Good times

Life has to be full of fond moments and exciting times spent with family, friends, grandparents and loved ones. First day on your first job, an unexpected meeting of your childhood friend, first movie with your girlfriend, a romantic candle light dinner with your loved one... its wonderful how on such moments you feel the gush of emotions running right through you... and after many years it still gives you the feel as if it happened today.

One such memorable day that I wish to share was my first outing with Sindhu on my bike. Like any typical South Indian family, taking the girl out before being formally engaged is a strict no-no affair.. and like any typical pre-engagement boy and girl, we would be waiting to step out (Hehehehe... :)) But first time is always a first time, you are always in the dilemma whether to keep it chupa-chupi or let the elders know. After much thought (my Decision no.1) I decided to inform her dad on taking Sindhu out for a while. So I called her up and told her I would be there for pick up at 6PM IST... so that she would prepare the pitch, and all that I would need to do is to present myself in formal look (obviously not the MJ look and feel on the first visit).. exchange a few pleasentaries and ride away with the dream of my life. I was fully excited, got ready in no time, took my Fiero and zipped thru the traffic, only to find myself parking my bike at Sindhu's house at 7PM (late by an hour.. anyways IST is Indian Streachable Time and how can I not live upto the reputation that "guys" are never on time). Climbed the stairs to their first floor house with a bit of nervousness, but got a very generous warm  and a smiling welcome from everyone. Sindhu was inside dressing up for the outing.

Things were going as planned. Trying to keep the decent approach, I began a conversation with Sindhu's dad (hoping to end it soon and take Sindhu out asap). At first I was not even keen on listening, after a while I made an effort to listen to what was reaching my ears... Weather, coffee, job, Bangalore traffic, Metro, fuel prices... the talks never did seem to end. I too pitched in with a few comments here and there. Soon we ran out of topics... precious time.. God help me!!! Trying not to be rude or anything, I tried to close the conversation on a few occasions, but only to find another one starting.

I started getting restless, matters was slowly slipping out of my control, topics started repeating :'( .... I even tried to remain silent, hoping of some reciprocation. But my prayers to the God of Silence went in vain as the talks went on and on and on.. like Amaron battery. By now, each passing minute started to give me the feel of a day... thats when my Decision no.2 came.. I stood up on my feet, took the helmet in my hands, and said non-stop - "I think its getting late, we have planned to go out for a while, will be come back in an hour's time". Then there was silence. When you ask your fiancee out making the return time obvious for her parents is very important (not that you would take their daughter on a 6D/7N all inclusive trip to Kulu Manali, but just to sound responsible)... else forget even getting a shake of the head from her parents.  Finally after a few exchange of smiles... we left. There she was, sitting on my bike for the first time, and I was all in heavens :).... took her to a famous chat center in Gandhibazar, spent more than 2 hours chatting (lots of talks and samosa chats in-between).

Time just flew by, me and Sindhu met a few more times before getting engaged. Currently enjoying, the so called golden era (post engagement and pre-marital bliss). Suddenly weekends became more happening and full of fun (minus all the effort and the pain) :)

Engagement models!!!

A funny blog from my collegue. Read and Enjoy!! :)

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No, no.. don’t go away.. this is not about proposals or project management. This is my unique take (actually nothing unique, but then I am running out of topics) on the post engagement pre-marriage period which is the golden era (ahem..hem) in anybody’s life..

There are so many guys (read 1) these days asking me for tips on how to handle this enragement period (oops, spelling mistake! anyway let us leave it that way). So, being the shrewd observer of things (that should make it clear that this is not out of experience.. any comments of that sort will be ruthlessly moderated), I decided to play the savior of such wandering sheep.. Please follow this set of rules to confirm your marital status. Remember, there is very little difference between marital law and martial law!

Rule number 1: Unless you are a close relative of the Ambani’s (or own sweat equity of some IPL franchise), get a CUG phone connection. You have so much talking to do (mostly listening.. but talk also if you count ‘yeah’, ‘right’ and ‘ok’). 

Rule number 2: Your reply SMS messages should be a minimum of 10 words. Remove words like ‘ok’, ’sure’, ‘me too’, ‘fine’ from your SMS dictionary. For example, a suggested reply for a message like ‘I have a lot of work today’, should be ‘Oh no.. Too bad. Tell ur mngr that you have a hdache :-):-) ‘..  A reply like ‘oh ok’ for this message is sure to put you in mortal danger. 

Rule number 3: Remember to remember.  Guys have a tendency to remember key things like Sachin’s centuries, Deepika’s latest boyfriend and Messi’s jersey number and forget trivial things like fiancee’s birthday, the names of all of her 14 friends, in-laws’ wedding day and Tommy’s vaccination day. Not any more brother! Try at least to remember the month of birth of your fiancee’s sister-in-law’s  second cousin. You never know how it will help.

Rule number 4: Know your colours. Men can distinguish about 3 colours in a rainbow. But women can identify all the 38 colours in it. So, practise until you can clearly distinguish blue, light blue, deep blue, dark blue, navy blue, sky blue, copper sulphate blue, zinc phosphate blue.. you get the idea..

Rule number 5: Extrapolate! This is very important. What she says is not what she wants.. For eg., if she messages you to get a band-aid, and if you manage to buy one, you will look like an absolute idiot! You are supposed to immediately call her with an anxious voice on why she needs one, what really happened, whether she needs an ambulance (a rescue helicopter if she can’t see through the sarcasm).. And by the way, she really does not need a band-aid!

Rule number 6: Interpret! Continuing with the above rule, sometimes  you have to do the opposite of what she says, because there is a hidden meaning associated with each phrase

‘OK, you don’t have to come’           If you are not here in the next half-our I will kill you’
‘It is not heavy, I can carry it’           ’You moron, will you take this from me or what?’
‘This dress does not suit me’             ‘It looks great on me and I expect you to say it’

Rule number 7: Hidden within those multiple strands of your brain, there is a commodity called logic. Get it out somehow and throw it as farther as you can.. Else it will interfere in those inopportune moments, like when she calls at 2:00 AM in the morning to check whether you are awake or why she needs 3 pair of slippers when she already has 4 or how someone can be a fan of Tushar Kapoor. Asking such questions will result in… I don’t even want to think about it!

Ok, folks I hope you find these pearls of wisdom useful. Some people listen to experts, some learn the hard way. So it is up to you. Enjoy the marital bliss.

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Any feedbacks or comments will be promptly fwdd to the author of the original blog :)

Indian Advertising

Advertising in India has grown leaps and bounds from the 80's and the 90's. Todays ads are one of the most creative and innovative we get to see in the entire world. Arguebly the toughest job is convincing a customer to buy your product in the competetive Indian market. Ads are of many different kinds, the ones u watch on televsion, print ads that appear on mags and newspapers, and scores of them that you get to hear on Fm channels (which are not visual ads), and obvsly the ads from the wide web world. I came across some online ads which made me giggle and laugh. Hope you also enjoy them...

Each one is better than the other. Simply amazing to see how creative Indian advertising have become. I wont say these are the best, but they are certainly some of the funniest :). I am not giving out the product names, you gotta watch them to enjoy. The Chaalis Chor (click on the link to see), adopted from the 1971 anime Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, has been quite a hit. The next ad Udi (click on the link to see) sends a clear message to the consumers. The third on the list, Daddu's blessings (click on the link to see) is certainly entertaining, giving the ad a Bollywood touch, which has been aped by many. Next one is an innovative ad, Mast Bahaar (click on the link to see), giving out a message to all the youth, spreading awareness on one of the important issues plauging today's world. The fifth on the list is also inspired from Bollywood. I enjoyed, Train (click on the link to see), which has some Bihari (Laloo yadav) accent in it. The next one is quite creative as well. You like or hate ghazals??? then u must watch Chitti (click on the link to see), where the world's richest and popular product company is targetting Indian customers. I did smile after watching it. How can todays ads leave out the Sholay theme from wooing the cosumenrs. You might have seen many ads revoving around the sholay theme and this one is one of them. Watch Sholay-Thakur (click on the link to see) and enjoy!

PS:Make sure u have the speakers turned-on when you watch these ads :)

My all time favs however have been M-seal and the Nike ad, igniting the passion for cricket (n how Nike did it? Click here).

M-seal


Nike

And the Oscar goes to...

Not the real Oscars.. but faltoo ones..
This year's "Not My Job" award goes to...

Moods of a woman :)

(well this ones not from a feminist for sure!!!)

An angel of truth and a dream of fiction,
A Woman is a bundle of contradictions.
She's afraid of a wasp, Will scream at a mouse,
But will tackle her husband alone in the house.

She'll take him for better; She'll take him for worse
She'll break open his head and then be his nurse.
But when he's well and can get out of bed.
She'll pick up the teapot and throw it at his head.

Beautiful and keen sighted yet blind,
Crafty and cruel, yet simple and kind.
She'll call him a king and then make him a clown.
Raise him on a pedestal, and then throw him flat down.

She inspires him to deeds that ennoble man,
Or make him her lackey to carry her fan.
She'll run away from him and never come back
But if he runs away she'll be on his tracks

Sour as vinegar, sweet as a rose
She'll kiss you one minute, then turn up her nose
She'll win you in range, enchant you in silk
She is stronger than brandy, milder than milk

At times revengful, merry and sad,
She hates you like Poison, but loves you like Mad.

The way people say sorry !!!

The way people apologise and their style of saying sorry depends a lot on their personality and zodiac traits. No wonder Leos embarrass you when they say sorry while Arians will actually annoy you with their apology?...

Aries: For starters, Arians think they are so sweet,they could not have possibly said or done things that need an apology. So in the unlikely possibility of them actually going down their knees to apologise, it will be a simple sorry.Nothing less, nothing more.

Taurus: They are so scared to face others when they make a mistake that by the time they resurface to tender an apology, the damage is done. So Taurans end up making foes out of friends because of their laxity in apologizing.

Gemini: Geminis think they are infallible and therefore will never really apologise for anything. But once they realize, they prefer to act as if nothing happened, and behave normally with people who have a problem rather than remind others of the incident by tendering an apology.

Cancer: Cancerians will make you feel sorry for demanding one when they make a mistake. They are the legendary characters that burn hands and slash their fingers! in order to display the quantum of their repentance. Their repentance is dangerous.

Leo: Leos are a delightful bunch even when they are trying to make up for their follies. They will go down their knees, buy flowers, put up sorry posters.. do everything colorful to flatter you and make up for their mistakes. In fact it's fun to induce them to make a mistake and let them apologize for it.

Virgo: Virgos will first formally set aside a time and date and inform them what they want to tell you. Then they will mentally prepare themselves to talk out the same things. They will finally draft the script and read out whatever they want to. In short, even their heartfelt apologies sound like well-drafted scripts.

Libra: They are very vocal once they realize their folly. They never ever hesitate to come clean and admit their mistakes. In fact, they will go out of their way to convince you about how genuinely sorry they are.

Scorpio: Scorpios are formal and think that tendering an apology is more of a formality. So instead of just saying sorry, they will send a formal mail or send a card, whatever it takes to avoid direct confrontation.

Sagittarius: Sagittarians don't believe in being sorry or apologizing. For them, it is human to err and therefore saying sorry is just redundant. Interestingly, even if others make mistakes, they are pretty cool and don't expect much from them.

Capricorn: They can't take a simple sorry. They need reasons, explanations, written letters and the works to get elicit an 'ok, you may go now' phrase. They are hard to please and even harder to appease.

Aquarius: They are sweet, genuine and innovative when they think they are wrong and need to undo the damage. Aquarians are easy on their mistakes and don't take too much time to do their sorrying.

Pisces: Pisceans don't easily give in because they believe that everything is about perspective. So if somebody thinks they made a mistake! , it's because they have a wonky perspective. Pisceans and apologies? No chance!!!

Calvin and Hobbes

I always had the love for cartoons. first it was Maya Kamat's comic strips on Deccan herald, then RK Laxman's 'Comman Man' and now im CRAZZYYY abt C & B. Yes, u are right... its Bill Waterson's Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin is really amazing, he is a six-year-old boy, and is the main character of the comic strip. He lives at home with his parents. He has a stuffed tiger named Hobbes, who he believes is real and with which he converses and interacts. He has an overactive imagination, and just about every comic strip has some element of fantasy in it. Calvin is rambunctious, getting into trouble frequently and often breaking everything remotely breakable in his parents' house. He is extremely smart, but his imagination and immaturity make success in school impossible. He represents the piece in all of us that wants to stay a kid forever--and who can blame him?

Too good... well.. just hav a look at some of the best of C & B.. njoy !!! ;)

http://www.progressiveboink.com/archive/calvinhobbes.htm

OK, me logging off for the day... gud nite!