Jun 5, 2010 Posted by arif in General | 2 comments

Beautiful Greenpeace Ad.

A Work of Art indeed. Sadly though, my view is that there is no going back on the destruction of our planet. The time-bomb has been activated, the clock is ticking and we don’t give a damn.

Mar 29, 2010 Posted by arif in General | 3 comments

What’s your worst fear?

What’s your worst fear?

Death?

Torture?

Torture of near and dear ones?

What if you’re able to bear that? Then, you’ll then have absolutely nothing to loose. You’re invincible, when it’ll come to standing up for the right. No matter what the consequences.

Mar 24, 2010 Posted by arif in General, Spirituality | 1 comment

Quran in Pdf format

There are a numerous sites where you can read and search through the Quran. My most frequented one is the one hosted by Al-Islam.org. However, quite often when I’m offline and I want to search through the Quran, the only viable alternative was to peer through index of the physical book itslef to find the verse I’m looking for. So using Dinesh’s help at office, we’ve put together Quran in pdf format. The file is a mere 4.6 mb in size and enables you to search through the translation quite easily without being connected to the internet. This pdf copy of the Quran can be downloaded from here. Cheerio.

Mar 23, 2010 Posted by arif in General | 14 comments

Behind the scenes of Sufi-Comics

Some readers may be unaware that the Sufi Comics posted on our blog are drawn by Ali. If you are an aspiring artist and are curious on the tools that Ali uses to draw Sufi Comics. They’re not many:

1. A Toshiba Tablet PC: Portege M750

2. Manga Studio EX

3. A Smudge Guard

Shhhhh…Now let’s peek and watch Ali create his next masterpiece:

Mar 14, 2010 Posted by arif in General, Reviews | 2 comments

A couple of new podcasts that I dabble in.

If you spend more than 15 minutes commuting and don’t listen to podcasts or any sort of audio material, gosh oh-gosh, you are missing an entire world of laughter and learning. Over the last week I have been hearing heard the fabulous story of an ordinary individual taking up fight against Racial killers of the Ku Klux Klan, the hilarious tale of a sleep-walker and his misadventures and the wonderful mystic words of Al Ghazzali from his ageless Alchemy of Happiness.

The audio explosion on the internet is as rich as the text and video material out there. What is it that interests you? What problem is it that’s bothering you? Just search for a podcast on that topic in iTunes or Yahoo podcasts and boom, you’ve got yourself a university of knowledge on that topic area. So much to listen but don’t have time to do so? You don’t need to take out time, just pop the mp3 files in your phone, plugin the earphones to your ear and hear it while coming to or leave from work. It couldn’t get easier.

I’m subscribed to about a 100 podcasts, however I listen to just a handful of those. I’ve blogged about some earlier podcasts that I dabble in here and here. In addition to those, below are a couple of others that I’m currently tuned into:

The Moth Story Telling Podcast
It’s Rated the number 1 Podcast for several weeks on the ITunes podcast directory, every story I’ve heard till date, connected with me at some level. The podcast contain true stories of individuals, which although is completed within 15 minutes, I’ve caught myself thinking, reflecting on the stories long after it’s passed through my ears. A podcast that I would heartily recommend.

Fora TV Audio of the Week Podcast
Fora TV, has an eclectic selection of lectures, panel discussions, debates on Political, Scientific, or any other topical subject (Thanks for the recommendation Sudeep). In the past, the episodes that I’ve heard on Fora TV and have found them to me greater insight to the workings of the world are:

Book Summary of Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman

A panel Discussion on Would we be better off without Religion

Raj Patel, discussing his book, Stuffed and Starved. Why and how is half the world under-nourished and the other half Obese.

Finally, in addition to the above, I’m having simply a ball of a time, listening the audio rendition of Right Ho, Jeeves by P G Wodehouse, performed by B J Harrison of The Classic Tales Podcast. I’ve tried to pickup books by Wodehouse several times, but could never read past a few pages. But when B J Harrison gets behind the microphone to read out the exuberant expiditions of Wooster and Jeeves, not only do I look forward to each new episode but also find myself chuckling and giving whoops of excitement as I go of driving jolly well off to work.

If you are new to subscribing to Podcasts, here’s a great YouTube Video, that explains how it’s done.