Tech-tonic Shifts on Silver Screen

The other day some TV channel was airing 2006 James Bond flick Casino Royale. Back then it was a valiant attempt by the James Bond franchise to make 007 relevant to post-9/11 reality. I remember Daniel Craig through his robust screen presence had resoundingly silenced many who had doubted his panache to play 007.

But what struck me was that throughout the movie he was using Sony Vaio laptop and a Sony Ericsson phone to get along with his business of licence to kill and make the world a safer place. It was a clever attempt by the Japanese electronics major to co-brand its products with the Bond flick.

If the producers were to make the same movie now (inclusive of pact with Sony) then Craig's baggage probably would be much lighter. He would be just carrying a Smartphone - probably the latest from Sony Xperia stable, tucked in the breast pocket of his suit and use 4-G technology to keep in touch with his boss M.

In the field of mobile phone technology six years has brought about a generational change. Those days the only Smartphone we heard of was BlackBerry and to possess that one probably had to be a higher up in the corporate ladder (a director I guess) of some MNC. Apple back then had only reached the iPod stage. The coolest thing then was to have a camera phone with an FM radio - MotoRazr, Nokia 6630 and Sony Ericsson Walkman were the top draws and the Gen-X was barely getting used to ear bud speakers and 2-megapixel cameras on their phones. Now PCs and laptops are facing the same fate as typewriters, when boxy desktops made their entry.

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Quite often the movie scriptwriters spin out stories in which the contemporary technology often proves to be a game changer of the plot. In mid-1990s I happened to see a movie Hear No Evil, starring Marlee Matlin, who had earlier won an Oscar for the movie Children of Lesser God. The movie is about a deaf woman who falls foul of a corrupt police officer looking for a stolen coin, hidden in the woman's pager. That was the first time I happened to see the 'beepy' matchbox like device and wondered what that hi-tech gadget was. It would often beep the wrong time, putting the woman’s life in danger. It was in fact pager - a precursor to the cell phone revolution.

If anybody from the current Smartphone generation happened to watch the movie he/she too would be astonished, but for a different reason. The device got reduced to a museum piece long back and they may wonder what that crude instrument was!

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Onion Tears

Hi, my links with the human tear duct is as old as civilization. However, all these years it has been confined mainly as a rites of passage for those getting initiated to Indian cooking. Many outgrow that sooner or later.

My simple down to earth upbringing had made me root for low profile fields-market-cutting board cycle of existence. However my longer shelf life than other veggie cousins always arouses the hoarding instincts among unscrupulous middlemen. They buy me in bulk when the rates are cheap and offload me when prices go up. They salivate whenever there is even a mild drop in farm output. With near absence of any good storage infrastructure for fruits, vegetables and even foodgrains, the hoarders have a field day quoting eye-popping prices.

When this happens I leave all and sundry, including those who have not seen the insides of a kitchen, misty eyed. Even some netas are not spared as they end up shedding copious tears after losing their gaddi. I become an object of hatred, not just for Jains. Garrulous politicians fumble and are at loss for words when asked about onion prices and display symptoms of foot-in-mouth disease. The respectable phrase 'Know your onions' acquires a pejorative spin and conveys more about one's economic status than knowledge or wisdom.

When prices zoom TV channels witness heated debates on 'cold chains' and other measures to stem wastage of vegetables and fruits. But once prices stabilise all that is left to hibernate in cold storage, only to be taken out when the next spike happens.

At restaurants the shadow of price rise pans out somewhat like this. Initially I am used sparingly in all dishes that have an onion prefix. Then they temporarily vanish from tables though not from menu cards. You will be greeted with an apologetic 'sorry' from the waiter in case you happen to order them. They make a re-entry once the prices stabilise.

Lastly, no prizes for guessing whose bank balance swells amid all this gloom and doom ... the middleman.

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Lungi Dance On Mint Street

Chennai Express reaches Mint Street

If the above statement is seen in isolation one may be forgiven for thinking that Shah Rukh Khan has become the new Governor of Reserve Bank of India. But this is how a popular newspaper, of the pink press kind, gushed in its headline to announce the arrival of Raghuram Rajan.

His entry into Mint Street had a filmi flavour. Expressions like 'blockbuster opening on first day first show', 'century on debut', 'Rockstar Rajan' were some of the superlatives bandied about by the press and twitterati. Graphic and morph artists had a field day showing him either as James Bond or knight in shining armour.

They would like us to believe that we have a new baazigar (with killer looks) on the block, who after an illustrious stint at Karan Johar's home country (United States) has returned to swades to rescue us from the chakravyuh of falling rupee and flight of FIIs from bourses. This is also compounded by the fact that there was no love lost between them and Rajan's predecessor. Everyone was going ga ga about his athletic skills and good looks. The fact that he also happens to be a financial expert and academician got totally eclipsed.

And look at the way they swooned over his dialogue baazi. His first speech had the 'yes we can' air and the Sensex/forex driven amoral class lapped it up like Rajani fans. As an aside one was reminded of Justice Katju's illustrious statement (90% of Indians are fools) and wondered whether he was being economical on that count! Anyway one can safely say that Rajan's honeymoon is well begun.

However, the din and euphoria unwittingly overlooked some harsh measures announced by Rajan, which may not find favour among the crony capitalists (who dominate our entrepreneurial space) sitting pretty on bad loans, most of them taken from PSU banks. He has warned that "Promoters do not have a divine right to stay in charge regardless of how badly they mismanage an enterprise, nor do they have the right to use the banking system to recapitalize their failed ventures."

I just hope he really means it and it is not some speechwriter's flourish to sex up his inaugural address. Once that happens then surely this honeymoon will end with a louder bang than it began.

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The Syrian Itch

Syria is the new 'itch' of the West. The script seems all too familiar. The US and its European allies look for an excuse to meddle in a West Asian country and it does not take long for them to prise open a window of opportunity. They are egged on by regional satraps like Saudi Arabia, and of late Turkey, who have their own axes to grind.

Of course, being democracies the West is saddled with the burden of 'manufacturing consent' (apology to Noam Chomsky) among the populace that it is a 'just war' and worth shedding the blood of some promising youngsters, though not those from affluent background. Good old white man's burden theory gets reloaded with some new characteristics.

However, what is disappointing is that it is happening during the tenure of a US President who came to power on an anti-war platform. He seemed more than eager to bring back his troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.

But now we have his lieutenant John Kerry play Donald Rumsfeld by hoisting Bashar Al Assad to the evil pantheon of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein. Being Democrats one was lulled into believing they won't be as economical on truth as their Republican rivals. But looks like the corroding influence of White House is a great leveller.

While marshalling his case against Syria, Kerry revealed a picture of rows of dead bodies lying on the floor, wrapped in white shrouds, and claimed they were victims of Bashar Al Assad's alleged chemical attack. A claim refuted by the photographer Marco di Lauro, who actually took that photo, saying it was from Iraq in 2003 and adds that he nearly "fell off his chair" when he saw it being used to promote a war in Syria. As of now the only ray of hope is that America's trusted camp follower Britain has not fallen in line yet. Not because it does not want to, but because the opposition is proving to be a hard nut to crack.

As for the media, which is now at best an extended arm of corporate communications, the less said the better. In this era of embedded war correspondents we cannot even dream of expose like Pentagon papers that happened during Vietnam war.

And thankfully for our leaders, the attention span of our modern day youth is as narrow as their smartphone screens and their sense of history is next to nothing. Hence things like Vietnam war, Napalm attacks and My Lai massacre hardly ring a bell. So they needn't fear any needling questions from them and continue selling the same old snake oil of 'national interest' to further the agenda of their real constituency - the arms dealers.

Cartoon source: Facebook

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