- Work went asusual.
- No new entry into the family.
- 3 cousins and 2 close friends got married.
- Travelled to some beautiful locales in South India...mostly trek trips.
- Made new friends in office and met a lot of old friends.
- I lost my grand father, 2 uncles, 3 other slightly distant relatives and a very good neighbour.
Technology, Politics and Sports entertains me. Life puzzles me. But all are lovable and pleasant. Live like there is no tomorrow. There is nothing called irrational.
Friday, December 31, 2004
Personal 2004
@
9:36 AM
Awaited things in 2005
@
9:34 AM
Atleast in the first half
- India thrashing Pakistan in India in cricket
- Bangalore’s infrastructure improves
- Bihar’s election results
- Sensex touches 8200 points
- Good progress on India’s mission to moon
- Chelsea wins EPL and Champions trophy
- Rs 1 lakh car on road
- Oracle – Peoplesoft merger - Success or flop
- Dan Brown’s “The Solomen key”
- Functioning of the Golden quadrilateral
Tops of 2004
@
9:28 AM
Surprises of the year
- NDA losing power in the center
- Greece winning the Euro 2004 football championship
- FC Porto wins the UEFA champions league
- Sehwag scores triple century against Pakistan
- Sensex rocks
- US soldiers caught abusing Iraqis on camera
- DPS - MMS scandal
- Apthamitra
- Kill Bill
- Super monsoon in Karnataka
- India flies its indigenous aeroplane “Saras”
- Rajyavardhan Rathore gets silver for India in Olympics
- India thrashes Pakistan in Pakistan in the Friendship Cricket series
- Bush comes back to power
- Deve Gowda becomes the kingmaker in Karnataka
- Tsunami rocks south Asia including India and takes thousands with it
- Soundarya dies in a plane crash in Bangalore
- Veerappan is shot dead in Tamil-nadu by the STF
- Christiano Junior dies on the field in Bangalore after scoring a goal
- India-Shining advertisement campaign and Bharat Uday yatraof BJP
- Kannada filmdom’s 7 week moratorium on non-Kannada movies
- Ambani brothers fight out
- Kanchi seer Vs Govt of Tamil-Nadu
- Wardrobe malfunction of Janet Jackson
- David Beckam admits of purposefully fouling and no action against him
- Pak scientist Abdul Q Khan admits of selling nuclear secrets to Libya and Iran and that is termed as an internal matter of Pakistan
- Uma Bharti is thrown out of BJP, but is taken in again citing no reason
- Sonia Gandhi
For managing the Indian government by sitting outside - Citizen of USA
For voting Bush back to power - Michael Schumacher
For beating all F1 records and making others look like carting drivers
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Power of AND
@
9:24 AM
There is a wine store near Banashankari. The name of the store is “Wine”. This is the first time I have seen a type of product as the name of the store. May be I haven’t noticed earlier. But two types of products combined can form a proper noun (name of a store in this case). There are many examples for this. “Greens and grains”, “Cakes and breads”, “Sugar and Ice” are names of vegetable stalls, bakery, eatery respectively in Bangalore. What makes the difference between “Type of product” and “Type of product AND Type of product”? The difference is “AND”. “And” can make proper nouns.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Foxes can’t trick crows
@
9:23 AM
I remember a story which was told to me during my first days in school (LKG). I am sure lot of people would remember this as well. The story went like this.
There is a crow sitting on tree with a piece of cake in its mouth. A fox saw this crow and wanted to get the piece of cake from the crow. The fox hit upon a sly plan. It said “Dear Crow, I have heard that you are a very good singer. I want to hear a song from you.” The crow swelled its chest in pride and thought that this was a genuine appreciation. It opened the mouth to start a song. The piece of cake fell down and the fox took it away. And so the crow was tricked.
Yesterday, I had a look into my niece’s LKG story book. The story has now changed. The part till the fox asking for the crow to sing remains the same. Then kahani mein twist. The crow takes the cake piece from the mouth to the legs. Then it starts singing. The fox’s trick failed and had to go back disappointed.
Actually my niece told me this story and I was about to say her that she was wrong. Then I decided to check in her story book. She was correct.
I did not understand the reason behind the change in the story, but it is a welcome change.
There is a crow sitting on tree with a piece of cake in its mouth. A fox saw this crow and wanted to get the piece of cake from the crow. The fox hit upon a sly plan. It said “Dear Crow, I have heard that you are a very good singer. I want to hear a song from you.” The crow swelled its chest in pride and thought that this was a genuine appreciation. It opened the mouth to start a song. The piece of cake fell down and the fox took it away. And so the crow was tricked.
Yesterday, I had a look into my niece’s LKG story book. The story has now changed. The part till the fox asking for the crow to sing remains the same. Then kahani mein twist. The crow takes the cake piece from the mouth to the legs. Then it starts singing. The fox’s trick failed and had to go back disappointed.
Actually my niece told me this story and I was about to say her that she was wrong. Then I decided to check in her story book. She was correct.
I did not understand the reason behind the change in the story, but it is a welcome change.
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
North Vs South
@
9:09 AM
I happened to visit a pooja at the house of a north Indian colleague of mine. It was a “Satyanarayana pooja”. I could find some stark differences between the South Indian and North Indian traditions.
I asked the purohit why is it that north Indians are not so strict on the madi aspect. The purohit has been staying in Bangalore for more than 20 yrs and seemed to have answered this question hazar times. He said North India is considered pure because the Goddess of purity “Ganga” flows there. Hence they don’t need any more madi.
May be the river linking project will let Ganga flow down to South India aswell and reduce the differences in the traditions.
Madi - This is a Kannada word. I don't know the exact version in Kannada or English. It roughly means purity or Immaculateness.
- The purohit was fully dressed, shirt, sweater and a woolen cap. In the South Indian way generally the purohit is topless, with a shawl only.
- The couple who performed the pooja were dressed fully which is not the case with South Indians. The guy who performs the pooja dresses like the purohit - half dressed.
- The prasad was prepared by a visitor like me. He just washed his hands and legs and was ready to put his hands into the prasad. Among South Indians, a bath is a must and mostly the person who prepares the prasad is also half dressed.
- The “saligram” could be touched by anybody present for the pooja. It was like any other photo of the God. South Indians regard the “saligram” as the most auspicious stone. Only a few who are in madi (people who have taken bath and not touched anybody after bath, generally in wet towels...considered to be pure) can touch “saligram”.
- After washing the “saligram”, the stone was dried using a towel that was used for general purposes. This is totally unacceptable (the above being the reason) among South Indians.
- The God had only a few flowers on him. This is the case even in north Indian temples. Down south, flowers hide almost everything of the idol\photo. In fact the expenditure on flowers for such a flower is really very high. Fewer the flowers, lesser is the beauty of the deity.
- The aarti style was different. An oiled lamp was taken and held in front of the deity. The guy performing the pooja, held the lamp in one hand and moved his other hand from the lamp towards the photo without moving the lamp. It was like waving the smoke towards the photo. This was unusual, as even in temples of North India the style was not this. In south India, the fire is moved in circles, up and down all over the photo.
I asked the purohit why is it that north Indians are not so strict on the madi aspect. The purohit has been staying in Bangalore for more than 20 yrs and seemed to have answered this question hazar times. He said North India is considered pure because the Goddess of purity “Ganga” flows there. Hence they don’t need any more madi.
May be the river linking project will let Ganga flow down to South India aswell and reduce the differences in the traditions.
Madi - This is a Kannada word. I don't know the exact version in Kannada or English. It roughly means purity or Immaculateness.
Monday, December 27, 2004
Tsunami sucks
@
9:42 AM
South India was rattled by something known as tsunami. Thousands have died and hundreds are missing. There is very less news trickling from Andaman. If Tamil Nadu was hit so hard, then what about Andaman? Islands would have been submerged.
I heard in Kannada news that some parts of Bangalore also experienced mild tremors. Nobody in my area experienced anything.
Indonesia and SriLanka will take months or years to come back to lively life.
If the tsunami had hit the west coast, my native village would have been washed away. There were some high tides there too. My grandma is in Bangalore now. She getting tense and wants to rush back home. A home in which she lived for 60+ yrs. Neighbors have assured her that everything is safe there over phone.
I have lots of friends in Chennai. I am not able to reach them for whatever reasons. But I think all of them are safe.
Whenever there is such a tragedy, I try to look for pictures of the tragedy. May be that’s a sadistic feeling...Anyway I found a few old tsunami pictures.
I heard in Kannada news that some parts of Bangalore also experienced mild tremors. Nobody in my area experienced anything.
Indonesia and SriLanka will take months or years to come back to lively life.
If the tsunami had hit the west coast, my native village would have been washed away. There were some high tides there too. My grandma is in Bangalore now. She getting tense and wants to rush back home. A home in which she lived for 60+ yrs. Neighbors have assured her that everything is safe there over phone.
I have lots of friends in Chennai. I am not able to reach them for whatever reasons. But I think all of them are safe.
Whenever there is such a tragedy, I try to look for pictures of the tragedy. May be that’s a sadistic feeling...Anyway I found a few old tsunami pictures.
Friday, December 24, 2004
I am nicknamed "The Goat"
@
11:09 AM
Yesterday we had our quarterly team outing. After having visited lots of resorts in the past quarters, we decided to go to an adventurous spot. We chose Ramnagar as the location for our adventures.
As planned, we left office at 11:30am with the lunch packets. We picked up a couple of cans of water on the way. The trainer got into the swaraj mazda in Banashankari. On the way we had our lunch (sandwich, burger, 2 bananas, 1 frooti and unlimited water!). Time pass activity this time was not anthakshari or dumbc but discussion about the life and times of each individual of the team. The concentration was on the 1st crush and worklife crush. Amazingly many guys experienced the first crush in standard 3 -4 and the crush happened to be a teacher! We reached Ramnagar by 2pm. 3 more trainers joined us there. They made preparations for our 1st of the two adventurous activities.
The place
It’s a really small village in the interiors of Ramnagar. This was the place where Sholay was shot. The place has some 10 -15 huts. There is no hotel or restaurant nearby. Nature is the toilet. About 500 mts from the place is the famous temple of Sholay. The village has power supply with street lights (rather path lights, because there are no streets). It has a small 2 room government school. There is a pond where some people were fishing (may be for dinner). There were some vegetable crops around the huts.
Chimney climbing
Two rocks of about 30 foot high stand apart with a gap of about 2 foot between them. This is the chimney! We need to climb the rock pressing against the other rock using the hands, legs and back only. I cannot describe this without a photo, but without experiencing it there’s no fun.
Seeing the demo was a bit scary, though he said that we would never fall. I took the initiative to go first. To everybody’s surprise (including mine) I could go up the rock in no time with great ease. It was a morale boosting display for the guys who were down. But all their hopes sagged when the second guy failed to reach the top and had to come down from midway. People struggled to come up and only 8 of the 13 guys could reach the top. None with the ease I had displayed ;-). The trainer had initially said that the posture midway is called a goat posture. So everybody nicknamed me as “The Goat”. Later the trainer said that lighter guys have flexible body and it’s easier for them to push up. So that’s the reason for my quickness.
Rappelling
This was on another rock and again there were lots of precautions so that we would never fall off.
What is rappelling?
A descent of a vertical surface, as a cliff or wall, by sliding down a belayed rope that is passed under one thigh and over the opposite shoulder or through a device that provides friction, typically while facing the surface and performing a series of short backward leaps to control the descent.
In short, descending from a rock\cliff backwards but with the feet of the rock\cliff is rappelling. This is shown in many movies.
The initial few steps are a bit scary. A couple of guys were so terrified by their experience of Chimney climbing that they hesitated to do this. But this was not as thrilling as the previous one.
By 6:30 we were done with the activities and the stomachs started making their presence felt. We decided to go to “Kamat Lokaruchi” and had a great North Karnataka meal.
After a rocking day, I went to sleep by 10:30pm. I still felt that Bungee was the most adventourous event, followed by river crossing experience in Masinagudi.
As planned, we left office at 11:30am with the lunch packets. We picked up a couple of cans of water on the way. The trainer got into the swaraj mazda in Banashankari. On the way we had our lunch (sandwich, burger, 2 bananas, 1 frooti and unlimited water!). Time pass activity this time was not anthakshari or dumbc but discussion about the life and times of each individual of the team. The concentration was on the 1st crush and worklife crush. Amazingly many guys experienced the first crush in standard 3 -4 and the crush happened to be a teacher! We reached Ramnagar by 2pm. 3 more trainers joined us there. They made preparations for our 1st of the two adventurous activities.
The place
It’s a really small village in the interiors of Ramnagar. This was the place where Sholay was shot. The place has some 10 -15 huts. There is no hotel or restaurant nearby. Nature is the toilet. About 500 mts from the place is the famous temple of Sholay. The village has power supply with street lights (rather path lights, because there are no streets). It has a small 2 room government school. There is a pond where some people were fishing (may be for dinner). There were some vegetable crops around the huts.
Chimney climbing
Two rocks of about 30 foot high stand apart with a gap of about 2 foot between them. This is the chimney! We need to climb the rock pressing against the other rock using the hands, legs and back only. I cannot describe this without a photo, but without experiencing it there’s no fun.
Seeing the demo was a bit scary, though he said that we would never fall. I took the initiative to go first. To everybody’s surprise (including mine) I could go up the rock in no time with great ease. It was a morale boosting display for the guys who were down. But all their hopes sagged when the second guy failed to reach the top and had to come down from midway. People struggled to come up and only 8 of the 13 guys could reach the top. None with the ease I had displayed ;-). The trainer had initially said that the posture midway is called a goat posture. So everybody nicknamed me as “The Goat”. Later the trainer said that lighter guys have flexible body and it’s easier for them to push up. So that’s the reason for my quickness.
Rappelling
This was on another rock and again there were lots of precautions so that we would never fall off.
What is rappelling?
A descent of a vertical surface, as a cliff or wall, by sliding down a belayed rope that is passed under one thigh and over the opposite shoulder or through a device that provides friction, typically while facing the surface and performing a series of short backward leaps to control the descent.
In short, descending from a rock\cliff backwards but with the feet of the rock\cliff is rappelling. This is shown in many movies.
The initial few steps are a bit scary. A couple of guys were so terrified by their experience of Chimney climbing that they hesitated to do this. But this was not as thrilling as the previous one.
By 6:30 we were done with the activities and the stomachs started making their presence felt. We decided to go to “Kamat Lokaruchi” and had a great North Karnataka meal.
After a rocking day, I went to sleep by 10:30pm. I still felt that Bungee was the most adventourous event, followed by river crossing experience in Masinagudi.
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Positive from negative
@
10:29 AM
I am not talking about the surge in share prices! I am justifying Bangalore's bad infrastructure.
I had written about my aunt losing her golden chain. My house and my aunt house lie on either side of the ring road in the same area within a radius of 1 km. There has been no chain thefts in my area, whereas there have been more than 4 such incidents near my aunt's place. Why is this?
My aunt's place is a pure residential area, with most of the houses occupied by the upper middle class people. The roads are smooth and there are fewer shops.
My area has lots of small shops like bakeries, condiments, grocery shops etc. The road (we call it a road because once upon a time it was a very good road!) is full of potholes. People don’t follow any kind of rules. Pedestrians are ignorant of something called the footpath which is covered with heaps of stones, mud and even filth sometimes. The rusty (no) parking signs have Devegowda's pictures stuck on them. Thanks to all these things, traffic is at snail's pace. Blood pressure will surge if you drive in the roads here. Now how can a thief rob anybody in such an area and flee on his bike at 60kmph?
Crime rates are down because of roads.
The Bangalore mayor should quote this and justify the inaction to improve the roads and infrastructure of Bangalore.
Hope the mayor, Premji and Narayana murthy are reading this ;-)
I had written about my aunt losing her golden chain. My house and my aunt house lie on either side of the ring road in the same area within a radius of 1 km. There has been no chain thefts in my area, whereas there have been more than 4 such incidents near my aunt's place. Why is this?
My aunt's place is a pure residential area, with most of the houses occupied by the upper middle class people. The roads are smooth and there are fewer shops.
My area has lots of small shops like bakeries, condiments, grocery shops etc. The road (we call it a road because once upon a time it was a very good road!) is full of potholes. People don’t follow any kind of rules. Pedestrians are ignorant of something called the footpath which is covered with heaps of stones, mud and even filth sometimes. The rusty (no) parking signs have Devegowda's pictures stuck on them. Thanks to all these things, traffic is at snail's pace. Blood pressure will surge if you drive in the roads here. Now how can a thief rob anybody in such an area and flee on his bike at 60kmph?
Crime rates are down because of roads.
The Bangalore mayor should quote this and justify the inaction to improve the roads and infrastructure of Bangalore.
Hope the mayor, Premji and Narayana murthy are reading this ;-)
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Witty laloo in action
@
9:51 AM
Its election time again. This time in Bihar. The debates and controversies have already started. I am enjoying it. The biggest showman of Indian politics Laloo Yadav is in full action already within 2 days of the announcement of election dates. The latest controversy is regarding the STAR NEWS clipping which showed Laloo distributing Rs 100 and Rs 500 notes to the poor women. This seems to be against the code of conduct laid by the election commission of India. Every party does this behind the cameras. During the last elections, some people died in Lucknow in a free saree distribution ceremony organized by BJP. EC did not care to take any action. Now why is this made a big issue? Laloo’s dialogue was very good. >“Thank God, I was caught on camera giving money, not taking it”. What a shot to the Tehelka tainted guys.
If these witty statements could solve problems, Bihar would have been a no problem state!
Expect more from this guy in the next 2 months.
If these witty statements could solve problems, Bihar would have been a no problem state!
Expect more from this guy in the next 2 months.
Monday, December 20, 2004
"Evam Indrajit"
@
1:21 PM
Rating - 9/10
What is this play about?
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9...9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1...1,2.....
No nothing about symbology or anything very complex. It’s about all of us. It’s about people and their struggle called life. Everything in life goes round and round and there is no start or end. I don’t want to reveal much about this, as this play will be staged many more times and people would like to have the element of suspense as it is.
I had been to this play on Saturday in Rangashankara. The place is damn good. The play started with a solid "chamak" entry by the actors. The comedy scenes mocking the current affairs were very good. The final ending scene where 3 people hold hands and make a complex tangling exercise was done well. 3 guys forming a robotic train and spelling the different options in life which cause confusion (like this sentence) was splendid. All in all, a fabulous way to spend the time on a winter weekend.
What is this play about?
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9...9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1...1,2.....
No nothing about symbology or anything very complex. It’s about all of us. It’s about people and their struggle called life. Everything in life goes round and round and there is no start or end. I don’t want to reveal much about this, as this play will be staged many more times and people would like to have the element of suspense as it is.
I had been to this play on Saturday in Rangashankara. The place is damn good. The play started with a solid "chamak" entry by the actors. The comedy scenes mocking the current affairs were very good. The final ending scene where 3 people hold hands and make a complex tangling exercise was done well. 3 guys forming a robotic train and spelling the different options in life which cause confusion (like this sentence) was splendid. All in all, a fabulous way to spend the time on a winter weekend.
Friday, December 17, 2004
3 good forwards
@
11:55 AM
Paradox!
Few centuries ago, a Law teacher came across a student who was willing to learn but was unable to pay the fee. The student struck a deal saying ' I would pay your fee the day i win my first case in the court'.
Teacher agreed and proceeded with the law course.
When the course was finished and teacher started pestering the student to pay up the fee, student reminded the deal and pushed days. Fed up with this, the teacher decided to sue the student in the court of law and both of them decided to argue for themselves.
The teacher put forward his argument saying: “If I win this case, as per the court of law, student has to pay me. And if I lose the case, student will still pay me because he would have won his first case. So either way I will have to get the money ".
Equally brilliant student argued back saying: "If I win the case, as per the court of law, i don't have to pay anything to the teacher. And if I lose the case, I don't have to pay him because I haven't won my first case yet. So either way, I am not going to pay the teacher anything".
Normal PJ...I call it creative
Question: You are in a boat in the middle of a river. You have 2 cigarettes and have to light any one cigarette. You don't have anything else with you in the boat? How will you do it?
Answer 1: Take one cigarette and throw it in the water. So the boat will become LIGHTER...using this LIGHTER you can light the other cigarette.
Answer 2: You throw a cigarette up and catch it. Catches win Matches. Using the matches that you win, you can light the cigarette.
Answer 3: Take water in your hand and drop it drop by drop... (TIP - TIP)
"TIP TIP barsa Pani.
Pani ne aag lagayee."
us aag se hamne cigarette jalayee.
Answer 4: Start praising one cigarette, the other will get jealous & "jalney lagega"
Faith
The fields were parched and brown from lack of rain, and the crops lay wilting from thirst. People were anxious and irritable as they
searched the sky for any sign of relief. Days turned into arid weeks. No rain came.
The ministers of the local churches called for an hour of prayer on the town square the following Saturday. They requested that everyone bring an object of faith for inspiration.
At high noon on the appointed Saturday the townspeople turned out en-masse filling the square with anxious faces and hopeful hearts. The
ministers were touched to see the variety of objects clutched in prayerful hands - holy books, crosses, and rosaries.
When the hour ended, as if on magical command, a soft rain began to fall. Cheers swept the crowd as they held their treasured objects high in gratitude and praise.
From the middle of the crowd one faith symbol seemed to overshadow all the others:
A small nine-year-old child had brought an umbrella!
When you do something in life, have complete faith that you will definitely succeed.
Few centuries ago, a Law teacher came across a student who was willing to learn but was unable to pay the fee. The student struck a deal saying ' I would pay your fee the day i win my first case in the court'.
Teacher agreed and proceeded with the law course.
When the course was finished and teacher started pestering the student to pay up the fee, student reminded the deal and pushed days. Fed up with this, the teacher decided to sue the student in the court of law and both of them decided to argue for themselves.
The teacher put forward his argument saying: “If I win this case, as per the court of law, student has to pay me. And if I lose the case, student will still pay me because he would have won his first case. So either way I will have to get the money ".
Equally brilliant student argued back saying: "If I win the case, as per the court of law, i don't have to pay anything to the teacher. And if I lose the case, I don't have to pay him because I haven't won my first case yet. So either way, I am not going to pay the teacher anything".
Normal PJ...I call it creative
Question: You are in a boat in the middle of a river. You have 2 cigarettes and have to light any one cigarette. You don't have anything else with you in the boat? How will you do it?
Answer 1: Take one cigarette and throw it in the water. So the boat will become LIGHTER...using this LIGHTER you can light the other cigarette.
Answer 2: You throw a cigarette up and catch it. Catches win Matches. Using the matches that you win, you can light the cigarette.
Answer 3: Take water in your hand and drop it drop by drop... (TIP - TIP)
"TIP TIP barsa Pani.
Pani ne aag lagayee."
us aag se hamne cigarette jalayee.
Answer 4: Start praising one cigarette, the other will get jealous & "jalney lagega"
Faith
The fields were parched and brown from lack of rain, and the crops lay wilting from thirst. People were anxious and irritable as they
searched the sky for any sign of relief. Days turned into arid weeks. No rain came.
The ministers of the local churches called for an hour of prayer on the town square the following Saturday. They requested that everyone bring an object of faith for inspiration.
At high noon on the appointed Saturday the townspeople turned out en-masse filling the square with anxious faces and hopeful hearts. The
ministers were touched to see the variety of objects clutched in prayerful hands - holy books, crosses, and rosaries.
When the hour ended, as if on magical command, a soft rain began to fall. Cheers swept the crowd as they held their treasured objects high in gratitude and praise.
From the middle of the crowd one faith symbol seemed to overshadow all the others:
A small nine-year-old child had brought an umbrella!
When you do something in life, have complete faith that you will definitely succeed.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
"No model" advertisings
@
11:48 AM
How many TV advertisements are there which do not have a model? I consider animals and cartoons as models. At the max - a handful.
Recently, I saw a beautiful advertisement on TV which doesn’t have a model. This is the advertisement of an undie (Frenchie X to be precise). A panty which is put for drying just flies and flies and finally comes and settles down next to Frenchie X which is again put for drying somewhere else. Finally, the caption appears “Makes a big impact”. Super adv.
It may be a copy from the Axe affect ads, where the females are attracted to the males. But the way it is shown really makes a big impact.
I see a good ad on TV after the days of Hutch’s dog and boy show. Somehow there is lack of innovation in this area. Companies just pour money on stars instead of some good stuff. Yesterday ING put an ad in one of the channels. The ad starts with a dog trying to catch its tail and ends with the dog still trying to catch its tail. The caption “Why try hard to get your own money? Invest with ING.” (The words may not be exact, but this was the meaning conveyed). This is an example of another good campaign.
There are other no model ads. Buy 2 soaps and another soap box jumps in, saying that it’s free.
This is an example of stupid modeless ads.
Now what am I trying to write here? Huh...
Recently, I saw a beautiful advertisement on TV which doesn’t have a model. This is the advertisement of an undie (Frenchie X to be precise). A panty which is put for drying just flies and flies and finally comes and settles down next to Frenchie X which is again put for drying somewhere else. Finally, the caption appears “Makes a big impact”. Super adv.
It may be a copy from the Axe affect ads, where the females are attracted to the males. But the way it is shown really makes a big impact.
I see a good ad on TV after the days of Hutch’s dog and boy show. Somehow there is lack of innovation in this area. Companies just pour money on stars instead of some good stuff. Yesterday ING put an ad in one of the channels. The ad starts with a dog trying to catch its tail and ends with the dog still trying to catch its tail. The caption “Why try hard to get your own money? Invest with ING.” (The words may not be exact, but this was the meaning conveyed). This is an example of another good campaign.
There are other no model ads. Buy 2 soaps and another soap box jumps in, saying that it’s free.
This is an example of stupid modeless ads.
Now what am I trying to write here? Huh...
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Junk packed as "Ocean's 12"
@
11:50 AM
"What a pathetic movie!"...This was the expression of all of the guys in the group when we walked out of the show. This movie seemed to be an insult to Ocean's 11.
Why is it so bad?
The director has just attempted to cash in on the fame of the previous version. If it was not named "Ocean's 12", this movie would have been another English movie in the drain.
Why is it so bad?
- The 11 guys don’t have a role to play in the robbery this time. Their "skills" are of no use.
- The supposed to be comedy scene involving Bruce Wills and Julia doesn’t bring a faint smile on your face forget laughter.
- There is no hep robbery. The robbery finally is like a pickpocket. This looks stupid escpecially after the sophisticated robbery in Ocean's 11.
- The story is a big drag and is of no significance. The robbery has been done 6 days before the actual planned robbery. Now I don’t understand the reason for this.
The director has just attempted to cash in on the fame of the previous version. If it was not named "Ocean's 12", this movie would have been another English movie in the drain.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwara
@
2:59 PM
I heard this story during a pooja in my colleague’s house.
Once there started an argument between Brahma and Vishnu. Each claimed that he was greater than the other. They could not come to any conclusion. So they decided to approach Maheshwara (popularly known as Shiva). When Shiva heard this argument, he thought for a moment. Then he installed a big lingam in front of the two parties. He asked Vishnu to go down and identify the starting point of the lingam. He asked Brahma to go up and identify the tip of the lingam. “Whoever comes back first is the greatest” he said. Both started off the search. Vishnu couldn’t find the base of the lingam after a long search so came back and told Shiva that he had failed. Brahma too couldn’t find the tip. But fearing a humiliation, he came back and lied to Shiva that he found the tip. He used “Ketaki” flower as a witness. Shiva got angry and gave Brahma and Ketaki a “shaapa”. “Though you are the creator, nobody in the world will pray you. Everybody will pray Vishnu and his avatars like Ram and Krishna. Ketaki will not adore any God anymore.” he said. This is the reason for not finding any Brahma temple. The story doesn’t end there. Brahma pleaded Shiva to relax this a bit. Shiva obliged and said “There will be only 1 temple for you”. So there’s one Brahma temple in Pushkar, Rajasthan. Here ketaki flowers are used.
Wonder how many such stories exist in the Vedas!
Once there started an argument between Brahma and Vishnu. Each claimed that he was greater than the other. They could not come to any conclusion. So they decided to approach Maheshwara (popularly known as Shiva). When Shiva heard this argument, he thought for a moment. Then he installed a big lingam in front of the two parties. He asked Vishnu to go down and identify the starting point of the lingam. He asked Brahma to go up and identify the tip of the lingam. “Whoever comes back first is the greatest” he said. Both started off the search. Vishnu couldn’t find the base of the lingam after a long search so came back and told Shiva that he had failed. Brahma too couldn’t find the tip. But fearing a humiliation, he came back and lied to Shiva that he found the tip. He used “Ketaki” flower as a witness. Shiva got angry and gave Brahma and Ketaki a “shaapa”. “Though you are the creator, nobody in the world will pray you. Everybody will pray Vishnu and his avatars like Ram and Krishna. Ketaki will not adore any God anymore.” he said. This is the reason for not finding any Brahma temple. The story doesn’t end there. Brahma pleaded Shiva to relax this a bit. Shiva obliged and said “There will be only 1 temple for you”. So there’s one Brahma temple in Pushkar, Rajasthan. Here ketaki flowers are used.
Wonder how many such stories exist in the Vedas!
Monday, December 13, 2004
Habba on MG Road
@
1:17 PM
I had been to the "Bengalooru habba" on the MG Road yesterday. The pavement was filled with stalls. There were some colleges apart from the businessmen, who had set up stalls and selling some goods. Surprisingly there were fewer food stalls.
All through the pavement there were artists sitting and drawing portraits of people who had the patience to sit opposite to those guys for 15-20 mins. How talented and lucky these guys are! Can you imagine beautiful girls sitting opposite to you for 15 mins and just stare at you eye to eye. And with mouth shut ;-). One deserves that experience if one is talented as these painters. There were guys who made caricatures also. One amazing guy made small clay faces of people who sat in front of him.
Denser crowd was seen near the fashion accessories stalls. There were handloom stalls. One stall sold earrings, bracelets and rings made from sea shells. They were awesome.
Guys were there who wrote the names on a grain of rice. I remembered the one grain my father got as a present from his friend back in the 70s. Dad had preserved it with great care, until I spoilt it when I was young. Now I realize the mistake and its value. It had a flower and my parents’ names written on it. Some things can never be got back.
All through the pavement there were artists sitting and drawing portraits of people who had the patience to sit opposite to those guys for 15-20 mins. How talented and lucky these guys are! Can you imagine beautiful girls sitting opposite to you for 15 mins and just stare at you eye to eye. And with mouth shut ;-). One deserves that experience if one is talented as these painters. There were guys who made caricatures also. One amazing guy made small clay faces of people who sat in front of him.
Denser crowd was seen near the fashion accessories stalls. There were handloom stalls. One stall sold earrings, bracelets and rings made from sea shells. They were awesome.
Guys were there who wrote the names on a grain of rice. I remembered the one grain my father got as a present from his friend back in the 70s. Dad had preserved it with great care, until I spoilt it when I was young. Now I realize the mistake and its value. It had a flower and my parents’ names written on it. Some things can never be got back.
Friday, December 10, 2004
Rasterbator
@
1:44 PM
I found this software yesterday on Google.
What is this all about?
You have an image of say Mother Teresa of the size of a post card. You want an enlarged version (say a picture of size 2ft by 4ft) of this picture for hanging on your room wall. Give this file as input to this software and set the size you want. It gives you a pdf file as output. This file will have only dots (diameter of which you can set in the software) of black and white (there’s a color option as well). Take a printout of this pdf and arrange to get a big enlarged version of Mother Teresa.
So this tool splits and enlarges the image. View the gallery in the site. Some really amazing pictures are present. I tried with the picture of Mickey Mouse. It's super.
I felt that this tool is particularly useful to make some stage settings for plays.
What is this all about?
You have an image of say Mother Teresa of the size of a post card. You want an enlarged version (say a picture of size 2ft by 4ft) of this picture for hanging on your room wall. Give this file as input to this software and set the size you want. It gives you a pdf file as output. This file will have only dots (diameter of which you can set in the software) of black and white (there’s a color option as well). Take a printout of this pdf and arrange to get a big enlarged version of Mother Teresa.
So this tool splits and enlarges the image. View the gallery in the site. Some really amazing pictures are present. I tried with the picture of Mickey Mouse. It's super.
I felt that this tool is particularly useful to make some stage settings for plays.
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Jogging to the cab-stop
@
1:04 PM
I am mostly an early to bed and early to raise guy. Sleep at 10:30pm (if work permits) and get up at 5:45am - 6am. And I don’t need an alarm for this. But this winter has been different. I am not able to wake up till 6:30am. The darkness inside the room just doesn’t let my eyes open. The bed sheet and the warm woolen rug protect my body from the coolness of the December winter. All this are factors I feel. But that affects my morning activities. The remaining processes are getting delayed. I have to read the newspaper, watch "Headlines Today" and eat my breakfast all simultaneously. After doing all this I still have to jog to my cab stop to catch the 1st shuttle to office. So getting up late is making me healthy! Haha...
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Festival of groundnuts
@
9:41 AM
Yesterday evening I went to the final day of this year's "Kadalekai parishe" (festival of groundnuts). I make it a point to visit it if I am free during the time. There were more shops. There was more variety of nuts. There were more crowds. There were more food stalls. But there were fewer crowds at the big bull temple.
My personal preference was the half fried nuts, though my friends took raw nuts to munch on. The restaurant "Halli thindi" had opened a set of food stalls with a variety of dishes. Some specials were the "Mangalore buns" and "Davangere mensinkai bajji" (Chilli bajji). It was not just mouth watering but also eye watering. But I find things really missing in these festivals are drinking water and the loos.
We took the 5 Rs entry ticket to avoid the not so long queue and go straight in front of the amazing big bull. The decorations were splendid. I spoke to the ticket vendor who happened to a friend of a friend of mine. He has won the tender for ticket vending. He can charge whatever he wants, but he fixed it at 5 bucks. He said that on Monday he had a good collection and the entire business was a profit :-).
After sitting on the stone slabs for sometime and discussing politics, shares etc…we bid goodbye to this year's fest. Wait for another "Karthika Somavara" (last Monday of the month of karthika in hindu calendar) for the fest.
My personal preference was the half fried nuts, though my friends took raw nuts to munch on. The restaurant "Halli thindi" had opened a set of food stalls with a variety of dishes. Some specials were the "Mangalore buns" and "Davangere mensinkai bajji" (Chilli bajji). It was not just mouth watering but also eye watering. But I find things really missing in these festivals are drinking water and the loos.
We took the 5 Rs entry ticket to avoid the not so long queue and go straight in front of the amazing big bull. The decorations were splendid. I spoke to the ticket vendor who happened to a friend of a friend of mine. He has won the tender for ticket vending. He can charge whatever he wants, but he fixed it at 5 bucks. He said that on Monday he had a good collection and the entire business was a profit :-).
After sitting on the stone slabs for sometime and discussing politics, shares etc…we bid goodbye to this year's fest. Wait for another "Karthika Somavara" (last Monday of the month of karthika in hindu calendar) for the fest.
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Cribbing of a loser
@
9:18 AM
Yesterday we did not finish in top 3. It was sad. We knew that we would not finish in the top as soon as the demo was done. The judges somehow seemed to have no interest in our presentation.
Why dint we win?
• 3 of the 5 judges were HR related managers…How will they know the technicality of AI or BI?
• 1 of the 5 judges went out for a leak just before the presentation started. Still we were asked to start. He was a techie and would have understood our concept.
• We had added some features especially for demo purposes. When we showed that the speakers did not talk about the importance of that features.
• The UI was very simple, unlike the jazzy stuff shown by others. Packaging is more important than the product itself.
Huh...we lost.
Why dint we win?
• 3 of the 5 judges were HR related managers…How will they know the technicality of AI or BI?
• 1 of the 5 judges went out for a leak just before the presentation started. Still we were asked to start. He was a techie and would have understood our concept.
• We had added some features especially for demo purposes. When we showed that the speakers did not talk about the importance of that features.
• The UI was very simple, unlike the jazzy stuff shown by others. Packaging is more important than the product itself.
Huh...we lost.
Monday, December 06, 2004
Death of a goal scorer
@
11:43 AM
I saw the death of Cristiano live on DD sports yesterday. Such a big tragedy. The idiot goalie should be banned for life. I read that Cristiano was the top scorer in the Indian league last year. A tragic end.
The facilities are really of a great concern. The commentator told that the footballer was breathing when he was taken to the ambulance. I heard in the morning news that the ambulance did not have a oxygen cylinder. Why the hell do they call it ambulance! Common sense would say that take him to the nearest hospital when there is no oxygen. And Mallya hospital was right opposite to the Kanteerava stadium. But the stupids took him to HOSMAT in the busy traffic of Bangalore. The persons involved should be charged of murder. If the govt tries to protect, then no major sports event should be alloted to Karnataka. They should be made to pay thru their nose. Just fuck them.
The facilities are really of a great concern. The commentator told that the footballer was breathing when he was taken to the ambulance. I heard in the morning news that the ambulance did not have a oxygen cylinder. Why the hell do they call it ambulance! Common sense would say that take him to the nearest hospital when there is no oxygen. And Mallya hospital was right opposite to the Kanteerava stadium. But the stupids took him to HOSMAT in the busy traffic of Bangalore. The persons involved should be charged of murder. If the govt tries to protect, then no major sports event should be alloted to Karnataka. They should be made to pay thru their nose. Just fuck them.
KnowBots
@
11:35 AM
After a long time I did a night out at office. The work was not the usual project work. It was a inventive work. Work on AI! Yes, Artificial Intelligence in combination with Business Intelligence. The occasion was a code competition. There were 17 teams and we are in the top 5. The top 3 will be rewarded. But to know if we the "KNOWBOTS" are in the top 3, we would have to wait till evening. A real anxious wait.
Now the details…
Friday afternoon we started the installation of some new tools. As expected we faced lots of problems and the problems just increased as there was no expertise on the tools in India. ISD calls to Germany dint give any positive results. Google was of no use. Hopes were started fading as the daylight started to fade. By 9pm, it was decided to scrap the original concept and work on a alternative. A couple of us continued to work on the problems. Finally we decided to call our American office which developed the tool. I used crib about the time difference. For the first time the time difference turned out to be an advantage. 30 mins of net meeting and phone call solved all our problems and our project was back on track. Satisfied with the work we took a fag break and watched some juicy scenes from the Hindi movie Girlfriends. Welcomes break indeed ;-).
Morning was again tense as we started integrating the modules. It was smooth. By 1 in the afternoon, the atmosphere was cool in the prj team. At 5 the demo was to happen in front of a highly knowledgeable panel of judges. At 4:45 Murphy's Law took over. Reports failed to come up. A last minute code change was the culprit. At 4:50 we get a call that the presentation has been postponed to 6:45 as one of the judges could not turn up. We just couldn’t help believing in LUCK. By 6 everything was up again. The demo went smooth and the by the time the results were told at 10:30 in the night half the team was in bed in some part of Bangalore. SMSs flew around in jubilation. Today we need to demo again in front of the whole company.
Waiting for the final outcome.
Now the details…
Friday afternoon we started the installation of some new tools. As expected we faced lots of problems and the problems just increased as there was no expertise on the tools in India. ISD calls to Germany dint give any positive results. Google was of no use. Hopes were started fading as the daylight started to fade. By 9pm, it was decided to scrap the original concept and work on a alternative. A couple of us continued to work on the problems. Finally we decided to call our American office which developed the tool. I used crib about the time difference. For the first time the time difference turned out to be an advantage. 30 mins of net meeting and phone call solved all our problems and our project was back on track. Satisfied with the work we took a fag break and watched some juicy scenes from the Hindi movie Girlfriends. Welcomes break indeed ;-).
Morning was again tense as we started integrating the modules. It was smooth. By 1 in the afternoon, the atmosphere was cool in the prj team. At 5 the demo was to happen in front of a highly knowledgeable panel of judges. At 4:45 Murphy's Law took over. Reports failed to come up. A last minute code change was the culprit. At 4:50 we get a call that the presentation has been postponed to 6:45 as one of the judges could not turn up. We just couldn’t help believing in LUCK. By 6 everything was up again. The demo went smooth and the by the time the results were told at 10:30 in the night half the team was in bed in some part of Bangalore. SMSs flew around in jubilation. Today we need to demo again in front of the whole company.
Waiting for the final outcome.
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Actually seen
@
1:10 PM
After reading the Chain Snatched blog, my friend sent me what he has seen. Just wanted to share it.
"Something similar to this happened about 4.5 years just in front of my house at about 9.30 pm.
In this case the lady was lucky - the chain was broken but got stuck in the saree and the pendant was recovered from the road."
"Something similar to this happened about 4.5 years just in front of my house at about 9.30 pm.
In this case the lady was lucky - the chain was broken but got stuck in the saree and the pendant was recovered from the road."
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Top ten words of 2004
@
2:51 PM
The Merriam-Webster has announced the most famous words of 2004.
The number one word is blog.
The list of words are as follows.
The number one word is blog.
The list of words are as follows.
- Blog
- incumbent
- electoral
- insurgent
- hurricane
- cicada
- peloton
- partisan
- sovereignty
- defenestration
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)