Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Advertising (non)sense

A beautiful model walking out of a water body in a flaming red bikini. Can you guess the advertisement? Let me give you some options -
A) XYZ Beauty Soap
B) IJK body lotion
C) OPQ Hair shampoo
D) ABC bikini makers (I have never seen them but still!)
E) None of the above

The right answer - E. It’s an advertisement for JK cement. Yeah! As Sachin knocked us all crazy with his double ton I couldn’t help but smile at the JK cement advertisement that were being played on air. Will somebody explain the connection between the bikini girl and the product? I couldn’t figure any.........but I think they got what they wanted....I will never forget this ad. After all it takes a different kind of genius to dole out that kind of crap!



p.s. Meanwhile hail the god of cricket...he makes even an unenthusiastic cricket person like me to move to the corner of my sofa seeking divine intervention.....even the gods would have been busy watching him yesterday!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Poetry Time

I had posted this before but most probably it got lost with my Yahoo 360 blog. One of Ogden Nash's gems and a personal favourite.


Love is a word that is constantly heard,
Hate is a word that is not.
Love, I am told, is more precious than gold.
Love, I have read, is hot.
But hate is the verb that to me is superb,
And Love but a drug on the mart.
Any kiddie in school can love like a fool,
But Hating, my boy, is an Art.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

The perfect reply

Gift of the gab with the correct quantity of wit and sarcasm thrown ....I hardly know folks who have that trait. It's sheer pleasure to listen to such people.

Was talking to Nikhil after a gap of years.....

Nikhil: Life's cool...US is being good,it held onto me inspite of the recession...that wasnt really easy ;)
Me: :). Hey, by the way hows Niharika?

Prolonged silence made me realize that I had struck a wrong note......Damn! I thought. I should not have asked that question......The errie silence continued before Nikhil delivered the knockout line that said eveything -

"You never marry the person you first watch Casalanca with"

Inspite of the sad undercurrents I ended by doing a WOW.I really couldnt help it!


Monday, February 1, 2010

A sweet ordeal

I was travelling from Pune to Mumbai and inspite of waiting for 45 minutes when my bus didn’t turn up I realized something was amiss because usually the buses run on time. On enquiring with the conductor of another bus he told me I had booked the wrong ticket. I had booked the tickets for morning 05:45 instead of an evening one. Imagine a 24 hour time format lover like me making such a stupendous mistake! There wasn’t any time to lose, I decided to fret over it once I had figured a way out to resolve my stupidity. Thanks to Anu who dropped me immediately to the main bus depot I caught a bus just as it was about to leave. But there was a catch! There weren’t any vacant seats, if I decided to take the bus I had to travel standing for the 2.5 hours of my journey. I opted for it. Usually a decision haunts you only after its taken….sigh!!!!!!

So began my journey..err...standing journey.

15 minutes into my journey a teenage girl walked up to me and asked me to occupy a seat reserved for her sister who would have got in late. Happily, I obliged. That saved 30 minutes of standing. When the girl's sister walked into the bus from another stop I reluctantly vacated the seat. As I was standing, a very old grandma looked at me and smiled. I smiled back too. I was now in the self-abusing mode, cursing my stupidity about overlooking such a simple fact while booking the ticket (Yeah, I had delegated this task when I had more important things to do). As I cursed myself in all the languages I knew, the smiling grandma opened a Tiffin box and gladly offered me a paratha as she added "You might be tired standing. Why don’t you have this?". I was flabbergasted and again I obliged. Now a paratha wasn’t a bad offer for I needed all the strength I could gather ;). Just as I finished having my paratha an auntie nearby asked me to sit on her seat's hand rest. I muttered a thanks and declined but she wasn’t to listen. I HAD to sit. She asked where was I going to get down and why hadn’t I booked a ticket? I told her my destination and the reason cleverly disguising my stupidity as urgency. By then we were almost 2 hours into the journey. The bus took a halt and people got down for their various businesses.

When we all assembled back, a mid-aged uncle walked up to me and asked me to occupy his seat as he was finding it inconvenient to sit in the small seat since he was obese(he told me exactly that). I argued till I lost. I am not exactly fond of chivalry but then how many times do we demean ourselves to make someone else comfortable? Not unless we are sure to score a point and increase our self-deprecating-sense-of-humour quotient. But here was man who was offering me his seat because he thought I was too tired to stand. Reluctantly, I did as he wished. Fortunately it was the last leg of my journey.....because I couldn’t help but feel guilty.

Finally my destination arrived and as I got up to leave I thanked all those good Samaritans who just made my journey memorable! I got a feeling that people are essentially good and this goodness manifests in such experiences :)