Me, Darshit and TRP :)

'Pati, Patni aur Woh' trailer flashed on our TV in the evening with Rakhi Savant and Elesh also part of it. I grinned when instantly I heard a 'thup' sound. Darshit thumped his head! He was upset. Not because I watch such serials but because of people like me, the serials' TRPs increase! He used to crib on seeing me watch 'Rakhi ka swayamvar' show. But its not that I liked the show or Rakhi (no ways!!), I was just curious. But I guess many people were equally curious because 'Rakhi ka swayamvar' show earned the highest TRP of 3.5 in the history of NDTV Imagine!! And I knew.. I was to be blamed!!

But before I get the blame for the upcoming ' Pati, Patni aur Woh', I thought of finding out how I contributed to this TRP. And guess what.. I was shocked. Read on to find how TRP of a particular serial is calculated. I am sure even you will be surprised.

"Television Rating Points - TRP is the criterion that indicates the popularity of a channel or programme and this data is very useful for the advertisers
Presently, INTAM (Indian Television Audience Measurement) is the only electronic rating agency functioning in India. INTAM uses two methodologies for calculating TRP. First is frequency monitoring, in which 'people meters' are installed in sample homes and these electronic gadgets continuously record data about the channel watched by the family members. 'People meter' is a costly equipment, which is imported from abroad. It reads the frequencies of channels, which are later, decoded into the name of the channels and the agency prepares a national data on the basis of its sample homes readings. But there is a drawback in the technique, as cable operators frequently change the frequencies of the different channels before sending signals to the homes. It may be very misleading to read a channel according to a particular frequency even if the down linking frequency is same all over India.

Second technique is more reliable and relatively new to India. In picture matching technique people meter continuously records a small portion of the picture that is being watched on that particular television set. Along with this agency also records all the channels' data in the form of small picture portion. Data collected from the sample homes is later on matched with the main data bank to interpret the channel name. And this way national rating is produced"

Obtained info from How to calculate TRP

I was happy as well as shocked. Shocked because the so hyped TRP is trash! It is a vague approximation of a value which can be drastically different from reality and I strongly feel it is. Happy because I was exempted and was free to watch 'Pati, Patni aur Woh' :)

And so from now on I would like to give my TRPs to my fav serials:

1) Sarabhai vs Sarabhai (old one.. not aired currently)
2) Man vs Wild on Nat Geo
3) Young Turks on CNBC
4) Now Showing on CNN IBN
5) Lounge on NDTV Imagine

Just for fun, I asked my friends in office about their fav serials and unanimously received one reply 'Making of kingfisher calendar' on NDTV Imagine!!! Hahaha! I guess I should top that one above my list too :P.

You are welcome to add your fav ones too.
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@ Traffic Signals

"Oh God, I hope I get through the traffic fast today!!" This thought comes to my mind daily before leaving for office. I am sure that you all would agree that even you do not want to get stuck in traffic.. be it a traffic signal!

But that day, I felt otherwise!!

It was an usual day when I started for office in the morning. Even after lot of praying for smooth traffic, I was stuck in traffic @ the signal for 20 mins!! The traffic was snail paced. And I got really bugged of listening to my music in the car. I switched it off and opened the window to feel little better. Small chirping noises caught my attention. These were small children begging at the signal. Some peeping in the car, some persuading two-wheelers' riders, some just roaming between vehicles and one coming towards me! Oh God.. I can't face this. Yes, I hate signals for this very reason.

But thankfully he stopped few cars ahead of me. He was the smallest of all. I thought of observing the entire scene. I was curious to know how others handle this. And this when I saw a hand come out with a packet of Parle-G biscuits and handed it to that kid!! He was sooo happy. He immediately ran towards the pavement and all his friends joined him. I think they all got their breakfast!

Why was I feeling so happy and relieved? Because the boy didn't come begging to me . Yes I was relieved. But this time I was even happier to see this little kid eating Parle-G biscuits with such a pleasure! The traffic started moving, as I moved little further, I saw an old emaciated begger with complete haggard looks struggling to climb slightly higher pavement to save himself from the moving traffic. I had to stop. I stopped next to him to allow him climb with the help of his stick.

And then I moved on! I wanted to give him money. But I couldn't stop. The signal was green and he was so weak that he could have never been able to run and take the money. I know.. I can never justify this to me!

But I know one thing. I do not want these boys to grow old begging their whole life same as that old guy. Mr. Narayan Murthy has mentioned in his latest book 'A Better India, A Better World' - "Children can not concentrate on their studies if their stomachs are not full and there are many such children in government schools."

You must be thinking what can we do?

I am still thinking. But I want to atleast do my little bit. I have seen how much food we waste in our office canteen!! And I am sure that there must be some food left out everyday. We have one Idea center in our office. I have suggested this idea of supplying this food to any one of the government school. I do not know if this is a feasible option or not. But still...!

People say that we should not promote begging by giving them money. I never gave them anything for these 5 years but I still didn't see their numbers decreasing!!

So... I bought some parle-G biscuits!
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Some more Color Splash!!

This came as a suggestion from Darshit and quite a few friends that I should create a space for my paintings on the blog. And obviously I really liked the idea :) So here are few of my paintings which are still with me! (I moved to Bangalore after marriage and so do not have all right now).

And a special thanks to Sagar who showed me the Diversity@SAP contest where I could submit one of my paintings (A sketch Imagination painting) and one of my poems. And which later got selected for SAP Travel Exhibit and a prize!

1) A Surreal Dream!

This was my first painting. And it has all the hues :)



2)A kind gesture

A colorful gesture which blends to form a painting and depicts the beauty in brush strokes!



3) A sketchy imagination

It shows an imagination of a lover who dreams of his lost love in a haunted palace!


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I am tagged! So excited to fill this :)

I was tagged by Prashant (http://prashansapuranik.blogspot.com/). Oh God.. I thoroughly enjoyed it! First time I hated my name initial. God.. I was not able to find any word starting with V except my name! Hehehehe!!

Before starting.. lets see the tag rules.

Tag Rules: It’s harder than it looks!(Mind It). Copy to your own note, erase my answers, enter yours, and tag your friends. Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real… nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can’t use your name for the boy/girl name question. Have Fun!!


1. What is your name: Vineeta

2. A four Letter Word: Vega (I used to compare me with this star.. hehehe)

3. A boy’s Name: Vidit (I just love this name)

4. A girl’s Name: Veda (I love my niece's name)

5. An occupation: Vineyard Manager (I envy them :P)

6. A colour : Vermilion red

7. Something you wear: Vest :P

8. A food: Vangi Bhat, Vanilla Icecream (What a combo.. hahaha)

9. Something found in the bathroom: Vapor :P (An intelligent one.. see!! I scanned my full bathroom today!!)

10. A place: Vadodra (I am from Ahmedabad )

11. A reason for being late: Voodooed by Vodka!!

12. Something you shout: Voila!!

13. A movie title: Veer Zara, V for Vendetta

14. Something you drink: Virgin Mary, V8 ( I survived on V8 in US.. can't forget it :)

15. A musical group:Viking

16. An animal: Vixen

17. A Street name: Violet Street (Home production.. but couldnt think of anything else!!).

18. A type of car: Volkswagon (Still a dream!!)

19. A song title: Vaada, Viva Las Vegas (Not sure of the former one)

20. A verb: vociferar (Oh I was dying to write this word.. hehehe)

Ah.. I have just enjoyed it! Now its my turn to tag :)

I am tagging Brijesh (http://chancedencounters.blogspot.com)
Mohan (http://mohanbn.com/blog/),
Fathy (http://goodbadponderings.blogspot.com),
Sagar (http://sagargadre.blogspot.com).

Do let me know in case you want to be tagged! Its fun!
Also let me know ur comments on my answers too :D
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Green Home Effect!

We celebrated June 5th as Environment Day. And I was quite satisfied by planting few trees in the suburb of bangalore until I saw today's news! Delhi air pollution reaching "emergency" limits!! My mouth was wide open! How?!! It was just above normal few months or may be few years back! Do I remember this? Obviously not. I have so many other things to do. I was so ignorant!! So are you.

And this is when I remembered one of my photos of Delhi trip and I shouldn't miss to share it!

It is not fog. It is smog (Smoke + fog). The pollution was always there but may be I was quite ignorant to see it.

But now when I see the levels rising much beyond the alarming levels, I feel atleast now we should think of doing something.. not for others but for ourselves!



This is when I found TED video..A live example of a person who stays in Delhi and has found his own way of getting fresh air!



I am sure that this info will be aleast helpful in making our homes greener! So lets not just celebrate one day as environment day.. lets celebrate each day as environment day in our homes :)


PS: Lets not just restrict it to our homes/offices.. lets spread the word!
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Missed my car?... Unn Not really!!

Today I was carless. It was quite unusual as I am now addicted to self-driving to office. But the car needed service badly. So today, Darshit planned to drop me half way in car and then drop the car to service station. As planned we started on our way to our respective offices (my office is further down...). I decided to get down at Marathahalli and then take public transport to office. As soon as I got out of the car, I was relieved to see an auto-rickshaw slowing down for me in that heavy, choked traffic. I went upto the auto and told 'SAP'. To which he replied '70Rs'. I couldn't control. I pointed the meter on the auto and asked him - 'Meter pe kitna' (how much using meter?). He didn't bother to reply and moved on!!! I couldn't believe the indifferent attitude of the auto driver! The next moment, I got a bus and reached office in 15Rs!

That eve on my way back home, I had already decided to not to go in auto which does not use meter for charging. I was happy as I boarded a bus immediately. But... I later found out that it was not going till my place. I had to get down 3-4 kms away from my house. I was left with not much choice but to check auto-rickshaw. So I asked one auto-driver, who again reminded me of the morning experience. I couldn't believe him!! All of them were the same. Nobody wanted to use meter for charging and everybody just wanted to charge triple the actual amount!

I was not ready to give in. Why should I? I was not lame. Rather I always keep discussing in office about gym and treadmill exercises. And this was the perfect chance. People boast of running 5-8kms on treadmill and here I was.. just 3-4kms from my house. I started. As I was walking, I noticed so many colorful shops, I noticed children running past me... enjoying their post-school hours, I noticed huge green trees on both the sides of the road bowing to form arches, I noticed people walking briskly in the garden. I was excited to notice a different life on the same road. I have been using this route for years now and had never noticed anything other than the potholed road. And this time I could see people running/walking in the garden and I was walking outside the garden on the pavement!! I laughed at myself! I was contend... and now hungry too. I was about to reach my house when I saw a pani puri vala. Ah.. I can never resist pani puri in my life! I stopped and savored every bit of it! I had saved enough money for the pani puri :) Needless to say.. this pani puri was the yummiest :)
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