Sharan Sharma

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Football fever increases world's population!

...is the only conclusion i could come to when i read that:

That's right.About 5 times what we thought the world's population was. And it's not a typo. The mailer i got had the same headline and older articles by the same team have even more astounding estimates like there were 54 billion viewers for the National Games in

China

.

Now, one might just dismiss this as repeated cases of careless reporting/editing. I don't think so. This is a classic case of an attempt to inflate figures to make them look impressive. Without even considering the fact that the headline just does not make sense.

So, here's what's happenning. Imagine just 100 people on planet earth of which 2 were interested in watching World Cup on TV. Each of them ends up seeing all 64 scheduled games. So the question is how many viewers are there in all. 2? Wrong. As per the above article. Should be 128 according to it. The 128 (= 64 x 2) is a not-too-often-used metric in media planning called Gross Impressions. As the name implies, GIs simply sum up the total number of expsoures received by viewers. And it's certainly not equal to 'no. of viewers'!

GIs are equivalent to the term 'Cumulative Audiences'. The problem with GIs is that it's difficut to relate to. So if, i just told you that the "gross impressions for WC was 128" it would be difficult for you to come to any conclusion. Specifically, is it 64 people who've watched an average of 2 matches or 2 people who've watched all 64 matches? Which is really the question a marketer and media planner would be interested in.

Now, i have no problem if GIs are used. But is it mentioned anywhere in this article that these were GIs and not 'no. of viewers'? No. Which is why i think it's a case of data misrepresentation. Now, one defence that is often used when such cases are pointed out to the party (not this particular one) is that "C'mon...everyone knows that 30 billion is not 'no. of viewers". Ok. So what is it then? And why did you put that as a title? Especially when you know that this article is going to be read by media practioners who would anyway be comfortable with the terms.

Now, here's the good news. Check today's headline out by the same team:

and somewhere down the middle this...notice what happens to our 30 billion figure:

Now that's the right way to report these numbers! Notice clearly the '1.5 billion viewers' (which of course, contradicts the earlier '30 Bn. viewers' thing) as opposed to a 'cumulative global audience of 32.5 billion'. Good work, Ashwin Pinto - in case you didn't notice that's his name in the above article's byline.

and these are the original links:
http://indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k6/june/june86.htm
http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k6/june/june118.htm

Monday, June 05, 2006

Laugh and be laughed at

Few years ago.Woke up.Checked the alarm clock.6:00 am.Me and get up at 6:00 - No way! What woke me up, i ask myself. i remember hearing sounds similar to the collective war-cry of a savage tribe attacking a colonoial outpost. Oh...just a dream...but wait...am i still dreaming? i can still hear them...and here i am in bed wide awake...what is it?....A vociferous 'stop-the-war-in-Iraq' protest? A better-roads-you-idiots-at-the-Bombay-Municipal-Corporation agitation? At 6:00? Na! Who knows - maybe a Wiccan ritual to be performed at dawn.

I go back to bed....next day, same thing....my lazy head ignores it again...the next day again! This is too much! Took me some days to force myself out of bed against my own will and figure out the source of the racket that was shattering my tympanum.

So i trudge across to the garden three buildings away at 5:45 am and sit alert on a bench. Nothing suspicious. Young executives on a jog deperately trying to get themselves into shape to impress Wilma, the new secretary in the office. Uncles and aunties in Kurta-Pyjama and Nike shoes on a 'brisk walk'. Gujju share brokers loudly predicting the outcome of todays 'market'. Two Iyer mamas sitting opposite each other and doing Pranayama.

Then suddenly the whole scenario changes. I find people converging to the large green patch in the centre of the garden. Brokers, joggers, everyone just stops doing what they were doing. Or not doing. Which brings me to the philosophical question of 'how do you stop doing something you weren't doing?...but er...we're digressing.

So anyway, all these guys are all robotically converging with deadpan seriousness towards the centre of the garden. My worst fears of an ancient brotherhood of necromancers performing some hideous morning ritual seems to be coming out right!

Worse to come...they suddenly start flailing their arms all about without any instruction from anyone...it's all so automatic as if they're under some spell...i observe with bated breath...AND THEN OUTTA NOWHERE....ALL OF THEM GO...HA, HA, HA..HO, HO, HO!!!
Here i am, in the middle of Bombay, watching a bunch of people go....HA, HA, HA..HO, HO, HO....what the hell's happenning? Did anyone crack a joke i missed? Unlikely. Creepy stuff, this.
And then as i wonder what's happenning, the laughter dies down into susurrations. Everyone take a deep breath and then again....HA, HA, HA..HO, HO, HO....

Please, can someone tell me what's happenning? I look around...some people are unconcernedly going about their walks/jogs. Am i the only one who thinks this is wierd? Luckily i spot a group of teenagers laughing their guts out watching these laughers laughing. I also see a brinjal seller genuinely shocked (and amused) by what's going on. Ok, so someone thinks this performance is not normal. I think there's something spooky going on...brinjal guy+teens find it funny...but we're agreed this is not normal. So i trudge across to these teens and gently ask them what in the name of heavens is happenning.
"They're laughing"
"Yea...i can see that..but they don't look amused"
"Of course. They don't have to be amused to laugh"
"Sorry?"
"They're part of this laughter club. They call it 'Hasya Yoga' - the yoga of laughter. They force themselves to laugh. They think it relieves tension."
"So does this happen everyday? Do you guys come here everyday?"
"Oh, we come here to laugh at them laughing. Currently all weekdays. Wish they'd do this everyday - gives us a brilliant start to the day watching these guys go....HA, HA, HA..HO, HO, HO"

I just didn't believe this! Had we come to such a stage that we have to force ourselves to laugh? Is the world around us so depressing? If we were to believe the members of the Laughter Club, the answers to these questions are 'Yes'.

Read: http://www.hinduonnet.com/folio/fo0003/00030440.htm

For me, the best part is the part where they laugh in vowels . So, in most Indian languages the vowels go like - a, aa, e, ee, u, uu etc. and they laugh like 'Ha, Ha, Ha...He, He, He...Ho, Ho, Ho'. and people like me who used to watch them for sheer entertainment went 'haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa......gasp...gasp...someone help...can't take it any longer...get me outta here..haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa'

If you don't believe me, check this super video - thanks to Rajiv who referred me to it - which is close to what i used to see everyday. Everyday, till i got bored watching people laugh.

Watch this, i'm telling ya...you won't regret it...and somewhere in the middle of the clip, watch the teens in the background laughing their guts out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AkDvvePb-A

On a more serious note, i know many people think this is good for health. Maybe. But it seems so artificial to me. And if it isn't natural, it isn't 'yoga' like some proponents of this exercise claim. Sure laughter is good for health. But forced laughter? In fact, if you see the faces of some of them...it's so serious!...there's such a forced attempt at laughing. Why not breath in and out deeply in that case? Will produce the same effect on the abdominal muscles or whatever.

Plus, i don't quite like the fact that laughing loudly in a group in the early hours of the morning (or whenever actually) deprives others of their peace and quietitude. That's then being insensitive and selfish.

For me :

Laughter - yes!

Forced laughter - No!

Sunday, June 04, 2006

More on the oft-ignored hydrants...

I was speaking to a friend just after i published the earlier post and she refused to believe that a hydrant that was shown there - an emergency-utility object - can be beautiful. For me - there it was, in the midst of 'real' beauty - flowers, greenery etc. but it stood so proudly amidst all that. It was almost saying "i am happy to be what i am and i know what i am" - yeah, we know - in a God-forbid situation....!

But guess what? There's even a 'movement' called the 'Fire up downtown' movement which involves artists (from UMich and otherwise) here in Ann Arbor to make these objects look beautiful! The movement is sponsored by corporates (obvious eg. paint companies) as well as street associations. The snap below is from one of the sidewalks on South University avenue in 'Central'.

You can read more about this movement here - a nice way to channelize energies. Wish we could do this back home:
http://www.arts.umich.edu/programs/special/firehydrant/index.html

There's a similar thing in Ohio (not sure if this is done widely across cities in the US) that i came across:
http://urban.csuohio.edu/~sanda/pic/travel/us/ohio/cleveland/cleve04/hydrants/

Ann Arbor Spring - The hydrant too...

I had always seen a bunch like this coming out of porcelain vases - never part of nature herself.

Right, i am talking about the flowers and not the hydrant. The hydrant's part of the snap because i thought it was wrong to have only have the 'beautiful' in the snap. After all it is the 'ugly' that makes the 'beautiful' look beautiful.

And the mandatory close-ups...