How tired I am of? watching all the vampish household melodrama on T.V?? If you haven’t guessed, I am talking of the dramatic, unpredictable soaps of the Ekta Kapoor camp, and the copycats. Every eligible man on these serials – given enough time – conceives a child with every other eligible woman, giving rise to one big wholesome family of interwoven relationships. The saying – ?this world is one big family? comes true, only in these serials. And mind it, all these are highly moral and ideal families of the reel world.

For around 7-8 years this false melodrama has ruled the roost, draining the audience emotionally. I remember my mom?s colleagues sulking and not attending office the day after? the reel screen hero Mihir died on screen. These soaps put a question mark on some of the societal norms. In these soaps divorce and extra- marital have become easy, and matters treated as lightly as one would contemplate a change of a dress. This certainly has affected the whole mass that watches these soaps. According to some surveys there has been a manifold increase in divorce rate in real world as a result of? these on-screen divorces and infidelities.

Now, it seems,? that the era of melodrama is almost over and some meaningful soaps are back on air. These are educative and are made with the intention to bring reform. Though the educative programmes had always existed on television on channels like DD national,? DD metro (which is now off-air), and one or two such serials on almost all the channels, these managed to garner only a few viewers.

But, it seems that now more tastefully dished out reformative soaps are coming up, and these are able to carve out a decent fan following for themselves. Some examples are serials like ?Balika Vadhu? on Colors; a saga of the evils of child marriage and the stale old customs which still exist. This programme ends with an educative summary talking of the ills in the society and an informative message. ?Jyoti? on NDTV Imagine is another serial about the struggles of a middle class girl striking balance between modernity and age-old irrelevant traditions. Then, there are many more like Lado and Rajuben, which might bring in some reform along with intellectuality.

Though the television business is more about profits, TRPs and changing fashion, yet if it manages to reconcile its goal with the bigger and nobler motive of educating, we have nothing to complain about. It then becomes a win-win situation. Does it not?

The “Bye-Bye 2008 Mega Contest“ is finally here. In the short time of five days, we have managed to get enough sponsors to be able to have the following prizes:

1st Prize :
15, 000 Entrecard credits
One year featured link in PR 3 Directory (http://www.dawsoneng.com) worth $36 From Abhishek
Three months 125 X 125 ad space (PR 3) on Human Revolution
30 days 125 X 125 ad space (PR 3) on Rock Fuse
30 days 125 X 125 ad space (PR 2) on Work-at-Home-Wealth.com
30 days 125 X125 ad space on Name Sherry

2nd Prize :
10,000 Entrecard Credits
Three months 125 X 125 ad space (PR 3) on Blue Panther Experience
30 days 125 X125 ad space on Heart Random

3rd Prize :
5,000 Entrecard Credits
30 days 125 X 125 ad space on Sherry Shopping
Three months 125 X 125 ad space on The MAG Blog

The Entrecards have been sponsored by :

5000 EC
Eyespi20.com

2000 EC:
Realm of Prosperity

1000 EC :
Lost in Love
Automotive Blog
Singaporean in London
Guilty Pleasures
New York Nitty-Gritty
Random Detox | Travel and Tech
Multiply Themes and Layouts
Journal of Journey
24patrol
Anything goes
2009 Fantasy Baseball Rankings
Google Stalking
Fendi Shearling Bag
Niacin Cream
Webbie Stuffs
When I wander
I Love Philippines Too
My Travels and Explorations
London Chow
The iphone photographer

500 EC :
I Love Contests
Sherry Rambling
Anshul Dudeja
Funny Concepts
Communicate Better
Gift Reviews
Free Famous Quotes

The rest of the credits will be made up for by The MAG

How to Enter:

There are three things you can do to enter the contest :

A) Subscribe to The MAG via email, and leave a comment on this post – 1 entry

B) Write a post about the contest on your blog, or site, with a link to The MAG and leave a comment on this post – 3 entries

C) Write a post about the contest and copy the list of all the sponsors with a link back to them, and leave a comment on this post – 7 entries

So, in this way you can have a maximum of 11 entries in the contest. Some basic rules for the contest are as follows:
1. The contest will run until December 31, and the winners will be announced shortly afterwards.
2. The winners will be chosen on the basis of a random draw, most likely using random.org.
3. Anyone, including the sponsors, can participate.
4. There are no other rules, but if it is found that someone has violated any rule, or tried unfair means, the organiser of this contest reserves the right to reject any entries.

Best of Luck to all!

I will keep this post updated as we proceed through the contest.

(If there is something that I have not been able to make clear in the post, please feel free to leave a comment and I will try my best to answer the query. Also, if anyone had sponsored the contest, and has been left out please leave a comment and the error will be rectified immediately.)

Google has slowly, but steadily, come up with a variety of services for the Internet user. From using a search engine to blogging to uploading videos to social networking, there is a wide spectrum of services that Google provides now. The fact is, like it or not, we can not escape the Google.

In our latest poll, Gmail (the e-mail service provided by Google) has emerged as the most favoured e-mail service among The MAG readers. A convincing 65.6 % of the readers who participated in the poll voted for Gmail as their favourite e-mail service. Yahoo and Hotmail, the hot stars of yore, seem to have fallen off grace.

The reason for Gmail gaining popularity so fast is simple. They have used the KISS effectively. They have kept their service sweet and simple. Simple in Internet terms most often – but not always – translates to speed. Thus Gmail is one of thefastest email services out there. Yahoo and Hotmail are quite slow, as compared to Gmail.

Both Yahoo and Hotmail have tried to ramp up their services in the recent past, keeping in mind the competition. But, each time they bring out a new version, they seem to add complexities to it which not only alienates the general user, but also makes their service slower. The speed issues are very critical for developing countries where the broad band is still not accessible to most people.

In addition Google has added many other services to the Gmail package which make it even more attractive. Google Docs for one is an important tool that allows you to create and share documents online. Though, it is not the best office package that you can get, but it is one of the most simple and effective ones if you need to create documents online and share them with others.

The other thing about Gmail is that Google now owns a lot of different sites and you can use your gmail id to access most of them. So, whether it is Blogger, or YouTube, or AdSense, or Orkut, or Picasa, all you need is a Gmail id and you can access any of these services. It is like killing quite a few birds with a single stone.

So, do you use Gmail yet?

?

It was on August 15, 1947 that India won it’s freedom after a very long battle for freedom. The first struggle for Indian Independence took place in 1857, and it took almost 90 years for India to attain independence. It is said that there is a silver lining to every cloud; the Indian freedom struggle is no exception.

The freedom movement gave birth to exemplary men and women like Rani Lakshmi Bai, Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Mahatma Gandhi, and the list is endless. These courageous sons and daughters of India stood up tall against a system that would brook no resistance. They proved to India, and the world, that one person can indeed make a difference. All it takes is courage and will power.

Today, as India celebrates, its 61st Independence day, it seems to me that people have forgotten the lessons that history has taught us – lessons that were learnt at the price of the lives of great men and women.

An argument that is often forwarded against doing something truly heroic is : ” Oh, not everyone is born to be a hero!”

The truth, however, is just the opposite – we are all born heroes. As we grow up, we somehow manage to hide that hero inside us, or maybe the society hides it for us, and doesn’t want us to find it. But – and I am sure this is true for everyone – the hero within us raises its voice every now and then. For example, many a times when we see someone in distress, by the side of the road, the spontaneous feeling is to go and help that person. But, in a few seconds our brain begins to remind us – we have to go somewhere, the person could be pretending and turn out to be mugger, why bother when you have so many problems of your own, etc. etc.

If we act before our trained mind stops us, we actually go and help that person. If we begin to debate on the “to help, or not to help” question, it is often too late by the time the question is satisfactorily answered.

So, today, let us all (regardless of country, class, race or creed) take a vow to pay attention to the hero inside us, and also ensure that we listen to his voice every time.

Wishing India, and all Indians, a Very Happy Independence Day!

In our last poll, we had asked our readers this question : 

 "Is it right to use an event like the Olympics to fight for the independence for Tibet?"

Your votes are now in, and here is what the readers of  The MAG feel (If you did not vote, you can still participate in the discussion in the comments secion).

We, at The MAG, have decided to put together a list of  the best blogs that are available on the Internet. The term "best" is relative, and it is hard to come up with a criteria to choose the best Blogs. So, we invite you to suggest some names for the list. The blogs could be famous, or they could be not so. They should only be "different" (again a very relative term).

I am sure, in your travels across the Blogosphere, you have come across a blog, and found it to be remarkable. Maybe you even bookmarked it. I would like you to share it with the rest of us. As soon as we have about ten blogs worth "writing" about, the link to the "Best Blogs" page will be put up on The MAG.