Happy New Year to you all! Hope this new year (despite the soothsayers and the paranoia specialists and factualists and pragmatists) brings in a lot of peace, happiness and laughter.

Back from a quiet stay in Goa, after spending interesting times with spouse and good friends. With Goa fast becoming a second workplace for the spouse, this holiday felt like being very much at home but with an additional celebratory atmosphere.  We stayed at a concept resort in Salcette that called itself the ‘Soul Vacation’.  Apart from the usual beach hopping, most of the time was spent at the shacks watching the sun set into the sea and children play. Sunsets were a spiritual experience for me each day – be it on the Mandovi River or any of the beaches, they had me addicted. The festive mood in the shacks – with Trans music playing even for breakfast – can’t help but make you feel upbeat.  I guess that’s the spirit of Goa.

Goans follow a tradition of burning effigies of ‘old men’ constructed specially for the  1^st of January – symbolic of doing away with the old. You find many such old men and women made of rags standing guard around street corners, and sometimes, perched on chairs looking tired and weary, and ready to be set on fire. (2008 was definitely filled with memories many of us don’t want to relive.  But it is a time to remember the brave people and pay homage to those who didn’t make it to 2009.)

On a personal note, I celebrate the wonderful people I have in my life – friends, family and colleagues.  I made new beginnings, too, in many ways – with new people entering my life as the year ended, and new activities promising to make the year eventful. Almost like "taking a risk and giving up some of the good in one’s life for the great"!

So, here’s a celebration to the old and the new. And, to a year that maybe frugal but also wiser.

I wanted to record a few weeks of us being under the weather and the value of being blessed with some of the best friends and family in my life. Not for posterity but more as a sharing. Lest we get caught up with the daily routine and all of this gets blurry. J

Many, whose presence and understanding and kind words just rocked! Although, i cannot write about all of them here, i’ll jot this down for the ones who can read.

The gestures that overwhelmed...

When MaryA brought dinner, braving turbulence and a shell-shocked me while she set out to provide nourishment amidst shifting sands. When life was like that drawing on a beach that a child attempts to complete every day only to discover that it gets washed away with the high tide each time.

When San hurried back from his out-of-Bangalore trip out of sheer worry about how i could be coping. When he came to the hospital and held our hands. And to think that we met up after so many months in this fashion. I got the pleasure of making tea for the gentleman with water and tea bags supplied by housekeeping in a hospital. He always sees me at my worst and makes me feel like i am the best thing on the planet since sliced bread. Ah, the rock-solid warmth of a friend from college.

When Dee called innumerable times from Delhi and held my hands over the telephone. And the manner in which she insisted on me doing the things that are right for me first before i attended to others. Where on earth can i find someone like her?

Uma from Sharjah, and her plans to take the next flight and come down. Just for me. Shocked me a bit, that one.

For someone who prayed for a miracle for me. And made it happen. For being simply fabulous.

Aisha, in her own sweet way, always there. Calling at least 3-4 times a day. Reminds me of the time when our worlds were only about mischief, studies, games, and other activities.

When Vinod from S’pore was reassuring and strong. Making me feel like nothing could go wrong at any point of time. Your philosophical attitude is something i cannot replicate, however much i try.

Archie – a sister beyond compare. A friend first and sibling later.

Sneha and Prashanth and Vijaykumar Reddy and Vasu and Louis and Shiva at work. Thanks to Sneha for her persistence with the insurance folks. Not to mention the rest of the gang from there. Folks whom i’ve got to know since a few months only but proving to be steadfast and wonderful. Mir and his willingness to help even when i didn’t ask for it. And to think that i’ve known him only for 2 months now.

A simple message from Jay at Trichy – bringing in so much strength. And, likewise, from two other friends, Far and Priya. Kind words, genuine.

Shibu, insistent and sincere. Sai and Anish and their numerous comforting conversations.

The Uncles and Aunts who were there always in spirit. More than dutifully. What else is family for?

Not to forget the docs and others there.

Thank you all and God Bless you!  

The financial services market (the TG i happen to work with) is going through radical upheaval and tornado-eic weather. In such a scenario, how does one market and communicate business and technology innovation to the concerned TG? While they grapple with addressing the needs of transparency, existing and new regulations and creating a risk averse environment to win the mindshare of their fast-disappearing customers, do technology and packaged offerings really provide recourse - when they actually need lifelines of a many kinds? To convince the incredulous and partake in -- and benefit from -- some of that positive thinking - is that what they call ‘drive’ in marketing?

Applying creative communication to large, anonymous audiences has been considered less effective ever since Web2.0 and social media marketing banged their way into the scene. Strategies shifted to mass media with emphasis on target audiences that are studied in-depth through relentless mining of previous behaviour, data, unpredicted actions and making so-called intelligent projections. Understanding customers would mean that marketing work closely with customer relationship managers and craft individual programs and contact strategies for each segment/type/region/domain/behaviour. All of this is fine when there is a semblance of commonality in the way people react. What happens when accepted notions of safety are turned topsy turvy and their very premise questioned? When new questions arrive with the same speed as the much-talked about bailouts? Panic. Paranoia.

In times of uncertainty, does one wait and watch and see where clients want to put their money and, in the interim, look at improving brand visibility across all segments? Obviously, a mix of the two is called for. In a b2b scenario, does interactive marketing work? Do the engagement ads of Facebook and other forms of social/internet marketing like a presence on Secondlife, without the accompanying organizational cultural changes needed to work with these media, and folks being comfortable with the associated transparency these forms usher into a company, work at all? How does one change the internal mindset and then work on building customer technographic profiles and, subsequently, buil the marketing program accordingly? Many of these customers aren’t tech savvy at all - so one needs to educate them along with internal stakeholders and then create a unique program that will keep them all engaged. Scepticism. Or Opportunity?


Selling products in the b2b space – products that have been created in-house and in some instances inherited organically – to a financial services customer whose attention span where IT budgets are concerned is limited to only ‘containment’ takes on interesting shades of complexity. Isn’t it a time when the rapport one shares with customers becomes the only selling point? Products that are topped with exemplary customer service, that can be tailor made to client expectations, and rest on a strong IT services framework, delivered with a dash of consulting expertise in the domain in rapid time. Gobble. Gobble. How does one acquire all of this? When the so-called instruments that were created to factor in risks in financial markets themselves collapsed, heralding an unprecedented era of risk, what can you base your theories on? Hope.

‘Calling for change in times of change’ – the motto of the hour. And, this, while also unlearning and shedding off what may have been considered the Holy Grail in marketing communication so far. Humility. 

I read The Great Gatsby for the first time a week ago. Precision - that's the word to describe the entire work. Jazzy, New York comes alive in Technicolor writing that reads so accurate one can almost measure it. You forget to read on and be led into the dream world of Gatsby coz the arresting structure and form are more enchanting.

Gatsby was finally revealed after so many years of waiting. It came with its prize-winning reputation and lived quite amicably with it. Ash grays mingled with pompous partying reminded me of the pubbing and hole-hopping we did a few years ago, when priorities lay in entertaining friends every weekend and then jaunting off for a nite cap far enough into the night. Long drives under starlit skies and the chirping of horns drove our decadent lot reveling in a (silly) sense of achievement in eating out at the 'next best' restaurant profiled for that week.

Life's changed so much now. Age, yes. Enslaving and debilitating work that cocoons you and tosses you around in that tiny space like a boomerang.  The passion of loving what you do keeps you going. Is this the beginning of middle age?