What an Idea Sirjii!!

According to a famous saying, “an idea is like a fart. It can strike you and surprise you anytime. So forcefully thinking upon it is of no use”.

Sorry Dude, according to a modern theory, this crap is not possible if you are in the business of advertising. This infamous business thrives heavily on ideas generated on fingertips. You just can’t wait for an idea but have to actually produce it.

Just look at the situation. A Copywriter** is given the most dreadful of the problems by his agency and then he’s expected to come up with path breaking solutions. His situation is like that he’s kicked into a sea without a life-jacket. Or he’s left into a jungle which is only full of hungry carnivores. By default, every time this creature is expected to escape the narrow death. That is, he has to come up with an idea.

The Question is, is generating rapid ideas really possible? If yes then how? How come a copywriter (who proclaims himself as the next writing sensation) can gift this world idea after ideas???## Where the hell his big ideas or I shall say frequent farts comes from??


Does it come from observing other exceptional advertisements? But that only leaves him in awe that “how can someone be that creative”? Or does he derive it by just approaching the King of Problem Solving i.e. “Baba Google”? Or by falling into the trap of having a ginger tea or tobacco or utterly butterly delicious chocolates assuming that it might kick start the jammed engines of his brain?

What if his all sophisticated methods fail? Does he leave everything and hit a bar or a pub or any damn place where booze is available? Or does he find some inspiration in Shakira’s shaking and lying hips, or to the tunes of RD Burman, or watching Rajnikant wearing a lungi and beating 35 henchmen in one go. Random Stuff, you know!!!

As per my experience, after being exposed to so much, our poor fellow might come up with something. But his desire for that “Big Idea” leaves him unconvinced.

He asks stupid questions from his roommates, family, friends even neighbours and his maid to find his consumer insight. He flips newspaper, traces history, play scrabble and what not. Sometimes he goes for a walk, or just gaze at the sky or a tubelight, writes random stuff then tear it all, then write again and tear again. This nonsense goes for a while. Watching porn is always an option. His indulgence in sex is an indication that he’s going through a creative block.

Now you all wanna know that whether this jackass has finally hit the bull’s-eye or is he still lurking around? The irony is that many Copywriters get the best idea when the campaign is over. Even our guy hasn’t come up with the big idea and might come up after the marketing campaign which is to be presented in next 48 hours.

Now this is what happens:

He reaches office the next day without his big idea. He has tried all his formulas but he hasn’t reached the answer. Though he has some not so unique ideas to present and he has definitely not lost the hope. So he is just involved in daily chores like chatting, printing, coffee, peeing and flirting. And when he has nothing to do, the thunderbolt strikes him. He freezes for a moment because he has got the criminal i.e. the idea. The idea that was absconding till now is with him. So like a fart it just hits him. It was approved or not is another story.

The question is whether by stressing too much you’ll get the idea or you need to work it out??? In our boy’s case he worked hard but he has to wait for “The Golden Moment”. As they say “Soch kahi bhi aa sakti hai”.

The quote like “An idea can change your life” is too exaggerated for a common man but for a copywriter An Idea actually does so. His entire way of living is chained around that realisation and enlightenment of what we all say “The big Idea”!!!

** Copywriter is a person employed to write advertising or publicity copy:

 

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The article was written for a competition!!!

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"Dream India"

The Rising Star

"This is a fictional Story and has no relation to Reality"

Performing in Spain’s Imperial auditorium is every performer’s dream. The 200 year old auditorium has been the witness of some of the world’s finest performances when it comes to dance, music and theatre.

So how big the occasion will be for Amna Siddiqui? The girl from Karachi, Pakistan, who from the age of eight has been giving dance performances not only competing in national and international events but also representing Asia and the eastern world at many places. For 20 years she has been dreaming about this occasion even from her wide open eyes. After winning Russia’s St. Petersburg Dance Competition” and Italy’s “Benjamin 2 Steps” she had her eyes on the ultimate win. And that is Spain’s “Footloose International Event”. She almost reached that stage 5 years back but was forced to wait more when she broke her ankle in the semifinals.

Advised by the physicians not to participate in dance anymore, she refused to adhere. She decided to give her one last shot. After 5 years of shedding sweat & blood too, and going through that extra pain she is again knocking the doors of her biggest dream. The dream which only she can see. She is standing on that very thin line between her biggest desire and reality. If she wins today she will be the most aged lady to do so in this event’s 150 year old history.

Dancing on Beethoven’s Symphony and dressed as an angry & vengeance full queen she is portraying the rarest seen images of the woman. The image when woman attains the avatar of destruction, when she is alone but dangerous. When she survived on her own and she is her own ruler.  

Let’s sink in Amna’s performance and let’s live this dream with her.   

 999

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The story was written when the author saw a photograph in a magazine!!!

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Sons of the Soil

"old wine-new bottle"

Whoever coined the phrase, “Age is nothing but a number” was absolutely right. Whether you are 18 or 80, you are never too old or too young to seize the day.

Well, these above lines are for none other than the 2 great people of world cricket who are legends in themselves. They are Adam Gilchrist (former Australian wicketkeeper) & Anil Kumble (former Indian leg spinner & Captain).

You must be wandering that it’s been sometime that these two heroics have retired from cricket, so why this man is talking about them?

Well, “There is no smoke without fire”.  Indian premiere league’s (IPL) 2^nd edition in South Africa forced me to pen down my admiration for both theses cricketers. Its not that I am not a fan of these two. Due to my love for cricket, Anil Kumble has always been my favorite player for his “do or die” attitude. While I always looked up to Adam Gilchirist for his perfection behind the stumps and his cult batting style.

Both of them after giving their loads of contribution to the world of cricket chose the retirement mode when they were at their peak and their fans couldn’t stop asking for more. Their retirement broke many hearts; even I was too upset with it. This is because in any sport, when a sportsman took retirement it means “he is gone-forever”. You’ll never get a chance back to watch him playing again. That’s why sports are more energetic and powerful as players put everything they have, in it as who knows when retirement time comes. But Indian premiere league which is referred to as an Indian domestic tournament though no less than any international tournament gave these two guns an opportunity to get back to the cricket field for some live action.

In IPL 2009, Adam Gilchirist (Gilly) was made the captain of Deccan Chargers Hyderabad while Kumble (Jumbo) was not the desired choice for captainship for his team Royal Challengers Bangalore. His counterpart from England, Kevin Peterson got this job. Before the starting of this mega tournament, everybody marked 20-20 for young legs. Most suspected the capability of players aged above 34. The tournament kicked in style and on the very 1^st day in a match B/W Bangalore & Rajasthan, Kumble bagged 5 wickets for 5 runs which are till now the best bowling figure in IPL 2009 and 2^nd best overall after Sohail Tanveer’s 6 for 14. Due to his splendid performance, Rajasthan got out for 58 runs which is the lowest ever total by any team in 2008/2009. It was very clear that jumbo will not be easy to handle.

On the other side Deccan chargers (DC) registered 4 consecutive wins under Gilly & were sailing at the top spot with 8 points. The team which fetched only 2 wins for themselves under VVS Laxman in IPL 2008 looked solid with only 1 motive: to lift the IPL trophy. Some superstitious people attributed their earlier wins to their newly selected blue color dress compared to their colour cream and black in IPL 2008. But their captain behind the stumps with his green coined eyes looked harder and hungrier for the win than any body else in the team.

After there 1^st win Bangalore lost match after match and they once again looked weak as they were in IPL 2008 (winning only 4 matches under Rahul Dravid and finished 2^nd last in the points). Due to the England-West Indies test & one day series to come by, Kevin Peterson called off. He chose to play for his country rather than in IPL. This gave Kumble a chance to lead Challengers & the team bounced back to victory in a nail biting match against Punjab.

There were ups and downs, infact less downs for team Deccan in the tournament but under the extraordinary guidance of Gilly they were able to give power packed performances when needed the most to remain in the semifinal run. Gilchirist himself took the charge in many matches and batted destructively. He was the 2^nd highest run getter in the tournament. He scored 495 runs, 77 runs behind Mathew Hayden.

Kumble’s Bangalore lost the momentum in between but in the late league matches they thrashed every team which came their way. They chased 180+ runs to beat Team Kolkata and they then defeated the 3 strongest teams- Delhi, Chennai & Deccan in a row. Jumbo’s experience on the ground is such that he didn’t allow these 3 teams to cross 130+ score in those 3 matches. As a result, Deccan & Challengers both made it to the Semis.

But it was never easy for both Deccan & Challengers. In semi finals they had to face formidable Team Delhi which lost only 4 matches out of 14 and Team Chennai which had smitten other teams. But despite Delhi’s huge potential they couldn’t make it to the finals as Adam Gilchirist created history by scoring the fastest 50 of IPL & going on to score 85 off 35 balls against them. He led his team to victory on his own terms. He is the 1st person to score 900 runs in IPL.  In the 2^nd Semifinal match, Chennai the obvious choice for win against Bangalore lost their ground to Jumbo. He was very calm & composed on the field in that match and his batsmen did not let him down and chased the given target firmly.

The tables were turned, what could not be expected took place. The IPL 2 final match was going to be played between the 2 weakest teams of IPL 2008. The 2 teams finished with last (Hyderabad) and 2^nd last (Bangalore) rank last year.

The downturn was only because of change of captains. Both Kumble & Gilly were able to extract performances. And extracting performances is the trait of a leader.     

Gilly used RP Singh, Rohit Sharma & Pragyan Ojha very well. RP Singh finished with highest number of scalps (23) in the tournament. While Kumble got Kallis, Taylor, Parveen Kumar worked for him very well. He himself got 2^nd highest number of wickets in the tournament, i.e. 21.

Well, in all if we see, IPL 2009 will be remembered for players aged above 34-35.

Players like Mathew Hayden, Murlidharan, Symonds, Kallis, Sachin and Shane Warne contributed to the high performance graph of senior players. Hayden (a retired cricketer) was the highest run getter, while Warne another retired player is the coach and the captain of team Rajasthan (which won IPL 2008). He looked dangerous and keen in his performances this time too. Some 35+ aged people didn’t get the chance to play like Mcgranth, Shaun Pollock, and Chaminda Vaas. Saurav Ganguly (India’s most successful captain) wasn’t thought capable to lead Team Kolkata. As a result the team slipped to the last position with 3 wins.

The 3^rd edition of IPL is round the corner and I am looking forward for some out the box action from these guns.

So its better that we don’t underestimate these aged people. It’s just your desire and attitude that matters the most. And as some one said “life starts at 40”.

But from IPL, we can learn a lesson. In India, the population above 65 i.e. retired age is above 50 million. They are the resources which is going unused. So much money is being spent on pension schemes. Though this force will not be efficient in the physical work but there can be a field where they can outperform any one.

Just think about it. Old is Gold!!!!  


"The article was written at authors home"


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