Date With Destiny: 7-7-7 or 7-7-2007?

Reports the NYT, “Christmas. New Year’s Eve. Spring break. There are certain dates on the calendar when travelers know that hotel rooms in prime vacation spots will be nearly impossible to come by, even if they try to book months in advance. This year, add another day to the list: Saturday, July 7. That’s because that date — the almost numerically perfect 7/7/07 — is being sought after by couples around the country as the ideal day for a wedding. More than 31,000 couples have already signed up with theknot.com, a wedding-planning Web site, saying they plan to marry that day, a figure that is roughly triple the number for any other Saturday that month — and nearly 20,000 more than the number of couples who got married on the corresponding weekend a year earlier.”

My numerologist friend, Hariram Subramonia, doesn’t think 7-7-7 is auspicious numerology-wise. He writes in an email, “7 is not a good number for marriage date. 6 stands for Venus and hence 6 is good, number 7 stands for Ketu (Neptune) which stands for philosophy (spirituality in broader sense). Number 7 also stands for intellect or deep thinking and insight. You can very well see that 7 isn’t good for marriage (an emotional bondage), since 7 is all about intellect (more to do with mind than emotions). Hence, in numerology date 7 isn’t a good date to get married. Now coming to 7-7-2007, if you add the digits it results in 5 which has got nothing to do with 7 at all. But 5 is the most lucky number and hence luck might favor the marriage. 5 also stands for business and money, hence couples married on this date will get lot of money yet their marital bondage might be more about business than emotional bonding. To add to this, 7-7-2007 is a Saturday. Saturday is good for only one thing – spiritual matters. Saturday is the last day a person would want to get married as it indicates Saturn or complete failure in marriage.”

On an unrelated note, online voting for “New Seven Wonders” has ended and the results will be broadcast live streaming from Lisbon. WSJ’s Carl Bialik questions whether 7 wonders in the new world are enough? The Taj Mahal of India is on the list and I know from talking to my friends that they’ve voted for the Taj and are eager to see it make it list of New 7 Wonders. I hope the Taj makes the cut too, only because it has been neglected and decaying. I hope by making the cut, the Taj gets the attention it deserves.

The technophiles have called out 7-7-7 as the Scriptless day. It is a way of thanking Javascript. for what it has brought to us in the form of Ajax and Web 2.0, by removing all client-side scripting from the sites.

Personally, it’s just another day or just another birthday!

Idol Worshipping And Superstar Economics

Quentin Tarantino once said in an interview that the primary driver of the the film industry in the US and India was the superstar system. While Superstar Economics has been debated in the US, there’s no room for debate in the Indian film industry. The superstar renumeration is usually the biggest expense in a big budget Indian movie.

India’s costliest film, Sivaji, produced at an estimated $23 million was released 2 weeks ago. The hero of the film, Rajinikanth, is worshipped by his fans all over the world and it is a norm for die-hard Rajinikanth fans to buy tickets at multiple times face value to watch the first show of his newly released film. As successful as Steve Jobs was in generating media hype and long lines at Apple stores for the iphone, Rajinikanth wins hands down.

His movies are in a genre of it’s own, as his fans fondly call it the “wholesome entertainer”. It is a combination of John Wooish style, Tarantinoesque punch line dialogues, grandeur of a Met Opera, Stephen Kingish surprise endings, mixed with a few songs and a social message. My friend Ramprasad Sandilya and I decided to experience our first Rajinikanth movie ever, and it was certainly an experience worth writing about.

We were greeted with die-hard fans dressed like the superstar, some wearing his t-shirts. It was like a tailgating party without the alcohol. I noticed someone buying packets of popcorn and I bet he wasn’t going to eat it all. As soon as Ramprasad and I took our seats, I got a tap on my shoulder and handful of shredded newspaper pieces. The lights dimmed, titles rolled in, fans started screaming and whistling, pieces of paper and popcorn were floating up in the air. I heard a voice from behind me, “Rajini’s entry is in 5 minutes”. He had obviously seen the movie before.

At the end of it all, I asked a fan what the thought of the movie. He seemed a bit offended by my harmless question. Apparently Rajinikanth movies are not categorized as good or bad. He said, “What else can you expect from a Rajini movie? It is all about the experience”.

Tambola In The Newspaper… Brilliant!

The newspaper industry is booming in India as reported here, especially financial newspapers since the Indian economy is growing 8% and the average investor wants to stay informed. But that hasn’t stopped newspapers from getting creative.

This is obviously old news, but I recently found out about it since my parents moved to Bangalore. Move over Crosswords, Sudoku, Chess and Bridge problems. My father gets his daily copy of Times of India (TOI) delivered with a Tambola ticket. For this who don’t know what Tambola is, it is a game similar to Bingo.

Here’s how TOI describes the game – “A game with prizes and celebrities mixed together. Just grab today’s Times of India.” So every copy of TOI ships with a Tambola ticket. A series of numbers are released each day, and winners are selected within a week. These first round winners have to appear in person to play another round of Tambola at a gathering hosted by local celebrities. There are prizes for everyone and the whole event is sponsored by corporate firms.