Marketing Ethics

Recently, there has been a huge uproar about the Aditya Birla Group “taking advantage” of cricketer, Yuvraj Singh’s medical condition to make money through their TV commercial ad campaign for Birla Sun Life Insurance brand. This has raised a very important question, the question about ethics in advertising. How far should an organization be allowed to market their product to the consumer before their strategy is deemed unethical?

Before we look into the details of this situation and create an opinion, let’s look at some facts:

September, 2011

Yuvi shoots for the Birla Sun Life Insurance Ad in Mumbai. Here is the ad:

  Birla Sun Life Insurance Commercial

Mid January, 2012

Yuvi wants to change a few lines in the commercial. He insists that the word ‘injury’ in the original ad be changed to ‘health problems’.

January 30, 2012

The ad goes live on national television for the first time.

January 31, 2012

Yuvi tweets that he is looking forward to the ad and is looking to return to form.

Early February 2012

The entire country and cricket fans across the world find out that Yuvraj Singh has been detected with lung cancer. His tumor has been diagnosed as very serious but curable and that he will be flying to the U.S. to get further treatment.

Mid February 2012

The Birla Sun Life Insurance ad starts getting aired with increased frequency, almost touching once every 10 minutes on certain TV channels.

As a reaction to the series of events above, several critics lashed out at the Birla insurance brand for “cashing in on the player’s illness” and “highlighting their own marketing message when somebody is down”. On the other hand, Ajay Kakkar, Chief Marketing Officer, of the Aditya Birla Group released a statement saying that the ad was in the right spirit and that his company will not withdraw it. He claimed that Yuvraj Singh told two journalists that this ad is no longer a commercial but it is his life.

So, who is right? And the big question is: is it really ethical for Aditya Birla Group to continue to run this commercial keeping in mind Yuvraj Singh’s critical health?

Looking at the situation from a wide perspective, I can say that just like there is two sides to every coin, there is two genuine and totally contrast opinions to this controversy. However, I personally feel that ethics in this situation totally relies not on how the critics, the Aditya Birla group or even cricket fans across the world feel about the commercial. It depends on how Yuvraj Singh himself feels about the commercial.

If Yuvi believes that the company is taking undue advantage of his health problem, he should put in a request to the company to withdraw the ad or even decrease the frequency of its airing. At that point, if the company refuses to honor his request, it would be totally unethical on their part.

However, if Yuvi truly feels happy about a brand representing the story of his life and wants to use it as an opportunity to send out a thought provoking message to people around the world and in the process, become an inspiration in their lives; I believe the airing of the commercial as well as its frequency is absolutely ethical.

Think for a minute about Lance Armstrong. When Lance was fighting against cancer, he chose to become a brand ambassador for Nike to share his story with others. Millions followed him and wore the yellow Livestrong bands and if anything, the campaign helped in increasing awareness and providing courage and support to several people fighting cancer across the world. Was that ethical?

I mean Yuvraj took money for the commercial and given his own brand name, I am sure he was paid enough. We can only make unsure judgments about whether or not he himself was aware of his tumor at the time he shot for the ad. So, from a business point of view, there is nothing unethical about airing an ad that Yuvraj voluntarily shot for and has not asked to be withdrawn. From a human point of view, on the other hand, the question of ethics is totally dependant on how Yuvi takes this commercial – as an intention for someone to cash in on his illness or a way to reach out to millions to share his struggle against lung cancer and teach them what a champion like him has to say about the uncertainties of life.

Get well soon, Yuvi.

I Love Lizards (now)

There are certain things in life that you start to appreciate only when you fully realize their meaning and importance. Last night, I went to sleep pretty on-time, say around 10:30 PM and was looking to wake up early and have a productive day. As I walked to the room that I now sleep in (yes, I have a different room now for everything, one for my stuff, one for showering and getting dressed, one for sleeping, one for reading, one for working etc....I pretty much decided to utilize every corner of the house for my existence :) and have been successfully doing so for a couple of months now)....anyhow back to my story.

So, as I walked to the room that I now sleep in, a lizard dashed right in front of me from under the bed across the floor to some other piece of furniture. If it were the old me, I would have probably jumped, yelled, screamed, ran out and refused to never ever sleep in that room again. Yes, that used to be my love towards lizards - the creature. But the new me just stood there, looked at it like "What? You too are sleeping in this room? Ok, not that I like you but fine." I have to make an honorary mention here that I am no longer scared of lizards. I finally learnt to overcome this fear that has been deep within me since I was a kid. I mean, they still look creepy but they don't scare me anymore. For that matter, I guess almost nothing at all scares me anymore... :-) it's like I have developed an anti-scare shield around myself that bounces any fear rays back to the person/thing that lasers the scare on me. Ok, I am not sure what I am writing now because I am a little bit sleepy.

But with my zombie talk above, you must have realized that I have now woken up in the middle of the night and blabbering about some lizard. It so happened that I said my good night to my new roomate, the lizard, read a couple of more chapters of Richard Branson's autobiography, inserted my 'Only One Chance' bookmark where I finished, and switched off the lights to a calm, peaceful sleep around 10:30 PM.

The weather is changing here in Punjab so I was sleeping with a fan+blanket combination (my absolute favorite time of the year) pretty soundly when suddenly I started to toss and turn frantically. I had woken up and was unable to go back to sleep. I got a little frustrated because I have been very particular about my sleeping schedule and this waking up in the middle of the night hadn't happened to me since the last several months. Why was this happening today? I started feeling itchy on my arms, then my hands and then kind of everywhere. After a few minutes of sleepy frustration of trying to figure out what's going on, the reason for my sleeplessness dawned on me. M-O-S-Q-U-I-T-O-E-S!

I was being bit by mosquitoes furiously everywhere on my body. I stayed in bed for sometime trying to ignore their existence and go back to sleep but all my efforts seem futile. And then, in super duper frustration, I just suddenly sat up, made a very helpless looking face and with my eyes still closed, said out loud, "Damn it! Where the hell is that lizard? Why is she not eating these machhars?"

I sat in dark silence in bed for a few minutes. With the realization that I had no option but to wake up and walk all the way to my sister's room and get some mosquito repellant, I finally turned on the lights and started to slowly open my eyes. As soon as I was wide awake, my roomate, the lizard, dashed across the wall from the window to behind the curtains. My response to that literally went something like this, "Dude, what have you been doing? I let you in my room so you'd eat some of these biting things. What's wrong with you? You got a bad stomach or what?"

Thinking of a bad stomach, I decided to check up on my dad while on my way to get the mosquito repellant. He has been really sick since the past few days and to not much surprise, he too was awake and wandering around. I asked him if I could get him anything but he said he was fine and proceeded back to bed to give sleep another try. I was amazed at how my parents were sleeping in a super warm blanket with no fan on. I guess I am the only one feeling the change in the weather.

Anyhow, I got my mosquito repellant and picked up my laptop on the way back. Perhaps, some work on the computer will help me get back to sleep. Now, a cup of tea, a dozen biscuits, completion of the newyorkfitness.in website (yes, it is now complete, uploaded and live on the web) and this blog post later, I am still awake. It's 3:00 AM and my dogs are barking at God knows who, outside in the driveway.

Not sure, what the point of this blog post was. I guess it was just another effort to put myself to sleep. That's what I do when I can't sleep. I blabber on. Blabbering on about useless stuff that makes no sense puts me to sleep and when there is not a person I can blabber to, I pick up my computer and blabber on in the form of writing. So, thank you for listening (I mean reading) my blabber. I am now yawning and ready to go back to bed. Good night and sweet dreams. Oh, and if you too are being bothered by mosquitoes, you are welcome to come and borrow my lizard for the night. She has plenty of friends around here and they seem to be having a lizard party in my house.

Courtesy: offthemark.com

Best Airlines Award

With the travel bug biting me and several others around me in the past few days, I started to think about all the airlines I have flown till date. I thought about the names along with my experiences with each one. When I realized that the list was about to overflow my brain,  I decided to sit and jot down the names of each of the airlines that I could remember flying with at some point on a piece of paper.

Interestingly, when I got done making a written list, I realized that I had flown a total of 26 different airlines which was kind of funny because 26 happens to be a number that constantly shows up in my life for some reason. I was even born on the 26th of the month. Sometimes, I wonder if 26 is a lucky or an unlucky no. for me. But then I just laugh because I don't necessarily give a crap about such things but it's just amusing to me how my life often gets associated with the number 26.

Anyhow, here are the 26 airlines that I have flown with till date (in no fixed order):

1. Austrian Airlines
2. Air France
3. Alitalia
4. Air India
5. Delta
6. American Airlines
7. Continental (now part of United)
8. Unites Airlines
9. Lufthansa
10. Emirates
11. Jet Airways
12. Kingfisher Airlines (now bankrupt and closed)
13. Spicejet 
14. Gulf Airways
15. Royal Jordanian
16. Virgin Atlantic
17. KLM
18. British Airways
19. Air Seychelles
20. Indian Airlines
21. AirTran Airways
22. Kuwait Airways
23. Northwest Airlines (now part of Delta)
24. Royal Nepal Airlines
25. Southwest Airlines
26. US Airways

As I went through the lucky/unlucky 26 airlines in the list above, I thought about my personal experiences with each one. With all the analysis done in my head, I decided to give my personal BEST AIRLINES AWARD to Virgin Atlantic Airlines. Out of all the airlines I have flown with, I believe Virgin Atlantic has and provides the absolute best to a flyer in terms of their service, staff knowledge and friendliness, food choice and quality, smooth flying and landing, comfort seating, great in-flight entertainment and overall flying experience.

While I was going through all this analysis in my head, I happened to be at my favorite bookshop to pick a new book to read since I had just finished the last one the night before. I started to fiddle around with the different books wondering what I should pick up next. The bookshop owner, a well-read man, who has always recommended amazing books to me since I was a kid, continued to blabber on about some new science journal he thought I might be interested in since he knew I had recently finished reading Michio Kaku's Physics of the future. But right then, my eyes went on to a stack of autobiographies (a kind I love to read) and fell right upon Richard Branson. It suddenly occurred to me that I was looking at the autobiography of a man to whom I would love to give my best airlines award. So I took no time in reaching up to the stack, pulling out the book that was interestingly called 'Losing my virginity' and checked out shortly thereafter.

I started reading the new book just yesterday and I have to say that so far, it has my attention. Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group of Companies, and known as a hardcore business tycoon, actually comes out as a very passionate family man rooted deep in his love for his wife, Joan and kids Holly and Sam. In his book, he is simple, witty, straight to the point and downright honest which I believe makes the book a great read. There is lots to learn from Richard Branson especially for those who are, as he calls them, 'virgins at business'. I am only a couple of chapters through and I think I am going to enjoy the flight.

So, for any of you planning to travel soon, I recommend you book a ticket with my personal favorite airlines, Virgin Atlantic, and pick up your copy of 'Losing my Virginity', the autobiography of the man who made it all happen, to read on-board. Safe travels and have a wonderful flight! :)

Virgin Atlantic Flight In Air

Leadership v/s Management

Leadership is not management. Leadership is the first creation whereas management is the second creation.

Management is a bottom line focus. How can I best accomplish certain things? Leadership deals with the top line: What are the things I want to accomplish? In the words of both Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis, “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

You can quickly grasp the important difference between the two if you envision a group of producers cutting their way through the jungle with machetes. They’re the producers, the problem solvers. They’re cutting through the undergrowth, clearing it out.

The managers are behind them, sharpening their machetes, writing policy, and procedure manuals, holding muscle development programs, bringing in improved technologies and setting up working schedules and compensation programs for machete wielders.

The leader is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, “Wrong jungle!” But how do the busy, efficient producers and mangers often respond? “Shut up! We’re making progress.”

As individuals, groups, and businesses, we’re often so busy cutting through the undergrowth we don’t even realize we’re in the wrong jungle. And the rapidly changing environment in which we live makes effective leadership more critical than it has ever been-in every aspect of independent and interdependent life.

We are more in need of a vision or destination and a compass (a set of principles and directions) and less in need of a road map. We often don’t know what the terrain ahead will be like or what we will need to go through it; much will depend on our judgment at the time. But an inner compass will always give us direction.

Effectiveness – often even survival – does not depend solely on how much effort we expend, but on whether or not the effort we expend is in the right jungle. And the metamorphosis  taking place in most every industry and profession demands leadership first and management second.

In business, the market is changing so rapidly that many products and services that successfully met consumer tastes and needs a few years ago are obsolete today. Proactive powerful leadership must constantly monitor environmental change, particularly customer buying habits and motives, and provide the force necessary to organize resources in the right direction.

Efficient management without effective leadership is, as one individual has phrased it, “like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic.” No management success can compensate for failure in leadership. But leadership is hard because we’re often caught in a management paradigm. 

At the final session of a year-long executive development program in Seattle, the president of an oil company came up to me and said, “Stephen, when you pointed out the difference between leadership and management in the second month, I looked at my role as the president of this company and realized that I had never been into leadership. I was deep into management, buried by pressing challenges and the details of day-to-day logistics. So, I decided to withdraw from management, I could get other people to do that. I wanted to really lead my organization.

It was hard, I went through withdrawal pains because I stopped dealing with a lot of the pressing, urgent matters that were right in front of me and which gave me a sense of immediate accomplishment. I didn’t receive much satisfaction as I started wrestling with the direction issues, the culture building issues, the deep analysis of problems, the seizing of new opportunities. Others also went through withdrawal pains from their working style comfort zones. They missed the easy accessibility I had given them before. They still wanted me to be available to them, to respond, to help solve their problems on a day-to-day basis.

But I persisted. I was absolutely convinced that I needed to provide leadership. And I did. Today our whole business is different. We’re more in line with our environment. We have doubled our revenues and quadrupled our profits. I’m into leadership.”

I’m convinced that too often parents are also trapped in the management paradigm, thinking of control, efficiency, and rules instead of direction, purpose and family feeling.

And leadership is even more lacking in our personal lives. We’re into managing with efficiency, setting and achieving goals before we have even clarified our values.

- Stephen R. Covey, an excerpt from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

harneetchawla.com is Live

harneetchawla.com is now live. I had promised that it would be up in less than a week.  If you had the chance to take a look, you would have noticed that it has been live since Monday. So, promise completed!

The basic website is up. But this is not where I will stop. I plan to continue to expand it to make it more fun, interactive and dynamic. I have lots of ideas in mind for the same but I am no longer putting a timeline to it. It's something that I will keep working on as a hobbyist in the future. I love exploring and learning new things and this will be yet another project that will keep me intellectually stimulated. For now, I am working on testing the blog commenting system, developing a new page called 'Learn' and putting together new photo albums to upload on the website. So, keep visiting harneetchawla.com often to see all the new stuff that I keep bringing to it.

For the time being, I did what I had intended to do as a first step and have a completed personal website. So, isi khushi vich muh mitha karo with my homemade yummilicious treat, Um Ali:

Um Ali

This is a dessert that I made last night for my family. It's called Um Ali. It's a delicious bread pudding that is typically made in arabic households during Eid. The literal translation of Um Ali means the mother of Ali. It's made using bread, bananas, milk, tons of mixed nuts and raisins, some cardamom and saffron. It came out really yum, my family loved it and there is still some left overs. You are welcome to come and raid my fridge. :) 

The Sikh New Year

It's Sangraand today and with that it is also the first day of the month, Chet. Yes, today is

THE SIKH NEW YEAR!

Here's wishing every person on this planet a new change, a new life, a new beginning and a new you on this very very happy new year. :) May Waheguru bless you with everything you deserve.

(To learn more about Sangraand, please refer to my post 'Last Month of The Year' dated Feb 14, 2012)

On this blessed occasion that marks & reminds us the Sikh way of life year after year,  I thought I would share with you an amazing Sikh story..................

In 1913, when the World War I was going on, the Indian Army (then British Indian Army) was called to come fight for the common cause. During this time, when the Sikh Regiment of the Indian Army was asked to join, the Sikh soldiers refused to go on the battleground without taking Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji (the Sikh holy scripture) along with them. Keeping in mind the request of the Sikh soldiers, the British government got thirteen miniature Sri Guru Granth Sahib prepared from a printing press in Germany for thirteen regiments in the Indian Army. Each of these were 1 inch in size and contained 1430 ang (pages). The Sikh soldiers took these miniature Guru Granth Sahibs with them and went on to win many battles under the blessings and safe eyes of their holy scripture. The Sikh soldiers would always take the hukamnama (word of the day) from the Guru Granth Sahib before going to the battlefield. After they would take the hukamnama, a Sikh soldier would put the miniature sized 1-inch Guru Granth Sahib in a special miniature box made out of silver and keep it in his turban.  There used to a special lens in the silver box that helped the soldiers in reading out the Guru's words from the 1-inch book.

These 100 year old historic Guru Granth Sahibs are still around today with one of them being safely kept at Gurudwara Mai Than Sahib at Agra. This i-inch swaroop of the Guru Granth Sahib along with some other historic pieces (a 224 year old Guru Granth Sahib Ji written using dyes made out of out of rock and a 275 year old Guru Granth Sahib Ji handwritten by Baba Deep Singh Ji & Bhaayi Mani Singh Ji) is currently on a tour of various cities to provide Sikhs in other parts of the country an opportunity to see and learn from the history of their religion and scriptures.

I had the fantastic opportunity to see all three (mentioned above) today as the historic tour made a stop in my city. It was a wonderful day to start a wonderful new year ahead. I did not have a camera on me at that moment and unfortunately, the picture I clicked on my phone didn't turn out worthwhile. So, I am going to try again tomorrow to see if I can get some pictures for all of you before it leaves the city. Can't promise but I will try my best!

I hope you liked my New Year story and that it inspired you in some way. For one thing, it's real and it's part of our rich Sikh history. Happy Year 544 to everyone! :)

******
March 15, 2012


Here are the pictures as promised yesterday:

100 year old, 1 x 1 inch, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, on a miniature paalki with a reading light and magnifying lens

A close up look of the 100 year old, 1 x 1 inch, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji

225 year old Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji written using dyes made out of rock

275 years old Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji handwritten by Baba Deep Singh Ji and Bhaayi Mani Singh Ji

Student of the Century

I believe that every woman on this planet should be independent. Whether or not she ever has to, she should at least have the capability to be self-sufficient and be able to survive on her own - physically, mentally, emotionally and financially. No matter what people say about the world, the reality is that we still live in a male dominated society where women are often treated as unequals and many a times end up becoming victims of men within their own families with controlling behavior. This is especially true in India, a country that ironically surpassed U.S.A. four decades ago by appointing a female Prime Minister (Indira Gandhi), a dream that the U.S. Presidency still seems far away from.

One of the most important things that can help us accomplish this goal is to educate girls. Not just educating them, but giving them the same opportunities in academics, sports, career and life choices as the boys. There is absolutely no other way to eliminate inequality between the two genders from this world. I pity people who treat their sons different from their daughters purely because of the gender they were born with. Such people don't deserve to exist or talk about equality since they are discriminating in their own homes amongst their own children. And it's usually the girls of such families who eventually suffer the most in the long run because they are unprepared for the realities of life.

With such strong belief in empowering women to take control of their lives, I am a big preacher of educating girls from a very young age. I have worked on several such projects both in India and the U.S. at an individual and institutional level in the last several years. But one thing I have always enjoyed the most is one on one teaching. Whenever I have time and a young student willing and eager to learn, I never pass on that opportunity. I feel like I was somehow sent on this planet to help the females rise up in society by doing such community work as well as by becoming a role model for them through my own personal successes.

My newest student in this 'educate the girls club' is Muskaan. She is the daughter of one of our workers and is a brilliant student. Muskaan's parents initially did send her to school. However, she gave up a few days after she started due to bad environment in her household with an alcoholic father and almost no financial support. Muskaan is 3 years old and very very eager to learn. So, GOD sent her an opportunity that she grabbed right away.

Muskaan is now a student at the Chawla Heritage a.k.a. my home and comes to learn English, Mathematics and Art every single day. She is such a bundle of energy and a very quick learner. In just a few days, she has already learnt counting from 1 to 20, the english names for the objects that represent the english alphabet (apple, ball, cat....to zebra), rhymes such as 'Early to Bed', 'Johny Johny', 'Twinkle Twinkle' and coloring skills.

In order to keep her interest high, I decided to make a short video of her so she could see herself at the end of the lesson. Watching herself on the computer after her class was over for the day led her to get even more excited about learning (and of course the yummy treats that she gets to eat as prizes help too) and her mother tells me that Muskaan does not miss class for anything anymore. She waits everyday for evening to arrive, takes a shower, dresses nice, oils her hair, gets her bag ready and walks to my doorstep with the brightest smile I have seen in a long time. Truly a Muskaan, this kid is! :)

Well, without saying much further, I will just let you watch the video I shot of her. I love the parts where she repeats "11...12...13...20" three times because she is so excited and also where she starts to mimick everything I say including the oohs and the aahs. :)

Muskaan is such a darling and I call her my "student of the century".


                       

Muskaan counting 1 - 20, reciting an english rhyme and showing off her coloring skills. 

The voice in the background is mine.

The Crash

It has happened. Yes, the crash has come upon me. Just when I got done with testing my website and  uploading the first two pages on the web this past Monday, my computer crashed. I had left off my project on Friday evening with so much excitement and could not wait to get going on Monday morning. FYI, I don't work weekends. Actually, not only do I NOT WORK weekends, I don't even THINK WORK on weekends. It's my time off for the family - a rule I have followed since the day I started working years ago. So, anyhow, the excited Monday morning came, the test went successful, the first two pages uploaded (well, the second one almost uploaded minus some audio files) and then came the boom, the bang, the foos, the crash. What a disaster! :-(

Fortunately, not my entire computer but part of it crashed (some of the programs) and as a result, I lost a lot of what I had created for harneetchawla.com and newyorkfitness.in So much for all the hard work I had put in. :-( But then again, what can one do? Shit happens all the time. I have been trying my best to put together pieces of what is left since the last few days but in vain. So, I think the judgement is now out. I am going to have to start all over again. Kinda sucks but oh well, it's not like there is a choice.

Lesson Learned: Never put off doing what is important first. Back up your shit as you go along. Trouble does not tell you before it comes knocking at your door.

Oh, well....I am tired of butting heads with this computer for the last few days, so I think I am going to go and take it easy for a while. Take a break, clean my room, pack, go shop and chill. In the meantime, feel free to browse the two pages that I had uploaded during testing on www.harneetchawla.com  After my relaxation mode is over, I will start over with a fresh mind and new ideas. If failures have taught me anything in life, it is to never let them wear you down, work harder and always come back with a bang. harneetchawla.com will be up in less than a week. I promise. :o)

International Women's Day 2012

Happy International Women's Day 2012 to all the mothers, daughters, wives, sisters, girlfriends, friends, classmates and colleagues out there. Today, I don't want to say much. I think the inside of every woman speaks for itself and is enough to remind you of what you do day in, day out to fulfill and balance every role that God has showered you with to ensure that every person in your life stays happy. So, instead of blabbering too much about how amazing we women are, I would just like to dedicate a song to all of you on this special occasion.

My only message today to all you pretty women out there is:

"1. Take it one day at a time 
  2. Believe in yourself 
  3. Don't forget to smile"

I hope you enjoy the song. It's called 'The Climb'. It's one of my favorite songs by Miley Cyrus. Happy Women's Day!

Lyrics as follows:

I can almost see itThat dream I am dreamingBut there's a voice inside my head saying"You'll never reach it"
Every step I'm takingEvery move I make feelsLost with no directionMy faith is shaking
But I gotta keep tryingGotta keep my head held high
There's always gonna be another mountainI'm always gonna wanna make it moveAlways gonna be a uphill battleSometimes I'm gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get thereAin't about what's waiting on the other sideIt's the climb
The struggles I'm facingThe chances I'm takingSometimes might knock me downBut no, I'm not breaking
I may not know itBut these are the moments thatI'm gonna remember most, yeahJust gotta keep going
And I, I got to be strongJust keep pushing on
'Cause there's always gonna be another mountainI'm always gonna wanna make it moveAlways gonna be an uphill battleSometimes I'm gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get thereAin't about what's waiting on the other sideIt's the climb, yeah!
There's always gonna be another mountainI'm always gonna wanna make it moveAlways gonna be an uphill battleSomebody's gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get thereAin't about what's waiting on the other sideIt's the climb, yeah!
Keep on moving, keep climbingKeep the faith, babyIt's all about, it's all about the climbKeep the faith, keep your faith, whoa

5 More Years of SAD-BJP in Punjab

The verdict is out. The Shiromani Akali Dal - Bharatiya Janta Party has won 5 more years of leadership (or should I say dictatorship?) in Punjab. My first reaction to that: "Yeh to hona hi tha."

I have been following the campaigning season in Punjab very closely especially for the last few months and what I can say is that the only party I heard doing something were the Akalis. When I say, doing something, I don't mean development and running of some amazing programs in the state; I mean campaigning for themselves. Whether you picked up the newspaper, listened to the radio, switched on the TV (punjabi news obviously flooded with Akali favoritism since Badal owns PTC channel) or heard about rallies happening around you, it was mostly all SAD shouting about how great they had been in the last 5 years and why they deserved a chance to come back to power. They talked about their farmer, education for girls, save the girl child, free cycles & aata-daal schemes; the building of Khalsa Heritage, the organization of the world kabbadi competition etc. etc. ( although most of these were either last minute stuff they pulled to attract voters or a means for them to swallow some more of the tax payers hard earned money). But the point is that no matter what their inside intentions were, they were out there, visible, shouting and leaving imprints for the naked eye and ears of a voter to absorb and remember.

On the other hand, Congress was no where to be found. This election season, Congress depended mostly on what I call negative marketing of the competitor. The only time I would hear a Congress party person speak or hear/watch their campaign ad (which were almost non-existent), they were all about how Badal and family had eaten up Punjab and how they were not worthy of being in power. But, I never heard Congress mention what their own personal agenda and goals for the state were if the people of Punjab gave them a chance to rule for the next 5 years. Nor did I hear about what they did against the evils of the Akali corruption for the last 5 years while sitting in opposition. There was no clarity of thought,  no focus and I thing Captain Amarinder Singh just spent most of his campaigning days sleeping in his palace in Patiala. Moreover, I think Captain Amarinder was so dependent on a so called "strong Centre" (thanks Rahul Gandhi for showing up your face in Punjab exactly three times, not that it helped with your 200 rallies in U.P. either) that he did not feel the need to campaign himself regionally. As if the problems of the entire country are same as the problems of Punjab and that the Central govt. when it comes to power is going to banish every other state in order to think and work only for Punjab. Bad strategy, Captain!

People's Party of Punjab (PPP)- now that was a whole different stunt. Although many hoped that a new party might come and bring a sigh of relief to people who are sick of both the SAD-BJP and the Congress, I knew from day one that a party formed on grounds of "Ok, I don't like you anymore so I am going to go start my own shit. Oh and by the way, in asterisk, if I don't win (which Manpreet Badal did not), I will come back and join you" wasn't going to go too far. Pretty evident by the 0 seats they won, isn't it? I mean, people ARE stupid, but not THAT stupid.

So, is it a good thing that SAD-BJP is going to rule Punjab for yet another 5 years? Hell, no! Would it have been a good thing if Congress had taken the winning spot? Hell, no! I don't think any of the parties is truly worth it. But then again, we do a need a government. So, I think the only good thing in all of this is that with the break-up of seats as the results have come out, there will be a strong opposition which is always needed in effective running of any government. It ensures that the state stays in balance and away from dictatorship by one single party.

Before the elections, there was clearly no one-sided inclination and most people you talked to said that the results could go either ways. However, my personal opinion is that election 2012 in Punjab was purely a marketing win. No party was any better than the other. But the party that campaigned better clearly won over the party with a losing marketing strategy. So, I think the celebration and congratulations goes to the back-end campaigning team and marketing strategists of SAD-BJP, it truly is their win. As for the people of Punjab, get ready for 5 more years of Badal-ship. He is 85, single and ready to rock his 5th term.

Parkash Singh Badal

If I Were...

Have you ever wondered that given a chance, what or who you would be if you were not who you are? Well, I have. And here is what I think:

1.  If I were not an Engineer, I would be
    A Professional Dancer

2.  If I were a singer/dancer/performer, I would be
    Beyonce Knowles

3.  If I were a rapper, I would be
    Jay-Z

4.  If I were an actor, I would be
     Meryl Streep

5.  If I were a politician, I would be
     Manmohan Singh

6.  If I were a dog, I would be
     A Labrador

7.  If I were a vegetable, I would be
     An Aaloo (Potato)

8.  If I were a fruit, I would be
     A Banana

9.  If I were a wine, I would be
     Cabernet Sauvignon

10.  If I were an artist, I would be
      Leonardo Da Vinci

11.  If I were a TV show host, I would be
      Larry King

12.  If I were a cartoon, I would be
      Tom (from Tom & Jerry)

13.  If I were a scientist, I would be
      Albert Einstein

14.  If I were a fashion designer, I would be
      Valentino

15.  If I were a stylist, I would be
      Grace Coddington

16.  If I were a supermodel, I would be
      Cindy Crawford

17.  If I were a comedian, I would be
      Amanullah Khan

18.  If I were a humanitarian, I would be
      Mother Teresa

19.  If I were a professional sports player, I would be
      Michael Phelps

20.  If I were the hottest man on the planet, I would be
      Gerard Butler

21.  If I were a writer, I would be
      Dan Brown

22.  If I were a musician, I would be
      A.R. Rehman

23.  If I were a film director, I would be
      Clint Eastwood

24.  If I were a cartoonist, I would be
      Bill Watterson

25.  If I were a piece of furniture, I would be
      A Bed

26.  If I were gym equipment, I would be
      A Treadmill

27.  If I were a piece of jewelry, I would be
      A Pearl Necklace

28.  If I were a footwear, I would be
      A Jessica Simpson Stiletto

29.  If I were a purse, I would be
      A Nine West Totebag

30.  If I were make-up, I would be
      Mac Eye-shadow

31.  If I were a fragrance, I would be
      Lavender

32.  If I were crazy, I would be
      Just Me :)