iPad is finally here in Hong Kong (officially) and Telcos were quick to put out data packages to support iPad. In my opinion this is a total windfall gain for Telcos. In my opinion Telcos have failed to create a meaningful proposition to increase demand of their data services and it is interesting to see how Apple has singlehandedly helped the industry. And thats the power of brand Apple.

Last week CNNGo published an article of mine comparing two of the most vibrant cities in Asia – Mumbai and Hong Kong. My friends were very supportive and promoted my article – already 100 people have pressed the ‘I like’ button

Here is the link: Mumbai vs Hong Kong

Muttiah Muralitharan today created history by becoming the first bowler in the history of cricket to take 800 wickets. I was quite surprised to see him announce his retirement much before the India-SriLanka test started in Galle. What I liked about it was his carelessness to reach the 800 mark. The test could have gone any way and there was a chance that he would not reach the 800 mark – in fact he came quite close to that and finally had to the take the last Indian wicket to reach 800.

I’m sure he had at least 2-3 years of test cricket left in him but he decided to retired at the top of his career. I wish Indian cricketing greats like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and VVS Laxman actually retire with dignity and not get thrown out like Sourabh Ganguly.

Goodbye Murali and I’m sure the world cricket will miss watching your magic.

Signing up Fans on Facebook has become the latest craze and almost in every third meeting that I attend people are talking about Fans. Clients now want benchmarks around number of fans and cost per fan acquisitions etc and it makes me very nervous as the word ‘fan’ is used very casually. So I looked at a few online sources for definition of fan.

According to wikipedia: A fan, sometimes also called aficionado or supporter, is a person with an intense, occasionally overwhelming liking and enthusiasm for something.

According to reference.com dictionary:  an enthusiastic devotee, follower, or admirer of a sport, pastime,celebrity, etc.

So before you get excited about your increasing fan base on facebook you should spend a little time evaluating whether these people really are you’re fans or in the absence of any other term they casually accept to be called ‘Fans’.

Last month I was in Delhi for business and as always had several hours to kill before I took the 3am flight back to Hong Kong. I decided to shop for some books and dropped into a nearby Crossword. I saw Shammi Narang – TV news reader from Doordarshan era. I always remembered him for his recital of a legendary poem on Jhansi Ki Rani (written by Subhadra Kumari Chauhan). Shammi was reading from a book and soon I realised he was narrating one of Munshi Premchand’s story – Shatranj Ke Khiladi. It was the launch of a set of three audiobooks by Shammi Narang on Munshi Premchand’s stories.

I sat there for 30 odd mins and really enjoyed the Shammi’s reading. Its been ages since I listened to a story in any of the Indian languages. As a child my life was full of interesting stories – from grandparents, aunts, and of course language teachers. Today our lives are so busy that we’re no longer reading to kids & teenagers – certainly not much in Indian languages. We take the easy of option of placing them in front of TV so that we don’t have to spare time. Sad but true.

Listening to Shammi brought back many memories of listening. It made me feel very nostalgic and I walked out with the audiobooks.