Why Advertising Fail?

The market to day is bombarded with millions of messages from every sources. Many products and many services are promoted through all sorts of the media. That is why the communication blitz make no impact on the consumers. Naturally no advertising works unless they are carefully planned, designed and executed to their target consumers.

Also chances are more for a consumer to get carried away by messages of competitors.
In short the smart one who does smart advertising will stay in the market for long term.

Most advertisements that appear in the print media, TV and in the Web creates no impact on the consumers as they are all similar in their approach to catch a clients base. Those who adapt relationship marketing techniques outsell his competitor in many ways.

Opinion promotion is a latest technique that is being injected into the promotional strategies of a company. The advertisements should convey this strategy while being displayed in any media. This seldom happens in Kochi. No Ad Agency can handle this
for a client satisfactorily. At least the client does not understand what approach the agency people take to promote their business to the millions.

Another area that is being totally neglected in Kochi today is web advertising. Digital media or new media as it is called is a sure way to develop a long term clientele through tailor-made promotions for products and services that have heavy competition from similar products or services.

In short the advertising game is to be played in tandem with the dynamic lifestyle of the society to survive in the market and to overcome competitions. And to conserve on Advertising means suicide for the company that is involved.

Mind you, each nickel you spent on advertising returns to you doubled in no time provided your messages are seen or heard in the over crowded market.

Could your Ad Agency make you stand out in the crowd? If you think twice about this, it is high time that you should switch to a new agency that is smart enough to reposition you and your services. Only smart advertising stays long. It is essential to build up your Brand.

Be A Star If Not A Sun

People include you and me imitate others. Even if we try hard to remain without doing so, we can't. We do imitate knowingly or unknowingly many things from others. For example, we imitate our neighbors in keeping our status in the neighborhood.

Imitation is a part of our culture. Inseparable. Ir repairable and Innateness in nature. The very life revolves around this weakness of ours.

Kids imitate parents. School children imitate their class mates. Women imitate glamor gals. Men imitate celebrities. Baby boomers imitate other baby boomers.

Poets imitate other poets. Writers imitate other writers. Critics imitate other critics by criticizing all and everything. The very life is imitation.

Only a thrid person can identify whether a person is imitating another person or not. The one who imitating another seldom knows that he or she is unknowingly imitating someone.

Even in communication also we do imitate others. Look at Arts, Painting, Music, Drama, Film and TV or any other communication media. Imitation is resplendent in communication. Obviously it remains hidden under the surface. But in depth there it looms before you like an iceberg. What you have seen above the surface is only its tip.

Why communication always imitate?

Communication is a natural function that is evolving by itself. Anything that is self-generated cannot stand by itself. Hence communication also cannot stand on its own. It needs a support. And the support comes in some "form": writing, music, painting and the like. Can you imagine any communication without a definite form?

Every one imitates some form of communication from others who did it before. Imitation is suicidal in communication, because it will not last long. Such imitations in communications, let it be in any form, would never contribute to our refined culture. Communication is after all the net result of refined culture.

It takes ingenuity to be "original". Not talent. Originality is sometimes termed creativity. Both these terms are reciprocal in effect. Imitation kills originality. Ingenuity fosters creativity, inspiration and motivation.

So the core functions of any communication are to inspire, inform and motivate. If imitation seeps into it, the basic purpose of communication is not met.

It is better to remain bold in communicating with others. Be genuine and honest to yourself. communicating that way makes you a star, if not a Sun.

Where Time Stands Still

I am a husband, father and above all myself. You may too, perhaps. And there are wives, mothers and women.

Let us talk about being a father. Or being a mother. Being a man, let me tell you about being a father.

I became a father when I am blessed with 'my' child. Suddenly I saw myself turning 'selfish' and 'possessive'. My wife too became so. That is how family is.

Time does not stop for me there. Neither it does stop for others. But I remain a father till the innings are over.

When you look back you feel a secret pleasure in being possessive of your child.
You become possessive because you love them. It is man's nature to own everything he or she loves.

When you look forward you might feel disappointed. Because your children grow into adulthood and slowly become less attached or less imposing as they were used to. You wonder what happened to your love towards them. It is again, because you remain a father to them.

So being a father or mother can be both happy and disappointing as well, in terms of your love to your children. There was a point in Time they loved you, attached to you more than what they do as they grow up. That point of time would not return back to sooth your heart.

And mind you, there is another point of Time in every one's life to discard everything they thought precious: love, possessiveness, affection, attachment and all the feeling parents had had when their kids were small and dependent on you. But the children do love you. Don't forget that.

The act of renunciation of your explicit love and possessiveness will take you far ahead in life in beating disappointment. It will help you live a blood-pressure-free life. I have seen many mothers and fathers too lament over the plight of their kids as they grow day by day.

The next-generation kids of ours doing a favor to us. It is in fact a blessing in disguise. They help us live tension-free for the rest of our life, as soon as they become their own. They can manage themselves. They do not need our support physically anymore. To day they are kings and queens in their own world. They eat the food we never might have tasted in our life when we were of their age.

Where do they go? they also go to the same destination as we are. So don't worry about them. Just keep a watch over them. If you were kind enough with them, they still feel your unseen protection behind them.

Being free now, we have more time now to brood about them. We have more time to do things we seldom did in the past. make use of all the time you have. It is good both for you and your kids.

What A Fool I Am?

"Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes a day."

I do not know who said this. But I believe it is a universal truth.

The moment I hit the lines, I thought about myself. Yes. I discovered that I am a 'damn fool'. Not for five minutes a day, but for the whole life since marriage.

Foolishness is a part of my life. I cannot escape it. I was a fool before the marriage too. But then I did not bother about me. Once married as a fool I have to bother about me. I have to keep abreast of other fools in life. So I became a better fool.

The sea-change has come into me when I met this woman I am talking of.

At first I wanted to find out what kind of a fool she is. Or all women are. Are they better fools than men? Or just worse than men?

I do not have the grit to ask this to her. Because she wont understand my question. She will catch the word 'worse' and the rest is unexplainable.

There is saying "When you are in Rome be a Roman". This saying goes in perfect sync with this:"When you are among fools, be a fool" too. It does not mean that when a man is with a woman, be a woman. It just means that when you are with a woman be a stupid fool. Else the repercussions will be disgraceful.

Who is a better fool? The man or the woman? Man of course is a "damn fool". What a woman would then be? Is there any word to describe the "better" part of the fool in a woman?

Even Shakespeare, who invented more than 1700 words in English, could not invent a suitable word to define a foolish woman. No man can define a woman, leave alone a 'foolish woman'. Neither a woman could define a woman.

Being a damn fool I tried to explore my woman in depth. It took nearly 25 years to conclude my research findings. My findings can be distilled into a small group of words like this:

"A woman is like the vanity bag she uses. Once you open it you find more hidden pockets in it, both inside and outside. All filled with junk."

What a fool I am!

Fall In Love, Now!

Life is simple. But living the life is a tedious process.
Life does not end. Only the precess of living ends.

Between the sun rise and the sun set, many things do happen.
What we experience until we go to bed is not life, but the act of living.

To face life, we do not need anyone. But to continue living, we need the support of someone. Because living the reality is nerve-racking. Hopes get shattered. Smiles turn sour.Ambitions become nightmares. Dreams get disillusioned.

In reality, to live the life we all need to be bold. Boldness is an attitude we generate, and stick on to continue living. Boldness is evolved when we think we have a companion to support us, help us and lead us. No human existence is possible without the support of another human being.

The term 'support' has a wide range of meanings that would fit each individuals need. But remember, support never comes free from another human being. One has to sacrifice something while the other has to accept something in return to establish mutual support.

The very thought of such a mutual support makes living a bit easier, comfortable, soothing and peaceful. What one pays for it is another one's need. We call it "love".

Let me tell you, mere love is only a fever. It comes and goes. Once the fever is over you turn to another one for love. Love is a passing illusion. It never makes life easier. It makes living more devilish than it actually is.

So how do we face life, or the process of living, boldly? The simple formula for living free is to love someone generously. It is "selfless love".

Selfless love has a meaning. Its meaning is understood by the taker, not the giver. The takers support the givers.

Selfless love is eternal. It is not a passing fancy like ordinary love. Selfless love is a rare breed of its own. Even ardent lovers do miss it. Even couples do miss it in their married life. In fact no one seeks it. Selfless love is more godly. It makes life peaceful, simpler and holistic.

So fall in selfless love, I say. Ignore the social taboos or stigmas to experience selfless love. Women need it more badly than men. Only men can give it to a woman. That is the charm of it.
Then it becomes a real-life problem of the society. Not yours.

Listen Man, Please.

Listening is a voluntary action of us. We listen consciously and unconsciously. Most of the time we listen unconsciously to many things: gossips, opinions, comments, criticisms and even songs.

Unlike any activity we do we listen more. Yet this activity goes unnoticed. Mother Nature has equipped us with this faculty of listening by birth. Before we learn to talk we listen. Even a deaf person can listen, and so is a blind person. Listening is not hearing nor seeing. It is a faculty that hovers within us beyond the influence of our senses.

So listen. No other sense in man or in animal works like listening. Yet man does not know how to tame and domesticate this all-powerful faculty for his benefits. No faculty in man does change its intensity of function as listening does. That is why we could hear murmurs and even a rustle of a leaf, if need be.

Man is addicted to listening. The more you listen to anything the more you get addicted to it.

Listening is tricky in its nature. It plays havoc in some triggering mental frustration. It keeps you close to the God in you if it is properly channelized. It can pave the way for you to become a millionaire. It can also ruin you in no time. Mind you, this very faculty resides in you. Not outside of you.

In life you and me listen to a lot of things. From the chirping of birds to the murmur of crickets in the night. Almost everything falls into our faculty of listening. A wide range of sounds, images, smells, feelings, textures, and even ripples in the air do fall upon our listening faculty. But we seldom notice them unless we want to.

No man can suppress this faculty. But man can control it. It needs a lot of grit to make this faculty obey us. If you can make it obey you, you can even listen to your mind too.

The very world in which we live today would not have been possible without exercising this faculty by men. Early man invented fire by listening to his need for warmth. Every real things aroud us are the results of listening to this faculty by men of different kind. Scientists do this more. Artists do this. Writers do this. Musicians do this. Kings did this. all do this in one way or the other to satisfy some needs of his. So listen to your own faculty of listening. Listen to your mind and to the world outside.

I seldom listen. But I listen to myself. I still have to learn to listen more. Listening yourself makes you free as birds. It can keep diseases away, it can keep you young forever, it can make you bold, it can make you patient and it can change your lifestyle overnight.

Listening is the simplest work one can do any time. The yields are highly rewarding. You need to get trained to listen to you and others. Listening faculty itself is the best trainer for you.
All you need is to sit quietly and concentrate on the thought pattern of your mind. You are listening.

Culture A Rose

Often I wonder whether I have 'culture'. If I do have it, what it is like? Can I touch it?
Can I feel it? Can I express it? Or can I explain it?

A simple search for the term 'culture' in Google catapults you into a world of utter confusion. Google throws before you thousands of pages that do mention the word 'culture'. It is unlikely for one to go through all those pages in his life time. When it is so, the very thing 'culture' can be definitely confusing.

Kudos to the one who invented the word culture. Hats off to those who tried to define the word culture. A Nobel Prize for the one who explained it in a sentence without loosing its complete meaning.

Culture is such a word. It demands the entrepreneurship of men who have enough culture to redefine it.

Ask me about it. Suddenly I realize how helpless I am to convince you about it. How handicapped I am to describe it. I go dumbfounded about it.

Culture is something that is either elusive like a fish or volatile like spirit. Explaining it is still next to the impossible. I am sure that is the hallmark of culture as it is. No man ever lived on earth manifested his culture in its totality. But many like me and you brag about it. That is what our culture is.

When you are helpless you naturally seek the support of someone or something. All did seek the help of other known words to define this single word 'culture'. Educationists attributed its identity to civilization. Politicians attributed its identity to the party's agenda. Botanists attributed its identity to tissue culture. Each one attributed its identity to his area of activity.

Why this very word 'culture' remain so mystic in its very nature? Why does culture manifest only at times in one's life so that every one could understand it? Does it have anything to do
with Man who can walk on two legs, keep a smile on his lips, foster love in his heart and show compassion to others like him? does it influence the Man when he is annoyed, irritated or sad? Does it take over the Man when he is selfish and self-centered? does it manifest its self when the Man turns envious of others?

I am sure,culture is something that is directly related to your mind and your feelings. It is one thing that controls your Id, Ego and Super Ego. It turns itself into an 'angel' if you need it that way. It remains as a 'devil' if you let it rule you. Does culture have a split-personality? it is the only lasting entity in a Man's life that decides what He is and what He would be till his death.

Culture is permissive, compromising and accommodating. It is radical, revolutionistic and demanding at the same time. There is no state of 'in-between' for it.

To me 'culture' is a rose. At least I can deem it so with all my humility. The fragrance of it is everywhere. But mind you, don't handle it carelessly. You get hurt with its thrones!

So what makes your culture is neither the rose flower or the thrones around it. It is the fragrance of it.

Enjoy the fragrance of it as much as you can. You will never get fed up with the smell of a rose. You need not define how a rose flower smells. The very word rose itself smells rose.
Culture is a rose. It either makes you or breaks you.

Be A Baby Again!

"Good communication is stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after."

How true! These are the words that arrested me just now. These are not my words. It is of one Anne Morrow Lindbergh. But the words define not what communication is. It defines what communication be like. Good communication should linger in you. Imagine drinking a good cup of black coffee . Enjoy every sip of it. It keeps you awake late night. That is how good black coffee works for late-night-enthusiasts.

Without communication it is like living in a dark cave. With over communication it is like sleeping in a battle field.

It took years for me to learn what good communication is. I am still learning it. I still have to master the techniques of communicating effectively. I am watching the baby.

It takes a baby some time to call you with your first name. Imagine your young baby calls you with your first name all on a sudden. You get a kick! You love it! You feel happy that your baby can call you your first name. and you will reward him with a sweet kiss. That is how communication works. That is how communication should work.

The baby has loaded its love in the word when it pronounced your first name! That is why you got happy. That is the basis of good communication. Charge the messages with emotions. Make it seep into the bottom of one's heart. Let it remain there, for ever.

As the baby in you grows into manhood, he looses his inborn art of communication.There is no feelings in any messages you get from him. Where does that baby's feelings go? If he calls now you in your name, you feel annoyed. what happened to those sweet feelings? such is the sort of communication you get now from your surroundings. such is the messages you receive from newspapers, books, TV or radio. Plenty of "drama" spoils the communication today. Plenty of gimmicks erode the communication today. In communication you can't go back to your baby-state.

The baby in you is dead. And you never could communicate to the other baby in someone. Everyone around you are same as you. Communication sinks. Only dramas float. Messages get dilapidated. Only dust remains. what happens? Your over-communicated brain does not allow you to talk like a baby as you did years back. There is no room in the brain for "feelings". Feelings are for the heart. Communication is mixing heart with brain.

You become a battery now; with two poles. The positive and the negative. You have no emotions left in your heart to complete the circuit with the battery. Your communication seldom gets 'sweet-wrapped' when your brain rules you.

If you put heart into brain, the circuit works and you get the pleasant shock. To connect to your communication battery you need to be a baby again. You need to put your feelings behind each word you say. You need to lift the meanings with vehamence to get your messages across. that is how communication works like. Can you be a baby again to talk like a baby?

Should we read or write?

Since Man's invention of letters, man learned to read also. Since then the Sun rose and set uncountable times. Man still reads. And some do write also. Both use the same letters and words.

The papyrus have given way to newsprint and now to the digital medium. Still the words remain the same! Letters look the same! Even the basic meaning remain the same! Is that a wonder?

Since the invention of letters, the waters in the Euphretes and the Tigris ran non-stop. The river Nile still runs caressing its banks. So is the life we live. But do we live the life of the Sumerians who invented the alphabets? Definitely not. Life has changed a lot. It has changed the face of this planet. But not the planet of words.

Why the words look the same despite the changes through centuries? Why their meanings look the same all through the ages? Why most of the men remain as readers than as the few writers?

Sir Francis Bacon said:"Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man." Very true, for the Man of his times. Not for the Man of today. Today man reads. Seldom he writes. If some does, he copies what others did in the past. Nothing new. Life in the planet of letters still remain pre-historic.

There is no poetry in poems. There is no drama in drama. There is no story in fiction. There is nothing novel in novel. There is no Life in words of today!

Is it the readers who create writers? Or is it the writers who create readers? Is both reciprocal? Then how come the seed first and the tree later?

Confusion rules the thinking faculty of men today. There is no perfect answer to anything in the world. Even Science fails before getting itself established. But Life seldom fails. Neither words. Not meanings either.

Confusion rules the very life of ours today. We tend to think complex. We have no time for the finer and simpler things in life. We do not have time for simple words and their pregnant meanings.

Did I say 'pregnant meanings'? Word is dynamic in its message. Its message is its meaning. As the Life changes, meanings also do change within the boundaries of a word. That is culture.

As men get confused they seek words for solace. They start reading. Some start to write to seek a vent for their bottled up emotions. Both use words. But not a word with new life! All they read or write are words that look like the eyes of a dead fish.

Still all want to read. Even writers do read. That is why we buy books and newspapers. We sell old books and newspapers as junk. Do we sell old words as junk?
We buy books, subscribe newspapers and listen to media to see the words we knew. We do all this to repeat the junk sales. We help them create money by selling dead words.

Do we 'read' for ourselves? Do we 'write' for our own satisfaction? Do we 'live' for ourselves?

It is high time that we should stop reading. It is high time that we should stop looking for 'new life' in old words. Look at our kids. They have stopped 'reading' before they knew what Life is. They do not know how many alphabets are there in their own mother tongue.

Are we reading again?

What is a woman?

This question is perhaps the most difficult question one could answer completely and fully satisfactorily. What is a woman?

The answer to this question is multifaceted. Not one answer would do justice to the word woman. There are millions of answers to this question. Each answer varies from person to person. Such a complex and faceless word is "woman", which is 100% faithful to the person it designates to.

To some woman is poetry. To some woman is embodiment of sex. To some woman is mother, sister and all that shit. Why this word woman does not have an identity of its own?

History could not tell why it is so. No novelist or poet could tell why it is so. Not even God who created this weird looking creature fails to satisfy man with a complete definition to this word. In a weak moment God created woman for man, they say. Did He create this woman to give worry to Man?

If you ask me I would like to define woman this way:-

"Woman is both a pulp fiction and an encyclopedia of mysteries, secrets and all the filth of the world, who can produce an exact replica of human being if possible."

I never could fathom the heart of any woman: be it my mother, sister, wife or lover, or my daughter. Every one seems exactly the same. some are acquainted faces, some are good looking only, some are just weird.

I don't know much about them though i have spent my life with a woman and have women in my family too for more than 4 decades. Is it so with you all too? Could anyone tell me what a woman is?

Welcome to Kochi

Kochi Metro Times is the latest in digital publishing from Kochi, and that too in English. English publications here in Kochi are rare, especially on the internet. The reading public have a notion that English is alien language. May be they lack the command over the language too. What they know is the kind of Englsih spoken or written during the reign of the Queen Victoria in England.

The times have changed for Kochi now. The very lifestyle is on par with that of the US that was about a decade ago. But the mindset of the people is that of cave-dwellers. The so-called politicians, bureaucrats and the civil servants do think and act as if they are from the stone age. It is just a retrospection on the life here when it is found to be reaching no where in this advanced world.

Kochi Metro Times is here to herald a difference in outlook. It is here to educate, inform and entertain the internet users from Kochi. As it is there are 420, 000 internet users in Kochi city alone. A bustling city with an area of 64 sq. kms.

Kochi is choking with traffic jams, population explosion, roadside vendors and criminals of every sort. Basically Kochi lacks a Civic Sense. And without civility progress is impossible. The next-generation go unguided as their parents are at a loss to know how to help them with life. There is a visible generation gap between parents and children of today. The teaching profession is still archaic in its methodology. though efforts are there to educate them too with the latest in technologies. It took nearly half a century after our independance to reach this state of nowhere.

Let us talk about Kochi. Not now, but gradually.