Bye Bye Mumbai, Hello Delhi

After 6 years of a sort of dream stint in Mumbai, last week I packed my life and belongings in 105 cartons and headed north to Dilli!!

It's been a busy week settling down in Delhi(actually Gurgaon)! One needs planning skills of a different kind getting a new home started...Finally this evening I am connected to the web again thanks to Airtel broadband.

Trying to catch up with the world having missed much of the debate and action around Cannes, the run-up to the budget and Wimbledon!!

While I chug back into the blogosphere, read a nice post recommended by blog-buddy Neil Perkin on Creative Paralysis by Dave Trott. I love collecting stories like this in my head. Here it is...

When Bill Shankly(one of Britain's most successful and respected football managers)managed Liverpool he had a very gifted young striker playing for him. This young star worked hard, trained hard, and studied the game.

In one particular high-pressure match he found himself with the ball at his feet and only the goalkeeper to beat.

He thought about everything he’d learned.

Should he wrong-foot the keeper and go round him?

Should he bend the ball around the keeper into the top corner?

Should he try a power shot and hope the keeper can’t hold it?

Should he hold up the ball so he could lay it off to someone in a better position?

While he hesitated a defender took the ball off him and booted it upfield to the other end of the pitch.

When the young striker eventually came off the pitch, Shankly asked him what had happened.

The striker said he’d been trying to pick his best option.

Shankley said, “Look son, if you ever find yourself with the ball at your feet and just the goalie to beat, stick it in the net and we’ll discuss all your options afterwards.”

I often think advertising is like that.

We’ve got young copywriters and art director getting confused by concentrating on complicated things that aren’t their job.

So they can’t do the simple job they should be doing.

Instead they spend all their time thinking about brand theory, new media, cultural memes, and social latency.

Now maybe brand theory and the all rest has some relevance for planners.

But that’s their role in the team, not ours.

It’s our job to stick the ball in the net.

And that’s simple, or it’s nothing.

Now, I don't follow football at all and I have recently left advertising, but loved this story for it's simple and powerful lesson...

Looking forward to Monday and the start of a new and exciting journey! Must rummage through my notes for some other post ideas.
Neo's Ben 10 overlooks our packed samaan:-)And while I hardly drove my old war-horse Lancer, felt nostalgic about selling it off:-( I was particularly fond of its blue-green-silver colour and the front grille. I don't know why I am sharing it, but I guess it was important to say it one last time! And our new home...actually a small independent house in Gurgaon, quietly redefining my Bombay sense of space!

So, what do we do Mumbai!!!

Now, that the last of the terrorists have been gunned down and the 50+ hour ordeal is over(well not for the families of those killed and injured), there is a deep sense of anguish and anger that can be sensed in the city...

24X7 televised terror is more scary than one without the TV. To that extent, I don't know whether it's a good thing or bad. As I pull myself together from the shock at the periphery, within the warmth and comfort of my family...I chanced upon this piece written by Suketu Mehta in NYT here. Worth a read!!

Says Suketu - 1. In other cities, if there’s an explosion, people run away from it. In Mumbai, people run toward it — to help. Greater Mumbai takes in a million new residents a year. This is the problem, say the nativists. The city is just too hospitable. You let them in, and they break your heart.

2. The best answer to the terrorists is to dream bigger, make even more money, and visit Mumbai more than ever. Dream not just of Bollywood stars but of clean running water, humane mass transit, better toilets, a responsive government. Make a killing not in God’s name but in the stock market, and then turn up the forbidden music and dance; work hard and party harder.

3. If the rest of the world wants to help, it should run toward the explosion. It should fly to Mumbai, and spend money. Where else are you going to be safe? New York? London? Madrid?

4. So I’m booking flights to Mumbai. I’m going to go get a beer at the Leopold, stroll over to the Taj for samosas at the Sea Lounge, and watch a Bollywood movie at the Metro. Stimulus doesn’t have to be just economic.

I guess he is right. We must not run away from saving people...We must give our blood to Bombay and not just stop after fwding smses and wearing black!! We have to get back to work and slog harder as if nothing happened...And we must actually vote(this time)good men/women into power who can protect the city better and not just be TV citizens and armchair voters!

You just can't derail this city for more than 48 hours. Bombay is wired differently. It just is...

The Anaesthesia of Unconcern - 2

Guys, I managed to get in touch with the father of the little boy in coma, Mohammed Manzar, a labourer. Just called him on his cell: 9324371628.

The boy, Mohd. Javed is currently in Hinduja Hospital, bed no. 37 on the 7th floor. He is responding a little. But perhaps will take months before he recovers completely.

In case you want to help him, please call his father. I just did a while back!

Mumbai owes it to this innocent victim of the petty politics of hate!

Tera Kya Hoga Johnny

Was reading Sudhir Mishra's post on the making of 'Khoya Khoya Chand'. You can read it on passionforcinema.com

Tucked at the bottom is this small reference to his forthcoming movie - 'Tera Kya Hoga Johnny' - a film about three people who wonder what’s going to happen to Johnny, this little street kid who sells coffee on the road.

He wonders what’s going to happen to them. They are all going haywire.

It’s about Bombay now. It’s also interesting to capture this transitory phase in Bombay. How it’s changing. The whole city is changing, in terms of architecture, the spaces. How they are being occupied by one kind of thing – malls, offices, commercial complexes.

The city is being taken over and in this transitory phase there’s this little kid who sells coffee.

Some time back, I had had similar thots on/about Bandra. How the quiet, quaint bylanes have been taken over by the builder lobby. Small cottages being razed to make way for ugly(mostly), glass-n-chrome highrises!

Steel over sensibility, aggressive architecture over aesthetics, business clamour over creative calm...Tujhe Kya Ho Gaya Bandra:-(

Less Gas, More Ass

Was browsing through the year end Outlook magazine, Images 2007! Spotted this unique Naked Eco-activism/protest against oil dependency and car culture!

The photographer is Spencer Tunick...Cyclists in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Vancouver, Madrid have joined the 'Less Gas, More Ass' movement!

Mumbai is next on Spencer's itinerary LOL

There is a whole lot of creativity that is required in the eco-activism space with or without ass-baring!

Mental note - think about the 'Mumbai Batti Band' campaign...What can be done to actually cut down the metro's electricity consumption even as the Reliance IPO shrieks Power On. India On:-)

The Changed Face of the Angrezi Dawakhana

Was at Asian Chemist(Bandra)last week. Have often wondered how the once clinical interiors of the medicine shop now give competition to the grocery store...

At the muhalla level, the chemist shop shelf space has morphed beyond recognition.
Diapers jostle for space with Digene,
Gilette with Gelusil
and extra large packs of KS with Crocin!!

And the good ole 'Angrezi Dawakhana' has become 'Angrezi 7 Eleven'!!

The Bland(?) & the B E A U T I F U L

Among the better OOH communication this month! Although, I find it a trifle bland for outdoors...

The visuals and art could have been more lustrous, with more sheen and shine like the hair they are talking about...

But then again Dove is a mild brand in its essence, packaging and communication!
And who knows what women want:-)