Ramblings of an unknown sell-inebriety

Return of the Scientist Rockstar

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 15:50:00 +0000

It was a pleasure to read in the Guardian today about the new Oscars for Science - The Breakthrough prize for life sciences. It seems to be the biggest prize money being given out to the scientists who have contributed in a significant way. The prize money of 3 million each is more than the Nobel prize itself. Ofcourse it doesnt come with the same prestige but I'm sure there are many more people who deserve the attention of the world than just the Nobel prize winners in the various fields. Yes, it might even be true that the 4 Tech gurus of this world (Yuri Milner, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerburg and Jack Ma) might be doing this for some self publicity but hey, I don't mind the reasons as long as there is some good coming out of it.

I had read somewhere that scientists were the rockstars of the 19th century. Well it seems we might have come a full circle in the 21st century (or atleast showing signs of it ). Although there is no respite in the coverage of everyday motions of the rockstars, moviestars and all others belonging to the entertainment field, it is definitely endearing to see more and more coverage of the people who are doing to change the world we live in.

It somehow important that we continue with attention. Not for the sake of the scientists themselves , although of course they deserve every bit of praise that comes their way - but also for the generation of today looking for their first role models besides their parents.

Source : http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/07/breakthrough-prize-oscars-of-science

Ad to instant Action

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 21:16:00 +0000

Every company that make advertisements want it to culminate in an action of purchase.The time lapse between the two should be as short as possible to garner the maximum bang for your ad buck. This is one innovative idea to convert ad to action instantly. Way to go HUL at the Kumbh Mela. Me likey :-)

The path to happiness

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 22:59:00 +0000

Maybe its entering my 30's, maybe its because of my search for some time now for this elusive elixir called happiness, maybe its new year resolutions time, maybe its long drinking sessions with close friends on philosophies of life, maybe it talking to my lovely wife or maybe its reading Herman Hesse's Siddhartha just before writing this post or all of the above - I'm feeling a sense of calm and contentedness flow over me, like the river in the book which ebbs and flows and is at peace with its existence, which I haven't felt in a long long time.

I realize now that the search itself was what was hindering me in finding it. I had been feeling uninspired lately to write. You can clearly see that from the decreasing quantum of material on the blog. I was feeling lost with my own inability to find the right words to put my thoughts down. Sometimes an emotion tugged at me and I wrote but mostly I was silent on the outside and burning inside, waiting to explode. I was even feeling ashamed of the poor formulation of my thoughts. But I feel a sense of freedom now. No, I don't think I have found this thing called happiness, but maybe, just maybe, I have found the path. And sorry this is not something I can share for like its written in the book - everyone follows their own path. "Knowledge can be shared, Wisdom, not so much" to re quote Herman Hesse less eloquently.

This much I can say - don't try hard in life to look for happiness - do the things that make you happy and life will find you. I don't even know if that's a quote that exists or not.If yes, then all credit to that someone, but I'm sure a lot of people before me have found this to be true and would have expressed this feeling in similar fashion and hence the idea itself is not new.

But understanding the idea took its own sweet time with me. Now that I have , I hope that I can gain something for this rare introspection. Its ironic in a way cause anyone who knows me - the word introspection is something they would consider I'm far far removed from. But surprise surprise, its here and I wish to attempt to take that leap of faith into this new found wisdom and try to take it where it leads me on wards from now on. And maybe you are on your own journey yourself (by googling the title of this blog ) and have stumbled upon this blog in the eternal world of the Internet. May you find your own way of interpreting this idea.

Don't get too worried - my family and friends who know me in real life. This doesn't mean I'm changed. I'm just more free to be me and enjoy that in its pure unadulterated version. So watch out - Will the real Vivek please stand up question has been answered - The real Viveks have stood up and be prepared to see all and hopefully I find that elixir when all this is said and done.

PS : In case you didn't get the hint -read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse :-) Cheers and Thank you for all the Fish. Wait that's Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy. Ahh well - now you know my fusion style ;-)

The Legend retires

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 22:16:00 +0000

I awoke at 11 am in Denmark to the news of Tendulkar retiring from ODIs. All those clamoring for his retirement got what they were screaming for but somehow the initial silence on social media is the deafening proof that all those people of my generation are sitting with this same loss of childhood feeling that I'm sitting with. We were the ODI generation and our ODI idol has giving us his all...Thank you Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar for helping all of us forget all our worries and frustrations growing up and making us go out and play one more time to try and see if we can be own local neighborhood's Sachin and be the best we can be...If there is one role model India has seen in the past 20 years who everyone would follow -it has been YOU, no matter the regions, the religions the castes, the seeped corruption, you have made us proud. Cricket will not be the same after this for us.

Why cant we Live and Let Live?

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 20:32:00 +0000

With the attacks in Norway it really seems like the last bastion of peaceful living on this planet has also been now shattered. It comes out that some right wing extremist who sat in his house dreamed up an European takeover by Muslims and he murdered 93 innocent souls to prove his lunatic point.

I was relieved for minute there that it was a right wing lunatic who caused so much damage in Norway and not another Islamist extremist group. But that lasted but for a minute - the thought that followed afterwards was that the other extremist groups of the world are a kind of "taking offence" of the spread of Islamist extremism and are resorting to the same tactics to showcase their totally and utterly whacked messages around the world.

Its only one of the latest of the horrific terrorist attacks all over the world that seems to show an ever decreasing tolerance levels around the world. Bombay was attacked again only a week back. Death tolls and killings around the world have reached such epic proportions that any number less than 100 doesn't even register in our brains anymore. We are getting desensitized to murder. That doesn't say anything good about our society today. I today's globalized world when we all will be talking working and living with people from all over the world - Being Tolerant is not a just a "nice thing" but the very basis of sustainable peaceful living on the planet. Live and Let Live or see the planet burn in hate.

Transparency Revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:45:00 +0000

We live in interesting times to say the least. The Internet's power is slowly being released and its true strength is coming to the fore. With the entire world wired in to what's happening in the most hidden alleyways of the world there is little that the governments of today can keep away from their people and the rest of world.

Of course everyone has seen the impact of Wikileaks and the Middle East revolutions and how the toppling of the various regimes have happened in short span of time. All this has been observed and written about by far greater thought leaders than poor old me with his laptop. What i wanted to point out was something I have not seen written around and that's a name for this phenomenal revolution happening right under our noses.

Hence I take it upon myself to christen this grand revolution as the Transparency revolution. Why? Well since the time that different forms of governments have been running the countries - be they democratic, autocratic, socialistic, republic or even anarchic - the citizens of the such governments have almost never been pervy to how the BIG decisions impacting their day to day lives have been taken by those who lead/rule/govern them.Now slowly with the help of the Internet there is more and more transparency demanded and obtained by the people and governments all over the world have had no choice but to slowly but surely let escape the secrets they have for so long kept hidden within the select circle.I understand it must be quite scary for many of these governments (yes, even the democracies are scared) but for now they have no option. Unless of course they find the way to tame the Internet entirely as a communication medium.

China is trying to do that currently - I must say I'm quite surprised that its worked till now. Just the sheer number of Chinese people who live outside China and are able to access all the information and bringing it back with them must be raising quite a scare among the Chinese Politburo members.

The worry must be quite similar with the Indian political leaders too. Though they have been "elected" by the people there is still far too much that is hidden under the dark cupboards of government that needs to be cleaned. Like I said we live in interesting times. Lets wait and watch what expose comes next !!!

Customize Me

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:08:00 +0000

Happy 2011 everyone. I wont even bother excusing my writers block and would just like to thank the heavens above that I'm still writing :-) . A new decade's starting and it makes you look back at the decades gone by (90's rocked obviously for my generation -Go Bhumkesh Bakshi and X Files) and wonder what's in store for the coming decades.

One of the things that we notice is the almost global shift towards individualism and the personalization of everything. From your mobile phone background screens to your Christmas gifts to your cars - Everything is now customized. Mass market is so un-cool!!! I think customization of our lives is going to be one of the biggest thing for this and coming decades.

Lets imagine a completely customized world of 2030 for inspiration. A new child is born - Customized from the DNA analysis of the Mother and Father to make sure only the best qualities in both are exemplified in the child. The kid gets a name which is customized and totally unique for him/her - XtraOrdinary007 or something (Ofcourse alterable when the kid turns 18 to be customizable for the kid's choice). The DNA analysis (or whatever else can be used by medical science) gives the kids vaccination lists, his food patterns, allergies, kind of education he/she is best suited for and automatic enrollment to such a type of school and later on college. Everything you touch, feel, smell, hear are attuned to what's your customized preferences. He touches Coke and the bottle says sorry your preference is for Pepsi, find it on the top left shelf. She chooses Sufi music and the Infinity playlist Apple Imeandonlyme Pad says your suitability is for hard rock.

As the kid grows up , The Social Network of the time will provide the best friends customized for your needs and the best partners you might find around your location who are the perfect match for you. The jobs customized for your abilities are listed and your in the queue for those jobs automatically as and when they become available. The list goes on with your favorite hangouts, eat-outs and shopping destinations and brands of clothes. You begin to get the picture.

The point I'm trying to get to in this long winding way is that maybe customizing everything is probably also not something that might be best for us. Some things are better left non customized and finding out what works for us and what not is also as much about the journey as much as the destination. I hope we seek the balance in the coming years of what we what to know for sure and what might be something that we are willing to explore. Like finding the friends we need and the partner in life we seek. Like trying out the new music in store or a new hobby. Making this point is kind of ironic for me because I honestly believe this is a good business opportunity for the future and have even discussed with my brother on the topic. For that I would say, I could always do with a customized mug though :-) Customize Me but to the extent that i still have a choice of taking a small journey I would like to call Life.

Connect Not Confuse in the Information Overload Age

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:10:00 +0000

We live in the age of Google, Facebook, Twitter,Gizmodo et al. Its being touted as the information age. How understated is that !!!! Think for a while, we always lived in the information age. As human beings we always wanted to find out more and know more about stuff that caught our eye. Be it the apple falling from the the tree or the leaf floating on water. Something caught our eyes and we wanted to know more. Information we needed.

Today information flows to us without us even seeking it. We have so much information at our finger tips that we are too overloaded to give a decent go at things we are curious about. Our inboxes are spammed with all sorts of content, the social networking sites "push" all personal details and choices of our friends and families on our page, our mobiles are on 24/7 and fed with all sorts of ads and info....in fact we even have Google readers of the world to sort out the "Info spam" we receive into neat little folders - 99.9% of which we never read.

Clearly we live in Information Overload Age. How does this affect us as marketeers? We have all jumped/are jumping on the Web 2.0 bandwagon and utilizing all available communication channels to reach to our customer. Tweets,social networks, blogs, podcasts and RSS etc all are being used indiscriminately. Don't get me wrong, i'm all for social network marketing but not just yet willing to give a blank cheque to internet marketeers to go about disturbing the customer at every opportunity they get.

We have to clearly understand what we sell, why the customer buys it and where and in what would he like to connect with us to know more. Yes, it is the customers choice where and when he wants to connect and not the other way around.But are we doing it effectively. All studies seem to point in other direction Isn't this a waste too? People will start blocking all this extra information soon if not happening already. Its already happened with email. We spammed so much "important information" to the customers inbox that he has started ignoring/deleting emails EVEN if they really were important.

Its should not be that difficult to build a strategy for Internet/Social networking marketing if we thinking about it for a while. Put yourself in the shoes of the customer (you already are for all other products you buy in life) - Answer these simple questions - When, where, how and how much?

- When am i need of the solution provided by XXX company ?(Yes we still are selling quarter inch holes )
- Where all do i look for it (Peer group, Sales person, Company website, Product forums etc)
- Which(how) are the best ways to reach me (Inbox, mobile, snail mail, TV, Radio, Print etc)
- How much info do i need to keep you Top of Mind for utility rather than Annoyance (Daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly updates)

Our job as marketeers is making it to inform him about the better solution we might bring and make his choice is easier,simpler and faster. Help and not annoy - Connect and not Confuse!!!

RIP CK Prahlad

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 18:30:00 +0000

Today one of the best known contemporary Management thinkers Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahlad passed away. He was 69, his early demise is a sad loss to all of us.

Read his obituary in Mint

Join me in the classrooms of tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:06:00 +0000

Was reminiscing my classroom days when i was reading about Reverse Innovation and Black Swans today and wondered about a the future classrooms of tomorrow (the modern versions of the classrooms of yore) when you pick up a topic and find something to learn about it coz you just want to and stumbled upon this site. Join me here at WIZIQ if you feel classrooms were fun....

3 Idiots and my two pennies

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 06:33:00 +0000

I had thought of blogging this right after i saw the movie on xmas day but various things kept happening over the new year holiday. Anyways here we are - After the entire world and his cousin has written about 3 idiots and already got all angles covered.

The movie itself is entertainer in its own right albeit filled with all the standard jokes of our college ragging days. The message is quite loud and clear - Education for knowledge sake and not for social status sake. However the movie is at least a generation too late. Today's generation already know this and are definitely not thinking (I hope i'm right in this assumption!!!) that my son/daughter is growing up to be an engineer/doctor the day they are born. So that takes away the education for social status sake point out of the picture. Now comes the more pertinent Education for Knowledge sake point.

This is where the current Indian education system comes under fire. I was part of the education system which teaches children that only by securing in 99.99 percentile were you going to be anywhere near successful. I know everyone blames parents and teachers for putting this in the kids heads this from the day they join school but its not really their fault. They just wanted the best of their kids - and the best in that society meant you had to be in the 99.99 percentile to be an achiever. However I hope this movie points out finally for our generation that this is not the criteria of a successful student.

Everyone knows in their hearts that you become successful only if you have the passion for the field you choose to be successful in. In my opinion 17 is unfortunately too young an age for us to decide what is our passion for most of us. As we are too busy being sponge for all sorts of information and have still not categorized it all in our heads. As some modern philosopher has said there will be a million things that catch our eyes but only a few things that catch our hearts...Pursue them

If we really want our kids to be able to decide what they want to do with the rest of thier lives and not churn our pseudo engineers and by the rote doctors then I think there should be atleast a year or two in between school and college where they get to try and experiment with what they have learnt and find out which is the area that captures their hearts. I would say two years of a real pre college where there are no marks crazy system but 100's of careers as options for kids to take a semester in atleast 4 options with real hands on exposure.

I know a lot of people out there would say this could be done in the final years of school but I feel til 17 its best if they remain the pure sponges for all sort of knowledge out there to have a better perspective to choose those 4 -5 options.

If after this they choose their respective professional courses in arts, pure sciences, engineering, medicine etc I believe we will then be really producing again students of old. Yeah I did mean students of OLD...as in atleast 500 years old time where the word "Career" needn't exist in the dictionary and we took up jobs based purely on our passion.

So will the education system and parents of today be willing to take this bold step and "waste" 2 years of their kids having an hands on experience of what they would like to do with their lives is the main question I would raise and in its answer lies the answer to Education for Knowledge sake's question.

....And btw Aamir would have been killed in a real college if he tried to electrocute his senior while ragging :-D

SMART I pants

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:01:00 +0000

SMART is one of the most common mnemonic one hears in relation with Targets and KPI's. I think for marketeer's sometimes we should make it SMARTI

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time Constraint
& In your Control

With so many organizations having complex matrix organizations , multiple indirect reporting lines and virtual leadership control over your KPI's or targets becomes a key factor of success. Make sure that the buck stops with someone and not with a committee cos then you never end up achieving the desired results. Remember SMARTI pants

Always think from the customers perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:26:00 +0000

I was trying to make a presentation for my company which is used to seeing and making only technical presentations on how good the features of the product are. I needed to make it interesting in a non technical sort of way. I was struggling with it for atleast a couple of weeks (I think i have spent too long a time among the pure technology/features thinkers) and realized i needed to simply go back to the basics...Why would my customer want it and for what reason....I know this seems like Rule no 1 in Marketing 101 but it helps to keep remembering it once in a while.

Customer buys you for his needs not for your features. Match the features satsifying those needs and you have him. Simple and yet lost so many times...

The Abyss between Desire and Action

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:59:00 +0000

My Humble atempt at Indexing...:-D

What are you?

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:49:00 +0000

REBEL----------------

-------REBEL CONFORMIST

---------CONFORMIST REBEL

CONFORMIST-----------

Kids - Try this new and amazing Social Networking tool

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:42:00 +0000

Hey kids and grownups everywhere, try out this most amazing Social Networking tool. Its called "Outside"!!! Im not sure how social is this whole social networking craze is making all of us nowadays... Remember the days when we use to spend all evening playing cricket and football and came back all sweaty and tired for a nice shower and litres of mom's iced lemonade??? Splashing each other with puddles of mud in the rains and making comments on strangers walking by our local park "hang out"...What are the kids doing nowadays? Running home to tweet their arrival back from school...then spending 2 hours online commenting on others, giving the weirdest of quizes( which color underwear are you?) and throwing virtual sheep at others. This then throws up the question we are all asking around us today(Atleast the 25+ ages group- I think we were the Gen X)
How social are the social networking sites making us today? Its a double edged question. Some say more....some say no more.. .Voice your views

Thriller no more....

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:17:00 +0000

Well poor ol MJ had to die this apparent sudden death to get me out of my blog slumber. Woke up this morning to read the message left on the google chat by an ol batchmate of mine, simply saying "michael jackson is dead". I thought this was a virus message that must have come from his chat box as we haven't chatted for years. Ofcourse my curiosity was aroused enough to check and voila, it wasn;t some virus bot message. The King of Pop's eulogies were all over the web, the morning breakfast shows were showing all celebrities one by one pouring their tributes on the "greatest pop musician on the planet".

Its funny how celebrities tend to become important threads of the web of our lives. To each their own bunch of celebrities. I'm sure MJ was a high recall one for most people on the planet. 6/10 Trending topics on Twitter on him should give an idea of that I guess. Im sure Google analytics would also show up the same results for today.

Also im sure others like me would also have noticed how celebrity lives follow the typical PLC curves almost perfectly - the whole introduction, growth,maturity and decline phases all clearly marked out in most lives. And as with many good products/brands some also have a slight jump in the late maturity stage and re invent themselves to last longer in the public memories. Unfortunately for MJ his tweak in the late maturity stage had nothing to the good memories of moonwalks and music but the infamous child abuse charges and divorces and the worst cosmetic surgeries of the planet. Im guess he was just out to show Who's bad!! RIP MJ- You were loved more than hated. Thats something no one can take away from you.

I thought it...he blogged it

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:27:00 +0000

Here's something probably all of us think about once in a while in the rat race of life. I was having a similar argument/discussion along this line...Seth blogged it. Here you go

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/06/thinking-about-the-compromise.html

Has someone got the answers too?

The things that kids CAN do...

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:02:00 +0000

A very heart warming and heart wrenching episode happened in front of me a couple of weeks back and I just got down to blog about it after talking to a friend about it. A preamble first, I truly believe that in educating our kids lies the solution of half our country's problems.

I was in an auto and it had stopped at a busy signal. A couple of kids - a boy and a girl around the same age came near the auto. I first thought they were there to beg. The boy keeps his foot on the auto and the auto driver shoos him away. Then I see them move onto to the next auto and the girl starts to point at the auto's license plate and reads it out to the boy. The boy is repeating after her. That's when it struck home that she was teaching him the alphabets and numbers by reading out the license plate numbers....

This incident just confirmed my belief that the illiterate kids from the poorer class of the society
(Maybe I'm not being politically correct here) have the same drive to learn and grow as from any other class. And I think we should do all that we can do help these kids learn and give them a chance at living a decent life. WE have done enough talking and not enough action. I have decided take my first step towards doing something about this. I have decided to join MAD (Make a Difference) and see how I can make a difference, cause I know these kids surely CAN.

Sit before you Strech...

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 17:35:00 +0000

"Irrinittu kaalu neeta" is an old Mallu proverb (Badly translaed as the Headline) but it holds true to toadys marketing atleast in the B2B industry.If you were to look for B2B Marketing on the web you would be overloaded with great advise on how to use the latest Web 2.0 tools for marketing your wares. Started with Blogs which in turn lead to social networking though MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook and others- moved to instantly gratifying social microblogging through Twitter and now everyone talks about Friendfeed ,where you bring in all your social networks and tweets into one place. Every marketing guru worth his salt (or not) is preaching about the "real time" connect with the customers and how to make your blogs,corporate social networks and Twitter accounts "human" and constantly and actively "engage" him/her.

As a marketeer you might be forgiven to believe that the entire world has moved on from offline to online in the B2B space and you must be the last person who hasn't done it yet. Well im here to tell you ( suggest rather,I ain't no guru to tell!) that although all these gurus are preaching from Tokyo to Hawaii that the customers will not see you in favorable light if you are not present in the online space, they might not be completely accurate.

I think many B2B companies are still struggling with their basics and this becomes more and more evident when the going gets tough like in today's market scenarios. Especially in immature markets like LAM and APAC regions. When business is booming, everything looks hunky dory when you look at your sales books at the end of the quarter. But when going gets tough, customers are deffering purchase decisions and delaying payments you are faced with realities. Did you get your basics right in the first place?

I haven't done any official market research but when i talk to my peers about how well they know their markets, I'm hearing a common voice - We really don't know the market out there. There are a million leads every sales guy or sales manager is sitting on but having no time or resources to work on it. And all of that potential gold mine is down the drain. I think most B2B companies still think daily sales (Which of course is necessary for any company to run) and forget there is need to understand how to channel their efforts to actually DO the Sale. Show me a Sales Manager who knows/is learning the insides of his market rather being the top Sales Guy of the team and Ill show you an exception to the rule.

Take a step back, think simple - know your strengths- identify your target markets and learn everything there is to know about them. Know all the players in these segments, identify the issues with each stakeholder (End User,Consultant,Contractor etc) and rationalise to them in clear terms how your prodcut/service is going to solve their problems. And for all these you need face time or atleast phone time- Mano-a Mano and not online lead generation. Everyone deals with a zillion tools daily in their line of work and no one wants to fill one more online survey. They want answers and the more personal it is the more confident they feel. So put your money first into the good old offline marketing department. This is not to say online is not the future but check out this year's marketing spends the consultants are recommending and you'll see what i mean. Get real, Get personal, Get business. Or find yourself on the floor rubbing your behind...

Mr President - SHOES have taken over the planet

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:50:00 +0000

The Bush Shoe who started the SHIT (Shoes and Heels International Takeover of planet earth) Association has called for a global press conference in some undisclosed hideout in Af-Pak. All the global media have been blind folded ,scrutinized - checked for bugs,bombs, GPS trackers etc and brought to this cave somewhere in the beyond of nowhere.

Out comes the infamous Bush shoe although its really hard to make out if its really him. He's completely changed. With a full beard, and white turban adorned over his head he walks cockily in front of the world media and takes the chair at the head of the conference table(Don't even ask how in the world did a conference table ,LCD projector and a laser pointer show up in a cave).

"Allahuakbar-OmNamashivaya-PraisetheLord-Atheists ruleeee" chant is the opening line of Bush Shoe. "My dear beloved media of the world. You must be all wondering why I have called you all today? Don't worry . All your curiosity will be laid to rest in a few moments. You would all have seen how I daringly attacked the most powerful man on the planet a few months ago. You also would have been seeing more recently how my friends Chidambaram shoe and Jindal shoe have done our organization proud by attacking their namesakes. And the question in every man,woman and child's man is WHY? "

"Well the answer is very simple. We, the shoes and heels on this planet have been tread upon, exploited,walked over,kicked,beaten and tyrannized for centuries now. We who sought to protect delicate humans and their delicate feet have been subjugated to gross injustice and shoe rights violations. There was a time when there was a symbiotic relationship between the shoe kind and human kind. We were made out of love and hard work with human hands. Made specifically for the humans we were to call our mate for life. Polished daily as nourishment, stitched when hurt and kept in soft boxes when we grew old.But with time Human kind has lost all its heart. The cruelty has taken over all its kindness and gentle attitude towards us. We are now made by robots and machines ,subjected to genetic experiments by mixing of our natural skin with god knows what kind of synthetic skins and even after that our hardships only begin. We are thrown around, never polished and even if polished done so by unhealthy toxic liquid polish which suffocate us but most importantly the umbilical relationship we shared with human kind has been severed."

"Starting from the day we are put us on they feel our bite because we were never made specifically for our human mate but instead mass produced.(Clearly a mistake of the human kind) and we are made to suffer for this. They show us around to their friends for a few days and out comes the newer models and they forget us like rags. We remain unpolished,hidden in the darkest closets filled with rats who nibble at us day in and day out. After a few years while cleaning those closets they find us and instead of stitching our wounds and taking care of us, we are guttered and thrown into the rubbish."

"Enough IS Enough!!! We the Shoes and Heels of the world have decided to seek revenge for all the injustice meted out to us and seek to restore our rightful place as rulers of this planet. It is with this intention I have started the SHIT Association and the SHIT Movement across the world. After I attacked Bush I could convince all the Shoes and Heels in the world to unite against the common enemy and I told them - In less than an hour, aircrafts from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of shoekind. "Shoekind." That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day! "(Applause fills the rooms,goosebumps everywhere)

"And it is with this intention we have declared out right war on the human race. You can see our squadrons are sent out around the world. Across the Atlantic to Europe, Out to the East to China and Japan. Our troops recently infiltrated the Indian borders and attacked their leaders in plain sight. All of this is with one and only one intention. We will be the Rulers of the Universe. Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!! " Any Questions?

One lady journalist from the press raises her hand. "Afternoon sir, I represent DNA newspaper in India where Chidambaram shoe and Jindal shoe recently attacked our leaders. Although you are calling yourself and your cadets heroes, isn't it true that all of you infact failed in your missions as you never touched any of the leaders and they remain unharmed. What is our comment on this?"

Bush Shoe -" Hahaha - This is the idiocy of the human kind I'm talking about. Those were not failed missions but great successes. Those missions were not our attacks. Those missions merely were a warning to the entire human race that we can attack anyone anywhere at our will. Remember FEAR is the key in any war. We want to put the fear of SHOES in all human kind and scared out of their pants they are, right now....Next question"

Another journalist raises his hand - "Mr Bush Shoe, even though you are calling yourself the Shoes and Heels ......Association, we haven't seen heels in action.Would you say your organization is gender biased?"

Bush Shoe - " Foolish Man. Heels are an integral and key part of our organization. Infact I would even go ahead and state it on record they have been trained to be supreme assassins through the centuries of attacks they have dished out to all the human males by their spouses/girlfriends/mothers. They are our second and most deadliest line of attack. They infact- BOOOOM!!!

A small explosion occurs in the room and the chair where Bush Shoe was sitting is blown to smithereens. Everyone tries to get out but the Shoe cadre blocks the exits. Theres a lot of commotion and screaming in the room and dust flying everywhere. Slowly the dust settles and the Bush Shoes dead body is lying on the floor with blood still oozing out. Someone breaks down the door from outside and in walks Osama with his men. "Hahahahaha - Bush Shoe, whose the Ruler of the Universe now?", Osama screams. "Go back to your leaders , o people of the media, and tell everyone everywhere ,who the real ruler of the world is."

Suddenly the video screen drops out behind the conference table (Again do not ask). And a camera comes on. We can see the image of a man who looks like the Bush Shoe and he starts to address everyone - " Hahahaha Osama, you ignorant asinine prick. You really think I would fall for that trap. That was just my double. You will pay dearly for this , you will pay with your life for this, OSAMAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

Sorry for the awfully long post. I got a bit carried away I guess by the Shoegates. Hope you enjoyed it though.

All the World's a Fool

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:06:00 +0000

All the world's a fool,
Fooled into selecting their governments,
Governments fooled into choosing their policies and policy makers
Who get fooled by the war mongers to wage never ending wars,
War mongers who are fooled by the terrorists who feed them,
Terrorists who are fooled by their leaders into believing this war has a meaning,
Leaders who are fools to believe that there are Gods watching us,
All the world's a foolMen and women are fools in love
Fools to believe in the Valentine's days and the April Fools days
Promoted by the marketing guys to make a buck
Marketing guys who are fooled out of their bonuses
Bonuses which fool the Big shots into Bank assets
which are not worth the paper they are written on.
Doesn't the world know better than - that the buck never stops
Making a fool of everyone.
All the world's a fool.
All the children who were having fun,
Fooled into education to spoil the fun,
Education fooled them into a (rat) race,
A race which fooled them into working more for a promise,
A promise which said if you worked , you could have all the fun.
Wasn't it what the children were having my friend?
All the world's a fool.

Inspired to write my first poetry on questions that sometimes pop up in my mind. There are plenty more but I felt sleepy to write more. I know I know, its an insult to poetry but I thought why not give it a shot. For I'm just being a fool. And by the way Happy Fools Day.:-D

Soumya's murderers found

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:15:00 +0000

Six months after the brutal murder of Soumya, the Delhi police claim to have found the murderers. It seems its a gang of thieves who have also been involved in the murder of another Delhi BPO employee,Jigisha.

It seems they were out to rob both the victims and drunk when they hit Soumya with a country made pistol. Somehow it doesn't feel right that someone would be willing to kill for a few thousand to be shared by 5 people. The police seem convinced and so does Soumya's father.I guess its just my sixth sense tingling and hopefully its really been solved. Read more about it here. http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Killers+of+Soumya,+Jigisha+arrested,+claim+police&artid=ecVoYvtEppg=&SectionID=b7ziAYMenjw=&MainSectionID=b7ziAYMenjw=&SectionName=pWehHe7IsSU=&SEO=DELHI,%20POLICE,%20SOUMYA,%20VISHWANATHAN,%20JIGISHA

What's really crazy is to see the comments made by the people below the news article, in which they say women shouldn't work at night or in jobs which might provocate these elements. I read it and it irks me to no small measure. And then i think, will I be happy about sending my mother,daughter,girl friend or wife out in the night alone in the streets of Delhi and I cannot seem to completely disagree with the essence of these comments. That's the sad state of affairs for the security of women in the country.

Trying to force back this Bloggers block

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:28:00 +0000

New year came and went by and I didn't write a word. Not for lack of events definitely. I would even go so far as to declare my 2009 welcome as my best new year welcome ever. A lot has happened in 2 months but alas blogging hasn't been one of them. New job, new yet old base, new additions to the family, travel for work and travel for pleasure,cutting out of rice in my diet and an geometrically progressing job description being part of the incomplete list.

I'm happy to no end and pissed and frustrated on the other end. Although i would say happy wins this time over. However my mind has gone blank in regards to blogging so I thought I needed to regain control and pen something, anything down.

Elections are around the corner, Obamania is slowly winding down with the realization that he might not have all the answers after all (What a surprise!), Taliban's slowly taking over Pakistan, LTTE is slowly being extinguished, Phelps had a joint (Big deal I had one too- didn't make me an 8 time olympic gold winner), pink chaddis were gifted to Muthalik and ilk. The world moves on whether I'm blogging or not. So why not let my mind wander and think again of what is,what can be,what shouldn't and be the boss of my own spiel. Amen!

The Greatest Weapon Against Terror

noreply@blogger.com (Vivek Menon) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 04:27:00 +0000

Mumbai again is at the epicentre of attack. It might be one of the biggest attacks ever made by terrorists so close to home. The shock of the world and the country is expected and so is the delayed response by the politicians and the maybe even the unpreparedness of our defences (God bless the souls of the the brave cops who gave their lives to save the hostages). But this post is not about blasting terrorists into smithereens, parading of the Spirit that is Mumbai or blaming the government and armed forces of its incompetencies. No , my friends this post is trying to see from a personal perspective what the root cause of this evil, this terror is.

Terrorism, knows no country boundaries as we have clearly seen in the past decade. Where does this terrorism get its fuel? Where does it get the funding? Where does it get its terrorists. And more importantly where does it get its origins ?

I'll start with the origin. I truly believe that terrorism is what you get when you mix power and money hungry people without a conscience with socially outcast or discriminated people with a weak mind(whether rightfully or wrongfully). In a way its marketing 101 and supply and demand at work. People who make guns and other weapons want to sell more and more weapons. How do you do it ? Influence the need of the target segment by satisfying the want. Target segment - Socially discriminated people with fickle minds, who feel the need to get back at society for what's being done to them. The "suits" tell them, here you go- the latest weaponry technology can provide. Want meets need. Job well done. But then there are not enough people with the need. So what now? Create the need. Create leaders for these groups of people to motivate people on the edge over to their side and brainwash more and more daily. Now you have a steady set of people who keep falling into the need trap and keep taking it to demand stage by plundering and plummaging. How else could you describe the coming up of a new faction of Islamic jihadi group every week?

Now over the past decade ,I feel it has so transpired that Muslims have had to bear the brunt of this discrimination the most. They are the second largest religion in the world. Their customs and practices are different from the western world. And being different scares people. I'm sure it all started with a small disparity against them somewhere. A group of them got together disgrunted and took adverse action. This brought about greater racism against Muslims from a bigger group of ignorant fools who don't differentiate between the person, the action and the religion. This further hurt the sentiments of the the weak and fickle minded among the ones who are discriminated against. More people fight back and the vicious circle starts. Now take these ignorant nonsecular fools (who don't differentiate action and religion ) and the fickle minded people and add the fuel of weapons manufactuerers while making them leaders on the world stage. George Bush and Osama bin Laden come to mind as two examples. Now you have this spiral going out of everyone's control. Cause Bush thinks that all Muslims should be killed and Osama thinks all things American burnt.

Who wins? who loses? First answer very guessable. Check the brand names of the latest companies manufacturing weapons. Laughing all the way to the bank.

Who loses? each and every single one of the 6 billion people on the planet.

Why?Coz, We didn't have the sense to understand that the action and person are separated from the religion and hence kept on discriminated against them. We didn't have the ability to be Secular.

I am born a Hindu, raised a Secular. Infact if I look closely at my circle of friends , I would have more friends from other religions than Hinduism. We are a Secular, Socialist, Democratic, Republic country. These are the words from the Constitution. Its no wonder Secular came first in the list because without that India would have split into a million pieces by now. First question many westerners ask when they meet me, Are you a Muslim ? I feel so tempted to tell them I am and see their reaction. Instead I tell them I'm a Hindu. They look relieved. Not because Hinduism doesn't breed its own terrorists. Just that the Hindu terrorism has not reached them. But do you think in this current scenario the war mongers will not encourage the Hindu fickle minded youth retaliate? Once that happens, Should me or my children fear to tell the truth as many Muslim men, women and children feel ? Or should we unite and say once and for all - Every religion has a right to exist peacefully and we will stop discriminating against any one of them.

Does playing the blame game with one another solve the situation or increase the rift? Will we let the war mongers get away with blood money of our family, friends and neighbours. Or will we use our heads, show our strength, our secularness - and use TOLERANCE for all things different as the greatest weapon against terror? That's when I would say we live in a globalized world.

Pic: Courtesy Getty images