Distraction Economy or Distracted People??

Scene -1
Trinamool Congress, yesterday, had a newly-found speaker on NDTV 24/7 - the urbane, eloquent, well-informed (learned? am not too sure) Mr. Derek-o-Brian. The others in the debate were Mr. Ali from CPI (M) and Mr. Gurcharan Das who were providing substantive arguments backed with information but in a “non TV-viewer-friendly” format (slow, monotonous, heavy worded, non-inciting, had no hard-hitting “10 sec parting statements”). Basically they were making TV viewing boring. On the other hand Derek in his new avatar was way too TV friendly. He was well-prepared, showing off documents in his hand, standing amongst people in the middle of the street in Calcutta, making crisp and pointed remarks.

There is a new crop of camera savvy, slick-talking, flamboyant speakers on the TV screen. My favorite is Mr. Suhel Seth. With an all-influencing TV and especially the news channels, political parties will soon need to recruit these savvy faces to represent them on the silver tube in order to keep-up their political fortunes.

Actually he, (Suhel Seth) is not just a person anymore. He is an archetype of a new phenomenon that is fast hitting the TV screen in particular and the society in general. The focus is dangerously shifting towards the “How is it being said” aspect. “Who is saying it” and/or “What is being said” are increasing losing their significance.

We all are avid consumers of the silver tube (not as much as an average US citizen, but nevertheless). The ferocity of channel swapping is increasing unabated. Therefore, getting eyeballs is a problem of the past, the bigger problem today seems to be to make them STICK.
Right from storylines, to the appearance of characters, to the choice of News Headlines; every aspect of the content is attention-grabbing / “in your face” in nature.

Welcome to Distraction Economy. Loss of attention span is ailing society today. The time invested in evaluation of a message is dropping at an alarming rate. Though, nobody would accept that, as it would question the belief that our evaluation has improved with more information.

Look at how The Times has transformed its presentation style in the last few years. The new mantra is – “How can you make the reader get the most news in the least number of minutes and words?” And there comes the “16 point bold sub headlines filled with striking pictures”. Even the editorial section has been infected by it. Mr. Swaminathan Aiyar or Mr. Gurcharan Das can be great thinkers but if they can’t deliver in 15 seconds, they are NO GOOD… (So, let’s create a small box that highlights the most enticing part of the article).
Sooner than later the efficacy level of the Times would match the emergency exit instruction card in Airlines.

Scene - 2
Couple of days back, I was browsing in my favorite section at Big Bazaar, The Food bazaar. In the vegetables section, I saw some “ready-to-cook”, cut and neatly packed vegetables. Honestly, I really liked the idea and obviously I picked up a few of those packets. However, it got me thinking on how a larger attitudinal shift is taking effect, much beyond the convenience argument as it may seem.


More Scenes

- During my last visit at Crossword, I realized that Books are becoming magazines. Their covers are stark, attention-grabbing attempts at reducing the time-spent in finding the book you think you want to read. And to top that, Mr. Shriram doesn’t think twice before putting a “Nobel-price-winner-look-alike yellow ribbon” on the books (Sriram recommends?? Excuse me??). I am certain that evolved readers, (unlike me) squirm seeing that.

- “Lose weight sitting at home” said one Television Ad.

- “Power yoga” at Mickey Mehta’s gym


The broad attitudinal shift that I am hinting towards is an old, much debated topic.
“Means versus End. Outcome versus Process. Enjoying the process is more important.”
THE Outcome is becoming overwhelmingly powerful in comparison to the process.
Faster Favorable Outcome is the panacea for all. Everybody wants that and wants that at any cost.

I am curious.
Everywhere around me I see products, services, brands trying to reduce the time-spent in the process and promise a fast-forward route to the outcome.
However, if everything around is promising (and, I think, they actually are delivering) super-time-saving options, where is all this “saved-time” going?

Enjoying is surely an individual and definitional issue. Of course it can vary from person to person. (Spending time with your girlfriend, or with your family or at a play-station or a basketball court or at the shopping mall) However, the important question is - Are we getting more time to do the things that we enjoy? I think, NO.

Without being judgmental on the ways of enjoyment, I am just asking why is the time-spent on things we enjoy REDUCING. Especially if everything else, is “saving-time” for us?

I think volume is running ahead of value. The list of things we think we would enjoy has grown more because of the feasibility and the accessibility rather than by the enjoyment derived.

Mohd Afzal or LN Mittal – Take your pick?

The profile of role models speaks volumes about a society in many different ways! A cross-sectional view of role models across societies can serve as a very strong and accurate indicator of aspirations, values, outlook for respective societies.
An even more interesting exercise would be to analyze role models for a particular society on a longitudinal basis. The results, I am sure, would be extremely insightful and can also help in predicting the future of the society as a whole. (Obviously this can have significant commercial / business merits also.)
Neither my age, nor my academic background, merits me to get into a long-term longitudinal analysis of Role models for the Indian Society. But I will attempt to offer for a shorter term cross-sectional view across India. With the awesome-threesome (Chidambaram, Manmohan and Montek) at the helm of things, we are confident about India’s rise as an economic superpower. With such a context in place, we suddenly see a new profile of role models (LN Mittal, Sunil Mittal, The Ambani Brothers and more.). Obviously the story of role models is not always pleasant. Eastern UP and North Bihar has had a new crop of youth who are taking up crime. A big reason (apart from the state of affairs of UP and Bihar) is the success of Indian-version of Don-Vito-Corleone’s sitting and operating from South and Middle-east Asia. Or Mohd. Afzal for that matter might be a terrorist to some but a role model to freedom fighters in Kashmir.

The more one thinks about it, the more complicated it gets (actually quite an irony, but I guess it’s true more often than notJ).

– The first complication would result from the asking a basic question. Are these role models really the real role models or are they created through media? At some level, access to information (more importantly correct information!) would be a significant affecting variable. This is where media becomes dangerously powerful.

– Another complication would be the fact that sometimes the choice of role model has to be filtered through the sieve of social acceptance. This would therefore lead to two definitions of role models (the real one and the claimed one). The claimed one is obviously flawed. In the field of market research this is one of the more abundant errors (for instance, Why Delhi-ites would have supremely high MHI compared to other metros or Why 25-34 year old males watch Discovery and News Channels in the late night).

– Thirdly, one can confuse the popularity of individuals with them being role-models at large. This is tricky because the choice of a role-model is a very individualistic and intrinsic view. This makes it difficult to identify them at a society’s level and calls for smarter techniques to figure them out.

– However, the most important complication that I wish to raise here is Why are balanced ordinary individuals not worthy of being considered as role models? Why does a role-model need to have eccentric tendencies along with a self-obsessed and selfish pursuit of following one’s dream at “any” cost? Why is playing multiple roles responsibly and reasonably successfully, NOT considered great? Why a person who plays a good father, a good son, a good husband, a good professional, a good player is NOT be technically considered a role-model for society.?

Does it really matter?

For my Urdu Ustaad it really does. For the uninitiated lot, let me introduce my Ustaad. Mr. Ibrahim Durvesh, the octogenarian phonetician in Urdu who lives almost nameless, in a small 150 sq. ft. kholi close to JJ hospital. He has actually worked with the likes of Mehdi Hassan.

My fascination for Urdu (almost entirely due to Ghazals) sparked me to check out this option. In the true Modern day MBA style, he said that he has a unique “7 session course” to learn Urdu (includes writing, speaking and appreciating).
“Somebody is actually claiming to teach Urdu in 7 sessions??” I just jumped at the prospect. Actually, the ROI calculation was too compelling for me to say “no”.

Before I move to the central theme of the article let me credit him for the honesty. At the end of 7 sessions I could even dare to pick up an Urdu newspaper and read the headlines at least. It’s a different issue that I have completely lost touch due to the lack of practice. :-)

Urdu is a fascinating language. The emphasis given to phonetics is simply amazing. For instance “Z” can be pronounced in 4 different ways (Guttural, Palatal, Aerial, Labial and some intermediaries) or how “Gh” of Ghalib is a guttural sound while “Gh” of Ghadi is an Aerial sound or “ph” of “phool” is a dento-labial sound etc etc.

He pointed out at multiple occasions, that film stars don’t even accurately pronounce the Urdu words in their dialogues. He would squirm listening to them and would complain to me “pronunciation is life to Urdu, how can they ruin a beautiful language like that?”
Umrao Jaan’s remake is a testament to mediocrity that is rampant amongst the cinestars.

Over the last 3 years, on being initiated to Hollywood movies by my mates (dear and near & flat and batch), I have realized to my amazement, the seriousness with which great actors do their homework for films. How Robert di nero would actually drive a cab in New-York for a few days before starting Taxi Driver! How he would actually work on his physique to suit the character’s life in Raging bull”!

Look at what our Blue boys are doing in South Africa vs. the Kangaroo Kids in Adelaide. Actually, we fail to admit that even at their peak they were not close to being world’s best.
I can give multi-million more examples (Indian Economy vs. China, Polity of this country), but think will rest my case here.

I think we have become a society, infected with mediocrity which invariably leads to incorrect judgments on what we call success.

So, does it really matter? Well if this doesn’t, then what does?

Yoohooo! - I am getting married

The backdrop : the potential bride’s parents have come to my place to have a look at me and speak with me & family. They are seated in the drawing room with my dad, granddad and mom.
The potential bride’s parents are referred as they (he) and they (she) for no specific reason.

(Me enters with a half-drawn smile and takes his place)
Me: “Namaste”
They (he & she) : “Namaste”

(Pause for 2 minutes )
They (he) : “kab se Bombay mein hain aap?”
Me : “chaar saal se”
They (he) : “Kaun si company mein kaam kartein hain?”
Me : “ Star India”
They : “ Woh TV channel wali company?”
Me (agrees) : “Ji”

They (She) gets reminded of her favourite K-shows. Gives a smile along with an expression that she is partially overwhelmed.

They (he) : “To bambai kaisa lagta hai aapko”
Me : touchy point, “theek hai”
They (he) : “aaj kal to media mein bahut advance ho gaya hai”

At this point everybody (they (he, she and others))joins in with their own pearls of wisdom on new economy and old economy, responsibility of media etc.
They (he) : “ aapney MBA kahaan se kiya hai”
Me : “ Post graduate course in communication from MICA, Ahmedabad”
They (he) : “to yeh course MBA nahi hai”

They (She) looks visibly disappointed.
Me : "MBA ki tarah hai, par advertising aur media mein specialised course hai"
They (he) : “ to yeh Star to International company hogi ?”
Me : “Ji”
They (he) : “ to apna package kitne ka hai?”
Me : “ @#$#@$ Rs per annum”

They (she & he) now are relatively at ease.
They (he) : “acha life-partner kaise chahiye aapko”
Me is flabbergasted at the question. Thinks how would they(he) modify his daughter to fit (yet to be stated) bill?????

Fortunately at this point Me’s surprisingly progressive grand dad steps in & Says unheard thing like “ Hum kaun hai decision leney waley. Yeh to ladki aur ladka decide karengey??”
(They (she and he) are struck by this openness from the potential groom’s side. In their mind,they have been sold to me and me's family.)

Me : “ Aap, ladki ka biodata + photo papa ko de dijiye. Mein dekh kar bata doonga”
Me asks to dad now : “papa mein jaoon ???”

(Me’s dad nods in agreement.)
(Me leaves the room. Tea + Snacks continue.)