Digital Dilemma

This month, I did a story on how mobile communication is benefiting the people of rural India.

Its stuff like this that make you feel good about gadgets … that makes you realize it’s not all about making phones smaller so they can fit in the pocket of a ridiculously skinny pair of jeans or making TVs bigger so you can fill your TV lounge with more TV and less furniture.

Technology shouldn’t really be just about the aesthetics of the wow-factor. Sure, we love those slider phones and megapixels, but take a moment to think if we aren’t losing the plot a little?

In the race to buy the smallest phone of the biggest TV, are we maybe making compromises on what these consumer electronics are really meant to do?

Let me raise my hand before anyone else:

The phone I am using currently is gorgeous. I love the colour and I love the style. It's a MotoRAZR in ... what else .. pink. So what if it’s a pain to type messages with? So what if the picture quality of the camera isn’t all that great?

Hmm … not really.

Difficulty in typing SMSs means I communicate with friends and family a lot less these days. Who has time for phone calls anymore? I miss the days when I was able to send an ‘I miss you’ or ‘how are ya’ with one hand on the steering wheel (okay, I know I shouldn’t be SMSing while driving, but you have got to keep busy in that gridlock!).

The disappointing results of the first few shots snapped with this phone meant I soon stopped bothering to whip my phone out to snap pictures of random moments like I used to with my old phone. The result? When I archived my 2005 stuff onto my external harddrive, I has hundreds of visual memories of hundreds of moments … courtesy my Nokia 6600. On the other hand, 2006, with my new phone, is devoid of any such mementos.

Quite sad really. Makes me want to go flush my lovely pink RAZR phone down the toilet. But I can’t … it’s gorgeous. And therein lays the dilemma.

Are you letting your gadgets rule your life too?

Think about it.

Old McDonalds had a bathroom, clean-y-, clean-y, O!

BPC was in a marketing & communications training today with international marketing heavyweight Peter Krieg from Copernicus ... itna cheap I am being name dropping, but I simply must as anyone who works in the filed will know how surreal it is to be in the presence of, to learn from (and in the lunch break, have a chat with) someone like him. Think of it like getting an acting class from ... say ... Michelle Rodriguez. She's not exactly Julia Roberts or Uma Thurman, but she's still something. (IMHO Rodriguez totally kicks ass.)

So yeah, training with the Rodriguez of marketing. Some really good insights, but I still had the same complaint I have with 99% of the International trainers that come to our side of the desert: lack of local content in the training program. All data, statistics, case studies etc etc were for brands that the average North American probably swears by, but which was pretty much Mongolian to those of us from Crazy Headquarters in Dubai. I mean, who the hell is Harvest Valley and MobilExxon?!!!

It does make me question the training skills of these trainers brought over from faraway lands. Don't get me wrong: the program itself was great, but does it really take Einstein to figure out which international brands the average entry level Middle Eastern marketeer/communicator is familiar with?

Any way, that's not the point of this post. The point is, BPC had a 'moment' during the training (y'know, a 'moment' ... when something happens, or you see or hear something that you and only you understand the significance of and the whole world just lights up ... or totally blacks out ... depending on what kind of a 'moment' it is.)

So this was one of those 'moments' that makes you smile from the inside because it transports you to a time and place that was one of the best in your whole life.

Krieg was talking about Brand identitites, what associations marketeers want their consumers ot make with brand and how, sometimes, they are totally out of touch with what the consumers really associate the brands with.

According to research, McDonalds means three things to the majority of people: BigMac, Happy Meal and ... get this .. clean bathrooms!

LOL

No kidding: clean bathrooms. A huge percentage of Americans automatically think of clean bathrooms when they think of McDonalds.

And that's where I had my 'moment'.

As Krieg revealed this interesting fact, I was taken back to backpacking days in Europe, summer of 2001.

After countless 'smelly' encounters, a fellow backpacker (no prizes for guessing which country he came from!) clued me in: when nature calls, you look for those yellow arches. BPC discovered a whole new world ... one without bits of toilet paper stuck to your shoe when you leave the loo ...

Ah yes, the days of leisure when the toughest choice I had to make was whether to turn in early and catch a train to some strange new city the next morning, or to stay up all night gazing at the Tour Eiffel.

*sigh*

Why can't we be forever young and carefree?

BPC is BPC

You know you've picked the right nick when THEY give you the same one you chose for yourself.

BakPakChik has been made BusinessPerformanceChampion at Crazy Headquarters.

BPC has been made BPC.

LOL

The Lines From Last Night (Readings from Shantaram)

Thanx to tabz, I have been living. eating and breathing Shantaram for the last two weeks.

"What the fuck is this?" I nearly dropped the package when she handed it to me. I didn't expect her to get me a two-thousand page BOOK from Karachi. A nice Khaadi handbag like she always does, but not a book. Not a two-thousand page one!

"Everyone in Karachi is reading it." she sadi simply.

I furrowed a brow. It was big and heavy. It was called Shantaram. It had a very indian illustration on the cover. Do i really want to read 2000 pages of Indianness.

I gave it a try. And I haven't been able to let it go.

Everyone out there who hasn't read it. Go buy a copy now, or die. If you have not read this book, you have read nothing. It's THAT powerful.

The things this man writes. Linbaba thinks like a God. I want to drink his every word. That is why it is taking me so long to read this book. I don't want to finish it. I want it to go on forever. Every page has a new story and every story is told in the most wondrous way. He takes the most mundane of things and turns them into fairytale fantasies. A smoky tea room becomes glamorous and an ailing slum becomes a haven.

Last night, there were two lines in the book that resonated with me (and that I guess is what I like the most about the book ... the most profound of thoughts that I have never been able to capture in words have been captured par excellence). The lines from last night:

Lisa was talking to Linbaba about why she hates children. She tells him that you think they are so innocent but they are not. They know exactly what they want and don't rest until they get it. And then she tells him that, as a matter of fact, she realizes that the most awful people in this world are actually those that act like grown-up children.

And I agreed with Shantaram on both counts.

Some of the most irritating people I know simply need to grow up. And I too, hate the idea of having children because I think they are rude, selfish, unneccessary creatures.

I know this will bring on a barrage by maternal/paternal readers, but please save it. I have nothing against your kids. I just don't want any of my own. Not yet.

Dangerous grounds to tread on with so many friends pregnant and a best friend delivering in just a few days, but really.

To seal the deal, on our flight back from Karachi, Arfiman and I were serenaded by a constantly wailing infant. Arfiman looked at me. "And that" he said "is why we are not having children". LOL. Took the words right from my mouth.

They are smelly and cranky and time-consuming and too much effort .. and it's not really their fault ... that's just the way they are.

But Shantaram, you nailed it in the head.

When hard-work pays ...

All readers sick and tired of annoying blog-readers who complain about the contents of other peoples' blogs says 'Aye'.

Okay, I don't really care how many people respond with an 'Aye', because it was a rhetorical question - as are most questons posted on this blog and on others of a personal nature.

After years of blogging, I still fail to understand why there are some faggots out there who cannot grasp the concept of 'personal' blogging. I am not running a newspaper or a community website, that I need to be polictically correct and socially respnsible, you morons.

I am writing a personal blog. A diary of my thoughts, wishes and observation. This blog is about how I feel, how I think and how I am. You might find me pompous, arrogant, rude, proud, selfish and annoying, but then that is the way I am ... no one forces you to come read my blog. If you don't like what you read, go google Care Bears and read stuff more up your fuzzy alley.

This entry was brought on by one 'Chili' who commented on my last entry with these words:

i have always noticed how deeply u love 2 brag.whether it is about ur designer bag or ur limit or the cost of your car or your manicure.i do all of that and more but i dont feel the need 2 just go on blahblahblah on my blog about it!it just shows you are rather immature and it shows that u r nothing but a loser and now that you have some money in ur hands all u can do is brag. haha. pathetic.

Now Chili - hot-headed and apparently not very bright - is obviously one of the many clueless individuals when it comes to 'personal' blogs - and fails to see that it is my blog and my money and if I want to brag about my money on my blog, I will. Of course, comments are enabled on my blog, so Chili can comment whichever way Chili pleases. But if my blog gets Chili so hot and bothered, I wonder why Chili must come and visit?

Methinks Chili is perversely attracted to the fact that I am and can be everything that this Chili cannot. Methinks Chili is green. With envy.

Yes Chili, I have enough money to buy whatever I want and if you think that is 'shameless bragging' then so be it. I see no shame in writing about the fruits of my hard work. I see no shame in sharing the results of my efforts.

The fact that I have things that I brag about do not "show (I am) rather immature and it shows that (I am) nothing but a loser and now that (I) have some money in (my) hands all (i) can do is brag. haha. pathetic. " If anything, it does the opposite.

It shows that I am old enough and mature enough to have 'made it', and that I am strong enough to not be ambarrassed to admit that I am successful.

Success - and money - is not something to be ashamed of if you have worked hard to get it. 'Bragging' as you so call it - but which I see as a casual or nedded reference to something - is justified if you have earned it.

I am not bragging about driving a car daddy bought me, or a designer handbag I swiped the Hubby's credit card to get.

Pathetic, you called it?

I'll tell you what's pathetic.

Pathetic is two kinds of people:

1. Those who are complacent and lazy and never get anywhere in life, and then point fingers at those that work hard and win.

2. Those who work like dogs and for some reason are embarrased of their success ... and go on to hate those who are brave enough rejoice in their own success ... all because they themselves do not have the self-esteem to raise their heads high and say these simple words "I work hard and it works well for me".

That, my dear Chili, is what is pathetic.

Me? I am just simply saying those simple words you seem to not be able to.