The hype over the new seven wonders

First of all, I find the very concept of "Seven Wonders" quite idiotic. Just common sense will make you question the basis on which the very concept came about.

And then there was this media frenzy and hype about having our Taj Mahal become a Seven Wonder. What the ?

What do you gain by making that tomb a Seven Wonder? Do you think that people don't know about that monument? Any travel brochure for India, has a picture of that. All international Government representatives who visit the country are paraded there. All international sports persons are taken there for the standard photo op.

So, do you think that all this non-stop propaganda was required?

And if you even think a little bit more, you will realise that this whole exercise is the brainchild of some private trust/organisation. And its not an org' that is very well recognised. If I had the money power, I would have set up a thingy myself, got some publicity seeking celebrities (are there any other kind) to endorse my group, then hire a good marketing firm and voila, I can have another set of seven wonders poll going on.

What irked me most was the insane number of emails that were being forwarded by "Gen-I" (Gen X, Y and Z are passe. Gen-I is for the iPod generation.) was quite simply mind-blowing. It amazes me that people who pass all kinds of aptitude tests involving so much of logic and maths, are unable to comprehend the simple fact that this whole initiative is stupid.

And ultimately, the only probable entity that could have given a stamp of approval for the whole event was UNESCO. And they have very clearly distanced themselves from this.

So, all that happened was countries - read third-world countries and border-line developed ones - that had easier access to SMS and Internet, voted en masse to the ones nominated from their country (obviously) and voila, you now have a new seven wonders list that excludes some REAL WONDERS.

If you want more details on the kind of money made by the mobile operators, the marketing groups and the organisation that started this vote campaign, please see the attached picture of an article in the Tamizh weekly KALKI.


Simple translation:
Number of SMSes polled = 1.2 Crores
Cost charged by mobile companies = Rs.3.00 per SMS (its a value service to send SMS to some special numbers)
Total = 3.6 Crore Ruppees.
The share:
Mobile companies = 75 %
Government = 15 %
The organisation conducting the survey = 10 %.

These are figures only in India. Just add all the thickly populated third-world countries and imagine the kind of money people must have made.

I hope someone somewhere does indeed wake-up and announce publicly, what a big sham this whole event is.

More details can be had in this article from today's The Hindu.

Fantastic 4 - Fantastic nonsense

The fantastic four of us watched the "Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer" at Sathyam yesterday.

The movie was seriously utter nonsense. The scientific jargon thrown at us were practically bordering on absurdity. And then the bloody Indian movie sentimental formula that was made to form the crux of the climax was ridiculous.

Imagine an entity in space coming from some galaxy far far away. The sole purpose of it is to consume matter and energy for its own existence. Such an entity sends out a Silver Surfer who on seeing Jessica Alba (who by the way has managed to look bad in the movie) starts getting a change of heart and when it finally sees her dead (killed by a harpoon none the less and that too while trying to save the surfer), restores life back to her and then goes back to its own planet and destroys it.

What the hell? How many bollywood movies did the "brains" behind the movie watch? Why is Hollywood starting to get all too senti with these sci-fin and superhero movies?

If this is the kind of $hit these guys are gonna roll out, I'd rather watch the emotional drama churned out in millions by the local movie industry. At least, there's no science to worry about in these.

On a related note, Nilu practically raped me throughout the evening. The fundamental theme being that I had no moral right to advise him about things like he not having a driver's license and yet driving a two-wheeler or he watching pirated movie cds or jumping signals etc. All because I bought tickets for Sivaji at a premium. Well, he did have a point I guess. But the continuous rubbing it in for like 2 or more hours, didn't obviously go well with me and I took it out on a two-wheeler idiot who crossed my lane when I was trying to go right. Since there was a mini traffic jam he stopped to my left. I lowered the side window and asked him the traditional Chennai question of whether he had informed his people at home about his "departure". I went further and equated him to a body part which is basically like the gate through which trash is taken out of a house. Actually, were it not for Madhu's presence in the car, I would have gone further to question his parentage with a prefix about the process that lead to his parentage being questioned.

Raghu at least stopped doing his 'ching-chak' to Nilu after that, though Nilu did stop after a few minutes.

And at the start of the article, I said the fantastic 4 of us. That was Nilu's theory. He equated Raghu to the elasto man since he has the capability to stretch his imagination and also he is like an all-rounder. Then Madhu is like invisible when compared to the rest of us in terms of weight. And it does help that the real life couple also match up to these characters who get married in this movie. Then I am supposed to be the guy who creates fire coz I am like the angry young man. And Nilu is of course the hulk-like guy.

We went to City Center for dinner. :)

Moral conflict

A couple of days ago, Raghu called me a COP. Apparently, it stands for Chennai's Ozhungu Pillai.

I don't know what made him get such an idea, but I guess he was probably swayed by my general stance against piracy or sticking to road rules to the max extent etc.

So, he was naturally offended when I told him about my intention to watch Sivaji with the ticket price costing me Rs.350/-.

Unfortunately, I think he is under the impression that I bought a "black" ticket. I better clarify to him that its not the case.

Actually, I am only buying the tickets at a premium, and the cost also includes service charges. I am being given the tickets in the office tomorrow and from the theatre to my office, its at least 60 kms. So the guy has to factor in the cost of delivering the tickets to me.

Its just like the earlier days when we used to have the travel agents book railway tickets for us.