1. A polo teams consists of 4 players who play with 'handicaps' between -2 (beginner) to + 10 (highest level of proficiency). Combined total of all handicaps make the team 'handicap'. A team playing with a lower/ weaker combined handicap would be credited, at start of play, a calculated number of goals to compensate for the difference (I will talk about the calculation process in another post). A level playing field has now been established, literally. No adjustments are however made in an 'open' tournament.
2. A game is played for 4/5/6 chukkers, depending on whether it is a low or a high goal game.
3. Each chukker is of a 7 minute duration.

   
   (polo shot image courtesy http://www.polo.co.uk/)
   
   

The current issue of Impact-the marketing, advertising & media weekly features a piece by me titled - In the News!- under their Insight/ My View section. Here is the text. Do leave your comments if this was useful.

Must Watch!!!

Sanjay posted this at VentureWoods. I first saw this 2-3 years ago at the Film Festival Venue lobby. I am addicted to it. You might get too. Enjoy!

Original post and comments.

In little over a year or so, since I first started to speak about it, I have seen corporates and organizations become much more receptive towards the need to adopt blogs as an important tool to engage with key stakeholders. Businesses have already started to see blogging as a 'should do' initiative. However, many are still unsure as they find the blogosphere uncontrollable. The need is to understand that they are being spoken about irrespective! The way to reach your voice is through participation.

There will of course be reactive blogging by brands, companies and business leaders in response to being spoken about on the blogoshpere, but I think marketers and corporates who adopt blogging proactively will benefit most.

Blogs are an opportunity for marketers to engage with the consumers first-hand, to establish context - by sharing and seeking perspective - in a two-way communication process that is closest to word-of-mouth and yet broad-based. Similarly, corporates can establish thought leadership, influence policy, engage with prospective employees and more through proactive blogging.

I decided to pick one of old my old articles that appeared on Rediff.com a few years ago. This is really one of my favourites for the simple, fun format in which I wrote it for the younger audience it was meant for...

The piece was actually written via sms prompts that I saved for myself, driving to work a day after an event we were managing. The event, a virutal book launched was itself the culmination of a series of mad things on that project - a commemorative book that took long to complete; leading to the idea of a multimedia presentation, as the virtual unveiling of the book; a presentation that was executed in less than 48 hours, from concept to completion, and with brilliant effect; and then, files that went corrupt and other assorted electronic disasters even as the countdown had begun! And then, it all became smooth again, just a few MINUTES before start! :)

The event itself is another story. For now, hope you enjoy the piece - got an event to promote?

It seems I missed on putting up on this blog my most significant discovery of recent times, though I did post it on Venturewoods :)


"Segmentation on the blogoshpere has started…

I chanced upon Blogher today. A collaborative site- “where the women bloggers are”. I quite liked the thought… a nice attempt to get women bloggers to blog together on a wide variety of subjects. Marketers love segmentation.
Bloghim is taken too but no site up. Will men ever really talk on one platform like women so often do? I somehow don’t see that happening!"

Original piece here.

Traveling on the Delhi Metro yesterday, I was reminded of the question that keeps popping up from time-to-time - whether all Metro tracks should have been laid underground. Recently there were reports that the Metro columns across the city will be decorated with murals and colour in effort to blend them with the city. I believe some segments have already been beautified (?).

No doubt that the Metro has changed the city facade, sometimes impacting the very character of places we grew up with, so much so that they are unrecognizable. Yesterday however, I saw things from a Metro passenger's perspective, peeping out from the window...

We seem to be a city of hoarders. Bar a couple of terraces, each and every terrace enroute had unnecessary, unpleasant paraphernalia scattered around - heaps of bricks; cartons; rotting chaarpais, twisted window & door frames, tyres, rags and so on - none of this seemed in a usable condition. It just sat there, rotting and seemed like it had been there, forever! An eyesore. The couple of terraces that were clean, or better still, had some green, stood out like an oasis in a desert.

I wonder why we stack unnecessary stuff and if there could be a penalty imposed if you keep your terrace dirty? Or, I suggest that the Metro travelers unite and demand that all Metro tracks be laid underground ( :-) ), for Delhi doesn't look that green, traveling on the Metro!

Original piece and comments.

Without taking away from whatever CSE is perhaps attempting to do, I think the whole approach is biased. I cannot but laugh when the CSE says, "The fact also is that standards for pesticide residues are set based on nutrition that the food provides. We cannot compare apples with soft drinks. We cannot compare milk with soft drinks. Milk is essential and it gives us nutrition. But soft drinks are non-essential, non-nutritive. They should not have pesticides. They are unsafe, asserts CSE. No amount of scientific skullduggery can deny that. "

So, it's ok if milk is not ok? I do not agree. My belief is that Indian milk is amongst the most dangerous product going around today, nutrients or no nutrients. I am no authority on the subject but whatever I hear is scary and no one else wants to touch our milk but we consume it, and give it to our children, without much thought. Some hard measures are needed. Will they happen? Not until the consumers become more aware of their rights, and the havoc that products out there can play with our present and future health.

I WILL keep coming back to milk from here on!

Original post is here.

I discovered Hits 95.0, per chance, a couple of days ago and speaking to a friend yesterday, told her to tune in too, only to be told by her that her brother works for them :).

The station, in its search for a differentiator, promises 'no talk, no ads, only hit music' (something like that) and the packaging from the on-air promotions sounds that of 'world music' station - they play a mix of Hindi, popular, world music. Mostly Good and I have been telling my friends to tune in...

No talk, no ads? Too good to be true? Seems like that on the face of it. I wonder what the revenue stream is and how long can they sustain like this. Maybe they will get the numbers first and then get on with the ads - good approach too. I know what I would have liked to do - anyway - enjoy the uninterrupted music, while it lasts!

Original post.

I just put the phone down after talking to a friend who heads one of the stations for Radio Mirchi. I wanted to congratulate 'someone' - actually 'anyone' - from that team for having come up with, what I think is the most outstanding promotion on Radio that I have heard in the longest time.

I am talking about the Visual Radio, 'behind the curtain', promotion that's on air right now.

In typical theatre style, a man's voice is whispering prompts to someone supposedly making a speech. Nothing short of outstanding - it is funny and yet not crass as most of the other stuff on Radio is these days. Breaks the clutter and in its earthy approach, such a sophisticated rendition .

It manages to bring a smile on my face each time, however many times I listen to it. As a matter of fact, quite like I used to, as a child, tune-in to television 15 mins before Chitrahaar to just watch the ads and then move on as the songs rolled out - I am, these days, tuning into Mirchi just in the hope of catching the promo and then...maybe move on! :)

Fab!

Original piece and comments.