Confessions of a confused mind...

Arranged Marriage

I am 27 years now… have a great job... not a worry in the world and so people think the natural thing for me to do is to get married. No one asked me for my opinion….. I guess it’s a foregone conclusion. You brush your teeth when you wake up in the morning… in much the same way you get married when the “time” is right. But unfortunately you don’t really have the right to decide when the time is right for you.

“One does need to crib really”-I found myself speaking to my inner soul. At least give it a shot… things can’t be so bad. Being a deadly combo of an electrical engineer with MBA marketing, I set out to analyze the situation at hand.

First Things first…

The Product: that’s me of course in case you didn’t figure it out by now. It’s a bit sad to call oneself a product but then I don’t want to argue with the laws of marketing that have been drilled into my head. I must of course define this product. This is the most important stage in the entire marketing exercise. A bad product has no takers… luckily I am not one. But I also haven’t figured out myself as yet… so let’s skip this step for now.

Now comes the best part- The STP of marketing… for the uninitiated that’s Segmenting, Targeting and Positioning. Now the details of each of these:

Segmenting: This in layman’s language simply means who will want this product. In my case… the question changes to who would like to marry me… I really don’t know the answer to this one… coz I haven’t been married before J… so let’s give this step a miss also.
Targeting: Simply put it means who do I approach… girls of course-and single and unattached ones I guess. Nope I don’t have anything more to say-move on to step 3.
Positioning: My Marketing professor beautifully broke this concept into 4 very simple questions that any idiot would understand and thankfully I was one of them. They go something like this:
Who Am I?
For Whom Am I?
Why am I required?
How Am I better than other?

This step is closely related to defining the product itself... Something that I haven’t done till now… so I skip this step also.


So we have come to the end…. I have enlisted all of the questions and none of the answers. So please wait for all those of you who want to… I have a lot of questions whose answers I still haven’t found.

This Morning!

My senses noticed the pleasant change immediately. As I woke up this morning, I realized that winter was well on its way out and spring was knocking on the door like a long-lost relative anxious to meet his near and dear ones. I am usually not a morning person and it’s not before I have had umpteen cups of coffee that I can hold a sensible conversation with anyone. But today it was different… I was awake and happy…. I got ready listening to “The Eagles” and couldn’t agree more as the song tequila sunrise popped up on my I-pod.

My good cheer kept up with me all the way through the bus-ride to office as I found myself smiling at absolute strangers. The funny part… most of them smiled back with equal enthusiasm. “This is definitely infectious”-I though to myself. Then it was all lost-in almost no time. I entered my cubicle and realized that life would be the same-spring, summer or rain would have no effect on my life here.

It seemed that my good cheer had gone through its complete life-cycle except that it had peaked too fast and abandoned me even faster. Depressed I sat at my chair. Then suddenly I got a call from a dear friend. And then another one asked me if I wanted to have some coffee.

Like I said before….I am not a morning person but coffee and an unexpected call from some one I wanted to talk to usually make my day.

Big Boss

It’s not yet a phenomenon though it’s certainly a rage. At 10 pm weekdays, the entire mass of TV watching population seems to zero in on their favorite for the season. The title song somehow betrays an air of amateurism about the entire show. But I think we need to give the organizers of the show a little more credit…. after all we are talking about India’s first super successful reality show-Big Boss. We have had our share of game-shows and talent shows before but the Indian audience has never quite seen something like this before.

When they first aired the promos for this show, I thought of that wonderful literary creation of George Orwell-1984 and obviously the term “big brother” sprung to my mind. 13 people in one house, actually 13 celebrities (ok minor or forgotten ones atleast) al the mercy of the invisible yet omnipresent Big Boss. Each week, one person is voted out by the audience and the winner gets a huge cash prize. The concept is certainly not unique being the country cousin of the famous show which is making news for all the wrong reason- it’s certainly new to the Indian audience.

My first question “Why would anyone want to watch it?” or let me rephrase it after the huge response the show is getting “Why are people watching it?” There is no one reason or even a single theory that can bind the together the psychology of the TV watching population. Yet I hazard a few answers.

We are sick of the weepy Saas-Bahu serials. We want something new. TV should not be a carbon copy of our life. We watch TV to escape our boring lives.
This is a unique concept hitherto unknown. Never has TV, billed as the least interactive of all media become so interactive. You decide what you want to see or atleast in theory it works that way. Majority wins. TRPs zoom.... Organizers, sponsors and the TV and people see what they want to see… Proactive TV at its best.
Theoretically every second of a person’s life on air. What could be more exciting?
Celebrities revealing their true color on prime-time TV.
The voting system adds to the excitement…. Many talent shows are hosted on TV wherein you can vote for the person you want to support. Contrast this with Big Boss-you vote out the person you dislike. Some insight into the human mind-you are more likely to vote against the person you dislike than vote for the person you like.

I could be wrong on some or all or my theories but what’s important is that it seems like Big Boss has got it just right.

Wishing you all Happy TV watching in 2007 and may the best (oops the least disliked) man/woman win.

Welcome 2007

A very happy New Year to those who stumble across this page! I wish you all a wonderful Bond year full of happiness and success.

I am back to work now. The extended vacation that began with the Thailand trip and ended with a bang around the New Year is now well and truly over and I am back to the mundane task of earning a living. Before I start whining about how boring life is going to get with all the deadlines I will need to meet, let me not forget a few people who made year 2006 a really memorable one for me:

Uttara, Mom and Dad- for being there always especially during the tough times
Omkar-for being the nicest nephew
Ashwin, Haymes - for being great room-mates and more importantly excellent friends
Adi-who introduced me to the world of blogging
Khamkar-for always encouraging me whenever the chips were down and for helping me believe in myself.
Atul-for being the same person even after leaving college
Ajay, Body and Chabbu- for the crazy weekend parties
Meeta-for being the best friend one could ask for and a constant pillar of support (don’t need to write more coz she knows what I mean)

Special thanks for Deepti and PK who arranged a wonderful New Year bash and all those wonderful people who could make it.

Anu-i havent forgotten u! need a separate blog for u :)