Where black is the color and none is the number.

The incredible coolness of being.....cool. There's a storm coming. Lookout, you're moving too fast. Give it a rest.

An Encounter

An empty sun hangs over a vast expanse of desert sand.

On the hot sand she sits, cross-legged, with beads around her neck and large rings on her fingers. She stares off into the distance as a fire rages behind her. The heat waves bounce off her hair and slam into me. My eyes hurt from the brilliance in her eyes and the wicked glint from the jewels studding the rings on her fingers. My head pounds as my ears fill with the clanging of loud bells. I sit down across her and my thoughts vaporize. The air suddenly goes cold and the sky turns black. Time freezes as the raging fire is now a blazing splash of bright orange against the black sky. She looks hard into my eyes till she can see the very depths of my soul. I look into her eyes and my mind reels as I race back in time to the dawn of civilization and then back again.

She reaches down and grabs a handful of sand. She runs the sand through her flaming hair.

"Wisdom Persists", she says.

The fire rages with an orange fury as she walks away into the black sky.

Conversation

"An old man came to our house this morning. He had a long white beard."

"What did he want?"

"I dont know. He said he lived very far away and if I wanted I could visit him."

"Where does he stay?"

"On a hill far away."

"Are you going to go there?"

"No."

"Why? Did he say something to you?"

"I asked him why infinity never tired of waiting."

"What did he say?"

"Nothing. He picked out little stars from his long white beard and scattered them on the ground."

"What did you do then?"

"I looked down and saw the little stars changing colors. I noticed I could not see any blue. And I wondered why blue was the most brilliant of all colors."

"Was he saying anything then?"

"No. I asked him what the space between In and Out meant to him."

"Did he answer?"

"No. He just shrugged his shoulders."

"Maybe he didnt know the answer. Did you ask him anything else?"

"Yes. I asked him why blue was the most brilliant of all colors."

"He must have answered that."

"No. He just asked me if I liked fish."

"What did you tell him?"

"I took everything I found inbetween In and Out and placed it in the palm of my hand. I then held out my hand to the old man and asked him to tell me what he saw there."

"Did he see anything there?"

"I dont know. He looked at it for a long time. He then turned his head and pulled his beard. He suddenly stood up and muttered something that I didnt understand and suddenly broke up into a thousand and fifty two pieces. And suddenly they all disappeared."

"What do you think he was trying to say."

"I dont know. I will just have to wait for him to come back and tell me about infinity, the color blue and the space between In and Out which I now will have to keep holding in the palm of my hand."

"What do you want to do now?"

Come, lets go play cricket with the others."

"OK."

A little break, a little madness, a little fun

A little dose of Little Zizou and you’re all set to restore your belief in humanity. For long I have maintained that we are a serious nation that takes the serious bit a little too seriously. It is sheer physical inability that prevents us as a collective from turning into a non-stop never-ending in-your-face manifestation of the classic Lament !! Your eyebrow twitched? Look around you pal – what you see is not normal. It was not meant to be this way – ok so you went and made a mess of the way we as a historical collective turned out to be but that doesn’t mean you resign yourself and the rest of your ilk to eternal gloom. But there is hope. You see it in the changes happening around you. There is more merriment in the air, there is more laughter, and there is more of the chill-pills going around. But theres still a long ways to go, but then its happening.

Little Zizou, written and directed by Sooni Taraporevala, is a delightful film that takes a look at the wacky, funny and endearing ways of a local parsi community. Its like the ads say – a little madness, a little fun. And that’s how things should be.

So what do we have?

Cyrus II Khodaji (Sohrab Ardeshir), who is

- The self proclaimed voice of God going to deliver his people from whatever it is they want to be delivered from and return them to “Purity”
- convinced the Russians are going to invade, because they have indicated their intentions of doing so by laying claim to the faith.
- raising an army – PLO (Parsis Liiberation Organization) – to try and stave off the Russian invasion.
- The same army which after two-and-a-half rounds of an attempted march past pack up and go home.
- is assisted by (Shernaz Patel ), a hip-flask swigging, proper, overworked, underloved personal assistant who helps with the daily chant rituals


Boman Pressvala (Boman Irani), who is

- determined to expose Cyrus II Khodaji for the fraud that he is
- uses his newspaper to print his rants against his methods (including photographs of his attempts to put together the “army”).
- In love old music, has a blast with all his 100+ year-old friends at home
- totally disapproves of his daughter going out on dates


then we have:

Xerxes, who is Little Zizou, named after Big Zizou (Zinadine Zidane), bunking school every opportunity he gets to play Zizou in cybercafes and waiting for the big day when he will meet his idol.

Artaxerxes, working towards becoming a graphic novelist,sketching every minute he can find, and also working on a secret project with two buddies on restoring an old abandoned cockpit of a 747 Jumbo Jet into a flight simulator

Zenobia, who talks Artaxerxes into chauffering her around while she meets up with her boyfriend.

Liana, who loves animals more than humans, rats on her older sister’s escapades and is insanely jealous of Xerxes because her mother showers a little too much affection on him

Roxanne, Boman’s wife, who appears to be the only stable character in the whole film.

Roxanne's mother, who stays in a derelict ruin of what used to be a hotel in the old glory days, who has fought with everybody in the little seaside town and has a bunch of stray dogs to keep her company. She also offers to help Roxanne and promptly forgets all about her offer the next morning.

And a whole bunch of other wacky characters each playing a role in this little mad outing that is a fun watch. If you are quite up to here with all the stuff that is going on around you, and need a little break, a little madness, a little fun – then a couple of hours watching this one would be time well spent.

Through the Gloom, a plume did bloom...

If you call this bad poetry, then bad poetry it is. If you call it half-baked lasagna, then lasagna it is. It is whatever you want it to be. Because, today it is you, and you may not be aware of this, it is you who decides. Surprised? Whoa. Yes it is. Wake up and smell the coffee. Was a time when the customer was king. Today it is you. And you dont need to be a customer either. You just need to be one of those teeming masses out there with just half-a-finger access to either a keyboard or some other internet-enabled device. Just that places in your grasp an enormous amount of power. The power to bring a kingdom down to its knees. The power to change the way history is taught in middle school. The power to, well, to brand anything any way you want, or even deny it one if you so decide. Never before have the words "power to the people" resounded so solidly across the cosmos. And therefore, you, the empowered one, have more than enough reason to smile, no to beam, laugh, guffaw, whatever.......so dont, for goodness sake, walk around with your chin hanging down to your toes and walk around like a zombie who has had buckets full of gloom dumped on his head. Get over it. There is no gloom. There is no downturn. Hell, there is no turn either... if at all there is its all in your head!! So stop with your sob stories and tragic acts and GET A LIFE!!!

OK. So you find you suddenly have in excess of a thousand hours in a day. Has confused the hell out of you? Right? If it has, then you desperately need to get a life, cos you pal, more than anybody else, needs it. People go through life begging for that extra few hours that they may be granted where they could do exactly what they wanted. And what, you ask, is to be done to fill up those thousands of hours? If you have to ask that question, then you definitely, really and desperately need to get a life. Buddy, theres a million things you could do with all the time you have on your hands. Read a book. Read many books. Write a book. Sing a song. Learn to play the guitar. If you run out of guitars play the drums. Take acting lessons. Dont have the money - stand in front of mirror and practice. Because thats what will teach you. Cook. Read up on the history of your country. Go in search of an exotic rare flower that has eluded man all these years. If you dont know what it is, make one up and go look for it anyway. Conserve. Contribute to the green movement. Save a whale. Plant a tree. I could go on all night but I guess you got what i am trying to say. So. Just go out there and like the wise men behind those shoes said - Just Do It!

For at the end of the day, or the end of whatever defines units of sunlit time in your part of the world, it is you who can influence you into doing whatever you think you need to do to see through all the gloom, and enjoy the plume that will bloom... or you could sit with your chin keeping your toes company and regale passers by with your grand tale of woe! Up to you, Charlie!

The Curious Case of backwards movies....

I have seen movies that were told chronologically backwards - Memento was one of them. That made sense. Then today I saw "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" - and it didnt make any sense. Oh the story did make sense and it was interesting in its own way but I couldnt buy into it and the way it started and made its way to the end was something I was not comfortable with at all.

It starts with a baby who is like 200 years old when it is born. Yes. Thats right - it's the size of a baby but thats about it - it looks like an old man. And as the boy grows up its watching an old old man gaining in height and reducing in age... and it goes on and on and on to its logical end. Actually its an interesting story - the film is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald and made into a movie by David Fincher and it stars Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchette, Tilda Swinton and an old man who has been struck by lightening seven times and is still around to talk about it. And also a huge grandfather clock that runs backwards.

So, a movie where a clock runs backwards, time moves as it should, and a man whose life runs backwards.

Didn't cut if for me.

Older, no wiser...and having a ball !!!

There comes a time in everyone's lives when they have a single moment of clarity in which they see very clearly and in great detail every single moment of their life passing in front of their eyes. And then the next moment they are dead. There are also, in addition to these kinds of moments, others too that occur in everyman's lives, only they are not quite so dramatic and final in their manifestation. These are a little less spectacular and definitely a lot less life-threatening. These are those moments that drop by occasionally. This is when the individual upon whom they decide to descend will put aside whatever he may be doing, pull up his favourite rocking chair, fix his favourite drink and light up a cigarette. He will then sit back and with a vacant and forlorn gaze in his eyes stare off into the distance at nothing in particular. In his mind he would call it an extended moment of nostalgia. Others would call it an extended instant of temporary insanity. Whatever.

When we get older, we try and convince ourselves that we also get wiser. We tell ourselves that we need to mellow down, take things easy, be more tolerant and understanding. And then when we have these other "moments" descend on us we permit ourselves a short commercial break from our daily older wiser lives to indulge in nostalgic journeys into the past and bask in the warm feeling that it brings on. And having reveled in it we snap out of it and get back to our dumb dreary older wiser life existence. For that is what older wiser people are supposed to do. Right? BULL.

There is this huge hovering conspiracy occupying the environs surrounding me that is trying very hard to drive me down that lane. They have been trying now for the last decade or so ever since I crossed over into the accepted older-wiser-mellower mad-man phase of life. When they realized that this person (meaning me) was showing no signs of having realized that such a passage had taken place, they tried nudging with little hints at first, and then with less subtler means such as holding up placards, writing on walls, making announcements on TV and finally screaming at the tops of their voices - first individually then in large collective groups. And when they saw that this person (meaning me) was continuing to ignore them despite all their efforts, they went into conspiracy mode. Much strategy happened, much planning happened, much tandoori chicken happened, but to no avail. This person (meaning me) would not give in.

And so it goes on. The conspiracy hangs heavy in the air. This person (meaning me) hangs loose in and around various places on this planet. Its a standoff. And it will continue for sometime. Who will blink first? Who will back off first?

The conspirators, hanging heavy in the air, cannot afford to. For if they do, they fall flat on the ground and end up with egg (or mud if there are no hens around in the neighbourhood) on their face. Not too good for them. And if this person (yeah - meaning me) backs off, he becomes an old, wise, staring-off-into-the-distance-with-stupid-smile-on-face, nostalgia-afflicted nut.

So - standoff. And it will continue. Till the tandoori chicken lays an egg. Till then let floating conspirators stew in their collective strategic sauces while this person meaning me continues his research into investigating the basic interconnectedness of all things.

You have to Listen

Using social media for marketing throws up its own challenges. Heres one perspective looking at it from the customer's point of view. The first thing on his or her mind is yeah all thats fine but how do I measure return on investment? How do I know it works? What is the criteria for measuring success? How will I know that this is worth spending money over? The answer depends on what it is that he or she is looking for. Spreading brand awareness? Acquiring new customers? Converting customers? You can answer these questions if you know what social media marketing involves.

It all starts with listening. To your customers and potential customers. In traditional marketing this is called Market Research. You pay agencies to do this or you have an inhouse research department that carries out market research. They would do this either using surveys or using focus groups. Surveys would be aimed at a selected group of people and specific questions would be asked which would give you answers. Focus groups would involve a session with a selected group of people who you could keep asking questions and get answers from. In both these cases, you would get answers. You would not necessarily get insights. This is because you might not have been able to get a target audience that is necessarily representative or maybe you just didnt ask enough right questions. And here is where listening in the social media space makes a difference. Here you are not asking questions and getting answers. Rather you are listening to people talk to each other and in the process stand a much better chance of gaining insights from their conversations and comments than you would from direct question-answer sessions.

The next stage involves talking. This in a traditional context is marketing. Which is again a one-way outbound communication to your target audience using different media. In the social media context it would be more participating in and stimulating two-way conversation that your customers have with each other, and not merely what you have to say to them.

Sales - this would be the stage where you energize your audience and have them sell to each other. This is where once you have built up a loyal following of customers, they would then in turn advocate your product/services and bring in more customers so that your loyal following increases.

The support stage would be where you help these customers support each other. Again here the key is in enabling conversation amongst themselves to allow them to support each other along with help from your side. Finally the development process would also involve key customers who have become advocates of your products/services and include them in the development and design of new products/services.

The key to all of the above is being able to provide the necessary and relevant tools and platforms to your customers based on their social technographic profiles. Your objectives should be clear and based on this your strategies and selection of technologies should follow. Any approach to social media marketing necessarily should involve People, Objectives, Strategies and Technology. And in that order.

What are your views on social media marketing? Do you think it works? Take the poll shown alongside.

It takes Genius....

“Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.” - Albert Einstein.

In the wake of the upheaval caused by the near collapse of a leading IT firm, there has been a sudden increase in the concern for Corporate Governance across the Corporates in the country. These companies are now focusing their attention on how they can prevent problems from occurring in their organizations. The 2008 financial crisis has further emphasized the fact that prevention is often a far less bitter pill for an organization to swallow than the cure.

Policies, Procedures, Processes - you can draft these and cast them in stone till you are blue in the face, but an organization that cannot implement them, and having implemented them, monitor them well enough day after day, is still going to end up with egg on their face. What is required is a weapon that will allow the organization to keep things in order - monitor, detect, remediate and then track through to closure any material weaknesses that may inherently be lurking in the system. There are those who place a great deal of faith in their abilities to implement said processes and procedures and use paper and pencil to monitor and track without putting into place any system citing budget crunches to get around investing in a compliance system - but the simple fact remains - you cannot get around it. Prevention is better than cure. Detecting and nipping in the bud any problem lurking in the depths of the organization is better than wrestling with and putting it down once it has reared its ugly head. In short, as the quote says, intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them. And we have today that genius - and its name is technology.

Theres a very good blog post that talks about The Genius of Compliance Technology, which brings out nicely the fact that Compliance and risk management professionals that effectively utilize technology can make the difference between successful and unsuccessful firms.

Social Technographics

Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff analyses the social phenomenon of the forces created by customers connecting which they call the groundswell.

The book classifies people according to how they use social technologies – called Social Technographics. There are 6 types of people who make up the rungs of the Social Technographics ladder.

1. Creators: A Creator is one who will publish a blog, publish their own web pages, upload videos they create, upload audio/music they create, write articles or stories and post them.

2. Critics: These are the ones who respond to content from others. They post ratings/reviews of products/services, comment on someone else’s blog, participate in online forums, contribute to/edit articles in a wiki.

3. Collectors: They organize content for themselves or others using RSS feeds, add tags to web pages or photos, vote for websites online.

4. Joiners: The ones who connect in social networks. They maintain a profile on a social networking site and visit social networking sites.

5. Spectators: They are consumers of social content. They read blogs. They watch videos of other users. They listen to podcasts. They read online forums. They read customer ratings/reviews.

6. Inactives – who are none of the above.

Taken together, these groups make up the ecosystem that forms the groundswell. By examining how they are represented in any subgroup, strategists can determine which sort of strategies make sense to reach their customers.

A milestone!

According to the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service, the Internet surpassed 1 billion visitors in December 2008.

When the number crossed 1 million, no one was counting. It kind of crept up and slid into the pages of history. But this time around they were prepared. The big countdown etc.

China has taken the lead in the number of internet users worldwide. India, being the second most populous country in the world however lags behind but is poised to eventually overtake the US, Japan and Germany

Read the complete article here.

Pigs That Glow In The Dark

Scientists in Taiwan say they have bred three pigs that "glow in the dark". In a news article Taiwan breeds green-glowing pigs, the scientists are reported to have claimed that while other researchers have bred partly fluroscent pigs, theirs are the only pigs in the world which are green through and through - heart, internal organs and all.

Apart from the revolutionary strides human research will take with this development, there is an incident that immediately springs to my mind which, given that fluroscent pigs existed then, would have turned out quite differently.

There was a report in a local newspaper of a small town up in the hills, which reported that a local drunk had his toes chomped off by a pig in the night while he lay in a roadside ditch in a drunker stupor. Well if said pig had been a fluroscent green, some passer-by would have noticed pig in the act and alerted the authorities. Or drunken man may have been roused from his slumber by all the fluroscence hovering around him while pig feasted on his body parts. Maybe none of the above, but it still doesnt take away from the fact that things will be different if you have "pigs that glow in the dark" running around. No more problems with pigs that vanish into the night, green glowing pigs are always easier to find. No more problems with monster pigs creeping up on you while you sleep to chomp off toes or other body parts. They would attract a lot more attention than the drab non-glowing variety.

Some day many more will go the green way.

And your breakfast on the odd day then could very well be - Green Eggs and Ham !

Those who use Twitter - Are they twits?

These past few days I have been trying my hand at Twitter. For the longest time (not that its been around that long) I had kept away from it, but I do want to know what accounts for its immense popularity and rapid rise in the social space. I had signed up a long time ago and after the initial couple of "tweets" - thats what they are called when you say something on twitter - I had stayed away from it, not for any specific reason, but just because - well, just because. After a few days I have picked some people to follow, found that there are some who have decided to follow me and apart from that I am still trying to sort out the fuzz from the buzz. I guess it takes a little getting used to. I have the TweetDeck set up so I dont need to login everytime and everytime I look theres this whole bunch of new "tweets" that have come in from those that I am following. My dilema right now is - what exactly does one do on Twitter - or, what is expected, acceptable etiquette or behaviour on this wonderful tool? So now that I am on it what exactly should I do - or not do? And the answer came from where else but Twitter .... heres the link to this good helpful article which was 'tweeted' by one of the people that I am following that explains so nicely what the whole thing is all about.

Happy Tweeting!

One Hat Too Many

One of the responses to my attempt at making the grand sweep from wandering generality to meaningful specific was thats all very fine and good luck but what if you end up with something which is generally meaningful but specifically absurd?? Wonderful I say... because the whole point is to try and move away from the general somethings, the wandering generalities that clutter our minds and paths and home in on something which is specific, focussed, measurable, quantifiable, absurd though it may be, but then what the heck - absurd can be good, absurd is innovative, there are entire movements devoted to the absurd, so it really is not that bad. Its like someone said its better to be specifically absurd for a day than be generally meaningful your entire life. OK. Maybe nobody actually said that, but there have been similar statements made - or words to that effect anyway. My point is, like I said before - so having made it, will not get into it again.

Hats. Suddenly theres too many to wear. I know the times they are a-tough and we are tottering on the brink of a cataclysmic downturn (arent we into it already?? i know - i know - the tunnel it is dark and lovely) but does that mean that many hats is the flavour of the season? You know what? It just may be. It is.

This is the one time, painful and tough as it may be, that is going to throw up opportunities for you to innovate in more ways than you thought possible. This is the time when you can, apart from panicking and flailing limbs in all directions hoping to catch something, home in on opportunities that you dig up, or create them if necessary. And to do that you will have to wear hats - many of them. You do not know when you will need to be what to whom. So carry them around. You may need a small truck to cart them around, but do it. Innovation is the name of the game, and only those that do, will still be around when the sun comes pouring in at the end of that tunnel. Innovation. Adaptability. Agility. Dynamically Reconfigurable. You get the picture. You could also check out this blog post that I found interesting.

And once you see it through, you can go back to your fancy suits, cigars, golf and cars. But till then, its the hats that are going to see you through. And if they call you the Mad Hatter... let me tell you, the madder, the better!

From a 'wandering generality' to a 'meaningful specific'

I saw this video of an interview given by Seth Godin where he talked about the power of tribes and why it is important to have a tribe. He says that you dont need to sell to the world. If you can get a tribe of a thousand people that buy into your idea, then each will go out and get in a thousand more. He also talked about being the best at something specific than trying to be one of the crowd while attempting too many things. Pick what is important to you, what is your world, and be the best at it. And theres the killer line where he talks about how if he were to attempt too many things he would be a 'wandering generality' rather than a 'meaningful specific'.

Click Here to watch the video.

Slowdown and the Digital Media

Just as is the question with just about all other industry in today's state of slowdown, so it is with the impact on Digital Media. Will the slowdown in the world economy and the collapse of the US economic order impact the digital media in India? Given the size of the market in India which is about 350 crore rupees, which is a tiny portion of the overall ad spends in the country, it is very unlikely that it is going to be affected. Ad budgets across the other media which are huge will be affected, ad spends will be slashed, and with the smaller budgets this is a good time to experiment with online advertising, so the online market will see good times ahead.

When the sound and the lights are done with....

Diwali - came and it went. Surprisingly, given the condition of the market in the last few weeks and the general pall of gloom that had descended like an evil dark cloak over the general public, the festivities that one heard around were not as dull as one would have expected. Well, the reports said that the shopping malls ran at half capacity when they should have been bursting at the seams. But the same mood did not seem to reflect in the fireworks department. They were there, in all their noisy glory. Well, maybe a little less than previous years but that probably was more due to the strict timelines imposed than anything else. I guess we as a nation like to be noisy.

Naman - Paintings on Shree Ganesh

Last Sunday I went to see an exhibition of paintings at the Jehangir Art Gallery by Milind Phadke, a veteran artist from Pune. On exhibit were a series of 'Ganesha' paintings which featured fine detailing and interesting textures, something which has been a typical feature of his work. It is this classic, original style that has drawn art-lovers to his work over the last four decades. In this series Ganesha has been portrayed in various 'Swawrupas' within a beautifully composed decorative space. This series depicts a personal encounter with the different moods of the lord. These are images of innocence, peace and tranquility.There are shlokas that have been added in the background using calligraphy. These shlokas sing the praise of Ganesha describing the beauty of his handsome 'roopa', his ornaments, his attire, his nature as a warrior, as a destroyer or obstacles and calamities. The paintings on the whole blend spiritual and ornamental forms to invoke a sense of peace in the beholder. There is a vibrant verve and energy that you can feel as you view the paintings.

Milind Phadke was born on the 20th of February, 1951 at Pune. he has a Govt. Diploma in Applied Art, an M.A (Socio) from the University of Pune and a Diploma in Business Management. He is working with Abhinav Kala Mahavidyalaya Pune as a lecturer. He has had one man shows in many prominent art galleries in Pune,Mumbai and Bangalore as well as many art galleries overseas. He has many awards for Painting, Graphic Design, Advertising, Public Welfare and Copywriting. He has been honored with a State Award by the Dept. of Health Education, Govt. of Maharashtra and with a State Award for Best Teacher: Fine Art Colleges, Directorate of Art, Maharashtra State. His collections are featured in many prominent Institutions, Government agencies and Corporate houses as well as private galleries.

You can view some of his work here.

The Apple iPhone 3G

It's been a long, leak-filled wait, but Apple finally took the wraps off its 3G iPhone. Thinner edges, full plastic back, flush headphone jack, and the iPhone 2.0 firmware -- Apple's taking a lot of the criticisms to heart from the first time around.

Read the full article here...