Facebook, Big Brother, DLF and IPL, signals something...

I have the regualr habit of peeping into my personal mail box and social networking sites the moment I am back from office; of course sometimes I do it at office itself. Recently my hostel mate shot me an interesting question with an enthusiastic tone; here it is, Raghav bhaiya, are you suffering from FAD? I had no clue on what is this FAD riddle. Breaking the silence he said, from last couple of weeks I am seeing you online everyday in facebook. I gave a smile and ended the conversation. After a while, I did a quick search and then found about fad (facebook addiction disorder) and other facts, such as, net surfers shifting from orkut to facebook, some users check both and update the same stuff at both (150 million users log on to facebook on any given day).

Social networking sites are eating equal time share from one’s life like a personal mail box, if I am not wrong in teenage folks’ lives it’s getting a bigger share. I see people using mobile phones to update their fb pages on what they are doing at that moment even when they are in a social gathering. Who got the preference, the friend available physically or the one virtually??? People tend to not stop with just one message. A young fella opined on excess time spending on facebook, saying, it is better otherwise we would have spend that time on porn sites. But are they not spending anytime on it!!!

I remember the initial days of youtube launch, me and my friends use to log in to youtube and watch all our favorite songs and movie clips. Now when I log in to youtube I see some TV serials’ clips and realty shows scenes are also getting uploaded; with a cocktail expression on my face, my browsing continue. I am not sure how many browsers are aware that we can learn so much from youtube apart from fun stuff as it stores loads of recorded stuff on different creative aspects and speeches of great people. I tracked that sometime back, the number of views for such clippings always showed lower but the views number of a MTV reality show was way ahead and I am sure it continues in the same trajectory even in future.

With KBC (Kaun Banega Crorepati), a reality show, all corners of India came to know about something called reality show though prior to this a TV channel conducted some music hunt in this form to create a music band but hardly anyone knows about it. Now if you surf TV you can see minimum three different reality shows getting aired at the same time in different channels. An occasional TV viewer will surely get puzzled with these excess and confusing shows. Has the thrust for TRP rates (Television Rating Points) killed the creativeness and subject quality of these shows is still unanswered. Other day in a discussion I referred these Big Brother category shows overflow as the twin brother to real estate supply of buildings in India.

The supply of the commercial and domestic spaces in India has been at very high speed; it created a huge gap between vacant and occupancy rates. These stages would not have seen much volatility even if the current economic crisis would not have taken place. In any sector when the growth is positive side, supply should go hand-in-hand; it shouldn’t over take growth and become a hump on the way, a simple and meaningful equation. Infrastructure doesn’t mean only complexes and apartments; it includes schools, hospitals, roads and many other forms. India’s average annual employment growth rate between 1999-2000 and 2004-05 grew 3%. The correlation between the employment rate and residential houses supply is negative, as availability does not mean affordability. It’s like, Lalit Modi pricing the players so high that even Vijay Malya can’t afford with green money available in his white account.

IPL season is getting over; disappointment to its devotees and atheists. All atheists will confess saying “we miss the spicy girls”, count me also in this gang. But one thing I must say is Lalit Modi has changed the face of the cricket and done the unexpected and unwanted; hard hit on movies business. Even if the movie makers doesn’t wish to delay releases but they really can’t do as IPL has hired most of the actors to come and stand in the stadium with some color flag whether they really like the cricket or not. Other day I saw Aksay Kumar in an extra innings he hardly said anything other than giving typical filmy style fake smiles. During the first season he was supporting Delhi Daredevils and obviously he asks for kings’ ransom so even GMR couldn’t extend the contract to next seasons. On a second thought, even if he would have discounted the price, Delhi Dare Devils would not have geared up as opposites attract factor is still missing.

No clue why sport and fashion are bonded at the expense of practicing time. IPL has these extra innings series where people come and give their views, of course they sound like reading an awesomely crafted script and their physical gestures count will surely be higher than the words in their script. The ideal match will finish in the same tenure of Yash Chopra’s typical family drama movie but the actual match will take one and half times of it as it require tadka (toppings) in the form of extra stuff such as irrelevant interviews at the field, extra coverage for celebrities, dances and strategic time outs and last but not least meaningless advertisements. All the possible things which can prove a match is no less to a box-office hit commercial movie. I am just waiting for kismet disconnection of folks associated with IPL as a result of scandals blowing out one by one, as something called fair game has been buried decades ago. I see only currency no commitment in cricket. I read AITA (All India Tennis Association) sketching plans for ITL (Indian Tennis League). So somebody is ready to snatch the food from Modi’s plate and fool the sports followers in a different form.

Common practice in our lives before taking a medicine is following doctor’s prescription, in case of unavailability of it, reading the DOSAGE instructions on it at least. What will happen if we devour over dose? Quantum of the overdose so do the side-effects. There are so many examples out there in the world like these, bach-ke-rehna (be safe)…

Nature's innate twists adding to human errors...

A few days back my parents were preparing for their Andhra Pradesh (AP is not listed in rainfall states of India) roundup and to my surprise they were not quite worried about on soon they are going to feel the terrible summer, as they were already facing it; unbelievably in the so called garden city, Bengaluru a place which is considered as an ideal location for after retirement life (That is the same reason I insisted on them to shift to Bengaluru) and also the city which is known for its chillness be it weather or people behavior. In April beginning itself Bengaluru has seen 35C as temperature programmed to repeat. All my friends who love Bengaluru started worrying, showed disappointment in their views and expressed helplessness in their talks. At the same time, me living in Delhi (given a chance I can run away too) feeling bad for them thinking at least they use to be happy and sympathizing myself on, day by day increasing humidity percentage in Delhi. As the name itself innate, nature twisted and made Bangaloreans become wet during last three days.

Today some good old friends of mine from Bengaluru visited Delhi on a business need though could not meet them personally due to their tight schedules but got a chance for a phone conversation; during that they enquired on my next visit to Bengaluru. I told them, the weather there is so addicting that I won't be able to come back and my job will be at stake but I didn't tell them that I am planning for a trip to Jaipur in mid May as this news will strike them hard than sun. Personally I am calling self as an odd ball but to feel Rajasthan you should visit in summer. If you want to see Rome like a roman never take a tourist cab, hire a scooter. I always wonder why nature gives excess rainfall in Chirapunji (Meghalaya) and almost no rains in Bikaner and other parts of Rajasthan.

I was in shock and surprise state when I see these innate twists of nature in Delhi as I use to see my colleagues standing under sun till mid Mar after having lunch are now either walking towards food court at super sonic speed or wait till they get to see an empty chair to grab in a tiny cafeteria, which is in the same tower, I guess given a chance they would wish to eat at their desks and nurture cockroaches. Delhi's weather has changed so drastically from wearing a sweater and jacket together is a must to a cotton shirt is more than enough (I really don't know much about women fashions and requirements) in April itself. I wonder a word called moderate is not there in Delhi weather's dictionary itself. How pathetic, even with this Delhi is not the highest beer consuming city in India, its Bengaluru. This is again a magic done by nature in Delhites' minds.

Delhi veterans as I call them at office who are born and brought up in Delhi, aged about 45 (calling them veterans is not wrong I think) say the just passed winter was the extreme of ever, means record breaker like 3Idiots (a hindi movie) and to continue the flow of record breaking in all seasons and Apr is already with 40C heat. I don’t blame global warming for this saying the number of cars and other automobiles increased and etcetera are causing the weather damage; Delhi has a rich lifestyle from the day one, as part of it they use to and still prefer to own cars than bikes. Of course during working days you can’t really pass the traffic signal even if it is green as so many cars are waiting for their turn to pass like yours. By the time your turn comes you will see signal becoming green for the third time.

Any one day of the weekends I visit malls in the city as they are one stop shop according to me, during winter it use to take some time to pass the security check gate and to get some space in elevator but when I observe now I wait at none of them, I just walk through the security gate and I will be standing freely (I am touching no ones butt and nobody is touching mine, of course accidentally) in the elevator. I feel people prefer to pay bills for air conditioning than entertainment here. I heard the other way round situation in London from my bro some days back, he says Londoners prefer to pay the bills for heater in winter and entertainment during summer. They save lots of money and spend all in summer, not necessarily on a summer vacation though. Humidity is the driving factor from one place to another even if you keep the temperature as constant across.

Whether we should worry about the weather or we should accept it as it is coming is the question striking me from quite some time It is not that Delhi is the only place where the temperature is so high there are so many other places in the form of followers and predecessors to it. The only worry is places like Bengaluru and Pune losing their charm on the name of development. I am not against development but not in favor of overdose. A metro in Bengaluru will surely spoil the city’s chillness and look as you are cutting the trees to lay tracks for metros. In Singapore, a best example for a planned city you need to pay hefty taxes if you wish to own a car that is the way they encourage the usage of public transport. Now metro trains are available and going to available in all major cities but I do not see any state government taking similar actions like in Singapore to save the cities from forming as factories and people living like robots in it. Obviously people are so busy in earning their roj roti (daily food) in this rat race, so no time for the shouting and slogans at least against human errors; anyway we can do nothing to nature’s twists, but one thing I am sure is, if we start reacting to human errors and start fixing them up will impress nature and either it stops or reduces its innate twists.

Happy summer vacation folks...