Mumbai = Civilized? I beg your pardon!

You always know that a country cannot have 100% civilized people. But you do expect it from people who are intelligent and educated. When I initially moved to Mumbai, I was in a notion that being a metro and a hub for working people, the crowd consists of majority of educated people, hence would be civilized. And I did experience it in the coming few months. I used to think that Mumbai lot is way better than Indore. But the bubble broke a few months ago, and in a series of unpleasant incidents.

Not one but quite a few incidents took place, which made me change my perception about this city. Being a vast city, the mode of transport taken by majority of people is the public transport like buses and local trains. Now there is a system in the buses that the first few rows of buses are reserved for women travelers. If there are women passengers on the bus, they have the right to sit on those seats, and also have the right to make the men get up from their seat if they are seated there during the journey and get seated themselves.

So, I got accustomed to this norm when I travelled a few times in the bus. Now here is where for the first time the bubble broke. There was this guy, in his 30’s something, and he was a working executive, as he had a strap around him mentioning that he worked for some IT company. He was seated in the “women” seat, and I was seated right behind him. The bus was not crowded, but every seat was occupied. At a stop, few passengers boarded the bus, out of which 2 were females. One of them being around 50’s something. She went up to the guy and asked him to get up so that she could be seated. To my disbelief, he not remained seated, but told the lady that if she kept standing for 5 minutes, her legs won’t get tired. The old lady was shocked as this was a right given by the government to her. It was only after the conductor came into the conversation and told the guy to get up, did he get up, but not silently. He kept murmuring something in Marathi, which m sure was not good at all.

I was amused, as this norm was practiced everywhere, and people followed. I was amazed to see such a reaction for the first time.

The second one came really fast. I went to see a movie, and this multiplex chain had the tradition of having the national anthem being played at the start of the movie. I was surprised to see that people not respecting their own national anthem. People during the anthem being played were playing with their cell phones, eating popcorn, adjusting their seats. In short doing all everything but paying attention to the anthem. And there were not just one or two, but close to 8-10 people in the audience doing that. Can’t we give due attention to our own anthem, which hardly takes up 2 minutes of one’s time. And they included few senior citizens and women.

I will just illustrate one more. If you are travelling distance too great, then train is the best medium to travel. So when you reach the station, you will find many beggars on and around the stairs. Here I saw one educated lady, who seemed to be decent and civilized on the outside, did such a horrible thing that made me despise her. While the beggar was doing his ‘job’, this lady actually kicked the beggar. Just because his hand at mistakenly touched the lady’s leg. She kicked him so hard that he was shocked and in pain. And then she screamed at him, and said something in Marathi, which I dint understand, but got a feeling that it was abusive.

Why m writing this as a post, just to make people aware that though Mumbai maybe called the city that fulfills your dreams, and people believe that educated lot is the highest here, the mannerisms and civilized nature is not at its best. And these incidents came out from the people who are thought and behave to be civilized.

To be known as the India’s favorite city, I’m upset that there may be so many of such incidents happening every day, and this makes me lose the faith I had in this city.

And why just this city, I think civilization is going down with every city that is turning up to be a metro!

Living on the edge in Mumbai

There is a reason why this city is called the ‘city of dreams’. Every day people, who are termed as strugglers, enter this city with aspiring dreams of making it big in the film and modeling industry. But soon the bubble breaks, and people realize how difficult it is to fulfill dreams, in what is also known as the financial capital of India. Mumbaikar, as they are fondly known, have to deal with astronomical high property prices, traffic and ever jam packed roads, lack of clean air, and even open space. Peace and calmness are something that people here have to fight for.
Among the other cities that people find to have an affinity for, Mumbai comes the least when it comes to peaceful living.

Whenever people are asked which city they would prefer living, they would promptly say Mumbai. But having lived here for some time now, I’m eager to change my location. I would love to try cities like Ahmadabad or Pune.

Living in Mumbai has its own advantages and disadvantages. Like, if you are looking for physical and civic infrastructure or leisure activities, Mumbai wins hands down. But when it comes to scoring it on Environment and Peace of mind, Mumbai lags way behind.

And it’s not just peace of mind, but many other parameters like cost of living, cleanliness (which is at its worst in rains) civic sense (traffic sense) and also domestic help problems. And this problem prevails not only in Mumbai, but also the capital of the nation, whereas other metros like Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad etc can be rated higher.

Quality of life in Mumbai has declined over the past few years. There may be many reasons which help this statement like sky-high prices of real estate and also finding a place to stay in this ever growing city or it can just be the hardships of commuting long distances and the cost associated with it. The only saving grace that makes Mumbai livable is the sea.

If you ask any layman who lives in Mumbai, he would answer that the cost of living is the major cause of extreme tension levels. Nothing less than 40%- 50% of the incomes goes in the housing, which has a great impact on the overall family budget. If one had to compare cost of living in Mumbai with other cities across the nation, Mumbai would fare rather badly. Not only this, this criteria make the relaxed lifestyle also a problem while living in Mumbai.

One can joke if somebody mentions ‘quality of life’ and Mumbai in the same sentence! Mumbai is a great place to work, but it is one of worst places to live. If you have anything except work in this city, you are mostly likely to be robbed by this enormous city.

But it’s not just the realty factor that is the main reason for the high anxiety levels in the city.

It is also the terror factor. Many people not only suffer from terrorism, but are in constant stress as to when one will strike. After Delhi, this has become the latest hub for all the terrorists’ activities.

The city has lost its luster. One could boast about the clean streets and affable citizens in the past, but not today! An average citizen today is stressed, all thanks to the never ending hours he spends commuting and also the lack of discipline on roads and trains.

Mumbai lacks in civic responsibility. People who only wish to work and get career opportunities can love this city. The only saving grace this city gives is the career growth and opportunities which no other city can provide like. If you are a workaholic, then this city will suit you like no other.

Also the other factor that makes Mumbai, the city that never sleeps is the leisure activities. One can find innumerous joints where one can enjoy nightlife, only if you have the time!

Facebook v/s Twitter: The battle of the best.

When you look out for social media platforms, these two giants are the words ones that strike anybody’s mind. These have made themselves the other names of being social virtually. Of course you have other social media platforms as well like Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Digg which are among the popular ones amongst the hundred others. And yes there is LinkedIn, but it is so much business and professional oriented, that I would not like to actually tag it as ‘social’.

But nothing compares and beats the Facebook and Twitter. You can call them arch rivals if you want. But the popularity of these two platforms has been so much that you have hundreds of people making an account on either every second. And there are many people who have their preferences set. While many will always root for Facebook, Twitter does not lag behind in being popular.

Let us see some what makes these two social media platform so massively accepted.

Facebook is totally user friendly and oriented. You can chat like you do on messengers, you can post videos like on YouTube, and you can post photos like you do on Picasa. Other than multitasking with all the above, you can also share your views, play games, create social profiles( Branchout and Glassdoor) make as many as 5000 friends, create pages for brands( this is professional usage, and I being a Social media person is thankful for this! J..) and I can list endlessly. You may think that I have already announced the winner out of the two by listing so many qualities of Facebook. But you cannot have a clear winner, unless you discuss the other.

Twitter, which came into existence way later than Facebook, its popularity has come quite close to that of Facebook within less time. Celebrities prefer to have a Twitter handle rather than having a Facebook profile or page. Twitter allows you to posts pictures, links to videos. You can interact with other people, only if they ‘follow’ you (sounds rather mysterious) and is not the same as chatting. The ‘tweets’ as they are called are short span of life, but somehow many people are getting addicted to this. Even brands nowadays, even after having a Facebook page, want to have a twitter handle.

So in this battle of the best, you cannot actually choose a winner. When people are having the best of both worlds, with both platforms having a unique things to offer, why settle for anything less. As talking in terms of brands, they would prefer maximum usage of social media. And a balance and combination of both assures them highest popularity. Why do I say that? Because virtual marketing is the next step in advertising!

Brownie points for working in Social Media Company

When Facebook was launched in 2004, nobody thought that it would be a craze in itself. Being social had a different meaning altogether. Social meant ‘hanging out’ with people. In real. Facebook changed the whole meaning to that word. Now Facebook meant the new social, where hanging out meant virtually.

Soon twitter and many other social networking sites followed up, thus giving a new career opportunity and direction to the field of media. And people like me who had taken up marketing in MBA, with a view point of doing something creative, are in luck.

When I started working at Ethinos, A Digital Marketing Agency, it was a shift for me. I do not belong to the digital field. Though I was a marketer, but that was Print. From media to digital, people do not see much of a difference, they think it’s more or less the same, BUT it’s not!

When I took up job in Ethinos to be a digital marketer and a social person, it was a big switch for me. And may I say, it was indeed a BIG switch. This is when I saw Ethinos job vacancy and applied thinking; this is something a little same as what I used to do. But behold, this was something totally different and out of the box of person who had myths about people working as a social and digital marketer in Social Media Agency.

There has to be a new and creative you every day. You have to have new ideas, new thoughts and spunk of working as one. Myths surrounded me like most of the people out there that this is more kind of being online the whole day and get paid to be. I thought what could be cooler than this! And that’s when the dream broke. But happily this is as challenging as any other field of media could be, in fact to all of you out there, who think digital and social people do nothing but sit online most of the time and make east money. You are wrong, we work as hard as much as anybody.

You have think out of the box, have the zeal to be creative and more over be responsible for what you have given to the social media.

I and most of us think that Digital Marketing Company is the new trend for searching for jobs. You are online the whole day (what could be better than that huh!) You have the privilege of working in an office, unlike other marketing people. We are marketing people, but with smarter ways. As is it people are trending and dependent so much on social networking sites nowadays, it won’t be wrong to say that it is the way how marketing is going to shape in the near future.

So I’m happy to move to a field that only took me to what is suppose to be the new future trend of this world. A Digital Marketing agency scores all the brownie points!! There are innumerous job vacancies now, that asks for only social media personnel.

So here’s hoping that all the people out there who think that Social and Digital world is everybody cup of tea. Think twice. Do you have that creative side to be one?

THE JOURNEY FROM MBA TO PRINT TO THE WORLD TO DIGITAL MARKETING

 Its been a while since I wrote my last blog. Since its a lazy Saturday, I thought why not give my blog something new. So here its is. The journey of my changing fields.

I started my journey of MBA from the first day thinking I would join print media. I had taken up marketing for the sole reason to fulfill this desire. And as luck would be, I did get placed in starting of my fourth semester. But the happiness grew bounds and leaps when I got placed in the best print media company, The Times Of India.

I started my career thinking, this is going to last at least couple of years, but I think God had other plans. Barely 6 months into my job and I got married and had to move to Mumbai. It was totally a new city, new people, new atmosphere, in short everything just changed. It took me nothing less than 4 months to get used to the city and its lifestyle. Though I had started applying for jobs, as destiny would have it, I became a part of the Ethinos family.

I had come out from formal clothes to a laid back environment. Things had change drastically for me. The work of a digital marketer is very different from a marketer. I used to think that you only sit online and get paid to be on all the social networking sites, but I was taken for a toss. You are not only sitting online, but you are representing a number of people. You have to be up to date with the information, have a thorough knowledge of what you are posting, and mostly you are responsible. When this comes you automatically tend to straighten your back and work through it. You have to be creative, interactive and know how to respond to the people. Phew!

I was taken by surprise by the amount of effort and spunk you require to be in this field. I had my myths and I was more than happy to clear them out myself. Though my office is one of the coolest places to be, that doesn’t mean that we don’t work. You are the most productive when you have no pressures and stress to bear, and my job, not only gives me space, but also gives me freedom to be myself and be creative.

Though it has been just 02 months of me joining here, and I’m still learning but the best part of being in a job like this is that you enjoy your work. So looking ahead for a great social and digital 2012!! J