Afghan Crisis & India's Partition

On 15th August 2021, Kabul fell under the hands of the Taliban. After two decades. We have seen the plight of ordinary Afghan men, women, and children to leave Afghanistan. It was hard for the rest of the world to understand what they were going through at that moment. The looming uncertainty of the ordinary Afghans was unprecedented. The entire incident took me 74 years ago - 15th August 1947, the day India gained its freedom with the cost of partition of the Indian sub-continent.

I was trying to understand what Indians felt on the morning of 15th August 1947, especially the displaced ones. They were free from British rule but lost everything. The world witnessed a mass migration on an epic scale. Did the morning of 15th August (1947) bring any hope to the displaced ones? Were they felt liberated? Many of them lived in abject poverty. The pains of partition are still present among many. 

In Afghanistan's case, it is Americans. And in India's case, it was British. Western allies don't understand third-world countries. British hastily left India and now America did this with Afghans. 

One Away From Hundred

I have a dedication problem. If I have been dedicated, then I would have blogged for 365 days. I should have found out ways to write a blog every day. 

I started this blog on 1st September 2020. On 31st August, I will reach the mark of 100 blogs. So, 1 year- 100 blogs. My next target is to write 200 blogs in a year. But I have to make sure that those blogs help people. Not a shitpost, like this. 

Kafka's Diary

I have nothing to say today. I'm suffering from writer's block. The idea of this piece is present in Kafka's diary. Nothing is original. The idea is stolen, not copied. But if you open Kafka's diary, you won't find this piece. That's the beauty. 

But the main reason I'm writing this is to achieve my target of writing 100 blog posts in a year. This blog post will touch the 98th mark. I have just two more days left to complete one year.

Radio Gaga

Last night, I was listening to the radio. More than songs, I am interested in what the radio jockeys say. The private radio channels are around two decades old. Before, it was only government channels. 

I come from a lower-middle-class family. Private radio channels opened a new door to me. The kind of shows that were airing was cool by my standards. The more conversational radio jockeying was more approachable to the new-age audience. 

I heard the first jingle, radio ads during that time. I used to listen to the radio for around 10-12 hours a day. However, one thing that caught my attention at that time is the Friday night shows. Few channels air club music on Fridays. It started that time. I was around 16-17 and had never been to a club. The mixed songs were new to me. I got hooked on it. I was unable to pay for visiting a club, but those songs helped me not to feel bad about it.

I still listen to Friday night's non-stop mix songs to get the feeling that I'm inside a club. 

Dead rockstars

During my teenage days, I used to think that all the rockstars are dead. Rock music was new to me. Rock music completely changed my outlook on life. I started smoking marijuana as those rockstars do. The theory of dead rockstars arose when my friends told me that those rockstars died either too much smoking or drinking. Later, I find out that most rockstars are alive. But I was always intrigued why my friends told me that the rockstars are dead. 

Rumor spreaders were promoting the idea that is- to be alive, you have to die multiple times. Also, dead rockstars mean that they are beyond the reach of ordinary people like me. 

Later in life, when I joined advertising, I understood what it means to be alive, you have to die multiple times. Each day is a different day in advertising. You can't predict what will happen to you in next day. The chaos leads to creativity.

Advertising should create growth hackers!

There is a problem with advertising. Currently, the idea has taken a backseat, and designing is in the front seat. Advertising nowadays is more interested in writing a quirky copy or a cool-looking design. However, advertising should solve business problems. They should help businesses to grow. But rather than solving business problems, they are busy making creatives. 

If you look at the growth hacking scene, you will see many engineers. How come engineers ended up increasing a business's growth? It should be advertising folks solving business problems and bringing profit to a business.  

The work that advertising folks are doing doesn't solve business problems. 

The time for a change has come. 

No one has hijacked the plane and advertising

A Ukrainian plane has been hijacked at Kabul airport and taken into Iran. This may aggravate the tense situation in Afghanistan considering the current scenario. But the funniest part of the news is that no one has taken the responsibility of hijacking the plane. Iran, Ukraine, Talib- all said that they haven't hijacked the plane. This has made the situation messier. 

But I'm finding an eerie similarity between advertising and this situation. In advertising agencies, when there is a mistake in work, people party to it don't like to take responsibility.  This makes things messy. The work gets stalled. 

My problem with the Blogger

Google's Blogger is an excellent platform to showcase your writing skill. It is simple and easy to navigate. I joined Blogger in September 2020 and posted around 90 blogs in this one year. I have learned many things about blogging such as watching stats, choosing themes, etc. Also, I still don't understand most of the things that are present in my blogger profile. I hope someday I will be able to figure out what they are. 

But today, I'm going to rant against Blogger. The one thing that troubles me a lot is that it is hard to get followers. If I send a blog link to someone on WhatsApp then he can't follow my blog. There is no provision of following a blogger profile on the mobile version. This makes getting followers is hard to achieve. I had WhatsApp my blog link to many but didn't get followers as there was no follow button present there. People spend a lot amount of time on their phones. So if the follow button was there, they could have followed my profile instantly. Google should understand that I can't WhatsApp a person on their laptop or desktop. 

So if Google creates a provision for mobile users to follow a blogger profile, then budding bloggers like me will get some followers. 

The Importance of Messaging

Today I went to the bank to update my passbook. I was standing in a queue when I read the notice. It was hanging on the glass in front of the person who was making changes to the passbooks. The message was- 'No passbook updations.' It was evident that the person behind the glass has completely forgotten that he needs to remove the notice as he resumed updating passbooks. 

He doesn't understand the importance of messaging. He should have removed the notice. This type of conduct is very much present in many areas that we deal with every day. The entire thing is misleading. Clear messaging is a sign of a good and well-functioning process. 

Everyone should understand the importance of advertising. If he should have removed the message then I had no doubt of approaching him. If there was a message stating 'Passbook update done here' then I had it could have saved time for both him and mine.  

The Fall Kabul & Bengali News Media

The fall of Kabul is one of the harrowing stories of 2021, but this post is not on the fall of Kabul. It is about the fall and fall of Bengali. Once one of the most vocal media in the entire country now has just become a mouthpiece of the state government. These news channels don't send reporters to Afghanistan. They depend on international news media houses. They create news in vernacular what international news media houses reported. 

The main reason behind it because of the lack of funds. Most regional news channels are depended on the advertisement of the state government. In West Bengal, due to the lack of industry, these newspaper fails to get any advertisement from companies. They are solely dependent on government ads. If they report anything against the interest of the government, then the next day they don't get advertisements from the government. So they prefer to cover national or international news. But when they cover such news, very few are dependent on their sources. 

The Problem With The Afghan Men

The fall of Kabul on 15th August caused complete lawlessness across Afghanistan. We all have seen the images or videos of how ordinary Afghans are trying to flee Afghanistan. One thing that caught my attention from that scene is the attitude of Afghan men. 

We have seen how desperately Afghan men at the airports were trying to catch an airplane. But one thing that triggered me to write about an intriguing aspect about the Afghan men. They were all trying to leave Afghanistan without women. I haven't seen a single woman at the Airport. The men at the tarmac or outside the airport were without women. This disturbed me a lot. I hope that good will prevail over bad and Afghan men will think about their women. 

Gangs of Wasseypur and Film as a mass media

A few hours ago, I saw a report by the online news channel The Print. The report says after the release of the Anurag Kashyap cult film ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, the lives of the people living in Wasseypur have changed dramatically.

Now, banks don’t give loans to the people living in Wasseypur. Swiggy, Zomato doesn’t allow cash on delivery (COD) option for the residents of Wasseypur. People living outside Wasseypur are reluctant to get married to someone from Wasseypur. 

People of Wasseypur think that this has happened because of the film. This entire thing reminded me of Russian revolutionary Lenin’s view on cinema. Lenin made his oft-quoted statement “that of all the arts the most important for us is the cinema.” He wanted to use film as a propaganda tool for the Soviet masses. And in the case of Gangs of Wasseypur, this thing has exactly happened to the people residing near Wasseypur. The film has hypnotized them. 

This is the power of film. A good film can blur the line between reality and fiction. Gangs of Wasseypur are one of them. 

At times, I take inspiration from films. My sister told me that she also takes inspiration from films to handle real-life situations. Films are no doubt a tool to reach out to the mass. The question is how to use it. As a tool to educate or to fool.

My Take on the Afghan Situation

The fall of Kabul on 15th August 2021 is going to be the most important day for the politics of the 21st century. The return of the Taliban to power proves that winning Afghanistan is next to impossible. The British tried it and failed, Soviets tried it and failed, and now after 20 years of battle- Americans have lost the battle. The question is who is going to be the next. The natural answer to that question is China. 

There should be no doubt that China’s ally Pakistan has a vested interest in Afghanistan. Taliban is Pakistan’s natural ally. Taliban in Afghanistan means stability in Pakistan’s western border. A democratic government in Afghanistan means a good relationship with India. And Pakistan doesn't want India’s presence on their Eastern and Western sides. There should not be any doubt that Pakistan has fed these Taliban fighters for the last 20 years. Pakistan will project this as natives returning to their homeland. 

The return of the Taliban will also destabilize the security in South-East Asia. Pakistan will feel safer now. Pakistan's relationship with India may deteriorate further. India should keep a vigil on what is happening in Afghanistan. 

From the international perspective, it will probably end Islamophobia. The failure of America and NATO forces to predict the fall of the Afghan government will have multiple repercussions. This may be the end of America’s dominance on world matters. And will start the era of Chinese dominance. The way America and NATO failed to stop the Taliban invasion will certainly excite the Chinese and Russian military experts. However, the most distressing part is that a new era of Asian hate will begin in the West. 

(Image source: The Economist)

 

Advertising and Underground Culture

I was watching a documentary on one of my favorite authors Akhtaruzamman Eliyas. Alongside interviewing the author, the documentary showed the street life of Dhaka. One of them was a street-side seller of C-grade literature. Along with selling juicy literature for sex-starved people, he was also selling books on women marrying women. Seeing that I realized that same-sex marriage is not a new thing. It has been presented in the culture of the marginal class. 

Today, we campaign for same-sex marriage. But our governments fail to recognize that it has been in our literature for ages. Time has come to acknowledge the underground culture and make it mainstream.

Advertising in India should embrace the underground culture and accept what is being under-represented for a long time.

The curious case of internet quotes

The internet is full of quotes. At first glance, they seem motivational and all good. However, if you dig deep, you will find out many quotes are self-contradicting. 

Like fake news, there are quotes available on the internet that are fake too. Last year, industrialist Ratan Tata debunked one of such fake quotes.  

The pressure to create more content without getting caught as plagiarised content is the main reason behind the fake quotes. A content writer picks an old quote from the internet. Then he tweaks few words of it so that he doesn't get caught in the plagiarism tool. And thus become a new quote. Finally, when he uploads it to the internet, he attributes a renowned name against the quote. 

What the suck - Commenting for better reach!

We all like to have connections on LinkedIn. We all want visitors on our profile. The way to get attraction on LinkedIn is to get active. People even hire writers to write on LinkedIn. Apart from writing a post, another way to get attention is by commenting. If you religiously comment, you are bound to get the attraction to your profile. We all know it right. 

But the funniest part is when people write 'commenting for better reach' in the comment section. It is like you have met someone and then telling him that you two have met. 

Writing 'Commenting for better reach' is a bad idea to get people's attention. It is better to write something which has some meaning. If a person has achieved something, then write a congratulatory note. There is no point in writing 'commenting for better reach'.