.In the wake of increased attention towards the impact of social media in American election, it's worth giving a thought about the type of news or information that we are fed with on fb,YouTube etc.. the profound targeting through Facebook and other social media sites with personalised ads is not a new trend...but what if this trend has grown up to a point when our the ability to think critically is at stake .. Eventhough we might have some internal biases in certain issues ,we make decisions based on the facts that we receive . We have a unique ability to see through our bias and we aren't ashamed to admit if we are wrong.. but what if the facts that we receive plays on our internal biases? The personalized recommendations and feeds are slowly killing the critical thinker in us.The algorithms that capture the way we think, we behave etc.. feeds us with what we like and we are becoming increasingly resistant to opinions that don't match ours.As a result, the common grounds between two parties/groups or even individuals are shrinking. .I am not here to discuss election or Russian interference ..(hehe ...what's the point?).but I was just analyzing the info that I receive through emails and recommendations..(for instance I still receive anti trump emails from some random source because I liked some news that was against Trump during election.) Let's learn to see through this chaos of information.. Let's not let differences divide us .

2013 ലെ ഡയറിക്കുറുപ്പുകളിൽ നിന്ന്

പ്രിയപ്പെട്ട ... കൗമാരത്തിന്റെ  നിറങ്ങൾ  ഒഴുകുന്ന പുഴയിൽ എന്റെ സ്വപ്നങ്ങളെ  ഒഴുക്കി വിട്ട്  കാലത്തിന്റെ ഓളങ്ങളിലൂടെ  അത് നിന്നിലേക്ക്‌ ഒഴുകി എത്തും എന്ന പ്രതീക്ഷയോടെ എത്ര നാൾ  ഞാൻ കാത്തിരുന്നതാണ് .. വാക്കുകൾ ഇല്ലാത്ത കവിത പോലെ , നിറങ്ങൾ ഇല്ലാത്ത ചിത്രം പോലെ അവ്യക്തമായ്‌  നീയെന്നിൽ പ്രണയം നിറച്ചുകൊണ്ടിരുന്നു ..ഇരവിന്റെ  കറുത്ത ചിരിയിലും ,പകലിന്റെ പൊള്ളുന്ന ചൂടിലും നീ വരയ്ക്കുന്ന സൗന്ദര്യം  വെറും മിഥ്യയാണെന്ന് എന്റെ മനസ്സ് പലപ്പോഴും  പറഞ്ഞെങ്കിലും , ചില സന്ധ്യകളിൽ മഴമെഖങ്ങൾക്കിടയിലൂടെ നിന്റെ രൂപം എന്നെ വീണ്ടും ഒരു സ്വപ്നജീവിയായ്  മാറ്റികൊണ്ടിരുന്നു ... മുഖമില്ലാത്ത , ഹൃദയമില്ലാത്ത നീയെന്ന കാവ്യത്തിന്റെ പൊരുൾ  അറിയാതെ നിന്നെ ഞാൻ പ്രണയിച്ചു കൊണ്ടിരുന്നു .. പ്രണയം നിരർത്ഥമായ രണ്ടക്ഷരങ്ങൾ മാത്രമാണെന്ന് പിന്നീട്  വന്ന പകലുകൾ എന്നോട് പറഞ്ഞു ... എന്നിൽ നീയെന്ന സൗന്ദര്യത്തെ  കാർന്നു  തിന്നു കൊണ്ടിരുന്ന അറിവെന്ന വൃദ്ധനോട് എനിക്ക് ഈർഷ്യ തോന്നിയെങ്കിലും , എന്റെ ബാല്യകൗമാര ദിശയിൽ വിരിഞ്ഞ നിറമില്ലാത്ത  പനിനീർ പൂവിനോട് യാത്ര പറഞ്ഞ് ഞാൻ നീങ്ങി .... എന്നാൽ ഇന്ന് , സങ്കല്പ്പങ്ങളുടെയും , സ്വപങ്ങളുടെയും ഊന്നു വടിയില്ലാതെ നീ എന്റെ മുൻപിൽ നിൽക്കുന്നു.. മിഥ്യയുടെ മറ നീക്കി  , യാഥാർത്ഥ്യത്തിന്റെ  തീരത്തേക്ക് നീ വന്നപ്പോൾ ആദ്യം ഞാൻ ഒന്ന്  പകച്ചു.. എന്നിൽ പുതുമയുടെ  മണമുള്ള ചിന്തയായ്‌ നീ നിറഞ്ഞപ്പോൾ  മനസ്സിൽ പിന്നെയും നേരിയ ഒരു ശങ്ക .. പക്ഷെ ഇന്ന് ,അലസതയോടെ മിടിക്കുന്ന ചുവന്ന  ഹൃദയത്തിൽ പ്രണത്തിന്റെ  പവിഴപ്പുറ്റുകൾ ഇപ്പോഴും നിനക്കായ് ഉണ്ടെന്നു  നീ എന്നോട് പറഞ്ഞു .. ഞാൻ അന്ന് ഉപേക്ഷിച്ച പനിനീര്പ്പൂവിന്റെ നേർത്ത സുഗന്ധം നിന്റെതെന്ന് ഞാൻ തിരിച്ചറിയാൻ തുടങ്ങിയപ്പോൾ പ്രണയം എന്നെ  പിന്നെയും ഒരു സ്വപ്നജീവിയാക്കുന്നു .. നിന്നെ നഷ്ട്ടമായെന്നു തോന്നിയ ആ നിമിഷം ശൂന്യത , വെളിച്ച തിന്റെ  ഓരോ കണികയും കവർന്നെടുത്തുകൊണ്ട്  എന്നോട് പറഞ്ഞു ,ഞാൻ നിന്നെ സ്നേഹിക്കുന്നു എന്ന് ..   നിന്റെ  നന്മ , നിന്റെ മുഖപ്രസാദം ,നിന്റെ ചിരിയിലെ പ്രണയം , എല്ലാം ഞാൻ ഇന്നറിയുന്നു ... നിന്റെ ജീവിതമെന്ന അപൂർണ്ണമായ ചിത്രത്തെ ഞാൻ മനൊഹരമാക്കുമെന്ന് നീ പറയുന്നു .. നീ കൂടെ ഉണ്ടെങ്കിൽ ,പാതി മെനഞ്ഞ കാവ്യങ്ങൾ പൂർണ്ണതയുടെ   വെളിച്ചം കാണുമെന്നു നീ പറയുന്നു .. ഇതൊന്നും സത്യമെന്നോ മിഥ്യയെന്നോ ഞാൻ പറയില്ല . ഇനിയുള്ള രാവുകളിൽ നിന്റെ നെഞ്ചിൽ മുഖമമർത്തി , എന്റെ താരാട്ടിൽ നിന്റെ കണ്ണുകളെ നിദ്ര പുണരുന്നതും നോക്കി ഇരിക്കുവാനാണെനിക്കിഷ്ട്ടം .നിന്റെ സുഖത്തിന്റെയും ദുഖത്തിന്റെയും ഒരു പങ്കു എനിക്കാണെന്നുള്ള ചെറിയ ഒരഹങ്കാരതിന്റെ സുഖവുമായി ..പ്രാർത്ഥനയോടെ ... സ്വന്തം   

Musings!

WHEN we travel with your friends or partner, what we cherish most is their presence , the jokes we share and the comfort of their company.

the places  we visit  and the experiences will always be entangled with the general flow of mood of the group accompanying you..

BUt  when you travel alone, it is someone from deep inside who accompanies you throughout. She doesn’t disguise her inner self just to fit in the world of normality .

She is more happy and free and urges you to fly high.. Her beautiful voice resonates through the empty walls you see around. She sees through the eyes of other people and reads the untold stories of thier lives.

She says there is beauty if you seek yourselves .. she says  be yourselves n that’s awesome

Brand Talks!

Enough of my silly ramblings..let me move into something serious now.. really serious!!!  but not necessarily boring.I’m gonna talk something about Marketing!!.My subject!! ..

I read an article from Terry O Reilly, the radio celebrity of “Under the Influence ” by CBC. I started listening to his podcasts because our marketing Prof. advised us to do so.Also, I would like to include some insights that I got from other articles and interviews that I listened to.

The most important fact of the matter of advertising, which kept me thinking and which our sir kept reiterating is ‘what makes customers buy a stuff’? what do they feel when they purchase some particular brands? What on earth drives them to spend more and more money for a handbag or a sunglass or a dress 500$?How ads manage to evoke those emotions in the minds of the customers so that they become ready to spend their hard earned money for just a brand logo?

Advertiser’s Perspective: O’ Reilly says that it’s important as an advertiser to ask themselves that what business they are in. For instance, Coke is not in Soft drink business but in the Happiness business. Drinking a coke is a sign of celebration and happiness. The brand Apple sends a signal of rebellion and different thinking.

So when the customers purchase those brands, they just don’t purchase products, they purchase emotions, the values associated with the brand.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Brands..

I saw a documentary about “The three Secrets of Superbrands(Fashion). The team conducts certain interviews in the area of emotions these super brands evoke in the minds of target customers mainly women.The women were asked why do you spend 250$ on a handbag made by Gucci or Ralph Lauren? The response was they get excited when they own an expensive item. I seriously couldn’t comprehend the rationality behind purchasing expensive stuff , before learning this course.why are we running behind very expensive brands? Even though I own a couple of Ralph Lauren stuffs, I never purchased it because of its brand but I got those as gifts.Also, I never find those RL items superior to other clothes that I own.In fact, some worn off earlier than the cheaper ones I own. So from then on, I did not purchase any products because it’s expensive. But the frenzy that people are in when it comes to brands, always puzzled me mainly when I stroll through the streets of NYC, eyeing at the bags which cost 500$ etc..,

But then one thought struck me out of the blue.What if I see someone owning this bag.What would be the first impression I make out of them? She must be rich enough to purchase a bag that would cost a fortune and for her to be rich she must be talented.So just by owning a product, one can convey a lot of indirect messages to the people around.So these products in a way expose the inner desire to be superior to the people around you.I mean Maybe .. My theory!!The origin of all this stems from a desire to flaunt off how special you are to in front of others…

So are those brands really superior to the cheaper ones?

The guy in the interview travels to the Sunglass manufacturing company named Luxottica in Italy where Sunglasses are made. According to Wikipedia” ..Luxottica also makes sunglasses and prescription frames for designer brands such as Chanel, Prada, Giorgio Armani, Burberry, Versace, Dolce and Gabbana, Miu Miu, DKNY, and Tory Burch.

They make these brands in batches in the same place where one brand of glasses is made in one hour and the next brand in the next hour. So these glasses of the different brands and different price ranges are made by the same manufacturer, in fact, on the same day by the same people. So even though the brands claim a unique identity, they are all made in the same place.. so it the “exclusivity” given by the customers to these brands is a mere creation of advertising?

My take on what is really happening to us?

How are the advertisers influencing our emotions and the way we think..? Before that its good to understand that what is the foundation of our way of thinking? How are we determining the values and rights or wrongs or how are we programmed to think? Is it religion or the surroundings that taught us to behave in a specific way?If we know what taught us to think in a particular way, it would be easier to understand how are we influenced by ad people.

Admen are influencing the core values that we treasure to sell their product…As we are exposed to a plethora of ads and bombarded with new products every day, we are fed daily with information in a way that the core values are linked to products.When you keep listening to the same messages over and over again, we draw an automatic connection with what we feel to the products that we see on ads.

The new Realm of Social networking!

I was thinking the extent to which FB culture has penetrated to our lives.How important it has become for most of us to portray the awesomeness of our lives to the FB world…Roshan Andrews(Malayalam Movie director) conveyed his scepticism about the new normality of this generation, in his movie “how old are you”, the normality where very private moments become mere posts of Facebook  when couples say “I love you” to each other on FB, waiting for the approval(likes and loves) from the FB world.According to studies,  there are growing concerns about the amount of depression social media sites causes in the young generation. Also, the time which is lost on FB affects the overall productivity of a person.This article explains the amount of loss FB causes to the people’s lives..http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/04/facebook-turns-12–trillions-in-time-wasted.html

Furthermore,I’m pretty sure that the happiness scale( if there is a scale to measure happiness) is lower than the pre-Facebook world while we are on a trip, since we only think about taking pictures and the captions to post on Facebook… people are too much obsessed with drawing their perfect life on FB while forgetting to live it.

Even though I don’t post many private pics on FB, I also suffer from few new gen diseases coz of the social networking sites….I was so scared that people would read my blog and draw conclusions about my ‘imperfect’ life as this blog contains some small bits of the real me who is sometimes happy and unhappy… Because nowadays sharing a post about Depression would automatically convey that you are depressed..people like to draw conclusions about your life based on what one posts on FB. So I think twice to post something on FB to avoid questions.

The most liberating feeling is to let yourselves be seen .. Let it be seen.. the most vulnerable part of you so that the subconscious efforts to show off your awesome life would be subsided automatically …it is not necessary to draw a perfect picture on any social media sites… It’s ok to be not cool sometimes.It’s ok to be weak sometimes…It’s ok to be imperfect sometimes…It’s ok to cry sometimes..  bcoz nobody’s life is perfect as it seems to be…

COZ WE ARE HUMANS!!

Weird Thoughts

Why do I feel detached from the world sometimes?  Sometimes I feel this whole world runs on some unwritten meaningless rules, and everyone forces us to fit into those rules desperately. I was completely into a particular scene when I saw madmen lately.Because the scene exactly explained the crux of my agony for last few months…I can’t coin a word for the whole feeling of detachment from the world that we live in.  Quoting from the mad men series.Draper says ” you born alone and you die alone. and this world drops a bunch of rules on the top of you to make you forget those facts!! But I never forget that. I’m living like there is no tomorrow because there isn’t one! and Rachel replies: ” I do know how it feels to be disconnected ! to see the whole world laid in front of you the way other people live it “!

I echo her.. I know the exact feeling to be disconnected completely! Arrays of faces with the same but meaningless emotions moving around ceaselessly. When you feel the very existence of yours is merely a replica of thousand of faces around you when you realise the absurdity of the unwritten and written rules that dictate the way one live in this world, the rules that decide rights and wrongs, you get stuck…You wonder what the heck I’m doing here!! … sometimes I  feel that I am floating in the sky, watching the mess that we managed to create for ourselves, smiling to myself …

Self talks

Sometimes, it is important to look deep within when your mind puts you in a ‘bad mood’.When I feel awful about something, I just deviate from the things I’m supposed to do and indulge myself into something trivial.It’s just an escape mechanism of the brain from the uncomfortable thoughts. I think ‘mood swings is the way of your mind telling you that “I have few questions that need answers. I need you to ask your brain to come up with those answers. But then, the lazy brain finds shortcuts to calm your mind down. Netflix, youtube, movies etc.. etc,, easy comforts,,

Don’t ignore your mood swings. talk yourselves out of it instead of seeking momentary comforts in videos or foods. You will slowly be a better version of yourselves.