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Terrible Tuesday?s deluge
I have a humble request for all those who?re unhappy at the way official Mumbai reacted/did not react to the Terrible Tuesday?s deluge: Quit Mumbai, writes Deepak Mankar.
Now that 8 August is almost round the corner, I have a humble request for all those who’re unhappy at the way official Mumbai reacted/did not react to the Terrible Tuesday’s deluge: Quit Mumbai. The sooner, the better. As a born-in-Mumbai veteran, I have witnessed this amazing megapolis reeling under the curse of mind-boggling numbers and unplanned development and yet surviving disaster after disaster.
As a consequence, I have come to sort of trust unquestioningly in the good fortune of the City’s ‘vastu’, as it were. In the meantime, the City Administration could and should at least reduce the unbearable strain on her transport network by taking simple commonsense steps. For instance, try and ‘move’ schools, colleges and workplaces closer to people’s homes. A person commuting from Neral to work in a nationalized bank in south Mumbai makes as little sense as a child from Vile Parle traveling to attend a school in Cuffe Parade, you get my drift?
Also, apply the odd-even digit rule to private cars and two wheelers to cut by one-half the number of vehicles in South and Central Mumbai on any given weekday (and conserve some fuel in the bargain). Also, keep heavy vehicles out of the City at all times. All this would take a hell of a lot political will to put into effect. But it could pay better dividends in the long run than closing ‘dancing bars’ and depriving people of their livelihood. By the way, I don’t seem to have come across any camera phone coverage of the Mumbai deluge, have you? (This column covered the London blast reportage via camera phones on 16 July 2005 www.hindustantimes.com.) A succinct Traumatic Tuesday events summary: (‘Heavy Rains Disrupt Mumbai, Trigger Mudslides In State’) is at http://news.morningstar.com.
IS IT AN INSULT? IS IT A JOKE? No, it’s Handi Ghandi.
I couldn’t help but chuckle when I heard the Handi Ghandi (‘Great Curries, No Worries’) jingle. To my non-Ozzie ears, It sounded excruciatingly hilarious.http://www.handighandi.com.au/home.htm. Why do Indians get touchy about inconsequential matters? I’m sure had Gandhi, who had a great sense of humour, been around, all this fuss would have tickled his funny bone. The gambit would have appealed to the bania in him. Remember how he challenged the British Empire by urging Indians to boycott textiles from Manchester? That was a totally bania strategy, see? Hit them where it hurts most. Smack in the tummy! Now the Brits’ Australian cousins are using Ghandi (not ‘Gandhi’, mind you) to appeal to the Australian tummy. Isn’t it ironical?
All this talk about Gandhi being a vegetarian and the Handi Ghandi range having a beef variant is beside the point. Why do Indians who pointedly chose to ignore Gandhi after his usefulness was over suddenly get incensed if the Wizard of Oz down under has found a use for him? Follow the trail of the controversy: http://www.abc.net.au (‘Food firm in a stew over Gandhi curry’); http://adweek.blogs.com (‘‘Handi Ghandi’ curry doesn’t go down well’); http://www.themoderatevoice.com (‘Food Firm Doesn't Curry Favor With Mahatma Gandhi's Family’); http://www.news.com.au (‘Gandhi outcry fires up new logo’). P.S.: By the way, I’m afraid the new logo replacing the earlier one may well get the Sikhs up in arms.http://www.handighandi.com.au.
VISTA BETA IS OUT. Best suited to developers and IT pros.
Microsoft’s Vista beta 1, released on 28 July, is an early skeletal version, “best suited to developers and IT professionals, rather than general enthusiasts”, writes Rhonda Ascierto (‘Microsoft releases kick-the-tires Vista beta’). The company also put a beta Windows Longhorn Server in the hands of about 5,000 OEMs, system builders, ISVs and developers. Reportedly, around 500,000 developers and IT administrators began testing the early Vista beta yesterday. Also testing the code are about 10,000 developers who manage enterprise IT infrastructures and are part of Microsoft TechNet program as well as developers who write software for Windows as part of MSDN. http://www.cbronline.com. A post at http://blogs.msdn.com claims: “Beta versions of both Windows Vista (formerly codenamed “Longhorn”) and IE7 for Windows XP are now available.” And: “Our goal is to get feedback from this group, do a bunch more work around quality (performance, security, reliability, etc.) and some features (e.g. additional standards support beyond what’s in beta 1, additional functionality around tabs and RSS, etc.), and release Beta 2 much more broadly.” (P.S.: The “this group” reference is already explained earlier.)
INTERNET SEARCH. A growing business.
Between the first and the second quarter of 2005, search as a category showed an overall 5 percent growth. AOL and Ask Jeeves grew 15 and 16 percent respectively in the number of searches conducted. Google and Yahoo! however had single digit growth at 6 and 9 percent respectively. The respective slices of the search pie belonging to Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL and the newly launched ad-free My Way Search ranked as follows: 47%, 22%, 12%, 5% and 2%. "My Way's unique anti-advertising value proposition resonates with a small, but growing market niche," explained Ken Cassar, director of strategic analysis, Nielsen//NetRatings
PODCASTING, YES. But where’s the dough?
Podcasting, a way of broadcasting audio over the Internet, has become all the rage. In fact, the latest web movement to catch and hold everyone's attention and interest. A recent survey found that more than six million people out of the 22 million who own iPods or MP3 players have listened to a podcast. Naturally, the next question to occupy everyone’s mind is: Is podcasting here to stay? Experts at Wharton and elsewhere answer with a confident, resounding ‘yes’. Is there a viable business model for these broadcasts? That's not as clear although some observers suggest that advertising and paid subscriptions may rake in the dough.
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu. This column covered podcasting recently at http://www.hindustantimes.com(‘PODCASTING. Future imperfect?’) and before that at http://www.hindustantimes.com (‘GOING MAINSTREAM? Podcasting’s future perfect.’).
THE THIRD WAVE. Free pdf download.
This is a white paper on the latest stage in the evolution of the World Wide Web born in 1992. The author has dubbed it ‘The Third Wave’. In this stage, all kinds of businesses, old-fashioned and new-fangled, are leveraging the Web via previously non-existent enabling technologies and breakthrough ideas. Pdf download athttp://www.mediaweave.com. (Free registration, a must.)
That's all for now though there's plenty more out there. Join me again next week, same place.
Copyright (c) 2001- 2005 by Deepak Mankar. All rights reserved. Deepak Mankar, an advertising practitioner on the creative side since 1965, is also intensely passionate about the web and web content creation. Read his online articles athttp://www.asiaondemand.com/. Website:http://www.addgandhi.com/original/. You may e-mail him atdmankar@bom8.vsnl.net.in.
