WHAT I’VE LIKED
So pretty, yet so mysterious! There’s a beautifully watchable ad on TV these days for Tata Indicom mobile phones. It is well-scripted, perfectly cast and really nicely produced. A sweet story about a small town athlete with stars in her eyes, who qualifies for some higher event. It’s touching, it’s poignant and resonates with all the hope and idealism that we wish to instill in young India. Dream, train hard, defy narrow-minded thinking and you can earn yourself a passport to fame and glory. And believe me it’s done really well, so much so that I have watched it so many times and am yet to tire of it.
Oddly enough I am also yet to figure the connection between the message and the brand! I get the connectivity message, even though it’s just one fleeting frame—that even with just one tiny signal bar in a remote village, “Vikram Sir’s” good news is really loud and clear. I also heard the sign off: Listen to your heart and nothing should come between you and your dreams. It’s such a fine thought. But hmm, still struggling to find the connect between that and a mobile phone service. Maybe I should just get back in there and watch it some more?
WHAT I’VE LEARNED
How many blasts will it take? After the recent disaster in Ahmedabad, yes I call it recent even though it has faded slightly on TV screens, I asked someone I know very well, how the city was coping. And the reply I received truly shocked me, “Oh, everything is normal,” he replied casually. Seventeen blasts, I thought. And everyone is back, as if nothing happened. It reminds me of the promo line for Phoonk: ‘It’s only superstition till it happens to you.’ I guess everything will be ‘normal’ till one of your own is blown up. It truly distresses me that we can actually sit back and blame the government or should I say the lack of it, for a disaster of this proportion and not feel the slightest remorse or responsibility for it.
When did we become so callous? Are we in denial, or have we become so desensitised that nothing matters any more? The least each of us can do is to solemnly vow to be responsible for our immediate vicinity, if not for the entire city! To report any suspicious activity of any kind immediately and not shrug it off saying it’s the government’s outlook. Come to think of it how much can the government monitor in a city that is teeming with the people? So the only way to avoid being blown up is to take up a neighbourhood watch. Be your own police force. I know of many small neighbourhoods in small towns when after a spate of robberies, the home owners themselves take turns in policing their society during the nights and during the day housewives are especially vigilant of who is strolling up and down their lanes! The usual channels of gossip are suddenly transformed into extremely efficient look-out systems. And the streets are safe once again. So let’s not sit back and say everything is normal, because it will never be, until we decide to make it so.
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