Ideas and beliefs are abstract terms. In fact, the triumph of humans in the race of the intellectual has been attributed to our understanding of the abstract. No other animal in this world builds a society because it understands society as a concept. They merely do so to enhance their food and livelihood security. But for humans, some reasons arise out of understanding the abstract. If our knowledge is to be stripped down to bones, we might find that we are slaves to our abstraction. We revere value in paper notes, honour in metal medals and fear in stone statues. Ideas are what have made this imaginative creature the ruler of the planet. Our success as a species rests on the coherence and usefulness of the ideas we bear. So, the concepts passed upon to us or occur to us in episodes of creative hallucination can change the face of this earth. So, it is the most remarkable creation of humans and, thus, the origin of property. This blog aims to capture some of such thoughts. Believe, or ...
On a leading podcast, Palki Sharma (ex-WION, now FirstPost), a leading face of the new age digital indian media, claimed that over 80% of other viewers of indian infostories and news were men. Her next question was more pressing, and rightly so, coming from a lady who loved journalism so much, "Please help me understand what the women of India are watching?" This question is neither new nor unsolved. The television media at the dawn of the millennium had a similar question for itself. As TVs had penetrated homes, broadcasters had realised that a massive half of the population was simply missing out form the audience. The answer to it came from Ekta Kapoor, who revolutionised the soap opera scene in India. When the "serials", as they were referred to, took over, it brought the broadcasters a new mass of viewers, neatly segmented as the daytime audience and evening shows. This move not only altered the course of media, but also advertising and consumer behaviour. For ...