The i-blog from the i-become initiative

For last two years, I have been part of the development team of the i-become initiative. We are almost there and as part of the service have launched the i-blog. This blog will do three main tasks

1. Update all about activities and development of the i-become products and services.

2. Talk a little more about the i-become philosophy and initiative.

3. Highlight interesting research, writings and events around the world that relate to us.

For the moment, this blog will have two authors, Prasad and myself

You can also follow the @i_become twitter stream for latest updates.

Been a while

Well, it’s been quite a while since I have blogged. There’s been work and work and work.

Much has happened since I last blogged. Let’s quickly summarise and then let’s see if there is anything to write about

1. Cricket gets outsourced from India to South Africa, check
2. Elections announced and lots of new voters and new candidates out to change the world (at least the country), check
3. Kasab is a Pakistani, check
4. Manmohan Singh is a weak PM says Advani, check
5. Advani will make a weak PM says Manmohan, check
6. Advani for PM maybe the biggest advertiser on the Internet, check (They even appear on Hindi porn sites, Pakistani news sites and, one has to check, maybe even on the Al-Qaeda website)

Right, fair bit of happenings. Treat this post as a loosener, like when a fast bowler comes back for a spell, he does a quick job up and down the track before bowling.

Tourism hit not by terror but by TV

The Indian tourism industry obviously has been hit severely – first by the economic recession and second, according to the hospitality industry, and I quote the article on NDTV’s website

The tourism industry, which is seeing fewer tourists coming into the country, is upset with the Mumbai police for releasing footage of the gun battle inside the Taj and Trident hotels. They say this makes tourists stay away from the country.

Further, another quote from the same article goes as this,

“This hotel has been financially hit, so many have lost their lives inside. How does such footage help? It was not right to release it. Plus already over all business is down by 40 per cent,” said Lalit Sheth, MD, Raj Travels

My reading of this is that terror attacks can happen, but please don’t show them. This has been the constant ostrich mentality of the tourism players. Whether it be crime against tourists (quite a few incidents in Goa and Rajasthan – only recently being reported in media), poor infrastructure, abysmal public services – all that is not so important. What is important is the non-projection of all these images and information. Basically, sweeping all of it under the carpet.

It’s strange, in our own country, we need to live and bear with the state of affairs while the same is shielded from the Goras by shuttling them in air-conditioned curtained glass cabins and coaches.

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The tour that may be

To tour or not to tour, that is the question. Well, there’s nothing creative about this. I was reading David Hopps of the Guardian write his India-England tour diary.

He says,

If England don’t make it to Chennai because of security fears then they might like to know that I’ve played the game twice already since arriving here. I don’t often tell people about my dreams but these have been so surreal that I thought I’d share them.

Poor fellow, in an effort to make up his tour diary, he dreams of a surreal match with Lord MacLaurin as wicketkeeper and Dominic Cork bowling. David himself has been “banished to the checkouts to keep the score.”

In the end, he writes

When Mike Brearely arrives in Chennai – if, indeed, anyone ever arrives – I will show him this nonsense and ask him for a psychologist’s view. His conclusions will (well, actually “may”) be revealed in the next instalment of a tour diary that now desperately needs a tour to write about.

KP on the other hand seems to be Churchill himself – talking about being with the Indian people at this time. “We are coming back for the Indians” he says – source DNA. Thanks mate

Imran on the other hand has warned England from touring saying that terrorists were targeting westerners – source DNA. Well Imran, how come KP (or anyone else) doesn’t seem inclined to say “We are coming back for Pakistanis“?

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Mumbai Attacks – 2

It’s now 27 hours since the first gunshot was heard. The last day and a bit have stretched everyone – physically and mentally

The Police – completely out of their league. 25 armed to the teeth fighters trained in high class military skills working on a battle plan that would have made even Erwin Rommel proud.

The official said they had recovered bags of dry fruits from the terrorists killed at the Trident, enough to last them a few days, besides AK-47 and AK-56 assault rifles, hand grenades and several hundred rounds of ammunition. – The Hindustan Times

The Government – what seemed initially to be some gang war has all the possible scenarios rolled into one – invasion by a platoon of guerillas, seizure of public installations, taking of hostages and of course wanton widespread killing

Before I could reach there, the terrorists who had attacked one of the hospitals, the Cama Hospital, had left and those who attacked the railway station had also left. – Expressindia

The Traditional News Media – Never has our much acclaimed media faced a situation like this. Previous events like the 1993 blasts, the 2006 train blasts, 26 July rainwash in Mumbai were easier to manage – fewer channels so less competition hence more opportunity to reach to high vantage points and sources.

But this time, as one can see on TV, in front of anyone walking out of the Taj or Trident – whether he or she be a cop, a politician, a survivor, a commando – there are more microphones, dictaphones and mobile telephones thrust in front of every face. No sensitivity towards giving the survivor some space, nudging and poking to get the right vantage points, the needless and often pointless badgering for inane technicalities (How many commandos do you have? Is there panic amongst the hostages? Are you happy to be free? etc)

It is really sad that in the last 24 hrs not a single channel has covered the situation at hospitals, doctors contribution, their experience. DDeeps on Twitter

The Social Web: What did rise to the occasion was the world wide web  and all its sharing and collaboration services – Twitter, Blogs, Google Maps, Wikis, the works. Updates by the second. People across the globe knew which terrorist was operating from where, there were photographs from the spot that hit screens across the world much before CNN-IBN stream hit CNN International. I twittered

To stay away from dumb analysis and reporting on TV news channels, move over to social media – http://tinyurl.com/5hf6gx

I am building an aggregation of key comments, remarks, statements and the like on the Mumbai Attacks here. (Using simple Google Notebooks) Feel free to enhance and suggest improves

The depravity and the humanity

Source: Reuters via The Guardian

A kid caught right in the middle of terror getting a drink of water from an equally stressed out cop

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Mumbai Attack

As I was transfixed both TV and my laptop in my house in Chembur, here’s a quick summary of some significant facts and things

Media restrain
Full scale commando operation at the Taj and Trident. Media (TV and online) have been asked to restrain coverage. The same signals are being tracked by terrorists inside as well.

LeT, Karachi, Satcom
6 terrorists arrested in the night are being interrogated (Link): Three things that have emerged so far
- They came in boats from Karachi
- They were talking to Karachi using Satcoms
- Lashkar-e-Toiba of Pakistan is the mastermind (along with local cells)

Good samaritans
Amit Varma blogs about the whole night on India Uncut having been as close to an eyewitness as one can get. Incidentally, Mr. Varma was on Larry King Live as was Deepak Chopra who believes this is a response to Barack Obama’s popularity amongst Muslims. Unfortunately, Deepak Chopra seems to have missed out on the fact that people killed here were mostly Indians who had no connection with Barack Obama in the first place.

The kind folk at the Gordon House Hotel did three important things for us last night. One, they ushered us in when the gunshots began, assuring us that we’d be safer inside than outside. Two, they got us a room for the night, and extra mattresses and so on. Three, in the morning, they refused to accept payment for the room, insisting that we were their guests and this was their duty.

We left them a hefty tip out of gratitude, but I’m still in disbelief about their kindness. I often complain about the poor service in the hospitality industry in India, but never again about All Stir Fry or the Gordon House Hotel. What guys!

Barkha Dutt gets as abominable as possible
In the Kargil war, a bunker of the Indian army was destroyed after the enemy tracked its location using the signals of Barkha Dutt’s Irridium phone. My cousin who was a Brigadier in the war (now he is a Major General) told me of deep anger in the army towards her – she continued to use her phone even after being warned – Remember that blurb they keep showing “I am speaking from a bunker…”

Now she is in front of Trident and talking about negotiations, political indecision, Kandahar hijacking… hello, can we cut out this needless speculation?

Best places to keep in touch
Twitter:  Run the search string #mumbai in Twitter and keep refreshing or use this
Wikipedia: A page on the entire 26 November 2008 Mumbai attack is being developed in realtime (Well done, who ever is doing it)

ibnlive.com has started a Light a Candle on its website

Regret SMS
In the middle of all this, a generic regret sms was sent by Bigflix and seventymm saying they would be unable to do any deliveries today. Well, there’s nothing to be regretful about.

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