Improvement Ideas - Promote the Flex Boards Culture

One idea that I get when I see flex boards with pictures of some local 'leaders' and 'youth association members' is how this need for self-promotion could lead to a peaceful and law abiding society. The need for self-promotion is so deep that people go to great lengths.

Consider this aspect of self-promotion for a moment. Some people are constantly on facebook, some are constantly on blogs (like me), some are on whatsapp sending out philosophical messages and rotten jokes. Some others are paying good money to be featured in newspapers, some others are up to some antic or the other to stay in the news. I know people who actually buy citations and awards, float companies, finance movies (so they and their children can star in them), who self publish books and many other ways of self-promoting themselves. This self-promotion bug is a deep rooted need that we all have - the need to be relevant, to be acknowledged, to say 'hey, I exist'.

Then there are some of us self-promoters who find these above mentioned routes rather long drawn. Not for them all this waiting and working and writing and acting and taking pictures and posting and all that indirect stuff. There is yet another route that does not need all this. All it needs is a picture of oneself and a name (even a pet name like Pappu or Babloo), and the desire to appear on hoardings. These aspiring young self-promoting leaders get appointed on to some committee or the other in their neighbourhood and put together a well designed flex board which is then inflicted upon the average public with about a million faces peering out from them. Their names printed alongside.

Typically these boards are well meaning. They find some good occasion like for example, wishing some other great leader - could be President Obama for all you care. Put President Obama's picture, a smaller picture of some other leader, your own picture while walking around with goggles and dressed out with khadi, hand waving etc, and then thirty other faces of friends and family all grinning happily or looking like they have been dead for a couple of years. You could be wishing someone happy birthday, wish society happy Diwali, or any occasion you please.

The problem is that most times these faces do not inspire much confidence. They do not seem to be genuinely wishing you a happy Diwali. Its more likely they are saying -wait till I met you in the dark alley next door. I don't know why but they remind you of all the kinds of people you see in movies whom you ought not to meet in a dark alley. I don't want to judge books by covers, but what to do, these covers do not really inspire confidence. (Are their photographers bad?)

Why they are there on the flex board at all looking at me, what is it that they want to do peering at us, what their future plans are - these questions worry me when I see these flex boards. These youth leaders may well become our full grown leaders tomorrow, which is also rather worrying. Will I have to see them on television then? How will I approach them in real life if what I see on the flex board is itself rather intimidating? Are there only bad sides to this.

There must be some good side to it.

It turns out that there is one. A good reason why these self-promoting flex boards must be encouraged.

This is inspired by this news item I heard about recently. Let me relate the story first. A young man was waylaid and robbed of his stuff. He lodged a police complaint and things went rather quiet for a while. (Most likely because the police started their investigations into why this person was carrying any valuables at all. Sorry, that was a joke.) Now this young lad was in the habit of looking at these flex boards. Voila. He saw one of his friendly attackers smiling at him from one of the flex boards. He called the police and pointed at the flex board and they apprehended the smiling gentleman.

Don't you see the benefits? All that the police needs to do from now on is to get a print of all flex boards and show them to people who have been at the receiving end of robberies, muggings, land grabbing, eve teasing etc. Better still encourage these flex boards to be put up all over town so they serve as a gallery at every nook and cranny. In most cases there could be an early resolution to the matter since the pictures are prominently displayed and are of much better quality than the ones you'd find in the police files. Here the pictures are in colour, and showing the chaps in normal circumstances, leering, laughing, winking, threatening.

A further improvement of the flex board benefits to law and order officials is that they serve as great indicators to the cops on where they should focus their energies on. All potential mischief makers will make their appearance sooner or later on the flex and a close eye on their whereabouts could easily help. Thanks to the wonders of technology and the human need to self-promote, our lives can actually become much easier.

And we can all self-promote ourselves peacefully without worrying too much about being mugged by total unknowns thanks to the flex board technology. 

Nice link - 7 Steps of the Sales Process

This is strictly for those who are interested in the sales process.

http://www.steadysales.com/the-7-steps-of-the-sales-process/

For the others I can share my own wonderful sales stories later. There are many.

Shubun - Movie Review

Akira Kurosawa is the director. Shubun means scandal. This was his 11th film and preceded Rashomon.

First shot. A painter is shown painting landscapes of mountains in the wilderness. Three peasants are watching him paint and are offering their rustic advise. A girl, a famous singer comes by. She has lost her way. Painter offers to drop her off on his motorcycle as he is going the same way.

Two freelance journalists see the couple in the hotel where they stay. They request the singer for an interview. She declines. They get a few snaps of the two sitting in the hotel balcony and sell the photos with some misleading captions, hinting at an affair. The story is carried by a mischievous publication called Amour. The publisher is not too scrupulous.

The news becomes a big scandal. The painter decides to sue the paper. The publication manipulates everything and everybody. They hire the best lawyer. The painter gets a lawyer who is easily compromised. He has a love for the races. The magazine compromises him.

The case is covered widely by the media which judges the trial and influences how it goes. The painter's lawyer does everything to lose the case. However he has a young daughter who is dying of tuberculosis. The painter and the singer are very nice to her. The girl dies. The man feels guilty and confesses. The painter and singer are acquitted. The lawyer loses his license. The publisher gets punished and loses the case.

The hook is strong. You can't forget it. The story is told simply. It was made to protest against the press and its role. Kurosawa felt that the press was sacrificing truth for sensationalism. This was in 1950. We still feel the same.  

Diva - Movie Review

Its a 1971 French movie. There's a postal delivery boy who has an ear for music. He is a great fan of an opera singer. (The first scene is a full 5 minutes of her opera performance.) In that first scene he is seen delivering some flowers to her at a concert and on the way back, stealing her dress. He also records her concert which is very valuable - she does not allow her performances to be recorded.

In a parallel track, a girl alights a train and is running away from two men who are intent on killing her. As with all good intents, they succeed. But not before she slips a cassette into the postal delivery boy's scooter. Obviously it contains secret information about an 'evil man'.

On another parallel track, a couple of goggled Oriental-looking men in black suits are shown. They are after something and are up to no good.

On another track, our postman meets a Oriental looking girl (Vietnam?) who steals stuff from a music shop ingeniously. They share a love for music. She has a boyfriend who seems to know something about everything. He gives her the recording of the diva's performance.

Okay, let's put it all together. The post boy has a rare recording of the diva's best performance. This performance he asks his Vietnamese girl to listen. Word somehow gets around that this rare cassette is in existence. The two Korean black suits are from a record label who want the diva to sign her rights to make copies else they will publish the unauthorised recording. To get the unauthorised recording they chase the boy.

Dead girl is a prostitute who is in the ring of a drug and prostitution racket. Her cassette is also with the postal boy where she identifies the police chief as the kingpin. Now there are two interesting cassettes, one postboy, one pissed off diva, one guy who can leverage the whole thing (Vietnam girl's boyfriend). He finally gets both the villains to bump one another off. Diva is happy. Post boy is happy. We are happy.

For so many parallel tracks, its slick and well shown. You never get bored nor disconnected. All characters retain some originality, some driving motive which is so important to me. Fellows know what they are doing. Apparently its some landmark film in French cinema. I liked it.

17 Places to Holiday In India - Nice Link

For all the horrors that FB presents me, it has a few benefits. Such as finding this nice link which I will instantly share with my friend Naresh.

So let me see where I am on this chart. I have ticked 7 of the 17.

Rishikesh (one can just sit there for days together), Pushkar (its a different experience), Anjuna (have to be there to feel it), Hampi (need a week), Gokarna (superb beaches, long treks) Mahabalipuram (need to go again) and Varanasi (need to go again)

http://www.holidify.com/blog/holiday-places-for-a-long-break/

Why I love Ophthalmologists

I went to the opthalmologist for some treatment yesterday. I found that the whole experience was quite nice. Intimate rather. The fact that the opthalmologist was looking closely into my eyes with great care and concern made me feel very nice and cared for. For a few moments it seemed that I was the object of great love - or perhaps - great concern. Though the light was blinding and I could not reciprocate the ophthalmologist's care and concern (and intimacy), I felt very nice being on the receiving end.

I started thinking that perhaps we should visit the ophthalmologist every month so you experience this being looked at closely into one's eyes. Maybe we could persuade the ophthalmologist to look into our eyes without the blinding light (or on second thoughts, maybe its better the light is there, makes it more mysterious).

This syncs in with another great idea I once had. The idea was to start a diagnostic centre called 'Good Results Diagnostics'. It is based on my experience that in most cases my visits to doctors and diagnostic centres have (thankfully!) been due to some unknown and unfounded anxieties in my mind. The moment I paid the the consultation fee the symptoms vanished, most times even before I took the first dose of medicine. So, if we have a diagnostic centre that only gives you the perfect results (only they follow the procedure of collecting money, doing the test etc). Just that there are no tests really done. The perfect results are given to you at the end of the anxious wait. All's well.

The great placebo effect.

But this other idea, the ophthal idea, is no placebo. It consists of real clinics that have doctor-people who look deep into your eyes, who hold your hand, who warmly place a hand on your shoulder, who for a few minutes make you feel like you are the centre of the world. (Now most people are uncomfortable being the centre of the world for various reasons so we need a medical reason as a good excuse.) They walk into the clinic for some seemingly minor ailment, meet all these wonderfully warm and intimate people, and go home feeling warm and cared for. Of course they pay a small premium for all this wellness. Now this is purely medical and no self indulgences will be entertained. Ten minutes and off you go.

Now, that's my idea of a wellness centre. Until the idea really takes off we will have to do with the real doctors - the ophthalmologists for one are great to visit and I recommend them. I can see various other forms of extreme thoughts arising even as I write when one considers the other specialisations. So at this moment I will fully restrict myself to ophthalmologists only.

Or perhaps we can start a look-into-eyes therapy. Start at home with a willing participant. Happy looking into eyes.

On the Road Diary - Day 7, Chorla Ghat (Belgaum, Bagalkot, Raichur, Hyderabad)

I realised that the GPS is not a bad thing at all. We headed out of Calangute at 610 bidding farewell to Hotel Raman where I will surely come back. Manoj was as good as his word and hot tea was served at 545 am sharp. The road is rather easy to find, go to Mapusa, head towards Tivim (that's where the Konkan Railway station is). We use the GPS on Shobhs' phone and it guided us along. The plan - to take the new route via Chorla to Belgaum and hope to reach there in 3 hours. If we do, it will save me a good hour or two and I can pitch for doing the entire distance at one go.

Onwards to Tivim

The morning is beautiful. We touched the NH17, and went across at an intersection towards Tivim. The road is good and we rapidly passed by many small villages until we hit Sincleim or some such village where we heed the directions to go right to Belgaum.

There are directions all along to Belgaum, but Chorla does not appear on the milestones nor on the GPS (we found it mentioned as Chorlem later). At Sincleim the road veers right from the main road, almost like a U, goes back under the bridge on which we came, and heads out into a beautiful ride in the mountainside.

The lone stop

Its green as green can be, the road is a dream and the drive was highly enjoyable. Belgaum was all of 130 kms if I remember right.

The ghat road is incredibly well maintained. Its the best approach road to Goa that I have ever driven on. The road may be a bit more winding and perhaps narrower but its simply the best.

The dream road

One Paulo Travels bus ran me off the road with some reckless driving on a corner in the ghat, but otherwise it was fantastic. I behaved like Captain Haddock for a few minutes and we moved along.

Light at the end, or at the beginning

We entered Belgaum by 9. The GPS led us through some internal routes to Hotel Sankam where we stopped for breakfast. That done, we headed off to Bagalkot, once again crossing the Pune-Bangalore highway. Before Bagalkot, a cop stopped us and booked us for speeding.

The road is good enough to drive at 100 kmph but the speed limit is 60 kmph. He was one of the more polite and well mannered policemen I have met and the matter was concluded in a few minutes. Fine of 300 bucks paid, receipts issued and we are on our way. No picking through my luggage, rooting through my papers etc. Anjali got herself an ice cream.

At Aminagad we stopped to pick some more of that Kardant. Crossed another NH and we were on the Lingsugur road. We were past Raichur by 4 in the afternoon. Things slowed down a bit near Mahbubnagar, lots of traffic, long town, narrow road, why don't they have a by pass?

Road continues to be good

That set us back by almost 30 minutes. It got dark and we decided to chill, have a chai. Back on the Hyderabad- Bangalore highway where cars zip by from both sides in a tearing hurry and then finally home by 830 pm.
Aah!