Reclaim your life

This ad is awesome. 

Taking off from its earlier positioning of Tata Safari 4X4, make your own road, this Safari Dicor reclaim your life version is brilliant. 

I like the way the ad opens, and moves to its climax soaking in powerful natural images of New Zealand.

If you look back on your life - What would you remember? The corner office ? The corporate powerplays ? The VIP Lounge?

If ever there was an ad that created a compelling reason to buy a product, this one would come pretty close.

Now why does the Sunil Shetty - Ford Endeavour print ad look strikingly similar?

Eternal return

The current financial crisis reminds me of Friedrich Nietzsche's theory of eternal return. According to the theory matter is finite and time is infinite so everything repeats itself as only so many things can be created from matter but there is much more time. Everything has happened before and will continue to recur ad infinitumm. So as the Dow hits a 11 year low, it has hit a 11 year low i.e. repeated something that has happened before! The Mumbai attacks were labelled India's 9/11 i.e. it had happened before. Satyam is India's Enron. PwC reflects the sunk Arthur Andersen.

Shakespeare passed off  'eternal return' lightly - the more things change, the more they remain the same while the phrase ' those who forget history are condemned to repeat it' camouflages eternal return as if it were a prophecy. Milan Kundera's novel Unbearable Lightness of Being attempted an inversion of the philosophy- a married man having an affair was just that - another affair- more of the same but since everyone lives only once, his actions have very little significance on the universe - so lightness was not having to worry about eternal return, that somewhere else this will be repeated. The Hindu philosophy of Karma as a reward for actions of past life and the Egyptian philosophy of After life as something one can look forward to after death also interpret Eternal return in different ways. 

Recession 2008 resonates with Depression 1929 . Lehman bros is the new Solomon Bros, the huge investment bank that sunk in 1980s. 

As FDI and world turns to India , it could be the next superpower - just as it was before hundreds of years of colonial rule ravaged it into insignificance. Nandan Nilekani, in a recent panel discussion, said that we are about to reap a demographic dividend that can catapult us to the top of the world league of nations.

So whats new?

What a slumdog win means

Winning 8 Oscars has put Slumdog Millionaire in the annals of movie history as a  remarkable story of  passion, hope and survival. 

Very funnily, as Delhi figures prominently in many of our recent local releases, Mumbai seems to have redefined itself and moved onto the world stage. From Rab ne bana di jodi, Oye Lucky-Lucky Oye , Chandi Chowk to China , Delhi-6 to Dev-D, movies in the last 2-3 months had got in a distinctive Chandni Chowk and Pahargunj flavor. Mumbai's crumbling infrastructure, abject poverty and instant fame trapped in film by Boyle and certified by the Oscars, has in a sense freezed Mumbai into a city the world will watch for, if not a world city. 

Maybe, being a world city is the next step as real capital moves in, scripts of movies begin to be based here and hollywood studios open offices here.

In a FICCI frames discussion recently, Pritish Nandy, put up the question on 'Whats indian cinema' up for debate. Is it bengali, tamil , telugu or hindi ?  Are the sensibilities of regional languages different from hindi? Does a bengali understand tamil emotions, if there is something called a tamil emotion that is?

I think just as we understand a polish drama called ' My name is Justine' , we cry with Rose on the Titanic raft as  Jack drowns or  want Erin Bronkovich to win, the world will want to see our culture wrapped in our emotion. And Slumdog has done just that. Jill Gwen, the hoplessly excited Fox searchlight executive on the panel emphatically conteded that the movie could connect with any audience - in a  sense of universal appeal. 

She's right. I mean if one were to substitute all characters with Chinese or Brazilian ones it would still make for a compelling tale. Though the story is an Indian original, Vikas Swarups canvas was pretty universal. Rags to riches is after all a very universal story- a universal desire and therefore has a post-linguistic, post-cultural appeal. 

What this win surely means that Rehman deservingly is a global composer now, Indianness is the next big thing and maybe many more movie houses will land on our doorstep with scripts that will use us to tell another universal tale. 

Jai Ho !  

  

Beginners Luck?

What a match it turned out to be. 

Quite a spectacular turnaround for a team that by the 70th minute was facing sure elimination in the FA cup, down  1-0 to uninspiring competition , with the coach having been sacked at the end of the last match, the captain being suspended for the match. This was the pits. In the 71st minute, it was attempting the 14th Lampard corner, having not been able to convert any of the 13 earlier compared to just 4 that Watford had managed against them . A pathetic show of a lack of finishing, if ever there was. A minute back, as the interim coach, Ray Wilkins, stared in horror, Watford sub Tamas Priskin had run through Drogba deep into Chelseas' defence and beat Cech to score a one bouce goal as Ashley Cole chased hopelessly.

My heart sank. Here was a great team having absolute possession of the ball, complete control of the game and all odds in its favor going down in a match they must absolutely win.  Facing an elimination from the FA cup, Chelsea were up against a resolute Watford for a place in the last 8.

Catching the match on Max,I had decided to give my team some company. Should I just attack the remote and hit the bed or bear the 20-min agony?

Stand by your team, I said to myself. 

Wishfully, the next 20-min were spectacular.

Nicholas Anelka scored an audacious scissor goal a couple of minutes later, followed by another brilliant one-bouce header into the net past  hapless Loach.

Chelsea then wasted their 17th corner. Drogba wasnt in his element and it showed. He missed, didnt convert many chances and was a little short of the ball on quite a few occasions. He teamed up with Anelka for the second goal to sort of make up for things. Mancienne quite passionately showcased his debut with some great tackles, but convert even he couldnt. Ballack had energy but both his headers found no net. 

Abramovich looked so much like a simple businessman, without passion, as he saw Anelka's goals. At one point, I saw him rubbing his hands with a dry childlike smile - was it with glee or was it to keep the chill winter breeze away? Was there a lesson there? Does passion always translate into results. Who was a bigger hero at the end of the IPL - Shah Rukh or Shane Warne? Who delivered ? As if on cue, Guus Hiddink, the huge Dutchman, sitting next to him watching the team he just inherited from Scolari , didn't quite exhibit any passion on the hits and misses either.  

A dangerous attempt almost got Watford an equalizer in the 87th minute.

Within the next minute, Stoch and Kalou charged down the left to create  the pass for Anelka to score his hat-trick with a super 15-yard kick. Anelka's shots were redeeming; and a definite lesson in finishing.

Maybe the Priskin goal was a wake-up call for the team to spring to finishing some of its brilliant counter-attacks. 

Or maybe it was just Hiddinks beginners luck?

Whatever it was, it surely made my night. 

 

The free-doom media

What makes the internet work or doesn't work? I mean besides oodles of venture capital , business ideas on back of envelopes, why after 10 years , this brilliant medium still has no revenues in the bank?
I have oft wondered why I have 5 free email accounts when I run up a 6500 buck monthly fee conversing on my phone, why I read newspapers free on the net , why I can access wikipedia without spending the 29,000 bucks I spent buying the Britannica, why I can search on google for free, why I play chess with a russian grandmaster on yahoo! for free when a 4 week, twice a day chess classes cost me 5000 bucks, why noone charges me for cracking sudokus on zapak when each book of a 100 sudokus cost me 200 bucks, why I can see maps without buying an atlas, why I can now read books or watch movies for free when a movie costs me over a 1000 rupees to see in a multiplex. Why does cable cost me 400 a month but liveTV on the net is free?
Why am in linkedin for free ? Why am I getting to see albums for free? Why am I blogging for free ? Why the hell is youtube free? Webpages are free and software is now free too! Didn't they sue good old Bill for protecting his source code and running a monopoly?
If advertising is the answer, I haven't clicked on any banner. Nothing relevant flashed for me to get enticed. Except googles links maybe- sometimes they are extremely relevant, but most times you can avoid them.
Who is making the money and how? Who runs this big free world ? Who pays for the cost of servers, bandwidth and expensive fibre optic connectivity below the oceans?
Shouldn't the service provider - the ISP ( quite a forgotten word in these days of broadband)- get a revenue share for my monthly internet access . Much like it happens in the real telecom world - every piece of content is revenue-shared between the telecom company and the content creator. This model has turned 'song downloads' into an industry bigger than the entire private FM industry today.
Some have hit the revenue model - because they serve a tangible need - books , movie tickets, concerts, travel , marriages , jobs - but the ones that provide referral information or the ones that help stay in touch - essentially serve it free. And that is truly baffling, considering the real cost of communicating or finding information.
Surely there should be a cost for everything online. Maybe like a subscription fee based model -which works very well for say daily stock tips by poweryourtrade.com or movies by bigflix.com which gives me 30 movies to watch a month for a couple of hundred rupees.
Some services use the net to save money- a bank can operate with a much smaller outfit as it saves on precious real estate. An electricity company or a telecom company can provide great customer service by enabling payment online. Some supplement offline products - you get some awesome help on the apple sites - my iphone and ipod are serviced online for free , but all additional music and features are paid for.
The other side of the internet revenue model - advertising- has also been run to the ground. By getting themselves into a cost-per-click mode of payments, they have sold themselves as the most accountable medium, resulting in abysymal revenues and a lot of bleeding businesses.
Maybe they should look at revenues share there too - if they are able to generate a good number of enquiries, they should sell the enquiries for a fee or charge a share of the overall revenue accrual.
It will be proven of the net as it has been of every other media, that what is free, has no value. ( except free hugs, maybe !)
The net is undoubtedly the medium of the future.
It should just believe itself more so.

Heroes take a fall

During my engineering days , Nortel networks was like one hugely coveted company to work for. Quite a few water-cooler-conversations were abuzz with the IT giants' products and performance. Last week, the $11bn technology powerhouse filed for bankruptcy. Nortel is suddenly a Great Place To Work no more.
The last 5-6 months have shattered many a myths of superheros. They ain't what they used to be. Are superheros turning human ? Superman's latest sequel showed him drowning, deprived of his powers, only to be rescued by a skinny woman . Spiderman spends months in anguish at the loss of his sting. At one point in the latest version, he falls dramatically hurting himself and spending some time in a tattered costume. Batman loses his battle with a brilliant joker( Heath)in his latest fight, needing help from the cops (which is a first for Batman).Alex, the great king of the jungle in Madagascar is reduced to a wimp, singing and dancing like a pansy in its sequel. They surely don't make Superheroes like they used to anymore.
Star TV taught Indian media broadcasting and Ekta Kapoor taught Star audience management. From creating huge weekly audience share-pies to introducing the concept of the character-less fiction ( anyone could play Mihir or Tulsi, anyone slept with anyone ), Ekta ruled the world of bored housewives. Every serial began with a 'K' and re-defined marketing principles for a whole host of programming practitioners. The longest romance in TV history lasted almost 10 years before the biggest of the shows were killed towards the end of last year. Yesterday, Star axed all the rest of the 'K' shows. 'K' doesn't work anymore.
Whats the next alphabet? 'C'?
Satyam created many entrepreneural dreams with its purchase of Indiainfoline for 500cr , setting the pace for the indian internet revolution. Listing subsequently on the Nasdaq, creating a 50,000 people competitor to Infosys and TCS, Satyam was Ramalinga Raju's outstanding contribution to the world of IT. Little did one know what that vision was built of till a confession letter in early Jan bared all.
Pricewaterhouse Coopers, a revered consulting and audit firm bit the dust and with it the world of financial practices has come into a terrible spotlight. Caught like a rabbit in high-beam headlights.
Every management institute has coveted the Day1 placement with Lehman. Bear Sterns and AIG have been halts in rapid career progression. In a classic reversal of capitalism, investment banking has ceased to be a destination anymore. Finance, itself, has been pushed back to its place on consumer doorsteps.
Michael Phelps reign has been much shorter - 8 brilliant golds in October and a ban in january on drug charges. Instant superhero turning instant history.
Finally, Louis Phillipe Scolari, my great brazilian hero, came with impeccable credentials to coach my favourite team,Chelsea, only to be sacked yesterday after numerous failures in the game including lack of respect for players , not turning up on time, resting Drogba when unnecessary and not spending enough time training.
In a sense then 2008 redefined superstardom, probably bringing realism back in fashion.

Shifting-Hyphens

One of the favorite passtimes in college was to link people together in order to create some excitement amidst academic boredom. Creating a new story and a discussion point to the casual conversations of say, Arun and Amrita, would add spice and keep it alive as a referral point. A Hypen would then summarily complete the picture : Arun-Amrita.
Diplomats, esp the foreign policy types, similarly used the Hyphen to lump issues and countries for easy reference and some excitement. Middle-East, South-East , Franco-German , Indo-Pak slowly entered Oxford as legitimate words. As the worlds most powerful country, US created all the frames of reference. Sitting in India imagine having to call Dubai - Middle East !
The Hypen - a residue of non-chalant US foreign policy now seems to be in danger of falling off the pages of Oxford. At the turn of the century, with the help of some source code, we moved from being the corner store and taxi-driving types to the absolute top of the consulting value chain, and a couple of 9% growth years later, began to challenge the Hyphens place.
We have now brilliantly shifted the hyphens between Indo-Pak to Indo-China in business and politics, Indo-Pak to Indo-Australia in cricket and Indo-Pak to Indo-US in the media business. Then from being categorised into a non-unit called NAM ( basically an excuse for not-voting on any UN resolution on any issue for fear of taking sides) or a non-starter like SAARC( basically an excuse for knowing what the f%$# our neighbours were upto), we forced the creation of a new acronym of hope called BRIC.
Just as years ago, Japan and China broke away from the South-East by creating powerful economies and a created another larger new region called South Asia ( quite funny if you think about it) , India will now decide who it wants to be on the other side of the hyphen.
That's surely a good, great feeling !