Travelogue syndrome

This is a novice like attempt by me to make my otherwise protected,insular private life make available for gross public consumption.Not that chicks are head over heels wanting to explore me err my private life,its just that my recent travel was an exciting one in ways different from my feverish yet paradigm changing(in more ways than one) travel experience to the villages across the country during May -July.

The first pic says Ranthambore National Park-supposedly one of the few Tiger reserves in the country.4 of us went there in a Gypsy-this vehicle type somehow inducing a sense of Machoism inside my pals .The best part about a jungle safari is the thought of the tiger having had traversed the same path that you are gracing today in the damn wrecked gypsy.To my pals' amusement,I would shriek at anything and everything non human and then as if routinely, get on with clicking those beings.Let me take you through my debut Indian expedition minus the hunting effect.This is the place that greeted us as soon as we landed at the park.Having been told by our all aggreable mad driver that a 'Kill' awaited us at that spot,we were left to think deep into our hindi and local dialect vocabulary storehouse as to what he meant by the now popular word(atleast amongst us 4) 'Kill'.20 minutes of pondering and mutual discussions led us to rightly believe that it was a 'Shikar' and he had been meaning to speak the British language.To our delight which later would get transformed into dismay,we found a 'Sambar' which had left its bodily remains in pieces while its 'Atman' did heavenly rounds(considering it is gentle animal).

After a 2 hour wait that ended in exasperation,we decided to move on from our spot- the- tiger obsession.After all,there were cows to be pursued,owls to be spotted and monkeys to be scoffed at.We felt cheated by the King of the jungle-as the driver had falsely quipped several times during our journey.

In the interim period,I did not fail to put to display my self professorial claim of being a nature photographer.To the chagrin of my pals,I emulated my ideal self concept and put to demo my photo related histrionics.

A sample of one of the numerous ones that would adorn my album.

This is a Wild Boar.Its another matter altogether that it very nearly resembled our very own filthy pig with the only POD being its finicalness for cleanliness.A very-in hair cut adorned its entire bodily region between the forehead and non existent tail.Looked cute.

The oldest Reindeer to stand on its feet.More than its age,its horrible hair care regime makes it a pertinent case for pre-hair care shampoo promo.It was a loner as its stench forced our Gypsy to be a safe smelly distance from it,leave alone its familial ties.

The one perched on this hand was proclaimed to be the Bird Kingfisher.I refute this-it definitely looks smarter on that Kingfisher beer bottle and so do the Air hostesses who adorn the airplane by the same name.It is the single most important brand element in the form of a logo,owned by V Mallya and is the same bird which lays claims on endless brand extensions all of which a certain Vijay Mallya claims to own.

Heeding to requests from friends to keep my blog short and complying to those,my only request to the jungle authorities would be :Pls get some tigers in the jungle next time around ya and youngsters like us would be the first ones to get into the buzz generating bandwagon of 'Save the tiger' campaign.Our only resort otherwise lies in NGC and Animal planet where both the 'kill' and the beast rule the screen.

Mumbai -surviving the safar !!

A man whose nerves across his temple is clearly visible and in deep strain..another who is clearly uspet at being woken from sleep..some others who are seen holding their breath and pushing and shoving others with all their might..yet others who have an unarming smile but are busy devising ways to prevent others entering their cherished territory.To an onlooker,all this jostling and exhibition of the variants in breathing technique would seem funny.But can anyone be relegated to the status of a mere passive audience when he/she is traveling in a Mumbai local train!!


Every man in the train is busy.Period. Some are busy playing cards..some discussing vagaries of the Nifty and underlying economic crisis, rather crises, some over the phone cringing about their bosses .In the first class compartment where the ticket price is about ten times the ordinary ticket ,my initial thought was that I d be a loner when it would come to travelling to my place of internship.Like everything that I d whimsied about Mumbai,this too was a farce. I don’t know if there s a theory which says that when each person expects all others except him to behave in a certain way, they do not. Finally,all end up at the same place.


Owing to my inexperience in the hitherto lesser known art of expanding your chest size a certain way as you jostle for more room in the train, I had to struggle real hard to get my bag and laptop inside. Throughout the journey,I was in a state of resigned shock at the reception that I got at my forced entry.I comforted telling myself that things could only get better from now on .But little did I know that each passenger had a 10 x 10 sq inch of shoe space reserved exclusively for him. Everytime I stepped onto their self assigned private space, they d growl at me. I really did not want to court trouble given that it was my debut at being an intern and traveling in Aamchi Mumbai train. The idea is to find your own space as soon as get into the train and get near the guys who are royally seated. Then you may manage to escape the periodical influx at stations lest the power of the masses transfers you directly from one end to the other.And magically so, you may end up getting down at the next station even though you may despise the place. Is this the Power of Mob? Not sure. But this s one of the ways in which it manifests itself.


The passengers would not surely like to be ascribed as Proletariats. They are the capitalists-the bourgeoisie-most of them managers at corporations in and around Nariman Point. Lack of good road infrastructure and hence time taken to traverse to their destination has forced them to take this option. However, everybody seems to give their “sophistication quotient” a small rest once they are in that train. The evening travel seems to be a practical course on stress relief.Getting down the stations is not at your prerogative but of guys who had a bad day at office. You ve to only pray that tomorrow, its role reversal!!


In the second class, apart from the rush, it’s the noise that the passengers make before they get in and out that has the potential to make the most dare hearted, shiver for a while. So, people who fall on the weaker side of the continuum tend to shell out ten times the amount for a first class just to experience a more serene environ. I ve wondered everyday whether its worth it.
Getting down at Churchgate station on my first day was an experience in itself. The crowd getting off those trains may intimidate one ,especially if he s read ,more so heard about the city that Mumbai is ;from relatives or courtesy Bollywood movies. However, once I got down ,I sat down for a while at the station just taking in everything cos deep down, all this seemed to give me a sense of purpose, responsibility and an expectation of things big to arrive. Deep down ,I was enjoying the sight and the sound of hustle bustle around me.
Presently, I am back in Delhi which seems to be quite boring compared to the whirl wind trips that I went to and the world of experience that I had the fortune to amass ,which I would cherish for a long time to come.

Perplexed Puppy!!

The thought that I d always been different from other children since childhood has wondered me to a considerable extent . This opening line is in no way designed to self accuse myself of any superiority or inferio-superiority complex.. I am yet to be diagnosed for either!! May be I am wrong and there are scores of others shouting that I am their unenviable twin after they having read this post. 

Children including my pals of my age and thereabout used to remain glued to their TV s watching cartoons, while I would be busy yelling and shouting their names( which would die down amidst the high pitched volume of their TV )calling them for a game of cricket. The embarrassment of being the first one among my friends to be up for a game of cricket dawned on me and then I thought that I must “develop” an interest in cartoons and atleast try n find out an area of interest in the cartoon space, so that I too ve more number of things to choose from, just like my pals. But i hardly realised that I had my plates full. As fate would ve it, my interest in cartoon watching didn’t develop to an extent of getting me baptised to an Avid cartoon watcher. Welcome to the phase of confusing career options for a 11 year old!!

My vocal chords have always been good enough to please my audience: whether they be a part of a motley group consisting of my relatives or my pals. Like all usual South Indian families, an attempt was made to instil a more regular musical rigor into me. The thought was to harness my talent and bring a discipline into my “bathroom singing non-periodical” routine. However, I disappointed my mom yet again when having already paid a huge advance, i decided to bunk my music class to do what i liked most- 'Play Cricket'. That was the end of my tryst with formal music learning. The deep patience required to play the harmonium took a toll on my emotional quotient. I always thought that i was better than that and argued that i needed to jump straight into the Alaap mode and Ghazal singing. Lame argument, I now realize!! Still to find a GURU who would help me take that leap. Attitude to be developed: Dedication and patience to work and consider anything i do as a value add and you never know; a possible career opportunity!!

During those days, I vividly remember my Bro explaining to me the nitty grittys of the game that cricket is .I d slowly become a master of adjudging close LBW s before the umpire did,whenever i saw pitiable bowlers pleading for another of their priced tag.My fav word those days: 'Plumb'... Then, I tried to practise Inswing and outswing with our customary tennis ball which never really seemed to work. I never had much interest in watching that game on television then, with only the names of a few Indian cricketers being known to me. However, I used to be called upon to play matches for different teams. A team that composed of teenagers, then a team composed of guys higher in skill level (self proclaimed, must say) and then finally the 20 year olds. The seamless flow of information of "Good enough" players seemed to be always in the air and their house address floated across teams. I am yet to figure out whether it was due to my ability to play the game or because they always found me to be the most seen with the furniture in hand!!

There were some people who d approached my mother to get me coached and admitted to another of those fast mushrooming cricket academies. Oh god!! Forgive her for little did she realize my potential!

My brother saw my game and he enlisted me in a good cricket academy, which incidentally had Viru Sehwag as one its players. I was gifted with a superb bat, about which I last heard would fetch 3 times the money i d paid for it!! Among the numerous cricket aspirants, I was the youngest person selected to play in the nets. Little did i realize its importance then. It was a place which boasted of 14 year olds spinning the ball a mile, and i had never faced such bowlers in my life. I realized the importance of fitness here and felt distressed that here is another field where “sole talent” without perspiration did not seem to work. I must also admit that initially, i feared playing on the cement and so, I backtracked for about a week without telling anybody about my selection for the fear of me being called a fool; but only to join back reluctantly. And rich praise was heaped on my batting technique by my coach then. However, duty came knocking on the door..Studies came calling!!Like a servile army man being called back to the war field from the comfort of his home, I left my passion and turned to understand more about Surds and algebra.. Attitude to be developed: Go getter attitude, without the fear of failure ...

Any proto homosapien born in an Iyer family has to, by default do well in studies lest ignominy should befall his parents. My parents were a lot cool though considering the competition in my family. Probably exchanging progress reports of their respective kids was the first thing a South Indian parent couple would do when they meet their counterparts. I was unaware of such a custom then but fortunately I have always been above average in studies. Attitude to be developed : Perspicacity in whatever you do, single minded focus, an attitude to be the best and not just figure in the “Also ran”.

Its not over yet!! I also learnt a percussion instrument called “ Mridangam” for 3 years. I practiced it unfailingly during that time. I was doing well. But then as was generally the opinion of elders and then me welting under it , I stopped it to concentrate on making my “Career”. But, before you start thinking I graduated from IIT, I ve not. Hence, the opportunity cost of halting the progress of my co curricular activities for studies, I pondered then was high.

A talent like Mimicry serves you well when you are attending interviews. Better if the interviewer wants to hear you out!! It also gives you accolades provided you don't manage to sound like a SRK when you ve announced you’d be impressioning Mithun da. The paucity of people in this field gives you more recognition. Concept of Rent in economics tells you that those having a talent whose quality is more or less unmatched earn high rent. A certain Sunil Pal is cashing in on that concept. But mimicry twists your vocal chord pretty badly...more so, when you are trying to capture the audience s ever reducing attention span by mixing and matching two differently ranged voices. Visual imagery of the person being mimicked fosters this modification. Its one of those talents whose presence in you gets realized only by chance. It is OTHERS who ve to remind you about its existence. Its also one of the fields in which you can not be just close enough and hope to be appreciated. You are either There or NOT.

I yearn to do something in at least two of the above mentioned fields. I ve huge interest in Sports management as a subject, scope of branding to leverage and further multiply the popularity of any sport, brand building et al. I intend to formally learn Carnatic music sometime in my life.

Some other fields and the learnings i ve gained by venturing into them are dying to be typed in here. NOTE: My unsuccessful trial in not boasting about myself in the blog will be vindicated by the following line. But i guess all these activities or passions, apart from typifying you as multitalented personality, also allow you the luxury of dreaming what you could ve possibly achieved had you been into any of these as a career?

Come reality and I am into marketing which has one thing common to all the above that i ve pursued: Each has an audience-a consumer. You succeed and improve only by gauging their reactions.

IPL !!Bol bachan!!

The Indian Premier League has generated an amount of buzz whose enormity is unparalleled in this part of the world ie. South Asia. The exaggerated publicity may mostly be attributed to the popularity of cricket in the Indian subcontinent. The zillion news channels add to the hoopla by showcasing highlights and pre match preparations till the “Fan” gets transformed into a pitiable creature pleading for mercy. Here, I ought to admit that I am also one of the many Indians who thinks of himself as a cricket expert and proclaims his superiority by rendering unending bytes about the players, the relative might of each team in the league, how to use the restriction of number of foreign players(4 in each team ) to good effect and who deserved what kind of punishment ,as was evident in the slapping incident.

Apropos, the paucity of any pertinent topic rather than my bonsai-ed horizon forces me to blog on this topic. The marketing of IPL, right from the process of bidding to the commencement of the event and the profligate media coverage is an interesting topic to blog on. I believe that any new idea be put to scrutiny.

Mr.Lalit Modi, the conceiver of the event seems to have used his Business administration degree to good effect. However, the fact that he inadvertently announced the arrival of IPL as ICL-the rebel league and its rival in his inauguration speech, may be overlooked.

IPL, according to me constitutes the basic product-cricket here and the timing of the launch. I combine both because had IPL been introduced in the 1990 ‘s ,it would not have caught on with us as much as it has now. This could be attributed to the number of media channels at that time, focus on cricket, corporatisation of the game and now money wielding BCCI s status then, and the Rise of India as a potential superpower. A product which has no market has no place in the market. The product is unarguably the most popular sport here and thus its launch seems to be a no risk issue then. More so, the market structure is a monopoly as its only rival ICL is not doing remarkably well. This must not give BCCI enough reasons not to innovate, as sociologist cum economist Schumpeter would argue. Creative destruction!!! This line s a tribute to my knowledge of “Economic systems” which for me d been a bit of a drab then and was unenthusiastically guzzled down by me. The next line would be a testimony of the fact that there are very few around who ve the ability to change the topic as fast as i can. Over n out!!! Movin to cricket.. The only good thing ICL seemed to provide was the idea of 20-20 to BCCI. The first mover advantage seems to ve only served as a “What not to do” pointer for BCCI when holding IPL.

The most interesting aspect of this money spinning event is the promotional campaign for IPL. The Ads have tried to generate a sort of healthy rivalry among various states and encourage viewers to take sides. An ad features a woman in an elevator accusing the other of molesting her after she s aware of the alienity of that person in terms of the team he s supporting. For me, these ads dont work. They could ve as well shown a set of cric crazy fans engaging in fisticuffs, if dearth of innovative ideas is to be blamed. Perhaps, the brief given to the ad agency was not long term-ish in terms of instilling the sense of rivalry across states.

Future teams may prop up with their names depicting the specific cuisines of that place-any team from UP may call itself “Awadhi Rockers”(since am in lucknow at the time of writing, this team name seems obvious)—sounds like an oxymoron though. But this s what future teams would try to do-fervently try and protect the “culturalness” of the place of origin and try and serenade the youth by hooking on to a catchy name. Teams from Kanpur, Ahmedabad are in the fray and the latter s rumoured to be bought by Anil Ambani.

Individual teams are placing their own ads with Shahrukh Khan featuring in a music video and Vijay mallya making the generally demure duo of Dravid n Kumble pose as hunks. The astute businessman in him doesn’t stop him from advertising his team “The Royal Challengers” on TV and on billboards, which definitely is a surrogate ad for the whisky brand. A pertinent question to all those marketing geeks—is it a form of category extension??? It may well be since “cricketentainment” as the product is catching on fast. The prefix is that of the whisky brand while the product is a mix of cricket and entertainment. However,as we inhale and exhale, he s busy thinking about ways to dispose off his team.

As the players for IPL were being bidded over, me and certainly many others would ve wondered whether Muralitharan would teach Dhoni his “doosra” to help Chennai triumph, Can we expect Yuvraj and co to be finally conversant with Brett lee s grip when he bowls his slower ones. His Yorkers would always remain lethal because of the geometrical awkwardness in fending off the delivery. Would Ponting have faced enough deliveries from Ishant Sharma to understand how he gets the purchase that he does from the wicket, and what about Viru & Asif and Shoaib & Ganguly.

These are cricketers who ve enough talent and determination to develop deliveries that may still bamboozle the very batsmen who ve played them in the nets on numerous occasions. So all in all, the entire set up makes IPL extremely potent and a potential money spinner.

What KKR has done with branding and associating themselves to everything from a watch to a sports apparel company has left nothing to imagination in terms of the possibility of proliferating the business of owning a team towards attaining break even in case of a possibility of a no show by a team .

However i see one problem with branding here: they ve managed to transform Cricket the sport –which is perennially of interest to the audience TO “Cricketentainment”-the product, and assorted branding paraphernalia which has altered the status of a sport to that of a Brand. And, every brand has to deal with a so called life cycle !!

The possibilities for each team is immense in this respect and so are the challenges. So,we can surely expect change to be the only constant factor in such a scenario.

Lets hope the Cheergirls remain another source of constancy in this rapidly transforming IPL space. Let us give it to ‘em yaar—they are doing a great job!!!

Summer Surprise!!

Sitting at a hotel room at Patna at 9 in the morning sipping Chai and reluctantly taking in bread toast is not what I 'd imagined 3 months ago.But that is life. Back then, i couldn’t ever foretell that i would ve to go without food for 12 hrs each day for about 3 days. Much to the delight of people who thought i was fat and much to the chagrin of parents, i ve really become lean but not necessarily mean.
I am interning at the leading FMCG in the country and my profile is that of a Market researcher. Does not matter that this sounds like a part of memorized answer to “Tell me about yourself” kind of questions thrown at interviews answering which you seem to think that you ve clinched and sealed the interview there and then.At least i did!! The experience of the first ten days in this organisation has been enriching, and i am sure this sounds clichéd .
So ,overall this s not a great start to my first official blog with too many oft stated though honest sentences.
With an intellect that limits use of extravagant adjectives , i intend to capture the reader s attention for the next 3 minutes.With the risk of being branded narcissist,i ve no qualms in admitting that i am good with things that concern me,ONLY me. And the following sentences only serve to prove me right. My job allows me to meet new people almost once every 3 days .I imagine that i am good with people and with a dictum that ” Every word you speak has to be a performance ”,I hope i am not doing that badly. But there does emerge a lot of things that I am still in the process of acquainting myself with. It gets tougher when you have to decode all the jargons and acronyms thrown at you and where managers proudly tell you that all this s organisation specific and that the credit of inventing this goes to it. Kudos to them, for i like jargons. They seem to empower you with something clandestine and covert that only YOU have sole access to. Over time, employee movement and knowledge percolation proves you wrong. An indispensable character of a good organisation is that it tends to discount the obvious and question and look beyond the industry practices .For ex; the market segmentation used by this organisation is a far cry from what s used by others and definitely more comprehensive. That is what makes this org the beast and the best in the business.Sounds boring na?lets move ..and i know i am being discursive.
For a 22 year old with his first ever corporate interface,this experience is an eye opener and is bound to be savoured most of his life, lest selective dementia gets the better off me. The initial days have forced me to alter habits which i thought d been ingrained in me by Lord Brahma. I was lazy, always banked on my memory to save me in my semester exams and i was oh so comfortable with a stock still lifestyle, if i may call it. I abhorred sudden changes and resisted it for the most part of my life.Now, i am required to travel four – five different states and in India,they mean 4 -5 cultures. This essentially implies that i have to force myself to liking travelling and recognize the importance and relevance of “Adjust kariyo “( RDB afficionados may nod in agreement)in our lives.
The project is massive and entails a lot of responsibility.My job also requires me to meet up with people from the world of advertising. This agency happened to be the best in its business. The first thing i noted about them is how grounded they ve to be in terms of their thought process. There are two things that is de rigueur to them-think different and yet the thinking cannot be far fetched from the reality because bringing about a congruity between the Aspired and the Reality is what they ve to achieve. I was surprised at the disparity in the thought process and approach that a marketer and an Ad guy seemed to project, yet having a common mission .In a way, both of them end up on a common ground and complement each other. Both these professions have always appealled me. For an Ad guy, a keen observation and the belief that what they are viewing is representative of the populace is crucial.
Writing about Mumbai-the city and its people is tough .But since i am reading Gregory Robert s "Shantaram",i 'd rather not induge in plagiarism and lift the oh-so-apt adjectives reserved by him to describe the city that Mumbai is.