It's life...

A trip to Malshej Ghats

2009-08-08T10:37:00.008+04:00

An impromptu weekend trip, when till 9 am on Saturday morning, we were searching internet on where to go. Then we just finalized on Malshej, around 150 km from Mumbai, unaware of what to expect from the place, where would we stay, etc. In the hurried packing after that, we forgot the camera (ooops). We had to depend on mobile for photographs, which also got discharged, so no photos of day1.

We did not find a place to stay in Malshej, so we have to go 25 km (to Junnar) to stay in a low budget hotel offered at a high price. This place was in bottom hills of shivneri (fort where Shivaji was born), so we got to trek Shivneri fort and another amazing ganesh temple on hills (Lenyadri).

As for Malshej, it was a beautiful serene place with a lots of waterfall and clouds surrounding us. There is a road famous for waterfalls, people also come for day trip from Mumbai/ pune just to enjoy these waterfalls. If you want to experience what is it like walking in the clouds, this is the place, specially on the hills behind MTDC resort. While walking there, I was remembering the tale in which somebody builds a stairs to reach the clouds. These were really dense clouds, providing very little visibility. Suddenly cloud disappeared and we realized that there were so many people around us . There was slight rain, it was difficult to tell whether we were getting wet because of rain, clouds, or water coming up the waterfall. Yes, the wind was so strong that water was even sprinkling up the waterfall. I let myself lose in the direction of wind, and I ran some 20 m without applying any force myself. I had to then force stop myself.

Overall it was a wonderful experience, more so for a water freak like me, I got my time into a big waterfall. A piece of warning here, if you are planning a trip to Malshej, plan a saturday to the waterfalls, not a Sunday. On Sunday, you will find the waterfalls filled with big groups of people, drenching, drinking and dancing. On saturday, it was much less people, so we could enjoy more.

Check out the photos at

malshej ghat

Can India survive as a secular democracy?

2008-09-16T07:46:00.006+04:00

India is a secular country, and if states act non secular, how can India retain its secularism?

And how do you define ‘Outsiders’ – from other country, from other religion, from another state, from another city, from another area? Yesterday somebody created religion boundary, today state and community boundary, tomorrow it will be sub-communities and city boundaries, where do you stop that

There is a very thin line between protecting rights of your community and harming other communities. I agree there would have been incidents in which person of one community had to face miseries because of a person of another community, because world is not perfect. But if you support what’s happening in Maharashtra, you are also supporting terrorism (ok may not be bombs, but you are at least supporting SIMI/ Mujahedeen thought process). Com’on you cannot have two faces for the same thing. Do you really think whatever these groups are telling their people is completely false, will they not have true incidents to support their claims of discrimination happening to them in India. But this is myopic view of truth, you choose to see what you want to, and that’s what also happening in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, all over India (it has different names – terrorism, fight for Hindu rights, fight for Marathi’s rights, fight for Muslim’s rights……but it’s the same thing – Divide to rule)

Let’s get together to fight to retain secularism in India, which is India’s greatest strength

Divide and Rule

2008-09-10T07:36:00.003+04:00

Quote from Raj Thackeray “if she had so much love for Hindi, then she and her family members, including her husband Amitabh, could work in "advertisements and films in Uttar Pradesh".

Excuse me Mr Thackeray, if you know she and her family is working in HINDI film industry and making film for whole of India and not just Maharashtra. She is here because (may be unfortunately) the HINDI film industry was set up in Bombay. I hope your next demand is not that all Bollywood films will be in Marathi and not in Hindi, or does that mean that people who love Marathi should act only in Marathi films

“Jaya Bachchan owe an apology to Maharashtrians, whose sentiments she has hurt” – who are you to decide that she has hurt sentiments of people, are you really a representative of all Maharashtrians. Maharashtra has appointed a government to represent them. Let it decide who owes apology to whom

And you talking of hurting sentiments, you are doing it every day – you are hurting sentiments of the whole nation, but no apologies from your side

What about those people who have lived all their lives in Mumbai, swear to be mumbaikars, wanted to be in Mumbai forever, one day they wake up in the morning to know they are “outsiders”. Do they do not deserve an apology?

This is just “Divide and rule”, the old tried and tested strategy for centuries in India. When will we stop falling prey to it? I don’t think ever, and people like Raj Thackeray continue to rule

Got Engaged

2006-10-04T11:08:00.000+04:00

It is like one of those things you think is never going to happen, and then it does happen when you least expect it, and it's everything you want it to be….

A tale with lot of twists and turns - If it were a Bollywood movie, it would have been a superflop. A love story, where the guy and girl concede to their parents wishes and decide to move on. They even make up their mind for choosing their life partners through arranged marriage process. And after one year, when I was so close to make a final choice for my wedding, things took a U-turn – an unexpected but the greatest thing that could have ever happened.

Yes, I am very happy, much happier than I would have been if the things have followed the normal course. It has been six years and we have lived through all stages of love (we even experienced the break-off), and now we are together again, what more can one ask for.

[Now that we could remove the big IF from ‘IF we get married…’, everything seems to be so light, good, beautiful....]

Bada tez channel hai Aaj Tak

2006-09-20T13:56:00.000+04:00

Imagine getting so frustrated after watching news, that you delete the channel. That happened with me a few days back, and the channel was ‘Aaj Tak’

The actual news was – there is a car driver in Delhi, who has mastered the art of driving the car without being on the driver seat. That is - he sits in the front passenger seat and control the car from there only without having additional controls/ remote control on the passenger seat. To add to amazement of the passers-by, he sits casually reading the newspaper, and car just keeps moving with the driver seat empty.

Okay I agree, his deed should get 10-15 min of airtime of a news channel, but 3-4 hours of continuous airtime? And not only that, the way the channel handled the news was disgusting.

I just landed on ‘Aaj Tak’ during my normal channel surfing, and this is what I saw

Aaj Tak had a video clipping, recorded by some young professionals, in which car is moving on the road without the driver. They even stopped the car on a traffic signal, and spoke to driver (on the passenger seat), who told them he drives the car comfortably from the passenger seat.

Aaj Tak also caught hold of the Car owner, got him to the studio, who told them that his driver keeps the car, and it is an ordinary Indica, no additional controls, etc. And he is not aware of such a happening.

Aaj Tak correspondents were mentioning that they had been showing this continuously for three hours (wooo….), they were also trying to locate the driver, and were asking people to call to give their views

Now the point is what they had been showing for three hours –
Aaj Tak correspondents were determined on proving that it is some supernatural power, some mystery beyond comprehension of an ordinary man. When a caller calls to tell that there might be some scientific reason behind it – a remote control or something, the correspondent just discard the view without discussion. But when a caller mentions that it is something supernatural, correspondents discuss it in length.

A caller mentioned that he saw a ‘Pipal tree’ in the clipping; another one mentioned ‘Sai Baba’ photo. The correspondents talk that these could be the reason, they discussed everything from numerology to whatever superstition anyone could believe in. They discussed the car number, the purchase date and what not from numerology point of view.

Limit was – one caller calls to tell “20 yrs ago, my brother-in-law’s scooter stopped near shamshaan ghat. Then the scooter started moving by itself, and got drowned in Ganga. That time we did not believe him, but today it seems, it might be true”

Give me a break! What’s the relation between the two things. I thought, the correspondent would at least discourage these kinds of callers. But instead of discouraging, she seriously considered it, tried to relate the two things and after next commercial break, while summarizing the news – she mentions all those pipal tree, sai baba photo and the scooter incident.

Another interesting glimpse from the talk
One caller says ‘Yeh aur kuch nahi, car maalik aur driver ki mili bhagat hai’ (to get famous or something) [It’s a consipary of the driver and owner to get famous]
The correspondents ask the car owner ‘Sir, yeh aapki mili bhagat to nahi hai’
The car owner says ‘Nahi hamari koi mili bhagat nahi hai’ – obviously, what you expected him to say – ‘yes this is our conspiracy’

After some time, another caller calls and says the same thing about the ‘mili bhagat’.
Just guess, what the correspondents would have replied
‘We have already discarded this option. Because we asked the owner and he says that unki koi mili bhagat nahi hai’

Believe me, I am not exaggerating at all (no need for that, aaj tak already added enuf masala)

You must be wondering why I was still watching that – just to see till how low they can go.

So finally they located the driver, who clearly told them that he drives the car from passenger seat, NO supernatural power, and he can drive and show them, there and then.
But now, as soon as he would drive, there would be no mystery, so the correspondents did not allow him to drive for 40 min. The intelligent lady correspondent (I don’t know her name, but she is the one who drives and evaluates new vehicles on Aaj Tak), this lady was still adamant to prove to driver that it is not possible to drive like that, and it MUST be some Supernatural power. She also discussed what the callers mentioned like Pipal tree, Scooter at shamshaan and all.

I was losing patience, so had to switch channel. After some time when I came back to Aaj Tak, the correspondents allowed driver to give the demo (finally !)
So before the demo, the car was being analyzed for anything unusual with it. As it came out, it was a normal car. The lady correspondent said
‘I think everything in the car is same as other cars, but yes, I can see a ‘Sai Baba’ photo on the dashboard…..

I could not take it more. This time I did not switch the channel, I deleted the channel, so that I do not even accidentally step on ‘Aaj Tak’.

Bole to - sahi hai mamu.....

2006-09-05T14:54:00.000+04:00

My review for 'Lage Raho MunnaBhai' completes in one statement - If you have not still seen it, go watch it. Its not a movie to be missed.

Enjoy....

The "Phony" Phase

2006-08-09T12:37:00.000+04:00

Have you lived with someone who is just engaged? How do you recall him/ her now?
I bet talking on a phone :-)

Imagine - when you get engaged – its good news not only for your family and friends, but also for the telecom companies. No muhurat for marriage for next 8 months, even better - longer the gap, happier they are. Though smaller gaps do not prevent one from spending – I had a colleague, who actually spent 1 Lakh in 3.5 months on phone (its not something which I heard from someone, I actually saw his mobile bills – 26000 for first month, 32000, 29000 and 15000 for subsequent months – rounded off to nearest thousand :-) After paying these bills, he was left with just enough salary to pay his house rent. For those who still not believe it - it was year 2002, and STD rates were much higher than that of today.

Another friend of mine, who was determined to match this figure, though in a longer period – 18 months, could not do that, despite of talking 6-7 hrs each day. Till then Reliance had come with a unique scheme – a boon for the engaged ones – just pay a fixed monthly amount – Rs 700 – and you call any reliance mobile for free – no matter how long you talk, monthly bill will be just 700.

So what will be the ideal gift for your fiancée? No points for guessing – a Reliance mobile, and you take the reliance landline. I have observed that mostly guys take the landline and girls the mobile, than the other way round. Why so, we can analyze it some other time. A more interesting analysis would be what these people talk for so long – 2 hrs, 5 hrs, even 10 hrs a day.
10 hrs appear impossible to you….You would ask – don’t these guys have to work? I tell you how it happens – as soon as the guy reaches home, say 7 pm, he calls up his fiancée. And then the call is on till they go off to sleep – say 12. There are a few gaps in between when they are having food and other activities. There are times, when nobody speaks for 20-30 mins, due to a disagreement, but the call is still on.

I also know of an incident, where the girl did not want to speak because she was annoyed for some reason. But the guy did not agree to put the phone down. Both were not ready to give in, so they end up holding the phones silently for the whole night. This was much before the reliance era, and the guy ended up paying hefty bill for the night.

Anyways, I was telling you how 10 hrs – 5 hrs in the evening, 2 hrs in the morning, and 2 hrs in the office spread between 3-4 calls at different times. Hmm 5+2+2, okay it makes 9 hrs….but weekends, the talking time goes up to 12-14 hrs, so on average 10 hrs a day.
I am sure these people wont talk this much even after marriage :D

My another observation is that, in general, the talk time is more in case of arranged marriages than the love marriages (during this period, and not overall). Any contenders on this….

But the million-dollar question remains - what does one talk for so long – since I am inexperienced in this, can the experienced ones throw some light from their own or someone else’s experience. Waiting for the responses………

Switching Job – Don’t suffer due to underpayment of tax

2006-07-31T14:22:00.000+04:00

My several friends changed jobs during the year. Now while filing returns, most of them ended up having an additional tax liability. Botheration was not only the added penalty interest, but also the unplanned expenditure, ranging from Rs 10,000 to 50,000.

Why does it happen?
Both companies compute annual tax independently and divide it by 12 to get the monthly liability. Following are the tax slabs
Upto 1 Lacs ------Nil
1-1.5 Lacs ------- 10%
1.5-2.5 Lacs ----- 20%
2.5 Lacs + --------30%
While calculating annual tax liability, Company A will follow the above slabs, and company B will also use the same. In effect, your tax will be computed using the 1 Lac - zero tax slab twice.
This is the simplest case, when you have not declared any savings, etc. Things can be further complicated if both companies consider the 1 Lac deduction under section 80C

What shall you do?
When you join a new company, payroll department asks for a statement from the previous company, which provides the detail similar to Form 16 (Since form 16 is available only at the end of year). If you can get that statement in time, well and good; otherwise submit the actual salary slips and monthly tax calculation sheets (if provided by the previous company).

Most people told me that despite of providing the details to the new company, they still faced the problem of underpayment of tax. So do not just submit the documents, but also track the tax computation done by the new company, in the first salary itself.

Take corrective action
In the month of February/ March, check the actual income, investments and compute the tax. If tax deducted does not meet the calculation, ask your payroll deptt to deduct more tax, or as a last resort, submit the tax in a nationalized bank before March 31. This will at least save you the penalty interest.

Know the Law
For exact rules and regulation, visit www.incometaxindia.gov.in.
In simple terms, if you do not pay the full tax till March 31, there is a penalty interest chargeable to you. And if you do not pay the remaining tax along with the penalty interest before last date of filing return (July 31), its becomes an offence, and you will be charged additional penalty (and of course interest) at the least.

How to pay the Additional Tax
Compute the tax liability; and deposit the amount in the nationalized bank (ICICI bank included) along with the appropriate challan (available on income tax website).

Be cautious from the beginning, it really hurts when your tax agent tells you on July 25 that you would have to shell out additional 30,000 bucks in 5 days

Sing, Act or Dance - what will you do for Disaster Management

2006-06-09T12:55:00.000+04:00

The other day, I was watching Swades – the scene when the movie ‘Yaadon ki Baraat’ is screened in the village, but to everybody’s dismay, electricity goes off. And then Sharukh does the Disaster Management by singing and dancing himself :-)
This brought to my mind the memories of the day when we had to do something similar.

MDI Gurgaon – Imperium 2004 – Hariharan Nite

Imperium, the annual management festival of MDI, is a little different from other B school management fests - in addition to regular management events, we also have these cultural events like singer’s performances, dance parties (don’t ask me what’s cultural about dance parties :), antakshari, etc

Hariharan was to perform that night, when the most unexpected happen - it started raining cats and dogs. No need to mention, we were not prepared for those heavy rains in October in Delhi and hold on
The show was in Open !

We had no clue what to do – the stage was set and the ‘cushioned’ chairs were already laid down for audience in open (why I put emphasis on ‘cushioned’, you would know later).

People started pouring in. Due to rain, the turn out was (thankfully) lesser. People were trying to find shelter in covered areas of MDI, and obviously getting annoyed.
We had a covered auditorium, although not big enough to accommodate everyone. But since half of the audience was from MDI itself (students, fellows, professors, staff, families on campus), we need to house only the outsiders.

We got the auditorium opened, asked people to make themselves comfortable there, but the rains seemed in no mood to stop. How much time could we have hold the people sitting there doing nothing.
So we decided to put on a show there itself – no, not by Hariharan – but by the students. We started off with an MDI video, followed by some good singers, a girl on saxophone, someone on guitar, and so on. Then we invited people from audience. And to our surprise, many people volunteered to perform, including a 6 yr old girl who sang gazals.

People were enjoying this ‘Disaster Management’ when we ‘Finally’ got the news that rain has stopped. The next challenge was that the chairs were too drenched to seat (now you know the issue with cushioned chairs, you cant even wipe them like plastic chairs).

Whatever other chairs were available on the campus were brought there immediately, but they were not enough. Somebody got the idea of covering the original chairs with newspapers.

At MDI, we have a social help group ‘Samaritans’, which funds its expenses by selling newspapers. They collect newspaper from every room in the hostel on Thursday/ Friday, and sell off the ‘raddi’ on Sunday. To our luck, that week’s newspapers were collected but not sold yet. So we sourced the bulk of papers from hostel.

Now the huge task of covering the chairs (above thousand in number) with newspapers; and laying down the new chairs. But sooner than we could expect, every possible person was working. Not only the MDI crowd and students from other B-schools; but other people also came and ask if they can help. It was an unforgettable sight. Within minutes, the task was done.

There was a wooden separator to segregate the gold passholders from the silver ones. After all this, there was no way and no point for checking passes and seat the audience accordingly. So we untied the separator and dropped it. We could sense a similar excitement as when the screen (which was segregating the castes) was dropped in ‘Swades’.

People made them comfortable, the show started off, Hariharan was at his best. For everybody present there, it was a memorable evening.

[ Comments received later
“We watched two shows on a single pass”
“It was a commendable job by students of MDI”
“Great performances by students (in auditorium)”……………………and so on ]

Piracy or No Piracy - Its your choice

2006-05-30T12:40:00.000+04:00

Yesterday I visited Crosswords – wanted to buy the album Indian Ocean's Kandisa….but oh ! It was priced too high – a lofty 360 bucks for one CD, versus I could get the songs for free – thanks to Piracy.
I could not really make up my mind to spend 360 bucks for just being right. So I bought my next favorite “Ali Zafar - Huqa Paani” which was priced at 150.

This is what is called Incentive Caused Bias. Even though I know that I am doing something wrong by playing pirated songs, 360 bucks is too high an incentive for me to take the wrong path. If the incentive were lower (say 150 bucks), I would have gone for the original one.

And this is where pricing comes into play. This reminds me of the price (P) vs. volume (V) chart, I studied in the economics class. It says volume decreases when price increases. In order to increase the volume, you got to reduce the price. The final objective is to find an optimum price point, which maximizes the revenue (P*V).
(I wish the highly qualified members of Indian Ocean had taken some classes in Economics too :-)

I am not saying that efficient pricing can completely solve the piracy problem – see the incentive here – If you go for original, you get 10 songs in 150 bucks and pirated, you get 150 songs in a 10 bucks CD. And there is nothing extra you are getting in that 150 bucks CD –
Even the quality in downloaded songs matches the original ones these days.
So how low can the original CDs be priced?

But then why a person like me, who has easy access to the free downloaded music, would choose to go for the original CDs.
The idea of buying original CD first struck me when a colleague of mine, who incidentally is a close relative of Indian Ocean’s Rahul Ram, narrated the ‘Indian Ocean’ story. The portion relevant here is - These people left their promising careers (Rahul Ram is PhD in Environmental Toxicology from Cornell University) to form their band. Though they are doing quite well now, lots of struggle came their way earlier. Despite of their songs being popular, they were not making enough to sustain themselves. Because we don’t pay for music.

Here I recall another incident I read long back in some magazine. It goes something like this (in the writer’s words) - “I was traveling by train and reading a Bengali magazine. A copassenger asked me what I am reading and said he would also like to read the same. I was finished reading, so I offered him the magazine. But he said he would buy his own copy and read. When I asked him the reason, he said, if we wont support our literature, how will it sustain”

Now I am not saying that we have to go to this extent, nor I am a part of any anti piracy camp. I also play MP3s with songs, which I get for free. Still I realize that we should support our favorite artists…

The first thing an artist wants is the fame and the love of the people, but then he needs to earn also…..

Birthday Blues

2006-05-04T11:46:00.000+04:00

A better title for this blog entry could be “When Nishu turns Chiru”, but then it would have made it seem like a sequel to ‘When Minority turns Majority”. Whereas, this blog entry is totally different, non-serious stuff, corresponding to a small group of friends – Nausena and hence not many people would be able to relate to it.

So people, by ‘Birthday Blues’ and ‘When Nishu turns Chiru’, I think I have given enough hint what is it about.

Remember the college days, when Chiru invariably used to forget Birthdays. I distinctively remember one incident when we made him mug a list of birth dates of all friends
(of course all the wrong dates :-)

The next morning, Chiru proudly announced that he knew everyone’s birthday then.
Shipra asked her birth date. He said ‘March 8’
She got irritated “You don’t even remember my Bday”
(Shipra, whose birth date is March 1, thinks, the date is too simple to forgot)

Chiru reply was classic
“Dekha, I told u guys that Shipra bday is not March 8, it is in Feb”.

So what’s with Nishu now? Yes you guessed it right. Yesterday night she was contemplating Harsh’s birth date is December 16 or 18 and that of Chaitanya is Jan 21 or 22.
(For the benefit of others, who are in same boat as Nishu, Harsh’s birthday is Dec 17 and Chaitanya’s is Jan 24)

And I came to know last night that Chiru’s bday is on May 21 :-)

Ps :- If I am killed tonight, you know whom to catch.

When Minority Turns Majority II

2006-05-02T17:13:00.000+04:00

I recently got to know this concept 49'O... many of you would already be knowing about it . This gives an option to people who say - "No candidate is worth my vote, whom shall I vote for".

49'O goes like this - if a voter has dislike to all the candidates, then he can show his dislike to all of them by registering for 49'O. How to do that : At the time of voting, convey the booth officials that you want to go for 49'O. Register your signature in the 49'O form available there. Done.

Now, if the number of 49'O count is larger than that of the winning candidates total vote count, then a re-election is called there.

49'O is there since 1960, but neither the government , nor the election commission communicated it to people. There are some small issues associated with 49'O (like secrecy). In the conventional voting, the elector can drop the ballot paper without marking his vote against any of the candidates. However, in the Electronic Voting Machines, such a facility is not there. An elector may refuse to vote by going for 49'O, but the secrecy is not protected here inasmuch as the polling officials and the polling agents in the polling station get to know about the decision of such a voter.

But the bigger issue is - how these re-election will be different from the earlier election? Will we get better candidates the next time?
Whatever, at least we will be able to convey our dislike through 49'O.

Source : http://www.eci.gov.in/ Disclaimer - please dont convict me for plagiarism. I have taken description of 49'O directly from an email and the ECI website :)

When Minority turns Majority

2006-04-27T16:19:00.000+04:00

Why should government pay heed to the demands of 'Educated youth'
(here I am referring to the youth in age group of 20-35, with a professional degree, or studying for a professional degree, working for private company, and is against reservation in higher education and private jobs)

If we call it ‘Votoon ki rajneeti’, then why government don’t care about the votes from the larger group of people, why don’t our votes count –
- because we do not vote.
(There are other reasons as well, but this is also a big one)
When majority does not vote, minority turns majority, and in any election, majority wins.

If you fall under the segment, I am referring to as ‘Educated youth’, ask yourself, how many times have you exercised your vote and how many of your friends and colleagues vote?

Now I am not saying its your fault. I am coming to the bigger issue, which I do not have a solution to.

I am in the same boat as you all (may be even worse). I hold a voter’s card for eight years now, and have not voted even once !

Can I, staying 2000 km from the place I hold voter card of. Can I travel for elections, given my job obligations and what about the costs? And even if I manage to travel, what do I know about the candidates at the place, I visit only once a year. To vote, I would have to ask my parents which candidate is good. Whose opinion will my vote represent? Where is the representation of youth in our government?

This is a serious issue now, given that most people (youth) stay away from the place of ‘so-called’ permanent residence. To have a say in the Government and its policies, we have to vote. Now I am not coming to the point that you can elect a better leader if you vote, but whoever the leader is, he should at least worry about our votes as well.

Got to find some way out, but I am totally clueless what it can be.
Any suggestions......

Marketers are not Entertainers

2006-03-20T17:20:00.000+04:00

More and more, trend is towards ‘entertaining’ advertisements. The ads are so fascinating that many people like me, prefer watching these ads to any of those ‘Ekta Kapoor’ K-series.

But then, is that the objective of marketers – “to provide entertainment to ‘poor’ people, who are not finding good entertaining soaps these days”. OR is it something more?
Is an entertaining ad necessarily a good ad?
Shall the success of an ad be judged by the ‘best ad nominations’ or the sales figures?

Let me take example of one of the ugliest ads you would have seen. People claim that they switch channel instantaneously as the ad starts………the “beautiful Harpic ad” – in which they show a (really) dirty commode closely and Harpic claims to turn it into a shining one (there had been different versions of the ad - the commodes and the proud owners of the commodes keep changing but the basic theme remains the same)

What’s the outcome of this repulsive ad – ‘lovely, wonderful, mind-blowing’ – says the marketing folks at Reckitt Benkiser – the sales for Harpic was increased by 40% after the ad was aired, and mind it, 40% is a big number by any means.

Another ad – one of the most popular ads - ‘Badiya hai’ - everybody remembers and likes the ad - ‘Badiya hai’ became the most used phrase. But when I asked people the brand name, hardly 50% of the audience could tell me Asian Paints. Though most of them could recall that it is a paint ad, but the worst part was around 30% people said Nerolac.

(note that the sample consisted of common people, and not those MBAs whose hobby is to track ads :-)

So as a marketer, what will you go for - an entertaining ad or an ugly ad – take your pick.
But make sure the ad does its job – and that’s definitely not entertaining people.
If it can do both, like ‘Fevicol’ ads, nothing like it……..

I am in Love...

2006-01-02T15:46:00.000+04:00

Yes guys, I am in Love...

.....with my ‘would be’
Brand New Santro Xing XO Scarlet Sage

I always wondered how materialistic things could give so much pleasure to people…After booking my car, now I know…… Though happiness comes from with in, but there is some thrill attached to these things too :-)

Whenever I see a Santro Xing Scarlet Sage on road, I can’t stop myself from staring and following it on my two-wheeler (remember that bike ad – ‘Tere chehre se nazar nahi hatti, nazaare hum kya dekhe’)

For the uninitiated, Scarlet Sage is the color of the car, which is a fancy name for ‘Cherry Red’ and I believe choice of color speaks a great deal about one’s personality, tastes, etc. For me, its scarlet sage

My car would be arriving home this weekend, eagerly waiting for the moment……I am in love, really :-)

'Float'ing Pleasure

2005-11-17T13:40:00.000+04:00

I am writing blog after long…….My dear readers, I will be regular on blog for some time now
This reflects I am again on ‘float’ :-)

Float– People in IT will understand…it’s a time when you may use office resources – internet, printer, library, canteen to their fullest, may come late to office, leave early, do all your pending household chores, chat on mails and phones for hours, and (most importantly) write blogs daily; and yet no body in office complains about it ;-)
you are badshah of your time…..you draw your fat salary doing absolutely nothing
In short, it’s a fantasy, dreamland……and I love it :-)
(Still most people hate to be on 'float', I think young Indian engineers just love to work)

Imagine what 'Scott Adams' would have written on ‘float’ing syndrome

Ashok (our dear IITian) –---- I want work, I want good work
Boss ----- What about the work I assigned to you yesterday?
Ashok –--- I already finished it the day before yesterday…
Boss ---- ......but I assigned it yesterday only
Ashok ----
I realized the need of that work last week only, but since your brain works 70% slower than me, there had to be a delay of three days till you realize the need. So according to my calculation, I knew you would assign it to me day before yesterday. Accordingly I finished it in time.
But I think due to your latest head injury, your brain has slowed down even more. So you gave me the work one day later…
Boss ..................................................................
Dilbert ----– Why cant he just check mails, browse, eat and relish the ‘float’ing pleasure (like me)

Lest we forget

2005-09-30T10:04:00.000+04:00

Today I am writing the blog on an (Nausena) incident, which, I believe, everybody would have forgotten by now.
It is nothing too different, but real amusing, I would call it “A typical day in Nausena way” – marked by true Nausena spirit - total confusion, chaos, mess, disorder….

Shipra had to go to MNIT Allahabad to participate in a Software competition with a few classmates.
Now imagine the last minute rush……train in 30 min….distance to station is around 4-5 kms. Her project is not yet complete (last min changes)…..
Problem with flopees –
(floppee is most unreliable thing in this world –at times even more unreliable than ‘guys’;) We were running to and fro from our place to Chaitanya’s place (dist around 1.5 km) to get the things right and proper in floppees, writing floppee from our PC, checking it in Chaitanya’s PC and vice versa.

In all this mess, we realized we do not have enough cash at home :o (ATMs did not exist at that time).

Scene at station - Shipra’s teammates at station getting restless – only 15 min left and no clue of Shipra

In these 15 min, we had to collect money from Harsh place and drop Shipra to station.
So somebody (I guess Piyush) took Shipra to the station on one of our beloved lunas,

Harsh and I went on “Nitin Gupta’s” scooter to bring cash (I just hope Nitin does not read this blog, else he will kill Harsh for speeding up to the extent he did that day)
We collected the cash and were going to station in high speed….on one crossing, we smashed into a girl on scooty and the girl and scooty both fell down

Harsh could not stop his reflex reaction and uttered some forbidden words. That girl took off her helmet and oh my God !, she was ‘Vidula’, one of the sophisticated cutie pie of our batch. But we did not have time to pick her and tell her ‘Sorry’. We just ran off. I still hope she did notice 'me' on the scooter…….

Shipra reached station after the signal was already down, her teammates were quite panicky and had lost hope till that time.
We (me and harsh) reached station after the train already started moving. Somebody took the money from me and ran after the train (DDLJ scene) and finally handover the money to Shipra.

[According to Nausena tradition, everybody goes to station to bid goodbye every time anyone of us was leaving ] So finally everybody was there.

Chaitanya and Chirantan entered the platform when the last coach of the train was leaving the platform. Both were dressed in formals, with good news, that they got an offer from CMC ltd. Yes, it was CMC recruitment day.

When we regained our senses after this fire-fighting situation, we realized that its time to celebrate. We decided to go to ‘Jodhpur Coffee House’ at ‘Nai Sadak’
We picked our two wheelers, reached Jodhpur Coffee house, only to find out that four of the eight people are missing
We waited for half an hour, still no clue of them (how much we needed cellphones)

Incidentally they were waiting for us at another ‘jodhpur coffee house’ at sardarpura. Somehow, we knew only about the coffee house at nai sadak and they knew only about the one at sardarpura.
After 45 min have passed, we asked the receptionist whether they have another branch in the city. Finally we could find out that others were in Sardarpura, we all reached there and…

…….we had a great evening thereafter
(at least I do not remember any mishappenings after that)

Maa Kasam Filmy hai

2005-09-28T11:21:00.000+04:00

Hah !
I have finally decided to start with the topic closest to my heart – Nausena….

For the uninitiated, this “nausena” has nothing to do with wars and fights; this is a bunch of nine intelligent, talented, peace-loving, never fighting girls & guys (or is it ;-) who hail from MBM Engg College, Jodhpur.

Year 2000 – College Cultural Fest – Renaissance – Event – Film Destroy
Film Destroy was the event in which each team was given name of a movie and the group has to make a mock on it to make the audience laugh. We talented people decided to participate in the event, and this is the story how we “really made people laugh” (on us)…
(how much I hate to write background like this….)

Enough of background now, we were given the movie ‘Rangeela’ and 10 min to build the plot (Just 10 min – for a group who takes at least 1 hour of discussions to decide even to go to a juice center, which they visit daily)
So everybody started shouting (cant distinguish who said what)
“We should tweak with the character names”, “And also with the songs”, etc etc
……everybody was saying something or other, but one voice was consistent, it was Chatur
“We ll sing that song definitely – saj rahi gali mori ma sunhari gote me’ (Don’t ask me, how is that song related to rangeela ! - No Relation )

Achievement – In all that shouting and countless ideas and more ideas and even more ideas, we could ‘almost’ boil down on a plot

Movie Name - Shangreela

Casting
Billi (Mock of Mili) - Shipra
Billi’s father - Chatur
Kamaal Don (Jackie’s mock) – Chirantan
Tunna Bhai (Munna’s mock) – Piyush
Kamaal’s aide – harsh
(Since there was only one female role, me and Nishu made the sacrifice – believe me, it would have been even more funny otherwise :-)

Story line
‘Tunna bhai’, jo ‘tunn’ rehte hain ‘billi’ se shaadi karma chahte hain, par Billi ka sapna hai bahut badi Don banne ka, iske liye vo ‘kamaal’ ka saath chahti hai…..

So far so good - Plot seems great, but ache plot ka kaise kachra hota hai, jaane ke liye padiye aage

Curtain Opens……
Background music – “Shangreela Re………..” aur Billi ki entry…
And then Billi does her funniest dance performance ever (in some arbit Chinese style) on – “Khai re khai re Chowmein Khai re”

Billi ka baap “Billi tum life me kya karma chahti ho”
Billi “Papa mera sapna hai ki main ek din bahut badi don banoongi”

Then Kamaal Don enters with his aide Harsh.
Harsh brings the mike and intends to speak a dialogue. But Kamaal Don takes the mike and speak out dialogues for both. Harsh listens silently and after the scene, just takes the mike backstage.

(thoda sa background (again!) ‘kamaal don’ urf Chirantan is very fond of stage, stage par aate hi unhe kuch kuch ho jaata hai, khud ko perform karne se rok nahi paate)

(Harsh comment later – main to ‘Tiwari’ ban gaya, bas mike pakda kar aa gaya – tiwari was the admin person who used to place mikes on stage)

Time for next song (hindi film hai – songs to honge hi) – again a mind-blowing performance by Billi for kamaal bhai – “Tanha tanha yahan par ‘Peena’ yeh bhi koi baat hai”

Ab samay hai ‘Tunnai bhai’ ki entry ka (he is supposed to introduce himself).
But hamare Kamaal 'Chirantan' Don who has played ‘Sutradhar’ more than any other role on stage, suddenly assumes the role of ‘sutradhar’ and introduces Tunnai bhai

“Yeh hain Tunna Bhai
karna chahte hain billi se sagai”

(This way Tunna Bhai also gets deprived of dialogues)

Aage, ab aage kya, 10 min me itna hi plot decide ho paaya tha
sabhi characters ek doosre ka chehra dekh rahe hain

Kamaal Don again takes the initiative, goes to Tunna Bhai, and saya
“Yeh billi bahut bhaav kha rahi hai, kyun na hum donon haath mila le…”

Now comes the bouncer - Most exotic dialogue ever in hindi cinema
Kamaal don – “Jab mile Kamaal se Tunna Bhai”
“To ho gayi unki Sagaai” - replies tunna bhai

“Vah kya kafia baitha hai” – Kamaal announces in the mike

Aur "kamaal don aur tuna bhai ki sagai" ki khushi ke mauke par Ladki (billi) ka baap Chatur aur Kamaal’s aide Harsh sings a song
Kaun sa – no points for guessing
"Saj rahi gali mori ma, sunhari gote me……………

2005-09-27T18:12:00.000+04:00

This is first post on my blog, many people would ask me why I have chosen the title “The poor soul”........

Though I am not a person who loves to crib, but it’s true - if anything can go wrong, it goes wrong with me (yeah Murphy’s law).

I would try not to bore my readers with all that has gone wrong with me, but trust me, if you read all of that, you will never face any problem in life (learning from other’s experience – you would know what all can go wrong with your bank, credit card, mobile, service provider, traffic police, IT return, landlord, broker, and who not and what you should not have done in that case ;-)

But there is a sequel to my life’s Murphy law – that is – all’s well that ends well….after lots of ups and downs, things get straight finally :-)

Since this is my first blog, and I have been planning to write a blog for long, and I have so many interesting things to write, and I have so many topics in mind, and I have lots to share...
....and I am already confused where to start from
so keeping it short and sweet, I end it here.

Be with me, a lot more interseting stuff to come :-)