I think there is a lot of scope and work that can be done in the advertising space for mutually exclusive and benefitial industries/firms/brands. Think about it, Akshay Kumar advertising for Thumbs Up doing all his fancy stunts wearing Nike shoes, with his, "Just do it" attitude. Thumbs up stands for its macho image of one wanting to have it despite all odds. The Thumbs up and Nike attitudes blend so well that if someone can liaise between the two organisations owning these brands, both can benefit out of stuff like greater brand recall value and synergistic benefits and of course, smaller marketing budgets.
Some work needed to become the matchmaker of brands, marrying them for holy matrimony but it definitely makes sense to me. What about you??
Sunday, May 20, 2007
About to hang my boots
Well its decided. I will be hanging my boots. And there is no caveat or anything like that here. After my decent performance yesterday I have decided that enough is enough.
Just to bring you up to speed, we had the Bangalore midnight marathon yesterday (19th May'07). There were three races- the full deal (42kms), the half marathon (21 km) and the IT city run (5.4 kms). I got to know about the event from a colleague in office, ED, a fortnight back.
None of us in our office were anywhere close to being prepared for any run whatsoever and knowing the time left to prepare we decided to start training for the 5.4kms run. ED, RB and I signed up. It was fun for me because I was used to running for about 1.5- 2 kms in about 20 mins or so and thought that was it for me. I started training hard, too hard may be. One week into the training, last Sunday, after running for 6kms my calf muscles got jammed. They were aching pretty bad, and to top it, I had only a week to recover and continue training. I tackled it by resting on Monday and Tuesday, practising again on Wednesday and then resting on Thursday and Friday. I hoped it would turn out well.
It almost did. I got up yesterday feeling close to no pain in my calf muscles. I checked my office mails, rested for a while, dozed off for an hour and left with S for the venue at 5:14pm. We got there to find a huge field infront of the iGate campus being used to set up the stage, the stalls, and all that jazz. The race was to start at 6:30pm and we got there around 5:45pm. ED got there around 6pm and RB came around 6:10pm. We had fun looking around, clicking a few pics of the 'before' shot and streched a bit before the run. At 6:25pm we were asked to start gathering around the place where the run was to be kicked off from. We had a huge contingent from Thompson, Carewell, Green piss (Oops, I mean Greanpeace), Unisys and quite a few other IT firms. It looked to me that the race would have about 600-odd participants (I later discovered that number to be well over a thousand). At 6:30pm sharp the race was flagged off.
I wanted to do well but having not run this kind of distance in the past on road (owing to Bangalore's hazardous roads!) I wanted to conserve my energy. That plan went out of the window almost as soon as the race began. I had such a huge number of people running alongside, and ahead of me that I knew to finish the race the way I would want to, I would need to overtake the trash. I ran briskly, not too fast though, lest I'd loose it all too soon, for the first 500 metres or so and the population started to become rarified. And surprisingly I started feeling out of breath already!
I kept on and started my usual move of focusing on someone ahead of me and continuing to replicate their motion till the person ahead begins wearing down. That went on for about the next kilometre or so and I kept reminding myself the value of continuing to fight and carrying on. Well I did and soon my calf muscles began to give in. The pain of last week came back and topped with the stress of running on road made it really tough. On my way I met a couple of mid-forty-something blokes who were obviously running out of gas, like me. I slowed down to run with one of the guys. It was wonderful. All I said was, "Tag along?" And the reply was equally easy,"Lets try" After about 3 mins of running together, he had to stop. I egged him to come along but he seemed clearly done and so I moved on. I had a similar experience down the road when another guy seemed to be loosing his breath. Reaching alongside him I started clapping (stupid as it may seem, to some) and egged him on. I asked him to follow the ryhthm and just keep focussed. He took my words too well and started to run faster. I tried catching up but the guy got just too fast. I had to stop, even though it was just about a 10-second stop I couldnt run any further. Then I looked at that guy ahead of me and something just didnt fit. I had to out run him. I dont know why it meant so much but I had to do it. The calves didnt matter, the breadth didnt either. It had to be done. And so I started again. I followed him for another 500 mtrs before he began to start caving in. And eventually he did. Then I had to find another challenge and a guy passing me became just that. I ran with him for another 500 mts or so and then came the final turn. After seeing the finish line about 300mts away and having overtaken the 'passing guy', I could see one guy about 50 mtrs ahead of me and another just close to the line. In the next 100 mts I overtook the guy in front of me. At this time I clearly had no incentive , in terms of a better rank, to run faster. But like so many other things in my life, I ran, without a reason, but for the fact that I wanted to strech myself and feel the exhaltation of the sprint. I ran as fast as I could and just before the finish line I saw a small hump in the road. I had to put in so much effort as if I was crossing a foot high hurdle. But I kept running and eventually completed the race in the sprint. I was welcomed by the beating drums and a huge cheer by the crowd. I stopped my watch as soon as I crossed the finishing line and saw it show 28 mins and 33 secs. I asked S how many people crossed the line before me and he said about 6. That made me 7th! I waited, with aching calves, for RB and ED, who arrived 7 mins and 20 mins later, respectively. We stayed back for some time, collecting our participation certificates and clicking a few photos.
I am home now, writing this piece for posterity, with my legs still aching. I havent taken any medicines as I think its better to let my body heal itself. Anyways, so much so for the long story!
And for the title of this piece , I got to find out in the last week that the shoes I used for training in the gym (and also for the ITPL race piece down the blog somewhere too) arent exactly the right ones for running. I am gonna treat myself for the 7th rank with a new pair of shoes and let these ones hang. I love them.
Cheers!!
Just to bring you up to speed, we had the Bangalore midnight marathon yesterday (19th May'07). There were three races- the full deal (42kms), the half marathon (21 km) and the IT city run (5.4 kms). I got to know about the event from a colleague in office, ED, a fortnight back.
None of us in our office were anywhere close to being prepared for any run whatsoever and knowing the time left to prepare we decided to start training for the 5.4kms run. ED, RB and I signed up. It was fun for me because I was used to running for about 1.5- 2 kms in about 20 mins or so and thought that was it for me. I started training hard, too hard may be. One week into the training, last Sunday, after running for 6kms my calf muscles got jammed. They were aching pretty bad, and to top it, I had only a week to recover and continue training. I tackled it by resting on Monday and Tuesday, practising again on Wednesday and then resting on Thursday and Friday. I hoped it would turn out well.
It almost did. I got up yesterday feeling close to no pain in my calf muscles. I checked my office mails, rested for a while, dozed off for an hour and left with S for the venue at 5:14pm. We got there to find a huge field infront of the iGate campus being used to set up the stage, the stalls, and all that jazz. The race was to start at 6:30pm and we got there around 5:45pm. ED got there around 6pm and RB came around 6:10pm. We had fun looking around, clicking a few pics of the 'before' shot and streched a bit before the run. At 6:25pm we were asked to start gathering around the place where the run was to be kicked off from. We had a huge contingent from Thompson, Carewell, Green piss (Oops, I mean Greanpeace), Unisys and quite a few other IT firms. It looked to me that the race would have about 600-odd participants (I later discovered that number to be well over a thousand). At 6:30pm sharp the race was flagged off.
I wanted to do well but having not run this kind of distance in the past on road (owing to Bangalore's hazardous roads!) I wanted to conserve my energy. That plan went out of the window almost as soon as the race began. I had such a huge number of people running alongside, and ahead of me that I knew to finish the race the way I would want to, I would need to overtake the trash. I ran briskly, not too fast though, lest I'd loose it all too soon, for the first 500 metres or so and the population started to become rarified. And surprisingly I started feeling out of breath already!
I kept on and started my usual move of focusing on someone ahead of me and continuing to replicate their motion till the person ahead begins wearing down. That went on for about the next kilometre or so and I kept reminding myself the value of continuing to fight and carrying on. Well I did and soon my calf muscles began to give in. The pain of last week came back and topped with the stress of running on road made it really tough. On my way I met a couple of mid-forty-something blokes who were obviously running out of gas, like me. I slowed down to run with one of the guys. It was wonderful. All I said was, "Tag along?" And the reply was equally easy,"Lets try" After about 3 mins of running together, he had to stop. I egged him to come along but he seemed clearly done and so I moved on. I had a similar experience down the road when another guy seemed to be loosing his breath. Reaching alongside him I started clapping (stupid as it may seem, to some) and egged him on. I asked him to follow the ryhthm and just keep focussed. He took my words too well and started to run faster. I tried catching up but the guy got just too fast. I had to stop, even though it was just about a 10-second stop I couldnt run any further. Then I looked at that guy ahead of me and something just didnt fit. I had to out run him. I dont know why it meant so much but I had to do it. The calves didnt matter, the breadth didnt either. It had to be done. And so I started again. I followed him for another 500 mtrs before he began to start caving in. And eventually he did. Then I had to find another challenge and a guy passing me became just that. I ran with him for another 500 mts or so and then came the final turn. After seeing the finish line about 300mts away and having overtaken the 'passing guy', I could see one guy about 50 mtrs ahead of me and another just close to the line. In the next 100 mts I overtook the guy in front of me. At this time I clearly had no incentive , in terms of a better rank, to run faster. But like so many other things in my life, I ran, without a reason, but for the fact that I wanted to strech myself and feel the exhaltation of the sprint. I ran as fast as I could and just before the finish line I saw a small hump in the road. I had to put in so much effort as if I was crossing a foot high hurdle. But I kept running and eventually completed the race in the sprint. I was welcomed by the beating drums and a huge cheer by the crowd. I stopped my watch as soon as I crossed the finishing line and saw it show 28 mins and 33 secs. I asked S how many people crossed the line before me and he said about 6. That made me 7th! I waited, with aching calves, for RB and ED, who arrived 7 mins and 20 mins later, respectively. We stayed back for some time, collecting our participation certificates and clicking a few photos.
I am home now, writing this piece for posterity, with my legs still aching. I havent taken any medicines as I think its better to let my body heal itself. Anyways, so much so for the long story!
And for the title of this piece , I got to find out in the last week that the shoes I used for training in the gym (and also for the ITPL race piece down the blog somewhere too) arent exactly the right ones for running. I am gonna treat myself for the 7th rank with a new pair of shoes and let these ones hang. I love them.
Cheers!!
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs. I cant think of a more apt title for I am going through right now. I had just started reading iCon - Steve Jobs's biography- at the Bangalore airport whilst leaving for Delhi last week when I also chanced upon 'Triumph of the nerds', a documentary featuring super successful nerds like Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Setve Wozniak, and of course Steve Jobs. What has kept me enchanted about this guy is not just the success he has achieved, but also how he has achieved it.
I find so many parallels betweem him and what I feel and have known myself to be, that it is a revelation of a different kind. Besides other interests he has Zen, I have Reiki. It is trivia like this that has me spell bound.
Over the last few days (and not because of this book) I have also been practising Reiki and I feel that I am on brink of something. Something really significant,is about to happen. Unfortunately, I am unable to put a finger to what it is, where will it happen, how will it happen and to who it will happen. I just feel that something round the corner will change things for me upside down and I will hopefully get a chance to re-live the life of a nerd (not the quintessential booky nerd but my own definition, which is a nerd-cum-philosopher-cum-preacher-cum-healer-cum-visionary-dunno one one that puts it all together)- a life that I have long forgotten for safer and more lucrative options. Lets see how life pans out!
I find so many parallels betweem him and what I feel and have known myself to be, that it is a revelation of a different kind. Besides other interests he has Zen, I have Reiki. It is trivia like this that has me spell bound.
Over the last few days (and not because of this book) I have also been practising Reiki and I feel that I am on brink of something. Something really significant,is about to happen. Unfortunately, I am unable to put a finger to what it is, where will it happen, how will it happen and to who it will happen. I just feel that something round the corner will change things for me upside down and I will hopefully get a chance to re-live the life of a nerd (not the quintessential booky nerd but my own definition, which is a nerd-cum-philosopher-cum-preacher-cum-healer-cum-visionary-dunno one one that puts it all together)- a life that I have long forgotten for safer and more lucrative options. Lets see how life pans out!
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