Election verdict – Friday the 13th (May 2011)

I posted The Anna Hazare Project on the 6th of May, Fiona felt it was probably 3 weeks late and she was right. The fact remained that I did write the article 3 weeks ago on a train journey from Bangalore to Coimbatore but didn’t get to publish it, procrastination rules. The results of the elections from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal & Assam couldn’t have come at any other time. These results reinstated the fact about the power a voter has in electing or throwing out his government, a power the civil society aspires it had but can never have.

This time the voting percentage was higher across states with some most backward areas polling as high as 85%, the place was Jhargram, in West Bengal, till now reported in the media for it’s Maoist presence. Can South Mumbai or South Delhi bring in this kind of a voter turnout? They usually report voting percentages in the 40’s. For the elite going to vote is a massive photo op which they usually won’t miss. And for actors if there’s a movie release right before or after polling day then it’s good PR too. For the actual masses it’s genuine power the democracy bestows upon them to vote for or against someone who is responsible for sanitation, healthcare, subsidized grains, drinking water etc in his constituency.

For all the high voltage action that was played out by the Anna camp in Jantar Mantar, New Delhi by sporting caps which read “Mera neta chor hai”, borrowing cleverly from that supremely successful Amitabh Bachchan starrer Deewar, the results of the elections serve as a genuine reminder to the “civil society” on the power a democracy vests in the hands of the common man. Candle light vigils be damned. Heck, someone like Shri Anupam Kher, who is supremely talented as an actor, will go to the extent of suggesting we throw the constitution out of the window, what does he have to say about the election results?

Psephologists don’t used the phrase “exit polls” anymore, possibly to not infuriate the Supreme Court or the Election Commission. Instead the circus to predict the verdict had been labelled “post poll projections”. Every news channel and newspaper ended with an egg on it’s face with the failure to predict the mood of the Tamil Nadu voter. Nobody projected the fact that Selvi J Jayalalithaa will return to power with a resounding verdict in her favour. Nobody dared to write the DMK’s epitaph.

One chap accurately predicted this outcome. His name is Cho Ramaswamy, Editor of Thuglak. He came on a few channels after the polls closed and said the AIADMK was coming back to power with a big majority. But a bald old man with an ash smeared forehead speaking English that sounds Dravidian and not Stephaninan is hardly material to be taken seriously by the media brethren housed in their glass castles in New Delhi and Bombay (Mumbai).

Around 10 AM on verdict day, Mr Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-chief of Times NOW went one step further and announced the arrival of the Communists back to power, “LDF is winning Kerala” he thundered drawing a parallel to the “loss in West Bengal after 34 years in power”. Dr Prannoy Roy of NDTV wasn’t up to such stuff, he kept saying “Kerala is going down to the very end” to know who will come back to power. Dr Roy’s experience covering elections helping him with such measured judgements while Mr Goswami’s haste to “break it first on your channel” got him to resort to hyperbole.

Compare this to Monideepa Banerjee reporting live from West Bengal in the morning declaring that the Trinamool was sweeping elections, an indicator of a seasoned reporter’s reflection of the popular sentiment on the ground. We need more reporters like her in the media, people who are ready to work hard and get to the bottom of the news. Unfortunately we are seeing an increasing number of scribes relaying their news majorly from twitter, handouts and PR machinery’s machinations.

Finally I can’t but cheer a big hurrah to the voter in Tamil Nadu. This chap was supposed to be greedy, who could be bought with Mahatma Gandhi (not values of the father of the nation but the reference is to the 500 rupee note from where he smiles). Voters who can be influenced with biriyani packets, hooch and liquor. The national media did organize debates before the elections. It was either oversimplification of the characteristics of the voter in such demeaning terms, voters who can be bought with TV sets and free rice or making it look like the 2G scam was all that mattered. The voter has delivered his answer, and that’s in the form of a Bronx salute to everyone who wrote him off, to everyone who belittled his intelligence and insulted his dignity.

The voter is the victor, he has many pressing problems around him which the media isn’t ready to puts it’s ears to the ground and find out. His vote for change is to possibly find answers, will the government fulfil all those? Only time can tell.

The Anna Hazare Project

I just woke up from a revolution. I thought my country was on the cusp of a massive uprising. I was worried about the outcome, thankfully I’ve been spared of seeing bloodshed or a coup d'état. For a closet crusader like me this was the perfect opportunity to stand up and proclaim my support to the cause. It’d have been so hip and so today to have proclaimed something like “My heart bleeds for this frail old man who has taken it up all upon himself to rid this nation free from the curse of corruption, for me and my brethren”. Oh how patriotic it’d have been, I’d have become in one sweep the star amongst my Facebook, Orkut friend list and could have added at least a hundred followers on Twitter. The fact is I didn’t see all this coming, I, like many people I know simply didn’t “rise up” to the occasion.

I overdid it, there was no revolution. I had to look beyond the media reports that said “thousands” at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi and realized it was almost “a thousand” there and the remaining that added up to the sum to make it “thousands” were almost all journalists and their respective OB (outdoor broadcasting) vans, drivers, technicians, cameramen, orderlies and basically a tom, dick or a harry related to the media-news circus that our country is subjected to every night at prime time. It’s another matter that this cartel put their heads (empty anyway) together and decided that 24 hrs was prime time.

So we had editor-in-chief’s of news channels mouth lines like a telugu or tamil potboiler’s climax scene, looking into the camera and appearing to be addressing each one of us personally, trying to get us all to wake up to reality and take action. Unfortunately, for them, this wasn’t a movie and they didn’t command such star power to pull off an MGR or an NTR on us. It’s so damn easy to sit in the air conditioned confines of a news studio with the crème de la crème of “civil society” (a new term that’s taking air time as if “uncivil” it was yesterday) sit around a round table debating with vociferous and vigorous voices on how they’ve had enough and how it was time to tackle the bull by it’s horn. The irony was palpable, they needed a senile old man to go on a fast for a bill none of them would have read to understand what was in it that would suddenly appear to be the ten commandments to root out corruption, the one big ill that is the reason for every other sickness that plagues this vast country called India.

Every 10 minutes were intercut with scene from “ground zero” (ergs Jantar Mantar), where protestors gleefully appeared before camera for their 10 seconds of fame in national consciousness. One could have mouthed inane and obnoxious stuff like “this is India’s Tehrir square”, “we’ll rid this country of it’s disease”, “there are thousands here and we are all with Anna” and still get away with it because the media is too busy catching up with the rapid developments, getting more and more members of the “civil society” on telecons, videocons (not the brand), mycons, yourcons, basically conning all of us that there was this revolution underway which was spreading across the nation like a tsunami. Every city that had a 3 digit STD code in the country had “civil society” representatives standing like they would for a middle school choir song and singing “Hum hongey kaamyaab” or “we shall overcome” based on which school they went to and reaffirm their cause to the great Anna with candles in their hand. Candle light vigils are the new fad.

Does wearing a white cap and going on fasts makes one a Gandhi? That’s a question that’ll need a separate blog altogether.

In the end (I refuse to assume it’s a beginning) the “civil society” got the government to do something that’s been unprecedented. It relented to their demands. I have just one point to add here about independent bodies in India that are also successful, the best example being the election commission. The success comes from the fact that all the parties involved need the election commission to get their mandate to get to power and hence have actively contributed to and adhered by it’s strictures which is where the commissions’ success comes from. That needn’t be the case with all other statutory bodies that are constituted in the country. I’m not a fan of politicians or politics, I do vote when there is an election and I try not to pay bribes as much as possible simply because beyond the urge to not aid corruption is the urge to fish for trouble and be a pain in the neck to someone in power for a moment, even if it’s brief.

I’m disgusted by the fact that “civil society” can be led by folks whose merit is just that their supreme Ayyatollah Shri Anna Hazare vetted their names. There is no doubts that the top cop was a sterling character during her stint in the IPS. Or the RTI activist who has fished many a govt file and gotten people into trouble, rightly so. But I don’t understand what’s that virtue in them that’s gotten them into a position where they’ll frame law jointly with elected representatives (I and you voted for). How can a non elected body, outside the frame of the Indian constitution assume upon itself the task to terrorize the government with a fast and get it to bend and crawl and heed to every one of it’s demands?

I’d like to pose questions to every one on Facebook, Twitter or anywhere else who joined the cause without breaking a sweat and made it so fashionable (peer pressure!): It’s so damn easy to pay a bribe and escape a traffic offence or pay a TTE for a berth on a night train or the brake inspector in the RTO for an LLR or license or in the municipal office for a building plan or registrar office to underwrite sale values and pay less on stamp or any scenario where you have to deal with people in power. When will we stop being closet crusaders and refuse to pay a bribe at the cost of having to go through all the damn trouble it bestows upon us or delays that would also put our loved one’s in hardship?

Finally, this post is titled THE ANNA HAZARE PROJECT and if you’ve read thus far you’d have seen that this is so less about the man and so much more about the brouhaha around him primarily in our news media and the motley crowd of supporters he’s managed to attract. Precisely how the media kept “Breaking News” to all of you and me when the fast was on till the man assiduously broke it in full media glare. This isn’t the end of it, wait till you hear it all from the man’s own mouth and I’m sure you’ll end up wondering if this chap was a impatient nationalist, a pseudo socialist, a right wing crusader or a fading star in search of his last big limelight.

Disclaimer: All views expressed here with are my own and are not here to stoke distrust, disgust or any feeling of hatred towards any person irrespective of caste, creed, culture or religion. Despite this if there is a word or line or paragraph or the full post that offended you please let me know and I’ll be more than glad to edit / modify / delete offensive sections simply because I don’t have the money nor the resources to fight cases in the courts unlike members of the “civil society”. I guess I’m waiting for the amendment where my part of the world will go civil from uncivil.

Shri Ravishankar Prasad's contempt for the bureaucracy

Last night on "The Buck stops here" on NDTV, yes I do watch the show even after the Radia tapes, on a debate if the UPA was on the backfoot with not giving in to the Opposition's demand for a JPC into the 2G spectrum sale issue Shri Ravishankar Prasad made a number of points about Polayil Joseph Thomas (current CVC PJ Thomas) but the one that stood out was that Mr Thomas didn't work as a Director or Secretary in New Delhi and hence on that account wasn't competent enough to hold the high office of CVC headquartered in New Delhi. 

This observation brought about a rather unsavoury side of our politicians (and I suppose bureaucrats too) who seem to think as New Delhi to be the center of the Indian populace around which our lives revolve. How is working in New Delhi a medal of honour on a bureaucrats uniform? How does it become a measure of excellence and merit? Dr Babu Paul asked these very questions back to Shri Ravishankar Prasad who seemed to have taken it personally and exhibited disgust at having to answer a question raised by a bureaucrat. I've read about instances where IAS / IPS officers are treated with contempt by some illiterate politicians but Shri Prasad, an eminent lawyer in the Supreme Court, an ex Minister in the Union of India !!!

A savvy modern politician exhibiting such contempt was unbecoming of a person with such experience in the public domain with such an illustrious political life. Shri Ravishankar Prasad in a fleeting moment of rage showed his real colour, probably a belief deep inside that the bureaucrats were essentially servants of the political class. In those vulnerable moments he probably also forgot that only the cream of our educated graduates manage to clear the Civil Services exams in the first place. Salutations to Dr Babu Paul for the dignified and measured response, people like him bring dignity and respect to the profession. 

Note: This author holds no brief for the current CVC Shri PJ Thomas, this author doesn't have any proof to believe he's guilty or innocent, this author doesn't have an opinion on that front either. Eventually the outcome of PIL in the Supreme Court will make it clear if Shri Thomas was tainted or caught in the middle of a raging political battle. Dr Babu Paul writing about his first step into the IAS be a nice article to read if you'd be interested to know more about him. 

Mediagate, phone taps, leaks, corporate wars in India and Arnab Goswami

The Niira Radia tapes bring to light the extent of lobbying, molly coddling, news planting, opinion inseminating and persuasion corporate house indulge in in India. In the US all this is supposedly legal however in India it's still a new trend. Everyone knows it's there but no one talks about it. Govt policy is influenced by powerful PR personnel who can call almost anyone in the journalistic who's who or bureaucracy in the country. This post isn't going to start sermonizing about the ramifications this can have on our country or if the allocation of a natural resource can be decided by the judge of a High Court. This post isn't also going to be about how all this could be part of a grand corporate war between two brothers. We aren't going to delve about Barkha Dutt or #BarkhaGate as it has come to be known on Twitter nor the episode where Editors posted questions which went gloriously unanswered on NDTV. 

This is about "The Newshour" on Times NOW and Arnab Goswami. Arnab Goswami was an excellent news anchor in NDTV a long time ago, he still is a reasonably good moderator of television debates. I used to watch a 10 PM news show on NDTV half a decade ago (almost) and that was hosted by Rajdeep Sardesai and Arnab Goswami and it was a brilliant format. Tonight on "The Newshour" on Times NOW, which hehad editorial control over,  Armab rightly proclaimed that there are no tapes that involve him and I applaud him for his incorruptibility. But on the same note I hope he's heard the tape where Navika Kumar sounded like a pet poodle when a call came to her phone from the head honcho of a PR agency. This conversation clearly indicates the rapport the two characters shared and if what Arnab has written in the internal memo to his staff is true then Navika Kumar better find another job.

The following is supposedly the internal memo Arnab wrote to Times NOW's staff:

Colleagues, 

There has been news about two senior journalists from other media groups being involved in collaborating with corporate lobbyists and corporate groups on the 2G scam issue. This is a low point in the news business. It’s downright shameful. I am writing to reiterate some of the core values of the group and the channel. We believe in fierce editorial independence and complete personal honesty. Our standards have to remain impeccably high. In your interactions at any level, remember that you are ambassadors of India’s number one news channel. In an earlier edit meeting, I have said that even a pass into a stadium that’s accepted free amounts to being compromised, and today I am writing to reassert that. No gifts, no favours, no lobbying, no free dining and wining, no cash, no kind, no pass, no trip, no holiday, no promise, no passes, no special treatment, no tall or short claims, no disrespect to the organization that you represent and the group that we are all a part of, no loose talk, no flexibility on values, will be accepted. If I hear of any, we will come down hard, and no exceptions will be made... 

—Arnab’

Make no mistake, Arnab can hold his head high unlike most other journalist seen hobnobbing with someone representing corporate interests, illustrious ones, people one held in high esteem. But still Arnab, will you have to make an exception in the case of Navika? 

The Kerala IPL saga – A technician’s take on the the hoopla

All news channels today are running the Tharoor involvement in Kerala’s IPL story in the ‘breaking news’ mode with everyone giving little substance but more air time over what’s actually nothing. In an attempt to see if Dr Shashi Tharoor or his office would in anyway be connected to the IPL team I discovered some startling facts, all based on information available on the internet. At the outset I’d like to state that this writer couldn’t care less about Sunanda Pushkar and her association with Dr Shashi Tharoor. This writer’s objective is just to present some facts about the new Kerala IPL team related to the real estate they own on the internet and in the process show how Dr Tharoor’s office might be linked to the team much closer than what Dr Tharoor would like everyone to believe.

The way Rendezvous sports won the IPL bid and the fact that there was only one Malayali name was in the owner’s list and he had 1% share in the team was a little hard to believe. It was a little baffling that businessmen with absolutely no connection to the state would like to put up an IPL cricket team spending atrocious amounts of money. The parallels between Dr Tharoor’s political debut and Rendezvous debut in IPL is too obvious. A virtually unknown in Kerala politics, Dr Tharoor was given a ticket to the Lok Sabha seat of Thiruvananthapuram. This despite the fact that he wasn’t from Thiruvananthapuram but from Palakkad in Kerala. He won and subsequently went on to become the Minister of State for External Affairs. The way Rendezvous bid and won the IPL franchisee for Kochi was very similar to Dr Tharoor’s Lok Sabha victory.

Every one has a Twitter account these days, it’s such a huge hit in India. So the Kerala IPL team has it’s own Twitter account too. The screenshot below shows their page and their website (the standard.in) which I take it is their official website. I’m not willing to be fooled by the news displayed on “The Kerala Standard” website, it’s a nice way to keep getting in traffic from search engines. While checking who registered the domain for the Kerala IPL team, where it is hosted I hit upon some information which need to be clarified by our Minister for External Affairs. His office is for sure involved in more than just being good friends for a bunch of people who want stand up for the Malayali pride in fielding an IPL team. Here’s the registrant information of this website, the registrant’s name might be familiar to the one’s on Twitter already. Read it along with the registrant information of Dr Tharoor’s official website.

Domain ID:D3883893-AFIN Domain Name:THESTANDARD.IN Created On:17-Nov-2009 13:23:02 UTC Last Updated On:21-Feb-2010 13:14:07 UTC Expiration Date:17-Nov-2011 13:23:02 UTC Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com Inc. (R101-AFIN) Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED Status:CLIENT RENEW PROHIBITED Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED Registrant ID:CR29734645 Registrant Name:Jacob Puthenparambil Registrant Organization: Registrant Street1:Puthenparambil Registrant Street2:Pulincunnu PO Registrant Street3: Registrant City:Alleppy Registrant State/Province:Kerala Registrant Postal Code:688504 Registrant Country:IN Registrant Phone:+91.4712703745 Registrant Phone Ext.: Registrant FAX: Registrant FAX Ext.: Registrant Email:  jacob@tharoor.in Name Server:NS1.SLICEHOST.NET Name Server:NS2.SLICEHOST.NET Name Server:NS3.SLICEHOST.NET

Domain ID:D3443246-AFIN Domain Name:THAROOR.IN Created On:26-Mar-2009 07:13:16 UTC Last Updated On:04-Mar-2010 17:44:22 UTC Expiration Date:26-Mar-2011 07:13:16 UTC Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com Inc. (R101-AFIN) Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED Status:CLIENT RENEW PROHIBITED Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED Registrant ID:CR7566948 Registrant Name:Shashi Tharoor Registrant Organization:Office of Dr. Shashi Tharoor, MP Registrant Street1:TC 24/2074 3, Panavila Jn., Thycaud PO Registrant Street2: Registrant Street3: Registrant City:Thiruvananthapuram Registrant State/Province:Kerala Registrant Postal Code:695 014 Registrant Country:IN Registrant Phone:+91.4712324555 Registrant Phone Ext.: Registrant FAX:+91.4712324666 Registrant FAX Ext.: Registrant Email:praveen@tharoor.in Name Server:NS1.SLICEHOST.NET Name Server:NS2.SLICEHOST.NET Name Server:NS3.SLICEHOST.NET

Looking at the WHOIS information for thestandard.in and tharoor.in one can safely conclude that Dr Tharoor’s office or one of his staff members has registered the website for the Kerala IPL team. The email ID listed is jacob@tharoor.in which is probably the official email address of Dr Shashi Tharoor’s OSD, Shri Jacob Joseph. This information is available on the contact page on Dr Tharoor’s website. Did the Minister’s office register the domain for the Kerala IPL team? If Yes then why unless they have a stake in it? If No then why is the official email ID of the Minister’s OSD listen on the domain’s contact information?

Jacob Joseph
Officer on Special Duty
Telephone: 23014118
Email: jacob@tharoor.in

Source: http://tharoor.in/contact/

Additionally I also have considerable proof to believe that both these websites are hosted out of the same datacenter in the US, I did a trace of the IP address and see them pointing to the same location owned by RACKSPACE. The underlined lines below shows that both websites though they resolve to different IP addresses are hosted out of the same datacenter and the IP space is owned by RACKSPACE, one person manages the hosting space rented here in all probability. Do the Minister’s office or personal staff host the Kerala IPL team’s website? If Yes then why is the minister denying close association with the IPL team? If No then how come the Minister’s official website and the Kerala IPL website are hosted out of the same facility? Coincidence? A might one I’d say !

tharoor.in (174.143.27.168)

13   355 ms   416 ms   294 ms  RACKSPACE-M.edge2.Dallas3.Level3.net [4.59.36.50]

14   287 ms   285 ms   283 ms  vlan907.core7.dfw1.rackspace.net [98.129.84.181]

15   284 ms   286 ms   289 ms  aggr511a-1-core7.dfw1.rackspace.net [98.129.84.149]

16   285 ms   282 ms   291 ms  174-143-27-168.static.cloud-ips.com [174.143.27.168]

thestandard.in (204.232.202.72)

15   268 ms   267 ms   271 ms  main1.above.net [209.133.126.42]

16   268 ms   277 ms   275 ms  vlan907.core7.dfw1.rackspace.net [98.129.84.181]

17   302 ms   289 ms   281 ms  98.129.84.217

18   272 ms   273 ms   294 ms  204-232-202-72.static.cloud-ips.com [204.232.202.72]

Shri Jacob Joseph who also is associated with mobmag.in and tenders4u.com is an active twitter user and Dr Tharoor even once attributed him to the reason for getting onto Twitter. Why should the Minister deny his close association with the Kerala IPL team and attribute it to just mentoring when his personal staff seem to be closely involved in their presence on the internet? Surely the interests aren’t philanthropic.

The URL posted today by Dr Tharoor’s OSD is in bad taste. Why rake up Mr Lalit Modi’s past when that’s already been part of a court dispute in the BCCI election case? When you knew he was indicted why did you even seek his favour for an IPL team? This particular gentleman has always gone on overdrive on Twitter when Dr Tharoor landed into a controversy, should a Union Minister of India’s personal staff start giving out sound bites? Are the personal staff of the Minister exempt from helping hold the integrity and respect of the high office the Minister holds and get into a slander match with a sporting honcho who thinks he can turn any sport into a money spinner?

I’m sure every information on the WHOIS pages of these domain will be changed overnight, but the fact that they were on them till today is a testimony to the the shallow thought that went into owning these online resources. It’s not a crime to own a stake in a cricket team in a format that’s exciting and gets good ad revenues for broadcasters. Someone should take a long hard look and say “let’s stop insulting the intelligence of our audience and come clean out of this.” It’s not a big deal, but would mean a lot to folks such as this writer who have loved Dr Shashi Tharoor’s books and have seen every interview he has given about a dozen times on the internet and looked up to him as a man who made his country proud all through his career.

Toyota’s goof up in the US

I’m not sure if we can brand Toyota’s protracted inaction and denying the existence of the problem with so many cars in the US as arrogance, they were caught completely unawares and the recent departure of a top executive from the west coast added to the organization’s woes. A chance to regain customer loyalty appears to have gone down the drain for Toyota now.

TATA Motors wasn’t a manufacturer with a spotless reputation for manufacturing passenger cars. When I selected the TATA Indigo amongst many other choices that were available in 2005 I heard tons of criticism from various quarters. TATA were reeling in negative publicity given all the problems with the Indica which customers were so pissed off at. For the money that one had to pay for the Indigo one was getting a far spacious and decent car than what was on offer from other manufacturers for the same price.

The ownership experience wasn’t without problems. The first was a problem with the fuel injection mechanism which was detected in the first year of owning the car. What was promised to be a 3 day work went for over a month, because the defective parts were replaced under warranty and took it’s own time to be dispatched from the factory. I was frustrated, I vented out to the head of works in Coimbatore and there after to the regional head of customer service in Bangalore.

I was pleasantly surprised when I was given an alternative car to use while mine was being repaired. To top it off the costs for the repairs were close to Rs.40,000/- and I didn’t spend a penny out of my pocket, warranty covered them all. I wasn’t charged labour charges for all the delays caused for this repair. I was happy at the service levels provided by the authorized service center, however I still would like them to attend to many small things that need attention when a car goes for service.

The second was an accident after midnight on a highway in April 2008 caused severe damage to left side all the way from the front fender to the rear boot. One look at the car would send shivers down one’s spine, the damage looked menacing. However nothing happened to the three people who were travelling in the car, not even a scratch. That was a sterling testimony to the way the car’s structure was built. To imagine what’d have been the case if this was one of the Maruti’s was shuddering.

If you are evaluating a new car don’t miss checking out the TATA Indigo Manza.

India is on Twitter?

We are living in a chaotic period in the modern India. Telangana, Naxals, Inflation, Kashmir, Terrorism, Liberalization … buzzwords that are heard everyday on TV, in the papers, on the internet and at bus stops in our country. Last year particularly was the coming of age of Twitter in our country. We saw a whole gamut of famous people get onto to Twitter and started using it mostly to promote their own personal agendas.

Shashi Tharoor, by far the most followed and eloquent amongst the newest twitterers from India keeps hitting media headlines for a casual remark he makes to his friend or commenting about aspects of foreign policy. The media which erstwhile played the role in bringing the message from the establishment, film starts and other avenues was finding it hard to cope with the fact that all these people now were directly talking to their target audience. Given this new channel established the media then had to report what was going on in Twitter which most often was a tad stale for the one’s that follow all these celebs on Twitter in the first place.

You have prominent personalities from the electronic media like Rajdeep Sardesai, Vikram Chandra, Sagarika Ghosh, Prabhu Chawla, Barkha Dutt …. on Twitter. You have reporters from these channels on Twitter. You have Vir Sanghvi, N Ram, Pritish Nandy and a whole gamut of professionals from the print media on Twitter. The film industry is there on twitter. All these folks promote their own articles, shows, movies on the medium. The folks from the media sometimes encourage debate, my favorite is Vir Sanghvi who never seems to have a problem calling a spade what it is. Go on, tweet to your hearts content and if you get a reply from one of these celebs do make a big deal about it.

Last week I was standing in a long line at a railway booking counter. The counters open at 8 AM and if you are one of those hapless one’s hoping to get a Tatkal ticket on a weekend train you better get to the booking counter by 8:15 AM or you don’t stand a chance in hell to get a confirmed reservation. Being the 17th person in the line I was slightly worried. As the crowd moved with only 10 more left an officer in Army uniform turned around:

Officer: Tatkal ticket?

Me: Yes sir, Saturday’s train, just 17 tickets remaining.

Officer: Aagay jao, mera tho utna jaldi nahi hai. (Go ahead, mine isn’t as urgent)

Me: Bahut shukriya sirji. (Thank you sir)

Don’t we need more people like this officer to make this world a better place?