The Festive Mood

The festive mood is on, right from the beginning of this month. Starting off with the Navaratri festival, this festive season has reached the final stage. Only a few days to go for Diwali - probably the biggest Hindu festival which is celebrated all over India.

People living in cities like Chennai, lead a materialistic life. They have developed a habit of doing things in the same way they live - be it carrying out an ordinary task or celebrating festivals. They do it, just because they are supposed to do it.

Festivals symbolize our tradition and culture. Though the festivals are celebrated these days, they are not given the spiritual importance they deserve. They are just treated as holidays. Most of the people living in cities either don't celebrate at all due to lack of time or do it for the name sake. This doesn't happen in small towns. They celebrate the festivals with full commitment. The kids will be involved in the celebration and they’ll get to know about the importance of the festival.

Diwali - the festival of lights is considered as a festival which symbolizes the triumph of good over evil. The lighting of the lamps represents a way of paying obeisance to God for attainment of health, wealth, knowledge, peace and valoured fame. Besides celebrating it with its own rituals and myths, Diwali is considered as a festival which gives – Holidays, New dresses, Delicious Sweets and a lot of special TV Programmes. People are glued to their TV sets watching the special programmes. Children don’t even come out to burst crackers. I’ve seen this happening in cities. It is certainly not the kid’s mistake.

Diwali is projected as a shopping festival. Shopping gets the prime importance among people. People show a great interest to buy new dresses, sweets and crackers which is quite understandable. But, all possible consumer products are put up on discount sale. Even very common things like plastic mugs, buckets are put up in Diwali Sale! I could hardly find any connection between Diwali and plastic mugs. Nothing could escape the Diwali sale – safety pins, pencil, rubber, mugs, slippers, chairs, furniture sets, mobile phones, computers, television sets, AC, fridge, washing machine, mixie, grinder, computers, bikes and even cars.

Festivals are to bring people together and to make them forget all their worries. On the other hand, people should realize the importance of festivals and celebrate them with full involvement and enthusiasm. Importantly, the kids growing up in cities should be taught about the significance of our festivals and give them a healthy knowledge regarding what our culture is all about.

Wishes for a happy, colorful and safe Diwali…!

Gowri Shankar
“Proud to be an Indian”

Swadeshi

The forwarded e-mails drive me crazy! Most of them cool stuffs, a few serious ones
and a very few good ones that makes me think. I got one such forward from one of
my pals some time back. It was about the indian economy, which is dipping due to
the dominance of foreign products in our domestic market. Preventing foreign
products from entering our domestic market is not within the limits of possibility
any more. Our economy is in our hands. If we try to change ourselves, we can
certainly change the fortunes of the indian companies atleast to some extent.
Here is the list of alternatives that can be used....

Bathing Soap
Use - Cinthol and other Godrej brands, Santoor, Wipro, Shikakai, Mysore Sandal,
Margo, Neem, Evita, Medimix, Ganga, Nirma bath, Chandrika.

Instead of - Hamam, Park Avenue, Le Sancy, Lux, Lifeboy, Rexona, Liril,
Dove, Pears, Palmolive, Camay

Toothpaste
Use - Neem, Babool, Meswak, Promise, Vicco Vajradanti, Prudent, Gopal, Dabur Products

Instead of - Colgate, Close up, Pepsodent, Cibaca, Forhans, Mentadent, LG Cliden

Toothbrush
Use - Ajay, Promise, Ajantha, Classic and Prudent

Instead of - Colgate, Close up, Pepsodent, Forhans, Aquafresh, Oral-B

Shaving Cream
Use - Godrej, Emami and Vicco

Instead of - Gillette, Nivea, Palmolive, Park Avenue, Old Spice

Razor
Use - SuperMax, Topaz, Lazer, Ashoka

Instead of - Wilkinson, Gillette, 7'o Clock

Talcum Powder
Use - Santoor, Gokul, Cinthol, Wipro baby powder, Boroplus

Instead of - Axe, Ponds, Old Spice, Denim, Johnson baby powder, Yardley, Shower to Shower

Shampoo
Use - Velvet, Lakme, Nirma, Dabur Vatika

Instead of - Clinic Plus, Head and Shoulders, Sunsilk, Halo, Ultra Doux

Milk Powder
Use - Indiana, Amulya, Amul

Instead of - Everyday, Milkana, Anikspray, Milkmaid

I tend to be impulsive at times and as a result, I've decided to put this in practice.
Actually, I'm waiting for my Cliden toothpaste to get over! Usually, my impulsion
fades away as the time goes on... For instance, my new year resolution was to
give-up biting nails, but I got reminded of it only when I started writing this article.
But, seriously I don't want it to happen in this case.

The reason for the mega success of the foreign products is the marketing
strategy they adopt. Regardless of the quality, they present their products to the market with some lucrative brand names and logos and they come up with impressive
advertisements over all. On contrary, our Indian brands bear some archaic names and follow ancient style of advertising.

Just think of the Vicco turmeric advertisement.... It is an element of comedy, which is unchanged for several years and probably the only advertisement which was screened a maximum number of times. Amongst them,the Vicco beauty cream advertisement is the height of inanity. Hope u people remember..... Three girls going to a superette, each taking one beauty cream and applying it all over their horrible faces, with a dream sequence follwing each one of them. This kind of stupid advertisements will never encourage the buyers, but irritates them. To compete with the giants, the Indian companies besides maintaining the quality, must attract the customers by making some drastic changes in their marketing strategies.

BE INDIAN, BUY INDIAN

Gowri Shankar
"Proud to be an Indian"