One gloomy day some bright underworked TV guy thought - wouldnt it be fun to have viewers SMSing live to the channel? The ultimate in 'convergence'! (Among words, this has to be a fast-tracker! From meaning 'the arriving together of a bus, truck, two wheeler and a cow in the middle of the road while trying to outrun each other, it has come to mean 'a cutting edge concoction of all media')
The result - a whole generation of kids whose eyes move like a typewriter - from left to right & back. After the initial few months where the channels themselves had to send these SMSes from 'luvr_boy' and 'cute_gal', this seemed to have 'captured the imagination of the country'. Now any channel with an iota of self pride has SMSes as part of the screen. So not only do you get to see Aiswarya Rai dancing away, you also find out what 'wild_at_heart' from Ranchi is doing for dinner on Saturday. How is that for convergence?
Not all is lost however! What better way for citizens of the greatest democracy on earth to engage in nation building than by particpating in one of the 'SMS surveys' by news channels? This should definitely fire up the underbelly of the country & have people shouting 'the pen is mightier than the sword, but nothing compares to Ak47s as CDMA'.
And we all know for sure that our leaders are also glued to television, taking decisions of national import like our vote against Iran in the UN, depending on what Munnabhai from Kanpur is sending - NUKE IRAN to 3636 or -SPOOK IRAN to 3637. And surely, during the four hours of meeting that the BCCI committee had with GC & SG at least an hour was spent tallying the results of the online poll - "Is SG physically, mentally & emotionally fit to lead the team"
One of my 'sources' from the telecom sector tells me that there are usually about 8 guys participating in each of these polls. But boy your day would be made too if you found out you were part of the 67% who decided "YES - The only way out of this mess is for both Sourav & Greg to appear on "Koffee with Karan", bare all, cry if required, decide between Kareena and Kournikova during rapid fire and then bury the hatchet.
Disclaimer - I have not been paid by any telecom major. If they had, then may be I would not have written this.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Where is the 'public'?
Apparently, there is a 'general'strike today across India.
There is a 16 point agenda on the basis of which the strike has been called for. And most likely, these are as generalised as demands can get, and therefore cannot be addressed effectively by anyone. This means that there is no way this strike can be a success by any stretch of the imagination, assuming of course that a strike can be a success in the first place. It would have of course resulted in unimaginable hardships for millions of people ranging from medical emergencies to postponed weddings. And in this country of ours, the latter could have more ramifications than the former.
In the small state of Kerala down south, a strike can be triggered by three and a half fellows shouting at the top of their voices. So it is only expected that a country wide strike be responded to, in a befitting manner. Everyone from teachers to bank employees to students have joined it. The students are protesting against the 'commercialisation of education'.
I know this may be too much to expect - that one day - after India has won the cricket world cup and after Mr Greg chappel & Sourav Ganguly spends the friendship day together & after some one announces that there will be no more news channels in India - the 100 odd are enough - will come, when every member of the striking community will know exactly what they are stopping & disrupting work.
.....Nah! That would be too much to ask.
If you speak to anyone on the street, they are all the voices of reason - no one understands why the strike, it achieves nothing and so on. If that is the case, then where is the Indian public, who or on whose behalf this drama is being played out?
There is a 16 point agenda on the basis of which the strike has been called for. And most likely, these are as generalised as demands can get, and therefore cannot be addressed effectively by anyone. This means that there is no way this strike can be a success by any stretch of the imagination, assuming of course that a strike can be a success in the first place. It would have of course resulted in unimaginable hardships for millions of people ranging from medical emergencies to postponed weddings. And in this country of ours, the latter could have more ramifications than the former.
In the small state of Kerala down south, a strike can be triggered by three and a half fellows shouting at the top of their voices. So it is only expected that a country wide strike be responded to, in a befitting manner. Everyone from teachers to bank employees to students have joined it. The students are protesting against the 'commercialisation of education'.
I know this may be too much to expect - that one day - after India has won the cricket world cup and after Mr Greg chappel & Sourav Ganguly spends the friendship day together & after some one announces that there will be no more news channels in India - the 100 odd are enough - will come, when every member of the striking community will know exactly what they are stopping & disrupting work.
.....Nah! That would be too much to ask.
If you speak to anyone on the street, they are all the voices of reason - no one understands why the strike, it achieves nothing and so on. If that is the case, then where is the Indian public, who or on whose behalf this drama is being played out?
Monday, September 26, 2005
Chocolate - Dark & Bitter..
Good mystery movies are indeed like chocolate, leading you halfway to god, and leaving you wanting for more. But it appears that the director of 'Chocolate" has taken the tag line "Deep dark secrets" or something to that effect seriously - so seriously that he even leaves somethings as secrets when the movie is over.
An ambitious attempt, along the lines of the classic 'heist' movies, Chocolate does a damn good job right till the end. But alas, instead of the usual endgame where the director or the script writer reveals how the clever thieves got away with it all, there is an abrupt ending, leaving the poor 'multiplex viewer with the average IQ' (to whom this is clearly meant) in a lurch - too many questions unanswered, too many unexplained twists. For eg - what happened on the bloody ship, how did they get caught? Of course, this might be the devilish, mother of all twists where the director is having the last laugh, but I am sure he would have been feeling even better if he was doing so, all the way to the bank.
Quite slick though.
The frequent & forced references about sex, looks more the product of a "what-the-hell-I've-anyway-got-an-adult-certificate-i-might-as-well-justify-it" kind of thought than anything else.
But my sincere thanks to the director for sparing us the now famous "hot lips" Emraan in action. Suniel shetty, as usual delivers his dialogues as best as he can, inspite of the upper & lower jaws being sealed shut by the chewing gum that he has been chewing ever since his third movie. It does give him an interesting accent though. (I have nothing against sunil shetty, its just that I am in a smart-ass kind of mood).
To sum it up, the movie is like a wild ride in a dark alley in London, where around every other corner lurks an item number.
I still dont like dark chocolate but there are enough people who do.
An ambitious attempt, along the lines of the classic 'heist' movies, Chocolate does a damn good job right till the end. But alas, instead of the usual endgame where the director or the script writer reveals how the clever thieves got away with it all, there is an abrupt ending, leaving the poor 'multiplex viewer with the average IQ' (to whom this is clearly meant) in a lurch - too many questions unanswered, too many unexplained twists. For eg - what happened on the bloody ship, how did they get caught? Of course, this might be the devilish, mother of all twists where the director is having the last laugh, but I am sure he would have been feeling even better if he was doing so, all the way to the bank.
Quite slick though.
The frequent & forced references about sex, looks more the product of a "what-the-hell-I've-anyway-got-an-adult-certificate-i-might-as-well-justify-it" kind of thought than anything else.
But my sincere thanks to the director for sparing us the now famous "hot lips" Emraan in action. Suniel shetty, as usual delivers his dialogues as best as he can, inspite of the upper & lower jaws being sealed shut by the chewing gum that he has been chewing ever since his third movie. It does give him an interesting accent though. (I have nothing against sunil shetty, its just that I am in a smart-ass kind of mood).
To sum it up, the movie is like a wild ride in a dark alley in London, where around every other corner lurks an item number.
I still dont like dark chocolate but there are enough people who do.
Opinions
As Rahul Dravid says in a recent ad, "advise tho sab log dete hain". Especially when it comes to Cricket, our supposed religion, the common thread, the unifier. I am one of those 'soft core' fans of the game - knows enough to enjoy the game, but would not remember when the last time Sachin took a catch falling to his left without landing on his tennis elbow. And hence theoretically, I should be one of those guys who should not be feeling too strongly about the latest 'developments'. But strangely enough, I have been feeling a bit 'cheated'. Must be "the-these-guys-are-there-because-of-fans-like-me-syndrome".
I was watching the last pit stops of Fernando Alonso - the one before he went on to become the F1 Champion & Kimi Raikonnen -before he went down trying. A million things could go wrong - one of the mechanics might have an off day, the refueller may not have had his mom call up on his cell phone & wish him luck, the guy holding the board saying "First Gear" might feel that his job is not getting the importance it deserves, the guy poking a needle into the front tyre may "peak" too quickly - but God, does it go smoothly. 5.8 seconds one of them took!
Last couple of days, I have been feeling that we may never have professional cricketers/sportspersons/office bearers/administrators, in the true sense. They all fall victim to the "opinions". Unlike other countries, where someone is considered worthy of an opinion only after he has crossed a certain threshold in his/her area. Is it because as a nation, we have too few celebrities worth the limelight?
I was watching the last pit stops of Fernando Alonso - the one before he went on to become the F1 Champion & Kimi Raikonnen -before he went down trying. A million things could go wrong - one of the mechanics might have an off day, the refueller may not have had his mom call up on his cell phone & wish him luck, the guy holding the board saying "First Gear" might feel that his job is not getting the importance it deserves, the guy poking a needle into the front tyre may "peak" too quickly - but God, does it go smoothly. 5.8 seconds one of them took!
Last couple of days, I have been feeling that we may never have professional cricketers/sportspersons/office bearers/administrators, in the true sense. They all fall victim to the "opinions". Unlike other countries, where someone is considered worthy of an opinion only after he has crossed a certain threshold in his/her area. Is it because as a nation, we have too few celebrities worth the limelight?
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