Whither Landmark?

This rant has been pending for a while.

For years I have bought from the Landmark bookstores across India, especially in Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai in my stints in each of the cities. I have lamented the condition of full-priced books at Landmark on several occasions in the past. I admit I am a bargain hunter, but even if I weren't, it is reasonably standard practice in the industry to discount books which are not in excellent condition. If you walked into the Forum outlet in Bangalore, you will find books in poor condition ranging from soiled copies to those with dog-ears and several with torn covers, all at full price. I have shown these to the store manager (more than one of them) on my visits to the store in the past, but the incidence of such copies has rarely changed. On several occasions, the copy in less-than-perfect condition is the only copy the store has. Combined with the drop in the available selection of books at Landmark, this makes a trip to the bookstore quite a chore.

Additionally I learnt of a weird condition that Landmark imposes. You can't use their gift vouchers or gift cards online. This means that you may end up buying books at increased prices at the store when you can buy them online bookstores including their own website at discounts. And I know this is not a fair comparison since online bookstores usually sell copies at discounts anyways but a bookstore which has an online presence does expose itself to this comparison anyways. Why'd you shoot yourself in the foot like this? Sure, not every book buyer looks up prices online when they are buying. But surely you'd notice the disparity sooner or later.

In any case, I no longer buy from them and have switched to discounted copies from Flipkart/Infibeam or ebooks from Flipkart/Amazon. I ended up making a visit today since some generous souls had gifted cards. I can't figure out whether it is apathy from the management to let the books section decay or whether it is a deliberate move or something else.

But still it pains a bit each time I visit the store to see the store whither like this, since I have good memories from shopping there in the past. Such is life

Thoughts from Boston Marathon 2013

The Boston Marathon 2013 will be remembered for years to come, unfortunately for the bomb blasts at the finish line yesterday than for the heroics of thousands of runners.

3 people died and 144 were injured - quite a large percentage of those injured, coming from spectators. Around 10 people had to be amputated due to the nature of injuries. Also moving was the story of the 8 year old, who was one of the dead, while about to greet his dad who was finishing.

While there was a series of blasts in Iraq which killed almost 30 people (on the same day), the Boston incident caught my eye first largely because until about an hour before the blasts, I had been live tweeting the race, which had been exciting. Kenyan Rita Jeptoo won the women's race and Ethiopian Desissa won the men's race. There were several other things to remember from the race including Jason Hartmann's brave run as top American and Kara Goucher crossing the line asking how Shalane did, just seconds after she did. Yolanda of Colombia who has her own inspirational story leading up to the race also had a good run, till a point. I could go on, but this post is not just about running.

Kate Carter of the Guardian has a nice post on their running blog making her statement on why we need to remember the joy of running, all over again on this day. Please do read it.

I am personally quite outraged by the fact that a space dear to me and an event which is pretty much in the heart of my life, for the most part, has been violated. I am not blind to other events like the Iraq one where loss of life is higher in terms of body count. Each such event hurts. Tragedy is not a contest. All suffering hurts. Some of it is personal, some vicarious. All of them sadden me and make me feel worse about the world we live in and where it is getting. Most of my disorientation, even since I found out about the event is largely from a conflict between rage and sadness tinged with cynicism.

I got way more emotional than I usually do because of the number of friends, etc who checked on my well-being thinking I may have been in Boston. For one who sat in the safety and comfort of his home in Bangalore, watching the race on TV, that was quite overwhelming.

I can only commiserate with the families and friends of the victims (both dead and injured) in Boston (and for that matter in Iraq) y'day and hope that things will improve.

I did run this morning since that is pretty much the only remedy which works to clear my head. I can't say it worked perfectly but I know I'd be worse without it.

Here's hoping for a better future.

Run safe everyone. Be nice to each other. At least, don't be nasty if you can't be nice.

The world is a better place without so much ill-feeling. Running is one way to keep it so.

Russia on Radio - More Radio thoo thoo

This is yet another c*** series on Radio.

There is this random woman on FM radio who calls herself "Shweta" on behalf of perhaps a Russian tourism organization but who uses an accent that can't be Russian, however skewed your imagination is. In fact an RJ on the same channel made fun of this "Shweta"'s silly accent.

Why the f* would we want someone speaking with a silly accent, at least one which is distinctly not Russian?

Now the hilarious bit is that this ad airs way too many times incl. at around 530 am in the morning (I kid you not. I think I have even heard it before that sometimes). Who in their right f* mind would want to know about Russia at 5 in the morning? Like what?! You are in the waiting lounge in the international airport and want a quick download on Russia on your way there?! And the advertisement isn't even bloody edited as far as I can see. It has some propaganda style content saying Russia has done some cutting edge research on cancer that other countries couldn't get their arms around, etc... WTF?! Seriously! What era is this? 1960s?!

And someone please wake this woman up and tell her that her accent sucks!

Radio Thoo Thoo

Once in a while I forget to carry a podcast on my car and I am forced to listen to radio, which barring the advertising lets me catch up on some new film music. But there are some ads which are so f* all that I have to ran about them, just like I do about some c*** TVCs.

Here is my current nominee for s*** ad.

There is this ad for Davanam Jewellers which has some woman talking to her husband saying that their daughter is only 12, but before they know it, the daughter is going to be of marriageable age.
Seriously! WTF! What a solid retrograde ad!

Is that the first thing you can think of when you daughter is 12?! God help your daughter if that is the case.

How about getting a f* insurance policy to ensure she gets an education if you pop off or an investment if you can't afford her education later?!

There are numerous other ads which piss me off but this one deserved a blog post. When I hear a worse one or an equally c*** one, I will post again