Indillectual.

So, if you haven’t been following me on Twitter, you probably don’t know what I’ve been upto these days/weeks/months.

I’ve started a new podcast, it’s called Audible India. I’m not the only one doing it, there’s Kaushik, Priya, Harry and Rishabh and we all basically do our thing over there.

It’s a podcast about India, as the name implies. It’s got music, movie reviews, tech, opinion and next week, we might as well have a segment on sports. This is how I explained to one of my comrades, about how it works:

Usually, what most podcasting people do is that they all get on skype, initiate a call, talk and then record their talk. the problem here is that everyone on the show has to take out time out of their schedules to talk for more than 30 minutes (or whatever time) at a fixed time of the week. If one person is doing the recording at one time, everyone also has to be present to make it happen. Not convenient.

Our idea is however different. We give different “segments” or “features” to different people. Now, these people, they can record their segment of 5 minutes any time of the week. Whenever they are done, they can send their mini-recording to one person who stitches all the recordings together and makes a complete show out of it. Convenient.

It’s been going good. We published our third episode today. It’s been fun. We’ve got a few subscribers, but I think we still need to work on the content and spreading the word. I might need to hire a social media expert now. Ha!

If you are Indian, or would like to be an Indian, check it out → Audible India

• I start wearing t-shirts and pack off my full sleeve shirts.
• The fan is an always required equipment.
• Body starts making sweat
• I FEEL electricity cuts
• Noons are really sleepy.
• I no more require the geaser. 
• Bathing is actually fun.
• I can feel sweat under my hands while handling the mouse.
• It becomes deadly hot.
• Did I mention electricity cuts? They suck.

I just took this test. With my ‘high’ grades, I seem like a pretty ominous person. Or maybe not. lol. Thanks to constantflux for letting me know about it. Take this test here: http://www.0eb.com/

aayush:

A horrifying look at the real story behind one of the most glamourous cities in the world. It’s very lengthy but I highly recommend it.

(via Instapaper)

Can’t thank Aayush enough for bringing this to my attention.

Insightful article.

And surprising as shit.

It’s 5:25 AM right now. I’m wearing a lose pajama, a woolen sweater (that’s what you should wear in 5°C) that my mom made for me, and a baseball cap. I have a Philips headset sitting on my head — all this, since 10 PM yesterday.

Today, I did a podcast. My first.

Things I learnt:

Your voice sounds really freaky and totally unlike you when you first record and play it.

Podcasting is not easy.

Podcasting is not easy especially when there are three guys. Three Indians. One who does podcasts regularly. That’s not me. Another who lives in America and has some pretty good spoken english. That’s not me either. And then one guy who lives in some north Indian city and has a weird accent. That’s me.

Did I tell you that your voice sounds really freaky?

You loose a night’s sleep if you get the job of editing the podcast (which apparently includes a lot of shits, fucks, 3-2-1 actions, lets do it agains)

But that loss of sleep is worth it. You learn to use something like Audacity.

I once again realized that I speak really fast. Fast like a Ferrari. So fast, that I eat my vowels and cut my consonants into fractions. Really.

That fast speak works in school, with friends, with family — who are all used to me cranking out a bajillion words in a minute. When you realize you are being recorded, you wet your pants. The make-it-all-in-english-no-vernacular-slangs approach is also quite difficult to meet.

Anyway, I did it. It won’t be published yet. Because it was a dry run. Haha!

I assure you, Sire. My accent wilth be godamth awesometh. It won’t sucketh at the final recording.

Did you tell you that it was fun? Damn yeah.

Did I tell you that I really need to catch sleep? Oh yeah.

An old man lived alone in a village. He wanted to spade his potato garden, but it was very hard work. His only son, who would have helped him, was in prison. So old man wrote a letter to his son and mentioned his situation:

Dear Son,

I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my potato garden this year. I hate to miss doing the garden, because your mother always loved planting time. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me, if you weren’t in prison.

Love,
Dad

Shortly, the old man received this telegram: “For Heaven’s sake, Dad, don’t dig up the garden!! That’s where I buried the GUNS!!”

At 4 a.m. the next morning, a dozen FBI agents and local police officers showed up and dug up the entire garden without finding any guns.

Confused, the old man wrote another note to his son telling him what happened, and asked him what to do next.

His son’s reply was: “Go ahead and plant your potatoes, Dad.. It’s the best I could do for you from here.”

(via email)

Today, I’ve come to realize, that money is mostly all that matters in life for those who aren’t immortal. Fifteen years of my life, I’ve grown up watching people around me travailing to get that extra touch to their lives. And I always thought how disgruntled people are. Why can’t they live with what they have? Why do the always need more than they have?

Today, something happened that made me feel my way of looking at things was wrong. Whatever we do in life, living in this world, everything comes back to existence. I remember when I used to watch the Ramayana on television, my mother told me, that even though Ram had eternal powers and even though he was an avatar of God, he limited his abilities to humanly. With this, he signified that whoever lives in this world - no matter how powerful or powerless - has to go by the way of the society and live socially with all other human beings.

Whatever work you do, no matter how big or small, you’ve got to have food. Food for existence. For those who have got enough food, look up for social status. Those who have a good status in the society, look up for a healthy lifestyle and luxuries. Those who have enough luxuries, lack time, so they spend to save time. Ultimately, times comes out to be equivalent of money.

I can’t share with you about what happened today, but it has come to change my vantage point about life. It’s probably because I’m maturing and deeper thoughts enter my mind, I really don’t know. It seems like I’ve gone from being an open source individual to being commercialized. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but for the time to come, I can see that it is necessary for existence and survival in this world we live in.