Question: Bollywood Family

How would you react to the question, “Which bollywood family’s life would be best suited for a (typical) bollywood script”. What would be your choice? Difficult to think?? Lemme give you some choices.

· Bachchan Family- Amitabh, Abhishek, Ashwarya, Jaya
· Dutt Family- Sunil, Sanjay, Priya
· Deol Family- Dharmendra, Sunny, Bobby, Hema, Esha, Ahana
· Oberoi Family- Viveik, Suresh
· Kapoor Family- Raj Kapoor and others
· Kapoor Family- Shahid Kapoor, Pankaj Kapoor.


Let this question wait for sometime when I will post my choice and answer. I was inspired to post this question based on a book that I read recently. There are some obvious and some non-obvious choices here, but the answer would be a good read I hope.

I am waiting to read the answers and their jsutification. Will post mine very soon.

Big Sister!!

“Big Brother”!! Most of the people would know that the term originated from George Orwell’s novel by the name 1984.

Interestingly in 1984, Apple ran the following ad, which was inspired from 1984. The half-time of the 1984 Super Bowl featured the 45 second ad that would be declared in 1995 the best ad of the last 50 years. The commercial, directed by Ridley Scott (Alien, 1979, and Blade Runner, 1982), announced the imminent arrival of the Macintosh computer. The ad ran only once.

In the end of the ad delivers a punch line

“On January 24, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984”

Probably someone’s imagination got the better of the one and thus came out the following satire / anti- campaign. Portions of ad and Hillary Clinton’s speeches have been merged in a technical brilliance to create this ad where Hillary appears as Big Brother…er I mean Big Sister. (search in youtube with keyword “Vote Different”)

As far as I could get to read about it, fingers immediately pointed towards Obama, who denies the charge, saying that it’s an extraordinary piece of creation and his team lacks technical brilliance to create it. Also read how Clinton has been included as object of Hillary’s speeches. Too Good!!

In the end this ad delivers a punch line

On January 14, the Democratic primary will begin. And you’ll see why 2008 won’t be like "1984”

P.S.: In both the ads, notice the frame when this girl turns around to throw the hammer at the screen. She has a i-pod kind of thing around her neck. And this ad was featured in 1984. Is this really an i-pod ??

Sense of Humor

Hmmm some time back I thought of this but took some time to realize the full importance of it.Everyone often appreciates someone who has a good SEnse of Humor (SEH). "The one" keeps everyone smiling and is often very confident.

But I want to point something else in this regard. Some days back I said to my friend (who put it across to me that I have a bad sense of humor because I crack something and start laughing myself at it), "You know most of the time, having a bad sense of humor really helps". After scratching the brain trying to think, she asked me how that was possible. I said that it helps because it helps you laugh out loud on every occasion and not wait for someone with a good SEH and crack a good joke and make you laugh. You can even treat it to be a gift.

Well I think the timing was apt as well: the Budget when FM was announcing the budget. Among the many "disappointing" news he dished out (yes even I fail to understand, who gets benefited by this budget), one had a reference to pets' owners. Although the humor was quite subtle but nearly every channel picked this up to prove the insincerity of the intentions of the budget.Then yesterday as I was watching FM being questioned by an economist and Prannoy Roy, the last question was, "Sir, did you mean to put some SEH in your budget speech when you referred to pets?" FM in his normal cool and to-the-point manner retorted, "I wish that every one has some sense of humor in this life or the after life"

I too wish that everyone has some SEH, good or bad, doesn’t matter. Then, just may be, not everyone will take to streets on release of Da Vinci Code's, M.F. Hussain's paintings, Salman Rushdie's books and so many things.

So isn’t having a “bad SEH” not all that bad??

Palna - WCD Initiative

In a bid to stop the alarming rate of feticides in India WCD (Women and Child Development) has come out with a scheme- palna. There will be a cradle or palna in every district. If you are expecting a girl child and you don’t want to raise her you can simply leave her at the palna in your district. Later if these people have a change of heart they can take the child back. Full news here (1, 2, 3)

Now there are some positive aspects related to it.

• It is aimed at correcting the skewed sex- ratio in India. Sex ratio (females per 1000 males) as per 2001 data is 933 with Haryana, Punjab and Delhi far worse in these figures.


• It has been declared as an extension of ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services Scheme).


• I am not aware what percentage such children would have made of total orphan children. But such children if at all born and left to fend for themselves in hospitals can’t be brought up in normal orphanages. They need more secured environment which palna may just be able to provide them

But there are some reasons as to why I am a bit ambivalent about it

• Firstly because how would this palna differently from Rajiv Gandhi Creche Scheme.


• Now there are already so many ailing orphanages in India. Some districts don’t have any. So wouldn’t obviously the govt. should have first strengthened its network of orphanages.


• “The govt. will take care of the girl child” is a very ambiguous phrase, since if the govt. means that govt. will make these girl children self-reliant and self-sufficient then I think its old wine in new bottle. The govt. has been aiming the same in orphanages but the success rate of such schemes is quite less.


• While ICDS is a very innovative idea that aims to empower the mother by making her aware and self-reliant, since this is a new idea of its own dealing with children who can be empowered only after careful bringing up, it becomes very imperative that an NGO will good track records takes this up. Else it will just be another torn feather for govt.’s cap.


• Would it not promote the culture wherein parents may simply not want to take responsibilities of their children? It shouldn’t be a precursor to opening up of palna for another child.

While it is quite clear that the intentions are noble but the execution part is always the most difficult one and in countries like India where govts’ small follies are highlighted more than its huge success, it is very essential that govt. is very clear what they wish to achieve and how are they going to.

Not Such a 'Hard Talk'!!

The Interview:

I was eagerly looking out for this interview (termed as Hard Talk) on The Devil’s Advocate. It could well have been termed as a good watch, with Mr. Murthy a person of impeccably clean image and Karan Thapar not letting go of any opportunity to challenge, provoke and accuse on any front. One led his business very well and another does his research with sheer brilliance unearthing reports and facts. I expected it to be different.

However the interview was as interesting as to predict in what digits are Sehwag and Sachin are going to score these days in a match. When I read the whole transcript, I found that Karan mainly talked about the following points

• Capitalism and entrepreneurship


• Governance Issues


• Public-Private partnership


• Importance of privatization


• Lack of political will and vision


• Why does NRM not want to join politics?

Now I think the media as a whole need to do a better job at interviewing when it comes to NRM. Abhishek and Ash wouldn’t have been thrown as many questions on their relationship as Mr. Murthy has oft reiterated:

• Success story of Infosys with particular mention of seed capital of 10000 Rs borrowed from Mrs. Murthy.


• “Those days”, with Infy as just a start-up.


• The whole saga of transformation from Marxism to capitalism following an arrest


• “Breaking-up” with GE Money, one of the biggest customers of Infosys.


• ………

Soft Grounds:

There are so many troubling issues which Karan didn’t even come close to.

• One of them as pointed out on Reality Check, the issue of seemingly perpetual tax-holidays for IT sector.


• Issues like haphazard expansion of SEZs and STPIs, for example.


• Some probing questions like blind hiring rate which seems to mask otherwise high attrition rate of Infosys would have been a food for thought for audience.


• If he sees that current Infosys model is efficient enough to insulate it from the growing threat because of the shift that Google is bringing in.


• Some questions related to socio-corporate issues as to how is Infy going to take initiative on reservation issues, skewed ratio of women in top management etc.

These questions are not what I want to ask but I feel Karan would have done a good job by watching the Quarterly Town Hall (event in which Infy declares its results and CEO addresses employees) and heard what questions are generally asked there(Here is the Nandan’s interview aired on the day Infy declared the Q3’07 results). Not all of them are very relevant to general Indian audience but some of them do make a compelling case.

From the transcript available, it seemed Karan either seemed intimidated to challenge or just chose oft-repeated questions to put forward to. In another interview of Ratan Tata (the only link I could find was this. NDTV, it seems doesn’t publish the transcripts of interviews; something which they should) taken by Barkha Dutt, she was forthcoming in challenging his position on Singur, his position on Corus deal and realizing that Ratan Tata is far more reserved than this wonderful orator, DA didn’t do justice to the task at hand.