The response was fairly good but it’s a long process from here. It’s just the stepping stone. There are many issues and confusions starting from who should own the brand. I recommended we should have an exclusive governing body for the greater good of Cinnamon. But then we realized that Mafia has a lot of influence over this decision. Every step on the way this project is becoming really intriguing. Anyways let’s move away from ugly realities of life. I m in too much of a good mood right now after watching “The Kite Runner” I would give it 9/10, Marc Forster is definitely one of the top 5 directors of this decade.
Its time to share some interesting things I was talking about in my last post.
After passing Beddegama with my newly found Cinnamon Guru we entered a town named “Gonapinuwala” he told me the myth behind the name, during the early ages food was a simple matter, whatever one could kill and drag back to the cave was your food. One day a "Vedda” (cavemen) came across a “Gona” (a Bull) and started charging, of coz the Bull was able to outrun the ‘Vedda’ however the Vedda never gave up his quest for food, the Bull falls in to “wala” (puddle) and swims (“pinu”) to safety. Hence the name “Gonapinuwala”
Sri Lankan culture is full of stories like this, in “Gampaha District” there is a place called “Hewariwela” where a king was resting at night with two queens who accompanied him on a journey. Fascinated by the natural beauty and moonlight, three of them got in to the nearby “wela” (means lake) and starts playing, one queen loses her “hewariya” (means wig). The name “Hewariwela” captures this story; btw do you think they bothered looking for it? Perhaps the queen was really ugly without the wig? (surely for it to inspire a name) or this was a wicked prank by the other? Or may be it was an early message on eco pollution – not to leave your artificial baggage behind. I think it’s the second one!!
Anyways during my crash course I learnt bits n pieces about village folks. I asked a few adolescents what they would like as B’day gifts. It was very straight forward; they all want mobile phones, the mobile fever is strongly felt here just like in city and town areas. I asked them who is most likely to give them one; grand parents came second after parents. I think what’s more interesting is the fact that most marketing people tend to discount the role of grand parents without understanding the nature of true social undercurrents. The age gap between adolescents and grand parents in rural areas tend to be lesser than in urban cities and as a result most of them still engage in some form of employment. In city areas the age difference between adolescents and grand parents will continue to rise as females in these areas are further pushing their marriage in to late 20’s. This trend will impact many categories from milk powder and insurance to even mobile service providers. Fresh perspective is the need of the hour! It’s almost 5 am in the morning and I can't seem to publish the post as my Dialog powered GPRS keeps dropping. So I think I ll have to upload it tomorrow.
C-ya!
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