[harshitapande]

Merry Christmas to everyone! Snippets from our little shoot with @lensdoula 😀 #babylove #babyphotography #babygirl #beautifulbaby #babystory #babiesofinstagram #babiesofig #momsofinstagram #mommiesofinstagram #momsofig #photoprop #merrychristmas #christmas #christmasphotoshoot #falalala

[harshitapande]

#Goa #monsoon #travelgram #gogoa #travelphotography #travels #travelwithkids #mayfairhotel #betul #southgoa #green #flora #oceanview #vacation #incredibleindia #mygoa #goatourism #goatravel #goadiaries #traveldiaries #traveller #sogoa (at Mayfair Hideway Spa Resort, Goa)

[harshitapande]

Harshita Pande Joshi featured in the global panel of experts, sharing insights on the Customer today.

[harshitapande]

Your Body is a depreciating asset! Your Mind is an appreciating asset!

Self

[harshitapande]

Stop the Stereotypes.

I recently stumbled upon a video, which had an interesting analysis of American media and their portrayal of coloured people and I was surprised to see how it substantiated my observations of all the American TV shows and films, I have seen, over the years. An Indian is ALWAYS shown to be a nerd (Raj Koothrapalli from Big Bang) or doing jobs like a taxi driver (Ranjit from How I Met Your Mother) or classic - a supermarket owner (Appu from The Simpsons).

As much as I dislike the terms - coloured people, brown, black, white (as if we are all paint shades), I am going to have to use it in places to set the context! The video concludes that, for decades now, the people who write scripts, dialogues, chalk up characters of coloured people are actually all white. They are far from reality and hence mostly end up creating stereotypical characters. It is only now with some shows like Empire and Scandal, where the writers themselves are from the communities of the characters being written for and the portrayal is close to reality.

What were my observations? 

Observation 1 - Stereotypical behaviour is a global issue!

This is not just an American phenomena. This is very common in India too. With 29 states, we are like a continent of our own. We have multiple accents of English itself. And we have also not been behind in creating stereotypes!

We are all aware of the many stereotypes that exist in our media and society - regional - racial - gender - class - language - the list goes on.

During one of my projects in Kerala, I was to understand the Malayali people and their life in general. I was told (by a native Malayali) that we are the Punjabis of the South - we all love alcohol, we love jeeps and we love living life to the fullest! I didn’t know what was funnier - how that guy thought of Punjabis or how he thought this to be an apt explanation of Malayalis!

Observation 2 - There are all sorts of people in all sorts of communities.

Years of watching Seinfeld, Friends and a zillion other shows, I had a visual of people in NY City. But when I visited the city, I was surprised to find not a single store owned by an Indian. I took a total of 6 cabs, all drivers were from different regions - one Mexican, one Nigerian, one American (or the white people), one Spanish, one Indian and one Pakistani. And there were people of all sorts. They were simply hot, dumb, gorgeous, irritating, etc, irrespective of their communities.

Observation 3 - The more diverse the world tries to be regarding ethnicity, the narrower they become.

Recently, the global messaging service Whatsapp introduced smiley faces of multiple colours. I debated with many people and got mixed responses. Some said, everyone should be able to share a smiley of their colour. Some said it doesn’t matter. But that’s exactly where my argument begins... these are emoticons, not people! It’s a subconscious level of realisation that I constantly am being given about my skin colour.

Emoticons were (and are) a tool of communication. With the skin colour option, the emoticons have not been diversified but narrowed. Diversifying is to add more emotions, not skin colour. To people, who may contradict with my point of view, please think about this, if skin colour options are for people, then they must be for all things - why do we have only a yellow cat? Cats have different colours too!

Observation 4 - Stereotypes make us ghettoed. 

When the Tamil movie Bahubali released, courtesy my husband, I saw the film, not once but twice. I was mesmerised by the visual effects, the storyline and the breathtaking cinematography. But when people asked about the movie their question would be - but what’s so special - it’s a South Indian movie! What will we understand! Little did they know the film was simultaneously made in Telugu and Tamil and dubbed into Hindi, Malayalam and French languages.

Rajinikanth is the only icon who is known and talked about by all Indians. But I have one question to all non-southern India origin people. How many Rajinikanth movies have you actually seen, where he does all the miraculous stunts? (And Hum or Chalbaaz don’t count).

Over the years, I have gotten myself to see different cinema, and not global but Indian cinema. Marathi movies like Natrang, Punjabi movies like Jatt and Juliet and Malayali movies like Bangalore Days (I am still trying to convince my family to watch Bangalore Days purely for it’s very amazing story.) But convincing people to watch a “regional movie” is still a challenge. We go and watch English movies in the theatre with English subtitles. (An ironic thing, right! The subtitles are usually for another language to translate the spoken language). But we won’t go watch a regional film, because we are restricted by what we know of that region.

Observation 5 - This stereotyped media representation of different communities has led us to believe this portrayal in real-life. 

My family hails from the hills and we are ‘Paharis of Uttarakhand’. Recently when I met a friend, during some conversation, I mentioned something about being a Pahari and her father laughingly replied that a Pahari girl for me is the one who wears a cloth on her head, plucking tea leaves. That’s what we’ve been shown in movies, remember the Raam Teri Ganga Maili era - the Pahari girls were these naive, virgin girls, who could be swayed into getting laid and they would go back to their laborious life in the hills waiting for the shehri babu! They have completely missed the Paharis that live in Shimla, Mussoorie, Darjeeling, Dalhousie and Nainital which have been British summer capitals, and have some of finest lifestyles and some of the most expensive schools in the country!

Observation 6 - Stereotypes evolve from sheer lack of information.

Cambridge Dictionary defines Stereotype as - to have a set ​idea about what a ​particular ​type of ​person is like, ​especially an ​idea that is ​wrong. 

This idea is made out of little information, mostly gathered by hearsay, that we create a notion about an entire region/community/country. But stereotyping kills the opportunity to explore the individuality of the people involved.

PS: In no way are the examples stated here in disrespect to the people from my life. It’s purely to substantiate my observations. Our stereotyped thinking has become a part of our upbringing and as they say - old habits die hard! 

[harshitapande]

When you read a book that your parents read.

I am reading a famous book called I'm OK. You're OK. By Thomas Harris. This note is not about the book but about the book. The book I am reading belongs to my father and its an amazing experience to read something he read almost 3 decades ago!

The book goes back to 18.11.82, dated in pen, in what I think is my father's handwriting. That's exactly 6 days after my elder sis was born. He has underlined and highlighted key points that he probably found helpful while reading. He was 28 at that time. Through our lives, at different junctures, his advice was much needed. And I now realise, that many a times it came from the principles of this book. The idea was to empower us to think and solve...on our own. 

There's another emotion that flows. It is amazing to see how this book was a part of his life, at a complex young age, when one seeks answers for questions that seem unsolvable and so important! And I am going through the same questions, using the same book, seeking the same answers. Today 34 years later, he stands as a gracious, composed man and if he could do it, I hope I can do it too, with each passing day. The key is only one.

I am OK. You're OK. Everything and everyone is OK. And life will be good.

[harshitapande]

How to handle a major social media crisis

Social media horror stories can be like the car wreck you can’t take your eyes off of. Here are some tips on how to defuse an incident at your company.

Article by CIO.com featuring tips from Harshita Pande Joshi. 

[harshitapande]

51 Amazing Social Media Facts from India – 2015

India saw a 100% rise in social media users compared with last year according to IAMAI. Right from building relationships to share experiences to growing business/brands, users have done everything and now we almost treat this virtual world as parallel one. The ubiquity of social media is clear and increasing, for people who don’t know the importance of social media presence for company’s branding and marketing campaigns – have a look at the below fascinating 51 social media facts from India 2015.

[harshitapande]

The legacy of Santa

Santa exists! But his existence can only be known to a child. Oh yes, the parents are the elves and their job is to silently keep his legacy on.

The morning of 25th of December was always a holiday and the only morning where I’d wake up early. On my own. The other mornings were full of Mom’s badgering or Dad’s bickering to get me out of bed. But not on 25th - the Christmas morning! I would wake up and wake everyone up because it was the day of the secret gift from an unknown secret entity who I only saw pictures of but loved dearly - Santa Claus!

Every year, he’d give me the one thing that I had long wished for. It’s like he could really hear me wish. I had an unconditional love for Santa. As I grew older, I continued getting the gifts, till one day, a so-called ‘wise’ friend revealed to me, that there was NO Santa and it in fact was my parents who kept the gift at night, before I’d wake up. I could not believe her! Could she hear herself? What nonsense was she talking about? Why would my mom and dad take the pain, buy me a gift, and give all the credit to an imaginary Santa! That was simply preposterous, I thought to myself! But she got a couple more witnesses to support her statement and they all called this a strange phenomenon - just like the tooth fairy, Santa too was imaginary! This was going beyond my head now. I had to investigate and see Santa myself to prove them wrong. So one year I decided to stay up all night to see Santa in person. I had dinner, changed into my nighties and after a glass of milk, I put off the light, pretending to sleep. But no, my eyes were keeping a tight watch. I left the door curtain open a little to get a clear glimpse of the lit up sparkling Christmas Tree. But alas! I was small and my body was tuned to sleeping at night. I woke up in the morning, in the same position, getting a clear glimpse of the tree, but by now the gift was already delivered. I had missed Santa!

Next year, I was a year wiser. The mission was on. I slept the entire afternoon of the 24th, so I could stay up at night and see Santa dropping my gift. This time I was smarter and I had cold milk with some coffee (without my parent’s knowledge). And I told my parents that I had to finish some homework, so I kept the light open, pretending to study. All I wanted was to stay up late and meet Santa. I started reading my course book, keeping a tight watch at the lit up sparkling Christmas Tree. Alas! The course book put me off to sleep again and the next thing I remember was the morning alarm waking me up. The gift was right next to me but I had missed Santa again! Every year, the mission continued but my body wouldn’t allow me to stay up that late.

Then I turned 16. My body and mind were both changing. I regularly stayed up and night hours made me much more productive. I would watch movies, listen to music, study, finish homework, think up stuff, all in the silence of the night. But something else also changed. I lost my interest in meeting Santa! 24th night was just another night to me now. The gifts too stopped and I realised that I was no more a child. Sometimes I wondered if my friend was right. If indeed my parents pretended to be Santa all these years. But this idea had lost my attention and there were other things I needed to worry about.

Years passed. I went to college. Fell in love. Made a career. Made even more friends. Fell in love again. Got married. Had a child. Santa was long gone…

When my boy turned three, he saw the movie - The Polar Express and he promised to me that he’d be good because Santa would give the good kids a gift on Christmas. He started doing all good things with the motivation that Santa would gift him for being NICE this year. And everything came back rushing to me. I realised that I was now the parent, and once again, I stayed up late at night on the 24th. This time to leave a Christmas gift from Santa for my son. On 25th morning, he woke up without an effort. He woke us all up and his only excitement was to open the gift from Santa.

[harshitapande]

My year in review through my travels!

2015 was a year where work and travel went hand-in-hand for me. I travelled to places like Kerala, Sikkim, Goa (again), Chicago and NY. The video is a compilation of 3 ecological seasons and 3 highlight destinations. No more words now...enjoy the video! 

[harshitapande]

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!

Statutory Warning: 

The words below come from me, a person who is not an idol worshipper. Who chants the hanuman chalisa to please her mother and visits the Siddhi Vinayak temple when relatives need a Mumbai Darshan. Someone who is finding her religious or spiritual path and yet to reach an ultimate zone.

Having said that, I wish to establish that I am not a pro in religion and neither are my words below any sort of preaching. They are purely from an observer of the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi - the festival that connects communities.

Here are 5 beautiful things that the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi brings -

1. Personal and Professional Life Balance - In today’s so called ‘hectic lives’, people have no space for personal and spiritual growth. Religion and celebration are supposed to be as much a part of life as work. Because of these 10 days, people take leave from offices to spend time at home and take care of their Gods. They buy new things for the family members and basically shift their energies to their personal spaces and I assume, at the end of the visarjan, feel rejuvenated to get back to their hectic work lives.

2. Everyone’s God is important - This brings me to a very specific point of what is God? Is the idol at the temple the ultimate God, the one at my home temple or the one that I try to reach by meditating, etc. The idea is that every God has his own place. And one’s God is most precious to him. The idea of God in this festival is not exclusive but inclusive. There is Ganpati at my house and yours. I will come visit yours and you come visit mine. We will all go visit the Ganpati at the society pandal and go to Siddhi Vinayak Ganpati too. The same God (Ganesh) is manifested into variations and there is not just tolerance but mutual respect for each other’s Gods.

3. Unification - Ganesh Chaturthi, as what we see today, was initiated by Lokmanya Tilak, way back in the 19th century, with a long-term vision. This religious festival was positioned as a public festival, a way to unite people in a common cause. The intention then was to bring about political consciousness under the guise of a religious celebration, with freedom for India being the ultimate goal. Freedom is achieved but the essence is still present. This festival sees all communities coming together to celebrate one God, nay celebrate in one spirit. In Byculla, the Ganpati processions stop in front of the Hindustani Masjid every year, with welcoming garlands from both Muslims and Hindus. (In fact basis an article published in 2008, there is a Ganpati pandal in Pune, whose President is Muslim). Several Muslim sculptors create these beautiful idols who are then carried home by Hindus. All of this only shows how we all are interdependent and that’s a good thing to keep us unified!

4. To each its own - The fact that everyone can choose the duration for which they wish to keep the Ganpati, depending on their convenience and their capacities is truly liberating. Some people keep it for 10 days, some for a day and a half. No pressure at all! Your Ganpati will be equally happy with your devotion. I wish people could follow this in life too. An expensive gift need not have an even more expensive return gift. What matters is the emotion, the gesture, the bhavana.

5. To let go - The biggest aspect, according to me, is the visarjan which teaches the most important lesson in life - To let go. Everyone, every thing comes and goes. And this is symbolically acted by people when they let go off the idol, with a hope that he will return next year. The faith and the strength to move on with life, remains.

Wishing you all a Happy Ganesh Chaturthi and I hope you live by the real essence of this festival! 

[harshitapande]

When Apple was launching iphone 6S, this is what Samsung was upto. They ran an SEM campaign for the keyword iphone 6S launch and did a brilliant wordplay. The ad said:

6S? Did you mean: S6edge+ Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+

It was for a few hours, and it must have been a bomb spend! But it was one of those rare cases where Samsung could outsmart Apple! And this will be remembered for long! 

[harshitapande]

Interview With Harshita Pande Joshi, Social Media Strategist

Read what Harshita Pande Joshi, Social Media Strategist thinks about digital marketing and his experience with Digital Vidya.

My interview with Digital Vidya on social media, how I got involved and some other thoughts.. [Read here]

[harshitapande]

Google Talk is dead, long live, er, Google Talk: Chat will survive app zap, flaps G+ chap

One more channel comes to an end - Gtalk. Google had given enough indications, moving users to hangouts from gtalk, closing the windows version of gtalk a few months ago and now it completely closes. Users can move to google hangouts to continue their chats.

[harshitapande]

Thank you is always an effective word. And its often one of the most ignored messages online. Well, you got the user to click, read, view, buy, sell, claim an offer, fill a survey, so the job is done. But a little twist to your thank you message can leave a remarkable impression on your user. 

Here's a creative example of a google survey thank you message. Created by a friend doing a short survey. 

[harshitapande]

11 unique, smart and innovative twitter handles.

Over the last few years, I've browsed and come across many twitter handles that I find amazing and creative in their own ways. Here's my list of 11 really innovative twitter handles, I've stumbled upon. Enjoy the list! If you have found any interesting twitter handles, do share them in comments. I'd love to add them on my live twitter list:

Thomas Roll @respecthehyphen - Try tweeting something about Spiderman and within a few hours, you'll receive a notification from this guy that 'you missed the hyphen in Spider-Man'. His profile says - I inform people that they missed the hyphen in Spider-Man's name. I have a lot of time on my hands. He has never tweeted. But has about 2000 replies.

@Chewiejds You forgot to put the hyphen in Spider-Man.

— Thomas Roll (@Respecthehyphen)

February 10, 2015

Dear Assistant @dearassistant - Is a useful search engine, when you are on the go and google isn't opening. Tweet to @dearassistant with any question and he'll find you the answer, with the help of Wolfram Alpha, the intelligent search engine.

Alexis Tsipras RT @gmouroutis who is the prime minister of Greece?

— Dear Assistant (@DearAssistant)

February 6, 2015

Every Word @everyword - Twittered every word in the English language. Task began in 2007 and completed in 2014. Tweets by @everyword !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

TweetRoach @tweetroach - A roach that was getting its commands through twitter. An artist Brittany Ransom, conducted this experiment in 2012, where a circuit (like a roach) could be controlled through this twitter handle. Tweets by @TweetRoach !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

Sweden @sweden - A liberal country in the truest sense. Each week, a new Suede runs the official twitter account of the country Sweden. Running successfully since 2009. It's like experiencing the country through locals. See who's running it this week - Tweets by @sweden !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

NancyFalls @nancyfalls - Read her bio and you'll know why she made this list!

This is @JasonFalls's wife. I am not on Twitter. Nor do I intend to be. Jason did this to reserve my name. Go do something useful.

— Nancy Falls (@nancyfalls)

July 2, 2009

Bimbette @nivriti_issar -  A parody account taken over as soon as Nivriti Issar (d/o Bigg Boss fame Puneet Issar) made a derogatory remark against a contestant from the house and as a solution changed her handle! This disguised account holder took up the handle and posted the funniest first tweet. For all BiggBoss8 fans!

Who is that 'dumbo' that gave away my title by birth to that Chick on @BiggBoss ? I am the Bimbette! I am the Bimbette!

— Bimbette (@Nivriti_Issar)

December 17, 2014

Rajinikanth @superstarrajini - When he joined twitter, the world stopped...to follow him. We all had emails from twitter, a big alert on our twitter profile, the day the Superstar tweeted. This is, I guess, the only account in the world, which has 11 tweets and 1.5 million followers. We all know why? :)Tweets by @superstarrajini !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

Tweeting Badger @zootweetslive - In 2013, JoBurg Zoo tried a unique experiment - they ran their twitter account to a honey badger, who tweets live from his enclosure.

Come see our lion cubs, getting big! #LionCubs pic.twitter.com/AsuTwrhW6s

— Tweeting Badger (@zootweetslive)

December 17, 2014

Skift quoted, "The digital agency Hellocomputer, part of DraftFCB, set up motion-triggered sensors at several spots in the badger’s enclosure. When the sensors are activated, one of thousands of pre-written tweets, which correspond to each area of the enclosure, are sent out. The system is wired to limit the number of tweets so followers aren’t bombarded with 15 images of BG snacking or playing."

Curiosity Rover @marscuriosity - NASA's space explorer robot is a robot celebrity, tweeting directly from MARS, and has over 1.8M followers. Basis an article published in i09.com , there are 3 women working in the public information office at NASA who drive the twitter handle. This article explains how they defined the personality of the Curiosity Rover. The images shared are from the robot, as it explores the surface of Mars.

Box marks the rover: @HiRISE got this pic of me back at Mars’ Pahrump Hills. Info: http://t.co/7cqcft5jC2 pic.twitter.com/5W6RiRWWBJ

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity)

February 4, 2015

In fact Curiosity Rover engaged in space talk when ISRO's Mars Orbiter entered the surface.

Howdy @MarsCuriosity ? Keep in touch. I'll be around.

— ISRO's Mars Orbiter (@MarsOrbiter)

September 24, 2014

Big Ben @Big_Ben_Clock Some twitter handles are simply simple. No rocket science here! Here's the Big Ben twitter handle that simply BONGs every hour.

BONG

— Big Ben (@big_ben_clock)

February 8, 2015

BONG BONG

— Big Ben (@big_ben_clock)

February 8, 2015

[harshitapande]

Here’s an article I found on a Deloitte report of how FB has made an impact on global economy. You can read entire report by clicking the link above. Good insights for the new marketers. The study estimates that:

...the company, with an approximately $8 billion cost base, enabled global economic impact of $227 billion and 4.5 million jobs around the world in 2014. More specifically, Deloitte’s report looks at how Facebook stimulates economic impact by providing 1) tools for marketers; 2) a platform for app developers; and 3) demand for connectivity, meaning data usage and mobile devices.