Social Tweet served Indian style!

Facebook, Orkut and Twitter were probably designed to keep people connected across the world. It created a virtual world where people thought they could Like, Poke &  Follow people. Well, almost. But we can't really do much without Indianizing everything we get our hands on. Mc Chicken burger has a little brother named Mc Aloo Tikki and Subway sandwiches have fillings of Chicken Tikka. 

So while orkut came up with background themes for occasions like Diwali and Holi, all of these social networking sites had an option to access them in Hindi. While surfing one of the days I came across a blog, that glued me on to it. This blogger by the name of Krisha Ashok in one of his blog entry talks about Indianizing the 'Like' button in facebook. His writing hilariously takes you through the various possibility that the Indians will create even in a simple social networking site like Facebook. Even more interesting is that the buttons would have the possibility of exceptions. Eg: I like the picture but not the caption, or I like but don't get the wrong idea. 

I do agree we like to modify the things our way, but that is probably how we make it acceptable to the masses here. I guess every city in the world has a trade mark, we as Indians may have just found ours!

The Scam Sham

Scam scam here and there, not a country to live? This is the thing about the people here, we not only like to blow things out of proportion, but we like to stick to the theme. Like this time the theme is scams. The article by Swapan Dasgupta in the editorial column of the Times of India, talks about the same subject. The 2G spectrum scam and the involvement of various industrialists like Ratan Tata, along with lobbyist Niira Radia has led to the worry of those who are the citizens of the nation. The politicians have always been known to be corrupt the latest example being the Commonwealth scam and the Adarsh housing scam. But the involvement of the corporate world with the policy makers has been a blow to those had hope in the capitalist setup.

A very known journalist, Swapan Dasgupta writes how in the midst of all these scams we only see the negative side and how to thrash all the people involved. He talks about all these areas where faults exists, but how we as the citizens of India have to channel the anger in the right direction instead of maintaining a stagnant picture. In all honesty, I see that as the truth, except it is much easier said than done. The first step as he says is to channelize the energies in the right direction, but which side is the right direction, is yet to be known. I really like his thoughts in to words in the following lines :

"Instead of fighting the cancer, a lynch mob has, however, set its sights on mocking the famous, destroying reputations and creating a mood viciously hostile to entrepreneurship — the force that propelled India’s growth story. "

Corruption indeed, is no less than a form of cancer plaguing our society. It surfaces with various names and faces and keeps us occupied in trying to figure out which disease is it. Instead of treating it like a disease and looking for the cure, we choose to first find where it came from than how to deal with it. The question yet again comes back to us, ' If we the people make the government, then why don't we have the courage to face the repercussions of our decisions?' The answers lie within us, only we choose to let them be dormant.

Top 5 Scams in India

1. 2 G Spectrum Scam 

           2. Commonwealth Games Scam

  

           3. Telgi Scam

        4. Satyam Scam

 

       5. Bofors Scam

It is amazing indeed that the country has so much of money to fill the pockets of such frauds!