Or rather the "Top 5 People Who Made Significant Contributions to My Life in 2010".
For the sake of convenience and simplicity, I have broken the whole year down into 5 amazing people I got a chance to meet with,make friendship with, and in some cases, finally had to leave behind.
This time no numbering has been done to put them in order of importance of events as these are so close to my heart.Instead I preferred putting them in chronological order,that is to say in order of their occurrence as I waded through the troubled waters of the year past. Read along....
Meet Annu : She still remains as the friend who completely changed my life in more ways than I could imagine was possible before she came into my life.She had an impeccable charm that defied all my perception of lovable stupidity! Admittedly she was the most caring of all my friends and it always showed.Simplicity in my personality and behavior, if there is any, can at best be attributed to her arrival in my otherwise dull and unattractive social life.Everything we did together from hanging out,shopping to bunking classes formed some of the most memorable moments of my college life.Everything seemed perfectly fine until one day...we departed.We could never look into each other's eyes again even while being on the college campus.I left for my job,she got into higher studies.Some unsuccessful yet pitiable attempts were made from both sides in hopes of reverting back to the wonderful moments of the "good old days" but it never materialised.Perhaps it did not need to happen at all,maybe to make room for a better future for both of us.And seems like we are indeed marching towards a better future, though not together.
"They say it right when they say there is no Ctrl+Z in life."
Meet Arijeet : He is one of the only three friends I have with me I can confidently say will be with me till my last moment.He is such a darling.Most pleasant personality among my friend circle, he came real close to me while I was having a hard time figuring out the inexplicable reasons behind my departing from Annu. He made sure that I wasn't hurt beyond recovery by evoking a new breath of life in me through his then seeming outrageous but exceedingly fun ideas that included going to the most extravagant party in town with me and Debu (Note:Debu and Sanjog have been my original two bestest friends since time immemorial) without any invitation.He and I started sharing valuable time together soon thereafter.And that led to us being bonded in a relation I would- without further digging- term as "my friendship of the year".
I love being his friend in a rather special way because he is the guy who would take on the responsibility as your true friend by pointing you out to your mistakes right on your face and often would full-heartedly compliment you for your little courageous endeavors boosting your spirits in the process.That certainly means a lot for somebody like me.
Meet Neha : Though her entry into my life initially seemed to be nothing more than serving the purpose of a mere replacement for my earlier sweetheart friend,I quickly found the biggest blunder I was going to commit by not considering her on her own.She was intelligent,smart,mature,understanding and affectionate;all of them with the best combination possible.Our friendship grew like nothing I had seen before and soon it was not difficult for me to assume she was the one friend I had been looking for my entire life and she would certainly help me put my otherwise disordered life into perspective.We would laugh together,cry together and discuss everything with each other in the sincerest way possible.She was a real darling and I had grown quite addictive of her assistance in many of the decisions of my day to day life.We both seemed to love whatever was there between us because we very precisely knew what it was.It was a beautiful friendship on steroids.
Then I got my job and some days later got mad about how stupid it was of me to get into that job in the first place.Predictably I had to make hard choices in order to have my ambitions right on track and it caused me to lose sight of some important aspects of my social relationships.Unfortunately the one that was maximum damaged in this case was my super awesome friendship with Neha and a few days later, it appeared, the damages had gone beyond repair.Tried to fix it though,but it was too late.I lost my Neha.
Meet Ayan : He is in many ways "the requirement of the moment".But he is much more than that too.I met him in some coaching class and found his body language similar to my all time best friend Debu.So I quickly made the move and extended my hands for a new friendship.He accepted and we lived happily ever after.Ok,that wasn't exactly funny.Coming back to Ayan,he turned out to be an amazing friend to have.He was very down to earth,cheerful,responsible, and above all,very mature in thinking and understanding than most of my college going friends.Having worked for a great deal of time, he had got enough experience to tell me right on face what I thought was right wasn't always right.He was practical and this only helped considering I had started feeling little devoid of some basic guidance I so desperately wanted from my elder brothers but never got.He perfectly fit in the shoes.Add to this he was very appreciative of the kind of work I had chosen for my professional pursuits.He showed belief in me and pushed me even harder in realizing the profound importance of doing what I loved doing.
His is a presence in my present turbulent stage of life that could be very vital in days to come.I got my "assumed elder brother" in him.
Meet Smita: Irresistibly adorable,affectionately reliable,and truly commendable.Without any doubt she remains to date my loveliest discovery of the year past.She is more than just another friend,mainly because she came into my life at the time of severe despair,filled the social gaps gracefully and almost instantly become the quintessential friend who I would call up right when I created another labyrinthine mess for myself and sought to immediately get out of... to find a better one! That always amazed her notwithstanding.Not bugged by over-expectations from each other, we have had a relatively smooth journey so far and hopefully, it will continue through 2011 and beyond.
Ya, she does things sometimes that don't seem to please everyone around and some may even get hurt,but that doesn't mean she had any intention to hurt them from any perspective you consider .Because she is one person who does what she does with her own will and gives no damn to what so many stupids around might say about her because she knows,I know,and everyone in their right mind knows, she is doing the right thing.And that for me means being yourself and be proud of it.
"Long live our friendship,Teddy"
P.S.: That's the most suitable nickname I came up with after searching for the same for....,well, zero seconds!!!
Watching films arguably makes much more sense to me than other regular stuff when I start searching for reasons why I'm alive!That makes it quite predictable that I love watching movies whenever possible.And I like all genres the movies can possibly be made in.
Below is the list of films released this year that made lasting impressions on me:
1)Inception
2)How To Train Your Dragon
3)The Social Network
4)Toy Story 3
5)My Name Is Khan
Note : I remained occupied with so many other more important things this year that I missed on most of the really great films.Both Hollywood and Bollywood had their respective gems out in theaters from every other month, but I hardly got around watching more than a couple of them-those I have already included in the list.I guess carrying forward my diet of good films from this year to the new year wouldn't be such a bad idea and with that I will most likely have seen the gems I missed this year by the end of 2011!
I have heard from many people that you only listen to music until you get yourself an iPod...then you get addicted to it! So I assume you will instantly understand my present thirst for music when I claim-- I've had an iPod Touch with me since the beginning of 2010.
I believe this year proved itself to be great for music, both in terms of sales and impact across the globe(add Justin Beiber joke here if you must!).Some artists tried to break new grounds and some carried over their already successful mantra behind their earlier hits.But for us what ultimately matters is good music and that wasn't even marginally compromised by most of the leading and new artists alike.
It's a very difficult choice to pick up just 5 albums from the hundreds released this year,but there are always a few that truly shine in one's music library.Like for me the choice becomes a little simpler than that for most because I had a rather small addition of new albums to my music library this year, and so picking up top 5 amongst,say 20,isn't going to be that difficult a task anyway.
Without any further ado,below is the list of my favourite 5 albums of 2010:
This album will probably be remembered as one that brought back the throne to the "King of Rap", by becoming one of his best reviewed and performing albums to date.The songs that warranted multiple listening from the album include- "Love The Way You Lie","Not Afraid","You're Never Over","25 to Life" and "No Love".This remains my favourite rap album of all time too,mainly because of the intense emotions shown in some of the songs, and the fact that Eminem focused on the quality of his lyrics this time around more than unnecessarily criticising the work of other artists like he intentionally did in some of his previous albums.
Battle Studies had a lot many people waiting to see how well created this album could be and whether it would be a step up for the gifted musician John Mayor after having enjoyed and won accolades for his previous album Continuum.Though not as great as some of the songs from Continuum like "Waiting For The World to Change" and "Belief",It still had pretty good songs in it .My favourite "Heartbreak Warfare" along with "Assassin","Edge Of Desire" and "Half Of My Heart" were all wonderfully written songs and had fantastic sublime music feel running through them.
Rated R was a bold move by Rihanna and had a lot of anger and emotion running through the entire album unlike her previous hugely successful Good Girl Gone Bad.Still she put in admirable efforts into the relatively dark songs of this album and came out triumphant with 'B&W' colours! "Russian Roulette","Rockstar","Te Amo","Cold Case Love" and "Photographs" were my favourites off this album by Rihanna
Lady Gaga doesn't need any introduction;she is crazily talented and produces weird amazing songs like no other.The Fame Monster.though released in November 2009,had its influence felt throughout 2010,mostly through the out-of-the-world looking music videos of her songs from the album released every two months or so.I especially liked three songs from this album,namely "Mad Romance","So Happy I Could Die" and "Alejandro".
Alicia Keys has been one of favourite singers, and for me, whatever she produces is amongst the best of R&B genre.This album of her was one of her most independent creation and had very soulful songs in it.This is one of those albums which just aspire to sound good to the listeners and nothing else.The album had such amazing songs as "Doesn't Mean Anything","Un-thinkable","Love Is Blind" and "Like The Sea".
This year marked a major shift in the way we consumed information online.It was more about sharing with friends and the world what we "like";creating personalised relevant news that serve our requirement instead of going to several different websites one by one,and getting recommendations from websites built on the principle of semantic web to help us find our next favourite book,music album,movie et al.
Quite an admirable number of small but innovative companies came forward and tried to deliver services which would ultimately prove indispensable for many of us who had already started viewing it increasingly difficult to manage and make sense of the overload of information bombarded towards us on a daily basis from across the web.Politics news,world news,technology news,entertainment news...news,news,news-to keep us up to date with the world getting difficult day by day,and we knew it was very necessary in the information age or we would be left behind.
Wait!
Now we are entering into an era where we don't just simply consume what we are given.We want to have command over what reaches us at what time.We want to customise the world around us according to our preferences.Not only that,we want to directly contribute to the web community in simple effective ways and make use of the collective knowledge.On top of it, we want to share all of this with our friends and families in real time leveraging the power of. what we have come to call as the "social" web.
So this year I have selected 5 websites that I believe brought fresh ideas to the table and effectively organised,stored and curated the vast amount of data according to the tastes and requirements of their users.Not that they are all perfect but they all seem like "long distance runners".What impressed me most about these websites, created by the relatively small companies run by even smaller groups of hardworking out-of-the-box thinkers, is the sheer amount of ingenious effort they put into their products to make them stand out against the already established dominance of the internet giants like Google,Facebook and Twitter,and the "grand" visions a couple of them have had with them since their inception;visions that go as high as "connecting every individual on the Internet with every other object of his/her interest on the Internet".
Here are my top 5 favourite websites of 2010 with brief info under them in descending order:
What I am: I let you chech-in to entertainment you never thought was possible.I can be unbelievably awesome in recommending your next favourite book,movie,music etc.
What I am: I let you discover,enjoy and share your favourite topics,without even trying.You could find things here you never knew existed on the Internet!
What I am: A continually collection of USEFUL,INTERESTING,INSIGHTFUL collection of questions and answers created,edited and organised by everyone who uses it.
What I am: I look like paper, but that's why I was created in the first place.I take your Twitter and Facebook streams in and present them in a an elegantly organised readable interface, in the form of a newspaper.
Note:Clicking on the links will take you directly to the respective websites.Upon lending there,sign yourself up and start living a 'better' life!
While making this list I essentially focused on the myriad of desktop software that take up a significant amount of my time before the computer and were launched this year.But,alas,the only innovative product that successfully caught my imagination and almost completely prevented me from using any other application software in the year past was Google Chrome.
Chrome is so deliciously good piece of software- and has evolved faster than the speed of light- to be the most beloved software on anybody's computer, who have realised by now that the future of computing is where the Web is.That is to say now almost everything we do on the desktop ranging from document creation and editing,photo editing,music listening to even coding can be done on the Internet with the power of modern web technologies like HTML5,CSS3,AJAX etc. complemented by robust cloud computing services.
And it doesn't exactly sound such a bad idea to me not to include any other desktop software among my favourite five.Though I had to rely on other applications from time to time,I had to use them, but in the case of Chrome it was the elegance,simplicity,innovation and speed that never let me go to any other competing application designed to achieve similar goals.
Coincidentally,Google released a total of five stable versions of Chrome this past year,the fifth one,which introduced the revolutionary Chrome Web Store, being the Chrome 8 released on 13th of this month.
So my first favourite list is rather simple and fast acknowledging the brilliance of the Google Chrome browser.
Opera has always been about innovating new features( which other browsers adopt ultimately) and speed but they lacked the power of extensions until this version.Now it's better than ever but still a little behind Chrome's lightning fast speed.Good luck playing catch up,Opera!
Note:Opera used to be my browser of choice before the arrival of Chrome.With speedy successive releases and the gradual integration of extensions and now the Web Store in the latest version of Chrome I doubt I will seriously consider going back to using Opera anytime soon.
I have enough reasons to believe 2010 was a milestone year for innovation across industries.Every major industry attempted to bring new ideas to the table.From the iPad in cosumer electronics section,Inception in mainstream film category,Chrome in PC software,Flipboard in publishing domain to WikiLeaks in a newly discovered journalism form-all played pivotal roles in changing the way the corresponding industries/domains worked.
So I thought it would be a good idea to put together five of my favourite products/services/idea from the different disciplines over the span of the last five days remaining of this decade.
My favourites of course will be subject to my personal opinion only.So anyone who doesn't agree with me would be welcome to give their own thoughts,if any, against my each post starting today.
Moreover,I have decided to include five of the most crucial events in my personal life that more or less changed the way I had been thinking about the world,relationships and life prior to their occurrence.This will be the LAST post from me on this blog before I go on a hiatus of around five months till May 2011.
P.S.For the sake of preciseness I intend to keep my posts simple and short,not diving much into details unless there is a 'real' room for them.
Directed by Terrence Malick and starring Brad Pitt,The Tree of Life looks very promising from its trailer.It reminds us of masterpieces like Forest Gump,Big Fish,and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.That, I believe, is reason enough to be excited about this one too.
First,the name of the film itself speaks volumes what the theme is going to be about--about life,relationships,belief and conscience.I could see the touch of philosophy in every frame of the trailer,and that makes it feel like something really grand and worth waiting for.
Film projects that dare to tackle these topics interest me immensely.And on top of it,there is Brad Pitt who has been taking some very interesting projects like Babel,The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,and Inglorious Bastards for quite a while now.
Just watch it and be blown away by the beautiful visuals and the sublime score running throughout the trailer.
There is no doubting the ability of Twitter considering how much it has affected the way most of us consume daily news as they happen, and how much impact it can have on the socio-political condition of the world when a breaking news story from one corner of the world starts spreading at "light's speed" through the microblogging website.
The graphic above,prepared by Flowtown, attempts to highlight and encompass in it most of the big stories of the year past...minus Justin Beiber!
1. "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." - Peter F.Drucker
2. "If you don't understand that you work for your mislabeled 'subordinates,' then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny." - Dee Hock
3. "A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say 'we did it ourselves.'" - Lao Tzu
4. "The led must not be compelled; they must be able to choose their own leader." - Albert Einstein
5. "The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why." - Warren Bennis
6. "The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you." - Max DePree
7. "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams
8. "The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist." - Eric Hoffer
9. "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." - Abraham Lincoln
10. "Lead and inspire people. Don't try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be managed but people must be lead." - Ross Perot
11. "Those who try to lead the people can only do so by following the mob." - Oscar Wilde
12. "All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership." - John Kenneth Galbraith
13. "Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions.†- Harold S. Geneen
14. "Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them." - John Maxwell
15. "The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision."-Theodore Hesburgh
16. "The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority." - Kenneth Blanchard
17. "Leaders conceive and articulate goals that lift people out of their petty preoccupations and unite them in pursuit of objectives worthy of their best efforts." - John Gardner
18. "Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
19. "The ability to summon positive emotions during periods of intense stress lies at the heart of effective leadership." - Jim Loehr
20. "Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." - General George Patton
21. As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others." - Bill Gates
22. "Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy." - Norman Schwarzkopf
23. I'm sad to report that in the past few years, ever since uncertainty became our insistent 21st century companion, leadership has taken a great leap backwards to the familiar territory of command and control." - Margaret Wheatley
24. "The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership." - Harvey S. Firestone
25. "One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency." - Arnold Glasow
26. "The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." - Ralph Nader
27. "You don't lead by hitting people over the head. That's assault, not leadership." - Dwight D. Eisenhower
28. "Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out." - Stephen Covey
29. "No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings." - Peter Drucker
30. "The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it." - Theodore Roosevelt
31. "A leader is a dealer in hope." - Napoleon Bonaparte
32. "To be able to lead others, a man must be willing to go forward alone." - Harry Truman
33. "Example is not the main thing in influencing others; it is the only thing." - Albert Schweitzer
34. "People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert." - Theodore Roosevelt
Apple's App Store is a behemoth. Launched several years ago, the iTunes marketplace has ballooned into a billion dollar economy, with 7 billion downloads and more than 300,000 apps. (It's been so lucrative that Apple is planning to open a Mac app store in January.)
What does the store look like visualized? The folks at App of the Day spent the last few weeks charting the store, and have created a helpful infographic to show everything from average ratings and prices to category breakdowns. For example, more than a third of all iTunes' apps are free. Books are one of the most downloaded segments, even though 79% are paid apps with a $5 average. The most expensive category? Medical apps, which are some of the least popular in the store.
