Entries from May 2006 ↓

Well, everything has its yin and yang side;
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

I wonder if the above holds true for the coverage of the ongoing Reservation-Quota story in the electronic media and print media. We see only one side of the story. They cover 80% of anti-reservation and only 20% of pro-reservation.

If it’s “The Rage over Quotas”, “Ghost of Mandal Returns”, “The Fire Spreads”, “Losing Patience”, “Deserve vs. Reserve”, “Doctors Defiant”, “Death of Merit” caption for their Quota-Reservation issue coverage; it’s almost the same in the case of the Print media. It’s “OBCBM- OBC Ballistic Missile” , “Mandal - II” , “100% reserved for family (indicating the PM post)”,etc. These days, I don’t watch much of Television (/me blames CAS) but I’ll tell how biased the newspapers are.

We subscribe to two Newspapers, The Hindu and Deccan Chronicle. There is a ocean of difference when it comes to quota coverage and related articles. While The Hindu presents a neutral stand, Deccan Chronicle on the other hand is entirely Anti-reservation.

Immature Coverage
To be honest, We buy Deccan Chronicle as an additional read to The Hindu and it costs only a rupee rs. 1.50. I read it for the rumours, I get to see a lot of chicks, read film news and many more “masti and masala” reads. Even so, I get irritated while I read the newspaper. It’s full of anti-reservation.

If the News channels can recycle some visuals endlessly, Deccan Chronicle does it in a different way. The have a cartoon section (”Here and Now - Sudhir Tailang”) which have anti-reservation cartoons for almost 5-6 times a week. It almost seems that they are desperate to reach out that they are also anti-reservation.

Another article which amused me was the :”GenY join hands against quota issue” in their ‘Teens’ section of Chennai Chronicle (May 22, page 25). While there might be no error or anything wrong with it but the whole thing showed Deccan Chronicle in a poor light. Don’t we all know that students are protesting? Do we need to be reminded that they are “GenY” or do we need a photo of pretty girls protesting? Don’t they know that there are also a pro-reservation protests and rallies in the opposite camp and are they not “GenY”?

An ocean of difference - The Hindu and Deccan Chronicle
Let’s see how The Hindu is covering the whole issue. Their Editorial (as far as my knowledge goes they printed only twice; one at the time of the proposal and the other one was how to strike a balance between merit and social inequality) was good and was presently neatly without takes sides. The Hindu also published a two part series on an Alternate proposal to strike a balance between merit and social inequality and a survey created by Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) jointly written by Professor Yogendra Yadav.

Right from the Editorials, Cartoons, guest columns, pictures, letters to the editors and even the reader columns (Open page - Sunday Edition; The Hindu) there was a vast difference in the way that both the newspapers covered the whole issue. One was biased to the core (Deccan Chronicle) and the other showed both sides of the story (The Hindu).

While one newspaper (The Hindu) goes beyond the raging debate and ponders into the alternate proposal and goes beyond the rhetoric of reservations, the other one (Deccan Chronicle) still covers the protests, rallies & childish cartoons and that too is biased. It’s any body’s guess which paper most of the people would like to read.

“We are with you and support your cause”
As I have said earlier, Deccan Chronicle got news which is basically targeted towards younger section of the readers. The got chicks and pretty girls on their end pages, rumours, film news, got to look good, “glamour and class” rules their contents. So it’s not surprising that there coverage is also biased and one sided.

When a Newspaper has a class constituency (or a section of readers they target), the labels tell the constituency that the Newspaper is with it on this issue.

The job of the media is to cover and show the events in an unbiased manner. They need to strike a balance between the two sides of the coin. Maybe only in the Editorials, Columns they can be bias which is again purely the author’s personal opinion. Their job is to only dish out the stuff, it’s upto to the readers to taste it and see if they like it.

More Reads: Taking Sides (About the same issue but with the electronic media)

Sania Mirza slips to 3 places to 38th in latest WTA Rankings

For the past 2-3 months her ranking had oscillated just 6-7 places. Sania Mirza moves up 2 places, slips 4 places, retain her position in the latest WTA rankings. Sania Mirza this, Sania Mirza that. Moi got fed up.

I got some suggestions for her!

1. Reduce her weight
I dunno if she’s a foodie, anyhow she needs to have slim figure to perform better on the field. Also I read that her weight is putting in a lot of pressure on her heels and is a cause for concern.

During the injured period, she should been “rehabilitated” and should have reduced her plumb figure.

2. Stop playing doubles or mixed doubles
As far as I can remember, no Player ever played doubles / mixed doubles during his/her peck or while he/she was young and improving in the singles game. Even if she’s playing for money, it does not make any sense. She’s earning through advertisements and endorsements from Deutsch Bank to Sprite to Hyundai Motors to TATA Tea to even government girl children program thing.

It’s going to fatigue her and will cause burnout. I have seen that she had a singles and a doubles match in the same day for more than two occasions. She’s the loser if the doubles is gonna continue. Singles should be her priority and her focus and concentration need not bypass the same to doubles.

This is actually going to help her in the long run as she can have a (pro)longed career and earn a lot (if that’s her intension). I fail to understand why she needs to play doubles when she can improve her game in singles.. or am I missing something her?

3. Anger Management
Scene 1 :- Sania Mirza argues with the match referee over the decisions ruled against her.

Scene 2 :- Irked by a volley of “personal” questions, Sania Mirza walked out of a crowded press conference organised in connection with a function organised by the Malabar Group of companies.

We all know it’s no use in arguing with the field referee (unless it’s a Clay court!). no way they are going to roll back their rulings. The players loose their concentration while attempting a scuffle. I really don’t know if this is a lame thing, but anger will never help ya getting anywhere.

Let her actions speak up for her. No need to use T-shirts or get involved in controversies (Sex speak about AIDS or rather be a public speaker. Great players hardly got in trouble at their peaks) at this point of time when she needs to be focused and concentrate on the game.

She is a great player. She needs some ‘tweaking’ done with her attitude. Hope she recovers from her injuries and play well at the French Open Grand Slam.

And to the news channels: Get a life. Give us (and Sania) a break. Please forget her rankings for now.

I like Prison break and escape plots very much. In fact I have written a post long about such movies also. Here it is : Top 6 Prison Break/Escape Movies. I am gonna add more movies and will soon post a sequel to that list.

So some readers recommended it in that post and I asked my friend to download the series. At that point of time, only 13 episodes had been aired and watched them all. I liked it very much. Got hooked to it. In my opinion, Prison Break is the best thing that has ever happened to TV shows.

Here is the plot: This drama focuses on a structural engineer who gets himself thrown into prison to help his falsely accused brother escape death row. Described as in the vein of The Great Escape , the series will unfold over 22 episodes, charting the course of a single break. Pretty interesting if you ask me.

Prison Break Vs Lost
Many of us compare Prison Break with Lost. I have also seen lost upto 5th episode in the season 2. Lost is also good, but I liked Prison break more than lost. Lost has these irritating flashbacks and most of them were unwarranted and could be done away with. I think they should have cut down atleast 55-60% of the flashbacks. The main plot and activity at the island loses sheen. Flashbacks are speed-breakers to the main plot. Maybe Lost might get better as I see more episodes in the ongoing season 2.

In Prison Break, we had flashbacks but all of the lot were in the same epic, so the main plot at the Fox River was interesting and absorbing. There are no pretty and hot girls lurking in Prison break unlike Lost. So as far as I am concered Prison Break rulez.

I have the complete 22 episodes in 2 DVDs and will watch them over again sometime in the future again. I downloaded the episodes from various Private torrent tracker sites.

Now eagerly waiting for the Season two of Prison Break which is named Manhunt slated for release this Fall Summer 2006 sometime in September.

I was amused when I checked the news that I&B Ministry won’t let the Censor Board to pass the movie without seeing and reviewing. The movie will be first watched by authorities from the Catholic Bishops Conference of India on May 18 and the next step will be taken. The movie (and the book) has already banned in Lebanon, Philippines, and Singapore, its now run into some rough weather in India. (Why is Malaysia not in the list?). Read more.

Why?

The movie is due to release this Friday, May 19th. I really don’t know if it will be out this week itself here in India, atleast not this week at Chennai. The movie was announced a long time back, but why are the Catholic Christian people protesting now? That too just 3-4 days before it’s release? They might read the book as well or atleast knew it contents. Why did they not ban the book or protest against the selling it?

Why:-

1. The Censor board passed the movie, that too without any Adults only or R Rating? Why has the issue come up after it had passed it?
2. Protest so late when you knew that movie is gonna hit at some specific point of time?
3. Not ban/protest against the book? After all it had the same stuff that the movie is gonna have.
4. Even the movie Passion of the Christ was a fictional work and is not more credible than Da Vinci code. Why did people din’t have any problems with Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ where it was portrayed that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had sex?
5. The Da Vinci Code has sold 40 million copies which is still a fraction of what the Bible has sold so why are all the Christians in an uproar?

People who think this movie/book will ruin the church’s rep are the people who take it too seriously. Remember, it is a FICTION story! I watch movies to entertain me. Not to change my religion or views on life.

Get the publicity going…

I am sure Sony Pictures will love this negative Publicity. We all know what happened in the case of The passion of the Christ. Kaavya Viswanathan’s book “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life,” did roaring business in Chennai (and other places in India) which otherwise the junta might not even had a damn clue about her and her plagiarism.

It was because of the all the publicity that the book did some record sales in India and other parts. Now, the same is going to happen to the movie. People will want to check the movie to just see what’s all the fuss going on.

And of course if you really want people not to see it, the last thing you should do it protest it. It’s giving it all kinds of free publicity. Someone mentioned the Muslim cartoons…besides a few readers in Denmark, no one else would have ever seen them if they didn’t start the protests. Look what protesting did for the passion of the Christ. These are just movies; they are 100% fiction and the makers know that.

Do whatever you can…
Why should we be worried if the movie gets banned from screenings in the Cinemas?

First of all I myself thought that I’ll check this movie in the Cinemas if the reviews were good. I like Tom Hanks and Ron Howard so I was kinda looking for this movie for a long time now. Audrey Tautou looks good. The Trailers also looked good. But here comes the dampener.

Now.. I am looking forward for the movie to get banned. Let them do it. So they think we can’t see the movie right? The movie will be out in the big bad world of the Internet and will be available for download this Saturday itself.

We’ll have a Cam release from one release group say HUSTLE and later we’ll have a *PROPER* tagged release from another group say PUKKA. Then the TS/TC XviD versions will hit. After a few weeks, we’ll have the DVD Scr (DVD Screener). Some times later we’ll have the DVD rips and the DVD - R (even if it happens to be a 2 disk version complete with all the extra crap). If that’s not all.. we can choose from a single CD (700 MB) version , two CD (1.4 GB) or even three CD (2.05 GB) versions. So, let them ban the movie here in India. It’s a big deal.

On a lighter note, I saw this at IMDb:- If this book were written about Prophet Mohammed or about Islam out of even less amount of bias, Dan Brown will certainly be living in hiding now.

Some stuffs has been referred from IMDb so to get more views on my points.

1. When in the rest of the country, students stage protests against the proposed 27% for the OBCs, here we have pro-reservation rallies supporting the proposal!

2. Only here, we have the CAS (Conditional Access System or CAn’t See tv) in place. Most of us are more than happy to pay 100 bucks and be content to watch Tamil Channels.

3. The aftermath of CAn’t See tv:- Only in Chennai do people miss out major sporting actions from Cricket series to Euro Soccer to Forumula one to Grand slam Tennis. Actually we enjoy watching News Channels as most of them are FTA.

4. The opposition party leader won’t attend the State Assembly, when voted out of power. So.. in actual there is no real “leader” of opposition.

5. 50% reservations in public transports for women. It’s a tradition that we should not “touch” opposite sex persons unless the person happens to be your spouse.

6. No night life. Try to walk in Chennai streets after 9 PM, you’ll have vagabonds and dogs for company.

7. We have the cheapest deal for Rice. It’s only Rs. 2 per kilo!

8. L’affaire Kushboo. You opinions and thoughts can be challenged in the courts (and they’ll admit it as well!). You should not waear bright coloured shirts/tops to colleges, cellphones are banned, kissing is banned even is private places…you thought it’s a democratic country? Think again.

9. The unique style of bus conductors to pick up currency notes in between fingers that not found either any where. (Thanks to multi)

Just take a scroll at 0530 hours in the morning in the Margazhi season when we have Kollams spread through the breath of the roads, womens with long beautiful hair with Jasmines, Music season is full flow, early morning rituals at home and prayers in Temples, pleasant cool climate…. wow. Can you experience this elsewhere?

After being stuck with a capped BSNL Dataone connection for a very long, it was a relief when I saw that I have been migrated to the new UL Home 900 plan of BSNL.

BSNL Dataone announces Unlimited Plans
So it took almost 15 months for BSNL to come out with it’s new unlimited plans. For rs. 900 a month (plus modem rent if any and 12.24% tax) we are getting a 256kbps unlimited connection. It’s the best possible deal that we have at this point of time. We’ll now have to wait for another year to see any other new plans or changes in the current ones.

More - News Posted at BSNL Portal

My PC is gonna run for atleast 22-23 hours a day from now onwards.