The Missed Call

The Missed Call

 

One of the ancillary phenomena that arose due to the mega phenomenon called Cellular Phone is the missed call. Yes, The Missed Call.

 

The uses to which the Caller ID based feature on a mobile phones is only restricted by the imagination of the users.

 

Friends and relatives, by arrangement, figure out who has got the most favorable Telephone Tariff Plan. This person is given a ‘missed call’ from others whom he calls back. Of course, there are those who give their folk a missed call, and the receiver calls back from a landline, on most occasions at the employers’ expense.

 

There is the clever set of people who use a missed call to convey binary information. How many of us have said or heard, “Give me a Missed Call once you reach home”. Some of us have used it to convey, “I am waiting outside your home. It is getting late for the movies.”

 

Did I miss the missed call that is meant to remind the receiver that he/she promised to call.

 

While a missed call does not generate any revenue nor cost the subscribers anything, it does have commercial implications. I understand that migrant Bihari workers transfer money to their families via the local moneylender through missed calls.

 

Like the ubiquitous mobile phone, the missed call too has its workplace utility. The missed call that is made to register the act of calling up. Translated that is supposed to mean “I called, but you did not answer the call. Check your Missed Call register for proof.” The objective is to disconnect the line at the first half ring, so that the phone does not alert its owner but just registers the call. The technique is popularly used when the boss asks to be called up over the weekend.

 

Back in college, one of the favorite sports during class hours was the ‘Missed Call Game’.

The guys would call each other in the classroom at random. The objective of the caller was to generate a “Missed Call” in the phone of the recipient rival. The objective of the recipient was to answer the call before it could become a missed call. The Casino type thrill was that the penalty paid in the game was instantaneous. The prepaid balance would drop immediately if the caller ‘lost’.

 

Considering that the number of cell phones per classroom was still in single digits then, it was an involved spectator sport with entire benches backing their representative. Now, I guess, it is possibly an evolved mass sport with several rule variation.

 

And then there is my personal favorite Missed Call that just means ‘I am thinking about you’. Often made late in the evening, when the called party is known to be asleep, it is just to convey to that (mostly special) person, “I am thinking about you”.

 

 

Why APJ Abdul Kalam is human after all

Why APJ Abdul Kalam is human after all

 

Disclaimer :This blog is written by one of the Biggest fan of Dr Abdul Kalam.

 

APJ Abdul Kalam is a patriot par excellence. Dr Kalam earned for the Office of President high dignity with in India, honour outside the country.

 

He created that spark in a generation of young Indians. Undoubtedly, he is the best ( for lack of an adjective which best captures all his attributes) President young India has seen. (Old-timers put him in the same league of Rajendra Prasad and Dr Radhakrishnan).

 

In the various roles that Kalam has played in the last 50 years he has made several sacrifices to serve the Public. But just when he could have done the Supreme Sacrifice he backed out displaying that he is, after all, human.

 

Why do I say so ?

 

A P J Abdul Kalam has not, for a welcome change, been a rubberstamp President. He has applied his mind and in all cases come up with a right decision.( See Pioneer article http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~sudhakar/weblog/cache/2004/may/18/whose-inner-voice-pioneer.txt ) This has made him unpopular with Sonia Gandhi who would like to see him retire ASAP.

 

Bhairon Singh Shekawat is unlikely to act subservient to Sonia Gandhi. Hence, her own nominee is what she will back. As it stands the Prime Minister is a Sonia puppet. One shudders to imagine the state of the nation if both the Prime Minister and President becoming puppets of Sonia Gandhi. In the Electoral College the UPA nominee is likely to win if every one votes as per the party line.

 

If there is an individual with a real chance of inducing cross-voting by his sheer charm, persona, warmth and commitment to the nation, that will have to be Dr. Kalam.

 

As he had been persuaded to consider a second term the uncouth Lalus and Sharad Pawars of this world hurt the respectable gentleman where it hurts him most – badmouthing him.

 

Having served the nation selflessly for a lifetime, Abdul Kalam decided that he deserves a graceful exit ( and rightfully so). He also knows that he is the best bet to counter a Sonia nominee. In the event of a contest, he might win; he could lose too.

 

Dr Kalam would rather retire honorably than be remembered as a man who wanted another term, contested and lost. In this decision Dr Kalam, we see that you are after all human in your desires.

 

A supreme sacrifice would be to throw in your hat in the ring. If you win India wins. If you lose, opportunistic journalists and others like Lalu will speak a few ugly things. ( All Indians know that the truth is very different). But, I am sure you appreciate, it is a small price to pay if we want to have hope of thwarting Sonia.

 

The supreme sacrifice is not that of life. The supreme sacrifice is when one can forego their honour for a much Larger Cause.

 

 

 

 

Show Ration Card, Get a TV home

“Ek aam Hindustani ki zindagi mein, line main khada rahen hi zindagi hain…”

 

.. goes an Airtel ad. It further adds that things have changed and Airtel has changed the scene in the context of KBC.

 

It was circa 1990s again for me the first Sunday of April 2007 when I stood in the queue at the Public Distribution System.

 

The young, the old, the professional, the vela, the man, the woman, the housewife and her sister-in-law, the LIG household, the MIG household and the SEC A household all of them stood in the queue at the local municipal school.

 

I almost thought that the municipal elections were happening but the voter turnout seemed too good to be true. Upon investigation, it was revealed that the Rush was to collect the “free colour TV” which “Dr. Kalignar” led Government of Tamil Nadu was supplying.

 

My first reaction was that of disbelief. There has probably been no record of a Government actually sticking to pre-poll promises and here I could see people carrying home cardboard dabba.

(You must see it to believe it. Blame it on pazahaka dosham –force of habit- the men and women were carrying it the way they would carry pots of water. The analogy does not stop there- The ladies’ queue experienced the same streetfight that occurs when one of the them fills her pot out of turn from the water lorry)

 

Disbelief turned to greed when upon discreet enquiries, I got to know that my family was eligible for the “color TV” as well  and so I hopped onto the queue with a ration card in my hand. Truckload after truckload of cardboard boxes was unloaded into the building. One by one they were distributed to gleeful citizens.

 

The queue in which I stood, truly obedient to Murphy’s law, moved slower than the rest. Some were thankful for the TV, others doubted the quality of the televisions (Looking the gift horse in the mouth) few even wondering if there was any television inside the cardboard.

 

My recent tryst with analysts and analyst reports made do some back of the envelope calculations er, well without an envelope and without numbers.

 

At the end of the exercise i.e. when all households in Tamil Nadu have a television set or when the state becomes bankrupt, whichever is earlier, every citizen will have access to atleast one television. The Numero Uno Tamil television channel, the No.1 by far will extend its coverage, leadership and logical extension advertising rates and revenues.

 

Need I say more? I am hurrying to buy the shares of Sun TV.

 

P.S After waiting for more than 3 hours on a Sunday, the PDS confessed that they had run out of television sets and pleaded with the restive public to be patient till the next week when, they promised, every household will be able to carry home a TV set.

P.S 2 I am as a concession to the political party which will, hopefully, give me a TV which I do not know what to do with am not – piercing the corporate veil of Sun TV, which however has been done elsewhere in this blog.

 

 

Of God and atheists - It happens only in Tamil Nadu

World over, the greatest threat to peace is religion-motivated violence. Be it in the hideous form of terrorism or glorious form of war. It has been Jews versus Christians, Christians versus Muslims, Christians versus Hindus, Hindus versus Muslims.

In such a world of ‘my God is better than your God’ world, lies the province of Tamil Nadu in south India where violence outbreaks between Hindus and atheists.

You read that right. Hindus believers versus (mostly Hindu) atheists.

World over, atheists (born in families of whichever religion) have led a rather unremarkable life. Maybe to break that routine, atheists in Tamil Nadu create a cause and fight for it.

At Srirangam, on the banks of river Cauvery in Tamil Nadu lies the rather venerated temple of Sri Ranganthaswamy. The atheist cult in (Have you heard of an atheist cult, elsewhere in the world) that is the political mainstay in the state decide to provoke the theists by installing the statute of EVR Ramaswamy Naicker, (or Periyar in short) an iconic atheist (In Tamil Nadu, atheism is often confused with rationalism) at the entrance to the temple.

Hindu foot soliders are rightly indignant. However they too succumbed to the temptation of violence. They damaged the pedestal of the statute of a man who once publicly broke idols of Hindu Gods and thereby ‘promoted rationalist thoughts’. Periyar devotees feel challenged. They attack several shrines at different parts of Tamil Nadu so that the atma of Periyar will attain shanti .

And so goes the War in Tamil Nadu. Dharmic (crusade, jehad) for some. Hero-worship (in the garb of rationalism) for others.

Related read:http://thoughtpaisa.blogspot.com/2006/05/labour-leader.html

Why Mohammad Afzal should get one...

Pardon Mohammad Afzal.

Not because he deserves it.Clearly, he does not.

When Mohammad Afzal was recruited, he was probably told that he might perish in the mission and should he get killed he would attain Jannath (virgins and all that).If he got arrested and hanged, well he would still attain Jannath.

By hanging Afzal now, we are probably giving him what he wants. Does granting someone what he wants amount to punishment ?

Enough hype has been created by the media. A hanging if it were to be happen would probably even by covered live and broadcast internationally. And produce counter-productive results!Afzal's death by hanging is likely to infuriate and hence motivate jehadis-in-the-making. It might even be cited by terrorism trainee recruiters to promise the Jannath.

Commute the sentence to life-imprisonment. Teach him Yoga, Art of Living. There exists an outside chance that he might be reform. If he doesnot, he will still possibly lead a miserable life and would still not have achieved Jannath.

Cyanide Cyanide…

Cyanide is the first Kannada movie I watched in a cinema in over a decade.

Narrating the journey of the Rajiv Gandhi assassins post-assassination is the only motive of the storyline. The director does a very good job of sticking to it. No moralising the assassination, No sympathy to the Tigers, No venting the nation’s outrage, No comment on Sri Lanka.

The only tongue-in-cheek remark that the movie lastly resorts is the tribute to the Indian Police for having captured (if dead) the ‘terrorists’.

Brilliant acting depict the we-are-expected-to-believe- true events. The movie belied my expectations on one front. The language used right through was Kannada which was obviously not what the Tigers spoke. A judicious juxtapositioning of Kannada and (Lankan) Tamil would have lent more credibility.

The movie deserves to reach a wider audience than Kannada speaking. I wish and urge the producers to give it the reach that it deserves.To its credit Cyanide, unlike most real-life portrayals, does not issue an “its fiction” disclaimer.

Psst.. Post movie we lunched at ‘Grameen’ a restaurant that promised to provide rural amenities in urban areas. (reverse Abdul Kalam!!)

Go paperless

Lot of talk about E-governance and paperless initiatives. My own suggestion to encourage the janta to go electronic.

As a measure to encourage paperless transactions SEBI should direct Companies going ahead with IPOs and lead managers for a more favourable pro rata allotment ratio in case of over-subscription to the applicants who have applied online. This should be as against investors who have applied on physical application forms.Applying through physical application forms leads to large scale consumption of paper as well as associated cost, time and labour expended in processing the same.

Online application is hassle-free to the investor and relatively easier to process also (I presume) eliminating costs and reducing time for both the investor and the investee company.The SEBI may consider encouraging Online Trading and Online Application and instruct /direct/order the companies to introduce this measure.
The transparency that electronic application brings is the added bonus.