Technology to stream video content across all platforms

How Anand Subramanian's NimbleTV allows subscribers to access TV content from anywhere on any device

Perfecting the technology to stream video content across all platforms - and viewable from anywhere - has been the Holy Grail of the television industry for years. From industry behemoths, such as Time Warner and Comcast, to a number of startups, all have tried to advance the concept and know-how of "TV Everywhere" without any genuine success. 

But now an IIT graduate appears to have beaten everyone out of the gate. Last Monday, the New York-based NimbleTV, founded by Anand Subramanian, who left Mumbai for the United States a decade and a half ago, started beta testing such a platform that allows subscribers to access TV content from anywhere on any device. 

Simply put, what NimbleTV is doing is uploading television packages that you have subscribed to - from any distributor anywhere - in the cloud and letting you watch them from any corner of earth through high-speed internet. 

No Platform Ticket 

The new technology is especially good news for peripatetic television junkies, who will be able to watch their favourite shows on mobile platforms and iPads, and even on the television sets in their hotel rooms. NimbleTV, which will be launched later this summer, also allows consumers to record shows without any restrictions. 

How Revolutionary is NimbleTV? 

"This is probably the biggest thing to have happened to TV in a long time," Subramanian said by phone from New York on Wednesday. 

"[The] biggest thing in TV since the flat screen," a company post on its Facebook page claimed. Many, including those who know a thing or two about innovations, seem to agree. 

"It is potentially game-changing," journalist Perri Peltz, said on Friday, honouring Subramanian with the prestigious Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award at the NYU Stern School of Business, barely four days after NimbleTV began the beta test. 

The award recognises the contributions of disruptive innovators in the fields of business, technology, arts and entertainment. Subramanian's fellow honorees on Friday included pop superstar Justin Bieber and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. 

The company says the new technology is born of the twin ideas that consumers "should be able to access the TV they pay for wherever they happen to be" and "that providers and content producers should be paid". In that sense, the product is "a solution that is both industry friendly and consu-mer friendly," Subram-anian said. 

"'TV Everywhere' as a concept has been there for a long time, but it is not a reality," Subramanian explained how he reached his Eureka moment. "The question that intrigued me is why that is the case. So when I started digging into it, I saw that it is an industry problem. And started thinking about how to solve it." Subramanian said the industry has responded very positively so far. "Cable companies all over the world have contacted us," he said without going into specifics. 

The Cable Guy 

The response from consumers was also overwhelming, according to Subramanian. "Our server had to be beefed up because we had so many people signing up," he said. "So we were a little unplanned for this kind of volume of people. People are interested all over the world." 

One of NimbleTV's early investors is media giant Tribune, which owns a number of television stations across the US. A serial entrepreneur, Subramanian's maiden venture was in India. After graduating from IIT Bombay in 1992, he founded a medical software firm in the city. 

He came to the US in the mid-1990s, after selling that company. And in the next few years, he would launch two more companies: iGate Capital, an IT consulting firm, and ContextWeb, an online ad company, which became a big success. Before stepping down as CEO of ContextWeb in 2010 to found the latest venture, the company was named as one of the top 500 fastest growing technology firms by Deloitte for four straight years. In 2008, he was a finalist for The Metro New York Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. 

Ball Games 

Not unlike many entrepreneurs of his generation, one of Subramanian's idols is the legendary Steve Jobs, whom he met in India during his IIT days more than two decades ago. "I was really fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend 20 minutes with him," he said of his meeting with the late Apple founder. 

Subramanian, who constantly speaks on the issues of technology, media and their convergence, said he loves to help and mentor other entrepreneurs. "I am a very, very active person when it comes to entrepreneurship," he said. "Let's put it this way, my life and my work are the same, to a large extend." 

Two other interests in his life are travel and sports, especially basketball and American football. Asked whether he follows any Indian sports, such as cricket, he said that he had played a lot of cricket in Mumbai. "But it is hard for me to follow cricket here," he says. 

And that may change now, thanks to his new product, which will make it easier for him, and millions of others, to follow cricket and other pastimes from back home on any device. 

Puns Are Fun !

When chemists die, they barium.

I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid. However, he says he can stop any time.

How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it.

I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Then it dawned on me.

This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I'd never met herbivore.

I'm reading a book about anti-gravity and I just can't put it down.

I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was a play on words.

They told me I had type-A blood, but it was a Type-O.

PMS jokes aren't funny, period.

We're going on a class trip to the Coca-Cola factory. I hope there's no pop
quiz.

I didn't like my beard at first. Then it grew on me.

Did you hear about the cross-eyed teacher who lost her job because she couldn't control her pupils?

When you get a bladder infection urine trouble.

Broken pencils are pointless.

I tried to catch some fog, but I mist.

What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary? A thesaurus.

England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool .

I used to be a banker, but then I lost interest.

I dropped out of communism class because of lousy Marx.


I got a job at a bakery because I kneaded dough.

Haunted French pancakes give me the crêpes.

Velcro is a rip off !

A cartoonist was found dead in his home. Details are sketchy.

The earthquake in Washington obviously was the government's fault.

Be kind to your dentist. He has fillings, too.

MySnap : A roof in Pune

Too long to download!

Realist !

A Negative person sees the glass of water half empty. A Positive person sees it half full. But a Realistic person adds 40ml whisky to it & says Cheers...

Human Engineering

THE “PHOOK” THEORY

 

 

The literal meaning of the Punjabi word, ‘phook’ is air pressure. Metaphorically, it is used to describe an ego-state.
Thus, if someone is hogging a lot of ‘phook’, he is ‘gassed’ or brash.

 

 

The year, 1988. Location : No 3 Base Repair Depot (BRD), IAF, Chandigarh

The little man who sat as the Air Officer Commanding (AOC) of the BRD was my brother. Our father found him bone lazy, incapable doing any strenuous work. But I suspect he was clever. The Air Force chose to overlook his sloth and let him rise. Now, having completed his course at the National Defense College, it was clear that he was going places. I had gone to the BRD to learn the rudiments of command.

 

As I entered, the two officers who were sitting in the office took leave of him. He sat there, completely relaxed. There was no paper in the two trays marked “IN” and: OUT” The customary “Pending” bin was conspicuous by its absence. The walls of the large office were bare. No bar charts, no performance curves. On the table, there was a small hand written paper, which my brother permitted me to see. It said,

 

“I hate work. Even if some one else does it”.

 

 It was clear as crystal that my dear brother had not changed. I asked him how he managed such a large outfit. And he said, “Come, I will show you” And we set off for a ‘darshan’ of the unit. Wherever we went, people rushed to greet him. He had a word or two to say to every one. In most cases, he let his officers speak. He would then say just a sentence or two, and then move on. But I noticed that his tone was different each time. At one workstation, we saw a tall officer, who had a lot of charts and diagrams, and he gave us a detailed account of his achievements. The curve showed that the output of his shop had tripled since he took over. He was keen to give a lecture to the other officers of the BRD on the management techniques he had employed to achieve those results. My brother gave a cold look to him and said, “Yes. You can do that. But first you must improve the quality of your stuff. That gyro-stabilizer which failed in the flight test last month was overhauled here.  Right?  If the pilot was not alert, you would have his blood on your hands!”

 

Jesus! That six foot tall engineer suddenly looked like a pygmy, and his rose colored cheeks turned yellow, drained of blood, in less than a second!

 

We next went to another shop. The officer in-charge greeted us. But while he was speaking, my brother’s eyes were elsewhere. He noticed that a junior officer had hidden himself behind a chopper. As soon as the briefing was over, he went that way, and called that man out. He gave the meek man a light hug and asked about his ailing wife. The poor soul, who was obviously commissioned from the ranks mumbled something about the shortfall in his production, but the AOC was not interested in those details... The boss told him that he was one of the best officers in the unit and ended by saying, “I saw your son playing basket ball yesterday. I think he has a lot of potential” When we left, he clicked his heels and produced one of the smartest salutes I have ever seen.

 

 All through the visit, I observed that my brother was less interested in technology and ‘output’ and more concerned about the officers and technicians he met. He knew an amazing number of names, and seemed to know all about their specific hopes and aspirations.   

 

When we returned, I asked him what his job, as the Commander.  He thought for a while and then he shared his “Phook Theory” with me. It was like Socrates talking to Plato and I find it more appropriate to recount the dialog verbatim. He taught by asking questions, and I sat like a little child answering as best as I could.

 

*

                

“When you are driving a vehicle, what happens if the tire pressure is low?”

“The acceleration drops, steering becomes hard and the fuel consumption goes up”

“Right.  You must inflate the wheels. Now what happens if the pressure is too high?”

“The ride becomes bumpy, steering wobbles and an odd tire may burst”

“Correct. You must immediately pull up to a service station and do the needful”

 

After a sip of the juice which had arrived, he said, “This unit is like a vehicle. I am on the driver’s seat. These officers are the ‘wheels’ of the vehicle. I have only two jobs, one to steer in the correct direction and two, to ensure that the ‘phook’ level of all my officers is correct, always and every time. So when I see some one down and out, I boost his spirit and if I find some one bumpy, I …” And to show what he did, he filled air in his cheeks and made a hissing sound, ‘Phusshh…’

 

Through my mind’s eye, I saw that meek officer hiding behind a chopper get a hug and a tall management ‘guru’ cut to size. Like a little child, I asked him, “But, pray, how do you find whom to pump and whom to deflate?”

 

“Ah, well! That is what management is all about!” There was another pause, but after that, he became serious. He gave me the most profound lesson of that morning, “That is not difficult. One learns it through experience. The tough part is to keep my own ‘phook’ at the right level. I must not lose my equanimity, no matter what happens.  And that is not always easy”

 

Just when I thought the lesson was over, he asked, “what is more important, technology or people?”

I looked askance, and said, “You tell?”

 

His answer was unusual. He said, “Technology is for the middle level officers. At my level, it is my colleagues.”

 

His parting words to me were the most profound. He said,

 

“Management is all about people. If you do not like people, do not manage. Engineering has many branches, mechanical, electronics, chemical, aerospace and so on, but the one which is needed for my job is different. It is called, Human Engineering”    

 

                                                             *                           

       

Armed with the ‘phook theory’ I assumed command of the famous ‘Five-O-Nine’ Army Base Workshop in Agra, in 1989. And immediately, I discovered the problem associated with maintaining my own phook in check. The star plate on the car; the traffic coming to a halt to let my car go; a reception at the Agra Club followed by a function organized at Hotel Clark Shiraz by a citizen’s forum to welcome me had a way of making me to believe that I had ‘arrived’. Some sycophants went on to say that no other commandant had been received that way; and that my posting was an event to remember for the land of the Taj Mahal.  It needed a great deal of deliberate effort to keep my feet on the ground, The phook theory helped. I jotted it down and kept it on my table, as a guide. I also applied its tenets to my command, and believe you me, it worked!

Encouraged by the results, I shared this management philosophy with my friends The feedback which I received was positive, and so I began to believe that between me and my brother, we had discovered a new management ‘mantra’

 And then one day, the sky burst and the earth began to rumble.. A very dear friend who had taken these dictums as gospel truth, rang up to say that the theory had failed completely. He said he was in sh**. My enquiries revealed that there was a near mutiny in his unit. I requested a colleague to tell me as many details as he could get and then I sent the case study to the author of the theory for advice.

 

My dear brother took less than five minutes to respond. In a tersely worded note he wrote,

“Tell your friend to check his pressure gauge. He seems to be deflating people who have nothing left in their lungs and pumping those who were already on the verge of bursting!”

 

-----------

Get Rid of It......

 

Want to improve your life ? first get rid of your t v and never buy one. An interesting article by  a Japanese language specialist and a travel writer based in Chennai  "I find TV very educational. Every time somebody switches it on, I go to another room and read a good book!" — Groucho Marx  I've reached my three-month mark without cable television. And it's showing on me. I am healthier, my creative juices are flowing and my relationships are richer. I am now a self-appointed messiah to take the message to people — eliminate TV from your lives and see the difference! Television eats into your time. It is a stimulation that takes charge of your life. Statistics in the U.S. say that the average person watches more than four hours of television a day. This must be true for most Indians too. This is about one-fourth of one's waking hours!  Imagine if you had that time, you could exercise, cook gourmet meals, pursue a hobby, write a novel or do volunteer work! The evils of television are legendary. Eating in front of the TV set is common. It could end up adding more calories and obesity. People rarely have meaningful conversations while watching the idiot box. There is little time for parents and children, and watching TV together does not grow a relationship! Before the advent of television, families played together, went on picnics, took long walks together and pursued hobbies. Why don't families reap the real benefits of quality family time rather than watch dysfunctional families waging war on the screen? Having dinner together is a timeless ritual which has been taken over by watching weepy soap operas. Television is known to interfere with sleep patterns, the body's circadian rhythms. Many people prefer watching TV to lulling their body to sleep with a book or music. Going to sleep with TV on your mind is to wake up exhausted. The greatest evil of TV according to me is a sedentary lifestyle. This mindless watching of re-runs and reality shows, sitting on the couch with a drink in one hand and a snack in the other can, lead to heart ailments, diabetes and other health problems. More time outdoors? You have to turn it off. Play an active game of football or badminton or just take a brisk walk on the beach. See what you have been missing with only the remote for company! The American Academy of Paediatricians recommends that children less than two years should not watch TV at all — TV is linked with attention problems in kids. Children need to listen to intelligent adult conversation to build the capacity for linear thought. Let's face it. Progress comes from being in the real world — talking and interacting with people, reading inspiring literature, picking up valuable skills and not from isolation which is what TV perpetuates. The worst fact is that TV is addictive! No matter how noble your intentions are, once you are in front of the box, you will be ensnared by its sheer banality. Like any other addiction, we use TV to calm down, we are on edge when we don't watch it and we just don't seem to be able to control our hours of viewing! We often put off tasks like paying our bills, stocking up the larder or putting our homes in order for the pleasure of watching a clichéd saas bahu soap opera! The result is an overwhelming stress and guilt about the undone tasks and all those things we could have done in that precious time. TV kills imagination. Everything is portrayed for you at the flick of a button, you just have to sit back and enjoy the product of someone else's imagination. Programmes are also loaded with commercials and a constant barrage is spawning desires. Fantasy becomes more satisfying than real life! Insidiously, television puts the viewer in a mental frame where he always wants something. A bigger TV set, a flashier car, more luxury products and the list goes on. I do agree that television is a medium that can inform, inspire and educate. The clincher, however, is that why should we sacrifice our health, money and relationships for something that humanity has done well without for thousands of years? (The author is a Japanese language specialist and travel writer based in Chennai)

सिवाय कर्कश आवाजों के ..........

माँ बनाती थी रोटी

पहली गाय की

आखरी कुत्ते की

एक बामणी दादी की

एक मेहतरानी की

अलसुबह

सांड आ जाता

दरवाज़े पर

गुड की डली के लिए

कबूतर का चुग्गा

कीड़ीयों का आटा

ग्यारस,अमावस,पूनम का सीधा

डाकौत का तेल

काली कुतिया के ब्याने पर

तेल गुड का हलवा

सब कुछ निकल आता था

उस घर से

जिस में विलासिता के नाम पर

एक टेबल पंखा था

आज सामान से भरे घर से

कुछ भी नहीं निकलता

सिवाय कर्कश आवाजों के--

--अश्वघोष

Disappointing Turnout !

The aging Indian Relic can now safely retire !

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MEQgciqZRQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player


RSK

Whisky

Winston Churchill was once asked about his position on whisky. Here's how he answered:

"If you mean whisky, the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroy s the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean that evil drink that topples men and women from the pinnacles of righteous and gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, shame, despair, helplessness, and hopelessness, then, my friend, I am opposed to it with every fiber of my being."

"However, if by whisky you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the elixir of life, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean good cheer, the stimulating sip that puts a little spring in the step of an elderly gentleman on a frosty morning; if you mean that drink that enables man to magnify his joy, and to forget life's great tragedies and heartbreaks and sorrow; if you mean that drink the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of pounds each year, that provides tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb , our pitifully aged and infirm, to build the finest highways, hospitals, universities, and community colleges in this nation, then my friend, I am absolutely, unequivocally in favor of it.

Cocky overconfidence, bloated government and crony capitalism may be India's undoing.

India stands just about a 50% chance of coming good as one of the emerging miracle economies. In a new book, Ruchir Sharma explains why cocky overconfidence, bloated government and crony capitalism may be its undoing. 

In the late 1800s, the story of a startling magic trick emerged from India and spread. In its fullblown version, the story describes a street performer who begins to play his flute over a coiled rope, which climbs dancing like a cobra to a great height. The boy assistant scrambles to the top of the rope and disappears. 

The magician calls for the boy, grows impatient, grabs a large knife and scrambles up the rope, vanishing too. Then limbs, a torso, and a head fall out of the sky. The magician reappears, reassembles and covers the body parts, and from under a bloody sheet the boy reappears, grinning. It would be one hundred years before "the great Indian rope trick" was fully exposed as a hoax: a composite pasted together in the imagination of Western visitors from the full menu of tricks performed by Indian street magicians. Magic societies offered rewards, but no one ever performed "the world's greatest illusion." 

In recent years visitors have been returning from India in a similar state of awe, overwhelmingly impressed by the nation that perhaps has been most deeply transformed by the emerging-market levitation act of the last decade. But India now risks falling for its own hype, based largely on the assumption that it is repeating a trick pioneered by China - a seemingly endless stretch of 8 to 9 percent growth - and is therefore destined to be the fastest-growing economy over the next decade. 

At least until the last months of 2011, when growth forecasts dipped below 7 percent and rattled investor confidence, the Indian elite seemed more focused on how to spend the boom's windfall than on working to make sure the rapid growth actually happens. 

The best example of this rosy thinking was the way the ongoing baby boom in India has been transformed from a "population time bomb" into a "demographic dividend". Until the 1990s the Indian government was still working hard to rally the nation against the dangers of overpopulation, but that fear has melted away, based on the argument that a baby-boom generation of newworkers helped fuel China's rise and will do the same for India. 

India's confidence ignores the postwar experience of many countries in Africa and the Middle East, where a flood of young people into the labor market produced unemployment, unrest, and more mouths to feed. I put the probability of India's continuing its journey as a breakout nation this decade at closer to 50 percent, owing to a whole series of risks that are underappreciated, including bloated government, crony capitalism, falling turnover among the rich and powerful, and a disturbing tendency of farmers to stay on the farm. 

The next decade is full of bright spots, but you can't find them by looking back at the nations that got the most hype in the last decade, and hope they will hit new highs going forward. The stars of this decade will be the breakout nations, by which I mean the nations that can sustain rapid growth, beating or at least matching high expectations and the average growth rates of their income class; for the richer emerging markets with average incomes of $20,000 to $25,000 (like the Czech Republic or South Korea) breaking out will mean 3 to 4 percent growth in GDP, while for China, in the class of $5,000 and less, anything less than 6 to 7 percent will feel like a recession. 

Similarly, it makes no sense to think of India ($1,500 per capita income, with a high-growth population) in the same way as Russia ($13,000, with a shrinking population ). 

The richer the country the tougher the growth challenge. The growth game is above all about expectations. People are always asking me, "So what if India slows from 9 percent to 6 to 7 percent - that is still three times faster than growth in the West, right?" 

Well, for India that slip would initially feel like a recession, because it is one of the poorer nations in the low-income group - the economies with per capita income under $5,000 - and every Indian has come to enjoy the levitating sensation of rising fast from a low base. 

Last year, New Delhi built its budget based on the revenue it could expect at 9 percent growth, and the prices in the Mumbai stock market were based on what Indian companies would be worth down the road if the economy continued to grow at a pace of at least 8 percent. In 2011, therefore, a growth rate of 7 percent was enough to trigger a bear market in Indian stocks. 

India's 'Silent Cal' 

Signs of an unraveling have begun to emerge under the administration of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but not really because of it. When Singh was tapped to become prime minister in 2004, many hoped that he could continue to push reform, but in reality he became more of a figurehead, presiding over an economic boom unleashed by global rather than local forces, particularly the tide of easy money that was flooding out of the United States, stirring an unprecedented boom across all emerging markets. 

Singh could not force reform on a political class and culture that had grown deeply complacent, and he now reminds me of US President Calvin Coolidge, the nondescript leader who was in office during the boom of the 1920s but did not use his power to correct fault lines that would bring down the U.S. economy in the 1930s. A man of few words, Coolidge earned the moniker "Silent Cal," and Singh too is known for keeping his mouth shut.. 

Brazil, Not China 

China is not the only possible model for India. Culturally and politically India has far more in common with the confusion of modern Brazil than with the command-and-control environment that defines China. 

Both India and Brazil are "highcontext" societies, a term popularized by the anthropologist Edward Hall to describe cultures in which people are noisy, quick to make promises that cannot always be relied on, and a bit casual about meeting deadlines. These societies tend to be built on close ties built over long periods of time, creating an environment in which a lot goes unsaid-or is said very briefly-because much is implicitly understood from context. 

The spoken word is often flowery and vague; apologies are long and formal. Such societies believe deeply in tradition, history, and favoring the in-group, whether it is one's family or business circle, and thus they are vulnerable to corruption. 

"Low context," in contrast, describes societies like the United States and Germany in which people are individual oriented, care about privacy, and are more likely to stick to timelines and their word. People tend to be on the move, to have many brief relationships, and thus rely on simple, open communications and codified rules to guide behavior. 

The most popular soap opera in Brazil in recent times has been A Passage to India, a Brazilian-Indian love story filmed in the Indian cities of Agra and Jodhpur in which Brazilian actors play the Indian roles and pass easily for North Indians. 

To Indians who have seen it, the show is a dead ringer, in terms of look and mood, for the style of the Indian producer Ekta Kapoor, who has turned out some of the most popular serial dramas in Indian TV history. 

In politics there is also a distinct Indo-Brazilian connection: a desire for state protection from life's risks - social welfare for the nation as one big in-group-to a degree rarely found in other highcontext societies. 

The political elites of India and Brazil are fond of welfare-state liberalism, and both populations demand high levels of income support even though the economies do not yet generate the revenue to support a welfare state. Per capita income is about $12,000 in Brazil and $1,500 in India. 

It was easy for India to increase spending in the midst of a global boom, but the spending has continued to rise in the post-crisis period. If this continues, India may meet the same fate as Brazil in the late 1970s, when excessive government spending set off hyperinflation and crowded out private investment, ending the country's economic boom. 

Crony Capitalism 

Crony capitalism is a cancer that undermines competition and slows economic growth. That is why the United States moved to take down the robber barons by passing anti-trust laws in the 1920s. Ever since, the American economy has seen constant change in its ranks of the rich and powerful, including both people and companies. 

On average, the Dow index of the top-thirty US industrial companies replaces half its members every fifteen years. India's market used to generate heavy turnover too, but in late 2011, twenty-seven - 90 percent - of the top-thirty companies tracked by the benchmark Sensex index were holdovers from 2006. 

Back in 2006 the comparable figure was just 68 percent . Further, the top-ten stocks on the Sensex now account for twothirds of the total value, while the top ten on the Dow account for just half the total value, showing a higher concentration of corporate wealth in India. 

Like most emerging nations India celebrates when its companies "go global," but this is not necessarily a good sign. To hit its 8 to 9 percent growth target India needs its businesses to reinvest at home, but they are looking abroad. Investment by Indian businesses has declined from 17 percent of GDP in 2008 to 13 percent now. Overseas operations of all Indian companies now account for more than 10 percent of overall corporate profitability, compared with just 2 percent five years ago. Given the boom in the Indian middle class, Indian companies should see huge opportunity at home: they are leaving because of the growing resentment against the domestic operating environment. 

In the global media India is closely associated with its dynamic technology entrepreneurs, who often grace the covers of international magazines. But this misses the retreat inward, the high-context side of India. 

Lately the enterprising moguls are getting replaced on the billionaire list by a new group: provincial tycoons who have built fortunes based on sweetheart deals with state governments to corner the market in location-based industries like mining and real estate. India has always been top-heavy with billionaires, which is partly a function of the way ingroups work to horde the economic pie for themselves. 

Political Chameleon 

India's boom has also sparked a rise in inequality, which to some extent is natural in the early stages of economic development; however, inequality can stall growth if it goes unchecked. Over the last decade, consumption levels have grown dramatically for all Indians, but 6 percentage points faster per year for the richest 10 percent than for the poorest 10 percent. 

Political leaders have been working to contain social tensions, mainly by increasing government handouts rather than by widening business and job opportunities. The Gandhi family has continued to show its trademark sensitivity to the poor, but in ways that may backfire against economic growth by running up deficits. 

This habit - deficit spending in good times as well as bad - was a major contributor to the current debt problems in the United States and Western Europe, and India can ill afford it. What's more, welfare schemes such as the rural employment guarantees create a perverse incentive for villagers to stay on the farm. 

China was able to convert its growing labor force into an economic miracle by encouraging a rapid mass migration of inland farmers to the more productive coastal cities. Over the past decade the share of the Chinese population living in urban areas rose from 35 to 46 percent. During the same period India's urban population grew much more slowly-from 26 percent to 30 percent of the whole. 

Why It Is 50-50 

No other large economy has so many stars aligned in its favor, from its demographic profile to its entrepreneurial energy and, perhaps most important, an annual per capita income that is only onefourth of China's. But Indian policy makers cannot assume that demographics will triumph and that problems such as rising crony capitalism and increased welfare spending are just sideshows instead of major challenges. These are exactly the factors that have prematurely choked growth in other emerging markets. 

The wild card for India is its freewheeling democracy, an environment in which the zeitgeist can change very quickly. It was only in the last decade that India came to see itself as the next China, and came to see its growing population as a competitive advantage rather than as a threat. The recent case of national overconfidence could give way just as fast to a healthy sense of urgency, with new state-level leaders who see the complex picture of India for what it is. 

The great Indian rope trick may be impossible, in its mythical form, but Indian leaders don't need to come up with something that dazzling. An economy with low per capita income is relatively easy to levitate. And lesser versions of the rope trick - with no one disappearing into the sky and no falling body parts - are still impressive enough to keep audiences riveted to the show. 

(Excerpts from Ruchir Sharma's new book, Breakout Nations: In Pursuit of the Next Economic Miracles, published by Allen Lane/Penguin. The author is head of Emerging Markets and Global Macro at Morgan Stanley Investment Management)

Top Cricketers' earnings over 60 years .............

1950s   Playing Fee per Test Rs. 250 Brand endorsements: None, except G. S. Ramchand, the first cricketer to endorse a brand. But he was paid no cash for his modeling.   1960s   Playing Fee per Test Rs. 400. Brand endorsements: Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi for jewellery, Taj Mahal Tea. Farokh Engineer, who got Rs.25 for Brylcream ad.   1970s   Test Fee Rs. 500 - 700. ODIs Rs. 500 per match. Brand Endorsements: Sunil Gavaskar, Eknath Solkar for Philips cycles. An ad fetched roughly Rs. 2,000.00   1980s   PLAYING FEE PER TEST RS.7,500.00 ODIs Rs. 5,000 per match Brand Endorsements: Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev for BSA SLR cyccles, Palmolive cream. An ad fetched about Rs.3,000.00   1990s   Playing fee per Test Rs. 3 lakh ODIs Rs.50,000 per match. Brand Endorsement: Kapil Dev, Sachin for Boost, Hero Honda. An ad fetched about Rs.50,000.   2000s   Annual Contract:   Grade A Rs. 1 crore Grade B Rs. 50 lakh Grade C Rs. 25 lakh   Playing fee per Test Rs. 4 - 7 lakh ODIs Rs. 1.8 - 4 lakh T20 Rs. 1 - 2lakh   Brand Endorsements:   Sachin Tendulkar Rs.180 crore deal with Iconic in 2006. M.S.Dhoni Rs.210 crore deal with Rhiti Sports Management in 2010.   RUN MACHINES OR MONEY MACHINES??   M. S. DHONI   BCCI annual contract Rs.1 crore Match fee Rs.1.86 crore Endorsements Rs. 150 crore from 23 brands IPL Rs. 9 crore   SACHIN TENDULKAR   BCCI annual contract Rs. 1 crore Match fee Rs. 85 lakh Endorsements Rs. 60 crore from 17 brands. IPL Rs. 9 crore   GAUTAM GAMBHIR   BCCI annual contract Rs.1 crore Match fee Rs. 94 lakh Endorsements Rs. 5 crore from three brands. IPL Rs.11 crore

MySnap :...but you can't hide its brilliance

The Bond of Life ......

Girish Bhandari, Hindustan Times

I walk daily to the park nearby to relax in the lap of nature. And then I sit under an eucalyptus
 tree to wonder at nature's bounties.

A few days ago, as I was absorbed in thoughts, I heard a raucous caw. There was a crow
cawing continuously. Initially, I did not pay much attention. But to my annoyance, I saw 

the crow alight on a branch near me.

Its cawing became shriller and harsher. I looked up again. I saw that its eyes were panicky 

and there was immediacy to whatever it was trying to convey. As if prompted by an 

unseen force, I just walked away.

Hardly had I gone a few meters away when I heard a crash sound. A big branch of the
 eucalyptus had  crashed breaking the bench I was sitting on. I felt a shudder. Clearly, the crow
 was trying to warn me of the danger in the only language it knew. I bowed my head in gratitude.

Soon I realised that the act of the crow was because there was a bond between all living beings.
It knew there was danger to my life. There are recorded experiences all through history
 when  dolphins, porpoises and even whales have rescued drowning people and escorted them
 to the safety of the shore. The carnivore lives by the so-called law of the jungle, which in fact is
 a very well-evolved law.

No carnivore, especially lions and tigers, would kill unless they are hungry. Herds of gazelle may
 pass by but the pride of lions, if they had their fill, would ignore them. Similarly, no snake will
 attack unless threatened. We have a number of examples where bitches suckle kittens if the
 kitten's mother is dead. I have seen a disabled crow fed by other crows on my terrace.

Strangely, this universal bond does not seem to apply to we human beings. There seems to be
 no respect and tolerance for alternative views and beliefs, thereby generating distrust and violence.

We forget that enlightenment is nothing but the realisation that all life is equally precious.

For Sachin Fans

How not to close a great career

Sachin Tendulkar's media blitz in the wake of his 100th hundred has been unseemly and cheapens his legacy

Mukul Kesavan

April 8, 2012

	Since scoring the 100th hundred Tendulkar has been on a spree of promotional events celebrating it

After winning the World Cup last year, India endured their worst season of Test cricket in 50 years. Tests played overseas: eight. Tests lost: eight. These defeats weren't close-run affairs; they were old-fashioned thrashings, which brought back the bad old days when Indian teams travelled like reluctant invalids and Indian batsmen played fast bowling from outside the leg stump.

To make matters worse for a team that had climbed to the top of the Test match tree on the strength of the greatest middle order in contemporary cricket, these were batting defeats. India's modest bowling attack did as well as could be expected; it was the batsmen who embarrassed the team.

The only batsman to emerge with some honour from this debacle was Rahul Dravid. Not only did he score three centuries in the four-Test series in England, he was unbeaten in two of those innings. But the Australian tour was an unmitigated batting disaster for the Indian team, Dravid included. He was bowled six times in eight innings - seven times if you count the no-ball that bowled him in the Melbourne knock. He averaged 24. At the end of the tour, he called a press conference, acknowledged his fading form, spoke movingly about how much cricket had meant to him and retired from the game.

There can be no doubt that the Australian series underlined for Dravid the fact that this was the right time to go. As a unit, India's batting galacticos had faded. The English and Australian tours made it clear that on lively pitches against quality pace attacks, they couldn't collectively deliver any more. VVS Laxman, who played all eight Test matches, averaged in the early twenties; Sehwag, who missed two Tests in England because of injury, scored a pair in the third, and in the series against Australia did nothing after scoring a quick fifty in the first innings of the Melbourne Test. Like Laxman his Australian average hovered in the low twenties.

The two of them made no announcement about retiring, hoping, no doubt, to eke out another year or two in Test cricket, but they remained silent in the light of their horror season. In contrast, Sachin Tendulkar inaugurated a noisy celebration of himself.

Bear in mind that Tendulkar had had a poor season by his standards. He had scored no centuries, played no decisive match-saving innings, fought no heroic rearguard actions. His average over the eight Tests was 35: 20 runs below his career average. Dravid averaged nearly 47 in the same period and retired, while Tendulkar travelled to Bangladesh in search of his elusive hundredth international hundred.

This is not to suggest that Tendulkar ought to have retired. Given how poorly the new generation of middle-order batsmen has performed, it's not as if he has an obvious successor. Virat Kohli has been the best of an indifferent lot and he isn't challenging for Tendulkar's spot in either Test or ODI cricket. But it is worth attending to the increasing divergence between Tendulkar's career, his opinion of himself and the fortunes of the Indian cricket team.

There were a series of press conferences and public events starring Tendulkar immediately after his 100th hundred at Mirpur. In none of them did Tendulkar spend much time on the fact that a) India actually lost to Bangladesh, b) that one of the reasons India lost was that Tendulkar was so focused on getting his hundred that his run rate dropped as he approached this landmark, leaving the team short of the 300-plus target that was there for the taking, and c) that India were eliminated from the tournament before the final.

Indian cricket seemed to regress to the days when desis consoled themselves in defeat by talking up individual performances. To be fair to Tendulkar, a large part of the responsibility for this regression rested with the mainstream media and the country's cricketing public, which bought into the ersatz frenzy about his 100th hundred with such enthusiasm.

The other interesting thing about this rash of public appearances was the contrast it made with Tendulkar's camera-shyness through the rout in England, the whitewash in the Australian Test series, and the wooden spoon in the triangular one-day tournament in Australia. Pretty much every other player had trudged up to the post-match interview and dealt with the mortification of being publicly quizzed about abject defeat, but not Tendulkar.

	Tendulkar isn't merely a great player; he is the greatest human brand in the history of Indian advertising. So many corporations have so much riding on him that his career can't be allowed to end like Dravid's: it has to be talked up and eked out and wrung dry so that it gives them a fair return on their investment

What were we to infer from this? That Tendulkar had reached a place where he was committed to saturating the airwaves to celebrate an individual landmark but was unwilling to step up and take ownership of team defeat? Or had Tendulkar genuinely begun to believe that his cause and India's were indistinguishable? Asked about retirement he suggested that it would be unpatriotic for him to retire:

"When you are at the top, you should serve the nation. When I feel I am not in a frame of mind to contribute to nation, that's when I should retire, not when somebody says. That's a selfish statement, that one should retire on top."

To appreciate the tin-eared narcissism of this, bear in mind that Tendulkar had averaged 35 in his last eight Test matches. If we were to extend the curious logic of "international hundreds" (the notion that you can club together scores in two different forms of the game and create a composite landmark) and calculate his "international average" between his 99th hundred and his 100th, Tendulkar averaged just under 33 in 33 individual innings. Thirty-three runs per innings for a batsman of Tendulkar's class is a kind of batting twilight, not the "top". That he can't recognise this is not surprising: most successful sportsmen find it hard to deal with the dying of the light. Tendulkar, like many greats before him, is in denial. In the normal course, denial is a short-lived phase: the gap between a player's valuation of himself and his performance generally kills off delusion.

But Tendulkar isn't merely a great player; he is the greatest human brand in the history of Indian advertising. So many corporations have so much riding on him that his career can't be allowed to end like Dravid's: it has to be talked up and eked out and wrung dry so that it gives them a fair return on their investment.

As Tendulkar's career faltered over the last year, the prospect of the 100th hundred became for Coke and Adidas and his other sponsors a heaven-sent way of disguising the new low at which his career had plateaued out. They didn't invent the idea but once they found it in the zeitgeist, they ran with it. The 100th hundred became an imminent peak, always just one innings away, and since this mountain top was one that only Tendulkar could climb, it helped elevate him at precisely the point where his form dipped.

There's a bizarrely funny photograph of Tendulkar at a press conference in a shiny shirt, flanked by two anonymous corporate men. One holds a special Coke can that commemorates the 100th hundred and the other man is holding an Adidas shoe. Tendulkar stands in the middle, with a shoe in one hand and a can in the other, like a shaman about to divine the hidden with the help of unlike fetishes.

Tendulkar's unwillingness to share responsibility for defeat (in a media interaction he attributed the whitewash in Australia to a *single big Australian batting partnership per match but for which, according to him, the teams were equal) and the uncharacteristic way in which he milked the Mirpur hundred seemed like a case of individual and corporate anxiety merging and, in concert, trying to make the most of what is left.

For a man who through his long career, has been a model of unassertive poise, the crassness of the publicity blitz and his own odd complicity, is startling. It cheapens a great cricketing legacy, like a tinsel garland on a solid gold icon. Tendulkar doesn't have to brief us about his retirement plans; he is the greatest batsman of his time and he ought to play for as long as he can hold his place in the team. But he should, as he did in his pomp, let his bat do the talking.

 

Madhubala

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=OM4mYNFAZKo&amp%3bfeature=relmfu

Mukul Shivputra

Earlier today, courtesy my friend CN Mujumdar, I got an opportunity to listen to Mukul Shivputra perform in a morning concert in Pune...... I have a nodding acquaintance with Indian Classical Music and subject to that constraint, I will say that he sang well..... the style reminds one of his late father as do the gestures by hand...the Kumar Gandharv voice was a tad thinner though...... he came  clean-shaven and spoke with deliberate pauses, the little that he did..... the curiosity factor , given his background and the immense love for Indian Classical music in the Pune City  meant that the show was a sell-out, even though it had an 8 AM start...... Mukul was sombre though it seemed he was  still  battling with the inner demons ..... all in all, a good experience.... 

Pasted below is a 2009 article on him.....

RSK

A write up on him in the OUTLOOK ( June 2009 issue)

May 25 will go down as a significant date in India's cultural calendar, when Hindustani classical vocalist Mukul Shivputra, one of the finest musicians of his generation and also its most elusive and peripatetic, inaugurated the Khayal Kendra in Bhopal and took over as its "pradhan shikshak". Such an event would not have normally caught the media's attention had it not been for Shivputra's tempestuous life, the latest stormy chapter of which played out just a few weeks ago. 


Being escorted out of the Bhopal station

On May 6, this exceptionally gifted singer, son of the legendary vocalist Kumar Gandharva, was found, his clothes tattered, his hair wild and his beard unkempt, in the company of beggars in a Bhopal temple.

An eternal wanderer, Mukul has rejected any kind of bounds, be it on his movement or his music.

A friend brought him home, only to have him slip away. Eventually, the state government intervened and traced him to nearby Hoshangabad. Now, even as he takes up his position at the Khayal Kendra, he is going through a rehabilitation programme at Gandhi Bhavan, with four guards in attendance lest he chooses to disappear again.

Shivputra declined to talk to Outlook at the function following the Khayal Kendra inauguration, but the packed auditorium was in for a delightful surprise when the unpredictable vocalist actually came on stage and rendered two beautiful bandishes, one in Raag Darbari, an Amir Khusro composition in honour of Nizamuddin Auliya, and the other in Raag Savani from the Tansen era. He also gave a fascinating lecture on the history of khayal, how he learnt and assimilated its varied traditions.

So, will this mark the return of the eternal wanderer? Nobody is willing to take a bet. "Let's hope that by giving him this responsibility, we will be able to save a great musician," says close friend and writer-poet Dhruva Shukla. "He is helpless and needs our support," says dhrupad maestro Ramakant Gundecha, whose house in Bhopal has often been a temporary haven for the vagabond singer. Shivputra's family is reluctant to talk about his problems. "We need to give him time and be patient," said his sister, singer Kalapini Komkali, on the phone from Dewas.

The desire to escape from the world and from himself has perhaps been as vital to the 53-year-old Shivputra as his music. Close friend and eminent Hindi author-poet Udayan Vajpeyi quotes Ghalib to explain: "Chakkar hai mere paon mein, zanjeer nahin hai". He left home in his twenties to live by the river Narmada in a math in Nemawar. With this as his base, he roamed around the world, learning and practising music, but kept coming back to the math until he abandoned it four years ago. Now he is a man without an address, moves in and out of friends' homes, with his trademark jhola and diary as the only baggage. "His only home is his music. He has strayed away from all other homes," says eminent Hindi poet and close family friend, Ashok Vajpeyi.

Many explanations have been offered for Shivputra's wayward ways and his weakness for drinks and dope—from his sense of inadequacy in matching up to his father's daunting legacy to the death of his mother when he was very young, and later the agony of coming to terms with his wife's mysterious death. But the fact is that Shivputra has been dogged persistently by psychological problems. "He is not doing it deliberately," says Ramakant Gundecha. "He himself doesn't know when he would lose control." His inner demons have tormented his family as much as himself, tearing the skein of relationships and responsibilities, causing untold pain and grief. Kumar Gandharva never spoke about him. Shivputra's own son Bhuvanesh has been brought up and trained by his stepmother, Vasundhara Komkali, and has had little contact with his father.

Though Shivputra's musical genius was recognised early, he turned out to be every cultural organiser's nightmare. He would often not show up at concerts or walk off abruptly halfway through a recital. He is known to have walked out of a private concert because he didn't like the look of some of the invitees. Accompanists too are wary of him.

Yet, his music remains special. He takes his name from his father—Kumar Gandharva's real name was Shivputra Siddharamaiyya Komkali. Shivputra of course absorbed his father's inimitable gayaki, but then also improvised and enriched it with other traditions, and created his own distinct musical voice. He trained under various schools and in various forms—khayal, dhrupad, dhamar, Carnatic. He even learnt the pakhawaj and is known to be fond of Vedic chanting and Sanskrit poetry. "He has been endlessly inventive," says Udayan Vajpeyi. "He is a musician's musician, he sings from the soul," says Shukla. But to hear him perform at a concert is becoming increasingly rare. One reason perhaps, as Udayan explains, is that Shivputra can also be extremely critical of his own singing, and sets very high standards for himself.

His admirers insist his eccentricity and unpredictability are part of his artistic persona, as it was for other tormented artists like Van Gogh. "He has a right to choose the way he lives," says Shukla. Others maintain that it's a tragedy that his wayward life not only affects his health but also prevents him from fulfilling his potential as an extraordinarily gifted musician. "Everything has been done to cure him but he has to have the will to cure himself, he has to choose to be helped," says Ashok Vajpeyi. "In his age group, Mukul Shivputra could have been among the top two or three musicians in the country. It is unfortunate that he is inflicting injury on himself," says Delhi-based cultural patron O.P. Jain.

His friends remain indulgent and protective. Gundecha recalls how they have sung to each other in his house, amidst convivial joke and gossip sessions. Shivputra is a scintillating companion, knowledgeable about art and literature and passionately interested in cooking, say other friends. Recalls Udayan, "Many of his dishes, like the Maharashtrian podnichi poli, have become part of our family cuisine." But he can also disrupt the routine and rhythm of any household. "He becomes part of the family, but also destroys the notion of home," says Udayan.

Ultimately, though, Mukul Shivputra has only himself to deal with his inner demons. "The mirror in which he sees his face is within himself, not outside," says Udayan. So far, cultural institutions, corporate sponsors and patrons of art have been unable to create a space and platform for his mad genius. But there's new hope now with the Madhya Pradesh government's remarkably responsive and sensitive step of offering him the Khayal Kendra. "His deliverance lies in music," says Manoj Srivastava, secretary, department of culture, Madhya Pradesh, "there's no other way to cure him." Will Shivputra submit to its healing? 

---

By Namrata Joshi with K.S. Shaini