June 2009 - Posts - A Daily Download

June 2009 - Posts

Michael Jackson

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
Michael Jackson is dead . When I was in school in 1980s-Chennai, Michael Jackson was the man and Billie Jean was the song. My neignbour, several years older, was supposedly studying engineering at Manipal and he had introduced me to such engineering school staples as Jethro Tull and Deep Purple (and also such oddities such as Tina Charles and Giorgio...

More>>

Nandan Nilekani

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
News that Nandan Nilekani has been appointed chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India doesn't come as a surprise to me because: 1. It was scooped by Indian Express . 2. It has been evident to anyone following Nandan's progress over the past decade that he would end up in public office, sooner than later. It also seems apt...

More>>

Dif-tor heh smusma

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
It is evident that Mint is full of Star Trek junkies . Which probably is a good giveaway of the average age of the organisation. For most of us who grew up in India, our first brush with Star Trek was in the 1980s, when Doordarshan, the state-owned broadcaster aired the original series. I still remember episodes from that series -- such as Mudd's...

More>>

Are you finding nothing to buy in bookstores?

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
I am, and that feeling of emptiness surely has to be a booklover's purgatory. Since I know the person who used to run India's biggest distribution chain and because I have met with the approval of the man who runs the excellent small bookstore in my neighbourhood -- he only communicates with people whose taste in books he approves of -- I asked...

More>>

The recession must be over because....

Posted by Sukumar Ranganathan at 
... people are eating more chicken. Or chicken nuggets, to be exact. So claims an email from McDonald's India 's external communication agency that found its way into my inbox this morning. The purpose of the mail was to pitch for a story on what the sender of the email termed a "great product." The product in question is Chicken McNuggets...

More>>