a piece on the pieces on terrorism...(and a bit of my own thrown in...)

the days gone by have brought about a sudden awakening in the people of the country and especially those in mumbai. with a spate of editorials burgeoning, and everyone having an opinion of how we should deal with the terrorists....there is not a single concrete action being taken. and what may have started as a movement toward being proactive, has, as usual, been overturned in its fervour and become an anti-country, and an anti - religion movement. Here, is movement to big a word for what is happening, not if you look at it in the traditional sense, It is the organization of an opinion that seems to be taking the masses by storm, and reinforcing itself as the only opinion that matters. That is the thing, if you scream out something loud enough, it does not matter what you are saying, all that matters is that you have something TO say. And that seems to be the tone that all the literate (but educated? that's debatable) seem to be chanting. And while we have had the newspapers flooded with editorial after editorial of how a great landmark such as the Taj has been lost....and how they could have been sipping their cup of tea(which could buy a small meal for an impoverished family at the same price)when the terrorists attacked. And this whole term "terrorists" is a very ambiguous term if you ask me. Convenient when they are not fighting for what you believe in.But if the fight is for what you believe in, or even to right a supposed wrong, or to teach someone a lesson....or even to just show some muscle so that no one in their right mind would even think about taking a "panga" (in street parlance..) But if we look at this issue from a broader perspective, the whole deal is governed by class. The discrepancy is largely evident in very reportage taht has been made available to the public. Again Im back to the same point illustrated by the earlier example, or personalities like Shobhaa De, who wept for woe on the loss of Wasabi, and how she and her high brow friends will have to give up gossiping over tea and crumpets at the Taj, and may have to (shudder to think) settle for tea in fake silver teapots and Italian fake leather couches. Oh the sorrow that the upper class endures!!!! All this while, the bomb blasts and the attacks were someone else's problem. Hey, after all, we are the residents of South Mumbai that you are talking about. Even nature knew its place with this side of town. The deluge that devastated the city on 26th July was nothing more that a normal monsoon day in Colaba. Hey, don't get me wrong, I love Colaba, and I would never leave it for any other place in the city. But the kind of snootiness that is associated with the place is demeaning to the rest of us who live here, in perfect middle class complacency like anywhere else in the city. Again , to the idea of terrorist! the word itself is derived from one meaning that who inspires terror. So how does that make any of the Hindu extremists outfits in the country any different? Just because they have political backing, and can openly take their expression of moral high ground to any lengths, does not mean that they are excused from the harsh moral judgments that the rest of the situations are subject to. Oh well, these rants will get no one nowhere. So lets just get down to it. Kill apathy. That is the first step. Come back when you have been able to do that. In the true sense of the feeling!!!

 

India Inc looks to draw from IPL's success as a brand

 India's corporate world is looking to draw from the DLF Indian Premier League as a brand that bases is strength on innovation in people management. 

"The most important point was to make believers of non-believers. The brand is so strong now that the second season is under way and even non-believers of the success of IPL 2009 will eventually raise their hats and acknowledge the strong emotional bond that IPL has built with its fans," says, Vibgyor Films Founder Sandeep Kaul. "Last but not the least, the whirlpool effect would mean that IPL can be held in any cricketing nation and still be a successful brand.

"Knowing the iconic popularity of cricket in both the countries namely South Africa and India, IPL ensured that the followers of the game would enjoy the clash anyways and, by default, local brands get international exposure," says Kaul. "This is like a boon to our local brands. So the lesson was not to be fazed by the circumstance but spruce the turkey and enjoy an early Thanksgiving." 

Thomson Foundation Asia Project co-ordinator Savyasaachi Jain recalls one other brand name that Indians associate with South Africa. "It is quite rare to see a brand exercise in India gaining momentum so speedily and then managing to get eyeballs. A brand that I can recall in ties with South Africa was Mahatma Gandhi but then it is quite notable that it took years to establish" he says. "It is a concept that that has notably reacted very fast to specifically Indian market conditions that too in such a short span of time."

McCann Erickson National Creative Director Ashish Chakravorty says IPL has made the most of what some considered a grudge purchase. "First was a decision whether to spend money on development or not - they chose to spend (the potential grudge purchase). Significantly, this was converted into an investment by making it not just short-term spending on players training but rather turning it into a real investment that generates returns for the future," he says. 

"But then the cherry on top - the system they have built not only makes this investment (growing young players by exposing them to the international stars) but also, as an entertainment spectacular, generates huge revenues and value," says Chakravorty.

"It is simply a mixture of the old and the new," says Tag Worldwide Chief Operating Officer Chetan Sachdev. "The age-old game of cricket plus fairly established professional sports marketing and a new exciting format adds up to a brand new product. Very simple in theory but it hadn't been done before like this. They weren't afraid to try it." Euro RSCG Associate Creative Director Nikhil Pandey says IPL has shown that in business, as in sport, it is the innovators who would survive fierce battles. "Questioning the paradigm and breaking the convention are the norms to follow," he says. "The most notable feature is resource utilisation. BCCI's contracted players were a resource. When the demand was created, the value of the resource went up. It is novelty in creating demand that is the highlight of IPL."

Blogworks Founder Rajesh Lalwani advises that it would be advisable to evaluate IPL in its third season for its sustainability. "But IPL as a brand surely is a significant property. The most interesting fact about IPL is it has given a new aspirational wing to parents who were always hesitated thinking about cricket as a prospective career for their kids, now they are ready to back their kids," he says.

IPL fans coming to terms with withdrawal symptoms

A cartoon in a leading English daily newspaper captures the nation's mood quite eloquently. It shows a man lying exhausted before a television set that has a blank screen and he is seen asking his wife: "It is 8 o'clock. What do I do now?"

A cricket crazy nation is slowly coming to terms with the fact that the curtain has come down on DLF Indian Premier League 2009. Tens of millions of cricket fans are twiddling their thumbs, soaking in the after-glow of the 37-day long extravaganza that combined excellent cricket and entertainment to engage cricket lovers and more in an addictive spell.

Indeed, for over five weeks, 22-year-old Sanjid Dutta's evenings were booked. From 7.30 pm to midnight, the marketing professional stayed in his couch, glued to and mesmerised by the high-voltage cricket. The Royal Challengers Bangalore fan says he now has no option but to wait for the start of the ICC World Twenty20.

Chartered Accountant Karan Malik, 23, says he started feeling bored right from the morning of May 25. "The reason is obvious," he says. "There were no more matches, I'm now playing an online T20 cricket game. I wish to win some prize there."

Nimai Joshi, 26-year-old marketing head of an educational consultancy, waves goodbye to IPL in a poetic tone. "The memory of IPL still makes my adrenaline rush, am enjoying the after glow of the month-long treat. The Yuvraj Singh hat-tricks, Manish Pandey's century they made us gasp, made us shout and left us to dream till the ICC World Twenty20 gets under way," he said.

"I never thought I would miss IPL," says telecom company project manager Kumar K, "but the fact is that I do. Indian sport has never seen such a spectacle in a foreign land. "I miss IPL. It was such fun and yes, unknowingly yet subtly, it became an addiction."

"Am I going to miss IPL? Well, yes and no," says MBA student Bhavna Chawla. "Yes because I love cricket and players over any other lure IPL offered. And no because, since I am pretty busy with my exams, I will let studies keep my mind occupied. I'd rather choose a middle path. Nonetheless, IPL is the best thing to have happened to cricket in ages."

Copy-writer Disha Joshi has a different reason to miss IPL. "It helped extend city loyalties that can help broaden horizons all around. Cutting across socio-economic-religious boundaries, Indians saw the cricket and I know I will surely miss it for this reason alone," says the 27-year-old Joshi.

"IPL was a persuasive mixture of 40 per cent cricket 30 per cent glamour, 20 per cent team effort and 10 per cent soap opera," says TV journalist Tabhish Hussain. "I now feel a vacuum these evenings. The saving grace is that IPL 2010 is not far away."

Rajeev Arora, 69 and retired, cut his yoga sessions short, skipped his evening walks and conversations with friends to settle before the TV set at 7.30 pm each evening. "I did not even miss the toss," he says, witfully. "In fact, by the toss I would decide which team had the edge over the other. "Would the bhajia and chai taste the same?"

He has a friendly suggestion that comes from his son, Akshit. Aware that his father doesn't know what he's going to do, Akshit said he has hinted that his father should return to erstwhile routine, read a book once in a while and go to bed early.

Well, that, as Rajeev Arora and countless others know, is easier said than done.

UHUMMMM.!.!

Realisation of pain conceived since past
Torn in tits bits...the soul is aghast
hell cried ocean of tears
for innumerable years
The drowner among them was beautiful me
It was me who drowned before their eyes
selling my soul for price
No takers....for a foul rotting life
no prices for happiness gifted
No value no value
Wothlessness is the total gold

For none it lives,none it wished
none it got
It had reasons 

You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio

It's nice. Nice that the 'what if's have melted away. Or at least, I'd like to believe they have. Unless of course, they've been frozen, rather forcefully, in cellophane in an orange-trouser-wearing-polka-dot-sneezing man's refrigerator. Then, maybe, as always, they'll sneak out, sneakily, from behind the orange-trouser-wearing-polka-dot-sneezing man's curtains and they'll tickle me. Like they always do. Like I hate. Like they love. Like entertainment for sadists. And candy for strangers.

 

Like a pair of raunchy scissors gorging on the warm remains of a bloodshot velvet, they'll come to me. They'll stay. Maybe they'll freeze again, until I'm perfectly happy in a world of storms and nothings. Plastic and pearls. Then, just like a normal butterfly-free Sunday, the orange-trouser-wearing-polka-dot-sneezing man will win. Triumph. Gloating. Floating. Hoping for a sliver of sweet lime.

 

Maybe then, I'll tell the orange-trouser-wearing-polka-dot-sneezing man that the sweet lime has been in his refrigerator all along. Maybe then, he'll know. 

 

Ban goes in smoke!

Ban on smoking is more of an eyewash. As cigarettes are snuffed out across the country, the true intent of the government is suspect. With no restrictions on tobacco industry, it's an half hearted approach.

Anyone who feels the urge for a puff of his favorite brand will have to do so in the confines of his room, provided his kids and other members of the family accept to be passive smokers. If he resists, he will have to set up a room of his own, away from all inquisitive neighbors and prying eyes

The Indian government has the power to endorse public smoking bans, but is there any legal basis for laws restricting private smoking and sale of cigarettes. We may as well pass laws prohibiting people from eating too much, or sleeping too little, or taking on high-stress jobs. Do you think that people will follow it?

 

Of course, after the passage of this law, one can see fewer smokers on the streets or public places, but it doesn’t mean that smokers have vanished or have stopped smoking.

Such proposals "push the envelope" of tobacco control into areas where questions need to be asked to ensure tobacco control policies are firmly anchored to scientific evidence and especially concern those who value the freedom of individuals to do what they please to the extent that this does not harm others. They invite consideration of whether zero tolerance of public exposure to toxic agents is a reasonable policy for civil societies and whether the loudly proclaimed exquisite sensitivities of a small minority should drive public policy. . In short, we need to ask whether efforts to prevent people smoking outdoors risk besmirching tobacco control advocates as the embodiment of intolerant, paternalistic busybodies, who, not content at protecting their own health, want to force smokers to not smoke even in circumstances where the effects of their smoking on others are immeasurably small.

There is confusion as most people whether the government will actually do much on implementing the law is a significant question. Laws on public health and comfort – such as littering or loud music – are almost never enforced in India. This law too could well go up in smoke fail to understand even the definition of a public place.

What is ironical is that major chunk of the population is not aware of the anti-smoking law and if some do know about it, they seem to be least bothered. The rationale behind this attitude of people is justified, as the concerned authorities themselves are reluctant to swing into action. The law enforcement agencies do not have the will to take action against the smokers. Government needs to come up with the strong-arm measures to clampdown smoking in public place and make the environment smoke free.

 Just lift the smoke veil and you will see that this law, in probability, is more of a paper tiger.

While the fire against smoking gains heat one cannot help but wonder about Sir Winston Churchill's plight if he were to live in a country where smoking was banned by law. For, he always claimed that it was the endless supply of cigars and tea that carried him through the war. But this is a different war anyway!

 

The true victor is insanity!!!

Relive
the pleasures of arbitarity
where ignorance is bliss
And thoughts lack co-linearity!

Forever
locked in the prison
of enclosed mentality
Self-imposed hindrance
and drones to passivity!

Remember
salvation denies those in obscurity
and those chained
to the shackles of symmetry!

Never
surrender to sanity
nor align to conformity
For the bleakest
is the gray of reality!

Forget
myopic misdirected vanity
and realize the truth
Relive... Forever... Remember... Never... The true victor is insanity!!!

20 YEARS AND A CEREMONY LATER....

20 YEARS AND A CEREMONY LATER!

 

“The history of the world is not complete until your story is told!”

 

Once there was a little girl. She was a fanciful kind of child, and she liked nothing better than to listen to her grandmother spinning yarns on lazy afternoons. At one such session, her grandmother abruptly interrupted her story and admonished the little girl for shaking her legs while sitting. The little girl protested, "But Dad does it too!" Grandma replied that it was alright for him because he was a man. The little girl could not understand how she knew, but she knew instantly that Grandma was wrong. Maybe it was because she had heard her Dad tell one of her aunts who had tried to sympathize with his son-less state that in his eyes, each of his two daughters was as good as ten sons. The little girl kept shaking her legs.

Well my name is Mansi Kohli.

Ho can I begin to explain the dichotomy that is ME? The eternal optimist, a closet pessimist , believer in free will and serendipity...a walking contradiction, truly. My obsessions beginswith anything that twinkles and is open ended. It has no end!

I can introduce silence and blabbering both at the same time.

An opportunist by nature, Thats why I believe "When life gives you lemons - make lemonade. Then sell the lemonade and make air freshness

from the peels. Sell that too!"

I frankly enough don’t remember the degree temperature under which I was born ,but as they say the place was some hospital in pauche rajouri market of new delhi. Since then I am living in delhi. I live in a family of 5.When I was born my sister was 4 years old and all she wanted was a gun-fighting brother to swear around with but I guess she dint leave me either. I remember when sometimes no one was around she would come up to me and bite my toes for no reason, I guess she sew the seeds of sibling rivalry and hence it continues. . .

oh! I do love her still.. c’mon that’s the part of rivalry among dogs even.

 

In my early years of education, the frustration with teachers misspelling my first as well as last name seemed as though it might never end. Though it gradually subdued as I scored the top rankings both in padhai and ladai and the name was suitably noted soon.

In5th standard happened my first crush over this guy who owned my first ever vision full, mills and boons. Next two days thanks to internet I discovered what the specie named “MAN” is;

In my new eyes I henceforth read a POLL stating that,“Most men said they would be impressed by women who read news websites, Shakespeare or song lyrics. Women said men should have read Nelson Mandela’s biography or Shakespeare. “

Since then I have started reading shakspeare and even news websites..but holy lord!! No men seem to have read nelson mandela’s biography fully.Thanks to that silliness I developed this grave interest in WORDS! The language English often became an EGO-LISH trip for me throughout my school and IP college days. I would rather now emphatically state that I fall in the non-fictional reality part of it. This makes me distant from being a novelist and drifts me closer in pain, sink ,verbosity and featuristic business of JOURNALISM.(which I would like to quote as an journey far beyond various ism’s.. ironical and how!)

I love my world of words. I spin them, string them, weave them together and throw them evenly oddly superlatively and yes! Hardly.. Broadly put, i write to make a living. My words feed me. At times the burden of being bright is especially heavy when you don't know where you're headed for.

My intention principle here was neither to project or reject myself .I present, but to indulge unselfishly and wholly in the vision, the sheer jazz if it comes to that, of what interests me. In the mirror will appear but fleetingly my image as figure, against the outer and inner worlds I happen to experience, as ground: this World-mirror in turn imaging my larger Self.

 “Some days I'm so weary with the constant struggles.

Fight for a seat, run to be on time, fight to inch forward, fight for your rights.
Fight for time, fight for space, fight for your reason to be.
Fight to be yourself.

There are times I'm so tired, so bone-weary, so exhausted that I am suspended, zombie-like in time and space. I can see myself moving but I can't feel my feet touch the ground. I can hear that familiar voice cranking out tired and overused phrases but the mind that manufactures them seems to have gone missing.”

-by MANSI KOHLI(ALL RIGHTS RESEVRED)

Ideas, ideals....those don't keep you happy. Happiness is like those fleeting moments...hardly worth chasing after even.. In every other way priveleged and accomplished I may be, but I'll stay a beggar inside my world.I am in the world of X, chaos, the new science..This is my way of telling my higher self. . .inner child.