I couldn’t make it to Page 3 but I have successfully managed to make it to a little black book of Metropolitan Police, London!
Why London is such a dangerous city to live in and why there are so many crime cases recorded during Christmas time, I got a live sample of it yesterday night. 1AM . Me and my 3 day old room partner from Delhi were smoking outside our hostel. Down the street I could hear a roar of a car speeding. We both turned back and saw a car roaring in on the street heading towards us. Instinctively, we stepped back, knowing that at that speed the car would surely miss a sharp turn ahead and that’s what happened. The car went crashing into the boulevard and then into a fence surrounding the building in front of the hostel. Such was the impact that along the way it ripped apart solid iron fence along the way, swirled 360 degree and finally banged into a staircase. It sounded as if a bomb had exploded. 3 young guys got donw from the car and started swearing at each other. They were badly shaken and started running from the scene. We realised quickly that the car must be a stolen one. We and few more people ran upto the car. The airbags saved the guys but the front of the car was badly damaged. It was a BENTLEY 2 door sports car! Very soon the police and NHS ambulance came in. Since me & mydelhi friend were the only2 witneses who saw it happening, the police questioned us, took down all details and noted down our phone numbers & contact addresses. So this way, I managed to make my entry into the records of Metropolitan Police but the incident really shook us up. We have been told that such incidences rise a lot during christmas & new year in London. Booze related problems & crimes have been on a rise in UK especially in London and what happened ysday was another proof of it. Mr. Brown himself is struggling to come out with a tough law related to it but I doubt if they can do it.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Friday, December 07, 2007
London Musings....
So much that I want to write but not getting time at all. Like how I almost missed my flight to London last week, my action & adventure on Mumbai-Pune expressway, my experience this time around in London, the weather, life, the people.....so much thoughts parked in my mind but so less the time. After ages I can see the sun out today, hopefully it would be a sunny day. Let's hope this sun shine extends its warmth on this project too, which at this stage it seems is heading towards a cardiac arrest.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
My recent experience with user research
For the past few weeks I have been involved in a very low key, exciting project. Why low key, coz except for 2-3 people, no one in our Usability & Elearning team really know what I am doing and exciting coz it involves near about full life cycle activities of 'user centered design'. Our Elearning group is developing an assessment module for dealership sales team of India's largest automotive group. For this project, we have been doing extensive usability activities right from the word go. For a change, the customer here itself have been harping on getting a usability person on board who will oversee that the deliverables meet user expectations. Its more of a participatory design process that we are following. At every stage of the design, user is actually kept in the picture. Constant feedback is taken from end users & all design & interaction feedback are incorporated. Its the users who are evolving the design.
The process started couple of weeks back when me & 2 of my elearning team members went to conduct contextual inquiry at the dealer's location. We spent time in the dealership, observing the sales team at their work, noting down their routine, way they handle queries, the kind of queries they face, the various aids & enablers that they bank on, etc. We also spent time individually with each sales person gathering their understanding & views. The focus of this session was to gather insights that would go into making of this assessment module. Contextual Inquiry can at times throw up really wonderful insights. For instance, we were told that most of the TA for this eleraning module are matric pass and are very poor with english. When they come for any company sponsored training, the evaluator had to personally 'interpret' the question form to sales guys and let them know where they had to tick. In our CI exercise we came to know that not many of these guys are too conversant with computers outside their work domain. So how do you design an interface for a guy who has never spent time on computers? Will he adapt to mouse or keyboard interaction? What will be his learning curve? These were some of the challenges that propped up But these were still fine, what came next was really unexpected. During interviews, we popped the idea of localization and many users readily accepted that localization of content would definitely help but then we came across a user who though was not so good with english still said that he would opt for the language in any kind of test. On further pressing he hesitantly shared that in the 'class' where he belongs, 'knowing' english is seen as a step to move up in the ranks. More soever, speaking in english, or for that matter even attempting questions gives him some kind of confidence inside. So it has more to do with socio conditions around him that motivates him to 'attempt' in english irrespective of his knowing that he can fail in the test. Imagine, there can be thousands of users across the country with views like this user. So another design & content challenge for us. How do you define what is 'simple english'? Something so simple that it conveys the message & users understand it immediately. Later during design stage we realised that to make it quite simple to understand, we need to make it short n snappy and at times grammatically incorrect!
Last week we were in user's environment again, this time conducting usability testing of our designs & key interactions with users. We even video graphed the entire user 's interaction with the screen to capture where his mouse movements went, how he interacted with many of these features, etc. These video shoots helped us in analyzing many of these user's 'comfort' pattern with the mouse & keyboard too. Of course besides video analysis, me & my team was involved in f-2-f interactions too. There were many valid design suggestions made by the users too.
Yesterday I was back in the field again, this time to test semantics of some icons for the application with the end users. At times we tend to 'assume' that a particular icon would convey the desired meaning. The icons that we wanted to test was for Timing meter & audio option. While the timing meter which we felt would work, did work with the users, for the audio option , we got interesting feedback for some icons which normally we would have assumed that it will work.
For instance:
A user thought that this icon stood for Shouting Loud.
For this icon, a user felt that it meant that Talking can be a nuisance to others, while another user felt it meant a horn button but an indication to wake the next person, push him!
The best was this:
User view: Loud talking can be injurious to ears!
I won't share what did work with them coz that would be violating the copyright clauses but this exercise reinforced my belief that why for each & every design step its important to keep users in picture.
Personally this whole project has been very stimulating & enriching for me. We are closing in on product rollout soon & would love to see how users across India receive it.
The process started couple of weeks back when me & 2 of my elearning team members went to conduct contextual inquiry at the dealer's location. We spent time in the dealership, observing the sales team at their work, noting down their routine, way they handle queries, the kind of queries they face, the various aids & enablers that they bank on, etc. We also spent time individually with each sales person gathering their understanding & views. The focus of this session was to gather insights that would go into making of this assessment module. Contextual Inquiry can at times throw up really wonderful insights. For instance, we were told that most of the TA for this eleraning module are matric pass and are very poor with english. When they come for any company sponsored training, the evaluator had to personally 'interpret' the question form to sales guys and let them know where they had to tick. In our CI exercise we came to know that not many of these guys are too conversant with computers outside their work domain. So how do you design an interface for a guy who has never spent time on computers? Will he adapt to mouse or keyboard interaction? What will be his learning curve? These were some of the challenges that propped up But these were still fine, what came next was really unexpected. During interviews, we popped the idea of localization and many users readily accepted that localization of content would definitely help but then we came across a user who though was not so good with english still said that he would opt for the language in any kind of test. On further pressing he hesitantly shared that in the 'class' where he belongs, 'knowing' english is seen as a step to move up in the ranks. More soever, speaking in english, or for that matter even attempting questions gives him some kind of confidence inside. So it has more to do with socio conditions around him that motivates him to 'attempt' in english irrespective of his knowing that he can fail in the test. Imagine, there can be thousands of users across the country with views like this user. So another design & content challenge for us. How do you define what is 'simple english'? Something so simple that it conveys the message & users understand it immediately. Later during design stage we realised that to make it quite simple to understand, we need to make it short n snappy and at times grammatically incorrect!
Last week we were in user's environment again, this time conducting usability testing of our designs & key interactions with users. We even video graphed the entire user 's interaction with the screen to capture where his mouse movements went, how he interacted with many of these features, etc. These video shoots helped us in analyzing many of these user's 'comfort' pattern with the mouse & keyboard too. Of course besides video analysis, me & my team was involved in f-2-f interactions too. There were many valid design suggestions made by the users too.
Yesterday I was back in the field again, this time to test semantics of some icons for the application with the end users. At times we tend to 'assume' that a particular icon would convey the desired meaning. The icons that we wanted to test was for Timing meter & audio option. While the timing meter which we felt would work, did work with the users, for the audio option , we got interesting feedback for some icons which normally we would have assumed that it will work.
For instance:
A user thought that this icon stood for Shouting Loud.
For this icon, a user felt that it meant that Talking can be a nuisance to others, while another user felt it meant a horn button but an indication to wake the next person, push him!
The best was this:
User view: Loud talking can be injurious to ears!
I won't share what did work with them coz that would be violating the copyright clauses but this exercise reinforced my belief that why for each & every design step its important to keep users in picture.
Personally this whole project has been very stimulating & enriching for me. We are closing in on product rollout soon & would love to see how users across India receive it.
Monday, October 08, 2007
Designers: Does this ring any bell?
Recently my wife & I were scouting for electrical fittings & accessories for our new house. After purchasing most of the stuff, we got into an argument over which bell to buy. She fancied instrument which had Bollywood tones as ring while I wanted to settle for old fashioned bells which had high, if not shrill ring. For me the ‘ting tong’ bell worked. We finally went for the Bollywood one and got it installed. It’s been a week now and we all are still struggling to get a hang of it. First of all, it takes more than a few seconds for the mind to register that it’s our door bell which is ringing! The reason being, it sounds more like a mobile ring tone than a bell. Worse, the instrument is located in my bedroom & if we are standing in guest bedroom balcony and there is lots of noise around, at times it takes more than a few push & “laila-o-laila’ encore before anyone can get to hear it! The other day I had to spend 5 mins outside the house ringing the bell and then flash out my mobile and call wifey inside to open the door! I suspect had it been the old fashioned bell, the sound wouldn’t have caused these problems. Somewhere in back of mind, the bell still stands for ‘ting tong’. A sound like that registers immediately in your mind no matter in which corner of the house you are and perhaps the reason lies in the fact that we have grown up listening to bells which had high pitch noise. Bells which most of the times had always gone ‘ting tong’ and less on ‘gayatri mantra’ tones.
Similarly in software design, it’s very important to know about your user’s mental model, about the way they perceive things to be. Users will take on to your product like a duck to the water only if they find it designed the way that mirrors their work & thought flow pattern.
Monday, October 01, 2007
Bringing simplicity in interfaces
The most intuitive interface ever designed is the human nipple.
I came across this statement while I was researching on some topic and ever since, it has just stuck in my mind. Come to think of it, how true it stands in its meaning. If you have ever observed a lactating mother feeding her baby, see how the baby’s tiny mouth opens up as the nipple comes near. The baby will stare blankly at faces but recognizes the feeding point immediately. And for babies of adult kind, they don’t need any intuitive visual cues!
That’s the power of simplicity. And it’s this simplicity that creates a brand out of an intuitive design. Oliver Reichenstein from Information Architect Inc. in one of his post on his blog talks about his McDonalds experience in Japan. Out of plethora of options available on the display tile, he settles for a plain Cheese Burger. Not that he has a fascination for it, but according to him, the visual of cheese burger is something he can relate to easily out of all other ‘local palate’ suited burgers. Walk into any McDonalds around the world, a plain cheese burger would look exactly the same way. When an interface becomes so simple, language or any other cultural barriers hold no fort. So when he has to place an order, not knowing Japanese language doesn’t matter to him. The visual of plain cheese burger is an instant recognition for him about the burger’s content.
Simplicity leads to intuitiveness and intuitiveness leads to creation of a brand. A brand that doesn’t always need the support of marketing for its creation. A brand that gets created by its own virtues.
In the Indian context, one of the brands which have a very intuitive interface I can think of is the erstwhile Mother Dairy logo. Since its inception till recent years, they had adapted the Operation Flood logo. The operation Flood logo is the most powerful & yet simple design that I can think of. It’s just not about logo design but the recognition that comes with the brand. Mother dairy has been around since I opened my eyes for the 1st time. No Delhiite can ever say that they don’t know what the logo stands for. In the early 80s, there was no concept of milk in poly pack. If you were living in Delhi and wanted milk, you had 3 options. A) The good ol’ Tabela milk delivered by the vendor. B) Go to the nearest Delhi Milk Scheme (DMS) booth and get bottled milk – which was again run by sarkaari karamcharis and somehow used to be a nightmarish experience and C) Go to Mother Dairy Booth. Now these Mother dairy booths were quite ‘hi tech’. They had automatic vending machines (yeah for the 80s…that’s hitech). You pay money to the booth guy, get tokens in lieu of the cash, place your diiba in the vending machine, put your coin in the slot and watch in fascination as half litre milk poured. If the coin used to get stuck, there was a lever which you had to pull and the coin used to come out in a slot below. There were 3 such machines in a booth. 2 machines used to pour half litre milk per token and the 3rd one used to pour 1 litre per token. So it kind of bifurcated people accordingly. Its been over 20 years now. Lot of cosmetic changes has come across the booth. Now it even sells Safal & other Mother Dairy products but the front end of the vending machine still has the same interface except few minor changes like addition of a LCD display to show how many tokens you have deposited in the machine (in the latest machines, you can insert all tokens one after another and then wait as milk starts pouring automatically). For more than 20 years the same interface has worked successfully and the only reason it has worked is because of its simplicity.
In the software context, the most complex task is to bring about simplicity in interfaces. As a designer at times we try to bring about lot of interactivities, marry technology components, bring widgets, thinking that this will bring around simplicity for user’s task but unknowingly we add complexity to the visual & interaction design. All these are just enablers. Focus on basics. Ask the question: Is your interface helping your user fulfill his key tasks without making him take support from other external factors to complete the task? In organizations where usability & processes related to it are still struggling to find a place user the sun, most of the time designers & usability analysts have to work with their hands tied. Lot of these ‘user research’ activities are left to ‘client knows the best’ and requirements come in some fancy documents to the designer. It’s a humungous job changing mindsets in the organization. Well after all Rome wasn’t built in a day so understandably, it will be time before usability processes gets implemented & awareness fully dawns within organization. Till that happens this is what I usually advice to designers when they get a voluminous BRD, HLD or any other fancy document in their hand. Don’t directly jump onto the design conceptualization. Scan through those documents, take a piece of paper, draw three columns on it and jot down the following things in the columns – various user roles, the tasks that each role can perform and finally in the 3rd column jot down according to “you” the steps that a user would need to perform to complete each task. Many times these requirement documents can be misleading & at times even designers tend to stick to it or get influenced by it. But even if we manage to crystallize these three things, rest follows. In 2001 while I was designing the Information Architecture for an online banking application, I came across a business analyst who was not willing to buy the flow that I had designed for the application. His wafer thin argument: the customer has asked us to design it in the way he wants and that’s how we have documented it! In next client meeting I accompanied him to client’s office to hear out their rationale. Then I drew out these 3 columns on their whiteboard with the details that I felt and explained my flow in that context. The customer was partially convinced but somehow his ‘ego’ didn’t allow him to accept the flow (that was 2001, usability was something unheard and customers especially Indian ones still thought they knew everything!). So I did the next best thing. I dragged both of them to the bank branch which was on ground floor and in their presence asked some of the bank customers questions which were in context with my proposed flow. Their replies vindicated my flow & made a few faces around go red. The customer had to accept that the flow that we had designed was indeed ‘user led’. Later, we even tested out prototype of the application with end users and worked on few teething problems that customers would face. When the application was launched, users accepted it wholeheartedly. It was profiled for its simplicity & ease of use in various tech magazines. Circa 2007. Except for a few security related changes, the netbanking application is still running the way we had designed it and is ranked amongst the best internet banking sites in India.
To conclude, just stick to basics. Remember, the mother dairy customer’s need was only milk and that’s what he got in that vending machine interface. 1 slot to put the token, 1 lever to retrieve the token and a clearly visible big compartment where he can put his jar for the milk to pour.
I came across this statement while I was researching on some topic and ever since, it has just stuck in my mind. Come to think of it, how true it stands in its meaning. If you have ever observed a lactating mother feeding her baby, see how the baby’s tiny mouth opens up as the nipple comes near. The baby will stare blankly at faces but recognizes the feeding point immediately. And for babies of adult kind, they don’t need any intuitive visual cues!
That’s the power of simplicity. And it’s this simplicity that creates a brand out of an intuitive design. Oliver Reichenstein from Information Architect Inc. in one of his post on his blog talks about his McDonalds experience in Japan. Out of plethora of options available on the display tile, he settles for a plain Cheese Burger. Not that he has a fascination for it, but according to him, the visual of cheese burger is something he can relate to easily out of all other ‘local palate’ suited burgers. Walk into any McDonalds around the world, a plain cheese burger would look exactly the same way. When an interface becomes so simple, language or any other cultural barriers hold no fort. So when he has to place an order, not knowing Japanese language doesn’t matter to him. The visual of plain cheese burger is an instant recognition for him about the burger’s content.
Simplicity leads to intuitiveness and intuitiveness leads to creation of a brand. A brand that doesn’t always need the support of marketing for its creation. A brand that gets created by its own virtues.
In the Indian context, one of the brands which have a very intuitive interface I can think of is the erstwhile Mother Dairy logo. Since its inception till recent years, they had adapted the Operation Flood logo. The operation Flood logo is the most powerful & yet simple design that I can think of. It’s just not about logo design but the recognition that comes with the brand. Mother dairy has been around since I opened my eyes for the 1st time. No Delhiite can ever say that they don’t know what the logo stands for. In the early 80s, there was no concept of milk in poly pack. If you were living in Delhi and wanted milk, you had 3 options. A) The good ol’ Tabela milk delivered by the vendor. B) Go to the nearest Delhi Milk Scheme (DMS) booth and get bottled milk – which was again run by sarkaari karamcharis and somehow used to be a nightmarish experience and C) Go to Mother Dairy Booth. Now these Mother dairy booths were quite ‘hi tech’. They had automatic vending machines (yeah for the 80s…that’s hitech). You pay money to the booth guy, get tokens in lieu of the cash, place your diiba in the vending machine, put your coin in the slot and watch in fascination as half litre milk poured. If the coin used to get stuck, there was a lever which you had to pull and the coin used to come out in a slot below. There were 3 such machines in a booth. 2 machines used to pour half litre milk per token and the 3rd one used to pour 1 litre per token. So it kind of bifurcated people accordingly. Its been over 20 years now. Lot of cosmetic changes has come across the booth. Now it even sells Safal & other Mother Dairy products but the front end of the vending machine still has the same interface except few minor changes like addition of a LCD display to show how many tokens you have deposited in the machine (in the latest machines, you can insert all tokens one after another and then wait as milk starts pouring automatically). For more than 20 years the same interface has worked successfully and the only reason it has worked is because of its simplicity.
In the software context, the most complex task is to bring about simplicity in interfaces. As a designer at times we try to bring about lot of interactivities, marry technology components, bring widgets, thinking that this will bring around simplicity for user’s task but unknowingly we add complexity to the visual & interaction design. All these are just enablers. Focus on basics. Ask the question: Is your interface helping your user fulfill his key tasks without making him take support from other external factors to complete the task? In organizations where usability & processes related to it are still struggling to find a place user the sun, most of the time designers & usability analysts have to work with their hands tied. Lot of these ‘user research’ activities are left to ‘client knows the best’ and requirements come in some fancy documents to the designer. It’s a humungous job changing mindsets in the organization. Well after all Rome wasn’t built in a day so understandably, it will be time before usability processes gets implemented & awareness fully dawns within organization. Till that happens this is what I usually advice to designers when they get a voluminous BRD, HLD or any other fancy document in their hand. Don’t directly jump onto the design conceptualization. Scan through those documents, take a piece of paper, draw three columns on it and jot down the following things in the columns – various user roles, the tasks that each role can perform and finally in the 3rd column jot down according to “you” the steps that a user would need to perform to complete each task. Many times these requirement documents can be misleading & at times even designers tend to stick to it or get influenced by it. But even if we manage to crystallize these three things, rest follows. In 2001 while I was designing the Information Architecture for an online banking application, I came across a business analyst who was not willing to buy the flow that I had designed for the application. His wafer thin argument: the customer has asked us to design it in the way he wants and that’s how we have documented it! In next client meeting I accompanied him to client’s office to hear out their rationale. Then I drew out these 3 columns on their whiteboard with the details that I felt and explained my flow in that context. The customer was partially convinced but somehow his ‘ego’ didn’t allow him to accept the flow (that was 2001, usability was something unheard and customers especially Indian ones still thought they knew everything!). So I did the next best thing. I dragged both of them to the bank branch which was on ground floor and in their presence asked some of the bank customers questions which were in context with my proposed flow. Their replies vindicated my flow & made a few faces around go red. The customer had to accept that the flow that we had designed was indeed ‘user led’. Later, we even tested out prototype of the application with end users and worked on few teething problems that customers would face. When the application was launched, users accepted it wholeheartedly. It was profiled for its simplicity & ease of use in various tech magazines. Circa 2007. Except for a few security related changes, the netbanking application is still running the way we had designed it and is ranked amongst the best internet banking sites in India.
To conclude, just stick to basics. Remember, the mother dairy customer’s need was only milk and that’s what he got in that vending machine interface. 1 slot to put the token, 1 lever to retrieve the token and a clearly visible big compartment where he can put his jar for the milk to pour.
Friday, September 07, 2007
What not to wear: Contextual Inquiry at its best
I am a serial Discovery Travel & Living addict. All their programs are entertaining & very informative. Off late, I have got hooked on to another of their program called What Not To Wear. In UK, this program is aired on BBC. It's a program where the anchors, who are known fashion stylists, shortlist a candidate, track his or her dressing, grooming & attire habit and based on the profile suggest what will suit the person best to make the person look stylish. To study the candidate, you need to do certain amount of what we call as 'user research'. In this program, the user research is done through Contextual Inquiry (CI) method. The candidate is secretly filmed in day to day life as she/he performs her daily routine. To trigger a CI, you always need a focus point. In this case, the focus point is the attire. The stylists, through the video films, probe about the person especially his/her dressing patterns, likings, disliking, his or her daily routine, people they meet, their reactions, any socio-emotional traits, etc. and then create visual persona about what will suit best for the candidate. This helps in creating the focus point for them to probe further when conducting f2f meetings with the candidate. In f2f meetings, the stylists validate certain observations that they made during video filming and try to gather as much user authentic data that can help them in building good style statement for the person.
After giving tips to the candidate about what will suit them best and taking them through the secretly recorded video sessions too, the stylists again observe the candidate from background - mostly through hidden cameras and observe if their 'styling interventions' have brought about any change to the candidate. The visual personas that the stylists had earlier created also gets validated as the candidate goes out for shopping .
After giving tips to the candidate about what will suit them best and taking them through the secretly recorded video sessions too, the stylists again observe the candidate from background - mostly through hidden cameras and observe if their 'styling interventions' have brought about any change to the candidate. The visual personas that the stylists had earlier created also gets validated as the candidate goes out for shopping .
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Friday, August 31, 2007
Why I envy delhiites ;-)
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Check out the rate of fuel in Delhi. Hi Speed Diesel just 30 bucks!!!! Bloody Hell. I pay around 37 bucks out here!!!! :((
Friday, August 24, 2007
This blog is now rated as NC17 :P
Adnan killing - TV Channels are the murderers
A few days back when this Adnan abduction thing broke out on TV channels, everyone went into the hyperactive mode. One of the TV channels in detail explained what steps police would like to take now, including tracking the last place of the call that came from Adnan’s mobile number which now was switched off. They even explained how police would be doing this. This made me wonder, what if Adnan’s abductors were viewing this news? Won’t they get to know what’s happening on Police’s end? Won’t they then plan out their next step accordingly?
Next day Adnan was murdered. It was later revealed that the abductors panicked when they saw the TV news reports & felt that crime branch would close up on them soon and so killed him. Thereafter, all news channels have been talking about different murder theories linked with effects of social networking sites to influence of crime/murder related plots in serials & movies. But for me, TV channels are equally responsible for Adnan’s murder. To increase their TRP ratings, sensationalize issues, all these channels have lost basic sensitivities. Had they shown a bit of restrained news related to the kidnapping, perhaps Adnan could have been saved. Even if the kidnapping news was leaked by cops, TV channels should have realized what impact it could have created had they aired the entire police strategy verbatim. What was really sad for me as a viewer was to see even NDTV India fall for it. Till this news, I used to rank it the only sane channel left in the other so called Hindi news channels.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Battle at Kruger
Came across this news in Delhi TOI. Those of you who have not seen this video, this 8 minute clipping is the best wildlife video ever shot and that too by an amateur who just happened to be testing out his new handycam.
Taken from a vehicle on the opposite side of a watering hole, the video begins with the herd of buffalo approaching the water, unaware of the lions resting nearby. The lions charge and disperse the herd, picking off a young buffalo and unintentionally knocking it into the water while attempting to make a kill. While the lions try to drag the buffalo out of the water, it is grabbed by a pair of crocodiles, who fight for it before giving up and leaving it to the lions. The lions sit down and prepare to eat, but are quickly surrounded by the reorganized buffalo, who move in and begin charging and kicking at the lions. After a battle which includes one lion being tossed into the air, the baby buffalo (which is miraculously still alive) escapes into the herd. The emboldened buffalo chase the remainder of the lions away.
Dumbledore’s Army & Rang De Basanti
As I was watching the latest Harry Potter flick, I couldn’t help but draw similarities a few key scenes in the movie had that with the current scenario we are facing in our education system. The movie opens with the resent day scenario that
Compare this with the times in which we live today. The growing ‘controversial’ intervention of Ministry of Magic – which in our case is the HRD Ministry, can be seen in all spheres of education these days. Right from conflicting views on sex education in books to different interpretations of religious scriptures, the list goes on. The Ministry’s plan to ‘plant’ their own directors in IIMs by releasing a recruitment ad in leading new dailies for the post is so Hogwarts like scenario. Imagine if the Ministry succeeds in their latest plan to have a controlling say in IIMs. The directors appointed by Ministry would obviously come with a predefined propaganda which would besides other things include a say on the implementation of increased quota system – a pet ‘project’ of HRD Ministry. Already the Ministry’s plan is getting stiff resistance from our modern day Dumbledore’s Army – the students, who have united to make themselves heard. But sadly, unlike Harry & his band, they don’t have much of ‘magical’ powers to resist against the dark forces of the Ministry. Whatever resistances the students have tried to put have got crushed down by the powerful forces controlled by the Ministry alliances (read police). It wouldn’t be too long when a few from these Dumbledore’s Army would go underground and do a ‘Rang De Basanti’ on the dark forces from the Ministry. Will it solve the purpose? Probably no, but it would rattle the Ministry enough to think twice before venturing out with their vicious plans.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Harry Potter finale
Caught up with Harry Potter & The Order of Phoenix on the 21st. The same day the last of the HP series got realised. Now I am not so much of a die hard HP fan so didn't want to invest nearly 1000 bucks in buying that humongous book. But was really curious to find out how Rowling has treated the end. So the leech that I am, went to the crossword at Citipride and picked up the latest book and spent 10 min to read the last chapter. :)
Ok, I won't give the ending out but will only say that madam Rowling has not only mastered the art of writing but also of business too :) On that note, will leave the interpretation to you. Those who would like to know the ending, can email me.
Ok, I won't give the ending out but will only say that madam Rowling has not only mastered the art of writing but also of business too :) On that note, will leave the interpretation to you. Those who would like to know the ending, can email me.
Hot gals, all waiting for me...
A cursory look at my Gmail junk folder, and I realised there are so many hot gals who were bored in the afternoon & evenings and wanted to chat with me. Shucks. Missed the opportunity:P :P
Thursday, July 19, 2007
AVN Awards: A must watch show
Now these are awards show i would really, really love to watch. If not live, then at least on any TV Channel. AVN Awards are the 'oscars' of Porn Industry. They are sponsored and presented by America's Adult Video Industry. besides the usual categories of awards like best actor, actress, director etc (wonder how do they judge on these categories), they have categories like these:
Production categories
Best Video Feature, Best Film, Best DVD, Best Gonzo Release, Best Gonzo Series, Best Sex Comedy, Best Vignette Release, Best Vignette Series, Best All-Sex Release, Best Continuing Video Series, Best High-Definition Production, Best Interactive DVD, Best Classic DVD, Best Foreign Feature, Best Foreign All-Sex Release, Best Foreign All-Sex Series, Best Anal-Themed Feature, Best Anal-Themed Series, Best All-Girl Feature, Best All-Girl Series, Best Ethnic-Themed Release—Asian, Best Ethnic-Themed Release—Black, Best Ethnic-Themed Release—Latin, Best Interracial Release, Best Ethnic-Themed Series, Best P.O.V. Release, Best Oral-Themed Feature, Best Oral-Themed Series, Best Amateur Release, Best Amateur Series, Best Pro-Am Release, Best Pro-Am Series, Best Alternative Release, BBi-Sexual Video, Best Gay Video, Best Gay Alternative Video, Best Gay Solo Video
Performer categories
Best New Starlet, Best Male Newcomer, Female Performer of the Year, Male Performer of the Year, Female Foreign Performer of the Year, Male Foreign Performer of the Year, Transsexual Performer of the Year, Performer of the Year-Gay Video, Newcomer of the Year-Gay Video,
Best Actress—Film, Best Actress—Video, Best Actor—Film, Best Actor—Video, Best Supporting Actress—Film, Best Supporting Actress—Video, Best Supporting Actor—Film, Best Supporting Actor—Video, Best Non-Sex Performance, Best Tease Performance, Best Actor—Gay Video, Best Supporting Actor—Gay Video, Best Non-Sex Performance—Bi-Sexual/Gay Video
Sex scene categories
Awarded to performer(s) in a scene, Best All-Girl Sex Scene—Film, Best All-Girl Sex Scene—Video, Best Anal Sex Scene, Best Oral Sex Scene—Film, Best Oral Sex Scene—Video, Best Couples Sex Scene—Film, Best Couples Sex Scene—Video, Best Group Sex Scene—Film, Best Group Sex Scene—Video, Best Threeway Sex Scene—Video, Best Sex Scene in a Foreign-Shot Production, Best Solo Sex Scene, Most Outrageous Sex Scene Best Sex Scene—Gay Video
Technical categories
Best Screenplay—Film, Best Screenplay—Video, Best Art Direction—Film, Best Art Direction—Video, Best Cinematography, Best Videography, Best Editing—Film, Best Editing—Video, Best Special Effects, Best Music, Best DVD Extras, Best DVD Menus, Best Screenplay—Gay Video, Best Videography—Gay Video, Best Editing—Gay Video, Best Music Score—Gay Video
Specialty categories
Best Specialty Release—Big Bust, Best Specialty Release—BDSM, Best Specialty Release—Spanking, Best Specialty Release—Foot Fetish, Best Specialty Release—Other Genre, Best Transsexual Release, Best Gay Specialty Release
Marketing categories
Best DVD Packaging, Best VHS Packaging, Best Box Cover Concept, Best Overall Marketing Campaign—Company Image, Best Overall Marketing Campaign—Individual Project, Best Marketing Website, Best Retail Website, BBox Cover Concept—Gay Video, Best Packaging—Gay Video
And yes. They do have a HALL of FAME award too. :)
If you want to enhance your knowledge about these awards, do check out dope about it on wiki.
In which world are we living in?
Far from this maddening crowd, this planet where we live in, another planet is evolving. A planet which is similar to our planet, has a civilization, people, governments, economies, forest, animals, cars, runs the similar way minus the global warming, poverty, terrorism kind of problems that we live with on this planet. It's a utopian planet, but it's there for sure. yes, it's a virtual planet. Second Life is one such virtual planet. Check out the virtual life on their site www.secondlife.com
Recently researching for a proposal, I came across many such virtual worlds that are flourishing in the cyber space. A cursory glance through the sites and i wondered do these sites really do well, I mean do kids, teenagers really are addicted to this kind of stuff? And I was surprised by some stats that i came across. yes, it's a cult out there. The virtual space market is overcrowded but still sites are getting unique visitors by millions every month. Most of these sites are MMORPG (massively multimedia online role playing games) based sites. It requires heavy investment and very specialized capabilities & skill sets to build this kind of cyber world.
If things go the way they are planned, very soon I would be part of a team that would be building another of this cyber world.
More posts about it later.
In the meantime, do check out some sites and stats related to these virtual communities on this site.
Recently researching for a proposal, I came across many such virtual worlds that are flourishing in the cyber space. A cursory glance through the sites and i wondered do these sites really do well, I mean do kids, teenagers really are addicted to this kind of stuff? And I was surprised by some stats that i came across. yes, it's a cult out there. The virtual space market is overcrowded but still sites are getting unique visitors by millions every month. Most of these sites are MMORPG (massively multimedia online role playing games) based sites. It requires heavy investment and very specialized capabilities & skill sets to build this kind of cyber world.
If things go the way they are planned, very soon I would be part of a team that would be building another of this cyber world.
More posts about it later.
In the meantime, do check out some sites and stats related to these virtual communities on this site.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Where am I holed up?
Many of you must be wondering why I haven't updated my blog for so many days. Well, I wish I could say that I am on a secret assignment which involves me traveling across globe and striking out militant hideouts that are on RAW's list but the truth is I am holed back home in Pune busy working on an equally secret assignment. For the past few weeks my energies are going in building a proposal & planning the allied activities involved along with the core team. The stakes are high as the success of this project will lead us to another 50 million dollar account mining from the same customer. The beauty of the whole thing is that this road we are about to drive on, as an organization we have never taken that road - especially in the domain space where we are pitching for the project but then thats what making this entire venture interesting. The feeling of uncertainty of what lies ahead. The road would be full of potholes for sure but I guess that would make it challenging and more knowledgeable of how to negotiate the stumbling blocks.
Will post more later
Will post more later
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
news that brought smile
After ages i think after seeing the 1st page of today's TOI (pune edition), I must have have smiled while reading. For a change, today's front page didn't have any news about politics, murky presidential elections, scams, rape, murder or any other depressing news. Today's main news items were all about determination. It was all about the light at the end of a dark tunnel. The news items were about SSC results in the state and the main headlines were dominated by girls from the backward & poor community who have scored over 95% or so and topped their categories in the state results. Children of vegetable sellers, of shop helpers who against all odds managed to shine. Children with ambitious dreams. Children who know that the road ahead now is even difficult but they & there parents are leaving no stones unturned to see that they fulfill their dreams.
On 2nd thoughts...
Had I not quit advertising...
I wouldn't have met some wonderful people in my next company like Ekta, Tanuj, Shalini, Amit who would go on to become an integral part of my life.
Wouldn't have had a chance to scale the treacherous route to Leh with amit & that too on a bike.
Wouldn't have got the opportunity to leave Delhi forever and come to Mumbai (the city that I once hated the most to relocate) - where i spent the best 3.5 years of my life and made some new friends.
Wouldn't have had the chance of going on site to UK and gain good experience (and in the process also save a bit for my car's down payment!)
And lastly, wouldn't have been posting this blog from the newest city that i am residing in for the past 1 year - Pune.
So whatever happens, I guess happens for good. :)
I wouldn't have met some wonderful people in my next company like Ekta, Tanuj, Shalini, Amit who would go on to become an integral part of my life.
Wouldn't have had a chance to scale the treacherous route to Leh with amit & that too on a bike.
Wouldn't have got the opportunity to leave Delhi forever and come to Mumbai (the city that I once hated the most to relocate) - where i spent the best 3.5 years of my life and made some new friends.
Wouldn't have had the chance of going on site to UK and gain good experience (and in the process also save a bit for my car's down payment!)
And lastly, wouldn't have been posting this blog from the newest city that i am residing in for the past 1 year - Pune.
So whatever happens, I guess happens for good. :)
My advertising days...
Was watching Pranaya Roy on his programme - 60 yrs of Indian Destiny on Sunday. This time he was covering advertising. The panel of guests were Prasoon Joshi, Aleque Padamsee, Piyush Pandey & Prahalad kakkar. As they talked and discussed the history of advertising, showcasing various old & new ads, I was reminded of my days in advertising. My memorable 2.5 years of association with Contract - as copy trainee & Crayons Advertising as a copy guy. The time of my life I had there. The highs that me & my art partner used to get after creating campaigns which we knew might never get printed but can get us jobs in other agencies (in advtg. lingo we used to call it portfolio ke liye ads.), the kicks that i got after I saw my 1st printed ad (it was a shaving cream ad in a Chandigarh local newspaper), the crazy, wild things we used to do at office & team parties. I remember once after a heavy boozing session, we ran out of stocks and then at 1 am in night we went to local bootlegger who supplied some desi stuff and what kicks we had! A small dose of it was enough for satish - our client servicing team guy to make a call at 2 am in the morning to one of our leechad client and puke out all choicest maa-behen abuses :) Then the time when me, Vishal (a budding body builder & client servicing guy) and my art guy - Ashish went on a holiday to nanital, got drunk & bashed up a guy who was irritating us at telephone booth, next day when senses dawned upon us - packed up and escaped from nanital to Mussoorie (those of you who are familiar with that part of the world can realise the distance we covered - and that too in state transport buses where even animals travel in the bus with passengers!) so that we don't get lynched by that bashed up guy's friends :) And why Mussoorie? Coz the bombshell of our office - a girl called Sonal was vacationing there and we thought she would like to have company of 3 smart looking men :)
Then i remember recording my 1st radio jungle and how I rulaoed the producer & voice over artist ( a sweet babe from Gurgaon) to squeeze my script and record it within 30 secs. The kicks that i got after hearing the jingle on radio for the 1st time.
And yes, how can i forget to mention about Prasoon Joshi who once appreciated my TVC film ideas which i shared with him when i had gone for my O&M interview. It so happened that I was showing my portfolio to an ACD in O&M and Prasoon stepped into his room. Suddenly the light went off. As we waited for the generators to start, the ACD asked if I had worked on any TVCs, which i said yes and shared few of my TVC storyboards. Both of them found the ideas humorous and Prasoon even commented that 'you have a good thinking mind'. I even made through the O&M interview but stinking politics of a CD who had just joined the agency saw me left out and that was the turning point in my decision to quit advertising.
But yeah..I do miss my advertising days.
Then i remember recording my 1st radio jungle and how I rulaoed the producer & voice over artist ( a sweet babe from Gurgaon) to squeeze my script and record it within 30 secs. The kicks that i got after hearing the jingle on radio for the 1st time.
And yes, how can i forget to mention about Prasoon Joshi who once appreciated my TVC film ideas which i shared with him when i had gone for my O&M interview. It so happened that I was showing my portfolio to an ACD in O&M and Prasoon stepped into his room. Suddenly the light went off. As we waited for the generators to start, the ACD asked if I had worked on any TVCs, which i said yes and shared few of my TVC storyboards. Both of them found the ideas humorous and Prasoon even commented that 'you have a good thinking mind'. I even made through the O&M interview but stinking politics of a CD who had just joined the agency saw me left out and that was the turning point in my decision to quit advertising.
But yeah..I do miss my advertising days.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Sarkar Zindabad
Just caught up with Sarkar again on Filmy. Can't help but shower praises for Abhishekh's mesmerizing performance. The powerful dialogues & screenplay make it worth watching each time it comes on TV.
Think Flat
These days I am reading the Annual Report of Infosys. Why I am stressing on 'reading' is coz the annual report is no less than a good reading material. Titled 'Think Flat', it takes off where Thomas Friedman left in his best seller book - The World is Flat. The initial few sections including the in depth interview with nandan nilekani reveals how Infy is creating exciting, winning opportunities in this flat world. Those of you who have not read the book, would recommend you to read it. It gives a good insight of the dynamics of global economies and how they have adapted themselves in this new world without boundaries that we are living in.
My few minutes of online fame :P
There is a site called BlogInterviewer.com. They conduct interviews with the most interesting bloggers on the Internet. My blog is also present there.
Click on this link to go through the interview.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Why I want to watch Shivaji
I am no Tamilian. Neither a kannada. Heck, I don't even know whether Shivaji - The Boss, the Rajnikant movie is a kannada or a telgu movie. For me, everything down south is uniform, no divisions based on caste or languages. And as some of my friends from South would vouch, the feeling is mutual :)
Yet i want to watch Shivaji - The Boss. The only reason why i want to watch is that it stars Rajnikant. The great rajnikant. The only person on this planet who can give Newton a run for his theories. Ok, make that 2nd person on the planet (how can I leave out Mithun da).
Sample the latest stunt from his movie. Rajni has a gun in his hand and he wants to shoot someone down. Now the other person is not within his shooting range. So what does he do? He throws the gun in that goon's direction. The gun whizzes in the air in that goon's direction, the trigger gets fired automatically, the fire is shot, the goon dies and that's not all. Like a boomerang the gun comes back in Rajni's hand. Mission accomplished.
Tell me honestly. How can language be a barrier when you have stunts like these in movies. For me, if i go for the movie, my paisa vassool would be just watching this stunt. :D
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Soon to arrive, new kid on the block....
Take a hard look at him.
Next time when you see him, he might be signing autographs at crosswords. Meet Anil Goel. A good friend's hubby, which makes him my good friend too. No, make that my best pal, my langotiya yaar, my Veeru. Why the extra makkhan? Coz that's what I would be parroting in first half of 2008 when the dude releases his maiden novel :D
You can get to know more of him on his personal blog.
But on a serious note, I really feel inspired by his new venture. Of what i know of him, his hectic corporate life has been keeping him endlessly busy (he handles an investment banking account for a leading MNC IT consulting firm in Mumbai) and still finding time to follow up on your passion , your dream - that's motivational stuff, at least for me. One of my closest friend, who knows me better than I do myself had been egging me to take the next step ahead and pen down a book or something. She knows i have the flair for it and can make up for a good read. Even I have been nursing the desire to write something and have started sketching few ideas - but the lazy bum that i am, have always found refuge under the pretext of being loaded with work or have parked that thought somewhere at the back of mind. The trouble is that when it goes in the store room, chances are it gets covered with cobwebs and gets forgotten until one day, someone comes with a broom ( in this case the dude in the pic) and cleans the room up.
Now have to make sure it remains that way.
why hutch why?
Why hutch why?
Why do you always come up with one brilliant concept after another? Why do you make ads. that are so refreshingly different and stand out from the clutter, always. Why do you put your heart & soul into even chut-put promo ads. Why can't you make those ooooh- so -aaam adami - feel good Airtel kinda ads? Why can't you make those 'Yeah to bada toing hai toing hai' kind of ads?
Take for instance your Eskimo ad. Instead of showing those Eskimos coming from different part of the country and assembling in a location and heading to a house, as a bedazzled man looks at them and realizes it's his own doing (and then focus on the Live search feature on Hutch phones), why couldn't you just show it direct in the face. At least that would have saved the Eskimos the trouble of coming from different parts of the world and more importantly, saved me the trouble of stopping by any channel to watch the ad. knowing the fact that the programme that I want to watch on some other channel has already started.
Don't do it Hutch. Your advertising has already reached where Sunita Williams spent past so many months. Now which other level do you want to elevate it to?
Why do you always come up with one brilliant concept after another? Why do you make ads. that are so refreshingly different and stand out from the clutter, always. Why do you put your heart & soul into even chut-put promo ads. Why can't you make those ooooh- so -aaam adami - feel good Airtel kinda ads? Why can't you make those 'Yeah to bada toing hai toing hai' kind of ads?
Take for instance your Eskimo ad. Instead of showing those Eskimos coming from different part of the country and assembling in a location and heading to a house, as a bedazzled man looks at them and realizes it's his own doing (and then focus on the Live search feature on Hutch phones), why couldn't you just show it direct in the face. At least that would have saved the Eskimos the trouble of coming from different parts of the world and more importantly, saved me the trouble of stopping by any channel to watch the ad. knowing the fact that the programme that I want to watch on some other channel has already started.
Don't do it Hutch. Your advertising has already reached where Sunita Williams spent past so many months. Now which other level do you want to elevate it to?
The cat & the baba...
On sunday night while I was just about to sleep, I heard my mom screaming in her sleep. It seems she was going through some bad nightmare. We all rushed to the room and woke her up. Badly shaken, she woke up, didn't say much and then went off to sleep again.
Next day she told us that she saw a black cat in her dream and the cat was stalking her. usually whenever she has seen the black cat in her dreams, something good had happened. Like she told us that before I was born, a day or two before that, ahem...she had seen the cat. So, a good omen, but for what? We didn't know.
We then headed for an appointment with our lawyer. We had to show him the draft copy of our agreement papers before heading to the builder's office for final submission of demand drafts and completion of other formalities. After the meeting, we had a quick breakfast at a small cafe nearby. Just when we were planning to leave, a sadhu baba dressed in the garb of Sai baba approached us and asked us if we could spare some food for him. Now me being me, I don't really entertain sadhus, especially ones who beg. But my dad belongs to a different breed. He took out his wallet to offer him some money, but the sadhu refused the money and requested if we could feed him with something. So stuck with the unusual request, dad asked him to step in the cafe and told the waiter to serve the sadhu with a plate of vada sambhaar. My dad, who himself is a staunch believer of sai baba, in someway felt that perhaps it was god himself in disguise or else when do you come across fakirs & babas who refuse money. Not thinking too much about it, we reached the builder's office.
The marketing lady before getting down to start the formalities gave an offer to us. She said that just yesterday someone had canceled his booking (which was made about a month back) and the rate that was offered to that person was Rs. 25 less than our negotiated final rate. She said if we wanted, she can pass on that rate to us. A quick calculation and we realised with the new rate, it would mean a saving of over Rs.28,000 to us. An unexpected gift like this, who can say no! Just 2 weeks back we had spent over 5 hrs to negotiate and cut down rates by over 3 lakhs. A rupee more of rate cut was met with stiffest of resistance. And here within 2 minutes we got a further discount of over 28k. After completing the formalities , happily we stepped out.
The events that took place ysday night and today morning played in my mind and b4 even I could say anything, mom & dad voiced it. The cat + feeding the baba = unexpected savings
The rational side of me cannot accept it. But somewhere in back of my mind, I can't discount it either.
Next day she told us that she saw a black cat in her dream and the cat was stalking her. usually whenever she has seen the black cat in her dreams, something good had happened. Like she told us that before I was born, a day or two before that, ahem...she had seen the cat. So, a good omen, but for what? We didn't know.
We then headed for an appointment with our lawyer. We had to show him the draft copy of our agreement papers before heading to the builder's office for final submission of demand drafts and completion of other formalities. After the meeting, we had a quick breakfast at a small cafe nearby. Just when we were planning to leave, a sadhu baba dressed in the garb of Sai baba approached us and asked us if we could spare some food for him. Now me being me, I don't really entertain sadhus, especially ones who beg. But my dad belongs to a different breed. He took out his wallet to offer him some money, but the sadhu refused the money and requested if we could feed him with something. So stuck with the unusual request, dad asked him to step in the cafe and told the waiter to serve the sadhu with a plate of vada sambhaar. My dad, who himself is a staunch believer of sai baba, in someway felt that perhaps it was god himself in disguise or else when do you come across fakirs & babas who refuse money. Not thinking too much about it, we reached the builder's office.
The marketing lady before getting down to start the formalities gave an offer to us. She said that just yesterday someone had canceled his booking (which was made about a month back) and the rate that was offered to that person was Rs. 25 less than our negotiated final rate. She said if we wanted, she can pass on that rate to us. A quick calculation and we realised with the new rate, it would mean a saving of over Rs.28,000 to us. An unexpected gift like this, who can say no! Just 2 weeks back we had spent over 5 hrs to negotiate and cut down rates by over 3 lakhs. A rupee more of rate cut was met with stiffest of resistance. And here within 2 minutes we got a further discount of over 28k. After completing the formalities , happily we stepped out.
The events that took place ysday night and today morning played in my mind and b4 even I could say anything, mom & dad voiced it. The cat + feeding the baba = unexpected savings
The rational side of me cannot accept it. But somewhere in back of my mind, I can't discount it either.
Monday, June 18, 2007
some blogcamp pune snaps
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@ registration table
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Melody making her presentation
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Melody again
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Lunch by the poolside
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Abhishekh from SMS Gupshup does his act
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some of the posters that greeted us
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Pune BlogCamp -2
8.30 am - Kick in
Bloggers, both professional and waiting in the wings have started gathering at the registration counter. There is excitement in the air. No one knows what lies ahead. Volunteers pitch in for work that requires immediate attention. Registrations are done, T-shirts distributed and someone is around to take a snap of each participant not before they have worn it and displayed their name card in mug shot style.
10.00 am
Tarun sets the ball rolling. The hall is kind of full. Around 150 participants are there now. Lot of student community can also be seen. A general round of intros are made. Some keep it short & simple, others put in their marketing speel, which gets booed. There are some interesting characters around. For instance a person who introduces himself and tells the audience he does photo blogging and after a small pause informs he mostly shoots photos of his neighbours and posts it on his blog!!! Everyone breaks into a laugh and tease him about the place where he lives and give ideas on how he can increase traffic to his blog by doing live streaming/video casting of his neighbors ;-) The person sitting next to him gets up and introduces himself as his neighbor - again the audience breaks into laughter!!! There are some 'celebrity' bloggers also in the crowd. Prem Paniker of rediff.com (liked his Lord of the Strings tee) and Sakshi Juneja who in some way is unofficial PR agent of rakhi sawant make their presence felt. So popular is she on the blog space that she even had a stalker follow & harass her, which she shares in a discussion later in the day. Interesting to see that there are a few guys who have made blogging as their full time career and earn their bread & butter out of it! One of them even shares some of his trade secrets on how to popularize your blog in a session later. Then there is a guy who plans to start a blog for men without gfs!!! ;-) Over all, pretty interesting bunch of people and you know it would be one hell of a knowledge sharing & learning session.
10.30 am -5.00 pm
Lot of presentations are on the whiteboard. 2 Different threads are started. Some of the interesting thread that I attend include a presentation made by Purple Nova guy who has a product in market that turns your home PC into a hosting platform & there is no need to have a Ip address to host your stuff which means, no need to depend on a hosting provider for Ip address, space, other hosting needs etc. Blogging through SMS? Sounds mind boggling isn't it but if you believe the guys from SMS Gupshup, it's the next big thing and already it has picked up a lot. Btw, even i tried my hands on it and created my 1st virtual SMS blog, sitting there. Abhishek Thakkar's gigantic personality & his witty style of presenting the SMD Gupshup funda was hard to miss. More details about it can be found on their site. Oh btw, did I mention that the entire campus was wifi enabled. Many bloggers did live blogging from the campus. The signals were weak at times so many of us, including myself had a hard times logging in. Melody made an interesting presentation on flaming & how to tackle with it. There was another interesting discussion on podcasting and another one made by Niresh Kothari on how to popularize your blog. He is the same guy who runs around 15 blogs & website and has made blogging as his full time career. The guys from Fropper shared the concept of ezeblogging through their template driven blogging approach. Those who are new to blogging would find it very easy & useful. The Sulekha presentation didn't really go well with the audience, probably more to the fact that they were trying to 'hardsell' Sulekha as the best thing that happened around, which bloggers were not so ready to accept. Also the the fact that Sulekha branded themselves as web2.0 platform based site but couldn't respond back convincingly to the web 2.0 related queries that people had.
5.30pm - Kick out
experience sharing, feedback session and next steps were discussed. The knowledge sharing session was worth the day spent. Not to mention meeting so many people with diverse background and getting to know them. Looking fwd to the next Bar Camp now.
Bloggers, both professional and waiting in the wings have started gathering at the registration counter. There is excitement in the air. No one knows what lies ahead. Volunteers pitch in for work that requires immediate attention. Registrations are done, T-shirts distributed and someone is around to take a snap of each participant not before they have worn it and displayed their name card in mug shot style.
10.00 am
Tarun sets the ball rolling. The hall is kind of full. Around 150 participants are there now. Lot of student community can also be seen. A general round of intros are made. Some keep it short & simple, others put in their marketing speel, which gets booed. There are some interesting characters around. For instance a person who introduces himself and tells the audience he does photo blogging and after a small pause informs he mostly shoots photos of his neighbours and posts it on his blog!!! Everyone breaks into a laugh and tease him about the place where he lives and give ideas on how he can increase traffic to his blog by doing live streaming/video casting of his neighbors ;-) The person sitting next to him gets up and introduces himself as his neighbor - again the audience breaks into laughter!!! There are some 'celebrity' bloggers also in the crowd. Prem Paniker of rediff.com (liked his Lord of the Strings tee) and Sakshi Juneja who in some way is unofficial PR agent of rakhi sawant make their presence felt. So popular is she on the blog space that she even had a stalker follow & harass her, which she shares in a discussion later in the day. Interesting to see that there are a few guys who have made blogging as their full time career and earn their bread & butter out of it! One of them even shares some of his trade secrets on how to popularize your blog in a session later. Then there is a guy who plans to start a blog for men without gfs!!! ;-) Over all, pretty interesting bunch of people and you know it would be one hell of a knowledge sharing & learning session.
10.30 am -5.00 pm
Lot of presentations are on the whiteboard. 2 Different threads are started. Some of the interesting thread that I attend include a presentation made by Purple Nova guy who has a product in market that turns your home PC into a hosting platform & there is no need to have a Ip address to host your stuff which means, no need to depend on a hosting provider for Ip address, space, other hosting needs etc. Blogging through SMS? Sounds mind boggling isn't it but if you believe the guys from SMS Gupshup, it's the next big thing and already it has picked up a lot. Btw, even i tried my hands on it and created my 1st virtual SMS blog, sitting there. Abhishek Thakkar's gigantic personality & his witty style of presenting the SMD Gupshup funda was hard to miss. More details about it can be found on their site. Oh btw, did I mention that the entire campus was wifi enabled. Many bloggers did live blogging from the campus. The signals were weak at times so many of us, including myself had a hard times logging in. Melody made an interesting presentation on flaming & how to tackle with it. There was another interesting discussion on podcasting and another one made by Niresh Kothari on how to popularize your blog. He is the same guy who runs around 15 blogs & website and has made blogging as his full time career. The guys from Fropper shared the concept of ezeblogging through their template driven blogging approach. Those who are new to blogging would find it very easy & useful. The Sulekha presentation didn't really go well with the audience, probably more to the fact that they were trying to 'hardsell' Sulekha as the best thing that happened around, which bloggers were not so ready to accept. Also the the fact that Sulekha branded themselves as web2.0 platform based site but couldn't respond back convincingly to the web 2.0 related queries that people had.
5.30pm - Kick out
experience sharing, feedback session and next steps were discussed. The knowledge sharing session was worth the day spent. Not to mention meeting so many people with diverse background and getting to know them. Looking fwd to the next Bar Camp now.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Uncorking@BlogCamp Pune
Some blogs are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and tasted.
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The tone was all set for Blog Camp, Pune – the 1st of a kind initiative on the lines of Bar camp being held in Pune. What is it that brings so many people together on a single platform to collaborate through different channels to start up an ‘unconference’? What is it that drives people to use blogging as more than a collaborative tool, what it that makes people from as far as Bangalore to show up on a lazy Saturday afternoon to attend the sessions. Seeking answers to questions like these I landed up at Blog camp Pune which was held in SCIT (Symbosis College of IT), Hinjewadi, Pune. On the way, picked up a guy who was also planning to come for the event.
For the uninitiated, Blog Camp pune was a free unconference focusing exclusively on blogging, organized by bloggers for bloggers. It’s an ad-hoc unconference where people come together with no fixed agenda and topics are decided then and there itself. Depending upon the topics that people would like to discuss about and present, multiple threads run throughout the day and participants attend the topics of their interest. Lot of knowledge sharing happens.
My back has gone for a toss again so finding it very difficult to sit straight and write about it. So will be writing more posts about it tomorrow.
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The tone was all set for Blog Camp, Pune – the 1st of a kind initiative on the lines of Bar camp being held in Pune. What is it that brings so many people together on a single platform to collaborate through different channels to start up an ‘unconference’? What is it that drives people to use blogging as more than a collaborative tool, what it that makes people from as far as Bangalore to show up on a lazy Saturday afternoon to attend the sessions. Seeking answers to questions like these I landed up at Blog camp Pune which was held in SCIT (Symbosis College of IT), Hinjewadi, Pune. On the way, picked up a guy who was also planning to come for the event.
For the uninitiated, Blog Camp pune was a free unconference focusing exclusively on blogging, organized by bloggers for bloggers. It’s an ad-hoc unconference where people come together with no fixed agenda and topics are decided then and there itself. Depending upon the topics that people would like to discuss about and present, multiple threads run throughout the day and participants attend the topics of their interest. Lot of knowledge sharing happens.
My back has gone for a toss again so finding it very difficult to sit straight and write about it. So will be writing more posts about it tomorrow.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Na teri...na meri....
Shivraj patil
nahi
Bhairo Singh Shekhawat
Patil....
Shekhawat...
Patil....
Shekhawat....
Ok. Chal na meri na teri....
Pratibha Patil Shekhawat
happy?
nahi
Bhairo Singh Shekhawat
Patil....
Shekhawat...
Patil....
Shekhawat....
Ok. Chal na meri na teri....
Pratibha Patil Shekhawat
happy?
How googled are you?
Read somewhere recently that in US, people like to name their new born babies with names that are google friendly. In other words, the names should easily appear in google if someone searches for it. Their concern - that everyone searches for records of people on the net and that they should not be left behind (wierdos).
Btw, how google friendly are you? Does your name tops the list? Is the result specific to the context? In my case, i have hijacked top 3 and half pages of results that appear if you type my full name. And yes, all results are in my context :)
Btw, how google friendly are you? Does your name tops the list? Is the result specific to the context? In my case, i have hijacked top 3 and half pages of results that appear if you type my full name. And yes, all results are in my context :)
Friday, June 08, 2007
I wanna talk n talk n talk Ms. Jolie
If I bump into Angelina Jolie, what will I do? I will just talk and talk and talk. Talk endlessly for the whole night, morning, evening and endless nights. Who wants to do any other things with her when you can simply talk.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Duh! Who wants to date a cartoon?
Sample this radio spot that's hogging the airwaves in Pune these days:
Girl 1: Hurry up we are getting late
Girl 2: hang on, tell me will this eyeliner shade look better or this?
Girl 1: (excited voice) What's up darling? Who is this new boy?
Girl 2: Jigar. The Official mascot for 2008 Youth Commonwealth Games.
My 1st reaction: Huh?!
I think it's a slap on the face of all men folks in Pune that instead of dating men, gals are now going out with cartoons. Not that they don't, but this time around a real cartoon character :D
I am sure some potbellied Director of DAVP (department of Audio Visual Publicity), sitting in his AC cabin would have conceptualized this gem of a radio spot and all his jonnies would have ensured that it is executed to the hilt.
Btw, the best part of the radio spot is Jigar talking at the end. He is supposed to be a 'tiger' but croons like donald duck. :D :D
Girl 1: Hurry up we are getting late
Girl 2: hang on, tell me will this eyeliner shade look better or this?
Girl 1: (excited voice) What's up darling? Who is this new boy?
Girl 2: Jigar. The Official mascot for 2008 Youth Commonwealth Games.
My 1st reaction: Huh?!
I think it's a slap on the face of all men folks in Pune that instead of dating men, gals are now going out with cartoons. Not that they don't, but this time around a real cartoon character :D
I am sure some potbellied Director of DAVP (department of Audio Visual Publicity), sitting in his AC cabin would have conceptualized this gem of a radio spot and all his jonnies would have ensured that it is executed to the hilt.
Btw, the best part of the radio spot is Jigar talking at the end. He is supposed to be a 'tiger' but croons like donald duck. :D :D
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Roti..Kapda and now another Makaan
The hunt for the house ends. Yesterday booked a 2 and half BHK (1222 1132 sqft) house. Will get possession in August 07. The apartment is located in Rakshak Nagar Gold - very close to Zensar office and strategically located near the MIDC IT park. So close, that it will take me 5 mins to walk up to my office! :D Can even see office building from one of my bedroom's drawing room. Though it used to take me on an average 1.5 hrs to reach home from office, but I will truly miss my stay at Aditya Shagun & Bavdhan locality which is more like a mini hill station.
Have posted a screenshot from Google earth to show where the apartment is located. The sattellite image is not updated as I can see only few buildings, but you can get an idea how close it is to my office.
PS: Calculated today.... the distance from apartment to office is .8 kms. :D :D :D
Have posted a screenshot from Google earth to show where the apartment is located. The sattellite image is not updated as I can see only few buildings, but you can get an idea how close it is to my office.
PS: Calculated today.... the distance from apartment to office is .8 kms. :D :D :D
Thursday, May 31, 2007
What's not cooking at Shaukat Aziz's residence
It's official now.
Shaukaut Aziz - Pakistan's PM has given up on rice. In a public statement last week, the Foreign Affairs Ministry informed that Aziz won't be having rice in his food staple. Rice has now become a forbidden word for him and he won't like to see anything that has got to do with rice - so all Biryanis are out for him now. The ministry also informed that Aziz had not given up on rice coz of any medical problems.
The give up happened when Shaukat Aziz met Condoleezza Rice - US Secretary of State and tried to seduce her, failing miserably, and ending up messing his plate.
hehehehehe.
Shaukaut Aziz - Pakistan's PM has given up on rice. In a public statement last week, the Foreign Affairs Ministry informed that Aziz won't be having rice in his food staple. Rice has now become a forbidden word for him and he won't like to see anything that has got to do with rice - so all Biryanis are out for him now. The ministry also informed that Aziz had not given up on rice coz of any medical problems.
The give up happened when Shaukat Aziz met Condoleezza Rice - US Secretary of State and tried to seduce her, failing miserably, and ending up messing his plate.
hehehehehe.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
2 continents. 2 Different news
In today's TOI (Pune edition) found these 2 news in the Times International section.
1st News clipping read:
2nd news clipping, right below read:
Gay Aussie hotel wins right to ban hetrosexual
Both these stories on the same page. Contrasting, yet interesting.
1st News clipping read:
Sex-change couple jailed in
2nd news clipping, right below read:
Gay Aussie hotel wins right to ban hetrosexual
A MELBOURNE pub catering for gay men has won the right to refuse entry to heterosexuals in a landmark ruling the owner says will keep patrons safe.
The owners of Collingwood's Peel Hotel applied to ban straight men and women to try to prevent "sexually based insults and violence" towards its gay patrons.Both these stories on the same page. Contrasting, yet interesting.
Abused 2.0
I think the most abused, hacked & cliché word these days is '2.0'. If you have run out of ideas, need some push ups, want to add the 'next level ideas' to a dull mundane presentation, just add 2.0 as a suffix and you have it. Web 2.0 has become the most fancy words these days and just like the dot com boom, people are riding on the 2.0 bandwagon and making heads turn, little realizing or leveraging on the essence of 2.0 technologies.
In a recent article, Deep Kalra of Make My Trip says "Travel 2.0 is the buzzword here. Content, both developed by users and by portals, will help customers make better travel plans.”
See? Another 2.0 added and you get byte space on the internet. Being part of the team that was involved in creating information architecture & design of the MMT site in early 2000, if I am not wrong, the site already had the 'features' which Deep refers to as 'Travel 2.0'. The site had a facility to post user content, which was nothing more than ratings & travelogues and others could rank it. If this is what '2.0' means to Deep then he should check out the tons of info related to web 2.0 on the net again.
Web 2.0 is nothing but a combination of technologies/features that can help create larger audience participation and give real control in the hands of users rather the other way around. Period.
In a recent article, Deep Kalra of Make My Trip says "Travel 2.0 is the buzzword here. Content, both developed by users and by portals, will help customers make better travel plans.”
See? Another 2.0 added and you get byte space on the internet. Being part of the team that was involved in creating information architecture & design of the MMT site in early 2000, if I am not wrong, the site already had the 'features' which Deep refers to as 'Travel 2.0'. The site had a facility to post user content, which was nothing more than ratings & travelogues and others could rank it. If this is what '2.0' means to Deep then he should check out the tons of info related to web 2.0 on the net again.
Web 2.0 is nothing but a combination of technologies/features that can help create larger audience participation and give real control in the hands of users rather the other way around. Period.
Picture This...
I sit very close to a picture window on 4th floor from where I can see the entire Campus greenbelt and open fields, river and mountains in the distance. This part of Kharadi, I am told, turns lushgreen during rainy season. Infact the whole of Pune and nearby areas wear a different look during rains. The weather takes a dip, people flock out to picnic areas nearby and in Konkan belt. The place where I live - bavdhan, is a mini hill station in itself. Surrounded by hills, it's always breezy there and the recent showers has forced us to shut off fans in evenings and use light quilts at nights. I shifted here last year in August and i know how exciting the weather is here so really looking fwd to monsoons now.
Leaving this post with a few snaps that i took 2-3 days back from my office window of the 1st heavy showers that hit Pune.
(see that river behind our office? I am told during monsoons the river overflows!)
In the distance you can see the river shining in the darkness)
Leaving this post with a few snaps that i took 2-3 days back from my office window of the 1st heavy showers that hit Pune.
(see that river behind our office? I am told during monsoons the river overflows!)
In the distance you can see the river shining in the darkness)
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Shaving blues
Ask any man what he feels is the most tiring work everyday and perhaps the most common reply would be - shaving every morning. So when today Suvi asked me "aren't you shaving", I replied, "it's the John Ibrahim look, you won't understand - it's a guy's thing". "ya but John doesn't have a part white stubble", she replied back coolly. "Jeeez"...I snorted and ignored the comment.
(cut to office)
Get greeted by a female colleague.
"hiiii loks"
"Hiiii"
"what's up?"
.......and b4 i can reply to that one, i get her next question.
"You didn't shaveee......felt lazzzy in the morning kyaa?", almost counting my white hair in the stubble.
At that moment, all the John Ibrahim stuff just went fizzing like an inflated balloon that has been released.
Hope suvi is not reading this one. :)
(cut to office)
Get greeted by a female colleague.
"hiiii loks"
"Hiiii"
"what's up?"
.......and b4 i can reply to that one, i get her next question.
"You didn't shaveee......felt lazzzy in the morning kyaa?", almost counting my white hair in the stubble.
At that moment, all the John Ibrahim stuff just went fizzing like an inflated balloon that has been released.
Hope suvi is not reading this one. :)
Monday, May 21, 2007
what i am watching these days...
Hells Kitchen - 2 teams contest it out in Gordon Ramsy's kitchen as he grills them out. Experience new flavours of jealously in the Blue team as one gal ho doesn't have any formal cooking background keeps winning challenges one after the other while others turn sore.
A Matter of Taste - Vir sanghvi takes us into bowels of great Indian culinary journies
No reservations & A Cooks Tour - Something similar to Vir sanghvi, Anthony Bordain samples us world cusines and new flavors.
Miami Ink - Live show of these 4-5 fellas who oepn up a tattoo shop in downtown Miami.
All these shows are on Discovery Travel & Living.
Also watching Biggets Looser - some real heavyweights fighting to lose weight - a new reality show on Sahara One.
A Matter of Taste - Vir sanghvi takes us into bowels of great Indian culinary journies
No reservations & A Cooks Tour - Something similar to Vir sanghvi, Anthony Bordain samples us world cusines and new flavors.
Miami Ink - Live show of these 4-5 fellas who oepn up a tattoo shop in downtown Miami.
All these shows are on Discovery Travel & Living.
Also watching Biggets Looser - some real heavyweights fighting to lose weight - a new reality show on Sahara One.
This post is for free
This post that you are reading comes free of cost.
For the past couple of days I have been facing a peculiar problem. Some Jhonnie in my vicinity has acquired a wireless router for his laptop. Now this Jhonnie, I presume uses it most of the time in evenings and at times leave it open at mornings. So what has this got to do with me or the subject of this post. Well what is happening is that whenever I switch on my wireless router, my laptop is not reading my router's network and is like a true blue delhiite, snapping on to that jhonnie's network, illegally. I have never come across this situation b4 coz the laptop should show both wireless networks in the status bar, but after some keeda that i did long time back in the laptop settings, it has stopped showing network in the box. Anyways, so I get to switch on my router only when his is closed. You might ask, so even he might be snapping on to your network. But nopes. The jhonnie is a new kid on the block. I presumed that when I saw the details of his network. He (or she?) has NOT enabled any password on his wireless router. Jeeez man...that's the 1st thing that you do when you configure your router. His network shows the router name (which is default name when no password is set).
So whenever he is online and I am in a mood to access the net, I simply switch on my browser and i am online - at his expense! :D Let's see how long this honeymoon lasts :)
For the past couple of days I have been facing a peculiar problem. Some Jhonnie in my vicinity has acquired a wireless router for his laptop. Now this Jhonnie, I presume uses it most of the time in evenings and at times leave it open at mornings. So what has this got to do with me or the subject of this post. Well what is happening is that whenever I switch on my wireless router, my laptop is not reading my router's network and is like a true blue delhiite, snapping on to that jhonnie's network, illegally. I have never come across this situation b4 coz the laptop should show both wireless networks in the status bar, but after some keeda that i did long time back in the laptop settings, it has stopped showing network in the box. Anyways, so I get to switch on my router only when his is closed. You might ask, so even he might be snapping on to your network. But nopes. The jhonnie is a new kid on the block. I presumed that when I saw the details of his network. He (or she?) has NOT enabled any password on his wireless router. Jeeez man...that's the 1st thing that you do when you configure your router. His network shows the router name (which is default name when no password is set).
So whenever he is online and I am in a mood to access the net, I simply switch on my browser and i am online - at his expense! :D Let's see how long this honeymoon lasts :)
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Hum tum ek kamre mein band ho....
....aur door nahi khuley!!!!!
Over 17 members including me & our consulting practice head are currently holed up in our main bay and can't move out. The reason? The Access Door is NOT accepting our cards!!! :D :D..and is locked! :D :D
The worst sufferers? People who had to catch the 6.00 pm bus. :D
I wonder what would have happened if someone was working late night and faced this problem? Help desk would have said " saab aaaj raat wahi nikaal lo coz mechanic to kal subah aayega!!" Ironically, the fire exit is bang opposite the closed door.
Over 17 members including me & our consulting practice head are currently holed up in our main bay and can't move out. The reason? The Access Door is NOT accepting our cards!!! :D :D..and is locked! :D :D
The worst sufferers? People who had to catch the 6.00 pm bus. :D
I wonder what would have happened if someone was working late night and faced this problem? Help desk would have said " saab aaaj raat wahi nikaal lo coz mechanic to kal subah aayega!!" Ironically, the fire exit is bang opposite the closed door.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Mudra takes Big bazaar on a ride
What comes in your mind when you say Big Bazaar?
"Isssey sasta aur tikau aur kahi nahi milega." The key word in all communication has been sasta and then tikau. Comes to think of it, it can be translated as Cheap Quality :-) though that's another topic all together. So when you talk about Big bazaar audience profile, who are they? I'll say they are:
- Primary audience(food & beverages): Food bazaar customers who are their for good bargains
- Primary audience (furniture): people who are looking out for good deals on durable and good looking furniture.
- Primary audience: (clothing): No frills, the 'original' middle & slightly upper middle class people who have no air about brands and are more interested in 'value for money' deals. They are more than happy if the apparel as compared to some 'reputed' brands lacks 'finesse' or doesn't have that 'wow' stuff as long as they are getting it for a steal as compared to brands found in other shopping malls. It's a big chunk of audience and they will always keep patronizing Big bazaar's apparel section.
So found it very surprising when Big bazaar came out with a series of outdoor ads.
The ads are tongue in cheek and take a dig at Shoppers stop, Lifestyle & Westside. The headlines read:
Change Your Lifestyle. Make a smart choice! Formal shirts Rs........
Keep West-aSide. Make a smart choice ! T shirts Rs.......
Shoppers! Stop. Make a smart choice ! Sarees Rs....
Cheeky, no doubt but do they serve their purpose? It's apparent that big bazaar is targeting the shopping chunk of patrons of these stores but I wonder if any thought went into studying the profile of the shopper segment by Mudra & Big bazaar. People who shop frequently or whenever need arises for buying any apparels from these stores are people who:
- are brand & style conscious
- firmly believe that stores like lifestyle, shoppers stop, etc offer quality & top most, latest trends stuff
- don't mind paying a little extra if it helps them stand out from the clutter
- Might not be trend setter but like to be one and associate stores like these with that
- Enjoy the ambiance, the crowd, the overall quality of display & aura that these store offers
-Would like to step down from their cars carrying bags of shoppers stop, lifestyle etc and would die if someone spots them with apparel filled bags of Big bazaar (the exception made is Food bazaar bags - that's accepted)
Yes, there are primary shoppers from these segment too who won't mind buying once in a while from Big bazaar apparel section but mostly, not so important stuff.
Mudra & Big bazaar should understand - it's aspirational & emotional stuff. A school or college kid might buy a lowest priced tshirt from shopper's stop or lifestyle (probably 200 bucks) which perhaps he could have got a bit cheap in big bazaar but he can tell his friends who ask him where he picked up the stuff from - proudly the name of the place. Some people are born with a silver spoon are all about brands will never shop at Big bazaar. The others, who have moved up the ranks and have developed a style image for themselves, have become brand conscious and more importantly have a good purchasing power won't switch over to Big bazaar just bcoz it's offering jeans/cargos/sarees or anything for a 3 digit price.
"Isssey sasta aur tikau aur kahi nahi milega." The key word in all communication has been sasta and then tikau. Comes to think of it, it can be translated as Cheap Quality :-) though that's another topic all together. So when you talk about Big bazaar audience profile, who are they? I'll say they are:
- Primary audience(food & beverages): Food bazaar customers who are their for good bargains
- Primary audience (furniture): people who are looking out for good deals on durable and good looking furniture.
- Primary audience: (clothing): No frills, the 'original' middle & slightly upper middle class people who have no air about brands and are more interested in 'value for money' deals. They are more than happy if the apparel as compared to some 'reputed' brands lacks 'finesse' or doesn't have that 'wow' stuff as long as they are getting it for a steal as compared to brands found in other shopping malls. It's a big chunk of audience and they will always keep patronizing Big bazaar's apparel section.
So found it very surprising when Big bazaar came out with a series of outdoor ads.
The ads are tongue in cheek and take a dig at Shoppers stop, Lifestyle & Westside. The headlines read:
Change Your Lifestyle. Make a smart choice! Formal shirts Rs........
Keep West-aSide. Make a smart choice ! T shirts Rs.......
Shoppers! Stop. Make a smart choice ! Sarees Rs....
Cheeky, no doubt but do they serve their purpose? It's apparent that big bazaar is targeting the shopping chunk of patrons of these stores but I wonder if any thought went into studying the profile of the shopper segment by Mudra & Big bazaar. People who shop frequently or whenever need arises for buying any apparels from these stores are people who:
- are brand & style conscious
- firmly believe that stores like lifestyle, shoppers stop, etc offer quality & top most, latest trends stuff
- don't mind paying a little extra if it helps them stand out from the clutter
- Might not be trend setter but like to be one and associate stores like these with that
- Enjoy the ambiance, the crowd, the overall quality of display & aura that these store offers
-Would like to step down from their cars carrying bags of shoppers stop, lifestyle etc and would die if someone spots them with apparel filled bags of Big bazaar (the exception made is Food bazaar bags - that's accepted)
Yes, there are primary shoppers from these segment too who won't mind buying once in a while from Big bazaar apparel section but mostly, not so important stuff.
Mudra & Big bazaar should understand - it's aspirational & emotional stuff. A school or college kid might buy a lowest priced tshirt from shopper's stop or lifestyle (probably 200 bucks) which perhaps he could have got a bit cheap in big bazaar but he can tell his friends who ask him where he picked up the stuff from - proudly the name of the place. Some people are born with a silver spoon are all about brands will never shop at Big bazaar. The others, who have moved up the ranks and have developed a style image for themselves, have become brand conscious and more importantly have a good purchasing power won't switch over to Big bazaar just bcoz it's offering jeans/cargos/sarees or anything for a 3 digit price.
Whoa! Another portal changes design!
First rediff. Then NDTV. Then India Times. Then Times of India. And now saw Agency Faqs site in a new avtaar. Funny thing is the timing. Most of them changed their look within a snapn of month or so. Finally they are heeding to user experience.
Googly by Google :-)
Plagiarism & Google don't go together, do they? Innovative technology, innovative products, innovative online branding ads - google has always been front runner. So it came as a surprise to me when I came across these links:
Small PR headache for Google
Google Blatantly copies yahoo
Google copies IE7 promo material from yahoo
Apparently, google copied online promo ads of yahoo IE7 branded browser to the hilt - layout, text, it almost looked like a mirror page.
Obviously, yahoo discussion forums & tech newforums were flooded with articles. Google later rectified the page but the best part is the blog piece posted by Matt Cutts - a Google Engineer. In defense, he simply attacked. :-)
Small PR headache for Google
Google Blatantly copies yahoo
Google copies IE7 promo material from yahoo
Apparently, google copied online promo ads of yahoo IE7 branded browser to the hilt - layout, text, it almost looked like a mirror page.
Obviously, yahoo discussion forums & tech newforums were flooded with articles. Google later rectified the page but the best part is the blog piece posted by Matt Cutts - a Google Engineer. In defense, he simply attacked. :-)
Friday, May 11, 2007
Conversation between a Pakistani & Indian
Paaki: आज मेरे पास घर है, गाड़ी है, बैंक बैलेंस है... तुमहारे पास क्या है?
Indian: मेरे पास....AC है, जीसके चलाने पर लाइट à¤ी नही जाती।
Read more...
Indian: मेरे पास....AC है, जीसके चलाने पर लाइट à¤ी नही जाती।
Read more...
Monday, May 07, 2007
Go jump in well Paris
Paris Hilton claims that she violated the driving probation coz her Publicist told her she can drive. She has fired her publicist
Duh. I always knew she was dumb but this dumb? I mean when last time she broke the rule, she would have been present in the court when judge gave the sentence. Didn't she understand the implication of that sentence? On top of it she says
The best quote comes from one of Hilton's fan. On Paris Hilton's website, one fan writes -
Duh. I always knew she was dumb but this dumb? I mean when last time she broke the rule, she would have been present in the court when judge gave the sentence. Didn't she understand the implication of that sentence? On top of it she says
“I feel that I was treated unfairly and that the sentence is both cruel and unwarranted. I don’t deserve this.”
The best quote comes from one of Hilton's fan. On Paris Hilton's website, one fan writes -
"She provides hope for young people all over the U.S. and the world. She provides beauty and excitement to (most of) our otherwise mundane lives"Beauty & Excitement. he he he. Ya baby. I have seen your leaked out sex tapes. Indeed, you do provide excitement in the mundane lives of your fans :D
You know you are working 2 hard when...
..you pick up landline at home and press '0' to make a call or when you enter home, you try to swap card at the door to make it open. You must have heard tales like these but this dream of mine that I had ysday night tops the chart of my favorites.
The entire last week I had been working on a proposal for conducting onsite HCI activities for a UK based customer of ours. I had been meeting the ODC head of that account regularly. Day b4 ysday while I was driving in nasik, my car tyre got punctured - twice. So after the laborious work of changing the tyre and getting it fixed, i came home and hit the bed and dozed off. Got this wierd dream that find a place in my fav 'you are working 2 hard' list. Saw that the ODC head was fixing my tyres and later he sends across the car at my home and sends an email from his workshop informing me that the tyres have been fixed, a few alignment problems have been sorted out and hold on, in same breath he informs that in the HCI proposal, make a few amendments on point no x, y & z.
What say you? should it get a place in the 'you are working 2 hard when..' list? :)
The entire last week I had been working on a proposal for conducting onsite HCI activities for a UK based customer of ours. I had been meeting the ODC head of that account regularly. Day b4 ysday while I was driving in nasik, my car tyre got punctured - twice. So after the laborious work of changing the tyre and getting it fixed, i came home and hit the bed and dozed off. Got this wierd dream that find a place in my fav 'you are working 2 hard' list. Saw that the ODC head was fixing my tyres and later he sends across the car at my home and sends an email from his workshop informing me that the tyres have been fixed, a few alignment problems have been sorted out and hold on, in same breath he informs that in the HCI proposal, make a few amendments on point no x, y & z.
What say you? should it get a place in the 'you are working 2 hard when..' list? :)
confessions of a reluctant dieter (part 2)
Monday
“Loks, how can we survive the day only on fruits?” I looked at my watch. 9.30am. Groan. The day had just begun. We still had 6 more days to go.
A diet war veteran, I know how to survive the treacherous pangs of hunger snipers that are always on lookout for our willpower to popup so that they can shoot it down. Throughout the day I kept parroting one word to Suvi – ‘Will Power’. Somehow survived through day 1.
Tuesday
“wow”. 1 kg lost already. But another whole day to pass off and worse, it’s may day so that means – be grounded at home. Ideally you always look fwd to a break but in this case, staying at home makes you feel hungrier! Suvi spiced up the all vegetable day by ‘pav bhaji’ kind of recipe minus the pavs, butter or any oil. So boiled veggies dashed up in little bit of masala along with some soup and salads. The day passed off peacefully.
Wednesday
This time around, I am also finding it a bit difficult to keep up with the GM diet. The reason being, when you are alone, you can somehow still follow it, but with Suvi around, she transforms herself into a modern day ‘Meneka’, trying to break my tapasya as I stand firm like the rock of Gibraltar to complete the diet successfully. “loks, can we have a biscuit with the tea. Loks just a single bread slice…Loks…just a little bit of aachaar…..plsssssssss…”
2 kgs lost. 3 days gone. 4 more to go.
Thursday
You don’t need a Times Restaurant Guide to tell how many eating joints are there in
Friday
I accidentally bump into a wall. But instead of stars & revolving tweeting birds on top of my head, I get to see Chicken Mcgrills & grilled sandwiches rotating neatly in the mini orbit. I quickly bite into one and the pain disappears quickly. Happily, I head to work. A good way to start the day, I think.
By Friday I have also introduced a new romantic lexicon. It’s a dieter’s delight. So no more sugar coated cuchi coos or clichés like sweetheart or I luv you types. Instead, cuddle up your partner, pull his or her cheeks and let the voice from your heart come out and you will realize that most of the time you will end up saying “my jalebiiiii”, “my leg pieceee”, “my rasgulllla”, “my balushaiii”, “my grilled feeesh”, “my chole bhatureeee” and so on. As you keep rattling your expressions of love, you will also realize that that cuddling or pulling cheek have slowly turned into a full tight squeeze or rather a vibrant shake – as you go into an orgasmic frenzy and keep dishing out one expression after another.
Saturday & Sunday
I have never seen Suvi so happy in this diet week. After all, as per diet schedule, these 2 days are feast day. Which means you can have a cup of rice on both days. After surviving on fruits & veggies thru out the week, having rice was like finding an oasis in a desert. Like a kid she clapped and danced all around with the mere thought of having some ‘real’ food after ages. :) Thanks to the ‘solid’ food, breezed thru both these days.
Finally, GM Diet over. 3.5 kgs lost in 1 week. Suvi lost some 3 kgs. But finally we have decided instead of fad diets like these, we would rather moderate our eating habits and work out. I am already back on my skipping & morning workout schedule which I had discontinued a few months back (it worked for me then). Let’s see if I am able to keep it going! :) :)
Yawned....
...my favorite past time while watching the movie TaRaRumPum. Go for the movie if you want to watch a new look Rani Mukherjee or want to remind your hubby about the consequences of high purchasing through credit cards & bad investment planning...coz that's what the movie is all about. The moral of the story, as you will realize after 3 hrs is that you need to save money for rainy day, invest wisely and plan for the future. I wonder why Yash Raj studios who had smartly roped in Chevrolet, Lays, Castrol etc for surrogate advertising in this movie didn't tie up with any of the financial institutions like ICICI or Kotak for co-sponsoring the movie. :)
Friday, May 04, 2007
Confessions of a reluctant dieter (part 1)
Suvi had been after me for quite some time to go on a diet. It's not that I had put on or something but more coz she wanted to go on a diet and needed company. "But why me?” I protested. "loks...while getting married you had taken vows around the sacred fire that you will nibhao my saath in all ups and downs of life", she reminded me emotionally. "But that didn't include dieting!!!". But I had no choice. All my pleas were falling to deaf ears. This 'marriage vows' thing or the 'shaadi se pehley you used to be' stinger is the Bramha astra that I guess every married woman resorts to when cornered to the wall. Faced with no choice, I threw in my towel. Ok, we would diet from today.
"No, not today", said Suvi. On being asked why not, she said "look now we would be going on a diet for some time, so let' start it from monday and let's enjoy the next 2-3 days that we have. I want to eat home cooked chicken and then tomorrow we have to go for my colleague's bday party also - she has planned amazing spread for dinner". Amused, I knew where this diet was heading to. I could already sense that in next coming days, this diet plane would lose its flight plan and turn topsy turvy before someone (read Suvi) presses the emergency chute button and bails us out. So like convicts on death sentence, with last few days to go, we feasted on chicken. Butter Chicken at Suvi’s colleague’s party on Friday, Chicken Thai Green Curry cooked as surprise dinner on Saturday by me and again some chicken at home on Sunday. If Malinga’s hat trick stole the thunder at the world cup, this chicken feast hat trick simply bowled us over. With Suvi’s wish being granted, I thought we could go on diet from Monday peacefully now. Or so I thought.
We had decided that for the 1st week we will follow the General Motor diet plan. I had previously tried this diet plan in
Drawing from my past experience, I knew this diet would turn out to be an expensive one But hey; it’s for a good cause after all. If we both lose few kgs., naturally we will go out and binge again. This will lead to an increase in the revenues of the shopkeeper who till now had been derived of our share of revenue coz we had gone in self exile. An increase in revenues for him means he can save a little more for his kids & family. Similarly, the waiter who would serve us would also be tipped extra and they can send that extra money back home. So our act would contribute in a small way to fulfill our social responsibilities. :) :)
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