Shafqat Amanat Ali Debuts with Album TABEER in India

Tabeer Launch Party - Tabeer, Shafqat Amanat Ali’s Debut Album in India

ITC Grand Central, Ball Room, Mumbai, India 20^th September 2008 evening 7.30 PM – 11.00 PM

Shafqat Amanat Ali, the former lead vocalist of a Pakistani pop band known as "Fuzon" today released his first solo album TABEER with a big bang and huge media presence in India. Strongly supported by Mr. Mahesh Bhatt and under the flagship of Music Today (part of India Today Group) launched this album. The launch party was a fun-fan-fair at the Grand ball Room of the ITC Grand Central in Parel, Mumbai.

The room was jam packed with fans standing all around the ball room mesmerized by the scintillating performance by Shafqat. In a very friendly approach Shafqat interacted with audience well and kept moving all around the room and involved the audience by asking them to sing with him and even to the extent that he brought couple of people on stage to sing.

JK Tyres, India Today, Antiquity, Rajshri.com were some of the key sponsors of the event. Interestingly the rajshri.com which was the digital partner is also promoting this event heavily through Tabeer contests on their website and facebook campaigns. Much credit goes to Roli Chaturvedi the Marketing and PR head for Rajshri.com.

Shafqat belongs to the Patiala gharana of classical music. The gharana is famous for its concentration on intricate taan-patterns and sargams. With his family, he has been part of the Pakistani classical musical tradition for eight generations.

Shafqat Amanat Ali – the Rockstar Ustad (A term coined by Bollywood music director Salim Merchant who couldn't be present at the launch function) promises to be the biggest singing sensation to hit the subcontinent in recent times. He is highly respected among music circles due to his classically trained voice and his command over modern music as well. While he is one of the best current singers in Pakistan, Shafqat is also highly respected in India after performing the vocals for the song Mitwa from the Indian film Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna. Interestingly this song was performed live in front of the audience on a special request by a female fan from the audience and the entire crowd just swayed on the tunes of their favourite song. The songs were well received by the audience as well as the critics. He was also the voice behind the critically acclaimed song Yeh Honsla from the Indian film Dor. The songs - "Mora Saiyan" and "Tere Bina" are also featured in Nagesh Kukunoor's Hyderabad Blues 2.

The music is a beautiful mix of classical vocals with music that fuses classical influences with modern instrumentation. yes there's electric guitar riffs, but there are also layers of classical percussions and winds.

You can DOWNLOAD Shafqat Ammanat Ali’s Tabeer the entire album here from a torrent file or you can listen to the entire album online below:-

01. Khairheyan De Naal – Play Now
02. Naina
03. Dum Ali Ali Dum
04. Rang Le
05. Bulleh Shah
06. Pagalpan
07. Rohi
08. Kartar (Darbari)
09. Manqabat (Ya Ali)

Chetan Bhagat - Spark Keep it Shining Speech! - What about the ACTION?

Summary: I liked the speech given by Chetan and they way he showed the 4 thunderstorms of disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation trying to thwart you. What I couldn't notice in his speech was the Umbrella or the Rain Coat to save yourself from these thunderstroms: THE ACTION. 

"Sincere ACTION is the Umbrella that can help you brave the thunderstrom!"

-Sachin Uppal, 1st August 2008

I was reading Chetan Bhagat's speech at the inaugural function of Symbiosis College in Pune, India. He spoke about a simple concept that keeps people kicking and striving to reach higher success. He likes calling it Spark, and urges to keep that Spark Shining. It is nothing but your will power and your passion to achieve something more in life and your continuous drive to reach it. 

Download the complete Speech in a PDF format along with comments here.

In my life I have learnt that this spark comes to you if you are passionate about something and that passion is driven from your goals. If you set your goals (short term and long term) you always have a direction and you can measure and strive harder to achieve the same. Some time back I wrote about Goal Setting and how it's important to achieve and bring a direction to your life.

When I look around I see a lot of talented people and see a lot of them with new ideas but what I fail to see is people taking action to fulfill their dreams. Having a long term and short term goal helps you get focused in your life and you can actually achieve what you have set out to achieve in your dream.

I liked the speech given by Chetan and they way he showed the 4 thunderstorms of disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation trying to thwart you. However, while saying that don't take life too seriously, instead sincerely, what he missed out was a BIG point: ACTION. 

What differentiates people from being Great and not good, is ACTION. Having dreams, living life sincerely and keeping yourself focused towards your goals need ACTION. Not taking life seriously shouldn't make you complacent and shouldn't make you lack in Action. Action comes to you from your passion. There are thousands of people out there who like to talk about doing something great, but how many take action to achieve it? These days with the competition increasing at such a fast pace, you are going to face one or more of these 4 thunderstorms.

Have you ever thought what's going to differentiate you? 

To SUM it up in a sentence:

"Sincere ACTION is the Umbrella that can help you brave the thunderstroms!"

For many people reading this the obvious question would be - How do you do that?

- Set up your goals.
- Be realistic or upgrade your self.
- Believe in yourself.
- Follow some dicipline.
- Breakdown your goals in small milestones.
- Congratulate yourself on achieving milestones. (get yourself a pair of new shoes, a tie, a watch, a perfume or whatever you think you like)
- Bring your passion to everything that you DO.
- Let your passion Permeate  amongst the people around you.
- Show the world that you are not just about the Talk, but you prove it with your small Actions.
- Small steps go a long way to achieve a goal.
- Influence people in believing your goals.
- Ask for help (don't feel ashamed).
- Give help - It's a 2-way road.
- Follow- Ethics and Integrity.
- LIVE your dream and don't give up. Even at a failure learn and stand up again and give your "passionate best shot".

Enough of talking. Let's DO!

Bangalore International Airport (BIAL) Route Map and Guide

After all the drama and to and fro amongst the people, governement and BIAL authoritites, Bangalore International Airport BIAL will be operational from today onwards. yet there is no final decision on the HAL airport.
How to reach the new BIAL airport? What all facilities are available at the new bangalore airport? How far is the new airport from the city’s centre? Here is your guide to the BIAL airport.
Download the Passenger Information document here.
Download the Easy access guide here.
Download the shuttle schedule here.
Download the route map here.
Download the Bangalore International Airport Layout.
Let’s see how the things turn out now. Obviously you would notice that there are a lot of services added in the BIAL airport lounges etc, but how much is an average traveler willing to shell out, remains the question?

Download Top 10 Email Marketing / Database Marketing Resources | Forrestor | Gartner | McKinsey

Top 10 Email Marketing / Database Marketing Resources

Keywords: Email Labs, Gartner, Forrestor, McKinsey, Reports, PDF, Download, Email Marketing, Marketing Sherpa, Benchmarking, Resources

As a marketer I keep a tab on what's new in the marketing world and a lot of resources are available online. All this information is scattered all over the place so I thought to combine most of the stuff in a common place on my blog. All companies and trademarks are their registered names and copyrights, I have nothing to do with it. These reports are freely downloadable from Internet from their respective websites and to bring it to a common platform, I have brought them here. You can download these email or database marketing resources and get s stronger hold on the email or database marketing scenario.

1)Download the 4Rs of Email Marketing Detailed Guide in PDF format. A practitioner's guide to Email Marketing. Tips and tricks on creating Call to Actions (CTAs), Subject Lines, Email Deliverability enhancement and more.

2) Email Labs Online resources this link provides access to best practices in Email Marketing from various people contributing a large number of articles, articles on day-to-day email marketing needs and more...

3) One detailed guide on ensuring your email gets delivered. Download the Email Labs Deliverability Guide a must read for every email marketer and strategic decision maker.

4) Download the Email Labs Opt-in List creation Guide which is a comprehensive compendium for creation of Hygenic email marketing lists from various banner ads, other campaigns etc.

5) Email Marketing Service Providers Q4 2007 Forrester Wave report, A good analysis on how to choose your email solution provider.

6) Gartner report on Email Security Boundary - Magic Quadrant. A little old report on security and deliverability.

7) McKinsey report - How companies are using online marketing? A good report to understand the worldwide usage of online media.

8) What personalization tools work in e-commerce and why? A Forrestor report on what personalization tools work and why.

9) Marketing Sherpa's Email Marketing Benchmarkeing Guide 2008 - Excerpts. An enriched guide to quickly benchmark your company's performance and see how you fare on the metrics. Also watch the latest trends in Email marketing. Buy the detailed guide here.

10) The Forrester Wave™ report: Database Marketing Service Providers, Q4 2007 report a detailed analysis on what are the expectations from MSPs and how are they faring on the same.

Keywords: Email Labs, Gartner, Forrestor, McKinsey, Reports, PDF, Download, Email Marketing, Marketing Sherpa, Benchmarking, Resources