Not attending Bishnupur Utsav

All music lovers are leaving for Bishnupur to celebrate the Bishnupur Utsav except me. But what to do, need to complete a lot of work and top of all my health is not in a good condition.

Anyways, here are the details of the event; if a single person goes to Bishnupur after reading this blog post I will feel happy and content.

Organized by: West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation

Venue: Bishnupur Jadubhatta Mancha

Artists: Pt Manas Chakraborty (vocal), Ustad Shahid Parvez (sitar), Samaresh Chowdhury (vocal), Tejendra Narayan Majumdar (sarode) and Santanu Bandyopadhyay (vocal) including Asit Roy and Bamapada Chakraborty (vocal), Shibpur Omkar (kathak) and Sharmila Ganguly (ballet) are scheduled to perform at Bishnupur Tourism Festival scheduled between 1st January (6 PM) to 3rd January (10 PM), 2010.

Pt. Manas Chakraborty

Bishnupur has a rich cultural history. Visit wikipedia to know more about the History, Art and Culture of Bishnupur.

Confession to Resolution

Did not blog for more than one month. It is a crime; I know. But what to do? Lots of work to do; lots of new moves in life. I wish I will come up as a more frequent blogger in the new year – well that’s my resolution for 2010.

However, I am pretty active on twitter: to check what I am up to please visit my twitter profile. http://twitter.com/saikatblogger

One day @ the BCET Bloggers Workshop

WebReps Team went to Durgapur to attend BCET Bloggers Workshop yesterday, i.e., October 31, 2009. It was a great day for me? Why?

1] I was eager to take a day off from work – and finally it happened.
2] I love long journey by car.
3] I love to spend time with friends, like-minded of course.
4] It was the second event of WebReps.
5] I haven’t heard of any Blogging Workshop in India earlier; so perhaps this is the FIRST Blogging Workshop in the country (Thanks Anirban for pointing this out). And BCET with WebReps made a history on October 31, 2009.
6] Popularizing blogging among students is what I want to do.
7] I was damn sure that Kamanashish would stop at Shaktigarh and you know the reason – we bought Langcha (an indigenous sweetmeat).

The workshop was delayed due to some reasons – some of the students had internal exams and there was some political tension as well. But when we finally entered the seminar hall, around 70 students were present there including those from nearby colleges.

Kamanashish started with the introductory presentation “Why Blog?” here is the list of sessions:

1] Why Blog – by Kamanashish Roy
2] Blog Setup – Technical aspects – by Prabhanjan Panigrahi
3] How to get more traffic? – by Kamanashish Roy
4] Sponsors Slot – SEO Training Presentation by Softz Solutions

---Half an hour break for lunch at the College Canteen---

5] Interaction with the students – their blogs, views and ideas
6] Social Media and Micro-blogging – by Arjun Ghosh
7] Make some Money dude – Blog Monetization – by Kamanashish Roy

All the sessions went very well – students participated whole-heartedly, they asked questions like pros, it seemed as if we were discussing with professional and expert bloggers! Even those who did not know what blogging was, picked it up amazingly fast.

And at the end of the workshop, I felt as if it was a day-long lesson for me – what I revealed was:

This generation has already started blogging. When we started, we followed western bloggers and probably we could not get out of the trend of blog monetization – but these boys and girls are more eager to get their voice heard – their own views on various political and social aspects, personal experiences, software, books, movies – these are the topics young bloggers like most!

And I was amazed to see how creative they were with their blog titles! A lot of young bloggers are interested in using Hindi, Bengali and Sanskrit terms in the blog titles – Unlike Web Wings and More Doubts – they use Abhibyakti, Lipi, Anuranan, Sa'matri'yoni (how brilliantly Sayoni inserted her name in the blog title Sa'matri'yoni), Arham, Dorpon and MANY MORE.

Like BCET bloggers, I am sure, most young bloggers will have the courage to break all the conventions and come up with their very own creative ideas. Hats off to BCET bloggers!

Happy Durga Puja

Digital Janmashtami

Janmashtami wishes are flowing on twitter this year. A lot of Indian tweeters are sending messages to friends and fellow tweeters on Janmashtami, the birthday of Lord Krishna.

Here is a live update about Janmashtami from twitter:


Wish a Happy Janmashtami to all :) Enjoy mithai and kheer unlimited.

Knock Knock – Follow Me

Found an interesting, and impressive as well, twitter profile - the profile picture says it all :)


The picture is attractive, eye-catching and annoying to some extent – you can laugh at it or get disturbed, but cannot ignore it. And there lies the success of its creator, Nathaniel Johnson (socialnate).

Nandi Hills Blogger Meet to spread the awareness of Eye Donation

Bangalore bloggers are going to organise blogger's meet to spread the awareness of Eye Donation among the masses on August 30, 2009. Indiblogger.in has supported the event. Noble.

To create the buzz and to spread the awareness, they have planned a 'Blind Fold Ride' – bike riding with eyes closed. A piece of cloth is to be tied to the eyes of the riders while riding. 'Blind Fold Ride' is an art and a lot of practice is needed to perform this.

Visit Indiblogger.in blog to know more.

Somehow, I can relate the event with my Eye Blog idea. Wish I could attend the show on behalf of WebReps and promote the Eye Blogging idea there. Have 16 days in hand, not sure if we would be able to make it to the Nandi Hills Blogger Meet.

Cannot Find a Laptop - Please Help

Asked 10 people which model should I buy and received 10 suggestions. Confused. A friend suggested Acer – though they do not have the brand value as other biggies in the market, but according to him Acer models are doing good.

My requirements are not hi-fi. A netbook or mini laptop could be good for me as I need to access internet on go mainly. But no netbook comes with optical drive :( except few from Toshiba I guess and they are too much expensive. If I had that much of money, I could buy Macbook.

Heard that Samsung is offering optical drive for free with its netbooks. Not sure about the performance of Samsung.

Any suggestion friends?

Twitter CEO's Wife

Suddenly noticed that "Twitter CEO's Wife" is appearing at the 2nd position on the trending topics list on twitter. Looked funny; came to know that Sara, twitter CEO's wife was tweeting while in labor.


According to some, it shows her dedication to family business :) Whereas; some find it idiotic. However, keep watching her tweets - the first tweeter baby is going to born afterall.

UPDATE:

And the baby is here: @sara gave birth to a perfect baby boy...8 pounds, 21 inches!

Congratulations @sara and @ev :)

IndiRank goes up: KBM Effect?

Got an email from Indiblogger.in; IndiRank of "Web Wings" has been updated – it has jumped to 79 from 57. Happy.

Is it an after-effect of Kolkata Blogger’s Meet 2009 (KBM ’09)? I was amazed to see the mybloglog stats of "Web Wings". It never received such a huge traffic in its entire life as it got during KBM ’09. It has 11 followers as well.

Adding the new IndiRank logo in the side bar. Let’s see what else is waiting for me in the coming days.

Kolkata Blogger's Meet 2009 - Moments

Courtesy: shimul

WebRepers - Who are they

Kamanashish, Anirudh, Shimul & Saikat (that's me)

Since, I used the term in my previous blog post, I should clarify it for your understanding. The word is self-explanatory. Members of WebReps are the WebRepers. Twitter account: http://twitter.com/webreps

Image courtesy: Anirban

Unable to access twitter

I am having problem accessing twitter for last 3/4 hours. Am I alone OR others also facing the same problem?

Update 1:

See why the Twitterworld is so quiet today:

• Twitter Struggling to Fend Off Attack
• Oooh Dramatic! Twitter Get's DDOSed

Update 2:

Received following message from Twitter after 5 hours, finally.

Update 3 (August 07, 2009 - 1:10 pm):

Twitter is down again :(

Eye Blog – Kolkata Blogger’s Meet: What’s Next

More you get involved in a process, more you think about it – more ideas start coming in your mind. While thinking out some quotations about blogs, suddenly the idea popped up.

"Sunshine on my shoulder makes me happy
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry"

Eye Blog: What about a strong yet simple and easy blogging platform for those who are physically challenged – yes I am talking about our brothers, sisters and friends, who cannot see, cannot speak or cannot hear – the blind, deaf and dumb community.

There are plug-ins that automatically create the audio version of your blog posts. We need to access this with Braille keyboards. We may need a suitable browser as well. Actually we may need to do A LOT of things to achieve this, but the objective is worth putting the efforts, right?

And I am sure, as long as people like Aji, Kamanashish, Anirudh, Shimul, Abhishek, Naveen are there, we can do ANYTHING.

A tremendous coincidence:
While writing this post, suddenly one of my colleagues, who sits few cubicles away, started playing this number...we can do this, I am sure, we have got the ‘go-ahead’ from the supreme power.

Belly On Me - UGLY

I need to work out, seriously. The belly is growing everyday. I eat less, I walk a lot - still this is happening :(

Searched for some good health and fitness centers in Kolkata, but the timing is not matching with my tight schedule. I am really worried, not sure how the new round-neck shirt customised for Kolkata Blooger's Meet would look on me!

One Hindi Blog - Finally

Finally one partially Hindi Blog entered Kolkata Blogger's Meet. I mentioned in one of my previous posts about the lack of blogs in regional languages. Saurav Arya filled the gap :)

The Blogspot Magic

No, I will not change the template of this blog, neither will I host it somewhere else. Webwings is my first blog and I will keep its typical blog-like look intact, forever.

When I started my career in Online Marketing 4 years back, I knew nothing about blogging. It was blogger.com that fascinated me most. It’s true that all my hosted blogs use the WordPress blogging software. But I get the flavor of blogging more when I log on to blogger.com and the term ‘blogspot’ in the URL leaves a magical impact on me.

That is the reason, I will keep at least one of my blogs hosted with blogger.com forever and maintain its simple blog-like look.

Happy Blogging :)

Kolkata Bloggers’ Meet – What’s Next!

Boss, a lot of things can be done; mentioning few here, will keep you posted.

Green Blogging:

Let’s do something for this planet. Let’s start writing about the environment, climate changes, how to stop pollution, what measures should be taken to save this planet, how to protect animals and insects from extinction, importance of rain water harvesting in India, importance of alternative energy etc.

Once bloggers start doing this, let’s have another meet and decide how to implement the ideas. I am sure we will get a lot of people, activists and groups with us.

Banglar Mukh (The Face of Bengal):

We are going to celebrate Kolkata Bloggers’ Meet 2009, and there is not a single Bangla Blog! Are Kolkatans not blogging in Bengali?

Let’s popularize blogging in all regional languages – let’s convince writers and celebrities to have their blogs written in vernacular languages. There must be 100 Bengali Blogs in the Kolkata Bloggers’ Meet 2010 along with blogs written in other tongues.

Kids – Should they start blogging?

Organise a parent-teacher-educationalist meet and let’s have a debate.

More ideas will come in to my mind and I am sure about that. Keep watching.

Kolkata Bloggers’ Meet by webreps.in – our dream comes true

Webreps.in, a group of 'web minded’ people, is going to organize Kolkata Bloggers’ Meet 2009. Being a part of the team, I understand how much dedication, thoughts and hard work is required to arrange such an event.

We planned for this event many months ago, when nobody in Kolkata could think of such events. Somehow it did not work at that time. Now, thanks to Kamanashish, Anirudh and Shimul, we have been able to give our idea a shape.

All bloggers, from Kolkata and any other place, are requested to join. Here are the details:

Proposed Date: 8th August 2009 | Saturday

Proposed Location: CCD; RDB Adlabs Sector V; Saltlake City; Kolkata

Proposed Time: 5 PM onwards

Entry Fees: ZERO (Thanks to the sponsors)

See you there :)

The Other Side of SEO India

My previous post on SEO Jobs in India was an outcome of an observation. I had been watching SEO vacancies abroad for quite some days and I posted my observations only. Fact.

It’s a micro-post that hardly makes up to 50 words. When I wrote this, I did not realize it would fetch me so much traffic! Webwings is appearing on 3rd page for the keyword "seo jobs in India" in Google. Bliss.

The post has received some comments and all are spam. I was annoyed, I was angry. But I decided to take a different approach. I kept those spam comments and started putting my own words below them with the hope that spammer would come back someday and feel guilty; however, I do not expect anything from the bots. Lol.

However, the thing that pains me more is the face of Indian SEO – chances are high that those spammers found my blog through searching. If they are searched for ‘SEO Jobs India’ OR ‘SEO India’ chances are high that they are a part of this industry! And what they did? They spammed. Shocked.

I know there are a lot of good people in this industry. Still few bad apples are damaging the goodwill. When we are planning for Kolkata Bloggers’ Meet to take the industry from next tier these people are continuing to spread spam comments. Poor.

Maa taught me another lesson

I was busy with documentation (as usual) and suddenly my mobile phone started to vibrate (yes I keep my cell on vibration when I am in office). Call from "Sweet Home" - received the call to learn that Mom had fallen on the courtyard and it might be a case of fracture. Oophh Maa, tomake niye arr pari na!

Maa - she is different. Her name is 'Surma' (indigenous cosmetic used as eye-liner); I can only remember another person with the same name - the famous Surma Bhopali of Sholay :D

She does not walk, she only runs. She manages all household chores with almost no help from us - we hardly get time to assist her (but we want to, honestly). All of us are sweating heavily to manage the work that she does alone everyday. Maa, tomar ki 10 ta haat?

It's needless to mention that I became restless after learning about her accident. However, I tried to keep my cool but it was actually "Hard to Keep My Cool". I planned my steps quickly; as I was not sure whether or not I would be able to come office next day, I decided to complete the documentation and other pending works ASAP.

However, I still gave Deb (a dear friend) a brief about the job so that he can finish the job in my absence. I did not take any break and concentrated deeply. And I finished all the work by 5:30 pm. Now, I need to revise the doc before sending it over to the client; but I am relieved.

Lesson learned: It's all about how you think - panicking is not going to help you any way; think rationally and sketch your plan of action accordingly. Believe in yourself - yes...you can do it.

SEO Jobs in India and Aborad - The Basic Difference

In India: Employers look for SEO specialists with the knowledge of Link Building.

Abroad (USA, UK): Employers look for SEO specialists with programming knowledge to modify web pages, implement tags.

Note:
This is my observation after reviewing some seo job vacancies in India and Abroad. Don't file a lawsuit if you disagree.

ghoom

amar du-chokhe Ghoom
tumi ele neel shari pore

Mercury remains high

Highest temperature stat:

1958 – 43.7 degree C
2002 – 43.0 degree C
2009 – 42.1 degree C

Kolkata, with entire South Bengal, is passing through a terrific time. Heat wave of Central India reached South Bengal this year. Initially humidity was low. Citizens of Kolkata are habituated with humid weather; dry summer makes them sick.

Now, the heat flow continues and humidity level also goes up – what a painful situation. Met office recorded 42.1 degree C temperature on May 9, 2009. Humidity was 87 percent on that day.

However, today’s storm followed by a sufficient splash made the situation better.

But, this is the time to think again – “are we on the right track”? Such abnormal hot summer can be an indication of global warming. Beware before it’s too late. I have started saving water and energy as much as I can – WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

I tweet

Whenever I open this blog and see the date of last post, I feel sad. I really really want to post on web wings, but I hardly get time these days. So many works to do – so many indeed! Office from 10:00 – 7:00 (officially), preparing for my music exam that is due in June, then helping my friends to manage their blogs (voluntary job, but of huge responsibility), top of all abnormally hot summer in Kolkata this year - sometimes I really feel exhausted and tired.

Please note that whether I am posting web wings or not, I spend a lot of time surfing the net. After orkut, facebook and linkedin, twitter is my latest crush.

I am tweeting heavily these days – got a lot of followers and am following others religiously too. I receive a lot of news updates, resources, quotations on twitter everyday. And it feels good when someone starts following me. Even I got some #FollowFriday mentions on last two Fridays.

So follow me (Find Saikat Sengupta on twitter) on twitter and stay connected. If you do not love twitter, read this article.

But I still love Notepad

Notepad – my favorite editor. Even after working with popular word processing applications, I feel comfortable with Notepad. And when I edit HTML, instead of any WYSIWYG editor, I like to write codes in Notepad.

I really do not know the reason for my endless affection for Notepad; psychologists might be able to reveal the truth. As I am an avid typist and I rarely make spelling mistakes, I do not need spelling assistance. I like the simplicity Notepad has and I do not lose my attention in the crowd of uncountable icons. Black fonts on white background resemble century old conception of writing pads that my eyes and mind are habituated with.

I must admit that MS Word provides the rich text editor with helpful formatting functions that help to create documents without getting puzzled.

And I really feel overwhelmed when I enter today’s theme-specific world. Themes are everywhere starting from Durgapuja pandals in Kolkata to Gmail Inbox. Themes on Durgapuja pandals help to rediscover our forgotten cultural heritage. But why do we need these themes with an email application? So many images, colors, fonts – why? What is the use behind making the web more bulky?

Carbon footprint of Internet industry has already grabbed the attention of expert minds – web pages with more images, videos, animation and other special effects generate higher amount of CO2 when viewed by the surfers. Then why we are up to make our pages heavy?

I access my email inbox to receive messages – text messages. I feel comfortable to read them over a white background with no funny creature popping up from the corners. Hence, I reject the proposal of installing themes on Gmail – I am going to use the traditional and classic look.

Even on Orkut, I do not use any themes. Some of the themes pain my eyes and reduce readability. I am not against innovation and creativity. I understand that it involves great deal of knowledge to integrate these themes with applications like Gmail and Orkut. But, why they are doing this? Are they innovating just to innovate OR to show how expert programmers they are?

Whatever, I will stick with my Notepad affinity when it comes to write something or take down some notes.

Happy New Year 2009

Can't help it quoting from wikipedia:

2009 (MMIX) is the current year of the Anno Domini/Common Era in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It is a common year starting on Thursday. It is the last year of the 2000s decade.

2009 has been designated as the:

• International Year of Astronomy.^[1][2]

• International Year of Natural Fibres.^[3]

• International Year of Reconciliation.^[4]

Wish all of you a very happy and prosperous New Year.