Open Letter to Mr. Ismail Durbar

Dear Mr. Durbar,

It was in newspapers just couple of days back that you made an allegation that you “know” that Mr. Rahman has “bought” his Oscar award in 2008. Having said that, you have not bothered to explain that “ how” do you “know”? You seem to put across logic that if Mr. Rahman couldn’t win it for Roja or Bombay, how could he win for Slumdog Millionaire?

It’s a shame Mr. Durbar that person like you who has been in Show biz for long time cannot understand the value of stage!
In common sense parlays you can understand stage as platform. So, to an artist the act is important, but what is also important is the stage or platform in which he / she performs the act.
It’s obvious that Roja and Bombay was better act but was performed for the stage which had only Indian audience, and Oscars do not follow this stage. While Slumdog Millionaire pales in comparison as far as act is concerned, but surely it was set for a bigger stage which has global audience, which of course is followed by Oscars very well.
Also understand that the audience in west have grown up listening to different set of music, to them Slumdog Millionaire music was different and refreshing.
Mr. Durbar, hope you have understood now the power of “Stage” if you still haven’t then “ logically” – you have out of your wits and commonsense.
Sincerely praying for you!
Regards
kk
Where is the music?

Kuch meetha ho jaye!

The title of the post can be easily related to tag line of Cadbury dairy milk in India. Cadbury India has a long history of coming out with sensational, touching and most of all effective brand communication.
The advt which got them the noticed was “kuch khaas hai ham sabhi mein” The add where the girlfriend dances when the boy hits a six, the brand got noticed instantaneously.
What followed was beautiful scripted series advertising campaigns’ which not only let the brand have emotional connect, but also broadened the scope / usage of products.
Cadbury went through a crisis period also in between, when its chocolate was found infested with germs. Cadbury reacted quickly and got on board none other than Mr. Amitabh Bachchan as its brand ambassador. What followed was series of ads which reaffirmed the quality of chocolate. That done there used Mr. AB to broaden the incidence of chocolate eating habit. The spoke that you don’t need big reason to eat chocolate, but as small as “pappu pass ho gaya” is good enough a reason.
Finally now, Dairy milk has new series of ads which clearly communicated that diary milk should be eaten on daily basis after the food. The series does this by very engaging ad, beautifully portraying the sensibilities of Indian middle class family, having good emotional connect.
Dairy milk is surely scoring sixes all the way!

Run-up to Uttar Pradesh Assembly election

Sunday seems to be the slowest day for me of all the days in the week. That’s because that’s my weekly off day from office, and since I am back to Gorakhpur, after 14 long years, my social circle is still limited. So I do best is go through every inch of the newspaper, as if I am about to sit for an examination.

Well today’s Sunday editorials were of course on women power especially their success in political arena in the country. There were also articles on Bhatta-Parsaul based agitation in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and how political parties are vying to milk it to their advantage, especially with Assembly election slated next year. Special mention was given to how Mr. Rahul Gandhi has stormed the scene, escaped his own security condone to meet farmers, then how we announced war on UP government  and also met PM to brief on plight of farmers.

UP as always remains a very important state for national politics, the political class in UP have developed well, however the state is still underdeveloped. Sadly for the state politics, state of affairs didn’t improve even after handing out a decisive (read simple majority) win to Ms. Mayawati in last assembly election.

Now voters in UP also want development / infrastructure growth and change, the recent assembly election results in four states has only brought more resolve to this issue. The fact that Bihar is back in progressive path also fuels such desire among UP population.

The biggest hurdle for people of UP is to decide who to vote for? Where should they thrust their vote? Which leader is worth, and who will lead UP to become a progressive state?

The answer for this has not been simple. Ms. Mayawati and Mr. Mulayam have proved time again that they are two sides of the same coin. How much ever they hate each other, there functioning is pretty similar, corrupt and lacks vision, only difference being the law and order situation seems to be tad better during lady’s regime.  The other major party of one time namely BJP has self destructed itself in the state; it is struggling to get a foothold in the state, but has no able leader to do so. There are several other small parties who are also present, but they are not vying for power but to be a kingpin by garnering some respectable number of seats and use it as bargaining power in case of hung election result.

What has it done is that, it has presented an opportunity in the hands of congress, it’s not easy, but it certainly an opportunity. Congress is one party which traditionally has never named its chief ministerial candidate beforehand. It is a party which depends extremely on central high command, Mr. Rahul has in past has been active in UP politics. He toiled in last assembly election and got moderate rewards, it’s another matter that he couldn’t repeat that success in vidhan sabha election.

Now how does Mr. Rahul makes best of the opportunity presented to him is anybody guess. My sincere suggestion is that he should pack his bag and move to UP log, stock and barrel. He could just push himself into UP politics, becomes a face of congress in UP and manage the show here. Interact more with media, use it to his advantage, attend public meetings and do road shows. He is young has intellect, and most importantly has one of the most envies’ surnames in Indian politics – Gandhi. With all this he could pull off the biggest comebacks for congress in UP.

What more it does is that it capitulates him to bigger league, having won UP, he could stake claim to bigger stage on his own namely the PM post. He will certainly be seen as now worth every bit of salt to sit at 10, Janpath.

All this and more comes with certain risk, if he loses this battle he would be almost pushed to back stage of Indian politics.

But then haven’t we heard – “More the Risk, More the return”

Bengal Politics from the West!

Well I am making a post after a long time, its more than two years since I have made post. Since then lot of water has flown under the bridge, I have changed two cities, and I am back to city where I was born, raised and lived half my life. Being back in Gorakhpur is wonderful.

My frequent travels before has been also limited, except last week when I traveled to Vapi, Gujarat (Western India). Since I was in a new city, had little to do I spent most of the time watching TV in hotel room. Fortunately that was the day when Assembly election results in four states were being declared. I was glad that at least I had something to see and follow.

The order of the day was Ladies thumping win, and most of the state voting for change except for Assam. What was also a new phenomenon was thumping win, the voters handed clear majority in most states.

What is becoming clear now is that Indian voters are finally evolving, DMK govt promised freebies, gave color TV, and finally found that what TV did was to make people more aware of the situation and circumstances and functioning of party. What public did was the took the TV enjoyed watching it and then shunted the  party which gave it. What it signifies that people wants development, change and at very fast pace. Freebies are only bonus.

In West Bengal, the inevitable was about to happen. People wanted change; they were frustrated to see smaller neighboring states and much smaller cities like Raipur, Ranchi growing at much faster rate. The biggest beneficiary of this change had to be Ms Mamta Banerjee, because she has been only face of opposition in Bengal politics. Communist ruled more than 30 years, most people would love to blame Budhadeb, but real answer was not in last rule of Budhadeb, but in functioning of last 30 years, Communist ruled by keeping people ignorant, but as people got aware, they wanted the change. Budhdeb responded, only to falter half way, his biggest failure was that he could not convince his party to change.

I am personally not been a fan of Ms. Banerjee. Although, it was good to see our once fire-band “didi” handle victory with poise and grace, she did mature thing by making sure congress becomes part of government, she signaled that she is looking at bigger picture and just not at this day’s victory. It was clear that she wants to stay here for very long time.

Those from Bengal, would know how deep rooted the communist party is there. With their cadre based party system they are well entrenched not only in writers building but also in every para (locality), so a slightest of mistakes will be raked up as big issue, she will have to move carefully and more importantly she will have to make people move with them.

I am sure Ms Banerjee would know that it’s only battle which has been won. The fortress of writers building has been opened, but to conquer the whole of this fortress, a long war has to be wagged, a five years long war. To me she will win the war, when she gets re-elected five years hence, with similar majority if not more.

All the Best to Ms. Banerjee, her party and most importantly to the people of Bengal!

Charcoal – taste it

Well that’s my first post on this category – Review One, I will start with some thing which I love the most – FOOD. 

I was recently in Charcoal Restaurant situated at Purna Das road (South Kolkata), This nice trendy restaurant is easy to reach, and even better you find parking everywhere. The ambiance of the place is very trendy and good. It offers 2-3 different seating options.

One with low table height and sofa combination, while the other is standard dinning table kind option and of course the one with combination of Sofa & wooden seat.

The restro could easily seat 30-40 people or 5-6 large groups, The seat we took offered us good view of kitchen trough glass partition. One could see the chef preparing delicacies.. Although I should admit that the watching the chef didn’t excite me.. That’s because he just played with bit of fire while preparing Sizzlers for few other customer. I would have liked if the chef had shown us few more of his skills..

I saw the continental menu and almost decided my menu, but my friend did not want to experiment and suggested that we should eat something Indian. Finally we setteled for continental starter and Indian main course.

For starters we ordered Tacos “that’s normal tortillas with extra corn / cheese”  Tacos weren’t exciting and my friend decided that since I ordered the starter  the onus was on me to clear the plate (and I obliged, not by choice)

For main course, I recommended Tawa Mirch (Stuffed Capsicum) and my friend choose-ed another paneer dish.. We ordered Butter Roti. The very thought of Stuffed Capsicum excited me, I dreamt of days when I used to be home and mother would prepare Stuffed capsicum, we used to enjoy it with Plane dal and Tawa Roti. 

I could see the bearer through partition, he was bringing our Tawa Mirch.. Movement he served it, I was disappointed.. It was much gravier than I thought and the stuffing was not very great. 

We settled for what came, and ate it.. 

Here are my charcoal ratings: (out of 5)

Location: 4

Ambiance: 3

Service: 2.5

Food: 2 (It wasn’t bad, but didn’t meet my expectation)

Overall: 3

So if you plan to go to Charcoal, don’t go really for exotic food.. just go there to enjoy the time Peacefully!

Will Fuel Be At $100/Barrel?

 

I was reading an article called “Swaminomics” in the Sunday Times. The author, Mr. Anklesaria, predicts that fuel prices will be sub $100/barrel by early next year. He justifies it with very economical theory of demand and supply. He points how productions will go up in second part of this calendar year and how demand is fizzing out thanks to sky high prices. The slackened demand is very evident in US and other western in market.

I will love to believe that what he predicts happens, but I have my own doubts about the same. My reasons for the same are two folds.

Firstly, I will agree that the demand is finally coming down to an extent, but as we have seen in past half decade most of the price rise is also because of demand from south East Asian countries rising. India and China are subsidizing the fuel prices excessively and thereby insulating the end user from price fluctuation.

Secondly, the more important reason I believe which will affect the price hike, is the supply. The supply of fuel is not going to increase as proportional to increase in demand. But the point which is more important is because OPEC (Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries) will never let it happen. In my opinion OPEC runs like cartel, they ration the supply and monitor it so closely that they never let the price ease off. They make sure that oil is never sold in open market conditions, and there by not letting market determine the prices. The simple economics theory of “Less the supply – More prices” is well itched into their mind, and they make sure they never let the supply pressure to ease off and thereby keeping the prices artificially controlled. This in my own terms I refer to Pseudo-Open-Market Economy. It’s nice mid path which can be more or less equaled to “Managed float” for currency exchange.

In essence, I will say that prices might marginally go down, but $100 is just unimaginable.

Politician By choice!

 

 

I was reading an article that most of the last 20 presidential elections nominees in US are educated from premier institutes like Harvard / LBS / Yale etc. The article also rued the fact in India the educated lot are not entering politics.

Well I will agree that most of educated public of India (especially from premier institutes) will not like to enter politics, thanks to its unorganized, unmanaged and corrupt practice. I believe that most of readers might think that these are excuses, to cover up for selfish behavior of young lot who look for greener pastures.

I have one more pertinent question and that is, “Where are the votes??” Just to prove my argument, I will like to highlight this particular case. Last state election in Tamil Nadu saw rise of two parties, one promoted by cine star Vijaykanth and the other promoted by IIT grads. Mr. Vijaykanth had lot of funds which he has earned during his stint on Kollywood, he also had several ministers from all parts of Tamil Nadu, of which no one was greatly educated. The party contested from almost all the constituency available. They had loads of funds so they did huge marketing and promotions.

In sharp contrast, the IIT-ians party was full of highly educated from various fields. They contested only in some constituency in Chennai. They never had great funds so relied only in some moderate promo raising awareness among students / cooperates.

Most media covered both parties, and soon elections came. The results were as expected DMK got most of Votes, AIADMK managing some face saving seats. Vijaykanth’s party won 10 seats. While our much educated parties did not manage even single seat, what was worse that the margin of loses were huge.

So it proves that although we might get educated candidates but making them win and encouraging others follow suit is in our hands. In today’s Indian politics the candidature is not important but votes are.

My answer to the question that when we will have educated candidates only when we have votes supporting them, till then we can just hope that some intellect will gather courage contest election, and we as usual will see same old non-educated to get voted. It’s we (Voters) who have to change and not the candidature. 

Durgapur Expressway; Good Road, Bad infrastructure

Just a week before, I had an opportunity to go to Durgapur – a small industrial town about 150 km from Kolkata. We were travelling in our car and it took us little over 2.5hrs to reach Durgapur from Kolkata, by far a quick journey by Indian standards.

This short journey was only possible because the road, 4-lane expressway, way above any Indian highways. The same journey 7-8 years back would have taken 5-6 hrs easily. Thanks to previous NDA government, India took initiative to connect all its metro by expressway; the project was called GOLDEN QUANDRANTANGLE. Very fortunately, the successive UPA government didn’t shelf the project; a very common case in democratic India where opposition first closes all projects started by previous govt.

Well coming back to the discussion, although the Durgapur Expressway (DE) is quite good, it doesn’t have features, a modern infrastructure should have. Many parts of road are barely lighted; there are no reflectors what so ever. Moreover, the most dangerous one, there are no meridian; what we have is two beautiful strips of road separated by uncultured grass and big hollow channel. On both side of road there are no reflectors, the road is at least 6-10 ft higher that the surrounding, exposing drivers to risk of slipping away from mail road. The danger is so high that buses and trucks can overturn if they are little careless. My fears were answered while returning, when I saw a truck has plunged itself into deep channel on the side of the road, obviously the truck was overturned because of the slide. 

The authorities of the toll way have barricaded both sides of roads, making sure that existing petrol pumps are out of business. So essentially if you driving on DE, make sure you have full tank of fuel.

All the above reason makes me to comment that DE is a great road but for it to be a good world class infrastructure it has to travel long distance. 

Drive safely!

kk

 

I love Kriket!

I remember few days after the Indian Premier League (IPL) was launched and the first stage of auction had just finished, my friend was remarking that how he can cheer for local team when it was full of international and non regional players.

I had argued to him then that although it might sound impractical, but it will happens moment the match starts. I told him that although I am not English, but I still follow EPL and always support ManU. So when I can support a foreign team full of foreign players, why can’t I support a regional team with different players? The discussion ended there.

But it was yesterday that this whole conversation came again to my mind. What triggered was this small incident.  I was getting some stuff at local bakery shop; the persons there were watching the match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indian. The sales person was in annoyed mood and when I asked him, he just had to say “Knight riders only 67 all out”.

 The middle aged lady there vented her anger and said “these guys only party, they don’t play”, this to me was a strong comment for IPL as till few days back it was regarded as just entertainment with no emotional / sentimental value attached to it.

But what happen next surprised me most, the lady literally prayed that Sachin should get out in next ball of Shohaib Akhtar. An Indian is praying for an Indian batsman to get out by a Pakistani bowler.  To me this was true sports where there is no differentiation between religion, cast, creed and even nationality, what mattered was winning and game played in true spirits.

Not able to hold my temptations I quizzed the lady about about the game, pat came the reply in rather Bengali accented English “I love kriket”

The firsts…. after a long wait!

Hi

This is gona be my first blog post, I have been having this blog for more that a year, but the first post is only comming today. But as the old saying goes “better late than never”

I hope to keep all of you entertained, and yes do post you comments.

keep watching this space, there is more to come

kk

the one