Commercialising God...

The whole of this world and the pace which it is keeping is because there is a policy always in work, "Doing Bad Things For Good Reasons". This, in other terms, can be thought as "Being Selfish is good, but never be Mean!". And in the same purview we have "Whatever you do, but never bring harm to anyone!". You might be wondering, how are these policies in sync with the title. Call this "my senses awakened" or "my acute observations coming out of the prolonged slumber", but these days, i am sensing things all around me, watching them carefully, trying to study them and to conclude. Solitude has its creativity intact with it, and it gives you a platform to think in your own mind without being changed or manipulated, which is a really tough task to keep up if you are always surrounded by the restless flock. Such a time came to me, when i was on a sojourn as a Roamware's working guest, in Mumbai. The lonely room of "Oritel", b'tifully tiled and well equipped with all the luxurious facilities, gave me the solitude along with the creativity and the awakening senses. One night, while surfing TV channels, my fingers stopped on "Aastha", which everybody knows as a spiritual channel. A program was being broadcast which was a live show of some "Spiritual Congregation" organized by Sh. Sh. Pundit RaviShanker in Banglore(the high tech, IT hub). It was one huge occasion very hard to imagine, with lacs of people from across the globe arrived to attend it. It started with the introductory speech by Mr. Kalam, the honorable President of India and then followed by other big names from India and other countries viz. France, Phillipines, Canada etc. What i smelled in there is, it was one huge "Diplomatic Congregation" more than one "Spiritual Congregation". All the countries who have a diplomatic relationship with India, were invited. The idea behind this gave me a smell of "Brand Building" with the help of "Commercialising God". I was simply amazed and stunned to see that, what a great effort had been put. All i could think was, why was that organized in a place (Banglore), where we hardly have space for this, and I concluded after a li'l thinking that it's the branding in progress using God's name And there is no harm in it. Now, can you link all the policies i mentioned earlier, with the title? Aspiring for the business administration career has given me the eyes and i can feel now, how india is heading towards once America's owned "Capitalization". We gotta make money out of every damn things possible. And that night, i kept watching the same channel for quite long and saw how beautifully all the programs are presented-and-packaged-and-sold not only in India, but in US and other foreign countries. I bowed down to the gods and gurus of the projects who could come up with such brilliant ideas to use "God" to make money. Though this looks a li'l odd, how can anybody do that, and it never happened to me earlier while watching the channel, but I had it in mind "Doing Bad things for Good Reasons". And i know, God is with them, they are working like another King Ashoka, who left all his belongings after the battle of Kalinga, and started to advertize God throughout the world. The new Ashokas are there, using there business Acumen, to sell God and make money out of that. Countries are known as brands for their wines and perfumes, such as Australian wines etc. If you sell good wines, that helps in brand building, But i guess India has broken this traditional style and has made "Spirituality and Yoga" the brand building wines for India. They have tapped this zone and have fully understood the mechanism of how the world is so impressed with this spiritual enlightenment. After the muddling and restless life of the west, India is where they can find peace and spiritual upliftment. When i write this, "God must be smiling at me, thinking what a mortal, humans are...".

Namesake...Calcutta ... Kolkata

Why do i think that this is the right time for Calcutta to show up in the world map, why do i think it's now or never.

Football WorldCup is over, France is defeated and we can blame Zidane for this. His presence in the penalty shootout could have saved France. But i guess he'll be in the news for his bull head hit quite more than his head goal against Italy. This WorldCup must have surged the economy of Germany in spikes with a hope of bringing the new industrial investments to the host country. But it's been turning good and hopeful for india also, with some companies ready to sponsor our local football clubs and they want to see india qualifying in the 2010 WorldCup.
The BL-block field in SaltLake, Calcutta was glittering in flood lights this evening and I could read a big yellow banner "YUVA Champions Football League". One team was dressed in Netherland's "Orange" and other in Brazil's "Greenish Yellow". I just stopped by the fence in the local crowd of young guys screaming hysterically to cheer up their teams. I could smell the teen spirit, the spirit of football, more than just a game. When it rains, people come out of their houses and all the local fields are filled up with young guys shooting the ball from the midfields, as if they are the peacocks of this grand gaming spirit. And when the companies are thinking to sponsor indian football clubs, i imagine the birth of another "Juventus" in Calcutta, another "Real Madrid" or another "Milan" or "Florentina". When it comes to Football, it's Calcutta and only Calcutta that's the name we know. I don't see any other city or state in India where Football is a name. So, here is the opportunity for Calcutta to make it big. It might not be in the first 3 software exporters' list in the country till now, and might not have attracted foreign investments, but this is the chance it can use to take herself to the top. All Calcutta needs is the perfect marketing strategy to advertise herself to make herself known in the map. Recently, i visited a Caribbean Island as my official trip which has more of the American Culture. All i felt that Calcutta is nowhere in picture, they knew Bombay, B'lore, Delhi, but none of my group members knew any Calcutta, and that filled me up with disgust and shame. I am not from Calcutta, but being here for the last five years and spending the best of my days, i feel myself attached to this place. If we talk about infrastructure, Bangalore is struggling with the overburden of the investments and Bombay has just too many slums. So the right choice is Calcutta, but the problem is nobody knows there is this cool city in the eastern part of india. Bangalore sells because of it's packaging and branding. That branding is required for Calcutta and i guess enough of atmosphere has been created for this Football crazy city and infrastructural promising hub. So this is the right time to hit the chord to create a melody note and the only way i can see to do this is to advertize, to market herself. WorldCup 2006 has brought colored opportunities to this city of joy and we need to recognize that and build upon that. I don't know why calcutta is infamous for her Bandhs. I can hardly find my office shutting the doors because of that. It's the new face of Calcutta which is brave and honest and intelligent and we can find a cross culture getting developed. We got to bring in the talent from across the state borders.It's our onus to take Calcutta into the goals with a header of marketing and to picture it in the world map. And I am sure, once this could be done our Calcutta will surely be the picture in the frame of india. The state government is selling the Rajarhat land in some Rs. 2.4 crores for few acres which is just too high with respect to the rate in other competing hubs. I believe in the fact that we cannot create an asset while we are growing and this is the growing phase for Calcutta. We gotta liberalize in every respect and once this branding is done we sure can go ahead with whatever be our ambitions. So lets hope the government understands this prerequisities of a developed and shining Calcutta. May God Bless Calcutta!! Amen!!!

12th July, 2006

Today is the 12th july of the year 2006. Normal routine was disturbed by last night's beer hangout in a well approprately illuminated and ACed bar of "The Stadel". The reason of the party (this is our usual nomenclature for the hangout) was not that sacred as the party was but I wanted to imprint the yesternight as a memorable night. To give this memorability thing a physical form, i bunked office yesterday, stayed home alone watching rohit packing the bags for his journey to the management world, which i funningly name as the world of non-innocence. This naming convention that i use, might sound funny in the first look, but actually it's quite logical and observed convention. In my view, if you are really prepared for management, it means you have developed the brutality of manipulation in yourselves. And that's quite a loss of innocence, and this no more remains a funny thing. Anyways that's what we are all looking forward to and are planned to take on as we go ahead in our professional careers.

It was raining hugely last evening and we three (sure, i should mention Kashif) were waiting at the Bazaar looking for a Taxi which could take us to the sacred party i mentioned earlier. The good thing about beer is that it gives you a floating feeling and takes you up in the air. And for the whole period, you experience one high lifted hanging feeling, and that's the reason i like beer. All this good feeling of beer was little soured by the projector used flashing of Bombay Blast news. I have used this word "little" because i think the emotions cannot travel the distance anymore, or maybe there was nothing we could do except watching the screen a few times. Anyways, all the time during the party, i was thinking "Fuck man! this guy is leaving me, how am i gonna live alone", after all the bonding of 5 amazing years with him was going to end. But this thought was hushed by the feeling "this is real life, and it was going to happen now or later". Finally, we paid up the bill and came out to ask the gate guard to call a taxi for us and within 3 minutes we were in the way back. Calcutta was looking more beautiful than ever after my recent trip to Mumbai which houses the worst roads and crowd. And the rain was looking like the drizzling golden flakes in the yellow headlight of the taxi. And as the clock struck 12 in the night, it was 12th July and i knew this is the parting day and it's a matter of barely few hours that he was with me. I sat before the television to keep my mind busy not to think any of this and surfed the internet for sometime. Then it was 2:05 in the morning and rohit announced "we should sleep now" and after a little effort we fell asleep in the peeping street light of the roadside lamp post.

We gotup at 5:15 with my Nokia 1600's talking lady alarm "It's 5:15 am, it's time to get up!" screaming at the full volume. My head was a little heavy and was not thinking much but was sleeping. The taxi waala came sharp at 6 am and we swiftly loaded the back of the taxi with all the stuff. Abhinav (one of our flatmates) accompanied us to the Howrah Station and it was still raining and there was not much of traffic, so the ride was smooth. At 9:00, we loaded all the rohit's stuff in the AS1 coach as one "english speaking" bhaiya watched us with not-so-happy eyes. It was 9:10 am of 12th july now, and we left rohit after hugging once and taking not the nearest door out from the coach. Feeling of emptiness was shrouding around me and i was not hungry at all. Such occasions kill my hunger for food. All the good times we had together were flashing back in my mind as if a big screen was drawn in the air and movie was being played. Since my childhood, i always feared to do enjoy bestowing things for the fear of the end of that which was always painful for me. So i reached home, there was no rohit in the room. I was almost crying. The bed was still there, Didi(the maid) had done the cleaning and as i write this blog, i have my eyes on the other bed and i am feeling him here not ready to believe that he's gone. I never realized that i was this much attached to him but as he is gone now, i feel empty. As i am writing this blog, it's still 12th july towards the 13th and i guess this emptiness will be filled up by his voice and messages as we get hooked on to the internet messenger and nokia phones. But the heart still says "Fuck maan! you shudn't have gone!".