Reality Bytes!!

Bullying,sledging and racial slur row in the confined secluded Big Boss house.Shilpa Shetty shot to fame with sympathy votes resulting in a fantastic win,something badly needed at the time when Bollywood had shown her the doors.

Sixteen guys woo the item girl to win her heart.Drama,romance and a lot of spicy discoveries about the grooms to be shown at break interval to turn the public glued to the television.After dumping her beau who intentionally used her to climb the career ladder was also not spared from the negative publicity.Medium well used Rakhi Sawant's bold show makes the audience want even more.

Cool dudes and wimpy gals drive their way out riding on bikes, working on every challenging & adventurous task coming their way.You don't need immunity to perform those tasks but you do need 'immunity' to get ahead.That's not all,there is politics,leg pulling and a whole lot of drama with each elimination round turning common college going guys into Braggadocios.So much for money so much for fame,Arrives Ranvijay as the new VJ face winning the MTV roadies and surely big fan following.

The time then came to speak the truth.Gandhiji principles being followed now.What works in the west is being experimented in the country.Schultz adapted 'Moment of truth' is now 'Sach Ka Samna'.The participants do have the undaunting courage to face the nation but doesnt seem likely with the Indian Samaj or Indian netas.A heated debate swirls across the Lok sabha,Rajya sabha.Now,even the politicians are discussing TV shows over work ,we were not the only ones.

So the big question, why the Saas Bahu Sagas have faded and its all about reality shows that has been successful in grabbing the attention of our Indian Audience?The immense pleasure that we get by peeking into other person's life is one of the major factors.We love to know what our superstars eat, wear drink and if they are kept under surveillance for us what more do we want!The next big question why are such shows made then?Controvery is the name of the game.More the controversy more the TRPS.TRPS a rating which puts the show into the swim or sink state.A rating on which the whole media industry runs learn more about TRPS .So the media people do make sure to make their shows spicy, controversial or moreover IRRESISTABLE!!!

So much for money,so much for fame,so much for Air time,so much for TRPs ,Are we talking of self regulation.Think Again.

The Hard Way

Guess who?

They are worshipped.

They are studied on behaviourial competencies.

They are enticed.

They are ones who decide Q1,2,3,4 results.

They are the cynosure of every marketer.

They get royalty on loyalty.

They turn the tables around.

They are put on a pedestal.

They are the 'Customers'.

Customers are vested with the power of making and breaking the business structure.The power which even superman and spiderman might borrow one day.To pay due respect to this humungous power watts,the business came up with 'Customer Care' or say 'Customers we dont care'.There have been such interesting conversations with the customer care that now with great humility I say that i no more care.

The first conversation goes like this.Its between Vodafone-Happy To Help!(V) and myself-Happy to Listen!(me)

V: Good Morning Ma'am.Ma'am could i speak to you if you could spare me a few mins.

Me: yeah,sure

V:Ma'am we have realised that your monthly bills are on the lower side due to less usage.Are you facing any problems with our service.We needed to check on that.

Me(surprised):haha,no nothing like that.I have no problems as of now.

V:Thank you Ma'am

Hello,so if my bill comes on the lower side,they remind me that I am not making good use of it? Or was it really a part of Customer care but I no more care.

The second conversation goes like this.Its between ICICI Personal banking-Hum hai na!(IC) and myself-Main hoon na!(Me).It's a real task to get connected to the customer care and when you finally get connected this is what you get to hear.

Me:I have a problem using my credit card.While using at the ICICI payment gateway i received a message that my card is blocked due to duplicate merchant id.Could you please help me unblock my card.

IC:Sorry Ma'am you need to discard this card and go for a new card.
Me(disgusted):whattttt? another application for a new card

IC:yes Ma'am

Me:Listen,but i made another transaction using AXIS bank gateway that transaction was successful.What's wrong then?

IC:Let me check Ma'am

Me(waiting):--------

IC:Yes Ma'am it seems you made a transaction of Rs.1400 right?

Me:Yes

IC:Your card is fine Ma'am maybe some problem with the server.

Me:Alright,how much time will it take to put the server up.

IC:Ma'am you can ahead with your transaction in an hours time.

Me:Alrite,Thanks.

I was given the same lame excuse of server down thingiee for the past one month.My patience was lost and i was completely disgusted with their laid back response.My next step was to shoot a strict mail to the customer care whose response is expected in 48 hours.To my surprise,i received a response within 4 hours and my card is functional now.

I had to play the hard way for one can be taken for a ride unless one reminds them that we are their coveted CUSTOMERS.Don't ever forget that!

Critics Call:If God was a Banker

If God was a Banker........

I read the title and presto added the book to my queue.Isnt the title exciting enough to make you anticipate what could God have done in the Global eco Crisis?Isnt it like the title that draws parallel to our school essay topics 'If i were the president...'?How idiotic of me to think of it that way and there are reasons to support my absurdity.Firstly, Ravi Subramanian got his novel published in the year 2007 when the world scenario was so bright and sunny and I-bankers were the most sought after blue-eyed guys,so the timeline rules out my first false impression.Secondly,'If God was a banker....' was written in that schoo-essay-type the poor author would be left with not much choice but to say that such a financial breakdown would have never occurred had God been a banker.Putting this into perspective Vatican has included financial greed as one of the seven sins in the era of globalisation.

Coming to the bestseller 'If God was a Banker',I liked the book because it was an easy read,helped traverse the corporate life of a banker, had a personalised touch with the various aspects of organisational politics,frauds,sexual harrassment that any individual working in the corporate can relate to.The two protoganists Swami and Sundeep's characters through the entire story helps you realise that success can be achieved but which way you choose to achieve it is all that matters.I disliked the book because at a point the story becomes very predictable,some cases are thrown overboard ,too sleazy and the ending left me utterly disappointed.The last lines remain with me though ' Life goes on as usual but one only gets smarter by the end ......'

By the end of it i realise its much easier for an IIM graduate to get their work published(Namely,Chetan Bhagat(IIM-A),Ravi Subramanian(IIM-B),Rashmi Bansal(IIM-A).......) and another interesting finding is narrate personal anecdotes and make it to the bestseller list!!

All is fair in love and cultural war

One simple question-Who own's a nation's culture?Is it our multi-faceted government,is it our efficient police force or the already burdened lawmakers or is it our desi taliban (Sena,Sene,MNS)?We talk of globalisation,modernisation on one hand and on the other hand we give impetus to the self confessed moral policy makers.Recently,there have been grim incidents such as the one in the mangalore pub where young females were molested by the lumpen vigilates,adding to the woes we receive irresponsible statements from home ministers of states and after all the headlines and media attention there seems to be no logical end to this farce.

The inaction on government's part to protect its citizen has left one overwhelmed.One day the vigilates will ask you to put hoardings in their mother tongue and you will obediently put up with them,then they will ask women not to enter pubs,clubs or maybe any entertainment place wherein women are most suspectible to interact with men which doesnt seem quite right in the eyes of the self styled moral guardians and you listen to that too with the fear that you will be thrashed in public.Then one day in the name of this culture drama they will ask women to stop stepping out of the house.Alrite,Thats alarming now.Nonetheless,Its too late you gave them the liberty and now it's time to lose yours.

The drama will unfold again on the valentine's day.We need to watch now how reasonably our police force acts on this front or as always adopt the 'We are on our own' aphorism to protect ourselves. Our culture doesnt belong to them and so do not allow them to live in this false belief.They think they can own it but nobody can.No one person.A culture is more spirited than all of us.It calls for liberation not vindictiveness.