to cherish life’s twists and bends
The blessings of a mentor, the importance of friends

The time to leave has come I fear
I end the odyssey I began here
And I recount all the days gone by
Of my life here at VJTI

My memories are what I’ll take along
And the bonds of friendship I’ve tempered strong
To my alma mater, I bid goodbye
And begin the journey to touch the sky!

[RSS feed readers might want to click through if you can't see the video]

DeepWish- Putting Money Where Your Mouth Is

Mahafreed Irani — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:38:37 +0000

Ed Note: This is a guest post is authored by Mahafreed Irani. Mahafreed is a journalist with the Times of India in Mumbai. She blogs here and tweets here. /Ed Note.

While thousands of Mumbaikars spent their weekend lighting crackers on Marine Drive, Twitter members like Anaggh Desai decided to use the power of Web 2.0 to raise money for charity. On Saturday morning, the 46-year-old Mumbai-based entrepreneur asked people to send him a Deepwish (Diwali greeting on Twitter), “For every wish received, I will contribute 0.25p to NGO Goonj’’. Excited by the idea, 41 other tweeple (members of the social networking site) decided to donate amounts ranging from 50p to Rs 5 for every greeting tweeted at them. By the end of two days, an amount of Rs 55,000 was collected from tweeple all over India and even the US and Saudi Arabia towards `educating the girl child’.

On his blog, Desai, who otherwise regularly tweets one-liners, wrote, “I am putting my money where my mouth is and will donate Rs 100 for every Diwali gift received, Rs 5 for every comment on my blog, 50p for every SMS greeting and 25p for every wish on Facebook, Twitter or via email’’.

Excited by the idea, popular tweeple like @b50 mobilized people and posted updates like “476 tweets x Rs 63.75 = 30,345. Those were the effort of 42 people on per tweet basis,’’ from time to time, to thank “ Twitteristan’’ and get more contributors.

While some deepwishes were as brief as, “Play it safe’’ the idea was to get creative and tweet “some genuine, original heartfelt stuff’’. So timelines were clogged with wishful updates asking for, `friendly Indo-Pak ties, non-polluting crackers and no water scarcity’. Actress Gul Panag tweeted, “I wish I could be 4 again, and 12 and 16 and 18. Meanwhile wish to donate to charity.’’

This is not the first time members of the networking site have come together to raise money for charity. Indian tweeple have earlier participated in twestivals, multi-charity fundraising campaigns organised on Twitter.

#mumbai- Role of Twitter during the Mumbai Terror Attacks

Aditya Sengupta — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:51:03 +0000

Last week, I wrote an article on the role of Twitter during the Mumbai Terror Attacks that was published in NewsCorp’s Australian news website, news.com.au (on the front page at the time!). It started off with an editor from the website getting in touch with me (through a feedback email address listed on this very site) regarding the Twitter marathon I was on at the time. Here is the text of the article:

#mumbai: three days as a Twitter journalist

LAST Thursday’s terrorist attack in Mumbai in which more than 180 people were killed was a watershed moment for citizen journalism. City residents published minute-by-minute updates to the internet using social media platforms like Twitter, providing the latest facts along with local detail and context as the atrocity unfolded. Major news outlets could not match the detail and pace of their reporting. Aditya Sengupta, a 21-year-old Mumbai student, was one of them. Here, he reflects on the attack and the role of citizen journalists in the event.

I had just gotten home from a very long day at college and was going through my recent emails and social network updates when I saw a couple of very shocking messages.

A quick search through the web and a couple of frenzied phone calls confirmed the start of what was going to be one of the bloodiest and most horrific days in Mumbai’s history.

One of the most interesting things to have emerged from last week’s terror attacks in Mumbai is the significant role played by social media in the coverage of the tragedy – particularly the micro-blogging website Twitter.

While chaotic, disorganised and unverified, Twitter provided fast and helpful updates to the carnage that was underway in the heart of the city.

Updates started appearing on Twitter several minutes before those on local news channels and roughly an hour before they did on CNN and BBC, with Twitter users speculating about loud blasts emanating from various places in and around Colaba, South Mumbai.

Reports of gunshots at several places soon followed, sparking speculation of a clash between gangs and police. Subsequent updates about grenade attacks, fires and hostage situations at other locations made it clear that this was no gang war.

Because of the nature of Twitter, updates were passed on by “retweeting” them – reposting someone else’s update and, ideally, giving credit to the original author. Because of this the information was spread far and wide very fast indeed.

After the initial incredulity and shock, and after the news channels had well and truly caught on, a lot of speculation and guesswork gave way to more accurate updates, largely sourced from various local news channels.

Several constructive actions and initiatives were taken by Twitter users, such as publicising the descriptions of one of the terrorists, the cars that they were said to have carjacked and the fact that they had even carjacked a police vehicle.

Other useful information such as links to video streams of local news channels and lists of important phone numbers (helplines, embassies and consulates) were quickly posted and disseminated.

The human face of Twitter took on another dimension when local users offered to try and call the friends and family of foreigners. What started on Twitter eventually grew into the Mumbai Help blog. I remember trying to call the phone numbers that a commenter on the blog said belonged to Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg. They were eventually found dead at Nariman House (Mumbai Chabad House).

Scans of the lists of dead and injured obtained by a blogger were sent to and posted on the Mumbai Help blog. A request for help on Twitter resulted in the images being transcribed into searchable text and republished. Calls for donations of specific types of blood were also posted and widely retweeted.

In a very short while, several websites and blogs collated much of the information on Twitter, the mainstream media and other websites to create pages that served to be real-time compendiums of information – such as those at Pinstorm, my own website Vignetting Life and of course, Mumbai Help.

Twitter users, photographers and bloggers Vinu Ranganathan and Arun Shanbhag posted several first hand photographs of the event, which were eventually used widely by the mainstream media.

As the hours wore by, the importance of attribution of one’s source of news for each tweet became clear when rumours started spreading through the micro-blogging site. One particular rumour spread very far – that the terrorists may have been accessing the internet and the Indian Government had asked Twitter users to stop reporting.

The appearance of the tweet on the BBC website added to the confusion, since a number of Twitter users cited the same BBC article as a source of their information, creating something of a circular reference. Subsequent rumours were quenched quickly, with Twitter users correcting other Twitter users and providing references.

The truth to the speculation as to whether Twitter was actually used as a source of information by the terrorists remains to be seen. Most Twitter users sourced a majority of their tweets providing information about the siege from the mainstream media and by retweeting others who had sourced their posts from the mainstream media. Furthermore, many Twitter users showed a substantial amount of restraint regarding operational details and troop positions, despite the fact that such details were broadcast on some news channels.

While the primary source of information on Twitter about the Mumbai attacks, the #mumbai search, had a substantial amount of redundant, unusable and irrelevant information, it nonetheless provided for a lot of important updates and clarifications. While Twitter might not necessarily be a reliable source of information, it sure is a quick and useful one.

One reason I put the help page on my blog and started going on a Twitter “marathon” was because of the desire to use the resources at my disposal in the most productive manner I could.

Another reason is the fact that I used to study about 10-15 minutes away from most of the attack sites back in junior college. Most of them are places I have been to and have some familiarity with. I would regularly frequent the British Council library which is pretty much in between the major attack sites.

Most of my updates regarding the attacks were sourced from several mainstream media channels and from other Twitter users I trust.

[original location]

It was originally meant to be an article for the Technology section. So you can imagine my surprise when I received a flurry of messages saying that my article was on the front page of the website. I was in college at the time and knew that it would not stay there for long. So I asked my friend Kushagra to get a screenshot of the page for posterity’s sake:

Shot through the Heart

Aditya Sengupta — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:34:05 +0000

Final Edit 00:20 Nov 30

Please note that the following post applies to an event that is currently underway, and may not be updated. This post may be modified as time passes. Visit http://twitter.com/Sengupta for the latest updates:

edit 14:35, Nov 28: NSG head: Both terrorists at the Oberoi/Trident have been killed. Oberoi/Trident under army control.

Pranab Mukherjee, External Affairs Minister: Elements from Pakistan responsible for Mumbai Terror Attack. Proof cannot be disclosed. New Delhi is expected to take this up with Islamabad. The mobile phone captured from the terrorist indicates calls from Karachi. via TimesNow.

edit 11:10, Nov 28: Excerpts from the press interview by Lt. Gen. Thamburaj: One terrorist is moving between two floors of the Taj Heritage building- has shut off electricity to the Dance floor, two terrorists killed yesterday evening in a firefight, almost all the guests and staff have been evacuated. Possible that this this terrorist has 2 or more hostages, or that there may be 2 terrorists. Some of the hotel guests may have locked themselves in. We’re not blowing opening the doors even after having identified ourselves, for their own safety. The NSG commandos have suffered some casualties. I’m not in a position to elaborate on the casualties (fatal or nonfatal). Operations had to be deliberate and slow as the lives of the hostages were at risk. Don’t want to suffer casualties because of a hurry. Cooperation from the Police, Air Force and Navy. First people to respond were the MarCos- Marine Commandos. Able to put together an ad hoc Crisis Management Center, coordinated by Gen. Sisodiya and Gen. Hooda. Media role commendable. Should be able to wrap up things in a few hours

It’s been about 8 20 24 35 odd hours (as of this post) since a huge siege of Mumbai began, with gunmen ripping through several iconic targets in the heart of the city. Details are sketchy coming out right now, but from what I’ve been able to gather from several news sources (primarily the CNN-IBN and NDTV news channels), the sites that have been hit are:

The Taj Mahal Palace and Tower (Persistent shootings, grenade (and possibly RDX) explosions, fires on a number of floors and a hostage situation)

The Oberoi/Trident Hotel (Shootings, explosions, fire and hostage situation)

Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus/Victoria Terminal (The final Train station/headquarters of the Central and Harbour railway lines in Mumbai)(Shootings, explosions)

Nariman House (a Chabad house owned by Chabad Lubavitch an orthodox Jewish movement) (Persistent shootings, explosions, hostage situation)

Cama Hospital (Hostage situation, gun-shots)

Petrol Pump in South Mumbai (Grenade explosion)

Leopold Cafe (Heavy gunshots)

Metro Cinema (Shootings from carjacked police jeep)

South Mumbai Police Headquarters (Shootings)

Vile Parle (Explosion in car)

Mazgaon Docks (Explosion)

Several other possible situations were reported at a number of locations like Napean Sea Road, Borivali and Santa Cruz. As of the final edit, these situations have not been substantiated, but are widely believed to have been rumours.

More than 80 125 160 individuals were reported to have been killed, and over 250 327 injured. ATS Chief Hemant Karkare, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar and ACP of Police, Ashok Kamte were reported to have been killed, along with several other high ranking policemen. NSG personnel are reported to have been killed as well.

A terrorist outfit called the Deccan Mujahideen is reported to have claimed responsibility. edit: “Intercepts show terrorists speaking in Punjabi,” GoC- Army, via NDTV

Westerners, primarily Americans and Britishers are said to have been the primary targets during this siege. They were apparently rounded up from their rooms at the hotels listed above and held hostage. The status of the hostage situation, as of this post is not yet known.

The terrorists have had hijacked a police vehicle and one or more civilian vehicles and have not been apprehended yet. Indiscriminate firing was reported from these vehicles.

Some important contact details: via Pinstorm’s guide, Mumbai Help, Mumbai Police and Twitter

Hospitals:

St. George Hospital: (022) 22820242
J J Hospital: (022) 23735555,
Bombay Hospital: (022) 22067676 extn 216
K.E.M.Hospital: (022) 24137517
G.T. Hospital: (022) 22630553

Blood Donations:

J J Hospital Blood Bank: (022) 23739400
Cama Hospital Blood Bank : 022) 22611648
St. George Hospital Blood Bank: (022) 22620344, 22620242

For Foreigners:

Canadians:
Foreign Affairs: 1-613-996-8885 from Canada, 1-800-387-3124 from elsewhere

USA:
Help line number US: State Department number” 888.407.4747 Foreign Affairs: 1-613-996-8885

United Kingdom:
Forgeign Office Emergency Telephone Number – 0207 00 800 00.

Brazilians:
Brazilian help line +919820686143 (C)

Australians:
In Mumbai1800 002 214
International +61 2 6261 3305

France, Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Ministère des affaires étrangères
+ 33 (0) 1 45 55 80 00

Nationals of all European Union countries who need assistance in Mumbai can go to the consulate of any of the 27 Member States to receive assistance, announced European ministers in Brussels. (via Briskette’s comment below. Original source here)

Other embassies and consulates in India: http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-in/India

Hotel Helplines (via Twitter):

Taj Hotel: 1800-111-825
(022) 66574322
(022) 66574372
(022) 6665 3366

Trident Hotel: (022) 23890606 (20), 1800 11 2122, International numbers

Oberoi Hotel: (022) 23890606, (022) 23890505

Other Helplines:

Police Control Room: 100
Fire Brigade Control Room: 101
Railway Police Control Room: (022) 23081725, (022) 23007476
Naval Control Room (022) 22663030
Intelligency Bureau Control Room (022) 26522631, (022)26520055

Some thoughts:

One of the most interesting things to note has been the speed at which information has been spread using social media sites, particularly the micro-blogging site, Twitter. You can find my updates here: http://twitter.com/sengupta. Updates on Twitter appeared over an hour before it CNN began covering it. More thoughts on this later.

Useful Links:

Lists of dead and injured (scroll down to find a sortable list embedded in this page). Final Edit: Please note that this list is the one that was initially posted by n to Mumbai Help:

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5

Final Edit: Here are the latest lists of deceased and injured.

To find what people are currently saying about the issue, this might be a good place to begin: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=mumbai

Another useful source of information might be: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/26_November_2008_Mumbai_attacks

Pictures from the site: http://flickr.com/photos/vinu

Arun Shanbag has been posting pictures as well: http://arunshanbhag.com/2008/11/26/mumbai-blasts-taj-is-burning/

Map of attack sites (via Wikipedia):

Sortable list of dead and injured:(via Mumbai Help)

List of evacuees from the Trident/Oberoi (via CNN-IBN)

Please feel free to add details and make corrections in the comments section.

First they ignore you…

Aditya Sengupta — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:22:28 +0000

I was reading this article over at Slashdot about Chandrayaan-1, India’s moon mission which is scheduled to be launched next month. I was going through the comments when I came across a familiar one-

First they ignore you…

then they laugh at you…

then they fight you …

then you win …

This is a very famous quote attributed to Mohandas Gandhi. I first came across this quote in a Red Hat presentation I attended a while ago. They started off with this video, something that’s stuck with me for a while now-

(If you’re reading this in a feed aggregator, you might need to click through to read be able to see the video)

WTF Picture of the day

Aditya Sengupta — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 15:11:23 +0000

This is a picture I captured on a train a while ago. My apologies for the fuzziness. For the benefit of those who don’t understand what’s on the poster, it says, “The cure to Cancer/Aids now exists”. An Ayurvedic Hospital called “Lavanya Kayakalap Anushandhan Kendra” purports to have the cure to cancer and AIDS. Funny I didn’t catch that in the news lately. They even have a website for your benefit.

“I Tried Everything…”

Aditya Sengupta — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:01:55 +0000

…said Federer, ” But look, Rafa’s a deserving champion”

Still magnanimous after his defeat in a match that ended in near darkness 7 hours, 15 minutes after it began (4 hours, 48 minutes of play) after having been interrupted twice due to the rain in what’s been called the greatest match ever seen. And when it’s coming from John McEnroe, that’s saying something.

I’ve never been a huge fan of tennis, nor has the game been one I’ve ardently followed, but about halfway through the match I knew I was watching history in the making. And boy was I right!

From The Telegraph:

Tennis fans caused a massive surge in electricity demand after Nadal took the Wimbledon title because they were glued to their seats during the epic match.

A 1,400 megawatt spike – equivalent to 550,000 kettles being boiled – was recorded at around 9.20pm, as the Spaniard lifted the trophy. The surge shows millions watched the match.

National Grid spokeswoman Isobel Rowley said the surge was huge because fans were so transfixed by the tennis, they could not move from the sofa to switch the lights on until the end.

If you missed it, I strongly suggest you catch a rerun. Here are some highlights (one of my favourite points is played between 3:19 and 3:46)

Did you know: Rafael Nadal’s been blogging about Wimbledon? Wish I’d known about this sooner. Although he admits in his final post that writing is not his strong suit:

My job is not to write but to play tennis and that’s what I do better. Definitely writing is not my best thing. I suppose you noticed it.

[The link comes via GAS and is mentioned on the Sports Journalists' Association site so I have good reason to believe it's authentic.]

If you do decide to check out the blog, do not forget to read the Questions for Rafa series. Some responses are hilarious.

BEST TV

Aditya Sengupta — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 20:19:57 +0000

I’m back!

Here’s an interesting thing I saw today. Something I didn’t know about although it has apparently been in the works for over a year now.

The other day, it was late in the evening and I was heading home from college. I was really tired that day and I knew trains would be really crowded at that time. I thought of taking a bus home when voilà- there it was- a tantalizingly empty bus that would take me right home. I decided to take the bus- not an easy choice mind you. A 40 minute train journey home translates to a 2 hour bus ride.

I noticed them as soon as I sat down. 2 TV screens at the front of the bus. Small but nice. And probably quite expensive- LCD TVs:

(click through and mouse over the photographs in my flickrstream)

These TVs primarily show advertisements- for current movies mostly. There were also intermittent messages about various routes that the buses ply on- these were too rapid to read and generally pointless.

The TVs are hooked up to the Wadala bus depot and are used primarily in buses that are on longer routes. Which explains why I’ve haven’t encountered them earlier even though I take about 3-4 buses daily- all on short routes.

Another thing I noticed was the presence of CCTV cameras at entrance and exit. The TV screens and CCTV cameras have both been installed by a company called EMNET. The bus operator, BEST intends to earn some revenue out of this arrangement. BEST is pretty ambitious about this project:

“All buses will be equipped with LCD display screens. Commuters will have the choice of viewing anything, right from news, music videos, advertisements to even cricket matches,” said Uttam Khobragade, general manager, BEST. The administration has targeted to install these systems in all of its 3,350 buses by late 2007.

What do you think?

K9 Express (part 2): Encounter of the first kind

Aditya Sengupta — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 19:18:29 +0000

A fair bit has been said in jest about animals that roam the halls of engineering colleges in Bombay. Here is proof. From my own class. No kidding. This dog strolls in during a lecture and decides to take a bit of a nap.

Well, the dog wasn’t alone. These guys didn’t mind taking 40 winks themselves:

Methinks this does not bode well for the professor. To be fair, it was the fag end of a very long day

Mumbai Local: K9 Express

Aditya Sengupta — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 21:47:58 +0000

I almost forgot about this one. I uploaded this a while back on to Flickr, promising myself that I’d put it up in a blog post once I had gotten comfortable with the whole blogging ordeal. Here it is:

I took this photograph a couple of months ago. A dog entered the train I was in. As soon as the train started moving, the dog tried to get off. It seemed to think better of it though. It did however, stay near the door all the way. It got off two stations later. This was one trip not a lot of were going to forget in a hurry.

P.S. Notice the oddly rigid cop to the left. Here is another picture where you can see the cop better.

Drive by Fire

Aditya Sengupta — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 15:55:29 +0000

Have you ever thought what would happen if the car you’re in was struck by lightning. Find out for yourselves by watching this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve6XGKZxYxA

(Double-click on the video. This video is not embedded)

Now the presenter (Richard Hammond) says that the reason the lightning does not affect the occupants of the vehicle is that the vehicle acts as a Faraday cage. Now, I remember from what I read in a physics book a couple of years ago that a Faraday cage was mentioned in a chapter on Electrostatics. Quite simply explained, the extra charges that build up on the surface of a metallic cage redistribute themselves so that they are positioned the furthest distance apart from each other (Like charges repel).

Now lightning is a dynamic phenomenon, unlike the buildup of electric charge on the surface of a metallic cage. So do the same rules apply here?

Some don’t seem to think so. I looked it up online. They claim it’s because of something called the skin effect. The skin effect is a property that describes the behaviour of time variant currents flowing through metals.

So the jury is still out on this one. If you would like to add something here, please feel free to post comments.

By the way, here is a site that deals with vehicles and lightning. Check it out.

For those who are still confused about the title of this post, well, it’s a play on the technology term, “Drive by Wire“.

Video: YouTube’s most viewed video

Aditya Sengupta — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 15:14:25 +0000

This is the most viewed video on YouTube. It’s titled “The Evolution of Dance”. The performer is a guy called Judson Laipply. A must watch.If you grew up in the 70s and 80s, you’ll have a blast with this.

This is the guy’s website.

The “New” Seven Wonders

Aditya Sengupta — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 17:19:47 +0000

Picture from Wikipedia

Here is a really interesting post by Raghav Ohri about the whole “New Seven Wonders” campaign. I wanted to write about this campaign, but this post is way better than what I had in mind, and is better articulated. My views on the matter would simply echo the opinions expressed here.

Having said that, there are a few things I’d like to point out.

1. It’s surprising how energetically the “mainstream” media supported this initiative with flashy messages exhorting people to vote for the Taj. Even the news channels, the ones who are *supposed* to be impartial!

2. With all the coverage given to the New Seven Wonders project, all talk about revenue sharing agreements, broadcasting rights sales and the fact that the UNESCO’s World Heritage programme is not involved was very conveniently omitted from the discussion, if you can call it that.

3. The folks at UNESCO are the ones who actually support the various heritage sites with the funds they collect. I don’t quite remember a single advert mentioning what the NWOC (New Open World Corporation, the Swiss company that is administering this poll) was going to do with all the money it’s going to collect. For that matter, I don’t remember a single news channel here point that out either.

4. The NWOC does not HAVE to use your votes. See this.

All said and done, its your money, message away!

Aamchi Panipuri

Aditya Sengupta — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 21:43:26 +0000

Here is an interesting presentation I came across online about pani puris… Yup, someone’s made a presentation on the humble pani puri. Here is the site, or alternatively check out the embed:

| View | Upload your own

For the uninitiated, here’s what Wikipedia says about pani puris:

Panipuri is a popular street snack in India. It comprises of a round, hollow “puri”, fried crisp and filled with a watery mixture of tamarind, chilli and potato. The name panipuri literally means “water in fried bread”. Pani is a Hindi word for water and puri (or poori) is an Indian bread that is made by frying dough in oil. It is known as puchka in West Bengal and Bangladesh. Since the bread is served with special spiced water, it is known as pani poori; it is also known as gol gappa.