This is pretty much the concept behind FreeRice, an online initiative taken by UN World Food Program. The way it works is simple, you go to www.freerice.com, play the simple wordgame there, and for every word you get right, 20 grains of rice are donated to UN WFP.

WFP is the United Nations frontline agency in the fight against global hunger. Operations aim to:

Save lives in refugee crises and other emergencies

Improve nutrition and quality of life of world’s most vulnerable people at critical times in their lives

Enable development by (a) helping people build assets that benefit them directly; (b) promoting the self-reliance of poor people and communities

So if you are reading this, please visit www.freerice.com. While you build up your vocabulary, a lesser priviliged individual might get a meal.

Its that time of the year again. The time when 22 mean and fast machines line up in a row, waiting for the five sets of lights to go red. Yes, it is Formula 1 time again.

The last season was nothing short of spectacular. The simmering rivalry between rookie Lewis Hamilton & his champion team-mate Fernando Alonso was the talk of most of the season, until F1 was engulfed in the ugliest controversy the sport has seen in years. The spying scandal saw McLaren stripped of all its constructor’s title points, and short of $100 million. The drivers’ championship did go down to the wire, with Hamilton & Alonso losing the championship by just one point to Ferrari’s Raikonnen.

But 2008 is going to be a totally different season, with major changes in rules. Read the rest of this entry »

As the countdown begins for another Women’s Day, I have a few thoughts that are bouncing around in my head. So here I go.

The buzzword that is heard around these days is women empowerment. For women to be empowered, independent & free of any form of oppression is essential for a positive evolution of the society. The blame for women not being any of these has traditionally been dumped on the males. The Indian society has long had a patriarchal setup, which had gone unquestioned for centuries. Even laws like the Hindu Marriage Act, and the Hindu Undivided Family Act had been biased for several years in the favor of men. Now this is all changed. CBSE has made the Mother’s name an entry with equal importance as the Father’s name, a women has equal power, and can demand her fair share in family property or her husband’s property.

The number of educated women in the country has gone up. More and more women are taking up higher education, and becoming doctors, engineers, lawyers et al. The Times of India in its buildup to Women’s Day writes, “Its a women’s world!!”

Is it?
Read the rest of this entry »

I have the following message coming up when I log in to my flickr account:

Hey ashchopra! About your photos…

You’ve run into one of the limits of a free account. Your free account will only display the most recent 200 photos you’ve uploaded. All of your photos beyond 200 will remain hidden from view until you either delete newer photos, or upgrade to a Pro account.

None of your photos have been deleted, and if you upgrade, they’ll all come back unharmed.

So basically, if I ever want to see all my snaps, I better pay Yahoo $25…hmm….sounds like one of those extortion calls we hear so much of in the movies. Shame on you Yahoo. If you are so short of cash, maybe you should have let Microsoft buy you out!!

Bad bad yahoo…!!!!! No $25 for you!!!

Wondering why states in North-East get so little media coverage on any news channel, even when they seem to have loads of reporters lying around to cover irrelevant news like celebrity love affairs & the like?

Sitting on the floor on Nik’s home with his family a day before his wedding, I wonder what is it that actually keeps such a big family together. The one immediate clarification I need to make here is that Nik’s family is not a joint family, where all members are staying in the same large house. The family is very much scattered, with relatives living all over Gujarat, Mumbai & some even abroad. With this diversely located family, I was amazed when I heard that the family always came together for important occasions.

So I caught up with Nik’s mama(maternal uncle), and got him talking about his family. How were they managing to stay together so close, even though they were physically living at far off places. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the name of the latest music band on the block. Their music, well, easy listening, smooth with lots of acoustic guitars playing all over. So why does it have me interested?

Because this band is Indian! Yes, believe it or not, we finally have an Indian band that belts out easy listening songs in English. We did have bands who were more into the heavier rock & metal, but I do not recall any Indian band that sings so clean, and has music that is easy to listen and that could appeal to the masses.

Now, where is a b(r)and manager when you actually need one?

This is what this band is up to. So what do you think?

Learn more about this band & its members at Gigpad

Update: If you want to listen to more of this band, visit their profile at MySpace

Blogging has been around for quite a few years now. From technical evangelism to personal ramblings, blogs serve as a media where one is free to write what one wishes. However, after all these years of having blogs around, it is time we ask ourselves, how important is this media to the society? Can a blog really act as an agent of social change? Is all the new media that is mushrooming around us really useful towards our society?

We are set to ask these questions on 14th Feb in Delhi. The Delhi Blog & New Media Society cordially invites you to a seminar on “Blogs: How important are they to society?”, where we discuss all the questions raised above, and try to find ways in which blogs & new media can acts as catalysts for social change. Please consider this as a personal invitation to the event. The event details are as below:

Event Structure:
Bloggers have shown themselves to be a force for change globally, and this is coming true in India too as some examples have shown in the recent past. Going forward, what can bloggers do to play their roles as citizen journalists of change? We will discuss this in an interactive session divided into the following parts:
* Cases of how bloggers have been instruments of change
* Best Journalistic principles and practices to follow for bloggers
* How bloggers can collaborate to make it happen

Date: Thursday, February 14, 2008
Time: 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Location: Gulmohar Hall, India Habitat Centre
Street: Lodhi Road
City/Town: New Delhi

There is no participation/entry fee for the event.

In case you are coming over, kindly leave a comment here so we can have an idea of the attendance.

Do come over, and put your opinion on how blogs are important to our society. See you there!!

Continued from Part I

26-Jan-2008:

The air-conditioned bus had a gamble involved. I had the option of going for a semi-sleeper or a full sleeper berth. Knowing that I am not very comfortable in buses, I decided on the semi-sleeper option. Now luck played its game with me. Read the rest of this entry »

The land of Gandhi and Modi beckoned me in late January, for the wedding of my closest college friend Nik. I was looking forward to this trip, one because it had been over four years since we had met, and second coz I wanted to see a Gujarati family function up close and personal.

This post will be divided in three parts, the first part(this one) is about my first evening in Ahmedabad, the second part would be about the Nik’s wedding ceremonies and gandhidham & the third would be my learnings from a big Gujarati family that sticks together.

Parts I & II were written on my mobile phone on the spot, & I will reproduce them in verbatim. Part III is where I search inside my empty head

Here goes part I Read the rest of this entry »