Shit happens !!! And in case you are looking for proof - today’s Brazil vs. France match epitomized the ‘adage’ to the fullest. Brazil, the world champions for five consecutive years, could not make it to the semi-finals, and were brutally dominated by France throughout the quarter-final match. France had the perfect strategy up their sleeve - being a strongly defending team, they scored an early goal (Full credit to Zidane and Henry) and then kept Brazil at bay for the rest of the match. Brazil lost 1-0.
It was the worst of the times … 4 yellow cards for Brazil … half-hearted attempts at getting the ball into the nets … Kaka, Ronaldinho, Adriano - all lacklusture performances.
It was the best of the times … France were superb on the field … Henry, Patrick Vieira, Franck Ribery and Florent Malouda were a pleasure to watch … Zidane’s superb touches and virtuosi control.
I was supporting Brazil since the very start of the world cup, and I know another person who would be extremely disappoinated with this loss. Anyways, Portugal beating England was a welcome change and I loved that match. Somehow, I always have a thing about siding with the underdogs - for the simple reason that the passion to succeed is greater than the drive to defend.
Coming back to Brazil vs. France match, the winning team made it obvious that they were not easily intimidated. I would just wait for the next world cup, hoping that Brazil sports a mix of new and old “fit” players, who are not only innovative on field but also ready to experiment. The textbook techniques of playing football are not going to work for Brazil. They completely lacked the fast-passing and attacking manouvers in the game today.
One can only point out the mistakes and rue about them in disappointment. Whatever teams go into the semi-finals now, this World Cup will not be the same without Brazil.
It was a sudden shift from orange to pink for my mobile phone operator. From an extremely popular and widely recognized brand “Orange”, the mobile operator shifted itself to “Hutch” - a brand popular in Northern India. The transition was supposed to have no effect on the mobile subscribers and all the features and billing plans continued with the status quo. But the first change was imminent when the bill mailing envelope changed color from Orange-Black to Pink-White.
Whether this is related to the shift, or has reasons of its own, but the Hutch network in Mumbai has been deteriorating with time. The service has started to get irritaing with a lot of lost calls, network congestion error messages, erratic voice clarity, and conversations getting disconnected suddenly. It is high time that Hutch took note of this, and revamped its network to take care of such extreme problems. With Airtel on a subscriber addition binge, Hutch should take care not to let its existing customers shift to other operators because of bad network.
I had written about the highly priced GPRS service offering of Orange. However, it seems that Hutch has taken note of this and has reduced its entry level prices. But the data usage charges still remain the same for the INR 499 package; the same being higher for lower tariff plans. But the lower plans seem to be a good start for tapping the increasing pool of people interested in trying out the GPRS service. I am sure that Hutch must have seen an increase in the number of subscribers who have opted for this service.
With Reliance finalising its plan to provide GSM services as well, the competition is getting hotter. On one hand, mobile operators are looking at technologies like 3G and WiMax, but on the other their networks are getting badly marred because of high subscriber additions month-over-month; and no significant improvement in the infrastructure. The entry of Reliance into GSM space would not only mean increased competition and better tariff plans, but it would also put the existing GSM operators in Mumbai under a lot of pressure.
Whether the likes of Hutch take the new threat seriously, and ramp up their operations in order to counter Reliance’s entry - this is a question left for all of us to see within the coming six months. Expect a lot of action in the mobile telephony space. The space has suddenly become HOT and EXCITING.
I was having a pleasant evening today, sitting in my flat in Mumbai, watching a movie and was just going to sleep when an RSS feed popped in about delhi bombings. I was repulsed by the news to the very core. Just when normalcy was starting to set in and the festive mood was starting to liven up the spirits, such a nefarious act spoilt the whole passiveness and the relaxed mood that I had been carrying the whole day. I do not know why I felt so strongly against this inhuman act, but the pictures being shown on TV are very chilling. The gory sites of blasts, at three different places in Delhi, present a picture of utter sadness and gloom. Just heard the Prime Minister’s address to the nation and and his statements were the usual banter of how the nation is ready to face such acts and smeared with the usual cliche - ‘fight against terrorism’. A few days back I had read in the papers about advanced warnings being given to Indian intelligence agencies about some plans being hatched to bomb places in India. And inspite of such news and advanced knowledge of an impending disaster being planned, the security fails and there is utter chaos. Is this a failure of the government machinery, or the smartness of the terrorists to know about how to find loopholes and flaws in the arrangements? There will be a lot of questions and an equal number of ‘politically correct’ answers. No matter how much we Indians hate destruction and genocide, the face of terror always catches up at the most festive and most fraternizing times.
BBC is reporting that the number of people killed are above 50, and still counting. There are no news about the dead ones, and there is mass frenzy outside hospitals where the injured are being treated. People are waiting to know the news of well-being of their kin. And the police is not revealing anything as of now, causing more worry and frustration among the relatives of the injured. Not knowing whether your near ones are alive or dead, and hanging in a timeless loop of wait and jiffy, one can only imagine the pain the people both inside and outside the hospitals must be going through. It is so painful to assess and know the damage, as the sites of the blast were crowded and jammed with people, who were doing their Eid and Diwali shopping. This is one of the most hatred-filled and shameful acts carried out at this sacred time when people from all communities are getting ready to mingle. Whatever is the motive behind these blasts, I hope the nation emerges stronger and fights back in unison. Of course, sans any politician’s ‘brownie-point’ speeches.
My plans to buy an Apple Powerbook have been stalled as of now. After a lot of research on the laptops and pursuant feedback from people (including the Oohs and Aahs that I received as admiring replies when I told them that I am planning to buy an Apple notebook), I could not get it procured from the US. There were some logistics issues and further, the impending doubt of Apple coming out with G5 this year.
I have checked up the G4 1.5 GHz price here in Bombay, and the store in InOrbit at Goregaon is quoting around 1.09 lacs. This is for the standard configuration for the Powerbook 1.5 GHz model. It has a one year warranty. But this bears no comparison with the deal I was getting from US. The total cost for the laptop, if bought from US, was coming to INR 94,000. And this included additional 512 MB RAM (making it a total of 1 Gb), and three-year Apple Care International Warranty. This is a pretty neat deal compared to the prices in India.
I am wondering why there is so much margin and difference in prices for laptops and computers in India, as compared to the US. Further, there are hardly any educational discounts or company-sponsored financing schemes that I have come across till now. And on top of that, nobody wants to make an investment of 50-70k and end up with an average (mostly below average) laptop configuration, since this much amount makes a case for a long term investment in the product. I wonder when things would get cheaper here, and especially the ones which are the via media for sustaining the growth and pace of the Indian economy. The software services industry started early in India, but the growth can only be fuelled by making the tools of the trade easily accessible to people. At such high prices, people like me would need to do a double take on the buying decisions.
I went for the Tata Crucible Business Quiz competition, the Mumbai rounds for which were held yesterday. It was a good eye-opener as we could not manage to score very high.
The current mms craze that is filling up the first page of daily newspapers is the changing face of a new India. It is the biggest proof of how people are embracing technology. People who did not even know the difference between CDMA and GSM till date, can now give you a tutorial on mms messages. Whether the end result is the boom in revenue generation by telecom operators, or the excitement one gets in watching these widely circulated videos; the bottom line remains the same. MMS is the ‘in’ thing, and companies have started encashing on it. Free MMS have been converted into a paid service. The free lunch is over, thanks to the growing popularity of this new technology. Another catch-22 situation for the masses.
The topmost industrial powerhouse is in deep internal turmoil. Reliance Industries is going through a bad phase at this moment in time, as both the brothers, Mukesh and Anil, battle over the control and ownership issues. The brothers, who were once a symbol of booming family unity in a large business conglomerate, have taken a sudden turn. Its been less than a year after the death of their father, the great visionary industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani, that this contentious issue has suddenly surfaced to the very chagrin of the company shareholders. What has ensued is sudden panic and skepticism amongst the people, both inside and outside the company; the future of the company hanging in uncertainity. Its sad to see such a power hunger and turmoil inside the company’s top management, a company that has more or less stood for public service and spirit. The vestiges of greed and the hunger for control, the ancient sins, have finally found a new home. I hope this issue settles soon and some sense gets drilled into the troubled and blackened minds of the two brothers, who are sweating it out uselessly.
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