Why Soooooooooo Viral?

Share it on Facebook, Tweet on Twitter, Digg it, Stumble on Stumbleupon, do whatever you like but make sure you pass it on. If at all there is any rich media content that makes you do this repeatedly, then it has successfully managed to become viral. Most of the times, its the videos that make the cut and before you know it, everyone on your friend list is sharing it, all your secret crushes are going bonkers over the guy in the video, your lecturer has caught you in the class watching it and even your granny is watching it on the new smartphone you gifted her. 

Offlate, there have been numerous such videos. I found this video recently and thought I'll share it with all of you. The main intention of a viral video like this is to make you speculate the fact whether it is true or not. In the most of the cases, the video keeps going out of focus or the camera keeps shaking at all the right moments and the message or brand is secretly hidden in it. These campaigns totally rely on the number of hits to measure the success and their main intention is not to induce buying, but to create awareness of the brand and spread the word around. While your conscious brain is concentrating on the content of the video, your subconscious is concentrating on the brand or product being used. Don't believe me? Think about it. Which brand comes to your mind when you think of Roger Federer's trick shot where he knocks the can off a guy's head? I rest my case !!!

P.S - The video is actually part true. It's a viral marketing stunt to promote the movie "Limitless" which appears at the 1:30 mark on the big screen.

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Unnatural Reactions To Natural Calamities

I'm not a firm believer of the 2012 story and the fact that the world is going to come to an end on Dec 21st. However instead of something huge happening all of a sudden, like it happens in one of those over hyped Hollywood movies, I do believe that some really ugly and uncomprehendable things are going to happen at totally random intervals.

There have been quite a few natural calamities in recent times. The Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004(this was the time we all learnt a new word, but still don't know the wise guy who put a T and made it silent as well), The Eykjafjallajokull (thank you Wiki for the spelling) volcano in Iceland last year along with a massive earthquake in Haiti and the big freeze in UK, the cyclones in Australia just last month and the most recent Tsunami in Japan.

If at all one were to look for a common factor among all these events, it would be the unpredictability. In spite of being so technically advanced, we have failed on numerous occasions to take preemptive action and save people. Everytime we switch on the news during any of these times, we see the bureaucrats advising people to stay in a safe place and also rallying troupes to carry out evacuation. When they can actually predict the speed, direction and carry out a potential disaster analysis after a cyclone or Tsunami has hit, I really wonder why they cant do it before actually getting hit, and save us of all the trouble. The intensity of such a natural calamity is always measured in number dead people. Just makes you wonder whether the countries are actually competing with each other by portraying that they are helpless, just to get some pity sex.

The worst part about these is the aftermath. Not with the destruction, not with millions worth losses, not with the number of people dead but with the numerous 'relief fund' scams. I remember @kevinpp24 and @piersmorgan tweeting a link repeatedly through which you could contribute to the cyclone victims in Australia. But even they were not aware that it was a scam and someone just gobbled up all the money.

Its really heart wrenching to see the most hard working country in the world go through all of this. I believe everyone has a soft corner for Japan for the simple fact they have become the world's third biggest economy within 60 years after they got nuked in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Just makes you question the existence of god or any other super power even more. Frankly, none of explanations with god or karma makes sense in these situations. We as humans have to understand that natural calamities do happen and no prayers are ever going to stop them.

P.S - For all you gadget freaks, I'm sorry that the Japan disaster overshadowed the iPad 2 launch. 

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"All that we see is all that we think about"

I've fallen off the taxpaying wagon, yet again. Even though there is a chuckle inside me for not paying tax, there is a frown as well because my bank balance is going south. I sit in my room and have strategically placed everything within  my arm's reach, right from food to drink and beer to its proud counterpart, the beer belly. These days have been pretty good as I have had a lot of time on my hands to just relax and unwind, but I'm sure the tipping point for this is just around the corner. While all my efforts to turn myself  into the sarcastic "House" by watching him have gone in vain, I've definitely stumbled upon some really good soundtracks. Before you continue reading this post, I urge you to play the below video, keep the sound to a soothing level and just enjoy the music.

This song actually made me look and think about things that I had not wondered much about. All that we see is all that we think about is true on so many different levels. There is no doubt that we worry about or get influenced by things that we see and experience in our day to day lives.

We curse the government and everyone involved when our cars hit the potholes or skid off a slippery surface or just about anytime when the roads are bad. How often do we think about those workers who get the asphalt ready and mix it with gravel and ultimately get the road repaired overnight. We forget that there was even a pothole in that place as we no longer get "ditched". We take overnight buses to travel to far off places but forget to even thank the drivers who have taken us safely to our destinations. Its a fact that people who work during the nights(negate the call centre blokes) and sleep during daytime have totally changed their biological clocks and are only going to affect their health in the long run.

We take interest in the quality of drinking water or environmental conditions only when someone dies. We hardly think about people under the poverty line until and unless some viral video or campaign comes out. None of us even bothered about Egypt or Libya before Mubarak or Gaddafi  came under the hammer. 

Keeping the world news aside, even on the personal front we always try to play to our strengths and bask in them rather than exploring our weaknesses and digging deep inside ourselves, thus creating a barrier between what we want to see and project ourself as and what we don't even want to tickle. The latter is always considered as a sleeping, fire breathing dragon and we are always scared to wake it up. But then again during some situations, this dragon not only wakes up but starts breathing fire from all possible orifices and thats when we crumble and thats when we fail the acid test.

Thus, I honestly believe that we should spare some time to think about things that we do not do often or explore things that are totally outside our comfort zones. Not only will we be more thankful for the lives we are leading instead of saying "why is everything happening to only me", but we will also be able to grow as a person and bring about a change.


P.S - I know I know, its been one of those philosophical, preaching, aka #KillMeNow kinda posts, but I cant help it. Someone get me back on the payroll, and I promise to stop writing on these kind of topics (wink).

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