Going into hibernation

I am going into hibernation-read-won't be posting for sometime. Will be back shortly. In the mean time, check these out:

• Making verbs earn their keep at the Times of India By Radhika Dhawan
  
• Selling news or buying silence? By Sucheta Dalal


• Dirty laundry at the Times of India By Raja M


• Hyenas!


• The Great Media Slide by Dasu Krishnamoorty


• How TOI Plagiarized the review of The Shark Tale


• Two exclusives ? and irresponsible journalism


• The Swastika and the Slimes of India by Atanu Dey


• The fake Tsunami pictures fiasco via Madman


• "Edvertorial" as new perversion of journalism(via the editorsweblog.com)


• Journalism: Profit over People By J B D'Souza(excellent piece; illustrates how much of 'news' TOI actually gives you.)


• Journalism is Dying Bijnessism is Coming Up by Narad


• Degraded language SAGARIKA GHOSE


• Why Anya stopped reading ET

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Dear Times of India

Sunil Mukhi wrote an open letter to TOI in March 2004. In it, he extols the virtues of the editorial team of TOI, and is candid enough to admit his 'limitations' when it comes to his brains and being able to figure out the genius of the TOI writers and editors. :D
Sunil Mukhi is a faculty member at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, India, in the Department of Theoretical Physics. His research deals with the physics of elementary particles, more specifically Quantum Field Theory and String Theory.
(Note: Ayn Rand quoting B-school guys may not like this letter, for you believe that the benchmark of journalism (in a newspaper) is the profits that a newspaper makes! Har-har-har!)

Dear Times of India,
I'm talking to you - yes, all of you. The owner, the editor-in-chief, the subeditors, journalists, formatters, layouters, fast bowlers, off-spinners - sorry, what am I saying? It's all a bit confusing nowadays. So let me start again.
To get to my point right away, I think your newspaper is just brilliant. A daily masterpiece, in fact! I've been reading it, on and off for a few decades now. It's had its phases - now communal, now secular, now pro-Indira, now pro-fundamentalist. But it always was, and is - and ever will be - the one and only, the greatest. The Times, ladies and gentlemen, of India! Bharat ka shaandaar Samay! And now in 2004, it's finally become even better than that. The Times of India is now about being Clever, and it's about Cricket. My two favourite subjects, as it turns out. The result is a high-water mark in journalism that must surely be the envy of Le Monde, The Hindu, The New York Times and all those other silly little newspapers.
Let me illustrate what I mean. This morning as I picked the Times of India off my doorstep, I saw in inch-high letters the headline: ``RAHUL IN LAHORE, RAHUL IN AMETHI". And my dear Times-persons, I silently marvelled at your cleverness. This was my thought process (I'm a slow thinker, but eventually I do get there): ``Rahul in Lahore", I thought, ``that has to be Rahul Dravid. While the one in Amethi, that one must be, what's his name, Rahul Gandhi." As I reached this point, the incredible truth began to dawn on me. Though I had always thought of them as two totally different people, there is a profound similarity between them: THEY HAVE THE SAME FIRST NAME! And, moving swiftly from this deep and original observation, as only your newspaper can do, you PUT THEM IN THE SAME HEADLINE! What an exquisite twist on an apparently mundane reality. Like so many readers, I myself would have missed the point of the two Rahuls - the bi-Rahulity, as it were, of our nation. But your newspaper cleverly unmasked this hidden truth, and I can't thank you enough for it.
There was more good stuff to follow. ``Team theme saves India's pride" contained a great pun - "team" and "theme". I have some friends who pronounce these two words in exactly the same way! So the phrase would sound like "Team team" - or perhaps "Theme theme", depending on the specific friend. Your puns are really a treat. In fact, one might say that your puns are fun! Get that? Pun, fun! See, I can do it too.
But I'll never be as good at this as you guys. At the bottom of today's front page you wrote: "At 94 for 4, only the wall stood tall". That must be about Dravid (one of the Rahuls, the one who's different from the other one). He's tall, and I've heard that he's known as "the wall". But how cleverly you exploited the fact that "wall" and "tall" rhyme with each other! What a turn of phrase - ``The wall stood tall" - fantastic! Perhaps we could make a song out of it. ``Tall, tall, the wall stood tall. Tall stood the wall, the tall tall wall". Don't laugh TOI, one day my song will be playing on Radio Mirchi! But more about that later. It took me a while to realise that the first half of this headline also had a pun, and A VERY SUBTLE ONE. Because, when you think about it, "94 for 4" sounds like "ninety four four four" and so you have the SAME sound repeated THREE TIMES! Get it? Four four four! Now this is far out! Or four out! Or not out! It's all the same thing, since I don't follow cricket too well.
In any case, I fully agree with your basic principle. Cricket is THE THING. Everyone likes it: Atalji, Colin Powell, Mush, Sush, Ash, the chanawala, you, me (yes I do LIKE it, though as I said, I don't follow it so well because... well, because it's complicated, and my mind is like, you know? A little... limited? But please don't mind. That was a pun, you know: mind, mind. Get it? MY MIND, and DON'T MIND. Well I've become a lot better at this stuff by reading the Times of India. And don't go away, I have so much more to tell you).
Where was I? Ah yes. With all that's been going on these days, we needed an entire newspaper devoted to cricket. And NOW WE HAVE ONE! I can't thank you enough, guys. I love the clever title for your reportage on this series: "Pakraman". That's classy. "Pakistan" and "Aakraman" - who would have imagined they'd fit together like that? I bet your team did a little victory dance when they thought that one up. Were there any other contenders? You must have immediately rejected the reverse pairing, "Aakistan", which frankly sounds like nothing much. Actually, had the match been in Kazakhstan (do they play cricket there?) you could have tried "Kazakhraman", which is fairly good too. Maybe all those "istan" countries were just designed for your clever little pun. Then again Turkmenistan doesn't fit the pattern, does it. So we won't play cricket there, even if they beg us. But on the subject of ``Pakraman" there is no dispute. You thought of it first, and you deserve full credit, oh profoundly intellectual newspaper of my life!
Now I'm the kind of person that, after reading your front page, is pretty much done with the newspaper. I mean, how much can one read about elections, train derailments, politicisation of history (I didn't even understand what that means). Just about the only thing I could follow today was the Page 2 article about Radio Mirchi. You rightly observe that this radio station has positioned itself as ``Aapka Apna Bollywood station". What frank and forthright admiration, and how beautifully put! I feel it's most decent of you to heap such praise on a different media company altogether. To tell the truth, I sometimes wonder whether the Mirchi people are totally above board. Occasionally they refer to themselves as "Times Radio Mirchi". Are they trying to suggest that they are somehow connected to your newspaper? They can't fool us, no sir. If they were connected to you then surely you wouldn't be praising them so much, for it would be tantamount to blowing one's own trumpet, wouldn't it.
I like money, so I'm not averse to reading about Business. Now your rival newspaper, The Hindu, has a whole section today called "Business Review" but it's boring as hell: stuff about "Business Process Management", and "Relentless bear pressure on bourses" - well, really! This kind of stuff just doesn't do it for me. I don't think I own too many bourses, so why would I care. Anyhow I skipped through most of your paper (stopping on pages 4,6,7,9,14 and 15 which are full-page ads that I always enjoy browsing) and finally reached the Business page, familiar territory. Instantly my eye fell on "Private train of thought", an article about people who think the railways should be privatised. Neat! At least I think so! Here is my take on it: these peoples' train (of thought) is their own train, and therefore private, but at one and the same moment, their (private train of) thought is about trains (on tracks) being private. Hats off to whoever thought this one up! How can you possibly get through these complicated thoughts yourselves - my own trains (of thought) get derailed so easily! In fact the next headline I saw was "BRICs have to be laid" and, to be very honest, this caused my "private" thoughts to leap the tracks then and there. No, I won't go into any more detail.
At that point I switched to your supplement, Bombay Times. I want to write them a letter too, just like this one. Maybe another day. But let me tell you, they're as brilliant as the main newspaper. And I fully agree with them when they say "Pamela Anderson is NO BIMBO!". Why would anyone think she was? I just don't get it.

(Source: Sunil Mukhi's Open Letter to TOI)
Cat: India
SeeRecent Posts on your left for moreWrite to me: suman[at]sumankumar[dot]com

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Enhancing Internal Communications with Blogs, Wikis, and More

Insightful presentations by Nick Finck, Mary Hodder, and Biz Stone. If you are in anyway related to Intranets you may want to check these out:
Enhancing Internal Communications with Blogs, Wikis, and More

The Why and How of Blogging

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Google Search

google search
Originally uploaded by simba295.

Guess I had some time in hand and I searched for "Search Engines" without the quotes in guess what? GOOGLE. I found Google as the 5th entry. Do they need a SEO (Search Engine Optimizer)? ;o)

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Rediff Says Rock Shows Could be Banned In Bangalore!

In a news item posted on February 07, 2005 15:05 IST, Sumit Bhattacharya of Rediff talks about Eagles -the rock band- coming to India. He also discusses Mark Knofler's concerts in India (Mumbai and Delhi only, Says Sumit). And then, he wrote, "Bangalore, reeling from the imminent live band ban, is going to miss out." (Link to the story).
I think that the ban-if there is any-could only be on 'live' performances in nightclubs. Some joints in Bangalore under the guise of 'live music' function as 'Dance Bars' (like those in Mumbai). Now, I am sure that Mark Knofler or Eagles are not going to perform in The Lover's Night club, of all the places, in Bangalore. A ban on Rock shows and other such public performances seems improbable to me; what say you?

Isn't it elementary for a journo to tell me the source of his news? Ban on rock shows!? Says who? But our friend Sumit did not bother with giving us all that. Now, before some B-school (Ayn Rand-quoting) intellectual pounces on me ( 'if you don't like rediff.com, don't use it!'), I shall hit 'Esc'.

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Quote of the day

"The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it."
-Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.
America, are you listening?

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Looking for a temporary husband!

What an ad! Wonder if it is genuine?
Check this classified out on Sulekha:
Looking for a temp husband on Sulekha New York Classifieds

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Iraq is getting boring. Hey, how about Iran?

Today, Iran remains the world's primary state sponsor of terror -- pursuing nuclear weapons while depriving its people of the freedom they seek and deserve. We are working with European allies to make clear to the Iranian regime that it must give up its uranium enrichment program and any plutonium re-processing, and end its support for terror. And to the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you.
-George Bush in his State of the Union Speech

Will someone stop this joker? Wake up America.
SeeRecent Posts on your left for moreWrite to me: suman[at]sumankumar[dot]com

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Uncanny Resemblance?

Al Capone. Big Daddy of the mob. (Pic from Time magazine Archives)



Madhu 'Madman' Menon. Good friend. Chef. Blogger. Self-proclaimed Sceptic.

While I go write my will, you tell me if the two look alike? (god! they look like brothers to me man!)

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Classic Classifieds

Saw this on Chandru's friend's blog (Adlova a.k.a Ananth):

The following are real ads�classified and otherwise�published in newspapers across the U.S.
*Wanted�hair-cutter. Excellent growth potential.
*Man wanted to work in dynamite factory. Must be willing to travel.
*And now, the Superstore�unequaled in size, unmatched in variety, unrivaled inconvenience.
*Found�dirty white dog. Looks like a rat. Been out awhile. Better be reward.
*Get rid of aunts�Zap does the job in 24 hours.
*Our bikinis are exciting. They are simply the tops.
*Nice parachute�never opened. Used once.
*Tired of cleaning yourself? Let me do it.
*Modular sofas. Only $299. For rest or fore play.
*Our sofa seats the whole mob and it's made of 100 percent Italian leather.
For more classifieds go to http://dribbleglass.com/Jokes/classifieds.htm
(Via Ananth)

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Education - Does it make better people?

I got this as an offline message in my yahoo messenger!
"A poor, ill educated man created billion dollar Reliance industry. Two business graduates from Stanford and Wharton Business School are busy breaking it. Mera Bharat Mahan! Jai Hindustan!!"

Sounds funny at the first instance, but it is so true. I have seen people roam around with T-Shirts sporting the words "I was born intelligent; Education ruined me". Sometimes one is left with a feeling of dismay looking at events like this. Another case in point is the Nepali Royal family where one prince virtually wiped out an entire family and rumours say that it was because he was not let to marry the girl of his choice. What is the use of education if it can't make better humans? There is a lady in our apartment working on a research funded by some premier education institutes of this country. The subject? "Is the education model in India effective?" I have always had my doubts about the system of education in India (and abroad). Does it teach the ward to be successful? Does it prepare the student to face the challenges of this world? I doubt. I am tempted to follow the system of education as conceived by JK (J Krishnamurthy) where the student is allowed to learn at his / her own pace and also ends up learning a subject of choice. So what if the student wants to be a potter? Let them be the best potter one can ever come across. There is a livelihood in anything that we do. But we are only pushed by the rat race called life and we end up chasing the wrong things. Sadly, I am part of the system and I am still influenced by the same thoughts that my parents hoarded all their lives. I hope to change. It would be a long time when we can confidently say "We don't need no education... Hey! Teachers! Leave us kids alone!!!"

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