GenX works & plays all night

Late to bed and early to rise is leaving schoolchildren in the city
unhealthy, inattentive and anything but wise.

"Nothing registers in my brain during the first three classes of the
day. I long to get back home and catch up on sleep for at least an
hour," admits Class XII student Taran Veer Singh, who stays awake till
well after midnight and wakes up to the alarm ringing at 6 in the
morning.

Sleep deprivation in children takes its toll in the form of lapses in
concentration, absenteeism in school and health problems ranging from
fatigue and indigestion to migraine and ulcers.

"My son feels lethargic all the time and needs regular medication for
indigestion," says Manmeet Kaur, the mother of a Class XII student who
studies till late every night.

Not every child sacrifices sleep for study, though.

"The nocturnal life of a student from Class VIII upwards is as much
about social networking over the phone or on the Net as about studies.
Those hours of privacy seem to matter to them more than sleep," says a
researcher studying student behaviour.

The parents of a Class VIII student of a reputable south Calcutta
school are spending lakhs to transfer their daughter to a strict
boarding school in Bangalore so that she is cured of her habit of
staying up all night to speak to friends over the phone or chat
online.

Meghna Mukherjee (name changed), a Class IX student, admits to feeling
"drowsy" in class but won't change her habit of staying up late
because that would mean sacrificing her nocturnal networking time.
"Night (call) rates are cheaper," giggles Meghna.

Nupur Ghosh, the mother of a Class X student at St Xavier's Collegiate
School, is worried that her son texts his friends even when he is
studying. "I can't even scold him. Lack of sleep has made him prone to
temper tantrums."

When schools report a drop in academic performance in children, the
culprit often turns out to be sleep deprivation. "I have seen children
dozing off while writing an exam. No matter how good a child is in
studies, performance suffers if he or she doesn't get enough sleep,"
explains Apeejay School principal Rita Chatterjee.

Nandita Pal Choudhury, whose daughters are in classes X and XII at La
Martiniere for Girls, tries to dissuade both from studying late into
the night but they don't listen. "On several occasions, my daughters
have come back from an exam upset that they couldn't recall everything
they had learnt," says Nandita.

Some schools have begun counselling students about the advantages of
following a healthy routine. "We have also been discussing possible
remedial measures at parent-teacher meetings. We suggest that parents
don't allow their children to use cellphones or computers after 11pm,"
says Fr Siby Joseph, the principal of Don Bosco School, Park Circus.

Communication between parents and children is the key to understanding
and solving sleep problems, stresses Malini Bhagat, the principal of
Mahadevi Birla Girls' Higher Secondary School. "Students pass out in
class for lack of sleep. It's that serious."

Doctors recommend eight to nine hours of sleep for children.
"Compromising on sleep leads to inconsistent performance, behavioural
disorders and also delayed response. In the long run, the heart
becomes weak," warns Apurba Ghosh, the director of the Institute of
Child Health.

Like One Of Us. Or Like None Other ?

Chetan Bhagat is like one of us. He completed his engineering from IIT
Delhi and MBA from IIM – A and then worked in Deutsche Bank for eleven
years before delving into writing (Now there are so many of us who
maybe having the same educational qualifications as well as dreams of
working in the top banks and other companies of the world). But
somewhere down the line he realised that this was not giving him the
creative satisfaction he so badly wanted and becoming more of a dull
and dreary job.

His first book "Five Point Someone – What not to do at IIT" was
rejected by nine publishers. As he once said at an orientation program
for MBA students at Symbiosis, Pune, this incident made him so
disappointed that he was ready to quit once and for all. But he
refused to buckle down. This simple story of three friends – Hari,
Ryan and Alok and their years in IIT Delhi and how they cope with the
pressures of studies, family pressure and love and friendship made the
nation read like never before (Probably at par with the Harry Potter
series). It catapulted him to instant stardom. This book was followed
by One Night @ the Call Center, Three Mistakes of my Life and 2 States
– The Story of my marriage.

The best thing about his books is the fact that all his characters are
ones which today's generation can associate with – whether its Hari in
Five point someone, Vroom in One night at the Call center or Krish and
Ananya in 2 States – The story of my marriage. Critics have always
lambasted him for "n" number of reasons like having no literary value
in his works, his characters being one dimensional and similar in all
his books as well as ridiculous things like encouraging sex before
marriage. CRITICS BE DAMNED!!!!. Personally I think all these critics
like crap stuff which the general public normally hates. They pass
such comments because none of them have it in them to even write few
lines of a novel.

Bhagat has never advocated the fact that he meant to be a literary
genius. His main aim was, has and I am sure will always be to
entertain all audiences alike. I feel that his greatest success lies
in the simplicity of all his characters though I think "Three Mistakes
of My Life" was much more serious than any of his works which is why
he recently said that after this book he was feeling very heavy and
wanted to get back to something "light-hearted" as that has always
been his forte. As far as promoting sex in his books is concerned, one
thing I would like to point out to the critics is that today's
generations isn't that dumb. They are exposed to Television, print
media (Newspapers, magazines etc) as well as Internet which are much
bigger promoters of sex and nudity than a plain simple novel. Don't
the novels of Sidney Sheldon, Nicholas Sparks and who all have a bit
of sex in them? This is what we call hypocrisy wherein such self –
proclaimed moralists of our country would be watching porn, nudity and
sex but would surely comment on others because they can't bear to see
their success.

Bhagat has become much more than a writer today. He's evolved into a
youth icon having been conferred the Society Young Achiever's Award –
2004 as well as the Publisher's Recognition Award 2005 and also been
called to present speeches at the HT Leadership Summit as well as
Symbiosis, Pune. His articles on politics, economics, social and a
host of other issues in Dainik Bhaskar, Times of India and Hindustan
Times which have created a flutter even in the Parliament also have a
dedicated base of followers.

I would like to end by quoting few lines from his speech at the HT
Leadership Summit in 2008

"I am no leader. At best, I am a dreamer with perseverance to make
dreams come true. As I have made my own dreams come true already, I am
tempted to think we can make my country's dreams come true. And that
is why I am here."

So guys what are you waiting for?? Chetan Bhagat has shown us that all
of us are capable of achieving what he has achieved. All we need is
the perseverance to make our dreams come true!!!

3 IDIOTS

OFFICIAL 3 IDIOTS TRAILER IS OUT : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRyQTiE7LJk 

did you notice: 3 I d I o T s has IIT in it? :) 

It’s the market, Idiot!

It's the market, Idiot!

Aamir Khan is ready to rev up the promotions for his new film 3 Idiots
-- and his marketing skills can match the best in the industry, says S.
Ramachandran
If it"s December, it"s got to be Aamir Khan. The Christmas season is
fast approaching, and the actor is revving up for the promotion of his
new film 3 Idiots. Of late, the last month of the year, particularly
the last week, has become an "Aamir Khan special" in Bollywood. In
2007, he released his directorial debutTaare Zameen Par around
Christmas to a very warm response. In 2008, he repeated the feat with
the blockbuster Ghajini.
So in 2009, the actor is looking forward to a good year-end -- and
doing all that he can do right now to ensure that the film gathers
eyeballs.
His clever promotional strategies for TZP and Ghajinidemonstrated that
Shah Rukh is not the only marketing king in the industry. Aamir Khan --
who thought of innovative ways to promote his earlier films -- has now
stepped out of his den to endorse 3 Idiots, which is slated to roll
out by the end of December.
Khan plays an IIT student in Rajkumar Hirani"s film, which is said to
be loosely based on Chetan Bhagat"s bestseller Five Point Someone.
Kareena Kapoor will be seen opposite Khan for the very first time in
the film, which also stars two of his co-stars from Rang De Basanti --
R. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi.
To catch the attention of the target audience, Khan is interacting
with college students in a film promotional spree. The actor, who
recently got back to India after holidaying in France, attends a
college function in Mumbai where he is the guest of honour. The talk
is all about schools and colleges, but the film crops up -- cleverly --
every now and then.
"I really miss going to college. Actually, I was never "in" college,"
he says. "As a student I used to be mostly out of college as my heart
was in cinema. So in the two years of my college, in the 11th and the
12th, I was mostly in the theatre, working with students of cinema,
going to FTII (the Film and Television Institute of India)."
By the time he was 18, he had started working as an assistant
director. Classes, by then, had been quietly buried. "So I miss those
college years when I see you all having a great time, with so much
excitement and positive energy," the actor says.
The reference to 3 Idiots is subtle. Khan adds that he did get a
chance to re-live his student days when he shot for Hirani"s film at
the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Bangalore a few months
ago. "Since I was actually staying there in IIM, I had a good time
being with the students," he says, speaking at length about the right
kind of education and how it could bring about a change in society.
Khan, clearly, knows his marketing onions. Keeping the larger canvas
of TZP in mind -- the film was about a dyslexic child -- Khan had tried
to draw in kids with a painting competition for children. He had also
made an appearance on the Zee TV show Sa Re Ga Ma Lil Champs -- a music
contest for kids. But when it came to Ghajini, the reclusive actor
went all out to market his film with a flurry of smart campaigns.
Apart from walking the ramp for Van Heusen, the stylists of his film,
just days before the release of Ghajini, he also got the ushers of one
of the multiplex chains that was running Shah Rukh"s film Rab Ne Bana
Di Jodi to adopt his bold Ghajini hairstyle. It led to a bit of
badinage between the two superstars.
"He thinks he can ride off the brand that is Shah Rukh Khan," SRK said
when he heard about the stunt. Aamir responded with a nonchalant,
"Shah Rukh has been speaking about himself for the last 20 years, so
there is nothing new about it", before completing his bullish run to
the box office.
GOING ALL OUT: (Top) A poster of the film 3 Idiots. (Left) The star
gives a hair cut during a promo for Ghajini
If he spent a whole year in the gym to beef himself up to look the
revenge-seeking tycoon in Ghajini, the perfectionist actor did just
the opposite to gain a slim look for 3 Idiots. Not surprisingly, he
looks almost like the students when he mingles with them on college
campuses.
Khan"s played a student in films -- and he has played a teacher. In
TZP, he was a master who helped the troubled boy find his feet. "I
have done a lot of films which have been extremely successful. But I
have to say that the biggest high that I ever got in my career was
when I made TZP. I feel blessed that I got an opportunity to be a part
of a film like this and being part of the process of understanding
each other and trying to remove our differences," he says.
Khan prefers to let his teaching do the talking these days. "What
better contribution can teachers make to a society than helping
another human being and changing his life dramatically in a positive
and better way by making them happy?" he asks.
But Khan doesn"t miss his lighter moments. These days, the word
"idiot" seems to have become almost an integral part of his
vocabulary. He uses the word lavishly in any given conversation,
evoking considerable mirth. When he returned from France, a television
reporter asked him if was interrogated by the airport authorities the
way SRK was in the United States two months ago.
"No one checks me as I am an idiot," Aamir replied jovially. He went
on to add that SRK faced a problem because he was "very intelligent".
The implication, perhaps, was that SRK had marketed his airport
incident as a publicity stunt for his forthcoming film, My Name is
Khan. Aamir Khan, who knows the ways of the market too, is going the
same way. His name, after all, is also Khan.

Happy Diwali

With gleam of Diyas 

And the Echo of the Chants 

May Happiness and Contentment Fill Your life 

Wishing you a very happy and prosperous Diwali!!

Chetan Bhagat at MTV India Studios

http://twitpic.com/kd27c - Here's @chetan_bhagat @MTVindia studios a
while back wit his new book 2 STATES! hilarious stuff catch him on
wassup before the weekend

Google Trends Now Has Hotness

The experimental Google Trends site has added another measurement for
searches, highlighting the hottest trends for site visitors. Google
Trends shows how search terms have been queried over time. It plots
the number of searches on a graph, and can plot multiple search terms
to show how trendy they have been in comparison.
Barry Schwartz spotted something new on Google Trends. His Search
Engine Land post picked up on the new Hot Trends section, recently
added by Google's mad scientists to the service.

"I was told to think of it as Google noticing a "sudden rise" in a
query phrase, that is not in the norm for that query," Barry said in
his post. "The higher the rise, the hotter the query is. Google has a
"hotness level" score for these queries, the hottest is 'volcanic',
followed by 'on fire,' 'spicy,' 'medium' and 'mild.'"

It sounds more like the lineup at Buffalo Wild Wings than a technology
product, and who knows, maybe Google brainstormed this update over
wings and beer. There is more to Hot Trends than just some flavorful
names.

The top ten hot trends appear on the Trends home page. A link to more
hot trends shows the top 100 as currently determined by Google. At
press time, searches related to the final episode of 'The Bachelor'
dominated the top ten.

Links to each hot item lead to a profile for it. The hotness scale
appears there, along with a graph of its search volume, and a note as
to when searches peaked for the term. Related news articles, blog
posts, and web results will appear on the page, though right now only
the blog posts feature seems to be working.

It's fun to look at, and we expect Google to flesh it out more over
time; how about image links for starters?