Manzil to har koi banta hai,
Tu khaakh ban ke dikha
Ke aag bhi jispar haath seke
Woh raakh ban ke dikha
Bada maza hai haar ki sisak mein
Belabz keh di jaye, woh baat ban ke dikha
Gairon ki hasi mein kahe khushi dhoondein,
Apni hasi ka sabab khud ban ke dikha
Ho jana hai ek din fanaa isi mitti mein bandey
Jo cheer ke nikle is zameen se, woh darakht ban ke dikha...

Christmas for Creatives.

Now you see them working.
They’re working as a team.
And yes they do, have a common dream.
They’ll work late nights.
With CS teams, they’ll pick fights.
Every writer will become an art guy and every artist a writer.
Suddenly every Archive will seem just brighter.
Big talks, bigger jargons.
But some good ideas will still be abandoned.
Think Big. This doesn’t work. That has been done.
Every one will try to prove, he is the only one.
The game of credits will now begin.
Even that Trainee will try to fit in.
More the rum, more the ideas.
Everyone will have their set of bakwaas.
For release permission, they will plead.
The only time when creatives and clients meet.
This time of the month, they’ll all play their cards.
Now you see them, they’re working for awards.

The Stationery People.

A post like this, is usually the result of the ridiculous amount of time one spends at work. Especially, alone. More the time, weirder the observation. One such night last month, forced me to look at office stationery differently. What if they were like people who work with us?

Take a look: 

Post-its: The Perfect Pretentious 

Small but powerful. Gets along with everyone, but closest to the ones who have nothing to do.

Staplers: The mean machine
Shoots tiny bullets that force papers to get along even if they don’t want to. Some people just can’t let it go!

Prints: Mr. Versatile
Someone who can actually be utilised to make paper planes, paper balls, desk-wipes, notebooks, weapons and even bunkers behind which people pretend to work.

Highlighters: The Dark Knight
A poor soul who is always blamed for pointing out other’s mistakes. Everyone loves to use it, but no one wants to face it.

White Board: The Victim
Someone more responsible than the Managing Director, more creative than the Creative Director and more artistic than Pablo Picasso. Abused, misused, dominated, tolerated and the sole witness of every meeting ever held in the room. Deserves the Nobel Prize for Patience.

Board Pin: The Fighter
Holds on to everything. From annoying soft toys to the long lost extension list, restaurant menus, coasters, posters, useless quotes, family pictures and the busy post-its.

Paper punch: The Pervert
Ends up penetrating every piece of paper that comes in its way. Still holds his position because he knows every secret ever filed in the company.

Files: The old fellows
Find their peace in a small community center built in the office corner. Here, they reminisce their old days, clean each other’s dust off and hope to be back in trend.

Pen Drives: The Groupie
She can’t hold a secret within her. Easy to corrupt, she can be used by anyone and everyone unless password protected by her master – the IT head. Loves to swing in pockets, drawers, purses and other unimaginable places.

Soft Boards: Mr. Bi-Polar
Haunts you with job-lists, comforts you with pictures. Gets along only with the Board Pin. Most underestimated, often hidden and ignored, this split personality is at his best on Monday mornings.

Maula

Ishq-e-aazam mein samaana hai, sab kuch bhool kar,

Yaad karna ha khuda ko, khud ko bhool kar

Ho kar bhi nahin hona, milkar tujhse tujhme kho jaana hai

Maula tere noor se, mere noor ko milaana hai…

Tu haq, tu badshah, imaan tu, rehman tu,

Tere dum se dum chale mera, zidagi meri hai, ehsan tera

Tujhe yaad kar mawla, baaki sab kuch bhoolana hai

Maula tere noor se, mere noor ko milaana hai…

Uljha hua hoon kabhi duniyadari, kabhi khuddari mein

Doosron ke pehluon mein dhoondta tere aanchal ko

Jholi bhale ho khali, par ankhon ko toh bhar hi aana hai

Maula tere noor se, mere noor ko milaana hai…

Thak chukka hoon chal chal kar, ab thoda sa so jaana hai

Paa liya hai duniya ko, bas ab tujhe paana hai

Guroor tod saare, tere suroor mein samaana hai

Maula tere noor se, mere noor ko milaana hai… 

The perfect marketing mix - Marriage

Some call it the bitter-sweet laddu, some look forward to it like a one-time-fame event, some call it a live-in license and most of them, find it scary.
Here’s a silly but thoughtful observation – what if marriages were products?
Imagine a well-packaged product that’s a part of every person’s life, no different than a toothbrush or washing powder. A product lost between management jargons and can be confusingly defined as an FMCG that’s customized to be a luxury product for everyone who is a niche audience for the same.
Now, let’s look at the Product Lifecycle of this not-so-Kotlerised paradox:

Launch Stage: 
Like every product, the launch process for this one too, starts with research. Demand based or need based (arrange or love), the research for launching this product includes the study of demographics (here, it means giving a demo of yourself), psychographics (a few psycho aunties, sshh) and competition analysis (You sure about him? that US returned MBA is better na?). After all the research, the product launch is finally decided by the Board of bored senior citizens headed usually by an expert consultant – the pundit.

Growth Stage
(It literally grows on you)
After the launch party continued till Honeymoon, it’s time for reality check. The post-launch performance is judged by the ability to perform in bed (I mean snoring) and the cup of tea made. For the first few months, nothing stays more important than filling the gaps (of course between demand and supply). Hold on, the growth stage also includes launching a few sub brands.

Maturity Stage: 
(Better known as the realization stage)
This stage begins with your sub-brands giving you sleepless nights (not the happy ones, but nappy ones). You lose your old friends and gain some new ones including a few soft toys. This is when your product gets exhausted and looks for a refined ‘bar’code.
Somewhere in the hustle of living up to so called expectations, the product slowly loses its charm. Though a part of daily life, it stays locked in an old photo album or a dust-clad frame hanging out with a few webs. And that’s where it starts declining.

The decline stage 
(Or, a new beginning)

Just like a papad, soap or pickle, this product too reaches its decline stage. The brand loyalty becomes questionable and the recall value goes down the kitchen drain. The bedroom becomes like a boring boardroom and the hall hounds with TV serial music. That’s when you know that this product is soon reaching its expiry date. Just then, the grown up, mature understanding consumer within arises and revamps this product with the added features of understanding, adjustments and the forever tradition – hope.