Travelogue - Tulunadu

Old Post Alert!
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Introduction – Tulunadu is the Tulu speaking region covering districts of Udupi, Dakshin Kannada and Kasargod. This region (see map below) has been demanding a separate state, on linguistic grounds, but their voice has never reached any sympathetic listeners.

The Tulunadu region is also part of the longer Karavali coast, which is the linking stretch of sand connecting the Konkan coastline of Maharashtra, Goa in the north with the Malabar coastline of Kerala in the south. Mangalore and Udupi are two main cities 60 kms from each other. Mangalore is about 370 odd kms from state capital Bangalore.

Mangalore – Mangalore lies between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats mountain ranges, and is the administrative headquarters of the Dakshin Kannada (formerly South Canara) district in south western Karnataka. It is the only city in Karnataka to have all four modes of transport: air, sea, road and rail. The very fact that it has as many as 5 names is testimony to its rich and varied demographics. The Tulus call it Kudla, the Konkanis or Saraswat Brahmins call it Kodiyal, the Beary speaking Muslims call it Maikala, the Malayali’s emigrants from Kerala call it Mamalapuram and finally the Kannadigas call it Mangaluru. Due to so much diversity, Hindi has found acceptance as a common language which is widely understood and spoken, something miserably absent in and around Bangalore. Mangalore is famous for its temples, tiles, PSUs and beaches. It is very hot, even in the relatively colder month of December; one feels the urge to take off the shirt.
Udupi – Udupi is the cultural and culinary epicenter of Tulunadu. While most would be familiar with the ubiquitous Udupi kitchens serving delicious idlis and dosas, it is also a very important pilgrimage centre. The 13th century old Sri Krishna Mutt is the top draw attraction. Apart from Hinduism, Udupi district also is famous for the towns of Karkala and Moodabidre, which are centers of Jainism. There are several temples here (which the Jains call as basadi). All together, Udupi is a cauldron of religious and spiritual fervor.

Why go there?
Religion and Beaches. That’s all there is, frankly. If you are the religious traveler who loves visiting temples and their kind, then surely Tulunadu will appeal to you. Check out the section called “How many days/nights should one plan for and what should be the itinerary?” where I have laid out my answers in a better level of detail.

There is one more reason to go to Mangalore. This might sound to be a silly answer to the question ‘Why go there’, but really I would go to Mangalore to eat ice cream in Ideal Ice Cream Parlor. I just truly loved this place which is said to be the largest ice cream parlor in India. So merits a visit, does it not?

When to go there?
Avoid summer at all costs. Even in the cold months of December, it is sweltering hot. I guess the weather is very Chennai-esque. I also understand the region gets very heavy rainfall from the monsoon laden winds flowing from the Arabian sea. For the religiously bent, it may be pertinent to check the festival calendar and visit accordingly, for example Sri Krishna Mutt at Udupi has some designated dates of grandiose ceremonial worship when the town is painted red in a spiritual vaudeville. It would be good to visit accordingly.

How to go there?
Getting to Mangalore is probably the easiest part of the whole story. There is an overnight train and numerous reasonably priced buses that ply regularly. A slightly more adventurous idea would be self driving to Mangalore. It would take roughly 6-7 hours. While coming from the eastern side of Karnataka (i.e. Bangalore side) one would have to cross the formidable Western Ghats and this stretch of roads is really egregious. If you don’t want the roller coaster experience or if you are worried about your car’s innards, then you would better limit your gear to a maximum second. Once in Mangalore, getting around is really easy. It’s a small place really with just one or two arterial roads.

St. Mary’s Island – Getting to St. Mary’s Island is easy, but one should be aware of a few things in order to fully enjoy this wonderful island. From the jetty at Malpe port, ferries with a capacity of atleast 60-70 leave every hour or half an hour depending on season. This mother ferry will take about 15 mins to arrive at the island. There are no docking ports for such big boats, hence they operate smaller, more agile feeder boats which load and unload people from the mother ferry to and fro the island. This whole logistical operation is time taking and exceedingly chaotic. People rush, drop things in the water and what not. Once crusoed on the island, you are given 45 mins before the next mother ferry will arrive for the return trip. Actually 45 mins is sufficient to idyll and splash around on the island beach, however I noticed people had planned longer picnics. If that is the game plan, then one must arrive early, possibly by the first or second ferry 10ish in the morning and then spend a leisurely full sun and sand day on this dainty island.

How many days/nights should one plan for and what should be the itinerary?

Atheists - For the atheist traveler it’s a no brainer really. Such people should budget maximum one full day here. St. Mary’s Island and Panambur Beach or even further south Someshwar Beach can be comfortably covered in 8 hours of daylight. If you happen to be the devout traveler, then the above question is crucial and should be tackled thoroughly as part of your pre trip planning. Further, secular devouts who are fine with temples, dargahs, basadis and churches alike would need even more planning. For all the devout segments, I shall try to offer my suggestions which can be used as a prima facie guidance.

Hindus – Plan for at least 2 full days. Split it into one day for Mangalore and the other day for Udupi. Even with two full days, your job would be cut out and you would need to prioritize which temples you want to visit. I counted as many as 15 in the index page of a local tour operator’s booklet.
Christians – I would guess 1 day is enough. There are 3 or 4 great churches in and around Mangalore.
Jains - 1 full day should be good enough. Ideally if you base yourself at Udupi, then it would be better rather than setting your base camp in Mangalore. Both Karkala and Moodabidri are closer to Udupi than Mangalore; however, they are still in reasonable proximity of Mangalore. Plan your day trip as Mangalore-Udupi-Karkala-Moodabidri-Mangalore if your base is in Mangalore or Udupi-Karkala-Moodabidri-Udupi if it is in Udupi. The former route is ~ 200 kms while the latter would be ~100 kms.
Muslims – There were a couple of mosques and dargahs which were marked as tourist locations, but really I do not have a good idea.
Secular Devout – Plan for atleast 3D/4N and base yourself in Mangalore.

What is the ideal budget?
By any stretch of imagination, Tulunadu is not expensive. A 10-12K budget is good enough for a comfortable 3 star accommodation inclusive of sightseeing, food and car hire. I do not think budget is a matter warranting prolonged thought if you are planning to visit this part of Karnataka, focus instead on the number of days and itinerary.

Running for Literacy

Foreword: My friend Shreerang is back to running for literacy, and while I lament my absolute physical inability to follow suit, I still got inspired to think. The thoughts have been distilled into this article.

Almost every year this time, Shreerang puts on his running shoes and hits the training regimen to prepare for his run. He is part of a relay team of 12 runners who aim to cover 199 miles and raise funds for India Literacy Project. At the outset, I will align the reader with some necessary inputs. My friend does not do this for the sake of it. He is genuinely interested in the end literacy goal rather than just the fun element, he trains hard, reaches out to his network assiduously in order to raise awareness and most importantly digs out a sum from his own pocket which equals all the funds he raises. He does this every year, since 3 years now. I admire him and his devotion, but still, somewhere I have a problem with the scheme that is working here

Running for Literacy. My chief argument is – Why do people have to run to increase cancer awareness, to reduce child labor, to protect wildlife and in this case, to improve literacy in India. It has caught on undoubtedly and off course it is working. Isn’t running a serious business? Isn’t literacy an even more serious, almost critical business? So what is this invisible co relation between the two? I think I know the answer

I have been a spectator to at least 4 cases in the last 1 year of people taking part in this or that marathon in this or that part of the world for this or that cause. Given my moribund social network, if a person like me gets 4 requests for donations in a span of 1 year, I can safely assume this to be a trend dangerously bordering a fad. I am afraid for every genuine Shreerang out there, there must be a compensating charlatan who is really just interested in that elusive one line to add in his resume. I went to the relay’s website and saw there were 7 or 8 teams of 12 members each running under the banner India for Literacy. These are people who might never return to their home country. Are all of them as dedicated as my friend? The question I am trying to answer is are they really interested in the running or are they interested in literacy in India. Even after murdering the cynic in me, I just cannot convince myself of the latter proposition

Then there is another diversion my thoughts take. If I assume that running for literacy is indeed positively co related, then why haven’t Indians here in India taking en masse to the streets? If Indians in the US can run for literacy in India why don’t Indians in India do this in the same scale? Surely running is not that difficult. It is a national tragedy if a billion plus people have missed this

Coming to the co relation part, when I was thinking about this article a thought had struck. I later cancelled my own thought after some clarity dawned. I wrote down two sentences and compared them
“When I run and raise funds, I am contributing to improving literacy in India” vs. “When I pay tax, I am contributing to the GDP growth of India”. My original hypothesis was just like it’s impossible to trace how the tax I pay directly impacts India’s growth story it’s equally impossible to trace how the funds raised from running could impact literacy. The reason why the funds-from-running-led-to-a-child-more-literate train of events looses steam is this – the funds collected would flow into a corpus of ‘donations’ and that’s the end of their lifecycle. Very similar to the direct tax receipts the Revenue Secretary feeds on! Figuratively speaking, this is akin to donating a few more drops of water to make the lake swell a fraction more. This corpus would then be used to fund individual projects some 3-6 months duration, some bigger. Let’s take a project as an example. One such project could be bringing children who have simply stopped coming to school in the 10 most backward villages of drought struck Boppal district in Karnataka. For executing this project, money would be required to pay the on field expenses of volunteers, affiliated NGOs etc. Maybe some one can come up with an idea of awarding a bicycle to children who return, stay for 2 years and show satisfactory progress. Here, there would be capex involved in buying second hand bicycles from towns and cities and transporting them to Boppal. So in summary, strictly technically speaking, the money collected from relay runs in the US only funds ILP’s donation corpus and not literacy in India. Runners are basically pinning their hopes on the existence of a functional, efficient bridge from ILP’s donation corpus to literacy in India. Probably, it does exist but who knows!

But thinking deeper, I rejected this analogy of fund raising from running with paying income tax because of a fundamental difference. When I pay tax, I do not influence or energize or mobilize others to do so. On the other hand, when someone runs for a noble cause, he catalyzes non interested dormant individuals into activism. That then circles me back to the original question with which I began. Why do people run for noble causes and why does this scheme exist at all in the first place? To answer in short – it appears to me that it is a good marketing channel, that’s just about it.

ILP needs funds. Period. So there is a significant ‘demand’ for funds. There are people who are genuinely or otherwise interested in helping ILP with money, since most do not have the time to visit Boppal themselves as a field volunteer. So there is ‘supply’. Throw in the relay race or marathon in the picture now. What we have is a public event which attracts one and all from near and far. Why not use this as a platform for the supply to meet the demand and Voila! so it happens. The runner is happy. He/She enjoys the run part and the feel good part of helping a noble cause. The relay organizers are happy. ILP is more than happy, it gets funds which would have been near impossible to channelize otherwise by any other medium.

It just remains to be hoped that Sandhya who ran away from school in Boppal is also happy after coming back to school.

2011 Review and 2012 Plan

Refer this: 2010 Review and 2011 Plan

First things first, let me review the 2011 plan, how much did I manage to achieve
1. Learn Kannada: Abandoned within two months due to lack of motivation
2. Complete 5 stories: Managed to do only 2. Hey! Atleast it’s not a duck!
3. Trading Success: A thorough, complete, unambiguous disaster.
4. Watch the Indian Grand Prix: Cancelled due to multiple reasons

The above, seen in isolation, would mean red marks crawling all over my 2011 report card. But as they say don’t judge a book by its cover, it would be worthwhile to read on the full 2011 review below, as last time, classified into The Peaks - moments of high achievement which brought great pleasure; The Plateaus - moments of no achievement no failure; The Troughs - moments of distress, pain and failure.

The Peaks
1. Remuneration finally decided to move north
2. Spotted a leopard in Bhadra
3. Travelled to a new international destination Langkawi, Malaysia
4. Travelled to 4 new domestic locations – Bandipur, Bhadra, Hyderabad and Tulunadu (Mangalore, Udupi)
5. Watched Metallica live
6. Adopted Twitter in daily life’s routine
7. Made a second big ticket real estate investment

The Plateaus
1. Professional growth
2. XYZ (personal stuff beyond the purview of publishing on this blog)
3. Completed only 2 stories
4. Last year’s real estate buy turned an earning asset

The Troughs
None!

2011 was undoubtedly the annus mirabilis of my life yet. No trough is really dream stuff. Haven’t had such sunny and balmy phase ever. But that old stock market adage looms ominously in front of me – what goes up, comes down. Hope 2012 proves otherwise. Here are my plans for 2012

1. Learn Mandarin: Sounds childish, my romances with languages never last even one full season. This time, it is different. More on this later
2. Get a promotion: yada yada yada…
3. Initiate my culinary independence: 30 years have gone by and I still rely on food not cooked by me. Hope to take some definitive, if not exhaustive steps in this uncharted, and hated direction
4. Read 5 books on Indian political, constitutional or regional history
5. Deftly manage the colossal debt I have acquired: With two home loans, the need for fiscal prudence is at its greatest. Plan is to rationalize expenses in order to boost the bottom line. Pretty important stuff, probably the single most crucial determinant of 2012 success.
6. Write 2 stories: A very modest, achievable target which I would be furious to miss
7. 24 blog posts in 2012: This is just to force some more discipline into my writing.

Travelogue - Bhadra

Introduction – Lakkavalli Dam, Bhadra Reservoir, Bhadra Tiger Reserve, Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary and River Tern Lodge are different monikers to address essentially the same area (see map below). To better understand, each item needs some explanation. Lakkavalli is a small village off National Highway 206 some 40 kms before Shimoga (from Bangalore). Near this village, a dam called Lakkavalli dam, was constructed on the Bhadra river from 1946 to 1965 by Bharat Ratna Sir M Visvesvaraya and more importantly an alumnus of my alma mater College of Engineering Pune. The dam’s reservoir was hence called as Bhadra reservoir. Now this region was a huge forest area, some parts of which got submerged due to the reservoir. “The area was declared as "Jagara Valley Wildlife Sanctuary" by the Government of Mysore in 1951, covering an area of 77.45 sq. miles. After a systematic survey and census of the entire area including animals, birds and plants, it was thought to bring some more area under the Jagara Valley Forests. The adjacent area, which were rich in wildlife was surveyed and the Sanctuary was reconstituted in the year 1974, as Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary” (source –http://projecttiger.nic.in/bhadra.htm)Then in the year 1998, under the aegis of Project Tiger, the whole of Bhadra wildlife sanctuary was made Bhadra Tiger Reserve
This is a highly secluded area quite untouched by the commercialization of travel & tourism. There is just one resort in the entire region called River Tern Lodge, which is owned by the Karnataka state government undertaking Jungle Lodges & Resort. No other private resorts or even makeshift Homestays are around. If one wishes to visit the reserve he has only two options. One, stay at River Tern Lodge and accompany their authorized guides on a jeep safari into the jungle or two, approach the forest range office at Lakkavalli and try out your luck!


Why go there?
It would be more relevant to first talk of ‘Why you should not go there?’ This is not the place for you, if you are the urban city noveau riche variety. This is not the place for you, if you think 12K for a 1N/2D package stay is way too steep. If you have reached till here unscathed by the previous two impediments, then there is just about no other reason why you should not go there! Boat safari – While everyone, me included, grant a lot of attention to the jeep safari it’s smaller cousin the boat safari never gets its due. I have travelled abroad in Langkawi, Malaysia and the standard of River Tern Lodge’s boat safari is at par with international destinations. The islands which play peek-a-boo with the rising and ebbing water level as the seasons go, are covered with rich verdant deciduous to semi-evergreen forests supporting an absolutely unique ecosystem for mammals and especially birds to thrive. In the morning boat safari which we took from 7:00AM to 8:30AM, our guides and co-travelers jointly spotted a Kingfisher, Osprey, Crested Serpent Eagle, Brahminy Kite, Brown Fish Owl, Cormorants, Egrets, Bonnet Macaque, Wagtails, Drongo, Grey Hornbill, Mongoose, Spotted Deer, Jungle Fowl and a Paradise Flycatcher. In case you lost count, that would be 15 animal/bird sightings! Still wondering “Why go there?”
Jeep Safari – When you enter the reception area, you would see a white board with recent sightings written methodically by the resident naturalist of the resort. There are several books on Indian wildlife which one can soak in. All this I found really cool. Lastly, I am aware that no review about any wildlife resort in India can be complete without touching upon the Holy Grail for all wildlife enthusiasts – the Tiger. While the density of tiger population here is among the lowest in any South Indian reserves, but this can be compensated by the brilliant hawkeyed drivers and guides. For the first time in all my travels, I saw the elusive leopard. We were told it was a very, very lucky and rare sighting. Full credit to our jeep safari driver. I gave him a pat on the back:-) When to go there?
River Tern Lodge is so named due to tens of thousands of migrating river terns which nest on an island in the Bhadra reservoir during the months of April-May. These birds come here to roost and offer a noisy spectacle for the visitors in the boat safari. The water level in the reservoir is at its lowest during these summer months, exposing many more tops of hitherto submerged hillocks. The heat makes the animals drink more often and hence offering some of the best wildlife sighting opportunities. Best time to visit would be the hot summer months. Don’t worry, all accommodation is A/C

How to go there?
Drive towards Tumkur. Take the Shimoga bye-pass road at Tumkur (instead of going to Tumkur town) and cross Gubbi, Tiptur, Arsikere, Kadur, Birur, Tarikere. After crossing Tarikere, take the left that also has a Kuvempu University direction board. Travel 14Km till you reach Lakkavalli. At Lakkavalli you will find a sign board to the River Tern Lodge, which is about 4km away. Alternately you can contact the Range Forest Office at Lakkavalli for enquiries. The River Tern Lodge is 38km from Shimoga and is located by the Bhadra Reservoir.
Alternately, one could take a train from Bangalore to Shimoga. There is a very convenient overnight train which runs daily.

How many days/nights should one plan for?
If we keep the budget away, then ideally a 2N/3D stay would be perfect. There is enough to do, see or not do over a 2N/3D period.

What is the ideal budget?
All Jungle Lodges & Resorts have a pricing plan which is all inclusive and on per person per night basis. For River Tern Lodge, it is Rs 4K per person per night. This is that one thorn in the flesh which might deter someone (definitely it does deter me) from extending their 1N/2D jaunt to a more comprehensive 2N/3D itinerary. I think the pricing, although on the expensive side, is fair and correct. I would be surprised if majorities come out saying they did not see ‘value’ in that price. Having said that, I wish JLR come up with some innovative pricing which attracts people to stay longer

Testing Embedded Slideshow

FDI in Multi Brand Retail

Did you know that for every cauliflower that you buy at Rs 10 a piece, the farmer who grew it gets only Rs 3! Approximately 70% of the price we pay for our aloo, tamatar and pyaaz is ironically eaten up in the grossly inefficient supply chain through which the aloo moves from the farm to your shopping cart.

The debate on FDI in multi brand retail still rages on, both inside and outside Parliament. Way back in 2004-05, in B school, I and two other guys had presented a mini project titled “Should Wal-Mart enter Dubai?” Not many people know that yours truly did his MBA in Retail Management (sometimes even I struggle to believe it!). This pedantic pedigree, although of no use to me today, still offers me a vantage perch from which to objectively view Indian retail landscape and an informed base to frame my opinions on. Without any more preludes, let me unequivocally proclaim that I am overwhelming in favour of opening India to foreign direct investment in multi brand retail, with requisite riders.

Any decision making process should involve the steps 1) Gather information, general knowledge on the subject 2) Collect as far as possible accurate data 3) Convert data and information into insights 4) Synthesize insights into pros and cons 5) Consider probabilities of occurrences for these pros and cons 6) Weigh the pros and cons 7) Decide. The detractors and naysayers from the anti-FDI brigade are politicians and lobbyists who are simply playing to the gallery. Most of them are not following the simple step 1 to 7 process above, instead using unfounded presumptions to leapfrog at their decision

Let me assay an explanation (using the steps 1 to 7) how I have arrived at my unequivocal, overwhelming conclusion. In order to do this, let us see how the pre FDI and post FDI supply chains will look like.

Pre FDI (current): Farmer – Commission Agent – Govt. regulated APMC Market Yard – Trader – Wholesaler - Kirana Store – Consumer

Post FDI (future): Farmer – Wal-Mart owned/operated Market Yard – Wal-Mart store – Consumer

The argument from the anti FDI camp stems from a simple comparison of the pre and post supply chains. According to them, the middle part of the chain will be eliminated. There are about 1-2 crore kirana stores in the country. Similar magnitudes of numbers can be contemplated for the traders/ functionaries at the market yard. This is the basis of their doomsday outlook. It is not entirely wrong but importantly not totally correct either. In fact, the truth leans towards the latter.

If we try to understand what value does each step or each participant in the supply chain add, one can easily see why the anti FDI argument stands on weak ground. Let’s begin with the farmer, who in all probability adds the maximum value as an originator of the chain. He produces the crop and gets a price for it. Next in line are the commission agents. These are simply aggregators of the crop who operate under a license from the government controlled Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis or market yards. Their commissions are also decided by the government and typically varies from 6-9%. Although they may perform several other activities as well, these agents primarily add value by aggregating the crop produce from several distant villages and farms into the nodal mandi or market yard. Next in line is the market yard itself with its multitude of participants. Each market yard, apart from its organization hierarchy of betel chewing, tambakhu spitting govt. babus, also has weigh men or tola and laborers or mathadi, The weigh man’s (also authorized by the state governments) job is to simply weigh the crop accurately with standard weights and measures, certify the same and take a fee in return. That’s it! The system has engendered highly unproductive job roles. The labourer or mathadi as the name suggests, carry the sacks or lots of grains on their head for loading/unloading from trucks. As an aggregate ecosystem, however, the market yard does add immense value. It helps in collecting, grading, sorting, weighing and price discovery of the farmer’s produce. Next in line are the notorious traders. These simply buy from the commission agents/farmers and sell it at a profit to the wholesaler for onwards distribution. The plethora of malpractices which afflict our agricultural landscape e.g. hoarding happens at this step in the supply chain. Naturally this becomes the strongest link in the chain, which means a powerful lobby, which means a demanding vote bank. The political parties (namely BJP) who derive substantial support from this trader community are naturally opposed to bringing FDI.

If we stop here and try to understand the impact of FDI on each of these market participant based on the value they add, its clear the traders, commission agents, wholesalers will get hit the hardest, in that order. The weigh men, the bonded labourer by virtue of services they give, will simply get absorbed in the new world.

The last link in the chain – the ubiquitous galli ka kirana store needs special attention and discourse. What is the value proposition which the neighborhood mom & pop stores offer? Superior customer relationship, free home delivery, credit facility and convenience of being around the corner. The Wal-Marts and Carrefours of the world can not even remotely match these qualities of the kirana store. Hence, it is a foolishly obstinate argument which states foreign retailers will wipe out all kirana stores. Even from a pure marketing angle, I would disagree. The market segments which each format caters to is so distinct that they can both happily co-exist for decades till India’s growing economic prosperity finally pushes the population in the lower rungs of our income pyramid firmly upwards. Wal-Mart will never open shop in a Sadashiv Peth in Pune or Indiranagar in Bangalore or Bandra in Mumbai. They will typically locate themselves on peripheral ring roads where real estate is cheaper. While it is true that some kirana stores will loose out, but those numbers will be dwarfed by the sheer scale of employment which a Wal-Mart will generate.

That is the good side, there does exist the bad side too. One genuine concern is the fear of oligopsony. An oligopsony is a market place with too many buyers and very few sellers, something like a cartel. One scenario from the anti FDI camp which deserves merit is initially everything will be hunky dory for the farmer who will get higher realizations and the consumer who will get wide choices; but after 5 years the market will witness a cartelization and the re exploitation of the farmers. This is where the ‘rider’ part is so critical in India’s FDI policy. The Congress’ current proposal is at least an attempt to avoid such possibilities. Commerce Minister Anand Sharma even hinted at an independent regulator for retail, if the need such arises. He was pretty clear when he agreed to such a possibility and said we would have to make course corrections along the way, but we won’t know that until we do it in the first place!

There is one last point which in my language, I call – ‘aspirational benchmark’. This point has been largely ignored in all ongoing polemics on this issue of FDI. India is a poor country. Vast, unimaginable numbers of its population are still in the metamorphosis of being upwardly mobile. The process has been excruciatingly slow. If the millions of Indians cannot go abroad and see how the Wal-Marts work out there, why shouldn’t we bring the ‘foreign world’ in our back yard and show it to our people. Just a few days ago, MORE hypermarket store opened near here where I live. Owing to its location which is in close proximity to a lower middle income population, every other day I see scores of young and old take their first tentative steps on the escalator in the hypermarket. The joy on their faces from experiencing something new is priceless. I see ragamuffin schoolgirls with unwashed faces, scraggy hair squeaking in delight at their ‘access’ to a whole section of imported chocolates, even though they cannot buy it. I see poor people learn to use the shopping trolleys which they ‘own’ for the brief period they are in the shop. These are aspirational experiences for the lower rung of our population.

That is one more mouth to the already deafening din of voices on the FDI issue. These are my views; we live in a free country so everyone is entitled to one. I hope this policy gets to see the light of the day. I would love to re visit this article after 10 years with benefit of hindsight to ascertain the 2011 Manmohan Singh led Congress government’s Foreign Divine Investment or Foreign Doomed Investment

Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn

For a person like me whose primary email id is one of the most famous swear words in the history of comic books, watching Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn was mandatory. And I absolutely loved it

While this may not be Spielberg's numero uno output till date, it still is one of the flawless paradigms of the man much celebrated craft. The entire movie is an adaptation, which means, it is a fairly unique story which draws unto itself characters, situations and most critically mannerisms from the original Tintin books. The story is a mix of two or three books namely "Secret of the Unicorn" & "Red Rackham's Treasure". One gets to see Tintin, Snowy, Captain Haddock, Thompson & Thomson, Bianca Castafiore and a few sidekicks Nester, Mrs Finch. Here I shall share my impressions of the film as a whole and each of the characters

The Film - As an entire package, it scores well. The new elements in the storyline are very interesting but crucially for purists like me, very Tintin like. What I mean by that is, it almost feels like Herge (pronounced Errzhe) wrote it himself. This is a film which the kids will adore. During the entire period of 109 mins, kids were laughing and clapping, especially towards the end, when Tintin & Co pull off an incredibly unbelievable chase sequence (seen in 3D its even better) which is where I see Spielberg's genius. There is also one more important point, this film should also appeal to the non Tintinized world. It is very simple to follow and understand. While aficionados would look for subtleties (and there are plenty!), walk in audience would love the adventure and animation. The only negative, if at all, is the lack of dearest of all dears Prof Cuthbert Calculus and the indomitable Rastapopulous. Maybe there would be a sequel.

Tintin & Snowy - Both very nicely depicted. Spielberg has taken care to visually represent Tintin as close to the print version as the freedom of film making would allow. I particularly liked the screen presence given to Snowy. He has been made as central to the plot as Tintin & Haddock. He enjoys several seconds of solitary focus on the frame, which again I liked a lot. Herge would have certainly wanted it that way too :-)

Archibald Haddock - His entry is a tad late in the film and he is not at his best. But again, since this is the relatively older story adaptation where Tintin & Haddock meet for the first time, we really wont get to see what Haddock is capable of. Having said that, the script still does ample justice to his famed drinking, lunatics and how can I ever forget swearing. Yeah! he does say Ten Thousand Thundering Typhoons.

Thompson & Thomson - I absolutely loved them. They have been given a fair bit of screen presence and as usual they hog the limelight. Again, just like Haddock, this storyline does not give enough latittude for them to really demonstrate what they are capable of. The scene with the pickpocket is hilarious. I had a riot laugh.

Bianca Castafiore - Castafiore's character and role has been very deftly woven into the script, which is what pleased me essentially. She has not been 'forcefully' introduced just to please the Tintin fans worldover. What was missing, though, was Castafiore & Haddock's jugalbandi. They dont speak to each other at all :-(

In summary, the film has my thumbs up. Go watch it. Doesn't matter if you are a kid of seven or seventy.