Times Of India (TOI) SUCKS! But, there’s no option!

One of the sad things about being away from India is that you miss the spectacle of news channels trying to make the most unimportant and tasteless news into a delicacy that promises to change your life forever! Don’t the nostalgic flashbacks of news anchors shouting at the top of their voice never fail to bring warmth to your heart too?

So, what do all you NRIs who want to stay connected to the “pulse” of your mother India do? You type in timesofindia(dot)com. (I am deliberately avoiding a direct link to the site as I don’t want to be cursed for 3days when you will be in bed with that headache that just won’t go away!)

In a brief moment, as your life flashes before you, Times Of India website loads up. In it, you see a bunch of naked women, a few outright adult articles, a whole section of news on who killed who, who kissed who, who got naked, who didn’t get naked but is shouting foul etc etc. Somewhere in that pile of words, you will find, and I don’t promise this, a few actual “news” articles. The kind which, apart from getting you some great bedroom ideas, have the potential of changing your life.

In essence, in Times Of India world, Manmohan Singh takes a backseat; wars are boring too; and Anna Hazaare and his chums playing kabaddi with Mr. Sibal are “too routine” to make the cut. So what if world is at the brink of another financial meltdown, for the editors of Times of India, why “Mrs. Australia bares all” is just as important a news.

It is indeed saddening to see how Times Of India website which started out as an authentic source of news a few years ago has been reduced a mere tabloid in a race to garner more page views. But, I don’t blame them entirely, for we, the readers also have contributed to a large extent to its fate. I mean, Times Of India is just showing what we want to see!

I don’t have the official numbers but I can bet my dog’s food that Katrina Kaif’s sexy pics

Quantum of Solace – Just another Bond movie.

Another eagerly anticipated Bond movie featuring Daniel Craig as the famous 007 Agent. First thing first… how good is this Bond movie? The answer to that is a plain ‘average’!

The movie opens with a chase sequence, similar to but more spectacular and high-octane than that in Casino Royale, with our macho Bond going after yet another bad guy. Nothing new! But the way the whole sequence has been shot blows your mind away. As the movie progresses, one thing that again strikes your mind is the stark paucity of gadgets reminiscent of the times of Pierce Brosnan. Making it worse is the absence of the Bond car (Aston Martin). The charm is a bit lost. I mean, if your average Bond movie was to become something like a Bourne movie, I’d rather watch the latter for the simple fact that at least the idea and the action are original.

Confirmed iPHONE Launch Price Rs. 31,000!!!

UPDATED ON AUGUST 20: The wait is finally over!!! iPHONE 3G is coming to India on August 22 through two operator networks AIRTEL and VODAFONE. An official Vodafone SMS stated the price for the 8GB iPHONE 3G variant as Rs. 31,000. The booking has to be done on August 20 and 21 with a pre-order amount of Rs. 10,000 with the rest being paid at the time of ‘appointment’ (i.e. when you buy the phone).

This is particularly heartbreaking for most Apple fans in India because shelling out Rs. 31K for an iPHONE 3G is a bit hard especially when the nearest competitor, the NOKIA N95 8GB costs around Rs. 22K (Gaffar Market, New Delhi). Mr. Steve Jobs, all that ‘sex appeal’ may not be able to pull a million expected buyers to the nearest shops unless something is done to bring down the price.

Original article continues below:

Arguably the sexiest cell phone on the planet, definitely the most-hyped gadget of recent times, iPHONE 3G was unveiled on July 11 across 12 countries. Of course the disadvantage of being in India is that I will have to wait for months before the first one comes in!

Well, the popularity of the gadget can be assessed from the fact that though it is far from being the best in terms of features, no critic could resist the temptation of calling it the future of cell phones! From what I’ve learned in past few years, Apple is one company you can trust blind-folded for dishing out the hottest and most innovative products. This was proven correct once again when, barring one or two cities, there were queues of people waiting for hours to get hold of the latest iPHONE! It fails me if 200-300$ is small enough sum to be given away without second thoughts to this company. But again, there are crazy people and there are the crazier, Apple fans.

So, while some lucky people relish tapping the screens of their brand-new asset, I’ll just sit here cursing and waiting for mine to arrive someday! What a day would that be! Anyways, book your iPHONE with Airtel or Vodafone if you’re an Indian dying to get one!

[P.S.: OMG stands for ‘Oh! My God’… just in case you were wondering!]