A. R. Rahman - Doubting the Legend Amol Mategaonkar9:53 AM 4 comments

Nothing seems to be going well with Common Wealth Games. As if the controversies relating to the corruption surrounding CWG were not enough, even the theme song composed by A. R. Rahman as well has become a point of controversy. The media has gone crazy in criticizing Rahman on the song to the extend of concluding that he no longer has his focus on India and is too occupied with assignments from Hollywood. Did we forget so quickly that he is the one who put India on a global map and brought home the Oscars and Grammys of the world? Why is our memory so short and reactions so extreme?
Last week the theme song for CWG was released. You can listen to it online here.


General reaction to the composition has not been very encouraging all over. The critics didn't like it. Common people didn't like it. There are open reactions to the song on Facebook with fans expressing their dislike for it. The media stretched it too far. Mumbai Mirror ran a huge article on him "Lost to the World" claiming that he has more ambitions in Hollywood, is inaccessible to producers in Bollywood and hence is "lost to the world". It was only a few months earlier that the same media made him the God after he brought home the black lady of Oscar. Suddenly after not so great innings with Ravan and CWG, his very commitment to his own country is being doubted.
Our media, and we as a society, are so extreme in our reactions to our heroes. Whether it is Rahman, or Sachin or Dhoni we tend to go aver the board when they succeed, bring us glory, and quickly forget it within no time if they lose form.
Let us not forget the umpteen number of super compositions that the "Mozart of Madras" has given us. Starting with Roja, Dil Se, Taal, to Bombay, Lagaan, Swades, RDB, Guru, Jodha Akbar and so on. His melodies are incomparable to his contemporaries. Have a revision of his body of work here, if you need to.


Try to build such a piece for all the composers of the contemporary hindi cinema and you will run out of stock even before you start.
I honestly did not like the CWG song. But then, I also think that "Jai Ho" is not Rahman's best composition. It still took the world by storm. My opinion does not matter. As a fan, I don't expect that I will love all of his compositions and I am perfectly fine with it.

Rahman is a hot topic of discussion everywhere right now. Unfortunately for wrong reasons. Through a discussion thread on Facebook with my friends Uday and Anish, an important observation came up. The comment Rahman made before the release of the CWG song, as Uday points out, was very "non Rahamanish". He said - "Song would go beyond Shakira's chart-buster for this year's soccer World Cup 'Waka Waka'. This is a humble request to the legend. We would love to see the same low-profile, humble Rahaman who would let his music speak for him rather than he making such tall claims and eventually not fulfilling them. We understand he is also a human and these things are normal. But as Anish says rightly, "Its tough for anyone, more so such greats, to not make such a faux paux once in their lifetime. Rahman's greatness will lie in how he takes this experience and comes out of it". I can't agree more.

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Google's Changing Personality Amol Mategaonkar10:15 AM 4 comments

I am not sure if you have observed this, but recently Google added a small new feature to the legendary http://www.google.com/ page. The change might look very subtle, but it indicates a major shift from the very fundamental principle of UI Design that google is known for - minimalistic design. I have no clue why google has done this. Let me explain.

The Classical Way

Google is known for its simplicity in User Interface (UI) design. Its UIs are easy to use, intuitive and free of clutter. The best example of this is http://www.google.com/ The world's most visited website just had a google logo, a text box and two buttons - "Google Search" and "I am Feeling Lucky". Over a period of time Google added links to other google applications such as News, Image Search, YouTube, Orkut, Photos and so on in addition to some language options. It even added a feature last year where all these options and links are hidden by default and get enabled only when you move the mouse a little.

The story has it that when the google founders created google, they didn't know HTML coding and they created a very simple design which they could code. Over the period of time that became the signature design of google. Just a plain white background, google logo and a text box with two buttons. I loved it. Millions loved it the world over. However, Google just lost it... well almost.

The New Option

Recently google added a new link towards the left side bottom of google.com. It reads "Change Background Image". You need to sign-in with your google ID in order to use this feature. What this allows you to do is that you can either upload your own image or select from an existing set of publicly available images that you can set as background to your google.com home page. The image shows up in the background whenever you use google.com anywhere in the world.

Issues

The classical plain white simplistic design has been googl's signature. I am not sure about the motivation for this feature. Somehow I feel, this is a step away from its own legacy. There are some challenges with it as well. The user can really shoot herself in the feet. Try uploading an image that is too small or too big to fit your screen. It messes up the entire look. Second issue is with the logo. Since google can not predict the image color scheme, it has made the logo transparent white. This is again a big deviation from the signature multi-color design of google logo. Thirdly, if you upload a heavy image, it makes the loading of the page slow. Google is known for its speed. Its the most reliable and fast website in the world. A heavy background can make it slow.

Copy Cat???

Did google find motivation for this feature in Microsoft's bing? The way Plain background has been the signature design for Google, beautiful background images has been the key design principle of Microsoft's new search engine - http://www.bing.com/ I love that as well. It has a slightly different approach and does not have any of the issues relating to googl's approach that I mentioned above. Every day it has a new, rich quality background image, showing some famous place in the world. It also provides some useful info about it on mouse over. It does not allow user-uploaded images. The user can not shoot in her feet. When it was introduced last year, this looked new and fresh. Many who used it, loved it.. including me. However, was this the motivation for the new feature in google? I hope not.

I hope the biggest innovator on the Internet didn't have to copy it from Microsoft and had some other inspiration that I am not aware of.

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You are being watched.... by Facebook Amol Mategaonkar7:07 AM 0 comments

Facebook has been the punching bag of the security and privacy advocates for ever. No wonder the movie on facebook, "The Social Effect" has the tag line "When you make 500 million friends, you are bound to make enemies". The biggest criticism for facebook has been that it knows too much about us and there are concerns about security and privacy of this data. Usual response to this criticism is that this is social media and if you are so concerned about privacy, don't share it. I was convinced with this argument until recently when I figured out, there are things which you don't explicitly share, but eventually reach facebook. Here is an example where you need to be aware that facebook is watching you. Many, won't know. I didn't.

Background
Recently, facebook introduced Social Plugins. These are facebook components that any website in the world could embed in their own webpage to provide social networking features through facebook. Examples are - "share on facebook", "like" button, friend list, comments, etc. This requires that the visitor has logged-in to facebook, may be through another browser window or tab. If a website ebmbeds the facebook "like" button on its webpage, the visitors of the website will be able click on "like" button (very similar to you like videos, photos, status messages etc on facebook itslef). This will result into an update on your Wall that you liked that link. This is good. I have no problems with this.
I have a problem with what it does next. Read on.

The Use Case
Follow the steps below.

1. Login to facebook.
2. Go to any article on Times Of India. Say this one.
3. Look at the bottom. You will see this facebook plugin - "Recommend".
   

   

4. If you observe closely, it also tells you if any of your friends have recommended this. In my case it says "Be the first of your friends to recommend this."

What happens in the background?

If you imagine the logic of this, the code snippet from facebook that TOI would have embedded in this page would have sent this info to facebook that amol has visited so and so URL, and in-return asked if anybody from amol's friends recommended this URL? In my case facebook returned none.

The Issue

This is scary. I just happened to be logged in to facebook in some another browser window and without even checking with me, the plugin sent the info to facebook that I visited Times of India - this article. I hate this. I didn't choose to add/enable this plugin to TOI. It did not check with me and peacefully sent the info to facebook that I visited this page. If you don't observe carefully, you would not even see the facebook plugin amidst the clutter on the site. Thankfully facebook didn't put it on my wall , but mind well... it knows that you visited it.

I do share a lot of info on facebook.com through my wall.... my status, photos, videos, links, etc. However, there I do it conciously.... by choice. Here, I never chose to do it. I don'thave option to turn it off either. Forget it, I didn't even know it did all this.

Simple Advise

Log off from facebook after you are done. Don't keep yourself logged in through out the day. Be aware that you are being watched.

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K for Kishore Amol Mategaonkar10:44 PM 0 comments

Yesterday was the 81st birth anniversary of arguably the most versatile legends of Hindi Film and Music Industry - Kishore Kumar. Here's homage to him in remebrance of his birth day. The man who was bestowed with the responsibility to spread happyness, to make the common man laugh inspite of his sorrows, to fall in love with his unique "harkaten" and to cherish those unlimited melodies for generations to come, will always remain close to the hearts of all Indians for generation to come.

Abhas Kumar, who came to Mumbai industry as a frequent visitor to his then already-star brother - Ashok Kumar (Dada Munee) did some acting stint to start with, changed his name to Kishore Kumar (Did numerology exist prior to Ekta Kapoor?) and went on to become the numero-uno playback singer of the 70s and 80s. Here are a few interesting and exceptional thoughts about him.

One of the Best Ever - Without a formal training
Kishore Da was initially dismissed for his first singing assignment because he did not have any formal training in Music. At a time when classically trained singers dominated the playback singing, it was pure talent and creativity that KK more than compensated for his lack of formal training. The same music director - Salil Choudhary - who was dismissive of him for his first assignment, gave us some of the best gems of KK in years to come.
Inspite of not trained in music, Kishore Da had amazing perfection in his singing. You would never hear a flat note from him, inspite of all his "harkaten" which he used to do even in the studios while recording the song. He was a gifted man. Gifted with a voice that was devine.... one that would touch the soule. Although he harldy sang classical based songs (like Rafi, Manna Da), he had surgical precision in all of his songs.

Versatility
He is possibly the most versatile singer we have seen ever since the Hindi Music Industy was born in the last century. Close to him will be Asha Bhosale. Right from romance, comedy, love, sorrow, philosophy, devotion... KK has it all covered on his portfolio. His versatility not only crossed the boundaries of genre, it crossed genders as well. He is possibly the only one who has sung a duet himself. "Aake Seedhi Lagi Dilpe" was supposed to be sung by him and Lata Didi. Since Lata Didi could not come at the 11th hr, he sang in lady voice as well - with no help from technology by the way.
Apart from classical based songs, Kishore Da is also lesser known for Devotional songs. Although he has sung many of the devotional songs right from his start of the career right upto Swami Dada in late 80s, this genre remained the core competence of Rafi. Nevertheless, many of his devotional songs do touch your soul, although they might not be popular as "Roop tera mastana".

Creativity - Yoodleeyooo
KK gave us something that noone could ever imagine. The Yoodling. Perhaps this was his way to compensate for his lack of classical training and inability to sing a classical based song. With this, he created something that none of his contemporaries like Rafi, Manna Da could sing. "Main hoon zum zum Zumroo" is the most yoodled song ever and even today remains the best test of a "KK Style" singer.
He was born with the gift of creativity. The story of how he managed Asha's fumbling in "Piya piya piya" is well known. One of his best funny song, "Meri pyari bindu" from Padosan was his instant creation on the sets while shooting. It wasn't planned earlier - added later to the music album of Padosan.

Beyond Music

KKs versatility extended beyond Music into Films as well. Actor, Producer, Director, Music Director, Editor. Are there any other roles remaining? He did everything. Apart from singing, he is second-best known as a comedian. Who can forget the "Guru Vidyapati" of Padosan ? Apart from acting, he produced 18 films. Sadly only 8 saw the light of the day. Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Door Gagan ki Chhaon mein, Zuumroo are some of his best known films.

The Serious Kishor... Seriously???

Many close to him say that although on the face of it he looked vary funny, jovial and full of humor, somewhere within, there lived an extremely serious person. This shows up in the soul he put in his serious songs like "Dukhi man mere". In many of his films, his style was completely different than the comedian persona which he was known for. Look at "Door Gagan Ki Chhaon mein". A story of a soldier and his son. Many say that these films were his way to vent out that personality of him.

Inspiring Generations

Kishore Da has inspired generations of singers. Many have made thier careers after him by imitating him. Kumar Sanu (Duplicate), Babul Suprio (Duplicate ki Xerox Copy), et al. It is sad that many of them do not acknowledge this fact after becoming a star. However, an imitation after all, remains an imitation. There has been no equivalent of him even after decades when he left us. Recently, there was a kind of remix of "Bachna aye haseenon" in the movie with the same title (staring Ranbeer Kapoor). Listen to it carefully. There are original lines by KK initially and then new lines are sung by a new comer. The difference is evident. Even with today's technology, KK stands out.

Kishore Da, you will always remain alive in our hearts forever. Your music is the only refuge amidst the chaos and noisy numbers dominant in the music industry today. I only wish we had more of you.

Hope you rest in peace.

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The Social Network Effect Amol Mategaonkar9:32 PM 0 comments

Recently I was reading the book - "The Facebook Effect" by David Kirkpatrick. Its the amazing story of Facebook - the phenomenon that has caught up the entire world since last few years and its effect the world over. I believe, especially in the Indian context, the impact of facebooks and orkuts of the world can be much more significant... I worry... to the extent of being cultural.

About facebook
With 500 million active users and growing at an approx pace of 100 million per 150 days, it the third most populous country in the world, next to China and India, if it was a country. Founded by a (then) 19 yr old Mark Zuckerberg at Harward, it has taken over all of its contemporaries Myspace, Orkut and bunch of others. It is the second most visited website on the Internet, next to Google.com. Its the most talked about Internet company today, loved as well as hated at the same time. It has also inspired a Hollywood Movie, "The Social Network", scheduled to release in Sept 2010.

facebook in India
Facebook is the most popular social networking site in India. It has surpassed Orkut's over last one year. The growth has been phenomenal. One significant observation is that it has been able to reach out to all age groups. Social media (at least India) was always perceived to be for young generation or IT savvies. However, people of all ages, professions, even those who have just learnt to boot a computer, all of them are hoping on to facebook. While its a good sign of IT penetration to the Indian common man, there are some strange observations.

• You can see colleagues sitting next to each other putting stuff on each others walls on facebook. What is so great about the wall that you can not directly talk ?
• Son/Daughters putting comments on their parents wall and vice-versa. This is extreme.
• I get friend requests from people whom I have never seen/met. What does that mean? I know nothing about them. The entire notion of "friend request" is at times misinterpreted.
• There are people who spend 2-3 hrs on facebook every day.
• People tend to use facebook as a medium of chatting.

These are indications of some fundamental changes the facebooks and Orkuts of the world are bringing to our society. They have given a fresh, new and lucrative channel of communication. As a result, instead of picking up the phone and talking to friends, we log on to facebook and write something on their wall. Instead of planning to meet a friend/relative on Sunday evening, people would spend time in reading useless comments others have put on their stuff and even contribute to it.

The Undesired Effect

This is an undesired side effect of the social media. Don't get me wrong. I am a heavy user of facebook. It is a very powerful tool to express yourself to your buddies, share your ideas, your thoughts, happenings in your life, your joys & sorrows. It is a great channel to find those old school friends you never met in last 20 yrs since you completed SSC. It has a potential to influence and move large groups towards a common goal. E.g. Facefook has helped large scale national movements like the one in Colombia a few yrs back. However, it can never substitute the charm and warmth of talking to your friend over a phone or more so, meeting them in person.

Especially in our society, which has traditionally given very high importance to family and social values, a facebook cannot replace the chaukats and nukkads of our bastees. If it does, its a major cultural shift.

So, go to the Profile info of your old friends in Facebook, pickup the contact number and give them a call. You will realize, it is much more satisfying than writing "wats up buddy?" on his/her wall.

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The Terminal Amol Mategaonkar6:46 AM 0 comments

No. I am not referring to Steven Spielberg's Hollywood blockbuster. I am referring to a public infrastructure piece of work in India.

Today, Delhi's International Airport opened its brand new terminal - "T3". The first AI plane landed from New York, although full operations will start by end of the month. This is a giant leap forward for the Aviation Industry in India. Apart from Delhikars and international travellers, we all have something there to be happy about.

About T3 First

Many will be surprised (at least I was) to know that this is the 6th largest Terminal in the world. It has a capacity to handle around 35 million passengers annually. Compare this with 23 million capacity of the entire Mumbai airport, the busiest in the country, until a day go. Together with T1 and T2 terminals, this will take the Delhi airport capacity to 50+ million annually. The state-of-the-art terminal is contemporary in its design, has all the amenities and facilities of a modern day airport including ample parking, passenger recreation, shopping, children play areas, food courts, Internet kiosks and so on. It has been built through the joint venture between GMR Group, Airports Authority of India and some foreign partnership from Malaysia with an investment of 3 Billion USD.

Significance for us

One would argue that how many Indians would even see this new swanky piece of infrastructure with their own eyes and hence why should they care? Well, there are enough reasons to care about.

• Being the 6th largest terminal in world, it certainly puts Indian aviation on the global aviation map.
• It is likely to attract many more international careers to India and setup their hubs in Delhi, resulting into further investment and employment opportunities.
• It is a giant leap for the Indian Aviation industry. After Hyderabad and Bangalore airports, India walks further on upgrading its aviation infrastructure which desperately needs an overhaul.
• Last but not the least. This giant piece of art was completed in record time of 3 yrs. Cutting through the usual red tapes and govt machinery, a public infrastructure project of this size has been executed bang on time and almost within projected budget. This defies all the popular (?) believes that Infra projects, especially those under the Govt fold, take ages to see the light of the day. Delhi once again (after Delhi Metro) has demonstrated excellence. Kudos. This should add to our confidence in our public servants to deliver on their duties. Although, this might be the result of GMR's involvement, it does not make it a lesser exception in the infra projects in India.

I hope Mumbai learns some lessons from this and finally gets through the Govt red tape that is sitting on approving the International Airport at Panvel.

I am happy, proud and hopeful.

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Bharat Bandh Brings India to a halt Amol Mategaonkar7:59 AM 0 comments

The Nation-wide "Bandh" called by the opposition, primarily lead by the BJP, in protest to the recent fuel price hike brought the entire nation to almost a grinding halt. BJP has already declared this Bandh as a huge success. Is it really?

The Intent

The Bandh was called in protest to the recent fuel prices declared by the Govt across the board. With inflation at around 13.9%, the fuel price hike is expected to push it northwards, thereby burning the common man even further. The objective of the band was to protest against the fuel price hike in particular, and the uncontrolled "Mahengai" in general, which the Govt has consistently failed to tame down. Clearly, the stated intent of the Band was very noble.

The Response

The bandh got consistent response from almost all parts of the country. All major cities were shut down. All schools remained closed. No shops opened their shutters (except Pharmacy). Most of the private companies declared off (including mine). With no autos, taxis and private vehicles on the move, the streets of Mumbai were almost empty.

It appears that the Bandh got an overwhelming response. But whether all of these above who theoretically contributed to it, willingly did so or not is a question. BJP and friends (and foes) might claim victory at the end of today, however if one has to judge the success of the bandh based on whether it met its original intent, it doesn't seem to. The fuel prices stay where they were.

The Bandh Effect

• All taxis, autos, shops, construction work, small time taprees, et al, remained closed for most of the day. Apart from inconvenience to citizens, not sure if it had any indirect fatal effect under emergency situations.
• Several buses, trains, public properties were burnt/damaged. In Pune alone, more than 25 buses were damaged. Who's paying for this?
• Sporadic instances of violence happened across the country. There was lathi charge at many places at all major cities.
• Huge police force was deployed across the board. Any guess how much did it cost to the nation?
• Cumulative loss is estimated to be Rs. 13,000 crores.
• BJP (NDA at large), re-established itself as a powerful opposition, a force still to reckon with. It made its national presence felt and demonstrated its abilities to move its alliances as well as rivals like Left towards a common goal, against UPA. Congress has a lessor or two from this bandh. It better not take it for granted.
• Working class took a day off, possibly watched a movie at home along with family and in-between watching the spicy stories on AajTak.
• The Bandh had no effect on the Finance Minister's math. Pranab Da declared categorically that the prices will not be rolled back.
• Last but not the least, the daily wages worker, who earns his daily meal the same day, had to miss his day's produce. The very poor for whom this bandh was intended for, ironically remained the only one who had nothing to gain, but to lose his/her meal.

In conclusion, the intent of the Bandh was noble. However, the question remains whether a nation level bandh of this scale is the right solution to protest? We lost some part of the GDP - resulting into a step back from the ambitious double digit GDP growth rate. We had our public property damaged, many suffered on account of the violence. The BJP had its presence felt. However, the poor had yet another poorer day, while the fuel prices remained as it were 24 hrs back.

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