Don’t talk to Strangers!

Posted on November 10, 2021 by kushsrivastava

Possibly the most common thing told to all kids by their parents,

Irrespective of caste, class or religion,

Across geographies and beyond borders,

Universally applicable and much accepted,

Yet

Have you ever wondered whether such teachings have even the slightest relevance in this era of Internet that we all live in?

Every day, kids are interacting with all kinds of strangers,

Be it on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram etc.

Be it dating platforms such as Tinder, Bumble etc.

Getting influenced each day,

Building their thought process every hour,

Getting exposed to all sorts of content,

As a parent, it’s but natural to be worried of where this can drive their kids to!

More than worrying though, what helps is,

To work towards building trust and ladder of communication between themselves and their kids,

To try and become friends who hear them out whenever they need someone to,

and

To be able to unconditionally devote time and energy for the kids’ well being.

Parents out there have a choice,

To be or not to be, A parent that is!

Source for the Image: https://unsplash.com/s/photos/stranger

Cookie-ing!

Posted on June 19, 2019 by kushsrivastava

An interesting conversation which I had today with a very dear friend, who claims to be an activist researcher 😉

When it comes to making people aware of the implications of what could be happening with your data, which one shares, knowingly or unknowingly on the Internet,

While browsing through different websites

While filling up the forms which a website might ask you to fill.

And with the likes of Fb and Google being questioned over the intended or unintended usage of the data that they collect,

Keeping in mind that their revenue model is focused upon using the data, be it personal or impersonal that they collect from their subscriber base,

With GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) becoming the talk of the town and India planning to have its own data regulation regime incorporating the fundamentals of privacy and explicit consent;

Let us look at the life-cycle of search and few implications of the same.

Looking for some info?

First thing one does is to search it on Google, which provides several options in the form of suggestions to explore.

Once one chooses to visit the website of choice, a message displaying the Cookie policy is displayed,

Which, without giving much thought to the implications of acceptance of the same, one tends to agree to,

In lieu of getting access to the most coveted information that one might be looking for, at that point of time.

Though, if you have enough free time to go through the policy, it gives you an option and suggested methodology on how one can choose not to agree to implementing certain irrelevant cookies,

But seldom, do we, consider it important enough to go through and make an informed choice.

The question that arises is, whose responsibility is it to make people aware of the implications?

The likes of the category, who would concur with my friend has a take that the respective companies who own the website, should be held responsible for providing information in the most easy of formats, when it comes to readability and accessibility,

In order to ensure that people make an informed choice.

On the other hand the companies tend to cite the legal angle, where they adhere to the laws, by providing information if one chooses to take pain and go through.

Whatever said and done, though, on the face value, it doesn’t seem to be a matter of life and death,

Yet, the implications of such an act is unclear to most of us, who happen to be reaping perceived benefits from the digital age.

Would be interesting to look at the implications and how this Cookie-ing could play a role in our lives, if at all!

Food for thought for the researchers, who aspire to explore the unknown! 🙂

Source for the Image: https://pixabay.com/images/search/privacy%20policy/

Lap-topping the Baggage!

Posted on November 23, 2018 by kushsrivastava

The inspiration for this post, I draw from the new platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp, LinkedIn etc. which have become a place for putting across to the world, one’s accomplishments,

Be it parents posting it on behalf of their intellectual kids,

Be it the professionals who are awarded for their hard work.

From childhood, parents inspire or force (at times) their kid to become the best in academics/sports/anything and everything, to which a kid might have varied reaction, depending on factors like:

The state of mind kid has, at that point of time, under the influence of his/her peer group, more so.

Whatever be the reason, most feel the baggage of parents’ and society’s expectations in their growing up years,

What a pity! Considering the most beautiful days of one’s life is lost in chasing fulfilment of expectations.

Once, the kid grows up, the baggage shifts to becoming the best in whatever field of study, he/she manages to pursue,

More so because of the perceived nature of the college than his/her interest, which in any case, he/she hadn’t had the time to ponder over;

Too busy was he/she bearing the baggage!

Entering the professional world, literally puts that baggage in the form of laptop bags that most professionals seem to carry around in today’s world, having implications for one’s health,

Leave alone the mental torture one has to go through, sheerly because most don’t like the work that they happen to be doing,

And aren’t able to justify how this work is bringing about an impact to others’ lives, that being the derivative of highest level of satisfaction that one draws.

Top this with the pollution, traffic etc. in the city, and what you picture is a person, moving around with his baggage all over the city,

Not knowing why the hell is one doing so!

Money, which was more a matter of survival than accumulation, has become the basis of life for most of us, having all the negative consequences for us day-in-day-out,

Yet, we tend to stick to it, because of the fear and an inability to answer: what if we don’t have what we have?

Is there a way out?

Well, yes if you want to find a way out!

One needs to understand the difference between survival aspiration and accumulation aspiration.

The former fits in well with the concept of maintain a good physical and mental health, allowing one to contribute to well being of others,

Whereas the second, leads to a path of disaster and chaos for oneself as well as the others.

Once that understanding is there, one wouldn’t be thinking of carrying all the baggage that one proudly carries in today’s world,

And justifies the same, labelling it as his/her ability to multitask.

The only question is whether one is prepared to change the very way one perceives things.

Are you?

Source for the Image: https://brandimpact.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/words-with-baggage/

Wondering_Importance!

Posted on October 7, 2017 by kushsrivastava

You get up, more often than not, you check your phone these days to see how many Whatsapp messages you might have received, or how many likes on your pic which you uploaded last night on Fb you have got, get happy seeing the likes or get depressed seeing no likes ;).

Reality strikes and you are made aware of the meeting that you have early morning, you start to rush around, trying to get ready asap, and grabbing a sandwich or so in your hand, you leave your house.

Sit in your car/cab, cursing the traffic which is bound to make you get late for the all important meeting which was supposed to get you a raise/promotion or whatever you value most in your professional life.

You reach the meeting, a little startled and unprepared, though you end up performing well, considering the hard work that you might have put in the night before, and only then are you able to bring your BP down to so called normal levels.

Assignment after assignment you try to somehow deal with all the frustration of sitting in the office day-in-day-out, until you are brought back to the horrible traffic in your car/cab, which at times takes an hour or so more for you to reach the place we all refer to as our home.

Probably, the above is a reflection of the very life 90-95% of the folks are leading today.

Somehow, all the things that were inherently important, be it good health, fresh food, time spent with family, healthy conversation at work place, the famous Nike tagline of doing what you love, feeling joyful and happy when you accomplish a wonderful feat have gone into a background,

Being overtaken and haunted by the thought of how much I made this month, whether my bank balance increased by a certain X amount, whether I was able to buy my favorite car this quarter, what if I don’t buy my dream house in the next one year, what if my boss gives promotion to my enemy no. 1 in office, what if my wife doesn’t get that all important diamond ring from me which I promised to her like a year before.

As a consequence, you end up feeling tired, restless at the things you are trying to match the pace with on a daily basis, and more importantly begin to get affected by diseases or conditions, courtesy the degradation in your immune system, considering the kind of thought process and physical activity that you might have pushed yourself into in the past decade or so.

Don’t you think, it’s high time, you start to give importance to what really matters when it comes to leading a fulfilling life?

Don’t you think, it’s high time, you start to take it easy and give yourself the much needed relief from the fast pace of day-night match you seem to be playing with your life?

If not now, then when, if not today, then there might not be any tomorrow,

So stop wondering about how you might be able to become the who’s who, and start to wonder what if you couldn’t become the who and act accordingly! 🙂

Source for the Image: https://phys.org/news/2017-09-important-physics-gender-bias.html

The Artificial (AI) Temple!

Posted on May 16, 2017 by kushsrivastava

“If it was not for the machine learning (ML) and deep learning and any such concept which relates to Artificial Intelligence (AI), I wouldn’t have got married”, was what I heard when I attended one of the weddings recently.

The groom had no doubt that for him, Algorithm=God, for he hasn’t seen God but had certainly found the love of his life, courtesy one of the algorithms being implemented on the Facebook which helps one connect to someone whom you might know.

AI is no more a science fiction. Be it the suggestions of what you might buy, which you tend to see on the likes of Amazon, or be it the ML being used by the likes of IBM Watson, to help doctors diagnose better, AI seems to be affecting each and every aspect of our lives.

Few might be skeptical of its use, suggesting the loss of jobs as a result of humans being replaced by machines and the resulting automation, few go on to suggest the efficient use of the same, focusing on the need for humans to develop new skills and keep evolving with time.

Few fantasize about machines taking on the humans on the lines of Matrix Triology, few go on to suggest the need for developing the machines with altruism as the basis of the same, where in machines learn from worthwhile models, which in turn enables the humans to act more responsibly and correctly, though the entire gamut of values and correctness might have their own proponents.

Whatever it might be, the day is not so far, when with or without the willingness of some, AI would start influencing all our decisions, and instead of people going to the pundits or the temples for consulting for marriage or otherwise, might actually start to approach the AI Temples build for the purpose.

Source for the Image: http://skumar813.blogspot.in/2011/04/day-in-nemmara-kerala-temple-festival_19.html

The UBER Life!

Posted on February 27, 2017 by kushsrivastava

Well, yes, to an extent, referring to the life led by the celebrities and the who’s who of their respective sectors and industries, but really to the world which is getting more and more explored.

The likes of Google and Uber have made sure that we reach the remotest of places, without the feel of getting lost in the wilderness.

No more a discovery of sorts, where there are roads, there are taxis and people treading on the same, where you can read about places on the internet.

The fantasies and the glitters of discovering something is an Uber or a Google away. The small joys of life are becoming much more obvious.

Accessibility has been redefined. Accessibility and explored nature have led to reduction in insecurity, at the same time, have affected the thrill and the charm which, once upon a time, was somewhat a synonym to exploration.

That reminds of me of companies being formed, whose sole purpose is to make your rendezvous with thrill in a secured manner, which, by the way, was a part and parcel of the very being that we all are.

The more the comforts, the more the monotony that seems to be creeping in all our lives. The pleasures which seemed to be so significant when we were all young, be it going to our grandparents place to going for a vacation, has become more an yearly routine to be a must take, so that we all can post our pics on the God of social media, facebook, to be liked by one and all.

Not getting into the good and the bad analogy, just wonder, with lives getting more busy and we mortals losing the charm of discovery, whether to travel places, would mean more Skype calls, made in a day, in times to come?

Source for Image: https://www.uber.com/en-IN/

Does being Apped means losing Humanity?

Posted on October 1, 2016 by kushsrivastava

Evolution is inevitable, but have you ever wondered that we would evolve so much so as to have our entire lives and generation apped.

Ya, that’s the buzz word. Possibly anything that you can think of at the moment has been put as a service/product which can be accessed through an app. It was only yesterday that I came to know, that an app exists for funeral services as well for those who are not able to make it in time for the last riots of their loved ones.

Can you believe it? An app for a funeral service? Ironically, on one hand, where it is extraordinarily funny because of our socialization process, the way we all have been brought up in India, on the other, being apped means lot of convenience.

It means the time that earlier you might have so called wasted, can now be utilized for more productive work, though I still believe the entire concept can be questioned.

We are spending more than 70% of our time, either on our laptops or our mobile phones. Our real life conversations have gone down.

If I were to picture a typical ITied family, you would see the husband and wife doing something on their respective IT platforms and the kid, who might have just been introduced to the likes, would be trying to add friends on Whatsapp or Fb.

What we earlier referred to as the family time has now got transformed into IT time. Father doesn’t seem to have time to spend with his kids, wife or parents. The wife, especially if she is a house-wife seemed to have found some abode in the arms of the virtual. The kids love the alley of the technology that they seem to be racing into.

The only ones who are left out in this entire ITionization or Appionization or whatever you might want to refer to as are the parents of the grownups or the generation that gave birth to the so called successful techies.

I know, some of us, would want to argue, that IT has helped us remain connected with our parents. At least we have an option to either do a skype or video calling sitting somewhere in US.

I just wonder, when we were young, and when we needed our parents’ attention the most, be it being fed when we were hungry or be it when we craved for their attention when we were hurt, if our parents were to come and tell us that they were appified, I bet we wouldn’t have liked it.

It’s our time, it’s our physical presence, it’s us providing the much wanted emotional support and attention, that our parents need the most, when they become old.

Where on one hand, it’s good to learn new things, keep oneself updated with what’s happening, on the other hand, we should try not to become so ITied or apped, where we tend to lose the very essence and foundation of humanity and love.

Source for Image: https://twitter.com/appstore

Local Social! Being Real and Feeling Real!

Posted on February 5, 2015 by kushsrivastava

Guys, have you ever wondered, that facebook like social networking sites pretty much fall into a category of “knowing the knowns” and is only able to provide you with a virtual experience which in most cases is unable to conclude in a real meeting of sorts.

Just imagine an online world where in you know who lives next door, what are they really interested in, what events are taking place in the locality, what common governance issues the locality might be facing on which they can collaborate on etc.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful going on a date with the most beautiful girl in your locality? Wouldn’t it be wonderful joining people from the neighborhood for adventurous tours and trips? Wouldn’t it be wonderful getting together and working for a social cause? Wouldn’t it be wonderful getting recommendations for things ranging from maids to properties and from hotels to what ever topic of relevance that comes to your mind?

But all of the above cannot happen if you don’t know the people living in your communities and neighborhoods, if you don’t interact with them enough, if you don’t share things with them, if you don’t collaborate and engage with them. How about if you had an online platform which exactly did what you have always wanted all your life which is to be real and feel real, instead of being virtual and feeling virtual.

Yes, you are almost there, just a step away from accessing the most wonderful of websites that I came across just a couple of days back, called ApniStreet ( https://www.apnistreet.com/ ). This website provides you with a platform where you can interact, share and collaborate with people in your community and locality.

It is said that the global is the new local but for me, local is going to be the new global, because we are slowly and slowly losing touch with our vicinity and neighborhood, which is not at all sustainable. Man is a social being and cannot survive with virtual interactions alone. Man needs to have real and meaningful interactions which one can get only when one comes to know people living in, say, the apartment next door.

Source for Image: http://artiedavis.com/2012/07/26/are-you-religious-or-real/

Connecto: The New Kid on the Block

Posted on June 18, 2014 by kushsrivastava

I woke up this morning with a strange feeling of being wired up. No matter where I go, I tend to be surrounded by wires and signals running all over my being. Yes, you can call it by what ever name you want, be it the internet revolution or the IT revolution, the fact is that we all are living in a Matrix (taking the liberty of borrowing this word from the famous movie), wherein we can be tracked every moment where we are going, what we are doing, what intentions we might have and what behavior might be expected of us.

Whether it be walking on the road with our mobiles in our pockets or whether it be browsing the internet, we are being tracked for every movement we tend to make, be it the mouse on which we move our fingers or be it the smart phone which we might be using for browsing the internet or sending a message to our friends on whatsapp.

If you are feeling that your lives have been intruded, well to certain extent yes. But as you might be aware that there are always two sides of a coin, one which you feel happy about and the other which you don’t really take great pride in, so is this very aspect of making our lives go digital.

Without going into the cons, as cons are in itself defined to be such by the impact that they are making and by the very nature of usage of the pros, let me try to focus on the pros of the same.

One thing is for sure, that our lives have become simpler. If you have any sort of doubt regarding this, let me cite a couple of examples which might leave you on the pro side of things.

Imagine the kind of hassle one had to go through while paying, say an electricity or a phone bill. How much effort was required when it came to booking a train ticket! How wonderful it is that we can now book a cab or a taxi using the wonderful facility of a phone or internet!

On part of the consumers, so far so good. Let me now talk about how this has altered the way businesses are being run and what impact it is having on the sales or generation of leads and ultimately the ROI, which indeed becomes the bottom line and can be a key determinant when it comes to existence or non-existence of an entity.

How wonderful would it be for an e-commerce company if they can have a software product or a tool wherein they can gauge how much time a customer is spending on a web page or a particular page and they in turn can pop-up customized message based on the intent and understanding of the need of the customer! For instance, a girl might be looking to buy a top (say) and then suddenly a pop-up message like, “hey, we have the most fashionable tops at lowest of prices, please click here.” or say, something like, “Do you need assistance in buying a top, please click here.”

Won’t you feel wanted and catered to by this virtual sales person? And this indeed can go a long when it comes to acquiring and retaining a customer from the point of view of an e-commerce company.

This, I have cited for an e-commerce company in particular but can be made applicable to any other company, whether it be a broker looking to acquire leads, or be it a travel company like makemytrip.com which is on a constant endeavor to satisfy the customers’ thirst for choosing the best possible travel deals which fits in perfectly well with their budget.

And one such product/tool that does exactly what I have stated above is Connecto (http://www.connecto.io/). It can be called no less than a revolution in this world of digital marketing, wherein it can help the businesses understand their customers’ intent and buying behavior and in turn enables them to engage their customers in a more focused and customized manner, which ultimately shows up in increased sales and increased ROI (defined by the sales achieved per $ of money invested in digital marketing).

The wonderful thing about using this product is that you don’t really have to spend money like you would have spent, say on any social networking platform like the facebook or linkedin and even better is the ROI that you get by using the features offered by this product/tool.

My take on the product is:

“If you are an e-Commerce company looking to increase your sales and customer base; if you are an NGO, trying to reach out to your investors or people in general;

if you are a property broker looking to generate more leads;

if you are a travel site looking to engage your customers in a better manner in order to increase your conversion rate;

if you are a blogger who wants to interact with your clientele which in this case happens to be the readers; or

if you are any person with any kind of presence on the internet in terms of having a website; you got to grab this opportunity of using this wonderful product which comes with an initial free trial period and then depending on the impact it is having on your businesses, you can decide to upgrade it or not.

You just need to visit http://www.connecto.io/ and sign up for a call back and then the efficient customer service that these people have, will get in touch with you and will help you better your prospects of minting money. With excellent service, coupled with a team of programmers from IIT Delhi, this seems to be the best bet when it comes to real time data analytics and constant and meaningful engagement with customers on a real time basis.

Source for Image: http://www.connecto.io/

The First Time!

Posted on April 17, 2014 by kushsrivastava

There is always a first time for everything, whether it be your first friend that you make in your life or whether it be your first day at school. For the past couple of days, I have come across numerous posts on facebook where my friends and batch mates have gone on to display their photos showing a mark of ink on their fingers and feeling proud that they have voted for the first time in their lives.

It is great to see such an unprecedented election fever catching up among the youth who are keen on seeing a change in the way our country is being governed. They wish to see principles of good governance being brought into practice in every government department, whether it be applying for a passport or getting a driving license made.

Where on one hand, I could see several posts claiming victory on having voted in this election, on the other hand, I could see several posts with people blaming the government for not being able to provide them with their voter card on time due to which they could not cast their vote.

Some were upset because they didn’t become a part and parcel of the waves that have been in focus for the past couple of months, whether it be NaMo or RaGa, not to forget that AAP has its own following among the lower-middle class who feel cheated by the system and who feel that corruption is the root cause of maladministration and a one stop solution to all their problems.

The credit for NaMo wave in turn can very much be attributed to the persona of a man, who is being talked of in really high terms. He is being predicted as a saviour for all communities and a reincarnation of Lord Krishna.

AAP has been running high on the responsible shoulders of Arvind Kejriwal, an IITian turned bureaucrat turned politician who is believed to have lived in an extremely upright and honest manner and is believed to be another reincarnation who can get rid of this corruption menace.

RaGa wave seems to be the weakest right now, though it might be an illusion considering that there has been a section in our society who can truly be called the loyalists who never seem to forget their duty of remaining true to the party.

Somehow, the very aspect of pitching a person in divine terms seems to be disturbing to the core as we Indians have got into a habit of depending on our destinies more than having faith and ability in ourselves.

Somehow, I don’t like the idea of people getting influenced by one-man-ideology whether it be NaMo, RaGa or AK. One must always remember that though the individual credentials might be really good, the tickets that are offered by the respective parties are based on political compulsions of being able to win the seat in that particular constituency, which might lead to tickets being given to people with criminal antecedents.

What we want in our Legislature, are people with extremely upright credentials and people who can live up to the expectation of the people in our country. So, while voting, whether it be NaMo, or RaGa or AK you got to remember that individual credentials matter more than the persona of any particular leader.

Though it is great to see people coming out in numbers and voting, what worries me is the fact whether they are casting their vote responsibly and on the basis of the credentials of the people who have been given tickets by different political parties.

Source for Image: http://www.stereogum.com/1318152/dre-skull-first-time-feat-popcaan-purity-rings-megan-james/mp3s/, http://makerculture.pbworks.com/w/page/20123148/Episode%205%20-%20%20Politics%20-%20Final%20Copy

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