Can the Internet Help us Find the Real Deal?

We're all searching for authenticity when we travel. We want to find the real deal, the non- touristy, authentic places where the locals go.

Then why do we use the internet?

I've been stung a few times in the last few months by relying so much on the Net. Especially outside of the US. In ROW and places where Net usage is much lower. Like the West country of the UK.

1. Last weekend I was in rural Somerset for a wedding, the couple had sent round a list of b&b's with phone numbers. That was a new thing for me- actually calling around and checking availability. After the 4th phone call saying they were full, I decided to go online and check. Very quickly I got a room on LateRooms for £80. I figured this wasn't bad and maybe I could share it with a friend, it was within walking distance of the party and all seemed good.
Until I got there and realised what a rip off it was for that price! It should have been about £20. Because I was on my own and it was a double room, I bargained with him and he lowered the price to £60, saying the needed to pay LateRooms 15%. If only I'd called him instead of booking it online I could have got it for half of that.

2. In Warsaw recently we were looking for a jazz club. We did ask at my hotel but they just looked online rather than 'asking a friend', which would've been much better. We ended up finding what was prominent on Google and it promised to be an incredible club with great bands and atmosphere..when we got there it turned out to be a student dive with an amateur band on and bad drinks, yes even bad vodka in Poland! Really not at all what i was expecting. I think to be fair, it's better during the week, but I really couldn't find anything online, disappointing....4Square might have been a better option.

The Net obviously favours those who are computer literate and speak in majority languages.
Net literacy outside of America is much less, take care! So those authentic granny-owned places are unlikely to be there, unless the grandchildren have designed a site for them and monitor it!

I plead guilty of relying on the Net as the source of all information- a collective consciousness which can tell me my future and whether my boyfriend loves me to the best spots to stay and what's on in a city I'm visiting. I'll try to change my ways. We need to take the info aware of all its biases and also talk to the people who know the place instead! Get tips the old fashioned way, this might be using social media to communicate with them or when actually sur place.

But uh oh a trip to Sri Lanka (where we are from) looms this Xmas, and we need to rent an apartment. My Dad is straight on Trip Advisor. I try and warn him against it.....but it's where the seductive properties are gleaming....

Bob Marley- how a poor boy from Jamaica became a global icon

Bob Marley with Kate Simon, photographer, 1977

Kevin McDonald’s new film, Marley, about Bob Marley’s life highlights the incredible journey of this unlikely global icon. He started off life in a shack without electricity, one outfit and pair of shoes. If we look at it through a branding lens we see his move from ska music, which was about fun and dancing, to creating reggae, which was more spiritual. Chris Blackwell from Island Records then launched him worldwide under the guise of  ‘black rock’ in the early ’70s- 'Catch A Fire' album. This built on the following Jimi Hendrix and others had. Marley’s music, once at Island, had to become less political and certain members of the Wailers left, like Pete Tosh, because he didn’t like Blackwell. It must’ve been hard to surrender to the White Man given their Rasta politics, although Marley was half- White (English) and wanted all races to live in harmony through music. Blackwell, incidentally is also Exec Producer of the film.

The Rastas have a belief that a certain type of music will be listened to around the word because all people can tap into its spirituality. And they see this as Bob Marley’s music today.

Marley’s music, surprisingly, didn’t break into African American audiences in the US in his lifetime, though he had a huge following amongst White audiences there. The last performance of his life was supporting the Commodores in an attempt to get to exactly those audiences, though in reality he should’ve been the main act rather than the support. In parts of Africa, they loved him. The film shows an incredible performance in ‘Rhodesia’ on the night of their independence with Mugabe being sworn in and also in Gabon, where the dictator’s daughter fell in love with him.

The way Marley’s music has traveled now is almost a cliché of itself- every beach hang out plays it, but does it still have a revolutionary aspect to it? Listeners of reggae are full of peace and love which certainly can change the world on a local level. It’s unfortunate that the spliff smokers ‘brand’ is that of a lay-about and non-doer. But as with most clichés it’s important to remember why they became so- Marley was crucially important in Jamaica as someone who discussed politics and gave money to those who would queue outside his home in Kingston every day. He was brought back from exile in London by the Jamaican government specifically to unite the races in Jamaica. And all this before he was 36 years old, when he died of cancer. He was definitely a doer.

How his anti-capitalist brand lives on

Marley now ranks in the top five dead celebrities in terms of dollar earnings, according to Sanjay Sood, a UCLA marketing professor. The others being Michael Jackson, Elvis, Marlyn Monroe, Andy Warhol. Marley's family including his legendary number of children from different mothers, manage his brand cleverly, which stands for positive nature. The brand values are reggae music, hope, redemption and social justice. Some new merchandising include headphones made of recycled plastic and sustainable wood and 'Mellow Mood' herbal drinks to chill out, to counter the Red Bull energy phenomenon. "There were too many hyper people running around in the world", says Marley's daughter Cedella.

Source: The Billion Dollar Rasta by Reed Tucker.

http://bit.ly/IjtCQZ

  

Sri Lanka is a-changin'

New eating & retail development in Colombo's Old Dutch Hospital

I've recently been lucky enough to spend a month in Sri Lanka. I do love it there- well it is kind of home. So what are the changes that the end of the war have brought about?

Very interesting to see a so-called dictator in action! One the one hand there are the human rights abuses  that the UNHRC and Channel 4 (amongst others) are battling to put right. On the other hand Mr Rajapaksa's regime seems to be improving the country.


Very clever tactic- distract people's attention by giving them what they want.
So what's he giving them?

• All roads lead to Hambantota (which is, oh guess what, his home town and never been that important) Till now. Now it's got an world-class sports stadium, though we didn't get the Commonwealth Games and soon an airport and a highway reaching it from Colombo. Well a similar thing happened in Spain with the President Aznar building an AVE (high speed train) route from Madrid to his hometown of Seville.

• Colombo's getting healthier: Cleaner and greener, it's also got more health-focused.The beach access at Galleface has been opened up which is lovely. No need to trek to Mount Lavinia to walk on the beach, now you can in the city centre. Around Independence Square is a great fitness and walking area where Colombo 7 residents can burn off their excess wattalapans and pastry-laden, deep fried short-eats. 
• The Colombo- Galle highway: this new toll-road means it's now just one instead of three hours to get down to the South coast, to the amazing Lankan beaches.

• Large visible new Performing Arts Centre: The Chinese, as well as lending the government arms to end the war, have paid for a huge performing arts centre in the city. In the shape of a giant lotus, no less.  
• Large visible Buddhist cultural institutions: there's a large Buddhist TV station, a Buddhist Cultural Centre (promoting yoga which is great to see) and many more. I also heard this Buddhist building push continues in Tamil majority areas. Could be dangerous given the origins of the war? 
• East coast development: tourism in  the county is on the up and the majority-Tamil areas are the next new tourist attractions. It was very hard, even in Feb, to get a seat on a flight from Colombo to London or a hotel room in the country! We used all our contacts to book a room at Malu Malu, a hotel in Pasikudah, a little known fishing village on the East Coast, near Batticoloa. This had been off tourists' radars ever since the war started in 1983. Next door to this hotel the building work had started- all night and day, even on Poya holidays it continued, as a government deadline to develop this area with tourism has been set. 

Malu Malu hotel, Pasikudah

The creative scene is going strong. I was suitably impressed by:

Colombo Fashion Week: been running for a number of years now by Ajai Vir Singh (an Indian who's based in Sri Lanka whose beach label Arugam Bay is going strong). Although it's called 'week' seemed to be more of a weekend. Loved seeing Acushla and Buddhi push batik silk printing on saris further.

Acushla

Buddhi Batiks 

Buddhi Batiks

(Source all images: Ishara S. Kodikara/STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Good to see a mix of international and local designers. Incredible that a country who produce a sizable chunk of the world's garments has yet to really form a fashion design industry. But it seems to be in the making.

Colombo Art Biennale: strictly should  be called a triennale as the first one was 3 years ago, but who's counting? Organised this time by an Anoushka Hempel who's been living on the island for many years, the Biennale had an interesting mix of local and international artists across visual and video mediums. The new JD Perera gallery next to the Art College is impressive as  was the exhibition in Maradana Warehouse, I've never seen art for community done so well. The ethos being: anyone can borrow any of the exhibits for free as long as they get seen and interacted with by the public.

Pradeep Thalawatte

Digital projection onto underwear
(Artist unknown by me)
at Maradana Warehouse Project

Pradeep Thalawatte (detail)

Video art at Park St Mews

Galle Lit Fest: I missed this but heard of course that some writers boycotted due to the regime. Again. This is truly sad. Apart from that, the festival seemed to be a success and is growing year on year.

Perhaps a post-conflict, rebuilding nation needs a dictator? If I go missing soon, you'll know this post was the reason why....

Colombo City Tour Bus

Mainstreamism - is it like racism/sexism?

I've been told off. A few times now by two of my closest friends. For being Mainstreamist. What does that mean, well, that I make negative judgements about what is popular or what I consider to be mainstream culture.

So I had to delve down inside and see if I am. Conclusion: yes.

Just to be clear, this is not a class judgement. A friend of mine said, "but you're posh", as if this made me hypocritical for feeling anti-mainstream. It is mainly the posh who do engage in cultural and intellectual snobbery. But am I one of them then?

I never thought it was bad to feel that way towards popular culture. Perhaps because I had worked in the public arts and cultural sector for 8 years where my job was to put on work that was not shown by the main cultural or entertainment players. Things considered obscure or left-field. Some of it was populist such as my exhibition on Digital Beauties which got on the cover of The Metro. And for the first time my Dad could sort of understand what I did for work. In general however some of what I curated was sometimes intellectual, sometimes beautiful, sometimes not that great at all. Which is why I left that world and went into business. One of my aims in choosing to do an MBA was to cross over into the wider world, to understand the world from a business perspective (how much more populist could I get?) and be with intelligent people who in general were not into the same cultural products as I was.

My cultural taste was very much into early hip hop, funk, obscure electronica, new media art (such as the exhibition I produced at Laboral, Spain), going to art and activist festivals such as Next 5 Minutes and Transmusicale. I didn't go as underground as a lot of people I knew, but yes I went to squat party raves and cutting edge dance performances coupling telematics and virtual reality and VJ performances as well as the Venice Biennale. But that was also my work. My work and life blurred into one.

I never did like shopping malls, department stores gave me a headache; multiplexes with huge buckets of popcorn were never my thing, nor was a lot of pop music out there.  I do feel it's very sad that what I consider silly Hollywood and Bollywood films and pop music do extremely well in the box office whereas a lot of films I like, do not. I guess they are the niche, the long tail. Not to say all Hollywood is bad. I loved Donnie Darko, American Beauty, Juno and many more...I suppose they are the popular alternative to Hollywood, as Apple Computers is to Windows.

One of the friends who berated me for my snobbishness did so saying that this kind of judgement puts everything into one basket and mainstream culture is way more nuanced than that. Which is true. He also said that it's a hair's breath away from racism and sexism. I suppose he's right.

So I will try not to judge it. 2012 New Years resolution.
Amen.

Soy Cuba: life in a time warp

Revisiting a place after 12 years made me realise how much I had changed in that time, how much the world had changed and how life for most Cubans had not really changed. My Cuban friend Manuel who I met again is doing the same job, living in the same falling-down, flaking-paint family house in Habana Centro, eating the same diet of beans, rice and the occasional pork on a good day. His big change was that aged 40 he had a 2-year old granddaughter! Which says a lot. But I think it says less about a promise of a great future and more about swaying rhythms, hips, an oversupply of rum and lack of birth control.

Cuba is still absolutely charming. And stunning to look at. The people deserve many medals for their patience and resilient spirit. Some changes are: more entrepreneurship, notably private taxis; many more new imported cars not just the old American 50s ones, which are still there in swarms. Habana Vieja  is much more developed and commercial than before, there's even a beautiful video/media art space called La Fabrica. There are a lot more tourists now, from all over, and so many more upmarket hotels and imported European food for them. That's a huge change.

And yes the stereo types are still very much there - the cigars, the rum, the salsa and the way every single Cuban can dance like a pro. It used to make me laugh when I went there in 2000 that I was always stopped by the Police and asked what I was doing, mistaking me for a Cuban. Asking me why I was hanging out with a tourist, who was actually my co-traveller British friend. Pero soy turista, I would protest and prove that my hips could not circulate, they were by no means Cuban hips. No soy Cubana...

Life is hard everywhere. Capitalism does bring about growth and change at heightened levels. But it doesn't mean life is easier. Or does it? But freedom, as Cubans kept reminding me, is something they don't have. They can't leave the country easily, not just because of money, but because they need an invitation.  Nor can many nationals of developing countries.  And of course Cubans have limited freedom of expression and limited freedom to work and make more money than their allocated salary.

There did seem to be more money around however, of course a lot more tourists are going there now and enjoying Havana with its glorious Spanish architecture and the gorgeous beaches. The dual monetary system is clever for the government as it means a Cuban Peso is worth 24 Convertible Pesos (CUCs) and thus creates scarcity in the economy. So there's a local currency which means some goods are cheaper for locals but if they want to buy other goods, their currency is 24 times weaker.

So it really becomes super expensive. In Havana to get into see one of the best Reggaeton performances at la Casa de la Musica we paid 10 CUCs for Cubans (240 Cuban Pesos) and 15 CUCs for tourists. Here I was glad to be able to look Cuban. Soy Cubana ahora...when it pleases me.

La Musica- one of the most beautiful things about Cuba

Here is a gorgeous song from the film, Soy Cuba, about pre-revolutionary Cuba, a film billed as Soviet propaganda against the Americans. Loco Por Tu Amor. 

And for a more contemporary picture see Charanga Habanera's Reggaeton song:
Tu llorando en Miami y yo gozando en La Habana (You're crying in Miami and I'm having fun in Havana).

What do I miss most about coming back to London? Why does nobody flirt in this city (at least when sober)? They seem to have forgotten how. They have moved from being in their bodies into being in their heads. Flirting is an important human interaction, that makes you feel alive!
I miss you, Cuba...hasta pronto!

And the whole Cuban-American story, well that's enough to make you cry (in Miami or in London).

Beach at Varadero 

Madrid- a city in crisis?

Arriving in Madrid I felt I could immediately feel 'la crisis'- people selling lottery tickets in Plaza del Sol, more buskers and beggars on the metro and our favourite (and usually very busy) restaurant, Cervantes, actually had empty tables!

But it's much more complex than that. A friend of mine told me the 22 Dec is the big lottery day, and linked to Christmas, so that's why thy're selling more tickets. Not out of pure desperation, it's just something that happens every year!

The city looks glorious. They have spent millions on ensuring that, with the latest Madrid Rio, the river project, topping it all. But perhaps that's the problem.

I went to the Moet Chandon 250th birthday party and here there was absolutely no whiff of any recession. The vintage champagne poured all night long at the celebrity-studded sit down dinner and party that reminded us of past European glory. It was held in the French Ambassador's place, everyone dressed to the hilt and having a great time. Is the European party really over,  I ask myself?

Art in London - a few shows worth a look this summer

Jake or Dinos Chapman at The White Cube

The 'terrible duo' are back with a huge show that encompasses both White Cube sites- Mason's Yard in Piccadilly as well as Hoxton Square. It's one brother per space. And allegedly each one didn't know what the other was creating. But the two shows fit perfectly together... um, seems a bit hard to swallow that. Like the shows themselves perhaps- if deformed school-children in swastika sweats, homo-erotic larger-than-life Nazi soldiers and Christian statues with bleeding gouged-out eyes are your thing, this show's for you.

I love the Brothers Chapman's work. I have been a fan for a long while. Why? Because they are so irreverent, they mock at serious institutions and as such are hilarious. And damn clever. Plus they seemingly also laugh at themselves, and the art market. As Dinos says about Jake's book which is on sale at the exhibition, "I know Jake cannot paint, I now know he cannot write either". The show is definitely worth a view, but make sure to visit both sites. Interview here with the artists.


Thomas Struth at the Whitechapel

Allegedly one of the most incredible large-format photographers around. This retrospective was flagged as unmissable- for instance Struth shoots the audience and their gaze, how people look at at Michaelangelo's David for instance. I did like this show, but found it slightly underwhelming. Although the scale of the photographs is certainly impressive, they are very cold.

But what did strike a chord with me at the Whitechapel, or rather a thread,  was by chance, we stumbled upon the incredible Fred Sandback installations. He uses yarn and other simple materials, to create spatial environments and sculptures such as Broadway Boogie Woogie, a 3D reference to Mondrian's 1942 paintings of NYC.

Miro at Tate Modern


I was lucky enough to visit this show with a Spanish curator who gave a running commentary of what was going on in Spain throughout Miro's life. This enormous show is exactly the kind the Tate always does really well. It is strange that Reina Sofia has not done a show like this.  It certainly has some jaw-dropping and memory-etching experiences. Particularly unforgettable is the room filled with six larger than life canvases: on one side the triptychs are super powerful in colour - orange, green and red and on the other, softer blue hues.

During his early period, what is interesting is Miro was rather cut off in the countryside in Catalonia, but his style echoed other artists of the same period. Much of the show highlights his proximity to Andre Breton and the Surrealists from 1924 onwards. His creations are almost all set to political backdrops, the fall of Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, the Spanish Civil War and afterwards, Franco in power. Miro famously stayed on in Spain in 'internal exile', and moved to Mallorca, to create much needed culture during this time. Many other Spanish artists stayed on in France. Miro always refused to show in Franco's exhibitions of Spanish art, unlike Picasso and Dali.

The Hope of A Condemned Man, triptych pictured above, was in response to the Franco Government's execution of a Catalan anarchist, Antich in 1974.

Miro did however live to see Franco's death and Spain's transition to democracy. Which must have been stupendous.

He says of the artist's role: "..an artist is someone who, in the midst of others' silence, uses his own voice to say something [...], something that is useful to mankind".

It reminded me of my visit to Los Caidos, the huge shrine built for and by Franco, where he is buried near Madrid.  I had been taken there by a friend without being told what this place was. I had no idea till I saw the small plaque where his body is buried. And then it all sunk in. What a crazy ego!

An important show, definitely worth a look. And despite the Tate Modern crawling with visitors over the summer, we found the paying exhibitions to be fairly quiet.



Taryn Simon at Tate Modern- A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters


This American photographer and anthropologist impressed me by taking unlikely heroes and photographing them together with their families. She'd chosen a myriad of different global subjects: one of Hitler's legal advisors, a female Palestinian high jacker who had many plastic surgery ops to be able to get through security repeatedly; a Kenyan man who had 30 wives. Simon individually photographed each member of each generation of this rather large family. The idea being: we only hear of these (non) 'celebrities' but in reality they have whole families, each person with a story. These stories go on being recreated with each birth. Each generation unfolds, creating a myriad of stories that keep on coming.

I've written about some other shows in London and Paris, here. They include Tracey Emin's show at Hayward, Ai Wei Wei at Lisson and Somerset House and Bharti Kher at Galerie Perrotin, Paris.

Get out there and visit these, this is one of Europe's incredible offerings, its vibrant art scene!

Next to see on my list:

• The Animation Show at Barbican, 
• The Shape of Things to Come (new sculpture) at Saatchi, 
• Curtain Call (interactive installation) by Ron Arad at Roundhouse, 
• The BP Portrait Prize at National Portrait Gallery

...anyone up for joining me?

#LondonRiots: Art and Global Capitalism

You might expect me to write about the London Riots this week, as certainly this has preoccupied my and other Londoners’ minds.

It was a very strange week, we had partied hard at my friend’s house party till the sun rose on Sunday morning (7th August). And all the while Tottenham had been burning. But we were oblivious as we danced away in South London, in Stockwell/Brixton. The next day we woke up in East London, late, to a huge police presence. But we didn’t really understand what was happening, yes someone had been killed by the police in Tottenham, but how had this somehow spread all over the city? Why were there police crawling around Islington canal, we mused, in our still rather foggy heads.

There are many better people than I to write about the #London Riots. My two favourites on Twitter are @wildebees (my friend and politico) and @PaulLewis (journo at The Guardian).

For me personally, a couple of things were very interesting:

1. On the 5th August I visited a friend in Regent St/Carnaby St for lunch and was shocked at the way London has become. The height of consumerism in that area made me giddy. I felt for these people who frequent it on a daily basis, how can they not be swayed into that desire demand and craving? Can this be good for their souls? I have been living in India for the last 2 years, yes in the full-on metropolitan city of Mumbai, but there life is not on this polished glitzy scale. I have been traveling in the Himalayas and remote parts of Sri Lanka earlier this year, doing yoga and Vipassana (10 day silent meditation), then on a sailing trip to remote and sometimes uninhabited Croatian islands. Before that I spent a year at business school, which although in Boston, was again quite idyllic. Studying and critiquing the financial crisis with many switched on academics and business people, but not really being part of it. I have been away from this world for a long while. But I have been in London for almost 3 months now, why was it on this specific day, the day before the London riots kicked off, that I was specifically attuned to the high levels consumerism has reached in London? Was there something in the air?



2. On 8th August one of my close friends got beaten up and his bike stolen as he cycled home. By kids. The use of the word lumpen proletariat to describe these kids has been flying around Twitter. From Wikipedia: According to Marx, the lumpenproletariat had no special motive for participating in revolution, and might in fact have an interest in preserving the current class structure, because the members of the lumpenproletariat usually depend on the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy for their day-to-day existence. In that sense, Marx saw the lumpenproletariat as a counter-revolutionary force.

Who are the rioters, Paul Lewis tries to describe them here . One of my friends who lives in Hackney on the street where a car was set alight, heard a mob, as she called it, shouting “Let’s go Carharrt, let’s thief some Carharrt clothes”. Doesn’t this validate Carharrt’s brand strategy, their jeans are so desirable people are willing to go to jail for them. I guess this means these young people are actually trying to be part of the system, a system which excludes them, but they valiantly want to join, this is their means of consumption. (I know that this is only part of the reason for their revolt. The other main one is anti-police sentiments). Is this, then, a British class war, in a time of global economic gloom, should we all be reading Chavs: the Demonisation of the Working Classes to remember what we've done?

(Ironic that my last post is entitled London: It's Back On. Well more like on fire...)

To normalize myself from these complex and depressing thoughts, I went on an art binge. As Joan Miro and other artists in Fascist Spain said, let’s build culture now and politics will come later. Of course contemporary capitalism has also encompassed culture, similarly Franco’s regime exhibited Spanish anti-government artists across the world to show how open-minded they were.

London - It's Back On!

Wandering around London on an early summer's day reminded me of what I love about this city. It's been almost 4 years since I lived here and I appreciate it now that I've been away.

I'd simply taken it all for granted before.

1. The parks have got to be the distinguisher between here and other 'major' global cities. There are about 10 parks in Central(ish) London. My favourites include: Hampstead, Haggerston, Primrose Hill, Regents Park (anyone know why the amazing rose garden looks so wilted this year?) Some parks have Lidos in them, for swimming too!

2. Bikes are king - even the Barclays ones, you can hop on and hop off freely, and if it rains you can ditch 'em! (but you need to register in advance and get a key, not aimed at tourists yet!) Cycling along the canals is the best!

3. The crazy stuff you see - a double-decker bus that has been converted to a 'Bicycle Library' - where they will fix your bike whilst you relax on disused Tube seats, having a cuppa and reading from their collection of books or leafing through their vintage clothes; an extremely tall transvestite tottering on 4 inch heels, wearing a min skirt and a half-top but looking EXTREMELY insecure.

4. Weird and wonderful street art - from Wills and Kate on and up. Used for corporate branding as much as for indy establishments and self-expression.

5. The food and wine- has improved dramatically over the last few years. When I was a teenager you couldn't buy a pain au chocolate in London. We would bring them back from our frequent trips Geneva. How it's changed! The cafe culture- Broadway Market feels like a very boho Paris, with an East london vibe

6. Brixton Village - indoor market with lively cafes and restaurants, vintage and record shops. Very cool, fun and friendly. And delicious food, the cooks range from Thai grandfathers to sexy Italian pizza-makers.

7. The clothes- London has a completely unique fashion sense, especially in East London. To cool for school (blokes in fitted pants and leather shoes, gals in bright velour, flip flops and extremely square shouldered white synthetic long jackets. Everyone has interesting hair) and takes some getting used to for everyone else, even for West Londoners!

8. The music- the home of Spotify and Last FM, London has always been booming in sound. From Radio 3s incredible eclectic late night sessions to booming hip hop from cars driving by to all the music festivals in every park and town across the UK.

9. The art scene- Theatre- Lord of the Flies in open air at Regent's Park and 'Tender Napalam' - an incredibly powerful fringe theatre play where you could very literally feel the sweat of the two performers (amazingly passionate lovers) on your skin sitting on benches in the arches under London Bridge. And then going for oysters and a glass of rose afterwards. More on the exploding visual art scene in my next post!

I could go on, but will stop myself. London feels good. Right here right now.

Head in the Clouds

Flying long-haul is so conducive somehow to thinking deeply, to a real reflection of one's life, and often, this leads to tears. For me. Perhaps its the fact that we are in such a magical place above the clouds, in between borders and regulations; we are kind of disembodied, with our past, present and future all getting criss-crossed. We are in No-Man's Land where time zones are continually shifting and where, for the only time, you can feel a little, a tiny bit, like God surveying the world below. I have shed so many tears on flights, and this one is no exception. And of course, the inevitable small bottles of wine also help this pondering. Do other people have this? I peer through my tears around my fellow passengers and no one else seems to- they seem quite happy watching Anjaana Anjaani or The King's Speech. Of course the low levels of oxygen could also be responsible.

Partner for Life: Love vs Arranged Marriage

Marriage, the un-arranged version (aka 'love marriage')

Looking at most of my friends' experiences as to how they met their life partner: they got together through meeting at the work place and going out one night and getting pissed; or at uni, during a truth or dare game when they had to kiss each other. Some physical attraction was there, then the ol' alcohol lubricant moved things along. Then they went out with each other for sometime before moving in together; then either getting pregnant and then marrying or vice versa. (These are British stories hence the key role alcohol plays in them).

The point I have to underline is that the meeting- is totally random - some might say luck and fate but I think random. Depends which uni or job you chose, which holiday you booked last minute in a panic. Some others I know met through close friends (which you can say is similar to arranged marriage but minus some key features).

Marriage, the modern arranged version (in India)

In today's India, this is simply called 'introductions'. Around the age of 23 (or possibly earlier) couples are introduced by their parents or introduce themselves through online methods, to potential life partners. Each young candidate has their personal profile known as bio-data - e.g. caste, doctored physical appearance ('wheatish' complexion rather than 'dark'), parental occupations, siblings' occupations, caste, education, star sign, etc. Marriage is the objective and from the first conversation it is all about that.

Some classic questions are "do you make tea?" and "do you brush your teeth before bed?"

There's the sharing of intimate stories of your childhood on why you still sleep with the light on, or are scared of dragonflies and what effect your bossy Mother has had on you. These long intimate discussions happen on IM or the phone with a stranger often from your ancestral village. Perhaps before you've even set eyes on them for real.

Of course you're both from the same caste and from 'good families' as identified by the Parents. You are actually marrying the family rather than simply the individual. Typically people decide within 3 months of knowing the person and go ahead and get engaged.

Comparing the two...

So with the love marriage- it is crazy that you are basing such an important decision to pure chance and luck that you will just run into and meet the 'ideal' person.

With arranged marriage it's certainly much more logical and practical. It rules out any romantic notion of eyes meeting over a crowded room and having a crazy love affair in Rome on a vespa and getting married before the week is out. This almost happened to me, though the city was London not Roma. Or does it rule out this kind of crazy attraction? Perhaps not. There is something very crazy for me to think about starting a conversation with a stranger, prospecting them blatantly as someone you'll spend the rest of your life with. BUT given that marriage is a contract and a compromise often with fixed roles, this could be a much saner approach to the whole shebang. Living with someone and having a family is not always very romantic (arguments over hairs all over the bathroom) and is often more of a practical arrangement.

Plus don't forget in India you often will both live with the groom's family. So more pressure. As one of my colleagues (aged 24 looking to have an arranged marriage shortly) says "any 2 sane individuals can fall in love" (i would say 2 insane ones can just as happily)..i guess as long as there's a click, neither method is fail- nor fool- proof but at least if that's what you're looking for, a wife/hubbie and a family, the arranged route, in terms of introductions, and not simply meeting your partner at the alter so to speak (which is rare nowadays) could work well.

Well, yes, as long as you fall in love...right? Can you know in advance that you will fall in love 'in some time'? Is growing into love more long lasting than falling head over heels, nose over toes. In my experiences of love, after one month, or sometimes less, I consciously chose to fall or not to fall. and that decision was irreversible- the relationship had to live out its natural life span.

And does passion actually grow with time? Or as Coco Chanel put it "I loathe passion, what an abomination, what a ghastly disease!..the passionate man takes no notice of the outside world or of other people; he sees them merely as instruments". If not passion though, at least attraction and strong physical connection is essential I would think.

I guess the sad part of arranged marriages is that it promotes in-breeding and a narrow gene pool. Few families are going to introduce cross- race, cross-caste, cross-religion couples to each other. If values and personalities were the main criteria, rather than caste, I would be a huge fan.

A Second Second Life?

Some people are calling GoJiyo the Indian Second Life. Which is I guess a pretty huge compliment given that Second Life is the standard for virtual worlds and has been around for 7 years!

Though Second Life was obviously something we looked at closely and learnt from, we didn’t feel its features would really fit what Godrej needed. This was after all a brand communication platform we were building. I looked at all existing worlds from the hugely successful World of Warcraft, IMVU, Vivaty , Twinity, China’s Hipihi, to Google's experiment with Lively, to Farmville and Habbo Hotel. We looked at branded environments such as Coke World and Lynx World. In our creative sessions we decided to bring together gaming, social networks, branded and 3D environments. In a way what we wanted to do was closer to Sony Playstation's Home in the concept (though accessible through a browser and much smaller in scale) than to Second Life. But without the customized spaces aspect PS Home has. At least for now.

Here are, to my mind the main differences between the GoJiyo and Second LIfe:

a. Access

1. Second Life needs to be downloaded once (approx 50 MB) and then you run that 'viewer' software to enter the world each time. It is not accessible through your browser.

GoJiyo is accessible directly through a browser, where it loads. Most other virtual worlds involve a software download. GoJiyo is designed for an Indian broadband bandwidth- to work on an actual download rate of 60 kbps.
This means each time you go to Gojiyo.com the world downloads, but it has cached the first time, so subsequent downloads are quicker. Our research tells us that
Indians wouldn't want to download a large piece of software. Which is perhaps why Second Life and other virtual worlds haven't really taken off in
India.

GoJiyo works on Unity. This gaming engine has been adapted by our Dev team to a multiplayer
virtual world environment (it’s usually used for uniplayer gaming environments like EA’s Tiger Woods game). It means the graphics can be great, there is some level of physics, and also it’s quite small to download! The Unity plugin is also slim at only 3MB.

2. The graphical user interface of the Second Life Viewer has, up to now, been pretty difficult to use, to quote one of the team, “we are Linden Lab after all” and most Second Life users have had to be quite tech savvy to be able to use it to its full potential. (We’ll see how the new Viewer changes their user demographic).

GoJiyo was designed to be very easy to use in its interface and with simple and fun functionality for less tech savvy users. Aimed at those new to virtual worlds (a step up from Farmville in immersive environments).

b. Features

1. Second Life is much bigger than GoJiyo- it's absolutely huge with loads of regions built by users, there's sophisticated location-based sound and lipsynching of avatars to their voice etc. Avatar customization is much more developed than GoJiyo's too, because it’s user generated, so the team of developers is much larger. You can be a non-human character for instance!

Gojiyo has 6 Regions only, which will refresh continually- Solaria- a beach city; Mauryaavaas - a recreation of the ancient Mauryan Empire, Noom- moon colony; Rejanm - where you can be reborn; an underwater world and an arcticland. Some are very Indian concepts. There is voice chat but GoJiyo is 25 days old compared to 7 years old ad so its features are continually developing. Like with any good software product, features will keep being added continually.

2. One of Second Life’s core tenets is giving creativity to the user though allowing them to create their own content (UGC). Users can create their own regions by buying land and building on it. The tools to build are out there to create everything from avatar clothes to gestures and more.
There are no gaming elements to Second Life really.

GoJiyo on the other hand, has many mini-games, to name a few: you can go bunjee jumping, surfing, skydiving, fight asteroids falling on the Moon and soon speed date in 3^rd Century BCE Mauryavaas. Users can also engage in longer quests like finding who’s stolen all the artworks from the city and restoring them; planting algae to save the moon from running out of oxygen. GoJiyo has a points and currency system- Mios and Jios which earns the user rewards online and in the real world and there’ll be more links with Godrej and other products. For instance you can win a real trip to climb Kilimanjaro with some of your GoJiyo friends.

3. In GoJiyo there’s a friendship engine that tracks your behaviour in GoJiyo, say you like doing adrenalin type activities, it will suggest similar new friends for you to meet, from the GoJiyo Tribe. Second Life doesn't have a feature like that. In fact you can't import friends from other networks, it is your world apart from the rest of your online life.

Yes in both worlds you can party at clubs. And in both your avatar can fly and teleport.

c. Audience

Second Life’s audience is more Western-centric- the majority of Residents are Americans and Europeans, with 7% from Japan and Brazil. Indian user figures are negligable. But 12.1m Residents over the 7 years of operations. A virtual world is, after all, simply an architecture until filled with people. GoJiyo is aimed at young Indians, who are populating it (at time of writing 72,000 avatars in India had been created in 25 days).

d. Business Model & Reason For Doing It

Second Life’s mission is “To connect everyone to an online world that advances the human condition.” It seems Linden Lab are focusing much more towards UGC and customization of the world- you make what kind of fantasy world you want to inhabit. Virtual meetings between people, including companies, through their Enterprise Grid is another growing area. The exchange rate, Linden dollar to USD also mean Linden have a strong business model for this product.

GoJiyo is a branded environment- Godrej and other brands will be present; but it is not a business Godrej is entering, simply a communication platform for the brand. The aim is to build a conversation with a younger target group than it currently has. And give to them some new, hopefully unique, experiences online.

Virtual Worlds Apart

Before I came to India I was interviewing with Second Life to work in Silicon Valley, having met and been inspired by Philip Rosedale (Linden Lab's founder) with my MIT class. I've been involved in new media since my Cybertheatre days in 1997 when I tried out a virtual reality headset and wings and flew to a mountain where I chatted to another girl in cyberspace. It blew my mind then and I felt like today, where bandwidth, Net familiarity and mass Internet enthusiasm have converged it’s time to revisit virtual worlds. 3D is one way the web will develop, towards a visual interface rather than a text-heavy web experience.

When I found out that Godrej, one of India's largest FMCG companies, was revitalizing its brand, I was very excited! I had been lucky enough to meet one of the family a couple of years ago. Then I heard a new virtual world was to be developed by them...I ended up coming to consult on this project.

Before I arrived, I thought India is not ready for a virtual world – low bandwidth and low numbers of people online. I thought I'd try to persuade them to do something innovative for mobile phones instead. However after I had arrived and been part of many consumer focus groups, I realized that I could be wrong- broadband is the norm at 87% of Net subscribers and there were 54m active internet users in 2009. Also people seem incredibly open to and excited by new possibilities. So it could work! But it would still be risky...


Many months were spent refining the concept and functionality. The idea was to create a space for the Godrej brand to communicate to its younger audiences and give them something akin to the brand's concept of Brighter Living. A place where the world is fun and exciting and ever-changing, where you can experience new things with friends and meet new people online. A kind of virtual Disney Land. Can virtual worlds give a large, diverse brand cohesion through a branded environment? What I liked was it wasn't gonna be too heavily in-your-face branding, as no one would want to be there then. This would be a place where other brands could also exist. And where cool events would happen.

We settled on the name:
Go Jiyo means Go Live (live as in 'to live' and not as in 'watch it on TV,
live'). We decided GoJiyo must be dynamic and so its 6 Regions would refresh continually- we’d have a moon colony after the Chandraayan probe discovered water; Rejanm- where you can be reborn; a recreation of the ancient Mauryan empire; an urban environment; an underwater region and an arcticland. GoJiyo would also try to bring together gaming and social networks and 3D environments. So there’d be lots of mini-games as well as larger quests.


Working in India has had its trials and tribulations for me, but I have been impressed by the scale of the project. Our development team are truly global, from Bombay to London to Shanghai to Auckland to Texas...with many interesting characters such as a World of Warcraft addict who is married to someone in Second Life and earned a living building virtual castles; the reputed child genius Adam Frisby, who was hired by IBM at age 12, and went on to co-invent Open Sim, which is of course based on Second Life's platform; and a 3D specialist who heads up the largest virtual goods vendor.


We launched on 22 March and had a pretty astounding number of people signed up-
50,000 in 10 days. I was very worried about launching and there’s still tonnes to do! We launched with only the urban region and are now slowly releasing other regions. But now I do think sometimes it’s better to launch and then fix problems as they come up. You simply cannot simulate problems and properly load test either. And GoJiyo is in public beta, so we’re going to the public with cap in hand and a joint effort to develop it over the next months together, with feedback from users. Of course there are technical issues, every website and especially every 3D environment is always beleaguered by many. Our servers haven’t crashed yet though, which I am thankful for. Famous last words….
I hope not!

Bombay 2010

Reading my last post makes me realise how much my perceptions have changed since then. I haven't blogged for 5 months now, so it's pretty damn obvious that they would. Life in a new country meant my senses were more awake especially at the beginning and the learnings immense, as I grappled with understanding EVERYTHING which was so new and alien, instead of going about with blinkers on, doing the same familiar things in the same ol' place.

Now I go into automation mode and zone out a lot more, especially during the innumerable 9-hour meetings I am called to often....At times I look around and feel I am just so different to the people I see on the streets of Mumbai! I guess this is quite a widespread feeling however. The great thing about living in a place with so many people is that there will be many people like you, even if its 0.5% of the population that'll still be a cool 5m people...

But now I feel pretty much at home in this crazy city, which I keep describing as 'totally nuts but weirdly addictive'. I love Bombay mostly, though I also hate some aspects of life here (like anywhere). I love my apartment, which I am working on to make it more homely. I love my maid Chandbi who, though illiterate, is one of the most intelligent people I've met and weirdly reminds me of my ex-flatmate in London, Marta, in some of the ways she advises me about life. I love my little band of friends, Mukul, Farhad, Neha and Sita...and the Brit crew. I love my job- it is so exciting what we are doing, so creative and so risky too. We launch in a few weeks time, and so are deep in TV promotion,on-ground and online. I think back to my MIT Brand Strategy classes of last year. Never did I know then that I would be so deep into brand revitalisation as I am now....

I guess that's the thing with life, you really never know what will come next, all you can do is trust your instincts and all will be well (to misquote Amir Khan). There's another thing I would never have foretold in a million years: that I got to like Bollywood! Though it's probably as Mukul says, i see them as foreign films which I don't critique strongly.. strangely more lenient than I would be on a Polish film (why?)

The last few weeks we've been frequenting a great series of sundowner parties on Juhu Beach at a venue called Aurus. Every Sunday from 5pm you'll see a fun chilled crowd, including many models, sipping Sula Brut with cranberry juice and boogying away to equally beautiful techno beats.

A trip to Rishikesh and the Kumbh Mela was had last week. I'd never been to the Himalayas before. It is truly divinely beautiful- the River Ganga is emerald green and ice-cold, it rejuvenates you and keeps calling you back once, twice and once again. Her banks are white pristine sand. It was my first glimpse of Indian spiritual tourism, of the type transcribed in Holy Cow and Are You Experienced Yet. I loved being at the home of yoga.

What I hate about Bombay: is the traffic, the noise, the dirt and the way you sometimes have to treat people. Because there are so many I guess ;-)

To my friends: ignore the previous line, Bombay is a very special place. Please come visit me.

Coming back...to freedom

Coming back to live in the Indian subcontinent after many years in the West has given me a special gift. It reminds me of my childhood- the swimming club we frequented, the aunties in pretty saris smelling of fresh talc and 4711 cologne; our maids who did everything and were really part of the family, the respect with which you are treated as you belong to a certain class, the green beans we begged not to eat; the particular taste of the milk, the cute lizards and other little insects you find, the way everything melts so quickly when out of the fridge, the sweating in the midmorning sun, the whirring sound of the fan, the unexpected smells, the sudden shouts of roadside sellers....the way you never knew how long it would take to do anything, the entire unpredictability of life, near brushes with road accidents; the infectious smiles of the people.

But it's on another level now. A level of freedom a child could not have. Freedom to experience anything, any time and with pretty much anyone is a big change. The US also gave me an immense sense of freedom. Here it is enhanced perhaps by the climate, as hot weather always gives me a sense of freedom, freedom to wear fewer clothes, to be outside at any time of night. Coming back is good! Of course our pride in, as well as life in, the region has changed a lot too. Cadburys is made in India for instance (access to Cadburys chocolate was a big issue in my life as a kid).

I realise many of my traits are asian, such as being flexible and relaxed with time and planning. Things that i always struggled to change in the UK. People are willing to share so much time with you and its spontaneous and not pre-planned. The emphasis on personal space and time is less so, but I feel I have a good mix. I feel less lonely here due to it. Here people do things in groups much more, perhaps because of this sheer unpredictability of things. This makes me feel like a teenager again, to just hang out for hours on end with friends. Just being together. Sharing experiences.

Since life has many tribulations here, it seems there's a different level of interaction, a deeper honesty and empathy that comes with knowing everyone has to overcome niggling daily hardships (as well as larger long-term issues). This means relationships are different. To me it seems to favour being more open and holistic. People love chatting and it's harder to keep you hidden. Even at work.

mumbai meri jaan?

I like Mumbai despite:

- the feeling that really noisy buses and rickshaws are driving through my bedroom
- the fact that crossing the road is truly a petrifying experience. There is a genuine lack of traffic lights..
- the daily hardship and grind of life of millions smacks you in the face and enters your blood

So what is it I like about Mumbai?

- The dignity of the people is awe-inspiring
- My personal worries seem pretty unimportant
- I love my team at work – they rock, and the project brief is very exciting! We work hard but the atmosphere is good- professional, digital and creative. My favourite 3 words.
- Indians are some of the warmest, friendliest people alive – both wise and emotional
- I like being a foreigner but looking like an Indian and many things being in English- it’s a strange mix of being foreign and not being foreign (I’m Sri Lankan so I don’t speak Hindi..yes, yes Sri Lankan like MIA, and Murali)
- One of my best friends lives in this city and I’ve always wanted a stint here
- I have other friends from way back, who live here and I enjoy being part of their lives
- I have my own yoga teacher every day for a month for the cost of 1 group class in the UK.
- The food is gorgeous- daily, it is light and vegetarian
- Indians are very social- they like spending time together. In sharp contrast to life in the West which is more independent a.k.a lonely.

Salam Bombay

This morning I landed in Bombay to start a 3-month contract at India's largest FMCG company, Godrej. I like to call the city Bombay rather than Mumbai, and this has more to do with the fact that Bombay signifies tolerance of diverse peoples, not embodied by the current regime. Therefore, it is less about reclaiming the name after colonisation. Remember the name was changed about 40 years after the British left.

My flight was awesome, BA Premium economy is very luxurious, with great service and legroom. Arriving in Bombay, as we stood in line to be screened for H1N1, I realised how airports really do bring to light what a weird time we live in, with this and all the ridiculous security measures where it is disallowed to even carry a bottle of water!

I arrived at midnight a car was sent from Godrej to collect me and take me to my guest house. This is in the Godrej Hillside Colony. The Colony, making us sound like worker ants, is north of the city, in a greener part. Since Godrej seem to make almost everything, my room is like the reality TV show - I wash myself with Godrej soap, I lock my room and wardrobe with Godrej's famous locks,watch TV on a Godrej screen, call with a Godrej phone....

There is still the relentless hum of traffic, the buzz of the tuk-tuks and the endless beeping of horns. This to me is what tires me of Bombay. I am glad to have brought ear plugs, which helped me find peace in yoga this evening.

However the Strategic Marketing office I will be working in is an abyss of calm- everything is white and serene, beautifully designed with bubble chairs and white leather chaise-longues next to the latest design books, sunken meeting rooms and a canteen with black slate tables and floor and Buddha watching over us.It will be a pleasure to work there!

It is always a shock to move from the so-called first to the third world. Today I was struck by the amount of jobs there are here. Even when there are machines, there are people to help other people use the machines, be they escalators in a shopping mall or the vending machine in the kitchen at work. In a country of 1.2bn people, though, seemingly superfluous jobs are a must.


I am off to read Shantaram, the book by Gregory David Roberts that every foreigner surely must read if spending some serious time in this incredible city.
He begins: Bombay has "the sweet, sweating smell of hope..the sour, stifled smell of greed...of heartbreak and the struggle to live..."

The End of Studying (well for now)...

This might well be my last Sunday spent studying...this is the last week of the semester. The sun pours in my window and I am reading a 10K for a take-home exam for "Finance" class. I put the word in inverted commas as we are unsure as to its validity as a Finance class. The Professor wears a shirt, tie, shorts and red crocks..class discussions are cool. One interesting thing we talked about was that the Maldive islands were for sale (as they are sinking) and how could they be valued? Could you compare them to the price of creating The World in Dubai? What about the future cash flows you could generate as a private country with offshore gambling or other such activities.But they will sink in time..

What has definitely not sunk in yet is that I will leave this everyday familiarity which is Sloan, very soon. The daily hellos to tens or hundreds of students and Profs up and down and across the corridors and bridges which connect the buildings; having great conversations when trying to find peace and quiet to study in the Fellows lounge, in the library or in the E52 lounge; the terrible but terribly-efficient-at-waking-you-up coffee from Refresher Course with smiles from sweet Teresa.All this will be sadly missed.

Next week: Web 3.0 drinks, $100k biz plan competition; Branding party where we bring our fave brand of drink, SF women's dinner; Sloan Follies extravaganza....lots of parties and 2 exams...then boarding a flight to Delhi in time for the election results and then to Turkey..2 weeks of international business leadership and class final bonding to complete the experience.

Wow..last week we had a lunch with the core Faculty where our Creative Director Adnan had pieced together a powerful 10 min movie about our year and the learning that has taken place. The tears flowed...and I can see many more in my near future.

Last Thursday was the African C Function which blew me away with Step dancing - an African American dance which certainly is a metaphor for life and the masks that we wear. Last Friday was our gradation party where we rocked the Boston Hard Rock Cafe with the SF band and then karaoke, in amongst Madonna's cone-shaped bra...such talent was exposed as well as much rockstar excessive consumption.

Then some of us woke up early for Pei-Ling's birthday breakfast with an incredible Jimmy Choo b'day cake..I felt like I was in an episode of Sex and the City for sure, we spoke about foot fetishes and swapped Cosmos for Bloody Marys and pomogranate champagne.

Last night I was with my PhD friends at Edgerton, we watched a 1960s Hindi movie called Bandini, about female prisoners in blue striped saris, and of course love. Ila's cheescake was divine..then we argued over which songs were truly sexy...I want to be your underwear (Bryan Admas), Gett Off (Prince); Brazilian Drum and Bass (DJ Marky); Led Zep....conclusion: if you match with someone else on this selection issue, the spark should be good between you. Music is the food of love after all....so let's all play on...we deserve it.