Popular Posts

  • Yeh Toh Bada Toing Hai...
    As I opened my mail in the morning, I find this news on agencyfaqs . The wise men of ASCI have decided that the 'Amul Macho advertisemen...
  • Flash Promos Ki Khareed Mein Samajhdaari Hai?
    When Flash Brands/ branding is here, would flash promos be far behind. Flash promos are single day promotional(invariably price-off) offers...
  • Browsing the Newspaper, Reading the Net
    Everyday I feel, there is a war out there between the two media worlds that I am familiar with - the off-line and the on-line. NRS 06 says p...
  • Creating Change Not Just Measuring It
    I had a very stimulating discussion/ cathartic thought flow/ exchange with Uber at ThotBlurb( specifically at thotblurbed # 28) on who is a...
  • Agency 2.0 : Refresh to Rule
    Many of us know of the zen story of a pompous student who goes to the zen master for learning. Instead of listening, the student starts blow...
  • Goafest - Bajate Raho!!
    There was a huge ruckus created in the Indian advertisingscape over an article by afaqs Sreekant Khandekar on wednesday. Read the 'Rant ...
  • Happy Birthday Mr. Bachchan
    It's Neo's bday today! And he shares it with Big B. Like most of us, Amitabh Bachchan has been an integral part of our growing up ye...
  • Thums Down!
    Thums Up 'Got It' from Campaign India on Vimeo . This post had been languishing in the draft mode for a while now. Am talking abou...
  • The Feminisation of the Internet
    Meraj forwarded me this link from NYT . Thanks Meraj, somehow it feels you still work for me(and that too without pay..LOL). It's an art...
  • Jonathan iVe - design sutras
    Read this piece on the world's 100 most creative people on fastcompay.com on my feed-reader! Perhaps predictably the fabled Apple desi...

Monday, July 2

Kal Aaj Aur Taj

It's been there for quite some time now. This entire vote for Taj Mahal movement. I have had ambivalent views on this entire saga.

Increasingly, many of us have been exercising arm chair voting on various topical issues. Be it the NDTV initiated voting on the Jessica Lal trial or now this Taj Mahal(Top 10 wonders of the world) vote.

1. As an Indian, maybe I should feel proud about it. Somehow, I don't. I would rather not scribble messages on ASI protected monuments. Or litter on bandstand/ Juhu Chaupati, than indulge in littering but still sms to a short code for some global rating of ancient monuments...

2. Conspiracy theory - Maybe all voting patterns are initiated by mobile phone service providers:-)After all they are the biggest beneficiaries!!

3. Why does most voting happen for dead glamorous models and/or beautiful monuments. It rarely happens for road rage and drunken driving victims and poor farmers committing suicides!!

4. I feel more and more we are part of a larger matrix where bigger issues, real problems are sidelined by the topical TRP-hugging ones. Be it Prince, Buddhia, Shilpa Shetty, Chappell imbroglio...

5. More than a year ago, I had picked up a book on 'manipulation by media' by Noam Chomsky. It was quite a heavy read and I never got around to reading it much. Must dig into it for insights and answers now...

6. Well coming back to the 'Vote for Taj' ad. It actually worked. With all the ambivalence and cynicism in my head, I felt like finally voting for it:-)
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , ,

2 comments:

meraj said...

wrote something related here:
http://tangled-up-in-views.blogspot.com/2007/06/2-meaningless-headlines.html

2:03 PM
phish said...

Manish, you've hit the nail on the head. Who gains? Who owns this private body that wants to put India on the map, for something that India is already on the map for?

Apart from elephants, I mean.

7:50 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)