I think I know it
And then it gives the classic slip
My mind is a flurry of reasons, a jamboree
Churning out image after image
There I lie, crucified on the cross of reason
That is me behind the clouds, like the sun after - spreading light and wisdom
I dive into the ocean and bring back pearls
Yet I laugh like a hyena lurking in shadowy depths even Satan would not cross
I don’t look back
Whatever else I do
I do look back at times
And resolve it shall never be the same
When the dust has settled
When the battle is over
When the soldiers are dead, or gone home
When the medals have been pinned and the songs have been sung
That is when I pick up my sword and examine it close
I wipe out the blood, remove the tassels
It either shines like the North Star or
Crumbles in my hand like shattered glass
Monday, September 29, 2008
The Eternal Divide
This stint, has been such a refreshing change from Sales, I can’t stop marveling. I am in Mumbai and therein lies the biggest difference. I actually have a life. I meet people over weekends and engage in other pleasurable activities. Who would have thought?
Another whopper is the way people at office are.
A little bit of background first - I am working with the global team for Rin - Radiant to be precise, as it is called the world over. The first few days entailed going over material to understand the laundry habits of consumers in India and Thailand. I am now in a position to state, to the second decimal, ki junta apne kapdon ki dhulai hafte mein kitnein baar karti hai.
Moreover, my office is in Andheri and I live in Andheri. I must be the first human in the history of this great city to take less than 1.05 hours to reach work everyday.
So cut to the present. People at office - they are the complete anti-thesis of your threat-toting-invective-spitting Sales guy. They are chilled-out. They need to be. It’s a thinker’s game. Not much time to think in Sales. You can’t be creating great propositions when your team has to do 15 crores in 7 days, with a couple of bandhs coming up, a Big Bazaar Maha-bachat sale happening, topped with some random Mela - selling jaali Sunsilk and Fair n Lovely, that too - Ek lo toh Ek free. To add to that - the product that contributes 20 percent to your turnover has escalated steeply in price and the brand that literally pays your salary, by virtue of having the highest gross margins has lost its earlier consumer-acceptance. Aag lagi rehti hai bhai Sales mein.
I know I am getting abstruse.
So anyway - these Brand guys - they are the ones responsible for developing the brand. They sit and have serious discussions about whether the next communication should have a sasur-bahu angle or a bachha-and-his-dog angle and the psychological impact of each on the average consumer. They talk about fragrances and mixes and consumer blind tests, they talk about launches in Pakistan, Bangladesh and South Africa and telecons with people from five countries joining in; but at the end of the day, they keep their sanity.
Case-in-point -
Sales - He-who-must-not-be-named told me - You must work on weekends. And there is no need for sleep beyond 6 hours for a trainee.
Brands - A guy, of a similar designation as the aforementioned HWMNBN, exclaimed - Work on weekends? No way. Enjoy, party, get sloshed and if you want to know the names of some good places, just give me a ring.
They don’t want to grill us. They don’t want to kill us. It feels strange.
Another whopper is the way people at office are.
A little bit of background first - I am working with the global team for Rin - Radiant to be precise, as it is called the world over. The first few days entailed going over material to understand the laundry habits of consumers in India and Thailand. I am now in a position to state, to the second decimal, ki junta apne kapdon ki dhulai hafte mein kitnein baar karti hai.
Moreover, my office is in Andheri and I live in Andheri. I must be the first human in the history of this great city to take less than 1.05 hours to reach work everyday.
So cut to the present. People at office - they are the complete anti-thesis of your threat-toting-invective-spitting Sales guy. They are chilled-out. They need to be. It’s a thinker’s game. Not much time to think in Sales. You can’t be creating great propositions when your team has to do 15 crores in 7 days, with a couple of bandhs coming up, a Big Bazaar Maha-bachat sale happening, topped with some random Mela - selling jaali Sunsilk and Fair n Lovely, that too - Ek lo toh Ek free. To add to that - the product that contributes 20 percent to your turnover has escalated steeply in price and the brand that literally pays your salary, by virtue of having the highest gross margins has lost its earlier consumer-acceptance. Aag lagi rehti hai bhai Sales mein.
I know I am getting abstruse.
So anyway - these Brand guys - they are the ones responsible for developing the brand. They sit and have serious discussions about whether the next communication should have a sasur-bahu angle or a bachha-and-his-dog angle and the psychological impact of each on the average consumer. They talk about fragrances and mixes and consumer blind tests, they talk about launches in Pakistan, Bangladesh and South Africa and telecons with people from five countries joining in; but at the end of the day, they keep their sanity.
Case-in-point -
Sales - He-who-must-not-be-named told me - You must work on weekends. And there is no need for sleep beyond 6 hours for a trainee.
Brands - A guy, of a similar designation as the aforementioned HWMNBN, exclaimed - Work on weekends? No way. Enjoy, party, get sloshed and if you want to know the names of some good places, just give me a ring.
They don’t want to grill us. They don’t want to kill us. It feels strange.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Wild Wild West
The details are getting a bit hazy now. It is going to be a year soon. I am talking about my travelogue. So let me resume my Exchange Escapades, lest they become a distant memory which I am able to recall no more, except with the blurry wistfulness with which one remembers the best times of one’s life.
Yes, I do remember them like that. I also remember them as being trying and taxing; one of the most life-changing phases in my life. But like I had said once - more on my personal life in my autobiography.
So here we were. Back in Brest after our first trip to Austria, Southern Germany and Slovakia. We had made some friends and went out partying with them. At least I did. With these two Indian women - the Ruchis - for what can be described as a ‘girls’ night out’ in Yankee parlance. We went pubbing and I decided to throw caution to the winds. When was I going to get the chance to get absolutely mind-blowingly-deliciously-debauched, in a place where no one recognized me?
A disc in forenland is a place to hook up. I had a ball, dancing like a lunatic on jail-break.
It was crazy, wild. More than alcohol, it was the thought that I could do whatever I wished that intoxicated me. Although I realized during the course of the night that social conditioning is stronger than one assumes it to be. I could not cross the line. I realized I didn’t want to.
Towards the end, I got strangely depressed. None of those people I had danced with, or spoken to would remember me beyond the stupor of their hangovers. I would not remember them either. Where were the people who really mattered?
Lately I have realized that your adolescent notion of invincibility is actually something else. It is part-fear-part-denial. One grows up.
Hey - do you believe in rock ‘n roll,
Tell me, can it save your mortal soul,
..And can you teach me how to dance real slow?
Yes, I do remember them like that. I also remember them as being trying and taxing; one of the most life-changing phases in my life. But like I had said once - more on my personal life in my autobiography.
So here we were. Back in Brest after our first trip to Austria, Southern Germany and Slovakia. We had made some friends and went out partying with them. At least I did. With these two Indian women - the Ruchis - for what can be described as a ‘girls’ night out’ in Yankee parlance. We went pubbing and I decided to throw caution to the winds. When was I going to get the chance to get absolutely mind-blowingly-deliciously-debauched, in a place where no one recognized me?
A disc in forenland is a place to hook up. I had a ball, dancing like a lunatic on jail-break.
It was crazy, wild. More than alcohol, it was the thought that I could do whatever I wished that intoxicated me. Although I realized during the course of the night that social conditioning is stronger than one assumes it to be. I could not cross the line. I realized I didn’t want to.
Towards the end, I got strangely depressed. None of those people I had danced with, or spoken to would remember me beyond the stupor of their hangovers. I would not remember them either. Where were the people who really mattered?
Lately I have realized that your adolescent notion of invincibility is actually something else. It is part-fear-part-denial. One grows up.
Hey - do you believe in rock ‘n roll,
Tell me, can it save your mortal soul,
..And can you teach me how to dance real slow?
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