Random Precision

From Toufee

2011-11-18T20:32:00.000-08:00

My First Blog Post

2010-08-08T09:03:00.001-07:00

The setting sun was low, just inches above the sea. It was perfect. If you want perfect, watch sunsets – don’t break your head looking for it elsewhere.

Posted via email from Mahesh's posterous

The Oscars Online!

2010-03-06T03:21:00.000-08:00

This year experience the 82nd Annual Academy Awards Presentation online. The official site of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which awards the Oscars to those who have achieved excellence in various fields of film during the year can be found here

You can watch the Academy Awards 2010 online and see red carpet live stream video and photos from the 82nd Oscars on Sun. March 7, 2010. Hosted by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, the annual ceremony starts at 8:00 p.m. ET live on the U.S. ABC broadcast channel from the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, CA.

ABC will also be streaming live red carpet beginning at the same time. You can watch the ABC Live Web-cast.

The E!Online red carpet live video can be found here

CNN Live will also cover the event.

You can watch it on the iPhone also.

You can become a fan of the Oscars on the Official fan page on facebook.

The Official Oscars YouTube Channel will stream the event live on March 7, 2010 (8 PM ET/5 PM PT),March 8, 2010, 6:30 AM IST.

Here are more options for watching the event. and more resources can be found here.

Some live blogging sites for the event which will be covering the event

The complete list of Nominees for the 82nd Academy Awards can be found here.

Enjoy!

2010-02-11T01:25:00.001-08:00

This guy would make a great drummer, cook and fielder - all at the same time.

My First Blog Post via Posterous

2010-02-06T04:04:00.001-08:00

This is a photograph taken in 1925, of the only surviving wagon used in the first train in 1825, then preserved at Darlington works. This and other such photographs adorn the panel of the Deccan Queen on which I am travelling from Mumbai to Pune.

Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel

Posted via email from Mahesh's posterous

Clever By Thirds

2010-02-03T04:18:00.000-08:00

Perfection comes at a price. At times so high that by the time you are done paying it you may just barely catch a dying glimpse of your endeavor that did finally end up seeped in perfection. The question is where do you draw the line? Do you draw a line at all? Does the reward justify the effort? Is there a reward at all? Why the hell am I asking all these questions?

If you need perfection, go look at the sunset. If you need to get on this world, go out there and wing it the best you can. Nobody really gives a damn. You gotta do what you gotta do to get what you want to get.

Over and out.

Turning publisher

2010-01-16T03:22:00.000-08:00

For those out there who want to look at another great tool for publishing their work and building a community around it try Scribd.

Scribd is a document-sharing website which allows users to post documents of various formats, and embed them into a web page using its iPaper format. Scribd currently has more than 50 million monthly users and more than 50,000 documents are uploaded daily.

I have used it to publish some of my work. You can view some of my work at http://www.scribd.com/maheshpatwardhan

There's a High Tide a-coming !!

2009-07-24T07:50:00.000-07:00

Today was High Tide Day in Bombay. Exactly at 2:03 p.m it was to be High Tide reaching 5.05 Metres.

Normally I do not think that too many people pay any attention to the comings and goings of the tides - high, low or otherwise. I suspect a good many are completely oblivious to the fact that such a phenomenon exists. They know that theres a sea out there, a moon and the earth that we stand on - but beyond that I doubt very much that they would have considered that there could be a relationship between these.

But in these last few days we have been so inundated with the news that a big, huge, MONSTER high tide was coming our way that every inhabitant of this great city of ours and his uncle now know that there is more to that sea out there than it lets on.

The local media has had a field day (when do they not have a field day?) Schools were declared shut weeks in advance, some offices worked last Saturday as a precautionary compensatory working day, travel advisories were relayed to potential travellers from far off places, and notices were put up in housing societies advising one and all about the great coming! And no one, unless absolutely essential, was to wander out.

Today arrived and all that was supposed to be done was done. The schools remained shut, the University put off some examinations that were scheduled for the day, roads around the beaches were cordoned off, life-guards were posted at important beach locations, armed guards too. The Media began the countdown to the great event. I watched it on TV. There was a lot of water - the sea usually has a lot of it. There were a lot of people thronging vantage points, there was traffic stopped on the road, and there was the Media all excited about the highest high tide coming in man's recent memory. Some said it was the highest this century, some said it was the highest in a century. Whatever.

I could understand the excitement of the media. Medical science has advanced to an extent where today you can surgically implant it in them. But what puzzled me was the countdown to 2:03 pm - what exactly was supposed to happen at that moment? The way they were going on it almost seemed as if at that precise moment there would be this huge big MONSTER tide thing that would come charging in off the sea and gobble up all the helpless people gawking at all the water around! I guess that explained the armed guards hanging around - to protect against such an eventuality!

Well 2:03 came and went, and I couldnt see any monster. The media guys couldnt either but that didnt stop the excitement in their voices (the implants doing their job). They went on about the exciting spray of water on their faces and some other things I couldnt decipher.

So there you have it. The day of the High Tide in Bombay City. Monster or no monster, one thing was sure - there was major water pouring out of the ears of the people who lived near the water on the beach fronts. And for everyone else, it was the words High Tide !!

Whats beyond Plan B?

2009-07-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered why there is always only a Plan B?

Why not a Plan C, D, E or more?

Says a lot about the confidence mankind reposes in itself. I will never need more than a plan B. Whatever needs to be taken care of Plan A will handle, if that dont happen, then plan B will see me through. No one, not you, not me, not the fat pig on a farm somewhere on this planet, ever think beyond a Plan B.

Ever wonder why? The why is that we are a very smart, highly intelligent and extremely capable race absolutely able to handle whatever it is we need to handle with the help of at the most two plans. Hence plan A, which most of the time, is all that is required. And sometimes, when in a moment of temporary insanity or acute disorientation we lose our bearings, we need to fall back on plan B.

But thats it. Beyond Plan B, the frontiers of our knowledge end. Beyond that there is nothing. And nothing is something we do not want to have anything to do with. So, there you have it. Plan B is where it all ends. At least as far as we as a collective race seem to know.

Now there may exist a plan C, D or more. If there is, then those who have used them are a very rare breed. Very rare from being either very dead or wandering the other world as some vague astral bodies.And from them there is very little that we will learn.

So, for now, and for some time into the foreseeable future, Plan B is all its going to be. That smart, deep thinking, highly intelligent fallback mechanism used by you, me and those fat pigs on a farm somewhere on this planet.

The Fourth Road To Greatness

2009-07-18T02:37:00.001-07:00

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them".

The origin of this quote:

From Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, 1601:

Malvalio:
In my stars I am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.

The great Bard wrote these lines when there were maybe a little over sixteen hundred people inhabiting this planet. Hence it was easy to distribute greatness amongst themselves. Well we have come a long way since then and have multiplied as a people many many many times over. Which has led to a fourth category which is: those that were out fishing when the three categories were being distributed and are now surrounded by people who were either born great, achieved greatness or had it thrust upon them.

How do you identify such people? Look for the ones that stand around asking themselves these questions - Am I born great? Have I achieved greatness? Have I had greatness thrust upon me? Uh...Um..Er... Strike three - I'm out!!

The Great Ones (irrespective of how they came by it) have always blazed trails through uncharted waters and unexplored territories and trundled down roads less traveled always knowing in some eerie way the 'how' and 'why' of doing it and they seem to be doing just fine. They have relied on their learning brought on by years of experience, inner enlightenment and a vision playing on a plasma screen the size of a small building inside their heads. They have this inner guiding spirit steering them through turbulent waters. For the rest of us there are the "How to..." books.

Considering that more than half of my childhood pals that I grew up with are now well and truly settled in the first bracket, I cant help but come to a shattering conclusion that its a little late in the day for entertaining any hopes of falling into the first category. Another not so shattering conclusion is that I need to consume as many of these books as possible in as less a time as possible. This two-pronged goal at this stage appears no less formidable than a double-barreled shot gun. Pointing at me.

Well. So the next time I walk into a bookstore, instead of browsing through all the delightful sections where I would normally find books that I would acquire and consume with great delight, I would like this time to make my way very purposefully to the sections where all the "books-that-really-matter" are. Now this is a little easier said than done. First, I need to identify said books. And second, of the identified books, I need to select the ones that I can afford to acquire, consume and benefit from. Which is where I start getting woozy.

And this is where you come in. With your vast experience and knowledge, with all the learning of having traveled paths less traveled, of having navigated choppy waters that defied navigation, and holding high a guiding light that has lit up and shown many the way. If you would be so kind as to shed some of that light my way, I would be grateful, and as a sign of my gratitude help you hold the light up so that you may rest your weary arm as you make your journey through life spreading enlightenment all around! And if that were to appear to be a bit intimidating, then a simple thank you and I would be on my way.

Social Media Ad spend on fast track!

2009-07-16T22:31:00.001-07:00

Social Media Marketing is set to show rapid growth, according to a recently published report from Forrester. According to the report, the overall ad spend in the US alone for 2009 will touch 25 Billion USD (which is around 12% of the overall ad spend) and grow to almost 55 Billion USD (21% of overall ad spend) by 2014.

Looking at the components of the interactive ad spend projected for 2009, Search Marketing takes the lion's share with around 15Billion USD, Display Advertising is next with around 8 Billion USD, then comes email marketing with a little over 1 Billion USD, followed by Social Media at around 700 Million USD and mobile marketing at 400 Million USD.

The interesting part of the report is the forecast made for the social media spend growth. It is projected to reach a little over 3 Billion USD, with a CAGR of 34%. Compare this with the growth projected for Search Marketing, which is projected to grow at a rate of 15%.

The two important points of the report are that Search will continue to lead interactive spend followed by display advertising and that owned social media assets (like internal blogs, community sites) are really the only emerging media getting traction in today's economic climate.

OK. So where do we get these numbers for India? The surprising thing is that there is a dearth of authentic numbers and statistics that can be used. My search for this source continues.... and if there be any out there who can shed some light on this, please do so. Thanks in advance.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

As I wandered down these strange lanes....

2009-07-14T21:21:00.000-07:00

Wandering down the dark alleyways of Cyberspace it is easy to get caught up and overwhelmed by the sheer amounts of information swirling around. A whopping percentage of which is meaningless tripe, the remaining lays claim to the interesting, the useful, the immensely boring to the wonderfully inspiring. And whatever else I forgot to mention in the previous line. Given the marvelously wet weather outside, I went wandering down such alleyways and what did I see? Of course I was reminded of the "Where have you been my blue-eyed son" line from the 'A Hard Rain's a-gonna fall' song by Bob Dylan and all the wonderful things the blue-eyed boy saw, heard and met when he had been wherever he had been. I didnt see, hear or meet any of those, but I did see, hear and meet some interesting characters.

Like this weird, wacky world of the platypus. This strange looking mammal is a rare kind and is one of five mammals that lays eggs. The males have poison sacs that hold venom for disabling foes, the females secrete milk that collects in pouches which the young lap up. It looks like a beaver with duck's feet and bill - hence also called a duck-billed platypus!

Or this one which explains why Jamaican rum is like scotch. Nice. Actually, doesnt matter if it is like scotch or not. Scotch is nice. Rum is cool. One is fine things in life. The other is life. One has got class and finesse. The other - those and a cut above! And if one is similar to the other, well so much power to them.

Then theres this huge big migration that happens every year on the plains of the Serengeti and the Masai Mara. The migration of the wilderbeest. A phenomenon like no other. Its amazing. They spend part of the year moving from the plains of the Serengeti to the Masai Mara and once having got there make the entire trip all the way back. By which time I guess it would be time to go back again. The great big wandering show!

And wow! - this fascinatingly wondefully wonderful artist whose work one can go on spending hours with. I used to have posters stuck on my walls a long time ago. Those magical loops -defying logic yet perfectly possible. The waterfall, the ever-ascending and ever-descending stairs, the lines of people - its not possible logically yet follow the loops and it all becomes one free flowing uninterrupted loop! M.C. Escher.

And rounding it off - a round of funny umbrellas! Its raining its pouring - so make the most of it and step out with one of these wonderfully innovative creations. Let your soul float up and take a look down at yourself walking around and it should brighten up the bleak day a bit. If you cant find a way to detach, dont worry, the others around you will give you enough looks to convince you that you are standing out in all that gloom.

Who will walk this path? Indian IT and Web 2.0 Strategy Consulting

2009-07-10T07:01:00.000-07:00

Theres one question that’s been occupying my mind a lot of late. My interactions with people in the industry and the resulting responses thereof are leading me to it. And the question is this. Are the Indian IT Organizations ready to take on Web 2.0 Strategy Consulting as part of their portfolios?

My short answer to this is No. Giving it a more discussion/debate flavour I would say that I feel that the Indian Corporate sector is still very wary of using Social Media as an Internet channel for marketing, this could be the primary reason that the IT industry is reluctant to get into this area. I feel that this in itself presents a consulting business opportunity.

I have been doing a little bit of asking around and have got some feedback on this.

There is one view that that most 'IT' organisations, regardless of nationality, are very poorly equipped to provide web 2.0/social media strategy consultancy. What is required is a completely different skills set and background experience. The thought that leads from this view is that this is either missing or not being acknowledged in the industry.

There is another view which is similar with the additional input being that what is missing is the ability to think and act from the 'outside in' not just from the 'inside out'. In other words, being 'customer led' and using Marketing as a two-way conversation with your customers; a conversation with your network. Talking 'with' rather than 'at' your customers.

Another quite blunt take is that it is very tricky for a lot of organizations and that it is very difficult to teach an old dog new tricks.

What I strongly feel is that its not because of a lack of skill sets in any organization or that they are poorly equipped to handle consultancy in this area. Its more to do with a mind-set, being able to tune into the whole "relationships" and "conversations" pheonomena and be able to find ways to leverage that. Any IT organization is bound to have the skills and the ability to learn new technologies, so that cannot be an obstacle - its just opening up to the idea that there is a definite business opportunity in this area.

A suggested approach would be to have a 'new dog' working with the 'old dog', someone with a relationship/conversation mindset together with someone with strong IT skills.

We are talking about developing training programmes to try and achieve these 'hybrid' skills, say taking marketing graduates and training them in social media technologies; taking IT graduates and training them in the softer skills necessary for success in web 2.0

Do we have the vision to go down this path? Which are IT companies/Digital agencies that do offer these services at present? Are likely to try developing these “hybrid” skills in the near future?

What is your take on this?

The largest social network – email !!

2009-07-09T22:57:00.000-07:00

Which do you think is the largest social network in the world? Take a guess. The answer from the initiated and number followers would be “Facebook”, which has upwards of 200 million active users. Well, it would surprise you to know that that answer may not entirely be correct. What is today the world’s first and largest social network is – Email !

Jeremiah Owyang, the Forrester analyst of social technologies, has a very interesting take on this.

And to be sure, email does qualify as a social network – it has profiles just as social networks (the signatures in email can serve as profiles), they allow you to connect to people and exchange information which become conversations, and of course allow you to share things and collaborate with other groups.

In terms of numbers, just hotmail and yahoo between them have upwards of 650 million active users. The other means of social communication already has made inroads into email – we get notifications of all kinds regarding activities on social media platforms in our inboxes. So email already is part of the social sphere anyways.

More and more email Vendors are foraying into the social space
by adding “Share this” (called Social Pollination) type of features to direct email marketing pieces so friends can share emails with friends in social networks.

So what does the future of Email and Social Networks look like? J. Owyang thinks that they will probably the same. In the next few years, email and social networks will look the same and he expects email vendors like Google, Yahoo Mail, Microsoft Live to envelop the social experience. If you consider Facebook’s news stream or Friendfeed, these are starting to represent simlar content from emails –there is a definite merging happening

Web 2.0: The Framework, Definitions and Technologies

2009-07-08T00:13:00.000-07:00

Information overload results in an aching head. Which goes swimming. And battles strange hallucinatory creatures that don’t seem to go away. Is there a way around this? Maybe. But I cant think of any easy way. So embrace it and enjoy the ride.

Let me try and encapsulate information on Web 2.0, the wildly overwhelming beast that has versioned itself beyond its original presence.

The following is sourced from Web 2.0 Framework.

The Framework:

If we divide this up into 3 components: Inputs, Mechanisms and Emergent Outcomes.

The inputs would be:
1. User generated content: which would comprise of Text, Images, Videos, Interactive media, Virtual architecture.
2. Opinions: By way of links, Tagging, Ratings, Social connections
3. Applications: Web applications, widgets

Mechanisms:
1. Technologies: XML, APIs, Ajax, Ruby on Rails etc.
2. Recombination: Mashups, Remixing, Aggregation, Embedding
3. Collaborative Filtering: Ranking, Profile correlation
4. Structures: Folksonomies, Tag clouds, virtual worlds
5. Syndication: RSS

Emergent Outcomes:
1. Most interesting gets most visibility
2. Personalized recommendations
3. Meaningful communities
4. Relevant content that could be easily found
5. Enhanced usability
6. collective intelligence

The Characteristics:

What essentially characterizes Web 2.0 is that it is driven by participation. If you consider the common platforms like blogging, social networks, video and photo sharing sites, you will see that they all exist due to the content that they offer that has been created and shared by the users. Standards play a big part in providing common interfaces for accessing content and applications and this makes for easy integration across various platforms. The applications and content is decentralized. Web 2.0 is decentralized in its architecture, participation, and usage. Distributing applications and content over many computers and systems, rather than maintaining them on centralized systems gives it the power and flexibility that would have been lost if they were to be confined to a single monolithic architecture. The openness and modularity of Web 2.0 contributes to creating a whole that is larger than the sum of its parts. The control that users have over the content they create and share and the ability to create and manage individual identities is a crucial part of the Web 2.0 ecosystem.

The Technologies:

Aggregation which is bringing multiple content sources together into one interface or application.

AJAX: (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) This is a combination of technologies that
enables highly interactive web applications.

API: (Application Programming Interface) This is a defined interface to a computer
application or database that allows access by other applications.

Embedding: Integrating content or an application into a web page, while the
original format is maintained.

Folksonomy: Rich categorization of information that is collectively created by users, through tagging and other actions.

Mashups: Combination of diff erent types of content or data, usually from diff erent sources, to create something new.

Remixing: Extracting and combining samples of content to create a new output. The term was originally used in music but is now also applied to video and other content.

RSS: (Really Simple Syndication) A group of formats to publish (syndicate) content on the internet so that users or applications automatically receive any updates.

Ruby on Rails: An open source web application framework that is frequently used in Web 2.0 website development.

Tag cloud: A visual depiction of tags that have been used to describe a piece of content, with higher frequency tags emphasized to assist content comprehension and navigation.

Tagging: Attaching descriptions to information or content.

Virtual architecture: The creation of avatars (alternative representations of people), buildings, objects, and other artefacts inside virtual spaces.

Widget: Small, portable web application that can be embedded into any web page.

XML: (eXtensible Markup Language) An open standard for describing data, which enables easy exchange of information between applications and organizations

Here comes the rain !!

2009-07-04T06:53:00.000-07:00

Once, when I expressed a complete lack of enthusiasm for the first rains that poured down on our heads, a friend had told me that I had no soul. How could you not like the rains - that getting wet in the first shower, that stomping around in the squelchy mud, that splattering of amounts of rain water mixed with what else etc. etc... how could I not like it...? Sad shake of head indicating that a soul challenged soul like me had a bleak future..(as bleak as the surroundings I had muttered to myself then). Well, its simply that... the onset of the monsoon does not exactly send me into raptures cartwheeling with joy through the wading pools forming on every street corner. So that makes me one against the rest of the world. OK. Dont get me wrong, I understand the importance of the need for the timely appearance of said rains. I understand the dire consequences that could follow if they decided to take a vacation on a whim. The absolute threat to the continued existence of man on this planet. And so I convince myself that this is the way that nature intended things to be - and so for the next few months, like I have been doing all these years, I will just put up with the rains, the mud, the squelch, the filth, the traffic jams, the wading pools and all.

Divine Manifestations

2009-05-26T23:29:00.000-07:00

"Smash@%$" "%#$Crunch" "@#@Pow !!!"

2009-05-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

The online thesaurus has the following synonyms for the verb pulverize : annihilate, crush, decimate, defeat, demolish, destruct, dynamite, flatten, rub out*, ruin, shatter, smash, tear down*, vanquish, vaporize, wax, wreck

Henceforth, a new term will get added to the list: Gilly.

It means to do all of the above. Two times over.

After the Delhi Daredevils - Deccan Chargers IPL semifinal last night, Adam Gilchrist will find himself in the pages of dictionaries and thesauruses everywhere. And comic books will have a new term to add to their "smash@@$", "&%#crunch", and "*&#@pow"'s.

And the Daredevils will be the last ones to argue about it.

Consolidating my online profiles

2009-05-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon this new site that allows you to combine all of your online profiles and contact info into a Business Card 2.0: The site is retaggr.com. You can set up a business card with all your information on it - profile details, contact information and a list of all your online sites where you have a profile and content on. A handy utility. You can check out my business card here.

The Zoozoos

2009-05-05T00:36:00.000-07:00

The best thing happening around the IPL TV broadcasts seems to be the vodafone ads. They are simply brilliant. The characters are great. Some of the situations (simple ones but made superb by the characters) are out of this world. I love the laughs. My favourite so far is the crocodile one.... check out the Vodafone Crocodile ZooZoo ad. here.

2009-04-29T02:52:00.001-07:00

Where black is the color and none is the number.

2009-04-28T00:37:00.001-07:00

The incredible coolness of being.....cool. There's a storm coming. Lookout, you're moving too fast. Give it a rest.

An Encounter

2009-03-28T06:44:00.000-07:00

An empty sun hangs over a vast expanse of desert sand.

On the hot sand she sits, cross-legged, with beads around her neck and large rings on her fingers. She stares off into the distance as a fire rages behind her. The heat waves bounce off her hair and slam into me. My eyes hurt from the brilliance in her eyes and the wicked glint from the jewels studding the rings on her fingers. My head pounds as my ears fill with the clanging of loud bells. I sit down across her and my thoughts vaporize. The air suddenly goes cold and the sky turns black. Time freezes as the raging fire is now a blazing splash of bright orange against the black sky. She looks hard into my eyes till she can see the very depths of my soul. I look into her eyes and my mind reels as I race back in time to the dawn of civilization and then back again.

She reaches down and grabs a handful of sand. She runs the sand through her flaming hair.

"Wisdom Persists", she says.

The fire rages with an orange fury as she walks away into the black sky.

Conversation

2009-03-27T07:14:00.000-07:00

"An old man came to our house this morning. He had a long white beard."

"What did he want?"

"I dont know. He said he lived very far away and if I wanted I could visit him."

"Where does he stay?"

"On a hill far away."

"Are you going to go there?"

"No."

"Why? Did he say something to you?"

"I asked him why infinity never tired of waiting."

"What did he say?"

"Nothing. He picked out little stars from his long white beard and scattered them on the ground."

"What did you do then?"

"I looked down and saw the little stars changing colors. I noticed I could not see any blue. And I wondered why blue was the most brilliant of all colors."

"Was he saying anything then?"

"No. I asked him what the space between In and Out meant to him."

"Did he answer?"

"No. He just shrugged his shoulders."

"Maybe he didnt know the answer. Did you ask him anything else?"

"Yes. I asked him why blue was the most brilliant of all colors."

"He must have answered that."

"No. He just asked me if I liked fish."

"What did you tell him?"

"I took everything I found inbetween In and Out and placed it in the palm of my hand. I then held out my hand to the old man and asked him to tell me what he saw there."

"Did he see anything there?"

"I dont know. He looked at it for a long time. He then turned his head and pulled his beard. He suddenly stood up and muttered something that I didnt understand and suddenly broke up into a thousand and fifty two pieces. And suddenly they all disappeared."

"What do you think he was trying to say."

"I dont know. I will just have to wait for him to come back and tell me about infinity, the color blue and the space between In and Out which I now will have to keep holding in the palm of my hand."

"What do you want to do now?"

Come, lets go play cricket with the others."

"OK."

A little break, a little madness, a little fun

2009-03-15T19:52:00.000-07:00

A little dose of Little Zizou and you’re all set to restore your belief in humanity. For long I have maintained that we are a serious nation that takes the serious bit a little too seriously. It is sheer physical inability that prevents us as a collective from turning into a non-stop never-ending in-your-face manifestation of the classic Lament !! Your eyebrow twitched? Look around you pal – what you see is not normal. It was not meant to be this way – ok so you went and made a mess of the way we as a historical collective turned out to be but that doesn’t mean you resign yourself and the rest of your ilk to eternal gloom. But there is hope. You see it in the changes happening around you. There is more merriment in the air, there is more laughter, and there is more of the chill-pills going around. But theres still a long ways to go, but then its happening.

Little Zizou, written and directed by Sooni Taraporevala, is a delightful film that takes a look at the wacky, funny and endearing ways of a local parsi community. Its like the ads say – a little madness, a little fun. And that’s how things should be.

So what do we have?

Cyrus II Khodaji (Sohrab Ardeshir), who is

- The self proclaimed voice of God going to deliver his people from whatever it is they want to be delivered from and return them to “Purity”
- convinced the Russians are going to invade, because they have indicated their intentions of doing so by laying claim to the faith.
- raising an army – PLO (Parsis Liiberation Organization) – to try and stave off the Russian invasion.
- The same army which after two-and-a-half rounds of an attempted march past pack up and go home.
- is assisted by (Shernaz Patel ), a hip-flask swigging, proper, overworked, underloved personal assistant who helps with the daily chant rituals

Boman Pressvala (Boman Irani), who is

- determined to expose Cyrus II Khodaji for the fraud that he is
- uses his newspaper to print his rants against his methods (including photographs of his attempts to put together the “army”).
- In love old music, has a blast with all his 100+ year-old friends at home
- totally disapproves of his daughter going out on dates

then we have:

Xerxes, who is Little Zizou, named after Big Zizou (Zinadine Zidane), bunking school every opportunity he gets to play Zizou in cybercafes and waiting for the big day when he will meet his idol.

Artaxerxes, working towards becoming a graphic novelist,sketching every minute he can find, and also working on a secret project with two buddies on restoring an old abandoned cockpit of a 747 Jumbo Jet into a flight simulator

Zenobia, who talks Artaxerxes into chauffering her around while she meets up with her boyfriend.

Liana, who loves animals more than humans, rats on her older sister’s escapades and is insanely jealous of Xerxes because her mother showers a little too much affection on him

Roxanne, Boman’s wife, who appears to be the only stable character in the whole film.

Roxanne's mother, who stays in a derelict ruin of what used to be a hotel in the old glory days, who has fought with everybody in the little seaside town and has a bunch of stray dogs to keep her company. She also offers to help Roxanne and promptly forgets all about her offer the next morning.

And a whole bunch of other wacky characters each playing a role in this little mad outing that is a fun watch. If you are quite up to here with all the stuff that is going on around you, and need a little break, a little madness, a little fun – then a couple of hours watching this one would be time well spent.

Through the Gloom, a plume did bloom...

2009-03-13T05:52:00.000-07:00

If you call this bad poetry, then bad poetry it is. If you call it half-baked lasagna, then lasagna it is. It is whatever you want it to be. Because, today it is you, and you may not be aware of this, it is you who decides. Surprised? Whoa. Yes it is. Wake up and smell the coffee. Was a time when the customer was king. Today it is you. And you dont need to be a customer either. You just need to be one of those teeming masses out there with just half-a-finger access to either a keyboard or some other internet-enabled device. Just that places in your grasp an enormous amount of power. The power to bring a kingdom down to its knees. The power to change the way history is taught in middle school. The power to, well, to brand anything any way you want, or even deny it one if you so decide. Never before have the words "power to the people" resounded so solidly across the cosmos. And therefore, you, the empowered one, have more than enough reason to smile, no to beam, laugh, guffaw, whatever.......so dont, for goodness sake, walk around with your chin hanging down to your toes and walk around like a zombie who has had buckets full of gloom dumped on his head. Get over it. There is no gloom. There is no downturn. Hell, there is no turn either... if at all there is its all in your head!! So stop with your sob stories and tragic acts and GET A LIFE!!!

OK. So you find you suddenly have in excess of a thousand hours in a day. Has confused the hell out of you? Right? If it has, then you desperately need to get a life, cos you pal, more than anybody else, needs it. People go through life begging for that extra few hours that they may be granted where they could do exactly what they wanted. And what, you ask, is to be done to fill up those thousands of hours? If you have to ask that question, then you definitely, really and desperately need to get a life. Buddy, theres a million things you could do with all the time you have on your hands. Read a book. Read many books. Write a book. Sing a song. Learn to play the guitar. If you run out of guitars play the drums. Take acting lessons. Dont have the money - stand in front of mirror and practice. Because thats what will teach you. Cook. Read up on the history of your country. Go in search of an exotic rare flower that has eluded man all these years. If you dont know what it is, make one up and go look for it anyway. Conserve. Contribute to the green movement. Save a whale. Plant a tree. I could go on all night but I guess you got what i am trying to say. So. Just go out there and like the wise men behind those shoes said - Just Do It!

For at the end of the day, or the end of whatever defines units of sunlit time in your part of the world, it is you who can influence you into doing whatever you think you need to do to see through all the gloom, and enjoy the plume that will bloom... or you could sit with your chin keeping your toes company and regale passers by with your grand tale of woe! Up to you, Charlie!

The Curious Case of backwards movies....

2009-03-01T04:29:00.002-08:00

I have seen movies that were told chronologically backwards - Memento was one of them. That made sense. Then today I saw "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" - and it didnt make any sense. Oh the story did make sense and it was interesting in its own way but I couldnt buy into it and the way it started and made its way to the end was something I was not comfortable with at all.

It starts with a baby who is like 200 years old when it is born. Yes. Thats right - it's the size of a baby but thats about it - it looks like an old man. And as the boy grows up its watching an old old man gaining in height and reducing in age... and it goes on and on and on to its logical end. Actually its an interesting story - the film is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald and made into a movie by David Fincher and it stars Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchette, Tilda Swinton and an old man who has been struck by lightening seven times and is still around to talk about it. And also a huge grandfather clock that runs backwards.

So, a movie where a clock runs backwards, time moves as it should, and a man whose life runs backwards.

Didn't cut if for me.

Older, no wiser...and having a ball !!!

2009-03-01T04:29:00.001-08:00

There comes a time in everyone's lives when they have a single moment of clarity in which they see very clearly and in great detail every single moment of their life passing in front of their eyes. And then the next moment they are dead. There are also, in addition to these kinds of moments, others too that occur in everyman's lives, only they are not quite so dramatic and final in their manifestation. These are a little less spectacular and definitely a lot less life-threatening. These are those moments that drop by occasionally. This is when the individual upon whom they decide to descend will put aside whatever he may be doing, pull up his favourite rocking chair, fix his favourite drink and light up a cigarette. He will then sit back and with a vacant and forlorn gaze in his eyes stare off into the distance at nothing in particular. In his mind he would call it an extended moment of nostalgia. Others would call it an extended instant of temporary insanity. Whatever.

When we get older, we try and convince ourselves that we also get wiser. We tell ourselves that we need to mellow down, take things easy, be more tolerant and understanding. And then when we have these other "moments" descend on us we permit ourselves a short commercial break from our daily older wiser lives to indulge in nostalgic journeys into the past and bask in the warm feeling that it brings on. And having reveled in it we snap out of it and get back to our dumb dreary older wiser life existence. For that is what older wiser people are supposed to do. Right? BULL.

There is this huge hovering conspiracy occupying the environs surrounding me that is trying very hard to drive me down that lane. They have been trying now for the last decade or so ever since I crossed over into the accepted older-wiser-mellower mad-man phase of life. When they realized that this person (meaning me) was showing no signs of having realized that such a passage had taken place, they tried nudging with little hints at first, and then with less subtler means such as holding up placards, writing on walls, making announcements on TV and finally screaming at the tops of their voices - first individually then in large collective groups. And when they saw that this person (meaning me) was continuing to ignore them despite all their efforts, they went into conspiracy mode. Much strategy happened, much planning happened, much tandoori chicken happened, but to no avail. This person (meaning me) would not give in.

And so it goes on. The conspiracy hangs heavy in the air. This person (meaning me) hangs loose in and around various places on this planet. Its a standoff. And it will continue for sometime. Who will blink first? Who will back off first?

The conspirators, hanging heavy in the air, cannot afford to. For if they do, they fall flat on the ground and end up with egg (or mud if there are no hens around in the neighbourhood) on their face. Not too good for them. And if this person (yeah - meaning me) backs off, he becomes an old, wise, staring-off-into-the-distance-with-stupid-smile-on-face, nostalgia-afflicted nut.

So - standoff. And it will continue. Till the tandoori chicken lays an egg. Till then let floating conspirators stew in their collective strategic sauces while this person meaning me continues his research into investigating the basic interconnectedness of all things.

You have to Listen

2009-02-25T21:03:00.000-08:00

Using social media for marketing throws up its own challenges. Heres one perspective looking at it from the customer's point of view. The first thing on his or her mind is yeah all thats fine but how do I measure return on investment? How do I know it works? What is the criteria for measuring success? How will I know that this is worth spending money over? The answer depends on what it is that he or she is looking for. Spreading brand awareness? Acquiring new customers? Converting customers? You can answer these questions if you know what social media marketing involves.

It all starts with listening. To your customers and potential customers. In traditional marketing this is called Market Research. You pay agencies to do this or you have an inhouse research department that carries out market research. They would do this either using surveys or using focus groups. Surveys would be aimed at a selected group of people and specific questions would be asked which would give you answers. Focus groups would involve a session with a selected group of people who you could keep asking questions and get answers from. In both these cases, you would get answers. You would not necessarily get insights. This is because you might not have been able to get a target audience that is necessarily representative or maybe you just didnt ask enough right questions. And here is where listening in the social media space makes a difference. Here you are not asking questions and getting answers. Rather you are listening to people talk to each other and in the process stand a much better chance of gaining insights from their conversations and comments than you would from direct question-answer sessions.

The next stage involves talking. This in a traditional context is marketing. Which is again a one-way outbound communication to your target audience using different media. In the social media context it would be more participating in and stimulating two-way conversation that your customers have with each other, and not merely what you have to say to them.

Sales - this would be the stage where you energize your audience and have them sell to each other. This is where once you have built up a loyal following of customers, they would then in turn advocate your product/services and bring in more customers so that your loyal following increases.

The support stage would be where you help these customers support each other. Again here the key is in enabling conversation amongst themselves to allow them to support each other along with help from your side. Finally the development process would also involve key customers who have become advocates of your products/services and include them in the development and design of new products/services.

The key to all of the above is being able to provide the necessary and relevant tools and platforms to your customers based on their social technographic profiles. Your objectives should be clear and based on this your strategies and selection of technologies should follow. Any approach to social media marketing necessarily should involve People, Objectives, Strategies and Technology. And in that order.

What are your views on social media marketing? Do you think it works? Take the poll shown alongside.

It takes Genius....

2009-02-24T07:09:00.000-08:00

“Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.” - Albert Einstein.

In the wake of the upheaval caused by the near collapse of a leading IT firm, there has been a sudden increase in the concern for Corporate Governance across the Corporates in the country. These companies are now focusing their attention on how they can prevent problems from occurring in their organizations. The 2008 financial crisis has further emphasized the fact that prevention is often a far less bitter pill for an organization to swallow than the cure.

Policies, Procedures, Processes - you can draft these and cast them in stone till you are blue in the face, but an organization that cannot implement them, and having implemented them, monitor them well enough day after day, is still going to end up with egg on their face. What is required is a weapon that will allow the organization to keep things in order - monitor, detect, remediate and then track through to closure any material weaknesses that may inherently be lurking in the system. There are those who place a great deal of faith in their abilities to implement said processes and procedures and use paper and pencil to monitor and track without putting into place any system citing budget crunches to get around investing in a compliance system - but the simple fact remains - you cannot get around it. Prevention is better than cure. Detecting and nipping in the bud any problem lurking in the depths of the organization is better than wrestling with and putting it down once it has reared its ugly head. In short, as the quote says, intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them. And we have today that genius - and its name is technology.

Theres a very good blog post that talks about The Genius of Compliance Technology, which brings out nicely the fact that Compliance and risk management professionals that effectively utilize technology can make the difference between successful and unsuccessful firms.

Social Technographics

2009-02-19T05:25:00.000-08:00

Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff analyses the social phenomenon of the forces created by customers connecting which they call the groundswell.

The book classifies people according to how they use social technologies – called Social Technographics. There are 6 types of people who make up the rungs of the Social Technographics ladder.

1. Creators: A Creator is one who will publish a blog, publish their own web pages, upload videos they create, upload audio/music they create, write articles or stories and post them.

2. Critics: These are the ones who respond to content from others. They post ratings/reviews of products/services, comment on someone else’s blog, participate in online forums, contribute to/edit articles in a wiki.

3. Collectors: They organize content for themselves or others using RSS feeds, add tags to web pages or photos, vote for websites online.

4. Joiners: The ones who connect in social networks. They maintain a profile on a social networking site and visit social networking sites.

5. Spectators: They are consumers of social content. They read blogs. They watch videos of other users. They listen to podcasts. They read online forums. They read customer ratings/reviews.

6. Inactives – who are none of the above.

Taken together, these groups make up the ecosystem that forms the groundswell. By examining how they are represented in any subgroup, strategists can determine which sort of strategies make sense to reach their customers.

A milestone!

2009-02-17T06:29:00.000-08:00

According to the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service, the Internet surpassed 1 billion visitors in December 2008.

When the number crossed 1 million, no one was counting. It kind of crept up and slid into the pages of history. But this time around they were prepared. The big countdown etc.

China has taken the lead in the number of internet users worldwide. India, being the second most populous country in the world however lags behind but is poised to eventually overtake the US, Japan and Germany

Read the complete article here.

Pigs That Glow In The Dark

2009-02-14T21:11:00.000-08:00

Scientists in Taiwan say they have bred three pigs that "glow in the dark". In a news article Taiwan breeds green-glowing pigs, the scientists are reported to have claimed that while other researchers have bred partly fluroscent pigs, theirs are the only pigs in the world which are green through and through - heart, internal organs and all.

Apart from the revolutionary strides human research will take with this development, there is an incident that immediately springs to my mind which, given that fluroscent pigs existed then, would have turned out quite differently.

There was a report in a local newspaper of a small town up in the hills, which reported that a local drunk had his toes chomped off by a pig in the night while he lay in a roadside ditch in a drunker stupor. Well if said pig had been a fluroscent green, some passer-by would have noticed pig in the act and alerted the authorities. Or drunken man may have been roused from his slumber by all the fluroscence hovering around him while pig feasted on his body parts. Maybe none of the above, but it still doesnt take away from the fact that things will be different if you have "pigs that glow in the dark" running around. No more problems with pigs that vanish into the night, green glowing pigs are always easier to find. No more problems with monster pigs creeping up on you while you sleep to chomp off toes or other body parts. They would attract a lot more attention than the drab non-glowing variety.

Some day many more will go the green way.

And your breakfast on the odd day then could very well be - Green Eggs and Ham !

Those who use Twitter - Are they twits?

2009-02-13T06:36:00.000-08:00

These past few days I have been trying my hand at Twitter. For the longest time (not that its been around that long) I had kept away from it, but I do want to know what accounts for its immense popularity and rapid rise in the social space. I had signed up a long time ago and after the initial couple of "tweets" - thats what they are called when you say something on twitter - I had stayed away from it, not for any specific reason, but just because - well, just because. After a few days I have picked some people to follow, found that there are some who have decided to follow me and apart from that I am still trying to sort out the fuzz from the buzz. I guess it takes a little getting used to. I have the TweetDeck set up so I dont need to login everytime and everytime I look theres this whole bunch of new "tweets" that have come in from those that I am following. My dilema right now is - what exactly does one do on Twitter - or, what is expected, acceptable etiquette or behaviour on this wonderful tool? So now that I am on it what exactly should I do - or not do? And the answer came from where else but Twitter .... heres the link to this good helpful article which was 'tweeted' by one of the people that I am following that explains so nicely what the whole thing is all about.

Happy Tweeting!

One Hat Too Many

2009-02-12T03:49:00.000-08:00

One of the responses to my attempt at making the grand sweep from wandering generality to meaningful specific was thats all very fine and good luck but what if you end up with something which is generally meaningful but specifically absurd?? Wonderful I say... because the whole point is to try and move away from the general somethings, the wandering generalities that clutter our minds and paths and home in on something which is specific, focussed, measurable, quantifiable, absurd though it may be, but then what the heck - absurd can be good, absurd is innovative, there are entire movements devoted to the absurd, so it really is not that bad. Its like someone said its better to be specifically absurd for a day than be generally meaningful your entire life. OK. Maybe nobody actually said that, but there have been similar statements made - or words to that effect anyway. My point is, like I said before - so having made it, will not get into it again.

Hats. Suddenly theres too many to wear. I know the times they are a-tough and we are tottering on the brink of a cataclysmic downturn (arent we into it already?? i know - i know - the tunnel it is dark and lovely) but does that mean that many hats is the flavour of the season? You know what? It just may be. It is.

This is the one time, painful and tough as it may be, that is going to throw up opportunities for you to innovate in more ways than you thought possible. This is the time when you can, apart from panicking and flailing limbs in all directions hoping to catch something, home in on opportunities that you dig up, or create them if necessary. And to do that you will have to wear hats - many of them. You do not know when you will need to be what to whom. So carry them around. You may need a small truck to cart them around, but do it. Innovation is the name of the game, and only those that do, will still be around when the sun comes pouring in at the end of that tunnel. Innovation. Adaptability. Agility. Dynamically Reconfigurable. You get the picture. You could also check out this blog post that I found interesting.

And once you see it through, you can go back to your fancy suits, cigars, golf and cars. But till then, its the hats that are going to see you through. And if they call you the Mad Hatter... let me tell you, the madder, the better!

From a 'wandering generality' to a 'meaningful specific'

2009-02-09T22:40:00.000-08:00

I saw this video of an interview given by Seth Godin where he talked about the power of tribes and why it is important to have a tribe. He says that you dont need to sell to the world. If you can get a tribe of a thousand people that buy into your idea, then each will go out and get in a thousand more. He also talked about being the best at something specific than trying to be one of the crowd while attempting too many things. Pick what is important to you, what is your world, and be the best at it. And theres the killer line where he talks about how if he were to attempt too many things he would be a 'wandering generality' rather than a 'meaningful specific'.

Click Here to watch the video.

Slowdown and the Digital Media

2008-11-03T07:29:00.001-08:00

Just as is the question with just about all other industry in today's state of slowdown, so it is with the impact on Digital Media. Will the slowdown in the world economy and the collapse of the US economic order impact the digital media in India? Given the size of the market in India which is about 350 crore rupees, which is a tiny portion of the overall ad spends in the country, it is very unlikely that it is going to be affected. Ad budgets across the other media which are huge will be affected, ad spends will be slashed, and with the smaller budgets this is a good time to experiment with online advertising, so the online market will see good times ahead.

When the sound and the lights are done with....

2008-11-01T07:33:00.001-07:00

Diwali - came and it went. Surprisingly, given the condition of the market in the last few weeks and the general pall of gloom that had descended like an evil dark cloak over the general public, the festivities that one heard around were not as dull as one would have expected. Well, the reports said that the shopping malls ran at half capacity when they should have been bursting at the seams. But the same mood did not seem to reflect in the fireworks department. They were there, in all their noisy glory. Well, maybe a little less than previous years but that probably was more due to the strict timelines imposed than anything else. I guess we as a nation like to be noisy.

Naman - Paintings on Shree Ganesh

2008-10-29T20:48:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I went to see an exhibition of paintings at the Jehangir Art Gallery by Milind Phadke, a veteran artist from Pune. On exhibit were a series of 'Ganesha' paintings which featured fine detailing and interesting textures, something which has been a typical feature of his work. It is this classic, original style that has drawn art-lovers to his work over the last four decades. In this series Ganesha has been portrayed in various 'Swawrupas' within a beautifully composed decorative space. This series depicts a personal encounter with the different moods of the lord. These are images of innocence, peace and tranquility.There are shlokas that have been added in the background using calligraphy. These shlokas sing the praise of Ganesha describing the beauty of his handsome 'roopa', his ornaments, his attire, his nature as a warrior, as a destroyer or obstacles and calamities. The paintings on the whole blend spiritual and ornamental forms to invoke a sense of peace in the beholder. There is a vibrant verve and energy that you can feel as you view the paintings.

Milind Phadke was born on the 20th of February, 1951 at Pune. he has a Govt. Diploma in Applied Art, an M.A (Socio) from the University of Pune and a Diploma in Business Management. He is working with Abhinav Kala Mahavidyalaya Pune as a lecturer. He has had one man shows in many prominent art galleries in Pune,Mumbai and Bangalore as well as many art galleries overseas. He has many awards for Painting, Graphic Design, Advertising, Public Welfare and Copywriting. He has been honored with a State Award by the Dept. of Health Education, Govt. of Maharashtra and with a State Award for Best Teacher: Fine Art Colleges, Directorate of Art, Maharashtra State. His collections are featured in many prominent Institutions, Government agencies and Corporate houses as well as private galleries.

You can view some of his work here.

The Apple iPhone 3G

2008-07-13T06:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a long, leak-filled wait, but Apple finally took the wraps off its 3G iPhone. Thinner edges, full plastic back, flush headphone jack, and the iPhone 2.0 firmware -- Apple's taking a lot of the criticisms to heart from the first time around.

Read the full article here...

The Mumbai Metro

2008-07-05T07:26:00.001-07:00

Work on the first phase of the Mumbai Metro is on. The road in front of the 7 Bungalows bus terminus and the line of little eating places like Pop Tates etc. is all dug up.

The Mumbai Metro project contract for the first phase was won by a Consortium led by Reliance Energy Ltd (REL) of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. This project is being executed by REL and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). A French company Connex and the Hong Kong MRT are the other members of the consortium and they are providing the technical know how.

The first phase is going to cover the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar corridor and will cover a distance of 11 kms. This work is planned to be completed by 2009. This route will have 12 stations - Versova, D.N. Nagar, Azad Nagar, Andheri, Western Express Highway, Chakala, Airport, Marol Naka, Saki Naka, Subhash Nagar, Asalpha Road and Ghatkopar. The commuting time between Versova and Ghatkopar will be 21 minutes. Today the commuting time between these two points is at least 70 minutes.

The second line will connect Charkop to Mankhurd via Bandra and bids for this line have already been invited. The third line of the project connecting Cobaba to Mahim is expected to be totally underground.

Mumbai may be the first Indian city to have a single fare structure for transport. Globally, cities like London, New York and Singapore already have such a system in operation. The authorities plan to create a sub-system for road, rail, waterways, and air transportation, which will include rail network, parking lots, private and public modes of transport. The single fare structure will make traveling in the city a bit convenient as commuters would not need to buy separate tickets for different modes of transport.

The Telecom Infrastructure in India

2008-07-03T20:46:00.000-07:00

The following is based on facts and figures reported in the latest report of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the India Infrastructure Report 2008.

Recent findings suggest that Indian Telecom is the fastest growing telecom sector in the world, ahead of even China. In terms of user base, India is now third behind China and the US. India has a total user base of around 300 million as of quarter ending March 2008. The total wireless subscriber base is 261.07 million as of 31st March 2008. The wire line segment subscriber base stood at 39.25 million in quarter ending March 2008. There are 11.09 million internet subscribers as of March 2008. Besides this, there are 66.09 million wireless data subscribers at the end of March 2008 who are capable of accessing data services including internet through mobile handsets. Total broadband connections in the country have reached 3.87 million by March-end.

Given the pace of growth and reaching the target of 250 million Telecom users by the end of 2007, the government has set a target of 500 million subscribers by 2010.

What appears to be a stumbling block for even more rapid progress in terms of growing the user base and services is the availability of spectrum or radio frequency.

3G technology services will allow simultaneous transfer of both voice data (a telephone call) and non-voice data (such as downloading information). Almost all telecom majors such as Bharati Airtel, BSNL, Vodafone-Essar, Reliance Communications, and Tata Teleservices have carried out trial runs of 3G applications and services. The pilots included testing of all high-speed internet applications, next generation gaming, video, and wireless streaming. They also have processes in place for seamless migration of all value-added services to the 3G space from the current 2G networks.

All are awaiting the allotment of radio frequency (also called spectrum) from the government to launch 3G services in India. And why does this seem to be a problem? The reason that the rollout of 3G services is an issue seems to be owing to the scarcity of spectrum availability amidst the many users who need the spectrum. In addition, allocation of spectrum for 3G carries several trade policy and international bilateral implications and this involves a long political process. An additional controversy has centered on whether global companies should be allowed to bid or not.

The use of new technologies can increase the efficiency of spectrum usage four to five times. TRAI’s new criteria indicate that even with the initial allocation of 6.2 MHz in GSM and 3.75 MHz in CDMA, the addressable subscriber base can be doubled across all service areas. GSM players maintain that the scarcity of spectrum cannot sustain and the application of new technology will adversely affect existing investments, hence the incumbent service providers would like to delay it as long as possible.

Then there is the question of vacation of radio spectrum for mobile services. Sharp differences have arisen across ministries over vacation of radio spectrum for mobile services. As per the proposal worked out by the Wireless Planning and Co-ordination (WPC), defence forces are expected to release 42.5 MHz once the first phase of optical fibre cable project is completed. The Group of Ministers, which was set up for the vacation of spectrum from the defence services for the need of mobile operators, is of the opinion that at present the spectrum for the growth of existing 2G services is more important than the planned 3G services. The defence services and the DoT have been looking at vacation of around 25 MHz of 2G spectrum as well as well as around 15 MHz of 3G spectrum for the mobile operators. In addition the Department of Telecom and the Defence Ministry are working out a compromise formula that would make available additional spectrum of up to 55 MHz in three phases by mid 2008. As part of the deal being worked out by the two sides, the DoT will agree to lay an optical fibre cable for the army and navy also at its own cost. Earlier, the DoT had made plans to set up a cable system only for the Air Force. WPC is also negotiating with the Department of Space for vacating radio frequency for broadband services.

State owned telecom firms, BSNL, and MTNL, will get 3G spectrum quota as per the recommendations of an internal committee of Dot. What seems unlikely is that DoT will invite overseas companies to bid for 3G license just yet. This could be because the foreign players have deep pockets and they can bid very high for the 3G spectrum.

The telecom sector at present has to put up with various taxes, charges and fees. The government has decided to constitute a committee to design a unified and single levy for the telecom sector. Telecom operators have been urging the Department of Telecom to bring down all levies imposed by the central government on the operators to 6 per cent of their annual revenues. Currently, telecom operators pay between 6 and 10 percent of their annual revenues as licence fees. Besides this, they also pay spectrum charges, service tax, and other local taxes such as octroi and stamp duties to various state governments. While the levies charged by the state government may not be tampered with, the operators want that all levies and duties being charged by the Central Government should be replaced by a single levy that is not more than 6 per cent of their annual revenues. If this is done, then even if the charges were brought down to 6 per cent, the government would not lose any revenue due to growth in the operator’s revenues.

Flying into Bengaluru

2008-06-24T04:05:00.000-07:00

For frequent visitors, flying into Bengaluru International Airport can be slightly disorienting if you havent been keeping yourself updated on current affairs, happenings and things. If you are one of those who reads the newspaper everyday, or watches the news on TV regularly or, if you happen to be an online person and shun both of the aforementioned media and keep yourself updated peering at blogs/news sites/etc online, then you would know. But if you are one of those who do none of the above and are blissfully unaware of the happenings happening around you, then you will be quite baffled if you fly into Bengaluru today. For, sometime during the last month or so, while you were sleeping, they went and shifted the airport. They took it from where it was, bang in the middle of the city and placed it in the middle of nowhere halfway to the city of Hyderabad.

So as you come in to land, theres none of the familiar landmarks, buildings, roads etc coming up at you. Instead theres open land. Thousands of open land all around with a road snaking off somewhere into the distance. Then you land, and as you are parked you notice theres enough space to park thousands of planes. Theres many many aerobridges. Walking into the terminal, theres lots of space. Its a good feeling. Big helpful signs everywhere and the help counters helpfully informing you of the taxi service and the bus service that will take you into the city. You also have the third option of taking a cab to Hyderabad and taking an overnight train from there into the city.

Coming out of the airport, the first thing you see is a suitcase. It is a BIG suitcase. Big like in Really Very Big. Its like a building standing there in front of you. Its the kind of suitcase you would pack if you knew you were going to be going away somewhere for the rest of your life. And taking your entire family, friends and other animals along. And you would still have space left over to pack gifts for all the people in the next town you were going to go to.

The buses are well organized. You have the airconditioned ones and the non-airconditioned ones - all taking you to various parts of the city. So all you need to do is get on and doze off for the next couple of hours until you reach wherever you need to get off. Of course if you are going straight to Electronics City, you might be better off flying to Chennai and driving down from there.

Coming back to that big bag, for sure this is one bag that will never get lost on the flight. It may get intentionally abandoned though - thats probably what happened to this one.. someone getting off a flight probably had to leave it outside the airport because no cab or bus would take it on....

What's beyond Plan B?

2008-06-10T04:09:00.001-07:00

Have you ever wondered why there is always only a Plan B? Why not a Plan C, D, E or more? Says a lot about the confidence mankind reposes in itself. I will never need more than a Plan B. Whatever needs to happen will well be taken care of by Plan A, or worst case, if that dont happen, then plan B will see me through. No one, not you, not me, not the fat pig on a farm somewhere in distant Ireland, ever think beyond a Plan B. Ever wonder why not? Because we as a race collectively are a very smart, highly intelligent and extremely capable race absolutely able to handle whatever it is we need to handle, address or achieve with the help of at the most 2 plans. Hence Plan A, which most of the time is all that is required, and sometimes, when in a moment of temporary insanity or acute disorientation we lose our bearings, we need to fall back on plan B. But thats it. Beyond that we do not need anything else. Beyond Plan B, the frontiers of our knowledge, as we know it, end. Beyond that there is nothing. And nothing is something we do not want to have anything to do with. So, there you have it. Plan B is where it all ends. At least as far as we as a collective race seem to know. There may exist a plan C, D or more, but those having had those and had the opportunity of using those are a very rare breed. Because they must be either very dead or wandering the other world as some vague astral bodies capable of communicating only with those operating on similar frequencies. And from them there is very little that we will learn. So, for now, and for some time into the foreseeable future, Plan B it is going to be. That smart, deep thinking, highly intelligent fallback mechanism used by you, me and those fat pigs on a farm somewhere in distant Ireland.

Those wonderful ads

2008-05-28T05:53:00.000-07:00

Seriously, do they think we are idiots? The ones who come up with all those goofy ads - the ones that make you want to tear your hair out or inflict great amounts of damage around you – you know the ones I’m talking about. You would have to think really long and hard to come up with a reasonable explanation for all those ridiculous promotions polluting the environment. Then of course it becomes crystal clear to you in an inspired “Understanding All Marketing Fundamentals Everywhere” moment and you attribute it all to brand communication, positioning, placement, identification, demographics, behavior and socio-economic targeting, unique selling propositions among a host of other such academic explanations (because that is what the learned ones would do). OK. So if that’s the truth, then that’s the truth. And who am I, an unlearned, marketing-fundamentals-challenged ignoramus, to challenge such a truth? Having accepted that as the basis for giving free license to advertising professionals everywhere to promote brands whichever way they see professionally fit, lets for the moment go back to our opening statement: Seriously, do they think we are idiots?

The answer is ‘Yes’. Well, to be fair, it’s more like they couldn’t care less. For, you don’t matter. Seriously, if you question any aspect of any concept presented in any manner, you automatically are no longer part of the “target group” and if you are not part of that group then your opinion will have as much impact as a fart in a thunderstorm. And opting out of such a group by questioning the sanity of such branding again will have as much impact as the same fart in a thunderstorm. If you don’t believe me, look around you and see how many people walk this planet. We are talking HUGE numbers here. You, I and a thousand others vigorously shaking our heads in disbelief and rolling about on the floor laughing will have as much impact as….you get the picture.

So, as you can see, it doesn’t matter what you and I think. For every you and I, there is a million and two out there who think otherwise. And THAT’S who they are after. As long as they have their goofy undivided attention they don’t give a rat’s ass what you and I think. And you and I can roll on the floor laughing till the cows come home, those goofy ads will continue to pollute the environment around you.

From every channel on every TV set, from every station on every radio, from every billboard on every street, from inside of every page in every magazine and from every shadowy corner you can think off, they will leap out at you and violate your sensibilities in the foulest way imaginable. And if you don’t believe me or have not been subject to this phenomenon then you must live on Mars. To have had the good fortune of not having had goofy ads shower you every third second of your existence, you must be truly blessed - or live on Mars, as the case may be.

But then again this is how the cosmos functions – at least in our corner of the universe. And as long as this is how equations get solved in the larger scheme of things, I, the unlearned, marketing-fundamentals-challenged ignoramus, shall stay away from the scholarly analysis of the existence of goofy ads every where and get on with less complicated pursuits in life.

So, if there be others out there like me...., join in ….and one…and a two….and a three….……

Whitu whitu face dekhe
Dilwa beating fast sasura chance maaare re
Oh Very Happy in my heart Dil Dance maaare re
Dance maaare, dance maaare dil yeh dance maaaare re….

Seriously.

Non-linear Disambiguation of Dimensionally Diverse Perspectives

2008-05-14T20:04:00.000-07:00

The following is a work of fiction. All references to people, states of mind and theories contained therein are a by-product of the author's regular thought process which include random ramblings proceeding from a freewheelin' brain and any resemblence to any persons living, dead or in any ambiguous state, is not intended and purely coincidental. The references to pony-tails, however, are not.

Gross, Ketchhup et al[1] laid the groundwork for the formalization of the definition of perspective ambiguity. In the early part of their work they dwell at length on the assumptions that lead to their version of the definition. In the later part of their work they dwell at length on how those assumptions do not entirely hold thereby leading to the removal of large parts of the definition. With the result that this work offers a dangling definition affording a tilted view of ambiguity resulting in a perspective that is hard to stomach.

Bugg, Lows, Leech and Meng[2] build on this set of assumptions removing large amounts of ambiguity thereby affording a cleaner view of the underlying assumptions that lead to the definition. The only problem with this is that in the process of disambiguation they proceed to remove large amounts of the ambiguity also and end up with a perfectly sanitized definition for deviant behavior in cats which no longer applies to perspective ambiguity whichever way you look at it.

Rastogi, Ganguly, Siddappa and Muthukrishnan [3] proposed an approach for formalizing a definition starting with the basic assumptions that lie behind Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. Although this affords an extremely interesting perspective on the cross influences of unrelated theories on each other, it does little to further the cause of research in this particular area.

As is evident from the observations recorded above, there is very little relevant reference work available for research work in the area of proposing formal approaches to arriving at a definition for a Non-linear Disambiguation of Dimensionally Diversified Perspectives. So here is what I decided to do. Dump all plans for arriving at a formal definition and wing it.

To start with, here is some perspective to think about. Take a good hard look at yourself in a mirror after you are plastered – say a good 7 to 8 drinks down should do nicely for a start. Then as you stare hard at yourself in the mirror, you pose your question to the face in the mirror. Don’t wait for an answer. There will be none forthcoming. Come back after a couple of drinks and listen to the answer to the question you had posed earlier. After having listened to the answer, if you can relate it with the question that you had posed earlier and in the process make sense of the question and the answer as they relate to each other – then that, my friend, is perspective. Put another way, it is being able to relate entities that are spread across dimensions of time, space and sense of identity.

The ability to comprehend with absolute clarity complex relationships between entities with shifting identities, in itself an art, and further being able to do it, while dealing with the ambiguities spanning dimensions, is known as non-linear disambiguation of dimensionally diverse perspectives.

Maybe it’s called something else but I like to call it that.

The ability to define relationships spanning radically differing contexts constitutes what your everyday right-brained dude terms ‘Creativity’. It is not, as the same dude thinks, the ability to come up with a few smartass lines for a TV/radio commercial or splotch up an abstract and label it ‘My Conscience Inverted’. That, my friend, is just that - a splotch on the conscience of any right-minded individual, with or without a conscience, inverted or otherwise – and there is nothing ambiguous about that.

Dumbing it down a bit, creativity, as I see it, is the ability to take two totally unconnected entities and draw a connection between them. My friend the Graphic Designer disagrees, and fails to see any connection between me and my definition. Now getting him to see the connection would amount to being really creative. But this is not about him so we will leave him and his pony-tail to figure out the connection of one with the other and stay on the topic on hand.

A little mental exercise for you – consider two items – a green pea and the latest bollywood film that would have opened at the box office. If you were to say that the film was made by a bunch of people with the IQ of a green pea, then you would be on your way to creative satisfaction. Staying on the same topic and drawing further connections would get your creative juices flowing fairly freely. You get the idea. You could exercise your mind and soon you would be a fountain of creativity with the juices flowing on a production scale. Hell, you could set up a bottling plant and market your creative juices. The brand name could come from some outsourced agency, who would think up the name in an inspired moment of juice making. All of which will not be possible if you were not to give them a brief and the freedom to go innovate in the first place. That then becomes cooperative creativity. Of course the franchises will step in and find value-add options that go with the bottled stuff – now you are looking beyond the cooperative and moving onto collaborative turf. Find an overseas market and you are progressing nicely into the global. And to think it can all begin with a humble green pea and a stupid bollywood film. Which lets us conclude that almost anything and everything can be a source of great inspiration.

So there you have it. My submission on Creativity and Non-linear Disambiguation of Dimensionally Diverse Perspectives. And if it doesn’t agree with the pony-tails out there, well, as the man said, to each his own. And I am sure there is nothing ambiguous about that.

References:

[1]Gross, Manuel; Ketchhup, Bruno; Abrams, Kasturi Peter (1969). ‘Birds of A Feather: Social Analysis in the Developing World'. Vol. 4.

[2]Bugg, Manolo; Lows, Utpatan; Leech, Keeda and Meng, Ming (1978) 'What, Where, Who, Why? Pertinence in a Mixed-Up World'.

[3]Raman, Jignes; Ganguly, Jignes; Siddappa, Jignes; Muthukrishnan, Jignes (1996) 'Hum Sab Ek Hai: Cross-referential Identity Differentiation'

Note: The above is a work of fiction. All references to people, states of mind and theories contained therein are a by-product of the author's regular thought process and any resemblence to any persons living, dead or in any ambiguous state, is not intended and purely coincidental. The references to pony-tails, however, are not.

some lines

2008-05-07T19:22:00.000-07:00

"Oh, the hours I've spent inside the Coliseum,
Dodging lions and wastin' time.
Oh, those mighty kings of the jungle, I could hardly stand to see 'em,
Yes, it sure has been a long, hard climb.
Train wheels runnin' through the back of my memory,
When I ran on the hilltop following a pack of wild geese.
Someday, everything is gonna be smooth like a rhapsody
When I paint my masterpiece."

- from When I Paint My Masterpiece by Bob Dylan

Those Early Wickets...

2008-05-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

Whats the deal with the strategy of picking up a few early wickets? Though not a deranged fan of the game of cricket, I do enjoy the game in moderation, watching matches on TV and not really losing sleep over the outcome. But be as it may, I cant for the life of me understand one line that keeps popping up with great regularity no matter which match on which channel playing which teams I watch. Its the response to the inevitable question posed by the commentators to (usually) the captains of the teams, which is 'what would your strategy be for this game' - the inevitable response, among others lines, features "we'll be looking to picking up a few early wickets". Now. I ask you. Is that strategy? I mean, who, no matter which part of which country they play cricket in, would NOT be looking to pick up a few early wickets? A few early wickets? I would think it would be more like many early wickets, if not all early wickets. Thats not strategy. Thats a wish. Thats an ideal. Thats heaven. I am captain of a team, what I would want to do is I would want to go in there and hope to pick up ALL wickets early - preferably as early as midway through the second over. So I could go in knock off the required runs and settle down to a leisurely evening watching some of my favourite movies with a glass of my favourite beer.

So as you can see I am many confused with this line I keep hearing over and over again. So if there are any kindly souls out there with a take on this, and I am sure there must be many, please feel free to enlighten this dumb soul as to this particular strategy that seems to have completely escaped my comprehensive capabilities.

Many thanks in advance from one who has just witnessed the Mumbai Indians completely decimate the Rajastan Royals for just over a hundred. Now THAT - that which helped achieve this, whatever you may call it, is what i would call strategy. And the early wickets, just happened to be a result of that.

Weekend Movies

2008-04-15T20:56:00.000-07:00

There were three movies I watched over the weekend: The Fountain, Hollywoodland and The Pianist.

By far the best of the three was The Pianist directed by Roman Polanski. A very touching portrayal of a Polish Jew's struggle in the Warsaw ghettos during the Nazi occupation and the survival of the spirit. It seems a very personal movie and ranks far out there ahead of other films that have dealt with the same subject.

The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky is a visual experience. It is a fantasy showing three parallel stories spanning a time expanse of at least a thousand years. The stories will confuse you and perhaps leave you lost. Dont worry. Sit back and enjoy the film for what it is - a superb visual treat.

Hollywoodland is based on the true incident in Hollywood in the late 1950s when the actor George Reeves playing Superman on TV apparently committed suicide. It looks into his life and the possible circumstances leading upto the event. Although it is based on this incident there is a parallel story revolving around the private detective (who is fictional) who goes through a process of discovery while investigating the case. Interesting if you like period movies.

Destruction

2008-04-10T04:49:00.000-07:00

"I must love what I destroy and destroy the thing I love"

- Sting from Moon Over Bourbon Street

Vague In Vogue

2008-03-28T03:45:00.000-07:00

"For the benefit of Mr. Jones, we shall be delightfully vague, till such time that we begin to appear, to all intents and purpose, vaguely delightful. And look to those who are so good with words at keeping things vague. For it is sooner now, than later, that we will need that vagueness to keep from being blinded by all the clarity around us."

- Me (while examining the ambiguities in the larger scheme of things)

And we all made our choices...

2007-12-07T05:33:00.000-08:00

Choice - that taken-for-granted option that is the birth-right of today's generation can be a pain in the ass sometimes.

Was a time when we didn't have much of a choice. We read what book we could lay our hands on, we watched whatever movie was playing at the local theatre, and we tuned into whatever channel was offered on the radio. And this was not really that much into the past, I maybe old, I'm not THAT old. But today - you dont need to lay your hands on any book - you have stores on end stacking them, you have unlimited choice online and whether you go looking for one or not there is a good chance one will come your way and bump you on the head. Movies - there for the asking - the plethora of multiplexes, dvd rental stores and ofcourse all the online stuff. Same goes for the music.

I'll not get into those examples. There are many more examples I could give but they are too complicated and best analysed by the web pundits of today. I'll stick to an example which is closer to my understanding. I am at a multiplex standing in line for a ticket (I can hear the sniggering "use the online booking dummy" - I do many times, only this time for the example I stand in line). I need tickets for the current show which is going to be starting sometime soon. I am maybe a couple of people away from the window when I notice that the guy at the window is taking a little longer than usual. I look and see that he is in deep discussion with the ticket-giving person. They both have their eyes scanning the monitor studying a seating plan which is staring back at them.

You see in my day, which was not so long ago in the past, we really didnt have a choice. When it came to your turn at the window, you stuck in your money, asked for the required number of tickets, and walked away with the tickets the ticket-giving person stuck in your hand. And these tickets already had the seat numbers scribbled on them. So you didnt really get to choose your seat. No choice. No delay. A simple in and out.

So getting back to our friend at the window and the ticket-giving person - they were now discussing viewing angles and reclining comfort as a function of the distance of any given seat from the screen. That having been put behind them, they moved on to weighing the trade-offs on choosing an aisle seat in the middle of the hall vis-a-vis a corner seat further down - viewing distance and reflection losses figuring in the discussion. An explanation on the different pricing followed with a short commentary on the state of the economy and its impact on multiplex box-office collections. By this time my movie was getting all warmed up and the show, as we say, was about to begin. I looked around and the others in the line didnt seem too concerned - they were deep in conversation with their others and so I casually glanced around and hummed and hawed a bit. Internally, I was yanking the guy at the window away from his post, reaching in for the tickets and ripping them off after shoving in the money for them. But no - that couldnt happen here. Choice - you could choose your seat, and take your time doing it. For mine is the right to choose, and choose I shall, and take my time doing it.

Finally they seemed to arrive at the optimum seats, spent a few more minutes deciding what the title of their elaborate thesis should be, and parted ways. By now my movie had reached the interval, so I just bought tickets for the next available show. And it wasnt necessarily the movie I had wanted to see.

So much for choice.

If you dont like your veggies - play them!

2007-12-06T01:50:00.001-08:00

Check out this amazing orchestra - all green, all veggie, and all - well - you figure that out. But all in all, it sure is different.

Strategy or What?

2007-11-30T00:22:00.000-08:00

Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of France, master of strategy and conqueror of most of Europe sure knew how to freak the enemy. He didn't rely so much on brilliant innovation while strategizing, rather he spent time studying the innovations of others and then thought about how it could be reused in the present context. He relied on flashes of insight to tell him what to do. When he first set out to conquer with a badly impoverished army from southern France, he goaded them saying that there was wealth to be had out there in the world and that they should go and get it. He advanced into Italy, and the Italian and Austrian generals identified Turin and Milan as strategic objectives. The Italian army spread out to defend Turin, and the Austrian army fanned out to defend Milan. Napoleon headed towards neither and went in between them. This confused the hell out of the Italian army which sent out troops looking for him, which allowed him to pick them off at his leisure at various points that were advantageous to him. He then headed not towards the Austrians defending Milan, but towards Austria. This panicked the Austrians who then set off in pursuit to defend their country. Napoleon picked a town along the way, set up in the middle of the town and allowed his artilery and then the infantry to take out the Austrian army on the bridge leading into the town.

This concept of finding the right thing to do at the right time came to be known as "Napoleon's Glance" - as recorded in a work On War by Carl von Clausewitz, a Prussian, who ended up fighting on the losing side in many battles with Napoleon. He went away and pondered over twenty years on the genius of Napoleon and what made him tick, and came up with the concept of the coup d'oeil, meaning a stroke of the eye, or glance.

The source for this is the book, Napoleon's Glance by William Duggan.

Wikinomics

2007-11-27T20:22:00.000-08:00

Mass collaboration changes everything! Or does it?

For a treatment on this subject you could read Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams.

Openness, Peering, Sharing and Going Global: these concepts are dealt with in the book covering a wide range of examples from a mining company that opened up its internal data to the world to get people around the world to come up with locations where they could mine to the well known ongoing Linux collaborative effort. Do organizations still need to follow the strict closed door approach to innovation and research or would it make sense to throw open the doors and allow the collective mind to go to work for them. Is the wiki workplace really what we are heading towards? Peering, a marketplace for ideas, the Prosumer, collaborative research, common platforms for innovation, and above all, the collaborative mind making for a new world. Is this really the direction that we need to go in?

An interesting read.