Nuturing your creativity...

Nuturing your creativity...
Very often I have seen people doing some inspirational, creative work which by sheer force of their inspiration, shakes the earth under your feet and make your mind run like hell to do something similar.

So many times their creative genuis misguides you about yourself and you tend to think yourself in the same league as them and try to pull off the same creativity which is often sparked by their viral genius. However when you start doing something like them, more often than not you endup dumping it before it ends.

Technically, doing something creative in a time bound or result oriented bound fashion is like putting too much responsibility on your fragile human physche. Its like asking someobdy to swallow the sun.Creativity does not work in a time bound or result oriented boundation.Creativity is free from the boundary wall of constraints.

Where does creativity come from ?

Worker ideas come through un-indentified sources. Sometimes they come at awkward times like when I am driving or sleeping. Sometimes they come at a busy work schedule or in a high packed Delhi traffic jam and that's when I have to look up at the sky and ask the almighty  "Excuse Me GOD! Don't you know that I am driving or don't you know that you are still keeping me awake at 2am in the midnight. Can't you bloody flow these creative juices in my body at a more opportune moment ? WTF my lord ? I can't even sleep (its 2.30am) and you are constantly firing the bullets of creative juices at me in this haunting midnight".

"Go bother somebody else today, please go and bother some creative fellow like Chetan Bhagat, Amir Khan or Ajay Rathee or may be my singer friend Bharat Gambhir".

That's how I release the pressure of that so called genius(or rather stupidity) within me that was creating all the trouble at an awkward time and managed to send it back to a place where it came from.

So how does creativity work in your brain ?

Creativity is a process where 50% of you and 50% of the universal matter work in conjunction. 

While writing something creative, I go to a dressing table or a chair and tell him that "listen dude I am done with my bit and now its your job. I will keep writing.I am already doing the best that I have. Now making it more creative you must do your 50%.

The above exercise helps me when I start writing something creative and nothing comes to my mind and I would landup writing an absurd piece of article. The worst one ever written by a human :)

How do you experience creativity ?

Creativity is divinity, when you are involved in something so deeply that even the time stops for you.Not just time but also your existense becomes insignificant, only the act holds the significance.In short it is a glimpse of God within you.
When it strikes for that ephemeral moment, you experience the zero within you and ordinary people are marveled with your thrust. Words like Bravo !, Beauty !, Wonderful !, Awesome... follow. When this happens frequently with you, don't stop to call yourself a creative chap. Thats how creativity works ! You just can't word it accurately. Let me know how you find my first piece of crap at creative writing :) 

-Bhaskar Tripathi
"It is our wits that make us men"

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How to find out where a picture was taken? कैसा पता लगाएँ फोटो कहाँ खीची गयी ?

Say you are exploring interesting places on the Internet and come across a beautiful destination that you would like to visit sometime in future. The only problem is that the web photograph carries no text caption and you therefore have no clue of the location where that picture was possible taken. 
Google will do that for you and actually tell you the location of the image where it was shot ! 
Ain't it simply superb ?
If the photograph is some popular destination, google will display the "possible location".   
Goto : Images.google.com, Simply drag an image from your desktop or another web page to the search box. 

- Bhaskar Tripathi
"It is our wits that make us men !"

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Want to invest in Argentina ?

Cra argentinaWant to invest in Argentina ? In the current cut throat competitive business environment, no organization can afford to enter an emerging market without  evaluating the business environment holistically from a long term standpoint. Here we evaluate risks in investing in Argentina from different tilts. Following is the country Risk analysis for Argentina.

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Income tax slab 2011-2012

This is Tax filing season and lot of you would be curious to know about the latest income tax slab rates for Year 2011-2012. Following income tax table will help you to refer the latest income tax slab for calculating your income tax for year 2011-12.

Income Tax Filing

Quick highlights for Tax payers

• Base slab for general tax payers increased to 1.8 lakh from original 1.6 lakh.
• Senior citizen age is reduced to 60 years from last years 65 years. 
• Senior citizens now include people between 60 and 80 years. 
• Also increased the base slab for senior citizen to 2.5 lakh from previous years 2.4 lakh
• A new category called "Very Senior citizen" added for people above 80 years.

Income tax slabs 2011-2012 for General tax payers

Income tax slab (in Rs.)	Tax
0 to 1,80,000	No tax
1,80,001 to 5,00,000	10%
5,00,001 to 8,00,000	20%
Above 8,00,000	30%

Income tax slabs 2011-2012 for Women

Income tax slab (in Rs.)	Tax
0 to 1,90,000	No tax
1,90,001 to 5,00,000	10%
5,00,001 to 8,00,000	20%
Above 8,00,000	30%

Income tax slabs 2011-2012 for Senior citizen
(Aged 60 years but less than 80 years)

Income tax slab (in Rs.)	Tax
0 to 2,50,000	No tax
2,50,001 to 5,00,000	10%
5,00,001 to 8,00,000	20%
Above 8,00,000	30%

Income tax slabs 2011-2012 for Very Senior citizen
(Above 80 years)

Income tax slab (in Rs.)	Tax
0 to 5,00,000	0%
5,00,001 to 8,00,000	20%
Above 8,00,000	30%

-Bhaskar Tripathi
"It is our wits that make us men"

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अग्निपथ! अग्निपथ! अग्निपथ! Agneepath ! Agneepath ! Agneepath !

-Bhaskar Tripathi
"It is our wits that make us men !"

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How Kolaveri and Google struck Gold ? कोलावेरी और गूगल को सोने क खजाना कैसे मिला?

Kolaveri - A new entry the Dictionary
People often discuss how to get a song or a movie in the line of sight of the audience. It is all about analysing the consumer preferences and offering the value proposition.The sucess of Kolaveri which crossed 10 Million mark, has invited various case studies from students and faculty of IIMs and other prestigious B-Schools.

Dhanush & Team

However, it seems almost everyone missed out one important subject of discussion in there analysis.

What got missed out ?
The most important part of course is Google !!  Yes ! Google owns you-tube. Google is trying to take away traffic the from TV industry, Cable industry, Movie industry. In short, Google is trying to push entertainment away from the standard mediums to your cell phone, to your iPhone,to your android phones. You might have noticed that everytime you upload your own content to youtube and do a google search, google supports it in its search and it is right there on the top.
The group of companies and products (blogger,youtube etc) that google owns are always a hit in SEO and go viral easily. It can be said that Kolaveri sucess is more of a Social Marketing/ Social engineering phenomenan than viral marketing. Marketing meritocracy alone cannot justify such a grand sucess of any product.

People must recognize that Kolaveri is not a viral marketing phenomenan at all. It is an acquitted case of Social engineering which will set game changing trends in viral marketing.

The Youtube Revolution

Behind the Scene Mechanics and the root cause :
1.  There had been lot of videos across the internet which had gone viral but none of the scale of Kolaveri. All previously hit videos had excellent online marketing strategy but none was so sucessful. It amuses me !

2. These days a song or any other entertainment keyword is searched on google, invariably a youtube video is displayed on the first 2-3 search results.

Shruti Hassan - One of the Kolaveri's

3. Going by the current popularity - youtube might become a game changer in the future of entertainment industry which is becoming more and more internet driven.

4. Sony Music Corp is an early adapter of new technology which also reflects in its marketing powerful process.The corporation wants to become a leader in the uprising internet entertainment industry.

5. Sony Music Corp and Google might have a mutually beneficial tradeoff. If Sony Music & Google have a agreement to make Kolaveri viral, then it will be a win-win for both Google and SonyMusic in the early days of internet entertainment industry and get an early advantage/edge over the few existing competitors.

6.       Tradeoff benefits :
Google :

•  Google will get the data for consumer preference to improve its already intelligent search capability.
•  Promotion of Youtube as an alternative to traditional entertainment media is another benefit.

Sony Music Corporation :

•  Online marketing requires lower cost as compared to conventional marketing. Sony Music corp will get a cost advantage in both marketing and advertizing.
• Kolaveri is a movie song which is release before the movie. Sony corp can potentially devire revenue benefits from the movie by piggybacking on the success of the song.

I hope, I have been able to beat the shit out of the mystery of Kolaveri's sucess.  If you like this article, share it on your facebook / retweet using the below toolbar.

-Bhaskar Tripathi
"It is our wits that make us men"

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Crowdsourcing - The common man's real power !

What is Crowd-sourcing ?
Crowd-sourcing fundamentally means to utilize social media as a people tool and give power to people to witness, record and share the latest tidings happening around their sphere.

The concept of crowd-sourcing news items is not a newfangled one. It started back in 2004-05 when  bloggers began blogging the daily news in the content driven websites by revealing very different and genuine news items backed by the "actual" on-ground factual information which was mis-informed by the official statements of regimes and government driven media.

How people have used themselves as citizen journalists to chouse the oppressive governments ?

The world has witnessed the true power of social media which has gone to a  completely new level by illuminating a journalist in the common man. The recent unrest in the Arabian countries like Bahrain,Syria,Egypt and Tunisia is a striking example of successful regime changes by the common man by utilizing the power of social media as reporting tools.

Usage in India
In India too, crowd-sourcing campaigns run by individuals on facebook,twitter and youtube played the igniting effect behind the Anna Hazare. The common man can hold government and police more accountable who have developed a habit of refuting factual information by mis-interpretation.

Inspiring video :
TED speaker and citizen Journalist, Paul Lewis talks about the crowdsourcing. One of the most striking vidoes and fabolous I watched this week.



-Bhaskar Tripathi
"It is our wits that make us men"

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What's wrong in bribing ?

Corruption and bribery are hot topics these days. Aren't they ? After the first phase of Anna Hazare's movement, lot of people seem to be raising their voice against corruption. However very few people involved directly or indirectly in the movement would actually think about the root cause of corruption and bribery.

So what's wrong in bribing ? 
Doesn't it mean "give something in exchange of some favour" ?
Isn't bribe like a barter system or a mutual exchange. A mutual interaction between the receiver and the donor which is beneficial for both parties ?

The problem is that a bribe involves compulsion.In the beneficiary's opinion this is the only way of taking care of a matter and getting the work done.

"Remember, the bribe givers and potential bribe takers have very similar features".  I figured out a few reasons  why Indians support corruption (of course they do !!). Don't give me this temporary Anna story. Most of you do it !!

Top 8 reasons - Why Indians trade Bribes ?

1. Money : Desire to gain quick money, to become richer.
2. Administration : Badly functioning, inefficient administration - One of the most prominent reasons why Indians bribe. People need a good service no matter what is the mode. Hook-or-Crook is a nice game to play and bribe the incompetent authorities.
3. Gift Money : Gift is an expression of gratitude. However, "Demanded" gifts are the most common on our part of the world. Recall "Mayawati","JayaLalitha","Gandhis" and very recently our spiritual gurus(Satya sai).
4. Low Salaries : Bribes are a nourishing supplement to low salaries.
5. Only cash : A very effective Mantra to hide taxes from the govt.
6. Moderate acceptance : Indians are okay with a weak or moderate acceptance of bribe. Hence the result.
7. Good service : A guarantee of better, more reliable performance of duties by the bribe taker.
8. Legislation : Excessive quantity of unclear legislation.

The Government Standpoint on corruption :

Independent India – colonial practices. Kill meritocracy and promote preconceptions by "Arakshan". Mr Singh or BJP.There is nothing much to differentiate.

How is the economy still surviving?

The Indian State today subsidizes bribery worth billions of dollars. So how come we are still a survinving economy ?

No economist can give an absolute answer to this question. We are the second most growing economy in the world despite all the above inefficiencies. Credit to the Indian social strength !!

Bribery is a way of life for Indians

Basically, 90% of us are a sheep population having a heard mentality.In awless words, our "Cattle Class" is  an innocent population which can be easily duped.  Bribery was ingrained in India and in her innocent "Cattle Class" by the British as a part of the social disintegration policy in the early 1930s which still runs in our veins. (Social disintegration Policy Started by Lord Macaulay) Except for the Anna movement, we have done little against this Social disintegration Policy. 

-Bhaskar Tripathi

"It is our wits that make us men !"

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Login into Gmail using multiple accounts

The much awaited feature of Google's multiple sign-in from the same machine is finally on ! Try experiencing it immediately in a quick 4 step hack.

You can have multiple Gmail accounts and login into anyone of them. It works on most Google Applications sucessfully.

Multiple Gmail logins from one machine

Here is a very quick way of enabling this feature.

1. Go to the multiple sign-in settings page. 
2. Sign in to your account.
3. Select On to enable the multiple sign-in feature and select the check-boxes to confirm that you understand how to use multiple sign-in. 
4. Click Save changes.

Multiple Sign-in

-Bhaskar Tripathi
"It is our wits that make us men"

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4 tips for striking balance between work and life

The Problems :


Everyday we observe the examples of classic corporate warriors : Eating too much,drinking too much,working too hard and neglecting the family.

Everybody needs balance. The easiest way to balance work and life is don't work at all !!.  Not a very useful proposition to have especially when the money runs out..:)


 I have spent huge time in isolation from work to deduce four very obvious but neglected observations:

1. If society is to make any progress on this issue we need an honest debate.
2. The problem is that so many people talk so much rubbish over this issue. Be it flexi time,dress down fridays or paternity leave or any other crap which is meant for be-fooling people.Some jobs are fundamentally incompatible to the nature of life some people want.
3. Every day 1000s and 1000s of people keep screaming about their jobs and keep slogging for hours on day to day basis just to buy the daily grocery and to impress the people they don't like.
4. The important issue is that governmet and corporations are not going to solve this issue for us.
    So stop looking outside.It is up to us as individuals to take control over the type of life we want to live.

The Corporate DNA :

If you don't design your life, someone else would design it for you.They just not like your idea of balance. It is particularly important that you never put the quality of your life in the hands of a commercial corporation.Now I am not just talking about the bad companies, but I am talking about all companies.Because commercial companies are designed to get as much out of you as they can get away with. It's in their nature, its in their DNA, its what they do. Even the good, well intentioned companies.

You & your company

On one hand putting child care facilites in office is wonderful, but on the other hand spending your nights in the bloody office is a nightmare.
We have to be responsible for setting the boundaries in our life. 
We need to be careful about the time frame that we choose for our work.
Don't fool yourself that you will have a life when you retire.You won't be having any modes of interest in life by then when you health is ailing,your wife gets old, your kids are busy and you look out for all the things that you missed out.

The Solution:
"The solution is that we need to approach balance in a balanced way !"

Life primarily has 4 aspects which need to be balanced.

1. Physical
2. Emotional
3. Intellectual
4. Spiritual

Balancing your life means : Don't let your Intellectual aspect dominate the Physical or Emotional aspect or vice-versa. Striking the right balance is imperative.

• Physical - Join a gym or run or play a sport everyday to balance the Physical aspect,
• Emotional - Spend qulity time for your parents,wife,girl friend. Play with your pets.
• Intellectual - Think about things other than work. Give solutions to different problems not associated with daily work.
• Spiritual - Medidate.Yoga.Know yourself.

Balance these four aspects and get back to my post with your comments. Thanks for spending your precious five minutes.

-Bhaskar Tripathi
"It is our wits that make us men!"

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