RajKumar and the Unforseen Consequences of Outsourcing

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=560932006

Actor's death sparks violence in India's tech city
BANGALORE, India (Reuters) - An icon of south Indian cinema and star of more than 200 films, Rajkumar, died on Wednesday, sparking widespread violence as distraught fans torched buses and ripped hoardings in the country's hi-tech hub.

The revered actor, who gained nationwide fame in 2000 when he was kidnapped by notorious forest bandit Veerappan, died at his home in Bangalore in the southern state of Karnataka after a heart attack, his doctor said. He was 77.

His death effectively closed down much of the city, witnesses said, with major businesses -- including cinema halls -- downing shutters out of respect but also in fear of violent mobs that swept through the city as news of the actor's passing spread.

A Microsoft research institute in the city centre was stoned, the company said, and many of India's leading technology companies concerned over safety sent workers home early.

Television reports showed huge crowds laying siege to an ambulance bearing the actor's body and trying to climb in through the vehicle's smashed windows.

A Reuters photographer saw a police car overturned and other vehicles set on fire.

"He was a cult figure," said fellow actor Anant Nag. "Everybody is at a loss."

Actors in the southern Indian film industry are often revered with as much intensity as the gods they regularly portray on screen. Many people include icons of their favourite star in their household shrine, alongside portrayals of the more usual Hindu pantheon.

Rajkumar, sometimes called the John Wayne of the regional Kannada-language film industry, was kidnapped in 2000 along with four members of his family in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu.

The kidnap sparked violent protests as fans demanded his release, and police feared a backlash against the state's Tamil minority in Karnataka.

He spent 108 days in the jungle bordering the two states before police negotiated his release. Veerappan was shot dead in 2004.

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Bangalore is THE center for employees outsourced from major U.S. corporations. I don't know what it's like anywhere else, but I work for one of the largest, and people are panicky. Our entire Bangalore site has been shut down and we are being asked to work overtime.

Personally, I find it fascinating: effects of a cultural nature, rather than something like a bombing or tsunami, is causing our office to go to our Emergency Continuation of Business Plan.

Anything happening anywhere else? We are usually the backup for Bangalore, a lot of companies don't even have a Stateside backup plan.

When a company outsources their jobs, I wonder if they take into account the differences between cultures and peoples half a world away.

L
EDIT: I wanted to get this out there for discussion. This post is subject to further editing when I think of more stuff to say. :-)

I bet that companies expect workers in India to work like widgets-and if they don't perform correctly, there's always another country they can outsource to.

one that I am sure no company has even given one thought to this contingency. They barely think of their US workers lives, why would they think of the Indian workers as any thing other than a bunch of cheap numbers. I hope this goes on for days and days. I hope there will be no injuries, etc, but for the effects here, let it last.
BTW Iblis, welcome to DU :hi:

I've got a couple of essays I've been meaning to finish and post, but this is my first post. I've been commenting for a while.

:toast:

I was there in '00 when he was kidnapped and I didn't understand why the people acted the way they were. At the time, my cousins had their schools cancelled for over a week and there were threats being made to people from the neighgboring state of Tamil Nadu, since the man that captured him was Tamilian. The city almost seemed to come to a stand still.

All I can say is that people rioting over a movie actor are fuckin idiots. It proves once again that people can go nuts over the stupidest things.

I don't think any film star would be comparable here in the US (or for that matter anywhere in the world). My cousin iis really funny and he asked "what would LA do if Pierce Brosnan was kidnapped?".