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| Tuesday, October 26, 2004 |
| Why India fails at the Olympics |
So asks Robb Hecht of PR Machine blog. The poor man is genuinely confused :)
Not so us Indians, are we? For one thing, we do not owe any answers to anyone.. remember our million-year old civilization.. we invented zero.. who caes about medals? :)
Seriously, there are several reasons:
1) We are focusing on academics and not sports so we can steal their jobs. Oops, that' not a serious answer.
2) Not enough facilities.
3) Inadequate focus on sports by the state and central governments
4) Sporting bureaucracy
5) Indians are not sporty as a nation. Sports are for the rich! (So what about Kenya and Ethiopia? Shaddup!)
6) India's favourite sports is cricket. The country is obsessed with it. Only about 6 countries play cricket, so not much scope to shine internationally there..
7) The billion people - 70-80% of them are somehow making it through the day, 10 % are happy that they do so on a consistent basis and go to sleep and work thanking God, and the other 10% are techies, upper middle-class families etc who are moneyed enough to enjoy life eating and drinking. When they look around, they see poverty, see how lucky they are, and enjoy life. Sports is just not in their agenda.
Sorry, even a PR agency can't do much for the state of sports in India. (Ever visited to India and spent some time here? Spend a month, go everywhere, and you will understand!)
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posted by a correspondent @ 9:12 AM   |
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| Monday, October 25, 2004 |
| I am not your company!! |
One of the craziest things about running DWS is that one gets some really hilarious emails using our feedback form.
Today, there is Vijayakumar Dinesh who wants to exchange his TVS Victor bike with a HondaUnicorn. Which is fine, except that he also believes that we are Honda India! He has duly apologise too - totally unnecessary, of course, considering that his mail has led to some mirth on a dry Mumbai Monday morning.
And there are the 10-plus emails we have received, with complaints about Reliance Infocomm. Oh everyone has complaints about Reliance, we have too. However, these ten emails were sent to us thinking we were Reliance!! It seems that some people are so focused on their problems and some way in which they can get through the thick skulls at Reliance that they go to Google, search for Reliance Infocom, hey there's a site, hey theres a feedback button, and kaboom! They have sent us a mail!!
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| posted by a correspondent @ 12:47 AM |
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| Tuesday, October 19, 2004 |
| Feedback on some Mumbai article! |
We keep receiving feedback for DWS, usually nice ones.
Here is something I received today. The sender has not mentioned which specific article he is talking about. It could be one fo the many articles on Mumbai. Maybe the one on its trains? Taxis? The dilliwalla article making fun of Mumbaiwallahs? Anyway its good that people bother to write at all. Thanks, Gaurav. His mail is reproduced below:
Submitted by: Gaurav Arora
Subject: dancewithshadows site feedbackComment: HiI m livin in USA, and I love INDIA, no matter what, for me, still the best city in the world is BOMBAY, Best food is DaalChawal. Well written article, Good Job
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| posted by a correspondent @ 9:19 PM |
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| I'm a blog evengelist in India! |
After setting up this blog, I have been doing some serious research on blogging. The fact that I work in a PR group (though my company is into software development) was an additional motivation.
First I tried setting up a blog for our parent company. The blog is now set up and ready to roll; only the CEO is still not entirely convinced of the benefits.
But my first notable success is with Mr. PA Francis, CEO of Pharmabiz. He was quite interested in the networking capabilities of a well-done blog. It would also serve as expert commentary point, as Mr. Francis is has been the Editor of Express Pharma Pulse before he started iPharma India. His initial blog is here http://indiapharma.blogspot.com
Wish him all the best!
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| posted by a correspondent @ 4:38 AM |
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| Monday, October 11, 2004 |
| Superman Christopher Reeve hangs up his constume forever |
Goodbye, Superman.
I remember him more for this role as a a man in a wheelchair obsessively convinced that a neighbour has been murdered, in a 1998 remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window than for his role as Superman. Perhaps, the role was so memorable only because I knew that this was Superman, now paralysed, acting out his own routine days.
In the nine years since his accident, he made personal progress to regain some feeling, established the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, a non-profit research organization, and used his fame to raise millions of dollars for research into spinal cord injuries.
He also provided hope and inspiration to other patients and lobbied for scientists to be allowed to conduct stem cell research in the hopes of eventually curing paralysis and other illnesses such as diabetes and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
Once a hero, always a hero.
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| posted by a correspondent @ 6:31 AM |
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| Friday, October 08, 2004 |
| The second Bush - Kerry presidential debate in St. Louis, Washington DC |
There they went at it again.
Initial impressions:
Both candidates were on the attack; neither really went on the defensive. Even on topics where both should have been.
Both Bush and Kerry had their good lines; but for undecided voters in the US, I don't think either of their stock phrases worked. If you are a Bush supporter, you thought Bush did very well; if you like Kerry, you thought he came out strongly.
Bush was a lot more comfortable than he was in the first debate - which is not saying much, of course. Kerry did not gointo lengthy arguments, and could talk to questioners by name better than Bush. So nothing much either way in terms of connecting with people, etc.
So far, all indications are that this was a tie; something that is good for Kerry as the (little) momentum is with him. He was the one who looked down and out, he established himself as a worthy candidate in the last debate, this one just kept it going.
The only poll I have seen yet on who won the debate (on ABC news) had Kerry leading 43-41. Talking points memo thought the debate was a draw which is a fair assessment I believe.
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| posted by a correspondent @ 9:44 PM |
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| Tuesday, October 05, 2004 |
| Hell's angels does PR! |
This really isn't about something we have on DWS.
Most of you probably haven't heard about Hell's Angels, the 'notorious' biker club / gang in the West. Always secretive and leather-clad, these are the guys we keep seeing cheap imitations of on late-night movies on Zee-MGM (or now ZMZ).
It seems that the police in Canada think that they are a dangerous biker gang and they believe themselves to be a harmless biker club. And to ensure their perception wins, they have hired a PR agency! Read the commentary here on this PR blog
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| posted by a correspondent @ 9:38 PM |
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| Sunday, October 03, 2004 |
| kijang |
| kijang story should have been more exhaustive |
| posted by JM @ 5:27 AM |
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| Saturday, October 02, 2004 |
| Feedback for Preeti's article |
Comment received about Preeti's article -
Comment: Women Rise ,n shine.. Splendid! Yet, One sided!!What Woman can do, no man can match. Specially playing 'Mom'! But she's gotta play 'friend' n 'manager'too. And if the author is suggesting that woman has to go all out to be a 'Winner', she has missed a few points.Guess 'Balance' is what a woman needs to strike.... between career, family n friends...A few tips on striking that right balance wud help 'woman' of these times..... Splendid never the less!!!
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| posted by a correspondent @ 6:09 AM |
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| Bush Kerry debate analysis! |
Just noticed that for the phrase Bush Kerry debate analysis, our site appears as no.1 in in the search results for Yahoo!
This could be very good - there is a chance that there may be a large number of people searching for that phrase in Yahoo in the next few days, and we could get a chunk of them.
Cheers! |
| posted by a correspondent @ 12:21 AM |
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