My Contemplation

Few days back, I was listening to Radio City 91.1 when the RJ asked to SMS a dream of the life that can never come true and the best one gets a prize. I started to ponder over my dreams immediately to recall one of the dreams I ever had and which by any means cannot be true. At one point of time I thought that almost every dream I had till now are eligible for that; but I had to select one of the best dream so I kept mulling over for few minutes and finally I could come up with one dream which I think best suits for the prize.

While all this happened I was on a bike riding back to my home from office. So fortunately, I didn't message my dream to Radio City and lost the opportunity to win a prize. Now you must be thinking what is so fortunate about this. Some might be even thinking that by doing so I saved money on SMS. Of course, I did save money by not sending a SMS, but I find this fortunate because I got an opportunity to bore you people by writing my new post on this, lol.....

Well, coming back to the dream, I dreamt about the India, India free from poverty, I dreamt of a day when I don't find any single person sleeping on footpath in India. By the time I reached my home, I thought this would have definitely won me a prize as this is the dream which I think can never come true. This is because rich are getting richer while poor are getting more miserable in our country. At one end where the figures of illiteracy and unemployment is getting better and better year on year due to privatization, the quality of government schools and their teacher's earning on other end is degrading day by day. The donations that private schools demand is out of rich of middle class, how can a poor father afford it for his child? The only option left for him is to admit his child to government schools.

To make poor rich, they and their children needs an employment. To get an employment, 90% of children needs education, and it should be a quality education. To get an quality education, we need government schools to improve their teaching quality. This can be done by hiring quality teachers and implementing various facilities that private schools are providing and which are necessary. Government is earning huge, part of which should faithfully be used to provide facilities in government schools. People are heedlessly donating money for some religious purpose in temples, if they can donate to government schools that might make a difference. The wage and earning of teachers should  be raised so that there can be quality teachers there to provide an quality education. The retired people can contribute in providing free coaching to the students of government schools. Once started, I am sure there can be many things that can be done to make governments schools better.

Oh God, its so very much difficult, isn't? That is why I thought this dream deserves the prize. Indeed it is going to be difficult, if we think so. Well I know, there are some people who will be claiming that even if above suggestions are implemented, nothing is gonna change. I also know there will be some better suggestions which can eventually make a difference, but nobody is going to neither suggest it nor implement it. We all will think, discuss, write a blog (just like me), laugh or sometime even mourn, curse government or society and finally get be back to our life in the same society  with a zero outcome. It will be difficult if we do so. If the youth of India feels that whatever I am saying is true and feel that we together can make difference, lets join our hands and try to make some difference. Lets take a oath, when we will be in position where we will be able to donate some money, we will first donate it for better government schools. When ever we fill we can  provide some good coaching we will provide it to the students of government schools for free. That is all I want to say from my side, if you people have some suggestions and ideas please share and we together can implement it.

The war between two FMCG giant, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and Procter & Gamble (P&G), continues and has taken a very aggressive move when HUL directly attacked P&G by promoting its best selling detergent "RIN" along with P&G's product "Tide" in same commercial ad.

We have seen many such competitive ads for different products like tooth paste, cold drink, electronic products, however none of them were direct. This ad has aggressively disparaged "Tide" as a brand to make HUL's "Rin" detergent look more prominent. There were many ads where indirect reference to competitors products were made, either by making the name of competitor's product look blurred or showing a dummy product that looks very much similar to competitors and sometimes even making some funny comments about competitor's advertisements. However this is the first time in Indian commercial advertisement segment where competitor product's name as well as the product is belittled to show the strength of own product. 

"Tide" was usually marketed by P&G with their USP as making use of the superior technology which make the clothes more white/bright as compared to the other detergents. However, HUL attacked "Tide" showing "Rin" as better product in ad by comparing the brightness/whiteness of two shirts. The one where "Rin" was used is shown brighter than one where "Tide" is used.

P&G had filed a suit claiming Rs 100 crore in damages from HUL alleging that they had made an advertisement showing their product 'Rin' had more whitening power than 'Tide'. P&G's counsels submitted before the court that such claims were unsubstantiated and had no scientific basis. They also claimed that such an advertisement was made with malafide intent. The matter would come up for hearing again after six weeks. 

I am not sure about the repercussion but will have to admire the guts of HUL. However, I personally feel this is not the right way to market the products. Improve your quality, promote ethically and it will automatically stand out in the competition.   

What do you think, is it the right way of marketing? How will this commercial ad create an impact on both these brands? Will people stop buying "Tide", will they stop buying "Rin" or there will be no major change in buying behavior of consumers?

"Say Cheese" is what people say when they are about to click a photo. Photographers usually instruct their objects to say cheese to make them smile. When people say "Cheese" their face appear into the shape that is similar to a smile.The simple reason why everyone want people to smile when they are clicked is that everyone on this earth looks good when they smile.

Smile on the face can be of two forms; one is natural smile and another is artificial. One can have natural smile when someone is jubilant, joyous, ecstatic, felicitous, elated, gleeful. Alright, I know its getting too complicated so in simple words, you can have natural smile when you are happy. An artificial smile appears on your face when you are sad but you have to smile or you have to smile when actually you don't want to. However, an artificial smile never make your face look beautiful, in fact it gives you a strange horrible look and sometimes even make you look like an alien.

The bottom line is we should stop pretending to be happy and start finding out the reason for not being  happy. If we cannot be happy at least we should stop pretending to be, that make us look ugly. Now that we live in the age of globalization, a competitive world surrounded by practical people we have no option left with us but to pretend to be happy. Because we always compare ourself with others and we always want to be like someone. In this race, we always forget to celebrate our present. There are many things in your present for which you can smile and cheer, there are many people who feel good when you smile, there are many things/people trying to bring a smile on your face; smile for them, smile for yourself. At this note, can you even remember when you smiled last time? Anyways lets not get into that because I know, if we can pretend to be happy we can even claim that we are always happy and can proudly bring an artificial smile on our face.

I read a book Please, Mom! It's my Life written by Dr. Jaideep Singh Chadha and let me tell you it is a must read book for every teenager and adult who thinks that they know everything. This is because we may know everything in the world but we don't know how to be happy. Have you ever thought any thing positive about Donkey? Now that I have raised this question, you will start thinking and I can bet some of you are still finding the answer. The fact is till now many of us have never thought on it and this is because we are always surrounded by so many negative thoughts in our life that we never had a time to think any thing positive about our life and our surroundings. This book will reveal such small things which we loose by grieving on what our eyes could not see. To support the above fact, there is a very famous idiom which we studied in our school days but we never implemented it - "A bird in hand is worth two in the bush." We always desire of what others have and always miss out to cheer for what we have. 

I observed many people and could narrate one example that clearly differentiates materialistic/artificial happiness and actual happiness. When you get a message about your salary deposited in your account for the first time, you obviously get a smile on your face and then you get busy with your work; again after some time when you come across the same message or you recall the amount in your salary account, can you get the same smile on your face again? No, because it is a materialistic smile that occurs only once. However, every time when you remember - the help you provided to any human being in need, to any of your friend; an elapsed time with your friends; first time when you proposed a girl/boy; your first love; a first lust-less kiss; the joy that you had when you were with your near or dear ones and such simple and splendiferous occasions in your life, you will always smile and this is the happiness which we always miss out to cheer in our present.

So forget the past, stop thinking about the future and celebrate the present. Remember, you look very ugly or  even horrible when you pretend to smile or pretend to be happy, you look fair enough when you don't smile but also don't pretend to and you look good, bonnie, clean and honest when you are happy and when you smile.

"Save our Tigers" is a campaign recently launched by "Aircel" an upcoming mobile operator in India. Aircel has partnered with WWF-India to save our tigers. Its sad that someone has to make us realize our responsibilities - a responsibility to be a human being.

There are just 1411 tigers left and now that Aircel has launched a campaign to save our tigers I guess this will make a huge difference. Many celebrities and sports stars are promoting this campaign and has supported the move of Aircel. I am roaring for them and even you can join the roar to support the tigers; our national animal need our support. To support them please visit and join the roar: Save our Tigers by Aircel.

I am supporting them because I am a human being and I very well know my responsibilities. We all know we are human being and hurting, killing or destroying is not our activity. Why do we get involved in these kind of stuffs?

A human being is the most powerful creature in this world and we as a human being are utilizing this power to destroy the world. Today its our national animal, yesterday it were trees & forest, tomorrow it will be something else and someday it could be ourself. We need to understand the basic, we need to understand the difference between the good and the bad, the right and the wrong, we need to maintain peace in this world. For saving tiger we don't have to do any extraordinary thing, we just have to be a human being. Our existence is because of this world and we need to save this world and every creature that belongs to this world. No other creature expect human being has this understanding. So what we have to do is to understand our responsibilities and follow them.

Today, we see everything from commercial angle. We only think about our profits, our increments, our gadgets, our lifestyle and all that funnels to our commercial world. The usage of bones of wild tigers for traditional oriental medicine along with the international trade of tiger skins continues to be the main reason for poaching tigers of India. Approximately 121 tigers were killed in 1995, 81 in 1999, 72 in 2001 and on an average 35 tigers are killed every year since 2005.

I don't have the data on number of human beings killed every year but I am sure the number would be worst. I hope, wish and pray that a day never comes in future when someone has to run a campaign "Save Human Beings."

One more holiday is what the corporate India is thinking on this republic day. Many must have applied for a leave on Monday so that they can enjoy a long weekend. Sat - Tuesday. This is true with almost all Indians (even I am not an exception) and for almost all the holidays or festivals in our country. Few years back I used to ask question why do we celebrate Republic day, I used to get some shocking response from people. I observed that majority never knew the answer. The reason is that during our childhood we mugged up the reason to write it in a history paper but never gave a thought on it or understood it. For those who don't know the importance of Republic day here is brief history why we celebrate 26th January as Republic day every year.

After Independence, we decided to govern ourselves. We prepared a constitution - Law determining the fundamental political principles of a government, a document which shows how the people of country will be governed. This constitution was approved on 26th November 1949 and came into force on January 26, 1950. With this India became a "Sovereign Democratic Republic."

Sovereign means "not controlled by outside forces, autonomous (controlled by the people)."

Democratic means "representing to or adapted for the benefit of the people at large (for the people)."

Republic means "a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them (power of the people)."

The constitution says people of India shall be the real rulers of their country, and each citizen shall have right to "Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity". There will be no King or Queen to rule the people.

And we started to govern ourselves.

So all those who still feels that this is a mere holiday for them, think about it again. Understand what it means and try to fight for your right - Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

For this Republic Day I tried to write a verse, but I am very bad at words and writing poems. This is my first attempt so please accept my apology for not able to make it up to the mark. As I am proud of being an Indian I thought of writing something on it and would like to publish it on my blog.

I am proud to be an Indian

                                                                             - by Bhuvan

Chetan Bhagat one of the famous young author of 4 bestselling novels - "Five point someone", "One night at call center", "Three mistakes of my life" and recently published "2 states the story of my marriage" is in the middle of controversy after the release of bollywood movie 3 Idiots starring Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor & Bomen Irani directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

The movie 3 idiots is loosely based on novel Five point someone by Chetan Bhagat. If I go one year back when the star cast of movie went to IIM Bangalore to shoot for this movie since then I am hearing that this movie is based on the novel Five point someone by Chetan Bhagat. Five point someone was the biggest hit among the bestselling novels and majority of Indian crowd was really excited about the movie 3 Idiots as they had a impression of being based on the novel which they liked a lot. However today Chetan Bhagat is in middle of controversy as it is claimed by the crew of movie that Chetan Bhagat is trying to gain the publicity as movie is a big hit.

My view is that Chetan Bhagat is himself a big celebrity and he does not need any kind of publicity. His writing is enough to make him notable. His novels and articles written in TOI reveals his talent and is followed & respected by many young Indians. He has nothing to gain by getting into such kind of controversy. In fact he don't need any publicity; my personal belief is that more people in India know about Chetan Bhagat as a famous author than people who know Rajkumar Hirani as director. I found this example in my office itself - one of my colleague was aware that 3 Idiots is based on some novel by Chetan Bhagat but he was not knowing anything about Rajkumar Hirani even though he was hardcore follower of bollywood movies.

The coming year 2010 is really going to be strange for me. The reason that at start itself I got many surprises. We had a Christmas party this year in our office (this was probably the first time that I had a Christmas Party, 1st strange surprise) and we played a game in which I got a gift (an iron manufactured by Bajaj, I was really lucky to get that, 2nd strange surprise) and a message - "All your sorrows will vanish" (3rd strange message). I hope if I have any sorrows it get vanished this year. My luck never favored me in getting such gifts earlier, so indeed it was strange for me.

On 31st eve we had a another party in our office which was actually a party for all bevdaas. We had Whiskey and Vodka along with Fanta and Thums-up to welcome a new year 2010. All those who preferred hard drinks started their drink with small peck of Whiskey and later switched to their own choice of drinks i.e. few continued with pure (only) whiskey while some tried it with cold drink and other tried vodka. All non - alcoholic drinkers started with Fanta and Thums-up. I too was among non-alcoholic drinkers and had never tried alcohol in my life and reason was that I never felt the need of it. I was born & brought up in Gujarat (which is known as dry state) but I did my college in Pune where drinking alcohol is permissible. However I never touched alcohol during my two years of college in Pune (for some it must be very boring, but thats how I am). I used to go out with my friends many times and every time they offered me a drink but I never felt the need of having it and I used to accompany them by drinking cold drinks.

But don't know what was wrong with me on this 31st eve in my office when few of them offered me Vodka and I could not resist (the 4th strange shock). I tried to convince them and waited for cold drinks as it was out of my reach but I could hardly succeed in resisting myself. All my friends would be wondering why I could not resist as I used to during my college years. They will be shocked because I had never listened to them during college years on this matter, how could I get convinced by few corporate colleagues and friends. People usually gets more mature and strong as they grow up but for me it was completely different. People tend to start all these in college but I surpassing all of them started in corporate life.

But later when I gave a thought on it I came to know the actual reason for it. Let me clarify I just had a 30ml of Vodka and that too with a full glass of Fanta and so I was not going to fuddle. At the time when I agreed to have a small peck of Vodka, few old talks and promises with my friends were running in my mind. One of my friend promised me that one the day when I will start drinking he will stop drinking. Also I had a talk with another friend and she told me that unless you don't taste it you will never realize the fun or pleasure of drinking and this conversation started because at that time I was trying to help her to get rid of smoking habit. But I could hardly argue them as I had never tried alcohol and they always used to pitch in the discussion with this point. So when all these thoughts were running in my mind, one more thought leaped out of the queue and got the highest priority in my thinking process and it was: what am I going to loose or gain if I will have a small peck of Vodka. I was not going to loose anything but yes I can at least prove my point to her that there is no such extraordinary pleasure of having an alcohol and that I was true that there is no need of having it or help my  another friend to follow his promise and ask him to stop drinking.

I know my this move is not going to make any change in their life, but now at least I can strongly argue with them when any such point is raised. They will surely argue that drinking 30ml of Vodka with full of Fanta is not called drinking, but let me clarify that now I am not going to drink any more, this was my first and the last drink. Now its their turn to keep their promise, I have done my part.

I know no one will believe that only for this reason I boozed so I would like to clarify that among all those thoughts hovering in my mind one thought was in favor of tasting it "At least once in my life I should taste and feel it to know what it is?" And probably because so many different thoughts, few for my friends and few on getting an opportunity to taste it, I think I could not resist. The fact is I enjoyed the party, I enjoyed the stay of people when all were drinking and I enjoyed drinking as well (but yes it tastes like hell and I still hate boozing). Also nothing among these (fun, pleasure, people around me) would have changed if instead of Vodka + Fanta I would have had Fanta alone, the fun and the pleasure would still be the same and sometimes I even regret for that. With such as start of new year I can at least make sure that this year is really going to be strange for me.