Archive for the ‘BOTF’ Category

Bloggerati of the Fortnight: Anuradha Goyal

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

Anuradha GoyalBeing the author of one of the best blogs in the country sure sounds a cool thing. And clearly our Bloggerati of the Fortnight, Anuradha Goyal, fits the role with all her coolness. She used to be an IT professional working with global giants like Coca Cola and Infosys, but now she is working as a consultant focusing on managing the growth path and changing the DNA of an IT organization which involved change management, creation of a creative culture and bringing in a mindset of innovation.

In Anuradha’s own words “I write because I enjoy doing that. I travel because I have to and I need no reason to travel. There is this yearning to explore the world first hand that keeps me going.” She also loves to read and then write about what she has read. Her blog combines all of her three interests to form an amazing collection of articles which have generated 126,739 visitors.

And if you read the articles, you would not wonder why she has had such a success with her blog. Her writing is simple yet acts like a kaleidoscope, transporting you in to a world that the author is talking of.

“The park was a pleasant surprise with its well marked tree-lined walk ways, the rich orange Gulmohar trees, various colorful flowers peeping out from here and there and a small lake in the middle.”

She also holds your attention in each article by backing them up with great photographs, which not only help in building the image in your head but also becomes a story in itself, much like a photo blog.

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Having traveled across 22 states in the country and 8 countries around the world, Anuradha Goyal knows how to describe a place with ease. In fact, all her posts has an element of comfort and easy pace to them. These are the basic elements of her writing that makes her blogs so popular and her, our Bloggerati of the Fortnight.

To read more from our Blogger of the Fortnight series, click here.

Bloggeratis of the Fortnight: Savita Pillai & Madhu Nair

Friday, July 15th, 2011

In 2009, my wife and I decided to go off on an extended trip with no definite end date. We are into our second year and not sure when we would like to stop,” says Madhu Nair, co author of the blog 10 Year Itch. Madhu and his wife, Savita Pillai, wanted to try out something they had been dreaming of for a long time, a multiyear trip through India.

So on the occasion of their tenth anniversary, Savita and Madhu quit their jobs, sold everything back in the US, and flew down to India on 14th Oct 2009 with their 4-year-old golden retriever Shayna. They wanted to experience life to the fullest and build memories that would last a lifetime. And their journey has proved to be just that.

“I’m not sure how often I will write in this blog but hope to update it with details of every little step we take towards the trip. And then once it truly happens, I hope to blog daily… hope! hope! hope!” wrote Savita in her first post.

10YearItch is a chronicle of their journey through India as they explore, dream, and (re)discover themselves. Over the years, they have visited 20 states of India. From Tamil Nadu in south to Jammu and Kashmir in north. From Meghalaya and Assam in the east to Gujarat and Rajasthan in the west, Madhu and Savita have been across this huge land.

They have fond memories from as varied locations as world heritage sites such as Taj Mahal, Humayun’s Tomb, Churches from across Goa, Caves in Maharashtra to national parks like Kaziranga, Sunderbans, Gir and Bandhavgarh.

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Savita at India Gate, New Delhi

Their journey and the posts on each place they visit is now a ready reckoner for a lot of people who want to plan their visits to these places. In fact, this has helped them spin of a blog based travelers’ support group where they custom design tour itineraries based on travelers’ interests, needs and budgets.

That also means that their recommendation of places where they have stayed makes a great impact to people who take their help for planning their own journey. From guest houses in Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh to National Park stays in camps and resorts, Savita and Madhu have shared their experience with smallest of details including address, contacts and a personal rating on a scale of 1 to 10.

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Another awesome feature about this blog is the photo journey that Savita and Madhu take us from time to time. Many would agree that a photo can say a thousand words, and many places can only be seen to experience the beauty of the place. Our travelers have tried capturing such places through the magic of photography. In fact, some of the photos can almost transport you to the location.

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Leh

Not many people have the courage to chase their dreams. Fewer still are willing to share their experiences of following their dreams and inviting others to experience it themselves. It takes a real desire to rediscover themselves as well as the land they are travelling that can result in something like the 10YearItch project. For showing this courage and the desire to live the life to fullest, Savita Pillai and Madhu Nair are our Bloggeratis of the Fortnight.

Bloggerati of the Fortnight: Kamla Bhatt

Friday, July 1st, 2011

kamla“People and Ideas is what interest me and that is what I talk and write about.” No wonder, our Bloggerati of the Fortnight, Kamla Bhatt, herself is such an interesting person. A freelance writer, researcher and podcaster, Kamla is the host and producer of The Kamla Show, an internet radio show where listeners can find stories about the new and emerging India and the global Indian community. She is acclaimed to be India’s first podcaster.

Her show always has the Indian aspect to every global trend coming out of the country. Her podcast subjects have been members of the Indian Diaspora from various countries, including Indian actor Kanwaljit Singh, Shabana Azmi, Indian businessman Azim Premji, Indian movie directors Mira Nair, Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani musicians Vijay Iyer and Rudresh Mahanthappa, theatre actress and celebrity chef Madhur Jaffrey, writer Gita Mehta and upcoming music director A R Rehana (sister of A R Rahman), among others.

Kamla started her first show ‘News about India,” followed by “TalkNewsIndia” in 2005. In 2006 she premiered her new show: “The Kamla Bhatt Show: Life, People and Ideas.” In 2008 the name of the show was changed to “The Kamla Show.” The focus of The Kamla Show is to present consistently good conversations that can enrich you. When listening to these conversations the goal is to help you find the elation that comes of swift contact with the tingling currents of thoughts.

Kamla has an undergraduate degree in History and Economics from Women’s Christian College, Chennai, India; a Masters in International Relations and Political Economy from Marquette University, Milwaukee, USA and an MPhil in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.

She worked for over a decade in sales in Silicon Valley, while regularly contributing to various Indian publications in the US and in India. Her writings have been published on various platforms across the globe. Today, she shuttles between USA and India, doing what she loves doing, “telling stories about heroes and role models that are relevant to the new and emerging globalized world and getting them heard,” and that is why, Kamla Bhatt is a role model herself and our Bloggerati of the Fortnight.

Click here to read more from our Blogger of the Fortnight series.

Bloggerati of the Fortnight: Ranjan Varma

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

RanjanRanjan Varma has over 17 years of work experience in Insurance, Housing Finance and Investment industry with LIC. A topper in Physics Honors examination way back in 1990s, Ranjan did an Executive MBA (Finance) in 2008 from ITM. He has also built a very informative personal finance portal at personalfinance201.com along with a financial websites rupeemanager.com. Ranjan Varma actively blogs on www.ranjanvarma.com

His Blog started as an effort to understand his own finances. According to Ranjan he wanted to share his learning on personal finance. The first thing he wants the world to know is that it is not rocket science and can be easily understood by a lay man. Ranjan states “I am trying to build a module for a personal finance workshop where people can start taking responsibility for their finance.”

Ranjans dedication towards the blog and the cause is apparent when he states, “There’s a question that doesn’t leave me alone, “What can you offer the world that no one else can?”. It’s a pretty tough question. Maybe this blog will help me with finding the answer. In any case, I believe that I can be the medium which can change the way Indians manage their money!”

What’s more, Ranjan has also developed a software RupeeManager, that helps in tracking and managing ones money. Not only that, the software is also available as an online application. He conducts money management workshop which improves ones capabilities to make financial decisions. He proudly states that this workshop can be conducted on ground and online. Well, even we are proud to state that for all this and more, Ranjan Varma is our “Bloggerati of the Fortnight.”

Read more from our “BLOGGER OF THE FORTNIGHT” series.

Bloggerati of the Fortnight: Sanjay Lakhotia

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

Sanjay LakhotiaSanjay Lakhotia is a management graduate from XLRI with more than 15 years of experience of working in human resources area. He has worked for more than 13 years in consulting where he has helped clients in various issues of HR including HR Strategy, change management, organization restructuring, leadership development and coaching, capability development, performance management, rewards etc.

Sanjay currently undertakes assignments as a free lance consultant helping companies with various aspects of Human Resource interventions including program design, competency development and soft skills training. He is also a top rated HR Blogger with his blog “Simple thoughts” being amongst the best in the country on the subject.

Tackling issues such as leave policy may put him in a spot as most HR departments try hard to justify non-granting of leaves, Sanjay on the other hand is an advocate of simple HR policies starting from leave system in an organization. Not only does he give a simple solution to a complicated problem, but also makes sense of many complicated issues.

He also provides uncanny lessons in HR through real life happenings. His post on Leadership Learning from Dhoni speaks a volume not just about the cricketer but also how clearly Sanjay can draw a parallel between HR theories and real life. It is this quality that has put Sanjay on the list of visiting faculties in many premier institutes. In fact how much he enjoys teaching is evident from his comment

“My suggestion to everyone who wants to learn or become better at his / her subject will be to try teaching a course on that subject. Because I believe from my first experience, that to TEACH is to LEARN.”

Sanjay has for always shown this hunger to learn. He believes that people can get better by making things simple. His own assessments of issues in his blog posts are very simple and that helps his reader to learn better. It is this simplicity that simply makes Sanjay Lakhotia our “Bloggerati of the Fortnight.

Read more about our previous Bloggers of the Fortnight.

Bloggerati of the Fortnight: Sajin Seethi

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Keeping up to date with mobile technology would be impossible if not for few enthusiastic bloggers who take the pains of finding out about new technologies, new devices and applications, understanding them and writing about the same. It makes life of us simple folks, well simple. One such technology buff is Sajin Seethi.

Sajin, has been writing for almost two years. He loves understanding mobile technology and how things work. He carefully traces every brand’s activities and reports them instantly. He is a big fan of Apple and Android products, although he is not biased in his opinion.

The blog, my mobile scoop, has been developed to give readers a scoop of what is happening in the tech world. It mainly focuses on the mobile news, as according to Sajin, they are the most happening devices in the world. He also does video news, app reviews and more on YouTube. Add to that, the video demos of new phones are something which impressed a lot. The detail with which these videos are produced is simply amazing.

Video Demo

Click on the image to see the video

What is most impressive about his blog is the manner in which he breaks down the information. Knowing very well, that bombarding the user with too much information of very technical nature would leave them dazed and confused, he carefully lists down the main features and the benefits that the user gets from the device. It not only helps in understanding the device better but also makes the reader feel comfortable.

Sajin also does reviews for social media applications for mobile phones, like the Foursquare application for Nokia and the Facebook application launched by Samsung. This not only helps inform the reader about the services but also about the various features of different Social Media Platforms.

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Facebook Application Review

Technology is something which not many people understand but in today’s world, technology is mostly sold to such people. Hence, it is very important that someone somewhere takes the effort to make this information available in simple manner. And for doing that, Sanij Seethi is our Bloggerati of the Fortnight.

Click here to read more from our Blogger of the Fortnight series.

Bloggerati of the Fortnight: Amit Agarwal

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

His blog “Digital Inspiration” was awarded the “Best Technology Blog Award” at Indibloggies in 2006 and 2008. He has been involved in advocating freedom of speech and an end to internet censorship in India. He is Amit Agarwal, our Blogger of the Fortnight. Amit writes about computer softwares, consumer gadgets, and web applications that help us become productive. He also pens a weekly personal technology column for The Hindustan Times.

HT calls Amit the “founder of the Indian blogging revolution” while the prestigious The Straits Times of Singapore included him in their list of Asia’s Blog Stars alongside Chinese actress Xu Jinglei and Japanese Ambassador Naoto Amaki. Microsoft awarded him the Most Valuable Professional award for 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

 

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Amit Agarwal adressing students at the blog school

Digital Inspiration, launched in 2004 by Amit, is now among the Top 100 Technology Blogs on the Internet out of an estimated total of 130+ million blogs. The purpose of this site is to help one take maximum advantage of the software tools and web technologies at one’s disposal. Digital Inspiration averages more than 3+ million page views per month.

In 2010, Amit introduced Sleeping Time, an online service that can estimate of the sleeping habits of any Twitter user. It quickly went viral and was mentioned on CNN, The 33 News, Open Magazine and also made it to the front page of the Bangalore Mirror. Amit is also the founder of India Blog School. It is a non-profit first-of-its-kind initiative that aims to spread the blogging culture in India though training and offline interaction.

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Twitter Application developed by Amit Agarwal

Amit is no stranger to recognition, but he is still rooted to doing what he loves doing. Talking to the world about technology and helping people understand the complexity in a simple and beautiful way. That is what makes Amit Agarwal our Bloggerati of the Fortnight.

 

Click here to read more from our Blogger of the Fortnight series.