What to expect from the F1 weekend

While India gears up for it's first Formula 1 weekend, here are five things one can expect this weekend:

1. When the grand stand erupts at the chequered flag, the cheer and the noise will not be for Vettel the winner of the grand prix, but for Sachin Tendulkar waving the flag

     1.1 The winner dedicating the victory to Sachin and carrying him around the race track

2. Half the crowd having turned up after seeing the SRK ad, just like they do for his movies

     2.1 The knowledgeable ones wondering how come Schumacher is not wearing red of Ferrari

     2.2 The really knowledgeable ones explaining to them that the real Michael Schumacher has retired and this is someone else, possibly his brother.


3. Narain Karthikeyan using his local knowledge & adopting a 17 pit stop strategy, thereby avoiding a punctured tyre and winning the race.

4. Worldwide audience of F1 realising that India is more than slums and poverty, but left with one nagging question -- Who or What is Ra.One?

     4.1 Also, rest of the world being introduced to the technological marvel that is the MRF blimp and the race being red flagged for a 5-minute strategic break

5. Arnab Goswami's monologue with Vettel

Thoughts?

---

Update after watching FP1 -

#3. will lead to epic failure as the track and the conditions are simply brilliant.

But what did happen was that FP1 was red flagged for 5 minutes. Reason --- Unidentified dog on the circuit! haha.. But that incident aside, Friday practice was just brilliant. Promises to be a brilliant first #IndianGP.

The day after Diwali

Today marks the beginning of Samvat 2068. Wishing a very happy new year to all !!

Just noting a few observations made yesterday:

1. Seemed like there were less crackers burnt this Diwali
2. The best part of watching Ra.One was the trailer to Don 2 (Or is it Don.Two?) . Insane marketing alone does not make good content. If Farhan Akthar direction also delivers a dud, then brand SRK is in deep trouble if not dead.
3. Diwali (or for that matter any festival) away from home sucks. Big-time.

Just want to dwell a bit more on the first observation. Most of the crackers burnt in my colony were after 9pm and by adults who were generally 25+ .. The only time I saw kids, were when they were playing cricket in the morning.

Two possible theories -
a) Inflation - Not enough money for left to spend on the crackers & also the cracker prices.. The amount you have to shell out to buy the good ones is insane.
b) Education - I wonder how much impact this is having. Kids today seem to be generally more aware about social issues.

It's only when I saw the celebrations late in the night, I thought it might be the latter. Wouldn't it be great if it is! Of course this is a sample size of 1. The hypothesis itself could be wrong. Would love to know if anyone else felt the same or this is just my wishful thinking.

Dewarists - The Brand behind it.

19:20 on a Friday - Bliss. Just one call to attend for the weekend. Usually sporting events dominate my things to look forward to for the weekend. True this weekend also with the Rugby World Cup. But also there is one other program I don't want to miss -

Dewarists, On Star World @ 8PM.

If you haven't watched episode 1, you must do so here..

The idea of music documentary is something really fascinating (At least in India) .. But what's even better was the execution. And the music at the end of it all was superb.

But this post is not about 'Dewarists' the show.. But 'Dewars' the brand. A scotch brand.

Heard that they have underwritten almost the entire production costs of the show. And even after having spent quite a lot, they have just lent the brand name to show. No unnecessary product placement, screen popups, etc. I wonder how many people know that Dewars is an alcohol brand from Bacardi, and even after watching the first episode know about this.

I really think the marketing guys @ Bacadi have struck gold. Compare this to Bhajji's "Make it Large" or Dhoni's "Spirit of Leadership". Think this is one of the best marketing concepts this year in India.

Secondly, would they have been inspired to create such a campaign if alcohol advertising was allowed in India. Would there have been more product placement, etc?

Anyways, waiting to see how they follow through on the fantastic beginning. And also if the show will go on to become a successful franchise (I think so).

The Blog.

I woke up today with this thought... "I should start blogging".

To be honest today was not the first time. It's actually 175th time. Yes, same number of runs Kapil scored during that 1983 World Cup match against Zimbabwe.

But the difference was, this is probably the first time I thought about blogging since joining twitter (actively) in May 2010. On twitter it's like I am talking to myself. So I presume it's going to be the same here. But you never know... as Oogway said, There are no accidents.