By Meera Haridas,
AGM (Marketing & Corp Comm), Bank of Baroda, Mumbai
“Where are you from?” is a typical question encountered by most of us Indians. It’s pretty much a given, and does not evoke any ire for undue inquisitiveness. We answer it with panache, saying from where we hail, typically describing that one place where we were born, spent our childhood and/or adulthood and where family members still live.
For me, this question has been a very difficult one to answer. So many a time, I give in with a smile, saying I am an “urban Indian” to imply that I have lived in multiple Indian cities. In some curious interactions, people guessed or presumed that I was a Gujarati or a Bengali, but seldom has anyone guessed my roots correctly. As a marketer, this has brought me to amusing junctures which also helped to break the ice and start conversations as well as bond with many people.
Probably, I belong to Gen N (Generation Neanderthals as my kids would like to call me) – that tribe of people who have relocated several times in their lives to different parts of India right from childhood to student life and all through their working life. I am compelled to admit with some amount of sadness here that this means I am more fluent in English than in any other Indian language, including my mother tongue.
But what I lost in this nomadic life is balanced by the gain of considerable insights into people’s mindsets, which is a great advantage in my profession. Living in many Tier I, Tier II and Tier III cities and travelling across the country, I gathered considerable first hand knowledge of India’s geographical, social and cultural aspects, which helped me hugely while planning major marketing strategies.
But over the last decade, the transition has been interesting, as Television and Digital media swallowed heterogeneous trends, fashion, lifestyle and work cultures of different Indian markets into the seamless undulating plains of the Great Indian Consumer Landscape.
It was also the period when a ubiquitous new tribe of Urban Indians - Gen Y and Z – grew to be a formidable force. Be it retail or the financial sector, matrimonial sites or travel sites, this set with its curious, adventurous and tech-savvy spirit has brought homogeneity in a hitherto heterogeneous society. Be it jeans or salwars, dosa or pani puri, the consumption pattern is ‘one for all’ like the universal Aadhar ID card.
Therefore, Gen Ns like me shed the conventional conditioning that we had been brought up on, and began to look at things objectively, without taking a point of view. We also hitched on to the social media bandwagon which the whole world seems to be riding, irrespective of whether we sit in the driver’s or passenger seat.
While the constant challenge is of deciding whether India is 10 separate markets rolled into one large market or the other way round, one segment that is here to stay is the tribe of Urban Indians who like the Pied Piper of Hamelin will have brands and marketers following them in earnest.
Feedback: meeradas@rediffmail.com
