• Dotty

    There was this nice game we used to play as kids – join the dots. The context? Unless you’ve been living in a cave without a cable connection, the new Airtel ad should be coming out of your ears by now. No, not the ‘Having a ball at the border’ one, the new one where Papa is getting laid, sorry, getting the tracks laid, and the daughter just can’t do without his help in joining the dots.

    So papa dearest excuses himself and concentrates on the task at hand, going dotty. Its a wonderful insight on why Indian Railways is the way it is. This is what they do when they’re supposed to lay the damn rails. I have a few questions – why can’t mommy help? Why does poor daddy, who is anyway having to work at night, get to do child care also? What kind of stupid dad asks a young daughter to go to the balcony alone? Unless the kid is an astronomer’s reincarnation (with full knowledge of her previous birth), how the h*** did she manage to understand the exact stars her daddy was talking about? Most importantly, what the h*** was this ad trying to say?

    Kuch bandhan atoot hote hain, you can bet they weren’t talking about the damn rails!!

    until next time, dotted for extra pleasure? 😀

  • Oye Shaava

    And when Bangalore decided to play host to a nagging rain, we plonked our way through Church Street to have ‘Punjabi food with a pinch of Bollywood’. When i saw the ad, I was wondering how this positioning would be viable when ‘Oye Amritsar’ was so close by. I realised it would be, if its an add on to the latter. Oye Shaava is a floor below Oye Amritsar, the difference is in the ambience, a bit of the menu, and the fact there’s a DJ belting out Bollywood numbers and remixes.

    From the crowd we saw (in spite of the rains), I’d recommend you book a table if you aren’t the waiting sort. The seating was very comfortable, and we were given a decent table, with a nice view of Church Street.

    The part I loved about the menu was the half plates for starters and main course dishes. Since our appetites are not exactly XL, we’ve always sacrificed starters to do justice to the main course. This time we didn’t have to, because the starters as well as the main course had an option of a half plate. For starters,we ordered a ‘Pahalwani Dhabe de Maahi Tikka’, which is fish in English. Good stuff, a bit spicy, and exactly the right quantity for a ‘half’ starter.

    For the main course, we ordered a ‘Chitta Kukkad Kali Mirch’ and a 1/2 Bheja Fry (which is actually a starter) along with a masala kulcha, and a makki di roti. The chicken was a white gravy dish and was quite different from the regular kali mirch stuff we usually get. Definitely worth a try, if you like the pepper kind of spice. I’ve never had a bad Bheja Fry thus far, and this one was no exception. Meanwhile, the Makki di roti was the size of a small raw pappad, so we had to order another Naan, but whatver was there was tasty 🙂

    For those who can’t do without soups, there are shorbas available. There’s also a small selection of desserts available. The regular north indian stuff, so we skipped. Would definitely not recommend it for the quiet dinner type, but if you’re okay with minimal conversation and some loud music to keep you entertained, this place should be on your list. All of the above left us poorer by just over Rs.500.

    Oye Shaava, 3rd Floor, Asha Enclave, Church street, 080-41122877

    Menu at Zomato

  • There’s a little bit of social networking in….

    For all those who’ve been good and watching TV, the source of that one should be a lollipop. There are some 4-5 ads of AOL doing the rounds, which you really couldn’t have missed. What’s the context? Well, i read here, that AOL is buying out Bebo for $850 million. Oops, I should’ve told you to hold on to something. Bebo is UK’s #2 social networking site (after Facebook) with a claimed base of 40 million users. Put this in perspective with the eyes  that popped when Desi Martini was picked up for $10 million. I really woudnt be able to offer any intelligence on the valuation, so lets stick to the core competency of this blog – brand +internet.

    Now, Indian online entities have picked up this strange habit of using the reach of TV to sell the concept of email. Remember rediff’s infamous Hoohaa ad, followed by the unlimited ones. Zapak has also been a big TV advertiser. Indiatimes has been making me suspect if i have jaundice for sometime now. Strange, because, while i understand the reach of TV, I’ve never seen the big guys ever do TV (or have i missed something). Its only the locals + AOL who have been eating up TVC time. And except for rediff, I have never used any of them for my email use. (and that was before the ad) I’m quite happy with yahoo and gmail. More importantly, I’ve seen their advertising in the place where it matters – the web. Context, anyone?

    So, I’m guessing, that AOL with those ‘young’ attitude ads was looking at reaching out to the youth audience (isn’t that who everyone’s after?) by showcasing its features in a fun way. While e-mail is the one of the best utlities to use as a carrot, I’ve a different idea for them. Bring Bebo here, lets have a solid ‘fatal fourway’ match with Orkut, Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo. If we include Big Adda, Minglebox, Yaari etc, its a royal rumble. Meanwhile, what AOL has to do is rope in Kareena Kapoor as brand evangelist.

    Did i just catch a ‘Huh?’ from you? Okay, for those of you who look down on Bollywood gossip, Bebo happens to be Kareena’s (quite well known) nickname. Kareena would anyway make a good icon (for the guys because she’s hot, for the girls because she’s smart). Add to that her name connection and the Bollywood effect, and i think we might have some fun here. Imagine weaving in hits like ‘Jab we met’ (in her filmi life) and things like the Shahid Kapur mouth to mouth resuscitation MMS, the Saif gossip being exclusive content on the site, do you need to do extra things to get hits?

    Meanwhile, to increase this weekend’s productivity, you can read a very neat post on SEO and SEM right here.

    until next time, anyone expressing Aitraaz? 😀

  • Add Sense

    Read a very nice article today on rediff, about Google’s nine innovation rules. Coming from Marissa Mayer, VP of search products and user experience, it underlines why Google’s offering always strike a chord with the audience. While I’m one of those who’re becoming increasingly uncomfortable with Google and its (non) privacy, and its journey away from ” Don’t be evil”, it still manages to get my attention, inspite of all the old enemies (eg. Yahoo with Flickr, del.icio.us, Answers etc)and new upstarts (eg.Facebook) at various boundaries of its kingdom.

    More than random preaching on innovative practices one hears during sermons, she manages to link innovation to simple philosophies that should ideally be practised by all workplaces which consider itself to be ‘innovation practitioners’. The 20% time for pet projects, the sharing network between employees, the treatment of data as apolitical, the idea generation processes all speak of a system which thrives on experimenting and trying out new things, and that, i guess is the reason why Google has reached where it is in such a small timeframe.

    Meanwhile, i was also influenced by the very first principle, ‘innovation, not instant perfection’. Its a difficult lesson to learn, especially for perfectionists (and wannabes 🙂 ), but it just might be a better way in the long run.

    until next time, go ogle

  • For reasons unexplained

    She called first. Then many like her. He hung up rudely. They kept calling, forcing him to ponder. Maybe they called for a reason, maybe they’d data on him, maybe they knew something he didn’t. So, when she called next, he asked earnestly ‘Why do I need a personal loan’. This time she hung up.

    until next time, call waiting