Riding the Wave...

So the current buzzword among technically erudite circles is Google Wave. And the not-so-tech-savvy people are feeling left out, so they're looking for Google Wave invites, just to "be among the elite". Of course, for a first-order geek, it always gives a strange kick to be among the first adopters of any new technology. It kinda improves their "tech quotient" among social (read geeky) circles.

I tried Google Wave too. For all the hype surrounding it, it disappointed me, to say the least. Even a tech-savvy person like me took some time to understand the concept, so I wonder whether ordinary users would be able to appreciate the significance of the concept. And even if they do, the point is it doesn't give you any earth-shattering improvement over good old Gmail. In fact, unless you explicitly "play" a wave, it looks like what programmers call Spaghetti code - a highly convoluted email chain with random insertions, completely devoid of any kind of sequence. Our eyes are accustomed to reading a mail conversation sequentially, so as long as conventional mail services exist, Google Wave would stand out as sore thumb. And as I mentioned before, most users are more than satisfied with what Gmail provides, so there is no need really, for a concept that's as drastically different as this.

Today, when the aim of technology is to spread itself as far and wide as possible, the focus should be on simplicity, rather than pathbreaking concepts. In such a scenario, I feel that Google Wave is destined to suffer a disturbingly rapid demise.

Hit Wicket

The current spat between Bal Thackeray and Sachin Tendulkar reminds me of a scene from the movie Chak De India. As the girls introduce themselves to Shahrukh Khan as "Balbir Kaur, Punjab!", "Komal Chautala, Haryana!", Shahrukh says - "Mujhe states ki naam na sunayie dethe hai, na dikhai dete hai. Sirf ek mulk-a-naam sunayie detha hai, I-N-D-I-A!!".

We Indians are unabashedly patriotic when it comes to sport. With all due respect to state teams, I think no one gives a damn when the Tamil Nadu cricket team defeats Maharashtra, or vice versa. But the international arena is one area where all of India unites together to support the team. Sachin is as equally loved by the rest of India, as is by Marathis. An achievement at the international level in any field, be it sport, literature or science, should be celebrated across the country. All of Sachin's achievements have been as an Indian batsman, not as a Mumbai batsman, so I think it is perfectly right for Sachin to say that he is an Indian first.

In today's pluralistic society (or is it?) such regionalism by Shiv Sena is a shame for Indian politics. I can only view it as a last-ditch attempt by the Sena to regain its stature, as it approaches its inevitable demise, caused due to a not-so-charismatic scion, as well as a super-aggressive rebel who's snatched the Sena's positioning from right under its nose.