A long time ago, (and wow has it been a long time!) I had written about how Indian IT industry must climb up the value chain. Since then I have known a few companies that have done so through high tech startups based off US but getting a lot of quality work done out of India and also of a handful of brave souls doing business in the west based out of India. The entrepreneurship spirit in India is blooming in other industries, but what about IT?
A story which has caught my attention for many months and has been kept alive during all the gadget talk at office is the much heralded and very little known Adam tablet. “Oh no, not another ipad wannabe”, you say. Well my friend, before we kill the product by calling it an ipad killer, let us give it some attention and possibly its due. This device has quite a few firsts to its name:
1. Its gonna be the first android 2.3 (gingerbread) based tablet
2. Its gonna be the first tablet to house the power frugal nvidia tegra 2 at its heart
3. Its gonna be the first tablet to have the pixel qi screen
4. Its gonna be able to play more than a day of continuous 1080p video playback
5. And most importantly, Its gonna be the first India based tablet which fights in the world scene (not counting olivepad)
The CEO of notionink, the company behind the Adam tablet, is Rohan Shravan, an IIT alumnus. Unlike his numerous predecessors and peers, he chose to NOT create jobs in US, but rather in India! He is a young chap and his confidence in his product was evident during his interview to ET Now. The start has definitely been promising but the company has pushed out the release dates in the past (not surprising) and any more details may kill a lot of the “new” stuff that Adam tablet has to offer. There is also the challenge of getting people to write some seriously nice apps for this platform, which wont be easy for a small company. Also, they need to give the look of a company that is out there to do serious business and actually beat the likes of Apple and Samsung and avoid such goofs.
All in all, very proud of what this company has achieved! And if they bring down the price by another $100 (wishful thinking never killed anyone) and ship within India for less than $50 then I will buy one. ;-)
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Monday, December 20, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Movie and reality
There are so many movies released these days with either very interesting plots or very interesting promos that I end up seeing a good number of them. I then feel hardly inspired to write movie reviews because a good number of them won't even be worth a mention. But here is a post that is not a review but yet is inspired by a movie.
I watched Rakht Charitra a few weeks back and today watched the second part of the RGV two part experiment. The movie in itself was just an extension of the first part and all violence, what got me interested were the pearls off wisdom that RGV had to say at the end of the movie. :-)
Did some googling, some wiki and some youtube and what I discovered was quite scary. The movie in both its parts shows a lot of violence and shows the heady mix of politics and caste issues in Andhra. The violence shown is so gruesome and the revenge and vendetta so unreal that the realization that all that was shown was more or less factually correct was most shocking.
Whatever be the reasons and I don't claim to understand any of it, to know we live in situations where forget corruption but this level of violence exists is an eye opener. I have read on and off about naxalites and how violent they are when they exact revenge and then too see it in celluloid strangely makes it all the more real.
The political system and will around such gruesomeness also tells you that no matter how much we middle class try, India has too much baggage it carries for us to pull it out off this mess. Was I naive enough to think we could, yes, I was.
I believe that if each individual sets his house right, then, over time, the nation will also be set right. Not all of us have the will to fight against crime and corruption, but a long as we support those who are, we are doing our part.
But if the ground reality is this bad, do we stand a chance?
I watched Rakht Charitra a few weeks back and today watched the second part of the RGV two part experiment. The movie in itself was just an extension of the first part and all violence, what got me interested were the pearls off wisdom that RGV had to say at the end of the movie. :-)
Did some googling, some wiki and some youtube and what I discovered was quite scary. The movie in both its parts shows a lot of violence and shows the heady mix of politics and caste issues in Andhra. The violence shown is so gruesome and the revenge and vendetta so unreal that the realization that all that was shown was more or less factually correct was most shocking.
Whatever be the reasons and I don't claim to understand any of it, to know we live in situations where forget corruption but this level of violence exists is an eye opener. I have read on and off about naxalites and how violent they are when they exact revenge and then too see it in celluloid strangely makes it all the more real.
The political system and will around such gruesomeness also tells you that no matter how much we middle class try, India has too much baggage it carries for us to pull it out off this mess. Was I naive enough to think we could, yes, I was.
I believe that if each individual sets his house right, then, over time, the nation will also be set right. Not all of us have the will to fight against crime and corruption, but a long as we support those who are, we are doing our part.
But if the ground reality is this bad, do we stand a chance?
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Disgusted and Helpless
For a generation that I belong to, which is bestowed with the responsibility of taking India to a superpower in world economies, the condition at home is far from inspiring. When I say "Home", you can take it as India, you can take it as Karnataka and you can also take it as Bengaluru.
Take India on the whole and like in the last couple of decades, we are not short of scams at any point of time. The only difference, we have graduated from scams that were a few tens or hunderds of crores to thousands, ten thousands and even lakhs!! Take Karnataka and you have the whole fiasco with majority vote for BJP government, here we are talking of partys on the whole trying to grab power by horse, now lets not calls these goons horses, more like donkey trading(sorry donkey)! And finally let’s take Bengaluru and we are hit by the continuous stream of land grabbing news coming out of the Yeddy family coffers.
Now, scams are not new to us. We have seen our fair share of them over the years. The CWG scam was just Kalmadi making hay when sun shines, god knows when we will host another non-cricket world event of any repute (CWG just about cuts it). While Raja was just doing what he was sent to Delhi to do, make money for DMK. Of course, it helps if you are dating the supremo’s granddaughter! The Adarsh society issue is possibly the most harmless or least money involving of the lot. And there has been one fall guy for all of these scams. Kalmadi is gone, Raja is gone and Chavan is gone. Enquiry is on for each of these scams, but the Congress party has at least shown the door to the primary person involved in these. It isn't much and it is too late, but then, it is something. What sets the Karnataka/Bengaluru scams apart is the openess of everything. All this is being said and done in the open! Imagine the confidence and gall of Yeddy to say publicly that he has done all the land grabbing that is being mentioned. And what is his defense?? His predecessors have done it and he has just followed the "tradition"! The tradition??, what kind of lunacy is this?? And he and his think-tanks figure out a perfect way to get out of this nice mess. They agree and spearhead a probe into the land grabbing, but not just the current one but whatever has happened in the last 10 years! This way, the other corrupt lot of opposition politicians keeps their mouth shut and all this gets brushed under the ever growingly stinky carpet. This jackass should be thrown out of office for not only doing all this land grabbing, but also for not doing anything about all the misdoings by "tradition" that he was aware of!! Karnataka is the first state in south India where BJP has come to power and instead of being a beacon of good governance, as was promised, it has epitomized what can go wrong in a power and money starved political setup. The mining thing and reddys happened, numerous lok ayukta issues happened, katta happened, the renukacharya happened and now land grabbing. Nothing has resulted in the BJP top brass doing anything. It is almost as if the state government has been told to make money and make money fast, the elections are gonna come anyway. And all we get from Joker of a CM is, tears... yes, this nincompoop can put crocodiles to shame!
What does this make us citizens as?? Just bystanders? Its true most of us dont have the time to spend, but we have the monetary will and wish to make governance better. If I have to pay shitload of taxes just for these goons and buffons to make merry, I sure can spend money to get some professionals to play out the case for us on court. Ideally, this can be under the purview of some government body, but since the perpetrator here and in most cases is the government, this has to be a higher authority. Something which is less tainted or influenced by governments, say the judiciary. Can this work? What is the flaw? Dont tell me that the the adage "want something done, do it yourself" is going to be the solution here, coz this whole "do it yourself" is bullshit! I am doing my part which is doing my job which gives me money in my hand to spend in this land. Remember the early part about economic superpower?? Yeah, I am part of that effort. On the other hand, the effort needed to "do it" is so high... sorry, I will rather rant on blogs and live my life in this corrupted land than have to "do it". I and I am sure more like me have the will and means to help, someone make use of it, else... thanks for reading! :-)
Take India on the whole and like in the last couple of decades, we are not short of scams at any point of time. The only difference, we have graduated from scams that were a few tens or hunderds of crores to thousands, ten thousands and even lakhs!! Take Karnataka and you have the whole fiasco with majority vote for BJP government, here we are talking of partys on the whole trying to grab power by horse, now lets not calls these goons horses, more like donkey trading(sorry donkey)! And finally let’s take Bengaluru and we are hit by the continuous stream of land grabbing news coming out of the Yeddy family coffers.
Now, scams are not new to us. We have seen our fair share of them over the years. The CWG scam was just Kalmadi making hay when sun shines, god knows when we will host another non-cricket world event of any repute (CWG just about cuts it). While Raja was just doing what he was sent to Delhi to do, make money for DMK. Of course, it helps if you are dating the supremo’s granddaughter! The Adarsh society issue is possibly the most harmless or least money involving of the lot. And there has been one fall guy for all of these scams. Kalmadi is gone, Raja is gone and Chavan is gone. Enquiry is on for each of these scams, but the Congress party has at least shown the door to the primary person involved in these. It isn't much and it is too late, but then, it is something. What sets the Karnataka/Bengaluru scams apart is the openess of everything. All this is being said and done in the open! Imagine the confidence and gall of Yeddy to say publicly that he has done all the land grabbing that is being mentioned. And what is his defense?? His predecessors have done it and he has just followed the "tradition"! The tradition??, what kind of lunacy is this?? And he and his think-tanks figure out a perfect way to get out of this nice mess. They agree and spearhead a probe into the land grabbing, but not just the current one but whatever has happened in the last 10 years! This way, the other corrupt lot of opposition politicians keeps their mouth shut and all this gets brushed under the ever growingly stinky carpet. This jackass should be thrown out of office for not only doing all this land grabbing, but also for not doing anything about all the misdoings by "tradition" that he was aware of!! Karnataka is the first state in south India where BJP has come to power and instead of being a beacon of good governance, as was promised, it has epitomized what can go wrong in a power and money starved political setup. The mining thing and reddys happened, numerous lok ayukta issues happened, katta happened, the renukacharya happened and now land grabbing. Nothing has resulted in the BJP top brass doing anything. It is almost as if the state government has been told to make money and make money fast, the elections are gonna come anyway. And all we get from Joker of a CM is, tears... yes, this nincompoop can put crocodiles to shame!
What does this make us citizens as?? Just bystanders? Its true most of us dont have the time to spend, but we have the monetary will and wish to make governance better. If I have to pay shitload of taxes just for these goons and buffons to make merry, I sure can spend money to get some professionals to play out the case for us on court. Ideally, this can be under the purview of some government body, but since the perpetrator here and in most cases is the government, this has to be a higher authority. Something which is less tainted or influenced by governments, say the judiciary. Can this work? What is the flaw? Dont tell me that the the adage "want something done, do it yourself" is going to be the solution here, coz this whole "do it yourself" is bullshit! I am doing my part which is doing my job which gives me money in my hand to spend in this land. Remember the early part about economic superpower?? Yeah, I am part of that effort. On the other hand, the effort needed to "do it" is so high... sorry, I will rather rant on blogs and live my life in this corrupted land than have to "do it". I and I am sure more like me have the will and means to help, someone make use of it, else... thanks for reading! :-)
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Bad Sport
The first test match between India and Australia at Mohali ended up being a classic. It will definitely be remembered for Laxmans class and Ishants defiance, not to mention their will to fight over physical pain. Test cricket is dead, but then, such matches do help revive the memories a bit.
But that being said, with Commonwealth Games on at Delhi, it was super insensitive of the BCCI and all concerned to have the most anticipated test series, possibly more than an India vs Pakistan series, to be help coinciding with the games. We live in a cricket crazy nation and the series just takes the spotlight away from CWG. Delaying this series by a couple of weeks should not have mattered to cricket, but would have made a world of difference to CWG. Abhinav Bindra went on to say “The Commonwealth Games will dominate the news columns. At least I want to live with that illusion.” Imagine our Olympic Gold medal winner having to make such statements.
This whole crap about BCCI being a non government body and the government having no control over it is all bullshit! For a non government body it sure has a lot of government ministers and in some cases chief ministers as head of the state cricket boards! The government should have cracked the whip and told BCCI to take a break of two weeks and then continue with their money making ways!
But that being said, with Commonwealth Games on at Delhi, it was super insensitive of the BCCI and all concerned to have the most anticipated test series, possibly more than an India vs Pakistan series, to be help coinciding with the games. We live in a cricket crazy nation and the series just takes the spotlight away from CWG. Delaying this series by a couple of weeks should not have mattered to cricket, but would have made a world of difference to CWG. Abhinav Bindra went on to say “The Commonwealth Games will dominate the news columns. At least I want to live with that illusion.” Imagine our Olympic Gold medal winner having to make such statements.
This whole crap about BCCI being a non government body and the government having no control over it is all bullshit! For a non government body it sure has a lot of government ministers and in some cases chief ministers as head of the state cricket boards! The government should have cracked the whip and told BCCI to take a break of two weeks and then continue with their money making ways!
Sunday, October 03, 2010
The test...
11 more days... yes, we need to survive 11 days of thoughtless media scrutiny and irresponsible bureaucracy to come out head not held low. The CWG 2010 is on and in-spite of a super bad run-up to the games, we somehow have managed a "jugaad" solution to get the games going.
Most of us, the hapless middle-class can only watch what is shown to us and discuss about in the cafeteria in our offices, and the general consensus was that the games be scrapped. It is so sad to think that our so called competitors, China help the Olympics in such a breathtaking manner, while we struggle to put our best foot forward for the comparatively insignificant Commonwealth Games.
On the other hand, we could think like Mr.Anirban Chaudhuri, who claims that commonwealth games are a display of imperialism and slavery. And if this were the case, we may in fact start praying for the games to flop. :-)
Most of us, the hapless middle-class can only watch what is shown to us and discuss about in the cafeteria in our offices, and the general consensus was that the games be scrapped. It is so sad to think that our so called competitors, China help the Olympics in such a breathtaking manner, while we struggle to put our best foot forward for the comparatively insignificant Commonwealth Games.
On the other hand, we could think like Mr.Anirban Chaudhuri, who claims that commonwealth games are a display of imperialism and slavery. And if this were the case, we may in fact start praying for the games to flop. :-)
Sunday, July 18, 2010
How do they do it?
Not so long ago, Bill Gates pledged almost all (if not all) of his money to a charitable trust run by his wife and himself. Warren Buffet, the guru of the stock markets pledged his billions to the same charitable trust. And today I read this. Paul Allen, the other and less famous half of Microsoft, and a successful VC in his own right, has pledged many billions to a charity trust started by him.
This kind of Philanthropy truly amazed me. Of course, you can question if this is all just some kinda hogwash and maybe the money is getting channeled back to them. But frankly, there are too many hawk eyes and ears in the world these days and pulling something off of this nature is next to impossible. So, the only possible explanation is the most unbelievable one! These guys are actually parting with their life's hard earned money!! I am just super surprised by all this because, Philanthropy of any form doesn't come naturally to me, and it does not for most Indians. And we really don't have such examples set by Indian businessmen either. Sure, there are some who give up their lives working and caring for the poor or needy, but how many part with their money and that too so much of it! Can you imagine the feuding Ambanis parting with so much of their money? Or maybe the splintered Birlas or the family run businesses like Bajaj or Godrej or .. I can go on and on...
Some facts are surely stranger than fiction!!
This kind of Philanthropy truly amazed me. Of course, you can question if this is all just some kinda hogwash and maybe the money is getting channeled back to them. But frankly, there are too many hawk eyes and ears in the world these days and pulling something off of this nature is next to impossible. So, the only possible explanation is the most unbelievable one! These guys are actually parting with their life's hard earned money!! I am just super surprised by all this because, Philanthropy of any form doesn't come naturally to me, and it does not for most Indians. And we really don't have such examples set by Indian businessmen either. Sure, there are some who give up their lives working and caring for the poor or needy, but how many part with their money and that too so much of it! Can you imagine the feuding Ambanis parting with so much of their money? Or maybe the splintered Birlas or the family run businesses like Bajaj or Godrej or .. I can go on and on...
Some facts are surely stranger than fiction!!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Outcry... really?
Nice weather, some errands to run and more resulted in me deciding to make my weekend a long one and stayed at home on Friday. This gave me time to do things I used to do a lot earlier and never find time to do now, like seeing TV channels other than Sun Music! :-) I decided to take a round of the breaking channels. The same stories were breaking in different channels albeit each channel focusing on a different one at any point of viewing.
The first one was regarding a ex-BSF jawan who was shown the boot by Canadian Immigration officials. Each channel was showing Canada in the worst light possible. It was as if they had committed the greatest crime against India. An insult so unbearable that some politicians (trying to cash in of course) wanted us to send back the Canadian high commission diplomats to Canada. While it is true that the reasoning given by Canada to reject the ex-BSF jawans immigration application was not the best possible one and in ways insulting to the Indian armed forces, I think a different look is worthy, considering the usual "trial by media" mode in which India and its media works these days.
1. Canada houses a HUGE population of Sikhs many of whom are ex-khalistan fighters who are not known for their peaceful ways. Coincidentally, the ex-BSF jawan was a Sikh and assume for the sake of argument that this was the reason that the officials didn't want him in Canada. Not letting him into Canada was their prerogative and if they had openly told the above mentioned reason, it would have amounted to racism and somehow the Caucasians somehow get the worst of it. Indians are just as racist if not more than any other country, but we and rest of the racist hypocrites would pounce on Canada if it had given this as the reason for rejecting the ex-bsf jawans visa.
2. Canada as a country has the right to not allow anyone to come into its territory. Fault it for the reason it gave, but not to its right to choose its citizens/immigrants.
3. The ex-BSF jawan was going to leave India and be an immigrant. Not a very patriotic thing to do, but somehow the media wants to make us and apparently succeeds in making us patriotic for this!
4. Some indian techies can vouch for much worse treatment by the US consulate during the visa process or the US immigration authorities at the port of entry. The reasons for rejection can be far more frivolous and yet we all are OK with it. Some of the horror stories my colleagues have faced is better left untold.
5. Racial profiling is the name of the game in European and US airports. They would never agree or accept it, but from their point of view, they stand a better chance of catching a Faisal Shahzad by doing this rather than check the Caucasian race people for the sake of being politically correct! Again, a country protecting its interests, can't fault that!
To summarize, I agree that Canada could have been more judicious in its reason, but is this really such a big deal ? We settle for far worse on so many more serious fronts, but somehow chose this to be the battle that needs fighting ?
Sunday, April 04, 2010
An outside opinion...
A wise friend of mine once said, "If you want to know what really happens in India or what India really does, read Dawn, the Pakistani Daily". These were not empty words as my friend used to first read Dawn before picking up TOI everyday! I never tried to figure out how correct he was, but the below article in todays TOI sure reminded me of him!
India’s growing misfortunes
Following the signing of the nuclear agreement with India, owing to India’s pressures, America declined to sign a nuclear deal with Pakistan… But now, America is ignoring India’s opposition and has commenced preliminary discussions in that direction with Pakistan. As a result of this change of policy by America, India is in a grave predicament today… In addition, America refusing to hand over Headley, who is now in the custody of America, to India for interrogation, in connection with the Mumbai terrorist attack has further aggravated India’s plight. It is India’s failure to perform its South Asia leadership role duly safeguarding the American interest, which is at the epicentre of India’s present inescapable quagmire… India is the architect of its own misfortunes.
— Daily Mirror, Wednesday,
March 31, Sri Lanka
Following the signing of the nuclear agreement with India, owing to India’s pressures, America declined to sign a nuclear deal with Pakistan… But now, America is ignoring India’s opposition and has commenced preliminary discussions in that direction with Pakistan. As a result of this change of policy by America, India is in a grave predicament today… In addition, America refusing to hand over Headley, who is now in the custody of America, to India for interrogation, in connection with the Mumbai terrorist attack has further aggravated India’s plight. It is India’s failure to perform its South Asia leadership role duly safeguarding the American interest, which is at the epicentre of India’s present inescapable quagmire… India is the architect of its own misfortunes.
— Daily Mirror, Wednesday,
March 31, Sri Lanka
How much of truth is hidden in the above article is open to discussion, but this sure gives us a relatively unbiased look at the current situation and for us to understand where we stand or where countries with an interest in the matters surrounding India or South East Asia think we stand.
Friday, April 02, 2010
The strange ways...
I have been thinking for a while now to change my broadband service provider. I am with BSNL right now, and while their service per say is not bad (as long as you don't have to interact with them), their tariff plans are archaic when compared to others like Airtel.
During this contemplation phase, I happen to download a file which got downloaded in about half the time that it would normally take. I take a speedtest and it tells me that my download speed is doubled! Now, knowing that I am with BSNL, I think it is most probably a backend glitch and I will enjoy the double download speeds as long as it lasts. But I also had the nagging feeling that I may get charged double my normal charges. So, I went to the BSNL website and guess what, they have a promo going on! How much effort is it to send an email (they have mine in their records) or send an sms (they have my mobile number in their records) and inform users of this!!
Anyway, the promo in itself is quite brain dead. What will one month of higher bandwidth do? Coax me into going to the higher bandwidth plan even though there is no discount on offer? Anyway, never shy away from a free lunch (if ever there is one). :-)
During this contemplation phase, I happen to download a file which got downloaded in about half the time that it would normally take. I take a speedtest and it tells me that my download speed is doubled! Now, knowing that I am with BSNL, I think it is most probably a backend glitch and I will enjoy the double download speeds as long as it lasts. But I also had the nagging feeling that I may get charged double my normal charges. So, I went to the BSNL website and guess what, they have a promo going on! How much effort is it to send an email (they have mine in their records) or send an sms (they have my mobile number in their records) and inform users of this!!
Anyway, the promo in itself is quite brain dead. What will one month of higher bandwidth do? Coax me into going to the higher bandwidth plan even though there is no discount on offer? Anyway, never shy away from a free lunch (if ever there is one). :-)
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Start chirping...
... or tweeting.
Airtel has collaborated with Twitter to make tweeting available and affordable to all those non smartphone types who are still stuck in the world of sms's (your truly included). If you couldn't tweet coz your office blocks visiting non-work related sites or don't have net access at home or don't have phones with GPRS (nor 3G) enabled, your tweet solution is here.
I called up Airtel to confirm this and to find out if we had to pay a premium for sending and receiving these tweets. The answer I got was that the SMS's to this special number will cost the same as your local SMS and there are no other hidden charges. Happy tweeting...
Airtel has collaborated with Twitter to make tweeting available and affordable to all those non smartphone types who are still stuck in the world of sms's (your truly included). If you couldn't tweet coz your office blocks visiting non-work related sites or don't have net access at home or don't have phones with GPRS (nor 3G) enabled, your tweet solution is here.
I called up Airtel to confirm this and to find out if we had to pay a premium for sending and receiving these tweets. The answer I got was that the SMS's to this special number will cost the same as your local SMS and there are no other hidden charges. Happy tweeting...
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Upgrading To Inaccuracy
The Indian Railways have come a long way in last decade. A lot of modernization, cleanliness and expansion drives have happened. One of the big pluses of the last decade has been irctc and the other numerous sites maintained by the railways that have sprung up.
I happened to visit one of them to get to know if the train I was to help someone board was on time. It said the train was on time and I got to the station on time. The train was blissfully late by 50 minutes and Bangalore can be quite cold this time of the year around midnight! Below is the information I got of the train after I just witnessed it being 50 minutes late!!
Either give accurate information or give no information at all. Half knowledge is dangerous and cold!
I happened to visit one of them to get to know if the train I was to help someone board was on time. It said the train was on time and I got to the station on time. The train was blissfully late by 50 minutes and Bangalore can be quite cold this time of the year around midnight! Below is the information I got of the train after I just witnessed it being 50 minutes late!!
Either give accurate information or give no information at all. Half knowledge is dangerous and cold!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Really?
Our President, Pratibha Patel is no where as dynamic as Mr.Abdul Kalam. As a result, she is hardly seen or heard doing anything significant other than trying to ensure her family has a holiday every time she goes on an "official" visit abroad.
Off late, our leader has been donning the newspaper for equally frivolous reasons. She is going into the record books for sitting inside a Sukhoi fighter jet. Really? Is this really so important? What the hell does this accomplish for anyone? Is anybody "proud" of her? Damn as hell I am not! She just wasted a shit-load of my taxpayers money.
I wonder why our leaders are still stuck doing these kind of cheap gimmicks even in this time and age!
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Genius!
I happened to read this article and view the video just a few minutes back and it just blew me away! Here is the wiki-link for the more interested folks.
A prototype device of $350 and you have further integrated the two worlds we live in today! This invention has the potential to be the next killer technology wave and when commodotized, it will be available to the common man at a price which will pressure M$ into thinking differently on their surface computing plans. Lets hope and pray for all the philanthropic dreams of Pravav Mistry to also come true!
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Irritated!
I don't follow cricket like I used to, but still something like this really irks me!
What did Dravid do wrong in the champions trophy that he is being dropped from the team? He was the top scorer and possibly the only guy who looks like he did his best to get India to a win! What did Raina do right that he is in the team? Who sees talent in Virat Kohli compared to Badrinath or Manoj Tewari or even Abhishek Nayar.
No wonder cricket (probably Indian cricket) no longer holds the special place in my day to day life. :-(
What did Dravid do wrong in the champions trophy that he is being dropped from the team? He was the top scorer and possibly the only guy who looks like he did his best to get India to a win! What did Raina do right that he is in the team? Who sees talent in Virat Kohli compared to Badrinath or Manoj Tewari or even Abhishek Nayar.
No wonder cricket (probably Indian cricket) no longer holds the special place in my day to day life. :-(
Monday, August 31, 2009
Interesting...
An interesting article...
Aakar Patel is a director of Hill Road Media. Write to Aakar at
replytoall@livemint.com
Why Indians don’t give back to society
Some characteristics unite Indians. The most visible is our opportunism
Why don’t we worship Brahma? We know he’s part of the Hindu trinity as the creator, but we worship Vishnu, manager of the cosmos, and Shiva, its eventual destroyer. The answer lies not in religion, but in culture. But in what way does our religion shape our culture?
Max Weber explained the success of capitalism in the US, Germany and Britain as coming from their populations’ Protestant faith. This ethic, or culture, was missing from the Catholic populations of South America, Italy and Spain. Protestants, Weber said, extended Christianity’s message of doing good deeds, to doing work well. Industry and enterprise had an ultimate motive: public good. That explains the philanthropists of the US, from John D.Rockefeller to Andrew Carnegie to Bill Gates. What explains the behaviour of Indians? What explains the anarchy of our cities? To find out, we must ask how our behaviour is different.Some characteristics unite Indians. The most visible is our opportunism. One good way to judge a society is to see it in motion. On the road, we observe the opportunism in the behaviour of the Indian driver. Where traffic halts on one side of the road in India, motorists will encroach the oncoming side because there is space available there. If that leads to both sides being blocked, that is fine, as long as we maintain our advantage over people behind us or next to us. This is because the other man cannot be trusted to stay in his place.
The Indian’s instinct is to jump the traffic light if he is convinced that the signal is not policed. If he gets flagged down by the police, his instinct is to bolt. In an accident, his instinct is to flee. Fatal motoring cases in India are a grim record of how the driver ran over people and drove away.We show the pattern of what is called a Hobbesian society: one in which there is low trust between people. This instinct of me-versus-the-world leads to irrational behaviour, demonstrated when Indians board flights. We form a mob at the entrance, and as the flight is announced, scramble for the plane even though all tickets are numbered. Airlines modify their boarding announcements for Indians taking international flights.
Our opportunism necessarily means that we do not understand collective good. Indians will litter if they are not policed. Someone else will always pick up the rubbish we throw. Thailand’s toilets are used by as many people as India’s toilets are, but they are likely to be not just clean but spotless. This is because that’s how the users leave them, not the cleaners.
The Indian’s reluctance to embrace collective good hurts his state. A study of income-tax compliance between 1965 and 1993 in India (Elsevier Science Das- Gupta, Lahiri and Mookherjee) concluded that “declining assessment intensity had a significant negative effect” on compliance, while “traditional enforcement tools (searches, penalties and prosecution activity) had only a limited effect” on Indians. The authors puzzled over the fact that “India’s income tax performance (was) below the average of countries with similar GDP per capita”.
We do not think stealing from the state is a bad thing, and our ambiguity extends to corruption, which also we do not view in absolute terms. Political parties in India understand this and corruption is not an issue in Indian politics. Politicians who are demonstrably corrupt, recorded on camera taking a bribe or saying appalling things, or convicted by a court, can hold legitimate hope of a comeback—unthinkable in the West.
The opportunist is necessarily good at adapting, and that explains the success of Indians abroad. We can follow someone else’s rules well, even if we can’t enforce them at home ourselves. The Indian in the US is peerless at the Spelling Bee because the formula of committing things to memory, which in India passes for knowledge, comes naturally to him. But this talent for adapting and memorizing is not the same as a talent for creation.
The question is: Why are we opportunists?
In his great work Crowds and Power, Elias Canetti observed that the rewards religions promised their faithful were all far off, in the afterlife. This is because a short goal would demand demonstration from god and create skeptics instead of believers. There is an exception to this in Hinduism. Hinduism is not about the other world. There is no afterlife in Hinduism and rebirth is always on earth. The goal is to be released entirely and our death rites and beliefs—funeral in Kashi—seek freedom from rebirth. Christianity and Islam are about how to enter heaven; Hinduism is about how not to return to earth, because it’s a rotten place. Naipaul opens his finest novel with the words “The world is what it is”, and Wittgenstein ( “The world is all that is the case”) opens his Tractatus similarly.
Hinduism recognizes that the world is irredeemable: It is what it is. Perhaps this is where the Hindu gets his world view—which is zero-sum—from. We might say that he takes the pessimistic view of society and of his fellow man. But why? The Hindu devotee’s relationship with god is transactional: I give you this, you give me that. God must be petitioned and placated to swing the universe’s blessings towards you. God gives you something not through the miracle, and this is what makes Hinduism different, but by swinging that something away from someone else. This is the primary lesson of the Vedic fire sacrifice. There is no benefit to one without loss to another. Religion is about bending god’s influence towards you through pleas, and appeasement, through offerings.
Society has no role in your advancement and there is no reason to give back to it (in any way, including leaving the toilets clean behind you) because it hasn’t given you anything in the first place. That is why Indian industrialists are not philanthropists. Rockefeller always gave a tenth of his earnings to the Church, and then donated hundreds of millions, fighting hookworm and educating black women. Bill Gates gave $25 billion (around Rs 1.2 trillion), and his cause is fighting malaria, which does not even affect Americans. Warren Buffett gave away $30 billion, almost his entire fortune. Andrew Carnegie built 2,500 libraries. Dhirubhai Ambani International School has annual fees starting at Rs 47,500 (with a Rs 24,000 admission fee) and Mukesh Ambani’s daughter was made head girl. An interesting thing to know is this: Has our culture shaped our faith or has our faith shaped our culture? I cannot say. To return to the question we started with: Why is Brahma not worshipped? The answer is obvious: He has nothing to offer us. What he could do for us, create the universe, he already has. There is no gain in petitioning him now.
Aakar Patel is a director of Hill Road Media. Write to Aakar at
replytoall@livemint.com
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Less Taxing
Yup... taxes are going to be less taxing, i.e. if Pranab Mukherjee has its way. The new direct tax code seems to be good for the end tax payer with the only glitch for those dabble in the stock market, wherein long term capital gains would also be taxed.
I, for one, definitely hope that this comes through in the not too distant future. :-)
I, for one, definitely hope that this comes through in the not too distant future. :-)
Sunday, July 26, 2009
A lost plot...
I happened to watch MTV after a loooong time today and it was surprising to see very little music on music television. It was one wasted reality show after another and it was like it would never stop! Its bad enough that English music is next to never seen on MTV (for which they have VH1.... of course!), now even our desi stuff is off. Though I am certifiable no longer part of the Y generation, I dont see my younger cousins interested in viewing the crap being dished out either.
MTV... losing it!
MTV... losing it!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
A Viewpoint
Here is an interesting article from Anand Giridharadas in New York Times.
Its only a viewpoint at the end of the day, but with a lot of truth in it. The "Hum Kissi Se Kam Nahin" attitude that is written loud and clear on the young Indian is difficult to miss and impossible to ignore. Anand talks about revolutions and there is many a tussle of opposites in the middle of all these revolutions. The period that the revolution sustains may very well be dependent on the solutions that we adapt or are forced to accept to resolve these tussles.
Lets wait and watch...
Its only a viewpoint at the end of the day, but with a lot of truth in it. The "Hum Kissi Se Kam Nahin" attitude that is written loud and clear on the young Indian is difficult to miss and impossible to ignore. Anand talks about revolutions and there is many a tussle of opposites in the middle of all these revolutions. The period that the revolution sustains may very well be dependent on the solutions that we adapt or are forced to accept to resolve these tussles.
Lets wait and watch...
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Serious Joke!
The newest entrant into the crowded premium hatchback space in India has managed to breakaway from the crowd. I am talking about Jazz, Honda's entry into the small car market. Honda seem to have forgotten that their intention was to enter the small car market, not to exit it before they got in! The route they chose to breakaway from the crowd was not features but by making the car super pricey!! The on road price of the top of the line Honda Jazz will hover a few ten thousands short of 8L! That is a lot of money for a hatchback, no matter what the pedigree. Skoda made the same mistake with Fabia and even after correcting it to some extent by bringing in a lower priced variant, it was too little too late. They had by then already managed to send a very nice car to the never-to-be-seen-or-heard gallows of the frugal desi mind!
Looking past the price, how about the Ad campaign?? If their intention was to make the smartest ad ever to be understood by 1% of the super smart future premium hatchback ownership (me clearly not included), well, they must have done a great job! The punchline for the Honda Jazz is "Why so serious?". Seeing the price of the car, I am sure most people will see the joke in it! :-)
I have seen the Ad time and again, and I can't help but get serious... damn guys, is it so difficult to make a decent Ad? What the hell does it mean anyway!$#%@!
Looking past the price, how about the Ad campaign?? If their intention was to make the smartest ad ever to be understood by 1% of the super smart future premium hatchback ownership (me clearly not included), well, they must have done a great job! The punchline for the Honda Jazz is "Why so serious?". Seeing the price of the car, I am sure most people will see the joke in it! :-)
I have seen the Ad time and again, and I can't help but get serious... damn guys, is it so difficult to make a decent Ad? What the hell does it mean anyway!$#%@!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
