Sunday, December 23, 2012

Getting Away

Its Mahabharat all over again! Panchali dragged into a court full of hungry eyes, humiliation hurled from all sides and the world watching…. hanging their heads in shame and their fists clenched in anger. Alas, these days, Krishna doesn’t appear magically.
And it has been so since time immemorial, whether God created the world or it started with a Big Bang. What makes me think really hard is how did Indian men get this trait so much in abundance over their counterparts anywhere else around the world? But then I realize…..they did not get this trait, it has grown over time.
Each one of these anti-social elements probably started with a crime of much smaller quantum, and got away with it! Got away with it because no one, neither the victim nor the muted world, reacted! And when this happens, the line between right and wrong starts diffusing into a broader zone and finally into the disappearance of any such distinction.
Dhritarashtra, symbolic of a blind and dumb society, could have stopped it right there. But he chose not to, and we all know what happened thereafter. We can choose to be quiet, but then also be prepared to face these unspeakable acts. Alternatively we can choose to start reacting when we see the smaller mistakes in front of our eyes.
It should be stopped at the stage of eve-teasing/ stalking because these bloom into molestation and rapes!
And for God’s sake please stop making movies where some guy wins the love of a supermodel just because of his persistent stalking and forceful kissing. No, that doesn’t happen. Period.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Phew!!!

This one time, I heard the thunder before I could see the lightning. 
Science lost!!!
It was deafening. Ears dont have ear lids so my body responded by closing the eye lids I guess. In a blink, they opened again and in broad daylight I saw intermittent sparks.
Mercury rose instantly and I could feel the heat embracing my face. The thunderous sound changed pitch and transformed into a lingering sound of a reverberating tong.
Thunder.... followed by lightning.... What do you expect next?
It rained!! Down my cheeks. My father just SLAPPED me.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Creativity Cre(m)ated

More than often, I sleep on Saturday nights only to wake up on Sunday to my inability to sleep anymore. This Saturday night, the party was turning into a disaster when the DJ started playing "Velvet Snow". The very next moment I was staring into my phone screen lying right next to me and the same song continued. Oh, that was my ringtone!!  (But as a ringtone it’s not that bad...). It was my colleague... but... on a Sunday morning?? Having recently seen the movie INCEPTION, the first question that came to me was "Am I in a dream within a dream??". I answered anyhow and all I could hear in a hurried voice was "Dude watch the new NEROLAC ad on YouTube".

Our company (incidentally the world’s largest Paints and Coating Company Akzonobel) believes we should always keep a close watch on our Competitors. And for that spirit I left the super smooth company of my satin bed sheet to switch on my work machine.

With SRK, the 3-in-1(Aan, Baan and Shaan) of Bollywood, I was sure Saif would get a run for his money. The video was taking its time to load (the best of days gets us 10kbps download speed), so I turned the volume to max, played a lovely Lata/ Kishore duette and relaxed on the recliner.

The song ended and so did my short nap. The video was ready to be played.

I adjusted the screen to avoid the glossy glare on the laptop screen and we cut to an Indian street with SRK himself sitting on a bench with a number of sub-ten kids perching on it. Some jumps and stunts of the DDLJ league from Mr. Khan with the sweet Nerolac tune in background and my jaws drop down in disbelief over the unbelievably close replication of our own Dulux Lets Colour campaign. I had to see our campaign in an adjacent window!

The shoot, the setting, the tempo, the lighting, the speed, the camera angles, and every chromosome of it was an amazing piece of reproduction.  And the best was still on the plate… The ad ended with the words “Chalo Paint Karein”. Lets Colour might translate into something else in Hindi J

Not yet over!! SRK once said…. “Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost”. Both the videos ended and I paused on the last still. Two identical cities painted in colorful hues. Little did they probably know that Dulux had actually painted all the cities showed in the commercial.

We believe in “Adding Colour to People’s Lives”. I’m sure that’s the next… “Bharein aapki zindagi mein Rang”… Way to Go!!!

I kept staring at the name NEROLAC…. The letters started floating in the air and settled back on screen… Just a bit jumbled… A CLONER…



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV4IoCgi2QA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb7CnBUj7GU