Train

Train
Originally uploaded by S.Murugesh

The Egmore train. I miss Madras!

times in chennai are.. err.. rather slimy

Its official. I am late with this entry of mine. But its official. The Times of India will start the most royal of wars for the newspapers turf. It will war The Hindu in its home turf. Expect battle royale. Expect the last Tamil New Year's day of April 14 (whatever thats supposed to mean) to be eventful.

This means that the Times.. err.. variously and more popularly called the slimes and other not so pleasant names has reached its final frontiers so far as India is concerned. Remember that ToI had planned to take on The Hindu long back. But with the HT hitting hard on the ToI's home turf, it had to rethink strategies. So sensing a welcoming opportunity, in came Deccan Chronicle into the ring. DC even had the then ToI Chennai marketing strategist or-so to put in his papers and join DC for its launch. It was successful nevertheless. But, Chronicle for all its youthfulness didnt really wake up the Old Lady of Mount Road. So much that The Hindu did not even consider a price cut.

But with ToI expect the battle to be serious and head-on. ToI has deep pockets and will definitely try using the same to put down the oh-not-so-well-to-do dailies, like it has always done in the past. This happened in Bangalore sometime back. But in Chennai expect things in reverse. Do remember that The Hindu is a conservative paper with a conservative management. What does that mean? While there are no questions as to the ToI having deep pockets, there are no questions about this Old Lady of Chennai either. The paper is rooted to Chennai!!! Apart from their values, and editorials and other stuff, the management is also rooted in Chennai. It is privately held with a huge circulation in Chennai. Almost all of its success is from the South, with Chennai accounting to a very sizable amount. That means that the paper has been enjoying undisputed revenues and profits apart from the good repute. So battle royale guaranteed!!

DC has had increased subscriptions. But, most of the friends/relatives I know of have DC as their second, yes second daily after you-know-who! So while DC successfully damaged the circulations of the Express, expect ToI return favor to the DC and the Express. But what really has happened over the past after DC's Chennai launch is that, the Old Lady has raised eyebrows. Not too late too. If you have been reading the Hindu, you would've noticed the oh-not-so in your face changes. The additions to the daily have been more focussed on areas historically uncovered by The Hindu. Trying to get the younger generation back to reading their paper has been a priority no doubt. It is still continuing, subtle changes happening every other week. It all started with the wide broad sheet to more acceptable international broad sheet standards. Then came the changes to its style, the extras started sporting a new look and now the tabloids added to the daily. Prices haven't dropped as yet though.

There has also been the new Ergo which has for now been promoted as a sister concern from the Kasturi stable. Not sure whats in store there.

But what apart from all this does the ToI bring in? One for sure is some good fight. The Hindu will need to be extra light on its feet henceforth. Expect the Hindu launching more editions in the ToI heartland. It does bring in a fight much required. There is some more... but thats should I guess be a whole new post :D

Aussie Hypocrisy - Live at a Cricket Match Near You

A good start to the new year! Happy New Year Folks :). First things first. I don't support racism. period.

We are all hypocrites! But none can beat this!

The Aussies can taunt all teams around the world with their straight, sexual, abusive, well thought, planned, hard mouthed cricket!! When they do it, its a mind game. Hah thats the politically correct term I suppose?

But "a monkey" is all that takes for Andrew Symonds to goto MAMA (read ICC). Yes, Bhajji has apologised to Symonds for the same word earlier! So nothing wrong there. If he did it again, the ban serves him right.

Now there seems to be a one Hogg calling our folks names.. like b**tard. We in India probably call it taunt, verbal abuse. Perhaps, if he had used those same words off the field to any one of our players, he would be RIP. Well, apparently the Aussies are fine with b**tard but not monkeys. Symonds apparently is annoyed / irritated / disturbed by the monkey comments! And, it turned racist. Wow!

Look at this article from Waugh... eloquent, waxing eloquent!!! I quote from his article in Herald Sun, Australia

"At the centre of most incidents between cricketing nations is the clash or lack of understanding of each other's cultures.

Teams playing against Australia fail to understand that the banter, gamesmanship and sledging it uses is the way Australian kids joust and play in the schoolyard and backyard.

On the other hand Aussie teams can't stomach time-wasting tactics and perceived manipulation of the rules, including calling for runners, over-appealing and the alleged altering of the ball's condition."

Beautiful, he went on to pooh pooh the monkey incident in India as well. But, in the end, .. err... he ends up contradicting himself. So, he actually wants every other team to accept all that comes from the Aussie cricketers for high quality banter, chatter, sportsmanship! Excellent! Claps all around!

So if the ICC wants to stop all this nonsense from happening, it cannot let just tighten strings where the Aussies want it tightened! Why should Gilchrist object to a speaker near the stumps being sensitive and the same being broadcasted?? Whats to hide if its friendly banter mate? If not whats the need for it in the first place? If there is cricket then let it be just cricket! Don't let Kumble the Silent talk the bodyline talk!

And thats another news item that has catapulted the already high flying news channels into the limelight. NDTV-IBN and Times Now increasing in levels as they come! Making news, whoever coined that term!!??

Checkout Links ---
Harbhajan 'broke a deal' on abuse

Ugliness of racism will not go away quietly

Eagles - Long Road Out of Eden

Eagles has released their self claimed last album. So that's news enough to check it out :)

"This is the final statement. We got back together and went around the world twice on tour but then there was nothing left to do without new music. Now we have this album that fits in with our body of work. There won't be another Eagles album after this" - Don Henley

checkout
Long Road Out of Eden - Wiki
Eagles - Wiki
Eagles - Official Website

kalyansury.com - i just bought it!!

i just bought my own domain after much thought! i even had a thought of changing my name to kalyan sury :D. but since that didnt really god down well with a few people thought that i might as well get myself a domain with that... did anybody ask me about my plans for the future!

and something very important to note, didnt really know that one could buy a google apps account with a domain for 10 green bucks! translates to about 395 indian bucks.. whoo!! a normal domain registration alone costs 500 here! thats called cheap.

update: now that ive bought it, am planning to move out blogging to a different host!