Marketing Indian Culture........for Navin.....

Quite a paradox - the two words.......marketing and culture.

Marketing is all about numbers and money while culture is a feeling and sense. So how does these two get married? Simple, its all about made for each other concept i.e although they are conceptually poles apart but one is dependant on the other. It is the tinkling of the coins which can keep the culture concept up and running.

The richness of Indian culture dates back to the begining of civiliazation and have been largely influenced by different kingdoms from inside and outside. It encompasses not only classical, folk, music, sounds, theatre, street plays, puppetry, poetry, literature but also the traditional customs of respecting elders, touching their feet, giving the right dose of cultural teachings to children and also making them aware and proud of our heritage and roots.

Marketing in its crude form has always been there from dawn of civiliazation. Hawking, ballads on roads, wandering monks chanting were few forms of marketing our culture. Presntly it has taken its formal shape with organisations dedicated to marketing are taking it up as endevours to market Indian Culture within and abroad. There are side effects for all efforts taken - for this it would be positive and negative. Positive would be it is reaching to greater mass of people and giving impetus to new people to pursue but the negative would be that it to some extent in some spheres becoming too commercialized in an endevour to reach the masses. It is loosing the gravity and depth and becoming more like a fashion statement.

The balance of the two is too delicate and I repeat a paradox weighing the consequences.

The point is can the egg survive without the chicken and vice versa?

Twinkle...twinkle...little stars................

The world of Alice in Wonder land....that is the world we live in under the umbrella of our guardians till we step out in the harsh crude world of our own.

All the small pleasures of life - comic books, radio, fighting over pencils, home works, playing 'ice-pice', riding merry-go-rounds, yearning for all the expensive toys and candies over the counter and howling for not getting them are some of the most beautiful experiences we can ever enjoy.

In our teens, looking at boys with coy, going to restaurants with pocket full of pennies, enjoying bus rides to school, getting wet and dirty in the rain, fighting out over a game of cricket with the elders, the first love letters in flowery letter writing pads, the chocolates and posters as gifts.

The unhindered world of Alice. No streaks of financial worries, career pressure, status race, serious fights for power and money - the simple world of............twinkle....twinkle little stars.

8 May! World Women's Day - farce or a neccessity?

Why do we need a women's day in the first place? And if we really need to celebrate a day seperately like environment day, water day, disability day, then why do we clamour for equality?

Women's rights for equality, respect that are written down, documented and the ones which claim to give us freedom from atrocities of dowry deaths, marital rapes, rapes,beatings etc...etc..etc are all done by men who are already guilty of some sort of brutality towards women in their lifetime.

Women should rather Arise and Awake to such atrocities by their own strength of mind. Rather than clamouring for rights, one should claim them. Self-respect can only be earned by own strength of character and not by celebrating Women's Day. The traditional notions of physical weakness, financial dependancies can always be overcomed with zeal and effort.

Stop begging for rights! Make them and establish them because we should not forget that we are the creators and the image of 'Shakti' or power.

Marital relationship.............the secret???

A big enigma - things going wrong with romance with just one signature of registration of marriage.

Scenario before the signature - roses, long walks, long talks on the phone, yearning for each other................

Scenario after the signature - seperate ways - one hooked to the TV while the other suddenly too concerned about cleaning and household work, only conversion revolves round the house and kids, husbands enjoying freedom when wives go for holidays at thier parents place.

Is it because the signature settles the insecurity of the relationship or is it that once you own the 'most wanted' you get over it and it lies unwanted in one corner or is it that once you stay together both get exposed to the gorry details of each other and the disillusionment happens quickly?

With long standing relationship it is always a joint process of growing and changing and those who cant keep pace with each other in this ever evolving process gets lost in the whole relationship.

So how do you maintain the consistency? There is a beautiful thought on that - there are three stages in a relationship - first is the constant tassel to change each other; the second stage is when you get weary of the tassel and settle down by accepting each other as you are and the second invariably leads to the third which is a peaceful harmony of companionship.

The best time tested formula of success would be to become best of freinds from the very first sight. No inhibitions, no secrecy, no artficaility, equal respect and companionship.

No illusions, so no disillusionments. As the fairy tales would declare -

Married happily ever after.........................

Painting - a different platform?

ART
Is it an artisit's reflection of his surroundings, or is it a reflection of his mental model, or is it done keeping in mind the commercial aspect? Too many questions, an Enigma since each artisit has his or her version of answering to these questions.

Through centuries starting from cave paintings which were simple rendition of objects from surrounding to impressionist art to modern or as some prefer to call it 'abstract art'. What makes art go through its phases? What has led to the change in forms starting from cave paintings although if we look from the perspective of reflection of surroundings then the only thing that has changed is the artificial contour i.e the buildings, the roads while mother nature remains the same?

There are schools of art - the 'grammar' as they would call it - but does art or expression of your mind truly have any grammar? Are people moving to and fro in the grammar, real artists? I guess impressionism was a great breakthrough from the grammar of art - a true expression of your mind - going beyound the lines and giving life, motion within boundary of a canvas or medium.

What is abstract art? Is it anything and everything which is not understood - the cognitive strain on viewers mind on deciphering the artists thought is called modern art or abstract art? Even the belive by artists to prove to one and all that they belong to some other hemisphere - isn't art for everyone? Can't we call the cobbler, the house painter or even the rickshaw-puller artisits in their own forms? They all have creativity in their life and work, even the mother who brings up her child - they all create their own ways and methods which affects their surroundings in a small or big way.

I feel the most poignant truth is that there is no line or seperate breed called artists. Accordingly art should be grouped not as per the lines on the paper or medium but way beyond that - as per life itself where it gives a platform to one and all to express his or her mind . And not to forget the most successful artist in the world - Mother Earth herself.

All the world's a stage and everyone are artists in their own ways!!

Too long in city Pent! Kon - asheem..............

Living in a concrete jungle for too long kills all the five senses - the scents of nature, the hearing sense of chirping birds, the feel of freshness, the blindness to green as a color..................

To somewhat revive the senses, one needs to fly away from the suffocation of a city and loose himself in nature..........surrender to the most overpowering Power.........

We rightfully did the same to a pristine place called Konaseema - it is at the heart of Godavari delta - world's densest population of coconut trees.

A house boat cruise on the river - taking-in natures wonderful gifts - pure air, chirping birds, the color green. It was a peaceful surrender to the mightiest.................. sit back and relax while she takes over all your worries, tensions, complications and nurtures you with peace and sanctity. A difficult from of expression in simple human language - need to feel it, fill it and shut yourself.

The most successful form of meditation to feel and be part of the almighty.

water...water...nowhere...not even a drop to drink....

Half a glass of water once every week.........mineral tissues to wipe oneself clean.............the color green only in old paintings......minimum temperatures 50 degree celcious...............earthquakes...acid rain........volcanoes errupting every 2hours in a day...........circa 2070!

This will be the scenario for our progenies...........while we laugh.......party.........and Destroy!

Humans are supposed to be the most intelligent living beings on this earth...........are you sure? If so, why do we destroy ourselves, our environment, our future? Will supercomputers, robots, organic food save us from the bleak future? Are we superior to mother nature - can we stop earthquakes, volcanoes, acid rains, global warming? Interestingly we are the catalyst of our sufference - cutting trees and destroying natural environment, killing animals and dis-balancing the food chain, nuclear tests, pollution,wasting water.......all in the name of CIVILISATION!!

Lets learn from our intelligent couterparts - animals. They donot kill or destroy for pleasure. They can sense dangers much ahead of us.............

Is it too late? Arise, awake....till its too late...........and we reach 2070!

GOOD OLD KOLKATA...............

Dusty roads, potholed streets, pollution, crowded footpaths, bandhs, rosogollas, warm hearted people, cultural sphere, adaptible people......that's Good Old Kolkata.

Once the capital city of India, today it ranks among the last few in terms of its growth and glory. No wonder why Kolkatans still fall back to its rich heritage and glory of the past - the city has somehow frozen in time - the time of the Raj.

The city still holds the cultural scene in the form of classical performances, theatres but what has happened to the industry - jute, manufacturing? The Manchester of India is a graveyard. Economy is in shambles, trade unionism rules, IT industry is a hogwash with big infrastructures with not enough good work, polittical parties donot work together for growth rather fight over their own egoisms at the cost of industrial growths. The créme of Bengal - the talented, qualified youth have mostly left in despair - Kolkata is ruled by few hard-core Marwaris with very less sense of the future or attachment to the city.

As Kolkatans dont we have a duty to give back to our beautiful old city by being more conscious of keeping the surrounding clean and beautiful? Being more politically active by revolting against the wrongs of bandhs and strikes which parallises growth? To get unified and be back to our roots and work for a better future for Bengal - a region with the biggest wealth - its heritage, 'golden' soil, river? What more can you ask for to develop a state? We only need some positive, aggresive, rooted Bengalis to turn the wind to its positive direction.

Are their any out there?

Truly the 'RAJ'

The name of this post might sound either historical to some or coming from a person still under the 'chaprusi' style of British influence but a visit to our past 'RAJ' gave me a very candid view of the United Kingdom.

I have a firm believe that any country rooted in its distant past and with a strong affinity for its heritage which dates back to many centuries( as we have all read British History) has a strong sense of binding and belonging among its people and for people visiting from other lands that sense gets evident in each nook and corner.

Walking past the majestic and grand theatres, museums made me feel like a historical character straight out of the books. It was like reliving the past as a victorian lady walking the Green park, being part of Robin Hood gang on the way past Nottingham Forest or being part of the romantic genre' looking and soaking the beauty in front of Da Vinci, Michealangelo, Raffael or being impressionist standing in front of Van Gough's 'Sunflowers'.

In all the well maintained majestic glory - the modern buildings are seamingly layed out but in a way to give more importance to the old and magnificient.

As with the contour, the people are a good mixture of Britishers and Europeans and Asians. The Asian presence reminds of India's days of Raj reversed. But as the saying goes ' when you are in Rome be a Roman' all bask in the British glory. A bunch of reserved and cordial people, very soft and gentle in their nature - a perfect gel with the serene contour. People who live up to their rich heritage and past. The only modern element in their character would be the absence of snobishness or racism that was prominent years ago.

Contrary to the popular fable - 'London Bridge has truly risen in all its might and power'.

An enigma:cross-status compatibility

The lowest and the upper most class in our social strata are the most happy and peaceful and interestingly have uncanny resemblance in their habits and habitats.

Both have a fair idea about their wealth and strength, their wants and desires and people from both these strata have a confident "donot care" attitude towards the society at large.

The worst affected are the middle-class and the upper middle class who get caught between the have and have-not's - their undying desire to make themselves compatible to upper class society but also stick on to ideals of the "traditional" middle-class strata. It is a constant psychological fight to make the "right" choices. Should a lady drink or smoke? Should my daughter go out for night-outs with her friends? Is calling friends over for regular drinks at home good enough?

With advent of economic growth all across, middle class have monetory power much higher than their predecessors - this in turn create furthur confusion. They get more and more entangled in a cobbweb of social compatibility.

This compatibility confusion will ultimately give birth to a new class of people - utterly confused, stuck between norms and depressed.

MISS UNIVERSE...................

TAJ

MISS UNIVERSE!

(17TH CENTURY......................


The awestruck beauty, grace, elegance, personality, perfection over powers one and all.

It stands tall in all its purity and perfection guarding its undaunted beauty for centuries together and for more to come.

But is she ashamed of her nakedness or tired of all those yearning eyes on her? Or, of all the years of struggle she has endured to strongly guard her purity?

Stand in front of her - you can empathise with her and bask in her glory because even in her most poignant stage she engulfs one and all in her beauty and grace.

"Religion"......the farce that unites people?!!!

Religion grew from the need for humans to get disciplined under one banner.........the superior race to bow down their ego to one enigma - GOD! The pun here is that humans themselves created the concept to bow down to - the biggest twist of human civiliasation.

It is not hard to believe that from its inseption it was largely advocated for a good cause to humans in large and also for vested interests of few.

So what has been the evolution of religion....like humans? Has it really disciplined humans or made them better social beings? Or has it only helped few in their monetory enhancements?

Lets zoom into a stereotype puja pandal in Calcutta or Hyderabad. It is a gathering of people in their sunday best munching away goodies and nudging each other to get the best place to view functions or even bad mouthing for the most frivolous causes. The primary objective to unite like minded or like religion people gets defeated at its inception itself - the farce surfaces in all its nasty form.

War in the name of religion, killing innocant people for differences of religious beliefs - have we evolved under one banner? It is far from that - religion has just benefitted few perverted vested people - ones who earn millions from using it to their own use.

The evolution of religion like its creator has been towards destruction, anarchy and disturbing. All in the name of GOD!

Riders to the Sea

Sea is an enigma..............

Its vastness makes humans loose all inhibitions, grief, worldly matters & flow with the waves.

We were six lost souls in city pent trying to re-invent ourselves by the seaside at Suryalanka - a sea side resort 360kms from Hyderabad.

We were Riders to the Sea like the fishermen..........

......................ready to loose our souls to its vastness.

Suryalanka is a village by the seaside & the only bit of so called civiliasation is in the form of the AP tourism hotel.

The waves had a clear welcome message with open arms - we let ourselves flow with it. All worries,tension, sorrow,rift got washed away - a brain wash.

In the evening, we just quitely stared at the moonlit silver waves - a sound of silence was beating all over.

We let the overwhelming sea engulf us in all its magnitude.............

LIFE: HYDERABAD

One Step Away from Home

Choosing a second home is the toughest decision & that also when you are or think that your birthpalce is the ideal one to spend the rest of your life!

After believeing so for a chunk of my life in Calcutta, it was time & opportunity to move on & experience new horizons(as I believed).

I stepped out with my small extended family(my husband) for the adventure - to make a second home!

As we know India is a vast land of diversity - south India itself can be considered a seperate palce with different culture, language and customs - such bookish visions were badly stuck in our minds when we landed in Hyderabad.

Now we are one & half months old in this city - surprisingly it is already our second home.

Calcutta & its people have their peculiar nuances & surprisingly in a small way I discovered where lies the unity in diversity!

Both city has a laid back attitude to life - sense of timing is particularly very bad! Locals are in a confused state between MNC culture and their own strong traditions! The outcome is jeans & sneakers with bindi & gajra!!

The boom in hyderabad in terms of IT and MNC's is just fresh from oven - it will take considerable time for locals to adjust which is evident the way they go about on the road!

...................the love for food is also evident!.............generallly locals are shy & not much open to outsiders!

In all this confusion, industry state is hot & rising. To make a career in IT no better option with all the big ones present here. The civic sense of goverment is also pretty good with neat roads and decent atmosphere.

Overall, our second home is not proving to be painful to adjust! A lot also depends on how you welcome the city in return - & "be a roman in rome"!

Life: Rang De Basanti

The word "Basanti" is a definite indication of the color of India, color of youth, color of "josh" which is the ultimate message of the movie.

Although there is one unified statement in any art form which the creator himself conveys but I strongly feel any art form may it be cinema or painiting creates subjective connotation in viewers mind which may or may not vary.

On the same thoughts when I talk about an art form I insist that its my subjective opinion.
The movie tries to string up the pre-independance and post-independance days with the message that "nothing has changed". We are still slaves in our democratic country - slaves to a corrupt system, slaves to our own constricted thoughts that there is some third party responsible for our country's dirt!

This escapist concept gets broken in the movie - nothing changes by being inactive but one has to rise & activate the change.

The deep underlying message to India's youth is very well camouflaged with "masti, songs and dance" - this I would say a second message that today's youth does not hold patience for any serious message!

The only point where I disagree very strongly is that to get up & do something for this country does not require any personal grounds. Infact, the "learning from the past" message that is portrayed clearly shows that in pre-independance time our youth did not need personal reasons to rise up in arms.

Whatever the way, its the right time to "arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached"(Netaji).