The Enigma

Mumbai Diaries

2011-01-26T20:29:00.000+05:30

I am embarassed at the title of this post co-inciding with a lame movie but then when in Mumbai, it does sound apt and right!

Mumbai is a great city. Am not quite sure of its heritage and stuff, but am amazed by the passion for life it infuses in people, the opportunities it opens up to people and the optimism it fills in everybody. This is one city where I have seen people have such a hard-working lifestyle. It has life in every stretch of it. It is all about people. Some working, some clubbing, some wasting their life and some making it!

But then, on the flipside, its goddamn expensive and unliveable. Dirt, filth, traffic all make it such a frustrating experience going out anywhere in Mumbai. The glitz and glamor of the city may inspire many people, but to me the negative points overpower them all. Delhi is anyday a much better place to live in.

The interesting and intriguing part of Mumbai is that it challenges the person in you to make no rooms for assumption, and look for achievement. Be it in the most mundane things like travelling in a local, or something related to a life-making deal at work, it always puts in front of you a group of over-powering, mean bunch of people who would deter you in any other part of the country. But in this city, the 'Ye to Mumbai Hai' feeling raises above all and instigates the fighter in you to realise your own potential. That is a major contribution something as unrelated as a city can do in your life, if you ask me.

Also, Mumbai is a city of night. As darkness engulfs the streets, the life in the city changes. The music, the people, the whole environment changes. It gives a whole new meaning for work hard and party harder. If you have the right bunch of friends, Mumbai is something that you can never get enough of.

The soul of the city is in making everyone feel it as their own and as they belong here. It is something I haven't seen in any other city I have been to so far. As far as my affair with it goes, I have loved my life in this city so far, but as a city I dont rate it high. The essence of a city to me is in making you feel like settling down in it, and Mumbai is far away from that point for me and many people I know. But then, there is something intriguing in Mumbai that makes you want to have some more of it.

Questions

2011-01-26T20:11:00.000+05:30

The world's a nice place, but with a lot of unanswered quandaries which we are let out to find an answer to! Most of the times, you do not know what you seek, and settle for what you get. You do not know, and generally do not think of what life would have given you had you not taken a certain decision you did. It did happen to me that some decisions defined a certain path of life, and I almost assumed that is what life is. But then, as destiny would have it, I got a chance to explore it further and now am amazed how much lay there unexplored.

The sight of the mind is confined to the rulebook of the life imposed on to us by the immediate society - family, friends, teachers etc etc. The realms of what we could do, what we are destined to do or what we could just take a shot with no cares on success or failure are just not thought of. This is probably a country thing, or just my assumption. But it is true, not just in my case but most cases I have seen.

One thing that appealed to me strongly when I watched The Social Network was that the United States, as a nation, gave much more independence to radical thought and ability to explore. Not that I complain someone stopped me from any of it, but that was a setup that left me in awe.

What is the boundary to what we can do? What is the boundary to what life can offer us? What are the joys and sorrows of life that are made for us? These are questions we all have at the back of our mind, but dread to ask or if we do not dread, we have no clue who to ask.

Life never threw at me lemons I could make lemonade of, but it always threw at me demons I had to face or succumb to. If everything went as expected, it wouldn't be half as fun! And while this uncertainity and unexpectedness goes on, I continue to have fun on the run!

Ring Out The Old, Ring In The New

2010-12-31T12:59:00.000+05:30

The lines of Alfred Tennyson are so well-etched in my mind and I recollect them at the juncture of every change in life. In fact, the only lines or learnings that I recollect in life are those that I have assimilated in my childhood. I do not recollect or relate Solid State Physics or Organic Chemistry to my life as much I relate Pythagoras Theorem and lines like 'Water, water everywhere'. Have I stopped learning after a certain point of time in life and have been just dragging on since then? It amazes me.

Its December 31st, and the town is abuzz with talk of New Year Resolutions. Before making a resolution for the coming year, I remind myself to sit back and reminisce on what happened to the resolutions that I made last year. It was only one - To write more regularly; how regular was in contemplation then and things haven't moved much since then. But for the sake of posterity, I thought I would just ring in a post on to this blog before I ring out the year.

The year has been fantastic. Professionally the best so far! With just a few years down, I know that doesn't make much of a sense, but lets say it has been an immensely satisfying year. And the best part has been ONE MORE CITY! Mumbai has been amazing. From helping unleash my own potential to realising what an organisation to getting back into the bratpack after bearing the shackles of being a disciplinarian for over two years has been a welcome change. It has brought back the memories of Delhi, Gandhinagar and Lucknow which defined me. While Gandhinagar inspires me to understand a person before judging one, Lucknow does to live life with a heart. Delhi inspires the foodie in me, helps me eye power with an awe, defines festivities, instills the dreams to fly high and Mumbai inspires me to work hard and harder to get to it. The seamlessness Mumbai demands is something that gets me going.

With a predecessor being good, the successor starts off with an onus of delivering even higher. But I shall not put that burden of expectation on 2011; rather, would give it time to unfold at its own pace and engulf me into it and offer me more and more pleasures of life. No resolutions, no welcome bangs, no expectations. You are on your own! Bring it on... The only resolution is to write continuously which positively I shall!

Happy New Year!

Equality

2009-08-18T16:09:00.002+05:30

We talk of equality, especially of the sexes, to a great extent. Its almost a style statement to say you believe in equality in sexes of late. Every other person - male or female- talks about equality of sexes with so much conviction, one tends to believe it indeed exists.

I was at a distributor's daughter's birthday party last noon. As it has been over the past few months, I was interacting with a bunch of retailers, a part of my team and some relatives of the host. Everyone was singing praises of the host because both his off-springs are daughters and he is still happy. What the hell. A girl child at home is a bad omen or what? What makes them think a person with two daughters and no son should be unhappy?

I know of couples who have had 4 children for the sake of a male child. I feel so sorry when you judge a child at birth itself. I dont judge who is better, cos at the end of the day, we are all parts of that puzzle we need to make sense of and each of us contributes in our own unique way. But it is the prejudices of people which should have been erased but are still intact, which enrages me. A male, no guarantee of what he grows up to be, is considered a gift and female, a curse.

When I was at a Madarassa in the interiors of UP, and saw a well dedicated to throw your girl child at birth and kill her, I was thankful that people in my state were not that backward-thinking. But we are no better. I have listened to spine-chilling stories of how girls in the houses of my team or my channel partners were killed, or got married against their wishes or discontinued studies. The stories are so heart-breaking you tend to forget if its happening to a man or a woman, you feel sorry for yourself that all these are happening in the world you are a part of!

Frankly speaking, an urban woman gets much more than what she should in the name of equality. I have always been a firm believer than when you believe men and women are equal, there ends the matter, no more concessions should be extended towards either parties. Exceptions and explanations can make another post.

Coming back to the rural setup, a woman has still not progressed. In a sales setup, a woman has no place, and a female MT from a reputed B-School is talked about cheaply because she is a woman and has chosen sales. Pity! The mothers, wives and sisters of all the people I meet in the up-country locations have a similar profile -discontinued studies somewhere in high school, got married before they could vote, and have been living the normal routine in the kitchen ever since then. Nothing has changed. No Equality. And we are still fighting over seats for women in buses, shorter queues for them at movie halls etc etc...

Power

2009-08-14T00:32:00.001+05:30

When we say the powerful call it shots in this country, its true. I always thought our society had been emergin towards decentralisation of power so much tht the word power will soon lose its sanctity cos evryone wud b as powerful as any other.
But alas, no. Powerful ppl still exploit the powerless. The major disparity in power, esp in rural India, comes in wealth. The respect a rich guy wud gave a poor guy, howevr little tht was n whtevr reason it was for, in a Delhi or a Hyderabad was no whr to be seen for me in a Barabanki, a Kursi or a Nalgonda for me. The poor are still ants, stomped upon evryone above them.
Today a poor, young employee came running to me n complained that a rich, middle-aged guy punched him. Reason: my guy was dng his job, which included business ideals which did not comply wid the rich guy's whims! I thot an apology 4m the rich guy wud b the solution, n got it. I knew it was half-hearted. When he was mvng out, I cud c the glitter in his eye tht he emerged unscathed.
Thr was still a frustration, wid no solution to it. A slave to social networks tht I am, I thought my feelings wud b shared thr, n I always thot thtz wht these n/ws r 4, but I realised my network is full of blokes who can poke fun at someone's pain and get away with it. Injustice here too. These blokes, probly even am one such, are lost in comforts of life and cant understand the pain of a guy wrkng his ass of to earn a meagre 3K a month. Probly v all r like tht. This is the power of comfort tht has blinded us to the feelings of others.
Thtz when I realised I cud hv some power too, n summoned it. The brat is now behind the bars n the glitter is now in the eye of my boy who smiles thinkin this is justice.
But at the end of the day, thrz still frustration. LOTS of it. Whtz right? Whtz wrong? Have I misused my power? Do we all do it all the time? Dont we understand power?
Ppl r not the right ones to answer these, as twitter taught me. Probly its time. Time can only answer, n till then probly v all need to file our queries in these blogposts.
Thr is still frustration in me, but atleast a solace tht something has come out of me.
PS: Sorry 4 all the (mis)formatting n the shortcuts in typing, am bloggin 4m a mobile.

Here I am

2009-03-12T15:37:00.004+05:30

Time has passed quite briskly, or else how could one explain the difference in timestamp between this and my previous post? Feels like I had taken this short break from blogging, but then when I log back on to twitter I feel like one of those shady characters who are imprisoned for several years, and when finally released are amazed by the speed at which civilisation has moved ahead leaving them aeons behind. Bloggers seems to have done that to me. Several things have changed, but then treading through alien lands is nothing new to me, at least now!

While in college, I always looked forward to having a job. I would imagine my salary getting credited, and how thrilled I would be to get that money and spend, and all that childish crap one goes through in college. Ya, it did and does happen sometimes but then the job I looked at from my college boy eye is entirely different from what I do for a living now. This is much more challenging, and much more intriguing.

Job has kept me busy and off from several things. College was much different. I now interact very less with my friends. Definition of fun has now emerged to be a quiet dinner and a sound sleep. And ya, even funnier part of my life is acting very serious all day. I havent yet realised if I appear serious, or am serious or act that way for the heck of it to eke out a living. I just be so, and at the end of the day, manage to pull through all the requirements of my job!

That apart, my job has brought me another step closer to the rural hinterlands. Several times earlier, I had tiny stints/rendezvous with the rural life, but never as close as this one. I now live in a small town, and commute every day to several remote villages where my non-A/C Maruti 800 is quite an item! That - not the recognition - has added some zing to my job.

Its been very long since I typed more than 160 characters. I send out 10s of SMSs everyday and an equal number of tweets. Probably that has kept me from missing blogger. But then, how many ever T20s and ODIs you watch, a test is a Test... Real Class! Probably that is what Blogger to me is!

When I think of what exactly is the meaning or reason for this post, or will I continue blogging, I have no answers... All that I know is that Here I am, after a long time... And what was I doing all this while?! Enjoying life, job and the monies! :D And ya, what made me break my sabbatical? This post - after a good 2 yrs on this blog!

God... Save this country!

2008-08-19T17:42:00.000+05:30

Isnt the world so full of pseudo-intellectuals? Everyone wants to be a ‘wanna be’, and takes pleasure in giving you the feeling of ‘oh, you are too desi, I am firang’ kinda attitude. This reflects in every aspect of behavior of many 15-28 yr olds, male or female, earning or studying, intelligent or dumb. They seem to show off their English Quotient at every drop of a hat!

The first identification of this sect is at their sniggering anything bollywood. They are like ‘Oh… you still watch bollywood bakwaas?’ They watch The Dark Knight time and again even if they don’t understand it, all because they have a hangover that they are cool. They tune into English channels on tv, no matter how hurting to the eye the transmission is… They groove to any English song, only cos they are above desi masala numbers you know… They always have this ‘cooler than thou’ look on their faces! God save this country from such people!

There is very good probability that you, one of those I still like to stumble upon deserted blog kinds, reading this stuff belong to that. These are people who laugh at you when you say Singh is Kinng is worth a second watch, and instead go watch a dumb ‘The hero is here to save the world’ Hollywood non-sense. Okie, I agree Singh is Kinng is not a masterpiece, but it is just a case in point.

These are people who have completely given into the western culture. They seek solace and acceptance in the fact that they are aping a cooler culture. But then, I strongly feel this society, this public, this streets, this crowdy streets, this over-the-top Bollywood numbers is what our society is. You may not appreciate it, but if you feel alienated from it, you don’t belong here and you are welcome to go find yourself non-sense that fits your bill as cool! If you don’t identify with this society, this country, please buzz off from here is my sincere advice to all these people… This Independence day, I wanted the country to be free of this breed, but alas, it is only multiplying… God, save the nation!

Why... So... Serious...

2008-07-23T11:59:00.000+05:30

Isn’t Heath Ledger amazing?! I have been in the Dark Knight hangover ever since I saw the film last weekend. My office desk is full of Why… So… Serious… posters now! :D

Khatron Ke Khiladi

2008-07-22T16:01:00.000+05:30

Akshay Kumar is the man of the moment, and the past year or year and a half in Indian entertainment has had his name written bold and wide. Probably, that is when he could sense the scent of the mega opportunity called TV and ventured on to host Khatron Ke Khiladi. It was definitely not a small deal, monetarily or in terms of scale. Viacom launched their brand new GEC Colors with this show as the trump card.

Finally when the date did dawn, what did we get? A mediocre fare! Mediocre stunts, mediocre babes and a mediocre Mr. Kumar. Hope things will only get better from now.

Roti, Kapda, Makaan aur Mobile

2008-07-16T09:56:00.000+05:30

Mobile is the buzz word of the country today. It so happened years ago that when someone purchased a mobile, it was news in the entire colony and when someone wanted a new mobile connection, they had to pay for receiving calls too. Then mobile slowly made its presence felt in day to day chores, and mobile starting popping out of many pockets. This was the time when having lost my dad’s mobile, I was dead scared to face him and called my sister to ask her if we could trace lost mobiles back.

Cut to present, mobile is anything but a luxury. Mobile is something that started off like an Armani, and is on the verge of being a jockey, with absolutely no offence to any of them. Mobile never seemed to be a necessity in the country to the depth of justifying the title I put, but the advent of lower tariffs, cheaper handsets made it what it is today.

In villages with no toilets, no schools, no hospitals, we have mobile stores today, and I honestly don’t know if I should be proud of it or feel a sense of self-pity for my country! :S Is mobile really that much a necessity as we perceive and make it out to be? Is it really that indispensable, at the cost of what the family could have at the cost of the mobile especially in rural India?

Back 2 Blog

2008-07-14T16:08:00.000+05:30

Its B2B time, people… Back to Blogging… Have been away from it, thanks to office restrictions. Now, am back, thanks to blog thru mail and Prasoon :D

Its been quite a while and life has changed completely in the midst. Have been working on Rural Markets for about a month now, and must say, my first brush with job is really really fascinating. Walking down the streets of villages gives you so many lessons, no am not talking Swades style, but am talking true MBA style. It throws open many many opportunities, many bullet points to throw in presentations, and many ideas to work on. More than all of that, it throws open to you an entirely new world, a world where no rules exist. All the sales lessons, MBA sophistication (if any) go for a toss when you get your hands dirty (literally! :P) It tells you that whatever you thought was the world waiting out there for you, it is anything but what you expect it to be. The world has surprises to throw at you, eternally, and all of them are rich, invaluable lessons for life.

The best part of going to the villages is the travel. Travelling through those roadways buses, sitting in those 8-seater tempos carrying 17 people, jeeps carrying 20 – 22 people… Its all been amazing, the best part being the interactions with different kinds of people adding inputs and information to my work.

Work beckons! More later…

PS: This is a pilot mail. If this mail thingy succeeds, would resume blogging full time! :D

Tagged by Reva!

2008-04-28T17:33:00.005+05:30

Welcome change from posts I have been writing, I have been tagged by Reva to answer a few questions. This coincides with my finishing MBA in a week, does that imply me to stop writing what I write and get back to tag days?! :P

Anyway, here is the questionnaire I had to fill (Major Project lingo does that to u! :P)

1. LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATRE:

Tashan. Seen it just a cupla days back. Dont ask me how it is... That will need another post altogether! :P

2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING?

The Joy of Selling by Steve Chandler. Its a mini-series on his take-aways on Selling and Sales Management. Fun read!

3. FAVORITE BOARD GAME?
Flash :D Teen Patti, anyday! Amazing fun to burn all the midnight's oil and a little dough! :P An ideal Last semester getaway that has proven itself twice for me... Now that orkut also has it, everyone should try their hands at it! Strongly Recommended, people!

4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE?
Maxim? :P Vogue? I mean... Come on... Do I look like someone who reads magazines?! Its all online, baby! 8)

5. FAVORITE SMELLS?
Freshly ground coffee... Thats the best smell I have ever felt. After that comes the scent of paper in a new book! :D

6. FAVORITE SOUND?
Imagine a soundless space. Just the flutter of air the fan is cutting through! No light too... Just sleep... Nirvana! :D

7. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?
You wake up early in the morning and push yourselves very hard to make it to the class or exam or whatever, and realise that it has been cancelled or rescheduled. Try beating that! :P

8. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE?
When can I sleep again?! :D

9. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE?
Saddi Dilli is THE place for Fast Food... From Kathi Zone to Chataak Chaat to Currims and Nizams, I love them all! :D Btw, the fastest food joint that I always haunt is my Hostel mess. No matter how hard I try, I cant spend more than 5 minutes there! :P

10. FINISH THIS STATEMENT. "IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I’D...?
Spend it! As simple as that! :P

11. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?
Heck! No... Nothing on my bed except me! :D

12. STORMS-COOL OR SCARY?
Cool...

13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?
Will take this offline! :P

14. FAVORITE DRINK?
Budweiser!

15. FINISH THIS STATEMENT, "IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD...
Sleep! :D Trust me, you dont get to do that in an MBA!

16. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?
Broccoli what?

17. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?
Ahem Ahem! Why fiddle around with rare resources?! Let the poor thing be!

18. NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN.
Hyderabad, Warangal, Gandhinagar, Delhi.

19. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Soccer never had a partner until IPL happened!

20. ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU.
Reva... She is a bundle of good things! An awesome friend, so full of life. She is one who lives her life to the fullest! Amazing girl!

21. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED?
I just checked. Nothing. Why? Did you keep something?!

22. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN?
Definitely! None else but me, me and me again! :D

23. MORNING PERSON, OR NIGHT OWL?
Night Owl, Nights are always productive, arent they?! ;)

24. OVER EASY, OR SUNNY SIDE UP?
Sunny Side Up! :D Tasty and Bright! :D

25. FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX?
Home... Sweet Home... Heavy Lunched, and lazing around.. Whatelse do u need in life?! :D

26. FAVORITE PIE?
Is American Pie on the list?

27. FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?
Chocolate Chip Rocks, Cookie and Cream is awesome!

28. OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU TAGGED THIS TO, WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?
Amod or Megha!

And I am tagging...

Amod, Steve and Megha! :D

Cricket Redefined!

2008-04-11T15:52:00.001+05:30

Welcome the new era of Cricket in India, dear Indian Cricket fan! While you embark on this journey, let us inform you that things are not going to be same anymore. Do not save your pop corn for an Ishant-Ponting encounter any more, for they are going to pat each other on their backs as part of being members of the same team. Boundaries are redefined now. Dada will call the shots of when to hand the ball to Akhtar so as to tame down Sachin!

Come April 18th and the curtains shall rise to the most extravagant cricket bonanza we cricket buffs have been waiting with bated breaths for! Bangalore shall host the first IPL match between Bangalore Royal Challengers and Kolkata Knight Riders (the Royal Challengers website surprisingly doesn’t mention this in their schedule though)

What does IPL mean for young India? Its cricketing buzz redefined. Many cricket-bored fans have been complaining that Cricket is losing its sheen to Football in the country, especially in the urban areas like Bangalore. Probably, IPL will get back all those club-crazy youth to cricket. It is BCCI’s magnum opus for you to watch over a beer with friends. It is their way of showing the world how worthy is Indian Cricket, for IPL has made a ‘crore’ look very tiny now!

With websites filled with fan clubs, team anthems, discussion boards and team portfolios for individual teams, IPL is all about segregating the Cricket Crazy Nation that we are into Clubs and creating entertainment in them. So, does the buck stop at cricket? Oh come on… You must be kidding to say an Yes! With the likes of Vijay Mallya, Shah Rukh Khan, Priety Zinta, Deccan Chronicle helming various clubs, do you expect it to be a pure cricketing contest? So, where does it stop? What all does this flavor of cricket try to encapsulate? Thats a question time shall answer, friends, for given the item numbers and fashion shows at ICL that have been in the news last couple of weeks, you never know what the maestros of entertainment at IPL shall unveil to us soon. IPL has brought Cricket to Music Channels, Daler Mehndi to Cricket, and created several ways to flaunt your loyalties - team anthems, logos, ring tones, jerseys and the show is yet to begin! While Kolkata Knight Riders seem to have been creating the buzz since the word Go, others like Deccan Chargers, Royal Challengers are catching up pretty fast!

What does this mean for local club-hosts? IPL is the hub for popularisation of local content. It is an opportunity for promoting tourism in the country. Imagine local tourist agencies coming up with a Heritage Tour of Delhi for Kolkatans who come visiting to cheer their Knight Riders! Imagine all those local, not-so-famous bands of Hyderabad performing for their Chargers during one of those IPL matches. The canvas is ready, and we are waiting eagerly to see how the drawing comes about!

All in all, come what may, there is unlimited entertainment on the cards - both on-field and off-field - for all of us in the coming months. Lets see how the cookie crumbles!

The Thin Line

2008-03-11T13:48:00.003+05:30

The core of advertising today lies heavily on Cognitive Dissonance, according to me. Cognitive Dissonance in Advertising, if I were to concisely put it, is the process of making the customer feel incomplete without your product. Through a flurry of PoP materials, TVCs and other advertisement channels, pre-purchase intentions are created in the customer's mind by creating a sense of incompleteness in the customer without the product. To me, an amazing example of Cognitive Dissonance well used in the Indian context is the Tata Safari's campaign of 'Reclaim Your Life'.

But many people I have met and spoken to tend to associate Cognitive Dissonance with 'Emotional Appeal' in Advertising. This is more so, I guess, because Indian Advertising hasn't been bold enough to employ Cognitive Dissonance for long and has always relied on the Power of Emotions to bond with the customer. Both Cognitive Dissonance and Emotional Advertising use the basic premise of attacking human emotions. While Cognitive Dissonance creates guilt, regret, want or will in the customer, Emotional Advertising strikes a chord with every emotion in the book and makes the customer bond with the product. It is important for Direct to Consumer Advertising to have an emotional element, but it could choose between creating a dissonance or just plain appeal to the customer's emotions. But, with marketers trying hard not to even dream of making the customers unhappy, Cognitive Dissonance has taken a backseat and Emotional Advertising has been ruling the roost.

At the first look, we tend to look at the Emotions and by default tend to file them under the 'Emotional Appeal used in Advertising' Category. This is also because Cognitive Dissonance is slowly setting in in Indian Advertising, and isnt too blatantly used as of now. Dissonance has also set into the market because of the wider Customer base and his nascent needs and his unexpressed realisations of incompleteness which he doesn't let out into open for the fear of embarassment. While Fairness Creams segment has long relied on Dissonance creation, there are several others entering the fray big time now.

There was always Dissonance creation through Advertising, more so because many products need it to be created to be sold but we never realised them clearly and always took that to be Emotional Advertising. One campaign I feel that uses Cognitive Dissonance is Ambuja Cement, while many feel its Emotional Appeal. In fact, probably it is one of the advertisements that ends on The Thin Line that separates Cognitive Dissonance and Emotional Advertising.

Rather, I would file Cadbury's Diary Milk under the Emotional Category for it touches not the product, but the emotions of life, that of happiness, and joy. Ambuja Cement more or less speaks only of the product, and makes you look at your own walls. It could have been in the Dissonance category, but it is a product that is purchased only one at least in the Indian market. We dont cement our walls every year.

The Thin Line between Cognitive Dissonance and Emotional Advertising must be clear when we compare similar but Emotional ads with the already mentioned Tata Safari Dicor ad. The ads that fall into a similar category are that of Smirnoff - The Life is Calling. Where are you? campaign- and Bajaj Avenger - Feel Like God campaign. These products portray emotions of celebration and ego, and they do not put the customer into guilt or grief. They put the customer into thinking what he could have been doing now had he had that brand.

The bottom line is that an advertisement falls into the Cognitive Dissonance or Emotional Appeal categories not based on where the customer or viewer puts the ad or brand, but where the ad or brand puts the customer! :)

Bhagwan Inc

2008-02-17T16:24:00.004+05:30

Am neither religious nor an atheist. I believe in god as a supreme power whom you revert to when you feel you need support, strength, motivation, inspiration and all the other siblings of theirs. Sometimes I find god in solitude, sometimes in music, sometimes in my parents, sometimes in friends and so on. Idol worship is definitely not my cup of tea, but I understand that it is a way of reaching out to that supreme power for many a fellow Indian.

I was appalled a couple of days back when on a trip to Tirupati I realised that God is no more that divine power or that idol people worship, it is a business now. The only thing I would expect from a pilgrimage with family is to have a look at some exquisite temples, some ancient cultural anecdotes to listen to and some soothing sanskrit chanting and to see people around and feel amazed at how they could travel all those miles to stand in serpentine queues, wait for long hours and then when offered a half-a-minute rendezvous with god's idol, they just close their eyes, pray for a second and move away or rather mowed away by the security guards. And ya, the catch is that if you are ready to donate a few kgs of gold, a few bundles of notes, then you can hang around a couple of minutes more.This happens in almost all temples, in every corner of every city.

But, this seems to have taken too big a turn now. The Kalyanam of Lord Venkateshwara in Tirumala temple now has a commentary in English. Though my sister applauds the move, I think otherwise. What do you think people go all the way to Tirumala for? To pray god in peace, get mesmerised in the divine chantings and take home a feeling of satisfaction. For people like me, the feeling of a pilgrimage sinks in when you hear those indecipherable sanskrit chants and try to fathom some of them, and through the proceedings and anecdotes understand a few intricacies of culture. But now, the peace that one could incur through that vedic chanting, that divine peace of a puja atmosphere is now replaced by English commentary that keeps telling you what the Lord is doing on the stage in the ceremony, or rather what the Pujari is doing on his behalf. I felt disgusted to listen to that English commentary because it only means a loss of identity for a ritual. It makes me feel that all this religion, pilgrimage etc etc are all fake, they are just ways to promise god to those dollar wielding Indian diaspora who are ready to shell out expensive gifts to god.

We need not explain the unknowns about what our religion and culture are, mainly because the main part of a religion and culture come from the local flair attached to it. The day we lose that, we are just selling our religion which is what seems to be happening now. This is nothing better than all those venom-spewing quotes by politicians creating religious differences.

All we need to see what else does money make people do... These are days of customising god to suit the most wealthy customers the name of religion could lure!

Love is in the air

2008-02-14T16:59:00.002+05:30

and why not? It shud be... Because Love is not just about sublime emotions and unexpressed feelings any more, it today is a huge market for Indian marketers. While there are debates worldwide on how India has a turbulent V-Day, the truth is the V-Day market is booming by the day.

Earlier, it was the organised florist chains that sketched for us the picture of the V-Day market, with figures of 50-60% of their annual Sales coming in only on V-Day. A report in the news paper yesterday quoted 'Ferns n Petals' business last year on this day as 1.5 Crore, which is huge by any standards. It was only Archies and Ferns n Petals that offered the customers unique products for V-Day until recently. It was only roses that did great business till last year. That doesn't mean that roses have lost sheen this year, what with the sale expected to reach Rs. 25 Crore today. Who knows, as I write this, there must be 100s of red roses changing hands all across the country.

But now, India has arisen to a new V-Day, and firms like banks and airlines have queued up to woo the valentines' day pairs. I really dont understand if the couples of the country looking for a romantic retreat would really utilise such offers or would rather worry about being beaten up by organisations protesting against Valentines' Day. Thats too much of thinking to do. So, I leave to you guys and bask in another Valentines' Day where I romance myself! :P

Phone On. Caller Tune On.

2008-01-14T12:33:00.000+05:30

Make way Telemarketing, Reliance Communications is here with new idea of selling the time each of its subscriber's phone rings as a Classified space. Seems a nice business idea for Reliance ADAG, they have tried it and succeeded with their own in-house Reliance Power. In a step up to the Reliance Power IPO, Reliance Communications has gone ahead and set the default Caller Tune of millions of its customers to the Reliance Power tune. Call any Reliance customer who hasn't apriori activated his caller tune service and you would get to her the Reliance Power jingle. This has a two fold effect. First, if the customer likes the caller tune or just ignores it, his callers would get to listen to Reliance Power. Advertising for Reliance Power achieved. Second, if the customer dislikes the caller tune and decides to opt out of it, Reliance ADAG would ask you to be patient for 72 hours as your request is under process. So, the customer would, out of frustration or to save face, just dial * when he is listening to someone's caller tune he likes. That means one more customer for the Caller Tune Service, most probably! Some astute way of selling, I tell you!

The tune, unfortunately, is so incoherent on the phone and makes the caller feel low of the person he has called. It has happened to me, so its experience speaking. Reliance ADAG in an effort to maximise its chances at the bourses, has left no stone unturned. Somebody lists the onslaught here. It is agreed that Reliance Power is going to rewrite what DLF has written, and it is a boon for the retail customer and blah and blah... But, shudn't there have been some ethics come into play when they planned their advertising?

In the era of opposition to Telemarketing, and formation of DND registries, Reliance has just opened up a new door for vouyuer marketers. The customer was neither consulted nor given an option to opt out of the service after it had begun. It is ironical to see that to copy a caller tune, you just have to dial a *, but to remove it you have to wait 72 hours after calling the Customer Service by which time the due damage could have been done. It is intelligent marketing and money making strategy, but too much of an intrusive one at that.

Apart from the woes of being a Reliance customer at such a juncture, I must actually be awed by how intelligent Reliance ADAG is when using its businesses to brand one of its businesses. Radio, multiplex, Telephone initially might seem not in fit with Capital, Finance, Power, Insurance etc... but the value they bring to the table to build the brand of something relatively unknown like Reliance Power tells us the positivity of a diverse business basket. Thanks to the existence of so many channels of Reliance ADAG, the folks have been able to cut corners and keep the figure of ad spend for Reliance Power to just Rs. 20 Crore. Just 20C for something not less than 9K Crore. Now, that's RoI.

But from the customer angle, the woes remain. A customer care that doesn't help, a company that doesn't provide information of opting out, and millions of customers knowing not where to go. That is Reliance Communications for you!

Small and Standing Tall

2008-01-11T21:51:00.000+05:30

Thats what I felt after I witnessed the little wonder - Tata Nano. The Media Day of the 9th Auto Expo was jam packed right from the first hour, and the only stall everyone was very eager to get into was that of Tata Motors. The Nano was unveiled by Mr. Ratan Tata, in the company of Mr. Kamal Nath.

The Press Conference was amazing. Everyone was so keen to have a look at the car, and there was one man everybody was in complete awe of - Ratan Tata. He is one person who stood by what he started out to deliver. With the launch of his One Lakh Car, I thought he would be touted as the Robin Hood - II of India Inc, with the first being Dhirubhai Ambani, but he turned out to be an entirely different thing with what he said and what he gave. When he said he has compromised on profits despite shooting raw material prices, and sealed the answer with "because a promise is a promise", the nation bowed in respect to him.
Coming to the car, it surely is a Common Man's Dream. In the Auto Expo itself, when we were on way to the stall where the Nano was on display, we stopped at AMW Group stall, and seeing a deluxe autorickshaw model there, we thought the Nano would be something like that. Many in the country speculated that the Nano would be a li'l better version of the omnipresent Bajaj Auto Rickshaw. But, Tata surprised everyone for Nano comes second to no car in styling. Though when you study the interiors, you feel like it isnt as tough as most of the other cars are. But, for a car of one lakh, we dont expect an SUV, do we?
One main question I wanted an answer for was the category of the vehicle. Was Tata a dreamer or a visionary? Is he a man who had a dream of a one lakh car and produced it for just about anyone or is he a visionary who looked to expand the car market exponentially? The answer was very clear. He definitely is a visionary who has opened the gates for a gigantic growth in Indian Car Market. For all those, like me, who wondered if Tata Nano could be a second car, the answer is a clear NO.

The pricing, the styling, the fuel efficiency and every other parameter goes on to say it is for everyone of us who wanted a car but couldn't afford it. For families tired of carrying kids on their bikes, for bachelors who saved less and spent more and hence could gather enough dough to buy a car for themselves, for the elders who had little savings but wanted a decent journey with no hassles. The car is entirely for city. Decent performance parameters, and good looks.

All in all, a total winner. Make way for the Nano. :)

Small Wonder

2008-01-08T17:36:00.000+05:30

As the clock ticks and the date draws closer, excitement is in air and no one can wait for Ratan Tata to pull the sheets off his dream project - The One Lakh Rupee Car. Much has been talked about the car and the dream of Ratan Tata across newspapers, TV, blogs and the anticipations knew no bounds. The auto industry in India is abuzz with so much of activity of late, and the one lakh car could only mean it getting spicier and spicier. The choice of models, price points, companies and configurations could only mean tougher sales, but challenging opportunities.

Coming back to the One Lakh car by Tata Motors, there have been innumerable debates on what its effects on the Indian passenger and traffic would be. I shall keep those for another day though. The most fascinating thing to watch out for in the One Lakh Car would be the magnitude of its effect on the Indian Consumer. Will it be another Maruti 800? It is being touted as the "People's Car", and there has been a reported slump in bike sales in the previous quarters. To me, that is an indication that the market is ready to lap up a car that is priced marginally above the bikes and they are ready to forego bikes for this one car, if it delivers on what it promises to be.

Speculations are rife about the design of the car. The implications of the car being rear engine, the expected mileage etc etc have been beaten to death. Autocrust gives a neat detail of what the car is about here, and also carries an image that looks authentic. The implications of the car on the Tatas shares would be another interesting thing to track. The Tatas are a group that shall be unfazed through anything that happens to the car though. But, Ratan Tata could turn a Dhirubhai Ambani with this by giving the common man affordability for a car. He might just provide a choice to put in the money Ambani made the common man save.

The advantage Tata carries is his ease of operations, distribution, marketing and sales because of the gargantuan group that he has. The production plans for the car are impressive, and there needs to be nothing said about Tatas ability to sell and the acceptability they enjoy in the country.

With the car made and done, comes the question of making it closer to the public. People's Car would make it sound cheesy, and Janta or something similar would make it sound like Laloo has made it, not that he cant make cars but lets keep him to the trains for now. Speculation is one for the name too, and it remains to be seen what it shall be called. In fact, even if it would be named something, I feel people will still call it the One Lakh Car for a few months to come! With the price at one lakh, it could as well be called IndiOne, like the hotel venture of Tatas.

The One Lakh car obviously means an entirely new market, an entirely new segment of customers who could be in newer geographies, definitely newer social segments where the car marketing never treaded into. That would mean Tata has to come up with a strong, yet economically feasible marketing plan. The first step would be through proper and prompt advertising. Rediffusion has already bagged the contract, and it remains to be seen what they do of it. Another important aspect would be the effect this one lakh wonder could have on other Tata offerings like Indica, Indigo etc...

All said and done, this is the most-waited unveiling of any product in the country in the recent years. And if you thought, this was the only car in this range, think again and read this.

More action is slated at the Auto Expo 2008, Delhi to be kicked off on the 10th of January 2008 at Pragati Maida, Delhi. Do look at Maruti's soon to be launched concepts - The Swift Sedan and The A Star. And people, automobiles and Auto Expo is not all about cars, and it could be a surprise, shock or just a piece of news but there's going to be a 1.68L cycle.

Zooming ahead on the fastrack!

2007-12-27T15:56:00.000+05:30

Winning brands are those that evolve with the times, and Tata group is probably one body which has imbibed this principle in its truest spirit. The group is synonymous to what we call Indianness. Every Indian has some respect, faith and credibility in the name 'Tata' in the country. Right from salt to software, they make everything and very good brands in each of the category they are in.

One such brand which doesn't actually need the name of Tata anymore is Titan. Titan has evolved from being one of Tata group's brands to a major brand in itself. Titan is probably one of the most trusted brands in India. It once partnered with Timex, and when Timex left the Titan umbrella in around 1997-98, Titan introduced Fastrack with the positioning of "Cool Watches From Titan". From then on, Fastrack had no looking back in terms of brand recall.

Today with the caption of 'How many you have?', Fastrack is one of the must-be's in every youth's wardrobe in the country, be it a watch or eyegear. With its trendy watches and cool eye gear collection, Fastrack is probably solely responsible for bringing Titan closer to the youth. From where Titan seemed like elegant and for professionals to where Fastrack seems like trendy, sporty and casual, it is all marketing acumen at work, something which Titan is very good at. Fastrack has always been maintained closer to the youth. Be it using Narain Karthikeyan to promote it then, or a tie-up with MTV or launching trendy eye gear, Fastrack has always tried to reflect the fast evolving youth segment of the country.

In my opinion, Fastrack is probably the only brand in the country which enjoys unparalleled acceptance from all the strata of the society. Had there been any other brand in place of Fastrack which offered cheap, affordable watches at Rs.500 and also trendy, sleek, suave and sexy watches at more than Rs.10,000 it could have lost one of the sections of customers for the others would have identified more with it, and thus despising one group. But with Fastrack that dint happen, and that is largely because of its clear distinction in its products at various levels, with the quotients of style, attitude upping at every level thus catering to different segments of customers and keeping them locked in to the brand.

Not only the products, there is something innovative in everything Fastrack does. Today, when social media is the rage of the nation, especially the youth, no youth brand could have used it better than how Fastrack is doing it. In association with Blogworks, Fastrack has floated this website where there are regular updates, announcements, trivia and contests about the brands of Fastrack. The best thing about marketing your brand this way is that it helps the customer stay connected to the brand. The world is today connected by del.icio.us, stumbleupon, feedburner and co. I would rather read a feed on my feed reader than go and watch some commercials on the tv, and that is what fastrack is cashing in on when it is using this medium.

Check out various options on that website, and am sure you would agree that Fastrack is using social media too well to keep its brand on the fastest track! With products like Neon Disc range of clocks, Campus Collection Eye Gear etc... the best way to connect to the audience is none other than social media, and kudos to Fastrack for having realised that and mastered it.

Connect and Disconnect

2007-12-27T15:53:00.000+05:30

What makes a good ad? To me, it is proper product exposure, which means atleast 60% of the air-time showing or explaining the product, and proper connect between what the product is for and what is happening in the ad. But then, as they say, there are always exceptions.

With a break at hand and some spare time for the tube, this ad of Havell’s Cables caught my attention. Havell’s is an electronic goods brand that generally relies on humor in advertising, and Lowe never seems to let them down. Their ad for Havell’s CFL lamps is an example. The lamp ad scores well on both the parameters I would rate a good ad on! However, Lowe-Havell partnership this time tried an emotional one for the Cables, and if you ask me, I would say it did succeed, no matter how much it scores on those parameters.

The ad, one of Lowe’s first releases after Balki took over as Chief Creative Officer, revolves around the traditional mother-son relation, and is set in a construction site. It is way too early to have a youtube video I guess, so here’s the storyboard, and more info on the ad from the makers and the clients. You may rate it weird, but you will sure be wired by Havell’s. The next time you would think of fire-resistant cables, am sure Havell’s would enjoy Top of Mind recall. So, full marks to Lowe there.

Talking of disconnect between products and ads, one ad that failed according to me is Mintrox. With a caption of Life eej Hard, there is neither reference to mint as a candy or advantages of mintrox in the ads except mentioning it again and again that mintrox is like a rock. This product of Parle Agro is advertised by CreativeLand Asia. Probably in a bid to be different, the makers lost the connect! It looks more like a desperate attempt to combat the Chlormint, Polo advertising campaigns.

2007-11-28T23:55:00.000+05:30

Jen awarded me the Egel Nest Blog award. Thanks for the award, Jen!

Amidst exams and other pressing commitments, it is hard to reflect upon anything interesting. All you have in mind is stupid portions, deadlines and other plebeian things. It is difficult to transcend the obvious, but then that's life.

Recently watched a movie on football, and many scenes in the movie made me ruminate about the sense that Rudyard Kipling's inspirational poem 'If' makes in such situations. Fished for the poem, and here it is:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

The poem is a time-less classic, and continues to inspire to date. There are many anecdotes about it at the player's entrance to the Wimbledon Central Court where it is inscribed. It is a great lesson for life, I especially love the line 'If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken'. Hope you guys enjoy the poem!

Metrosexual Men, eh?!

2007-11-24T12:38:00.001+05:30

The Man, The Machine... to The Man, The Mush... Herald the dawn of the new metrosexual man of the country. Indian male once carried the persona of being a hard worker, someone who cared for his family and his pocket but the last thing he cared for was his face. Times are changing, and now the man, who suavely terms himself metro sexual, or at least those who would like to get bracketed into that cadre give great importance to their looks today. To me, it seems sad that people tend to knot Metro sexual status with their looks.

Back to our topic, probably the marketers of various consumer goods companies were running short of ideas, they created a new segment in Men targetting them for fairness. As if asking Indian women to be fair to be beautiful wasn't atrocious, they took it up a step further and are asking men to be fair to be handsome. And who better than our 'I am here for every kind of ad' SRK to promote this nonsense. Probably to cash in on the urban men, they even have a website. I seriously have no clue what it is for! There is none to blame for this phenomenon but the Indian consumer. Ethics and emotions apart, it is an interesting Brand segment to study.

Late back in 2004, HLL(then as it was called) realised 20% of the users of its product Fair and lovely were men, which as per Fair and Lovely's total sale of Rs. 500 Crore amounted to Rs. 100 Crore. That was too lucrative a market not to pay heed to! The phenomenon was observed by other companies like Cavin Kare and Emami too, but it took time to come up with brands and when they came out, they all flooded the market at about the same time.

HLL started thorough market scrutiny for Men's fairness cream market in 2005, which can be found in this report. Finally, in 2005, Emami came up with Fair and Handsome and Kaya Skin Clinic was one of the pioneers in getting men into the fairness circle. Fortunately or unfortunately, my geographical orientations aside, Southern states were the first and biggest markets for these products. Today Fair and Lovely, Fair One included, almost every Indian brand has ventured into Men's Fairness care segment.

Male Vanity hasn't ended at that place, though! Players like Nivea have entered this sector with specialised 5-action fairness cream, and is cashing in on male grooming as a whole. Other players like Garnier and Set Wet are raking in the moolah using the mantra of Male Grooming. Grooming though isn't as pathetic as fairness.

The good and bad aside, one great thing about this phenomenon is that this is the best brand finding I have seen in the recent times. The nascent need of the customer, however justified or unjustified, was always there and the companies realised and are riding high on the boom and setting their cash boxes on an overloading jitter. Now, ethics, emotions and other things aside, this sure is an awesome case of what great Marketing is all about!

For all those men, fair and unfair, out there, watch out... Its your turn to be pampered now!

5 Star

2007-11-10T13:17:00.000+05:30

Supriya Narang tagged me to write a 5-minute monologue, called FMORT - Five Minutes of Random Thought - where I think random things and punch on the keyboard about whatever is going on in my mind. One of my friends, Vijay Pratap Singh, way back in 2004 asked me to close my eyes and randomly write whatever my mind is feeling like on a piece of paper. It is a great stress-reliever, he believed and today, we believe.

Okie, now for the tag. Its 2204 hours on my watch and Shoot!

Where do people get these ideas of tagging from? Is it their urge to think of a new tag or are they so vela that they think of such things? Dont they think of what would happen if the tag never caught on, and people dint reply? I appreciate their efforts, indeed. As Richard Branson's book title goes, 'Screw It, Just Do It' should be our motto.

Airlines in India are a big pain in the ass. I have succumbed to all types of delays, cancellations and the woes always continue. And coming to India, I am a patriot but I think we are bloody racists. Though we say we are at the recieving end of racism, we infact practice racism, and the worst kind of it I must add. How many times have to had an air-hostess or a steward on board who has a grayish complexion? How many times have you been a victim of people prefering people of their state, caste, religion or color over you? This is omnipresent. We need to change a lot.

Guys just cannot stick to their seats in a flight :S In a goddamn two hour domestic flight, they want to go to the loo five times, as if it was the best place to be on a Boeing, and ask for weird things like Fruits after a meal. Is the air hostess your wife or are you in a marriage, pal?! :P

Diwali preparations itself were awesome in Delhi. I realised what exactly festive mood is. Shopping, every car loaded with gifts, every face on road smiling, every street lit up... Wow... That was a feast to the eye, just that I could do with a little less traffic! :P

okie, the bell rings... Time's up...

My Five Minutes to fame are over, and my five victims as under:

Rahul Pallerla muuuhaaahaaahaa
Saraswathi Mukkai
Abhishek Deshpande
Jen
Revati Ananda

Brand Brouhaha

2007-10-23T16:00:00.000+05:30

To me, Branding is the most important aspect for a product. All said and done, a Brand is a Brand is a Brand as it is often said. There are no two ways about it. We all need brands. Brand is that luxury you would want to have and rest in once you earn high through hard work and persistence. We inch up organisations, our products inch up consumer minds, we want to translate that success into acceptance and the fallout is BRAND.

Many people often regard Branding as an exercise that just happens, and do not give any importance or relevance to it. However, these people are talking of brands, not Brands. To make Surf is one thing, to make Surf a synonym to detergent and erasing the mention of detergent powder in a billion Indian minds is another. Just any name would make a brand, but a firm commitment, belief, trust and faith maketh a Brand. Yet, people think Branding is something very simple and nothing very important.

For all those people, Branding Asia puts things in perspective. The homepage itself tells how rigorous a Brand Building process is, and how objective and quantifiable it is. From building Brand Equity to identifying Reputation Drivers for a brand, the article covers it all and so well. It is a must-read! However, it is their methodology. So dont blame me if you were looking for a generic methodology.

Coming to Brands again, the same site lists down The Great Asian Brands. It is a disappointment to see not many Indian companies in the list. There are many companies from Singapore. Considering many cities in India are larger than Singapore, I think it is high time we realised how important Brand Building is for us. According to me, one factor why Indian companies haven't been too active on the global front, save for a few exceptions of late, is that there are no strong Indian Brands. Today, when Vodafone comes to India, we welcome it with both hands open for we know Vodafone is a reputed brand.

In this list, there are two Indian companies, Wipro and Hindustan Unilever Limited. HUL, as a die-hard fan like me would say, is the mother of all Indian companies in Branding. As mentioned in the same post earlier, Surf is the biggest of all Indian brands according to me. The order of the day needs to be more companies focussing on Branding like HUL, I guess. One look at the businesses of both these companies throws up a good number of common businesses, especially in the initial days of Wipro. So, does that mean Branding is business-specific? :S There is another viewpoint too, and that is the point that both these companies have been in operations for long, and have hit a chord with Consumers through Consumer Goods first. Does that mean time is also a factor for Branding?

Branding now seems like a never ending pot of questions... Try to find your own... Till then, Happy Branding! :)

Chocolatey!

2007-10-22T15:07:00.000+05:30

An In-Store Consulting Survey, as shown in Economic Times today says the following:

The average time spent at a chocolate aisle in a typical Supermarket in India is 22 seconds according to the survey. It also says that regular buyers spend, on an average, 39 seconds. Does that mean, as ET questions, that Chocolate has become a "grab-and-go" product? I wonder if it really has!

One of the most interesting products to study in the Indian Markets is Chocolate. Chocolate has been a confectionery item in US for long, but in India, it was considered a luxury item, or rather a gift item for long. There were also strong biases against it, for it was considered to kill appetite, be bad for teeth and gums. Added to all this, it has also been branded a children's product. But, against all this, chocolate as a product has come out strong and appeals to all segments of the society today.

Whatever be the scenario now, the statistics brought out by In-Store are quite a revelation. I think it is mostly because of the positioning of the chocolates in India. To me, Chocolate is the only product segment where there is a unique place for every chocolate, and even competitors have unique features that make decisions easier. Also, since Chocolate being a confectionery, the buying patterns are influenced by promotions and tag lines according to me. I would never eat anything other than Perk when Preity chuckled from behind a billboard biting into a Perk! :D

Coming to the statistics back again, I feel it is so because when we Indians shop for a chocolate, it is either because kids ask for it, or we have an unusual urge for it. I termed the urge unusual because, either it is once in a bluemoon when we pick up the first chocolate we can see or our fave brand or else it is an addiction like some of my friends have. A friend of mine was one of the reasons why the storekeeper at college made maximum profits selling Dairy Milk! :P So, both these categories have not many decisions to make. They directly buy the product.

Coming to others, they are driven either by promotions or identities carved due to them. Dairy Milk comes with 'Kuchh Meetha Ho Jaaye', while Kit Kat asks you to 'take a break'. More or less each product has a place of its own in the consumers mind. When I go to buy a chocolate, I am most of the time decided about what I am going to buy. If I am not, when I reach there, I pick up the one whose pack is most lip-smacking! There are no two ways about it. Probably, that is the reason the Indian Consumer also spends so less time at the chocolate aisle.

The next time I go buy a bar, I shall time it ;) :P Do you have any other reasons for buying chocolate? or is your buying pattern any other, then please do mention as a comment! :)

PS: Talking of chocolate, something we should read is here. Probably it will make us think twice before we buy a chocolate next time! :S

Social Media

2007-10-12T21:32:00.000+05:30

Blogs are the best form of Social Media today. For those who weren't initiated on this, look here. The application is best reflected in this article by Mark Collier. From likes of Google which launch their products on the blog, to the likes of Fake Steve Jobs which are a good corporate read, Social Media has changed Information Media in every way possible.

When I was trying to look for things to zero in Social Media on to Blogging, I stumbled upon this. To me, Blogging is Personal Branding, and I have mentioned this a few times in my blogs too. They are the most effective ways of Branding for an individual.

Can we elevate this level of Personal branding to Community Branding, especially in terms of creating awareness, competencies and opportunities for progress? Yes. We Can, and here is one opportunity. Though I am unsure if I would be contributing to this cause, due to pressing professional commitments, I wish everyone who wants to be a part of this the best return on their invested efforts! :)

By the way, they held a quiz and I got this:

Try it!

Brand Mahatma

2007-10-02T14:16:00.000+05:30

Mahatma Gandhi is a great person. It is no mean task to unify a country with so many diversities, introduce several new concepts like Non-Violence, Untouchability to them and yet be accepted as a leader. He achieved this, and probably much more. But, somewhere down the line, we mapped the person on to wrong things. Rather, appreciation and recognition are due to him not exactly for what he stood for India as, but for things which we attribute to him.

Somewhere down the journey in the past 60 years, we forgot that Gandhi means a foreign returned law student who gave up his studies for the love of the country, and followed his ideals of Swaraj. We forgot he was the one who delayed several things on the course of our independence. We forgot he was the one who got into deliberations at every drop of a hat and made Independence a long awaited moment for us! No offence to him for that. In fact, it was no mean task to sustain the enthusiasm and patriotism of a million or more Indians for so long and also after that, what with India going for a partition and indulging in riots after that. Had it been a revolutionary, he would have made sure it didn't get partitioned. That is because he would have not been a mute witness to blood of his brethren going under the sword of geographical boundaries so soon. He would have made sure every drop of blood that his brothers and sisters gave for the Independence of their motherland was accounted for and the returns recorded in the form of a Unified India. That would have meant, no T20 Final between India-Pak :P Jokes apart, it would have meant a different world today!

Though that is the grudge, rather dissatisfaction, of a youth who would have wanted 100 years of Independence today than this 60 yrs we are enjoying, it is nothing against Gandhi. Obviously, I and you weren't around then to judge things and try and do things. He did, so give him that merit!

The sanctity of a Brand lies in the outrage it garners at being questioned. The mirror of the success of a Brand lies in how sacrilegious its followers deem questioning or maligning it. By these terms, Gandhi is by far the Biggest Brand in India. All dailies of today are full of Gandhian news. We are so blind in his worship, we do not even want to look at 'what if not Gandhi' scenario. I do not mean he is not worth worshipping in any sense, but I do strongly feel that he doesn't need so much of adulation today, or even that day for that matter.

The success of a man, according to me, in this society is best reflected by how religiously his children pray him. To me, my dad is a super hero. But, Gandhi wasn't to his sons, at least not to all of them. Right from the likes of Chanakya, every teacher has taught this society to take care of home first and then get on to the world. Did Gandhi do that effectively? I am no one to question this vigorously, though!

To me, something I cannot reconcile to, is the fact that we want the youth of today to follow Gandhiji. With due respects to that man, I don't think that should be the case. If he was right, he was the best, probably that was in his times. Today, I do not find him fitting in the role of a contemporary Unifier of the Country. We all have read our share of Gandhian literature. How many of us think if the same words were told today, same philosophies were reiterated today, they would unify a nation? Times have changed. I do not advocate dishonesty or violence. In fact, I feel they were never exactly Gandhian virtues. Every mother in this country has taught her child not to lie, and not to indulge in fights. It wasn't something Gandhi gave us, what he had to give us was ideas of Swaraj, Non-co operation etc...

I earnestly feel we pray this man for the wrong reasons. If you do want to pray him, pray him for the right reason. That will help people learn better from him, and for god's sake, don't demean or look down upon people who don't pray him as religiously as you do. Let people evolve...

All said and done, Happy Birthday Gandhi!

To cut down on pleonasm, here's a link to my post on the same topic, same day two years ago: http://knownaresh.blogspot.com/2005/10/truth-and-prejudice.html

Meddling in the Middle...

2007-09-29T22:52:00.000+05:30

Ya, I was! In the middle of the weekend, on the midnight of Saturday, I have been wondering what to do, and I remembered something I wanted to do... Answer Jen's tag! :D

The tag asks me to do certain things, with my middle name, unfortunately which I don't have! So, taking a cue from Saraswathi, I decided to use my second name, but it's longer (Kodithala) than my first name (Naresh). Lazy bugger that I am, I chose my first name to expand each of those letters into qualities. This is where I have been meddling in middle, between what Jen told and Saraswathi did! :D

Now, this tag asks me to pick my middle name and map my attributes to each of its letters, and then tag an equal number of others. Here is me doing the honors:

N - Narcissist - I am a die hard narcissist people! I love myself. I believe in 'Love thyself, then only any one else'. I believe satisfaction and loving your life are important to lead life happily. Otherwise, there is no point doing whatever we do. After all, it is us we live for primarily, right?! This is like being in a business, a company must look to increase its own revenue and hence profits, even before its staff happiness, shareholder's value etc... Once it is self sufficient, everything else will fall in place. Hence, people, be narcissistic!

A - Available - Whatever, whoever, however a friend might be, if I consider him/her important enough, there is no way I am unavailable to them. I dont care how frequent people stay in touch, but if I respect them or like them, no way I ditch them! I like standing up to committments and responsibilites. I take pleasure in making friends happy! But ya, it takes a lot for someone to come into this bracket. Though I am socially well on-the-move always, not every friend comes into this bracket, and who come in, don't need to be told. The situations speak for themselves! :D

R - Ruminating - I don't chew the cud, obviously! I reflect deeply on everything, every one, every instant, though not instantly, but overtime. I ruminate so much on people that I feel everyone does good things, and bad things happen only unintentionally. I dont get frustrated or excited easily. I focus on stuff and then take my decisions.

E - Easy Rider - Keep Smiling... Live Life to the fullest. There is no use fretting and frowning. A smile is the most beautiful thing on this earth, no matter whose face it adorns. I firmly believe that one who can smile amongst adversities is the toughest man, and I always try to be on!

S - Sleepy - I am a log! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

H - Hard Working - Seems oxy-moronic, eh?! But its true. I believe in hardwork . If hard work is combined with right amount of passion, there's no stopping and I believe that is what we need to look for! Seems preachy, but utterly true!

So much for knowing Naresh ;) Now on to others...

As per Comrade Jen's orders, we need to look for 6 gullible people, and here's the list:
Rahul Pallerla, my evergreen tag victim!
Shikha Tomar She always surprises up her sleeve for me...
Reva Ananda Is radio her middle name?! :P
Diwakar Kaushik This shall be interesting...
Abhishek Deshpande Needs a break from CAT prep and hence the tag ;)
Amod Verma Welcome back to active blogging! :P

Communicating a Rebranding...

2007-09-22T23:11:00.002+05:30

Bangalore was rechristened Bengalooru, Madras to Chennai and Calcutta to Kolkata. We do not know if this list is saturated. We do not even know if it has crossed the nascent stage. What we know is things have happened, and the transition has been gradual but steady. While we still struggle to acclimatise ourselves to Bengalooru, we are pretty ok with Kolkata, or so is the case with me!

These to me are all several cases of Rebranding. To build a Brand is one thing, and to rebrand it is another. It is like rediscovering self. It is like reinventing the basic premise of your product, and communicating it to the customer. The biggest challenge of a rebranding exercise, according to me, lies in the fact that the consumer must be communicated both the things that your product hasn't changed, but its name has changed. The consumer must not just realise this, but the earlier name of the product must be erased entirely from the consumer's mind.

Hindustan Unilever Ltd. did it efficiently for Super 501 and Rin Shakti. Both of them were big brands in themselves, but HUL used its trump card of Rin Supreme to erase these names from the consumer mindspace. But, that is an entirely different thing because Rin has always been lapped up more happily by an average Indian Consumer than Super 501 or Shakti. The garb of Rin Advanced meant Super 501 customers felt they were now buying Rin at the same price, which means a superior brand at the same old price and Shakti was anyway just a tag. Shakti or Advanced dint make quite a big difference to the product. To put it in a nutshell, Shakti and Super were brands, while Rin is a Brand. To understand this statement, you need to read Strategic Brand Management by Keller.

Coming to another end of rebranding, we all know Hutch was a big Brand in India, thanks to its advertisements and the curiosity factor they always maintained. Now, Hutch has been taken over by Vodafone. I would save the acquisition for someone else to post upon, and focus on their rebranding. I always wonder what it would take to reinvent Hutch, what it would take to erase Hutch from the minds of Indian consumer. This is more relevant because Hutch entered Indian markets not just as a telephone operator, but as an aggressive and innovative advertiser. Most of us know and prefer Hutch more for its ads! The Brand Hutch rang in the kid, the pug even before coverage and Value Added Services.

So, obviously when Vodafone wanted to change the name of Hutch to Vodafone, we were all waiting for the huge makeover, and it has finally happened. And how is it? Vodafone has gone on a 'no stone left unturned' effort to make sure Hutch is properly rechristened Vodafone in the minds of Indian consumer. Vodafone might be a great Brand globally, but in India, it is a newbie! To ensure they register themselves properly in the Indian minds, they have done something we have never seen. They have monopolised Star Network for 24 hours with their ads. The rebranding exercise is speculated to last another two months.

Is this costly? Something very much unlike what HUL did with Rin? The obvious answer would have been a Yes. But, according to sources it isn't. The expenditure is announced to be much lesser than the speculated Rs. 500 Cr. Given the multi billion dollar deal, this definitely isnt a big deal for Vodafone to come up with what it wants! The CAS rule that applies to Star Network could also be a reason behind this. Earlier, companies like HUL have demanded upto 35pc discount from Star TV for the same reason.

Now, the million dollar question would be 'Will the overkill of ads kill the brand?' I feared it would. It doesn't seem so. My mom, whose instincts I believe, told me today it wasn't too much of a burden. With her being a big fan of Star Network, am sure many others would feel so too! I haven't watched it on tv, so I cannot comment personally, but I look forward to what people think about it.

I have seen the ad though, on youtube. It seems interesting, and intelligent. If you ask me why, I would say it is because they have cleverly maintained the thread of Hutch in the ad. Hutch entered the market with a pug and a kid, with an orange color logo. When the logo was later changed to pink, the logo was subsided and the kid and pug maintained to keep the brand recall high. Now, to change it to Vodafone, they have maintained the pug, and focussed on it long enough for the customer to realise it is a Hutch ad, and then said 'Change is Good'. To a Manager, this is THE golden gospel. So, my ethics tell me it is good! :P Though the charisma of this ad doesn't match up to older ads, it sure appeals!

To what extent, to how many people and for how long is to be seen. Will the pug turn out to be the 'lambi race ka ghoda' for Vodafone?! Wait and watch...

PS: Will Vodafone cancel all the pending payments customers owe to Hutch? ;) Not to worry though, am a Reliance loyalist! :D

69

2007-09-22T21:59:00.000+05:30

Before you jump to conclusions, 69 is not what you think. I mean you might be thinking its just another number ;), but it isnt... It is a new philosophy in Marketing.

Today, on the 22nd of September 2007, during the Consulting Symposium, one of our esteemed speakers, Mr. Mrityunjay Mishra, from Juxt Consult mentioned about Web Chutney and their Viral Marketing initiatives. Though Viral Marketing and Webchutney are nothing new to most of us, there is something new that webchutney has come up with. I am sure all of you, or most of you, know this and this. We have been seeing and enjoying these things for so long.

Now, Web Chutney has come up with the theory of 69 Marketing. The basic premise of this philosophy is that ' if you give it to the customers, the customer will give it back to you'. This is done through four things:

Viral Marketing
Corporate Blogging
Consumer Centric Marketing
Linking Strategy

Further information about the philosophy can be found here. I strongly recommend this book. Its a fabulous read! You will read it cover-to-cover once you start it!

Also of interest is the Web Chutney blog.

Cross posted at: Dawn of DMS

Good n Bad

2007-09-17T14:34:00.000+05:30

To me the matters of good and bad seem like a sine curve when it comes to advertising. What's good is good, what's mediocre is mediocre and again, what's bad also seems good for people tend to get iconoclastic and relate to that bad piece of advertising, or sometimes these bad pieces of advertising appeal to the inner, concealed selves of human beings which we try to hide from the public eye.

Many people chastise Bingo for its unconnected ads, but then its a success story. To many people, it seems a bad piece of advertising, but if the primary motive of advertising is to boost sales, which I believe, one must admit Bingo is good! One real good, simplistic and wonderful ad to me seems to be the Reliance Classic Color Mobile with FM wala ad. The ad shows people grooving to the beats of latest chartbusters, and conveys the message damn well! That is one good thing to me...

Coming to bad things that click, when I asked people to write down some ads they liked and some they disliked, many of the girls said fairness cream ads were what they hated to the core, for they glorified fairness as beauty. But, to a marketer, these ads are runaway successes so much that it has made big companies roll out entirely new product lines catering to fairness creams for men segment.

Talking to bad advertising, one ad that I feel hasn't done justice to the product is Nokia 6300. Just the other day, a friend and I were discussing about the ad and while I felt the product exposure should have been in some other way, he felt that an ad is pointless when you are showing the product after 3 shots, and that too just a snapshot of it. There is absolutely no justification why they call it stylish. I have seen the phone, and I must say its a piece of art, but the ad doesn't tell me anything about it. This is definitely bad, according to me!

Again, Amul Macho ad has recieved lots of brickbats for its sheer eroticism, so much that the government has asked it to be put off the air. Many people dislike the ad for it seems B-Grade or even lower, but the sales figures speak otherwise. There are equal number of people who enjoy the ad as those who dislike it, as the article suggests. This suggests that though the ad is considered bad by a segment, if it has hit upon its target segment, it obviously is a hit. Again, by our assumption of a good ad being that which wins sales, this must be good.

So, when we judge ads, what is good and bad? What is a good piece of advertisement and what is a bad piece of it?! Should ethics be involved in advertising, or what should be the prerogative of advertising? As the Hutch Delhi Half Marathon punchline goes, Daudne ke liye bas dil chahiye! (You should just have a heart to run!), I say bechne ke liye bas dil chahiye! (same for sales!) So, I think we must all put aside our judgements about ads and just appreciate those ones that bring in the customers. After all, what is a good ad that doesn't win customers?!

My Best Friend's Wedding

2007-09-08T23:43:00.000+05:30

There is a happiness in being happy for others, and one of the happiest occasions is to see people you like the most happy! I had one such great occasion recently. On the 5th of September 2007, one of the best of my friends, Ramya Krishna Devineni entered the nuptial knot with Praveen. Was great to be a part of the festivities of their marriage! Though wanted to be a bigger part of it, call it duty or obligations, had to curtail my part! :|

Indian weddings have a wonderful charm! Its great to see so many people happy for two happiest souls, bless them and enjoy their time. People indulge in interesting conversations, varying from politics to marriages to sports to what not! At a marriage, you could never know how time passed just by observing people :D For someone interested in studying Consumer Behavior, I wud say an Indian Marriage is the best place! :P

The best thing about marriage is meeting people, old and new. It gives you a great feeling when you bump into someone you least expect, or someone you have met ages ago, someone you never knew. Marriages are the best places for socialisation, I guess!

Coming to this marriage, it was personally very cherished for me for it was the first wedding among my friends and it was my best friend getting married. I enjoyed it the most. I must say, the bride-groom pair is one of the best I have every seen! They match each other so perfectly! May God Bless the couple with happiness for life! :)

PS: Thanks to PD for the wonderful pic! This is the best of the lot according to me! :)

Pursuing Power...

2007-09-02T22:49:00.000+05:30

Power is a key word of life. Power is what that drives the world, according to me. Today, for instance in India, though we celebrate young and emerging India, we are all witness to the fact if you are powerful, you can go scathe-free. I am talking not just of politicians, film stars and filthy rich real estate people escaping jail, but am talking of our daily life.

To me, power today is money and influence. They will always mean power to me and I shall strive for them. It is probably the most common sight on the busy Delhi roads that uber rich people driving all those Mercedes, BMW models often get down on to the road to settle scores with guileless autowallas just to show off that they are powerful.

As we talk of equality, change in the country, and sense prevailing due to education, we are just fooling ourselves. Very often people relate the IT boom to the success of young India in moving the country forward. They often cite examples of well-to-do IT professionals donating to NGOs, teaching kids and all. To me, it all seems like a faff. I do appreciate their benevolence a bit, but somewhere in me, there is a cynic who tells me it isn't their magnanimity but their drive to show off their power and in that manner, get some influence. I may be wrong though! The striking thought that doesn't allow me to accept their nobility right away is that if they are all that noble, enlightened, educated and civilised, what is the frigging problem in following lane discipline on the roads yaar?! I haven't seen their attitudes changing too. Its just their lifestyles that have changed, and that is because of the dollars that the West throws at the so-called IT Services sector of India, which hasn't done any noticeable service to the country, except boosting the mall and pub culture.

As we embark upon things like 'Lead India', which I can't make any sense of, are we really competent and enlightened enough? Do we know what we are, before we announce what we want in others? Was reading a kid, aged 11, with no offence to him and all my respect to his intellect, speaking to a ToI correspondent talking about how a leader should be, and how Gandhiji was 'all giving and sacrificing'. Am sure he spoke that out of just the prodding of that media man who must have been on the prowl for his day's dough through some filler in the newspaper.

It seems to me like a pity that we are in a hurry to jump to judgements. We are mistaking power to be enlightenment. Being powerful isn't being intelligent or mature or even sensible! It is just being wealthy, influential and likes. It is a fact , infact a maxim or I would say 'Eleventh Commandment' that 'You cannot ignore power centers'. But we must not stoop to a level that we assuage these rich and getting richer segment of the society, all the while ignoring the real meaning of society. These aren't people we should be targetting to build a better nation. When our eye is in the wrong place, it doesn't matter if we have shot in the bull's eye!

The Style in Lifestyle...

2007-08-31T20:02:00.000+05:30

Television is a powerful media, it reflects the societal thought and ideologies at a given time. The shows, the kind of media, the kind of audience tells a lot. We earlier had mythologies, then soap operas, and then started Reality Shows. Today's Indian Idol, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa are a monitor of what the audience wants and enjoys.

Also the same is the case with different channels. We once had only Doordarshan, that gave us complete platter of programmes. We had news, songs, reality shows all packed into one channel and should I add that we enjoyed it. Even today, we idolise Doordarshan! Then came an onslaught of channels that gave us a share of movies, songs and other things. They further diverged into subsidiary channels, giving us channels specific for songs, news, movies etc... Zee, Sony, Star... All have taken this route, and have done it commendably well all the time fighting it out with each other with elan!

With growing demand and pan-India development of cable networks, they introduced local flavors. Then came a flurry of News channels, and when it all seemed saturated, we were left guessing what the next step would be... While there have been many genres of television in the world like History, Food and Travel, Weapons and Action, India has confined them all only to specific shows!

Now, NDTV has dawned open a new era of Television. After mastering news and finance, it has now ventured into Lifestyle. Lifestyle, as a genre, is not exactly new to Indian audience. Various channels have always had Travel, lifestyle as concepts for several of their shows. Now, NDTV has taken it a step forward and launched an entire new channel on it. Though I am yet to see it, am looking forward to it more than anything else on television. Agency FAQs writes the following about it:

The channel is in English and it is positioned as an aspirational product for viewers. It will mould programming specific to the Indian context. It claims to have at least 50-60 programmes per week to cater to the taste of its target audience. The genres include food, late night chat shows, relationships, travelling, cooking, tech and gadget shows, Indian weddings, parenting, pet care, parties, health and wellness and fashion cars and motor bikes.

It is indeed endearing to look for a channel that has a specific positioning in mind and working towards it. The most important factor behind this channel is its association with Kingfisher. Kingfisher, with its wizardly marketing acumen, has been venturing into right businesses. From rockshows, F1 races, lounge bars to lifestyle channels, it knows what it takes to be the King of Good Times! Kingfisher blog announced the launch of this channel too!

One of the masters of modern marketing, Kingfisher, and one of the pioneers of Indian television, NDTV have joined hands and am sure this going to be something interesting. If as nothing else, as a casestudy! ;)

PS: I quite dint understand completely though as to why this channel is completely in English!

Social Sense

2007-08-30T19:32:00.000+05:30

B-Schools today have turned more into Brand Schools than Business Schools. I dont intend to pick or prick any school for any malignant activities, but I am musing over the mind-sets we carry into B-Schools. We are no more there to study business or add value, we are there to get branded and get heavier by the pocket. Sometimes, it feels so mean...

We talk of Corporate Social Responsibility, but there is no mandate for Social Responsibility at institutes. I completely agree that students from reputed institutes like IIMs, IITs are venturing into taking up social causes sometimes, but they are not IITians or IIM guys to me, but they are what we call Social Entrepreneurs. While it has been a trend at foreign business schools to groom Social Entrepreneurship in its student body, sadly, in India, we have always been trying to portray ourselves as Brands.

I completely agree that students in various B-Schools and technological institutes go for peace marches, light candles at India Gate, upload the pic of Indian Flag on Independence day and a plethora of such activities. But, that isnt anything. What we need is our student body and go shake the needy and give them what it takes to cross the Poverty Line. Institutes, especially B-Schools, should engage in activities that generate employment opportunities for poor and needy.

It is easy to say every year a few of our students get into Social Entrepreneurship, but who is monitoring their success, and what about the untapped potential of the other students who are risk-averse and do not plunge into Social causes? That is why, I feel, institutes should not leave it to students to go out into the world, use the learning imparted and make a difference, but should infact involve in several social activities themselves. The students, however much interested, do not dare to take a plunge into social entrepreneurship unless highly motivated. Institutes can fill this need gap, and motivate students during their 2 yr or 4 yr stay at institute to get into social entrepreneurship.

ISB recently signed an MoU with Cornell University to set up a BoP(Bottom of Pyramid) Lab under its Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship, but then ISB is still considered a school that is very different, catering to very different student body. We still have to wait for other schools to take a cue, Indianise the concept completely and lead their young minds towards developing young India.

There are many young, bright and enlightened minds waiting, what we need is a direction which institutes could sure provide!

Yipppeeeeeeeeee

2007-08-29T03:59:00.000+05:30

Jubilation all around as I find back my blogroll, all thanks to Prasoon Gupta. He suggested me to check the google cache, and it worked! Google rocks! :D

It gives a great high when you lose something very dear for a short time, repent over it a lot, and then find it back. Seems like u realise the true value and worth of it.

I guess I dont need to add that I have created at least 3 back ups of the template and the blog roll now! :D

Exams and classes keeping me busier than I expected. More posts coming soon!

Angels

2007-08-28T00:02:00.000+05:30

Sisters are god's best gift, undoubtedly!!! :D These are my two sisters, my best friends, my angels... Though I generally refrain from posts about personal events, pics and such, this HAD to come. Today is Rakshabandhan and a special days for Brother-Sister bonding, and do I need to add I miss them today! :)

Happy Rakshabandhan, my dear sisters! :D

PS: The elder of them, the one in blue, blogs and her blog is a good read! :)

LOST...

2007-08-26T14:55:00.001+05:30

No... Its not the series I am talking of, but its a serious issue I am talking of! :( I dont remember any random mouse clicks on my Edit Template page of Blogger, but I am horrified to see almost half of my sidebar missing :(

I have lost a couple of widgets, 3-4 icons and all, n none of them bothers me as much as the fact that I have lost atleast half of my blogroll :'(

Does anyone know is there a chance to revert back to a lost template? I know its a stupid thing to ask for it isnt possible, but just trying! :)

Am hunting for some backup of my blogroll. I used to edit the html and add new links and now, am left licking my wounds :( Probably its time to use blogrolling!

Get Brand-y!

2007-08-21T01:24:00.000+05:30

Nope... Don't get me wrong! Am not in a mood to get on a high, am high on life already! :D As has been said, is being said, and will be always told on this blog, Brands are an integral part of life. While we perceive of products as the shapers of our habits, we pursue brands as the reason for crystallizing them!

From our childhood, we have always been using products, but we do not consider each of those products brands. For example, though I buy a certain company's footwear most of the time, I am open to other brands too, for I do not consider it brand enough to woo me, where as, call it loyalty or addiction, nothing out of HUL in Home and Personal Care products for me! :D

So, I am sure each of you must have been influenced by some brand or the other somewhere in your life. Now, please take some of your time, and let me know what are the brands you associate yourself the most with and why? In other words, what is the brand you are most loyal to, and what is it in the brand that makes you so?

Branding is never concrete without advertising. They always must and will go hand-in-hand! An ad is a review to the book called brand, and it is reviews that drive people to read books and love them! Hence, I would also like to know what are the advertisements that have captured your attention and enslaved you to the brands? I personally know many people who went berserk over the Pulsar-Definitely Male campaign and bought one! What is your such experience? May it be brush or a BMW, do let me know!

Advertising, when good, can only help a brand in gaining mindspace among its intended audience. But, when it is bad, it gets notorious. It digs a grave, and buries the brand in such case. So folks, also the advertisement that turned you off totally from a product. I am waiting...

To put it straight, these are the three things I am looking for:

What are the brands you are most loyal to and why?
What are the advertisements that made you like, buy and idolise a brand?
What are the advertisements that turned you off totally from a brand?

Post your answers as a comment!

I am waiting eagerly, and this is to study Branding and Consumer Behavior. Had been trying to capture this somehow, but never knew the way, until an oracle, a dear friend Arpita Sharma gave me this idea! Thanks to her... :)

History Repeats...

2007-08-19T01:17:00.000+05:30

Life always comes a full circle, they say, or so I believe... Coming to the matter....

Two years back, same to same season, same to same reason, but college change... What is the action??? ORKUT BLOCKED.... :((((

That was me trying to enact a popular regional dialogue that had audience in splits, but my audience doesn't understand it, I know. Coming back to basics, the point is that IIT Delhi, god knows what it was doing all these days when there were country-wide debates about orkut, suddenly woke up and blocked Orkut.

I felt nostalgic about this, cos when this happened in DA-IICT in June 2005, there were tears shed, revolts announced and results achieved.

History has repeated itself now, what is going to happen?! I keep my fingers crossed for orkut!

To Be or Not to Be!

2007-08-16T03:47:00.000+05:30

We are often dissatisfied with what we are! This is the premise that runs the world. The day we are satisfied, we are complacent and that means we are sleeping on a bed of sand. You wouldnt know when it got brushed off, and you are already on the ground.

We always move from one level of satisfaction of self to the other, never reaching it 100%. In a session on Branding, my prof made a valid point. There are always two levels in life - 'How good we are' and 'how good we want to be' and there is always a gap between them, for that is what propels life. It is this gap that we wish to hide from the external world and this is where brands play an efficient role. You are not as arrogant, but you want to be. So, what do you do? You probably wear a tee that has a nasty slogan or ride a bike that has been remodelled to show that you are mean. There are many such activities for each emotion and action!

But to me, the biggest wonder is whether education also falls into that category? If Brands are products that have etched in your mind, Is Education a Brand, given that it is a product? If it is a brand, it should only help you perceive yourself better than what you are, helping you portray the image that you always wanted to, but education isnt that. It is true value-add. So where does the line lie? Where does one know if he has really transcended his original self and has moved a step towards being what he wanted to be? and if there is something that has helped him move towards what he wanted to be, is it still a product or is it an integral part of him? Should products not be integrated into being?

One Night at CEP

2007-08-12T02:14:00.000+05:30

This was long ago, but I wrote a novella for JAM last year! Never linked it on my blog, in fact, I forgot about it, but when was chatting with a friend and fished out the link which was still on my orkut profile, I thought why not post it here too! Shud have done this long ago, but better late than never, I guess!

Here it is: One Night @ CEP

Its an adaptation, or anything else you would like to call it, of Chetan Bhagat's 'One Night @ Call Center' to suit the nativities of DA-IICT, my alma mater, my love! :D

PS: Its a long read! Read it at your own risk! :D

Selling your Customers...

2007-08-12T01:34:00.000+05:30

Every large or medium scale services company has a loyal base of customers, and for god's sake, there are a billion services outside IT Services, so please do not assume customers to be mega firms here!

Imagine a locality or a town or a village being served by a firm. Now, that firm would automatically want to stretch its revenues and looks for all avenues to boost them! In that regard, can it collect the info of its customers and sell it to interested firms?

Suppose a firm A owns a cattle farm and provides daily milk to an entire village V. Now, can A ask every interested family in V to fill a form giving out contact and demographic details, compile that data and sell it to banks or other interested firms?

This is seemingly an easy task, but what if later families of V sue A? What are the legalities involved in this sort of data collection? Can such data whose intention of collection is not divulged at the time of collection be sold at free-will? I have not come across any law that curbs such acts, but I dont feel it ethical to do so. If you know of any law, please do tell me and if u just feel something about it, let me know!

The most important point that hits me is, in case it is legal to do all this, should A inform residents of V of its intentions beforehand? Also, in this age of protecting consumer privacy, are there any legislations anticipated in this regard?

Blogging for Branding...

2007-08-08T01:11:00.001+05:30

Today, or infact tonight, seems to be the blog on brands night! :P In addition to the blog I posted hardly a couple of hours ago about Brand You, which is just below so am not linking it :P, I thought it would be better to put here a post I wrote in one other blog of mine which I decided not to carry forward for it provided me no good features I was looking for. Lets discuss that some other day, and stick to the post here:

Blogging to me, and many others I know, is a way to express yourself. But, what is it exactly that we get out of blogging? Is it satisfaction, happiness, security or acceptance? Probably it is a mixture of both, to me, it is the comfort of expressing yourself without any interruption.

Imagine talking about Gandhi. An illustrious figure that he is, I am sure when one is discussing Gandhi in a group, one cant speak for a continuous 5 minutes, which I assume a 1000 word blog post would take, for someone would chip in with appreciation or condemnation by then. Where as, if you are blogging about Gandhi, the canvas is all yours and your paint-kitty is full. You can write whatever you want, and then decide whether people speak and discuss about it or not. This is the biggest advantage of Blogging according to me.

Further, there are 100 things in each of us that are unknown to others. Mostly, people play it to the galleries when interacting with others. I mean we show that facet of ours that best suits the situation and the other person. It is never our complete self, which can be known and understood only when we want others to. This can be done either by expressing it through action or words. Expressing one self completely through actions would take loads of time. Imagine yourself wanting to prove it to others than you heart goes out for street children, and that is why you don't donate to child beggars at junction for you feel they are coerced into it by begging mafias. This could be interpreted in 100 ways, ranging from you being rude to indifferent to impassionate, based on the perciever. Where as, if you write it in a blog saying this is what i feel, teh writing is on the wall and everyone knows what you feel.

This is nothing but Marketing yourself, and that is what I think we blog for. We make ourselves heard, and invite people to know us better. That is the motive of Blogging for me!

This was my post there, and talking about blogs and brands, I guess I must link to Daniel Lyons who branded himself as Steve Jobs on his blog which he called The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. Is this surrogate branding?

YOU

2007-08-07T22:58:00.000+05:30

Mirror, Mirror, Mirror on the wall... What is the greatest brand of all?

YOU, your honor!

That is the eternal truth of the world. If one had to sum up the existence of man kind in one word, that would be branding. It is a naked truth that we all survive on branding, our own individual branding. We want to be associated as something or someone in other's minds. When it comes to perceptions, we seldom ask ourselves what we are, we generally ask what others think of us! We try to portray ourselves to others to make a statement. We brand ourselves. We brand ourselves as go-getters, arrogant, jubilant, insane or whatever! And who makes the megabucks in this frenzy? Its the brands, the real ones this time! Everybody who wants to be branded as a dynamic person like Amitabh, wants to flaunt Reid and Taylor. Everyone who wants to look cool flaunts a MotoRazr or MotoRockr. Of course, no if is if and no but is but until Hypothesis Testing has been done and the Null Hypothesis rejected. But then, the very fact that there is gut and gumption to propose the hypothesis means this holds some value.

If we ever thought Branding self is a radical, new concept, we are wrong. It dates back to decades and as much as I could dig out, there has been solid evidence exactly 10 years back when Fast Company magazine made a mention of Brand You in one of its 1997 editions. The magazine spoke of realising what you are, and planning your career envisaging yourself as a brand as far as in 1997.

In fact, everything we do is for branding. Blogging is a sort of branding exercise. We could blog about everything that happens in our lives. Irky neighbors, pesky teachers, gorgeous women we see, filthy roads we tread on and many many more. But we do not. We consciously choose what we blog on when we want to brand ourselves.

Why do we brand ourselves like this?

The basic crux of a product is as follows:

The true you that you are is the CORE, but it gets embroiled in how you present yourselves, and further gets a face-lift through what others perceive of you. Without even your conscious effort, you start branding yourself.

And then, why not brand?! It is important to let people know what you are, and in the world where customer is the king, you should truly play to the galleries. If an employer wants a certain kind of candidate, ofcourse you should brand yourself as an enterprising candidate for the same!

So, what is Brand You?! Look into yourselves and see what you as a real brand are, and market it well! Life is all about Marketing!

Products and Habits

2007-08-03T01:47:00.000+05:30

Today in the hour of Project Management, an illustrious and knowledgeable professor whom I admire a lot, mentioned about the analogy between brands and us. A simple thing like wearing shirt has so many connotations. It is a symbol of what you want others to feel about you.

While talking of how consumer behavior is closely knitted with what you perceive and what you want others to perceive of yourselves, the discussion landed up on whether products make habits or habits make products. It is something worth pondering upon. The professor just made the statement and left it at that.

In hindsight, I realise it is a profound observation of the society. For example, we never had an urge to sit on sofas and converse over coffee for long hours in an expensive setting until Barista and Cafe Coffee Day beckoned. We had a habit of having coffee, and these products stormed the market and groomed our habits in a certain way. The same is the situation with Big Bazaar, which as Kishore Biyani mentions in his autobiographical 'It Happened In India' is a gap-filler between the rich and poor customers of the country. Earlier the B and C consumer class of the country always bought goods from mom-and-pop stores and never dared to enter the so-called fancy departmental stores. They feared high rates and sophisticated products. With the advent of Big Bazaar, lower strata of society today thinks departmental, and thats because of the cost-competitiveness that product called Big Bazaar brought into the market.

Talking in such a tone, one tends to conclude that every innovation is in fact a habit-maker. As it is, the common strata of the society will never have aspirations to change things. An average Indian is busy with his work, family and other things. He always tends to get his work done with things available rather than look for making or ordering things that can do work his way. Hence, his habits are infact a slave to his choice of products.

Are we so fickle and product-oriented that we cannot stand stern on our habits? I really cant imagine what all those stranded in traffic bikers of Bangalore did earlier when there were no i-pods. I cannot imagine having a cup of coffee, however heavenly it is, at Saravana Bhavan while chatting with friends for at least 4-5 hours without any interruption. The waiter there could get physical if you tried that. The point is that with offer of new products, we groomed new habits. This means the personality of individuals and a society is broadly defined by the products the society produces and uses. Harley Davidson produced mean machines and made the western youth freaky bikers, while Hero Honda made 100CC and made the Indian youth ready for marriage! :P

Whatever the fact, it seems to me that our habits are the shadows that emanate out of the light that the product emanates! So, when we define our character or personality, what do we look for?! The shadow or the light that causes it? Are we so inconsequential that an enigmatic thing whose existence is always a debate, which is caused by some external object defines us while we dwell in the paradox that we created both, yet they command us!

EoF

2007-07-28T15:20:00.000+05:30

Nope... This isnt any End of File... It is end of a fairytale... Another fairy tale called vacation! Every brings with it amazing moments with friends, parents and siblings... It is so tough to leave home to college after a vacation, especially to a place where it takes ten minutes to open the Create Post page in Blogger :P

The first thing we bargain for a career is family, and we say we do everything we do for our family. How fair is this?

Coming to college, it feels hmmm... ok to be back in college. Its a new beginning. It is very strange to have a 3 month layoff from the campus in a 20 month programme. It kinds of pulls away from your mind the 8 months of memories enscribed on your mind, and when you reach back to ensue the remaining part of the programme, you feel like you are starting everything all over again. Anyway, since the action hasnt all begun yet, cant think this feeling for granted too!

Back to career-making, IIM-B has come out with a grading mechanism where it says it considers scoring patterns from high school itself. What if someone, a late starter like me may be, wakes up towards the end of his college, realises his interest and makes an earnest attempt to make a career?! Should his high school or something which he calls past pull him back?

This raises the fundamental question of time in my mind. What is the time when someone should realise about their career? In my high school, I remember myself as the boy raving about his new bicycle, craving for an outing with parents, trying out new panipuri stalls in the colony. I never knew I had to marry and have kids and raise a family, and support it! I mean, I saw others doing it, but it never struck to my cognizance that I had to do it one day and hence I better plan. It all fell into place with the course of time.

So, where does that put us? Does that mean, irrespective of what you would be doing later, you just try and ace everything you study? Doesnt that typecast probable brilliant minds into study machines?! Doesnt that inhibit the intellectual capacities of young minds only into books? Not that I would have been an Einstein had I not been co-erced to study, I would have atleast tried my hand at something else, I would have probably learnt something which I dont probably know now... This must have been what most of us felt at one point or the other in time.

Where does this leave us?! Should we live for a career or make a career to live? A successful career should have passion, motivation and loads of zeal according to me, but it should all be topped with a sense and sensibility to make sense to what you really are, and where you really belong to! It is indeed not about money, honey!

The CON Factor!

2007-07-21T16:05:00.000+05:30

Your personality is a set of beliefs that you accrue over all your life that you have lived. These beliefs can be of various types - ones that you have learnt from your parents, those you have observed from others lives, and also those which you believe because you have supreme faith in the person who has that belief!

Eating is a result of hunger, and similarly belief is a result of either Conviction or Confidence. When you say something all by yourself, it is because you have Conviction in it, and when you say it because someone else has conviction in it, you say it because you have confidence in the person who has conviction in that belief.

To me, there exists a fine line between Conviction and Confidence, and when we say something it is not always because we are convinced and have conviction about it, but most of the times it is because we have conviction in it.

Conviction, as per Merriam Webster, is a: a strong persuasion or belief b: the state of being convinced and Confidence, from the same source, is b: reliance on another's discretion.

So, it is confidence in my mother that I agreed taking bath is good for us when I was a child, and it was my conviction, after falling down from a table, that it is advisable not to dance on edges of high tables when you do not want to be hurt.

Confidence and Conviction are what differentiate between the real and good Sales people. It is a known, understood and assumed fact that Sales people must be confident. I don't say this out of conviction, cos I have not had any proper experience in Sales yet, but I say this out of confidence that I have gathered from many knowledgeable sources. When you gather knowledge or learnings of it from others, you gain confidence in an accepted faith and you tend to patronise it, all the time keeping the baton of responsibility on the person from whom you have mustered that confidence. Where as, if you have experienced it first hand, what you have is conviction and this is what gives confidence to others in you.

At Sales, if you are confident, you could be in. But, you could sustain or rather make others stand up to it only if you have conviction. Consider a sales person at an LCD television store, if he has conviction about the product he is selling it comes naturally to him to persuade or rather suggest his customers into buying his product because he can see where his product stands better than other televisions in the market. Where as, if he is just confident, all he can do is talk to the customer and probably force one or two into buying it, but never can he communicate the brand completely to the customer. That is the difference between conviction and confidence. Confidence can give you a start, but conviction is what takes you where you should actually go.

Towards the end, you would naturally realise that confidence that my posts are readable might have come from previous posts, but this post could give you conviction that it indeed takes lots of confidence and insanity to bear through all the crap I dole out to you here! :P

Happy Reading...

No

2007-07-19T11:36:00.000+05:30

The toughest word to say out in the English Language is probably the easiest to write... NO... Thats the word, two letters that appear in the same order next to each other in the English alphabet. Yet, for many people, which includes yours truly, it is by far the toughest word to come out of their mouth.

People tend to say everything but a No. To me, the toughest thing to come out of my mouth is a No. I invite trouble so many times which could have been averted if I dare to say this two letter word. Extra work, several obligations, all come my way for one inability!

I feel its a virtue to be able to say a No. People say MBA teaches people to say a No, and somehow, it sure seems to be true. Atleast it gives you lots of opportunities to say a No, and it is up to you to learn from those and master the art of saying a No. Am trying to do that. This is what I call improving my no-how :P

Sometimes, simplest of the tasks seem the toughest and blurting out this simple word is one such task for me.

2007-07-10T11:51:00.000+05:30

Bye Bye Bangalore...

Somehow, Blogger dsnt allow me to post a title today :( Anyway, its finally curtains down to my stay at Bangalore. Unexpected turn of events later, I was told an hour ago that I can leave anytime from then. Had been trying since 4 days to know when I could go and this came as a surprise, nevertheless an interesting one.

The last two months have been fabulous in Bangalore. Met many old friends, spent some quality time with them, went to a few good places, and ya, worked a bit :D Also got tht much touted corporate exposure. It has been a pleasant experience. At least the road to my career seems more clear now.

Bangalore has been a great venue. Over all I liked it, for not just friends, I got to spend some good time with my sister too. Bangalore to me, though, doesnt seem like a city I would like to settle in. One day, a friend of mine quoted, " Bangalore isnt a city you should go around in. In Bangalore, just choose a nice house, sit and enjoy the weather. If you go out, you wont enjoy it." That is true. With too much of traffic and congestion, the travel takes away the delight of going places.

High points of Bangalore:

Friends
Sister
Amazing Work place
Cool Lifestyle
Radio City (I am almost in love with RJs Aviva and Vasanti! Desh, I got a call from Vasanti, by the way! :D)
First pay packet :D
Waiting For Lefty :D

Low Points:

Traffic
No proper trips
Too pricey movies
No Sivaji in Telugu :(

All in all, two months I would cherish...

For now, its Bye Bye Bangalore! :)

Waiting For Lefty

2007-07-06T14:01:00.000+05:30

Theatre is always fabulous! It is awesome to see someone immersed in a character right in front of you. In Hyderabad, there isnt a lot of appreciation for theatre, and thus we are served mainly Telugu Dramas and occasional English ones which are either for the Page 3s or are not properly propagated.

Delhi is a land of arts. Drama, Theatre are ubiquitous and vibrant, but it becomes difficult to filter out the right content off the wrong ones. The search begins and ends at NSD when you look for quality theatre, especially when you are a newbie to the city.

Hence, given my past experiences in other cities I have lived in, I carried no expectations when I landed in Bangalore. As destiny would have it, passes to this production 'Waiting For Lefty' landed in my hands, thanks to friends associated with it. It was a very refreshing change from the dreary Bangalore routine. It was like I was looking at Bangalore from an entirely different side. Waiting For Lefty is a production of the group Version One Dot Oh (VODO)

Waiting For Lefty was staged at Ranga Shankara on the 5th of July at 7:30pm, and another show would be held on the 6th of July at the same time again. I may not be able to translate any of my readers into an audience for today's show, but if you are in Bangalore, and like such things, do make it a point to go there and catch the show next time. It is simply amazing!

'Waiting For Lefty' revolves around the New York Cab Union Strike, and the crew consists of 20 members or so. Am not too sure of the numbers, thats all I could see and remember, so pardon me for any misrepresentations. As I learnt from a few of the people I know there, I inferred most or all of them are working professionals or students interested in art and have taken up stage productions and if 'Waiting For Lefty' is any indication, they are doing it good.

Coming to this production, there is a boiling sense of indignation sotto voce right from Scene 1. As Mr. Red delivers his words, the red blood in your veins starts boiling. Every artist enacts the scene in a fine detail. Since most of the show is in an auditorium setting, each of them has a very wide eye span, and hence are completely at ease with their eyes and body movements. The finesse comes to fore when the scenes are in a room, and only characters should converse. Though there had been stray incidents of an artist or two looking at the crowd a couple of times, the expressions, the lighting and the voice modulation make up for it. Excellence in theatre comes to fore when the artists can command attention from the crowd, and can live up to it with stoic sense of the scene when the audience exhibits a diametrically opposite emotion. This was witnesssed in the show, and that is where I decided I shall follow the group, and end up at their productions each time I can.

In a theatre, the audience shouldnt be alienated. A viewer should feel like one among the characters to feel the richness of the scene. The director Krishna seems to have taken note of this. Strategic placing of the cast in the crowd makes you feel like shouting out everytime the cast shouts out from the crowd. For a moment in the show, you feel like a cabbie being exploited and want to shout out at the big guy exploiting the poor.

The appreciation wouldnt be complete without a mention to the simple production support, accurate stage setting and apt lighting and sound. The transition between the scenes is the time for you to think, and it acts well in 'Waiting For Lefty'. The scenes are so hard-hitting and artists so fine that when the truth about Lefty is broken, you dont feel indignant or you dont feel dissatisfied, but all you feel for is the children of a cabbie who could die to rickets, the marriage of another which has been long pending, the ethics of the guy who turns down good money for his morals. Finally, when the curtains are drawn, you feel like standing up for yourself, like a true man should do.

Right after the show, each artist was introduced and the response of the audience told me I wasnt alone in falling in love with the show, but everyone there did. An almost full Ranga Shankara came down in appreciation to the crew. Though the number of people that came down walking to the stage, withstood the warnings of not stepping on the stage and congratulated the crew were few, there was a sense of complete appreciation and satisfaction in each of those faces, and that is where theatre scores... Making the audience feel satisfied, and touched! The purpose of theatre is served...

Am Waiting For their next now!

Legacy

2007-07-05T15:10:00.001+05:30

The legend that we called life... DA-IICT...
Read more at: http://daiictians.blogspot.com/
Placement: http://placement.daiict.ac.in/
Synapse: http://synapse.daiict.ac.in/

Movies... Masti... Magic...

2007-07-03T14:21:00.000+05:30

Its a habit among wannabe's to flaunt their list of movies, highlighting the intellectual ones at that, and make a statement. We all know many people who watch movie just because they feel left out if they don't watch it. Sometimes I am asked why I dont appreciate or enjoy watching intellectually stimulating angrezi phillums in the theatre. Ya, I dont enjoy watching Lord of the Rings too. Somehow, I do enjoy Harry Potter. (Emma Watson is just one reason, though! :P)

The point is simple. Indian psyche has put in me the school of thought that movies are something which you go to when you want to chill, enjoy, have some fun and come back home carrying nothing in your mind. Given the requirements of having fun and spending time away from the world, why would I want to analyse a scene going on in the movie? Why should I have to remember a scene half an hour ago, only to connect it to a scene to come half an hour later. Goddamnit, I am paying my hard earned money not to screw my brain, but to enjoy for a few hours. So fill it with vibrant colors, masti filled humor and magical sequences.

Of course, I dont say defy logic each time. Make something like Happy Feet. You feel fresh after the movie. Before you conclude I like romantic, musical, animated or comedy movies, let me add another movie I enjoy is Pulp Fiction. There are times when you feel like you should have a gun and thump bullets into any damn guy that comes in your way. Thats when Torentino seems like THE GOD to you! Violence is an art, and he masters it! The underlying point is that the motto of a movie is to make you feel that you have gained enough returns on your investment. It should not make you feel like you have bought some headache at the cost of a couple of hundreds.

If you say movies should come with a message and I should appreciate it, forget it! I am going to be a Post Graduate in an year, and you expect me to change my life and thoughts all watching a 3-hour movie. Then, we should actually close down all the schools, make message-oriented movies and teach our kids to watch a movie a day and capture the learnings and change themselves. Its foolishness to think movies will change people.

Thrill and Suspense might be an occasional choice, but entertainment is what we are looking for and ensemble is what we shall enjoy! I know not all of you will agree with me, but I sure know I am not alone, for wherever I went and whomever I met, I either found people who shared this thought with me or people who first showed off only to confess later that masti is what makes movies.

I find it irritating when people say Hollywood is oh!so good and Bollywood is so bereft of innovation and intellectual content. Movies, literature, dramatics, music are something that are mirrors of the society. In our society, there are very few legal and socially accepted ways of hanging out - I can recollect only family picnics and movies now. So, to us as a society, movies are breaks we take to indulge in ourselves. The situation is different when you look at the western societies. People there booze at home. Late night parties are rampant. Dating is common, prostitution is legal and Theatre, Music, Art, Literature and Sports are appreciated at all levels regularly. To us, a district level sports meet is something which only the national selectors should see, and we call ourselves sports lovers. Duh! To us, literature only means Five Point Someone and likes, but no book reading sessions, no kavi sammelans etc... We neither go out with families to art exhibitions. Of course, as I always say, exceptions do exist, and this exceptions are what we are trying to capitalise on.

In such a scenario where movies are our only respite from our daily taxing routine, we naturally want resplendent 3-hour narrations of larger than life sagas. If we ever wanted something that is common in life, why bother to spend money? Look out of the window, India has lots of diversity. So, the bottom line is that movies should be full of masti and magical which logically explains the success of something like Sivaji. I am amazed at people being shocked by how such films do well in India. The only reason is that we dont connect our lives to movies, nor do we want to! We want an out of the world experience and who ever gives it, wins the moolah!

If you want a start at what movies exactly should be like to reach out to the widest segment of the Indian audience, watch The God in Sivaji... Its coooooooooooooooool!

Fight with Eight!

2007-07-02T11:44:00.000+05:30

Am already a Random guy. Added to that, Sakshi tagged me to state Eight Random facts about me. So, I randomly sat down to jot down eight random things about me and ended up with a random mix of random things about me, which might have come into me randomly but have been inscribed in me so much that even when I think randomly these are the random things that strike me, for I already told you am so random... The previous statement had eight randoms :P Probably, that should end the tag :P But, being such a good and nice boy I am, I dont want to set a bad precedent for the successors who wud embark on this eventful journey of randomness and script a legacy.

Hence, here I state eight random things about me:

I am unhappy with my life. I cant figure out the exact reason, but the truth prevails nonetheless.

I like wearing clothes that dont match. A trouser that wouldnt go with the shirt makes a great combination, but ofcourse, I fear accusations of insanity too, and keep the mismatch to the minimum ;)

Am a die-hard Rajini fan... Seen his movie yesterday and am still in the hangover. Am going to watch it again today. Am going to watch it atleast four more times. He is the living legend of our times :D His movies, the ones people accuse of lack of logic, meaning and stuff, give me a mental orgasm! :P

I love spending time at home, lazing around, doing nothing :D I think thats the best way to spend a day, but alas, seldom do I get a chance to spend time like that.

I am a binge spender :P I either spend a lot or dont spend at all. I believe in getting the best when you have the money :D

I want to make a film on Einstein. period.

I feel jittery on everytime I fly, during takeoff and landing. I am scared that a wheel will fly off and I will either be dead or injured. I feel like I have won the world when I land or takeoff safely :P

I am a homebird. I miss my home a lot, and feel very bad whenever I have to leave home for college. :(

Now, to state eight random facts, eight random people:

Steve James Nipps ... My Tag victim forever ...

Shikha Tomar ... There wud b 80 random things she can say now :D ...

Saraswati Mukkai ... Wud b fun and interesting to know! ...

Abhishek Deshpande ... I wud b looking forward to this ...

Diwakar Kaushik ... Random Things abt the Random Soul ...

Prasoon Gupta ... Try answering tags ...

Reva ... Do this in Tamizh if u want :D ...

Malvika ... plz dont run away, answer this ...

RIP Love of My Life

2007-06-25T16:30:00.000+05:30

Me: Mummy, Mummy....

Mom: What happened?

Me: There's a good news and a bad news... What do you want first?

Mom: Hmmm... Bad news!

Me: Hindustan Lever Limited is no more....

Mom (shocked): Good News???

Me: Hindustan Lever Limtied is now Hindustan Unilever Limited.

Mom: And the brands???

Me(jumping in joy): Same brands, same brands....

Mom heaves a sigh of relief!

An adaptation of a recent popular advertising campaign by HLL to communicate the change in name of its flagship detergent bar 'Rin Supreme' to announce that Its Official... The Love of my life is no more... It pains and pleasures me at the same moment to announce that my love is no more, it has changed. It has changed.... its name... :D Before you made any conclusions, let me tell you, it is not a person but a phenomenon called HLL that am talking about...

Even before HLL started feeding me, my family earns it dough through HLL, I was fascinated by that green symbol of HLL that used to flash in between all those prime-time song shows that I waited all week for on Doordarshan. I was flummoxed at what that green ball reading HLL was, and what that P&G in a globe stood for. I had this certain animosity towards P&G because they had Gamble in their name, and I was a kid... :P Moreover, the ad of Lifebouy was too good not to like it... It was the jingle of the century... The 'Lifebouy hai jahaa, tandurusti hai wala' one...

Then, once my dad started earning our livelihood through HLL, I fell in love with it all over again. From that day till date, I have always loved HLL like nothing else. The very word 'HLL' brings some unknown happiness, enthusiasm and ownership in me and am sooo passionate about the name and the brand. Today, my dearest name is getting changed... HLL is no more Hindustan Lever Limited... It is Hindustan Unilever Limited now...

In a press release today, HLL announced that the government has cleared its application to rename the FMCG giant to HUL or Hindustan Unilever Limited. For many days now, many people had asked me what the new logo would look like. Though the new logo is something I had been witness to for months now, thanks to U n I and UnIversity programmes of HLL, I never knew that would be the logo of HUL. I loved the way the Ls curled up under the H in the HLL logo. We would miss that L altogether in the new logo.

At the first sight, many would feel the HUL logo weird, for it is just a U with many drawings in it. It has a deep interpretation, though! It stands for HLL's mission of 'adding vitality to life'.

One may wonder how this image, name and brand change would be communicated to the length and breadth of India which recognises brands more by images than by name. But then, we must recall it is HLL we are talking about. It is THE best marketing company in the country. From door-to-door brand communications to online brand communications, it is one company which has mastered them all. For every Project Shakti and Project Bharat, there is a gangofgirls.com and a spillurdil.com!

HLL has always been a great case to study, at least for me! And I have always learnt of HLL not from books and web, but from the company and its operations itself. Probably thats the reason it fascinates me all the more. From a Sunlight bar imported into the country in the 1890s to the gigantic hits like Surf, Rin, Lifebouy, Rexona among many many others to the 30 Power Brands in the 21st Century, HLL has always been a company with a unique strategy and deep penetration into every nook and corner of India.

While people wonder why Rin, almost a synonym for Detergent bar, is erased and merged into Surf Excel brand umbrella, they are unaware of the fact that Super 501, Rin Shakti are all being merged into the umbrella of Rin Advanced. The central idea of HLL probably is to keep Rin close to the masses, while escalating Rin Supreme, which now is the Surf Excel Bar, into the premium end of the market.

While every national giant bit the dust due to the invasion of local markets, especially rural areas, by local manufacturers, only HLL stood like no one else and regenerated its own glory every time there was a threat it would be abated.

No Nirma or P&G can do what HLL, hmmm now HUL, can do... HUL would be the standing testimony of a joint India. No matter what religion, caste, creed, sex, color, region or belief we belong to, we all love Rin, Rexona, Lifebouy, Lux, Axe, Denim, Kwality Walls, Lakme, Brooke Bond, Annapurna, Ponds, Dove, Pepsodent, Close Up (My fingers ache and force me to abruptly end the unending list) or atleast one of them! HUL is truly the identity of India! :)

Different

2007-06-19T11:34:00.000+05:30

Sometimes small things change your life. Small actions, words, deeds have a long-standing impact on what you do. Very recently, I have met a young and energetic person who hasnt done anything earth-shattering, but has done remarkably well and the very zeal he fosters to do something big and different puts in us a new motivation to dream big!

When I was seeing him off, he told me 'Be Different'. The man is an addiction! Small words, big impact...

Life is all about making a mark for ourselves. I guess most of us wouldnt want a life no one remembers. We are always in a pursuit to make our lives meaningful atleast for a handful of others. With absolutely no ideas of drawing parallels to Robin Sharma's Who Will Cry When You Die?, I earnestly believe it is the number of people who are impacted by what we do that is of utmost importance to us in our life. That is the only reason why we want to be CEOs and not hefty-packet Techies! Ofcourse, as always, there are exceptions!

A general tendency of people to escalate the ladder of success is chanting the mantra 'Be Different'. Differentiation is a key among competing products in the market. Learning from the same analogy of products, the key to gaining success through being different lies in realising where the line between different and weird lies. Different would sell, weird would land you in hell!

In a drive to be different, do we sometimes fall prey to being foolish?! A popular, public accepted thing may be the best, but just to feel we are different, we land up making some other choice only to make a fool of ourselves. But that is probably what the starting point of being weird is.

When we talk of being different, the essential question lies in how is it that you be different? A crowd of equals, all as talented as you, all as motivated as you, where do you make the difference? Should the difference only be positive? ;) This exactly where I liked and blogged about the Bingo ad too! It is different!

If difference alone was the key to success, name and fame in this world, what is it that kept so many different people you and I heard of all along?! There are many many people out there in the world who are different from many of us, all of us perhaps, and are yet to see any minute success in their lives on whatsoever front it might be! Probably, it is persistence and conviction that they lack! Perhaps they are so different that they try something different everytime a different thing lands them in a different trouble!

It takes all tastes to make a platter. So probably, the key is to be a little different, a little insane, a little persistent, a little hardworking (life is sooo tough :P), and a little lazy (:D)! So, people, Dream On... Be different... Be Successful!

Woman... Wooooo... Man!

2007-06-15T10:49:00.000+05:30

A radio announcement says there is a conference in Bangalore on 'What Women Want'. It is a conference or a seminar or the likes am not too sure, but there is some event on Women and what they want. It is amazing why women have to be sooo enigmatic! As I continue to wonder on the same and enter office to my daily doze of readin with a cup of coffee, am landed on ezine within 5 minutes and an article there talks about probably the most-talked about topic and a universally accepted fact - Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus.

The artcile, like many others we have been used to over the years, talks about how women never say what they want and cannot keep things simple. I dont blame them, for if I do that, it may have tough repercussions ;)

To me, Women are what they are, cos men make them what they are. Women may not be the weaker sex, but men made them feel they are the weaker sex, and then gave them concessions, pampered them and are today crying foul over their own mistakes. Women have the advantage of tactfully wearing the glove of being equal to men or being sub-ordinate to him. When they want equal rights or want to show they can do something, they say 'We are equal to men' with a baritone that could put Mr. B to shame! On the other hand, they say 'Oh! We are women.' with a sad face that emanates compassion out of a man. What a hypocrisy this worlds runs on! The bottomline is that women do whatever they want, get whatever they want all this all the time keeping a man in dark of what they really are.

They seem to keep a man in the dark as to what they really are. Finally, when a man voices his concern regarding the same he is called an MCP. Duh!

I dont say it is a woman's fault. It is the liberty that man had given a woman out of compassion and sympathy ages ago that has left us in a soup today. Women today want both equality in jobs and reservations. They want equal working conditions as men, but no night shifts, no extra hours etc... This may not be applicable to all women, there are always exceptions. If you are feeling indignant, probably you are one of them!

From societal observation, the funniest part of women is that a mom, a sister or a friend would never throw tantrums as your girlfriend does. Probably it is a man's compassionate side that wants to keep a woman all happy and at ease which she exhibits the most to ladies of his interest alone that gives the ladies that space to throw tantrums, and they seem to be doing a good job of it. History has always been witness to girlfriend and wife tantrums, but never a mom and sister problems. This is probably 'Multi-Threading' functionality of women! Each thread gives different reactions!

When I try to get a hang of what this all is, and WHY it all is, all I can see at the epicenter is a MAN... Man has given woman the liberty she enjoys, and more importantly, he has always believed in replicating a woman's needs, moods and wants and this has left him in a lurch today. It is probably hightime we make a fresh start, and leave all the gender biases at all levels, show neither discrimination nor sympathy based on gender and put each other on a equal pedestal, no more of that 'Men and Women are equal, but women are more equal than Men' syndrome. It is a shame on men who let women feel they are more equal! It is our psyche that needs a little mend before we reach a point of no return in this He-She battle!

Disclaimer: My respect for women is immense and is always intact. This is just an observation that has been triggered off by a chain of events that needed a vent and this had to be the place. Hope the point is clear!

Shubham has something similar to share!

The Joy of Sharing and Caring...

2007-06-14T14:17:00.000+05:30

We have always been taught that there is joy in sharing. Though not necessarily believing it all the time, we did share and did we care is a question that we shall keep for sometime later. All these have always happened only with personal acquaintances. We have always had a fear to open up to sharing with strangers.

In a city like Bangalore, it is tough to make friends with rank strangers, not counting people in your own PG and Office. In such a case, it is impossible to expect someone who you dont know would come pick you up to office. It would be wonderful if someone did that. Probably this is what Vipul Kasera must have been musing over when he launched CommuteEasy.

Commute Easy is an Online Vehicle Pooling facility for traffic congested cities Bangalore and Pune. Visit their website at http://www.commuteeasy.com/ and stay hooked to http://commuteeasy.blogspot.com/ for further updates.

It is a free service and has recieved media attention too. I haven't got much time to go through it in intricate detail, but reading over what I could lay my hands on, I quite did not figure out how they make money or is it a 'Not for Profit' thing? Not that I care about how they work, but I was just curious!

All in all, a cool service. Do try it if you are interested! Share and spread the joy!

PS: Scott Adams blogged about a similar idea on June 13, i.e., yesterday.

The Boss

2007-06-14T10:44:00.000+05:30

ONE

RELIGION...

RAJINI

Unfortunately, the Telugu version is not releasing in Bangalore :(

Image Source: Indiaglitz

Writing

2007-06-12T14:14:00.001+05:30

When I met a good friend of mine after long the other day, she was reminded of having opened my blog a day or two earlier and she told me that she was shocked by the number of new posts that have been over the last few days.

Many people I know include the number of posts in their blogs, the visitors on their blog, the entries in their blogroll in their resume!

I earnestly believe blogging and writing can sure help sustain relationships, but a friend thinks otherwise!

There are people all over the blogosphere who say blogging is the answer to all their maladies and is an avenue for realising their own self.

What is in blogging that attracts most of us to it?! It is more about writing than blogging I suppose... Writing, to me, is THE best way to express yourself. Pitches in voice, expressions on face can always mislead or leave a scope for misinterpretation. But a right word chosen and written will is like a letter on a rock! It is here to stay for ages and is crystal clear in putting the point across. Probably that is the reason they consider Writing an art! It is indeed one. It is one art we all pursue single-mindedly hoping we master it one day, but deep down, we all know we cannot! Having a way with words is indeed very tough!

When we write out all our crap on to our own virtual spaces, people read it and connect to it. Sometimes I feel when we read blogs, we voluntarily tend to connect for the sake of it, for we are making an attempt to connect to the person. However, if a real connection is established, that sure paves way for good relations, which is why blogging is ever so famous.

When we are in the worst of moods, by destiny's grace, if we end up on a blog or a post that shares the feelings as ours, we no more feel left out and we connect to the writer no matter the nationality, color, creed, sex or occupation. We just get entangled into the emotions. This is where probably we get hooked on to blogs. A blog for a mood is what we look for. If we are happy or calm, we just browse through our friend's blogs and try to know whats happening. If we are down, we just browse through things uninterestedly and then when something really appealing strikes, the mood is changed. This is purely the power of writing, and we are indebted to Blogging as a tool for it.

An urge to write is what made me write all this, no matter what the writing was leading to and what it would mean. This is the beauty of writing. You can just write and write and claim nothing! So, folks, Keep Writing!

Get Liberal!

2007-06-01T10:43:00.000+05:30

There are many states in the country which shower marks on the students. When these students venture out into other states and mention their marks, they are considered whizkids. But the fact is that their boards are either too leniant or give no scope for subjectivity in answers to test the students and hence end up in a situation where you need to award full scores to students.

Earlier, I thought this stigma lay only with the states but now it has even spread to the centre with students scoring nothing less than 99% there too. No issues with scoring high, but what is it that we are losing enroute?

I personally know loads of people who have shunned away Indian language courses and opted French Basic so that they could score high and end up in the higher bracket. Not that I had picked up the Indian course for the love of it, but just to cite a case. There are many universities in the country where disciplines like History, Mythology are shunned by students of Commerce, Arts, Mathematics and Sciences. This is not because they hate it, but it is because they are not scoring subjects. Everything in an institute is tied to the final score. Right from extracurricular indulgence to the course structure, students today value everything based on the score they could end up at in the end. Priyanka Sarkar makes an apt point about these high scores and low learning.

This is probably because parents want their kids to get into the rat race and earn high scores. Parents always ask kids what have they earned (as a score), but never what have they learned. Indus Valley Civilisation is a whole discipline in itself and has many lessons embedded into it, and its shameful today that we haven't mastered it. All we know of Indus Valley is the one chapter we had in our History books in High School. Of course, I omit students pursuing History!

This sorry state is probably because we percieve every discipline as independent. We must realise that perhaps Science and art may be independent, but History, Philosophy, Literature, Mythology and Politics are all intertwined with every course and discipline. These are not subjects. They are hallmarks of the transitions of our society, and one look at the literature of a century tells us all the sciences, commerce, arts and mathematics of that century.

The branch that encompasses these all-transcending disciplines of History, Philosophy, Literature etc... constitute what we call Liberal Arts. Speaking from a Management perspective, I dont think we can develop globally competent Managers without the knowledge of Liberal Arts equipped in our wards.

I pity myself when I reminisce those golden days of high school where I would savor literature of Wordsworth, Eliott, John Keats and likes, though to a limited extent. Then, I never knew the beauty and necessity of literature. Today when I know I dont have any such chance to read them. Of course, as personal indulgence, I do follow them but what I speak of global application.

A true Manager should have a true sense and understanding of History, as a professor of mine puts it. I fervently believe Literature is something that teaches you a lot, Management and otherwise. Philosophy is something we could never debate upon. For a country like ours, every spirited citizen should believe that we need to know Political Sciences. If not to get into them, it would at least help us measure the country's governance with appropriate yardsticks. One reason why the governance of the country is below expectation in most of the regions is because though the inhabitants there are well educated, they are illiterates in Political Sciences. To them, Political Sciences mean Parties and the mud-slinging they indulge in. Before you go searching for an example, check out Bangalore, the best example!

All said and done, it is very clear that we need not toppers, but learners. Learned individuals who have deep sense of history, understand culture and art, absorb philosophies of the land and think not in terms of theorems and theories but society and progress. We produce people who can mint money who have no idea of anything except their own area of work. Suppose tomorrow, a holocaust puts an end to IT Services Industry, we are going to dogs as a nation.

It is high time we realised what we are lacking and mend our mistakes sooner than later. Very soon, there shall be day when our kids will no longer know about great saints of this country, for they dont teach Thiruvalluvar, Thikkana and likes in those scoring courses, and score is what we want!

Is this an answer?

Iconoclastic Icons

2007-05-29T16:06:00.000+05:30

Demonstration of cleaning utensils, comparisons between two similarly stained clothes washed in two different detergents. This is what we had been growing up with. Now, the winds of change are here.

I initially hated the campaign of Bingo brand of chips. I despised it so much that I dont recall its manufacturers, but I think of this brand more than my own fave brand of chips. The name lingers on my mind so much that I want to try each of its flavors. When at the PoP, I reach out to my wallet and utter the brand name to my vendor, the ad somewhere is occupying my mindspace and the recall value is getting stronger. I have no reason to try it, I neither am interested in its taste. As a matter of fact, I know nothing about it outside the name 'Bingo'. But when am making a decision, it gets the highest priority for obscure reasons. This definitely means Bingo has been able to make a mark in a considerable number of decision making minds.

At the face of it, every ad has its own audience. I dont think there would be any ad that is hated universally. Hence, Bingo gets its first share from people who like the ad. Then, the name, the manufacturer etc etc... These are what the usual advertising campaigns aim at! In addition, Bingo also captures minds like mine which are just curious.

The point I am trying to make is, with an obscure campaign like that, and little information about the product and almost no information about differentiating capacities over its competitors, Bingo has done what many hard-selling campaigns could not.

Most kirana stores in India ask the salesman one simple question before they keep the stock of the brand ," Advertisement kitna aataa hai iska?!" This is a million dollar question even brands like Rin have to face! This crucial question may not even bother Bingo, for the kirana vendor's mind recalls Bingo very easily even when it is aired in non-prime time slots and fewer times than those Saif Ali Khan-Rahul Bose-Preity Zinta ads!

Another interesting campaign is for 'Mentos'. It is a mint, after all! Bingo at least speaks of the flavors. Mentos is available in 2 flavors, which are never spoken of in the communication. It neither speaks of freshening up your mouth, avoiding stinking mouths or anything like that. It instead says 'Dimaag ki bathhi jalaa de'. Now, this is remotely connected to a mint, but it works wonders, for the campaign is interesting and the ad makes the consumer buy the products than the product itself!

It is very rare to see advertising campaigns for mailboxes, of all things! Rediff did it, for some time, and Yahoo limited itself in such practices too. Even if they did, they never slung mud on each other. Though Zapak doesnt do that directly, it shows funny videos where Zapak is compared with other mailboxes. The next time you sit idly, given the high probability that you are in an IT firm, am sure zapak will come to your mind when you are looking for a new site to check!

These communications might be obscure, iconoclastic, without any or limited reference to the brand itself, but the recall value and the fun factor sustains them in the decision making space of the user's mind. Probably 5-6 more such campaigns would mean a saturation for such ads, but for now, its an interesting campaign and it sure is raking in the returns without any Amitabh or Shahrukh pushing the brand.

On that note, am sure most of you would dislike the Sachin and Shahrukh overkill of the ITC biscuits!

The Terror of Twenty!

2007-05-29T11:21:00.000+05:30

No, am not here to talk about the terror of leaving the teens and entering the twenties. Its just a tag passed on to me by Saras.

Now, for the honors:

1. Pick out a scar you have, and explain how you got it?

I have a small scar on my forehead, a la Harry Potter. I hadnt seen Harry Potter by the time I got it, but one fateful day when I was about 5 yrs, I jumped off a table. Probably I was imaginin I could fly. All hell broke loose, topped with a little blood and lots of pain and I got stitched.

2. What is on the walls in your room?

The room in my hostel is so packed up, no place for anything on the walls, not even lizards.

3. What does your phone look like?

(Pulls out the phone, takes a long look at it and resumes typing) CRAP

4. What music do you listen to?

Anything that suits my mood. I like Linkin Park to Ilayaraja, and ya sue me for it, but I like Himesh Reshammiya too ;)

5. What is your current desktop picture?

Its a Winter 2006 wallpaper of AC Milan! Forza Milan

6. What do you want more than anything now?

Sleep :D

7. Do you believe in gay marriage?

Ya! Why not?! Elton John Zindabad!
With the declining sex ratio, it improves my chances of finding a girl too ;)

8. What time were you born?

Err... hmmm... everyone was so happy that the savior of the world is born that they forgot to note the time :D

9. Are your parents still together?

Yup :D

10. What are you listening to?

My project guide is talkin over the phone to some client. Am eavesdropping ;)

11. Whats sth that ppl may nt know abt me?!

That I once wanted to be in the Police ;)

12. The last person to make you crazy!

Getting crazy needs lots of efforts. I dont waste my efforts getting crazy!

13. What is your favorite perfume/cologne?

Anything sandal rocks!

14. What kind of hair/eye color do u like in opp sex?

Pink hair and red eyes

15. Do you like pain killers?

I like them for lunch. For breakfast I would like serial killers though!

16. Are you too shy to ask someone out?

Ya! (All the girls reading this... Understand and ask me out :P)

17. Fave Pizza Topping?

I eat pizzas with my friend Chhara and he eats my portions too even before I realise what we have ordered. So, am unable to answer this!

18. If you could eat anything right now, what would it be?

Anything. Skipped my breakfast.

19. Who was the last person you made mad?

Err... Hmm... If you are reading till here, its probably you!

20. Is anyone in love with you?

Ya! If the grapevine is to be believed, its Keira Knightley!

Now to spread the epidemic:

I hereby proclaim Steve James Nipps tagged!

Quest for Quick buck!

2007-05-24T15:18:00.000+05:30

Just register, buy something that you can sell at a higher rate cos its a "collector's item" and earn profits by doing nothing. Is this the business model someone approached you with? This has been the tale of the flag-bearers of 'QuestNet', most of them being software employees high on free time, and low on pay and students willing to make a quick buck!

People approach you with a "presentation" which comprises of an insight into the businesses of Quest, some interesting pictures, including one at the latest Football World Cup. But what it doesn't show you is this.(This is an Interpol 'Wanted' notice about the founder of Quest!)

The presenters will first entice you into it by the term 'Referral Marketing'. This does seem good, at the first thought. For a large nation like India, this is projected as a mega opportunity. But, get ur data structures right and realise that 50% of the nodes in a binary tree are in the leaf level and have no successors, and according to the business plan of Quest, 75% are in the non-profit making zone at any point of time. Given that Indians are conservative about getting friends into business, that too shady ones like this, this is worth a thought.

All this is packed under the garb of Referrral Marketing, which can work wonders in small samples, say an organisation. This can be best used to make people use small items like FMCG products over short period of time. Referral Marketing is a form of Word of Mouth where you not just say it is good, but also handover a sample to use, at a nominal rate. It is easier said than done, of course! Referral marketing scores over Multi Level Marketing on many fronts, for MLM completely ignores the concept of equity, the one in social terms and not the financial terms. More on that, some other time...

Quest Net in India has been a rage in a few cities of late. First, it was left into the market like Amway did. Not the MLM model, but it was penetrated through the working class, those looking for investments in art and businessmen. Probably that hit a stagnation because the referrals were more due to obligations than due to voluntary involvement of the investor. Then, they switched gears and got into the small salaried and no salaried segment who would be interested in big money. The biggest market for this is naturally the Software professionals and the students. Small additions added up to good returns, but only to the those sitting at the top of the tree. Peter Jayaraj has been tracking this since long. His blog gives a detailed account of what it is all about.

The main setback lies in the Pyramid system where the last nodes are always left out in the money-making. It promises huge returns for those at the top, but the chance of being among the top falls exponentially over short periods in time in such scenarios and that seems to have happened here. Though the company claims the market is nascent and has lots of potential, it has its own setbacks with many people waiting for their first penny while those at the top make merry.

All said and done, this is of course a good opportunity for people who want unconvetional and fast ways to make money and to hone their salesmanship at the cost of other's money while they make merry. It is a concept of losing your money first, and then stealing others to make for your losses. So, naturally the first movers get the maximum from the new comers. Personally, I would not recommend this scheme for people who cannot get others money to make for their losses and those who do not want to feast upon while others starve, cos every penny you earn in this scheme comes from at least 6 more below you who are victimised. This is a scheme, as one of the blogs I read puts it, where the victim gets in more victims feigning confidence as a victor!

So beware before you put in your bucks to get into the fast lane. Hard work has no substitute. Believe it, and you will do good. Analyse before investing. Invest your money wisely! Fast lanes are always dangerous, one crash and you are dead!

Quest Home Page

If you are interested in being a part of it, I know people who can get you into it.

If you are not interested, join my league! All in all, an interesting strategy!

The Pulse of Power

2007-05-22T12:02:00.000+05:30

It is always very important to ask the right questions, or at least, give the right options. For further details, dial Kalanidhi Maran. The media baron of South India, whose SUN network enjoyed a near-monopoly over the southern TV tubes has finally realised that it is twilight and the sun has to set sometime. Not that I am writing off Sun network, for it is one of the best managed organisations down south. The marketing acumen is fantastic, and the stress on being a step above the competition is always there to be seen. But, when you rub power the wrong way in India, you are doomed. A matter of concern, but a truth we have to live with.

Personally, I feel indignant at the developments after Dinakaran, a newspaper run by Kalanidhi Maran, brother of once Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran ran a poll asking the Tamil readers who the next heir to 'Kalaignar' Karunanidhi would be. The poll showed the public opinion to be in favor of Stalin, instead of the eldest son of DMK Supremo Karunanidhi, Azhagiri. This was a reason to ransack the press and offices of Dinakaran, and set ablaze a few of them!

That could be taken as hooliganism of non-existent fanatics, but the dust that has been flying hasnt yet settled down. While the dust was flying in the air, we had an enterprising Union Minister putting in his papers, making an emotional press statement that he would die a DMK supporter and now, we have in front of us the first brick to be hurled at Sun tv.

Raj TV, the bete noire of Sun, will now be the DMK mouthpiece. This article in ET speaks about how Raj TV will now replace Sun TV in being the official channel of DMK. Tamil Nadu political parties sure seem to be fascinated by television. From distributing television sets instead of health kits to owning or patronising a television channel each, they all groom a strong penchant for the idiot box! This release in Sify states that a new channel being floated by Raj would be called Kalignar (as Karunanidhi is fondly called) and could also adopt the logo of his party. Duhh! Even before this news was out in the market, the Rs.16,000 crore Sun network has witnessed a fall in its scrip and Raj has seen its own rise! All this for the only folly of rubbing power the wrong way.

If you thought political power is always this way, and there is nothing new or worth blogging about in it, try this: Students in karnataka are selling their medicine seats for lakhs of rupees. Students, that too to-be graduates at that, nurturing hopes of becoming saviors for millions of patients out there are trading their seats. What does this speak of their integrity? What will they do once they become doctors? They might refuse to operate upon a patient until he pays a hefty sum. Had this been from some rural, uneducated illiterate we could have neglected the claim. But, students pursuing medicine are doing this. Karnataka students who have multiple seats due to their top ranks in and outside the state, are selling their medical seats in the state for hefty sums as per a report in Times of India Bangalore Edition yesterday. The torchbearers of tomorrow are burning our tomorrow. The next time I go to a doctor, am going to skeptical for obvious reasons. All this has happened for the students have been bestowed an additional power due to, alas, their merit! So much for being bright!

All this excess power in the wrong hands is all we need to make the nation powerless!

Solutions And Problems

2007-05-18T15:02:00.000+05:30

A daisy fresh morning, and all you have to do is follow that routine of yours which has been routine for too less, but nonetheless a routine. Routines are weird. Eventhough you arent bored of it yet, the very though that it is going to be a long routine bores you. Things you still enjoy seem boring cos in a long run, they are supposed to be so. The inner conscience seem to act according to the future. It saves you all the trouble of transformation of things from enjoyable to boring, by directly pushing them to the boring bracket. Even when you are enjoying it, some inner voice keeps telling you, 'Its boring, its boring' and you have no other option but to be bored.

Hardly a week into corporate life, am jinxed. Not that I hate my job, but I neither enjoy it. The reason?! I know its gotta b boring in a long run, so I am already bored or so my conscience drives me to. This is probably the case for many people out there who enter jobs and know this is going to be their future for times to come. We pursue a job as a solution to all our problems, and their realise that it is the only problem we possess. People like every job but theirs, they feel everything they do is crap, there is nothing to learn and blah and blah! This is occasionally true and occasionally untrue, but the feeling seems to be universal.

Is there a single solution to all our problems?! Everytime we pursue something as the ultimate solution to everything else, we realise it is our problem. We pursue Post Grad as a solution to boring jobs, jarring routines in office, family pressures et al. We join and realise that Post Grad is our only prob and we need to get out of it asap. We yearn to break out of it and join the corporate world, where the real action is ;) (Sarcasm unintended) Probably this is why they have made the concept of Summer Internships. Mid way through PG, we feel it is high time we stopped studying and started earning. We enter corporate world for a brief stint and realise what crap life can be, only to look back at PG and realise what an equal crap that is. Now, there is no solution to this non-existent problem. This eventually takes us the concept of existence of the stigma of problem in our conscience.

We always want problems. If there is no problem, we conceive the first thing that comes to our mind as a problem. Sometimes it is girlfriend, sometimes family and sometimes job. Whatever it is, we just cannot live without problems. The next time, anybody asks you to jot down those 5 things you cannot live without, do add 'problems' to the list. The reason for this probably existent. Life, for many of us, is the pursuit of a solution. We are so crazy about finding the solution, that we create problems for ourselves only to pursue that so-called solution. What an irony!

Working on Solution Manager, I am witness to how many problems we create in the course of our projects, with a focus on Pre-Sales at that, only to find solutions to them. We draw a sadistic satisfaction out of creating weird problems and finding awkward solutions to them. It seems ironical but ironical is life.

The algorithm is simple. If you have problems, find a solution. If you have a solution, make it a problem and find a solution for it now and the cycle continues...

In Significant League...

2007-05-03T00:11:00.000+05:30

Its exam time again, and time for contemplation for this is a time when people like me are left alone with everyone else burning the midnight oil with the twig of notes, books and photocopies. This is the time which makes people like me listen to songs of Himesh Reshammiya. Himesh to me is a standing testimony of madness, for many know his voice is iconoclastic and the number of songs he churns out is an overkill, yet we listen to him in awe sometimes and amazement the other times. This is like knowing that we need to study for exams, yet we dont... :D

Back to it again, sometimes looking at people who sweat a lot over exams and studies, I feel what is it that we crave for. At the end of the day, one's life is meaningful and worthwhile, if he or she makes it to those few who are remember for batches to come in a college that has an intake of a few tens every year. It is not how much you score, but how many people you score with that makes you count. This is just another school of thought, completely loathed by people who feel making it to the top of the charts academically is something that is like winning the Presidential seat. No offence to them, for life is all about individual perceptions, tastes and choices. If not for them, everyone would have been the same in this world.

The question is about where you want to be... There are two classes of people - Significant few and Insignificant Many, a la Pareto's Principle applied to Inventory Handling. So, where is it that we want to be? Do we want to be in Significant league or do we want to be the insignificant league? To me, slogging all night, topping the charts and at the end of the day doing nothing eventful or worth narration down the years is insignificant, but for some, it is as sacrosanct as sanctum sanctorum of their religion. To some, if one doesnt study and is handling extra-currics and stuff seems insignificant, but for the others these are the building blocks of fame and hence these are the 'in Significant League' people and not the 'Insignificant league'

All said and done, what is it all about? It is all about realising what is significant for you. It is all about making yourself significant. Things never need expertise, or experience to be done well. All they need is conviction and committment and this is the key to making yourself significant. Everything you embark upon, there is only one question to be asked, " Will this put me 'in Significant league' or 'Insignificant league'? If it is former, you got the bird in the hand, else its in the bush. When you are in the former, you belong to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and if its the latter, you are one in the crowd. Go, get a life... The pursuit of the path to shift from the latter to former is 'Life' and 22 years into it, am still struggling to hold my foot firm :)

Ethical Encroachment...

2007-04-30T13:49:00.000+05:30

When one encroaches into the other's property, it becomes a Civil Case. But going by the way the Advertising World today treads, this has either been negated or it has been agreed upon that our conscience is not to be considered a property. Advertising today has taken a turn where it is omnipresent, no where can you go where there is no advertising.

Indian masses today attach their screen demi-gods or their sporting superheroes to the advertisements they feature in. Advertising for certain brands is all about outshining the competitor in consumer's mindspace. When one postulated that having a kid in an ad shot up revenue, advertisers turned child-lovers (p-word seemed too abrasive here ;) ). From SIM cards to Chyawanprash, Detergents to cars.. Kids sold everything.

Then advertisers realised that they couldnt make their dough through those pre-destined slots for their jingles, so they created an entirely new gamut of ideas. This observation struck me when I was watching a movie the other day. Taking names, I would save the review of the movie Ta Ra Rum Pum for another boring day when I would decide to write reviews for all the crap I witness over the weekend. The movie has got something to it. Once again, let me make it clear that I by no means am a content critic here. The movie, or infact the banner of Yash Raj Films, has got some amazing Marketing talent in it...

When in 1999, Subhash Ghai insured his film Taal, it was considered a marvellous decision against heavy losses incurred when heavy budget movies went without a trace. Today, YRF shows the way by marketing movies brilliantly, ofcourse Mr. Ghai should be applauded here again for his Marketing acumen in Yaadein where he made moolah by propagating brands.

Here again, in Ta Ra Rum Pum, the hero could have driven anything, but the director gave him a car. He could have driven a cycle, but that would have made the movie a rehash of an Aamir Khan starrer. Being an 'inspired from Cinderella Man' family drama, the hero could have done boxing, but then he wouldn't wear anything. Dont get me wrong, here comes the twist... Right from the word go, I was amazed by the moolah YRF could have raked in seeing the sponsors names so clearly on every frame, which included big names like Chevrolet, Good Year, Castrol among others... This is a smart way of minting money. It is better than banking on heroes and directors. In those intermediate frames where there were no sponsor images, I was looking for them. The movie had such an impact that when the character repeatedly refers to iPod, and someone in the audience to a race wears an Apple Cap, I felt it was an endorsement for Apple which doesnt seem true on hindsight for Apple hasnt penetrated into India so much to drive itself through a YRF film.

Finally, drawing the bottom line, the stark reality that hit my face is that the world everywhere is inches of Advertising space. There is no law that states you cannot encroach someone's private vision through forceful advertisement. Probably, this is what propelled pasting stickers of a news channel in aircraft, putting up posters at head level in gents loos. Taking it further, when we look around there are so many such advertising opportunities. I really find the Valet Parking system near areas like Vasant Vihar in Delhi a wonderful opportunity. Those multi million marvels could do with a car cover that endorsed anything related to a car or anything catchy. This would provide free service to the car owner and increased revenues to the Parking manager. There are many rickshaw pullers and auto drivers who crave for new clothes. So probably t-shirts, caps that endorse products can be given to them. They get clothing, and companies get advertising.

These have been done in a small scale at select places, but execution is a key which has been lost. Once that can be found out, one can completely encroach all private and personal spaces without a hiccup. Wait for a day when the night goorkha shouts 'Use Durex only' instead of 'Jaagte Raho' ;) If the consumer can recieve it, admen are ready for it, ethics can take a backseat!

Ideals gone awry!

2007-04-05T00:15:00.000+05:30

Students have the onus of restructuring the future society. If nothing else, they must change themselves and their families for the better, in thinking, in values, in ethics. This will make sure that we lay the foundation for a golden morrow. We all take steps, some conscious and some not, towards this objective.

Little things we do can have a large impact for our own future. If we stop giving alms to child beggars and instead donate generously to NGOs boosting child education and invest our efforts in making them reach their goal, we are helping mankind better. Everybody may not do this on the same scale, but if this thought is fostered in each of us, we are on our way! This is just an example, just a passing thought, probably a droplet in an ocean.

One such though appeared to be Lok Paritran, a political party floated by IIT graduates. They wanted to rebuild Indian politics, or so I assume. A piece on CNN-IBN about them shattered me recently. It reads:

Lok Paritran, the political party formed by a group of ex-IITians in 2005 witnessed a vertical split just ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

The breakaway faction is called Bharat Punarnirman Dal (BPD) and will take on Lok Paritran head on in the UP poll field.

Further, I was amused to read that both parties also involved in mud-slinging, derogatory and degenerating a la the run-of-the-mill political parties. The report says:

"We will contest the elections in the fifth, sixth and seventh phases in UP despite contemptuous act of spreading rumours against the party by some former party members, who have formed BPD," national president L P Tanmay Rajpurohit was quoted as saying.

The expectations from such a party founded by the so-called brightest minds of India, The IITians, would be to change the existing poor scenario. In case the party fails at doing it, one expects it to fare better than others on the ethics and responsibility part. If you cant change the herd, at least stand out. They started out to change the crowd, and turned to be just another addition to the crowd. This is definitely discouraging.

When does such a situation arise? Probably when the founders have surrogate intentions. It could be power, fame, money or anything, they must have claimed something and aimed for something else. Or they could have got their basics wrong. A successful Marketing Strategy works if the Marketer knows Why he is doing something and for what. If the why and want match, the strategy is successful. This match may not have been manifested properly in this case. I have nothing against the party or the founders or the members or anyone. It was just an example I cited. There are umpteen such out there in papers where people claim something and aim for something. They gain the initial momentum claiming lofty ideals, but end up with hollow promises. This case has been highlighted probably cos the stakeholders are from the esteemed IIT. Frankly, in my opinion, IIT is highly highly highly over-rated. There is nothing special about it. It is a completely personal opinion, though!

I have my reasons for it, too! For in this case, while we have the above mentioned party on one side, we have Bharat Uday Mission on the other side. This is a group of students (I dont want to call it a party) who have come together to make a difference to society and they definitely do it. They are passionate towards their job, and they are all students. There is some sincerity and passion in BUM which the others lack. Even BUM may have lots of IITians, but it doesn't use IIT to gain some momentum or mileage. Moreover, BUM serves at many places in India where there is no IIT and hence no IITians and it does a better job there. This clearly shows we don't need brands, but we need people with substance.

We don't need lofty ideals and promises, what we need is consciousness... Consciousness in each of us is they to the golden future we want to pave for ourselves. Students should definitely make some effort to better things. It need not be on a national scale, or it need not even affect one single person other than self. If every self takes care of the reform in the self, the society is taken care of.

Paradox

2007-03-11T01:21:00.001+05:30

In the world of Management, as the course Fundamentals of Management Systems states, there exist paradoxes and these rule the world of Management. Change requires stability states one and enterprise is the individual signifies the other. All we need to tackle them all is Flexibility, says our professor who is obsessed with the F-word, of course F meaning Flexibility ;)

An MBA in Management Systems is all about connecting the learnings in the class to the world outside, the environment you are a part of, the world you see, the people you associate with. For once, I couldn't agree less for I feel our life is nothing but paradox. We are all living a life of paradoxes.

India shining, Inflation rising. Tourist sector booming, foreigners raped and killed. Peace with neighbors, Samjhauta Express is burnt. Not to offend anybody or any thing involved, but to shed light on the conditions we dwell in, and the environment we call life.

Paradox in life starts from everything. You go to class and sit, more interested in attendance than the teaching. You play the sports fest of the college, only to hoot and sledge than relish the real sporting spirit. You sweat a lot to do something meaningful out of your learning in a semester, and all you get in return is some lousy, crude humor from immature dudes who call themselves your friends. This could, in a part, be attributed to jealousy and immaturity. But what about cases where we hear of small kids being harassed? Society has been abound from domestic violence on kids to petty harassments to dreadful cases like the one in Nithari. Do we call this prosperity? Isn't all this a mega paradox that we call society?

You lose respect for courses, classes, sports, friends all because of the scum that is prevalent in the world in every thing that is present and dwelling. Should we let this scum have an adverse effect on us? Letting such small portion of people, things or events have an adverse impact on us... Isn't this paradoxical? What is straight in this world? We live in false hopes and dreams all through. Sometimes we promise people we got over something, we shall sure forget something but we know the bloody hell that we wouldn't forget it for anything in the world. It could be anything, a missed opportunity, a failed exam, a poor interview or a lost match. Half of what we say is different from what we mean.

Where is Utopia? To me, the biggest paradox seems to be Utopia. The funniest thing about Utopia is that when you ask somebody what Utopia to them is, and comes the reply... Utopia, to me, is a place where there is no this, no that, blah blah... Everybody wants to disassociate things, and thinks of only bad things when asked of the sanest place in the world. Why, in the first place, do we live then?! If that is the case, isn't life a paradox?

I know you don't know the answer, and still I pose the question. This, my friend, is the ultimate paradox.

Sell Ethics

2007-02-24T19:03:00.000+05:30

An age old debate... An age old myth, and the legend gets dynamic by the day. How, what, where and why of Sales have changed over the ears... Sales is an amazing process. If one has the conviction, it seems like the best job to do!

Its amazing to sell people things they want, I believe. However, due to competition and challenging targets revised and revisited everyday, people tend to bluff about their own self and ruin the reputation of sales like never before. This is the pitiable state of sales.

People hate sales personnel, and students think learning sales is all about learning to lie. I loathe it when people say to sell means to lie. Do you have to lie when you have to sell something? Just cos u highlight the positives and try to conceal the negatives, does that mean u r unethical? Or even the basic question one should ask perhaps, is being unethical inadvertent?! Why should a sales guy have to lie?

Or is it that a sales guy doesn't lie, but people think such! Imagine a situation of Mahatma Gandhi. With all great reverence to the man, I feel he is a bald, lean, poor man who has not enough clothe to drape himself! Then, we have a nation of a billion and counting, praying him, idolising him and naming their kids after him. Why? I ask them, and they say he is a great man... Are they lying? Are they being unethical? On retrospection, I realise I was wrong, for every coin has two sides.

Life is all about looking at the silver lining overlooking the darkest of the clouds. If someone can see the positives, realise their importance and communicate it to someone effectively and deliver them something, of course also having some defects unsolicited sometimes, is that unethical? The above statement, according to me is the gist of sales. Does it sound unethical? Is having conviction in something and delivering it unethical?

People say the ability for sales is to lie, and I beg to differ. Is it that? No... Anybody can who can call a spade a spade will realise when a person is lying. Sales is not about lying, it is about passion... Having passion for the product you sell, towards the commitment to the customer you sell it to and the passion for your job!

To conclude, this is what I feel as a student, so one wud have to wait and see wht i wud feel once am in the quagmire :P
As King Naresh says... All's well in hell! :D

One more down the memory lane...

2006-12-31T22:09:00.000+05:30

One more year gone, one more year lived, one more year to come, one more new year... Thats what December 31 means to all of us, each one choosing a different thing among these. Whatever the choice, 2006 is gone and here it is... A bundle of aspirations, lots of hopes, galore of opportunities, an year full of life... 2007.

As I look into 2007, and think of what is the difference in me when I welcomed 2006 and now, I realise that life has changed drastically. There is clear and concise focus and road map for future. The goals, the roadblocks, the opportunities, the ambiguities are all clearly marked up. The action plan for 2007 is clearly drawn. Though in the bigger picture, 2007 has not much to contribute towards the building of future, it sure has its own importance and thats what makes looking forward to 2007 all the more fun.

To me, apart from many other things, 2007 is an year where I shall be in a phase where life wont be in too many turbulences, or at least I hope so. Last year, I was an undergrad, now I am degree holder. Last year, I was in the company of very good friends, or rather brothers I would call them, and now, I am struggling to realise my own self, to make my own identity. To contribute myself as a piece of a jigsaw puzzle that makes something sensible as an output. Then, I was like a surfer on the shore looking at the waves and anticipating the proper time to jump in and ride the waves. Now, am the same, but am on the waves. I am completely uncertain if I shall have control of the waves, I dunno if I shall ride them or I shall fade in their force. Its all uncertain.

But then what keeps me going? Hope. Optimism. Confidence. That is all I step into 2007 on. That is all I need to make my mark on the mind of the world. That is all I carry as armor to face another gruelling year, the number sure seems stylish for I cant see a similar number again... 2007

All in all, here go my heartfelt feelings wishing you all health, wealth and happiness in the coming year. All The Best and wish you all a very happy new year!

The Y Factor

2006-12-13T03:44:00.000+05:30

There are always times when you need to ask questions. There are always times in life, when you are completely surrounded by questions and are in no distant hope of any plausible answer. Call it destiny, fate or life... It is all the same... A galore of Questions...

O troops of the King, who amongst thou is the ablest of all? Huh, another question to question self and find out which question among the given set of questions is the question be answered first! In life, one question pre-empts all and finding that one question is the biggest question of life. You find the right question, deal with it and touchwood, life is bliss!

Think so??? If it were that simple, it would never have been called life. It would have been called wife, perhaps! :P Duh, wives arent as simple, the legends say... Pardon my ignorance on tht front, I shall get back to you soon ;)

So much for my dead pan humor in the dead of the night. The essential question we have been dealing with in this post is what is the essential question of life. Is there a question that is necessary to be answered in life? Is there a question that if answered shall bestow all lowly souls like me and morons like you (the deadpan taking over :P) with worldly pleasures and unworldly treasures? What is it that in quest of which we burn like candles, blow away like dust and get crumpled like pieces of paper?

To me, the essential key to happiness lies in one single word -- Why? The quest for answering this single question at the beginning of everything one does shall land one at the doorsteps of Nirvana, from where you could rock the stage singine 'Rape Me' :P (I realised I suck at dead pan humor :P)

Coming down to theories that make business sense in life, lets ask each of us a question. What is that you want to answer in life? I think the answer should be why. If you are waking up early in the morning, ask yourself why are you waking up. When we want to pull out that extra penny out of the wallet, we ask ourselves why. When we look at a gorgeous girl and feel like love, we ask ourselves why do we need it? Why governs our life like nothing else does.

To think this why is all pervasive is nothing but nonsense. There are situations when you shouldnt be askin a why. To go very close to a girl and get into the smooching mode and asking yourself why is nothing but suicide. God! Am so intelligent, gimme one chance to show it all :P

Fun apart, though I have been strictly ordered not to venture into Management in this post, I plead guilty of passion for Marketing and Management and tell you the most important question to be answered in Marketing is also Why. Why will the consumer buy my product? Why will my product sell? Why should I launch my product now and why should I launch it this way? This is what Marketing is all about. If you are able to diagnose why the consumer is not completely happy with the market and develop solutions to fill that need gap, there you are... at the top of the Market...

All in all, one important question you should be asking yourself is WHY are you reading this blog... Answer it and do temme if it is anything other than your insanity!

Cheers...

Learning it the hard way!

2006-11-20T00:04:00.000+05:30

Learning is a never ending process, they say! Life teaches at every point. All through the student life, students are made to read and study under the garb of learning. They are always in the illusion that they are learning, but they are studying. They are studying Social Sciences, Mathematics and whatever! But, learning happens outside books, in open air, among people. I dont think there is any learning in a class.

As time passes, learning leads you into newer lanes of life. Companies rehash their strategies based on their learnings from the previous strategy. Every project team has to capture their learnings in a document before the take upon a new project, and this is the real value addition. In an MBA class, learning happens and is interesting, cos for the first time it seems like it is happening in class, but not definitely due to the harangues being hurled at the students from the professors. It happens in the project groups, the committees and in the informal interactions the diverse class has among itself. Learning is the only thing that never ceases to exist! You can learn a loot from a kid to an old person, all you need is a receptive mind and a knack for good things! Friends teach a lot in life, and thats what determines the chemistry and revelry among friends.

Microsoft Zuke is a shape to the learning it had from Apple's IPod and its consequent success. My this post is a result of the learning that it had been almost a month since I posted. So, where do we put learning? Is it the precursor to action? If it is, then where does it come from? Does all studying lead to learning? Is all learning unconventional? What is the leading indicator, sorry for the Economics parlance, for Learning? or, can learning be a Leading Indicator for something else?

All these are questions, but are quite simple I guess because one could always shrug and say, I dont know! But the, the question that transcends all these and persists over all our minds, which we persistently fail to acknowledge and answer is, How is learning measured?

Is it by Monetary success? What about lotteries?
Is it by academic success? Heard of Bill Gates?
Is it by blissful life? Heard of Edison?
Is it by fame? Huh, too many here...

Can learning ever be quantised and metricised? With all due regard to the appraisal and grading systems so prevalent in the system, what is the main target? Learning or money or grades? How do we leverage on this and how do we find the right opportunity, the goose that hatches the golden eggs. Did someone say, I am getting monetary... Duhhh!

PS: Rest assured, am sure you learnt one thing, not to stumble over this space again!

Cheers! :)

Its a Break!

2006-10-21T10:45:00.000+05:30

I really dint know what well-deserved breaks meant! I always had breaks, but I dont think I ever deserved them, cos my college was always a holiday in itself :P Out of it, and into a B-School now, I realise how taxing academics can be. For every one out there who thinks Management is all about Marketing and those freelance talk sessions and manageable presentations, it isn't. It is a different picture all together, it is something where you always should be clear of what you want and how you want it, which unfortunately I never had been till MBA happened, and now, what if slowly, I am learning it steadily!

MBA offers a lot, of course not in terms of specialisations and the green bundles, but in terms of experience. Pursuing an MBA is an experience in itself. The variety of people, the varied work you get to do, itz fascinating. Then, what the hullabaloo about?! Its TAXING..., and did i forget to mention, thats the least anybody can use for an MBA.

The academic rigor, the challenges in work and things you need to manage, itz just never-seen-before kind for almost all of us, and we all learn together sailing and sinking hands firmly in each others. Two hoots to all those myths about MBA being total fun, it isnt! It is work, no... it is WORK...

So, amidst all that heavy duty work here I am chilling my heels down in home this Diwali... The break is awesome... no, it is aaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwweeeeeeesssssssooooooommmmeeeee, thats a pal's style we all mock :D

Happy Diwali folks!

Experiential Marketing Ahoy!

2006-09-22T18:18:00.000+05:30

Marketing breeds from Man and his thoughts, it seriously has got nothing to do with myths and protocols. The stratagem to win over the other man is in the man who conceives it. No book can tell you what a man will like; it’s for you to go to him and experience.

Going by the same thought, man has invented newer schools of Marketing and proposed new models and methods to sell his products to the other man. One such or the latest I have heard is Experiential Marketing. We had a Seminar, part of the Rostrum Seminar Series, on the 9^th of September, 2006 at our department and we got an industry insight into Experiential Marketing, with bigwigs from Reckitt Benckiser, Nokia, CSC, Maruti Udyog Ltd, IBM, Technopak gracing the occasion and sharing their gyaan with us.

The event was chaired by our professsors Dr. Rajat.K.Baisya, Mr. Harish Chaudhary, Prof. RK Banwet, Prof Ranjan Chaudhary. In the presentations during the event, we got an insight into what Experiential Marketing is all about.

The seminar sure consolidated my ideas that the philosophy of Experiential Marketing is borrowed from nowhere else but life. If we look into our lives, we realize that experiential marketing has not started with the genesis of the term, but genesis of the world.

When I browsed the net for more ideas on Experiential Marketing, I stumbled upon this interesting blog.

When we look at things from the perspective of Experiential Marketing, it is not the process of making the customer experience the product, it is about the brand and its bonding with the customer. It is about establishing a chemistry with the customer. Keeping the customer in touch with the product and developments in the company is not Experiential Marketing. Let the customer have a complete experience of the brand and relate to the company and then decide for or against the brand.

Barista followed Experiential Marketing from long ago, and then when you look at life, it is abound with examples of Experiential Marketing. Mom made you taste the food with the aroma emanating out of the kitchen and establish a chemistry with the food being cooked. We spoke to people many times before we grew on to be best friends, we meet, each other, share interests, realize that the other person is interesting and then propose love. And the biggest example is the Hindu marriage custom, where both the families meet, and then decide if they can gel well together for life. Now, this doesn’t mean the whole experience, but you at least get a hang of what you are going to get :P

If there ever is a signing off note for Marketing, I would say that it draws entirely from life. Observe people, know the customs, know your product and make it a brand, that is Marketing for you, let the road taken be Experiential or whatever!

To sell is the motto and Marketing is the way!

Brain Sheet

2006-09-11T22:49:00.000+05:30

Life seems beautiful a moment, wonderful the next and awful later! That is life for you... End of exams might seem beautiful, party after it wonderful and coming to room to realise that there's no net, awful! Cant help it... Of course, there's always lot to be read between the lines. Coming back to the case in point, I cannot reconcile myself easily to the point that the "supposedly one of the best" institutes of the country has no proper internet infrastructure also. I feel the LAN here is like monsoon and we the Indian farmers. We need it, but never can rely on it, and due to our resignation to fate, we have nowhere else to go! Thats Life... Choices made, and the circumstances thereafter! And life is about looking beyond what meets the eye. The flare of love for this place occurs thanks to the people and studies here, and that helps us sustain all the odds! Drawing from a movie and customising, no place is amazing, you need to make it one... Thats your duty when you go there and people here are doing a good job of this!

I am suggesting... Life is not about looking behind, but looking beyond. Proof?! Minors came and minors went... They came, they saw and they couldnt affect me :P Minors were not as rewarding as I expected them to be, for I was not as commanding as my professors expected to be, ofcourse on the subject! But then, life is about looking beyond. Who cares?!

Silence is indeed an emotion. When you have a thousand things to say, and realise that the other person has not much time to spare, its mature and meticulous to be silent! Time will always tell you which path to tread, ofcourse if your mind is tumultous and till then it is angelic to keep silence! I sometimes wonder why keep silence even when you have something good, bright and positive to say?! But then you need two hands to clap, and something becomes what you expect it to be, only when the recipient feels the same about it. You need to have thorough cognizance of what the other person is in, what constraints they are in and what conditions they may have to face if your silence is broken, and act accordingly! Something is good only when it is told at the right time! No wonder the legend has it that patience is a price-less virtue!

I earnestly support silence all the more when people make uninvited jabberwocky! One lady, bless my net that doesnt allow me to search for her name now by hiding somewhere, filed a PIL against A certified movies and shows and TV, and we want to be a developed nation! Jesus..., or as somone asks me to say... Rama! :P

This is no propaganda for adult stuff nor am I hypothesising that number of adult shows on tv is a metric of development. All I am saying is that people should realise that it is impossible for us to stop people from circumventing systems. You ban A-rated stuff on TV, and buy your 5-yr kid a personal computer with unimaginably fast broadband connection. What does he download?! Its human tendency to do and look at stuff that they are prohibited from. It is better to educate kids, breaking our shells of staying put on such issues, and help them turn into mature individuals efficiently! It is no sanity in saying my kid doesnt watch tv, he is a saint! Its 100%, unadulterated foolishness!

Neither am I suggesting adult channels nor am I chastising that lady, all I am suggesting is that we have a better way to handle all this! You cannot ban airlines for a September 11, the same holds here too! If the fault is in us and our upbringing of the next generation, why blame the tv channels and the movie-makers?!

PS: The topic has been derived from Balance Sheet, the snapshot of a company's financial status at a given point of time. This Brain Sheet is a snapshot of my mental status as on Saturday 9th September! :D

In Dependence

2006-08-18T11:21:00.000+05:30

Sixtieth Independence Day and the curtain raises for another spell of bonhomie. There are plans for extensive celebrations and likes, but then why are we forcing these celebrations on ourselves? Why should we follow a protocol of celebrating, while at one end fearing some attack on the red fort or some remote places in far south? Who are we celebrating for? Everybody visiting the red fort on the fifteenth will be carrying with him a scary thought that any thing could happen there. I dont know how many people it would deter and hold in abeyance from going there and being a part of the celebrations, but it sure will have a place, miniscule or major, in everybody's brains there. Being in Delhi, I can sense the heat in the situation at every corner in Delhi.

The papers are splashed with news of tightening security everywhere, of VIPs being heavily guarded, things being planned and re-planned and visit the roads or some malls and happening places, and you will realise what it is to be scared. Why are we even celebrating when we are so scared? Where is the independence, where is the freedom?

Have we failed as a society to raise above certain plebeian tendencies of creatinf terror or have we grown so complacent that we are letting anybody attack us so freely? I agree every nation has security beef-ups and stuff during celebrations, but this aint security beefing up or stuff, this is getting soo scared that you are running for your life and are celebrating only to save your face, just in case someone pops out of the blue tomorrow and asks you why you didnt celebrate your sixtieth Independence Day. I feel we shouldnt celebrate because we arent yet independent. We are slaves of our own wrong-doings and cares. We should realise certain things as a society first and then, try and celebrate independence. Lets get peace and satisfaction first and then chase celebrations. Why celebrate amidst so much of turmoil?

I dont say August 15th is something we shouldnt celebrate, but I say why celebrate so much that we are so scared of things that could hamper them?! We are celebrating, but are getting scared several notches above it. Do we need all this? Why cant we just pledge that we shall work for a better India on the sixtieth Independence day and carry on with our duties towards Mother India. Why unnecessarily give someone a chance to spoil our revelry? Instead lets do something meaningful. Lets try and make India a better place.

Celebrations, parades and stuff do make me proud, but what makes more sense to me is this:
http://www.bhumi.in/project_rasoolpura.htm

Mera Bharat Mahaan!

PS: Sincere apologies for keeping the post in cold storage for the last 3 days. This was written on the eve of 60th Independence Day of India, but could not make it to the aisles of my blog's castle, thanks to net at my hostel which returned just today after a short vacation of four days!

Me See, Design n Life

2006-08-07T03:15:00.000+05:30

Had heard a lot about the book The McKinsey way, but never got a chance to lay my hands on it. In the course of Creative Problem Solving today, the prof presented a point from the book and must say, it is indeed charming! Simple things like these make firms like McKinsey what they are! Believe and leverage on faith and there you are, right at the top! The same thing applies to life too. Great people are what they are, for they do what they do!

Cut to the context, and the prof was teaching us the MECE(read me-see and hence the title). The objective is to structure thinking, avoiding confusion and overlap, when solving business problems. The MECE principle is defined thus:

The MECE Rule: Considerations in a group should be mutually exclusive (no overlaps) and collectively exhaustive (no gaps).

It is very simple and the role of a manager comes in creating such cohesive work groups that are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive.

This brought into my memory the paradigm of Software Engineering, especially the Design Phase where we are supposed to structure the design in cohesive groups with less coupling and more cohesion. The main of design in Software Engineering is similar, too! Break the given requirements into exclusive groups that are independent from each other, but all together achieve the desired goal!

The difference being while MECE deals with people, Design phase deals with objects and codes. Probably thats where the difference is seen well... Managers deal with people and coders data! But, the bottomline to be observed is the importance of design in life.

When Einstein was asked what he would do if he had an hour to save the world from an impending problem, he said, " I would spend 55 minutes to define the problem and five minutes to solve it" He emphasises here on the importance to understand things and problems in life. It is important to ponder upon things and work towards them rather than giving up at the outset. As the prof rightly put it today, Lets make sense of problems first! Patience really pays when in problems, just that one should not be patient and passive, one should be patient and persistent!

We, especially students, lack that design for life. We just get into anything that comes our way and then realise our interests. I know friends who regret Engineering, who are in a job but yearn to do something else. Not that I myself has designed life or something, but just to make a point. I havent had a perfect design too. Just going where my instincts take me. To be succinct, rather than doing what I want, I have always avoided what I dont want and ended up at better places and I hope this continues at least for some more time.

Design is very important in life, and there is something funny about it. I take up something, think I will have a plan designed for it, but the efforts end up futile and I do something other than what best could have been done and move on. The best thing comes now! When I move on to something else and look back at things, I realise I should have been more prudent, patient and planned better... Thats life for us I suppose! Everything seems easier after we have already done it, and everything seems better as long as we havent taken it up yet!

All said and done, the gospel is: The Show must go on!!!

OVER

2006-07-31T06:11:00.000+05:30

Another month is over today, a life of mine already over! I realised many things come to an end, most of the time paining you a lot. The life I had was complete bliss. I had people, I had friends all the time with me and everything went my way but then it isnt supposed to be the same everywhere. Life isnt as easy in every lane. It gets very tough sometimes!

At a new place, in the interval of emerging completely new to making friends and acquaintances, one tends to feel extremely lonely and helpless and everything seems hitting like a bolt from the blue. We miss old friends, the revelry we had, the celebration called life. We miss the things we were used to, the daily routine and everything we did or thought. Everything new makes you reminisce and relate to something in the old paradigm, esp in my situation where I have shifted from a hostel to hostel.

Infrastructure has nothing to do with age of the institute or repute of the same. The place I was in the last four years was awesome, they tried to emulate this place, but having stepped here I realise these people should try to emulate those rather than the other way round.

Anyway, every good thing comes to an end and I realised it the hard way today! It is tough to carry on, but one can always try! I will always miss those good times and those friends.

New

2006-07-30T07:21:00.000+05:30

A new college is a new life! You need to start everything anew. Everthing that was, are memories. Everything that we envisage would be, are aspirations and how well we put ourselves into work at a new place bridges the gap between these. Finding self in a completely different set of people is amazing. You start back from the scratch, make new acquaintances, observe many things and learn loads of things that you would never have learnt had you moved on with the sedentary, complacent life you now call memories.

A new city is a refreshing change. Every place you see is new and somethings appeal to you and the others repeal. As you amble along the bylanes of a big city you are new to, there are ramblings seeping into the grey cells from areas unknown. Delhi is one such big city which I find very beautiful. The place I live in is very beautiful and huge, ofcourse I am talking of the campus at large. There is freshness and confidence in air in Delhi. There is something about everything in Delhi, which I admire happily forgiving my poor accomodation and the pathetic climate thats prevailing here, but promises to change with every breeze hitting my face through the window of my third floor room.

When we meet new people, it isnt all about introductions and acquaintances. It is about learning about one more life, one more character and one more individual and in that way, when the demographic you meet is varied, the lessons learnt are too many and the experience enriching. Though I havent been able to do justice to this learning process as of yet, blame the time, I am sure the experience will be enriching once I look back upon my experiences here after this present moves on into memories making way for a platform for fulfilling my aspirations.

A new course is exciting anyday, for there are many cards laid in front of you which you eagerly pick up to add value to yourself sometimes faring badly and sometimes owning them. Whatever the result, the journey is always good, atleast when you reminisce! A student, when offered as many as 8 courses in a semester, has the tendency to look up to the next subject to offer something he likes and hence ends up excitingly and eagerly waiting for the subjects to unroll in the initial days. Of course, what he gobbles up and what he avoids like plague depends on what impression these courses make on the poor chap. But nevertheless until the introductions are on and the professor hasnt shown his flipside, the journey to a course is always pleasant! As my courses get unleashed one by one, I am eagerly waiting for some exciting action and interesting work to do in each of them!

Now, to think everything is hunky dory is definitely a mistake! It isnt so good, for anything too good to be true isnt practical and Utopia is something confined to books, and ya blogs too! The place I live in is like a store room, fully cramped up and the food they serve is... Ahem! The less said the better. The climate is slowly picking up, though!

All in all, its a pleasant journey when you are all up for it and I can vouch for that I tell you. The shortcomings in an institute as gargantuan as this are too small when juxtaposed with the enriching experience of learning it offers, and I am inclined to the latter as of now! So, the bottomline is that I am looking forward to everything... For my courses, for my assignments, for my tests and my vacations! :P

Raise the Curtains!

2006-07-23T11:18:00.000+05:30

Barely few hours left for me to leave my place and embark upon a journey into hopefully exciting two years ahead. One of my friends recently remarked, "This is a bad phase in life". The friend meant the phase to having to carry on leaving behind old friends and memories and to start on journies very skeptically.

All of us have made choices, some judged and some instinctive. Most of us have our fingers crossed, for not many of us are exactly sanguine now. There is a fear lurking in every eyes. While we are heavily excited to take upon new things, we are worried about things we are leaving behind, things we might miss, things we may not catch up with as we did earlier. It may not exactly be fear, but its a weird feeling that doesnt allow you to be completely cheerful. But then, when you know you wont let anything change from how it is, you need not worry!

When I ventured into this vacation, I thought it would be boring. I thought I would have to do crazy things to while away time, but then this was the vacation I enjoyed the most and it really seems short on hindsight! I loved every moment of it. From hanging around with friends to handling responsibilities of business and family, I loved and learnt from it all.

The next two years, as I envisage, are going to be eventful. I look forward to fun, satisfaction, loads of new friends, tons of pressure, too much masti and many more things. From what I gather from my friends who are already in such schools, I realise I amnt expecting anything wrong. I am looking forward to my new life, in a completely new environment. This is the transition where I am going to transform from a boy to a man completely, and I want to do with care and responsibility.

My brush with B-School starts in a few hours, wish me luck people! :)

Raise the Curtains to the new life, please! :D

King 1.1

2006-07-14T17:14:00.000+05:30

Stepping into a new college soon, I feel like a new version of me entering the market. New place, new people, new friends, new course, new life... New college is something I am not entirely sure if I am looking forward to, thanks to the pre-joining goosebumps I am used to, having experienced all this right from the time I joined my LKG to my undergraduate degree!

Life is always an enigma, and that was one of the reasons I named this blogs so. When there is something very new, you dont know what you can expect from it and what you can give to it. That makes my college more and more intriguing now! I will have to go and find out for myself what and how I can do things there. Am sure I will find a cosy place for myself there in the bigger picture. After all, gotta b a Manager! :D

Life is very interesting every vacation. I get to meet friends back in my hometown, catch up with what all I have lost when in college, hang around in this beautiful city and then loads of fun chips in without any reference to it explicitly! And as I had already mentioned in the previous blog, vacations also teach many other things.

At this juncture in my life, I am happy, satisfied, calm and at peace with myself. I am happy at things that happened, that are happening and that shall happen, all this in a case-by-case basis. When I put all the pieces together, something is eerie. I dont want to leave this place and people and go into a hectic world for two years and then, I want to enjoy the pressures and pleasures of a B-School. Thats a paradox, isnt it? But then, life has its own ways!

Sometimes I feel why do we even sweat to study, earn degrees, placements and all in life? why not stay home, start a nice business and earn. Life is very pleasant and simple at home, and in business especially when the pressures are mostly on your dad's shoulders and pleasures on your head :P You just do a few little things in it and contribute your part to the gargantuan giant wheel and relax looking out of the window blogging on a laptop. The breeze that hits my face is soo pleasant like a girl's wavy, loose hair falling on my face due to a cool breeze. I look out of the window and I see red sun setting in the west, looks like they eyes of a girl who is deeply in love admiring her man, her face red with blush and eyes soo full of love. I feel like a poet, and then truth beckons! Life is not to relax, not to enjoy things, but to work, and realise your dreams. Dreams, as in not the aforementioned but dreams of having a name in the society, a face people attach with some good virtues and some affection and respect from all the quarters.

One can always choose between two things in life. Aim Big, Dream Big, Think Big and go ahead or get complacent and just follow some legacy your folks set in. I dont want to succumb to the latter, I want to try things, no matter they take a proper shape or not. I want to die with the pride that I dared to think, dream and act big. Dreaming is good and inspiring, but working towards it starts now, and I am in a position where am just waiting for life to get into the fast lane.

So, my B-School... Here I come...

The King Returns!

2006-06-30T18:05:00.000+05:30

The title is a take on Superman Returns I agree, but I am a Superman in my own right! :P Actually, I always believe that every person is an Oracle or Hero to someone in his life! I have my own list of heroes and oracles, which if I reveal might surprise the nameholders themselves. We do many things in life that may affect many people in many ways, which we most of the times do not realise. It is fascinating to see how small acts of someone's kindness inspire us to me more humane, how our little and mock scorn puts others down. It is all a complex thing, it is life perhaps!

When you dont do anything, as in enjoying a vacation or something, sometimes people really think you are too free and you finally end up over committing yourself, but its all fun! :D Anyway, vacations are cool teachers. They make u realise how much you miss friends, how much you love life in college and how close you are to some people back in your hometown. This vacation has been damn good hitherto, and when I say damn good I dont mean I have had full happiness and watched movies, ate out and went with friends. Thats like a kid! Thats the happy vacation of a kid. To me, I am happy because I have learnt and realised many things this break. I learnt what importance friends hold in my life and I realised what some people feel about me and the ride was refreshing.

When I think of what and how life is, I always get some philosophical outbursts from the soul. But then, I realised it the other way this time around. We make relations, we sustain them, we cherish them, we ameliorate them and feel happy and then, there are some disturbances, some misunderstandings, some communication gaps, some bad days and we are sad that life is hell only to later realise that there is nothing in time and situation, but everything is in us. We make a relation what we want it to be. We make a friend a good friend, if we like the person! Even with folks back home, we get closer more and more as we see them care and love us more and more. The same applies to any person and we also must realise that being happy isnt being good, being the same is being good, as in suppose you have a friend, if u are together through thick and thin, you are good friends. The thick and thin is not the relation, you and the friend is the relation and that is what we must realise and cherish and am happy I do it!

Coming to the fun part, life has not taken a beating there. No doubts college fun can never be replaced. But here the things are not that bad too. Good company is what it takes to make your days and I have it. Meeting friends with whom you can always be you is awesome! They are the persons who make you feel complete and I always look forward to meet such people.

Future is promising, and as always there are speculations but it is a man's thing not to be deterred by risks and speculations and go on the board and own it. I intend to do it. Visit a new place, join a new institute, make a new circle, start working from the scratch. Will be fun again! Life seems to be promising. Though not sanguine, I am looking forward to it.

Had been long since I updated this place, but now I will be regular. Keep Reading, folks! All The Best to all of you. Have fun and keep touch!

The L Word

2006-05-29T14:59:00.000+05:30

Vacations help you to sit back and think of life. There are observations at the end of day due to introspection, some of them wise and some otherwise. The bottomline is that we grow wiser anyway if we think, observe and learn rationally! On one of those journeys inside self, I stumbled upon the L word, Love!

What is love is a question even heavy budget, multi-starrer, never ending Bollywood Musical extravaganzas left to our imaginations! I am a nobie(no spelling mistake here :P) and hence cant answer that, but what I am stuck up with is a question. The question being: Does one L word lead to the other L word? For rank newcomers, does Love lead to Lust? We, as a society, student body or any damn community bretheren we belong to have been programmed to attach love with lust and marriage. We have made Meet --> Love --> Lust --> Marriage as a standard Commitment Life Cycle, reminds of the gud old Waterfall Model of Software Development :P

Coming to the L words again, should they be so cohesive? Can't there be love without lust and which doesnot lead to marriage? I dont say be so puritan that you start to feel like a bro and sis. Cant two people so mad and crazy about each other just enjoy each others company without getting overtly physical? Should you love every girl you like and should you marry every girl you love? Why is love outside a family only linked to marriage? Why cant a guy and girl be a pair, share love for each other but not marry not because they dont want to, but due to the conditions and constraints that prevail, for I staunchly believe Conditions and Constraints maketh a choice!

Does being mad or crazy for a girl mean you end up with her in bed? Cant it mean companionship, overwhelming love and admiration for each other? I feel pure love is that where a pair loves each other, stand the test of time, sticks by each other but if the C-words arent resonant with them, will just part ways in life but not in souls! You can never forget a person if you love him/her. They should, in first case, not try to part ways but if destiny has it that way, they have memories in mind and each other in heart.

Love doesnt mean getting physical, thats lust. A kiss that will assure the other person, a hug that will reconcile each other to the fact that they indeed share the flames is love. A kiss and a hug are never lust, the feelings that lead to them are. If the feelings leading to them are plebeian materialistic deeds to enjoy vicarious thrills, it is lust. If the feelings are divine, just to show the other person you care and share their feelings, it is love. The line(another L word) between these L words is way too thin and it is all in your mind how to demarcate one from the other. For love, lust, greed or whatver is never in actions but in the minds that do it.

Think pure, act pure! The world will so fully be pure and reciprocate your purity and sanity. Love you all! :)

:P

2006-05-26T11:21:00.000+05:30

The title is apt for two reasons: It played a havoc (almost) in my life a couple of days back and you might end up with that expression after reading this post because this has got no aim, its another shot in the dark! It may excite you, or embarass you!

I felt modes of communication like mail, messages etc where a person neither sees the other's face nor hears to him was effective as it was helpin us communicate. But then I realised these can only transfer information. For a perfect communication, we need emotions. We need to see the actions and reactions of a person. Probably to ease this problem, we introduced emoticons, one of which is the topic of this post. But, when they are missed, say due to space constraint or due to sleepy head, both of which contributed to me, the result is misunderstanding and chaos.

What does this mean? Are we so much inclined to use these things that we cannot put forth our simple emotions without an inclination to use them? We fail to understand the mood of the other person in messages and mails if the text is not appropriately assisted with emoticons whom we believe guilelessly! I use emoticons skillfully to guide the other person into believing that I am in a mood that I am potrayin to be! :P Now guess my mood!

Its tough to communicate when you dont see or talk to the person, but its easy to interpret it in some way or the other. We communicate A, the other person understands B and finally what we are left with is a C, Communication Gap! :( Couldnt help using the emoticon

Far from the freaky things, had been to the City of Destiny Vizag for two days. A very short trip, but I had a very good time. Probably because I was in the company of DA-IICTians again! The company did it all. Seeing the best of your friends back after a break does you a lot of good! Coming to the city, I know it isnt as great as I am thinking it to be but I am in love with it, as of now, thanks to the weather these two days and wonderful people and time I had there! The weather, the beaches, the walks, the bike rides everything was so damn good there!

A new city actually teaches us a lot! When its guided, with friends taking you everywhere, you love the place and when its totally new, you explore it and results may vary! Anyway, as I sit back in front of my pc I definitely feel I should have had a longer trip in Vizag, less for the place and more for the friends! :) Again an emoticon

Carry On

2006-05-16T04:48:00.000+05:30

To say 'Carry On' is very easy, but to do it practically is very tough. In the last few days in the campus, I realised this the tough way. With every knock on the door symbolising adios to a good buddy, my heart droops and I feel like a kid forcibly being pushed out of home to attend school.

Friends here have been the best, and the diversity of people around here is awesome! I havent ever dwelled with a more diverse crowd, honestly! I love the place, its people and to realise that the clock is ticking is hell.

To carry on is tough, I am at loss of words as I type this also. There is a lump in throat as I see every face I consider a friend tell me their leaving dates. Though we will try and keep touch somehow, that wouldnt be the same as what and how we are here.

Added to all this, some unfortunate incidents to closer people hurts more! There is grief in close circles but am happy we are sticking by each other. A phone call rattled me a couple of days ago. Ironically, this call came right after a friend called me to tell how happy the day had been. I was floating in that happiness, and then the phone rang and a thunderbolt passed through me.

Fortunately, there was just another friend who stuck with me and the talk help alleviate the grief both of us were trying to put up with. That moment, most of my friends were out and I realised that without their support and words, I wasnt able to contain myself. Then, what will be the situation two days from now when none of them is going to be around? Am I the only one feeling so or is there someone else feeling the same?

All said and done, I am in love. I love DA-IICT and its people.

Pain

2006-05-06T22:44:00.000+05:30

When something happens to people who matter a lot to you, you lie shattered. So shattered that you cannot collect yourselves even after two full days, and everytime you pass by something related to the incident every unfortunate incident rolls down in front of your eyes and you drop into a deep depression.

A feeling of helplessness, a feeling so scary encompasses you that you are afraid of smiling too! You lose interest in everything, not that the unfortunate event is something very disastrous, but because you feel it could have been avoided by you, him or something divine. But then, things did go wrong and I am left with nothing else but pain now.

Though there are smiles that occur regularly, though life seems to be going on at its own pace, nothing is same. There is always a thread of pain running behind in the brain. The pain sometimes gets so unbearable that you feel like thrashing your roomie's computer screen because he shouts when you writhe in pain you dont show to anyone else. The pain is so excruciating that you do not dare to muster up enough courage to go see the victim because you know there is every chance you break down there, for the person is so dear. :(

The pain shoots up exponentially when you realise that this would have been those rare last days with the person for which you have made plans, all including the person with you. Had he been here, this would have been our plan. Huh! Both of us started working seriously the same time, we both completed things the sametime and planned to freak out the same way but now we can't and the fact that this is our last chance is the last straw to break the camel's back.

Though the fact is that the person would soon be normal, the fear and pain is that this soon would be too late considering the birds are ready to fly now. At a time when we planned to bid graceful and heartfelt adieu to each other, my friend, brother would be an understatement too, met with an accident and I am left shattered. Things will very soon be normal but still there is a lot of pain! :(

Plain Thoughts

2006-05-02T06:49:00.000+05:30

Waking up in the early morning makes you feel extremely fresh, so fresh that you put off all the pending work, tune into your favorite tracks and just think! I am doing just that now! Thinking of myself, I feel there is this unexplained feeling in me, something I have no words for.

Something I just cant describe, I dont even know if I am feeling good or bad about it. It may also just be a post-too much work feeling. Really have worked my ass off the last week. In fact that was the compensation I had to pay for enjoying an year and heck, that was the least anyone could ask for. Anyway, the work still hasnt paid back and there is atleast a month before I get to know how fruitful my work has been.

Coming to the feeling that has been haunting me, there is this peace in mind but juxtaposed with it is a strange feeling. Is it feeling of plain lugubriousness or is it the feeling of fear of leaving my four years behind and going ahead? Is it the anxiety of meeting life's responsibilities and changes or is it just the 'fingers-crossed' about the risks taken feeling?

Am literally not willing to go home! Would like to hold on to friends here. Sometimes, I feel I have no reason to go back home to! I can easily put my friends here at number one among things I am most attached to. But, then the show must go on and though I am very scared at the very hint of parting with these friends, I am looking forward to meet each of them as Men!

Men, not by age, but by responsibility in life! How good it would be to meet an old friend! I would be recollecting all our exploits in this place and collecting back on things I have lost in his life and he in mine. All said and done, one thing is sure! The last day of college isnt going to be easy! I am already dead scared about it. I fear losing my friends here, these are all my friends in the truest sense of the word. We all grew up together, in a sense and they are more than friends to me!

When I think of going back to my place after college, I know I will feel out of place. I will feel out of place among friends there, among people there and I am sure I will feel out of place in my own home too! I miss my friends and fun here in the one-month vacations that we get twice an year and to think of no return this time, god save me! :(

Feeling out of place in one's own home is weird and when you know you are going to feel it very soon, what do you do? Its a strange feeling right! I know I can get back to self at home and situation in home will be better, but with other people and places, except an exception or two, is tough! Actually not tough, Impossible!

I fear losing myself, my identity! :( Thankfully, I have a couple of friends there whom I can still carry this on with but I still dont feel sanguine about leaving this place and people, but can do nothing to avoid it. Strange are the ways of life!

Very cheesy, but I give these lines to my friends, esp those of my dearest D Wing, more brothers than friends:

bina tere na ek pal ho na bin tere kabhi kal ho
yeh dil ban jaaye pathhar ka na ismein koi hulchul ho
sanam pe ha ishq pe ha mita doon luta doon
main apani khudi
kasam se ha luta doon mita doon
main yeh hastii

Nostalgia can change you a lot! :(

Clash

2006-04-23T03:46:00.000+05:30

In the final lap of lapping up my graduation, here I am amidst lots of questions and perplexities, yet undeterred and as hoplessly lazy as ever. Though the external garb of having fun and whiling away time is intact, there is something, rather a lot of things, eating me away! I bet this is the scene with most of the guys around! Anyway, to each, his blog! So, let me pour out all my issue in my blog. Others can follow suit on their blogs.

Actually, as time is ticking away, I find no motivation to pursue my project nor any inclination to do anything seemingly productive. Of course, the pressure, both from peers and profs, compels me to act as if I was really working for the project. But, I can fool everyone around but not myself. Moreover, the project is not my concern. I am comfortable with whatever little progress it has made and am sanguine about passing out. What I am bothered about is life after that.

What to do? Rather, what not to do? How to set priorities? How to choose between my goals? To put personal or professional things first? What to give my relations and what to expect out of them? Sometimes, this is really very tough. In a relation, you always need to be aware of the other person's expectations. A friend may expect something else from you, but you may look at it as the other end of the spectrum.

Then, we have goals in life. To rush or not to rush for them? When pursuing something, how far do you need to keep other's expectations on you in mind? Can you exercise freewill everywhere? When we seek support, are we strong enough to lend some too? When we seek solace somewhere, can we be a solace to someone else? Is this relative?! All tricky questions, I know! But as life is, the show must go on! Questions must not take too much of our mindspace, they can take Google's webspace instead. Thats why I prefer puking them all out on this tiny little online abode of mine!

Today, after ages, I had been to a temple. It was peaceful, no doubt! I have a tiny little objection to the way we worship. Why the aartis, poojas and all? I prefer a peaceful place where you go, pray, sit in calm and come back! I never found any such back home. Luckily in most of North India as I assume, they do not perform too many poojas and temples are peaceful. Back to business, at the temple today which I visited for the first time in my four yeard here, I read about Dada Bhagwan. He is one Mr. A.M. Patel who, on one fateful evening in June, 1953, met god in Surat Railway Station. I dont know how much I believe in that, but the writing there floored me. He attained self-realisation, relinquished worldly pleasures, and attained nirvana after that rendezvous with god. He understood life, happiness, truth and spirituality. I am just waiting for one such encounter with something, divine or demonic, wise or otherwise, which can drive me to solve all my puzzles on life!

The Harp Of India

2006-04-12T18:22:00.000+05:30

Why hang'st thou lonely on yon withered bough?

Unstrung for ever, must thou there remain;

Thy music once was sweet -- who hears it now?

Thus opined Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, about our motherland India. He meant that India was under the cruel cluthches of the British Empire and it needed independence. But today, as I see things around me, I cannot help but quote the same lines for I feel the music of India has again gone bitter.

After Independence, it was assumed the responsibility of young Indians to try and ameliorise the society and raise the living standards of the country. Coming from poor quantitative statistics, our national capital ranks a meagre 150 in the quality of living standards, citywise, which is something more than a shame especially when cities like capital of Senegal also beating it. And do we do anything about it? We shrug and leave it all to government.

For every endeavor like Bharat Uday Mission or Paritrana, theres a multi-crore scam in the national parliament. For every rupee collected at the crossroads by students to help poor and destitute, there's a crore being spent on a superstar shedding clothes at the closing ceremony of Commonwealth Games.

Now, the blame is not all on the government. The private sector isnt anything good. From banks to universities, everyone is equally unreliable. While there are banks, both public and private-owned, which pester customers with strikes and moratoriums, universities have found it necessary to follow suit. Students of an institute which was closed down unceremoniously are now pursuing a separate degree at our institute, thanks to some professors. There has also been an uproar lately about an institute hiking up its achievements to lure more students to pay fee to it. They give in to cheap tactics like a free laptop, foreign trip and what not!

Ok, if this has exhausted you, lets introspect! How focussed are we towards our country? How many of us have made atleast one genuine attempt to better the society. Leave alone making an attempt, how many of us refrained from making fun of persons who are sincerely patriotic? People want to earn in dollars and are crazy about the US. At the canteen today, I overheard a couple of juniors talking about the interview of a stripper (ya, you read it right!) whose show Prince Henry has watched. Now, what to say?! I was startled and disappointed, more because the guy was not disappointed that there was an interview of the stripper, but he was excited at the prospect of being a stripper who happened to perform in front of Henry. Amen!

I come back to room and I learn that there has been some tension due to stone-pelting in Bangalore, because a once-Super Star septuagenarian actor had passed away. Thats heights of going crazy!

Isnt this time to sit back, think and realise that we have been whiling away our time and have failed miserably in realising India as a nation. We have been doing India a gross injustice in return to what it has given us. All we are concerned is about heavy pay-packets and luxurious lives. We never talk of paying back. Leave alone the macro scale, coming to smaller things, to an institute where you have spent the best four years of your life, not many people have an idea or vision to pay it back once they settle in their lives. This probably may change when they realise what they would be missing once they are out of this place, but do we expect the same for a country? Do we expect everyone to go out of it and then realise its importance? Can't we do anything to make our society and in that same process ourselves better?

Probably, it is time for each one of us to say:
Harp of my country, let me strike the strain!

The Harp of India is a sonnet by Derozio

Seven - Straight From The Heaven

2006-04-10T20:26:00.000+05:30

When you have nothing to blog, answer a tag. Thats what I thought is the best way to update my blog.

So, here I come, thanks to Steve, writing seven things under several threads.

7 Things

I). I want to before I die
1. Buy my mother a Limousine :D
2. Float a magazine.
3. Talk in seven different languages. (The number, thanks to the tag :P)
4. Go on a Roadtrip in Southern India.
5. Tell my once in the history crush what she has lost in life by not talking to me.(Talk of settling scores :D)
6. Give an interview in BBC. (I know its impossible, but I need to fill up seven points here)
7. Tag everyone on my friends list :P

II). I can do
1. Keep Secrets.
2. Feel fully relaxed even when the situation is tensed.
3. Write a page on anything :P
4. Bore people the first time I meet them.
5. Listen to my fave songs for long hours.
6. Orkutting for long hours :D
7. Answer tags promptly :P

III). I say the Most
1. Maamaaa... (Undoubtedly)
2. Nee ayya
3. Awesome
4. Whtevr u say!
5. Chinnappaninchee ante!
6. Nachhaav
7. CENSORED (Blame it all on D Wing :P)
I just realised that there arent any words that I speak to everyone, each word is specific to some group. :P

IV). I cant do
1. Sleep in Noise
2. Stand LAN Gaming.
3. Approach a new girl voluntarily and talk to her.
4. Frown.
5. Feel tensed at small things.
6. Write a nice poem.
7. Flirt!

V). That attract me to opposite sex
1. Smile.
2. Eyes.
3. Dignity.
4. Grace.
5. Sense of Humor.
6. Innocence.
7. Faith in me. :)

VI). Celebrity Crushes
1. Sri Devi.
2. Zeenat Aman.
3. Angelina Jolie.
4. Preity Zinta
5. Priyanka Chopra.
6. Soha Ali Khan.
7. Amala Akkineni.
Believe me, I have had a very tough time populating this list! :(

VII). People I want to Tag
Now, I enjoy this and this is the most easiest part!

1. Rahul Pallerla (My first victim in every tag :D)
2. Saraswathi Mukkai
3. Reva Ananda
4. Sameer Morey
5. Sameer Dwivedi
6. Abhinav Srivastava (You can do it, bro!)
7. Naveen Kumar Reddy Sanivarapu(I believe that the best names are revealed at the last)

PS: Didnt use the pseudonym Chhara for Naveen. Sort of a gift for him! :) Oh! How generous of me?! :P

IE: Information Exploited

2006-04-05T22:57:00.000+05:30

Sometimes, I cannot help but wonder how people can exploit a piece of information by interpreting in ways a normal mind cannot and should not. AICTE has advertised in many leading national dailies recently stating that all technical institutes offering a degree need to be approved by or affiliated to AICTE. (See the ad here)

This caused a lot of anxiety to the students of our institute DA-IICT, who were later pacified by the Director in an open address to students stating that AICTE did not speak anything about universities. If you are a university and affiliate some other colleges, you were expected to be affiliated or approved or whatever by AICTE. We are the former, but not the latter. We are an aoutonomous university and so we do not need any AICTE backing. All we need is an apprval from the UGC, which we already have. We need not go to the AICTE now. If this were a sweet little heaven we built for ourselves and did not bother to check around, it would have been questionable. But then, we have the Supreme Court stating that universities need not be approved by AICTE. (Read here)

So, all's hunky dory right! But then, bystanders do want their bite of the pie and out of nowhere enters the scene stupid Indian Express which runs an article in the Ahmedabad Edition stating that DA-IICT students would be in a lurch. (Read here) The article was so preposterous coming from the stables of so-called renowned national English daily. It had no facts to quantify its claims. It states that students would not be able to pursue higher studies in renowned institutes. But, the first batch of students who graduated from DA-IICT study in world renowned institutes ranging from University of Florida to M.Techs in IIT. Students have not had any problem, after the initial friction with the IIMs whom we eventually won, in MBA admissions also. The article also quotes that the students would not be able to make jobs properly. Then, how come students have been recruited and are working in companies ranging from Texas Instruments to Human Factors International to Infosys? Companies of varied profiles pick students from here and they are happy with us.

Of course, we dont need to advertise ourselves. But, the point in question is the integrity of a daily like Indian Express. They cook up stories like these to fill up pages. They exploit the information at their hands and sensationalise stuff to sell their crap. Now, they could as well say that there have been speculations that not having an AICTE approval could jeopardise DA-IICT. But, what is a responsible media? Is it not the one which provides facts and educates people the veracity of claims and speculations? Is it not the one which provides information so as to put an end to speculations and shed light on the true status? In that sense, Indian Express should have actually provided analysis about the advertisement of AICTE and citing the case of Supreme Court judgement in the Bhartidasan case, it should have concluded that there is no need to worry! But then, it gave in to peurile methods to rake in moolah and killed the spirit of true journalism. People rever journalists and newspapers as intelligent people who provide genuine information, but then people like this malign the divine profession. Can't help it! An old adage in my native language says 'When an elephant walks, dogs bark.' Its the high and mighty that raise above these plebeian things and do not budge from their ideals. We are one such!

Read on the same topic at: Bhavesh and Rahul Bhaskar

Musings

2006-04-01T23:06:00.000+05:30

A peom by Ryokan at Poet Seers says 'You Do Not Need Many Things' in life. I was impressed by the heading. If we do not need many things, how many things do we need in life and what are they? One thing I liked immensely in one of the pictures I had seen of late is that you learn about yourself perfectly in life when you see someone who is as crazy as you. The imperfections and competencies that you see in the other person who is almost 'you' helps you to correct or motivate yourself. I really dont know how much of this is true, but I do feel we learn a lot from other people.

Some of these are people we try to emulate, those whom we see and those whom we dont. Sometimes, people tend to idolise others than trying to learn the good out of them. Of course, this is not the right example I know but I am robbed of choices, trying to immolate oneself for the sake of Sonia Gandhi or XYZ is one example. Amateur footballers idolising their favorite forwards, or moviegoers praying matinee idols, I feel we are getting it all wrong there. No wrong in liking someone or trying to say that they are good at their business, but is the craze justified? The craze for Sonia Gandhi to the craze of a college student for Man U, we use celebrities and matters of public prominence as tools for disputes. This does seem peurile, sometimes!

People take sides of politicians, parties, celebrities, sports persons but all in the wrong sense. This is an oft repeated cliche I agree! But, my viewpoint is that why do we tend to attach ourselves to things we dont see? If the adage 'Seeing is Believing' is true, then why dont we want to see something before we take its side or go against it? Some party makes a statement in Delhi and clashes break out in Hyderabad. Some star makes a statement in Mumbai and Lucknow goes berserk. People have frustration rooting in themselves for many small things but don't feel like letting it out and when they see a plausibility of letting it all out on someone they dont know for some reason they are unsure of, they go ahead and unload it. The reason: The repercussions are not individualistic and not direct! Moreover, no personal grudges and when they are pointed out, they can definitely say they have been driven into it. I agree that this is the case, but then what has to be done so that we transcend all these small things? Education! If that was the answer, why do students and educated classes fight, ofcourse not physically, over matters as childish that even an uneducated person would think twice before reacting?

All this is probably because we are always on a look out for something to put our anger on. Thats the reason we choose unconventional things like someone we like, someone we pray or someone we follow to pick a fight over. When guys pick up fights over filmstars and football clubs, I feel they are being utterly childish. Things that need utmost concern, like those in a college, are of no priority to them but what happens in a football club is more important. I consider anything or any person I dont see or havent seen as intangible and see no point in fighting for them or it, if I havent met them or been a part of it. How good is it to idolise some other human like us so much that we go to the extent of fighting for that person, esp when the person is neither a friend nor a person whom you have ever met. The worse thing is that the person you are trying to defend doesnt even know that a person called u exists nor would care to know anything about you. Then why do we waste time and effort trying to take sides? Why do we have to idolise these intangible things? People ask me if i like something or someone, I do say I like Amitabh or whoever, but I refrain from taking sides. Why should I? Why should I defend some person whom I have never seen or whom I would never see or rather, why that person to whom I am nothing? May sound preposterous or paranoid or whatever, but I am like this I guess! Take me for what I am. I feels its always better to defend and fight for your friends than some star or a club you like.

Being Naresh

2006-03-26T16:08:00.000+05:30

Just back from the movie 'Being Cyrus' and I must recommend it to one and all for its simple and effective story-telling. Movies apart, while on my way back, I was pondering upon the title of the movie. What it takes to be someone or something? Can we quantify it? Can I be someone and quantify it?

Okie, lemme try! Because I am nothing other than Naresh, I thought lemme think of what it takes and feels like 'Being Naresh'. Honestly, I feel we all grow till a certain time and then fit in everything else into that identity we have grown into in those times. The truest meaning of growth comes when we break these identities from time to time and discover and rediscover ourselves. Introspection probably pays more than seeing ourselves in the eyes of others. There are many aliases, but the real Naresh is something I dont have words to describe.

In that sense, does anyone really know what he/she is? How difficult or easy it is to be ourselves? I have always found it very easy and comfortable to be myself with very few persons and these are the persons I tag as 'Close Friends'. The others.... Probably its the case with everyone that we tend to take customisation a tad bit more seriously than it ought to be taken. We behave and reply to most of the people the way they want to listen us or want us to behave. We seldom be ourselves with people we faintly know. We actually meet people at a time, okie, these things are better explained with examples. We are comfortable at a different level with friends we met during school than with our contemporary friends. The comfort level ofcourse varies from person to person. I am all at ease with my college friends, but it may be otherwise for others. When with friends whom we left back in the lanes of time, we tend to fit ourselves into that identity which we garbed in those times. The reason might probably be that it is tough to get the person abreast with changes that occured in your life.

The only exception in such cases being again the 'Close Friends'. These are people who are a part and parcel of your daily life. These are people you share everything in your life with. So, when you meet them after a gap, as in Long Distance Relations, you can totally be at ease with yourself.

And when the groups you cater to or socialise with or whatever are sporadic and huge in number, each of those tends to associate you with some identity which you have been, and not necessarily what you are, at that time-stamp when you had left them.

So, if prudence prevails, we must make them aware of all the changes our lives have gone through hitherto from the time-stamp when we left them. This is ideal, but is it practical? Imagine friends you meet after 4-5 years and you know you are going to spend hardly 4-5 hours with them. So, what should be done? Give them the info of all those hardly interesting changes our lives have gone through or just get ourselves back into the mould which we were those 4-5 years back and while away those 4-5hours? I would prefer the second choice. You may accuse me of concealing myself, but I would see it as reminiscing and re-living myself to and identity that I was those good years back! And ofcourse, if it is someone whom you are not going to leave after that particular meeting it is apt to put them at par with changes in you and your life.

2

2006-03-22T19:38:00.000+05:30

I was born second in my family. Done my LKG twice (this is a personal close-to-heart achievement). Done my schooling in two schools. In fact, when I shifted to the second school, my parents had two schools in mind, and as luck would have it, I landed up in the second school because it was in reckoning then!

Then, in the school (of course the second) I was second when I passed out. Even when in it, I was considered second to another friend, but later surpassed him. No offence to him, just my number theory at work! After school, I opted for sciences and finally engineering beckoned. Like any other so called intelligent students, I too applied for IIT. It was my first choice. But then, Number Theory had to chip in and I landed at this institute, my second choice!

Here too, I realised that I had to study only in the second year, that too in its second part and finally on the verge of its completion, when I wanted to do an MBA and appeared for the much coveted CAT, it turned me down. Why wouldn't it? After all, it was my first choice right! So, there I attended interviews for IITs, my second choice. And I got short-listed in one of them, but in the waitlist, ironically at the number TWO! Sure that I will get in, but I am unsure why this two haunts me? I don't consider it bad, but I can't fathom its unprecedented love for me.
In fact for me, being second seems good. True that you don't get all the adulation, but you don't get all the brickbats too. In fact, I am not a person who can sit silent giving away someone else the lion's share. I love the policy of wait and watch. As my friend Rahul would put it, I belong to the 'Yes, But...' bunch!

I don't go on the aggressive mood right away. I test the waters before I dive. Before I get into something, I either do it myself at a lower level or I observe someone at it already. Doesn't that make being number two a safer bet?

When you stay number two, you work with people and observe how things get done. All the major headache goes to the number one. Once you get a proper hold of it, you can always be the number one. This wasn't or isn't my philosophy, but then trying to sleep for the second time today, I was just amused at how the number 2 has played with me.

Is this a co-incidence or is it a delusion? I am afraid it not the second of these too! :P

Idol

2006-03-17T15:41:00.000+05:30

There have been very few people whom I looked up to, apart from my parents and people I have known in close quarters. I dislike Gandhi, haven't read Martin Luther King nor do I appreciate Che Guevera. But, there is one man I have literally prayed ever since I knew about him, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio.

A man, or should I say a boy, who made a difference where it should be done. One of the main reasons behind Bengal Renaissance, Derozio was a force to reckon with! One of the reasons I idolise Derozio is because I want to be what he has been. He was a poet, a writer, an editor, a teacher and made a difference more to peers than sub-ordinates. At an age of 17, he was a professor at the Hindu College (later rechristened Presidency College), Calcutta. He inspired the youth there. With his Eurasian background, and strong depth of knowledge in English literature and free-thinking, he motivated them to think beyond the set paradigms. He showed them how to mend the borders and make a map for themselves.

Probably it was the Eurasian background or it was the schooling at Drummond's Academy, Derozio had a knack for English literature and wrote excellent poems. From patriotic poems to romance (often emulating Byron), Derozio seemed to ace it all. Derozio was appointed the professor of English Literature and History at the Hindu College in 1826. He propelled the students to think beyond the orthodox realms and always encouraged debate of opinions on all topics. He founded 'The Academic Association' where students and liberal thinkers would meet and discuss on rational ideas. But, people despised it in that era and finally he was dismissed from his job.

Two of Derozio's fire-brand teachings were:

'He who will not reason is a bigot, he who cannot reason is a fool, and he who does not reason is a slave.'
'Cast off your prejudices, and be free in your thought and actions. Break down everything old and rear in its stead what is new.'

Derozio made such huge an impact on the Bengali youth that he is considered one of the pillars of Bengal Renaissance. He was also an editor of The East Indian and contributed to Indian Gazette, The Calcutta Magazine etc... His shot to fame all across India is the long poem 'The Fakir of Jungheera: A Metrical Tale' which he built upon his childhood memories at Bhagalpur.

Then, the main reason why I idolise him is the fact that he did all this and much more before he was 22 itself, because he died of Cholera when he was 22. I, and most of my readers, are around the age of 22 as of now. So, what are we? Are we anyway closer to him? Have we made any difference like him? He did things in a rush, that did not mean he left his dreams. He pursued his dreams in a rush. So, what should we do? Rush to our goals or go easy and realise our dreams slowly, but steadily. Can't we try to be someone like him doing so much in so little time?

The best part of Derozio is that he is also considered a flash in the pan by some thinkers, they attribute all his teachings to his readings which included greats like that of David Hume. But, I, and many people who still believe in this lesser known Hero, beg to differ. He was indeed great!

One for the readers:
This is a piece by Derozio for his pupil at the Hindu College:

Expanding like the petals of young flowers
I watch the gentle opening of your minds
And the sweet loosening of the spell that binds
Your intellectual energies and powers
That stretch (like young birds in soft summer hours)
Their wings to try their strength. O! how the winds
Of circumstance, and freshening April showers
Of early knowledge, and unnumbered kinds
Of new perceptions shed their influence;
And how you worship truth's omnipotence!
What joyance rains upon me, when I see
Fame in the mirror of futurity,
Weaving the chaplets you have yet to gain,
And then I feel I have not lived in vain.

I want to do something that would assure me that I have not lived in vain! I know its too soon to ask, but what is the right time to achieve something good?

Rush

2006-03-16T22:02:00.000+05:30

We often read in biographies and history books that great thinkers would debate and discuss at cafeterias and eating joints about their theories and all. Don't know if it is to emphasize their involvement so gargantuan that they think even at luncheons and all or to make a point that chilling-out joints make you think, but I am sure that banter at our own galla sure does make me think sometimes!

Been there after quite sometime today and was sitting there with a group of people, and caught the sight of two young kids playing behind us. One of them was indulged in himself, thinking to himself. I wondered at how impressionable we, as children, were. There was a rush to be someone, to do something dad did or to use something elder siblings did. We were all so very gullible that we wanted to be printed by what others did. Of course, that kid was not truly a kid, at least according to me after listening to him speak. He effortlessly blurted out some serious expletives, which my ethics and writing etiquette prohibit from putting here. In fact, this is one of the ills of being impressionable. We fancy using foul language that elders use.

Being almost graduates, we are still in that rush, a weird rush to be someone else overnight. Probably, I may not be true enough to generalise it to the wider demographic. But, I find myself in a rush sometimes! A mad rush to achieve everything I want, all at a time. The last one month one of the most common questions I have been asked was where I see myself ten years down the line. I wanted to say why wait ten years, I want to be and do anything and everything I ever wished to be overnight. We, or at least most of us, have given some or the other exam for Masters and have applied to some place or the other. It is common observation that none of us have the patience to wait for the process to get over and the results to arrive, at least me! Not that I am keeping fingers crossed or am overtly tensed about it. In fact, I couldn't care less if the results were all against me. But, there is some rush, something in me that wants to get done with things.

At this crossroads, there is a rush to follow and pursue dreams, rush to apply for anything that can stabilise the supply of green notes into my pocket, rush to settle many things personally and a rush to rich, famous and powerful! But, then maturity is all about having the patience to hold your nerve and see through the entire process, anything it be. Isn't it? But then, when we know that we can't bend the tree, why hang on to that last branch?

Two paisa of thought

2006-03-14T17:33:00.000+05:30

Everything in this world exists in pairs! This is a cheesy line that earned me an easy A in one of my courses an year back. But on retrospection, it does seem very right. The most fascinating two I always reflect upon is Good and Bad.
We are in a world, where we want to pick up things, sort them into two types and then bring them together, so as to erase the differences and then deliberate upon them with each of us pumping in our own two pence on what exactly is the difference between any given two, how similar they are and what exactly is delineating them!
We divided ourselves into men and women. We said Men will earn and women will cook, then we realised it wasnt to be so. We amended and finally today we say they are equal and we have unending debates on whats the difference between men and women and how equal or unequal they are.
Coming to my fascination, I dont think there have been many persons whom I percieved entirely to be the same all through my relation with them. They have changed, they have evolved I say. But, the bottomline seems to be that the way I look at them has changed. Thats all. They were, are and will be the same. Impression lies in the perception of the perciever!
I feel someone's good and someone's bad. But, whom am I to rate them? Am I considered worthy enough by them that I can rate them? Can only good rate or can even those percieved as bad be daring enough to percieve someone as good and someone else as bad. In the world I live, the 50-acre wide heaven for me as I see it or haven for lazy people as you see it, I have never been percieved the same way by people all these four years. I can bet a fortune on that. Nor have I thought of everyone the same way as I think of them now. Some respect levels increased, some hostilities drooped and some things just got cut off!
But why?! Something that doesnt appeal to me, might be life for someone else. Some simple thing that I like might be loathed by others. Recently I saw a movie and termed it good, and a friend whom I consider among the most closest of mine, said it was bad. So, is there any commom platform from where we look at and judge things? Should there be one? Banning orkut on my college server was bad for me, but it was good for the authorities. Of course, after a dialogue that ensued, things settled. Does that mean something bad turned good or vice-versa over that dialogue? Does that mean we can change anything we want with some dialogue? Are we that powerful or we so measly that we accept the malaise we live in and continue being morons.
We are in situations when we are insecure, scared, frightened, joyous, boisterous and what not. Sometimes we want to change the situation we live in, we want to turn life into terms of out own. Is that good? Should we try to transcend all nature and change what we cannot? Or should we just feel despondent and accept what ever is being served to us? Is trying to take control of things good? Or, is cribbing over not being able to do so bad? Or, are they just one and the same? Should we discuss on how close, yet how apart they are? What should be our duty?
If something is not in our favor, is it good or bad? Its bad for me. Then, if by some other metric it is held to be good, does that mean I am bad? Is anything that negates good bad and vice-versa?
Are there really just two things that exist in this world or is it just one same thing which we percieve to be two, and deliberate on it? What is it?