Skip to main content

From Pandurang and Allah and Jesus to Alexa

A span of 100 years.  A century of changes.  Human beings have been through a lot of it.  Good, bad, mediocre, atrocious, hilarious, climactic, dazzling, exponential, exceptional.  Pick your adjective.

From spare change to QR codes.
From interpersonal dialog to text.
From lack of clothing to fashionably less clothes.
From starving in hunger to fashionably bulimic.
From walking miles for water to running on rubber belts and then consuming (smart) water.
From life threatening illness with no cure to overdosed deaths.
From Teddy to Trump (or bear to a duck if you prefer animated analogies).

In so doing one could easily argue we just came full circle.  And boy did we learn a thing or two? Or nothing?

Not long ago in India kids woke up to the chants of the lord's name like a Pandurang or Vishnu, alternately that of Allah, in certain households and had to use that to their advantage or so the theory went.  The lord god watched them as they grew to be useful citizens.

Enter Amazon.  And Google and 'insert name here'.

Communicating with electrically powered devices of a different species, a species that can tap into a know it all database is now purportedly the new Allah in town.  Pandurang was a creator of the universe for those that grew up in western India and is the name of a deity still worshipped in rural Maharashtra.

The large corporate brands of today are in some ways the same thing as the idol based iconic brands brandished by the then capitalist public.  A thing to behold that can bring order out of chaos or make sheep fall in line or provide a compass - literally or figuratively.

In all cases I say - Caveat Emptor!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected.  I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot.  It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is.  Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy.  It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff?  Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality.  So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing?  Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...
2 comments
Read more

Of Jims and Johns

Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...
2 comments
Read more

On the go(zay masta) in Japan again

Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk  My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...
Post a Comment
Read more