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Guest writer

Why I think Twitter is better than Facebook

Twitter is better for use than Facebook, and ease of use and a wider scope for communication are just extras.
by Rohan Naravane

Social networks play an important role in today’s hyper-connected life. I scored my current and previous job thanks to being able to communicate with people over Facebook and Twitter. I’m not a big Social Networker — the only reason I moved to Facebook is because everybody I knew stopped “hanging out” on Orkut. I witnessed the transition of Facebook from being the network for cool people to now being treated as an unavoidable nuisance by many.

I admit I joined the Twitter party pretty late; I’d initially failed to understand what all the fuss about typing 140 characters was. But now that I’m aboard, I see myself distancing myself from Facebook. Honestly, nowadays I’m merely just a participant to photos I’m tagged in. Or the posts I want to un-tag myself from. These are my explorations as to why I found Twitter to be, a better social network than Facebook.

1) You don’t have to follow everybody

Many people I remotely know are on Facebook, and they’re all on my friend list. Every time I look at my News Feed, not a day goes by when I’ve not come across at least one of the following posts:

a) Sensitive emotional quotes

b) Poorly-executed memes     

c) Religious quotes

d) A no-holds-barred upload of the entire DCIM folder of a digital camera

e) Images of a cancer-stricken child pleading for your share so that Facebook can give it a dollar.

Now I don’t want to be a mean person and unfriend them. The good thing about Twitter is, if you like, you follow, else you don’t. I thankfully haven’t come across people angry at me for not following them on Twitter (yet, fingers crossed). Thereby, you get to choose the content you want to subscribe to. You know, kinda like how you like the The Times of India over The Hindustan Times and you’re not compelled to subscribe to the latter just because your uncle who works there will feel bad.

2) More Content Per Inch (CPI)

Thanks to the 140-character limitation, tweets are fit into equal-sized containers. Thus, I’m able to read more content each time I scroll, as opposed to Facebook. Plus there’s an array of beautiful-looking, powerful third party Twitter apps.

3) No app invites!

No, I don’t want to try out Klout, or Criminal Case, or Texas Hold Em Poker, or FarmVille 2, or any other app. Thank you for inviting me, though.

4) You can literally talk to anybody!

Twitter is fantastic when you want to interact with an individual, be it a friend sitting next to you or some famous personality. Not like the latter will always respond to you, but sometimes, they do, like this one, for example. Also, companies seem to take an active interest in providing support to users by promptly replying to their queries on Twitter.

5) Privacy? LOL you’re on Twitter

So you can set people into different lists on Facebook and then selectively share content only with them. But that’s way too complicated for me, having to remember who is part of which list and who is not. Twitter being the open book that it is, all your tweets are publicly available. So, I’m always subliminally aware that whatever I say will be available for all to see. That somehow makes me feel comfortable. Sure, there’s that protected tweets option, but this Adam Sandler parody account had something wonderful to say about that.

Rohan Naravane manages the content for PriceBaba.com. When he’s not writing about technology, he likes to talk about it and will ramble on if he finds you remotely technological. His other recent endeavours include getting back in shape, and marathoning TV shows and movies. 

(Pictures courtesy fingercandymedia.com, tech-keeda.blogspot.com, www.businessinsider.com)

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Wellness

World’s leading mammography system launched

The machine uses artificial intelligence algorithms to help detect abnormalities that would not normally be seen by the naked eye.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The recent news of Hollywood actor Angelina Jolie undergoing a double mastectomy and the consequent brouhaha over it notwithstanding, the early detection and treatment of breast cancer is a growing concern worldwide. India, too, has rising numbers of women being detected with breast cancer. Most times, early detection can save lives.

Of the ways to detect this disease, doctors advise regular mammography scans. However, not all mammographies can detect abnormalities, and a very high resolution scanning system  has been seen to help. Hearteningly for India, such a system was recently launched by eminent doctors in the country.

A mammography scan is a high-resolution X-ray of the breasts. It is done with the intention of early detection of breast cancer. Many studies all over the world have shown time and again that breast cancer has a much better survival rate if detected early. It is a simple procedure and requires no special preparation.

Known as ‘the best mammography system in the world’, the machine Amulet is a low-dose, 50-micron full filed digital mammography system that uses artificial intelligence in detecting abnormalities. Says Dr Harsh Mahajan, Honorary Radiologist to the President of India, “We have seen a sea change in mammography technology over the last couple of decades. It started with screen-film mammography and gradually moved to CR-based mammography, which is still the most popular form of mammography in India today. But with Amulet, we now have the capability to scan the breasts with much more clarity than ever before. The Computer Aided Diagnostics (CAD) system installed with the machine helps direct the radiologist in the direction of lesions that would normally not be seen by the naked eye.”

Dr Venu Gangahar, who says he has used Amulet, said, “We had a patient whose mammogram looked completely normal, but the CAD system directed us to look at a particular part of the breast in greater detail. When we double checked this area after zooming, we realised that there was in fact some micro-calcification, that was further evaluated by MRI which detected a focal suspicious area which might be an earlier cancerous lesion.” According to Dr Gangahar, this patient’s images were previously sent to one of the best cancer centres in the world, who were not able to detect the lesion on initial inspection.

Breast cancer stats:

– One in 28 women in urban India is found to develop breast cancer, according to the Tata Memorial Cancer Center, Mumbai.

– There will be 2,50,000 new cases of breast cancer in India in the year 2015, as per the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

–  Early screening can decrease mortality of breast cancer by at least 30 per cent, says the World Health Organisation (WHO).

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Beauty

Pucker up

Our beauty writer lists six easy ways to get the perfect pair of lips without too much time and effort.
by Beverley Lewis

Every woman dreams of a perfectly smooth pout and soft lips. You may think you have achieved the perfect pout on a night on the town, only to realise that once you hit your favourite nightspot your lipstick has magically disappeared, to suddenly reappear on the rim of your favourite cocktail. Since most of us suffer from a similar affliction, I have outlined a six step by step guide for kissable lips.

Scrub-a-dub: To avoid chapped lips and to get smooth lips, it is important to exfoliate your lips right after you take a shower. Squeeze a little facial scrub onto your palm, no bigger than a two-rupee coin, and gently rub this mixture back and forth over your lips. If you’re looking for an even lower maintenance exfoliation tool, try brushing your lips lightly with a damp toothbrush before you call it a night. Both these methods help get rid of dead skin and leave you with a smooth, soft lip-lock.

Get watered: It is important to maintain the moisture in your lips, so make sure you’re drinking plenty of water in order to keep your lips plump and perky. When you’re dehydrated, your lips are more likely to look deflated and wrinkled, especially if you have already have age lines around your mouth.

Once you’re hydrated, look to external moisture sources to keep your lips supple. You can opt for good old vaseline, but if you’re looking for something with a bit more edge, choose from lip butters, glosses and lipsticks that are infused with natural oils and antioxidant vitamins and minerals – they are perfect to moisturise, soothe and calm the lips.

Line ’em: Choose a liner two shades or so darker than your lipstick, and trace your natural lip line (as shown in pic on left), paying special attention to your Cupid’s Bow (the ‘V’ part of your top lip). Once lips are lined, colour in the remainder of the lip with the liner as well. This gives a nice base colour in case your lipstick gets eaten off before the night is over.

Colour me good: Now it’s time to slather on your lipstick. After you apply the first coat, blot by placing a tissue between your upper and lower lips, and pressing down. Next, swipe on another coat, then place a tissue gently over lips and dab with loose powder. The tissue acts as a filter, allowing just enough of the powder to get through to set the lipstick without changing the colour or texture of the lips.

Plump it up: Choose a gloss to highlight and plump. With gloss, you want to dab, rather than slick. A small dab of a shimmery or light-grabbing gloss in the centre of your lower lip (as shown in pic on right) will plump up your pout in an instant. That one small move adds dimension and a shot of light to your lips, drawing the eyes of you-know-who right where you want them.

Blot away: In our final step to getting the perfect pout, let’s not forget to blot. Place your index finger between your lips and pucker up. See the lipstick left on your finger? That could’ve been on your teeth. Do it again, just to be safe. And now, drum roll please, you have the perfect pout!

Beverley Lewis has written for beauty magazines and has amazing tips to share. Do you have a lip tip to add to this list? Share it in the comments section below.

(Pictures courtesy healthandbeautyremedies.wordpress.com, www.airportsinternational.com, makeupandbeauty.com)

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Guest writer

Agency wanted for post of internship

There was a time when office interns were persons with zero attitude and full commitment. Those times are clearly over.
by Mukta Lad

I turned 26 in the March that went by. That makes my experience in writing exactly eight years, considering I began working three days after I turned 18. Obviously most of the time was spent freelancing/interning for close to no money, but that’s something everyone is only too familiar with.

I still remember when I was all of 18, shaking in my boots at the prospect of my first ever interview. I came out of the meeting thanking my stars that I had landed a job without any trouble at all, never mind that there was no money involved.

Eight years since, I’m still not better off at interviews. I don’t tremble as much in my flip flops (and I still suck at negotiating for the money), but there’s the constant awareness of meeting a very senior, experienced person with more knowledge and skills than I’ll probably ever have. I try and dress decently (I work in advertising. So ‘decently’ means wearing jeans and a peasant top, rather than the usual metal tees and jeans), I am at my politest best, and I would die rather than not stick to the time that my prospective employer is expecting me at. Never mind that I just might have to wait hours before he agrees to see me, if at all.

And this is despite having three-four years of experience in the field.

So then, what is with 18-year-old kids these days?

I’ve worked with a fair share of interns. And more than 10 times that number have applied to me for an internship. I just have one question: what’s with the attitude?

From writing ridiculously pompous cover letters to sending me writing samples that they believe are Pulitzer Prize-worthy, to asking for feedback and hating the criticism, these people have done it all. Some of them are lazy, some think most intern-worthy chores are beneath them, while some are just plain bad writers proficient in denial.

The underlying, uniting factor? They all think copywriting is easy.

I’ve been asked the following questions from copy interns coming in for interviews, or while they were working with me. I present them to you in increasing order of ridiculousness.

– It’s 5.30. I have to leave. Can I do this tomorrow?
– How many times a week do you party?
– Do you need to read for this job? I kinda don’t read!
– I don’t have any writing samples, ya. Is that a problem?
– Hmm, I don’t like the idea of writing brochures. Can you give me more interesting work to do?
– Oh, you’re a ‘digital’ agency? And your ‘normal’ advertising sits downstairs? So can I join upstairs and move downstairs?    
– How famous is this agency? I don’t want to join a small place.
– I have been working on this account for two months and I don’t like it. Can you put me on some other account?
– It’s my anniversary tomorrow and I’m spending the day with my girlfriend. Cool, na?
– Oh man, we can’t come to office at 12?

And that’s just the start of things to come. I don’t think I’d muster the courage to talk to anyone like that, even when I’m 25 years old in the industry.

Just recently, a girl who desperately wanted a job never showed up for her interview. Neither did she pick up HR’s calls or respond to SMSes. We still don’t know whether she was buried alive in an avalanche somewhere on her way here. I hope she was. Many interns I see try to leave at 5 pm leaving a mound of work behind because of reasons ranging from family dinners, weddings, friends’ birthdays, farewells, airport pickups/drops, sick pets, bachelorette parties, shopping sprees before impending Goa trips…the list is endless, just like the number of events in their party calendars!

Why aren’t kids these days more scared of annoying their prospective employers with the horrible attitude? Where does this ‘I-know-a-lot-more-than-you’ attitude come from? And why do they mistake bad manners for ‘dashing attitude’ and ‘confidence’?

Sweeping generalisations aside, most of the trainees we see don’t even know the basics. And they don’t want to learn more than they already think they know. I am a copywriter, so I can only speak for advertising. They apply for a writing job and expect me to explain the difference between ‘loose’ and ‘lose’. Don’t even get me started on their full party calendar because of which they can never work late hours.

What about advertising and writing makes people believe it’s the easiest profession on the planet? What makes them think they’re going to be at Cannes the very next year, without any drudgery? How are they okay overriding seniors and establishing their own rules?  Am I the only one meeting these specimens?

And last, and perhaps the most important question: when did I become old and wise enough to call other people ‘kids’?

Mukta Lad is a copy supervisor with a leading ad agency in Mumbai. Follow her at @mooodles, or not.

(Pictures courtesy Pushkaraj Shirke, pleaseuseyourwords.blogspot.com, www.cristianoakajames.com)

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Achieve

A record-making wall

Tata Housing’s ‘Mumbai Wallbook’ initiative makes it to Limca Book of Records for the lengthiest wall painting activity in Mumbai.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Tata Housing Development Company Limited recently made it to the Limca Book of Records 2013 for ‘Mumbai Wallbook’, the lengthiest wall painting activity held in Mumbai on May 20, 2012. This first of its kind initiative was based on the theme ‘Design Your Dream City’ and it saw 556 artists coming together, on one platform, to design their dream for the city.  Over 15,000 Likes and conversations were generated on Tata Housing’s Facebook page a week prior to the event, and other social media platforms successfully engaged enthusiasts that ensured high footfalls at the venue.

The huge success of ‘Mumbai Wallbook’ led Tata Housing to believe that such mass participation was rarely witnessed in the public fora in Mumbai, and motivated them to enter the activity in the Book of Records.

Hundreds of Mumbaikars registered for the ‘Mumbai Wallbook’ to redecorate the defaced city walls and illustrate them with graphic visualisations of their dream city. The depictions were quintessentially Mumbai in spirit. The paintings sent out strong social messages with themes of an ideal Mumbai, the increasing requirement of open green public space, anti-crime, anti-corruption, eco-awareness, non-violence, Bollywood frenzy and Lord Ganesha’s portrait beautifying the walls along the Tulsi Pipe Road in central Mumbai. The entire length of the two-kilometre painted wall extends over three suburban train stations and is an arterial link road to the city centre.

The success of the wallbook in Mumbai prompted Tata Housing to host a similar event in the national capital called the ‘Delhi WallBook’, which, the company claims, also did well. Nearly 500 artists participated at the Delhi event.

Commenting on the achievement, Rajeeb Dash, Head of Marketing at Tata Housing said, “It is an honour to be a part of the Limca Book of Records this year. Our ‘Mumbai Wallbook’ initiative was an engaging project with Mumbaikars giving them an opportunity to express their thoughts in their creative best and we were overwhelmed with the enthusiastic response from artists. The event resulted in an astonishing turnout of citizens who desire a better Mumbai and were ready to demonstrate their views through their artistic skills. This national recognition of our support for art and culture is encouraging, and this is truly reflective of our endeavour to inspire life through art. We plan to take The Wallbook initiative across to other cities of India as well.”

The Mumbai WallBook was a joint initiative between Tata Housing and Brand Promotions India Pvt. Ltd. to bring professional, amateur and budding artists on the same platform to showcase their skills and create a record for the longest wall painting by maximum artists.

(Pictures courtesy Tata Housing)

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Guest writer

Loving Mumbai in Chennai

A true-blue Mumbaikar was faced with hostility in Chennai – thus making him prouder of the city of his birth.
by Aditya Kshirsagar

Never did I realise the pride of being a Maharashtrian until I came to Madras aka Chennai. I grew up in Bombay (now Mumbai). I always shared a love and hate relationship with the city of my birth, but even a month away from it is torturous. There are many things that I hate about Mumbai, but what I truly love is the respect that we have for all cultures. I might claim to be a Maharashtrian (a native speaker of Marathi) but like so many others, even my kin migrated here.

Growing up in Mumbai, you are invariably (even if you live under a rock) exposed to so many languages, and by default, end up being bilingual (at least). Personally, I am very terrible at learning languages. Even with that handicap, I speak Hindi, Marathi, English and can manage Gujarati, Bhojpuri and Bengali. South Indian languages are managed with the odd English words. Let me clarify something here, my maternal family is a mix of Southerners. My aaji (grandmother) tried in vain to teach me Kannada. All I learnt was ila (no).

In Mumbai, we speak a specific dialect of Hindi which is called Bambaiya Hindi. The requirements of this language are  simple. Everything we say starts and ends with bhen***d or saala or kya baat kar raha hai bey. This is the language that the city speaks.  What I miss the most here in Chennai is the fact that you cannot start speaking in English, jump to Hindi, start speaking in your mother tongue, revert back in another language, and yet find the entire process fluid. The conversation is never abrupt, but a flow, and we won’t realise it until someone deliberately points it out.

I moved to Chennai on August 4, 2012. Two weeks here and I knew this was to be my Kala Pani. Language is a major hindrance. There is a definite hatred towards Hindi. Over here, for the first time, I was referred to as North Indian. I’ve no issues called that but the arrogance with which I encountered these words was hurtful. I related to every bhaiyya in Mumbai. Being part of the minority is not fun. Wanting my voice to be heard, I introduced everyone who was willing to listen to the existence of the West Coast of India and the Deccan Plateau.

After moving here, I’ve started avoiding talking in Hindi due to the constant fear of being ostracised if you speak that language. I restrict my conversations to English or in broken Tamil or in the worst case scenario, to sighs and grunts. I’ve received scathing looks when I’d initially, like a naive Indian, enquired if they knew Hindi.

Let me clarify, I’ve made some excellent friends in Chennai. Thankfully, they have understood my plight and they converse around me in a neutral language. Moreover, they have made an effort to speak Hindi while I try to cope with Tamil.

This aforementioned breed, though, is very rare here. Others that I’ve met during my stay here are quite anal about their love and pride of the Tamil language. That is the most absurd sentence that they utter and do so on a pretty regular basis. Taking pride or loving your language does not mean that you choose only that language as your mode of communication. There have been several times in the University of Madras and in my department that my esteemed classmates only wish to talk in Tamil citing comfort issues and the fact that they studied in that language. Guest lecturers would also conduct classes in Tamil. It was quite irritating at first, but now I tend to block the language out or avoid the lectures altogether.

I don’t even dislike Tamil as a language. I try to learn the language because, as a journalist, it is important for me to be able to connect to locals. I might not completely succeed but I will try. Because that is what Mumbai has taught me, try to accommodate.

In my mind, it seems to be that Tamilians are just plain paranoid about their language and its status. Yes, I have read the history of Dravidian movements and the language issue. But, that does not mean that they need to alienate themselves. As I have observed here, most of the youth who are pursuing higher studies can barely clobber together a proper sentence in English. I just hope that this does not show on their employability. I can go on about all of this but it is  just paltya ghadya var paani (water over a turtled utensil).

I am revisiting my language, its culture and the people. Oh, the people. I’ve plenty of friends in Mumbai. There are Tamilians, Mallus, Muslim, Bihari, Bhaiyya (UPite), Christians, Sardars, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marwadi, Jain, Parsi, egad, you name any region and I ought to know someone. And nearly all of them either understand or talk or are fluent in Marathi. I don’t think anyone coerced them into learning the language nor is the Thackeray family that influential in Mumbai.

But, this stubborn behavior as displayed in Chennai made me realise one thing: ‘I need to do more for the Marathi language and help it flourish.’ That does not mean I will become a bigot who keeps shouting, ‘Son of Soil.’ But, I will genuinely try to help this beautiful language and its people in an entity that stands out.

Aditya Kshirsagar is in Chennai for a media course.

(Picture courtesy www.internations.org)

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