Friday, January 2, 2009
Happy New Year
Here's wishing a Hapy New Year to the one or two people who visit this blog if they still do :)
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Neninthe..
No, this is not a post about me. This is a new Telugu movie, by Puri Jagannath, I saw yesterday. It deserved a post. Its a good attempt but its a little one sided and it fails to address the real issue so I will complete the job here. Puri Jagannath attempted to send a message to every one related to the telugu film industry in the movie.
Its a story about an assistant director who is not really struggling but one who has ambitions to make it big in the industry. The first half of the film is good and Puri was content with making fun of a director who sorrounds himself with yes-men and makes crappy movies without realizing it. The second half is when he resorts to full on scathing criticism of everyone including the audience. The problem is since its a movie and he has to stick to the continuity of the movie, he blamed everyone and exonerated everyone. The rant by Mumait Khan about how the item girls are perceived by the public is good and even that is not completely justified as the industry ecosystem is bad and Puri is blaming the people for it. Its good that Puri is attempting to clean up the Telugu industry and at least trying to bring in some professionalism to the industry which badly needs it.
The main points of his rants are -
- Movies do not now run for 100 days and more anymore as the ground reality has changed.
- Viewers always expect the same thing in a movie and that the fans typecase the hero.
- And most importantly, the film people make movies not to make a buck but because they love movies.
The only problem with this is Telugu industry for a long time now only cared about making a buck and nothing about making movies. Even Puri's films are like that to an extent. He no doubt has some talent but he is no different. Also throughout the movie Puri sticks to the same format and expectations he makes fun of and expresses angst about.
From what I see, the Telugu industry has no respect in India among the people and more imporatantly in North india dominated by the Hindi film industry. The industry (and probably Puri) is under tremendous stress to make huge movies for big banners that run for 100 days. The expectations of the industry needs a reshuffle, not that of the audience. They treat movies as a business now as now the producers only depend on the revenue from the first 2 weeks for any movie now. To that extent, they are releasing a huge huge number of prints to show it on as many screens as possible to rake in the money before the reviews come in. But the idiots still stick to the same formula of film making. Obviously too much of anything will induce boredom, like all the previous Puri movies. The telugu audience is one of the laziest audience I have seen. They currently have been watching the same story over and over again for the last 15-20years with just different dialogues and actors. So lets hope the current pressure for profits changes that.
The fact is creativity and talent in the industry is at an all time low and there is no one with a good screen presence, good writing skills, directing, music or even singers are just not there. No matter what Puri says or thinks, its essential that educated young people from middle class families move to the industry for its long term sustainance. The film industry by catering to the masses over the years alienated itself from the core middle class which is where it gets its talent from. Telugu industry is not seen as a career option by almost the entire population. If this does not change, the industry will crumble more and more and sink deeper into the family business mindset that is so prevalent.
Hindi movie which at one point was close the telugu industry in terms of standards, movies made and talent is now so much ahead that telugu is just a dot. Don't get me wrong Hindi movies are still bad but they have become very better at creating a respectable image and perfecting marketing a movie and its stars. There is almost zero new blood in the industry and only families that worked in the industry during the last three to four decades try and push their offsprings now. This will push down the quality of films and subsequently profits. This death spiral will make the industry become even more irrelevant. If the telugu industry does not change it will be lose the money involved in it too. Because with all the urbanization the industry will lose audience share to Hindi movies. Its time the industry changes.
Now back to movie :)
Should you see it? Yeah why not. The dialogue is crude as in every other Puri Jagannath's movies. Much of Mumait Khan's rant is censored as they used a lot of explicit language there. I wish I could get the uncensored verison somewhere. But it still conveys the message. So yeah, see it and watch the self pity Puri feels for the industry and himself may be?
Its a story about an assistant director who is not really struggling but one who has ambitions to make it big in the industry. The first half of the film is good and Puri was content with making fun of a director who sorrounds himself with yes-men and makes crappy movies without realizing it. The second half is when he resorts to full on scathing criticism of everyone including the audience. The problem is since its a movie and he has to stick to the continuity of the movie, he blamed everyone and exonerated everyone. The rant by Mumait Khan about how the item girls are perceived by the public is good and even that is not completely justified as the industry ecosystem is bad and Puri is blaming the people for it. Its good that Puri is attempting to clean up the Telugu industry and at least trying to bring in some professionalism to the industry which badly needs it.
The main points of his rants are -
- Movies do not now run for 100 days and more anymore as the ground reality has changed.
- Viewers always expect the same thing in a movie and that the fans typecase the hero.
- And most importantly, the film people make movies not to make a buck but because they love movies.
The only problem with this is Telugu industry for a long time now only cared about making a buck and nothing about making movies. Even Puri's films are like that to an extent. He no doubt has some talent but he is no different. Also throughout the movie Puri sticks to the same format and expectations he makes fun of and expresses angst about.
From what I see, the Telugu industry has no respect in India among the people and more imporatantly in North india dominated by the Hindi film industry. The industry (and probably Puri) is under tremendous stress to make huge movies for big banners that run for 100 days. The expectations of the industry needs a reshuffle, not that of the audience. They treat movies as a business now as now the producers only depend on the revenue from the first 2 weeks for any movie now. To that extent, they are releasing a huge huge number of prints to show it on as many screens as possible to rake in the money before the reviews come in. But the idiots still stick to the same formula of film making. Obviously too much of anything will induce boredom, like all the previous Puri movies. The telugu audience is one of the laziest audience I have seen. They currently have been watching the same story over and over again for the last 15-20years with just different dialogues and actors. So lets hope the current pressure for profits changes that.
The fact is creativity and talent in the industry is at an all time low and there is no one with a good screen presence, good writing skills, directing, music or even singers are just not there. No matter what Puri says or thinks, its essential that educated young people from middle class families move to the industry for its long term sustainance. The film industry by catering to the masses over the years alienated itself from the core middle class which is where it gets its talent from. Telugu industry is not seen as a career option by almost the entire population. If this does not change, the industry will crumble more and more and sink deeper into the family business mindset that is so prevalent.
Hindi movie which at one point was close the telugu industry in terms of standards, movies made and talent is now so much ahead that telugu is just a dot. Don't get me wrong Hindi movies are still bad but they have become very better at creating a respectable image and perfecting marketing a movie and its stars. There is almost zero new blood in the industry and only families that worked in the industry during the last three to four decades try and push their offsprings now. This will push down the quality of films and subsequently profits. This death spiral will make the industry become even more irrelevant. If the telugu industry does not change it will be lose the money involved in it too. Because with all the urbanization the industry will lose audience share to Hindi movies. Its time the industry changes.
Now back to movie :)
Should you see it? Yeah why not. The dialogue is crude as in every other Puri Jagannath's movies. Much of Mumait Khan's rant is censored as they used a lot of explicit language there. I wish I could get the uncensored verison somewhere. But it still conveys the message. So yeah, see it and watch the self pity Puri feels for the industry and himself may be?
Satyam's Woes
It just keeps getting worse and worse for Satyam. Right on the heels of the outed ineptness and corruption in the management comes another news that the World bank barred them from doing business. Apparently Satyam bribed some of the people there to get some projects.
This is bad too, the business practice and hope the officials on the bank side of things were sacked too. The bigger news here is that Satyam installed some spy software to track the World bank servers apparently. I have no idea why they did this or why anyone would do this, but its just an awful awful thing to do. Either the technical people there do not understand anything about security and the implications of doing crap like this. Just because they have people to write code does not make it a good idea.
Also, for any one still a little unconvinced about the corrupt intentions of the board - Maytas is Satyam spelled backwards! Also apparently Ramalinga Raju resiged, which is a good thing. For the sake of the employees who deserve better, the entire board should be replaced. Satyam is now a very attractive take over target. It has a good core business and a billion dollars in cash. So very soon they will be working for some other company.
This is bad too, the business practice and hope the officials on the bank side of things were sacked too. The bigger news here is that Satyam installed some spy software to track the World bank servers apparently. I have no idea why they did this or why anyone would do this, but its just an awful awful thing to do. Either the technical people there do not understand anything about security and the implications of doing crap like this. Just because they have people to write code does not make it a good idea.
Also, for any one still a little unconvinced about the corrupt intentions of the board - Maytas is Satyam spelled backwards! Also apparently Ramalinga Raju resiged, which is a good thing. For the sake of the employees who deserve better, the entire board should be replaced. Satyam is now a very attractive take over target. It has a good core business and a billion dollars in cash. So very soon they will be working for some other company.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Satyam's Board of Directors
Its now a known fact that the Board of Directors tried to do Ramalinga Raju a favor by approving the acquisition of the Maytas group for a gazillion percent premium. I say it again that this is a scam of huge proportions that need to be taken very seriously and very strict corporate governace laws be put in place. A publicly traded company embezzling public money like this is not acceptable. It shows India as a bad place to do business and more so when an established player like Satyam does it.
Anyway, the idea behind this post is to throw some light on the board at Satyam. Everyone knows Ramalinga Raju the CEO but the board itself did not get much exposure. Here goes -
1. Ramalinga Raju - Also the CEO, his family owns a 35% stake in the Maytas company. His son is on the board of Maytas Properties.
2 B. Rama Raju - the co founder and probably a friend of Raju and so shares the vision to swindle money. I say this because, his son is the Vice Chairman of Maytas properties. Look at Rama Raju Jr here - http://www.maytasproperties.com/leadership.html
Interestingly enough from their web site, Maytas' slogan is translating vision into reality :)
3. Ram Mynampati - Have never of this one.
4. Dr. (Mrs.) Mangalam Srinivasan - She has a long list of accomplishments. She has an PhD, an MBA, held various faculty positions at really prestigious institutions, served as advisor to various central government projects etc.
5. Vinod Dham - Probably the most well known of all the people. The father of the pentium according to wikipedia and now a VC.
6. Dr. Krishna G. Palepu - Dean of Harvard
7. Dr. Mendu Rammohan Rao - Dean of the International School of Business at Hyderabad.
8. T. R. Prasad - Looks like a thorough politician to me. Held various positions including a Cabiner Secretary stint and also is on the board of directors of the ill famed Nagarjuna Group. Coincidence?
9. Prof. V. S. Raju - Looks like a hard core tech guy and then moved into advisor roles.
My point is Satyam has accumulated a really impressive board based on their qualifications and past jobs. And in fell swoop they have all labelled themselves idiots. And more importantly all of them agreed to let this happen or at least a majority of them. So at least a majority of them agreed to take that bribe offered. Since we do not know who did and who did not, I prefer to think they are all corrupt by association.
Look at this interview with Mendu Rammohan Rao (the ISB dean) below, you will see what I am talking about. He comes across as utterly ignorant, has no idea what the duties of a board and ends up scraping to defend himself and the board's decision. I probably would be better than him in every job he holds :)
http://www.in.com/active18/watchnow/watchvideo_mc.php?autono=371555
All these people need to be interviewed and asked the tough questions that interviewer asked Rammohan Rao and give them an opportunity to shame themselves.
Waiting for the day when there is a law suit against the company.
Good links to read -
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2008/12/17/satyam-can-the-street-ever-trust-management-again/?mod=yahoobarrons
http://www.livemint.com/2008/12/16231515/Nagarjuna8217s-Raju-sent-to.html
Anyway, the idea behind this post is to throw some light on the board at Satyam. Everyone knows Ramalinga Raju the CEO but the board itself did not get much exposure. Here goes -
1. Ramalinga Raju - Also the CEO, his family owns a 35% stake in the Maytas company. His son is on the board of Maytas Properties.
2 B. Rama Raju - the co founder and probably a friend of Raju and so shares the vision to swindle money. I say this because, his son is the Vice Chairman of Maytas properties. Look at Rama Raju Jr here - http://www.maytasproperties.com/leadership.html
Interestingly enough from their web site, Maytas' slogan is translating vision into reality :)
3. Ram Mynampati - Have never of this one.
4. Dr. (Mrs.) Mangalam Srinivasan - She has a long list of accomplishments. She has an PhD, an MBA, held various faculty positions at really prestigious institutions, served as advisor to various central government projects etc.
5. Vinod Dham - Probably the most well known of all the people. The father of the pentium according to wikipedia and now a VC.
6. Dr. Krishna G. Palepu - Dean of Harvard
7. Dr. Mendu Rammohan Rao - Dean of the International School of Business at Hyderabad.
8. T. R. Prasad - Looks like a thorough politician to me. Held various positions including a Cabiner Secretary stint and also is on the board of directors of the ill famed Nagarjuna Group. Coincidence?
9. Prof. V. S. Raju - Looks like a hard core tech guy and then moved into advisor roles.
My point is Satyam has accumulated a really impressive board based on their qualifications and past jobs. And in fell swoop they have all labelled themselves idiots. And more importantly all of them agreed to let this happen or at least a majority of them. So at least a majority of them agreed to take that bribe offered. Since we do not know who did and who did not, I prefer to think they are all corrupt by association.
Look at this interview with Mendu Rammohan Rao (the ISB dean) below, you will see what I am talking about. He comes across as utterly ignorant, has no idea what the duties of a board and ends up scraping to defend himself and the board's decision. I probably would be better than him in every job he holds :)
http://www.in.com/active18/watchnow/watchvideo_mc.php?autono=371555
All these people need to be interviewed and asked the tough questions that interviewer asked Rammohan Rao and give them an opportunity to shame themselves.
Waiting for the day when there is a law suit against the company.
Good links to read -
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2008/12/17/satyam-can-the-street-ever-trust-management-again/?mod=yahoobarrons
http://www.livemint.com/2008/12/16231515/Nagarjuna8217s-Raju-sent-to.html
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Blatant Shameless Stealing
I am not sure how much media attention this is getting but it is huge! Satyam the software services company started by one Ramalinga Raju tried to steal public money blatantly. Satyam had $1 billion in cash in the bank and Ramalinga Raju wanted to steal it.
He tried to divert the money to his family business, a company called Maytas. Get this, according to forbes they tried to pay $1.3 billion for 51% of Maytas Properties and $300 million for Maytas Infra. It does not get any more worse than that. They are probably wanted to pay a premium of 400% for the Maytas properties. Luckily enough financial analysts noticed it and raised a storm. They immediately downgraded the stock and said the management is not credible. The stock went down 50% on NYSE and 30% on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Apparently it wiped out $2 billion of the company value.
The investors in India will now see the true value of globalization because if not for Citi, JP Morgan and others Satyam (Raju) would have stolen all the money and nothing would have happened. He obviously bribed the entire board and would have bribed the analysts too if not for the fact that they are in the US. All I can say is he is an asshole and a blot on India's name. I cannot believe he even tried it. He probably thought he is doing business in his village or probably that he is running a grocery store in the corner of the street. He quickly realized that it not "seema" and that there are rules. There should be an investigation into this and the culprits should be arrested, by which I mean Raju and entire board. He has caused a lot of losses for the investors and so there should be a class action lawsuit against the company.
Either way he has caused irrepairable damage to the company and future revenues could be affected. This is the worst thing he could do to even himself in a recession. I hope he does not have a future in the company and in the business world. My symapthies to the employees and share holders. I don't own any Satyam stock.
He tried to divert the money to his family business, a company called Maytas. Get this, according to forbes they tried to pay $1.3 billion for 51% of Maytas Properties and $300 million for Maytas Infra. It does not get any more worse than that. They are probably wanted to pay a premium of 400% for the Maytas properties. Luckily enough financial analysts noticed it and raised a storm. They immediately downgraded the stock and said the management is not credible. The stock went down 50% on NYSE and 30% on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Apparently it wiped out $2 billion of the company value.
The investors in India will now see the true value of globalization because if not for Citi, JP Morgan and others Satyam (Raju) would have stolen all the money and nothing would have happened. He obviously bribed the entire board and would have bribed the analysts too if not for the fact that they are in the US. All I can say is he is an asshole and a blot on India's name. I cannot believe he even tried it. He probably thought he is doing business in his village or probably that he is running a grocery store in the corner of the street. He quickly realized that it not "seema" and that there are rules. There should be an investigation into this and the culprits should be arrested, by which I mean Raju and entire board. He has caused a lot of losses for the investors and so there should be a class action lawsuit against the company.
Either way he has caused irrepairable damage to the company and future revenues could be affected. This is the worst thing he could do to even himself in a recession. I hope he does not have a future in the company and in the business world. My symapthies to the employees and share holders. I don't own any Satyam stock.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Rab Ne Banadi Jodi
Go Watch it. I am surprised I am endorsing a Shah Rukh Khan movie myself. The last movie I liked was the Vishal Bharadwaj movie Omkara. So obviously I am going to explain why I liked Rab Ne.
Two reasons why I endorse it is Aditya Chopra and Anushka (the female lead). Shah Rukh is usual self. So does not stand out a whole lot. Its what you expect from him in every movie. Aditya Chopra can only make movies about love, family values and sacrifice. He is not a creep like Suaj Barjatya and also not as gay as Karan Johar. So he is the one with a likeable vision as a director. Since he can only make movies about love and sacrifice, coming up with stories is a tough job. I appreciate the fact that he tries to come up with different stories. Mohabbatein was an awful movie in which he had some idea in his head but came out jarring and too old fashioned. In this he managed to come up with a story that is different, not done previously and enough melodrama and self pity laced with humor. The way he brought it all together at the end was good, I mean the dialogues and the execution.
Anushka was very good. She is not that beautiful like some of the others but is a very good actor. Her smile is more heartfelt. I bet that was one of the things the director looked before signing her on. She fits the character very well. There was a scene on a motorcycle that was very good and thats the scene from when she starts to grow on you.
The music is good. The song haule haule is a good one and even a couple of the other ones are good. The one song which was a medley of old songs and rehash of old tunes was cleverly done. Now I have to go back and check out Salim Suleiman's other music.
After watching crap like Dhoom and others this is certainly refreshing.
Two reasons why I endorse it is Aditya Chopra and Anushka (the female lead). Shah Rukh is usual self. So does not stand out a whole lot. Its what you expect from him in every movie. Aditya Chopra can only make movies about love, family values and sacrifice. He is not a creep like Suaj Barjatya and also not as gay as Karan Johar. So he is the one with a likeable vision as a director. Since he can only make movies about love and sacrifice, coming up with stories is a tough job. I appreciate the fact that he tries to come up with different stories. Mohabbatein was an awful movie in which he had some idea in his head but came out jarring and too old fashioned. In this he managed to come up with a story that is different, not done previously and enough melodrama and self pity laced with humor. The way he brought it all together at the end was good, I mean the dialogues and the execution.
Anushka was very good. She is not that beautiful like some of the others but is a very good actor. Her smile is more heartfelt. I bet that was one of the things the director looked before signing her on. She fits the character very well. There was a scene on a motorcycle that was very good and thats the scene from when she starts to grow on you.
The music is good. The song haule haule is a good one and even a couple of the other ones are good. The one song which was a medley of old songs and rehash of old tunes was cleverly done. Now I have to go back and check out Salim Suleiman's other music.
After watching crap like Dhoom and others this is certainly refreshing.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Indian Web Sites
Web sites targeting indian users are a lot out there. But there is one thing common in all of them. They all are crap. I am not talking about movie link aggregation sites trying to peddle porn ads in order to make a buck. They are deplorable anyway. I am talking about established sites like rediff, sulekha, timesofindia and others.
I am not talking about the content. We will get there but before that the design screams at you that they are greedy bastards. You get a feeling as if you have stepped into 1999. The front page of every site is loaded and then overloaded with ads of all kinds. The content to ad ratio will be may be 1:100. A few popup ads come up even if you install pop up blockers. Then any link you click on will open at least two pop ups and will refer to an ad which will then refer to the actual content. And of course the back button would be broken because of the intermediate ad in the middle.
The worst part about this is the more popular the web site the more crappy it becomes. We now have all these analysis tools that tell them exactly what visitors are doing. As usual most of them visit the front page and then click on may be a couple of links. So they overload the front page with every ad possible to maximize the revenue they get. I for one hate visiting any of these sites but it does not look to be the standard response in the community. People keep visiting these sites and the greedy bastard mentality on the sites continues to grow. Rediff.com and Times of India in my opinion are the worst of these sites. They are almost identical to the pirated movie link aggregating, porn ad peddling sites you find these days. The fact that they are public companies makes it worse I think. The content value has come down over the years on Rediff and the ads have increased. There is so much fluff on it that it makes me puke.
The content itself is so bad on all these sites. They model their content on gossip sites and skin sites rather than news sites. At least Rediff calls itself a portal and so can peddle skin but Times of India a (once) respectable news paper stooping to the level of a naked picture aggregator to make money on ads is just deplorable. Not that its okay for Rediff to do so but Times does it in an unapologetic way. Not to single these sites out, but sify,sulekha and every other site is like that.
Its just ironical that India with its swarms of tech people produces web sites that wreak of the last decade. Thats what money does to you.
I am not talking about the content. We will get there but before that the design screams at you that they are greedy bastards. You get a feeling as if you have stepped into 1999. The front page of every site is loaded and then overloaded with ads of all kinds. The content to ad ratio will be may be 1:100. A few popup ads come up even if you install pop up blockers. Then any link you click on will open at least two pop ups and will refer to an ad which will then refer to the actual content. And of course the back button would be broken because of the intermediate ad in the middle.
The worst part about this is the more popular the web site the more crappy it becomes. We now have all these analysis tools that tell them exactly what visitors are doing. As usual most of them visit the front page and then click on may be a couple of links. So they overload the front page with every ad possible to maximize the revenue they get. I for one hate visiting any of these sites but it does not look to be the standard response in the community. People keep visiting these sites and the greedy bastard mentality on the sites continues to grow. Rediff.com and Times of India in my opinion are the worst of these sites. They are almost identical to the pirated movie link aggregating, porn ad peddling sites you find these days. The fact that they are public companies makes it worse I think. The content value has come down over the years on Rediff and the ads have increased. There is so much fluff on it that it makes me puke.
The content itself is so bad on all these sites. They model their content on gossip sites and skin sites rather than news sites. At least Rediff calls itself a portal and so can peddle skin but Times of India a (once) respectable news paper stooping to the level of a naked picture aggregator to make money on ads is just deplorable. Not that its okay for Rediff to do so but Times does it in an unapologetic way. Not to single these sites out, but sify,sulekha and every other site is like that.
Its just ironical that India with its swarms of tech people produces web sites that wreak of the last decade. Thats what money does to you.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Delusional Pakistan Media
I came across this video, a discussion about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The discussion is shocking, funny and sad at the same time. The jist of their discussion is this - Everything from 9/11 to the Mumbai attacks is a big hoax or self inflicted to malign muslims all over the world. I cannot believe they let idiots like this on TV at a time like this. See this -
http://www.hotklix.com/?ref=content/152704
I know a lot of people in the middle east and pakistan think that all the terrorist attacks are a plot of the western world to malign Islam but at some point its got to stop. Its not like Pakistan is in a great spot or really prospering. I am not sure why they are closing their eyes to this. I hope the rest of Pakistan do not believe this crap.
http://www.hotklix.com/?ref=content/152704
I know a lot of people in the middle east and pakistan think that all the terrorist attacks are a plot of the western world to malign Islam but at some point its got to stop. Its not like Pakistan is in a great spot or really prospering. I am not sure why they are closing their eyes to this. I hope the rest of Pakistan do not believe this crap.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Terrorist attacks in Mumbai
Have been following the news about the attacks all week. Its very grave. The attacks over the last few months have become much more bold, well planned and more destructive. Its as if they suddently realized its too easy. Thats what makes this so bad. We need a strong intelligence wing to counter it and also step up the security initiatives. This is the time for the country and poiticians to come together.
The problem is in itself a very tough one to solve. Terrorists in India do not stand out as they do in the US (am talking about Islamic terrorists obviously, though its sad that I use terrorists and Islamic terrorists interchangeably. More on that later). Coming back to my original point, terrorists in India do not stand out like in the US. So they are able to blend in and do their job. On top of that we don't have a system in place to track bank transactions, trap or listen in on internet activity or at least an unique identifier for every person. I am not saying an SSN will help track terrorists but it will at least help identify ordinary citizens who go the other route.
A population of 1.2 billion will pose a lot of problems and also a present a lot of easy targets. It cannot get any more real and serious than this for us as a country.
Either way India now has to implement a series of steps to put a system in place to help their intelligence wing. This is the time the politicians should come together and work towards the good of the country rather than their own agendas. At least some of the politicians still do not seem to understand the seriousness of the issue as evidenced here http://sify.com/movies/fullstory.php?id=14808897
The next elections are in 6 months and I might be correct in guessing that BJP will come to power. Manmohan Singh though a very credible guy and a financial genius is viewed a softy and BJP is known for its hardline stand too. Judging by the frequency of the attacks in the last few months, I fear if there could be more attacks of these before that time. Lets hope not.
The problem is in itself a very tough one to solve. Terrorists in India do not stand out as they do in the US (am talking about Islamic terrorists obviously, though its sad that I use terrorists and Islamic terrorists interchangeably. More on that later). Coming back to my original point, terrorists in India do not stand out like in the US. So they are able to blend in and do their job. On top of that we don't have a system in place to track bank transactions, trap or listen in on internet activity or at least an unique identifier for every person. I am not saying an SSN will help track terrorists but it will at least help identify ordinary citizens who go the other route.
A population of 1.2 billion will pose a lot of problems and also a present a lot of easy targets. It cannot get any more real and serious than this for us as a country.
Either way India now has to implement a series of steps to put a system in place to help their intelligence wing. This is the time the politicians should come together and work towards the good of the country rather than their own agendas. At least some of the politicians still do not seem to understand the seriousness of the issue as evidenced here http://sify.com/movies/fullstory.php?id=14808897
The next elections are in 6 months and I might be correct in guessing that BJP will come to power. Manmohan Singh though a very credible guy and a financial genius is viewed a softy and BJP is known for its hardline stand too. Judging by the frequency of the attacks in the last few months, I fear if there could be more attacks of these before that time. Lets hope not.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Karan Thapar's interviewing skills
Sticking with the context of my last post, I delved a bit more into the Indian media and their talk shows. Turns out this guy Karan Thapar is very famous and is known to rip their guests apart. He is also the first to take up the yelling at the top of his lungs style of interviewing in India. He has a show on which he interviews people and supposedly asks them tough questions and never gives up under pressure. That is the show where Kapil Dev famously cried.
I happen to see Karan Thapar a little differently as you might have guessed. He has modeled his show along the lines of Bill O'Reilly and Hannity and Colmes' shows. He has the douchebag countenance to go along with it. He yells and yells without listening to what the guest is saying. He is your typical bully that does interviews to further his viewpoints and ratings rather than conduct an actual meaningful interview. It is remarkable that many top notch people in India go on his show. My guess is he will call them cowards if they didn't.
But here is how a typical interview would go with him. Lets say his guest is called 'A'.
Karan: Mr.A from the happenings of the last few weeks you seem to be a despicable scum of a human being who should resign immediately. What do you say about that?
Mr.A : Karan, that is your opinion. You are entitled to your opinion.
Karan: I am not saying it, the media is saying it. In fact since we reflect the popular opinion of the people, the people are thinking you are a despicable scum of a human being who does not deserve a place any where on the planet. In fact you appear to be the worst person on earth. (ups the ante here!)
Mr.A : Karan if the people are saying so then may be I am the worst person on the earth. Like I said everyone is entitled to their opinion. (Lets assume the guest completely gives up!)
Karan: Mr. A are you saying you agree that you are scum? Are you saying you are the worst person on the earth?
Mr.A : Yes.
Karan: How does that make you feel? You being the scum on the earth. You get up in the morning and realizing that you are scum on the face of the earth. ( Notice how he repeats himself).
Mr.A : Yes. I feel alright. I go about my business.
Karan: So you have no shame that you are the worst person on the earth. You are scum but you just go about your business as usual. Mr.A why do you still live? (ups the ante again without giving up the one question he has).
Mr.A: If you say so. ( does not fall for it).
.... this goes on for about 30 minutes. Karan throws everything at his guest to make him cry or yell. Don't take my word for it. See some interviews on youtube yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=karan+thapar&search_type=&aq=0&oq=karan+tha
I happen to see Karan Thapar a little differently as you might have guessed. He has modeled his show along the lines of Bill O'Reilly and Hannity and Colmes' shows. He has the douchebag countenance to go along with it. He yells and yells without listening to what the guest is saying. He is your typical bully that does interviews to further his viewpoints and ratings rather than conduct an actual meaningful interview. It is remarkable that many top notch people in India go on his show. My guess is he will call them cowards if they didn't.
But here is how a typical interview would go with him. Lets say his guest is called 'A'.
Karan: Mr.A from the happenings of the last few weeks you seem to be a despicable scum of a human being who should resign immediately. What do you say about that?
Mr.A : Karan, that is your opinion. You are entitled to your opinion.
Karan: I am not saying it, the media is saying it. In fact since we reflect the popular opinion of the people, the people are thinking you are a despicable scum of a human being who does not deserve a place any where on the planet. In fact you appear to be the worst person on earth. (ups the ante here!)
Mr.A : Karan if the people are saying so then may be I am the worst person on the earth. Like I said everyone is entitled to their opinion. (Lets assume the guest completely gives up!)
Karan: Mr. A are you saying you agree that you are scum? Are you saying you are the worst person on the earth?
Mr.A : Yes.
Karan: How does that make you feel? You being the scum on the earth. You get up in the morning and realizing that you are scum on the face of the earth. ( Notice how he repeats himself).
Mr.A : Yes. I feel alright. I go about my business.
Karan: So you have no shame that you are the worst person on the earth. You are scum but you just go about your business as usual. Mr.A why do you still live? (ups the ante again without giving up the one question he has).
Mr.A: If you say so. ( does not fall for it).
.... this goes on for about 30 minutes. Karan throws everything at his guest to make him cry or yell. Don't take my word for it. See some interviews on youtube yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=karan+thapar&search_type=&aq=0&oq=karan+tha
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