The New New Thing

Please note that this is a collection of incoherent thoughts and may not make a lot of sense.

It was 11 and I was in Vashi (about 60 KMs from the South Mumbai) playing Counter-Strike when I first heard about terror strikes in Mumbai. A friend’s mom called up and said there was fire at CST and if we were ok. We did not take things seriously that time and went about our work. But when we started getting non-stop phone calls, we realized something was wrong. Left the game midway to rush to the nearest television screen (@McDonalds) and saw live footage from CST and Taj. We realized that it was as planned terrorist attack and there were lot of casualties (127 reported dead till last count) including the ATS chief, Hemant Karkare. The indiscriminate firing at CST and hostage situations at Taj and Oberoi came as a shock. I had never imagined that something like that could strike us.

First thoughts were “damn it, yet another attack on India”. First reactions were of indifference. First thing we did was called everyone in Mumbai and enquired about their safety. Once we realized things were ok with our kith and kin, we went back to our game. I did what a typical Indian would have done – ensured personal health and safety. I also did yet another typical Indian thing – I ignored it and decided that, like everything else, it will be ok soon. And like any other Indian, we had an opinion on things. We had no clue what the ground realities there were. We dint know what the situation asks for. But we had an opinion. An opinion that would not have helped. We commented on people and their follies. The very act of writing this piece of text is giving away an opinion.

Not for a minute I felt sympathy for people who have suffered. We celebrated a holiday. We made plans for going to Matheran or some place. We played Counter-Strike. Were we being irresponsible? Were we being selfish? Was everyone else in India feeling like that? Most probably no. But then again, you never no.

More I think about it, more disgusted I get. These terrorists are no different from what I and most of my friends are. 25 somethings, fond of good things, ambitious and optimistic about future. Where is it then, that these guys decided that they want to kill innocent civilians? What brainwashes these people that they suddenly are ready to die? And for what reason? What cause? And is killing innocent people part of the solution? I am strong believer in power of conversations. Why cant we sit and talk and resolve whatever these guys have in mind. If they say that they are doing it for love of god, someone needs to tell them God never preaches killing. Not of the innocent for sure. I would love to meet one someday and understand what makes them do such extreme things. What rush do they get out of it?

Investigation into the reasons would for sure prove futile. There were reports that terrorsits were singling out American, British and Israeli citizens at hotels. Was it thus an attack on foreigners in India? Unlikely. Was it done to attract attention of the world? Maybe. Was it to get closer to their god? HELL NO.

And whats with the Media in India? Apart from showing real news and analysis, every channel was in a race to declare news as “exclusive” and “you-saw-it-first-here”. They were competing with each other to come up with the most fancy headline for attacks. It was all about sensationalism and propaganda. The only other headline that they were concerned about was the cancellation of ongoing cricket series between England and India. I agree that life should go on normally and we should not bow down to these attacks and alter our routine, but is cricket that important that we ignore people who are fighting and dying on the streets?

Obvisouly the courage and solidarity shown by our politicians should be mentioned. People like Mr. Raj Thackery and Mr. Udhav Thackery were nowhere to be seen. On any given day, they could be seen paddling pride of Marathi Manoos and Shiv Vada Pav. Today when Mumbai was under a serious threat and needed reassurance, there was not a single word uttered from their camp. As a north-Indian, who has made Mumbai his home, does that give me confidence in Maharashtra? No it does not. In fact as a Maharashtrian, does it give me confidence that Shiv Sena And Maharashtra Navnirman Sena can stand for me? HELL NO. And what about all those “north Indian” security personnel who are fighting to save Mumbai? What about Mr. Modi? Mr. Advani? Can someone tell them that this is not the time to engage in political battles and getting mileage for things that may or may not have been done?

If there is something needs a special mention, its social media. Twitter in particular (I am @s4ur4bh there). I was far from a TV screen and there was no way for me to update myself with what’s happening in the other part of the city. Only way I could do that was with Twitter. There were people on Twitter who were as concerned and constantly fed people like me with information and tips. Some who were close to the site, actually ventured out and clicked pictures (@vinu). However difference between Twitter usage in India and other countries is the community. Most of us in India were merely relaying news clippings from mainstream media. Social Media is most effective when people actually report original news and make available things that mainstream media cant. In our case, there were hardly any notable individuals who did original reporting. Vinu is one such person and he is been doing a commendable job since. In fact most of the channels are using this pictures for their telecasts. Apart from twitter, individuals were quick to setup webpages for helpline numbers, lists of affected people, contribution calls for donating blood etc.

I am too insignificant an entity to actually predict the long term impact and ramifications of the attack. Tourism, travel and hotel industry would obviously be impacted. The ruing Congress government might have a tough battle ahead in the forthcoming general elections (due in first half of 2009). Investments in the Indian economy might take hit. Global companies would definitely not want anything to do with India (Board of HUL was reportedly at Taj when this happened). Ah, how can I forget plight of Cricket. Poor little gentleman’s game. Series’ would be cancelled, players would have to undergo agony, channels would loose money and media would have another field day creating headlines and

Coming back to the track, by the time the thought of these attacks sunk in, it was late in the night. Sleep was distant. Anger wasn’t. And there was that familiar feeling of helplessness. My country is at the mercy of just a few men and just the thought of it is sickening. They enter our parliaments when they want to, they can explode not one or two but 15 bombs in any city and they can open fire at passengers trying to go back home after a long day of work. And after all this they can get away. How long will we tolerate this? When would all this stop?

We might say we as a country are proud of our unity in diversity. But are we really united?  We conveniently ignore things because they don’t matter to us. For someone in Delhi, a terror strike on Mumbai is just a piece of news. For Mumbaikar, a strike in the Parliament is yet another news. Until it directly affects our lives, we conveniently ignore things and move on. We are indifferent to things happening in other cities with other people in their homes. We choose to ignore them. And in the process, when all of us are holed up in our respective cocoons, we feed that ticking time-bomb.

I also want to talk about much hyped spirit of Mumbai and how mumbaikars are resilient and come to work in worst of rains, largest of floods and deadliest of terror strikes. This spirit is commendable but how long can we just talk about “spirit of Mumbai” and keep ignoring things? We have used it as a lame excuse for too long and I guess its about time we move to actions rather than just opinions and discussions.

I have this People Tree t-shirt that reads “Ek Zabardast Toofan Aaye Aur Humein Gehri Neend Sey Jagaye”. India needs an awakening. And now. More than all that I, personally need an awakening. Guess this incident is that “toofan” that I needed in my life. Guess its time I recollect my thoughts and ethos and bring about a radical change.

There is one thing, and one thing only on my mind. Attack on Mumbai. This week’s friday update shall only talk about the terrorist attack. This post shall explain it all.

I don’t really post movie reviews on this blog but this movie is worth watching and I think everyone should make it a point to see this movie.

Spoiler Warning: This post discloses the plot of the movie.

DasVidaniya (Imdb) is a simple movie with a simple plot. A very organized and simple guy is told that he has only three months to live. So far, his life has been uninteresting and nothing actually to write about. His life is full of things stereotypical to Indian men – widowed mother, estranged relationship with brother, long lost friends, dreams, aspirations, devoid of any possibilities of sex, perils of a pesky boss, tantrums of lazy colleagues and a predictable routine of office, home and office again.

So, unlike a typical guy and crying about his terminal disease, Amar Kaul (Vinay Pathak) decides that before he dies he would do things that he always wanted to do but couldn’t for some reason or the other. From things as easy as buying a car to things as difficult as confessing love that he’s hidden since his boyhood. And this is where things get interesting.

The movie is hilarious at times. Especially when DasGupta (Saurabh Shukla) is bossing around Amar and when Vivek (Gaurav Gera) is directing what probably is the most copied scenes in the history of bollywood – Mere Pass Maa Hai.

The movie is touching at other times. When for example Amar finally confesses his love to Neha (Neha Dhupia). Or when Amar finally buys his car – the way he touches the car and he has that most content smile on his face. Or the scene where Vivek is crying when he realises that Amar is dying.

The movie also makes you think every time Amar pulls out his “things to do before I die” list. You suddenly want to reach for a notepad and make a list like that of your own. You suddenly start debating the futility of human life and the rat race that most of us are running. The same rat race that most of us would run for rest of our lives. The movie makes you appreciate all those small moments in life that we simply ignore trying to run that rat race.

Overall Das Vidaniyan is a very well made movie with commendable acting by Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Saurabh Shukla, Rajat Kapoor, Neha Dhupia and Gaurav Gera. The Kailasa trio (Kailash, Naresh, Paresh) has done a really good job with background score. Director should be applauded for some great shots and heart-warming scenes. Although, I am told that the storyline resembles yet another great movie – The Bucket List, I am ready to concede that I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.

The big idea – the idea of things to do before you die – is really very intriguing. If everyone knew his or her expiry date, everyone would be so much better. People would loose inhibitions and for a change do things. Suddenly you start appreciating life a wee bit more. If I were to choose few things that I want to do before I die, they would be

1. Provide for my family and few chosen friends.
2. Bike to Leh (I will do it most probably in June 2009)
3. Bungee Jump

What would be few things that you would want to do before you say goodbye?

Limca has come up with a new ad for the second season. It has an interesting concept, a very well shot video and one of the best jingles. Probably as good as Mohit Chauhan’s Gorgeous Hamesha for Parachute. Here is the ad…

Interesting Tidbits

• Nokia has come up with yet another awesome concept. This time it is 5 Dollar Comparison. Idea is fairly simple. You upload pictures and images of things that you could buy for USD 5. Nice experiment. Go ahead and upload things that you have bought within $5. Jan Chipchase and his team at Nokia (Design) is redefining the way market researches are conducted and the profession is percieved as.
• Korean Mobile and Internet Market. I need to understand Korean mobile phone and Internet market. Simply becuase of them being a step ahead than the rest of the world in terms of adoption and usage. Please help me understand the market. Please point at resources. I am making a comprehensive list here.
• UrbanDictionary.com. For work, i was looking for something when I stumbled onto UrbanDictionary.com. One of the best user generated websites ever. People from all walks of life can write what their slangs are and the lingo that they come up with. I am assuming that most of my readers would know about it. But if you don’t, its worth your time.

Advertising

• Dr. Pepper is giving away one free drink to everyone in US of A. In March this year, they had said that if Guns and Roses released their new album before end of 2008, they will give every American a free drink. And they are doing it. Now this is what advertising + experience mean to me. Kudos to the brains behind the idea.

Business

• Sensex breaches 8500.
• Citi Group to cut 50, 000 jobs. Yes. 50, 000 people would loose their jobs. Scary. And no comments.

A very busy week, did not have a lot of time to actually read and write. n00b has taken the back seat and I am contemplating selling the domain name. Any bidders .. ?

Ok, here is the deal. I want to read / speak to / understand / talk about / debate on / take lessons from Korean Internet and Mobile phone culture. Google searches on the same have proved futile. I could not find a single Twitter user who can help me understand Korean youth and their online lives. There are no websites that has case studies or reports on the same.

Can someone point at few blogs that I should read? Or few twitterers who I should follow and engage in conversations with? Or a few interesting Korean youth who hang out on Facebook or Flickr? If there is someone who does anthropological studies on Korean youth, it will be even better. May be few yahoo or google groups?

This is important for me because I keep on hearing about Korea and how users there are leaps ahead in terms of Internet and Mobile phone adoption and usage. Obvisouly I can share what India and Internet here is like (if that sounds a good enough barter?).

Resources

• Websites/Blog – KoreanInsight
• Links – Korea Internet Usage Stats via Labellagorda

Finally I have decided that I am doing Mumbai to Leh on a bike (an Enfield – have been saving for 3 months now). Obviously the biggest constraint is the bike and availability of Rohtang Pass. Since Rohtang Pass opens between May and October only, I will have to do it in May or June 2009. This also gives me enough time to buy a bike, know it, make it my friend, get over my motion sickness, get back in shape, plan the details, get people to come on board etc.

Apart from my commitment to the travel, I am not sure of anything about this trip. I dont know who I will eventually travel with. I dont know where all will I take the pit-stops. I dont know what would I do once I reach Leh. For me its more about the journey rather than the destination.

Over these next few months, I will collect information and hopefully find few crazy ones to travel with me. Along with this page, I will use this FB group to gather and collate information and other things about the trip.

Please spread the word and help me connect with people who have been there. And more importantly, people who yearn to be there. This might just be the opportunity.

The pic above was taken by a friend on my last trip to Yanker Pass.

Its that time of the year again – third Sunday of November – when anxiety runs high amongst management education aspirants in India. Its time for Common Admission Test. CAT is the qualifying exam for all post graduate studies in management in India (including obviously the IIMs and MDI). They say it is the most difficult competitive exam to crack in India. I have taken it on two previous occasions (in 2004 and 2005) and I got 97 odd percentile. I am taking it again on Sunday and I am hoping that I cross 50 percentile this time. Pagalguy.com is an awesome resource in case someone is keen on taking these tests.

Coming on to other things,

Politics

• Taking a cue outta Mr. Obama’s book, our own L.K. Advani has launched his own portal. Yes, a portal. I have no clue how efficient is the portal going to be in terms of reaching the audience and more importantly getting them all the be a part of a larger cause. I think Mr. Advani needs someone to advice on Internet and Social Media strategy.
• John Elliott has this interesting article on his blog that highlights the folley of Telecom Minister A. Raja for selling spectrum at dirt cheap prices to companies that had no experience or expertise in telecom. He specifically talks about Unitech, a real estate company. Unitech got the spectrum and licenses at dirt cheap prices and sold off about 60% stake to Telenor for five times the license fee that it paid. We definitely need more people like John Elliott to highlight these gaffes.

Sports

• Saurav Ganguly retires from International Cricket. From his debut in 1996 against England to his last match against Australia, he has been a class act. One of the best openers to have played for the country, he is renowned for his awesome cover drives and off-side play. May his future pursuits are as fruitful as his cricketing times were. You will be missed Saurav.

Interesting Things

• Twitter crossesd the 1 billionth tweet mark (reports Mashable). Yet another milestone in the popular micro-blogging service that I openly admit to be a fan-boy of.
• Forbes came with their annual list of richest people in the world. Mukesh Ambani is now the richest Indian. Other notables in the list are Anil Ambani (Reliance ADAG), Sunil Mittal (Bharti), KP Singh (DLF) etc. There were quite a few surprises as well. Vijay Mallya dropped out and one Mrs. Indu Jain is in. Google revealed that she is the owner of Bennett Coleman and Company Ltd. (see my detailed coverage on BCCL here). Also not to forget, this is the official list. If this list could include hidden and hoarded money, it would be lot more interesting, so say the least :D
• Mumbai to Leh. Finally I have decided that I am doing Mumbai to Leh on a bike (an Enfield – have been saving for 3 months now). Obviously the biggest constraint is a bike and Rohtang Pass, I can only do it between May and October. Apart from my commitment to the travel, I am not sure of anything. I dont know who I will eventually travel with. I dont know where all will I take the pit-stops. I dont know what would I do once I reach Leh. For me its more about the journey rather than the destination. Over these next few months, I will collect information and hopefully co-travelers I for th adventure. I have created a FB group for the the same. Please spread the word if you believe in travel and journeys.

A not so interesting week. Look forward to the next one.

Yes, I am a fanboy of a lot of companies, people and ideas. Here is a comprehensive list. Obvisouly will keep on increasing with time ..

• Amazon
• Cleartrip
• Creativeland
• Dopplr
• Flickr
• Google
• IDEO
• Microsoft
• Shelfari
• Twitter

ET reports today that mobile phone handset manufacturers are pre-loading social networking tools and applications on their handsets. I think this is one of the most important pieces of news for the mobile social networking industry as such.

• For users, it means that they can now save hassles of downloading and installing the application.
• For telcos (operators like Vodafone and Airtel), it means better revenues from GPRS usage for these social networking apps (ARPUs are falling by the day and increasingly mobile companies are looking at revenues from VAS).
• For Social Networks, it means larger user base and ease of adoption with every handset that is sold.
• And finally for Handset Manufacturers, it means yet another selling point for their handsets. Although users would not have a network of choice but a network atleast.

I am not sure how would this impact adoption of social networking in India. Actually adoption goes hand in hand with tools. You like a social network, you demand and seek the tools to access it. And once you have the tools to do things, you tinker around with them and get hooked onto the networks. A classical positive feedback loop.

Social network adoption also depends on the friend circle of the user. Social networking is no longer about meeting new people or discovering friends but is about staying in touch with people you already know or people who share common interests. A user would thus want to choose a social network where all his friends hang out. With a social networking app pre-loaded on the handsets, at least a user would give it a try, if not use it all the time (with openID and data portability, a time shall come when all networks would be able to talk to each other. This probably would be a time when a user could be on any network and yet connect with a user on a totally different network. This should accelerate new network adoption etc).

IMHO social networking on mobiles in India is taking so much time to take off because …

1. Low end mobile phone handsets – until your handsets are capable of running Java applications, most (all?) social networking apps simply would not work.
2. Low penetration of GPRS
3. Downloading and Installation issues.

With pre-loaded software, one of the three big hassles have been taken care of. Next logical step for social networks should be to talk to telcos and get discounts on GPRS usage or some kind of incentive mechanism for users to actually start using social networking.

This also has lessons for other online businesses. For example if a Cleartrip.com or TheStorez.com is able to embed a widget in mobile phone handsets, it will give users yet another quick and default option to book that ticket or order that book faster.

What other factors do you think influence mobile social networking adoption in India? Which networks will you bet your money on? And what other implications do you think this embedding would have?

MooVee Camp Mumbai has been announced. Its a place where all the film enthusiasts – amateur or professional will gather and showcase their movies, or find teammates or find inspiration or just chill out and see some great work.

In their words

First open house meetup session, open to the public of Mumbai, organized by a group of short film enthusiasts, who are venturing to bring about an event.

Aims to get together aspiring filmmakers and enthusiast from all over the city and just share/discuss/have fun and maybe inspire a few film making aspirants.

This camp offers an important platform for both new and established filmmakers to showcase their work. This is the place to be inspired, to talk movies, technology, share ideas and make new connections and all important networking opportunities.

Sounds like fun. Do check out the wiki in case you are keen on the art of movie making.