Women's day: How free are women

The entire thing of ‘Gaali’ reminds me of a casual debate that I had with some of my friends. Does abusing someone with A behench** or a madarch** hit the patriarch inside a man? Another friend said a very interesting thing about the word ‘Saala’. I was always wondering why Saala was an expletive and not ‘devar’ or ‘chacha’ or ‘mama’. What was so fascinating about the word sala when it came as a gali.

The friend said something which was so true. Actually ‘Saala’ as an expletive is something to tell you that ‘I bloody slept with your sister’. Now the entire debate rests in the point that whether sleeping with the sister was as equal as the sister sleeping with the man. Actually another friend of mine is of the view that the society acts in a hypocritical order. Consider this—A girl of loose character (that’s again a matter of wide discussion) is called a slut, but a boy of the same ‘loose character’ has no such connotation. He can be loosely called a flirt or a playboy. Now is ‘playboy’ or ‘flirt’ a synonym for ‘Slut’? Well these expletives can have endless points of understandings and explanations.


Was reading an article by a friend published on Navdunia (a hindi daily published from Bhopal).The question here, if women were free or men were free is an all together different concept. It is very interesting to see the freedom of women in the light of the freedom movement of India. When Maytree says that only men got freedom in 1947, she intends to tell you something very symbolic. I totally espouse what Maytree says(A feminist that the friend interviewed). Women have still not found the freedom that they deserve (or I think deserve might sound like giving something a due as opposed to rights). They are not at par with men and any one will tell you this.

Its only a matter of mindset. Giving reservation in the parliament or in busses and trains are nothing but gestures, which I think some radical feminists would oppose. It is about BELIEVING in equality. Both the gender must believe in equality and not bow under the pressure of equality. A so called gentleman might offer you a seat in the bus, believing that you have a reserved seat, or in the heart of his hearts that you are a weak being, a subordinate. But the question is—will he believe in equality? Might not. So I think that equal opportunity, unless espoused by you, cannot be followed in true spirit. Now again, Are women free? NO. STILL NOT.

The main idea to write about this was also to re-think if Women's day is a mere corporate thing or actually a reality. Keep up the spirits WOMEN.

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