Infinite thoughts

Songs have a huge role in our life. In childhood, the primary source of songs was Radio. It slowly expanded to TV, then dedicated music channels. Somewhere in between or in parallel to Radio and Television, there existed the parallel world of Cassettes (and then later CDs) which served the audience. Since then, we have evolved to on-demand, yet unlimited songs. Each of these phases has/had some peculiarities of its own.  When I was a regular listener of the radio, there was only a handful of channels - probably two or three. One channel was primarily for music where Hindi songs were dominant and the other was for general. I think they were named “ विविधभारती ”, “आकाशवाणी अ” and  “आकाशवाणी ब” etc. The beauty of the songs on the radio channel was the surprise element - you could get to listen to a song of your liking which would lift your mood automatically.  The television channels, specifically those dedicated to music stole the limelight that radio was enjoying. However,...

I am not that person who doesn’t believe in celebrating these days. I appreciate the fact that the western culture has carved out days to celebrate these special relations. In routine life, we forget about the power of gratitude; we forget to dedicate time to nurture the relationship; we may tend to start taking things for granted. Such days allow you to rethink your acts, give some time to that relation and overall improve the happiness quotient of people around you and people who matter to you.  I feel fortunate to be part of the internet revolution, specially last 10 years or so. I was part of Giftease for a good part of last decade, where it was our job to find out ways to coax the customers to send out gifts. This was the time when I really started following the “gifting calendar” per se. I was introduced to numerous occasions including women’s day, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, entire valentine’s week, sibling day, daughter’s day and what not. I, automatically, started sending ...

As the internet penetration increased over the last 2 decades, it also gave rise to digital subscriptions. The internet users slowly started developing trust in internet-based payments and that too on recurring payments. It probably started with the tech community using the recurring payment systems and slowly spreading that faith to non-tech-savvy users. There was also a phase when I started using the credit card for online transactions but wasn't comfortable storing the card details with the merchant. I used to enter the details every single time. (That is how I still remember the CC number that was in use at that time) In the late 2000's I was introduced to Ecom website development and since then it has been part of my professional as well as personal life. Over the years, I learned about the  PCI-DSS standard , and the extent to which the Ecom companies make an effort to protect consumer data. There have been instances of a data breach across the globe, but alon...

  Watching a dubbed movie is not exactly a choice for us as a family. I have been doing it occasionally, had watched some movies on Sony some time back. In recent past, it was “ Wild Dog ” starring Nagarjuna and Diya Mirza. Typically the plots are better in the South Indian movies, is what my observation is or I have been extremely lucky to have watched movies having a better plot. Meghana is not that inclined to watch such movies as watching a dubbed movie/series is a incoherent experience - lip movements and the audio create a feeling that something is wrong and then you can’t focus on movie or story. The songs are usually the worst of the lot as they are typically “प्राची ला गच्ची जुळवणे”. Mrunmay wasn’t a big fan either. He may have watched some while around me. In his recent trip to Bengaluru, his cousin took him to a movie - RRR . And since then Mrunmay has been only talking about the movie and the songs only. He must have listened to the song “ Nattu Nattu ” - maybe - a thou...

  It has been a while now since digital payments in India have become more mainstream. Although digital payment options were available to Indian consumers for a long time, the real growth happened after the demonetization in late 2016. PayTM jumped on the opportunity and benefited to a large extent as they already had the network, the infrastructure and marketing muscle to materialize the digital push. However, there were other players as well - MobiQuick wallet, PhonePe, GPay etc.  Another great enabler was the Indian invention called UPI by NPCI - Unified Payments Interface. Although the UPI was launched before the demonetization (Apr 2016), it wasn't understood enough by the masses. I remember an incident when I had tried convincing my vegetable vendor to accept UPI payment instead of insisting on cash. He was absolutely unsure and reluctant.  Fast Forward to 2022. The UPI payments are ubiquitous. Every nook and corner accepts the UPI payments. In fact, a person like ...

 “Empty can वापस आने दो !!” A man was shouting on the megaphone. A couple of hundred people had formed 2-3 different human chains in various directions and the cans filled with water were getting passed along. The crowd had kids from age 6 to adults who are approaching their second childhood. The occasion was the community event organized by my son’s school - “ DLRC - DriveChange Learning And Resource Center ”. As the normal school opened this week, the school jumped on to the opportunity to take the kids and the parents out to an outing, but with a purpose - Tree plantation and watering the plants on the hill. “Vasundhara Abhiyan” is an ENGO (Environment NGO) working towards tree plantation and conservation. The Baner chapter has started work on Tukai Hill and has planted more that 25000 native plants. With the help of volunteers from this ENGO, DLRC planned the community event to contribute to this noble cause. And hundreds of us reached the base of the hill at 6:30 in the morni...