Category: Social Commentary

  • Its Party time…………..

    ..but its nothing to celebrate, because its only a poliical parties we are talking about…
    the first one is the proposed party by the CITU whose members would be from the IT and ITES communities.. and the name that i believe would reflect their objective best would be be SHIT workers – Stop Harassment of IT workers..now i am totally for the formation of an entity to protect the interests of the IT guys, but theres no need for CITU to be involved in it….
    the second one has just happened at home, and the fact that its origins are in kerala is not the only thing that caught my eye.. while the founder, ex-congressman K.Karunakaran had initially wanted the name ‘Indira Congress’, the election commission felt it was too similar to existing parties, and therefore refused to give him permission to use that name for his party.. so, our man, not to be undone,tried to get permission for a new name, and got it!! and that resulted in the Democratic Indira Congress.. and the media went ahead and proclaimed that DIC was here,and in case there was a shadow of a doubt, there was a photo of a beaming Karunakaran, and just so it would be clear to everyone, as to who had founded the party, he made a minor modification to his party name, in contemporary style, and its now officiallyDIC(K) !!
    and while speaking of acronyms, with the email scandal, injuries and the challenger series coming up, me thinks its not going to be easy being Bored of Control for Cricket in India..
    until next time, GTG..:)

  • Ad Mad World…

    Advertisements, that which are used to market things we may or may not want… but now, television commercials have become a source of entertainment all by themselves, irrespective of whether theproduct/service is interesting to us at all.. and so, that got me thinking, do we relate to ads in the same way that we relate to fellow humans also…
    We have the ads that are about the things we have to live with the mobiles and service providers,which are essential for us on a routine basis… kinda like relatives.. dont necessarily have to like them, but not exactly disposable either.. of course, among these we might find some ads that we love, just like some cousins/aunts/uncles etc who are special to us and nice people who happen to be relatives…
    and then there are ads, which may not have any relation to what we want, but we still like them and may even adopt the product/service because of this liking.. like friends… of course, the friends hopefully last longer than the particular ad campaign…in general, we most usually like the ads that have a bit of humour in them, or the ones that give an emotional tug, or the ones that remind us of us… i guess we relate to people in a similar kind of way…
    yes, i am into marketing and am working a lot these days, work which includes ads… and yes, it would have been still okay if it reflected only in the posts i write, but when, during introductions, when i respond to ‘Hi, i am Xyzee’, with a ‘Hi, I am stressed’, i guess there is a problem somewhere 😉
    until next time, does it all add up??

  • The English have gone, but….

    Remeber the scene in ‘Pretty Woman’ where Julia Roberts goes into the swanky clothes store and gets politely thrown out, because they serve only a certain elite clientele, and she certainly didnt fit that profile. i remebered it too, a few days back….
    The city has got itself a new eatery, perfectly located at the most happening mall here… the name of the restaurant is that of the first ‘real’ train that ever ran in India,and they have a theme that matches it, complete with a section that looks like the inside of a railway carriage, and bells which are sounded regularly, followed by announcements.. the music,is of course, instrumental, thankfully old hindi tracks… and thats enough of description..
    So, we landed up at the reception, partially wet from the rains which insists on keeping me company these days, where we were met by a very neatly dressed lady… we were given a ‘top to bottom’ appraisal and obviously we werent impressive enough (well, what can a faded jacket, denim, a beard without a moustache for company, and a ‘got wet in the rain’ look muster!!), for she politely said that we would have to wait for at least an hour before she could get us a seat… nice try, ma’am!!
    to be fair, there was a crowd there, and i would have been happy if that was the reason.. but the guys have taken the ambience very seriously, and were behaving with us, exactly the way the English used to, with a contempt underlying all words and actions…
    once upon a time, we got the British to do it to us, but these days, we do it all to ourselves!!
    until next time, i guess its only food… for thought…

  • The calling…

    thats a good band, but this post aint about them, its about us..
    virtual acquaintances- to each other, thats mostly what we are..
    my tryst with yahoo messenger began during my post grad days, i think it was the place where ‘manuscrypts’ as a term originated… all my yahoo friends were people who were known to me ‘really’.. so there was no question of ‘virtual personalities’..it’s only blogging where most of the people i know are ‘virtual personalities’.. to a certain extent, they are only as virtual as their photos online.. but then again,i think i’ve seen only simon’s, pradeep’s and wings’. to be fair, images helped me find a cousin who blogs, but that, i think, was only an aberration…i have never been too fond of blogmeets, simply because i love the anonymity and the’someone, somewhere’ feeling (no, not the ‘made for you’ one, a little more ordinary)..
    more importantly, to maintain a forum where judgements are made only based on thoughts and words, not the physical manifestations… to put it a lil more bluntly acne, dandruff, body odour etc dont matter on the net.. at a similarly superficial level, nor do complexion, looks etc… personalities are what they write…but, increasingly, i find that more friends are being made on blogs than in real life,maybe because, there is no compulsion, i can read someone’s writings, if i like what i read, i’ll be back, else i wont.. simple, and no baggage.. and people take hints much better online..hehe..
    maybe its easier to reach a comfort level this way, without the regular constraints… the next step in evolution, is to find out whether once the comfort level is achieved, can it be scaled upto the real friends level? times have changed, havent they? from building friendships in the real world and facing the challenge of maintaining them online to building friendships online and facing the challenge of maintaining them in the real world?
    someone in the list is coming to bangalore, so here’s calling all creatures of the web, what about a meet over coffee??
    until next time, virtually yours…

  • So, how’s India Shining?

    hey, hey, hey, my first post for the new year, hope all of you guys had a blast….and have gotten rid of the hangovers!! i snored my way into new year, which is a ritual..cant be changed…. 🙂
    now, where cricket is concerned, india was certainly shining yesterday, felt very happy for the debutant rohan gavaskar…must be so difficult for the guy, to make a niche for himself in the game, with the shadow of sunil gavaskar looming over him perpetually. it takes solid guts to get into the field where his dad earned the title ‘little master’. there have been many instances where i thought the guy would make it into the playing eleven, only to be rejected in the end. sometimes, i felt the selectors shied away from him, coz they didnt want charges of bias leveled against them…nyways hope he does well…..and yes, i honestly feel like starting a forum to stop steve bucknor from refereeing India’s matches!!!!
    but the recent ads that are being aired on tv and splattered on print, look too much like a well orchestrated PR campaign, to ignite the patriotism in me… add to it the discussion forums, and the cartoons about the ‘shining’ and the ‘feel good factor’, and i see a lot of reasons why just some infrastructural and sector specific (read BPO, ITES, IT) booms dont actually make me feel that good… one simple example would be my state,no, not my personal state, hehe, but that of “god’s own country”- Kerala…. a hartal every 3 days, extortion mafias mushrooming, no self respecting IT company (yes, there is an infy, but thats an exception to the rule) willing to invest, and that, in the state that has the second highest literacy, and indeces and statistics, that could give the west a run for their money.. the rest of the country still has its share of foreigners getting raped, dowry deaths (i recently saw a very gruesome report on, i think ndtv, where an iron rod was pushed into a 4 year old girl’s genitals, while her mother was being tortured for more dowry), corrupt politicians who make the policy decisions for the country..so while i agree that india is gaining, i am not so sure of the shining bit!!
    this article is worth a read, on this topic.a couple of links that you guys should have a look at, one is the delhi bloggers meet photographs, for which i should be thanking simon and w-bug, hell, i havent yet asked them if it is ok to post it, guys, if theres a problem just post a message. the other link, is a total whacko, have a look at it, its totally out of the box, trust me.which brings me to
    manuscrypts trivia
    i have come across a few einstein quotes, so am gonna post them in small doses
    “The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books; a mysterious order it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. BUThe also says
    “Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. ” 🙂