Things fall apart….

Yes, perhaps this is one of the most amazing parts of  a human life. Things do fall apart and everyone walks miles alone. At such times, you find a shade in books. Sometimes your hobbies quench your thirst. For some it is paintings, for some it is singing, for some it is travelling and for people like me- it is blogging. 

Damn it. Some people ask me– Why not keep a diary. Why blog? Why wash your dirty linen over the web. For some I respond, “It is none of your business.” To some my response is ” Whatever.” For me, with my lips tightened, I talk to myself.  This offers me an opportunity to blast my emotions knowing that even if people important to me don’t read it, it offers me a solace that someone unknown is perhaps reading it and emphatize with me.Even if they don’t who cares. You are reading my blog, shows that you care! So whatever! You read my blog. So better learn to get used to my cribs. 

Ahoy, do I appear rude? Yes, off course. But who cares? This is my blog and I will write what I want. You don’t like it? You leave my blog! Now! Awwww… angry? Why? Because I make a dig at you for reasons unknown to you? May be I am removing someone else’s anger and frustration on you? Now relax, take a deep breathe and think- Is there someone who is taking out their pent frustration of you on someone else? Are you being judgmental? Will you ever know, what I write, what I think and why? No, you will never, until you walk in my shoes. So, stop being judgmental. Stop reading too much into people. Everyone is fighting a battle of their own. You are happy with whatever you have? Good! Stop expecting the same out of people. Perhaps, people have different goals! Stop judging them. You have no beauty and you are happy? Fine! Don’t expect the same out of me. You are caring and I am not? Don’t expect the same out of me. You don’t have money and are still happy? Good for you. Don’t expect the same out of me. Yes, we share the same sky and earth. But that necessarily doesn’t mean we share the same horizons.

So stop judging me. Otherwise don’t cry when things fall apart…..

Sir Alex Ferguson- The sun sets

Sir Alex Ferguson- rings a bell? Do you know him? Off, course, what a daft question is this? Football fans need no introduction. And perhaps the most disconnected person will also recollect his name as one of the celebrity, if not know his exact profile.

So, why a post on him today? He’s retired! Yes, the god of County football or whatever is its name- the manager of one of the most determined and successful clubs- Manchester United bids adieu. He is the one who built this team from scratch. Apparently,in his 26 years of career, the club has bagged the Barclays Premier League title for 38 times. Woah!

So? Am I a football fan? Do I follow the club? No, I don’t think so. Apart from Ronaldino or Rooney I don’t know anybody. I don’t even think, I have spelt the first guy’s name properly. However, I have experience the energy and the exuberance of these names.

I have seen the frenzy during Manchester United matches. How? When my friends – off course guy friends used to watch it. They used to talk it. Uff the dushmani tales they spoke for Chelsea and Manchester United. “Don’t say ManU. It sounds like Fuck U!” said someone. I was appalled. I was like what the hell! What non-sense. How can you be such morons. Why worship some game instead of following. I did not understand.

Then one day my brother did this———

He painted one of the walls in the room! Oh dear lord! What was this? I was so mad at him, I felt like slapping him. And then the truth was revealed.  You can read the truth here: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_United_F.C.

And after this, there was no looking back. I don’t care, If I don’t understand Football. I don’t care if I don’t know the terms of this game. Doesn’t matter, if I know the people playing for this club.

All I know, is that Manchester United rose like Phoenix. Sir Alex Ferguson helped Manchester to become what it is today! Atleast he was instrumental. This is one of the best stories! 

And everything, that makes for one of the most touching- stories, makes a way in my blog

Adios Sir Alex Ferguson. I am sure, your fans, staff colleagues, players  will miss you!

 

 

“What will make you happier than you are now? Why?”

I have been wanting to blog since a long time. However, thanks to some mind-boggling and life-changing (or so called) stuff, I haven’t been. Oh, ya I got engaged by the way. So ya, now you get the point.

Anyway, coming back to the original topic left blogging for some days. Now, I am back to the grind. This time, though I am struggling to write. I have a strategy. When I face, a writers’ block, I usually turn to Penzu or Goodreads for quotes. I look at these quotes and decide to pen down my thoughts on the same.

This time the quote glared at me. It actually offered me to ask, what I have been meaning to ask one and everyone I meet. “What will make you happy?”

Well, as of now I have no answer to this. Or may be I know. For today, the answer is “I will never be as happy as I am as of this moment, this minute.”

Yes. That’s it. I am happy this moment and that is all that matters. Nothing more, nothing less.

I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. I have to forgive my past, so that I can live today. Today is my first and only day.

There there is nothing that will make me happier than I am now. Never. Ever.

 

Kuch khabar nahi….

Tamannao ki..

kwhashio ki

khwaboi ki

kuch khabar nahi….

Haar ki

toh kabhi jeet ki….

Taqdeer ki…

iss jag ke reet ki…

kuch khabar nahi…

Tanha chala, mein ek raah pakad…

mujhe apne hi bhed ki

kuch khabar nahi…..

 

 

 

Building a career in Public Relations

So, you have completed your graduation and landed a job in your dream PR firm? Good. Now is the time to prove yourself. Get, set and go! 

Cut to one year. Cut to two years. Cut to three years. You are now no more considered as a fresher in the PR business. There are youngsters working under you now. You now have the responsibility to manage your own team. In the last three years, perhaps you have worked your ass off! You have garnered “coverage” for your clients- in The Times of India, The Economic Times, CNBC TV 18, etc.  Awesome!

But you feel stuck. You are doing the same old monotonous work everyday. You are creating strategies  plans and reports for your clients. You are writing pitch notes and calling the same set of journalists, perhaps being bashed by them anonymously on social networking sites. 

Well! This happens to most of us. Most of us often land these jobs, being the brightest students of our respective academies. Well to be honest, most of us are stars in our own little sense. However, why do we have often end up in the situation mentioned above? Because we get stuck in our daily ‘jobs.’ We forget, that we are here to build careers and not do our ‘jobs.’

So here’s what it takes to build a great ‘career’ in the business of communication:

1. Do your homework: Yes, no wonder, whatever you do, no use if your basics are not right in the place. Know your media, know your client, know your profession, know your business, assess and build on your own strengths and weaknesses. Set your goals and objectives. Make yourself a short-term and long- term plan and then walk towards achieving it.
2. Technology to enable you!: If you want to achieve success, then you must be ready to do whatever it takes to. Thanks to advent of social media and new technologies, we can easily connect with people and situations. You might not realize, but there is real power in having smart-phones and accessing the world through apps. Not that I am propagating materialism, but I just realized small changes these things bring to our life, when a friend recently casually remarked that smart-phone has changed his reading and content consumption habits drastically impacting his knowledge and skills.
3. Networking: One of the most ignored things by people is the power of networking! It is good to keep doing your work and get appreciation by clients, colleagues and bosses! However, a career is not carved out steady growth but by break-out opportunities. Therefore it is crucial that professionals go out and attend seminars, business conferences, community cocktail parties etc. Networking is not necessarily about getting new business leads or jobs! Sometimes, it is all about meeting the right people, at the right time and learning from their experiences and ideas.

Just a few simple steps can send your career up flying in the sky..

Do drop me a line, if there are any other tips that you think, helped you to build a great career in the field of ‘Public Relations.’  :)

Is there any reason for startups to hire PR firms to help with their launch? Or is this needless cash burn?

Answer by Deepika Gumaste:

The answer to this question depends on three questions:

1. What are you trying to achieve/What are your objectives?
2. What are your budgets?
3. What kind of resources you have access to?

Out of this the most important questions are- resources and budgets. For many companies, specifically start-ups, a whole lot of decisions depend on budgets and resources. Do you have the kind of people with specific skill sets and expertise to do PR activities for your start-up? If no, then it is recommended to outsource your activities to experts and knowledgeable people who are equipped to manage your company’s communications.

Also if your activities are on a small-scale, you might be able to manage with a small team of in-house consultants. However, if you are looking to scale-up a PR firm always helps.

Also, most of the times, it is possible that if you have in-house people, they might be obsessed with internal details and might not be able to judge situations and have insights. The in-house team might be more obsessed with the product/company/service rather than being focused on what the customer wants.

Therefore, a third-party perspective always help.

Hope this helps.

My $ 0.02

Cheers
D

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What are the PR trends for 2013?

Answer by Deepika Gumaste:

PR trends? The way, the entire PR business functions will change. From my view, we should  not call it trends for PR. Let's call it trends for 'communications.' Increasingly in 2013, you will see the rise of PR as a integrated communication discipline. People will begin to view it more of as a larger pie in the 360 degree pie. Here are some changes that we might get to see:

1. SEO & PR : Apart from that, we will also see more focus on technology. For example, SEO and the PR team will now work together to create the right online strategy. More technological tools like vine will see a widespread use among consultants to reach out to audiences.
2. Digital PR: As more and more people turn to tablets, phablets and smart-devices, etc, you will see PR agencies shifting focus from just traditional media to online media as well.
3. Media Relations: Media pitching through e-mail will become obsolete. The new-age PR consultant will now make pitches through apps like vine, social platforms like Twitter, blogs, Facebook, G-talk, etc
4. PR Tools: We will see more and more PR consultants moving away from the plain boring press releases to social teasers, infographics, social media releases, enabling journalists to share consumption-ready data, changing the usual irksome relationship between PR firms and the media.

These are some of my initial thoughts. I will tabulate the list as and when more things come to my mind.

My $0.02

Cheers
D

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