Explorer of Experiences

For most of my life, my familiarity with Shammi Kapoor was mainly through his film music. My dad is a Shammi fan; as a child, I remember he used to have a radio cassette player by his bedside at night, with the song ‘ Akele Akele ’ echoing from my parents’ room into ours, putting us to sleep like a faint lullaby.  My interest in Shammi Kapoor as an actor was fairly recent. In 2019, when the South Asian community was in uproar over the revocation of Article 370 granting special status to Kashmir, I felt compelled to disengage. Very instinctively, I decided to watch Kashmir ki Kali simply to see Kashmir in the 60s, because just watching Shammi Kapoor crooning ' Yeh Chand Sa Roshan Chehra ' from his shikara on Dal Lake seemed so familiar and comforting at that moment.  I then embarked on a Shammi Kapoor movie marathon and observed his undeniable genius as an actor and a comic - just look at the disguises he donned in his movies - he played the older uptight Professor , he gracefu...

The world’s changed, you've stayed the same  Amongst fancy pens, your look's mundane  Your ink, your hue, you’re still as blue  Yet you happily exist without a clue  Surrounded by pens, still there are few  My very first blue pen, yes it was you  It’s vivid, my excitement of turning ten  When school let us write with a pen  But with you, there’s a bitter reality In using you, we’re heartless, arbitrary  We use and throw, lose or forget you  For we know, there’ll always be another you   In creating you, there’s plastic and ink  Let’s not be wasteful, we must rethink  Please finish the pen that you’re using  Change wasteful habits, stick with one thing   Write and write, until the ink runs out  Borrow a pen, but remember to return it  And if you see a pen, lying half-used  Pen your thoughts when you’re confused   Don’t bin the pen, until it’s over  Be judicious as its owner...

As a marketer currently visiting my birthplace, Nigeria, how can I not share my commentary about Indomie ! For the uninitiated, Indomie for many Nigerians is more than just a product . Over four decades, this Indonesian brand of instant noodles has swirled its way into being a staple on the dining tables of the people of this West African country, both locals and expats alike. Here, you don’t eat noodles, you eat Indomie. As little kids in school in the early 90s, I envied that one classmate who used to enjoy those yummy soggy chicken flavoured Indomie noodles for lunch while I ate the healthy tiffin my mum packed for me (delicious as it was). As teenagers, our evening congregation was incomplete without a packet of Indomie that we crushed, seasoned, and ate off the packet (what a snack!). And as high school students studying our nights away during exam season, our hungry stomachs and tiring minds only craved that warm bowl of Indomie.   For years, Indomie had no competitio...

In this poem, I capture my experience getting the COVID-19 vaccine in Dubai...  At 8am I was standing in a queue There to take the vaccine, hey have you? “Don’t be scared & get it!”, they say “Not worth waiting to get the flu!” So with everyone I stood at that hour Nationality, color, age and job no bar Grocery workers, delivery drivers, Restaurant servers, business owners Men in suits, women in boots... Guards whispering, as if in cahoots! Patiently waiting, no throwing a fit, Some even making a picnic of it. Then we see nurses in blue arrive In tow are the vaccines, we feel alive 300 to administer in today’s drive. How’ll it be when I get the needle? In the left arm...for it may go feeble Any side effects if my body reacts? Stop overthinking, focus on facts An official said when he saw my ID: “Step aside”. Did I look shady? I joined three men who hadn’t a clue! “Why’re we here out of the blue?” Let’s not ask, I agreed with the guys As they took us past glancing eyes So turns ...

The bustling Lagos Market For too long, we’ve embraced the standards set by the West as that of excellence, and strive to achieve them. We may be forgetting that professionals in the West operate on the bedrock of mature economies with the benefit of structure and resources. For those of us operating in emerging markets where time is money and creativity the need of the hour, perhaps we will go further if we replace our ‘appetite for the acclaimed’ with ‘curiosity for the unknown’. Our creative process must become more inclusive if we are to create work that sets us apart rather than one that elicits a 'seen before' response. And so, I recommend shifting our gaze away from the same sources of inspiration in the West towards unlikely sources in West Africa to stir us up.  Countries like Ghana and Nigeria have served as incubators for creatives that thrive with meager resources. From there, underdogs have emerged and broken onto the world stage  despite a severe lack of systemi...

Take a look at this Instagram post. A smiling Priyanka Chopra is photographed in her home kitchen preparing a drink with a can of Bon & Viv Spiked Seltzer . It's made very clear it's a paid partnership thanks to the social media platform allowing influencers to disclose they're publishing sponsored content. With the actress's ginormous 54.2 million following, this particular post received 921k likes and 3.9k comments. That's a 1.69% engagement rate based on this commonly used formula >>  Engagement Rate = (Likes + Comments) / Followers x 100. Now, that's not surprising for a celebrity with a huge following. There are many articles indicating that people with a mega following greater than a million can see engagement rates between 0.7% - 1.7%.  But scroll through the comments (as far as your patience lets you browse through the thousands of comments), and you will notice that most of the comments (if not all) are random, with fans expressing the...

Are you regretting everything you took for granted? All the hurtful things you said but never lamented... And the those things you wanted but didn't need, and hoarded Clothes, shoes and makeup, now left unattended Are you regretting all the dreams you never pursued No time for passion projects, as work ensued And all the things you thought had your soul deeply bruised Doesn't matter no more, everyone mentally doused Are you regretting not visiting the places on your bucket list With physical distancing, this sees like an endless tryst Isolating, flattening the curve, sanitisation - you get the gist Reminiscing, your mind wanders to people you miss Are you regretting that time spent living in the past Such wonderful moments, you know they never last Learn to cherish even this difficult today, time's flying by fast A Norweigian proverb goes 'Either it'll go well or it will pass'

Living in excess was one of the markers of our lifestyles pre-COVID. But when I meet you on the other side of this pandemic, which of these excesses are you going to ditch?  Excessive pollution Excessive disruption Excessive procrastination Excessive depression Excessive capitalism Excessive work Excessive consumerism Excessive hurt Excessive buying Excessive drinking Excessive usage Excessive wastage Excessive whining Excessive blame Excessive sighing Excessive shame Excessive seriousness Excessive nonchalance Excessive carelessness Excessive imbalance Excessive ignorance Excessive passiveness Excessive arrogance Excessive recklessness Excessive self-doubt Excessive cynicism  Excessive fall-outs Excessive optimism Excessive indulgence Excessive air miles Excessive absence Excessive stockpiles Excessive apathy Excessive fallacy Excessive selfishness Excessive hopelessness

Between April 1 and May 20, I co-organized 11 webinars for Michael Page Middle East and Africa, as part of our engagement strategy with our key stakeholders during COVID-19. That's a handsome number considering the time-frame. I put together our first webinar within a two week period, and thereafter, I was churning out 1-2 webinars on an average per week. But until mid March, I was a complete webinar novice, not privy to the power of the medium and also clueless about the logistics involved in hosting one. But it was evident very early on that with companies switching to remote work, webinars were going to be a powerful marketing vehicle. So, I began my research and very quickly learnt the basics of curating webinars, including reaching out to my network for help. Hosting my first webinar was quite nerve-wracking: Can the audience here the speaker? Can they see the presenter's screen? Why are speakers facing dial-in issues? And so on. But there's no better teacher tha...

Not just brands, but employees too should be mindful of how they communicate in times of a global crisis Posting mindfully in times of a global crisis The onus is on each of us, not just personally, but professionally too, to exercise sensitivity while posting on social media in a time when businesses and individuals globally are experiencing the wrath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not just brands, but employees’ own social media platforms are having increasing impact and reach. Now more than ever, consumers are closely watching how brands are communicating to their consumers, clients and vendors across various platforms. Thus, as employees and advocates of the brands we work for, the microscope is on us as well. After all, it does not take time for an inappropriate personal post to go, for the lack of a better word, viral.   How we engage with the community online and offline during this unprecedented situation will be extremely critical. Our social media behavior now...