Category: DAS KA DUM

As we enter yet another week of Q&As with Dr Bhaskar Das, we ask him a question which we guess a lot of people possibly want to ask him.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q) Since you are so spiritually inclined, have you ever thought of chucking your job in a private enterprise and working in government or an NGO?

A) One clarity: one doesn’t get spiritually inclined. All of us are spiritual beings passing through a temporary human experience. Now everyone has to work, willy-nilly, to get life going. For a  karmabir, any workplace is a karmabhoomi. Stereotyping roleplays by sector has no linkage with one’s spiritual quest. For the enlightened, work or no work or chucking work is inconsequential to spiritualism.

When you doing a series of Q&As with Dr Bhaskar Das, one can’t not dig into intellect for career advice for young professionals. Hence the question for today.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q) If you have two candidates to select from for an adsales  job – one an MBA and the other who is a basic arts/science/commerce graduate, who will you choose… assuming both are equally smart and confident?

A) I always believe that one recruits capabilities and not degrees. So stereotyping qualifications led by degrees as a parameter for selection is myopic. They may be important for shortlisting but ultimately one has to go by instinct at the interview table at the point of recruitment. At the delivery point, the efficacy of the candidate gets substantiated. Hence the answer can’t be definitive in one way or the other.

Now this is a question we couldn’t help not asking Dr Bhaskar Das as part of the Q&A series in Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q) You’ve been President of the Ad Club and are an officebearer even now. Your message to ad agencies who stay away from participating in the Abby Awards?

A) I am not even authentic enough to give any message to the cognoscenti of the advertising world. And the AdClub President’s position won’t allow me to arrogate that onus on myself. Having said that, I would submit my views on the subject: celebration of every activity (read Awards, conferences et al) in any industry is always a great rallying point for the practitioners. If this superordinate purpose doesn’t give impetus, it’s time we should collectively introspect how we can achieve this.

What happens when you ask a question as pointed as the one asked here to Dr Bhaskar Das as part of the Q&A series in Das ka Dum. Will the answer be simple or complex. Ha Ha. Read on and figure for yourself!

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q) Don’t you get bored of answering my questions?

A) You are so blessed that you are curious enough to ask questions, though you sound intelligently naive. In today’s gig economy, asking questions are more important than knowing answers. And I don’t answer your questions. When your questions nurture my cognitive cells, I feel blessed to present my perspective, with a purity of conviction. But in no way they purport to be deterministic. It’s my own journey of a seeker.

What happens when you ask a question as pointed as the one asked here to Dr Bhaskar Das as part of the Q&A series in Das ka Dum. Will the answer be simple or complex? Read on and figure for yourself!

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q) What would your advice be to our readers: Is it better to be expressive and not be guarded in one’s views or say it like it is? What do you practise yourself?

A) Again your search for either-or for an answer suffers from a duality that stymies possibilities. One must be honest in expressions. However, for an empathetic man, unpleasant truth (a contradiction in terms) need not be communicated as it might hurt someone else. So art of communication is to spread illumination and happiness. And that’s not necessarily mean  falsehood.

Sometimes, in a corporate set-up, articulation of honest perspective might get stifled. More often than not, it also happens due to misperception on the part of the communicator or the communicatee. It’s more an individual problem than a corporate problem.

If you are referring to purveyors of prevarication with an ulterior motive, my answer wouldn’t encompass them.

The movement of the Star/Disney India Country Head to Google occupied much of conversations in medialand over the weekend. As part of the Q&A series in Das ka Dum, we asked Dr Bhaskar Das for his views on Sanjay Gupta’s decision.If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q. Your view on Sanjay Gupta moving from Star/Disney to Google? In Google there isn’t much scope to create a ‘Made in India’ offering but whereas at Star, even the sky wouldn’t have been the limit! Na?

A. Mr Gupta would be an asset for any organisation. Mr Uday Shankar’s internal memo is a testimony to his superlative capability. Star and Google are two different organisations with distinctive business challenges and opportunities. Hence this migration of Mr Gupta would certainly expand his vista of experience , irrespective of any external perception of an alleged ‘ Made in India’ advantage. And it’s also a compliment to India as a leadership source from a global giant.

Okay, we’ve slipped in yet another serious questions in the sea of provocative ones as part of the Q&A series in Das ka Dum. Do read on to check for Dr Bhaskar Das’s views on this sensitive issue

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q. We’ve just had the Ayodhya verdict on Saturday. As a marketing practitioner, how important do you think is it for a news entity to mirror the mood of the masses versus restraining itself to ensure there is calm?

A. As a marketing professional, I won’t be eligible to comment on a highly socio-political issue that has the baggage of history. Besides, it’s difficult to fathom the nuances of a journalistic perspective by a marketing professional. Having said that, as a citizen of this country and as an individual, I feel that maintaining harmony for overall societal good is a better goal to strive for. Broadly, anything that is opiate for the masses would not be good for any business in the long run. We can’t forget that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

We’ve had 50 questions in this Q&A series with Dr Bhaskar Das. Thank you for the amazing response to this series. Now, let’s ask BD which was his favouritest question we’ve asked.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q) Your sentiments on Das ka Dum reaching the milestone of 50 questions? Which Q&A did you find the best? Or, let me ask it in a spiritual way – a la Bhaskar Das: which question did you find the most stimulating to answer? Which tickled your cognitive creativity… or whatever and however you would call it.

A) ll questions asked by you provoke cognitive calibration. So it’s difficult to choose one. But now that you have asked me, I the one you asked on October 15 October 11 is an interesting question that demanded human empathy before answering.

Ed: The question we asked was this: We’ve heard that many large media organisations have sacked a lot of people.  Two questions: 1. Your words for those sacked. 2. Your advice to the owners/bosses who have effected these pink slips?

And BD’s response was… well, read it here: https://www.mxmindia.com/2019/10/das-ka-dum-with-dr-bhaskar-das-your-words-for-those-sacked-by-media-organisations-and-your-advice-to-owners-bosses-who-have-effected-these-pink-slips/

After some serious questions posed earlier in the week, the second day of soft stuff in this Q&A series with Dr Bhaskar Das.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q) If you have three hours to spare on a weekend, what would you do? Read a book, watch a movie, go for walk/run/swim, cook something, catch up on old friends or play a computer game or Solitaire/Ludo on your iPad?

A) It needn’t be one activity. Besides timing of the day matters in the decision eg if it’s the morning hour, I would prefer a combination of going to the gym and spending time with the family. If it’s afternoon, I would prefer reading or going for a gourmet lunch. If it’s the evening, it can be a combination of a popular movie and dinner outside. The only constant in any holidays during the waking hours is some form of reading.

And BD’s response was… well, read it here: https://www.mxmindia.com/2019/10/das-ka-dum-with-dr-bhaskar-das-your-words-for-those-sacked-by-media-organisations-and-your-advice-to-owners-bosses-who-have-effected-these-pink-slips/