• The right turn

    On my way to office, there is a junction, and like many junctions there are rights and lefts varying from 1 degree to 179 degrees, and many times, i end up giving directions thus, “not that right, the other right’…
    A few days back, i ended up playing whistle blower on an online plagiarism case.. no second guess required whether it was the right thing to do, but the implications did make me wonder whether i could have maybe not have done it at all.. But i also got a forward around the same time.. it went thus – there are two sets of railway tracks. One used, the other unused.There is a warning board on the used one that warns kids not to play on it. The scenario is that a train is approaching on the used track, there are five kids playing on it. A single kid is playing on the unused track. You are in charge of the tracks. With a single button, you can divert the train onto the unused track,saving five kids and sacrificing one. You obviously can’t do the movie hero stunt of running faster than the train and rescuing all kids concerned, and you have only moments to decide. Before you make the decision, remember that the single kid was following instructions and doing the right thing.
    There is no ‘correct’ answer, it is a choice, but it helped me stick to the decision i made. Maybe, it is a step towards a ‘no compromise’ policy towards doing the right thing… Meanwhile, the turn to my office is the exact right, all of 90 degrees 🙂
    until next time, i write, you read 🙂

  • Social Networking

    I once had a scrap on Orkut.
    I won.
    until next time, feeling anti-social.

  • Read Only Memories

    Tagged by Prero
    Total number of books owned:*Loading* (while i go check my shelf) 93

    Last book(s) I bought:Cryptonomicon (gifted to me), Shalimar the Clown, The Peacock throne
    Five books that I have really enjoyed or have influenced me:
    Influenced: Tomorrow’s God, Fountainhead, The Lost Hero, The Drifters, God’s little Soldier (currently reading), a lot of magazines i can’t mention 😉
    Enjoyed: Ramayana series (ashok Banker), Foundation series, Jeffrey archer (all), Night of the Dark Trees, The Great Indian Novel, and those magazines
    Book(s) I’m currently reading:God’s Little Solidier
    Books I plan to buy next: Strong believer in love at first sight, there’s no planning 🙂
    Books that caught my attention but have never read: sigh, a lot of Maxim these days, but seriously, i usually end up buying the books that catch my attention
    Books I own but have never got around to reading: Quite some, but here are a few – Lila, Desirable Daughters (that title is very misleading!!hehe), Goa ( i will, one day)…
    until next time, pick up the tag, it might make a good read 😉

  • An eternal twist

    Read something that i thought was definitely worth sharing.
    If you had to choose between a woman you had met the day before and God, who would you choose? And the weaver said, The woman. Is there any doubt about that?
    And the mullah asked him, If you had to choose between a song and God, what would you pick? And the weaver said,The song, of course.
    And the priest from the temple asked him, Weaver, if perforce you had to choose one or the other, a beautiful sunset or God, what would your choice be? And he said, Isn’t it obvious? The sunset.
    And they asked him how he could blaspheme so. And the weaver said, Why sirs, God has eternity on his side, he can always wait. Will the woman, the song or the sunset wait for me?
    God’s Little Soldier, Kiran Nagarkar
    until next time, maybe there is no right answer…

  • Contrabrand

    And they asked in desperation, If you had to choose between sin and God, weaver, what would you choose? And he laughed and he said, Sin, always sin. Sin is fun, sin is forbidden, sin is, what shall i say, so sinful. They should forbid God as they forbid sin, then maybe he would become far more attractive and we would all be drawn to him.
    God’s Little Soldier, Kiran Nagarkar
    The concept, if you think about it, is not an unknown one in marketing, its called positioning. On the contrary, it is one of the pillars, and in this era of commoditisation, it is all the more significant. So it’s not altogether surprising to see brands like Chlormint, Mentos, Happydent and Orbit veer away from the expected trajectory, in their advertising.
    There is some spring mention of the product in the ads, and the emphasis is on making the ad as ‘different’ as possible. From the weird cow doctor to a town getting lit by shining teeth and from ‘dubara mat poochna’ to noisy footwear in a classical concert, the ads are entertaining, to say the least, and show an abundance in creativity.
    But a small dipstick i did, (unsurprisingly) proved my hunch- the ad was remembered, and appreciated, but what was the brand again?
    So what’s upsetting the apple cart – commoditisation or hypercreativity?
    What a bunch of cretins you have for your devotees, oh Lord, he laughed out loud. The fools would sever you from your creation.
    and i bid adieu while you chew on it.