Identifying a need and creating something for that requires some talent like someone identified that there is a need for communication while on move and mobile phones were created and now most people can't imagine a life without it. What requires even more talent is creating something for which there is no need and then that thing going on to become an integral part of people's life.

A good example of this is the Pokemon-the cartoon characters no one knew but now all kids not only know them but waste a lot of time watching them and a lot of money buying merchandise. Another example of it is what this guy is doing, the khaini and the pan masala. No one seemed to have any need for a pan masala or a gutkha and then someone created something using beetle nuts and the waste from a tannery and named it pan masala. It doesn't taste like pan and is not used in making a pan but it still is an addiction among a big part of our population. This reminds me a strip of Calvin and Hobbes where Calvin goes to his mom and says "I just saw things I didn't knew existed but I need desperately"

These things also have the power to divide people like nothing before could. For an addict of pan masala, it is a necessity and his body starts getting itchy is he has to live without it. For someone like me it is the most idiotic thing in the world. You pay for something that is bad for your health, its small empty packets cause so much pollution and after consuming it people are painting the town red-literally. Calling all the red marks all over the country an eyesore is an understatement.

Similarly the pokemon is mental pollution for me, something only marginally above the saas-bahu serials shown in our country. Here you have kids who are roaming around while they should be going to school. They are catching "creatures" that should be in the wild (even if they are imaginary) and worst of all they are making them fight. In a time when there is a lot of criticism for bull fighting, you are promoting a sport where animals are fighting-if you can call it a sport. To the kids who like it, it is so good. They will watch it and then will bug their parents to buy all the pokemon toys and clothing. For a parent and for someone who grew up without watching these stupid characters, it is incomprehensible. How the f#$@ can someone like something as stupid as this.

On which part of the pan masala and pokemon divide are you?