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Archive for the ‘Twitter Trends’ Category

Twitter Celebrity of 2013 : Noopur Shalini

Posted by: on: December 22, 2013

Twitter is a happening place nowadays. Twitter is a barometer of the pulse of the nation. Many observers have compared Twitter to that famous tea shop in a typical village square where people gather to exchange the latest gossip. You can either love Twitter or hate Twitter but you cannot ignore Twitter.

The year 2013 saw many remarkable incidents happening on Twitter. There are a few tweeps who are decent, follow good manners and have strong views and opinions on almost everything under the sun. What’s even more interesting is these tweeps air their views on Twitter fearlessly and relentlessly. And knowingly or unknowingly they entertain or inform you through their witty tweets day in and day out.

Noopur is that tweep who enjoys to express her opinions on Twitter. She has got a lot of funny ideas too. She always makes it a point to interact with her followers. She is fearless. She is highly opinionated. She is fun but she knows her limits too. She is the most entertaining Twitter personality of 2013. Here’s my detailed interview with her. Read her insightful answers and follow her. She has nearly 1,500 followers but refuses to call herself a Twitter Celebrity.

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1. You’ve completed around three years on Twitter. And let me congratulate you for successfully transforming yourself from a girl next door to a Twitter celebrity whose tweets get retweets and responses in double digit, how does it feel?

Ans. I opened my account 3 years back, but i started tweeting only from July 2012, as i wanted to congratulate and wish good luck to our Indian team for London Olympics. I have never joined twitter to transform myself into a celebrity but only to lighten my mood and put my views on a social networking platform. I would like to believe that I am still the GIRL NEXT DOOR. I started my journey from zero followers and by playing twitter contests. For the first time I strongly expressed my opinion on #DelhiGangRape, the incident which – I feel – almost shattered the people of country. Post that it was India-Pakistan match and my tweets got recognised by many and I liked the way I got RT’s and responses from tweeps. My journey started from there.

2. As you’ve experienced so often that no longer TV is needed to know the breaking news. Twitter is where all big stories break regularly. Do you see this phenomenon growing in the years to come? Will more and more sensational stories break on Twitter first before capturing the imagination of the TV news anchors? If yes, is this good for the traditional reporting or journalism or does it have a serious competition and this is precisely it should reinvent itself?

Ans. Sometimes breaking of a big story on twitter might mislead people and spread rumours. I don’t consider Twitter as a source of breaking news. Also, few times strong stories fail. Twitter outrage is a fad. I am on Twitter but I still listen to DD News and read The Hindu newspaper in the morning. Now you can only judge how much competition it gives to the traditional source of news.

3. I have many a times noticed your tweets which are critical of cellular service providers or are creating awareness about some bad product or service or are questioning film critics for giving biased reviews of the just released flicks. Why do you like to speak up? Is the crusader in you angry all the time? Or is it because you know that Twitter will get you desired attention? People will hear you and those who are trying to spread misinformation will know that they cannot fool people as easily as that? Please tell my readers about Noopur the crusader.

Ans. I feel very disappointed with the customer service we get in India, not only in cellular service but also pizza delivery, poor quality of products and customer care person not speaking and responding properly. It is just annoying that we buy products trusting them and then chase the brand to help us out. Customer service in India is very rude and I think its only social media where we can reach the brand directly and can tell them where they are going wrong.

Coming to film reviews, yes I oppose biased reviews. I am not angry all the time neither I criticize everything. I liked Lootera, Bullett Raja, Lunchbox, Madras Cafe, etc a lot and wrote about them too. Whatever is the truth, it should be spoken out. And I’m of the opinion that every individual has her own views. I don’t do anything just to gain attention. In fact, to tell you the truth, I have regretted a lot many times when I had tweeted something insane and got noticed instantly.

4. On Twitter you seem to love 140 characters. Do you ever wish that tweets should not have this limit of 140 characters?

Ans. I love expressing myself through the written words. Apart from composing tweets, I have also written poems and articles. Getting yourself limited to 140 characters and airing your views accordingly is an art by itself to me.

5. When you are in a good mood, you have a lot of fun by tagging celebrities in your tweets asking them seemingly harmless but humorous question. Is it a technique to lift your mood or to make your followers smile? Or are you trying to figure out whether these celebrities handle their accounts on their own or outsource this job to their PRs? What’s your view?

Ans. I love getting replies from celebrities, who else wouldn’t love it? I remember getting reply from Amitabh Bachchan. When that had happened, the whole day I had been in the paradise. Asking funny and humorous questions – though looks stupid – lifts my mood. It may sound insane but honestly speaking I laugh at my own jokes sometimes after tweeting them. I like giving compliments to people. And if being funny makes others smile there is nothing wrong in it. It is indeed an honour that I made someone smile. I do sometimes try to figure out whether the handle is outsourced to the PR’s, but if a celebrity really want to connect with their fans and followers, they should take out sometime and spend that time with us. Not all of us are rude contrary to what they may like to believe.

6. What’s the secret formula to get followers? When tweeps ask for a follow back, what’s your strategy to say no?

Ans. Haha. I have never joined twitter to gain followers. Also my followers count has increased slowly but steadily. That said, I am happy that those who follow me and interact with me and support my views. There are many tweeps who ask for a follow back. If someone does so, I keep a check on their tweets and with the passage of time if i like their tweets, I do oblige them by following back.

7. With the general election round the corner, so many politicians and their supporters are joining Twitter. Do you think it will have any impact on the final outcome of the election?

Ans. No. All educated people are on twitter and are wise enough to understand what is right and what is wrong. Connecting to people is one thing and promoting politics is another.

8. Do you come across abusive trolls? How do you keep them in check? How do you keep your calm and don’t allow online abuse to affect you in any way?

Ans. Frankly, I don’t get many but if I get, I tend to ignore them. You cannot control abusive trolls. I don’t lose my temper but take it in a funny way. Sometimes this approach annoys the trolls more. Also, If you can’t handle the trolls, don’t troll and comment on others. Whats goes around comes around.

9. Being a Twitter celebrity, what’s your advice to people out there who want to join Twitter?

Ans. Join twitter to air your views and read what others tweet in a sporting way. And refrain from abusing others by masking your true self under the guise of anonymity.

10. Every day so many hashtags trend. Any favourite hashtags of yours? Any favourite tweets of yours would you like to share that received so many retweets and you would pick it up as the tweet of 2013?

Ans. #LetterToMyHair was one of the best hashtags of 2013. Two of my tweets are my personal favourites.

1. Actually in reality Pillow is your life partner.

2. In UP, bijli appears only in Bhojpuri songs. Rest is a myth there.

11. Finally, many tweeps accuse you of being a boy under the guise of a girl. What would you like to tell them? Would you also like to clarify something else or give some message to your followers?

Ans. I don’t want to give any explanation. I always feel astonished to see how others are interested in your personal life on social media. I enjoy reading whatever people infer about me.

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Robert Vadra The Small Farmer

Posted by: on: August 27, 2013

Today is a sad day in the history of our democratic country. Rupee keeps crashing further. Sonia Gandhi took ill but thanks to our super specialists’ timely efforts, she returned home hale and hearty. The icing on the cake was the revelation that Robert Vadra the first son-in-law of our country is merely a small farmer. Not only India but the entire world is in shock at this revelation.

Robert Vadra has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. There are many who believe that Robert Vadra has made a lot of wealth and his personal net worth has sky rocketed ever since UPA’s reign at the Centre. So many op-eds have come out speculating his personal net worth and its mysterious sources.

But today mother of all revelations has proved in a single stroke that Robert Vadra is a poor victim of malicious campaign against him. He is a thorough and thorough gentleman who works as a small farmer somewhere back in the beyond. His personal net worth has always remained a big zero. On the other hand, like any other small farmer of this country even he has a debt of several thousand rupees on him. It is said that to pay off that small debt he approached several banks without revealing his famous mother-in-law and brother-in-law’s names. Obviously, the banks have turned out his request for loans. And as a result, poor Robert Vadra aka small farmer is forced to live in penury.

This is not some propaganda on the eve of general election. Nor this revelation is a ploy to repair ruling party’s both image and credibility. But the small farmer act of Robert Vadra is a hard hitting fact in the face of those who were projecting him as a multi millionaire son-in-law who was out to grab everything. As the news of Robert Vadra’s real vocation spread like a wildfire, the self proclaimed political analysts and so-called sources close to the first family were out there to enlighten anyone who cared to listen how this could benefit Congress party.

All said and done, if Robert Vadra is living like a small farmer with his in-laws running the country, it speaks volumes about their ruling capabilities. There are some former ministers who held important portfolios a few months back and who have successfully eradicated poverty from its very root. They are in a comfortable position. Their near and dear ones are also able to secure their livelihoods and there’s no immediate threat to their well heeled future. If the ministers could do this, why couldn’t the rulers themselves? This is really puzzling.

The well-wishers of Dynasty are in a terrible shock. They want the first son-in-law to be in a comfortable position. Instead of working in the field under the harsh sun rays, what they would like to see is Robert Vadra sporting imported goggles, posing for glossy magazines in tight fitting, muscle rippling t-shirts next to imported cars and bikes.

Who would like to see the only son-in-law in tattered dhoti and torn vest standing next to buffaloes and cows wiping mud from his unshaven face?
As a sycophant of the ruling Dynasty, I hope that the Republic of India will be spared those devastating images (if there are any).

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Dealing With Gang-Rapes

Posted by: on: August 24, 2013

Whenever there’s an incident of gang-rape, there’s a lot of outrage, condemnation, verbal attacks on the police force and government of the day, demand for the resignations of the police chief and CM and so on and so forth.

The social media helps gauge the popular sentiments prevalent at that precise time. The mainstream media does its bit to exploit collective anger by giving the gang rape victims names like Nirbhaya. A lot of frustration and disappointments coupled with rage and helplessness are generated. The public sentiments are running all time high.

Amidst all this, powers that be try to rein in protesters or those demanding tough action against the rapists by offering token gestures like paying off victim’s medical bills. But still the basic issue remains even after the outrage dies a natural death after some time.

A normal human being cannot understand the mentality of those who indulge in the act of rape. Many excuses come to light every time there are incidents of either rapes or gang-rapes. Some of which are quite regular by now. And a few of them are the girls should not step out of the house after the sun-set. If they do so, a male companion should accompany them. The girls should dress up properly. They should avoid wearing mini skirts and low rise jeans. Scantily clad girls invite rape upon themselves and the list goes on. In fact, some of the excuses cited are so sickening that there’s no doubt left that whenever there’s a rape, the victim is to be blamed.

Nothing can be more cringeworthy than this general attitude towards the victims. Then this is not all. God alone knows what social stigma and ordeal the poor victims go through in case they want to seek justice. No wonder why in our society rapes keep happening.

After a bout of collective outcry, there’s utter silence because newer scandals have grabbed the headlines or Indian cricket team has won the important champions trophy or Rahul Gandhi has decided to get married.

So who’s to blame? According to me, the entire society is to blame. When rapes happen at an amazing regularity in metros like New Delhi and Mumbai, this means that the whole society is facing a moral crisis of conscience.

Many a times we tend to come across people who, even today, think that a working woman is a fair game for sex. The girl who hangs out with her male friends late into the night is a fair game. Immediately such girls get labelled as loose. And when they resist advances from strangers, the problem starts.

To root out this mindset, every child must learn to respect women. If our society wants to see the change it wants, that change has to begin from home first. If every male child receives the knowledge to respect female children right from a very young age, when he grows up, he will see women as his equal and have a healthy and genuine respect towards their contribution either at home, school, college or work place.

Secondly, the media must exercise a lot of restraint in highlighting incidents like rapes or gang-rapes. No doubt that they bring a lot of TRPs and circulations. But they leave the survivors’ existence permanently damaged. The psychological impact on the survivor of a gang-rape would be so devastating that they can never get over and get on with their lives. Moreover, it gives smart Alecs an opportunity to cast aspersions on victim’s character.

Thirdly, police must get into swift action without brooking interference from anyone. A special task force to nab the rapists must be formed and deployed in every city. This task force must operate secretly keeping a deadline in mind.

Fourthly, politicians can channelise the collective anger into forming groups of volunteers who are ready to campaign against the social stigma a rape survivor has to face in the society.

Lastly, a rapist is a rapist. The moment he indulges in an heinous crime like raping an innocent woman, he ceases to be a follower of any religion. A rapist must face a boycott and nobody should come forward to protect or defend what he has done. When that happens, a man will think hundred times before committing a rape. He will know that if he gets caught, he will be spared no mercy on any ground and his end will be inevitable.

In conclusion, it will suffice to say that instead of advising girls to stay indoors after the sun-set or asking them to put on ‘proper’ dresses, if men are advised to expand their horizons by being more accommodative in nature and more understanding and sensitive towards their female counterparts, it will automatically restore a sense of security, safety and confidence in them.

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Manish Tewari & a Garland of Rs 5

Posted by: on: July 16, 2013

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Who doesn’t know Manish Tewari? Manish Tewari is an I&B Union Minister. He also has a dubious distinction of trending on a popular micro blogging site Twitter on famous Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif’s birthday. The reason why he trended on Twitter on such a fateful day is once again he did what he is expert at doing. He shot his mouth off.

Everybody knows that Dr. MMS doesn’t speak at all. Manish Tewariji is a complete contrast to MMS. He speaks too much. He doesn’t try and understand whether his comments or observations are required and whether they’ll serve his party well or not. No sooner he sees camera crews from TV news channels than he starts speaking sometimes much to the chagrin of the party he represents.

On the condition of anonymity, some senior Congress leaders have admitted that a tacit understanding between ever silent PM and motor mouth Manishji does exist. It is mutually agreed by both PM and Manishji that while the former will observe an all time silence, the latter will start hyperventilating every time he comes within sniffing distance of a mike.

That said, after all who can forget his notorious jibe at Anna Hazare and his team? It was Manishji who had accused Annaji of corruption. But he had really met his match in Anna Hazare who took him to the cleaners by demanding an apology from him without delay. That public spat with Annaji helped Manishji score brownie points within his own party. This is precisely why every time Manishji suffers from the foot in the mouth disease, his party throws its full weight behind him.

But alas his luck seems to have run its course. This time around Manishji has reportedly earned the wrath of his party big wigs while taking a jibe at BJP for charging admission fee at an event in Hyderabad where Mr. Modi is the main speaker. The latest round of verbal dual between Manishji and BJP hasn’t gone down well with the party High Command. Rahul G is livid at the way BJP has attacked the central leadership of Congress on account of Manish Tewari’s potshot at Modi show in Hyderabad next month. Congress has been finding itself on back-foot ever since Mr. Modi’s elevation at the national stage. The party think tank has decided not to lock direct horns with the Gujarat CM. But Manishji has sounded the war of bugle without getting a green signal from 10 Janpath.

Rahul G has reportedly asked Manishji to avoid mikes and TV cameras until further orders. In the next party meet, Rahul G – it is learnt from the sources close to him – will welcome Manishji with a garland of five rupee currency note and advise him to keep that note as a token of appreciation for keeping his mouth shut in future.

Though many senior leaders feel that five rupee note is such a small amount for Manishji, Rahul G is believed to have convinced them by citing the fall of rupee from the grace. It remains to be seen whether Manishji will come out unscathed from his latest predicament. Those who know the gritty minister claim that this is like a storm in the tea cup for the beleaguered minister, trust him to kick off another another controversy to bring him back in the reckoning as soon as possible.

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Rs 1.82 : A Salesman’s Curse

Posted by: on: June 28, 2013

So much is happening in our country. Brave hearts are dying while undertaking rescue operations in Uttarakhand. Politicians are squabbling over who rescued how many people trapped amidst ruins. News anchors are grilling all and sundry under the comfortable guise of the-nation-wants-to-know. New films are hitting the cinema halls. Indian Cricket Team led by MS Dhoni is winning cups after cups. Rahul Gandhi is holidaying in some far flung country where nobody can reach him. The rupee is falling down at breathtaking speed. The list is long as so many things all around us are happening.

Amidst all this ha ha hoopla comes the news that the price of petrol is all set to receive yet another hike. This time around the hike is Rs 1.82 per litre. This means to say petrol became dearer once again. The timing of this news couldn’t have come at a more critical juncture. The country is yet to recover from the trauma and shock of Uttrakhand calamity in which several thousands have perished and a few hundreds have gone missing. The Congress and BJP are locked in a bitter fight over allegations of fake encounters that took place several years ago.

When nobody has time to protest or question the latest petrol hike, this hike has quietly surfaced from nowhere. And it seems that the culprits behind this latest petrol hike will go scot-free. Who cares for aam admi? A hike of few rupees isn’t a big deal anyway. The ruling party seems to cock a snook at aam admi at regular intervals by hiking the petrol price. Isn’t it worried about losing the votes of middle class? Has middle class stopped mattering to the ruling elite? Why then is this politics with the prices of petrol?

There are no political or social commentators out there at the moment who can possibly justify so many frequent petrol hikes. Everybody is busy with something or the other. The rich have cars and to them a hike of a couple of rupees every now and then doesn’t matter. The poor have two wheelers. The poor salesmen working in the metros get peanuts as their daily allowances. The dilemma is how to manage with such meagre allowances. The choice is between the food and the petrol. If a hapless salesman starves himself to save money for petrol, he cannot give effective presentation before his client.

If he cannot give effective presentation, his sales will suffer. As a result his productivity will come down. Once that happens, bosses will keep an eye on him and if things don’t change, poor salesman will get marching orders. If he compromises on petrol and keeps his two wheeler under nourished, naturally he cannot run around for appointments on time. Competitors will take advantage and slowly salesman will be out of business. Whichever way we look at the petrol price hike, a poor salesman is at a loss. For him it is like Devil and the Deep Sea.

Poor ruling party has ignored salesmen as its important constituents hook, line and sinker. This petrol price hike will surely push it out of power. All the salesmen are eagerly waiting for the General Elections. Let the party begin now.

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Rahul Gandhi & Newspaper Boy

Posted by: on: May 13, 2013

Today world saw a new side of Rahul Gandhi. Since he is a shy politician and avoids publicity, his PR was instructed not to blow the incident out of proportion. But somehow this incident has come to light and everybody is talking about it. Obviously, Rahul Gandhi is livid and has decided to fire his PR for this gaffe.

In a nutshell, the much talked about story goes like this. A young boy knocks at the window of a car in which Rahul Baba is travelling. It turns out that the young boy wants to sell Rahul Baba a newspaper. Though Rahul Baba has already read all the dailies of the day on his mini iPad, he doesn’t want to disappoint the young boy and buys a paper from him. Rahul Baba pays him 1000 rupees for a single newspaper after inquiring as to why he was not at school.

This is the story being peddled by the PR chaps hired by RG Baba. The whole world seems to have lapped it up without doubt. But insiders are miffed at what is being told to the people. The real story is totally different. All of a sudden the AC of Rahul Baba’s car broke down. Now this is the summer season. Unfortunately, the support staff had forgotten to carry tissues with which Rahul Baba could wipe his sweat beads on forehead. Suddenly, they saw this boy selling newspapers at the traffic signal.

The support staff approached the boy and purchased all his newspapers for one thousand rupees. They took those papers with the sole intention of converting them into tissues for Rahul Baba. The overzealous PR managers saw some opportunity to market the generous side of RG in this incident and rolled out a narrative depicting RG as the messiah of boys across the country selling newspapers at traffic signals.

Soon this story found many takers much to the delight of PR guys. But their joy proved to be short-lived, and; alarm bells began to ring when the news that the crew of a foreign news channel was looking for this newspaper boy for an interview reached the PR chaps. They pressed the panic button and came out with the story of this boy having been picked up for education, and; hence unavailable to appear before media.

According to sources close to Rahul Gandhi, the ministers are unhappy with these turns of the events. They know that the end is nigh and the last days in the office ought to be spent plundering the national wealth. There is no time left for them to provide education to the boy hand-picked by Baba at a traffic signal let alone arrange employment for lucky boy’s beleaguered father whose dream is to become a doctor when he grows up.

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Leader of Goat Writes an Open Letter

Posted by: on: May 10, 2013

Dear Ministers & Political Leaders,

I am the leader of all the goats and lambs in India. The intention of this open letter is to make the voice of my community members heard. My name is Lamb and I live in the vicinity of 10 Janpath. Today one of our community members has made our community proud.

At the young age of seven months, Chulbul has sacrificed herself to save the portfolio of one of the ministers who finds himself embroiled into the charges of corruption. Our intelligence report suggests that demand for my young community members is only going to go up as more scandals are likely to tumble out in the days leading to the general elections.

The mango man of this country may not know why high and mighty sacrifice young members of my community. Today one goat is sacrificed. And thanks to TV news channels entire country has come to know the important role we goats and lambs play in running the governments at both central and state levels.

The secret behind sacrificing us is we have direct connection with god. We can enter god’s room any time without knocking. We can barge into any high level meeting god is presiding over. We can wake up god from sleep any time. God loves us. He listens to our pleas and requests. He is accessible to us any time. This is why when our netas are in neck deep troubles, they come knocking at our doors. Before sending us to the Heaven, they tell the member who is chosen what exact message they want delivered to god.

This practise has been in fashion since time immemorial. Netas belonging to the ruling party (at the Centre) are our prime customers as more often than not it is they who end up as the targets of opposition’s sting operations and are exposed. When they fall out of High Command’s good books, they seek divine intervention and get in touch with us.

We never fail to deliver. My members are trained specifically for the purpose carrying netas’ messages to god in code languages so that the opposition doesn’t know what messages have gone up there. After my member reaches up there, Party High Command changes her/his mind within no time and ministers about to be shown the door are promoted up the order. The spin doctors successfully dress up that promotion of minister as some sort of punishment for the alleged misdeeds to calm down growing anger of mango men.

However, what is sad is after using our services the political class keep us at arm’s length. In many cases, ministers have promised the kith and kin of sacrificed members jobs and various government perks entitled to the VVIPs. But there has been no change in the condition of my community. None of the promises has been kept to our dismay. Even media persons ignored and refused to cover us for fear of offending the political class.

Today let it be known to the entire world that next sacrifice will not happen until special quotas in railways and civil aviation are reserved for my community members. The kith and kin of Chulbul (the goat sacrificed today) have placed a demand on record that one percent of amount taken in bribe must immediately be shared with them. Unless this happens, minister’s message will not be delivered to god and minister will get the boot in all likelihood.

I sincerely hope that following world wide attention we have received on social networking sites, netas will learn a lesson and start treating us with the respect we deserve.

Yours Faithfully.
Lamb.
All India Leader of Goat and Sheep Association.

BJP Announces Rahul Gandhi as its PM Candidate

Posted by: on: April 1, 2013

BJP claims to be a party with a difference. In the recent past, its detractors have twisted this punch line to take potshots at party they hate the most. They try to poke fun at BJP and make their dislike known for it by twisting its punch line from party with difference to party within differences.

But today BJP proved that it is indeed a party with a difference. After announcing the new members of its much talked about Parliamentary Board yesterday, on April Fools day it also announced its Prime Ministerial candidate for the upcoming General Elections in 2014.

Mr. Rajnath Singh, the party president, held a press conference at the party head quarter in the Capital today and made the announcement by reading out a carefully worded written statement. “Today the top BJP leadership has decided unanimously that its prime ministerial candidate will be Rahul Gandhi. All the party leaders have come to a conclusion that if India wants to witness a revolution in development and infrastructure, if India wants to root out corruption, only one leader has it in him to do so. And that leader is none other than Shri Rahul Gandhi.”

Mr. Singh declined to answer visibly shocked reporters’ questions citing the lack of time due to his tight schedule much to the disappointment of the reporters. Soon after the announcement, he was whisked away in his car to an undisclosed location. His mobile phone was also switched off at the time of going to the press.

All senior party leaders of BJP are tight lipped about this mysterious and baffling announcement. What has prompted the party to endorse Rahul Gandhi’s prime ministerial candidature is intriguing all BJP supporters. The party workers are a shaken lot. They came to know about this development only when the TV news channels broke the news earlier on in the morning.

Die hard BJP supporters brushed this news item aside thinking that the TV channels were playing April Fools’ Day prank on their gullible viewers. And that soon BJP stalwarts would take the wind out of the sails of these news channels by issuing a presser to clarify the rumours doing the round. But till now no clarification from BJP on the announcement of Rahul Gandhi as PM candidate is forthcoming. This has sent the rumour mills into a tizzy. Is BJP a divided house? Where’s party’s development mascot the Gujarat CM Shri Narendra Modi? These and many more questions India is asking.

The Congress Camp was visibly jubilant. Overzealous party workers were seen as bursting the firecrackers outside Rahul Gandhi’s official residence. The sweets were also distributed at all the Congress party offices across the country. Quite surprisingly, neither Rahul Gandhi nor his senior party leaders have addressed media to give their reaction. When this reporter tried to interview one of the senior Congress leaders reportedly close to Rahul Gandhi, he declined to say anything on the record. Off the record he said on the condition of anonymity that it appeared to him that Mr. Singh had joined Congress and he had made that announcement at madam’s behest. But he also admitted that no such circular he had received from the High Command, and he was merely taking a wild guess.

Those who know Mr. Narendra Modi are sure that this is his brainchild. By announcing Rahul Gandhi as PM candidate, BJP has taken the fight to the enemy camp. Mr. Modi, the Hindu Hriday Samrat, is the indisputable choice in the race for country’s top job.As far as BJP is concerned,  it has indeed shown a greater degree of maturity so far by announcing the Congress man as its PM candidate.

Now the ball is in Congress’ court. If Congress has any shame left, without wasting time it should announce Mr. Narendra Modi aka NaMo as its prime minister candidate. That will even the score. The balance will be restored. And the country will witness the tightly fought General Election in next few months. Mr. Narendra Modi will lead BJP to a historic win and occupy the coveted post of PM. This is what India wants.

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IPL and Sanjay Dutt

Posted by: on: March 28, 2013

The IPL marketing managers have, so far, failed to arouse both interest and enthusiasm amongst the viewers. How they are going to grab the eyeballs is a million dollar question on every one’s mind. If, at all, IPL has dominated the news headlines; it has done so for all the wrong reasons. A couple of days ago there was a news item about the Sri Lankan players not allowed to play the IPL matches in Chennai.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the politicians have started using IPL as a tool to settle their political scores. Cricketers and the cricket managers have been deprived of an opportunity to milk IPL for their personal popularity and gains. Be that as it may, the fact that IPL is likely to prove to be a damp squib this time around has left the organisers a worried lot. Suddenly they have realised that the cricket fatigue is setting and the upcoming edition of IPL is yet to find many takers.

Since the stakes are high and big bucks are riding on the success of this IPL tournament, the strategy makers have gone into a huddle so as to come out with a winning formula that makes this edition of IPL a super success. The major stakeholders in IPL are not the players but beleaguered businessman like Vijay Mallya who is hoping that his team RCB will turn around the fortunes of debt ridden KFA and employees will finally receive their much awaited salaries.

In terms of debts, inflated egos, political rivalries and sinking popularity, there is indeed a lot that is at stake with regards to IPL. This IPL edition is a make or break for many stakeholders including players in more ways than one. Keeping all these factors in mind, the marketing in-charge of IPL has got a few game changing ideas in one of the brain storming sessions.

This self proclaimed reporter filed an RTI to get the minutes of the strategy meet of the IPL marketing team. According to the highly confidential documents available with this reporter, in the said meeting, a unanimous decision has been taken to withdraw all TV commercials featuring Farah Khan whose irritating dance moves have enraged the viewers world wide. There were reports of a few frustrated viewers having smashed their TV sets as soon as the ad had appeared on their TV screens. Somehow the IPL organising committee managed to stop those news items from making it to the headlines of the newspapers and TV news channels. 

However, with less than a week to go before the IPL tournament gets underway, all is not lost. The think tank has been surfing the latest trends in the cyberspace. The startling revelation is Justice Katju. His open letters have got an uncanny knack of ending up as the talk of the nation. These MBA guys have reportedly roped in Mr. Justice Katju to write an open letter to the cricket lovers. In his soon to come out open letter – the draft of which is being carefully reviewed – he is going to cite example of how this IPL edition is different from the previous ones and why watching IPL will improve the overall IQ of the nation and how each countryman will be doing a great service to the nation by watching those games.

This move will really hit the bull’s eye and do wonders for IPL and its popularity. In addition to Katju’s open letter, Sanjay Dutt has been roped in to file a petition in the court requesting that he be granted time till IPL is over to surrender. In the run up to the final date of IPL, a lot many things are expected to make the IPL tournament the top most trending topics across various online social  platforms.

Marketing is an art of making the shit hit the fan. Once the shit hits the fan, there’s no looking back. The IPL marketers are just going to do that. After all, isn’t everything fair in love and war?

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