Kannad(a)

Over the last few months, having seen a social media battle range between the ” Kannad’s ” and the non ” Kannad’s” in Bengaluru, I am tempted to write something as a Kannadiga born and brought up in Hyderabad. My thoughts are based on personal opinions and in the same way as a viewer soaks in a movie at a cinema. The person right next to me at a cinema may perceive the movie in a totally different way in comparison, which will purely be based on his or her own background and cultural adherence.

We, the people of a sovereign and secular state, are in a love hate relationship with the media.  We love hating them and hate loving them for the things that media does and yet we behave in the same way. Putin’s statement of outsiders being a minority in the country comes from a communist background and yet we connect that statement to Kannada in Karnataka.  I think the fault lies with people on either side of the line. I may be wrong in calling it a fault, the right way to put it could be a faulty mindset. It is also a case of a passion becoming an obsession that has gone too far in the minds of a few people, who are trying to influence others in believing their opinions. This has fueled a case of a strong, faulty and stubborn mindset on both sides.

Till the time that people in Hyderabad heard me speak Kannada, they had no idea my mother tongue was not Telugu. Till the time I heard a few friends in Bangalore speak Telugu at home, I had no idea their mother tongue was not Kannada. For the first 2-3 years of your life, you are only taught your mother tongue. It is only when the social interaction begins, that your exposure to other languages starts. Today, my daughter can speak 3 languages at 5 years of age- Kannada, Hindi and English ( There is a very strong reason for the order too). I am sure that once she is old enough to understand the ways of the world and take care of herself, she can stay in any part of the country for as long as she wants. So why am I speaking about a child here? It is her zeal to learn a new language, new words in a language. Having been exposed to Hindi outside with friends, and English at school, since the age of around 3, she has picked up the languages and does not hesitate to converse in them when the time arises.

It is common sense ( purely common sense only) that when we go out of our own cities there are many people who do not understand Hindi or English. A local grocery store owner need not know either of these languages. An auto guy does not need to know either of these languages. In any city, they would prefer to speak their local language and it is the outsiders who need to adapt and try to be a part of a place they intend to stay in for a long time or settle down or make a living in. We cannot expect a fisherman in Spain to speak English or blame the entire nation of France for not speaking English.  After a certain age, it is difficult to pick up languages since the entire energies are spent on earning a living, taking care of the families and so many other things involved in running a household, and not to forget the pressures of a private company job. While in Rome, be a Roman and if you cannot be a Roman, at least make an attempt at becoming a Roman.

I would like to request all the Indians who do not know French to say ” Mille mercis.” in exactly the same way it is supposed to be said. If you do not, you will get rapped on your backside with a cane.

It is really absurd to see two Indians who have no clue about each other mother tongues get away by speaking English, being amazing friends, sharing a room and much more – outside of India, but widen the linguistic barrier once they land in the country.  It is just a mindset. Languages are meant for communication and getting to know each other. Sometimes, the wrong minds use it for just the opposite purpose.

Instead of being proud of the fact that our country is so diverse and rich in many ways and we still love being called Indians, local conflicts bring in so much hatred and try to divide the people.

This senseless attitude of people must change and I am not talking about just one party here. Both are to blame equally and both must working towards making life more peaceful and spread some smiles. Think of the amount of time people spend in fueling these illogical and totally worthless arguments. Had they spent the same time in something more productive, things would be a lot different. Looking back at all the reading and observation that I have done personally and heard from friends, I can be very neutral in saying that this attitude is a grass root problem. It is going to be tough to eliminate this, but not impossible if the efforts are in the right direction.

There is a reason why Visa’s are not needed if you want to shift to another city or state. There is a reason why you can buy property anywhere in the country if you have the right identification. There is a reason why similar taxes are applicable across the country. There is a reason.  There is.

The Conversation

It was 7.30 AM and my daughter was not yet ready for school. She needed to brush and have a bath and leave with us by 7.45 AM. A little sleepy , a little alert, a little crying and we rushed her to get her things done. There was no choice as we had recently shifted to Jalahalli and our office commute got longer by 8 km. The conversation with her started right after we hit the Yeshwantpur road.

As we were driving past the police station at Yeshwanthpur, she noticed a church getting decorated for Christmas tomorrow. Curiosity arose and then the questions started. I patiently answered her questions. The conversation went somewhat like this-

Swara – Appa what is that ?

Me – That is a church Swara

Swara – what is a church Appa ?

Me – Do you know Jesus ?

Swara – Yes Appa , they told us in school that he is a maami(God)

Me- It is his birthday tomorrow Swara and it is celebrated like Diwali and Sankranthi and other festivals.

Swara – Lets go tomorrow then Appa – I want to see.

At that moment I did not think about the conversation that had just happened and it went to another track on what cars were running on the road and what she wanted to buy when she got older – the Verna is her current favorite, reason unknown.

After I dropped her off to school, this conversation came back to my mind and hit me hard. I thought, had she been 5 years older, would she have wanted to go to the church to see? Probably not! By then the concept of religion and she being a Hindu would have been hardwired into her brain. As on today, Hindu is a word that appears only on her birth certificate as a formality. Today, she is just a child with a lot of questions that cannot be answered due to many reasons – she either won’t understand the answers or may get highly influenced by them at this young age. She DOES NOT know the concept of religion. All that we are teaching her now is to be good, share her things with others, keep smiling, be happy, not to hurt others and other such basic human traits. Of course the temple visits do take place and she is told to offer her respects to “God “in the way it should be done. (Being an Atheist, I do not tell her to pray, but at the same time, I do not stop her from doing what her mother wants her to do in this respect. I have no problems with my wife being religious either. There have been many occasions when I have visited temples and done stuff I do not identify with just because it is a call of duty/responsibility/societal pressure)

What is her perception of “God” at this point in time? To her, I believe its just a word and to her, all Gods are the same. She cannot differentiate between the Gods because she does not know religion. To her God is probably somebody that needs to be prayed to because she has been taught to pray. In a few years when the nail or religion is driven into her tender brain, her perception will change, I am sure of that. I would really want her to retain the streak of humanity along with other things that come with religion.

I would now like to go to an entirely hypothetical situation (which is close to impossible), where a child is not exposed to any one religion in particular and is allowed to visit all places of worship, speak to people from all religions and given a free hand to do what she feels is right. I could be totally wrong in making this assumption (but I somehow feel I could be very right) that by the age of 20 the child will probably be donating to charities, giving away food to beggars on streets, doing social work in Gurudwaras, donating to the poor sitting outside Mosques and Temples, be a regular singer at the Church choirs, being good to people with temper in control and a smile on the face and mostly importantly, be very happy with life by understanding it better from a neutral point of view, without any bias in thought process or preset notions in the mind.

A giver of joy and in turn a receiver of peace of mind.

The death of In Cam Composition and some scary photography facts

Time and again, the good/passionate/ learning photographer’s community comes across some real crazy people either on the client side or on the same side of the world they belong to. The conversations we have over forums on facebook, flickr and the likes and the conversations with prospective clients brings a smile to the face, but at the same time throws open some questions that may go unanswered and may scare us to death.

Let me recall a few really funny anecdotes that have happened over the last one year, when I began promoting myself as a commercial photographer. Having spent a few years learning the art before even thinking of going commercial, I had the feeling that I was good at the basics, technical aspects and compositional aspects related to photography. I then realised that many photographers broke rules, but they knew what they were breaking and had a very strong reason for breaking them. Over the years as a learner (which I will always be), as a marketer, as a guide, as a friend, there have been so many incidents that gave me mixed feelings. Let me begin with the funny ones and tell you why they scare me.

Scene 1

On a photography forum on facebook, one guy put up this image of a flower which was totally out of focus and had a huge watermark right below it. I commented on the image saying the watermark was the only thing which is clear and in focus to which I got a reply saying – It is so because it is computer generated. This made me literally LOL.

So what scared me?

When I checked the profile of the person it said he was a professional wedding photographer. Only three words escaped my mouth – WTF. A self proclaimed wedding photographer who has no idea why an image is what it is. I wonder about the people who have got their weddings photographed by him. What must he be charging? Leaving the price aside – which client would have been happy?

Scene 2

A photographer famously proclaimed in his marketing messages that he had expensive cameras and lenses, to which I comment that they don’t guarantee great images. A lot of back and forth and bitching happened over a period of time and I kept a track of his page. I realized his promotions were for 1500 INR a portfolio and the image along with this message was that of a lady sitting on a motorbike at night and the image has been clicked without a flash or long exposure and the best part of it all – he called it street photography as the image was clicked on a street. This was surely an LOL moment for me and a lot of other photographers I shared it with.

So what scared me?

The prices! The benchmark that is being set is really scary. A portfolio for 1500, a wedding for 5000, a couple shoot for 2000. As commercial photographers, we know the quality that is given and we know we can do a much better job. What about the client? This takes me to scene 3

Scene 3 – This is not an anecdote

This is not a single situation but something that has happened many times with not just me, but I am sure with you as well. A client calls me after being referred and gives me details of a birthday party requirement – date, time and the usual stuff. The next question is about the charges. The statement after that is – I will get back to you. I then asked her if she has seen my page, to which the reply is “which page?”

So what scared me?

Is price the only factor? If clients close the matter at pricing without looking at the quality of work then where is commercial photography heading? Point to be noted here is that I am not talking of upper class and above who hire ultra professional photographers at ultra high premiums. In this case, the quality is almost always very good. My point here is about budding photographers who are really good and know the quality of their work and those people who cannot afford the high profile photographers.

Scene 4

This actually happened with a friend and he told me about it.

My friend got the deal of shooting a kid’s portfolio and he carried his mid level DSLR to the shoot. When the client came along and started asking him questions he realized that the client himself had a full frame. He is not technically great in terms of the physics of optics or in the knowledge of what other cameras offered. But he is an amazing photographer who has got some real candid / natural photographs of kids which are fit to be put in an album and stored for a lifetime.

So what scared me?

The client knew a lot of the technical aspects, but never thought about shooting himself. The client had the money to buy the full frame, but hardly knew any aspect of composition or processing. We keep seeing such people on and off and it really scares me because of the interference that is caused while the shoot is happening. They feel technical aspects is all that they need to know to be deemed fit to question a photographer who knows how to compose and image.

Scene 5

I was out for a photo walk with a few friends and a few strangers. We kept shooting and checking each other’s photographers during breaks. On a couple of occasions, I recall telling one stranger photographer that the composition of a particular photograph was not ok to which he replied – “ Shall take care of it in processing”. A few other occasions, I did tell him about some areas being underexposed and you can guess as to what the reply was. Sadly, this was the case with more than 80% of the photographs.

So what scared me?

The overdependence on post processing software. If you are to compose in Photoshop or Lightroom or whatever other software you use, can you be called a true photographer? These softwares are to enhance your image, not create an image. The image is created in your mind first, then captured in your camera and then fine tuned in processing. Its never the other way around. Most modern photographers seem to be leaving a lot to processing than composing in camera. The other trend I have been observing is the market flooding of overly processed images which are called HDR’s. Yes, a few HDR’s are amazing, but to hide the faults of a single image, HDR processing being used is crazy. These softwares come with so many tools to make an image look so unnatural, that I feel a separate genre needs to be created – Digitally manipulated photography and it should not be mixed with photography. The photographers seem to spend few minutes to click the photograph and hours on photoshop to make it look nothing close to the SOOC image. I have seen purple skies, people with green skin and what not.

I am a photographer from the modern era, but personally like to be stuck in the traditional era where composition and the art of storytelling was the crux of a photograph. I agree am not perfect, but nobody is.

Is traditional photography dying? Are photographers becoming “photoshoppers” ?

The post mortem of a photograph and hence the photographer

For those who do not know, photography is an art that is not everybody’s cup of tea. If you are one, you should be proud. Do not be disheartened by those stupid people who ask questions like “If you own a DSLR, does it make you a photographer. I have a pen; does it make me an author?” Such people are the ones that have low self esteem and a big ego. You can reply very courageously saying that owning a DSLR does make everybody a photographer, but it does not make them a good photographer.  Let’s now see what it takes to become a good photographer. There will always be thousands who are better than you, and thousands more who are not as good as you. What matters is if you are happy being better than the rest or aim to get better than the ones better than you.

There are rules to photography that have become relevant over time and there have been rules that have been broken but appreciated. In my humble opinion, there are no rules to photography. There is only a grade to every photograph that goes from an A to an F. What you should bear in mind while taking a photograph is how well you know your camera (which is very important), how well you are able to perceive a given situation to make it look nice and last but not the last, how well you are able to present it. I have thought of a few generic rules that will apply to every photographer- whatever stage of photography they are in- from amateur to professional.

1. Every photographer was an amateur at some point of time. He or she would have spent huge amounts of time for the art to get better and reach the stage they are in. Good photography is not an overnight phenomenon. You cannot sit under a Bodhi tree and expect a brain wave. You must work towards it.
2. Spend time with your camera and read about it. The user’s manual is for you. If you want to be good, know your gear in an out. I agree it is a slow process of reading and understanding, but remember that Rome was not built in a day.
3. Spend time clicking and experiment with different things connected to a good photograph – Light, exposure settings, aperture settings, shutter speeds. Experiment with different genres and different types of photography. Check the results on a laptop / PC. Do not go by what you see on your smart phones nowadays. They are very misleading.
4. Today we have forums on photography that help you learn and showcase your art. Post.

The actual confusion begins now. How would you react to the comments made on your photographs are the various forums you post them in. Remember, it is good to have an Ego- it instils self confidence. Also remember that your Ego should not be big enough to stop you from reflecting on your own work and taking feedback positively and working towards it. It is obvious that you will have feedback ranging from good to bad. While going through that, you should for a moment forget that it is your photograph being post mortemed.  Look at it as somebody else, and think about how it could have been better. Consider all the comments and most importantly look at those comments and feedback that help you click better. DO NOT feel disheartened at any point of time. If comments are negative, it means you need to work on it. If comments are positive, it does not mean you are the best.

What everybody needs to remember is that even the best photographer in the world will not give 100 best shots out of 100 clicked. The percentages are very small – usually around 5. Your percentage may be 1 at this point of time, but you will get to 2 and to 3 and eventually to 5. All depends on how you work towards it, spending quality time with the muse and of course, and reading. I have learnt it the hard way. A few months after I picked up the DSLR and downloaded a pirated version of Photoshop, I thought I was very good. It hit me hard when people said a few things about missing parameters in my photographs. An appeal to all the amateur photographers out there – DO NOT go through what I went through. If your will is not strong enough, you may divorce your camera for good. If you have got one good photograph out of 10000 you have clicked, it means you are good and you have it in you. You only need to hone your skills and you will get better with time. Yes – time is the key.

The post postmortems will continue. Different people have different ideologies and come from different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. It is obvious they see things differently. What appeals to one may not appeal to another. It is good to soak in everything and cater to your creative bent of mind. There will always be positive and negative. Soak yourself in the sunshine of positivity, but do not forget to work your grey cells on the negatives.

Happy clicking! DO NOT stop. Photography is an art, a stress buster, a passion, an addiction and can also be a good source of revenue. The revenue bit was kept in the last on purpose

What it takes to be an Atheist in India – Balls

Disclaimer

Whatever I have written below is my personal opinion. My intention is not to push my opinions on to the people reading this. If I do happen to influence people, it is purely unintentional and their personal choice.

Yes, I am proud to call myself an Atheist. I have been one for the last 15 years, though about 5 years were spent as a secret Atheist. In my humble opinion, I think Atheists in India can be classified into two broad categories – The Secrets and The Opens. The Secrets are the ones who do not actually believe in God, but succumb to societal pressures and act like they are believers and The Opens are the ones like my who openly proclaim their Atheism. I also believe at some point of time, especially in a country like India, which has very strong religious sentiments and a vast majority are believers of different levels, an Atheist is almost always first A Secret and then turns An Open later on.

You may ask why I do not believe in God. My reply – Just because a big majority believes in something, it may not always be true. You may reply – Just because you believe or do not believe in something does not make it true or false either. My reply – India is a democratic country- please feel free to express your opinion. However, I request you to keep it as an opinion like I do and not thrust it upon others and try to convince them that your opinion is the right one.

India is a deeply religious country believing in the Almighty – albeit many of them. The sentiments range from quiet and peaceful people to fanatics who believe in violence who can go to any extent to protect their “Faith “and religion. It is a known fact that human beings relish power and the high that it gives them. My question to you – It is understood that there were wars and there will be wars purely for the power aspect of human nature and much bloodshed and heartaches will be caused. However, if you were to imagine an earth without religions, is there a faint possibility that all the violence and bloodshed and heartaches caused due to communal riots and other religion based violent activities, would lessen the amount of terror we see?

What I write henceforth is from personal experience and I blame nobody for doing what they did.

I was about 14 when my Upanayanam was performed. It was done with the usual pooja, and “ anna daana” to a few select Brahmin boys. Guests were invited, fed and I got blessed. My head was shaved with a little tuft of hair left as it is – as this was to be the trademark of a Brahmin. As on today – there is no tuft and frankly very little hair left.  After this I was sent to an elderly Brahmin to learn the process of “ Sandhyavandana” which is typically the worship done at dawn and dusk by every Brahmin. I was made to learn by heart Sanskrit Shlokas and the actions associated. However, what I was not told is why I was to do all this. In my opinion, even today – most of the Brahmins do not know the meaning of what most of what they recite every day, but still they continue to do it. I agree to a large extent that reciting these shlokas and mantras brings a deep sense of peace inside you. You feel much lighter – I did too when I used to say them. Today, I use a slightly different method to feel lighter and peaceful. I listen to music with my eyes shut and headphones- that have some amazing bass. I find peace in Hindi film music, in English music, even in trance. I find peace when I am reading with full concentration. I find peace when I edit my photographs. I find peace when I think of the smile on my daughter’s face. I beg to ask – would it make a difference as to what you say when you say it over and over a 1000 times? Please try it yourself, try repeating “ fuck you” a 1000 times with your eyes closed. It is indeed transcendental meditation like Osho pointed out. It is science talking when you realize the fact that while repeating something over and over again, your energies are focused in such a way that the rest of the body goes into a sort of hibernation while only your brain, ears and throat works. You don’t hear anything else or feel anything else. This is what gives you peace of mind. However, only if you do it with utmost concentration do you make this happen.

In my opinion – God is a good support system as well as a super blame system. You achieve something good- credit goes to God. Something does not happen you blame it on luck or fate which is in turn an act of God. So what is your role in this? If we all are puppets, why do we even exist? When the first train appeared, people were scared of the noise it made and the smoke it gave out. A lot of rumors spread and it is written in recorded history that railways was almost a goner, but for a few brave souls who made it work. Today we know what it means to us and Indian Railways is the biggest railway network of the world. Just a thought – in today’s date, if humans were to appear in front of tribes that have never been exposed to anything modern, in a helicopter and dressed as we normally do, how would they be perceived ?

I was 15 when I first read “chariots of the gods” by Eric Von Daniken. I must thank Girish who introduced me to this book. There has been no turning back since the day I finished reading that book. What began then was a cross examination of everything that culture made me do. I agree that there are a lot of scientific facts behind most of the rituals we perform today. Right from the Rangoli we put in front of our house (the chemicals of the powder keep ants and other insects away from the house) to the Mehendi ( it is a natural coolant that brings down the body temperature and helps you remain cool), these rituals are heavily based on science – physics and chemistry mostly. There are however certain facts that are really intriguing. I will not touch upon a lot of them, but throw a few of them at you so that you can think and come up with answers depending on your own sensibilities and understanding.

If you have read any of the books by Erik Von Daniken or Zecharia Sitchin or Graham Hancock and watched the series called Ancient Aliens on History Channel, you may relate to a few things that I am going to list below. By the way, I am a very strong believer in the Ancient Alien Theory, but I do not impose on you to believe it.

1. The Nazca lines of Peru that have huge figures of animals, birds and humans across huge landscapes that are comprehensible only from the sky. Which human being flew before the 19’th Century ? These lines are thousands of years old.
2. A lot of Indian stories and manuscripts speak of flying Vimanas and devastating weapons that shone like a 1000 suns when used. If the gods could fly around in chariots, was it magic they used or some kind of technology? If the weapons they used caused damage to many square miles of the landscape, does it remind you of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Do read these references in the Mahabharata too where it is written that once this weapon was used, it destroyed everything for  miles and it took  many hundred years for anything to grow back there again.  These are symptoms of a nuclear weapon right? The radiation caused does not land grow anything there for a really long time. The land becomes barren.
3. A big list of ancient structures that are aligned perfectly with different constellations – mainly Orion. These structures include the Mayan city and the famous pyramids of Egypt.
4. Temple structures in many parts of the world that allow light through a narrow opening only on specific days – summer and winter solstices. Ingeniously built by humans who were not modern by any means.
5. The statement that “ God made man in his image” – Cloning?
6.  Almost every instance of an appearance of any God according to any religious text anywhere in the world is associated with deep rumbling noises, lot of light and heat and the earth shaking.  Your thoughts please?

The list will go on endlessly, so I have no choice but to cut it right here. If you are seriously interested in knowing more about the Theory, do look up the authors I mention. However, please do keep in mind that even those authors call it a “Theory” and not a fact. These are deductions made by them and a lot of experts in the field. It is an open question and not a gospel of any sort. Those who want to believe in it, may do so.

As the clock ticked

I closed my eyes and the light disappeared,
I closed my mind and my mind’s eye saw nothing.
Then I heard the ticking clock,
second by second, crystal clear.
Thoughts rushed through my mind,
of what I had done and what I should do.
Events of the past and possibilities of the future,
Came and went at the speed of light .
The past cannot be controlled but,
merely corrected to a certain extent.
The future cannot be foretold but,
merely planned to a certain extent.
The more I thought, the more I oversaw,
The more I oversaw, the more I wept.
I shut my mind’s eye again,
and tried to drift into non existence.
The reflections kept coming back but,
ceased after a point.
I woke up bereft of the confusion,
And went about my normal routine.

app on bb

The wordpress app on bb. Sounds good 🙂

Need loyal customers? Be ready to spend more

As the popular saying goes – nothing comes free in life, it is a basic rule that applies to every facet of life without having a bias towards what you are – a student, a counselor, a marketer, a business man, an employee or for that matter, even a beggar. You need to put in some effort – physically, mentally, monetarily and in most cases all 3 to get what you need. It’s no easy task, but could get easy if you get the hang of it and realize where to put the efforts.

Since I am a digital media sales guy, it is obvious I will talk of in these terms only.

We should learn from companies like Coke, Pepsi and Maggi (keeping the list short). No matter which country they ventured into, the kind of money they have put into marketing and continue to put into marketing has ensured that they are on the top of the mind recall whenever somebody thinks of having a chilled beverage. I know people personally who drink either a Pepsi (or same company products) or a coke ( or same company products), but not anything else, even if there are a multitude of choices. They would rather go without drinking anything than drinking something else. We need to think what has got them into such a position. A client of mine who has spent many years in the retail industry told me that Maggi took 22 years to be a part of every shopping cart in a super market. They are now looking to phase out their single packs and have double and the packs of 4 more available in supermarkets as they have realized that a person shopping for basic home needs once in 15 days ends up buying a pack of 4 cakes than picking up a single cake every few days.

It takes time to build a brand. Even in the movies, we have seen amazing pre- release hypes of motion pictures with top stars sink without a trace. The star power pulls the initial crowds, but what helps it sustain its momentum is the quality. In the last few months, I have spoken to more than 100 clients with many points of view. I have come across some astounding expectations and at the same time some real, logical and well planned through processes. Conversations with people who fall into the latter category have always been thought provoking and a great learning experience of what to do while the former group of people have taught me how NOT to think when you are putting in your money into a business or that matter raising money. The same gentleman who told me about Maggi and how they grew to be a part of every shopping experience also told me how he wants his site to be perceived. He did not want to work on a cost per acquisition model. He wanted more quality users to come to his website. He only said – drive quality traffic to my site and my site will do the rest. He also said, enticing a user to buy from your site the first time is a comparatively much easier job than engaging him to buy from your site a second, or a third of a fourth time. That is where the challenge lies. I cannot name the brand here, but it’s a brand that has existed in this space for quite a few years.

On the other hand, I have also spoken to people who have started their ventures a few months ago, have not spent a penny on branding, spent only on Google so far (btw MS word underlines Google in red if you begin it with a small “g “), but when I approach them as a network the only question I am asked is – how many sales can you get me a day and at what rate? When a remote tribe in Africa would prefer to drink their local drink made from leaves and intoxicating mushrooms than a 15 year old scotch on the rocks, how the hell do you expect an educated and earning individual to buy from a hitherto unknown website with the risk of hackers getting hold of his financial and personal information always looming overhead?

I have heard people tell me – you get me acquisitions (first time buys) and I shall not pay for a second purchase by the same user. I have my own marketing costs associated with that user in getting him/her back. What marketing costs? A stupid mailer throwing deceptive discounts? What people don’t seem to realize is that a first time bad experience will ensure that the user never comes back to your site and also advices other people not to come to your site. One bad experience after 4 or 5 good ones will still keep you positive. Few bad experiences between every 4 or 5 good ones will land you into trouble. It’s a sustenance game in e-commerce.  It is like climbing a mountain. The higher you go, the more efforts you need to put in to go every foot thereafter. In our game of e-commerce, the first few users are easy to get. You need to spend more to sustain them and at the same time grow that number. After a certain stage, the cost associated with every acquisition is only going to grow as your funnel gets smaller and smaller.

To get your set of loyal customers and to grow that number exponentially, there needs to be a well- rounded marketing effort behind it. You need brand presence, constant touch with the user base and incentives to keep returning to your site. The three points mentioned in the previous sentence DO NOT mean online activities only. Top of the mind recall means constant reminders without being invasive. Bombardment will have a negative effect than your desire. You may now say that this is quite contrary to what I wrote in my previous blog post. That was reality. This is utopia.

D-conomics

Am not sure if somebody has already coined this word – but what I mean to convey is digital economics.  When Adam Smith started writing about free market economics, he would have had no clue how well this applied to the digital world as well. But the truth is, it does and works in exactly the same way as it works elsewhere. Growing technology has changed the demand supply dynamics in a drastic way and the people in the market need to react, rather than act, depending on what side of the platform they are on. A new product creates a demand and the producers of that product, need to match that demand with the supply, but to a certain extent so that the value assigned to the product by the demand is not demeaned by the excess supply. Apple has done this job tremendously well. However, what you need to keep in mind is that this works only when your product is out of the world. The Walkman ruled a few decades ago, now you have their digital siblings in the market and in plenty. The demand and supply are met. Price- with respect to quality rules.

You must be wondering why me, a digital media sales guy is talking about economics, demand and supply. Pretty simple I guess. Having been in this industry since almost 2003 and having seen it grow in India, the dynamics have changed rapidly over the last few years with amazing technologies being developed and a few being available at dirt cheap prices. At the same time, there are others that are a class apart and demand their price and the best part is that people are ready to pay for it. For example – Cloud computing was started by “ A “ , a better version with better features was developed by “ B “ and now we have “ C “ , “ D “, “ E “, etc. working on the existing product, adding more features and making it available at a much lesser price than what A sold it for. The demand was created by “A “. The supply was taken care of by “A “AND others. The learning point here is that no matter how amazing a product is, the demand and value are short lived. We now have hundreds of people who can clone similar stuff at dirt cheap prices. What should match are quality and the monies. Attached services also play a major role, but its value for money that people are looking for.

Let me get to the point. We all know that there was a time, not too long ago when digital media (ad spots on websites) were only sold on CPM. The background worked more or less like TV and print – how many people have seen the ad? Then came the numbers. How many clicked on it. “Interaction” became the buzzword. It was followed by e-CPC and then CPC. Then came the most dreaded word of the internet business – CPL followed by more expletives like CPS (search and sale) and CPA. Where is it heading to now? From a time where the internet was seen as another medium for branding, it has become one – probably the only, trackable source of ROI. What offline advertising could not offer in terms of tracking a performance of your ad campaign live is offered by the digital media (now it includes mobile as well). Would it be wrong to quote Spiderman’s uncle in a slightly modified way – with better tracking capabilities, come more and sometimes unreasonable expectations from the client.

The scene changed. Websites that preferred to sell on CPM’s had to start selling on CPC and later on CPL’s too. The most valued of websites continued to hold their forte as they had a niche audience on their side (what % of them are there today compared to the total number of websites that exist?). The rest had to flow with the market demands. The supply had to match to be in business. There are branding campaigns that happen as you are reading this, be it in terms of innovations or videos or a combination of both. There is still that expectation of CTR or interaction rate as they call it. When it comes to the performance campaigns, it is due to the demand that things like DSP, SSP, re-targeting, behavioral targeting, contextual targeting, Real time bidding, social media and the likes have come up. The end of 2010 saw a surge in something called e-commerce in India. Though e-commerce existed and has been sustaining itself in the US and Europe markets, it took time for it to make a splash in the Indian market due to the fact that until about 2009, a very small percentage of the Indian Internet population was comfortable transacting online, except in cases of Cash on Delivery offered by e-commerce players who existed then. The tremendous growth in the internet population, the increase in the spending power, the trust in online purchases helped the e-commerce scene in India grow. Even the investors showed a lot of faith in the system and pumped in money. The smaller players saw value in the segment and started e-commerce websites on their own by putting in their own hard earned money or having their startups angel funded.

What this surge did is create a huge demand in a revenue model called CPA and CPS. Two sets of people with two different mentalities are seen here. One set that says I shall pay per acquisition and would want to take care of the marketing costs associated with getting that user back into the system again and again. Another set that says “vendors – please take care of every sale and I don’t care if it’s a first time user or a tenth time user “.  What these people ultimately want is an effective cost per sale. The vendor that gives them the best ROI with decent numbers or max numbers within their bench marked ROI gets the RO’s month on month. The surge has also seen specialists like social media marketers spring up and making money. The targeting capabilities and thus the best ROI is possible through profile targeting. The advertisers do not mind paying a premium for a click they know is coming from a quality user who is 10 times more likely to convert than a click coming from a random user from a random website from a random vendor.

There is only one lesson to be learnt. When the demand changes or rises, re-invent, re-prioritize, learn and UN-learn to meet the demand with the right kind of supply. The failure to do any of these and trying to rule the demand by saying “ this is how I am going to function, no matter what the demand is “ will eventually lead to your non-existence. Acknowledge the demand, react to it and meet it with the optimum supply unless you have a product that is new and can create a demand on its own.  In order to create a demand for your product, you need to put in some amazing marketing skills into picture. That is the order of the day. Demand rules, supply follows. Those who can meet the demand every time – long live and those who can’t can RIP.

Why are the Pedestrians not fined for breaking traffic rules

It was peak traffic hours in Bangalore and driving 15 Kms usually takes about an hour to an hour and a half. I was wondering why it should take so long. The vehicle density of the city? Narrow roads? Too many traffic signals? While pondering over these points, my eyes fell upon a few people who were walking. What I saw made me wonder – should pedestrians also be penalised for not obeying the traffic laws?
It is easy to miss the walking class or just ignore them as a set of people who do not contribute to traffic woes. Think again. They do. What I saw made me think hard and this write up is, by no means a message for the Bangalore Traffic Police or the Police of any other city / town in the country. It is just a democratic use of democratic rights with a little sarcasm put in to spice up the reading. I would not want this writing to sound or feel like the script of the movie that got the Razzies for the script writing department.
Coming to the point – here are a few incidents I cannot resist to mention – A middle aged man, probably in his thirties, walking a good 3 feet away from the pavement expecting the motorists to go around him to avoid bumping into him. The last thing I expected him to do was play hop skip and jump in the 3 feet left between him and the footpath. Fortunately he did not. Due to the slow moving traffic, I had the opportunity to observe him for almost 300 years and believe me; he walked in a dead straight line as if he were giving a drunken driving test to the police. If you drew a line bordering the footpath and his “line of action “they would never meet. Probably the footpath was more crookedly patterned than his walk of life. I was on the right side of the road and luckily, I overtook him in a few minutes. The vehicles on the left side of the road had to take an altered path.
I was standing at a signal, first in line and ensuring that I do not cross the white line. A group of college girls started walking from the other side of the road and came close to the divider. The signal turned green and as I set my foot on the accelerator, two of the girls raised their hands and ordered me to stop. Taken by surprise, and having no clue what to do, I went ahead and pressed my feet a little. What happened next can be called funny or frustrating. Just as I got close to one of the girls, she gave me a look that looked like conveying a message to this extent “you better slow down and let me cross”. What the hell? Is that how you are treated for following a traffic rules?
The next incident is quite similar to the one quoted above, but the lady who was attempting to cross the road was probably braver than all the college girls put together. The signal was already green and a few cars had crossed. Out of nowhere I see this lady in front of me, hands raised, ordering me to stop and allow her to cross. I braked and was lucky enough not to have the car behind crash into me. He braked too, but he was not as lucky as I was. Poor guy! He must have spent close to 5000 to get the dent repaired. Am not sure if his car was insured.
Thinking of the audacity of the lady to have done something like this, I wonder – why don’t the traffic police think of doing something to stop such things. Why are the motorists always fined for not following traffic rules? Why are the pedestrians not fined when they walk half way down the road on the wrong side of the road? Why are the pedestrians not fined when they attempt to cross the road at a signal when the traffic is in full flow and it is not their turn to cross? Why are they not fined when they run across the road at a place where they should not be crossing in the first place?
I am sure every rider / driver who reads this will agree with me. Pedestrians also need to follow the rules. If the reader is a pedestrian for a majority of the time, please think again before you attempt anything that could be dangerous for you or for others on the road. Even I am a pedestrian during the evenings mostly. However, I do take a little care to avoid inconvenience.