Minion Management.

I don't know why but a person that I know rather well told me how 'Minion Management' is making him go mad. When I used the term in front of a senior colleague she agreed whole-heartedly, her life has become hell after she has become de-facto bureau chief of a national publication in Mumbai and while she can can handle the story pressure, she admits 'Minion Management' is driving her nuts. The person who mentioned this to me, told me how difficult it is to deal with non-star 'star' reporters who think they're stars even before they start reporting. By the way, I always thought the best way to become a 'Star' reporter was to join Star News.
A big thankyou to Desipundit.com which mentioned my low-cost carrier economics posts, but a quick clarification here - i'll make this in the post as well - a major way that low-cost carriers can reduce their costs in Europe and the US is by operating to secondary airports. Ryanair, an option I studied last year when I was in Europe doesn't fly from any of Paris' two major airports - Chales De Gaulle (Roissy) or Orly, instead they use an airport called Charleoi which is an hours bus journey out of town. And not only do they have awful luggage allowances, the cost of getting to these far-out airports negates the cheap cost of the ticket. In fact, on my journey from Paris to Rome, I managed to get a cheap ticket on the now-defunct VolareWeb airlines, but chose to fly Alitalia instead which was almost as cheap and had generous luggage allowances - plus full Frequent Flyer Miles. And we got to fly from major airports. That said, if you have little luggage and don't have down-town meetings, LCC's might make sense, because these out-of-the-way airports have low landing charges and in fact often even subsidise the airlines to operate from their airports.
However, back to the point, Low-Costs in India have no such 'incentives', there are no secondary airports in India (Juhu aerodrome is hardly a airport, its more of a heliport and Safdarjung Airport is nigh-high useless) and costs other than labour are virtually the same as global standards. I really don't think this 'Low Cost' phenom will carry on for much longer.
It is awful what is happening to the city where you could go down to Bourbon Street and drink a couple of Bourbon's while watching great jazz. I've never been to New Orleans, but my boss and double-daddy have. Double-daddy, a two time visitor to the city is actually quite depressed. But nothing beats the statements I've been hearing on CNN, "There is urine, feces everywhere." While most of us in third world countries, especially ours are used to sights and sounds of disaster and poverty, Hurricane Katrina has struck one of the poorest regions of America and torn it to shreds. Another line I heard on CNN where one American anchor asks the reporter in New Orleans, "Did you ever imagine that you would be reporting about such human suffering from America?" The reply, "I don't even want to think about this question. This is not the America I grew up in." Honestly, if such a natural disaster can kill thousands in America, I shudder to think what would have happened if a cyclone of such magnitude happens in the Bay of Bengal. No wait, something like that did happen in 1974.
Yesterday, I also caught up with a friend who is trying to cut it in Bollywood and he was telling me stories of a father-son pair in Bollywood who not only drink together, they do cocaine together and they also fuck together. In fact, in the sons debut film which featured a former Miss India winner, the story goes that the father bedded the girl at night while the son bedded the girl in the afternoons. Even more interestingly, during a recent birthday party of the son, the father even threatened to shoot the son (he had a live gun in his hand) because the son had refused to take his phone calls. And the father has a bar-be-que fetish, the story goes that the father doesn't care if the lights or camera equipment reaches a location, the ber-be-que equipment must. At his Juhu office, the father bar-be-que's indoors, while four aircons blast out cold air and if you visit the man on business, you must, and this is serious, have his bar-be-que. However, it is believed that the man bar-be-que well. Hilarious!
Recently, I believe that the son was acting in one of his father's movies and told his dad that maybe a second take could be needed. The father replied, "Don't teach me how to fuck." Something the entire set heard. Such a line is absolutely priceless.
The new Aamir Khan ad for Toyota is going to be an awesome ad, the concept is amazing!
EDIT : Oh, and the ToI carried a small article about the Rapex, a device that would prevent a woman from getting by attaching itself to the tip of the penis of the would-be attacker. The device was launched in South Africa, a country which has the world's highest proportion of rapes to its population. Now, while I don't fundamentally disagree with the idea of such a device, say what is a father made his daughter wear one of these tampon like things and the device y'know bit off her boyfriend's thing? Its quite scary to think about from a guys point of view. But I have to agree that the mere though of such a device can put many perverted men off the idea of raping a woman. Methinks it should be launched in Delhi too. The picture is Sonette Ehlers, the inventor of the device. This was the original story in the South African Press. And a good SMH follow-up piece.