08 Jul 2006
· comment
I like people, suspect technology. If I pick up the phone, I’d prefer talking to an inept operator than an efficient machine. Till a year ago, if I wanted a train ticket, I’d prefer wading through the mass of humanity straggling outside the booking counter than “outsourcing” the task to a travel agent. I’ve been accused of enjoying this particular form of torture. And it’s probably true. I mean, what can be so uplifting about standing around for two hours in a line of sweaty, irritable people all waiting for the booking clerk to get his act together?
Continue reading →06 Jul 2006
· comment
How do films get rated nowadays? The new and “improved” Superman is just out and everyone is making a beeline to see it. Especially kids. All hell broke loose when my six-year-old daughter Damini discovered that my son Siddharth had gone off to see the film with a friend of his. More importantly, without her. He sauntered back and informed me that I would be crazy to take her for the film. It is VIOLENT, he stressed, speaking out each syllable slowly as if I was some dim-witted creature. More tantrums. My daughter wailed, “He’s saying that because he doesn’t want me to go.”
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26 Jun 2006
· travel
It’s freezing cold when we leave Losar. The guest house chowkidar tells us the temperature at night is normally sub-zero. So, on that cheerful note, we leave behind Losar’s square white houses, their roofs trimmed with firewood, their windows framed in black paint or tar, and a satellite dish and a solar panel practically on every roof. Cut off from the rest of the world for six months of the year, when the passes freeze up, this dish is what links them to the outside world.
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21 Jun 2006
· travel
Spiti has been hovering in our travel consciousness for a while now. We’ve been hovering near Spiti too, but somehow we’ve never quite made it. Last year we reached as close as Kalpa, about 12 kilometres up from Rekong Peo in Kinnaur. Instead of heading further north, we had to turn back. A landslide in Malling, combined with my daughter’s clogged nose pretty much put an end to that trip. So, we came back to hot and dry Delhi, and to make up went on a quick-zip trip to Chopta, recommended by some friends who make an annual pilgrimage to the place.
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19 Jun 2006
· travel
Seven adults, five kids take a trek to Beas Kund, moving away from the trodden path and opting instead for a route that is spectacular, challenging, and at times, downright tricky. The oldest beyond 40; the youngest a little over 6. On our trekking holiday in Manali, we were joined by our friends, their friends, and two trekking titans. The result: a life-changing, mind-bending, muscle-opening experience that every one is just waiting to revisit.
Continue reading →04 May 2006
· comment
“So now we are outsourcing the jobs of lab animals to India? I shudder to think what the ‘No Indian testing’ label will be in Europe…" reads a post by nizo at [] at slashdot. An anonymous post at the same site reads, “Are you kidding? The unemployment rate for lab rats will skyrocket! How are the poor rats supposed to feed their kids? Won’t somebody think of the rat children?”
Given the poor regulation systems, low levels of literacy, proclivity to accept free medicines (rather than buying them) and an almost blind and unquestioning faith in doctor ‘sahib’, this new industry poses some very tricky ‘challenges’ for the regulators, pharmaceutical companies, doctors, hospitals and research organizations. It is not difficult to replace the word ‘challenges’ with ‘opportunities’ if you are part of those organizations or ‘disasters waiting to happen’ if you are part of the thinking civil society.
Continue reading →03 May 2006
· comment
Beautiful women, designer clothes, opulent settings, flashy cars and celebrity film stars come together to make a very heady cocktail. Way more seductive than the story of some poor cotton farmer. For the producers as well as the consumers of media, sex and money always triumphs over almost everything else. Karan Johar, Shobha De and TOI rule!
Is it any surprise, then, that skimpily clad women walking the ramps of the Lakme India Fashion Week were all over the media - in newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and on the internet. You could not have missed, nor the Sensex hitting 11,000 mark. However, you were very likely to have missed the news of the 400th farmer committing suicide in Vidarbha (in the western Indian state of Maharashtra) which happened during the same week as these other two events. According to the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, there have been more than 450 suicides among farmers since June 2005.
Continue reading →01 May 2006
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Yes, that is what experts suggest – children should sleep for at least nine hours each night. A good way to know that your kids are getting enough sleep is to check if they get up refreshed in the morning, with little or no cajoling. They however may not be getting enough sleep if they sleep in class, are irritable, display low energy through the day, avoid physical activity, and display lack of concentration. Of course these symptoms do not necessarily indicate lack of sleep, however lack of sleep ‘can’ cause these symptoms.
Continue reading →30 Apr 2006
· media
If you are already familiar with podcasting and know how to download and listen you could jump to part II – a list of some wonderful podcasts available for free download. Most of these twenty odd podcasts are in ‘Talk’, ‘Documentary’, or ‘Interview’ format and are mostly informative, incisive, inclusive, and international.
Part I: So what is a Podcast and where do I begin?
A simple way to look at this is in reference to a radio. Imagine that BBC decides to take a feature program that it has already broadcast on the traditional radio and decides to make it available on the internet for you and me to download and listen. It could as well be a music group wanting to sample its music online, or it could even be you wanting to share some audio content trough the web.
Continue reading →26 Apr 2006
· media
In any media, while the size of the audience is important, the consumers’ relationship with the media is perhaps equally important. ‘Engagement’ is the buzzword. But what does it really mean?
Is a commuter who is shuffling through FM radio stations in her car just as engaged with her media as someone who is listening to a downloaded podcast by hooking her iPod into the car radio? Who is likely to pay more attention? (This is attention economy, right?). Who is likely to listen through the advertisements? Who is likely to remember the name and message of the show sponsor? Who is likely to be favorably predisposed to the show and the communication that goes with it (she obviously likes the show otherwise she wouldn’t make the effort to download it.)
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