India loves Long Queues, DDLJ and Ambassadors (cars). But why?

KOCHI, INDIA: India is and has always been beautifully ambivalent. That's one quintessential thread in its multi-hued fabric, that has also made many craftsmen ambidextrous as they get their hands around knitting their ways around it. This could be a seemingly simple point about this diverse country but today an advertising veteran cracked open this little spot and gave CIOs at C-Change a new, hidden diamond quarry to ooh and aah and 'wow, I didn't know that' at.

With his brilliant observations on the eccentric and peculiar tendencies of Indian consumer, Dheeraj Sinha, Chief Strategy Officer, APAC, Grey rightly quipped "India has a collective consciousness".

As he reminded us of the eerie way in which 'Ganesha is drinking milk' phenomenon spreads infectiously without any social media in a land of billions; he twisted the needle further deep into the skin of Indian mindset. India is a mix of bi-polar forces, the youth vs. the youthful; the Brahminical generation vs. the Kshatriya generation and the DDLJ vs. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi mindset.

He discerps here deftly - "Just 13 years back, a movie under the same banner saw the male protagonist dismissing the thought of eloping. And see the needle turn almost opposite in another movie starring the same actor."

He went on to explain the many cute, but still hard-to-ignore quirks that Indians are full of. "Watch how at an airport, you see people joining the longest queue despite many other gates open. Watch how Nano fails not because of any other technical or marketing reason but probably because it had a precedent called Ambassador to take over from. Imagine the dichotomy that 72 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds in this new era know how to fix a wi-fi but may not know how to poach an egg."

The world and consumers have changed and India is following the tide, albeit, with a bi-polar view. We will have millions connecting to the Internet and at the same time millions without a toilet.

What does that mean for businesses and brands, he pricked the bubble wrap further as he questioned as well as interpreted the dilemma ahead. "The bottom of the pyramid does not necessarily wants hand-me-down products." He also illustrated names like Fasttrack, VirginMobile and talked about the boldness with which marketers are factoring in the change of generation and the new points of a strongly-swinging axis of mortality.

All in all, Sinha made everyone dive deep down in the waters that we know and assume to be calm. But turns out that there is a storm bubbling underneath and brands and businesses need to ask an extra question all the more now before jumping on to a 'Ahoy'.

That's the very word however, everyone almost uttered at the end of his insights-baked session at C-Change today. The echo continues tomorrow.