A glass of steaming milky syrupy tea is best served cut. One by two or two by three, it embodies the spirit of sharing and camaraderie (and more significantly a resource crunch). Come, have a sip.
When you can't beat them, join them and then beat them in their own game.
Piracy is a pain for the producers and pleasure for millions of others. Millions are spent in making a film and people watch it for free or for a price that doesn't get paid back to the filmmakers.
And the Internet is making things more complex, it just takes a few hours for millions across the world to download a film and watch it at their leisure or - if their bandwidth permits - watch it online, usually at no explicit cost.
From a film viewer point of view, piracy is a boon. He doesn't need to shell out hundreds every week to watch films that, in most cases, aren't even worth the celluloid they are shot on. So he either rents it from the neighbourhood DVDwallah or buys it from a Palika Bazar or better still, downloads it from the Internet for free. And the best part is that he can watch the film at leisure, even pausing to answer that phone call and fast forwarding those mandatory boring songs or replaying that particular hot scene/song over and over again (much like what many small town theatres did for the Chaiya Chaiya song in Dil Se).
An average movie fan is the selfish kind. The anti-piracy preachings have no impact on him. We are like this only.
While producers and distributors scratch their heads thinking of deterrants and ensuring returns, let me put forward some uninvited advice. In the good ol' video cassette days, films would release on VHS on the same friday of their release. Then came Hum Aapke Hain Kaun and started the trend of delayed home video release. Hum Aapke Hain Kaun was the first film I saw a camera print (or cam rip as it is now known in the circle) of. Our local cablewallah had aired the film a few days after its release.
This was precisely what gave a boost to the bootleg business. When you deny a legit way of accessing stuff, there, as a rule, get carved out numerous illegit paths. My suggestion is that DVD releases should not be delayed beyond two weeks from a theatre release. Because right from the first week the pirated DVDs get rented out (and also copied). A single DVD can keep away hundreds of viewers away from the theatres. So why not release the DVD early and make some money before the pirates do?
Anyway, nowadays the most of a film theatre earnings comes from the first two weeks, an early DVD release would only mean extra earnings, as the interest in the film would still be on the higher side. With time, for most films, the interest tends to fade away and that refelects in the DVD sales figures.
And I suggest that Bollywood films be officially released online simultaneously with the theatrical release. They anyway make it to the P2P and video sharing circuit within a few days and in some cases even before that.
Amongst Indian websites, there are the likes of Rajshri.com and BigFlix.com who are already in the game (though the films they currently show are old). NDTV Convergence's Tubaah.com could also be a potential platform.
There would obviously be costs involved for both the content provider and the consumer. Bandwidth and storage costs money and producers would obviously like to make the best out of such a deal. Such online streaming could be ad supported (no ads coming at a premium). Big corporates would be interested in sponsoring such activities, given the number of eyeballs they can potentially attract.
And there also can be an access cost for the consumer. Not something like the DVD prices of the past (until Moserbaer came along with its smart business sense), but a price that I'll be willing to pay to save me from the bother of driving all the way to the theatre to watch an average film. Something in the range of Rs 10 to Rs 50, depending on the movie. Anything higher would be an invitation to fire-up the P2P software.
Online streaming technology has got better and more secure for the content providers (though I'm no great supporter of DRM). Protocols like RTMPE are tougher to leech (and Adobe tried to limit the distribution of rtmpdump).
But in India, given the abysmal Internet speed, online viewing might not be the best option. The NRIs would be game, though. For India, the video of the film could be built into a software (multi-platform) that can be downloaded for a prefixed price, depending on the demand and freshness of the film and the quality of the video.
The software should be a portable version that doesn't require installation and would have the player and all the necessary codecs built-in. Moreover, it could self-destruct after a pre-specified time interval - 24 hours upwards - (again depending on the price paid to download it) to prevent further circulation. This can again be ad supported for extra revenue.
The video (within the application) should also be available in different qualities, to let consumers choose the file size according to their needs and download speed. There is no point giving anyone on a GPRS or EDGE connection a 1GB file. By the time it finishes downloading, it'll be timeout.
If the prices are kept attractive enough, it's a money minter. When consumers know that for a small price they can get the real stuff and not any cam-rip or PDVD-rip, many will be interested. I am.
After all many buy a pirated DVD for Rs 20-Rs 50 or rent it for Rs 10-Rs 20. It's not that people are not willing to spend money. The right price usually manages to find many buyers.
Though this deal is primarily targeted towards people who watch their movies on their computers and the film is not for keeps. Those who want the DVD could wait only just a little longer.
Even cyber cafes can be made partners in the business, as distributors for people with slow or no internet connection.
All this makes sense (to me). But the question is, who will bell the cat?
IndianRail.gov.in is one of the more popular websites in India (though very ill-designed and un-userfriendly). According to Alexa it is ranked no. 30 in India and has a worldwide traffic rank of 721. Given the place that the Indian Railways has in the country's transportation system railway-related sites would continue getting the visitors. And this is what makes the Indian Railways' websites (indianrail.gov.in and trainenquiry.com) a very lucrative target for parasitic websites.
I believe that the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), that owns and maintains the official Railways websites also realises that and therefore has put up this warning on the indianrail.gov.in site:
But violators don't seem to care much. There are quite a number of Indian Railways related websites out there, but most of them just provide basic information, but there are quite a number who offer services similar to that of the official sites.
Now a question might arise - What's wrong with that? The problem here is that the information related to train timings, seat availability, PNR status, train arrivals and departures is exclusively generated by the Indian Railways and others can have access to it only via the official websites (or with agencies that the organisation might have an agreement with).
What these sites do is that they provide the user an interface that looks their own (with some ads plastered around, though not in all cases) and when the user requests any information, the data is pulled from the Indian Railways servers. A practice also termed as leeching.
Someone might ask - Maybe they actually have a tie up with the Railways? I don't think so. Let us sample a few:
eRail.in: The site explicitly states that it "does not have any official connection or affiliation whatsoever to Indian Railways and related organisations." When you submit a query it displays the results within an iframe enclosing the official website.
The site doesn't have any contact info and a whois search reveals the domain registrant as the System Administrator of 5Force, Dublin, Ohio, USA. Nothing very precise. But the man behind the site has been discussed about on the WWW.
IndianTrains.org: Follows a similar method as that of eRail.in. The domain name has been registered via DomainsByProxy.com, who are in the business of hiding the real identities of website owners. Obviously no contact info.
IndiaRailInfo.com: Similar. Registered via myprivateregistration.com - another whois anonymising service.
Now let us also look at a few bigger sites offering railway enquiry services:
Rediff Trains FareSearch: It seems quite unlikely that a reputed website like Rediff would indulge in exploitative practices. But I tried searching online for information related to Indian Railways-Rediff tie up, but didn't seem to find any. Even the story on Rediff.comon the launch of the service doesn't mention any official agreement.
Other sites that also offer rail-related services (I didn't look into the details):
From a user's perspective, this is a welcome trend. With the bad usability of the official sites such alternatives make lives a little easier. The interface is so much better. Many of them also provide additional services like maps and weather forecasts that the official sites obviously don't have.
Now what should the Indian Railways or rather Times Internet Limited - that has won the tender for web advertisement rights on indianrail.gov.in and trainenquiry.com for two years - do?
Alexa shows a dip of 16% in indianrail.gov.in's reach over the last three months, while eRail.in registers an increase of 28% for the same period.
At a time when rising airfares is compelling people to opt for trains, this dip in the traffic for the official railway sites point toward the alternative service providers.
Unlike airlines, railways is a monopoly and the railways wouldn't like to loose it grip on that even online. But instead of expending resources over the 'violators,' CRIS should rather focus on improving the websites so that people would prefer the original source over the borrowed and bettered websites. And as payback they could borrow some ideas.
The turnaround of the Indian Railways has attracted a lot of attention, both within and outside the country. It is indeed welcome that public sector enterprises are gradually taking their business seriously and adding to the government's kitty. But what goes underreported in all his hype is the consumer's point of view and also the other side of the story
The media has been by and large all gung-ho about the way the world's largest employer is headed, it is only occasionally that we get to read stories like these:
Though I travel less frequently on the rails than I used to, given the advantages that air has over the rails, my observation is that not much has changed on the ground level. Let me elaborate my woes. The charges, as usual, are hidden
Last year in a step which the Railways, obviously, didn't announce with much fanfare, enhanced the tatkal quota to 30 per cent. This increase in quota is unlike the one which the Central Government has promised following the widespread protests against the OBC quota in educational institutions. There is no enhancement of seats. If you are booking a little late, you better be ready to pay more.
And that's not all, even the tatkal charges have been hiked. For the peak-season that is 10 months a year, a passenger would have to shell out an addition of Rs 300 for an upper class ticket and Rs 150 for a lower class ticket. Off-season is only two months, when the charges are Rs 200 and Rs 75 respectively. But again, the off-season also has a catch; it is not applicable in trains and classes with average utilisation of 80 per cent.
In case I have to book a ticket in third AC from Delhi to Gwalior under the tatkal quota, I have to pay 66 per cent extra (a regular ticket costs Rs 450). Now that's called a rip-off!
Lalu and his babus were obviously not happy with the extra revenue that this 'innovative' tatkal scheme, requiring only a little tweaking of rules, would bring. There is an additional charge of up to Rs 50 (depending on the journey) if the journey originates from a station other than the one from where the ticket has been issued. I'm trying to grasp the logic behind this move. Please help.
There's more. The Railway Ministry has re-classified hundreds of trains as superfast, while on track they haven't gathered any more speed. The reason, the superfast tag invokes an extra fare from the passengers ranging from Rs 10 to Rs 50, depending on the class of travel. Benefit to the passenger - nil. To the railway balance sheet - millions and millions.
These are only a few that have come to my notice, there would me lots more in the fine print.
Benefits, well...
For the urban middle class the most welcome service of the Indian Railways is undoubtedly Internet reservation. Though there are connectivity issues, incorrect billing and delay in refund (I experienced that), but that is negligible compared to the convenience. The mobile charging points (though too few compared to the number of passengers in a coach) is another thoughtful addition.
The trains run late as usual, the other day my parents while travelling back to Shillong reached Guwahati six hours late. That's not unusual for the Delhi-Guwahati Rajdhani Express.
The pantry service is poor and unhygienic. Errant staff also overcharge passengers and also ask for tips at the end of the journey. For a 28 hour journey (which usually extends to 32 hours or more) passengers on the Guwahati-Delhi Rajdhani Express are provided with only a single one-litre bottle of water!
All the options mentioned in the menu are as-a-rule not available. And rice lovers, inspite of advance requests have to be content with half a bowl of rice and unwanted chappatis.
As a general rule I've found the employees manning the ticket counters and the railway police personnel to be discourteous, with very few exceptions. I once had to threaten a reservation staff at the New Delhi station reservation counter when he was booking other tickets on the sly while we were waiting in the queue for over an hour. The service is excruciatingly slow with most of them more adept at single finger typing.
On another instance when I had to cancel my ticket (at Itarsi railway station) which didn't get confirmed, I had to explain the clerk the cancellation rules and he had to consult his senior for about 15 minutes before telling me that the ticket cannot be cancelled. Later, a friend, who was accompanying me (as I was down with jaundice) had to go to the station master to get it approved.
Ticketless and unreserved passengers still continue to crowd reserved compartments in almost all routes, the travelling ticket examiner meanwhile adds lining to his pockets.
Entering a railway platform is another pain. There's always a huge queue at the platform ticket counter. And often the staff arrives conveniently late, I regularly experience that at Hazrat Nizamuddin. At New Delhi Railway Station there are coin-operated machines for the purpose, but their coin boxes are either full (no one seemingly cares about emptying them) or are malfunctioning. Even the operating procedure isn't clearly elaborated leading to a lot of unnecessary confusion.
This gives me an idea for Lalu to ask his boys to implement. Introduce a SMS platform ticket (since for an amount of Rs 3 online platform ticket wouldn't be a viable idea, the service charges would themselves add to about Rs 30 with additional printing and paper cost). It can have a premium pricing for Rs 6, believe me, people would happily opt for it.
Platforms have dogs roaming around and there are too few chairs where passengers waiting for yet another late train can sit or the dogs can lie under. There are too few fans too. Instead of having an incline (which would benefit everyone including the disabled) there are stairs and more stairs all around.
Lalu has shown everyone the money, but I as a consumer am yet to reap benefits that would justify the extra that I'm being charged for. I don't mind paying as long as it is worth paying for. But then it is difficult to fight a monopoly and that too a 150-year old behemoth with a surplus of Rs 200 billion.
If you think that I, seemingly belonging to the new upwardly mobile class, am anti-railway, do read this post. But then I'd rather plan my vacations in advance and fly (at competitive prices) than wait for the green signal at outer.
[The fare information mentioned in this post has been sourced from the Indian Railways website indianrail.gov.in]
...or for that matter for anything else on the world's latest mass marketing gimmick - 'The New 7 Wonders of the World.' I didn't even vote for Debojit despite my family's cajoling. There are no moral, ethical or monetary reasons to compel me to vote. My sensibility vouches for my sentiments.
As pointed out before by some bloggers and a little resultantly by some sections in the mainstream media, that this latest craze is just but an international money minting venture trying to cash in on the emotions of people. In advertising class we were precisely taught this. For India the Bhaskar Group's I Media Corporation Limited had won the exclusive marketing and media rights for the campaign, and they went about it with dexterity.
First there were reports that the Taj was lagging behind and unsentimental Indians were doing nothing about their heritage. It was followed by yet another reminder that Indians weren't doing anything for their dear Taj. Then came stories about the voting picking up, but there weren't enough to push it through the final seven. See the trend here? Very well thought of and well executed. Internet, TV, radio, print everything was made a part of this publicity blitzkrieg. In between two lilting numbers the sweet-voiced RJ doesn't forget to remind us Indians of our duty - to vote for the Taj. There's nothing wrong with making money, it is an open market. I too try to make some. SMS polls for 'talent shows' have shown Indians another way to blow their money away. But I am within my rights not to contribute to this frenzy and so are you. Think of this, realistically. What benefit will the Taj Mahal and India garner with this 'new found' 'Seven Wonder' status? An influx of tourists? Taj Mahal is already the face of Indian tourism around the world and people do not need to be told an old story again. What difference would it make if the monument didn't feature on some obnoxious list? I went to see the Taj twice-over. I don't need someone else with a brilliant marketing idea to tell me that the Taj is beautiful, I know it is.
I would've liked to see the response within the country if an Indian organisation like the INTACH and not a Swiss-Canadian had initiated this?
Here are a few tidbits that you might want to savour:
* Another gem from the Swiss adventurer's blog, "the national animal, in this case the Indian elephant." Who knows our foreign-fixation might just lead a change in the national animal from the Royal Bengal Tiger (who is rarely visible) to the more present and easily accessible elephant. You can't take a ride on a Royal Bengal, that's bad for tourism.
* The New 7 Wonders project isn't just limited to a list and a promise of restoration of monuments. It is a full scale business empire in the making consisting of merchandise sales and international tour operations. And the prices, definitely not reasonable.
Very rightly the UNSECO has refused to give any credence to this gimmick and its observations show the true picture:
I had earlier posted about T-Series' potential of putting the music pirates out of business and now Moserbaer is doing the same to the video variety (the first time I heard the name, Moserbaer, I thought it was German). The news had been around for long, but I saw the ad only yesterday.
[Click on image for a detailed view]
A DVD for Rs 34! That would definitely be a cause of worry of the Pirates of Palika, who peddle their stuff for Rs 75-Rs 150. A VCD's for a mere Rs 28. My neighbourhood DVD rental charges Rs 30 for a day. Looks like he'll have to think of competitive pricing soon.
For now Moserbaer's collection is nothing to boast of, but I believe that they'll augment the stock soon.
A Moserbaer press release announcing the launch can be accessed here [PDF]
The Department of Posts is slowly reinventing itself. Though most of the 155,618 post offices (as on March 31, 2003) are yet to reflect that. Though much of the processes have been computerised, the pace of the queue remains sluggish. Post offices are usually dingy and dark places with wooden cupboards (gradually replaced by steel), files lying untidily, a bowl of gum in a corner accompanied by bits of perforated paper. A steady sound of the dot-matrix printer printing names of addressees and destinations on bar-coded stickers. And offering services much diverse than the booming private sector banks and an unbeatable network which all the courierwallahs put together cannot beat. I still have more faith on Speed Post than any of the courier services advertised on television. It's tried and tested. A private courier company charges me Rs 30 for a parcel of 50 grammes to be delivered from Delhi to Shillong. It usually reaches in four days (occasionally seven or eight), one also got lost in transit and my brother took them to the consumer court. Speed Post charges Rs 25 (a flat rate across the country) and the delivery is within 72 hours (the distance is more than 2000 kilometres).
Though the Indian Railways and the man at the helm, Lalu Prasad Yadav, might attract international B-school attention for the turnaround of the railways. As a passenger I do not see any drastic changes. The trains still run late, the berths are uncomfortable, the toilets stink, the food is bad. Only difference is in the ease of ticketing. But that had been on for quite some time now and the credit shouldn't go the incumbent minister. The revenues may rise, but I would still prefer to fly in an Air Deccan flight (even though it might have been overbooked). I reach my destination the same day, not two days later, at the same price. Given that I and many others like me prefer India Post, Dayanidhi Maran, might as well be lecturing Ivy League students.
Though India Post still has a long way to go, I was pleasantly surprised to find its ad in both The Times of India and The Indian Express (might have appeared in other papers too) and the agency name in fine print (wondering for the appropriate term) said DAVP. Not exactly known for quality in advertising, the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity got some good work done this time.
[Click on image for a detailed view]
The copy reads:
George Kundu (Kalu) Pili Kothi No. 13, Behind Church, Subhawal, Kerala
Impossible for others, but India Post delivers to every Indian.
Reaching every Indian. India Post
Largest postal network in the world.
[Ad scanned from The Indian Express, March 28, 2007]
When you can't beat them, join them and then beat them in their own game. 
