Wasteful advertising!

Why do luxury car advertisers love to waste their money? It seems one of the many things:
1) That they have huge budget to spend;
2) They don't have enough brains to think on creative ad spends;
3) They would be recovering the money from it's buyers;
4) They want to create a so called media hype for the product or
5) It is an advertising ritual that has been followed and now gets worshipped as a benchmark.

Whatever! I don't understand the sense of advertising in newspapers with a full page or double spread glossy colour ad. It might just make a good wall poster for a kid. But will it sell the car? I doubt. Some idiot who has made it in life to earn a crore of rupees to spend on a car is not naive enough to know where to look for the luxury car. And it isn't like there are zillions of options in that space where he can choose from. Nor would he be unfamiliar with it's features, brand or design.

The best advertising is always free and where the consumer is himself attached to the product for what it offers and means to him. It doesn't matter what the company spends on advertising. The product must have some connect with the consumer and solve his innate desire, offer a unique solution, be easy of use, stand out from the rest, make him feel great and somehow transform his whole life or part of it! Wow! Isn't that difficult! Maybe thats why advertisers think that they can just bombard their money and make the consumer like their product. But it doesn't work that way.

Like in love, as also in advertising, loving is enirely on in our hands. So keep trying till you get attention.

Old junk and nostalgia!

If you have old things in your closet that you have stored just for the heck of it then you are a nostalgic person. Most people have a streak of materialism inside of them. We like to collect things as we travel, shop to places and then there are some gifts that we like to treasure.

As we grow, we throw most of these items after a point of time. Those things fill up space and sometimes we aren't attached to them like we used to. But some of us do save this as some kind of memorabilia. We often keep old clothes of our younger days, toys, greeting cards from former gfs/bfs, shoes that won us a race, scrap or sticker books, games, cards, petals stored inside a book, gadgets.....the list is long.

The real thrill comes from when we go to our old cupboards or some lost corner of our house to clean that space or clear junk. And wow! You have it. You get hold of your treasure trove, pick old cartons and get lost. Yup! We do like to remember old time that were associated with that junk. As we recall events and stories with these items, we realise something. It isn't worth debunking the junk. So it goes back to it's old place to be found again some day later...and so on

Send gifts to India this Valentine's Day!!

I have recently started a gifitng portal called http://www.buygiftstoindia.com/. The portal hopes to cater to the growing demands of people who wish to send gifts to their loved ones based in India. Although the current focus is on NRI’s wanting to send gifts to their friends, relatives and loved ones in India, the company is also looking at the resident Indians to use the service to send gifts within India. The site has relationships with many vendors and gifts can be delivered in over 500 cities in record time. The site targets primarily people who send gifts during Diwali, Dassera, Christmas, Raksha-Bandhan, New Year, Valentine's Day, anniversaries and also occassions like weddings and birthdays.
Ensuring the growing demand of the Indian community, the site has an array of products like toys, cakes, perfumes, sarees, sweets, flowers, gourmet baskets, electronic products, candles, handicrafts, cosmetics, mens and womens apparels, leather products, etc.
Internet forms an unique opportunity for Indians staying abroad to send gifts to India. The early apprehensions in internet security transactions have been deftly taken care of by the site with it's robust security system. We have also selected the best products from various proficient vendors. Prompt delivery of products and the best quality is ensured by us.

A thing or two about Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day has so many times been usually misunderstood. Especially in India. There have been controversies over it and the situation usually starts boiling when major political parties even hear about Saint Valentine. Yes, he was a saint. And like many saints in India, he did what he did for a just cause. And I reckon, we respect saints.

There have been many instances where we have found reasons to hate each other. To hate, the reasons are plenty; to love-not one in twenty. We hate over religion, over caste, over colour, over language, over territory, over class,etc. We might find zillion more reasons to show our affection for hate. But then, hate becomes symbolic of our character. It can consume us totally. It only allows us to see the world as a bad place.

Maybe the Valentine's Day teaches us and reminds us that there is a day for love after all. So obnoxiously bad that we need a day to celebrate love. It should be a festival of life-to love people, to be loved by people. What else is so important than be truly consumed by the richness, the diversity and the incredible journey of love? Every living organism craves for love. That is also how our species survives, prospers and thrives. Money, status, fame are drivers for a superficial state of happiness; it is only through love that we reach a higher state of living.

Whenever people or the society have lost their faith in love, the civilisation has been dealt a severe blow. But why is love such a good thing and why am I emphatically harbouring it's merits? See, if we all hate and kill each other-nobody would remain on this earth. We would destroy and be destroyed. On the other hand, if we love each other-we would only be making this world a better place. Things like passion, intensity, crativity, innovation, etc are 'byproducts' of love. Because love allows us the strength to make the best of our existing resources.

So this Valentine's Day-share your love with your neighbours, relatives, parents, office colleagues, proffessors, teachers, children, people on the street......and possibly that special someone. Send Gifts to them, love them, shower them with presents, spend time with them. You wouldn't regret....I bet!!

The irony of it all!!!

U.S.A. and Australia are very well known for their sports talent. They have athletes who have excelled in most sporting activities on earth. They have also been consistent performers in the Olympics and all International sports arena. Their sportmen have broken many records. Even inside their country, these players have a huge fan following. They regularly attend the games, events and even travel outside where their teams are participating. But have you watched closely? Closely enough!

These very countries have some of the highest number of obsesity rates, problems like diabetes and other lifestyle diseases. Even the sports fans share this sad figure. How do nations with such huge fan base and sports craziness not translate into equally efficient people; exercising people, fit people? Therein lies the irony! Why can't the sport fans be so inspired that they give up on fast food, beer and start exercising, so as to emulate their heroes?

Similar is the case with the Indian film industry. Most of the stars in the main arena like Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan,etc have thir girl friends, former girl friends or wives from a different caste or religion altogether. These stars have a huge fan following; the kind of fans who are crazy over their every move. The cross-community-cross-religion barricades is a big thing in India and the who's who of Bollywood have religiously broken those barriers by coupling outside their very religion or community. But that isn't the case with their fan base or the country. Which is the reason why even now inter-caste or inter-religion marriages are such a no-no scenario. Why is it that although every aspect of their life is emulated in their country; when it comes to marrying, the diversity ceases to exist. The fans don't really follow their heroes after all.

Herein lies an underlying message. The onscreen heroes or the sport stars live a very different life. People want to be so like their hereos and hence like to see their own image in their stars. They would emulate to the point where it becomes comfortable. Thats why there are stars and there are the common Tom, Dick, Sita and Sachin.....the commoners..

Carpenter dreams!

What makes a good carpenter?? Although there is a certain skill involved in carpentry, one expects some benchmarking standards from a practitioner of this art. But then comes a case where all the carpenters of all the world do similar work. Then who is a better carpenter? Someone who maintains standards? Naah! The one who exceeds it. How does one exceed standards? By design. By innovation. By creation. By ideation. A mundane carpenter would make a table with four legs. A skilfull one would perhaps have three legs on his creation. It is not only about creating something for the sake of creation but also it's usefulness. An application of an idea to it's complete useful state of execution makes a carpenter a genuis. Therein lies the human engine of change and possibilities. Nothing would come if all carpenters took the same tools to make the same final product that performs the same functions. It is at this point that change is required, demanded from the artist of his kind. The skills of a carpenter applies to everybody. The only way to know is to keep trying and fulfilling your dreams. Your sketchboard could be different. Your tools could be handpicked ones or made by your own self but the dreams are all your. The world is all yours. Because you are the artist and you are one.