Jun 10 2013

Why Facebook is Nothing But the art of Showing Off!!

Welcome to Facebook. How would you like to entertain us today? Uh! May be you could show us what you cooked for dinner yet again and how artistically you had plated the broken cookie? Or wait, you could also tell us what gift your henpecked boy-friend gave you for your 3 months together anniversary? But no, that would be too main-stream, so why don’t you just flood my news feed with your political rants or social endeavors?

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That is exactly what Facebook has come down to these days. Originally the idea was to create a social networking portal, to help people connect not only in terms of instant messaging but to get a closer view of how life is going for them- updates, pictures, songs. An Amercian version of Orkut, as many would like to place it. However come the year 2009 and this networking portal went viral, from What’s your number to What’s your Facebook Account, the one liner is probably the most frequently used all over the world today, except for some, for instance China and Pakistan, the countries having banned the networking site. But then that is a parallel universe all together.

Standing in the year 2013, the whole purpose of having a Facebook Account has undergone a paradigm shift. From a portal to connect, it has been converted into pages of a personal diary. Researches show, that a casual analysis of one’s Facebook page in terms of the status updates, kinds of music listened to or pages or posts liked by an individual can give enormous amounts of insight into one’s personality. For instance there are the crazy attention seekers who would update every tiny details of their life for waking up to brushing to eating and all ancillary process involved therein, then there are the obsessed who cannot live without updating their profile pictures or albums every 10 seconds. We obviously have the gold-diggers flaunting their expensive euro tours or bragging about their achievements almost always and then we have the taggers, who would tag you into everything from photos of their pets to lovery dovey status messages. In a word, in the virtual world of Facebook, everybody is a celebrity, providing tits and bits of paparazzi gossip.

However, the irony involved in this entire madness, is though we hate every bit of this live ‘life-reporting’, and it’s the same people creating the same hula-hoop everyday, we are just hitched. We would still log into the website every five minutes, scroll over the updates for the millionth time and pass a smirk or shake our head madly over some lover-tiff or public display of affection. It is not heap or acceptable unless it’s on fb. Parties have now been restricted to RSVP’s over the portal, Be it getting a new job or having a new born, it’s all there out for the world to see, to judge and to have an opinion on.

Alas! Amidst this show off and publicity stunts, the innocence and the beauty of facial expressions and emotions, has just been constricted to web smileys. The virtual and socially acceptable masks with their highs and lies has managed to wipe of the real faces of people, calls for an insightful “update” maybe?

May 27 2013

How Spot-Fixing Has Overshadowed Cricket’s Ethics and Standard

Is Cricket Really a Religion?

Sports is as much as Religion to many across the world, both the ideologies creating the same adrenaline rush and being the driving force behind the lives of many, though the former is a bit more gender specific. Among the diverse nations, the nature of sport which pulls the crowd may be different- for Western Countries it is mostly football or rugby as the case may be, moving towards the Asian Continent we find Cricket being the primal sport that covers the big screen.

Apart from the physical finesse and fame paparazzi that outline the sports industry in the globalized era, another major zing is added by the capital generating from the same- or in other words be it playing on the field or off the field, it is the new money making machine. Thus what started off as an innocent strike to strive at one’s passion has now been converted into a mere profession.

IPL-Fixed

The Ills and The Errors: How it Works?

Speaking of profession, most of them are governed by specific contractual obligations and rendering of services, the same would also be the standard form of any sports contract. However the concept of wager is to be kept in mind, wherein no contract can be made for a consideration wherein the subject matter is contingent or based on uncontrollable events, thus where a contract is made based on such acts of contingency, they are in the nature of wagering contracts and legally are termed as void ab initio as in the effect of the same would be null and void. Thus in a sports contract, the consideration extended to a particular sports person is not on terms speculating his payment only on hitting ‘n’ number of fours or sixes in a cricket match or successfully scoring two goals or home runs in a football or base-ball match respectively. Such consideration or payment of salary is extended on the term for which they would be playing representing a nation or team locally, nationally or internationally as the case may be or the number of games for which they have been hired.

Thus, where a contract verbally or in writing is formulated between a sports person and another, for consideration in respect of fixing any events in a sports match, for instance be it delivering certain amount of wide or no balls, or getting ‘stumped or run out’ at a particular juncture of a cricket game, the same not only renders such contract to be in the nature of wager but everybody involved is liable for an illegal conduct otherwise known as ‘Spot-Fixing’ which is punishable with appropriate sanctions. The reason why such conduct is classified as illegal can be attributed to the fact, that not only is it against the public policy but on a larger scale it hinders the spirits and detriments and undermines the talent and passion for any specific sport or sports person.

What Does Spot-Fixing Involves?

The bane of spot fixing and the phenomenal racket involved within was not known to the world at large till the Indian Premiere League in its 5th season primarily exposed the severity and the niche that this form of illegal betting has created for itself. Though the term may appear similar to match fixing, however there are fundamental differences between the two, wherein match-fixing is wager based on the outcome of the match, it is generally in relation to win or loss and anything that is incidental mainly the fall of wickets, however spot-fixing involves wager as to minute particulars of a match such as deliveries of balls as a wide ball or a no-ball and alike, which thereby makes spot fixing more difficult to trace. Thus in a word, it can be stated that match fixing otherwise involves fixing of matches, where spot fixing involves fixing of specific spots of a game. People involved in such affairs are referred to as ‘bookie’, and needless to say that they are often people of high designations who are associated with the teams involved in the matches spotted.

Bookies: The Third Umpire in Spot-Fixing

Prima facie the only boon that such spot fixing can be said to create is only for the bookie and the players involved with such fixing, since a single act or conduct yields abnormal and indecent amount of money in favour of both of them, for instance a no-ball at the most crucial stage of the match may call for a scripted excitement in a match, which in turn would hike the television rate percentage of the channel which would subsequently call for raise in terms of endorsements and advertisements, hence it is money and more money generation all the way- the bookies are happy, so are the players involved, and so are the broadcasters, however such illicit dealings are bound to have error imprints and misgivings.

A Game of Betting

The most prominent and evident ills of spot-fixing is it being detrimental to the talented individuals who live and swear by their enigma for sports. The zeal that was earlier visible among tiny toddlers to grow up and play for their nations has now in the current state of affairs being evaluated on monetary scales. The far reaching effects of spot fixing is that the personnel’s involved in the misdeed would politically in the future annihilate honest players and place their own pawns in the teams, so as to generate more money which in turn would lower the quality of the game, there would be no nurturing of new talents or bringing out the best of game in individuals, rather even sports like any other industry would turn into a business sector involving profit margins and board room reports.

The worst affected in this tussle are those who grew up to play, for whom sports were never a mode of entertainment, who never seeked to chase the glitz but people who took sports to be an essential part of character building- the Sportsman with his sportsman spirit of taking a game as it comes, playing it with every stroke, winning or losing, but giving competition a meaning in its truest sense of the term.

Apr 26 2013

Why Rose Valley Can Be Bengal’s Next Big Investment Fraud?

The chit fund scam of Saradha group of industries has raised thousands of Bengal’s investors who have invested their money on similar budding companies of Bengal from slumber. They have started queuing in front of the offices of such promising companies for liquidating their chit fund investments before maturity. However, the investors have been denied cash payment. Instead, they were given written assurance that their hard earned money is in safe hands and will be given back to them in due course of time, thereby causing the investors to lose their faith on such companies.

Sudipta Sen, CMD of Saradha Group

Rose Valley is one of the top five companies of Bengal that is under the strict scan of SEBI or the Securities and Exchange Board of India for similar cause as that of Saradha group. As a matter of fact, Rose Valley’s stakes in West Bengal is about four times more than that of Saradha group and if the assumptions of the market regulating board of India, SEBI turns out to be true, then Bengal’s economy as a whole will be hard hit. It will result in robbing off the savings of millions of hard working and innocent investors of Bengal.

SEBI has confirmed the fact that Rose Valley controls two investment companies under its banner and these two investment firms have collected as much as INR 4000 crores from investors all around Bengal. Though SEBI had issued preventive order against Rose Valley in 2011, but this organization has contested such restrictions on court and used different kinds of delaying tricks to stop SEBI from further investigation and in the meantime it has continued with its campaign of raising more investment from depositors. According to the investigators of SEBI, the real estate and construction division of Rose Valley could raise as much as 1270 crores from the market, whereas its entertainment and hotels division raised about 2900 crores.

In the month of March 2013, SEBI had even penalized Rose Valley with a penalty of 1 crore and filed an FIR against its officials due to their illegal practices. It had been probing about the fraud chit fund schemes going on in West Bengal for quite some time. As the market regulating body was aware of such fraud practices going on in the state, it has been persistently caveating the general public as well as the state government about the fraud schemes of the multi-functional business houses of Bengal through different media like newspaper advertisements and requesting the investors to take informed decision with their hard earned money.

The Chief Minister was also notified by SEBI about the fraudulent chit fund scheme going on in the state about two months back. However, she has not informed the media about the organization that was practicing it.

Rose Valley is under the scanner of the regulatory board right now and if the hypotheses of the authorities of the SEBI turn out to be true, then millions of Bengal’s investors are going to suffer. The investors have already started showing their discontentment by ransacking Rose Valley’s office in Kolkata yesterday. The who’s who of the organization has requested the investors to keep faith in them through an advertisement in the newspaper. However, report of the market regulating body is compelling the investors to lose their cool.

Jan 10 2013

Why you should be a Clever Thief while Stealing Inspirations

Introduction

It is easy to stand tall by perching on the shoulders of giants. Or being inspired by them, if put politely. A classic can be safely plagiarized since the concept of that classic has been known to all for a long period of time. In such cases, imitation is the greatest form of flattery, and it usually adds to the fame of the author. Shakespeare for example is still being interpreted in both his original and fit-to-suit-modern audience forms, and such a creation is critically and legally blameless. Copying from a recent work that is of some note however is a different proposition altogether.

stealing inspirations

Success generates followers. A popular idea however recent is emulated, lauded and parodied in original and translation, and is usually received with favor. Artists are requested by the audience to sing that particular song, play that precise shot, write that specific line or dance that particular dance and generally not frowned up on. A work of creation belongs to the creator. His is the concept, the process, the toil and the love that forms an original work. If made for commercial purposes, the idea is bought or leased by a broadcasting company or manufacturing agency and mass produced. The aim is to earn profit, and a section of the gain is due to the creator in the form of royalty or price. An imitation of that work brings the profit to the imitator and thus is a loss of the creator.

What is designing inspirations?

Design is an idea prior to being made flesh. It is a structure of word figure and paper that awaits its making in the real world with cloth, concrete, metal by technicians or engineers or tailors. In case of architecture clever stealing is recognized and acknowledged. The architecture of the Kolkata High Court is a transplantation of the Hall of the Cloth guild in the Belgia town of Ypres. The Taj Mahal is an updated and more sublime version of humayun’s tomb, Rushmore Mountain is a gigantic version of the Baniyan Buddha and the Chicago Sears Tower was successfully copied in the erstwhile World Trade Centre.

Stealing music designing inspirations

In the music industry clever stealing is an open unethical but rarely take action against practice. Commercial Bollywood Movies, for example are famous for their adaptation of foreign music into desi words and faster rhythms. Such songs are generally hits, such as Disco Dancer, Jawani Jaaneman, Pal Pal Har Pal and Jaane Koi. The inspiration is commonly acknowledged if not broadcast by the composer and the entire business is successful to the benefit of all except the original composer.

A band playing at a high school prom will not be castigated for playing Iron Maidens “Dance of Death” but encouraged. But if the band decides to alter the lyrics of the song, keep the tune and market the result commercially, plagiarism will occur. The intellectual right of Iron Maiden would be infringed, protested against, taken to court and penalized. If on the other hand the band decided to amalgamate the aria of “The End” by The doors, the rhythm of “Jesus of Suburbia” and the sentiment of “Fear of the Dark” and manage ot put a credible lyric version of it, it becomes a case of clever stealing.

In the case of apparel manufacture the original design cannot be successfully copied in mass quantity and marketed globally without copies being made by retail boutiques, using less expensive material and charging lower prices. Therefore the original designer or manufacturer creates the aura of exclusivity and uniqueness and relies on the brand consciousness and brand loyalty of the customer.

In the case of weapon design the practice is highly popular, as also in the manufacture of heavy machinery and construction of factories. The INSAS is an updated version of the Belgian FN FAL, the AK 47 has been copied in and out of license by Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and other erstwhile USSR countries. The original design of the bull dozer is now common property, the construction of an escalator public knowledge and the design of the crucible in steel factories a universal common. The layout of a petrochemical plant is according the laws of Physics and Commerce, the structure of a coal mine dependent on geology of terrain and the construction of a hydroelectric power project an engineering initiative where accurate reproduction is not frowned upon.

So we see that you need to be intelligent while stealing designing inspirations so that your design is unique and better than the rest.