Desicritics Author: Shravan Sampath

A Day At The Office, Ten Years Hence

Shravan Sampath — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 08:51:54 EDT

It is May 4th, 2012.

I get up in the morning, and pad off to the kitchen to get myself some coffee. I come back, and settle beside my laptop, and click. I had new email on my personal ID. It was a video from a few friends, who had had a reunion. I mark it "to be viewed at night", and shut it off.

I get dressed, and walk out of my house. My Samtop 310i, the latest device in mobile communications, is telling me that I am thirty-five minutes away from work, yet 30 minutes from a meeting if I drive. I panick. I walk down the street, clicking on different options for travel.

Bus: 45 minutes
Metro: 24 minutes
Skybus: 18 minutes, but Rs. 300

I opt for the metro. The station is four minutes off. I rush. On the way, Samtop tells me that I'm passing by the Elektrica, the neighborhood electronics store, and the new Bose Speakers I've been looking for are being sold at 35% off, only today. I mark it "Remind me at 6 PM", and walk on.

I reach the metro, and while I walk in, my entry is detected, and Rs. 14 are added to my Citibank credit card bill. The Samtop shows me that I am fast approaching my credit limit. I spot a Starbucks, and punch the code into my Samtop. A Cold Coffee, sealed, falls through the slot. I pick it up, and get on the train. As I pass by every station, the amount of the ticket keeps going up.

As I am in the train, I realise that I need to make a presentation at the meeting. I access my email, and download the presentation on my Samtop. I look it up, and realise that I still don't have data on the mobile phone figures in India. I think of calling Krish to ask him, but decide against it. I Google it, and find it on the COAI website. I add it to the presentation. I'm ready to go.

My stop arrives, and I begin to move upwards. I need to take the first right, my satellite-integrated Samtop tells me. I take it. I reach the entry to IBM, a big client. My ID is validated, and I gain access to the building.

The meeting is about to begin. I connect my Samtop to the Bluetooth-enabled projector, and I begin.

Twenty minutes later, we are done. It's time to get back to the office. I have a lean afternoon, while I wait for the results of the meeting, and whether we got the deal or not. I walk out of the building, and type, "Movie hall nearby". There's a PVR, and the famous movie, Phir Phir Phir Phir Phir Dhoom is playing. I decide to watch it. I go to rediff and check out a review. Hmm.. not bad. I look for tickets. Two remaining. I then get on to akola, my friendslist, and try to see if any of my friends are in the same area, within 20 minutes away. I locate Krish. I send him a message, asking if he is interested. He says ok. I get the tickets. I walk to the theater, and meet him there. We go into the movie, and catch it finally.

I walk out of the theater at 1.30, ready for lunch. Hmm.. I feel like Biryani. I look for Biryani spots in the area. One place, Hyderabad House, has a 20% off on a lunch buffet. I take it, and walk down to the place.

Good food, and I'm done in half an hour. It's time to get back to the office. I walk towards the metro, and get off at the office. It's a long day till 6 PM, when I realise IBM wants a copy of the presentation to check on a few details. I email it to them.

I decide it's time to get back home. But before that, I need to meet a client for dinner, and I get down there in half hour. I have picked up my Bose speakers on the way. I find myself early for dinner, so I settle down with my Samtop, trying to see if any friend is in the near locality. Turns out Mahesh is. I go over, and say hi. It's a good way to catch up, and we do a bit of small talk. Soon, it's time to leave. It's dinner time.

I meet with the client, it turns out to be quite productive. Over dessert, I ask him where he would like to go. I run a search for Taxis nearby, and find one that would go to his house. I book it, and ask it to come outside the restaurant. It's a nice touch, and the client is impressed. I get him into the taxi, and walk down to the metro, a long day done.

It's a thirty minute travel. I feel like listening to Bob Dylan. I log onto iTunes, and plug my earphones into the system. I sit down, close my eyes, and listen to a few numbers.

It's my stop, I get off, and slowly trudge back home. It's been a busy day, but its finally over.

Women in the Indian Army: Was Pattabhiraman Right?

Shravan Sampath — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 05:12:26 EDT

An interesting series of events has been unfolding in these last few days in the Indian Army.

It all started when, tragically, an Indian woman army officer, Sushmita Chakraborty, shot herself to death in Udhampur, the Army headquarters of the Northern Command, Indian Army. This happened on June 16th, 2006. The woman was only ten months into service, and she chose to take this dire step.

Before long, the woman brigade showed their support, as did the rest of the country. Everyone was outraged and wanted to know why this happened, and what should be done to improve the life of women officers in the Indian Army.

After a few days, though, something more shocking happened. The Army Vice-Chief made a statement: "The army could do without women". Vice-Chief Lieutenant General S. Pattabhiraman said that efforts were being made to take care of women officers in the army. At the same time, in the wake of many allegations by women officers regarding misbehavior by seniors towards them, he went on to add that women officers should not take advantage of this situation. It was important for the army to maintain its character, and high levels of fitness and rigor. In the interview, it did come across that he said that the army did not need women in the first place, and they were being recruited only because of a shortfall in the army, due to lack of sufficient male officers.

This statement went on to outrage the pro-woman brigade, and the most irresponsible of the lot, Sushma Swaraj, made a statement that the Army chief should be suspended for making such a remark. She said it hurt the sentiments of the women in the country, and this statement should be revoked immediately.

Of course, as soon as that happened, the Defence Minister, a veteran politician, came back strongly, to the point of making remarks such as, "The army needs women", and so on. The issue will be resolved, Pattabhiraman will apologise, and life will go on.

But I think this brings out a more fundamental question. Does the Army need women? I mean, the army is about physical tenacity, violence, physical rigor, and many other such characteristics that go with being men. I do not mean this to be offensive to women in any way, but I think they will agree with me that on an average, women are not as physically strong as men. So the question is, should the army go ahead and keep recruiting them, despite the fact that the Indian army relaxes its physical criterion for women as much as possible? Should the army compromise on its physical might, by hiring more and more women and put them on enemy-facing jobs such as artillery? Would the Pakistani (or Chinese) army not fire if they found out that a woman was standing on the enemy lines? Should a woman be allowed into a field, purely because of women like Sushma Swaraj, where she might not be the best fit?

There is another issue here. We all know how cash-strapped our Indian army is. Equipment is at a premium, and facilities are scarce. At this time, should we waste resources on constructing separate facilities, buying specialized resources and bifurcating the army into two, or focus on keeping the force as lean, mean and effficient as possible?

Do not get me wrong. I am not being male-chauvinistic. I am not saying that women are inferior in any way. I am not saying that women do not "deserve" to be in the army. I am just saying that the army should function as a professional body, and not pander to the wishes of irresponsible politicians like Sushma Swaraj. Sushma Swaraj believes that the army should work like any responsible MNC in Bangalore, and hire a minimum number of women. Of course, as most of us would realise, the army does not exactly have openings for software engineers and other white collar jobs. The army should be left to function in the manner in which they think is most optimum and efficient. If Pattabhiraman says that the army does not need women, he is probably right. Armymen do not pander to the wishes of the Ramu-Shamu on the street. They do what is best for the country, with the resources in their hands. If this demands that women might not be the best people for the job, so be it. He should be left to decide. After all, the actual words he used in the HT interview were:

Ideally, we would like to have gentlemen officers and not lady officers at the unit level.... Feedback from lower formations suggests that comfort levels with lady officers are low. We can do without them.

The army makes sure we sleep peacefully at night. They should be kept out of the dirty world of politics, and left to function by themselves.

Could Ask Become The Best Search Engine?

Shravan Sampath — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 11:25:26 EDT

Google is a word in the English dictionary. Google is a part of every conversation. "Google it" is the answer to most questions. Google is something of a religion in this world. The geeks from Stanford have revolutionized the way information is viewed, and have changed Web 2.0, from one of commerce, to one of information.

In a sense, they have changed most aspects of business, not only online business. Amazon is scared of Google, Apple is scared of Google, and sources say that even Walmart is scared of Google. Google was that doorway to the internet through which every user would pass, in order to get to his desired page. If compared in a much larger sense, Google was something of a jury, a person who would decide who went where. If you were on google, you've made it. Every piece of information in the world was now being measured on its "page rank".

However, somewhere along the line, Google seems to have lost sight of the very purpose that it was intended to serve. Strangely, Google decided to diversify. They decided to make money from sponsored results, come up with Adwords, and come up with a host of new services. In other words, Google was going from being a jury, to one of the "accused". What happens when a search engine also starts developing quality content, and becomes a third party player on the internet too?

Bias.

Google is slowly becoming biased towards its own services. It has a huge advantage here. People don't want to go beyond the first step. Yahoo news would suffer as long as Google news was first on their list. Google labs has become a shop where the future can be witnessed today.

Say Hi to "ask.com". Ask was famous in Web 1.0 as Askjeeves. They ran on a business model where they had teams of people just answering questions. However, as time passed, they realized that it was physically impossible to answer all the questions in the world. So, they began to lose steam. Sometime in the middle, they came up with the Teoma Algorithm, and began using a different kind of page rank technology, which is also known as the "Expert rank" technology.

In the expert rank, keywords were grouped together based on their context. The links to a particular page were not the only criterion in measuring the rank of the page. The ranking of the page is subject based. Therefore, clusters of topics were identified, and there is an expert on each topic. Among the many pages in each topic, ranking was then done. In summary, Ask would give you a very comprehensive result for your search.

So is it better than Google? I tried searching for "Global warming". Most of the search results were normal, just like Google. However, I noticed something interesting on the side. There was a list of "Expand your search", which contained a list of other keywords that would help getting users more information regarding their keyword. Also, most of the "sponsored results" came much lower, at the bottom of the page. For some keywords, all the sponsored results came at the bottom of the page.

But the biggest feature, in my opinion, is that Ask would remain only search (hopefully). The other features, such as news, weather, etc. might always remain in the background, because, Google seems to be winning in all those areas. Ask can remain a neutral doorway to the internet. In the long run, I think this would be the biggest advantage that Ask would face.

And so while Google's engineers spend their time working on all sorts of pastime projects, and their managers worry about a ballooning stock price, Ask is focusing only on its one area: Search. Could Ask be the future of search? Only time will tell.

Movie Review: Phir Hera Pheri

Shravan Sampath — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 03:46:29 EDT

This movie comes with great expectations. The original movie, Hera Pheri, is almost a cult comedy of our generation, and has managed to create three next-door characters (if you are living in a slum) who have achieved almost iconic status. Hera Pheri, reviving the careers of all the three in the lead, is one of the finest comedies Hindi cinema has ever seen, and has helped director Priyadarshan carve a niche for himself as a fantastic director of comedy movies. Of course, he went on to carve notoriety for himself with his next few disasters such as Hulchul and Malamaal Weekly. The author strongly advices readers against watching the above two movies, even if on pirated DVDs.

After such a great first movie, it is almost impossible to come up with a comparable sequel. Producer Firoz Nadiadwala must have had a nightmarish time coming up with a concept which can follow something even half as brilliant as Hera Pheri. In this search, he decided to zero in on Niraj Vora as the director to make the sequel. As we all know, Niraj Vora achieved instant stardom for his rip-roaring comedy in Hello Brother, in which he played the role of a police inspector who farts. Yes, that's it. That's the comedy. Go laugh!

Now, when you put a director as talented as Niraj Vora, three legendary characters-Raju, Shyam and Baburao, the comic genius of Paresh Rawal, the cold stares of Suniel Shetty, and the recently-crowned superstar Akshay Kumar together, what do you get?

Phir Hera Pheri is an absolute disaster. It does not even live up to the standards of the trailers of Hera Pheri 1. It is almost a shame that such cult characters have been wasted by a director as pathetic as Niraj Vora. The storyline is almost as thin as Bipasha Basu's waist, and the comedy is totally disconnected from reality. The biggest advantage of the first Hera Pheri was that the characters were excellently etched, and every viewer could relate to them. All the coolness in the first movie has been conveniently forgotten. The best part of Hera Pheri was that it was extremely fast. The second joke would begin before the first got over, and this went on for the entire movie. In Phir Hera Pheri, the viewers are subjected to absolutely low IQ humor which makes them wonder how the director could ever think up something so stupid. Rumors suggest that the script-writer collaborated with his other high intellect friends such as Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy, Arjun Singh, and the author's barber's dog, in order to complete the script. Viewers who thought Malamaal Weekly was the worst comedy Hindi cinema could produce are now eating their words.

Of course, there are flashes of comedy in some places, when the threesome get together and exhibit their famous on-screen chemistry. Together, their timing itself is so brilliant, that their poor dialogues are not even relevant anymore. They just set you laughing from their spot-on delivery and reactions.

Suneil Shetty looks rusty, as if he is facing the camera after a long time. He almost looks reluctant to act. Suneil Shetty fans (yes, all 4 of them) will be pleased to note that the famous iron jaw is still intact, and a confused face is still the only expression he can manage. It is hence easy to deduce that his hiatus from the camera was definitely not due to an acting course. It's good to see the Suneil Shetty of yore, even with the spelling change. One hopes the new spelling is helping his luck in other areas of his life at least.

Akshay Kumar exhibits the comic timing that has made him a very competent and complete actor in the last few years. His last few movies have been successes, and this is definitely because he is able to look more complete and mature in his roles. His infamous and irritating voice seems to have changed too, and he now does more than hang upside down, exhibit his unshaven chest, and employ the same karate kick in over 30 different occasions in the same movie. In a few movies he has even been able to match Amitabh Bachchan frame-for-frame, and his evolution in the Hindi film industry is very heartwarming. It shows how a moderately talented actor can excel on sheer hard-work, despite the obvious lack of charisma or star power. He has had a journey of over ten years in the industry, from his Khiladi days to his more mature roles in movies like Waqt. He looks set for more.

Paresh Rawal, that actor beyond compare, is not able to display a full range, due to a mediocre script and even poorer dialogues. There are instances when he displays his dialogue delivery skills that have made him one of Bollywood's most competent character artists.

A special mention is deserving for Bipasha Basu, whose role in the movie is very similar to Maurice Green in the last Olympics. She runs throughout the movie, sometimes from the hero, sometimes from the bad guys. It really doesn't matter. She runs anyway. She is connected to the story in some vague manner which the author still working on. Please keep watching this space. Grievous mental injury is inflicted on the intelligence of the viewers, by telling them that she was an executive in a bank, but loses her job and becomes a bar-dancer. One thinks they should introduce the concept of naukri.com to her, so she can find a job more relevant to her prior qualifications and experience.

The climax of the movie seems to be inspired from classics such as Jaane bhi do yaaron, but they do a terrible job of it. The star of the climax is whoever-is-the-man-supposed-to-look-like-a-gorilla, and plays one of the most believable roles in the movie. Desperate comic attempts are also made, by using speech defects in the characters to bring in humor. Niraj Vora hits more lows than the stock market has in the past two weeks.

In summary, the movie is not bad. It's atrocious, and the viewers are subjected to even worse comedy this year than they were the last. When will Bollywood ever see comedy of the standard of Jaane bhi do yaaron, Gol mal, Andaz apna apna, and the likes. The viewers will wait. Until then, of course, Bipasha Basu will continue to run wearing tight t shirts, and Niraj Vora will continue to make movies. In a recent interview, Niraj Vora reveals his plans to make 7 sequels to Hera Pheri. The author pledges to write reviews for all seven of them.

The Day Apple Macintosh Was Born, The Day History Was Made

Shravan Sampath — Mon, 1 May 2006 00:02:01 EDT

I just watched this video on Youtube.

The date was January 24th, 1984. Steve Jobs, Founder, Apple Corporation, introduced the greatest machine ever to a world that had seen only IBM machines powered by MS-DOS. History was being made, computing was being redefined, and the world was about to see an explosion in computing capacity and comfort that had never been witnessed before.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Macintosh was released to the world on this day.

This video is one of the finest I've ever seen. To me, this video is as important in history as Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, or Mahatma Gandhi walking resolutely to Dandi to make salt. Apple Corporation was a company that was born with a vision. A vision to change the world. They did so, with every single innovation that they went in for. Steve Jobs was not a man who would settle for the mediocre. He would look to do something radically different from what currently prevailed.

This video defines the machine you are currently looking at. Most of these features helped shape today. The pride on Steve Jobs' face when he begins the demo is absolutely priceless. You can see in his face, that he knows that he is going to change the world. You can see in his face, that he knows that he is giving more to the world today, than computing has ever seen before. It truly was one small step for computing, but one giant leap for mankind. The non-techie could now use the computer. The graphical user interface now entered our homes, packed in "that bag".

Towards the end of this video, watch the shot where the entire crowd is captured. Watch the excitement on their body language. Watch, as they jump to their feet, to acknowledge this great innovation.

It is rather irrelevant that from that day onwards, Apple did lose its way for a very long time. Maybe it was fate that another corporation would take credit for all of this success, and make a fortune out of it. Perhaps it was fate, that the man who brought us the Macintosh, would not even be at the helm of Apple a few years hence. Perhaps it was all designed to happen. Perhaps that's the way PCs were meant to evolve.

But one fact is for sure. Macintosh redefined computing for the non-techie. Go on. Do watch this one. Experience the magic.

The Logic Behind Gmail

Shravan Sampath — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 11:44:52 EDT

If there was one identifier in your life you would not change, what would it be?

My mom would say, her phone number. I would say, my email address.

Email is one of the most important first-mover based businesses, and Gmail has come into this market and effectively grabbed a powerful market share in its beta stage itself. How did this happen? How did they make such a first mover based business into their domain? After spending many sleepless nights on this, I have a theory!

First, they came out with a great product. Gmail was nothing like ever seen before. A 1 GB inbox, Ajax based pages which ensured quicker loading, convenient address book and retreival, and so on. This is always the first step for a company that wants to take over a market. Make a great product!

Then, they realized that by offering so much storage space, they needed to make money somewhere. So they put in context-based advertising in email. Of course, there was an initial hue and cry about this, and the media caught on fast. The buzzword today, "Invasion of privacy", was so often quoted, that Osama Bin Laden became a no-news in comparison.

Then they began their marketing campaign. It wasn't much actually. In my opinion, the only smart thing they did initially was that they made it an invitation based service. When you don't give a great product to a customer, he absolutely HAS to have it. The craze for gmail invites became so bad that someone actually auctioned off a few invites on eBay.

So they built a cult. A gmail ID became something to be proud of. Some people had actually paid for it (on eBay!). Now, if you paid for something, wouldn't you want it to be as good as an official email ID from, say, VSNL or sify? So now, gmail became an official looking email ID for a person. My bet is, if you pick up a random sample of ten gmail users, you would find atleast 6-7 of them with a firstname.lastname@gmail.com email ID, or lastname.firstname@gmail.com . Of course! It was now something to be proud of! It wasn't just another free email service. The google brandname helped too, because gmail was its first big project after the search engine itself, and everyone around the world was discovering the joys of "googling".

So, slowly and steadily, and still in beta stage, gmail began acquiring customers from the other email ID providers. Yahoo was nice to them. They offered mail forwarding services, and made silly attempts to catch up by increasing their capacity to 1 GB too. It was obvious that they were now the laggards. Yahoo was just not "cool" anymore. Of course, in the ancient Web 1.0 days there used to be a service called hotmail, which has positively the most tacky and inconvenient interface in the web today. For a long time, they also had a policy of increasing inbox size to 250 MB only for American users. They managed to retain a few american customers, but pissed off many non-Americans like me.

As gmail grew, they kept upgrading their services, to include a gtalk with excellent voice capabilities, and then a gtalk within gmail (god save meebo!)

Slowly, a set of staunch gmail supporters emerged, who refused to use other services. In fact, these were such loyal customers that kept recommending other users to email. The new bunch of Web 2.0 users slowly flocked to gmail. They also handed out more invites, and this cycle began to move faster and faster.

Today, there are over 5 million users of gmail, and these are serious users, who use gmail as their official ID sometimes, for personal mail too, and would swear by their service.

Gmail managed to effectively break into a market that people thought was completely based on the first mover advantage. Another hint that effective marketing can break such dumb old cliches?

Why Won't They Just Go Away?

Shravan Sampath — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 15:10:06 EDT

For a long time, I've looked and wondered at so many things that we take for granted, and wondered why they have not been replaced with something smarter and better. But they just won't go away! The following features assume that the current technology is adequate for the system, and no new technological innovation is required.

6. Landlines: Land phone connections have convincingly been shot out by mobile phones. It is clearly the next stage in evolution, and land phones have been overtaken. But still, we find land line service providers like Reliance and BSNL trying to push sales of their land lines! And they argue that the land phones cost cheaper. However, my argument is that if phones are for communication, then even SMS is communication, and that is absolutely free from mobile to mobile. The logic is simple. Prepaids still continue to rule mobile phone connections. Land lines are post paids. It is always easier to make a phone call luxuriously and then pay for it at the end of the month, than to look at the bill everytime you make a call. That would always seem more expensive. Thats precisely why people still use land lines.

5. Phone numbers: Numbers on keypads of phones were from a time when they did not have the technology to punch in names. But if people now have name punching capability on their mobile phones, why don't we have mobile IDs, instead of mobile phone numbers? Isn't a name always easier to remember than a number? Why don't we have a service that would correlate the names and numbers, and you just had to remember a name?

4. Cash: How many times have you run from shop to shop on the look out for "change", because you didn't have the right denomination? Why have credit cards not hit in? Or debit cards for that matter? Cash seems like an obvious inconvenience that needs to be put to a painless end, but nobody seems to want to do that. Paypal seems to have begun a solution in North America.

3. Tape recorders: Still, every house has a tape recorder, every car has a tape recorder. A CD is much superior, and guess what, sometimes it can work out cheaper. Why don't people move over to the next technology?

2. Movie tickets: When you gain access to anyplace, these days, we require tickets. These are authentications that you indeed belong there, and your access is valid. You have paid for your ticket, or you have got it approved by an authority. But when you think about it, why do you need a physical ticket? How about an SMS with a number on it? Wouldn't that do? Wouldn't your unique number be adequate?

1. Internet Explorer: After years and years of being exposed, and Mozilla Firefox being proven as a much superior technology, we still do not understand that Internet Explorer is just about as cool as hotmail. The new browsers show increased performance and security, but people just refuse to move!

The moral of the story, from all these concepts, is that change is not easy, and the company that can trigger change the fastest, always wins.

Chennai, the Experience

Shravan Sampath — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 09:34:37 EDT

Any visitor to Chennai will initially tend to be put off by the auto-drivers at the airport or the railway station. This first step is usually characterized by either a heated exchange by a drunk auto driver and the customer, or getting cheated into paying double the rate.

Upon stepping into the city, within the first fifteen minutes, the first beads of sweat begin to appear on the forehead. This goes on steadily increasing, and within the next few minutes, your entire shirt is drenched in sweat. Meanwhile, your auto wallah is taking life threatening turns on a road, violating all known road rules. Sights outside the auto are equally scary.

Every once in a while you will see a dark Rajnikanth-like, dhoti-clad, half-balding man sitting outside a tea shop sipping on his drink and menacingly looking at you drive past. Once in a while a young south indian girl, hair plaited and heavily oiled, wearing a paavadai will walk down the street with her equally oiled friends. You wonder how these girls can oil their hair so much in this hot humid weather, and yet walk with such little care. The very sight of them adds another couple of beads of sweat to your forehead.

Chennai is not a city. Chennai is an experience.

Intimidating for outsiders, daunting for visitors, and a delight for residents, Chennai sparks off strong emotions for everyone involved. Maybe it's because Chennai is such a wonderful blend of the ancient and the modern, of the traditional and the future and the temples and the IT parks.

One of the most wonderful things about Chennai is its history. A drive down Mount Road will strike you as much for its modern skyscrapers, as for its occasional dilapidated buildings, which, you know instinctively, have seen it all. Every time you consider a meal in Chennai, the restaurant you are sitting in could be many many years old. Places like Triplicane Ratna Cafe, Geetha Cafe, Sangeetha and of course, the ubiquitous Saravana Bhavan, will offer you fantastic traitional Chennai food, like they have for years before them.

Ranganathan Street in Chennai is famous for its jewellery shops, probably second in business only to Zaveri Bazaar in Mumbai. The styles of jewellery here are very unique, heavy and rich in gold and design, a symbol of the prosperity of a woman. These streets have been getting more and more populated over the years, and now Ranganathan Street is one of the most crowded and popular places in Chennai. One visit to this place will tell you that the fun of the area is in its rush, its traffic and pollution. Ranganathan Street would just not be the same without any of these.

A note about this great city is difficult to complete without mentioning the beach. The Marina Beach is one of the world's longest beaches, and is replete with history. A walk across this beach towards the water immediately puts you in hallowed company, setting you thinking of some of the finest minds this country has ever seen that have walked down these sands, in between classes at the famous Presidency College. The many historical buildings across the road on Marina Beach add to the entire experience of taking an evening walk at the beach, as does a pack of Sundali or Bajji on the beach.

Chennai is not an easy city to get used to. Everything about this place is amazingly unique. Many visitors have been only too glad to leave. But ask anyone who has been here for a few years, and true Chennai sentiments will come to the fore. Nobody wants to leave. A taste of sustained periods of Chennai life is enough to make anyone a South Indian - a dhoti wearing, Idli Sambar eating, Tamil speaking, oily haired person.

Chennai is more than a city. Chennai is more than an experience. Chennai is a lifestyle, a way of life, a drug that takes time to get used to, but something that gives infinite joys in every single encounter.

As I come back to Chennai after a few months, I realize how much I missed Chennai, how much it has meant to me, and how it will always occupy a special place in my life.

Internet in India - Doomed?

Shravan Sampath — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 09:16:40 EDT

The Big Daddy of internet in India, Rajesh Jain, writes an excellent post about what it would take to make Internet a widespread phenomenon in India. He talks about a five point agenda:

First, build a city-wide wireless mesh network. This will provide the connectivity fabric and provide an alternative to getting DSL or cable (or waiting for WiMax). The key price point for this connectivity needs to be around Rs 200-250 ($4.50-$5.50) per month.

Second, use a variety of access devices to connect to the network. These could be PCs or network computers. (One of the companies I have helped co-found, Novatium, has just such a solution � the Nova NetPC.) We will also see mobile devices like the Nokia 770 and phones with Wi-Fi built in connecting to the mesh network.

Third, provide a backend computing and storage grid. This helps centralise computing and provides for seamless mobility for users. It also makes computing much more affordable and manageable.

Fourth, provide applications and content from a centralised grid to users over the wireless mesh networks.

Finally, use advertising to reduce the price that users have to pay for the service.

Rajesh believes that if the price of Internet connectivity in India gets to be lesser than Rs. 450 or so, consumption will explode.

I beg to differ. I do not believe that price is the biggest issue against internet connectivity.

Sometime back, I was in this little village called Udhampur, in J&K, with a few friends. I managed to locate an internet cafe to log on, and I found that a few people were having an argument inside it. I went up to them, and listened to the argument. The woman was refusing to pay her internet charge, because, she claimed, that the computer she was given "did not have google on it". To explain her point, she went to the location bar (Internet Explorer, ugh!), clicked on the drop down menu, and showed him that there was no "google" in it!

Do you see what Im trying to say? Large populations in the country have no understanding of the internet, and how it works. Computer illiteracy is going to be a big hurdle that we have to get across. I know of software professionals in Indian software companies who would give up if they saw a couple of error boxes pop up on their computer. They would just not know how to handle it! People still are afraid of the computer, because it looks so complicated!

With all due respect to Steve Jobs (for the GUI) and Bill Gates (Of course, windows), the interface of computers is still not for India. We still need some more technology that looks less fearsome to the average user. I think this is even true worldwide. The most popular blog on the net is boingboing and Slashdot, and both of these are very geeky. I strongly believe that the internet is not able to percolate down to non-techies.

Take a simple example. The television is a roaring success in India, although it is also an electronic gadget. However, the smart marketer who decided to make it popular said, that he would leave very little to chance and error. He just made a small box with numbers on it, and let the customers shift between them in order to access more channels. The customer has to understand very little to use a TV. Everything is just so intuitive! The computer has to become like that. Everything is just so complicated!

My second reason for low internet penetration in India, is the lack of any use of internet! Internet statistics show that most users do email, chat, and train and flight bookings online. Thats it! But the internet, as a source of entertainment and information, is largely lost on people. Over the years, history has shown that the greatest products have been built when a need was captured. Does an average Indian get up every morning dying to get online, to do whatever he does? Except horny 16 year olds, I don't think anyone else can answer to that in affirmative.

The third and final reason is that the internet in India has seen very poor marketing over the years. There has been no one who has tried to spread the idea of the internet, and the entire coolness of the concept. Dotcoms are still considered fly-by-night busineses. The internet is synonymous with pornography and chatting. We badly need a Seth Godin down here!

Magic - An Adventure To Remember

Shravan Sampath — Mon, 3 Apr 2006 07:51:04 EDT

9.30 PM: He walked into the Ahala, the new nightclub at the Taj. He stopped, and soaked in the atmosphere. The crowd was slowly building up, and the music was getting faster by the minute. He looked around for her, and saw her near the bar counter, waving up to him. He walked towards her. The customary hug later, he got introduced to a few friends. Mihir, a mature looking guy, and quite the gentleman of the evening, was busy saying the right things and making the right moves. Mridula was sitting in an adjoining chair, intently staring at her drink.

She looked up, and smiled. She was classily dressed with a white top and cream tight fitting pants. He immediately realized that he was under dressed for the Taj. "Damn", he thought, "I should've bought more shirts from Bombay". He looked like he was dressed for the neighborhood coffee shop.

10.30 PM: As the night progressed, the music got louder, and the crowd began to get "closer", in an attempt to get heard. Finally, he found himself talking only to Mridula, with an occasional shout to the other two.

Suddenly, Mridula announced to the group, "You know, I think buffaloes on the road are absolutely the coolest. You ram into them, and they just don't seem to care. They look up, blankly at the part of their body that was hit, and then at you, and get back to chewing". She then imitated a buffalo with absolute perfection. He was immediately reminded of the way she was staring at her drink when he walked in. He smiled...

10.45 PM: "You coming to dance?", she asked. He nodded, and followed her into the dance floor. She thought it was rather crowded, and settled for a spot near one of the tables, off the dance floor. "No, the wooden dance floor is much more fun, come on!", he said, and pulled her into the gyrating crowd. She followed him in, and immediately remarked, "You're right, the wood adds to the effect. This is much more fun".

"I would expect a veteran on the party scene like you to know that"

"Nah", she said, "By the time I'm on the dance floor, I'm usually too drunk to know the difference."

11.00 PM:

The dance floor hots up, and the entire club is rocking to the best DJ money can buy, at least in the city. The couples on the dance floor start cozying up, and both of them are enjoying some fine music. In a while, the music begins to slow down, and soon, its all over.

12.00 PM:

"You know what, lets get out of here, this place is sad", she says. They take the car, and drive off, as the old saying goes, painting the town red. Soon they realize they badly need a destination.

"Hey, you want to go get more drinks?" he asks.

"Sure"

Off they go, looking for a shady bar called Pickles, somewhere in Secunderabad. After an hour of waiting in the line, and smart-ass dialogues by him such as, "You know, in this place, no one is really looking at your face", a reference to her low cut top.

One hour later, they have alcohol, and some mutton Biryani, and they're still driving around with nowhere to go.

"How about we park someplace and get down to eating the Biryani?"

One hour later, its 3 in the morning, and they're a little high, with nowhere to go. The conversations are getting very interesting, ranging from a few personal stories, to very global issues. He finds himself getting attracted to this woman, intelligent and sharp, extremely talkative, but still a little high. She seems to like this guy, sweet and intelligent, making silly jokes all the time.

However, the city was running out of places to go, and they soon found themselves with few options.

"Hey, how far is this place, Nagarjunsagar?" she wonders aloud.

"About three hours from Hyderabad. You wanna go?"

"Sure, its Sunday tomorrow. Lets go!"

There seemed little to think about. Neither of them wanted the night to be over, and both of them were looking for a bit of adventure. He wanted to be with her for a little longer, and she seemed to be attracted to the adventure of taking a trip impulsively, so much a difficulty in work life. He seemed fun too!

And as simple as that, they take off for a three-hour drive, to a whole new town, with no one but each other for company, and the dark night sky slowing giving way to daybreak.

The drive is a little longer than usual, with a few wrong turns, detours, and roads under construction. By the time they get there, they had car trouble, and she was fighting to stay awake. It was 8 AM, but she did not want to sleep. Maybe he would begin to feel sleepy too. Besides, this guy seems interesting too.

He was having a wonderful time, loving the drive, loving the beautiful countryside, and the company of woman sitting beside him, who would cringe every time a dog got in the way of the car, telling him stories of how she would hate to have the "murder" of an innocent animal on her conscience.

Finally, they managed to reach, and take up a room in the little town of Nagarjunsagar.

"Wow, a double room", he exclaims, when he kicks open the door of the dirty little room with a bed, a television and a creaky fan.

"Oh shut up, don't get any ideas".

"Awww, at least I can hope, can't I?" he said, with the trademark silly grin.
She didn't think it fit to answer, and walked into the loo to freshen up. She walked out a minute later with a look of disgust, exclaiming how dirty the loo was.

"Oh shut up, Ms. Foreigner", he said, before going in, with toothpaste on his index finger, an improvised toothbrush.

An hour later, both of them were knocked out on the double bed, both on their side of the bed. "Awww, no hanky panky?" he asks, as soon as he hits the bed. She does not think the question is worthy of response, and turns around to get some sleep. The sleep seems overcoming, and somehow, she trusts that the guy will not try anything. He seemed way to sweet for that.

Two hours later, they wake up with a start, sweating and panting. Either it's a power cut, or the fan has died and gone to heaven. He tries the television. It's gone too.

"Oh damn", she exclaims in disgust. He smiles, at the pun that they were in the Nagarjunsagar "Damn". He decides against telling her about it.

"To think, this dam provides a lot of the electricity for the state. They can't even take care of themselves"

Ten minutes later, at 12 o clock, they realize they can't stay here any longer, and decide to hit the road, a desperate attempt to get some breeze.

They walk out, and drive off. They find a service station for the car, and get a foreign returned mechanic popularly known as "Dubai" to repair it for them. He tells them it can't be done, and tells them that they can get back to the city without any problem.

Reassured, they move off to sit by the waterside. Very soon, they get bored of the water, and drive back to the room. They end up lazily watching a crappy Hindi movie, and commenting about they would never understand how Shahrukh became the heartthrob that he was. In time, she began to feel sleepy, and he starts to get bored, and he keeps irritating her just to keep her awake. They decided to leave before they fall asleep.

3 o clock in the afternoon, after a stopover at a dusty petrol station where she asks innocently, "Bhaiyya aap credit cards accept karte hain kya?" (Do you accept credit cards?), they leave for the city, 16 hours after they met at the Taj.
The return journey is much more fun, with stops at Dhabas, beautiful weather, the sunset, a roadside Udipi hotel where she asks for Tissue paper after eating, and so on. Finally, they get back to town at 7 PM, tired, unbathed, disheveled and extremely tired, but with memories of a magical vacation.

As he dropped her off at the Taj where she had to pick up her car, and drove home, he wondered if he would ever meet again, whether she liked him, and so on. In a minute though, he realized, that it just didn't matter. It had been a truly wonderful trip, and purely as a memory, it was worth it.

She walked away, with a warm smile on her face, realizing that it had been a dream vacation, that she hadn't taken his number, but that she knew she would take it when she called back tonight.

Would he?