Van Gogh on Google
charukesi March 30th, 2005
Google does it again… Vincent Van Gogh’s birth anniversary
More on Van Gogh’s anniversary on Parag’s blog
Archive for March, 2005
A weekend of cricket and bloggers
charukesi March 29th, 2005
Enough and much more has been said all over the Indian blog world about cricket and the Indo Pak series. Sure, everyone is an expert when it comes to cricket (ok, not me). From Sumankumar on Cricket Commentators of the Sub-continent to Sameer’s spirited analysis to Amit Varma’s commentary on his blog (from the media box at the Chi stadium in Bangalore - I was a few boxes away in the Cricinfo box thinking more than once of going around to find and say hi to Amit Varma - as I have been intending since his tsunami coverage days - maybe when I am back in Bombay!)
The high point for me on Monday was meeting Madras bloggers and Cricinfo founders Badri and Satya… Have promised myself to catch up with them soon. I have left an incomplete conversation with Satya on his interest in education…
Cricket devotees - warning - blasphemy coming up - I was more fascinated by the mini economy that had sprung up all around the stadium - starting from one end of MG Road - face painters, flag sellers, whistle hawkers - were there are also black ticket guys - looked around for some but didn’t find any?!, not to mention auto rickshaw drivers who were out to and managed to make a killing… sort of urban mela with these hawkers taking the palce of ferris wheels and bioscopes 
And had a great time with Anita Bora over coffee. Grand travel plans to South East Asia have been drawn (and I see I have already got a reminder for same!). Cambodia, here we come?!
What I did not manage was food at Shiok - which I see is a ritual for all bloggers visitng Bangalore. Can only console myself with Anita’s words of wisdom - oh, you are a vegetarian - it’s ok then… (to have not been there done that)…
‘My Mobile’
charukesi March 29th, 2005
India’s first magazine on mobile phones… My Mobile will speak the language of the up-market, broad-minded urban class, who is brand conscious, upwardly mobile, has high purchasing power and strives to be aware of the latest happenings around the globe, says AgencyFAQs
(An ‘upwardly mobile’ mobile phone consumer? *snigger*)
To each his own, I suppose. If Calvin (and Hobbes too) can subscribe to ‘Chewing Gum Digest’, My Mobile too will find subscribers… (apologies, all you mobile maniacs!)
- Indiawatch , - Print
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Self analysis?
charukesi March 29th, 2005
WHEN THE AD MAN IS NOT THE CONSUMER ANYMORE…. from The Hidden Persuader
“Advertisers spend much effort psychoanalyzing consumers, trying to understand why consumers make the decision they do. It is rare that they turn those same analytical tools on themselves to understand why they make their own decisions, especially when those decisions have led to trouble.”
I completely agree. Whenever I see ads which seem to make no sense to me (either as a consumer or even as a market researcher), I wonder what kind of thinking has gone behind it - and I can almost visualise the kind of spiel the client servicing person must have given the client. If only advertisers would stop and take stock of their own brands and market status…
Take the recent Hero Honda ad for instance. The one with the fire and long haired hunk and the sarva guna sampanna line. DUH? And after all that, the hunk passes through the fire and emerges on the other side as this chappat oily haired shirt-trousered man. MORE DUH?
What is this, the aspirational image - all hair and hunk - and actual image - all mileage and helmet - of the Hero Honda consumer?
- Advertising
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Two years…
charukesi March 28th, 2005
Of war… From Baghdad Burning. Two years - enough time for the war to no longer be news or have any potential to shock…
Remember when the fear was still fresh- and the terror was relatively new- and it was possible to be shocked and awed in Iraq?
- Pot-pourri
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Weekend sunsets
charukesi March 22nd, 2005
Have recently shifted house - to Vashi in New Bombay - owning your own home is truly is a high in life… and for once, I did not crib about the packing and moving… And once the dust started settling (literaly in my case, since construction work is still going on all around my house), we got itchy feet and found ourselves looking for weekend places around here.
Hit Uran beach one Saturday evening. Uran, like all Bombay beaches, is dull and dirty - but any place away from the hustle of Bombay is good for a short while… Luckily for us, the sun was just setting and the beach was desolate but for a few vendors in one corner… And sunsets can be quite magical…
(Click on pics for larger view)
And the next day, we hit NOCIL hill, a small hillock close to Vashi - and again caught a breathtaking sunset from the top…
Hard to imagine this is just an hour away from Bombay and so close to Vashi… the perfect place for a peaceful evening, just mein aur meri tanhai…
We had been told to look out for the small idol of Ganesha on top of the hillock - this is the ‘idol’ - sure enough, God is where and how you see him (oops, or is it her?!)
Cosmo on the railway platform
charukesi March 21st, 2005
I was away this weekend in a small town on the Andhra Pradesh - Karnataka border - one of those thousands of towns across India racked by identity crisis - literally, as the journey takes you across AP and Karnataka in turns every f ew minutes (this happened to me in MP - UP too) - now you see boards in Kannada and now in Telugu and now again in both AND Urdu too!
Anyway, the point is that as I was waiting for the train to arrive at the sation (on my way back to Bombay yesterday), I browsed through the small book stall on the platform. This guy did not have any newspapers in English - Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and Urdu, yes, but English, no.
Neither did he seem to have any English magazines - when he proudly dug out one for me - the latest issue of Cosmopolitan! Obviously small town rural India’s priorities too centre around ‘eight ways to keep your man hot’ (or whatever, now that summer is here).
I am still trying to understand this - and while on this, will a Hindi edition of Cosmo sell as well?
Grr, spam
charukesi March 17th, 2005
My blog was swamped with thousands (I am not exaggerating, people) - thousands of spam comments. And I was at the point of deleting the comments option from the blog when Sameer came to my rescue once again. Here’s hoping this blog is spam free from now (or is that too much to hope for?).
Thanks Sameer, you have just reinforced my faith in the magic of ceramdies!
I am back!
charukesi March 17th, 2005
I am back… after a long long break. Thanks all you people who have been asking why I have not been blogging. Lots of changes in life been keeping me off the blog - including a new home and loads of work…
Just back from Varanasi - nope, not a pilgrimage but fieldwork.
In case you have not been there (and chances are you haven’t), let me tell you, you cannot turn around in Varanasi without bumping into foreigners looking lost and ecstatic at the same time. They were there in droves - looking for what - salvation? I personally found it a dirty town and shocked my field people by refusing to sprinkle water from the Ganges over my head.
Will I ever find the true path?