Much ado about something !

Mother's/Junior Horlicks with DHA - A product for healthy mothers and healthy and 'smart' babies.

IIPM - rated to have the maximum 'intellectual impact'.

Happened to listen to a spiritual guru who explained about 'FSP' (Fixed Stimulus Plan, if I recollect it well!) To expatiate a little, an ostrich would love a doll if it could make the sound of its young one and would fail to recognize its own offspring, if it doesn't produce the sound. And human beings also more or less respond similarly defying their logical and emotional abilities. That is - compliments and warmth evoke compassion and joy, contrary emotions are evoked by criticism and hate.

Another interesting event happened, when a consultant called up for a job opening at a software development firm. While discussing the practices and processes at the represented organization - he mentioned 'peer programming' and 'test programming' among a few. A little bit of a detail would tell any programmer that that's a way of working for her/him, even otherwise, sans the terms !

On a different note - young individuals seeking partners have come up with a new dimension of a 'mental/emotional fit' along with other parameters that they look for in a matrimonial alliance. 

So the point here is that when there is a talk of consumer driven or consumer driving markets - I see abstraction as an idea - an emerging trend. One can't quantify smartness, intellectual impact etc. or validate it scientifically, and thus it can't really be challenged or met absolutely. People associate differently with any/each of these, and so it becomes a safe bet. Would like to spare a thought on why and how a consumer has started thinking this way - which gives life to such campaigns..

In these times of seamless connectivity - knowledge has become a commodity. There's an avalanche of information available on a few movements of the fingertips. And when we talk of the sources of power - knowledge has it's own undisputed claim. Intellectualism has been a revered trait since times immemorial. But years ago, any act qualifying to belong to that category had years of research and perspiration going into it's making. Perhaps, that was the reason why there were few intellectual giants..

Today most of the educated crowd has access to the pertinent repository in a matter of milli/micro seconds - thanks to the very efficient search engines ! This is giving rise to a different genre of consumers altogether. To drive him/her or be driven by his/her needs, an appeal beyond the utility of the product has to be made. An exclusivity is desired by every owner of perhaps even the same product. Abstraction and some 'intelligent' terms make it attractive in a many-of-its-kind market, as every owner has a right to interpret in his/her own way.

But this triggers another debate of sorts. If our age is busy producing intellectual pygmies in search of a two-minute fame through similar tools of quick gratification, then this should suit just fine. But if the audience is knowledgeable now, then we are maturing towards a different age - for which, can this be a sustained strategy ? Because if not well complemented with the tangibles- this trickery could prove to be the death-knell in the long term.

Alive ?..really ?

Sun's rays dispersed carelessly on the placid waters of the river, emanate peace and calm as myriads of souls cross over the bridge above it everyday. But so much like the view is variously the life of many or all perhaps.

 'Underneath your clothes, there's an endless story.. ' (well only that much from the song for now !)

I cross this bridge everyday like so many others, for reasons that I don't comprehend too much, but here believing comes first !

The other day, I stopped by a TV channel showing the 'Great Migrations' of different species across the earth. One specie following the rains, the other following the forests, the third their prey in these two, the fourth the water current etc. etc. And it was as if they were all destined to migrate as an integral part of sustaining the food chain.One eats the other and both breed more and man eats all (well almost ! thanks to the gray matter which works for just about everyone)

Not that mere distance would evoke such philosophical sentiments, but from a bird's eye view, all the locomotion apparently fits us also somewhere in this race for survival.And for the many of my clan - who by all major parameters of survival, would survive - ironically look the most lifeless.

Survival takes its toll too !

Quiet a few quit for want of more or less from life. Many became the unsung heroes whose obituaries were written in the sands of time. The others - of whom I know through preserved inscriptions in stones, books and world literature. Not sure whether they would agree with these accounts about themselves, if alive or if only destiny was the rightful scribe. Because as I have seen it, when you're assuredly about to sing -  'All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go..', life tells you to sit down, loosen up, take a deep breath in, breathe out and Relaaxx ! And just when you're footloose and fancy-free, it hits you hard and makes you wake up to reality..

Personally I'm an ardent fan of the theory of Karma, but somehow I'm missing the inferences from the practical experiments. Its a Neti, Neti (not yet, not yet) for me so far..

Reflections..

It was early hours of an April morning. And as spring bade goodbye, it had left hints of freshness like the lingering fragrance of a perfume. Misha had been on her toes since wee hours of the morning. The clock struck 7:00 am, as she stood in-front of the mirror, checking herself. It was a day of its kind. Some excitement was let lose inside her, similar to what she had experienced before on her other ‘firsts’, but this was more intense.

After spending almost 22 years in the warm comfort and protection of her family and the reserved precincts of her town – the day had come to embark on a new expedition. Misha had got a job in a metropolitan city with a global organization. Today she was to get her wings ! Wings – that would take her thousands of miles away from things known, familiar and learnt, to a place unknown in every sense of the word. But like a fledgling preparing for its first flight, there was a little nervousness about everything – the instinctive fear of the unknown maybe.

As she scanned herself for the minutest flaws, that her naïve sense of grooming could uncover, she had an awkward feeling of the image in the mirror come alive. Absorbed in the moment, she reached out her hand. The time suspended its flow as she found herself walking down an alley springing up live images that gave her a sense of déjà vu.

The image of a toddler peeping into the mirror, and wanting to reach out to the one at the other end. A two year old kid smearing her lips with a maroon lipstick, which painted not just her lips ! A child of three in a uniform, all agog with excitement on her first day at school. A little further, a five yr old, dressed up proud in a red frock, a gift for her fifth birthday. And similar and more images softened her expression and moistened her eyes. As she kept walking she saw her adolescent self, so full of dreams and lost in wishful thinking – talking to herself in the mirror. And in a few others, this growing up lady, only lately acknowledging her feminine instincts, looking careful of her bearing.

  

“Misha ! It’s getting late. Hurry up ! “

It was her mom calling. The voice broke her trance.. She was standing in-front of the mirror, the clock showing 7:05 am. She felt she had been there for long. She made a move to depart. And as she stole a last glimpse at her mirror, she wondered if it has been a repository of her life – the events, the moods and the persons, that she’s been thus far. Or was it just a trip down the memory lane, which parting brings about as a consequence..

“I’m right there Ma ! Lets move..”