It’s the biggest festival of India. Its what binds everyone together. Its one of the few things that transcends above caste, region, gender and believe it or not, even religion. For years we have rejoiced the festival of Diwali like nothing else. But 2017 is different. The lackluster marketplaces, the missing euphoria, the reduced lighting, […]
This isn’t a normal job post, coz I don’t want to hire normal people. This isn’t another employee that I want for OMLogic. This is me hiring someone who will get to work directly with me on OMLogic Business Development, marketing, wacky projects, skunk research work; anything and everything exciting and interesting digital has to […]
Let me first put this in context. The crisis that you see most people go through every so often, the stress and the unhappiness that most people have in their life and in things around them is called mindfuck. Whether its existential crisis or issues in relationships or some other seemingly missing aspect in most […]
On this World Social Media Day, let us look at what is considered as one of the most important metrics in the current social media world. Twitter Trends. What Twitter wants it to mean – A top 10 list of most important topics being discussed or talked about on Twitter related to India and in […]
This month, I had a distinct pleasure to speak at Bareilly, “New India: Opportunities and Challenges”, an event organized by Jagran Group and Future College. I was asked to talk about Digital India and Make In India. Perhaps the 2 initiatives that have governed the development of India over the last 2 years. Key focus of both these initiatives being to make it easy to begin, sustain and grow businesses in India.
While preparing and thinking about how to put it across to a Tier2 audience which may not otherwise be that savvy or care about development at the top level, here is a simplistic picture that I came up with. Digital India is about the following:
Delhi recently put a ban on the fire-crackers. While it’s a good way to control the pollution, it is once again a demonstration of innovative thinking that governments should do. It seems like our government rates citizens at the lowest grade of importance for them (specially this ever-ignored middle class). All their decision making seems […]
Social media is about accentuating the finer points of a brand to a level that people talk about it, associate with it and use it as a reason to buy the brand. At the top level, these finer points can be classified into 3 parts: Product Experience (Functional) Brand Experience (Emotional) Marketing Spiel (Fun) What […]
Today is World Health Day and the theme is “Depression: Let’s talk!”
It seems like everyone is suffering from depression these days (even the economy, the society, the morals and the ethics). But this blog is not to discuss any of these subjects.
I want to talk about the changing nature of the world and what I think are the larger aspects of this thing called depression.
What is depression? Under most circumstances it is the unwillingness (not the inability) to do something by the right side of the brain which the left side of the brain thinks is a must do. In that sense, usually it is a disease of the riches. It comes from a pressure of expectations (not of survival, rather societal pressures of failure in a very superficial manner.)
The reasons are manifold, but I prima facie want to boil it down to the inability of people to be able to talk things out. It’s the loneliness and the feeling of having no one around in a crowded world that kicks depression in.Continue Reading
He must be the most unique personality of the post independent India. Nobody has gained as much popularity during this time, much bigger than Anna and AK, perhaps bigger than JP Narayan, perhaps as big as Indira Gandhi. He has become the symbol of non-corrupt, developing Indian, a true statesman. Even his biggest critics can’t take this away from him. The only true statesman of significance I can think of in the last 20 years. Anna may be in the list but was very short-lived & hence insignificant.
But the confounding question is: Who is he and where is he headed? To answer this question, we perhaps need to delve deeper into the human psychology and the past of Narendra Modi.
Let’s start from the beginning. Narendra Damodardas Modi is an Indian politician. He comes from a lineage of megalomaniac Indian politicians who have spent their lifetime working their way through the dirty milieu of corrupt and extremely complex Indian politics. He has trampled over bodies, he has broken, bent and misused laws and everything he could muster. He has been part of an amazing crony-capitalism that stands in India. Truth being told, you can’t reach to where he is without going through all this. It’s a part of the process. Let me take it one step further: I am sure he was part of the Godhra riots. I am sure he was one of the core participants back then. Everything that he has been blamed for before 2014, he has done.
Donald Trump’s Misdirection
“Have you ever heard of Harry Houdini? Well, he wasn’t like today’s magicians who are only interested in television ratings. He was an artist. He could make an elephant disappear in the middle of a theater filled with people, and do you know how he did that?
Misdirection.
What the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes.”
Today, I am reminded of this famous quote from the movie, Swordfish. Perhaps Travolta’s best work after Pulp Fiction.
Seems like Donald Trump got his training from Harry Houdini himself. The latest decision to quit Paris Climate Accord seems clearly like a misdirection.
The best part of it is, we all will still fall for it. Under pressure from all corners about variety of legal, illegal and unethical issues, Trump has done what any seasoned politician will do. Change the Subject!
For the last 24 hours, no one seems to care about Russia or hacking or any other issues that have clouded Trump’s presidency over the last 3 months.
What I found particularly fascinating is the role that social media plays in it. There was a time when I thought about the digital audience (the cool microbloggers on Twitter) as a discerning lot. Those who can separate the wheat from the chaff.Continue Reading