Archive for August, 2004
One year old!
charukesi August 27th, 2004
It’s happy birthday time on my blog… discovered deliberately by accident that it was exactly a year ago on this day that the world started to receive the benefits of all the ancient wisdom and knowledge that I had to share….
There - I said it with a straight face. But this year of blogging has been great fun. Not to mention educative (I have learnt to change the font colour on my template and put up pics on my blog - and if that is not educative, what is). Never thought I’d last this long…
Thanks, Dina…
And I did warn you I’d put up pics till I - or you - grow tired of it and learn something else. Till then, let them eat cake…. (oh, I forgot to mention - in the educative bit - add this too - providing completely irrelevant and useless but very interesting links)
Calvin on slow brain death
No more homework - only blogging
charukesi August 26th, 2004
With blogs, class doesn’t have to end when the bell rings - taking school home, and enjoying it too….
Learning on a blog… is much easier…. and so much more fun…
The teacher also says that she found that those who were quiet in class usually came alive online - on the net, anyone, just anyone can stay anonymous and invulnerable….
Link thru NY Times
Copycat hangings
charukesi August 26th, 2004
Can media sources please please start acting in a slightly responsible manner and stop ‘live, never-before-never-again footage, from the scene of action’ telecasts
I realise that in this age of 24 hour news-channels (too many channels, too less news), ‘exclusives’ rule. Be there first - or be TRPless. But this is too high a price for society to pay….
(If I can rant - and of course I can - this is my blog, remember? Dhananjoy was a child-murderer, then what are these newschannels? Shouldn’t they be held responsible for the deaths of these children?)
Do we really need to see footage of murderers hanging? Or people dying in any other way - war, bomb blasts, shoot-outs whatever…. Live coverage of people dying - is as ironical as it can get. Not to mention exploitative.
In any case, I think the news business in the West has gone far beyond redemption. Naked news-casters!
Why should India go the same way? And all for TRPs, which in any case are the sole prerogative of the saas-soaps….
Deadline woes
charukesi August 21st, 2004
Been toying all day with my blog template…. With a dead-line staring in the face, it is only natural that I want to do everything else possible…. Tasks I have been putting off for ages now suddenly beckon to me with irresistable magic. And the mind suddenly wants to explore and learn new things… Ref. ‘view from my window’, for more on this….
And for someone clueless about html (er, html stands for?), I have been having great fun experimenting and making changes on my blog through trial and error (somewhat like putting on all the switches one by one on entering a room for the first time, to find out what makes the light come on).
There are still a few things I am not happy about in the template, but I have a whole day ahead of me tomorrow. My deadline is on Monday, you see.
Azim Premji on education
charukesi August 19th, 2004
Here’s a man who truly walks the talk, atleast with respect to his commitment to the cause of elementary education in India.
The Azim Premji Foundation itself has a bunch of extrememly enthusiastic and committed people working for this cause. And every time I have spoken to a member of the team, I have come away feeling humble and hopeful about education making a difference to the lives of millions of children in India.
‘India : A Media Analysis’
charukesi August 19th, 2004
Came across a very interesting website today, India Resource Centre. And while browsing the site, also found this study India: A Media Analysis
As a strong advocate and enthusiast of alternative research methodologies (anything but the F-technique - Focus Groups, you dirty minds), this research fascinates me for the neat use of content analysis.
Like I keep saying repeatedly, there is so much research that one can do and data one can gather and analyse through secondary sources. Sadly enough, clients and researchers alike (especially in commercial market research) rarely think about them as serious data sources. The temptation to rush out and grab the first ten (or thousand, as the case may be) unsuspecting people to answer your questions, is just too strong. And very often, it is the simplest thing to do.
I had blogged about this a long while ago, on a research conducted by Rediff, through an analysis of the advertising consumed by the young Indian male.
Read this for more details on the study.
I also downloaded and went through the actual research report from the site. The only disappointment was the total lack of a qualitative perspective in the reporting format. Why cannot numbers also be explained qualitatively?
That apart, also check out the India Brand Equity Foundation website sometime. Quoting from the site, The India Brand Equity Foundation is a public-private partnership between the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India and the Confederation of Indian Industry. The Foundation’s primary objective is to build positive economic perceptions of India globally.
Window With A View
charukesi August 18th, 2004
From my window - the bars are the price I pay for staying in this urban concrete jungle. But such an evening more than makes up for it…
Been working all day today (something I have got so unused to), so too tired to blog thoughts. So blogging this view from my window instead.
How can I work, when I can look away from my computer screen out of the window and see this? (How’s this for an excuse for almost missing the deadline? Can someone please explain this to my clients too? They have caught on to my other favourite excuse ‘I don’t work here - I am only a consultant’)
Ever wondered how nature can wear such bright and shocking colours as orange and purple and pink and blue and golden yellow, and all at the same time, and look breathtakingly beautiful at that (while Govinda with half any two of these colours at one time gets panned as loud and crass)….
India Inc. a reality?
charukesi August 17th, 2004
This RIL-owned petrol pump has been around for more than seven months, but the Reliance sign still takes the Indian driver by surprise. It certainly took me by surprise, a Reliance petrol pump on the Chennai - Bangalore highway.
Telecom, energy, finance, poly-products, petrochem - is there any key / infrastructure indistry Reliance is not into, and in a big way?
And Anil Ambani is now a member of the Rajya Sabha. Power cliques are scary - and the present A bloc (Anil Ambani, Amitabh Bacchan, Amar Singh) is as influential as it can get.
Will circa 2008 see India being run by a corporate Government?
What do you feel about businessmen and industrialists entering politics? Will they bring in their professionalism and leadership abilities into our political system and make a difference? or will this be just another business for them? Does that mean a rein on corruption (they already have the money, remember?). An influential voice that is sure to be heard? Or, just a huge step in the power game?
Anil Ambani’s new website (plastered with mug-shots of a beaming ‘oh, I am human too, and call me Anil, folks, Ambani) invites you to share your ideas and voice your opinions…. er, on what? Never mind, it is the thought that counts…
Humour me, people, and please leave your comments here on what difference a person like Anil Ambani can make in Indian politics. And the kind of issues that he could / should espouse. Issues that are important to his favourite group of people - the youth - who are tomorrow’s leaders (not to mention voters)