The Bangalore- Chennai highway looked green & wet. It’s been raining here for some days. Thankfully, the rain gods haven’t been as tyrannous in Bangalore as they have been in Mumbai or Kolkata. But still the wind was strong and cold, the clouds were dark and rain was ominous. Rather it was a breather, a break from incessant rains for the last 24 hrs when I stood in front of the Bangalore- Chennai highway.
My driver doesn’t understand English or Hindi, he understands only Tamil, which means all that we speak to each other is at best ‘noise'. Infact that’s what its been all about, or rather is going to be all about, for the next 2 and a half months for me- a second degree in communicating through sign languages and understanding the underlying meaning of noise. After all noise does have a meaning if only we understand the language.
My official decree is to understand customer psyche and behavior and to map the different media vehicles and their effectiveness to understand how best to reach to my target group? Its still a new business so all that I do is going to have a impact on how my brand is seen and heard and known in the months or perhaps years to come in this country. And that’s why I am currently on this vehicle overlooking this mighty highway, trying to be where my customer lies?
It’s kind of sarcastic for me to embark on a journey trying to understand people and their psyche when I haven’t been able to do it for myself, convincingly in all these 25 years. But the thought of getting away from the maddening crowd of metro city and always being on the move allures me like none other.
It’s something which has been in me for quite some time now, about a year or so, when the present stopped alluring me. It didn’t happen in one day, nothing does. Rather it was the sudden realization of this slow change which came as a bolt one day, not from the skies, but from deeper within.
I just wanted to run, run ahead into the future, a future not as bland as the present.
But alas time works like a government office, in its own pace, not willing to slowdown or pace up for us. And what’s worse? Even bribing doesn’t work.
That’s when my subconscious played a trick, realizing I just can’t outrun time, I started running from everything else that represents present, and it started from the place.
**
When I was just a college grad, working in Kolkata, I used to walk back home after work every day. On one of the major crossings on the way back there used to be a huge hoarding, with just two words written on it - “Keep walking”.
It still manages to eke out a single round of sarcastic laughter from within me, and I giggle. My driver tries to look back from the rear mirror on the top, much to his amusement and points to a distant temple built on top of a hillock visible from the highway and after much struggle manages the words- ‘Sir, Temple’
***
It’s still a long way to go.. but there’s something which keeps disturbing me, a nightmare of sorts. Not very long ago, someone very special had irritatingly remarked when I did something foolish, that ‘One day you will have all the material things in your life, but you will be lost and you won’t know which way to go?’ I had replied then, that ‘Don’t worry; I will have you with me, as my guide, to help me with it’
I lost her somewhere in this world of sham beliefs and promises, but those chilling words keep coming back, especially in ambiences like these-
When it’s dark, windy & raining and I am on a highway, with a driver who speaks hebrew and a tired windscreen wiper trying to show us the road ahead.
My driver doesn’t understand English or Hindi, he understands only Tamil, which means all that we speak to each other is at best ‘noise'. Infact that’s what its been all about, or rather is going to be all about, for the next 2 and a half months for me- a second degree in communicating through sign languages and understanding the underlying meaning of noise. After all noise does have a meaning if only we understand the language.
My official decree is to understand customer psyche and behavior and to map the different media vehicles and their effectiveness to understand how best to reach to my target group? Its still a new business so all that I do is going to have a impact on how my brand is seen and heard and known in the months or perhaps years to come in this country. And that’s why I am currently on this vehicle overlooking this mighty highway, trying to be where my customer lies?
It’s kind of sarcastic for me to embark on a journey trying to understand people and their psyche when I haven’t been able to do it for myself, convincingly in all these 25 years. But the thought of getting away from the maddening crowd of metro city and always being on the move allures me like none other.
It’s something which has been in me for quite some time now, about a year or so, when the present stopped alluring me. It didn’t happen in one day, nothing does. Rather it was the sudden realization of this slow change which came as a bolt one day, not from the skies, but from deeper within.
I just wanted to run, run ahead into the future, a future not as bland as the present.
But alas time works like a government office, in its own pace, not willing to slowdown or pace up for us. And what’s worse? Even bribing doesn’t work.
That’s when my subconscious played a trick, realizing I just can’t outrun time, I started running from everything else that represents present, and it started from the place.
**
When I was just a college grad, working in Kolkata, I used to walk back home after work every day. On one of the major crossings on the way back there used to be a huge hoarding, with just two words written on it - “Keep walking”.
It still manages to eke out a single round of sarcastic laughter from within me, and I giggle. My driver tries to look back from the rear mirror on the top, much to his amusement and points to a distant temple built on top of a hillock visible from the highway and after much struggle manages the words- ‘Sir, Temple’
***
It’s still a long way to go.. but there’s something which keeps disturbing me, a nightmare of sorts. Not very long ago, someone very special had irritatingly remarked when I did something foolish, that ‘One day you will have all the material things in your life, but you will be lost and you won’t know which way to go?’ I had replied then, that ‘Don’t worry; I will have you with me, as my guide, to help me with it’
I lost her somewhere in this world of sham beliefs and promises, but those chilling words keep coming back, especially in ambiences like these-
When it’s dark, windy & raining and I am on a highway, with a driver who speaks hebrew and a tired windscreen wiper trying to show us the road ahead.
