Blogswara in Malayalam Vaarika

Blogswara has been featured in this year’s annual edition of Malayalam Vaarika, a popular literary weekly in Malayalam by the Indian Express group. In an article about New Media and it’s advantages, B S Biminith has drawn out the possibilities of new media in detail. He has written about Blogswara and original music production in the blogging world. I would like to quote some of the interesting (and valid) points he made in the article. Pardon any translation errors:

There are many people among us who compose and broadcast their songs through blogs. These music blogging efforts cannot be observed as a time pass art. Such popular trends may not please the traditionalists, but it doesn’t walk in the ways of popular music that is targeted at the market. When the concepts like Blogswara become active, it will re-write the very idea of popular music.

Since the current popular music is a market-oriented process they push their music through advertisements and the music programmes in various audio and visual media. But the groups like Blogswara are totally different from this. They don’t have to run after the trends because they don’t have any commercial interests. Also there are many opportunities to accept, reject or suggest changes, as there are no other influential barriers existing between the audience and musicians. In that way, such public platforms provide all the ingredients to form the real popular music. We can also observe that such platforms, which could become a threat to the stardom of the current music scene, as a chance for people from around the world who have musical interests to step to the public on their own. That is how this decentralized model of music challenges the traditionalism.

For those who can read Malayalam, click on the image below to read a portion of the article:

Malayalam Vaarika - Annual Edition

Lt Colonel Mohan Lal

MohanLalIn 2007, I wrote a blog post about Mohan Lal’s promotional ads of a liquor brand. Mohan Lal had formed a business alliance then, with the owners of the same brand, Original Choice. When the news became controversial the defenders were of the opinion that Mohan Lal was only promoting ‘evening snacks’ under the same brand name (just like how Vijay Mallya is selling only soda and mineral water under the brand name King Fisher). Die hard fans and Mohan Lal himself had also argued that there would not be any raise in the number of drunkards just because the actor was promoting it, considering the fact that Kerala has the highest alcohol consumption in the country. The opposition’s concern was that the actor has high influence on people in Kerala, particularly the youth who see Mohan Lal as an icon and role model.

Now let us just casually say that Mohan Lal’s celebrity influence on the youth of Kerala was not going to boost the sales of anything – be it gold, lungies or liquor (you might ask then why would the commercial brands use celebrities for promotion and pay them millions for that, but let us just put it aside for the time being). In the last week, Mohan Lal has been granted the Honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army. This honor comes after Mohan Lal’s two successful Malayalam movies (Keerthichakra and Kurukshetra) in which he enacted the role of an Army Major. As per the Army Chief Deepak Kapoor, Mohan Lal will be yet another brand ambassador of the Territorial Army. Defense Minister A K Antony also said that, “this will be an inspiration for the younger generation to join the armed forces“. A CNN-IBN article on this says that, “Mohanlal’s role will be to inspire youth to join the armed forces“.

It is at this point that I have a question – As per the supporters of Mohan Lal during the time of Original Choice advertisement, his influence on the youth did not take any effect in boosting the sales of liquor. Has that changed all in a sudden? Now would Mohan Lal inspire the youth just because it is a good patriotic cause?

Skeptics say that youth is more prone to go under the bad influences first, than good ones.

PS: Some also say that considering the situation, Mammootty should be conferred an honorary position in CBI for his 4 successful movies as a CBI officer, or Suresh Gopi as an honorary Commissioner of Police for his numerous super hits as a highly ranked police officer. 😀

(Image source: Google Images)

Walk the Talk, Sir ji!

When I wrote a blog post titled “The WTF advertisements“, I never thought that I would have to make an immediate follow-up post. But the advertising world these days gives us so much to write about. Look at the latest ad campaign by Idea Cellular called “Walk When You Talk“. This ad campaign was done by Lowe for Idea Cellular.

Abhishek Bachan, who appears with a fresh look compared to the old and dull one, dons the role of a medical doctor in this new advertisement. He then encourages people to walk while they talk on their cell phones because……. (hold your breath) it will keep them fit!! I couldn’t believe it but then I thought that it was made to seem funny. Then comes the news about this advt campaign from the Idea Cellular team:

According to  Pradeep Shrivastava, Chief Marketing Officer, IDEA Cellular “IDEA brand campaigns have always celebrated Champion Ideas which have the power to change the society and the way we live. This time, the Champion Idea is around ‘Walking & Talking’ for staying fit.” [Via]

I don’t know whom the “brains” in the Idea Cellular or ad agency Lowe consulted before making such a stupid claim, but let us see what some health studies have said about this.

Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Mar. 8, 2009) — Cell phones are a danger on the road in more ways than one.  Two new studies show that talking on the phone while traveling, whether you’re driving or on foot, is increasing both pedestrian deaths and those of drivers and passengers, and recommend crackdowns on cell use by both pedestrians and drivers. (more…)

Fox News (Health section):

“our results suggest that just as drivers should limit cell phone use while driving, pedestrians — and especially child pedestrians — should limit cell phone use while crossing streets.” (more…)

The Idea chief had said that they have always celebrated Ideas which have the power to change the society. At least Walk the Talk, Sir ji!

Mohan’s Art Work

There was pulp-fiction (most popularly known as “painkiLi kathhakaL” in Malayalam) and the “Ma” weeklys which were reigning over the entertainment space of Malayali community before the television sets and the soap serials took them over. The “Ma” weeklys (Malayala Manorama, Mangalam, Manorajyam etc) with their never-ending stories which are equivalent to the television soaps of these days, were the main source of entertainment for the womenfolk as they were confined to the four walls of their household. The men too have enjoyed these weeklys, mainly for the sleazy gossip stories or for the graphical art works of women with the novellas.

But for men, the most favorite column in these weeklys were/are the “Ask the Doctor” column. This column would mostly have letters with questions about sexual problems. Each letter is a porn story in itself which could feed your fetish well. Rumor has it that many of these letters are written by the publishing house people themselves to increase circulation.

So the “Ma” weeklys are satisfying for both genders – Soaps for women and soft porn for men. But there is another thing that is so attractive about the “Ma” weeklys. It is the art work that comes in between the paragraphs of a novel. Many of these artists who work for these weeklys are so talented, but they go mostly unnoticed because of the nature of their work. They do not draw ordinary people. They draw only so perfectly beautiful people; women, to be specific.

I recently saw some of such art works by Mr. Mohan who works for Malayala Manorama. He is an amazingly talented artist. I don’t have more details of him and don’t know if he is pursuing an artistic career outside his regular job at Malayala Manorama, but he is a very good artist.

PS: The copyright of the images given below remains with Malayala Manorama. I should leave proper credits for them, even though they make false claims such as “Manorama Podcast is the first podcast in Malayalam” etc and would never correct it (Deshabhimani is far better in this case, I believe. At least they apologized for their recent goof-up). 🙂

manorama1

manorama2

manorama3

manorama4

Confessions of a spotless mind

failureI was feeling low for the past few days and was thinking about it. I always thought that I am capable of making it to the top in most of the things that I do. I have been trying hard to make it and along the way I met talented people, learnt new things and I began to feel too low. I felt low because I realized that I am mediocre in everything I do – Music, profession, career and life in general (only exception is that I think I’m doing my best to my parents) – no matter how hard I try to come over it, I remain mediocre. Sometimes the odds are just against me. I also blow up everything in the same level of trying hard; always try to control myself but mostly in vain. Not that I am feeling bad about the latter because it makes me feel human.

I used to take pride in myself, but now I feel that it is this mediocrity that I was being proud of. And what a shame it is! I thought I was excellent when I was doing just average. I look at the talented and successful people and see that they have crossed their breaking point at a very young age, because they were all original and excelled in what they did. Look at me. I’m 29 and most of my dream plans remain just dreams. And that’s nobody else’s fault.

These days, I have such bad dreams of going back to the old days when I was a nobody (not that I am a real somebody now, but am talking about when I was a real nobody). I wake up and look around and realize that I am still here, in the comparatively new phase of life.

All these make me realize now that I was afraid to lose. I was scared of failure. Because I thought that I was destined for better things. I thought I was special. But I am not. And I think I should admit it first and then try to push the limits. From today onwards, I will do just that.

Meanwhile, I happened to read this blog post by Peter Bregman of Harvard Business Publishing (shared in Twitter by @GuyKawasaki) and it was so encouraging. The article is titled “Why You Need to Fail“. Read it if you’re feeling low too. 🙂

Michael Jordan, arguably the world’s best basketball player, has a growth mindset. Most successful people do. In high school he was cut from the basketball team but that obviously didn’t discourage him: “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career, I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game wining shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

If you have a growth mindset, then you use your failures to improve. If you have a fixed mindset, you may never fail, but neither do you learn or grow.

Kaadhal Kavithaigal (cover)

I feel the pure bliss that only music can give when I listen to a melodious song from Ilaiyaraja. Thanks to Ramya, I got to listen to this beautiful song for the first time. This is my first duet with Ramya, who’s a good singer and got a beautiful voice.

Movie: Gopura vasalile
Music: Maestro Ilayaraja
Originally sung by: SPB, Chitra
Covered by: Ramya & Joseph Thomas (Jo)

Download “Kaadhal Kavithaigal (cover)” MP3 from here (6.94 MB)

Man eats 68 “dogs” in 10 minutes!

Don’t believe it? Check out the front page of today’s Deshabhimani newspaper (click on the image below to see the full and enlarged version). It says a man ate 68 dogs in a competition organized in America as part of the independence day. And the second prize winner ate the flesh of 64.5 dogs. If you are just stunned at how a person could eat 68 “dogs” in just 10 minutes, check out this link.

deshabhimani_small

As the Malayalam saying goes, “kaala pettu ennu kekkumbum kayar edukkaruthu“…