Month: June 2008

  • Conversations and Noise

    I came across a new tool, a couple of days back. It helps you make an interactive profile card, and is called retaggr. Its got widgets for StumbleUpon, Gtalk, Twitter and many many more, and can be linked to your profiles on del.icio.us, LinkedIn, Blogger and a few dozen others too. In essence, its like a signature that keeps in touch with whatever you’ve been doing in social media – whether its tagging a photo on flickr or commenting on a blog post, and just like a signature, you can use it on the social media to ensure that other people know what you’re upto. Interesting?

    Yes, but it also showed me a glimpse of the expanse of social media. There are conversations happening everywhere, on Facebook, twitter, blogs, Friendfeed ranging from meaningful discussions to trivial chit chat, but all of which are important to users. Is it possible to keep track of all the conversations you’re interested in? More importantly, how much of filtering does one have to do to keep track of only the things that interest him/her?

    I really don’t think its as simple as choosing your friends or followers. Yes, it helps a bit, and in time, some calibration can be done to receive exactly the kind of alerts, tweets etc that you want. But in the end, conversations can go anywhere, and need not be restricted to your circle. Is it really possible to connect all the threads, because in the end, we are dealing with people here. People have conversations, a germ of an idea happens, and they carry the conversation somewhere else and forget about the original conversation.

    People are also not uni dimensional, they have multiple interests. Even after i figure out who i want to be friends with or ‘follow’, not all the stuff they talk about would interest me, and unfortunately it takes time to figure out the conversations that interest you from the ‘noise’.

    Speaking of time, it flies, its been a year since I started this blog. How have i been doing, my dear one and a half readers? 🙂

    until next time, don’t even think of saying GTD

  • Super Bowled

    I asked a colleague what his plans were for the evening. He looked at me quizzically. I reminded him of the fact that the IPL finals had been on Sunday. A look of realisation dawned on his face, and he said “I didn’t think about that. What’ll I go home and do now”.

    And that would best describe the amazing takeover of Indian primetime television by a force bigger than the combined might of saans and bahus. For more than a month and a half, irrespective of whether home teams won or lost, India was glued to SET Max. We’ll not delve into whether this is a dumbing down of cricket and such other weighty matters, we shall restrict ourselves to taking a small brand journey.

    What did we see during primetime other than the five minute intervals of actual cricket? We saw Hyundai and its I’s, we saw Godrej and CEAT and their brand new logos, Hutch and the ‘now on, now off’ pug, we heard Irfan talk of his local sister and the one in Dehradun, later we heard quite a nice tune for the ‘chota credit’, we hoped madhavan would just leave when Vidya balan was asleep, so we would be spared that silly syrupy sweet conversation, we saw the omnipotence of Yum Yus Dhoni, “break or not, there’s no break from me”, mind it!! We heard commentators laying more stress on the DLF than the six, of the fact that it didnt matter if it was a wicket or a winning run, it was a Citi moment of success for someone. We saw a Citi Metro card, a Canon powershot, and yes, I really can’t forget the one name that echoed across india, the one whom several of my friends threatened to kill if they could lay their hands on him, the one who goes by the name of Sanjoooooo!

    But i noticed two other ads that were on only for a day (for one night wonly) – Tulip IT and Avalon Academy. Thank God, they didn’t show it before, is all I’ll say. But they got seen, and how. It would be awesome if someone could do a cost benefit analysis, i.e no: of days ads telecast vs mileage for the brand. I wonder if the incremental benefit that Max New York got by being there forever is proportionate to the money they spent compared to the T20 style knock of Tulip or Avalon.

    I think the IPL has been a learning for not just the BCCL, but also for brands. There were important lessons on frequency of ads, context in which they’re shown, fatigue factor etc. I wonder whether these learnings would get brands to relook their strategy for next year’s IPL. But I definitely think we’re on our way to creating our own Superbowl. Maybe, it also means that we’ll get to see ads specially created for the occasion, ads that would make or break brands, and ads that would get showcased year after year.

    until next time, over

  • Heaven and Earth

    The church wasn’t a large one. But we reached early, and so its emptiness gave it a magnificence disproportionate to its size. The empty pews and the stained glass added to the effect. The bride and the groom exchanged rings and took their first steps into holy matrimony. It’d been a long time since I’d been to a church wedding and thus it made a great experience.

    And then the choir started, a sound that shattered the alternate silences and the monologues of the priest. A sound that transported me into a different plane, and gave me a glimpse of what they might have envisioned when they made religion and with its temples and churches. Yes, you didn’t need a special place to pray, you could do it anywhere, but this was a place of tranquility that would help man to converse with his maker. An atomosphere of serenity thatwould help him to hold on to his faith amidst the chaos around him.

    Meanwhile, less than a hundred metres away stood a massive structure, a mall in the heart of Bangalore. The huge population that thronged to it made it seem much smaller than it actually was. But, as soon as they entered, they were transported to a world where they could forget their worries and shop and dine to their heart’s content, a world of opulence and harmony. A world that sucked them into its chaos, but made them happy.Two worlds, separated by a few metres, and separated by a distance that each one must travel on his own.


    until next time, to be worldly and wise….

  • Bombay Time

    Thrity Umrigar

    Bombay Time is like an old group photograph, in which each face can be zoomed to tell its own story. In this case, its a wedding where each character starts reminiscing about their lives so far, each life intertwined with others, and creating patterns, each story teaching its own lessons.
    While its set in Wadia Baug and among Parsis, the stories are more human than community specific and applies to any large group of people that grows up together and grows old together. Its a warm read that shows the paradox of human lives – its futility and its pricelessness, and lessons that can be learned only by living.

  • Vicky’s Tava Lounge

    I had seen it on my way to China Pearl and had bookmarked it then for a visit. For those not well versed with the Koramangala eatery landscape, here’s how to get there. When coming from the MG Road side, take a left from Forum, continue straight till you see a temple and a park right after it. Take a right (one way), if you don’t see a Samsung showroom on your left in the first 50 metres, you’re lost, repeat the entire process. If you do, proceed until you see a Unilet showroom and a ‘Cottons by Century’ on your right. Vicky’s is opposite the latter.

    The Tava lounge is on the second floor, and they also have a Continental cuisine joint on the floor above. Since we felt like having desi stuff, we decided to stop at the second floor. We were quite early, so we easily managed to get seats. Since there are many options on the same road, I think you can afford not to make reservations, the phone number is anyway not working 🙂

    Vicky’s has been in the restaurant business since 1935 in kolkata and Bangalore (Church Street and Hennur road, funny, never noticed the former), says the menu card. Meanwhile, the interiors have been done very well, with some Fab India seating also thrown in, for the Indian touch. In essence, the work lends the place a soothing cosy ambience. Three of the tables also offer a good view of the road below (always love to eat, watching life pass by) 🙂

    Since it was another rainy night, we decided to go for a Shorba, against the common practice of starters in desi dine outs. They have about 3 options, including one veg, we chose the Murgh Badami. It was extremely good, with some unique flavor, in addition to the almond. Even with a ‘by two’, the quantity was quite sufficient. They also offered us some complimentary munchies while we were waiting.

    The menu does not offer a range of choices for animal lovers, they have around 3 options for sea food, 4 for poultry and other meat each, but significantly more for the other kind of animal lovers – vegetarians. For the main course, we decided to try the Murg tava Pyaz, which seemed to be the chef’s special mix of spices, pickled onion and boneless chicken. Since we were told that it would be a thick gravy, we also ordered a Machi masala. To go with it, we ordered an onion kulcha and an aloo kulcha, followed later by a Naan. The food is simply amazing, with both the dishes competing for attention and share of gut. Although it looked like the quantities might only be just right, it turned out to be very filling in the end. The Murg has a very distinctive taste, and is a definite must-have. Meanwhile, they were also nice enough to get us some Chaas, on the house. The only snag was that, all this didn’t leave us enough space for dessert, though they have a fairly good mix of Indian as well as Continental stuff.

    All of the abvove cost us about Rs.650. This is definitely a good place to visit for some tasty North indian food in a pleasant, cosy setting.