Posts
It has been a year since the sad day came and passed
It has been a year since my favorite person left us
It has been a year since.....
It has been a year since my favorite person left us
It has been a year since.....
Saturday, 27 February 2010
Sunday, 21 February 2010
Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics
I love watching the Olympics on TV! It is awesome to know that you are currently watching the best in the entire world trying the best they ever have! It is where dreams are made and the happiness and joy on the face of the athletes is irreplaceable.
At the same time, Winter Olympics has always fascinated me even more! It is brilliant to watch so many speed based events on a blanket of snow or ice. It is truly a spectacle. And boy does it make for some of the best photographs. By now most of you would have realised that I am an ardent fan and follower of the pictures that The Boston Globe collects and puts up on The Big Picture section. A few pictures from their latest set are below. It is absolutely worth a visit to watch all 45 of them here.
Thursday, 18 February 2010
Happy Year of the Tiger
It is the Year of the Tiger and these pictures are of the celebrations in China. Environmentalists think this is the perfect year to get some attention to the problem of reducing number of tigers in the wild around the world.
To watch all the amazing pictures of the celebrations, click here.
Audi trying to 'Break the Spell'
via youtube.com
This is one of the most well made car commercials I have seen in recent times. I love the way it is attacking all the marquee and established manufacturers at the same time. This ad is made for the US market where Audi appears to be the underdog; and everyone loves the underdog.
Audi is trying to position itself as the rebel which offers all the choices that their competitors are offering under one brand and without the stereotype. It basically is telling people that you are doing nothing but conforming to stereotypes if you drive the other cars; and this would reflect directly in the statement you are trying to make about yourself. As I said in my last post, it is all about making a statement.
This commercial is an excellent example of how one can throw an open challenge to the established players in a cluttered market and try to change the thinking of the consumers to force them to choose your brand.
Finally, I love the way the R8 pulls up in the street for the kid to drool at. I just wish it was not silver! ;)
Saturday, 13 February 2010
Dead end for the first ever Indian dream
I love cars! I love them beyond everything. It does not really matter whether they are Ferraris or Mahindras. I just love the idea of a car. It is so much more than a ton of steel, plastic and glass over 4 wheels! It is just a romantic experience for a car lover to own any car. Indians got the first taste of this experience in a big way in 1983 when the Maruti-800 was launched. 
Picture Outlookindia
The one pictured above was the first model of the legendary car. It was small, good looking, utilitarian and did the job. Most of the other cars were the bulky Ambassadors by Hindustan Motors. The 800 was the perfect Indian car.
Then came the upgrade in design.
Picture Car Picutres World
My family had this one. The thing about 800s is, that it was the most common first car. It was the cheapest, most practical, most economical to run and not really ugly; basically a proper value for money buy. Which is the most important quality that any Indian looks for, in anything, in everything.
Then came another major upgrade in design for this workhorse.
Picture via Indiacar
This was to keep up with all the major launches from the likes of Hyundai and Tata.
Somewhere around this time Maruti also launched the Alto. This was basically to hedge against the people who were growing out of their first cars (which more often than not were 800s) and moving on to other manufacturers.
Picture Rushlane
This was not only more contemporary in terms of design, it was also more powerful, better equipped and a little more car for the little more money you paid. Once this was launched, rumour mills started working that this was the replacement to the over worked 800.
The 800 was never just a car, except maybe now. It was a dream. It was an aspiration for the Indian middle class. Let us not getting into an economics lesson and analyse why it did well for so long, others will do that. This car is a part of our culture and history now as Suzuki plans to phase it out in India. One of the major reason for doing this of course is that the dream of the Indian has evolved now.
At the same time it is also time for those who could not even dream of an 800 to start dreaming.
Picture SpeakIndia
But this is not the space to talk about it. Today I reserve a permanent parking space for the first Indian dream.
I love this car! The original design the most. It was epic!
Thursday, 11 February 2010
BWM: Zukism
Series #1;Vol #1
Zuk and his pal Zak are sitting on a branch of a tree and chatting.
Zuk: “Once an egg.. always an egg... well not literally.. because an egg was once a zygote and, if lucky, would once be chicken, and if more lucky, would be egg-curry!!
My point is that people seldom change.. or atleast we tend to think so. I don’t remember the last time I changed my first impression about someone. The irony here is that there can only be one first impression while it is the most lasting one!!”
Zak: And there goes a flop one!! When would you learn to make funny jokes?
Zuk: I am trying to draw a hypothesis here…
Zak: Oh well.. I still remember your last one on boys and their temptation to all harmful things..
Zuk: Yeah mate.. I was damn sure right.. boys seem to get most tempted to things that harm them like smoke, alcohol, rash driving, physical fights, etc
Zak: Bang on man! That explains why they are most tempted to girls !! :P
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About the author: Sana Khan is an MBA (Finance) student at SIMSR and a dear friend. A thorough professional and intellectual person, her style of writing is absolutely entertaining. This post is a part of a series that she has planned for the character Zuk. You can read more about it here.
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
An ad by Google
via youtube.com
This is the Google ad which was screened during the 2010 Super Bowl. To the uninitiated, Super Bowl has long been the event that everyone looks forward to not only for the 'Football' but also for the awesome commercials showcased during the quarter breaks.
Some of the best and most extravagant commercials have been launched during the Super Bowl. I really like this one by Google.
What do you think? Do they need to spend so much (the most expensive ad slots in the world) to advertise their search engine?
Monday, 8 February 2010
My first blog post
This is basically the first piece of writing that I had ever put down (quite literally on paper actually), titled 'The Facial', back in November 2006. Well, obviously it does have its errors and what not. Here it is, unedited :) A time comes in every man’s life when he is forced to do things that he would rather not do; he is pushed to foray into the territories where he would rather not go to. This force, as found out by a very popular survey conducted, 99% of the times happen to be a woman. Yes, the other kind, the type of human being with TWO X-chromosomes to be more precise. Well to come back to the applicable topic, I was recently influenced by such force, to be more exact – my mom (love you mom), to get a…well…a facial done, the reason being a wedding in the family. Having agreed to her, I embarked upon this quest of getting my face cleaned up by someone else. Throughout my journey upto the saloon, which is a very long and exhausting 2 minutes, my mind was still contemplating this decision. When I finally reached there, I decided to get a haircut to start with, which would give me enough time to think it over. This as it turned out was not a very good idea. People generally talk about this little voice they have inside them, the voice that tells them what is right and what is wrong. Well, I did find that little voice, and millions of others that live with it. If I deduce, that one little voice belongs to a little person, then I am pretty sure that I have a whole country of these little people inside me. They also surely will give India a run for its money to become the largest democracy; and boy do they practice their democracy. They made sure that each and every one of them was heard and for the first time I didn’t hear the snip of the scissor going through my hair. They debated right from the facial being expensive to the risk of one of my friends walking in on me. But the majority thought that I should go through it, and hence by way of voting, I decided to do it. Then it started, my man, the barber, started off by first applying something on my face and thoroughly rubbing it in, making sure that every inch of my skin was covered with it. For some reason, he had taken a liking to my nose and preferred giving it the maximum attention and rubbing it like it was no one’s business. He kept doing it as if he was extracting some heavenly pleasure out of it. He then left me for a few minutes and came back with something new and slapped it onto my face and the rubbing resumed, there goes my nose again. Though by this time I had got used to the cold in the air conditioned place, he kept applying things that were getting colder and more difficult to bear, sending my skin into shock every time. Then I guess it was time to bring out the big guns, and out came some thing that actually looked like a gun. I for a second thought I had mistaken a dentist for a barber and was ready to bail out. He plugged it in and thrusted it onto my face. Again maximum attention was given to the nose, which was sure to be the shiniest part of my face at the end of this ordeal. After this gun got done with, out came a machine which was breathing out steam from it. And boy was it hot. Fifteen minutes of steaming later, I was wondering if I had been mislead by my country of little people, when suddenly on my face came a towel which was wet and so cold, it felt like it was on fire. One thing for sure, if my skin can withstand such drastic variations in temperature, it can go through anything. Off came the towel and a minute later, when I thought it was finally over, the man comes in with a brush and starts painting my face with something as I later found out is called a mask. After this I was left by myself to literally dry out and mull over life’s irony. How can we trust a stranger with our hair and our face….HOW? Talking of ironies, while I was left to dry, my man switched on the TV, and was watching a movie with our old friend Jackie Shroff in it. And the irony here, if you are wondering was, Mr. Shroff was trying to get a plastic surgery for himself in the movie. Though I certainly was not getting a surgery done, I surely was expecting a result which was comparable to the same. After drying me, and my skin feeling as if it was being pulled from different directions by the same little people, the man comes in and starts spraying water onto my face, which sent a sizeable amount of jolt through my skin. Then I suddenly heard the sound of ice being taken from an ice tray, and to my worst fears, the man comes in with an ice cube and rubs it onto my face. This sealed the argument, making me want to bomb the country of little people inside me. Finally, to finish it off, as per trend, the man goes ahead and applies something that burns the tissue out of my skin, making sure that I am not doing this again and making me want to bomb the country again. The question that you would now be asking is, was all this punishment worth it. Am I more pleasing to the eyes of the onlooker? Well I guess the only way to find out is by risking using your own eyes. Till then CYA and take care.
Friday, 5 February 2010
BWM: Point of View
What are we all.. except for being someone's point of view?
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We gather our thoughts, take our steps, speak our words and when all is done we look around. Seeking someone whose point of view we were without really knowing we were. When I am 90 and you somewhere around 86 and then we pass on under the lovely trees to a different world, all that will remain is a pale white skull..completely unmasked. That is the end of this glowing skins of ours that we cherish like nothing else. We all probably know that yet we fill ourselves up, yet we wear masks of different hues and colours on us. All this on a body that isn't quite what it seems to be, for thoughts that are not really ours but someone else's, for words that aren't ours but someone else's, for work that wasn't really ours but neither no one else's.
Right, wrong or obscure.. doesn't matter..it is just your point of view.
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About the author: Maneesh Madambath is a serial blogger and an extremely funny guy. He was my colleague at Directi and now a friend. If you like what he has written, read more of his thoughts here.
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Blog with me.
Dear Friends,
It delights me to know that quite a few of my friends read my blog. So, it means one of my friends is reading it right now. So, I will make this post in second person (you being the second person).
The thing is, I like writing. I think it is one of the easiest things one can do and get appreciation for just being true and simple. I have encouraged quite a few people to blog and a few of them actually started. Most of them then stopped after their first post. To all of them, I request you to please begin again. Just write; then post.
I want to go a step further and tell all of those who have never blogged, to start. I know you are apprehensive about doing it. But start.
I have been quite inspired by the3six5. It is a blog which is attempting to give 365 different point of views in the year 2010. It invites bloggers from across the globe to submit a post about a day in their life. 365 days, 365 points of view. I really like this idea. And I want to attempt something using this idea.
I invite all of my readers - each and everyone of you - to write a post, for my blog. You can write about anything you want to and mail it across to me. I will post it on my blog, anonymous and unedited, regardless of the topic. Once posted, I would want all the other readers to comment with their honest views on the post (this will encourage the author). The name of the author need not be revealed till the author wants to. This is primarily to encourage those who are apprehensive about what or how they have written.
A second reason for doing this is: I have a lot of friends who are fellow bloggers. I like the way they write and each one of them has their own way of writing. I would absolutely love it if they could write a post for my blog. It would be kind of an honour for me.
I do not know if this is going to work. I do not know if you will take this seriously and actually submit a post. I would be delighted if each and every person who reads this post mails me something. Even a paragraph would be just awesome.
With Love,
Aditya Kandala.
P.S. Mail me: mail(at the rate)adityakandala(dot)com. (Please do, I doubt I have ever wanted anything else to work as much as this before :))
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
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