Publicity

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I am mortally scared of giant advertisements and massive publicity. 

It was like this: A decade ago our world was just coming out of its prolonged recession. There was again a software boom in Hyderabad (Second Coming!). And there were young dinks looking to invest in high-end apartments.

(DINK = Double Income No Kids; SICK = Single Income Couple of Kids)

Those days I was taking both the dailies: Deccan Chronicle & Times of India. On the front pages of both these papers there was this Full Page Glossy Ad for a promised upcoming Township with a dozen odd towers, each having spacious apartments on 50 floors touching the very skies. 

The ads ran every single day months upon months. 

Fortunately we had already booked our apartment in a janata township that was coming up out of rocks like Venus out of her Sea.

But there were scores of couples who rushed to this new venture to be the early birds.

...And years passed by relentlessly. 

But there was no sign of any building activity. Couples who booked were paying rents as well as EMIs from their savings. And they had to go to the courts, consumer as well consuming. 

Their cases are still in the hearing stage :)

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In the early 2000s there was this bumper crop of private TV Channels sprouting like mushrooms. And they were running 24/7 News Episodes again and again like our Kukatpally Exhibition Merry-Go-Rounds.

My friend had forewarned me: He was then the Managing Director of a Govt Organization. 

Apparently one fine morning the crew of a private news channel (with a TV Camera on its sturdy tripod, lipstick-wearing smiley dame, a balding camera man, and a couple of weary foot soldiers) arrived in his office from Calcutta requesting him to permit them to take a movie of his organization with its sprawling estates and record an interview with him, for the purpose of broadcasting the achievements of his organization for public edification.

And when finally the news 'item' came up on their TV screens,  the visuals were intact but the accompanying commentary was anything but flattering...pure masala...that is what the viewing public craves.

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In the summer of 2005, I happened to be the Professor-in-Charge of the Raman Auditorium of IIT KGP where a solemn 3-hour End-Semester Exam was on with 120 grim and silent students, and 4 brooding invigilators.

One of the invigilators, a bhadramahila, had asked my permission to take her seat at the corner of the last high bench and relax...saying she was slightly unwell. I asked her to go home and take rest, but she declined politely.

And, midway through the exam, the twin of that smiley dame entered our auditorium requesting me to permit her crew waiting outside to enter and take a movie of our Examination Hall "live" for broadcasting in her news channel of Calcutta.

I took her out, and politely asked her to go to hell. 

And she said:

"We have already canned visuals of the Gymkhana, Swimming Pool, Nehru Museum, Library...we have the written permission from the Dean of Students Affairs"

And I barked:

"In my Examination Hall, for the duration of these 3 hours, I am the BOSS. Please go to the other end of this corridor where there is this Bhatnagar Auditorium, a clone of our Raman Auditorium, and try your luck. Cheerio!"

And she went away sulking taking her retinue with her...not to the Bhatnagar Auditorium but into their Vanity Van :)

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Listen to our Feynman speak about publicity:

It wasn't more than a day later when I was in my room and the telephone rang. It was the Time magazine.  The guy on the line said: "We're very interested in your work. Do you have a copy of it you could send us?"

I had never been in Time and was very excited. I was proud of my work, which had been received well at the meeting, so I said, "Sure!"

"Fine. Please send it to our Tokyo bureau." The guy gave me the address. I was feeling great.

I repeated the address, and the guy said, "That's right. Thank you very much, Mr. Pais."

"Oh, no!" I said startled. "I'm not Pais; it's Pais you want? Excuse me. I'll tell him that you want to speak to him when he comes back. "

A few hours later Pais came in. "Hey, Pais! Pais!" I said, in an excited voice. "Time magazine called! They want you to send 'em a copy of the paper you're giving."

"Aw!" he says. "Publicity is a whore!"

I was doubly taken aback. 

I've since found out that Pais was right., but in those days, I thought it would be wonderful to have my name in Time magazine. 

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And another late evening, a couple of my students brought a couple of gents from BBC asking to take my "interview" about life in the physics department, I don't know why. I gave them coffee in the outlet outside and 'forwarded' them to Prof STA, the 'showpiece' of our department.

A couple of months later I happened to meet STA and asked him how did it turn out:

"Aw! The less said the better...let's go for tea" :)

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Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says:

"A flower need not advertise its blooming. As soon as it blooms, swarms of bees, in the waiting, swoop on it. Similarly a sadguru, after gaining true jnan need not advertise for sishyas. Those who have been waiting eagerly would flock to him willy-nilly"

The rishis Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatkumara, and Sanatsujata went all around the three worlds looking for a sadguru, in vain,...they were tough customers not easily duped by lectures which they themselves were adept at giving (like me).

Finally they landed up in a forest and found a banyan tree under which was a youth sitting closing his eyes in divine ecstasy silently. 

And within minutes of squatting by him all their doubts vanished in a trice.

Such was the great sadguru, Dakshina Murty, of whom Adi Shankara sang in his ecstasy: 

చిత్రం వట తరోర్మూలే వృద్ధాః శిష్యా గురుర్యువా

గురోస్తు మౌనం వ్యాఖ్యానం శిష్యాస్తుచ్ఛిన్న సంశయాః 

chitram vata taroermoolea vRddhaah sishya gururyuvaa

guroestu maunam vyaakhyaanam Sishyaastuchchinna samSayaah

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