Freedom of Speech

Today I came across a very interesting article, thanks to @shahpriya. And it worries me a lot, both as a Pro Blogger and a citizen of India because tomorrow the same might happen to me! Who knows, it might happen to you, or anyone else for that matter! And the irony is that it was on 26th January, the Republic Day, on which the voice of an ordinary citizen of India was suppressed. The article raises a question about our right to free speech in this country. And it also raises the age old question, have we really achieved independence?

I have got a few suggestions for both Ms Dutt and NDTV:

1. Are you aware of our Fundamental Rights as an Indian citizen? Do you realize that we live in India, where, according to the Indian Constitution, the Right to Free Speech is one of the Fundamental Rights guaranteed to every citizen of India? If you are not aware of these then you do NOT have a right to be in India.

2. Do you even know what a blog is? Do you think it is just a series of lifeless web pages that you try to spice up by hiring a designer to attract advertisers? Please stop living under the rock. A blog is a place for the Netizens around the world to voice their concerns. You have blogs of your own, it makes me wonder what do you use it for!

3. Do you think it is very easy to suppress the voice of an ordinary Netizen like Chyetanya Kunte just because of the fact that it does not have it's own Political Union to back it up? Think twice. A student journalist James Earl was arrested by Egyptian police for photographing an anti-government demonstration. He just had time to send one word from him cellphone – “ARRESTED”. That’s all it took to get him free. His phone was connected to Twitter, and his words reached his friend in US through that. And within no time they informed the US Embassy, his home University of Berkeley and the Associated Press. And in case you were living under the rock for the past few decades, Twitter is a microblogging service. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the kind of power this blogging media possess.

4. Stop being like an emo kid, coming back from school crying just because someone said something about you. Grow up! A personality as great as Einstein had to face immense criticism in his time, he remained unmoved which speaks volume about his character.

5. If you want US to hear your opinion then you should also be ready to hear from US. If you want US to listen to your criticism then be prepared to hear criticism from US. Journalism is not just holding a microphone and asking stupid questions like "how do you feel about your husband's death?"! It works fine for gaining TRPs (temporarily, mind it), but it takes a lot more than that to become a journalist.

Last week I was reading an article on Amit Verma's blog about how Mint had barred Vir Sanghvi from exercising his Right to Free Speech. In Vir Sanghvi's own words:

I will not write for a publication that censors its columnists and denies them the right to free speech while writing long, impassioned pieces about the freedom to criticize others from the Prime Minister downwards. All of us exhibit double standards to some degree. But Mint's hypocrisy takes my breath away.

But atleast Mint was sporting enough when Vir openly attacked them on his own blog. They did not go to Vir Sanghvi to ask him to delete posts and write apologies. I understand that the verbiage used by Chyetanya Kunte was not quite professional, but who is to decide that? And not always would I like to voice my opinion in a suave manner. So please stop being a bully, be open to criticism. And if you cannot, then stop this farce in the name of "bringing truth on our screen", cause all you would be doing is selling news.

Freedom of Speech had always been under attack from various sources in the past, but it hurts all the more when it comes from people whose battlecry should be Freedom of Speech. So my request to all the Netizens, both from India and abroad, it's time to raise your voice. If you have a blog of your own, then please put up this button on your blog and write a post on this unfortunate incident. Please, spread the word, otherwise, you might be the next Chyetanya Kunte.

Voice your concern, grab this button:

<a href="http://www.rajtilak.net/"><img border="0" src="http://rajtilak.bhattacharjee.googlepages.com/free.png" /></a>

When Death Comes Knocking

When Death would come knocking on my door, I would step right out to greet her with a smile on my lips and an embrace of a true lover.

It's a long wait, to be united with her once again. Life lead me to narrow lanes and blind alleys. But there she stood, lifeless, waiting for me at the end of every road. A desire, a yearning of togetherness haunts her. But she would be true, to me, to herself. She would not disappoint me by leaving me alone, she would not fake a smile.

With her icy-cold touch she would set my soul free. She would allure me with her innocent charms. We would travel places where life has no meaning, her faint whisper would put me to rest for eternity. And then we would hum to the tunes of darkness. She and the love of her life. And I would sprinkle the magical golden sands of dream all around her, just to see her gleeful smile.

And then Death, the unloved, the untouchable, would once again be alive in love, my love.

World's Funniest Passenger Complaint Letter

A few days back I got this in my inbox, I think this is one of the world's funniest passenger complaint letter? This is a letter from a dissatisfied passenger of Virgin Airways to Sir Richard Branson.

Dear Mr Branson,

REF: Mumbai to Heathrow 7th December 2008

I love the Virgin brand, I really do which is why I continue to use it despite a series of unfortunate incidents over the last few years. This latest incident takes the biscuit.

Ironically, by the end of the flight I would have gladly paid over a thousand rupees for a single biscuit following the culinary journey of hell I was subjected to at the hands of your corporation.

Look at this Richard. Just look at it:


I imagine the same questions are racing through your brilliant mind as were racing through mine on that fateful day. What is this? Why have I been given it? What have I done to deserve this? And, which one is the starter, which one is the desert?

You don’t get to a position like yours Richard with anything less than a generous sprinkling of observational power so I KNOW you will have spotted the tomato next to the two yellow shafts of sponge on the left. Yes, it’s next to the sponge shaft without the green paste. That’s got to be the clue hasn’t it. No sane person would serve a desert with a tomato would they. Well answer me this Richard, what sort of animal would serve a desert with peas in:


I know it looks like a baaji but it’s in custard Richard, custard. It must be the pudding. Well you’ll be fascinated to hear that it wasn't custard. It was a sour gel with a clear oil on top. It’s only redeeming feature was that it managed to be so alien to my palette that it took away the taste of the curry emanating from our miscellaneous central cuboid of beige matter. Perhaps the meal on the left might be the desert after all.

Anyway, this is all irrelevant at the moment. I was raised strictly but neatly by my parents and if they knew I had started desert before the main course, a sponge shaft would be the least of my worries. So lets peel back the tin-foil on the main dish and see what’s on offer.

I’ll try and explain how this felt. Imagine being a twelve year old boy Richard. Now imagine it’s Christmas morning and you’re sat their with your final present to open. It’s a big one, and you know what it is. It’s that Goodmans stereo you picked out the catalogue and wrote to Santa about.

Only you open the present and it’s not in there. It’s your hamster Richard. It’s your hamster in the box and it’s not breathing. That’s how I felt when I peeled back the foil and saw this:


Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking it’s more of that Baaji custard. I admit I thought the same too, but no. It’s mustard Richard. MUSTARD. More mustard than any man could consume in a month. On the left we have a piece of broccoli and some peppers in a brown glue-like oil and on the right the chef had prepared some mashed potato. The potato masher had obviously broken and so it was decided the next best thing would be to pass the potatoes through the digestive tract of a bird.

Once it was regurgitated it was clearly then blended and mixed with a bit of mustard. Everybody likes a bit of mustard Richard.

By now I was actually starting to feel a little hypoglycemic. I needed a sugar hit. Luckily there was a small cookie provided. It had caught my eye earlier due to it’s baffling presentation:


It appears to be in an evidence bag from the scene of a crime. A CRIME AGAINST BLOODY COOKING. Either that or some sort of back-street underground cookie, purchased off a gun-toting maniac high on his own supply of yeast. You certainly wouldn’t want to be caught carrying one of these through customs. Imagine biting into a piece of brass Richard. That would be softer on the teeth than the specimen above.

I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was relax but obviously I had to sit with that mess in front of me for half an hour. I swear the sponge shafts moved at one point.

Once cleared, I decided to relax with a bit of your world-famous onboard entertainment. I switched it on:


I apologize for the quality of the photo, it’s just it was incredibly hard to capture Boris Johnson’s face through the flickering white lines running up and down the screen. Perhaps it would be better on another channel:


Is that Ray Liotta? A question I found myself asking over and over again throughout the grueling half-hour I attempted to watch the film like this. After that I switched off. I’d had enough. I was the hungriest I’d been in my adult life and I had a splitting headache from squinting at a crackling screen.

My only option was to simply stare at the seat in front and wait for either food, or sleep. Neither came for an incredibly long time. But when it did it surpassed my wildest expectations:


Yes! It’s another crime-scene cookie. Only this time you dunk it in the white stuff.

Richard…. What is that white stuff? It looked like it was going to be yogurt. It finally dawned on me what it was after staring at it. It was a mixture between the Baaji custard and the Mustard sauce. It reminded me of my first week at university. I had overheard that you could make a drink by mixing vodka and refreshers. I lied to my new friends and told them I’d done it loads of times. When I attempted to make the drink in a big bowl it formed a cheese Richard, a cheese. That cheese looked a lot like your baaji-mustard.

So that was that Richard. I didn’t eat a bloody thing. My only question is: How can you live like this? I can’t imagine what dinner round your house is like, it must be like something out of a nature documentary.

As I said at the start I love your brand, I really do. It’s just a shame such a simple thing could bring it crashing to it’s knees and begging for sustenance.

Yours Sincerely

XXXX

* Paul Charles, Virgin’s Director of Corporate Communications, confirmed that Sir Richard Branson had telephoned the author of the letter and had thanked him for his “constructive if tongue-in-cheek” email. Mr Charles said that Virgin was sorry the passenger had not liked the in-flight meals which he said was “award-winning food which is very popular on our Indian routes.”

Monsoon Dreams

You came out of the theater.
And so did the sudden spat of drizzle,
Out of nowhere.

We were standing in the
Middle of a crowd.
So lonely, only me and you.

I caught your glimpse,
And
I wanted to steal another.
Just one more glance, a second look.

I walked out of the shade
To drench
In the rain,
In you.
I wanted to drown in those eyes,
They know black magic.
I knew, I was under their spell.

I stretched my arms,
To hold my world, it was falling apart
With joy, in rain. I held my head high
Under the open sky.

I went upto you, saw myself in those eyes.
The stars from the sky,
They were missing. I found them.

I took your hands in mine,
We walked in the rain, your touch
Made me feel real,
It made me realize reality.

And then we danced in the soothing breeze,
We danced to the tune of the drops
Falling, dripping from your dress
Stuck to you,
I was.

And it was a dream,
A dream that would never end.

Slow Shutter Photography : 10 Stunning Examples

Slow Shutter Photography is something that can take your breath away when you get it right. Here are some shots to get you inspired. A Digg and/or Stumble of this article would be highly appreciated. Thank you :)

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Test Drive The New Twhirl

Many of you who have already tried to use Twitter may find their web-interface to be a drag. You need to refresh the page every time to view the latest Tweets and keeping a browser window open actually slows down the system. Wouldn't it be better if you had access to a software which would let you read and send your Tweets without actually opening a browser. Here comes Twhirl in the rescue.

Twhirl is a social software desktop client, based on the Adobe AIR platform. It runs both on Windows and Mac and you can connect to multiple accounts in Twitter, Laconi.ca, FriendFeed and Seesmic. With the help of Twhirl you can not only read and post Tweets on Twitter, you can also cross-post twitter updates to Pownce and Jaiku, post images to TwitPic, search tweets using Twitter Search and TweetScan, shorten long URLs (using snurl, twurl or is.gd) and a lot more. It is fully customizable and is very easy to use.

If this has aroused your interest then I have got more good news. Twhirl has announced a new version today which they are circulating as a preview to get our feedback. So in a way, we would test drive the new Twhirl. In this version you would not only receive Tweets which begins with your @username but also conversations which has your @username in it, so you would be able to know what people are talking about you, and thus you would be able to engage with them.

Then with this new version of Twhirl you can post your messages from Twhirl to Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Wordpress and a hoards of other services with Ping.fm integration. You can also record a video and reply to your friends straight from Twhirl. Twitter search and shortening of URLs is easier and has more options.

To get the new Twhirl you need to sign up here and then check your email.

Twhirl and the website http://www.twhirl.org were originally created by Marco Kaiser, a web and software developer from Germany. In April 2008, Seesmic, Inc. acquired Twhirl and continues its development. Marco joins the Seesmic team to work on twhirl and other projects.

How To Make Money From Twitter

A few days back I was discussing about 12 most important people on Twitter who you should consider following. Now you might ask why to join Twitter in the first place, I got a thousand and one reasons to preach you on the advantages of using Twitter in getting a steady flow of quality traffic to your site. But for the time being I would tell you one good reason through which you might earn some money by using Twitter.

On 23rd Of January, 2009, i.e. yesterday adCause was launched. Did the name arouse any curiosity? Well, without any further ado let me introduce you to adCause, the advertising medium for Twitter. adCause is the Adsense of Twitter, although it's not from the stable of Google. adCause was the idea of entrepreneur Andy Arnott. It helps businesses connect with Twitter users. And just like bloggers, Twitter users too become publishers, who can make money by displaying relevant ads from those businesses in their Twitter feed.

Publishers create an open ad spot, it tells of the advertiser why they should buy, the duration and ad frequency customization (2 out of 4-10 Tweets is an ad), and of course the price. Your spot can then be seen by advertisers, who, if they like what they see, can pay you via PayPal. Each audience type - publisher or advertiser - has its own dashboard with ad-related info for managing ad buys and current spots.

On the other side, advertisers can search for the right Twitter uses by Twitter name, tag, follower/following numbers, and location. Each search will return available ad spots matching the specified criteria. From that view, advertisers can click to purchase or negotiate a better deal. When a deal is made, the advertiser’s marketing message will automatically start to appear inline in the Twitter stream of the Twitter user in question.

So what are you waiting for? Sign up with adCause, create your ad space and start earning from Twitter!

Colors of Flames

Take my hand Darling!
Let's dive into the
Depths of
The Ocean of love.

The world burns,
It burn into ashes.
And the smoke rises up,
Curls in a whirlpool of
Blue flames.

And after it ends,
We will
Rise in love, with love.

We will see the stars,
And find colors
In the black sky. We
Would fly higher and higher
Till we would
Touch the moon.

And
Sitting on top of the
Heap of bones, watch the wind
Flow into your hair,
Ruffle it in a sweet
Wave of flames.

12 People You Should Follow On Twitter

Today was pretty hectic for me, almost throughout the day I was doing Rn'D with my template to create a 3-colomn footer. Thankfully, my efforts never went in vain. With a few more tweaks I would be able to get my own 3-colomn footer with it's own CSS. Now in the past couple of days I developed a sort of obsession for Twitter. So I thought why not discuss a few things about Twitter and how it can be a good source of traffic for your site. So here is the first installment.

Twitter is a popular microblogging and social networking service that allows you to send an update, better known as a Tweet, which are text based posts within a limit of 140 characters. Although you can send URLs in your Tweets too. These updates are posted on your profile page and can be viewed by other users who have chosen to receive your updates, these users are called your Followers. Although you can restrict the delivery of these Tweets within a close circle of friends by changing the security settings. Your Followers can also receive these updates without logging into the Twitter site through different media. For example, they can receive these updates via RSS, SMS, emails, or through 3rd party applications such as Facebook, Tweterrific etc.

Twitter was founded by Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey as a Rn'D project inside Odeo in March 2006. Odeo was a San Fransisco based podcasting company and was co-founded by Evan who is also known as Ev. Both Ev and Biz are regular Twitters and you can Follow them as well, just don't get disheartened when then don't reply to your messages directed towards them, they get thousands of those in a day.

I had already mentioned a very strange yet useful advantage of using Twitter in my earlier post. Now let's say you have created an account in Twitter and would like to Follow someone, who should it be. Well, of course you can Follow your own circle of friends and vice-versa but apart from then there are a few more people who I would suggest you to Follow as well. Remember, I am discussing Twitter as a mean to attract readers, not just for plain social networking.

The two people who are a must on this list are of course Ev and Biz, you would receive updates on Twitter downtime, new products and other related news along with their personal conversations. Then if you have a blog/site which publishes breaking news to it's readers, then following BNO News is a must. Very recently during the plane crash at the Hudson Bay river, the news of the crash was on Twitter even before the media was on the site! You can also follow CNN Breaking News for more updates on the same.

If you are into researching new hacks for Blogger then I would suggest you to follow Annie and Amanda. Although Amanda is not quite regular on Twitter, Annie is a very nice person and quite regular on Twitter. She would follow you on most cases, and you can ask her for help on Blogger related hacks. On most occasions she would reply back with a suggestion. Then you can follow Technorati and Blogger for their updates.

If you are interested in Google related products, then it would be a nice idea to follow Matt Cutt. More often than not, you would get an inside scoop of what's going on in Google. In case you are fascinated by technological advances which is not bound to Google, try following Robert Scoble. He would give you updates throughout the day which was simply invaluable. For more technology related news you can follow Pete Cashmore.

You can follow God on Twitter. Yes, there is an account called God, follow it and get hilarious updates from Him. And last but not the least, you can follow me for regular updates on various topics. Twitter has an interesting way of replying or addressing a person, you need to put an "@" sign and then their username. For example, if you would like to reply to me you need to begin your Tweet with @rajtilak and then your message, and if you want to say something like "This was a nice article, thanks to Rajtilak that I found it" you need to type it as "This was a nice article, thanks to @rajtilak that I found it". So if you wish to follow me do leave your username and a small description on what you do and why you want to follow me and I would try to add you on my Twitter network.

So enjoy your Twidventure, and in the next installment I would write about how to build more traffic using Twitter.

Is The Entrebar Too Hot For You?

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, the long awaited Entrecard Toolbar is here and it’s smokin’ hot. That what Graham Langdon from Entrecard had to say. I say it's too hot for me to handle, so better I drop Entrecard altogether from my website.

For those who are new to Entrecard, Entrecard is an socio-economic network of bloggers, who regularly engage in transactions with each other using a virtual currency that is earned by for improving and promoting your blog. You can earn virtual currency when you comment on other blogs, visit other blogs, publish posts on your blog, and receive visitors. But unfortunately the way Entrecard has headed, I think they are not quite sure of their business strategies, or maybe they don't take their customers that seriously.

Now very recently, Entrecard had announced their latest invention, the Entre Bar or the Entrecard Toolbar. The main features of this toolbar is to help you do everything you do on Entrecard, but quickly. So imagine this, I open 10 Entrecard sites simultaneously, quickly drop the cards on each one of them and then open the next series.

Now the point of using Entrecard is NOT advertising. For that we have other medium. The main purpose for using Entrecard is to gain traffic, quality traffic. We don't need a socio-economic network of blogs Graham. If we need Alexa ranking (as promised on the Entrecard site) we would go commenting honestly on other blogs. Getting the backlinks from those comments would also help increase the PR, which in turn means more visibility and more traffic. The reason we used Entrecard was because we could do this commenting without having to write anything. Moreover, we could search, look into sites and advertise only on the top sites so that, once again, we could get genuine quality traffic.

But the moment you know that you can do this quickly you can also be rest assured that there goes your quality traffic. People would land up on your site, drop the card and leave. What's the point in using Entrecard in that case. Moreover, I followed up with the Entrecard blog on their site and found out some more interesting facts about the Entrecard toolbar. The toolbar only works with Firefox 3. This will not work with other web browsers. The toolbar is still in it's beta, and bugs have already started to show their ugly heads. People are unable to login using their Entrecard toolbar even when it's installed on Firefox 3. Moreover, imagine 10 JavaScript enabled sites opening up on your computer all at the same time. That's ridiculous! That would make some of the best configurations crawl on it's knees!

I honestly don't find a good reason why would we use Entrecard anymore! The management team at Entrecard should understand, we bloggers are pretty serious when it comes to quality traffic. And Entrecard definitely does not qualify as a bling. If we needed to bodypaint our blog, we would have used something like Blogsticker, that even looks good.

So until and unless these people come up with a good strategy, I think I'll let it pass.

Art In London

From the next day I started traveling by myself. I used the underground and the shiny red London buses and my own two feet to explore each and every nook and cranny of this fascinating city.

I went to see the Parliament House, the Big Ben of course and Westminster Abbey. The last one left me overwhelmed. Being a student of Literature everything took on a different meaning. In fact it was hard to believe that all those writers and poets, Kings and Queens, nobles and statesmen, whose names were till then, mere printed words in a much thumbed text book, lay buried beneath these very cold flagstones beneath my feet.

I walked to Trafalgar Square, took loads of photos of the legendary pigeons which clustered in dozens around the square and took off in swirling formations from the top of Nelsons Column. This is a hot spot where tourists gather to sit around and rest. Some very interesting conversation can be carried on with an international collection of visitors. Then a short walk took me to St Paul’s Cathedral, with its remarkable Gothic architecture. London is very clean in these parts. I sat down on a bench in a small park to have a sandwich for lunch. There were teenagers with long sticks, removing litter left on the grass. Similarly Hyde is a lovely place to sit and catch ones thoughts after the hustle and stress of daily life.

The next day I went to Westminster again. I walked over the Millennium Bridge or the "Wobbly bridge" as it is locally known because when it was first built it actually wobbled a little as it is suspended by wires.

On the other bank of the Thames River is the Globe Theatre, a replica of the actual Globe Theatre in Shakespeare’s time, and also walked over to the Anchor Inn which is the original site of the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. This was especially exciting for me as Shakespeare was one of my favorite study papers for my Masters and the roughly drawn artist's impression of the Globe in my textbook, was a tangible reality right in front of my eyes.

I spent hours at the Tate Modern Art Gallery and the Salvador Dali Art Gallery. The Tate Modern houses some remarkable work by contemporary artists, which leave a definite impact on the mind, and evokes thought. These images have remained with me and still come back in certain moments.

Today I went to the National Art Gallery. I am quite the art buff and spent the entire day scrutinizing each and every painting in the gallery, as well as many which were hidden away in the basement. A kind gentleman, one of the guides, was impressed by my persistence and interest. He offered to show me those paintings, which were not on public display, and go through an enormous book, which contained detailed information about almost every painting in the gallery. The information gleaned from this insightful sojourn could fill a thesis paper and more. The content and historical significance of some paintings could challenge many a preconceived notion about the cross-cultural influences dating back beyond the 10th century maybe earlier.

Original, restored paintings from the 12th century till the 21st, Fra Lippo Lippi of Browning’s poem of the same title, Andrea Del Sarto again of Browning fame, Paolo Uccello, Botticelli, Durer, Mentegna, Raphael, Titian, Claud and Turner, the famous landscape painters who inspired many a poet, Vermeer, Dujartin, Rembrandt, Goya and Guardi. Keats poetry came to life in a new way in Hogarths breathtaking landscapes.

There was a separate section for portraits of Kings and Queens, great scientists, musicians, painters, writers, statesmen and soldiers in history as well as contemporaries from the world of art, music, theatre and film. The sculpture section was an entirely different experience. The impact of the actual, tangible larger than life, sculptures took my breath away.

The crowning glory of the day was a special exhibit of Van Gogh’s paintings. To see Sunflowers and Starry Nights right there in front of my eyes, the colors and textures emitting the brilliance of a beautiful mind. I was completely overwhelmed and over awed at the sheer impact of the bold strokes and the vibrant tones of the canvasses.

It really made my day.

[This is a guest post. The author, Madhurima Gupta, who was a student of English Literature in Jadavpur University, is now working as a successful animator. These are excerpts from email and letter which she wrote during her visit to England.]

Salem's Lot

"...the Lot's knowledge of the country's torment was academic. Time went on a different schedule there. Nothing too nasty could happen in such a nice little town. Not there."
- Salem's Lot, Stephen King

Every town has a memory, so did Salem's Lot. So when Ben Mears returned home to Salem's Lot, Cumberland County, Maine, he found what he had least expected. Ben found darkness, because the town knew about darkness. It knew about the darkness that comes on the land when rotation hides the land from the sun, and about the darkness of the human soul.

I sometimes try to imagine, what Stephen King's reaction must have been when he encountered Barlow for the first time. Did he have sleepless night? Did he became afraid of the darkness too? Every writer encounters the characters of his novels, poetries and stories. It is a must. So what King must have felt after he created Barlow!

Welcome to Salem's Lot ladies and gentlemen. A small town in the midst of civilization. A town where people enjoyed all the atrocities of a modern town. Our own, Mr Ben Mears has returned to his home town after the death of his wife. And Ben had planned to write about the Marsten House. Yes, the same Marsten House where, a long time back when he was small, Ben had a chance to meet Hubie Marsten, the owner of the house. Except Hubie was dead long before that. That encounter gave him nightmares for days to come, it still did. So Ben decided to take the demon out of himself by writing about the Marsten House. And so Ben wanted to buy the Marsten House. Poor Ben, what did you think when you thought about buying it? That it would be empty? No dear, that house was already bought by a man named Straker, with his mysterious business partner Kurt Barlow.

So Ben was forced to stay in the Lot, where he met the townsfolk. He met Matt Burke and Susan Norton. Then came Straker, to inhabit the Marsten House. And with his came the news of the disappearance of Ralphie Glick and the mysterious death of his brother Danny. But before Ralphie died, he too saw something. Ralphie too saw the darkness.

I bought this novel a couple of years back, but by now I must have read it atleast 15-17 times. I think this is one of the best works of King. I know many of you would disagree, I too have read The Stand. But somehow this story seems more real, it seems more sinister in nature. Imagine a sleepy little country town, what if vampires appears there? What then? It seems more imaginable than a viral outburst in The Stand. And just because it feels more imaginable, it makes you more uneasy when you read it. The questions would arise in your mind at some point of time or the other, that what if this is my town? After all it's not a new thing that an entire town has disappeared in the US without a trace. Imagine yourself passing through one of these towns at night, you would not even know what is going on behind those curtains.

In King's own words, "I wrote 'Salem's Lot during the period when the Ervin committee was sitting. That was also the period when we first learned of the Ellsberg break-in, the White House tapes, the shadowy, ominous connection between the CIA and Gordon Liddy, the news of enemies' lists, of tax audits on antiwar protesters and other fearful intelligence. During the spring, summer and fall of 1973, it seemed that the Federal Government had been involved in so much subterfuge and so many covert operations that, like the bodies of the faceless wetbacks that Juan Corona was convicted of slaughtering in California, the horror would never end . . . Every novel is to some extent an inadvertent psychological portrait of the novelist, and I think that the unspeakable obscenity in 'Salem's Lot has to do with my own disillusionment and consequent fear for the future. The secret room in 'Salem's Lot is paranoia, the prevailing spirit of those years. It is a book about vampires, it is also a book about all those silent houses, all those drawn shades, all the people who are no longer what they seem. In a way, it is more closely related to Invasion of the Body Snatchers than it is to Dracula. The fear behind 'Salem's Lot seems to be that the Government has invaded everybody."

This is what makes this more real. You won't feel you are reading a story, you would feel as if you are in the story. And what would you do then? What would you do when you face Barlow?

Holmes Vs. Poirot

A burning question has intrigued me over and over again, "why did Ms Christie created Hercules Poirot at all when we already had Sherlock Holmes?". Well, Poirot fans, stop gnashing your teeth and let's go by deductive reasoning which, I know, you are not quite used to.

The character of Hercules Poirot, according to the autobiography of Ms Agatha Christie, was based mostly around Sherlock Holmes. There goes originality for a toss.

Sherlock Holmes solved his mysteries using his deductive reasoning skills, we often heard his saying that when all options were exhausted, what remained, however illogical, is the truth. Poirot on the other hand had even resorted to the mambo-jumbo of hypnotism (Ref : The Under Dog) to find out the main culprit. I wonder what Ms Christie thinking when she wrote that!

As a human being Sherlock Holmes was a much better man than Poirot. Holmes was of a noble nature, quite proficient in various fields of Botany, Geology, Music, Boxing, Jujitsu and the British Law. He also had profound knowledge in the subjects of Chemistry, Anatomy and Sensational Literature. Poirot on the other hand was a pompous egoist who thought he was the most brilliant human being that ever lived, and this was quite evident from his own conversation with his sidekick Capt. Arthur Hastings.

Poirot was not only lazy, he also refused to take long walks, go on tiresome errands, which often created a doubt in my mind about the authenticity of the fact that in his early career he was a police officer! The only field in which Poirot had profound knowledge in, I think, were mustaches. That man suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder for God's sake! More often than not we found him removing that single flake of dust from his suit or applying gels and creams on his mustache to the point of to the point of insanity.

Even the chemistry between Poirot and his sidekick Capt. Aurther Hastings was not a good one and we often found Hastings praying for Poirot's failure. Whereas we find Holmes and Watson go together so well that even after Watson got married, he loved the company of Holmes and often came back to the quarters of 221B, Baker St.

Poirot was almost always found in the right place at the right time which more than often had helped him to track down the culprit (Ref : Wasps' Nest). Either than man was God gifted, or Ms Christie was too lame to think of a plot and build a story around it. The stories of Ms Christie are so predictable, that sometime a reader can point out the culprit even before Poirot does. They lacked in variety too.

Next comes the villains. The nemesis of Sherlock Holmes was a person named Prof James Moriarty. He was equally a mastermind as Holmes and was revered by Holmes for his formidable character. Moriarty was referred to by Sherlock Holmes as "the Napoleon of crime". Poirot, on the other hand, never encountered any such opponent. Ms Christie was too afraid to introduce an equally capable nemesis for Poirot lest she might end up hurting his ego!

After reading all these I think you would agree that Sherlock Holmes was the legend, and that Poirot's character would never reach that culmination point of success. After all it's elementary, eet ees, eh Mon Ami?

P.S. Sherlock Holmes was inducted as an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2002, the only fictional character so honored.

An Indian In England

London is a place right after my heart. Since childhood I had dreams of going to England to experience the English way of life, specifically in London as I had close relatives living there. I took up English Literature till post graduation as I found British and European art and culture fascinating. However, I felt that an actual visit would be a very good way to “complete” my education and deepen my understanding.

And then suddenly one day I got lucky. I actually won a ticket to England, right after my post graduation and I was off.

When I finally landed at the Heathrow airport after a long but exciting flight, I was greeted by a Fleet cabs driver (which my cousin had sent to fetch me). A typical cockney and garrulous to boot. It was fortunate that I could understand his accent. After 10 minutes of brief introduction, he showed great interest in me as I was from India. He expressed his views on my country too and I was quite appalled to find that Londoners still think of India as a land of elephants and snakes. Before I got off, I promised to send him links of websites with pictures of India and Indian city life as he had requested.

The next day, my aunt handed me a set of guides and maps of London and surrounding areas, and showed me how to get around the city. I realized one thing, that it is impossible to get lost in this city. Each and every street and by lane is clearly labeled and marked. Availability of different types of transport and other facilities are clearly printed on signposts at every corner. It is very easy to go around for sightseeing, especially by tube or the underground trains. And all places are very tourist friendly.

My first visit was to Madam Tussauds, which lived up to the hype it has engendered (though I found Amitabh Bachchan to be a trifle phony due to his very black hair and too white French beard, but Princess Diana and Steven Spielberg could have walked off their pedestals).

Next, the boat trip down the Thames to Greenwich was an experience in itself. The cityscape and country-scape of London floated by, the green expanses of the Greenwich observatory grounds, the sparkling beauty of the lake within, made the vague, learnt by rote term, “Greenwich mean time”, take on a completely new meaning. I stood astride the long strip of metal dividing the earth into the eastern and western hemispheres and hoped I wouldn’t wake up and find that it was all but a dream.

[This is a guest post. The author, Madhurima Gupta, who was a student of English Literature in Jadavpur University, is now working as a successful animator. These are excerpts from email and letter which she wrote during her visit to England.]

Why Men Are More Perfect Than Women

I have a habit of reading blogs, I cover some 25-30 different blogs a day. By doing this I gain an insight about what people are thinking, what they want to read, and sometimes I get to have a few good laughs. A couple of days back, on one of this auspicious occasions I came across a new blog (hardly a month old with only 2 posts in it) where an important topic was being discussed. No no, let me rephrase it, a very important topic was being elaborated and dissected in open public. Now, even though I knew that curiosity kills the cat, I felt no harm since I am nowhere related to a feline being. The discussion was about how women are perfect and men are otherwise!

There were a few numbered bullet points put up over there to justify the fact that women are way better than men and are thus perfect. People who have read Think and and The Long Drawn Discussion would know my view points about women. And I have earned many accolades from women for my thoughts and views about womanhood in general. But very honestly, after reading the bullet points and the comments on that blog, I felt a little disturbed. Not because someone had tried to blemish the character of men which includes me, I wouldn't have cared less if that was the case, but I was disturbed because of the fact that there was so much of misconception in that post. I thought, "do really women think of us that way!". So I thought I'll explain and elaborate those same numbered bullet points from a neutral viewpoint and not a feminist one. So here it is:

1. Women are more understanding than the men. You don’t have to speak to tell them that you are feeling sad or happy; they can tell you by looking once at you.

Well, I guess The Long Drawn Discussion would be an apt reply for this. Moreover, I would like to say that it how your relationship is with a particular women which decides whether she can understand you in the aforementioned manner or not. You cannot expect the same from any women you meet on the street, if she can do that then take my word for it, she is not understanding, she is a female reincarnation of Nostradamus.

2. Women become mature at an early stage as compared to men. If you don’t believe me then ask for the view points of a girl and a guy about a relationship and you will get the difference ;)

Definitely women are more matured then men, one can count on it anytime. But does being immature accounts to the fact of one being better than the other? A comparison such as this is a sign of immaturity of the first degree. Does that makes the author (who is of course a girl) inferior in any way, NO! At a certain point of time in life you would wish that you would have remain immature forever.

3. A confidante and an accomplice, you can always dump any secret in a woman and she will always listen to you.

Why of course, where else do you think the women get their daily dose of gossips! She would listen to you no doubt, but the very next moment she would go ahead and speak with the most amazing blather.

4. Only a woman can play the role of a friend, a mother, a sister, a guide, a wife, a partner, an advisor. So many roles she plays at same time.

Well, well, well, does the women also plays the role of a father, a philosophers, a brother, a husband? But just because she is none of these does not make her in any way inferior than a man? I have seen an abusive mother, a promiscuous wife, does that deface the image of a woman, NO! A man, like a woman, has different roles to play in life.

5. Only a woman loves without any conditions.

Oh boy! That was simply great and hilarious. I say no one, absolutely no one in this world can love someone without any conditions. If anyone can do that, then that person is either a sage or a mahatma or in the terminal stage or insanity, or maybe he/she watches too much of those mushy mushy Bollywood movies.

And now ladies and gentlemen, the final numbered bullet point that puts the nail on the coffin for the fate of a man.

6. Women know how to take control of their emotions and feelings, they know when to move on and leave the past in the past whereas men can’t do it. (try to recall how many times you called up your ex-girlfriend to know what she is doing now).

Errr, dumping a guy who cared about you, who stood by your side when you needed him, and then leaving him high and dry in the middle of the road is not moving on, it's still called dumping. It is not taking control of your emotions, rather it is the proof of absence of emotions and feelings. Does that makes a woman perfect? I don't think so.

To the author of that blog, if you ever read this: Only a fool would draw a comparison such as this. Just because you have seen certain imperfect men does not mean that you can generalize men, it only means that you were unfortunate enough not to see the goodness in your Father or your Brother. Do you know that most of the brothels in India are run by women? Don't you think that a woman is a woman's greatest enemy? If a woman can react when when someone enters her territory, why is a man called a chauvinist when he does the same?

If those are the points you put up to show the imperfections in a man than you would really have to work hard on it to prove your point beyond your friends and in that case this man is very happy to remain imperfect, but is quite unwilling to let go of his precious emotions and feelings.

Is Your Computer Slow? Blame It On Bit-Rot

A few days back I was reading an interesting article by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes on Windows bit-rot. Adrian is a technology journalist and author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology. He also runs a popular blog called The PC Doctor.

In this article he has defined bit-rot, or more specifically software-rot or code-rot, it's implications and various ways to either avoid it or eliminate it altogether. Now let us first look at what exactly is code-rot. Wikipedia defines software-rot as :

Software rot, also known as code rot or software decay, is a type of bit rot. It describes the perceived slow deterioration of software over time that will eventually lead to it becoming faulty, unusable, or otherwise in need of maintenance. This is not a physical phenomenon: the software does not actually decay, but rather suffers from a lack of being updated with respect to the changing environment in which it resides.

Now what has that got to do with us? Well, let me ask you this. Haven't you ever noticed that your computer gets slower with time? It is not as fast as it was when you bought it for the first time. Most of us would NOT notices these changes, the reason being that we get used to our computers so much in the course of time we feel Why this is the speed that was always there! But then, over the year of working in DELL hs taught me that most of the problems that we dealt with was either a direct or an indirect cause of code-rot.

Now let us look into some of the factor which cause code-rot. First of all, loading too many softwares in your computer, in all possibilities, slows it down. I have seen some of the best configurations behave in a very sluggish way because of this. My suggestion would be to keep the number of installed software to it's minimum. Don't install software that you think is not absolutely necessary. What goes on behind the scene is, most of these softwares have a very smart installers but very poor uninstallers. So when you finally do uninstall them, they leave behind pieces of code in your computer.

Secondly, outdated drivers or sometimes incorrect drivers causes the system to slow down a lot. And even while updating new drivers, most of us, we forget to uninstall the old drivers first. This results in a corrupt driver pool which, again, causes the system to slow down. My suggestion is to keep your drivers updated, but before you install a new driver make sure you have uninstalled the old one.

Then comes viruses, spywares and malwares. I don't think I need to discuss the ill effects of these as most of the modern day computer users have suffered these nuances of technology someday or the other. I would suggest a good anti-virus, where the real-time system scanner should always be on. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT click on any files that you have downloaded from the internet directly. Scan it with your anti-virus first. Before you download any software/file from the internet, be sure to check the exact extension for that file. Sometimes viruses have tricky file names like virusfile.zip.exe which is basically an executable component and not a Zip file. Do a manual scan of your computer regularly.

Other than these precautions, you can also do a number of things. Run a CheckDisk once a week, along with which do not forget to defrag your computer. Create a checkpoint in System Restore before and after you install a software. Clear your %Temp% and cache regularly. And the final trick, ever heard of MSConfig? If you did then do ahead and use it to disable all the unused startup items, in case you don't know what MSConfig is then keep tuned in to The Chronicles of R, I would write a separate post on MSConfig and it's uses. Try subscribing to The Chronicles of R so that you don't have to miss on anything. And you don't need to worry about me using FeedBurner, I have already transferred my account to Google. What am I talking about? To know more read this.

If you liked this article, then consider subscribing to The Chronicles of R to keep yourself updated.

Transfer Your FeedBurner Accounts Now

Do you have an account with FeedBurner for your subscribers? Well, in that case it's time you log on to your FeedBurner account as you are required to transfer your FeedBurner account to Google.

When Google took over FeedBurner, Google wanted to bring the best of FeedBurner and Google in syndication publisher tools and solutions to the Adsense platform and vice versa. And now since FeedBurner is not managed as a separate company or subsidiary, and now that most of the FeedBurner engineering team has joined the Google engineering team, Google has decided to transfer all the FeedBurner accounts to Google accounts. Google is planning to move all it's FeedBurner accounts to Google accounts by February 28, 2009.

But there is good news. That is, you would not lose any subscribers in the transition process. All the feeds.feedburner.com URL would be redirected to your new Google hosted feeds. However, Google says that the analytics and reporting may take some time to adjust, so you might see a drop of subscriber for a week or so. But the number would be same before and after transfer.

You need to login to your Adsense account to configure your feed advertising. There are some new features available through the Google feed service. Adsense for Feeds, Email subscriptions would all be more reliable, robust and would be hosted on Google servers. So you can expect reliability, scalability and more fault tolerance. Although Google has decided to drop the Site Stats and FeedBurner Network features. There are a few changes in the FeedBurner APIs.

If you do not move your FeedBurner account to Google accounts by February 28, 2009 you would no longer be able to access your account at http://www.feedburner.com and your feeds would either begin returning a "404 Not Found" response or a "301 Moved" response back to your source feed. And if you have started to move your FeedBurner account to your Google account, then your new dashboard would be available at http://feedburner.google.com/.

I expected this move after Google decided to drop 10 products from their list. But I never really thought that this would happen so fast. Yesterday I went in to check my FeedBurner subscribers report and everything was the way it should be, but today when I logged in I got an announcement at the top asking me to transfer my accounts.

You would be able to find more about this on Google Help pages.

Another Revolutionary Idea From Google

In the beginning of 2006, during the month of April/May, Google introduced another revolutionary idea in the field of advertising. Not that it's something new from Google, but this thing was indeed mentionable. Google introduced Video Ads.

They are some key points about Google Video Ads. Since Google hosts the videos and the ads are user-initiated, these Video Ads don't slow down your site/blog. Moreover, these Video Ads appear as static images on your page until the user click on the "Play" button. So these ads are not intrusive at all. Now while lengths of these ads may vary, some Video Ads may be up to 2 minutes long. And although you can click on the ads which you have placed on your own page, according to Google:

"...you can watch the videos appearing on your site by clicking on the "Play" button--this will not affect your reports. However, please do not click on the advertiser's URL, or on the ad itself, which will also bring you to the advertiser's site. Clicking on the ad or URL could generate invalid clicks on your account and inflate advertiser costs."
- Official Adsense Blog

Inspite of all these features, somehow people have not quite used Google Video Ads to it's full potential. So, I would later discuss how to create/setup Video Ads for your site/blog so that Google Ads become more accessible to the commercial/professional bloggers.

I Want To Live

I could not choose my birth,
I cannot predict my future.
I cannot seem to elude death.
And Much of this world remains
Unseens to these eyes, much of
It's music remains unheard.
I feel helpless at times. So
Please let me live one more day
In this world, my heaven.

Welcome To My Abode

Come inside Darling!
Leave
The dampness and cold outside.
Welcome to my abode!

I always keep a fire
Of knowledge burning here.

Bask in it's warmth,
Hear it crackle, as
Flames
To achieve new heights.

Pray! Take a chair by the fire,
Make yourself comfortable.

I, as usual
Would be busy
With my thoughts, words and
Dreams.
Hope you would not mind.

Take a look here and there
And I am sure you might find
Something,
You just might find something
Of your interest.

What is URL Frame?

If you don’t have the time, patience or is not familiar with the technical gobbledygook of configuring the control panel of your domain then you can always call the tech helpdesk with you domain provider and ask them to help you out. Now, as we had already discussed that there is a slight problem with that. So you should be better prepared with your rebuttals for not going with URL Redirect or URL Frame so that you can successfully convince the tech guy to configure the CNAME for you.

URL Redirect is the usual method for URL Forwarding. When the user types in your domain name they are redirected to the web server that your page is hosted on. The only drawback of this method is as the person is looking around the site the URL that is displayed by the browser is the one of the actual web page, not your domain name. In other words, once the user types in yourdomain.com he/she lands up on your site with the URL which is displayed being yourdomain.com. But the problem starts once they start navigating in and out of your site. At that point of time they would see the original URL of your site, i.e. youdomain.blogspot.com/index.html and not something like yourdomain.com/index.html, if this is not a problem with you then you can go ahead and ask them to configure your DNS settings accordingly and you won’t even have to change any settings from inside Blogger.

URL Frame is similar to URL Redirect except that instead of redirecting the user to your web page, the web page is actually displayed in a frame from web server of your domain provider. With this method the user's browser will display only yourdomain.com and no other links. So wherever the user might navigate inside your site/blog, they would always see yourdomain.com and not the actual URL. Even with this method you won’t have to change any settings from inside Blogger.

Now for many of us, these might not actually be a problem. But then, there are lot’s of things that you would miss on. Like proper SEO, you won’t ever get a PR and so on and so forth. So now you know why to avoid these redirection methods, if at all you want to avoid them. But as always, if you want to any help feel free to get in touch with me. You can chat with my via Gtalk or Yahoo! You would be able to find my IM details through the Contact page.

Award Shaward

I got 2 award in a row. First one I got is from Nimisha, who writes at It's All Relative. Thank you Nimisha. Now here are the rules:

1. When you receive the prize you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back
2. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or even more) that you find brilliant in their content or design.
3. Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with ‘Brilliant Weblog’
4. Show a picture of those who awarded you and those you give the prize (optional).
5. I pass the award to :

Nisha, Shinjini, Ritu, Priya, Rohini, Deepti, Inam


Second one I got from Nisha, thank you for this award. The rules for accepting this award are:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award. So I pass the award to:

Priyanka, Shinjini, Ritu, Priya, Rohini, Deepti, Nimisha, Sanyukta, Arpita, Sandip

Remembrance

Don’t weep over me
When all but my shadow
Remains.
Don’t remember me
When I’m gone.
Burn
My memories to ashes.
Turn away your face
From me.
For I don’t belong to you,
And I
Don’t belong to me.
My words
Are my life, and I created them
To be
Uncorrupt, to remain
Unscathed with the passing
Of time.
My words are faithful
Servants of love,
They nurture not hate,
But fathomless
Affection.
My words worship
The sublime. And with
Reality
My words weave dreams.
Remember my words,
For I belong to them.

Rochak Chauhan - Unexpectedly Exciting

I know Rochak since my days in EXL when we were working together in the DELL Desktop Support Team as Technical Support Specialists. His is a rags to the riches story. It’s unbelievable how a guy, who used to wash clothes is now the CEO of his own company, DMW Technologies. Not that he used to be a laundry boy, he used to wash his own clothes, all I meant was he was and is a hard working gy, what did you think! Jokes apart, he was always a very helpful tech nerd both inside and outside office. A few days back when I was reading an article that he had put up on his blog, I thought about writing a review of his blog. Would be a nice surprise for him after all the help that he did through all these years of friendship. His blog is called Unexpectedly Exciting. Let us first consider the designing aspect of his blog. Being a developer himself, he has successfully given his blog a Web2.0 look using Wordpress 2.7 as his blogging software. White background, a search box at the top right, easy navigation, easy subscription options, integration of Flickr and the abundant use of Javascript to show the recent posts, recent comment et al has given the blog a unique and uncluttered look. Being the helpful tech nerd he is, and to grow his network, he has used Hab.la to be in touch with his readers and prospective clients. The only minor glitch in his blog is the ad near the top banner which has not been aligned properly.

Now let’s come to the content. He writes on myriad topics which includes politics, to humor, blogging, technology and at times about his pind. And thinking about his off-shore visitors, he has installed a translation widget.

Try out his blog sometime, he has lot’s of classes going on on Web2.0. He also has a number of online tutorials on PHP. I am sure you would find his blog as interesting as he himself is. If you found this review a good read then consider subscribing to my RSS feed to keep yourself updated. And I also do paid reviews, so if you would like me to review your blog/site on The Chronicles of R, feel free to get in touch with me. You would find my contact details on the Contacts page.

Configuring Blogger For Your Custom Domain

Last time we were done with configuring the CNAME from the control panel of your custom domain. That being done, now there is little left to do to make your custom domain fully functional. You need to tell Blogspot that you are shifting from the rented apartment named yourdomain.blogspot.com to your own apartment at yourdomain.com.

First you need to login to your Blogspot account. Then click on the Settings link on the blog that you want to redirect to your new domain name. On the Settings page, click on the Publishing tab. On the Publishing page, you would find a link called Custom Domain. Now on the Custom Domain page, click on the link called Switch to Advanced Settings. Now under Advanced Settings, put in the name of your custom domain, select No for the missing host file option and then save the settings. Once this is done, you would be able to view your blog with your custom domain name.

Now if you are unable to configure the control panel of your custom domain on your own and have taken the help of the tech guy from your domain service provider, then make sure you ask him whether he has used URL forwarding, URL frame or CNAME for the www DNS setting. In my next article I would explain in details how would the result vary if you use these options and why you would not be satisfied with these results, so that you can call that tech guy back and bug him off just like I did.

Feel free to drop me a line in case of any problem. I would really try my level best to use my knowledge of working all those years as a Tech guy in DELL to help you out. You would find my contact details on the Contacts page.

Madzee !

Two hot cups of coffee,
With fumes curling up and
Vanishing in thin air.

A pair of beautiful lips
Set perfectly on a
Poignant face. A pair of
Black eyes which spoke
Of myriad emotions.

A silent laughter, an
Animated smile, a pair
Of delicate hands, swirling
The sugar, a touch of
Hands here, an abandoned
Conversation there.

Ingredients for
A perfect evening, together.

[Thank you Madhu, for such a beautiful evening]

Configuring Your Custom Domain

Continuing from where we had left earlier, porting to a custom domain for your blog which is being hosted on Blogspot is easy, provided you know how to configure your domain from your domain control panel and associating it with your Blogspot account. Honestly, it took me a day on phone with the tech guys at my domain providers office to figure this out. And since they did not know how Google functions, they said it’s not possible and to do this I need to create an account in Google Apps and blah blah blah. In the end they abandoned all hope and told me in a very polite way to buzz off. So I after an hour or so of R&D, I could finally achieve the seemingly unachievable task. And today you can see the results yourself.

So today I’ll tell you the hardest part, how to configure your domain control panel so that it points to your Blogspot account. For this you need to edit something called a CNAME record from your control panel. A CNAME, the short and technical form of canonical name, record specifies where can a user find your web page, or any URL. It is usually stored within the DNS settings area of your control panel. So let’s login to your control panel and head over to the DNS settings area.

First thing you need to do is to decide whether you want to use any particular subdomain for your blog. For example, you might like to use blog.yourdomain.com instead of www.yourdomain.com. In both the cases you need to associate the record type to CNAME and the address to ghs.google.com. Now according to the subdomain that you want to use for your blog, you need to put the corresponding subdomain name in place of your Host Name. For example, in case of www.yourdomain.com, the Host Name should be www, the Address should be ghs.google.com and the Record Type should be CNAME. All these setting can be found under the DNS settings Host Records area. Once you have successfully modified the settings, save them and log out. Now remember, these setting would take some time to take effect, it may even take 48 hours. So have patience.

This is all you need to do on your Domain control panel. In my next tutorial I would tell you how to configure your Blogspot account to successfully associate it with your custom domain. Now if you face any problem while configuring your domain control panel or setting up your new custom domain, you can always add me on your IM or email me and I would try my level best to help you. You can find my contact details from the Contacts page. And if you really think that this article was helpful, consider sharing it on the different social networking sites using the button below.

I, Me and Myself

"Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale." ~ Anonymous

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that’s very true and that’s how I found The Chronicles of R on a certain Christmas day in the year 2007. And since then there was no turning back for me.

I am Rajtilak “Jim” Bhattacharjee, the author of The Chronicles of R. I am a very simple human being to begin with. I am so ordinary that ever you come across me on the street, you would forget me the moment I am out of your sight. Throughout my life I have been a dreamer. I started off my journey with words since the inception of The Chronicles of R, all my previous attempts were complete disasters.

I often ask myself, why The Chronicles of R? It is true that I mostly write for myself, even though off late I have written a few words on the request of my readers, friends and sometimes, complete strangers. Well, The Chronicles of R has been my voice of protest. It is the best I could do, being the unknown citizen that I am. I don’t believe in bandhs or any sort of violence in the name of protests and reforms. Neither do I believe in forwarding chain emails. And although it certainly should have been, considering the part of the country that I hail from, I still remain unmoved by the cholche na, cholbe na culture. I love to believe that we still have an iota of civilization left within us.

Now, I am not a person who is all frowns and no smiles. I have a romantic side of me too, a territory which is mostly undiscovered, unchartered and unclaimed. And it is this part of me which urges me to express myself in a tender, delicate manner. And so I am a poet. Although I practice certain other art forms, yet I feel free, I feel myself within the limitedness of expressions in a poetry.

I am a science graduate from Asutosh College in the class of 2003, which is under the University of Calcutta. I have a work experience in various fields. From being a content writer to B2B sales, from being a Tech Support guy in DELL to online marketing. But since November 2008, I have taken up blogging as my full time carrier. I usually do freelancing as a SEO (did I say that I am available for pole dancing in private parties too). But yes, being the dreamer that I am, I also have a dream of becoming a writer or maybe a columnist some day.

I love The Chronicles of R, and I love and respect my readers. And even though I said that I mostly write for myself, it is your comments, your criticism, your love and encouragement which is what give me the fuel to continue writing even in difficult times. I don’t know where life would lead me, but I would remain the dreamer, the poet and the ordinary human being that I am, and The Chronicles of R, my inspiration.

The Best of The Chronicles of R in 2008

Here is a collection of articles and poetries from the year 2008 which were highly appreciated by the readers of The Chronicles of R.

Body Paint Your Blog
This article is about how to add a zeal to the look of your blog.

Making Love To You
A highly appreciated poetry, it depicts the love making scene of a couple in a very delicate way. Although it might sound vulgar, yet this poetry uses imageries of lush green mountains to give it a soothing effect.

Dancing Waters
Another highly appreciated poetry. The Dancing Water means elixir of life in Arabic.

The Raven Couple
The letter written by a divorced man to his ex-wife where he compares the lives of human, and it's follies with that of a raven couple which has a nest on a tree beside his house. A very heart warming tale of fiction.

Finding Forrester
This was done as an experiment to see the outcome of writing poetry without giving yourself the time to think. This was tried in the movie Finding The Forrester and is based on the streams of consciousness.

Think
A burning question which had been asked to every man alive, "are you man enough to respect a woman?". A must read article related to the New Year incident in Mumbai.

Rooms And Dreams Of A Fairy
A romantic poetry where imagination meets reality.

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The Chronicles of R Archives

If you want to find any particular post from The Chronicles of R, this is the perfect place to start with. You can search through the monthly archives, browse through the different categories or you can simply search the whole blog to find something which interest you the most.


Monthly Archives


2011
January, February, March, April


2010
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

2009
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2008
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2007
December


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The City of Blues

The early morning drizzle
Washes my face.
Driving by
The bridge on the troubled waters,
The city of Blues approaches.

Long, slender buildings.
Lights, twilights
Maybe, coming out of the windows.
Red, green, yellow.
Each new light, a new hope,
A new dawn.

Each window a dream,
Burning, creating, surviving.
Laughing, smiling,
Blending in the lush blue fields,
Cause dreams never die.

You must be asleep somewhere,
Carefree,
Warm, with the quilt over your
Silken body. Like the unknown voice
That calls me from
The middle of nowhere, smooth, haunting.

To me it's all blue. Building,
Lights, sky, water
The bridge. And I am smiling.
I am happy, happy to be in
The City of Blues, with you.