Kerala tourism, your moment is waiting video

A brilliant video recently launched by Kerala tourism.

Is the Skyscraper curse coming to Indian shores next?

Realty major Lodha Developers plans to build the world's tallest residential tower at a cost of Rs 2,000 crore in central Mumbai. The 1,450-feet WorldOne will come up at Upper Worli on a 17-acre plot, by 2014. The units would be priced between Rs 7.5 and Rs 50 crore or Rs 25,000 per sq ft. "The project, pegged at Rs 2,000 crore and to be built on a 17-acre site, will have the world's tallest residential tower," Lodha Group managing director Abhishek Lodha told reporters in Mumbai.. Lodha bought the land for the ambitious project at an obnoxious amount-Rs 4050 crore for 25,000 square meters of land in mid-town Mumbai.

So what does it have to do with Skyscraper curse? Skyscraper curse is an urban legend-when tall buildings are launched searing into the sky, it signals the end of an economic boom. It signifies the height of economic optimism and it is during such moments that opportune timing gets mistaken for genius. With examples dating back to the biblical Tower of babel, there are enough believers in the skyscraper curse. Even though there is no scientific evidence to back this outlandish claim, there is enough circumstantial evidence to make people pause and think.

The iconic Chrysler and Empire State Buildings came up in 1930 when the Great Depression had just set in. Sears Towers in Chicago was completed in 1973, and was followed by the worst bear market in a decade – the Dow declined 45 percent. Petronas Towers opened in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, and the Malaysian stock market plunged 50 per cent, not to mention the Asian contagion that preceded it. In 1999, the Nasdaq inaugurated its MarketSite Tower, and three months later, the Nasdaq composite index crashed 70 per cent. It is still trading 50 per cent below its all-time high. Enron was building a 40-storey structure when it went bankrupt in 2002. The much-touted Burj Dubai had to be rechristened as Burj Khalifa to return the favor to Big Brother Abu Dhabi for rescuing it from a sovereign debt default. Dubai continues to struggle under the weight of the tallest building in the world.

Is the link between skyscrapers and a waning economy one of mere correlation without causation and, therefore, should be passed off as trivia? Possibly not. Ambitious real estate projects are signs of a prosperous economy, businesses are bullish and people are willing to spend-lavishly, even if its is just to massage their ego. Typically though, such big projects take time. And by the time they come up, the economic cycles turn and slowdown is ready to scalp those whose liquidity taps have run dry.

So the first thing that comes to mind when Lodha group announced its intention to gift Mumbai its tallest building-is the skyscraper curse coming to Indian shores next?

Rajesh

IPL the Indian Paisa League

Is IPL the Indian Paisa League?

Barely two years ago, when Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd made the highest bid for an Indian Premier League franchise (Rs 441 crore for Mumbai), many termed it as a massive gamble on a risky concept. The IPL sure has come a long way in a short time, with the Sahara group recently bidding Rs 1,702 crore for Pune and a little known Rendezvous Sports backed by the State Minister for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor forking out Rs 1,533 crore for Kochi. These two bids, worth a total of about Rs 3,235 crore, add up to more than the Rs 2,853 crore collectively paid by the existing eight franchise owners in the first auction, on January 24, 2008. Talk about the power of IPL.

Little did we know that the addition of new franchisees would open a can of worms. Now the Tharoor-Modi row prominently appearing on every news media and TV channels, the focus is well off the foreign cheer leaders and the cricket field.

Who represents Rendezvous Sports?

Interestingly the only connection in the Kochi Franchise for a Malayalee is Vivek Venugopal, a builder from Kerala who holds 1% stake in the Franchise. However, it is learnt that the group also includes Anchor Switches, Rosy Blue Diamond, Mukesh Patel, and Ravi and Sanjay Gaikwad. Anchor Switches is a company from Gujarat and is owned by Mehul Shah. Rosy Blue Diamond is one of the world's largest diamond manufacturing companies. Dilip Mehta is the CEO of this company, which owns jewellery brand 'Orra'. Ravi and Sanjay Gaikwad are Mumbai-based businessmen. Sanjay Gaikwad is the CEO of UFO Moviez. Mukesh Patel is an education baron who runs technology, management and engineering institutions.

With big money involved in procuring an IPL franchise one wonders how the franchisees' recover their money. For the franchisees' the main source of revenue comes from selling broadcast rights. Apart from that other source of income include proceeds from selling merchandise, sponsorship and selling tickets. BCCI takes a cut of 20% of broadcast revenue and 40% of advertisement revenue.

Brand IPL is currently estimated to be worth $4.13 Billion. The football championship English Premier League is worth $12 Billion, but IPL has reached $4 Billion in less than 3 years and will soon catch up other sports like football and Formula 1.

Now let us look closely at the ongoing row between IPL Chairman Lalit Modi and the union minister Shashi Tharoor after the later negotiated the deal for Rendezvous Sports to procure the Kochi Franchise. What began as a juicy side-show to the IPL is now threatening to dwarf the tournament itself. The Lalit Modi-Shashi Tharoor spat turned ugly with the junior minister and his aide accusing Modi of‘‘breaching all propriety’’ in his efforts to discredit the Kochi franchisee.

The minister’s aide accused Modi of trying to buy out the consortium with an “offer” of $50 million, while Tharoor himself decried Modi’s ‘‘contemptible efforts’’ to ‘‘drag in matters of my personal life’ ’―a reference to his alleged romantic ties with Sunanda Pushkar, a Dubai-based socialite-businesswoman , who reportedly holds a ‘free equity’ stake in Rendezvous Sports worth Rs 69 crore.

As the plot rapidly thickened, Lalit Modi, currently under a gag order from BCCI, kept below the radar. However, his associates denied all the allegations.

Meanwhile, political parties too jumped into the fray. The BJP has demanded Tharoor’s sack for ‘‘ improper behaviour’’, while the Congress seemed interested in the drama but disinclined to get involved in it. The IPL governing council will meet in 10 days where Modi is expected to deny that he tried to muscle out Rendezvous to help other interested parties.

Would the Shashi Tharoor-Modi row affect the future prospect of IPL? If the dirty linen is washed in public it indeed seems possible. But what turn of events can ease the tension? Would getting Sunanda Pushkar out of the Rendezvous stake help? Or would it take turning over the ownership altogether to another aspiring franchisee? Whatever may be the case, the stakes are high for Shashi Tharoor to clear his name and Congress high command would not go easy on the tweeting minister this time around.

Rajesh Kumar

The sorry state of Malayalam film industry

Malayalees love their movie superstars indeed. Nearly 3 decades old in the industry the 2 M's still rule the roost.

We love them like they are part of our family. We go and watch their movies no matter how terribly it was made and how absurd the subject was. We give them awards year after year so much so that they lost count of how many awards they have received.

We are almost up to the point where at any award function, while handing over awards to the M's, we are in a position to forecast the award for them for the next 5 to 10 years with certainty. If one M is the best actor in a given year, then the other M will not be left behind. We give the other M award for actor of the decade or millennium or people's favorite actor. We make sure that no dark horses enter their territory and steal the lime light from them. The so called Malayalam film lobby discouraging upcoming actors in the industry has resulted in fan clubs for Hindi, Tamil and Telugu actors mushrooming through out Kerala.

Recently we started noticing a slight change in trend in the award shows though. As the award organizers felt that it is boring for the audience to see the 2 Ms steal the lead awards, they ventured out and got hold of actors from Tamil and Telugu film industry and brought them here to award them. We make them feel home by entertaining them with Bollywood and Kollywood songs and dance performances on stage, often making them wonder if they are attending an award show back home.

Mallus are full of praises for the M's and even at their 50s we can't get enough of them. The M's are sparing no effort to look good and stay younger thanks to the hair fixing and other cosmetic treatments. Taking into account their age and continuous churn out of flops, our M's are insecure about release of other language films coinciding with their film releases.

If the recent whistle blowing against the M's by veteran actor Thilakan is anything to go by, it is only a matter of time before more and more art lovers come out to support Thilakan. People like Sukumar Azhikode will shout out that the emperor is walking naked reminding us of the fairy tale.

It is high time the industry stops making scripts around super stars and start making films around scripts. Otherwise it is a sure sign that the death knell of the industry is not far. Let us hope that a new breed of film makers come forward and give a breath of fresh air to the Malayalam film industry.

Rajesh Kumar

3G launch in India faces uncertainty

Back in August 2007, when India announced plans to auction off licenses for superfast 3G phone service, the country's mobile-phone companies cheered. It was at a time their stocks were at all-time highs as more than 8 million new customers signed up every month. These companies thought, 3G would surely make them richer, faster.

Now, after several delays, the auctions are likely to take place in coming months, perhaps as soon as March. The reaction of India's mobile carriers? More fear than cheer. While the government still hopes to collect a total of $5.5 billion for four national and 22 regional licenses, a price war has driven calling rates to well under 1 paise per second, slowing the industry's profit growth and denting stock prices. Carriers will need cash to bid on spectrum, and building a nationwide network will cost each as much as $4 billion. "Operators need to be realistic and not overbid," says an analyst.

The 3G track record doesn't inspire confidence. In Europe, overbidding nearly bankrupted many operators. India's state-owned BSNL, which the government allowed to launch 3G a year ago, now offers service in 300 cities, has just 700,000 customers, and has cut tariffs at least twice. BSNL's 3G record certainly doesn't encourage rivals.

While market leader Airtel with 116 million customers is eager to offer 3G to the Indian masses an executive within the company grumbles, "now we have to spend billions of dollars on a network that 2% of the country will use?" It's not like everybody in a village is carrying a BlackBerry".

The auctions may lead to consolidation and greater foreign control of India's cellular business. The top three operators hold just over half the market, while dozens of smaller players scramble for the rest. Foreigners, meanwhile, are eager to buy in. In 2008, Japan's DoCoMo paid $2.7 billion for 26% of Tata Teleservices, the country's No. 4 operator, and Russia's MTS bought 74% of Shyama TeleServices. Norway's Telenor took an interest in another small player last year.

To raise cash for the auctions, Essar Group, which owns a third of No. 2 carrier Vodafone Essar, is in talks to sell an antenna tower subsidiary to Boston-based American Tower for $420 million. Aircel, a smaller player controlled by Malaysia's Maxis Communications, on Jan. 14 sold 17,500 of its towers to a Mumbai company for $1.8 billion. Idea Cellular, the third-largest carrier, says it has raised $2 billion in cash and loans for the auction―a move designed in part to squelch rumors that the company may be a takeover target.

Most Indians seem content to use phones for voice calls and texting. Only 40,000 or so iPhones are being used in the country, and smartphones make up well under 5% of the handset market, India's government estimates. Of India's 530 million-plus subscribers, only 2 million regularly use the mobile Net, mostly to download pictures of cricket players and Bollywood stars, according to the Internet & Mobile Association of India, a trade group.

3 Idiots Movie review

I watched this much talked about movie this weekend. The movie is indeed getting tremendous reception and the critics have given thumbs up. After having watched, I have mixed feelings about the movie.  

I will not attempt to write a full blown review for much is already written about the movie. Instead I will just point out the highs and lows of the movie.

Challenging the education system, the message the movie gives out is that excellence is achieved through recognizing your area of expertize and perfecting the craft. One's academic interest is not dictated by one's parents. The film makers give a new definition to Idiot which is “I'll Do It On my Terms”.  

3 Idiots takes light-hearted jabs at the Indian education system, raising pertinent questions about the relevance of learning by rote, the obsession with high grades, and the dangerous repercussions of parental pressure to pursue traditional streams.

Rajkumar Hirani or otherwise known as Mr. Feelgood did a Patch Adams (A Robin Williams flick) in his Munna Bhai MBBS film. In the second installment Lage Raho Munnabhai, he brought back Gandhian values through Gandhigiri. In 3 Idiots, Hirani challenges the education system through 3 underdogs aka 3 Idiots.

Now let us look at the highs. The biggest high is the narration of the story. The search for Rancho develops the curiosity on the audience as if the audience is on a journey with the other 2 idiots Farhan and Raju through some of the most exotic locations in India. Chatur's (the 'brainy' student) hilarious speech. After asking for a 5 minutes extension from the examiner, Rancho messing up the answer papers to confuse the examiner who refuses to accept their answer papers. Chatur's rants after he fares second place after Rancho. Millimeter mimicking Viru the college principal during the principal's welcome speech to the students.

And finally the lows. Rancho played by Aamir had no chemistry with Pia played by Kareena Kapoor. The Munnabhai hangover was found throughout like poking fun at Kareena's arrogant elite boy friend and “Jaadu ki jhappi” is replaced by “all izz well”. Mona Singh's delivery episode was unnecessary. The biggest let down is Rancho's disguise act at the college. It is hard to imagine a preachy yet brilliant student would sneak into a college and would graduate as a proxy for someone else. It questions the credibility of the lead character.

Hirani's screenplay dilutes the underlying message about following your dreams. 3 Idiots could have been a wonderful light-hearted story about India's education system and the ever-increasing tribe of aspiring engineers. While the idea might have been to narrate a serious thought in a funny manner - the execution of many sequences is more superfluous than clever.

Verdict: 3 Idiots is a feel good film with a positive message. But you never feel for or root for its characters. Watch it for truckloads of laughter and its very relevant messages.

Happy New Year 2010

Farewell 2009. Welcome 2010. A new year and a new decade has just begun. As usual for many, resolutions lined up at the beginning of each year goes awry so much so that it ends up in their wish list promptly again the following year.  

It's part of the new year ritual – an annual attempt to start afresh and turn over a new leaf. But making resolutions is a near pointless exercise, psychologists say. We break them, become dispirited in the process and finally more hopeless than we were before.

Resolutions are not something you make on Jan 1st, resolutions are something you make every single day of your life. There is no start date from which you can magically change things and no end date when you have completed the change. If you want to change something in your life you change it from the moment you have the realization and continue to make that change every day thereafter.

So, what are your resolutions this year? Losing that extra pound? Making more money? What ever that may be, hold on tight and do make it happen.

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous New Year 2010.