P Spot

Utrecht University offering fellowships to Indian PhD students - apply before June 9

2008-05-12T09:21:00.002+05:30

Sylvie Beauvais at UPenn just alerted me about this. Utrecht University is offering 14 short stay fellowships for PhD students from Indian universities to spend 3 months in Utrecht. It's a good deal - the offer includes airfare, visa resimbursement, accomodation, insurance and a monthly allowance. You need to first get in touch with a professor at Utrecht to see if (s)he wants to supervise your study and then the professor will nominate you for the fellowship. Find out more by accessing the application form here - the deadline is June 9, so if you're interested, you should apply soon. I've never been to Utrecht but from the pictures (like the one accompanying this post) and from hearing about it from one of my former professors who teaches there half the year, it's gorgeous.

MySpace/Saregama/Phonethics collaborate on school media literacy project

2008-05-11T16:34:00.005+05:30

There's an interesting experiment going on in the media literacy space. Corporates like MySpace India (a social network), Saregama (or HMV, a music label) and Phonethics (a mobile IP and advertising company) are collaborating with students of Podar High school in Bombay, to create a series of music videos. The students are spending the first two weeks of their summer break in learning how to create media (everything from photographs, to story boards to scripts, and videos), and they will them collaborate with media professionals in making 4 music videos for 4 new Saregama artists that will then play on MySpace, etc. I was invited to give a talk on media convergence to these young media-creators last week (see pics above) and was very impressed by their intuitive understanding of what might work and not work, as well as their imagination of vidoes with trans-media narratives. The study program that the organizers have put together is good, given the relatively short time that they are dedicating to it, and it seems to be a genuine effort to participate in a conversation with these kids rather than a corporate marketing program. (Having said that, it would be nice to see such programs with longer engagement periods - say, a few months instead of a few weeks, to enable the kids to really practice the skills they have learnt. Perhaps the next iteration will take this into account.)
The afternoon brought back memories of working with the Education Arcade at MIT, where I helped Henry with a series of interviews on video game literacy. The approach, then and now, has always been that children are media literate only when they can both create and consume their own media, and at the same time critically analyze what they are doing. In the creation, consumption and analysis process, what we often realize that the type of media that they are interested in and want to consume is different from, and more interesting than the type of media adults manufacture for children, and their views on media are often more complex and nuanced that we might imagine. If you're interested, here's an interesting post from Henry Jenkins' blog where he talks about an integrated approach to media literacy education - its part of a lager white paper he has written about the theme, and you can also check out the Project NML website which explains what participatory culture means in this context and also offers a range of media literacy solutions that you might want to adopt. Meanwhile, I'm going to track my Podar kids with great interest, and see what they come up with.

Delhi book reading pics

2008-05-11T11:25:00.007+05:30

Sorry for not putting these pictures up earlier...it took some time for the photo CD to be couriered to me from Delhi. As you might be able to tell, the event went off well. The trip was energizing; I reconnected with old friends like Amulya, Nomita, Amit, Himanshu, Nikhil, Paul and Udrrek, got to know my fabulous Sage team members a little more, and made new friends like Suman. Since it was the first book store reading and book launch event, I was nervous and excited to hear about how people would respond and it was a relief to see the book connect in some way to existing and potential readers. I also felt a little wistful, going to places like Lodhi Gardens and CP - places that evoked memories and images of a togetherness that is now absent. But places can also be inscribed with new memories, and that is what I tried to do on this trip. They do not replace the old memories, but sit alongside them, and hopefully, the next time around, the multiple layers will be a source of happy comfort rather than sadness.

Cleartrip and Nurturing Relationships

2008-05-02T21:59:00.002+05:30

Over the past few weeks, I have been spending time with one of the companies that my company Mahindra has invested in – the travel portal Cleartrip. We are focusing on how we can engage with our employees and customers in a much more compelling manner – excellence is now par for the course for most product and service organizations. How does one move beyond excellence and create “nurturing relationships” at Cleartrip – so that the company can gain loyalty beyond reason from all its constituents and become what Kevin Roberts has called a “lovemark”? There are several ways that we’re going about it at Cleartrip – and not all of the nurturing is directly related to profit, but this is not the space to discuss that. What I want to share is a story. This is about a customer evangelist for Cleartrip. He was of course delighted that Cleartrip gave him excellent service when he had a problem. But what converted him from a merely happy (well served) customer into an evangelist was the fact that one of the group’s founders (Hrush, who also blogs regularly on the Cleartrip blog) nurtured him when he wanted to share his views about web design and simplicity. Now, it just so happens that this customer really knows his stuff (and he’s also very funny, he’s designed a whole presentation on how to piss off customers with bad design – a template for what not to do!). Cleartrip has already published his posts a guest blogger on their site and plan on using him to bounce off any new design changes they make. He in turn, never loses an opportunity to talk about Cleartrip’s refreshing approach at every forum he can. Such kind of intensity – let’s call it love - never comes out of marketing exercises. It comes out of a genuine belief that one’s work is important and every engagement is a chance to transform the lives of others, and in the bargain, one’s own life. In the context of the this particular corporation, I would think that value = profit + nurturing where nurturing = meaningfulness + positive transformation.

Why I LOVED Tashan

2008-05-02T21:45:00.004+05:30

Why did I like Tashan? It's exuberance. It's style - real and not phony, at least to me. The spirit of masala that it captured beautifully, I thought it had died, but by god, this eez da pharmoola, Mr. Jaarj Buss, don't you see? Bad villians, lovers connected as children reconnecting, small town goodness in the midst of big town badness, everything larger and louder than life, and how.Kareena. Sex in a bottle. Aiyo - after seeing her writhe in Chaliya, I am having doubts about myself :-) Big bangs, big bangs. Kya action tha, yaar. James Bond meets Jackie Chan meets bollywood big bang theory. And this was just at the pure energy level. I couldnt stop dancing in my seat all throughout the movie. On another level (and I know many reviewers don't think it doesn't have one, but allow me the indulgence) it captures the essense of small town aspirations to me, just like Bunty and Babli did. The desire to learn English (even in Bombay, has anyone noticed the huge rise of Veta English classes advertising in train compartments over the past few months?), the suggestion that people from Kanpur or other towns in the hinterland can make it in big cities only because of gangster might, the acknowledgement of parallel private armies running both in urban and rural India...the depiction of a contemporary where the Ramayana performed playfully and a heroine cuts of her jeans (transforming them into hot pants) while hitchhiking in a truck just because she feels like it, right? Its unreal, and bizzare of course, but I love it because it touches upon a chord, at least in my mind, of the fantastic possibilities of Bollywood, just the same was as watching Mission Impossible or Independence Day does with Hollywood. Big, silly, incredulous, but what total timepass man! Tashan for me, is a 4 star film. Paisa vasool. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to scope out eBay for a blond wig.

My loneliness and I

2008-05-01T10:47:00.002+05:30

My loneliness and I, we often have this conversation:
If you were present in my life, how might it be?
You'd say this, or you would say that…
You would be irritated by something I'd say, you'd laugh at something else…
If you were there, it might be like this, or perhaps, it might be like that,
Yes, my loneliness and I, we often have this conversation.
(Silsila, Yeh Kahan Aa Gaye Hum, 1981)

Tashan Time

2008-04-25T20:19:00.003+05:30

Many of those who have spoken to me recently or tried to call me, might have heard about my Tashan obsession, tolerated my Tashan ringtone, etc. Well, phinally, my phrands, the wait is the over :-) Grand plans are being made to watch Tashan in Delhi with Amulya. It will be the second Akshay Kumar movie we will watch together. (The last one was Waqt - Race Against Time in a theater in Sommerville on a cold Cambridge night, four years ago, yes yes, how time flies). I can think of hazaar reasons to explain my Tashan obsession. The electro-desi music, with its harmonium funk meets dance floor masti, the pan-Indian aspirational quality that I think the film will have (as opposed to these multiplex niche type of products that we've been seeing of late), the fabulous OTTness of everything - the dialogues, clothes, action, the two AKs - Akki's waxed chest and Anil's dramabaazi, Kareena Uma Thurman (or skinny boi in drag, however you want to see it) turn....but just click on the video link above and you'll understand for yourself. It's of my favourite song - Dance Maare. And here are some of the lyrics for you to sing along to

White white face dekhe dil woh beating fast sasura
Jaan se maare re

Oh very happy in my heart
Dil dance maare re
Very happy in my heart, dil dance maare re
Dil dance maare dance maare
Dil yeh dance maare
Oh very happy in my heart
Dil dance maare re

Ho rose ki jaisan pink pink, humre gaal gulabi
Sky ke jaisan blue blue hi tohara nain sharabi
Bola chera jaise moon,
Kali zulfe jaisa cloud
Ab na aur chupya jaye, dhadkan ho gayi very loud

Ho… tohare dil ka theatre ma aaa….
Tohare dil ka theatre ma
Dil deewana booking advance maare re
Humre dil ka theatre ma
Dil deewana booking advance maare re

Oh very happy in my heart
Dil dance maare re

Gay Bombay book in stores this week + Delhi reading on 28 April

2008-04-23T23:42:00.010+05:30

My book Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India - a multi-sited ethnography in an online-offline community, where I examine how Internet technologies, the media industry, audiences and broader socio-historical contexts shape modern Indian gay identity - hit the stores this week. Above, you can see a picture from the book display at Oxford book store in Bombay (taken by my friend Jayesh with his state of the art cellphone camera). Note that the book is present in the store-front window (there, near the top, on the left, see it?) Inside the store, I believe that it occupies pride of place on a shelf display towards the front. (And rumor has it, the book is flying off the shelves so soon that the staff can hardly keep up :-) My publishers have informed me that the book is now available at all Crossword and Oxford bookstores across India, as well as other city-specific book stores (Granth, Danai, Bookpoint and Nalanda in Bombay, for instance).

Meanwhile, I am going to be Delhi for a conference on April 29, and my publishers Sage and I have decided to quickly put together a book reading the evening before. Here are the details - I hope those of you who live in Delhi will make it.

Date: 28 April, 2008
Venue: Oxford Book Store, Statesman Building, Barakhamba Road.
Time: 6.30 pm
Program: Pretty informal. There's no chief guest so far, and no ribbon to cut. We'll gather around, I'll read some selections, hopefully someone will ask something deep and meaningful in the Q and A session that follows, and then, the crowd will slowly thin out, and then the last few people who are remaining will stare at each other, and then someone will suggest dinner and then everyone will go, and then new connections will be made and old renewed, and then perhaps someone will sing some old Hindi songs for the the evening to end with a warm fuzzy afterglow.
Coming?

Here are some chapter excerpts, as a preview.
Chapter 1
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5

Walking on...

2008-04-23T23:28:00.002+05:30

My book opens with these U2 lyrics. They meant something completely different at the time that the book was being written, and something completely different when I read them now, in the context of the recent upheaval in my personal life. Whether it is a city, or a person, how can/does one leave behind something that one achingly loves?

And love is not the easy thing...
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can't leave behind...

Walk on, walk on
What you got, they can't steal it
No they can't even feel it
Walk on, walk on
Stay safe tonight...

And I know it aches
And your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much
Walk on, walk on

Leave it behind
You've got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you steal
All this you can leave behind

Great Khali and multiple narrative universes

2008-04-23T01:48:00.002+05:30

A blog post on the Great Khali - a WWE wrestler of Indian origin sparked an email conversation between Sam Ford and me this week. Sam, a wrestling scholar, wrote to me that among WWE fans in the US, Khali is seen as an interesting spectacle, but thats it. It is interesting how he is adopted by Indian fans and cable TV stations, and how the narrative around him changes completely in this context. Of course, none of the English news media covers this in India. It's a Hindi thing - a jingoistic Chak De India kind of yes we showed them chest-thumping, but yet, such joy at the approval and prizes won from "them" - in this case, the WWE, which of course, stands in for the USA. It's the same as with Shilpa Shetty and the big brother racism story last year I suppose. Two contrasting narratives running throughout. Narrative one is the fact that she - "our Shilpa" has won approval from "them" - namely the British, by winning Big Brother over "there". The "there" is significant. Because its the UK, former colonial master etc, there is some element of post-colonial pride, and I guess, joy at receiving approval. (Of course, the "them" and "there" in the UK no longer stand for exclusively white people.) Narrative two is that "our Shilpa" must simultaneously be protected from "them" - in this case symbolized by the demonized Jade Goody. Shipla stands for Mother India in this narrative - pure, good mannered, virtuous and Indian, wearing her culture as a badge of honor, while Jade, whiteness, the UK, etc. are the "other" which she must fight against, and fight she does, with her army of digital diasporic warriors, further reinforced by the 24-7 connected natives back "home" in India which then helps the news circulate like wildfire, and suddenly, British ministers visiting India are made to feel embarassed by and apologize for their society's racism. What happens post that is even more interesting, but Shilpa will be studied for many years in the academy and its such a rich case study, so lets stop for now. Suffice to say that I like these multiple narrative universes that build around cultural phenomena - and the aha moment that occurs when people from the different silos encounter each other and their narratives. Kind of like the engineering and marketing teams behind a product encountering each other and wondering - what, THIS is what you thought we were making??? Actually, its THAT.

QMC Awards - pictures and videos

2008-04-23T01:07:00.003+05:30

Pictures and videos from the QMC Awards that I wrote about earlier have been put up on the official QMC site, here. Do check them out. Meanwhile here's the video of Barkha Dutt, my favourite newsperson. :-)

Into every life

2008-04-20T22:27:00.006+05:30

Be still, sad heart, and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Image copyright Michel Clair

Queer Media Collective Awards 2008

2008-04-20T16:06:00.004+05:30

Wow! There's no other way to describe it. Wow! The first ever Queer Media Collective Awards event last night was a smashing success. Everything - right from the classy nightclub venue (including elegent decor and chic Design Temple gifts), to the witty compere, to the AV clips and music, to the actual acceptance speeches themselves, was perfect. I don't know if any of the team members imagined that it would go off so smoothly and that it would get such an awesome response, both from the queer community as well as from the media folks being awarded. Tremendous amount of energy - it was like, everyone kind of felt that history was being made, and were so kicked to be a part of it! Couple of points that were made which I think were really important. (a) It's not just what the media covers, but also what it chooses to leave out, thats important. A lot of rubbish comes up in edit team meetings, and one needs to be able to say no to an idea thats badly researched, or presents a biased view. (b) Many of the awardees were grateful particularly to 'out' queer employees within their group, and looked upon them as their compass, when it came to queer stories. (c) Newspapers and magazines are competing for excellence fiercely. They look upon sensitive coverage of minority issues as an asset that they can use to prove their superiority over others in the crowded marketplace. (d) Organizations that are unbiased towards queer issues are often so because their top leadership is unbiased and this sets the tone for the rest of the group. Naresh Fernandes from TimeOut (in person) Rajdeep Sardesai from CNN iBN and Barkha Dutt from NDTV (via video) were proof of this. More than all this though, what touched me the most last evening were two very dignified speeches. The first was made by Ashok Row Kavi's mother - who simply asked everyone present to love their children. The second was by Prince Manav, who, in his quiet dignified manner, expressed surprise that he was being awarded for doing something that he had thought was his natural duty - to stand by his beliefs and his friends and speak out for them when needed. Here's the list of the winners.

Best Newspaper: Hindustan Times

Best Magazine: TimeOut

Best TV channel; NDTV

Best Entertainment Channel: Zee Cafe

Best Advice Columnist: Dr.Watsa

Best TV Journalist: Barkha Dutt

Best Print Journalist: Bachi Karkaria

Best Documentary: CNNibn

Best Film: Honeymoon Travels

Queer Newsperson of the Year: Prince Manav

Special Humsafar Award: Shobha Row Kavi, for being an exemplary parent

My Space India launch

2008-04-18T12:34:00.004+05:30

I haven't yet made up my mind about what I feel about MySpace India. On the face of it, I like what they're doing with the entertainment business, and how they're going about differentiating themselves vs. Orkut, Facebook, etc. I know quite a few musicians who use MySpace India and are happy with it. I'm also thrilled with how they're going live with concerts, etc. all over the country. It's really an awesome time to be in the rock business in India - the scene is exploding - Rolling Stone is here, live acts mushrooming, bars are full (Try getting a table at Blue Frog on any night in this city!). But yet, there was something about the way MySpace went about its launch party last night that left me....well, feeling cold, and not cool. I don't know, man. Pentagram at the amphitheater was ok. But post that, I was disappointed. Maybe it was the forced coolness of the beanbags and hookahs spread all over. The garish 'we hired an event manager and look at what we spent' kind of decor. The dull atmosphere. The food stations with long lines of a really confused audience - bored whatever types, corporate types, international visitors, etc. all slightly confused about what they were supposed to do and why. Someone commented that it was a pajama-tshirt wedding reception and that's how I felt too. It didn't feel like the launch of something radically different - something that would create a community of creative artists or change the way India networks socially at all. It was more of a boring kind of corporate product launch. Underwhelming. Raghu Dixit was alright I suppose and I feel bad that I didn't stay for Shaair and Func, because I like her a lot, but just couldn't.

Segregation still exists

2007-07-09T00:52:00.000+05:30

Hey there everyone.

I haven't posted in a while here and I think it might even have been a year since my last post.

Here is what I wanted to post about today.

I have come across many articles in relation to LGBT issues and topics for a number of years now, and there is one thing that I still don't understand. Why is it that the authors of these articles always have to make sure and feel the need to print after the name of the person that the person that got interviewed is either gay or lesbian. The point I am trying to make is if an author or journalist is writing a piece on an LGBT topic, then it would be quite obvious that the interviewed person are majority gay or lesbian. Why should there be any need to specifically say, "John, a gay man, etc etc etc."

Instead, I would like to see an article that does not pinpoint that so and so person is gay or lesbian, rather just write the article and let the reader have the final call to make whether the person is gay, lesbian, or straight. And also let the writer identify the person interviewed by their gender, name, or anything else less segregating or discriminatory.

The reason I wanted to mention this, is that we are living in the year 2007, (by the way half of it is done already, jeez), and I feel that its high time that all these kinds of segregation or discrimination ended.

And so, here comes the end of my writing abilities for the day, to all you journalists, authors, and whoever else, stop discriminating in your articles. As a straight man, even I find it offensive.

Cheers
Aakash

Viraf, RIP

2007-06-08T07:41:00.000+05:30

Viraf passed away yesterday, the result of an operation gone awry. It feels strange writing these words. Just last week, another friend had mentioned meeting him at a wedding some days ago, his usual ebulient self. He wasn't a close friend, but over the years, I'd come to know him, and admire him a lot, for his spirit. Especially since I had interviewed him for my film, and spent hours in editing the footage, I felt a strong connection, even though we didn't meet socially outside GB contexts like picnics, or his wonderful cooking meets at his home. And I often heard about stories of him, from the common dentist that we shared. Here's what Doc wrote on the GB list about Viraf:

He joined the GB list very early on and was one of the first to use
it to get the courage to enter the community and start taking part in
events. He soon became a mainstay of the group and organised events
of his own, like a very notable boat party. People who went to the
Kihim picnic last year will remember him from there.

Viraf was also a big support to GB in other ways - for example, he
regularly contributed to the cost of funding our film festivals.
These contributions were always given strictly on the condition that
we don't reveal who gave them.

I will remember Viraf for many reasons. His booming voice. His wonderful, funny blog F-cubed (http://www.f-cubed.blogspot.com/ ) The Maharashtrian lunch we had at Aswad in Dadar, when I first went to interview him, and he insisted on paying because he was older than me. His comment in my film about sacrificing his career, post IIT, to "protect [his] sexuality". He was an inspiration for many. An out and proud man in Bombay city, living life on his own terms. He will be missed.

Home sweet home and Canada

2007-03-25T19:23:00.000+05:30

I love Toronto! Been here for the past week, first attending ICE 07, and now at Mobile Nation at Toronto's Ontario College of Art and Design, and its been a phenomenal week. My mind is swimming in the sea of new ideas and strategies I've come across, and I've been overwhelmed by the affection and warmth of Toronto's people. Onwards to Boston tomorow, but there's the last day of Mobile Nation to complete today, and I'm feeling pretty sad that its getting over. :-( Today morning incidentally - woke up in my hotel and put on the TV, and guess what I see, Ramayan on Canadian national TV. Home sweet home, everywhere you go, hanh. The image here is of the super cool OCAD building where I'm sitting right now.

Lazy? Overwhelmed? Full of excuses?

2007-03-11T11:02:00.000+05:30

There are probably a hazaar reasons I can think of to explain my inaction over the past few months. Lots happening since getting back to India - grandfather dying, new job, back and forth to Boston and back, Junri visiting here, etc. etc. But really, these are all excuses. The truth is that I've not prioritized it enough in my life. What's the point of opening a cafe, but never visiting it yourself? Blogging needs a certain commitment - and I've not displayed enough of it in the past few months. So to the two and half readers who still visit this place, I'm sheepishly sorry. I'll post a little more regularly from now on.

Bhai-Sexuals: A Step Back Into the Closet?

2006-11-13T18:13:00.000+05:30

Parmesh sent me a piece in the Indian Express on the "bhai-sexual" in Hindi cinema (link). The piece talks about heroes who share great screen-chemistry with a male friend much more than with their lady love. Think Munna-Circuit and you get the idea. I agree that in films like Lage Raho Munnabhai, Sanjay Dutt's relationship with Vidya Balan pales in comparison to his relationship with Circuit. The article goes on to celebrate this, and also suggests that we are not yet ready to move beyond "friendship."

Same-sex desire, this critic argues, is not yet acceptable. Audiences won't take it. And stars won't risk it. "Male bonding in our movies has to be taken at face value. There cannot be any homoerotic tinge to it. No Bollywood hero will ever risk his reputation by acting as a homosexual. Actors are very concerned about their reputation. The life span of an actor is too short for such risks."

I wonder if it is critics who need to be under the scanner, not films. Critics play a key role in defining the boundaries of meanings - the outer limits of meaning making - and in articles like these, "friendship" becomes a nice and nostalgic trope to avoid addressing same-sex desire in Hindi cinema. Much like the stars, critics too have a shelf-life, and they too will not risk coming out and speaking more honestly about same-sex desire in mainstream cinema. Without neglecting bollywood's track record in creating brilliant "friendship" themed films, it should be possible to critique films like Kal Ho Na Ho for their confused, sterotypical, and unintelligent take on same-sex desire.

Mobile Games in India

2006-10-11T23:33:00.001+05:30

There's an excellent piece on the challenges faced by mobile gaming in India at this present moment, written from a user's perspective, on the blog Youth Curry. The blogger, Rashmi Bansal, runs India's leading youth magazine -JAM - and is a keen observer of media/marketing trends in contemporary India. She writes of the challenges faced by her in getting the Don game that she's downloaded on to her cellphone to work, and using that as a take off point, comments on a wide range of Indian mobile gaming issues. Some samples:

(Writing about Rei, a game by Mauj)....The game itself is a snake adaptation where a Hello-Kitty kind of girl-character goes around collecting hearts. And there is no challenge in terms of higher levels, speed, or difficulty either. I can see even my 7 year old daughter getting bored of this in a jiffy.

Or....

The gaming companies can themselves identify and promote select titles which have wide appeal. Additionally, they should send out mobile games to be previewed and/ or reviewed by the media - the way audio companies send CDs or movie companies invite journalists to press shows. Given that youth is the target audience, even bloggers could be enlisted. The point being if the game is good, the ensuing positive recommendations will drive downloads. And if it's bad, well, those are the games which could be sold cheaply. And feedback would be valuable when developing games in the future.

Read the whole post here.

The way I see it, with mobile games, as with gaming in India in general, the challenge for the game companies lies in figuring out how they want to treat the games they offer - as a service or as a commodity. Even if they're treating them as a commodity, to be churned out, sold in enough numbers and then forgotten as their attention shifts to the next product, it is to their advantage to produce games with compelling content, and ease of use. However, wouldn't it be wiser for them to treat what they offer as a service? Here's a great chance for a game company to build a brand based on qualities like comfort, reliability, ease of use, courtesy and prompt attention in case of problems experienced, etc. If any of these companies can crack this (and Indiagames might have a lead start in India from what Rashmi writes), then they go beyond being mere content providers... they become entertainment brands in their own right. And in an era of choice, if I'm ecstatic with one gaming experience chances are that I'm going to continue patronizing the brand that provides me with that experience - just like I do with my airline, or hotel, or favourite film director.

Herein lies the challenge for the Maujs and the Indiagames of today (and I would imagine, for other global mobile game companies too): they need to stop thinking small, focus on brand building, and reimagine themselves from a neighbourhood tailor mentality (making salwar suits for aunties and 'didis') to that of a Westside or Provogue or Polo Ralph Lauren.

Pal Pal Pal....

2006-10-06T01:17:00.000+05:30

Stuck in my head for the past few days, and reinforced, after watching Lage Raho Munnabhai today....
What a beautiful song. :-) What a fun-tastic movie. :-) Can't stop smiling. :-)

Ganpati media musings

2006-10-04T12:25:00.000+05:30

I came back to India right in the middle of the Ganpati festival fervor – a ten-day spectacle that begins with millions of people in the city bringing statues of the elephant god to their homes and community pandals – and culminates in the immersion of these statues into the ocean, accompanied by street processions, fire crackers, color, and noise, noise and more noise.

It is the final day of the event, and I am walking to Chowpatty beach near my home, the biggest immersion site in the city. It's been several years since I've been in India during Ganpati time and one of the changes I notice is that each pandal I pass is 'sponsored'. The one on the street corner near my house sports banners from Silver House (a local jewelry shop in the adjoining market) as well as ICICI bank and Britannia Tiger biscuits. Just then my cellphone beeps; it’s a text message from my cellphone service provider (Hutch) about Ganpati ringtones and wallpapers that I might wish to download. This is again something I hadn't experienced before.

Flashback to one week ago. I am on a 6 am flight to Calcutta, and each TV screen in the Mumbai airport departure lounge is tuned in to Star News, beaming the early morning Ganpati aarti live from the city's Siddhi Vinayak temple. I visit the temple website and am quite impressed. They have a live darshan webcast, online booking of pujas and prasad delivery both within India and abroad (via FedEx or other courier services). There are several ways that patrons can make donations to the temple - online or through banks. There is also a service to process donations and prasad requests via SMS. The temple has tie-ups with most of the major cellphone companies in the country for SMS alerts of prayers and aartis, downloads of Lord Ganesh wallpapers, ring tones, logos, e-cards, and so on. Siddhivinayak is by no means the only temple to provide such extensive and intensive digital devotion possibilities – different versions of the above model are being adopted by other temples in India. And it's proving to be immensely popular. Siddhivinayak's online darshan, for instance, has 4 million hits per month. In contemporary India, it seems God is not just in the details, but in the detailed choices that one has to access him with.

My mother is surprised that I want to walk all the way to the beach to see the immersion. It's so much better on TV, she urges. And she is probably right – almost every TV channel – local or national, cable or terrestrial, is beaming out assorted Ganpati images. Sahara News has a 4 way split screen, – showing live immersion-casts from 4 major immersion points in Maharashtra state (of which Bombay is the capital), other channels have reports from other parts of the country or abroad; there are celebrity pujas, interviews, talk shows, Ganpati teleshopping and Ganpati dance contests… I switch to MTV hoping for some variety, only to see Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan vigorously shaking his hips to the Ganpati song from his forthcoming film – Don, just as my cellphone beeps and offers me the very same music video download for 9 rupees or something.

I enjoy my walk, feeling the cool monsoon sea breeze on my face. In a few days, the city will become boiling hot once more as the rain season subsides. Several processions pass me by: small handcarts with baby Ganpati statues on them, being guided by 10 or 12 family members, and large trucks, with 50 and 60 foot tall statues surrounded by their giant entourages, security guards and private videographers. Just opposite the large Times of India billboards at Chowpatty beach, (featuring humongous images of Ganpati, what else?) there is a VIP entrance where special guests can view the beach proceedings from a raised platform, and on plush sofas, while sipping on delectable non alcoholic beverages. Alas, I don't have an invitation. Instead, I am squashed and squeezed with the general population (and we're talking hundreds of thousands here) as the crowd inches its way to the beach, and chants of Ganpati Bappa Morya (Lord Ganpati, come back again) fill the air. It is claustrophobic and stinky but there is electricity in the air and beaming smiles all around and I realize that despite my discomfort, I am smiling too.

No, Bombay's devotion for Ganpati has not changed in the few years that I have been away. (It might have even become stronger… and the presence of such a huge mass of people, just two months after terrible bomb blasts have ripped through the city's trains, must surely be read as an act of defiance as well as devotion.) But what has certainly changed is the experience of Ganpati. The array of choices made possible by media in the Bombay of today have enabled a qualitatively different experience of the spirit of Ganpati: a transmedia experience that is more complex, more extensive and more intensive than ever before. Secondly, all these different levels or touch points at which the Ganpati narrative can be experienced by individuals merge in and out of and influence and are influenced by what was essentially conceived as a communal spiritual experience by Indian freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak about a century ago. The experience is thereby transformed into something that more personal, more portable and more pedestrian (in both senses of the term), to borrow language from Mimi Ito. This personalization of the communal is what I find especially exciting, more so in the light of the its simultaneously occuring reverse phenomenon – the communalization of the personal. In both instances, I reckon, we find that what Grant Mcracken calls multiplicity, is taking place. People are able to experience something personally as well as communally at the same time. It is never a case of either/or; always a case of bothness, or rather, severalness.

First GB meet after two years

2006-09-11T03:14:00.001+05:30

** All names in the post below have been replaced (to protect the privacy of the original name-holders, naturally) with brand names, to reflect the extent to which consumerism has seeped into my sordid life. ***

I attended my first Gay Bombay (GB) meet today after two years… it was fun to be back. I brought along with me, Wrangler, an American friend visiting Bombay from Boston on a student grant – and it was his very first GB meet, and we were both warmly welcomed; me as a ghar aaya mera pardesi type (by so many familiar faces – which was kind of reassuring
after the GB party last night, where I was a little lost and lonely without Junri... and where did SO many dancing prancing people emerge from suddenly???) and him because after all atithi devo bhava and all that. But before that - we met at Churchgate station and took a fast to Bandra. You know how some people are chain smokers – they light one cigarette with the butt of the other? Wrangler's like that, but with Strawberry smoothies. You might even call him a smoothie operator.

We reached JATC at 5.59 pm, which was good, because the group departed at 6pm sharp. Two minutes later, and Wrangler and me would have spent the evening cruising the bylanes of Bandra, searching for, what else… another strawberry smoothie. Our stately convoy of cars, motorbikes and autos made its way through the crowded streets and I was kind of engrossed in conversation, but I do remember getting down and walking part of the way. In any case, we were soon at the secret meeting place – Godiva ka relocated Ghosla, a.k.a. Budha Bar 9 (dim lighting, laid back lounging on the tastefully arranged floor cushions, lounge music in the background….) and the conversation began to flow almost immediately.

As with many of the previous GB meets that I've been to, the conversation topics arose organically and there was a wide range of opinions on most of them. From debating over whether gay individuals should adopt or have their own children (or have children at all), to the importance of supportive family and friends, to which older woman was the sexiest (Simi, Nafisa Ali, Rekha… no prizes for gueesing who won that round :-) – the comments were fast and furious. Dolce and Gabbana did a good job at moderating – spotting quiet people who were trying to get a word in and hushing extremely talktative speakers – they tag teamed well and ensured a steady flow of conversation. Two themes stood out especially, and what strikes me even as I write this, is how the more things change, the more they remain the same. I remember how at the last GB meet I had attended two years ago, it was these very same themes that had resonated…

The first was that of coming out. The young Aramis – crisply articulate and assertive (oh how I wish I had had that confidence when I was 20!!!) set the ball rolling by asking how one should define the extent to which one comes out. In his case, he was out to his parents and close friends, but felt uncomfortable keeping his sexuality a secret from his extended family, neighbors and other prying sorts. Everyone had a go at this, and naturally, everyone had something different to say. What was awesome was the atmosphere – although there were many disagreements, the atmosphere was never tense – the spirit was always one of accommodation, or a willingness to listen to the other point of view, which was fabulous. The second theme, was that of marriage. Planet M, who had just ended an 8 year long term relationship with a man, felt that gay relationships were inherently doomed to be unsuccessful and expressed his desire to marry a woman, so that he may satisfy his need for companionship. The vociferous consensus in general was that this wasn’t such a good idea, but I was struck by the context of what he said. He didn't say that he wanted to marry a woman out of family pressure, or anything like that. Far from it. He had been in a committed live in relationship with his ex and comfortably out to his family. He wanted to get into a hetero-family situation for companionship. Food for thought?

Speaking of food, it was soon time for munchies and cola and mingling-wingling, and while doing this, to my absolute surprise, I saw many of the men present there, reaching into their pants and slowly taking out their…. wallets :-) It was time to pay Cosmo for the picnic next week. I paid up too and it was great to know that most of the guys present were going to be there. Wrangler and me were lucky to get a ride back home with our new bud – Weiser, and as our car screeched off with the burning smell of rubber, Tag opened his secret stash of chocolate barfi and passed it around… home sweet home, yeah Mumbai meri jaan.

An Outsider's Perspective on South-Asian Media

2006-09-05T13:41:00.000+05:30

Since I'm still researching on digital war games for my PhD thesis, planning to include non-Western examples in the final chapter to broaden topic a little, I recently found out about an example from Bangladesh, a game called Arunodoyer Agnishikha or Bangladesh-71, set in the 1971 "war of liberation" (sic!) against Pakistan. The second game from Bangladesh, however, is called Dhaka Racing and does not have military connotations at all. It seems very much tailored to a local audience; they even make fun of the "Rickshawalas" in the game as well as in real life which is probably pretty much an inside joke.
Now, since I am thinking about cultural dispositions towards digital media technologies, it is striking that e.g. in India, both animated films (Hanuman, Lord Ganesh) and digital games (Ashoka) from the outset seem to focus on mythological themes rather than war or lifestyle (or is mythology in this sense part of 'lifestyle'?). At least that's the tiny fragment of it that I could observe from a European POV so far...
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that animation and digital media production is increasingly being outsourced to India by US and other companies which might create a desire to produce something genuinely rooted in one's own culture?
If you happen to hear about other, especially military-themed examples, I would be eternally grateful for suggestions :) I already asked a friend who is in Egypt and Lebanon on a regular basis to buy all games from the region he can find like Under Siege and Quraish; I just hope this doesn't interfere with my plans of working in the US sometime... ;)
Best wishes from Bonn,

Stefan

Cricket Fever in the Caribbean

2006-07-07T03:12:00.000+05:30

The pictures you see up above, are from my visit to the Cricket Test Match between India and West Indies in St. Kitts, West Indies.

Ok let me tell you this....if you are a cricket fan, then you have heard of the great West Indian Cricket grounds, about the party / carnival atmosphere, about the flowing booze, and beautiful women. Well let me tell you, after getting to view all of this in person and getting to watch a cricket game for the first time in the West Indies, it is all true. These folk here know how to enjoy when an International Cricket team comes to town. Especially the Indians. Man it was great.

The best part was meeting the players from both teams. Now St. Kitts is a very small island, about 67 square miles and a population of 30,000 +/- and they have only one major hotel here, the Marriott (which I can see from my balcony, trust me its a great view). I personally met, Rahul Dravid, but he is too introverted and his wife and 7 month old son was with him too, so didn't disturb him much, then I met Yuvraj, Bhajji, VRV, Suresh Raina, Dhoni, Pathan, Munaf, Jaffer, Kaif, Sehwag, Chappel himself, Kiran More. Funnily never saw Jumbo (Kumble) around but oh well, saw him at the game right when he was fielding on the boundary, oh and how can I forget Sreesanth, I partied with him. That was the best.

ok the worst part about watching a test match for 5 days in the sun and drinking beer, you can get Heat Exhaustion, and I tell you that can be a pain in the butt. But it was worth it, u know any kind of personal trauma like heat exhaustion is worth it especially if you are a fanatic of a sport like cricket and you get to meet and hang out with your favorite team.

I tell you, if you live in the states and are a cricket fan or just an enthusiast who would like to see more cricket, then come on down next year for the World Cup. I will be here in St. Kitts. We have the world champions Australia and the no. 2 team South Africa coming here for the round robin stage, so that is gonna be a good match. Well for more info go to www.cricketworldcup.com

cheers

ps. Sorry if my first blog is a little confusing when u read it. I was just so excited writing about it.