A collaborative blog helped I co-found, Indian Muslims, has been nominated to the prestigious Brass Crescent Awards in the Best Group Blog category. Brass Crescent Awards are given out to the best of Muslim Blogosphere annually and are now in their fourth year of running. Here is what I wrote at Indian Muslims on this occasion:
Right from its inception we have projected Indian Muslims as a collaborative platform to share ideas and engage in constructive discussions. This nomination in the Best Group Blog category is a vindication of our policy. We were also the finalists at the 2006 Indibloggies for Best Group/Community Blog. Over the past 6 months, Indian Muslims has grown by leaps and bounds with record number of visitors per day and a substantial increase in the number of comments on posts. Also, new authors have joined Indian Muslims bringing fresh perspective with them. All this has contributed to the ‘group feel’ of this blog and we will continue building upon this in future. [Indian Muslims]
How To Vote?
The process of voting is simple. Please visit www.BrassCrescent.org and scroll down the page to the fifth section, BEST GROUP BLOG, and select your nominee. Then scroll the page down till the very end and enter your email address and click on the submit button. You would need to validate your vote through a link in the email received in your Inbox. If the email is not in your Inbox, please check your Junk/Bulk/Spam folder. The email will be coming from Brass Crescent Awards. Feel free to drop a comment here in case of any clarification.
It is possible to vote only for Best Group Blog category if you are not sure which blogs to choose in other categories.
A good friend and fellow blogger, Adnan, has been nominated for the Best South Asian Blog. Last date of voting is 14th December 2007.
Thanks a lot!
]]>
Update: Sorry, but no more invites. To those who have already commented, please check your email. You can head to Mashable if you still need one.
I have just created a profile at Yahoo! Mash and I have a few invites with me. If you want one, please drop a comment here with a valid email address where you want the invite to be sent. As of now, the service is beta invite-only.
Mash is a new social networking website being pioneered by Yahoo!
The service includes features common to Facebook, MySpace, and My Yahoo. You can load a set of modules onto your profile page and move them around drag-and-drop style. The modules include Flickr RSS, Ego Boost, Common Friends, MyMoshLog2, Blog Module (RSS 2.0), Asteroids, Astrology, PimpMyPet, Hover, Kaleidescope, Guestbook, and My Stuff. [Tech Crunch]
I will write more about Mash once I get around using the service.
]]>Willie Nelson + Always On My Mind = Awesome
Youtube has helped me discover some great artists I was totally unfamiliar with previously. Willie Nelson is one such artist. One of my favorites is the song ‘always on my mind’.
This song was originally rendered by Elvis Presley but I like the Willie Nelson version better. Here is the Elvis one as well.
]]>Curiosity + Internet = Interesting Stuff.
I have this nazm by some singer Rochna from an album Izhaar. I don’t know anything else about either the singer or the poet. But it is a great nazm and the singer has done full justice to it.
Here follows the nazm:
apnii naakaamiyoN se Dartaa huuN
jab tere shah’r se guzartaa huuNtere dilkash salaam aate the
zindagii ke payaam aate the
maiN masarrat se jhuum jaataa thaa
aise rangiiN muqaam aate the
us zamaane ko yaad kartaa huuN
jab tere shah’r se guzartaa huuNab kisii Ghair kii tuu kismat hai
phir bhii dil meN terii muhabbat hai
yaad rakhnaa ke tere kuuche meN
merii naakaamiyoN kii turbat hai
aur maiN huuN ke tujh pe martaa huuN
jab tere shah’r se guzartaa huuNhamne Khaake hayaat ke khiiNche
sabz mehNdii kii baaRh ke piiche
ret ke ghar banaaye the jitne
aa gaye tere paaNv ke niiche
maiN vahiiN do ghaRii Thehartaa huuN
jab tere shah’r se guzartaa huuN
And click below to listen:
[See post to listen to audio]
Searching more about the singer and the poet I googled ‘jab tere shaher se guzarta hoon’ and found another amazing piece of poetry by Saifuddin Saif in the same zamiin and echoing similar emotions. I especially liked the last two lines:
kis tamannaa se tujh ko chaahaa thaa
kis muhabbat se haar maanii hai
As luck would have it the great Amanat Ali Khan has rendered this nazm in his own inimitable style. But I am not sure about the one by Rochna. Who is Rochna and who is the author of the nazm? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
]]>Slowly but surely Youtube is getting to look like a Google company. Sometime back they incorporated Youtube videos in Google Video search results. Now it seems that one of my biggest complaints against Youtube is getting addressed: crappy search results. Even if you were off by an alphabet Youtube would not give you any result. To my surprise, it actually offered a suggestion on my search query today like Google search engine.
Now only if they can handle copyright issues.
Neha wonders why she sees such ads in her Gmail Inbox. I think I have found the answer in one of the ads at a geeky website.
What percentage of geeks would not want to scroll the (unscrollable) bar? Actually, the ad is pretty effective:
The beautiful (and apparently nude) woman has been strategically placed.
The scroll bars and missing ‘ing’ of missing creates the impression that there is more to be seen.
The word ‘see’ has been naughtingly highlighted. Half of the geeks are voyeurish. Q.E.D.
There is ‘I am a : woman’ seeking ‘man’ instead of ‘I am a : man’ seeking ‘woman’. Women are smarter than men in matters of heart, more Q.E.D.
If one gets caught by the boss while looking at such women, there is that brialliant excuse of ‘Advantages of PHP Over Java’. Yes, the original page. If boss is any good (that means a good geeky and that would mean single and lonely), he would be looking for options himself, so not much to worry.
Scriptsfinder.com has enough knowledge about online geek behaviour and hence such ads.
When you go to the actual mate1.com site, their default search is ‘I am a man seeking a woman, age 18-35′. They know who would be finally coming to their site !
Dear WP Users,
WordPress has released an upgraded version 2.0.4 of their software with a lot of bug fixes (probably a result of 4th July bug-hunt). You can download the latest version at http://wordpress.org/download.
Happy Blogging!
]]>I found out today that in Gmail, mohib.ahmad is same as mohibahmad. My id is mohib.ahmad, but if you accidentally send it to mohibahmad, it would still reach my Inbox.
Have you noticed it too? Are there any other variations that work similarly?
