Archive for April, 2009

Vote Thoughts: Musings on Election Day

Posted: April 30, 2009 in Uncategorized
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A question posted by a Facebook friend on his status got me thinking. He asked “give me a good reason why I should go and vote tomorrow?”. With all the extensive mobilization and promotion of our duty to vote, that such questions still remained, made me wonder.

At the outset, I came up with this one answer to that question, “Voting gives you the right to crib for the next 5 years. If you don’t vote, you can’t crib.”

Having said that, why really, does the thought of not voting come up? I have been there, in previous elections. Sometimes because I was frustrated by the system. Sometimes because I was giving an excuse to myself (“cunning intelligence”) while actually, I wanted to take a holiday, or was too busy at work. Those times, I had also asked similar questions, “Why should I vote? What good does it do? Finally the government is decided by rural votes..” and thoughts of that kind.

Maybe the terror attacks, maybe some ‘wisdom’ (??) over the years, has ensured that I don’t ask that basic question, about voting.

But there is a feeling amongst the intellectual classes that their vote does not matter. That there are vote banks, and they vote en masse, on account of certain factors – be it caste, be it money, whatever..

My thoughts on this subject are:

1. Maybe vote banks ARE big. Maybe they ARE influenced. Maybe they ARE manipulated. Or MAYBE NOT?! Maybe the so-called vote banks have seen through the manipulation. Maybe they have realized that election-after-election, when they voted together, it did not really deliver them any kind of salvation to their woes. So MAYBE they take their own calls, and vote differently. Or at least SOME do. And we see a shift. Perhaps a small shift.

2. If OUR chosen candidate does not win, if say a Meera Sanyal does not win, and an apparently lesser mortal wins, then do we sense frustration? If we get say, a 3rd front or 4th front emerging ahead at the center, do we again feel cheated? Do we resign ourselves with the thought that “vote banks at work again”? Hey, ever considered the fact that what we want, may not be the popular vote after all??

3. Elections finally are about popular vote. We “intellectuals” (and I include myself here) think that we know what is good for the country, and if things do not happen our way, then things are really wrong. Well, going down high-speed elevators, driving our air-conditioned cars, and having cups of coffee at 5-star coffee shops, gives us a certain view of the country. The real India may be different. In their own limited intelligence, they may have a view of what is good for them. And maybe we just do not identify with it. Gandhiji reached his sphere of influence after traveling the country, by road, by train, by being with people, by empathizing with them completely. If he was a practising barrister in England or South Africa or even Bombay, and from that pedestal, if he had preached about what is good for the country, we might still have been a British colony!

So, let what happen, happen. Lets believe that we have a system which is largely clean, at least as far as the process goes. And lets accept the verdict that we get. As the real popular vote. If it happens to be what we also wanted to see, great. If not, tough luck.. !

Just for the record, I have had my share of depression about the system, even during the run-up to this election, as you can see from this earlier post!

Streetsmart – and how?!

Posted: April 12, 2009 in Uncategorized
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The other day on way to office, I was at a traffic signal on the way. It was a little earlier than my usual time, and hence it was closer to start of school time, for a nearby school.

At the signal, I noticed 3 school kids, well dressed, carrying a small satchel each (must be exam time, so not the full bag), and from middle-class families, by the look of it. As distinct from very poor families, please note. They must have been in class IV or V.

As vehicles stopped at the light, they made their quick observations and ran separately towards specific cars / bikes that their eyes zeroed in on. To basically ask for a “lift” to their school. I saw them look at me and my car, and chose to not bother me. They knew their lower hanging fruit, in terms of who would agree to give them a lift. Perhaps empty cars with just the chauffeurs. Or whatever other means they used to filter the set of vehicles at the signal.

They were verycomfortable zipping around in the middle of the traffic (of course, traffic that was at a halt). It appeared like they were very familiar with the drill, and this might have been a daily routine then, I suspect.

They had not got a lift by the time the signal turned green and I moved on. But the incident stayed in my mind.

I contrasted this to my kids. Who still (in class XI and IX) have most times, a car drop them. Or who otherwise, would take an autorickshaw or a cab or a bus. But who largely traveled in a lot more comfort. Kids who were not allowed to cross the road on their own, till they were much older, and who we would keep reminding, to watch for the cars on the road, even after they started going on their own.

Compared to those kids who I saw on the road that day, our kids seem almost pampered. Maybe that is not the right word. Maybe it is a question of circumstances and all that.

I do not say that our kids should have also been left loose or asked to hitchhike their way to school.

But what I AM saying is how different the preparation for the world, those kids are getting. They would be “streetsmart” in the real sense of the word. They zip around on the road without fear, they do not hesitate to ask complete strangers to give them a lift, they would reach school on time with all those challenges. Perhaps they get a bus allowance, but by hitchhiking, they save that money, to use it for something else?!

They probably live quite close to where we stay, but in all other ways, it’s a different world that they live in! Our kids probably get better education and facilities, and may be “ahead” in that respect, but our kids will need time to catch up with those kids I saw on the street, in terms of street-smartness!

Some intriguing questions for a lazy Sunday morning..

Posted: April 5, 2009 in Uncategorized
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Newspaper headlines and some small print that I managed to catch, generate a few questions in my mind. Would love to have answers to these?

1. Are politicians such super beings? That while they have been busy members of the parliament for five years, they have also managed to be either fantastic investors or awesome business persons on the side, to have been able to increase their personal worth several notches! Even as accomplished full time investors and business persons have seen their worths going down, thanks to the stock market collapse, real estate pull down and the general recession. Rahul Gandhi’s worth went up from a couple of laksh in 2004 (wow.. was that a joke or what??!) to more than 2 crores in 2009. Would you not like that kind of growth in your capital?? He is said to have acquired a couple of shops in Delhi, worth about 1.3 crores. Would income tax investigate the matter to ask for the resources used to acquire this property?? Or that is only meant for common people like you and me?
Mind you, Rahul Gandhi is not an isolated case, most politicians’ worth has gone up. HOW do they do it? Maybe they can run some courses for us..

2. Priya Dutt, daughter of Sunil Dutt, fights on a Congress ticket. Her brother, with whom she has shared many a platform, and sworn lifelong love and shared the Dutt tradition and all that, now tries to take a SP ticket to fight the elections from Lucknow. The same brother who is an accused for very heinous crimes, during the Mumbai riots, and has been out on bail.

Cut..

To the candidate who is to oppose Priya in the elections. Mahesh Jethmalani, eminent lawyer, on a BJP ticket. BJP, the party with the Hindutva agenda. Who want to take stern action against Pakistan, should they come to power. Now Mahesh’s father, Ram Jethmalani, was quoted by Pakistani TV, making some very embarrassing (to India) statements, in the immediate aftermath of 26/11 Mumbai attack. In fact, both Mahesh and Ram have often defended hard core criminals, including the ‘enemies of the country’ kind, in courts.

With all this baggage, Priya and Mahesh get tickets from India’s two national parties! So the question is, “HOW?”. Do the parties not get candidates with real clean slates? Without any kind of baggage?? Or are these issues not considered as baggage anymore in Indian society?

3. Priyanka Gandhi’s father-in-law is found dead. “Found” dead. The most famous political family, a celebrity family like none other in India, and a scandal of this size. And yet the story appears almost in fine print in the dailies. And the hounding investigative media, who can run day long bulletins, after issues like why Katrina is chosen as India’a Barbie and not Aishwarya, choose to go quiet on this big scandal.

What do you make of this? Is this the ultimate “Godfather family” of the country (Italian connection is incidental.. or maybe not..?) who no one can dare speak a word against? What was the real reason behind the death? How was he just “found dead”?

4. The Telgi scam. Huge headlines. Thousands of crores of money (well,s tamp papers) simply printed. Huge participation of government sources. Dirt flies on minister Chhagan Bhujbal, DCP Pradeep Sawant and many other big names. Most have to lose their jobs, because evidence is clear enough.

Cut.

Few years pass. Other scams and other events capture public’s imagination. 26/11 happens. Huge political damage takes the toll of Maharashtra CM and Dy CM. Replacements have to be found.

Quietly Bhujbal is back. No one even notices. Because 26/11 is far bigger and everyone is focused on that. No one questions how Bhujbal is forgiven and brought back to power.

Few months go by.

And as if on cue, DCP Pradeep Sawant, accused in the same scam, also returns. Is reinstated. Again no questions asked. All is forgiven and forgotten.

Interesting eh?
The question is, “Is public memory so short after all? Will politicians and scamsters continue to thrive in these circumstances? Will we suffer crooks always??”

5. Under the circumstances, we go to vote in a few weeks now. And they tell us to go and vote, to be conscious of whom we are voting for, to be sure that we vote for ‘no criminals’. So the last question that I ponder over, on this lazy Sunday is “Is there anything like ‘no criminals’? Is there really an alternate option with a hope to actually pull in the votes and make us feel proud of our politicians??”

If you have answers, let me know.

Meanwhile, as in case of most other citizens, for me too, this phase will get over. I will return to my Sunday beer, my cricket match, my family, my Facebook, and pretend that these problems do not exist!

Google to acquire Twitter? Might be good, in fact..

Posted: April 3, 2009 in Business, google, twitter
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I caught this news early on Thursday morning, on a tweet from Guy Kawasaki. That Techcrunch was reporting about late stage talks of Google acquiring Twitter. I checked to ensure that it was not an April 1 story, and that these were indeed “truemors”!

If this were to happen, I believe it would be a good move for all parties concerned.

Let’s understand first, who are the parties directly  involved:

1. Google

2. Twitter

3. We, the users of both!

Well, there is also Facebook which went after Twitter, failed to acquire it, then started aping Twitter. And then there is Microsoft, an investor in Twitter, still trying to catch up in the social space. And other such.

But really, the main three constituents of the deal are the ones enumerated above.

So why would it be good for all of them.

Google has been struggling to find the next wave of growth. Ad revenues have been down, many of the new projects it invested in, have not delivered. There is constant pressure, at least from media and analysts, that its losing its way. And that Twitter is a big threat on account of its ability to offer real time search results.

So it would be a good boost for Google at this time, to get Twitter.

Twitter on the other hand, has been under pressure to get revenue flow started. Its clean interface without clutter of ads, is appealing, but it haunts them now, as they cannot suddenly be seen to fill it up with ads. They did raise more funds recently, but I am sure the investors were also looking for some revenue side action from Twitter. A feeble attempt to put a small ad on home pages and talk of a pro-version coming out soon, were starts  on to the revenue path. But when you start from zero, its always a LONG way to go!!

So being acquired by Google would not be bad for them either.

What does Google bring to the table then?

A working advertising model, with advertiser and publisher relationships like no other, in Adsense / Adwords.

A model of revenue sharing which is well established and which can be put in place on Twitter in some or the other way, in no time.

A huge understanding of contextual advertising model, and some ability to filter our spam from the same.

All this can be unleased on to Twitter, to generate revenues for Twitter, very quickly.

While we all like it clean and free, we also know that there is nothing like a free lunch. So rather than wait for Twitter to run out of money or get desperate, or have its service quality suffer, this may be just the right antidote.

And where does that leave the last constituent of the puzzle? We, the users of Google and of Twitter?

I think it benefits us as well.

For one, we can be sure that our favorite microblogging service is here to stay.

And our favorite search engine is more empowered now.

And that for our search, we can go to a single place, and pick up real time as well as historical data.

And can get amazing trending information, for now, and for the past.

Yes, it would be good.

I would say, its a real WIN-WIN-WIN for the three parties involved.

Where does that put Facebook? I don’t know. Maybe there would be one more interface revision of Facebook, with a Google like search (maybe powered by MS Live) to go with the Twitter like updates that they have already incorporated??!