the jewels of an Indian wedding

A friend of mine posted some pictures of a Delhi wedding he had gone to. And he like most of us is perturbed by the vulgar display of wealth in these weddings. It is not mrely too much but it is over the top and garish. It is indeed a vulgar show of wealth.

He writes a very amusing analysis and says this is Punjabi capitalism. He goes on to say" In 1993 when one went to Kerala the Malayalees were cribbing about the tyranny of the "punjabi suit" ! In Saharanpur an ex-Naxal said that we can defeat American imperialism but we have no answer for homegrown punjabi imperialism - circa 1989 ! Globalisation and Punjabisation have gone hand in hand - and crass post-partition Delhi rootless punjabisation is the new "centre" , mixed with UP/Bihari upper caste arrogance and Haryanvi Jat blustering attitude, with a dash of Tamil/Andhra brahmin intellectual teflon-coating. I meet all of these on a regular basis . The really rich Marwaris keep a low profile , as they are the old rich and now global players. This last elite is being threatened by a new emergence of the regional business/Private Equity/Media/ OBC and Dalit politician funded property and business groups. Delhi is the city of eternal power struggle."

Not that I fully agree as I see weddings being expensive everywhere - in every culture and religion, whether it is of Kate or of Prince William or of our own home grown punjabi Indian. Weddings are about joy and celebrations and it is ones own prerogative to celebrate it the way one wants to....

And a typical Delhi wedding is not a typical punjabi wedding anymore as Punjabis are now less than 10% of Delhi's population , UP/Bihar is the new majority. NCR would have a population of almost 30 million now. MCD with 18 million is now the biggest municipal corporation in the world beating Tokyo.

But off late lot of people root for a simple wedding a lot but I would prefer to wait and watch  to see how they would celebrate their own or their children's wedding...

Some of the most interesting must have in a typical north Indian posh wedding as are as below: 

Sanskrit mantra chanting young pandits

Foreigners dresses as Indians - whites are passe, blacks are in

Film style Camera

The traditional drum beaters wearing very bright brocade clothes

regional cuisines like kashmiri tea

women bartenders and kitsch bars in the party

women photographers

local tea man

Voice-over Internships In India On The Rise

Excerpt from the The Hindustan Times:

"Internships are part of our add-on courses like journalism. Students of other short-term courses like advertising and banking also visit advertising agencies and banks to see people in action," said Meera Ramchandran, principal, Gargi College.

"The students may or may not get stipend for these internships but they do get experience in these organisation," she said. "Most of our students do summer jobs such as voice-overs and editing.

And I think that is primarily so because ....

Indian teen agers are becoming trendy and there is an eagerness to earn a quick buck or add some experience under their belt. And they are getting attracted towards different kind of summer jobs like voice-overs.

And hence Delhi University has launched an initiative to help students gain hands on experience called "add-on courses".

That is also so because Clients also insist on need for high dubbing quality. Joy Bhattacharya, senior VP (Programming) of National Geographic Channel, says, "We insist on 100% factual and language accuracy in all our programmes. Our in-house teams supervise and guide dubbing vendor constantly."

And there are no formal institutes that can teach dubbing as of now. According to Leela Roy Ghosh of Sound & Vision, which dubs a number of Hollywood movies into Hindi and other regional languages, "Dubbing, like music, is an art, which has to be nurtured. Since there are no training institutes, most people tend to learn on the job and they have to learn fast, as there's little or no room for mistakes.

Nearly everyone in India is dubbing, from house-wives to teachers to doctors, who dub voice-overs at recording studios after work.

Rahul Bhatia, GM, UTV, who heads the company's dubbing division, says, "The voice-over business in India, estimated at Rs 15 crore, is growing steadily at 10-15%. There is therefore a constant demand for fresh voices."

Indian cinema: Marrying mythology with modernity

I loved this article and want to share with you all.............

24 Feb, 2011, 0743 hrs IST, Sakina Babwani, ET Bureau

Great mythologies dominate the Indian culture. These mythologies cut across socio-economic and religious barriers. The 5,000-year-old rich literature related to Indian mythology is interwoven with religious belief and amazing moral values. It has also created an obsession among Indian visual artists since time immemorial . From our cave paintings to the carvings and etchings that are part of temple architecture to modern expressions of art (MF Husain and Bhupen Khakar) along with the Indian-psyche and sensibilities — impinged upon by our cinematic world — are replete with the Radha-Krishna imagery.

 Our film makers are equally obsessed with the legendary Radha-Krishna duo, and this can be seen in films with a direct Radha-Krishna relationship as well as an implied one like Devdas in a dedicated form or the satire Pyaasa or even the challenger Lagaan.

Though Ram-Sita are portrayed in mythology as the perfect couple, Radha-Krishna seem to be more popular with our film makers. One of the reasons could be the pre-marital relationship they have that doesn’t culminate in a marriage, highlighting the pain of separation — the highest pain in love. The simple, yet, very appealing story of Radha-Krishna surpasses all other stories of love. Usually the concept is introduced as just one song in the film, rather than adopting the epic as the story of the film as in Raajneeti.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhSfZj1a7EY&feature=related . This song compares the love of the heroine with Radha’s love for Krishna. Interestingly , the deep “Radha-Krishna” psyche of the Indian film audience elevates with just a cursory reference or song. The concept is used in many ways. Let’s take Devdas first. Just as Krishna and Radha were separated in their childhood, Devdas and Paro too get separated when Devdas goes to Kolkata for his studies. In Bimal Roy’s Devdas , the song, Aan milo shaam saaware compares their love with that of Radha and Krishna . Here the song is sung by a third person — a jogan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u2My4P0zp4

It comes at the time when a lovelorn Paro is deeply saddened by Devdas’s departure . The jogan who sings the song compares it with Radha’s memories of Krishna . The song expresses the deep anguish that Radha felt when she could not find Krishna in Vrindavan. Here, Paro’s pain is compared with that of Radha’s . Also, when compared to Radha, Paro’s love gets those divine touches that Radha’s love had. Even though they were madly in love, Paro and Devdas’s divinity is maintained, just as in the case of Radha-Krishna . Here the ‘parakiya-rasa’ relation of Radha-Krishna comes into play. This relation is considered to be the highest form of love — where one shares one’s thoughts even while separated. Thus, we see that when Devdas coughs out blood, Paro has a fall and her head begins to bleed. Again, when Devdas is breathing his last, he calls out to Paro and she does feel as if somebody is calling out to her.

So, just like Radha-Krishna , Devdas-Paro share their thoughts through separation. In Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa, despite it not being a love story, the Radha-Krishna concept is used. Just as Krishna was known for saving women in distress, Vijay saves Gulabu from the police who consider her a dubious character. Vijay declares she is his wife to save her. Overwhelmed with gratitude she develops a kind of devotion for the hero, which is pictured in a background bhajan: Aaj sajan mohe ang lagalo. The song has a touching couplet: Sakhi re.. birhake ke dukhade seh seh kar jab Radhe besudh ho li ... toh ek din apne manmohan se jaa kar boli. This means that the lovelorn Radha goes to Krishna and tells him to make her his. As the song is being sung, the dazed Gulabo walks behind her saviour, Vijay, who is unaware that she is following him. As the lyrics of the song suggest, Gulabo is yearning for the man she loves. The song is picturised as Radha, who has taken the form of Gulabo and is singing to Vijay who is being shown as Krishna. The song gives the couple the assumed purity that Radha-Krishna’s love had. Mughal-e-Azam , which captured the Islamic era in cinema, also uses the Radha-Krishna concept. 

Here, the heroine, Anarkali herself sings the song in the presence of prince Salim. Though the song is sung for Rani Jodhabai, who is a devout worshipper of Krishna, the duality of Radha, surrounded by gopis (muses), singing for Krishna is amply evident. She sings the song Mohe panghat pe Nandlal ched gayo re. The song vividly describes the innocent but naughty pranks played by Krishna . So, we see a complete absence of religious barrier. Not to forget the beautiful classical song Madhuban mein Radhika naache re, Girdhar ki muraliyan baaje re, from the movie Kohinoor. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIWtdQwaoz0

The song has been picturised on Dilip Kumar, a prince (Rajkumar Dhivendra Pratap Bahadur Chandrabhan) and Kumkum (Rajlaxmi), a dance student. The song vividly describes a scene where Radha dances as Krishna plays the flute. Dilip Kumar is shown on screen singing the song. Here, one may assume Dilip Kumar to be Krishna, and Kumkum to be Radha. And just as Krishna marries Rukmini, the princess of Vidarbha, to rescue her from Shishupala of Chedi, Dilip Kumar rescues and ultimately marries Meena Kumari (Rajkumari Chandramukhi of Rajgarha) from the wicked senapati (Jeevan) of her kingdom.

Though one may argue that Dilip was not in love with Kumkum the way Krishna loved Radha, we cannot deny that he was fully aware of what she felt for him and that he respected her feelings. So, here we see another movie where the Radha-Krishna concept has been used. Coming to a more recent film Lagaan, the Radha-Krishna romance once again comes into play. Here, the focus is not only on Radha’s love for Krishna but on the way she feels hurt when Krishna pays more attention to other gopis. The song Radha kaise na jale( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmC86-uX7JE)  expresses the feeling. Here, one may take Elizabeth to be the other gopi. One may also consider Elizabeth to be Radha, and the heroine as Rukmani (Krishna`s wife). At the end of the narrative , Elizabeth does not get to marry Bhuvan . The only connection she has with her Krishna (Bhuvan) is that of the undying love she has for him. India cinema has truly managed to immortalise the mythological concept of Radha and Krisha over the years.

The Future of Outsourcing – Opportunities and Challenges for India

Read an interesting article in 

http://www.outsource2india.com about trends in outsourcing.................

"India is the world’s favorite outsourcing destination

India's share of the global offshore outsourcing market for software and back-office services is44%. According to the National Association of Software Companies (Nasscom), India’s premier trade body of the IT software and services industry, technology and IT services exports in India were worth $17.2bn (£9.5bn) in the year ended March 2005, a rise of 34.5% over the previous year. A further expansion of 30% in exports is predicted in the next twelve months, to reach $22.5bn. The US accounts for 68% of Indian exports.

Current outsourcing trends worldwide... 

1.      Outsourcing in traditional areas like customer care, financial services, manufacturing, IT, ITES is growing.

2.      Large multinational companies are investing in captive BPO units in supplier countries in multiple locations, to reduce risk and control quality.

3.      Outsourcing is becoming more sophisticated. Customers are looking for business process excellence, speed to market, improvement in quality, benchmarking to world-class standards. CEOs are involved to ensure the long-term success of strategic offshoring decisions. On their part, suppliers understand that they must compete globally and that outsourcing will play a more transformational and strategic role for the client.

4.      There is increasing global competition and pressure on margins from emerging lower-cost outsourcing destinations.

5.      Risk factors for outsourcing like terrorism and war, disaster and disease make contingency plans a necessity.

6.      The IT industry will see roughly 10 to 15% of its jobs move overseas during the next ten years, inviting more political debate.

7.      For the past two decades, China has been growing at an astounding 9.5% a year andIndia by 6%. They are impacting the global economy and leading the outsourcing revolution.

Future outsourcing trends worldwide

1.      Outsourcing expenditure will continue to rise.

2.      More countries will find outsourcing attractive, creating a multi-polar world. Following the lead of the US and UK, the European Union markets will expand their offshoring programs, while Japan will increasingly look to China for its needs.

3.      Customers will take greater control in driving and designing deals.

4.      The interlinking of the supply chains brought about because of outsourcing will create stability as companies will put pressure on governments to avoid wars.

5.      Risk factors and unexpected occurrences like war, terrorism, disease, natural disasters and economic upheavals can throw a wrench in the works.

6.      The rising price of oil will put increasing pressure on companies to both utilize technology and outsource to remain profitable.

7.      The rising price of oil will cause oil consuming countries like the USA to be less competitive resulting in more outsourcing to India and China.

8.      India will show excellence in Services that require advanced English like Research and Analysis Outsourcing, Content and Medicine.

9.      Political backlash over outsourcing is likely to lessen over time as economies strengthen and companies continue to reap the benefits of offshoring.

10.  Technological power will shift from the West to the East as India and China emerge as big players in the global outsourcing market. The two countries have the size and weight totransform the 21st global economy.

11.  By 2015 China will be No. 1, India No: 2 in the global top five outsourcing destinations.

12.  Vendor focus will shift from basic skills, costs and processes to domain knowledge, transition challenges, change management, HR issues and governance.

13.  Regional outsourcing hubs will develop as companies will take strategic near-shoring initiatives to minimize risk and leveragecultural and linguistic compatibility. The supplier countries are in the same time zone as their customers.

14.  The large diverse Indian companies will face stiff competition from new focused smaller companies. Because these companies are able to focus and become excellent in one are they will be able to provide a higher level of service.

Opportunities for India

Near-shoring as a business strategy

India can collaborate with other countries to leverage local knowledge of the business environment and language skills while providing its domain knowledge and technological expertise for successful outsourcing. For example, TCS has a Latin American arm based in Mumbai, India which serves an insurance client in Chile with a center in Uruguay as a near-shore location. Outsource2india has a collaboration with a company in NE India that leverages the unique talents of the people of this region.

Opportunity areas

Today more industries are where IT was in the 1990’s - knowledge based. Research and Analysis Outsourcing may soon be the biggest revenue grosser in India as BPO companies move up the value chain in their service offerings. This includes:

1.      Research and Development

o     Product Innovation - Companies are going beyond basic research to invest ininnovation and new product development. Companies that have invested in R&D in India are Cisco Systems, Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, Google General Motors Corp. and Boeing Co among others.

o    Co-development- In pharmaceuticals, India has the opportunity of co-developmentand ownership of new patented drugs through drug research, clinical trials and manufacturing. Indian pharma major Ranbaxy has an agreement with MNC GlaxoSmithKline to commercialize compounds they develop together.

2.      Legal OutsourcingIndia ’s large pool of qualified English-speaking lawyers with experience in the British legal system can offer paralegal support, legal support and patent services. A few Indian companies affiliated with American law firms are now able capture a tiny piece of the American market. They are now doing legal research at very high rates by Indian standards but yet 50% below typical American rates. 

3.      Engineering OutsourcingIndia can provide high-quality engineering services in the fields of:

o    Mechanical & Electronic engineering - analysis and design , embedded software

o    Plant Design, Process Engineering

o    Plant Automation Services

o    Enterprise Asset Management and OEM solutions

4.      Remote Infrastructure Management Services India can offer management services for IT infrastructure, applications operations, IT security and maintenance. This sector presents great potential through large-value multi-year contracts 

5.      Accounting Services
We are in the initial stage where payroll processing services and some accounting is being done for large American companies. This trend will continue and soon a full range of accounting and tax services will be provided by Indian companies. 

6.      Outsourcing opportunities for India exist in other fields like Financial Research, content development, medical writing: animation, film, publishing, web services; Human Resource outsourcing: recruitment, training, Education, Nanotechnology and many others.

Challenges for India

Rising competition

·         In the next ten years, China will replace India in its number 1 position in the global ITES-BPO industry.

·         Rising costs and low efficiency in many cities like Bangalore will make software outsourcing less attractive in future. The giants may show a drop in earnings.

·         India ’s terrible Infrastructure will continue to be a drag on the potential of India giving other countries the competitive advantage.

·         Other competing countries providing low-cost outsourcing options will exert a downward push on costs – East Europe, Latin America, South Africa

Infrastructure

·         India ’s ability to develop infrastructure is far outpaced by neighboring China

·         Metro cities are getting saturated and costs are rising -- Tier II towns need to develop infrastructure but India’s track record does not bode well for fast development.

Human resources and training

·         The demand-supply gap in India for knowledge workers is being felt now in Bangalore but may peak India wide in 2011

·         The education system needs transformation to produce people with skill sets that match industry needs.

·         The transition to knowledge processing will be a much bigger challenge for the Indian company and employee than it was for BPO services. The typical college graduate many not have background or flexibility to understand global issues required by this type of service."

And as  i see it, there is a huge potential for India if it changes from being a BPO center to KPO center of the world and especially in these…..

1.      Research and Development as a major area and in that i see pharma and product innovation as next big thing.

2.      legal outsourcing is going to be another clincher here as we have a very good history of legal education.

3.      Accounts and medical outsourcing is a big thing right now and will grow bigger as we go along.

How do singles spend Valentines day? Is it just a hype !

Call it cynical or witty, but Valentine's Day is not just restricted to lovers now. This year, even singles in the city and jilted exes are ready to embrace the day by expressing their love for a close family member or friends. Some of them are also celebrating it as a day of freedom from complicated relationships and plan to go out and have a blast instead of cribbing about their singledom.
Abhishek Pant, a media professional informs that he is throwing a singles party at his apartment instead of complaining about his recent break-up.
He says, "I have invited my friends to my place after work to celebrate V-Day. It's a `singles only' party where people can bring their single friends to meet new people. We are celebrating it is a day of independence and hope to have fun sharing stories about weird exes."
Nidhi Trivedi, an HR profes sional also feels the hoopla of VDay raises too many expectations and if you are single people try to show sympathy, which is why she has planned a fun night with her girl gang after work.
She says, "I'll be going out with my friends to watch a movie and then we'll go for dinner and drinks. Since we are a gang of four we have decided to gift each other something so that no one feels alone and left out." and left out."
Though V-Day is a highly commercialised concept and everyone wants to make the most of it, there are some places in the city that are focusing on singles and plan ning to play cupid for lonely hearts. Rohan Gupta of Red Monkey restaurant says, "During the entire Valentine weekend, we have special pro motions on for singles in the city. There are singles parties that will be organised so that no one feels left out. On Valentine's Day, we are serving free Cosmopolitans to women so that they can come with their friends and enjoy."
Nickhil Seth, co owner of Babelon Lounge says, "We'll be having a singles party at our club as there are special offers for food ies. On Valentine's Day when most of the places will be full of couples, we want to be different and don't want to go overboard with the entire V-day celebrations."
So on this day of love when everyone wants to be seen in pairs, if you are single don't lose heart, plan something with loved ones and head out for a fun time.


Its more peer pressure..............

When it's February, nothing is cooler than pre tending you couldn't care less about Valentine's Day and would rather burn the cards, roses and anything red that reminds you of it. Well of course, you are in a happy relationship and you don't need some day to tell when to celebrate love. So, while you wait for things to materialise and your partner hammers at the keyboard at work, the same day of love turns into a bad case of romantic indiges tion. Something, which most real time couples face while in love in the times of commercialisation and over exposure.Newly engaged Rahul Yadav feels it’s more about peer pressure, where one is supposed to do better that what her friend’s partner did. “It all about what you give her, where you take her, whether the long planned short trip takes place on Valentine’s Day or not,” he says.
Something, which currently single Abhinav Dasgupta agrees with. “I used to hate Valentine’s Day when I was in a serious relationship earlier.
We always wanted it to be something special, but it never turned out to be. Anyway at work, your boss is not going to let you off early just because you want to take your partner out and at the same time, your partner too is entitled to ask ‘Could you not set one day, one measly day, aside just for me? Does your work mean more to you than I do?’ or things to that effect,” he jokes.But it doesn’t have to be this bad when all you intend is to make your partner feel special. Ruchi Kapoor, who has been successfully married for ten years now, says it’s the
small things that matter.“Understanding between partners is important and both need to be on the same page as to what they expect from the day. Besides, from a takeout meal, a freshly baked caked, saucy lingerie or a sweet movie, there could be million ways to express your love,” she says. Something we heard from specifically Anti VDay, Sharik Verma. “I would rather surprise her with a breakfast in bed in midOctober as I think that day is way too artificial and things could get awkward easily,” he tells us.

The younger lot that attained instant stardom in Bollywood is being overthrown from its perch by peppier and even fresher blood

The league of charming actors like Ranbir Kapoor and Imraan Khan have ruled hearts, but it's time now for some fresh faces to show their colours. With wit and an optimistic approach, young and hot contemporary stars like Prateik Babbar, Aditya Roy Kapoor and Ranveer Singh are ready to rule the roost and have turned hot favourites among youngsters.While some love their witty attitude, others consider them their inspiration. Youngsters share their love for the three stars that makes them different from other lovey-dovey actors.
Charu Mohan, a media pro for the energy they portray on screen. It's fun and refreshing to watch them."
Agrees Rachit Singh, an MBA student, who feels the natural performance by these actors, which even the younger lot can relate to is surely making them a hit.
"Ranveer was very natural in Band Baja Baaraat. He could carry a typical Dilliwala attitude. Besides I like Prateik Babbar for his intense acting skills," he adds.
Natasha Singh, a movie buff feels that the biggest factor is the kind of roles and script they chose to start their career with.
"Ranveer's role in Band Baaja Baaraat is so unlike a typical Bollywood hero. There's nothing charming about his character, but still t's fun and com pelling to watch it again and again. Although Aditya Roy Kapoor's initial films like Action Replayy and Guzaarish have not been very grand, his roles in both these films has helped him gain audiences' attention."
She adds, "I think people like Prateik for his brooding looks.
People expected so much out of him since he belongs to that lineage. Today, new-age actors do not wait for a grand entry, they are happy to perform any realistic role that gives them enough chance to explore unfamiliar areas."
But there are few who still fancy their old "cute favourites". "Personally for me, nobody can ever be perfect than Ranbir and Shahid Kapoor. But if one is to be liked on the basis of acting alone then Prateik Babbar leads among contemporary actors," says Neha Tyagi, a medical professional.

Comic convention in Delhi today

I had gone to the comic convention in dilli haat as I wanted to explore the innovations happening around comics and related story telling techniques.And it was a great platform for die hard comic enthusiast.
It is a great platform for publishers to experience the growing demand in the comic industry and graphic arts in India also to interact and reach out to die hard comics enthusiasts" said Karan Vir Arora CEO Vimanika Comics.


Well, there were many comic publications who were doing it and doing it well but sad part is that all are doing it the same way... that using multiple panels, 3D visual effects and animatics cartoon and now our Karan and Arjun look more the the characters out of game. They no longer look like super heros or the gods who walked on earth.
Is it the right direction, well it is as it will be  the most accepted visual look by the children of the age of 8 - 12.As these kids are hooked on to the games so if the characters in a comic strip look like their game characters then it would be a fast connect and hence this design language has a more selling potential. But what they dont realize is that children are very very open to new and interesting things...They just want a fast paced and and action story, a story well told is their simple desire....


But still, it is heart warming to see that a lot of people are experimenting with comic strip and trying to develop their own brands.Vimanika Comics is based on Indian mythology and has published titles like 'The Legend of Karna' 'Moksha' Dashaavatar and soon to be launched "I am Kalki". Camp fire is also doing interesting work though their graphics are weak and not very creative. Then there was World Comic Council which is doing some very amazing work with rural India by  teaching them to tell their stories using comics as a medium. And then there was a gentle men who has created many comic strips and wants to sell it to newspapers and a graphic comic artist who specializes in wedding cards.The place was full of mavericks as well as people who wanted explore stories beyond texts.


And yes, I also overheard a young lad saying is an avid blogger and he blogs only about comics.:)
But we lack our own comic heroes is what everyone was talking about there. There was no one in Chacha Chaudahary's stall and then my old favorite Amar Chitra Katha was totally absent. Like one artist said there that " We have a huge fan following of the heroes from west like the Spider Man Super Man and Batman but in that bargain our Indian heroes are forgotten" and their are no takers of this language or heroes also.


What is now required is deep end user work here and also deep end penetration.... till this does not happen we will keep copying west, whether it is their " tom and jerry visual language" or gamimg aesthetics and their rapid pace of story telling.

Bicycle charger for phones by Nokia

It's time you cycle not only to be healthy, but also to get your mobile phone charged. The bicycle charger for mobile phones by Nokia would hit the Indian market by March this year. The gadget priced close to `1,500 INR would generate power enough for 28 minutes of talk-time for every 10 minutes cycled. While the manufacturers are looking at young urban Indians as customers, we will have to wait and see if the gadget become pop ular among them?
because bicycle is still used more for exercise by urban Indians than the mode of transport.


Views of the people and newspapers:Media professional Ritika Kashyap likes the idea, but thinks that the present generation may not fall for it. "We are too busy these days. Who will want to charge a phone by cycling when you can easily do it with a regular electric charger? And then there are very few people who like cycling," she says. 


Rajat Bose, a project manager in IBM, thinks that it is a great idea. "It may not work with the urban youth, but it will surely work in rural areas where there are lots of power cuts," he says, adding that they should bring the price down.

"And even if it doesn't work, I'd like buying the gadget for myself. It will be a good addition to my gadget collection," says Rajat.

So is it mainly the collectors item.... will it sell in the mass market?

Thoughts around it:

Tech expert Ankit Fadia says that it will not work for the urban market. Ya, it seems so as in the urban market, cycling is more of a fun activity. It is a rare sight to see an upmarket urban Indian cycling to office but it can be a hit with urban Indians who are in the SEC C category. They are the ones who cycle to office and they have time to charge the phone during the way. And also they cycle from their homes which is sometimes in the village or from slums where the power supply is not regular, it might pick up there... but again the chances also are 50 - 50 . 

Yet if we look at rural market I was wondering can this same charger be fixed to a bullock cart or a camel cart and then probably it can pick up smartly and also appeal to a large scale of villagers who travel between cities to transport their vegetables and other goods.

But the common thought which i caught from the reports in various newspapers is that:
"It is meant for rural areas. And as far as the price is concerned, I'm looking at its advantages, the government will come up with schemes to make it available for rural people," 

Yet, fitness freak think it's a good concept. "As cycling is a routine in my life and I prefer it over gymming, this charger will definitely work for me. If more people use it, it will also help in power conservation," he says and adds that the gov ernment can take steps to market the product well.

But not everybody is upbeat about the gadget. Mobile Switching Centre (MSS) engineer, Vikash Singh, thinks that the technology involved in the gadget is not very reliable. "It must have been tried and tested by the company, but the real success depends after the public starts using it and it gets popular. It's expensive and until now, we are not very sure about its shelf life," he says.

Information and analysis of the charger:

"However, tech expert Ashish Bhatia, says that hand crank chargers and pedal dynamo chargers for cellphones are not really new. "They have been around for several years for outdoor sporting and recreational use in Global Positioning Systems (GPS), personal digital assistants (PDAs), cycle computers and low powered devices. 

But this is the first time that someone has thought of putting them to good use in a country like India where the electrical power is a meagre resource in some parts of the country," he says and adds that apart from being environmentally friendly, they make a lot of sense in villages with erratic power supply."
"Since they tap kinetic energy (mechanical energy that a body has by virtue of its motion), they can be used virtually anytime -and unlike solar chargers even when there is no sunlight," 

Youngsters grab the I pad

Almost a year after its global launch, Apple finally released the iPad in India last month. The main crowd that was happy was not only the gadgst freaks but also inidan up market youngsters. They were delighted. 

But this latest gizmo from Apple has hefty price tag. And we all know that a newer model has been already launched in the international market. So will it be more expensive.

So do the youngsters really want to spend that kind of money was the question in my mind.

The Reactions are as g\follows:

"A few of my friends do own iPads.
They love the fact that they can check their mails and use the expansive onscreen keyboard. They get to experience the web much better than laptops or desktops,'' says 18-yearold Devika Dey from Mirnada College. "I, on the other hand, don't intend to buy it as it's so expensive.

Though I would change this stance if my parents Seventeen-year-old Manisha Rao, from St. Mary's College feels the same. 

"I totally think it's a must buy. Compared to laptops, the Apple iPad is any day better as you can move around easily with it and then there is the `cool' factor too,'' says Manisha, who is waiting for prices to go down. "It isn't fair that such technologies are launched so late here, but I don't have a choice. I can't go to the US and purchase the latest, so I'd rather settle for what's within my reach.'' 

Price we see that is the deterring factor and most of them are settling for Samsung Galaxy. But we see that it is not just the price but galaxy has more features also. so does that mean that coolness of owning an Apple is going down.

"For many, it's going to be the name that matters and for the reputation Apple has, Samsung is no competition. But I would actually settle for the Samsung Galaxy tab because of the added features," observes Karnica Karda, a 10th standard student at St.Ann's High School. "Moreover, once you spend on an iPad, within a few months they'll come up with another one."

However, 18-year-old Nikhil Reddy from Aurora Degree College feels that while the Galaxy Tab does have some extra features, he still wants to go ahead with the iPad."It's Apple iPad for me all the way and I do intend to buy it no matter how expensive it might be."

Despite the heavy price, it looks like many youngsters are not ready to be left behind when it comes to grabbing a slice of the Apple pie.

Not only youngsters i have seen in airports many middle age people in the senior management categiry also owning this pad and when quizzed they said... 

"well it has the cool factor."

"I had money so I wanted to check it out."

"its ok as one of the many gadgets u won but u cant depend on it."
"I like it but well its back to my old phone as i have to relearn this gizmo"


Point is these gadgets unless they have broken another ceiling of usability or function, they will be just another product for the consumer which he should check out.


So I think now world is waiting for that breakthrough again............ apple sweet and red apple, we are waiting for you to fall again ... but where is Issac Newton sitting.... i am more worried about that.....

Interview of the Boss of Steve Jobs

 As Steve Jobs, the contemporary gadget god who has influenced 
> the information technology, music and multimedia industry like no other,
> went on indefinite medical leave, we thought readers would enjoy this
> fascinating interview of John Sculley, former CEO of Apple who was in
> Mumbai last week. It brings out various facets of Jobs' genius. Enjoy.
gt; Leander Kahney
>
> Steve Jobs was 28 years old in 1983 and already viewed as one of 
> Silicon Valley's most innovative thinkers. Apple Inc's board wasn't ready to
> anoint him chief executive officer and picked Pepsi-Cola Co CEO John
> Sculley, famous for creating the Pepsi Challenge, to lead the company.
> Sculley helped increase Apple's sales to $8 billion annually from $800
> million during his decade as CEO, and he also presided over Jobs's
> departure, which sent Apple into what Sculley calls its "near-death
> experience."
> In his first extensive interview on the subject, Sculley tells
> Cultofmac.com editor Leander Kahney in Bloomberg Businessweek's 
> October > 25 issue how his partnership with Jobs came to be, how design ruled 
>> and still rules --- everything at Apple, and why he never should have
> been CEO in the first place.
>
> (The interview with Sculley was conducted in late 2007. This story was
> timed with the release of the first full transcript of that 
> interview.)
>
> Kahney: You talk about the "Steve Jobs methodology." What is Steve's
> methodology?
> Sculley: Steve, from the moment I met him, always loved beautiful
> products, especially hardware. He came to my house and he was 
> fascinated > because I had special hinges and locks designed for doors. I had 
> studied > as an industrial designer, and the thing that connected Steve and me 
> was > industrial design. It wasn't computing.
>
> Steve had this perspective that always started with the user's
> experience, and that industrial design was an incredibly important 
> part > of that user impression. And he recruited me to Apple because he
> believed that the computer was eventually going to become a consumer
> product. That was an outrageous idea back in the early 1980s. He felt
> that the computer was going to change the world and it was going to
> become what he called "the bicycle for the mind."
>
> What makes Steve's methodology different from everyone else's is 
> that he > always believed the most important decisions you make are not the 
> things > you do, but the things that you decide not to do.
> He's a minimalist. I remember going into Steve's house and he had 
> almost > no furniture in it. He just had a picture of Einstein, whom he admired
> greatly, and he had a Tiffany lamp and a chair and a bed. He just 
> didn't > believe in having lots of things around, but he was incredibly careful
> in what he selected.
>
> Everything at Apple can be best understood through the lens of
> designing. Whether it's designing the look and feel of the user
> experience, or the industrial design, or the system design and even
> things like how the boards were laid out.
> The boards had to be beautiful in Steve's eyes when you looked at 
> them, > even though when he created the Macintosh he made it impossible for a
> consumer to get in the box because he didn't want people tampering 
> with > anything.
> That went all the way through to the systems when he built the 
> Macintosh > factory. It was supposed to be the first automated factory, but it
> really was a final assembly and test factory with a pick-to-pack 
> robotic > automation.
>
> It is not as novel today as it was 25 years ago, but I can remember 
> when > the CEO of General Motors along with Ross Perot came out just to 
> look at > the Macintosh factory. All we were doing was final assembly and test,
> but it was done so beautifully. It was as well thought through in 
> design > as a factory as the products were.
>
> Now if you leap forward and look at the products that Steve builds
> today, today the technology is far more capable of doing things, it 
> can > be miniaturised, it is commoditised, it is inexpensive. And Apple no
> longer builds any products.
> When I was there, people used to call Apple "a vertically integrated
> advertising agency," which was not a compliment. Actually today, 
> that's > what everybody is. That's what [Hewlett-Packard] is; that's what Apple
> is; and that's what most companies are because they outsource to EMS 
> ---
> electronics manufacturing services.
>
> Kahney: Isn't Nike a good analogy?
>
> Sculley: Yeah, probably, Nike is closer. The one that Steve admired 
> was > Sony. We used to go visit Akio Morita, and he had really the same kind
> of high-end standards that Steve did and respect for beautiful 
> products. 
> I remember Akio Morita gave Steve and me each one of the first Sony
> Walkmans. None of us had ever seen anything like that before because
> there had never been a product like that. This is 25 years ago and 
> Steve > was fascinated by it. The first thing he did with his was take it 
> apart, > and he looked at every single part. How the fit and finish was done, 
> how
> it was built.
>
> He was fascinated by the Sony factories. We went through them. They
> would have different people in different coloured uniforms. Some would
> have red uniforms, some green, some blue, depending on what their
> functions were. It was all carefully thought out and the factories 
> were > spotless. Those things made a huge impression on him.
>
> The Mac factory was exactly like that. They didn't have coloured
> uniforms, but it was every bit as elegant as the early Sony factories
> that we saw.
>
> Steve's point of reference was Sony at the time. He really wanted to 
> be > Sony. He didn't want to be IBM. He didn't want to be Microsoft. He
> wanted to be Sony.
> The Japanese always started with the market share of components first.
> So one would dominate, let's say, sensors, and someone else would
> dominate memory, and someone else hard drive and things of that sort.
> They would then build up their market strengths with components and 
> then > they would work toward the final product.
>
> That was fine with analog electronics, where you are trying to focus 
> on > cost reduction --- and whoever controlled the key component costs 
> was at > an advantage. It didn't work at all for digital electronics, because
> you're starting at the wrong end of the value chain. You are not
> starting with the components. You are starting with the user 
> experience.
>
> And you can see today the tremendous problem Sony has had for at least
> the last 15 years as the digital consumer-electronics industry has
> emerged. They have been totally stovepiped in their organisation.
> Sony should have had the iPod, but they didn't --- it was Apple. The
> iPod is a perfect example of Steve's methodology of starting with the
> user and looking a the entire end-to-end system.
>
> Kahney: I want to ask about Jobs's heroes. You say Edwin Land was 
> one of  his heroes?
>
> Sculley: Yeah, I remember when Steve and I went to meet Land. Land had
> been kicked out of Polaroid. He had his own lab on the Charles River 
> in > Cambridge. It was a fascinating afternoon, because we were sitting in
> this big conference room with an empty table.  Land and Steve were both looking at the centre of the   table the whole > time they were talking. Land was saying: "I could see what the 
> Polaroid > camera should be. It was just as real to me as if it was sitting in
> front of me before I had ever built one."
> And Steve said, "Yeah, that's exactly the way I saw the Macintosh." He
> said, "If I asked someone who had only used a personal calculator 
> what a > Macintosh should be like, they couldn't have told me. There was no way
> to do consumer research on it, so I had to go and create it and then
> show it to people and say, 'Now, what do you think?'"
>
> Both of them had this ability to not invent products but discover
> products. Both of them said these products have always existed --- 
> it's > just that no one has ever seen them before. We were the ones who
> discovered them. The Polaroid camera always existed and the Macintosh
> always existed --- it's a matter of discovery. Steve had huge 
> admiration > for Land. He was fascinated by that trip.
>
> Ross Perot came and visited Apple several times and visited the
> Macintosh factory. Ross was a systems thinker. He created EDS
> [Electronic Data Systems] and was an entrepreneur. He believed in big
> ideas, change-the-world ideas. He was another one. Akio Morita was
> clearly one of his great heroes. He was an entrepreneur who built Sony
> and did it with great products --- Steve is a products person.
>
> Kahney: You say in your book that first and foremost you wanted to 
> make > Apple a "product marketing company."
>
> Sculley: Steve and I spent months getting to know each other before I
> joined Apple. He had no exposure to marketing other than what he 
> picked > up on his own. This is sort of typical of Steve. When he knows 
> something > is going to be important, he tries to absorb as much as he possibly 
> can.
>
> One of the things that fascinated him: I described to him that there's
> not much difference between a Pepsi and a Coke, but we were outsold 
> 9 to > 1. Our job was to convince people that Pepsi was a big enough decision
> that they ought to pay attention to it, and eventually switch. We
> decided that we had to treat Pepsi like a necktie.
>
> In that era people cared what necktie they wore. The necktie said:
> "Here's how I want you to see me." So we have to make Pepsi like a 
> nice > necktie. When you are holding a Pepsi in your hand, it says, "Here's 
> how > I want you to see me."
> We did some research and we discovered that when people were going to
> serve soft drinks to a friend in their home, if they had Coca-Cola in
> the fridge, they would go out to the kitchen, open the fridge, take 
> out the Coke bottle, bring it out, put it on the table and pour a glass in
> front of their guests. If it was a Pepsi, they would go out into the
> kitchen, take it out of the fridge, open it, and pour it in a glass in
> the kitchen, and only bring the glass out.
>
> The point was people were embarrassed to have someone know that they
> were serving Pepsi. Maybe they would think it was Coke because Coke 
> had a better perception. It was a better necktie. Steve was fascinated 
> by that.
> We talked a lot about how perception leads reality and how if you are
> going to create a reality you have to be able to create the 
> perception.
> We did it with something called the Pepsi Generation. I had learned
> through a lecture that Margaret Mead had given that the most important
> fact for marketers was going to be the emergence of an affluent middle
> class --- what we call the baby boomers, who are now turning 60. They
> were the first people to have discretionary income. They could go out
> and spend money for things other than what they had to have. When we
> created [the] Pepsi Generation it was created with them in mind.
>
> It was always focusing on the user of the drink, never the drink.
> Coke always focused on the drink. We focused on the person using it. 
> We > showed people riding dirt bikes, waterskiing or kite flying, hang
> gliding --- doing different things. And at the end of it there would
> always be a Pepsi as a reward. This all happened when colour 
> television was first coming in. We were the first company to do lifestyle
> marketing. The first and the longest-running lifestyle campaign was 
> and still is --- Pepsi.
>
> We did it just as colour television was coming in and when large- 
> screen > TVs were coming in, like 19-inch screens. We didn't go to people who
> made TV commercials because they were making commercials for little 
> tiny > black-and-white screens.
> We went out to Hollywood and got the best movie directors and said, 
> "We want you to make 60-second movies for us." They were lifestyle movies.
> The whole thing was to create the perception that Pepsi was No. 1
> because you couldn't be No. 1 unless you thought like No. 1. You had 
> to > appear like No. 1.
>
> Steve loved those ideas. A lot of the stuff we were doing and our
> marketing was focused on when we bring the Mac to market. It has to be
> done at such a high level of perception of expectation that he will 
> sort of tease people to want to find out what the product is capable of.
> The product couldn't do very much in the beginning. Almost all of the
> technology was used for the user experience. In fact, we did get a
> backlash where people said, "It's a toy. It doesn't do anything." But
> eventually it did as the technology got more powerful.
>
> Apple is famous for the same kind of lifestyle advertising now. It 
> shows > people living an enviable lifestyle, courtesy of Apple's products. Hip
> young people grooving to iPods. 
> I don't take any credit for it. Steve's brilliance is his ability to 
> see something and then understand it and then figure out how to put into 
> the context of his design methodology --- everything is design.
>
> An anecdotal story: A friend of mine was at meetings at Apple and
> Microsoft on the same day. And this was in the last year, so this was
> recently. He went into the Apple meeting --- he's a vendor for Apple 
> and as soon as the designers walked in the room, everyone stopped
> talking because the designers are the most respected people in the
> organisation. Everyone knows the designers speak for Steve because 
> they > have direct reporting to him. It is only at Apple where design reports
> directly to the CEO.
>
> Later in the day he was at Microsoft. When he went into the Microsoft
> meeting, everybody was talking and then the meeting starts and no
> designers ever walk into the room. All the technical people are 
> sitting > there trying to add their ideas of what ought to be in the design.
> That's a recipe for disaster. Everyone around him knows he beats to a
> different drummer. He sets standards that are entirely different than
> any other CEO would set.
>
> He's a minimalist and constantly reducing things to their simplest
> level. It's not simplistic. It's simplified. Steve is a systems
> designer. He simplifies complexity.
>
> If you are someone who doesn't care about it, you end up with 
> simplistic > results. It's amazing to me how many companies make that mistake. Take
> the Microsoft Zune. I remember going to (the Consumer Electronics 
> Show) > when Microsoft launched Zune and it was literally so boring that 
> people > didn't even go over to look at it.
>
> The Zunes were just dead. It was like someone had just put aging
> vegetables into a supermarket. Nobody wanted to go near it. I'm sure
> they were very bright people, but it's just built from a different
> philosophy. The legendary statement about Microsoft, which is mostly
> true, is that they get it right the third time. Microsoft's philosophy
> is to get it out there and fix it later. Steve would never do that. He
> doesn't get anything out there until it is perfected.
>
> Kahney: That drives some people a little bit crazy. Did it drive you 
> crazy?
>
> Sculley: It's OK to be driven a little crazy by someone who is so
> consistently right. Looking back, it was a big mistake that I was ever
> hired as CEO. I was not the first choice that Steve wanted to be the
> CEO. He was the first choice, but the board wasn't prepared to make 
> him > CEO when he was 25, 26 years old. They exhausted all of the obvious
> high-tech candidates to be CEO ... Ultimately, David Rockefeller, who
> was a shareholder in Apple, said let's try a different industry and
> let's go to the top headhunter in the United States who isn't in high
> tech: Gerry Roche.
> They went and recruited me. I came in not knowing anything about
> computers. The idea was that Steve and I were going to work as 
> partners.
> He would be the technical person and I would be the marketing person.
>
> The reason why I said it was a mistake to have hired me as CEO was,
> Steve always wanted to be CEO. It would have been much more honest if
> the board had said, "Let's figure out a way for him to be CEO. You 
> could focus on the stuff that you bring and he focuses on the stuff he 
> brings."
>
> Remember, he was the chairman of the board, the largest shareholder, 
> and > he ran the Macintosh division, so he was above me and below me. It 
> was a > little bit of a façade, and my guess is that we never would have had 
> the > break-up if the board had done a better job of thinking through, not
> just how do we get a CEO to come and join the company that Steve will
> approve of, but how do we make sure that we create a situation where
> this thing is going to be successful over time?
>
> I made two really dumb mistakes that I really regret because I think
> they would have made a difference to Apple.
> One was when we were at the end of the life of the Motorola processor
> ... we took two of our best technologists and put them on a team to go
> look and recommend what we ought to do.
>
> They came back and they said it doesn't make any difference which RISC
> architecture you pick, just pick the one that you think you can get 
> the best business deal with. But don't use CISC. CISC is complex 
> instruction set. RISC is reduced instruction set.
> So Intel lobbied heavily to get us to stay with them ... [but] we went
> with IBM and Motorola with the PowerPC.
>
> And that was a terrible decision in hindsight. If we could have worked
> with Intel, we would have gotten onto a more commoditised component
> platform for Apple, which would have made a huge difference for Apple
> during the 1990s.
> So we totally missed the boat. Intel would spend $11 billion and 
> evolve > the Intel processor to do graphics ... and it was a terrible technical
> decision. I wasn't technically qualified, unfortunately, so I went 
> along > with the recommendation.
> The other, even bigger failure on my part was if I had thought about 
> it better, I should have gone back to Steve. I wanted to leave Apple. At
> the end of 10 years, I didn't want to stay any longer. I wanted to go
> back to the East Coast. I told the board I wanted to leave, and IBM 
> was trying to recruit me at the time. They asked me to stay. I stayed and
> then they later fired me. I really didn't want to be there any longer.
> The board decided that we ought to sell Apple. So I was given the
> assignment to go off and try to sell Apple in 1993. So I went off and
> tried to sell it to AT&T, to IBM and other people.
>
> We couldn't get anyone who wanted to buy it. They thought it was just
> too high-risk because Microsoft and Intel were doing well then.
> But if I had any sense, I would have said, "Why don't we go back to 
> the guy who created the whole thing and understands it? Why don't we go 
> back and hire Steve to come back and run the company?"
>
> It's so obvious, looking back now, that that would have been the right
> thing to do. We didn't do it, so I blame myself for that one. It would
> have saved Apple this near-death experience they had.
>
> I'm actually convinced that if Steve hadn't come back when he did 
> --- if they had waited another six months --- Apple would have been 
> history. It would have been gone, absolutely gone.
>
> Kahney: People say he killed the Newton --- your pet project --- out 
> of revenge. Do you think he did it for revenge?
>
> Sculley: Probably. He won't talk to me, so I don't know.