Category: general

Good cricket brings along with it the opportunity to be exposed to a variety of advertisements. In fact, some people like watch cricket matches solely for the ads!

Anyways, for a change, there seem to be quite a few good ads nowadays during the cricket matches. I particularly liked Airtel’s latest campaign. The thing about “one raised finger breaks a nation’s heart… ” and stuff. most of the visuals and stuff are also very aptly chosen. and though first timers would have it tough in identifying the product, the music at the end gives it away! simply beautiful, i must say.

Then, another ad is the one for SBI cards. The one where the guy runs with a bucket of hot water and calls it “running hot water”. An ad that can have my dad in splits must definitely be good! And it’s a strong plank SBI has pitched on – that they are much more reliable than the MNC banks.

Apart from these, there are another couple of good ads which I can’t recall right now. However, the splendor ads (with the blind dad) don’t quite strike a chord; neither does reliance’s “hello” campaign. Probably they believe that a really bad ad will also draw attention, thus accomplishing the A of AIDA.

The worst thing, however, is that the ads start as soon as the last ball of any over is bowled. Pathetic. Henceforth, BCCI should award telecast rights only to dedicated sports channels and not to unscrupulous money-making machines such as Sahara one. there should be a more stringent process at the “request for qualifications” phase.

After I came home late one evening last week, my parents are saying that the only way i can become more responsible is if were to get married. My dad said that ideally he would’ve liked me to get married before i start my job, but since that’s not feasible, I have two years’ time. This has got me starting to think about the thing.

I seriously hope I’m able to find someone for myself within the next couple of years, and not enter the arranged marriage market. I can’t bear the thought of having make perhaps the most important decision of my life after one short interview!

Apart from this, in the arranged marriage market, I reckon that my resume would overshadow me. There is a greater chance of ending up with someone who’ll want to marry me for the fancy degrees I have got; for the fancy job i’ll be doing; for the fancy compensation I’ll be getting; because marrying me would look good on HER resume; and so on. No one would bother about what kind of guy I am, whether I’m nice or not, and all such.

Good chance the thing might lead to suboptimal results.

Try asking an NRI where he or she is working, the answer you usually get is “I’m working in New York City” or “I’m working in Burkina Faso”. Upon a lot of persuasion, you get to hear something like “I work for a hardware firm” or “I am a commodities trader”.

It is only on very rare occasions that anyone will tell you the name of the firm he/she is working for. Is it that the firm is so obscure that the NRI believes it’s a level down for him/her to mention the name of the firm? Or worse, does he/she think that I’m too stupid and won’t know the name of the firm? Or is it that most people actually don’t want to know/don’t care about the name of this person’s firm, and I am counted among those typical people??

Reminds me of a MTech from IITM who went to the placement interviews and was asked “what is your area of work?” and promptly replied “Andhra Pradesh”!!

After three years of mobile phones, SMS and T9, I have observed that most girls don’t use T9. And thus end up sending horribly-spelt messages with all sorts of weird acronyms.

Must mention here that my spellings have actually improved after I started using T9

Isn’t it ironical that the two of the largest agglomerations of Muslims in Bangalore are called Shivajinagar and Tilaknagar?

Started reading “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman today. Have done around 40 pages. Anyways, the purpose of the post is to mention that the book says, “These call center jobs are low-wage low-prestige jobs in America, but when shifted to India they become high-wage high-prestige jobs”

Don’t call me a snob, but I’m wondering if call center jobs are actually high-prestige jobs here. At least among my close relatives the reaction to someone being in a call center job is “poor guy/girl didn’t get any other job”.

Went on the fairly-hyped “Bangalore Walks” yesterday. Did what they call the “Victorian Bangalore Walk”. Started off at Trinity Church, walked mostly along MG Road, a little bit of Brigade Road and Rest House Crescent before ending at Ebony’s for breakfast.

For a pucca Bangalorean and a quizzer, the thing didn’t have much to offer. A few bits of trivia here and there, some of them i’m sure have been cooked up by the guide.

Recommended for tourists to Bangalore, but definitely not worth Rs. 400 and waking up early!

Incidentally, the guide is from Bangalore and studied at IITM and IIMB and worked as a consultant before starting on this thing.

Dr. Rajkumar died today. Despite him being almost 78 and severely sick, apparently the death has come as a shock ot most people in the industry. The last time I’d seen the guy on TV, he looked pretty sickly and about to die. Wonder why the shock then!

Anyways, the incidents following the death are fairly interesting. Quite a few celebrities are going on national and state television expressing their grief, and talking about how great an actor Dr. Raj was. Quite expected, I must say. The state government has gone against its earlier policy of not declaring holidays following deaths, and has announced tomorrow as a state holiday. The cabinet met this evening to express its grief. I’m surprised an assembly session hasn’t been called for.

The worst of all, however, has been the behaviour of the crowds, the so-called ‘fans’ of the late actor. Earlier this afternoon, I spotted a bunch of them going all round 4th block, forcing shopkeepers to down their shutters as a mark of ‘solidarity’. The same gets reported on national TV later this evening saying how the shopkeepers voluntarily shut shop!

No one talks about this one lost day of business for them. No one talks about the fresh bread ‘Iyengar’s Bakery’ would have baked this afternoon and was unable to sell because some goondas forced the shop shut. No one talks about the fact that half the city had to walk back home from work tonight, because the buses weren’t running.

Scenes on TV were even more shocking. A bunch of goondas, under the guise of “abhimaanigaLa sangha”, overturned a police Innova and set fire to it. Police just watched the thing burn. I also happened to see a bus near my house with not a single window pane intact. Then, there were a thousand people who clambered on to every inch of space available in Raj’s house. Pity his family. And another thousand who wouldn’t let the ambulance with the corpse move.

Yeah, the news channels did report this. They called it “effect of the grief of thousands of raj’s fans” or some such crap.

So in our country, you express grief by destroying public property. You express your love for a departed soul by flinging a few stones heavenwards, hoping some glass is shattered on the way. You express your solidarity by forcing people to express solidarity.

Oh my darling, yeh hai India!