Women Molested - Two consecutive new years - WHY?

Unbelievable.
We saw women being molested by public for two successive years.

Media is full-on condemning the same and raising the consciousness that it is a heinous act and an extremely a bad thing to do. Women activist writing newspaper columns titled "Protect our Women", "Self defense is needed...", "Enhance policing system..." etc. Good thing. Will surely act positively to the society.

What is worrying is that I don't see any point of view on what is the root cause of such an act?

Are we saying that the molesters do not know that molesting is immoral? Impossible. Every sane human being knows that molestation is immoral.

I have two questions or you may say theories that try to explain these kinds of behaviour.

Is the female of our species over-exposing?
In both the incidents (2007 & 2008), the girls molested were not dressed appropriately. It is commonplace to see girls and not boys wearing sleeveless and short skirts (half pants for boys) to a party and more dangerously to places where there are chances of misbehaviour.

Firstly, this brings the point of taking care of oneself. I know that there is a chance of my purse being pick pocketed in a train. Even then if I am keep my purse very easy to be pick pocketed, then I am myself to be blamed. I need to keep my purse concealed and take care of the same.
Secondly, why do women expose? I refuse to believe that they are showcasing beauty. One can look beautiful in a saree. The fact is that women expose to look sexy. Perhaps they like being sexy or it is cool to be sexy. Whatever be the reason women have, we need to look at how the opposite sex is accepting this behaviour. We cant forget that human beings are sexual. A sexy look will give rise to sexual feelings.

Education (moral science classes in schools), social institutions like marriage, need to belong to a society and the wish to be considered a good citizen by the society tells us about not being sexual in public. They make us believe that a scantily clad woman is just to be admired (or have sex in your dreams !!). Somehow it does not tell the women folk to wear proper concealing clothes.

I am not against exposing. I don't subscribe to Burkha culture. But somehow exposing is incomplete in today's world of conventions favourable to women. Men cant reciprocate.

This leads to my second question (or theory).

Is the male of our species deprived of sex?
If you look at animal species (I know that they are not educated and so should not be compared with humans) the female of the species act sexually (kind of expose) during mating season and so they mate. It completes the cause and effect relationship.

In our society especially in Mumbai (as I have been staying in Mumbai for some time), we see tight dressing being accepted even for a 15 year old, figure hugging tops being the fashion, clever cleavage being the norm in parties. Dance bars until recently were the pride of Mumbai (and the must visit place for men tourist - unmarried or without wife). Prostitution is so open, rampant and inviting. But we know we should not indulge, as it is forbidden.

Do we ever give a thought what kind of effect all these sexual act of the female species have on the male psyche? More so, when it is a well etched mindset not to give in to these acts of the female species. Its like you make him thirsty and tell him that drinking water is not considered good.

The effect is nothing drastic like having an instant erection. It is very slow that we hardly notice.

This is a huge topic of discussion about the causes, effects and intent of women exposing, about why sex is not a taboo in western societies, about why prostitution is legal in some societies, about why divorces are being accepted more and more in our societies... I wont go in detail on what I think about all these societal phenomena.

I would just conclude that these rare instances have some relation to women exposing to look sexy and men not being given a chance to reciprocate to the same. In a mob, in a drunken mob, in an excited mob, sometimes the frustrations show up instinctively.

Bandhavghar, kanha, jabalpur on bike

It feels like just yesterday that I was excited about my impending bike trip with my wife to Madhya Pradesh, today I am sitting with wonderful memories of the great trip.

Gunjan and I had been planning for a bike trip for some time now, since I bought my Royal Enfield Bullet 350(Machismo-350) in the month of April 2007. And we were thinking of the new year to be the ideal opportunity for such a break. New year was quickly approaching and we had no concrete plans in our mind. Things were getting little anxious when one fine day, we darted towards the MP tourism office in Cuffe Parade in South Mumbai and decided to go for a break in the wild. Decisions had to be taken in impulse when nothing is getting formalised in the formalised way !!

So we were finally going to the land of tigers - Bandhavgarh and Kanha and then round off the trip with a day in Jabalpur enjoying the marble rocks. The plan was to take the bike in the train to Katni in MP, then bike around MP staying over at Bandhavgarh, Kanha and Jabalpur. At Jabalpur, we would board our train back to Mumbai with our bike in the luggage van.

This is not a travelogue that describes the journey inch after inch. But an effort to share the learnings that we experienced, that would help everyone who wants to do biking around or who wants to go to Bandhavgarh, Kanha and Jabalpur.

After a sleepless night full with last minute preparation, Gunjan and I loaded our new saddle bag (Cramster-Stallion) at 6:00 AM in the morning to our bike (Machismo-350), made sure that we have carried all our necessary items and documents and started our bike towards Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (Kurla terminus). The bike ride was peaceful with cool breeze in the morning giving a great feeling of pure exhilaration and heightened expectation of what lies ahead.

To give a little brief on Cramster, it is a good bike accessory brand that has a good range of saddle bags, protective riding gear and other biking utilities. Cramster Riding Gear was nominated for OVERDRIVE'S Product of the Year Award. I had a good experience with their products.

Loading the bike into the luggage van of the train was a painful experience. One needs to wrap the bike with gunny cloth with proper safety support for the lights and then do the cargo booking at the parcel/cloak room. The packing of the bike has to be done through private agents and only when the packing is done, the railway authorities would proceed with the other formalities. Here you face the crooks hungry to fool you asking for around Rs. 600 over and above the railway booking charge. They would behave like parcel consultants taking responsibility of loading and unloading of the bike with proper care. Please dont fall for that.

Only the railways can ensure the loading and unloading of the bike in the right stations. No private person can have any say on that. The private guys are only present for the 'gift-wrapping' of your bike. And the conventional rate is Rs. 100 for the same, wherein they should ensure that all the breakable parts of the bike are wrapped with shock absorbing materials (mainly paper!!). They should use card board paper to cover the engine and seat and use layers of normal paper to cover the lights. (I wish I had a photograph of my packed bike)

Once the bike is packed, you need to fill the booking form. Please carry your original RC book, one photocopy and the train ticket. You would be given a red receipt and from then on the bike is the responsibility of the railways till you acknowledge receipt with your signature in the destination station.

However, it is recommended that you should be with the bike when it is loaded to see whether it is loaded properly; preferably next to the entry gate if the destination station is not the end destination of the train. Even for unloading, it is better if you run to the luggage van as soon as the train reaches the destination station to nullify any chance that your bike is not off-loaded.

Finally the train started moving... we were on our way to our dream vacation. Rest assured that the bike is coming with us, our immediate priority was to sleep as we had not slept the previous night and would not get to sleep the following night, as the train was supposed to reach Katni at 1:15 AM in the morning.

28th December 2007 - Be careful when you are travelling in an AC compartment. You dont get an idea of the outside temperature. We knew that Katni would be much colder than Mumbai but had no idea till we actually got down at Katni. We reach at 2 AM in the morning and immediately froze. Fortunately for me that I had to do some running around to offload the bike. After getting the bike next to the cloak/parcel room, we ran to the waiting room to lock ourselves from the cold breeze that was hitting on us like crazy. Here there is a thing to remember. Never take delivery of the bike or any luggage that you have booked with the railways till the last moment. Take delivery when you are going out of the station. That way you can be in peace about the security of the belongings.

At 5 AM in the morning, we came out of the waiting room, took delivery of the bike and loaded the saddle bags. Immediate thing was to fill petrol, as you can only have 200 ml of petrol if you transport the bike on a train. At 6 PM, we finally started our bike for the first time outside Maharashtra in Katni to look for a nearby petrol pump. Luckily the petrol pump was close by and it was a 24 hour pump. So we had a full tank and ready to zoom ... but it was still dark and we were very clear that we wont bike at night. Biking at night in MP is not a good idea especially when you are alone.

At 7 AM, we started our bike trip. We went around a 2 kms towards the state highway when we see a never ending stretch of a one lane (hardly) non-metalled road filled with dust by the trucks ahead of us. Gunjan reminded of one of her friends saying, "Dont take the bike, there are practically no roads in MP" It was just the start of our journey and we had abundance of excitement to get demoralised. We asked one of the truck-drivers while over-taking him about how far is the highway. He said two kms and added that the roads are good from then. The first good news of our journey!!

To be contd...

Kingfisher Vs Air Deccan - Losing my plane !!

This is a story that can make branding history and... theories !!

Capt. Gopinath scripted a story and a dream for the common man to fly. He revolutionized the airline industry by innovatively finding ways to cut cost and offer flying experience to the society which had only dreamed to fly till then. I have seen happy families booking air tickets for their vacations, which was never a consideration before.

Those two hands, the blue and yellow uniform and the beautifully made TV advertisement capturing the emotions of a father-son
relationship - everything made Air Deccan a household name and a very dear one at that in the thousands of homes in the sub-tier II cities. Finally, flying was perceived (at least) to be affordable.


Then you have Mr. Vijay Mallya - magnificent in his attitude and high life - launching a super luxury airline company by the name of India biggest bear brand "Kingfisher". This airline is a complete contrast to Air Deccan. Video screens at the back of every seat, multiple cuisine option, fashion show on the flight and what say you - Kingfisher Airlines oozed frills, luxury and comfort. The brand philosophy behind launching such an airline company was so strong that Mr. Mallya had openly claimed in media that low cost airlines cannot survive.

As fate would have it or Mr. Mallya's vision, Kingfisher Airlines bought 46% of stake in Air Deccan and shortly after both these diverse entities merged into a single entity based on reports by management consulting firm Accenture that recommended their merger for greater operational and marketing synergies.

The merged entity (which would be Kingfisher) would offer low fare service under the Deccan brand and premium services under Kingfisher brand. By the meaning of the statement, it sounded good and logical strategy.

But the meaning was not to be implemented. I was shocked to my wits when I went to the airport last month. The Air Deccan counter no longer had the beautiful and very unique and very familiar blue and yellow uniform. It was replaced by 'RED'. I logged on to http://www.airdeccan.net/ and I could not recognise the site. It had become all red. Air Deccan had already become Kingfisher. To me, it was quite sad and a hasty brand management decision.

My questions are simple.

• Was there a need to tamper with the brand - Air Deccan? Was Mr. Gopinath so wrong in his positioning strategies that all his good branding/advertising work had to be mutilated to no recognition (that too in his presence as the Vice-Chairman of the merged company)? Especially when the intention is to have a low cost airline.
• How do you associate the colour red - the colour of Kingfisher Airlines - to the proposition of low cost airline?
• Would it not negatively rub-off the Kingfisher brand? Would it not make the Kingfisher loyalist feel hurt about lending its premium red colour to a low cost, poor service, poor man's airline? How can 'red' be low cost?
• How would it benefit Kingfisher and Vijay Mallya? Of course, short term ego would be boosted. He always believed that low cost airlines cant survive and he proved to be right and could changed and redesign a low cost airline brand completely. Having said that, how would rebranding Air Deccan to look similar to Kingfisher help Kingfisher in the long run?
• Would it not confuse both the Kingfisher 'king' and Air Deccan 'rural india' to no ends? Both these distinct target audiences would be lost in the bargain.

What I can understand is that there can never be two kings in a kingdom. How can the consumer be the king, when Mr. Vijay Mallya is the self-acclaimed king.

Ultimately, Kingfisher's strategy might work out successfully. Who knows !! But if it does, it will surely create new branding theories !!!

Mr. Bhansali, you fooled us !!

So what if Mr. Sanjay Leela Bhansali could fool me into watching his utter nonsense movie - Sawariyan, he even fooled the great Anil Kapoor, he even fooled the whole Randhir Kapoor khandan... !!

Last Saturday, I took another impulse decision and it was another bad decision. I bought 4 tickets for Sawariyan at IMAX Dome. About the movie, the lesser said is the better. There was no story that we could connect to. There was no thrill, no emotion, no intrigue, no excitement, no comedy.... the movie had absolutely nothing for the audience to connect with.

The worst part was the artificial setting of the movie. You dont get an idea about when the story took place, where the story took place... you just cant relate to the setting of the movie, the people, the culture, the society, the houses, the dress code... nothing... you cant relate to the movie.. period. The buildings and the roads were looking so artificial that you can make out that they are made of thick clothes. In one of the scenes, Ranbir Kapoor writes Sonam Kapoor's screen name - Shakina on one of the walls and I couldnot believe my eyes, the wall was shaking with his penstrokes - hence making it obvious that the wall was made out of canvas.

I am still okay... I had wasted just Rs. 800. I was thinking about all the hopes that Anil Kapoor had for his daughter Sonam Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor had for his son Ranbir Kapoor from Mr Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

Did Anil Kapoor or Randhir Kapoor read the script and screen play? I dont know. Let me assume, they may not have. But Sony Pictures must have read the script. They are the Hollywood biggies and have the experience to wean out the grass from the weeds. How could Mr. Bhansali even fool them.

This is not to Mr. Bhansali's credit. He deserves no credit. This is a sham called 'Play Safe; Take No Risk' mentality working. Sony Pictures, Anil Kapoor and Randhir Kapoor were all launching their products to the Indian market.

It was a high risk game. So why take risk? Go with a formula which has worked before. Who can be a better bet than the director of much aclaimed 'Black'? And then they became blind and black. They forgot their basics and experience. Couldnot see the disaster called Sawariyan coming their way to crash all their dreams and hopes.

Shit, ultimately I had to bear the brunt of their shortsightedness and the whims and ideosyncracies of a fool called Mr. Bhansali.