With 2018 almost coming to a close, we’d love to highlight some trends from theyear and share all the different ways Instagram’s global community came to theplatform to creatively express themselves and get closer to the people – andthings – they love.

We’re heartened to see that sharing love and kindness is still a top priorityfor the Instagram community: the Heart Love Sticker by Aratawas the most-used Giphy sticker in Stories, while Heart Eyes wasthe most-used Face Filter in Stories. In Feed, the emoji was used incomments over 14 billion times.The happiest place in theworld? Disneyland Tokyo, which saw the highest use of in the caption!

Instagram is home to countless interests and communities; this year, ASMRwas the top niche community trend of the year, with soap cutting, slimepopping and makeup shaving continuing its steep rise in popularity. The gameFortnite also saw explosive growth with #fortnite being the fastestgrowing hashtag globally. K-pop’s dominance on social media isreflected by BTS“Army” being the top fandom community on the platform. The biggestviral dance challenge of the year was also born on Instagram, with #inmyfeelingschallenge,which included everyone from @theshiggyshow to @willsmith, comingin at number 1.

Across our India community in particular, kindness and love tookcenter stage as people from across the country took to Instagram to share thethings they love. #love secured the top spot when it comes to themost used hashtag followed, which was closely followed by #instagoodand #fashion. Beyond this, the highest growth hashtag in Indiawas #lovequotes.

Last but not least, millions of people across the globe used Instagram to maketheir voices heard in 2018. The year’s top advocacy hashtags were #metoo (1.5million), #timesup(597K), #marchforourlives(562K), demonstrating that Instagram can be a powerful platform forpeople to speak out and bring light to meaningful causes.

Instagram’s 2018 Year in Review:

• Most Used Face Filter in Instagram Stories: Heart Eyes
• Most Used Giphy Sticker on Instagram Stories: Heart Love Sticker by Arata
• Number of times was used in comments: 14 billion
• Happiest Geotagged Location in the World (highest use of in the caption): Disneyland Tokyo
• Top Niche Community Trend: ASMR
• Highest Growth Hashtag Community: #fortnite
• Top Fandom Community: BTS
• Top Dance Movement: #inmyfeelingschallenge
• Top Advocacy Hashtags: #metoo (1.5 million), #timesup (597K), #marchforourlives (562K)

India specific data

• Top hashtags in India
  • #love
  • #instagood
  • #fashion
• Most Used Giphy Sticker on Instagram Stories India: Heart Love Sticker by Arata
• Highest Growth Hashtag India: #lovequotes
• Most loved posts in India:
  • Virat Kohli: https://www.instagram.com/p/BiOIfIzgRbr/
  • Anushka Sharma: https://www.instagram.com/anushkasharma/p/BgLubI3Avgy/
  • M S Dhoni: https://www.instagram.com/p/BjSyjBfnmma/
  • Akshay Kumar: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg5TsHIhHY5/
  • Jacqueline Fernandez: https://www.instagram.com/p/BnsQk0AnLGL/
• Top geotagged locations across India in 2018:
  • Mumbai
  • New Delhi
  • Bangalore
  • Hyderabad
  • Ahmedabad
  • Pune
  • Chennai
  • Jaipur
  • Surat
  • Kolkata

We hope this roundup inspires you to use Instagram to spread joy and kindness this holiday season.

The post Instagram Year In Review 2018 appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

They are short, pithy statements that have been bequeathed to us by the ancients. Statements – call them sermons if you may, that are sweeping in nature, but precise in their message. Yes, I am talking about proverbs – ditties of advice that are based on common sense, are born out of experience and expresses traditionally held truisms. We all know them, use them often to stress the points that we are making, to even add the punch of past legacies. But seldom do we notice how they too are evolving, like the English language, entwined as they get absorbed by the digital domain.

Allow me to spread my ware – of Old Proverbs, photoshoped and hashtagged, ready to engage the Google Search Engines.

Birds of a Feather, they don’t flock no more, they tweet. The Cuckoo’s chirp and the nightingale’s song have been condensed (and contained) to a hundred and forty characters.

 Gone are the days when it was the female of the species that was considered to be the deadliest. It was the female anopheles that sucked one’s blood and injected it with the dread inducing Malaria. It was the Cougar that prowled, the lioness that hunted. Not any more, for she has been replaced by the email – invading private spaces with impunity, destroying balances, devastating lives.

Oh yes, the modem is the message, for the medium (or is it modem) has evolved and fragmented into platforms – Facebook, Linked-in, Twitter, Instagram … each demanding customised content, crafted specifically for it. It is no more what you write, but more whether it is optimised for the reach. And yes, viral is not a fever that you get, but a fever in the brow that you crave. Crazy, but true.

Forget a thousand steps, things as mundane as a trip to the neighbourhood grocer’s too starts with a click these days, for the fearless female warriors (or at least one of them) have vanquished everybody else to have taken over the world of commerce. Want a soda? Click and Amazon will deliver. So much for your thousand-step journey.

Don’t look a Gift Horse in the mouth, they taught us, stressing, that it is not about the bad breath (the horse’s), but all about manners (your). Today, from Achilles’ heel have sprouted the geeks, dysfunctional dementors from the digital domain, with blueprints of innovative disruption that promise to topple the apple cart (yes, including that Apple) – nuts that are certain to grow up to become mighty oaks. Don’t tell me  that I hadn’t warned you.

Well, this is the age of China. Not the fine China, as in tea-sets, that our grandmothers craved, but the mass-produced copies and cheap, plastic trinkets that are not bio degradable. Naturally, for every success story, there are a million spawns, a billion wanna-be’s and a trillion me-too’s. Point is, “every venture on a shoe-string does not a Microsoft be” (whether or not it starts in a garage)!

Yes, they will, but they will be everything but meek. An army of optimisation guys will man (and woman) their back offices ensuring their place in the Google sun and obscene performance-linked pay packets will be the order of the day, before they too are upstaged by an upstart. Moore’s Law is not merely applicable on the brick and mortar entities you are disrupting today, they will learn to their consternation, it (the bell) tolls for thee as well!

Who says that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks? Just look at the number of geriatrics flocking to Facebook. Point is, the digital blackhole has an appetite that is bottomless and is quietly sucking in all and sundry. It transcends the space time conundrum and once in its grip, the victims are known to lose their bearings for all times to come. Lead them to the fix and teach them how to chase the dragon. The rest… well, what rest?

As we approach the roaring twenties of this century, the glitterati from the last have been replaced by the Tweetarati. One is known by his Tweets even as we get drawn more and more into its vortex. Life is doing a Dali, resembling Melted Time, Sci-fi prophecies are coming true with gay abandon and naked exhibitionism is replicating expressionist Edvard Munch’s Scream. Welcome to the Matrix! The stitch? Well, is there time, still?

With everything hurtling in every possible direction at the speed of thought, it is but neigh impossible to stick to whatever one is searching for. This is the era of the information overload, of digital dominance, of the triple A – a situation where anonymity and accessibility is leading us down the path to annihilation. Sad, in light of the fact that the purpose of all this advancement was aimed at making life just that bit easier.

Sumanta Adhikari, a young exponent of digital art has done the templates and deserves all the credit for this piece. A silent scream against everything ordinary, Sumanta loves wielding his Apple pencil as much as he loves to work out in the gym. Sumanta is also an accomplished beat boxer though, digital art continues to be his  reigning passion, his raison d’etre.  When he is not busy with the agency’s work,  he  works on the creation of his signature style – his work, stating the things he leaves unsaid.

Hope you enjoyed the piece as much as we enjoyed creating it. Feel free to like if you want to and share if you want to help spread the word. And do let us know if you want more, we do have them ready.

For More information:

www.azurecom.in

The post Der Schrei der Sozial (the Scream of Social), Part I – Sumanta Adhikary appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

Amongst non-conventional B2B channels, Twitter steers ahead of Facebook (25.3%)
and Instagram (18%) by garnering the approval of 47% marketers

New Delhi, 18 July, 2017: 75% of marketers chose Instagram as their most preferred channel for sharing image-based content, while Twitter and Facebook garnered brand approval ratings of 63% and 56% respectively for the same. Twitter, on the other hand, leads the charts when it comes to B2B marketing, garnering 47% marketer acceptance in the non-conventional B2B channel distribution. These insights are amongst several interesting marketing facts and figures released by Pulp Strategy – a multi-award-winning full service agency in the realm of experiential, digital, and interactive marketing – in its ‘The Future of Content 2017 – Chartbuster Trends in Content Marketing’ report.

The Pulp Strategy report also mapped several other interesting trends for marketers. User-generated content was found to enjoy greater approval with social media users, with 76% of users surveyed considering it more trustworthy than brand-generated content. Image-based content generated the highest engagement for marketers online, clocking about 55% of the overall engagement, followed by clickable links at 24% and videos at 12%. LinkedIn had the highest number of links shared by users, garnering 76% of the overall engagement volume.

What was even more ground-breaking, however, was the fact that more businesses are now proactively adopting unconventional approaches, apart from emails and LinkedIn, for B2B engagement. For B2B initiatives, Facebook and Twitter mainly involved brand promotions and testimonial content. Pulp Strategy based the survey on an extensive analysis of more than 7.5 million posts across various platforms, which also highlighted an increased interest in B2B content marketing over the past six months.

Ambika Sharma, Founder & Managing Director, Pulp Strategy said, “While it is already hailed as the king of marketing, content continues to gain more prominence and has become one of the major influencers in the overall customer decision making process. Today, marketers can experiment with a range of content types, marketing channels, and strategies to generate quantifiable results for their business. The Content Marketing Report 2017 discloses some very insightful aspects of marketing which will help marketers and businesses in positioning themselves more optimally.”

The survey also observed personalization, user-generated content, and interactive media to be the key drivers in the content market space. The assessment made by the survey even disclosed in-depth insights such as how a split of body text with engaging images inclines the users to finish reading the whole content. The report on content marketing also included a range of industry examples and marketing endeavours undertaken by a variety of top-rated international brands.

About Pulp Strategy

Pulp Strategy Communications is a multi-award- winning full service agency in the realm of Tech enabled, digital & Interactive marketing with a comprehensive range of integrated solutions that combine brand strategy, creativity, consumer insight, design, and technology to deliver superior engagement and experience driven products.

The post Twitter leads Facebook and Instagram in B2B channel initiatives, according to Pulp Strategy’s Future of Content 2017 report appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

Do women, especially women in India, approach the social media differently when compared to their male counterparts? Innocuous as it may seem, it is indeed a trick question for various reasons. For one, those asking the question are primarily marketers who want the answer to push whatever they are selling. Secondly, and more importantly, because there are no pan India data of such depth and quality that answers can be attempted with any reasonable amount of certainty. And finally, the digital media is so vast, is evolving so fast and incorporates the finer nuances of so many diverse faculties, that it is near impossible to make predictions and still be on the right side of the facts.

Let me be honest upfront. What we normally pass off as facts are no more than educated guess work, estimates, based more on the feelings of the guts than mechanisations of the mind. And here, my personal feeling is that the outcomes are skewed more towards the knowledge of psychology than statistics. That said, let us take a quick dekho of the broad trends. What I feel, are the trends, that is.

Facebook continues to be the most popular platform, especially for women. While young adults still make up the overwhelming numbers, middle aged women too have a solid presence and if current trends are to be believed, the aged are flocking to Facebook in ever increasing numbers. As net connectivity, backed by the proliferation of smartphones increase, the demographic migration to Facebook is continuing at ever increasing paces with more and more women joining the fray. There is no doubt about the fact that Facebook is the undisputed Saas-Bahu serial of Social media.

The other platform where women have had a traditional edge over men is Pinterest, though the numbers involved are nowhere near the top. Besides, if market watchers are to be believed, the platform has not really made it across the urban-rural divide and is still largely confined to women of a certain educational background, however snooty (read derogatory) that might sound.

Instagram with its ready-made filters, is the one platform that adds the real value to every paisa spent on acquiring that smart camera phone. And, selfie obsessed women are taking to it like fish take to the water. However, here too, the critical mass is yet to be attained and the numbers, however impressive they may seem in isolation, are way away from the kind of popularity that the Kyunki of Social Media already boasts of. What is remarkable is the steady accretion to the club of cell-phone wielding photographers who are helping this niche of freezing frames expand by clicks and posts – people who consider the square format their God and Instagram their religion. And, the number of women doing it is what makes me happy to the bottom of my Carl Zeiss lenses.

If sheer numbers are the only criterion, then Linked-in will be some distant cousin of the mainline Facebook. However, make no mistake, for those who are in the job market (as potential givers and takers), it is the place to be in. And yes, while Indian men seem to have just that edge, the sheer number of women who are jiving it all the way to the workplace is mind-boggling. And yes, these are typically the well-educated ones with the spare cash whose eyeballs your friendly neighborhood marketing (wo)man wants to engage.

Google Plus too has a fair number of women participating – but the grapevine has it that these ladies are the Amazons from the digital army, primarily using the platform to further the Optimization cause. They are there to Tango for Cash, with the Search Engines, that is. And swear by the meta-tags even as they hash and slash.

Movie teasers, video clippings of inane jokes and titillating stuff pandering to every conceivable kink are the primary reasons why people flock to YouTube, according to industry insiders. The numbers that are posted too, are insane. However, the same insiders are also quick to point out the fact that “women” (not considering the college going PYT’s catching a glimpse of the Bollywood heart throbs) are not the prime movers in the segment. Television gives them the high drama and Facebook has already taught them to brush up the images they post, not to mention the opportunity of hating the children of people they hated in school.

The most baffling are the Twitter numbers though. The restriction in the number of characters one can use to express one’s feelings is a definite straitjacket, yet, the popularity of the platform is swarming with activities that are enough to put even beehives to shame. Here too, if the pundits are to be believed, the average Bharatiya Nari is yet to make her presence felt, though some handles owned and operated by women have already attained the celebrity status with dedicated fan followings that would even put Hollywood stars to shame. Perhaps the lady next door is put off by the dreaded troll, perhaps it is the fear of the Grammar Nazi.

The fluttering of the Social Media butterfly’s wings is already deafening. We still don’t know whether the fluttering of a mere Butterfly’s wings in Brazil can cause a tornado in Texas and you expect me to know what will happen when they flap in the Telengana?

(originally written for the Indian Express / Financial Express)

The post The Social Media Butterflies – Chawm Ganguly appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

MacbookAir, a smartphone and Amazon/Flipkart vouchers worth Rs 10,000 are up for grabs for the winners

Mumbai, December 13^th, 2016:HDFC RED,a digital marketplace for home buyers and developers, aims to bring back the importance of the lanes in our lives, through the medium of the lens. The Instagram campaign#LanesByLenswas kick started by a photo walk on Saturday, the 10^th of December. The Instawalk witnessed 200+ photo enthusiasts going around Mumbai lanes capturing the various landmarks.The company aims to revive the love for the lost lanes in Mumbai through the eyes of those who cherish them the most, its residents. Today onwards, the campaign is open for everyone to participate by posting picture on Instagram and stand a chance to win exciting prizes. The contest has already received more than 400+ entries. Those who click the winning photographs will be awarded with prizes such as a Macbook Air, smartphones and Amazon/Flipkart vouchers worth Rs. 10,000.

Ongoing from the 10^th to the 14^thof December 2016, #LanesByLens is a great chance for those who love their locality to capture that ‘something special’ which they have always felt exists in the lanes. The hdfcredindia Instagram handle will feature the photographs collected which celebrates the best of Mumbai’s arteries, its various lanes.

To participate in the contest, enthusiasts need to follow @hdfcredindia on Instagram, click a Mumbai lane with a landmark in the photo, upload and tag @hdfcredindia, use the #LanesByLens and add the location.

Commenting on the event, Sohel I S, CEO, HDFC RED said, “One’s love for their NEIGHBOURHOOD is almost as deeply-entrenched as that for their home. Every person who lives and grows up in a locality has a different perspective and shares something special with their vicinity, something that can be captured only with the lens of their mind. With the creative campaign #LanesByLens, we want to celebrate the various facets of the lanes of Mumbai through the eyes of the people who call this city their ‘home’.”

Elaborating on the concept of this campaign, Rohan Gandhi, Social Media Head, HDFC RED, said, “Unlike other regular street photowalks, we decided to capture the lesser known, yet symbolic landmarks of Mumbai which for an individual, define their address and identity. To cherish these memories and hold on to them, we rolled out the #LanesByLens campaign. We believe cities are made out of lanes and lanes are made out of these small landmarks, which then become an important part of your postal address.”

The contest will close on the 14^th of December 2016 and the results will be announced on 25^th December 2016. Participants aged 16 and above, residing in Mumbai and possessing a valid Mumbai delivery address with a valid ID proof can enter the contest. Although multiple pictures from the same handle are allowed, the pictures need to be taken during the duration of campaign only and no pre-clicked pictures will be considered valid.

About HDFC RED:

Founded in 2010, HDFC RED is a digital marketplace for home buyers and developers that aims at addressing issues of congruence in the housing industry. A wholly owned subsidiary of HDFC Ltd., the company has strategically built its business model on the Primary Residential Market. HDFC RED’s technology enabled solutions help home buyers find the right kind of place from a pool of 28000+ types of homes listed on the platform. The platform lists properties from 23 cities in India, covering more than 80% of the primary residential market in major cities of the country. Every 15 seconds, HDFC RED is bringing a home seeker closer to their dream home.  HDFC RED also plays the role of a business enabler for developers that helps accelerate and enhance sales and marketing operations. The company’s core strength – understanding of the real estate industry stems from the legacy and leadership of its parent company HDFC, which is a household name in India.

To experience seamless home buying, visit the website www.hdfcred.com and download the app, available on Android and iOS platforms.

The post HDFC RED brings nostalgia and excitement back to the fore with its unique Instagram photography campaign,#LanesByLens appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

Remember the time when FB meant football – yes, the kind of which CR7 and Messi and Neymar are the Princes? Or when G+ was something that builders constructed, ground up?  Or even before that, when IG was simply Mrs. Indira Gandhi? Well, not any more – the abbreviations have different meanings now. The Girl of yore, who had turned into a babe at the turn of the century is now a “bae” and you if ignore these new meanings you run the risk of becoming redundant. Don’t believe me? Check out what the abbreviation we thought stood to point at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh  means today. If even an AccheDin Sarkar cannot save the Sanghis, you won’t need ESP (old meaning Extra Sensory Perception) to imagine what your fate will be.

Remember Kyonki? Now even SaaS is not what it used to mean:

1. API = Application Programing Interface
2. B2B = Business to Business
3. B2C = Business to Consumer
4. CMGR = Community Manager
5. CPC = Cost Per Click
6. CTA = Call To Action
7. CTR = Click-Through Rate
8. CX= Customer Experience
9. DM = Direct Message
10. ESP = Email Service Provider
11. FB = Facebook
12. FTW = For the win
13. G+ = Google Plus
14. GA = Google Analytics
15. IG = Instagram
16. ISP = Internet Service Provider
17. KPI = Key Performance Indicator
18. LI = LinkedIn
19. P2P = Person to Person
20. PPC = Pay Per Click
21. PV = Pageviews
22. ROI = Return on Investment
23. RSS = Really Simple Syndication
24. RT = Retweet
25. RTD = Real-Time Data
26. SaaS = Software as a Service
27. SEM = Search Engine Marketing
28. SEO = Search Engine Optimization
29. SERP = Search Engine Results Page
30. SM = Social Media
31. SMB = Small Business
32. SMM = Social Media Marketing
33. SMO = Social Media Optimization
34. SMP = Social Media Platform
35. SOV = Share of Voice
36. TOS = Terms of Service
37. UGC = User Generated Content
38. UV = Unique Visitor
39. UX = User Experience
40. WOM = Word of Mouth

Feel Free to add your own to the list. All Contributions are welcome.

You can follow me in Twitter: https://twitter.com/CharmChawm

The post Abbreviations for the Mobile Optimised Male (MOM) – Chawm Ganguly appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

Chawm Ganguly eats out with Facebook and Instagram and Twitter for Company

Went out for Dinner with Wife last night. Now-a-days, it takes way longer to go out, as, after she’s dressed and dolled, she has to update her status to “Going out for Dinner” in some 37 social media platforms.

“We’ll go to Tipu’s” she said. “Yelp recommends it, besides, Nandita has already checked it out. So has Alisha who swears by their desserts.”

“We will order the Tikka Butter Masala – Suman thinks it is yum. Looked sinfully juicy on Ria’s Facebook wall too.”

“The colour of the gravy will highlight my ensemble. Wait till Mona sees it. That witch who thinks she’s a designer, trying to pass off stitched salwars from Ekbalpore as bespoke Sabya!”

“Don’t dig in like barbarians. Let me take the pic’s first.”

“Do you think the food looks better with the grunge filter? Or should I use the Lomo effect?”

“Hold the Naan Up and flash the Victory Sign. Nivi always posts pics of her husband with the grub whenever they go out. Its soo damn delicious!”

Pictures of potbellied, middle aged men holding spoonful’s of keema matter shot in in Ektachrome and delicious? Something, somewhere is certainly amiss, but like all house-trained husbands, I too know when Not to stretch my luck and press the self mute button.

“Can’t you do funny faces like the other husbands? Do you always have to look like the undertaker when we go out?”

“The ambient light is way too chic! I must take a picture of this vase here in the corner. It’s so Vogue!”

Can I eat now?

“Are we here to eat? Wait at the least till I upload the pics, sweety.”

“Hang on ya, I haven’t taken my selfie in the loo – heard the mirrors here are just awesome and the area was designed to be selfie friendly. Besides, the entire ladies powder-room area is one giant wi-fi zone. They have even done it up to resemble the colour scheme of Facebook!”

#yum, #Tikka, #Tipu’s, #hubbie, #awesome, #kewl, #Naan, #dessert, #restroom, #romantic # YuvrajSingh

“Why #YuvrajSingh” the moron that I am, I ask, daring to punctuate the monologue?

“Because he’s trending, you dodo” comes the terse reply, wifey visibly upset being disturbed like that.

“Wait, let me tag Nivi and Ria and Cheena and Pinky and the gang in Facebook”

“See, I’ve already got 27 likes and an obscene number of hearts in Instagram!!!”

“Look Ria has mailed her pic with two guys in a bar. What a hoe!”

“Hang on bubba. Why do you always act like a starving bhikari? Can’t you see I’m busy? Don’t you get to eat at home?”

#missin-ya babes, #touched, #chweety-pie, #wish-u-were-here, #awesomefood, #killerambience, #thanku-thanku, #muuuaaaahhhh, love-u-sistah, #sluurpp, #licky-licky

“That Bitch Kajal – she’s written that the food looks cold and stale! What cheek!”

“Food, what food” me thinks? Thank God, for the Beer!

You can follow me in Twitter: https://twitter.com/CharmChawm

The post When was the last time you went out for dinner with your wife? – Chawm Ganguly appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

Growing up in a typically middleclass, co-educational school back in the Eighties – around the time Michel Jackson was Moonwalking “Beat-it” – love was all about letters. Seemingly endless tomes, professing affection that begun with “quotations” from Medieval English poems and were in fact, collaborative efforts. Typically, one wrote it (he with the neatest handwriting), one created the content (he with access to most books of quotations / poems), one signed it (he suffering from the affliction called love, heck we didn’t even know the word called “crush” ) and the most recklessly valiant delivered it (he who ran the risk of being slapped).

In nine cases out of ten the letters did not yield any result – the little ladies receiving them being equally scared to read them as we were about writing them. In some cases they resulted in chilling summons to the Principal’s office, “parents to see” notices, even rustication. In rare cases they elicited an acknowledgement – a shy smile that carefully avoided the gaze – enough for us to know that our purpose on terra firma has been vindicated. No, the smiles did not automatically translate into “dates”, which to us were exotic fruits from Arabia, to be had by the faithful for breaking the fast during the Holy month. (That’s not an exaggeration considering the fact that I am talking of a time when your Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t even born) Yes, it used to be long, painful process and, by the time we mustered enough courage to go up and speak to our lady loves, school leaving examinations would dawn and most would vanish into all-girl colleges never to be seen again, their one smile, remaining our most cherished possession, forever.

In the rarest of the rare cases where the letters elicited the desired response and sparks led to wildfires, the opening gambits: the so-called pick-up lines from the pre-cell phone era ,were as awkward and prosaic as we were. “I love you” Diptesh had told Satarupa. And as Satarupa’s knees had given up, suddenly confronted by the enormity of the three words spoken to her, Diptesh had chickened out, mumbling incoherently “said, the swallow to the reed” (lines from our English Literature staple “The Happy Prince”) before fleeing, still unable to confront his perfume of the heart, till date.

“Barkis is willing” from David Copperfield was an equally abused line and we had elevated throwing the line towards expecting (?) princesses with all the nonchalance of peacocks doing the mating dance. Often, the letters – our heart seeking missiles – would land at the wrong target leading to enormous collateral damage, peer group castigation, abject humiliation, global sanctions, or all, but that is another story. Suffice to say, our antics were naïve, however much we wanted to pass ourselves off as knaves and dandies of the day.

If you can visualize those bell-bottom pants, Hara stretch Jeans, Balmont T-shirts and desperately practiced Kamala Hasan moves from Sanam Teri Kasam, you too must be seeing the flash back in Techni-Colour Cinemascope. Now press the fast forward button and check out the Top 20 pickup lines of the day. Thank you technology, wish I was young again:

1. Turn on your Bluetooth: let’s pair our hearts and devices.
2. If you were a Tweet, I’d favourite you instantly and never re-Tweet you – don’t want to share you with everybody.
3. Is your name Google? You are everything I ever want to know.
4. You’ve stolen the ASCII to my heart.
5. How ‘bout a little peer-to-peer saliva swapping?
6. You are so pretty I wouldn’t even need Instagram filters if I were to take your pic.
7. Where is the Like button to that smile?
8. Every breath you take, every tweet you make …. I’ll be watching you.
9. No, that isn’t an i-Pod mini in my pocket. I’m just happy to see you.
10. Excuse me for a second. I need to change my status to “taken”.
11. You can put a Trojan on my hard drive anytime.
12. Ah, you still use Internet Explorer – you like things nice and slow.
13. You so auto-complete me.
14. Let’s merge our Photoshop layers?
15. What’s an Avatar like you doing in a Social Network like this?
16. Let me StumbleUpon all over you?
17. Is your IP available for some chat?
18. There’s something wrong with my cellphone : it doesn’t have your number in it.
19. Can I download you on my hard disk?
20. How ‘bout you and me being the dual sims on the handset of life?

You can follow Chawm Ganguly in Twitter: https://twitter.com/CharmChawm

The post Your Hompage or Mine? Love in the times of 4G – Chawm Ganguly appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

Nokia’s latest family of products builds upon industry leading design, advanced camera features and unique applications and experiences to make life easier and more fun

The post Nokia brings new innovations to design and imaging with six new devices, applications and experiences appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

I was out for a day. Out of the city, sans my mobile phone and deliberately unwired – no laptop, no tablet, no android, no blackberry – absolutely unarmed, unprotected, a sitting bird (as opposed to birds of a feather tweeting together). It was like going to a detox center. Socialaholics  Anonymous.

Naturally the moment I stepped back, breathless from the “real world” I logged in. I just had to catch up with what was happening. The suspense of being left out almost choking me to a myocardial infarction. Darn it! I had actually switched off the laptop instead of putting it in the customary “sleep mode” and it took ages to reboot, reload the firewalls and upgrade the latest anti-virus software adding to the anxiety  with my facebook page finally loading after what seemed like a million years.

And look what I missed. While I was away:

• My friend Hargobind Bajoria, MD of a limited, listed company had sent me 16 requests to play Farmville, 10 requests to play Bubble Safari and 4 requests to play Mafia Wars with him. Obviously as the games in facebook became more complex, the brain dead moron became less adept, his company paid 3-G connection and shareholder paid gadgets and time notwithstanding.
• Mampa Sadat, my socialite friend from Bangladesh had keyed in (with her own) manicured fingers the fact that one of her maids had gone to her native place and had brought back sweets from her impoverished village. “How touching” Mampa had written, “my eyes swelled up right in the morning, even though no mega star had passed away the day before in Mumbai”! How socially touching.
• Satragit Ghosh and 27 others had posted in Mohun Bagan Garbo ranting about how the National Club has been transformed into a “poitrik shompotti” (fathers property) by some self seeking “officials” and how only “Babluda” can save the day.
• Sonjoy da’s  13 year old son Sutirth, while I was away, became friends with the 41 year old “platinum blonde Soccer Mom” from Manchester. “I do everything that ends with a “K”, read her baseline. Best of luck Sonjoy da! Just imagine, a Cougar with a son as old as the groom for Bou Bhaat. Hope you invite us to the gala Indian wedding.
• That whoever did whatever was, “awesome”. Prasun Manna’s Darshan of Rani ma’s murti was awesome. Pinki Chawla’s Nicco Park ride was awesome. Payal Mehta (Kamdar’s) kurtis were awesome. Prodip Santra’s trip to Mondarmoni was awesome. Sujoy Sen’s Sunday afternoon teen patti session with unlimited beer too was – you guessed it right – awesome.
• And Chill. From gawky teenagers to overweight, pot bellied corporate captains, all were “chilling”. 47 of them “chill” posts. Some in the local dhaba, some in Tolly, some in the Taj – the common factor being the stubbles, the Bermudas, the vests and the 50 shades of underarm growth.
• My friend Ronjon Sen Gupta had posted 27 pictures, via Instagram of the same burger he had in “Deem-Pauruti” – Kolkata’s hottest and most happening bread joint. Going through the 247 comments that his post got, all lamenting the inability of digging into those sinfully desirable pauruti’s I really got to understand what pangs of hunger are really about.
• OMG Look at the pics that Roma has posted.  Look at Montu da’s wife warming up to Bijoyda? Is that just drunken stupor or a love unrequited, now that the children are tucked away to Bangalore?
• Ahh. Look at Sheena Mondol Saha. More flesh and skin than clothes, doing chin chin’s with equally undressed models / friends with pot bellied beer guzzling spouses looking on with detached disdain. Their v signs are so damn weather-beaten and fake. garishly over painted faces resembling those of the geishas. Gal, you sure was made in China.
• Sudipta Gupta posted 96 comments in the South Point community – mostly lame jokes that even she didn’t laugh at.
• Kaushik Saha posted 32 pictures of his tired, forty something frame in the same community page, hoping that some director will stumble upon and make him the next Amitabh Bachchan. Being an old friend, I just could not muster enough courage to say that “you look terribly unpalatable in that sando ganjee boss”. Let salmaan do his dinka chika you were better off selling newspaper space.
• 16 posts urging all true, patriotic, xenophobic Indians to become followers of Narendra Modi and support his cause of an ethnically cleansed, prosperous Bharat. Which was countered by an equal number extolling the vision of Rahul Gandhi. While the tirade between supporters of TMC and CPM continued, often degenerating to abuses with feeble interjections from the Pradesh Congress Committee. There were also 12 posts on corruption and “be a fan of the Indian Army”. So much for the political scene.
• I came to understand that when Rajni farts its called Rajni-gandha. And that Rajni alone knows Victoria’s Secret.
• Sreejoyee Sarkar has changed her profile picture 17^th time in the last 6 days! She also posted a total of 22 gory pictures of bleeding Rhinoceroses with their horns copped off – urging all to join her cause to save the one horned rhino from poachers. Thumbs up to that gal.
• 37 of my friends were subscribed as followers to a lady whose name was written in Arabic and her page consisted of nothing but her burka clad pictures with scribbles in some alien tongue.
• Manoj Jain had updated his status to “At the Taj” and had also geo tagged the location (to prove that he was indeed in Alipore and not in the Taj Barber Shop in Ekbalpore). Vainglorious be thy name.
• Rajesh Sharma between posting about Jesuit Alumni events around the world had also posted 257 pictures from his latest trip to Ladakh – mostly his mute face accompanied by crazy wife – a barfi of a love story.

It was so cathartic. The voyeuristic pleasure, of peeping into the lives and times of friends, their friends and sundry – from the close confines of your room. Reading comments made – some hilarious, some snide and some downright silly. As if eavesdropping into conversations, like that we used to have in the pre mobile era when land phones got cross-connected.

It is a living, thriving, vibrant space out there. More than anything else – a running commentary on the life and the times. Each post telling a tale about the one making it, opening up their lives and idiosyncrasies for the world to note. Little pointers of the changing value systems, of evolving social norms.

Mind it, Raskalas!

– Chawm Ganguly

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