Can you make something viral?

I just read about two completely unrelated incidents but having one thing in common- their online presence. The first is a simulation game developed by th UNHCR to help people "see and feel" what it is like to be a refugee. The second is a video of a bus monitor in Greece, NY who was verbally abused by young boys. While the guys at UNHCR are racking their brains about how to get people interested in this game about a really serious issue, the second video already has thousands of hits and has raised close to half a million for the abused lady. This just makes me wonder if you can ever really "make" something viral? Viral by definition means something that spreads very rapidly because it is able to strike a chord with people immediately and makes them want to pass it on, share it. So while the issue that the UNHCR is trying to talk about is far more grave and global than the abuse of a bus monitor and juvenile hooliganism, it will go viral if it finds a place in people's hearts, just like the video of the bus monitor. The developers of the game are quoted as saying that they are not looking for popularity like that of Angry Birds. But if a completely irrational game where birds need to be launched from a catapult to break some inane eggs in wooden castles can have universal appeal, why not this very rational, very real issue? The answer is perhaps not that easy, and it's still a mystery what makes something viral.

Gods in the Workplace

I am sitting patiently waiting my turn at the newly upgraded branch of a Public Sector bank in suburban Mumbai. It is like almost any other bank, there are the tellers, the counters, the people who look slightly fearful because they are afraid that one wrong signature or an error on some innocuous form might actually jeopardise their lives' savings, and finally there are the customary Ganesha and Lakshmi pictures in gaudy golden frames inside the Branch Manager's air-conditioned cabin. I almost don't take any notice of them till it strikes me that this branch must serve people who are not practicing Hindus! And that makes me wonder how they must feel about this open display of religion, this lack of secularism?

Ganesha is the God of good luck, the destroyer of all evil and obstacles, and Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and prosperity. So their presence at an institution of financial management would be very appropriate if it was not for the fact that this symbolism only works for a part of the bank's clientele. To give another example, I also know of a large Indian conglomerate that will not permit non-vegetarian food in its premises because the Chief Executive who was also the owner-promoter comes from a caste that does not eat meat. What is more, the company makes it mandatory for all its employees, irrespective of religious conviction, to attend a prayer meeting on Diwali to do the "muhurat Lakshmi pujan"- clearly a Hindu affair.

 I am not sure if the Managers who put these pictures up or conduct this religious pooja really ever stop to consider what their actions mean. Perhaps they think it is appropriate because this is all second nature to them, this is what they personally believe in. The truth is, whether we like it or not, the personal creeps into our professional lives however hard we may try to keep the two apart. So you see, when we make tall claims of keeping our two lives separate, we ignore the fact that the person who walks through the doors of the office typing furiously on that BBM, is the same person who went to bed last night praying to his very personal deity that the next day may bring him professional success.