Just 1411 left. Save Our Tigers. http://www.wwfindia.org/help/donate_for_tigers/

{The vulnerability and helplessness of the cub in absence of his mother was captured in the TVC}

Aircel has partnered with WWF-India to help Save Our Tigers. Our national animal is fighting for its life. From around 40,000 at the turn of the last century, there are just 1411 tigers left in India. If we don’t act now, we could lose this part of our heritage forever. Speak up, blog, share the concern, stay informed… Every little bit helps.

This campaign of ‘Save Our Tigers’ was initiated, recently, by AIRCEL {India’s 5th largest GSM Mobile service provider} in association with WWF-India. It intends to draw attention towards the dwindling population of the majestic creature, our National Animal, the Indian Tiger, at an alarming pace due to deforestation, degradation of habitat, disgusting poaching exercises by bloody idiotic bastards –  humans. It also intends to sensitize all Indians to this painful development and prod them into action to save this majestic animal from extinction.

Tigers have been key target of poachers and in 2009 alone India lost 86 Tigers. It’s quite clear that Our National Animal is on the verge of extinction and it’s time to take up some serious moves n launch decidedly proactive efforts.

www.saveourtigers.com is instrumental in propagating and disseminating information about Saving Tiger. Besides being an information centre, it also works like a Push mechanism to create buzz across all forums like Blogging, Facebook, Twitter and writing letters to the editors of Newspapers. It also has created a platform where people can donate money to NGOs working towards the cause.

DONATE FOR TIGERS ! 

I truly appreciate this campaign and its serious intent, but am not sure how Blogging, Twittering, Facebooking etc would really control the brutal practice of murdering defenseless living creatures, majestic animals like Tigers in the jungles, at the ground level? People, instead of indulging in comfortable couch-activism, have to step up their help through donating money on a regular basis or purchasing ‘Save our Tigers’ merchandise  {which needs to be invested to beef up and manage the Forest Security} and insist on trasparency in execution till the last mile. The real cause of this destruction has to be tackled at the Forest level, which is tough task considering the intensity of corruption and tendency to misuse one’s power amongst humans. The campaign should work towards this..otherwise it would end up as a buzzy blip of serious excitement (a great case study on how brands are supporting Social Causes, championing Social Activism), around which people crowded, expressed their sadness/deep feelings/genuine tears and then forgot about the whole thing in a jiffy. The campaign should result in tangible results! 

As I said in the Comments….I am concerned, if brands consider Public Activism as a device to differentiate themselves from the competition n do nothing towards the cause that they are championing, afterwards. well, I do not know what TOI’s highly written about n widely accoladed ‘Lead India’ resulted in….releasing great looking campaigns on issues that have been pet peeves of the people of India is not enough. they should work n sensitize n mobilize people in large nos. to be part of the cause. If brands are strategically chasing the fact of striking a relationship that’s beyond Transactions, then they have to show everyone what n how they are attempting to achieve. n this is, unfortunately, not happening. the real cause may not see any earth shatteringly positive a transformation, but the brand will be seen as responsible…quite sad!

Read Stripey, the Tiger cub’s blog! n fall in love with Stripey and drive the movement to save Tigers

Do you want to lead the change ? do these little things…

Project Tiger 

Update on 8th March 2010 : Two Tigers found dead in Ranthambore

Lay’s Give Us Your Dillicious Flavour moved into Phase II

Well, we all know that Lay’s ‘Give Us Your DilLicious Flavour’, an innovative consumer engagement programme aimed at giving Indian consumers an opportunity to Co-Create the flavour they like on Lay’s and Of course become Rich n Famous, got off to a Scrumdiddlyumptious start. Lay’s received 1.3 Million New flavour ideas in the Phase I!  n that’s really huge!

 

Lay’s ‘Give Us Your Dillicious Flavour’ with 1.3 Million+ new flavour ideas outperformed its big brother Walkers’  ‘Do Us A Flavour’ in UK {within FRITO LAY Global network}. Some may view Lay’s achievement of 1.3 million+ flavour ideas from India, the second most populated country is not a huge thing, considering the large base that is immediately available for the brand to explore. Largeness of the base could be an advantage, but the complexity of the base should not be given a lighter nod. Lay’s managed to pull off  laudable an achievment of mobilising a significant portion of  this billion+ population spread across multi-hued, multi-cultured, multi-linguistic complex network of regions and collected 1.3 million + flavour ideas, especially when the country is not as technologically evolved as UK, which is characterised by high levels of Internet penetration {while India, a relatively technologically challenging territory where conventional media like TV, Press etc still enjoy high penetration over Internet, Mobile technology which are predominantly consumed by youngsters} 

Now, it’s time for the expert panel / panel of judges…who will carefully go through this incredibly & mind-bogglingly hugeeeeeeee collection of 1.3 Million+ flavour ideas and select Four Winning flavour ideas. It’s actually quite difficult to pick the four winners  out of  such an extensive collection of tempting and mouth-watering flavours,  each flavour idea is distinct with others with unique stories of inspiring food memories, tastes/preferences. And the panel of judges, while evaluating each flavour idea, also have to keep in mind the feasibility of a great sounding flavour idea on Potato Chips.

Therefore, all you guys just have to be a little patient …Lay’s will come back to Indian Consumers with the four short-listed winner flavor ideas in April 2010. 

Keep Facebooking. Keep Twittering. Keep enjoying Bollywood Blockbusters with your gangs & bags of Lay’s chips in your hand. Keep flirting with others in the street. Keep bitching about those who annoyed you. Keep criticizing about the never-ending boring serials on the tube. Keep Uploading your favourite Music videos to YouTube. Keep praying for Our Tigers & cute little cubs in the jungles. Keep ripping apart all the junk that you come across. Keep having motorbike races outside the campus. Keep praying for the Inflation to come down & the monsoons to touch our wonderful land….Keep refreshing your Facebook status, your mobile phones, your fashion etc etc…Keep fighting with your younger brother or sister…Keep guessing which flavour idea will get selected…

And STAY TUNED to Lay’s GUYDF  and GetDilliciouswithLays! Your favourite brand Lay’s would soon announce the four shortlisted Consumer ideated flavours and then launch them in the market {your flavour idea could be one of them} so that everyone could Taste n Vote for his/her favourite new flavour.

Soulless, filthy chiclet version of the soul-stirring epic ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara…’

Phir Mile …torture 1 , Phir Mile…torture 2

well, this is the modern, progressive, yuppy, …torturously long blah blah version of the Epic, the Soul-Stirring Original Classic  …you want to get your sanity back, do watch the epic {the Original given below}!, an intimate and earthy musical montage on the rich and unparalleled cultural diversity of India through larger than life orchestration of the folk and classical heritage of each region, represented by classical and graceful luminaries, inspiring performers and commoners – the boatman on the Hooghly, the mahut on his elephant, ….and the ultimate tribute being paid by our dearest lady Lata Mangeshkar, India’s nightingale who integrates kaleidoscopic range of cultures and subcultures in India.

A captivating melodious anthem-like Iconic musical montage leaves us ‘Goosebumped’, pulls that magical deep sense of belonging to India, of being an Indian, out of our tired, jaded mundane systems {which usually are stuck with personal ambitions, pursuits and everyday priorities), stirs up the ‘idle or unused or unattended or unfelt’  passion in us for our motherland, and pumps up adequate supply of energy to make our hearts beat faster for the country, … every time, without fail!  

Cut back to 2010’s disenchantingly disgraceful ‘Excessively Bollywoodised’ flight of fancy (the first YouTube video), which could easily be termed as a reckless/mindless conspiracy against the classic, a parody of the classic, because of its heavy doses of Bollywood, its families, brainless dudes in non-ethnic attire, with their faces frozen in thick layers of ludicrous melodrama and their arms wide open against the blue skies..can we afford to forget the babes-n- nymphets in predictable poses with their endless limbs locked in some awkward angle and plastic smiles plastered all over their clueless faces, swaying their heads like some directionless vines in harsh winds…n of course, we have  married n fading whatever* stars {who push around anti-ageing range} flaunting their excessively celebrated blahs…? are not we tired of watching these all-pervasive mindlessly numbing red-carpet n limelight hungry Bollywood gangs who represented India, one of the BRIC economies…wonder, where are those ICONS n elegant personalities who are making {working towards} India an emerging economy n a force that cant be ignored…where is the representation of the spirit that challenges the status quo? where is the representation of relentless burning fire of youthful aspirations and  mindset? where is the representation of our country’s unifying thought/religion,i.e. Cricket, where is the representation of our National sport, Hockey, where is the glimpse of  Tigers, Elephants, woh bacha kucha green space …have these folks spent some time at the banks of the rivers, which are flowing despite being harassed, polluted by humans or being haunted by draught…have they spent some time thinking n constructing the vividness of modern India? why did they restrict their thinking (limited) to Bollywood and a few gullies here n there? 

This, indeed, is a chaotic version of the rich classic ‘Mile Sur…’ a fabulously mastercrafted tale that celebrated national integration and unity in diversity.

This damn thing of 2010 left me feeling sick, nonchalant, uninspired, tortured {cause this abominable abberation is potent enough to destroy the memorable elements of the Original piece}, disconnected, bored …dude, yet another blah blah that has some zombies faking something that’s difficult to grasp! You do not FEEL  for this fake thing, you do not FEEL CONNECT with this fake thing, you do not EMPATHIZE with this damn thing …why, you know? the epic, the real classic has ICONS melting into the spirit of India, while this fake thing has everyone trying/pushing to show their Individual aura {if they have any, perhaps I should use a basic term like imagery}/tendency/highly annoying trademarkish bodily distortions/**#$$$@@@…. 

Certain degree of relief, certain sense of depth came to me because of Juhi, Elegant Shobhana, Kavita Krishnamurthy and her husband, Olympic Champions (n those in the making), a few South Indian stars/celebrities reflecting the region’s sensibilities.

Click this link…’viewers feel the new Mile Sur Mera…has not done justice to national icons. Where are the fighters like Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar? Where is our eminent scientist A.P.J Abdul Kalam? Where are our prize-winning authors? Is ‘Mile sur’ only for artistes? What is Deepika Padukone doing showing her legs. Sania Mirza should have been there. Where is Vishwanathan Anand, Leander Paes, Rajyavardhan Rathore?’

….Parts attached to Deepika, Ash-Abhi, Ranbir and SRK make no sense and are just forced into the video! well said! Some honest soul-searching is definitely required, to be embarked upon by the creators, conceptualisers and a majority of faces flaunted in this rendition. A quick browse through the Twitter streets and YouTube can lead you to the feverish pitch of criticism at this whatever piece of creation ….

Lay’s Give Us Your Dillicious Flavour, 12 lac + & still counting

Update (b) : Enthusiastic response for Lay’s GUYDF continues……a little more than 12 lac flavour ideas as on 20th Jan 2010. Indeed, laudable an achievement, especially, when youngsters/youth in India have too many indulgences (tiny or moderately big, instant ones!), and distractions like bitchy & high empathy evoking Reality Shows, Facebooking, Twittering, DTH revolution, Bollywood Blockbusters – plus-ed with Idiots or No Idiots, Virtual Living/Relationships/Emotional anchors, and intriguing / spellbinding innovative devices from Technology..n of course, work life/responsibilities/formal lifestyle {Young working population}

Go to http://www.yourlaysflavour.com/  and enter your new flavour idea(s) for Lay’s…join the race to win the big bag of Rs 50 lacs + 1% of sales

Fatih Akin’s Head On [Gegen die Wand]

 

Gegen die Wand (translates as ‘Against the Wall’) by  Fatih Akin, a winner of the Golden Bear at the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival – critically acclaimed worldwide for its gritty portrayal of the relationship between two Turkish immigrants in Germany. Fatih Akin, a German born Turkish originated film director, has established himself as a promising young director whose films concentrate on the relationships among people of different national and cultural backgrounds in ethnically diverse environments.

This brilliantly edgy film, pulsates with ‘raw energy’, sex, drugs and frighteningly intense chemistry between its protagonists, and is set in an exasperatingly hectic world of raw emotions and extreme self-destructiveness, which portrays generational, cultural/ideological and religious conflicts faced by rebellious Turkish Youth who grew up in a far more liberal educational environment and who are restless to fashion their own identity (wholly a different world from their parents’ Islamic Turkish identity) through assimilating lifestyle of German urban culture – beer drinking, drugs, club-crawling, rock music, reckless sexual escapades.

The film is about a cringingly intense and tempestuous romantic adventure between two desperate Turkish immigrants in Germany : Cahit (a 40-something, intentionally self-destructing, impulsive, and reckless man who snorts coke, thrives on alcohol and drugs, who has no ostensible ties to his Turkish past…the film opens loud and ugly with inebriated Cahit trying to kill himself by crashing his beaten vehicle straight at full speed into a wall – Depeche Mode’s “I Feel You’ as the backdrop score) and Sibel (unbelievably cute, erratic, extreme, sexy young woman with  suicidal instincts) who trapped between her individual longings and the restrictions placed upon her by her close-knit traditional family.  

Cahit – ravishingly energetic a blend of Kurt Cobain-Jim Morrison archetypes, raw, bitter and sour, drunk most of the time, makes his living at a club by collecting empty glasses and bottles that litter the floor after concerts, and is a reckless spirit who, at a mere provocation, could plunge into a frenzy of brutal self-destruction. Sibel – An endearingly innocent looking young woman with a huge appetite for sexual adventures, who always tries to escape her orthodox family’s oppressing / restricting Islamic value system.

Cahit’s reckless crash into the wall lands him in a suicide rehab clinic, where he is chased by Sibel, who also survives a botched suicide attempt. Cahit barely acknowledges her in their first ever collision, when Sibel almost provokes him to marry her, as she needs a legitimate escape from her overbearingly restrictive family. When she asks him again to marry her, he claims he is a gay. But, he, reluctantly yields to Sibel, who is exhaustingly persistent, and her rather appealing a proposition of a loveless and sexless marriage of convenience – as a roommate she would pay half the rent, do the dishes, cook, clean & scrub his filthy flat, and would explore all the pleasures of sexual adventure freely, without bothering him much. Her sexual escapades begin on their wedding night itself, when Cahit throws her out during an argument. The next morning, Sibel, still in her wedding gown, walking across the street, beaming with a sense of abandonment, over a successful escapade strikes an image of youthful profligacy – and so commences an endless orgy of hedonism. Sibel drunk on freedom, enjoys Hamburg’s nightlife/endless sexual opportunities, acquires taste for drugs, sleeps with a different guy every night, and gets more comfortable with Cahit, almost like a close friend. Yet, it does not take them long to realize the growing fondness and love/affection for each other.

Tragedy strikes  their relationship, which is transforming from something sprung out of convenience to a good old love story, when Cahit attacks and unintentionally kills one of Sibel’s one-night-stands who made sexually demeaning comments about Sibel. Cahit goes to jail, Sibel promises to wait for him, flees to Istanbul to escape the wrath of her family, who want her dead for her immoral behaviour. She goes to Istanbul, efforts to reconstruct her life – which means, to forget every sense of belonging, to her family, to her ‘new family’ with Cahit, and even to the fashionable & desire-evoking exhibitionism of femininity. She tries to re-create her life of abandonment in Hamburg with drugs and sex, when she realises she is dedicating her life to work. But the drug reawakens all her unmitigated grief, and brings her almost to physical and psychological destruction…she nearly gets  stabbed to death in the street. Soon after, she gives up her erratic & wayward lifestyle and settles for an ordinary life. Sibel and Cahit eventually consummate their marriage, when Cahit comes looking for her in Istanbul, but the sobered Cahit does not indulge in any self-destructive act even when the dutiful Sibel does not leave with him and her daughter…but we are not sure she stays back with her familial obligations, with her new partner – in the film, we do not see her partner, though we listen to his playing with the baby.

‘If you cant change the world, then change your world’ – Sibel and Cahit eventually change, not their world, but their surroundings/milieu by returning to their home culture, which is not a conscious decision, but a forced choice. Cahit leaves Istanbul to go to Mersin, his home town, his place of origin, as the place where he possibly hopes to find his roots and thus putting an end to his rootless existence. Cahit and Sibel were desperate to break free of their repressive culture, they assimilated into the dominant German culture, but they failed to create happiness for selves in that world. Both Ünel and Kekilli inhabit their characters with frightening intensity and delivered remarkable performances.

Says Fatih Akin, “we look at Germany through our family’s perspective as a Turk and we look at Turkey as a German,….Therefore, we do contain both identities; as a film maker, it is a rare chance for me to be able to grasp both cultures from inside; but at the same time, it also brings a sense of not belonging to anywhere. . . .”

Head On is a film with a Multiple identity…The orchestra with Istanbul’s skyline as the backdrop runs like a Punctuation – a contradictory element in the film, thus dividing it into different chapters of a story whose destiny is already written…what one could observe the contrast between Turkey and Germany – Turkey reflecting the softer side : feminine, sentiment, relationships, a state of immobility, Tradition, and in harmony with the nature, while Germany presenting the opposite : masculine, ruggedness, violence, darkness, modernism, reality, streets, contemporary music (post-punk culture)  

Head On is tragic, exhilarating and elusive…there are a few key sequences that mark the characters’ emotional progression : when Cahit’s psychiatrist quotes a song’s verse ‘If you can’t change the world, change your world’, when Cahit and Sibel cry out the slogan ‘Punk is not dead’ showing the uncontainable joy for the chaotic freedom of their marriage, and when Cahit in Istanbul shares his feelings for Sibel  with her cousin.

NYTIMES Movie review….Cahit is as haunted by the past as Sibel is plagued by the present. Both are slaves to loves: he of heartbreak, she of her father and his God. For his troubles, Cahit wears the mantle of tragic hero, a role the charismatic Mr. Unel embraces with exuberant, tangible heat. Sibel, meanwhile, embodies the film’s divided conscience. Split between two cultures, yearning for life and for death, the character is struggling to declare not just her independence, but her very being.

Saul Bellow’s Seize the Day

 

Saul Bellow, recognized as a Philosophical Novelist, is one of the influential 20^th century literary giants. The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to him in 1976 ‘for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work’.  Bellow in a way has invented a refreshed phrenology, or theory of the humors – by the time Seize the Day arrived, it was clear he was on to something few moderns would wish to believe in : the human head as characterological map. Cynthia Ozick writes ‘Bellow’s attraction to the idea of soul may or may not be derived from an old interest in Rudolf Steiner; but no one will doubt that these surpassingly shrewd, arrestingly juxtaposed particulars of physiognomy are inspired grains of what can only be called human essence’. Bellow’s bodies are not bodies, they are souls.

In Seize the Day, Tommy Wilhelm, the protagonist experiences a day of reckoning when he reviews his past mistakes that can not be undone, all those bad decisions that he took in his life, the existential crises, and efforts to preserve some dignity in the face of personal destruction, and finally accepts the ‘burden of self’. 

Tommy Wilhelm, in his forties, still retains boyish impetuousness that has brought him to unnervingly a chaotic financial mess – a father of two boys, a failed husband who lost his job as a salesman for a firm that promised him career advancement and then fired him in an act of nepotism. He feels strangled by the recurring memories of the bad decisions that he took in the past, which includes his acting career (a fiasco – a Hollywood agent placed him as ‘the type that loses the girl’) and his estranged wife’s overblown expenses. Stuck in a state of helplessness {even his successful father, an elderly widower, though affluent enough, disappointed in his son, remains indifferent to Wilhelm’s plight and refuses to help him financially), the effectively fatherless Wilhelm sees a glimmering in a mysterious, philosophizing conman Dr Tamkin,  a market gambler, a fly-by-night speculator, an opportunist and exploiter, a shady if not an out-n-out crook, who takes Wilhelm’s last seven hundred dollars, introduces him to the commodities market, promises him a killing in lard, while also spilling out a string of philosophies on how to live ….unfortunately, his last chance to make some dough turns out to be a whopper of mistake!

“..Wilhelm at 44 may be the youngest tenant, and surely the healthiest – big and fair haired, mountainous, with a big round face, a wide and flourishing red mouth, stump teeth…see himself as a reckless, burnt sad sack, a hapless comic figure : fair haired hippopotamus, Ass! Idiot! Wild boar! Dumb mule! – but he is also the humblest: failed husband, failed actor still carrying a phony Hollywood name, broke, appealing to his father for the rent money, pleading with his wife not to squeeze him so hard…”    

Read how he captured Dr. Tamkin, a central character – who may not be a doctor at all : 

“What a creature  Tamkin was when he took off his hat! The indirect light showed the many complexities of his bald skull, his gull’s nose, his rather handsome eyebrows, his vain mustache, his deceiver’s brown eyes. His figure was stocky, rigid, short in the neck, so that the large ball of the occiput touched his collar. His bones are were peculiarly formed, as though twisted twice where the ordinary human bone was turned only once, and his shoulders rose in two pagoda like points. At mid-body he was thick. He stood pigeon-toed, a sign perhaps that he was devious or had much to hide. The skin of his hands was aging, and his nails were moonless, concave, clawlike, and they appeared loose. His eyes were as brown as beaver fur and full of strange lines. The two large brown naked balls looked thoughtful – but were they ? and honest – but was Dr Tamkin honest? “ 

Tommy Wilhelm embraces his blunders, his miscalculations and misjudgment…

“….maybe the making of mistakes expressed the very purpose of his life and the essence of his being here. Maybe he was supposed to make them and suffer from them on this earth…..he had decided that it would be a bad mistake to go to Hollywood, and then he went. He had made up his mind not to marry his wife, but ran off and got married. He had resolved not to invest money with Tamkin, and then he had given him a cheque…” 

Tommy Wilhelm’s interaction with his higher consciousness at a stranger’s funeral is the most masterly scene in the book – which pours out through his convulsions of grief, almost like a turbulent wave of introspective terror… 

“…..standing a little apart, Wilhelm began to cry. He cried at first softly and from sentiment, but soon fro deeper feeling. He sobbed loudly and his face grew distorted and hot, and the tears stung his skin…soon he was past words, past reason, coherence…the source of all tears had suddenly sprung open within him, black, deep and hot, and they were pouring out and convulsed his body…the great knot of ill and grief in his throat swelled upward and he gave in utterly and held his face and wept..” 

The masterfully crafted Saul Bellow’s Broadway Uptown in the middle of the 20^th century…because of its sheer vividness, still, lingers in me.

 “…On Broadway it was still bright afternoon and the gassy air was motionless under the leaden spokes of sunlight, and sawdust footprints lay about the doorways of butcher shops and fruit stores. And the great, great crowd, the inexhaustible current of millions of every race and kind pouring out, pressing round, of every age, of every genius, possessors of every human secret, antique and future, in every face the refinement of one particular motive or essence – I labor, I spend, I strive, I design, I love, I cling, I uphold, I give way, I envy, I long, I scorn, I die, I hide, I want. Faster, much faster than any man could make the tally. The sidewalks were wider than any causeway; the street itself was immense, and it quaked and gleamed….”

The author’s contemplation on today’s materialistic pursuits rings so true. Most of us, whether or not like it, do have to engage in varied kind of materialistic pursuits which come with  too many stressful obligations …”In the old days a man was put in prison for debt, bt there were subtler things now. They made it a shame not to have money and set everybody to work”  

Lay’s Give Us Your Dillicious Flavour, 5 lac + & still counting

 

Lay’s Consumer Engagement Promotion Programme ‘Give Us Your Dillicious Flavour’, as  on 14^th Dec’09, received a little over 5,00,000 new flavour entries. That’s, indeed, a fabulous milestone! Keep up the momentum, keep deluging Lay’s, the Youth brand, with your unique Scrumdiddlyumptious new flavour ideas.   

Go to http://www.yourlaysflavour.com/ and enter your new flavour idea for Lay’s and join the race to win the big bag of Rs 50 lacs + 1% of sales

Update (a) : Lay’s GUYDF appears to be sustaining its momentum, a little more than 8 lac flavour ideas as on 27th Dec 2009 

My little dog – a heartbeat at my feet : Edith Wharton

{link : Abodh writes about ‘Strays of Mumbai’}

Do not know how I stumbled upon this blog post by Abodh….but I stayed n lingered over it for some time. It’s, indeed, a delight for a canine lover and I fell in love with this cute tan brown chap who seemed curious about the strange device & the stranger stopped at him. And of course, I cant ignore the white one in the background. I wish, the world puts its mad rush on hold for a few moments to engage with these dogs.  

   

The Welfare of Stray Dogs(WSD) has brought out the “Strays Of Mumbai” WSD Calendar 2010. This year, WSD has come out with ‘wall’ as well as ‘desk’ calendars. Both the calendars have a collection of photographs of street dogs that we come across in our daily commute through the city of Mumbai. Both the calendars have distinctly different photographs taken by WSD volunteer, Rohan Mukerjee

 

I simply loved this string of words….’Each dog has a unique character and some hidden quirks just like the people they live amongst….’ absoloutely true! I do not like them to be termed as Stray dogs, but prefer to view them as homeless inhabitants of this world, about who the world around does not even spend a few moments. These wonderful creatures come in different shapes, colour shades, a mix of cheerful and grumpy faces, healthy and wrinkled/diseases-rich skins, & are true survivors on Indian streets….they survive the harshest conditions/ way of life, which could make any living thing intensely bitter about its existence….

 

I watch them…everyday…going about their daily expeditions, all alone or with their gang, searching for pieces of food, fighting with their buddies playfully, at times running against the soft breeze, or indulging in territorial fights, struggling to cross the roads buzzing with maddening traffic, trying to extend their warm & friendly world to humans with a friendly wag of tail, staring at the world around with eyes rich with affection or deep inexplicable level of sadness or depression …I feed them whenever I could, love to befriend them (did a few in Bangalore & Mumbai)…and there are quite a few miserable incidents remained stuck with me, because of their tragic notes, i.e. the moments when I witnessed dogs meeting their death, unpredictable one, breathing the most painful last breath  – the dog crushed or torn into pieces or lying as a lump of dead meat, thanks to bloody, ruthless humans behind the nonsensical wheels of progression+inhumanity.

 

……. 

Do buy these calendars : “Strays Of Mumbai” WSD Calendar 2010, Proceeds from the sale of calendars go towards WSD’s sterilization and other programmes.

 

This link has all the details

Lay’s Give Us Your Dillicious Flavour (NEW FLAVOUR IDEAS FOR LAY’S)

It feels incredibly wonderful to co-create your own New flavor with your favorite brand of Potato chips. And you would definitely plunge into action if the brand is offering a compellingly irresistible proposition of ‘Create your own flavor : NEW ONE and Get Rich & Famous’ – Bag Rs 50 lacs and 1% of the total sales of the flavor that you co-created with your favourite brand! 

India’s leading & favourite bag of Potato chips is inviting everyone to create his/her own flavour, through a massive consumer engagement programme – ‘Give Us Your Dillicious Flavour’ {Inspired by Walkers’  ‘Do Us A Flavour’ in UK in 2008 – Walkers is from Frito Lay}.  Poised to be a mother-of-all consumer engagement promotion Programmes in India, this will be carried out in phases :

The first phase is all about to get everyone in India thinking about flavours, sending his/her New flavour ideas to Lay’s

NEW FLAVOR IDEAS {DO NOT PICK ONE OF THE FLAVORS SHOWED IN THE TV Commercial, or Lay’s current flavors }

and send them to Lay’s – SMS (at 98802 98802), Call (at 1800 209 8802), Submit at www.yourlaysflavour.com, Email entry@yourlaysflavour.com or write to Frito Lay or drop flavour idea (s) in the drop-boxes. Of course, everyone has to complete the slogan ‘Lay’s should make my flavour coz….”

In the second & third phases …..

So what are you waiting for….do not you want to be the one who co-created the next big flavour for Lay’s n also with the big bag ? visit  http://www.yourlaysflavour.com/

…dig out all your Food Memories / Favorite Food Moments….all those ‘life-filling experiences with

a strong link to Food’, which stand out in your memories…get inspired by your Food memories n create your flavour ideas or pull out  some whacky, never heard / seen / before flavour combinations or grab all those signature tastes n flavours, which your home town /state / region is famous for and share them with Lay’s…….

Guys & Gals….GIVE NEW FLAVOUR IDEAS. DO NOT PICK THE FLAVOURS SHOWN IN THE TV Commercial OR LAY’S CURRENT FLAVOURS IN THE MARKET 

right now! and keep them coming. This, indeed, will be fun, considering India‘s rich tapestry & unparalleled culture of  diverse tastes, flavours and culinary traditions / preferences.  

{JWT India – Creative Agency} 

www.yourlaysflavour.com, GUYDF

Google Doodles -Googlenthusiasm, Googlexuberance, Googlectivism….

                 40th anniversary of Sesame StreetHappy Earth Day, MJ Birthday…….and many more…..a fabulously rendered fusion of Brand Logo and the Social environment!

Link : Google Collection of Logos

My India- full of life, “India is a country which has a blend of thousands of traditions and all religions like Hinduism, Christianity, Sikhism and Islam. It has developed a lot in the past few years. The discovery of water on the moon by the Indian scientists is a proof to this fact. The Indian culture is as vibrant as the colours of the peacock. Kashmir, the crown of India, is as serene as the peace bird and as pure as the lotus. We, the Indian citizens are also trying to fulfill Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of educating each and every Indian child…’  by  Puru Pratap Singh, 4th standard,  Gurgaon

the whole collection of Doodles4Google 

 Birthday of  Sir Isaac Newton. Watch the first apple falling down       🙂

 PAC-MAN’s 30th Birthday!