A Time To Reflect

charukesi February 27th, 2008

Time was when, finding myself otherwise jobless (which is all the time) I used to head to rediff.com for my daily dose of entertainment. Insipid stories, terribly written out - but the comments following the articles making every moment spent on the site worth it.

It just seems to be getting worse… The problem is when good writers sneak in their pieces when no one (viz. me) is looking - and the same kind of comments show up.

In February, Sidin’s hilarious How to score a Valentine’s date in 10 days! attracted 86 comments, ranging from the mildly abusive…

v-date,bulshit
by Supriya mehta on Feb 09, 2008 12:31 PM | Hide replies

Hi,Ithink your analysis about girl is totally incorrect,& u has enough time to spend , making showoffs, did you personally ever tried the same,kindly lets us know the result,it’s a totally rottan idea.

…to the sincerely woeful…

Valentine’s Date
by cute plumcake on Feb 09, 2008 10:52 AM | Hide replies

Sidin these are cheap tricks yaar… to find a soul mate you need to be truthful to yourself and lovable..

I mean, how can one not feel all warm and fuzzy about ‘cute plumcake’?

Immediately after that, Anita’s travel piece on Top romantic spots for a perfect Valentine’s Day. The comments which are as always irrelevant or rude, suddenly take a turn towards ‘down with western culture’ - India survived for corers of years without vanentines day. Only two hundred year old country like USA is teaching us the way of expressing such love. New generation is falling for it.

Corers of years. Indeed.

This commenter Jayant Tilak goes on and on, to end with - Only those can respond, who can give their very considered opinion. No foolish comments expected please.

And poor Palani was disappointed, he expected to find out about erogenous spots and found himself reading about cool getaways instead - and suggests rediff has manipulated the title to attract readers like him - why not call it places instead of spots, he asks.

I mean, what? When is rediff going to get a comments filter or any kind of policy at all? On writing, reading, commenting…

So, here is what I have been wondering - why would good writers want to write for rediff?

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charukesi February 26th, 2008

I came across this piece on how advertising agencies position themselves - most of it seemed rather obvious or desperate to me (but that is the cynical advertising-industry-watcher in me speaking) - for instance a brand’s best friend? hey, isn’t that supposed to be the customer? And hey, that is anyway why you are the chosen agency for that brand…

I was trying to find positioning statements of Indian ad agencies and haven’t made much progress so far. But driving back to Bombay from Pune, I spotted this on the expressway.

A bold, provocative statement. Written by someone with great confidence and plans for the SMG brand. And as risky as the proposed business decision…

Personally, I found it the kind of attention-seeking statement that immediately raises my heckles - for I was reminded of this signboard on a shop window - Why go elsewhere to be cheated? Come to us. What do you think of such a statement?

More : As Apu points out in her comment, none of these is really a ‘positioning’ statement - at best, they are tag lines, much the way keeps my skin smooth is for a soap brand - that is the very least I expect from a soap. And going by the tag lines, there is little to differentiate one agency from the other.

Given that, I think the Starcom statement is atleast, well, different. Provocative, as I said, cheeky and makes you want to stop and think about it. So what makes them so brashly confident? What is it that they can offer that makes the risk worthwhile… I wonder if an additional line about the risk-benefit pay-off would make this whole ad more balanced, acceptable…?

• Advertising , Branding and Marketing
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charukesi February 21st, 2008

The lesser known Dubai, in today’s HT Cafe… (as always, link valid only for a week, so read now, else see photo and sigh deeply in regret for having missed the article)

More photographs from the colors and chaos of Dubai here…

You can read the article here…

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charukesi February 19th, 2008

Pepsi does it again. Proved that when you hit rock bottom, it is still possible to plumb newer depths. And there I was, thinking it couldn’t get worse than Oye Bubbly. Following that, John Abraham appeared with Shah Rukh Khan in a mercifully brief Chacha-Bhatija campaign and with winter came blessed relief from Cola advertising.

And out of the blue, this. Youngistaan? And just in case you start looking on the map for it, Youngistaan is not a place, it is an attitude. Ah, ok. Not a newly formed state, adjoining Chattisgarh. Youngistaan, a (moronic) state of mind.

As the name suggests, it represents a world of the youth, where the young generation likes to be in control. It brings forward their never failing attitude, their desire to take on challenges and the power to turn things around. Right. I am still trying to figure out which part of the name suggests all this to the brains (heh?!) behind this campaign. What it does suggest to me is a slight desperation…

Look at me, I am young. At heart. Eh, Speak up, will you? I don’t hear very well these days.

Give me steady sensible thanda matlab Coca Cola any day…

• Advertising , Branding and Marketing
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charukesi February 15th, 2008

Browsing through TV channels this evening after a long time, I saw an ad for secondshaadi.com (alright, so it has been ages since I watched television, not counting peripheral vision soaps when I find myself in Chennai). Old woman, old man, young girl, small kid, each of them talks to someone off-screen, listen to me… Indian “culture” being what it is and all that, this website sounds like an interesting idea. For one, it starts off with expectations being practical and realistic - no fair, convent-educated, homely… And both partners know (hopefully) what they are looking for and why they are on that site.

I immediately hopped over to the site, and what do you know - they have pages devoted to tips to make the second marriage successful. Surely, the apprehension and uncertainty is much more. This article says that secondshaadi.com had 20000 registered users within four months of launch. The brain behind this, Vivek Pahwa says here, While 30 per cent of our registered users are woman, 58 per cent are from top seven Indian cities, 30 per cent from smaller cities and 12 per cent from overseas, showing all parts of the society are welcoming the idea. Especially women in smaller towns - for whom the “stigma” is possibly stronger. The article also mentions other niche websites - positiveshaadi.com for HIV positive people, and idontwantdowry.com.- which incidentally, has women who have registered - so a site for those who do not want to give or take dowry. Now to go check these sites out.

• Pot-pourri , Society & Development
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charukesi February 13th, 2008

Just 1,411 tigers in India - and the National Tiger Conservation Authority says if error margins are taken into account, the tiger population may range between 1,165 and 1,657. And to think the government has been “serious” about conservation since Project Tiger was started in 1973 - for thirty five years now. But oh wait, the government has been serious about poverty removal and education for all for many more years than that. So…

Here is the sole tigress I spotted at Ranthambhore…

Have a look at Aditya Singh’s fabulous photographs of tigers at Ranthambhore park - Aditya along with wife Poonam run Ranthambhore Bagh - soon such photographs are all we may have left of these gorgeous animals.

• Indiawatch
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charukesi January 28th, 2008

This month, a cover story in Windows & Aisles (the inflight magazine of Paramount Airways) - ‘ballet in the backwaters‘…

And in HT Cafe, an ode to the sun - a piece on Konark ‘the wheel of time‘ (Though why it was filed under ‘Indian Odyssey’ I cannot understand - ‘Indian Odissi’ was what I thought it was… heh!)

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charukesi January 23rd, 2008

I have been interested in the idea of Ayush since I first heard about it - a collabortion between Arya Vaidya Pharmacy in Coimbatore and Unilever. I was tempted to visit the local centre in Vashi for a while now, but somehow I was sceptical about the idea of corporatized Ayurveda. I mean, how authentic can branded, neatly packaged ayurveda be. Not for me, well dressed (in spotless clothes - where does all the oil go?) women and feather touch massages with pleasant smelling, even fragrant oils. That is cosmetic, a feel-good massage if you will, even when sold as the “ancient science of ayurveda” - as it is all over Kerala and Goa. For me, the genuine stuff is that which is oily, smelly and otherwise sensorially unpleasant! In other words, therapeutic and healing.

I finally walked into Ayush here at Vashi after two whole weeks of insomnia thanks to one of the worst attacks of fibromyalgia in recent times. I was tired of living with the pain and not being able to escape for the usual eight hours at night either. I was tired of not sleeping all night and waking up feeling exhausted. and I was tired of the double life I was leading - trying to be “normal” and cheerful through the day while fighting the pain. But that is not new for me, And that is neither here nor there.

At Ayush, I am happy to discover all the familiar and comforting elements - including the smelly oils and the awful kashayams and a doctor with a reassuring heavy Malayalam accent - packaged well and presented in a do-good meets feel-good manner. I have been going there for two days now and I am willing to give the treatment course a chance. As long as the authenticity of the treatment is preserved, I have decided I do not care if the attendants wear spotless uniforms and the medicines are given out in an Ayush branded carry bag (though what is inside is the real thing - as I know from several months of consuming them).

There is something to be said for consistency, a range of such clinics across the country, supported by the solid knowledge of the Arya Vaidya Pharmacy. And who better to take this as a project than Unilever with its distribution reach and range of products that include bestsellers like the safe-for-skin Hamam. Apart from therapies and traditional medicine, they also have a range of products - from the website, the Ayush Spa Range is classified into products that protect (Rakshak), nurture (Poshak) and eliminate or reduce discomfort (Naashak) - and this too I am willing to overlook kindly, having experienced the treatment at the center.

• The World of Indsight
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charukesi January 14th, 2008

At home in Chennai, the TV is always on, background noise to drown the noise of the T nagar traffic. And for my parents, noise that is vital in an otherwise silent house with just the two of them. And so kolangal kolangal, la la la la it goes in the late evenings, and news headlines through most of the day, and assorted soaps and game shows, interrupted by thunderous voices announcing indiya tholaikatchiyil mudal muraiyaga - for the first time in the history of Indian television - and what? a movie released six months ago to be shown on Sunday afternoon. History of Indian TV, indeed. And what is with that thunderclouds and lightning announcement tone?

… As I write this, Barkha Dutt is asking the studio audience what they think about writing explicitly about sex on personal matters on blogs. And I have one eye on the TV, and my peripheral vision shows my mother deeply interested in what Meenakshi Madhavan is saying there, and someone in an armchairy analytical way is saying something about blogs being “self-affirming and empowering” - “holding forth to an audience…” (turns out she is a psychologist… sociologist?). Oh, never mind.

About when the fates conspired.

Last night on one such Tamil show, two “teams” sit opposite each other, women in their twenties and women in their forties. Mothers and daughters, perhaps. Definitely women from two different generations. I do not know what the discussion is all about - till one of that twenties says on the mike - I was always jealous of my mother while growing up - she was more beautiful… she had “more color” (local term for fairer). I kept cursing fate for being so dark And when I got married, my mother-in-law said, I hope your children do not take after you and take after your mother instead… But vidiyin vilaiyaattu (game played by fate?) and my children are also dark…

Thunderous applause from the audience… I wonder if the woman is happy - atleast my children are not growing up jealous of me?

• Society & Development , - Television
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charukesi January 5th, 2008

SelAm tags me on a meme he says is so last year - All you have to do is select and upload one photo that you have clicked this year that is special to you. Could be anything…aesthetic, technical or personal. Also, put in a short note why it is special.

My favorite from last year is this one of Nandini, an old young friend from the Kala Ghoda area where I first met her…

Meet Nandini. She lives somewhere around this area. She is not very sure where. She can’t tell me anything more about herself and her family. But she knows one thing for sure - she likes pani puri. She has no idea what it is called; will she have dhokla? nahi. khandvi? nahi; she quickly dismissed these foolish offers I make in the assumption that the kid would like the less spicy things on offer. Yeh nahi, woh gol gol jo hota hai - her little fingers making whirring circles in the air… oh, the round things? realization dawns as I point to the kachori. She directs a withering look at me (how dumb can you get?, it says in loud tones and I duly wither), gives up attempts to explain and instead leads me confidently to the stall, her little hands in mine. She takes ages to eat the first puri - the tiny mouth can open only so big. So the panipuriwala fill the other puris, piles them up in a leaf cup and she takes them away to a corner by the tree to eat them in peace.

Read her story where it was originally posted - the Kala Ghoda Gazette…

And while no one is looking, can I sneak in another favorite quickly? (Say two pics of kids equals one of an adult?)

(Taken at the primary school at Hampi on independence day - I have posted this pic on this blog earlier) - I call it the colors of freedom - what story does this tell you?

And oh, photographically speaking (if one can do that), one of my aims was developing skills at street and portrait photography - and these images prove how intent was translated into some action. A beginning…

• The World of Indsight , Children and youth
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