The Guru of Ghazals

I've had my 'phases'. These ranged from the extreme depression to the exact opposite. And in one of these phases, Jagjit Singh figured prominently.

I think I was in the 10th standard back then. A sudden bout of gloom had overtaken my life. I was on the verge of literally switching career choices. I had been a 'Brilliant Tutorials' target IITJEE correspondence course student till then because well, I wanted to become an engineer. But of course things were changing drastically for me primarily due to the awesomeness of one Biology Sir (whose name I can't recall right now, and yea shame on me for that), we students of his affectionately called him that, and the ridiculously boring regimen of ICSE mathematics. I wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do, taking drastic steps with regards to career choices. My parents being neither doctors nor engineers didnt help matters. So, confused I was back then, and bored too. It was then that I found solace in someone's voice.

My dad has always been a huge music listener. Even in my childhood I had seen cartons full of audio cassettes and photographs of musicians at every corner of the house. And dad's obsession only grew with time albeit he switched from cassettes to CDs. Jagjit Singh was someone my dad listened to back then almost daily. The Akai home theater at our place buzzed with the thick baritone of Gulzar and the melancholic voice of Singh everyday. I wasn't a fan of this 'Ghazal stuff' initially or maybe I didn't want to be. I mean lets face it, my friends were listening to Linkin Park back then, it was the cool thing, the 'in-thing'!

Yet the man grew on me, his voice did. Ghazal, which I had once thought of as 'lame' and 'slow' and 'dull' was suddenly starting to make sense. I felt as if a giant jigsaw puzzle was falling into place. The world started making sense. Soon i found myself spending hours listening to Jagjit Singh's beautiful rendition of ghazals. Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit suddenly seemed way too fake and goofy for my tastes, which of course were changing quite drastically.

It was during this 'phase' that I discovered ghazals. The entire genre became a favourite of mine. I got hold of literally every single Jagjit Singh album released till date, and my dad was only too happy to buy me all those. Now that I look back, I think he felt glad that he had finally bridged the generation gap. I was so obsessed with ghazals, especially the ones sung by Jagjit Singh, that I had almost memorised every single one! Even to this day, I can recall the lyrics of quite a few.

My interest in ghazals has since then faded. But Jagjit Singh's voice and his songs, (along with Gulzar's impeccable elocution), helped me through one of the toughest phases of my life and I can only be grateful to the man for that.

Rest in Peace, Jagjit Singh. The heavens are apparently in greater need of your songs.

The Garden of Solitude - Review

I'll be honest here. I rarely read books from 'debut authors'. However Siddhartha Gigoo's novel had to be an exception. It just had to be. 

The Garden of Solitude deals with the plight of the Kashmiri pandits, the pain and the suffering the migration caused and the emotional turmoil the pandits had to go through. There aren't very many books on the subject. The ones which exist are either out of reach, in all senses of the word, or written in a documentary format, which to be honest, doesnt really make for an interesting reading experience.

So there I was, the book in my hand, eagerly awaiting to delve into the pages. The novel starts off lazily, describing the lives of the residents, the near utopic state which prevailed before the turmoil. Although the descriptions are vivid and eloquent, it gets pretty boring eventually. Hence, even before the real story kicks off, I felt tired and bored.

The story in itself is quite shocking and the events dealt with an amazing amount of sensitivity. However at the end of the day, it just feels like way too impersonal an account. The author does come up with a few glimpses of his literary brilliance, but those are few and far between. It almost feels like an overstretched poetry gone wrong due to the poet's over-eagerness to impress.

This is a must-read though. The plight of the Kashmiri pandits has been a neglected topic for many years now. The author should get all the kudos just for bringing the subject to light.

Why Hungama.com is an Epic #fail

Indian music is synonymous with piracy. People from all walks of life however law abiding they may be in reality, find this urge to download songs for free from shady unverified sites irresistible.
But can the music labels blame these people? Till a few years back, there was no option to download legal music. Then came Hungama.com offering music downloads at great prices. And so started the era of the Indian version of iTunes music store...or so we thought.
Hungama.com has the worst customer service on the planet. I have done business with innumerable online portals and Hungama.com is clearly the worst of the lot. Its shocking how a company in the 21st century can survive with such callous attitude towards its customers. Repeated mails, no matter what the complaint or no matter how harsh the language yields no replies. This obviously comes from my personal experience.
Tracks/songs at Hungama.com are offered at such low bitrates, you are left to wonder if its really worth the money you are spending. 128kbps is so low a bitrate, it transforms music tracks from music to noise. Its a shame that when obscure music portals across the planet are able to offer downloads at 256/320kbps, the biggest music portal in the country, which apparently aims to curb piracy is offering extreme low quality downloads. Its a national shame that such a company is in charge of music content's online distribution in India.
After such harassments can the music industry really blame people for not buying music? In an era when lossless music is available across the web (FLAC), isn't it a shame that paid portals are offering music downloads at a measly 128kbps?
Can then these Hungama folks and the people from the music industry really blame people who head over to torrent portals to download music?

No online music stores? Really?

I was at a complete loss for words the other day when I found out that India does not have any online music stores. Sure there are the ones like flipkart and infibeam which will ask you to buy entire albums, CDs to be more specific. But nothing in the lines of iTunes or Amazon mp3 store. Hence we are left with no other option but to physically go out and buy music CDs of entire albums even if just one track in the entire album is worth listening to.

This is quite a shame to be honest. India is regarded throughout the world as a music loving nation. To stifle the average music lover with lack of digital downloads is a sin. Fortunately for the native music industry there are places like raaga and saregama which will offers digital downloads but those online stores are strictly without anything remotely western music.

I have stopped blaming iTunes for this though, as Apple is a company which likes to believe that the world has just one country and the rest don't exist. Well that's why Apple doesn't matter to me. But I really can't understand why companies like Amazon and Google are shutting their doors to international users.

No wonder then that music piracy at least of international albums is rampant throughout the country. People willing to pay are being forced to take the illegal route as its way simpler. For heaven's sake downloading torrents is the easiest thing ever. Why would anyone stop doing that and spend money on fuel to drive to the music store? Its not that I support piracy, I totally don't.  But I do understand why people would want to pirate music.

Message to the music labels? Make internationally recognisable stores available in this country. Give users the option to buy individual tracks instead of forcing them to pay big bucks for entire CDs. Make music accessible to users, the users will be accessible to you.

Kolkata needs to get rid of Sourav-mania

Sourav Ganguly has been one f the most successful cricket captains of our time. He has lead India to the 2003 world cup finals and has done so in many test matches over the years. He is one if the highest run fetters of the country and was and still is an immensely respected individual. Then all of a sudden he was dropped from the team for reasons which would qualify as "politics". A word we Bengalis are obsessed with. This force the man to retire prematurely from the game, something which broke a lot of fan's hearts. But it goes without saying that Sourav has had his fair share at everything Indian Cricket has on offer.

Many years after his official retirement, Kolkatans still feel an  emotional connect with Sourav. Maybe that has got to do with the bong socio-political scenario in the state. This is totally understandable. What is not though, is the fact that some people still feel detected when Sourav isn't included in "private" tournaments like the IPL. For heaven's sake its a businessman's tournament! One has to be accommodating when it acmes to the whims and fancies of the team owner to survive in a league Luke this. Sourav unfortunately brings his set of ego baggage with him. It's almost as if he is trying to prove something to someone every time he  pads up and lands on the crease. A great player and captain like him need not feel this way. And journos cash on on this. They talk of the rejection, dejection and humiliation that he had to face during his cricketing days. This without a doubt is a sure shot way to getting some major TRPs and other stupid ratings these people care about. Its therefore not surprising that every single day we have some or the other written about him, the way he gets treated etc. After a point it gets really irritating, this. We bongs need to get of this Sourav mania. The best way to pay a tribute to Sourav's achievements would be to create the infrastructure and opportunities so many Sourav's can come out in the forefront and represent the national in its unofficial national game.

India's new climate policy - a layman's view

Image via Wikipedia

Cancun has turned out to be something of a surprise as far as climate change is concerned. The world seemed deadlocked in the 'no change in the stance of developing countries' debate, especially so after the Copenhagen fiasco.

And then came Jairam Ramesh. India's charismatic environment minister with a hairdo, even David Beckham might find hard to pull off. When the Cancun conference on climate change was heading the Copenhagen way, he announced that India was after all willing to change its rigid anti-emission reduction stance and enter into a legally binding agreement for the same.

India has for a long time held a view that the developed countries contributed more to global warming than the developing ones. Something which is factually true. However the US and the other developed countries were of the view that India shouldnt take the same path to development that others have taken in the past. Hence, a complete U-turn of India's stand does come as a surprise.

India is an emerging superpower, or in the words of the current US President, India has already emerged! Now a legally binding stand on reducing emissions will take a hit on India's economy and growth. In a country which still has a large number of people living below the specified poverty limit, can we as a country afford to think about saving the greens? Arent we being burdened by a problem which has been created by the West? Why should India suffer because of their mismanagement and failed planning of the West?

Well, we could go on arguing about these. But frankly this will lead us nowhere. Decades of such discussions, confrontations and negotiations have yielded absolutely no results. Unfortunately these have left us with little option but to act, with immediate effect. It is the responsibility of everyone regardless of their contribution to the present climate scenario to chip in with whatever they can. However balancing growth and reducing emissions will be a tough act which will have to be addressed by the governments.

An Epic Festival

Like every other Bong all across the world, the month of October is of special significance. If India is a land of festivals, Durga Puja for Bengalis is the mother of all Indian festivals. But this year has been special. I have, this year, made it a point to visit at least most of all important puja mandaps across the length and breadth of Kolkata, something which I had so far never ever attempted.

The roads were crowded, the walks long, the rains irritating and disturbing, but the indomitable Bengali spirit, so vivid and exuberant during the pujas, conquered all that and more... In the end, on Dashami, as I write this post, recharging my batteries, quite literally, for one last go at Ahiritola Launch Ghat, this heart is feeling heavy, the eyes wet and the unmistakable sense of parting very much overwhelmingly palpable. I have come out of this Puja realising that no matter where one is, no matter how old one is, the Bong spirit is genetically tied to Goddess Durga.

With a heavy heart, I'll leave you with an image of Maa Durga which I took at Maddox Square.

Rare Indo-Pak Collaboration

Image by Rahul and Gayatri via Flickr

How many times have you seen India and Pakistan collaborate, for anything? You'll have to google that one coz no instances come to mind immediately. Well, this US Open is quite legendary in that aspect. Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, from India and Pakistan respectively, have achieved the unimaginable. This duo has managed to reach the finals of the US Open in men's doubles as partners, at a time when tensions between the two countries are at an all time high.

With Pakistan reeling with the flood disaster and the cricket world blaming its board, PCB, for bot doing enough in the match fixing fiasco, the nation has been under considerable amount of pressure recently. The news of Qureshi reaching the finals in the US Open men's doubles with Bopanna and becoming the runners up at the mixed doubles, should come as a welcome relief. For India this heralds another chapter in Indo-Pak politics with sportsmen leading the way in creating an incredible goodwill gestures infront of the entire world.

Buying via ebay in West Bengal

Its practially impossible for electronics goods to enter West Bengal without having paid millions of taxes and furnished thousands of documents. Why do I say this?

The other day after signing up on ebay.in and almost placing an order for an item, I found out that the seller wasnt shipping to West Bengal, specifically. Why? Coz apprently one has to supply the customs officer with a certain form 50, a mythical piece of document which is applicable to professional buyers and sellers in the state. This is done to stop people from evading taxes like VAT etc. Fine? Oh yeah, fine indeed. I'm totally okay with that. But here's the thing, even non professional buyers and sellers (I mean a normal individual simply wanting to buy something for personal use) has to furnish that document! Now how irritating is that?

I want to pay my taxes and all other duties that the government levies, but please, cant they make the whole process simpler? At present most sellers on ebay wont ship you any item if you hail from West Bengal. Let me rephrase that; if you 'live' in West Bengal.

Now this buying via third or even fourth party dealers not only increases the price of the product manifold, it also makes it impossible for the dealers to provide an appropriate discount. Fortunately though, these weird tax rules dont apply to books bought from online stores. Dunno who created these strange laws but I honestly hope someone realises the utter stupidity of the situation and comes up with a solution. Till then, no ebay for me.

The EVM - fallible and insecure

We have been hearing about the 'un-hackability' of the Indian EVMs (Electronic Voting Machine) for a very long time. And frankly this has been reiterated so many times by the Election Commission of this country, that now even questioning the vulnerability of it is held as a crime.

Hari Prasad, a security expert from Hyderabad, demonstrated on Live television the severe security vulnerabilities the Indian EVMs suffer from, shattering the very basis of the boastful claims by the Election Commission. The video has since then become almost viral and the debate has risen to a different level altogether.

There is also a debate about how Mr. Prasad aquired the EVM, supposed to be under strict security vigil. However instead of addressing the basic issues, the Government has committed a blunder by arresting Mr. Hari Prasad for theft. That Prasad exposed a serious issue is of no value to the government or the commission. Both have found an easier way out by trying to bury the incident. Both would have won over the hearts of the countrymen had it made an announcement about patching the security loopholes and going public with the source code. Pity this isnt the election season and hence, winning hearts is the last thing on the government's agenda right now.

Bad Time to Buy an E-book Reader

Image via Wikipedia

This really is a bad time to buy an e-book reader, especially if you happen to live in India. I'll tell you why. The two of the most popular conventional (read eInk) e-book readers are the Amazon Kindle and the Infibeam Pi. They are slow, colourless and lacked intense multimedia capabilities. But then, after iPad release a host of companies came up with their tablet offerings. The netbook, once a hot product, seemed to dying a painful rather sooner than expected.

The problem with the tablets is that since they have an LCD display, there is a considerable amount of strain on the eyes on prolonged usage. The eInk on the other hand doesnt do colour, so thats a potential let down.

Enter Notion Ink. A revolutionary product in the making which seems to have solved the problems of netbooks and tablets all at the same time. Its powered by android and has a pixel qi display. Pixel qi is something quite revolutionary which inspite of having a brightness comparable to LCDs, has the ability to reflect direct sunlight and also reduces strain on the eyes. Seems too good to be true doesnt it? Even I didnt believe it until my friend Abhirup convinced me about this truly amazing development going on in this country. A lot is being promised and lot of interest has been generated thanks to this cutting edge device and thanks to its really attractive price tag of $498 for the 3G with wifi version. However, no release date for this device has been announced as yet although its expected that it might release by the end of this year or early next.

Incidentally even Infibeam is ready with its tablet offering. They call it the Infibeam Phi (the eInk edition is the 'Pi'). The Phi has Android as well as Windows versions and is decently powered. However since it has an LCD display, its difficult to call it as an ebook reader. The dual screen technology of pixel qi is far superior than the traditional eInk and almost as good if not at par with LCD brightness, this is where I think the Notion Ink tablet scores over the Phi. But even the Phi hasnt been released yet, although Infibeam is taking preorders.

Hence my conclusion that this is indeed the worst time to buy an ebook reader. The suggestion would be to stay put and abstain from investing in any such devices until both the Infibeam Phi and Notion Ink hit the mainstream market.

The Stupidity of Indo-Pak Relations

The recent floods in Pakistan has wrecked havoc over large stretches of the country. Pakistan is finding it hard to cope with the scale of the disaster and the ramifications of this could unfold in the near future when there is a rise in water borne diseases. Aid is of the prime essence and it is trickling in but frankly a lot more needs to be done to address the situation. Add to this the complicated relationship India has had with Pakistan and what you have is the recipe for disaster.

Pakistan is yet to take a decision on the Indian aid, $5 millions which has been offered by the Indian government. Although to be fair to Pakistan, they have thanked the Indian government for the offer. It is a shame that bilateral relations between two of the most important nations in the subcontinent have reached such a low that even accepting aid for flood victims has to be thought through by taking diplomatic relations into consideration.

However, if one does think deep, there are valid reasons for not accepting Indian aid. India has forever been regarded as the biggest enemy by Pakistan, accepting Indian aid could potentially weaken its anti-India stand, and maybe it would invite the ire of fundamentalists in a country already reeling under immense international pressure for not ating tough on terror.

But frankly, a disaster of this scale requires politicians and leaders in both countries to rise to the occasion and act as good politicians and good leaders for their own respective countries.

What happens to Kalmadi now?

It has been proved beyond considerable doubt that Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, the chairman of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee has had a huge involvement in the scam which has shamed the entire nation. Even the Congress has distanced itself from the man reassuring everyone that action would be taken against those responsible. However from the look of things, its unlikely that the government will take actions against the man in the question just now, raising fears amongst all that he might utilise the clout and hide his tracks. That however is probably unlikely since a new committee exclusively selected by the Prime Minister is in place to oversee the Kalmadi and his mates.

The doubt however remains as to why no one is willing to order a probe into the whole scam now, when the games havent started. Kalmadi leading the organising committee is a bad example being set infront of the nation. Someone who is accused of corruption running into hundreds of crores of rupees. Isnt that a shame? Isnt it a shame that the best person India could come up with to head the committee for organising the games is a corrupt politician who is so invaluable that he is not removed from his chair even after prima facie evidence clearly points towards his involvement in perhaps the biggest scandal this nation has seen.

If Kalmadi is allowed to head the panel, even after all these allegations, it will set a bad example for not just India but also about perceptions about the country. Can we as a developing nation poised for exponential growth and hailed as the superpower of the future afford to do that?

The $35 Tablet

Image via Wikipedia

Yes, its no longer a rumour. There is infact a $35 tablet, waiting to be released to the masses. The minister for human resource and development (HRD), Kapil Sibal, was on Gadget Guru this week where he unveiled the cheapest tablet on the planet.

The tablet is apparently decently powered with 2GB of RAM and running Android. The touchscreen is (perhaps as expected) a resistive one. The OS isnt sluggish and thats mainly because of the hardware that has been put in.

And yeah, it gets better. In time, the minister hopes, due to rising competition and demand, the price of this tablet would come down to $10! Now when did one get last hold of $10 tablet?

All is not hunky dory though. First of all, the tablet, because of its no frills design, does look ugly and dated. Finesse is something which you cannot expect from this device. The device lacks a hard drive and although this is primarily the reason why its prices have been kept low, I doubt if this is something which will be appreciated. The presence of resistive touch also does complicate matters and spoils the fun of the touchscreen experience. Also the tablet in its current form and price is meant for educational institutions and its students. The mass market version might be priced higher.

Finally, its a mixed bag to be honest. Mediocre functionality/quality of hardware vs extremely low price. The choice as always lies with the consumer.

My review of Bombay Rains Bombay Girls

Anirban Bose, a doctor by profession has broken no records, nor traversed uncharted territories with his debut novel, Bombay Rains, Bombay Girls. But perhaps he is part of a very important phenomenon in this country. The rise of new generation Indian writers. No longer bound by the whims and fancies of publishers, no longer bound by the fear of poor sales and no longer bound by the need to script a pathbreaking work of literature, these new writers are proof of the fact that when it comes to writing, what matters is the thought, the ability to touch people's hearts and the ability to stand out as a bold and unhindered.

Describing the life of a med student from a small town (Ranchi), the book follows the travails of Adi, a student of Grant Medical College. The plot wavers and deviates from its roots making it distracting at times, but never boring. The incredible humour element simply adds a strange charm to the book and an accurate depiction of the lives of med students makes it a must read. i wont discuss the novel any further because I dont want to give the plot away and spoil the surprise element.

Its a perfect little novel to have with you when you're lonely or feeling bored. Recommended.

The Idiocy of Indian Television Programmes

Image by parul2999 via Flickr

Indian Television. Not really a global phenomenon is it? After all in India, prime time programmes are primarily meant for aunties and grannies. The youth of this country has almost forever been starved of good, quality youth oriented programmes. Unless of course you consider 'programmes' like Roadies (MTV) to be proper programmes for the youth. As the clock strikes 7 (pm of course) thousands of women (my mum included) dedicate all their attention to the television sets, for 'saas-bahu' (mother-in-law vs wife) rivalry, family dramas (epitomised family dramas with joint families the size of elephant packs), evil aunties and well, more evil aunties. And what do we guys watch? Well, there's always THE NEWS, although listening to the same crap being repeated 24x7 does not really make for a pleasant experience. Then there's always the talent hunt shows where every female singer, prodded by her over zealous parents, wants to become a Lata Mangeshkar and where every male singer prodded again by over zealous parents and dreamy eyed girlfriend(s?) to become the next Mohammad Rafi. And then there are the business news channels, but from what I gather and from my personal experience as well, this is not everyone's cup of tea. So what else can we watch? Oh yeah, the 'tech' shows which is about as techy as a supermodel showing off her iPhone, where real techy things like open source, source code, etc. are forbidden words, and where the review of the latest mobile phone depends largely on how good its looks are compared to the other device they 'reviewed' the other day. Thats tech for you on tele. Okay so what the hell do we watch or can we watch? Nothing to be honest. No Indianised versions of western tv series (just copy a few shows if you cant come up with original ideas! Please!), no true Indian world class programmes, not even a proper comedy show!

Of course you might think that expecting a Top Gear or a Lost here in India would be a tall order but frankly, considering the amount of money spent on those zoom-in zoom-out types all 365 days, I think its very much possible. Why cant we have a Lost here? Why not a House? Why not? Honestly why not? Why does the youth of this country have to turn to the US/UK series to satisfy their hunger for top class watchable programmes? Like a lot of things I dont understand (fail to fathom), the reason of this lack of proper good, quality stuff on Indian stuff is beyond my comprehension.

Shashi Tharoor - bad

Image by MEDEF via Flickr

Shashi Tharoor - bad.
MPs with criminal records - good.
MPs with corruption charges - good.

Yee! Lets celebrate the Indian democracy.

So, a person with a credible past (not consisting of murder charges, corruption allegations, riot charges) had the bloody guts to enter the "system" which celebrates people who take part in the bracketed terms, and what was he met with? Allegations. Baseless charges. Mockery. And last but not the least, pure and utter quintessential trademark Indian nonsense, mastered by our hallowed "experienced" politicians.

If anyone wants to know the "revised" criteria to be popular in politics in this country, its as follows:
1. DON'T be tech-savvy.
2. DON'T speak out about what you think.
3. DON'T be open and accessible to the public.
4. DON'T speak English in a way which doesnt include Indian words.
5. DON'T have a girlfriend if you are over 50!
6. Last but not the least, DON'T "mentor" anyone.

Be a dumbass with a Nokia 3210, always have a phone diary in your pocket in case you need to call someone (coz one cant check the address book on the phone, that would be counted as tech savvy), be QUIET for heaven's sake (aka SHUT THE F*CK UP!) and dont talk to ANYONE among the public about anything that concerns the...erm...public(?), speak English the Indian way replete with erm "chakki pissing" (pissing in this case is a Hindi word) type things (or even better dont speak English!), DON'T for heaven's sake have a girlfriend when you are in your 50s (its against the Indian kulture!), get married like a good mama's boy in your early 20s and be screwed (erm...that wasnt a slang) for the rest of your life and stick to your wife (coz thats the Indian kulture).

Right, listed above is the recipe for the perfect Indian politician. Follow the above mentioned things and thou shalt be a successful politician in India.

Things beyond my comprehension

Why am I so angry? The official sites of the Government of India regarding new PAN applications are so complicated, especially when it comes to that hallowed AO Code explanation, that its virtually impossible for a non Chartered Accountant to fill up those columns. I honestly cannot fathom the thought process behind this. If the govt wants us citizens to file our income tax returns, why cant it make the process of filing it a bit simpler?

I understand that this is a period of recession and that CAs are as much in need of moolah as us non-CA folks. But harassing new potential tax payers by complicating the process in a bid to make them pay up for the CA's fee is an absolutely unrealistic idea (thats the only possible reason they could have made the application procedure so complicated).

The rest of the form is so simple, a nursery student can fill it up. However the AO code is where things mess up. And from the looks of it, perhaps this has been done intentionally.

I want to frakin get a PAN, let me get it. NO, says the govt. I'll screw up your life and make you look like a moron and force you pay that CA. Fine so be it. In the land of whatever, you have to be a whatever.

Travel

Seriously why cant I just post on my blog without adding a title? You want a title? Okay here a crappy one - "Travel".

I have been bitten by the travel bug! (Dont ask me where) I have somehow developed an acute sense of liking (WTF! 'acute sense of liking'? Medicine does destroy your vocabulary) for travel shows. Be it those Discovery channel-esque ones or the classier BBC ones. The best part of these travel shows is that you get to 'see' and 'experience' various cultures of the world without having to leave your favourite couch. And of course without spending a penny as well (if you dont consider the money you pay your 'cable-wallah', sorry there's no word in the English dictionary to describe a cable-wallah in eloquent terms).

Globe Trekker is one show I like. Back when I was a kid (as if I am all grown up now :P), this programme (yeah, 'programme' and not 'program', I love Queen's English, albeit I hate the Queen) was called 'Lonely Planet'. Why? Hell, it was named after its parent publishing company. Why was the company called Lonely Planet? I dont know, maybe the one who was given the responsibility of 'coining' the name was another med student. Globe Trekker shows are shown in Discovery Travel and Living (a channel which dedicates itself to showing you all the pleasures of life you cannot experience or lets say cannot 'afford' to experience. How else would you describe shows like 'Europe Richest...", etc. etc. unless of course you happen to be Vijay Mallya or his son, in which case you would watch NDTV Good Times rather than this).

You still reading this?

Even Harsha Bhogle has been trying his hand at hosting travel shows. Lets face it, after the downfall of ESPN-Star Sports (in terms of Indian cricket coverage) he really didnt have a job! Oh well, he did actually. Picking cricketers for Mumbai Indians or something aka serving as Tina Ambani's PA. (If you're from the UK, you might not understand what I'm talking about but you will understand what I wrote, but if you're from the US, you wont even understand what I wrote coz its Queen's English! :P Sorry, bad joke)

There a really cool programme on NDTV Good Times, "Highway on my Plate". Hosted by two funny and charismatic anchors Rocky and Mayur, its a real treat.

Now magazines. I heard the other day that Conde Nast Traveller magazine (the Indian edition) is now available in india. And expectedly it costs a bomb! But fortunately there is a cheaper alternative, Outlook Traveller, the annual subscription cost in India of that is around 600 bucks, which is kinda okay. Their website has loads of articles as well, so even if you dont subscribe to their magazine, you can actually read most of their articles online (for free of course).

All good things come to an end, but all bad things must come to an end. Same goes for this terrible post. If you have read this till the very last line, I owe you a treat.

Image: federico stevanin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Google Buzz

Another Google product! Grrr....

Wait, only this time, its about...hold your breath Social Networking! Erm...do we need any more social networking sites? Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Digg, Stumble Upon, MySpace, the list goes on and on. Hasnt the networking bubble already burst? I mean, havent we 'networked' enough already?

Apparently Google thinks we havent. And so it endeavours to set foot on the only territory on the web which it hasnt been able to conquer so far. If you are from India, or from Brazil, you probably have used something called Orkut. For millions of others, Orkut is a social networking site created many years ago by Google. It became quite a huge hit in India and at some point, almost every net surfer had an Orkut account. It all changed when we discovered Facebook. Facebook, the most popular social networking site on the planet had so far remained completely oblivious to us, Indians (Or is it the other way round?).

Until recently, when all of a sudden Facebook and Twitter seemed to be the latest buzz word around. Everyone started shifting to facebook, partly because it offered more security, better features etc. and even more because it was a matter of keeping up with the Jones, although in India its more like keeping up with the Rams and the Shyams.

Okay, I'm getting completely lost here. Back to the point. So you see, Google really had to come up with something very unique in order to hold on to its subscriber base. Renovating Orkut didnt work, actually it backfired; for most Orkut users dont like the new Orkut (or lets say the facebook-wannabe-Orkut).

So now, Google reinvents Orkut in a way (which I'm sure many of you might've noticed) very intelligent indeed. Google integrates Google Buzz to their most popular offering, Gmail. Smart thinking, Google! Now every Gmail user logging in, will be asked the question, 'do you want to try out Google Buzz?'. 9/10 times a user will think, why not? And hence one gets to explore the 'buzz'.

So what is it? Its basically a 'sharing' web app (if I may categorise it as such) which allows you to share your favourite links, photos and videos, and share it with the world. I'm quite surprised as to how much it resembles Google Wave. Google Buzz in my opinion is Google Wave with more options.

It has no separate interface since it integrates with your Gmail account, which makes it quite boring to be honest. As of now its not exactly lightning fast, which really doesnt contribute to the wow-factor anyway. It allows you to comment on anything and everything posted and even 'Like' a post (No 'Un-like' option here, unfortunately, as Google has vowed to copy facebook feature by feature and not add anything else)!

However Buzz automatically adds all your Gmail contacts (who have signed up for Buzz) to your Buzz followers (have I heard that word somewhere else?). Hence you are not exactly alone (like most of us who have used Google Wave when it launched were).

Its neither facebook, its not twitter and its not anything relevant. To me, its just another failed attempt at replicating the magic of facebook.