MTV – master at plagiarizing, 2010

Posted on August 22, 2010 by Paavani

Is it a matter of pride or a case of plagiarism – this was exact thought that came to my mind when on 18th august morning I saw my ‘Independent India’ image in MTV’s latest National Anthem video on Television.

Original MTV -jana gana mana video -

After photo plagiarism case MTV India deleted previous videos, edited & uploaded new video http://www.mtvindia.com/newsense You can easily see the difference- so many images including mine was stolen by MTV.

I tweeted to MTV India and @MTVindia replied saying they are asking their production team & till then I stay a happy bunny!

STRANGE, I never got a response back after that. Instead, they deleted the tweet response, videos from MTV India website and their your tube links etc within in an hour. And 3 days later, I now see a new video, which does not have many images (including mine, which means other photos were also picked up without permission) – and the same video is on the Television and the Internet.

I kept writing to MTV on twitter and also I wrote an email to Viacom 18 COO, Rajesh Kamat  (Viacom 18 channels are Colors, MTV etc). But I didn’t get any reply.

People at Twitter / Facebook started suggesting me to send a legal letter to MTV for the same or talk to someone from media but when I tried contacting media like IBN (which is part of network 18), I didn’t get a reply.

The only option in front of me seems to be taking a legal route. In a country like ours, it is however a lengthy method to ask for credit and compensation by going to the court. However, I am tempted to do that not because of the wants for credit but also to spread awareness amongst other people of the illegal and unethical doings of these large companies. This photo steal case is 2nd for me, but there have been umpteen other cases like this which have happened with my photographer friends.

Through this blog, if there is one thing I want to do – it is to spread awareness amongst such media companies and their employees who routinely pick up pictures and content from internet without realizing that not only is it unethical but against the law as well. Perhaps it is their supervisor / seniors who don’t tell them about these basic work ethics!

When MTV India, a youth music channel, picked up my image and few more images to use in the national anthem ‘jana gana mana’ video, they probably searched for ‘india independence day’ or something similar and selected few good images and used in videos for which they spent few thousand dollars. This was all done and televised on TV without realizing that they had done a grave mistake of using images for which they did not have the copyrights.

Another bad ethical practice by MTV was them initially replying to me on twitter without understanding the consequences, where they later deleted video from website and Youtube and also deleted the tweet. They did not do the basic thing that they should have had done at the earliest was to handle this case of plagiarism in a mature way by immediately apologizing. Given what it was used for, I would have given my image for free but what eventually happened gave me a sad impression about MTV and seniors.

For saving few thousand rupees, MTV will carry a stamp of ‘pursuer of plagiarism’. They could have easily handled this more gracefully, but they ended up spoiling it and become the bad icon of the year!

I am hurt not because my ‘ Independent India ’  got stolen by MTV but for the shameful act of they trying to remove the traces of their wrong doings from the Internet. Poor MTV, you just become ‘plagiarizing icon of year, 2010!

Filed under: Blogging, India, Photography | Tagged: , , , , , | 17 Comments »

a monk who sold her camera.

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Paavani

In essence of celebrating World Photography day- 19th august, I would like to share my perception on how monks & photographers are related.

Photography by Paavani, clicked at Bodhgaya, India

Monks are not simple human beings, they wear a peculiar dress and follow a set of rules. Just like photographers, they also observe extra ordinary in ordinary. Monks live an unconditional life and photographers try to give unconditional expressions via visuals. Monks change themselves from the very roots of his being and photographer present the things the way they want. A monk’s quest doesn’t end and a true photographer never gets tired of being hermit and rootless wandering habit to get her subject right. A monk gets peace when with God and a photographer gets solace with her gadgets which isn’t necessarily hi-fi. But just like having proper knowledge will lead a monk to a clearer route to God; proper equipment makes the findings easy for a photographer. But she can even do wonder with a mobile camera, and not necessarily a canon 5D mark II.

And if you have questions regarding what photographers do whole day, just like a monk, a whole day is less to pray (play) with images. So enjoy this photographic journey my dear photographer friends, and wishing lots such photography day (events & exhibitions) in your life.

Ps: it’s a pure religious post. A photographer relation with her camera and her respect hidden in photographs. Thank you.

Filed under: Inspirational, Photography, Thoughts | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

SnapDeal steal.

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Paavani

What would be your expectations when you read a line like ‘innovative marketing solutions’, what image will you create about the CEO and COO who studied from Kellogg school of management and IIT Delhi.
Jasper India venture SnapDeal stole a picture of mine for one of the ongoing deal in June 2010- River rafting in Rishikesh. They might have seen the image on my flickr stream, which also clearly mentioned ‘all rights reserved’. Strange they used my photograph that even has the watermark saying ‘Copyright Paavani Bishnoi’

My image used in june 2010 river rafting deal of SnapDeal

When I chanced upon the website and wrote to their site contact email ID mentioning this, I didn’t hear from them – not even an apology. But very smartly they replaced the picture on the webpage. After writing to them twice, I wrote to the email Id of CEO Kunal Bahl and CEO Rohit Bansal of SnapDeal. But, as expected, they also didn’t bother to respond thinking- piracy is birth right of a digital marketing company. I guess that is how they conduct themselves and run their business and the bargain site.

You never know, the product you are buying on their bargain site is new or bought with proper bills. If that’s their attitude, consumers can never be sure.

My reason to write this blog is to make people aware about a few bad fishes who indulge in the wrong practice of stealing photographs without appropriate permission. We should not stay silently tolerate such behavior and make everyone aware of such un-ethical and illegal acts.

Please spread the word and boycott the site completely – I am deliberately not even linking the site here.

Original ‘kayaking’ image- http://www.flickr.com/photos/paavani/3479451838/in/set-72157600378945270/

SnapDeal-  http://www.twitpic.com/22zj67

Filed under: Photography, Thoughts | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 35 Comments »

Sari, no more for Nari!

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Paavani

Other day I thought of wearing cotton sari to office but someone disowned the idea. And earlier wearing sari for a working lady is elegant and makes her look sober and sexy at same time. But now a day’s woman wears only on occasion. Like when on Diwali time HR set the dress code ‘traditional wear’ or when a girl get married and joined office after a long wedding vacation with chuda  (handful red bangles) and sari. Or only a certain ladies like to wear like Indian Airlines airhostess. Even receptionist doesn’t feel pride in wearing sari and Indian hospitality business also changed dress code from sari to western wear.

So If I want to go office in starched cotton sari with sleeveless blouse I be prepared I’m not going to work whole day in normal way. Colleagues will ask- any special occasion, during lunchtime everyone in canteen area will give you a look.

So wearing sari for no reason for a corporate girl is NO unless you wear sari to office on a regular basis else you just can’t wear.

What could be the reason for decaying of such a nice traditional wear :-

- It is difficult to wear and manage. Most of the girls don’t know how to wear sari.

- Maintenance is time consuming. Imagine ironing and folding a nine-meter long sari.

-  Gone are days when sari used to be affordable. Now it cost a lot. And we want branded sari too, like, is it from Nalli!

- Changed lifestyles. Earlier we used to carry handbag. Now we have mobile, laptop and above all managing a dress! Too much!

- Western style toilet! Yes, that’s also a problem.

- Accessories. With sari you need matching jewelry and bangles while with trouser & shirt it’s not so important to have accessories.

- Outdated tag! If you wear sari on regular basis than you will be tagged behin ji type! But if you wear occasionally, you will be loaded with compliments!

Above image showing how to drape sari. Image source: Internet.

Ahh, such a classy Indian dress now a days hardly make any sense; so why to wear.

Filed under: Diary, Lifestyle | Tagged: , , , , , , | 11 Comments »

Aerobics vs Yoga

Posted on May 27, 2010 by Paavani

Me! Writing a blog post on exercise is really an exercise for my mind! Well, I never exercised in past years apart from school days where P.T. was compulsory. I was so petite that I was under the impression; exercise is for those who want to loose weight. How wrong!

Our own lifestyles teach us lessons and me, the olive (remember Popeye the Sailor cartoon) kind of looking started gaining weight due to sitting in front of computer all the time. Long hours in cab – office & computer- food- Long hours in cab- food- computer- sleep. Where is walk when you talk? And see, I gained weight! In past 2-3 years I am no more same as I was in college. Now the same people, who used to tell me to eat, started asking me to loose weight!

So I joined Yoga class few months back. Yoga is a trend globally from some time. In foreign people pay huge amount to learn yoga and in our country Baba Ramdev is spreading the ‘yog rog’.

Yoga has different asanas, meditation and slow movements. You feel the pain in initial days and gradually you become flexible and learn to hold for longer period. As yoga is relaxing and slow, you feel relaxed and calmer after it. Yoga interests every age group- from young soul to souls going to heaven soon.
BUT
Aerobics! It’s fast (of course fun too) there is music and variations are many and you can do floor aerobics or step aerobics- many types. But yoga also many types like bikram yoga or circus yoga. But there is lots of cardio work, fat burning and muscle definition where as in yoga you are under control of body & mind and soul. And mostly young and middle age group people do aerobics.

So after doing yoga for 3+ months I switched to aerobics as I was looking for a morning class in my premises and I find the class very professional, strict trainer and fun filled. BUT legs are hurting like hell and the day you work with dumbbells, your every part is going to ache! After that I can only say, yoga is easy and aerobics is crazy. Yoga is relaxing, aerobics is taxing!
Let’s see, will I continue my fitness gaga or sleep & laziness will take over the saga!

Image Source: MSU.edu and fitnesscafe.

Filed under: Diary, India, Lifestyle | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Go Goa.

Posted on April 23, 2010 by Paavani

Goa is a favorite tourist destination. But somehow I was not in favor of visiting Goa because I thought it would be crowded or beaches would not be clean. But when I went there, such doubts were clear. I would have made a mistake, if I didn’t come to Goa.

Goa for sure a fun place, as soon you land there you know you are going to have fun. Either you are looking for complete relaxing holiday or some water adventure based package fun & food would be there by default.

 

We stayed in South Goa and rented a cool bike. Tip 1- if in Goa, better have own vehicle else you would be paying a lot to rude auto rickshaw guys or expensive taxis. Anyway bikes/ scooters are cheap to hire.

 

Travelling on bike from south to north goa in itself was a fun filled ride. Narrow but traffic free, clean country roads for sure ignite the lost youth passion of riding a bike with glares on and bandana on head. Tip 2- before getting out from hotel room- put enough of sunscreen. Anyway, you are going to get tanned.

About water sports- You can do from water scooter to parasailing to going on boat to see dolphins or if dare than go for a scuba drive when in Goa. There are enough activities to keep you busy for a day that you would not mind warm sun rays on beach. Tip 3- being little apprehensive about water is normal. Once you are in water with your life jacket on, you will only flow and fear will go away slowly :)

 

If in Goa, and not going for a mid night walk on beach than there is something missing in your romance life. And ya, don’t be ‘kanjoos’ to have a nice candle light dinner. Also don’t mind having sea food in beach shacks too. Tip 4- forget about diet when in Goa. Just enjoy the food. Dieting can wait.  ;)

 

Goa is also famous for hand painted tiles. I couldn’t do that during my visit to Goa in early march 2010 so whenever I go next, will do. BTW I loved my hotel (Zuri, South Goa) – their staff was very courteous and we even got a surprise cake but best was their own beach, we went their in night time only. Waking up early on a holiday is little tough thing so what I could not click sunrise shots. :-)

Filed under: India, Travelogue | Tagged: , , , , | 6 Comments »

Dubai dreams.

Posted on November 11, 2009 by Paavani

Dubai is a global business hub with 90% expat population, which makes it very unique. Recently I got a chance to visit Dubai. It is one of 7 emirates of UAE. It is a city that has so many things to offer from petroleum to real estate to one of the best malls and sand dunes for adventurous desert safari including harsh sun.

Burj Al Arab- Resembleing a billowing sail, a luxury Hotel, looks great in Dubai skyline.

Dubai to live.

Affording a home in Dubai is not cheap if you are not staying from few years. The rent of homes cost a lot of Dirham (Dubai’s currency). But it has few great residential properties like Dubai marina, which is the second largest man made marina in world. Aspiring to own a villa on Palm Jumeirah is only possible, if you are either born with a silver spoon or are a celebrity.

Cost of living in Dubai is not very high – it is just that water costs more than double of what petrol costs. You can get all the vegetables, fruits as well as Indian brands packaged items. Best is there is no personal income tax in Dubai.

Malls & Souks.

Aquarium at Dubai mall

Skiing at Dubai Mall

Name a brand and you will find it in Dubai. With so many huge malls in every corner, if they really have to stand out, have to offer something different. That’s how Dubai Mall,  world’s largest shopping mall has an under water zoo & Aquarium, ‘Mall of Emirates’ has Skiing, yeah can you believe skiing in such hot weather of Dubai.

one of gold shop in Gold souk area

Souks, which are traditional Arabic markets, are one of the more popular word in the city. Gold souks are more popular due to cheap price and varied options availability, which is why it is also known as the city of Gold. Though, I didn’t find it any less expensive than other places. Other popular souks are Spice souk and textile souk.

Fun

desert safari

If you went there and didn’t go for desert safari, then your visit is not completed. A humpy ride on golden sand dunes while sun is setting followed by Arabic barbeque and belly dancing and smoke flavored sheesha (hubbly-bubbly/water pipe) is just the right way to enjoy the time there.

Tip- don’t opt for over night safari unless in a huge group. We chose that and we were the only person left after meal so we had to come back.

a kid having fun with a belly dancer

Go for a night walk on Jumeirah beach, if you are lucky and all those tall buildings Burj al Arab, Burj Dubai are well lit you can click nice night shots. (I didn’t get any pic, so I was disappointed.)

deira creek area

After having a tough day at Media city; Dhow cruise really came as a relaxing option to spend the evening. Or just watch Hindi cinema in one of the multiplex. Reel cinema in Dubai mall has 22 screens with lots of movie choices. We watched 1st day show of London Dreams there.

 Something more.

You will like the men and women roaming around you in white and black dresses. (Men wears traditional dishdasha / khandura with ghutra and agal and women wear abaya (a long black cloak) with sheyla or hijab (a scarf).

Special parks for ladies are common there, and even in amusement park or Jumeraiah beach you will see a day especially for women and kids or family.

Cars are cheaper compared to India. Toyota is market leader followed by Nissan and Honda. Cabs are quite nice, most are Camry, Innova or Lancer. Before hopping in the city bus, make sure you got pass from some terminal or metro station as most of time bus drivers would not carry tickets/pass.

Now metro service is also started in Dubai, take a ride. In fact I got a better view of city from it.
Do some shopping at Dubai Festival city, can get good deals at IKEA store. Taste some Arabic sweets too; I liked it a lot. Most important, don’t forget to have as many dates as possible. ;)

Can find more Dubai’s shots here.

Filed under: Diary, Lifestyle, Travelogue | Tagged: , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

Why say NO to crackers!

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Paavani
Festivals like Diwali has own uniqueness- “it’s a festival of lights” apart from mythological stories, God’s worship, sweets and gifts what we look forward is crackers! As a kid, I used to love bursting crackers. Fine, I was bit afraid and used to be away from bomb, rocket but it was fun. But when I see, today’s kids, all they get from school “say no to crackers”, Government making appeal “lets have a peaceful diwali” and parents saying “crackers are expensive”.

But my question is, why a small kid is stopped to have fun, why s/he is forced to all good deeds, when we as a grown up are still doing what is not good, like not believing in Car pool when going office as we have own ego problem with a colleague. When we don’t have patience and keep doing continuous honking, and when we emit lots of pollution by keeping engine ON on a red light and when we don’t obey order of not smoking in public areas – I wonder! Why a kid is getting mentally prepared that bursting cracker is not a good thing. Why we grown up learn good things first before preaching!

why Say NO to crackers?

I am not favoring that crackers are good for health or something. All I want is a little bit of fun, which is fine under a secure guidance. I have found today’s kid don’t even know how to light up gas. They never open match box. But if they play, they will learn how to deal with material safely. Watch them, teach them, just like when you were bursting crackers, your elder brother, uncle and dad guided you. Of course do not give them bomb or something to play but let them see the spectacular view of cracker bursting high and opening into an umbrella of colorful embers or lighting their name in air with a sparkler.

I did a small survey of 25-35 yrs old and found most of them enjoyed crackers- Chakri (ground wheel), Anaar (flower pots), Phooljhari (sparklers), fire pencil, rocket, toy train and bomb etc. But over time they got so busy with higher studies, settling in career that they left that sparkling time in their childhood memories but what about today’s kid , are they suppose to just content with ’made in china’ wires of glowing and dimming lights on their balconies railing? On the name of ‘festival of light’ are they suppose to buy gifts with neon glowing lights or buying them a new PSP game will add extra sparkle and noise?

Fine, there should not be rocket flying in high rise buildings, there should not be crackers bursting in small balcony of 9th floor and no crackers 11 pm onwards but little bit of fun with those colorful sparklers and seeing the sparkling eyes of kid will not make any harm to earth. You can always remorse by planting two trees in your neighborhood or gifting a tulsi plant on this Deepawali. Let’s have a sparkling Diwali!

Filed under: Festival | Tagged: , , , , , | 3 Comments »

No follower on TWITTER.

Posted on July 30, 2009 by Paavani

When I heard about twitter almost 2 years back, I was not sure will I use it. But yes, I created an account as it seemed different, not like an SMS sending service. I become active in tweeting from end of 2008. In this tweeting journey, I made many tweeple friends and I met few either in some conference or in meet.

Journey so far was going quite tweetful. I was following around 150 people- from designers, photographers, bloggers to social media enthusiasts. Almost 760 followers I had till 28th july 09 which included some very great & genuine persons from celebrities to ad world guru to photographer, researcher and many more.

But, one bug which Twitter had eaten by mistake and made my account go crazy. I lost all my followers (except few spammers) and no timeline updates for me. Yes, my timeline is frozen and I can not see any updates. Even if I follow back people my following count stay zero! I can only see, if someone specially write a @paavani tweet.

twitter_fail- bird

 

It is frustrating that twitter has not fixed the problem though many people are facing the same. There is no customer support. See this twitter support page on following list vanished and timeline frozen.

Now when twitter is getting popular and everyone started tweeting, facing such a problem and loosing data is big nonsense. Twitter will loose the trust, if it keep surprising their tweeple with such mis-hap. One side twitter is coming up with business  strategies and other side when they launch a new home page this is what bugs come up!

 twitter_fail_whale

If you don’t know what TWITTER is-: it’s like writing SMS- 140 characters is a tweet limit. One can follow certain people and check their updates in own timeline. One can send and receive message on mobile phone too. Read some good stories about twitter.

Anyway, I am damn annoyed with Twitter. It is acting like a cheap, buggy web application site.

Updates: as of now, my twitter account @paavani is back to normal. Some twitter correction means Spam/ Bots cleaning is happening which will reduce the followers count by some percentage. But that’s fine! I can see time updates :)

Updates: as of now, my twitter account @paavani is back to normal. Some ‘twitter correction’ means Spam/ Bots cleaning is happening which will reduce the followers count by some percentage. But that’s fine! I can see timeline updates :)

Filed under: Blogging, Current | 17 Comments »

Are colors important in Mobile Phones!

Posted on June 23, 2009 by Paavani

Few days back I got a chance to meet Axel Meyer, Head of Nokia N-Series Design. He was in town to talk about latest Nokia’s N97. There were lots of questions about operating system, camera, battery, storage and touch screen.

Axel MeyerLots of comparison with phones available / or releasing soon in same segment also happened, like HTC Magic, Palm Pre, Toshiba TG01 and  Apple iPhone 3G S.

Form and design of all these mobile handset looks similar- thinner and rounded corner. But N97 has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Talking about QWERTY, people aren’t excited about the shorter spacebar and awkward placement. With huge storage capacity 32 + plus 16GB microSD, it could lead the pack but operating system choice make it less attractive to geeky guys. People were looking forward for LINUX based web OS.

Though N97 got both touch (resistive) + QWERTY, it is way behind iPhone which has capacitive multi-touch screen. In fact, Palm Pre has the best offering – Capacitive multi-touch screen + QWERTY. I also heard people’s opinion on slow response of resistive touch if they have used iPhone or own it. Now coming to the camera, being a DSLR holder, I can never enjoy the camera phone but let’s see what everyone is offering. N97 has 5 MP with Carl Zeiss Tessar f/2.8 optics and dual LED flash but N82 is going to launch with 8MP. Same time Sony’s Satio will have 12.1 megapixel camera with Xenon flash.

He talked a lot about India, culture and designing gadgets keeping in mind their needs. One important question was asked by someone- “What are the most important aspects that you keep in mind while designing a phone” and Axel responded “It’s all about people; always taking into account people’s needs as a driving criteria”. Axel also said, “All Nokia N-series devices are aware of beautiful solutions”.
And when I asked why such a high end gadget fitted with lots of features & user friendly interfaces comes only in Black or white colors, I did not get a proper answer from him.

Why doesn’t smart phones come in user’s choice of colors? Take example of Dell, Sony’s laptops or digital cameras, which offer a choice of colors. Thankfully, Sony is quite a leader in matter of colors, heard Sony Ericsson Satio will come in multiple colors.

I also did a small survey to know people opinion- would they like more color choices when buying high-end mobile? The results were interesting- Black is the most popular choice, closely followed by wine. Other preferable colors are blue & silver.

Nokia N97

Final verdict- I doubt N97 design team did an in-depth research for colors. Like white color for Indian market and climatic condition is not so good. It’s not an appliance like washer, refrigerator that people will buy for neat & hygiene white feel. Form & design need more fresh approach to look different in league. Immediate improvement needed on multi-touch, camera and OS. It is expected to be priced at Rs. 35,000 +, pricey for sure but most phones are in the same bracket.

Filed under: Designing, Gadgets & appliances, Lifestyle, Trends | 4 Comments »

Next Page »