Building Blocks

What I feel earnestly about and will be found acting on

- The environment and ecology

- Socio-economic theories, the existing conditions around us and their impact

- Music and Movies (I'm not sure if I can be an effective creator here)

- Information freedom and decentralization of media

- Disruptive models in information 'ownership' and dispersion

- New models of power production, management and distribution

- Sustainable living

- Writing (Fiction and non-fiction, poetry, scripts etc)

- History

- Travel

- Books (reading, collecting and gifting)

- Philosophies

I hope to rebuild using these blocks. 

 

 

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That's Settled Then

. You don't feeling like talking to me nowadays, do you?

- No

. Y U NO FEEL LIKE TALKING TO ME??

- because of that

. Ok

[silence for a w     h     i     l     e]

- Will you stop asking me that question again and again

. Yes, but I feel insignificant, I feel the need to know why you stopped

- Insignificant? You are a dot

. There is more to me

- Then let everyone see that more instead of you venting your angst

 

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Jousting With Inertia

Something should gnaw at this ugly, rigid edifice and break it down with a big, nasty crash and when the dust settles you will see the pasture from where ideas and stories and other such forgotten things will sprout. They could be blue, square, irreverent, incorrect, baroque, transformative, factual. They will all be tedious in parts, especially the middle. The end, however, shall always be a rousing triumph, inspiring even. They will be 'tweeted', 'liked', shared and 'plussed', at least once, but they must not be 'tweets', 'likes', 'shares' and 'pluses'. Brevity is great when time is running out (or when you run out of analogies) but not here.

Inspite of all it machinations, 'The It' spews out character limited ideas and thoughts. The something that must gnaw at it has been summoned. If you listen carefully you can hear the sound of a chisel tapping away, or maybe they are just muffled keystrokes from a rather rigid keyboard; either way the end of inertia is near. A pity that it can't save itself by running away.

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Outsourced To Bob Dylan

When someone else can say it better, I cede ground.

Ladies and Gentlemen, here's Bob Dylan

"If You See Her, Say Hello

If you see her, say hello, she might be in Tangier
She left here last early Spring, is livin' there, I hear
Say for me that I’m all right though things get kind of slow
She might think that I’ve forgotten her, don’t tell her it isn’t so....."

 

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Dot and Dash - Try Me

- She tried it, she didn't like it so she discarded it. Fair?

. Of course

- Can I do the same to you?

. Of course

- Woah, are you attempting to flex some muscles there?

. Go ahead, try me. I dare you, I double dare you

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O Soma, Where Art Thou?

I like going off to sleep nowadays, it's when no one can trouble me anymore, not even me. The pit in the stomach is not felt, the pangs neither. Best of all your life moves towards its end and you lie there unaware of the fires that rage around, limp for a few hours, to wake up and resume fighting again but with the knowledge that soon sleep will come visiting and all that troubles will be lost for a few moments. I wish I could sleep all through. I wish I had Soma.

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Exordium

If I could weave stories that sound as good as what I am about to tell you then I could be a racounter who could earn his keep. I do not, ergo, these are not stories. Of course, you can choose to believe otherwise. However, if you take my word, then I would like to bind you to a diktat, that when you do, you will pass on these narratives as you have heard them and not with any embellishments, additions or omissions. If you refuse to abide by that then I'd beseech you to ensure that your identity is hidden, for if you are found out the consequences of your action will scar your legacy. Some of the narratives sound too bizzare to be true, but it is their peculiar nature that should convince you that neither I nor anybody, who isn't a lore-master, could have imagined them into existence. To those who have embarked on this journey with the belief that these are just tales and nothing more, all I would say is that I sincerely hope that from now on you would live in interesting times. 

This is exactly how it happened...

 

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Why You Should Like It

While exhorting people to 'Like' the India Against Corruption page on Facebook I'm aware that merely 'liking' or 'following' a digital presence does not make a big difference. The hope that I hold out is that it could be the start of a bigger change, one that makes each person even more mindful about herself and the world that she creates. When I 'like' a page or perform any such synonymous action I allow for a deluge of data and opinion to be pushed my way; for eg. last night the IAC guys put up a very interesting document online, via Facebook, one on the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. Getting access to material of such a nature will allow us to go beyond spouting rhetoric and jargon. This direct channel is the reason why many people have actually read the Lok Pal bill, as proposed by GOI and the one put forth by IAC. Few may have undertsood the legalese but the 'page' on Facebook and the Twitter account gave them a forum to ask their questions. Social media is an effective tool to generate many layers of conversation and dialogue, which is what we need to start with today.  

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Why You Should 'Like' It

While exhorting people to 'Like' the India Against Corruption page on Facebook I'm aware that merely 'liking' or 'following' a digital presence does not make a big difference. The hope that I hold out is that it could be the start of a bigger change, one that makes each person even more mindful about herself and the world that she creates. When I 'like' a page or perform any such synonymous action I allow for a deluge of data and opinion to be pushed my way; for eg. last night the IAC guys put up a very interesting document online, via Facebook, one on the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. Getting access to material of such a nature will allow us to go beyond spouting rhetoric and jargon. This direct channel is the reason why many people have actually read the Lok Pal bill, as proposed by GOI and the one put forth by IAC. Few may have undertsood the legalese but the 'page' on Facebook and the Twitter account gave them a forum to ask their questions. Social media is an effective tool to generate many layers of conversation and dialogue, which is what we need to start with today.

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To Hell With The Hygiene

Some months ago I had written a rather impassioned piece on why Digital Advertising in India was in a rather sorry state. It was as much an observation as it was start of a philosophy for me. Don't accuse me of 'intellectualizing' as yet, you'll have your chance to do that later.

The notion that digital/online/internet advertising can be considered an adjunct, or even a parallel to traditional forms of advertising has been dealt with, and put to rest, quite effectively by a host of far more qualified and informed professionals than me, so, I shall steer clear of that. What I have here is a simple suggestion. Digital advertising allows brands and people to communicate with each other, in three out of the four possible permutations, unless you call the Mac vs PC ads a from of brand-to-brand communication, but it doesn't stop there. This medium also allows you to track and analyse this chatter. So, here's my question. Shouldn't communication agencies create more interesting ways to facilitate, grow and listen to this conversation for the brands they represent, this rather than hopping on to Facebook and Twitter as a quick fix every single time?

Maybe they could do that by creating new platforms or by undertaking activities that will make sure that the consumer/audience/user talks. This maybe the time, in the Indian context, more so, to embrace the complexities that come with creating new platforms or communication models. Maybe they ought to think like a startup garage where small micro-apps, that allow for the talk to go on, are created. As I had said earlier, brands, in India, have a sandbox of less than a 100 million users to engage as of now, now is the time to experiment with ideas rather than follow a set standard.  

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