Ultimate sacrifice -Did Mumbai deserve it?

Why did the man lay down his life? What must have been his thoughts when he knew end was near? It wasn't sudden, that I am sure.  The man remained there with his team.

He probably stayed back to allow someone else live and see another day. The fireman who died knew the end was coming.

But as a city did we deserve his ultimate sacrifice. He did not because that was the only way someone else could live. He did not die because there was nothing else possible. He did not die because his city, his country had tried its best possible yet nature's fury was so fierce that fateful day that nothing else could have happened. No!

The man opted for his dangerous job because he thought all this is something his city, his nation would do.

He died because this city, we all, shortchanged him. Totally, completely,  absolutely.

The Mumbai city, famous for the Mumbai spirit, contributed by giving the permission to the building, not inspecting it from time to time, cheering by allowing sale of space there.

The spirited folks occupying the offices contributed by displaying exemplary foresight in letting things be, fire extinguishers be damned.

And who inspects a 20+ storeyed building when you can just sign off clearances on the ground floor over cup of tea.

If there is something called soul in us all, just feel sorry for the man who died for us. He died in vain for nothing is going to change here. We will continue to live with our famous Mumbai spirit.

Just remember that one day there will be an equally spirited someone refusing to die for you.

Facebook's Missed Call ads and my post from stone-age

The race to capture the value at bottom of the pyramid brings to us a unique offering from Facebook. For the low-end phones (read as not smartphones), which are still carried by almost two-thirds of Indian subscribers, Facebook is bringing in missed-call ads.

This has the potential to be a game changer. While this article does not speak whether they plan to use internet / data here, I believe the real potential will be tapped if the program is run irrespective of data availability. Despite impressive mobile network reach, countries like India have some time before data is pervasively available.

So there is nothing to boast about here, yet let me point to one of my posts from few years ago where I had discussed on the missed-call innovation. You can read it here - The very interesting "Missed Call".

I had described a few use cases there. The whole concept of missed call is on the basis of what I called "inter personal communication protocol (IPCP)". That is the knowledge of what is to be done is known only to the 2 parties exchanging the missed call - The idea of IPCP is the users decide the meaning of the missed call.

Facebook (and I am sure others will follow soon) are tapping this IPCP with some enhancements. Lets see where this innovation goes.