Eulogies and thereon….

The past one year has been laden with demise of numerous noted figures: Shammi Kapoor, Dev Anand, Dara Singh, Jagjit Singh, Rajesh Khanna to name a few. An air of sadness surfaces with such unexpected events, and those who care and are genuinely concerned must get affected also.

The stars who left us weigh heavy in stature at some point or the other. They all had talent widely celebrated and made tall contribution to the society in their hay days; some even died working. Among them were those who faced frailty both in health and stardom with growing age and widening gap.

It won’t be an exaggeration to say that some lived a depressed, dilapidated life as stardom dissociated itself from them.  With advent of internet and media, a business that has flourished the most in the wake of such events is of Eulogy. R.I.P, a term that I believe Hindu middle class was ever oblivious of, has now become obvious and a must know.

As the star takes his last breath, every news channel has to carry a breaking news tag – so and so died. Some will go to an extent to state – we are the first one to report the death owing to our deep connections in the family. In no time, netizens spring to action and what follows is a flood of RIPs. Some get creative and upload lyrical text, pictures, videos, audios, and many more.

 The sight has often perplexed me as I think to myself – did anyone care when they were alive? By having decorated, cosmetic concerning posts, are we celebrating their life or death? Often than not those who are the most excited are among the least informed on the person, leave aside having emotional bond or attachment. Then you have fellow FBians liking and commenting on each others’ posts.   

The classic case is of Rajesh Khanna. I have watched quite a few of his movies. I always liked him and somewhat aware of his stardom and superstar status. I also heard stories about he was sidelined and suddenly brought to pits from the height that he had achieved in his not so long career.

It seemed from reports in media that he did not live a happy life ever since he lost his star tag. His personal life was ruined as his close ones alienated him. He was not given due respect and attention by the industry as he grew older. People would mock at his state of being and rarely visit him to check on his health and well being. I think all had kept it in reserve and were waiting for him to die.

His death on the other hand appeared to be a two day festival celebrated across the country. Internet, TV and newspapers all flooded with his photographs and great wordings on him and his work. Something that late Rajesh Khanna would have appreciated and enjoyed had even 1/10^th of this fanfare was bestowed upon him while he was alive. His appearance in Havells commercial testifies the fact that he longed for recognition and fanfare.

He might have tried to make an appeal through the commercial but that too was mowed down by us. He left gasping for more from life and his fans. I do not wish to come across critical of this trend, but yes I am amazed at life and its mean ways. It is heartening to see Mr. Dilip Kumar, another phenomenon, being celebrated in his lifetime. The industry does turn up to celebrate his birthday. 

Anushka defies definition of archetypical men and teaches a lesson or two about dirty habits

In a cluttered environment of TV commercials today, we see biggies such as SRK donning different avatars every other day to keep toothpaste brand alive in a highly competitive market while on the other hand someone as tall in stature as Amitabh Bachchan trying to connect with kids for Maggie. Perhaps a few but there exists a cohort that is churning out intelligently thought-after TV commercials that live up to traditional techniques of positioning and are succeeding in carving a niche.

My personal favorite of late has been the campaign by a new brand called Kara in a relatively virgin market of hygiene and personal care for men. The product here in hand is facial cleansing wipes. I first used such facial wipe not so long ago, offered by a female friend, and then a few times on Kingfisher airlines which is sadly flying low these days. Hope its demise is not caused by overburdening cost of these wipes.  

I can recollect my friend’s exact words when she offered me a facial wipe. She said, ‘you will like it for it is wet, cold and fragrant. It will help you beat the heat.’ I too liked it, perhaps for sheer novelty, but would never imagine buying it myself. I always thought wet tissues/facial wipes are meant for women. It is cosmetic essential. Nor did any women I got in contact with ever frowned or stopped me from using my handkerchief for wiping my face. It was never meant to be a social faux pas as blowing your nose, burping, or farting in public gathering would be.

This commercial further pushes the envelope and gives a new height to the concept of Metrosexuality. It is in your face content wherein actress Anushka Sharma presented as icon for today’s brimming with confidence, young women brigade stares into guys face and teach them a new term called ‘DIRTY HABIT’.

The guys have grown-up caring two hoots for what their parents taught them about good and bad habits. A philosophy that defines an archetypical men in our society is “Shero Ne Kabhi Mu Dhoya Hai” / “Have tigers ever washed face”. Now these are the same guys who are being intimidated by same age women. And not to anyone’s surprise there are plenty to follow the path shown by fellow girls.

Going further into the commercial, Anushka brings about a fact that you should not wipe your face with the handkerchief that you use to wipe your arms or neck with. Doing that would qualify you to be stung by dirty habits and cause as much loss as a girl that you desire to marry. I am sure this commercial would not have caught my attention had it been targeted to women.

A new brand one would imagine vies for share in most obvious established market before venturing into a new territory. But, achievers defy the set rules and create their own. Full respect to Aditya Birla Group, owners of brand Kara, and the creative agency to come up with a highly impactful campaign and hitting the nail on its head.

It will not only make men conscious but also wake-up women to this fact. The commercial directly may not hit the TG and get influx of new business; I assume it will have a gradual effect. It is capable of bringing a new air of change in attitudes. I suspect girls to be more receptive of this commercial and they in turn will coax boys to get rid of the handkerchief for face and switch onto using wipes.

However, the only impediment that I see here is a logistical catch. Men on the go do not carry an accommodating purse as women do. They will face challenge in carrying a pack of wipes because the available space in trouser's pockets is occupied by the other three essentials – cash, handkerchief and mobile. It will be farfetched to say that this product is capable of replacing cotton handkerchief for men. I hope this down side has been registered by the propellers of the brand and are looking into it.

All in all a delight for sucker for good ideas and creative execution.

CAR'NAMA' – Gaadi Ki Sawari!

Hello! It is good to be back after a gap of two weeks. All this while I went through a range of issues and thoughts that pushed me to write, but due to paucity of time, or so called my clock-by-clock routine, could not make it. I am not saying this only to my fellow readers, who I am not sure whether really care, but also to this page who I promised to give my company as much as possible.

Nonetheless, as I sit to write I am going through a range of compelling thoughts, some of which I shared with my new friend Nishtha. Just to let you know, she is impeccable with words and very elegant at expressions. I have met a very few who have as vast vocabulary as she has. I know she usually reads my posts, so many congratulations to her.

I am quite inspired to write about two topics – My fetish for workout and Rahul Dravid. I am sorry I cannot explain why Rahul Dravid in a few lines here. I would rather wait until I finally write about him. The third element that has occupied most of my mental space of late is Car.

Yes, Car. I do not have a Car! I do not drive a Car! It is a confession that I am making, and I do not really feel inferior without a Car.

Before I go any further I want to apologies to all my well wishers who might take offence at this post. And make it clear that I do not write this to show anyone down. You all have been those few ones who I would love to share my happiness and sorrow with. However, I write this to put down what I go through and how I see what I hear and made to feel every now and then.

It is great to own and drive a car. And I very well understand the fact that it is more a necessity in current times than luxury. I will not get into explanation of why I do not have a car. I am more interested in sharing – how I am expected to own a car, why I must have a car, and how is life without a car.

Just to set the pretext before I could dwell over these questions – we never had a vehicle in our family! It was not so much of a trouble until a few years ago. It is not that much of a handicap now also, but somehow I am reminded more about it than ever before. Perhaps one of the reasons could be earlier my financial status was not so sound that I was expected to buy a car. May be now I am! This is not the end of a story. I am also of a marriageable age.

I am sure very few of you would refute that and understand the direct correlation between marriage and owning a car. It is quite obvious now in most of the sects in our society. Otherwise what will my the bride’s father consider and see in me or my family for her daughter. The flip side is if I already have a car, even a second hand, I am likely to get another, fresh one in my marriage as a gift, or if you were to put it crudely, in dowry. Should be an effective profit proposition!

There is many a slip between the cup and the lip. Not everyone is alike. Keeping the morality aside, it is still not a very attractive one. Anyhow, now when I meet people it is taken for granted that I must have a car. Sometimes it is brought up in conversation and that leaves me in lurch whether to correct them or skip the topic. If correct them, then whether to give them an explanation or not.

Ownership of certain ‘must-haves’ is definitely a step ahead in your life. It pushes you up in status ladder. But for some reason if you could not have it at the opportune time or chose to opt out or postpone it till a certain point in future, could this become a matter of great embarrassment and concern?

In my experience, to an extent yes! My father never had it or for that matter many in my relatives and friends did not have it even when they could afford it, nobody questioned and no haste. It would have been totally fine. Not Now!

In my view, it has largely to do with easy access. Earlier loans were not in; less people sought credit from banks. Even banks did not push loans and related schemes down to your throat. Now, you get loan even if you sneezed. And that has made attachments such as ‘ownership of a car’ at a certain level very obvious.

There is one more insight that I have gathered from people who had their eyebrows up on knowing the reality. I do not think it would be exaggeration if I said that quite a few of us are often than not interested in knowing the status of the other person from his/her clothing, sense of style, speaking, etc. And then are the same people who sadly give-in to others’ intimidation and try to live-up to their scrutiny of us.

We must stand for who we are and what we have! We grow to enrich our lives for our wellbeing. Others saw even when did not have and will see whenever we have!

On tactical side, as I said earlier, there is many a slip between the cup and the lip. I wish our roads and infrastructure had not contracted with growing economy and evolving society, lesser mortals like me could afford safe parking and enjoy “GAADI KI SAWARI”. :)

Rowdy, abrasive, offensive, attacking...can we do it with all?  

I stepped out of Gangs of Wasseypur (GoW) perplexed and melancholic. Aesthetically speaking, this film was at par with previous films of this genre such as Omkara, The Dirty Picture, Once Upon a Time, Pan Singh Tomar and more. I am personally a keen watcher of this kind of cinema and appreciate good work by all the departments of film making.

GoW crossed all the lines and was in your face experience. It epitomizes profanity and machismo, I am afraid to use the term male chauvinism as my male readers may tag me feminist if I tried to show them in bad light in any way. It was less about honor and ego but more about exhibiting creative use of foul language, rowdiness in men, and men’s ways with women’s integrity.

There were sequences which provoked response from ‘guys’ in the audience. I would imagine men among guys would refrain from acting frivolous in public; therefore I am using the term ‘guys’. The response induced was not an applaud but proxy dialogues – highly condemning to say the least – as they were disrespectful towards women and, to a large extent, showcasing them as no more than sex objects.

I am sure the filmmaker read well about the life back then in Bihar however he did not take enough care to show it with great authenticity. In an attempt to make the film commercially viable, he brought in lousiness and frivolity. If the film was meant to be docudrama, educating masses of agitation among cartels post independence, then I would say it did not succeed fully to do so. I doubt many will remember the story more than frantic dialogues.

Such films are entertainers, make you laugh, great deal of art direction and impeccable actors put together an ensemble worth loud applause. However, only for and by the audience that has active faculty called Discretion. There exists a large section of society which is highly susceptible to such content. They can get inspired negatively and are likely to exhibit such behavior in real life.

It was only an intuition when I got out of the theatre but was stamped confirmed by an incident I witnessed in my neighborhood the same night. It was a case of altercation between two neighbors. And it suddenly got intensified to an extent that both families resorted to manhandling and violence. I would not say both the families are the most literate in the colony but decently educated and civilized (now I am doubtful whether they actually are).

I do not know the real reason of the brawl but from what it appeared it started off with verbal exchanges which turned to physical attack. Not that it was for the first time I was witnessing scuffle. The most astonishing bit was young boys in their teens battling from the front. The language was at its worst – I could imagine characters in the movie GoW or others in these guys – that too against women. They showed little hesitance in attacking women with baton and pelting stones at them.

By no means could quarrels like that be passed ‘usual’. They definitely give us a hint that exposure that we are provided is doing little or no good, if not exactly bad, to budding generation. Levels of patience are ever decreasing. We are prompted to raise voice and hands against the weak in wake of protection of honor. There is no sense of respect against elderly and fair sex. And speaking of sex, if it does not come easy, then go and grab it is the attitude. Even if that meant going to the extent of molestation or committing rape.

Our society has matured; level of understanding and exposure is far greater than ever before. Kids are smarter; some say new generation is born with three DNA strands whereas our ancestors had only two DNA strands. More the DNA strands more the intelligence.

At the same time there are rising levels of shrewdness, killer instincts, impatience and abrasiveness. 

Movies too have matured with content being set amidst society. Stories are excavated from past, many a time not too rosy and uplifting. We are tagged to be ‘Accepting bold content’. Yes, we are definitely growing in all aspects but in very small proportion. Not all are ready for such high speed, naked truth of life. Many can get swayed away like those young chaps willfully attacking women with words and baton.

It is great to be back here after a gap of few weeks……….!!!! :) :) :) :) :) Did you miss me??????

You might be wondering what the hell on earth is wrong with him. Well, I won’t be surprised even if you didn’t find it amusing. This is exactly how some of us communicate today! Isn’t it?

The exclamation and punctuation marks are used to create dramatization. We may not be good actors on stage but out here we leave no stone unturned, or should I say no punctuation as it should be, to exhibit emotions through our written communication. We intended to have our readers read much more than our sentences are capable of expressing.

Perhaps the idea is to give facelift to our written expressions by decking them up with exaggeration. A never ending ellipsis (… /….) might be applied to say, ‘dude, this is how far I went to bring my girlfriend back’, or ‘this was exactly the length of her cleavage, if I gauged it right’.

The funniest being multiple use of question mark (?) – ‘??????’. In my mind I can imagine only two things – anxious and frowning face of the grumpy sender or bandarwal (decorative-cum-good luck sign at the entry gate of the houses of Hindus).

:) :) :) :) Though does not appear to be as alarming and offensive as the ones above, yet it is hard to imagine the sender’s giggling face on laptop screen. All the more a tasteless imagination if the sender had two teeth missing from the front. :) 

Nonetheless an innovation of a sort by lingo laded communicators of today!

The only downside to this in my mind is underestimation of one’s personality. If I am inquiring about something from someone my purpose should be established by brevity and selection of appropriate words rather than wasting space and dirtying the slate like this. The language is already abused in many ways, referring to shorthand writing by netizens, leaving punctuation marhs to their original self can only do good.


There is no greater power than word power....Empower thyself! :) Koi shaq?

IIMs, ISBs - Janambhoomi of ‘mythical’ legends  

Although MBA is something that occupies a lot of bytes in my mind space; however, it never struck to me until today that it could be a matter to write about here. Having a branded diploma in MBA/PGDBA/PGDM (there must be more nomenclatures that I can speak off the cough) for sure assures a large sum of money and with it certain imagery among coworkers and those who are aware of the stamp on your back.

In my previous companies I never had MBAs from aspiring league so I had not much knowledge of how well received they are in real world. Of course, a sense of awe, the wow factor was always there for such colleges. Whereas my current organization is full of IITians, IIMs, ISBs, and some have in their immediate families Oxfords and Harvards of the world.  Yes, you have thought it right; I at times find myself out of place and dwarf among such giant figures.

But this is not the case that got me into writing this post. I am trying to look at it from brand perspective. How what we wear, where we eat, what we drive, where we live can create an impression among people, similarly where we have studied also creates imagery. Not just that, here I would like to stress that the former aspects are unwrapped gradually whereas having a stamp from an aspiring league spreads like fire in forest. There is sudden recognition, buzz around the workplace that such and such person from such and such institution has joined at such and such position at such and such package.

Mind you! It does not necessarily end here. Seldom people like to test your ability or to show you down. In all likelihood your intelligence is taken for granted and if you performed reasonably well, your co-colleagues will do the rest. How you are spoken about goes something like this – “Huh! he/she is from ISB/IIM; ought to be good. There acumen is very sharp; too good at grasping. I am sure one year of rigorous course has done this to him/her. Lucky him/her – ISB, IIM! Different league altogether you know!”

I hope I am not exaggerating but it gives a birth to LEGEND in you. As you move out of the brand factory, a mythical legend is already born in you then whether you actually end up doing something exceptional in your work life is beside the point. In whatever little I have seen of corporate, name of the college you come from is not just printed in your CV but also on the others lips. It is more like Chinese whispers – spreads from one to another.

I am not averse to the idea of MBA or related courses. I am sure they must do world of good in your understanding and overall personality. Yes, I am quite surprised at the fringe benefits that you get as dividend to hefty one time fees that you pay. It is largely to do with our society I believe which is so stuck up on names and titles that it does not let anyone get of the pedestal and recognize raw talent.

Either you get ready to take chances and stick to your guns for indefinite period to prove your mettle in corporate world or take a short but expensive route to have others salute you or, should I say, your label.

You can find your Hamburg in about 10,000 hours from now!

I had my heart in my mouth when a few minutes from taking the stage Partho said he was not sure what was he there for? And he had not done something like that for a long long time. He further added 90 minutes for him to deliver his message to that large an audience could be a bit too short a time.

Perhaps it could have been a disaster had it not for Parthos’ crystal clear thoughts and innate talent to calmly and quietly present himself before the audience. He is a 50 years old, posture slightly tilted forward, long salt-n-pepper hair, broad eyes, and shining face. His voice is his asset – it comes out so clean and clear like sound of water from the water fall. His style of speaking leaves one with awe.

However, you must be thinking that those who are articulate and sound terrific may not always be most relevant and lucid, but trust me he was. H e may have had little or no idea about why he was there but he had something worthwhile that he could leave behind with most of us present there. His style was benign, far from being forceful; he was neither a sage nor a corporate czar.

Before he proceeded further he set everyone’s expectations right by making a point that neither he was there to deliver a lecture nor did he expect to change anyone’s life for good. Most he could do was to open windows for those listening to him. He called himself an educationist who only knew how to bring one to know oneself. He did not understand corporate language – EBIT, Targets, etc. What he had was answers for some questions such as what are organizations made of, how ambitions could not be enough for a happy and content being, what is passion, love for work, and excellence.

 And he did succeed in opening windows for many, including me!

He made some statements which took many by surprise. He said “Ambitions are not good as they make you restless, angry, give birth to feeling of jealousy and politics in the cohort.” To which he further elucidated – Ambition should be replaced with attaining Excellence. And Excellence can only be achieved with calmness and patience. He spoke of Kungfu and football where terrific and excellent players/masters display stillness in being and calmness in midst of chaos and havoc. Those who are aiming Excellence are unhurt by successes of others; they are silently improving their own game even when others are taking the front stage.

In one of his answers of the audience question he said “Passion cannot be created for work”. He added, “You are in the wrong job if you are not passionate about it”. He then thought over what he just said for a while and responded to the next obvious question - what one should do then? You have a person dependent on a certain job and not passionate about it.

He came up with a flash of brilliance. He said one thing that all can be and should be passionate about is Excellence. You must look for excellence in whatever you are thrown into! And, in my personal opinion too, each one of us must have this approach as it not only can see us through our lives but can also make us meet what has always eluded us.

It is true in my case at least that I have mostly hoped for better and seldom tried to go deep into my work and master it in all possible senses. Usually for all of us the End takes precedence over the Means! In today’s times of struggle for survival what we need the most is awareness of ourselves and purity in action.

It is so true for a footballer that in midst of high decibel noise he takes the corner and with his poise he lifts the ball through the goalpost. He may be hearing those sounds but still he is connected with himself, listening to his heartbeat and joining every dot in his mind that takes him pass the goalpost. Stillness in action is the secret behind a man who in real sense has arrived in life.

Taking reference from Outliers, I sign out – You can find your Hamburg in about 10,000 hours from now! Those interested to know the story behind this phrase can write or call. Keep improving, keep rocking!