While the days were filled with colour. The evenings were starry and glamorous.. with our star studded events. IIPM was on a hunt for the next singing sensation of the nation, with ‘IIPM STAR’. It was a tough competition indeed! Sanjay Kumar from Bhagat Singh College bagged the title and also won trip to dream destination, Switzerland! “I am the best! I am the best.” Chanted all the contestants of the ‘Mr. and Ms. Amaze...
Marketing As Unusual Standing out in the clutter that the marketing world is today remains an elsuive target for most brands. But there are some who have shown exemplary application in using 'Unconventional Marketing' methods to create a niche for themselves. These are the brands that were under scrutiny as IIPM International, Bangalore's seminar series - 'Endeavour 2008' kicked off for the year 2008-09 with a conclave on 'Unconventional Marketing'. The underlying theme discus...
Just when you think that you own the world, there comes a strong blow from somewhere up there, says management guru Prof Arindam Chaudhuri . THERE is no God. What we do, we do by ourselves and for ourselves. We are masters of our own life. I was sitting watching TV on the afternoon of 21st October, 1994 to be precise. And that’s what I would have said had anyone asked me about God before that afternoon. Till of course, that day when my mother told me, that a call had com...
There is something indefinable about Arindam Chaudhuri that helps him stand out in a crowd. Is it his gradually thinning ponytail? Is it his fascination with blue? Or is it his ability to give a smile even as he talks? More likely, these are just add-ons for a guy who started off as just another management guru a few years back but managed to find his own spot under the sun. And during recession times too he is shining. First came the management institute that rolled out MBAs faster than Bolly...
AAMIR KHAN HAS TAKEN AN OATH TO VOTE AGAINST EVERYONE WHO IS ANTI-INDIA. PROBABLY HE DOESN’T PLAN TO VOTE THIS TIME!! With general elections round the corner, it is not just the political parties but various organisations that have voluntarily launched themselves into the election campaign. The only difference being that the former is wooing the voters to vote for themselves, and the later is making various attempts to either get voters to the booth or educating them on their franchis...
In the current Union Budget, while the UPA government was increasing the allocation for its flagship NREGA program – from Rs 16,000 crore to Rs 30,000 crore, resulting in a hike of an incredible 87% – it was again surreptitiously trying to ignore the CAG report. The CAG, or the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, has been consistently criticizing the government for alleged misappropriation of funds, faulty record maintenance systems and rampant corruption that have become syno...
From the land of elephants and snake charmers to the land of shit-swimming slumdogs... Indian media goes hysterical! And Indian politicians remain as shameless as ever! The Oscars have been won – as expected! And it sure was a pleasure to hear Resul Pookutty speak about the power of silence and Om, and give Hollywood a chalk-talk lesson or two about Indian philosophy. It was also a great feeling to see the Indian living legend – A R Rahman – get something he more than d...
A brain dead budget at such a crucial juncture… Or was it what the Congress actually wanted so that Pranab Mukherjee doesn’t steal the show? The vote on account budget is a very tricky budget. If the ruling party gives too many freebies in it, it will immediately be rapped for using the budget as a tool to unfairly influence the coming elections. Yet, never before perhaps, in the name of Parliamentary propriety, was such a brain dead, irrelevant and unimaginative budg...
On 20th of January, 2009, when Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of United States of America, delivering one of the most outstanding speeches ever, many would have thought it to be a tokenism, as reversing the economic fortune of the current order is easier said than done. Only time would perhaps prove how much he would succeed eventually. But if one has to go by the precedence being set on each passing day, Obama is perhaps not just on the right track, but is also ind...
The verdict on Saddam is out. The striking aspect of this news coverage were the two contrasting scenarios that evolved in most of the media reports globally. One was that of the celebration (on account of the verdict) within the Shia community of Baghdad, while the other was the contrast of despair and angst amongst the Sunnis. This, perhaps, is not just about Baghdad alone. Throughout the world, reactions have been divided between the Shias or Sunnis. And I have a strong feeling that the rami...
The first thought that drives me (Arindam Chaudhuri) infuriatingly mad tonight, as I sit down to write this editorial, is that it will all happen again... and too soon, because we have learnt no lessons. Just today, as I boarded the flight from Kolkata to Delhi, I walked into the airport with my large handbag, and was – to my astonishment – not subjected to any security check of any kind. The sickeningly lax security guards standing at the main entrance did not even ...
I still remember the early morning of November 4, 2008, as the US Presidential election results started pouring in, I realized that something unbelievably historic was happening in America. I just couldn’t stop wondering how a Black – African American (since so many mails and messages have told me!) – could become the President of the United States of America; the same country that had earlier re-elected George Bush as the President! The whole experience was so tumultuou...
The emperor’s new clothes! That’s “Slumdog Millionaire” for you… Five minutes into this celebrated patchwork of illogical clichés and you are struck by the jarring dialogues. The cumbersome delivery in a language which doesn’t come naturally to most of the actors sounds like someone scratching on walls with one’s finger nails; it ruins the possibility of a connection… Had this film been made by an Indian director, it would’ve been ...
For the last few days, since the beginning of the Israeli military operations in Gaza, media – both print and television – has been riddled with scores of pictures of Palestinian kids, grievously injured in the air attacks by Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF. And every time I have seen those pictures, I have felt revulsion towards the blitzkrieg that has been launched by Israel to take the fangs out of Hamas. Yet, ironically, when I tried to think a little deeper about it, I was left...
In the backdrop of the Mumbai terror attacks , there has been a lot of talk about the need to go and vote... the need to elect the right government... the need for educated youth to come up and join politics and the need for a new political force that can bring about the real change. This topic is something that’s very close to my heart, as ever since I can remember, may be since I was eight years old or so, I remember my father always told me that it is not politics which...