Crazy Guide to the Internet

One of the few old world habits that I stubbornly stick with is writing with a fountain pen. I don’t write nearly as much as I type, but when I do, l like the feel of a good ink nib against paper. It helps me think better, or so it seems.

When writing with a fountain pen, the kind of paper you write on is very important. It has to be of a certain quality, otherwise the nib snags or the ink blots. I don’t believe you are supposed to write on both sides of the paper, but I do. So for me, the thickness and quality of the paper is even more important.

I do most of my writing when I am traveling - in meetings, on planes, on phone calls - whenever it is inconvenient to fire up the old laptop. So I need a light notebook.

Unfortunately, you don’t get light notebooks with high quality paper. I have tried Moleskine. Very high quality paper. Looks good. But with 192 pages and a hard bound cover, it adds many ounces to my already heavy laptop bag.

Last week I was in Mumbai. Before lunch with a friend we had some time and stepped into Rhythm House, a favourite haunt of ours when my wife and I lived in the city. I saw some notebooks on display. Most of them were thick with colored paper which weren’t interesting to me.

Then I saw this slim notebook, just 80 pages, with a cover that was made of craft paper. Good quality Very simply designed but with just a few stylistic touches to make it stand out. The price at Rs. 80 is a steal compared to the Moleskine prices.

I bought a notebook. The product is from Rubberband Products. There is a design studio, Ajay Shah Design Studio, behind it. Goes to show that good design can breath life into every day products that are almost commodities.

Now I’m in Chennai. I wish they had an outlet here. I would have stocked up before I left for the US.

A very happy new year to all my readers. May you and your loved ones have a joyful 2008.

Wish lists are neat things. Unlike new year resolutions, they involve no effort on your part. And unlike predictions for the new year, you can’t be wrong about them. So I thought I would draw up a wish list and share it with my readers. Perhaps they could then add their own candidates for the wish list and then we could have a reality TV show where people from around India SMS (at premium rates) their wish list candidates and a panel of distinguished judges help us short list ten WLCs (Wish List Candidates) which we then take to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who tells us that he can do nothing about them unless Prakash Karat and Sonia Gandhi agree on each one of them.

Seemed like an exercise in futility so I decided not to do a wish list. Instead here is a “Wish Less”. It is based upon the premise that we already have too much of everything.

So here goes, in alphabetical order. I wish that in 2008 there was less of (or fewer):

24 hour news channels.
Amitabh Bachhan ads.
Awards for Dhoni.
Business jargon. Particularly “Verbizing” which to the uninitiated is to take a noun and make it into a verb, sometimes, when a perfectly good verb exists. For example “Actionize” instead of “Act”.
Celebutantes who are famous for being famous.
Cold days in the Bay Area summer.
Corn based ethanol.
Corrupt politicians.
Dhoom sequels.

Indians talking about real estate prices.

Personalities on TV who talk a lot but say nothing.
New Year greetings emailed to distribution lists. Too late for this one. Take under advisement for next year’s Wish Less.
New Year greetings SMSed to distribution lists. See above.

People talking about how much money other people are making.
Price of gasoline.
Reality TV.
Religion in politics.

Salman Khan movies.
Skepticism about the quality of ‘Made in India’.
Spam.
Stress about your kids’ college.
Sub-prime writedowns.
Traffic jams on Indian roads. If that is impossible, can they at least honk less?
Votes for the Republican presidential candidate. Unless its Ron Paul. Which ain’t gonna happen.
Wars.
Web 2.0 hype.

If you have your own Wish Less, do share it with us in the comments.

Happy New Year!