Manasi's Binoculars

Picturesque, pious and genuine – that’s what I think about the new sweet in town; Barfi! I went into the theatre expecting a classic but that’s not all that I came out with…I came out with a curve on my lips, moisture in my eyes and a sense of self-realization within of what we are losing. The sunshine, the greenery, simple things and the fun in them… things we do not have time to notice are the things that give meaning to life. Objects which are a forgotten part of our lives are not mere objects, but memories; the paper boats, the mirror flash games, ahh…I got the taste of the years goneby. The movie was a biography in itself, a mellifluous poem which can be sung. Wonderful casting, great direction, excellent cinematography and oh-so-soothing music! Barfi, Jhilmil and Shruti graced the screen with their enigma, charm and sacred relationships – the relationships which are hard to find today. Selfless love with no physicality involved, no show-shaa or tantrums, love in its purest ...

The Magic Wand of Advertising Definitely, wonder-marketing! An advertisement without a human element, without a practical note and pure imagination gave one of the most lovable products, hard to forget, for sure. Who would not want to see another zoo-zoo belly-laughing, uttering some zoo-zooan language or may be cuddling with his girlfriend? I even fantasized a baby zoo-zoo. Vodafone’s idea of branding without a celebrity again grew immensely successful and has compelled the celebrity-surviving brands to reevaluate their strategies. Spending millions of bucks and bearing the starry tantrums is not doing wonders anymore. This revolution in the world of advertising has proved that an advertisement with a weak concept and popular face can not sustain. If we have a glance at the top TV commercials currently we will realise that the charm of a superstar is loosing. There was a time when the market kept buzzing over who was the next Pepsi brand ambassador, there were star-wars and a model be...

Bonds needs the Best Do you remember the days when every summer vacation was spent in your Grandma’s lap, mango trees went bare in a month, your cousins were your best friends and you could not wait for every JUNE. June was not just a month, but the celebration of relationship. Life has always been a continuing process. The transit of a flowering joint family to the petite nuclear family has been an unnoticed, but major change. The concept of joint family was at its peak in India once, but gradually due to better employability factor people began to migrate. This trend has only made Delhi develop into a thorough cosmopolitan city. The ex-President Dr. Kalam also advocated the joint family concept. “I am a promoter of joint family and children from these families are always bubbling with joy," Kalam said adding joint family is the best system to inculcate values of righteousness among children. India has been a country where the children live an independent life as soon as they sta...

THE WORLD is of branding. No, it’s not marketing. Marketing has lost that ‘X-factor’. It’s branding now. Just have a fair glance at our local deities - Aamir Khan is brand perfectionist, Lalu is brand rural India, Shahrukh is brand metrosexual and the Stick Bebo is brand size zero. Everybody is feeding on their own brand, even living on it. Branding is the talk of the town. This trend has only created the demand of the mushrooming advertising agencies and brand promotion organisations.English artisan Josian Wedgwood was the first to build the modern business brand. Wedgwood was able to develop demand for his tablewares and command premium price over comparable tableware and other products. Those were the days of the 18th century when the term branding was not known. By the 1920s branding emerged as a discipline and a key tool of marketing in the world. Pioneers in the development of this discipline were Procter and Gamble and Lever Brothers.India remained out of this branding trend eve...