Random Ramblings, Random Reflections!!

Q. Whats common between Aamir Khan / Big B / Rajiv Narayan? A. All three are bloggers We are all starry eyed. We all look up at Hollywood stars more than we look upto to the heavens above. We want to know what he/she has done today. We all want to read what Aamir Khan and Big B has to say in their blogs.. We all do not want to read what Rajiv Narayan thinks/does! Well, suffice to say that i wouldnt mind the bouquets and the brickbats.. So come read me and leave ur impressions in the comments box... Well, who am I talking to???? :) PS: I dont have a dog named after someone which keeps licking my toes!

This post is a corrigendum to my earlier post 'Left of Centre'. Reading the blog online, i have noticed innumerable errors - grammatical and typos... Apologies for the same!!! Which reminds me of an interesting statement a friend of mine made just after writing his 12th standard Board English exams: "English today was the easiest exam i have written. I will surely get very good marks. I have made no grammerical errors at all" i rest my case!

Flashy cars, flashy mobiles and precariously hung laptop bags define the city of Bangalore today. Congested and traffic riddled roads define the geographical entity called Bangalore. Road rages and impatient drivers define the trait of a stressed out Bangalorean. The city, which has become the back office of the world, has for some time been bursting in its seams thanks to an influx of migrant knowledge workers. Compounding the traffic woes is the omni present ‘call center cabs’- an imposing sight in your rear view mirror is a Qualis breathing down your neck, packed with 5-8 people either setting off to work or going back home to give their haphazard body and bio clock some rest. Rash and reckless driving by these professional drivers have led to an increase in road rages and accidents in Bangalore. Something in me ticks when I see these call center cabs. That something is most often ticked by the drivers who have not an aorta of patience and have an uncanny knack of cutting in front o...

In a country where even the center leans towards the left with socialism as a pillar of the constitution, it isn’t hard to imagine how slanted the Leftist parties would be to the left of center. Leftist movements and parties took birth thanks to the widespread prevalence of feudalism and exploitation of labour by the lords of the land. Karl Marx, in his epoch making treatise “Das capital, outlines the ills of capital and why the labouring classes should unite. Marx, in his magnum opus, focuses on structural contradictions than class contradictions but strangely, does not propose a theory of revolution. He merely suggests that due to the peculiar circumstances (exploitation of labour by capital); capitalists by themselves create a situation of the working classes working against the capitalists. And then Marx assumes that while efficiency of capital will lead to increasing wealth, concentration of wealth will happen, thus creating class wars. I believe that all economic theories are the...

I don’t even remember when I last bogged! There was a time when I was jobless in a job and had nothing else to do, but put my thoughts to paper. Times have changed, jobs have changed and I have no time on hand to think of anything. I have witnessed and been part of the birth of three media products- Autocar Middle East, F1 Racing Middle East and a Bangalore based magazine. The birth pangs of none on these have been as intense as what I am experiencing now. I joined this company on July 7th and have hadn’t had time till date to think of anything, take time off for myself or even to get things done at the home front. But I am not complaining. This has been one assignment that has kept me on my toes, helped me reduce my paunch and most importantly learn a lot! Blame it on naivety or ignorance for having thought that I know quite a lot of things about media. Blame it on the genes or the self confidence that I can pull off anything for such a thought. Of the many things I like about this pl...

Im curious to know why the likes of Ms. Kiran M Shaw and Mr. Mohandas Pai have made statements saying that business will be hit once the airport moves out from the current location to the new one. Cochin which had its international airport operating from the Naval base moved out of town- 28 kms away from the city sometime back. People did make a hue and cry at time about the connectivity problems and the time taken to get there. Over time, air travelers have got used to it. Connectivity has improved by leaps and bounds and the time taken to reach Cochin International airport is not an issue at all. I am sure if there has been an impact with the opening up of new airport in Cochin, it has only been to improving infrastructure and a manifold increase in business in the state. Bangalore is going through the same phase now and its only a matter of time that issues are sorted out. Well, to remind the likes of Mr. Pai and Ms. Shaw, it still takes a good hour and a half t...

The last couple of weeks has witnessed a huge increase in the number of news reports that are coming in the national dailies on rape cases and rape victims. Seven year olds to seventy year olds being raped by men of all ages. Is this a social reflection on where the country is going? Is this a reflection of the socio-economic pressures on the people? Or has it anything to do with the overbearing spread of globalisation? Issues that need to be analysed. The Rapist Psyche I have been thinking about the psyche of a rapist- why does someone rape another person and what satisfaction do you get from raping! Sex has always been called as a union of two people- body, mind and soul acting in unison as one. Why is that men, across strata fail to understand this union of minds? Is the tendency to be a rapist/molester more in the lower strata of the society? I personally feel that upbringing has a major role to play in men’s attitudes towards women. Your attitude to women is ingrained into the min...

I am fed up seeing one particular picture daily in The Times of India. I am fed up seeing one man making statements left, right and center- any topic under the sun, he has a comment on it! From being an unknown commodity a few months ago to being a celebrity who is called in for his opinion on anything in the country, he is the perfect example of a media created man- a nuisance in this case. The Times of India, with its tremendous reach in the country, decided that it isn’t just enough to provide news and views to the citizens. They decided to go on a co-creation mode- work in partnership with the common man and influence opinion and decision making at a political level. This need to create an opinion bank of a set of educated, well to do, opinionated middle class led to two campaigns – Refresh Bangalore and Lead India campaigns. Refresh Bangalore ended with people sitting over tea, talking and analyzing issues with the outcome to the common man being a predictable zilch...