My Mail to Radio One RJ Prithvi

Dear Prithvi,

I am a regular listener of your show (I guess I have no other choice as far as hindi music is concerned). I would request you to evaluate a change in the format of the shows mentioned above as they seem to be demeaning people and berating them publically for things that they have not done.

You also use a false identity to achieve the end result - a flustered, humiliated and shocked individual, stammering on air, thanking his stars that he got a call from the biggest public personality this side of the Tropic of Cancer.

By airing these programs you are in violation of the enduring principles of broadcasting that all programming should not mislead, cause offence, or lead to harm, particularly to the vulnerable. Would request you to use the Self-Regulation Guidelines for the Broadcasting Sector (file attached) to make the changes that you feel will make your program endearing not offensive to its audience. Please refer to Page 5 - Section B: Principles - bullet point 11 - subpoint a of the attached file for more information.

Wishing you all the luck in transforming your programs and increasing your connect with the audience in Bangalore!

Warm Regards

Sachin Gaur

Bangloreans has no self respect - Or they decide not to exercise it.

Entertainment, as far as I am concerned makes you feel good about life in general. However this is untrue if you are listening to Radio One 94.3 FM in Bangalore (and a couple of other cities around this place).
So I start for work everyday between 7:40 and 8 every morning and with morbid curiosity tune into hear RJ Prithvi. This guy seems to make a living out of abusing and harassing innocent folks who in most cases are just starting their day. Every day for the past 6 months I have been tuning-in trying to find what happens to the poor guy who gets caught in this ridiculous one sided verbal lashing peddled as entertainment.

So he would call people accusing them of stealing at workplace, harassment, long smoking breaks, taking too many leaves etc posing as some compliance / vigilance guy, threatening them with job loss. The language used will sure raise more than eyebrows in any organization.

The 3 completely uncivilized sections of RJ Prithvi's show are called "Tring tring", "Morning Dose" and "Ghanta Singh". All three are attempts to catch people unawares in a GAG/Bakra format but are executed in absolutely bad taste.They demean honest, innocent bangaloreans/people from other city on air so that the station can increase listener-ship. The best part is that each of the folks who are on the receiving end have no self respect to react to this public berating, and ask RJ Prithvi to stop doing this.

I think we do something about it - Let us send a strong message to forms of entertainment which by design subject everyday folks to humiliation and verbal assault.

So crank up your computers and send an email to prithvi.vishwanath@radioone.in, telling him to tone his shows down and bring in the real entertainment. You can also visit the forums for these shows at http://www.radioone.in/smithaShow.asp

Heading back to Guard-Den city

Quite a sad day. We were about to leave and get back to the Guard-Den city. Here is how the world looked from our balcony at the Garden Retreat in Chikmagalur.

Good people -1, big bad world-0

So here is an interesting incident - We reach the peak (Mulyangiri) and are thrown from a pleasant 18-20 degree Celsius to around 8 degree Celsius with a wind chill factor of 2, driving sleet and no warm clothing.
Looking around for a tea stall (which are usually ubiquitous) we drew a blank. Then we saw this lady preparing something warm, and asked her for 2 cups of coffee.
She obliged and when the time came to payup we asked her how much and she replied that we owe her nothing as she was preparing coffee for the film unit shooting down hill and she felt that we really needed the warmth.

Good people + Humanity -1, big bad world-0

We told her that we wanted her photograph and have her permission to post it on our blog :-)

Imagine a billboard at 6,317ft!

Imagine a billboard at 6,317ft. Puja is in no way endorsing the brand (they havent approached us as yet).

Puja & Sachin at Mulayangiri

Puja & Sachin at Mulayangiri near Chikmagalur. This peak is the highest (6,317ft) in karnataka and the highest between Nilgiris and the Himalayas. This peak can be reached from Chikamagalur and is around 15+kms distance from the town.

How America is weaning itself from oil

Here is aninteresting video that charts the hole that US of A has dug itself into and how sane people are putting in a plan (not all of which is on the right path) to get it out of that hole.

Only those who know will know!!

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If you are intrigued then look here: Wired News

This post is coming after a long time. Both of us got busy with work and shifting to a newer place (rental of course, what were you thinking?). This is a georgeous 3 bed room apartment at L&T South City on Bannerghatta Road.

Puja at this moment is at Allahabad on her vacation and I am here at Bangalore. Both of us are miserable and I hope this is the last time we are on a vacarion separately. Here is something that I am listening to and seems to be saying a lot of things that I am thinking.



This is an amazing song called "Abhi Nahin Aana" by Shona Mohapatra. A lovely soulful ballad - just the way songs should be! Puppu Hope you enjoy this. Call me when you Send in your comments about the song though!

For everyone hell bent on downloading this, here is the link:

A sham-show called Iraq!!

My apologies to anyone reading this. I know that this is not a political blog but I feel that Iraq is an ethical issue more than a political one.

Saddam's hanging today (about 6 AM Iraqi local time) is a grave miscarriage of justice seldom before seen in the history of humankind. I may not be an expert on Iraq, Saddam and all the evil deeds that he has done, but what I know the following for sure:

1. Saddam has done some pretty evil things
2. Some or most of these evil things were being done with either implicit or explicit permission of the current "Sheriff of the Globe" and his assistant (both being representatives of their former governments)
3. Iraq has had some serious issues between the 2 major factions and both hold grudges against one another
4. The current Iraqi government is composed of the faction which hates Saddam and his posse of people (whatever those reasons maybe)
5. Saddam has been accused of "crimes against humanity"
6. Humanity is defined as " world: all of the living human inhabitants of the earth" (as per http://www.wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)
7. Saddam was captured by the Coalition forces and has strangely been handed over to the Iraqi government for a trial against the charges that he has been accused (see point 5)
8. The last time this type of charges were levied (II nd World War), the trails gained the attention of the world and were tried by a group of internationally renowned jurists (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Trials). The German war criminals were not handed over to the Russians? were they??

Let me get straight to the point, Saddam's hanging has clearly revealed that the so called peacemakers are as myopic, selfish and under-evolved as any other goddamn dictator anywhere else in the world.

There is no higher pursuit of democracy, peace or justice. It all boils down to the neanderthal urge of man (in this case, read it as 'men') to take revenge and not admit to a mistake to feed an extraordinarily large ego.

Here is why Saddam was hanged (at least that is what I can make out of this entire sham-show of a trial!):

• Hanging Saddam was the easy way out from the "Iraq has Weapons of Mass Destruction" debacle. No Saddam = all WMD destroyed (no one will ever remember that there were no WMDs to begin with!! - shame on Public Memory)
• It lets the ruling faction of the Iraqi government to have their "pound of flesh" (Shylock's immortalized expression from Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice") and establish the "quid" of the quid pro quo with the Coalition and help satiate their SUV fueled appetite for oil and energy
• Eliminate all evidence of how many of these "crimes against humanity" were undertaken and completed with either implicit or explicit consent/material and human support of the Coalition members (you know who I am talking about)

I am no fan of Saddam nor do I think that he should not be punished. But just like any reasonable man next door, I too believe that justice cannot be delivered by a kangaroo court of shouting lawyers, a sand dune of judges (changed thrice during the trial), defence attorneys afraid of death threats, political harangues from both sides, and television cameras and microphones emphasising the status of the proceedings as mass entertainment (the last 19 words borrowed from Brian Barder's blog, for their eloquence)

This day will live in infamy for all humankind and should be remembered as a day when the world forgot all about justice in its blind pursuit for punishment. God help us all!!

Here are some opposing views ("What's life without hearing and understanding the other side")

• Brad Warthen's Blog (Pro Hanging)
• Saddam sentenced to death by hanging (Pro Hanging)
• Bush and Blair have forfeited the moral authority to hang Saddam (Your Guess!!)

Sachin & Puja at Pondicherry

Baba's place the day after Diwali