2009 – the trip is still on.

started off my new year with some charcoal pastels I got from Niharika – a very sweet girl indeed.

I tripped my head out on charcoal. Got a weird sense of colors and ideas. Imitate the rainbow when in doubt! Also, it is not a bad idea to omit a few vowels out in the new year.

“Trnsfrm”
“Circkl”
“Bgn”

I guess you get the idea

Guerilla branding

If you happen to go to Lokhandwala, Andheri (W), Mumbai anytime, do remember to check out Gogola near the HDFC bank there. Its a sure hard on for all Google fans.

I happened to walk by this place and Wolala, I am a fan. Had a gola too. The “Masala Soda”. They give you the stuff in a nice plastic cup with the Google look alike Go.Gola logo. I still have the cup with me .

P.S. My camera got conked off. My bluetooth well does not exist to transfer a mobile pic. But I have the cup with me. The Masala Soda rocked.

Thanks to Sujathafan from Flickr for these snaps.

Pop Media is a hype machine – be safe

I have been keeping to myself for the last one month. Plan to do so for some more time, the exact period of which is not known to anyone. Been gorging on newspapers (Mathrubhoomi in Malayalam and The Hindu in English) and the internet all this time. Have been catching glimpses of TV in the evenings. My parents have become complete TV addicts. They show withdrawal symptoms on mega-serials.

Media is a bitch. 

Media has the tendency to over hype things and miss out on the details. The Mumbai terror episode is a classic example. As if Mumbai exists inside the Oberoi Trident and the Taj. And that this is “India’s 9/11″. Considering the fact that channels are available around the globe and sucking up to the Americans in November 2008 is not much of use to anyone has been comforatbly forgotten. 

I like The Hindu though. It is a mature newspaper. Talks about news – the interestingness, the depth and the relevance of events around us. Sad that you would need some time to read the stuff though. Gory third class pictures of a few people seen on TV is not their policy. It is truly kick-ass to realise that this newspaper could guard its fort and not fall into the pop – media bracket and is available for cheap.

Found this on Overcompensating. Neat comics for daily consumption. Highly recommended

Neo Sports, One dayers and Dhoni

India beats England 5-0 in the One Day Series.

Again, it was painful watching the games on Neo Sports – too many ads even when the game is on. Neo seems to be giving away ad spots with some hardcore innovation (well I haven’t really seen cricket after college which ended in 2005). Scrolls does not seem to impress them. They are giving away the left 15% and the bottom 15% of the screen. End result – the ad loses visibility and the match loses visibility.

Neo Sports TV Ad spot

Seen brands like Yahoo, Amrutanjan and a lot more using this spot. I can’t really remember any other ad even though I was glued to the matches. Speak about ad recall with this mode. Pathetic!

On top of that, did anyone notice a Boost ad with Dhoni? Looks not very evolved from the Kapil Dev era. Funny that the Boost bottle is taken from a Reebok bag and he is wearing Adidas tracks. The ‘other brands’ do not seem to appear in a subtle way here.

TV reporting sucks fat ass

Bombay got to see some bad days from those terrorists. I had no net and no computer for the last four days. Was feeling like a bitch too. Had to watch TV very painfully. No burst of TV watching exceeded 30 minutes at any point in time.

1. The young reporters need to be fired.
2. The reporters sure are doing a great job of being near the firing scenes at Taj and Trident. Good work. It stops there.
3. You got to be a reporter. So speak clearly. 10 minutes of listening to these people talk can give you some serious headache and no clear information passage.
4. Opinions of reporters are not necessary. Calling up the foreign minister of Pakistan and asking him “should WE not think TOGETHER” – Well, I never asked for the reporter to take charge any day – did I?
5. The layout on TV looks somewhat like this

Which part of the screen are the people supposed to see above.
6. Surprisingly and unfortunately and due to lack of choice, these news channels get maximum leverage.

Aaj ka Arjun – Sulekha.com viral

Check out this viral called Aaj Ka Arjun.

Pretty nice viral from JWT, Chennai for Sulekha.com. They have come out with the strategy of releasing it on Web for a pilot period of 10 days and then launching it on TV. Initial focus on youth centric sites like MTV and ESPN.

I think this is a good way of playing the game. The buzz would really be on from the web and people would be talking a lot about the viral. Once it comes on TV, the world would come to see it too. I like this trend of ads coming on web and then moving on to TV. Times of recession can really help the advertiser in knowing the audience with whom the ads would click and then try the same on TV.

I like the creative too BTW.

Signs of depression

1. Erratic weight loss – check
2. Huge unnatural loss of hair – check
3. Loss of interest in the normal – check
4. Prone to drug abuse – check
5. Failure to recognize yourself as a part of society – check
6. Lack of sleep – check
7. General loss of feeling of well being – check
8. Sticking indoors at your home and avoiding all forms of human contact – check
9. Looking much older than your age – check

Son, you are depressed!

Web Comic coming Offline!

Some interesting developments around the block.

Web comics authors have started looking offline. A huge chunk of these guys are on their way to release hard cover comic books. This is a fantastic move I should say. If you see the past post, I have tripped on the idea of mixing online and offline trends for the best results.

I am sure to have a few of these titles on my book shelf. Can’t wait to see these geniuses on paper.

The books would take these guys to some extra doze of pop. Currently a closed group of web comic readers would soon explode to cover a lot of junta.

Its better to wait and watch. Is Pop comic going to hit the market? I genuinely hope not!

Mall Culture and Freedom Struggle

I happened to do some slow walking through infinity mall at Andheri, Bombay. The results are pretty striking I should say.

Step 1 was just the process of walking in the mall. The security who is supposed to check for bombs and such scary stuff looked unprepared for an emergency. One wave of the magic wand (the sensor thing) and “Welcome Sir!” I looked easy and patient to be checked. He liked it!

One thing to be very clear in a mall. No one ever looks patient and easy at the mall entrance. It sucks to be checked by a very ugly looking guy when you decide to take a look at the good life at the mall. One person who would be happy to take it very slow at the mall would be the one who is destroying it. One very good look for the “Before / After” imagery!

Now that I am in the mall, I see a lot of wicked laughter. People in malls never frown. They smile, they hold hands and openly look around – with or without the jaws dropping.

A jewellery shop right at the entrance and four ugly looking Policemen just outside the store. If the policemen are here to catch people who do wrong as my mother said, I am scared. I don’t need to spend my hard earned money on some designer jewellery. I prefer love instead. Wasting money is wrong. The policemen inside the mall are an eye-sour. They belong to the streets – not to my materialistic and capilatistic symbolism – the big ass mall!.

Give it a good look. Any mall would have two maybe three floors of shopping space. The mall building however would stand atleast seven stories tall. Four floors of empty space. This gives it a larger than life persona.

Right on your face huge ass banners taller than the three floors of shopping space is a good idea. People are bound to read it. I would make a 3 + 2 = 5 floor tall banner. Taller than that is not that effective. Add the air conditioning and the good life lighting to improve our ad visibility.

“Shop for obscene amount of money on my credit card for a 5% discount”.

I love discounts. Makes me feel smarter. I know where I got this thing which looks rich even though I don’t earn much to get it. A 5% discount. HA HA! Infinity mall makes me happy and elated about life. Maybe among all the good things that is available here, I may meet my future wife too – shopping at Lifestyle. How romantic! One more good thing to add to my interesting set of things that I possess.

Oh! exclusivity? From Infinity mall – where a whole civilzation “hangs out” – is that important? There would be another SEC A Good college educated earning huge money cool young man with a pretty similar lifestyle and materialistic possessions as mine – Levi’s jeans, Pepe shirts, Fossil Watch, Jovan Musk Cologne, Nike Shoes, Adidas socks and a fucking mickey mouse bed sheet you get for cheap.

There were girls playing with a video camera and people posing in front of those cameras saying how cool they feel about coming to infinity mall. I should also ask for permission from the mall authorities to play a small prank. I would ask people if they would like to hug me for free! This, by the way, is not an original idea. It is from a music video I saw a few years back while having a mug of steaming cup of coffee that my Amma made me! I used to watch a lot of music videos. They are full of materialistic life too. A chick, a car, good furniture – cool ones, and people loving you for showing them these things and how they make you feel good!

The ground floor did not interest me much. There were a few girls only stores tucked neatly under the escalators at the mall. I saw them for the first time yesterday. I swear I never bothered about them. That is the trick here. The malls know the Nike trotting, Fossil timed, Levi Jeans SEC A good college educated Indian male does not go to girls’ store or near them. Its an ego thing you know!

Girls hang around there for a long time away from the gazes of “these male eyes”. You can get in only with your girl pals. Not with your boyfriend. Girls tend to be themselves here. A little bitchy, a little true and a little cruel. The pretty little things in these girl stores should prepare them for more bitchiness, cruelty and truth.

The girl stores made me weak and hurt my ego. Had to ignore them as a sign of respect for all the indian men who left it to their women – a public sanctuary. I leave it to the deserved ones.

The boyfriends and girlfriends can come to the infinity mall for some “no privacy” trip. I compeltely support PDA. I love to love women when things around me shows me and tells me “Life is good. Look at the NEW all around”. Kudos to infinity mall for promoting the beautiful idea of Public Display of Affection. It is affection after all – the ultimate truth of animalkind.

All malls need to have escalators. They don’t mind you walking away to death. But, no climbing stairs. And like Google, bigger spends do not guarantee best results. So like the jewellery store which gets a lot of crowd, there are other stores on other floors which gets good crowds. Malls are all about visibilty – infinity mall included.

The escalator takes you slowly upwards while giving you all excuse to stare at the beautiful bottoms and feel nice about it. No one minds it. All of them are staring bottoms – the mall escalators have a rather steep slope compared to airports. No one watches bottoms when travelling far in little time. They are all looking up at the sky most of the time. Even signboards at airports are rather tall. You need to look up to read them. SeCURITY CHeCK;.

The bottoms make me happy. I smile at times too. No one questions your smile at Infinity mall – afterall it is a happy place. The bottoms slowly disperse away at the end of the escalator giving way to a huge advertisement

“50% off on all kinds of juices. Big Bazaar welcomes you”

Well, I am not a juice person. Yet, I should just check it out. Don’t ask me why.

“Welcome sir!”

Whoosh – the door opens. Big Bazaar has its entry scene sorted out in a big way.

“Mumbai food fest! Anything cost you just Rs. 5″

I need a Vada pav.
Me – a mini sandwhich.
Pani puri

etc.

etc.

etc.

Junk food – not me. I am on a ghar ka khana trip. Good for me. I just need to walk in.

Perfumes!

“Good evening sir. Would you like to test something?”

“No dude! I am not buying. Do not waste your time. I am only looking at the deos.”

Rs. 149 – Oh I know them – Deo – Axe / Brut / other cheap ass deos
Rs. 199 – Mild / Strong / Lemony / Water based
Rs. 299 – Cologne / French names / Getting scared a little
Rs. 399 – I was blind to these brands / Beautiful glass bottles which may break if not careful
Rs. 499 – Beautiful perfumes … Oh they are cool … I should look more at these things in the future…… I could smell better now. The whole world smells of Axe…..

Female voice! “Sir – would you like to try something on?”

Smile!

Fades smile! Serious look!

There are basically five kinds of moods in a mall.

1. I am interested (very rare – salesmen should smell this mood)
2. I am busy (I like it. I don’t have money and I am not admitting it)
3. I need to leave (Its too much now. The crowd, the traffic, the boss, the life – all sucks)
4. I am a pretty bee (I am here. I will be here. I just like it here. I am so much a BEE)
5. FUCK YOU! (Insanity. Cruelty. Cannibalism. The prices here are obsene. 3000 rupees for a fucking t-shirt?)

“I am not buying. I am only looking at them. Please show me this one here. Yes, the beautiful blue bottle with French written on it”

“This is a mild minty smell. It intensifies your natural smell and makes you superior. I ll put some on your hand, wave and BLOW a cool air in a very non classy way that would make you hate me for on your hand”

I take a smell – Minty. Yes. I like it like that.

Plates, spoons, buckets, soaps, towels, pillow covers, bed sheets – the signs of a happy home. You can buy them here.

“VENGA BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN.
We like to party.
We like
we like
we like to party.
VENGA BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN.”

Happy tunes in the mall. I was wondering what made me so perfume and bucket friendly at Big bazzar. The happy tunes are making me stupid and buy these things here. Make me feel full again.

“We have ICICI credit card for you. Sign up and you get 1 Kg of sugar free for free”

A few more stores mostly clothes and more clothes. Brands, labels and Price tags. Measuring you with the money power.

An ego battle.

Minus 2000? Minus 5000? Minus 15000?

What defines you. How much can you take? A big minus on your bank account should not hurt you much. Well, you walk out smelling better, looking better and socially superior to the ones who does not possess the beautiful blue perfume bottle.

Are we still facing slavery? On a micro scale? Slavery from your bank accounts, your malls, beautiful french blue perfume? La belle Dame sans merci? Freedom struggle starts at home this time. I know it already. What? We are Slaves!!!

Step inside your home. Start your struggle for freedom.

Starts with two words.

CHILL OUT!