e-Nagar

Being an avid fan of sitcoms and an ardent, high-end, pc-game player, I had high expectations from a recent film. I am talking about the release – Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. I have played the game series on which the film is supposedly based. I loved this game so much that for a while I had restyled my erstwhile flowing locks to match the protagonist’s. Also, I knew that the film would feature Richard Coyle, who portrayed my favourite character – Jeffrey Murdock, from a hilarious British sitcom, Coupling. Never earlier had I wanted to throw a shoe at the big screen…hoo boy, what a disappointment!

I tell you why.

The film story is very different from the game and also sucks (My girlfriend differs on this point).

The action sequence leaves me with a hollow feeling when compared to the game series.

The female protagonist, with due respect, stands nowhere in comparison to Monica Bellucci, who modelled and voiced the game’s female character.

Coming to Mr. Coyle, I don’t know if I have stereotyped him as a comedy genre actor or because of his heavy British accent, I don’t think he could portray the character Tus very convincingly (This, after the fact that he is a theatre actor). Half the time while he spoke, I expected a joke in his very Jeff-like voice.

I don’t know about others, but people who were a fan of the game series or of Couping…don’t go for it. It simply ruined my evening.

Today at Livemint, I read an interesting article. The journalist tried to teach some of the Management lessons by analyzing the movie IronMan2.

I remember at IIM-L, one of the faculty members used to regularly use scenes from Mahabharata (an epic hindu book) to teach us certain aspects of Management, esp negotiation, soft skills and HR training. Another professor screened “12 Angry Men” during an exam. I guess these examples help a lot in reinforcing the faculty’s point of view and explain the students the real life application of the issue being discussed. I wonder how many other schools and colleges also take a similar approach.

We bought a water heater from Bajaj 1.5 years ago and I could not be more dissatisfied. Over the course of 2 winters the water heater has been out of service 2 times. Each time it takes at least 1 week of constant nagging before any of their service representatives even examines the equipment. Then now for over 10 days the water heater has been sitting in their workshop and they have not cared to repair it or keep us abreast with the updates.

Bajaj is one of the country’s largest industrial houses and has expertise in selling overpriced products made from obsolete technology and shabby workmanship. After all how hard can it be to make a water heater? Even if you look at its main industry, Bajaj scooter was made from stolen technology and has been responsible for several thousand of the road accidents. The reason being that the scooter was lopsided, i.e. its entire engine weight was on one side. Net result is that if you brake hard it will turn twist and maim the rider. Its flagship product autorickshaw/tri-wheeler is another example of outdated obsolete technology. It vibrates more than the vibrators, has so little power that one can walk faster and hence it is responsible for bulk of the traffic congestion and air pollution on Indian streets. No wonder South Mumbai and other cities have started banning/restricting their movement.

I cannot think of any reason why this business house survives or why anybody would want to buy its products.

Yesterday I was invited for dinner at Taj Bengal, one of the most expensive restaurants in this part of the country. To my surprise, the chef had added artificial green colors in the Palak Paneer.

Holi is round the corner but that does not mean that I should start eating artificial chemical poisons. I oppose the use of colors because of these 3 reasons:

1. These are chemicals which are harmful for the body
2. One sub-standard and poor quality food articles are adulterated with artificial colors
3. It cheats the consumer because colors give a false impression of quality and enable the merchant to charge extra for the sub-standard products.

All packaged food item need to carry a health warning if they contain colors, preservatives and other harmful substances. I think its high time that restaurants esp. the ones that charge exorbitant costs also need to carry statutory warning for their malpractices.

These days advertizers are leaving no stone unturned in order to find a spot to promote their products.
This innovative campaign of mini cooper uses the garbage spots to reinforce the point that the Cooper is small enough to come in boxes. More in this link