Comic Con 2015 !!!

Mark the date - 5th April, 2015; My dream came true. Literally, my dream came true.

I attended my 1st COMIC CON !!!

Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to go to a Comic Con and watch amazing Cosplays with my very own eyes. Yesterday, I did and now, I can't stop thinking about it.

It's only the 5th year Comic Con has been organized in India. And, I was told not to keep my hopes up high. But I had huge expectations. And Comic Con Bangalore did not disappoint.

We started our journey to the best day ever around 10:15AM. Got a FREE Ola cab ride. The guys at Comic Con really took care of everything. By the way, the Comic Con ride icon on the Ola cabs app comes up as a Bat Mobile. Just saying. I thought it was clever. So, this is how one of the best days of my life started.

When I was entering this huge Convention, the feeling was unreal. The banner over my head said "BANGALORE COMIC CON"!!! Couldn't believe it. So, I took a pic to remember the feeling. I do this. I take a pic to remember the feeling that I'm going through.

As I entered, there was loud music, almost everyone was wearing a superhero t-shirt, lots of comic books, comic books, anime & movie merchendise and whatnot. It was a geek's fantasy come true.

Then me and my friends decided to roam about and see what all Comic Con has to offer. I found a t-shirt with a "Batman : The Dark Knight Returns" comic book art on it. I got so excited. If that t-shirt was on on display anywhere but Comic Con, no one would but it. But at Comic Con, everyone knew it's value.

Moments later, my friend taps me on the shoulder and points to a shirtless guy wearing a blonde wig, with a metal right hand. OMG !! It was the lead character from Fullmetal Alchemist. I couldn't believe it. I had watched the complete series on Animax. How many people knew who this guy was cosplaying?? The answer is A LOT. It made me even happier. So, I run up to him to ask him for a pic. And, he politely agrees. I took a lot of pics with him. And just before leaving the convention, as I couldn't control my geek self, I went up to him and said that I really really liked his Cosplay, that I'm a huge fan of the show and wished him luck for the Cosplay contest.

After an hour or two, I saw him again. And this time I wanted to take a pic with him with both our hands down on the ground. When I asked him to do that pose, maybe he didn't hear me the first time. So, I was about to explain it to him, just like I would explain any of you who doesn't know the show. But just as I said, "Hands on the ground" clearly, he said, "I know.  I know what you mean."

He KNEW what I wanted him to do. He KNEW his character. He wan't paid to get dressed as a character and just show up. Just like every other Cosplayer there, he came as a Cosplayer because he was a FAN and he wanted to do it. It's their way of showing their love for the comics, anime and whatnot.

After that I took pics with SO MANY Cosplayers. Joker, V for Vendetta, Spoc, Obi Wan Kenobi, a lot of Naruto & Bleach characters, Mario & Luigi and the list goes on.....

Best of all I saw a couple cosplaying Inu Yasha and Kikyo. He even had his sword - Tetsusaiga / Tessaiga. I was such a big fan of that show.  I even remembered the sword's name. As a kid, I used to play with a stick pretending it to be Tetsusaiga. One thought in my head was, "Why Kikyo and NOT Kagome?" But somehow "Inu Yasha and Kikyo" felt right. They were meant to be together.

I was having the time of my life. But something hurt me yesterday. A Vulcan hurt me. There was this sweet girl cosplaying Spoc. When I saw her, I got all excited and ran up to her for a pic. After the pic she said something that really hurt me in a good way. She said, "How come you're not cosplaying?"

I take a vow right now that I will Cosplay next year.

Also, I felt so happy when Obi Wan said, "May the Force be with you."

And how can I possibly forget the Comic Book and Graphic Novel collections! They had everything. "The Killing Joke", "The Dark Knight Returns", "Knight Fall", "The New 52". All the issues of each title. So many iconic story lines. Wish I could buy all of them. I was in LOVE with that place. Didn't want to leave. Ever.

For the 2nd time in my life ( 1st time being, when I recently got to know a friend, Shruthi. Sorry for using your name. I don't usually do this. ), I felt better about myself. I was not an outcast there. I am a geek and I embrace it. And this place was full of them. I was among my own people. I was at home.

Everyone was so nice there. Even in such humid and crowded condition, everyone was having fun and smiling. I did not find ONE asshole. People were so nice. Maybe it was the type of gathering where everyone is nice. I don't know. Loved the convention and the people.

Oh yes, we danced on the stage to Xbox's Just Dance 3. And, yes you're correct, I did make a fool out of myself. Again. But this was one place, noone cared. Neither did I.

I'll never forget my 1st Comic Con. Never Ever.

I'll be sharing all my pics on Facebook. Now, I usually don't do this but this time it's different. It's COMIC CON !!!

Last 2 Months

Hello, Everyone.

If you've read my last post, you know what this post is about. Or you might have guessed it from the title. Anyways....

I came to Hyderabad on December 20, 2014. It's been two whole months. But, it honestly doesn't feel that long. I've made such good friends here. When I came here, I did not expect to meet such good people. I have to say I'm lucky to have met them. So, let me start from the beginning.

Do you remember the first six months of your college? That's when you meet so many characters. And are you are desperate to make new friends. You come up to total strangers, shake their hands, introduce yourself, make friends with him / her and hope that the person you're talking to doesn't turn out to be a total asshole. After reaching my accommodation, I went through this phase once again. It's wonderful meeting new people. But this was different from college, at least for me it was. The reason being that I met such good people over here. I mean SMIT had such a negetive vibe when it came to it's crowd. But, here, it's so positive.

I made friends from different parts of India, and not just from Bihar and Jharkhand. Some of these places include Orissa, Delhi, Rajisthan, UP...... They're all such nice people. I know, I'm saying this A LOT. But that's truly how I feel.

This place and a new friend of mine have changed me for the better. I'm going out on weekends, shopping for myself, spending time with people rather than sleeping all time. *Today's an exception*. I feel like a different person and I'm loving it.

I bought 3 T-Shirts, 1 Shirt and 1 Jeans for myself. I also bought a new phone and a 1 TB HDD. The last time I bought something for myself, was in Nagpur when I went to Nagpur Central with a friend of mine. So, I'm changing for the better, I hope.

I've also gone through a tough emotional phase. I'm not going to mention the reason. I just wanted to say that it wasn't all fun.

Sometimes you have to make tough decisions. I used to think choosing between Pizza Hut and KFC was tough. But only a few weeks back I understood what hard decisions really are. I know no one's understanding what I'm blabbering about. So, I'm gonna stop.

I've learnt so much in the past 2 months, from C# to "almost" having fun. I used to think that sitting in front of a computer, coding and getting paid for doing so is all I want. But things have changed. It's not that I don't enjoy it anymore. I still love doing all that. But there's so much more to do.

The last 2 months have been the best. I'm going to miss this place and all my dear friends. ALL OF THEM. I don't wanna go. I really don't.

I wish I could mention my friends' names, but you know who you are. Love you all(Some more than others).

Thank you, Everyone.

Diary Entry - February 22, 2015.

Hi.

It's been quite some time since I've last posted anything.

There is a reason to it. Usually I would post something about a pattern I would've observed. But right now I don't have anything to talk about because my thoughts aren't clear. This might be due to the fact that I just woke up after a 12 hr sleep. Might be. But there can be other reasons too.

Hey! You know what? I just found myself a topic to talk about - "My Hyderabad Trip". Nah. The title sucks. I think I'll go with "HYD19 to HYD18". Nope. I don't want a cheezy title such as "My ILP Journey". So, what should I go with??? "Hyderabad : A New Beginning". Nah. Sounds like a terrible name for a novel. I think I got it -  "The Last 2 Months". It's apt because today's February 22, 2015 and my joining date was December 22, 2014. Makes perfect sense.

I think I'm going to remove the "The" from the title. I, desperately, want to make a "The Social Network" reference, but I can't think of a good line. So........ Forget about it.

It's my last week here in Hyderabad. So my time here is almost over. This is the perfect time to sum up my "Journey *eyeroll*", just before I leave.

Thanks for reading whatever I post.

Ads Ads Ads !!!

So......

What's an Advertisement ?

It's a notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product, service, or event or publicizing a job vacancy.

So, basically, Advertising is PROMOTING a product, service or event. So, my question here is "How DO you effectively promote a product?"

1. Is it by Listing the Qualities of the Product?
2. Is it by Showing that the Product is Better than it's Rivals'?

Ideally, Yes, that's how one can effectively promote / advertise a product. If I was to ask a random person, who doesn't have a clue how the advertising works, he would probably tell me the above mentioned ideas.

But that's not how Ads work. It isn't that simple. To support my argument, I would like to present an example. How many of you have seen the movie, "The Guilt Trip"? In the movie, Seth Rogen's character is trying to promote a genuinely good product that he has invented. Every retail store dismisses his idea even though his product is better than any other's in the market. Finally, he pitches his idea to a shopping network in which he DRINKS his cleaning product to show that's it's organic and safe for children and his Ad gets selected.

Now, what is the moral of the story?

No matter how many qualities a product has or how much better the product is than any other in the market, It won't sell unless it is promoted / advertised properly.

So, what makes a good Ad?

1. The Ad should be a connect to IT'S Audience :
   
   
   So, when I say "Audience", I mean the Demographic the product is aiming at. Different products aim toward different audiences. For example, a cooking oil product such as "Saffola", "Fortune", "Sundrop" or "Dhara" aims at the Demographic 35-70 (approx). Such a product would like to influence middle aged people and the senior citizens.
   
   For another instance, Airtel aims at the youth of India, whereas Idea aims at a bigger demographic, implying that Idea is for everyone.
   
   Ads are created around a concept or an idea. For Airtel, that idea is that "Airtel is for the new and modern India." Airtel Ads that support my  argument :
   
   
• An Ad with a youth (age 16-23) using his cell phone to solve his parent's problems using the services provided by the network.
• A love marriage theme Ad.
• An Ad that shows that women can also work and take care of her home at the same time. (BTW I find this Ad TOTALLY SEXIST.)


As for Idea, I think that the concept behind all it's Ads is that "Idea is for the common people. It empowers people by making them aware with the help of idea's internet service." They've been making Ads that support this idea of theirs for a long time now. I don't think I need to give any examples of such Ads.


2. The Ad should be Memorable and should be easily Recalled :
   
   
   First off, why is it necessary for the Ad to be memorable? Let's answer this question. It is an unrealistic expectation for a company to expect that the consumers will start buying their product just as the Ad begins to air. So, they want the consumers to remember their products Ad in some way or the other.
   
   For instance, Zandu Bam launched a new product "Zandu Bam Ultra Power". The company doesn't expect it's customers to get off their couches, run off to their nearest stores and buy their new product just after watching their Ads. It's unrealistic. It is unrealistic because it's a common house hold product. And it's not something new; At least that's what I think. But, there can be exceptions. Think of Coca-Cola's "Coke Zero". The product is new to India. Even in the Ads they make it clear that the taste is the same, only no sugar is there. So, to a common teenager who's not diabetic, Coke-Zero is no better than the original. Still, I bet that a number of teenagers must've tried this new Coca-Cola the day after the Ad aired first time on TV.
   
   
   Now, there are a lot of ways of making the audience remember an Ad. Let's go through them one by one :

   
   

   • Coming up with Catchy Jingles :
     
     There are so many Ads whose jingles I remember that I literally would lose count. So I won't even try. You know what!? I am going to list down a few.
     
     
     • Washing Powder Nirma
     • Action ka School Time
     • Classic Tooth Brush based on Ina Mina Dika
     • Liril's - "La; La La La La; La La La La Laaaa......"
     • Pan Parag Pan Masala
     • Doodh Doodh Doodh Doodh
     • Sonali Bendre's Nirma Soap
     • Sonali Bendre's Neema Sandal Girl
     • Vics ki Goli lo Khich Khich Door Karo
     • Vico Vajradanti, Powder, Paste
     • Chubhti Jalti Garmi ka Mausam Aya
     • Utterly Butterly Delicious
     • B-Tex's Khujli Kerne Wale based on Tirchhi Topi Wale
     • Essel World mein Rahunga Main Ghar Nahi Nahi Nahi Jaunge Main
       
       Bas....... Ab aur nahi. But the list is endless.............
       
   • Creating a Mascot for the Product :
     
     Many of you would remember a product only because of it's Mascot that you saw in it's Ad. I can bet that you'd know each of these Mascots :
     
     
     • Pillsbury Doughboy 
     • ZooZoo
     • Amul Girl
     • Hutch Pug
     • Onida Devil
     • Lijjat Padad's Bunny
     • Eveready's Black Cat
     • Sunfeast Sun
     • Parle G's Kid
     • Nirma Girl
       
       Again, the list goes on forever........
       
   • This next point is kinda Luck. Create a Memorable Ad :
     
     Some Ads may be so funny, emotional or I don't know what that you never forget the Ad. Some Ads just stay in your head for some reason I'm positive you won't be able to explain. Some of such Ads :
     
     
     • Tell me which Ad do you think of when you hear the word "JALEBI?" You'll get the same answer when you Google the phrase "Jalebi Ad." Can you explain why you remember that particular Ad, Dhara Cooking Oil Ad? Maybe because of that cute kid; Maybe because of the cute way he says "jalebi." I sure can't explain why I remember it.
     • Which Ad do you think of when you imagine a kid in yellow pyjamas doing gymnastics surrounded by Giant Puris. Why the hell do you remember that Sundrop Oil Ad?? If you can, please tell me.
     • That Fevikwik Fishing Ad. Well, this one's a freebie; Cause it's funny as hell!
       
       There's a lot more but I can't think of any at the moment. So this is mostly luck I think. I may be wrong but I can't see a common factor between all these Ads that makes them so memorable.
     
     

Let's review some of the recent Ad campaigns.

1. Cold Drinks :
• Pepsi has always attached itself to Celebs, from cricket to movie stars. You can summarize all it's Ads implying "These Celebrities drink Pepsi. So should you." FYI, Pepsi had also tried to focusing on the younger demographics when it went for the "Youngistaan" campaign.
• Coca-Cola for now is aiming at a bigger demographic than just the youth. It's trying to bring in the "Family Values" and "Festive" factors in all it's Ads.
• Thums Up has always been about action. Their Ad campaign always shows some celebrity being macho and showing off some over the top action. That's why it has Akshay Kumar and Salman Khan in it's Ads.
  
2. Mobile Network :
• Airtel is focusing on the youth and the "Modern India".
• Idea is focusing on the concept of "awareness to everyone". It is aiming at the common man of India. The Ad makes you think "What a nice Mobile Network company! Trying to promote women empowerment, literacy, awareness and whatnot through their Ads." But at the end of the day they're just trying to sell their product to you.
• Vodafone has spent I-don't-know-how-many dollars on their "medieval village" campaign. And before that there were the ZooZoo Ads. They make their Ads so interesting that you simply can't ignore them.
  
3. Deo / Perfume : All deo / perfume Ads are filled with sexual stuff. That's their selling point. Special mention to Mazza and Katrina Kaif, who deserve to be mentioned whenever the word "sexual" comes up.
   
4. Shampoo / Conditioner / Soap / Cream : All Ads in this category feature one or more Bollywood actresses and / or a number of Extremely fair Asian girls.
   
5. Toothpaste / Toothbrush : These Ads feature a number of doctors, some of them fake, who say the same thing over and over again - "I recommend this ****."
   
   

Some, or should I say most, of the Ads that we see have nothing to do with the product. Rather they use a celebrity to sell their product. These Ads lack content. Such companies know where their product stands in the market and hence they have nothing to show.

These are some of my observations. I don't know if Ads do  really work this way but that's how I see them. Your comments are welcome.

GRUB : Lost and Recovered

This happened when I was updating my Fedora 20 using a Hotel's Wifi ( WHICH WAS FREE ). It wasn't my fault. I couldn't do anything and hence, I don't regret it. If anything, I'm happy it happened because I got to learn something new from this experience.

So, I started the update process and waited for the downloading of some new packages to complete. I noticed that this time, a new KERNEL was also being downloaded. After the download was over, it was time for YUM to move all the newly downloaded packages to their respective places and clean up the previous versions ( remove them ). During this process, my Laptop froze. It was the worst thing that could happen. I had no choice but to perform a manually shutdown. When I restarted my Laptop, all I could see was this:

This was devastating for me. Let me make this clear that this hadn't happened to me for the first time. I handled it before. But I was so worried because of two reasons :

1. The repair required a Windows / any Linux Ditro CD.
2. I had 2½ days of FREE Wifi left with me and i didn't have an OS on my laptop.

To understand how this happened, we will have to dig deep inside the Boot Sector. So, what is a boot sector?

    - According to wiki, a boot sector is a region of a hard disk, that contains machine code to be loaded into random-access memory (RAM) by a computer system's built-in firmware. The purpose of a boot sector is to allow the boot process of a computer to load a program stored on the same storage device.

The BIOS selects a boot device ( the internal hard disk ), then copies the first sector from the device into physical memory at memory address 0x7C00. There are two important Boot Sectors :

1. A Master Boot Record (MBR) is the first sector of a data storage device that has been partitioned. The MBR sector may contain code to locate the active partition and invoke its Volume Boot Record.
2.  A Volume Boot Record (VBR) is the first sector of a data storage device that contains code to load and invoke an operating system installed on that device or within a particular partition.

These are just the definitions. This is something I read on https://www.serverfault.com :

• As I understand it, MBR = First sector on the entire drive and Boot Sector is the first sector in a partition. Your BIOS reads the MBR first then gets pointed to the Boot Sector of the system partition which controls the loading of that partion or will present you with a menu so you can choose another partition to boot off.

Let me tell you how the boot process works step by step using an example.

Scenario I

Say, I have a laptop with no OS currently installed on it. So when I install OS-1, OS-1 modifies the MBR to point to VBR-1. So, now, when I boot my laptop, the MBR is loaded first, it points to VBR-1 which points to OS-1.

If the OS-1 is Windows, the VBR-1 directly boots into Windows.

But if the OS-1 is a Linux Distribution, VBR-1 will show a menu; the Grub Menu. Grub stands for GRand Unified Bootloader. This GRUB menu contains options to either boot into a different OS or boot into the Linux Distribution using a specific KERNEL. Since, in this case, we have only one OS, so no other OSes would be seen on the menu.

Scenario II

Now, let's install another OS alongside OS-1, called OS-2. When OS-2 is installed, VBR-2 is created and the MBR is modified to point to VBR-2. So, now, when I boot my laptop, the MBR is loaded first, it points to VBR-2. But VBR-2 does not, or at least it shouldn't, point to OS-2. VBR-2 should present a menu to chose between OS-1 and OS-2.

Considering OS-1 is Windows and OS-2 is a Linux Distribution, VBR-2 will show the GRUB menu which will give an option for booting into both the OSes. This happens because, during the installation process of Linux, GRUB menu is generated and the Hard Disk is searched for other OSes. If an OS is found, a corresponding entry is created in the GRUB menu.

Considering OS-1 is a Linux Distribution and OS-2 is Windows, VBR-2 will directly boot into Windows without showing an option for Linux. A boot menu can be created at VBR-2 to give an option for Windows and Linux using a software "EasyBCD".

Scenario III

Now, Let's consider that two OSes, OS-1 and OS-2, are installed on my laptop. One of them is a Linux Distribution and the other is Windows. I have also created a boot menu for the VBR-Windows so that it shows an option to boot into Linux. And, as we know, Linux-VBR already has a GRUB menu.

I boot my laptop, MBR is loaded first. It points to, say VBR-Linux, and I get options to boot into Linux or Windows. I choose "Windows". Now I see the boot menu, which I created using EasyBCD, asking for which OS to boot - Linux or Windows. I choose "Linux". I am taken back to the GRUB menu. This cycle repeats itself till I choose either Linux from GRUB menu or I choose Windows from the boot menu I created.

What's happening is that I am switching from VBR-Linux to VBR-Windows to VBR-Linux to VBR-Windows and so on.

Let me explain what a GRUB menu contains. A GRUB menu gives an option to choose from 3 kernels, i.e., 2 previous kernels and 1 current kernel. So, as I mentioned above, a new kernel had been downloaded. Therefore, the process of updating the OS also involved editing the GRUB menu, i.e., removing the oldest kernel from the GRUB menu and the Hard Disk, adding a new entry to the GRUB menu and linking it to the new kernel. So, when I manually shut down my laptop, I interrupted the all these processes somehow. And I couldn't see the GRUB menu.

Now that you understand how the boot sector and GRUB menu works, I can proceed with my story. Where was I?? Oh, right! So, I had free Wifi and no working OS on my laptop. I had to get my hands on a Windows or Fedora CD. I went out on M.G. Marg to find it, but all the stores were closed. I had my dinner and came back to my room. Luckily, I had to go to my college the next day to collect my 8th semester mark sheet. So, I contacted a computer science junior from my college and asked him to provide me with a Windows and a Fedora CD when I get there. He's using Ubuntu nowadays, so he didn't have a Fedora CD with him. So, I had no other choice but to repair my Windows and leave Fedora as it was. I had to had a working OS with me. I had so much to download. To repair or overwrite the MBR, I booted my laptop from the Windows CD and opened the Command Line. Two easy lines reapired the MBR for Windows :

1. bootrec /fixboot
2. bootrec /fixmbr

Then I restarted my laptop and all was done. And, as  explained above, Windows did overwrite the MBR but there were no options to boot into Linux. So, I used EasyBCD to locate VBR-Linux and show it on the VBR-Windows menu. Now, I was able to boot into Linux and Windows. But there were two tiny problems :

1. I had to go through 2 menus before booting into Fedora
• EasyBCD menu
• GRUB menu
2. I couldn't boot into Fedora using the latest KERNEL configuration.

 Anyway, I downloaded 10.5GB in 5 days!!!

I came back home and decided to solve my problems. To overwrite the MBR with Fedora, I needed a Fedora CD. I created a bootable Fedora USB and a bootable Windows 8 USB, just in case I couldn't fix the GRUB menu.

I booted into the Live Session using the Fedora USB, opened the terminal and logged in as ROOT. I was trying to follow all the instruction step by step that I found on several websites that showed "How to reinstall GRUB2 in Fedora". But I was having so much trouble. I had a different Boot partition is Fedora which required a few more steps. And, later I found out that "/dev/sda4" was giving me an error because the path that was used was "/dev/fedora_aayush/root". This I got to know when I ran the command "fdisk -l". I'll mention all the steps that I followed to restore my grub:

1. Mount your / at /mnt/
• mount /dev/fedora_aayush/root /mnt
2.  If you have a separate /boot partition, mount /boot to /mnt/boot
• mount /dev/sda5 /mnt/boot
3. Bind these
• mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
• mount -o bind /proc /mnt/proc
• mount -o bind /sys /mnt/sys
• mount -t tmpfs /mnt/tmpfs /mnt/tmp
4. Chroot /mnt
• chroot /mnt
5. Reinstall GRUB2
• grub2-install /dev/sda

Or after step #3,

• grub2-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

After GRUB is installed, recreate the GRUB menu :

• grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

NOTE : My / was at /dev/sda4. But when I tried to mount it at /mnt, it gave an error. After hours of searching for the solution, I found this :

• fdisk -l ("l" as in lion)

This command gave me a path for /dev/sda4 which was /dev/fedora_aayush/root. After all this, I restarted my laptop and was soo happy to have my GRUB menu on top again. I booted into Windows and removed EasyBCD's menu and all was back to normal. Just one more thing was left. I had to remove the latest KERNEL entry from the GRUB menu. This could be easily done by modifying the grub.cfg file. But there's an easier way. "grub-customizer" is a package I always install in any Linux Distribution. I used grub-customizer to edit the GRUB menu entry and now it shows just two KERNELS, a rescue mode and Windows 8 loader (/dev/sda1).

I started to repair my GRUB menu at 12:30AM and I was done by 4:50AM. It took a lot of time but at least I got to learn something.

I just Deleted my Whatsapp Account

I just deleted my Whatsapp account. For the next 10 minutes, I was in a world of pain. I, still, am a little disturbed. Disturbed enough to write this.

I never thought that I would get hooked to these social networking websites and apps. When I was in school, a lot of guys were into Orkut but I wasn't. I felt good about myself, not getting carried away like the rest of my friends. I was proud of the fact that I wasn't on Orkut and I used to say that I was doing the right thing because I did not meet the minimum age criteria. But now I'm very much dependent on such websites, particularly Facebook. Can't delete my FB account even if I wanted to. It's almost as important to me as having an Email Id.

About a month ago I started using this new phone, which supported Whatsapp. A friend of mine asked me to install it, to which I was hesitant. I didn't want to get hooked to this application. I used to see other people in college who were online on Whatsapp, and other such applications, 24/7. I did not want to be that guy. So, I decided against it. But, then, my friend convinced me that I would not get addicted to this application. So I went ahead and installed it on my phone.

I wanted to use this application for what it was. Before instant notification came from Facebook, why did anyone use Whatsapp?

1. It connected the user to the people in his / her phone contact list.
2. It connected the user to his / her friends 24/7. The messages were sent and received instantly.

Taking Point #2 into consideration, I wanted to use this application to the fullest, i.e., I decided i would reply any message, any time I would receive it. This was tough to follow. I was being interrupted every now and then. I always had the option to put Whatsapp on vibrate mode, but then if I wanted to ignore messages and reply to messages according to my convenience, I would use FB messenger. Takes out the whole point of using Whatsapp.

Finally, I give up. Can't answer everyone's messages at the same time. Life was much simpler without it. And I want to go back to the same old life. So, WHATSAPP ACCOUNT DELETED!!! People who really want to be in contact with me don't need a software to do that. The good thing is that I won't be spending most of my time staring at my phone.

The mere fact that I feel sooo bad about deleting a software, tells me I'm addicted. It IS an addiction and, hence, is hard to get over, but I'll get through.

Sexual Repression in India

Sexual repression is a state in which a person is prevented from expressing their sexuality. This is very common in countries where the age of consent is particularly high. Sexual Repression is often associated with feelings of guilt or shame being associated with sexual impulses. What constitutes Sexual Repression is subjective and can vary greatly between cultures and moral systems.

India is a country where Sexual Repression is clearly present. No one wants to talk about Sex in a healthy manner, be it parents or teachers or anyone for that matter. Our culture and society treat Sex as a sin and according to them, Sex is a shameful act that is performed by everyone in the society but it should not be talked about in the open.

When I was a kid, I was told, not just by my parents, but also my teachers and the media, that Sex is a "BAD" thing. Obviously, no one told me this directly, since, even talking about it is shameful. I'm sure everyone, who is reading this right now, can relate to it. I'm 22 years old now and I try to keep an open mind regarding this issue. So, the way I see it now, is that Sex is just another natural activity. Nothing special about it. Everyone does it and everyone should be able to talk about it in a mature manner.

I'm going to write about about one of my life experiences. When I was in school, I had a mind set that Sex is "BAD". I didn't talk about it to anyone, even though, I had curiosity regarding the matter at an early age. It was, basically, a taboo for me. I did not have a lot of friends growing up. So, when I did make a few, we started talking about it. It was fun to talk about it since it was something we we're not supposed to talk about. Maybe it was the whole Forbidden Fruit thing that made the talk so interesting. After a while, I realized that everyone in school was talked about it, which gave me a sense of relief for now I knew that I wasn't a pervert. So, when I look back, I feel like such an idiot! Why the hell did I have that misconception in the first place? Why did I feel guilty about having sexual thoughts? It wasn't right. And the fact that I went to my friends to talk about it rather than my parents tells a lot about our society.

I don't get it. How is Sex a bad thing? IT'S NOT. I'm NOT going to say that it is nothing but a reproductive mechanism. It's waaay more than that. In cold terms, two individuals do it to satisfy their sexual desires( Don't lecture me about LOVE ). And these desires are natural and they exist because of our hormones. It's a scientific fact. But our society is not letting it's members express these feelings.

It's not just our religion / culture that tells us that Sex before marriage is a sin. Truth be told, even if one does commit this sin, god is not going to punish him / her. But in our country, the society does. This Sexual Repression is due to the fear of our society. Imagine a MTV VJ going out in public and asking college girls "Sex before marriage : Yes / No". I guarantee that cent percent girls would so "No" and maybe 20% of those girls would've had Sex already. They would lie because they wouldn't want anyone living near them to know what they really think. They'd be too scared to speak their minds. It's the pressure that would get to them. All this Sexual Repression in the name of "The great Indian culture".

Our culture tells us "Women are goddesses; respect them". It's fine. But by that logic, we shouldn't have any "impure" thoughts about them. And if we do, we feel guilty about it. This along with a number of other reasons creates a sexual frustration among our society. Due to our culture's "No Sex before marriage" thing, everyone in our society suffers, especially women. The people who could control themselves, good for them. But the people who couldn't, suffer in most cases. The people who can't control themselves, act on their feelings. Such people take either of the two paths :

1. They get "COMMITTED" with someone else. And they decide to have Sex before marriage because their conscience allowed them( because they were in "LOVE" ) *EYEROLL*.
2. Their hormones get the better of them and they, now referring to only guys, decide to take what they want any how . I'm obviously referring to Sexual Harassment and Rape.

Taking point #2 into consideration, Sexual Repression indirectly leads to sexual harassment and rape.

One other point that I would like to make here. Imagine a group of college students, sitting in some cafe and chatting. If a guy tries to initiate a topic about Sex, not in a vulgar manner, but in mature way, for instance, "Sex before marriage" or "Having Sex with multiple partners", what would you expect a girls' reaction would be? First off, no girl would participate in the debate. They would either leave or try to change the subject. And lastly, once the guy is gone, they would say things like "Kaisa ladka hai!?", "Ladkiyon se baat karna nahi ata", "Besharam hai", etc. It's a generalization that all guys are "Kamine" and girls are "Pure". And by "pure", I mean, they are the "Bharti nari" who think that Sex is a sin they shouldn't talk about it. So, it's not just the men who are a victim of the Sexual Repression, but also the women, who have gotten their mentality altered because of our society.

Sex Education was going to be a part of our academics. I'm surprised that they were discussing whether they should include it in the CBSE syllabus or not. According to me, including it would have been the right thing to do. No second thoughts needed. As soon as they realized the need of Sex Ed in India, they should've included it. But due to the fact that most people can't even say the word out in public, the bill was not passed. Due to Sexual Repression, we are not being able to educate our younger generation about the dos and don'ts of Sex. How can this be healthy!?

There is just one industry which uses this Sexual Repression to their advantage. It's the Indian Movie Industry, i.e., Bollywood. Movies like Jism 1 & 2, Murder 1, 2, &3, Hate Story 1 &2, Ragini MMS 1 & 2, didn't have a Salman Khan or Amir Khan to save them, yet they've been huge box office hits. Can you guess the reason? These movies show erotic content on the big screen. It's something new for us since we're not used to seeing such explicit sexual content anywhere( except porn ). The Indian population is sexually frustrated so much that it loves watching such erotic movies, even though there is always an option of watching porn. The Indian audience still chooses to watch these movies because they show an Indian's ultimate fantasy - An Indian society where people are having Sex and are talking about it openly, without any hesitation. The Bollywood Industry knows that the Indian audience would watch any movie that is even remotely based on Sex.

If I had chosen not to write on this topic, I would've been a victim of Sexual Repression as well. I'm trying to overcome this Indian mentality of mine. Hence, I choose to write down my thoughts for everyone to see.

We are the next generation. We can change all this. We need to open our minds and rethink our actions and mentality. Respecting your culture is one thing, but try to be a human first. There is nothing shameful about talking about Sex or informing our younger generation about it. Having an open mind about Sex is the first step. The Indian population connects Sex to it's culture. It doesn't make any sense. Sex is not a cultural thing. We share it with the whole Human Race. Have an open mind about Sex, talk about it, express yourself and your life will be much simpler.