Hindhe Hogi Hindhe Hogi
(Go Back Go Back)
Ashtondh jaga edhe alli
(There is so much space there)
Yaralli ticket?
(Buy your tickets)
sounded the bus conductor of a typical BMTC bus. The bus is packed with human beings worried about getting a seat rather than being happy that he is still alive with that 2% of oxygen available in that steel compartment. There is barely any space for people to stand inside the bus in spite of which the bus driver diligently stops at every stop and for every other person who waves his hand to take that ride. Meanwhile the conductor is only bothered about the space that he can still create to accommodate another 15 of them irrespective of the truth that people press into each other in order to enable the bus driver to close the doors. As the people are trying hard to find some space to hold on to themselves with the help of the rods the conductor wades through the crowd like a fish in the water. Genetically, bus conductors are born so thin that they can squeeze through and fit themselves anywhere. This acts negatively on the healthy people who are on his bus. As he goes about his duty of issuing tickets he makes sure he gets the required attention from the people who usually are not prone to carry the exact change. As he swings himself from one side to the other in tandem to the driver's driving he randomly makes a comment on that poor girl's size who is finding it hard to let the conductor squeeze past her. Conductor do justice to their jobs by unwantedly raising their voice as if it provided some kind of a bonus to the compensation that they already receive.
The same nature is inversed if the conductor knows that a few girls whom he knows is on the bus. Then he acts all civilized. He mellows down his voice and you will find him flirting with those college going kids with a sly smile on his face. Begins his writing work on that one sheet of paper that he holds with a cardboard beneath it. Then his conversation topic undergoes metamorphosis from abusing the next bus driver who is speeding past his bus to homely matters! Suddenly it strikes him that he has to keep a tab on the collection obtained with that trip and starts counting notes. He becomes conscious of the fact that 'Ladies' seat belongs to the same gender and not the other.
You have been comfortably seated on that bus and the person sitting next to you gets down at his stop. Then there is a bull fight for that one seat in the process of which your expensive 'Catwalk' shoes gets stamped. Now the worst part is the lady sitting opposite to you facing you has a kindergarten kid in her hand. That kid is up to mischief and keeps kicking your black formal pants soiling your clothes that was worn intended to impress your client so that you get the required hike during your appraisal period. As you are recuperating from the heartbreak of having gotten up in the morning to iron that pant you will feel somebody rubbing against you. As you raise your head you will find that the conductors ass is rubbing against your shoulder as he is trying to balance himself. This just adds to your frustration and more creepy thoughts are churned in your head. Is he doing it on purpose!?Omg! He is rubbing it on my clean shirt!?Duhh.. he stinks! why can't he take a shower and come? and so on..
Amidst all this there will be a handsome looking techie who would have just hopped on the bus with his huge laptop bag from the front door. As he is up to enlightening your mood the conductor is right there to grab all the limelight from him and whine about the huge bag that he has on him which consumes so much space and shoos him away to the back only to reassure the guys in the bus that only I get to be there(among the ladies)!This might appear to be heart breaking for guys who would want to stand next to their chicks and make random conversation during the ride! With so much happening around you fail to notice that your cleavage is visible. Suddenly you will notice a dozen pair of eyes gaping at you like you just stole their virginity! This is the time when you realize that it's a taboo if girls showed their cleavage even by mistake while they have all the rights reserved to fantasize them secretly!
Finally by the time you have to get down at your stop there is a plethora of thoughts running in your head that leaves you drained with all the positivity required to start your day at office with much more to handle there!
Friday, December 9, 2011
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Ode to the Nice Guys
This is a tribute to the nice guys. The nice guys that finish last, that never become more than friends, that endure hours of whining and bitching about what assholes guys are, while disproving the very point. This is dedicated to those guys who always provide a shoulder to lean on but restrain themselves to tentative hugs, those guys who hold open doors and give reassuring pats on the back and sit patiently outside the changing room at department stores. This is in honor of the guys that obligingly reiterate how cute/beautiful/smart/funny/sexy their female friends are at the appropriate moment, because they know most girls need that litany of support. This is in honor of the guys with open minds, with laid-back attitudes, with honest concern. This is in honor of the guys who respect a girl’s every facet, from her privacy to her theology to her clothing style.
This is for the guys who escort their drunk, bewildered female friends back from parties and never take advantage once they’re at her door, for the guys who accompany girls to bars as buffers against the rest of the creepy male population, for the guys who know a girl is fishing for compliments but give them out anyway, for the guys who always play by the rules in a game where the rules favor cheaters, for the guys who are accredited as boyfriend material but somehow don’t end up being boyfriends, for all the nice guys who are overlooked, underestimated, and unappreciated, for all the nice guys who are manipulated, misled, and unjustly abandoned, this is for you.
This is for that time she left 40 urgent messages on your cell phone, and when you called her back, she spent three hours painstakingly dissecting two sentences her boyfriend said to her over dinner. And even though you thought her boyfriend was a chump and a jerk, you assured her that it was all ok and she shouldn’t worry about it. This is for that time she interrupted the best killing spree you’d ever orchestrated in GTA3 to rant about a rumor that romantically linked her and the guy she thinks is the most repulsive person in the world. And even though you thought it was immature and you had nothing against the guy, you paused the game for two hours and helped her concoct a counter-rumor to spread around the floor. This is also for that time she didn’t have a date, so after numerous vows that there was nothing “serious” between the two of you, she dragged you to a party where you knew nobody, the beer was awful, and she flirted shamelessly with you, justifying each fit of reckless teasing by announcing to everyone: “oh, but we’re just friends!” And even though you were invited purely as a symbolic warm body for her ego, you went anyways. Because you’re nice like that.
The nice guys don’t often get credit where credit is due. And perhaps more disturbing, the nice guys don’t seem to get laid as often as they should. And I wish I could logically explain this trend, but I can’t. From what I have observed on campus and what I have learned from talking to friends at other schools and in the workplace, the only conclusion I can form is that many girls are just illogical, manipulative bitches. Many of them claim they just want to date a nice guy, but when presented with such a specimen, they say irrational, confusing things such as “oh, he’s too nice to date” or “he would be a good boyfriend but he’s not for me” or “he already puts up with so much from me, I couldn’t possibly ask him out!” or the most frustrating of all: “no, it would ruin our friendship.” Yet, they continue to lament the lack of datable men in the world, and they expect their too-nice-to-date male friends to sympathize and apologize for the men that are jerks. Sorry, guys, girls like that are beyond my ability to fathom. I can’t figure out why the connection breaks down between what they say (I want a nice guy!) and what they do (I’m going to sleep with this complete ass now!). But one thing I can do, is say that the nice-guy-finishes-last phenomenon doesn’t last forever. There are definitely many girls who grow out of that train of thought and realize they should be dating the nice guys, not taking them for granted. The tricky part is finding those girls, and even trickier, finding the ones that are single.
So, until those girls are found, I propose a toast to all the nice guys. You know who you are, and I know you’re sick of hearing yourself described as ubiquitously nice. But the truth of the matter is, the world needs your patience in the department store, your holding open of doors, your party escorting services, your propensity to be a sucker for a pretty smile. For all the crazy, inane, absurd things you tolerate, for all the situations where you are the faceless, nameless hero, my accolades, my acknowledgement, and my gratitude go out to you. You do have credibility in this society, and your well deserved vindication is coming.
This is for the guys who escort their drunk, bewildered female friends back from parties and never take advantage once they’re at her door, for the guys who accompany girls to bars as buffers against the rest of the creepy male population, for the guys who know a girl is fishing for compliments but give them out anyway, for the guys who always play by the rules in a game where the rules favor cheaters, for the guys who are accredited as boyfriend material but somehow don’t end up being boyfriends, for all the nice guys who are overlooked, underestimated, and unappreciated, for all the nice guys who are manipulated, misled, and unjustly abandoned, this is for you.
This is for that time she left 40 urgent messages on your cell phone, and when you called her back, she spent three hours painstakingly dissecting two sentences her boyfriend said to her over dinner. And even though you thought her boyfriend was a chump and a jerk, you assured her that it was all ok and she shouldn’t worry about it. This is for that time she interrupted the best killing spree you’d ever orchestrated in GTA3 to rant about a rumor that romantically linked her and the guy she thinks is the most repulsive person in the world. And even though you thought it was immature and you had nothing against the guy, you paused the game for two hours and helped her concoct a counter-rumor to spread around the floor. This is also for that time she didn’t have a date, so after numerous vows that there was nothing “serious” between the two of you, she dragged you to a party where you knew nobody, the beer was awful, and she flirted shamelessly with you, justifying each fit of reckless teasing by announcing to everyone: “oh, but we’re just friends!” And even though you were invited purely as a symbolic warm body for her ego, you went anyways. Because you’re nice like that.
The nice guys don’t often get credit where credit is due. And perhaps more disturbing, the nice guys don’t seem to get laid as often as they should. And I wish I could logically explain this trend, but I can’t. From what I have observed on campus and what I have learned from talking to friends at other schools and in the workplace, the only conclusion I can form is that many girls are just illogical, manipulative bitches. Many of them claim they just want to date a nice guy, but when presented with such a specimen, they say irrational, confusing things such as “oh, he’s too nice to date” or “he would be a good boyfriend but he’s not for me” or “he already puts up with so much from me, I couldn’t possibly ask him out!” or the most frustrating of all: “no, it would ruin our friendship.” Yet, they continue to lament the lack of datable men in the world, and they expect their too-nice-to-date male friends to sympathize and apologize for the men that are jerks. Sorry, guys, girls like that are beyond my ability to fathom. I can’t figure out why the connection breaks down between what they say (I want a nice guy!) and what they do (I’m going to sleep with this complete ass now!). But one thing I can do, is say that the nice-guy-finishes-last phenomenon doesn’t last forever. There are definitely many girls who grow out of that train of thought and realize they should be dating the nice guys, not taking them for granted. The tricky part is finding those girls, and even trickier, finding the ones that are single.
So, until those girls are found, I propose a toast to all the nice guys. You know who you are, and I know you’re sick of hearing yourself described as ubiquitously nice. But the truth of the matter is, the world needs your patience in the department store, your holding open of doors, your party escorting services, your propensity to be a sucker for a pretty smile. For all the crazy, inane, absurd things you tolerate, for all the situations where you are the faceless, nameless hero, my accolades, my acknowledgement, and my gratitude go out to you. You do have credibility in this society, and your well deserved vindication is coming.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
GO AFTER YOUR DREAMS Education is studying what you want, not what somebody else prescribes for you
“Many men go fishing all their life without knowing it is not fish they are after” said Henry David Thoreau. The words fit well for the youth of today who are on the look-out for jobs with fat salaries, thinking that would ensure them a happy future. But the increasing suicide rates and broken marriages among the IT professionals tell a completely different story.
Too many among us are afraid to be ourselves, so we give up our dreams to follow the crowd. Beginning from a student who gives up his passion for music to get into a software profession to the parents who, knowing that their son is a good cricketer, force him to take up mathematics which never seems to enter his head. It seems like the whole meaning of education has changed over the years. Learning classical music, Bharatanatyam, art and craft are no more considered education.
Education is something that fetches you a fat salary and power. Doing something for the sake of doing it cannot bring us lasting satisfaction. One might go on with it may be for a few months and years but in the long run he or she collapses. The depression and stress one goes through are the ‘gifts’ of such a life. If you consider you are a good writer and like writing, there is nothing better to do than to sit down with a pen and paper and start scribbling. Realising one’s dream is the greatest satisfaction one can ever attain in life. “When you get back to doing those things that lifted your spirit and sent you soaring, you reconnect with that state of happiness that you may have lost,” says Robin Sharma.
Just business
Right from Socrates to modern stalwarts, everyone agrees that education is the only tool that would liberate humanity from the shackles of ignorance, poverty and injustice. But today, our education is binding us rather than liberating. We have commercialised our education system so much that everything in it is done in terms of ‘buying’ and ‘selling.’ The education we get in our schools and colleges sells us into the world of business where we trade our knowledge to secure a convincing future. How far it works is a question that is never raised, lest answered.
Why not make art, music, dance and other things part and parcel of the education system along with Economics, Sociology, Biology and Physics? Imposed education does not serve its purpose; rather, students should be encouraged to learn what they are good at.
India is struggling to fetch a gold medal in the Olympics because our sporting talents are busy with computers and construction around the globe. Those who are into sports are not encouraged to go ahead and realise their dreams. Pressure is yet another gift that our education system brings along with it. Our students are pressured so much that they cannot cope with the failure. A small failure in exams means the end of life for them. It is high time we seriously carve out a clear definition and meaning for our education system. Education is not the mere act of getting familiar with the facts and learning to handle few sophisticated gadgets. It is a tool to realise one’s dreams rather than someone else’s.
In this regard, our educational system needs a drastic change. Parents should realise that pressuring their children to come out with 99 per cent results is different from encouraging them to do better. It is sad that competition has seeped into our education system. Even little children have to go through an entrance test to get admitted to schools. Parents see to it that their children pass the test, at the cost of hampering their fragile minds. We badly need to educate our parents to understand the meaning of ‘true’ education.
“Tare Zameen Par” is one movie that aims at the education of our parents and brings out the problem of our educational system. “The Alchemist” is one of the books that talks of realising one’s dreams. Today, what we need is progressive education rather than profit-oriented education. Media has a great role to play in this regard as its main purpose is to inform.
Too many among us are afraid to be ourselves, so we give up our dreams to follow the crowd. Beginning from a student who gives up his passion for music to get into a software profession to the parents who, knowing that their son is a good cricketer, force him to take up mathematics which never seems to enter his head. It seems like the whole meaning of education has changed over the years. Learning classical music, Bharatanatyam, art and craft are no more considered education.
Education is something that fetches you a fat salary and power. Doing something for the sake of doing it cannot bring us lasting satisfaction. One might go on with it may be for a few months and years but in the long run he or she collapses. The depression and stress one goes through are the ‘gifts’ of such a life. If you consider you are a good writer and like writing, there is nothing better to do than to sit down with a pen and paper and start scribbling. Realising one’s dream is the greatest satisfaction one can ever attain in life. “When you get back to doing those things that lifted your spirit and sent you soaring, you reconnect with that state of happiness that you may have lost,” says Robin Sharma.
Just business
Right from Socrates to modern stalwarts, everyone agrees that education is the only tool that would liberate humanity from the shackles of ignorance, poverty and injustice. But today, our education is binding us rather than liberating. We have commercialised our education system so much that everything in it is done in terms of ‘buying’ and ‘selling.’ The education we get in our schools and colleges sells us into the world of business where we trade our knowledge to secure a convincing future. How far it works is a question that is never raised, lest answered.
Why not make art, music, dance and other things part and parcel of the education system along with Economics, Sociology, Biology and Physics? Imposed education does not serve its purpose; rather, students should be encouraged to learn what they are good at.
India is struggling to fetch a gold medal in the Olympics because our sporting talents are busy with computers and construction around the globe. Those who are into sports are not encouraged to go ahead and realise their dreams. Pressure is yet another gift that our education system brings along with it. Our students are pressured so much that they cannot cope with the failure. A small failure in exams means the end of life for them. It is high time we seriously carve out a clear definition and meaning for our education system. Education is not the mere act of getting familiar with the facts and learning to handle few sophisticated gadgets. It is a tool to realise one’s dreams rather than someone else’s.
In this regard, our educational system needs a drastic change. Parents should realise that pressuring their children to come out with 99 per cent results is different from encouraging them to do better. It is sad that competition has seeped into our education system. Even little children have to go through an entrance test to get admitted to schools. Parents see to it that their children pass the test, at the cost of hampering their fragile minds. We badly need to educate our parents to understand the meaning of ‘true’ education.
“Tare Zameen Par” is one movie that aims at the education of our parents and brings out the problem of our educational system. “The Alchemist” is one of the books that talks of realising one’s dreams. Today, what we need is progressive education rather than profit-oriented education. Media has a great role to play in this regard as its main purpose is to inform.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
PR.. Did I really know it!?
PR PR PR(Public Relations)..
Every time someone asked me ‘’Priyanka what are you going to take up!?
I proudly answered ‘PR’
At the end of the first year of my course people asked me what specialization was I planning on taking up and I still proudly answered ‘PR’
I reach pune for my internship at Perfect relations and am still convinced that am fit to do PR.
As I reach the office of perfect relations at 9 in the morning expecting a very cool and fancily cool designed office with hunky dory people I realize that its not that nice and awesome as it looked. I waited for a good one and a half hour for the first person of this office to walk in. The very appearance of that person got my expectation lower than I thought it to be. But that little hope that things would get better also gave way to a huge disappointment when I saw Murli sir, my boss who had taken me as an intern.
The first lady who walked into the office strolls across the room towards me to increase my aversion towards this place!
She said ‘’ what can I do for you?’’
I said ‘’am here to meet Mr Murli!?’’
She said’’ You are here for a internship right!?’’
I replied ‘’Yes mam’’
Then with a low voice that she possessed she said ‘’ You have to write a test of 1 hr’’!
That simply added to my frustration of waiting and the ambience of the place that I existed in… after months of fantasizing of working in a PR agency!!
I dragged my feet sloppily to a room in the office where I felt like I was a school girl writing an entrance exam all over again! The room looked very grey and dusty with a table and a couple of chairs along with a telephone and the server. But there was just one thing that I really liked about this room was the small and composed balcony which opened out to a space with a huge tree which partially sheltered the balcony and the pub Thousand Oaks that it overlooked. Taking a deep breath and trying to be positive I walked into the room and was seated on the chair to get my question paper to gauge if at all I was really fit for the job! I received the question paper only to know that I was not bad as I expected myself to be as I was really not prepared for it! Thanks to my semester exams which had just finished a day ago. As I sat through answering the paper I noticed the number and the kind of people who walked into the office which totally threw my expectations for a toss! But the last bolt on the coffin came when my eyes met Mr Murli Pillai, my boss who had taken me as an intern. The pains of finding his profile on facebook and flipping through his fancy pictures that had led me to expect that he was real cool and a handsome looking guy which turned out to be a disaster! He was a thin puny guy who was dressed in formals which looked as if a skeleton was given some clothing to avoid being ridiculed with shame. But the fact that his name sounded like a south Indian still kept me shutting out from the last ray of light that came from a pin hole. I had finished giving the test and I apprehensively waited for the results with fingers crossed just wanting to know that I would be working here for the next two months as I had made my trip all the way from Bangalore to pune only for this purpose!
After a long wait I started getting partly jittery and was almost on the verge of calling my dad to book my return tickets when Mr Murli turns up with my paper. As he walked into the room I stood up shook hands with him and introduced myself. He pulled a chair and sat down opposite to me. Then he flipped through my answer sheet and said "Do you read newspapers regularly!?
I hesitantly said NO thinking about my situation back at the hostel
Then he asked me "Why aren’t you reading newspapers being a media student’’!?
I had to tell him something other than plainly grinning at him so I said ‘’Sir, I was busy with exams of late so I haven’t been following it up’’
He sensibly said " That’s not a reason to avoid reading newspaper
At the max how much time will you take reading a newspaper!?"
As usual, I shamelessly smiled at him which I thought made it clear to him that I DON’T LIKE READING NEWSPAPER ALL THAT MUCH
He said in a very sweet and diplomatic tone “This is our bread and butter without which we cannot survive’’. That very truth really struck me hard regarding what I expected things to really be.
Then he gets a copy of Hindustan Times, a mainline to be precise and places it in front of me while I watched it happen so blandly like my dad just declared despotism for 2 months! Then he went on to explain the different sections in the newspaper and the way to look at a newspaper in a PR’s perspective. So there I sat with that one newspaper for 134.5 minutes when I felt that mother earth was way too elated that I was reading a newspaper for so long that it came to a standstill!!Those 134.5 minutes felt like 60 long years of my precious life!
There was a cacophony as I raised my head from my siesta as to where they wanted to head for lunch! I realized after the never ending 134.5 minutes I dozed off on the table that I was seated with the newspaper (that explains my interest in a newspaper)!It suddenly struck me that my boss said that he would be back by the time I finished reading the newspaper and that time had still not arrived! Did he really expect me to go through it for sooooo long!!?A bell impinged on my hallow.. “Welcome to the world of PR”
My boss quickly makes an appearance to inquire about my lunch.
He said “Priyanka, What about your lunch!?Do you have a Dabba!?”
“You made me wait for so long to tell me if I had plans for lunch!?” was exactly what I wanted to reply.
But since I had to put up with him for the next couple of weeks I confirmed his query saying “No sir, Thank you. I’m good. I have a Dabba”
He nodded his head and walked off. I sat down with the other members in the office and had lunch. That day was probably the longest ever day in my life! After lunch I continued reading newspapers up till 6 in the evening. Then I hysterically left office like a fish that needed to breathe when taken out of water and took a deep breath as soon as I got on the road just to reassure that I would turn up ritually the next day too!
Every time someone asked me ‘’Priyanka what are you going to take up!?
I proudly answered ‘PR’
At the end of the first year of my course people asked me what specialization was I planning on taking up and I still proudly answered ‘PR’
I reach pune for my internship at Perfect relations and am still convinced that am fit to do PR.
As I reach the office of perfect relations at 9 in the morning expecting a very cool and fancily cool designed office with hunky dory people I realize that its not that nice and awesome as it looked. I waited for a good one and a half hour for the first person of this office to walk in. The very appearance of that person got my expectation lower than I thought it to be. But that little hope that things would get better also gave way to a huge disappointment when I saw Murli sir, my boss who had taken me as an intern.
The first lady who walked into the office strolls across the room towards me to increase my aversion towards this place!
She said ‘’ what can I do for you?’’
I said ‘’am here to meet Mr Murli!?’’
She said’’ You are here for a internship right!?’’
I replied ‘’Yes mam’’
Then with a low voice that she possessed she said ‘’ You have to write a test of 1 hr’’!
That simply added to my frustration of waiting and the ambience of the place that I existed in… after months of fantasizing of working in a PR agency!!
I dragged my feet sloppily to a room in the office where I felt like I was a school girl writing an entrance exam all over again! The room looked very grey and dusty with a table and a couple of chairs along with a telephone and the server. But there was just one thing that I really liked about this room was the small and composed balcony which opened out to a space with a huge tree which partially sheltered the balcony and the pub Thousand Oaks that it overlooked. Taking a deep breath and trying to be positive I walked into the room and was seated on the chair to get my question paper to gauge if at all I was really fit for the job! I received the question paper only to know that I was not bad as I expected myself to be as I was really not prepared for it! Thanks to my semester exams which had just finished a day ago. As I sat through answering the paper I noticed the number and the kind of people who walked into the office which totally threw my expectations for a toss! But the last bolt on the coffin came when my eyes met Mr Murli Pillai, my boss who had taken me as an intern. The pains of finding his profile on facebook and flipping through his fancy pictures that had led me to expect that he was real cool and a handsome looking guy which turned out to be a disaster! He was a thin puny guy who was dressed in formals which looked as if a skeleton was given some clothing to avoid being ridiculed with shame. But the fact that his name sounded like a south Indian still kept me shutting out from the last ray of light that came from a pin hole. I had finished giving the test and I apprehensively waited for the results with fingers crossed just wanting to know that I would be working here for the next two months as I had made my trip all the way from Bangalore to pune only for this purpose!
After a long wait I started getting partly jittery and was almost on the verge of calling my dad to book my return tickets when Mr Murli turns up with my paper. As he walked into the room I stood up shook hands with him and introduced myself. He pulled a chair and sat down opposite to me. Then he flipped through my answer sheet and said "Do you read newspapers regularly!?
I hesitantly said NO thinking about my situation back at the hostel
Then he asked me "Why aren’t you reading newspapers being a media student’’!?
I had to tell him something other than plainly grinning at him so I said ‘’Sir, I was busy with exams of late so I haven’t been following it up’’
He sensibly said " That’s not a reason to avoid reading newspaper
At the max how much time will you take reading a newspaper!?"
As usual, I shamelessly smiled at him which I thought made it clear to him that I DON’T LIKE READING NEWSPAPER ALL THAT MUCH
He said in a very sweet and diplomatic tone “This is our bread and butter without which we cannot survive’’. That very truth really struck me hard regarding what I expected things to really be.
Then he gets a copy of Hindustan Times, a mainline to be precise and places it in front of me while I watched it happen so blandly like my dad just declared despotism for 2 months! Then he went on to explain the different sections in the newspaper and the way to look at a newspaper in a PR’s perspective. So there I sat with that one newspaper for 134.5 minutes when I felt that mother earth was way too elated that I was reading a newspaper for so long that it came to a standstill!!Those 134.5 minutes felt like 60 long years of my precious life!
There was a cacophony as I raised my head from my siesta as to where they wanted to head for lunch! I realized after the never ending 134.5 minutes I dozed off on the table that I was seated with the newspaper (that explains my interest in a newspaper)!It suddenly struck me that my boss said that he would be back by the time I finished reading the newspaper and that time had still not arrived! Did he really expect me to go through it for sooooo long!!?A bell impinged on my hallow.. “Welcome to the world of PR”
My boss quickly makes an appearance to inquire about my lunch.
He said “Priyanka, What about your lunch!?Do you have a Dabba!?”
“You made me wait for so long to tell me if I had plans for lunch!?” was exactly what I wanted to reply.
But since I had to put up with him for the next couple of weeks I confirmed his query saying “No sir, Thank you. I’m good. I have a Dabba”
He nodded his head and walked off. I sat down with the other members in the office and had lunch. That day was probably the longest ever day in my life! After lunch I continued reading newspapers up till 6 in the evening. Then I hysterically left office like a fish that needed to breathe when taken out of water and took a deep breath as soon as I got on the road just to reassure that I would turn up ritually the next day too!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Brand it or Forget it!
He gets down from his Pulsar, swaggers into college in a pair of crushed Levis jeans and Benetton Tee shirt, atop a pair of just do it Nike shoes and swashes his iPhone furiously thumbing a status update.
Welcome to the Gen-X’s college today, a far cry from the college of yester years where Fashion Street cheese cotton shirt atop any old pair of trousers was good enough and only those who came from the crème-de-la-crème of society would putter in on a Luna, for the rest of us cycles were quite ok.
Brands are as ubiquitous as the number of two wheelers one sees parked in our colleges today. They seem to define our very existence, giving us our identity and personality. Life without brands is impossible to imagine, it would be akin to loosing one’s very identity.
Yet, branding still seems to be an enigma for most marketers and also their waterloo.
“That many brands fail to reach their potential or maintain their equity is neither surprising nor puzzling …The real curiosity may be that strong brands exist at all…” - David Aaker
Coming from one of the most respected authorities on Brand Management the above statement has to be taken seriously.
With the cost of launching new brands reaching stratospheric heights and only a fraction of the hundreds launched every year surviving, the issue does require all some serious rethink.
Once upon a time technological innovation or superiority was a sure ticket to success. Today, fresh entrants and virtual novices have access to the same technology that was a preserve of only established giants earlier. Technology therefore fails to offer a long-term competitive advantage. The ever-shrinking product life cycles further aggravate this problem.
The answer to this puzzle, which is becoming more and more complex by the day, seems to lie only in strengthening the relationship between the brand and its’ customer. Which takes us into the realms of Branding.
Many a marketing pundits have indicated that a strong brand is probably the only real long-term competitive advantage that a company has. It is the only guarantee that a business will continue to enjoy a customer franchise over a sustained period of time. The most hardened of the skeptics have also grudgingly acknowledged this when faced with hard research and financial data supporting this fact.
Landor Associates conducted a study on 23 leading brands, i.e. brands that were number one in their respective categories in 1920s. It was sobering to note that 19 of these brands were still leaders, number ones in their categories in 1997. It had to be more than an accident for so many brands to have consistently led their packs for 75 long years, in the face of all that the competition may have done to dislodge them.
The entire philosophy and the set of activities that these companies may have undertaken to stay ahead of the pack and more importantly, be consistently relevant to the customer can together be broadly termed as Branding.
Welcome to the Gen-X’s college today, a far cry from the college of yester years where Fashion Street cheese cotton shirt atop any old pair of trousers was good enough and only those who came from the crème-de-la-crème of society would putter in on a Luna, for the rest of us cycles were quite ok.
Brands are as ubiquitous as the number of two wheelers one sees parked in our colleges today. They seem to define our very existence, giving us our identity and personality. Life without brands is impossible to imagine, it would be akin to loosing one’s very identity.
Yet, branding still seems to be an enigma for most marketers and also their waterloo.
“That many brands fail to reach their potential or maintain their equity is neither surprising nor puzzling …The real curiosity may be that strong brands exist at all…” - David Aaker
Coming from one of the most respected authorities on Brand Management the above statement has to be taken seriously.
With the cost of launching new brands reaching stratospheric heights and only a fraction of the hundreds launched every year surviving, the issue does require all some serious rethink.
Once upon a time technological innovation or superiority was a sure ticket to success. Today, fresh entrants and virtual novices have access to the same technology that was a preserve of only established giants earlier. Technology therefore fails to offer a long-term competitive advantage. The ever-shrinking product life cycles further aggravate this problem.
The answer to this puzzle, which is becoming more and more complex by the day, seems to lie only in strengthening the relationship between the brand and its’ customer. Which takes us into the realms of Branding.
Many a marketing pundits have indicated that a strong brand is probably the only real long-term competitive advantage that a company has. It is the only guarantee that a business will continue to enjoy a customer franchise over a sustained period of time. The most hardened of the skeptics have also grudgingly acknowledged this when faced with hard research and financial data supporting this fact.
Landor Associates conducted a study on 23 leading brands, i.e. brands that were number one in their respective categories in 1920s. It was sobering to note that 19 of these brands were still leaders, number ones in their categories in 1997. It had to be more than an accident for so many brands to have consistently led their packs for 75 long years, in the face of all that the competition may have done to dislodge them.
The entire philosophy and the set of activities that these companies may have undertaken to stay ahead of the pack and more importantly, be consistently relevant to the customer can together be broadly termed as Branding.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Decoding the Temple Guardian
“I’m so going to kill my Team Lead!” sounded Swapnil.
The frustration on his face reflected the kind of work pressure that he had been going through at his workplace. Since it was a Friday we all tried cheering him up.
“Just leave that behind now. Don’t spoil your weekend over it. So where do you want to go now!?”
“Let’s go to Pashan Lake and booze there by the lake side with moonlight to light up your mood” babbled George. This indeed sounded like a great idea as it felt more like a countryside get away than a mundane urbane setting of a pub to spend a Friday evening.
Since Raunak and myself were teetotalers we decided to go to the lake side directly while Swapnil, Keerthi, Bhakti and George decided to buy booze and food before they got there. Hence we parted ways in two cars from there. Once we hit the highway we were confused regarding the road that led to the lake . Finally after wasting a lot of petrol we managed to stumble upon a pedestrian walking that street, who aided us to find our way. He said that the lake had access only through the temple and not otherwise. We reached the Pashan Temple only to realize that it was an isolated place located at the end of a service road running parallel to the highway. There was barely any human activity around that place. As we walked into the gate we caught sight of a small beautiful temple and a man standing near the sanctum of the temple. He was a tall skinny man who walked in a very peculiar manner. He spoke Marathi and Hindi. He exhibited some amount of authority which led us to conclude that he might be the watchman housed there. There was a community hall under construction to the right of the temple. A small orange colored room which supposedly belonged to the watchman was situated diagonally left to the sanctum of the temple.
As Raunak enquired about the way to reach the lake the watchman insisted that it was parlous to be there at that part of the night as the clock had already struck 8:30 pm. Instead he suggested that we lingered around the temple for some time and vacated the place .Meanwhile I called up our counterparts who had gone to buy booze and informed them of the situation leading to the conclusion that we would carouse by the lake side once they joined us. Until then we both decided to lounge around at the temple premises. We settled down on a bench opposite the community hall admiring the temple that looked magnificent on a full moon night. Raunak had shouldered his hand on the bench as I sat beside him. We ranted and made garrulous conversation regarding Swapnil and meandered around various topics awaiting their arrival. The watchman who noticed us sitting there for some time swaggered up to us and offered us “Prasad”(coconut pieces) and went away.
As we started gnawing into the coconut pieces something was ubiquitous about the watchman’s activity. He walked to and fro all eyes like he was invigilating kids trespassing the temple compound to pick mangoes. Since he was a watchman we took it to be part of his duty and ignored him. After a while, he walked into the dark and dingy community hall and got busy doing something there that our sight couldn’t register as there was no light at all. After which he began strolling across the ground towards us. We wondered what this guy was up to!
He stood akimbo in front of us and said
“Is mandir ka trustee abhi ayega.
Agar usne tum logo ko is samay yaha dekhliya tho meri vaat lag jayegi.
Isliye acha rahega ke tum dono woh samne wale shed(community hall) mein chale jao”
But I said
“Hum bas abhi nikalne hi waale hai.
Isliye hum paanch-dus min yahi baithenge.
Aur waise bhi udhar ek dum andhere hai to kuch dikhega bhi nahi”
But again he implored that we move onto the community hall to save his ass! So we moved there just to catch sight of something quirky.
He had placed a mat, two pillows and a blanket there.
Suddenly all sorts of crazy thoughts began gushing into my head
• Firstly since it was only Raunak and myself apart from the watchman, I pondered if he took us for a couple who were here for all the wrong reasons!
• Secondly why would a watchman sleep in an open community hall when the weather is so benumbing and when he already has a cozy room overlooking the sanctum within the temple premises?
These thoughts struck hard on me and suddenly I turned towards Raunak. He too seemed to have thought about the same. At that moment, the watchman walked pass by us and then impishly turned towards us.
He said
“Bahar ek dum katarnak thand hai (Its freezing out here)
Toh aap log andar us room mein chale jao aur agar chaho to raat ko yahi rukh jao, waha koi nahi aayega”
Raunak vehemently flared up and was about to abuse the watchman as I held his hand and signaled him to say nothing. Thanks to my snoopiness of the entire episode!
Then I asked the watchman
“Room! woh kaha par hai!?
tum ek raath ka kitna lethe ho!?” (How much do you charge per night)
He said(with a leer look on his face)
“Aap chaliye mere saath aapko room dikhatha hoon!
Yeh peeche apna hi jagah hai waha pe koi nahi aata.
To aap log waha aaramse raath ko rehe sakthe ho!”
With this he reached a room at the corner of the temple and opened it. I was flabbergasted! It looked pretty much like a well facilitated room that was put in place.
I didn’t know how to react and blurted
”Sorry bhaiyya humko bada kamra with attached bathroom aur jacuzzi chahiye!”
to the watchman’s offer. He further tried convincing me
“yeh jagah aksar booked rehethi hai.
Lekin aaj tum log lucky ho ki aaj yeh khaali hai aur yeh sab mein paise kamane ke liye nahi kartha .
Upar walein ki meherbani se apna dhandapani sab acha chal raha hai!” (By god’s grace I’m doing pretty well )
I pondered on the thought that he actually had the audacity to make such a statement. He walked us up to the car making all efforts to woo us into that vicious circle which unfortunately went in vain! With that we vamoosed from that place never to return again.
Disclaimer *
This is a true incident that happened with me. There was no deliberate offence meant to any religion in this context and was merely subject to my personal experience.
The frustration on his face reflected the kind of work pressure that he had been going through at his workplace. Since it was a Friday we all tried cheering him up.
“Just leave that behind now. Don’t spoil your weekend over it. So where do you want to go now!?”
“Let’s go to Pashan Lake and booze there by the lake side with moonlight to light up your mood” babbled George. This indeed sounded like a great idea as it felt more like a countryside get away than a mundane urbane setting of a pub to spend a Friday evening.
Since Raunak and myself were teetotalers we decided to go to the lake side directly while Swapnil, Keerthi, Bhakti and George decided to buy booze and food before they got there. Hence we parted ways in two cars from there. Once we hit the highway we were confused regarding the road that led to the lake . Finally after wasting a lot of petrol we managed to stumble upon a pedestrian walking that street, who aided us to find our way. He said that the lake had access only through the temple and not otherwise. We reached the Pashan Temple only to realize that it was an isolated place located at the end of a service road running parallel to the highway. There was barely any human activity around that place. As we walked into the gate we caught sight of a small beautiful temple and a man standing near the sanctum of the temple. He was a tall skinny man who walked in a very peculiar manner. He spoke Marathi and Hindi. He exhibited some amount of authority which led us to conclude that he might be the watchman housed there. There was a community hall under construction to the right of the temple. A small orange colored room which supposedly belonged to the watchman was situated diagonally left to the sanctum of the temple.
As Raunak enquired about the way to reach the lake the watchman insisted that it was parlous to be there at that part of the night as the clock had already struck 8:30 pm. Instead he suggested that we lingered around the temple for some time and vacated the place .Meanwhile I called up our counterparts who had gone to buy booze and informed them of the situation leading to the conclusion that we would carouse by the lake side once they joined us. Until then we both decided to lounge around at the temple premises. We settled down on a bench opposite the community hall admiring the temple that looked magnificent on a full moon night. Raunak had shouldered his hand on the bench as I sat beside him. We ranted and made garrulous conversation regarding Swapnil and meandered around various topics awaiting their arrival. The watchman who noticed us sitting there for some time swaggered up to us and offered us “Prasad”(coconut pieces) and went away.
As we started gnawing into the coconut pieces something was ubiquitous about the watchman’s activity. He walked to and fro all eyes like he was invigilating kids trespassing the temple compound to pick mangoes. Since he was a watchman we took it to be part of his duty and ignored him. After a while, he walked into the dark and dingy community hall and got busy doing something there that our sight couldn’t register as there was no light at all. After which he began strolling across the ground towards us. We wondered what this guy was up to!
He stood akimbo in front of us and said
“Is mandir ka trustee abhi ayega.
Agar usne tum logo ko is samay yaha dekhliya tho meri vaat lag jayegi.
Isliye acha rahega ke tum dono woh samne wale shed(community hall) mein chale jao”
But I said
“Hum bas abhi nikalne hi waale hai.
Isliye hum paanch-dus min yahi baithenge.
Aur waise bhi udhar ek dum andhere hai to kuch dikhega bhi nahi”
But again he implored that we move onto the community hall to save his ass! So we moved there just to catch sight of something quirky.
He had placed a mat, two pillows and a blanket there.
Suddenly all sorts of crazy thoughts began gushing into my head
• Firstly since it was only Raunak and myself apart from the watchman, I pondered if he took us for a couple who were here for all the wrong reasons!
• Secondly why would a watchman sleep in an open community hall when the weather is so benumbing and when he already has a cozy room overlooking the sanctum within the temple premises?
These thoughts struck hard on me and suddenly I turned towards Raunak. He too seemed to have thought about the same. At that moment, the watchman walked pass by us and then impishly turned towards us.
He said
“Bahar ek dum katarnak thand hai (Its freezing out here)
Toh aap log andar us room mein chale jao aur agar chaho to raat ko yahi rukh jao, waha koi nahi aayega”
Raunak vehemently flared up and was about to abuse the watchman as I held his hand and signaled him to say nothing. Thanks to my snoopiness of the entire episode!
Then I asked the watchman
“Room! woh kaha par hai!?
tum ek raath ka kitna lethe ho!?” (How much do you charge per night)
He said(with a leer look on his face)
“Aap chaliye mere saath aapko room dikhatha hoon!
Yeh peeche apna hi jagah hai waha pe koi nahi aata.
To aap log waha aaramse raath ko rehe sakthe ho!”
With this he reached a room at the corner of the temple and opened it. I was flabbergasted! It looked pretty much like a well facilitated room that was put in place.
I didn’t know how to react and blurted
”Sorry bhaiyya humko bada kamra with attached bathroom aur jacuzzi chahiye!”
to the watchman’s offer. He further tried convincing me
“yeh jagah aksar booked rehethi hai.
Lekin aaj tum log lucky ho ki aaj yeh khaali hai aur yeh sab mein paise kamane ke liye nahi kartha .
Upar walein ki meherbani se apna dhandapani sab acha chal raha hai!” (By god’s grace I’m doing pretty well )
I pondered on the thought that he actually had the audacity to make such a statement. He walked us up to the car making all efforts to woo us into that vicious circle which unfortunately went in vain! With that we vamoosed from that place never to return again.
Disclaimer *
This is a true incident that happened with me. There was no deliberate offence meant to any religion in this context and was merely subject to my personal experience.
Friday, February 4, 2011
PAT deserves a pat!
The clock struck 6 pm as I looked out of the window to catch a glimpse of the orangish red sky which was being gulped by surrounding darkness. I was confused and lethargic to decide if I wanted to put on my shoes and go for a evening walk .As my eyes shifted focus I noticed that I had a mail in my inbox waiting to be opened. The mail was sent by our class representative which read as follows
“Hey!
As you all know we have a session with Mr. Atul Tandon tomorrow. He was the director of MICA.
He said he will teach on topics we want to be covered. So just mail me if there is anything specific you want to be taught.
Please note that he is super awesome and is very knowledgeable so DON'T ask trivial or stupid questions just for the sake of asking. If sincerely there is something u want to be covered then reply back NOW!
Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel”
. Instantly this reminded me of the last time I attended a guest lecture where in the faculty was flown all the way from Pune only to mind boggle us with simple concepts that went above our heads leaving us clueless if we finished our first semester at all!!The loud ringtone of my roomie’s phone brought me back to reality leaving me with a grimace on my face!
As I entered class the next morning there was an air of excitement about Mr Atul Tandon’s class. A few minutes later this gentlemen walked in along with our Director and the class representative. He was a tall and white bearded man who was dressed in a suit and had a “cute” white hair pony tail. He had a very assertive and charismatic personality. But that did not stop me from thinking about the kind of concepts that he would throw at us leaving us perplexed! Our Director Mrs Maya Chakravarthy introduced and welcomed him along with a brief history about his past work experience and achievements by Pradyumna(class representative).Having heard so much about him I wondered if I could avail an opportunity to leave the class! Thanks to the faculty who flew down from Pune!
At the end of it, Mr Tandon stood up from the chair he was seated in and questioned the class if at all he could live up to the expectations of the class!?Well his voice commanded the respect that his personality resonated. But with this statement of his I was confused if he was talking about the IQ level of the class or was he being sarcastic! He further went on to sort out the issue as to how he wanted his students to address him thereby deriving at his pet name PAT(Professor Atul Tandon).Thanks to his student way back in 1999 who gave him this identity! It was still hard for me to digest that a man at his age with this kind of experience and dignity and respect wanted to be called something like this apart from ‘Sir’. This also kept me thinking about the so-called generation gap that our parents keep talking about! As he kicked off the session with questions and discussion i was convinced that the session wasn’t as complicated as i thought it to be. Moreover I was more than glad to realize that he spoke of a lot of issues and concerns in a logical manner so as to get across his communication right. Though he was a man of such vast and varied experience he never had a condescending air about himself and instead was open to accepting his weakness and called himself a ‘student’. This further broke my misconception about ‘GREAT’ people (prof Udayshankar) who has had an opportunity to work with the business magnates of the nation. Voice modulation along with his presentation skills and the approach towards the subject along with a tint of humour got us stuck like barnacles having him in our vision field not realising that we had surpassed the usual break time unless his phone alarm alerted us.
He emphasised on the point of what creativity meant to our generation and what it actually means in the business of communication. He further went onto give a broader picture of India and focussed on the rural area communication thereby driving home a very strong point that rural India starts where distribution ends. The challenge lies in getting across one’s communication there and capturing the markets. Brand communication across various cultures also formed a chunk of his lecture along with the screening of a few ads. Thereby he concluded his class with the statement “40 years from now, I’ll sit up there and evaluate what u did!”. With his class, there was one thing that i realised if one needs to carve out a distinct persona like him it was important to focus on your career more than money and challenges more than comfort zone. He had left an everlasting impression on the class. As a matter of fact, I was so proud and thankful that I studied in this institution for getting an opportunity to hear such men of mettle.
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