So long Blogger. Here comes WordPress-powered CuttingtheChai.com

After five years of blogging on Blogger, it's now time to move on to WordPress (as announced earlier). While the flavour of Cutting the Chai will not change as a result of the metamorphosis from soumyadipc.blogspot.com to CuttingtheChai.com, I intend to add more spice in the new domain.

Of late tweeting has eaten into my blogging. After the immediate release of a thought/experience via a tweet, I usually don't have the inclination left to follow that with a longer blog post. While Twitter is a wonderful platform but it cannot (no matter what people say) replace the blog. While I shall continue to tweet (@soumyadip), I promise to blog too.

And this move is just a step towards fulfilling that promise. Having my own hosting gives me greater control my content and the WordPress platform, as everyone will agree, adds more fun to the blog.

Those of you who subscribe to this blog via RSS/Atom feeds, don't need to update the URL in your feed reader. They've all been redirected.

If you keep track of Cutting the Chai posts via email (powered by FeedBlitz), that has also been updated. Emails related to new posts on CuttingtheChai.com should land in your inbox.

The new Cutting the Chai is still a work in progress. You'll find many elements from the old blog missing in the new. I'll gradually add them (and more).

The soumyadipc.blogspot.com will remain for the near future, but all the fresh updates (have already imported all the old posts and comments) will happen on the CuttingtheChai.com. Might add a 303 redirection in the future for more seamlessness.

Like the Dilliwallas, who experienced discomfort while the Delhi Metro lines were being built and blessed the mass transit system when it zipped them through the crowded city, I too hope that the momentary inconvenience that the Chaiwallah might make you undergo will finally result in a world-class experience.

Printable Football World Cup 2010 Schedule in IST

The World Cup is only a few hours away and like all the previous editions (right from 1986, though I don't remember much of that) I'll be hooked to the ball. Thankfully, this year the match timings are comparatively India friendly.

Keeping alive the Cutting the Chai tradition of simple-printable-A4-sized-approach, here's presenting the 2010 World Cup Football South Africa schedule with timings in Indian Standard Time (IST).

(Just in case printing is not your thing and you prefer interactivity over a static piece of paper, I have also put together an interactive version of the 2010 Football World Cup schedule here. The list is sortable according to match number, date and time, team name, group and venue.)

This schedule/calendar of the World Cup matches is in a simple printable single-page A4 format. Note that the listed matches are only for the Group Stage. Will put up another schedule for the knock-out stages once the group matches get over.

The matches are sorted according to their time of play and have a very simple and easy to follow format (unlike most of the other World Cup schedules that I came across, including that on the official FIFA website).

This Football World Cup calendar is available in two versions (both in PDF). The first has a little dash of colour and shading and the other is the ink-friendly version.

You may preview/print/download the files below:

2010 A4 Printable World Cup Schedule/Calendar with timings in IST



Download PDF

2010 A4 Printable World Cup Schedule/Calendar with timings in IST (Ink-friendly)



Download PDF

Five Years of Cutting the Chai

May 29, 2010 marks the fifth anniversary of this blog. Of late, I haven't been paying much attention here. But this web log has been a constant element in my life, while things have moved on a fast pace in both the professional and the personal fronts.

Today is a big day and the Chaiwali gifted me a Harley to celebrate the occasion. And not just any Harley-Davidson, but a 1936-vintage EL, also known as the "Knucklehead." So what if it is only a miniature scale model, it's the closest I can get to owning a Harley in the near future.

In the days to come I'll be posting a series of special 'Cutting the Chai @ 5' posts.

For now I've an announcement to make. Cutting the Chai is moving on to its own domain and hosting (and powered by Wordpress). Still working on a few things there and will post a post when everything's good to go.

The last major change on this blog was when the title changed from 'Mindless Musings of an Unmindful' Mind to 'Cutting the Chai' on April 14, 2006.

And here's my very own Harley:

Cutting the Chai Effect: Guruji Sheds Copyrighted Material

Don't mind the title of the post. I couldn't help it. Afterall while T-Series' army of lawyers couldn't yet stop Guruji.com from indexing 'pirated' content, the previous post on Cutting the Chai seems to have got the website to remove other copyrighted material.

The earlier design for Guruji.com's homepage, as pointed out in this blog, included unauthorised images from Shutterstock. Now they have removed the erring graphics.

Am now eagerly waiting for the verdict on indexing the music.

Interestingly, the mainstream media has almost ignored the Guruji episode, quite unlike when Avnish Bajaj, CEO of Bazee.com was put behind bars.

Piracy, it seems, isn't as newsworthy as an MMS scandal.

On Guruji and Piracy

While one Guruji (Shibu Soren) has been upto his usual ways in the political arena, another Guruji, of the online sort, has entangled itself in the web of piracy allegations.

According to media reports Anurag Dod, the CEO and founder of Guruji.com and a few other company executives were arrested by the Bangalore police on charges of piracy/copyright infringement. The complainant was T-Series (as you sow, so shall you reap). T-Series, like most music companies, has been crying foul over music piracy. Piracy has hit its bottomline hard.

Here on Cutting the Chai, I have been writing about piracy and the ways that the music and movie industry can counter it.

The arrest of Guruji.com's CEO is important news, because this case could define the future of online music sharing in India (at least from a legal perspective).

Back in 2006 when Guruji launched, it focused on search results with a 'desi' flavour. But when they tried to add some music to it, it was apparent they they were hitting the wrong notes (melodious ones, if you hear from the users' ears).

The search engine was also touted as the potential Baidu of India. Guruji seems to have taken the Baidu comparison a bit too seriously and went on to incorporate Baidu's USP - MP3 search (Guruji's music search was launched in July 2008)

Much like the Chinese, Indians too are fond of their music and like to find it for free on the internet (Altavista was perhaps one of the earliest to include music search, but I can no longer find the feature and Google's is only for the US).

Before Guruji.com was Guruji.com, it was Terrawiz. A "privately held startup with development center in Bangalore, India ... developing technologies to enable the India interested person to search and get relevant results quickly." Today, if you go to the domain www.terrawiz.com it'll take you the WAP/mobile version of the search engineNote :

Apparently the name Terrawiz didn't seem to sound something that will appeal to an Indian audience, therefore Guruji (the teacher). The domain www.guruji.com was earlier a site on Muralidhara Swamigal.

Anurag Dod had the right credentials to start a successful online venture, a BTech from IIT Delhi and a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Michigan. And his baby Guruji.com wasn't doing too bad either (Guruji claims to have over 1.5 billion page views a month). If it hadn't been doing well, he wouldn't have been arrested. No takes notice of the failures.

Over the years, Guruji.com has moved on from being a search engine delivering India specific content to a search engine delivering links to downloadable Indian music. They have even rejigged their homepage to show where their strength lies and what interests their visitors the most. They are now taking pride in being the "No 1 in music search."

What would be interesting to know is whether the standard disclaimers, that Guruji.com and many other sites use, to wash their hands off indexed third-party content, holds any water in the courts.

Guruji Music lets you search and listen to old, new, latest mp3 songs and ringtones. However, we have no liability for websites that claim to have free mp3 downloads.

Disclaimer :
Guruji.com indexes third party websites and does not have control over, nor any liability for the content of such third party websites.
If you believe that any of the search results above, link to content that infringes your copyright, please contact us.

This is very important in a broader sense, because many of us (particularly bloggers) link to external websites whose contents might not be legal according to the laws of the land. Earlier this year, China's Baidu had won a court case against music groups and was cleared of piracy charges. Wonder, how the Indian courts would read the T-Series versus Guruji case.

Guruji could possibly get into another little copyright trouble over their latest design. A closer look at the new Guruji.com homepage, shows distinct Shutterstock watermarks. This clearly indicates that they didn't create the image, nor did they take permission to use it. Whoever is responsible for the design, did a lazy job (just picked up from the net and didn't even bother to clean it up. As they say nakal mein bhi akal lagti hain). Moreover no one at Guruji also seems to have noticed.



To Guruji.com's credit, their music search works wonderfully. They even give upfront links from where users can download the files directly without necessarily having to go to the website hosting the content. If you don't wish to download, there is the listen option. You may also dedicate a song to a friend and download a ringtone-version of the song for your mobile phone. The website is available in eight languages and it indexes songs of at least nine languages. Too much of a good thing can sometimes get you into trouble.

At a previous workplace I was trying to bring in more music content for our music website and had almost inked a deal with the impressive new startup Grooveshark. They seemed to have everything right about them and claimed that they even paid the due royalties. But the legal mumbo jumbo was a bit grey in some parts and we didn't want to get our hands burnt. Though it had a lot of potential, we had to unwillingly, shelve the plans. "Music is risky business," my boss told me. Since Anurag is his own boss, no one seems to have told him that.

Guruji.com is an easy target for the music companies because they haven't shrouded themselves behind a clock of anonymity. Go to Guruji.com and you'll find all that you want to know about them, the management team, their addresses. On the contrary, another popular Indian music search engine Phulki has played it safe. They haven't put up any contact info on their website and a whois search draws a blank as they have kept their contact info private. But I've heard of Phulki executives doing the rounds to tie up with other websites. Don't know if they hand out a business card or not.

What Guruji has been doing is very borderline. But as I have argued before, the music companies are getting it all wrong. They could take Guruji to court but what about songs.pk (haven't deliberately linked to the site, unless T-Series decides to drag me to court too. I can't even afford a decent lawyer) and the innumerable other sites and blogs that pass on illegal content. And the biggest of them all, P2P. They can't be shutting them down all. They have to come up with an alternative, at least T-Series tried to.

Apple's iTunes Store has displayed that people are willing to pay for their music, but then it hasn't been tried out in India. We Indians often react a lot differently than the world. But someone needs to go out and do something. In.com, Bollywood Hungama and Rediff SongBuzz are letting us listen to music for free and that too legally.

Interestingly, Guruji.com doesn't seem to index the above mentioned three Indian websites that legally stream music. At least the random search that I ran, didn't find any mentions.

What we need is a also service via which we can download music to our devices and at a small fee. Something in the range of Re 1 to Rs 5 per song would be fine. Personally, wouldn't mind paying a small amount (~ Rs 10-15) for an album. Given that the files are of good quality (~320 Kbps) properly sorted and tagged. Something the pirate sites never do well and when they do they don't forget to include self-advertisement in the tag fields.

Give me websites from where I can legally download my music from and not too a high a price (after all it's about pricing it right) and also have websites like Guruji which can then become a legal music search engine (and also a selling platform). I search for the songs I like on Guruji (and also preview them) and add them to my cart on Guruji (that saves me the hassle of going to the T-Series website for one song and then to Saregama for another). I make my payment on Guruji.com and download the songs from there itself. Guruju.com can be a desi iTunes Store but thoda hatke (How they share the revenue, is their problem).

The truth is that CDs are fast becoming obsolete. MP3 is here to stay, until a newer and better format is widely accepted. Indian music companies have to innovate fast or they would just fade away. And that will be a loss for music, musicians and music lovers.

While some may argue that Guruji is only indexing and displaying relevant results to the user and there is nothing illegal (or unethical) about it. JPK at JudeTheObscure says "It's like arresting L&T executives because people have been transporting hooch over the flyover they built." But here it appears that, they have also built a special carriageway for the exclusive purpose of transporting hooch.

Mouse left click not working? A quick fix solution

Before you proceed further reading this post, please note that this is just a quick fix solution, a jugaad, that will help you tide over a current crisis and shouldn't be treated as a long term permanent solution.

The trigger for this post was a desperate call from a friend who was working on something urgent and her left mouse stopped responding. I assumed that it would be a hardware fault and there wasn't much I could do over the phone about it (the three-tight-slaps formula didn't work).

Since the left button (the most used by right-handed computer users) wouldn't be working, also including instructions (in brackets) on using the keyboard to navigate.

- From the Start menu go to Control Panel (Press the Windows Icon - placed to the left of the Space Bar, then use the Arrow Keys to select Control Panel and press Enter).

- In the Control Panel window click on the Mouse icon (Press the Tab button until one of the icons from the Control Panel contents gets selected. Then use the Arrow buttons to reach/select the Mouse icon and press Enter)

- Under the Buttons Tab (in the Mouse Properties window that opens) check the 'Switch primary and secondary buttons' check box press OK (Use the Arrow buttons to choose between the tabs, and press the Tab button to move within the selected tab. Use Shift+Tab to move in the bottom-up direction. When the 'Switch primary and secondary buttons' is selected. Press the Space Bar, the check box will get checked, and then press Enter)



Now, for the time being, you will be able to continue with your work using the right button of the mouse as the primary button. It might be a bit cumbersome to use, but you'll get used to it in a while.

As for the functions of the right mouse button, you can either use any of the following:

- The Menu button on your keyboard (Usually located to the right of the Space Bar, next to the Alt key).

- Shift+F10 or Ctrl+Shift+F10 (whichever works for you).

The instructions/examples refer to Windows XP. The process should be similar in other Windows versions - Vista, Windows 7

When the Indian Air Force bombed Aizawl

In the aftermath of the massacre of 76 security personnel by the Naxals in Chhattisgarh, a debate is on regarding the use of air power against the leftist militants.

While the government might still be contemplating about initiating such action, it wouldn't be unprecedented for India.

[I had, almost five years ago, posted a post on this blog, but am not able to locate it now. Thankfully, found it in the email inbox. Reposting.]

It is a little known fact but perhaps the only instance in history where a country conducted an air raid on its own territory, against its citizens. On March 5-6, 1966 the Indian Air Force carried out air raids on the town Aizawl, in Mizoram, to soften the situation, so that the Indian military can recapture the town.

This dark chapter of Indian anti-insurgency history remains shrouded in the classified files. Very few people have spoken about it.

Gen. (Retd.) DK Palit states "… 5th March was the crucial day. At last, at 1130hrs came the air strike, IAF fighters strafing hostile positions all around the battalion area. The strafing was repeated in the afternoon… (6th March)… There was another air strike that day and that put paid to the investment. The hostiles melted away."

[Gen. (Retd) DK Palit, Sentinels of the North East: The Assam Rifles, p. 264.]

Shobhit (in a comment to this post) asked for a more information on the incident. Here it is:

In 1958 there was a famine (locally called Mautam - meaning bamboo death in Mizo) in the Lushai Hills area of Assam (now Mizoram). Disillusioned with the lack of administrative aid during the famine, the Mizo National Famine Front (MNFF) was formed.

The MNFF in 1961 changed its name to Mizo National Front (MNF), an armed political organisation. The MNF waged a secessionist movement against the Indian state. In early 1966 parts of Lushai Hills including the district headquarters, Aizawl, slipped out of the administration's hands into MNF control.

The Indian government, in an attempt to regain control over the rebel occupied regions, called in Air Force fighter planes from the Tezpur air base. The town of Aizawl and Tualbung and Hnahlan villages were bombarded.

The administration also moved out people from villages in the hills and resettled them in regrouped villages along the highways as a counter insurgency measure.

Though the government was successful in regaining control over Aizawl town, the insurgency continued for 20 years and ended with the signing of the Mizoram Accord between the Government of India and the MNF in 1986.

Pu Laldenga, the founder of the MNF, was sworn in as the Chief Minister of the newly crafted state of Mizoram in 1986.

Toffees for change? Take this sandal instead

My wife, Varsha, gets peeved whenever the attendant at the cash counter offers toffees instead of change. She refuses to accept the toffee-currency and has even offered to pay them back in toffees. But Nana Patekar in the forthcoming release Tum Milo To Sahi does better, he offers a sandal.



I strongly support my wife (and Nana Patekar) in her endeavour against this illegal tender. The reasons:

- Neither the Parliament of India nor the Reserve Bank of India have designated toffees (of any denomination) as legal tender, therefore we are not legally bound to accept it and it is within our rights to reject any such form of pseudo-currency.

- The cost price of the toffee for the retailer is lesser than the MRP. Therefore, it means that everytime a shopkeeper hands us a Re 1 toffee, he stands to make a profit of around 20 paise (or whatever the margin is). Therefore it is in their interest to insist on toffees instead of change.

- For those who don't have much of a liking for toffees (or the brand of toffees that they offer) it is a lose-lose scenario.

- It is quite unlikely that the supermarket/shop would accept a payment made in toffees (or a sandal in Nana's case). If no take, then why give?

I agree that could be a genuine shortage of coins in the market, given that so many of them end up stored for years in piggy banks.

Well, here is a business idea, for anyone interested:

A virtual piggy bank. You go to a supermarket make purchases for Rs 99 and pay Rs 100 in cash. As usual, no change. But you don't have to settle for that unwanted toffee. Just take out your virtual piggy bank card and the attendant will swipe it to add the Re 1 to your virtual piggy bank account. So every time there's a shortage of change, the money gets added to your account. And one day when you have accumulated enough balance on your card you can redeem it.

If this doesn't sound very feasible, here's a simpler way out: Use your credit/debit card. But don't take that toffee (unless you want to).

Google Chrome's IPL / Twenty20 Cricket Ad

With the IPL broadcasting (deferred) live on YouTube, the Twenty20 bug also seem to have bitten Google Chrome.

Came across this online ad for Google Chrome:


Fast cricket
in a fast browser.
Get Chrome
by Google

Why I hate the new Tata Sky Plus (Elevator) Ad

I stay on the 12th floor of a 14-storey apartment building. This morning I had to rush to work and was waiting for the elevator and it stopped at every floor before it could reach mine.

No, as in the new Tata Sky Plus (Tata Sky+) ad my wife isn't to blame. In fact I made a premptive purchase of a Tata Sky Plus DVR just before I got married.

And this has been happening quite frequently ever since the ad in question (see below) began airing on TV. I suspect that is either disgruntled women (the IPL season is on) or inspired kids (more likely) pressing all the buttons. Whatever the reason, it's me doing the waiting.

The guys at O&M should think of the consequences when they come up with ideas that give people ideas (they also have wives at home, unless they already have a Tata Sky Plus or multiple TVs)

Tata Sky Plus - Cold War (Elevator / Lift)



My woes apart, the ads are fun. Here a couple more from the Tata Sky Plus 'Cold War' series:

Tata Sky Plus - Cold War (Burnt Toast)



Tata Sky Plus - Cold War (Mixie)

The Chaiwallah's got a Chaiwali

It has been the longest pause on Cutting the Chai since I first began blogging almost five years back. In fact if you look at the archives, February 2010 will be the only month that has gone postless since May 2005. And there were some pretty important reasons behind my absence here (though I had been tweeting a little). I got married.

Yes, the Chaiwallah has finally got a Chaiwali (though she prefers that, at home, I make the tea).

Its been a crazy last few months, juggling between work and arrangements for the wedding, now we are somewhat settling in into the new scheme of things. After a small ceremony here in Delhi (actually Noida) we went to Shillong (my home town) and then back to Delhi and then to Indore (her home town) and didn't even have enough leaves left to plan a honeymoon (I'll have to pay for that).

The wedding went off fine and with family and friends around, it was the best time of our lives (yet). Only I goofed up missing out on inviting some friends (my mother ensured that all relatives were). Apologies buddies.

To make things simpler we opted for a marriage according to Arya Samaj rituals but that didn't spare me the ignominy (that Bengali bridegrooms have to suffer) of wearing the tupur, courtesy my sis-in-law (No, I'm not going to post those pictures, atleast not here).

I was also live tweeting from my marriage ceremony. Here's what my Twitter feed read that night:

About to tie the knot in some time from now.
12:10 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

Wedding photographers can be real pests, but then that's their job.
12:11 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

Olive Garden in Noida Sector 52 is a nice place indeed.
12:13 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

@thecomicproject Oh yes!
12:17 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

@akgoyal She will, if she realises what I'm doing.
12:20 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

Damn feeling sleepy already.
12:21 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

The dulha always ends up hungry... for food.
12:23 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

And kids have the most fun at weddings.
12:25 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

Distant relatives getting the day's update over the phone.
12:26 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

Cousins think that we are SMSing each other, while I'm just twittering.
12:27 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

Now my neice's daiper needs to be changed.
12:32 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

Everyone in splits over a funny ringtone.
12:32 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

Round of jokes to keep everyone awake.
12:35 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

From suit changed to dhoti kurta and bhabi insisting that I wear the tupur (the joker-like cap)
12:38 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

Waiting for the bride... girls just can't be on time even for their own wedding.
1:20 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

The problem of being the groom is that you can't slip inside the quilt.
1:23 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

@Thecomicproject I waited for 8 years for this day... so impatience does creep in. Minutes become longer.
1:25 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

Even the bored panditji is giving Bhagwat Gita sermons to the photographer and the videographer.
1:26 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

And kids will cry and one will copy the other leading to a wail fest.
1:28 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

Coffee!
1:29 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

Finally the bride is here. Shouldn't be tweeting during the ceremony.
1:32 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

Just married!
3:22 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

The combination of Vedic shlokas and snores was pure spiritual sloth.
3:50 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

Now for the bidai and the accompanying tears.
3:51 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

Intense discussion on about my brother's ability to sleep with his eyes and mouth open.
3:53 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

Now I can even think of venturing into the wedding planning business.
3:58 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

Also got to update my Facebook profile...okay that can wait for a few hours more.
4:00 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

The Chaiwallah's now got a Chaiwalli.
4:02 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

The day after. Everyone's still blissfully asleep.
9:42 AM Feb 5th via mobile web

And here's me tweeting away:



Me with the generation next:



The Chaiwallah with the Chaiwali at Shillong View Point, close to Shillong Peak - the highest point in Meghalaya.



Chaiwallahs can be warriors to. In a traditional Khasi attire (they gave me a wodden sword, so that I don't cause too much damage in my excitement).



But being married shouldn't change my blogging habits (atleast I would like to think so).

On a personal end life's changed and now expecting that to happen in the professional sphere too. Will keep posted.

The title of the post is inspired from a congratulations tweet from Dhiraj Ramakrishnan (@stupendousman78)

"congratulations on the chaiwaali may be you need to start planning for the chotus"

The Chotus (or the Chotis) will have to wait, a little.

Cutting the Chai Calendar 2010

It's that time of the year again. The beginning. And there are a lot of dates that we'd come across as we proceed further.

To make your year a little simpler, quite like the previous three, here's Cutting the Chai Calendar 2010 in its fourth edition).

This one-page printable calendar (A4 size) in three different formats (PDF, JPG and GIF) comes with Indian holidays and festivals.

Download single-page A4 printable 2010 calendar

PDF [986 KB]
JPG [710 KB]
GIF [337 KB]

And don't expect any babes in itsy-bitsy bikinis. Sorry to disappoint.

List of Indian Holidays and Festivals 2010
(Government of India's official list)



Hope you have a wonderful 2010.