What an idea, Sirjee!

This small post is dedicated to the ingenious minds in the advertising business. A few days ago, I came across the most touching ad. The IDEA ad featuring Junior B as a priest!

The ad is pretty simple. A priest sees a poor girl being turned away by his school because the seats are full. Feeling sad for the children who can't attend school, he prays to God. And gets an IDEA. Soon, every village boy and girl is getting educated like their urban counterparts. How? By the use of mobile phones!

All children in the village gather at one spot. A mobile phone placed nearby connects them to teachers of a missionary school, undoubtedly overseen by the priest. So, besides teaching the students in the classroom, the teachers are also teaching children who otherwise wouldn't have been able to go to a real school. In the Annual Prize Distribution Ceremony, the girl who was initially turned away (in the beginning of the ad)wins the best student award.
The ad concludes with the priest looking up at the sky, smiling and saying, "What an idea, sirjee!"

The very first time I saw the ad, I felt a tear trickle down my right cheek. It touched a very deep chord. Why can't we all be more like the priest? We are supposed to be the new India. Why depend on octogenarians to resolve our issues when they can't even take care of their own knees...ehm...health.

I could blabber on about the state of the country, the deplorable conditions of the middle class but that's not the issue. As was once said by JFK (and quoted by millions): "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!"

Kudos to the people who developed the IDEA ad (The ad company, the actors etc.)
Its brilliant...and maybe...just maybe...signifies the rise of the new India.