Idle Thoughts

Historian Romila Thapar, while delivering the 3rd Nikhil Chakravartty Memorial Lecture organised by The Book Review Literary Trust in New Delhi, this November talked about the hesitation of free thinking Indians to question the authority. See Swapan Dasgupta's response to this speech here . During this speech, she expressed concern on the narrowing of liberal spaces in the last couple of decades. Though it was fought back, she laments that it is upon us again. She does not specifically name the events that led her to this conclusion, but indicates the types of events.  To quote a summary of the speech from Rediff: “This is evident from the ease with which books are banned and pulped, or demands made that they be burned, and syllabuses changed under religious and political pressure, or the intervention of the state .” Let us inspect each of these cases. Subramanyan Swamy recently called for burning Romila Thapar’s history books. It appears a gross exaggeration to pronou...

There was a beehive on the palm tree in front of my house. We peacefully coexisted for many months with homes within a distance a couple of meters of each other. We never troubled them and they never bothered us except for the occasional evening visits when a bee drunk with honey strayed in to our home. As the palm blade on which the hive was built became older, the otherwise good Samaritan neighbours panicked. What would happen when the blade and the beehive falls off? What if children are playing outside when this happens? The exterminators were called in last night. The bees were smoked out of their home and the hive was pulled down. When I stepped out today into the misty chill of a winter morning, I was greeted by the broken pieces of the beehive on the road.  Some drowsy, confused bees hung on to the white walls of my house awaiting death.

When Google bought Motorola, I wrote about the possible options that Google had. There is some news this week throwing some light on what path Google is finally taking. According to Bloomberg, Google is to sell off the Set Top Box business. At the time when Google bought Motorola, Google's TV business still held a promise. Many even speculated that this business was one of key reasons why the acquisition was done. Times have changed since then and many will not be surprised about this Bloomberg news today.

Tendulkar failed in three consecutive innings in tests. Worse still, he was bowled in all of the three dismissals. So it is that time of the year when some of us dig out the obituary that we had ready but had forgotten for a while, dust it, update it to reflect the latest dates and numbers and hang it out for all to see. The age has finally caught up with him, we love to write. If there is something more incredible than the number of centuries that Tendulkar has scored, it is the number of times that the age has ‘finally’ caught up with him! He says he still loves the game. But we are sure it must be the Ad money and the pressure from his contracts. If money is what keeps us going, why should his case be different? I have not held any record other than the college lab records but that is beside the point. I am sure his motivation works the same way as mine. By staying on, he is preventing young talent from coming up, you see? You might argue that players like him in fact hav...

When Aamir made his television debut, it invoked a great deal of interest. Many of us watched it and many of us wrote about it. That wasn’t surprising, considering that it was a different kind of show. Rather than being pure entertainment, it was intended to bring awareness on serious, socially relevant issues. What was surprising was that most of us treated it just like any other show, dwelling on the entertainment part and totally ignoring the informative part. Look at some of the questions raised and answered by these reviews. Is Aamir trying to be an Indian Oprah?  Did he choose the Sunday morning slot to avoid comparison with other talk shows? Was it good acting or did he really cry? Was the TRP as good as other celebrity shows? Will he be able to sustain the interest in the subsequent episodes? How much was he paid per each episode? Why did he do it in the studio than on the road? Why weren’t many of us interested in aspects outside of entertainment? Did he pick releva...

The ongoing IP infringement battle between Apple and Samsung in the multiple courts across the world has generated a lot of discussion on Patents and their relevance to innovation. The most prevalent view being that Apple is using patent laws to curb competition and there by innovation. For E.g. see the ZDNET article: Apple’s worldwide war on Samsung and Android . The article states that it is a delusion to see any connection between ‘real’ Intellectual Property (IP) and Patent wars. The patent wars are seen as attempts to exhort cash from people who create real products. The result, the article concludes, is that innovation in any technology will come to an end. There is an apparent irony here that the patent laws were intended to help innovation by protecting those who innovated against those who just copy. It comes from not differentiating innovation from consumer choice. Consumer choice is also created by companies who create look alikes at a lower cost. Consumer choice ...

Frustrated Sachin approached Chappell These days I am not sure if I can fully rely on the reports that I see on news sites. Right now I am asking myself if I should blindly believe the piece on Tendulkar and Chappell on timeofindia online site or if I should take it as a joke and laugh at it. The report that I am talking about is on the new book called "Fierce Focus" by Greg Chappell. According to the report, Chappell found Tendulkar surprisingly fragile. "At one point early in my time with the (Indian) team ... he came and talked to me for about two hours," writes Chappell. If that itself is not a definite proof of mental fragility, Chappell offers  more. "He was frustrated with his form and racked with self-doubt. Since he'd come back in Malaysia   (in a one-day tournament in 2006), Sachin's mental state had been surprisingly fragile and he came to me for help. ” Most cricketers go through lean patches and it is not surprising if they get f...