Desicritics Author: Aaman Lamba

WorkExp.Com Goes Offline - The Whisper Board for Bad News

Aaman Lamba — Sat, 7 Mar 2009 00:17:55 EST

People have an innate need to share information about things that are important to them in their every day lives. There is also an insatiable curiosity about one's jobs, friends, and family. This explains, in part, why the most heavily trafficked stories online are often the kind that deal with sensational topics. While Dr. Vijay Mallya might be the flavor du jour, a more persistent trend these days is the state of the economy, and more specifically, jobs. Job losses are rising globally, engendering a rising sense of uncertainty.

The need to know, in part, if one's job was relatively safe, is typically fulfilled by asking around. As the saying goes, "If your neighbor loses his job, it's a recession. If you lose your job, it's a depression." The Internet helps drive the dissemination of the state of affairs, and one website, WorkExp, found itself dealing with a surge in traffic from nervous Indians. The site was originally set up with the objective of sharing work experiences, equally positive and negative, but as with the bear market, trafficking in bad news soon overwhelmed the slim sliver of good news. Everything from layoffs to bad managers became grist for the mill, and the site became a must-check site. It even found itself being blocked in various company networks, understandably so, from the perspective of the HR departments as nothing was spared by the anonymous commenters/posters. It became a safety valve, in part, for the stressed employee, serving to reinforce, negatively, his feelings about his company. The Alexa Rank, a poor enough measure as it might be, indicates an occasional surge of attention, such as when the Satyam fiasco broke out.

As leading HR blogger, Gautam Ghosh, put it when he encountered the site:

Today I came across WorkExp , which is primarily a blog consisting of submitted posts by Indian techies about their organizations.

So as a HR person are you ready for the flipside and downside of this kind of transparency. Yes, it'll be messy and not easy to deal with. But this is going to be the new pub where people will share stories, only difference being it will be archived and search-able for posterity.

Unfortunately, this transparency or the 'pub culture' appears to have been contrary to the owner's expectations. They took all content offline, promising a redesign, and declaring they were disappointed with the negativity that had violated the site's founding principles. They posted the following:

This site was started with a view of helping people learn and share experiences, but sadly in its current state it has been reduced to a board where only stones are thrown. Except for one from CTS & one from Bharthi Airtel, NOONE shared their positive experiences :( Which was indeed very sad for the editorial team back here! We are re-designing this site and will be back soon!

But Guys! As much as it is your right to complain and share your bad experience it is also your responsibility in a way to tell what good your company has done for you!

We are over for now! But not out yet!

The retirement of the site will no doubt lead to the disappointment of many vicarious thrill-seekers, but the stance of the editors is to be commended, as they put principles before traffic. Even so, they could have gone with the flow, and become the Yelp.com for the job-hungry. Perhaps a clone will spring up soon enough, one that will satisfy the need to crib about your manager, your company, your work experiences.

Oscars 2009: Slumdog Tops The Grade

Aaman Lamba — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 07:31:12 EST

The Oscars have a certain glamour that outstrips most other award ceremonies. Much of this allure is deliberately cultivated, of course, and given the large number of film awards events, one wonders why the Oscars should particularly matter. They do matter, though, and the nominees and winners are treated with far greater recognition than those of many other awards.

The pop-culture effect of Hollywood is fading fast, though, being replaced by a variety of media sources - from the 'long movies' of television dramas to Internet webisodes. The Oscars don't reflect this, treating only the feature-length films and shorter vignettes as deserving of Academy recognition. Their American bias seems to be giving ground to some extent, with recent nominees and winners in the mainstream category being more representative of global cinema trends.

This year's Academy Awards were pretty much along expected lines, from the presentation to the winners. Many great films of 2008 were not even recognized, ranging from the Swedish teen-vampire tragic romance Let The Right One In to the great Western Appaloosa.

From the films that were nominated, the odds-on favorites were The Strange Case of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire. Apart from Best Foreign Film, most of the other awards went along expected lines. Slumdog Millionaire picked up eight awards, notably in the technical departments and the big two, Best Director and Best Picture. Benjamin Button took three awards, and Dark Knight two, including the sureshot Best Supporting Actor for Heath Ledger.

Smile Pinki, a feel-bad-feel-good film, bagged Best Documentary, throwing further light on the Indian contribution to this year's Awards. A R Rahman and Rasool Kutty took their place in the spotlight for Best Score, Best Original Song, and Best Sound Editing.

The dark horse was the Japanese film Departures which was not well-known and not a strong contender for Best Foreign Film, where it was up against fine films like Waltz With Bashir and The Class. Conspiracy theorists will no doubt see the fell hand of the Elders of Zion behind this non-event, too bad for them.

Sean Penn and Kate Winslet received the acting awards for Milk and The Reader, shutting out the fine performances by Mickey Rourke and Meryl Streep.

Movie Review : Delhi 6

Aaman Lamba — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 12:14:22 EST

Rakyesh Mehra's penchant for finding the heart of gold or its core of darkness within the Indian ethos continues with his latest film, Delhi 6. This is more a montage of social and visually stimulating vignettes than the traditional straight narrative Bollywood delivers, despite its mostly linear plotline. It gets the message across, at first subtly, then finally resorting to using a hammer to ensure the audience that stayed till the last gets the point, as it were.

Recession-hit or just bored, Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan) brings his ailing grandmother home to Delhi, Delhi 6, to be precise, to fulfil her desire to die in her ancestral home and not in the strange land of her immigrant children. He discovers facets of urban India apart from the booming newTowns, and she discovers that it is no place to die, having changed despite outward appearances. Yet, the old pathways still have a way of bonding antagonists that goes beyond recent ideologies. Tribal and animistic linkages make all the difference, and Indian idols are there to be broken.

There are other random characters, happenstances, some pretty good music, and media frenzy - pigeons fly, cows deliver, and the Taj is mostly empty - the recession, no doubt. The breaking news is that this is all commonplace in the chaotic maelstrom of Delhi-6, and India rising. The rising India, though, is beset by boogeymen, demon warriors, and monkeys. This is as it has always been, yet the film takes a Western slant to reach its climax - going for a scapegoat, a sacrificial lamb, whose executioner, stereotypically enough, is a Bollywood mainstay.

The more interesting tack of offering up Bittu to the ape, Fay Wray-like, is not taken, and the subversive themes of breaking caste barriers, loose and forward photographers, etc., are barely explored, instead subjecting us to an unending array of media placement that merely serves to illustrate that most news people just talk about the news, meta-news as it were.

The superlative actors mostly serve to render their characters well, not going further, and this is the film's greatest failing - that such fine characters/actors are wasted in the quest of making an ideological point that could have been delivered in the director's commentary. Once the point is hammered in, the characters fade away, leaving us with a mostly forgettable film.

BAFTA Stays Predictable, Slumdog Millionaire Wins Seven Awards

Aaman Lamba — Sun, 8 Feb 2009 21:56:47 EST

If It's A Wonderful Life came to epitomize the Great Depression, will Slumdog Millionaire be the icon for the Great Recession? It sure seems that way, with audiences and critics around the world taking the movie to heart. All the same, longevity and cinema memory are about more than staying power or critical acclaim. It might perhaps be more appropriate to compare the film with that other sleeper hit, Trainspotting.

When things become too predictable, it might time to shake them up a bit. It is not yet that time on the movie awards circuit, with the Orange British Academy Film Awads (BAFTA) going mostly as expected. Slumdog Millionaire took away most of the big awards, from Best Film, Director, Adapted Screenplay, to Sound Editing and Music, seven in all. Dev Patel lost to Mickey Rourke for his superlative role in The Wrestler, and Kate Winslet was recognized once again for her hamhanded inability to read in The Reader. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button received three minor awards for Production Design, Makeup (naturally!), and Hair, while the other big non-surprise of the evening was Heath Ledger's posthumous win for Dark Knight.

One could almost hear a few expletives from the Dark Knight himself, although there were enough on stage, from Mickey Rourke to that other Mick, Sir Jagger, who presented the Best Film award to Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire.

Interesting awards went to In Bruges for Best Screenplay, an Academy Fellowship to Terry Gilliam, and the Orange Rising Star Award to Noel Clarke. Pinewood Studios was recognized for its seminal contribution to cinema, and much fun was had.

Ten Things That Never Happen in Desi Erotic Stories

Aaman Lamba — Sun, 8 Feb 2009 12:32:01 EST

The Indian sexual instincts have not always been repressed, limited to the traditional perception of Indian morality, or avoided literary/artistic interpretation. Even today, in the midst of overt repression and social inhibition, it should probably come as no surprise that the baser instincts combine with literary and exhibitionistic outpourings to make certain Indian websites rank higher in terms of traffic than many others. These sites form a certain subculture of post-modern, post-Colonial Indian society (Yes Dorothy, we have left Oz), and deserve perhaps greater sociological analysis.

Having subjected myself to a wide array of desi literary frottage and worse, all in the name of science, I can now reveal, only partly tongue-in-cheek, ten things that never happen in desi erotic stories. My sources are impeccable and diverse, and can only be revealed in private messages so as to avoid undue publicity and their further going underground, more power to them.

Warning: The following is definitely NSFW, and politically incorrect

1. Not all Indian women are Savita Bhabhi

2. She does bankers or lawyers, never techies or salesmen.

3. He has a small wiener. He is not always god's gift to women

4. She does it even though her husband gives it to her every night, and has no guilt afterward.

5. She does the dentist, not the doctor or the nurse.

6. Your colleague's wife comes on to your wife, not to you.

7. Both of you crash out on your Suhaag Raat because you're too tired from all the functions.

8. The young hot star gives your wife his autograph, and nothing more.

9. The tailor has a long ruler, but he uses it to measure a form-fitting blouse, which you try on at home.

10. The neighborhood aunty has a great kitchen, and she cooks in it.

The desi equivalent of Arthus Miller is still to arrive on the scene, although there are many claimants, so one is hopeful.

Iran Launches Indigenous Satellite

Aaman Lamba — Tue, 3 Feb 2009 07:37:15 EST

Iran joined the select group of spacefaring nations today when it announced the launch of a domestically-produced satellite, Omid ("Hope"), aboard its Safir-2 rocket and that it was "successfully set into orbit." This coincided with the 30th anniversary of the Iranian revolution that overthrew the Shah, and on the heels of President Obama's announcement of a new era of detente with Iran. This is Iran's second satellite, after Russia launched the Sina-1 in 2005.

In the recent book, The Inheritance by David Sanger, Washington Post correspondent, which deals with the legacy inherited by President Obama from the Bush administration, he opens with the Iran issue and how it was handled by the Bush team. Coming soon after their intelligence failures with Iraq, they were far more circumspect and cautious than they perhaps would have been otherwise. Far from harbouring active regime-change fantasies, the book reveals that the administration sat on compelling evidence that Iran was likely pursuing an active weaponization program (pp 64-69, "The Laptop of Death") that was broken by the New York Times in 2005, and was even shared with the IAEA earlier that year. Even so, the National Intelligence Estimate of 2007 showed that the design program for an atom bomb had been suspended ("Project 111") even as the civilian enrichment program continued. The author also reveals how skilfully Iran exploited American concerns post-Iraq and undermined the new Bush strategy to involve the other powers like Russia, China, and the Europeans by playing one against the other.

Iran's new launch comes after last August's launch of a similar rocket capable of carrying a satellite to orbit. The Omid is positioned as a data processing and television transmission satellite, although concerns of dual-use technology and the potential for the combination rocket to be converted to carry a warhead will likely raise fears around the world.

President Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying, "Iran's presence in space with the aim of expanding monotheism, peace and justice has now been officially recorded in history."

Sania Mirza & Mahesh Bhupathi Win Australian Open Mixed Doubles

Aaman Lamba — Sun, 1 Feb 2009 01:43:12 EST

The Indian tennis firmament seems to be shining brighter this year, first with Yuki Bhambri's win at the junior Australian Men's event and now with Sania Mirza-Mahesh Bhupathi winning the mixed doubles event at the Australian Open.

They won the finals against Nathalie Dechy (France) and Andy Ram (Israel) 6-3, 6-1. This was their second consecutive year in the finals, and followed a rather lacklustre year for Ms. Mirza. Their opponents were unseeded, and the match was won handily by the duo. This is the seventh Grand Slam title for Mahesh and the first for Sania. He lost the Men's Doubles finals

The excitement continues at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park with the Men's Finals between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, their first face-off on hard courts, coming on the heels of a tense semi-final match for Nadal against Fernando Verdasco that last over five hours.

The wins of Bhupathi-Mirza and Bhambri will enthuse the sport in India but also bring into scrutiny the negligent attention given to Indian tennis by the Sports Authority and other bodies.

Update: Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer in the Men's Finals through a five set 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-2. Ths was the fourth consecutive loss for Federer against Nadal and a four and a half hour long match.

At the awards ceremony, where the cup was given away by Rod Laver, Roger Federer could not hold back his tears, leading to Nadal consoling him, and saying, "Roger, sorry for today. I really know how you feel right now. Remember, you're a great champion, you're one of the best in history."

The Oscar Best Picture Nominees - A Comparative Review

Aaman Lamba — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:52:54 EST

Movies seem to get better with each passing year. While last year's Oscars were all about dystopian gloom and blood, this year seems to be predicated on hope and transformation, on the power of movies to make the impossible probable, and to chronicle memory through the prism of interpretation.

The 81st Academy Award Best Picture Nominees cover the spectrum from biopic to masala entertainer. They brim with heartwarming pathos while each reveals the darkness within. Each of them has a strange pairing that makes the movie what it is, from the cerebral Frost and Nixon to the tragic Jamal-Latika (or should that be Jamal-Prem?).

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is perhaps the most fantastical of them all, with its reverse chronology, and yet this device serves to give us a retrospective look at our last century, and also enables the tragic nature of ageing in the film. The unusual romantic pairing of Daisy (Cate Blanchett) and Benjamin (Brad Pitt) is itself depicted in a manner that requires great creative effort, at times from the perspective of the ageing Daisy, and at others from that of Benjamin. As he puts it on one memorable occasion, "When I had left she was a girl...and a woman had taken her place...She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen." This magic realism imbues the photography, the close-ups and the broader shots of a society in as much flux as the characters themselves. The computer generated characters are reminscent of The Lord of the Rings, more Gollum than Bilbo. Its only failing is its episodic character, not giving us any reason to appreciate the deeper meaning of Benjamin's adventures, across tramp steamers and with bored diplomat's wives. Brad Pitt's typical detachment might see him lose the Best Actor award to the far more intense Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, or perhaps either of Frank Langella or Sean Penn from the other Best Picture Nominees.

Milk has more immediacy, along with Sean Penn's desire to be redeemed, at least in his own eyes. Harvey Milk, advocate for gay rights and activist, is portrayed with a playfulness while still revealing the bleakness and loneliness within. This is a movie borne entirely on the shoulders of Mr. Penn, although Gus van Sant has much to do with the causes and effects of his acting, undoubtedly. There is much foreshadowing of both what is to come for Harvey Milk as well as for America at large with his refusal to fit into the closet, as it were. The oft-quoted line "My name is Harvey Milk and I want to recruit you" has resonance even today, with the separation of civic life from the political sphere, and more opinionation than action. Harvey Milk takes action, and is evidently ready for the consequences. The film is shot with linear, controlled shots, done using actual 70s-era Cooke-Panchro lenses, and giving the film its 70s sheen. San Franscisco and the Castro neighborhood are as much characters in the film as Harvey Milk or Dan White, and the city's backdrop is a central part of the film's tone. Dan White (Josh Brolin) might provide the gay subtext to this film about America's first openly gay elected official, yet the indictment is more on a society complicit in the closeting of people.

The Reader takes another look at society's complictness in the events that occur within it. The movie deals with the war, already forgotten by 1958, when the story opens, and the process of forgetting. The amnesia of a nation and Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet)'s 'forgetting' to tell the adolescent Michael Berg are contrasted later, when she is put on trial for being a concentration guard at Auchwitz. Still, is it so hard to expect a society and a person to want to reconstruct their pasts to build a new life? This difficult question haunts Michael, who must choose to be the instrument of Hanna's punishment, and thereby redemption. The movie is also about the power of another form of remembering, books. The illiterate Hanna is read to, and perhaps does not therefore comprehend, by Michael, and earlier by prisoners. The coming-of-age sexuality is also contrasted with the damaged country seen around Hanna's apartment. There is a certain ham-handedness to the film, but it successfully poses its central question, and sidesteps it, by letting the viewers realize that everyone knew all along about the atrocities of the time, and chose not to speak out, much like Hanna chooses not to learn to read. Finally, the film is also a journey, from ignorance to knowledge, as in The Odyssey.

Slumdog Millionaire is another kind of journey, from rags to riches, and also from obscurity to fame. There is no forgetting involved in this film, though. The centrepiece of the film is the ability of Jamal to answer questions in a television quiz show based on seminal moments in his life. His childhood is no aristocratic idyll, a la Nabokov in Speak, Memory. Jamal is from the gutters and the film takes us through a rollercoaster ride through these social gutters, battering the characters with everything terrible and depraved that society can manufacture. He survives, pehaps by a self-imposed detachment, necessary to wade through rivers of excrement for the promised goal. The goal is ever-fluid, though, much like the film's usage of time. We are sometimes given a retrospective view, and at other times, events presage the inevitable happy ending. This recursive approach works more on the first viewing than any subsequent one. Another aspect of the film that does not quite work is the out-of-place accents of both Jamal and Salim. Jamal's Scottish tone might be explained by his days as a chaiwallah in a call center, but Salim's preppy voice is more suited for a school production of Othello. The interesting counterpoint of the film is not that between damaged Latika and the hopeful Jamal, but between the quiz show host Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor) and Jamal. Prem sees Jamal's indefatigability as reminscent of his own, and endeavors to first sabotage it, and then undermine its validity. In the end, he is rendered an instrument of Jamal's Fates, with the final question being a roll of cosmic dice more than a memory of horrors past. The spectacular reception of the film might work in its favor, but the Oscars are home to capricious spirits themselves, from those that shut out shoo-ins from the nominations to others which spring a surprise when the envelope is opened. It is written, as Jamal might say.

Frost/Nixon has perhaps the most unusual subject in the set, with its focus on the 1977 interviews of former President Richard Nixon by upcoming presenter David Frost. The film is a talkathon, with the magic lying in the interplay between the extremely savvy Nixon and the stubborn Frost, whose career and financial stability rests on the success of the interviews. The nature of the success is ambiguous, and final victory, the admission of guilt, delivers little reward, even for David Frost, who might have gone on to television success regardless. While the superlative acting and close setting of the film have brought it this nomination, it would be more than magical if it went further.

A definite miss in the nominees is Edward Zweick's Defiance, with its hardpressed Jweish partisans, a Schindler's List in the forest, as it were. While Daniel Craig and the ensemble cast deliver a compelling performance, and most aspects of the film are very well-done, it probably lost out given its Hollywood-style fight scenes and general lack of subtlety. Another notable miss was The Dark Knight, and I would posit, the Swedish vampire movie, Let The Right One In, perhaps the best vampire flick since Interview with The Vampire.

Barack Obama Inaugurated As 44th President of the United States

Aaman Lamba — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:56:04 EST

Barack Obama changed the world and American Politics as he was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. Stay tuned as we cover this historic event live. Add your views in the comments. If you'd like to liveblog along with us - send us an email

Articles are invited about what you expect (or don't) from the new American President.

Miracle on Hudson: All Survive US Plane Crash in New York

Aaman Lamba — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:57:03 EST

The new year, which has already given us much shock and awe, delivered a note of relief when all 155 passengers and 5 crew members were rescued from US Airways Flight 1549 which crashed minutes after take off from New York's La Guardia Airport, en route to Charlotte, NC.

The Airbus A320 plane had barely gained altitude from the relatively short runway at La Guardia when an engine appeared to blow and the pilot warned passengers to brace themselves. He was able to land the plane into the nearby Hudson river, albeit with a thud. The evacuation appears to have gone well, with all passengers exiting the craft quickly and safely. Nearby boats and ferries rushed to rescue the bedraggled passengers, on one of the coldest days of the year, with temperatures around 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

The investigation will reveal what may have gone wrong, but a FAA spokesperson indicated it could be due to various reasons, including a flock of birds being sucked into the engine, although such incidents were rare. The pilot reported a "double bird strike" and the plane had reached an altitude of 3200 feet before being forced to descend. Given low visibility and the shape of La Guardia's runway, the pilot would have had little time to respond to a flight of birds as he took off from the airport.

Passengers were being treated for hypothermia. Executives from Bank of America and Wells Fargo-Wachovia Bank were on board, as the banks are headquartered in Charlotte, the plane's destination.