Monthly Archive for October, 2008

Diwali


Here is the symbolism as explained by Wikipedia:
The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit word svastik (in Devanagari, स्वस्तिक), meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck. One interpretation of the swastika is derived from the ancient mythological symbolism of Shakti (Devanagari: शक्ति, Shakti) (represented by the vertical line) dancing upon Shiva (Devanagari: शिव, Shiv) (represented by the horizontal line).

Philosophically this may be understood as the two aspects of Brahma (Devanagari: ब्रह्म, Brahma): consciousness and energy interacting to give expression to the universe. The circular movement of this cross may be interpreted as the circular movement of the rising kundalini (Devanagari: कुण्डलिनी).

It is also seen as pointing in all four directions (north, east, south and west) and thus signifies stability and groundedness. The Swastika is a pure geometrical mark and has no syllabic tone associated with it. The Swastika is one of the 108 symbols of Hindu deity Vishnu and represents the sun’s rays, upon which life depends.

On this auspicious occassion of Diwali, I wish all the readers a happy and prosperous new year. I sounds like a cliche’ when it isnt so. Feel the symbolism giving you strength and see you through times, thick and thin. All the very best for your life ahead.

Virgin Mobile India: Something “different”?

Virgin Mobile is going full throttle with it’s advertising blitz; I remember, there was some issue with it’s licence because it was a virtual network operator. Tata claims that it isn’t. The truth, as to who fathered it, is not known to anyone.

The “bastard” of this company is trying to grab attention like an unwanted company. It makes tall claims about it’s “superior network coverage” and it’s “young outlook”. Pooh. Who the f*** cares about it anyway? On what basis has it made these claims? It’s hard to discount it, nevertheless, we could take it with a pinch of salt anyway.

Their website is an overdose of flashturbation. Its a bad idea to attract the dudes who have no decent access to broadband. In anycase, it chokes on my crappy bandwidth of BSNL at home.

I have no clue about the new “execs” at the helm of the affairs but if their CEO is a rich bored millionaire who has nothing else to do excpet launching himself in hot air balloons or dance with skimpy chicks, it speaks a lot about the professional attitude of a company. It doesnt promote the seriousness with which it needs to be taken; instead I have a creepy feeling that they are just fly by night operators.

The idiots need to realise it that a strong message doesnt go by having whacky advertisements. Drop down the prices, subisdise the cost of the handsets and bleed the new players by being able to offer services based on quality. I still have to come across a subscriber of this company who has said anything positive about there efforts. I wouldnt be surprised if they give in free mobiles with a rider of a locked in period. Unless they have enough balls to do it.

Some late night thoughts

I have been travelling over the weekend back to my native place which was untouched by the glitz and glamour of the metros. This Diwali seems to be muted; partially because of the economic recession and partly because of the widespread inflation.

I still cannot understand the “mobile story” and “fastest growth” crap. More and more people are migrating towards parallel connections instead of the trickle down effect as expected. Agreed that “lifetime incoming offers” have appealed to the segment of population who keep their mobiles only for incoming calls, the precentage is far and few inbetween. We have no break up of the demographic profile and if the trends are to be seen, much of the money and the effort is being poured in the metros where there is more of a spending power as compared to other cities.

I have three telephone connections; one for regular use, the other a landline for broadband access and the thrid for calling up other Reliance numbers. Overall, I fail to understand as to how they would account for the “churn” or the “fastest growing segment” because I have never been enamoured of using the VAS. The operators know that there bread and butter segment is the voice calls and I am sure that they would implement the VoIP solutions to cut down on their costs. Everything else is flotsam and media generated hype.

In the same vein, most of the other handset manufacturers are clearly not making any efforts to address the cost of the handsets. Barring the advertising costs, if they implement open source solutions for the newer PDA’s, it can reduce the cost of the handsets to a large extent. Google’s Android would effect this to a large extent; though, I would reserve my comments on it till the time I actually get to use it. It’s still in the nascent stage; I am sure it would mature with the next release as they learn from their mistakes.

Vodafone has not addressed the GPRS connection charges; I still have to come across a reliable operator who can ensure a seamless connectivity across the major highways. I would want to access the Internet on a long boring journey; it remains a pathetic experience to even open up the mailbox. I don’t favor the mobile net on the move partly because of my bais for broadband and partly because it’s assinine to peer in the small screen. Unless of course, one has an iPhone and Safari which makes it a pleasure to surf on the small screen. Brilliant conceptual implementation.

The elections are nearing and I am keeping my fingers crossed for some semblance of the maturity on the following government to provide a clear direction to the broadband access and policy. We can do a lot more once we have a reliable connectivity. We dont need fancy laptops for kids in rural India to demonstrate the “modern with rural” mating. Its assinine to pour in money for something which just remains a showcase and earns you f***ing brownie points for “corporate social responsibility”.

This is just a loose string of thoughts as I was travelling back down. Although, it is a fascinating experience to see the rural landscape change. We realise that there is a lot of untapped potential and there is a chance to “change”.

Writers Block

I have been keeping very busy off late and frankly been suffering from a writers block. I have lost patience with the policy makers and the companies specifically to improve on their services. Luckily, I have a fantastic ISP (by Indian standards) but the quality of access (512K speeds- yawn) remains pathetic.

I hope to update more frequently.

Image Managers

I have lost the link but companies are hiring “image managers” to manage their portfolio online with all the negative publicity flying thick and fast. I wonder what would Tata Broadband do about being featured in my blog? They have a lot of explaining to do to their customers as it is. Having a fancy ad agency to do their bidding would not improve their services as complained by the users on the forums or on the feedback.

Its been always a depressing scenario for access here in this country.

TRAI: Under fire, again

Another planted story in the media against TRAI. I was surprised that this happened to be Business Standard. They are carrying such witch hunting more like the slimes of India. Policy decisions dont get affected with negative press. TRAI always had a huge army of buffons charging at imaginary windmills in the name of “regulation”. Assholes.

Airtel DTH: Yawn

Another boring launch. Airtel wants to “differentiate” itself from the other providers by having a different format of watching channels. Thats about it.

You can follow the news as it happens on the forums or their official website which on expected lines is full of coding errors. I understand that they have invested a lot in the unified billing. I see no sight of the expected IPTV launch.

Its one thing to have the “stars coming home”- who happen to be beautiful people with some talent to be able to market themselves effectively. Apart from that, I see no real merit in having “brand ambassadors” in a crowded segment with the competitors burning equal amount of money to get a pie in your living room.

Sadly, the DTH has not matured enough here in India. Cant we get premium adult channels on the existing networks? Or there is too much of “content regulation”. We are a nation of billion people, but mention the word “sex” and there is a “smell of controversy”.

TRAI needs to learn its lessons fast.