For hospitality sector, there’s a fire. Due to no smoke

A friend working in the hotel industry tells me footfall (oh, that’s the number of customers in the amazing world of newspaper vagueness) has really gone down the drain. The reasons are obvious, as television reporters never tire of telling us: the scare phenomenon in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attack in November (oops, sorry: “26/11”) and the economic slowdown.
Good enough reasons, I say. But one more reason here: Fuhrer Ramadoss’s diktat. I mean, the forced no-smoking signs inside restaurants, bars and pubs. Many, like me for instance, have simply stopped going out for a meal and a drink or three due to that human excreta of an order. But hey, aren’t many industries and sectors getting economic sops in this season of gloom?
So, here’s an idea for the hospitality sector: petition our esteemed health minister to withdraw the ban on smoking at eateries and drinking dens, temporarily at least. After all, extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, Fuhrer Ramadoss.

Why PC likes Slumdog

The film Slumdog Millionaire has found an unusual fan: PC Chidambaram. Yes, him of raise-the-tax-for-middle-class motto. India’s new Home Minister and forever-Finance Minister, as reports PTI, sees the film as elevating: he feels it showcases the entrepreneurial talents of slum dwellers in India. “Please watch the movie after its release," he said on Jan 24, a day after the film was released in theatres across the country.
“A slum like Dharavi in Mumbai is humming with business ideas and innovations and we have to reach to such people also… (A) lot of young men and women in slums have the necessary qualities of being innovative and are willing to take risk to carry out a business venture.”
No doubt, Mr Chidambaram. But what “innovative ideas” and “necessary qualities” do we see among the slum dwellers in the film?
Besides a man with a telescopic memory for all things that has screwed up his life, let’s see:
# in your childhood, how to con people
# in youth, how to con people
# in adulthood, how to con people
And, somewhere along the way, how to shoot a gun and join a gang.
Simple. And uncomplicated.
Good business sense and skill? You bet! Little wonder, his motto is raise the tax for the middle class.

Now showing, at a paper near you: Bad Times

It’s here, finally, for the Indian media. The bad times, the sad times, the mad times. The layoff and frozen-hike times. The heartbreak and heartache times. And then the rounds. Rounds of newspaper offices. Rounds of editors who, suddenly, would have no time for you. Rounds of banks to readjust your loans.
It’s like a merry-go-round/ Only, there’s nothing merry about it. The first black prez or not, I am afraid.