Waking up to India, finally !!

A lot of movies have been made acknowledging the presence of the huge number of software techies in the West though most of these acknowledgments came from the Desis themselves. There have been a few instances where this fact has been portrayed by the Westerners, though very seldom.

Google has been feeding off our intelligence for quite some time now and it was expected that this would be visible in their PR exercises soon. A brilliant example of this is:

It was about time that either of Rakesh, Ramesh or Vivek (in this case) replace the till-now-present Marys, Ted, Rosss and Susans. How long would it take to see a Ted in the demos created by say indiatimes.com?

Ground Reality

Sanjay Bangar writes here about the state of the varied grounds used for Ranji Trophy matches. Here are a few intriguing excerpts:

There is a ground in Guwahati where a busy railway track runs right behind the sight-screen. The game has to stop on a number of occasions when a train is passing by as the players don’t want to be disturbed by a moving train when they want to concentrate on the moving ball, nor do the umpires want to miss a faint tickle because of the sound of the train.

The GSFC Ground in Baroda where we played the Ranji final in 2000-01 is located amid thick forestry. Players were often reluctant to go in search of the ball once it crossed the boundary rope because there we had loads of monkeys for company on the periphery and nobody was keen to invite the monkeys’ wrath in case they suddenly found a liking for the red cherry.

I am sure there would be so many more interesting stories in Indian first class cricket which don't reach our ears. And, it is a brilliant idea to get first class 'struggling' cricketers to write columns. This gives the aspirants an estimate of the steep climb before the glamorous peak and some sound-bytes to people like me who are suffering from the writer's block.

'Aaj Tak' aisa nahi hua..

B.P. Singhal, former IPS and ex-Rajya Sabha member, writes this in one of his columns after he was interviewed by Aaj Tak after the recent Narendra Modi expose by Tehelka.

Aaj Tak harped on the same old refrain that ‘Modi did not call the Army until three days had passed’. When the TV channel contacted me on phone to get my response, I told the anchor that the Godhra carnage took place on February 27, 2002, that the Hindu backlash commenced on February 28 and the Army was doing flag march on the forenoon of March 1… He cut me short by saying that ‘This is exactly what we had said, no action was taken by Modi on 29th, 30th and 31st thus giving three clear days to the murderers…’ I had to cut him short by reminding him that the date 28th was 28th of February 2002 and there were no 29th, 30th or 31st in that month. The phone was of course disconnected. Link

Depressing for the Indian media!! Isn't it? Though it certainly suits a news channel like Aaj Tak which makes breaking news out of things like "Abhishek Bachchan didn't say 'Hello Sweetie' to Ash this morning after waking up. Are they taking a divorce?" or even more wackier ones like "Sting on Sonia Gandhi: She has two holes on her left ear but only one on the right."

P.S. This inspires me to write a post on '10 most wackiest breaking news on Indian television'. Coming up soon.

So-Nil (in PR) Gavaskar

The mention of the word 'Sydney', at this point of time, would result in the recollection of all the ensuing fracas in the so called gentleman's game. A lot of ink has been wasted by a lot of people trying to shout at top of their voices on how Bucknor is a secret ISI agent sent to annihilate the Indian cricket team or whether Ponting should enrol for the Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's newly launched course titled "The art of playing".

And one voices among the present mob is of Sunil Gavaskar, who claims to be a commentator, very patriotic in nature who breaks down in the studio every time India record an overseas win. Though most of us have conveniently forgotten that he is also the the chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee and thus responsible for keeping the reputation of ICC intact but what we have seen of him in this episode is him lambasting the ICC left, right and center and even hinting at a racism claim against one of the ICC Referees. This is what he says:

Millions of Indians want to know if was a 'white man' taking the 'white man's' word against that of the 'brown man'. Quite simply if there was no audio evidence nor did the officials hear anything then the charge did not stand... This is what has incensed the millions of Indians who are flabbergasted that the word of one of the greatest players in the history of the game, Sachin Tendulkar, was not accepted. In effect, Tendulkar has been branded a liar by the match-referee.

Pretty naive and hasty for a man like Sunil Gavaskar to voice an opinion of such nature. Somebody truly needs to remind him that some part of his monthly wage is also contributed by the ICC.

Time, where art thou?

Probably the busiest period of my stay here at IIT.

Last Week: Spons, IMS, Midsem, Quiz, Presentation, Drams, Assignment.
This Week: Assignment, Midsem, Spons, Intern, Drams, IMS, Quiz.
Next Week: Presentation, Spons, HOME, Intern, Assignment.
Next^2 Week: Presentation, Seminar, Intern, Term Paper, Spons.
Next^3 Week: Endsems on the way, Spons
Next^4 Week: Endsems.
Next^5 Week: Radar goes blank.

Sigh!!

Gaffe at T20

This is the image that would be etched in our mids for quite some time. Oh! what a game of cricket it was - more so because India won eventually. But what sticks out as a sore thumb and has refused to recede from the confines of my mind is the following quote of Shoaib Malik at the presentation ceremony:

"First of all I want to say something over here. I want to thank you back home Pakistan and where the Muslim lives all over the world. I am sorry we didn't win but promise we did give our 100%..." (sic)

It still eludes me as to what makes him think that every Muslim in this world would be cheering for Pakistan and not for their home country. All of us know that Pakistan is a declared Islamic state but Shoaib has conveniently assumed that all Islamists are Pakistanis. This is so naive a comment that I still find it hard to believe that it has come from the captain of an international cricket team. Agreed that Shoaib Malik was fearful of the fact that he might suffer the same fate as Bob Woolmer but this is not the way to go around saving your life. Imagine the kind of impact his comments would have had on the many Muslim households (particularly one Pathan household which had two of their Muslim sons playing together for India for the first time) in India who were cheering for their home country. As Mukul Kesavan rightly writes:

It is a world where Muslims, Hindus and a Sikh currently play (the game of cricket) for England, where Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and a Hindu play for Sri Lanka, where Hashim Amla turns out for South Africa, where a Patel plays for New Zealand, where Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Hindus play (and have always played) for India. Why would Shoaib think, then, that the Muslims of the world were collectively rooting for the Pakistan team or that they felt let down by its defeat? Did he stop to think of how Danish Kaneria, his Hindu team-mate, might feel hearing his Test skipper all but declare that the Pakistan team is a Muslim team that plays for the Muslims of the world? It is one thing to be publicly religious—Shahid Afridi thanked Allah and Matt Hayden and Shaun Pollock are proud, believing Christians—quite another to declare that your country's cricket eleven bats for international Islam.

If Shoaib took in nothing else about the final, he must have noticed that the bowler who took his wicket was called Irfan Khan Pathan, that the Indian team's most visible cheerleader, the guy who was hugging Indian players in turn at the end of the game, was one Shah Rukh Khan. I feel a residual distaste in even mentioning their names because both Shah Rukh and Irfan are admired in India for what they've achieved, not who they are... (link)

It's time to hire a PR agency, Mr. Malik !!

Vividh Bharati and the Independent India

I admit to never hearing Vividh Bharati, but I have heard enough stories to consider it as an integral part of the just-independent India's culture. Vividh Bharati would complete it's 50 years tomorrow and is hosting a day long program to commemorate the event. The Hindu came out with a brilliantly written piece on the history of Vividh Bharati and it's association with the India of yesteryears.

It was a life dictated by Akashvani. If Baldevanand Sagar as much as began the Sanskrit news, it sounded my death knell, as it was time to run out of the house to catch the school bus. The day ended with a glare from my mother if I did not go to bed when the long-drawn and dramatic voice announced ‘Hawa Mahal’. In the absence of television and national newspapers in our town, the 9 p.m. news was the most important link with the world outside. Having little interest in news, I would get fidgety and more often than not, end up speaking and being firmly reprimanded by my father. Bored, as I walked up to my room, Ramanuj Prasad Singh’s booming voice followed me....Read more

A few interesting points discovered:

• Jhumiri Talaiya (yes, it is a real place and not a figment of imagination) became famous throughout India overnight as youngsters in the town would compete on who sent out the most song requests in a day or month. This led to almost all Vividh Bharati Radio listeners being aware of the name of this town and subsequently the whole of India. (Wiki link)
  

• The show comperes used to qualify themselves as Aapki Behan or Aapka Dost and not as RJs. Get one female compere to announce herself as "Main hoon aapki behan XYZ" today and that station would have all it's listeners switched off in a second.

Pretty interesting must have been those times !!