Madras during Y2k - Nostalgia

The decade comes to a close this year and that made me retrospect on what has been in the last 10 years. From a personal point of view, I have grown a lot. No really, I have grown from just entering teenage to almost nearing the 'Hill' (25). For those who know me, may not agree at my intellectual growth but no one can deny me my physical :). Anyway, coming back, this decade has seen some of the fastest growth in the conscience of Indian society and the economy (GDP and all those feel good things). I would like to take you back in time when the year 2000 had started and draw a comparison of what was and what is not. Some of them would by my personal experiences as a kid growing up in Mylapore, Chennai. So...The 2000s were times when

1. My dad used to fill petrol in his bike for 100 Rs and he used to get 3.6 odd litres. You do the number comparison with the prices today

2. Cafe coffee day wasn't the obvious place to go for treats. Kaizhandi bhavan probably was

3. Pepsi was introduced in can and was 18 Rs per can. Was mighty pricey. Who cared about cans when the good ol' annachi kada bottle was there

4. Balcony ticket in Sathyam cost Rs 40. And Sathyam itself was just another cinema hall. Ranked among woodlands and devi

5. Talking about cinema halls, pilot theatre in Royapettah showcased adult movie those days. Hot spot, literally

6. Scooty was the 'in' thing. Guys and girls alike. Imagine guys driving a scooty now.

7. Houses in mylapore could be bought for Rs 20 lakhs.

8. School fees was Rs 500 a month and that was the higher end

9. Anna Univ was only CEG, MIT and ACTECH. All others were under madras university

10. Azharuddin was captain

11. Amitabh was bankrupt and was making movies like Suryavamsham and Mrityudata

12. Madhavan was every girl's dream. Surya and Vikram looked bad. And Vijay...

13. Pizzas could be made only at pizza hut or dominos. Noone else knew how they were made

14. Pencil boxes used to be b'day gifts

15. Distributing eclairs for Birthday at school was the norm. Anything less and you don't have the 'coolness factor'. Anything more and you were uber rich.

16. Saravana store was primarily a 'pathra kada'

17. Ladies used to buy jewellery in chit funds

18. Opel astra, ford escort were the luxury cars. Maruti 800 was still the first step to prosperity. Maruti Zen was the second

19. Mobile phones existed. But at 8 Rs per minute. RPG Pagers were the 'in' thing. Everyone made sure people looked at their hips.

20. 20GB hard disks were advanced category. 600 Mhz processor was the fastest thing. It wasn't hard to find 1 GB hard disk computers. Windows Millenium - 'nuf said

21. Road rash and Doom were absolutely mandatory if you had a computer

22. Rediff.com - Coolness coefficient increases

23. Velacheri was really an Eri.

24. Music videos and albums were the next best thing after movies. Remember 'Deewana' by Sonu Nigam that had girls fainting? Daler Mehndi with his 'repeat each line 4 times' songs.

25. Remember those big digital diaries? They certainly bought out my awes. Best gift items among professionals

26. 8 bit games were absolute craze. Remember super mario, karateka, spartan, legend of the kage? And those funny looking 8 in 1, 199 in 1 cassettes? Most of us didn't know a thing about Nintendo or Sega.

27. Boomer beat Big bubble to capture the bubble market. Yeah...Remember those tattoos with 1 Rs bubble gum? I knew friends who 'updated' them every day. They were the motivation behind Saif Ali khan's 'Kareena' tattoo i guess

The list is not all inclusive and will be updated as I remember more.

Vivek

Movies and Indian ethos

Imagine life without the movie Industry in India. Imagine we were a boring lot of people not too much interested in showbiz and fanfare. Who would you idolize? Yeah right Sardar Vallabhai Patel. Because Shahrukh khan would have been a potbellied manager in some government office. Imagine what would have every newly married guy sang to his wife during their first night? Yes, "Kabhi kabhi mere dil me khayal aata hai..." wouldn't have existed. No "Suhag raat hai, ghoonghat utha raha hoon mai...". What would every college kid who is about to graduate take sing his feelings to happiness? No "Papa kehte hai bada naam karega...". Or who would have inspired a whole generation to take up smoking had there not be any "Mai zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya...". The middle class of the 90s was the most ambitious generation post Independence India. They saw TV and they dreamt like any other Indian. But this time they worked to achieve it. Thats an altogether different story. But imagine if it had not been for movies like DDLJ, Pardes, K3G, Lamhe and songs like "Tu mere saamne..." from Darr, what would have inspired that generation to watch the beautiful looking foreign lands in awe and admiration and to dream to go there. I seriously believe, had it not been for the movies, I wouldn't have had that extra urge to come to the US. Thanks to those romantic duets worth crores of money with useless extras shaking their legs to help two idiots confess and pronounce their love for each other in some really exotic and naturally gifted locations abroad. Without them half of the present NRIs wouldn't even know how foreign lands are. Yeah they might have seen hollywood movies, but the presence of Shahrukh khan driving his car along the Brooklyn bridge and singing can be related much better.

Imagine had it not been for songs like "Mere khwabon me jo aaye..." from DDLJ, young nubile girls would never feel positive for an otherwise dreadful occasion like a marriage. And of course, without movies, I feel the big fat Indian weddings wouldn't have existed. Nothing to dance to. No "kaali teri choti hai paranda tera laalni...", "Mehndi laga ke rakhna...", "Sona sona.. dil mera sona..." etc etc., Can't imagine what would have inspired people when they are low had it not been for "Ruk jaana nahi..tu kahin haar ke.." and "Lakshya ko..har haal me paana hai.." . What can better describe the emotions of new started love interest than "Pehla nasha...". Its rather hard to understand and experience Indian ethos without Bollywood movies. Its a parallel culture that defines Modern India. The spirit of Indian celebratory culture coming out in the form of a 17 mm film. Ancient habit of deep thinking ingrained in our minds coming in the form of parallel cinemas that defy conservative ideas. It is indeed a religion along with Cricket.

PS: I have mentioned only Hindi movie songs here because of the wider range of people that it can cover.

Market is like Nature

Being politically aware definitely has its perks. One is politically vigilant and is quick to provide insights on news that "ordinary" people ignore as just another news. Unless its a tax increase, or an interest waiver or worse, a terror attack, people usually pass ignorant, generic, narrow minded comments on political happenings. A politically aware person sees a different view. Bailing out GM or AIG. Whats your view on it? If I get responses on it, I will flaunt my political awareness :). And political awareness has its disadvantages as well. Your blog may get blocked at work. Cool ain't it? You join the ranks of Al Qaeda, LTTE, LeT, and even porn sites!. Talking about being IN the league. Coming to the point, after being in the US for almost two years, I have come to realize my political stance with respect to American politics. I am a Republican :). Republicans or conservatives are people who believe in the founding principles of this country. Which is free market, entrepreneurship, limited Government and individual efforts. To me that is very liberal. Democrats on the other hand, termed as Liberals (Ironical) are ones who believe in... forget it. They believe in everything. They are leftists, centrists, what not. Even gays. Because? knock knock! They are liberals! They can be anything.

My political stance is inspired by the founding principles of America on its market. When a company fails, or when the market collectively fails, it is because of a bad business model. And its up to the market which should rise and sustain on its own to support its very existence. Very much like nature. If a chameleon that is black in skin color in a rain forest, 9 out of 10 times its going to fall prey. What does it do? Its species adapts itself to its surroundings and eventually a new kind of chameleon species is formed that can now change color. Camouflage to protect itself. A free market is like nature. It changes, adapts and reinvents itself. Tomorrow if Bank of America fails. Sure a few people lose jobs. Next door Daniel who is super talented loses his job. Its not his fault that Bank of America had a bad business model in lending sub prime mortgages. BUT! The market has a demand. That regardless of BofA's existence is big enough. This demand will pave way for a better, faster growing organization booming in confidence that can absorb talented people like Daniel. In fact such an event will redefine business models around to be forced to be better and more efficient. Surely if A and B have an ice cream shop and if B has more cleaner, friendlier shop than A, A cannot afford to be lackluster. A will reinvent itself.

In a socialist economy, the opposite happens. The govt bails out failed, sick enterprises. Air India is a sick enterprise forever on loss. Its shoddy, inefficient model is the reason for the rise of better, more efficient and swankier airline companies in India. If Air India is no more subsidized, sure Air India will fail. People will lose jobs. But the better of the airline companies will absorb market talent paving way for a better, faster market. And by the way, if Air India is subsidized keeping the lazy babus still in their jobs, sure it looks good in terms of providing job security. But whose money is it? OURS. We keep these lazy babus in their jobs only to provide us with shoddy service. Same holds for the thousands of sick steel units, power units around the country.

Therefore free market economy is the way to nurture more talent. Limited govt meaning lesser taxes. If you invest 25% of the taxes that you pay on a sound scheme, you will be a rich (hell yeah, rich) by the time you retire. And this is at a conservative number of 10% per annum. This is my 0.02$ worth opinion on market. And just to complete, market is linked to politics. And to reemphasize my point of self adapting and self bettering systems, I would allow you to figure out how politics and markets are linked.

Being alone in an apartment

Walking into a lonely apartment is funny. Especially for someone who habitually goes into his house singing. And then...noone comments. "dai super paatu da..." or "soora mokka machan..." or "enna machan love aa?".... And when I make tea, its only me, ruffling of trees I think (only to realize its the window blinds moving because of the vent). So its just me and the humming AC. Watching comedy shows makes it even worse. Because when I roll on the floor and laugh, noone comes next to me and asks whats thats more funnier than my presence. And when the other rooms carry the sound of my laughter, it becomes that much more awkward and I stop laughing. Every single sound now matters. It was as if I was given the ears of a dog. Every other sound makes me jump. Sometimes in fear (although fear has subsided because I have pretty much realized that the only person worth scaring me is my own presence - A reflection, an echo, a poorly balanced bottle, unclosed tap, rice cooker, sometimes in amusement that in this chaotic cosmos where matter is constantly generating life, is in motion, driving this big ass engine called life, there is this small system within the universe that is dead quiet. Where the dust particle silently floats in the golden sunbeam and settles down in perfect harmony and a perhaps quintessential equilibrium. The opposite also happens. There is no alarm in the house. There is no phone in the house. I guess this is how prisoners feel. Noone around. No sounds. No contact with the outside world. But I am better off. I can go wherever I want. But I meet only one person. And thats me. If physical outing makes me any different/better than a prisoner, then so be it. I guess thats a consolation enough.

But one consolation I do know. That in a few months someone is going to occupy this house. And share and add to the "noise".