Beware of what you share online

What would be you reaction

on seeing the information from your social networking profile

printed on a newspaper article, without your permission?

There are a thousands of articles on the net advising us caution on sharing personal information on social networking websites like Orkut, Facebook, Myspace, etc. But still, today's New York Times article on Ashley Alexandra Dupre - Woman at the Center of NY Governor Eliot Spitzer's Downfall managed to surprise me on the amount of information that was used from Ashley's Myspace page.

With Ashley spending the last few days out of the public eye, the New York Times uses the myspace profile information as the basis for most of their article. A Sample below:

She left “a broken family” at age 17, having been abused, according to the MySpace page, and has used drugs and “been broke and homeless.”

I don't know whether it is legal to use information from the social networking profile page without the owner's permission but it is not surely ethical in my eyes. If the New York Times itself has no issues using information from social networking profile pages, think about others. Who knows who will read our Social Networking Profiles. So Always, Beware of what you share online.

5 reasons for Supporting Hillary Clinton

In India, you rarely vote for a person because you like him. Rather the vote is decided on the basis of whom you hate the most. So, Seeing the plethora of eligible and likable Presidential nominees that an American voter has, makes me jealous. This kicked off an keen interest in nomination elections especially in the close contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for Democratic Party Presidential Nomination.

Right from the early days of the nomination process, i developed a liking for Hillary Clinton and would have signed myself as a volunteer in her campaign if i was in US. Since i belong to 2 groups - Youth and Techie that forms a key supporter base of Obama, I thought i would reason out my logic for being different.

1. Obama Will win the Democratic Presidential nomination

For both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Becoming the U.S. President is not only a dream but an obsession. But with the relative young age of Obama(46 years), this obsession would not end even if he loses 2008 Democratic Presidential Nomination. But that is not the case with Hillary Clinton. If she loses this nomination, her dreams of becoming the US president would come crashing down.

When you have 2 eligible candidates, whom do you choose?

• Option of having only one of them as a Presidential nominee
• Option of having one now and another later

2. Known Devil is better than Unknown Angel

It is always better to choose a known person who delivers rather than an unknown person who promises the sky. With the relatively lesser time that Barack Obama has spent before the scrutiny of the public and media, I tend to favor Hillary Clinton. Yeah! Barack Obama inspires hope... But Does he really believe in the message? Or Is He using it only as a means to attract voters?

3. Economy

For rest of the world, key issue of the Presidential elections is economy and how the new President is going to ensure that the U.S. economy rebounds from the sub prime crisis and the upcoming recession. Obama if elected, could be expected to push for policies that are populist rather than those that would solve the problem. But from Clinton, you could expect Solutions and not populist measures.

4. Indian Connections:

My Indian Connections means that i prefer Clinton because

• Obama might send troops to Pakistan which would not only destabilize Pakistan but the entire South Asia
• Obama has already opposed outsourcing once and he could be expected to do the same once more if the situation warrants it. Read TOI's editorial on the issue.

5. Underdog

The world loves underdog victories in sports, movies and even in politics. And I am no exception. At present, Hillary Clinton is a underdog in Democratic Presidential nomination where her odds are stacked against her. And How lovely it would be to see her triumph!!!

New Hampshire - Nature at its Best

The only term you could coin New Hampshire during its Fall Season is "Nature at its Best". Columbus Day, being a holiday on a week end, I joined my church friends to another trip - this time to New Hampshire. The reason stated was "Breakfast". Yeah! Food at that place was great.. Yummy.. :) But the drive through the roads was the most exciting part. When my friends in U.S. and India said that "Visit New Hampshire in Fall Season" that too not once but in all their mails. I thought it would be nice. But i never thought that it would be a place where people would be forced to shove me inside the car to ride back to Boston.

Each tree with its different fall colors combining beautifully to produce the scintillating effect. (Sorry! I am not a poet or Sajeev. So bear my words trying to describe the effects). Once has to be there to understand how nature can convince you to stand there for eternity in a single second. Hmm. I was ready to give anything for not having that feeling of numbness and disappointment that hits you on entering the Boston, the beautiful concrete jungle. But Life has to go on.

P.S:
1. Was Unable to take photos because of the rains on Columbus Day.

2. Also Sorry for my inability to post 2nd annual Northeastern Underwear/Undie Run on October 13, 2007. Did not have my camera :).

On a Whale Trial

After the last weekend at the apple orchard, this week Ramesh & I decided to go for one of the whale watch tours. Mostly because one of the close relatives of Ramesh has suggested it to him. Anyway rather than doing our assignments[:(], we preferred the option. Friday, being the only common day on which Ramesh & I don't have classes, we thought we book the tickets on that day and also we could avoid the week end rush. But a full boat(more or less) caught me by surprise. And the reason was pretty simple - the trip is pretty awesome.

After spending some few minutes in the New England Aquarium(not worth a visit), we took our seats in Voyager III, the cruise boat that was taking us to the sea. Thanks for the helpful tip in the website that recommended us to bring a winterwear, I brought my jacket for the tour. It turned out to be a wise decision against my view that i am carrying an extra weight in this hot day. It became pretty cold, once we moved to the interiors of the ocean. After a hour travel, we had our first whale sighting. It was really a delight to see them at close quarters - especially the humpback whales diving, open feeding, tail splashing, ... right next to your boat. Surelly a Photographer's delight! After a few minutes, i lost count of number of whale sightings.

The boaf staff after spending a few minutes watching a few random whales, decided to take the matters in their own hand and started following a Whale pair. Oh! The next few minutes were great watching the whales without any fear for the foreign activity, coming up close to our boat. Was able to take a nice video of one such sighting of a whale that came so close to our boat.

In whole, it was pretty awesome and enjoyable trip to see such huge animals so near to you.. that too in their wild.

P.S: After the whale watching, my research(!) in wikipedia revealed it is a one billion dollar industry!!! Hmmm!!!

Apple Picking!?@#

Yeah! I would have been surprised too if somebody has said that i would go for apple picking(it should be called apple plucking.. at least according to my dictionary..)trip to an orchard. A New England tradition I was not even aware of, until my church friends invited me. Why lose out a chance to see the countryside when you have an opportunity???.. So my apple picking trail started, after the early morning church service, amidst the beautiful orchard. Different Varieties of apple are grown in different parts of the orchard and we are allowed to fill up a bag(bought at a price before starting the trail) with apples - that you choose and pluck from the trees. The main fun is choosing the best(Largest & red) apples that your eyes lay on. These apples are generally found only on the top of the trees. So it was fun climbing up and down.. of different trees and plucking up apples. Got reminded of my young days, when i used to climb the grand old guava tree in the home. After getting tired on eating apples, we made our way back, carrying a whole bunch of apples. On the whole, it was a fun weekend, away from Boston.

P.S: Hmmm... Slowly I am becoming a Bostonian... :)

My First Post from US Soil

It has been a week since I first set foot in this 'land of opportunities'. Bored with the 'busy' terms in IIM Indore, thought that studying in another college would provide you ample time to chill out. But the way the classes are progressing, I don't think I would get that much needed time to chill out. :(

But otherwise, it has been a great experience. Similar to 'priceless' ad campaigns of MasterCard, going through a lot of priceless moments that i would carry in my life.

• Living in your own apartment - $1300/month but learning cooking under Ramesh and then cooking on your own - Priceless
• Studying in a US B-School damn costly
• But studying in a class in which the fairer sex are in the majority - Priceless
• But studying in a class with people from different nations - Priceless
• But chatting with Pakistani[conversation was mostly in Hindi.. :(] - Priceless
• But window shopping the enormous number of well chosen books in Harvard Co-op Book Store - Priceless
• But reading "Oh! Jerusalem", the book i have been searching for 3 years, that too for free - Priceless

Expecting to get a lot more "Priceless" moments in this short stay in Boston, U.S.A

New Term in a New Place

Next 3 and 1/2 months in Boston, USA... Going there as a part of International Student Exchange Programme to one of the 'Chota' colleges in Boston... Would have loved to post a long 'globe' post about how busy the last term was in IIM Indore and my travel to Boston... But got no time for that.. So Bye! and Future blogging from USA.