An experiment gone awry
natraja and I 002 Originally uploaded by Ravages.
What to do. I am a ghost. I walk through walls. Blend into solid objects.
Jallikattu
I am going to (I’m not kidding) file a suit against the Supreme Court of India for hurting the religious and cultural sentiments of the Tamils.
The people’s car.
1) Autos, at least in Madras, will have to get their act together.
2) Bike makers will need to think twice as hard about variants and price-points.
3) Buses will run lighter. Faster.
4) People who do buy a bike, like I will, will know how to actually ride one. (This is a bit of stretch)
The Tata Nano is probably one of the better things to happen to the Indian market. Even if long time friends disagree.
Tata’s Nano & the people’s car. But who are these people??
The expression ‘Public’ or ‘People’ is used indiscriminately both by polititians and corporates alike. Their respective ideas or products are thrust forcibly on the people under the guise of ‘public interest’ or the ‘wish of the people’
Tata’s 1-lakh car demonstrates just this. This is nothing but a criminal attempt by Tata (with great respect to Tatas & their noble/ priceless contribution to India’s industrialization over the years since Indian independence) to push its miniature size unsafe car into the Indian markets with a sole intention to make gains. The worst part is they call it the “People’s car”. But who are these people? What will they gain out of this car? The very thought of having to look at the problem of jammed roads and lack of parking spaces in cities is really scaring. The increase in the level of pollution in cities is also a major cause of concern. This 1-lakh car is just going to make things worse for the country.
From the business point of view this is killing competiton. We (Indians) accused Aussies of poor or no sportsmanship. Now what would you call this?? Just like the Aussies arrogant and unacceptable attitude of “win at any cost”, this seems to be Tata’s style of saying “Now I will sell my cars, at any cost“.
Sydney Fiasco – Indian Media going overboard
There is no doubt that it was really sad to watch India lose a match which they could have atleast drawn (realistically speaking, had all umpiring decisions been correct, India could have actually won the match). Then the racism row, something that should have not happened in the first place. Harbhajan was handed a 3 match ban instantaneously (quite amazing, super quick judgement – Saudi style) Be that as it may, on one hand things were already quite heated up in Sydney.
On the other hand, the Indian media seemed to add more fuel to fire. The effect to this “adding fuel to fire” was quite visible when we witnessed one of India’s most famous and familiar way of protest – “burning of effigies“. The media was also prompt in reporting as to how Harbhajan’s mom felt her son could never be wrong (it reminds me of the then famous ‘Sehwag ki Maa’ days) and how a conspiracy seems to have been hatched against her son. Moreover, never mind the official confirmation from ICC or the BCCI, the media had also started speculating the fate of the tour indicating that the tour might be well called off.
As if the contributions of the print media was not enough, the visual media lead by CNN-IBN (one disgusting news channel) and TIMES NOW (yuk, english counterparts of Stars News in terms of content) were quite irrepressible and tried their best to make the discussions with so called “experts” on the topic more glamorous. Would you believe it, the expert opinions of Irrrrfan Khan (I donno how many R’s his numerologist had recommended) and Mandira Bedi (after whom the experience of watching cricket was never the same again) on behalf of bollywood was also taken and quoted. I really donno what bollywood has got to do with this. Tomorrow a Rakhi Sawant would come, sit in the commentary box and tell us how Sachin should be playing his sweep shots or how Saurav should play his cover drives. Quite disgusting. And, NDTV, not to be left behind, are running a “India, Come Back” campaign on their website. Come’on NDTV, never expected this from you.
I wonder where the Indian media wants to take us at the end of the day. Biased views and irrational speculations guided by a commercial motive is the essense of todays media. Cricket is a sport which I have followed all through my life so passionately and it is quite disgusting and disappointing to hear actors like Irrfan Khan or Mandira Bedi talk about cricket.
Not surprisingly Mike Coward in his article quite aptly termed the Indian media as a partisan and ropeable.
The Third Chennai Photowalk – Royapuram, Central and Egmore stations
Hello folks.
So, after much many deliberations and route suggestions and advices, I have decided to follow my original idea. The Third Chennai Photowalk, to be walked on the 12th of January, 2007, will trace the evolution of the Madras Railways. This is something I’ve been planning to do for a long time, but have never managed to find the time for. So here goes.
Royapuram Station – Chennai Central – Egmore, along the way passing the Southern Railway headquarters, Ripon Buildings, Park station, Govt. Art’s College, and, if there’s time, St. Andrew’s Kirk.
About
Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan is a copywriter, photographer and goofball from Chennai. He is also an archaeologist, historian and a city lover. He is currently a documentary film-maker and desk-monkey for a film production house.
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