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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

It’s beyond my fast deteriorating intelligence to understand the frenzy behind Slumdog Millionaire!!! Movie peddling porn, poverty – displaying India as a deprived, third world country with a dim underbelly comprising filthy slums, exploited children, omnipresent crime and so on. Possibly, a perfect concoction, for the superficial souls at the Rodeo Dr in LA- especially after many earlier failed attempts to win an Oscar-. But, why vie for an Oscar at any cost?? Come on, one doesn’t have to entertain the 'unworthy' living in glass chambers in Hollywood with the poverty and the abject living conditions of millions of our worthy brothers and sisters to win an award. Whose brothers and sisters, anyway? Certainly not of Danny Boyle- the Brit!!!

Talking about awards... aren’t these awards mostly farce and manipulated??? We have an export business man blessed with Padma award for the best craftsmanship!! Soldiers given highest gallantry awards and arrested subsequently for terrorist activities!! Cops, awarded for bravery and diligence of service behind the bars for drug peddling… Imagine an ordinary mortal - me- walking safe (!!) on the streets, pinning my still undiluted faith on these exemplary award winning citizens. I, for one, am shifting my trust from good governance of our country to ‘in God we trust’

Though, it doesn’t perturb the sensible minorities, film awards in India are a mockery by itself!!! A circus by a set of jokers for the jokers in the audience and in front of the idiot box. Each self assumed superstar vying to outwit the other by taking public potshots at each other. Indian democracy at its best manifestation!!!!

But, as a corporate manager what worries me are the millions of awards given away everyday for 'the best corporate for ….' by ferociously competing media channels and Industry associations. A good business model and revenue channel for them!!. These folks are raking moolah by way of sponsorship and ad revenues collected promising awards to some nondescript-not disrespecting the sparse good guys-corporate clowns awards galore.Beware, only the sponsoring ones get awards. The whole award ceremony is another tamasha, for these morons to unleash their Armanis and Versaces, to be on the podium to read out in broken English a speech penned by a ghost writer!!! Guys, please take a hard look at these faces because the rate at which ‘best’ companies with extra ordinary corporate governance are vanishing from the scene, you may not see their faces again in your life time!!!

You don't trust me yet? Look at Satyam’s (May I rechristen it 'Asatyam' ) list of awards and achievements. CMM level 5, PCMM level 6, ISO level 999000…. Nercer -Best employer year (200&)-this is, while they are still figuring out who and how many they have employed -!! Horrester top list (for fudging??) Best in Corporate Governance by MASSOCHEM!! Entrepreneur of the year 200Y by BII!! Best in Disclosure (hey, what???) by FARCECOM. GICCI-CSR for contribution to the society (joke of 2009!!). Anything left??? Even the best soothsayer would have sold his grand m$@#er and invested in this company, leave alone the paanwala at Dalal street!!! I too realized ‘Satyam (truth) is bitter’ the very hard way only after losing my hard earned money in the BSE. Talk about BSE, no one is yet able to explain this big black hole for the speed with it disappears aamjanta's money and turns the riches to rags, though CNBC makes a futile attempt day after day. 'Commies' should love this institution!!

Isn’t it time, some anti award (like dowry) law has been implemented by the authority? If not, shouldn’t these awarders be held responsible for the (mis)deeds they commit as it has a wider social ramification than the momentary mumbo jumbo. Innocent people-though little greedy, which is okay!- overwork all their (not missing out broker bhai's and friends') sensories to slice and dice these award/ achievement stories published in the media to decide about the worthiness of a company to invest monies, often borrowed from money sharks. Shouldn’t there be some guidelines by the Industry forum regarding who can give an award, how these agencies conduct their selection processes and analysis?? To check whether these awards have been bought?? Earlier we do the better for the hapless citizens-like me-!!!

No wonder, my respect for Aamir Khan is on an ascent of late!!! But he must promise that he will not try for the Oscar again.

4 Comments:

Blogger Tanya Panicker said...

I like it!
Though I feel that awards for these actors are as important as trophies are for athletes and medals are for scholars.In their own field, they work hard to earn their living and if they do a good job they should get credit for it!

February 14, 2009 at 12:44 PM  
Blogger Ramesh Panicker said...

Sure darling and I appreciate your suggestion. My larger point of view is that it should have fundamentals, clear and transparent crireria,eminent jury etc. and sticks galore if it is manipulated. Like an athlete will get a medal only if finishes ahead of the others which is clear and transpaent. If he is aided by dope, the medal is withdrawn

February 14, 2009 at 7:29 PM  
Blogger Gopa Kumar said...

Agree with you Ramesh, where there is no transparency, the awards are riddled with favoritisim and prejudice. Particularly some corporate awards by media companies - I've had experience in the past where there is always a subtle hint about these annual rituals and how the media can help if we court them throughout the year.

February 15, 2009 at 11:21 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I don't doubt the genuineness of those who create awards of this nature, but rather the way its held and nominees identified. There have always been endless debates about the many cultural and social biases in the judging process - whether its the best film, or the best campaign , best sports person, best actor or even best corporate awards.. Post events , there has also been claims and counter claims ( even with Slum dog claims had been made that some of the young performers from the Mumbai slums had not been paid fairly for their work) that leads to hype. But there's no denying that in terms of the hype around the awards, or the amount of newsprint and television-time these events hog, or glamour-value, is immense. Awards ceremonies and events that surrounds it - are often corny and superficial but are fantastic shows viusally , a stupendous exercise in excess. It's all gloss and glitter and image - a wonderful thing conjued up by savvy PR firms and event managers . So as best I can tell, the only benefit that comes of these award functions is the publicity conferred on a celebrity or on a person who post award becomes a celebrity - and the publicity garnered by the event management and marketing firm that 's made a decent cut . And this is precisely the reason why these events are held . Farce, for sure many of these are no ones honest about what it is, and what it aims to do, and how the awardees are selected . The judges they aren't the be-all and end-all, and we all know it.- and it will continue be so as long as there are people struggling to get the hang of suitable red carpet at any cost .

Awards are good to an extent – they tell us we’re succeeding, that we’re better than a bunch of other people, that certain judges like our achievements. Unfortunately in this age of instant gratification , only the numbers pats on your back ( voting culture ) that's the reason a lot of award functions these days - are bad apples threatening to spoil the whole bunch. A few of the awards are indeed worthy of recognition , if you look at the past few years, you would have noticed ,especially since 2002 when India struck gold for the first time, and when Indian won T-20 World cup , the recent Olympic medals - the buzz surrounding all these the events was increasingly shrill - as was the awards - which I thought was genuine recognition .. Yet there is hype , - in the end, all these are very successful marketing events - filling the pockets of the marketing and event management companies !!

Fraud and awards - are alike , while one exposes the talent , the other exposes poor controls and governance. Look at the names that you have quoted ,The fraud exposes involvement big names , inadequacy of even draconian legislation ( like SarbOx ) , the insider trading , greedy financial institutions ( profiting by off-loading Satyam shares just before Raju’s confessions ) . In the hindsight , the fraud has done more to raise the corporate consciousness .The days on stock exchanges are becoming worse than during Ivan Boesky's with each competing with other for the best of the fraud award ! Instead of an anti award , I think it s time to institute an award for " meaningless awards " - print certificates on the dot matrix printer and instead of writing 'Honorable' write 'Horrible' ,especially for those who conjure up unscrupulous ways to seek recognition and awards !!...

Finally , I must mention that I spent some time reading your blog , its been highly enjoyable. I know how difficult it is to keep up the energy and the fact that you’ve done so is much to your credit,- keep it going !! Aneish

February 17, 2009 at 9:36 PM  

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