Quick Note

Since I have been formally outed in a rather snarky 'My moral (and monetary) victory' article by Avirook in Open. I read the 'article' as one person desperate to promote his new 'book' and a magazine desperate for people to pick up a few copies, but honestly I really don't have much to say. So you may well ask why on earth am I writing this then? This is not so much of a rejoinder, nor do I wish it to be a rejoinder. The real reason is in the last paragraph, so you can skip all the jibber-jabber in the middle.
Many people have that I sue the said parties for defamation. Honestly, that achieves nothing, and if you dish it out, you should expect to get get some back. And it ends up giving undue attention to a story that died long ago. Keep in mind that the person who wrote this piece has a history of resurrecting dead issues, not always accurately - recall the Aishwariya-Salman tapes with which HT Mumbai launched. But one bit is accurate, I'm a sweaty, fat, possibly lazy human being, with slightly dubious spelling skills, and I will not be apologetic about that. One can't be, even though I have been going to the gym of late. But as for the 'sweaty' bit, deodorant can only fight genes so far. And as for spelling, well, I get it wrong sometimes, and I only have myself to blame for ignoring the red, squiggly lines under words. But I write my own stuff.
What really was a bit irritating was that CS, that is to say, my father, was dragged into the article. Admittedly, given his political affiliation and occasional statements defending what 'we' in the 'liberal, elitist media' consider indefensible, and the all-too-frequent sniping between him and Jayanthi Natarajan, he never did have anything to do with this blog. Heck, my father despite his love affair with Blackberry's is not what you describe as a 'digital native'; and nor is he quite sure how the internet will transform journalism. Then again, he is more a politician now, and good for him. Just to clarify, I've never worked for my father, though I have contributed the occasional article to his publications. I do have right-of-centre political leanings, definitely from an economic and development standpoint, but I am not a registered member of any political party nor do I wish to be. Right now, at least.
Again, I digress. If this blog determined the course, or even had a starring role to play in the course and the implosion of a Rs 150-crore enterprise, says a hell of a lot about the power of the medium and the influence this blog wielded. I still believe what happened at NewsX was a break-down in personal equations, there was from what I believe gross misuse of funds by several parties. Certain people given their closeness to certain other people got into trouble because of that. It was mildly gratifying to know that people lost sleep over this blog rather than lose sleep because of early morning flights (I shall refrain from using another term right now).
So after a weekend of contemplation, some Nikka whiskey, much merriment and catching up on Big Bang Theory, I think I should restart the blog. Bigger and better than before. That of course requires a business plan, and I know several other people have thought of the idea, but a bit of infamy helps. There will be infrequent posts for a while, as I get things together, since I am also getting married in the meantime, but I have something up and running soon enough. Something more than a blog. As for revenge, my question is 'Why?'

Kushan

EDIT: Slight syntax corrections and to reply to Abhi, heck, if infamy means pageviews and Adsense moolah, is that evil?

Tuesday Tunes

A senior Editor who was exhorting me to change jobs recently told me something strange, “More people read your blog than read you.” Of course I defended myself vainly, but there was a slight iota of truth about that. My claim to media notoriety is not through halfway-decent stories but through halfway-shitty blog which is usually badly written, almost always an un-subbed first draft but somehow quite a few people like it. So much so that at a wedding reception last night, someone commented how my post frequency has come down. I mean this is not a blog being written by a high-class escort girl, so sometimes the blog’s popularity seriously befuddles me occasionally. Times like right now, downtime between stories and meetings and before I open my Amazon Kindle review unit to come face-to-face with Jeff Bezos’ idea of the future of the media.

Maybe I need to do a big-ass story again, though it has only been a couple of months. And the urgency to do giganormous epics of government failings or corporate skullduggery isn’t as urgent as that of having regular sex. Honestly, I would rather drive a fast car right now and then drown in a barrel of 17-year old Malt. You know that the smaller A-roads are absolutely wonderful in the Scottish Highlands. I’m sorry but I’m feeling bored and this is what I would rather be doing right now than hearing my fingers not-so-gentle maul my HP keyboard.

Come to think of it I do type extremely loudly.

Sorry, but I genuinely feeling extremely bored right now, I have finished reading all the webcomics I follow and short of suddenly attempting to finish all the unread posts over on my RSS reader – which I can’t because accessing Fleshbot in office is a total ‘No-No’ and there is only so much of gadgets and electronics I can take (no, really) before I want to take a soldering iron to my head. And our kindly office IT admins have banned YouTube in office, not that the craptastic internet connention they have here could serve up too many pointless videos of people trying to be Jedi’s anyway. There is something wrong with the world when your home connection is faster than the office connection.

Anyway, I’m close to expending 400 words on this post. If I was in a daily I would consider my job done and go home, and if I had a box 360 I would play some Forza 3. But nope, the lure of big-ass story is strong!

Even though, there is a special joy in staying home on a working day.

PS: In response to a couple of 'friends' - I am not, repeat not, a high-class escort. I am pretty sure that they have a lot more fun than I do, and I am not going to be one to judge, but if someone (anyone) was to pay to have sex with me, they would need to be brain-dead, blind coot. Then again, if you have trawled the internet as long as I have you will know that you can find people with any sort of perversion online. Even so...

PPS: It isn't as if I don't 'believe' in what I write, other than the occasional load of boredom and being stuck in something patently unenjoyable, I genuinely have fun on the job most of the time. Which is why I've not been a 'bouncer'.

On another note.

I just love this line.

At their heart, most pseudonymous identities are collaborations between the author, who provides the outline of a persona, and the audience, which fills in the blanks. The result is a sort of virtual superhero, an oracle more accurate than any mortal could hope to be. Compared to the elusive mastermind of the collective imagination, the real author inevitably disappoints.

From this month’s Wired.

Back to regular programming now. Which over here usually means clearing up masses of spam comments placed by guys who run Search Engine Optimisation firms. Other than that what news? Well, some Undies have been left out to dry as Undie is getting rid of Imagine – which should actually be known as the Sameer Nair family show (with Rakhi Sawant on the side). With Turner exiting Real, effectively the second flop channel after Peter and Indrani Mukerjea’s INX whatever, they’ve decided to get into used Undies. Not that I watch much of what are termed as General Entertainment Channels, though I must admit I did see a bit of Rakhi’s show and I will watch bits and pieces of ‘Who wants to be beaten up by an abusive husband?’ where Rahul Mahajan fritters away whatever little is left of his father’s legacy.
But good for him, everybody has the right to make money. And abuse substances. Even Andre Agassi. Listen the guy did drugs at a low-ebb of his life and I don’t know why the entire contrite moral brigade – hypocrites that they are – are condemning him. I actually found myself agreeing with Rick Reilly’s assessment of Agassi on his blog and I will buy the book. I liked Andre Agassi as a kid, his was a player with heart and not like a robot – both the one Agassi played against and the other one today. The robots are good but dull. And Agassi is the one that married Steffi Graf!
In other news, well it seems that the media’s horrible tradition of personal life destruction continues. And we stick with the same network, I’m not surprised at marriages breaking up and the fascination for older people, but the cast involved sometimes baffles me. To take a guess, there is a reason why some people call the evening prime time talking-head shows on NDTV (other than the 9PM news itself) the ‘boyfriend’ shows. I won’t be a hypocrite and pass comments on the lack of stability in people’s lives, but the sooner that both media bosses and HR inside the companies realize that, particularly their ace reporters/anchors, in both print and television do not have healthy and/or steady personal lives, that is a problem. This is worse than alcohol, well and in many cases it is pretty much responsible for alcohol abuse.
People can call journalists names, accuse us of biases and you know what, we all have biases. I try my utmost to not let my opinion of something affect something I’m working on, but any journalist, even the dumbest ones would be lying if they said that their biases did not impact them. The fact that some of us have been brought up the way we have comes through in the way we write or present. The fact remains that this is a job, and if you are good at what you do, and this is the sad part, you are usually asked to do more than you can handle simply because you are good.
The fact is that most journalists in most organizations would be what club football calls squad players, average for lack of a better word. If you are ‘an International’, and sorry for the football analogies here, you life is destined to be a horrible one. Yes, you will enjoy great professional success, meeting some really important people and your phone-book will bulge, or in some cases your mobile is so full of numbers that it pretty much stops functioning properly. It is a great feeling believe me, but man that completely screws up your sense of priorities and in many cases your life, because above all else it gives you a tremendously inflated opinion of yourself and sometimes you just can’t see clearly of who does matter. This is not about cracking a sale or becoming a General Manager, you really have access to power.
I should know, believe me. Thankfully, most of those closest to me in this profession, other than one notorious hold-out have managed to piece together their lives. Somewhat. But, honestly unless some action is taken, and taken soon things will only get worse. And the action should start from an organisation that needs it more than any other. The one in a disused cinema hall.

Tired

I've just not been my week, yes Arsenal just about beat Roma in the Champions League, trhanks to Julio Baptista playing the way he usually does. I've hardly slept in the last few days, and have survived on a diet of pure coffee and (yesterday at least) French Fries.
But we'll get to the French Fry bit later on, but surprisingly it was great fun. You know the bit about life being about experiences and doing a whole host of things before you die. Well, at the rate I'm going I have fairly impressive list of 'Things I really wonder why I did but don't really have a problem having in a stupid list' list. Hey, I've been to a radial tyre factory. Have you? Trust me, it isn't half as exciting as sitting on a beach supping on a freshly caught lobster with a nice glass of Pinot by your side.
But then again, I've been to a radial tyre factory. And factories and places where several everyday things are made and strange things happen. I've been inside the homes of guys who have killed themselves with pesticide so that their families can get government compensation. I've seen pits with thousands of dead chickens and I've eaten the most amazing food at some of the most ridiculously expensive places.
But sometimes I feel like I need to sleep. And right now at four in the afternoon, with my body screaming out loudly that it needs to sleep I want to go back to a nice comfortable bed. And snore. So please excuse this post. I don't think the bhang has totally come off as yet and my face is still pink. These mid-week festivals take a heavy toll.

Not an alternative career

I'm not writing this as a disgruntled blogger, because I am not disgruntled. But blogging is not a career option for journalists. No matter how much you game the system and click on the adverts you won't make much money. In over two and a half years I've raked in about $200, maybe because I can have better advertising placement but mainly because there is not too much money to be made. Sure, you can make a few hundred dollars a month if you do this seriously and a few hundred dollars at the current exchange rate is bloody good, but I doubt it will keep the home fires going. Blogging, or micro-blogging are not career options. The blog networks set up by Nick Denton in the US are laying off people. A well-run blog can make money, more money than some new magazines because the cost of bandwidth and server space is miniscule compared to the cost of newsprint, but as a career option. On a badly designed blog! Sorry to burst the bubble folks, but the bubble does not exist. Read Dan Lyons experience with the FSJ blog, and this guy ran a truly popular blog and is a 'propah' journo.
PS: Only 'propah' journos can do what Dan did to a CNBC twat, though after watching a lot of CNBC US, I'm pretty sure that the kids at CNBC TV18 are far smarter than their US counterparts. Though, really that isn't saying much.

Stylistic

Erm, this is a shout out to the guy who keeps complaining that he finds this blog tough on his eyes. Changing styles on the Blogger platform is not easy, if I had to do such a change I might as well move over to WordPress, and honestly I don't have the time to move bag and baggage. I have made some initial progress towards making this a 'bigger' project, but give me some time.
As I said, this isn't my day job, so while a post can be fired off in a couple of minutes a shift is a bit more complicated and I don't wish to change templates. If you want to read this slightly bigger (and I appreciate that on certain resolutions, font size is an issue) you can do one of several things - first re-adjust your screen settings or increase the font size through your browser. But ideally, I would seriously suggest subscribing to the feed and read it through Google Reader. Gives you more flexibility.
I know I write posts here just like I file copy and, single space between paragraphs, and automated systems take care of spacing. I don't think blogs are about style - double spacing et. al. It is a blog after all.

For God's Sake

You know what bugs me, is people sending me requests for links. I appreciate that you've worked very hard on your link sharing site and how nice it is, but for crying out loud, I don't have the time or the patience to do your SEO work for you - and spam comments are worse. But sickly sweet emails talking about how someone did something and essentially tried to copy Digg/Facebook or Twitter is useless. How come I'm not surprised that ever since the slowdown there is less and less news of people setting up social networking sites. Why should someone (this this case Undie TV) spend hordes of cash setting up a video-sharing site when YouTube is already there (and you work with them). The idea of the internet is not about re-inventing the wheel or building a new road - the wheel was invested (probably with Indian and Chinese help) in the US, the highways already exist. But car companies are all going bankrupt but guess who is making money - parking lots! Make sure your parking lot is better than the others and not some crappy SEO-optimised site which when Google's spiders get smart will go all the way back down. Anyway, most crappy SEO stuff is now about 'online reputation enhancement' - make sure all the crappy stories that have your name don't come up in Google's first page by creating fake stories about yourself and then cross-linking a bunch of PR3 or PR4 sites. Anyway, just ranting.

Pink'ed!

Not me, but I hear that the proverbial 'Pink Slip' is going out over the coming week in a couple of large media groups to quite a few employees in the form of machine generated emails. Angry mails from senior editors are doing the rounds (great way to build up morale) and employees have all been told to buckle up - well, shape up. In several language channels, you know the way that some of them expanded there are hundreds of 'silent' lay-offs.
How bad is the scene? By some estimations between 1500-2000 jobs in the media sector in India have already vanished, but that includes ad-sales and marketing which make up two-thirds of job-losses by conservatiive estimates. And these numbers do not include 'internet' operations of media firms such as Firefly or Times Business Solutions which have been cutting back as well.
This is a small note, if you have been laid off or think your job is under threat because you don't work enough and spend the day reading crap like this, just know your rights if you're asked to go. The economy is down and the PR escape route isn't there anymore and don't think that 'Blogging' is quite an exciting way to make money either because this is a popular blog - I was amazed when I consolidated my feeds into one just to discover I have over 500 subscribers (yes, that is why I put ads onto the feeds) - but money... well, bits and pieces. Sure, it would be possible for me to consolidate and get something going if I wanted to because I have an established base, but then again that won't exactly mint money. I blog because I like the noise my fingers make when the bang on the keyboard. No seriously. I'm addicted to tappity-tap. Well, it is a better addiction than stuffing your nose.
Anyway, the comments and the email line are open if you hear of lay-offs please let me know and please vent if you want to. How was the procedure handled, were your resignation letters on your desk when you arrived, a la (unnamed company) SEZ employees? Or were you told that times are bad, or that you're a worthless gorm? Do you think your media masters are spending large sums of money on 'consultants' or on launching a television channel that is sucking up resources? Tell the world.
In the meantime, the rest of you, get back to work!

Online Advice

When the owners first send a mail asking employees to think about every phone call, yes every phone call, then attack floaters that their organisation has hired given the guidance from the top (guess where from?) over the years. Then in a more recent mail attacks the organisation for being lazy and sleeping on the job. This is not a good sign!

But now their 'celebrity' correspondent attacks people on the internet as having malafide intentions instead of engaging with them. I believe that a 4500 member group on Facebook is not malafide, rather it is symptomatic of a crisis. The best way of dealing with this is engaging with users. The Naval Chief drags up an old controversy and the only journalist to come to your defence is an old friend and the paper which prints your column but several others keep quiet - does the establishment concur or is the defence of the journalist not seen as worth it. 

I really don't know about the veracity of the allegations, I was in college during the Kargil War and really didn't bother watching every waking minute of it on telly. But we lost a lot of soldiers in that war and their memory, above all else must never be forgotten nor must Musharraf's treachery, remembering Kargil for this is stupid. 

But why are there so few defenders, why did Admiral Mehta have so many people back him? And there were people supporting him, you got that sense at dinners and parties. Have so many bridges been burnt over the years and do so many people have it in for her? Or is it the failure to recognise that there is a problem. And there is a way to deal with this problem, and not go about it in a ham handed way.

Let me think of some answers here.

Firstly, most blogs are not sensational or have thousands of readers. Many of them are small, personal and opinionated. However, if several thousand people all over the world have a negative opinion about you, something that can be gauged from a variety of sources such as Technorati, deal with it. The beauty of the internet is that it is democratic, it can give someone completely useless fifteen minutes of fame, it can also bring down somebody. I will agree that there is a lot of slanderous stuff online, like the stuff about me having sex in an ATM (I wish!). And yes, there are bloggers who will spread such unsubstantiated bunkum more and might cite Wikipedia as a source (the perils of trusting Wikipedia, then again journalists across India do, I mainly read Wikipedia for WW2 stories like this cool one). When the number of such bloggers is low, you can hopefully ignore it, but when a large number of the online population starts grumbling - take notice - and engage. You engage with readers and viewers - no wait, that is just Delhi dinner parties. 

But back to my point, the internet and especially Google Search is becoming rather integral to all our lives. Many of us do ego-search. Now when something like this happens, there is a lot of cross-linking across blogs. Now, if you have the Google toolbar on Firefox or IE (PS: anyone know how to see PR on Chrome?) you see a little green bar, that represents pagerank, which is calculated by a complex algorithm, that includes these links and the term. More links like this and your Google search results are doomed - well as you can see - they're not very good right now. Shit, I really didn't know they were that bad. Damn, I'd be pissed off if things were this bad too. 

Regulation is not the answer, because you can never shut up all your critics online, because you'll have critics everywhere. You'll have your supporters too. But many critics can be won over if you bother to engage. They're not like the Pakistani government mired in decades of thinking of India as the enemy. They're desis, like all desis they have strong and often misguided and misinformed opinions, I mean we still vote criminals in huge numbers into Parliament. That is not the point, as an opinionmaker, your job is to not only shape opinions but also to an extent be shaped by opinions. The latter part isn't happening.

Oh, and the next time you say 'Regulate the Internet' - don't expect online support for the 'Please do not regulate TV Channels' plea that you guys will put out. Listen, recognise the internet as the future of media distribution, engage with it, participate in it and not just with 'zombie fans', and hey... maybe next time, the shit won't hit the fan. This is not meant as an ill-itentioned post. I don't want to get at anybody nor do I have any malafide intentions towards anybody, but this sort of whacked out response bothers me.

I love controversy, don't I?

I am not posting in support of anybody or even in support of 'blogging' in general, but sometimes some stuff can be deliciously good fun. Such as an organisation mired in losses (Rs 120 crore last quarter) that plays videos from the internet probably violating copyright and lays off lots of young kids protecting their most reviled asset. Incidentally, I have the 'dummy copy' of the new RPG magazine called 'Open' edited by Sandipan Deb (not 'Talk' since the RNI didn't give that registration) and I will quote a blurb from Page 28 of this dummy magazine sent out to several advertisers and media buyers (PS: It is a very nice looking magazine, I won't pass judgement on its commercial viability but it looks nice and the photography is surprisingly good). The blurb goes...
"I loathe close-ups of dead bodies, I loathe reporters asking survivors 'how do you feel'" - Barkha Dutt, Journalist.
Don't sue me, it won't be worth it!
This is a cache of the offensive post! (Abhishek has a copy of the 'offensive' post here)
And the apology tendered!
Amit Agarwal steps in!
As does DesiPundit
And Smoke Signals
I really think that when Wikipedia puts in adjectives in a profile, well, thatb proves that the site is shoddy, but how NDTV manages to constantly manage to piss off its core audience amazes me. Times are tough for everyone, and whern your losses are mounting pissing off viewers is not a smart move. Honest! The Mediaah! incident happened too long ago when the community was far too small, but Ponytail C still pays somewhat of a price for taking people on, it would be a shame if NDTV manages to shoot itself slap-bang in the ass on this matter.
But I'll keep filling you guys in on it. Dang, if January 2009 has been such a bomb of a month online in India, what about the coming eleven months. I can't wait!

Again and again...

HT launched their all-new bloggers today. That said, only one post is any fun, but what fun! Previous posts on the issue - the start of the matter, my crappy analysis, someone else wades in feeling indignant about something and there will be peace, no wait, that blood, right?

And this is a nice afaqs piece on the adverts for equity model being followed. Surprisingly, HT Media also announced in their last quarterly results that they'll be doing exactly the same thing.

EDIT: Afaqs link corrected

Whoops

The problem with comment moderation is that sometimes you inadvertently end up deleting comments. Sorry Sandip (I just saw your email), you double-posted the same comment and I end up deleting both and I one anonymous one also. Yikes!
Anyway, the jist is simple - while many Indians will never accept the idea of giving up Kashmir, maybe even half a century from now, and the argument will be used that so much blood has been spilled that we can't give it up. But starting with trifurcation of the state while in Indian control, done in a manner that the rivers keep flowing through Ladakh can be a start. Getting rid of the National Conference and the PDP can be step two (or step one). I'm thinking of the problem as a body part afflicted by frostbite, if you don't amputate it the pain is unbearable and you could die of gangarene. Sir Ranulph Fiennes is no less of an explorer because he misses the tops of the digits on his left hand is he.
Of course, there is the other solution - that is waiting for Pakistan to disintegrate, which without Mushy it just might. Imagine if we got Sindh back, our national anthem would sound complete again.

Yes, I should proof-read blog posts too

I proof my stories before I fire them off, and I should start taking equal care with my blog posts. But I will not edit the last post and will keep the comments as a reminder to myself of my tardiness. I apologise for that, but I've always written posts in a sort of 'stream of consciousness'. Yesterday I fired off the post in ten minutes and I didn't bother to read it even once.

Yes, I speak Bangla and I am Bengali, even my mother who reads this blog (thankfully only occasionally) decided to point that out to me, and the worst thing was that these were not mistakes of ignorance, they were mistakes of laziness. And laziness is worse than ignorance.

Again, I apologise for the rushed, grammatically horrible post. As a writer, one who writes for a living, these are bad mistakes to make. I know that this blog has a life of its own but I should start taking it a bit more seriously, which is why I've added all the comments about the last post.

I'm posting a couple of pictures along with the post, I should have added these yesterday but I didn't have a micro-USB cable with me in Calcutta. The pictures were clicked on a Nokia N78, so the quality isn't DSLR level, but they aren't half-bad either I believe. Until the story gets printed, I can't quite say where they were clicked - I had disabled the location tagging software on the device as well. Or so I think. OK, the only hint that I will give, and good Bongs might work out where I was, is that I ended my day in Tarakeshwar.

More about gossip and all later, including how horribly petty some senior journalists can be, a rampant drug-abuse problem among journalists particularly in one city, in which I also played a role recently, but which has existed for years. And more, as always send in your comments, even the really nasty ones (I won't publish those, but still I need to get worked up sometimes) and you can always email me, the address is on the right bar. To add this blog to your feed-reader, click this link. Take care guys and remember to buy your booze tonight if you live in India.

Please grow up...

To,
Some Idiotic Readers
Listen, I'm sick and tired of this 'Daddy' bullshit, I've faced it for eight years and if someone mentions it again I'll probably kill him or her. Do some research into my family history and my angst with my father before you post something like this again. Yes, my father has helped me, that's what they are there to do. But my father has not made me a good or a bad journalist, I've never worked for him, though I have contributed to his institutions. I do call him and meet him occasionally, but I do not have any interest in his businesses, none whatsoever. As for the award, niether of my parents, and as far as journalists go, I think my step-father is a lot more influential than my father, knew I had applied until I told them to land up for the ceremony.
For better or for worse, he is my father. You can't help where you're born and if some of you are jealous about that, I will not explain this again. If you have the balls, please say this in front of me, don't hide behind anonymous comments, because it isn't rocket science to figure who anyone is. I don't want to be modest, but I'm a far better journalist than most. If you know who I am and can't deal with that, don't read the blog. And chill with the threats of 'outing' me, I'll know who did it.
Anyway, all I would request you to do is grow up, you're free to disagree with what I write here, but I don't want any more silly comments about how my father helped me in my career.
Regards
K

Wow...

So I'm a novice that knows jackshit about politics, what to do yaar! I just happen to know a lot more than you think. And about cracking my identity, I've said several times before it isn't a state secret by any stretch of the imagination. Thanks for the compliments any which way, as GW would say - 'Appreciate It, and thanks for letting us use your airspace to do dummy runs.'
And really people, those of you who think I know nothing about this or that - write your blogs and pontificate there, don't threaten me because those threats are irritating if nothing else. Irritating with a capital 'I'. Really! My blog, I'll put the aerlion pics up, and I know your IP address, so thanks!

Starting off...

I have a couple of rants planned for later today, but first to answer the comment where I asked 95FM to play more contemporary music - why am I still bombared by 2006 or 2007 music, Mika and Timbaland for god's sake! It's June 2008, and I haven't ever a song from big albums last year - In Rainbows, Raising Sand, or even for that matter new cutting-edge hip-hop. And don't radio stations usually get albums before they launch, P2P networks certainly do. Remind me that when I buy my new car, buy one with a iPod plug-in. I've found FF3 to be fairly stable on three different machines.
Anyway, as a Delhi-ite we've suffered at the airports, now we're going to also suffer thanks to rising air-fares, but this is supposed to be the future for Delhi airport! I'll believe it when I see it!

My new favorite saying too.

I was reading Mark Cuban's fairly entertaining blog BlogMaverick - and if you track media/internet sort of things it is a fairly entertaining read given his stance against the Googolopoly of the interwebs - when I came across this post. And I must say, somewhere down there it did resonate.
"Today is the youngest you will ever be. Act like it."
(Though this comment is also true)

Sleepy

The France-Italy game got me so charged up that I didn't end up sleeping before four (I was watching The Weakest Link on BBC Entertainment - Anne Robinson has a hypnotic voice) and despite making attempts to cover my head with the pillow (and murdering a case of Tiger), I really didn't end up sleeping 'too' late today. So today has been one of those dazed days where I bang on the keyboard aimlessly. I desperately want to go back home and play Ninja Gaiden II on the console. By the way, I kept my pledge and am using Firefox 3 right now, quite nice!
As for revenue streams, I am more than willing to start something here, this blog has tremendous untapped revenue potential. But before that I need to give this blog a makeover - from a design perspective and that isn't happening until I get around to it.
Talking about banging aimlessly on a keyboard, I have a couple of things to write for my 'official' blogs. Yes, I do also now blog under my own name for my employer and I should be filing a bit more there also. Check them out if you have the time sometime - since I'm assuming the more regular readers of this blog know who I am. Those who don't, let me assure you the interesting stuff is still here.
And a quick link back to a post I made a while ago on how to subscribe to Rich Site Syndication (RSS) feeds, particularly for this blog since someone asked me again how to read a 'blog' anonymously. If you want to get every post on your email, check out RSSFwd, a service that allows you to do just that. However, you will still have to come here to make comments (and I like the comments, even the not so nice ones) but you can always get in touch over email at Presstalk (at) Gmail (dot) com.

Request.

Given that this blog seems to have a life of its own, people constantly send me requests or comments pushing their new web properties (A Google PageRank of 4/10 isn't half bad, but I will not use it indiscriminately). Guys and Girls, I'm sure some of that stuff is very good, and I must tell you some of the stuff that gets sent is nothing but a bad copy and while I completely agree that there is a lack of good content online in India, duplicate websites are not the way forward, even though some VC's I have spoken to argue about 'concept arbitrage' - the market is in content creation. Get maniacal nutcases who love slamming a keyboard, clicking pictures and taking pictures on-board and that's that! Keep on sending me stuff, but don't expect me to write about them.

Links

This comment had a link to this interesting news item that more bloggers are getting arrested nowadays - not surprising, sinmce there are more bloggers across the world. However, I feel that this other article I read was even more interesting, on how bloggers are approaching journalists to hone their 'journalist' skills. Maybe our celebrity ranters like RGV could do with these lessons too.
I have said several times that the internet is blurring the boundaries of journalism and several people have written epics on this, but I still do not believe that 'Citizen Journalism' as is being touted by several websites promising money and yada, yada is not going to work. Most articles on these sites are little but rehashes of agency news copy, badly written and worst of all, most of the stuff there are rants. I still think that India is a way from creating a Huffington Post (and even they have 'proper' journalists) and it definately will not be created by someone who is trying to be a AdSense scammer. It is the internet stupid, blogs cost nothing!
Anyway, Election 2009 (or maybe 2008) will be heavily blogged about in India for sure. The problem for many people sitting in Delhi is that usually hear the half-swallowed words of a city-slicker who has gone to a village with Rahul Gandhi singing his praises. Maybe not even a city-slicker, but even smarter people. Now, with the democratisation of information, I should be able to find out a lot more about what is actually happening. Even Google has an opinion about it, not about India but on elections+internet in the US.
That said, Election 2009 will be a major differentiator for the news channels, how they report (and predict) the elections will probably make or break some newer channels.