Rama Bijapurkar's fascination with Nirma

There is an author by the name of Rama Bijapurkar, who wrote a book by the name of : We are like that only - understanding the logic of consumer India. I read it recently and dug up more about her on the internet. One thing that really surprises me is her very very positive projection of the Nirma washing detergent.

It was a quantum jump in wash quality and convenience compared to the laundry soap that most low income consumers were using, because detergent powders were so unaffordable. Because of the low price, and the large number of poor Indians unhappily watching their clothes yellow with laundry soap, he sold enormous volumes and, despite the low margin per unit, made good money in absolute terms - even by the stringent standards of profitability of any MNC. (Source)

But she also knows that 65% Soda Ash in the detergent can ruin the hands using them for life. So here is the justification she offers : 

Even if  the detergent had 65% Soda Ash, was harsh on hands - the consumers' answer was that they used a stick to stir the bucket of detergent so that their hands were protected.

Now, I don't understand one thing. No matter how you stir the bucket of detergent, to wash the clothes you have to put your hands in detergent. So how did the consumers avoided that? The answer is they couldn't. And countless hands have been ruined by using Nirma detergent - for life.

I hope book writers like Rama Bijapurkar apply their common sense to their writing rather than simply trying to please the corporate bigwigs.

Jhoom - Ali Zafar

The album Jhoom by Ali Zafar is as good as it gets....

Purchasing condoms in India - Online is the way

Republishing a useful article from here. The author works for http://condomone.com .

I have spent 29 years of my life in India, so I do know a little bit about how difficult it is to go to a medical shop and ask for condoms.

Here are few possible scenarios :

1. The shop owner doesn't keep condoms, so he will refuse you and laugh on your back or pass some lewd comment as you turn around to leave.
2. If you happen to know the shop owner, you will not even go to the shop in the first place.
3. If there are other customers already at the shop, you will wait for them to leave so that you can ask for condoms.
4. You will buy some condom, any condom in a hurry and leave the shop as soon as possible.
5. You won't even check the expiry date. Or worse, you don't even know there is such a thing called expiry date for condoms.
6. If you ask the shop keeper too many questions about brands/varieties, he may get angry and ask you to leave.
7. If you are a female, you won't even think about buying a condom yourself.
8. If you want to buy condoms from a shopping mall, even there you will wait as long as possible so that the condom shelf does not have anyone standing nearby. And again, you will pick some condoms in a hurry and leave as soon as possible.

If these are the problems faced even by the highly educated people, then what would be the fate of others?

India seriously needs condom reforms and easier ways to purchase contraceptives need to be there.

Condoms are the only contraceptives without any side effects, apart from the fact that they also help in protecting one from STDs.

Apart from condoms, there are products called lubricants, which serve two purposes :

1. Enhance the pleasure during intercourse
2. Reduce the friction during intercourse, so that the chances of the condom damage are minimal.

Very few medical shops keep lubricants with them.  And again, buying them has the problems same as buying condoms.

So, what's the solution?

Buy condoms online.
At an online condom store, you can compare condoms/lubricants across different brands and categories and receive them at your doorstep.

But all online condom stores are not the same. There are few things which you should ensure before buying online.

1. The shipment/parcel should not mention the word condom or any word which gives away privacy.
2. Your bank/card statement should not mention the word condom or any word which gives away your privacy.

About the author :
Author works for http://condomone.com.

Past present & future

I am constantly trying to forget the past and take my attention away from the future. Paradoxical it may sound but it works as I wrote these lines using this formula.

Shaitan and RGV

Watched Shaitan few days back. It's a bold and adult movie. Belongs to that new genre in Bollywood. Somehow my mind tracks every such movie back to Ramu, the RGV. He may fade out but will remain alive through the inspiration he gave to many filmmakers.

Love will follow - Book Review

I just finished this book named Love will follow - Why the Indian Marriage is Burning.
Written by a psychologist Shaifali Sandhya, who has come across many cases pertaining to failing/failed Indian marriages, it contains many case studies.

I concur with the principal conclusion of the book that the institution of marriage in
India is in a state of deep shock due to the extremely rapid changes in past 20 years
or so. Women have become much more educated, they earn well, their parents bring
them up very well. But the life after marriage hasn't change that rapidly. And in most
of the cases women(wives) are at the receiving end of the bargain.

Still, the book could have included few case studies where women are not at the receiving
end. That would have made it a more balanced writing.

Despite the lack of balance it's an eye opener for those willing to take a plunge into marriage
as it informs them about the problems they might end up facing. For those who have
tied the knot, it may help them mend some cracks.

When I bought it from Flipkart, the discount was around 25%, now it's 50%.
Either it's selling a lot or Flipkart is simply trying to clear the stock :-)

Checking your IT Return Receipt status for e-filing

Here is the link.

Or go to https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/
and click on ITR-V Receipt Status on the left.

Bangalore tenants association

Bangalore needs a tenant association where tenants can unite
and fight the corrupt landlords.

If there is any such org already, do let me know by commenting on this post.

Stanley Ka Dabba

Watched this movie recently.
I feel as if something was missing.
Even though the kids in the movie acted superbly, it lacked contrast.
Kids need to be contrasted with adults. I hope Amol Gupte will
forgive me for comparing it with TZP, but that's where TZP scored - in contrasting kids
with adults.

Treadmill - Hindi Play

हम कहीं पहुँच नहीं पाते फिर भी चलते क्यों हैं?
क्योंकि चलना जरूरी है.

सर ये बात तो ऊपर से निकल गयी.
कोई बात नहीं, जाने दो. फिर कभी अगर जिंदगी में मिले तो पकड़ लेना और पूछना कि भाई उस दिन तो
ऊपर से निकल गए, आज पकड़ में आये हो.

These are some of the dialogues from the play Treadmill (which I watched yesterday at Rang Shankara).
It was a nice play overall, with a dry humping scene which makes it a very adultish play.
Director of this play Abhishek Majumdar has also acted in A small,small world.

Background music was soothing and haunting at the same time and if it was created
originally for this play, it's indeed a great accomplishment.

Writer : Sandeep Shikhar
Language : Hindi
Cast : Pratyush Singh, Virginia Rodrigues, Sandeep Shikhar and Ashwini Kumar Chakres

Sandeep Shikhar in a scene from Treadmill

Pratyush Singh

Ticket price : Rs. 100/-

Movies released in India on a particular date/date-range

http://www.imdb.com/search/title?countries=in&release_date=2011-05-27,2011-05-27
will show you movies released on 27th May, 2011.

Edit: I don't think this method works.

Hindus voted as a bloc in Assam & Kerala?

I just came across this headline :

Hindus voting strategically? An analysis of the Hindu vote in Kerala and Assam

This is one of the most unanticipated headlines I could have ever expected.
These kind of headlines in Indian media are reserved usually for minorities.
Can this be an indication that Hindus in these states have become/about to become minorities?

Empires of the Indus

Finished this book recently.

Alice Albania

Author Alice Albania is a gutsy woman who at the age of 29 travels
the full course of the Indus river upstream. During the journey, she
traveled legally and illegally to Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, China
and Tibet.

Empires of the Indus - Book Cover

The book is a unique kind of travelogue though. As she traverses the
river upstream, she also travels its history backwards in time. During the
journey she covers the Indo Pak partition, River saints of Sindh,
Mercantile histories on the Silk route, Spread of Buddhism, Sikhism,
Alexander, Mahmud of Ghazni and much more.



Indus does indeed has a history richer than any other river, at least in
the Indian subcontinent, if not the entire world. On its banks, many
religions flourished and disappeared. Many kings tried their luck.
One of the oldest civilizations came up on its shores. 

This book is as much about Indus, as it is about some of the lost
chapters in Indian history. I mean Sindh. Not much has been written
about Sindh in Indian history books, despite its rich history.
It's only in the foreign books like Empires of the Indus and
The Global World Of Indian Merchants, 1750 1947: Traders Of Sind From Bukhara To Panama
that some of the damage is being repaired.

Reading this book also reminded me of a post I had made earlier.

Here is an interview of the Alice Albania.
This book also won Dolman Travel book of the year award, 2009.

Bikhre Bimb Play

Another weekend, another play at Rang Shankara.
This time it was Bikhre Bimb.

A solo performance by Arundhati Nag, directed and written
by Girish Karnad.

I read that it's a very popular play and has staged more
than 100 shows. Even yesterday it was houseful.
But personally I didn't enjoy it much.

The story is of a writer Manjula Nayak who used to write
in Kannada but suddenly publishes a Best Seller in English.
After a TV interview she is confronted by her own reflection
and slowly many hidden secrets, truths and lies of her personal life are
revealed.

The play uses a pre recorded clipping of the protagonist which is used
as her reflection. So it required an immaculate timing from Arundhati
to pull it off, which she did. This was a pretty novel idea.

IPL Last 4

Some stats :
The 4 teams reaching last 4 this IPL exhibit an interesting pattern.
The number of times they have reached the last 4 of IPL is
an arithmetic progression.


1. Chennai Super Kings (4 times)
2. Royal Challangers Bangalore (3 times)
3. Mumbai Indians ( 2 times)
4. Kolkata Knight Riders ( 1 times)

Basically, CSK have reached the last 4 in IPL 4 times
and KKR only once.

Yaar Bana Buddy - Play Review

Watched a Hindi play after long, thanks to Rang Shankara and Ekjut Theater group.
Though this play boasted of a big name from Bollywood - Yashpal Sharma, tickets
were priced at Rs. 150/- . Strange, since Rs. 200/- has been a regular price nowadays @
Rang Shankara.

Ekjut group is founded by Nadira Zaheer Babbar, wife of Raj Babbar. To support
her,  daughter Juhi Babbar Soni and son-in-law Anup Soni were also present.

Anup Soni, posing with Adeeti

Talking about the play, it was a rather long one - 2 hrs 15 mins. Before the interval
there was a lot of buffoonery, with some good comic scenes though, which made me skeptical
that the buffoonery might spill over to the second half as well.

Yashpal Sharpa & Sajjad Khan in Yaar Bana Buddy

But it was not the case. Second half had some serious moments and overall it turned
out to be better than most of the English plays I have watched of late.

Among the actors, Yashpal Sharma takes the cake for his superlative performance
in every scene, be it comic or tragic. Sajjad, at times, seemed to be simply shouting.

Timing of some old Hindi film songs(used as dialogues by Mithilesh) was excellent.
Also, a dialogue by Kartik seemed to have come straight out of Andaz Apna Apna.
(Main wo nahin hoon jo main hoon....)

Talking of the story - Kartik and Mithilesh are trying hard to snatch their friend Jaydeep
out of the pseudo life he has created for himself. His obsession with art collection reaches
absurd proportions when he purchases an art object (Pitcher of life) for Rs. 1 crore, which
according to Mithilesh is "shit". It shakes Mithilesh and together with Kartik, he sets up
a meeting with Jaydeep. In the meeting, many bitter truths are revealed and their friendship
is finally resuscitated.

Cast : Yashpal Sharma(Mithilesh Khurana), Sajjad Khan(Jaydeep Wankhede), Chinmay Das(Kartik Kothari)
Direction : Nadira Babbar

Melancholic times in cricket

Adam Gilchrist's KXIP crashes out after Shikhar Dhawan decided
to peak at the wrong time :-). Ironically, it was Deccan Chargers,
the team he led to 2 consecutive IPL semis and one IPL crown, who
defeated him. It was very disheartening. I really wanted KXIP to
make the play offs after the remarkable resurgence they staged
with Paul Valthaty's audacious brilliance and Gilchrist's
inspirational captaincy.

This comes after Shane Warne's last game in IPL. So effectively,
in a matter of few days, IPL suffered 2 major setbacks. Warne and
Gilchrist, for me, were two of the most important ambassadors of
cricket and especially IPL. I hope Gilchrist doesn't follow Warne
and keeps playing. Else, IPL will lose its sheen for me and countless
others.

Love you Warnie !

A good piece on Microsoft Skype deal

How Skype changed the world; how it'll change Microsoft.

It's this ability to embed Skype into another system that can give you some clue of what Microsoft might do with it.  

An obvious step is to integrate Skype into its Windows Phone software. This is not the same thing as downloading a Skype app into your phone, as you can do today. 

It's about blending it smoothly into the phone, letting you make calls from your phonebook or dialer, routing those calls automatically through Skype.

Getting passport size photo print online in India

Though there are many sites in India where one can
order photo prints, but very few when it comes to
ordering passport sized photographs.

Asking friends, I could gather some information though.

1. http://www.gkvale.com/ is one option.
2. http://www.epassportphoto.com/ seems to be another option.

On http://www.epassportphoto.com/ you can also create a 6"x4" sheet
containing your passport photos which you can then order as usual
on itasveer.com or zoomin.com .

Note : The photo sheet generated on epassportphoto.com had 7 passport photos
on it and one empty slot, which I filled using MS Paint.

Publishing a newspaper ad - Online

It's amazing to see what all can be done online these days.
There are websites releasemyad.com  and myadcorner.com where you can order
ads to be published in almost every major newspaper in India.