Although this article is written from the point of view of Mumbai, it equally applies to every other city in India.
In the aftermath of 13/7, as did happen after 26/11 and all the other dates that have since assumed their place in India’s Hall of Infamy, a lot of fur flew, soul searching was done, candle light vigils and solidarity meetings were held, high powered committees were formed and various TV anchors and prominent citizens held forth during stirring debates, after which everyone went home to bed with that warm feeling of having done their bit for the general good of society. The enthusiasm lasted about a month. In the present instance, I can already see it wearing off in less than two weeks.
The fact is, candle light marches achieve nothing other than imbibing the marcher with a pleasant feeling. We have already heard the Home Minister and his counterpart from the opposition say on national TV that there was no intelligence failure – possibly the weakest excuse that has been trotted out in recent times. Obviously, when there is no intelligence there can be no failure. India’s recent history is replete with knee jerk reactions, yet we seem to ignore the basics time and again. As a race we don’t have a sense of history and the saying, “those who don’t learn from the lessons of history are doomed to repeat its failures” becomes a self fulfilling prophecy in India’s case.
After 26/11, the call went out to have a commando force to guard the city of Mumbai, never mind the fact that the NSG had already been asked to set up a base in Mumbai. Mumbai’s outspoken elites wanted to do their bit for their less fortunate minions. In less than a year an ‘elite’ commando force was created. It remains a mystery how a regular constable can be transformed into a commando and thereafter an ‘elite commando’ in less than a year, without taking part in actual operations, without feeling the need to creep up on hostiles in their own territory in complete silence and the dozens of other situations that a commando has to face. A commando’s USP is his motivation. How does he remain motivated when his own officer doesn’t go through the grind with him?
Force One was created to guard the city like a fort, though that is hardly the job of a commando, the cop at the local police station with intimate knowledge of the by-lanes is better suited for guarding the city. The fact that Mumbai’s police chief didn’t want them around during President Obama’s visit spoke volumes for his confidence in his men. Unfortunately, the setting up of this force is the latest in a series of symbolic cosmetic gestures designed to deflect attention from the fundamental issues that need far greater attention.
Thus far, all our responses have been calibrated on the assumption that the next terrorist strike on the city would again be on the lines of 26/11. However terrorists are not known to be predictable. The blasts of 13/7 proved the fruitlessness of setting up an additional commando force, of buying armoured cars and amphibious equipment of doubtful efficacy when what was required was sound policing and intelligence. After every bomb blast, the only visible indication of any response from the law machinery are the barricades that spring up on roads serving little else other than choking traffic. The locations of barricades and the modus operandi of the police are so predictable that any terrorist who has done his due diligence would have long factored in the same into his plans.
Ineffective and half baked measures are inevitable when the sound advice of seasoned and experienced policemen is drowned by the shrill voices of socialites, actors, poets, financial geniuses and others allowed to influence policies where specialist knowledge is required. According to Prakash Singh, a former DG of the BSF, DGP of Assam and UP and a security analyst, the role of the local police station and the beat constable has been steadily sidelined. The Beat Constable was infact the ‘boots on ground’ of the law and it was his responsibility to walk around physically sighting everything and every person in his assigned area. A good beat cop kept watch on the criminal elements in his area and reported their activities and movements to his superiors. This enabled the local police station to build up its data base and it always had its finger on the pulse of its localities. They cultivated their own network of informers who provided information on activities not normally visible to uniformed policemen. This view is echoed by Ajai Sahni, the Director of the Institute for Conflict Management and a counter terrorism expert.
According to Sahni, the crucial imperative of improving general police capabilities has largely been ignored and the police constable remains what he was – poorly trained, poorly motivated, distanced from the intelligence chain, operating in conditions of stress and held in complete contempt by the general public and his own masters. Prakash Singh suggests steps to improve basic policing – the police station must be adequately staffed, men should be well trained, well equipped with reliable weapons, transports and communication facilities. Similarly the morale and well being of the policeman cannot be ignored – housing in particular, being a major stress factor in a large and expensive city, has to be provided. Lastly, though perhaps easier said than done, the police has to be freed from extraneous pressures.
One cannot make a city safe from terrorists while ignoring local criminal gangs and anti-social elements, for it can be safely concluded that terrorists will seek local assistance for information gathering, planning, logistic support and possibly for the actual operations also. Josy Joseph, writing for the Times of India has explored the possibility of the whole operation being outsourced by ideological groups, to those whose only motivation is money. He states that there are indications that the whole business is being outsourced to local criminal gangs or individuals who would carry out the recce, identify the spot and plant the bomb. He points out that it would be a clear advantage to the ISI, if locals could be recruited to conduct the strikes so that evidence would point investigators in the direction of Indians and nothing could be traced back to Pakistan. He also points out that outsourcing would be done to groups with proven capability and in fact the only difference between Mumbai and Delhi is the presence of a number of underworld gangs in Mumbai.
After 26/11, the government appointed a committee under former Union Home secretary, Ram Pradhan to look into the security lapses and recommend steps to avoid recurrence. Some of the recommendations of the Pradhan committee that are yet to be implemented are:
• Set up a nodal officer to coordinate between central and state intelligence agencies.
• Ensure closer liaison between the police and telecom companies
• Make the private sector responsible for their own security
• Draft SOPs for tackling terror attacks in future
All the above are seemingly self explanatory and may appear to be stating the obvious, however they have deep implications. While there are a number of central and state intelligence agencies in the urban hubs of Delhi and Mumbai, few of them talk to one another to share information, lest the glory be carried off by someone regarded as a rival agency. Hence a person carrying out a schoolmaster’s function is required to get each to share their zealously guarded information. This is a result of myriad agencies being created over the years. Whether the nodal officer will be able to convince the concerned agencies to share information, is anybody’s guess. According to Ajay Sahni, while terrorists may target Delhi and Mumbai, planning and training operations are usually conducted in the badlands of some poorly governed state or even abroad. Hence it is essential that not only should the intelligence networks be buzzing proactively, but the police should be monitoring telephone calls to and from the Maoist affected areas through the active cooperation of mobile service providers.
In my earlier article I had pointed out the difficulty of emergency and quick response services rapidly reaching the site of a terrorist attack or a building where a terrorist may be holed up, given the congestion in areas favoured by terrorists. There is virtually no alternative to decongest areas considered most vulnerable. Private corporations, business district associations and other collectives have to initiate their own security measures as recommended by the Pradhan Committee, for which removal of hawkers and vendors to specific zones and vehicles from the immediate frontage of shops to parking areas is an essential pre-requisite. Access to areas has to be controlled by private security persons who need to be trained to do more than merely donning a uniform. Once trained to observe crowds, monitor CCTVs, and identify signs of suspicious behavior, the private security can function as the extended eyes and ears of the police, informing them of criminal activity.
By and large, the laws are in place, what remains is their enforcement. We live in an era when nonchalantly flouting laws has become the norm, not only among the semi-educated but also among the educated upper middle class. Yesterday, driving on the sea-link I was surprised to see a couple of cars parked on it with people enjoying the breeze and view – this less than two weeks after 13/11, when there are signs saying that stopping on the sea link is forbidden. Obviously, when there is no one to catch them, people increasingly wink at the law. It is absolutely imperative that the police pull up their socks in all areas and ensure observance of the law in letter and spirit to send out a message not only to the public but also to criminal gangs and through them, to terrorist outfits. Only when the pressure of effective policing is felt by local criminal elements that terrorists will find it difficult to plan and operate with impunity as they are doing at present.
Do bear in mind that post 9/11, it is hardcore policing, intelligence and internal security measures that have kept USA safe, not the Predator drone strikes in Afghanistan or for that matter any military action halfway around the earth.
At present the city is barely under control of the law, and it is time to reclaim it. To do that, the answer is not to put up more police barricades, but instead to let the general public know that the police means business in all spheres, be it crowd control, vehicle traffic regulation, scrutiny of antecedents of foreigners and people seeking accommodation both in housing societies and in the city’s hotels and hostels, monitoring of phone chatter to and from suspicious areas and every other form of basic ground level policing. The answer lies in using technology to aid manual methods and employing smart, impartial and fair methods of laying down the law, thereby drawing the population closer rather than alienating them.
We must realize that we are now at war and though we may not see the enemy, the enemy sees us. It is a war without the drama and overt action, but with all the blood and gore of a regular war, spilled on our streets, where the next battle casualty could be your school going daughter. It is a war where brute force is ineffective and where the mind must be used efficiently. In the words of Gen Patton, “No b**** ever won a war by dying for his country, he won by making the other poor dumb b**** die for his country.” It’s time to wake up and get smart.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Mumbai's Energy - Boon or Bane
Wednesday 13th July 2011 is a date that not many are likely to forget, as it joins the growing list of dates that serve to remind India of her weaknesses and vulnerabilities. That we don’t seem to be doing enough to curb the scourge of terrorism is evident to even the most unlettered Bombayite, for despite all assurances, it is this city that appears to be bearing the brunt of terrorist attacks. While other cities in India have also faced terrorist acts, it is only Mumbai that has had to repeatedly deal with this mindless violence that targets all communities.
Why is it that this city has become a happy hunting ground for terrorists and why is it that successive governments are unable to control this menace. It is not that the central or state governments are not making efforts or do not have the funds to purchase equipment. It is not that the police do not have their intelligence network. Then why is this network not effective when it is known that law enforcement agencies have to succeed every time while a terrorist has to succeed only once. It is this truism that Rahul Gandhi was trying to articulate, unfortunately he did so rather clumsily at an inopportune moment.
Mumbai is and has always been a city in a hurry – “Bai bai, Mumbai mein sabko hich ghaai”. Nobody walks leisurely in this city, everyone is trying to get somewhere quickly, trying to swing a deal, trying to get there first. People have configured their home and work environments to complement each other and small businesses have sprung up to meet the felt needs of the bigger businesses. This is why it is so easy to do certain things in Mumbai. The city’s competitiveness ensures that it never sleeps. Nowhere else can you order a meal to be home delivered at midnight. Nowhere else does the system of hot food being delivered from homes in distant suburbs to offices in the city, work so effectively. The range of support one can get for one’s work is superb – documents picked up from your office for photocopying and delivered back neatly bound instantly, quick service from the nearest courier agent, cups of hot tea and coffee delivered through the day, cash picked up from the office for depositing reliably and regularly, cheques sent for cashing through the enterprising youngster earning a decent salary running oddjobs, the list goes on and on.
The city’s legendary energy has attracted businesses of every kind and has led to a number of similar industries being set up in their own distinct areas of operations – the financial district around the Reserve Bank and the Stock Exchange, the diamond and gold trading area in Zaveri Bazaar, the electronics market on Lamington Road, shipping and ship repair in the docks area, Bollywood in the suburbs and so many others.
The competition to attract buyers is intense, with each trying to outdo the other. Competition spills onto the road as well with temporary stalls set up on the roads and pavements outside the regular shops offering a cut price bargain for the same goods being sold inside. This is why it is such fun to shop in Crawford market area. Not only can you buy virtually anything under the sun inside a 1 km radius, but you can actually go shopping with Rs 100 and come away feeling pleased. Within that cheerful cacophony of people buying and selling are cars, scooters, cyclists, handcarts, roadside tea stalls, vendors, delivery trucks, buses, taxis, even the occasional cow, buffalo or goat and all the while, people and more people everywhere. Cars are virtually jammed next to each other without wasting an inch of space, bikes are parked right outside the shop and the van delivers your goods at your doorstep. No one minds if the road is partly blocked while the van unloads, which in any case is done deftly and quickly, because he has to go further for another delivery. In Mumbai, time is money. Wonderful for business.
But from the security point of view, this is a disaster waiting to happen. Large congregations of humanity and densely packed roads with no room for maneauvre do not support security and emergency imperatives. It is physically impossible to go through the process of stopping, scanning, searching and clearing thousands of people and their bags in a short time effectively, given the masses of humanity that throng these popular business destinations and the numbers of police and trained security personnel available. Even CCTV cameras installed in large numbers cannot prevent a terrorist strike unless there are sufficient personnel trained to sift through the mind numbing sea of faces that a single day’s video recordings would throw up, even if aided by face recognition software.
The people of Mumbai have become so used to constant and continuous motion that they simply do not accept any delay in their movement. All security initiatives in this city sooner or later fade away, either through a political lack of will, bureaucratic red tape, lack of interest by a corrupt police force, or a stubborn unwillingness to accept any curbs on personal liberty by an obdurate citizenry that regards it a birthright to demand safety and security from the government on the one hand while refusing to shed their blinkers on the other. Safety of the community depends on how much each person is willing to cooperate, which means, how much is each person willing to sacrifice so that everyone can benefit. That ‘how much’ in Mumbai is woefully small and can be judged from the fact that the diamond traders were unwilling to shift to newer and better facilities in BKC, citing one reason or another. On Wednesday it was the diamond traders in Zaveri Bazaar, the next time it could be the equally crowded financial sector around Dalal Street, or the popular and equally congested Linking Road, Bandra. Frankly it wouldn’t be a surprise if an IED was found smuggled into the docks either.
Given the sheer numbers of people packed into small spaces, there seems to be no alternative other than to decongest crowded areas and move some of these industries along with their supporting businesses into more organized zones built for the purpose. Undoubtedly, business deals would be interrupted for a while. Street vendors have to be cleared permanently and more effectively than the BMC’s eyewash exercises presently being conducted. No doubt it would make the street look rather dull and devoid of ‘chehel pehel’ but there is simply no option. When we allow new stalls to come up, it certainly adds to the colour but also adds new security challenges, when even the old ones haven’t been solved. The spread of stalls on Fashion Street is a case in point. The spillage of slums onto the land adjoining railway tracks is another. There have been cases of train commuters being hit by stones thrown by people walking or living nearby. The next time it could be a grenade.
I am not aware if there is any technology available that can scan the teeming humanity at Churchgate Station, for instance, automatically see through their metal tiffin boxes, sniff through briefcases, recognize suspicious faces, and indicate targets all in a jiffy, so that anti-terrorist teams can zero in on the likely hotspot efficiently and accurately without disturbing everyone. Till then, or till someone cracks the whip really hard, and areas get decongested and vehicles are parked in designated areas and people agree to stand patiently in queues, Mumbai’s famed energy will work against its own safety and security.
Why is it that this city has become a happy hunting ground for terrorists and why is it that successive governments are unable to control this menace. It is not that the central or state governments are not making efforts or do not have the funds to purchase equipment. It is not that the police do not have their intelligence network. Then why is this network not effective when it is known that law enforcement agencies have to succeed every time while a terrorist has to succeed only once. It is this truism that Rahul Gandhi was trying to articulate, unfortunately he did so rather clumsily at an inopportune moment.
Mumbai is and has always been a city in a hurry – “Bai bai, Mumbai mein sabko hich ghaai”. Nobody walks leisurely in this city, everyone is trying to get somewhere quickly, trying to swing a deal, trying to get there first. People have configured their home and work environments to complement each other and small businesses have sprung up to meet the felt needs of the bigger businesses. This is why it is so easy to do certain things in Mumbai. The city’s competitiveness ensures that it never sleeps. Nowhere else can you order a meal to be home delivered at midnight. Nowhere else does the system of hot food being delivered from homes in distant suburbs to offices in the city, work so effectively. The range of support one can get for one’s work is superb – documents picked up from your office for photocopying and delivered back neatly bound instantly, quick service from the nearest courier agent, cups of hot tea and coffee delivered through the day, cash picked up from the office for depositing reliably and regularly, cheques sent for cashing through the enterprising youngster earning a decent salary running oddjobs, the list goes on and on.
The city’s legendary energy has attracted businesses of every kind and has led to a number of similar industries being set up in their own distinct areas of operations – the financial district around the Reserve Bank and the Stock Exchange, the diamond and gold trading area in Zaveri Bazaar, the electronics market on Lamington Road, shipping and ship repair in the docks area, Bollywood in the suburbs and so many others.
The competition to attract buyers is intense, with each trying to outdo the other. Competition spills onto the road as well with temporary stalls set up on the roads and pavements outside the regular shops offering a cut price bargain for the same goods being sold inside. This is why it is such fun to shop in Crawford market area. Not only can you buy virtually anything under the sun inside a 1 km radius, but you can actually go shopping with Rs 100 and come away feeling pleased. Within that cheerful cacophony of people buying and selling are cars, scooters, cyclists, handcarts, roadside tea stalls, vendors, delivery trucks, buses, taxis, even the occasional cow, buffalo or goat and all the while, people and more people everywhere. Cars are virtually jammed next to each other without wasting an inch of space, bikes are parked right outside the shop and the van delivers your goods at your doorstep. No one minds if the road is partly blocked while the van unloads, which in any case is done deftly and quickly, because he has to go further for another delivery. In Mumbai, time is money. Wonderful for business.
But from the security point of view, this is a disaster waiting to happen. Large congregations of humanity and densely packed roads with no room for maneauvre do not support security and emergency imperatives. It is physically impossible to go through the process of stopping, scanning, searching and clearing thousands of people and their bags in a short time effectively, given the masses of humanity that throng these popular business destinations and the numbers of police and trained security personnel available. Even CCTV cameras installed in large numbers cannot prevent a terrorist strike unless there are sufficient personnel trained to sift through the mind numbing sea of faces that a single day’s video recordings would throw up, even if aided by face recognition software.
The people of Mumbai have become so used to constant and continuous motion that they simply do not accept any delay in their movement. All security initiatives in this city sooner or later fade away, either through a political lack of will, bureaucratic red tape, lack of interest by a corrupt police force, or a stubborn unwillingness to accept any curbs on personal liberty by an obdurate citizenry that regards it a birthright to demand safety and security from the government on the one hand while refusing to shed their blinkers on the other. Safety of the community depends on how much each person is willing to cooperate, which means, how much is each person willing to sacrifice so that everyone can benefit. That ‘how much’ in Mumbai is woefully small and can be judged from the fact that the diamond traders were unwilling to shift to newer and better facilities in BKC, citing one reason or another. On Wednesday it was the diamond traders in Zaveri Bazaar, the next time it could be the equally crowded financial sector around Dalal Street, or the popular and equally congested Linking Road, Bandra. Frankly it wouldn’t be a surprise if an IED was found smuggled into the docks either.
Given the sheer numbers of people packed into small spaces, there seems to be no alternative other than to decongest crowded areas and move some of these industries along with their supporting businesses into more organized zones built for the purpose. Undoubtedly, business deals would be interrupted for a while. Street vendors have to be cleared permanently and more effectively than the BMC’s eyewash exercises presently being conducted. No doubt it would make the street look rather dull and devoid of ‘chehel pehel’ but there is simply no option. When we allow new stalls to come up, it certainly adds to the colour but also adds new security challenges, when even the old ones haven’t been solved. The spread of stalls on Fashion Street is a case in point. The spillage of slums onto the land adjoining railway tracks is another. There have been cases of train commuters being hit by stones thrown by people walking or living nearby. The next time it could be a grenade.
I am not aware if there is any technology available that can scan the teeming humanity at Churchgate Station, for instance, automatically see through their metal tiffin boxes, sniff through briefcases, recognize suspicious faces, and indicate targets all in a jiffy, so that anti-terrorist teams can zero in on the likely hotspot efficiently and accurately without disturbing everyone. Till then, or till someone cracks the whip really hard, and areas get decongested and vehicles are parked in designated areas and people agree to stand patiently in queues, Mumbai’s famed energy will work against its own safety and security.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
THE PROBLEM WITH FORWARDS
As any cellphone user and internet user with an e mail account will tell you, it is rather difficult to keep an inbox clean with the amount of rubbish that floods in every day in the form of unwanted mails. While one can sift through the chaff and consign the usual offers for credit cards and bargains to the trash bin, there are also a large number of mails sent by known people in the form of ‘forwards’. Usually, these over-zealous people trying so hard to be friendly, fail to appreciate the nuisance value of these mails. As a member of an e-group comprising a large number of members, I am privileged to receive various forwards, sent by one or the other member, however it has to be said in all fairness that it is only a few who have cultivated the habit of sending forwards into a fine art.
While it can be argued that this is one way of keeping in touch, the base issue here is that senders of forwards invariably fail to appreciate the attendant problems. The headaches start when people send forwards without thinking. “Forward bombing” is perhaps a close description of what happens when you receive a deluge of mails in your in-box all from the same sender. Senders fail to realize that when the recipient finds too many e mails from the same person, all of them forwards and completely irrelevant, the sender’s credibility takes a beating, something like another person talking too much whenever you come across them. Makes you want to avoid them.
Most forwards have gone around so many times that they are like the same stale jokes rehearsed and trotted out by the wannabe life of the party. You smile politely and even try to cough out a light laugh, while inwardly you groan at the inflicted punishment. Let me run through some of the commonly observed nuisance perpetrated by forwards.
Hoaxes. So many forwards are pure hoaxes which can be ascertained in a jiffy if the sender would only take the trouble. A few days ago I received photos of a Flying Hotel, the Hotelicopter. All that it took to see through the hoax, was to open another tab and google hotelicopter. The same photos that my friend had sent me, appeared along with the words Hoax. How come there’s no site for online booking of suites for a weekend stay in the flying hotel. Did it not occur to the sender that a helicopter can’t fly very far and has to come down to earth every hour or so. Some stories like those of exploding cellphones have been doing the rounds for years. Despite the myth having been exploded publicly, people still try to circulate photos of milk guzzling Ganeshas. There was even an alarming message that did the rounds recently and was circulated on mobile phones through SMSes that the Sea Link had developed cracks. Fortunately that hoax was exposed quickly. On another occasion I received a message advising me not to travel to Mahim as riots had broken out in that area.
Unverified Information. Another favorite is to send info without bothering to verify the authenticity. A few days ago I received a forwarded mail with some remarks ascribed to Chester Nimitz, the great American wartime Admiral. A quick search of Nimitz’s quotations revealed that he had never made such remarks and it was probably someone trying to create a newsworthy story. The story had done its rounds and was available for anyone on the net to “Copy & paste”. Shortly after the 2G scam had been exposed and the minister of telecom A Raja was arrested, stories of his amassed wealth began to circulate. I received a mail with photos of Raja’s fabulously luxurious villa reportedly built on the outskirts of Hyderabad. While I had no doubt that Raja could easily afford a house as expensive as that shown, somehow I could not link the style, the elegance, aesthetics and taste, so evident in those photos, with Shri A Raja. That house just wasn’t him. Sure enough, I came across those photos again but this time in an interiors magazine, in a photo shoot credited to a house in Montecito, California.
Repeated To Death. While once I sincerely read the presentations on self improvement forwarded by friends, but over a period of time I find myself reading the same thing over and over again. By now I must have viewed the series of photographs titled “Inside The Tube” a half dozen times along with so many other “Simple Joys of Life”, “The Beauty of Nature”, “Earth at Her Best”, “Wonders Of The World”, “Temple Made Of Bottles”, “Sculpted Garden”, “Lifelike Advertisements”, “Amazing Bridges” and so on. I would love to download some of these beautiful pictures to use in my presentations, but they are invariably in ‘.pps’ format and one can do nothing but gaze at them vacantly. Naughty pictures too, like the one of ‘Eye Catching T Shirt Slogans’ and other eye candies, have also been circulated ad nauseum and now seem juvenile. Well certainly no one’s getting any younger so perhaps they really are kiddish now.
I made the mistake of mildly suggesting to a regular sender of forwards in my e group, that he could consider sending more ‘real’ photos one could relate to, like pics taken during our training days, places served, important occasions etc rather than those taken of unknown places by professionals. I was ticked off rather stuffily that of the more than 300 members of our group, many had appreciated his forwards and that I was free to press the ‘Delete’ button if I didn’t like them, but don’t dare suggest that these forwards were anything but the best. Wow, what a mouthful! What part of the delete button didn’t I know about? I don’t think my reply, “Ok, cool” went down too well.
Jokes that once seemed priceless now appear silly, having read them so many times over. No doubt the limitless expanse of the net is a fertile field for jokes and I do marvel at the ingenuity of people who can come up with such priceless gems guaranteed to make you crack up. But still, everything must run its full circle. In this case the circle of life goes around many times.
Senders of forwards would do well, at the very least, to delete names and details of earlier senders and recipients, lest their e mail ids be trawled by marketing companies trying to push everything from low cost holidays to credit cards. I have seen mails with complete details of earlier senders, their names, addresses and telephone numbers, including some addresses from the defence services. Placing such details in an unrestricted environment is not the wisest thing to do. You never know when someone may use those details for malafide activities like phishing.
Surely all internet users must be aware of the problems of virus, cookies, spyware, worms and other creepy crawlies that abound the net. No prudent internet user would open an attachment unless sure of the sender and the contents of the attachment. If not, its time to wake up and smell the coffee, the net is not as safe a place as one might imagine. Nor is the information one reads on the net as authentic as one would like it to be. It is not the purpose of this article to do down those who send forwards in good faith, rather to make them aware that like in any other interaction, there is a measure of etiquette involved and one must be aware of the nuisance it causes when one breaches that fine line crossing over into the realm of boorishness.
While it can be argued that this is one way of keeping in touch, the base issue here is that senders of forwards invariably fail to appreciate the attendant problems. The headaches start when people send forwards without thinking. “Forward bombing” is perhaps a close description of what happens when you receive a deluge of mails in your in-box all from the same sender. Senders fail to realize that when the recipient finds too many e mails from the same person, all of them forwards and completely irrelevant, the sender’s credibility takes a beating, something like another person talking too much whenever you come across them. Makes you want to avoid them.
Most forwards have gone around so many times that they are like the same stale jokes rehearsed and trotted out by the wannabe life of the party. You smile politely and even try to cough out a light laugh, while inwardly you groan at the inflicted punishment. Let me run through some of the commonly observed nuisance perpetrated by forwards.
Hoaxes. So many forwards are pure hoaxes which can be ascertained in a jiffy if the sender would only take the trouble. A few days ago I received photos of a Flying Hotel, the Hotelicopter. All that it took to see through the hoax, was to open another tab and google hotelicopter. The same photos that my friend had sent me, appeared along with the words Hoax. How come there’s no site for online booking of suites for a weekend stay in the flying hotel. Did it not occur to the sender that a helicopter can’t fly very far and has to come down to earth every hour or so. Some stories like those of exploding cellphones have been doing the rounds for years. Despite the myth having been exploded publicly, people still try to circulate photos of milk guzzling Ganeshas. There was even an alarming message that did the rounds recently and was circulated on mobile phones through SMSes that the Sea Link had developed cracks. Fortunately that hoax was exposed quickly. On another occasion I received a message advising me not to travel to Mahim as riots had broken out in that area.
Unverified Information. Another favorite is to send info without bothering to verify the authenticity. A few days ago I received a forwarded mail with some remarks ascribed to Chester Nimitz, the great American wartime Admiral. A quick search of Nimitz’s quotations revealed that he had never made such remarks and it was probably someone trying to create a newsworthy story. The story had done its rounds and was available for anyone on the net to “Copy & paste”. Shortly after the 2G scam had been exposed and the minister of telecom A Raja was arrested, stories of his amassed wealth began to circulate. I received a mail with photos of Raja’s fabulously luxurious villa reportedly built on the outskirts of Hyderabad. While I had no doubt that Raja could easily afford a house as expensive as that shown, somehow I could not link the style, the elegance, aesthetics and taste, so evident in those photos, with Shri A Raja. That house just wasn’t him. Sure enough, I came across those photos again but this time in an interiors magazine, in a photo shoot credited to a house in Montecito, California.
Repeated To Death. While once I sincerely read the presentations on self improvement forwarded by friends, but over a period of time I find myself reading the same thing over and over again. By now I must have viewed the series of photographs titled “Inside The Tube” a half dozen times along with so many other “Simple Joys of Life”, “The Beauty of Nature”, “Earth at Her Best”, “Wonders Of The World”, “Temple Made Of Bottles”, “Sculpted Garden”, “Lifelike Advertisements”, “Amazing Bridges” and so on. I would love to download some of these beautiful pictures to use in my presentations, but they are invariably in ‘.pps’ format and one can do nothing but gaze at them vacantly. Naughty pictures too, like the one of ‘Eye Catching T Shirt Slogans’ and other eye candies, have also been circulated ad nauseum and now seem juvenile. Well certainly no one’s getting any younger so perhaps they really are kiddish now.
I made the mistake of mildly suggesting to a regular sender of forwards in my e group, that he could consider sending more ‘real’ photos one could relate to, like pics taken during our training days, places served, important occasions etc rather than those taken of unknown places by professionals. I was ticked off rather stuffily that of the more than 300 members of our group, many had appreciated his forwards and that I was free to press the ‘Delete’ button if I didn’t like them, but don’t dare suggest that these forwards were anything but the best. Wow, what a mouthful! What part of the delete button didn’t I know about? I don’t think my reply, “Ok, cool” went down too well.
Jokes that once seemed priceless now appear silly, having read them so many times over. No doubt the limitless expanse of the net is a fertile field for jokes and I do marvel at the ingenuity of people who can come up with such priceless gems guaranteed to make you crack up. But still, everything must run its full circle. In this case the circle of life goes around many times.
Senders of forwards would do well, at the very least, to delete names and details of earlier senders and recipients, lest their e mail ids be trawled by marketing companies trying to push everything from low cost holidays to credit cards. I have seen mails with complete details of earlier senders, their names, addresses and telephone numbers, including some addresses from the defence services. Placing such details in an unrestricted environment is not the wisest thing to do. You never know when someone may use those details for malafide activities like phishing.
Surely all internet users must be aware of the problems of virus, cookies, spyware, worms and other creepy crawlies that abound the net. No prudent internet user would open an attachment unless sure of the sender and the contents of the attachment. If not, its time to wake up and smell the coffee, the net is not as safe a place as one might imagine. Nor is the information one reads on the net as authentic as one would like it to be. It is not the purpose of this article to do down those who send forwards in good faith, rather to make them aware that like in any other interaction, there is a measure of etiquette involved and one must be aware of the nuisance it causes when one breaches that fine line crossing over into the realm of boorishness.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)