Kyra - The Secret Agent!

We were all so enjoying. All five of us, together after nearly two years. It was our re-union. It was 9:00 AM in the morning, when something beeped in my bag.

Beep Beep -- It was my SNH!

It was my SNH (Someone Needs Help) Beeper. Yeah, this was about my secret personality. I'm a secret agent!

Hi, I'm Elena, and I'm an engineering student. All through my childhood I was a normal child, until last year, when Venus - the goddess of beauty, gave me an responsibility. The responsibility of protecting the feminine race of the planet earth. It all started few million years ago. 

Venus gives special powers to Elena!

A great war was underway, the "Starty" race was against the "Planty" race. They were serious rivals. It was then that Venus, the goddess, intervened, and tried to cease the war. But the evil starty vowed to come back, and destroy the whole race of planty. It was only two years back that the planty got to know about the plans of starty. Through their member, the Sun, they wanted to destroy the whole race of feminine race, and hence wanted to bring a miserable death to the whole of planet earth. And so, Venus, gave me the special powers to protect the females of this planet. And now, everytime someone is in danger, my SNH beeps. This was my secret. 

I told my other four friends, that I had some important work, and I'll have to leave immidieatly. It was our re-union, so they protested at first, but then they finally understood. It was now time for Elena to change into Kyra! 

Elena changed into Kyra!

I was now completely transformed into my secret personality, Kyra! I opened my GPS, and saw that someone needed my help in the south of India. 14.5 E , 74.3N. It would take me another 10 mins to reach there. 

Gokarna!

I finally reached the destination and found them!

Kyra: Hey! Hey, you!

Kyra finally reaches the location!

Melina: Are you talking to me?

Kyra: Yeah! Do you have any idea what are you doing?

Melina: Well, I'm on a holiday here. And we're going to the beach to enjoy.

Kyra: Without your arms and ammunation? Don't you know the starty are against you?

Melina: Stary? Starty who?

Kyra: Umm.. I mean the sun, It's too hot there. Have you taken the precautions?

Melina: Eh.. What precautions?

Kyra: Well, there are a number of things you can do to protect yourself from the evil effects of the sun. Like...

• Wear protective clothing
• Wear sunglasses
• Be careful near sand, water and snow, as they can reflect harmful rays towards you
• Drink lots and lots of water
• Avoid being in sun for too long
• And the most important one...

Melina: And?

Kyra: Always use a sun screen when you're out in the sun.

Melina: But I'm always confused for sun-screens. Which one should I use?

Kyra: You are right, there are dozens of sun screens available. But I only use Lakme Sunscreen. It kind of suits me, and is subtle on my screen.
Melina: Oh, Okay! I'll use Lakme only. But what is SPF?
Kyra: SPF actually means Sun Protection Factor. More the SPF, the more it will protect your skin. However, I'd recommend you SPF 30. 
Melina: Thank you so much! I think I'll go and buy a sunscreen.
Kyra: Here, take one!

Kyra gifts sunscreen to Melina!

Melina: Oh. Thank you!
Kyra: Your welcome! Enjoy the beach! 


I was happy. Another female has been saved from the starty's and I had lived up to the responsibilities I had been given. But the war between the starty's and the planty's still continues ...


Note: This post is for 'The Lakme Diva Blogger Contest' at Indiblogger.

Rebecca Black, I salute you!

June 21, 1997: Rebecca Renee Black was born to Jeffery Black and Georgina Marquez Kelly in Irvine, California, USA. She began her dance classes when she was 3. Started playing piano by the age of 7 and began her vocal lessons when she was 9. Rebecca, who is of Mexican, Spanish, Italian, English and Polish descent, lead a common life, with a dream of doing something big, to be a part of the entertainment industry. She had auditioned for school shows, music summer camps and began singing publically in 2008. She's also an honor student. 


Things changed in late 2010, when her classmate told her about ARK Music Factory. Seeing this as an opportunity to gain some experience while shooting a video, and so that Rebecca could add this in her Resume for college, her mother agreed to pay $4,000 for a song and a music video. She was given a choice to select from two pre-written songs. Her first song, Friday, was released on YouTube and iTunes on 10th February 2011. She had thought that it would be really nice for her friends and relatives to see her in her own music video. In the first month, her video had received approximately 1,000 views. And then things began to change soon.

Rebecca Black

Her first single, went viral on YouTube on 11th March 2011, when it gained a million views in a matter of few days. Things changed when Michael J. Nelson, a comedian, posted her video on Twitter, and captioned it as "The worst song ever?". Things started to get worse then. The video started getting attention through Internet, which was majorly negative. She was severely criticized for her song. Numerous parodies (10,000 from an un-official source) were made of the song.

Rebecca Black - Friday

Criticism is good, as it helps one to improve. But then, things started to get dirty. It soon became a chain dislike video. People just went to her video, just to dislike it. This was accompanied by Rude and mean comments on her videos. "You are so fat", "Go cut yourself and die", "You should have an eating disorder", were some of them. It received bad reviews universally. On March 29, 2011, it surpassed as the most disliked video with over 3 million dislikes, almost 87% of the total ratings. Observers called it "bizarre", "inept" and "hilariously dreadful". It got comments and videos considered as "violent". But things started to get worse. She had to undergo severe bullying at school. "People would come to me and say, 'Hey Rebecca, Guess what day it is?' ", says Rebecca. This made her opt out of school, and do home-schooling. 

She started receiving death threats through e-mail and phone. Concerning her safety, this was reported and it is being investigated. 


Despite all the negative attention, the video was breaking records. It was at 58th position on Billboard Hot 100, and at 33 and 61 on New Zealand Single Chart and UK Single Chart respectively. The video got 100 million views much before Justin Beiber's Baby. It soon reached to 167 million views, making Rebecca an overnight Internet Phenomenon. The video was watched about 1,00,000 times everyday, except for one single day of the week, Yes, except on Friday. The number of views nearly doubled on Friday.

The number of views nearly doubled on Fridays.

YouTube named "Friday" as the #1 video on YouTube for that year. "rebecca black" black became the #1 searched keyword on Google. However, the video was removed due to some legal issues on June 16, 2011 only to be re-uploaded later on Rebecca's own channel 3 months later.


MTV selected her to host it's first online show, The O Music Awards in April 2011. She even won the 2011 Teen Choice Awards. Numerous artist, including Jonas Brother, Katy Perry and Justin Beiber sang her song in their respective concert. She soon got an opportunity to be a part of Katy Perry's Last Night Friday's music video.  

Katy Perry - Last Friday Night

Some un-official sources estimate, she might have earned $20,000 from YouTube and $26,700 from iTunes for her song Friday. She has pledged to donate profits from the sale of her song "Friday" to her school, El Racho Charter, and to the emergency relief in her country (after 2011 Japan Earthquakes).


Then came the crucial part, the next step. After such criticism, and negative feedback it wasn't easy for her to comeback to her singing. But doing an act of courage, she came up with another song, reflecting her love and passion for music, and giving a message to all her haters that she won't stop at anything.


After the fallout of ARK Music Factory, she announced to launch her own independent record label, "RB Records", with her first song, "My Moment" which was released on July 18, 2011. 


The new song was all about her new life, after the success of her first song. It was aptly titled, "My Moment". With the first few lines of the song, she gave a strong answer to all of her haters...

Were you the one who said that I would be nothing

Well, I'm about to prove you wrong

.

.

I'm not stopping for you

No matter what you do

Rebecca Black - My Moment

People still were not over with Friday, and so a similar trend continued with her even with her new songs. People disliked the video, just because everyone else was doing it. However, she got more positive views for her song. 

This followed with the release of two more songs, Person of Interest and Sing It, which were released on October 25, 2011 and May 8, 2012 respectively. With every song, she is getting more positive reviews and feedback. Sing It became her first song which got more "likes" than "dislikes". 

Rebecca Black - Person Of Interest

Rebecca Black - Sing It

She plans to release an album soon in 2012, on which she is currently working.

*******
This was the story of Rebecca Black till now. But why I'm telling you all this? Because in my view she deserves a lot of appreciation, for what she is. Dealing with such negative criticism at such a large scale, getting bullied in school, is not easy, it changes your life completely. Imagine yourself at her position, and you'll realise what I'm talking about. It's really not easy.


A young girl, came up with her own video song, and it got viral. It was highly criticized, got a lot of negative views and numerous parodies were created. Going to school, getting bullied, coming back home reading rude comments about you and your work, and still maintaining a smile at the end of the day, is highly appreciable. Not only this, after releasing a video, knowing the world hated it, you come up with another music video, just because of your passion and love for music, is the perfect example of "follow-your-dreams". 

Rebecca Black

-- How did it felt dealing with such negative reception of your song?
RB: It sucks. I doesn't feel good when people don't like something in which you have put a lot of hard work, but you can't just let it get over you. You have to move on.


-- What used to be your attitude like while going through all this?
RB: I'm worth something and I'll be big.


-- Any advice to someone who goes through a similar situation as yours?
RB: Just don't let it get over you. Accept it and move on. It's okay to be sad for a while, but don't let it change you permanently. You just can't step down at their level. Don't react. They can't stop you from letting you do what you want to do. If you want to be a singer, be a singer. Don't let them stop you. And never take a "NO" as an answer.




Such is the attitude of her. She did what she wanted to do, what she enjoyed doing, without caring about how others are reacting. "Follow your dreams", as they say. Do what you want to do. Taking criticism in a positive way, improving on them, and eventually you grow strong. She needs to be appreciated for this. She has my respects.


But a question was still not clear for me. Why does people actually dislike her so much? With the help of my friends, I tried to identify what all aspects of her does people actually dislike. Here is what I found:


-- Lyrics (Friday)
My Take: I don't actually think the lyrics are bad. It's about friday, enjoyment, how everyone is looking forward to the weekend. What one actually do on a friday. Moreover, the lyrics aren't written by her, it's actually written by Clarence Jey and Patrice Wilson. So, there is nothing to blame Rebecca in this, she was given a choice of two songs from ARK Music Factory, other being a love song, Rebecca choose this. And don't tell me the lyrics are stupid. We've heard even more stupid lyrics before. Take for example, bollywood, "Zoobi Doobi Zoobi Doobi"... What does that even mean? And even more stupid is "O lala O lalal", that isn't even a word. And they'll surely be many more. 


-- Voice
My Take: Go to the "Friday", forget the video and listen to the song, only to her words. Due to the use of auto-tune her voice sounds more like robotic or techno. It isn't shrill or something. Infact, if you listen carefully, there are few lines that are sung at high note, that gives an idea of her voice. Or forget this, go to "Sing It", and you'll see her passion for music.


-- Auto-Tune
My Take: Auto-tune has only been used in her song "Friday", that too because the producer advised, rather forced her to use it. In the consequent 3 songs, nothing as such has been used. She even sang an acoustic version of friday, giving a message she could it with auto-tune.

Rebecca Black - Friday (Acoustic)

-- Stupid Videos
My Take: They're not stupid, they are innocent. What else do you expect from a 14 year old singer?


I just have to say, I salute you, Rebecca Black, for what you are!


If you still dislike her, I've just got one thing to say. When...


...Chris Brown says, "Honest opinion? It was great. I'll be jammin' to it"
...Lady Gaga says, "I think she is a genius"
...Miley Cyrus says, "I'm a fan. I sing it while driving"
...Katy Perry wanted her in her own video
...OK! Mag says, "some are calling this 13 year old singer, next Justin Beiber"
...Entertainment Weekly says, "There is something catchy, which makes you come again and again"


AND


...someone sitting infront of computer with no or little knowledge of music says, "She can't sing"


It's upto you, who to believe!






PS: From the past two days of my research on her, I've found, she is passionate about music, have developed a great attitude from her life experience and even after all this, she is down to earth!


PPS: Guess what day I posted this? FRIDAY!!!

A day without Power!

It all started 4 days ago. I was on my way to my home through the Delhi Metro. As usual, it was jam packed. What was more annoying was the fact that I was being a sandwich between two people who had relatively more salt in their sweat. I could hardly breathe. But there was more to come. I got down at my destination. I was about to call my father, to pick me up from the station. My right hand went into my right pocket to find my mobile phone. And then I got the shock of my life. It wasn't there. 


It was then I realised what had happened. I then realised, that when they said "Beware of Pick-pocketers" in the train, they were serious. It was a new phone, which I had bought just two months back. It was of the Samsung Galaxy breed. I really loved that phone, but it was no more with me. The only solution I could think of, was to get a new phone. That seemed to be the only solution.


I got home, walking. I got my laptop and Vodafone 3G Dongle, and logged on to Flipkart.com. They had the best deals. And then ordered a Nokia Lumia. I wanted to try a Windows based phone rather than an android. Contacted the Vodafone customer care, blocked the sim, and asked for a duplicate. I have to say, when they say "Happy to Help!", they actually mean it.


But the thing was, Flipkart would take atleast a day to get that phone to me. I'll have to be without a phone for a day. I slept early that night, I had an important meeting the next day.


***


BRROOOOOMMMM!!! I woke up in a shock. I was scared by the irritable sound. My neighbor used that old scooter, which would make noise every single morning. I rubbed my eyes, had water, and then I actually woke up. I looked at the clock. 10 o'clock. I was even more scared to death. How could I forget it? I lost my phone, and so there was no alarm. What got me more scared was the fact that I had an important meeting that day. I had just 30 mins to get to the office. In a hurry, I changed my clothes, and somehow reached the office just in time for the meeting.  All I heard was my boss going mad over me for coming late to office. I went to my seat. Normally, in such situations I used to use my smartphone, and enjoy some good music from Saavn. I loved it, specifically due to the seamless streaming on Vodafone 3G. I missed that badly. Music was probably the only thing that could have cheered me up. Sadly, I didn't had that same thing.


The office peon, came to call me for the meeting. I was about to enter the meeting room, and I saw a board just outside it. "Switch off your mobile phones!", it said. My reflex came into action, and my hands went into my pockets to search for my mobile. And then I realised the fact of the day. It instantly reminded me of my phone. I felt like running away from that place. I was in no mood for a meeting. And thanks to the topic of the meeting. I had to explain my clients the benefits of 3G Mobile Internet. Ah, I was going to talk about something, which I missed so badly. 


I controlled myself. Tried to ignore my thoughts about my lost phone and concentrate on my presentation.


Me: Good Afternoon Gentlemen! Without wasting much time let's get straight to the point. 3G, has been a revolution in the mobile and communication technology. The successor of 2G, the 3G has higher standards for reliability and data transfer rates. It fulfills the International  Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) specifications. So, you get....


Client: We don't want the technical specifications, cause we won't understand it. Could you explain about 3G in layman's language?


Me: Oh. Sure! (I was actually frustated on this. I mean I spent two whole days just preparing this presentation, and now it's of no use)


Me: Speaking in simple words, 3G has more capabilities than it's previous versions. Through the use of technology, we have been able to achieve high data transfer rates, wirelessly. One could achieve data transfer rates in megabytes per second. In other words, this could make one enjoy the mobile internet a lot more. One could possible watch stream online videos without any glitches, or one could play online multiplayer games with their friends from around the world. This would really make it possible to download apps directly to mobile. And surely, make everyone stay connected to the world, round the clock. All this, at reduced time and greater speed. This would mean, webpages would load faster on your smartphone without any problem. This is all 3G is about. Greater speed, and less time. Perfect for today's fast paced world. 


I had finished my part quite early. But obviously, how could a meeting end up so early? My boss and the client went on to discuss things for another two and a half hours.


Finally, the meeting was over! My head was bursting with pain. Anyone could have had that pain, listening to non-sense stuff for straight two and a half hour straight. This was usual for me after any meeting. And to get over this, all I had to do was to make a video call to my little niece. Listening to her talks, almost instantly charged and refreshed me. But sadly, today I wasn't that lucky. I was so missing my phone. I just wished for this to get over soon.


I must admit, I'm a facebook freak. I somehow wanted to check my facebook every hour or so. Not doing so, made me feel differently and un-easy. But the office's server had facebook blocked, but I used to enjoy that on my smartphone. It had been almost 6 hours, I had not logged into my account. This was highly un-usual for a person like me. Not able to check my facebook, was like denying Saina Nehwal from playing Badminton. I had no idea, what I was going to do. I was surely in no mood to work that day. I wanted to enjoy. The only way I used to enjoy at office, used to be internet. But sadly, all I had today was my office PC, where most of the fun sites were blocked. Then I got a life-saver. I remembered that IndiBlogger wasn't blocked on my office's server. I knew I could enjoy there on the forums and IndiTalk.


Instantly I logged in there. I replied at the forums. And then my focus shifted to IndiTalk. Usually, there is some or the other type of discussions going on over there. I thought, this might help me refresh my mind and I could do some work that day. But certainly, god wasn't with me that day. All they were discussing was about viral videos on YouTube. One after the other, all they were posting were links to the best videos on YouTube. Everyone was posting their reaction. While one was LOL-ing, so the other was ROFL-ing. This depressed me even more, and certainly didn't helped. 


But I'm a guy, who loves to take things positively. I knew the tea break was just 15 minutes away, and that surely would cheer me up. I went to the cafeteria, grabbed some snacks and coffee for myself and went on to sit with my friends. 


Me: So, what's the hot topic?
Person X: Hey, have you heard of Google Play? It was launched today.
Me: Oh, No. What is it actually?
Person X: Oh, It's a cool thing. You can manage all of your apps and games just through that place for your android phone. With the help of fast 3G you can download all of them directly to your phone and enjoy!
Me: Oh, that looks good. 


Person Y: Hey, wanna play Galcon on multiplayer mode? All of use, what say?
All: Sure! That would be so much fun.


All of them, every single of them, except for me were playing and enjoying their time. All I could do was to look at their faces. I just wanted to snatch a phone from someone and start playing. But I controlled myself, and tried not to show up me frustration. 


But somehow I was feeling better. I mean, the coffee played it's magic. Finally, after whole day or irritation and frustration, I finally was able to contribute something for my company.  


Soon, it was then time to leave the office. I usually used to walk by to the Metro Station with one of my friend. 


Friend: Hey, Did you checked out that latest viral cat video?
Me: Nah...
Friend: What? I posted that on my wall. Didn't you saw?
Me: Don't pretend as if you know nothing. 
Friend: What? What happened?
Me: You seriously don't know? I lost my phone.
Friend: Aah.. I see, I know how you might be feeling. Must have had a tough day for a guy like you.
Me: Yeah...
Friend: By the way, you know what? I got the latest season of "Prison Break"on my mobile. This is so......


I didn't paid much attention to what he said after this. This was the best option left for me, to control myself from breaking down. In the metro train, I was nothing but jealous and sad, you know, when you have a friend enjoying the latest episode of Ray William Johnson and Smosh on YouTube, and all you could do is look at him enjoying. I just now wanted to rush to my home and wanted the day to end.


I reached home, the first thing I did was to log on to all of my accounts using my Vodafone 3G dongle. This really bought some relief to me. I was finally in my senses. I then, as usual, went for a shower. It was then I realised how closely I was binded to mobile Internet. I realised, the world around me is so fun when I have the power (of 3G) within my hands. A single day without it, and all I earn is frustration. Starting since the morning, if only I had a mobile, I would have woken up on time and it would have been a great start to my day. Posting a nice good morning quote on facebook, greeting all tweeple a fresh start, would all have given the perfect start. Listening to good music on Saavn, watching video on YouTube... this has all become a part of me. And parting away from this is like separating Harry Potter from his wand. Such things, should never be seperated, cause if they are, they create a void, and disturbs the balance. This was an eye opener to me. To make me realise how close I am to the technology, and what happens to me, if I'm denied from it. As they say, you realise the importance of something only when it isn't with you. Before this, I had never thought about it, but all I wanted to say was...

Internet is fun on Vodafone!

I got out of shower, feeling much better. I had my dinner. Saw the flipkart shipping status. "Shipped', it said. I went to bed for a peaceful sleep.


Note: This is a work of fiction.


PS: This post is for "Internet is fun! contest" at Indiblogger.

My First Award...

28th April 2012: I was on my way from Ahmedabad to Delhi by road, and was bored like anything. And then, just to cut the boredom, I thought of checking my e-mail through the mobile phone. I remember there were 21 unread e-mails in 2 days, but there was one which was standing out all the way. "Indu Chhibber has sent you an IndiMail", the subject line said. I opened the message, which said "Please view this for a surprise gift". For some unknown reason, I couldn't open it at that time. It was still 3:30 PM and we were hoping to be back to Delhi only at 01:00 AM, late in the night. All through the way, all I thought was what possibly could this "gift" be. I was dying to get back to home, and see what exactly lie behind that e-mail. Finally, we reached home at about 01:45 AM, tired, with a wish to get straight to bed and no one to disturb. But all this tiredness was vanished, atleast till the time I came to know what exactly was the "gift". I was overwhelmed with joy and happiness when I came to know what was there behind that link. 

It was "The Versatile Blogger" award.

I had been to various blogs, and seen this same picture on their sidebars, and had always thought of the day when I'd be getting the same. I knew there was still time for me to get to that position. But this came as a surprise, a happy surprise. I had never expected this to come so early. All I have to say is Thank You Induji for believing in me and my work. This actually encourages me to write more. I can't express how happy and joyful I am at the moment. This is probably the most exciting and happy moment for me. I hope to meet up your expectations and come up with more posts in the time to come. 

Now, coming to the formalities. Every award has certain conditions to be fulfilled, and this is no exception. 

1. Thank the person who nominated you.
2. Post a picture of the award on your blog.
3. Share 7 random thoughts about yourself.
4. Choose 7 bloggers to pass the award to.
5. Inform them about it.

The first and the second points have already been covered. Coming to the third.

.:| 7 Random Thoughts About Me |:.

1. I'd rather prefer a holiday at a deserted place, than a more "developed" place.
2. I don't mind spending the rest of my life with an Internet connection and a laptop. 
3. I can type/write more than I can speak.
4. I like playing with a screw driver.
5. I plan to read books of all religions, including the mythological stories.
6. I like to read random facts. 
7. Missiles, Rockets and Intelligence agency fascinate me. 

Now, coming to the difficult task. I don't actually think I have the capabilities yet to judge a blog, but I'll list some of the blogs, that I really enjoy reading. There are a whole list of blogs that I enjoy, but I'm just going to list only those who have not been awarded this yet. So, here is my list. (The list is totally random in all sense)

• Vineet Nag -- chemicals...!!
• Rose -- My World
• Sunaina -- God made Me Funky!
• Pranay Gupta -- Lust for Life
• Shesha Chaturvedi -- "Elixir-ed"
• Bhavana -- Tilling the Earthwoman
• Ruchita -- Undiscovered Indian Treasures 

So, this was my list. Once again, a big Big BIG thank you Induji, for this lovely surprise. I don't have words to thank you.