Kuch baatein...bhooli nahi jaati hai

Jan Lokpal Bill: Quick Analysis

2011-04-08T01:34:00.000-07:00

JAN LOKPAL BILL:

Though I have been really busy in the past few days, but owing to the furore surrounding the movement by IAC, I read through all the 28 pages of this proposed Bill. And in a few quick words, I can give my analysis here:
1. Compare the Bill with this BILL for Prevention of Corruption, which is already in place since 1988. If this bill were implemented perfectly, an ideal situation would have arisen and there would have been no need of the Jan Lokpal. So the question is, do we need to create a new bill or amend existing bills to create a better corruption-free environment.
2. The answer is simple: We need the government to take steps and give more power to bodies which work independent of political parties (for example, separation of CBI Anti-Corruption Section and making it independent of political clutches).
The Jan Lokpal Bill at least addresses these needs, and that's what makes it indispensable for India's growth. But it is too ideal and Definitions given in Points 1 and 9 prove this point.

Bills tend to get entangled in the clutches of failed idealism, and hence even the most well intended acts sometimes give ironical growth to new dimensions of corruption. But this does not mean that we do not take any steps, due to the anticipated fear of failure of those steps.

Steps are needed; may be the Jan Lokpal Bill is not the perfect answer, but it is the best possible answer out of the available options (this reminds of my JEE paper in 2006 which asked us to select the best possible answer and not the correct answer, or was it the Fiitjee paper :P).

A Bill is needed which empowers a body which is independent of politics. But what is needed more than anything else, is, (quoting Gandhi) 'Be the Change you want to see in the world'.
My company Incept is taking steps towards being that change (special offer to NGOs, ISO Certification, automated systems to ensure timely payment of all taxes).. its time for me and my friends now to take some steps.

Family // Business.. Concept of transparency

2010-08-31T22:23:00.000-07:00

Just back from a wonderful family reunion, and after reading a piece by Vineet Nayar, CEO, HCLT, in an HBS journal; here is an article which talks of how the business world needs to draw parallels from inside the personal lives of their inhabitants. There are innumerable ways by which functioning of family can inspire leaders to run business (as already mentioned by Vineet Nayar in his recent book 'Employees first..'), but I'll focus only on a few of my viewpoints.

Families in India have seen different phases of management styles. There was a time when we saw a patriarchal family with the voice of the father being the ultimate answer to every solution. Times changed, and Indian culture got 'westernized', similar to the westernization of Indian business market. Our business houses began to understand the importance of freedom and transparency amongst their employees, drawing parallel to the fact that parents began to give importance to the voices of the children.

Initially there was repulsion to this new 'brand' of family, with cool parents and involvement of every member in important family decisions; but as expected, this brand eventually found success and is currently regarded as 'ideal' by various 'family experts'. Similarly, there was a need in the Indian market to follow suit and create an environment where employees are not just members who follow the orders of their boss, but are integral members of the family created by the business house. This is being done, and 'Employee Satisfaction' is rated highly amongst various companies' major goals.

So the above proves, or at least strengthens, the belief presented by some of the recent 'Management gurus' that study of personal lives can be used to create business leaders. What more?

Business is always supposed to emulate successful models; and coming to the most successful model of a family, let us study a few cases. Take the case of a place in rural India where lack of infrastructure has led to limited knowledge in the younger members of the family and experience is the only criterion of measuring wisdom. Is the 'cool family' model the best fit for such a case? Well, based on my discussions with some of my friends with rural background, the answer is a clear 'No' and hence there is a need to create a median between ancient patriarchal laws and recent concept of freedom and transparency (an ideal case will be that parents exercise control without letting the children feel like 'bound in shackles'). Now taking the example of a middle class metropolitan family where parents try to impose their will and desires on their well educated children, we know that the ideal family model for such a case is very different from the former.

So my point is that we simply can't conclude the level of transparency needed in a firm without taking into account various other factors including customer demographics. So its not necessary that employees need to come before customers, the decision of whether customer or employee comes first should be driven by various other factors. This means a high level of flexibility in the firm is needed and the leader needs to ensure varying levels of transparency based on the performance of employees and the customers/ products involved.

However, whatever the case be, its important to ensure that employees feel that they belong to the company, in the same way as all of us belong to our personal families. The sense of belonging is generated by transparency and independence. If any control needs to be exercised, it should not be direct and hurtful towards freedom.

Controlled Transparency (level varying on various factors of market/ company) --> Disciplined sense of Belonging --> Better work Engagement --> Increased level of Trust within the Business house --> Growth of Ingenuity --> Better Service to Customers --> GROWTH and SUCCESS

So, would conclude by saying that the quotation "Its Business. Its not personal." is now passe, and the new quote should be "Its Business and so its Personal".

Corporate Blood.. well.. not literally!!

2010-02-20T00:57:00.000-08:00

Its been a long time since the last post... more than 6 months. Ignored opportunities like putting ad on this blog because i knew there was going to be a long gap...... Reason for the gap- i am not sure. But i really learned a lot and got another taste of what some call the 'corporate blood'. It was tasty and here i am!

Here I shall share a small part of the interesting things i have been learning. Well, i am sure no one is interested in what i am learning; so read the rest of it as something what i always represent- a naive point of view towards the world of marketing.

Online Marketing
No, not another lecture on how important online marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization 'and' etc. are. Because we all know now that for every small, medium or large enterprise, the reach which this media can provide goes beyond measure. And the lecture is also not on how to use this media in the most effective manner.. one search on google and there are thousands of blog posts and articles on the issue, hundreds of examples on how intelligent internet marketing boosted company's profits. I don't want to add to the list another example, though this one could have stood out amongst the hundreds.

Lesson no 1: Nothing is what you see. Everything is what you analyze.
Twitter seems like a micro-blogging platform where businesses can post regular updates and attract customers to their website. But its not just that. An analysis of Twitter, and we find that may be the above statement is currently valid for customers outside India but not very effective for Indian SMEs. But why can't we create and model T like a Youtube Channel, not a place of regular updates, but a platform of depiction of abilities of the company. A platform where all new inventions, press releases, photographs, videos and other links can be seen. Well. this worked for me, you know why, because people look up to Twitter for business purposes, and not to Facebook or Youtube for the same. So even Twitter can provide more than what they(we) think they are providing.
Similar parallels can be drawn for LinkedIn, which promises much more than eyes perceive..

Lesson on 2: Google is even more intelligent than what they make themselves out to be (and as every online marketer would know they make themselves look extremely intelligent).
Google keeps all its methodologies secret, how it decides organic search listing, how it manages its Adwords. But since Google guys know they are intelligent, they believe in the concept of awarding and rewarding any other intelligent person it knows. Hence they leave a number of hints at various locations, only for the smart ones, to track their methods.. and at the end of the day, its not really tough to manipulate Google towards you (unlike the common opinion) but only if you are smart enough (like me) to be rewarded by this marketing giant.

Lesson no 3: Wikipedia MUST be trusted (I am a Patroller in wiki, so believe me; we don't allow any wrong information to be present on wikipedia for long). And Wikipedia is Not a Marketing Platform, though again, like Google it appreciates and rewards only the intelligent.

Lesson no 4: The rate at which new things are being integrated with Web 2.0, it shouldn't be long before it will need a new name.
It is already in the need of new marketing ideas. Real time Brand Marketing getting integrated with the digital media, has ensured this: there is only one medium needed to do marketing.. only 1 (call it Web 3.0 if you wish)

Competition and Target
Lesson no 5: Getting the best from all your competitors, improvising on the same, and presenting it with adorning words is not only Fair, but also Successful.
Successful because the product actually becomes the best of the best, if the best qualities from all competitors are brought into 1 and the word 'innovation' thrown in.
Fair because I did it; called a number of competitors across the globe posing as customer, gathered the best they were offering and put these ideas in a new product with some more novelty thrown in. And I am still friends with these guys, despite 1 or 2 of them knowing what I did.

Lesson no 6: Sector Based Marketing
Not so commonly used by SMEs yet, this is a must for every company aspiring to reach out to a larger range of target group. Plan campaigns specific to sectors of target groups, and launch them with focus looking local while effects are global.

Other life Lessons
Lesson no 7: Jealousy and Competition is much more in the Corporate world than even in IIT (now this was a shocking learning)
Lesson no 8: Every second of your life can help you learn something new... there is so much knowledge everywhere
And before i start getting philosophical and hence even more boring..
Lesson no 9: Every lesson can't be shared, some experiences go beyond the limit of words.

Footnote: Many things life taught, and many things it will be teaching in moments to come. Hope to see some great achievements in near future... Now, I'm doing.. not (just) dreaming!!

Sales Strategies............. how to forget about those useless "Sales Training" Companies..

2009-07-06T10:32:00.000-07:00

Recently, the MD of a successful company was discussing with me about the most important things which need to be taken care of while launching a product. Sales strategy seemed to be topping the list, and among the requirements of successful sales strategy the most important was to prepare the right salesmen for the job depending on the product requirement. It has been seen that it generally takes a lot of time to prepare an appropriate salesman. Even a person who claims to have experience in Sales takes at least 1-2 years before he is able deliver his best, especially for a product similar to the one the MD was talking about.

So here are a few 'Ashwin strategies' on how to ensure the formation of a leading Sales person. Don't worry, I am not aiming to take away the job of the so called "Sales training" companies which provide courses to sales executives of the company to make them experts. They have got their own set of expertise and its possible that they may prove helpful for some salesperson, but I personally believe such training courses are only as good as the trainees.

So lets begin stepwise. The first step- Selection.

We have to agree that true salesmen are very less in number, and the ones which are, are already part of some big company with a high pay package. So what does a new company, with serious constraints on budgets, do? A part of the answer is the famous 80-20 rule; have at least 20% of the salesmen as experts and the case of the rest of the 80% shall be dealt with later. So coming to the top 20%, how to attract them to the company with lesser salary and lesser name?

For this, let me exemplify through a case which I had experimented when I was in school: My class had a number of good looking girls and one day entered this new girl who was average looking. Let me tell you, I actually did this as an experiment (I used to experiment with human psychology even back then), and suggested to all my friends that this new girl was the most gorgeous of them all (a few of them were part of the experiment who were the actual ones spreading the news, and the rest were objects of experiment). In a few days, this new average looking girl was suddenly the most talked about and sought after girls in the class. Let me tell you, this was a case when we were in Class 5, a stage where it is easy to mould your mind. This means it is in the Human Nature to get attracted to something which is challenging and may be new (challenge was there for the best looking guys in the class when they saw that others were fighting for the particular girl). [Or why go so far into my childhood; take the case of a dog who jumps after a thrown piece of food even before it completes the piece which it is eating. But I didn't want to compare salesmen with dogs otherwise I would have been in an embarrassing situation, hence I didn't use this example]

Now let us bring out the analogy of the terms used above, in the context of salesmen:
Good Looking Girls- High Salaried Jobs in Known companies
Average Looking Girl- Average Salaried Job with Challenge in the work
Best looking guys- The best salesmen who love to challenge themselves
Class 5 students- Young salesmen with the passion in them but experience very less

Hope the example above is quite clear now. Such companies can attract the 20% needed brilliance through the challenge thrown at them which is always associated with new products. The spice in the challenge can be increased through the increased use of perks (now that FBT is abolished). Perks can be made dependent on the Sales done. Competition within the team, can be another idea, already experimented in a few companies. This means that the highest seller in a team is treated with perks by the worst sellers in the team, thus ensuring that no money is used from the pocket of the employer while churning out the best results. Such experiments can be done, but won't prove to be pathbreakingly useful. What is most important is to attract the best, by letting them know that they'll be becoming a part of the history by marketing the new product, which will take them to a new level in the corporate ladder. Ambition is another Human Nature which can be 'exploited' through intelligent strategies. And every intelligent salesman is not shortsighted enough to just look at the money but is highly ambitious and thinks of things lying ahead of them.

So this is how the 80-20 selection will be feasible.

Now lets move to the next step. Bringing the best out of the 80% less brilliant sales people.These rules may also apply to the brilliant guys.

First let me tell you what are the most important qualities needed in a salesman- confidence, motivation, convincing skills, power of persistence and greed. Some of these qualities are in-built but some of them can be built. These qualities need to be coated with the knowledge of the product. Once you know about the product and yourself believe in its high potential, you are confident enough that you can convince others of the same. But there are products which take years to understand. So for these cases, we need to derive something from the famous "guerilla warfare techniques".

Some of you might have heard of the 'guerilla marketing tactics' to launch a product (where you target your potential market in numerous short and powerful stages), but 'guerilla sales technique' sounds quite absurd, doesn't it. No, but it is not absurd, I shall explain you how. Guerilla tactics mean attacking the enemy in form of different small groups in multiple stages in order to weaken the enemy's stability and force the enemy to act in a state of over-zeal. Our prospective clients will be divided into various sectors, based on the product, and the salesmen will be divided into groups based on this. Then the guerilla technique starts. In the first stage, the best parts of the product (based on the requirements of the prospective client sector) and the basic knowledge will be taught to the salesman and with this the attempt to finalize the deal with the client shall be done. Then if needed, a second attack will be done with added knowledge of the details of the product, by the salesman who has become slightly better with experience. Thus the attacks (in form of the benefits of the product) continue steadily; and at the end our salesman is also an expert while the client is also in hand. Now the same salesman will take the deal to a complete closure, as he knows everything about the product, even technicalities. This technique may have the disadvantage of being a bit slower but it is always better than a failed client attempt and time needed for salesmen to become competent.

Now it is not as simple as I have explained above, as there are certain rules and exceptions associated with it, which can be easily known when plan is strategized in detail.

Thus using the '80-20 rule', the 'exploition of Ambition and Competitiveness in Human Nature' and the 'Guerilla Sales Tactic', new dimensions to formation of sales people can be created. But these tactics are not the end of all; as lots of changes in the techniques and their implementation will depend on the nature of product and market analysis of the product. There are certain other unconventional techniques as well which need to be followed along with these.

Coming back to selection:
Even the selection of the appropriate salesmen for the job will be dependent on these factors, especially the prospective market. Its the nature of a salesman that he'll always have an expertise of a particular kind, we need to identify what kind is present in a particular salesman and what is the appropriate market where this kind can be used. Based on this, the selection should be done. There is another interesting method I have in my mind to do the selection based on the words said above. A large number of qualities existent in any salesman is listed down and qualitative judgement on each quality is done. Based on the combinations of the result for each quality, the expertise of a salesman can be known. Now, details of all these things Later.................

Too many words...... too much gyaan..... Aaj ke liye this is enough.

Union Budget 2009- a review in my style

2009-07-06T05:20:00.000-07:00

I am no Tax expert, neither do I know the difference between MAT and DDT. But the Budget 09 is certainly something which needs to be followed by everyone like me, owing to the fact that this budget led to a fall in the 'Sensex' while trying to please the 'common man'. But what does it bring for the people who are stuck in the middle of these entities- the common man trying to become uncommon by becoming a common part of the business world. The word 'common' is too commonly used, hence it needs a caroused explanation (sorry for the bad joke :), I just wanted to build the mood by establishing that everything this budget does is for the word 'Common').

So, as mentioned in my earlier posts, the driver of the Indian market in this period of economy is going to be SMEs and to some extent, startups. The market is seeing a surge and every new and small innovation is going to benefit. What does this driver stand to achieve from this market, how will things change for someone who is about a launch a new product, how is the Union Budget 2009 going to affect small businesses.

Lets first have a look at the interesting features of this budget- Fringe Benefit Tax abolished, sharp hike in Defence Budget, Branded Jewelleries get cheaper (non branded ones... take a plunge), IT Exemption limits increased, lots of money for higher education through IITs, IIMs etc. This is clearly budget which, in its first sight, seems short sighted and aimed only at popular developmental issues.

But SMEs will definitely benefit immensely from the FBT abolition. FBT is the tax which was put on all amenities and perks provided to the employees apart from the regular salary. This had led to a lot extra expenditure for employers, specially in marketing firms (marketing firms because their a large amount of traveling and business trip perks associated with such businesses). Now that FBT is abolished, SMEs will have their way again by luring new employees not through their basic salary, but through the option of earning through perks which the company provides. When SMEs are benefited, entrepreneurs and new ideas are benefited too. FBT abolition can be used as a unique weapon by these smaller firms, as these firms always need some unique weapons for winning over prospective employees (since they lack normal weapons like high pay package or big brand name). Now, they have a chance which every calculating mind will utilize to the best of its advantage.

Is there anything apart from the FBT news, which is going to bring a drastic change? Yes, there is. At least on paper, there is. Special funds for easy lending to smaller and micro enterprises has also been formed. Though the focus currently is rural market, it won't be long before these micro and small enterprises will benefit much more. The FM, while deciding the budget, must have kept this into mind that the base need be strengthened to allow a towering structure to be made. Thats why he focused on the right segment of market at least in this part of the budget.

But didn't the market expect much more from this budget; there is no doubt that small enterprises can thrive only when the market receives more from the FM. But lets look at the best part, the budget clearly seems to have inclined itself more towards the bigger benefits of MSEs (Micro and Small Enterprises) rather than bigger corporate houses, a clear sign that the road is going to be easier for every person who has the plans to startup. Easing the taxation system in the few months, will make this road even easier. Soon, India will also be the country with lots of hassles while having a startup removed, thus leading to greater investment in startups from established firms and VCs.

Things are looking good :) ........

Hukkaah.. Sheesha.. the new trend Or the new Market. Dare not try it. But do learn something from it.. Deception!

2009-06-30T01:01:00.000-07:00

Strange that I am about to write on something which I have tasted in large volume only once, but the effects were so dangerous that they brought my attention to the changing trends in the society and the growth of large number of Hukka joints in various places of India in the past 1 year.

I shall just begin by telling that one full cylinder of Hukka is equivalent to 50 cigarettes; and one knows smoking 50 cigarettes in 1 night can bring the hell out of you. Yes, I know that people think that water acts as a filter to filter out the harmful effects of this delicacy. But scientific research has proven that water can never act as a filter to nicotine and hence to the effects of the interesting object called Hukka.

Now immediately, lets shift our focus from Scientific research to Market Research otherwise this blog post shall look more like a traumatized addict's health report (which clearly it is not). Market Research speaks that about 50 Hukka joints have suddenly appeared in important locations in India in the past 6 months, and is one of the most favorite form of hangout place for youngsters. Non smokers and non drinkers also come to drink Hukka regularly and this is the prime reason what makes this a success which was unimaginable initially.

Hukka- the object of delicacy- is a metaphor for an intelligent marketer who knows how deception is one of the most important things needed for survival in the market. Deception, not forgery. Hukka never claims that it doesn't harm you; but it provides a sweet flavored smell, which is not hated by even the biggest haters of cigarette smoke, and this simple 'unirrating' aura which surrounds Hukka deceives the hidden dangers behind it and hence attracts more and more customers. Simple and intelligent deception- this makes Hukka equivalent to 'Fair and Lovely' which deceives without lying or Arindam Chaudhary- one of the biggest deceits in the history of Indian corporate world.

Deception in the right manner has always been an interesting way of approaching the focused customer group. What better examples than Hukka and Arindam Chaudhary to exemplify the interesting market requirement which I have named "The Hukka effect" and which could have been easily called "The IIPM Effect". Just go through this link to know a little more about "The IIPM Effect" www.careers360.in/lead-story/

So I would like to end this post by saying that this market needs an outer covering (e.g. sweet smell of Hukka or full page advertisements of IIPM) to enter the minds of consumers or clients. When immoral cases, like those mentioned above, can make a mark and earn unimaginable profits with the aid of this trump card- the outer covering (or "The Hukka Effect" as I have named it), such a covering is bound to help young entrepreneurs like me who are anyways promoting a worthy object. Its a different discussion altogether about what are the various methods of deception (use of media being an important one) which can be used to climb the ladders of success and profit without being wrong. The modes [of deception] vary with the mood [client mood].

So don't drink Hukka and never even think of going to IIPM.......... unless you want to learn the market the hard way.

Online Marketing- some interesting insights!!!!!

2009-05-31T13:37:00.000-07:00

The following article aims to look at the world of online advertising through the ambitious eyes of a new venture......

Is it time Zoozoo dethrones SRK? Seems far fetched, but at least people in India are talking about it. Type "Zoozoo SRK" on Google and you shall know. If Zoozoo is so famous, how can this interesting creature elude my conscience; no way!! But what interested me more than zoozoo was one of the reasons why it threatens brand SRK. And thus my thinking heart comes to the latest crown of the thinking minds of business heads (pun intended :) )- Online Marketing.

So with the usual "unconventionalism", I am back with the latest story of my heart on Online Marketing and how it is just the beginning of a tide which we are seeing. A look at the far end of the horizon and you get a glimpse of the pie of which you'd certainly want a share.

So the story begins a few years ago.

Growth of SMEs and startups in India in the past few years, primarily gave birth to this term called Online Marketing. Many small players started entering the market, but they were not able to afford the resources needed for the right publicity of their products. Then entered a medium which gave these players an option to exercise the publicity. This medium didn't need lot of money to spend and this medium was able to take you directly to your customer, through one on one marketing; unlike the other dominant mediums- TV, print etc. This medium not only targeted the masses (through ads on growing social networking sites and a growing giant called Blog- later to become less popular than its son Twitter), but also was able to reach directly inside the minds of potential customers through Search Engine Marketing. This was the medium which helped these smaller players find a ground which could help them scale huger (not higher) heights.

Then this medium reached a new phase when world's leading advertising agencies started their venture into this medium under different faces; and it was not long before the biggest players were able to understand how big this medium has become. And then you could see bloggers all around you; the biggest names in the glamour world to the biggest corporate houses could be seen in form of blogs and profiles all over the internet. The tide, clearly, was shifting. Slowly and steadily; virals, search engine optimization, networking sites, etc. started taking the centrestage pushing the importance of television comercials to a limit where they could be regarded only as a brand building exercise (and mind you, brand building is just one of the many parts of marketing). And then came, Zoozoo.

Zoozoo entered into the minds of the masses through the television medium, but it went on to rule the people through the online mediums. It has lakhs of followers on Facebook, thousands of blogs devoted to it and is one of the most successful viral campaigns ever. Though Zoozoos are not animated, they still have that charm to it which animated characters bring while being able to convey things which animation can't.

And now comes the interesting part, the success of Zoozoo on TV, print media and other places was not being measured in terms of the conversion rate into Vodafone customers, but in terms of Facebook fans or number of Zoozoo wallpapers downloaded. Silently, the latest child of advertising medium was showing its importance to the world.

And this means the graph of the growth of this medium still has positive slope and will remain so for time to come, to ensure that appropriate advertisement and marketing in the right customer segment shall no more remain the costliest affair in a company, which in turn means finally it will be the R&D department of a company which will use up the maximum of company's profits, which finally means innovative and entrepreneneural ventures are here to stay.

Now comes the most obvious questions of them all; despite the importance of this medium, will it remain cheap considering the competition it is generating amongst rivals and that competition always leads to war of money. Well, thats where the importance of online marketing comes to the forefront. Now, it won't be a war of money. It was a war of money when there was a limit provided to creativity, a limit provided to mediums of publcity; but with the latest thing, the options become unlimited, the mediums become infinite and ideas can never be restricted. Exemplifying, if a company uses a facebook page to rule over its customer segment, its rival can use Youtube to ensure maximum hits on a new page created by them, the third rival may simply go for Search Engine Optimization for its page, fourth one can create a free blog to reach out to the people, the fifth one may simply use the power of 3D wallpapers on free wallpaper sites, the sixth one can use the concept of viral emailing (by mixing a tinge of social messaging with the viral depending on the product requirements), the seventh one may go for networking sites' scraps, the eigth one may go for....... and so on. The ideas will never end and the impletementation of these ideas will never cost, unless....

Unless, the clients fail to understand the true schwerpunkt (a military term signifying the correct focus) of the online media world, which is creativity and NOT money.

By the above post I never meant to say that brand SRK is becoming dilute; it will remain as long as Pepsi and Coke remains. But what I can guarantee is that if I am going to start a company tomorrow, I don't need a brand SRK to reach out to the masses and to provide the basic platform to the company's innovation; what I will need is only the right blend of the cocktail of creative achievements called Online Marketing.

And to help others create this right blend, people like me are always there ;)

Well, wasn't this Online Marketing :D ? Well, if you don't think so type "schwerpunkt marketing" (for cases where my target group is the kind of people who believe in the concept of marketing using military strategies) on Google [or "online marketing Zoozoo SRK"].....

Politics of marketing

2009-04-27T19:58:00.000-07:00

No, this is not another glimpse of my hypothetical book of marketing; don't go by the deceit in the title of the post, as this post aims to give you a peek into the world where being meretricious is a rule. This is the world which requires more marketing than the biggest corporate firm about to launch its product, this is the world where every form of art is given the best platform of showcase, this is the world which has the potential to create a buffoon out of a genius and vice versa; this is the world of politics, and with the current Dance of Democracy (courtesy: TOI) in The Political Theatre (courtesy: ET) this world has suddenly become much more interesting. I'll try to give a picture of this world from a marketer's perspective. A close follow up of Indian politics can give a marketer more experience of the true Indian market than that given by years of being a part of a corporate firm.

Rules of politics have always intrigued me from the days when any visit by a senior leader of BJP to our house, would ensure a number of phone calls from the most distant of family friends asking for the possibility of getting a ticket in the coming elections. The beauty and irony of the entire political system was the direct involvement of the huge number of people around you in a system which they blatantly abused. But I'll venture into those things later.

Marketing in politics is an important criteria which decides the fate of the path the country is going to take. One needs to be able to micro-market oneself, while also reaching out to the masses through the general means. So there are two faces to marketing in politics: Mass media marketing and Micro-Marketing. (Terms are given by me so they may not be technical). One deals with the methods to attract people on a whole primarily through brand visibility, the other deals with customized vote bank research.

Hence the LK Advani Google campaign, is a strategy adopted to ensure brand visibility of Advani, with a prime focus on targeting new voters by luring them through the power of online posters. Congress was not far behind, having a similar strategy adopted to ensure that at least the young brigade on Orkut.com knows its policies. TV ads and other such regular online/ media advertisements are the regular ways of mass media marketing.

Another interesting mass marketing strategy is to bank on the successful events around you and to somehow weave them into the political agenda. The benefit is that these situations around the public are actually fresh and raw in their minds, and an appropriate connection with your strategies instantly acts as a direct medium of effective brand visibility. The best example is the Congress Jai Ho Campaign. The high TRP of Oscars this year, along with the innumerable pages of newspapers and magazines with pictures of a smiling Rahman Sir, was clearly something which was forced to get etched into the memories of almost every Indian. Congress used the words "Jai Ho" which brought the world to its toes (strangely as per my opinion), to their advantage by buying the copyright of the song to be able to incorporate in their marketing campaign. Seems like a strategy adopted generally by any leading corporate firm, but the beauty of political marketing was actually seen by what the BJP did to counter this effect. They made a parody of Jai Ho, called Bhay Ho, taunting the Congress, and the music lovers who were tired of listening to the original at almost every function ensured that Bhay Ho was a success; thus crushing the Jai Ho Congress Campaign. BJP Marketing team thus proved that an interesting strategy of victory in market is to be able to use the cards played by your opponent to your advantage. Congress paid money for the copyright and it was BJP who reaped a greater benefit.

But a general doubt which people might have about this is whether such mass marketing campaigns actually create a difference. The answer is: yes they do, they help creating a vote bank which votes not on social/ religious/ caste issues, but on the charisma or the awe the party can generate. You can actually compare this vote bank to those voters in US who made Sarah Palin an important woman in American History, and also to those voters of Virar who gave Govinda a chance to create a new history in Indian parliament. But this bank is very small, how do you reach out to the basics, how do you make yourselves more easily accessible to the prospective voters. Here comes the micromarketing.

Now micromarketing is a concept which leads to the identification of a customized consumer base (in this case, the vote bank) and directly reaches out to them. In politics too, a perfect combination of customized voter base is planned (eg, a decision by Congress marketing team on the election campaigns in a place can be directly dependent on this analysis of customer base: So what they do is considering Jahanabad in Bihar shall cater to the Y-M-D vote bank while Bettiah shall cater primarily to Brahmins, they send a Muslim leader to Jahanabad and a Brahmin leader to Bettiah for campaigning). Exactly similar situations may exist in the corporate world where you need to know different strategies of targeting different target groups in market. You customize your marketing campaigns accordingly and then see the huge difference which such micromarketing can create. Using local media and local events, with the help of local influential leaders, is the strategy adopted by political parties in this form of marketing.

Before giving an end to this post, I shall give two examples of two of the greatest marketing personalities Indian politics has produced. Laloo yadav, a person known as a political clown, is a person who has the alacrity to make fun of himself to be able to attract more people towards him . He is a genius, who wraps himself in the garb of a rural clown to be able to ensure that the vote bank his party targets is able to identify itself with this personality which it can see. Interesting marketing strategy, something similar to what Unilver used to do- Hindustan Lever Ltd always brought a greater sense of identification for a patriotic customer than P&G, though by no means was HLL closer to Indian ethics than any of its other competitors. Another example is that of Mr Narendra Modi, who has transformed his personality into a witty stand up comedian, hoping that this jovial face of Modi will flash such a smile that the tears of Gujarat riot victims will disappear. Interesting marketing strategy again, projecting your company as something entirely opposite to the controversies/failures it was earlier involved in.

I end the post with this; marketing in politics tests every nerve of a marketer, thus proving what our leaders are actually capable of ;) . I have tried to tone down a few dirty aspects associated with such marketing and hence the focus is only on those points which can be directly applied to corporate firms as well.

Living my dream......... the time has come.

2009-04-13T07:38:00.000-07:00

It feels so gratifying when you are able to start living your dream, or when you take the first step towards the achievement of that dream. The time has come when I am going to start work on my start up, and take my first step towards the journey of entrepreneurial dreams. Interestingly, the journey I am about to begin will be quite unique, as I will be running on two parallel paths which will converge after some time, causing the merge of interests. One of the paths is the startup whose seed has been sown with few of my good friends and the battle of ideas has begun; it won't be long before we embark on a journey. The second path is that of a startup which has funding from an established company and my aim will be to create a venture out of the funds provided.

When I start giving shapes to my ideas related to the second path in a few weeks, I will travel the journey from being an aspiring entrepreneur to a budding entrepreneur. The second step in the entrepreneurial journey will be tougher, but thats also the feeling which gives me immense pleasure. So here follows a small peep into the path 2 of my entrepreneurial journey and what I'll be working on.

When it comes to the modern economy, one word instinctively comes to our mind in a form which haunts you- 'recession'. Whether or not India is in recession, is a different debate, but the situations this word has created in our economy are so important that they are going to shape the path Indian business will follow. Recession or the fear of it, has suddenly brought employee management to the forefront; getting the maximum out of a few employees while not hiring new recruits should bring an interesting sector to the forefront, that which deals with the management of the T&A data of every employee and handles the security and access devices in corporate firms. This is because there are lots of sectors now where work is still there, but no recruitment. Another important group of people which have suddenly come to the forefront are SMEs and young startups, because even the best of business minds have said this to be the right time to get a strong foothold in the Indian business.

Well, my new work has got to do something with both the above groups of people; combining the two in a way that we are able to use the hype of the word 'recession' to our maximum advantage, while ensuring the formation of a market for us which can control things in the future. I really hope the plans I have in my mind for my startups do succeed, and at every stage of business, I am able to use the situations surrounding us in the right way to create maximum profit.

Yes, the time has come :)

"An entrepreneur is not a dreamer, he is a doer".

Death in IIT, Media and Politics

2009-03-25T09:14:00.000-07:00

Some things amaze you, some things surprise you and a few things terrify you. The news of the death of Rohit Kumar, a student of IIT Kharagpur, who died due to the negligence of the authorities of the KGP hospital was extremely terrifying and even more terrifying for me was the response of national media towards an incident which might have affected or changed the future of the country. Full account can be read on http://grassonfire.blogspot.com/2009/03/rohit-kumar-will-be-remembered.html

Isn't it time for the country to awake and take a step, stronger and faster, against the negative politics which has plagued this nation and is going to beleageur one of the prides of this nation. You may ask what has politics to do something with an accident like above, or what has politics to do with the negligence of medical authorities in Kharagpur. It has got to do a lot, and I'm coming to that.

India's oldest IIT, IIT kharagpur, is spread in 1000 acres of land or even more, and is located far from any city. Similar is the case with most of the other IITs, after all IITs need to have the best to remain the best. Also, same will be the case for 16 more IITs in the pipeline, by the government. There is going to be an IIT about 100 kms from Patna, near a remote village in Bihar; and another one on the outskirts of Bhubaneshwar. You can't avoid that, as its impossible to open new IITs in the midst of cities. But the basic question is, if the IIT is not in the midst of any city and hence away from adavanced medical facilities, doesn't it need to have facilities which will counter the effect of being away from town. IIT Bombay also has a pathetic hospital, which is used only for pink slips, but at least we have a Hirannadani Hospital right in front of our main gate or a Powai Public Hospital. 16 more IITs will be built and 16*3000 more students will study in IITs, and all these 16*3000 students will not have any easy access to basic good medical facilities. Did the government think of any of these questions while floating the idea of new IITs.

There are more than 25 NITs existing in India which can easily be converted into IITs by adding a few more facilities in terms of laboratories and corporate support. But the politicians just want to play with the three letters IIT, creating a vote bank for them in the form of gullible educated Indians; who can read whats written on the paper, but are unable to understand that what they are reading is just an illusion created by the wonderful use of words. Politicians say they want India to have more number of state of the art colleges with best facilities and they say the only way to have this is create more IITs. We believe them because despite years of studying phrases like "All that glitters is not gold" and "Never judge a book by its cover", we have still not incorporated the importance of these words into our lives.

I end this post with a question the answer of which I am unable to decipher, what hapenned to the media during the coverage of this news. It had all the masala which the news of "Aamir bashing Shahrukh" provided but still you couldn't see any solid coverage of an event which could have brought a change needed urgently in the nexus of politics and education. 16 more IITs will be built from scratch in places which can attract more votes and I am sure no one will raise a word; after all we are more interested in Slumdog winning Oscars......... right?

Glimpses of my new book on Marketing..... Confessions of a self proclaimed arrogant genius............dont worry just kiddin.

2009-02-27T18:44:00.000-08:00

There have been questions from somewhere deep down my heart about what have I gained in the past few months, after losing so much. I lost two patents, the trust of three distinguished IIT Bombay faculty members, my CPI, the trust and support of a few friends, because I was extremely busy working for something I didn't deeply believe in initially. It was for Sufian, one of my seniors, that I decided to join E Cell, with a wrong belief that i'll be able to lead a normal life while being a manager of an organization regarded as "unimportant" by certain sections of IIT Bombay.

But things do not take place the way you plan them out to be, as right from the day I became manager, a sense of responsibility entered inside me which flourished into love followed by passion for the organization. And every single startup which calls to thank me for the support we have given to them makes me feel proud of my existence. I didn't know how this happened, but somewhere down my tenure my existence just as an E Cell manager took a backseat and my ideologies of helping India become the ruler of world economy with support of startups took a front stage. This process was like a hurricane sucking me inside a depth of thoughts which was going to define my social life. Moreover, being a marketing manager, I decided to build strategies and ideologies which were risky and off the treaded path.

Coming back to the first statement of the post, this is what I gained from my tenure- a satisfaction of being able to help personally startups like Innovision, Tarantula and social organizations like Jagriti yatra, who'll remain thankful to me throughout their existence. (Thanks to Nishanth for being able to support me for such a beautiful cause). I also gained marketing skills which no MBA school would have taught me, I gained such an understanding of the market in my tenure that a leading evangelist at Microsoft called me "the most brilliant marketer he has ever met", the marketing head of a leading courier company told me "I am amazed at your understanding of our market" (little did she know that they were the fifth courier company contacted by me and I do extensive research on every sector of market before approaching it), and got loads of wonderful comments from a large number of business professionals from across the globe. Thanks a lot E Cell for being able to teach me, help me grow and bring to me an understanding of working of different sectors of market. I am more confident than ever, of my success in life, as I am finally able to understand my own personality a lot through this tenure (though still layers yet to explore exist).

I will focus on the various interesting marketing ideologies and structures I developed during my tenure as an E Cell manager (we had a very interesting E Cell head during the tenure who always thought that he knew a lot and though I didn't learn anything important from him, his extreme confidence in himself did teach me something; here's a metaphor hope you catch it and if you are unable to catch it don't read anything into the above words).

When it comes to marketing your organization, the first step always, as you all know, is to understand the details of your own organization (know everything about it because you don't know what aspect will be used for marketing). So it is not just the marketing aspects you need to know, but its also about all the other aspects, as the first rule of marketing is "Flexibility of thoughts within limits"; you need to be able to think of anything and everything, within limits, when you are in a marketing meeting, as you don't know what aspect is going to come to your support. This was the reason I took along with me my PR manager (Ahana, Rockey) or my Operations Manager (both Chintan, Nishanth) with me to the meetings initially, and sometimes I really found them of great use. I still remember the unique perspective which ahana/ rockey (i am not sure which) brought into a meeting with a company (HCC, i think).

The second step, again as you all know, is to understand the details of the company to whom you are going to market yourself. Every detail and aspect of the company and its sector needs to be known. Exemplifying, in the case of Microsoft, the knowledge that there exists an external associations department there helped me make an association with them, after they had clearly said no. Still, a detailed study of your own organization and that of the market of your prospective sponsor sometimes do not prove to be enough.

When you sell your event to the sponsor, there are many different ways in which your personality comes out to be in front of the sponsor. In my case, I decided to use the fact that too many layers exist to my personality and decided to use my personality in different ways depending on the sponsor. For example, in front of a company like KF (which focuses on branding); I took a risk, I projected myself as someone who is very flexible and ready to provide the company any amount of branding they need. Instead of turning out myself as a dominant and sharp marketing manager, i gave them an impression of me, as being a loose yet honest manager. This projection paid off extremely well, as this ensured that whatever limit I gave to the branding they needed, they believed it to be huge. This helped in ensuring the branding of certain companies remain in limit, despite the fact that they are known for aggressive campaigning. It was a risky attempt and could have gone wrong if not executed well.

Another example where different aspect of my personality was used, was that of LLI, where I projected myself to be a person with clear dedication towards promotion of entrepreneurship and that the only thing which concerns me is my passion. The fact is that this marketing strategy was such a success that the company has now decided to have a special program only for the promotion of entrepreneurship as I led them to believe that SMEs and startups are the ones going to control the business tomorrow. This company, being one of the leading firms in sector, has taken a top management decision partially based on my discussions with them and partially based on their association with us. (Thanks to Robin who accompanied in one of the follow up meetings).

The above example is also one of the examples of another strategy of marketing: "There's a thin line between two surfaces of a shell, which is filled with success and kept inside failure". To elaborate, sometimes you are not sure of how a company is going to be useful to you because you are able to look at the outer side of the shell (the visible marketing strategies of the company), but there always exists an inner side of the shell (the strategies which the company is making for future), which you need to look at. And this ability to look beyond the thin line can take you from failure to success.

Another interesting strategy of marketing, which I would like to share, would be the right use of resources of the company you are tying up with, or to whom you are marketing yourself. Never restrict yourself to the deal you sign with the company. Always keep a few minor things away from the deal, which you'll use in form of the resources of the company and you'll be able to use these only if you give the company more than what promised or build a relation with them through a period of time (the latter needs time, the former needs strategy). Exemplifying, you need not mention that you'll be mentioning the company's name on your press release but you do that, while asking something in return from them very indirectly. The company will get the feeling that we can go slightly out of our way to help its promotion, and it will get a feeling to go out of its way too (sharing resources, help in form of kind etc), without even realizing that it was just a twist of words which we played with while preparing the formal document. Let me clarify, this is not at all cheating or breaking trust, as everything is true and honest (only that the honesty is not straight, it comes in a twisted shape which brings me to another rule of marketing : "100% Honesty is a must, but with a twist").

The above idea builds up to the most important requirement related to marketing for sponsorship. Every single company you contact must be used in a way or the other, whether or not they are ready to associate with you monetarily. So, be it using the database of Sharekhan or branding through Cisco management team, ways are unlimited where you can think of a possibility of association without a lot of involvement on your team's part. So if you spend a lot of time on a company trying for association, believe in yourself to be able to use it for future in some way.

There are so many more known strategies I would like to mention here: the fact that you need to pitch something high if you need to extract something less (e.g. pitching cash even if you know its only kind the company can help you with), the fact that you need to have some associations only for brand building (try unconventional paths, as done with OnM, as big names attract bigger names) etc etc etc etc ..............

Many more strategies failed, few others were successful (may edit the post soon with some more fundae or give a new post)..even the failed ones failed due to reasons like slowdown and if changed slightly with the current scenario, might have succeeded. For example, every company follows a specific branding campaign and directly integrating the campaign with your ideas leads to their direct branding, e.g the human networking effect campaign by Cisco or Smart Planet campaign by IBM. (Thanks to Prasanth, the head of OgilvyOne for giving his time to help me with the above marketing strategy). Moreover, another of my important strategies had been to directly help startups while making associations. Now, if you see cafegadgets running a joint program with Sun Microsystems helping startups with new tools, somewhere its E Cell and me which has furthered this cause. While making the association with cg, I had in mind the database of startups which cg has, and the fact that cg needs to support startups and use this database in the right way. I hope this company, being a startup itself, flourishes, while also helping other startups flourish. Many targets were shot without even using an arrow (this may not have helped E Cell directly, but furthered our cause). Associations with more such startups has been a part of this strategy.

This was something about my marketing experience with E Cell, where i thought, planned, strategized and explored my strengths and weaknesses and used them in a certain way to learn a lot. There is a lot to learn as this was only a beginning and I have learnt only a few initial stages of marketing. There won't be E Cell again to help me learn, but the world's full of opportunities waiting to pour its sweetness, all you need to do is stretch your palms.

Ending this post on a hope that India survives the slowdown in the best possible way, with the support of SMEs and its not long before placements are no more tormenting.

To be continued......................

Halo.. A movie by Santosh Sivan

2009-02-19T03:46:00.000-08:00

Santosh Sivan made a movie Halo in 1997, the chance to watch which I got today. This movie is not a great movie, but it made me return to the innocence I have talked about in my posts earlier. This post is dedicated to the sweet smile that this movie brought on my face which was drowned in the aftereffect of alcohol.

It is the story of a girl who is lonely in life and always asks God for something which can bring happiness to her life. And then she meets a dog, names it Halo and searches for happiness in its company. She finds it, the ultimate way to escape from the lack of motherly love around her, in the dog. But her happiness doesn't last long and the dog gets away some day. And then begins the journey of the sweet girl, to find Halo- the love of her life, the gift from God which has illuminated the dark corners of her home. The journey brings you closer to those sweet moments of your childhood, when you felt privileged to have everyone you love around you. At the end of the journey, she finally finds Halo in the arms of a mentally challenged girl and she decides to let Halo remain with the girl. She sacrifices her love because she believes someone else needs it more than her. Innocence makes you selfless, and the sweet innocent smile which the protagonist flashes every time she finds herself happy, brought me closer to the days when I was innocent and happy in the sweet company of my loved ones.

I would suggest people to watch Halo and more such movies which make you free from the shackles of worldliness and brings you to the dream world you always aspire to be in.:
The world of chocolates, sweets and beautiful smiles,
The world of colors, music and that scintillating noise.
The world of rivers and caves, where mountains rise,
The world of beauty, innocence and sweetness in life.

DevD.. Redefining Indian Cinema.. but not for the faint hearted.

2009-02-10T22:36:00.000-08:00

Here's a review on a movie which won't be forgotten by Indian Cinema, for long. It is bound to enter the realms of unforgettable classics, because of the vibrant energy this movie displays in its every single frame, and also because it intoxicates you to the level of sin by making you a part of the journey of an immortal character called DevD.

DevD is not Devdas. AK and AD tried to attempt a new version of Devdas and they bring someone to us, whose thoughts you can relate to and whose failures make you desperate. Kudos to Abhay Deol for bringing out such a fine concept to Indian Cinema.

But this is not the reason what makes this movie a cinematic experience of lifetime, the cinematography and editing simply took my breath away. The nuances of direction were so perfect that you could see a wonderful blend of colors in its every frame and could feel the perfection of every detail in each shot. Be it the scene where DevD meets Chunni with the song 'Pardesi' in the background, or the scene where Paro defies Indian sensitivity by showing the woman who cycles to the farm with a mattress to meet her lover, or the scenes where hell enters DevD everytime he takes drugs (though it has been inspired by Danny Boyle). All these scenes prove that Anurag Kashyap is a person who is not letting Indian cinema remain the same anymore. The exquisite boldness with which Kashyap presents the movie without an iota of vulgarity shows that Kashyap is a master craftsman, I have to admit I haven't ever seen even a Hollywood movie with such boldness embedded in the spirit, while not letting it show on face and still hitting you hard.

And as mentioned earlier, this is not for the faint hearted, as it hits you very hard, and takes you to a different world only if you are able to survive the blows. Its not for the "Intelligent", its not for the "Masses", its for every person who knows what intoxication is, beacuse you don't feel good or bad after watching this movie, you simply feel intoxicated.

This review is incomplete without the mention of Amit Trivedi, the creator of the best music Indian Cinema has seen in years. This movie is still not in my top 10 all time favorites but its music certainly is. Pardesi or Nayan tarse are such passionately rendered tracks, that they build on your heart and not on ears everytime you hear them.

Thanks once again, Anurag. This was not beer or rum, this was Vodka.... neat..

My DevD Avatar

2009-01-18T02:58:00.000-08:00

You need to feel romance and feel its sadness, sometimes, to allow your heart remain happy in turbulent and busy times. So here's some romantic success, some romantic failure, while I remain busy working for E Summit.

Anjaane mein..

log aksar kehte hain dard-e-nasha mila hai mujhe anjaane mein..
jaane log naapte hai nashe ko kis paimane pe.
nasha hai ye ya afsaane hai teri aankhon ki yaadon ke.
Aakhir ghalti se aapki aankhon ka jaam jo pee gaya is maikhane mein..

aankhein keh jaati hai baatein hazaar anjaane mein..
mann ke aaine mein dikh jata hain in aankhon ka samanader, thodi himmat aajmane se
aankhon ke gehre samander ki mulaqat jab hoti hai kinare se,
us samander ke lahron mein doob jaata hun is maikhane mein..

un aankhon ke maikhaane ka qaasid bhi dara jaata hai anjaane mein
ye qaasid aata hai aankhon ki gehrayee ke kisi tehkaane se,
phir bhi saath lata hai ye aaftab apne us thikane se,
kya karein...yahi qaasid to paagal bana jaata hain is maikhane mein..

unki aankhon ko dekhkar ye lafz yun hi nikal aaye hai anjaane mein..
ye baatein to roz hi hongi un aankhon ke tasawwur ke khwab aane pe
un chhoti si pyaari aankhon mein jaam ka gehra samandar bas jaane de,
kabhi kabhi ye dard-e-nasha bhi meetha lagta hai ab is maikhane mein..

Complete translation of above (to avoid any wrong interpretations :) ):

Despite the fact that people don't know what makes me intoxicated, they claim that I suffer from the pain of intoxication. The fact is even I am not sure whether its intoxication or the memories of your beautiful eyes. May be it is because your eyes have intoxicated me.

Eyes can speak volumes without literally conveying anything, and the only way to measure the depth of those volumes is to feel your heart. Your eyes are also very deep, and when the sea of your eyes reaches its bank,(when your internal beauty is reflected in the the external world through your eyes), it has the power to drown me if I am in contact with it.

The messenger of the bar present in your eyes (it refers to the intoxication of your beauty), is dangerous enough, because it comes not from the surface but from layers hidden from the external world. It is the beauty of the heart and mind which is reflected in the eyes.
It is an irony that though this beauty is hidden and can't be seen but it has the ability to illuminate others' lives. Such irony and dangers are the causes of my madness.

I never wished to speak the above words, but your beauty forced me to. Now such poetry of words will be created every time i see the beautiful potrait of your deep eyes in my dreams. Though your eyes are small, it has the ability to soak in it the entire vast sea of intoxicating beauty; and this special quality of your eyes actually makes me find the pain sweet.

..........................................................................................................................................................................

Aashiq ki Taqdeer..

Ab aapse baat karne ka mera dil nahi chahta hai,
Darr lagta hai us khoobsurat sapne ka jo mujhe har pal satata hai..
Aapse baat karke us sapne ke phir se aane ka hota hai darr,
sochkar bhi ghabrata hai us sapne ke tootne ka hoga kya asar..

Isiliye ab ye dil sapne dekhna nahi chahta hai,
Aur un sapnon se bachne ke liye ab ye aapko dekhkar bhi ghabrata hai..
Jise har pal dekhne ka sapna sanjota hai dil,
usi ke dikh jaane par ab tadapta hai aur rota hai dil..

Bas yehi hai kahani us aashiq ki, darrta hai jo aashiqui karne se,
Use kya pata ki likhi hui hai usqi taqdeer ki ab hoga kya lakh darne se..

Yaadon ka ik safar

2008-11-01T04:56:00.000-07:00

yaad aati hain humein aapki har pal,
sangharsh karta hua chal raha hai ye jeevan.
aapki pyari so wo jhappi, aapka wo pyaara sa dulaar,
aapka wo hansta hua chehra, aapke office se aane ka wo intezaar.

yaad aati hain humein aapki har pal,
apne hi dil ki tadap se lad raha hai ye jeevan.
aapka mujhpe wo vishwas aur aapka mujhe pyaar karna har baar,
aapke saath movies dekhna aur jyada padhai karne par aapki wo maar.

yaad aati hain humein aapki har pal,
apne hi yaadon ke khauf se dar raha hai ye jeevan.
aapke saath mein baith ke ajeeb se un taaron ko dekhna,
aasmaan ke paar dikhne waale un nazaaron ko dekhna.

yaad aati hai humein aapki har pal,
man ke ufaanon ki maar se mar raha hai ye jeevan.
aapka wo sweets laana aur saath mein unhe chupke se khud bhi khana,
wo khoye waali kheer banana aur uski badai mein khud doob jaana.

yaad aati hai humein aapki har pal,
khud ke astitva ki safalta pe sawal kar raha hai ye jeevan.
mera wo aapke liye paani lana aur badle mein aapke haathon se koi tohfa paana,
aapke hanste hue chehre par mere liye un chintaaon ka aana.

yaad aati hain humein aapki har pal,
sach to ye hai, inhee meethi yaadon ke safar se tar raha hai ye jeevan.
aapke pyaar se jeevan ko jeetne ka tha sapna,
aur aapki aankhon mein us sapne ko sach karne ka wo sapna.

har pal yaad aati hai aapki, jeevan ki is dagar mein.
jeena padta hai humein ladkar, jeet kar aansuon ke is shahar mein.
pyaar jo aapse hain, wahi to jeevan hai mera.
pyaar jo aapka tha, usi wajah se to ab ye pal hai mera.

Its tough time now for our economy.

2008-10-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

(P.S.: Well, i am back after a really long time, and that too with some serious issue. One more thing, I have not yet made my blog known to people around me for a reason. Soon, I'll bring the blog to the eyes of the close friend circle around me.)

The current economic conditions have seen a new low, with the inflation rate still in two digits and stock market crashing to all time lows. Sadly enough, the recent US crisis, or to be precise global crisis, adds to our woes. Reliance Infra, ICICI, Reliance Com have proved to be the major losers with around 20% fall seen on Saturday and despite RBI signaling presence of liquidity in the market, the market seems to have gone deep into the crisis. And interestingly and also ironically, articles like these are aiding the market slump by creating a panicky situation. Coming to the global market, predictions like GM, Crysler and Ford on the verge of bankruptcy and news of Meryll Lynch and Goldman Sachs going an all time low have acted as a catalyst to further decay the already decaying economy in India.

Sitting at one's room and reading about the news may sometimes not be able to give the true feel of the economic situation in India; but this time, sadly enough, does not come under those sometimes. So a guy like me, entirely oblivious of shares and stocks in conditions otherwise, is forced to a wisdom of thoughts resting in the penury of knowledge :(

But the whole aim of this post is to look at those rays of hope and success which always come with any situation of crisis. As they say, or may be I say, every failure gives you a chance to create success. Now is our chance to create the success which has eluded us (and I am being a bit patriotic here) due to the US market (don't worry, I am not a leftist). With certain hard policy decisions, which I really hope the government makes, India will be back into business and its uproar will be heard by the entire globe this time.

Another post with no head and tail but a reflection of my heart at this moment (seems like I have been reading a lot of ET lately, and well I'll be back to Filmfare soon enough :) )

An urdu poem about her...though there is no real 'her'

2008-07-14T11:52:00.000-07:00

Unke jalwe humein ba-andaaz-e-digar dikhai diye,
unki adaaon se daad-e-hunar sunai diye...
unki baaton mein kuch aise sharaar dikhai diye
ki zarre zarre se moushiqui ke ghazal sunai diye...

unke chehre se us sayyaad ki jhalak aayi,
jiske shikaar hone ki sazaa har insaan ne paayi...
unke andaazon mein bhi aise deewanepan ki jhalak aayi,
ki paagalpan ne bhi khud ki meaar-e-nazar kamzor paayi...

thoda gussail rawayya unka, thodi naazuk hai adaaiein
sard mausam mein jaise surkh siraaz sharmaye...
thodi ziyaa bhi hai unmein, aisi ki unke raqeeb bhi darr jaayein
kya karein zaalim...ab to unke suroor ne bhi di hai sazaaein!!

(Meanings of a few urdu words above:
ba-andaaz-e-digar: in a different style
daad-e-hunar: praising one's abilities
moushiqui: music
sharaar: spark
sayyaad: hunter
meaar-e-nazar: scale of comparison
siraaz: can be used for 'sun'
ziyaa: brilliance)

Rest of the word meanings I hope should be clear.

Return to Innocence-1

2008-06-29T06:59:00.000-07:00

Today is Sunday and my heart is forcing me to remember the past. Those days, when my heart was still a child. Those times when everything was so simple. The days I spent in Sahibganj. The first feelings of attraction, which I mistook to be love; the true feelings of love- love from my beloved Papaji and from Ma; the feelings of that innocent laughter, those simple fights and that hug. Well, I believe my heart is making my mind return to that innocence.

But OK, I will control my heart a bit and let you know of one of the stories from those innocent times.Feelings are plenty but today I will post only about my first feelings of attraction for someone, maybe you can call it my first crush. I will only write a short story about the birth and growth of my innocence, not about its death.

Venue: Sahibganj, the place which gave birth to all my innocence and also led to its death.
Time: Many years ago

I think I was in Class 6 then and our school's inter house quiz competition was going on. I was one among the viewers. Totally oblivious of what was going on the stage I was chatting with one of my friends, and then I saw her. She was there answering questions to the quizzer, there on the stage, and I knew it was love- love at first sight ( kya karoon, used to watch a lot of movies at those times). I decided that day itself that I need to talk to her. Sources confirmed she was not in my section but in the same class as mine. I was that typical nerd afraid of talking to girls, and I spent a few nights thinking of how to approach her. Well, I finally got an idea. I decided I have to wait for 8-9 months before I talk to her. See, I had a lot of patience back then, which was a result of my innocence or better to say the aftereffect of my innocence. I know that she had participated in the quiz competition and she does that every year. I waited, trying to preserve her memories in my heart, and enjoying the feelings of that wait full of patience and hope. I wanted to oust her regular partner for the quiz and take his place.

And after about 7-8 months the day came. The selection day for the Inter House Quiz Competition. There she was waiting to get selected for the competition, amongst the best quizzers of our school. I was sure I would get selected and would oust her regular partner, and thus get the chance to partner her. I have already started dreaming of those days which we shall spend together preparing for the quiz competition.

The results of the selection were announced and I listened to the announcement with a stopped heart. "This year we have selected the students who'll represent the Campion House. The students are...", I almost closed my ears, "....Ashwin Srivastava..", I caroused in the sweetness of those words, "....and Shyamjee Ojha", the revelry lasted only a few seconds. Shyamjee was her regular partner.

She was ousted because of me.

Well I will keep you posted about more feelings and incidents from those innocent times, but later, because a phone call from my professor a few moments ago has suddenly brought me back to the "not so innocent world".

Politics and IIT, hand in hand?? or........??

2008-06-07T04:35:00.000-07:00

I think its my right and my duty to write on this topic. Being an IITian and having witnessed the politics surrounding this esteemed institute, I believe that despite trying to remain aloof from one of the most important decisions made in the recent times, we can't ignore the consequences which this decision may have on our future.

Politics is interesting. Politics has given my neighbor, the son of one of the most powerful persons of my city, an entry into IIT based on the grounds which clearly mention my neighbor as socially backward. I still wonder how can you call one of the most influential businessmen in the city ,adored and respected by all, as socially backward. Well the answer is politics.

Politics is more interesting. Politics has given my institute, already a widow, an opportunity to give birth to a daughter. The institute lacks in the number of good faculty and as if this was not enough, the intake of students has been increased. Students who have been crammed to live in a 10*10 ft area (okay this was a bit of exaggeration) will now have to live in even worse situations. IIT Kanpur, the widowed mother, conceived a new IIT Rajasthan which will remain in incubation period for a year or two. Politics can do anything.

Politics is even more interesting. Politics can lead people to death without even touching them. Politics can change the system without even the people sensing them. Politics can justify rape while making a rule of death sentence for rape. Politics can simply do anything, simply anything, as long as we remain what we are- gullible, ignorant, greedy, selfish and losers.

p.s. The last paragraph tries to touch different issues, all at the same time. Think over each sentence, over each word and you will find each sentence is a pun intended on what current politics related to IIT may do to these esteemed institutes.

Aftermath of a tragic discussion..

2008-06-07T02:01:00.000-07:00

Recently I had a long discussion with a close friend of mine, who is obsessed with repugnance for all Hindu fundamentalist organizations. His obsession has reached to a level where he has started to believe that Muslims in this nation are unsafe. Such a belief has made him the scapegoat of his own feelings which are trying to feast on his gullibility. Now he believes he has converted himself into a Muslim.

Well its not about this friend I am going to talk about in this post; but its about all those gullible people who get affected by what they see first so fast that they are unable to see the other picture despite having eyes. Its quite natural that the movies my friend has watched in the recent past are Godhra Tak, Zakhm etc. I appreciate these movies but am unable to appreciate what my friend perceives from a few parts of these movies.

This post is not about the friend mentioned in the first para, but also about another friend of mine, who only watches movies and documentaries like The plight of Kashmiri Hindus, Islamic Terror etc. And he believes he needs to save Hinduism in order to help India remain a secular country. What an irony!

I would like to make it clear that none of these movies are biased towards any religion and all of them are pure in what they try to portray. Its what these friends of mine have perceived after watching these movies which concerns me, and should be the concern of the youth of today.

Secularism or fundamentalism? If given a choice to select between the two, both of my friends would select the former. I would, too. But despite this selection they forget the fact that secularism is trying to reach new meanings in the politics of today's world. This new meaning is what they are selecting and professing, and this new meaning is what is acting as the vote bank of politicians of today. Its similar to what once Asoka has believed- he needs to kill people and create one country under his own rule to ensure non violence in the future. Violence to ensure non violence? Fundamentalism as the road to secularism?

I think its the time to think.

p.s. I hope none of my friends feel anything bad about this post, and I request that even if you do, please DON'T start a war of words in the comments section.

Believe me, there was a God.

2008-05-24T05:53:00.000-07:00

A few poems and useless articles. Now is the story time. Let me tell you a story- the story of a man who was beyond words. This story begins but doesn't end because people who are beyond words never end. Let us give some name to the protagonist. Lets call him Mr A, hope that's fine.

So the story of Mr A begins with a small town in the midst of hills on 3 sides and a beautiful river on the other side. Beautiful people with innocence and simplicity exist in the town- the town is in that stage from where you want to grow on to become a city but sadly enough opportunities and resources (i mean the lack of these) restrict you. Drizzling of noise in the daytime and the calmness of deserts at night make this town a place where peace is the most prized possession.

Okay, lets come back to the protagonist and his family- a small happy family of 4000- Mr A, his wife, one 15 year old son and a daughter. 1..2...3....4; who are the rest 3996? Well the answer is in front of my eyes. Let me explain.

Today is Monday and people from across the tribal areas surrounding the town are coming to the town- the locals call it the 'haat' day. Tribals of all shapes, sizes and ages selling things which will give them the weekly stock of food. There is a special crowd in front of a shop, people with strangely sick faces are queuing outside to get into the shop. What a shop is this? Seems like the owner must be a successful businessman. Mmmmmm....Wait for a second, oh this isn't a shop, its a clinic, a doctor's dispensary; and the doctor sitting inside is Mr A. Lets see whats going on inside. A man sitting in front of the doctor with a small boy tells A that his son is having fever from the past 10 days. Mr A inspects the patient and asks his name. The man replies Srivastava Yadav. Strange name, Mr A says. A surname is the first name, really strange. The man replies- he doesn't know whether the word ' Srivastava' is a surname because what matters to him is his belief that the word 'Srivastava' is the name of God himself and he has kept his son's name after a God. And then I have a look at the nameplate of Mr A's clinic and it says Dr A.K. Srivastava. I don't think I need to say a word more about who are the rest 3996.

Lets fast forward the story to 10 hours later. Mr A is returning from the day long tiring experience of treating patients and helping dying people live ,free of cost. He knocks at his house's door and here is his son standing in front of him with a glass of water in his hand- seems like a very disciplined child in awe of his father. Mr A smiles and gives a lovely hug to his son, lets name him B. Even before he is able to complete his glass of water, he hears voices- B has done that again, he is so indisciplined that he mouths foul words to even his mother, B is the worst son one can have, B has gone beyond the activities of humans and is no less than a shaitaan etc. etc. I think these are the voices of Mr A's wife and may be some relatives or neighbors; thats inconsequential. Whats consequential is that their words make you feel that B is a misanthrope who is on the verge of becoming a real devil if not controlled. Whats the real thing? How can we know? Mmmmmm..ok lets peep into the heart of B himself, lets see what his heart is made of- uhhh its so dark inside...well i can see hatred, i can also see anger, greed and many other vices but I can also see love- love which Mr A has for him, love which has the ability to overshadow every other vice, love which is so much that even if B has no real friend or anything else, this one day's love shall be enough stock to make him live successfully throughout his entire life.

At the start of this story I told our protagonist is beyond words, so how do you expect to write about how and what he is. I hope the day in the life of Mr A should have given you at least some idea of what Mr A is. Though this story won't ever end, lets try to give a stop to flow of words by letting you have a peep into the current day.

Current day, time 11 am. The same town , the same shop, oh i am sorry, the same clinic and the same 3996 people. There is no crowd outside the clinic today and the clinic no more looks like a clinic, its a shop now - a medical shop where you buy health depending on the prescriptions by the businessman in the dress of doctor inside. And the doctor cum businessman inside is not Mr A- its someone else.

The 3996 strong family of Mr A is there but no Mr A. He is not there even in the smell of the town, neither in the air or water of that place. He seems to not exist at all any where, not even in the hearts of the 3996 strong family. He's vanished totally from every aspect related to the town. A look at his house 2 kilometers away from this shop also shows no signs of Mr A. Where has he gone? How can a person regarded as God by the people of this peaceful, innocent and simple town simply vanish from a place which was his home? Where has he gone? A lot of search and effort finally finds him. He has decided to divide himself into 3 parts and he lives in those 3 places only- the hearts of his remaining few family members. He is nowhere else, and do you know the reason? The reason is this- Answer this question. Suppose you know and believe that God has created you and made you what you are till date. Thats why you pray to him everyday. Suddenly you come to know from confirmed sources that God no more plays a role in your life. Will you pray to him the other day? I know, you won't. And what shall happen a few weeks later, i think you will even forget that there was a God.

But believe me, there was a God.

Top 10 movies of all time of all languages

2008-05-03T10:01:00.000-07:00

I am an avid movie lover, I watch all kinds of movies and almost all of them . I've watched all the famous movies of the so called "parallel cinema" and enjoyed them, apart from enjoying the ultimate masala movies. Apart from Indian and American movies, I have also enjoyed Italian, Russian, French movies. But again, when it comes to choosing the top 10, I have let my heart speak for me, and strangely enough my heart chose mostly the commercial movies and not the parallel ones.

1. Taare Zameen par:(Hindi)
The beauty of moments, the unparalelled cinematography, the excellent depiction of subtleties and the unique ability to carry you into the protagonist's world with an ease makes this movie an ultimate masterpiece in Indian cinema. The commercial touch given to the movie may prevent a few movie lovers from counting it as a classic, but combining art with monetary attractions add to my respect for the makers.

2. The Shawshank Redemption.(English)
Hope, patience and victory: This movie made me the understand the true meaning of these words.

3. Schlindler's List:(English)
Perfect portrayal of atrocities during the holocaust combined with some excellent direction and supported by brilliant acting makes this movie special.

4. Life is Beautiful:(Italian)
Some movies make you smile with a sad heart and cry with a joyous feeling. This movie is precisely that. I laughed at the jokes initially in the movie but somewhere the whole feeling of sadness revolving the protagonist didn't leave me. And at the end your mind wants to feel happy but your heart stops you.

5. Anand:(Hindi)
Second movie of the kind I was talking of above.

6. Shakti:(Hindi)
Being a Hindi movie has its advantage. After all I am a Hindi. My heart loves this movie though direction, acting and other cinematic experiences are all good but nowhere in the league of greatness. Still here my part of the heart which is a huge Big B fan speaks.

7. Ek shikari Kutte ki kahani:(Russian)
This Russian movie popular in film festivals made me cry for the first time.

8. Psycho:(English)
This is because I love thrillers.

9. The Usual Suspects:(English)
Because of the style it has and the fact that you may guess the end but still love it.

10. 12 Angry Men:(English)
Another movie which motivates you beyond words.

Shayd ab is sardi mein

2008-05-03T02:52:00.000-07:00

bahar ki shardi ki garam hawaon mein
aansuon ki ek jhalak paai thi...
waqt ke sawaalon ke tale
chipi hui ek khaai thi..
us khaai mein aansuon ka ek sailaab tha
usi ki jhalak to aai thi..
na jaane wo khai kis shaitaan kis insaan
ya kis bhagwan ne banai thi??

himalaya ke barf ko yahan ki garmi pighla de..
is sard mausam mein aisi hawaayein aayi thi...
aur phir
darrr kar, chip kar pata nahi kahan se
dil ki ye tamanna bahar aayi thi....
ye tamanna garam hawaon ke liye
barf ka ek safed tukda jo laayi thi..

bas phir kya tha
ab bahar ki sardi mein bhi
shard hawaon ki mehak aayi hai...
dooor kahin chahchahate panchiyon ki
khanak dee sunayi hai...
yehi chehchahahat
dil mein ek naya vichar lekar aayi hai...
shayad ab is sardi mein
vasant ritu ki jhalak aayi hai...

Dated 15th January 2008

Maut

2008-05-03T02:50:00.000-07:00

log kahte hain jeene ke liye zaroori hai maut...
agar jeena hai to marna padega ,....
pal pal har pal jeewan se ladna padega..
woh ladai hi to maut hai...
inssaniyat ki maut, chahat ki maut,
maut ichchayon ki, apekshaon ki maut..

maut apne sapnon ki, adhoore khwabon ki maut...
Maut apne apnon ki, kachche dhaagon ki maut..
Maut apne dil ki, unchuye waadon ki maut..
Maut meri, mere har khayalon ki maut..

In mauton ne hi to jeena sikhaya,
aur maut ke dard ko peena sikhaya...

Jee raha hun main aaj kyunki sah chuka hun main maut..
Log kahte hain jeene ke liye zaroori hai maut.

Dated 24th April, 2007.

Kuch baatein

2008-05-03T02:48:00.000-07:00

lyf mein kabhi kabhi..
kuch baatein yaad aati hain..
jo tumhe dhang se jeena sikha jaati hain

wo baatein....bhula dena chahta hun.....
par dar hain kahin in baaton ke bhoolne se
jeene ka wo maksad bhi na gum ho jaaye..
jo in baaton ki yaadon mein chupa dena chahta hun...

usi tanhayee ke sahare to jee raha hunn..
warna na yaadein rahti na dar
rah jaata to bas baaton ka ek khandahar..
yaadein darati hain....tadpati hain..
shayad usi tadap ki aag se tapa kar mujhe jeena bhi sikhati hain.

lyf mein kabhi kabhi
kuch baatein kabhi nahi bhooli jaati hain..

By Ashwin

I don't write poems, i write my heart out

2008-05-03T02:27:00.000-07:00

I don't think I have the creativity to write poems. But still I do, because after writing every poem I feel lighter, easier and closer to my heart. Sometimes your mind is not able to feel the difference between two conflicting situations but your heart is able to. The only problem is how to listen what your heart says. With so much confusion and penury of peace around you, its always tough listening to your heart. That's where poems play a role. Write without thinking anything. Just keep on writing and you will find what your heart has said. Sometimes its in the form of poems, sometimes stories.

I have written many poems in the past few years, whenever I was sad, whenever I was confused.I will post these poems in my blog.