The Adventures Of Makkadman

Soumya just mailed me this link! Check it out!

Yet another example of cool content from the Webchutney guys...

Conversations vs Presentations

As a planner I am often forced to converse in slides...There was a time few years back, when close friends accused me of even thinking in power-point LOL.

Luckily I have managed to wriggle out of power-point thinking! I have tried to embrace conversations. Must admit I was quite an average conversationalist. In fact, it's the constant blogging of the past 10 months which might have added some flavour to my thoughts! Last night at THUGS - the bar in Hotel Broadway, close to Daryaganj, my friend John Lambie suggested this post title!!

When I look at our business. I find many clients want presentations and not really conversations from planners. One notable exception would be Dharam -who almost gave me his business to have conversations with him!!(Straight guy)

1. Have you ever realised that often you are forced to form/ solidify your thinking at the beginning of a power-point whereas thinking in a conversation gets better as you go along!

2. Once you start the power-point, if you aren't really careful, after a while the template takes over...Whereas conversations always allow you to keep on exploring fringe thoughts...

3. Presentations have a start and an end. Conversations don't. There is no urgency to converge. No tyranny of CONCLUSIONS.

4. Power-points tie you to a lap-top, conversations free you to the outside world!

5. Power-points subtly take a lot of one's time in dressing up the thinking. Conversations give all the time to sharpen core thinking.

6. In a presentation, you are stuck up mostly with an aging Microsoft. Conversations allow you millions of sexy thought partners...

I wish they would ban power-points from an agency. Conversations are the thumb-nail of thoughts...Before technology took over and destroyed most of the joy of thinking...

Imagine blogging in power-points...Pukey thought. Isn't it...

Do write to me. I am always ready for a conversation! Everyone's invited - clients, strangers, prospective new business guys, fellow-bloggers...

Small Joys Amidst A Lot Of Jet Miles

I was cribbing to my friend Kumar about the drying of blog posts as my travel schedule continued unabated for the 3rd week running!

Frequent travel drains the juices...So I decided to catalogue all the Small joys that happened this last week as counter to the BIG travel.

1. When Neo rushed to hug me with chants of 'Papa aa gaya' as I reached home on Wednesday!

2. On the flight back to Delhi on Wednesday, I met my friend Rajul after two or more years...Chatted up with her...Her friend offered me a job at a branding company:-)

3. The hot dal-chawal-chutney-chokha after 3 weeks of regular hotel food...

4. Watching Metro with my friend DP at Priya Cinema...after ages...

5. Counselling from my mother yesterday on how to keep my cool amidst work pressure...

6. E-mail(few hours ago)from the French girl in London who wants to work in India as a planner!! Actually it was a power-point that I had asked her to do...Good stuff. Reverse BPO here:-)

7. SMS from Russell a while ago who wants another session of SchoolOfDavid.

8. The drive to Alibagh with my family. Watching the analog sunset when I should have been at the digital workshop. Sorry John. Had to take this break buddy!!

9. Getting drenched with Shilpi, Neo and Ved at Nishiland - the water park on Khopoli Road.

10. Checking my technorati ranking 10 minutes back and finding its risen by 1614 places even with erratic blogging in May... LOL

I feel these small joys are very important to cherish in order to stay sane amongst countless e-mails and meetings and discussions around soaps, mobiles and whisky...

The Beach and the Thoughts on Kiosk Advertising

In my new role as the weekend papa, I took Neo and his cousin Ved to Juhu beach. In fact like most such excursions, this one too was initiated and co-ordinated by my wife...

So early morning, we trooped in a cab to Chaupati beach. The beach(like much of this hyped city - Mumbai) itself was too dirty to be enjoyed. The water was muddy and there was poop in generous dollops all around!!

But Neo and Ved had a ball of a time...Building sand castles, throwing water on each other and generally frolicking around.

Among the muddied water and two energy-filled kids, managed to spare a thought about two outdoor signage(I think I am losing it...I manage to think about my next post in the most unlikely of situations:-)

The first was on the long mocha wall opposite the beach. It was a Provogue signage. In fact multiple repeats of the same message all next to each other. It was cluttered. Jarring to the eye. And purposeless. What could 10 signages achieve that a single one cannot?
>Clearly when it comes to OOH( out-of-home) messages, people don't realize that diminishing returns of exposure set in with every needless extra unit!

The next on linking road were the Exide pole kiosks. Again I feel, in year 2007 with
'an acute shortage of consumer attention' and a general filtering of commercial messages by the common man, logo assaults of the Exide sort seen in the picture are an utter waste of money!Okay, so we know Exide, now what are we supposed to do? Yet another case of visual pollution and little else.

The New Creative

I was having a meeting with a senior colleague of mine from the region. We were sharing notes on what constitutes the new creative!

Here's what I had to say...I guess the mashed up potatoes say it all:-)
But don't think many of the creatives in India get it...They dread the open-source, formless, digital shape of creative age that's upon us! Often they discover they can't solve the communication problem by saying - "the film opens on..."

Thot of the week - In an era of people generated content Are creatives the new suits!!

Thots On A Tuesday

Hey, I was away from blog-land for a while...Last 10 days have been really hectic! A shift in residence, 4 cities in 10 days; coincidentally my parents shifted their residence too after 17 long years! I sat through the 'grih-pravesh' puja like a good son.

Never really got the time to pen down thoughts. Even made a marathon presentation to my telecom client(a whopping 108 slide tome). On Techno Social Impact of cell phones! Almost came out like a 'White Paper'...Felt good. Many thanks to poor_planner for inputs...

As I type the keys sitting in the Mumbai airport lounge for yet another Delhi trip, I feel a lil tired; the always-connected, virtual worker and yet am excited about this way of working - between projects, between cities and always on the tip of new possibilities!

Okay the random thoughts:

1. The thoughts in the head often have little correlation to many tasks at hand. Therefore at any given time am I working for the company or is the company working for me?

2. Why don't ad agencies invest enough in video conferencing! Am sure we can do double the work with half the talent!! Of course the smile and the hand-shake/ hug and the lunches are important. But I would rather have them with my family.

3. It's important to get off the blogosphere from time to time...its important to escape the self-imposed tyranny of the 'next post' LOL

4. No technology beats my small pink(unintentionally picked, no metro-sexuality intended) diary. A diary is a must have for young aspiring planners...The more you observe, the more thots you have...

5. A good phone-camera(bought the Nokia E50 a while ago which has a better camera than the Moto E395 I had earlier) is better than a fat digital camera. I have been using them as visual post-its! It's a great help.(Haven't mastered the art of downloading them to my Thinkpad yet.

6. The bandwidth of technology keeps on increasing. But the bandwidth of human thought exchange is severely constricted. The small ad world abounds with people/ planners who wouldn't even share their mediocre power-points with their own juniors!!

My experience - share stuff with the world, they generally give back twice as much...

For all those averse to change in the landscape and the bandwidth of work, all I can say is - "If you don't like CHANGE, you will like IRRELEVANCE even less!!

Hopefully, this week should be a bit more normal...

Ramachandra Guha's New Book

Read excerpts from Guha's new book - India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy(Picador India) in the May 7 issue of Outlook. Seems very promising! Must pick it up...

The book is the result of 8 years of Guha's research into the history of modern India. Culled from 70 different collections of papers, many of which have never been seen before.

Among the new revelations are 1. How Nehru thwarted the political ambitions of General Cariappa, India's first army chief, 2. How India had decided to split Pakistan well before the East Pakistan refugee crisis, 3. How it was criticism by Westerners that led Indira Gandhi to call off the Emergency...

My friend Ram has urged me to attend the Mumbai launch of the book on May 11th!

The Smallness of Big B?

In my Oct 11 post, I had gushed my adulation for Amitabh Bachchan. But the recent event managed wedding of Abhishek and Ash and the loud noises made in/ by media left me puzzled about this great actor. Was wondering - is AB losing it?

No doubt, he is a legendary actor. But increasingly his close crony friends - Amar Singh and Mulayam, his less than credible endorsement of brand UP and his 'manglik' obsessions have left huge question marks in my mind!

Well, am not alone. The Outlook issue(May 7) has the artistic and literary community berating Amitabh's conduct during and before the Abhishek-Ash wedding...

Says film-maker Mrinal Sen - "The ritualism of so many temple visits is ridiculous. It's shocking that a person of Amitabh's stature should be indulging in this."

Voices the artist Paritosh Sen - "Amitabh has set a dangerous example by displaying superstitious beliefs. Because of who he is, the public watch and believe that much more."

The intellectual class is of the view that Amitabh's big-banner ritualism is a travesty of his father Harivanshrai's legacy!!

Of course one can blame the TRP hungry television media for the over-the-top attention given to a celebrity marriage but the fact remains that Amitabh has made a big public tamasha of a private wedding...And his overly superstitious doting father role has dented his image!