I was under the impression that senseless suing (or the threat to) is an essentially American pastime. But like other things American we Indians are also acquiring this trait. A certain management institute and it's bespectacled ponytailed boss got furious about the good words (for the clueless B-school aspirants) which a well meaning blogger Gaurav Sabnis had put up on his blog. He had linked to a story carried by JAM where the Mumbai based mag attempted to bring out the truth about IIPM's tall claims (I always found their advertisements amusing).
Eye Eye Pee Yum went on a damage control spree and their legal cell sent Gaurav a letter claiming Rs. 125 crores in damages. The letter makes for a hilarious read.
The good thing about this amusing affair is that some naive B-school aspirants might see some light and be more cautious before falling into a trap of tall claims and that the Indian blog community have got together on an issue, something which mainstream media will be reluctant to take up owing to potential loss of ad revenue. But the bad news is that Gaurav Sabnis has resigned from the organisation he was working with. A price which people often have to pay for standing up to their principles.
Thanks to K's blog for inciting me to make a departure from my usual mindless musings and write about something I occasionally should.
And I join Vijay Krishna and other like minded bloggers in thanking Mr. Chaudhuri for helping us realise the great Indian dream - bringing the Indian blogging community together.
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The earth quivers and hell descends on earth. We may blame the forces of nature for the devastation. But it is human nature, as I mentioned in my last post, which is really responsible.
My neighbours across the lane are adding two stories to their home. The construction began hardly 10-12 days ago and it's more than half complete. I was surprised to discover that there were no pillars, only brick upon brick and no supporting columns. My colleagues tell me that many houses in Delhi are constructed this way; it saves time and more importantly money. What about safety? Eternal optimists, I presume.
The British having learnt their lesson from the 1897 Shillong earthquake took extra caution in constructing buildings in the seismic active far eastern India. The Assam-type houses, a common feature in both the hills and the plains of the region are not only easy on the bank balances but quake proof of a very high order. But then the common man discovered RCC. Common sense gave way to rigidity; the sense of aesthetics also got a little wayward. No new Assam-types are being constructed and the existing progressively demolished. Land prices have become directly proportional to the altitude of the buildings.
When the earth trembles, I don't worry about my parents, I know that they'll be safe in an Assam-type cottage on the hills. About me, I don't feel very secure within the confines of modern architecture.
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Early Saturday morning, the shift just started and we were planning for the weekend. Suddenly someone exclaimed, "EARTHQUAKE!" I couldn't feel any vibrations, but then it was there, our 17th floor office began to sway like a cradle in the wind.
The panicky ones rushed for the lift, but thankfully the liftman was a sane and calm man, he asked everyone to take the stairs and maintain calm. But chaos reigned. The quake might have been a mild one and wouldn't have caused any damage. But human nature would have definitely resulted in a few casualties. The afternoon news bulletins would have the details.
I walked down till the 12th Floor and felt that the vibrations had receded. Now as I'm typing this post with trembling fingers, my colleagues, a little shaky and jittery are returning to their workstations. Everyone has the devastating Gujarat earthquake of January 26, 2001 in mind.
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Exclusive, I type the word and press Ctrl+Alt+W on my keyboard. WordWeb (a very handy software) presents me these meanings for the word:
Noun:
1. A news report that is reported first by one news organization
Adjective:
1. Not divided or shared with others
2. Excluding much or all; especially all but a particular group or minority
3. Not divided among or brought to bear on more than one object or objective
And the not so handy
Pocket Oxford Dictionary has this to say:
exclusive —adj. 1 excluding other things. 2 (predic.; foll. by of) not including; except for. 3 tending to exclude others, esp. socially. 4 high-class. 5 not obtainable elsewhere or not published elsewhere. —n. article etc. published by only one newspaper etc.
exclusively adv. exclusiveness n. exclusivity n. [medieval Latin: related to *exclude]
I wasted my not-so-precious time browsing through a few more lexicons, but they all conveyed similar meanings and nothing was close what I was looking for - the meaning of the word 'EXCLUSIVE' as our television news channels understand it. Almost every day I come across a story (piece of fiction that narrates a chain of related events) in one of the umpteen news channels which proudly display the word 'exclusive' on one of the corners of the screen. Only to switch to the next channel running the same story 'exclusively.' Sometimes there are three or even four providing 'exclusive' coverage.
"What's so exclusive in them?" I wonder aloud. My flatmate who has many such 'exclusives' behind him puts my queries to rest, "You don't get it yaar! It's the camera angle which is exclusive. Other channels are airing only the front view, this channel is exclusively bringing you the profile."
I get the meaning and press the power button on the remote.
And remember you read about this EXCLUSIVELY on this blog.
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The guiding force of the universe has a great sense humor. It loves to have some fun at our expense. You wait in a long queue and when your turn comes the counter is closed for lunch. It usually rains on the days you forget to carry the umbrella. There seems to be some uncodified principles governing the frustrated lives of us mortals. Man in his endeavour to know the why and how of everything has attempted to decipher those operating principles.
Excerpts from Arthur Bloch's Murphy's Law - and Other Reasons Why Things Go Wrong:
The Unspeakable Law
As soon as you mention something,
If it's good, it goes away.
If it's bad, it happens.
Nonreciprocal Law of Expectations
Negative Expectations yield negative results.
Positive expectations yield negative results.
Howe's Law
Every man has a scheme that will not work
Zymurgy's First Law of Evolving Systems Dynamics
Once you open a can of worms, the only way to recan them is to use a larger can.
Etoree's Observation
The other line moves faster.
Law of Selective Gravity
An object will fall so as to do the most damage.
Segal's Law
A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.
and of course...
Murphy's Law
If anything can go wrong, it will.
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