kirukkal.com

Dusted my Philips Powerhouse and put it into work with FM. All these days it was just lying across my room untouched because we all turned to MP3 Cds and it was just a plain old taperecorder. Atleast it was useful for the FM purpose. Radio Mirchi @ 98.3 seems very out of place and it plays some real unheard numbers. The oldies in Radio Mirchi are the better ones. Suryan FM @ 105.8 is clearly in the top of the race. There is a lot of potential and I am expecting more FM channels to be intitated in Chennai.

Watched Panchathantiram thrice in the last two days and it was a real timepass. As usual it was kamal’s impressive comedy and I had a chance to listen to many of the crackers only when I watched it for more than once. Nice movie for a weekend.

Continuing the tiff between Cable TV operators and Satellite TV owners, I have some very strong thougts which might be acceptable by many. Meanwhile, today’s newsapers say that there was a meeting by the Cable TV operators and consumers somewhere in chennai and the outcome was that they decided to air only FTA (Free-to-air) channels and this would help in saving dual income to Satellite TVs. Dual income includes, income from advertisements and also through these subscription costs which they charge Cable TV operators on the basis of no. of connections.

Sometimes, we are taken over so much by the media, that we don’t even see the other side of the story. Imagine, The Hindu or Indian Express newspaper does the same thing. They sell papers free of charge to the newspaper shops and they get money only through advertisements. Would that happen? Will they ever agree to it or is it first of all correct? So you as a consumer pay 3 bucks for the newspaper guy and he will give take the money for himself because he delivers it in your house. So the 3 bucks that you pay does not reach the newspaper company. What would happen?. The sponsors or the advertisers would take over the newspaper company. They will start demanding what news should be presented in the nespaper and how it should be framed. Our newspapers will also become Satellite TV with more advertisements and less content.

Why don’t we support subscription for all channels. THINK.

Invoking the Muse – Ila Kandasamy ‘muses’

This was an impressive piece of note by Ila Kandaswamy who lives in from chennai. Check out the article here @ freshlimesoda. For those who are lazy as me to follow the link, I’ve copied the note. Truly Realistic !!
—
You are a young writer, you have the silver chords of hope, and you show the promise of a few admirable phrases. You have just fallen in love with writing and you subsist with an unknown faith. What drives you is the beauty of words, and the how distinctly they blend, and how with a little of your effort you can create pieces of elegance that touches someone somewhere very deeply. In the beginning though, you are your audience.

Someday you want to take it all seriously, you decide to write for the world out there, you want to play God, between all your tears and trauma you want to create an impressive work of art. And like millions of others, you want to learn how other writers have done it all. That is where it begins, the downward fall, the decline, and the persistent kinky restlessness. All that you learn about the process of writing through the featured interviews of gorgeous authors from the Sunday magazines reveals sundry obsessions. One writer swears by always writing longhand in foolscap paper in fluorescent orange colours. “And the lighting in the room: it must always be natural lighting. I am averse to any kind of artificial lighting,” she pouts. You try to reconcile, to understand her whims, and you try to implement that in your life. It never works out, and you forget her for a while and you start wondering about other ideas. There is a balding author, the one who spins out a novel a year and he avers by red wine and his Dictaphone. You can’t afford either, so you take solace in another man who recommends three litres of coffee per day at four a.m. in the morning. After weeks of this madness, your body has taken the blows — it refuses to cooperate. But nothing stops you from that best form of flattery – imitation. So you religiously try a hundred and one recipes for writing, and then it something else captures you – the lure of the exotic. You begin drinking masala chais and start worshipping your muse with incense sticks and ritual gets hold of you. It is a kind of insanity, this relying on wearing your lime-green dress every time you sit down to write. Voices deep within mock at you. Sarcasm raises its ugly head between all your sacred rites and ceremonies, but you cling on to your methodical insanities. You forget the fact that the word “author” has the same root as the word “authority”- and that by submitting to dogma, you have lost control.

In so many ways, it is the greatest loss.
—

Light at the end of the cable? – End of consumer intelligence

The article in Hindu today clearly marks the end of consumer intelligence. Even a prudent urban customer can’t understand these jargons like CAS, FTA and MSO.

Just like how BSNL confused us with its tabulated un-understandable tarrif card, cable operators have also vowed to confuse consumer thereby cashing in more money. Still today people are unaware that when they call a mobile from landline they are paying six times more than what they were paying a week back. And before they realise each would have spent more than what their sum of two months bill would be. But BSNL has advertised the change in tariff well in advance. It’s only because the public wasn’t aware of it. The media underplayed this price hike and what happened at the end was a loss to Mr. Public.

To the consumer dismay, even the private networks like Star TV is also advertising this STBs in between their programs. They don’t understand, from day one of this CAS(Conditional Access System), if they don’t meet the demand of Set-top boxes(STB), they will loose their TRB ratings. This will only allow more useless serials and will not help in innovativeness.

After all who is bothered about innovativeness. It is the sponsor of the program who drives what should be seen by the consumer. Just like how the news media is controlled by the goverment in captalist nations(you know which one),we are controlled by sponsors. This is what is called as Image Overload. The more they show Mandira Bedi, the more you debate about her dresing patterns. People even had bets on what she would wear for India/Pak match. The more you watch Hoodi BABA advertisement, the more you would like to buy a KB Calibre. The more Kareena sips Pepsi, you die to sip one too. Fundas of the new generation.

What is so special about ICICI bank? Anytime I look at an ICICI Atm, it so crowded just like a SBI or any other nationalised bank. It is suprising to look at a private bank serving this many customers at the same time. Is this because ICICI’s service and interest rates are good or is it because most corporates indulge their employees in opening accounts with ICICI. In any case, it is a good news. I am still guessing why?.