Strawberry Fields Forever

..

a still from the movie of the same name

Little red bubbles of love, you call them.

Trembling voices and figuring woes, gather momentum

As we walk across the misty trails, like two souls lost

In abandoned passion, and the valley’s grass gently crushed underneath.

When you speak, the words fill up my mind.

Staying awhile, I know, I might find one more dream in your eyes.

As your fingers run through my hair a voice escapes me....

You're here today, it says.

Blinded, I am, but I feel your piercing gaze

Run down my face, an inch at a time,

Its placid charity echoing your warm touch.

Only, you are here today , and it is beautiful.

Not sure if you figure what you see in these eyes,

I can see your lips curl up into a smile, as you let me

Walk you through these strawberry fields.

Just a promise lingers – forever

Ruff and Me

Ruff and I absolutely love it at the park. So when I have the time I take him there in the evenings. “A little exercise like that is exactly what the two of you need”, my doctor tells me. But I think he’s read too much into the annual med test reports. But then things like chasing down the Ice-cream Man and putting his face through the park fence trying to reach out at a ball on the other side really gives him a kick. I don’t mind letting him act once in a while, in the way he used to when I brought him home with me. As I sit on the bench pretending to read the paper, I actually watch him be his inquisitive self. I think he knows that. Sometimes, I think he knows more about me than I know about him.

Usually, we find a lot of children playing around in the park in the evenings. I guess, the two of us just love sitting there watching the kids play. A lot of them bring their Frisbees. They are usually of bright colours. Some are conventionally beautiful and some exotically so. I think he likes the Frisbees more than the kids. I’ve often seen him watching the Frisbees fly past him, even as he sits without a wag in his tail or a rub on his belly (the two things he does best). I sometimes wonder, “What is this guy so thoughtful about?” when he’s busy watching the kids play. That he’s never chased down a Frisbee, is rather strange. Back home if I were to show you one piece of furniture which did not have the impressions of his teeth, I would fail miserably. So, it came as quite a surprise when he finally did what I had thought he’d never do.

It was one of those beautiful evenings in spring, a couple of years back. We had just settled down on our usual bench when I noticed this group of kids playing with a Frisbee. And, this dark blue plastic thing reflected the setting sun’s rays, off it, every time they threw it around. It was simple yet enigmatically beautiful. More importantly, it had taken Ruff's fancy. It had started to make him edgy as I could tell form the way he had started breathing now. I knew exactly what he was thinking. I knew him too well for that. “I have got to re-hook the chain to his collar”, I thought. Even as I groped around for his chain I could see the nervous energy in him reach threshold.

But, before I could even shout out his name, he had turned his head around. My orders never mattered, but tonight I didn’t want to give him one anyway. And, in any case it was too late. A smile escaped me as he leaped to his feet, sprinted right at the object of his desire, dodged the bewildered 6 year old in the way, jumped, caught it right out of the air and crashed.

The sun’s rays continued to hit my eyes off the Frisbee, now held tightly between his teeth.

His droopy little eyes assured me “... we are fine ... ” … I didn’t doubt him. Never have.

Perfume - Somewhere In Time.

A face stares out at me from under the covers, I don’t recognize. Lovely eyes, I don’t know at all. The warmth of the room is suddenly taken away, and i feel a shiver run down my spine. There is something I want to remember, but I can’t. I try harder, but all I feel is the numbness of a mind drained off all its thoughts.

I stand up and let my stupor guide me around the room for a while. Grabbing the whiskey, I pour some in a glass. Desperate to burn my throat back to sense, I stand there looking out at the busy street, some 15 storeys down. Not sure if “this is just a feeling” that I have, I try to shake myself out of this stupor. Yet again, nothing happens. I can hear a buzz in my ears. But then, I think it’s been there for some time now.

All I keep seeing are flashes of a distant place. And I can’t recognize the faces in these as well. Flashes, I’m sure, that belong to a different place and time. Sometimes I think I see a lot of younger people in them. They all seem happy.
And the next thing I know is I have been taken back to that morning. The very one which changed everything forever. Where, a receding smell of yours, still lingers. I think it’s your perfume I can smell. And then suddenly, an avalanche of beautiful light floods my eyes completely. It blinds me for a moment. And then it’s gone, and the intense pain starts all over again.

I drown the whiskey in me, in one gulp. The throat feels a sudden sting and yet I can’t make sense of any of this. It is a ritual that my mind follows, and on which I absolutely have no control. It is just like walking the streets with her. She would let you hold her hand but not quite guide her through. And you’d still love her for doing that. I pour myself another drink, smiling.

As the whiskey hits me numb I slide under the sheets, undetected. I always try not to disturb them when they are sleeping. Closing my eyes I think to myself, “.. but your perfume… it still lingers on me.”


....

Gone in 60 Seconds - The Story of TV Commercials

Here is a post in which I finally managed to put in some of the stuff I discovered during the last couple of years at B School. In this one I’ve tried to talk about the single most important reason for which I’ve watched TV in the past couple of years: Commercials!



For me, the earliest memory of television commercials dates back to the mid-nineties of the last century. The Cricket World Cup had come down to the Indian subcontinent for the first time and I remember very short films with good looking people endorsing colas and cooking oils, being aired after every couple of overs bowled during those matches. A six-foot Ian Bishop coolly holding up the classic bottle of Coke or much smaller Sanjay Manjrekar roughing it up on a whitewater raft endorsing Four Square Cigarettes are some of the very vivid images that come to my mind when I look back at the TV Advertisement scenario of the 90’s.

More than a decade has passed and the advertising scenario has only become far more complex. With the number of brands with footprints in “cross-media” advertising growing exponentially, the TV commercials segment has only grown to become fiercely competitive. A direct consequence being the exorbitant increase in the amount of money charged by some of the leading TV channels for the slots available for commercials.


Prime time slots are now way out of reach of small or medium sized businesses. Only the major players can afford to air their commercials in these overtly coveted slots these days. With the pay-TV subscribers’ count crossing 70 million Indian homes, coupled with their ever increasing market dominance (both in terms of their Top lines as well as Bottom lines), these major MNCs hardly seem bothered by the sky rocketing advertisement charges charged by some of the TV channels.
In fact, the alarming thing is the fact that if you did the Math right, the “exorbitant fees” charged for these TV commercial slots would only seem justified. For example, a prime time 10 second slot during an India-Pakistan Cricket match is likely to cost anything near 5 Lacs. Now, even if the number of viewers is only 150 million, the net charge per run of the commercial per thousand viewers comes to a meager 3 Rupees and 30 Paise, a win-win for both the company and the TV channel.
Historically, the NFL’s Super Bowl in the US has been home to the most high profile TV commercials. In fact, a 30 second slot in this year’s Super Bowl is expected to cost around 2.6 Million USD. CRAZY!

But what drives Companies to shell out 2.6 Million USD for a 30 second advertisement slot? Simply put, it is the sheer aura created around the finals of arguably the favourite sport in the US. Being one of the most widely watched events, the Super Bowl is watched by not less than 90 Million US viewers. In fact, such is the stage created that these particular Super Bowl commercials are a created to be a spectacle in themselves. Created on humongous budgets and often directed by Hollywood veterans, these specially made commercials belong to a class of their own.

One such Commercial was the one aired during the ’84 Super Bowl finals by Apple, introducing the Macintosh to the world. This particular commercial is considered to be the most renowned and successful Super Bowl Ad ever. And hence, it obviously has the most fascinating story attached to it. Created on a budget of 800000 USD in 1983, this one had been directed by none other than Ridley Scott. Although this ad was all set to become a show- stealer at the ’84 Super Bowls, only a single 60 second slot was booked for it for a price of 800000 USD. And even though being made at such a huge budget, the executives on Apple’s Board were dismayed when it was shown to them. In fact, they advised the management NOT to air it at all. But, finally when the time came, the decision to air the ad was left to the VP of Marketing William V. Campbell and Executive VP of Marketing and Sales E. Floyd Kvamme. Luckily for us, they decided to go ahead with it. The Mac Ad was aired during the first commercial break after the first second half kick-offs and the rest, as the cliché goes, is history.


But, the most fascinating thing about this particular Ad is the fact that it was aired nationally only ONCE!

And the Deal: A crunch situation in the Super Bowl finals, 90 Million viewers watching, Apple introduces The Mac in style, all yours for only 1600000 USD, and only 60 seconds of fame…….I’m sold! Gone in Sixty Seconds flat!





PS: Do watch this one when yuo have the time .. just search "1984 Superbowl Apple Macintosh Commercial" on Google and you'll get the link.

Writer's Block - The Lighter Side.

I don’t think I have stumbled upon a Writer’s Block, ever in life. But, sometimes I simply lose track of my ideas after I have written a line like “… I always knew that after such a dinner the water in the pan might come to a boil the next morning …”



For me a writer’s block is just one of those amusing things. Simply put, that’s because I am not a writer. I love to call myself a simple human being who’s partially in control of his senses in a way that serves his sanity with decent doses of pride and humility. So, sometimes when I’m too scared to wake up my roommates in the middle of the night to tell them about one of my “eureka moments” I generally end up writing. That’s how I write, rarely and unexpectedly. But that is hardly the point of today’s discussion. So here is what I feel about a Writer’s Block.

So, if I were asked to write about a Writer’s Block, then probably the first thing that would come to my mind would be the image of a constipated poet. Something I call the “there-but-not-quite-there” phenomena. One can only imagine the frustration. But here I am, going through one myself, doing just that. It is a funny thing to have, really.


I usually try and think of nice words that will impress you with the very first line that you’ve read. And, not just nice words, they ought to be funny as well because I also have to collect those brownie points from you. But I’m still not there because apart from being nice and funny, these also have to have an aesthetic appeal so that they really gel well with the nice formatting that I have already thought of. And, Oh! It will be an add on if a few of these words also go by the English Dictionary, both individually as well as when arranged together in some form of a combination. Mighty difficult stuff, huh! And after having spent an hour or so on the very first line I have again done the inevitable: completely forgotten what the whole idea was all about. All in all, it is a Jack Black rock show. CRAZY!

I am not a good reader either. Even though my reading exploits do cover a little more than the “about me” sections of peoples’ profiles on social networking sites, I have hardly ever looked beyond the sports section of the newspaper. The good thing about this is the fact that it hardly ever makes me feel guilty of having systematically murdered English language with sentences like “hw u doin ma man…” or “chck out tht rack man.. cmpltly dope! ” I mean, where are the Police? I don’t see any.

But then, even Will Shakespeare in the movie ‘Shakespeare in Love’ is seen suffering from a Writer’s Block but eventually ends up having an affair with the very hot Viola (played by Gwneth Paltrow). Not a bad deal, huh! So, there is hope, still!

The best thing about going through a writer’s block is the fact that it leaves you with a chance to look life in the eyes and smile a few extra smiles. And all of this is only until a sudden avalanche gains momentum enough to put your ‘constipation’ to rest.


So, I sincerely hope you all have a great Writer’s Block!


PS: let's just hope that with this i've finally been able to kick start this blog which has undoubtedly been suffering a seven-month coma :)