it's a beautiful world out there.....

Meeting Jason... and knowing Edward Bernays

Deep blue eyes... excitement in his grin...smile so innocent... and a V-shaped body for a 35+ man... It was inspiring to meet Jason.. Thanks to NTK again. Well, Jason introduced me to the Great Edward Bernays (The Father of PR). I have through the night read about him and am in complete awe of him. To begin with, he was the nephew of Dear Uncle Freud!

Edward Bernays was one of the first people to expand what had been a narrow concept of press agentry seeking to influence and change public opinion and behavior. He helped shape public relations by favoring the use of endorsements from opinion leaders, celebrities, doctors and other "experts" to strengthen his clients arguments. In addition, he favored surveys, releasing the results of experiments and polls to make a better case for his clients' positions and products.

Culture saw a big change when Edward Bernays pulled off a major public relations coup called the "Torches of Freedom" march, promoting women's right to smoke in public. About a dozen society women dressed as suffragettes marched in the 5th Avenue Easter Parade, smoking openly while it was still illegal in New York and other cities.

I have always believed that Public Relations potentially holds immense Power. And I seek backing in Edward Bernays' book Propoganda which opens up with the following lines: "THE conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society." It is not surprising to note that he is refered to be the one 'who orchestrated the commercialization of a culture' by his critics.

In the year 1920, Edward Bernays first used application of psychoanalytical techniques on the masses for advertising and asked a simple question, “If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group-mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it?”

We are not at all aware but in the 1950s, some of Edward Bernays' ideas and vision helped in creating our country as a Democratic Republic by having the Indian National Congress of India adapt a Bill of Rights. Freedom of the Press, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Assembly, and Freedom of Petition were added to the Constitution of India.

Bernays defined the profession of "counsel on public relations" as a "practicing social scientist". However his Propoganda did not make him win many friends; he was called a professional poisoner by his envious enemies. Along with this, the 2002 BBC documentary The Century of the Self describes him as "undemocratic", which if given a thought to seems inclined towards rationality.

Notwithstanding these, the point which I drive home is what Edward Bernays said in an interview when he turned 100, "if this (PR) could be used for war, it can be used for peace."

How many roads must a man....

How many roads must a man walk down before he finds him a job...

How many cvs must a fresh bird file before he has a job in his hand.

And how many times must the naggings and sympathies fly before they're forever banned
The efforts my friend are blowin' in the wind, the smiles is blowin' in the wind...

I was adamant and arrogant. I knew that they didn’t know I exist. I just have to reach them and let them know, I told myself. And I posted my resumes to them. I knew I was made for ‘my kind of job’ and not the hackneyed careers that my counterparts would choose.

I realized its not working, maybe my resume needs some changes. One draft, two draft , three draft four!

I had to compromise on my dream. Yet, my optimistic self made me remember Kenny Rogers’ “little boy in a base ball hat stands in the field with his ball and bat. Says i am the greatest that is a fact, but even i didn't know, i could pitch like that.

Pitch I could, had there been a field. They blame the recession. I wouldn’t buy that.
Creativity won’t lose its value, even in recession.

If the industry can set aside its paranoia, what rational judgments can it make about the effects of the economic downturn? For a short term, clients will trim their adspends. They always do when economic gloom threatens and they always will. But such cutbacks are always cyclical. The bigger concern always is the agencies' collective bargaining power with clients. Every time the economy tumbles down, client-procurement specialists demand more bang for their bucks. These demands look set to become ever more ruthless, further jeopardising agencies' ability to service accounts effectively. This is where is the NEED for people like us!! It's not that the clients stop spending. They'll continue spending so long as they can be convinced that measured responses to their advertising are accurate.

Now having done all, my bit that is, i wait as i sing............

"O listen... Jus how many roads must a man walk down before he finds him a job..."

Pacifying the Photographer(s)

I was randomly going through my photo albums and i thought there are many pictures very meaningful lying solitary. I am sharing them here for the enthusiasts, the friends and the satisfaction of the photographer in me.

"Six feet under"

"It's Kaali's day today"

"Li'l Foodie"

"the Banana Song"

"A housewife in the shoes of an artist"

"The Bride, my Sister"

"Dino, on the mountain"

"My friend in Kullu"

"God's Day Out"

"Now, isn't He whimsical?"

"My friend at JNU"

"Brilliant Beautiful Colours of God"

"Getting ready for life, my niece"

"Thodi si zameen, Thoda asmaan"

"Rays of a Dawn"

"Bustling Life: At a standstill"

"Ek tha Tushy"

"the Gigantic Himalayas"

I called this one "the cognizant".

Michael Jackson, MJ

Dearest MJ,

Its still a shock to me that you are no longer with us on earth.

Its not been long that i wrote to you.

(http://uditjoshiblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/we-do-really-care-about-you.html)

I am sorry if I ever hurt you with it, it was only my concern.

And now, you are no longer there...

I have nothing to say, but that we love you.

God Bless You. And may you forever in every birth create the music that you did.

Loved you and Love you,

UJ

Screw sLoWdOwN: Let's Get It Started!!

"When we were young kids growing up in America ,

we were told to eat our vegetables at dinner and not leave them.

Mothers said, think of the starving children in IndiaAnd finish the dinner.'

And now I tell my children:'Finish your homework.

Think of the children in India who would make you starve, if you don't?'

No wonder that the Friedman bloke is scared. He knows how the Indians are fighting the Slowdown with doing even more challenging stuff. They are Starting up! and what startups! my friend's have come up with YoHelp a killer for the Americans.

YoHelp is a versatile framework designed & developed by Serenus Information Systems. It can serve as training tool for an organization, help system for a product, e-learning tool for an organization and can be used in many others ways because of its rich & unique features.

Based on this framework, it is a developed Rich Enterprise Solution, custom-tailored to meet the specific needs of each domain. YoHelp is available as ‘Ready to Use’ Stand alone application to empower your business. Add on product that can be easily integrated with your application to add value to your business.
Software As a Service, which enables you to get benefited with these solutions without even deploying one at your end.

YoHelpline’s solutions are built upon high end technologies and components that encompass the databases, application servers and development tools that take advantage of the performance and ubiquity of the Java Platform. These include the open source application server GlassFish and the rich internet application client platform JavaFX.

Are you facing troubles in getting yours employees trained ?

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Afterglow

The wait at the station, the anticipation,
the excitement... of a journey in train.
Those sundry chats with no beginning and no end,
the sharing of the candies and the frills,
the jokes on each other and friends,
the exaggerated mimicry of how each other walks..

The holding on to the feet,
the softness of the curves of the toes...
the warmth of being inside the same quilt.
The coaxing each other to go to sleep,
the sitting beside each other and gazing,
out through the window in the dark.
The deepest affection that makes you pat,
and caress the hair,
hold hands the longest times...

The fatherly pampering that follows
soon after getting up from the sleep.
sipping the tea and see the sun rise behind the mountains...

The preparation to leave the train,

only when you wanted the journey to go on..

the togetherness at the new-small station,

how one helps pull each other together.

The love that grows,the petite memories,

the remembrances seeked,

And holding on to the afterglow...

my cats... Cafeine and Nicotine...

i have today adopted two cats and kept their names Caffeine and Nicotine. I have no reasons to state as to why i gave them such names. Its neither my liking for the words, nor my detest or their utility to me for that matter.

I somehow liked the names when put together. Calling two cats by these names gives me a bizzare 'kick'. whatever the case maybe, i now have two loving cats to play with during a writer's block.
:-)

Contemplation...

Is it Indulgence or Surrender?

Jack of all or a Master of one?

When our class at the B-School was asked, what we’ll choose between a ‘Jack of all’ and a ‘Master of one’, the Master was what most of us picked. “That would make us the authority in our field. We’ll always have the last word”, the intellectuals of the class said. And that was how the professor started the IT class. Following is how I related the same with my understanding. I generally refrain from writing so but such a fete occurs rarely. i couldn't miss an opportunity to advertise my business brains..

Being true to the above example, among the Generalists and the Niche portals, the latter become the Master of One. It is becoming increasingly difficult on the internet to reach the right audience, acquire the right visitors, convert them into your customers and retain those customers. That niche portal can effectively build lasting relationships through what we have studied in marketing- consumers’ lifecycles. The majority of Internet users with spending power look beyond the major internet portals in search of more dedicated content from specialist niche sites.

'Vertical', or 'Niche', Web Portals as they are called focus on specialized audiences and topics, and provide features like search engines, discussions, and directories. The key reason for this preference for niche websites appears to lie in a desire for quality content. The niche portal approach capitalises on specialised interactivity. It also defines the theme that attracts potential users and customers: the portal provides access to a wide range of resources, information links thus focusing on smaller domains. While horizontal portals try to provide a user with information on dozens of topics, vertical niche portals provide great depth in a tiny area. There are three strategic practices that the niche portals use to enhance customer retention. These are community building, customisation and streamlined browsing.

- Community building creates an environment of information exchange among experts in a niche arena.

- Customisation works for personalisation and user-friendliness of the portal.

- Streamlined browsing helps minimise unproductive time spent searching the whole web for information.

These vertical or niche portals have been generating good business. A few examples I could relate to are naukri.com, shiksha.com, healthcaremagic.com. The best however would be foodiebay.com, I being biased to my own baby. Well, all of us at Foodiebay treat the site and the food blog like our baby.

As against the generalists, most of the vertical portals are just few years old and have been build on the seed money provided by venture capitalists and private equities. They are on the growth curve which is closely following the maturity of the Indian Internet market. A reason why the Indian vertical job web sites like Naukri is relatively more successful compared to foreign sites like Monster is the ability to tap the target audience with local content with understanding of the market.

With rising inflation resulting in an economic slowdown, the first thing in an organization that gets cut is the marketing budget. In a recession it’s vital that advertisers avoid the traditional omnipresent approach but ensure that their advertising is speaking in a relevant way to the consumers with the greatest purchasing power. Niche portals in particular are an especially viable option for growing, online businesses. They provide direct access to local consumers wanting to do business locally.

Kudos to the professor to have explained the topic so well…. Even to the NPAs as he often jokingly rebukes them by.. :-)

One shouldn't take the eulogies that one gets too seriously nor should one take the worst of the denigration, the truth is somewhere betwixt and between and you can only do the best you can.

...Vikram Seth

A thought for food: foodiebay.com

Not so long ago, there were a few maverick boys. They were quite an intelligent bunch and had learnt the lessons of hard work very early in life. There were things in common among them, they wanted to make it big, had the zeal of the entrepreneurs and they were all Foodies!! That is why the universe conspired and brought them all to the study at the kingdom’s premier education Institute.

As they burnt the midnight oil and fuel in the day, they ended up with extreme hunger pangs. The food at the mess was not what they would settle for. Food wasn’t what these quality seekers would compromise with, they were Foodies after all.

There was once a time when they had a huge collection of menus in their drawers. The idea to file them together wasn’t quite fruitful either. Now since they were a perfectionists by nature, they came up with the most efficient deal. And this was when Foodiebay.com was born! A unique and a promising website with a database of over 1500 restaurants and food joints from all over the Delhi and NCR region. From actual scanned menu card to directional maps, from reviews to detail ratings, one can find everything here. The site also offers discounts on few selected outlets and for it you don't even have to become their member.

The foodieboys have been a blessing to people working in the service industry in all metros are increasingly becoming net savvy and look up to the internet to provide them with information concerning all their foody needs. The efforts of these Foodieboys have kicked off back-end operations in Mumbai and Pune. Hyderabad and Bangalore are on their hit list as well.

Foodiebay.com’s focusing on one city at a time and trying to achieve penetration within that zone rather than being spread too thinly in too many cities. This gives its customers a choice of restaurants which no other portal can currently provide. It also provide quantitative ratings to all restaurants which are listed on foodiebay.

The biggest USP is that they have menus for each restaurant that is listed on the site. Each listing under the feature tab also includes, whether the restaurant does home delivery, what the average cost for a meal for two would be, whether credit cards are accepted or not, whether liquor is served or not etc. A user can write reviews, rate restaurants & restaurant owners can even upload their menus sitting at home.

The database of foodiebay.com is updated frequently, adding up nearly 20 new restaurants per day and checking up already added restaurants once in every four months. The student team of foodiebay.com does all the execution on the technology and the content front while the mentor team helps establish relationships with investors, restaurants and also pitches in with marketing.

The product which we see online today is a result of a very extensive study and intelligence on what will potentially work in the Indian market. The revenue model is mostly advertising based. Foodiebay.com being a niche website with a targeted set of ‘hungry’ customers is a perfect platform for restaurants to promote their offerings. Our boys have proved themselves that they aren’t just any other foodies, they are the ones who fulfill both the, ‘eat to live’ and ‘live to eat’ school of thoughts.

Pikachu

My little niece introduced me to Pikachu, we apparently found his Mom.

DevD: A Perfect Film

It is not very judicious to defend yourself when you find yourself ion a minority of 9:1. I committed that sin yesterday and suffered the consequences of being called the odd man out. I felt like Henry Fonda in the classic ‘12 Angry Men’. I still hold on to my opinion with utmost conviction that DEVD is the most wonderful film I have come across in life. Although I missed the version of Bimal Roy and Saigal but then it is certainly steps ahead of what Bhansali had created out of Sharat Chandra’s Devdaas. I might have an edge over others for having read the book in the mothertongue but that does not in anyway make the movie look alien to someone who’s been virgin on the subject of Devdas.


I would argue with my contradictors as to what makes a movie good or bad? Story? The story remains an eternal saga of an anti-hero. The book itself has been translated to numerous languages and remains immortal even after 100 years. Its Screenplay? Well, we commend the screenplay of movies like, Requiem for a Dream, Love and Loathing in Vegas, Dazed and Confused, even Ghajini for that matter. Was DEVD too difficult to understand? ‘No’, said my opponent. Does the background music make a movie good? Yes and doesn’t the movie have a great music. My adversaries will have to buy this point for it is they themselves who have been singing the songs of the movie. In fact the music score was never forced on to us, it spoke the soul of the movie. That is one point which made me love the film. I found a soul in it which I miss in many a movies. Any piece of art is a creation and giving it a soul is a very tough task. The legendary directors of the likes of Ray, Guru Dutt, V. Shantaram, Rakesh Om Prakash, have always laid emphasis on this. Anurag Kashyap comes out as a director who has had his lessons learnt really well.


My friends would agree that the Actors make a movie great. Abhay Deol did not take it long to establish Dev. Scene 1 was sumptuous. He does not make an extra effort to ascertain his character. I saw the rawness in him which is Devdas. Even after being in London, he remains the natural, impetuous, impulsive and reckless being. It was very much correct when Shahrukh Khan had said during his time that ‘everyone of us has a little bit of Devdas in us’. The phenomena is that the viewer does not sympathise with Dev but empathises with him. We reveal the same ego which Devdas has in situations alike. Devdas finds Paro beautiful however she’s not so physically. What makes him love her so much is the sensuousness and affection he has fathomed while growing up. The fresh Mahie Gill says all of this without any difficulty. A wonderful actor; I wouldn’t be wrong to say that I saw Smita Patil in her.


The special effects which showed the psychedelic Dev in intoxication and drunkenness are something new to the Indian Film Industry. The colours have remained dominant throughout the movie and it looks so dazzling and intense because of it.


Rarely did I find in Indian movies characters showing the sensitiveness, subtly projecting the feelings and expressing themselves without the dialogues. They have done it here. The scene where Paro standing on the door after washing his clothes says to Dev, “Tumhari aukaat yad dila rahi hun”, is too natural. It comes out with such an ease. Paro’s eyes and expressions say more than these words. Paro has taken her revenge. There is malice and contempt in the heart of both these people and equal is the love that they have, but the ego takes over them that moment. The scene so innocently drives on to becoming so strong and powerful.


It’s the beautiful mind of a very intelligent director which has given birth to a miraculous film. The consequences? Devdas still remains a rage in Indian cinema, but this time round He is DevD the Dude!

You'll be a man my son.

IF

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

-R. Kipling

Lines from Kipling's 'If' appear over the player's entrance to Wimbledon's Centre Court. reflection of the poem's timeless and inspiring quality. I was introduced to it by my brother. It 's his favourite. It is now mine as well. The poem was inspired by Dr Leander Starr Jameson, who in 1895 led a raid by British forces against the Boers in South Africa, subsequently called the Jameson Raid. This defeat increased the tensions that ultimately led to the Second Boer War. The British press, however, portrayed Jameson as a hero in the middle of the disaster, and the actual defeat as a British victory.

Throughout the poem, situations are described that all relate to the theme of self-belief and perseverance. The first line of the first stanza reads, “If you can keep your head when all about you/Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.” This line fundamentally sums up the entire message of the poem. Believe in yourself and never surrender to those around you. Second, the message also is not just standing firm and never budging, but doing so while all odds are against you and all circumstances point to stoppage and letdown, as well as having self-confidence and belief in one’s abilities. The first two lines of the second stanza read, “If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; /If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim,” imply a nimbleness in one’s resolve and fortitude; that is to say, standing firm whilst keeping a goal in mind, and not allowing one’s self to get distracted.

The first four lines of the third stanza read, “If you can make one heap of all your winnings/And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss/And lose, and start again at your beginnings/And never breath a word about your loss,” suggesting that willpower and determination are a stipulation even after fiasco or a loss. Even when all is lost, never cede, but build back up with what you have. Lastly, the first two lines of the final stanza read, “If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue/Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,” stating that one can keep their origins in mind and never get too big. They keep integrity and never put themselves above others.

“IF” acts as a panacea for me. I have always driven inspiration from this poem. I read it each time I sin, I lose, quit or withdraw or feel low. It gives me the thrust, the courage to stand alone against all odds. And each time I do rise like the phoenix full of spirit, zeal, confidence and determination.

the destined day...

It was written too... Since morning things didn't at all work well for me. When I counted I saw I’d received 51 calls that day, I guess it’s a record in itself. The day gradually shaped into an unforgettable one, the irony being that I cease to remember what all I went through. Only the ones who are close to me would empathise with me. I’m indebted to them. They would identify themselves when they read this and grin, I’m sure.

Of that day, my only achievement was when the teacher saw me staring at her (her unusual chin precisely) and smiling. The teacher and I didn't get along well that day. This is what I learnt attending the lecture in a jam packed class.

I admire the free bird,

and i'm not one among the herd.

Great I am not, to forever concentrate,

Pray don’t pick me then, as a bait.

It’s not my condition,

To be forced education.

Knowledge; I consider it to be,

From barriers it gets me free.

It’s not my nature to mug not learn,

Not many a packets it would burn.

It’s a damned way to be told,

How answers in tests are sold.

Rather, if there are riddles we find,

Have a chance to develop our mind.

For how long would we seek excuses,

To defend opportunities one loses.

Wouldn’t you allow a voice raised,

Couldn’t we be a little more spaced,

Just a little more spaced.

Jai Ho!

Rehman with wife Saira.

My brother (Abhishek Joshi) who's always ahead of times (a blogging Delphi), advised me not to post too often but once a week, so as to give enough time to all the readers, near and far. The irony is that 20 days down the line, i haven't been able to come across a topic substantial enough to be written about.

My mind is scanning whatever notable it had observed. i had completed a book called Disgrace by J M Coetzee. It was my second booker winner in the past 1 month. It was a good read and that's it. Having read The White Tiger and the book above, i think i know what the booker prize jury looks for. While Disgrace brings the dark scenario of South Africa into light; Adiga's Bangalorian protaganist happens to be from the Darkness too. An apt and delicate mix of facts and fiction is what gets you the booker. That would be using the medium of literature to raise and show issues where many others (the television mainly) have failed. That would be i guess the purpose why books/ literature were written in the first place. To inform and awake.

Someting similar is done by Slumdog Millionaire. In fact it was time a film came out with the Bombay Slums as its theme. Despite the picture of India which it has shown to the world, everybody is rejoicing and applauding. I rejoice too. However, I wonder why did they criticise at Ray the time of Pather Panchali. Are the parameters of sentiments any different now?

I have a gloomy mood today,
The humor's nagging from far away.
My writing reflects my seriousness,
Jai ho! the winners, May God Bless.