The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption

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At any time, there are about twenty posts queued up in my mind, waiting to be written. Sometimes, I do write them, but days after they were meant to. Sometimes, I tweet them instead, use 140 letters where I should have used a thousand words. Sometimes, I end up not writing them at all.

This is a post I almost didn’t write.

I was recently profiled in Indian daily Mid-Day for a story on how online and offline relationships have merged for young people in India —

I had given the interview almost six weeks before it was published, and, as I read through the interview, I was reminded that being a host is at the core of my social life, both online and offline.

The thing is, I’m not really naturally social. I’m often uncomfortable in large groups and I’m terrible at small talk. Over time, however, I have realized that I like being the host, that my preferred social style is to connect with people on a one-to-one basis, on my blog, or at my house parties.

Regular readers of the blog would recall that I started hosting Saturday Night Movie Marathons last month in the hope that they will become an interesting social context to meet new people.

What happens in the movie marathons? Well, basically, we meet up on a Saturday night at someone’s place and watch four back-to-back movies, from dinner to brunch.

However, this week’s Saturday Night Movie Marathon has a twist two twists. The first twist is that it starts at three in the afternoon, and the second twist is that it is followed by a house party.

The last two movie marathons (1 and 2) have taught me that sticking to a theme is easier said than done, but this week’s movies also have a theme — journeys.

So, we’ll start with The Motorcycle Diaries and follow it up with Y Tu Mamá También, Everything is Illuminated, Before Sunset and Sideways, or as many of them as we can watch.

Sideways is especially apt for tomorrow because I’m throwing the ‘after-party’ for my friend Rana, who is in the city for the weekend. Rana and I are like Jack and Miles from
Sideways, and the conversation we had earlier today afternoon is totally in character –