Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Their aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. This year’s topic is Poverty.

Growing up and living most of my life in India, I’ve always had a close view of how disparate the distribution of wealth is in the world. The most disconcerting aspect is that most people are there due to circumstance and that it could very easily be me. Yes, I agree I’ve worked hard to reach where I am but much of the world’s poor may go through a lifetime without getting an opportunity to work or display their talents and at most times oppressed due to their lack of resources.

Take for example this recent article about the shocking treatment of the poor in India.

India is changing so fast that it is starting to look like someplace else. Skyscrapers are sprouting. Towns are ballooning. The young date, drink, smoke freely. But many of the people who are making the new India new – from the stockbrokers to the bedecked socialites – are responsible for preserving a certain gloomy element of the Indian past: a tendency to treat the hired help like chattel, to taunt and humiliate and condescend to them, to behave as though some humans were born to serve and others to be served.

Not so surprising for me—again, I’ve seen it happen often and think it’s inexplicable. One can only wonder how long they’ll remain patient and quiet—in India there are numerous stories about mini revolts sparking off in retaliation. We don’t need more strife and internal fighting, even if we can’t make monetary contributions, we should embrace the moral right to respect human life.

One observation that’s amazed me in my travels around the world is that children, no matter how poor their family, still manage to go about their daily chores with a smile and frolic with their siblings and the other street kids. It’s that very innocence, that pure pleasure of life itself, that we tend to lose once we’re entrenched in the greedy quest for wealth. I’m not advocating that we donate all our life savings to charity and become ascetics but rather occasionally detach ourselves from our daily pursuits and understand the need for a more equitable distribution of wealth for the world to prosper. Our strength is in our people and right now millions of them are dying in abject poverty.

Dealing with poverty can be depressing but with this video I’ve tried to capture some of the happier emotions that can inspire ourselves to seek out that same unperturbed joy by limiting our needs and contributing our excess towards uplifting the marginalized. The recent financial crisis has taught us many lessons but the most severe being that many countries have been living way beyond their means and for the most part, at the expense of the less privileged. Lifestyles will have to drastically change to fix this mess and I hope we can all evaluate our lives and make a commitment today to make a positive impact on our environment and the people around us. I hope you enjoy the video… please pass it on, and keep smiling!

The song in the video is Bob Sinclar’s ”Give A Lil’ Love”, a DJ who “aspires to bring people together by making music with hope and energy, music that can be shared across the world.” Check out “Love Generation” which also has a similar theme. Here are the lyrics for the song in the video:

now you and I 
can get together
let us start a revolution
change this world
to what it should be
and forget all this confusion

we could live together
for the sake of love 
what are we fighting for
oooh now
we could start heeling today

if we can just learn to give 
give a lil’ love
you and I can change the world
live a lil’ love 
make it better if we try
show a lil’ love
let your love rain
let it rain down on me

now if we wait and do nothing
then what about their future 
how can we look in to there eyes 
and say we love our children
we can make it better
feel the love inside
forget foolish pride

Here’s an action list that can help you get involved. Another great site that I use is Kiva, which helps you make loans to small business owners in third world nations.

Nice little bar trick, ehh?!

Yes We Can (Hold Babies) is the international source for pictures of Obama holding babies. There are occasionally some kisses involved, sometimes the babies are a little too old to be classified as babies, and sometimes we just post pictures of Obama standing under a dinosaur (and by that we do not mean John McCain).

And at other times it’s about kids sharing their views on Obama

(hat tip: @jcovert)
(photo credit: hipsdontlie)

I need your help with a research project for which I’m trying to determine the top three or four pop culture influences in mainstream India, within the categories mentioned below. I’ve added in a few agents within each category but please recommend your top choices in the comments (especially for “Gaming”) as well as make changes as you see fit. Thanks in advance.

Edit: @nixxin raises a good point, “better to give a timeline for your pop culture influences – some pretty major changes over the past 5 years. (tweet) Examples – Sachin Tendulkar has probably been outed by Dhoni as a major influence. among kids, Hrithik Roshan beats Shah Rukh.” (tweet)

The timeline is current for this project and about what’s trending in the market right now but also including some of the “evergreen” influences that have managed to remain uncontested over the last decade.

1. Film: 
Bollywood (UTV, Reliance Big Entertainment, Percept Picture Company, Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Paukone, Priyanka Chopra, Bipasha Basu, Kareena Kapoor, Ram Gopal Varma, Karan Johar)

2. Music:
A.R Rehman, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Dj Aqeel, Vishal-Shekhar

3. Gaming: 

4. TV:
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Ekta Kapoor

5. Comics:
Amar Chitra Katha, Diamond, Raj, Indrajal

6. Sports:
Cricket, T20, Tennis (Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, M.S. Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma, Sania Mirza, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi)

7. Fashion/Lifestyle:
Stardust, FHM, Maxim, GQ, Playboy, Vogue, Cosmopolitan (these might be less mainstream)

8. Educational/Historical:
Mahatma Gandhi, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, Panchatantra, Jataka Tales

9. Cultural/Travel:
Taj Mahal, Gateway of India, India Gate, Qutub Minar, Himalayas, Temples, Sadhus, Kumbh Mela, Yoga, Spirituality

(Photo Credit: Rigmarole)  

Noticed these awesome Dentyne (chewing gum) advertisements on the NYC subways recently, which challenge technology’s ability to create a “real” connection between people. Check out this NYTimes article to read more about the campaign or the makefacetime.com website, but beware, it shuts down in 3 minutes.

I’ve been obsessed with Brooke Waggoner since she released her first EP last year and jumped at the chance to see her given that I missed her the last time. It was my first time at Joe’s Pub and just like Brooke put it, I was expecting something very “pub-sey”. Quite the contrary—reminiscent of a speakeasy, it has a dark candlelit ambiance, velvet walls and couches to lounge on. Brooke was everything I expected her to be and more: beautiful voice, brilliant on the piano, quirky, and cute with a childlike playfulness that resonates in her music—I think I have a crush!

You can download Brooke’s first EP, Fresh Pair of Eyes, free from her website.

The Pines who opened were really refreshing as well… deep, haunting, and Dylan-esque! What’s more, the club played Devendra Banhart in between sets—totally geeked out!

An endearing action-packed animated short from Gobelins l’ecole de l’image.

(hat tip: @naina)

Alessandra Ferri is a highly accomplished Italian ballerina and performs a beautiful ballet routine as Sting plays Bach’s Perlude on his guitar. The warm up scenes are very intimate too as he does yoga stretches and she gets her shoes ready—it’s very soothing and has a nice ending as well.

I’m a huge fan of bite-sized storytelling as you can tell by my own experiment daily140. That makes me very excited about Filminute, which challenges filmmakers, writers, animators, artists, designers, and creative producers to develop and submit the world’s best one-minute films. Check out their shortlist for 2008, a very diverse selection of well made films.

The best one-minute films will “resonate” beyond one minute. These are films that we expect to affect viewers in the same way any great film would. The challenge, of course, is to do it all in 60 seconds, no more, no less.

If you’re a typeface geek like me, this site is a must visit for a variety of reasons. The artist, Jos Buivenga, has a sophisticated selection of fonts and he’s giving them away for free. Art director by day, the impassioned designer is not too bothered by the commercial potential just yet as he tries to answer the baffled comments on his “About” page. Be sure to also check out his blog as he goes through the creative and technical process of his creations. Thanks for the great designs Jos and keep up the great work.

MUSEO … it all started with my love for U. One day this uppercase letter U just came to me as an image in a daydream. I saw the top of both stems bended into semi-slab serifs.