Author: The Metrognome

Categories
Big story

A Chinese invasion this Diwali

Demand for Chinese products is up by 45 per cent. Tight household budgets and costly Indian products are to blame.
by The Diarist | thediarist@themetrognome.in

Chinese products have more than flooded the market this Diwali – as per a survey by the Associated Chamber of Commerce’s (ASSOCHAM) Social Development Foundation, the demand for Chinese products this Diwali has gone up by an average of 45 per cent across the country. Their attractive packaging and low price are driving consumers to buy them over their Indian counterparts, the survey finds.

If this state of affairs continues, we might as well be learning how to say ‘Happy Diwali’ in Chinese.

The survey finds that local artisans are facing an increasingly stiff competition from the Chinese crackers, lampshades, lights, Ganesha and Laxmi idols, rangolis and diyas. “Over 78 per cent consumers said that the Chinese lights are almost 50 per cent cheaper as compared to Indian lights, and have more variety. Also, it saves nearly 35 per cent of the Diwali budget,” the survey says.

Suhashri Raut, a Matunga resident told The Metrognome, “We have been buying less crackers for our son, because the crackers he demands are more expensive every year. And children are never satisfied with just a few crackers, you have to keep buying more and more. I went to a market in Borivli with my cousin, and there we purchased many crackers which the dealer told us were from China. I purchased a lot of bombs and chakris for Rs 2,000.” The survey says that consumers are increasingly preferring Chinese crackers because they “are more colourful, produce more sound and have a lot of variety and are cheap, too.”

The Indian fireworks market is pegged at Rs 1,800 crore; it employs about 2.5 lakh people and provides an additional five lakh indirect jobs. The Chinese fireworks circulating in the market currently constitute about Rs 250 crore of the fireworks market share. The ASSOCHAM survey contends that Chinese fireworks illegally enter India through Nepal.

Nobody’s buying greeting cards either

Meanwhile, ASSOCHAM says that the demand for Diwali cards has gone down by over 70 per cent in the last five years, owing to people relying more on e-cards, SMS, MMS, phone calls and social networking to wish each other during the festive season. “During Diwali, the postal department is facing a slump because there is a steep decline in the movement of Diwali post cards and greetings cards. Earlier, the postal department used to handle about 8,000 post cards and greeting cards per day during Diwali, but now the numbers have come down to about 500 cards per day,” reveals ASSOCHAM.

(Picture courtesy www.india-forums.com)

Categories
Enough said

Naipaul and the overbearing wife

Humra Quraishi writes about her feelings about Girish Karnad’s recent tirade against VS Naipaul, and of the overprotective Mrs Naipaul.

When I heard about playwright and actor Girish Karnad’s tirade against writer VS Naipaul, I was a little amused, and I must admit, a little happy that somebody had finally spoken out so vehemently against him. But more on that later.

I first met Naipaul and his wife Nadira at Khushwant Singh’s home a few years ago. What had immediately struck me within minutes of the meeting, was the lady at the writer’s side. Nadira seemed to exercise total control over her husband, as though some severe insecurity was sapping her, making her hover over him constantly. She seemed overpowering, almost posing a  hurdle to any conversation between her famous husband and me.

And this pattern was repeated every time we met in subsequent years. When I next met them in around 2004, Naipaul had recently done the unthinkable – at least, unthinkable to the sane and  sound of mind in this country. From some semi-political platform, he had given a clean chit of  sorts to the destruction of the Babri Masjid. A Lord giving his approval to destruction! I was astounded.

And so I was dying to throw some unsettling questions at him when we met right after his famous pronouncement, but once again, Nadira swooped in and started hovering around. No sooner had I sat on the chair placed next to him, than she took hold of another chair and sat down on his other side. Though the host for the meeting tried to seat her elsewhere, she shook her head stubbornly and immediately put on a mothering act; serving daal and fried bhindi into a bowl together with salad and curd on his plate, she repeatedly kept asking him whether he wanted this or that.

As she got up to fetch a drink, I’d started the conversation with him, commenting on how little he was eating. “After a certain age, one shouldn’t eat much. I have begun to eat little,” he  said, sounding a little depressed.

“And what are you writing these days?” I asked.

“Nothing, really…after a certain age it gets difficult to write.”

“But isn’t writing an ongoing exercise?”

“No, it gets difficult to write after a certain age. I suppose if I was doing business, I would have carried on, but with writing it isn’t easy.”

“Are you planning to switch over to politics? I ask because you aired, rather too blatantly, some Right wing views recently?”

“No, no politics.”

“But didn’t you travel to Nashik?” I went on. “And it is said that your longish stay at the Maurya Sheraton’s luxury suite was sponsored by a certain political party?”

“Yes, I did travel to Nashik…and here in New Delhi, I did go to the  BJP office headquarters. What’s wrong if a writer goes to a political party’s office and interacts with their workers and leaders?” he spluttered.

I asked my next question. “Shouldn’t a writer not support blatant destruction? Of structures, human or otherwise?”

He’d looked rattled, cornered. And as if out of force of habit, he started looking around for an escape route, somebody to pamper and protect him from fresh onslaughts. And the escape route appeared just then – Nadira was back and seated in the chair she had briefly vacated. Any further queries directed at Naipaul were then answered by the ‘Back off’ look on her face.

He couldn’t answer any more questions, giving in completely to her ministrations with a lopsided smile. I stared with amazement as she overstretched herself, putting up a big show of protecting her husband in a laughably pretentious way.

But where was Nadira last week? It seems she couldn’t protect her husband from Girish  Karnad’s speech, that was aimed at exposing that jaundiced-against-certain-communities streak in most of Naipaul’s works. I confess that I was quietly elated with the incident – it was about time that someone ripped off the hypocrisy hovering around Naipaul and the heavily-biased views that he craftily weaves into his writings.

Humra Quraishi is a veteran journalist and author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Absolute Khushwant. 

(Picture courtesy www.outlook.com)

Categories
Eat

Last day: Grab your reward points and coupon code

PoshVine launches in the city today. Still haven’t signed up for great eating out experiences in Mumbai? Do it today.

Early this week, we featured PoshVine, a restaurant concierge service that is launching in Mumbai today. Prior to the launch, we tied up with PoshVine to offer you, our reader, an incredible eating out experience at a nice restaurant of your choice.

Reward points and coupon code

As reward for being our reader, we gave you the chance to sign up on poshvine.com for free, and use a discount coupon code unique to The Metrognome. You could register and immediately be rewarded with 1,000 points, which are redeemable later in lieu of several dining experiences that PoshVine has to offer. You could book a table and have a complimentary drink served to you and your friends, you could redeem your points for a special experience designed and executed by PoshVine – such as a masterclass with a reputed chef, or a food trail in the city – and for signing up, you could get an immediate offer of a one-time special discount on select PoshVine experiences.

We’re telling you all this because this offer ends today. If you still haven’t grabbed your chance for a wonderful eating out experience, sign up on this link http://www.poshvine.com/auth/register and use The Metrognome coupon code PVRCSON28.

It’s great being of help to you! Here’s wishing you and your family a very happy Diwali.

Regards,

The Editor.

 

Categories
Big story

EXCLUSIVE: Lavasa file destroyed in fire, still not restored

The top priority file had recommended the withdrawal of Lavasa’s special planning authority status on few counts of building norm violations.
by Vrushali Lad | vrushali@themetrognome.in

It doesn’t seem like the dust isn’t about to settle on the already mired-in-controversy Lavasa project.

It may be remembered that four months ago,on June 21, three floors of the Mantralaya were gutted in a major, daytime fire. Along with several important files, the file for the withdrawal of the much-debated Special Planning Authority (SPA) status granted to the Lavasa Corporation Limited (LCL) was also destroyed. And four months later, the top priority file has not been completely restored yet.

Certain parts of the file were restored by the office of the Director of Town Planning based in Pune. After this, the restored documents were submitted to the Urban Development Department (UDD) in Mumbai in July this year. However, there has been no further development on the file’s complete restoration from the UDD end, since August this year.

Why is the file important?

The SPA status of the project, in essence, allows developers to function like planning agencies; they can even sanction building and construction plans in their own authority, and they do not need approval from the municipal corporation and town planning agencies. However, they must submit their sanctioned plan to the municipal corporation within three months of starting work. More importantly, the sanctioned plans thus submitted must fall in line with the Master Plan for that region, and not flout any development control regulation.

The UDD had, last year, recommended to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan that Lavasa’s SPA status be withdrawn – citing alleged violations in the project, such as work on certain portions had been done without a development plan. Also, the Floor-to-Space-Index (FSI) for certain non-buildable portions had allegedly been built upon. Additionally, the UDD had recommended that the SPA status provision for private entities be removed from town planning norms.

And then that file, which was in the Chief Minister’s office, got burnt.

Present status

Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has been coming under fire for inaction on this matter, from all quarters. However, it is reliably learnt that after being burnt in the fire, the file has not yet been routed to the CM’s office. The CM is said to have called for the file now.

 (Picture courtesy www.ithappensindia.com)

 

Categories
Event

Dombivali may create Guinness World Record today

Mumbai Pooram event will see a record 3,500 Kaikottikali dancers perform at Dombivali tonight for a shot at Guinness glory.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Dombivali is all geared up for a massive dance show tonight – the KDMC Grounds will witness a historic 3,500 dancers, all of them from different parts of Mumbai and all of them originally from Kerala – where a massive but coordinated Kaikottikali dance performance will be put up on the first-day of a three-day annual cultural fest celebrating Kerala. The show might put the dancers and the event in the Guinness Book of World Records; officials from the organisation will be present to witness the performance for synchronisation and overall presentation.

Interestingly, all ages from years 13 and above are allowed to participate, so the group of dancers will be a motley mix of teenagers, mothers and even grandmothers.

The Metrognome spoke to a participant from Bhandup’s Usha Nagar, Madhuri Prathap (40), a Bharatnatyam dance teacher who, with nine of her students, will perform today. “A college friend of mine was one of the organisers for the event, and she told me to enter as many of my students as I could,” Madhuri said, adding that the call to participate for the event was made by two coordinators, who went to each Kerala samajam in Mumbai to stress on the fact that this time, the event could try for an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records. Interestingly, the feat has already been performed last year and has won an entry in the Limca Book of Records.

“Last Sunday we had a mega rehearsal at Dombivali, where at least 2,000 dancers turned up to practice. We are nervous but very excited to be a part of such a historic event,” Madhuri beamed. “It’s a dream come true to be a part of it.”

About the event

Modelled on the lines of Kerala’s ‘Thrissur Pooram’, Kerala’s most famous temple festival held every year, the Mumbai Pooram is celebrated as a three-day extravaganza with dance performances, laser shows, pyrotechnics, food festivals and exhibitions, among others. Mumbai Pooram is reportedly the biggest Kerala festival held outside that State.

The Kaikottikali is a group dance comprising girls and women dressed in traditional Kerala saris. The mega dance event is called the Dhathri Maha Kaikottikali and has been approved by the Guinness Book of World Records as a viable attempt at creating a record.

(Picture courtesy www.downvids.com)  

 

Categories
Film

In Blade we trust

The Dabanng 2 poster is copied from Blade. And Brad Pitt was recently a body double for another Bollywood actor.
by M | M@themetrognome.in

Salmanbhai is back in action with Dabangg 2. The highly-anticipated sequel is scheduled to release soon and a teaser poster of the film was made public yesterday. Naturally, excited fans lapped it up at once.

While it is too early to comment on the merits and demerits of the film, it is safe to say that Dabangg 2 has some very big shoes to fill. Dabangg was super successful at the box office and the audience’s expectations from this one will be much higher. For now, though, let’s talk about the poster released yesterday – we are happy to note that while it is not a very creative poster, it sure is properly copied.

That’s right. Check out the evidence.

                                               

Clearly the poster is ‘inspired from Blade. Considering how most creative agency meetings go, I am sure the brief for the creative agency that handled Dabangg 2 went something like this: “We want it to look like this (shows Blade’s poster on the iPad), just replace the blade with Chulbul’s goggles and the black man with Sallu… So easy it is na! (laughs at own wit).”

In recent times, the poster for Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara was copied from Lords of Dogtown.

 

And that’s not all. Check out the other poster of Dabangg 2.

Notice the slimmer version of Salman? Now, this is not just photoshopping. Since carving away a few pounds at the waistline with an edit brush is very time consuming for Bollywood, many have come up with quicker and easier alternatives.

What you are about to read is a true story.

At a lengthy and pointless marketing meeting for a then upcoming spy film, the film’s poster was in jeopardy. The release date of the film had to be announced that week and a poster was critical for the announcement. The problem was, the actor had wrapped up his shooting schedule and was on vacation with his girlfriend at a non-accessible location. Plus, the actor, who had beefed up for the role, was now out of shape and would take at least a month to be fit for the photo shoot. Given how the industry usually functions, the eventuality of the poster causing trouble was not contemplated when the actor was still in the country and fit enough to be photographed.

So one of the producers, who also happened to be the actor’s business partner, proposed a solution that left most of the people in the room shocked. To be able to release the poster with the actor looking like a million bucks, the producer suggested that the creative team use a body double for the poster and stick the actor’s head on that body.

A body double was immediately arranged for. His name was Brad Pitt, and after said Bollywood actor’s head was pasted on Brad’s body, the poster was released a week later.

There are many who struggle and strive to be as fit as their heroes on screen, sometimes even resorting to bodybuilding drugs, ignoring the side-effects that can even be permanent. Little do they know that not just the concept of the creative, but nowadays even the bodies on the posters are ‘imported’ from Hollywood.

Moral of the story: As long as Brad Pitt is in shape, our actors Khan be too.

Sharp as a tack and sitting on more hot scoops than she knows what to do with, M is a media professional with an eye on entertainment.

(Featured image courtesy www.image.buzzintown.com)

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