Wikipedia Outreach Session @ NIT Agartala

I was in Agartala for an outreach session of Wikipedia. Here's a quick wrap around of my visit:

My flight landed nearly at 5pm evening, a fine breeze was flowing and there was Nikhil, waiting for me outside. Nikhil & Aveek has been co-ordinating the whole event.  

The NIT campus was nearly 45-50mins journey via car (trust me its quite long, but you'll love the natural beauty you get to see even when the sun is falling down). 

The following day comprised of two events primarily, a lecture by Dr. D.Udaya Kumar, asst. Prof, IIT Guwahati (The man behind the Indian currency symbol) follwed by the Wiki workshop. I started off with the basic meaning of the term 'Wiki+pedia' then informed them about the Wikimedia Foundation & its projects. As the presentation moved forward, lots of queries started to pour in. It was nice to see that everyone did little bit of googling on Wikipedia before attending the workshop which made it easier for me to explain. 

Along with normal queries on pages created & the 'neutral point of view', the SOPA issue was also raised & I had to explain how its going to affect Wikipedia. I tried to be as clear as possible regarding the copyright vios as they have been an issue through out the India Education project. In the edit session we had lots of fun together editing, though the Wifi connection was troubling us, we managed to do quite a bit of editing. 

I have created a wikiacademy page on this (still updating the 53 participants list..) : http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Wiki_Academy/National_Institute_of_Technology_Agartala

P.S: It was an honour having Dr. D. Udaya Kumar in the Workshop, he was very much interested in Wikipedia. He promised me to help us in organising a similar workshop in IIT Guwahati..:)

Through the Looking Glass: On Why We Are Going Abroad

Through the Looking Glass: On Why We Are Going Abroad: "Back after a long long lull, with a significant post very relevant to the current season. Look around you. Its everywhere. And whether you..."

2012

When we stop fighting for each other that is when we loose humanity

2012...

The year on which the world ends...

The film kicks of from India, the realization of the fact that the time of extreme devastation has come.
The earth's crust is destabilizing....
The storyline is damn fast, once you get engrossed, no way you'll want to leave your seat..The film grasps you, holds you, till the very end...
Direction is damn good & honestly no comments on the special effects!!!
Roland Emmerich (the director) does a fine job. He portrays nearly every part of the crisis..
Mind blowing special effects & heart stopping suspense embellishes the film.

But, not to miss the humanitarian side.

You see, the film also draws our attention to a dark side..
The team leaders gathered here to fight against this calamity didn't let normal people know about the raw fact. Instead whoever came to know of the reality was executed..
I donno why the leaders decided to do so. May be to stop people from panicking..

But KILLING?? & that too at the time like this??
In the movie Oliver Platt addresses these dead people as "Enemy of Humanity"!!
I doubt what exactly crossed his mind.

We also see tickets being sold at a price of 1 billion Euros. Naturally, it was a luxury only the rich could afford it. No doubt the whole thing was kept top secret. The end was near & all they could think of was money (after all, they are human beings).

Even Adrian was shocked, seeing his room in that savior ship. That the vast space it consumed, his room alone could easily accommodate 10 more people.
He receives a call from his friend in India, who later became the victim of the rage of nature. In spite of being the first to anticipate this calamity..

John Cusack plays a wonderful role, from beginning to end.Oliver Platt plays a man with logics. He believes in certain rules & regulations and thus acts accordingly..
But being logical is a part of machine life, not human..

Being human means to have feelings, to care, to share...

So, as a result, like all films, the leaders of different countries finally realize the fact and ordered to open the
doors of that so called 'Noah's Ark' like ship so that more people can be accommodated..

However, the end ends with a hope. The water has stabilized, no more turbulence.. people on the ship are expecting to start there lives again soon..

but above all, what caught my attention was the last scene where Cusack's son asks him that when will they be home..

Cusack replies that,wherever,

'They' are all together,

it will be always home...

So true...

Why can’t we?

Recently I watched a movie named ‘casino’. After seeing it, something occurred to me.... This film was all about Las Vegas, the casino world & how people fight to make it to the top. So at the end, the film was all about backstabbing each other.

After a long 2hrs n 40min of watching I want to share something with you guys...

Is backstabbing a naturally acquired taste of every human being? I mean we all hear people say:
“We hate people with two faces!!” and all that stuff.... Even I utter the same lines sometimes. But perhaps at the days end we all end up backstabbing each other...
but why? Maybe we don’t know the answer, or maybe we all know...

We all have our feet on a clay field, so we feel uncomfortable whenever attention is drawn to our base. We all have certain drawbacks, no one is perfect. Every human being has certain negativity blended with positivity.

It is my realisation that, say we meet someone and become good acquaintances. Initially we get attracted to each other, of course seeing certain good characteristics of each other. But as days pass by and we get closer, we come to know each other in a much better way. We realise the other aspects, other shades of that person. We may like it or hate it.

If we like it, it’s ok. But what happens if it’s the other way around?

The answer is simple. There comes a crack in relationship. It just shatters… We blame each other unreasonably… We think, “Was it the same person I liked???”

My q is that why can’t we all accept the fact that we all have certain negative aspects and can do nothing about it except trying our best to correct them. Perhaps there is no single person living/dead who doesn’t/didn’t have negative aspects.

So, my point is simple, if we could just accept this single fact & cooperate or better to say compromise a bit, perhaps there wouldn’t have been so many cracks in friendship or relationship like we all see around us.

I donno whether I am right or wrong. But this is the way I think. What do you think?
Feel free to comment…

:( :(

I know I’m selfish
But I want your love
I don’t want him
Getting all your love
I’ve fallen for you
And dear god, it hurts

I want to be the one
To make you smile
To make you laugh
But no matter what
I just can’t seem to
And dear god, it hurts

I want you to be happy
But I don’t want him
To be the reason
Of your happiness…
It should be me, yet its not
And dear god, it hurts.

I love you with all
That I am, all of my heart
You are all that I can think of
You are all that I want
But do you want someone else?
Dear god, it hurts…

:(

It hurts when you don’t notice me,
It hurts when you don’t listen to me,
It hurts when you don’t care about me,
It hurts when you say you love me but I don’t feel it.

It hurts when you don’t ask me what’s wrong,
It hurts when you’re not there to save me,
It hurts when you act too busy for me,
It hurts when you don’t hear me screaming.

It hurts when I think about what I can’t have,
It hurts when I imagine bliss but have to wait for it,
It hurts when you don’t know why I’m hurting,
It hurts when you don’t know that I’m hurting.

There is so much pain inside of me,
I need to release it,
I need your help to learn to be happy,
For I am loved by you,
But I still complain,
I still feel miserable,
Please stop hurting me,
I know you don’t mean to,
But the pain is too hard to bear,
Hold me and tell me it’s ok,
Tell me you’ll make it better,
Please fix me.

Losing you....

Why are you so different?
You’re not who you used to be
And why am I so lonely,
When you’re right infront of me?
Something isn’t right,
I can see it in your eyes
I’m just trying to find
A truth behind the lies
You act like we’re so close
But we couldn’t be more far apart
And right now I can’t handle
Someone playing with my heart
Tell me that I’m dreaming,
Tell me our love’s still strong,
Tell me you’re not leaving,
Please tell me that I’m wrong
Tell me that everything
Is going to be just fine
Tell me you love me
And you’ll always be mine
Constantly, we’re fighting
It gets worse everyday
And I don’t want to stay
Just to watch you slip away
I only want to make you smile
But I only make you frown
I just want to make you happy
Seems all I do is bring you down
I’ve never felt so far away from you
And I need you here so bad
But I feel like we’ve already lost
Everything we ever had
Please tell me that I’m dreaming,
Tell me our love’s still true,
Tell me you’re not leaving,
I’d give up anything but you
But I don’t know you anymore
You’re not who you used to be
How can I miss you so much
When you’re right here with me?
I’ve never been
This scared before
And I can’t take this
Anymore
We fight, we try,
We scream, we cry,
We fake, we lie,
We say goodbye
Then you wrap your arms around me
And you look into my eyes
You tell me that you love me
And we both apologize
Then we pretend
That everything is ok
And it is, at least
For the rest of the day
The last time we did this
Was yesterday
And we said things would
Never be this way
But tomorrow we’ll do it
All over again
And right now it’s the worst
It’s ever been
Remember when we first met?
Remember our first kiss?
Remember those first couple years?
They weren’t anything like this
I keep telling myself,
It isn’t true
But deep down, I know

I’m losing you…