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Interview with Shakthi Vadakeypat aka @v_shakthi

zazo — Mon, 31 May 2010 09:52:33 +0000

Today I am very proud to share an exclusive interview of an exclusive personality I met on twitter, @v_shakthi.

Shakthi Vadakeypat aka v_shakthi on twitter is a Software Engineer with 15 years of professional experience. Hails from Chennai India, He had worked in various positions, from Lab Administrator for a network of Unix Servers to Senior Project Manager (IT Infrastructure).

Shakthi is a twitter junkie; he loves to tweet on social media, technology, humor, internet news, mostly to engage with his friends and his more than 30k followers on Twitter.

I was surprised when I discovered him on twitter some 6 months back and since then I was following his activities, his way of engaging, approaching and the way he made his credibility between the vast numbers of people which is undoubtedly impressive .

This interview is focused on @v_shakthi opinion on social media, his likes, his tweeting secrets and more…

1. Since when you are tweeting and what was your first impression about twitter?

I have been tweeting since Jan 2008. My first impression of twitter was as a time pass tool where I could chat with a lot of people.

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2. What is one best feature of twitter you love and why?

Retweeting (RT) is the best feature of twitter that I love. A single RT increases the visibility of a tweet exponentially and gets you hitherto unimagined visibility and reputation. RT is the most powerful feature of twitter and will always be.

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3. What is one thing which you hate about twitter and why?

Stalkers and Spammers are the bane of twitter. You see , anonymity is allowed on twitter and many people use it as a tool to hurt / ridicule others .They forget that they themselves are hiding behind a veil and launch scathing attacks on people . I have seen this phenomenon make a lot of my good friends even leave twitter for good. We need to do something about this fast. Otherwise twitter will get spoilt soon like Orkut.

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4. This is one most common question being asked by most of the new twitter users “How to increase followers”? What are your tips?

There is no magic formula for getting followed. You just need to tweet sensibly, have a clearly defined twitter strategy, create a trusted ring of friends and tweet things that are contemporary and not trivial. It takes perseverance and a lot of hard work to get followers on twitter. It is all about building trust and relationships. Twitter is about sharing and not selling. Remember that and you will do good!

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5. Would you like to name any top 10 twitter users everyone should follow?

@zaibatsu @cheth @kim @Jason_Pollock @FlipBooks @rM1L @2morrowknight @Lotay @AskAaronLee @RuhaniRabin

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6. You’ve updated more than 80,000 tweets. What are the benefits of twitter?

Twitter has unparalleled benefits in the visibility and reputation that you can build with it. The sheer power of twitter lies in the number of people on it and the volume of information on offer. This power comes with great responsibility and needs to be handled with care. We should take care of what we say and about whom we are saying things. Care also needs to be exercised when expressing opinions about religion or groups. Twitter is like molding clay, in the right hand, it is ART, in the wrong ones…..

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7. What are your favorite twitter applications?

Tweetdeck , Buzzom , TweTool

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8. Twitter is the 10^th top website in India by Alexa (facebook is #4 and orkut.co.in is #7), still, to my personal judgment majority of Indian twitter users don’t find twitter interesting .What do you think about this?

We Indians are brought up in a shell, talking in school is punished and even our schooling discourages communication skill development as a malaise, although we are educated, we are not expressive. That is why you are seeing this trend. We are a much closeted society and we need to come out of the shackles and be expressive. Twitter is just another platform for expression.

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9. What else you do other than tweeting? Any hobbies, likes etc.

Blogging, Writing, poetry. Reading…

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10. Which is your second favorite social media website after twitter?

Facebook

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11. Any real life experience related to twitter which you like to share.

Twitter has been a great boon to me. In times of personal grief and stress, many of my twitter friends have stepped in and helped me out. I am forever indebted to them and twitter for improving my life. I will never forget them and those days of tribulations.

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12. Social Media is a complete new name in Indian web market, what is your take on it. Are we ready to adopt social media in our real life?

No, India is not yet there, if you look at the internet penetration in India, you will understand what I am trying to say, social media is enabled by the internet and our country is lagging behind seriously in internet penetration. The farmer, the teacher, the scientist and the Governor – all need to have internet for social media to click in India.

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13. Would you like to share the day you always remember on twitter?

Every day since Jan 2008 has been memorable for me on twitter.

“Twitter Is My Window To The Web” – Pramit J. Nathan

zazo — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 05:38:02 +0000

Pramit J Nathan is a New Delhi based Marketing Consultant, Trainer, Author and a B-school visiting faculty. Academically, Pramit is an Electronics graduate and Post Graduate in Management. Author of the book titled “Perception Management”, Pramit has a remarkable teaching experience as a B-School visiting faculty and extensive training experience across the Banking and Financial Services Industry.

Pramit is a top Indian non- celebrity twitter user with more than 100k followers (@pramitjnathan), his responsiveness makes him one of the most reliable Social Media professionals on twitter. In this exclusive interview Pramit has disclosed social media success secrets, personal branding methods and has revealed how he became one of the most elite twitter users in a very short span of time.

What are your opinions on the present social media scenario? Is it affecting positively/negatively the traditional media and marketing business?

Web 2.0 (Social Media) has tasted great success just like Web 1.0. Even when e-commerce was the buzzword people talked of ‘Disintermediation’ (online businesses eliminating the middleman) but nothing of that sort happened. What we forget is that any business thrives by the number of people behind it. The traditional media still has the maximum people energy. The second and more important factor that sustains any business is profits and that is where Social Media is found wanting. Social Media platforms may have caught the fancy of people but they have to prove their business potential by sustaining themselves over the longer run.

You are not among the early adopters of social media, what attracted you to join the Social Media arena now?

I may have joined the Web 2.0 phenomenon late due to my personal preoccupations but I was an early adopter of the Web 1.0 and am quite aware of the potential of New Media. It is not about when you adopt but how you adopt that makes a difference. Internet brought computers together; WWW got information (websites) together; Social Media is the third layer of integration and has got people together. I, as a marketer, believe in the power of people and know this for sure that if in the future you want to pursue success you definitely cannot ignore Social Media. Also, if you are people-friendly you are assured of success in social media.

You have been teaching e-business/e-commerce and web technologies & trends for 11 years in a B-School. How was your teaching/training strategy and experience?

I come from a family of Academicians; my parents being PHDs in their respective fields of specialization and I feel teaching / training is in my genes. I had earlier taught subjects related to online business & commerce. But for the last few years I have been teaching Perception Management, Branding and Public Relations. I have also trained extensively across the Banking and Financial Services Industry on diverse functional and behavioral areas. I find teaching / training a highly fulfilling activity and firmly believe that if you want to be known as an expert in any field disseminating knowledge is as important as creating knowledge or applying knowledge.

India is not among the top 10 countries using social media; Japan is the only Asian country which stands 2^nd after USA. Where do India stand or what Indians need to do to come up in this new media age?

Yes if you consider our population, India’s presence on Social Media is very small. Indians are always slightly late to adopt something new and adapt to it, and there are specific cultural reasons for the same:

Anything which doesn’t yield immediate tangible benefits is considered a waste of time.
We adopt new technologies well but are slow to adapt to global trends that accompany it.
We are socially inept with strangers and allow that to become a major weakness.

Indians have to learn fast that in this emerging “global village” people worldwide are meant to communicate, collaborate and cooperate and this getting together has to go beyond just an exchange of words (interaction) to exchange of ideas, knowledge, resources etc. Needless to say this has significant benefits if done right.

Unfortunately, as we had noticed even during the rise of Web 1.0, there are so many Indian consultants and companies positioning themselves as social media experts but none of them have been able to establish themselves as personal or corporate brands globally. Unless India is able to produce mention-worthy global brands in the social media scene we will only be wannabes or also-rans.

There is so much brilliant talent in our country but unfortunately they are happy to engage themselves in providing services to help others succeed rather than find success by creating their own global products (blogs like @Mashable, @Problogger, @ChrisBrogan etc.) or platforms (twitter, facebook etc.) on the social media front.

Please tell us something about your book titled ‘Perception Management’.

My book on Perception Management is an attempt to create a new marketing paradigm. The four P’s of traditional marketing or the 7 P’s of services marketing are not successful in accounting for the critical intangibles that define an entity or determine its fortunes today. These critical intangibles include image, reputation, goodwill, credibility etc. Branding to an extent does touch upon them but more from a top-down approach. My book on Perception management addresses in great detail each of these intangibles predominantly from a bottom-up approach so that the results of any perception management or branding activity can be measured and managed.

In other words the book uses the phrase Perception Management as a successor to Marketing Management in the Knowledge Age and emphasizes how perceptions are the most important asset of any entity and how they need to be managed for sustainable benefits and competitive advantage. It also tries to eliminate the restricted view of the Perception Management today which limits it to either ‘public diplomacy’ or ‘public relations’.

You are the 6^th Indian to get 100,000 followers on Twitter and the first non-celebrity to do so, what are the secrets of this success?

I am happy to have reached this milestone but for all twitter users my advice is that even though the number of followers is an important statistic and also a main reason for Twitter’s success among marketers, it is much more important to have a strong influence. The easiest way to measure that is by the number of clicks you get on your bit.ly links or the re-tweets you get for your tweets. I have seen people with much lesser followers who have a considerable hold over their audience and use twitter successfully to earn revenues for their business.

I would summarize the following as the key factors to be popular socially:

Don’t wait for people to be friendly, show them how.
Always reciprocate a gesture of friendship.
Share stuff of great value with your friends.
Make friends with the leaders
Engage with your audiences

Would you like to share your top tips to get best out of twitter, tips in terms of getting more followers and getting more resources from twitter?

To translate the secrets mentioned in the point above:

Find and follow people
Always follow-back
Thank for a retweet with a retweet
Develop relationships with your fellow tweeps
Retweet twelebrities (who have lots of followers or who tweet a lot) often
Find great sources for interesting stuff to share
Promote what you have to offer but subtly
Promise less and deliver more

Would you like to name 10 favorite tweeples (twitter users) you follow and for what reason?

I would rather not do that. To choose 10 out of a 100k is not just a difficult job but also unfair to those I leave out. All I can say is that Twitter lists have made it easy for people to find out who you consider close or worthy. In fact, even before the lists were put up I had my spreadsheet of my favorites. I will soon transfer that information into separate lists of my favorite tweeps in different categories: social media, marketing, humour, wisdom etc.

If not on twitter, which is the next best place we can find you?

Well, one can friend me on twitter or facebook at ‘pramitjnathan’ or email me on the same id at yahoo or gmail. These are the best ways to get in touch with me.

Who is your idol?

Well if you seek a single name then it has to be Mahatma Gandhi. I am deeply influenced by his ideology. He was so above and beyond a normal human being that I completely agree with Einstein who once remarked – “Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one (Gandhi) walked the earth in flesh & blood.”

The other personalities who I admire for their wisdom and whose quotes I tweet often are Wayne Dyer, Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, Abraham Lincoln, Rumi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oscar Wilde, Martin Luther King, Jr, Mark Twain, Benjamin Franklin etc.

What don’t you like of the World Wide Web?

I love it without any exceptions. In fact, I marvel at this man-made creation. I agree there are challenges especially the noise and spam that people complain of in social media today but that is an opportunity for another Google to emerge. We are living in the most fascinating times and I look at each day as it unfolds with bewilderment. I guess that is one of the primary reasons why I love Twitter because it is my window to the web and a fantastic source for information on all the latest developments.

With recession almost over, any future prediction for social media/ online marketing?

With the huge hype surrounding Facebook,Twitter, Linkedin etc., Social Media has definitely become an integral part of every online marketing strategy. Most companies though are using it for very specific and scaled-down tasks such as launches, promotions or focused campaigns. This is obviously because the tracking of results becomes easier and the expenditure justifiable. I am sure as these companies taste success with their initial efforts, they will include social media as a significant component for their broad-based visibility, awareness and brand-building activities too.

Can you please give your best advice to social media and marketing professionals?

I would suggest some general practices:

Keep yourself updated through the leading blogs and other media properties
Follow and engage with the thought leaders on Twitter, Facebook, blogs etc.
Use the social networking platforms more actively and constructively
Be more results-focused rather than task-focused in your approach
If possible build your own personal brand and start with blogging
Integrate various social media platforms in your strategy for best results
Try to develop an “Influence” by contributing “value” to help others

More About Pramit: Started his career as a Management Analyst with National Informatics Centre (then under Planning Commission, Government of India) in 1996. In 1999, during the peak of the dotcom boom, he got an investor and launched Web Pulse Consulting Ltd into web design and development services in addition to developing its own web properties. In 2003, Pramit had launched Idea to Impact, a Branding and Perception Management company and currently he is also a Partner in Creative Inc, a 14 years old full-service advertising agency catering to all communication media (print, broadcast, outdoor, online and electronic). Creative Inc specializes in Print Advertising (creating magazines, newsletters, industry reports, direct mailers etc.) and has recently diversified into Event Management.

Connect with Pramit J Nathan on:

http://Twitter.com/pramitjnathan

http://Facebook.com/pramitjnathan

http://in.linkedin.com/in/pramitjnathan

http://www.Pramitjnathan.com

Be Real, Success Of Social Networking- Ashima Talks

zazo — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 02:32:11 +0000

Ashima Khanna is a New Delhi India based Marketing Communication professional and a Personality Development trainer. Her facebook profile is being visited by thousands of her friends and fans every day. Ashima was not so sure how to make use of Facebook.com when she decided to create an account in February 2009. However, now she is enjoying the status of self made online celebrity among her more than 4000 facebook friends.

“Social Networking is all about communication, connection and building strong trust among your online friends. That’s what I have learned from Ashima”.

As an ardent social networker I myself made many good online friends but I always felt something missing in my approach while make new online connections. It was nothing but lacking of self presentation. My low confidence affects my relationships with my friends many times.

After interviewing Ashima Khanna I realized what I should have avoided in last 5 years of my online life. Certainly, this interview will help all those social networking passionate who really want to know how Ashima Khanna has successfully made 4k strong friends on facebook in less than a year and that too genuinely not just by counting every random facebook user. She made her own identity and position in this ample dome of social network in very short span of time.

But what’s so great about her? As I said Ashima has more than 4k friends on facebook, she also gets an average 50 comments every time she updates her notifications. She not only encourages people to talk and discuss on her wall post but also give equal time in discussing and commenting on her friend’s wall posts too. Her personality, down to earth nature, friendliness and open minded thoughts will definitely force you to add her in your friend’s list. She claims herself to be Oprah Winfrey of India and I find her very close to this title.

Read this interview and get more about this Indian Oprah Winfrey Ashima Khanna and her secret of successful and strong social networking.

Hello Ashima, welcome here! Have a superb 2010.

I wish the same to you and all those who would be reading this and to all those too who might not be able to read this. Let’s do our best in our small and big ways.

So, how are things at your end? Any New Year resolutions.

Every year has to have some new beginnings and furthering of the existing plans, so the same is happening now also. I plan to take further the Idea of Self Exploration Module wherein we have people to discuss about themselves in open environment about their personal and professional lives and reach out to solutions to the existing problems… Talking it out is what we call it.

You have a great online network; more than 4,000 Facebook friends. You are soon going to reach the facebook limit of adding 5k people in your network, so how do you feel about it?

Well. I still remember the day in Feb2009, when my friend Praveen told me to join FB and I was a little skeptical as I am more of a talking person but it worked for sure and all positivity.

You have written on your facebook profile “I am India’s Oprah Winfrey, but in my own terms” can you please define this?

We all are aware of what Oprah Winfrey has done and We Indians have been trying to look for India’s Oprah , many known faces in the TV industry has tried but we still are to get one and I firmly believe that I am the one as I have what it takes to be that .. We are a beautiful society but our drawbacks are we are closed but the positive is that we are ready to learn and become better and the best way to that is talking it out.

You are an active facebooker, writing updates, following up with your friends and commenting on other’s update. How do you manage it all?

The passion to do something which is different and thought provoking is what keeps driving me all the time. We can’t live programmed lives and we need to give our best to it is my mantra.

How many of your facebook friends are your real life friends? On the other side, did you ever tried to meet your facebook friend in real life? Share the story if any.

Actually plenty of them have become real life friends, it’s like meeting a lot of likeminded people and we are in the process of devising some plans to take some positive work further.

What do you think about Social Networking in India?

It has suddenly taken India by a storm for good and is here to stay till human existence, it seems.

Ashima, can you please write down 5 things one should avoid while on social networks.

I believe there is nothing called Dos and Dont’s here, One just needs to be one’s real self and also not take things as people put them across in the initial phases, reasoning out helps, if one wants to have good and lasting friendships … I have had encounters with people who are here for many different things but we better not encourage the negatives and if they are basically nice people, they will realize their mistakes, if they don’t then they are better kept at bay.

What are your 5 tips to make a strong and really useful network online?

As I said, being inquisitive, assertive in one’s writing style and reasoning out things logically helps and the best is being one’s own self, which I suppose gets very difficult in real life too

Among all of your friends in your network, can you tell us your favorite and most interesting people to connect with, and why?

Many actually follow the thought processes they carry. There are some people who get easily carried away and some who would love to talk their programmed ways.

There are positive people who talk logic, negative people who just want their word to be heard without any reasoning and others who are here to become friends and explore life.

If not facebook, where we can find you online? Any other virtual place you love to be there?

None other than Facebook.com.

Which one is your favorite Indian Social Networking site?

In India it is PeerPower.com, otherwise I like Facebook and LinkedIn as of today.

Interview With Jonathan Nafarrete

zazo — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:36:14 +0000

Jonathan Nafarrete

Jonathan Nafarrete is a social media strategist, a photographer, domaineer and a happy go lucky guy with a cool sense of humor and down to earth attitude. I am sure 72000+ of Jonathan’s followers on twitter think same about him. When I first discovered Jonathan on twitter, I was simply surprised and equally impressed by the way he rocks online. How does he do this magic? What does he do online? Etc. All these questions had started buzzing in my mind; I thought the best person to answer my questions will be none other than Jonathan Nafarrete himself.

So, here I am presenting a wonderful interview with Jonathan Nafarrete who is well known on twitter by @Jonathan360, hope you all will like it.

Hello Jonathan, how are you doing these days?

Awesome, having a blast on Twitter!

Can you please write a little about yourself?

I currently live in Los Angeles, CA and work as a social media consultant during the week and photographer at night or on the weekends. Before I even got into social media or photography, I used to be a men’s buyer for a high fashion retail boutique. I also was an assistant buyer for women’s handbags and shoes. Weird I know, but it was a fun and crazy part of my life that allowed me to travel and shop a lot.

Tell about your four major interests i.e. Social Media, Photography, Domaining and Twitter. What do you do and what does it involve?

Social media consulting mostly involves working with corporate clients in helping them craft and execute a social media marketing plan or campaign. This may involve a promotional contest on Twitter and Facebook or it may involve creating relevant content for their blog or social networks. Every client or individual is different and really understanding the client’s needs and customers is a key aspect.

Photography has been just as exciting as social media. At one point it was just a hobby, but I found myself receiving more and more inquiries through people I have met on Twitter to do photoshoots. Lifestyle and fashion photography is probably my favorite.

Domaining has always been one of my hobbies as well since the early 2000’s. I started registering keyword domain names and eventually got into acquiring strong keyword domain names in the mid 2000’s. I still hold quite a few and usually acquire one or two domains a week to my portfolio.

We all know how much I love Twitter!

How was your online life in past, before Twitter?

Although I have always enjoyed the company of friends on social networks like Facebook and Myspace, I really didn’t begin actively participating on a daily basis until late 2007 with Flickr, the photo sharing community website. I soon became hooked with the process of posting my photos for the world to see and getting immediate feedback back from other members within the community. I soon progressed from private messages between members on Flickr to the open platform of Twitter. The public conversations that I could have between others and locals within my area immediately drew me into Twitter, I soon became hooked.

There was an era of Myspace/Bebo and now Facebook/Twitter. The face of social networking has changed from time to time. What social networks are you liking and what do you think the future of internet will be like in the next 5 years?

Currently you will find me most active on Twitter on a daily basis. Additionally I check in on Facebook a few times a day as well as post a new video on YouTube and 12Seconds.tv once a month. I have found that Facebook has been the ideal network for me to keep in touch with my long time friends. This is quite different then how I use Twitter, which has been mostly to converse with amazing new individuals from around the world and stay up to date with news.

I think having open conversations with others on Twitter and having a genuine interest in what others are doing has allowed me to build such an amazing network on this micro-blogging site. Translating my online relationships into real life face time has also been extremely fulfilling. To date I may have met over 500 amazing people in real life that I had only talked with on Twitter beforehand.

It is hard to say what the social web landscape will look like in 5 years, however it will most likely involve mobile and location based applications.

The term social media is widely used over the internet but still it’s something very new for people who are less- internet savvy or those who come from technologically less advanced nations. Can you describe in your own words the difference between social networking and social media?

I see social networks as just that, a social network that connects community members together. Myspace would be an example. On the other hand, I see social media as tools that may help you communicate with community members or easily share content or information. Youtube, Twitter, and Digg would be good examples of that. Conversations and involvement are important aspects of social media.

Everybody talks about twitter and everybody loves this new thing online. Why do you love Twitter?

I love Twitter for the amount of wonderful people that I have connected with and get to communicate and share with on a daily basis.

Being one of the most active twitter users with tens of thousands of followers, can you please share some tips for getting more followers on an individual’s account?

I have been a big believer of sharing interesting or relevant content that will hopefully enrich or add value to those who may be following what I say. Although I spend hours a day on Twitter, 98% of the time I am mostly listening to what other are saying or looking for interesting things I can share that I find on the web. The other 2% of my time actually involves me typing and pressing “update”.

I find your short description bio on you Twitter account interesting, but what do you mean by “photographer of social media”?

I end up going to a ton of social media and tech events in Los Angeles and San Francisco. While I am there, I usually bring my camera and take photos as well. Silly I know…

Can you name your 5 top favorite Twitter users and why you follow them?

@MayhemStudios – Amazing sharer and loves having conversations. He is a truly generous and thoughtful individual.

@Natasha – Amazing and famous artist who I love spending time with.

@Krystyl – Awesome girl I love going out with and always makes me laugh every single day, one tweet at a time.

@Jason_Pollock – Finds some of the best content on Twitter and has an amazing following.

@Niecee – She is the best. That is all.

Beside your four main interests, what else do you love to do? Any hobbies?

I really enjoy playing golf. The weather is always wonderful where I live, I just wish I had more time to go out and play.

Mellyssa Karina- A Rocking Girl On Twitter

zazo — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:15:27 +0000

Mellyssa Karina is a 24 year old designer from Malaysia; she is also a social network enthusiast, a tech addict and not less than an internet celebrity for her fans, friends and followers. She is active or I should say a super active user of Twitter, Facebook, last.fm, tumblr.com and flickr.com.

Mellyssa’s twitter stats

Mellyssa Karina

Following 200+

Followers 6000+

Tweets 33000+

Let’s know her more…

What do you generally tweet?

I’m more into tweeting info to my fellow twiends, more about tech stuff, just share my thoughts about it.

Your favorite top 3 twitters accounts

I think I’ll go for @kevinrose, @ev, @waltmossberg since their daily tweet consist of what i love the most, tech thing.

Your likes?

I like to listen to music, oldies rock, pink Floyd kinda cool eh? J I love swimming to keep fit LOL and chocolate..Yeah, just Cadbury, then I’ll be happy

What are your dislikes?

I don’t like getting off bed early in d morning (well, have to-work), and I hate annoying people. Well I guess, I’m pretty much an ordinary girl =)

Who is your Idol, if any?

Well i guess that should be my lovely father

Favorite hang-out place?

I don’t have much time to do so-due to tons of work in d office. but if i have, well where else, to the beach (not far from home) w/ friends.

Who is your perfect match?

Hvnt found 1 just need. boo me I guess.

Describe yourself in 3 words?

Cool (I guess so), happy (who knows deep inside, right?), unpredictable (my ex-s say so).

Interview of Mellyssa was taken through Twitter DM, Orkutheroes.com published its first such interview and will keep on publishing such short and interesting interviews of some cool twitter users like Mellyssa.

Find her Interesting? Follow her @mllyssa

If you know more people than contact me on twitter @zazo

Akash Patel – One Of The Youngest Motivational Speakers

zazo — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:52:20 +0000

Akash Patel is the first personality I discovered not from orkut but from facebook. This is also an extension of flockpost.com which is no longer limited to orkut. Though, Akash is also a very active orkut user with more than 900 friends and 100 fans. I found him one of the youngest multi talented personality and a very friendly, down to earth teenage guy. Limca Book of Records may reward Akash as the youngest motivational speakers of the world. The interview with this talented Iowa university (USA) student was one of my best experience and it’s worth reading for everyone.

Please give your short biography, your birth place, family and school life.

“Seva Parmo Dharma” -The Bhagwat Gita (Service is the highest religion)

The above shloka (verse) from one of the greatest epics “Bhagwat Gita” sums up my philosophy in life. Though born and brought up in a family of business lineage, I have aspired and strove to make a positive difference in the lives of people and contribute something of permanent nature. I was born and brought up in the Wine Capital of India: ‘Nashik’ which is no longer a town – it is a metro in the making! My childhood has been quite simple and I have an identical twin brother Anand who is equally talented and gifted as I am! We brothers were extremely outgoing and ‘go-getters’ right from the beginning. My first leadership experience was as the President (Head Boy) of Nirmala Convent High School, my alma mater, an abode of eternal inspiration, motivation and knowledge. I am currently pursuing my Bachelors in Engineering & Journalism at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa (USA) and also working as the International Student Ambassador of this esteemed institution. I started teaching ‘Human Values’, ‘Personality Development’ and ‘Motivation’ at a tender age of 16 and this has helped me apply for the prestigious Limca Book of World Records for the 2011 edition as the youngest motivational speaker of the world! I also worked as a free lance writer for Nashik Times and a YO! (Young Opinion) journalist for The Times of India’s YO! Bureau. I am currently on the Publication Board of the well-know college newspaper Iowa State Daily and also on the University Committee of Lectures, English Club and the Committee of World Affairs. I and my twin brother are also the founders of ‘The Indian Culture – Sanskriti’ Club at Iowa State University.

This whole hearted effort of conducting workshops on ‘Value Education’ and ‘Personality Development’ and ‘Motivation’ is based on Helen Keller’s ideology:

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”

As a child, what was your dream and aim in life?

My aspirations were totally different in childhood than what I desire to be in the present-day. I always dreamt of being a pilot when I was a kid but DESTINY changed the course of my life. I never knew that I would be a social activist, writer and a motivational speaker in the long run. It was something incredible! My goals are now to be an internationally acclaimed motivational speaker, writer and social activist; in this pursuit, my long term goal is to work selflessly to win the Nobel Peace Prize (I know it is a farfetched dream but I shall work assiduously to achieve it!).

At such a young age you have experienced so many facets of life, you worked so hard. What is your source of energy and confidence?

It’s all the magic of PASSION, an unflagging zeal and an indomitable will power to do things with a difference! I think that life is real and earnest and that the GRAVE is not the ultimate goal of life. We have to do something epoch making, get up and set our shoulders to the wheel, otherwise what is the difference between us and the trees and stone. They, too, come into existence, decay and die! I am very optimistic and have a store house of abundant energy that helps me get up everyday and do something for a noble cause! All you need is a tireless will power and determination to work!

My mother and two of my High school teachers play a key role in my success. Veteran teacher and Nashikite Vinodini Seetharaman was the great person who discovered the hidden talent in me that was waiting to be exploited. She allowed me to teach ‘English Composition’ and ‘Communication Skills’ to her students which eventually helped me leave a mark as a free lance writer and a YO! Journalist in The Times of India and Nashik Times. This fun filled experience of teaching at ‘Seetharam Classes’ all the more helped me develop my oratory skills to a great extent! High School Teacher Sheila Doke is like my second mother, she was the person whom I approached for all my spiritual needs.

Everybody says “Failure is a part of life”, but how do you take failures in your life? Would you like to share any real life experience with us?

Failures are the stepping stones to success! To be very honest and candid, I failed in all elocution competitions in High School but ‘at least’ made an attempt. I kept trying but failed in most of the Inter School Elocution competitions. I remember just getting a Consolation Prize once! Otherwise, I just couldn’t make it in most of the competitions. These experiences helped me develop my speech and today I proudly affirm that I can speak confidently even in front of a crowd of thousands of people. I owe a lot of my gratitude to FAILURE! In the past 2 years I have:

Conducted more than 250 workshops on ‘Moral Values’, ‘Personality Development’, ‘Motivation’ in and around Nashik district (Maharashtra, India) for students, teachers, parents, politicians, lawyers, doctors, industrialists, police officers, juvenile delinquents, hard core criminals, etc.
Motivated more than 1, 00, 000 people of India. Bagged the credit of being the youngest motivational speaker of Nashik.
Conducted a seminar for politicians on March 30, 2009 in the august presence of Senator Sameer Bhujbal and a myriad of other dignitaries. This workshop was telecast on one of India’s popular TV channels Star Maza.
Delivered 5 speeches, Audio Visual presentations at the Central Jail of India, Jail Road, Nashik on September 25, 2008.
Conducted a ‘Police Training workshop’ for the police officers of Nashik at the Police Commissionarate (Sinhasth Auditorium), Nashik on July 27, 2009.

Who is your idol? Why?

‘My life is my message’, ‘I have nothing new to teach the world, truth and non violence are as old as the hills’ – these are the lofty thoughts of the Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who has been my role model ever since childhood followed by two more noted personalities and visionaries Barack Obama and APJ Abdul Kalam. All their lives teach me HUMILITY. They teach me to accept good as well as bad with gratitude! These people are so down-to-earth even after their extra-ordinary and exemplary achievements. Their life reminds me of the inspirational lines by H W Longfellow from the famous poem ‘The Psalm of Life’:

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time

Being on stage and speaking for hours on one subject is challenging. Isn’t? How was your first experience as a speaker?

Speaking for hours at length on the same subject at different places is indeed a challenging job. My friends used to often ask: Don’t you get tired conducting the same workshops at so many places? Aren’t you bored? I used to always say: It’s so much of fun and exploration, meeting so many different people like students, teachers, parents, politicians, industrialists, nurses, doctors, police officers, juvenile delinquents, hard core criminals etc. This job gives me satisfaction and immense happiness. My experience at the Jail is different from a school, hospital, industry, etc. So every workshop is unique and opens up a plethora of new options and opportunities. Above all, I like doing this noble job as I LOVE to see a SMILE on the face of a person who is distressed, crestfallen or who smiles just for the sake of smiling and goodwill! I always mention in my workshop: Anger is a cup of poison that you are drinking and thinking that the other person should die or something bad should happen to that person. So, always be happy always wear a smile not because life is full of reasons to smile but your smile itself is a reason for many others to smile. Smile a lot, it costs nothing!

I was very zealous about studying Psychology, Philosophy, Spirituality et al and people slowly started knowing me and acknowledging my effort as an Assistant teacher at ‘Seetharam Classes’. It was my first opportunity when I was going to present something to students and wanted to see their response and gain some valuable feedback. It was Kilbil St Joseph High School where I planned to present my first workshop. The Principal Sister Grace was very stringent and first and foremost asked me to present the entire workshop in front of her. I did it enthusiastically. She was so enamored that she quickly asked her Supervisor to allow me to speak to the Grade 9 students. This triggered off my vast endless journey in the realm of Motivation and Moral Values. I learnt and developed my speech everyday with new locations and new spectators. Slowly and gradually people recognized my efforts and then I was roped in by the Collector of the District, S Chockalingam, who granted me the permission to conduct this seminar in all schools of Nashik District!

Akash, what are those basic points which every human being despite of his caste, color religion, wealth and country should do to make his life happy? I asked this question to you because I personally feel that a lack of positive attitude towards life and depression is one most common illness present in this world.

‘Satisfaction-content’ is the key to happiness. One must have abundant faith in oneself and be self-motivated to do anything that he aspires to achieve. In this process, if he fails to attain and accomplish certain goals, he must possess perseverance and patience, he must remember the human being who lives in dire straits, in extreme poverty or the person who is visually challenged, physically handicapped and is still willing to do something different, that shall be a source of motivation.

I have always heard people saying: Mera Naasib hi Kharab hai (I am unlucky right from birth/ Luck doesn’t favour me!), for such lethargic, sluggish, lazy people, I have only 1 thing to say:

Never believe what the lines of your hand predict about your future because people who don’t have hands also have a future! Believe in yourself!

One more crucial aspect is to learn the art of forgiveness and letting bygones be bygones. We often remember all the negative things (fights/grudges/verbal abuse) that we have had with another person. We must forgive and forget. I know how difficult it is to forgive; I acquired it only after a lot of meditation and contemplation. Rabindranath Tagore rightly says Forgiveness is the quality of the strongest.

We must always bear in mind: To err is human, but to forgive is divine. So, forgive others and acquire a divine quality. That is the essence of life.

We often say that Life is not a bed of roses, but how many of us accept life as it comes? Do we stop to think about all that has been endowed upon us? Time for introspection!

Your Journey has started from a small town. Especially in India, we have seen this common problem that the young people who hail from a small town comparative to metro cities find themselves less motivated to face this world ( Both educationally and professionally) , what is your opinion?

My hometown Nashik is in no way a small town but compared to metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Banglore, it is underdeveloped! When I was in High School, we didn’t have many International schools or the CBSE/IB/ICSE curriculum, nevertheless, Nashik is now an educational hub and also a metro in the making! Progress doesn’t depend upon the size, population or demography of the city! It all depends upon your zeal and will power. You need a tireless and an undying will to succeed both academically and professionally. I was groomed in a background where I hardly faced any adversity or difficult situation. I was ‘fortunately’ bestowed with everything that a student studying in a cosmopolitan city got; I wasn’t deprived of any opportunities. I do see eye to eye with the fact that guys from a small town aren’t exposed to many facets of life that their fellow friends from metro cities are; but that is, in no way a crucial benchmark of any human being’s success! Gandhiji, Dr Ambedkar, Business tycoon Dhirubhai Ambani and Lakshmi Mittal were all born and brought up in small towns or villages.

What are your favorite free time activities?

I hardly get spare time during the day while living in the United States. I had some leisure time when I was in India but US life is very busy, since apart from studying, I also have to cook, shoulder the responsibility of a house and get involved in all the Clubs and Committees that I have pledged time commitment to. If I get some spare time, I love writing and reading. I am a voracious reader. In the States, I spend weekends by inviting people from all over the world (International Students at ISU) to have Indian food at my apartment. I also teach Yoga to interested students at Iowa State University.

India produces one of the most intelligent and qualified professionals in the world. Although, Indian educational and social institutions sometime pressurize and overburden students with their studies. How do you find the education system in India?

The Indian educational system is unique and exceptional. It is different and I recommend the Indian educational system since it subjects students to immense learning and a broader and deeper understanding of concepts. I still criticize the concept of ‘rote learning’ in India. If it is replaced by ‘Practical and pragmatic’ approach towards understanding concepts, Indian educational system will see a revolution and be rewarded as the best educational system in the world. The credit of my ‘tender age’ success and accomplishments goes solely and completely to the distinguished Indian educational system. I am proud that India is still one of the leading countries producing the best of engineers, doctors, scientists, physicians, writers, and above all GOOD HUMAN BEINGS! However, there is still scope for improvement and a lot of amendments in the educational system!

You have so many friends, followers and fans in India and now you have also started showing your magic in Unites States, Do you have a girl in your life? Sorry if it is too personal.

I do have many close girlfriends but not a ‘girl’ in the true sense. I don’t want to get into a relationship since it is not appropriate for a person of my stature. Tomorrow, if a student, teacher, parent or any other person who has attended my workshop or knows me as a motivational speaker sees me on the road or in any picture flirting with a girl; it would be a disgrace and a shame for me! I must Practice what I preach otherwise it is useless and futile. I will get an appropriate girl at the appropriate time!

Which is your favorite online spot orkut or facebook?

As far as my Indian and Brazilian friends are concerned, Orkut is the best spot for social networking, but these days I prefer Facebook over Orkut since it is a lot more secure, classy and trendy!

I love Orkut too!

Any message to readers?

My life is my message to the readers. Dear readers, you must just ponder and think for a few seconds – If a 16 year old lad can do so much for the society, why can’t I ? I am not trying to brag about my achievements but just trying to tell you how important it is to get involved in serving HUMANITY and helping someone in need. Service to man is Service to God.

One must bear in mind that Life is real and earnest and the grave is not the ultimate goal of life!

You can contact me on akapat3@gmail.com

Well, thanks a ton Zazo for considering me capable of being on Orkutheroes. It was fun and a delight to answer all your questions! Wish you and your team great success in all your future endeavors and May God bless u guys always!

Meet Reiki Grand Master Dr. Rekhaa Kale on orkut

zazo — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:16:10 +0000

Dr. Rekhaa Kale is the owner of more than 15 online communities related to reiki and spirituality on orkut.com. Her educational qualifications are. MA (philosophy & Psychology), LL.B, DEPS, MHM (homeopathy), MD (Traditional Medicine), Reiki Great Grand Master Teacher, Alternate healing teacher, Soft Skill Trainer.

If you are looking for a reiki teacher or reiki healer on orkut or, simply want to get involved in the deep discussions between reiki enthusiasts gathered from whole world than get into Rekhaa kale’s any of the orkut community related to Reiki.

Mumbai, India based Dr. Rekhaa Kale’s passion for reiki is incredible, this obsession made her the founder of many healing therapies like emotional healing, reiki drowsing, aura healing, ACU-REIKI etc. Dr. Rekhaa Kale’s orkut profile is over flowing with fans and testimonials and this extra ordinary work and practice made her popular among thousands of orkut users, mainly those who want to learn reiki.

OrkutHeroes.com, aims to feature extra ordinary people like Dr. Rekhaa Kale who used social networking site orkut to spread her knowledge and made many wonderful online communities for people who are interested in this art of healing. We convinced Dr. Rekha Kale for a short but informative interview and here it is; hope this will help you in any possible way.

When was the first time you heard the word “reiki”? I mean to ask, how the journey to become a Reiki Grandmaster has started.

I first learned Reiki out of curiosity. Then went ahead, and Reiki pulled me into teaching it as a profession.

Who is your idol in the world of Reiki? Whose character has overwhelmed you through out your life?
Dr. Mikao Usui. He was a sage. Dr. Mikao Usui is a person to be a real idol.

Reiki is still unknown to most part of the world. What do you think? Can it be successful like other medical therapies?
I am working to document Reiki Results and present them to IMA to get recognition to this science as an alternate medical science.

Can you please share with us the most unforgettable Reiki treatment you had ever done?

Unforgettable treatment with Reiki for me is not on any human being; it is on nature… In the year 1998, when I was about to sleep, I saw a strip of cyclone alert on TV screen. It was raining too heavily as well. I checked with the concerned departments over the phone, and on confirming the alert, started giving Reiki to protect Mumbai from cyclone, but suddenly I remembered that last time, when I had done so, cyclone had got diverted elsewhere… So, this time, I decided to work on the entire west coast of India… I was giving Reiki, creating protecting walls to prevent sea from damaging any of the coastline areas… Then I went mentally into the sea where cyclone was suspected to origin and healed the relationship of all the 5 elements in that area. This work continued from 12 midnight till 4 am. But by the end I felt Reiki has stopped going, Rain had stopped and sky was clear… That was something quite powerful, as since then there has been no cyclone or sea related problem on the west coast of India.

When did you got introduced with the social networking site orkut and how did you thought to use this internet tool to spread your passion Reiki?

Sometime in Feb 2007 and when I saw the communities, I thought of helping people out with it. It had a good response.

What any one need in him or her to become a reiki healer? Any basic points you want to share?
Anyone can become a Reiki healer. The only qualification needed is desire to help people.

There are many misconceptions about Reiki among most of the common citizens; some thinks it’s a cult or its some kind of magic. Can you please explain it what reiki is, in a laymen term?

People who do not know Reiki or have a half baked knowledge, spread misconceptions of reiki. In simple words, I will say, Reiki is GOD ALIVE. It can heal without medicines.

Dr. Kale what is your favorite pastime activities? What you love to do when not giving any training/treatment?
My favorite pass time activities are writing. I keep writing on different subjects in my free time, and later compile it into books.

What is your ultimate aim in life?
“I AM” the ultimate aim… Merging of I & AM is aim… I within am… When you merge your ego with your being, you become one with the grace… Then, you just witness the world going… Support when needed, else let the harmony happen.

Your communities on orkut are successful in terms of activities, didn’t you ever thought to start your own website? Or any such plans in future?
I have http://www.rekhaakale.com, and some sites in geocities that I will have to move to Google sites before geocities close down in October 2009.

Would you like to name those people who helped you, supported you and stand by you in all your ups and downs in life?
The list is really very long… If I mention some names, others will feel offended. Yet, I am thankful to all those who helped me in life and are helping still.

Any particular message you want to convey to all reiki trainers, grandmasters and students by the medium of this interview?
Be True to Yourself. Live Reiki if you teach it, thanks all, respect all know that Reiki is God Alive and those who are reiki channels have grace of God with them for life.

Thanks Dr. Rekhaa Kale for giving your time. It was great talking to you.

You can contact Dr. Rekhaa Kale on

Mail: rekhaa.kale@yahoo.com

Tel: +91-9820044254

And some other websites

http://www.reikiteacher.co.cc

http://www.reikilovers.co.cc

http://www.hope-india.co.cc

Interview with Jomy Moses

zazo — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:33:45 +0000

He is an Information Technology Specialist and a well known source of help for Google users. 25 year old Jomy Moses is well known person in orkut and Orkut help group forums. I recently got this opportunity to have some words with jomy about his life both social and professional and his experience in serving netizens, especially the users of orkut.com.

Jomy is known as a friendly, helpful and down to earth person who is ready to help anyone with a genuine problem, among tens of testimonials written by his friend on Jomy’s orkut profile the one common thing which I found about Jomy is, he is the best in everything he do.

More of Jomy’s life? Continue reading this very interesting and informative interview of Jomy Moses.

Jomy can you please write down your small biography? Where did you born, your schooling, higher education and your profession?

Well, I sure will try to keep this really short, so you guys won’t get bored. I was born on the 18th of February, 1984 in Trivandrum the capital city of what is called the God’s own country “Kerala”. I completed my schooling from ‘Kendriya Vidyalaya’ ,well that should sound familiar for guys from India, and did my Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, from Anna University, Chennai. Apart from that, my technical certifications include Microsoft Certified System Engineer MCSE on Windows 2003 Server and Upgradation to Server 2008 and Vista Client. Red Hat Certified Engineer RHCE on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1, Cisco Certified Network Associate CCNA and Cisco Certified Security Professional CCSP, Training on Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist MCTS MVS2008 C# and ASP .Net SQL Server 2005… well I am not goanna mention all those over here.
I started my career as a Systems Engineer, but have spread my hand over all areas, including Desktop and Web Application Development. Of course my programming skills are limited to C# and Java, but to be honest I like to work on System Administration and Networking side. That suits more to my profile. But these days it’s more like we change our profile to suite the work we are assigned, rather than find a job which suites our profile. Well it would be great if you make your profile suite all these so you won’t run short on opportunities.

Orkut completed more than 4 years on net; however we didn’t saw much upgrades technically, is there is something new we can expect from orkut.com in future?

Of course you can always expect great things from orkut. It’s indeed the best online entertainment and social networking site you would come across. And orkut has undergone so many upgradations in these past 4 years for making itself more entertaining, flexible and secure to its users. Apart from being entertaining, orkut has made a lot of improvement in keeping vulnerable user information safe and maintaining the privacy of users. Improvements are made on spam detection and removal which helps in keeping orkut clean from inappropriate contents, which would create nerve biting experience to its users. Also elevated removal policies on copyright protected contents, nudity and impersonation, provide a pleasing experience to its users. In addition to this, sufficient support is provided to the users through one of the most active help forum where users can interact with each other provide and get help with less effort at the earliest possible time. Along with this, appropriate information as to where you can get help from, and links which will lead you to the experts from where you could get help for your issues is provided. Direct links for reporting impersonation and fake login pages are also available, to maintain maximum safety and privacy for its users. Although many users complain about the delay in getting response on filling up these forms, the reviewing team is putting in a good effort on taking necessary actions at the earliest. With Orkut becoming quite popular, the team receives huge amount of abuse reports daily, and naturally it might take some time to get a response on your report. But personally, I think it works much faster these days as I myself had reported a couple of my fake profiles and had it removed within 24 hours. The third party application developers are also doing a pretty good job in creating fun applications which makes orkut more entertaining.

Many of the orkut users and communities became the victim of hacking and profile hijacking. What are the best ways to avoid such incidents?

Yes. These days we get lots of reports on communities and profiles getting hacked, passwords being changed, ownership being transferred and lots of problems like that. Well I personally think modern day hacking has changed its main objective of finding vulnerability on a web server , web application or application sites, to taking advantage over the vulnerability of people or the users. Let me pour some light over this. Nowadays servers are more secured and shielded and it would be near impossible to penetrate on to a web server and hack or manipulate secure data. So hackers changed over to exploit the user’s vulnerability for stealing their passwords and other secure information. Let’s take an example of a person who has a craze for downloading the latest computer games and software, which would be like me about 5 years back. Suppose this person comes across a link saying “Click here for downloading latest games and software”. Straight away, without any hesitation, the person will go for a click and that could trigger a bunch of scripts which can do lot of things on the background which the person does not see on his web browser or the interface. Same thing is applicable when you are logged on to Orkut , Gmail or any other sites. You may receive links to external sites which may contain coding which could handover your vulnerable information to a hacker. Similar is the case when you use (copy and paste) certain java scripts on your web browser url tab. This is what usually happens in orkut, when someone gets hacked or loses access to their account. So in my opinion, the best way to avoid situations like this would be to avoid clicking on links when you come across it, or if it looks too tempting, just copy the link, open up a new web browser (if you are logged in orkut or gmail using Internet Explorer, open up a new window in say Firefox or any other different web browser) and try the link ,although it’s not recommended. After your session is over, make sure you log off rather than just closing the browser window. Also if you are logging in from a public internet pub, you could also clear out your cookies and caches after you wind up your session and may even look out for key loggers before you enter your password.

Social networking today has become the part of everyday life, on the professional side, it’s also a booming and competitive business. What is your future prediction both personally and professionally?

Of course social networking has become one of the unavoidable demands in the present day scenario, but I would rather say it would become much more demanding and unavoidable in the future to come. If I got to find a person the first thing going through my mind would be to open up orkut and key in the name on the search box. Even though it may sound funny but it’s the fact that it would be much easier to find a criminal over the internet cloud, rather than to find him under the sky.
And yes it has become a competitive business, every day when we move across the internet we see lots of new social networking sites emerging and some day in the near future, a few of these sites may become as popular and entertaining as orkut.

Could Orkut.com be successful or unsuccessful if it was not owned by Google? What is your personal thought on this?

Orkut is of course an amazing product and it would have become popular even if it was not owned by Google. But being owned by Google simply increased the pace and the quality of the product, which has now made it one of the best among social networking sites. Similar was the case when hotmail which introduced the first email service with graphical user interface. Microsoft had no hesitation in taking over the product which indeed was a big success. So innovative ideas along with supporting resources can prove much, rather than just having an innovative idea without any resource to support it. Google’s wide range of resources and state of the art technology has played a major role in making Orkut a great success.

What was your first project as a Network Security Administer? Please share your experience.

Well my first assignment as a network administrator was to design and implement the network infrastructure for a company. Of course that was about 3 years back. Because of the limited number of employees, I had to deal with everything, from software simulations of the design, purchase of routers and pix to crumbing of Ethernet cable. On security side there was not much of consideration. Since they did not have any live web or application servers running, I just had to perform some basic network penetration tests with built in standard tools to check the well being of the pix device and the built in firewall feature. Managing the internal network was also simple as we had limited number of employees and computers. We just had two servers including a domain controller. Indeed I had a nice experience with them.

Jomy, what are your favorite pastime activities?
I do have very limited pastime activities, still one thing I do to get myself relaxed is to lie on my bed, close my eyes and listen to the sounds of wind chimes. I do have couple of these tied up in my room. I love dismantling things, from the smallest of toys to the most complex electronic goods, although very few among them will regain its original shape once it is dismantled by me. Reading reviews on latest hardware and software can also be mentioned as a pastime activity because I spend a good amount of time on that.

We all knows that Orkut, though being a very nice social platform could not manage to get popular in rest of the world accept Brazil and Indian sub continent. What do you think, what went wrong? Or it’s simply a hard luck?

Well it would be like asking why wheat is more popular in North India while rice is popular in the south. It doesn’t mean rice tastes bad for people in north or wheat tastes bad for people in south. It’s just that people continue following the trails and trends.

India is developing fast, but still large number of population is internet illiterate but learning and exploring World Wide Web in very low rate. What are your comments?

Of course in India we come across a wide range on people, from those who spend the larger half of their time over the internet cloud from those who do not even know that such a thing exists. But things are changing fast, and each day more and more people are becoming aware of the Internet and its uses. In the future we can expect personal computers without hard drives, from which people could access the internet cloud while on the move, connect to a server containing their share and store their data’s, which would remain secure and could be accessed anytime, from anywhere.

Being on orkut, what was your most challenging task till now?

Being with orkut alone makes it pretty challenging. Every day we come across new things, either from the good guys or from the bad guys. The hardest thing would be to say a ‘no’ when someone comes to us for help and there isn’t any possible way to satisfy their demands. Everything has to be done through the proper channel and there are no shortcuts to help anyone personally.

What are the most common questions you encounter with people using Google product?

People come to me with a wide range of questions, some of them could sound very silly and some other may sound pretty complex.
Mostly people come to me asking how and why their accounts get hacked and why Google supports hackers.
Well as I have mentioned earlier, most of these hacking occurs by taking advantage of people’s vulnerabilities and weakness. One of the best ways would be not to try anything new and just use these sites the way it’s meant to be used. New things may sound cool and look attractive, but may prove quite expensive. And for those who are new to this, please take your time reading the help documents, and safety and security features.
Probably the next thing people come asking would be how and why their accounts get disabled.
There are two main reasons behind the accounts getting disabled. This could be either due to the violation of the terms of usage, or could be because of unusual activity from the account.
Now unusual activity from an account can occur either with the knowledge of the user or without the user being aware of what’s going on. Now this may sound strange but just take the example of using scripts when logged on to an account. As I have mentioned before these scripts can perform a lot of actions in the background which won’t be notified on the web browser so the user remains unaware of what exactly is going on. For instance it can just give a reply, “please wait, processing your request”, and the user keeps on waiting, while the action script performs all the things it was meant to perform, which would finally result in the account getting disabled.

And recently many people come to me mentioning they have been blocked from sending scraps and from sending friend requests.
Now this happens when you exceed a certain number limit for an allotted time period.

This usually occurs when you send too many scraps or friend requests in a very short period of time. Once you exceed that limit you will be forced to a timeout period which differs for each case and only after the timeout period you will be allowed to perform the action again. Make sure you do not keep on trying the same activity again and again in the timeout period, which could certainly lead to an increase in the period.

Jomy, thanks for giving your precious time and making this interview useful and informative for all those who need help from orkut or any social networking site. Your efforts in making social networking secure for everyone are appreciable. Thanks from OrkutHeroes.com

The Software Sitarist – Sameep Kulkarni

Tara — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:44:02 +0000

Sameep Kulkarni , a young ,dedicated and budding name in the world of music, who started playing music at the tender age of 6 years and is now an established Sitarist, working as a Senior software engineer. He has these qualities of being equally good at music and academics in his genes. Sameep has done a number of concerts and shows and has been a part of a tough yet prestigious and glorious journey of 19 long years, which is on going and has to reach miles.

Orkutheroes, caught him on social networking site of Orkut. Here is an interesting conversation with this promising Sitarist:

Sameep, tell us about yourself, your childhood, and family background. How your journey started?

I am born in a musical family. All members in my family are devoted to academics and music. My father is a mathematicians and a violinist. My mother is a PhD, science teacher and a vocalist. My sister is a professional international artist – a vocalist. I have completed my engineering with distinction in instrumentation and control from V.I.T. College, Pune and now working as a Senior Software Engineer in Coreobjects software for last 5 years. (www.coreobjects.com)

How my journey in music started:

I started learning tabla at the age of 6 and one year later I heard the sitar by Ustad Vilayat Khan and fell in love with the instrument, so I told my parents that I want to learn sitar. So I started learning sitar at the age of 7 under Ustad Usman Khan in Pune. He nurtured the sitar skills in me for 13 years. Then I heard Ustad Shahid Parvez in a live concert and was attracted immensely by his style. So since then I am learning under him for last 6 years. I did my first concert at the age of 8, since then I have been doing concerts for last 18 years continuously. I also did learn tabla for 12 years in parallel with sitar, but now only concentrating on sitar and have left the tabla completely.

Along with a well known and successful Sitarist, you are also a senior software engineer. This is an unusual yet great combination. Wasn’t managing balance between these two entirely different streams difficult? What guidelines did you follow and managed to achieve victory in both these fields?

Yes, managing the balance between these two streams is extremely difficult. I do have to sacrifice many things to achieve my goal in life. I work in my office for the whole day in embedded software applications and then I go home and practice sitar from 9 pm to 2 am daily J and I do concerts on weekends when I have holiday from my office.

I have performed in more than 500 concerts up till now. I don’t get time for outing, seeing movies, attending family functions etc. much but I utilize the time I get in best possible way. I do devote the whole time in my life either for software field or sitar.

That’s why I have been called as “The Software Sitarist”, “The Corporate Artist” and “The Mathematical Musician” I manage this Herculean task by being very punctual and by completing everything with sincerity, concentration and devotion.

Is music simply a hobby for you, which you do in spare time for self satisfaction or it’s the central area of work in your life? Is it a passion for you?

Music is a passion for me. I don’t consider it as a profession or a hobby. It’s a life for me. Whatever time I get, I devote it to music. I get immense satisfaction in doing live concerts everywhere, meeting and working with different musicians and artists.

When did you realized, that fame is coming your way and did it affected you in any way? According to you, does it change the entire personality or only one’s living style?

Actually even though it feels nice to get the fame, it’s never the goal for me. My aim has always been to perform in the live concerts and spread the awareness of music in the world and also to enrich the lives of people with the music, the best gift to the mankind.

But to be honest, fame doesn’t change a bit of a person in me. I am always a simple guy next door living normal and simple lifestyle. I always believe in being a humble person.

Did this journey of reaching people through your music, give you tough times? If yes, what were they and how did you managed to come out of it?

Yes, always there have been tough times I have experienced in my musical career. The lives of musicians are always full of surprises and contain the maximum ups and downs. The artists always experience the maximum sorrow and maximum happiness in life. The life of artists is never very straight and smooth J I did overcome the tough times in my career by being mentally tough, being more patient and with immense hard work…

Since you started, till this date, what was your best moment, or the most memorable event, that you will like to cherish throughout your life and why?

I have performed in numerous concerts till now. But last year my concert was been organized in Ahmednagar, a city in Maharashtra. I knew previously that concert is going to be huge but when I reached the venue and went on the stage, I could see total 50,000 people were in the audience. The concert was organized on a sports ground with people sitting on the ground and in the stands and some people on trees to get to see the concert. This was the biggest concert I ever did. All people were clapping, whistling and encouraging me for the concert.

You can see the live video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Nrru2e6Yk

I can never forget that moment in my life. Life is not about how many breaths you take but it’s all about how moments take your breath away. That was the most memorable concert.

Also, I performed in a Cancer hospital where all the people in the audience were the last stage cancer patients. They were lying on the cots and some were really critically ill, but they were enjoying the concert. I was touched to know that not a single person in the audience will be alive for my next concert there. It was very touchy and memorable experience for me.

What is your ultimate aim or goal for life?

To be a topmost and very successful ‘Software Sitarist’ / ‘Corporate Artist’ / ‘Mathematical Musician’ in the world.

In today’s time, when the face of music has changed and is eventually changing more, how do you feel about this change? Where do you see it going in the coming time?

Yes, a lotttttt of changes are happening in music now a day. It’s the era of the globalization. Different cultures are coming closer and closer and due to that different types of music are getting closer and closer. Each genre of the music in the world has the effect of the other genre of the music. Like, classical has effect of fusion music, pop music has effect of rock, fusion music has effect of pop and the cycle is continuing People are getting exposed to *all* genres of music and people are seeming to enjoy all kinds of music.

I feel that there will be a time in future that it will be a mix of genres of music. There won’t be boundaries of any genre. I mean any kind of music will be mix of all genres.

I would say to it as “GLOBALIZATION IN THE MUSIC”

Do you think, the struggling musicians, who want to become famous, earn and do something great in the field can have a real bright future? What message or tips will you like to give them?

The struggling musicians who do a lot hard work, who undergo pain but still continue their goals with the same enthusiasm and who have great patience can really have the bright future. I would like to give them the message that, ‘keep on working hard with the constant enthusiasm and high amount of patience’.

What has been the driving force and true motivation for you through out?

To be honest my driving force is the goal set by myself to achieve my dreams. Unless you set the goal and see the dreams to achieve it and work hard for it, nothing can happen!!!

Is there someone you look up to, as your role model?

Yes, The world renowned international musician and my guru Ustad Shahid Parvez

If given a chance to change any three things in the present world of music, what will you like to change?

I would like to see a dedicated 24 hours TV channel for Indian Classical Music.

I would like to see Indian government taking the steps to compulsorily have the subject of Indian music in the schools.

I would like Indian government to take special steps to help the young musicians by arranging more number of Youth festivals of Indian Classical Music to make sure that Indian culture is been transferred to the next generation

In a thanks giving ceremony, who all will get a place in your list, if any?

My parents, my gurus Ustad Shahid Parvez and Ustad Usman Khan and my sister.

Well Sameep, thank you so much for this wonderful interview and allow me to say that along with being a star in music world you are such a kind and humble human being which showed up during the entire procedure, when OrkutHeroes contacted you and you responded so warmly always with a gentle smile.

True, Fame hasn’t changed even a bit of person in him. We wish all the best for your future endeavors Sameep!

Interview with Aminur Rashid – Orkut IPFC Moderator

zazo — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 03:06:45 +0000

India Pakistan Friendship Club is one of the most active and big communities on Orkut social network. Over the years, this orkut community became one of the most favorite online hang out for hundreds and thousands of people from India and Pakistan.

Aminur Rashid is not merely a member of this community but has also successfully won many hearts and is known as one of the key figure of IPFC. Members of IPFC both from India and Pakistan love him and respect him. Aminur is known to be a friendly, mature and a trusted person in IPFC circle. He is also a co-owner of this community; I got a chance to talk with Aminur about his views on India and Pakistan, and his life.

Let me share this interesting interview with you all.

Aminur, please introduce yourself. Your location, profession, birth place etc.

I was born, in Purnia, a small town in Bihar where my dad was posted. I hail from Bhagalpur Bihar, from where I completed my high school, from St Andrew’s school. I then moved to Aligarh where I completed my higher secondary and engineering from Aligarh Muslim University. It was a great stay and learning experience at AMU. I always wonder, why we stopped at just one AMU, which is indeed doing great work providing exemplary healthy environment to students from different parts of India, especially Muslims.

Currently I am working in our Software industry, and at present located in Munich, Germany.

India and Pakistan are known more as a rivals than as friends, what captured your interest in joining a community like IPFC (India Pakistan Friendship Club)?

You said it all. India and Pakistan are indeed rivals. For a number of people from both sides, our patriotism starts and ends with bashing Pakistan (if we are Indians) or bashing India if we are Pakistani. I will be frank here, to say, when I saw this community created by Rahul, a friend of mine, I joined as an inquisitive member, as a member to know how our Indian counterparts has taken this idea of friendship, what is the reaction of Pakistani members. But once I joined, it was never a coming back.

Your journey in IPFC is quiet successful as a moderator, member, mentor and friends of many community members, how do you think personally about it? Is IPFC successful to its mission?

Like I said, I joined the community as an inquisitive member, but then what community provided me was a platform to know people. To interact with them, heated or normal, does not matter. What was more important was we were interacting, and in turn, got a chance to know each other, what the people at other side of the border feels, which normally never happens. We always see people from different field crossing borders and saying good/bad about each other, but interaction between common people of both side and knowing their views, uncensored was a great step ahead. In turn, I met lots of reasonable people from both side of the borders and I feel happy about it.

I would call IPFC moving ahead towards success, albeit slowly. People often complain that the community looks more than a fight club instead of a friendship club, where members keep on fighting. What I say to them is, it’s always the new members who keep on coming back to heated arguments. In IPFC what I have observed is, people join at times with intention to hit back at members from outside, they start with blaming each other, and in span of time, start believing in message of friendship. And then we get new set of people, joining in, starting the same again. So looking from this point of view, you see, with each cycle the community is changing hearts of few, if not many.

What I regret is that IPFC has not done much outside web world, which many feel is just a virtual world. We have come up with an excellent web-site [self praise ]http://ipfc.info to reach out the people outside orkut world and are trying hard to see how we can spread the message in real world as well. In fact you can also help us in the mission; any idea from your side, to help us will always be appreciated.

After 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai, India, both Indians and Pakistani citizens find a big gap between themselves, both politically and socially. Was IPFC affected with it too?

Yes, IPFC was affected as well. There was surge of emotions from both sides. While members, both Pakistani and Indians condemned the horrendous, inhuman attacks in equal terms, but their approach in who were the perpetrators of the crime, was different. And then there were, like always, heated arguments.

But then what was satisfying in the end that members from both side agreed that its common people from both side who are suffering at the hands of this monster, Terrorism.

Aminur, what are your political views on India and Pakistan? Nowadays, the least relation with Pakistan i.e. “cricket” has also disappeared. In all this, your community IPFC looks like a challenge or a dream. Politically and diplomatically what could be the best solution of this unsolved rivalry of more than 50 years?

My Political views on India and Pakistan is totally different. I don’t see the two nations to be friends politically in near future. Even if the current government decides to go the friendship way, you never know with change in governments and in turn the policies, the same can continue.

I would like to see politicians leaving the friendship for the common people of the country and instead taking care of building an environment of trust, an environment where both the nation could look into their internal problems first, without poking the nose in each other’s affairs. Let politicians of both countries forget what is happening on the other side of the border, and contribute towards the internal problem of their nation (which ironically is similar for both the countries, for e.g. terrorism, illiteracy, malnutrition, women exploitation, child exploitation)

The only solution what I have felt is via more of people to people interaction. Free border is a distant possibility in near future, but once we achieve that then it can shed many of the myths about people from both sides. Ask any of the cricket fans, who have crossed the border from either side to cheer up their team; they will always talk highly of the treatment they would have got from the local people. So when these small flows of people have produced positive result, why not let the larger chunk of people to move from one side to other. Yes, there will be security concerns and other concerns as well, but then we all need to sort those concerns, instead of just curtailing the relationship itself.

Then there is not to be talked about Kashmir problem, where both the nations seem to be reluctant to decide about it. This problem must also be solved, (although it’s not as easy as said) taking the interests of Kashmiris in account.

Regarding disappearing of cricket, I feel it was a blessing in disguise. Imagine what happened to Srilankan cricketers, if it would have happened with Indian cricketers. The relationship would have taken a further dip.

What was the toughest phase of your life and how did you came out of it? Please share.

Alhamdullilah, life has treated me very well so far. And even if I try to recall from pages of past, I am not able to find any thing, which really was tough or unusually unfortunate for me. I hope, Lord treats me the same he has been treating so far.

What is your ultimate goal in life?

To excel technically and to be at the level of whom I consider as my role models. Apart from the career related goal, I do wish to be a better human, each passing day.

Besides, I also wish to see an EU like union, in our south Asia, at least in my life time. I am not sure if it is realistic or not, but then nothing wrong in dreaming.

Do you have any role model? Please describe.

Yes, I do have role models. In my professional life, I find professionalism in Sathish Kumar, Steve Muench, and Thomas kurian – all the three from previous company. Sathish Kumar was my manager having excellent managerial skills, along with exemplary technical skills. He has contributed a lot in shaping up my career in positive way.

Steve Muench is one person; you would like to have knowledge like.

Thomas Kurian is the most apt person to lead any organization. These are the guys who motivate you to go the extra miles at your workplace.

There are many people apart from my professional life, who inspire me a lot.

How is the life in Germany? Do you miss India?

Life in Germany is good. There’s lot of things to learn from German colleagues. But yes, I do miss India at times. Specially during festive time. Although to make it up, we tried celebrating festivals together, e.g There was a celebrations and get together on Diwali and Eid as well but then, I feel nothing can beat being at home during festive time.

I will also miss the elections hungama this time as well. Unfortunately, I was out of India, even last time we had elections at center in India. That is a big loss to miss all the fun and action.

Aminur what are your favorite pass time, any hobbies?

Well my favorite stress buster was sharing tea with my friends on our regular Tea stall in the evening when I was in India. I am missing the fun. Apart from that, I enjoy playing badminton a lot.

I do have this unusual habit of flying kite, whenever I get a chance.

Any memorable moment from IPFC community you would like to share?

Definitely I have one. One of our IPFC member’s neighbor was coming to Bangalore, to get their kid operated at Narayana Hridiyala Bangalore. He was skeptical about how the city may treat them, and he asked us, since we were in Bangalore to take care of them. It was a memorable period to meet them. Unfortunately the doctors were not able to save the kid, but the couple did went back with a positive feedback for my country – that was indeed satisfying moment.

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