While more than enough has been written and read about Mohali mauling and the Team India is away on a Diwali holiday, let us see what is happening in other parts of sports world.

Anand, coming into the tournament from a bad form (his Elo rating plunged to 10 years lowest and he moved out of Top-3 in world rankings) is almost certain to retain his World Championship title, enjoying a comfortable lead of 4.5-1.5 over Kramnik, going into seventh game of twelve.

And this news is more interesting - Chance of doping and doping tests in Chess, I never thought about it! Testing 'seconds' is hilarious.

In some other part, in Madrid Masters, Federer lost to Andy Murray; of course, these days Federer loss is not a surprise news; at least not as big as Australia's. Australian cricket team would surely reach similar stage in quick time.

Satkaarya - A 100 can make a difference

I am one of those thousands of IT engineers in India, who have an image in people as those spoiled brats of the society that earn thousands per month easily and live a luxurious life spending a major part of the weekends in malls and multiplexes, pubs and parties. Though I cannot deny the reality that most of the IT junta, do exactly this, there is another side to the coin.

There are people, who have come from a middle class or lower, who know the value of money, who know the realities of life. They want to do something to the society, but rarely make a start due to various reasons. They do not know where to start, they are wary of time and money to be spent. They try to satisfy themselves contributing one day salary to some relief fund or foundation maintained by the company.

While I was in one of such swinging pendulum mood, an event happened in my life opening more questions in my mind. As thoughts were going in all directions, I received this mail from my friend Maheedhar – with the idea of forming a group and collating Rs. 100 each every month and using the fund for a good cause. Like small drops make an ocean, Rs. 100 by each one in a small group can make some decent amount over a few months with some members contributing more than Rs. 100 with open minds. The idea grew stronger and to do things in an organized manner, we formed a registered society, SATKAARYA FOUNDATION.

If you are one of those who want to contribute to the society and are from Hyderabad, here is one of the ways – you can join our group of young IT engineers who think on the same lines. If you are interested, you can either put a comment here or on http://helpmanywith100.blogspot.com/ or can join our Yahoo group - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SAATKAARYA/

Remember, there are meaningful ways of spending Rs. 100 than on a flop movie in multiplex, weekend beers or a few packs of cigarette.

Thanks,
JB

Your Attention Please!

Your Attention Please!

No, there is no special announcement from my side. Neither am I trying to get some attention as this is my post after 10 weeks. No, I may be trying to seek some attention. I may be one of those attention seekers.

This point has been in my mind for some months now, but could not blog due to various reasons – to give the most routine answer – lack of time. But, the real reason was that I could not find the right term for this pattern or characteristic of the group called bloggers. Now I found it: Attention Seekers.

I feel that most of the bloggers blog because they seek some attention, especially from similar minded people. They want to showcase their talent in one or more fields – literature, poetry, photography, movie-making, mathematics, something else. Though most of our class, the bloggers, do not accept, I think this is true with a majority - of course, it would be not the only one, but one of the reasons, with a lower priority (like of me). Though we dump whatever we like, we cannot resist refreshing the page to see new comments (yes, we want people to read what we write unless we create the blog with sole purpose of cribbing, grumbling and whining).
We want people to read the blogs. We keep external blog link in the corporate blog, wordpress link on blogger page, photo blog link on tech blog – I even have it appended to my email signature.

I got this "Attention Seekers" term from an article published in Monday, 13th October 2008 Bangalore edition of Metro Plus, THE HINDU.

An excerpt from the article –
Computer Science teacher Sneha Raul begs to differ. "It is understandable to upload if it is a part of your job or if you have nothing else to do. People could claim to be service-minded, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. I personally feel people who do it are addicted to uploading information or aim at getting attention."Now that the blogging mania has taken off big time, regular bloggers, especially those whose blogs are only about their personal lives, from love-sick poems to what they want engraved on their epitaph, are also looked at as attention seekers.

But, I disagree with most of the opinions in that article. People on You Tube and such entertainment forums may be attentions seekers, I believe there are bloggers who use this powerful blogging medium effectively – especially the citizen journalists, the techies, the financial bloggers, people giving solutions to common technical problems in day-to-day life.

Of course, I have my own reasons, bigger than this, but including ‘attention seeking’ for blogging.