PunjabiLinks.com is the Hub of the Punjabi Community.
We provide a user-friendly platform where Punjabis can connect to their community and businesses. Our new website design has intermingled all three aspects, and showcases the best of Punjabis. To go a bit further, we have made the 1st Business Directory App for the Punjabi Community. Download the FREE 'Punjabi Links' App, and tell us what you think!
Come out and enjoy an evening with family and friends and watch a great movie while your at it!
The newest secret in town;
Albion Cinemas is inviting everyone to come and watch a FREE Movie Every Wednesdays
On Wednesday March 20th 2013 at 6:30 pm, they are screening OMG: Oh My God Movie.
OMG is a wonderful movie that challenges the norm and makes the audience
think twice about the rituals they follow. Check out the trailer below.
And after this Wednesday March 27th: Come watch Kahaani FREE at Albion Cinemas at 6:30 pm
I love to watch Motivational Videos, it rekindles the burning out flame, and helps me to put everything into prespective so I can re-prioritize effectively.
Motivational Videos are like my cup of Chai with all the herbs in it. I hope it does the same for you.
Ma, Umi, Ma Ma, Mata Ji, are all names we use to address our Mother; whether we have a mother, or are a Mother to your own children, we all know the feelings associated with the Motherly role.
In our Punjabi Culture, we have many songs sung about Mother, and a lot of our feelings well up inside when we hear these songs, because we know that they are true. Legendary Kuldip Manak Ji touches the strings of our soul when he sings, Maa Hundi Ae Maa....
One of the lines of Manak Ji's song touch me when he says, Worshiping your Mother, is like Worshiping God. It shows how much respect our Mothers deserve, and how much we should devote ourselves to them. Keeping note that the 'Mother' follows the attributes of a 'Mother'.
Our mothers have done so much for us;
they unconditionally love us
they take food out of our mouths to feed us
they discipline us
they caress us
their inner being is connected to us, and feel for all that we feel
And all at the same time they have to think for the greater good, and make balance with life
These are the Mothers who have cherished us in the womb for 9 months, they have endured so much pain to bring us into this world, can we ever repay our Mothers back?
I personally don't think we can ever repay them back, but respect them is what we can do. Respect your Mother to the utmost respect you would give someone. Treat her in such a way that she showers her blessings on you, and as Manak Ji says, Raab dee Pooja (worship her like God).
In the Punjabi Culture, sometimes certain individuals lose sight of the respect deserved by our Mothers, and have smothered themselves with greed, ego, and love of money. I came across this song by Bai Amarjit called Ma, and quite frankly I got very sad, as it shows that after a father dies, everything changes in the household and the two oldest sons are influenced, and thus divide all the property. And only the youngest son is given his 'Mother' as his share of the property.
Mother is not an item that can be divided, it is not a commodity to barter, and its value cannot be assessed. It disturbs me that, this is actually the scenario in some cases, and the Mother who cherished her children when they were young, is now being shown the door by the same children in her time of need.
Money comes and goes, the items that you fight over will wither away as well, but the disrespect you showed your mother will NEVER be erased, and will forever be engrained in her being, that her own child had treated her this way. You would never treat a dog like that, why your Mother?
No matter what happens we owe it to our Mothers to show them respect.
This should be our Vow as Children.
With respect all obstacles can be won.
Show your Mother that you love her. In a busy life we forget the smallest gestures that might mean the whole world to them. So pick up the phone, and tell your Mother that you love her, thank her for bringing you into this world, and loving and caring for you when you were small. She works so hard for us, and that only day you might thank her is her birthday or Mother's Day.
NO.
Everyday, every second, you should thank her, as without her love you would not know how to love.
As Manak Ji says,
"I pray to God that no child's Mother dies"
For the children who do not have a Mother, and their Mother died when they were young.... I hope you found someone who would love you unconditionally and make you feel how a Mother loves her children, and in turn teach you how to love yours.
Punjabi Transliteration:
Maa hundi ae maa O duniya waleyo.
Maa ae thandDi chhaN O duniya
waleyo.
Maa bina na koyee laad ladaundaa.
Ronda ronda chupp karaundaa.
oley waikh ke chhaN O duniya waleyo.
Maa hundi ae maa O duniya waleyo.
bachiaN da dukh maa na sehndi,
gilli thahN te aap hae paeNdi,
Paundi
sukki thahN O duniya waleyo.
Maa hundi ae maa O duniya waleyo.
Maa binah
jagg ghupp hanera,
Sunna disda chaar chauferaa.
Koyee na faDda bahN O
duniya waleyo.
Maa hundi ye maa O duniya waleyo.
Maa dee pooja rabb dee
poojaa .
maa tahN rabb da naN hae doojaa.
Rabba dev karrey arjoyee
.
Bachian dee maa marrey na koyee.
Sirr tohn uthdi chhaN O duniya waleyo.
maa hundi ae maa O duniya waleyo.
In this article, Sweta gets down right to the core of the problem. She expresses concern over the lyrics by Honey Singh and many other Punjabi and Bollywood songs. She says that the culture around 'degrading women' through song has been around for a while, and now that the Delhi Rape Case has exploded, the society, or society led media chooses to target one person, but this problem is more than a one person problem. It is a cultural problem that needs to addressed as such, and not target individuals.
If we take a look at a few Bollywood songs mentioned in the article, it again clarifies any doubt around the culturally degrading women.
"Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast lyrics (Mohra, 1994)
Tu Cheez Badi hai Mast Mast
Nai Tujhko Koi Hosh Hosh Uspar Jowan Ka josh josh
Nahi Tera dosh dosh madhosh hai tu har waqt waqt…
(These can be roughly translated to: You
are a delightful, intoxicating thing, You are intoxicated and
overjoyed with your own youth but you are not to be blamed, it is your
youth)"
"Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai lyrics (Khalnayak, 1993)
Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai Choli Ke Peeche, Chunri Ke Neeche Kya Hai
Choli Me Dil Hai Mera Chunri Me dil hai mera
ye dil mai dungi mere yaar ko pyaar ko…
These
can be roughly translated into: What lies behind the blouse? What lies
beneath the scarf (chunri); My heart lies behind the blouse, My heart
lies beneath my scarf; I will give my heart to my friend, my love.)"
Now, looking at these songs from Bollywood Movies in the 90s are clearly 'inferring' women as an object of sexual affection. Whether or not we choose to ignore this 'inference' it is there.
Sweta sums it up pretty well when she writes:
"In a country where the lady love was once a Chaudhavi Ka Chand
(Chaudhavi ka Chand song in Chuadhavi Ka Chand), has now become Tandoori
Chicken (Fevicol Se song in Dabangg). Instead of changing our own
attitude and tastes, we have found a single person to dump all the blame
upon."
Overall, the whole as society needs to change its outlook on women to a more respective status. In a country where due to dowry obligations families are aborting their female babies, we have a long way to go inorder for change to occur. But each day does make that difference. Each day, each person who is able to change their thinking, or even question societies role in making decisions, can make a difference. Because as that one person changes, that person further reflects with their immediate family, and thus the ball gets rolling.
So please do converse with your family members, as through conversation we make great discussions, which reflect our thinking and thus our actions.
I am so excited to tell everyone about our new slider on PunjabiLinks.com
We got it custom made and have spent a lot of time, energy and research into making it effective, informative and fun!
The slider might look simple, but we are able to tell the user right away when they come to the site, about neat things happening, new topics of discussion, sports, and so much more.
The slider moves automatically, and each slide has a different layout.
Here is a snapshot of our current slider.
In the slider we are showcasing:
Video Ads made by PunjabiLinks.com - These are 60 second Video Ads highlighting the products and services of a business, their specialties and location. We have a professional voice over, and the video is made by our video technician.
Chai is Dangerous to Drink? - A lot of Indian families drink Chai, but are not familiar with the background of it or the health risks or benefits of it. One of our team members came across this YouTube Video about Chai and its dangers, so we thought we should share that with our viewers. There are a number of benefits as well, but this video has a different approach.
For the Love of Kabaddi - Kabaddi is Punjab's National Sport, and its always fun to watch. So we have selected some video clips for our viewers to watch.
Check out our Photo Gallery - We have some really neat pictures and we wanted our viewers to view them as well, so we thought to highlight them.
Featured Business - This is a Video Ad made by PunjabiLinks.com and we wanted to highlight this business to show our viewers
As you can tell we have effectively used our slider to showcase various items. So going forward this would be one of the many tools we would use to interact with our viewers.
I will post the individual links to the topics above for you to view.
Thanks for all your support and comments regarding the websites design. We have implemented the design on the website, but their are a few bugs that need to be ironed out. Once all the bugs are out, please feel free to browse the website error free.
Our website has been newly designed. We worked really hard at it, to make sure we don't clutter it, but at the same time we need to be informative, and attractive.
Here are a few pointers/things to consider when re-designing your website/what we've learned:
Search should be clearly seen and visible, especially on sites which have a lot of information.
Put in as much 'white space' as possible, because this helps the site to be breathable. So when the user looks at the site, its not congested.
Use different fonts for different titles, to let the user know that this is different.
Highlight items that you want users to pay attention to.
Use good quality pictures. This really makes or breaks the site... poor quality pictures gives an unprofessional look; looks cheap and doesn't look attractive.
Use different layouts of sections so each thing looks different and unique.
We really enjoyed working with our professional designers, and website analysts. It gave us a whole new prespective on what we want for our website.
Here is our redesigned, revamped, refurbished website!
We all have different things that interest us, we have different solutions to our various problems, and when developing a business we all have our different markets that we want to tap into, we have our niche markets that we want to be able to open and use its resources, but despite our differences we are all similar...
We are all entrepreneurs;
who want to be successful
who want to make change
we want to be able to offer our communities something that will change their lives
We are more similar than we think we are different.
We have the same wants and needs, but don't get me wrong here, different is good.
We are all targeting different markets, and using the same strategies. That's awesome! Because we will have more resources to tap. What would happen if everyone 'entrepreneur-ed' into the same market place!
So our niche market is tapping into the Punjabi Community. Punjabi people are from a district in India called Punjab. Punjabi People speak Punjabi, and even the dialects vary from the north of Punjab to the South of Punjab. We have developed a website called www.punjabilinks.com which has a business directory for six cities (Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver), latest news, entertainment, connecting to villages in Punjab, photo galleries, today in history, community events and the list goes on.
Punjabi Links is the hub of the Punjabi Community.
We haven't stopped at that the business directory is actually a Video Business Directory, such that we make videos for businesses which increases the time a visitor would stay on their page. In addition to all this, we have made an app for the business directory. This app is the first in the Punjabi Community, and allows people to find businesses faster and easier.... 'Information at your fingertips.'
As mentioned above, despite our different niche markets, we all travel towards the same light of success.
Heres a video I came across, it really boosted me! Eric Thomas, the Hip Hop Preacher. Enjoy.
Connected to our previous post about having an idea and letting the bubble burst.....
We have been speaking to a few friends and businessman, we figured that one of our venues of promoting needs to be through people who are 'movers and shakers' in the community.
People who have made or are making a big impact on society in the positive light, and those people are 'heard' by society. We need to tell those people about Punjabi Links website, and our app such that they will see what we have developed and realize what we are trying to do for the community with the intentions that they will promote the project.
We can also provide various businessman incentives to promote our the project, such that we both will benefit from the relationship.
We hope to make these connections and promote the project.
But the question remains.... Will the bubble burst? Will we be able to become the 'change' we want? We want to be able to change the minds of our society from paper business directory to using the app for the same purpose, as its faster, easier and much much more convienant.
This convienance needs to be 'shown' to the people so they will realize how much time they can save from using the app. We will be showing the app in various community events, functions, social gatherings, such that the convienance can be felt first hand.
So how long will it take?
The answer to this question is primarily answered by our team. How fast the bubble can burst is solely dependant on how fast our team can do the work.
So in essense it would be right to say here.... God Speed!~
We want our Website (www.punjabilinks.com) and our App to reach every corner of the world.
That is the entrepreneurial dream, to be able to reach their target audience, give them a stir, show them, tell them what you have made for THEM... to make their lives easier and happier.
This website and app are 3 years in the making and our team has craved out what we think would be the best solution for the people to be connected to businesses and their community.
A lot of us rely on different types of businesses for certain things, and finding those businesses can be a hassle. Moreover, you would want to be able to get a quick snapshot of what the business is doing and get a feel of how that business does their business!
So at Punjabi Links.com we have developed just that.
We have over 150 categories of businesses that the user can view and find what they need.
The user can view the businesses 60 second Video Ad on the business profile page, so the customer can get a quick snapshot about the business.
The business listing is also located on the Mobile App available on Iphone and Android Platforms. It is literally; Information at your fingertips.
All this information at one spot; www.punjabilinks.com
Now we have a website and the corresponding App; but we didn't stop at just the business directory. We went into all aspects that touch a community; Latest News, Entertainment, Videos, Photo Gallery, Finding your Pind (Village), History, Heritage, Culture, Learn the Language, Travel and the list goes on.
So essentially, Punjabi Links is the hub of the community. A place where you would go for everything concerning your community.
Now to make Punjabi Links.com reach to every corner of the world.... how would we do that?
Use Social Media ~ Obvious Answer
Distribute Flyers ~ Old School - does have an impact even though small
Get promoted by known members of the community ~ working on that
Make Promotional Items to give our free ~ pens, notepads, and so on
Blog ~ Doing that!
I don't know I feel there is more to the story, but I can't quite figure it out... Our team has been brainstorming, but its the regular things that have been mentioned above, we need something else to make a BIG BANG, something that would tell us apart from the rest, something that would put us in our users face.... I feel the idea is brewing up inside, but its not coming out... We get ideas here and there, but nothing solid.... hmmmmmm.... lets give it some time.
So we are still in the process of reaching to every corner of the world.... give us your comments/suggestions if you have any....
Looking forward to more insights, and I'll keep you posted if the idea bubble bursts! ~ ~ ~
The stories is a bit funny... well at least I think its funny.
We were not going to launch the Punjabi Links App full fledged yet. We were going to wait another week or so, as our website www.punjabilinks.com needed to be redesigned and then implemented.
So we were going to wait a week to distribute the postcards and advertise the App.
I needed the link to the Punjabi Links App in the Apple App Store, as I wanted our Facebook Page ~ Punjabilinksdotcom to have the Apple App Link there. And the best way to get it was to share the link.
So I logged into my Facebook Page and I was using the Page as 'Punjabilinksdotcom' .... well so I thought.
When I shared the App Link through Facebook, the link didn't show up on my Page, but my personal profile. All my close friends and family knew about our project and were waiting for the launch. When they saw the link to the app, they started to like it right away!
I was about to delete the Apple App Link for Punjabi Links App from my profile, but when everyone started to like it within seconds, I stopped.
Wait a minute.
If everyone is starting to like it... Why not? So then I quickly decided to put the line,
'BETA VERSION. OFFICIAL SITE YET TO LAUNCH. SEND YOUR COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS TO US'
on top of our current website, big, bold and yellow background.
When we did that, it felt really good.
We have official launched our App and Website (which is in Beta Version), as of Friday October 12th 2012.
AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!
What a sigh of relief that is...
I didn't realize what had just happened. The project that we have been working on for the past 3 years, has suddenly just launched itself!
HA!
Its awesome how kismet, faith, mysteries of the universe, and the ultimate force play out... everything is in your control yet nothing is!
So now we are crazily promoting through Facebook, newsletters (thanks Mail Chimp!), word of mouth, messaging... and the list goes on.
All that we had prepared is now being implemented.
