Ek Gaaon Mein ; Ek Kissan

Brands are made in board rooms, built around dinner table conversations, polished by brainstorming and brought to life by the advertisements. Nevertheless, some brands go beyond board rooms and change the lives of the consumers forever. Even if it’s the brand manager who decides what the brands must reflect and portray, it’s eventually the consumer who decides to patron it or not.

Not every brand taste success while knocking at the door of the consumers. Brands, by nature promises a whole bundle of ‘reasons to buy’ and consumers either shadow them or shoo them away depending on if the promises are kept and delivered.

I had seen many brands as a consumer and been loyal user of a couple of them(to name a few – CloseUp, Compaq, MTR, Medimix, Brylcreem, Gilette and so on). It’s a very different kind of a transformation for me when I moved from one end of the table to the other. From consumer and a mere analyzer of brands and advertisements, to a brand manager who makes them or decides them, it has been a kick ass journey.

Not a long ago, a brief stint with Brooke Bond Team and working on brands like 'Three Roses' and 'Red Label' opened my eyes on all the work that goes behind in strengthening the brand. Meeting consumers who remember small things about the brand, small snippets in the ad which they recollect gives all the satisfaction to the guy who has worked hard building the brand.

It’s quite difficult to relate to what I am trying hard to say. But, building the brands that you have grown up with or taking forward the brands which are twice as old as you is an experience in a lifetime which not every person gets to do.

I moved into the branding team of Kissan recently. For the emotional consumer in me, Kissan was not just another brand. It was the most treasured memories of my happy childhood. Kissan transports me back to the days when I was kid. I used to travel to my grand father’s place for my summer vacations. Summer in Tamil Nadu is extremely hot and a two month long vacation away from school is spent completely outside home playing from dawn to dusk and then back again till dawn. Afternoon times were never complete without Kissan Squash. Kissan is diluted and filled with a couple of ice cubes and is kept ready for consumption in the afternoon. I used to sneak into the house in the afternoon while granny was asleep and carry the Squash to the veranda where all my playmates are waiting to grab their share of glass.

In a small and pretty village near kumbakonam, my typical day during my summer vacation will begin at 8-ish when i get out of my home with my cricket accessories. I would gather a bunch of close pals and we used to get hold of a place which has a bit of shade for the batsmen and rest of the players will have to get even with the scorching heat. After running all around the place chasing the cricket ball for more than three hours, I would hear some one yelling “Kichaaaaaa” [The way my grand parents call me]. I would not try to look around to find who it was. It’s been imbibed into my daily schedule and it was none other than my sweet granny. We will all put our bats and stumps at the same place and run into the house for a quick lunch. When we come back after lunch, the shade which was protecting the batsmen would have also slowly vanished. Thro mutual consultation, we would resort to more indoor games like chess, carom, cards and trade. This is where Kissan occupies a larger than life status for us, kids. An afternoon without Kissan orange and pineapple squash was almost unthinkable. I almost would empty one full bottle of Kissan every week.

My grandpa used to be so specific about buying Kissan and not just another brand like Rasna which was lot more economical. Such was the trust Kissan commanded. I still find Kissan in the refrigerator when I visit my grand parents. As a 5 year old kid those were the best days in my life when I used to go along with my grandfather to purchase my favorite Kissan, Diary milk and CloseUp. When we reach the shop, my Grandpa used to lift me up and put me on the shelf at the front of the shop. I will then make sure the shopkeeper gets down all that I want.

Thinking back and relating to the consumer in me, when I am working on the other side of the spectrum feels great and moving. After moving to Kissan, I called up my grand parents and told them about my new role. There were not able to completely understand what I had to say, but my granny made me have a satisfied smile with her closing remarks “Inga Vaa, Naa unaku Kissan Vaangi Fridge le vachiruken” [Come Here, I have got Kissan in our refrigerator].

That made my day …. Yeah! To think of it, we all live for these small happy moments that bring us a great deal of satisfaction.

Missing you ....

Machi,

It has been one year since you decided to leave me and the world behind. I am sure it was not an easy decision that you took. It has not been easy for me to forget or forgive you. For the last one week, your memories have been haunting me every time I opened the home page of my Orkut. I cannot really believe that you had gone ….I heard your voice and I still hear it.

It was indeed the most painful days in my life. You made me cry in front of everyone for the first time in my life. I cried endlessly for months. I woke up in the middle of the sleep hearing your voice. Everything I did or saw reminded me of you in some way. Ours was a small campus and any friend there was very close. You were my Roomie. I virtually spent my entire first year in your presence. I woke up every day seeing your face. We prepared together for every exam … Ran together to the profs room in the last minute to submit assignments … Bunked classes together … slept in the last bench on all QT2 classes … took kallappa’s case together … fought with sathish together …. danced together in most of the wetnites … shared an amazing interest to churn out new Gaalis in tamil … hid together inside the room during all those holy dip and dunking times … sold tickets for Maxi Bazaar together …. I spent some of the best times in my life with you.

Everything about you was special. You never knew how much I loved your spontaneous jokes and would often repeat them to shiv and sathish. You never know how much we wanted you around in every dinner table conversations we had. You don’t know how many guys in the batch looked forward to you to help them before exams. You never know how many of us still remember your placecomm soapbox which left the entire hall in splits. ….. & I didn’t know that I will never get to tell you all this.

May be, if we had stuck to our plan of taking a double room together in our second year, I would have saved you. May be I did not deserve to have you around for the rest of my life. Dunno why am writing this …… Felt like saying “I really miss you & wish you had never done that”.

May your soul rest in peace…

JK