?There must be some sort of media convention on in Delhi,? said boss, ?all we have on the tables nowadays are journalists and camera crew speaking bad English.? Clearing the tables, because most of the cleaning up staff was busy?delivering food and soda to?people placing home-delivery orders by mobile phone?from their cars in parking lots, I noticed that the doodles on the napkins?were mainly about the NoKnow car?on display at the Tata Expo 2008 at Pragati Maidan. Why is it called the NoKnow? You?no touch, you?no drive, you?no sit inside, but you write and speak about it as if you know everything about it.
?But why is it, then, that it seems as though their bills are being paid by property agents and builders,? asked I, ?haven?t they got their hands full with telecom??
Actually, that is very true. Builders have realised that if they need good press when the next earthquake strikes and brings their sandcastles down, then they need to own the press. Also, what will all their children, who have spent minor fortunes getting unknown educational qualifications in something called ?mass communications?, do once they return? No fun being rich if you can?t flaunt it, right?
This is true. What do you do with the idiot in the next generation? I mean, everybody can?t be in politics or cinema, where the career path is assured by family tree. You fix their careers for them. So in the ?50s, you sent them to run trucks and buses. In the ?60s, they went to the tea gardens. Come the ?70s, and you managed seats in the IIMs. Reach the ?80s, and it was all about ancillaries and dealers for Maruti. By the ?90s, things were opening up, so you fixed them as garment and leather exporters to the remnants of the USSR. In the new century, it is telecom.?As long as there exists a regulatory mechanism, the baba-baby log can get their future fixed.
But what now? Terrible thing, this liberalisation. And Internet. Not much left unregulated. Other than the motoring and media business. But the moolah is with the property barons. So now we will see. Everybody will bring out small cars and big magazines. Backed by property types. How they get the property is another story, but since they will own the media, it needs never be told.
