Hero Honda going the Airtel way - What Next?

The other day, I was watching a commercial for Hero Honda which had a guy riding all the way to his girl friend’s (well, supposedly)house just to reply to a message sent by her. And the tagline read something like “the cost of petrol shouldn’t be a barrier in your relationships.” (The intended meaning is the same, though I might have messed up with the words). I immediately had this feeling “seen it before”- the costs coming into relationships - no cost cutting in relationships and the like. Now who would forget the perfect couple (Madhavan, Vidya Balan) casting done by Airtel for its ads. The same concept had been used for Airtel previously (Watch it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu4_lA6Krnw, well couldn’t find a language that I understood) and now again being used by Hero Honda for one of its bikes which it tried to position in the mileage segment.

Well, I do not know if the ad is still being played on TV. I remember watching it only a couple of times. I tried it on you tube too but no trace. Perhaps they have dropped it for plagiarism. Why did Hero Honda go with such a tried and tested concept which was the central point of a whole campaign for Airtel? And with such commanding market share that Hero Honda has in the market, one does not understand the motive behind it going for such copy, paste ads. Such acts by any organization would only lead to some kind negative image formation about the company. When you are big, only responsible things are expected from you. That is the reason, there exists a difference in the way people perceive the same thing done by a celebrity and a common man. As you grow in stature, so grows your responsibility. That is why it is said, “With great POWER comes great RESPONSIBILITY.” Things, which are looked down upon, or which are too silly, are simply not expected from companies as massive as Hero Honda. It might just start as a bitter pill down the throat but it might have long term repercussions for the company in terms of its image in the market.

P.S: Hope this post does not act as a catalyst for the image downgrading process for Hero Honda. But what is to happen, happens. I am reminded of the butterfly effect here. May be I am just a part of the numerous series of events that leads to something massive which started from Hero Honda with an ad and may again end up at the same place where it started.

Is this the way emotion hurts?

It was a breezy evening with black clouds looming in the sky. I had been enjoying this kind of weather for a past few days. And I being an admirer of nature was thoroughly enjoying it until that conversation happened. That conversation, which had put me in a state of gloom, which would deter me for the rest of the day (or night probably) had begun.

The man (say Y) seated across the table was simple at heart. It was a general conversation about daily activities going on and then that ugly turn took place. The focus which was on ideologies, now shifted to persons, individuals.

Now there was this person (say X) whom I admired for his approach towards work. He was well disciplined and talked only until the point it was required. He did not interfere into any of the personal life of others. He maintained a strong sense of professionalism. There was this common perception about his attitude that he behaved more like an automatic mechanism and less like a human. If he had to speak in a particular way on a particular situation, he did that and just that with no relevance whether he said that from his heart or not.

I was listening what all Y had to say about this person, whom I admired. I knew no one liked X for the very reason I admired him. I knew everyone was of the same opinion as of Y. It was all fine while he was targeting the ideologies of X. But suddenly I heard something that I never expected to hear. Y targeted X on his personal traits. He commented about his appearance, his weaknesses. Now, that was a bit hard for me to digest. At that point of time, I felt a bit low, but I thought I would overcome it since it was common to hear people speak against X every day. But this had something more stronger influence than what I had imagined. It had rooted deeply inside me and started to bother me after some time. I felt a sense of disgust inside me. There was this some kind of melancholy inside me that I was unable to concentrate on what ever I was doing. I was unable to drive and had just escaped from running into a biker confronting me. Unknowingly, the gloom had taken over me. I had this anxiousness inside me. I did’nt know what I was doing. I waked restlessly up and down. Then I consciously tried to concentrate on other issued just to forget what had happened.

It had taken hours for me to come out of that murkiness. That was the time I felt “Is this the way emotion hurts?” Then I tried to analyze why it had hurt so much, when I was hearing the same kind of opinions from others everyday. Then I realized that Y was such a person for whom I had respect for. Though I did not admire him as I did admire X, I never had any aversion towards him. It always hurts more when close people or people with whom you have neutral relationship talk bad about you or anything or anyone that you admire than when it is done by people whom you abhor. Maybe Y shouldn’t have targeted X on his appearance and his other personal characteristics.

But maybe X had been averse to all of them and so were their opinions about them. My interactions with him might not have rubbed me on the wrong side.

But the question that prevails is: Am I an adjusting person who can get along with anyone or Is my share of repugnance towards him was due? Only time will tell……

How other’s expectations rub on us?

En quoi est l’encrier? -------- Il est en verre

En quoi est la clé? -------- Elle est en fer

En quoi est la robe? -------- Elle est en étoffe

The French class. All the students were listening carefully to the professor to get the pronunciation right (since I am currently pursuing my Post Graduate Diploma in Management – Retail and Marketing, French Language is one of the subjects). The students were later being asked to read out the previously done exercise, during which I too had the chance of displaying my newly acquired reading skills of a foreign language. That was the beginning of the process of expectation building of my professor on me. He was satisfied with what I had done. The later sessions of his lecture had only helped in strengthening his expectations of me. These series of sessions finally led to his open statement in the class in which he stated that people who could not get the pronunciation right could learn it from me as I was doing better than the others. This led to the formation of expectations of my classmates too that I was good at French. All this was good as I had been enjoying the adulation of others. But the French exam was a week away.

The day I started preparing for the exam, I was constantly saying to myself that I should study well and get the maximum marks because there are expectations of my performance by my professor, and my friends. I was preparing to live up to the expectations of others. Was it the Pygmalion Effect that was acting upon me? I am not complaining about this because I too had loved the results of confirming to their expectations which had helped me in writing my exam well. But what if people had expectations about me in a particular fashion, which I didn’t cherish to live up to? What if people had thought of me as person whom I don’t love to be?

That is when you become a slave to other’s expectations. I did not understand fully when my friend and philosopher, Madhav, had said, “Don’t make me a slave of your expectations”, until I experienced it for myself. We are constantly trying to live up to other’s expectations. Who said slavery had gone with bonded labor? Slavery is more of a mental process than physical. Slavery existed, is existing, and will continue to exist until we take a conscious decision of not being bogged down by other’s thoughts.

Expectation is nothing but the thought of a person of how he wants others to be. I am trying to live up, to the expectations of my parents, who expect me to have successful career, to the expectations of my friends who expect me to behave in a particular fashion. But if try not to do it and behave in any other manner other than the way in which they had expected, they say that I have changed. But what is constant in this world? Everything is dynamic. The thing which we consider our own, our body (which is not true) is changing, our thought processes have been changing and everything else is changing.

Are we not talking about what the Sriramsene had done in Mangalore recently? We are in fact questioning them about their authority to decide what they think people should do. Then how is an expectation of others by a person less than what these people had done?

What is freedom then? It is freedom from thoughts of yours and of others. But is it freedom of thought or freedom from thought. Freedom of thought is to have freedom to think what you want to. Freedom from thought is the state of thoughtlessness, NIRVANA.

P.S.: I am currently experiencing freedom of thought as I write this. Funnily my blog is titled “Thoughts With Viswasam” and I talk about freedom from thought. May be I am trying to live up to the expectations of myself about me.

My first post

Needless to say, this is my first ever post not only on this blog but also for my blogging life. 

     "Thoughts with Viswasam" was the title I instantly had in my mind when the idea of having a blog struck me around 2 years ago when I was browsing on the net for more details on the film "Confessions of a Filmmaker"; then I happened to log onto Anish's blog about his film (http://confessionsofafilmmaker.blogspot.com/). That was when i decided to have my own blog . It took me 2 years (well almost) to start off my blog. 

Enough of history, now let me try to speak..oops sorry blog about the title i have chosen for my blog - Thoughts with Viswasam. The title can be deciphered in two ways. Viswasam is my last name, so it could mean Thoughts with Viswasam i.e. Thoughts with me. In another way, in a broader manner it could mean Thoughts which are true, literally converting faithful, within the boundaries of my mental capabilities at that point of time.

Will try to keep posting entries about varied subjects such as marketing, advertising, spirituality, movies and whatever comes to my mind..........watch this space for more