Chp 289. Five Important Tips for Bloggers

…who type their blog posts on Microsoft Word document first before publishing it on their blogger/blogspot host.

FYI: There are a gazillion blogging tips out there. But trust me, this set is different. I have come across so many people facing an issue with MS Word-to-blog publication. Hence these tips are purely for those bloggers who use Microsoft Word to write their posts first before publishing it on their blogger/blogspot domain blogs. The tips are based from my 7 years of blogging experience on blogger.com using MS Word.

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1. Knowing where to paste your stuff.

After you’ve written your post using MS Word and edited it and fine-tuned it etc, where do you copy-paste that content on your blogger.com account?

This is the first mistake most people make. On your blogger account, there are two composing options:

Edit HTML:


Compose:


NEVER paste it directly at the “Compose” section. It will give a really weird output when you publish your blog The “Compose” section is actually the WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get). First of all, there is no such thing as a perfect WYSIWYG editor. There are always some flaws here and there. And secondly, this WYSIWYG editor converts every formatting that MS Word generates (which are invisible to the human eye ) and screws up your post when it is published.

Your published post will display stuff like, “Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000177 EndHTML:0000003397 StartFragment:0000002613 EndFragment:0000003361 SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/Kima/ Desktop/Important%20Blogger%20Tips.doc meta name, mso-footer-margin:.5in; /w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery” etc etc.

Or you will get an error message something like this:


Shocking right? Here’s a way to avoid this.

After you have composed your blog post on MS Word, make sure you are happy with the paragraph breaks etc. Once you are satisfied, copy that entire content from MS Word and paste it at the “Edit HTML” section. This will remove all the weird formatting mentioned above. (It’s pretty much like pasting it on a .TXT file)

Once you’ve done that, THEN click on “Compose” if you want to change the font color or paragraph alignment to justify etc. You don’t even need to do this if you know basic HTML codes for bold, link, paragraph, italic etc. Just click “Publish” after that and Tha daaa! Your published post is displayed just the way you want it.





2. The problem with curly quotes.

First of all, what is a double quote? You get this when you press the single quote (aka inverted comma, aka apostrophe) key + shift key on your keyboard. It is used as a citation or when you are quoting somebody. I sometimes use it on my blog to deliver a pun or sarcasm.



Single and double quotations can either be curly or straight. You get curly quotes as the default style on MS Word.

Curly quotes:


Straight quotes:


Straight quotes are what you get on a normal .TXT file. Note the difference.

So, why are curly quotes a problem?

Suppose you know a few basic HTML, like image link command, or “a href” command. The problem is, when you type the command on MS Word, you get curly quotes instead of straight quotes. And HTML does NOT understand curly quotes once you copy-paste that text to your blog. See the examples below.

This command is wrong and will not be executed:


This is correct:


When the command is wrong, you will not see what you want. Hence you have to use the straight quote for all your commands. This applies not just to the image command above, but to every single HTML tags.

Solving this issue:

I came across this site: The World Of Office where Vincent has given an easy solution to this problem. He said one can simply uncheck the "Straight quotes" with “smart quotes” check box at AutoCorrect option on your MS Word and you will get a straight quote every time you press the open/close quote key on your MS Word document.


[Image courtesy theworldofoffice]

I must say this is a pretty good answer. But now every time I press the quote key when using MS Word even when I am not writing a blog post, I will get the straight quote. And especially for someone like me who is a copywriter, we have to use the proper curly quote every time we write a script or concept note.

Hence there is another solution to this. No need to change anything at your AutoCorrect option or anything like that. Just Control Zee it!



Whenever you press the quote key and curly quotes appear, just simply press Ctrl+Z (undo). The curly quote will automatically transform into a straight quote and you can continue typing in bliss. Try it.





3. I see broken links everywhere…

Ok so you’ve followed the above procedure and managed to link to a website, or you’ve done it on your own. However, when you publish your blog, the link appears to be broken.

Well, because of MS Word, this happens regularly. Suppose your blog is ABC and you want to link a part of your post to another website called XYZ, you type the following on MS Word:

a href="http://www.XYZ.com"

The moment you press space on your keyboard, the text automatically transforms to:

a href=http://www.XYZ.com

Yeah that’s the problem with MS Word when it comes to hyperlink. You may think this is not an issue, but if you copy-paste this on your blog (ABC) and publish the link (XYZ), the particular link will not go to XYZ when you click it. Instead, it will lead to a “Page not found” error because if you look at the link destination carefully, it has become:

http://www.ABC.com/www.XYZ.com

Such a page does not exist. Therefore, always get rid of any blue underlined links that are automatically generated when you type a link on MS Word. You can easily do this by simply pressing Control+Z the moment the link is automatically created. The blue link will revert to the one with straight quotes. After that, just continue typing. Similarly, this works for “img src” commands too.





4. OMG! Who created that vast empty space?

You know how to create tables in HTML. Very good. Congratulations.

But what you may not know is that when you create the table on an MS Word document (table, tr, td, etc) and publish your post on your blogger account, suddenly out of nowhere, there is this huge ugly odd-looking blank space at the end of your post, before the comment field begins.

Where the hell did that come from?

Again, the thing with MS Word and Blogger.com is that, they do not make good bedfellows together when it comes to certain HTML tags like table.

DO NOT leave any space between your table elements when you are typing on MS Word.

Here is a very simple table command. This is what you should avoid on MS Word.


Below is how you should type table commands on MS Word.


Note the difference. I did not leave any line breaks or space in between the table elements. Because whatever space you leave (like the first table pic above) will lead to an empty space at the end of your post. Don’t ask me the technicality behind this. It’s just one of those things you observe, and then find the solution through trial-and-error method.

For advanced users: You can also use a nobrtable styling sheet and wrap your table element within this. This way, there will be no empty space at the bottom even if you use the first table command given above. However, the problem with this is, it not only removes all breaks between the table elements, it also removes all breaks within the table including the text breaks. Hence it may be alright to use this if your table cells contain one or two words. But I never use it because many of my table cells have break commands in it.





5. Knowing the potential of MS Word.

Ok, I know many of you who don’t use MS Word to write your blog posts may ask, “Why don’t you just use some other text editor?”

Makes sense, if you consider the points given above. Notepad (.txt) generates straight quotes immediately and link commands are not transformed to hyperlinks. Wordpad too is not a bad text editor. But they do not have “auto correct” for spelling and grammar. MS Word has “auto correct” which is useful for people like me who type fast, but then again, there are now many text editors that can do that.

The bottom-line is this - I am extremely familiar and comfortable with MS Word. Hence as a blogger, sometimes it is important to be at your comfort zone to churn out a good post.

MS Word can do a lot of stuff to your blog.

For example, as I’ve mentioned before, I never use the WYSIWYG editor on blogger.com to write a post. Hence I do not use this function to insert images or videos because it is quite unfriendly if you want to place an image at a particular location etc.

It’s much easier if you do it first on MS Word. All you’ll have to do to embed YouTube files on your blog is:

1. Go to the YouTube page you want to embed on your blog.
   
2. Select the embed links given on that page.
   
3. Paste that code on your MS Word document at a location in the post you’re writing where you want the video to appear.
   
4. Once you finish writing your post using MS Word, follow TIP 1 given above – Paste the MS Word text content to the “Edit HTML” section and not “Compose”.
   
5. Once done, select “Compose” if you want to change the paragraph alignment, font, etc.
   
6. Your YouTube video will not show in this “Compose” section, but don’t worry, it’s very much there.
   
7. Publish post.

Likewise, displaying images is much easier when you do it directly from MS Word first by simply using the img src code. And from here you can change the alignment, border, position etc. This is much easier than using the unfriendly option on blogger. As I have said many times before, you don’t really get what you see in a WYSIWYG editor.

And then there are certain limitations to MS Word too.

• Bullet points: You cannot copy the bullet points you’ve created on MS Word and paste them directly to the text editor at blogger.com. It will not be displayed correctly. I am currently working on other CMS tools like TYPO3 for my clients, where it is possible to do this, but on your blogger CMS, it’s not. Hence the bullet points that you see on this explanation are all created using HTML.
  
  
• Blank space: No matter how many blank space you “type” on your MS Word, your blogger profile will not show more than one unit blank space. For this too you will have to use the nbsp HTML command.
  
  
• Subscript and Superscript: When you type numbers like “first”, your MS Word automatically converts it to 1^st. Nice huh? But if you copy paste this to your blog, it will only display it as 1st. To get the desired superscript or subscript, you will have to use the corresponding HTML codes.
  
  
• Line Indent: You may quote somebody on your MS Word, and show that by indenting the quote. However it makes no sense copying the indent format from MS Word to Blogger because it will not show. Hence you’ll have to use the blockquote HTML command for this directly on your blog editor.

There are a lot of other tips I want to share with you all about blogger.com, but for now, I want to mention only those that are related to Microsoft Word document. I hope I’m able to clear some of your doubts, and feel free to add points or contradict some of the tips I have mentioned. After all, they are for the greater good. Cheers.





Ps. You can publish your blog post directly from your MS Word document itself without logging in to your blog account from another browser, but I don’t recommend this. I’ll tell you why on another day. For now, I hope you've found these five tips for “MS Word – blogger.com” bloggers useful.

Chp 288. Cheraw World Record!

Yesterday was a wonderful and memorable day for all Mizos around the world. We’ve just set a new WORLD RECORD for the most number of people dancing simultaneously to our traditional dance called “Cheraw”, where bamboos are used as props.

It was a proud day for every Mizo worldwide.

Then of course I woke up this morning, still feeling the aftertaste of pride and sense of achievement (even though I was not a part of this historical moment) and happily picked up the newspaper. I was completely shocked that the Times of India and Mumbai Mirror mentioned nothing about this spectacular event. I was expecting at least a picture, because “Cheraw” dancers are so beautiful. Yet, nothing, nada, zilch.

On my way to office, I picked up Mid Day and DNA. Nothing in Mid Day either. DNA at least mentioned it briefly on page 12. Thanx guys.

According to newKerala.com:

Lucia Sinigalie, an adjudicator from the Guinness, who supervised the entire event declared at 1500 hrs that Mizoram has achieved the largest dance ensemble in the world to a thunderous applause from what was believed to be the largest gathering of people in Mizoram.

''I was enthralled by the dance. It was fantastic and amazing. Aizawl is a mystical place, the people are fantastic. The people well deserve this world record,'' Sinigalie said as she handed over the certificate to Mizoram Art and Culture Minister P C Zoramsangliana.

Mizoram has edged the previous record of world's largest dance ensemble set by 7,000 dancers in Cebu in the Philippines last year.

w00t!!!! Now just thinking aside, had some dance troupe from Maharashtra, Delhi, Kolkata etc done the same thing and shattered the existing World Record, would the newspapers not mention anything about the event either? Ah…

Anyway, here’s hoping some of them at least mention about it tomorrow. Better late than never, aye?

BBC News too had already announced this event yesterday itself.

The dancers, who were mainly students, performed the traditional "Cheraw" dance along a 3km (1.8 mile) stretch in Aizawl, capital of Mizoram state.

Guinness World Records judge Lucia Sinigaliesi watched the dance along with tens of thousands of spectators.

The 10,378 dancers performed for eight minutes in Aizawl's spacious Assam Rifles Grounds, with many spilling out beyond the grounds.

People in Mizoram spent a lot of time preparing for this grand event. Here is one of the rehearsals on a roadside at night, because during the day the girls and boys had to go to school or college. Video courtesy samuelapa



I’ve collected a lot of photographs that people have submitted at our Mizo community site misual.com. Here are some of the pictures. Do remember that a lot of these people danced on the streets of Aizawl and the entire traffic was closed for the day, since all of them didn't fit at the venue location. Click on the pics to enlarge. Pics courtesy Rina, Nancy, Shailendra, AS_Khiangte, and many others.



























Even children took part in this:







Also got these great pics from my good friend Shahnaz:




















Here are some of the videos on youtube so far.

This one is at a busy bazaar street. Video courtesy: Anoch



On the road. Video courtesy: mzvision



Chhinlung Academy. Video courtesy: andr3whiho



Road view, from top. Video courtesy: mzvision



Another view, from the roadside. Video courtesy: Jayanta Kumar Nath



Dancers at the main field. View from the VIP area. Video courtesy: Anoch



When it comes to Cheraw, there are a lot of different steps. The particular step that you see in all these videos, has been decided and approved by the Arts and Culture Dept. Below is a clip that I think is the same one approved by A&C. Video courtesy MrPaduh



Here are some of our girls practicing Cheraw, in casual wear. This is not a part of the World Record event though. Video courtesy: kimcanpo



Everywhere Mizos go, Cheraw is always taken along with them. Here are some Mizos in the US performing at a function there. . Video courtesy: lalthachianga



This dance is usally performed at Chapchar Kut, one of our main festivals. Here are the dancers on that same occasion. Video courtesy: MrPaduh



Last but not the least, here are our very own Mumbai Mizo girls performing this dance recently. MSYM – Mizo Students and Youth of Mumbai. Video courtesy: maruatafanai



Hope you enjoyed the pics and vids. Cheers! To end this amazing journey, here is a grand finale video. It is from the INCREDIBLE INDIA commercial. Check out 0:53 minute and watch the guy doing the Cheraw!!!!

Update: March 16th, 2010. Times of India nor any of the other papers mentioned anything about this World Record, even the next day after I posted this. And I heard from a Facebook friend who is a journalist that she was contacted by DNA, so she’s the one sent them the press release from I&PR to DNA so that they could publish a small paragraph from it. Anyway, it is at times like this that we feel more isolated, like we do not matter much to India. Breaking a world record of this magnitude is a landmark achievement, and yet with none of the media reporting it, the rest of India’s ignorance about people from the North East will only continue. As I have just commented at Abhinav Blog: North Eastern Indian Women face Racism in their Own Country!: “Stereotypes can be abolished only when there is maximum exposure about a particular culture or community. The main reason we stereotype is simply because we don’t know anything about that person, or know too little.”

Chp 287. Happy Women’s Day

First of all, let me say – I HATE WOMEN’S DAYYYYYYYY!!!!

Wooooo boy, that felt great.

Now things are starting to look much better. My head is feeling lighter, and I am starting to recollect why I automatically try to run away when I see sniffer dogs…

I don’t hate every Women’s Day. I just hate today’s Women’s Day. Nothing to do with sexism or whateva –isms. I hate today simply because I work at a digital Ad Agency. Women’s Day means making hundreds of Women’s Day offers for our clients – emailers, newsletters, online offers, webpage maintenance, banners, soshkeels, virals etc etc.

And this year is worse because Women’s Day falls on a freaking Monday.

When it comes to creating campaigns for our clients (like 20% discount at blah blah blah), there are always last minute changes here and there. Other years, it’s ok because Women’s Day was on a weekend or some other day except Monday. So we always had enough time to make the changes before D-Day. But this year, all the changes that had to be made came in on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. And since we don’t work on those days, our work kept accumulating and accumulating. Monday morning, reached office… kabooom!

That’s why I hate this year’s Women’s Day. I was soooo damn busy the whole day, Satan didn’t even bother to tempt me with any dirty thoughts.

Now that I am finally done with work, It’s time to visit my blog and wish you all a Happy Women’s Day, late as it may be.

And to show that I really really really mean it when I say “Happy Women’s Day”, well, I’ve just spent almost 48 hours during the weekend making a collage of the profile pics of all the female Facebook fans of our Mizo community site – misual.com.

misual.com is currently one of the most popular Zo sites today, and run by a dedicated team of admins. We don’t get paid, hell no. We are just doing our community a favor because we believe it is our duty to do so. The other admins are in charge of the tedious work of collecting, editing, verifying and scheduling articles, while I mainly do the social media part. It’s a great place to practice what you learn at work, and I’ve already covered it from blog feed aggregator and weekly updates to mobile integration to Facebook fan-page management. Currently we have 720+ fans on FB.

So this weekend I collected around 300 of our top female FB fans, went through each profile, selected the best pic from their album, edited every single pic so that one could look their best (side profile from a low angled shot looks amazing at 50x50 pixel size) and arranged them all on one huge banner. The banner of course covered the entire main screen of misual.com, but it was just a one day thingie, so everybody understood.

And yes, even though people had to scroll all the way down because of the huge banner covered with pretty ladies, none of the guys complained. I wonder why.

I won’t be posting on my blog any of the pics/collage I designed because of the way things took a completely different turn at misual.com – Guys started voting for the prettiest profile from the collage! Lolz. Eventually there was even a winner declared. Haha, we men!

Anyway, we tend to keep Women’s Day all week long as our theme, so there won’t be any such events unfolding again.

I really hope all you wonderful people had a grand time today, and that we can cherish this special moment by trying to make everyday a Women’s Day (except when it comes to professional work!)

Cheers, and a big hugz to you all.

Chp 286. Hello Mom...

Trrrringgggg trrrringggg…

Your phone rings. It’s Mom. Mom calling. Seeing her name flash on your mobile phone is definitely something, isn’t it? Especially when you are somewhere or with someone or doing something (or a combination of all three) that you really don’t want your mom to know of. It’s funny how she always manages to call up at such "odd" times… Damn ESP.

Just a few years ago, mobile phones were only for the rich and famous. And bulky as hell. And expensive too, with incoming calls charged. And now, everybody has one. More than a trend, it has become a necessity. My mom too joined the mobile phone bandwagon and bought a Motorola handset two years ago. She learnt how to sms last month.

Ok ok I’m being evil I’m just kidding… Love ya, mom.

So, curious me want to know, how do you save your mom’s name on your mobile? I save mine as “Mom”.

Funny thing is, “Mom” is used more frequently in the US, while “Mum” is more common in UK. And India being a former British colony, you’d only expect more people to follow this trend. However, it’s quite the opposite. Of course names like “Maa” and “Amma” are clearly more popular over here, but when it comes to the colloquial English term, “Mom” certainly reigns over “Mum” here.

So that brings us back to the question. How do you save your mother’s number?

In my language, the word for mother is “Nu”, but till now I haven’t come across that many Mizos saving their mother’s number on their mobile phones as “Nu”. It’s usually “Mom”, save for a few with more colorful names for their mothers like “Home Minister”, “Jail keeper”, “Wicked Witch” etc.

Please take part in my small survey and let me know which name you use for your mother.

What name do you use for your mother on your mobile phone?
	Mom
	Mum
	Others
pollcode.com free polls

Why am I interested in this topic? Well, here is a funny scenario.

Suppose you’re working extremely late in office, or just got back from partying at 3 in the morning, so you’re tired - Extremely exhausted and possibly sloshed.

You reach home, and fall off to sleep immediately the moment your head hit the pillow.

And then 5 in the freaking morning, the phones rings. Loud. Irritating. Never ending.

At first it feels like somebody drilling through concrete in the middle of your dream. And then you slowly wake up. You realize it’s not a freaking dream. Drowsily you reach out for the source of that infernal noise with your hands. Your eyes are still shut and your hands keep searching.

Finally it finds the little monster. You swear that if it’s one of those HDFC home loans or ICICI insurance telemarketers, you’re gonna give that person the worst curse ever uttered in the history of Mankind.

And then you grip the phone and slowly open your eyes.

It’s Mom!

Her name flashes all over the mobile screen. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom.

You try to cool down by reminding yourself that 5 in the morning is not that early back in Mizoram.

You bring the phone slowly to your ears and clear your throat while taking a deep breath. And then you answer hesitantly…

“Hello…”

The moment you hear the voice on the other end, you suddenly realize… she’s not YOUR mom. Because the freaking mobile phone is not yours!

Suddenly, all signs of drowsiness disappear and you are completely awake. Oh shit, you mutter.

And that mom on the other line is shocked… “Who the hell is this? Who are you? Where is … (insert girl’s name here)???? Answer me! Hello? HELLLOOOOO!!!!”

Oooopsie.

Disconnect. Switch off phone.

Awkward huh?

At this point, you can quietly get up, wear your clothes and leave the house, but don’t forget to leave a small note on the pillow to remind the girl sleeping next to you that her mom had called. Because that is a gentlemanly thing to do.



Ok ok, all jokes apart, and not that I am saying that has happened to me or anyone… I’m just trying to state the possibility of something like that happening…

So the next time you answer a call from “Mom” at 5 in the morning, first make sure it’s your mobile phone.

Do let me know how you save your mother’s name on your mobile. I’m sure many of you will have interesting stories to tell. I’m all ears. Cheers.

Chp 285. It’s all about the money.

Hello there, my all-weather friend.

For the past one month, I’ve been spending my office spare time playing this new MMORPG called “Three Kingdoms Online”. I am was totally hooked to this game (which you can easily play using your Facebook account).

Link: Three Kingdoms Online

Important: Do not confuse this with other similar sounding PC strategy games or MMORPG all bearing the name “Three Kingdoms”, because all these games are based on the epic Chinese historical novel “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”. One of my all-time favorite movies “Red Cliff” is based on this novel too.



What is it with MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) that gets us all worked up and highly addicted?

Remember the good ol days when Yahoo chat was popular? And then BOTs came in the scene and we had such good fun chatting until we realized… she wasn’t real! And then suddenly it was such a turnoff chatting with… something that wasn’t human. It’s like chatting with God. For a while it was funny, but after sometime, it became just plain boring. Interacting with a computer isn’t half as fun as doing so with a real human being.

I’m a hardcore gamer. I love strategy games and I have spent many days without any sleep during my unemployment years, trying to finish a particular campaign (AOE, WC, C&C, ROME etc). But all in all, there wasn’t that much of a kick because I knew I was always playing against a computer.

Then came multi-player games like DotA, CS etc where you compete with your pals using a cranked up router at a shady dimly lit “cyber café” run by a friend at his garage filled with cigarette smoke and “Guns n Roses” blaring from the cranky old 2.1 speakers, till 4 in the morning every day.

Finally came the MMORPGs. They kicked ass. I blogged about TribalWars, talked about Travian, Neopets, Ikariam, Khan Wars, etc. which are all browser based MMORPGs. Which means that you don’t have to install anything to play this game online. Even popular Facebook games like MafiaWars and Farmville belong in this genre.

A month ago, I came across TKO – Three Kingdoms Online.

It was the best thing that happened to me then. I loveddddd the game. It was a combination of Tribal Wars, Travian, Ikariam, Diablo, AOE and many others.

Basic structure of TKO:

1. Like all strategy war games, you must collect resource to build your city and army. The higher you research your resource field, the faster is your productivity.
   
2. Like Travian, you need to have a positive food consumption to increase your population (unlike TribalWars etc where you only have to increase your population limit to have more people).
   
3. Like TribalWars, the game progresses very fast, where you can easily raid, plunder, destroy etc enemy forts.
   
4. Unlike TribalWars, you cannot be “rimmed”. Nobody can take over your main town and you can even shift your location later.
   
5. Like War Craft III or AOM, you can have special Heroes. If your Hero takes part in battles, it boosts your army’s morale. You can research and improve your Hero’s abilities.
   
6. Like Diablo, you can arm your Hero with various weapons and amours. You will find special items with higher attack bonus, agility bonus etc on special quests.
   
7. Like ROME, you can change the formation of your attack or defense.
   
8. Like Emperor and other strategy city building games, you must manage your city properly.
   
9. There are also special quests to help you earn extra points or resources.
   
10. Most of the characters and faction quests are based on “Red Cliff”, one of my favorite Chinese movies with legendary characters like Lui Bei, Cao Cao etc.

There are many other reasons why I find this game highly interesting, and at the same time, there are a few disappointments with this game too…

1. Unlike all the other popular MMORPGs, there is no place to interact with members of your league, like a thread based discussion forum etc. Hence it is difficult to coordinate with your teammates.
   
2. When there is no proper communication channel, role playing takes a back seat. You cannot talk like a Baron or a Queen or a Warrior with anybody. This kills the very essential of MMORPGs. (read: ROLE playing)
   
3. Most of the FAQ were answered by moderators, who too learnt the game from playing. There was no official contact person to clear our doubts.
   
4. The grammatical mistakes and spelling errors can truly make you cringe sometimes.

But hey, nothing’s perfect. Beggars cannot be choosers when a game is offered to you for free. So you just take whatever is offered and adjust accordingly. I played along and dominated my entire area, “farming” all the other neighbors, wiping out their entire army and plundering their resources. Until I discovered one VERY BIG FLAW with this game.

IT’S NOT FREE!

I mean yeah, it’s free. You can play for free or become a paid customer. But the difference between paid customers and free customers is HUMONGOUS.

I have played a lot of online games, and there is always that option of playing for free or becoming a paid customer. But none of the popular games I have played so far compromise on game play.

In other games, if you spend money, then you get better interface, chat option with other players, easier and friendlier UIs and so on. But the game play is not affected in any way.

In TKO, if you purchase gold coins, you have a HUGE advantage over somebody who has no gold coins. With your gold coins, you can immediately train new soldiers without waiting, immediately construct new buildings, buy better armour and weapon for your Heroes, buy resources, redistribute status points of your Heroes, and so on. To win great gifts (like weapons or resource pack), you need to challenge a General to a duel, and to do that, you need gold coins! You can even raise your nobility rank status with gold coins. Sheeeesh.

In short, this game has nothing to do with strategy. There is no level playing field.

No matter how much you bombard an enemy, planning night and day, building up your troops for yet another onslaught etc etc, as long as that person keeps buying gold coins, you can never do him any real harm as he can keep rebuilding immediately.

In short, yeah, the people who designed this game would be making a lot of money initially from all the poor suckers who bought “gold coins” using PayPal or their father’s credit card. But in the long run, this game is definitely going to hit the gutter (if it hasn’t already). There are so many great games out there for free, this one will not survive, unless the designers of this game do something about it. Don’t give a player the upper hand just because he got the moolah.

To conclude, if you don’t mind spending money, this is the perfect game for you. It is highly interesting and engaging. But if you are the type of player who is all about strategy (and don’t like to pay for this kind of services), then better not sign up.

As for me, well, good riddance to TKO. Now I will start spending my spare time on blogs and other more constructive online activities.

Chp 284. Love bites, sometimes...

It’s that time of the year again, for another Valentine post/story. Hope you enjoy this one.


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Pu Siama sat on the grand sofa motionless, lost in his own thoughts, oblivious of his surroundings. His mind was miles away, thinking about his beloved son. The son that he never got to know well, separated by distance, time and culture. The last time he spoke to him on the phone was a year ago. And the last time he came home was almost five years ago. Suddenly, a friendly nudge brought him back to reality.

The MC announced, “I now invite our respected Chief Minister to come to the stage and…”

The entire auditorium erupted in loud synchronized applause. Pu Siama took a deep breath, adjusted his suit and stood up. As he walked towards the mike, the applause grew louder.

He delivered his speech with much charisma and grace. He had achieved everything in life, but deep inside he was a sad man. The one and only son he had, was like a stranger not just to him but to the state Pu Siama loved so much – Mizoram.

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Thousands of miles away, on one of the busy small narrow winding lanes of Munirka, Johnny kick-started his bike with ease. The Delhi registered motorcycle had seen its fair share of kilometers, accidents and women.

Johnny worked as a senior Marketing executive at a renowned FMCG. He graduated from Delhi University with honors. Being the son of the Chief Minister of Mizoram had its own perks and advantages, but Johnny had never exploited such opportunities because he hated the fact that everybody would look at him differently because of his father.

That was the reason why he had never mixed with the “Mizo crowd” in Delhi. People talked too much, he grumbled. He felt like his life was being scrutinized and analyzed by everybody around him just because of who his father was.

Hence, Johnny had cut off all ties with the Mizo community and moved in an apartment with his former school mates from Chandigarh, where he had completed his school education. He felt more comfortable hanging out with his non-Mizo friends, after all, he had spent 23 of his 26 years outside Mizoram.

He had dated a lot of women from different race and caste and region, and had always thought he would end up marrying a tall Punjabi girl. He knew his parents would disapprove of it, but he also knew that he would never be happy with a Mizo girl because he knew so little about his own culture and heritage.

And then one fine Christmas party at “Blue”, one of the more flamboyant and posh lounge bars in Gurgaon, he was introduced to a Mizo girl Puii by a common friend.

Puii too was just like him. Brought up in a boarding school in Mumbai at the age of 7, she had spent her entire life in the midst of non-Mizo friends. There was an immediate chemistry between the two of them that night.

The next day, Johnny called her again and shyly asked her out on a date. She smiled.

They spent the whole day at CCD together, talking non-stop about various issues. Johnny talked about how his folks would always poke their nose into his friends’ lives. They would always ask him for the name of his friends’ parents, as if that mattered in his friendship. Puii completely agreed that that really bugged her too. They both asked each other why parents in Mizoram were like that, and then burst out laughing.

Puii then made a mock introduction of her father in a very dramatic way, “Hi, my name is Puii and my father’s name is Lalramliana.”

Johnny imitated his father by putting on his voice, “Ohhhh… Lalramliana. I know him. He stays at Zarkawt locality and his father is a very good friend of your grandfather. He once shot down an elephant with a small catapult this size.”

They both laughed again.

“Seriously, how do these people know everybody?” Puii asked amidst the laughter.

“I have no idea,” Johnny quipped. “And Lalramliana is such a common name. Two of my Mizo seniors in Chandigarh were named that. And I think one of my cousins is a Lalramliana too.”

The laughter never seemed to stop. Soon, hours flew by and before they realized it, it was already nightfall.

Johnny asked her if he could see her again the next day. She blushed and said yes.

That night, Johnny couldn’t sleep a wink. He kept tossing and turning on his bed, thinking about Puii. He thought he would never meet someone like her in his life - She was like a mirror-image of himself. And she was extremely attractive too - those eyes, those lips, that beautiful smile, they all kept flashing in his mind over and over again.

They met the next day, and the day after that, and so on, until one day, Johnny held her close and pressed his lips against hers. She reciprocated with a moan. From that day onwards, their love bloomed further and further.

Puii started sleeping over at his place. She was completely head over heels in love with him. She still remembered the last time she had a fight with her mom because she was seeing an Arab exchange student from her campus. This time she knew her parents would not have any objection to her relationship. But still, she decided not to tell them anything about him.

With Puii lying in his arms, Johnny felt complete like never before. He hadn’t told her about his father being the Chief Minister of Mizoram, and she didn’t ask anything about his family either. It didn’t matter. That was one of the many reasons why he loved her so much.

And then suddenly, he turned around and whispered, “Will you marry me?”

Puii couldn’t believe her ears. She said yes as they fell back into a deep passionate embrace.

The marriage was quick. They appeared before a magistrate at a family court along with two of their friends as witnesses, and they signed the required documents. Within two hours, they became husband and wife.

“You know what?” Johnny asked as they laid together that night.

“What?” Puii asked.

“In our culture, we would call this “in ru”, as in eloping…” They both laughed.

Johnny continued his work at the company and Puii found a job as a PR executive for a renowned MNC. Neither of them told their parents about their marriage.

And then one fine day, Johnny reached home to find his wife waiting for him… she was sitting on the dining room chair, contemplating deeply…

“What’s the matter, hon?” Johnny asked with much trepidation.

“Darling,” Puii said slowly… “I’m pregnant…”

Johnny reacted both with shock and jubilation. He ran and hugged her immediately.

And then Puii told Johnny about what she had been thinking the whole evening ever since the color on the pregnancy strip turned pink. She now felt guilty about not telling her parents about their marriage, and with the pregnancy, she felt extremely vulnerable and insecure. She wanted to see her mother and take her advice. She cried.

Johnny understood. He reassured her that he would take leave from work and book a ticket to Mizoram immediately.

He warned her that their parents weren’t going to take it easily, but at the end of the day, it was their life, their decision, their future. She nodded in agreement.

On the day of their departure from Delhi, Johnny called up his father from the airport.

Pu Siama was surprised to see his prodigal son calling him up. The last time they spoke was around a year ago. His heart beat pumped faster as he answered the call with subdued excitement.

The call was quick. No formalities. Johnny quickly told him about his marriage, the pregnancy, and that they were on their way home. Pu Siama almost got a heart attack. Johnny then mentioned her name and hanged up immediately to avoid any awkward questions or reprimand from his father.

Five minutes later, Pu Siama called up his secretary and ordered him to find out everything about the girl, where she studied or worked etc based on the name that Johnny told him. It wasn’t going to be difficult tracing such a person, especially since she was from Aizawl.

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The plane landed at Lengpui Airport that same day. Johnny and Puii got out, checked out their baggage and hired a taxi. He wasn’t surprised there weren’t anybody waiting for him at the airport. He hardly had any friends in Mizoram, and he was like a stranger to his cousins.

Finally, the taxi reached Johnny’s palatial bungalow. There was an awful large number of cars parked outside the house, and Johnny immediately assumed his father was organizing a quick marriage ceremony or reception for them so as to save his face in front of the conservative Mizo society. After all, it was like destroying his reputation if the public found out about his son’s elopement.

As they walked hand in hand cautiously into the main living room, the place was filled with people. He recognized some of his uncles and aunts. But instead of celebrating or even acknowledging him with a smile, they all sat their staring at him, as if they were mourning.

Johnny held Puii’s hand tighter.

And then a middle aged man with blood shot eyes stood up slowly. Johnny didn’t know who he was until Puii suddenly screamed, “Dad!”

Johnny realized his father must have traced who she was and asked her father to come over. He didn’t care. He loved her and that mattered the most.

And then all heads turned towards the centre of the room as Pu Siama stood up. He trembled as his wife and brother supported him on his arms. Johnny hadn’t seen his father in almost five years, and realized how much he had aged.

With a heavy breath, Pu Siama pointed at his son slowly… his fingers shook as he uttered painfully, “You stupid ungrateful son…” pin drop silence filled the room as time came to a halt. He continued with all his energy as he looked at his daughter-in-law, “She… is your cousin’s daughter.”


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Chp 283. Writing "Exclusive" Articles for a Global Audience

A couple of friends asked me if I'm going to blog about the recent Mizo Picnic on Republic Day here in Mumbai. Of course I am. But due to extremely heavy workload this month, I can barely find the time to sail around the blogosphere.

Hence I will definitely update my blog about that wonderful picnic in the next couple of days.

But as I was pondering on that memorable day, a thought flashed by. How does one write about events like that on their blog anyway?

Of course I am not talking about writing a football post or gothic metal post. Those are “interests” and only those who are passionate about those particular subjects will find the post interesting. By exclusive topics, I mean topics that are community-centric and not based on one’s passion, where it is difficult for others who do not belong to a particular community to read a blog that revolves around that particular community.

Although blogging is all about freestyling where you can write about anything in any way you want, if you want to be a little bit more serious about what you blog, then there are certain things to keep in mind.

Most important of all, know your audience. Based on that, you can write “exclusive” events like this Mizo Picnic in three different styles.


1. The “dear diary” style.

You write about the Mizo picnic as if you are addressing only one person. You talk about a friend or an incident during the picnic without much explanation or elaboration. You take it for granted that the people who read your blog all know who or what you are talking about. This style makes sense if you are writing only for a Mizo crowd (or to be more precise, Mizos who are in Mumbai). The post will also contain a lot of frying or personal jokes, using nicknames that only you and the intended audience understand. In this style, you build great rapport with your Mizo visitors, but unfortunately, non-Mizos will tend to shy away.


2. The “Me, myself and I” method.

In this style, you use a lot of first-person singular personal pronoun. The overall tone and theme of your blog post is about how you see the picnic through your own eyes. You write about all the things you did and how much you enjoyed doing that or eating this. Although some of your blog visitors may derive pleasure from seeing the entire picnic through your eyes (at a very personal and intimate level), you also stand a chance of leaving out important events about the picnic that you did not participate in or was not aware of.


3. The “Universal” writer.

Most columnists write in this manner. This is the opposite of the “dear diary” style mentioned above. The way you write has to appeal to everybody across all sections. Of course your topic may appeal to a certain crowd, but you have to write in such a way that people in that particular segment reading your blog are not left in the lurch because they do not understand a certain personal joke or metaphor. You have to write as general as possible, and this is guaranteed to increase the number of visitors to your blog (in terms of diversity).


There are other ways of writing too, but I don’t want to drag this post.

From the above three styles, there is no “best method”. That’s the beauty about blogging. You can use your own style and fly free. Writing “globally” about Mizo events may get you a lot of audience from different locations, but that means you will have to explain certain traditions or translate a few words so that your audience can comprehend easily. This will of course be boring for people (Mizos) who are already familiar with such terms and traditions.

You can also mix styles in any way you want.

Hence that is why you must know your audience and write for a particular target. Expand your options and be completely versatile. It may not make you popular or help you sign a record deal with renowned publication houses, but it will definitely improve the way you write and help you see things clearer.

And the best part about blogging? Hey, it’s your own blog. You can write what you want, how you want, where you want. Even if you make mistakes, you do not have to stay back in class after school and write on the blackboard a hundred times, “I shall be not making grammatical or lexical mistaken upon my blog”.

But always try to listen to criticism.

Cheers.

Chp 282. “Lights, camera, action” with CNN IBN

Look ma, I’m on national television!



As some of you may know, my previous post “Welcoming 2010 with vision 2020” was featured on CNN IBN’s weekly youth program called YNOT (click the above pic to go to their site).

Below is the video clip that appeared on the news channel.

I must warn you before viewing, that a typical North Eastern blogger (or any blogger for that matter) does not go around with a laptop in his hand and blogging at roadside tea-stalls next to train stations during morning rush hour My action in this video is purely for depiction purpose only



Urmi Sahni, producer – correspondent for CNN IBN was in charge of the entire shoot, and her team did an outstanding job with the video camera and editing (She’s also one of the sweetest newsperson I’ve ever met).

The day started at 6:30am. I was at Bandra Fort by 7:30 and the shooting began, with a sunrise silhouette shot right next to the magnificent towering Bandra Worli sealink. The intro about me from the video was shot when the sun was in my eyes, so it was quite difficult opening them (my eyes).

We did a lot of on-the-spot improvisation regarding the script too.

After a couple of shots at the fort and at bandstand, we moved to lower parel station. It was quite embarrassing doing a shoot there with everybody staring at me or wanting to be in the film once they realized there was a video camera present. We did a lot of retakes, and by 2pm I was completely exhausted (7 hours of video shoot for a 2 minute clip!)

We then moved to their studio (Network-18 HQ) where we spent some more time recording my voice at their audio studio. Their office was amazing, and there were LCD screens plastered all around the walls, broadcasting one news channel or the other. I even saw their news broadcast room.

Finally reached my office by 5pm, but not before making a pit-stop at KFC. All in all, it was an exhausting day, but more importantly, a great experience. CNN IBN, you truly rock!


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Ps. Had to add this: While we were shooting at Bandra Fort, some well dressed family (probably out on their morning walk) came near us, laughed, pointed at me and said, “Hey look, foreigners are making a movie”. And my story was about how we’re called foreigners in our own country. Define irony.

Chp 281. Welcoming 2010 with vision 2020

To come up with a famous quotation, you got to be famous first But to have a great dream, you do not need to be anybody great. It is your prerogative to dream passionately about anything that makes you tick.

From Martin Luther King Jr. to a 5 year old wishing her folks would stop shouting at each other, we all have our dreams about a better future. Some are short-termed while others require years. Some are tangible while others are about satisfaction. Some may be altruistic while others are quite self-centric. Then there are those unrealistic dreams too, but nevertheless, we keep dreaming.

With the dawn of a new tomorrow this year, instead of making any New Year resolutions (which we never seem to keep anyway), I’d like to dream instead. A dream that can definitely come true in the next 10 years, if we all put in a little effort.

Sure, it feels great dreaming about riches and glory, or maybe about becoming a big rockstar and living in hilltop houses driving fifteen cars. But the ultimate dream for me is to see that by 2020, people from the North East are not only recognized as Indians, but treated as one.

Mind you, I’m not talking about racism here. That’s a different topic, although they may cross path here and there. But this dream is more about identity. Racism is ugly of course, and a bit more complex to decipher, but there is a thin line between being a bigot and being ignorant.

I dream that in the next 10 years people of so called “mongoloid” race who are citizens of India, are no longer jeered at as Chinese, Nepalis, or any other foreign nationalities. I dream that people at least know the names of the North Eastern states, even if they’ve never been there or met anybody from those places.

I work at an Ad agency here in Mumbai. One day we met a client from a reputed firm. She’s a very senior manager and I asked her if the mailers we’re going to design for them would go to all their employees in India. When she said yes, I told her my friends in Mizoram were working for the same company (their Aizawl branch) and asked whether they too would receive my mailers. She asked me nonchalantly if Mizoram was a part of India or not, quickly followed by the instruction that it would go only to their employees in India, and not “overseas”.

Imagine, a senior manager (probably from a reputed B-School) working at one of India’s top Banks… Likewise, we have faced similar questions from various people every day. Where is Mizoram? Is it a part of China? What currency do we use? etc etc.

Baichung Bhutia did us a big favor by promoting the North East to the rest of India. Now there are more and more football players from the North East playing in the I-League, India’s top-flight football league. The recent Finals between East Bengal and Lajong FC saw a large number of North Eastern players on both sides.

Similarly, if I walk into any Rock/Metal concert in India where local artists are performing, people everywhere recognizes me as somebody from India’s North East. I get questions like “Are you from Nagaland or Mizoram or Manipur?” immediately. No questions about China, Japan etc. That’s why I love such crowd and places.

But unfortunately, all that is restricted only to the few hardcore football and (rock) music enthusiasts here in India. The rest of India still do not know about us, even though we’ve been a part of the Indian Union since independence. A few sectors like the hospitality industry and BPOs too have their fair share of North Eastern employees now, but again, that has a very limited exposure.

Kolkata is another place I love, in spite of the heat, humidity, pollution and traffic. And the reason being - that place is the only place in India where people do not stare at us and make us feel uncomfortable, because they’re so used to our kind of faces. My dream is to see that by 2020, that happens to the rest of India too. We definitely do not want to be treated as aliens in our own country.

People often counter-argue that the fault does not lie with other people, because after all, “we do look like Chinese”. Sure that contention may sound reasonable to many “educated” individuals. Well, we should also remember that many Indians too look like Sri Lankans, Pakistanis, Afghanis, Israelis, half the Arab world, Malaysians and so on. Nobody calls them by those nationalities.

By 2020, I want to see people from the North East becoming Bollywood or Tollywood superstars! I want to see them play the main roles in big budget films, and I want to see them play the role of Indians, and not any Nepali or Chinese or Japanese role.

10 years ago, when Mizo sportspersons (yours truly included) used to appear on the newspapers for scoring that goal or shooting that many baskets, none of the papers used to get our names right. But now things have changed and I want such change to continue. By 2020, I want the rest of India to know our names properly (and without raising an eyebrow when we introduce ourselves).

By 2020, I want everybody to know about our existence. The fault lies with the government and educational system. Our school history and geography books hardly mention anything about us or our culture. Hence, young Indians everywhere are brought up with the notion that the North East is worth 10 marks on their exam paper.

I want to see our young children all over this great nation, grow up in school learning as much as they can about the North East, and how people from such places “look different” from the rest of India. That is my dream. A new India where children are armed with the powerful knowledge of the North East. After all, these children are our future and only hope. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru envisioned this years ago. We can’t we?

10 years. Just 10 years. That small innocent child studying in class 3 somewhere in Mumbai or Chennai or Lakhimpur would have completed her school education in 10 years. By 2020 she would go to college, devoid of any ignorance about the North East. How wonderful that would be, when she welcomes her new North Eastern college classmates and makes them feel right at home!

With recognition, we can have better development, infrastructure and investment in the North East. In 10 years, all this bigotry and hate and ignorance can be eradicated, and that is when my dream will finally come true. An Indian utopia. Vision 2020.