goingpast

cheesy donut

2011-02-18T19:35:00.001-08:00

Few minutes before the boarding call did my stomach start grumbling, did need my morning bite of something. Browsing through the small eateries in the new airport terminal came across MOD (mad over donuts). Full of those regular chocolatey, sugary donuts one could have missed that lone bystander. A white cheesy donut sprinkled with some oregano. The guy across the counter warned me of this funny thing being salty. That's exactly what I wanted it for. Got it warmed and cheese started melting. A dark coffee cup just made it a perfect start of the day.

sneak into...

2010-09-23T14:17:00.000-07:00

with the metro rail coming to gurgaon my interaction with people have suddenly gone up. though interaction in this case is not a chat up but observing them from a distance. it's interesting to be a part of the crowd rather play a role in forming the crowd and at the same instance being totally cut off from all of them. being in your own thoughts and motives, at times hiding behind a paperback in my hand i sneak into the lives of others travelling in the metro. at times act a bit bolder and shoot their portraits.

conversation

2010-09-17T01:12:00.001-07:00

with my newly found love for the delhi metro rail comes lot of other interesting stuff. like shooting strangers on the way. this one is from my first ride from gurgaon-rajiv chowk.

their body movement was so beautiful it seemed as if they are talking to each other without the use of words. their legs, their torso everything looked to be in sync with the others. both the guys where oblivious of the world around them, didn't care a shit if someone was shooting them.

it's gonna be the most fond memory of my first trip in the metro from gurgaon.

anay's architectural venture

2010-08-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

it was great to see anay building up this structure, for the first time he was seriously playing with blocks. today he realised for the first time that blocks can be set together to create something much larger than those little plastic blocks.

after setting each block he would stop and applaud for himself by clapping and looking at us expecting us to do the same. well we were more than happy to clap for him...

untitled

2010-08-24T12:10:00.000-07:00

absolut freedom

2010-08-05T13:44:00.000-07:00

2010-07-19T21:41:00.000-07:00

in the morning someone sent me this quote. it seemed to ignite a good start for the day.

goodbye

2010-06-30T22:50:00.001-07:00

at times goodbyes sound so final.

landscape 2

2010-06-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

self

2010-06-19T12:49:00.001-07:00

landscape 1

2010-06-19T11:30:00.000-07:00

solo

2010-06-17T11:00:00.001-07:00

one eyed man

2010-06-15T04:06:00.000-07:00

you need two eyes to appreciate a good picture, but just one eye to shoot a great one.
I better be a one eyed man creating art, than wasting two eyes in just admiring what other do.

the junk yard

2010-06-15T02:59:00.000-07:00

why do people want me to clean up the mess. it all looks so much in place. isn't it???

portraits

2010-06-14T22:08:00.000-07:00

a great day starts.

2010-06-07T04:18:00.000-07:00

first thing in the morning. my little son anay was sitting on my lap bitting on to bits of marie biscuit. no clue what came to his mind he started trying to put a few bits of the biscuit in my mouth. probably he was trying to copy me i.e the way i feed him or he was just bored and wanted someone else to finish the biscuit.

whatever his reasons were, it was an outstanding moment for me.

knock on my door

2010-05-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

Knock on my door, if I don't open
Bang on it, if I still don't open
Look from the window, if I'm inside
Pick a stone and break in

my latest possession

2009-04-17T01:20:00.000-07:00

the bird song

2009-03-25T04:44:00.000-07:00

eat till you die

2009-03-15T01:47:00.000-07:00

tomorrow is a sunday, nothing to be happy about. it's gonna be a working sunday. few of us i.e. the chosen few had asked to report at the advertising headquarters at the eleventh hour of the day and save the world from the wrath of our dear client (no names will be dropped over here). well life always give us two choices and today I
1) sulk sulk and sulk more about tomorrow being working.
2) enjoy the remaining part of whatever is left of the weekend, my saturday is not over yet.

so before i die in the battlefield of advertising i choose to have the day my way. do all those little things which i had always dreamt off. i pick up my list of "1000 things to do before i die" and somewhere on the 857th place i find scribbled with a faded pencil lead "cycling in chandni chowk".

Yes, here is what is going to be my last attempt to live a fuller life before ending it.

while making my wishlist i'm sure i intended to ride all the way to chandni chowk but in the given situation will have to opt for packing my cycle in the back of my car and driving all the way to daryaganj where i'll find a decent parking lot. so here i am on the way to daryaganj that will serve as the base camp. next to me is my navigator "D" though he has no clue of where we are heading for. both our bikes are safely kept in the back of my car. D has a bunch of grapes and a half eaten apple with him. i have limited supply of water. so we do a barter grapes for water. we manage enter delhi borders without being spotted by the vigilance. in another hour or so we reach daryaganj drive past a building with a signage of "delhi stock exchange", the condition makes it clear that it got bombed in the last war. we take a quick left turn after we crossed the said building and into the basement of probably the oldest multi level parking lot in town. maybe Humayun or Akbar had built it.

as we manage to find ourself a parking slot and take our bikes out of the car there are some people watching us and probably they are from another planet as they sleep in the darkness three storeys under the earth. D is amused. he has no clue about the catastrophe which gonna hit the world tomorrow. brochures, dangler, flyers everything gonna be designed for our clients new product launch. products which gonna change the world forever and ever. D is still not over his last nights hangover (he stinks of booze).

ok lets not get personal. we start riding our bikes finally. out of the parking lot and into the crowd, fast moving cars and slow moving minds. we cross the street take a turn go here and there then realise we are moving in the wrong direction. not much to worry cross the road and start riding towards turkman gate. the moment we cross turkman gate the world changes.

we are inside the Walled City of Shahjahanabad. it's not just any gate we cross we have crossed one of the eight gates of the city built shahjahan. we are not too sure about which way to go and often we take help from the locals. cycling is the second best mode of transport in purani dilli, walking being the best mode. walking is not only the best but the fastest way to travel here. the place has a perpetual traffic jam it seems. actually thats a way of life over here, the pace is such and people have happily adjusted to it. there are no stress lines on there foreheads as they stand and wait for the rickshaw to pass or maybe cow to finish eating from the garbage dump and give them way.

slowly yet steadily we pedal our way towards jama masjid. there is a constant flow of images and sounds around us nothing is static. the pace maybe slow but full of character.
it's not slow and boring.
it's slow and exciting.

it's like a movie set, changing at a rapid pace. D is intrigued i guess. i'm sure it reminds him of those "god old days" maybe some college memories. and soon we get absorbed in the crowd of never ending dilliwalas.
we are already hungry, not hungry because we are hungry, but hungry out of anticipation. yep, we want to have something to kick start our journey. and no sooner that we realise we are broke. not broke in the classic sense since we have enough credit limit and debit limit on our cards but the chaiwala and mathhiwala needs cash.

hehehe... we need to take a detour and find an atm at the earliest before our hunger pangs kill us. atleast we shouldn't die empty stomach. anyways we have around 10 buck between the two of us enough to fend for seven garmagaram nan khatais from the thelewala. atleast there we begin our journey. as we move we go past karim's and cross jama masjid in search of money the fragrance of freshly barbequed kebabs tickle our senses. it's like being in the ocean and dying of thirst.

ride past jama masjid and into dariba. a street full of goldsmiths. probably the 3rd, 4th or 5th generation sitting on the same spot and trading. did mumtaz mahal buy her earrings from the same lane. the narrow street opens up into a wider one, probably the widest in the puraani dilli. the street which at the time of shahjahan was the centre of trade and luxury. a canal used to run in the middle of the street with trees on both side. merchants from all over the world would trade here. somewhere i read cheetahs and tigers where tied to thick iron chains along the road side and sold like dalmatians and pugs. and this is the place where i found the first atm of the day. out of order is written in bold lettering outside the bank. across the road is yet another one. in next 20 seconds i'll read a similar sign over there. the third one is closed. had to walk for a couple of hundred yards to find an SBI ATM which was functional and had a long queue. long but not long enough. finally i'm rich. and now onwards we can call the shots. our next stop was annapurna mishthan bhandar the most famous bengali confectioner in town. must have been there for around 170 years or so. we grab a samosa each, these ssamosas are very different from the regular north indian samosas. these are crunchier and less spicier. and the filling of potatoes is also much more crisper than it's north indian cousin. it's a disgrace to annapurna if you walk out without tasting one of the sweets out there. we decide on having chamchams to sweeten our tongue. in one bite i prefer finishing the chamcham without wasting a drop of the juicy sugar syrup embedded in the soft and spongy chamcham.

we take a combined decision not to have anymore sweets as we need to have enough space in our tummy when we reach jama masjid area.

D must have heard about mirza ghalib somewhere and wants to pay tribute by visiting ballimaran. straight we go along the fine canal and the shaded trees of chandni chowk. surely the name chandni chowk suggest how romantic the place had been in it's glorious days.
on our way we stop at sunehri masjid go up it's terrace to take a view of shahjahanabad the way nadir shah would have done in the summer of 1739 when he ordered the massacare of delhi. not the best of the things to have happened to city, in a span of a couple of days he took away most of the riches of the city and left it half dead with around 10,000 corpses behind.
we are a bit too late reach Ghalib ki haveli, the museum closes at 5 o'clock and it's already past 6 PM. not too worry we have seen the lane which had been so glamourised in gulzar's depiction of the famous poet's life in form of a tele serial.

from ballimaran we bike towards jama masjid to complete the circuit and have our long awaited meal. D wanna do some shopping midway, won't get into details let him write a blog on consumerism if he wishes. i take advantage of the time in hand and order a glass of tea mind it a "glass" of tea not a "cup" of tea thats the local indian way. the tea was served malai maarke i.e. with a layer of cream on top. it was fun though wasn't the best of the tea, but surely a memorable one.

no more time to waste we are hungry. really hungry. don't think i'm kidding i really really mean it. a gentleman gives a us precise directions to reach jama masjid. exactly how to spot the lanes between to namkeenwala shop etc. no gps navigator could have been so presice. thanks to uncleji we reach jama masjid in no time. though enough of slow moving traffic on the way. but no delay because of confusions. wish we could have spent some time admiring the masjid. but our hunger pangs draw us toward one of the many restaurants near the masjid. here we are too hungry to check the name of the place. just the smell of food guides our way to the small restaurant. the keeper promises to keep a watch on our bikes parked outside. they are already a hit in puraani dilli. i'm sure there will be pictures of our bikes in tomorrows Times of Shahjahanadad.

soon the nihari is served in while dishes. syrupy liquid gravy with chunks of meat with rotis to be dipped in the syrup. what better we could have asked for before the world comes to an end. we also ordered for a roganjosh just to compare the tastes and beleive me don't even waste your time to do so. the nihari is awesome and beyond compare. soon we realised the restaurant doesn't have spoons, so either use the roti to pick the gravy or help yourself with your dirty fingers. now i realise how important is it to wash your hands before you sit to eat. mine had grime and grease from my derailed cycle chain. anyways i finally dipped my dirty fingers to the gravy. by now we are sure we can't have have anymore of anything. to many rotis. to many serving of mutton in different forms. sweets. malai maarke chai. naan khatai. lets not treat our tummy as our neighbours dump yard. need to bike for another twenty odd minutes and then drive all the way to gurgaon. though we are extremely tempted to have some sheek kababs. still we decide to stop it here and now. can't be unfit to be agile need to report in headquarters in the morning. we bade adieu to our host. pay them and move on. back on our bikes and off to turkman gate.

oops. need to rewind. that was not the end of our dinner. i wanted to flaunt to D how well i know about the place. and showed off by telling him about the famous (atleast famous in my mind) shahi tukda wala. i myself fell in the trap couldn't resist myself from having a plate full of shahi tukda layers of cream-bread-nuts-syrup and who knows what else. it was hard to push it down the throat as i had already stocked myself upto the brim. a drop more and it will spill out i thought, yet artfully i finished the shahi tukda.

and pedalled back to the dungeon in daryaganj to board our car and go gurgaon.

epilogue: past is past and present is future. long gone are the shady trees on the banks of faiz canal. had been facing the war of consumerism making some fancy danglers to sell some not to fancy televisions and microwaves. the bullets are whizzing past in form of mails from the client.

yet i am alive will eat like that maybe once again when the fear of death scares me again some other day in some other agency.

split personality

2009-03-11T07:00:00.001-07:00

the other half

2009-03-11T06:48:00.000-07:00

vacansopapurosophobia

2009-03-05T13:15:00.000-08:00

vacansopapurosophobia: the blank paper

i think tonight i came over the fear of the blank paper, the plain white paper that kept starring at me for such a long time. finally i managed to scratch, stain and kill the white paper. i don't want to tell people how long this fear had been ridding on my shoulder. i guess some people who know me, know it well. for the rest it was a long gap.

reflections

2008-12-26T01:21:00.000-08:00

things which are beautiful remain beautiful, even after some distortion and they make other things look interesting by their aura. yesterday i tried looking at some insignificant objects under the glory of jama masjid. and as i said jama masjid made everything else look interesting and beautiful. took a walk from the chandni chowk metro station to jawahar hotel. and on my way i kept collecting pictures of various objects with reflection of the mosque on them. even a small puddle in chawri bazaar jumped into life with the reflection of the spire of the masjid.

the junk of a spare part dealer started making artistic sense once i saw the reflection in a horn hanging there. the upturned mirror got lit by the magic of the mosque.

once in that area almost every where you can see the aura of that mosque, it's deeple embedded in every nook and corner of shahjahanabad. just that one needs to have the will and intention to see it.

surely for the past few centuries the mosque must have been enlightening people by reflecting in their day to day lives.

view from 15th floor Global Business Park, Gurgaon

2008-07-28T02:55:00.000-07:00

Hope

2008-05-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

Hope: after two months of working in this place I just realised that there is still some hope. Hope for the body copy to survive, hope for the malnourished ad to get enriched with a dose of finely crafted body copy. Two months since I joined I have been working on ads without bullet pointed copy. That’s like the speck of light in the other side of the dark tunnel.

2008-02-11T04:55:00.000-08:00

let people die of comfort.
i'm planning to live long.

wintry blacks

2008-01-23T00:40:00.000-08:00

standing and waiting for the valentine to arrive,
a perfect black wintry look,
post christmas and pre valentines blacks.

they are waiting on the window
for the first week of feb,
new red clothes will be put on them.

again they will be bright and gaudy.

till then they will wear wintry blacks.

small fish, in a small pond.

2008-01-22T04:42:00.000-08:00

i was bored of being a small fish in a small pond.

it stinks,

when a little pond gets overcrowded.

in anycase fishes do stink.

i decided to jump out of the pond.

took a deep gulp filled my lungs.

and jumped as high could be.

finally i'm lying outside the pond.

soon i will be out of breath, till then its fun.

it's fun to see the little pond from a distance,

it's fun to see the fishes fight among each other.

soon more fishes will come and stink will get stronger.

some of the little fishes will start suffocating and die.

but the little brave ones will jump out of the pond

and swim in the sea or land up somewhere besides me.

so that a wave will hit us and pull us all into the sea.

the water will be salty.

but no stink, no suffocation.

we all will be fighting the sharks for survival.

but it will be fun to be in the open sea.

i am scared

2008-01-21T03:16:00.000-08:00

i'm scared,

i'm scared of the threat calls.
threat calls made by some big honchos of the industry.
i can't put names since i'm shit scared.
as he has promised to ruin my career.

if i am not scared he will send a letter(s) all around making sure i get black-listed.

i can't take names as i'm shit scared.

specially after the threat calls i started receiving from unknown numbers.
i got more scared.

i am scared to know the big guys.

i am scared to have known them ever.

i am scared that i was ever friends with them.

i am scared of people who were friends.

only thing that makes me happy.
now i know who my foes are.

atleast something to live for.

something to nurture.

something i am not scared of.

love

2008-01-11T11:09:00.000-08:00

something i stumbled upon, don't know the name of the author. anyways thanks to the person. and sorry about stealing.

freedom

2008-01-11T06:01:00.000-08:00

freedom comes at a price,
but it's priceless.

2008-01-10T10:34:00.000-08:00

years pass by

2008-01-03T12:45:00.000-08:00

years have passed since i saw the pain in his eyes,
the wordless pain.

he would never ask for a thing,
neither would he be upset on my failure.

never did he try and achieve his dreams by
crushing one of mine.

he was just happy to see me happy=,
except those rare moments when one would be able to read his eyes.

and one day he just faded into silence.
and with him died his pain.

life moved on,
much later i realised not a single drop of tear did i shed for him.

but also i realised i owe it to him.

Myself Malkhan Singh Yadav

2007-12-25T12:13:00.000-08:00

“Good morning sir, myself Malkhan Singh Yadav. I am your guide for the day. We will go through the wildlife sanctuary and will be able to see some animals, you should have come a bit early to see them. Still if we are lucky enough we will spot few of them”.

That’s how my conversation started with Malkhan Singh Yadav our guide in Ken Ghariyal Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh.
On my asking about the possibility of spotting a alligator I got a curt answer
Sir, no guarantee…

Got a bit disappointed on getting the answer. Firstly the waterfall was all dry as there had been no rainfall in the last few years. Secondly the animals are generally not out in the open at this time of the day. To top it all no guarantee of alligator spotting. All this made me a bit doubtfull about our so called guide.

This time I was wrong maybe all that went wrong was actually for our own benefit. What we saw was much beyond our expectations.

Thanks to Malkhan Singh Yadav.

Well he took position in the back seat of our car. Sambit sitting next to me. And me enjoying doing a off-road with my sedan. As our drive progressed we were able to see some spotted deers and neelgais. And a running commentary about all those other animals which are residents of the jungle but probably feeling a bit shy to show up.

Well Malkhan Singh Yadav was nicely compensating for the loss we made in reaching late to the sanctuary. Told us enough to visualize how the place may look in it’s full glory. The drive was pleasant, specially because we seldom get to wear t-shirts in the middle december and here we were almost sweating.

Malkhan Singh is a native of a nearby village, done his basic education in a school in Khajuraho. Seeing the condition here I’m sure basic education is not so basic in that part of our country. And our man had to struggle hard to achieve the basics.

No matter what the condition of the jungle may be, he has a pride in everything related to the jungle and the fact that he is the official guide of the jungle, the river, etc…

There was joy on his face when he could finally spot an alligator for us. Though he had not guaranteed us success still he made it happen. Just before we would have turned back towards our car he and the mallah spotted the 10 feet long alligator. Though from a distance, but surely we saw the reptile. With full satisfaction we turned back towards the point where we started from - A waterfall without any water.

Once again Malkhan surprised us. By showing the rock formations in the river bed, he made us feel lucky that we came in a dry season or else we would have missed out on seeing the five different rocks that the depression in the river bed consists of, well by all means it was probably much better than seeing just another waterfall. Or else I would have never believed him with the story of the extinct volcanic eruption which had melted five different types of rocks in a single big mass around the dead crater.

What lies beneath is generally a myth. Somehow Malkhan Singh is person who doesn’t make stories rather show evidences. Or else I wouldn’t have believed that alligators existed in this sanctuary or five different rocks have fused into one or there is a crater below the water surface.

I got a bit inquisitive and asked him what made him get to the job of a guide in the sanctuary. Once again the answer was all about showing evidences. This was story helped me understand his approach towards his job and maybe life. How he takes pride in what he does. How he believes in proving things than just telling tales.

Malkhan Singh as a student left his village and went to Khajuraho for his schooling. As I had stated earlier it’s not so easy to get basic education in a village like this. Malkhan was not one of the privileged kids to get easy education. He had to earn his living since the school days. He had to do part time jobs to earn a stay in Khajuraho. In a tourist destination like Khajuraho, it must have been not so difficult for Malkhan to help out tourist showing around the town. Telling them little of whatever he knew about the place and earn a buck or two. In return he would not just ask for money but an entry in his diary about their experience with the amateur guide. This was the certificate he carried along for years with him. And one fine day when a Wildlife Sanctuary was being opened in a nearby jungle. Malkan Singh got his way through as one of the first recruits as an official guide. He had no formal education as a forest guide. And on being asked for a reason for them to hire Malkhan. He didn’t waste anybodies time with stories, but provided evidence that he had collected over the years. Evidence about what lie beneath the surface of being a simple village school boy. Evidence of a guide called “Malkhan Singh Yadav”.

2007-12-05T00:31:00.000-08:00

The moment we force grammar to fine art we start suffocating it.
Discipline should be there but in it’s natural form.

saving the world

2007-11-25T22:06:00.001-08:00

in order to save the world from global warming
i went on a 18kms - cycle trip in new delhi,
to reach the destination i burnt around 5 ltrs of fuel.
just to carry my bike in my car.
hoping one day we'll have roads to go all the way on bicycle.

without pay

2007-11-20T02:12:00.000-08:00

everybody is aware of the status of school teachers in bihar. how they have been committing suicided since they haven't been receiving salaries from years now. people have forgotten or atleast trying to forget such incidences.

i overheard a similiar story taking place in punjab, government school teachers going without pay for months.

is this a cumulative effort to eradicate education.

BRAHMAN BASTI

2007-11-20T01:35:00.001-08:00

on my way to chandigarh from anandpur sahib i came a cross a road sign, which reminded me of all those "harijan basti" signboards scattered over - all big and small towns in our country.

just the difference is finally someone realised brahmins are just a part of the society like everyone else and not the society itself.
a delightful change.

Think less...

2007-11-11T23:12:00.000-08:00

Average human brain uses 20% of the total oxygen from the body.
And enough energy to light up a 20watt bulb.
Think less save the world.

Bad company

2007-10-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

Good singers and good writers are the worst company,
they keep reminding me of my incompetence.

The one eyed man

2007-10-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

I would rather be a one eyed man creating pictures,
than spending two eyes and a lifetime just admiring what others do.

simple, easy and powerful brand identity

2007-10-18T10:44:00.000-07:00

probably thats what attracts clients to check out m&c saatchi.
everybody expects the agency will do a similiar magic to their brands.

I apologise

2007-10-09T09:08:00.000-07:00

I apologise to the construction site worker, the carpenter, the
rickshawala, the vegetable vendor, the milk-man, the painter, the
plumber, postman, the factory worker, the newspaper delivery boy, the jamadaar, the guy who washes my car, the security guard.

Yes. I apologise to all those who go to work on a bicycle. today i tried doing the same in effort realised how a bicycle riders is treated on the road.

His fuel, his power, is unmatched to any other in the world.

India in Vogue

2007-10-04T07:17:00.000-07:00

finally the Indian edition of vogue have hit the market. Does that mean a boom in fashion sensibility of the Indians. Or just a mode to push western brands in India as often people think/know that Indians have enough money but not the taste for fashion. So here we are to tell you what is the most fashionable thing to wear.

but who is it for, is it for the public who was reading a cosmo or a femina for leisure and lifestyle or for the niche crowd who are really into fashion and are used to the foreign editions available at khan market for 600 bucks. will they be happy shifting to the Indian edition available for 100 rupees. will it match up to there class.

will it still be taken so seriously. or become a commodity. people who can afford still prefer buying a levis, gas or diesel from Europe or America rather than from the Indian stores. there is some kind of an desi association once its available for cheap.

very typically of the Indian mindset, we are assumed to be people with less class, its assumed we want more out of every penny we shell out. It is assumed we are confused so show us more of options surely we will understand or connect to one of them.
Yes. that is why our Vogue cover have six women than the classic international vogue with one picture. all the six trying too hard to attract the public and sort of fighting for space. to me it seems that the magazine was too confused or been paid by different PR agencies to have the face of their client on the cover.

so is “vogue” going to decide the future of fashion in India, who knows, i just hope they should be able to decide on a face for their next issue.

p.s.: if you can go past the cover, the content is not bad for a 100 rupee magazine some good shoots can be seen alongwith some decent article. just that you have to look for the content page as it is hidden somewhere in between ads. and the editors letter on 55th page (guess a bit to early for the debut edition).

the body copy

2007-10-02T06:59:00.000-07:00

"the body copy" - a bunch of words lying somewhere under the headline and above the baseline.
so whats the big deal. often the art-director prefers an ad without the body-copy as the copy just eats out the available space. or maybe according to some its better to replace it by some dynamic bullet points which say everything much clearly and also tell the fact "Hey! look here i'm trying to sell".

yes. the body-copy is dying a slow death. even the old timers will not realise when it died. because there's nothing heroic in such death. i would have prefered a more heroic death for our old buddy "the body copy". it would have been great to see the art directors association hanging it till death. atleast a death sentence would have made "the body copy" immortal. even better would have been a day that the bullet points would have come and stabbed the body copy.

but thats not the fate of our old friend. a friend who used to guide the consumer from the headline to the logo/baseline in a smooth way like a friend not a salesman.

creative heads have passed the judgement (without putting it in black & white) that no ads can enter the awards if it has a body copy of more than a line.

well have those creative heads, art-directors and clients ever given a shot in writting a few words of an ad without making it look like a vegetable vendors call.

i think everybody who hates the body copy atleast once in his life try and write one. only then they will think twice before discarding or disrespecting the next body copy coming thier way.

banoffee pie

2007-09-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

after the cheese cake success story she decided to put her mind, body and soul to prepare a banofee pie. simply put banana + toffee pie. its much simpler said than done. though i did not help her in her quest to make a wonderful banoffee, non the less pestered her enough to make sure i get it on by the evening. well as she puts it "thats my return gift to you all" as that was the day of her birthday. lucky me i got a large chunk of the return gift without actually giving a gift on the first place. well as people say बहती गंगा में हाथ धोंना ।

well, since yesterday i have been day dreaming of the banoffee pie to made by our in-house master chef. finally in the afternoon could get a glimpse of the hypnotic dessert. yep the way slices of banana's were placed in concentric circles it was hypnotic. and what it what was hiding beneath was yet to be discovered. spent the entire afternoon in anticipation of what it would taste like (as this was my first banoffee pie).

finally by the evening we got the green signal, soon we'll be putting whipped cream on top of the banoffee. oops! but who stole my cream. actually probably we forgot to get the cream. and this is where i played my role going place. running between my home and the grocery store. finally we got three different pack of cream of three different expiry dates. but all of them expired.

as the decision was being made to wait for a day and get fresh cream probably the decision makers could see my lustful eyes all drooling to have a bite of that pie.

and they took pity on me. finally we replaced the whipped-cream with ice-cream.

well after the first bit i realised cream or no cream, hardly makes any difference.

it was a perfect indulgence in itself. now i came to know the fresh slices of bananas were hiding a some creamy core supported by a crunchy crust. all this in one bite.

well i won't be sharing the recipe. as i don't want to share good things with strangers.

surely you can go to the nearby bakery and if are lucky enough get a such a slice for yourself.

कल हमारा है

2007-09-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

क्यों कहते है की " कल हमारा है "
जब कल आता ही नही

blogging

2007-09-27T12:04:00.000-07:00

if blogging is rocket-science, i guess i'll soon fly.

friends

2007-09-27T11:38:00.000-07:00

often we spend time looking for friends on orkut, on facebook. friends from the bygone years. we add the to our friends list in msn or yahoo chat.
and then they become just some silent inactive names in our list.

what exactly do we want. why do we add people to our lives if we don't want them to be.

is looking for old aquaintances a fad?

"hey! i found my childhood crush on orkut, its so cool"
after that we look at her honeymoon pictures and stop scrapping her. what did we expect. don't we look into the mirror haven't we changed. how boring probably we have become.

then why don't we expect the world to change around us.