Everyone wants to Go. An airline wants to Go. A radio station wants to Go. Goa wants to Go. VISA wants to Go. A bike wants to dhak dhak and Go. A freshness soap wants us to get out and Go. Kids want a GoYo instead of a YoYo. India’s No 1 Mobile Network wants the belly of the market to Go for it. An unlikely Yogurt brand Govardhan too wants to Go.
Speed is the new mantra that stands unabated. Fast track Watches want us to Move On. Fanta Orange wants us to Go Bite. Philips wants youngsters to GoGear. A leading telecom service provider peddles its new Broadband offering for a generation that brashly admits it has No time to Wait.
"Arguably the two key needstates we are hurtling towards, are Indulgence & Expression. Moods that are directly linked in to Spontaneity & Impatience, respectively."
The ‘No Theory Please’ Generation
The over arching impatience seems to find an echo across the categories. There is an impatience with anything and everything that causes a delay. Theorizing, a carryover of our knowledge accumulation heritage, now meets with a stern rebuke from IBM – ‘Stop talking. Start doing’. World’s premier financial Group Citi too simply sums up its new no nonsense approach with ‘Let’s get it done’.
Rude is Good
Occasionally this impatience takes on aggressive tones of rudeness too. Rude today seems to be in. A TV producer and reality show host Raghu Ram, who would have been deemed unfit for presenting anything in the past, is the new rude dude on his popular show.
But why does everyone want to Go? Why is it that even the slowdown of recession hasn’t been able to contain the spirit of Go?
The answers to these Qs lie in our history, our present and our future.
Historically pent up desires imploding in Spontaneity
Having lived an extended past marked by destitution and denial, today’s India, beneath it’s newly acquired confident exterior, is hiding bottled up aspirations and desires. The Spartan Hindu way of life that eulogized self denial as a way of dignifying the scarcity, has had enough. It is now understandably, gushing at every opportunity of expression.
The current Rush to get there First
The present India therefore is an India released. A billion plus population trying to outrun each other to get to the new opportunities first. Rushing to make the most of now.
The Urgency of Ambition
There is also an element of future ambition playing its part in churning out the Go zombies. With a neo patriotic zest about India’s enhanced stature in the revised eco political balance, India today is too charged up to take it’s somewhat over hyped place under the Globalization 3.0 sun. And in a way, that’s a vantage sign for our resilience in overcoming the slowdown.
Even if we look at it from the defining need states and country moods perspective, the new Signs of Impatience and Spontaneity seem to make sociological sense. Arguably the two key needstates the society is hurtling towards are Indulgence and Expression. Moods that are directly linked in to Spontaneity and Impatience, respectively.
So would it be fair to say that we are all growing up in a Go Era? Should we start measuring people by their Go Quotient? Will the walks of life that haven’t already been subsumed in the Go lifestyle have a Go at it soon? And finally for how long would this Go frenzy go on? May be some Go getters should have a go at these posers.
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