Somewhere in Space: October 2014

Money has a strange lifecycle. It starts off as nothing. Then it becomes Government property. Then it reaches the hand of individuals. And then goes back into the public domain. And then vanishes.

Corruption or looting of the system takes place at two stages. Once when the money is in private hands. And second, when it is Government property. The first type of corruption is when people, be they politicians or bureaucrats, demand from individuals like you and me, bribe money for granting some favours. The second is when they find some loophole in the system and scam off a few crores.

I feel that while the first case is personal and truly punishable, despicable and so on, the second instance is above reproach and above the law.

You see, it works like this...

Who is the Government? It is us, the people.

Who is the politician? It is our elected leader. Our very own representative.

So when the politician is looting the system, who is he taking money from?

From the Government...that is us! So he is taking only what is rightfully his...or hers.

So...if a politician or a babu takes money from you in his individual capacity he can and should be taken to task or to Tihar, whichever comes first. But if he scams money from a project he should be excused from harassment. He is after all taking what we have empowered him or her to do. And quite possibly quite a few times in succession (we call this system Election).

If on the other hand the crime is between individuals…where one man in a position of power demands a favour in cash or kind to do something to facilitate the process, then there should be no mercy. This blatant fleecing should not go unpunished.

If this basic lesson in law was understood by the people and by the legal system, we would be able to save the Government from going through hundreds of mock processes. Because I don’t know about you, but I am convinced that there is a higher plane of understanding between these politicians.

Their opposition chaps scream and shout, even make the symbolic arrests, judgements and so on, but eventually no one gets arrested. No one stays in jail. History will bear me out on this. I have yet to hear about one politician who was accused of being corrupt serving a sentence. The whole thing is drama. But the hero knows he can only bash the villain for show. And the villain knows that it is not blood, but tomato sauce.

So Lady J is granted bail. Lord J is practising Yoga in the Lotus Position. The Bihari Buffalo is feeding his cows. The Power Star of Maharashtra is still hoping he will be PM someday. And the beard is comforting himself with a smaller state. The list is endless.

It is just us who are the fools.

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Was this how it all began? A few people sitting around a fire perhaps? Dinner was being cooked and the people around indulged in the ancient practice of Story Telling. Some had dancing skills, yet others sang well. Some were percussive, yet others were harmonious. And the stories rolled out…based on a classic perhaps but drawing on the strengths of the cheeky contemporary, a cast built around raw energies and not just academically trained or qualified puritans.

Was this how it all began? Was this how Audience Interaction was first defined? Two people on stage assuming that their audience was not just the ten others on stage with them but the hundreds seated in front.

Was this how it all began? Was this how Comedy and Timing were first defined? An entire cast spinning around the whole stage to the tune of laughter and applause.

And suddenly I realised that except for the retention of the original names…Olivia, Cesario, Orsino et al…and the retention of the basic plot…the story was as Indian as the Ramayan and as complex as the Mahabharat.

(And suddenly I wonder if indeed it is the fireplace tales of our now being proven mythology that travelled across the world in translation and gave birth to every other religion…else how can you explain some generic similarities between the scriptures…but wait, I am digressing).

Digressing from tales of a wonderful performance. From Dramanon triumphs. One of the finest plays they have imported to Hyderabad and one that shall be remembered for a long while.

And I must say this was the true award for the participants of SKITS…those of them that managed to catch the show. This was a benchmark. This was unabashedly a show that told them how it should be done.

How casual can you get? How much liberties you can take with a script? How much you can cross the line and not be seen as risqué? How physically fit you need to be? How ordinary a singer you can be? How involved you need to be…

In fact I imagined an audition call for this play saying…Can you hold a note? Can you swing your butt in time? Can you live your role? Then, and only then…apply.

A fun evening if anything at all. Truly an evening when theatre made a definitive statement and clarified that it was entertainment with a capital E. And no apologies for all the liberties it had taken with form and substance.

More power to you Dramanon.

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Have you ever been hugged by a smile? Have you ever been dazzled by warmth?

A few weeks ago, a friend celebrated his birthday…and the smile was there.

A few days ago, while sipping chai, another friend spoke about the smile in passing.

A couple of hours after that he had the sad task of informing me that the smile was no more.

The circumstances were such that I was numbed into muted reaction. Much later at night, as I stumbled through mundane life steps…eating, drinking, checking mail, sleeping…I looked back at a lifetime of affection.

I can’t remember when and how the stage was set for the smile to enter my life. But it did and within moments there was a bond that had no perceivable beginning and no anticipated end.

A trip to Goa, to put up some plays…riding a rickety bus. Guzzling beers as soon as we crossed over from Prohibitive Andhra Pradesh into welcoming Karnataka. Counting the 720 empty bottles as we got down at the hotel that was sponsoring our stay. And in the bus, just a couple of families and a few women who had brought their kids along.

The smile too, came with an adorable son.

A mad few days. Strange escapades into forbidding discotheques. Drunken bouts of the funniest insanities. And oh yes, a few stage performances.

And then it was time to return.

Punctures by the yard. Breakdowns by the minutes. And then the final collapse near Raichur. But not before we discovered a forgotten stash of Old Monk Rum and sang our way to Mahboobnagar in a tractor-trailer. And then took a taxi to Hyderabad.

That was a journey that forged a bond. A bond that defined the width of the smile, the dazzle of the beam and the warmth of the hug. We were after all, friends who had travelled together with our dreams.

Over the years, the smile lit up many meetings and the hug squeezed in a lot of affection. Once we even bumped into each other professionally. Me in my brand consultant avataar and she in her ever smiling Architect/Designer persona.

Hard to believe that the smile will no longer be an added bonus at the next party. That the hug will no longer be an option.

Hard to believe that the waters claimed her in spite of the fact that she celebrated water with passion.

Hard to believe that she hugged an after-world and smiled at a future that did not include any of us.

RIP my friend. You are the lighthouse that will never shine again. And the shore that I will never have the fortune of ever re-visiting. But you will be a smile I’ll never forget. A smile that will forever light up the dark recesses of my memories.

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If you are a fairly networked Hyderabadi, you have quite likely watched the emergence of a brand called Kishan.

From a relatively unknown entity, Kishan established a brand of wines in Hyderabad so effectively that the brand actually became an extension of his name…and he was called, by all his friends and associates…Sula Kishan.

This did not happen by chance, nor did it happen overnight. It took a lot of hard work by Kishan and a lot of multi-level networking. Sampling his products at the slightest opportunity Kishan made Sula a significant brand. As he had done with Riviera before.

Now we’ve had wines in undivided Andhra Pradesh for years. Golconda Ruby Wine was a popular brand. Bosco hung around Hyderabad for a while and the Nine Hills types tried to climb every mountain or hid under every Big Banyan they could find. In that cut throat, competitive environment, for Kishan to have made Sula almost a household name was a marketing miracle if any.

Then something unfortunate happened. Apparently Sula turned out to be a real life four letter word. And Kishan and the company parted ways.

Kishan was down but not out. Don’t worry, I remember him telling me, I’ll get back with something better. It’s taken a while but Kishan promises the wait will be worth it.

I have just been informed that Kishan is poised to launch the Charosa line of wines.

Now I have not had the wines so I cannot say anything about them. Well actually I am not a connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination, so I will not in any case. But I am looking carefully at Kishan.

That is the man. That is the moment. That is the brand.

How will he reposition himself? How soon will it be before Hyderabad starts calling him Charosa Kishan? How soon before the wine glasses of Hyderabad begin singing a new tune from Nashik…Charosa ka Bharosa!!!

Product brands have advertising muscle and marketing money behind them. Kishan only has friends. And it is these friends who have created and recreated the brand Kishan. How will they do it this time? How soon, how effectively? That is what I am going to watch…

care to join me?

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There has been a lot of discussion and debate about the role of sentiment and brand loyalty when it comes to e-commerce. Different schools have propounded that there is no heart involved with an online transaction. They have defined e-commerce as a cut and dry, transaction driven entity that survives on price offs and instant attractions.

The base of their argument seems to be that they believe that customers behave differently online and different rules apply. I have been thinking about this debate and am trying to articulate my thought process today, perhaps in response to a friend’s post where the heartless, cold, calculative transaction was held up as an example of where e-commerce stood today and where it was headed.

Now I am privileged to have witnessed over the years, some remarkable changes in media and corresponding changes in consumer behaviour. Newspapers have moved from black and white to colour. Radio, Television, Outdoor (Urban and Rural) and now the Net Based options…I have seen them all and have had the opportunity to work with all of them.

The amazing thing I noticed is that every time a new media option was ‘discovered’ a new consumer profile was created. The man who reads about a product in a newspaper reacts differently from a man who sees the ad in colour in a magazine and is definitely different from the man who sees a film about the product…Similarly, an urban consumer reacts to a hoarding quite differently from the way his rural counterpart sees billboards. And so on and on.

But surprise, surprise…as the years went by marketers and researchers concluded that the differences were only cosmetic and that at the heart of it all, all consumers reacted similarly to products, propositions and offers. Apparently native logic was a common denominator.

I am tempted to wonder if what I am seeing in this sudden distinction between the online consumer and the offline one is not just a replay of history.

That shopping is a touch and feel experience where a thousand trigger-n-touch points play significant roles in the process is already established and proven. Where he heard about the product, who else endorses it, what was the salesman like, what was his impression of the shop and such like were as important as the price and the payment terms in any purchase.

Trust is built up over the years. Relationships are nurtured across engagements. And loyalty is always a premium.

Now when someone opines that e-commerce exists in a sterile, isolated shell where the prime motivators are just the price difference I am tempted to engage in a debate. But then the white hair syndrome kicks in and I feel like taking the position – let him/them think what he/they want. A few years later wisdom will dawn. As it did for me.

But then suddenly it strikes me that in the period of confusion there is a business opportunity that exists.

You see, as long as everyone thinks price is the only inducer and bangs hard and consistently on that door, no one is going to bother with creating an environmental distinction. A distinction that celebrates the more traditional values of trust and encourages loyalty.

The brand that fights with today’s rules and invests in tomorrow’s values will be the brand that’ll outlast all the others. That is my considered opinion.

What do you think? Is there scope for branding, brand loyalty building and other matters of the

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Man is a sum total of his experiences and his imagination.

I suppose I agree. And I agree that when I don’t let my imagination run riot, I am limited to understanding the world from the perspectives of my experience, and that fortunately or unfortunately is mainly in the field of advertising.

The story from my advertising memoirs that has been haunting me for the past few weeks is not very old. And I am sure not very uncommon.

Once upon a time, and not so long ago, there was an agency that wasn’t doing too well. Well wishers told the owners that the only way to help the agency and give it a chance to survive was to get new business. Brilliant, don’t you think. or should I say “Elementary Dr. Watson”.

Then came the final piece of advice. If you want new business, you have to produce better creatives. Wow!!!

Anyway, the agency hired a new Creative Director. Agreed to pay him a fat salary. Gave him a lot of perks. And so on. Expectations were naturally high. The situation was tense. And everyone looked at him as if he was the Messiah.

Within minutes of taking charge the new Creative Director called for a meeting. Every one who was anyone in the office was told to report to the conference room. The meeting was quite different from what was expected. The Creative Director just told them that he had a task, and he was here to complete it. He wanted all his colleagues to step in line and pitch in, or else…

He also told everyone very clearly that they should not expect overnight miracles. Everyone nodded sagely and agreed that this new fellow was one hell of a pragmatist.

The next few weeks saw a flurry of activities. The Creative Director was a man of details.

Why were the office environments not clean? Why was the office such a mess? Why did the loos not work? Why was the coffee machine never working? Why were we always short of paper? Why were the pencils not sharpened?

The first few weeks were spent on asking such inane questions and then spending the next few days on ensuring that the questions were addressed.

Never once, not for a day, not for a moment was the matter of new business raised or discussed. A hundred days later, what was left was an agency that was spic and span but one that had lost all its fire and most of its staff. Cash flows had not improved and therefore there was a distinct ‘Sinking Ship’ kind of feeling.

A few weeks later the agency shut down.

The Creative Director thought he had done a wonderful job with the agency. Pity that they could not survive long enough for me to show them what ‘creativity’ is all about, he is reported to have said at the next place where he took up an assignment.

I look at our Governments. At the centre with Namo. And in our bifurcated states with KCR and CBN. Everyone seems to be in rhetoric mode. Gyaan is being distributed. Gestures are being orchestrated. Action is being spoken of, even ‘planned’…but there is no significant ACTION.

And I am afraid that by the end of the honeymoon the bride will not even be pregnant i.e. the state will not be on the brink of anything significant but disaster. (Remember, conventional wisdom always told us that the benchmark for a good honeymoon was a pregnant bride…here I don’t even know whether the marriage will last).

One man spent all his resources collecting data. Another went around the world building bridges and taking sweet revenge for a visa rejection. The third spent a lot of time examining the brochures of his next set of bullet proofed convoy vehicles.

No one got down on the floor, no one took off his tie, no one rolled up their sleeves, no one prioritised.

Getting the whole country involved in a clean up drive. Spending crores on a mission to change the very look of the country. What have we done except earned the ire of half the country who seemed to say that the country is hungry and wants food…and not lessons in table manners.

The country is frustrated and wants to rightfully take its place in the world…and does not want to spend the next few weeks polishing its shoes and its brass buckles so as to look good when it eventually takes its place on the winners’ podium.

Like I said, my experiences are limited. (My imagination is not). I am by my own admission naive to the point of inexcusable innocence and idealism. And I have great hopes resting on NaMo, CBN and KCR.

But today I am worried. Looks like all that is being done is making the body looking better for last rite presentation.

I can see the casket. I can see the crowd of mourners. I can hear the church bells. And the Vedic Chants. I can even see the merriment at the wake.

But I cannot see signs of what these gentlemen were voted into power for…CHANGE. Real change. Meaningful change. Useful change. Permanent change.

For once I hope I am wrong.

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Have movies been made from plays before? Oh sure, too many times.

History is full of theatrical productions that were adapted for screen. And most of the Indian screen stories are based on the Ramayana and Mahabharata in any case.

Dramatic Circle Hyderabad video recorded its plays in the 1990s. The American Studies & Research Centre (ASRC) or the Osmania University I know was involved in the filming of the Zero Sum Game, a short story written by my friend Bibhas Sen even before that.

We had ourselves put up Sleuth, a play that went on to become a landmark film.

So the Cineplay evening was nothing unique. And considering the fact that it was based on “The Interview”, a play I had seen more than just once as part of my Hindu Metroplus Theatre Fest hosting at Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad, the story was no surprise.

So why did I go? Well, I was I must admit, expecting a revelation. Instead I got a stylishly repackaged version of Bombay Slick.

The set was brilliant. While it retained the nuances of the original multi-level, mono-chromatic performance space, it also integrated a glass cage innovation that allowed the film maker a lot of reflective possibilities.

The acting performances were picture perfect and I must complement the actors who put on a seamless show. Nowhere did we get the feeling that this was actually a film shot in parts. The impression created was that this was a stage play that had been captured live.

But applause for the finesse apart, did the format excite me? Not really. As a new medium it lacks the spontaneity of theatre. And as a basic documentation of stage, it is a tad overdone.

I missed the uncertainty of volume and clarity that is a wonderful side of theatre. I missed the made up good looks of Cinema. So I didn’t get the best of both maadhyams.

But I saw the medium fighting at least one or two problems. Actors who complain that learning lines is difficult, need not fear this medium. Producers who lament about the lack of performance space need realise that venues that can project films are many more and can be used to fill in the blanks.

The YouTube monetisation in this case may not be a very viable option. I would look however at Vernacular and Original English Theatre to be the beneficiaries of this method of presentation...especially when it comes to an international audience who may indeed welcome this initiative.

At the end of it, it may be the beginning of a new genre of short films. But let’s wait and watch...

The curtains haven’t come down on this show yet.

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