Driving By – Random Notes - 1

The Boy

The boy must be in class 3^rd. Yellow shirt, cheque pants, black shoes. Thin – very thin, heavy school bag, but what caught my eyes was the fear in his eyes. There were 3 cars in front of me – every time the child wanted to cross the road some car/ truck / tempo traveller would move an inch or a motorbike would screech to a halt or somebody would honk loudly & he would step back. Grasping his bag more tightly as time went by I could read his mind – Late for class, again. As I moved closer to him - I told him. WAIT! Go to zebra crossing!! Should I drop you ahead?

I don’t think he understood – but I felt him loosen up, smile. The car in front of me moved ahead & as I inched ahead my eyes were glued to the boy in my side view mirror, after some time I saw him walk through the maze of traffic. My eyes followed, but my heart was in my mouth. Zig Zagging between the cars, bikes, trucks he managed to reach the other end. Both of us smiled together, heaved a sigh of relief and moved ahead - he toward his school, me towards my office. 

Mission Accomplished! Phew!!

The couple

They were very old – definitely 70+. They were on the other side of road at the bus stand. I was on the opposite side of the road waiting for the light to go green. It was a long wait and as I sat there waiting I spotted them. The lady was holding the man, firmly and speaking to him continuously. Both of them looked terrified, they were waiting for a bus to board. Every time a bus would come the lady would move ahead & try to read the no of the bus then come back first hold her husband’s hand & say something loudly – I guess that this is not the bus. As they moved towards the bus they had to battle the regular office goers – so once they were sure the bus is not the right one, they would go away from the crowd & stand in the corner. Both of them wearing heavy spectacle and I presume they had difficulty in reading the no.

This went on for 5 buses and I moved on. I don’t know if they got the bus, but for the rest of my journey & a long time after that the scene played out in front of me – the understanding between the couple a mix of worry, relief & the comfort which they could only provide to each other.

Written on 17^th Jan 2015

TOI – You stole my front page!!

Today’s TOI, Jan 17^th has been taken over by Apple. Vodafone has taken Front – front inside, back-back inside. Bangalore Times has Apple MacBook – full page ad. So we had iPhone 6 staring at us from TOI & MacBook staring at us from Bangalore Times.

I am sure the marketing & sales team would be waiting for the sales number to come in on Monday, later in the year - the media agency will gleefully wait in an award function for a media innovation award and TOI revenues would have gone up drastically.

What about the reader?

I am one of those 40+ who cannot yet adapt to the online newspaper reading. I need to feel the newspaper in my hand to call it reading, same goes with books, I would rather lug around a 100 page Murakami across airports than read it in Kindle. Let that be an aside.

Does it shows in a way the crass commercialization of a basic thing like newspaper. The fundamental objective of a newspaper is the news which is inserted somewhere between the ad’s. Also the nature of advertising has shifted from informing about the product to informing about the offers – especially with the e-commerce sites brandishing there discounted products in front pages, thanks to the millions they have raised from venture funds.

As a father I am worried about the impact the same has on a child’s mind – how would a 10 or 14 year old react to the offers? It’s obvious – Let’s buy them. Buy them now. Let’s buy one more – the offer won’t last. Ever aspiring for something new!! It’s ok to waste or have more than 1 jean or shoes because I am getting 2 at the price of one. There is a fundamental shift in their mind from scarcity to having more choices. Having too many choices is a larger problem. From ‘’which jean”, to ‘’which offer’’ to offline or online or mobile!!!! They are sifting through all these information in addition to the maths, physics & chem.

I know there is too much at stake for Apple & Times of India & the media agencies so I have decided to stop the TOI.

Written on 17^th Jan 2015