Satchitananda

A Quote coined by some social networking guru has got me hooked and thinking. My project http://www.beamto.us made me learn a lot of new tools and certainly made me more active on bunch of social networking channels. However, I almost never thought it this way. Every person who visits our site is a potential marketing tool. /* Strictly from a marketing standpoint */ Simplest definition of a viral loop is 'The steps a user goes through between entering the site to inviting the next set of new users'. There are many advantages of creating a strong viral loop : 1. Since like attracts like, the new users will almost certainly belong to the same demographics with similar preferences. Therefore, this is as targeted as one can get. 2. They increase visibility in organic searches. 3. So long the steps in the viral are rightly laid out, the results are compounded. However, if the process is not defined well, this may lead to HIGH attrition rate. The variation is absolutely huge. 4. They...

Everybody dreams of a perfect go-to-market strategy for their new product or service. We all salivate when we see success stories heralded in the media. But what do these successes have in common? The ancient argument of what comes first, the egg or the chicken? Do they sell because we talk about them or do we talk about them because they sell ? Until sometime back, i was of the belief that 'Good products always sell well'. Apparently not the case. One look at Friendster and Orkut would suggest otherwise. Google had the largest captive users of it's products and yet Buzz came in and went out with a trail of smoke behind. While trying to market http://www.beamto.us , I encountered the age old situation of Who comes first ? The users want a zillion tracks on beamto.us while the artists want just as many users before they even consider uploading. And why not ? Would i not do the same ? I see that what I really need more than an infusion of VC capital is you, “the follower.” I ...

Flawless execution. To the uninitiated, Inception is a movie that instantly defies conformance. And no one but Chris Nolan could have handled it with so much specific-ity ( you'll know what i mean if you've seen the movie ). The movie traverses a dreamers voyage. YOU are the dreamer, we all are. I found a profound message hidden in one of the layers of the entire idea. All of us live in a dreamscape and the only true nature of our environment is elusiveness. Nothing lasts. We are all lucid dreamers. Stop waiting for the kick to settle in. Bon voyage.

This is one of those books i picked up from the New Delhi Airport's Odyssey bookstore just because i thought i had heard about this book from someone. I later found out, I had not. However, having bought the book i read it on the airplane and instantly got hooked. So much so that i found myself waiting to get back home after office to continue the adventure. The book had some basic grammatical errors ( could be a misprint) and the idea of reading about the author in third person was a bit weird. I fell in love with the book simply because of the powerful and daring mission to educate children of mountainous Pakistan & Afghanistan. The dedication was doubly impressive when Greg ( one of the co-author and the protagonist) had to go through couple of near death experiences, fatwas, kidnapping and numerous encounters with the Taliban. It is a story of extra-ordinary determination and if you have ever felt that close to a cause, you should read it just for that extra propane.

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Billions of years ago, there was only dark matter. The Big Bang initiated a propulsion and birth of many other cosmic particles and eventually expanded to the formation of galaxies, nebulas, solar systems, stars, planets and other infinite spatial objects. Our planet Earth was created around 5 billion years ago. As time flew, life transpired in the form of microbes. Life multiplied itself and the most intelligent and rational homo sapiens were created; human beings. In the most primitive self, we humans were predominantly hunters and lived in small bands and tribes just as animals do now. Life and death was of not much significance back then and was not mourned in the dramatic way that rituals are conducted in the 21 st century. The earliest trace of religious belief was known to have originated to bring together unrelated beings together for the sake of harmony and societal development. These beliefs were also held steadfast as the explanation behind the many unkn...

The Dose :Pilot Shujaat Khan casually strolled on the dias and took controls of the Magical space ship we were about to venture into and get lost. Wow! Am i still lost ? I guess i can just say that i am still at the very center of that bliss and floating on Ragas and Alaaps. Karsh Kale on drums was great with his beat matching and did a brilliant solo. Tim Ries and Kevin, ex rolling stones were fab on sax and piano respectively. ' This is what i call music ', thus spake Ustaad Shujaat Khan when Tim Ries matched him on the sax for a song they had not prepared together. The Setting : It almost looked like a magical hinterland with a backdrop of Calcutta Turf Club, Victoria memorial peeking in with white shimmer augmented by the full moon with just the perfect chill in the air. The Set : Needless to say, I was kicked about this concert since the time i heard about it. I wanted this to be an endless concert. So far, it has proved me right.