Mind Speaks
Compassionate Ramadan 2016 – photography competition
Photography competition to capture the inner reflections of life that you learn by capturing a “Compassionate Moment” you witness during this Ramadan.
This Ramadan 2016, Passionate Photographers group invite all Passionate photographers of any age with an attitude of participating in a community event which may lead to a winning moment in their life!
Send us photos of a “Compassionate Moment” that you witness and capture!
Photos taken using Mobile and professional cameras accepted. Awesome prizes to win!
Email your entries to: talentshare2016@gmail.com with the title – Compassionate Ramadan 2016/Your name
Include the following details : Name, Age, Address, email, phone and a few words about the location and camera or phone you used to click.
Simultaneously post the photos and videos to Passionate Photographers group on Facebook with hashtags #passionatephotographers and
#CompassionateRamadan2016
Brought to you by: Passionate Photographers & Team 1 TalentShare
Entries close: 16th July 2016
All entries will be showcased in Passionate Photographers group & Talent Share blogs
Special highlights with Weekly Winners
Sponsors and Promoters Welcome / For queries, please email to talentshare2016@gmail.com.
Mind Speaks : Life As I See
Life As I See
I was scanning my archives for a set of old photos and suddenly this particular photo came up. It was from a recent series of click that I had made while visiting a village close to Whitefield in Bangalore. The house reminded me of my college days in Madras. A one bed room sharing accommodation that me and my friends took. It was a very small facility with bathroom, kitchen, our beds, study everything combined and congested into the small space that was available. Even with all the limitations, it was a luxury for us and of course many. Life during that time, we made it as lively as possible. During class time we studied, but during evenings we did not miss out on any enjoyment opportunities that either came on our way or we created. Cycling, biking, movies, long rides… so many things done during those days where brought back with one look at this house in a totally dilapidated condition. It was serious business as well as fun to meet our limited budget and stay outside the hostel and live a life King Size, as the famous tobacco ad during those time promoted!
Life goes on!
Mind Speaks – Common Man’s Pride!
TVS 50 is common man’s pride!. You will agree with me, if you visit any of the markets or towns in Tamilnadu. It was not a surprise for me to see several local retailers coming to the wholesale vegetable market at Coimbatore and returning with goods stacked neatly everywhere possible, and the rider balancing it through heavy city traffic!.
In 1980 TVS 50, TVS Motor Company is the third largest two-wheeler manufacturer in India and one among the top ten in the world , rolled out India’s first two-seater moped from the factory at Hosur in Tamil Nadu, Southern India.
I call this a pulse presentation to the mass! TVS knew what the common man wanted to handle their day to day chores. Especially, those in the villages and small towns. If not altogether correct in an entire Indian perspective, at least and fully true in the Southern States of Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Andra Pradesh.
Some of the mopeds are really old, but maintained and kept in excellent condition, as is the tradition in Tamilnadu. They love their vehicles more than anything!.
Bajaj M80 is another example, although it is visible lesser and lesser.
Automobile companies have to come out with economically viable products for the common man. It will keep the market alive and industry prosper and the profitability is shared to the grass root level.
Foot note: I am happy to see and highly impressed to note that the normally illiterate farmers or retail business people are happy to abide by and oblige the helmet rule, whereas the highly educated youth do not follow them and end up in orthopaedic wards of hospitals or in many cases even die an untimely death!.
Point to ponder.
Mind Speaks: Make it lively & LIVE LONG!
In the next few days, the world will stand still for some hours!. True, at least some part of the world will definitely will. It will include the India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Middle East, England, Australia and the U.S.
It is not a myth. Certainly, many, not excluding me are die-hard cricket fans and the World T-20 final stages are being played. How can you stay away from the venue or from the TV screen live telecasts!.
True and but! Have you imagined the amount of man-hours being lost because of being a cricket fan!. I was thinking of it during the last few matches. How can I make it productive. Not an easy solution, but not a difficult one too.
After reading about various incidents that took place in some of the cities that killed a youth, or created various online and offline interactions that caused permanent damage, I felt I should write this note.
Enjoy cricket but, enjoy it with the thought that we have to “Live Long” and not end our life being a mad fan of it.
End of the day, cricket players in India and elsewhere are privileged along with sportsmen and sportswomen playing golf and tennis who get paid for a lifelong earning during their playing years!. All others have to opt for other livelihood methods to carry on with their daily living.
Here is my thought for how to utilize our time promisingly and progressively watching the forthcoming cricket matches to make you LIVE LONG and remain a cricket fan forever:
- List – prepare a list of items to throw away, donate and return which are at home and which you feel you do not need any more!
- Imagine and Inspire yourself as a talented musician. Comfortably position yourself in front of the TV and play along the musical instrument of your choice or sing along the song of your choice. Visualise yourself as the best of the best, I am sure you will become one!
- Veggie: why not?! – try to become a veggie for the first time, if you are not one!. Buy fresh vegetables, try and impress your wife and children with your skills to clean them, cut them and present them in the most beautiful way. Let it be a motivation and experience for them to try out what it is to be a vegetarian!
- Expire the expired: Utilise the time and check all of the items in your bathroom and kitchen that have expiration dates. Dump the expired along with anything else that you aren’t using.
- Locate: all old and useless receipts, unless they have a warranty on them and discard them for good.
- Old: Newspapers and Magazines and Out of date medicine – take them out and dispose them safely. May be donate the old newspapers to the news boy as he can make some money out of it!. Donate the unwanted medicines, if they can be used to some charity as it may be of use for someone else who cannot afford it.
- Nerd: That’s not me!. Have you ever been overawed by the intelligence of your colleague or friend!. Think and come out with something new that can be innovative to the society. Or try some time with Sudoku. I am sure, if you try it and you will enjoy doing it again and again and the end result, you will improve your language skills.
- God – In god finally we find solace!. We have seen it several times, especially through the lenses of the high-tech videographers of cricket matches. Those who never pray in their life come and cry out in front of the cameras in the stadium. Why not you also? – It is a nice opportunity to finish one set of your favorite prayers when the the match is in progress. I am sure, you will do it without any hesitation and prompting.
If you feel you miss any prime moment of the match, do not worry, there is a replay within seconds. So, do not focus too hard on the match!. It may save your life!.
If none of the above suites you, plan a travel so that you are away from the temptation of the TV screen and mobile updates during the time of the matches. (I am planning to do it!).
Try it out and let me know. Next few days will not be easy for die-hard cricket fans of those countries who are playing the semi-finals of the World T20 matches. Let there be no animosity or hatred between each other. We have plenty other problems to tackle. Let no life perish!
Last post – Wake up call for print media
The Gulf News of Saturday, 27th March 2016 came out with a special post. It was about the final print edition of The Independent newspaper.
It may not be the only print news that is going to call it a day! Over the period of last few years, I have seen several print editions are becoming lesser and lesser attractive and dying a silent death. Some of them have been there for a long time and remained very special to many throughout their period of existence. One such print weekly was the “Young Times” by Khaleej Times. Once upon a time, it was the most popular weekly magazine of the kids in the region. It was taken out with the last edition coming in December 2008!
The popular magazine Young Times came to an end on 31st December 2008. As the saying goes there is destiny and fate and definite ending to all finite and infinite objects in this world, what a fitting departure date for this wonderful magazine for the young (and old).
I was lucky to read each and every issue that was published except the first two years of it’s entry into this media world. The habit of following the prints closely made me more attached to it and Young Times became an integral part of my family. Even the Bangladeshi newsboy Mamtaz who deliver it at home became our family friend. Many of you from the UAE including myself grew older with it, and the horizon of our bits and pieces of knowledge expanded with it. The team behind it did a great job for the children around. To compete with the visual world and stay alive is a big task and even during the final walks of their journey they remained totally committed for the cause of Young.
The final edition carried all those features that used to be there all these weeks and were more interesting than the previous ones.
I believe strongly that in the recent times very little has been done to improve and increase the art of reading from the print media.
Only one exception I can see is the efforts by The National newspaper to offer discounted rates to student subscribers. This is a commendable positive move to foster reading habits among children.
The art of reading and the art of reading out are very important to inculcate important values in life. More efforts should therefore be carried out by all those who love literacy and education to improve it. What should be done to attract young readers should be done without any slight hesitation. Time lost on this will be money that will be lost in future!.
Time to wake up.
Wish they were cricketers! India Seniors Volleyball team at Abu Dhabi airport :- Campaign PASS – Promote All Sports Simultaneously
Campaign PASS or Campaign – Promote All Sports Simultaneously is intended to encourage all sports activities and personnel simultaneously for their growth and excellence in respective field.
It could be termed as a deliberate attempt to generate more corporate attention and support towards all Track and Field sporting events other than Cricket, which obviously gets the best for the game and players.
The thought evolved during the 2010 Common Wealth Games, I was looking for opportunities to promote how it could be done. The first of the series came automatically with the news report of Indian Football team’s schedule to train in Dubai.
It is my special appeal to all Indian Social organisations and interested Corporate and Business units to show more support and encouragement to all sports equally.
Let us take the first step and let it begin from this moment. I hope that it will be towards bigger achievement for the sport and all the athletes in common.
A Face Book group has been created to promote this initiative. Please click on the link and join this group and promote it among your contacts.
your contacts.
+ Click Campaign Pass FB group to join.
Please share the FB group and also any sports activity you wish to highlight through it.
Thank you for your support and encouragement to promote it.
Just an example #ifyouarenotacricketplayer
Wish they were cricketers! India Seniors Volleyball team at Abu Dhbi airport
This is the Indian Senior Volley Ball team on their way back to Madras after winning a prestigious tournament. I met them at Abu Dhabi Duty Free. There was no fanfare, no one even asking them who they were.
I happened to meet them, the Indian Senior Men’s Volley Ball Team members at the Abu Dhabi Duty Free on 28th August 2011. They were returning to Madras via Abu Dhabi after winning the 18TH NURSULTAN NAZARBAYEV PRESIDENT’S CUP INTERNATIONAL VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN beating Tunisia in the finals held on 27th August.
Things have improved for many sports since 2012-13. But, there is still a long way to go. We must come out together and encourage all sports which build a good and energetic and intelligent person in everyone.
I wrote this post and kept the title “Campaign PASS – Promote All Sports Simultaneously” for about 3 hours. Not many interests!. Thought, let me bring cricket into it and changed the title to “Wish they were cricketers! India Seniors Volleyball team at Abu Dhabi airport :- Campaign PASS – Promote All Sports Simultaneously”. Curiously waiting the response!.
#campaignpass #happinessandpositivity #clicksandwrites #passionatephotographers
Maha Shivarathri – the Universal Pati-Patni Day
Let me repost an old article and a presentation named ShivaSakthi created by me marking the relevance of this day.
These days, we blindly follow several different types of days, for eg: Valentines day, mothers day, fathers day, friendship day, no-smoking day and the list goes on and on. When we look at it Shivarathri is the truly traditional family day or Pati-Patni day, as I term it. Because, from the ancient times, devoted wife’s pray and observe fast on this day for the well being of their husband and children and vice-versa, husband’s observe religious rituals and prayers like chanting Rudram and chamakam to give grace and prosperity to the well being of own family and the society.
Open your eyes, look at the realities, and react to it.
Motorbike riders require safety reminders – Letters to the editor – The National Dt 7th March 2016
ClicksandWrites 
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