olympic torch fiasco

At a time when winning medals at olympics seems a distant dream, our country is obsessed with film stars. As in every sphere of life, crass commercialisation seems to have prevalied upon common sense. The day will not be far off when sponsorship takes over all forms of life-imagine, our prime minister wearing the colours of a particular brand or the treasury benches dressed in blue & the opposition in red. We may even have auctions for the right to sponsor departments/ministries and even political parties. We may have commercial breaks announcing that the zero hour is sponsored by so and so company.... and maybe mani shankar iyer singing " yeh bhook hai badi" in the company of undernourished children of orissa.

It is time people understood that a line needs to be drawn somewhere since no other nation needs to be undermined so much brand power. the sponsors themselves need to understand that brand recall and bottomline do not always converge.