Human Interest

Life Hacks every music lover should try

Music has a special connection with every human being. Music is something that makes our day good or bad. I've seen and observed people getting obsessed, emotional, hyper, cringe, happy and sad by music, IT'S MAGIC! Nonetheless I've seen people having plenty of struggles with it too. 

In today's blog I have 10 best music hacks for all you music lovers and I am sure it will make your life a little more easy.

Listen to music in class by hiding your earbuds in long sleeved shirts.

If you were like me in high school, you couldn't handle school without music to drown out the bullshit. The problem is that teachers confiscate phones and mp3 players, for reasons unbeknownst to anyone with an iota of common sense. 

The best way to sneak your mp3 player or phone in school is to keep it in your pocket. Then, plug your headphones into your phone. Run the headphones underneath your shirt and through the sleeve of your shirt with an earbud or two finally ending at the palm of your hand. 

Then, while the teacher is gabbing away, lean into the palm of your hand and listen. 

Another way to do this would be to sneak the headphones up your shirt, through the neck hole of your top, and to just plug them in. However, that will only work if you have long, bushy hair. 

Get into concerts by offering to work for a shift of the show.

This hack is something I will surely try once my favourite EDM artist is in town. 

Concerts are fun, but they are insanely expensive. Unfortunately, that means that many music lovers find themselves priced out of good shows, or even local shows. 

If you really want to attend concerts on a regular basis, the easiest way to get in (and get close to the bands) is to volunteer as a concert worker or offer to work as a concert promoter. 

Most venues are always on the lookout for people who are willing to promote shows, clean up after the concert's done, or even just help set up sound systems. 

All you have to do in order to get into concerts, therefore, is to reach out to venue staffers and ask for a chance to volunteer as stage crew or as a promoter. You will probably get to hang out backstage, see the concert (in parts, at least), and also get paid. 

Use a cup as a speaker.

Want to listen to music on your phone with friends, but can't make it loud enough to hear? Most people would reach for a speaker, but that's not always the best choice — especially if they're cheap speakers from Five Below.

The better option is to get a large cup, like a Solo cup or a movie theater big gulp cup. Put your phone inside the cup, speaker end towards the bottom.

The shape of the cup amplifies sound waves, and it doesn't cost a penny. This is one of those lifehacks for music lovers on a budget that I have seen my friends doing it, even though I've gotten enough money for a set of decent speakers. 

Keep getting your headphones tangled? Use a hair clip to keep things manageable.

A big issue that many music lovers hate is the issue of getting headphones tangled in everything they own. Assuming you don't have gear that allows you to go the cordless route, this can be a pretty bad problem. 

Tangled headphone wires can actually fray and break, which can cause sound quality issues. You can prevent this by using small hair clips to "tie up" the cords for you. 

If you have a ridiculously long commute or just have a rapidly draining phone battery, get an mp3 player or an ipod

Speaking as someone who has zero patience in constantly recharging my phone, it makes good sense to have an mp3 player, despite how easy it is to just get Spotify on your device. It is just one of best lifehacks for music lovers.

The reason why they're so handy is because they can have way better battery lives than a typical phone, and they also allow you to store a bunch of your favorite songs for times when your phone is too far away from 4G to stream music. 

Yes, they're archaic, but it's a good idea to store music on a separate device. After all, you never know what may happen that could cause your phone to go on the fritz. 

Or, if you have a smartphone you no longer use, turn it into an mp3 player.

Smartphones don't use much electricity if they're not connected to the net or doing tons of texting. Just delete most of the non-music apps, download a bunch of songs to your phone, and enjoy. It is easily one of the best lifehacks for music lovers. 

Use earplugs at clubs and raves.

Of all the lifehacks for music lovers out there, this one might be the lamest one. The fact is that our ears are delicate, and that loud noises can damage our eardrums irreparably. (Most of my friends are going deaf as a result of their concert-going days.)

But, hear me out. This isn't as lame as you think it is. Earplugs actually allow you to hear the music more clearly, without all the undertones of people screaming in the background. So, if you love music and want to experience just the music, a pair of ear plugs will do you good. 

Discover new music through specialized websites...or Soundcloud.

Let's talk about lifehacks for music lovers in search of new bands to adore.

 

I'm a huge Soundcloud fan, because just clicking hashtags will allow you to listen to brand new niche music genres. But, if you're not a niche music lover, then you may need to find some better options out there. 

Thankfully, there are a couple of music sites that were built to help people discover new, similar bands and artists they'd like. All you really have to do is list a couple of the bands you already love, and the site does the rest. 

All of these hacks are legit 'life' hacks and can be tried by any person. 

Punchlead

Did a Muslim woman design Indian National Flag?

It is 71 years since Independence and one controversy that refuses to die down and comes back every year to haunt us - who designed the national flag?

The answer to this question according to Wikipedia is Pinagali Venkayya. But netizens, like many historians, refuse to believe this blindly.

A confusing message doing the rounds on Twitter and other social media platforms states, "Indian national flag was designed by a Muslim woman from Hyderabad called Mrs Suraiya Badruddin Tayyabji."

India Today's Fact Check team tried to trace the legitimacy of this historical fact by clearing the cobwebs of claims and counterclaims.

Origin of our National flag

In 1921, Mahatma Gandhi first proposed a need for a national flag at a meeting of Indian National Congress. It was initially designed by Andhra congressman Pingali Venkayya.

But Gandhiji wanted Venkayya to incorporate a charkha or spinning wheel at its centre. He also expressed his wish that the National flag should be in three colours- red to represent Hindus, green for Muslims and white for other faiths.

According to Ramachandra Guha's write up titled 'Truths About The Tricolour' published in The Hindu on September 26, 2004, In 1931, a flag committee of the Congress made some changes to this tricolour. They replaced red with saffron and changed the order of the colours, as we see it now.

On July 22, 1947, the constituent assembly passed a resolution on the National flag where Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru proposed the flag of the Indian National Congress but instead of the Chakhra or spinning wheel, he proposed the Ashoka Chakra of the Lion emblem.

The Controversy

The resolution in the constituent assembly neither mentioned the name of Pingali Venkayya nor Suraiya Tyabji as designers of the national flag.

Recently, in an article in The Wire, "How the Tricolour and Lion Emblem Really Came to Be", Laila Tyabji, daughter of Suraiya Tyabji, recollected how her father Baddruddin Tyabji - an ICS in the prime minister's office - had under Prime Minister Nehru's instruction set up a Flag Committee headed by Dr Rajendra Prasad.

She also described in detail how her parents came up with the idea of the Ashoka chakra and her mother made a graphic representation of the flag. In the mentioned article, she said, "My father watched that first flag - sewn under my mother's supervision by Edde Tailors & Drapers in Connaught Place - go up over Raisina Hill."

India Today tried to contact Laila Tyabji, but she politely refused to say anything more on the issue.

Who was Suraiya Tyabji?

Suraiya Tyabji, was an artist of repute. She came from a well-known Muslim family in Hyderabad and was known for her unconventional modern outlook.

Her husband, Badruddin Tyabji, later worked as a foreign diplomat. His grandfather, also named Baddruddin Tyabji, was a renowned lawyer and a member of the Indian National Congress.

Historians' view

Did Suraiya Tyabji really design our national flag? According to researchof Flag Foundation of India, an NGO set up by Congress leader and industrialist Naveen Jindal after his landmark victory in Supreme Court over the citizens right to National flag, it was Suraiya Badr-ud-din Tyabji's design of the national flag which was approved by the constituent assembly.

We spoke to Capt. L Panduranga Reddy, a historian from Hyderabad who stirred up the controversy by naming SuraiyaTyabji as the Tricolour's real designer and debunked the name of Pingali Venkayya.

He referred to British Author Trevor Royle's book 'The last days of the Raj' which claimed that "By one of those contradictions which run through India's history, the national flag was designed by a Muslim, Badr-ud-Din Tyabji The flag which flew on Nehru's car that night had been specially made by Tyabji's wife."

Since Captain Reddy could not substantiate his claims with historical documents, we spoke to another eminent historian Syed Irfan Habib.

Professor Habib clearly said, "This is a controversial subject that still remains unresolved. Since there are no solid historical documents available on this, claims and counterclaims keep flying and historians can't say much about this." "But neither can we deny the claims of Pingali Venkayya's family nor of Suraiya Tyabji," he added.

What they found

From the document of Parliamentary archives we found that Suraiya Tyabji's name was indeed present in the list of members of the Flag Presentation Committee who presented the national flag on Aug 14th, 1947. But this document does not answer the moot question, whether she designed the flag or not.

But from spelling to family genealogy - the message going around is social media is full of wrong information and is misleading. Suraiya Tyabji was not an ICS and neither her husband Badruddin Tyabji was the first chief justice of Bombay high court.

Social Media has already risen this controversy and every person hopes that this news may be a minor solution to "Hindu-Muslim" thing.

Punchlead

Dead Women Gives Birth To A Still Born Baby In Her Coffin!

Reportedly, a dead woman from Mthayisi village near Mbizana, South Africa gave birth to a stillborn baby ten days after she died. The shocking incident has stunned and baffled the community in the Eastern Cape. Nomveliso Nomasonto Mdoyi, the mother of five, was nine months pregnant when she fell ill and passed away at the age of 33. One of the funeral parlor staffs made the discovery in the deceased’s coffin a day before she was scheduled to be buried.  Mdoyi’s mother, Mandzala Mdoyi, revealed that her daughter suddenly died after shortness of breath at the residence. The staffs revealed that they were very frightened by the find and they didn’t check the baby’s sex as well.

“I have been in the business for more than 20 years and I have never heard of a dead woman giving birth”, funeral parlour owner Fundile Makalana told Dispatch Daily. As per  Times Live report, the family spokesman, Mbikelwa Mpithi said they would seek advice from both medical experts and sangomas to find out more about the birth after death. “We cannot sit down and fold hands as if it is business as normal. We want to know more about this‚” said Mpithi.

Some medical experts said that the death was due to natural causes and experts believe that contraction and relaxation of muscles and build up of gasses could have caused the foetus to be excluded out from deceased mother’s body. “First, I was devastated by the untimely death of my daughter and now I got the shock of my life to learn that she had given birth while she had been dead for 10 days. What is that? God please come and intervene?” the deceased woman’s mother said, as per Time’s Live report. Reportedly, the mother and her stillborn baby were buried together in the same coffin on January 13. What are your views on the same? Let us know in the comments below.

My Nostalgia

"Mera Bachpan"

       

                                                             - Samreen Ghani

Childhood memories never fade easily, and I long for the life I had as a child, as many others do. Nostalgia will always be a part of me, as my childhood was simply unforgettable and wonderful. When I was a child, I lived with my aunt, my neighbours sometimes and spent a lot of time with my bestfriend’s family for a while, as my parents are both busy with work in their company. I still have a clear visual memory about my bestfriend Alisha’s house. The sofa in the hall, the small TV where we used to watch ‘Makdi’ film together, the bath tubs in that small washroom where we played for hours with water and the best thing that wooden chair swing which I still miss.

When I open her house door, I immediately smell the delicious mutton curry and dal fry which my bestfriend’s mother used to cook. We both riding cycles down in our society. We both doing everything together. The most nostalgic time was when me and Alisha go to Kanheri caves with her family. Enjoying the small river-like way under the bridge and playing with water. Continuing our way to the counter of Kanheri caves, clicking pictures and laughing with joy. Aunty making breakfast on the hill near a cave which was by the way my favorite. Her enthusiastic father encouraging us to climb the cave and explore new corners. Aunty by our side. Returning back home we halt at the park where Alisha holds my hand out of fear and we climb the tree house. Then we head back home with all the memories.

My childhood has always been about my bestfriend. Every childhood memory is related with her. I still sometimes feel nostalgic about our few childhood moments. I feel like it happened yesterday, it is so fresh.

Soft News

Meet the Farmers Whose Kiki Challenge Is Winning the Internet

Ever since singer-rapper Drake’s ‘In My Feelings’ realeased, the 'Kiki challenge' – which borrows from the lyrics of the song – has taken over the internet. There have been several versions of the challenge, even involving animals like dogs and cows, but the latest addition to the challenge comes from a village in Telangana.

Two farmers from Lambadipalli village did the Kiki challenge with a twist – Anil Geela and Pilli Tirupati danced next to a pair of bullocks in a field, while the bullocks dragged the plough. They danced in the slush, and it was not easy. “We could have easily slipped and fallen. So we planned it and attempted it a few times, before shooting that video in one take,” he said.

Needless to say, the video has since gone viral, with people not only appreciating the uniqueness of their attempt, but also that they did in a safe manner.

The Kiki challenge generally involves one to step out of a vehicle and dance while it’s recorded from inside the vehicle, which in many cases, is moving slowly. Indeed, local police in various cities and states including Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Mumbai, have warned people against doing the Kiki challenge as it goes against road safety.

Planning the Video

While 24-year-old Anil is, originally from Dargapalli in Telangana's Siddipet district, Pilli is a 30-year-old local farmer who liked the idea of the challenge and agreed to do it. He started working with Srikanth, who started ‘My Village Show’, on whose Instagram and YouTube accounts their Kiki challenge video was posted.

Anil said that it was Srikanth’s idea to do their own version of the viral challenge, with the village as a setting. “However, as we were planning it, we saw the police warnings and everyone started perceiving it as a dangerous stunt,” Anil recounts.

“But we wanted to show people that it was something fun at the end of the day and need not be done in a dangerous way,” he adds.

These 2 farmers indeed brought in the rural village people into Social Media and Pop Culture through their unique viral video and spread awareness about better ways of doing the kiki challenge.

Book Review: The Time Machine

"The Time Machine"

                                   - H. G. Wells

About the Author

Herbert George “H.G” wells have been called the father of science fiction. His most notable science fiction words include the war of the worlds (1897), The time machine (1895), The invisible man (1897), and the island of Doctor Moreau (1896). He was born in Bromley in Kent, England. He comes from backward class family.

About the Book

Herbert George Wells starts the book THE TIME MACHINE by arguing that the ‘Time’ is itself a separate dimension. Through the protagonist of the book, Wells present a theory that the first three dimensions are occupied by the space and the time is the fourth dimension.

In the book, an unnamed narrator tells the story of a time traveller whom he met and who then takes over the narration to describe about an event that happened to him. The Time Machine is all about imagination. Both of the person who wrote it, and the person who reads it. Wells’ Time Traveller takes a reader 800,000 years beyond his own era where he discovers two bizarre races—the ethereal Eloi and the subterranean Morlocks—who not only symbolize the duality of human nature, but offer a terrifying portrait of the men of tomorrow as well.

 

Reviews

This book is an adventurous tale about a brave inventor who travels into the distant future. The main character (the time traveler) in the book is a scientist and inventor in England has been able to construct a machine that will allow him to travel back though time. He first tested his machine by travelling over 800,000 years into future and comes in to contact with 2 species: the Eloi & the Morlocks. The Eloi are androgynous and pint-sized group, who seems to do no work and Morlocks, scary ape like creatures who live underground & come out only at night. After trying to decipher the relationship between the two and briefly losing, then recovering his time machine from the Morlocks, the traveler then escapes into the distant future where he witnesses events on earth at the end of its life. As he travels further he sees the decay & degeneration of life on earth, he then decides to return to his own time & eventually finds himself back home.

The book is written in 1895 and the writing resembles the typical style of the writers at that time. Wells’ style, is all about of details and narration. The writer and the reader both are the spectator in this kind of writing. Actually, I feel, due this style the writer is putting an extra effort rather going by first person’s narrative. Another example is Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series. The reader and the narrator, Doctor John Watson, both are the viewers of the incidents described in the story. For most of the times, the reader will feel same what the narrator felt at the time of the incidents. This is one way of controlling a reader’s intellect.

I don’t believe there is a certain and a specific to read a book, well for most books, though after reading The Time Machine I do feel if only I had read it a few years back, I’d felt more eccentric by the concept proposed in the book than I feel now.

Obituary

Good-bye, Vajpayee Ji

Former Prime Minister and BJP patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee dies at Delhi's AIIMS hospital at 5.05 pm. Vajpayee had been battling age-related illnesses for a prolonged period of time.

That this was not just the death of a former PM, a leading light of India’s nuclear history, or of the ‘People’s PM’ – it was the demise of an adorable, all-round-good-natured, immensely accessible human being.

Last night when news of Atal Bihari's death spread fast on social media. Our nation lost a mighty person on 16th August 2018 right after our country's 71st Independence Day.

Here in my today's blog you will know things about ABV Ji which every citizen should know.

"One day this young man will be PM": Nehru

There are enumerous things done by our former PM ABV Ji I could list down few major facts.

1. He scripted the DNA for the Right To Education

It was Vajpayee who created its foundation with the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, which made education for children aged 6 to 14 years a fundamental right.

2. He made India a nuclear weapon state

 

"We have the capacity for a big bomb now. Ours will never be weapons of aggression." Atal Bihari Vajpayee

This was in 1998, when India had conducted 5 Indian nuclear tests in one week. As we have seen with our strange love-hate relationship with Pakistan, nuclear weapon capability is a powerful bargaining chip.

Here’s a photo of celebration at Pokhran after the testing. In the photo, you can see (from left) Vajpayee, George Fernandes, Abdul Kalam, and R. Chidambaram. However, Vajpayee understood the ills of nuclear weaponry, and presented his feeling in a poem, Hiroshima Ki Peeda (Hiroshima's Pain), after seeing Japan’s Ground Zero.

3. He was behind our telecom success story

The Congress would have us believe that Rajiv Gandhi brought the telecom revolution to India. Rahul Gandhi even said this at a rally, “You got mobile phones because Rajiv Gandhi heard you." A decade after Rajiv Gandhi left office, our tele-density grew from a 0.6% (1989) to 2.8% in 1999 - not exactly a revolution. On the other hand, Vajpayee's New Telecom Policy (NTP) led to a telecom penetration rate rise from below 3% (1999) to over 70% in October 2012. Don't believe us? Columbia University’s Professor Arvind Panagariya also gives Vajpayee due credit for his role in ramping up our telecom success story in his book "India - Emerging Gian".

4. He maintained a strong GDP growth during his time

During his time, India saw a devastating earthquake (2001), two cyclones (1999 and 2000), the worst drought in thirty years (2002-2003), Gulf War II and an oil crisis from 2003, the Kargil conflict of 1999, and a Parliament attack. Yet, our GDP didn't falter during his time.

5. Massive National Highway improvement programme

The Government has embarked upon a massive National Highway improvement programme in the country. The programme envisages 4/6 laning of 13,250 kms of national highways comprising the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ), connecting the four Metros and the North-Southand East-West corridors.The Golden Quadrilateral portion is expected to be completed by 2003 and the whole National Highway Development Project is to be completed by 2009. Expenditure of about Rs.1641 crore has been incurred on National Highway Development Project upto August 31, 2000. Till now 588 km. of Golden Quadrilateral and 628 km. of North-South and East-West corridor has been four--laned.

6. He improved our international relationships extensively

• Improved trade ties and attempted to resolve territorial disputes with the People's Republic of China.
• Strategic and military cooperation with Israel.
• With the 2000 Bill Clinton visit (the first US President to visit India since Jimmy Carter), there was a thaw in India's Cold War-era distant relationship with America, leading to improved trade and cooperation.
• Vajpayee was among the first passengers on the inaugural Delhi-Lahore Bus which established road connectivity between India and Pakistan for the first time since 1947.

7. He approved the Delhi Metro Project

While the Sheila Dixit government likes to tell us it brought what is possibly India's best mass transit public transport system, that is not true! The Delhi Metro project was approved, and the first line inaugurated, by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He boarded the first line at shahadra to tees hazari.

8. He sent India to the moon

"Our country is now ready to fly high in the field of science. I am pleased to announce that India will send her own spacecraft to the moon by 2008. It is being named Chandrayaan-1".

Atal Bihari Ji has achieved so much in his life and has been an inspiration to many people and adored him for the human being he was. He will always stay in our minds and hearts!

REST IN PEACE ATAL BIHARI VAJAPAYEE...