What Happened To My City?

Disclaimer: This post was originally written and published on http://CityHyd.info by me.

Yet another blast, one after another they never seem to put an end to it…..Innocent people dying, denizens scared to hell, mammoth security concerns, negligence of intelligence warning,  political drama and the blame game, infrastructural loses……Nothing new, once again life has taken a whole circle. Only thing that became more prominent is- Terrorism!

 

Blasts In Hyderabad

This was my third encounter of a terrorist bombing in Hyderabad in last 6 years. The Mecca Masjid was bombed on May 18, 2007. The Mecca Masjid, a mosque in the old city area in Hyderabad very near to Charminar, was bombed when there were 10,000 people inside the mosque offering Friday prayers. Result- 100 injured and 16 reported dead. In 2007, Lumbini Park was bombed on the 25th August that killed 44 people and injured 70. And then it happened yesterday again at Dilsukhnagar commercial area near a Bus Stop and cinema halls, 3 blasts, killing 22 and injuring 90 people. What the F*#% !

Hurt, Are You?

I’m feeling so hurt that it’s hard to explain in words. An absolute random targeting of innocent people on the streets is the scariest part of terrorism, you don’t know when it will be you or someone from your family, it’s shocking and disturbing. Yesterday night I could feel it as if the whole Hyderabad city has gone in a moan, people’s hearts filled with anger, despair and agony. It’s simply hard to imagine the value of human lives in the eyes of those anti-social elements who kill the innocent people for no reason; they act foolishly, and suddenly there are so many families who are victims. Who takes the blame for killing those innocent people who were living their lives just like any other ordinary day of their usual work week? A thought of losing someone special on a random regular day of your life, due to terrorist attacks scares the hell out me..just imagine one day and life changes. Will you be ever able to bear that pain of those victims? No!!


 

These blasts in Hyderabad are a signal to the people of our nation that no one is safe. And that the government is a failure when it comes to security. On the flip side of it, I also feel providing security to such a hugely populated country is a challenge in itself, but hey that’s not impossible so shouldn’t we at least be trying? Someone said- it’s not about blaming, it’s about healing. If you can’t help it, at least don’t play the blame game. What is more disheartening is the fact that- Government knew and suspected the target place but still nothing done to prevent, such lack of necessary action is unacceptable especially in a terrorist situation. The security authorities have their share of problems- it is a joke that CCTV cams were cut off 4 days ago at Dilsukhnagar area and no one noticed – a true state of security failure!
All we are left post blasts- 100s of victims, a terrified city, a scared country, a broken Dilsukhnagar area with partially opened shops…and a lot of open questions in our minds and hearts! Is this the place where we want to live with our loved ones? Is human life that cheap? While we are confused and distort the great politicians of our country continue to behave in same old fashion, God Bless us! Are we ever going to change? Is there a ray of hope against terrorism at all?

 

We Have To Put A Full Stop

At this moment my mind is bolted with so many random thoughts of ifs and buts that can probably change our country into a paradise overnight, but the reality is- it’s not possible. Yet these words by Margaret Mead, the anthropologist, make me believe that we can one day do what we want- “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has”…It’s time we heal, it’s time we unite and work together for our beloved land, no politics, no hatred, no terrorism!
 

My First Rap Song- Rap Crap

If you are following my blog for sometime now, you know that I simply love to experiment. I'm curious, foolish and weird, but hey isn't that my USP?

That's Me - When I'm on a roll !!

So, here is a surprise, this time I tried a Rap Song :-) ...No kidding !! I call my song as- "Rap Crap", by no means I claim that I'm a rapper or something, this is just an experiment that I did and the result is this song. Well, Rap song without the F*** word is difficult to consume, isn't it? So, if you are a child please refrain from listening the song, please! By the way, the song is not recorded at any studio, it was simply edited and crafted right at the comforts of my living room.





So, here is my "Rap Crap" and following are the lyrics of the song-   

I was sittin in my chair watching tv with my glares
then came a song ....with a lot of bang!
twisted words, a glitter of a light, a shadow of man walking along the aisle...
a crazy dude, angry with someone, shouting on your face...
And I don't fuckin understand...what is the case!

He is shaking his hands, up and down ..
up and down...up and down...
like a wiper of my car blown down...
And I don't fucking understand...... those sounds he make...
uuuuuhhh uuhhh aaaah aaah uuhhh
uuuuuhhh uuhhh aaaah aaah uuhhh

He's got that cool cap, those black shades and a hooded sweaaaat..
he's walking as if he doesn't give a crap
But that ain't rap, my brotha that's not rap....
And I don't fucking understand.....why he thinks that....

O yes don't get angry coz I don't rap...
I don't rap...this is just a piece of my crap...o yes my crap!
I don't fucking understand...what is a rap!
so don't tell me you like my crap, ha ha ha....

EELS- All The Beautiful Things

One of those days when you are surfing through the internet and stumble over a song that you have never heard.......later you become so addicted to it that you just wish if it could just play in the background all the time! Yeah, I'm sure all of us have been there and done that, isn't it?

Alright, here is the song that hit me- All The Beautiful Things By Eels. First, the music of the song is awesome.....oooo did I mention those sweet chords, wow! Second, those lyrics are magical!

So, here is the song, tell me if you like it too-

 

Indie Rock Music

By the way, this song falls under the Indie Rock music category, they say with the advent of internet Indie Rock music really became popular, and I'm a proof of it :-) ...because I found this song just surfing through the web. Indie refers to "Independent", from the very beginning it's said that these are the artists who are like underground non-famous bands and do everything by themselves to spread the word about them and their music. I got to say that I've certainly developed a taste for Indie Rock music, especially if it's slow with sweet guitar chords. Well, so the word is- explore more :-)
 

Lyrics of the song- All The Beautiful Things By Eels

Everyday I wake up, wonder why
I'm alone when I know I'm a lovely guy
Birds come down from sky so blue
See all the beautiful things you do
Why can't I just get with you

Every night I carry out my plan
Pray to God that one day I could be your man
Birds come down from sky so blue
See all the beautiful things you do
Why can't I just get with

You'd be my only friend in the world
Well you could just be my girl

And if I do run away from this life
There won't be much for me in the afterlife
Although I know that you don't even care
I'd rather stay in a world where
Birds come down from sky so blue
See all the beautiful things you do
Why can't I just get with you. 

I've One Of The Top 5% Most Viewed Linkedin Profiles For 2012

O yes, it has certainly been a while since I posted anything here, but I wasn't procrastinating. In fact, I was on a writing marathon for my portal- http://CityHyd.info. The good news is- all the effort into CityHyd for the last 6-8months is paying off. As per Alexa's current traffic rankings- CityHyd is ranked 71,884 in India and 703,430 in the world, which is not bad considering it's still a very new website. So, what do you think about it? Anyway, we will discuss more about it later.

Coming back to the title of my post, LinkedIn sent out an email to many people just a couple of days ago letting them know that they were in the top lists of most-viewed profiles on their website. Basically, the email notification told you if you were in the top 1%, top 5%, or top 10% of the most viewed Linked profiles for 2012.

To my surprise, I too have received an official email from Linkedin saying that- I've made to the top 5% most viewed Linked profiles for the year 2012. Really? I just can't believe it, but now that it has happened it makes me feel happy :)

At present Linkedin has over 200 Million users, which means being in the top 5% is not bad at all. Though, I'm sure many will argue that top 5% is like 10 Million users, which actually means a lot of them, but hey I got the email, it's still a good reason to be proud of it, isn't it?
  

WHAT IT MEANS: GOOGLE'S LATEST SEARCH ENGINE ALGORITHM CHANGES

Google has confirmed to Search Engine Land that on Thursday, September 27th, they released a Panda algorithm update. People who are into Search Engine stuff will quickly know that Panda is Google's Search Engine algorithm. This is Google's 20th Panda update and that is the reason it has been called Panda 20. As per the search engine specialists Panda 20 is a major update that impacts 2.4% of English search queries on the Google Search Engine. The exact impact and the type of queries or websites impacted are yet to monitored. Let's see what it brings up in few days.

Panda updates are mostly run by Google to better the quality of its search results. Only a couple of days before rolling the Panda 20, Google dropped the "Low Quality" exact match domains from search results. What it means is- earlier if people would search "let's go and buy bananas", the domain names similar to that of the search query would appear in the top results despite their content quality. For instance in this ("let's go and buy bananas") example: "www.gobuybananas.com" appeared in top results. So, you see basically those domains were tricking you on to their sites on the basis of your search queries by first fooling the Google Search Engine and then of course you. Google confirmed that new exact-match domain (EMD) algorithm affected 0.6% of English-US queries to a noticeable degree and was unrelated to Panda update.

Another important update on the Google Search Engine is- nowadays you will be noticing Google showing 7 (organic) search results on the first page for many searches, instead of the usual 10. So, where are those 3 more search results? Well, instead of those 3 search results, Google is showing sponsored or ads related to keywords links. For example, search for "making money" which will show you just 7 (organic) search results and 3 sponsored ads related links on the first page of the Google Search Engine. If you do the match it's equal to approximately 30% reduction of organics search results. So again, what does it really means?

Many will feel that- Google is chipping away at organic search results to drive buyers to paid listings, and soon, the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) will become irrelevant, but the reality is showing 10 to 7 organic responses on the home page isn't exactly eating up the organic results. 

Let dig deep- Google still shows the paid searches very distinguishably such as in the form of "ads related to the keyword"(highlighted in a different color), rest all the response (in this case 7 of them) are still organic. People are smart enough or let me say Google is letting people know what are paid results and what are organic results. Till the time Google doesn't confuses a user between the paid vs the organic searches it's fair and square. A Search Engine survey showed that most people ignore ads once they understand the meaning of it...all they look for is organic responses!! Hence, having 7 results out of 10 on the first page isn't that bad when u know now that on the next page u have the next best organic responses.

From a Search Engine Optimization companies' perspective showing 7 organic results is a really dull move by Google. Let's say if you are trying to rank for a certain keyword on the search engine, there are now 30% less chances of landing on the first page, and as per the current trends we know that users rarely click through to page 2 or 3. Hence, the only other way to land on the first page will be is to buy an ad.

Having said that if Google tends to focus more on paid ads and less on organic searches, we will soon monitor the shift in users' behavior, which could be in the form of improvement of click through to page 2 from 1....Things are evolving, and these changes may put businesses in an iffy-giffy frame of mind for at least the limited period of time till the users understand the meaning of what has been brought by the search engine on their screens. Still, the bottom line is- Google or for that matter any search engine company have to align itself to the customer behavior than vice-versa. Hence, it will be wise to have your content or SEO strategy more aligned towards the user behavior than the Search Engine Algorithmic changes, yes there will be always slight alterations, but nothing can stop a business if it has unique original content along with high traffic on the website.