Businee Line was born in Chennai on January 1994. No dummy runs, as understood. Unknown. No billboard told its birth. A boast seemingly did not fit the Boss, Executive Editor, K. Venugopal; perhaps, the editor in the world, always absent from the imprint line. For a year and more, BL had few ads, sometimes never. Honestly, BL grew without ads. A newspaper, a product (for admen and women, the world is a product) alive in 2016. 22 years old. Namma Ambi Parameswaran of Nawabs, Nudes, Noodles, could look up the BL case; chat K. Venugopal at Kasturi Buildings, Anna Salai, Chennai. The Hindu, born once upon a time, rarely walled the streets. Nawabs....is India through 50 years of advertising, an easy read of the 50 years me grew up an Indian using Lifebuoy, Bata, Colgate, Vicks and of course, The Statesman, Calcutta; enjoying forever the Maharaja of Bobby Kooka....and today Lenovo. Perhaps Nariman Point and Air India need a Kooka sculpture...'the little Maharaja was not born suddenly, as people imagine, but rather he evolved serendipitiously over a series of many avatars. The first one was in 1939, on a poster that showed a turbaned character being carried aloft by four eagles -- a take off on an old Persian legend. There was an immediate outcry from Bombay's Parsi community, who protested to JRD Tata that it insulted a much revered Zorastrian figure... In 1946, the Air India Maharaja first took the form in which we recognize him today..' writes Ambi sar. Maybe, the Maharaja needs to change his wardrobe... a mundu and jibba...with an ipad in hand...thats if Air India is around. Have 50 years of adding altered the Indian... he is changing ...will nawabs have biryanis and maharajas pulaos or will it be nudes and noodles....kantepohe is a breakfast must for Maharashtrians; dosas, wadas for Tamilians; paranthas for the wild north.... weddings were and are loud ...a Malayali wedding was a five minute affair at a temple; today, there is sangeet, mehendi, parties, Kalyan jewellers and at last the thali kattu....with food on contract; payasams and avials not cooked at the pandals by fleets of cooks; buffets. Ambi sar makes a lone confession: ' Indian food habits are among the most difficult to change and marketers have over the last fifty-plus years been trying to chip away food habits and attitudes that have been deeply ingrained in the Indian psyche for the last two millenia.' Some relief. Rama goes to Uday Stores in Jayarajnagar, selects the wheat grain for the chakki ... Aashirwaad, Quaker Oats, Kellogg she passes by .... Shreya and Chiyu wangle Dominos and Maggis from Aji and Dakhi when father Rajesh goes to Pune on business ..When that happens, an Indian breakfasting, lunching, licking fingers, will not be. Our dear Nawabs and Maharajas and colours, no more. No laziness. No lovable paunches. India on diets, measuring vitamins, marathoning to stay fit. Ads, Admen and Adwomen will Cheers. Presume, Ambi sar will regret the shift. For rainy today, Ambi saar's literary output is enough.
