FW: TRYING PHOTOGRAPHY

 

Hi All,

M back with a new blog in by bag!

M getting bored here, doing the same old job of coding n more coding..

So bought a new DSLR camera and m planning to try something with lens n cams.

So have started a new blog ..

IT’s purely a photoblog…Dedicated to photography. Where pictures speak and words listen.

Words are just a means of comments or compliment..

Request all of u to visit once..

 

Here’s the ID

http://excelens.blogspot.com/

 

 

Best Regards,

Harsha Bhat

The Complicated encounters

With the Sohrabuddin encounter case flashing 24X7 on almost all the news channels, This is the one I found which is a little hatke from others. Worth a thought..

Read it from Mr.Ajit Doval
 

Ajit Kumar Doval http://www.indianexpress.com/news/desperate-congresss-votebank-politicssame-way-its-trying-to-protect-afzal-guru/655825/

Beware of half truths — because you may be holding the wrong half. After having seen and read so much about the Sohrabuddin episode in the last five years, one might believe one knows it all. Sohrabuddin is now cast as an innocent victim of police excess. However, it would be worthwhile to explore the real facts about Sohrabuddin, the nature of police encounters, and the real issues at stake. Sohrabuddin was an underworld gangster who was involved in nearly two dozen serious criminal offences in states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. He maintained transnational links with anti-India forces from the early ‘90s onwards, until his death in 2005. Working with mafia dons like Dawood Ibrahim and Abdul Latif, he procured weapons and explosives from Pakistan and supplied them to various terrorist and anti-national groups (had it not been for his activity, at least some terrorist acts could have been averted). Sohrabuddin was solidly entrenched in the criminal world for a decade-and-a-half. Around the time he was killed, the Rajasthan government had announced a reward on his head. In 1999, he had been detained under the National Security Act by the Madhya Pradesh government. In a 1994 case investigated by the Ahmedabad crime branch, he was co-accused along with Dawood Ibrahim and convicted for five years, for waging war against the Government of India, planning an attack on the Jagannath rath yatra in Orissa, and other offences under the IPC, Arms Act, etc. During the investigation, 24 AK-56 rifles, 27 hand grenades, 5250 cartridges, 81 magazines and more were seized from his family home in Madhya Pradesh. In 2004, a fourth crime was registered against him by Chandgad police station of Kolhapur district in Maharashtra under sections 302, 120 (b), and 25 (1) (3) of the Arms Act, for the killing of Gopal Tukaram Badivadekar. As fear of him often silenced people from reporting his whereabouts, let alone deposing against him, the Rajasthan government had to announce a reward on his head after he killed Hamid Lata in broad daylight in the heart of Udaipur, on December 31, 2004. So much for Sohrabuddin's innocence. However, irrespective of who Sohrabuddin was and what he did, the use of unaccountable force against him is indefensible is the public view of many (often at variance with their private view). There are many who feel that there is a higher rationale for such actions in compelling circumstances, as the law of the land has repeatedly found itself helpless in dealing with individuals bent on bleeding the country. Their argument, that the rule of law is a means to an end and not an end in itself, often finds support in the jurisprudential principles of salus populi est suprema lex (the people's welfare is the supreme law) and salus res publica est suprema lex (the safety of the nation is supreme law). Even the Supreme Court of India, in the case of D.K. Basu vs. State of West Bengal [1997 (1) SCC 416] accepted the validity of these two principles and characterised them as "not only important and relevant, but lying at the heart of the doctrine that welfare of an individual must yield to that of the community." The validity of the principles of salus populi est suprema lex and salus res publica est suprema lex could have been part of an enlightened national discourse, and what could be the governing instrumentalities, empowerments, legal checks and stringent processes if these principles were to be invoked. It is better to accept reality as it is and then strive to change it for the better, rather than what we wish it to be. Feigned ignorance is the worst type of hypocrisy. But there is another vital question that needs to be addressed. While pursuing the Sohrabuddin case, was the government really serious about stopping the menace of fake encounters, or was it pursuing a different agenda? Encounters have been taking place all over the country under all regimes, at times degenerating into what are called fake encounters. Between 2000 and 2007 there have been 712 cases of police encounters in the country with UP topping the list at 324, and Gujarat figuring almost at the bottom with 17. In some of the cases there was not much on record, even to establish the criminal past of those killed. Settling political scores through security and investigative agencies like the CBI is not only bad politics, but also destructive for the nation's security. To convey the impression (explicitly or implicitly) that Sohrabuddin was targeted for belonging to a particular community, thereby creating a sense of insecurity in a section of society, is detrimental to national interests. It is little known that a large number of Sohrabuddin's victims were Muslims while a good number of his closest associates (including Tulsiram Prajapati, who was also killed in a similar encounter), were Hindu. William Blake could not have been more right when he said that "a truth that is pursued with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent". The other negative impact of the Sohrabuddin case is the impression it is creating that all encounters in which police and security forces are involved, are fake. Society needs to be reassured that the majority of encounters are genuine and mostly in response to murderous attacks on security personnel. The fact that, on average, over 1,200 policemen get killed every year grappling with terrorists, insurgents, underworld mafia and other anti-social elements, bears ample testimony to this fact. Playing up a few aberrations and blowing them out of proportion and presenting them as the only truth is not in the national interest. The other downside of the publicity around such cases is that it erodes the people's trust in governance. Administrations begin to be seen as instruments of repression and self-aggrandisement and politicians as perceived as manipulating their power for political and personal gains. This erosion can lead to a dangerous delegitimisation of the polity. Democratic politics is an exercise in regime-legitimisation, and to lose the confidence of the governed would set the government on a self-destructive path. The writer is former director of the Intelligence Bureau

 

Regards,
Harsha Bhat

Tell me where did u sleep last night

My girl, my girl, don't lie to me
Tell me where did you sleep last night

In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through

My girl, my girl, where will you go
I'm going where the cold wind blows

In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through

Her husband, was a hard working man
Just about a mile from here
His head was found in a driving wheel
But his body never was found

My girl, my girl, don't lie to me
Tell me where did you sleep last night

In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through

My girl, my girl, where will you go
I'm going where the cold wind blows

In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through

My girl, my girl, don't lie to me
Tell me where did you sleep last night

In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through

My girl, my girl, where will you go
I'm going where the cold wind blows

In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through

 

Killing My Own Child :-(

Ravi ji: Harsha, ninna magoonna neene kondyallo….(Harsha, u killed ur own child…)

Those words of pain still ring in my ears as if it were yesterday. I often remember that man, lean, with a clumsy beard, khadi kurta seldom pressed and nothing but loads n loads of knowledge to share.

Let me introduce Mr.Ravi, A full time member of Samskara Bharathi, an NGO which is doing everything it can to safeguard Indian “Samskara”, the traditional values of India, be it art, literature, music,dance,  or be it anything artistic and Indian, Samskara Bharathi is there for it.

This, Mr.Ravi worked for Texas Instruments for almost 11 years (Now, a techie like me understands what it is to get into Texas instruments and to work there for 11 years!!)and resigned the firm to join samskara Bharathi. Samskara Bharathi pays nothing for it’s volunteers, in turn takes something from them, their time, money, mind and their effort.But Mr.Ravi was determined to do something about the fast diminishing art culture of India. That’s about him, now…why am I writing this, all of a sudden?

There is a reason….

I was in 10^th standard (so, it was 8-9 years ago, this incident happened), and I told Mr.Ravi that I have learnt table for 4 years and I know to play it! And he asked me, where are u learning it now? In Dharwad ?

I said no, I’ve given up learning table and then he said “Harsha, ninna magoonna neene kondyallo”….

It was a sunken feeling for me..i know how attached I was to that instrument called Tabla.. But this man, he doesn’t even know that..But just for the sake of art, he said that…And all of a sudden I felt…Alas…I’ve killed my child!!

Now after 8 years I realize what a stressbuster my table would have been in case I had learnt it, or at least continued playing it.

When nobody is there to share things, when there is nothing to do, when we are “idle” and when we are stressed, I feel there should be something to relax your mind.

There should be something which makes u forget all that and enter into a new world where there is nothing but happiness.

I’m madly looking for such a new world…I had it in college, I had it in school, I had it when I was working in Coimbatore!!

Now, I’m in a place where I wanted to be all my life, but I’m lonely…

Looking for something which accompanies me ….badly…

Trying books…trying to learn a new technology, trying to learn photography J,

But m sure will come out with a solution in a month.

Till then, I’m with me!!

 

Love

-Harsha

Open Letter To Mr. Shah Rukh Khan: By Col.Ajay Ahlawat

Hello All,

After “Sharukh Khan” controversy….i read this wonderful article from a person who has known how good a neighbour Pakistan is…

I wont say anything.Read it from Col.Ahlawat….

 

 

Here is the link to article

http://pratapsimha.com/2010/02/23/open-letter-to-mr-shah-rukh-khan/

 

By: COLONEL AJAY AHLAWAT

Dear Mr. Khan, Your name is a household phenomenon in Indian and even beyond her borders. Your fame has put you in the Newsweek “most powerful people list” recently. However,

as you may recall from your recent experience in New Jersey Airport, real life is a little different – it does not always follow the path predicted by a scriptwriter or director. Of late, we have been reading about your opinions and statements on matters beyond the celluloid world. Nothing is wrong in it. You live in a free, democratic country and are entirely entitled to your opinion. But as a
common man and an army officer and a polo player, also from the same soil, I
think I have the right too to raise a few points that may not conform to
your views of the real world.
I hope you will read it out.
When recently, the Pakistani players were not selected for the IPL, it was
almost predictable that NDTV, the award-winning, mouthpiece of our Indian
liberal media select you for your views and you certified that “It
(Pakistan) is a great neighbour to have. We (India and Pakistan) are great
neighbours. They are good neighbours.”
I Col ajay ahlawat, have a few words to say about those statements.
One may recall your effort to clarify the Pakistani team captain, Shoaib
Malik’s apology to the Muslims, living all over the world, for failing to
win the final T20 match against India, likely much to the embarrassment of a
lot of Indian Muslims, as expressed by Shamin Bano, mother of the man of the
match, Irfan Pathan. What was more embarrassing was your effort to try to
defend Shoaib in a subsequent interview, “I don”t think he meant to
segregate Muslims and Christians and Hindus and say this was a match between
Islam and Hinduism. I don”t think that…”

I doubt whether Shoaib talked to you personally about his thought process at
that time. You did not really have to respond for somebody else but perhaps
you could not resist the temptation to show your brotherhood and solidarity.

This reminds us again of Dr Ambedkar’s observation that, *”The brotherhood
of Islam is not the universal brotherhood of man. It is brotherhood of
Muslims for Muslims only.”*
Partition of India was what Pakistan wanted and got. It was painful to
millions but many more millions in present India have been spared. Since
then Pakistan has offered us only hatred. It has imposed on us three major
wars, the *Kargil insurgency*, the *Kashmir conflict*, the series of *serial
blasts*, the routine *violation of border ceasefires*, attacks on the
*Parliament
House* and the recent *Mumbai 26/11 attack*.

Did you have these in mind when you talked about them being good neighbours?

In another interview you had tried to explain the concept of Islamic Jihad.
*”I think one needs to understand the meaning of jihad .. I’ve understood
the essence that jihad is not about killing other people (correct me if I am
wrong); jihad is about killing the badness in you**.” *
I have personally met you on a number of occassions on the polo field and at
common friends houses,May be you understand jihad better and deeper than the
superficial meaning of what we, the rest of the mortal mankind, overburdened
and terrorized by the inter-religious, intra-religious and sectarian
violence that is plaguing the world in the name of Islam today, do. For we,
the less educated, cannot really make a difference between Jihad and Qatl,
between Jihad by heart / soul, Jihad by pen and Jihad by sword or between
lesser and greater jihad.
I wonder, whatever its meaning may be, does it minimize the significance of
the mindless killings that we see today in the name of Islam, across
borders, all over the world? Does it change the nature of the killers
whether you call them *holy warriors, mujahidins, fedayeens or plane suicide
bombers?*
I agree with you that terrorism has no religion. But hopefully you will also
agree with the people who perceive that most terrorist in the world today
happen to believe in the scriptures of Islam. They actually believe that
they themselves are the true Islamists.
The so called “moderate” Islamist, perhaps does not want to contradict them
or may be does not dare to speak out against them. You have probably not
forgotten the FIR against you for listing Prophet Mohammed as one of the
most unimpressive personalities in history, the threats from which you had
to skillfully wriggle out. Others who are not so fortunate, famous or
flexible are suffering lifetime, as *Tasleema Nasreen* or *Salman
Rushdie*would testify. For blasphemy in Islam is punishable with
death, even for a
believer.
Do I have to spell out the fate if it is a non-believer?
It is due to the inherent intolerance and exclusivity of Islam itself
despite your effort to convince us that there is an Islam from Allah and
very unfortunately, there is an Islam from the Mullahs.
Here is an historical insight from writer Irfan Hussain, *”The Muslim heroes
who figure larger than life in our history books committed some dreadful
crimes..all have blood-stained hands that the passage of years has not
cleansed. Indeed, the presence of Muslim historians on their various
campaigns has ensured that the memory of their deeds will live long after
they were buried…Seen through Hindu eyes, the Muslim invasion of their
homeland was an unmitigated disaster.” *

So why should the “non-believers” care to accept them? Why should the
majority of Indians like to welcome back such disasters again?
Since partition, India has come a long way in progress and development to
her current status and is projected as an economic superpower in coming
decades while Pakistan is perceived as a failed state on the verge of
disintegration.
What does India have to gain by offering neighbourly friendship to such a
hostile and failed state? *
India* has *never been an invader* and is not in conflict of any other
Muslim country. None of the wars and conflicts with Pakistan was instigated
by India. In the current geopolitical situation, one can argue for the
Muslim worlds grudge and anger against Israel or the west and USA but one
fail to fathom why India should also be at the receiving end and why Indians
should be the second largest group of people to die from terrorists attacks.
Indian majorities do not have anything to do with the Danish cartoon or the
death of Saddam Hussain; so why should they suffer from Islamic havoc on
those occasions.
In almost all occasions of terrorism, questions are raised about possible
role of Pakistan, its terror bases and its terrorist organizations, as
either directly or indirectly involved. Be it state sponsored (as recently
admitted by President Zardari) or by non-state actors, Pakistan or Pakistani
born are prime suspect in terrorist activities all over the world. The ISI
has been accused of playing a role in *major terrorist attacks including
9/11 in the USA, terrorism in Kashmir, Mumbai Train Bombings, London
Bombings, Indian Parliament Attack, Varanasi bombings, Hyderabad bombings,
Mumbai terror attacks or the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul. *
Do you believe these are marks of a good neighbour? Then what is the reason
for your preaching of love towards Pakistan?
Perhaps, as you said, because it is your ancestor’s homeland, you have a
soft feeling for Pakistan and cannot see the difference. On the eve of
accepting an honorary doctorate from a British university, we heard you say,
*”I really believe we are the same ..when you come away from India or
Pakistan you realize there is no Indian or Pakistani were all together. We
are – culturally, as human beings, as friends” *
Which Pakistanis are you referring to?
The Pakistanis belonging to the land, admonished as the epicenter of global
terrorism, not just by India or USA but even by its friendly allies like
Iran or China.
Or is it the self-created, Talibanic Pakistan, who still imposes Jijya on
the non believers or finds pleasure in blowing up girl’s schools..?
Are you talking about it’s President class like the current Mr. Zardari,
vowed to wage a 1,000-year war with India or the late Mrs. Bhutto who
started Jihad in Kashmiri that lead to the exodus of Hindu minorities from
the Muslim majority state of India, as refugees in their own country?
Are you referring to Pakistanis loyal to the ISI and the military who train
their soldiers with only one objective, i.e. to fight Hindu India?
If your mind is concerned about the faceless mass of Pakistanis, does it
also include the dwindling minorities? Or are you just concerned about the
celebrities and the social elites?
It is true Mr. Khan, that we belong to the same human species but it is hard
to stretch the similarities much further between “us” and “them”.
We from the same original land of *Bharat* but we want to keep her intact,
and they want to break it into thousand pieces.
Our ancestors happen to be the same. We acknowledge and adore the heritage
but they abhor and decimate whoever is available in an attempt to wipe out
the link.
We are culturally the same. We have created the culture over centuries what
they dream to destroy in moments.
Our’s is a *10,000 year old civilization*, theirs is a *62 years old country
* undoing whole human civilization.
We extend our hands repeatedly to promote friendship and amity; they give us
ISI, Lashkar, Harkat, Kashmir, Kargil and 26/11 in exchange.
Do you think that the Indians nationals or my coursemates who died in all
the above wars, the Indian soldiers who lost their lives in cross-border
ceasefire violations or the Indian civilians who are killed by the ISI
trained Islamic terrorists and their affiliates, in all those serial blasts,
all over the country, willfully sacrificed their lives as a friendly
neighbourhood gesture?
Can you face the families of the victims of *Chhatrapati Shivaji
Terminus*or the martyrs of the
*Kargil war* and try to explain to them that *”They are good neighbours. Let
us love each other.” *
Can you explain why the two gunmen at Cama hospital, during the Mumbai
carnage, asked the man who gave them water, what his religion was, and shot
him dead when he said he was a Hindu?
If you cannot, then perhaps you understand why the majority of India does
not consider Pakistan as a good neighbour to have.
Perhaps you believe that the peaceful religious co-existence that you
created in your home (and we appreciate that) can be extended to the large
world outside. As you rightly said, we Indians trust and do accept everybody
but what you did fail to mention was that it is the Indic tradition,
essentially coming out of its pre-Islamic Hindu ethos.
If you think otherwise, show us a single Islamic country where the
non-believers enjoy the same equality as the believers. Since partition, the
Hindus left over in Pakistan and Bangladesh has suffered terribly. Strictly
Islamic countries, like Saudi Arabia, do not allow any other religions to
exist. Hindus working in the Gulf countries are not allowed to practice
their religion in public. Saudi Arabia insists that India sends only a
Muslim ambassador. Hindu Muslim unity by and large has generally been a
matter of Hindus trying to please or accommodate Muslims. One cannot forget
when Vajpayee was extending his hand for peace, Musharraf was planning the
Kargil insurgency.
Let me remind you, your own statement *”I am a Muslim in a country called
India .We’ve never been made to feel this is a Hindu country.” *
Can you find me a Hindu in Pakistan who can reciprocate that sentiment?
Some years ago, another Mr. Khan, first name Feroze, from your fraternity
was banned from entering Pakistan for saying, *”India is secular unlike
Pakistan”. *
That is the basic difference of the land of “Hindu” India from the Islamic
“pure land” of Pakistan.  So please do not ask us to love Pakistan.
Please do not lump the people of India and Pakistan together. We Indians are
proud to preserve our separate identity..
And please do not insult the land that gave you your life, name and fame, by
claiming that her worst enemy, who wants to break her into 1000 pieces, is a
great neighbour.
Otherwise it would be sad if somebody accuses you of putting your religion
ahead of your country.
Please give it a thought.
Regards,
Colonel Ajay Ahlawat.

 

Barrier broken....Hats off to u little master....

Those 22000 spectators hadn’t even dreamt before coming to the stadium that they are going to witness a historic moment in cricket…

That was the day when the long standing barrier was shattered by a long standing cricketing legends…The god of cricket…

Every one…not just Indians but everyone who loved cricket and even people like me, who have no extra love for cricket had glued to the tv just waiting for that moment. And it took long…real long…at times I felt Dhoni will not let him bat..!!!

But in the 50^th over that moment came. The crowd was elated and so were other Indians…and with that single came the 200!!! 20 years of absolute carnage…more than 400 ODIs , dedication, devotion and fitness…..all combined together….A record was created..the barrier was shattered…There may come some other players who can break his record of 200..but walking past a broken barrier is easy..and the one who breaks it is remembered forever…

This is a mail I received which explains him…in a few words…

When Sachin Tendulkar travelled to Pakistan to face one of the finest bowling attacks ever assembled in cricket, Michael Schumacher was yet to race a F1 car, Lance Armstrong had never been to the Tour de France, Diego Maradona was still the captain of a world champion Argentina team, Pete Sampras had never won a Grand Slam.

When Tendulkar embarked on a glorious career taming Imran and company, Roger Federer was a name unheard of; Lionel Messi was in his nappies, Usain Bolt was an unknown kid in the Jamaican backwaters. The Berlin Wall was still intact, USSR was one big, big country, Dr Manmohan Singh was yet to "open" the Nehruvian economy.

It seems while Time was having his toll on every individual on the face of this planet, he excused one man. Time stands frozen in front of Sachin Tendulkar. We have had champions, we have had legends, but we have never had another Sachin Tendulkar and we never will.

HATS OFF…. MASTER BLASTER…

 

When in doubt...ask Calvin's Dad

 

 

Competitor...where are you???

The below post is a small article my friend sent me today…I liked this coz all the facts are so bloody true…

Competitors can stay hidden anywhere. Most of the times we are bothered about the current competitor. A ‘lil out of the box thinking and analysis makes u realize that the real and more dangerous competitor stays hidden right beside us but we fail to recognize.

And we ignore the competitor and by the time we realize, it’s too late!!!

Coke was the market leader in soft drinks business in the USA. In pepsico GB meeting a question was raised…”Who is our competitor??” and the obvious answer was “COKE”..

But one person (I don’t know his name) stopped and gave the facts.

Only 2% of the liquid consumption in USA is coke and water holds a majority stake at more than 90%. So the real competitor is water and not coke!!!

And u know the rest. Pepsico leads the chart now!!!

There are some more examples to quote…

What Microsoft did to ibm, google did the same to Microsoft.

Linux has almost breached Windows’ secure fort.

Ipod has flushed sony’s walkman from my mind.

 

 

Who sells the largest number of cameras in India?

Your guess is likely to be Sony, Canon or Nikon. Answer is none of the above. The winner is Nokia whose main line of business in India is not cameras but cell phones.

Reason being cameras bundled with cell phones are outselling stand alone cameras. Now, what prevents the cell phone from replacing the camera outright? Nothing at all. One can only hope the Sony’s and Canons are taking note.

Try this. Who is the biggest in music business in India? You think it is HMV Sa-Re-Ga-Ma? Sorry. The answer is Airtel. By selling caller tunes (that play for 30 seconds) Airtel makes more than what music companies make by selling music albums (that run for hours).

Incidentally Airtel is not in music business. It is the mobile service provider with the largest subscriber base in India. That sort of competitor is difficult to detect, even more difficult to beat (by the time you have identified him he has already gone past you). But if you imagine that Nokia and Bharti (Airtel's parent) are breathing easy you can't be farther from truth.

Nokia confessed that they all but missed the Smartphone bus. They admit that Apple's I phone and Google's Android can make life difficult in future. But you never thought Google was a mobile company, did you? If these illustrations mean anything, there is a bigger game unfolding. It is not so much about mobile or music or camera or emails?

The "Mahabharat" (the great Indian epic battle) is about "what is tomorrow's personal digital device"? Will it be a souped up mobile or a palmtop with a telephone? All these are little wars that add up to that big battle. Hiding behind all these wars is a gem of a question - "who is my competitor?"

Once in a while, to intrigue my students I toss a question at them. It says "What Apple did to Sony, Sony did to Kodak, explain?" The smart ones get the answer almost immediately. Sony defined its market as audio (music from the walkman). They never expected an IT company like Apple to encroach into their audio domain. Come to think of it, is it really surprising? Apple as a computer maker has both audio and video capabilities. So what made Sony think he won't compete on pure audio? "Elementary Watson". So also Kodak defined its business as film cameras, Sony defines its businesses as "digital."

In digital camera the two markets perfectly meshed. Kodak was torn between going digital and sacrificing money on camera film or staying with films and getting left behind in digital technology. Left undecided it lost in both. It had to. It did not ask the question "who is my competitor for tomorrow?" The same was true for IBM whose mainframe revenue prevented it from seeing the PC. The same was true of Bill Gates who declared "internet is a fad!" and then turned around to bundle the browser with windows to bury Netscape. The point is not who is today's competitor. Today's competitor is obvious. Tomorrow's is not.

In 2008, who was the toughest competitor to British Airways in India?

Singapore airlines? Better still, Indian airlines? Maybe, but there are better answers. There are competitors that can hurt all these airlines and others not mentioned. The answer is videoconferencing and telepresence services of HP and Cisco. Travel dropped due to recession. Senior IT executives in India and abroad were compelled by their head quarters to use videoconferencing to shrink travel budget. So much so, that the mad scramble for American visas from Indian techies was nowhere in sight in 2008. (India has a quota of something like 65,000 visas to the U.S. They were going a-begging. Blame it on recession!). So far so good. But to think that the airlines will be back in business post recession is something I would not bet on. In short term yes. In long term a resounding no. Remember, if there is one place where Newton's law of gravity is applicable besides physics it is in electronic hardware. Between 1977 and 1991 the prices of the now dead VCR (parent of Blue-Ray disc player) crashed to one-third of its original level in India. PC's price dropped from hundreds of thousands of rupees to tens of thousands. If this trend repeats then telepresence prices will also crash. Imagine the fate of airlines then. As it is not many are making money. Then it will surely be RIP!


Who is the competitor to Multiplexes?

India has two passions. Films and cricket. The two markets were distinctly different. So were the icons. The cricket gods were Sachin and Sehwag. The filmi gods were the Khans (Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and the other Khans who followed suit). That was, when cricket was fundamentally test cricket or at best 50 over cricket. Then came IPL and the two markets collapsed into one. IPL brought cricket down to 20 over’s. Suddenly an IPL match was reduced to the length of a 3 hour movie. Cricket became film's competitor. On the eve of IPL matches movie halls ran empty. Desperate multiplex owners requisitioned the rights for screening IPL matches at movie halls to hang on to the audience. If IPL were to become the mainstay of cricket, as it is likely to be, films have to sequence their releases so as not clash with IPL matches. As far as the audience is concerned both are what in India are called 3 hour "tamasha" (entertainment). Cricket season might push films out of the market.

Look at the products that vanished from India in the last 20 years. When did you last see a black and white movie? When did you last use a fountain pen? When did you last type on a typewriter? The answer for all the above is "I don't remember!" For some time there was a mild substitute for the typewriter called electronic typewriter that had limited memory. Then came the computer and mowed them all. Today most technologically challenged guys like me use the computer as an upgraded typewriter. Typewriters per se are nowhere to be seen.

What killed the Alarm Clock?

One last illustration. 20 years back what were Indians using to wake them up in the morning? The answer is "alarm clock." The alarm clock was a monster made of mechanical springs. It had to be physically keyed every day to keep it running. It made so much noise by way of alarm, that it woke you up and the rest of the colony. Then came quartz clocks which were sleeker. They were much more gentle though still quaintly called "alarms." What do we use today for waking up in the morning? Cell phone! An entire industry of clocks disappeared without warning thanks to cell phones. Big watch companies like Titan were the losers. You never know in which bush your competitor is hiding!

 

 

Best Regards,
Harsha Bhat

 

Let's join the voice....Mile sur mera tumhara

Hi all....
It was 1988..i was 2 yrs old...Now it's 2010...i'm 23...
Then ...after the PM's speech on 15th august, the song mile sur mera tumhara was first telecasted and that's it...
It ruled the indian hearts from that very day...
It withstood all the anti national forces and united india ...with the same quote repeated in different indian languages....
They said Mile sur mera tumhara...toh sur bane hamara...
The same song was re telecasted with a lil change in lyrics and the cast ofcourse...
But the captivating power of the 1988 hit could not be repeated..the older mile sur is still my favourite...And will be my favourite for years to come...
It runs for over 15 minutes but the magic of the 1988 5 min tune still lingers...
But..Let's appreciate the attempt to unite india...
Lets stay united and withstand all the forces that stop us from reaching the top...Let's unite and let's capture the world...
Let's sing aloud and clear and let the world hear..
Mile sur mera tumhara...toh sur bane hamara...

Here is the link for both the songs..
Yenjaay
Mile sur (1988)


Phir mile sur part 1:



Phir mile sur part 2:



-Regards,
Harsha Bhat