Human Trafficking

No, no.. not the topic that u feel sooooo much about. Its about the one I feel soooooooooooo much about! The title is just to make u interested ;)

Hyderabad (and its twin Secunderabad) has the worst traffic on roads. Does not matter if its Indian, Asian, Martian or watever, no place can beat The City of Nawabs for its atrocious traffic sense, rather, nonsense!

Have a peek at this video to get an idea about how bad the situation is. This has been taken at a small T-intersection and not a major junction. (The frame rate has been increased, but that should not take away much from the situation)

Can you folks give me 5 good ways common traffic sense can be injected into the rascals manning the vehicles on the roads in Hyderabad?

The Best suggestions will be rewarded with some exotic prizes! And there are brownie points to be won too.. so, start thinking...

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I am not a great photographer, but I do like clicking interesting stuff!

Funniest One-Liner !

I am a chronic SMS forwarder. Keep forwarding texts which can be funny, informative or downright nasty sometimes to a group of friends/cousins. And most of these are recieved from the same group as well.. some people do find it boring and a time-waste. But they do not realise that it brings a bit of happiness to the reciever. At least a smile, which might not last more than a few seconds. But in this fast paced world, where we hardly get time to enjoy our time, a few seconds of joy which I can spread in my small way are a good thing.

And of course, most of these are One-liners. Some of my favorite ones are:

• Hospital Announcement: Due to a mix up in the Urology Department, Orange Juice will not be served today.
• Board outside a brothel: Married men not allowed. We are here to serve the needy, not the greedy!
• Ladki electricity office call kari aur boli: batti chali gai hai, ghar pe bhi koi nahi hai, aadmi bhejdo. Officer: Aadmi nahi hai, mombatti se kaam chala lo ;)
• Definition of a virgin: On the verge, but not yet in!

But my all time favorite one-liner is:

"Do Sardarji Chess khel rahe thhey" !!

Whats yours?

PS: If you are interested in sending me some funny texts, mail me!

Lamba sa Tag..

Tagged by Pri. So here goes my list..

1)LAST MOVIE U SAW IN A THEATRE?
I don't seem to remember.. its been a long time back.. been getting DVDs of late!

2)WHAT BOOK ARE U READING??
SCR's Secunderabad Division Working Time -table

3)FAVOURITE BOARD GAME?
No prizes for guessing... Scrabble

4)FAVOURITE MAGAZINE
Sportstar. Been so for so long I can't remember. And RD too.

5)FAVOURITE SMELLS
The smell of a diesel loco smoking
Freshly cooked dal tadka

6)FAVOURITE SOUNDS
The chugging of a train and the whistling of a loco. The notches of a WDM-2 drive me crazy!

7)WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD
Being unable to get sleep. Means u have something thats worrying u. :(

8)WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN U WAKE?
Oops.. why is it again the time to get up?

9)FAVOURITE FASTFOOD PLACE
Haryana Chat Bhandar.. a roadside pani-puri stall behind AP High Court, Hyderabad. Serves the most chatak-patak gupchups in the world!

10)FUTURE CHILDS NAME
Will let u know..

11)FINISH THIS STATEMENT---IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I'D
Not be wasting time doing this questionnaire...

12)DO U DRIVE FAST?
I guess I do. But if u still have doubts, how about joining me for a drive?

13)DO U SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?
I do stuff my wife with lots of junk food n fruits, and she does become wild sometimes... esp at night!

14)STORMS--COOL OR SCARY?
Depends.. if its the weather, its cool. If its the wife, its scary!

15)WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?
Premier Padmini Deluxe BE 1984 model

16)FAVOURITE DRINK?
Nimbu Soda

17)FINISH THIS STATEMENT-IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD
Do up my website much better.

18)DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?
Please decode.

19)IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY OTHER COLOUR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?
Tan

20)NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS U HAVE LIVED IN?
Hyderabad ( Home shed)
Bangalore (For abt 5 years)
Tripoli (For a year when I was an infant.. cant remember a minute I sprent there)

21)FAVOURITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Formula 1
Cricket
Tennis
Hockey

22)ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
All docs are good people.

23)WHATS UNDER YOUR BED?
Wanna come and settle there?

24)WOULD U LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN??
Oh Yes..

25)MORNING PERSON OR NIGHT OWL?
Neither. Prefer sleeping at all times.

26)OVER EASY OR SUNNY SIDE UP?
Whats that now?

27)FAVOURITE PLACE TO RELAX?
My gaddi with the TV in front and biwi beside.

28)FAVOURITE PIE?
My cutie-pie wifey!

29)FAVOURITE ICECREAM FLAVOUR?
Mango ( Gaffooria's mould Ice-cream in Chowk near Charminar)

30)OF ALL THE PEOPLE U HAVE TAGGED, WHO IS THE MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?
I wish I was Nostradamus!

I tag..

Lemme tag the Cs
Chaks
Chandni
Curious
Cinderella

Should there be pay channels ?

I have always wanted to ask this to our broadcast regulators. Unfortunately, there was no response when I put this question up in the feedback section of TRAI's website.

Lets talk economics (actually, arithmatics). Take one channel Neo Sports for example. This channel has been in the news for quite sometime what with it being off-air to most viewers because it charges a mind boggling Rs 37 / subscriber /month. If my cable operator has 5000 connections, he portrays only 3000 to Neo . Thats about 60%. Or maybe we should look at it another way. India's population is 100 crore. There might be about 4 persons per connection(family) on an average. So lets say 25 crore family units. About 10 crore might not be interested in Neo Sports altogether. So, basically, Neo has about 15 crore families watching cricket matches. Due to the extreme pricing policy, about 5 crore families might not be receiving Neo Sports, or are using DTH. Leaves us with a maximum 10 crore families. As I mentioned earlier, cable operator discloses only 60% of his clientele to the channel. So effectively, Neo provides signal to 6crore TV sets. At Rs 37, it nets in a cool 222crore per month by way of channel subscription.

Now that means that if Neo can earn 222 crore rupees a month in some other way, it can effectively make its channel free-to-air.

From unofficial sources, it has come to my understanding that Neo's ad rates are approximately Rs 30,000/second. For major matches, it can go upto even Rs 50,000/second, which are because quite some revenue goes to DD. At the premium rate, if Neo has to earn 222 crore extra, it has to show advertisements for 44,000 seconds or 740 mins or 12 hours. That means an approx 30 mins a day on match days, considering that all days are not match days. That would mean 20 seconds extra in between each over in a test match, or 10 between overs for a ODI or T20. Plus extra advertising during pre and post match shows.

If Neo becomes a free-to-air channel, its viewership might go up from 6 crore TV sets to atleast 10 crore, if not 15 crore. Thats a cool 150% hike. Ad revenues might also go up to Rs 50,000 and Rs75,000 for the base/premium rates. That means they have to advertise for 490 extra minutes only over a period of a month. 17 minutes a day maximum. This can not only be achieved by advertisements between overs and sessions, during pre and post-match shows, but also in-between-balls-flash ads. In fact, Neo can earn much more just because the ad rates for the existing ads would also increase due to higher penetration of the channel.

If Neo becomes available to every cable home in the country, then advertisers would move from DD to Neo, which can also help Neo generate more moolah. DD might then let go of its feed sharing clause if all TV homes get to see the channel.

A similar analogy can be used for all mass-viewing channels and even news channels. This may not be applicable to a lot of niche channels like Discovery, History, NGC, etc , as production costs of most programmes itself is quite high.

So, why are the channels not going free ?

Organisational Rape ?

Two news items caught my imagination in the papers today. Incidently, both were on the Business page. And further more, both were very similar in generality.

News Item One spoke of the much maligned takeover of Yahoo Inc by the big giant Microsoft. MS has quoted 41 billion green bucks for Yahoo. Till now, Yahoo has kept MS away. Today's news item spoke of two things. One that Yahoo is not averse to a deal if its get a better price. Fine enough. Second was the fact that in case Yahoo does not agree, then MS might go in for a hostile takeover of Yahoo, which may not be in the best interests of Yahoo's shareholders.

News Item Two spoke of our own desi pharmaceutical house Orchid Pharma being linked to a takeover by pharma major Ranbaxy. Again the disturbing fact was the statement that Orchid will try to resist a hostile takeover. The story has been rich fodder for CNBC-TV18 and NDTV Profit is what I learn now.

All I wanted to ask Microsoft and Ranbaxy is if they consider Yahoo and Orchid respectively to be their 'baap ki jaagir' ? Why else would you talk of hostile takeovers if the other party isn't game to being taken over or being bought out? Does it not amount to something akin to an organisational rape ?

Can anyone enlighten me regarding this, considering that even small financial matters - not to speak of major takeovers - hostile or otherwise - are nothing less than Joel 'Big Bird' Garner's bouncers to me.

I am waiting....

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