Srini Chandrasekharan

Category: Laughing Gas

Nothing but the very best, of course

  • Too Big To Fail

    In 2008, we saw collapse of financial institutions, led by US banks, unprecedented for its severity. Now, history appears to be about to repeat itself in Europe. Since we seem to be headed into the open season for bailouts, I decided to send in my bailout application right away to beat the rush and get ahead in line.

    Dear Reserve Bank Governor,

    I’m in a bit of a pickle, and need five crore rupees urgently. Before you consign this letter to the rubbish bin, I suggest that you ponder the consequences of it surfacing in wikileaks files.

    I know what you must be thinking. Who is this guy and why does he deserve the ten crore rupees that he’s asking?  (As I write, the rupee is rapidly declining against the dollar forcing me to ask for more). First, you have understand that I am TOO BIG TO FAIL. If I were to be allowed to collapse, the economy as we know it would cease to exist and pandemonium and mayhem will ensue. Nothing short of global calamity awaits if that mind boggling scenario were to fruition as a consequence of your not sending me a check for twenty crores. If I were to fail, who would then pay salaries to my driver or dole out generous tips to taxi and auto drivers? If they don’t get paid, they will not have money to spend at liquor stores, which means liquor store barons will not have money to bribe MLAs. Starved of cash, MLAs will become susceptible to buyout offers from opposition parties and this would lead to fall of governments all around the country. Next thing you know, the Chief Election Commissioner is asking for a budget of ten thousand crores to conduct fresh elections, and the Central Government is forced to raise the prices of petrol and LPG to cover the shortfall in funds. This will lead to all kinds of nasty consequences like fallout between once-loyal alliance partners, cabinet ministers and chief ministerial offspring being sent to Tihar jail, disgruntlement with the Prime Minister and rise of civil societies demanding Jan Lokpal. Who knows, this might trigger the fall of the central government as a consequence of fratricidal wars between Home and Finance ministries, each trying to orchestrate the other’s downfall. All because you didn’t expeditiously release a check for a measly fifty crores.

    You might wonder how I ended up in this hole. I made the mistake of watching every reality show there is on TV and sending in hundreds of SMSes daily to vote on random inconsequential matters. These things cost a fortune. Not to mention the fact that there’s been someone calling me practically every three minutes offering me a platinum credit card. I got them all and maxed out on Salman Khan movies, Farmville gifts and Samsung cellphones. Funnily, there seems to be a new festival every month, accompanied by mouth watering discounts on white goods – and I’m afraid that these temptations have proved hard to resist.

    You must be convinced by now, I hope. If not, it is fair to warn that you leave me with no choice but to join a political party, become a Cabinet minister, manipulate tenders and reap ill-gotten gains. Come on, what do you say? What’s a hundred crores between friends?

    Yours sincerely.

    TBTF

    * Inspired by a ‘shouts and murmurs‘ column in the New Yorker

  • 7 iPhone apps that Indians need

    According to Livemint, India is the world’s second-largest market, after China, for telecom services with 812 million subscribers at the end of March 2011. 2010, they say, was the year of the smartphone in India. We will remember these last few years as the time when the phone was transformed into anything but a phone.

    Hardware vendors like Apple, which launched iPhone 4 recently and Samsung, which has over 15 smartphones in its portfolio, are eyeing the potential of the Indian market. With availability of 3G now rolled out by leading telecom operators like Vodafone and others, and with continuing drop in hardware and data usage costs, the smartphone has a bright future in this land of a billion people.

    Apple and iPhone apps:  Unparalleled phenomenon

    In case you missed it, the Apple phenomenon is unparalleled in brand history. A technology company named after a fruit has succeeded in penetrating pysche of consumers and inspiring almost fanatical devotion, much more than any other company. When Apple whispers about a new product, that whisper becomes the loudest roar since the moon landing. Campers start lining up. All for the pleasure of having and holding.

    Design, development, sales and marketing of iPhone apps is no longer a cottage industry. It now increasingly looks more like big and serious business. There are many reasons for that. At the root of them all lies a human desire to stay connected and a proclivity for mobility. The size of the smartphone app market was an estimated $6.8B in 2010, of which Apple accounted for a lion’s share. The top grossing iPhone apps of 2010 include the ubiquitously famous Angry Birds as well as, interestingly, three “zombie” apps (Plants vs Zombies, Zombie Farm and Call of Duty:Zombies) providing that man’s fascination with zombies is endless and insatiable.

    With what looks like three fourths of the world’s GDP now being spent on dorky games and junk apps, it’s about time some one invented something that was actually useful. Something useful to the world’s second largest market?

    Laughing Gas issues a clarion call to all those Apple iOS SDK ninjas out there to pay heed and urgently begin development on what we believe to be the 7 most needed iPhone apps for Indians.

    7 iPhone apps Indians need

    7.  2-mt Passport Photoshop

    If you haven’t already read Laughing Gas’s exposition on the passport photo situation in this country, you must. To get just about anything done here, a steady and handy supply of passport photos is a must. The 2-mt Passport Photoshop app is a mini-ERP for passport sized photo management, and will keep track of incoming orders, check current inventory levels using RFID and trigger production of optimal numbers. All you need is to take a photo of yourself, in any condition, at any age. The app will shave and clothe you, remove bags under the eyes and lop 10 years off your age. Send to nearest printer via bluetooth. Upgrade option available to send directly to collection agent’s pockets. All in 2 minutes.

    6. Angry Indian Bird app

    Fed up with scams? Enraged at netas looting the till on their watch? Frustrated at having no avenue for action? Need to get anger out of the system?

    Say no more. Download the Angry Indian Bird app, get that anger out of your system and achieve the state of supreme Satchitananda that only Zen masters and Maharishis have seen. The app will allow you to live in a parallel Utopian universe of your own design where you can walk the streets as a virtual vigilante and supreme dispenser of justice. Create your own government, supreme court and law and order systems.  Invoke Section 144 at your own sweet will. Lathi charge those disorderly queue breakers. Disconnect those telemarketers. Hang those chors. Fast until death against yourself.

    5. Shaadi Bazaar app

    An app tailor made for money grubbing, greedy in-laws. Upon entry of the usual  information such as age, height, weight, religion, caste, sub-caste and horoscope, it will prompt a prospective in-law to enter the following: Target dowry amount, bank account number, inclination to spend time in jail and names of friends already in jail. Press submit and hey presto, following report is produced.

    21 matches found

    11 do not meet target dowry amount

    9 would like to terminate you

    1 found suitable, with 68% chance of being incarcerated post dowry collection.

    4. The Tele-Terminator app

    The Tele-Terminator is a protective pepper spray for use against invasive telemarketing companies. Please read the following instructions for usage carefully.

    1. Answer incoming call from random number
    2. Wait for call to connect
    3. Press second red button at the bottom (see image to your left)
    4. Rub hands in glee
    5. Wait for next incoming call from random number
    6. Repeat above

    3. The Ultimate Route Planner

    Plain vanilla GPS is uncool. Of what use is a talking machine that merely tells you “200 meters ahead, turn right” and stays oblivious to on-the-ground action. The Ultimate Route Planner will go where no app has gone before. Into the realms where data meets its makers and will offer actually useful choices such as

    Your starting point: Somewhere in Bangalore city

    Your destination: Bangalore International Airport

    13 routes identified.

    Top 3 routes displayed below

    1.  Distance: 45 km, via city, 1147 potholes, 47 potential lurking dashers across the road, 4 traffic cop leeches  on route, Normal expected time: 45 minutes. Recommendation: Avoid as it is end of month

    2. Distance: 57 km, via ring road, 24 potholes, 1million office goers in four-wheelers, 14 flyovers under construction. Normal expected time: 1 hour 15 minutes. Recommendation: Avoid, as inconsequential junior Minister on way to airport with entourage

    3. Distance: 347kms, via Chennai. Normal expected time: 6hrs and 10 minutes. Recommendation:  Recommended, as fastest route to destination

    2. Missed Call Analytico App

    Nearly one in four calls in India is a “missed call”. People use it for everything from summoning drivers, sending pre-arranged messages, telling customers that their order is ready, to signaling endearment to loved ones. The last one is a bit puzzling though.  “I am willing to find your number from my address book. I am willing to go even as far as dialing it. My ears stand ready and my muscles stay flexed to hear the first ring. But, that’s where I draw the line. Once the ring is heard, I will disconnect call with the agility of a chinese acrobat on steroids”.  Well, I guess nothing says ‘I love you’ more than a missed call.

    The Missed Call Analytico app will provide features and reports, a sample of which is provided below:

    Number of missed calls made last week: 447

    Number of missed calls received: 1623

    The last time you spoke to anybody and paid for a call: 21 years, 3 months, 12 days, 1hour, 5 minutes and 17 seconds back

    Your most frequent missed caller:  Unknown Random Number of Unknown Random Company

    Would you like to terminate “Unknown Random Company”? Press big red button.

    1. Time and Space Machine app

    Play the following in your mind and then imagine the endless possibilities of the Time and Space machine app.

    The drum in your washing machine has given up its ghost and needs to be replaced. You call washing machine service shop. They designate friendly field technical service rep (FFTSR) to replace drum. They give you FFTS’s mobile phone number.  You fix an appointment. The day of appointment dawns. The designated hour arrives. No sign of FFTSR. An hour later, you call FFTSR.

    FFTSR: Hello?

    Note: There will always be sound of massive traffic, construction and static in the background. It will always be difficult for FFTSR to hear you. And he will always say Yes no matter what is being asked.

    You: Are you coming to repair the washing machine?

    FFTSR:  Yes, madam

    You:  You were supposed to be here 1 hour back

    FFTSR:  Sorry, madam. I am now in Koramangala. Just 5 minutes, madam. I’ll be there.

    This is precisely where the Time and Space Machine app kicks in. It will capture the coordinates of FFTSR, monitor voice modulations and breathing patterns, and produce a report as follows:

    FFTSR Location Detected:   Mysore, 100 miles from your present location

    Lie Detection Level:   Stratospheric

    Probability of Drum Being Repaired:   Unlikely in Kali Yuga

    Options:   1. Wait for new Brahma to be born 2. Buy new washing machine

    Have any more desi iPhone apps that you can think of? Do write back. Apple ninjas are standing by.

  • Bollywood, Oscars and a thousand monkeys

    Recently watched a movie called Tere Bin Laden, which brings us to the topic of Bollywood. There are many jobs that people do in this world. Each requires a skill of some sort. Indefatigable fortitude goes with postman territory. Rain or shine, the mail never stops. A civil engineer has to display more than average propensity for complex problem solving. Good taxi drivers are blessed with stellar reflexes. And the list goes on. The only known exception to this rule is the Bollywood script writer.

    The Indian movie industry is the largest in the world, based on number of movies released. Bollywood, which accounts for a lion’s share, has the distinction of making the most number of horror movies which don’t have ghosts in them. In a country with an abundance of culture, creative talent and money, it is hard to understand this depressing scarcity of quality cinema. The story of Bollywood has followed a script that seems eerily written by one of their own – devoid of plot elements and empty of memorable moments. Some one once said that if you gave typewriters to a thousand monkeys, it was only a matter of time before one of them came up with Hamlet. Well, more than a thousand have been at work in Mumbai for over fifty years, and so far, it’s just been much ado about nothing.

    Seems like Bollywood goes “Didn’t ask for a good script. Asked for a script by Tuesday”. Scripts are not just tailored for actors. They  are also written by tailors.

    Take a typical Bollywood script these days –

    Boy goes to airport to pick up fiancee, who he last met when he was a toddler. Coincidentally, around the same time, girl escapes from mafia uncle by resorting to the proven technique of running on open roads in high heels to elude shiny 200 horsepower BMWs. Girl inexplicably lands up within earshot of boy, overhears conversation about long awaited fiancee, and decides that best course of action is to pretend to be the aforementioned fiancee. What better way to kill a few weeks on the run than to shack up with a complete stranger.

    Boy is ecstatic that fiancee resembles Preity Zinta and not Om Puri, rushes home with girl in tow and a song on the lips. Girl learns about boy’s troubled childhood, his existential angst, PAN number and blood group – all via song, and falls madly in love. The next several weeks are spent dancing the flamenco on mountain tops and grassy knolls. Boy-girl swiss vacations, as a rule, are always interrupted by one untimely demise or another. This time, it is daadi-ma’s turn. Reluctantly, boy and girl foot it back. After brief hiatus, dancing makes a come back – this time, it’s salsa on the streets of maximum city in pouring rain.

    Meanwhile, mafia uncle uses google maps on his Samsung phone to figure out girl’s coordinates, loads up AK47 and heads over pronto. Coincidentally, boy and girl get into tiff around the same time. The boy happily hands mother of his unborn child back to mafia chacha. At this juncture, mother of boy, hitherto presumed blind and dumb, suddenly starts spouting gospel truths on true love to her beloved son, exhorting him to rescue girl. Boy has change of heart in the time it takes to say “Ready”, but not before indulging in random drinking binge. Original fiancee  surfaces in item number during drinking binge before disapparating back into the void. Boy heads over to mafia uncle’s massive, walled estate, where local hoodlums, Caucasians, municipal corporators, Lalit Modi, shady UN officials, Shiv Sena and Al Qaeda have all gathered in the living room. A few scuffles and an obligatory bleeding lip later, boy rescues girl and they are back to dancing the cha-cha near waterfalls, lakes and other water bodies on remote islands. The End.

    And, we wring our hands as to why we haven’t won an Oscar yet. Folks, we are going to need a lot more than a thousand monkeys to pull that off.

    ps: Two thumbs up for Tere Bin Laden.

     

  • Fight or Flight

    This week, we take a closer look at an interesting phenomenon in which a bunch of people voluntarily squeeze themselves into a giant pressurized metal tube which is then sealed and propelled into air. Yep, we are indeed talking about the joys of flying coach class. A gentleman named Tony Januss kicked it all off when he launched a commercial aviation company cleverly named the St Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line on Jan 1, 1914. This was closely followed by the first baggage loss – an unrecorded fact of history, uncovered only by What Ho! sleuths. We’ve come a long way since. In 2009, airlines served peanuts to an estimated 770 million passengers in the US alone.

    Sadly, airline travel is not what it used to be. No one enjoys it any more. The passengers don’t. The crew doesn’t. Suffice it to say that we were not surprised when we were commissioned by McKinsey and Co to analyze and reverse this trend. And, true to our style, we decided to call a spade a shovel and started off with a few tweaks to flight announcements.

    First, the boarding announcement – “Welcome aboard and please pretend to pay attention to this announcement. You know where the seat belts are. In trials, four years olds have figured out how to buckle themselves up in five seconds or less. If you are unable to do so, please contact us and we’ll be happy to enroll you in the George W Bush Mensa Club. Sudden loss of pressure is not a good thing. First, secure your own oxygen mask and then your child’s. If you are traveling with more than one child, you might want to toss a coin. If you look out the window and see us hurtling towards the Bay of Bengal, feel free to grab one of our complimentary seat cushions, useful as a flotation device while swimming in shark infested waters. Please note that there is a $25 fee for detonating bombs while on board the aircraft.”

    Then, at mid flight -“People, we are encountering turbulence. Or, then again, it could be that we are trying to dodge missiles fired by North Koreans. In any case, there is no need to panic until a sudden drop in cabin pressure. If you *still* haven’t figured out how to fasten your seat belts, please raise your hand. Sarah Palin is looking for campaign volunteers. As for your meal, you know how it goes – if you pay monkeys, you only get peanuts”

    And finally, on landing-

    “Folks, contrary to what you think, we were not shot down. Please keep your butts glued to the seats until what’s left of this plane reaches the terminal. On behalf of Captain Kangaroo and his fake pilot license, we thank you for the opportunity to take y’all for a ride. Remember that no one loves your money more than KingLearJet Airlines. And, please don’t leave anything behind, especially spouses.

  • The Slumdog and the Millionaire

    Having lived on both sides of the pond for a good many years, I can understand both reluctance and enthusiasm on part of of Indian diaspora when it comes to returning “back” to India “for good”. I’ve known better than to be in the middle of these debates, but have gleaned enough to know the usual litany of pros and cons contained in them. What’s always striking about these discussions is that each party secretly believes itself to be the millionaire and pities the other as the slumdog.

    The naysayers arsenal includes surface-to-air missiles such as “Too polluted”, “work environments suck”, “school systems not great”, “can’t find enough East European piano teachers” etc. etc. The optimists fire back with biochemical weapons a-la “Feel more connected”, “have a sense of belonging”, “india is where it’s all happening”, “don’t need to do my laundry and ironing” etc. Seriously, when did the prospect of someone else doing your laundry become a reason to rush and pack your bags for a 10,000 mile journey? Ever wonder if Magellan set out to circumnavigate the world in the hope he could outsource dirty underwear processing?

    All these debates miss the point by the margin Columbus missed India. To wallow in such trivia is to miss the Sunderbans for its mangroves. Once you confront the deeper questions, the rest are mere details.

    If you are one of those – pondering a move but forever vacillating on its merits – luck is at hand. I present the Laughing Gas pop quiz specially designed for “perennially unsure wannabe returnees”. It is anticipated that taking the quiz three times a day after meals will purge the system of any lingering malaise around effecting changes in longitude.

    What is your notion of “time”?

    Is time a logical construct with practical utility or an abstract notion with philosophical connotations? The correct answer, boys and girls, is “Time is an illusion”. If you harbor thoughts to the contrary, am afraid that you might want to give that one-way ticket a miss.

    Consider the sentence: “I’ll call you back in 10 minutes”. All it implies is notional and not to be interpreted as anything more than polite conversation between one human and another. If you can comprehend that varying degrees of truth and complex assumptions are embedded in that spontaneous statement and are willing to annihilate any expectations that may arise reflexively within you – you might not be entirely without hope.

    Do you go into involuntary spasms when a flight is delayed? Do you pack your bags 4 weeks prior to departure? Mate, you need help.

    Have you ever missed a flight? After buying the ticket in the airport? Skip the rest of this exercise and proceed directly to “Go”. You are 24 carat India material, my friend!

    What is your “data sensitivity quotient”?

    How sensitive are you to the accuracy of information provided? What skills do you possess in handling ambiguity?

    Say I presented the problem: 123 x 456 = ? And, you came up with 56088. Congratulations, you awesome math cat, you! But, sorry pal, consider yourself on the “no fly” list. Successful transplants will content themselves with vague terms such as the answer might end in ‘8’, may have more than four digits, etc. Virtuosos will provide convincing impressions of not having heard the question at all.

    If you are possessed of romantic and harmful notions about the need for precision and clarity – consider taking out that second home equity loan, making the most of Saturday night potluck dinner parties and beefing up junior’s spelling bee skills.

    Are you a genius?

    Ok, this one’s a little wacky. Let me explain this. Genius is the ability to hold polar, conflicting beliefs in one’s mind at the same time. So, let me ask again. Are you a genius?

    When informed – “Go straight ahead and turn right” – if you can consider the equally likely possibility of having to “make a U-turn followed by a left”, then you reside in what I can only describe as the peaceful nothingness that exists between the right and left parts of your brain. On the other hand, if you prefer to hold doggedly onto prized skills in logic and inductive methods of reasoning, I see hair loss, ulcers and antacids in your future.

    The one good reason to move to India.

    Humor aside – there is always one good reason to move. You just have to find out what yours might be. And, there is only one way to find out. Or not. Sab chalta hai. Wherever you are, and whatever you do – may you always have fair winds. Keep smiling. Jai ho.