Desicritics Author: Kishore

Deccan Chronicle And The Naked Art of Selling News

Kishore — Sun, 8 Jun 2008 08:49:25 EDT

In the age where our most inner and intimate matters have been commoditized by corporations, it’s no surprise that sex is being used as a tool to sell products. Many critics of popular culture use the adage "sex sells" to justify the means. Well, though there may be some truth in it, it’s disgusting if a product that comes with an element of the proverbial "social responsibility" resorts to a juvenile representation of its target market for the sake the one thing all business needs – sell more.

A Deccan Chronicle hoarding

If the advertising guys at Deccan Chronicle think this is what young minds are – one heck of perverts ogling at hoardings of naked woman embossed in newspaper prints all over her body, metaphorically meaning to read the newspaper giving particular attention to detail, or whatever crap that was meant to mean – then there has just been a little mistake. Just that we youngsters have a little more sense than to get swayed by pictures of naked women to buy a newspaper.

What’s more intimidating is that their ad doesn’t even talk about the quality of news – the least you would expect of a newspaper – and whenever they remotely do, it’s again a skin-deep expose. Chennai Metblogs carried a post on similar lines with more pictures. Probably the in-house talent pool of Deccan Chronicle Marketing ran out of concrete ideas to increase youngsters’ readership and resorted to the only supposedly sure-to-work strategy – sex appeal.

An independent survey conducted by research firm MediaAnalyzer states that,

While almost half of men (48 percent) said they like sexual ads, few women did (8 percent). Most men (63 percent) said sexual ads have a high stopping power for them; fewer women thought so (28 percent).

If only 8 percent of women give a damn to such an ad, then was it all about increasing Male leadership? Am I hallucinating or does it really sound awkward? If you still think this would make Deccan Chronicle the-ultimate-choice-of-the-young-minds then take a bite at this MediaAnalyzer finding,

Men tend to focus on an ad’s sexual imagery (breasts, legs, skin, etc.), which draws their attention away from other elements of the ad (logo, product shot, headline). This may be why men’s brand recall was worse for the sexual ads than for the nonsexual ones.

So there goes the sex sells theory. Trying to fit an ad suited enough to market a lingerie brand into marketing a newspaper looks as awful as it sounds. They would do a lot of good to themselves, if the nice folks at Deccan Chronicle could stuff their ad-women with some clothes and talk more about how good their news reporting is, so we know exactly what they sell. We youngsters like to see naked truth in newspapers, not naked women.

Five Years at Work

Kishore — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:57:55 EST

The year was 2002. The day was November 18. And I had just woken up into a warm Monday morning cooled by the humming Air Conditioners within the confines of my room at Hotel Poonja International in Mangalore. I lay motionless in the bed listening to my watch ticking the seconds off counting down to the biggest moment of my then life – the first day of work. Hours later, I would start nervously, clad in my new shirt, new trouser, new tie, new shoes and new socks, almost spill a drop of sambhar on my trouser, and take the elevator down to catch the bus to work. To Work! How awfully strange it sounded on that day to say I was going to 'Work'!

It felt so much like a newborn baby, with nary an idea what to expect out of a career – except that, it should be 'great'. The nervous pride of beginning a career in a dream company overshadowed the nostalgic memories that were being created in those very minutes. It was still like good ol’ college days, and the first few weeks of training meant I would continue to pour over notes and write exams and wait for results. The 90-member class room – where I always sat in the last row – seemed just another extension of the college-day classes.

And when one such session was in progress we were told not to call the instructors 'sir' like we were so used to calling the college professors, but to call them by name; it was the corporate culture, after all. "Welcome to the corporate world", one of the instructors had told us with an ironic smirk on his face. Life was never going to be the same again.

Well, it never was. Five years later, today, there is just the sepia tinted pictures of those days etched in memory. I do continue to work for the same company where my career was born on this day and brought up this far; where I grew from an anxious kid into the stuff that adulthood is made of. Today, I know why it’s hard to write software, why they call customer the king, and why they taught stress management in college. I know age and energy are inversely proportional, and, needs and responsibilities increase with income. And I also know that choosing the seat next to the emergency exit gives you the maximum leg room in flights.

So five years, it has been. Enough time for a newborn to go to school. And that's how long it has been since my professional life was born. A stutter here and a stumble there, but it has kept moving nevertheless.

On a Fine Morning After a Prolonged Sickness

Kishore — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 10:05:56 EDT

Not many things keep me away from writing, except when I'm down with a prolonged sickness and start seeing the nine (or is it eight?) planets of the solar system rotating around my head every time I cough - which was pretty much all through the day. So over the past two weeks, whenever the planets were not eclipsing my view of the world, I spent time reading some good old classics.

This morning I took my usual seat holding a sweet smelling copy of Somerset Maugham's Collected Short Stories and turned to page 193. And when I read the line – Madame Coralie powdered her nose and gave it, a commanding organ, a brief look in her pocket mirror – I noticed two strange men hovering around me. One was an old man who wore his pants above his belly, and the other was a young one with a flashy ponytail. The former sat next to me, while I continued reading as if he were non-existent.

When you start reading alphabets instead of sentences, you know you are actually being engulfed with an irresistible urge to slip into what Freud calls an elevated mental state for disguised fulfillment of our unconscious wish. To you and me it is simply called sleeping. So, watching the morning sky fade into a premature grayscale enveloped by water-laden clouds receding down the horizon, I slowly drifted into a peachy bed of sleep. And then I didn't know anything that happened.

For example, I didn't know that the bus was stuck at a signal where there was no signal, that sunlight cracked for a second between the clouds, or that the old man who wore his pants above his belly was playing a game of solitaire in his mobile phone.

I opened my eyes, as it was the most natural thing to do after you are ejected out of the comforts of slumber. I glared at the outside world, where my little slumber didn't seem to have had any impact. The earth continued to rotate on its axis and men continued to walk on two feet. The sun was not visible, but it was there nevertheless.

The bus screeched to a halt just outside our office after going around the world in sixty minutes. "This is the office?" the old man who wore his pants above his belly asked me. I affirmed and nudged him with my eyes to get down, while I carefully closed the Somerset Maugham taking particular care that I remember the last page I read (because I don't use bookmarks).

The old man who wore his pants above his belly beckoned his counterpart who smiled a wry smile and went behind him, wagging his ponytail. And I walked away playing a random line from the archives of my memory – The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.

Infosys Acquires Philips' BPO Arm

Kishore — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 07:40:41 EDT

India's IT bellwether Infosys Technologies Limited has just announced its acquisition of Philips NV BPO.

Infosys has bought the captive BPO division of Philips, sources said. The deal is likely to be between USD 200 and USD 300 million, sources said. With the acquisition, Infy can look forward to assured revenues of USD 300 million, sources added.

As part of the deal pegged at $200 million, Infosys will be buying out three Philips service centers. This would result in an addition of 1400 employees to the existing size of over 65,000. It has also resulted in Infosys signing a multi-year, multi-million order from Royal Philips.

Infosys has historically been considered to be the most conservative of Indian companies. In 2003, they acquired the Australian firm Expert Information Services Pty Limited. The transaction value of that acquisition was A$ 31 million (approximately US$ 22.9 million) and was an all-cash deal.

Today's acquisition has some marked similarities with the Expert acquisition. This is also expected to be an all-cash deal, albeit being a much bigger acquisition. The Expert deal was preceded by a multi-million dollar contract when Infosys signed a five-year $50 million contract with the Australian telecom and information systems giant, Telstra, for software development and maintenance and also opened a development centre down under. Philips acquisition has brought with it a seven-year, $250 million order from Royal Philips.

Philips BPO business posted 70% growth last year amounting to revenues of $148 million. Infosys spokesperson said that the deal would help expand its presence in European markets. The order adds 700 employees in Poland. The Royal Philips order is in the Finance and Accounting domain. Infosys would have cash reserves of $1.4 billion post-acquisition.

Though not a huge deal in classical terms of an acquisition, Infosys hopes to serve third party client centers from the acquired centers. Philips BPO has centres in Chennai, Warsaw and Thailand.

Hit by rupee appreciation and sagging operating margins, Indian companies are looking at other avenues to improve their margins and diversify their businesses to countries other than the US. TCS recently acquired UK based Pearl Group's BPO Division for 55 million Euros. Wipro is expected to announce an acquisition soon.

Bangalore Bloggers Meet And the 'Blogaloreans'

Kishore — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 05:33:20 EDT

"We take your fun seriously". The caption of BrewHaha was apt to describe the meeting of Bangalore Bloggers. Over forty bloggers from varied professional backgrounds, some with a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (one of them actually queued at Blossoms even before the sun rose for the day) tucked under their arms and a jubilant smirk on their face, made themselves comfortable over bean bags, low-rise chairs, carpets and designer pillows that flanked across the floor at BrewHaHa on a bright Saturday afternoon.

It was exciting to see a number of faces hitherto known only by the words in their blogs, including a number of fellow Desicritics. Some of them had suggestions for the Biz/Tech section (me being the section editor) on how we could cover more technological tit-bits and further enrich the section.

The enthusiasm was apparent and before any time lapsed we got into business with a quick round of introductions. Suddenly we began speaking another common language - the language of corporate India - where Mocha Frappes and Cappuccinos meant 'Have a good afternoon'. The coffee cups began making their rounds as the bloggers – now christened Blogaloreans – went about our stuff.

Blogging is not just a phenomenon. From the days of daily rants, blogging has evolved into a major medium of communication and information exchange that is determined to harness its power to make a difference in whatever ways it can. A few of the bloggers shared their ideas of a Web NGO, Wings – an initiative to help differently enabled individuals take up adventure sports, and a number of other ideas most of which would be formally discussed in the upcoming BarCamp.

The primary aim of the meet was to nail down a list of topics to be discussed in the Bloggers Collective at the BarCamp at IIM-B campus, scheduled for the coming weekend (28th, 29th July). The following are some of the topics.

1. Technical tips for non-technical bloggers
2. What do you Blog about?
3. Social responsibility of a blogger
4. Copyrights and Censorship in blogging
5. IT Laws
6. Mainstream Media versus Blogging
7. Corporate Blogging

These topics are indicative and as is the spirit of BarCamps there would be more of it. I will be co-moderating a proposed debate on Mainstream Media versus Blogging.

This is also the first formal attempt to form a professional community of bloggers in Bangalore. Arun, one of the organizer of the BarCamp conveyed to us that they have formalized certain points with IIM-B for conducting the Bangalore BarCamp every four months in its campus.

This support from the academia and the enthusiasm of the bloggers is sure to take us a long way making this a socially responsible global phenomenon that would not hesitate to raise its voice through this powerful medium and make a difference whenever it matters. And BarCamps are important events to make it happen.

Bangalore BarCamp and Bloggers Meet Unplanned

Kishore — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 07:17:08 EDT

From the days of just owning a tiny personal space on the vast Internet where one searches for a trivial gratification with his daily rants, blogging has evolved into not just a major medium of information exchange, but also a closely knit community in itself. A tiny glitch somewhere within this community doesn't escape the fiery eyes of the co-Bloggers, joining together and standing up to brave the force. Well, ask the Indian Government that had to eat its words and cry through its nose less than 24 hours after naive attempts to ban the blogs.

The blogosphere is today an ecosystem in itself that fosters open communication, discussion and collaboration, and to forge personal and professional relationships. Various blogging communities have been organization informal meets giving them a chance to meet people who they've hitherto known only through words.

But over the past year, there have been attempts to formalize the interactions so that such communities can be enriched further and work collectively for common causes.

On these lines, a few bloggers have volunteered to organize a Bangalore Bloggers Meet this Saturday.

Date: July 21
Venue: BrewHaHa
Near Jyoti Nivas College,
Koramangala

Anybody interested in taking part or helping in organizing the meet, edit the exclusive wiki setup for the meet and add yourselves.

This meet is a prelude to the big one coming up next week - The Bangalore BarCamp 4 (or BCB4 as it is affectionately called) to be held on 28th and 29th of July at IIM Bangalore. The BarCamp will be unplanned, in the sense that there will be no pre-planned sessions or fixed slots, anyone can form a Collective and discuss what suits their fancy. Or just show up and join in with whatever's going on.

Visit the Bloggers Collective of the BarCamp and register yourselves.

This is just the beginning of a series of events that are being planned. The following are the next few events coming up in Chennai.

Proto.in on July 21st and 22nd
BlogCamp on September 1st and 2nd
SearchCamp on October 5th and 6th

Details about them will be made available as and when they are announced. Please do participate in as many of the events as you can, so we take the blogging phenomenon from being an "online journal" thing into a society that makes a difference.

Book Review: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Kishore — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 00:10:06 EDT

Books have a metaphorical life of their own. They speak of another time and another space, forming such mental imageries as if you were being transported through time into that world. What if one day those metaphors were to actually engulf your life such that you dedicate yourself to excavate the bizarre truths and probably save the lives of its characters?

Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind is an extraordinary work of fiction where, what begins as a literary curiosity for young Daniel Sampere in owning the only copy of a rather unheard book, turns into an adventure of life and death, and of saving his loved ones. Carlos' literary fervor is evident even in the first page of the book, when Daniel’s father introduces him – then only ten years – to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books – a mammoth labyrinthine of crammed and dusty aisles full of centuries-old forgotten books. As is the tradition, Daniel must choose and adopt a book and make it a part of his life.

I was raised among books making invisible friends in pages that seemed cast from dust and whose smell I carry on my hands to this day.

Daniel chooses The Shadow of the Wind, written by an unknown author named Julian Carax and becomes so engrossed with the fascinating novel that he wants to read other works by Carax, only to realize that no other copy of any book by Carax exists anymore. Daniel, with his friend Fermin, tries to get behind the mystery and learns rumors of a dark faceless guy buying Carax's books and burning them – his final target would be the copy with Daniel. The faceless guy calls himself Lain Coubert – which is the name of the devil in "The Shadow of the Wind".

A reef of clouds and lightning raced across the skies from the sea... the stranger turned around and walked off towards the docks, a shape melting into the shadows, cocooned in his hollow laughter.

The story is set in the decades during and after the Second World War in Spain, so we are spared of the internet and electronics gadgets in favor of a refreshing little Spanish town where people still walk long distances to work and talk street politics in groups as the sun goes down for the day. Daniel's attempts to learn about Carax leads him to many encounters. He finds love, estranges his best friend, and discovers startling facts about the past of his neighborhood. Love and its loss are at the roots of everything that happens in the novel; and at one point Daniel realizes his own life roughly resembling that of Carax.

Carlos' narration is exemplary, to say the least. And Lucia Graves has done a remarkable job of translating the Spanish original into English without losing any of the literary beauty or the Spanish flavor. Bits of subtle humor, vernacular jokes, and minor elements of symbolism and political satire are interspersed all over the novel giving a periodic momentary relief amidst the otherwise gripping pages. At one point he describes a preacher,

Years of teaching had left him with that firm and didactic tone of someone used to being heard, but not certain of being listened to.

The characters are strongly formed and memorable. Even the minor ones have an important role to play at various points in the novel. In a novel of such breadth and subplots, it's easy for one to get lost in the number of new characters and their complicated relationships. Carlos has managed the multitude characters and their relative significance in the context of the story quite commendably.

The Shadow of the Wind was thoroughly enjoyable. There are no superfluous subplots or irrelevant characters, and the momentum never slows down. And yes, it's a literary delight!

Indian Authors and Books

Kishore — Sun, 8 Jul 2007 02:42:33 EDT

The Book Tag - Indian Books / Authors you've read or want to read - went around in the blogosphere a few days back, and a number of bloggers including many Desicritics actively took up the tag. Here's a shortlist of books which seemed to figure in a number of lists in no particular order.

1. Kiran Desai - The Inheritance of Loss
This year's Booker winner features in almost every list. Amrita is yet to read the book and feels rather weird about it, "This one's weird because I like the passages I've read from it, so I'm sure I'll like the book".

2. Jhumpa Lahiri - The Namesake
Kishore is attracted by the flow in her narration, "What attracts me in her writing is her fluent style of describing the minutest details, like ever-continuing strands of a noodle, starting from the color of the pillows to the mood of an individual at a given point."
Amrita doesn't think very different either: "Here's an Indian who manages to lay off the heavy and concentrate on the prose."

3. Ashok Banker - the "Ramayana" series
Another book to figure in almost everyone's list. DesiGirl is completely enthralled, "The twins calling one another 'Shot' and 'Luck' sounded more Hardy Boys-ish than anything. But once I passed those, it was pure heaven. A must-read."

4. Jawahara Saidullah - The Burden of Foreknowledge
Fellow desicritic Jawahara Saidullah's books has caught many an attention. Sujatha Bagal writes in her review, "Sensuous writing that transports you from the mundane to a plane where all your senses are on high alert is the hallmark of this fine first novel by Desicritic Jawahara Saidullah."

5. Salman Rushdie - The Satanic Verses
It's a pity the book is banned in India. So feels Xavier when he says, "The truth to be told, I never understood what all the hullabaloo was for". Though roughly based on the life of Mohammed and the birth of Islam, this is another of his typical long winding utterly poetic narrative you wouldn't want to miss

6. Anees Jung - Beyond the Courtyard: A Sequel to Unveiling India
Jawahara writes, "A long-awaited sequel to Unveiling India. I couldn't put this down. It's non-fiction but reads like a story of the soul of India."

7. Kamala Das - My Story
"A very good one", says Aurora girl. So also thinks Jawahara.

8. Anita Desai - Fasting, Feasting
Jawahara and Aurora Girl seem to have some real good words for this.

9. Vikram Seth - An Equal Music
DG will be picking this up next, "Own up to not having read this till now. I have borrowed it now from the library so should get cracking on it soon". Kishore writes, "An Equal Music is musical, to say the least."

10. RK Narayan - Malgudi Days
Aditi Nadkarni writes, "In Malgudi Days, the 'coming-of-age' plot was dealt with such sensitivity that I now feel I knew Swami and his friends and have actually been to Malgudi". Fellow Desicritic Vivek Sharma echoes her sentiments in his comprehensive list: "Narayan is often compared to Chekov and Gogol, but I personally feel his stories are simpler and have a better narrative."

11. Raj Kamal Jha - Fireproof
Desicritic Aspi says he finds this book set in the aftermath of the horrific 2002 Gujarat riots unnerving: "Even Jha's cover haunts me - stripped of the book's title or the name of its author, its a picture of a frosted glass with the words "Help me" scrawled from the inside."

Google Claims Microsoft is Stifling Google Desktop Search

Kishore — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:02:26 EDT

I've often accused Microsoft of having run out of innovative ideas and resorting to a catch-up game with competitors like Google when it comes to innovation. But seems like Google, too, is succumbing to the pinch of competition.

As per a recent report,

Internet search giant Google has escalated its antitrust battle with Microsoft, revealing that it has been petitioning the US government to extend its oversight of Microsoft's business practices past the November 2007 expiration of that oversight. Google says that the software giant continues to abuse its monopoly and violate the terms of its consent decree. Furthermore, Microsoft's recent revelation about changes to the Instant Search feature in Windows Vista simply doesn't go far enough, Google says.

Google says that the inclusion of Instant Search in Windows Vista makes its own desktop search product, Google Desktop Search, run more slowly, alleging that Microsoft is resorting to unfair practices by deliberately slowing down Google Desktop Search. And adds that any search first shows results based on Vista Desktop Search and then gives an option to the users to see results from other search products.

To put it simply, Google's allegations are baseless. Microsoft developed its Desktop Search for Windows Vista much before Google even announced that it was going to have its own desktop search product. And any allegations of deliberate attempts by Microsoft to make Google Desktop Search work poorly is senseless, because the world didn't even know what Google was coming up with when Microsoft developed its Desktop Search.

Microsoft has given in to some extent in meeting Google's demands, but that's the mistake it has done. Rather than agreeing to some of Google's baseless demands it must have kept its head up until Google was pushed back to lick its wounds. You give an inch of space, and your competitor always wants a mile of it.

Now, Google wants more of it. And I have no idea why it has been whining so much about a meaningless point just for the heck of it. Probably it feels keeping Microsoft under the thumb in the name of antitrust suits will do a load of good to the perception of Google being the biggest innovator of the present day and by some magic one day throw 'bad boy' Microsoft out of business in a number of areas.

Microsoft is not the same old company which embedded Internet Explorer with its buggy Windows 95, 10 years ago, to throw Netscape out of business that required a hard spanking by the law threatening to split the company into two units. Today, it's a far more mature organization which is very aware of its competition and the importance of competing. On the other hand, Google's gimmicks seem more out of a nervousness to keep Microsoft under check rather than concentrating on its innovating ways.

It would only be for its own good if Google gets back to concentrate on innovation rather than trying to file meaningless law suits against its competitors.

Life, Fiction and the Monsoon

Kishore — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 12:31:10 EDT

The monsoon rain is dashing outside in this late night hour, as I sit beside a thick volume of The Shadow of the Wind turned to page 143 and gazing at the line I just finished reading.

Everything on that page spoke of another time: the strokes that depended on the ink-pot, the words scratched on the thick paper by the tip of the nib, the rugged feel of the paper.

Much like what the lines of fiction do to me – speak of another time and another space, forming such mental imageries as if you were being transported through time into that world – the world that fiction is made of. And every time I raise my head from the tinted pages of a book, I feel suddenly ejected from the hallucination of those imageries into the blinding pace of the real world.

Fiction tends to touch you, at times in strange ways. There are times when I’m surprised how much a character resembles me in his thoughts, as if I were actually him. Like Yambo (the protagonist in Umberto Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana) did.

It was one such monsoon morning, many years back. I was staring out at the lashing rain and the chill wind seeping in with a whooshing sound between the edges of the window, until I began rummaging the non-existent bookshelves in my then home, dusting worm-eaten editions of what appeared to be Tinkle, Gokulam, Champak, Chandamama and Misha torn beyond recognition. A quick trip down memory lane reading the words from the books which bore no interest for my then grownup mind, made me go through the erstwhile thought processes of my preceding years; the times when Suppandi and Shikari Shambu held my rapt attention, and the talking animals of Champakvan gave an unfailing smirk.

At the beginning of the novel The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, Yambo loses his episodic memory due to a stroke and can remember everything he has ever read, but does not remember his family, his past, or even his own name. Yambo goes to his childhood home, and searches through old newspapers, books, magazines and comic books to see if he can rediscover his lost past.

I noticed Gokulam's cartoons of classroom satire that did to me then, what Dilbert cartoon does to me today. Perhaps that's how I developed a liking for corporate satire, and the cartoon adorned walls of my work cubicle. Misha was my favorite, that I carried with me to school, reading during the long commutation. Not much has changed even now; from carrying a book with me to work to the hour-long commute, the patterns of childhood still stick on.

Somewhere between the lines of fiction lie the roots of what has become of you today. Yambo is unsuccessful in regaining past memories, though he relives the story of his generation from the books in his childhood home. But remembering is only a process and not the destination. As Umberto Eco deliciously puts it,

Everything is so much involved in and is so much a process of its opposite that, as it is almost fair to call death a process of life and life a process of death, so it is to call memory a process of forgetting and forgetting a process of remembering.

Fiction has a liberating effect. I seek refuge in fiction, when reality becomes a bit difficult to handle. Like an umbrella lets you enjoy the monsoon, even as it shelters you all the while.