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!!!