Reservation System in Education - Podcast. Listen Now!

A Discussion and an interview regarding one of the most frequently asked questions by the common man. Why and for what use is the current reservations system in place?

Please click on the below link to download the podcast:

http://naresh-mp.podomatic.com/enclosure/2014-04-19T20_13_36-07_00.mp3

Please click on the below link to listen to the podcast:

http://naresh-mp.podomatic.com/entry/2014-04-19T20_13_36-07_00

Is traditional reading losing out to E-Books? Will technology take over Book Shelves?

‘Traditional’ reading is the art of reading print books (tangible) and not the ones on the internet. Those are E-Books. We have seen over the past few years, this last decade in its entirety perhaps, that slowly but surely technology is performing its magic in the field of reading too. Make no mistake, technology is a beautiful form of easy and effortless work in all fields and it most definitely is taking over the reading sector. But is it really a bad thing for book readers that technology is replacing traditional reading? Let’s get into stats: The cost of production of 1 single book is somewhere around Rs. 250 while the cost of production of an E-book is around Rs.25. This stat is directly proportional to the cost of 1 book for the buyer. The same book that costs Rs. 250 to produce can be sold anywhere between Rs. 300 to 1000 (based on the reputation of the author). The E-Book that costs Rs. 25 to produce is being sold between Rs. 100 to 200. So this clearly shows that E-Books cost less and attract readers who do not want to spend Rs.1000 for a book that they have access to (via computer and internet) at Rs. 200.

According to a survey conducted by a reputed E-Book publisher Bookboon, the units of E-Books sold will encompass the units of printed books by the end of 2015. However, India is still catching up to the E-Book wave in the world right now. Only 0.7 % of the people in India have E-Book readers or have ever bought an E-Book. This is minuscule compared to USA’s 30.7%. Indian E-Book readers are projected to increase by 2 % by 2015 which is around 2.5 crore people who have purchased an E-Book.

Kindle – produced by E-Commerce giants Amazon has the biggest share in the E-Book market, having 62% of the E-book readers on their side. Many celebrities who were initially skeptics of the E-Book readers have now turned Pro-EBooks citing 'time saving' as the reason for their turn.

Having spoken to a couple of hardcore print book readers, I feel that books will remain a source of history and will attract people who are quite nostalgic in nature. When asked why they are hesitant to switch to E-books, they said they cherish the 'feel of the book' and the 'aroma of the paper'. They also said they like to admire the beauty of the book shelves once filled. Listening to them describe how reading a print book made me think about whether books themselves have a personality. The general consensus among these people was that E-Books will never replace print books but I offered them facts. People said that CDs will never trump vinyl, then they said MP3s were no match for CDs and now they are saying music streaming cannot surpass MP3s. These readers then started to throw traditional and some religious values of a print book to me and then I thought that was the end of a sane conversation and I moved away.

I just want to point out that as per the current trend and the wave, E-Books will most definitely encompass print books in the next decade. But I just hope that print books are not reduced to the level of postal letters. Nowadays sending or writing a letter to a loved one is considered special whereas communicating through technological means is the norm and no special feelings are attached to it. Postal letters are left in a state of ‘oh-it-was-but-isn't-anymore’ and it cannot be re-done, it’s too late for that.  All in all, E-Books are our new ‘Books’ and the sooner the people get used to it, the better.

Can Short Movies grow in India?

Let me start off by defining or making the reader understand what I think is a short movie. Any movie or video which has a message in it via make-believe characters which is far less time consuming to the audience than a regular Bollywood or Hollywood film is a Short Movie. The run-time for a short movie can range anywhere between 5 to 30 minutes where a Bollywood movie runs from anywhere between 2 hours to 3.5 hours.

Bollywood movies generated $1.7 billion from 3 billion tickets in the year 2013. The number of tickets sold is twice as much as Hollywood but the revenue generated in Hollywood is $10.8 billion. This might seem like a shock to most of us but the Bollywood’s revenue has improved drastically year on year from 2007 and will keep improving. The reason for this is that, let’s face it, movies are made for money. The cash flow in movies is too big to ignore and people with the talent in the industry are cashing in on it. On the other hand, short movies are not made for money. They are made in order to act as a stepping stone to the major leagues. This is the problem short movies face. The cash generated in Bollywood cannot be compared to the cash generated in short movies. There is too big a difference. Another important thing that I would like to bring up here is that people buy tickets to watch Bollywood movies. Unfortunately there is hardly a theater which sells tickets to run a short movie. A typical Indian movie-goer would expect nothing less than a 2.5 hour movie for the Rs. 100 or so he pays.

This brings us to a question. Why can’t theaters run short movies for lesser prices? The main reason for this is Indians are money minded above everything else and they would earn 100 times the money if they run a Bollywood movie instead. This might seem sad but it is the truth. I personally would not start or run a theater to help improve short movies when I know for a fact that Bollywood movies offer so much more money.

Right now, short movies are seen as either a hobby or a path to Bollywood. I think if we need to improve the standards of short movies then we will have to do it for the right reasons. A right approach and a stable government is also required if we decide to seek the state’s help. I’m sure political parties will be open to this idea at first to attract supporters/voters in the field of arts but I see this idea fizzling out if there is no conviction and determination among the people who want short movies to grow.

Having said that, in the present government and the economy, I do not see short movies growing much as an entity of its own. It will always be overshadowed by Bollywood in India and Hollywood in the US. This is the way it always was and will remain unless and until the mind-set of the masses change (which, mind you, does not change overnight).