Indian Writer-Poet-Blogger John P Matthew on Writing and Life!

How Credible Is Our Media?

zenwriter@gmail.com — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:34:30 PST

In this blog I had decried the vested interests that manage the media these days. According to commonly available information, editorial freedom and integrity that are vital to the survival and credibility of newspapers seem to have been compromised and quite irretrievably lost. In my profession, which involves buying of various media: newspapers, radio, outdoor, etc., I know that some newspapers (leading ones, at that) actually compromise in editorial integrity for monetary objectives and to push an advertiser's point of view.

I didn't know how prevalent in televison, which was glaring made apparent in a recent encounter with a leading channel the other day. Whoa! Here the stakes are higher. This one was about panel discussions in the business section of the channel. They needed sponsors for the discussion which you presume are objective and purely of academic interest. Not so. The sponsor can send one representative to the discussion to plug their point of view, and the associate sponsor can send one person to augment their corporate image. So, in effect that mean you can have your publicity and visibility if you are able to pay for it, and they quite blatantly mention this in their pitch. Credibility, did you say? The cost, which I wouldn't mention, is no trifling matter either and would run into eight figures. Whoa, again!

Writing a Novel Is Tough, Really Tough!

zenwriter@gmail.com — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:20:58 PST

Writing a novel is a tough, difficult job. Apart from plotting there are the characterizations, the settings, the subject, the voice, the tone, the foreshadowing, the explication of ordinary things you understand but others do not, the picking up of the tempo, the organizing of the work, everything takes so much time. The most difficult part is organizing the work on your computer so that files don't get over written by the wrong versions and the one you open and edit is not the wrong one. If the latter, you undo all you have done in the past several days. I don't know why I have embarked on such a journey when I can sit back and watch television, or, spend more time on Facebook. No work needed for all this. I had committed myself to doing this and I guess I am right, if I have the will, and so on….

The market for the novel is drying up. So the last bastion of publishing (as we know it) is crumbling. Poetry is already dead, because nobody reads poetry, and publishers and literary clearly state, "We don't accept poetry," as if it is a pariah dog. If poetry – the most sacred of written arts, the most sublime of thoughts sifted through the sieve of experience – is given such shabby treatment, then what's the future of literature? Will it survive the onslaught of a mindless media – television – or a sea of irrelevant information – the Internet? I don't know the answers. Only time can suggest some answers.

New York Times Gives Blogs, Online Networks Their Due

zenwriter@gmail.com — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:19:54 PST

While on the subject of New York Times (NYT) I am amazed to see that the articles centre around people's experiences in online forums like Facebook, Orkut,

Myspace, Twitter and such like. Is NYT following a future trend before it has arrived? Will newspapers in future follow blogs for opinions or vice versa? I must admit that I do follow newspapers for news and information, as of now. Or, is it with a view to gain popularity of these online networks. I am a bit confused because I don't see the trend here. Also most articles have at least one reference to bloggers, or, blogs, giving them more than their due in India. One steady and consistent Twitter user is the President Barack Obama himself. His latest tweet: The senate has unveiled an excellent health reform bill. Call your senators and ask them to move forward: http://bit.ly/8Ar4yG #hc09.

Perhaps, this is only a conjecture, over here most people aren't as familiar with online networks as they are in the U.S. And when Shashi Tharoor wrote some micro blogs on Twitter there was a lot of tittering in media circles. Are we a bit out of sync here?

(I am testing this upload on Word 2007, so the picture is insert to see if it really appears.)

Obama’s Men-only Obsession

zenwriter@gmail.com — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:25:55 PST

Over at the white House, as New York Times reports in a front page article, the major crib is that Obama is surrounded by men, and not pretty female interns. A picture shows Obama trying to basket a ball, watched by awed cohorts. Obviously when you are president nobody dares block you, or even call foul. What could be the reason for the men only obsession? This blogger acknowledges that men make better “Yes Men” than women (ever heard of the term “Yes Women”? Nah!). May be, he is vary of the reputation the White House garnered from Monicagate and Eisenhover-Kay Summersby affair which go to show that powerful men in the most powerful office on earth are susceptible to matters of concupiscence.

Kurianchen Kuriakose is of a different opinion. A confirmed god-fearing (and loving) Marxist he says, “All this shows the unmitigated rot in the Imperialistic/Democratic system. Who knows what skeletons lie hidden in the closets of the leaders of the Indian pantheon.”

Why I Believe in Online - the Medium of the Future

zenwriter@gmail.com — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:56:36 PST

This is in reply to a poem by Alankrita on Shakespeare and Company and sort of sums up my experience on social media and the entire wired world.

Like it or not, social media or networks, call it what you will, are here to stay. Why else should all celebrities insist on writing their own blogs, even sending micro blogs about snuggling close to ones husband, as Mrs. Ashton Kutcher (Demi Moore) is fond of doing? So the initial euphoria may be over, but blogging and social media are still growing and millions of addicts are being added every day.

Being stalked online, as Alankrita wrote in her poem, is a good thing. It gives you pleasure to know that someone cares about your posts without getting too intrusive. It is also a ready audience for communication, connection, and getting to know another person. And you don’t divest yourself of your power to control the situation. Intrusion is not a question because you can just remove the person and cut him/her off. And nobody can intrude without your adding him or her.

Since the mainstream media (newspapers, channels, news websites) are run by the so called vested interests, people are constantly searching for communities where they can get the latest from the horses’ mouth, so to speak. They need to know from someone they know, even remotely, because they have grown to distrust paid newspapers articles, manipulated network coverage. No wonder the daily newspaper these days look like public relations handouts by agents who are interested in spreading the cause of their celebrity clients. In fact, public relations agencies are paid on the basis of how many articles they could manage, how many interviews they could garner. There are also celebrities who charge the media for rights to cover their wedding, anniversary, birth of child, whatever.

Actually, I wouldn’t expect too much from so called friend on these networks, but don’t rule out lasting friendships either. I have known both sides of friendships online – one elevating and deep and the other shallow and superficial. Remember they are in some other parts of the world, and may have views and affiliations that you don't agree with. But overall, you can exchange ideas, catch news as it happens, and even forge genuine friendships with people in the same professions and with the same concerns. Our online identity, according to me, is a reflection of our true selves and only the ones with strength of character can survive what I call the dumbing down of the global community through these virtual communities. Our online persona and our real persona match exactly, so don’t bother to hide behind a mask. You will soon be found out. Persons who have joined for ulterior motives perish in the end and go away.

What I do is consider online networks as an extension of my blogging activities. I import my blog posts into them and have them read and comment. I have 800 followers on facebook, 200 on twitter, 300 on bloglines, 500 on ryze and its networks, around 100 who subscribe through feedburner, and around 50 daily visitors adding up to 1600 subscribers daily which is a very good thing. And I know my network will grow.

The Gotul: Has National Geographic Got It Wrong?

zenwriter@gmail.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:21:14 PST

Saw this interesting documentary on National Geographic on the Madia tribe’s Gotul custom. Gotul, as apparent from the documentary is a place where young people older than ten years go and spend the whole night together, drinking palm toddy, smoking tobacco and even having sex – promiscuously or not, the documentary doesn’t mention. All these are governed by tribal customs and rules laid down by elders, who don’t interfere as long as rules are obeyed. They can spend the whole night in the Gotul with other free-thinking young people and only return to their homes in the morning. Good. This allows young people to get acquainted and choose their own partners, eases sexual tension, and consenting young people are enter into matrimony.

If this was true this could have been a pointer of how India was always open in sexual matters and how young people behaved in age-old tribal societies, from which, quite obviously, we have descended. Anthonybhai has this to say, “Imagine man, what, what, those young people might be up to in that Gotul-Votul, whatever. Sure, men, I would have liked to flirt with some Senoritas from my own village in Margao, hehe!”

However, from this article in nagpurpulse.com it appears that that is not true. One Madhukar Ramteke, in a very fractured English, calls it bunkum, and says “Gotul is not sex club, its [sic] home of culture.”

Anthonybhai is all downcast when I tell him. “Whom to believe, men: National Geographic or Madhukar Ramteke?”

Frankly: I Don’t Know

zenwriter@gmail.com — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:21:09 PST

I will be frank about this one: I don’t whom to be more afraid of: the terrorists from within the borders or the “inner terrorists” or the fundamentalists from across the borders the “outer terrorists”. It confuses me. I could swear on that. Both have motives that match their sinister design of upsetting the peace. When one strikes; the other maintains a dignified silence, I have this queasy, very unsettling feeling that they both encourage each other. “Go ahead kill a few, let the media scream as if one possessed, let the cops work overtime without end, let everyone stay indoor and watch television.” Which is bad for health and humanity, but who cares.

Likewise I don’t know if I am leftist or a rightist. I don’t have a clue. As fellow blogger Dilip deSouza famously says on his blog: “I am not a rightist, I am not a leftist, I am a typist.” My first job was as a typist, a honourable and extinct job these days. I couldn’t find a job with a degree in hand, so I used the only skill I had to get a job as a “typist.” But I used to get upset and humiliated when the office peon would call me a “typist.” I guess “typists” and “stenos” went out the way of the dodos. Other tribes that went extinct are the “punch operators”, the “cardex clerks”, the “filing clerks”, the “delivery boys”, etc.

I don’t know whether writers should also be activists. Frankly I don’t know. I guess writers are born activists and mercenaries. You only have to see the politics in the editorial departments of newspapers and magazines to believe this. I would rather have writers clean up their neighbourhoods rather than talk about world peace, which is difficult with the inner terrorists and outer terrorist, being as they are in collaboration, sorry, the term is “joint-venture” in the globalised world.

I wonder why the “chicken” is such a maligned bird. “Why did the chicken cross the street?” and such like. Get the drift? Again “chicken” for coward, “chicken shit” for something very easy, “chicken feed” for something insignificant. Et cetera.

I guess I am lazy and sleepy. So I am off, good night blog, and blog readers.

Google Wave, Making Waves

zenwriter@gmail.com — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:30:46 PST

Read about Google Waves after requesting Amit Varma of India Uncut for an invite to use it. I read it up on Wikipedia in this article, and feel it is the next big step in online connectivity. Excerpt:

“Waves, described by Google as "equal parts conversation and document", are hosted XML documents that allow seamless and low latency concurrent modifications. Any participant of a wave can reply anywhere within the message, edit any part of the wave, and add participants at any point in the process. Each edit/reply is a blip and users can reply to individual blips within waves. Recipients are notified of changes/replies in all waves in which they are active and, upon opening a wave, may review those changes in chronological order. In addition, waves are live. All replies/edits are visible in real-time, letter by letter, as they are typed by the other collaborators. Multiple participants may edit a single wave simultaneously in Google Wave. Thus, waves can function not only as e-mails and threaded conversations but also as an instant messaging service when many participants are online at the same time. A wave may repeatedly shift roles between e-mail and instant messaging depending on the number of users editing it concurrently. The ability to show messages as they are typed can be disabled, similar to conventional instant messaging.”

Bar News Coverage of Humpty Dumpty

zenwriter@gmail.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:07:42 PST

Saw the latest edition of Bar News, and it sounded like a bar brawl to me. The news was about a prominent film director’s son caught in a muddle with extremists, hence the treatment is also a bit like Bollywood, but I am exaggerating, or am I?

It’s a different take on this post by Paul Nixon, which is hilarious. Loud Bollywood-is music playing in the background, the presenter shouting like he was presenting “san sani” and the commercials in between that did a bit of self-promotion, all a big waste of the viewer’s time. If this is going to be news, I better not watch it. Internet, social networking channels, twitter, facebook, here I come.

Bar News presenter in studio:

(Hitting the high notes, screaming into the mike) Dekhte hain how humpty dumpty sat on a wall and humpty dumpty had a great fall.

Tun... tun... taann....

Bar news walks to you, talks to you, it even talks down to you, you idiot. Over to you Kishore, Kishore?

Kishore:

I just learnt that humpty dumpty sat on a wall and humpty dumpty had a great fall. Dekhna hai how humpty sat on a wall at all, and how he fell, whether he defied the laws of gravity, or did the wind do it. Over to you.

Studio:

Bar news, talks to you, walks to you, even talks down to you, even screams to you, even pokes you in the rib with its rib-tickling news, so stay tuned. Over to you Kishore, Kishore?

Kishore:

I just learnt that humpty dumpty sat on a wall, humpty dumpty had a great fall, and the latest news is that, all the kings men came (on horses) and couldn’t put humpty dumpty together again. Over to you.

Studio:

See, bar news is doing this great service to humanity. But why aren’t you people giving us TRPs which is what we want. See (screaming) humpty dumpty sat on a wall, humpty dumpty had a great fall, all the kings men couldn’t put, humpty dumpty together again.

I switch off the television.

To Die or not to Die

zenwriter@gmail.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:36:08 PST

To die or not to die. That’s the dilemma facing most people these days. Even young people die these days. There are some who die every week, some who die every month, some who die every few months. It comes in an array of colours: blonde, brown, dark brown, black, jet black, burgundy, even flaming red. So to die or not to die. I die because, as told by a rickshaw driver once, I have to maintain appearances in a workforce which is still young. So does a lot of innocents born in the heady days just after independence. My dad died. I die only black. I see these aging bald men die-ing their hair blonde and the funny result is a VIBGYOR or colours: a few blonde wisps a few black wisps mixed with a few white strands. Looks grotesquely ugly, especially in broad daylight. What say? And there is a dark-skinned man I know who dies his hair with the local barber. Being a lazy barber he dies the man’s scalp, too, a jet black. That makes him look uniformly black all over, as if, as if, oh forget it!

To die is a good thing. Honest. You look ten years younger when you die. That’s why women always die. They know it’s no longer that age when a woman’s strands of white were considered sexy. So Aishwarya dies and she says “you are worth it.” Worth what? Die? A woman is only worth the die?

To die is messy. I never seem to get the mixture right. Sometimes it oozes down my fingers, sometimes it oozes down my scalp making me look ghastly. But the result is I look younger, though I don’t look as young as A.K. Anthony, who I am sure dies. I use Godrej. Every Malayali worth his coconut oil does, I mean die, not use Godrej. Kuriachen Kuriakose too dies. He says man must die so that he can live. That if he doesn’t die, he will be dead. I don’t know how that can be, but I can guess. And my guess is:

Die (pun intended) or else die.

Be Prepared to Be X-rayed, Stripped, Humiliated

zenwriter@gmail.com — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:20:17 PST

Guess one has to live the life of an over-protected, under-privileged human being from now on. So shout it from the rooftops: “you will never be free to walk into a library, a railway station, a government office without being frisked, stared, x-rayed, in short, humiliated by musclemen who look like they haven’t slept all night thinking of their jobs. That’s all right with me, so long as I feel protected. The problem is I don’t.

I just returned from the American Centre library where my wallet, bag, and cellphone were x-rayed, and though my cellphone was on silent told in a sullen voice:

“Please switch it off sir.”

“But it is not silent. I do a job like you and I should be available twenty-four hours.”

“Switch it off, sir.” I didn’t hear “or else?” that was firmly and untactfully meant to all who might have listened.

x - x – x

Then I enter the library and borrow a book. The librarian on the mezzanine floor scans the book, hands me a slip, and when I try to exit with my book, the metal detectors go, somewhat like an infant who hasn’t been fed for an entire day:

“Pee... pee... pee...!”

Two burly security men jump to attention hands on their holsters. I am all agog, confused, which is an understatement. They barge in through the glass doors and short of pinning me down snatch the book from my hands and hand me over to the librarian, who, again look at me suspiciously and asks a few questions. Fear, naked fear courses through me. Will I be arrested as an enemy of the US? Sent to Guantanamo, or wherever they send such offenders? Extradited? Stripped?

Heart beating, pulse racing, I repeat the procedure I had followed and then she says rather sheepishly, “I guess the librarian (on the mezzanine floor) made a mistake.”

“So the mistake is yours?”

Nods.

“Why am I being held if it’s your mistake?”

The beefcakes leave my skinny little arms, now aching with the unceremonious contact with authority.

“M**** ****s” I say under my breath.

My erudite childhood friend Kuriachen Kuriakose says, “Nations should strengthen their intelligence not subject citizens to futile security checks.”

He believes in Marxism and, methinks, should learn to adapt. You know dialectic materialism, class struggle and all that used to be so hot when we were misguided youths?

My Interview in Webneetech. Hubris? Nah. Well deserved? Yes.

zenwriter@gmail.com — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:13:46 PST

It feels nice to be interviewed for a change, though it took a long time coming. For most of my life I was at the wrong end of the mike or recorder, I now feel. Ah! But that’s just hubris, nah, it’s a well-deserved hubris, me thinks. After all, amn’t I one of those silent and unappreciated bloggers (unlike those celebrities, who took up blogging as an adjunct of their public personas) who have been silently pecking on my computer about issues of my concern since August 2003? So I am pleasantly and mightily pleased to see this interview featuring me (John P Matthew) in Webneetech.com. Read, comment (here or there online), transmit it virally, and share it on your favourite sites.

Mucho gracias, in advance. Bows!

Television, Movies, and a Lack of Indian-ness

zenwriter@gmail.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:30:00 PST

I like to make these comparisons, now that my writing work can resume. The laptop has come back after repairs with a new keyboard, there’s a nip in the air, the dam where I go for a walk-cum-trot is chilly early in the morning, and I relish what little winter we get in Bombay.

This was then; when an idealistic nation doted on inspiring national figures, and movies (the India twentieth century pop art) used to be all about Raj Kapoor’s clowning philanthropist Raju, the brooding patriot Bharat played by Manoj Kumar, an idealistic Dilip Kumar playing Sagina Mahato, and even Balraj Sahni playing the role of a poor farmer in “ Do Bhiga Zameen” – which is one of the best Hindi films I have ever seen – is also a commentary on Indian society. Even Guru Dutt’s films were full of idealism and the national spirit a newly-born nation on the brink of great things, I don’t know what.

Where’s all those patriotism and idealism in movies gone? These days we ape the west with unoriginal movies like “Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge” (this is a refrain from an old Shashi Kapoor film, again, showing the lack of imagination on the part of the writer and director) and other Khan-capers turning ourselves into poor caricatures of our more worthy non-resident brethren. And television programs are either saas-bahu stuff, singathons, or stand-up comedy shows where the performers and judges try their utmost to be funny – in a nervous and edgy kind of way, you know. Sometimes I feel the "mind blowing", the "fantastic", the "fantabulous", "want to take you home" all said with smiles - as if their botox will come apart - are all scripted.

Sunday newspapers in those days discussed national issues, and featured literary oeuvres like short stories and poems. Debonair had a poetry double spread and Youth Times and Illustrated Weekly of India published poems. These days none, onnum illa, oru rakshayum illa (nothing, no escape), as my friend Kuriachen Kuriakose would say.

I was reminded of these and many more things when Christina Daniels asked me to fill in a questionnaire (which I gladly did) asking me about my identity as an Indian in the Doordarshan days and now.

What’s “Kachha” What’s “Pucca”, Gormint Decides!

zenwriter@gmail.com — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:23:44 PDT

It’s a shame that the Gormint discriminates when giving what it calls “relief” to flood-hit people of Northern Karnataka in the districts of Dharwad, Haveri, Gadag, Bijapur, Bagalkot and Belgaum. These districts have been badly affected by the recent floods and the press coverage shows a grim picture. According to this article in Outlook many lost their homes and the gormint, in what would seem straight out of a Dickensian novel is discriminating between “Kachha (roughly built with mud)” and “Pucca (concrete built)” houses. What they dole out is paltry by all extents (a mere Rs. 2,500 for the mud houses and Rs. 25,000 for the concrete house. What a shame!

Bloggers, Facebookers, Tweeters Rejoice - the Future Is User-generated Content

zenwriter@gmail.com — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:56:50 PDT

Bloggers, Facebookers, Tweeters rejoice, the future of the internet is user generated content – that too real time user generated - according to this article quoting Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Excerpt:

“It's because of this fundamental shift towards user-generated information that people will listen more to other people than to traditional sources. Learning how to rank that "is the great challenge of the age." Schmidt believes Google can solve that problem.”

This blogger saw this coming, honest. Michael Jackson’s and Ranjan Das’ death came to him through Facebook, every few hour he checks for updates and somehow it all gels, what people and Tweet and what people Facebook (had to invent that term, you know).

How will Google rank them is the question. Already this blogger’s facebook page appears on a search of “John + Matthew” on Google. Trust Google to spring a surprise this time. (Hat Tips: Madhavan Narayanan)

Lest We Forget That Night...

zenwriter@gmail.com — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:51:55 PDT

He is a sad old man selling boiling gram on Azad Maidan. He does a day job somewhere and sqats opposite the Bombay Gymkhana facing the Municipal Corporation building across from the cricket pitches of Bombay’s landmark green area. He has eyes that weep, clothes that have not been washed for, maybe, weeks, he looks depressed, I can see the head droop, the listlessness of his movements as he parcels the gram to his customers. His eyes are lost, as when one hold memories of someone who is not quite there. On some days he isn’t there at the spot, the space is empty, and I walk past.

---

In the office we discuss the November 26 strike and I mention that our memories are short. We are more concerned with what happened on the way to work today than what happened only eleven months ago. Come to think of it, next month – November – the anniversary (some perverse anniversary this!) of the incident. What has changed? What have we learnt? The military guards at VT station are alert, expecting a strike any time. I know it from their looks. They are trained to kill, no mercy, no second thoughts. The railway protection forces’ commandos standing next to them loll and talk among themselves, awkwardly cradling their AK47s in their lap, shifting it here and there as if it is a toy. If terror strikes it will never be at VT station, don’t you think? I want to ask, but who am I?

---

It was sometime before I could muster courage to ask the old man what was wrong. Why was he always so glum, so self-absorbed, what happened? His friend (maybe, a fellow villager) explains to me, “His son was on duty at VT station when the terrorists struck.” He was a vendor at one of the food and knick-knack stalls that provide snacks to commuters. The shooting starts, he tries to climb over the counter to escape, the bullets rain death, one catches him in his side, he collapses into a heap of blood and dies, the gram vendor’s son. He knows nothing about the agenda for which his life was martyred.

---

Yes, we have a short memory, indeed, I tell my colleague. There may be a few candle-light vigils by concerned citizens at VT (which will be photographed, and then ignored), a few speeches by politicians (who will hog prime time), and then? How will we convince a recalcitrant and truculent generation that terrorism is not good? How can we teach their religious leaders that all religions preach peace and love and nobody’s virginal fantasies are fulfilled in heaven for killing fellow human beings?

“Jack and Jill” According to Indian Television

zenwriter@gmail.com — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:21:30 PDT

This is hilarious, really is. We all know how Indian television reporting goes in a circle, circumambulates, and returns to the very point it started from. While on the screen plays repeated clippings of the same video over and over, ad nauseum. You sit on the edge to catch every word (of some earth-shaking stuff that just happened), you crane your neck, you grit your teeth till your lips are half chewed off, then you sit back and mutter, “television.”

See this excellent parody in Paul Nixon’s words published on his blog.

Hat tips for the link: Max Babi.

An Open Letter to Kapil Sibal-ji

zenwriter@gmail.com — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:58:28 PDT

Dear Kapil Sibal-ji,

This missive is my humble appreciation of the efforts you are taking to improve the education system (which has been pulverised and prostituted by the education mafia) in this country. I also speak as a harried and harassed parent who has spent his entire savings (and that of his wife, a teacher [see the irony?]) on educating the only child he has.

It is good that some sense is coming into the holiest-than-thou system that is under your control. Do you know that to gain admission into a Kindergarten class these days you have to pay a bribe of from ten- to fifty-thousand rupees? And after gaining this admission, the teaching is so poor that our children have to be sent to private tutors at additional expenses?

Do you know that these same schools employ teachers on contract basis for Rupees three thousand a month, and sack them at will if they raise their voices? It worries me that teachers in some private non-government schools virtually work for free; just so because they don’t want to descend to decrepitude sitting at home? Just imagine how a badly-paid, badly-treated teacher would instil learning in students? Badly, no? Could you make it compulsory for teachers to be made permanent after three months? That way schools can’t fire teachers at will.

And this thing about cut off percentages for IIT is bothering me. Why have a high cut off percentage when it’s the talent of the candidate that’s in question. So, okay, agreed, if a candidate goofs at the board examination, couldn’t you give him a chance to make good in the IIT entrance, what say?

I think the grade system is good. It makes students become more creative instead of parroting his lines, and eases the tension in households, already burdened financially because child goes to school. But please, good sir, make it compulsory for teaching to be done in schools and not outside it. I mean let not the responsibility of teaching their wards (as you call them) rest upon the abovementioned parents and their private tutors (who are also a burden on the said harassed parents). Agreed, then? To put it simply (or, as my ilk are likely to say, “zimbly”: teaching to be done in schools by well paid teachers, and strict monitoring should be done by inspectors, without news of their visits reaching cane-wielding, thickly-glassed school managers (I know of certain schools that offer oily gourmet stuff to visiting education officers).

And one more thing, lastly, I might add, make all those exclusive corporate-ised, international-ised schools less elitist and make it compulsory for them to participate in local school events. After all, we aren’t breeding a superior race of students, are we?

Yours truly,

Humble blogger.

chandelier

zenwriter@gmail.com — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:18:15 PDT

Chandelier!

This beautiful chandelier in the office lobby was lit for the festival of lights - Deepavali - meaning a row of lights. Deepavali signifies the victory of good over evil and the celebratory procession of lights that welcomed the return of Rama after vanquishing his rival Ravana.

Just Back from Kerala....

zenwriter@gmail.com — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:02:29 PDT

Just back from Kerala, beautiful Kerala, the state of my birth, mother country, the state that confounds me still with its vivid contrasts and inexplicable charm. I was born there, but somehow I can’t understand it well enough that too after all these years of visiting it, at least, once a year. I have to explain this, um, so here it is: why are there so many palatial but unoccupied houses, why are there so many abodes that have been started but are still struggling to find concrete shape, why are the rice fields filled with wild plants instead of paddy, why are the coconut palm fields empty, why are there more hoardings than coconut palm trees now, why are the areas along the train tracks littered with plastic bottles, cups and food plates? Why are the labourers on street corners dress one day in blue, another day in green, the next one in orange. I learn later that they are the different colours of the political parties they represent – blue is for Republican, green for Muslim League, orange for the Hindu party, etc. So on and so forth.... More of this in the book I am planning to have published, if the goddesses (meaning editors) of the publishing world oblige! Cogito ergo sum.

I had left Bombay with a lot of expectations. I had intended to add a few more chapters to the travelogue I was working on, also about Kerala, something like, “To God’s Own Country – a Serendipitous Journey to Kerala”. This time I wanted to discover the culture of Kerala – how it had managed to maintain the oldest art forms of India like Koodiattam, which according the Kalamandalam Sridevi Mohan (who along with her husband FACT Mohanan runs Samskrithy, a school for traditional Kerala arts like Kathakali, Mohiniattam, and Kalari Payattu) is a play, so vast in scope that it is presented over 4 entire nights, that too in chaste Sanskrit. The content? It’s pantomime, opera, musical, all combined, presented by the flickering light of the holy lamp - Nilavilakku. It’s common knowledge that Koodiattam is the only extent form of Sanskrit theatre in the world. The fact that it is preserved in Kerala shows the love of the arts in this abode of the Gods. Have patience, till you read it all in my proposed book, snatches of which appear here.

I had maintained my Facebook account all through the journey, posting updates, receiving comments, and replying to them immediately. Soon I found myself running out of the balance in my cell phone, making me scamper to get refill, which, alas, was not available in the nearby towns. Finally, as all crises do in my insignificant life, it blew over and I resumed my life of contented online networking. To see some of the crazy messages and updates I shot out of my Nokia go here.

The Economists' Spat With Arundhati Roy

zenwriter@gmail.com — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:46:28 PDT

The Economist published this review about Arundhati Roy’s Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy which wasn’t very laudatory. I guess, in my humblest of opinions, the Economist reviewer wasn’t much aware of Roy’s work for the destitute and dispossessed victims of India’s grand dam projects, economic growth muddle, and craze for catching up with the Asian Dragon (China) and Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan), who have languished close to a tenuous subsistence. Therefore, humble opinion and all, the reviewer has overstepped in calling the review, “Necessary, but wrong” which is rather wrong in itself. Nobody can brand a book, whatever its magnitude or significance, as “wrong.”

So Roy wrote this stinging reply and got this as reply from The Economist. True, I love The Economist for simplifying a very complex subject and its reportage from around the world, but, in this instance I am not with them, especially a part about colonisation that appear in its review. According to this blogger (again IMHO, and all that) Economic Colonisation is a reality and it's happening under our very own noses.

Executives Paid Themselves Rather Well During Recession

zenwriter@gmail.com — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 04:18:27 PDT

Says this article in business.in.com:

“In the search for culprits in the global financial meltdown, bloated executive pay and the excessive risk-taking behaviour it fuelled stand out as prime suspects. Of the two, pay dominates the headlines and provokes the most public and political outrage.”

While the lower minions were being hit badly with the recession and it’s after effects (ah, I can breathe easy now the worst is over!) there is a lingering sneaky memory that while the lowly lost jobs and took pay cuts, the top cream of the executive churn enjoyed same pay and lavish perks, as they always did.

According to the above article bankers in the US gave themselves nearly $20 billion as bonuses in 2008, even as the economy was nose diving downward and the government was spending billions on bailouts. Obviously the person most miffed is Obama himself who says:

"exactly the kind of disregard for the costs and consequences of their actions that brought about this crisis — a culture of narrow self-interest and short-term gain at the expense of everything else."

Twisted Lines, Disappearing Acts on the Highway

zenwriter@gmail.com — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:14:50 PDT

This photo is for making a statement, sent to me by a friend, whom I trust. So, it’s for a fair use, I guess. The highway functionary in charge of painting this road erred, err, sorry, the tree erred in that it fell on the road and, the functionary just went around it, instead of through it. It is said that in Russia – the pre-glasnost Russia, I mean – a train left a station and never reached its destination. Every apparatchik available was put on the job of tracing the train and they scanned all paper documents, signalling records, eye-witness accounts, every possible way of recording a train’s movement. But nobody thought of walking down the tracks and finding where the train disappeared!

Another friend recently said that in certain stretches of highways in India you are supposed to drive at a constant speed of 80 kmps and should not stop come what may. If you are stopped, you are robbed and no trace will remain of you next morning, and your vehicle is stripped to its bare parts and sold in the auto parts market before sunrise. I think this friend exaggerates. I don’t know, still highways all over the world are dangerous places, in habited by the dregs of humanity. Remember the movie Mad Max, a cult movie of the eighties, also this blogger’s favourite, which shot Mel Gibson to fame.

The Problem with Digital, They Don’t Listen!

zenwriter@gmail.com — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:12:09 PDT

This is about penetration of digital media and its impact on advertising, which is what media companies survive on.

The other day a Google representative contacted me for our online advertising account and how they could optimise it. The attitude was rather patronising, which was okay with me, knowing it is Google, and all. "Now that you are advertising heavily in the print media and, sort of, why don’t you try online advertising, kinda, you know, usually we don’t contact clients directly (true!), but we are making an exception in your case." Get the drift? Seeing as to how Google was started and in a garage/bus/whatever, it’s understandable, I mean the attitude.

Then I see this discussion about how digital is the media of the future by Madhavan Narayanan where digital guru Mahesh Murthy has this to say, “The weightage given to older media is perhaps less about the demographics of the target audience than about the demographics and psychographics of the advertiser. The TG is online, no doubt. But the advertiser and media agency aren't. When Mr. CEO and Ms. Media Director only watch CNBC and Friends, it's unlikely they'll put big bucks behind a medium they don't use or understand.” Very true! Mr. CEO and comely Ms. Media Director have a reason to be watching "Friends". "Friends" is friendlier than the average call centre guy with the funny accent hawking digital media. More of this later in this post.

Actually I am a big fan of digital advertising media having been initiated into it very early in my career, but what I am not a big fan of is the kind of attitude fostered by digital media, you know, “usually we don’t do this,” and all. It defeats the very aim of showing how digital has far superior reach, and is far more effective.

So, since I want to give my digital advertising to Google, why don’t he come down for a meeting? “Meeting? We don’t meet, that’s not our style, we could send you a powerpoint and if you are interested you could call me.” Whoa! That’s the other extreme of what business interaction is all about (at least, what I know of it), you know, the one about “close to the customer” and “understanding the customer’s need.” The powerpoint arrives and, as expected, it's all abracadabra.

That’s the whole problem with digital media. They don’t want to reply to customers’ complaints, they don't listen, they don’t want to talk to the customer face to face and understand their needs, they prefer to sit in their “call centres” (some place in NOIDA) day and night and impose their superior-than-thou attitude on customers. If you have a problem with some digital biggie's interface you are directed to a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page and asked to (dumb you!) fend for yourself, because we aren’t interested in your WTF, goddamn business, you hear?

And that’s what should change if television has to handover the baton to digital, as Mahesh Murthy rightly advocates.

Of Chastity Belts and Feign-able Virginity Kits

zenwriter@gmail.com — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:53:47 PDT

We have heard of chastity belts Arab men fastened on to their women when they went into the desert, we have also heard of abstinence, but the headline Los Angeles Times headlined “ Gadget to help women feign virginity angers many in Egypt” boggles, nay, flabbergasts!

“The kit allows a bride who is not a virgin to pretend that she is. A pouch inserted into the vagina on her wedding night ruptures and leaks a blood-like liquid designed to trick a new husband into believing that his wife is chaste. It's a wink of ingenuity to soothe a man's ego and keep the dowry intact.”

More at the above link. One never knows if one gets a fair bride who is also a virgin (which is a craze in the West Asian and Persian Gulf region), the fairness may be due to a fairness cream and the virginity due to a virginity kit. What next? Power dildo kits and automatic arousal contraptions?