The Y-AXIS LIVE!

I ventured onto Wordpress on June 28. Too months onto this platform(and URL), I observe the following:

1. This site has started to get interesting traffic via search. In fact, on a good day it compares significantly with the Blogger blog.Yeh Dil Maange More. 
2. Looks do matter: Comments per post have increased, this could possibly not be attributed to any sudden enhancement in my content abilities.
3. ‘Setup and forget it’ does not work with WP. WP keeps releasing better versions.Compulsive delivery syndrome? Code Diarrhea ? I think I can bear it.

Some reflections on my past posts on Blogger.

1. My posts on Subroto Bagchi and  Mahesh Murthy continue to get  fairly good number of visitors everyday. But overall winner by a great margin is Dr Abdul Kalam, about him I have written five posts, including one on an imaginary conversation between Dr Kalam and (former) President Musharraf which for some reason is my favourite.
2. My moment of real blogging happiness was when Shel Israel left a comment on a post I made on his (and Rob Scoble’s) book.

Net net I remain quite delighted  with WP and the flexibility. I continue to mentally debate if I should move all content to this platform and ditch the old site completely. Any suggestions?

I am being a little audacious in making an emphatic pronouncement on something that has got an amazing hype in India in last few days. But somehow all the hype does not  generate any great confidence in likelihood of  Apple iPhone being any great success in India. Here’s why I feel so:

1. Of course, the price, it is obscene(NDTV’s Vikram Chandra felt it was only ‘slightly expensive’ though!).
2. SMS is important for Indian mobile users, unlike the US where it is possible to come across many business executives who do not  use SMS. The iPhone is not crafted for heavy SMS usage. 
3. Yes, I know iPhone is not a  phone for business executives, but then that’s another reason in favour of my argument.
4. Far superior cameras are available in phones in 15 K range.
5. We do not love buying digital music so much. If we want, it is generally available,you know what I mean. iTunes what?
6. Operator bundling militates against our nature. In a city like Chennai and most part of India, we have three to four GSM service providers. It makes us feel lot of freedom and surrendering that choice does not go with our nature, it is all in the mind.
7. iPhone versus iPhone- Bunty can buy the iPhone in Amrika, get it unlocked on the corner-shop and use it in Patiala. Hello, Bunty is already using it- Why should he pay so much more to buy from India? And he can use it with any operator.Can Apple handle this channel conflict without relooking at the price?
8. Timing wise, August is not the time Indians are in great mood to spend big monies. That happens to be Diwali and around.That’s when the best launches tend to work. 
9. Apple is otherwise pretty much unknown commodity in India. Apple? 
10. 3G? No comments.

Did not surprise me that there are no pictures of any queues outside stores last night. BTW, do you agree with the above?

I realized today that I have not been able to make a single post in the last ten days, which is sacrilegious silence in terms of blogging(If you are not offended, I am). Let’s see how the world’s changed in last ten days:

1. The Independence Day Landmark Quiz happened at Music Academy. Teamed up with two very bright students I met for the first time and nearly qualified for the finals(How can one believe otherwise?!)- Strategic Alliance is the name of the game. That’s how I’ve always won Quiz events, earlier at school and last seven years at my company!
2. Sushil Kumar got India its second medal from Beijing- made us proud (My chest is close to bursting in anticipation of a third medal via  Vijender Kumar ).
3. Apple announced pricing of its iPhone in India(~USD 760 for 8 GB).Skimming pricing is what they taught us in Economics. Demand elasticity, bullshit?  Wait, those pricing guys at Apple studied the same economics paper as me. That means penetration pricing after a duration of price skimming. That means an iPhone in India at 10k in about eight to ten months. I still won’t buy it.Imagine,  you cannot even address an SMS to multiple people, I believe you cannot even forward a message.
4. Bought Steve Jobs biography. It has an uninspiring title called iCon (Steve Wozniak’s biography was on the shelf too - it was creatively titled iWoz).Given Apple’s innovative streak, I was hoping for the book to open sideways at least. Disappointment, it just opens normally.
5. Bipasha Basu threatened Vijender Kumar with a date- ahem, why was this offer not announced before the Olympics selection trials- this could have motivated many of the athletes, and maybe got us more medals. And just by the way, does Bipasha fully understand the ramifications if the hockey boys had qualified to the Olympics and won the Gold?
6. Oops I forgot, India turned 61!
7. Dr C.K .Prahalad gave a talk on India-at-75 yesterday in Chennai and nope, I could not get my copy of his book on innovation autographed.
8. The President of Pakistan resigned. And surprise of surprises, one week after resigning, he’s neither on a plane to some distant land, nor behind bars! Somehow I was reminded of an old Salman Rushdie book with characters whose names I vaguely remeber as Gen Faltu and Gen Bekar.Was it called Shame? Did he have this scene in mind when he wrote this book?

Good Bye For Now.

As news of Abhinav Bindra getting India’s first ever individual Gold Medal spread, the following conversation was heard between two ladies, respectfully called Mamis for their tradition oriented leanings. They had a bewildered look about them:

Mami A -"Why have they given Gold medal to a this guy, da?"

Mami B - "Yeah, what will a man do with Gold? "

Mami A- "Maybe gift it to his wife"

Mami B - "Look at the size of the Gold (looking salivatingly at Abhinav Bindra’s picture, but not at him, but the Gold medal in his hands)"

Mami A- "A nice necklace can be made out of it"

Mami B -"Must be five sovereigns"

Mami A- "Really?!"

Mami B- "Then earrings can come out too"

Mami A- "Yes, but he’d have to give another five sovereigns for a good set to be made"

Mami B -"Its Olympics no, jeweler won’t cheat "

Mami A -"Would it be Chinese?"

Mami B - "No, 22 carats, I’m sure"

Mami A - "He should give this to a decent jeweler, otherwise they’d mix the Gold . My amma knows the thatha who runs that Gold shop where I bought this"

At this point a male listener, who for privacy reasons cannot be identified interrupted. He was struggling hard to control his internal agitation to join this conversation.

Male A -"What do you ladies think he’s that mad that he’d melt his Gold medal for his wife? Do know the value of that medal?"

Mami A - "Good idea, maybe he should keep it for his daughter’s wedding. His wife would be already having Gold, no?"

Mami B - "My husband also got Gold medal. From Madras University".

Note: Pun Intended. All resemblances are purely coincidental.

Abhinav Bindra’s Blog here.