Marketing the Blogs
For
the last some decades, marketing is the thing. These marketing guys have even
taken over ‘leadership’! And here I am an Army Officer. Retired, so what? On
that dirty word of marketing, some other time. Bloody consumerism!
I
had an uncle who was a big shot in the tyre industry. To give the devil his
due, he was my siblings’ and my guide and mentor during our formative years.
But since my siblings were much younger and unable to grasp his wisdom, I was
the one who got a lot of his talks into my head. And it did help in so many
ways. But there always comes a time, for any worthy pupil, when you question
your guru. It came to me too. I called on him in Delhi once as his family
member. He was on to some business venture while being the national head of an
organisation and was trying to rope me in, when I was, in a senior enough rank,
still in Service of the Nation, while he was selling tyres. The discussion went
on and on. I was trying to politely decline him. At one point, he said “you got
to have leadership qualities to do it”. I blew my top. Instantly. You
understand the reason for my indignation, don’t you? I came home and narrated
the incident and my insubordination to my parents. They were aghast. What
blasphemy, they said.
Even
in the Army, there were some wise seniors, who had advised me to keep a record
of good things that I had done. It would come to use, they said. Ha. I
dismissed it. What use? And how can I ever discern the good from the bad from
what I have done. I never did a bad
thing anyhow. Whatever I did was always good, as far as I was concerned. Whatever
my commissions and/or omissions, my seniors knew and they would write my annual
confidence reports (ACRs) accordingly. They were supposed to be objective about
it, though there were innumerable stories how they, the ACRs, were very
subjective. I couldn’t care less. It is their business, was my view. I had no
intention of hauling them over coals with all those records, if they wanted to
be subjective and ruin my career. I had no inclination, or time, or interest,
or the acumen to submit an ROG (Redressal of Grievance), or file a suit, if shove
came to push. I had a feeling that seeing my nature and habits, of living and
working, those seniors were well meaning and in a veiled manner were asking me
to prepare myself for such an eventuality. They, perhaps, never wanted to tell
me on my handsome face, “Rajendran, you will be screwed one day”. I was too
busy enjoying my life playing and working in that order of priority. Playing in
the games fields and working in the office, not the other way around! I never
played games in the office. That was anathema to me.
There
were some seniors, perhaps those who had this marketing and selling skills
underneath their soldierly skin, who advised me “Rajendran, you must sell
yourself” “What!” I didn’t think that was my profession! Of all things! Sell
myself! As I said, I was and still am an open book for all those who care to
see (or look. What is the correct word here?).
What’s
that? I heard a hiss. Oh, that’s that familiar hissing “you talk too much” at
the nape of my neck. That means it’s time to get on to the topic of today,
which, ladies and gentlemen, is not at all any autobiographical note as might
have seemed from the above musings, but about my defence to the reaction I got
from some “well meaning” friends for an angry whatsapp message I sent this
morning, first thing on waking up early at 9, to my friends and enemies, in
short, to all and sundry existing in my wa list, regarding their act (or
non-act as the case may be) of ignoring my blogs.
The
reactions baffled me.
“Raj,
senti mat hona yar”. Okay I can understand that. That is a course mate. All
friendly and nice. I was senti. That’s not done. “I replied/ commented. Don’t know why it’s not
appearing”. Yea, that’s the point. That’s exactly what my lament was in the
blog I posted long ago titled/captioned “A Notice”. Obviously he/they haven’t
read it. Not even seen it I am sure. Otherwise he/they would have given me a
solution, instead of expressing his/their ignorance. Next was “Stop being childish old
man. Some of us work for a living” along with a series of smiley faces which I
could not decipher. Now that got my goat. It is loaded with innuendos. As if!
If you haven’t got it, the meaning I mean not the goat, I will tell you. It
means that I am worthless and she is doing something earthshaking, not to be
bothered with itsy-bitsy things like my blog! Why do girls communicate more
with smiley faces beats me.
“You
need more practice. You can’t bully properly. Stick to what you are good at”. I
am absolutely certain that you know that this has to be an Army guy, from the
tone and tenor of that admonishment. Is
it not? Yes, dead right you are. Another course mate! By the way, do you know
all ye poor ignorant civilians out there; there are only two mates in the Army.
Course mates and Room mates. Camaraderie and all are simply high sounding words,
for Generals to use at the war front. Or while ‘submitting’ papers to the
ministry to fill their waste paper baskets. In our parlance, if we say, “he is
my course mate/room mate” then all doors against
him are firmly shut by us to keep him safe and warm. He will be saved from
anything, even from the Officers Mess Secretary, what to talk of enemy bullets! But I must ask him to spell out that “what
you are good at”. Can’t let him get away with that crack, which to him might
have been a wise one. I smell something sinister in there.
“Sir,
you have all the time. I hardly have any”. Well, that’s quite straight forward
as expected of a Soldier. I can understand both the subject and predicate of
that proclamation. Subject, that’s me, that I have all the time in the world. True.
The predicate, that he running a huge farm in the outskirts of Bangalore, is in
a predicament, that round the year he has to tend to it, lest it sulks. I can
sympathise. (Or is it empathise? I am very bad at knowing which is which). This
is not as offensive as that whiplash “old man”. Moreover this fellow is my
junior. We are always protective of our juniors. By the way, do you know the
ignoramus civilians that we never ever, never ever (sounds familiar? Yes, I
mean to be equally aggressive) refer to our juniors as ‘subordinates’ as in
babudom? Because they are NOT. For us they are ‘juniors’, even between Lt Gens
and Maj Gens, pushing their 60s. There is no superior/subordinate business.
Okay
okay. Stop hissing!
“Aiyooo
Rama!!!!!” to my mind is the icing on the aforementioned collective cake. Nothing
more nothing less. Just Aiyooo Rama with five exclamation marks, if you know
what I mean. A fervent appeal, a prayer, to the God Almighty, with head turned
up, eyes rolled up, hands upwardly outstretched, with a deep painful breath, so
deep that no ocean has the depth to catch it. Tired, exasperated. On the verge
of total collapse. Poor thing. Without my elaborating you can know that this is
another girl.
But
what was the topic of this ‘discussion’? If you had cared to read between the
lines, you would have known it was to be about marketing. In my last wa message, sent
this morning at that ungodly hour, as mentioned hereinbefore, I had willy-nilly
marketed myself it seems! Much as I am against anything that is even remotely
close, by my personality. I find it loathsome. You do something good, good or
even better will follow. Geetha is supposed to have said something like that
no? I think I must spell it Gita, and then you might know this is not another
girl, but that Bhagavad one.
My
nephew who has already figured in an earlier blog declared my wa message as “a
nice way to market it”! That is his profession and he is supposed to be
excellent in that and so is languishing somewhere in Singapore, taking care of
half the world, this side of Suez. I understand that when he was on the other
side of the said canal, he sold a fridge to one Mr Eskimo and so got posted
this side, with an eskimo kiss by the company he worked for. For better or worse, I don’t know. Therefore he should know what he
is talking about. Still, No. That was not what I intended, even though to him
it must have appeared so. People have coloured vision. He being half my age, and
family, I have to excuse him for his affront. Whatever the Americans teach us
by self help books about unending “strategies” such as hard selling, cross
selling, up selling, side selling, down selling....no no....delete down
selling, that must be sacrilegious in the corporate world; I refuse to be drawn
into that vortex. I am quite happy in those aromatic fumes that rise up in the
air after 8PM, without being a Leader in Marketing. But if I seem to have done
it, it is unintentional and with no malice. I plead “Not Guilty”.
Sherlock Holmes said: “That’s the frailty of
genius, John; it needs an audience”. He also said that geniuses need to be
observed! That’s all I seek. An observant audience. Is it too much to ask for?
Comments
Post a Comment
1. Please click on subscribe button for email notifications on new posts.
2. Please do comment. Your comments are valuable. That will keep me going.
3. Critical comments are most welcome. They help to improve.