Diwali Icon’s
Its been raining for last couple
of days. Every evening around 6 pm it gets dark with black clouds looming in
the sky . And it starts to rain followed by loud bangs of Thunder and Lightning
as if it’s a Special Light and Sound Show from the God’s above. Its
October and its still raining in Mumbai
, I say to the Missus “ Looks like Diwali will be a Damp Squib like all other
festivals this year. Will have to light the Fire Crackers in the morning s at
this rate”. She Laughs . I hear Netra mouthing some lines with animated
expression , I ask her what it is she is saying. She loudly proclaims “ Utha Utha Sakal Zhali Moti Sabnachi Vel
Zhali” And we all have hearty laugh.
Yes its true those were the
nostalgics days . I still remember in my childhood getting up on Narak
Chaturdashi the 1st day of Diwali really early at 5.30/6 am . Bleary
eyed made to sit on a wooden pat and Aai aaplying Tel (Oil) .Then taking the Abhyanga Snaan (Pahli Anghol) . A hot
bath with Kubal Utne ( perfumed powder like substance) and Moti Soap. That
large round soap in either Sandal or Rose fragrance. The ritual still carried
out till date in not only our home but across most homes all across India.
To let you into the history of
this Iconic Soap, Moti was quite
popular during seventies. It is thick round shaped soap positioned as luxury
soap.It was a brand of Tata Oil Mills
Company ( TOMCO). In 1993 after merger of TOMCO with HUL, it became the
property of HUL. Moti soap was launched keeping in mind certain points to
differentiate it from other competitors. Such as its shape and thickness which
was different from rest of the competitors. Its name was taken from Hindi
language whose meaning is Pearl. It was introduced in differentvariants such as
Sandal, Rose and Khus. At the time,Sandal, Rose and Khus were perceived to be
precious and devout in our Indian society. In Hindu mythology it has been found
that queens used to take bath with exotic herbs and flowers such as Rose,Khas,
Sandal etc.In this way soap was positioned as exotic soap. As it was promoted
as luxurious soap, it was priced around 25/- per soap in eighties competing
other brand such as Dettol, Lux etc. But at the same time as it was quite big
in shape so it was long lasting. Packaging was simple with respective colour of
variants such as orange for sandal and pink for rose.
It was promoted heavily and as
name of product was “Moti”, print advertisement was giving importance to
pearls. One of the popular print advertisement for magazine shows a soap
anchored in big seashell on a beach, just like pearl. It also gave stress on
its ingredients . In the nineties Moti was positioned as special occasion soap
by its latest TV commercial .TV commercial of Moti soap gave stress on
spirituality and purity. In this advertisement an Indian lady was shown as
lighting the lamps, making Rangoli and using Moti soap. Overall the
advertisement was all about celebration, purity and tradition. As soap’s
ingredients are traditional, consumer started to perceive it as special
occasion soap such as using at the time of Diwali. After this advertising
campaign, Moti has become a special occasion (such as Diwali) soap.
After merger with HUL in 1993
Moti soap lost its sheen and HUL did not focus on this brand much and Moti
was lost in the ocean of HUL’s other
soap products like Lux , Liril Ayush etc.. The fallout was that competitors
such as Mysore sandal soap another
Iconic Soap Brand from down South -Karnataka, local handmade soap and
Ayurvedic soaps, HUL’s own products started over powering this brand. In
addition to this lack of innovation and increasing customer expectation from
soap lead to decrease in its sale. It became necessary over time to either
reposition the product or to take a strategic decision on the future of the
branch because till this time Moti had become a soap which was having seasonal
demand than regular demand. HUL relaunched a campaign to get back its market
share by airing a new commercial in 2013.This commercial gave stress to the old
Indian Diwali Custom of taking bath early in the morning on the first day of
Diwali. A chawl has been shown in the commercial where a small boy knocked on
everyone’s door early in the morning and ask them to take bath with Moti Soap,
similar to the habit of an elderly man who carried out this activity in his
younger days (bringing the viewer to recall the earlier advertisements of the
80s and 90s). This advertisement was able to create nostalgic feeling among
consumers. It was also telecasted in Regional languages of Marathi and Hindi.
Overall this advertisement got lot of appreciation from customers and critics.
And the loyal customer came back to this Iconic Soap again.
Looking at overall journey of
this brand it’s a success sustainance for more than 40 years is not an easy
task and that too in era of dynamically changing market. While it has a
selected and small market,it still has its set of loyal customers. Using Moti
soap on special occasion has become a tradition and is getting passed on to
next generations as cultural heritage in most of the Indian middle class
family.
Another Icon is the Kubal Utne or
Uptan available in bright yellow paper packets at small and big retails
vendors during the week leading upto Diwali It’s a fragrant powdery mixture made of sandal wood powder , multani matti
(mud) , neem powder and turmeric. This is applied to the face and the body
during the Abhyanga Snaan. The ingrediants are such that it nourishes our skin
and if used regularly during winters can help in getting its glow back from the
winter dryness.A Natural cosmetic passed on from ages
One more icon that strikes you
and is so common that we take it for granted is the Calender on the wall…It’s
the Kalnirnay the Calender cum Almanac designed by the famous Astrologer Jayant
Salgaonkar. Kalnirnay an
apt name as in Marathi it translates to timely decision. It is a
calmanac (Calendar +Almanac) published in Mumbai. The almanac gives
simplified information about the Panchang, auspicious days, festivals,
holidays, sunrise and sunset. It has recipes, stories on health and education,
monthly Bhavishya and articles on Hindu astrology.
Kalnirnaya was founded in 1973
by Jayantrao Salgaonkar. It initially started as a hand-printed almanac
for Marathi subscribers. At a time when the trend was to give away calenders
for free this compact Calmanac which served as a reference point for not just
dates and festivals but also gave the common man the power of Panchang with its
easy to use auspiscious dates and time all in standard hours and minutes unlike
the traditional Ghatika in say a Datte Panchang. The first issue was sold to
10,000 subscribers. It gradually grew to become the largest
selling publication in the world, with around 19 million copies being sold
annually.
Kalnirnay is published annually, by Sumangal Publishing, as a calendar
almanac for all Indian religions. It contains auspicious dates, festivals
and celebrations of Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Jews are
mentioned in detail. It also provides useful information about Daily Panchang,
Shubh Vivah Muhurat, Sankashti Chauturthi Chandroday Timing, Daily Sun Rise –
Moon Rise Timings, Monthly Astrological Predictions for all Zodiac Signs, etc.
It is published in nine languages
-English, Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu , Kannada, Malyalam and Punjabi with
Marathi accounting for the bulk of its readers. In addition to dates and times
of religious and cultural relevance, each issue also contains articles on
topics such as health, food and beauty
A anecdote as
shared by Jayant salgaonkar himself in an interview gives its utility not just
for regular dates and auspiscious time but also helps meat vendors and butchers
to manage the stock of meat looking at the fasting days as mentioned in
Kalnirnay. That’s called making life simple in its truest form.
In keeping with the
times a website was launched in 1996, its desktop e-version (e-kalnirnay) was
subsequently launched, and it is now available even as an Android and an
iOS app. … “Bhinti Wari kalnirnay
asave…
And how can Diwali the festival of Lights be complete without the
mention of Fire Crackers . The Fire Crackers from Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu. One
more iconic symbol of Diwali is the fire crackers from Standard Fireworks. Standard Fireworks was founded by Sri NRK
Rajarathnam in 1942 in the town of Sivakasi. The company started by
manufacturing match sticks but later expanded to firework. The pioneer
and market leader of firecracker industry in India. Head quartered in Sivakasi
(Tamil Nadu), Standard brand of fireworks is available across the country
through their retailers and dealers across the length and breadth of India.Just
before Diwali you will find small and big shops displaying prominent Standard
Brand banners alluring the buyers to choose from their wide variety of products
and the new launches. Even today you will find someone in the family may be a
distant cousin picking up small stocks of fire crackers and selling to a closed
group of known family members and making
part time earnings.
The most frequently picked up
crackers would be the Sparklers big and small or coloured , Fountains or Flower
pots as they are called , those conical crackers that bust into a flare of
lights , the Zameen Chakri or circular
discs which spin at top speed and release multi colored flares. Or the small
barrel bombs like Laxmi Bomb or a Double Barrel which burst twice when ignited.
Then there were the small string bombs packed into red or purle paper not more
that 3 inches in size but burts with a loud bangs another most sought after
cracker was the Lal Mahal or Red Fort with the label promionently displaying
the National Heritage sight the Red Fort in Delhi. Then during our child hood
when Anti Sound or Pollution Activisim was not as much as it is today , we
would be definite to be woken up to those long strings bombs of 100 , 500 ,1000
or even a 5000 laddi bursting a goo 10 minutes. Or if you really wanted a big
bang for your money you could burst the green coloured sutli (tread) bombs or
the yellow box type bombs. And then those who were a little affluent would
bring the Rockets ( a costly proposition) for the sky show. Once they started
to getting competions from Chinese Fire Cracker players instead of fighting
them off they decided to join forces. Today they have collaborated with Chinese
fireworks to bring a newer range of even more memmerising crackers . They even
have a manufacturing facility in China.Churning out eye popping fire crackers
that would make you jaw drop.
Times have changed but as they
say more the things change more it
remains the same . So these Icons will hopefully last our lifetime and would be
enjoyed by the generations to come….
Wishing all my readers a Happy Diwali and a Prosperous New Year. Have
fabulous but safe Diwali…
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