DNA gets rid of its editorial page!

Just a week ago my grandfather mailed a cheque of Rs. 199 for a two year subscription of DNA (Daily News & Analysis newspaper). So I was pretty much shocked and distressed to find out that they have gotten rid of their editorial page because they think that it is no longer important as not many people read it anymore.

While many have welcomed the move and some even think that other newspapers will follow, I think that it is a grave mistake by DNA.

The boy who cried wolf – 21st century version

I am sure that you remtories as a child and imagining yourself as the characters in them. Well, you should take note that you are very likely a character in story that is unfolding right now! This is because “Forward First, Think Later” culture of today’s internet users is going to land us right into the age old story of the shepherd boy who used to shout out “wolf” just to see other villagers come running hastily for no reason. In case you do not remember, the villagers who wisened up to his tactics soon stopped trying to help him when he shouted. Finally, on the day that a wolf really attacked his herd, nobody came to help him and all his sheep (and in gorier versions, the shepherd too) was slaughtered by the wolf.

“Forward First, Think Later”
The number of email hoaxes and chain mails is incredibly large but more shocking is how successfully they circulate despite the fact that many of them are blatantly fake. This success can be attributed to the attitude of the people who do not even bother to take five seconds to verify what they are forwarding. Amongst such ridiculous chain mails was a one urging people to forward to their friends an email warning about the dangers of “dihydrogen monoxide” which if you take a second to think about is just water! Equally ridiculous are the emails that claim hotmail/gmail/yahoo/facebook will close inactive accounts due to their financial difficulties if an email is not forwarded. Ironically, I once received such a message on facebook while I was reading a story about Facebook’s expansion plans and investment bank GoldmanSachs’ investments in Facebook.

“The ‘WOLF!’ effect”
More worrying than the chain mails is the attitude shift that they lead to. Most if not all of such chain mails have subject lines with words like -‘warning’, ‘important’, ‘do not ignore’, ‘read at once’, ‘urgent help required’. As most of such emails turn out to be hoaxes or chain mails, I tend to read mails with such subject lines last and that too only if I have time. To complicate the matter further many of my close friends and relatives i.e. the people I love and value a lot, have over the years sent or still send me several such chain mails. What I fear the most is that I might ignore an email from a friend who is genuinely in trouble and needs help because of the tendency to automatically ignore such emails which appeal for blood/money required in far away countries. This could happen to anyone and has become more likely these days with many people having friends all over the world who use email and facebook as their primary medium of communication. In short, sending a chain mail reduces the importance of your emails in the eyes of the one who receives.

What should you do?
I urge everyone who reads this to verify before sending any forward and if a chain mail is fake (as most of them are), to send a reply to the sender enlightening him about the false claims that he is endorsing and also about the danger of others ignoring his emails in his time of need. Verifying the details of any email is very easy thanks to our good friends Google and Wikipedia.

Here are some of the things commonly claimed in chain mails spam emails and how to verify them.

1. Email / Social Networking companies are deleting accounts
– If they actually start deleting accounts of those who do no forward chain mails, it will make headlines all around the world. Anyway, you can verify by reading this, this, and this

2. Kurkure (indian snack) has plastic in it
- Read this

3.Nigerian millionare needs postage money to send you lots of cash
- Read this

I hope you give this some serious thought and kindly refrain from sending me hoax emails and chain emails.   :)

I am proud of our Republic and its Constitution!

Note: Very very long rant follows… Read only when you have loads of time at hand.

Each year on 26th Jan, the Republic Day, there will be a section of Indian press and also the general public who go on to whine about how the ‘system’ is greatly flawed and dysfunctional. They express a feeling that the country is going to the dogs and the constitution doesn’t isn’t really doing much to help the nation or the common man. I am sure that some readers of this blog might be feeling or have felt this way at some point.

Pancham Puriwala

I came to know of the place when a friend of mine recommended it to me. Since I am a fan of almost all cuisines and dishes I made up my mind to give it a try at the earliest opportunity. The opportunity arose rather quickly when I had to go to GPO on Wednesday. The restaurant was rather easy to find as it is literally at a stone’s throw from both the CST station and GPO.

The rather small and dimly lit place was full of activity when I arrived at around 1300 hours and the old wodden tables seemed all taken up by nearby

Live and let live

In 2010, Mukesh Ambani who is usually the less flamboyant of the two Ambani brothers provided a lot of newspaper and news-channel fodder when he and his family of five moved into his newly constructed 27 storey house named ‘Antilia’ that apparently took more than a billion dollars to build. He went on to make some more headlines by inviting almost all of the city’s celebrities to the housewarming party and then paying Mumbai’s largest residential electricity bill of Rs. 70 lakhs (Rs. 7,00,00,00) a month later. Many months later, trivia and rumours about the house and its amenities continue to circulate from email forwards as well as idle chitchat over chai.

While constructing such an extravagant home in the heart of the city was bound to make headlines, what surprised me was the fact that the Ambanis faced heavy criticism for being too extravagant and insensitive. Most of the criticism  revolved around how it is an obscene display of wealth because there are millions who are homeless and many more who cant get a square meal a day in India. This is so absurd that I would not have believed that there exist people who actually believe this ludicrous argument had I not personally heard it being said.

I believe that it is absolutely ok for Mukesh Ambani or anyone else to build for himself a house as extravagant as his heart desires. The rich do not have an obligation to alleviate poverty. Mukesh Ambani should not be held responsible for abject poverty that exists in India or Mumbai today nor should he be expected to give away his wealth towards poverty alleviation efforts. The philanthropists who do so rightly deserve the compliments that they receive but its unreasonable to expect all the wealthy to join their ranks.

Secondly, poverty is a problem more complex than most and money is not always the solution. There is no guarantee of even the slightest change in poverty levels in India, even if Mukesh Ambani gave away all of his wealth.

Any money, earned in whatever way, be it legal or illegal does a lot more good when used for consumption rather than when it is locked away in swiss bank vaults or complex financial instruments. The billion dollars spent on the mansion will now be spread out over all the contractors and workers who toiled to build it. Furthermore, the newspapers report that the 27 storey home is staffed by 600 staff members who have now gained employment and who thus shall definitely benefit. It is a given that most of this household staff will be from the poorer section of the society and not sons or daughters of fellow industrialists. Some of the millions paid in utility bills shall also be used to pay the salaries of the utility’s employees. So the house is infact helping a lot of people earn money.

Lastly, the Ambani’s have money and how they spend it is none of anyone else’s business be it politicians or social workers. While it is true that someone might fell disinclined to work hard knowing that even his entire year’s salary cant get him a home like Antilia, it is just as likely that looking at the Ambanis’ display of opulence might encourage others to work harder and inspire some to take up the daunting mantle of being entrepreneurs.

P.S. – This post does not mean that this is what I would do if one fine day I  have as much money as Mukesh Ambani does. Frankly speaking, I would consider it a massive problem if every morning, I had to select a vehicle to travel to work, from over a hundred cars parked over 4 floors of parking space…

P.P.S. – Happy New Year to all the (very few) readers of this blog!!! Hope you have a great year ahead!