Now What?

I kept hearing about 'Mid Life Crisis', and people made it out to be a demon. I heard it all and shrugged it saying "What the hell are these losers talking about?"

Cut to now, I think I'm going through a one myself, wondering about what I have done till now. Analyzing what I have learnt in these years, trying to decide what I would want to do in the coming few years, or for that matter in the coming years all together.

When I started my career, I had charted my career, where I wanted to be, what I wanted to do, how I wanted to go about it and all I did now was to work as a stepping stone to where I wanted to be, but now looking back, I am questioning; maybe it still is all right, but the tough task master I am, I want to question the progress I have made.

Could I have done better? Is this the best I can do? Is this all I can do?

All of the above questions sometimes pull me down, but quite often make me to strive harder. Not to prove to the world what I have done, but more to prove to myself that I can do better that what I have already done.

All of this is OK, what is the way forward? I think I want to continue striving to achieve the best, though still not crystal about my next steps, I still want to work towards the best possible solution. No one is going to tell me what is right, I will have to figure that myself.

My recommendation to anyone else who feels anything like the above, keep doing what you do best. If you feel you are not doing good enough, Great! Do better than now, keep challenging your own effort.

Jaane Tu... ya Jaane na

An amazing piece of fiction!

These are the kind of stories each one of us would love to be part of, with every boy wanting to be like Jay, and every girl Aditi, with friends like these, life in college must've definitely been beautiful.

Its an amazingingly sweet movie, with SO many beautiful moments where every girl in the audience is going "Awww! How cute!" or the entire hall is laughing away to glory. Abbas Tyrewala (Writer and Director) put this story as a life he always wanted to live when he was in college, and he sure has managed to bring the dreams of a majority of us alive.

You will get out of the movie hall thinking, "how cute was that, but does it really happen? and if it happens, why didn't it ever happen to me?" Take the feeling with a pinch of salt, exit, grab an ice cream with your sweetheart or fiends, and the feeling is easily forgettable.

Don't give this movie a miss, it's a movie you would always want to have watched.

Trying to Quit

I've been smoking for sometime now and there have been umpteen people around me who have asked me to quit, but it never happens. Everytime someone asked me to quit, and depending who was asking, I either tried to reduce the numbers or more often just smoke hiding from these people.
But there've been these few times when I have decided to quit and that's the only time I have lasted long enough to make a difference.
What I am trying to say is that, don't wait for people to ask to you to not smoke, just go ahead and decide for yourself. Now, you may be thinking "Has this guy ever had a single drag of smoke? Has he ever felt that urge that gets doused when you have that drag after you reach work, after a meal, while having a drink etc?" I really know what you are talking about and I agree that you will have to have a compelling reason to quit, so I'll try putting down a few things that can be useful.
First step is to convince yourself to quit...
Each one of us has something that is REALLY important in our life, so be it attracting the opposite sex, your family, the environment, your health, respect to elders etc etc, now in each of the case, you would realize, you will get the best results without that stick in your hand, think about each, and believe me, you will realize that its best that you quit. Now this takes sometime, just reading it here wont convince you, mull over it a bit, sleep over the idea and maybe you will see where I'm coming from.
Next step, which is after you have decided to quit, is to sustain...
If you search the net, you will find a zillion sites that will talk about how to stop smoking, what I will try and do is just let you know what worked for me.
After I decided to quit, the first thing I do is go tell the close friends around that I have quit, once U have done that, I'm fairly conscious because I don't want any of these guys to come and mock at me saying "I told you, you wont be able to do it" it fucking pisses me off, so I decide to show it to them all that I can do it. While this is my most hard working technique, the others are things like, I keep telling myself that I can do this, give myself a timeline that, I have stay quits atleast for 'x' months. All this put together pulls me off without any smokes for a few months.
I have done the above a few times and has always worked for me, while I know the best thing would be to quit for good, but if that's now happening, let me try to stay away for as much time as possible, I'm sure it does some good.
The reason for telling this all to you was because, starting today, I'm gonna be off smokes for sometime, and by telling you I have only increased the number of people who I will have to face if I give up.
Happy Not Smoking to you...

Sky Wars

It's just a few hours into the morning, the sun had just about started spreading its wings when the clouds came in fighting for the limelight. The picture here brings out the conflict in the sky.

Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai

The statement suddenly seems to have a new meaning to me. Lately I have had extensive interactions with people inhabiting the land to the north-east of my country. Beyond that I came across an article in the National Geographic Magazine and it surprised me, how similar we are. Really! You have to read the article to know what I am saying, to actually experience the feeling of oneness. (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/05/china/journey/hessler-text)

The article takes the reader through various aspects of the country, viz. the highest rate of GDP growth (similar to ours, just that they have had it for over 3 decades now), the real estate boom, the growing urbanization, the generation gap, the bureaucracy, the divide between the lower and the upper class, the growing middle class that is trying the bridge the gap unsuccessfully and many more such things. What struck me was that we really were so similar but yet we look upon each other as rivals, enemies, someone we need to grow beyond.

I have always believed in the good of the world, I believe every human being is a nice person, their actions are a result of ambitions or circumstances that could be very similar to ours, hence our perception in their mind is the same as their's in our's.

Can't we change this, each of us have weakness and strengths, can't we work together to make the other more efficient and hence better than the rest in the world? They have a, English language problem, which we can address, we have a manufacturing efficiency problem which I'm sure they can help us with, this while we can also help them with being better at the service industry, then there are things that neither of us can help, like the severe paucity of palatable water and the aging population of China versus the perpetual instability of the government problems here. Each of the country can look at few of the above problems and try to pacify ourselves about how one of these problems will bring the other one down but no one seems to be thinking of how to co-exist better.

Competing is good, while happily co-existing is other. This is a personal view but I believe competing at an individual level is nice and should prevail but between nations, it should be a feeling of harmoniously co-existing. I know what I am talking about can looked as either Utopian or just lack of competitive spirit but I think it's the one way in which the world can exist for longer in a livable state, if each of the nations try being the best then there will be conflict and its not the thing we want to leave back for the next generation.

I'll leave this topic open, as this is not the conclusion, but a point to be discussed, if you have any thoughts please feel free to leave your comments behind, would love to discuss the same.

Shaurya

I'm sure you will get all the reviews of the movie through imdb, newspapers etc, what I'm putting down is a few things that I felt while watching the movie.

A movie about a Few Good Men (pun unintended)who realize their their role (both in the movie and their character) just before the interval, actually I meant just when someone manages to remind him that he too has a responsibility and has not joined the armed forces to not just enjoy the perks.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. Its great to witness the lifestyle of the forces, the language, the discipline, the attire everything about them comes closest to perfect except a few instances.

A great effort at bringing forward just one of the small problems that our forces are facing, actually while the core reason for the problem is one of the smaller ones, its important to notice the BIG problem.

Height of Celebration

Char Minar was built by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah in 1591 to commemorate the eradication of plague from his country.
While there are ample of pictures of the Char Minar available on the net, what I liked about this particular one is that I got to capture the brilliant blue sky (which is so rare now) juxtaposed to the worn out walls of the minaret.

Returning from work

While at this beautiful beach house in Uran, I saw this man ferrying his catch for day to the shores. He would now carry this home to get it ready for someone to sell it the next day, while he heads back to the seas to hunt for more in the morning.

Finding Friends, both New and Old

Every one of us has experienced the joy of finding things at the most unexpected places. Like when was the last time you pulled out a very old pair of trousers from your wardrobe, wore it, and just when you were walking out of the house, you slipped your hand inside the pocket and found a 50Rs note, wasn’t that exciting? Or that Slam Book you made while passing out of school, with notes from all the fiends and those subtle hints from that someone special, reading that must’ve been nostalgic.

So is the case with me in the recent times. I have recently been spending a lot of time with my older friends from college, and also find new friends. I don’t have an answer to why I did not do it earlier, but now that I am doing it, the feeling is no less exciting then felt in the situations above.

Yesterday, I was out with a completely new set of people, people who were acquaintances in office, but by the time we ended the evening, we had already found new friends in each other.

The idea of writing this note was to just remind anyone who reads it that, there are a lot of people out there that you could find a friend in, just step out and look for them, you sure will find ample. Infact a good start could be here, last evening the three of us decided that we will plan a trip to the Sula Vineyards next weekend, so if you want to join in, you are most welcome.

Cheers..

Do we really need Research in Brand Communication?

Being part of the Advertising industry for over five years, I have come across various instances when we have gone to the consumer to ask her about what she needs, or she likes or would buy; frankly we go back to her asking the same question but because of the sheer size of our population, we are lucky, we don’t come across asking the same question to the same audience over and over again.

Operating in the business for so long and more importantly by just having lived in an Indian household for all our lives, we all have a perspective of the consumer, whether she is the housewife to whom we are selling detergent or the teen going we are selling the shampoo to, be it the father of two who we would want to sell the small car or the mechanic he goes to, to fix his car and get advise on which lubricant, tyre or battery to use. Do we really need to go out and find out more? Don’t we already know a lot about each of the above?

On the face of it, I feel we really don’t need any research. There are various reasons I say this…

General Knowledge: Like I have said above, most of the things we find out of research are not new news; they are either known by each of us or have been well documented over past researches.

Cover their A#*: A lot of times I believe research is used as a tool by the brand team to safeguard their positions, this need to safeguard comes from the lack of conviction in taking decisions that are straight from the gut. Once decisions are taken and a campaign is rolled out, the result is either positive or otherwise, incase it is the latter, research findings are used as a tool for passing on the onus of the decision.

Unnecessary Complications: Most often, the truth is extremely simple and exists right in front of us, but in our quest for the ‘so called’ ultimate truth, we end up complicating matters beyond comprehension. For e.g. hair oil has a simple purpose and is a tonic for the hair, but research brings in layers to beautiful hair like, if you have beautiful hair, you will be able to style them well, if you style them well people around you will notice you, if they notice you it will lead you to be successful, hence the final research recommendation is, by using a particular hair oil, you will be successful, how do we expect a consumer to comprehend this the way we have layered it, for her, its just a hair oil ad and the girl and the situation in the ad as appealing to her, so she tried it.

Lack of Truth: I sincerely believe, one can’t expect a consumer to speak her mind in front of an unknown person, be it groups, interviews or even questionnaires. The consumer may speak about a few things that she doesn’t like or like, but these are all motivated by the ulterior motive of appearing smart and intelligent in front of any audience. While there are newer methods like Ethnography that derive learnings by observing the consumer in her natural environment but we still need to be sensitive to the fact that if she knows that someone is observing, she will not be real, the actions/reactions will still be calculated

Having said all of the above, I also have a few thoughts on how research plays an important role in developing effective communication.

Spring Board: Research findings very often act as a tool to initiate the thinking on any plan. Verbatim by the consumer or reactions to situations could trigger fresh ideas that are firmly rooted in the consumer insight. These ideas could be in any respect, be it product, creative idea or the medium used, but it is a fire initiated by that one spark. Lalaitaji’s “Surf khareedne mein hee samajhdaari hai” I feel must have come from one such interaction with the consumer, where the discussion would have started from the choice of detergents to the final benefit of using a detergent that could offer what a housewife always wanted, hence it makes Surf the obvious choice.

Meet the Consumers: Interactions with consumers provides confidence in the mind of the brand custodian of the fact that he/she knows the consumer well. This confidence helps the brand custodian to think boldly and from the gut, without this confidence, innovations would have never happened.

Dynamic is in: The world changes everyday, there is a new innovation somewhere in the world every minute, how can the consumer and her demands remain the same? The consumer has become extremely dynamic along with the surrounding environment; research helps to keep us updated with the new trends and drivers, had it not been for this dynamism, a Surf Washomatic would’ve never been launched. Beyond the products, the medium, the language, the expectations all are evolving, keeping pace with these changes is paramount or we would end up marketing the wrong products and also gather the impression of being outdated.

While I believe there is merit in all of the above points, we need to come to some conclusion. So I believe that while research is important, it’s the methodology that needs to be appropriate.

Testing concepts and creative ideas with consumers in groups is futile, but knowing more about the needs, wants of the new age consumer through observation methods like ethnography is important. So while in the prior, the brand custodian has to go by the gut, learning of the latter will help him/her take those decisions with confidence.

Reality Advertising

That sounds a bit odd, but its true. I came across an ad by "THINK! Road Safety" they have come out with a campaign that showcases casual videos that have not been enacted or shot with the intention of making an ad film. These are real incidents that got captured by the way and they have been signed off with a message.

Our perceptions of Reality TV is all about entertainment, but this is a form where it has been taken beyond entertainment and used to make some constructive use of the fact that they are real.

Today one of the reasons that advertising communication doesn't work effectively is because the consumer thinks, every advertiser will obviously talk only about the best of their products or if they are giving out a public service message, there is always a feeling of "this is not for real" hence dropping the believability of the message many notches, this new innovative campaign has aced on breaking that barrier and made it look like it cant get more real than this.

Have a look at the ad and I would look forward to your comments.

Sony Ericsson K850i

Are you looking at buying a good digital camera?

Well if you are, I would recommend you buy a Sony Ericsson K850i, its got a Carl Zeiss Lense, 3x Optical Zoom, different light settings, auto focus, auto xenon flash and along with all of this, you get an integrated software to edit your pictures, you can actually change the picture to a B&W to a Sepia and more, adjust brightness, contrast, color of the picture on the camera screen itself. What's more, it even plays music, you can extend the memory to about 4GB.

Also, before I forget.. Its got a cell phone integrated into the camera.

If you are one of those who can't predict when you would need a camera to click a picture, this is just the phone to buy.

Know More:
http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/mobilephones?cc=in&lc=en#view=phones&cdl=0&s=0&detail=1&cmp=0&acc_cid=0&cid=0&pid_type=phone&acc_pid=0&pid=255954

Planning to Study after working for a few years?

Let me start by telling you that it is quite an experience. It has both positive and not so positive effects. But its all worth it, I am talking out of my experience so this may be slightly case sensitive, you can choose to ignore the parts that are not relevant.

I am an advertising personnel for the past 5 years and was keen to add a few relevant letters on my resume (read MBA). I was contemplating for the past four years. Infact three years back I took the CAT, which could (if I did well) get me into one of the most esteemed schools in India, the IIMs. I did OK, but OK was not good enough for the best schools in the country. So had to drop my plans that year. After that I actually moved jobs and came settled into Ogilvy Mumbai. Got into the job and forgot all about my studies, till last year, that's when it started troubling me like something stuck between my teeth. So I started hounding my bosses for a long leave, and since I hadn't taken one, I had every right to ask for a long leave. After a lot of contemplation and postponing, I finally got my leave starting Nov 19th.

Well, I guess, you would be wondering why am I giving you all the gyaan about how I got my leave and what is the history to my taking the exams etc, but the point was to give you a quick view of the mind set with which I went into my preparation.

I studied for six weeks. My very strong recommendation... One doesn't need classes and private tutors to teach you, especially stuff that you have learned at some point in your life. This time is to refresh your memories of whatever you learned in school college etc, and take my word for it, its not so difficult. Just give it a concentrated effort and you can rest assured you will get a grip of everything. In terms of time spent of various things, I spent about the first half week unwinding, the next two and half weeks for brushing my basics and the final three weeks taking tests etc to prepare for the final test.

I could have written about how I prepared etc, but neither am I an expert, nor am I wanting to write about that. I wanted to share with you the softer side of studying after you have been working for sometime.

I think these six weeks were when I enjoyed studying most. I enjoyed refreshing my memory of all that I had forgotten and take my word for this, it was damn exciting. Initially, to get answers right, I would even hear myself saying "I am not bad yeah!" Over the course of time I figured my levels and had in my mind built what I was expecting from my test. Its a different thing, I didn't really match-up to my expectations of myself, but that's a different story, am keen on working towards bettering my scores.

After the test, while I have to start the process of applying to schools etc, I have resumed work and it all seems so new and different. New because I have been out of touch for six weeks and a lot has happened in this period and different because I just about got used to having such a different lifestyle, void of traveling everyday, not dealing with crisis every next day and most importantly having the luxury of doing things at my own pace. I am working towards getting comfortable with my original lifestyle but honestly speaking the one thing that I really want to do more now is study. Learn more. Learn something new, whether it comes from faculty at a school that I join or from newer roles at my place of work.

I would like to conclude with saying that studying after a long time at work is tough, just as much as people make it out to be, but the experience is enriching. The opportunity of learning new things is extremely exciting in itself, its the same as joining a new job with an exciting profile.

Here's Wishing anyone who plans to take up studies, All the Very Best.