London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony -Top 5 Dislikes

Having grown up as a son of an avid & committed sportsperson  catching live action sports had become part of my TV viewing. Events like Olympics, WC Football were quadrennial events and hence even more special.

Back from work at the usual time, I planned to finish the regular tasks and settle down to catch the event assuming the same will start at 11 pm only to realise a little later that its going to start only by 1am!!! Closer to time when the channels started beaming live images I was a bit upset that it was all dark and gloomy, raining and there were chances of the start getting delayed. But luckily it started in a few minutes. 

Have always associated opening ceremonies with great perfectly co-ordinated stellar performances, never seen before stunts, fireworks & of course the contingents walking in to join the fervor.

So I settled down wondering like almost the whole world what my first impression of London 2012 is going to be, especially after a mega-successful Beijing 2008.

A few minutes into the start I realised that while celebrity Hollywood director 

Danny Boyle had gone about recreating British history with some really breathtaking sets there were a few things which upset me a lot. Let me list them in the descending order:

5. The Danny Boyle Show

    The event was all over the place on TV thanks to some really poor sequencing, 

    editing and packaging work. Add to that the camera work & audio! While they 

    were creating some interesting imagery out there most of  them were lost thanks to 

    some poor camera work. Also the usual 'performance in sync' was completely missing.

 4. Engaging the TV audience 

    Coupled with the above, the engagement quotient was completely missing. With 

    the audio being bad, I was surprised that the visual medium was never used , 

    again the way they use in cricket. We all very well know how when a new match 

    commences, right from team composition to win loss record, to player stats, past 

    performances etc are well captured and showcased. Even in events like grand slam 

    tennis and F1 you see good use of this medium. But the same was completely 

    missing. I was so eager to know participating countries' geographic location, history, 

    past performance, team size, disciplines being participated in, flag bearer's claim to 

    fame etc and am sure am not alone!

3. Intrusive and irritating Advertising

    Well advertising being intrusive is not new, neither is irritating. But when both play in   
    tandem its bad scene. Given the event was a non stop 3 hour event and with the 
    channels having almost no clue of the sequence of events the breaks were random and  
    unannounced. Fine you need to make money but then you could have packaged it better 
    - and this is ESPN not Doordarshan!

    Add to that the fact that there were 4-5 advertisers so you end up watching the  same 
    ad every 5-7 minutes which was seriously irritating. I seriously believed advertising in 
    this case should have been best left to on screen banners etc. Again goes to show how 
    even media treats a non-cricketing event in India!

2. Representing India

    When every team was entering the stadium, they were cheered on by scores of 

    supporters from their country and also their premiers - PMs / Presidents / Royal 

    Families. I was eagerly waiting for India's turn. On one side I was dreading the great 

    Suresh Kalmadi showing up and on the other side I was hopeful of seeing our Rasta-

    potty Pranab da. Would have been a perfect stage for him to 'arrive' in the world 

    stage. And when the Indian team did walk in and the camera's panned towards a turban 

    clad sardar, no it was not Manmohan Singh, it was this guy who is from Indian Olympic 

    Association (who I checked on Google to get his name - Raja Randhir Singh) who gets to 

    take his wife along as well. Are you kidding me? For minnows like Bangladesh which 

    had what about 10 members, their premier Sheikh Hasina was there to cheer them on!

1. Indian Contingent Costume

    This has to take the cake by a mile! I have almost always wondered who decides     

    these things? While we boast of endless list of breakthrough, celebrity and legendary 

    designers who have an amazing body of work, when it comes to draping the Indian 

    sports teams for events like this, we miss the bus completely. Yesterday was outright 

    shoddy, the worst I have ever seen! Looked as if people completely forgot about it and 

    ended picking stuff on rent or something? The way the 'pagdis' (traditional north Indian 

    headgear) were made and the way they were worn...oh come on...And then the colour 

    Yellow!!! Are we Jamaica? Or else Brazil? Sweden???Can someone tell me where does it

   feature on either the Indian flag? Well yellow and India is not new...but a country where

    the cricket team's costume is so well taken care of, can't a wee bit of attention be 

    given to costume for the contingent representing world's second most populated nation 

    in arguably world's biggest sporting spectacle? And ya, who was that lady in red??? The 

    whole thing was nothing but a big joke!

Well all was not lost...

Coming up... My Top 5 Likes!

20 years and counting

It was the summer of '92-'93...at Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 1 Air Force Station Kalaikunda, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. 

Last day of the batch. Think it was the Biology exam!

Back from a long vacation a bunch of students joined XI Std Science. Giving them a foothold in a field they always wanted to be in. Stakes were high, so were the ambitions. Some wanted to pass the sound barriers in their MIGs & MIRAGEs, some others took a nosedive into the world of Physics & Chemistry hoping to make it to the elite league. And there were some others like me 'Live life as it comes...' 

This was the bunch which along with everything else enjoyed life and whatever it had to offer, to the fullest. Woh bhi kya din the!!! Soon everybody left in pursuit of their ambitions, their dreams, their aspirations... Days became months and soon years. 

Most of us being from defense background hand moved multiple schools & cities before Kalaikunda. And sadly at the end of that year it was my turn. Much against my wish I had to move...to a new city, a new school, a new bunch of classmates. 

Inland letters from a few close friends kept the connections going. I still cherish almost all of them. Soon it was the time of internet & e mails followed by facebook & chat. With the advent of mobile phones it should have become so convenient? Not really! Life took is in all different directions. Still pretty much chasing their own ambitions!

Inspite of all this I did keep track of a few friends of mine. Met Shalini first in Pune & then in Hyderabad, Nitin, Harvinder & Tushar in Bangalore. Soon thanks to DD got back in touch with Anu, Showmic & a few others. Thanks to facebook a few other busy souls do drop in an ocassional one liner!

Harvinder and couple of other friends did try to have a reunion meeting which thanks to distances and varied locations is yet to become a reality. It was a good decade back when yahoo was in vogue, I tried bringing the group together with a yahoo group titled kkdclan (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kkdclan/?tab=s) only to fizzle out shortly.

I think it was a couple of weeks back when I suddenly realized that's its been 20 years...yes 2 decades since we all came together. From 50th birthday and 50 weeks of successful outing for movies to today's times where every year and everyday is celebrated 20 years is a really really long time! And the best part is some 8-10 of us are in good touch. As a part of celebrating this moment I was planning to create some memorabilia and put the word out. Response was muted & not encouraging. Expected that!

Moving on I thought the least I could do is capture the journey in my own way and celebrate it in my own way....

Happy 20 guys!!!! Happy to be in touch with a few of you. Happy to have known each & everyone of you.

Cheers!

Changing tracks!

It all started over a cup of coffee….soon more coffees and meetings followed. One who bailed out an airline not sure if he wanted to get back to the corporate world, while the other was still finding his steps in the world of 9 to 5! These meetings started with the former throwing ideas at the latter for opinions. Little did he know that the former was pitching for the later to join hands…
Days turned into weeks and weeks to months…Thanks to those coffee sessions, the two became privileged customers of couple of coffee houses in the city! Many many such sessions went by before ‘later’ started showing interest. And soon the day arrived! The day ‘later’ calls his calling, while the ‘former’ his perseverance paid. And as they say things started falling into place…Today as they both look back it amuses them…a lot!



founder & co-founder



What is this story all about?
Its about a corporate connection, which became friendship and now is on the way to becoming a successful partnership leading to the formation of ways2engage – India’s first of its kind brand & consumer engagement agency.
The journey has just begun. Come join us as to share and discover whats happening in the world of ways2engage!

Arrival of a bundle of joy!!!

Well for starters its been a while since I even logged onto my blog...If you are wondering what was the reason, let me tell you...there was action on both professional & personal fronts. Got promoted at both ends! While on the professional front I moved on from Idea Cellular to join AirAsia as Country Marketing Manager for India & Sri Lanka, the most amazing thing which happened over the last 3 months or so was on the personal front.

We (Reema & myself) became proud parents of a baby boy on 09.10.11!!! Its been hardly couple of weeks and its still sinking in. Friends and family all over have just two things to say- Congratulations & 'Welcome to parenthood & long nights'...Its already happening. While parenthood is a reason for celebration for everybody around the world, its even more special for us because we both have gone through a lot- both on the personal and professional front...living through the dream all these days!

And finally the D day arrived. Thanks to modern science we were able to select a date. While it was auspicious keeping our parents' wishes in mind, we stumbled upon a date which would be 'cool' to write / speak about! Well you are right- our baggage of being in advertising / marketing has a lot to do with it. Finally at 07:30 hrs or so Reema did come out of the operation theatre (you won't believe how many Hollywood / Bollywood moments have played out in my dreams over the last year or so waiting for this day) with a huge ear to ear smile proclaiming "It's a boy." This brought an extra wide smile on appa & amma's faces too given after a grand daughter (my brother had a baby girl in Jan this year) they were praying for one! Soon all three of us, appa, amma and myself pulled our mobile phones to make calls to close friends and releatives to share the good news.

Meeting my Son!

ALmost 3 hours after the delivery the doors of the operation theatre opened to anxiously waiting parents, grand parents & other relatives. The doctor came out with a baby proclaiming 'Carnic - Reema' to which I walked up with a broad smile as if I was getting on the podium of F1 championship! And there he was...cute, fair, tiny, soft, innocent and ofcourse wondering about the 'new' world around him! A few moments later we handed him back to the caring hospital staff and went back to Reema's room all smiles

Announcing to the world!

While on the family front almost all our close relatives knew, we really hadn't told any of our friends...call it superstition, call it anxiousness or call it a surprise! While calling them all had an expression of surprise and glee. SMSes followed the calls. And a couple of days later I posted the news followed by photographs. More wishes arrived!

What do we name him??

We both did the customary search on google.com and also asked our parents and a few relatives to do the search. The brief was simple...the name has to be unheard of in the real world and in the online space...A few options did come which were unique. But then given our background and cultures we had to put the added filter of ' the name should be understood by both families'...We did finalise a few names and put up for voting (yeah crazy right). Wondering what his name is? Well we have narrowed down but not finalized yet!!! Will let you all know soon...

Over the last 12 days life has settled down around taking care of 'him'.... After all he is the bundle of joy we have been eagerly waiting for!!!

Random Acts of Kindness

I have grown up having two dreams which I distinctly remember. One to have an aircraft of mine in which I will take the entire family on appa & amma's side together (then the count was 51) on a world tour and the next one was (and somewhere is) to make enough money to be able to help alleviate poverty.


Well as they say some dreams become reality while others remain dreams...Am I working towards realising the above said dreams? To be honest I don't think so...coz since the time I had these dreams my life has changed a lot...for starters grew up finished my education and joined the rat race. Once I got in today 12 years later I feel like the nothing has changed...yeah I'm on paper doing much better...married, decent salary and profile etc etc but then inflation, cost of living and expectations have ensured to balance it completely!


Going back to my 'original' dreams...especially the second one. Though I want to alleviate poverty I have never been for giving alms for beggars unless they are really really old people...though well aware that sometimes even with them the money may reach somebody else. I am not attached to any of the NGOs or the CSR initiatives coz I think they are more for PR etc. I once did some donations to Greenpeace but then I realised that's not enough. So I just stopped.



I'm a very emotional person! Sometimes looking at the state of affairs around me brings tears in my eyes. And this is what exactly happened yesterday. I had just finished a working lunch and was stepping out of the restaurant when I saw a very old man probably in his early 70s crouching under a lamp post in scorching heat trying to sell some mangoes. I dunno why but rather immediately my eyes swelled! For a second I thought of buying him lunch. But then I thought it may still not help him. Walking upto him I asked about the price with the initial idea of buying a few. His eyes swell up and he was not even able to speak properly. He requested me to but a couple of kilos which would cost Rs.100. Speaking to myself for a second I said 'Carnic...here is one of those little chances for you to alleviate an old needy man of his misery...of selling mangoes in the searing heat'. Convinced about the action I immediately asked him and bought the whole basket of mangoes. While I have heard enough cases of these being acts to con you, I was convinced that it would not be the case with what I was doing.

I was happy...really really happy as I carried a whole lot of mangoes in a couple of bags back to my workplace. I also knew my wife would be surprised but happy at my act.

What do you call it? Random act of kindness? I don't know...rather don't care about what you would call it and what people would think about it. What mattered to me was that I was able to bring a smile on somebody's face through my gesture which in turn made me happy.

As of my dreams...well am working on them!!!!