A step ahead

This is what i have ached for , died for, craved for and am glad am finally here. Am at LSE to pursue my MSc in Media and Communication and the reason for doing that was just one - to do better, to go a step further.I love what I did as a profesional - Advertising ...Media...Communication...but sometimes felt inept to follow it completely. So I thought of doing what I am doing. I guess thats what life is all about. Always aspiring to go a step ahead. This one sure is.

This space has been a little dead. This blog of mine has been one of the lesser explored spaces and I guess I never had the understanding or the acumen to really give life to it. It amazes me that i surely believe I can do so nw.

In my statement of purpose I stated my objective of pursuing the program as Media development and Media Education, I still stand by it. I will always. Its the sense of purpose that is really driving me and as i write these words sitting here in the heart of London , I hope one day I will achieve what I set out to do.

Am reading a book on the life of Verghese Kurien and its so inspiring.Was travelling for the first day to college in the british rail and read this:

"I realised that when you worked merely for your own profit, the pleasure is transitory; but if you work for others, there is a deep sense of fulfillment and if things are handled well, the money too, is more than adequate."

- Pg 28 From I too had a dream, Verghese Kurien as told to Gouri Salvi.

Watch this space for me , media and the world all around.
Vande Matram!

Brand the Nation, Sell the soul

What is the highest level of branding that can be attained? You brand a sport , music , movies and any other form of entertainment and reach its audience but how about reaching a nation of one billion and more. The challenge is great. There aren’t any easy answers. Well is it that difficult after all?

Its pretty simple. You brand a nation. India shining or perhaps take a national symbol and brand it. Just to check the current status, there are many underlying opportunities that I see in the coming future.

National anthem - Jan Gan Man - Branded as Jaya he - by Airtel
One billion hearts - One voice - Airtel. Brilliant. Bravo.

But this is just the beginning. We have a whole range of national symbols still available.
National Flag - available - Opportunity: Can fit with some textile brand
National Animal - available - Opportunity: Can fit with some bike/car brand
National Bird - available - Opportunity: Can fit with some female designer brand
And various other national symbols…

But I do have a problem. My problem isn’t the branding. My problem is why should these national symbols branding come for free?

The government suffers from a perpetual fiscal deficit , year after year, so why not auction each of our national symbols. After all we have auctioned most of it slowly and steadily. Why leave this or worst of all let it go for free? So charge for it.

Reminds me of my friend who smiles and says with absolute comfort that he has sold his soul. I have wondered many a time , how? But for once I guess I trust what he says for if the national symbol of a country can be branded and marketed , why can’t a poor soul be sold?

Mental Clones

What are the general topics of discussions we have? If we were to list down ten topics it surely would include news , events , celebrities , movies and sitcoms. The topics are limited and the opinions on the same are rather trite because the source of opinion for most such opinions are common. It is the media and a few media personalities to whom the channels have easy access who become the opinion makers. The handful of such media hyped personalities start voicing the opinion of a country of 1 Bn+. How democratic to have such representatives whom we know not much of. So Prahalad Kakkars and Mahesh Bhatts of the world turn out to be the ones commenting on anything and everything.

We watch , we listen , we accept and occasionally we question. So it isn’t surprising that we constantly find ourselves in agreement with each other. For if the source is the same , the outcome cannot be too different. What you sow is what you reap.



The problem is that media while representing opinions and presenting ideas may not do it democratically. So as media becomes the voice of the democracy we all are so proud of , I am not sure if the facts are reliable enough , if the opinions represents the majority and if media is not being used for the purpose of propaganda.

The idea is not to demean the importance of media in shaping the opinions. The concern is about the blind acceptance of these opinions and unquestioning belief in the information provided. The hero worship and uneducated approach to media representations is scary. After all the human race is endowed with the thinking faculty to judge and decide for its own and if it fails to use the same effectively there is no way at all that we will be able to judge fact from fiction. There is no way we will be able to ensure that as we exist peacefully we don’t loose our individuality and becomes mental clones of each other.

Independence day - not so special

It's independence day.So the mediated world is full of the regular chit chat ... Diamonds on Fever 104 Fm for celebrating 60th year of independence...Times of India launched Lead and Hindustan Times talked on 2067.

But what I enjoyed watching was the bit that Discovery channel did. It was part of the Independence day special features on India. I saw the one hosted by Sanjeev Bhaskar and what hooked me to it was the Yacht ride. It was the one on which we went for the Mid Day party almost more than a year and a half back. There was Sanjeev interviewing Singhania on the same yacht.



The story moved from the rich to the waste collectors of Mumbai. It then featured some participants of Gladrags Mrs India and Maureen Wadia. There was Q&A and one question related to marital rape. It then moved to Infosys campus in Banagalore and then to Cochin as a tourist destination. It was an eclectic mix representative of where we belong but more so it was about the outsider's perspective on something we see each day.

The feature on India made me wonder why we don't value all around us and if the outsider's perspective was what we needed to see inside. It made me wonder if the Independence day special was after all not so special.

Shining Star

As a part of the mediated world and looking to make media and communications my core area of existence, trying to get over the yahoo-google life , I was a little taken a back yesterday.

My media habits have evolved or shall i say just changed over the past few years completely. Met some ad sales people from Star World and Star Movies. Good people. Passionate about their offering. Clear on what they wanted to say. As I was talking with them and they were discussing the programming on Star World , it reminded me of that avid viewer I was.

Star World - once upon a time - was the channel I was hooked to. Would watch it endlessly. Would wait for series - episode after episode. Would get up in the middle of the night and watch Oprah and Ally McBeal. Would laugh alone watching friends, dharma and greg and Two guys, a girls and a pizza place. I was pretty obsessed with the stuff on the channel. Suddenly it all went away. The last bits of Star World I remember seeing were bits of desperate housewives , more so cause it was so heavily promoted across.

It was a meeting that really took me in the past in a way.I wonder if it happens to everyone working in media. People get intrigued to work in media looking at all of this and end up missing the same completely once they get working. Ironical but true , at least for me.

Towards the end of meeting I guess Indraneel commented its so much easier to explain things to you since you understand what the channel is. I smiled. I was silent. In a wayI agreed but I did want to say it was once upon a time.

The Yahoo-Google Life

My weekends are full of Yahoo and Google. Those two words sum up most of what I do in life.

Yahoo is mostly for the older things like chat and mails. For the more evolved things, I use google. So I plan my days on Google Calendar, socialize on Orkut - meeting old friends , keeping in touch with existing friends and making new friends - it all happens here and record my life on Blogger. I tried running parallel profiles with blogs on both - yahoo and google at one point of time but it was just not possible.

There are those days when I sit for 12 hours pretty much doing nothing. A lot of Yahoo and Google in my life is avoidable but I just lose the ability to decide where to draw the line. But that is what it is.

My medium is Internet Internet Internet. That’s how it is. A couple of years ago it would have been radio, TV and perhaps press and those still exist but I hardly use them and I think the order in which I wrote them is also pretty my preference towards the media.

My Yahoo-Google life is here to stay. Though the horizons are expanding with zapak.com and hypem.com nothing beats Yahoo-Google. Nothing at all.

Media for tomorrow, today

I have been browsing through some stuff and everywhere as I read , I come across one big thing - one emerging trend that is already dominating the system and thats changing the face of media. Its called participative media.

Check out this website ,aptly called what kids can do and you would realise to an extent what I mean when I am talking of participative media for the proof of pudding lies in its taste, as they say.

The Blue Billion out to the Green

India pretty much out of the World cup. My last entry was about the game of cricket becoming bloody and mercenary. India is out. Its hard to believe because the by most conservative estimates India was to be a part of the super8 matches. What happens to the blue billion is anybody's guess! It said Ladega to Jeetega - the branded inspiration that so didnt work for the team .

Sports and media have been closely related. Big sports personalities have become bigger media personalities. So is the star studded team full of world class players fail to come together as a team. This is all in public realm. So if Greg Chapell says that the team didn't play well and thats is all , its not considered enough.

Players becoming bigger than the game!

Blue Billion

Hu Ha India Aaya India - Pespi , Anchor Team and Seagrams That was then.

Cricket fever is on everywhere. I am not an ardent cricket fan and neither am I here to discuss their performance . I am not even getting into specifics of brand endorsements. Every 1 out of 4 ads are about cricket and I wonder why? Cricket , F1 , FIFA , Wimbledon , French Open ...... Are they really about the spirit of sports. Hardly!

Life is Calling

Its a big day. I am back on mediated world after all these months. Escape I said from it , its a mediated world. Then two thoughts after reading some stuff today, struck me hard .

Firstly, media is important because we experience the world through it. We experience the world through media. The feeling is not yet sinking in and I am still trying to comprehend what it means! But I know in all these months I have been trying hard to avoid it. Yet its all over the place. In a way its talking to me truly of the vacarious lives we all lead. The existence that is so flawed in its reality that we all seek to escape it. Media is a means of escapism and thats how we lead our life. In the city of blinding lights where the streets have no name this is a world of pulp fiction.

Secondly if there is more to do in here , in this mediated world , there is also a need to go in deeper - to explore all and more in the world of media that is there to explore.

Its time to step out and be in the center of it all.

Life is calling ( smirnoff tagline)

A mediated life is calling!

Why India Prayed for Sanjay

This was in respose to Vir Sanghvi's Column counterpoint in HT dated 3-12-06

This is a movie crazy nation. A nation where movie stars are worshipped, literally. So what is the big deal about India praying for Sanjay Dutt ?


The stated position on "celebrity crimes" varies with where the celebrity status is derived from. So the differences in treatment to accused in Jessica Lal and Nitish Katara case is rather obvious. The celebrity status of the convicted in the latter cases is a derivative of crime and hence the public hatred. There is only one face to the accused in these cases - that of rich influential offenders who can manipulate the system. The celebrity status of Sanjay Dutt on the other hand is derived as a function of the show business he operates in - where every individual is considered a demigod. He is a man of many faces - from Brave-heart to Robin-hood bollywood ishtyle. So really what parallels are we trying to draw here is incomprehensible to my mind ? May be we are so blinded and naïve in our vision that we see this as just another role of the actor and fail to draw lines between the real and the reel lives.


All this just goes to prove a disturbing point that media is becoming the center of social systems defining public opinion and passing its own judgment - trial by media as they say it is preceding it all. I do not know any of the accused in any of the crimes personally, so to comment on the merits of the case is perhaps impossible . But I wonder if it is much ado about nothing at least in the Sanjay Dutt case. He was one of the many accused in the Mumbai blasts case. Justice has finally been done after the long wait. My interest was limited to that and I guess that would be true for many, unless the message that it's a big deal keeps getting hammered all the time across different media - be it newspapers or television and I start believing it.


Bombay polices' vindictiveness , Sanjay's defense strategy and the case of political capital being created - are they really issues of common man, is anybody's guess. But may be there are takers in media for it for they know the man.


The sad thing is that after all this said and done, we are still discussing it. and the "celebrity status" attached to it. I guess that's the reason why rightly the latest issue of India today offers some insights into gaining the celebrity status. After all it helps you get prayers from the country of a billion - any takers for that? I am sure there are many takers. Why India prayed for Sanjay? Or did it really?

Ram and Rakhi

What do you say to a iconic senior lawyer who screams and fights with journalists in media spotlight? Why , if he knows , journalists are ignorant of criminal procedure code and other legal jargon , does he throw it around so much? Why the fury if its the fight of the truth?

Of late the reactions from advocate Ram Jethamalani have not just been amusing they are becoming ridiculously entertaining. So Cyrus (The week that wasn't) takes some clips and does a spoof on Ram's English. Then there is Karan Thapar who goes Yes Yes Yes to Ram's No No No or vice versa.

Last time I remember becoming so amused when watching news was when Rakhi Sawants controversial womens right issue was raised. Comparing the two , perhaps , there are some parallels.


-> Both are iconic in their areas of expertise.
-> Both the parties are aggrieved with the callous attitude and ignorance of media.
-> Both are involved in any which way with Pg 3 circuit and event occuring at one such party.
-> Both are fighting for professional integrity.
-> Both are high on morality and justice.

Well I wonder what if Ram was a part of Big Boss? May be there will be some contention.May be next we will see Ram fighting for Mika - all in the name of justice!

How Bizzare?

This web-log clearly states - Escape if you can , it’s a mediated world and yet does quite the opposite. I realized this off late as I was going through a few other web-logs and discovered that the content wasn’t very dissimilar. So many of the amateur writers like me are picking up similar topics and writing about them. The latest fad being putting down something on Gandhigiri.

The message is simple. You love it or hate it - Media is making us think. It is giving us food for thought that we all may or may not consciously acknowledge. I wonder what it does to us at an individual and at a social level. I remember writing about defined stereotypes and now taking it a step further it makes me realize if this is the beginning of the homogenization of human thinking. Anyway original thinking seems farfetched and scarce.

In the paucity of original thinking , our thinking becomes a derivative of what we see and hear (which mostly happens through media), media content in turn becomes a derivative of successful international program formats whether it be KBC or the coming soon Big Boss and all of it together results in a kind of mono-culture ( The term is borrowed from Naomi Kleims book - No Logo).

So here we are in the midst of a vicious cycle where we cant think original , where plagiarism takes the name of inspiration and where the chicken or egg question would soon apply to media and social condition. Welcome to the 21st century India or shall I say 21st century globe. After the initial attempt to clone animals genetically its humans turn to be cloned mentally with the mediated fodder. Cloning at a physical level may be less dangerous than cloning at a mental level. If that’s not bizarre what is?

Where's the meat?

Someone asked me after reading this space , where is the meat in your writing on media? I thought and thought and thought more. Where is the meat in media? It made me wonder. So I browsed through the Television channels , kept surfing through radio channels , browsed through couple of magazines and tried hard , harder. There are scoops , sting operations and soundbytes. But even in all this I guess the meat is lacking.

If we look at it medium by medium may be we might be able to spot some bits of interesting pieces but they are so few and far in between that the effort would be tremendous and results only dismal I wonder what should I do? May be go further under the skin of things and look beyond the obvious.

I also happen to be reading Einstein at this stage and that's where I see a stark comparison. The old timers book called "Ideas and Opinion" is excerpts of his speeches and writing put together and its a wonderful piece of writing. That's meat for sure. So its not the medium but the content as has been said again and again and again.

Compared to the writing, would a docu-drama on Einstein sound as interesting? I guess not. I think as mass media and the masses consuming them explodes it is somewhere losing out on what some great media analysts like Ephron call engagement.

This is how I see it. Media presence is becoming ubiquitous. In turn it is becoming a part of our setting. So breakfast is served with radio, lunch with internet at office and dinner with television is so much given that we don't even pay attention to it. We don't consciously observe /curb it. And somehow when something is routine we also loose interest in it. So its just another show , one after another, just another piece of music and just another piece of writing.

But do we really need to look at the extra-ordinary when the ordinary that seems ordinary is not really so. At an extremely high pace things seem static and I guess so is the case with the mediated world but slow down and you might see it all.

As for my friend well his journalistic self can keep looking for meat and stories but I guess there is one everywhere. You just need to see it.

Salaam Bapu

Gandhiji’s birthday had gained special significance this year. It wasn’t anything special except the fact that just a few weeks before this day there was a bollywood release that talked of Gandhian values. The values of truth and non violence that Gandhi advocated so strongly, that his personality seemed to epitomize the same. He always stood for it and yet he was pretty much forgotten and buried with his values. Suddenly the revival of the same courtesy bollywood.

As we talk of fragmentation and fewer viewers we also see mass media resulting in mass movements shaping opinions and ideologies. It’s happening more so as media becomes omnipresent at least in the bigger cities and town. So we all are served the same messages across channels at dinner table. And like food we are almost swallowing it , without chewing it , giving it any thought at all.

“Lagey Raho Munna Bhai” has suddenly made Gandhi relevant and contemporary, even timeless. To comment on the merits of the movie may not be correct as I haven’t seen it yet but what surprises me is how media is shaping us. Gandhi was there, his values have been known and yet it didn’t matter much hitherto. But the power of Bollywood is something else. It has been generating mass hysteria of late.


The message may be good or bad but I guess each one of us have a right to decide for ourselves. Or do we? Aren’t we influenced with the way information is provided to us? The right to free opinion also embodies within itself the right to free thought. But are my thoughts free really?

After watching show after show on Gandhigiri it is not out of free choice that I sit down to put my thoughts together about it. It is a compulsion to say something. I haven’t seen the movie and I had respected Gandhiji’s ideology irrespective of Munna bhai. And I am not against the use of bollywood for the same, just awestruck.

On Bapu’s bday I wonder what to say – salaam babu or salaam bollywood?

Mush Hush Bush Hush

Bush Mush together make a pretty picture. Now Mr Mush is turning into a best selling author. Depsite their differences one thing that is common betweeen the two of them is that both have been turned into caricatures by media. And Mr Mush or Bush never go hush hush . They are in media over everything. Peace process , terrorism and Kashmir(aka Cashmere as per the US press).

But what I really admire about Mush-Bush is there PR abilties. Especially on any kind of international events that happen. They are not just there. They are there in all their glory saying the right thing at the right time with the right coverage.I guess its a great lesson for any PR student.

Mr Presidents dont need much effort for a PR exercise. But the media attention does go overboard. I guess thats true for everything in this age of 300+ channels sceanrio. So channel after channel repeating the same thing till you get sick of it.

So since media will not stop , i can only say Mush hush and Bush hush

Media and Justice

Media Pressure forces judiciary to relook at its own course of action. Does it really? Much is already being said about it. I am not sure if I have something different to say. Some call it a great move towards unearthing truth , others call it the awakening.

What if media wasnt there? Jessica Lal's murderer would be scot free as he is despite all the hullaboo except that there is a parallel trial by media. Many a sting operations would be gone and many an expose wouldnt happen.Does this say something about the media or about the judicial system?

Guess its says a lot about both. Clearly our judicial system is primitive in more ways than one.Justice is perpetually delayed under the system. Some provisions in law that were borrowed from other countries and have been declared redundant in the country of origin still continue to exist in our country. Such aberrations are not a just aberration but they are turning out to be the order of the day and that’s what is making the legal system not just futile but almost rotten. Legal system is only looked as the last resort in most cases by each one of us. So the sanctity of judiciary is being challenged and more and more issues are coming in the public domain.

Public domain today is defined by media. Media has become the epicenter of every social event whatsoever. So whether it’s the riots or award ceremony or protest against capital punishment, it gains sanctity only after it is covered by media. Media in turn looks for stories – stories that intrigue, excite, and scare – stories that result in an emotional outburst in whatever way, whichever way. So Rakhi Sawant gains prominence over Medha Patkar, after all Rakhi is also fighting for justice against the evils of male dominance and Amitabh Bachchan over Amartya Sen. That’s the flaw in media. I am not trying to judge the editorial sanctity of media. Many a story are covered for the right reasons too but indeed what is it, but a story.

After all SMS campaigns, protest marches and cover stories are only about the high profile cases. Does that change anything in the system per se; I am not sure. So to marry media with judiciary is not really the solution. Media may glorify it, calling it the awakening, marrying the shots of reel and real world together but its more than that. I guess the Constitution needs to go through its nth amendment to make the necessary changes to the judicial system and more so to declare that Judiciary will operate independent of the Legislature, Executive and the Media.

Couch Potato - Internet vs Television

I am caught again. This time its not the telly that I was so addicted to as a teen. With time I have grown out of it. Suprisingly from one trap to another - its the internet now. Well whom can I blame but myself. So I realize that am spending an increasing amount of my time on the net. Clearly there are similarities and differences between the two. But the bottomline is neither is "really" exciting.

Like dope this gives me a high. I look at the screen endlessly , surfing from one end to the other and yet getting nowhere. Television was fantasy and I viewed it to escape it all , internet is worse - its fantasy involving me. So am a part of it all and yet apart from it all. Escapism turning virtual, sometimes funny , sometimes scary and occasionally real. Like dope it also gives me a hangover and leaves me with a craving ,wanting for more.I am turning into a net-o-holic.

Interactivity , involvement and blah blah...The jargon that talks of new media and its merits is taking it all to a newer level. It is the creation of a virtual world. So as I wake up I put the radio on, On till I get to office. Then am looking at the PC all day long; get back home radio still on and finally fall asleep looking at the TV screen or surfing the net. And yes there is also a dash of reading that I do alongside all this.Real world , real friends , real people - do they exist, I wonder sometimes.Media is becoming the way of communicating even with people living under the same roof. After all my blog does give a better insight into me then my talks. I dont know how many of you feel the same . Somehow this bridging the distance is also creating greater distances.

Multifaceted multitasking youth doing multiple things - did I hear a whisper about power of concentration - I guess that's passe.

TV or internet doesn't matter much. But the bottomline sadly is am still a couch potato somewhere craving for the real.

Mediated Vs Ordinary

Have you ever looked inside a crystal ball and seen a world within a world? There is a world within world everywhere today or so it seems.There are boundaries being drawn , distinctins being made and exclusivity being gained as we move towards a more "equitable" world .But are we really, is the question.

I have recently read Dr Nick Couldry's "Media Rituals". The book focuses on the role of media as it becomes the epicentre of society and also talks about clear distinctiveness between people , places and things in the mediated world vs non mediated/ordinary world.

Recently, I was watching two movies and it struck me hard. It struck me hard that what Nick was talking about is pretty evident in real. Just a case in point - two movies one from Bollywood and other one from Hollywood using media as an essential element in the storyline.

Rang de Basanti : Cut to climax. What do the rebels do to be heard? They go to the radio station and get on the mic - reach out to millions of people and the end almost positively implies the beginning of a revolution. The beginning of the revolution is mediated. If we delve a little deeper there are other things too that clearly bring about how important and pivotal media is in this movie.

# Su - the female protagonist is a documentary film maker.
# The Bhagat Singh episode also clearly indicates how media ( newspapers ) almost a century ago, would help revolutionaries create the bang if they did something big at a place of important known people.
# There is also the RJ friend who comes in handy at the end of the movie.
# Television is the source of information (Madhavan's death) and later of the social take on the whole episode ( discussions on ndtv so on and forth )

Thats the media perspective on RDB.



Notting Hill: This movie is based on the premise of the difference between the mediated world and non mediated world. The entire movie revolves around it and media is the source of conflict in the movie. Well never before did I see the movie in that light. But some sequences that are hilarious and also bring out the difference starkly include:
# Hugh Grants sisters bday dinner
# The Horses and Hounds episode
# Climax - the proposal at the press conference.



Two of my favorite movies clearly talking of the difference in media and ordinary world and yet doing it so naturally that it may not strike many people.

The objective of saying all this is to understand that media's preojection of world is being taken as real , that media is increasingly becoming the center for determining the importance of any/every thing around us. But who is to ensure that media's projection of the world is real or not? The only way of ensuring the same is to make sure that media gets democratised.

Think about it!
Salaam Namaste

Suspended "Reality"

The Great Indian Melodrama both on TV and Cinema is a way of life for most of us. But there were some remarks by M.Night Shyamalan that made me think. Speaking of Indian Cinema and how it has influenced Shyamalan's work he talked of the theme of Suspended Reality.

Suspended Reality implies that when we agree to be entertained by the soaps and cinema there are certain presumptions that we implicitly decide to agree to. So its ok for the actors to run in the woods around trees singing , the emotional breakdown of mothers , the big entry of the hero (male protagonist) and more than perfect looking damsels in distress , the heroines (female protagonist) - its all acceptable and nothing really disturbs us. In fact the biggest grossers on box office have been really high on these elements of fiction. After all its just a movie, a story , a piece of fiction. Its not suppose to be real. We all as viewers enter this realm of suspended reality. Soap operas are no less. The long shots and zoom in ,zoom out, just to create impact is more common in K-serials than in thrillers. The film song and dance sequences are also finding time in the popular 30- minute slot of soap operas.So there is a clear line of demarcation between real and unreal in cinema and TV soaps.

But what with the reality shows.Is there a similar line that can be drawn between real and unreal in these shows as well. The "Idols" of the world aren't real but they aren't unreal either. So how does one understand and interpret this realm of entertainment? How real is the reality TV scenario and how far do we suspend it from reality, if at all, is the challenge we all face?