Faces of Credibility

As my Churchgate local crossed Mahim on a lazy Monday morning, proudly sitting on the window seat I saw a DTH operators hoarding. Being an Advertising disciple, I invariably encounter with all sorts of advertising mediums. Be it a “thiry seconder” on the small screen or a shabbily painted creative on the wall, my eye balls turn towards them like a youth’s in college - not missing to check out any single babe in the campus. Well, that is scientific and this is also scientific. Its possibly the “chemical locha” inside my brain. And trust me, there are many like me!!

Well getting back to the point, the hoarding showed a prominent face of Indian Film Industry (popularly known as Bollywood). The guy was talking about the greatness of this product. He was made to look like a aam hindustaani. And successfully, he was looking like a common man. Totally convincing me to nod in agreement with the creative. As if I am saying to myself, “Oh! Ya. I trust in what he is saying.” And I would mostly agree with him because of the image that he has built on cinema. This guy has never played larger than life roles. His voice is trustworthy. This celebrity carried a lot of credibility with him.

Credibility! Yeah that’s the word. Credibility!

Rightly, wrongly or may be unknowingly, we all are slaves of the past. Remember invariably our elders quoting “humare zamane mein”. Lets go to their zamana. Those were the days of strong political phenomenon. Every house had giant, garland decorated wall paintings of political leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi (keeping controversies aside) . They worshiped them. Why? Because they were credible. If Nehruji had said something, the entire nation blindly agreed to it. So, the Aawam ki aawaz was Nehruji ki aawaz and vice versa. And that worked as mantra for fledgling India, just released from the clutches of Englishmen. These leaders guided the masses with their credibility. Again,

Credibility! Yeah that’s the word. Credibility!

Having said that, what is the take? Marketing to Politics, people are searching for credibility. Faces of credibility. Voices of Credibility.

This is interesting.
All of us think. All of us believe. All of us have opinion on the issues around. Infact rather than opinion we have conviction over them. Don’t we so many times say to ourselves “I know I am Dead Right! Par yaar..these people wont understand”

But how many times we speak out? not even 1% of the times. Why?? The reason is simple. We are apprehensive of the result. We are scared of the consequences. We are fearful of the disgust that might follow. “log kya kahenge”. Moreover we don’t want to fall into this “chakkar”. So we don’t speak out and look for someone to join us. To join us over the same conviction and strengthen our voice. Sometimes we look for people who can put forth our opinion. Else we don’t speak up. We accept silence as the virtue. Like peasants who never spoke against harsh zamindaars. We don’t realize the power of our voice and our face. We look for voices of credibility. We look for faces of credibility.

And there sums up the logic of Credibility. Someone takes the challenge and speaks up. He wins the initial battle and gains recognition. If he is genuine, his acts speak. (speaking up isn’t the actual voice from throat. Its connotations are different in different circumstances). So, even the acts speak. Like APJ Abdul Kalam and Swami Vivekanand. Like Kiran Bedi and Naina lal Kidwai. Like Sachin Tendulkar and Amitabh Bachchan. And when they say We agree. Their credibility infuses credibility in the issue, event and even brand.

But there are some who reign over false credibility. Some fanatics throne them with credibility. They dictate their terms and mislead goal-less youth. You know to whom I am referring to. There name shouldn’t be put here, else they might devastate some poor chaps cybercafe. They might burn some BEST bus in the city. They might beat some lovely couple at Nariman Point. So, these desi terrorists should not be named. And there are many other false faces of credibility, which I would give a miss here, as I simply hate them and I don’t want to give them any importance. Thus, Ignoring them…

Summing up, there is nothing wrong in raising faces of credibility and worshiping them, But following things should be taken care of;

1. The word credibility should not be used loosely.
2. Only right kind of people should be crowned with Face of Credibility.
3. Most important, there is no face of credibility like our own face.

Got the point??

The Great Indian....

I am an Indian. The feeling of Indianness isnt synthetic in me. Infact in all of us! Can we escape from being an Indian? Can we throw the India out of us? I think we cant. On the road, in the mall, standing next to that roadside pav-bhaji wala, sitting at Starbucks,,, we carry the Hindustaan inside. There is constantly a Mahatma Gandhi walking with us. There is constantly a Sachin Tendulkar in our every act. Our every dance move has Mithunda embedded in it. We form a typical breed of human... rustic, dreamer, winner, demonstrative, careless, warmhearted...a positive and a negative at the same time. We are humble and haughty at the same time. I am no different. I adore roadside cutting chai and aspire Armani suit at the same time. We believe India is great and rest all are mediocre. Complacently we have developed this cliche "Mera Bharat Mahan".. We are not Mahan...we are not the Greatest. Yes, we are good. We are progressing. But Greatness is yet too far. We at times get so engrossed with ourselves that we tend to ignore the greatness of others like Japan and South Korea... I don't say they are 100% perfect.... but better on the grounds of self-governance, self-reliance. Even today each Indian has a dream of going abroad, dream of Americanisation. and these thoughts are not of one typical Indian. Its not me, Its not you...It is the The Great Indian.

60 years back India "clinched" Independence and our generation has visited this great feat on the pages of History books. We can always listen, read to the great martyrdom but never feel it. Couple of good movies can take us to that world but never let us live that moment. We have heard of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Netaji, Nehruji... but we dont know them. We dont need to know them. We need to know ourselves. We need to inculcate their teachings and experiences in our lives. I wonder, how could Sardar Patel unite India... merge princely states into one nation??? Simply because people believed in what he said. They trusted his words, they trusted him. Precisely they respected him. We dont respect people anymore. Abusing fellow MLA (Ex-CM) by current CM in Andhra inside the House, is one minute exhibition of disgusting politics today. We crib there aren't leaders anymore. Leaders are dead because Followers died long back. Now we dont lead and dont even like to follow. But have we ever asked ourselves about the dead leader inside us? Can we lead by not spitting on the platform today? We enjoy independence today.

We have all the right to do so! and then, we very slowly extend right to misuse and misuse to commercialisation. 15th Aug and 26th Jan are two extra holidays for country today. Another opportunity for PSU's to build their Brand. Another opportunity for news channels to run contests on cell phone. Another opportunity for music companies to launch new albums. Gigantic hoardings of real estate corps to justify their contribution in developing India. These days we get to listen almost all forgotten patriotic songs on radio. On TV its tight scheduled...somewhere Mahatma Gandhi is being sold, somewhere Rang de Basanti is selling, somewhere Munnabhai is selling. Sweet shops have already sold out their Motichor ke ladoos to schools. Everybody is minting money on Independence day. We are celebrating a New Independence Day.

Fair enough! Tomorrow we will be the same again. We will spit, urinate on the same walls again. We will engrave "Raj loves Tina" on Historical Monuments. We will be we. But how long???Independence is momentary. The freedom fighters did not guarantee us its perpetuity. We can loose it again. Yes we can if we continue with this reckless, "chalta hai" attitude. Its time to gear up. Spiderman said "great power comes with great responsibility"... so does Independence. We need to be more responsible. We need to lead from the front. We need to awaken the Leader inside us. We need to raise our voice and speak sense.

We need to become the true Indian. Don't we?