Social Media Marketing

Techdivine Creative Services celebrates its 250 Plus Posts – Thank You All

Dear Readers,

We at Techdivine Creative Services would like to Thank All Our Dear Authors & Readers for making this Blog a Corporate Success and a powerful medium for Brands, Products & Services to reach across globally.

We are today 15 Authors Strong with over 250 Blog Posts and with over 10,000 Readers across 14 Countries.

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Your SMQ – Social Media Team

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New age Media Advertising

The nature of consumer engagement today is radically changing. Focus on specific program initiatives, pre-defined goal oriented plans and working across media to customize and get integrated reusable and utility based digital and traditional content for the end user (Customers, Audience, Stakeholders etc) is the core today.

Advertising and marketing have grown and matured over the years. The idea has become more than clear that sticking on to traditional media or at the same time, pushing the new age media to ‘purely sell’ is not going to get the marketer even an ounce of value addition or brand equity.

Value addition for the clients can be in terms of higher market penetration, better product positioning, increase in volume sales and volume market growth. The need here is to shift from a pure marketing oriented approach or a selling approach to connecting with the consumer by humanizing your brand with higher quality services and being an active part of today’s powerful communication prism across the globe.

When we talk about the needs today, the consumer has ideas that he is looking forward from his product. Similarly the audiences have expectations from their services to go beyond providing what’s been promised. In such cases, consumers are the main open source to get insights about what the market needs, to touch that common nerve appeal.

So let’s grow beyond simply advertising and marketing to a new world order of conversation prism by focusing across channels based on market, insights and need.

The idea to begin with, in this new age digital content era is to be where your consumer today is.

So keep conversing and stay connected.

Let us know of your views on the same.

Regards

Ananth V

Techdivine Creative Services

Social Media Marketing, Design Services, Your SMQ & Creative Writing

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PRESS evolving to ‘Press this’: In India

Press Evolution:Newspaper

By press in common parlance we usually refer to Printing press, but in journalistic & mass communication terminology, we mean print media such as newspapers, periodicals, magazines, news agencies, press syndicates and any such printed material.

The idea behind forming a press in terms of newspapers and similar related agencies has been to share public information, from the nation or the people themselves and create a powerful vehicle of expressions and information. Today, newspapers have evolved in terms of not only content but also the way it is presented to the mass across countries.

From the time of Maharajas (Kings) and before the period of Christ, we can see wall carvings, signs and stone art symbols across cultures and religions. Kings like Ashoka and Mughal emperors have made powerful use of these media for ages to keep the public informed and educated.

As wall carvings went to the next level of stone and sculptures with writings to newsletters  as manuscripts, the development of the printing press was gradually taking place. Soon enough India found its first official newspaper courtesy of James Augustus Hickey in the form of Bengal Gazette in the year 1780.

The first printing press was established in Mumbai in 1674, second in Madras and third in Calcutta in 1779. Hickey’s Bengal Gazette also known as the Calcutta General Advertiser began on 29^th January 1780. It was described beautifully as a ‘weekly political and commercial paper open to all parties but influenced by none’

The first two decades of the 19^th century saw rigid control of the Press by Lords Wellesley and Warren Hastings. In-spite of this, slowly the Indian readers were soon enough exposed to a very large number of printing houses in the form of newspapers and newsletters across Mumbai, Calcutta & Madras in the form of Darpan, Dig Darshan, Samachar, Friend of India etc.

During this period came the father of the Press industry revolution who raised the need, awareness and to give what the press very truly deserved, “the freedom of the press”, he was none other than Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

Soon enough there was established the first truly owned Indian newspaper by Gangadhar Bhattacharya which was also called as the Bengal Gazette. Rapid developments across languages soon evolved in the form of print press in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu, Gujrati, Tamil, Malayalam, Assamese, Punjabi in the later part of 1850’s. As another decade moved in with the war of independence breaking in, the press became more prominent, more popular and a much needed power tool for information and education for people in general.

When we look into the advantages behind a newspaper and such other print media, even if there is low subscription or reach in terms of actual sale of the IP of newspapers, magazine, newsletters etc. the readership finally goes high. Especially in a country like India where there is still a huge number of people who are not literate, the news spreads in the form of sharing information from person to person. So the power of PRESS is a revolution on it’s own.

Over decades as the most famous and influential newspapers such as Bande Mataram, Kesari, Maratha, Free Press Journal, Madras Standard, Bombay Chronicle etc kept creating waves, so were prominent influencer’s like the great Mahatma Gandhi, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Kasturi Ranga Iyengar etc associations with it.

The support for this medium of education and information became larger than life. Soon enough the influence to influence increased with technology contributing and forming a major role into the digital revolution of information sharing.

Today with millions of users across globally, India ranks high amongst users of internet and stands 2^nd across Asia and with more adding up every day.

One of the most popular forms of using press or print information across India today is through blogs and micro blogs. No wonder we find more and more newspapers and magazines going ‘online’ and being a part of the larger revolution of the ‘spot content generation & sharing era’.

Today press has taken a larger role of not only entertaining and educating but also of rapidly evolving with the passage of time. We will soon be seeing a lot more of micro blogging platforms and blogs presenting the power of Press to us.

So till then, press this, share and keep evolving & learning!

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Thank You!

Ananth V

Dear Friends,

This month marks our 3^rd Anniversary of the Creative Writers blog.

Creative Writing

The journey began with the first publication and the Times of India interview and coverage of the coffee table poetry book “Expressions“, but it was only by end 2008 that we got an idea to get other writers too to add their ideas, experiences and stories and share them in such a large platform.

As the readers and comments kept increasing, with more inputs, critique, suggestions from all of you, we added interactivity, free registrations for comments, Premium memberships and so on to the creative writer blog.

Today, we proudly stand at 183 –Posts, 973 Comments with 11 Authors and scores of Categories under varied subjects of “Technology, Career, Education, Gadgets, Life, Passion, People, Marketing, Online Media, Art, Legends, Freebies, Social Media Marketing……..”

We sincerely THANK all our dear readers and of course our wonderful authors who have contributed their time and skills to us and have been a part of the Creative Writing family.

Hope you have enjoyed a good read. It will only get better!

Feel free to write to us with any suggestions, comments or your views on the same.

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Below are the stats to the Top 30 Posts from all time:

Top Posts for all days “March 2007 to March 2010”

All Time – March 2007 – March 2010

Title                                                                                                                                        Views

1. Coffee – A case to begin all cases (2123 Views)
2. Why So seriousssah……. (493 Views)
3. SHOLAY in Facebook Style (388 Views)
4. Google wave – Part 2: Adding & tagging Attachments (331 Views)
5. My Trip to Aurangabad- The City Of Gates (112 Views)
6. Of Forbes India’s 100 Richest: Top 10 picks from our readers (197 Views)
7. IIM Indore my blog: The Life at IIM I (187 Views)
8. Online Creative Writing Contest for Students is HERE! (183 Views)
9. Charlie Chaplin (179 Views)
10. Married but to caste and religion (175 Views)
11. Twitter & Facebook: Why SNS? (174 Views)
12. Pulau Tioman, The great journey ( 170 Views)
13. IIM Indore – IRIS Break Free – Klueless Game (169 Views)
14. ET Awards 2009: For Corporate Excellence (158 Views)
15. ‘Kudos’ to an amazing artist “Kseniya Simonova” (157 Views)
16. Standard Chartered 2010 MUMBAI Marathon (155 Views)
17. Touching a million lives, but only ONLINE (154 Views)
18. A Southie’s Life Rocks (or is it on the rocks) (154 Views)
19. Transitions in Life (152 Views)
20. BLINKX: Video Search engine: Don’t “blinkx” anymore (153 Views)
21. 26/11: Mumbai Terror Attack – Saluting the real heroes (152 Views)
22. Warli Art India: UK Art Council: A journey, for Art’s sake! (152 Views)
23. Google Wave is here (150 Views)
24. Le Tour de France 2009 (145 Views)
25. Social Media Marketing for your business: Unleash….. (143 Views)
26. Working Women & Parenting (142 Views)
27. Social Media Marketing (SMM) – From root level, Why it will work? (141 Views)
28. The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2010: My Dream Run (138 Views)
29. Save Indian HOCKEY!!!!! (135 Views)
30. The Adventurous Land and the half blood Man: Having the Elixir (135 Views)

Most Popular Tags with us:

Life

Online Marketing

Marketing Services

Emotions

People

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Quotient

Hope

Career

And yes, our Blog has always been Mobile ready!

Happy reading!

Admin

TECHDIVINE Creative Services

Social Media, Design Services & Creative Writing

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ET Awards 2009: For Corporate Excellence

It was business, brand and sheer excellence yesterday as 400 CEO’s and Ministers came together under one roof for the 11th ET awards in Mumbai on 10th Jan,2010.

Magical moments that would rarely be accessible to corporate or the common eye, like Mr.Mukesh Ambani shaking hands with his nephew Jai Anmol (Mr.Anil Ambani’s elder son), corporate magic and powerful quotes freely flowing from Mr.Ram Charan himself coupled with notable remarks from Mr. Nitish Kumar, Mr. Anand Mahindra and the Indian cinema’s superstar Mr.Aamir Khan, caught the sight of millions across the globe.

ET Award Winners 2009:

Jean Dreze

• Economic Times’ Policy Change Agent of the Year 2009, for his outstanding work in poverty alleviation and rural employment – Policy Change Agent of the year: Jean Dreze, National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

• Business Leader of the year: Anand Mahindra, Mahindra Group

• Business Woman of the year: Vinita Bali, Britannia Industries

• Entrepreneur of the year: GVK Reddy, GVK Group

• Global Indian of the year: Ram Charan, Management Guru

• Business Reformer of the year: Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar state

• Company of the year: Hero Honda:Truly a hero as they spent more to fight a slowdown when most cut back and emerged victorious with newer models, larger profits and greater reach across.

• Emerging Company of the year: Idea Cellular , their new ideas well, transformed them to a much stronger and focused organization, ‘what an idea sirji?’

• Lifetime Achievement Award: Keshub Mahindra, Founder, Mahindra & Mahindra

• Corporate Citizen of the year: The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)

Few very notable quotes:

Mr.Ram Charan: He answered the business leader’s queries and concerns and pumped up more hope as he quoted “The financial structure of the world remains fragile, US has begun preferring India over China”.  His views on the transforming role of a sole owner of a small or medium size business to a CEO was worth listening to. He mentioned that “transformation of an owner to a CEO must happen if he or she is wanting to give more than just the 24 hours available to listen, take and make decisions for business. Giving the power to someone else to decide is an important and difficult but essential role that one (owner of medium size business) might opt for in order to be able to “MULTIPLY” his work speed and share and shoulder the responsibility from being an individual and look at profits and growth from an organization’s point of view”.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee put forth the 2020 blueprint as he quoted “Policies must reach out to all especially to poor, benefits must be seen by all people and right to education and food must be available to all”.

Mr. Aamir Khan wowed the audience with thoughts on education and lateral thinking. He quoted, “Inclusion should start from childhood and schools should admit children with disabilities”.

<<<Video Link from YOUTUBE: Source link given to us by one of our readers : Mr Rajiv Menon>>>

Thanks to ET awards 2009 for a memorable mega event with corporate flair and panache.

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Image Source: Economic Times

Few Blog Posts from the past: Back on Our Dear Readers Demand:

Year:2008

Tomorrow onwards I start working in an open office. During renovation, the old traditional layout is being changed from a cabin (large rooms equal to or bigger than a living room) to medium sized cubicles and work stations. It looks impressive since the office is renovated. But it is only partially complete and the full looks with atrium and all other things would get ready in the next few months. So the full impact would be felt when the office is fully renovated. It would be a transformation worthy of notice-perhaps equivalent to an expensive cosmetic corporate surgery.

The first feature that I observe is that the Personal Computer occupies the pride of position, It is kept smack in the middle of the working area and the chair faces it. It seems as though the main function of most employees is staring hard at the computer almost the entire day. It is perhaps equivalent to keeping a note counting machine on every banker’s table as every banker ultimately deals with money. My belief is that computer is one of the tools we use in the course of our work. It could be a vital tool or an accessory (like a belt or a tie) depending on the individual and his position in the hierarchy. But that seems to be the accepted concept today. I am reminded of the cattle shed in some parts of Mumbai (Tabela in local language) where the cattle is tied and faces a trough containing the feed. Unlike human beings they are not let out as there is no space for grazing in Mumbai.

The second striking aspect is the positioning. The consultant informed us that the concept is that there should not be eye contact from one work station to another. This reinforces the concept that though other human beings are close by, they are mainly distraction to be avoided. So though they are visible and audible, ignore them and ensure that they are able to ignore you. So no loud conversation to spouse on buying evening’s requirement (she would come late, so pick up children, and keep dhal ready etc.), mouthing childish and sweet words or threatening words to growing and troublesome kids (do Maths home work beta, is the Hindi homework over, didn’t I tell you to…), romance within or outside office.

The third striking aspect is the mobile phone with varying ring tones. I recall a senior executive well past retirement age having the ring tone of Dhoom going off when he was making a serious point at an important meeting. They can be quite annoying. When someone else has a ringtone identical to yours, then you could get irritated thinking how could he have the same ring tone. So what would result after few days of annoyance is more subdued ring tone and many executives walking up and down the corridor murmuring into the telephone looking serious and sometimes focused clearly on domestic issues ( mama, I told you it is not possible this week….., did the plumber come? has the maid come and cleaned baba’s school dress?)

The fourth would be learning new techniques on seeming busy on important assignments while doing nothing. But that perhaps would not be difficult to any Indian working person.

Now, I wonder who invented work station. The word “work station” seems to give an impression of a temporary halting place – like railway station- and not a place where we spent a large portion of our waking time. It sounds like a station for working and nothing more. Perhaps it is an American usage where most things are impersonal – even family relationships. Every child is expected to have a separate room. A parent cannot go into his grown up children’s room without permission. So places without privacy are perhaps temporary habitats by their standards.

So off tomorrow to the new working station. Let me see how all of us working there fare. My hunch is that some of my colleagues could complain and look back to the glorious past and identify the fault lines loudly.

Open Office – Part2

It is nearly a year since I wrote the last blog. During that time, I visited Bhutan. It is an out of the way place for Indian tourists. I enjoyed it. My wife told me recently that she now appreciated the stillness of some of the places we visited in Bhutan. If anyone is interested to know more, do write to me. I have kept a diary of this visit and good photos also. If you enjoy chill climate in summer, seeing deep valleys, winding roads, waterfalls etc. then this is the place. It is not that expensive also.

My grandson put in 11 more eventful months to his 9 months of existence. The growth in the first three years of existence is said to be more that what happens in thirty years of existence in the later part of human life. So he started walking, communicating, speaking few words and being utterly mischievous. He has a lovely smile, which I am sure will break the hearts of many maidens who are yet to be born. He gave us a new perspective to life and living.

The open office grew on me. I became comfortable listening to the daily menu communicated by my office neighbor to the cook. I came to know the calling tunes of most colleagues. The older the person, the more dashing is the caller tune. Older persons do not change caller tune. The younger generation love change and that includes caller tunes also.

Most telephone conversations are conducted in loud tones. Except when confidential calls come, then everyone is capable of whispering on phone. The difficulty arises in concentrating on reading lengthy documents when the atmosphere around resembles a railway station. Then I remember Hindu philosophy which expects us to concentrate irrespective what the outside world resembles.

Share market crashed in an unbelievable manner. Many of us saw lot of paper wealth being extinguished on a daily basis. There is a muted recovery now. None of us are confident this would sustain or reach the old heights. Still some rise in Sensex is comforting.

What are most disturbing are job losses. For the first time in my 33 years of working life, I am seeing middle and junior level officers and executives losing jobs due to economic down turn. Management graduates are not getting placements even when they belong to good or great Institutions. This has never happened in the past. The situation in non metros is said to be equally bad. Small and medium enterprises are having great difficulties in surviving. I am not sure what is the level of job losses or erosion, but it is bound to be significant.

I had a lingering suspicion about IT related jobs as I could not fathom how far an average IT engineer would travel in his career. As a person coming from administrative side of business, I felt they would plateau out fast. Today’s scenario seems to confirm my belief that an IT person needs to contribute significantly to business to progress beyond the Rs. 25/30 lacs hurdle. Am I right? I would love some feedback on this rather instinctive rather than informed view.

USA has lost its charm for many Indians. The risk of being unemployed in a foreign country is frightening. India at least offers some kind of security within the bosom of the family or its extended version. Any way we are used to misery, somehow we will pull on. Would a father consider giving a qualified girl based in India to an IT bridegroom based in USA today without some qualms? Hard to say.

Why did I absent myself from blogs? Well, the creative urge dried up. I could not dream of something to write. I started and then left it midway. Today I decided I will scrawl something. I will be encouraged if I get 3 comments or criticisms or feedback. Does a person write for own satisfaction or for someone else to read, appreciate/criticise? I think both.

So, what do you say?

Let me know your views on the same

Anjeneyan

Image Source:

Cubicle

Personal Trip Clicks

2Sides of Life

My mother was a homemaker (to use a modern terminology). I do not recall a time in my childhood when Ireturned to an empty home and made my own snacks or lunch/dinner. I grew up taking for granted that mothers are always at home to receive their children. The outside reality slowly sunk in and I realized that women who went to work also were mothers whose children bid them good bye each morning and waited for them to come back to relate the days adventures.

I recall one blog written by a TV Newsreader which is particularly fascinating. This is two years old blog, but timeless in terms of contents and I am giving below a link to it.

Working Mothers: On IBN

The comments in response mostly from women are equally interesting. They are worth reading.

In today’s context when female education is emphasized and they are equal or should be equal to male in terms of opportunities and abilities , it is not fair or correct to tell a woman that her main job is to be a “homemaker” rather than fulfill her personal and professional aspirations. At the same time, children in the early and formative years require close attention from at least one of the parent. This need not be on a 24/7 basis, but ideally should cover a significant portion of the children’s waking hours and their time spent in the house. As the children grow up, the degree and span of attention could vary and reduce.

I am seeing in some cases grand parents being substitute parents. Some grand parents are frequent flyers to gulf and USA to care the grand children. I always wonder whether the parents bond well with children brought up by others? Do grand parents have the same energy they had as parents? Is’nt it a a bit tiresome for grandparents to do once more what they had done over three decades back? Would they not be looking thru the prism of values and mores which may not be relevant three decades later when the children become adults?

“Quality time” seems to cover the nature of attention needed, but at the same time indicates cliché or an overused word. I tried to imagine myself to be a parent with two children of varying ages between 5 and 10, tending to them after a full day at office and traveling for nearly 3 hours a day. Besides this there would be domestic chores to attend. How much energy would a person have – whether the parent is a mother or father- is hard to estimate? Would they tell stories from Ramayana or Mahabharata or read Tintin comics before the children go to sleep? How much of their day at school would interest them? I realized that I would do much less than what a working parent does today.

Perhaps the issue is not working vs non working mothers. The real issue could be how much of a bonding exists between the children and parents. I have seen fathers substituting for mothers who are sometimes more busy due to the nature of their jobs.

Children need and demand attention. Some times the attention they seek disturb others who see some distortion in relationship without identifying what could be the cause. Whenever I see such distortion, I wonder what would they grow up to be as adults. Do children of working parents demand more attention and carry some level of unfulfilled emotional needs? I don’t know. But I have certainly seen some children seeking more than needed attention.

The bottom line could be that when we bring another human being into this world, as parents we have a responsibility and duty to ensure that the child grows up to be a good human being and be able to contribute to the society in a positive manner. So when our children become adults, we should be perhaps be able meet this standard, at least in our own hearts.

Anjeneyan

Image Source: ANVClicks

Ananth’s blogon influences set me thinking on how the persons around us impact our thinking and behaviour. His blog was on the conscious impact of few persons around him. I felt that the impact on the sub conscious mind by our environment is worth thinking of.

Last year I attended a marriage in Chennai. My aunt (father’s younger sister) exclaimed that “you look like my brother in your present attire” or something to that effect. Instinctively, I felt flattered. Why should I feel so? My father, from the time I remember, looked his age and some more. He was severely short sighted, though tall, was stooping, had very less teeth, dark complexioned, with a furious temper and highly rigid opinion on several aspects of life. His was a hard act to follow.  But still, some of his achievements and decisions make us still look up to him and any resemblance-genetic or otherwise- gives us a sense of inner glow. This however comes with some of the turns and twists life takes and compels us look into the mirror and admit reality at least to ourselves.

In Indian context, the first influence is our parents. The first English alphabets and nursery rhyme was taught to me by my mother whose formal education stopped at primary school. Forty six years back, we had come to Mumbai from a small village in Kerala. We had to adjust to a metro life in a hurry. Learning a foreign language and rhyme (twinkle twinkle little star…) was the first step. I have a sentimental belief that since this was the only subject my mother taught me, I was always good at it.

How did our parents express their love to us or to each other? How many of us remember our parents smiling with a shy love or laughing wickedly over an adult joke said privately to each other? Did they hold each other in their arms and dance the way we saw in the movies of 60s? May be so. Did they do it in our presence? Never.  How did this lack of physical or public expression of love (an Indian trait) impact us? Well, most of us – at least in South India- are uncomfortable with a physical expression of love- even of the platonic variety- in public and may be even in private.

What is the situation today? Very difficult to say.  My belief is that today’s youth are caught between the example set by their parents and the peer pressure. What is the right thing to do? I feel that some amount of display of positive emotions strengthens relationships and establishes some bonding.

Peer pressure or friends or lack of it is the next strongest influence in any life. How would lack of peer pressure or friends influence a person? Like many shy persons, I found it difficult to create an easy going friendship with the group in which I was studying or working (hai-bye relationship). I did exactly what I felt like doing. Some of it succeeded due to several factors- some within and some beyond my control.  But the difficulty in creating an easy going “life of the party” kind of relationship remains.

Peer pressure come most obviously in the “science or commerce” kind of decisions post schooling. Most of such decisions are based not on what the boy or girl wants to do in life post education and how attractive that avenue is. Some years back I had asked my cousin (who is a medical doctor (MBBS)) why is there a craze for medical admission when the returns are not commensurate with the efforts- at least in India. He said that it was due to lack of real understanding of the profession and its pressures. Last week’s news article said that the application for medical admission has fallen significantly while demand for engineering admission has surged.  One classic example is the number of engineers who joined for IT related courses even when it was apparent that many of the industry leaders are from different streams of engineering and such streams offered good long term prospects.

There is a big board I see on the way to office every day. It says “To the world you might be one person; to one person you might be the entire world. So drive carefully.” I feel this poignantly states our relationship with those we love very much- spouse, children, parents, siblings etc. Whenever we wear a new dress, after examining the image on the mirror, we go to our spouse and ask hesitantly ‘do I look handsome?’ A small smile of appreciation, a tart comment makes our day. I say to myself- I certainly look handsome in this shirt. I sometimes think that even Manmohan Singh or Sonia Gandhi must be asking their family members about their appearance before stepping into public gaze. This is only a small example how our spouse and/or family members appreciation matters to each person.  Family support is a great strength of Indian way of life and gives an anchor for our life.

Do parents listen to their children?  Yes, they do; especially when children start growing up and express their opinions.  The external environment has changed and is changing so rapidly that only highly self opinionated parents will disregard the views emanating from their children. If we have to keep communication lines open with them, we have to listen, but not necessarily agree with them and provide an adult feedback. Does this influence us? Yes it does. How does it influence us? Not easy to say. But their love and appreciation of our achievements and forgiveness of our failings matters a lot to us- at least to me.

Lastly religion, religious beliefs, practices, rituals and the whole baggage that comes with it. These are so intensely personal that they are hard to pin down or express in a logical or coherent manner. It matters to us hugely. Even lack of belief in all these things matters hugely.  Here again the dominating influence is our parents. We observe them and then decide consciously or unconsciously as to what we should do.

I have not touched up on the influence of our life in service as that deserves another blog.

So who influenced you? Why don’t you look at your parent and start wondering how they have influenced you?

The Corporate Apple

 

“As you dream about your passion and work towards you goal,

You make yourself calm and play through your role

You find your name and follow the set game

Be a pawn and monotonously do the same

Stay putt as you search to get things par

Work hard and say pressure & time no bar

Realizing slowly the messed up cobs

Goes away the smile, you see around those sobs

Raced ahead off all, you look behind those in lag

They are still behind, but are holding the Chequered flag”

As the new FY begins, with so many things set in motion, the corporate gets set for the New Year’s game.

 You see all around faces that have forgotten to give honest smile for the fear that it might be mistaken for a mockery. Those affected by the Depression / downturn of economy (Corporate / otherwise) have their genuine worries and those who are not affected, want to get a slice of the “Scary Pie”. Sad it sounds!

Strange, we now do not want to let go even of the sad and bad side of economy and want to be an honest part of it. Why?

It helps.

‘It helps to excuse for your downsizing which was already on the cards. It helps to clean up with those who should be a positive addition but in corporate games are not needed to be a part of the system. It helps to share nothing except your actual growth figures with your huge chunk of honest employees who would have poured in their heart and soul to contribute in any which way to their company and at the end, show them down (saying its downturn all around).’

 Integrity has been a gift to mock with today, as nothing seems to be in place except constant chaos. It’s sad to see those corporate biggies using excuses to pull down employee’s morale and trust and blame it on the market scenario with ease.

 The impact that such uncanny and negative traits seem to be setting across; their cascading effects will be seen in the coming years.

 Till then, all those in distress & chaos, those trying to grab that Sweet and forbidden Apple, for now, just hold on to your roots, stay Putt, stay calm and keep your shoes of integrity on…. ‘coz it will always take you par to your final goal……

 So may be for now stay foolish but Stay in!

Jai Ho, Jai Ho!

Come Home to the Oscars…. Or should I say… Oscars came home….

Finally, Danny Boyle and A R Rahman bring the most coveted Oscars back into the streets of Mumbai.

This is the third win for an Indian at the Oscars. The first being, Bhanu Athaiya who won  for costume design in Richard Attenborough’s “Gandhi” made in 1983 and the second being, the legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray who was awarded a lifetime achievement Oscar in 1992.

‘Slumdog Millionaire’ swept EIGHT OSCARS at the 81 st Academy Awards including Best Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Film Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Direction and Motion Picture.

Rahman mesmerized the audience with ‘O Saya’ and ‘Jai Ho…’ the nominated songs from ‘Slumdog…’, as the nominees for Best Original Song were being announced. He came, he performed and he swept everyone away….

As the British director Danny Boyle walked in with his cast of Slumdog Millionaire family down the red carpet, all the nine cast members, who played the three main characters in the rags-to-riches magical fable, seemed to further race the hearts of millions of Indians watching all over. There were superstars Anil Kapoor and Irfan Khan also beaming with pride and joy.

Most importantly there were the two young cast members, who still live in Mumbai’s slums, making it very special for each and everyone at home in Mumbai.

The movie fetched Danny Boyle the Best Director award, Simon Beaufoy best Adapted Screenplay and Anthony Dod Mantle the best Cinematography award. The film was also awarded for Best Editing.

Rahman in his acceptance speech after bagging the Original Score Oscar, made LA sound like Mumbai with the legendary dialogue, ‘Mere pass Ma hai’ which means even if I have got nothing I have my mother here. I want to thank her for coming all the way to support me,”

The Gulzar and Rahman composed Lyrics “Jai Ho” won the Best Song.

Resul Pookutty, received the award for Best Sound Mixing with co-recordists Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke.

Also to further glorify this magical night, ‘Smile Pinki’, the tale of a Uttar Pradesh girl and her fight against the social stigma of a cleft-lip, won the Oscar award for Best Documentary (Short).  This film was Directed by the Emmy-award winning Megan Mylan.

Let the glory continue……………..

Oscar Winners List: OSCAR Winners

Image Courtesy:

Oscar Logo Image: OSCARS

Slumdog: OSCARS

Smile Pinki: BBC