Yabba 'dabba' do

Much has been written about Mumbai's dabbawalas. They've been the subject of documentaries, got invited to Prince Charles and Camilla's wedding and lecture students at bschools. Now those humble but iconic aluminium dabbas are part of a sculpture! Yup, that's a picture of an installation at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Mumbai. Pretty cool, I thought.On the other hand, I'm not sure about the long term prospects of dabbawalas. Yes, as the BBC notes, every morning 65-year-old Dhondu Chaudhary picks up a lunchbox from Arpana Rao's home in the suburbs of Mumbai. Mrs Rao relies on Mr Chaudhary to get her husband's daily lunch delivered to Mumbai's financial district where he works. That is about an hour away from her home - and looking after her new baby means she barely has time for herself, let alone find the time to deliver a tiffin, or lunchbox, to her husband's office. But, er, for how long? This model where ladies lovingly cook lunches for their toiling husbands will eventually die out, I think. But that won't be the end of 'home cooked tiffins'. Housewives and small businesses operating on a commercial basis will grow in number and use the dabba distribution method. Meeanwhile, the dabbawalas realise they must do something to 'change with the times'. So they have launched a website - mydabbawala.com, making it easier for prospective customers to contact them. Not a very well designed - or functional - site but a small step forward. You can 'apply dabba online' - which currently means you can email them your interest in their services. But why not go a step further and have a listing of those from whom you can actually order a lunch. Assuming you are a young bachelor, have a wife who can't/ won't cook for you or happen to be a wife in need of a dabba at office?That would increase 'dabba traffic' much faster. The listing could be on the basis of kind of food served - veg/ non veg, Punjabi, Gujarati, Goan etc. Day-wise menus and prices could be given as well. In fact, in the longer run, the dabbawalas could install a payment gateway and charge a small fee for every monthly order processed through their site.Lastly, I have no idea why they are selling a mug with a butterfly design on their website. Given all the amazing publicity they've got - wouldn't it make sense to sell dabbas as tourist souvenirs? Not just on the website but on Colaba Causeway. I'm sure it'd get listed by Lonely Planet and those crazy foreigners will find some novel use for 'em. Just like the imaginative mind which conjured that sculpture!

Singapore snapshot - 1

Whether on Orchard Road, at the Singapore Zoo or Jurong Bird Park - look left, look right and chances are you willl bump into an Indian tourist. It's kind of strange and ironic then, to see a taxi painted with signage of 'Incredible India' zoom past. Almost as if to tell us hey, whatcha doin' here?Trouble is, it's cheaper and easier to fly out of India on a holiday than within the country. Take Kerala - hotels are astronomically priced. Or the North east - costs the same or even more than travelling to south east Asia. And figuring out the logistics is far tougher. Of course, the "Incredible India" taxi is not aimed at us, but at Singaporeans and other visiting foreigners. "Discover Hong Kong" and "Visit Malaysia" have also taken over taxis, so chalo hum logon ne bhi aath das paint karwa li. Good to see our Tourist Promotion Board making some efforts.Now if only we could learn a thing or two from all these countries on how to improve the actual India experience. The proof of the pudding for the tourist is in the taxi he hails in India - not the one painted like a peacock in Singapore. Will there be a day when a first time visitor can expect to land at Mumbai airport and hail a clean, air conditioned cab which does not charge three times the actual fare?

Gandhigiri ka locha

Bole to, kal tera picture dekha Hirani bhai. Ekdum mast picture banayerela hai. Aur aajkal yeh TV channel aur newspaper log sab Gandhigiri par solid discuss maar rela hai. Aisa lagrela hai sab koi yeh picture dekh kar kuch badal rela hai... Sach bolne ka aur stranger log ko accha smile dene ka practice kar rela hai. Magar dekh na. Kal, Gandhi Jayanti ke din jab apun picture dekhne ko nikla to apun ka kya experience hua.Pehli baat to yeh. Gorment ne entertainment tax maaf karela hai magar theatre waale? Un log ne rate wahich ka wahich rakha hai. Bole to.. yeh to cheating hua na bhai?Upar se 'house full' ka board lagrela hai. Magar tension nahi lene ka.. black mein ticket aaraam se mil rela hai. Lekin phir kya hua na aaj New Bombay ka koi VIP ministerlog dopahar ka show dekhne ko gaya. Bole toh hall ka exit waise to pichu ka taraf rakhela hai.Magar Ganesh Naik saab ko kya hai na, aage ka darwaza se nikalne ko mangta hai. To khaali peeli public ko aadha ghanta udhar latka ke rakh diya... Ab tum hi bolo Bhai, kis kis to phool bhijwane ka? Aur kis kis ke ghar ke aagey satyagraha karne ka? Kaise Gandhigiri ka theory ko practical mein badalne ka... Itne bade country ka itna saara locha kaise saltaane ka?Waise picture ekdum mast banayereli hai... mast banayereli hai.

Zindaggi Rocks

Noble intentions don't necessarily translate into engrossing entertainers. Sometimes, a thought-provoking idea doesn't reach the winning post due to the writer's inefficiency to narrate a poignant tale. That's the problem with ZINDAGGI ROCKS.

The concept of a mother sacrificing her life for her child can be identified by every parent across the globe. It's a universal theme. But Tanuja Chandra, the director, gets minimal support from Tanuja Chandra, the writer, in narrating a moving story.

Yes, the penultimate reels of ZINDAGGI ROCKS do try to salvage the show, but the journey from start to end is not captivating enough. The cons outweigh and outnumber the pros in this case!

ZINDAGGI ROCKS revolves around Dr. Suraj [Shiney Ahuja], the shy, cynical workaholic doctor and Kria [Sushmita Sen], a pop singer.

Suraj meets Kria in the hospital. She's got a gash on her arm, which needs to be looked into immediately. Kria senses that something is amiss in Suraj's life and decides to take him on a date. Suraj agrees reluctantly!

Write your own movie review of Zindaggi Rocks
Suraj is introduced to Kria's mad family: A stern mother and a fun-loving aunt [Moushumi Chatterjee in a dual role], cousin Joy [Kim Sharma] and Kria's adopted son Dhruv [Julian]. Kria and Suraj are drawn to each other. But there's a twist in the tale: Dhruv has a hole in his heart and needs a heart transplant.

The problem with ZINDAGGI ROCKS clearly lies in its screenplay. Although the film starts off well -- the two extremes [Sush, Shiney] getting attracted to each other -- the sequence of events thereafter don't have the power to sustain interest. Basic things like names of the characters confuse the viewer no end. Shiney is sometimes referred to as Suraj and at times, Rihan. Even the child is at places called Dhruv and in some scenes, Romi.

Okay, it's a trivial issue. But the moment the child faints during the intermission point, the viewer is told that he is a blue baby [with a hole in the heart]. The next few sequences clearly give an impression of what's cooking in Sush's mind. It doesn't take time to guess that the mother [Sush] is going to sacrifice her life to save her adopted son. But while the viewer can fathom what's happening, Shiney doesn't. Either he can't read her mind or he doesn't want to!

Also, the entire track of Shiney approaching a senior citizen [one Firoz Panthaki] for a heart transplant, who in turns informs the cops of Shiney's constant phone calls, looks slipshod. This unwanted track only adds to the length of the film. Even the track involving Kim Sharma and her boyfriend appears half-baked. The last few minutes are the best part of the enterprise, but it's too late to salvage the enterprise by then.

Emotions play a strong role in a film that talks of the mother-son bonding, but the emotions in ZINDAGGI ROCKS are superficial and at times, fake. Especially the bonding between the child and Sushmita's family. You don't feel the pain primarily because the writing lacks moments that would make you moist-eyed.

Tanuja Chandra's execution isn't faulty, but her screenplay is. Anu Malik's music is passable, with a couple of lilting tracks ['Meri Dhoop Hai Tu' and 'Humko Chhoone Paas Aayiye']. Amirr Sayed's cinematography is first-rate. Also, the film bears an upmarket look all through.

Sush tries hard to infuse life in her character. She is effective at places, but tends to get theatrical at times. Shiney does a decent job, although the screenplay gives him little scope to go beyond a set of expressions. Moushumi Chatterjee is okay as the mother, but hams as the twin-sister. The get-up also doesn't suit her age. Kim Sharma is wasted. The child artist, Julian, is wonderful. Seema Biswas, as the cop, is alright. Ravi Gosain gets no scope.

On the whole, ZINDAGGI ROCKS just doesn't rock. At the box-office, it's bound to go unnoticed.

Mobile Gaming II

My affair with mobile gaming ended when I broke up with 'Snake' while shifting handsets. Truth be told, Snake broke up with me coz it wasn't preloaded on my Nokia 6670.

But after receiving N number of 'service messages' from Hutch exhorting me to download this that or the other wallpaper, ringtone or game, I finally succumbed.

I downloaded the 'Don' game, as per instructions. And guess what? Two files did appear on my phone. Don.jar and Don.jad. But the game refused to install.

So I asked the tech savvy dude and dudette in my office to try and make it happen. After all 20 bucks had been added to my bill... And we were to review the game before the film released, for JAM magazine. No luck.

I don't know if my experience was a common one. Or not. Certainly I have no energy to chase up the 20 lost rupees. For a game I suspect may not be all that hot anyways...

Next-generation mobile gaming
A young lady who owns the amazing Nokia N70 recently gave me a crash course in mobile gaming.

"See, this is an Indian game" and she turned up her nose. " Really sad..." The game was "Rei's love adventure" by Mauj. Here's how the intro of the game goes : (reproduced exactly)

"Rei the lovely flower girl want this year Valentine Days to be special. She want to give something special as Valentine gift to her boyfriend. She heard there are a lot of special item hidden in the maze garden but people said you cannot stay too long in the garden or you will get lost foreverin there. Please help Rei find all the items in the maze garden so her Valentine's Day will be the most special day she ever had."

As if that were not lame enough the game itself is a snake adaptation where a Hello-Kitty kind of girl-character goes around collecting hearts. And there is no challenge in terms of higher levels, speed, or difficulty either.

I can see even my 7 year old daughter getting bored of this in a jiffy.

"Now here are the really cool games..." and on screen appeared 'Da Vinci Code'. This game follows the plot and characters of the movie - you have to unlock the secrets hidden in the game. But there are some which are not in the book/ film so there is an element of surprise.

The game is mainly strategy/ role play but in level 2 there is a chase so that's where the action part is also brought in. Graphics are decent - in fact the game feels closer to a PC game. At least the kind of PC games you had not too long ago!

Other games recommended to me:

Pirates of the Carribean (it's not based on the movie plot though). And of course the PC classics adapted for the mobile such as Need for Speed, Carmageddon ( it has a multiplayer option via bluetooth), Doom, and Prince of Persia.

And oh, an additional tip. Playing games on phones with joystick controls is hard unless you have long nails. "In the N series, the power button is very close to the joustick. If you press it accidentally, power gaya, game gaya... You have start all over again."

So where do you get these games? You have to know the right people and join a closed user group or 'forum' dedicated to swapping and sharing. I'm sure there are sites on the net from where you can download them as well.

"These games are not officially available in India " says the N70 girl. "So I guess it's OK to get them this way. " It's a moot point whether folks would pay if it were officially available.

The 'potential'
All I know is, mobile gaming may be 'set to explode' in India according to industry analysts. I've written about the figures being thrown about in a previous post.

Given the number of mobile handsets and demand for entertainment/ timepass, there is a lot of potential. But I don't see the potential being achieved unless Indian companies:

a) Produce compelling international quality content. With the Bollywood footprint spreading across the world, I see no reason why a game based on a desi movie should not rival Da Vinci code in terms of graphics and challenge.

Quick and dirty won't work as more and more people upgrade to better quality phones in the next 2-3 years. Pirated versions of foreign games will trickle down from the cool and the 'know where to get it' types, to almost everyone.

b) The other model could be to sell basic, but very cheap and disposable content (games for 2 bucks each - you can play them just a couple of times and feel paisa vasool ho gaya).

Even here it's not just price but the fact that downloading, installing and playing consumes time and energy. I don't want 'faltu' stuff. Right now most developers are talking about the number of games they have made...Not that they actually sell any one in large quantities!

Most games get a mere 7-10,000 downloads in India. I know they also earn small amounts by licensing in to a large number of non-Indian operators and thus it works as a business.

The single largest selling title that I am aware of (excluding free R world downloads) is Sholay. It had 150,000 downloads by March 2006, according to a report published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

To my mind, it would be wiser to have fewer game titles but better quality. Perhaps I am mistaken and 'quality' does exist - but frankly, I as the end user simply do not have the information about it.

The gaming companies can themselves identify and promote select titles which have wide appeal. Additionally, they should send out mobile games to be previewed and/ or reviewed by the media - the way audio companies send CDs or movie companies invite journalists to press shows. Given that youth is the target audience, even bloggers could be enlisted.

The point being if the game is good, the ensuing positive recommendations will drive downloads. And if it's bad, well, those are the games which could be sold cheaply. And feedback would be valuable when developing games in the future.

And now, over to their websites...
Certainly, both developers and operators could provide a lot more on their websites. If you don't showcase your wares attractively how do you expect people to buy them?

The Hutch site is really bland - no indication of what the graphics might look like. Just a single screenshot and text description.

The Mauj site is a little better, but not enough. Take this game I randomly picked, based on KANK . There is no mention of how much it might cost me - Rs 20, 50, or 99? And would it really hurt if you let me see a simulation of the gameplay online, so I can decide if I like it enough to pay??

As for this site - it has not been updated in a while. Main hoon na wallpapers are a little out of demand right now. Also, you can't download anything ... Or did I miss something ?

Similarly, Mobile2win showcases
250 + games but it's not clear how I can download them. As the R world logo is prominently displayed, perhaps they supply content in India exclusively to Reliance and use the site to display their wares to operators abroad who may wish to license it for other countries.