ICC says WADA, BCCI says Wat the...

Sports, and according to me cricket - What’s happening in there??? Well, Team India is enjoying their well deserved break owing to the overkill of cricket in the past few months. But can they really take the chill pill and not be in the news for sometime??? My guess would be NO.

With no games and very little brand endorsements (blame the recession), team India is struggling to stay away from the limelight. This time though, it is not the usual “Captain cool hooks up with a bollywood babe” or “Kambli crying yet another time on TV”. It’s about BCCI’s take on the “whereabout” clause of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). OMG that sounded too technical.

Let me explain – this clause makes it mandatory to disclose a cricketer’s whereabouts three months in advance. As always, ICC’s adoption of this clause, like the other sports governing authority, was objected by BCCI. It is embarrassing because BCCI is the only cricket board that has raised its concern stating it as an intrusion of privacy and security. All sports personalities (except cricket) in India have signed the dotted line but still BCCI is apprehensive about it and is trying to convince ICC to frame its own anti-doping code. This decision of BCCI is obviously fueled by concerns raised by members in team India (read: Sachin & Dhoni).

Though some sports personalities, (the likes of Nadal and Federer) have had similar concerns initially, they did agree to the code and abide the law. I wish this will be the case with team India as well. I really hope ICC does not succumb to BCCI as always and take a firm stand on its decision. We will have to wait and see what is going to happen in the coming days.

Dooms Day Guide for Dummies

12212012 -->Crack this code and you’ll know what I am talking about. Ok let me give you some more hints… Nibiru, 11:11, Time-zero, Polar Shift, Edgar Cayce, the I-Ching…No??? Still no clue??? All right, I was just showing off a bit there… Some easier clues now à The Mayan prophecy, December 21, 2012, End time prophecies. Yeah you are right, it is about the end of the world or as we all know “The Armageddon”. The world is coming to an end and I can prove it. Oh what the heck, who am I kidding??? Continue reading with no expectations (people who have read my earlier posts would know by now)

I’ve always wanted to know what this conspiracy was all about. Now that I have started publishing every single thing I discover, thanks to Web 2.0, I shall tell you guys what I found. To be honest with you, this stuff is scary when you know just know one side of the story. Well less of rambling and more of the findings.
In a nutshell, Mr.Nibiru (fondly known as rogue planet) is on its way to enter the solar system and have a friendly collision with the earth. The impact would be so huge that it would disrupt the entire planet and would mark the end of the world. Yeah I know, your thinking I am ripping of some parts of Armageddon (the movie) and narrating a movie of my own. But NO, this is the prophecy. Call it coincidence or sheer Hollywood miracle; US will be the country that will face the impact directly. Hahaha…

There are a few facts (fictions rather) that lead to this discovery though.
Fact 1: Ancient Mesopotamians and Mayans had discovered that a massive planet, Nibiru, was about to enter the inner solar system and doom the Earth. The Mayans have indicated this on their long calendar and apparently the day was adjudged to be 12/21/2012 which marks the end of the Mayan calendar.
Fact 2: This is something that actually got me thinking, primarily due to the credibility of this man. Albert Einstein has stated that the earth’s magnetic poles are shifting. The North Pole is moving toward Siberia. As these poles shift, the weather systems of the earth also change. There has been unusual weather around the world in the last 20 or so years. The closer Nibiru gets to our solar system, the more their magnetic flux affects the orbits, axis and trajectories of the planets in our system. Fortunately, there is no evidence that this would collide with postulated doom’s day. Whew!!!
Fact 3: Prophecies of Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce and other fore-tellers have also predicted a catastrophic apocalypse. I have never believed in them and never will so I am not gonna ponder over it.
Fact 4: Polar ice caps melting, volcanic eruption, frequent earthquakes, Tsunami, unusual climatic changes suggests these are piling up to create a massive destruction of some sort. But then again there is no proof of date. I believe this is all an effect of global warming and can be controlled only if we get more “socially conscious”
Fact 5: Religious scriptures also talk about the arrival of Anti-Christ, shift of power to the east, economic turmoil and stuff like that. But yeah, if there was an Anti-Christ, it would have been Hitler himself, as he was one person who closely matched the specifications of that guy. But yeah, he’s dead and we still exist which is good enough at the moment!

All of these are more of a fiction than anything else, except maybe the global warming issue. My guess is that only a tiny fraction of people truly believes that Armageddon is coming in December 2012. But their uncritical acceptance of this story worries me as a warning of the dangers of our current scientific illiteracy. If at all a threat exists to our planet, it’s only due to global warming and we will have to deal with it by being more conscious.

One of funniest things about this Nibiru story is that it is a rerun – there was a big Internet concern that Nibiru would destroy the Earth in May of 2003. Something tells me this didn't happen, yet now the same myth is resurrected. Are we condemned to suffer a Nibiru scare or will people come to their senses??? Lets hope we live that long to witness it ;)

Social Networks & India

Back from my slumber and all ready to post!
IPL has not lived up to its expectations and I am running out of topics to blog about it. “Fake IPL Player” is doing a good job at it anyway. I have become a devout follower of his blog plus he has more insider information. He has got IPL live and kicking to some extent!!! So, back to today’s topic of interest – Social Networking
Off late @ work, I have been doing a lot of research on social media and how companies can leverage it. Businesses have started to take it seriously and they believe it’s not a fad. Social media is here to stay!!! Now this got me thinking (something I don’t fancy doing most often) “hmmm… really???”

I am not gonna talk about how businesses over here are leveraging it but rather why businesses in India are not making use of it! Social networks, in particular, Facebook, and Twitter have caught up well in India and are slowly replacing Orkut which to me is becoming more of “Porn”kut these days. You don’t believe me do you? I knew it. Being the professional that I am, I have data to prove it. Take a look at the chart above
The first graph dates back to 2007 and the other two are the present day stats. I don’t think I need to explain what the graph indicates. It’s pretty apparent that we have been caught up by the FB (facebook) and Twitter bug. Now looking at the larger scale of things, who is using FB and what kind of businesses could start leveraging it?
Yay!!! Some more stats for you. This is FB’s demographic stats for India. India has a total of 1.7 million active FB users and you have the rest of the demographic data on the chart below. Interestingly, 48% of FB users are Gen Y (18-24). I am sure most of you guys are going -- “Dude, so what’s your point?” So the big question is really “Dude, so what’s my point?” I took this information and tried to identify businesses that could be a best fit for using FB as a marketing channel. For a start, in India, I presume that youth brands should keenly look into this.
One company that popped up in my head instantly was Coffee Day. They have the ideal target group and an established customer base. So I logged into FB to check out their social network presence. I was happy to find that it had 44,158 fans. But, interestingly enough there is no participation directly from the company; I could only find user posts, reviews and user uploaded pics. I don’t understand why coffee day isn’t seeing this as an opportunity to connect with their customers and enhance their brand image.
Consumers have moved online and traditional marketing channels no longer hold good. For a start, businesses should at least get involved. If you don’t believe me this is how CCD’s fan page looks like. Just to let you guys know how active certain businesses are, I have also pasted the fan page of H&M, a clothing and accessory store. With over a million fan following, they are so current and up to date in the information they provide. Each tab is live and has some activity going on. They also have an online catalogue of their summer collection, videos, pictures and recent announcements.
Again the question is “Dude, so what?” Well, Ill tell you what --- The best part is its FREE. You can not only enhance your brand image but also use this as your PR channel - No costs involved. People are out there you don’t have to go looking fro them. Companies like CCD have an established brand image, so getting people to befriend you is gonna be a cakewalk. You get to listen to what customers have to say about you. Take the positives from that and showcase them, take the negatives and correct them.

I really believe this is a cool way to connect with your customers and customers would also feel delighted about the fact that companies are listening to what they have to say. I have been really impressed with FB after realizing the potential it holds. Twitter similarly has its own way of helping businesses enhance their image but I am not gonna talk about it cos I realize by now most of you are cursing me. I shall liberate you from my gyaan now.
BTW, just to make a better comparison I tried to look at Shoppers Stop and Globus on FB and found nothing. If you guys happen to find them do let me know. That’s it folks!!! HAVE a FUN!

So wats the latest???

I know it has been a long time and I really thought I wouldn’t post until I am free from my grueling schedule. But when I stumbled upon this piece of information I couldn’t resist myself. Literally, I HAD TO WRITE…. So here I am.

If you guys are guessing, what was so compelling that I had to do this… Well it combined two of my interest Cricket (IPL in particular, not for its novelty) and Marketing… I am sure by now, guys who are following IPL would know where I am coming from… The mystery of the “Fake IPL Player” …. Man, isn’t this awesome… So who is this Fake IPL Player?? He claims that he is a member of the KKR. He describes himself as a “perennial no hoper” and he goes on to say “there’s one thing I do very well. Serve drinks. And that’s what I am expecting do in South Africa”. When he started off, there wasn’t much hype about it, even I read the posts but I brushed it away. But, boy! He is so interesting…

I am not here to write my own conspiracy theory on who it mite be, but all I know is, if I were go with my intuition, I think this is one of Dildo’s (for people who are going wtf… Dildo = SRK) marketing gimmick just to get the word out. Even before it all began, KKR was in the limelight of all controversies and I beleive Dildo is just making use of this opportunity to get some popularity via this blog. He is pretty sure, he aint gonna create any buzz from the “cricketing aspect” of his team and I guess he is using this avenue to create a buzz around his team.

I should give it to the fake IPL player for choosing that name for SRK. I am sure there aint no better name for him that can fit him to the T. I am so compelled to use the F or the B word to prefix his name every time I mention him, now dildo somehow reduces my compulsion to a great extent. For people who don’t have any clue on this here is the link…read it directly from the horse’s mouth, it is more interesting… http://fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com/

Ok gtg now….Duty calls!!!! As we get deeper into IPL I will have more on this coming up.

Indian Politics League

Though I couldn’t find anything positive about the whole IPL fiasco, I was able to come up with more reasons that could dent the reputation of the biggest ever cricket tournament, or atleast that’s what they say. From a mere sporting event, IPL has now become a political issue. I should appreciate the people who run our country for their ability to mix politics into everything that is possible.

The latest development regarding this issue is the recent tussle between our Home Minister P. Chidambaram, BJP Leader Arun Jaitley and the BCCI board. Indian politicians are famous for playing the “blame game” and that’s exactly what they are doing right now. BJP is blaming the current government and so is the BCCI board and in his defense, our home minister, is asking the BJP to shut up and BCCI to get lost.

I should appreciate Mr.Jaitley for rightly identifying the opportunity cost involved in this whole debacle with the elections right around the corner. Though this may seem as amusing as ever, the burning issue is the image it has created on India as a nation. In my view, I see this as a lack in ability by the country to provide the required security. I am not gonna blame my country for this, I’d rather blame IPL.
The whole idea of flaunting around money and having things their way is not helping IPL in anyway but put down the nation for their personal gains. Modi has said that he is willing to compensate the franchisees over and above the cost they would have incurred if it was conducted in India. The reason stated by him was that brand image of IPL would take a hit, if it was postponed to the next year. The costs for hosting it expected to exceed $40 million and most of it is benefiting some other nation and Modi is proud in stating that it would help the economy of S.Africa.

This is what Warne had to say about the whole situation “Hopefully they get some good crowds. But, it'll be nothing like if it was in India, and it's a shame it can't be in India” This is also gonna jeopardize the future of Indian cricket because if we do not have the ability to run our own domestic tournament, how will foreign countries tour us in the future. It is truly a shame and India's image is under the radar because of the ego clashes on top.

I am sure I will enjoy this season on IPL as well because of the passion I have for the sport, but I'm sure it can’t override my Season-I memory.

Social Media – Elucidated

In simplest terms, social media is a set of online media that helps us get connected with peers, gain information about the unknown or just play around with all that is available. The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, telecommunications and social interaction through the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio.

Research has identified six kinds of social media which are Social Networks, Blogs/Micro Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts/RSS, Forums, and Content Communities. I guess none of these needs to be explained any further as most of us have experienced at least one of them.

So what is with the buzz around this “social media”? Why has it gained so much of importance lately? In all honesty, one of the great things about Social Media is that no one really knows what the next big thing is. It truly is like trying to capture lightning in a bottle. New innovations are being added on a regular basis which makes it a constantly evolving entity. As most of us are an active part of Social media, we understand its importance and explaining the importance of the social media would just make this post redundant.
In an effort to determine the effect of the hype around "social media", I decided to flesh out its advantages and disadvantages based on my experience:

Advantages:

• Common platform for people with different interest to share and connect
• Content is mostly user generated
• A means embrace your passion and identity
• A platform for organizations to connect directly with consumers
• Establish relationships and connections

Disadvantages:

• Content overload and problems in filtering out the right content
• Authenticity of the content (Like this one, how do you believe me?)
• Information and networking overload (Too much of networking is also not good at times)
• Consistent content delivery is a problem
• Addiction to social media

I am not sure if we will still be using Facebook or Second Life five years from now, your guess is as good as mine. Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, still in its beta stage, are driving innovations to unprecedented scales. There will no doubt be exciting new variants on current formats and perhaps innovations that come to be thought of as new forms of social media. One thing is clear though - social media– is a genie that will not be disappearing back into its bottle.

India to launch domestic airlines from India to S.Africa..Wow how domestic is that?

So, after a short sabbatical I am back with yet another one. This time it’s my favorite topic, sports and wat’s better I am gonna write about Cricket. Wait its gets much better; it is about the “INDIAN” Premier League (IPL). So if you guys are wondering why the bold font and Indian within quotes, it is for obvious reasons.

You guessed it right, it is about the “Indian” (domestic) premier league that is gonna take place in S.Africa. I mean, there is very good reason why it is called “domestic” cricket. I know there are a lot of commercial elements about the whole T20 format, but this time the cash rich BCCI has taken it to a notch higher. Well here’s an opportunity for everyone to voice out an opinion, why did they have to do it?? I am sure we all know the obvious reason being the election dates coinciding with the IPL dates, but dint they realize it when they fixed the dates?

Ever since IPL season II was announced, I was wondering what could be the rationale behind this decision. I haven’t taken much effort in reading articles and finding out the “real reasons”. Although, in my effort I did find out Sachin and Yuvi were immensely disappointed with the whole f*** up (an instance where profanity is a mandate). I know this could be the only best time for hosting it given a hectic schedule for rest of the year but still in S.Africa???

For those who witnessed IPL in all its glitz and glory last year, I am sure it is gonna be a huge disappointment. I mean, imagine Sivamani with his “othaiadi” at the Wanderers, who would enjoy that??? Now for those who are wondering what othaiadi means, its just a form of drumming that could possibly get you high without being drunk :) The energy levels at the ground, the passion, the excitement; India is gonna miss it all. I am sure it can’t get anywhere close to that in S.Africa.

Think about the revenue that could have been generated. I for one spent about 4000 bucks last year on tickets alone for 5 matches, not to forget the hard hats, the yellow t-shirts and the matches watched at 10 Downing Street or Escape. Why do you wanna throw it away to another country??? I am sure BCCI is not gonna generate half the revenue of what it could have generated last year with ticket sales. Given our crazy passion for cricket, TV rights could generate a lot of ad revenues. I could go on and on about how commercially unviable this whole venture is and I am sure you guys can figure that out as well. The question is, is it gonna be worthwhile?
If someone actually knows a really good reason for Modi’s killer idea, post your comments. Honestly I haven’t tried to look for any cos ultimately it wouldn’t convince me! I really hope IPL makes all the effort to live up to its expectations and not fall flat on its face. I am patiently waiting to see!!!!!!!!

(p.s) I would like to thank Lalit Modi for giving me this opportunity to blog during a time when I dint have really much to blog about. Read his stupid comments http://content.cricinfo.com/ipl2009/content/current/story/396651.html

I just drank 354.876 ml of Pepsi. Why would I?

So what’s with the US measurement system??? Why does it have to be so complicated??? Or is it just me??? Let me show you how the conversion works

1 inch = 2.54 cm
1 foot = 12 inches = 0.3048 cm
1 yard = 3 feet = 0.9144 cm
1 mile = 5280 feet = 1.60 km
1 fluid ounce (fl) = 8 fluid dram = 29.573 ml
1 pound = 16 oz = 453.592 g
2000 pounds = 1 ton = 907.184 kg
32 F = 0 C

The US measurement system is a confusing matter and still holds itself apart from the metric system employed by most other countries. There are a few exceptions. Medical and scientific fields use the metric system, and many items for trade are now measured in the International System of Units (SI), also called the metric system. If you are someone like me who grew up learning the “international” system (I strongly believe there is a good reason why they call it that way) your life is gonna be tough.

The SI system has a simple base 10 approach 1 Km = 1000 m = 100,000 cm = 10,000,000 mm. Now, how easy is this? Now American standards: 1 mile = 1760 yards = 5280 feet = 63360 inches. As a kid, I would go mad in trying to figure out how they could be related and I still am. Even after mastering the art of multiplication over the years, I had to use my calculator to come up with these numbers.

Now a use-case scenario: I wanna buy soda. Do I choose a 12 oz or a 16 oz cup??? BTW, these are the standard sizes available. I’d rather want a 10 oz or a 20 oz cup because of the plain reason that it’s a round number. Now, if you notice there is no underlying relation between SI system and the American standards of measurement and even if there is, I am not Einstein. I just found out that this system was called the British system and even the Brits have stopped using it a century back. Why does America resist the change?? Or is it just coz they wanna be different in everything????

Generational Marketing and India - Part I

The latest buzz word - Gen Y, what does that mean? Ever since I've set foot in this land, GEN Y is one word that has been thrown around quite a lot, atleast in my field of of work. For the first time I heard it, I was not quite sure what it meant and now here I am writing a post on it. For the benefit of those who are wondering what this means, like I did the first time I heard it, here it is:

Americans have divided their generations into 3 major demographical groups called the Baby boomers, Gen X and Gen Y.

Baby Boomers (1946 - 1960) are those people who were born post world war II and account to about 70 million people. They are the largest demographic section due to the fact that the veterans who came back after war had nothing to do but produce babies.

Gen X (1960 - 1980) also referred to as baby busters owing to the sudden decline in birth rates, account to about 35 million approx. This was may have been the time when contraceptives (aka condoms aka rubber) was in vogue.

And finally our generation GEN Y also referred to as the 20 somethings. There is a lot of confusion in the birth years of this generation and so for this post we shall consider them to be people aged 18-28. This was generation that grew up on technology and is hooked up 24/7/365.

Having explained these demographics, the next question is "so what?" ....Well Ill tell you what, there are 2 basic questions that came to my mind when I started thinking about it.

a) How are these guys (US) using these demographic classification?

b) Is there such a classification back in India? and if so, what are they doing with it?

I got the answer for how these guys utilize that data. If I was to explain that, it would become a thesis in itself. Demographic classification is one of primary data and a vital tool used in marketing. The amount of research that happens among these generational classification especially GEN Y is amazing.

Though we don't have to have such fancy names for the generational classification in India, being the world's largest in population (thanks to Tushar who updated me on this info) what have we done????? Gen Y in particular are being researched by so many companies because of the fact that they hold the key to the future of the brand. Their lifestyle and the market potential that they hold is immense. I agree we do targeted marketing, but is there a method where we try to engage GEN Y in trying to make them customers for life and building a brand image at the same time?

The power of word of mouth, especially with this generation and popularity of social networks are so immense that it can make or break your brand. Companies have started deploying MySpace, Facebook etc as a means to reach to GEN Y. Orkut is one of the biggest "adda" (hangout) of the Indian Gen Y community, but I haven't seen much marketing happening there and even if there is some bit of marketing, there aren't any Indian companies. It is high time we moved away from our traditional marketing cliches are tried innovative methods by making use of Web 2.0. But have we????

I am closing this post with a series of questions and no solutions, the only reason being I haven't thought of any. When I come up with a "killer idea" I'll post them. BTW, when you start your own business, please make sure you address all these questions.

My next post is not gonna be this serious or even this big. I had to do justice to my blogger name.

From the Scratch

After years of contemplation, I have made up my mind to write my own blog. But the big question is ' what do I write? '. From the very beginning, I decided I was gonna post random views and opinions of anything and everything, cos hey "This is MY BLOG".

Well on a serious note what do I really write? No prize for guessing. I just gave it away in the last paragraph. I am gonna be writing about my life experiences, my opinions, views on anything and everything "under the sun" (the reason I named my blog so). Well mostly its going to be sports, movies, business, cars, work related issues, economy, statistics, applied sciences, finance, astronomy, astrology, psychology, wildlife, human life, extra-terrestial life and what not?

I promise you one thing though, you would not find any of the posts very enlightening or boring. Ill try and keep it as professional as I can. I will make sure I gauge my audience right and keep them engaged at all times. Readers will of course get to opine their views and all comments, both good or bad shall be taken. No Profanity unless I decide it's appropriate. Regular readers will get to take part on polls and special prizes will be announced. Keep checking back for more updates!!