Where all these people have gone?

India has reported a drop in the number of HIV +ve people by as much as 50%. Now, the big question is that where these people have gone? Last year there were some 5.7 million people, this year there are only 2.5. So, is it a happy news that rest everybody died or a sad news about poor mathematics of our statisticians on government's payroll?

The ten best cricket sleding ever -

Well, I disagree if they are actually the ten best ones but still they are ten good ones. The best one remaining between Glenn Mcgrath and Eddo Brandes of Zimbawe.

Mcgrath asked him that Eddo, How come you are so fat? To which Eddo replied that "everytime I sleep with you wife, She gives me a biscuit".

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Aloo Parathas for breakfast.

My friend called me in the morning and asked me to hurry for breakfast in one of her strict voices but then the thought of having Vada (Idli /Sambhar /Chutney /Upma
/Pongal) as breakfast is something which prevents me from getting out of my bed early in the morning. And if any one of you are asking why then have Vada for the breakfast for one year and then ask me. I know I am exaggerating a bit but still I can't stand Vada for breakfast. So, in my usual sleepy voice I asked her to hang up so that I can dream for some more time (I dream about Parathas ofcourse). Breakfast is not normally bad as Dosa and a continental breakfast on Sunday are something that eveyone relish here

Well, my cell rang for another time and this was a sms from one of the "early to bed early to rise" girl who was informing about the news of the day that there is Aloo Parathas for the breakfast. Wow! what a surprise? I thanked god and rushed to the mess in a half asleep, half awake mood and to my utter delight there it was Aloo Ka Paratha teasing me. I was so happy to see it but the moment I tasted it, all my delight was gone. The curry with it was equally good, I finished it without knowing that what exactly was it made from? Anyways, I gobbled up a few pieces of Aloo Parathas with large swigs of water to gulp it down my throat. Now when I have woke up atleast have to complete the formalities of a breakfast. Had two cups of tea to wake myself properly.

Well, the incident just made me remember those good old days of Engineering college where we thought that the Parathas served to us were the worst in the world. But today, when I reflect on all that I think that I can give anything for one breakfast of that kind. 10 Rs and you have plates full with Parathas, curd, pickles, butter, milk and tea. Food is something that I think will keep me connected to my Punjab connection. Anyways, you have to pay the price for moving to a bigger and better city

Bill is no. 2 and Modi is not responsible for Gujrat floods..

"Gujrat has become a waterworld" reads the headline number 1. The news item itself makes mokery of the flood and plight of thousands of individuals stranded in water. I guess BJP will soon hold a press conference to clarify the thing that Modi is not responsible for these floods (you never know what could be the next allegation from Congress, they might even say that Modi did not issue instructions for the cleaning of drains at the right time).

Bill is No. 2 - A news reporter who boast of his common sense claims that our own Billu (Bill Gates) is now the No. 2 and some Mexican businessmen Carlos Slim have made it to No. 1. He has tried to prove it through all his calculations. Anyways, my common sense tells me that nobody can beat Bill in only an year. Billu is the champ and the fact is that we all loveMicrosoft, this slim businessman can't let us down on that part. I don't trust his calculation, I will rely on my own common sense that nobody beats Billu.

Imran Hashmi is sick of kissing women on Screen.

In the headline of the day, this particular news item caught my eye that how candidly he is admitting that he is sick of kissing women on screen (nothing mentioned about off the screen thingy) Well, may be he is boasting about his glorious past now no one is going to theater to watch his movies. Probably he might also be hinting about diversification - "Men beware".

Clash of Titans - What titans? both the teams are playing without any coach and were shown the doors in the first round of world cup. Now people are so sick of them that they have to play a match in some neutral country.

Indian doctor detained in UK - Now, I am waiting for some parties to come out to support him in the wake of the fact that he is a minority. It's still not sure that whether he has a OBC status or not (you know it depends na which party is ruling the state of his origin).

Sri Lanka Vs. Bangladesh

Somebody asked this question that why BCCI is the richest cricket board in the world? I answered honestly because they are the best animation artists. Just see the latest coach selection drama. Well, let me give some live example -

Sri Lanka Vs Bangladesh - Sri Lanka butchered Bangladesh like anything. They nailed them twice below 100 score out of the the three innings they were allowed to bat. And Sri Lanka is posting huge totals. In a way they are not allowing the opposition to become irritating.

India Vs Bangladesh - If India would have played the same match, it would have been filled with all sort of excitement. Quick wickets and then allowing the opposition to go off the hook and then again quick wickets. In batting department our batsmen would have indulged themselves in showing off and then throwing away their wickets in style. At one point of time you might even feel that "You have a contest now". Each and every moment is exciting.

People love heroics (antics). And if Sachin scores a century against Bangladesh they will tell that how Sachin has increased the gap between him and Ponting and they will also start talking about Ganguly's comeback. We all have seen Ganguly scored runs at a strike rate of 60% against the moving ball. Anyways, these are the richest cricketers and the board is the richest board. Now, you know because of what.

Brand Elements around us..

Getting Involved with a low involvement product -

This is the ideal strategy for any low involvement product like soaps, detergents and other articles of daily use. You need to get people involved with your product, you need to arouse interest and for that story telling or association building is the best thing you have to do. You understand like this, for a item girl, rumours works well to market her talent. Rakhi Sawant is a perfect example. When she was out of the market, she got back with her flamboyant statements . Well, the idea is that to get people take note of a low involvement thing (which otherwise people would don't even care about) you have to tell stories about it, you have to tell that how it is related to Indian history or how this product has helped some Maharaja.

Let me give you another example. I recently bought Liril (Aloe Vera with lemon) and was reading the back panel of the cover. The text reads - "Discover the mysterious recipe for Deliciously Fresh skin. Start with ingredients as different as Aloe Vera and Lemon. Mix them carefully in just the right proportion and voila - the tangy masti of one mingles with the shy softness of the other to give you skin that blushes at the slightest touch".

Wow! that's really a mouthful. I don't know how it will make our skin deliciously fresh. But still, I think you got the idea, connect it with some sensuous feeling. After all it's just a soap but still you can connect it to something like the wife giving a backrub to her husband with the leaves of Aloe vera and from there you got the product idea. It's will just strike the right cord about deliciously fresh skin. What do you say? Comments are welcome.

A touching advertisement campaign.

These Images were forwarded to me by one of my friends as a regular forward but the images were simply eye catching and I can't help praising the cretivity behind this campaign. Sharp, Focussed, To the point and Witty. The contrast have been captured very clearly. Like the one for sunglasses, they have tried to appeal to the high profile socialite women who just show off their sunglasses on beach and to all of us for whom everything is just fun.

Indian politics lacks Moral Fiber

Just yesterday communist leader Mr. A. B Bardhan appeared in Karan Thapar's Devil Advocate and if you read his replies to Karan's questions you will fume with anger. These politicians who call them senior leaders are brainless/brain dead or what? Do they even think what they are doing and will these people ever feel accountable for what they had done in the past? Is there any political ideology left in Indian politics? Let me take all this in light of certain facts revealed in some of the latest books -

1) Mitrokhin Archive II - The book based on the infromation provided by ex KGB operative Vasili Mitrokhin alleges that KGB paid money to PMO officials, Communist party was the regular beneficiaries and all these senior leaders of present were being groomed only during that era. So you can't doubt their credentials in corruption. The book alleged that many communist leaders made trips to Russia during that time and received large booty of money. The book also alleged that suitcases full of money would always find their way to PM house and the suitcases were never returned.

Shamelessness - All the allegations were denied shamelessly. Anyways that denial saved the country a lot of money as some enquiry would be put up, some witnesses will die, it will take 15 years of a judege's life and who will pay for it? Ofcourse the poor taxpayers of the country.

2) Nehru was Naive and Romantic -- There is a popular joke about Nehru that his clothes use to be dry cleaned in Paris. Gnadhi ji wanted to paint a modern picture of India so that's why dhoti clad Patel or the muslim Abdul Kalam Azad did not find their way to prime minister house and instead the urban looking, a bit more cosmopolitan by characted Nehru was chosen as the face of modern India. Rest is history. Just yesterday I was thinking that what kind of brain must have gone behind dividing the country into three parts? I don't know that how the leaders of that time could have accepted that kind of thing? But history tells us that they really did that. They chose to divide the country into 3 parts. Only a power hungry mad man could have accepted that. But anyways had it not been for Patel we might have needed passport for visiting Hyderabd or Rajasthan or Kashmir. Nehru's friendship with lady mountbetten was world known and that picture still do rounds on internet where Nehru is charming his was round the lady in front of the lord.

So the recent allegations have been made by ex CIA operative and it's not very hard to imagine that it was a blunder by the defense advisor and the prime minister office. China was aware of this fact that India has limited military power and took advantage of it while Nehru was so full of himself and his idea of Non Aligned movement that India lost thousand of its brave soldiers along with 30000 sq. kilometers of land.
Clearly the moral fiber has been misisng since all these years and I can honestly tell that most of the politicians today are naive and in other terms their moral fiber is absent.

The present presidential race - With communists telling that they won't be held responsible for anything that Pratibha does in the future or what she did in the past, dont you think that it's completely ridiculous to support a candidate who have a view telling that you don't support that view. She was the director of a bank which duped poor people of their hard earned money and gave that money to her relatives as loans and interest waivers which was to be defaulted at some time later. It's not just charges, its actually scam. Had it not been for Pratibha, how come the killer of a distrcit Congress head are still operating fearlessly. Well he is Pratibha's brother. The top 3 officers of her bank have already mentioned that their lives were in danger if they would have voiced against the mismangement in the bank. The banner below shows not only charges, they are serious charges against a person who is going to be our constitutional head.

My dear fellow bloggers, please carry this banner on your blogs if you support my view. Atleast make other people aware of what this person Pratibha stands for? What is the view of communist on her? I am giving all the links here.. Kindly link to my blog post. And do comment, keep this thing visible for atleast one day.

Mitrokhin's Revelation
Nehru was Naive
Devil's advocate with A. B . Bardhan

Hindi Remake of Ghazini

Amir Khan is all set to star in the Hindi remake of the movie Ghazini and the best thing is that A. R. Rahman is doing the music for the movie. So you might hear one of the best music in a remake. The other surprise was the lyricist Prasoon Joshi whose creativity is boundless and definitely the duo will churn out some melodies songs.

Well, Amir adds a lot of value to his movies by his presence as he take deep interest in the script. But still, the thing is that remakes have not been very popular in Hindi. To name a few -

Nayak - Anil Kapoor starred in Nayak and it was not conisdered a hit. However the tamil version was a mega hit.

Jeans - A big budget movie did not ring any bells at hindi box office. The music was a hit but still the movie did not receive good response with the audience.

Perceived value addition - There are many more movies I can count here but the idea is that when you actually remake a movie, the perceived value addition is zero. The script is the same, the music almost the same and just the faces are different and instantly critics and audience starts comparing. I remember that how people told me that how the original "Saathiya" is much much better than the hindi remake and Madhavan has performed better than Vivek. The fact is that you will always find some smart ass audience who will tell you that how the original one is better than the remake. It's mainly because the perceived value addition is zero. Perceived value addition is what people perceive as the relative value addition through things like change in script, music, direction and actor.

Take the case of Saathiya - If Madhavan is perceived better than Vivek even among hindi audience, then the perceived value addition is negative. This has to be offset by the value addition in the other department like script, acting, music and screenplay. The music was the same in both the movies and as the production crew was almost a repeat. The only value add was presence of Rani Mukherjee which helped the cause of that movie.

About Ghazini - Honestly I don't like the plot of the movie. A guy with 15 minutes of memory. The idea is lifted from the movie "50 First Dates" of Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymoore. Drew had a memory of only one day and every day for her was a fresh start. One day of memory is fine and she played a character of just a lonely lady. Here in Ghazini, Surya plays a role of a business person who has 15 minutes of memory. Well just imagine what could happen with 15 minutes of memory --

1. This guy goes to toilet and if he takes more than 15 minutes, he actually start staring the comode seat that why he is there? What is the need?
2. Or after every 15 minutes he keeps signing a check as he don't remember exactly that he signed a check before 15 minutes.
   

The plot seems absolutely ridiculous to me. The movie may be interesting as some people chose to leave their brain at their homes but still, when you are making a Pan India movie and expect people to leave their brains at home then you are on for a disaster. Amir could be a big brand but still that is not the gurantee for a bad product. He has witnessed it with Fanaa. Indians are quite enterprising with script lifting and modifying it in a fantasy form. What 15 minutes of memory? A person won't even be able to do a thing on his own if he has a memory of only 15 minutes. Forget about villain hunting and man chasing. Anyways, I love Amir Khan. I love the way he acts. Hope he will do something about it. All the best to Amir Khan as he has started a blog which is accesible at http://www.lagaandvd.com/blog.php You can suggest your choice of name and villain to him.