Amagi going Live from December 15th in Hyderabad

We at Amagi (www.amagi.com) provide an innovative way of advertising on national TV channels on a significantly cost-effective basis. We have tied up with top English and Hindi national news channels to provide Hyderabad-only advertising through our local ad-insertion technology.

So, the viewers watching these channels in Hyderabad will see local advertisements. Please note that this is regular TV commercial advertising (10 sec, 20 sec, 30 second ad spots) and not a banner/ticker.

Local advertisers can now advertise on these national channels targeting only Hyderabad paying a much lower rate per spot on these channels.

This provides following major advantages:
- Access to higher income (SEC A & A+) households that the national news channels provide
- Stronger Brand image through association with national channels
- Campaign all through the month at a significantly lower cost compared to newspapers – you can get a few hundred spots a month across these premium channels for the cost of a single quarter-page advertisement in the local edition!!!

And, this could be at a rate significantly lower than national rates for these premium channels.

We can provide complete solution including TV creatives (ads) as required...

If you (or your friends in hyderabad) know the management in any of the following businesses in hyderabad, that are looking to advertise locally, could you let them know about us.

For example the local businesses could be any of the following
Real estate
Media – print, radio etc.
Retail – jewelry, textiles, malls, cinemas, interiors, furniture, home ware etc.
Hospitals
Colleges, schools, other educational institutions
Tutorial colleges
Hotels
Restaurants
Resorts
Spas/theme parks
Auto dealers – 2 wheeler, 4-wheelers
Event management / concerts
Companies who are recruiting
Election campaign management

Follow the yellow brick road

map loading...

And the Caterpillar said to Alice
'Come back here I have something important to say'

Follow the yellow brick road'.

I just realized something.

The yellow brick road, it is not made of gold,

and the wicked witch of the east just burnt her Red Ruby slippers.

Right then! What do we do now?

A personal request:

We have just a couple of hours to celebrate the start of a lifetime! Considering Mumbai's time restriction we will start (Wedding mass/ Wedding reception) on time. As most would know, there is a certain sequence of events at the reception and we would like you to be there every step of the way!

Wedding Mass:

In case you would like to come for the Wedding mass, it is advised that you reach the Church by 05:00 pm so as to get seating within the Church. The mass is a regular one in the Church and hence there would be limited seating.

Distances (in time and not kms- as is always the case for Mumbaikars!):

It takes about 15 minutes from Inorbit Mall (please see map) to the Orlem Church (Wedding mass- ‘Our Lady Of Lourdes Church’); about 30 minutes from the Orlem Church to Samara (Wedding reception venue); about 40 minutes from Inorbit Mall to Samara; about 90 minutes from Bandra to Samara.

Please note: Once you turn left at the INS Hamla board on Malad Marve road, it is a 12-15 minute drive to Samara. The road is quiet and relatively deserted compared to the rest of the city- so hang in there and please don’t panic! ☺

Distances in kms

Samara (wedding reception venue) is 10 kms away from Orlem Church. The left turn at the INS Hamla board is 4 kms away from Orlem church. From here its 6 kms to the reception. Samara is 700 meters away from The Retreat hotel. Look at this link for kms markers along the route.

Conveyance:

We will have a bus leaving from Orlem Church to Samara for the Reception at 06:30 pm. Conveyance from Samara (after the Reception) is difficult. We will have a bus shuttle between Samara and Orlem Church- every half hour from 09:30 pm to 11:00 pm (for those who don’t have their own conveyance). Public conveyance from Orlem Church can then be availed.

We would appreciate receiving an email/ call if you would like to avail of the bus from the Church to Samara, so that we can plan the number of buses accordingly.

We look forward to seeing you on the 15th!

Margaret & Alistair

Feb 15th, 2009

Once upon a time

Once upon a time…

Somewhere beyond the rainbow.

A smile spreads across a face like a butterfly.

Stealing glances, we see our fragility,

Thru same wavelengths on our eyelids.

Calm winds stroke the blue canvas,

Painting a breathless reverie.

Imagination is manifest to the fullest,

Senses being their own artist.

And within all that magic realism,

Poetry is turned into prose.

Like a silent whisper it comes,

With a consciousness of its own.

It comes in a second,

The only time we know its real.

Certainty caresses a frozen sea,

Piercing the subconscious.

Silence repeats itself,

Like echoes in resonant rhetoric.

An unlearning rephrases rationality,

Making connections that transcend.

And then we exhale,

Exhale the wisdom,

That lies in a single simple deep breath.

Once upon a time…

Or so the story begins

Cause we all remember fairytales in our own way.

--- Alice & Magipau in Never Never Land

October 2008

NaNoWriMo

I completed NaNoWriMo 2006. Have decided to give it another try this year. Magipau will be writing too :)

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2007, we had over 100,000 participants. More than 15,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

So, to recap:

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.

Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

Still confused? 

How NaNoWriMo Works (in Ten Easy Steps)

1) Sign up for the event by clicking the "Sign up Now" link at the top of the site. It's right at the tip of the runner's pencil.

2) Read the ginormous email our noveling robots send you. It will have "Love" in the subject line.

3) Log into your account and use the links on the My NaNoWriMo page to set your timezone, affiliate with a region, and tell us a little bit about yourself.

4) Begin procrastinating by reading through all the great advice and funny stories in the forums. Post some stories and questions of your own. Get excited. Get nervous. Try to rope someone else into doing this with you. Eat lots of chocolate and stockpile noveling rewards.

5) On November 1, begin writing your novel. Your goal is to write a 50,000-word novel by midnight, local time, on November 30th. You write on your own computer, using whatever software you prefer.

6) This is not as scary as it sounds.

7) Starting November 1, you can update your word count in that box at the top of the site, and post excerpts of your work for others to read. Watch your word-count accumulate and story take shape. Feel a little giddy.

8) Write with other NaNoWriMo participants in your area. Write by yourself. Write. Write. Write.

9) If you write 50,000 words of fiction by midnight, local time, November 30th, you can upload your novel for official verification, and be added to our hallowed Winner’s Page and receive a handsome winner’s certificate and web badge. We'll post step-by-step instructions on how to scramble and upload your novel starting in mid-November.

10) Win or lose, you rock for even trying.

Once: Falling Slowly

Title song of the Movie "Once"

Glen Hansard - Falling Slowly Lyrics

I don't know you

But I want you

All the more for that

Words fall through me

And always fool me

And I can't react

And games that never amount

To more than they're meant

Will play themselves out

Take this sinking boat and point it home

We've still got time

Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice

You've made it now

Falling slowly, eyes that know me

And I can't go back

Moods that take me and erase me

And I'm painted black

You have suffered enough

And warred with yourself

It's time that you won

Take this sinking boat and point it home

We've still got time

Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice

You've made it now

Take this sinking boat and point it home

We've still got time

Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice

You've made it now

Falling slowly sing your melody

I'll sing along

A single simple deep breath

"It comes in a second. Thats the only time I know its real", her whisper saw realization unclothe itself, laying aside its inhibitions.

"We are beginning to discover each other and ourselves. Isn't it amazing, unlearning and discovering what is already there", the overtone found its way through waxing epiphany.

Her voice felt the reverberations of its thoughts, "The more complex we get, the simpler our thinking needs to be. Its like for example the human body- the more we try and explain the seemingly 'simple'; 'seemingly simple' coz we who are so intelligent still cannot create life at will; the more complex our explanations are getting. And yet, it is so simple the way we give life! and yet cannot give life at will! Thats where I think the unlearning part is; at the heart of something we are all overlooking; understanding something greater by unlearning.

Take the pyramids. I honestly believe we have gotten so damn complex in our thinking, that we just cannot fathom how the hell the pyramids were built all that time ago and yet they must have used something so simple, that it escapes our understanding as a race. We have this need to get complex, increase the entropy for no apparent larger reason and yet.... and yet..", a simple smile inhaled its fresh crisp sensing touch, taking it all in.

"And yet there is so much wisdom in a single simple deep breath"

Connections that transcend

"What you thinking", he asked as silence resonated and awaited an understanding.

A whispering echo then found its way back, "Are all connected... in a manner that transcends beyond our human weaknesses.. and makes us almost human in its fullest potential... well... the essence being that humanness- in its weakness and in its strength- can fill in a void as large possibly as the universe... and all within a single being... all within the mind... it begins and ends there and all that is in between can fill a huge void we cant even begin to understand and yet we do it everyday... We transcend".

Discovering Silence

Was talking about 'silence' with a friend and what it does to you. She managed to bring out the gist pretty well, including 'discovery' and its process.

"There is no 'discovery' of self in the way we set out to find it. We 'discover' who we are by unlearning, reverting to a more basic self. A self we all lose touch with as we live life. We add on layers and explanations and rationale and we "coat" that self. And then set out at some point in life to "discover" it. When in fact it was always there. We just stop reconginizing who we are. 

Thats what a quiet serene place does. It helps that unlearning process, in a manner no other place can.

All people - brilliant achievers, they reach a stage in life where they stop trying to show what they know. They are 'almost' simple. u know? Its like they reach a stage where they know something more precious than all that knowledge and experience they have attained."

Never saw blue like that

Today I took a walk up the street 

And picked a flower and climbed the hill 

Above the lake 

And secret thoughts were said aloud 

We watched the faces in the clouds 

Until the clouds had blown away 

And were we ever somewhere else 

You know, it's hard to say 

And I never saw blue like that before 

Across the sky 

Around the world 

You've given me all you have and more 

And no one else has ever shown me how 

To see the world the way I see it now 

Oh, I, I never saw blue like that 

I can't believe a month ago 

I was alone, I didn't know you 

I hadn't seen or heard you're name 

And even now, I'm so amazed 

It's like a dream, It's like a rainbow, it's like the rain 

And somethings are the way they are 

And words just can't explain 

Cause I never saw blue like that before 

Across the sky 

Around the world 

You've given me all you have and more 

And no one else has ever shown me how 

To see the world the way I see it now 

Oh, I, I never saw blue like that before 

And it feels like now, 

And it feels always, 

And it feels like coming home 

I never saw blue like that before 

Across the sky 

Around the world 

You've given me all you have and more 

And no one else has ever shown me how 

To see the world the way I see it now 

Oh, I, I never saw blue like that before 

Oh, I, I never saw blue like that

-- Shawn Colvin

Be a Writer@NGOPost

Are you tired with the current state of media reporting? Do you want to share stories about social change on a global platform?

NGOpost is a web based community for sharing news and ideas about various social welfare initiatives. In loose terms you can refer to it as "orkut" for people who are interested in making a difference.

NGOpost is actively seeking writers, who are keen on creating something which would have far reaching benefits.

Some simple questions answered.

Do I need to have writing experience?
Not necessary. As long as you know English and can form meaningful sentences it should fine.

What do I have to write on?
Write about the social change you see happening around you. Or write about the change that is needed. It could be interviewing someone who is silently doing great work, and whose work would be an inspiration for others, or it could be an organization doing great job in its respective field. There could also be generic articles like Open education tools available for schools or benefits of organ donation. Otherwise we have list of unending topics which we want people to write on, you can choose from them.

What is the benefit for me in writing for NGOPost?
* NGOpost has readership in 150 countries around the world and it has been increasing. Your article will reach hundreds of people every day!
* Each month we send out our newsletter, which goes to about ~5k people. Your name will featured there along with the link to your profile. Personally if you are a blogger, that would give your blog a lot of visibility.
* More than all this it is the satisfaction of writing about something, which would be of use to hundreds of people. We keep getting feedback how reading some articles on NGOpost helped them solve their own problems and helped them connect with relevant people.
* Going ahead we are working on the partnering with print magazines/newspapers wherein selected articles from NGOpost will get published there. Hence there is a possibility that your article might go in print :).

So Join the band wagon of people who are keen to make a positive difference. If you are interested or have further queries write to us at parul@ngopost.org or goli@ngopost.org

A Moment

I sit by the window
The warmth on my face
A distant noise can be heard
But the warmth and quiet inside makes me forget
For a moment I am transported
To a simple time of dreams
To a simple longing for the vaguely familiar
I breathe deeply and exhale
My eyes close and mind opens
A gentle whispering
From the past
Someone I used to be
Someone I try to now connect with
The distant noise gets louder
Just the way it always does
The quiet now gets distant, as does the past
And my eyes open
My breathing back to being labored
My past gone
I am in the now again
And I am me

-- Margaret Desouza

Obsession

My little world, I wrap myself in
Day in and day out, obsessing
If only this and if only that I say
Inner silence I shatter
'I me and myself' so my days pass
Relativity I forget
Till I hear of another being and his struggle
I stop dead ashamed
I wonder who what and why
My obsession masking what is true
I tend to forget how precious life is
How utterly delicate and taken for granted
I feel worse than I did before
For the thankfulness lasts but a second
Such is the irony of obsession
With oneself and ones own little world
How many more beings would it take
For the seconds to extend to forever
But I end this moment with hope
That we are given time to change
To realize and learn and be thankful
To let go, give in and take the journey

-- Margaret Desouza

Love

To those who know it, it's our greatest need
To those who have seen it, it's our greatest wonder
To those who have lost it, it's our greatest hurt
To those who have experienced it, it defines our humanness

Yet, We who have known it and recognized it as our greatest need,
still find it so difficult to share with another…
We who have seen it and stood in awe in its presence,
still chose to run away from it…
We who have lost it and been hurt greatly by its loss,
still risk losing it all over again…
& We who have experienced it, and through it our humanness,
still chose to deny it…

And yet, it still continues to conquer us, humble us, and teach us
About ourselves and our world…
About whats important and what matters…
& About why we exist…

-- Margaret Desouza

The Pacemaker

I always thought that I was strong
as strong as any one could be
I have always had my walls all around
my fortress or so I believed!
I have hidden there
and fooled myself into thinking that I was safe
Untill the walls came crumbling down…
and I lay there exposed and afraid

I struggled to build my walls up again,
hoping and longing for familiarity
I wanted to lose myself in sweet oblivion
within the fortress that had now abandoned me
Day in and day out I would lie awake
wondering when the nightmare would end
The time had come though, I finally realized,
that life would never be the same again

My life's journey feels like it began that fateful day
when realization hit home
That the innocence and carefree days of childhood and youth
were only a trial run
That the actual race has now begun…
and we each will have to brave the storm
Alone, we will have to run…
and will be often be faced with self doubt

With these somber thoughts I start my journey
and already feel like I am running behind
I look around and seem to be the last one there…
with the rest of the pack way ahead
I wonder if I will ever catch up…
if there is any point to all this pain
And for a moment, just for a moment,
I allow myself to slow down and be afraid

Its at that particular moment that I understood
why I felt the way I did
It was because I always saw myself
having to run alone in that race of life
But in that instance of surrender, I lost myself
and for the first time in a long time- felt safe again.

My journey has just begun and I still do not know
where the road will lead
But I do know the one who knows the way
and pray for the one who will chose to run alongside me
We were not built to run alone, to build our walls and be safe…
we were built to last…
Created to run together… With someone leading the way

-- Margaret Desouza

Willingly Willed

Free-will, they say, is precious
From past mistakes, I tend oft to disagree
And yet, failure is what builds character they say
Why then are we today, still frustratingly so un-free

We don't know what's to come tomorrow
And we rarely understand & reflect on our past
Hence we oft choose, foolishly, looking at the flitting present
And with these decisions then, on us the die is cast

How then, does one choose wisely in the 'now'
Does one rely on the foolish heart or the ignorant mind
Perhaps, its only belief and faith then, that do feature
In this, life's test of time

We were created to believe in someone greater
Look inside you, and your quiet wise soul will concur
Yet we choose to blissfully ignore its precious wisdom
For flitting present gains, our belief and faith are made to blur

We are not who we think we are
And it would seem foolish to think we know it all
Lets not, then, paradoxically rely on ourselves to exercise free-will today
But rather, on the one who created all things- big and small

-- Margaret Desouza

A Little Prayer

I said a little prayer today
To our God who loves us all...
I knelt before His alter today
And begged Him to answer my call...

I went to Him since I was lost
In a maze that never seems to end...
His light was what I needed to find
There, at His feet, I needed a friend...

He didn't say a word to me
In His wisdom, He first let me cry...
He didn't say Do this or Do that
In His love, He first just held me tight...

I still don't have my answers
I still can't see the end...
My journey through the maze continues
But this time, I have by my side a friend...

And so my daily bread of comfort
Today I have received...
Tomorrow I will be back at His feet again
And His comfort, again, I will seek...

-- Margaret Desouza

Eyes

The Writer in Me

Ab Tak Untees!!!

The Imaginative Sense

I was chatting with a friend trying to understand her approach to the various arts that she has tried out. Was interested in knowing the art in which she felt she could create something out of nothingness versus when she had to use something as a reference. Just thought that she brought out the crux very well; the subconscious process behind it all, so decided to put her thoughts up here. Cut pasted her thoughts from gtalk below.

"I suppose that in any activity that requires sensual stimulation, imagination will probably be the artist, without needing to copy something else. But those that need rationality in some sense may curb imagination.

To experience a superb sunset you don't need to compare it with how it looked yesterday and whether today is less perfect. You're sense has passed its judgement without external comparison (senses being their own artist). But if you wanted to see if that big beautiful sun's color is depicting a rainy or sunny day (rationality required) then comparison with a sunset on a rainy day would be required. So when senses rule, imagination is manifest to its fullest as opposed to when you want to SEE the perfect and not necessarily FEEL it." - Margaret Desouza.