Sorry for the bad grammar. But thats it. I can’t take it anymore. No more Times of India. I’m not paying a hundred bucks a month to look at a main paper that is filled with nothing but redundant, syndicated stories from the AP or Reuters and full-page, government adverts about what a great job it is doing and a supplement (Delhi Times) that is filled with bad pictures of wannabes and has-beens, only there for the free booze, at parties that are so lame that they have to pay for coverage. I mean seriously who are all these fuckers? Are we shipping them in from somewhere in trucks or something?

And the government adverts in the main paper? Sonia Gandhi, Shiela Dixit or some other cowherd-looking ‘government servant’ grinning at me idiotically from every second page and our ‘Health Minister’ Ramadoss-something-or-the-other’s mug on every third page. It makes my blood boil.

As a Delhiite, I harbour a particularly deep seated and vicious loathing for Dixit (Is she still Delhi’s CM?) Every time I’m stuck on the stretch of road with the fucking BRT corridor on it I curse her and the IIT dudes responsible for this mess in language that would make a sailor blush. I do it loudly, with the windows down. People nod and cheer.

And Ramadoss. Jesus, what is this dude’s fucking problem anyways? Why is he so desperate to get his mug in the papers and on television everyday? Will someone just give him a two bit role in a South Indian film and let him get it outta his system? First he fucks with AIIMS, then he wants to outlaw smoking, now he wants to outlaw alcohol. Let me just say this to him.

THE COMMON PEOPLE NEED THEIR VICES MR. HEALTH MINISTER. IT’S THE ONLY THING KEEPING US FROM RUNNING WILD IN THE STREETS AND LYNCHING GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS.

That goes double for Dixit and the Gandhis. And you politicians know where you can stick those adverts too.

So anyways, no more Times of India. It pisses me off too much nowadays (as you can see). Between The Indian Express and The Hindustan Times I think I’m killing enough trees as it is. The news is filled with stories of how print newspapers are dying. I say it can’t happen fast enough.

Random, Rants AP, BRT, BRT corridor, Delhi, Delhi CM, douchebag, gandhi, Hindustan Times, Indian Health Minister, Ramadoss, Ramadoss vs. AIIMS, Reuters, Shiela Dixit, Sonia Gandhi, The Indian Express, The Times Of India

So, thanks to the drivel you read here, I got offered a sort of gig to write a few pieces for the Hindustan Times’ Mumbai Supplement called ‘HT Café’ and I took them up on the offer. The first piece came out today and I’d have linked to it but HT’s online version (or epaper) requires a (free) user account to view. I know most people can’t be bothered to go through the hassle of setting this up (I wouldn’t) so I’m posting the article right here, after the jump. To the powers at HT please get with the program and remove the login requirements for your epaper. Even The Times of India dropped their login for the epaper sometime last year. Imagine that!  Welcome to the year Two Thousand and Nine.

The piece I wrote was about Gmail Offline, a new Google labs feature available in your Gmail account. The article is refreshingly free of cuss words and snarky euphemisms (mostly) for those who’s fragile sensibilities are offended by such stuff. If HT’s readers like the piece (and more importantly, if HT ‘shows me the money!’ I’ll probably do this occasionally) Read on..

Read more…

Random, Tech apple, Gmail Offline, Google, Google Chrome, Google Gears, Hindustan Times, Mac OS X, Microsoft, Safari, Steve Ballmer, The Times Of India

In today’s Times of India. This dude in particular and the Gandhi clan in general really need to get their head out of their collective behind. Telling design students to get into politics?

I’m surprised the students didn’t laugh his ass outta there.

Random, Rants douchebag, gandhi, National Institute of Design, NID, Rahul Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi at NID, Rahul Gandhi visits NID, The Times Of India

Films Danny Boyle, Golden Globes, mumbai, Oscars, Slumdog Millionaire, Tare Zameen Par, The Times Of India, ToI

On the front page of ‘The Times Of India’ today were many articles about India’s ongoing war of words with Pakistan about the terror attacks in Mumbai but one little sub-article made me laugh until coffee came outta my nose. 

Here’s the text:

Indian dossier credible: Mulford

    A day after authorities in Pakistan rubbished India’s dossier linking Pakistani nationals with the Mumbai attacks, US ambassador to India David C Mulford said the evidence provided to Islamabad by New Delhi was ‘‘credible’’. Mulford told TOI on Wednesday that the dossier had been prepared with help from the FBI. “The US is not in the business of compiling evidence that is not credible,” he said when asked about Pakistan dismissing it.

The US isn’t in the business of compiling evidence that is not credible? Are you fucking kidding me? Does anyone remember the ongoing War in Iraq? Does anyone remember that they never found any WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction,nukes) in the country? None. Not a single one. Zilch. Zip. Nada. (Proof of nukes was the US’s reason for invading Iraq.)  

And the US now admits it fucked up. I still remember watching the press conference a few years back where then CIA chief George Tenet said that the US had ‘SLAM DUNK EVIDENCE’ that Iraq had WMDs.

SLAM. DUNK. EVIDENCE. Repeat those three words aloud to yourself. This is the Chief of the most important, most powerful intelligence agency of the most powerful country in the world. An agency that has shaped world events either openly or behind the scenes like no other. Read more…

Books, Rants At the Center of the Storm, Bombay, bombay blasts, David Mulford, Dick Cheney, douchebag, George Tenet, i love america, i love you america, iraq nukes, Iraq War, Legacy of Ashes, mumbai, mumbai terror attacks, Nukes, SLAM DUNK EVIDENCE, The History of the CIA, The Times Of India, Tim Weiner, US ambassador to India, WMDs

A quick post about the roller-coaster of fuel prices and the rate of crude oil. My ‘favourite’ paper, ‘The Times Of India’ (and I’m sure pretty much every other media outlet in this country) is now running articles about the Indian government cutting fuel prices at the pump to make them reflect international crude prices more accurately and is quoting Goldman Sachs as saying that crude prices will stay at around 50 US $  a barrel.

Last year, while fuel prices were rocketing skywards and crude was near 180 US $ a barrel, every media outlet was quoting international investment banking and securities company Goldman Sachs’ repeated statements that crude would hit 150 US $, then later 180 US $ and at the height of the madness, 200 US $.

Admittedly, my grasp of the futures markets is extremely weak, to say the least but it seems that Goldman Sachs was actually shorting crude prices i.e. betting that crude prices would go down and they made some huge profits on this speculation. Are any of the journalists at any these media organisations even doing a little bit of digging? A little bit of checking to see if there may be, any conflict of interest? Hell no! 

Does anyone even give a fuck about the fact the price of such an essential commodity is fluctuating so wildly? One that influences the prices of the food we eat, the gas we use to cook that food and almost every other commodity we use and that these changes in price are not based on demand and supply but on the basis of international banking and investment firms making a profit on speculation and using the fourth estate as their shills?

The media on one hand quotes the predictions of ‘experts’ from the very same companies reaming us with price manipulations like Chase, Goldman Sux and JP Morgan to mislead us and then to distract people from the stuff that matters it feeds us with images of Amy Winehouse’s visits to rehab and the fact that Obama (who’s election everyone is treating like Jesus’ second coming) may appoint an Indian as the Surgeon General.

Geez.

Rants Barack Obama, douchebag, fourth estate, fuel price cut, Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sux, India fuel prices, JP Morgan, The Times Of India