Santa cola

“Do you know who invented Santa Claus?” asked our professor of strategic management. Few were staring blank, some filming the myth in their minds and others like me logically mapped it to be an invention of church from the olden days. But not a single soul had a clue of what was going to strike them. “Santa Claus was invented by coca cola, done as a strategic marketing move to sell it in Christmas times as those are the times when retail is at a all time tide ride”. Eyes widened, logics failed and now everyone had a blank face. It’s interesting that the only weapon against a blank faced idiot you have is your logic.

Anyways surprised by the talks as if I had seen the red suited jolly old fellow I thought of browsing through net about it. Here’s what I found. Santa Claus was not invented by coca cola but has been in history from long.

Early Christian origins

Saint Nicholas of Myra is the primary inspiration for the Christian figure of Santa Claus. He was a 4th-century Greek Christian bishop of Myra in Lycia, a province of the Byzantine Anatolia, now in Turkey. Nicholas was famous for his generous gifts to the poor, in particular presenting the three impoverished daughters of a pious Christian with dowries so that they would not have to become prostitutes. He was very religious from an early age and devoted his life entirely to Christianity. In Europe (more precisely the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Germany) he is still portrayed as a bearded bishop in canonical robes……

Modern Origin

Pre-modern representations of the gift-giver from church history and folklore merged with the British character Father Christmas to create the character known to Britons and Americans as Santa Claus. Father Christmas dates back at least as far as the 17th century in Britain, and pictures of him survive from that era, portraying him as a well-nourished bearded man dressed in a long, green, fur-lined robe. He typified the spirit of good cheer at Christmas, and was reflected in the "Ghost of Christmas Present" in Charles Dickens's classic A Christmas Carol, a great genial man in a green coat lined with fur, who takes Scrooge through the bustling streets of London on the current Christmas morning, sprinkling the essence of Christmas onto the happy populace….

Cola Reality

Images of Santa Claus were further popularized through Haddon Sundblom's depiction of him for The Coca-Cola Company's Christmas advertising in the 1930s. The popularity of the image spawned urban legends that Santa Claus was in fact invented by Coca-Cola or that Santa wears red and white because they are the Coca-Cola colors. In reality, Coca-Cola was not the first soft drink company to utilize the modern image of Santa Claus in its advertising – White Rock Beverages used Santa to sell mineral water in 1915 and then in advertisements for its ginger ale in 1923. Furthermore, the massive campaign by Coca-Cola simply popularized the depiction of Santa as wearing red and white, in contrast to the variety of colours he wore prior to that campaign; red and white was originally given by Nast….

There’s a lot more to Santa, easily available on net but whatever be his strategy he’s sure to drop surprises on you some way or the other.

Missing Kirana

It’s been more than 6 weeks of my internship at Chennai and not a single day would have passed by when I would not have visited “The Mandir” also popularly known as “Spencers daily”. Spencers is a large chain of super markets spread across major south Indian cities. We call it mandir may be because it’s the “Anndata” for us here. All our requirements, which are very limited I must say, except clothes comes from here. It’s like any other supermarket; you roam around find your stuff then stuff your basket to take out the cash stuffed in your purse. And btw it also accepts credit cards :D. All done to make your life easier or make you visit more, plan less and a mechanical machine.

So much to experience but I still feel it is the exact experience lacking here. Then I remember the old shopping center I used to visit when I was a kid. There was a small shopping center near my house in Bokaro. It was a collection of 6-7 kiranas. Whenever I entered it the panwala bhaiyaa would take me in his arms and give me at least 4-5 toffees. I still remember him by that name only and a hazy picture of him chewing pan maybe that’s why the name. And then there were occasions when I went to buy something which was not available so would run back to my home to ask mom what to do now and then run back to buy something 2nd in the priority list. It was great fun but now you have mobiles to resurrect that too.

There were times when a shopkeeper would give me the whole bunch of Spiderman stickers when I bought only one bubblegum. Some experience that would make someone visits the same store again and again. Compare that to the supermarket where you pay extra for the ambience and can’t even bargain for any product. Also you have to ask for anything which comes free and unless then they won’t move their feet to give you what you are supposed to get.

And then you feel whether the old kiranas provided a better experience for you to return or is it just nostalgia of your childhood memories.