The New Nation - Internet Edition

Dr. M. S. Haq

Lalu Chacha - I mean, India's central rail minister Lalu Prasad Yadev - was once again at the center of attraction and prominence in the last evening (27 July 2008) episode of a Star Plus TV serial conducted by renowned Indian film actor Shahrukh Khan. I used the word "once again" because it was not the first time for Lalu Chacha to occupy a position of above nature in TV shows - the Zee TV show on singer talent competition in the recent past is one of the examples in that respect.

The Star Plus serial (hereinafter: the serial unless indicated otherwise in the article) was prima-facie a quiz competition - two days a week. Core aims of the serial included inter alia: one, charity; and two, to provide financial assistance to participating children in support of their future education after they attain the age of 18. The contestants comprised super-duper personalities from within and outside of the entertainment world.

The maximum prize money for each of the episodes of the serial was one crore (10 million) Indian rupees. The winners donated the prize money to charities.

Lalu Chacha was the last evening's contestant. He was successful in giving right answers to all the questions posed by Shahrukh. The attending and intervening elements of fun and humor of the show were instrumental in, among other things, holding the attention of both in and ex-country Star Plus viewers - to whom it might concern though, and sustaining their satisfaction, through the entire duration of that show. The children participated with Lalu Chacha in the show appeared to have come from at least upper middle class of Indian society. What about the poor but talented ones? Lalu Chacha won eventually one crore Indian rupees and the money went to charities. Lalu Chacha - Well done!

Interactions of Lalu Chacha with for example, human plus other physical elements and physical plus virtual environments - all associated with the show afforded the viewers yet another opportunity for identifying and enjoying, and taking lessons from, certain special aspects of Chacha's personality - I mean, the sum total of his behaviors. In that respect, a brief analysis of the story - about purchasing silk sarees - he had narrated before the audience - physical and virtual - during the show would reveal inter alia:

1. all that glitters is not gold;

2. the influence of factors - such as and appropriate (a) the present day power of marketing tactics including inter alia those associated with present day price gimmicks and (b) the present day tensile strength - used in an engineering sense - of marketing skills - on price sensitive buyers and others is such, it (I mean, the influence) has been instrumental in inter alia creating an instant motivation, as well as satisfaction in their minds, leading eventually to buying decisions with regard to respective product or products.

Interesting though, in above events, the buyers or end users or both start realizing the degree of deception by marketers only when the product-s bought or used (or both) by them start revealing their real faces at operation level, per se. In Lalu Chacha's case, he started realizing the degree of deception when he started receiving complaints about operational worthiness of those sarees;

3. Lalu Chacha attempted to give a message to all concerned about the nature, as well as scope of affordability of a politician and a cabinet member of his position and stature under the present market situation. It indicates inter alia - how intelligent and political he was in conveying to all concerned the pocket situation of his, for example? and

4. how can factors like, disproportionate profit motives of marketers, quality-price compromises, price-quality compromises, and pocket limitations of buyers or end users or both deprive of their (say, buyers + end users) entitlements for actual value for money, per se?

The bottom line is: Lalu Chacha, Shahrukh and others including the children did well with regard to the serial. In that connection, I will be failing in my duties if I do not mention the contributions of Star Plus and others towards making the serial an excellent one in several respects. Congratulations to all of them!

It is expected the Star management will be able to present more such entertaining and knowledge-based shows in the future with further improvements in pertinent areas and with personalities such as, Lalu Chacha, and PM Bajpayee - provided that he could withstand the show related load between now and the foreseeable future.

Lalu Chacha is a brilliant rail minister of India. His leadership qualities, initiatives, efforts, team spirits, people-centered behavioral skills and foresightedness have been instrumental in, among other things, transforming a continually loosing (at least for certain periods of time) Indian Railway into a highly profitable public organization. It will not be out of place to mention here: his team and he did not go for traditional organisation measures such as staff reduction when it comes to repositioning the railway in its present position. I believe one of the reasons behind his visible success in the railway is: he was successful in bringing constructive political will into managing dimensions of Indian Railway with the support of all concerned via harnessing their ownership in pursuits of turning Indian Railway into a profitable entity.

It is expected Lalu Chacha will be able to bringing about similar successes when it comes to alleviating poverty from all over India, particularly Bihar. When I was visiting India this year (2008), I heard from people - representing a cross section of Indian society - "Lalu did well in the railway but he did not do enough for the people of Bihar".

The last word: Bangladesh Railway is in bad shape at present. The country should explore and exploit inter alia opportunities like: how best and quickest it could benefit from experiences, expertise and successes of Lalu Chacha and his team in making Bangladesh Railway a profitable concern, once again. Let us work towards that.