• Still Trippin’

    They almost threw me out when i asked them if i can get travel reimbursement for ego trips.

    until next time, we need humour resources 😀

  • Making my trip

    The flight was delayed by over 2 hours, which meant that i was taking potshots at anything resembling a Go Air employee and in some cases, other passengers whose flights were on time 🙂

    He: Have you scanned it?
    Me: Yup, did that at home. Don’t think i have forgotten anything.
    He: I meant the machine, sir
    Me: Then why don’t you ask the machine?
    ********************************************

    He: (while trying to elbow his way past me during the security check): (pointing to the machine): My phone’s in there, let me through.
    Me: (after letting him past): Where do you think mine is?
    *********************************************

    He: (while telling me to use the entry at the back of the plane) You can go behind.
    Me: Behind who?
    He: I meant backside
    Me: Behind whose backside?
    *********************************************
    And as they kept running laps on the runway without taking off, i loudly sang “Udhale Udhale…”
    *********************************************
    D refused to allow me to have more fun. I especially missed asking the air hostess, whose name was Smitha, whether her first name was Silk.
    In fact D was so rude, she pointed to me, when they came around with the trash cart.

    until next time, way to Go?

  • ..Earth…home….

    And I have finished the last book of the Foundation series.. dragged it on for as long as possible, but had to end it.. dragged it because it wasn’t an experience that can be replicated anytime soon, because its truly one of a kind, and i haven’t come across anything in the genre that comes close to it…

    Anyways, the book also gave me a glimpse of the fact that inspite of the passage of time, there might be some things that would never change.. the main protagonist has to make a choice that will decide the future of humanity, and he feels that somehow the answer to his dilemma lies on the planet of the humanity’s origin – Earth. By then, Earth isa forgotten entity, and no one knows where it is… and so the search begins….

    i guess, its the same with us too, as we grow older, and as we face the ups and downs of life, we all long for the place where we hope to get the answers, the place where everything’ll be set alright, the place we like to call home..speaking of which, as Daughtry sings

    Well I’m going home, Back to the place where I belong….

    Until next, they call it God’s Own Country 🙂

  • Space, the final frontier

    All the Star Trek fans would know that bit, the one that starts this way and ends with ‘..to boldly go where no man has gone before’… Well, Sunita Williams did, and now she’s back… like i read somewhere, she must be stinking, but thats beside the point… i think it must’ve been one awesome experience, though i wish we would learn to celebrate with dignity, and not create a popcorn tamasha of everything…
    I am reading Asimov’s Foundation and Earth, and that’ll finish the series for me.. rather, re-finish it, and i don’t think this will be the last time… i still remember the first time i saw it, that was way back – when i was in school,i didn’t understand most of it, and left it… i made contact for the second time when i was in my first year of grad -and it took many library visits and many long months for me to finish off all 7 books of the series, and that was an awesome experience. Years later, i have managed to buy all the 7 books, and that took around 2 years, mostly thanks to the one i am reading…
    I read an article last week in TOI, about a new design of spaceships that they were going to start using in 2010 and which might be the first step towards interstellar travel.. For once, i wish i were born in the future, just to experience space travel, to watch the stars and to feel first hand the awe-inspiring vastness of the galaxy… what an awesome experience that would be… But thats something that can’t happen and so, centuries later, when men, and women, would be freely roaming around the galaxy, we would be, perhaps, a remote statistic that existed in the initial days of humanity…

    until next time, live long and prosper 🙂

  • Stuck in a web

    I happened to read this a while back, and this recently, and finally, the presentation below
    While the last two are quite obviously connected, the first one is too, albeit in a round about way.
    Having worked now for over 4 years in a brand role, out of which at least 2 have involved quite some work in the online space, i tend to agree with what Mr.Desai says, especially this part, “The real problem is our mental model of the brand. We see it as a fortress which we must defend against all interlopers.”
    I have seen this in all the 3 brands i have worked on, and this is exactly why internet marketing is still in its infancy stage in India. In fact, even among the brands that do some stuff in the space, a majority are those who make internet strategy decisions on an excel sheet as part of the media plan – print – x lakhs, outdoor-y lakhs, internet- z lakhs. Nothing wrong with this, except that the strategy ends up as an adaptation of the print/outdoor creative, and the activity on the web is limited to that.
    And the next step, if it happens – in the typical knee-jerk reactions that are a regular sight everywhere, the CEO ‘discovers’ blogging, and wants someone to start a corporate blog, without even pausing to think what is going to be done there and whether it is sustainable. I know at least one example. 🙂
    The problem is in ‘letting go’. Brands and brand managers cannot come to terms with it, and are still stuck in a web that refuses to look outward except for the token market research, and we all know how that gets done. Ask the creative guys in agencies and they’ll tell you horror stories of subjective likes and dislikes being thrust upon them, not just those, but whims and desires, as well. And one of the mandatory things to go online is the understanding that you will get some brickbats and your brand will be tossed around. The key is in dealing with it, and converting that into a better consumer experience. Are you game for that challenge? The answer, in most corporates (from what i’ve seen, and maybe i haven’t seen enough) would be a resounding no!!
    Knowing the RGB configuration of the brand takes 2 minutes of mugging up, but understanding the dna of the brand and working on it is a different ballgame, and if there are consumers willing to help, i wonder why brand guys have difficulty in accepting it.
    and i bid adieu, brandishing my love for the internet 🙂