Live for today!

John Quelch, a Marketing Professor from Harvard Business School in a recently published HBR article argued that in a recession, consumers should be segmented by how they emotionally react to this challenging environment than by demographics. He identified 4 types consumer groups based on their reactions to the recession:

• Slam on the breaks
• Pained but patient
• Live for Today
• Comfortably Well placed

If i look around, i can see all these types in my office alone. There are people who have suddenly stopped eating out, some who have cut down on spending and others who are'nt affected at all.

As for the" Live for Today" group, the Professor says that this group will continue their pre-recession lifestyle until they lose their jobs.

May this tribe increase and not lose thier jobs, so that there is spending and we can get out of the recession..

I Heard It Through The Grapevine

"People say believe half of what you see, son

And none of what you hear

But I can't help bein' confused

If it's true please tell me Sir

Do you plan to let me go

For the other guy you hired before?"

Adapted from the Lyrics of the Marvin Gaye Song : I Heard It Through The Grapevine

Apologies to Songwriters: Norman Whitfield & Barrett Strong

During these challenging times, everybody in the organization seems to think they have a crystal ball and the ability to predict the future! Offices are full of rumors--rumors that are possibly wrong and that create anxiety and conflict for everyone. On part of the management, they assume that the employees know nothing about their plans and it takes them by surprise when they announce a change and it turns out that the employees have known it for days. All the time they would have been blind and deaf, because everyone would have heard it through the grapevine.

Rumors often start because of misunderstandings, or because information wasn't communicated quickly and clearly. Management needs to avoid those traps by instituting regular, easy-to-access communication channels. While you cannot control what employees say, you can monitor the rumors and immediately squelch all the false ones. Management should also realise that in the absence of information, employees will create their own, so they need to make sure they have all the data they need. Employees will keep tuning into the grapevine to know the real story or the "kernel of truth".

I Am God!

"Those who are not fit to live in this world, i give them boon - that's death and those who can’t live in this world , i give them death - thats a boon".

Naan Kadavul

Some movies might have made your stomach turn from what you see, some might scare you for life, some may have just made you mad and you go "WTF".

Either way, they fall into the category of "disturbing movies". I had movies like "Trainspotting", "Irreversible", "A Clockwork Orange", "120 Days of Sodom", "Oldboy" and "The Shining" in this list. The new addition to my list is a Tamil movie, " Naan Kadavul" by Bala. (Disclaimer: I could understand only 40% of the dialogues, but i believe ,it isnt a handicap). The closest movie in visual comparison is a 1932 movie "Freaks", about sideshow circus freaks based on the short story "Spurs" by Tod Robbins. The voiceover from that movie "But for an accident of birth, you might be as they are" still rings in my ears.

Bala, the director of “Naan Kadavul” is known for his films about protagonists who live at the margins. But there are too many loopholes and irritating aspects in this movie, which are unexpected from a Director of his caliber:
• The closing minutes of the movie have some badly edited scenes and the climax appears to be rushed.
• The long scene in the police station involving look-alikes of MGR, Sivaji and Rajni was quite unnecessary and breaks the rhythm of the movie in the first half.
• The lead actresses’ migration from the hill cave to a church and then to the hands of the villain is not explained.
• The climatic fight appears very cinematic in a "realistic" movie like this.

The bright spots in the movie are the acting by the lead actors and technical team. The superb BGM by Illayaraja in the second of the movie lifts the scenes to a higher plane.

One way to look at "Naan Kadavul" is that it is incredibly hard-hitting and it truly portrays the harsh realities of life. The other way to look at it is that by the second half of the movie, you are so desensitized by the scenes that nothing seems disturbing anymore.

Where "Naan Kadavul" succeeds, is in forcing us to contemplate and think: "Is death, a boon for some?"

(At the end of the movie, I was mightily pleased with myself for not forcing my friend to rush his dinner to catch the movie in time. Not that i can rush him!. It just wasn’t worth it. But, does anything provide the gratification which food does? I will cherish and remember the Chakkari Pongal a lot lot more than the movie.)

Quintessence of Dust

"What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!

And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so." -

Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act II, Scene II

Reflections and Resolutions

As each holiday season approaches, some revel in welcoming the New Year ahead; others quietly mourn the passing of time gone by. Year-end reflections precede resolutions and 2008 has been a year most would rather forget. It will go down in political and economic history as a terrible year.

It would be trite to write about what i did last year and my resolutions, lets just conclude that it has been a rollercoaster ride and i look forward to what awaits in the New Year..

As the world spirals into recession it would be wise to recall the Easterlin paradox: Happiness in a country can, atleast sometimes, be unrelated to income.

May your 2009 be happy and prosperous. And remember...

"Lots of things will happen no matter what you do. But some things will only happen if you make them happen."

Anguish...

"I am angry, frustrated and depressed. I am angry at the manic dogs of war who have invaded Mumbai. I am frustrated by the impotence of my government in Mumbai and Delhi, tone-deaf to the anguish of my fellow citizens. And I am depressed at the damage being done to the idea of India. " MJ Akbar

Pursuit of Happiness

"Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist. " - Epicurus

A pamphlet announcing the opening of a new bar & restaurant near my home named Epicurus, triggered memories of my childhood when i used to naively think that Epicurus was an European restaurant chain because of the numerous outlets of the same name that i encountered. Only later in my life, i came to know that Epicurus, the ancient greek philosopher inspired his followers to seek to live without pain or fear and was certainly ahead of his time in his belief that the existence and behavior of everything in the world is based on the movement of invisible particles, which we now know to be atoms.

Few philosophers have come up with more suggestive and more relevant answers to the pursuit of happiness than Epicurus. He taught that the point of all one's actions was to attain pleasure (conceived of as tranquility) for oneself, and that this could be done by limiting one's desires and by banishing the fear of the gods and of death.

Epicurus' hedonism was widely denounced in the ancient world as undermining traditional morality. In the modern age, we think of Epicureanism as a life of eating and drinking to excess in order to best enjoy life. However, this was never the intention of Epicurus, who merely wanted people to understand that to experience modest pleasures will allow fear and pain to subside, in itself creating the greatest pleasure of all: a life of contentment through equilibrium.