The Technorati test

A wait of Six month is really long pain and especially when you just want to claim a blog. The saying better late than never seems to have an actualisation for my blog post atleast. A toil of several days and an endless wait almost and last night technorati finally gives me a claim code HDVNZG9NMKGA . What happens next is yet to be seen. 

Fevicol celebrates its 50th anniversary with a moustache

This is one add that has really taken me by surprise. A fantastic add with Prasoon Pandey’s direction. Fevicol celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and I think nothing can be better than this Moochwali commercial. 

The TVC begins with a small girl who plays a male role for a skit and takes her avtar by dabbing a little fevicol. From there begins the life of this small girl as the audience sees various facet of her life. The girl gradually grows up to being a young lady, a married woman, a happy mother, a mother-in-law, an ailing old woman and finally she dies. Moustache remains the integral part of her life. But relation with fevicol is yet not over. The reincarnation tells you everything. The tagline Pachas saal se champion (champion for the last fifty years) has more to do with this add. Perhaps the concept of the add compels you to think that it is actually janmo janmo se champion (consider the incarnation part). The Jingle in Gujarati which plays at the background adds another jewel to its crown.

The Vodafone’s Zoozoos is clearly the big story of this year but the Moochwali is no less in creativity too. I guess the best award of the year has good contenders now. Two thumbs up for this Television Commercial. 

Reminds me of the bollywood blockbuster Sharabi and Amitabh Bachchan’s famous dialogue “Moochein ho to Natthulal jaisi warna ho hi naa” (you either have a moustache like natthulal or else don’t have it at all). Now if I was to script the remake of Sharabi I would certainly go for Moochein ho to Fevicol lagake warna ho hi naa (you either have a Moustache dabbed with fevicol or else don’t sport it at all).

Agency: O&M

Director: Prasoon Pandey

Creative directors: Abhijit Avasthi, Rajiv Rao

Going by Technorati

Last night I was watching Rajkumar Gupta's Amir in Zee Cinema. Didn't know I shall also be following a master this way. No, no, not for any devastation. Its an attempt to claim this blog in http://technorati.com.

I too feel Teetli should be claimed thus establishing that I am its owner, and allows me to use Technorati services to increase my blog’s visibility (Modified quote from technorati).

So far I have made some ten futile attempts to claim my blog. But everytime I encountered with an error. Now lets see if at all this claiming happens.

I shall know the next step only when I publish this code. So lets see what happens.

Ah, now claiming will also be episode wise. What an irony!

Doing whatever Technorati says. 

To complete your claim, follow these steps:azvdjcer4w

PTI revamps its website

If you thought that PTI’s will continue to go on with the old repulsive website, just pay a visit to its revamped website. It looks beautiful and very eye catching now. Not the grand old boring website anymore with a long list of news given along section headlines. 

Design wise: It has a separate enclosure for the big story or the lead story of the day, supported by a photo. This way aesthetically 90 degree catch for the left eye is a good go go. The photo slide show above the Nav Bar is again a beautiful combination to keep eyes 180 degrees occupied and the templates are very well organised. The new website has full utilization of its webpage and has a very good combination of colours. For all section of news starting from National, International, Business and Sports, there is a separate barrack. But what was disappointing was that there is no special segregation for entertainment news as of now. I say “as of now” because, just below the Breaking news section, there is a label for Entertainment, Features, and Bookworm which writes something as “Coming soon”. So here’s hoping that entertainment lovers might soon have that section which now seems in the offing.

Interactive: What is now a novelty out and out is their interactive section. Viewers can now post their comment on PTI news which I think will welcome even more strikes for the news agency. Interestingly I tried to congratulate them for their refurbished website while ironically I ended up commenting on the message below Sarabjit Singh’s death penalty review petition (This happens to be the big story of the day: Pak's SC dismisses Sarabjit's review petition on death sentence). Equally to the trepidation, but could not help because they have no section for congratulatory messages. Atleast for a month they could continue with this section. I am sure there would be many readers eager to congratulate them.

A stitch in time saves nine. My context here is everything needs a transformation by the course of time. The sooner, the better. The otherwise quality news agency website is now a quality look wise too. 

To check out things yourself just visit http://www.pti.in

A pushy thought: Shahid or Hritik

The other day I was just wondering as to who was a better dancer, Hritik or Shahid. It would not need even reflexes to respond to this question correctly but the thought seriously kept cropping my mind for long and Shahid’s name was such that I could not strike off.

Still remember young Shahid’s background dance in the song Kahiin Aag Lage Lag Jawe along with Aishwarya Rai in Subhash Ghai’s Taal.

While my brother was of the view that Hritik is the undisputed best dancer. He rather asked me to see the crazy4 video. No doubt I saw the video several times in the Television, but what came to my mind was what if we saw them in a dance competition kind of thing and the duo dances to the same tune with the same choreography.

Television talent hunt has given budding dancers a very good platform to exhibit their latent skill, but at least we can always wait for one of those stardust or film fare awards ceremony to see Hritik and Shahid dancing together.

As for the confusion, it is still persistent Shahid or Hritik?

Mumbai madness

BOOK REVIEW: WINDOW SEAT

With characters from all shades of life, Window Seat paints the city in all its vivid colours.

Window Seat is an anthology of short stories in which Janhavi Acharekar skilfully illustrates life in contemporary Mumbai. Some of her stories mention Kolkata, Varanasi, and have links to southern India. Her characters come from all shades of life. The thread that connects them is that all have embarked on an adventurous journey called life.

In “The Couple” we see how sometimes, horror tales can be good for couples who meet in the dead of the night.

The character China in the eponymous short story “China”, who regarded her own appearance as an eyesore during childhood, has now grown to be a famous novelist. A deeper reading tells us how a rather plain little girl from Kolkata makes it big in life one day. The beauty of this story lies in the nomenclature — China (or “chai-na”) is also Bengali for “unwanted”.

“The Birthday Party” is about a grandfather celebrating his birthday, thinking all the while whether he will be able to celebrate the day next year or not. It is a poignant story about life in its final moments, and the shadow of approaching death.

A phony character and his cyberspace affair is the subject of “Sneha 25”. A girl, head over heels in love with her e-boyfriend, only finds later that the boy was fooling around.

“Play It Again Sam” is about the advertising legend of Hot Sam who gets a foothold in an advertising agency through his networking skills and by keeping up a protracted supply of samosas to his creative director. Nobody in the agency has the faintest clue of him being a charlatan.

In “Driving Mr Dasgupta”, the master develops a fling outside his marriage. The sudden disappearance of his driver from the scene makes everyone curious. Several assumptions and many stories crop up. The driver, being the sole witness to his master’s fling, starts blackmailing him later. The driver’s friends finally learn that he will not have to work at least for 10 years with the hefty sum he has earned through blackmailing.

“Moksha” is the story of a girl who finds her new life in Mumbai infinitely more exciting as compared to her own city of Bhopal. As the author writes, “She had always been an independent soul, but nothing had prepared her for the freedom that Mumbai had offered.” This freedom — in the selection of clothes, of having a live-in relationship, of being able to go to weekend parties and movies — is what her name Moksha denotes.

Acharekar’s writing has the earthy flavour of a diverse India. Next time you go to Mumbai, take the Window Seat.

Window Seat
Author:Janhavi Acharekar
Publisher : HarperCollins
Price: Rs 250

Investors require confidence boost

Notwithstanding the several measures by the Government to stabilise the economy and boost confidence among the people, the market seems to be unfazed by these efforts and continues to remain turbulent. The periodic crashes in the stock market, combined with the fact that our GDP, growing at only 5.3 per cent, registered a six-year low in the third quarter of the current financial year, have had a profound psychological impact on the people. As a result of which many have already pressed the panic button and the sentiment of the market is anything but jolly.As a measure to induce fresh impetus and to maintain liquidity in the system, the Reserve Bank of India has slashed the Repo Rate and Reverse Repo Rate by 50 basis points to five per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively with immediate effect. But how much the customer will benefit from the reduction in the borrowing cost of banks remains a debatable issue, unless the banks individually decide to pass on the benefits. Also, it remains to be seen how the reduction in these financial rates will fuel demand in an economy which is reeling under the impact of the global financial meltdown. This is the third time in the current fiscal that the Reserve Bank of India has slashed the Repo Rate, twice by 100 basis points from 7.5 per cent to 6.5 per cent and then to 5.5 per cent. The Reverse Repo Rate was lowered from six to five per cent, and then to 4 per cent, 100 basis points each time.It wasn’t long ago that the real estate market was booming, and despite the soaring prices, people never hesitated in investing in property. But now, even with home loans becoming cheaper, investing in property is the last thing on the minds of investors. This is essentially because of the fact that even though India has fared the onslaught of the global economic crisis relatively well, there have been lay-offs in certain sectors, especially those dependent on the fortunes of the export market. And it is this that has created a fear in the minds of the people, which in turn is being reflected in the stock market with investors tightening their belts. Adequate steps can be taken by the Government and the RBI to mitigate the present liquidity and credit crunch, but to remedy the confidence crunch among investors will require much more than just slashing of lending rates. Until then, the status quo will remain undisturbed and the volatility or the non-volatility of the market will do precious little for the investor.

ING TV Commercial

Seems that major banking, investment and insurance companies have understood this emotive backing of Indians.

The latest TVC of ING bears another testimony to this. ING latest TVC has got an altogether different theme. The essence of this add remains intact with its basic underlying theme “ Mere des mein paisa sirf paisa nahi hai” {Money is more than just money in my country) From celebration, love, blessing, to future; the value of money and emotions attached to it is simply what is followed by almost all Indians.

Doubtless that Other insurance company such as HDFC Standard Life, Aviva, Reliance, ICICI Prudential, Max New York, Sahara, and MetLife; have real beautiful TVC themes.

However ING has come up with a more kicking message, which understands the value and worth of your money as you do.

Although it would be further debatable as to how actual and good the Premium, maturity and return of these insurances are, since my father does not trust anything better than our own Life Insurance Corporation of India.

As for the paisa sirf paisa nahi hai, yes it holds true for me atleast!