Has Anna managed to change the mood of India?

Imagine for a moment a cricket match between India and Ireland. How much euphoria do you think it generates? What do you think about the TRPs it will get? Can you imagine the number of working people or students who will skip offices or bunk classes to watch that match? hmm... I guess more or less, the answer would be, not much.

And now, imagine a cricket match between India and Pakistan. Interesting, isn't it? A high profile, mouthwatering contest. Far more intense, electrifying and full of anticipation. Very high number of people watching and commenting on the game. This match would generate incredible interest and the TRPs would bounce over the roof. More so, no matter whoever wins the game, the real beneficiary would always be the game of cricket itself.

So what do you get out of it???

Interestingly, when you have a collision of two strong forces, not only does it generate more involvement from stakeholders but also a higher degree of expectation. People love to see action between two solid forces. They don’t like one sided battles.

For the last few years in India, people were tired of the political situation where the opposition has been practically nonexistent. It has been in such a disarray while taking up issues with the incumbent government that the situation seemed more like a cricket match between India and Ireland. So ineffective has the political opposition been that Indians had resigned to the fact that even though this government is corrupt there is hardly any available alternative.

I remember discussions as little as six months back and people would say, corruption, so what? is the opposition any better?

Nobody wanted to be a part of any initiative undertaken by the opposition in order to corner the government against corruption. Why? Because people did not trust them. People were not confident that the current opposition can do anything better than the incumbent government. There was a general sense of pessimism and things were not looking good.

So what has changed now?

Well, interestingly what seems to have changed is the ‘opposition’. Anna and his team seems to have emerged as a much stronger and credible force than the entire fragmented political opposition put together. Their entry has suddenly turned this battle from a boring ‘India vs Ireland’ to an exciting ‘India vs Pakistan’ battle. It has become far more exciting and people want to be a part of it. Atleast the television visuals from across the country seem to suggest that.

What is interesting to note about this battle between the government and the new opposition (Civil society represented by Anna's team) is, whoever wins it, the real beneficiary would be the game. In this case, the people of India.

Anna has not only presented a much credible face to the anti corruption movement, but also galvanized support from all sections of the society. There are far more number of people involved in this match and they are ready to skip work, school and collages to be a part of it. I am not for a moment suggesting that what Anna and his team are presenting (Jan Lokpal) is the only way out, but today I am optimistic. My mood has changed and so has the mood of India. Suddenly there is life and there is a hope.

I was not around when India struggled for freedom, but for me this one is nothing short of another freedom struggle.

Jai Hind.

100 years from today, marriages would be a thing of past.

Various events in the last few months have ignited quiet a few interesting marriage controversies across the world. There is a visible trend in these events which seems to be suggesting a new way in which we all human beings will live in the future. For example, take the case of some celebrity marriages that have got shaken in the last six months because of peoples secret extramarital affairs coming to light whereas, some celebrities have got into trouble while attempting to get married after having already being married once.

The Tiger Woods sex scandal has shocked the world which is still coming to terms with his multiple infidelities involving over a dozen mistresses. John Terry is another story on similar lines making headlines in England. And in India, we are witnessing another such marriage controversy ignited by tennis star Sania Mirza who recently announced her wedding plans with Pakistani cricket captain Shoaib Malik. Interestingly, Shoaib seems to be avoiding his existing marriage with another Indian girl Ayesha. The list of these controversies seems to be endless and every story is very attention-grabbing.

Not that these types of controversies did not exist in the past, but with life becoming increasingly public, they are coming to light faster. Thanks to the influence of mobile phones and social networking sites, the world is getting smaller making it impossible to keep anything out of public scrutiny unlike the past. Such is the immense influence of technology that even celebrities have to accept the reality that every little thing they attempt to do in private has the potential to be the newspaper headline the next day.

Well, coming back to our topic of marriages, something that been an essential part of human existence for a few thousand years now. In today's fast changing environment the concept of marriage as an institution seems to be losing its charm due to the rapid upswing in the social exposure that an individual is getting. As we get to meet, know and network with new people in everyday life, our tastes and choices are changing faster and so are our principles, ethics and moral values.

People seem to be loosing faith in the concept of staying with one person through a lifetime and that brings the age old idea of marriages under serious threat of getting wiped out. With more and more people wanting to live life their own way, the question that comes to mind is weather marriages are really relevant in today’s world? Well, what is it today that an individual achieves by getting married? Are we not moving towards a society where decisions with respect to ones partner seems to be more spontaneous and for that very moment only?

It is very difficult to find answers to these questions. Also, it is getting increasingly difficult to keep an upwardly mobile well connected individual tied down with age old idea of marriage. I am sure, it is just a matter of time before this becomes an opinion of the rest of the world and our traditions change forever.

For me, I seem to be pretty sure that in about 100 years from today, marriages would be a thing of past. Think I am giving it a reasonable time to go extinct.

Supreme Court shows the way.

Our way of life is changing faster than we think and so is the definition of everything that we have ever known. Yesterday, the Indian supreme court ruled that the choice of adults to have pre marital sex or to live together with their partners without having being legally married cannot be termed as criminal, rather it is a part of the right that an individual has under the Indian constitution. With this ruling, the court has tried to make an extremely timely point that people need to change their age old point of view on the concept of co-habiting and accept the reality of the day.

While making this point, the court even sited an example of Lord Krishna and Radha who were co-habiting lovers rather than being a married couple. “When two adult people want to live together, what is the offence?” the court said. “Living together is not an offence. Living together is a right to life.”

This view of the Supreme Court is an extremely significant one, because it comes after another landmark judgment announced this year in July, when the Delhi High court overturned a ban on gay sex and had ruled that sex between consenting adults (of same gender) was not a crime. Ordering that the rights of citizens were violated by the 150 year old colonial era law and terming it as illegal, the court declared that section 377 of the Indian Penal Code 1860, in so far as it criminalizes consensual acts of others in private, runs counter to basic human rights guaranteed by articles of the Indian constitution.

I think our courts need to be congratulated on having a modern day view on this sensitive subject, something that even many of the developed countries of the world have not being able to achieve yet. Views like these not only act as milestones towards initiating a thought revolution amongst the members of the society, but also help in steadily breaking down the traditional taboos associated with the concepts of co-habiting or same gender sex.

Congratulations for taking the first step!

Is IPL delivering for advertisers?

Indian Premier League (IPL) is making headlines, one after the other and the entire nation seems to be catching on to the T20 fever like never before. The stakes in terms of the money involved have become extremely high but, this is India, and in this annual extravaganza of super fast cricket nobody seems to be really bothered. This is a situation where it’s difficult to conclude if one should be happy or worried with what is happening.

Advertising rates have already exploded to unprecedented levels with the broadcaster charging a whopping Rs. 6.5 Lakh for each 10 seconds of advertising. That’s a hell of a lot of money, considering a fact that a regular ad of 30 seconds would cost Rs. 20 Lakh for each screening and assuming it is screened 10 times in a day, one requires an investment of a cool Rs. 2 Crore for a single day of advertising.

Things do not stop here, the broadcaster is trying to squeeze in as many commercials as possible between every over and has even introduced several new concepts (read distractions) like the strip ads on the screen, mini ads between 2 deliveries, branding almost everything like 4s, 6s, wickets, catches, run outs and even time-outs.

With 10 sponsors for the tournament and around 50-60 spot advertisers on the channel for this season, this daily dose of cricket entertainment comes with a very heavy dose of hundreds of ads bombarded on that poor viewer who is left with a bad headache at the end of the game.

Sure, there is a good demand from advertisers to be on the IPL, but is it worth it? Are advertisers getting their money's worth by being on air during the match? In my opinion IPL is not only too costly a proposition for an advertiser, but also not delivering anywhere close to their expectations.

Sample this; there are close to 50 new ad films that have been shot for the event and the audience is finding it really tough to grasp them. Remember the Shah Rukh Khan starrer newspaper boy ad… now, can you tell me the name of the advertiser?? No, it is not KKR… the advertiser is actually “Nokia”. It’s the same thing with the Sharman Joshi ad with his girl in the changing room of a cloth store, which many people are confusing as another ad in the Airtel series, but actually it is also another “Nokia” ad. I listed some of the known brands for a general understanding but, there are numerous unknown brands which are on air, and nobody seems to be noticing.

Internationally, there are a lot of big television events which do not have a plethora of advertisers on them, but a select few who enjoy more airtime so that the ads deliver better recall. Broadcasters of IPL in India seems to think otherwise resulting in endless numbers of ads which are going unnoticed, simply because of the sheer number of them which are on air.

After spending that kind of money, I don’t think advertisers deserve to get lost in the clutter. Unfortunately grabbing the eyeball and attention of the viewer at the same time seems to be the most difficult task of this IPL season.

Bollywood lacks the fighting spirit. Television shows that IPL can be defeated.

It has been around 15 days now since the third season of IPL begun. Bollywood superstars can be seen making rounds of cricket stadiums more than their film sets. In a clear sign of defeat, the bollywood seems to have given up to the cricket crazy nation, assuming that nobody will watch their movies during IPL and hence there has been no big movie released in the last 2 weeks.

Contrary to this submissive behavior from bollywood, the television industry has shown far grater heart and proven that they would not go down so easily. Some television channels can be seen emerging much stronger in successfully battling the IPL threat this season.

Colours, seems to be showing the way with its prime time show Balika Vadhu managing to produce top ratings with a handsome TVR of 7.7 as against 5.0 of the IPL for TAM week 11 (7-13 March). In what can be termed as a definite morale booster, the remote control seems to have been back in the hands of the women this season as the television channels seem to be taking on the IPL successfully.

Whether these ratings show that IPL as a property has reached a tipping point remains to be seen, but what needs to be appreciated is the fact that the Television industry has emerged as much stronger than the fickle bollywood folks who chose to go down without a fight.

Stop glorifying advertising guys as ‘Brand Gurus’

It’s becoming a habit to see media glorifying the ad agency professionals as ‘Brand Gurus’. There is that regular set of 10-15 odd glorified agency folks (I don’t want to name them, but its the obvious lot) who are usually a part of any brand related content in various TV programs or newspaper columns. These people are liberally projected as someone who determines the success of any brand that they handle. In fact, the country's leading news paper recently even came out with a power list of these top 25 brand gurus in the country.

Certainly, there is something seriously wrong with the way media is doing its job. It is strange that these same people whom the media glorifies so much at times happen know so little about the brands they claim to drive. Some of these so called ‘Top Guys’ in the agency circles tend to literally surprise and irritate their clients due to their extremely low understanding of client’s business, unprofessional approach, lack of work ethics and really mediocre thinking ability.

I have experienced an instance when one of the topmost NCDs (Usually touted as one of the top 3) in the country, presented to us, a TVC idea based on a concept that was actually out of date for our business, and surprisingly, he had no clue about it. It is a regular occurrence for many client side marketing guys to spoon feed agencies with the strategic approach, communication briefs and even copy just to get the work done.

It baffles me when I see the agency guys proudly talking about the way they managed to create a successful brand and take the credit for the organizational successes. I have seen several interviews of these agency folks talking about the brand successes they have achieved for their clients involved in selling chocolates, shampoos, bank accounts, cars and everything else… frankly, for me, that’s nothing more than a bad joke.

Can the success of a brand be attributed to some creative agencies that happen to hardly be involved in the clients business on a day to day basis? What happens to the visionaries who have the idea, who take the plunge, risk their monies and put people to work? What about the people with the product expertise, manufacturing, supply chain, sales and so many more who help create and deliver the brand promise? Ad agencies are just support systems who handle the creative duties; rather in India, there are a very few agencies who even have a capability to provide strategic inputs to clients.

Unfortunately, the nexus between media and ad agencies is so strong that the readers or viewers are made to think that the ad agencies and its people are god’s gift to mankind when it comes to anything to do with the term ‘brand’. Obviously, no prizes for guessing that the age old tactic of “You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours” works perfectly fine for the media since the agencies are the same people who get them the ads.

This is the golden phase of Marathi cinema.

In the last few years, the Marathi film industry has suddenly shot to fame by producing some memorable films which have got national as well as international recognition. Even the audience seems to be returning back to cinema halls which is visible from the fact that more and more marathi films are doing well at the box office.

Probably, it all began from the success of Shwaas, which was India's official entry to the 2004 Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category. The films storyline was based on real-life incident in Pune. A low-budget film made with less than Rs. 30 lakhs (3 million), Shwaas won the National Award for best film in 2004, nearly 50 years since a Marathi film (Shyamchi Aai) last earned this title.

Another movie, Tingya, made on a special subject based on a life of a rural boy and his love and friendship with his bull, released in 2008 made news for all the right reasons. The movie based on the hardships faced by the farmers in Maharashtra was screened at various International Film Festivals and also won numerous awards. 2009 saw Harishchandrachi Factory being nominated as India’s official entry to the Oscars and 2010 has already begun with a bang for the industry as Jogva, an emotional story of one a woman’s journey to break free from the shackles of discrimination, sexual oppression and slavery to find true happiness, bagged the maximum honours (5 awards) at the 56th National Film Awards announced in January this year. Another film, Vihir, produced by Amitabh Bachchan ran into packed houses at the prestigious Berlin film festival in February.

Marathi cinema has always been very realistic and known for tackling social issues concerning a wide variety of subjects, something that has been missing in Hindi cinema. Somehow Marathi cinema has always lacked the commercial success which is why good film makers have been shying away from making them. But, things have been changing in the last few years which have seen Marathi films becoming commercially successful with numerous box office hits like Mi Shivajiraje Bhosle Boltoy, Dombivili Fast, Harishchandrachi Factory, Natrang and so on.

Probably a big reason for this success has been the advent of over 10 new Marathi TV channels in the last 5 years which has brought the audience back to watch Marathi television shows and ultimately to watch Marathi Cinema. The fact that a lot of Hindi film producers are now entering the Marathi film industry bringing better technology and production values is the testimony to the success of the industry.

As the quality of Marathi cinema improves, it is but natural that it will also get the desired acclaim. Several Marathi films are now being screened internationally and are finding good audience in the US, Europe and Australia. It is good to see Marathi cinema generating audiences worldwide. There are quiet a few Marathi people abroad, and this is possibly their way of getting a close to their language.

Yes, these are better days for Marathi cinema, but there is a lot more that needs be done. The Marathi cinema and television industry lacks proper infrastructure and the government should be doing everything possible for helping the industry in creating that, even if it requires a few hundred crore rupees to be invested. Maharashtra government should be forthcoming in promoting the Marathi film and television industry by all means. There has been a longstanding demand for a creation of a film city at Kolhapur and one doesn't understand why it can’t be fulfilled? If such decisions are going to get stuck in bottlenecks, it will only hamper the rapid progress of this industry. Rather I believe if the industry has to develop and prosper the government has to wake up sooner than later, otherwise these better days might become history again.

Mr. Thackarey, When will you think big?

The Marathi youth today is more educated and is doing well in every sphere of life than in the past. The community is producing huge number of engineering graduates and doctors every year. Marathi youth comprises of one of the largest bunch of students from any community across India going to countries like the US for the further studies. More and more people from the community are moving to various parts of the world doing dignified jobs.

Things have become much better for the community in the last 10 years. It's not just education, today there are larger number of businesses which are now being owned by the Marathi entrepreneurs which is a matter of great pride for the community.

Whatever be the case, the “Thackarey Company” seems to be completely ignorant of all this and still wants Marathi Manoos to drive a cab or sell wada pav’s in Mumbai. I guess the limitations of their minds do not permit them to think more for the community than the job they themselves are fit for.

It’s a shame that the so called “Purogami” (Intellectually developed) land of Maharashtra has got such narrow minded politicians who have let down the ordinary Maharashtrians by their lack of thinking ability.

There are other ways to promote Marathi.

Politics in Mumbai has been centered on the topic of “Marathi” over the last 2 years and every political party has been scrambling to take up the Marathi cause ever since. Goondas from Shiv Sena and the MNS have even vandalized the city on a few occassions as if it is a desperate attempt to save the Marathi people, their language and its culture. The issue seems to have been blown up so much that it looks as if that Marathi language is about to go extinct or something

It is important to understand that Marathi is not a language spoken by just a few people in the city of Mumbai. Rather, it is one of the 15 most widely spoken languages of the world and one of the top 4 languages spoken in India. It is the oldest of the regional literatures in Indo-Aryan languages, dating from about AD 1000. There are 9.5 Crore (95 Million) speakers of Marathi Language and I think it is highly unlikely that it has any chance of going into extinction in the near future

I agree that it is important to promote the language, but there are other ways to do that. Rather than bashing up people for not being able to read Marathi or by forcefully putting up sign boards in Marathi, there needs to be attempts to promote the language through enhancing its appeal to an average Marathi household or anyone who resides in Mumbai or Maharashtra or anywhere in the world.

If one happens to look around, it’s easy to realize that there are enough good things that are already happening for the betterment of the Marathi language. Last 4 years have seen the creation of over 10 new Marathi TV channels which seem to be doing well. Marathi movies seem to be doing extremely good these days (Infact almost all big private players are entering the Marathi movie industry) and thankfully, no government or political leaders can take credit of these successes.

As far as the government goes, there seems to be a clear lack of a plan on their part as it seems to have a very little idea of what should be done towards the development of the language. In my opinion, the government should allocate more resources towards promotion of Marathi literature, art and culture. Efforts towards identifying and promoting people who want to dedicate themselves for the cause of Marathi language should be the priority rather than getting involved in petty controversies like mandatory knowledge of Marathi for the issuance of taxi permits. Such unnecessary controversies often turn detrimental for the constructive growth of the language and do more bad than good.

Also, Marathi speaking people should promote their language in a more inclusive manner which is not forceful on anyone; people are bound to take notice. A simple example is the fact that today a lot of non Marathi people are lining up to produce, direct or act in Marathi movies while nobody is forcing them to do so. Don’t you think this is a great sign of better times to come?

There is an urgent need for people to get united towards eradicating the menace of these goonda politicians who are trying to instigate Marathi people to take up wrong means. People should be sensible while supporting any political opinion towards the enhancement of the language. Yes the cause is important but so is the means

There are other ways to promote this extremely rich language.

Can you ever own Mumbai by driving Taxis??

On one hand Mr. Raj Thackeray wants the entire world to know that Mumbai and Maharashtra belong to the Marathi people, while on the other hand he also wants to make sure that all the taxis of Mumbai are driven by Marathis.... What a funny contradiction.

Does he really believe that the Marathi Manoos would be able to “own” Mumbai by driving Taxis?? Does he even know how much money does a taxi driver make in a day??? Forget owning Mumbai, can a taxi driver even own a house in this city?

On one hand he proclaims that the Marathi community has a natural right on the city and on the other hand he also wants the same Marathi Manoos do all the petty jobs like driving taxis, selling wada pavs, work as coolies on railway platforms….. What a shame.

I am a "Maratha" myself, and am someone who takes pride in being a part of this great warrior community which also boasts of a rich cultural heritage and a great history. This community has not only produced some of the greatest warrior kings and queens of all times, but also have been at the forefront of the society with some of the greatest literature, poetry, architecture and art.

Today, it is a matter of shame that the Marathi people lack good political leaders. They have to look up to people who want them to be driving taxis and selling wada pavs...