So I have been losing precious time, days, hours, months and years only under the forever discussions of Raahu, Ketu and many such improbable or ugly cosmic misgivings. I am not a non-believer and I do believe in a whole lot of things… but I am part rationalist too. So to stall all work for a couple of hours a day sounds daunting to me… when I mean stall all work, I mean something new and consequential and not the routine. So while you can continue to cook and bathe and watch television during Rahu kaal but you cannot sign a deal, make new ties and associations… not do anything precious or auspicious. I will not get into explaining Rahu and Ketu to you… you can Google it :)
With an overflowing list of programs on television nowadays that are dedicated to stars, star signs, constellations and astrology, I wonder if it is helping people to get any wiser or is it only encouraging superstitions approach to viewing calendars!
What if I did not know about the impending Raahu or Ketu Kaal in a particular point of time in the day and went ahead with some negotiations or business transactions? Would it still not come through? Would it not be successful? I am not questioning faith, but I am not okay with not being able to go ahead with normal life and planned businesses because of some time in the day, everyday!!!
In my view, all these so called programs on television are attaching more fear to stars, signs, constellations etc. I think cosmic events are beautiful, scientific and a natural occurrence. Why associate it with fear, misfortune and impending doom? Why make them reasons for our own natural crisis? Are we less fearful of nature? Why can’t we just love it, for what it is and for what it gives us?
It’s a time warp… where I am left helpless for not being able to do much as there are many others influencing that call of decision to observe the so called not-so-good times of the day. I am livid at all the national channels producing these baba-giri programs where babas with straightened hairs and devis with huge coloured rock-studded rings on their hands are creating an environment of fear, mythical misperceptions and stealing confidence from the hearts and minds of people.
Tata Tea: What a Brand… a feisty cup of tea that has challenged the country to rid itself of a malice that seeps deep down – Corruption!
Started in August 2009, Tata Tea first brought up the issue across all media to look around and take notice of the fact that corruption was the biggest hurdle that was holding the country back in its progress… individually and socially. Taking cue from the simple fact that a cup of tea is what jagaao’s or awakens millions of Indians every morning… they took it to the next level of metaphor – an awakening not just from sleep but from everything that is pinning you down … wake up to stop all that is regressing and vicious… wake up to being a good citizen and not just an individual… take charge of things around you and stop the mammoth demon that threatens to wipe off the very texture of our society. I can almost find some similarities with what Swami Vivekananda said… “We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.”It almost seems that Tata Tea’s is a call to everyone to act on it… to act on the malaise of corruption and be responsible as citizens to eradicate it and work towards a greater society.
Khilana Bandh... Pilana Shuru
They launched an integrated campaign “Khilana Bandh Pilana Shuru” whereby the call is to everyone to not just abstain from taking bribe but also not give bribes or engage in any other form of corruption. Tata Tea activated the Khilana Bandh, Pilana Shuru campaign, through various media. The campaign has garnered 25,000 online pledges through www.jaagore.com and 18,000 mobile pledges. The activation included distribution of pledge booklets through its distribution network to the channel partners and trade. This activity led to 1.1L pledges. In addition, Tata Tea tied up with Outlook for a school activation program, thus reaching out to students and their parents in 285 schools across 13 cities. This resulted in 26,000 pledges.
They also started on a nationwide bus yatra called Vrath Yatra – a 38 day bus journey across the country to connect with the youth and urge them to pledge against corruption. The Vrath Yatra, has been designed in association with Radio Mirchi and Fever.
Also do have a dekko at the revised Jaago Re Website – which facilitates the flow of information and resources between individuals / groups / organizations – by bringing together, onto a common platform, those who possess info and resources and those who need them. The understanding behind the website is that people have the desire and the resources to contribute meaningfully to social causes that they believe in.
Jaagore
Jagaao
Jagaao is the direct engagement section of the website – a place where individuals and organizations (NGOs) register and create a profile. It is the social exchange wherein NGOs can post various requirements – in the form of projects requiring man-hours or specific skills etc. Similarly, individuals can post their interest areas and availability. Individuals can search for projects by location, dates, causes etc. NGOs can also actively search for people using the filters provided.
And while it is a corporate initiative, I think this is what we need… more and more Corporates to come forth, pick up issues and help create a force of like minded people, create a movement and help revive India – Our India. I believe in the Jaago Re Campaign… and I am willing to believe in every other such social issue concerning us that is raked up by Corporates at large. It’s a good start and I hope many more get on the bandwagon of creating responsible citizens.
Over the past two days, I got a glimpse of what makes a great brand…
Efficient, well informed and well behaved staff
Experts
Quality in technology and applications
Resourcefulness
Super quick service
Empathy towards the customer
I am talking of Wockhardt Hospitals…
What a Heart
Wow… what an experience… no, it may sound like am talking of some hospitality brand… and while the past few days have been a tad harrowing personally, but somewhere just being in Wockhardt was an assurance and a feeling that they are going to make everything right… at least they will try their best.
So my Mother – in – Law (MIL) fell ill with a mild stroke … yeah, mild for sure, but a stroke is a stroke is a stroke and it’s not the most comforting of news when you are all by yourself without family in a city with no known doctors or medical practitioners. And as if by destiny, Wockhardt happened to be right next to my workplace. So I just rushed my MIL there and that’s where I had a rendezvous with ‘Dedication’.
Not only was the Cardiologist a thorough gentleman, but was empathetic, had a great ear to hear out, made some good observations that were authenticated by the medical reports done later… and he was around till my MIL left the hospital guiding me through everything. Then of course were the nurses, the dieticians, the on-duty doctor, the peon, the liftman, the security personnel, the administration… they all seemed to be bound by a common pledge… a pledge for Customer Care!
If they did not have a specific arrangement within the hospital premises, like the CT scan, they had her sent to a diagnostic centre with complete care and arrangements and helped me get the reports on time. They all networked amongst themselves so well, that you would wonder, when???
And then I thought the hospital bills would be sky rocketing… but I was in for the biggest surprise when I saw the bill too… and that was not like a private hospital…no ways like a private hospital…it was humane… it reflected a sincerity towards the patient, an oath of service and an intent to see through the patient to better-ness without any harassment…
Yeah… So I wish I was in advertising… at least there is a place to propose ideas and execute them… The Client feels obliged to let you bring some of those ideas to life… he is paying for those ideas …
So I wish I was in journalism… at least if I was not happy about something in the system, I could voice it and create a movement to help it get back on track…
But I am neither in Advertising and Journalism (despite the repeated beliefs of everyone around me that I should have been in either of the two)… but I am not…
I am in PR… In Public Relations… !!! Is it bad?! I don’t know you know… Coz’ it’s surely not the best thing…
While I am given to believe that with a job like mine, I change the course of communication and bring a revolution to the way my Clients perceive publicity and to help journalists see something more …
So shouldn’t it give me the soundest sleep and the most satisfied feeling I could ever get… actually No!
PR is Media Relations in India… just that… nothing more, nothing less. So while you do have Clients participating in The Second Life, glorifying the advent of PR 2.0, the multiplying effect of Social Networking Sites that PR could benefit from… the final cake still goes to the Economic Times Coverage and the Forbes Story …
So if that Agency will finally be reviewed on that and if that finally is the mandate on which the Client judges your performance; then why invite for the Digital PR section in your PR Strategy? Why give the impression to the Agency or the PR consultant that you take the Science of Communication seriously? Coz you don’t!
And while I know I will invite debaters on this, I am more than happy to get this discussion going… my sense is that we only like to indulge in drawing room discussions about the evolution of PR, while we (Client and Agency) refuse to move out of the orthodox norms and measurements of evaluating PR performance…
And that growing nagging feeling of a crusty evolution of the industry is what is snowballing into a dissatisfaction…of wanting to do more, of wishing I could contribute to a larger cause of the PR industry and I need to figure the starting point soon…
Today is my brother in law’s birthday…he lives in the US and all I had to do to show that I cared and remembered was send an e-greeting… how convenient…but how impersonal… And while I say that to myself, I realize that in all our humdrum and chaos of connectivity and being reachable; its extremely daunting to remember birthdays and anniversaries and other such important dates and days in our lives… we have become lazy as a culture… lackadaisical and even jaded to some extent…
When I was little, my mother taught me how to make a greeting card album…first of course there weren’t any emails and e-greetings and twitters and Facebook… (Bah! Facebook even helps you remember important dates in people’s lives)…but in those days to have received a greeting card on one’s birthday and a phone call on one’s anniversary gave one that special buoyant feeling that you are remembered, thought about and people care to remember when you first landed on this planet So well yes, everyone sent handwritten letters or cards … and we received a dozen… every year…anniversaries, birthdays, just to say hello cards, congratulation cards to wish on getting good grades in school and invitation cards to marriages et al. My mother used to buy the simple drawing books or sketch books and paste the cards in there… soon we had some two or three such large drawing books full of lovely greeting cards and invitation cards…they were such amazing conversation starters when people came over… they were some things that I showed off to my friends… they became my store house of creative ideas and designs that I could draw from…
Image is from www.clarks-news.co.uk/
So everyone I knew had a coin album, stamp album and all that… but I had greeting card album… my grand parents marriage invitation card, my brothers annaprashan ceremony (first time a child is given rice to eat ) cards, my parents wedding anniversary cards, cards from my friends, and new year cards…
But now we don’t get cards that often… we send e-greetings.. so there is hardly anything to collect… of course we do save a lot of trees by not sending paper cards and all that… but the charm of remembering people is lost… Facebook helps you remember birthdays, 123 greetings helps you send e-cards, you sms wishes and even have gtalk statuses saying Happy Birthday dear… but the old world charm of Oh-you-remembered-my-birthday excitement has faded… guess am aging … but then am not complaining… it’s something I miss… a fond memory of beautiful thoughts, lovely words, thank you notes and three dimensional two folds that made each of those days so special…
… So I am just a year and a half old in Bangalore … and now I love this place. But there was something that was driving me crazy and making me not like Bangalore in the beginning. And the reason was that I could not find the market place… and by market place, I meant sabzi mandi
Sabzi mandi I wanted, fish market I wanted, fruits and flowers market I wanted and I couldn’t find them. I was too fearful to venture out alone… ok, now don’t give me that what-do-you-mean-alone-look… I am just meek and unadventurous by nature
So anyways, I still wanted all that… I mean no amount of Big Bazaars and Spars and colonial supermarkets were helping me… I just wanted the rough, crude, fresh mandi…
And then one day my husband and I found it Found one of them… the HAL Market… there are many like that in Bangalore actually, but this was what I found quite close to my house… and did I love it or what!
Image courtesy: Mothernature.wordpress.com
My husband is a squeaky clean Monica Geller kind of a guy who hates wet mud, sweat and grime and anything crude. He loves the mosaic floorings and freezers in the food markets in malls … I like the mandi I squealed with joy when I saw it all, green, fresh, vendors yelling out the day’s price, fresh fish, baskets full of fruits and coriander leaves still with all the mud on them… trucks unloading tonnes of vegetables…it was just so amazing… fresh, green… to the risk of sounding over excited, I even told my husband that it feels great to be in these markets once in a while… Sujalam Suphalam malayaja sheetalam, shashya shyamalam, mataram… is what comes to my head….
Mother, I bow to thee!
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
bright with orchard gleams,
Cool with thy winds of delight,
Dark fields waving Mother of might,
Mother free.
Glory of moonlight dreams,
Over thy branches and lordly streams,
Clad in thy blossoming trees,
Mother, giver of ease
Laughing low and sweet!
Mother I kiss thy feet,
Speaker sweet and low!
Mother, to thee I bow.
I love mandis and haats of any place… I have said that before… they define the character of any place, they say so much about the people who live in that city or town, what they like to eat, what they wear and what is it that they buy.
And the wafting smells of everything fresh is such an earthy and a humbling feeling…You must visit the mandi to know that… Give the mall a break and a skip and try the local bazaar… its fun!
Taproot India has designed the BYOB campaign and I say it again… Lovely Campaign…. I hope you guys are taking it to other cities It has to go nationally … Cheers and keep the good work going guys !
For the past week or so, what Bangloreans have been a witness to is one of the most smart campaigns for a Greener Environment. National Geographic Channel has started a new campaign on one of the busiest streets of Bangalore which also happens to be the Shoppers’ Lane… Commercial Street. Guess I could get some more information on who is doing it along with NGC, but on the outset it looks like it’s being done in partnership with The Bangalore Commercial Association…
NGC and The Bangalore Commercial Association
And the Campaign is to motivate people to not carry plastic and polythene bags but bring back their own cloth bags instead. So if you were carrying a plastic bag in the past week, you could pretty much exchange it for a free cloth bag with the letters BYOB on it… which said Bring Your Own Bag. Most of Commercial street saw people carrying smart BYOB bags in the past weeks… Cool, Effective and such an Amazing Campaign… Almost got me to go and ask for a free bag for myself so I could put it up on the blog…
BYOB (Bring your Own Bag)
And it’s so cool that I love to carry it wherever I go… BYOB is bold, on your face and well thought out. Me Likes
Let's hold the earth together with a common thread
Any more details that anyone else knows is free to add it here
The blatant claims that advertising sometimes makes leaves me feeling hopelessly confused about how they are slowly defining what our quality lives must be… I cannot relate to it because somewhere I realise the futility of it.
Our parents were infants too, their parents were infants and every being to have breathed fresh air on this planet was an infant by all means, and trust me to say this, they all grew up with cloth nappies and homemade blankets. But no, today, we need various brands of nappies so that grow up well and happy. It is almost like as if you would never grow up to be the right person without them. Suddenly homemade food is not as good and nutritious as some biscuit company would have us believe. And I am more than sure that people who chewed away with datun or neem sticks instead of the innumerable toothbrushes and toothpastes have the entire set of 32 calcium intact and I have more of my generation visiting the dentist at pre-ordained intervals. Milk powder is better than milk, kurkure’s are better than pakoras, colas are better than water, bath fittings are better than sculptures, red hair is better than black hair, dentwhite is better than toothbrush and toothpaste, soaps for cleaning utensils have more real lime than maybe lemon juice and the list is endless. Bahhhh!!!!!. Are all these claims for real? They are not even logical metaphors!!
Courtesy: http://tinyurl.com/yfumxq6
I see this woman in the train with a child at her bosom. She knows nothing about nutrition because she does not look like someone who has even had food for the entire day. I cannot define her clothes to you because I simply cannot put it in words. She loves the child who suckles at her breast but the look on her face says that she probably was forced into motherhood. The child endlessly cries because she has nothing in her body to feed him. I do not need a Kodak camera to capture her image because she is too strong a representative for an entire segment of population who belong to this land and trust me, for whom ads are nothing but a mockery. She makes me feel foolish for talking about target audiences, because the target audience that I am talking about is so minute, so negligible, almost a speck. But it still makes me want to believe that we are all living pseudo lives where the lines between reality and virtual reality are far too thin to distinguish and where maa ki banai roti is not as good as McDonald ’s happy meal!
Our ideas are all warped and ideologies gone for a toss. Big words, huh! What to do? I am not too satisfied defining life and characterizing my personality in kellogs and liveons’ and mountain dews and sprites. I want to remind myself that life is not so frivolous and trust me the ‘MORE‘ we get to know about life in real, the ‘LESS‘ it is…
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