CSK - Manchester United of IPL

You love a few teams. You hate a few. But very rarely comes across a team which has such a polarized fan following that it is impossible to ignore it. When it comes to the Indian Premier League, Chennai Super Kings is that team.

 

The ones who like the team, revere it. The ones who don’t, loathe it. And they are not referred to as the Manchester United of the IPL for nothing.

But how did a team develop such an interesting fan following equation in a mere matter of six years? How does a club that plays together for just about two months every year develop into a brand equivalent to that of the New York Yankees? How did CSK become the most supported club in spite of not having a Shah Rukh Khan or a Preity Zinta sitting in their dug-outs?

The first obvious reason that comes to mind is team success. CSK has been the most successful team in the short history of the IPL. They are the only team to have reached the playoffs every single time and they look set to continue that streak. They are twice champions and also have a Champions League T20 trophy in their cabinet. This is a team whose resume could easily be compared with that of a Manchester United, Barcelona or New York Yankees.

The second and probably the more important reason is continuity with the teams. MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Albie Morkel, Stephen Fleming and Michael Hussey along with a horde of local talent, i.e. S Badrinath, R Ashwin, Murali Vijay and Srikanth Anirudha to name a few are a part of the team for all the past seasons. These names have become synonymous with the club till date. 

The local flavor was intact and the fans loved it. 

The flavor of the team is also prominent in their anthem, “Whistle Podu” and “Raise your hands”. The jingles have played their part in seducing the fans — the flash mobs in San Francisco and Chennai are proof enough for it. It has an apparel collection of its own, which is promoted by the players themselves. Also when it comes to social networking and connecting with fans CSK is leads other teams by a distance.

 

Another major similarity with the huge names mentioned before, i.e. Manchester United, Barcelona etc is the hate against the team. For every one CSK supporter, there seem to be five CSK haters. A team has not made it to the big leagues until it doesn’t just have a loyal fan base, but also has a huge base of loyal haters. CSK fans can proudly say that theirs is the first IPL team to have made it.

The CSK ‘fandom’ is surreal. The fans are crazy and worship the team and the players love the atmosphere and the adulation they get from the fans.

Each and every player who joins the Super Kings seems to genuinely enjoy playing for the team, which in turn often translates into success. 

Myself being a CSK fan, it is impossible for me to not be a part of the CSK experience. 

Whistle Podu!

7 Classical Oldest Languages of the World

As a medium of communication, languages came to existence 100,000 years back. The first spoken language is difficult to justify, as ancient languages never had written script. Justifying first language on earth is mere impossible, however we can find some of the classical languages of the earth, along which the civilisation of the world developed.
In line with the fondness for 7, let we see in this post the most powerful 7 classical languages of the world.It is the duty of us to protect these languages, as earlier languages got extinct even before these classic languages came to existence.

7 Classical Languages of the World

GREEK

Family: Indo-European

Writing System: Greek alphabet

Civilisation: Greek Civilization.

Standard forms/Dialects: Demotic/14 dialects

Origin: Beyond 3000 BC (Believed to still more than 5000BC)

Native Speaker: 15.2 million

Today: Greek spread across Mediterranean sea coast,Restricted to Greece nation. 

Specialty: Greek is the language of the scientific vocabulary and over 10,00,000 words are loaned to English language.

History: Proto-greek has origin well over 2nd millennium BC,Since Greek evolved along with Greek civilization its more orientated towards culture and tradition.Greek accounts for some of valuable treasured literacy like Odyssey,lliad,Aristotle philosophy & Plato, Greek New Testament etc       

Personality: Aristotle,Plato etc

SANSKRIT

Family: Indo-Aryan

Written System: No native script(Written in Devanagari)

Civilisation: Hindu Culture (Since language confined to Hindu Brahmin)

Standard forms/Dialects: No Spoken Form(Dead Language)

Origin: 3000 BC (Rig Veda)

Native Speaker: Less than 5,000

Today: Sanskrit is a dead language.Still its used only for Mantra's of Hindu worship. About Century Back Sanskrit lost its Spoken Form.

Specialty: Sanskrit is the mother of all European Language.

History: Sanskrit Script early found in Rig Veda.Its Hindu Veda believed to be sacred. Sanskrit was predominantly a language of priests and scholars. Sanskrit had never been a language of common man.  

Personality: Valmiki,Kalidas etc.

TAMIL

Family: Dravidian

Written System: Tamil Script

Civilisation: Indus-Valley Civilization

Standard forms/Dialects: 7 Dialects

Origin: 3000 BC

Native Speakers: 90 million

Today: Tamil Spread across south Asia.It Enjoy Official status in India and 5 more countries.

Specialty: 55% of the epigraphical Inscription found in India are in Tamil. Tamil-Brahmi Script inscription are found in Egypt,Thailand,Sri Lanka, Which is about 2000 years old. Tamil is the only surviving classical language of the world. 

History: Tamil-Brahmi Script are first written form of Tamil. Tamil Language had well defined written grammar even 2500 years ago (Tholkkapium). There is a  belief that Tamil was one of the Language evolved during the origin of Communication.

Personality: Thiruvalluvar,Tholkkapiur,Bodhidharman etc.

LATIN

 

Family: Indo-European

Writing System: Latin alphabet

Civilisation: Roman Civilization

Standard forms/Dialects: Latin 

Origin: Around 1000 BC

Native Speaker: Less than 1,00,000(Vatican City,Italy)

Today: Latin is confined to the christian community of Vatican. Considered as a dead language.

Specialty: Latin is the language of language of inventions and discoveries and most of biological terms are derived from Latin. About 70% of the incunabula are in Latin. 

History: Latin language evolved around the roman empire. Latin is one of the factor behind spread of Christianity.Since Many scientific finding took place in and around roman empire, Latin place a vital role in science forum.Latin is always confined within the lower half of the Mediterranean sea.  

Personality: Plautus,Caesar etc.

HEBREW

Family: Afro-Asiatic

Writing System: Hebrew alphabets

Civilisation: Post-Mesopotamian

Standard forms/Dialects: Hebrew

Origin: Around 10th century BC

Native Speaker: Native Speaker extincted around 7 th century AD, less than 8 million(Modern Israel)

Today: Hebrew is restricted as language of Jewish people and popularly Spoken around Israel.

Specialty: Holy Language of Jewish and Hebrew's. Bible was first written in this language only. Most Jewish and christian History is documented in Hebrew language.  

History: Hebrew saw many periods from monarchic Period to Arabic period. Old testament is fully written in Hebrew 

Personality: Moses etc. 

CHINESE

Family: Sino-Tibetan

Writing System: Chinese characters, zhuyin fuhao, pinyin, Xiao'erjing

Civilisation: Chinese Civilization

Standard forms/Dialects: Mandarin/16 Dialects

Origin: 2nd millennium BC

Native Speaker: 1.4 Billion

Today: Chinese is the largest spoken in the world. Chinese is spread across entire Asia.

Specialty: Chinese is the only language which is read top to bottom. Chinese have the largest culture share across the world.

History: Xia-Dynasty was official Empire which spread Chinese across the globe.Chinese language is believed to more than 10,000 years old.It has literature,Culture and tradition.Chinese Culture one of the few culture existing in the world.

Personality: Yu,Shan etc.

PERSIAN

Language Family: Indo-Iranian

Writing System: Persian Alphabet/Cyrillic Script

Civilization: Muslim Civilization

Standard forms/Dialects: 9 dialects

Origin: 5th century BC

Native Speaker: 110 million

Today: Its spread across 12 countries in the world. Persian Language inscription can be seen across the Mughal Construction.

Specialty: Persian language inspired Many Indo-Aryan Language. Persian Is the mother language of Urdu.

History: Persian was first originated along the Iraq and Iran.Persian Spread across the South Asia by Mughal Colonisation. Persian Has significant presence in Muslim community. Persian and Arabic both confined within Muslim Religion.

Personality: Mughal Empire Kings,Saaid etc.

Language are more than just a mode of communication. They make up a rich culture. Hence it's our duty to protect a language and ones mother tongue. Otherwise we will lose our rich culture and tradition which our fore fathers left for each and everyone of us. Let we not make the existing classical languages extinct, like some of the dead languages which brought civilisation to the world.

Extinct languages of cultural importance: 1.Sumerian (Mesopotamian Civilisation - 5000BC) 2. Akkadian (Mesopotamian Civilisation - 4500 BC) 3. Armenian (Jesus Christ Mother tongue) 4. Egyptian (Egypt Civilisation - 3000BC)

MARKETING ETHICS

“Ethics refers to the study of moral principles, or “right and wrong”, therefore marketing ethics is all about marketers doing the right thing.”

The above statement might be a clear cut definition. But in the real marketing world, it is not always completely clear cut, since “what is right” may vary depending on whether you are looking at it from the perspective of the company.
Let we take the example of ITC in India or BAT in Nigeria. Their primary business is selling cigarettes. We all will agree that cigarette spoils the health, causes life threatening diseases.

Is it ethical for ITC or BAT to sell cigarettes? This will be dicey to answer. However what is expected to be followed by ITC or BAT is relative Marketing Ethics.
Here what I mean by Relative marketing ethics is, being to an extent fairer. Not targeting the product to audience of age lesser than 18. Not making the product available in half a km radius surrounding the schools. Accepting and putting clear warning pictorials on the package etc.
The same applies for various industries like liquor industries, fast food chains etc.
But in reality, with a few exceptions, almost all companies flout the ethics, either its direct or relative. This includes our own industry - Pharmaceuticals. Sad to say, probably ours might be one of the worst in the scenario.
Among the professions, some are called as noble ones, because you make money by saving the people lives. We can consider Pharmaceuticals and Medical Doctors in this line. But these noble profession people have become the leaders of flouting the marketing ethics. We don’t know whether the Doctors spoiled the Pharmaceutical companies or vice versa. This is a very bad situation and in the near future nothing visible change is seen, not only in Nigeria or India, but throughout the world.
But if the following basic ethics is followed, it would be better for the world.
Taking responsibility: For the products and the decisions. Don’t ever tell “it was what the customer wanted”
Deal fairly: Being honest & fair with all stake holders.
Respect Customer rights: Right of redress, information & privacy.

 

(This is a jest of a presentation made by me as a panel member in the Symposium conducted by The School of International Studies, Pondicherry University)

CHAPMAN - MY FAVOURITE MOCKTAIL DRINK

From the day I landed in Nigeria, one drink which I have seen being loved by all here (including me - if I am on a non alcoholic mood) is THE CHAPMAN.
It is a simple and refreshing drink with an unique flavoring. It has the look of a tropical juice - carbonated.
The drink is usually served in beer mugs (almost every restaurant serves so) and with a different glass you miss the feel of Chapman.

Let we now see, how to make 2 mugs (500ml x 2) of Cilantro's Special Chapman.

All you need for making this special mock-tail:

• one 330ml can of Fanta or Mirinda
• one 330ml can of Sprite or 7Up
• 4 tablespoons of Blackcurrant Syrup / Squash
• 3 drops or 2ml of Angostura bitters (available in major Supermarkets, in Kano - Wellcare has)
• Squeeze of Lemon / Orange
• For garnising Cucumber slices & Lime wedges
• Crushed Ice

Follow the instructions to make the amazing drink:

• Fill both the mugs with a quarter of crushed ice
• Pour 2 tablespoons of Blackcurrant syrup / squash into each of the ice filled mugs
• Equally divide both the carbonated drinks and pour into the mugs
• Add the drops of bitters - take efforts to see you are not adding much
• Now squeeze the slices of Lemon and Orange into the mug.
• Give a stir and garnish with Cucumber slices and lemon wedges
• Can be presented with a cocktail umbrella and broad spring straw

Now the refreshing Chapman is ready to be enjoyed.
Hope the readers will have a try of making this drink in their house.

The drink is also available at Cilantro Restaurant & Lounge, Kano, Nigeria, specially made by its Chef.