Movies in Local train?

Saw an article today on the first page of Mid-Day (Mumbai)
Apparently some wise bloke from Indian Railways want to screen movies in the local trains! Yes you read it right! The jam packed sweat stinking sauna mistaking dirty local train which is flooded with a gazillion chamatkari baaba ads will now screen movies in a bid to earn 6.4Crores per train annually! This comes after the earlier stint of equipping the trains with swanky LCDs in central line. It eventually got shot down after some protested about ‘adult’ advertising on the same.

So! Its kind of weird to know that the railways are now investing money to have the ability to screen movies. Weird for a few reasons..
1) I don’t remember a Hindi movie which ends in a max of hour!
2) Does it mean that people boarding the train at the starting station would always get to see the movie from beginning! Whereas the following station will perennially miss some of the content!
3) I don’t remember anybody who gets into a train to watch a freakin TV!

This is insane! Is this the Indian railways way of saying “Look, we know the trains are jam packed, it stinks, it is THE most inhuman mode of transport especially in the peak hours, but hey! we are atleast featuring ‘sheela ki jawaani’ on it!”

Are you nuts? We almost get ours squashed every day in the train!
May be you big marketing pundits should drop by once a while, though I know it won’t harm you!

To use the channel effectively, it has to be stable enough! I know you are catering to a chunk of people who are trapped in a tin can with nothing to do. With the TV, atleast they have a better thing to daze at rather than someones armpit! (Ps: Before you gross out, the arm pit of another man is not a nice sight, and is neither by choice!)
Advertising in the loos was still a smarter choice (and lesser gross!)
Ever wondered why it could never work in a environment like a general public toilet!

So may be TV is a good idea, may be show songs on them, oh wait.. If they do so then what would happen to the little bit of spirituality that still exists in the trains (obviously not the baaba bangali ads). There are so much daily prayer groups who am sure will be a good political focus group to guinea pig this upon. As long as it gets me a day bandh and holiday due to ‘protest’ I am not complaining!

So may be News is a good idea, oh wait, that would mean they not get a lot of revenue from their advertising! Besides with the kind of content that goes on the news channel, it would be scary for most.

So may be songs, naah ‘adult’ can’t do the same mistake again..

So may be .. Err.. So may be show Doordarshan on it so that it ploughs back some advertising money to Government, rather than make more money for the railways! That could do wonders to the ad rates on DD when it comes to Urban products and services.

So may be, err nevermind..

May be err look at options to make the trains a safer, cleaner, and most importantly a humane mode of transport! Since when was the PSUs supposed to “Money” spinning activity?

You really want to make more money? Upgrade the railway cafeterias with Subways and Mc’Ds!
Atleast they are good at selling what people don’t need!