How Many Words Is a Video Worth!

Video blogging or Vlogging is a new trend and quite rightly everyone is joining the band wagon. I am in no mood to delve into argument if video will one day force written journalism to extinction. Today, I would rather contemplate how much worth would a video be if a picture is worth a thousand words. I would imagine it would be a few millions at the least!

A picture leaves a lot for the viewer to analyze and infer but a personal video usually drives the message straight home. For a fashion blogger, a Vlog would also demonstrate how one could carry the designed dress. That's quite a few steps ahead of just a pretty photograph.

I am neither a popular blogger nor do I have a successful Vlog. But that doesn’t deter me from contributing my 2 cents about excelling in Video blogging.

So this is top list of important (in no particular order) to do aspects for good video blog:

1. Contents - preferably should be scripted and practiced well in advance before delivering. Unless it's an impromptu event.

2. Videography - camera should be in the hands of another person. Alternatively one should use  a selfie stick or a tripod. Facing the camera at the correct angle is desirable.

3. Post Production - The raw video should not be uploaded in any case. Editing to remove noise and blanks are crucial. Another vital advantage of editing are the credits and notes. Remember words will add another 1000.

4. YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion are probably the most popular hosting sites.

My tween-aged daughter has her YouTube Channel. I try to help her with that with setting up the camera and post production. You can check that out here. She loves to unbox various stuff and also introduce places. The one below though is a song she sang.

Siri, Cortana, you and the machine next door

Are you one of those who gets psyched by the dominance of Artificial Intelligence in our lives and scared that they will very soon take over the world? Well this is entirely possible and in this post I am going to show you how it could happen. But ever wondered the voice behind Siri and Cortana are of real persons of flesh and blood? I will introduce them to you towards the end of this article. If you are women, then you more susceptible to voice theft. It has been scientifically proven that people are more likely to take instruction from a female voice and it might start from birth.

We have been obeying machines voice instructions through answering machines, telephones, banking systems, ATM machines etc. It has been one way communications as we were always in the “listening end”.  But then came Siri along and usehered in yet another Apple initiated makeover to our world. At the beginning, both Google and Microsoft ridiculed Apple’s idea of voice assistant but both companies quickly dropped their objections and copied Apple. The rest is history as they say!

Artificial Intelligence and machine learning is increasingly becoming the backbone of everything from self-driving car to virtual assistants. Recently Google’s Sundar Pichai had demonstrated how google assistant could fix a saloon’s appointment or secure a restaurant reservation. If you have read Dan Brown’s latest book, “The Origin”, then you have already met Winston and experienced his prowess.

Susan Bennett has been talking for the machines for decades. She has spoken for ATM machines, airlines, movies and list will go on. In this interview she explains how she has recorded for 4 hours for a period of a month without having any clue that she would end up becoming the voice for Siri. Jennifer Lee Taylor, an American voice actress has given her voice to Microsoft’s Cortana. Similar to Susan, Jen too recorded short sentences over a period of time. Now the machines synthesizes those short sentences to form their answers for whatever questions that we might ask.

One day in the near future, a rogue machine would coerce you to lend your voice. Then synthesize that to form sentences of its own to take over your family, your friends and finally your life. Someone might be already recording your telephone conversations secretly for that very purpose.

As The Day Dawns

The sun rises every morning oblivious of billion worries of the people awaiting it. No matter how much people request him to come early or late, he remains unperturbed. He has a job to do and that is all that matters to him! I personally requested a late start during school exams or college submissions and am quite sure that many others have wished for the night to be a bit longer for a variety of reasons.

Every night we sleep hoping that tomorrow’s Sun rays at the dawn will usher in a new day filled with opportunities and possibilities. This hope or faith keeps us going. But the dilemma here is do I sleep late or wake up early. A more important decision for to make is when to sleep late and when to get up early. A thought I had shared earlier.

The place where I live and work is amidst a high density residential tower block punctuated with roads and parking lots. The windows are thickly draped to keep the dust and heat off and therefore we are detached from the nature and dependent on the beep of the alarms.

But when we are in Kolkata, it’s a completely different world. The banyan tree by the bedroom window is a habitat for a variety of avian species. With the first ray of the dawn they start chirping and one wonders what they might be discussing before starting their day.  Although crows dominates, we get a lot of other visitors throughout the morning.

I keep my camera handy with the hope to capture a decent image but I have learnt the hard way that it’s not easy to frame one of those extremely fidgety individuals. Perhaps the equipment that I own is not up to the mark. Undeterred by the failures, I keep attempting for the best shot, motivated by their beauty. Amazed by how bright and shiny are their feathers, I wonder if I would ever be able to paint one of them. It will probably take more than a lifetime to mix such colors in a palate.

Unfortunately as the Sun gets brighter, the roaring and rumbling of the vehicular traffic with frequent honking gets louder.…..and the human beings takes over the world.

‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’ 

WOW

Happy Friendship Day

Someone might ask what's special about today! Isn't it just a date in the calendar and another ploy by the capitalistic world to sell products or services?  I find this as an opportunity to reach out to all my friends. The ones always in my thoughts, the ones I meet regularly, the ones I would like to meet in the future and the ones I know I will never meet in this world.Today as the line between virtual and real is getting increasingly blurred, I also reach out to my friends in the cyber world ... my blogger friends, my social media friends and corporate friends...

Happy Friendship Day 2018!

If you had a choice, what would you dream about tonight?

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The other night I woke up in my dreams to find out that I was not actually asleep but wide awake. Although quite baffling, it is not very uncommon and probably many among us have encountered similar moments at some point in our sleep. Dreams are yet another aspect of our life, over which we have little control. We can accomplish many feats in our dreams which would otherwise appear unthinkable. “Dreams come true” is therefore synonymous to accomplishing something truly marvelous.

All ancient culture tried to make sense of their dreams and their interpretation have been carried forward by their descendants. Depending upon happy or sad events that followed a particular dream, cultures created their own almanac of superstitions. We too have grown up drawing various inferences out of elements such as water, food, snakes, elephants etc. and associated action that appeared in our dreams.

Our ancestors connected dreams to our previous birth, forewarning or as a communication medium with the dead. When someone had a bad dream they interpreted it was the handiwork of demons.

A nice happy accomplishing dream makes the day and a fabulous one could keep us dreamy for few days at a time. Who would not like to have a good dream? This craving for soothing dreams created the “dreamcatchers”.

Native American tribes traditionally used “dreamcatchers” as talismans to protect sleeping people, usually children, from bad dreams. The night air, they thought were filled with both good as well as bad dreams. Hanging a “dream catcher” above the bed, they believed would ensure only good dreams came along. 

These are handmade crafts made with a round hoop woven with a loose web of yarn and decorated with beads and feathers hanging below the hoop.

A tribute on Father's Day

When we were small we believed that our father will protect us whenever we though we will fall. For us he was not only our superman but a super human. Its only after one becomes a father himself, that he understand a father's true vulnerability, weakness and his limitations. You realize the sacrifices he had to make while walking a tight rope as he struggled to maintain the balance between relationship, finances, priorities of life, time management et al.

I remember the look my then infant daughter gave me when she was vaccinated for the first time. As if her eyes were questioning me, how could you ever let them hurt me!

When I look back at those wonder years, I understand my dad a bit more each time. But its too late as he left us for the heavenly abode as soon as I graduated and started with my job denying me the opportunity to give back anything. I wish he was still there and I could treat him, take care of him and hug him!

Happy Father's Day wishes to one and all.

Quick Facts: Father's day is celebrated on the 3rd Sunday of June every year while Mother's day is celebrated on the 3rd Sunday of May.

Baobab - A fascinating Species

The name was not very common to my ears neither was its look to my eyes. Ever since I saw them at the Aspire Park in Doha, I might has asked my Landscape Architect friend umpteen number of times to remind me of the name of this tree. He used to give me the name with the questions, “why, what happened?” I always wanted to know more about them.

I am told that we have a few of the species in some botanical gardens in India but incidentally never got to see one. “There are nine species of baobab in the world, and Madagascar, one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, is home to six. The African mainland and the Arabian peninsula have two, and Australia has one. Africa’s most notable species is the Adansonia digitata, named after the French botanist Michel Adanson, who undertook an 18th-century exploration of Senegal. He stayed there for five years and contributed to the publication of 1757’s Natural History of Senegal.” theguardian.com)

The shape of the trees are fascinating but the most fascinating fact is that there are individual Baobab trees alive on the planet earth for the last 3000 years. Yes you have counted the zeros alright, its three thousands!

Isn’t it amazing for somebody to stand the sand of time and witness the continued changes happening over the millenniums? But they are not able to withstand our atrocities any longer. 

A recent article made the shocking disclosure that as many as 9 of these individuals aged between 1100 and 2500 years are dying off. Unfortunately our way of polluting environment and encroaching forest lands is killing them. Victims of Climate Change! The Guardian reported “The oldest tree by far, of which all the stems collapsed in 2010/11, was the Panke tree in Zimbabwe, estimated to have existed for 2,500 years. The biggest, dubbed Holboom, was from Namibia. It stood 30.2 metres (99 feet) tall and had a girth of 35.1 m.” (theguardian.com)

Do you not feel that it's about time that we change our way of life and give others a chance? 

Live and Let Live!