When Delhi froze on Google

Google showed this weather report on New Delhi on Monday (Dec 14) morning. Screenshot taken at 9:07am on that day. According to this report, it should have been -2 degree celcius here day before. And people are talking about global warming :-)

Frontpages and advertisements

One senior journalist in Kerala expressed his shock at seeing the front page of 'The Hindu' on December 4 morning. Apparently, the whole page was split down into two in the middle by a huge "hit on the face" Ad by Uninor GSM.

I can understand his shock. I guess this is the first time The Hindu is running such an ad on its front page.

However, what I found more disturbing (difficult to feel 'shocked' with anything that the media does these days) was Sri Lankan government's series of big front page advertisements that the same newspaper carried with its chief editor's name on it (even the photographs were credited to N. Ram) more than an year ago. Below are some of them.

The Hindu front page, 2008 October 17

The Hindu front page, 2008 October 29

Editorial page, same day

..and

The Hindu front page, 2009 July 6

Compared to all this, I find a "hit on the face" commercial quite harmless. It is not even paid news, as it demarcates itself clearly as an advertisement.

Even outside the Sri Lanka episode, I think it is dangerous to ascribe a holier than thou status to The Hindu. They claim that themselves, and we somewhere accept it too. Despite N. Ram's CPM credentials (or owing to it?), I have felt that they have very Tamil Brahmin sensibilities. The Sri Lanka episode could be read as a part of it.

(Btw it is fun to listen to some Iyers and Iyengars swearing by the 'real' English language that The Hindu uses:-))

In Delhi or Bombay, Times of India or Hindustan Times carry full-page ads on their front page quite often. I am no big fan of those newspapers either, but at least they do not come with the pretensions of being 'the serious newspaper'.

Thinking alike in the times of IPR

This post is probably coming too late. At least by six months. This is no opinion, but only an observation that I found very interesting.

Two ad campaigns that looked almost the same. Both titled 'Nature and Science'.

I noticed the Fiama Di Wills ads first. On hoardings in Delhi. It showed some plants growing in chemistry lab glasswares, and said Nature meets Science to give you gentle and effective care. (Fiama Di Wills is a soap/shampoo wing of ITC India. Deepika Padukone was one of their brand ambassadors).

Later I noticed another ad, in which there was a poorly animated robot and a grass-man as bodyguards to a school kid. I was wondering why the glassware gave way to a robot, but then I realized it was a Bournvita ad (Cadbury's).

It was interesting to see these two campaigns co-exist, in times when Intellectual Property has become obscenely imperative.

The Fiama shampoo bottles still carry a 'Nature & Science' logo. I guess the Bournvita bottles would be boasting of it as well.

Beyond Violence and Non-violence

I feel bad I did not know about Balagopal till now. And I feel good that I got to know about this person now.
"K Balagopal (10.6.1952 - 8.10.2009) was a Indian civil rights activist and lawyer who was known for his work on the issue of civil liberties and human rights..", says Wikipedia.

My friend Bobby wrote on a mailing list, remembering Balagopal: "He dealt with victims of violence with uncanny sensitivity, the police and agents of violence with firmness and the media with tact."

Here is an article by Balagopal, Beyond Violence and Non-violence:

"The public arena is witness to dispirited discussion of the ineffectiveness of people’s movements, which are at the most able to slow down things, and nothing more. The discussion often turns around violence and non-violence, not as moral alternatives but as strategic options. Those who are sick of sitting on dharna after dharna to no effect are looking with some envy at violent options, while many who have come out of armed groups find the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) fascinating.

It is good that there is some openness in the matter now, for dogmatic attitudes have done considerable harm.." [You can read the complete article here]

Sorry, Tarantino

Inglourious Basterds was released today in cinema halls in India. Being a big fan of Quentin Tarantino, I went and saw it on the first day, and was hugely disappointed.

It was a good entertainer -- a typical Hollywood one at that -- which glorifies America/Americans. Like Independence Day, or even like James Bond movies. It is also a plain revenge movie. It does not really have anything that makes it special. Not in its content, not in its presentation. I wouldn't mind a 'plain' revenge movie from Tarantino (he has already done a lot of experimentation with presentation in his previous films, so it is ok if he just wants to tell a linerar story). But when the 'heroes' are Americans and also Jews, and when it comes out in 2009, I find it very very American and very very Israel.

The film also glorifies all the cruelties done on any German, and the audience is thrilled at every such act of cruelty on screen. There were people who said this is an intelligent film that makes fun of the war films and what not. I do not find much difference between them and Hitler (character in the film) watching German soldiers' war heroics on screen and saying this is superior filmmaking.

Sorry, Tarantino. You are better remembered for Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. Or even for Death Proof. Or that one episode of Four Rooms.

Irate mobs and Arushi

Raj Kumar died of shock.

It seems "certain influential people of the area forced him to climb a tree on Saturday evening and cut a branch that was entangled in a high voltage wire."

Yet another 'accidental' death of a field laborer. He did not have insurance policies.

An English newspaper reports it : Cops beaten up by irate mob. Most probably the first and last newspaper report on this death. [Thanks to Anu and PSB for sharing this story. I would not have noticed it otherwise.]

Similar was the story of a maid who was apparently butchered by her employer to please the gods last year, in the luxurious Green Park residential area in South Delhi. Maids and servants sat in front of that house in protest. It seems that same person had done this with another maid about an year before that. Police pacified 'irate mob' and cleared the place. Don't know what happened after that.

I see Arushi's [see footnote] photograph on the front page of a newspaper today, once again after a few months.

* * *

[Arushi Talwar : One girl from Noida whose face was on the front pages of newspapers for months together. Needless to say, she was from a well to do family. It was interesting : the first day newspapers carried the news of her death, and said a servant is the main suspect. Next day they figured out that the 'suspect' was also murdered. Police then said her father killed them both. Then it became big news. People came out on streat, demanding justice. TV channels made merry, ran stories one after the other, came with new theories every day. Finally, one day we heard that some 'Nepali' servants did it. Everyone was happy. There was no follow-up news in any newspapers. TV channels turned their camera away from Talwars finally. The only people to raise a meek voice of protest was some Nepali associations. End of story, for all practical purposes. There will be some reference once in a while, some nostalgia. After all, a lot of people -- both storymakers and followers -- lived on this one story for a very long time.]