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This, here, is
Peter Moore, the official Town
Crier of London. Dressed! In all
his traditional finery, which
Includes a red and gold garb With
white breeches and a hat with
ostrich feather plumes, he came
by Afternoon House yesterday
evening ringing a huge bell,
crying "Oyez, oyez..." and then
went on to deliver his
message.
And the message, in a clever
marketing gimmick, was that Sify
Ltd. is promoting its I-Ways
(India's largest cyber cafe
chain) through a challenge that
took Moore first to Chennai and
Bangalore and from Mumbai will
take him to Delhi. He's asking
people six questions on London
(or is it England?) which if they
get right, will enable them to
walk into a Sify iway with a
special membership card and
experience 30 minutes of Cree
broadband Internet surfing.
Participation in an online
contest, then, is also possible,
which offers a free trip to
Colombo for two, a world space
receiver, palmtops and other
exciting prizes.
"The ancient promoting the
modem," that's how Moore
described his role in the Sify
iway experiment. "I'm here to
ring a bell! The idea is to get
people to come and try iway. Sify
has 800 cyber cafes on broadband
that people don't know about."
He, himself, is a modem Town
Crier otherwise. He has a website
(www.londontowncrier.com) of his
own, and his duties are as
traditional as announcing the
wedding of Prince Charles and
Lady Diana and the birth of
Prince William, to the start of
the celebrations for the New
Year.
He talked of his visit to Mumbai
and India. He's met kings and
queens and poets elsewhere, but
nothing prepared him for the
common man in India. "I've never
been so well received anywhere,"
Moore said. "The ladies are so
beautiful, the food is so
extraordinary, although I could
not eat as much of it (he patted
his tummy!) As you would eat fish
and chips or bacon and eggs In
England. The downside is that
it's too hot here to be walking
around in this costume. Talk
about mad dogs and Englishmen
going out into the sunshine! But
a nice thing happened to me here.
A little boy to whom I gave a
hundred rupees looked at me and
said, 'Thank-you, Mr.
King!‚ So
that's what it costs to become a
king here, Rs. 100!"
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