Words

tomorrow
🙂
i will be posting both of our birthdays pics and videos soon. been quite busy at office these days. but then, when am i not busy 😉
c ya soon
happy birthday dee
mwaaaaah

for three days on the trot, people around me will be celebrating my big day!

🙂

so, this three day event has taken off with a small cake cutting ceremony in the office. tomorrow, on the day, i’ll be having a family gathering at my parent’s place, with some of the closest friends present.

the day after, there is a big party at my place.

will be posting lots of pics and maybe, videos too here.

u keep in touch!

Just finished the movie ‘wanted.’ Starring Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and errr, the titles were in Russian. Sorry. Leave the movie apart, what I liked more was the theme. “This is me taking back control of my life,” says the hero in the last line.

Yes, you guessed right. The theme is, getting your life in your own control. Now I didn’t even like the thought. It was an afterthought that I liked. What would it mean to me, getting my life back in my own control?

We all are control freaks. Aren’t we? We want control over each and everything that surrounds us, defines us, shapes us. From the family we were born in to the spouse we marry, from the education we had to the career we’ve, from oil prices in the middle east to the grocery prices right next to us, all we crave for is more control. This desire for more control, we term as ‘wishes’ or ‘dreams’. I wish I was more rich, I wish I’d a better body, I wish my husband had a better paying job, I wish my wife wouldn’t beat me every time I did a mistake, I wish I’d food three times a day.

Not taking a silly Hollywood movie too seriously, all I want to know from you is what you mean by ‘taking your life in your own control’. Do you feel your life is in your own hands? If not, why? If yes, how? What are the things you feel would make you more in control of your destiny? Can you list them out? What are you doing about these things? And after you’ve listed them out, review them. Do you really need all of these things to make you feel more in control? And last, being the devil’s advocate, do you really need to be in control?

J

19:19 Tuesday, January 20, 2009

“Anyone who falls in love is searching for the missing pieces of themselves. So anyone who’s in love gets sad when they think of their lover. It’s like stepping back inside a room you have fond memories of, one you haven’t seen in a long time.”

• Kafka on the Shore
  

Have started ‘Dance Dance Dance’ by Haruki Murakami. Got it from my colleague Vipra, who herself didn’t read it beyond 8 pages. The first thing I normally do these days whenever confronted by a new experience is to look for it on Wikipedia, whether it is a movie or a book or a term. Found this quote on the Haruki Murakami resources site and liked it so much that have just messaged it to 40 of my friends. It’s also my wallpaper now. Just wondering how much of a technophile I’m. Am I? I think those who lament about the loss of good old letters and such, do not comprehend the opportunity that modern technology gives us.

Just look at this example. I have an opportunity to read a new author I didn’t hear of before. I go and search on the net for his book. I find it good enough to pursue it myself. Then in moments, the author’s quote has travelled to far corners of the country (I wish it was the world but I do not have ISD facility on my phone, and anyways my sms account is free ;), so that I’m sharing what I’m reading almost live. Now twitter has solved this problem too. Would it have been possible without the wonders of internet and sms? I’m a big fan of letters and post cards, but they are not quick enough for this kind of instant and seemingly trivial communication. I agree, people have shunned them in favor of today’s communication technology and I’m really sad about it. My point is, if one maintains a balance, and utilizes technology to its best possible outcome, it will only strengthen the existing relationships we’ve. But yes, if we substitute human interaction with tech. tools, then our relationships are sure to go down the drain. No phone call or sms or e-mail can beat the visit by a dear friend, but then neither did a postcard or a letter.

Now, in this long digression, I’ve forgotten what I initially wanted to say. Ah yes, I’d a tiring day. J Wanted to take proper rest, so came home early. One of the no-work days again. Devoted it completely to gathering information that I’ll be reading in the days to come. And the amount of data I’ve been collecting these days is sure to occupy many weeks if given detailed attention. Ummmm, I’ve many extensive reports on consumer insights in the healthcare domain; some leading intellectuals of the world talking about subjects ranging from dinosaurs to economics; emerging digital media trends and lots of information on infant nutrition and health. Seems I’ve been to world book fair and have come home with a truck full of books again.

We celebrated a dear colleague’s birthday at the office today. Hope to post the pics and videos soon. I was looking good 😉 as always. Anyways, I think you’ve read enough, must be tired by now. I take my leave, will meet again.

Cheers!

-adee

07:30, Tuesday, January 20, 2009

There can be no better start to a winter morning than with a cup of ginger tea in one hand and a book of ghazals in another. The first bleary-eyed page I came across gave me this gem:

तमाम दौलते-जान हार दी मोहब्बत में
जो ज़िन्दगी से लिए थे उधार क्या उतरें

बसाने-ख़ाक, सरे-कू-ऐ-यार बैठे हैं
अब इस मकाम से हम खाकसार क्या उतरें

You can read the complete ghazal here, on my other blog. The New Year has been a tough one till now, hectic but enjoyable. Almost the complete first week was spent in preparing for an extensive shoot of a series of audio-visuals for our biggest client, the Big N. After that came the mother of all pitches. The biggest one I’ve ever been a part of.

In advertising lingo, a pitch is a new business initiative, when the agency has to provide its creative, strategic planning and account servicing credentials to a future client on a given theme. If the agency performs better than its competitors, it gets the business (or account as we term it in our industry) from the client. The account we’ve pitched for this time is one of the biggest in Indian Healthcare industry. So, I do hope that we win this pitch. It surely involved a lot of back-breaking work with sleepless nights and zombied afternoons thrown in. I worked extensively with the senior mainline creatives which in healthcare is a chance that comes rarely. And to top it all, the person overseeing it all was our Asia-Pac creative director, amongst the top names in global advertising. Just two and a half hours in a crowded meeting room with him were better then two and a half months of work. I must say, I’ve learned a lot during this pitch. And I hope to apply all that learning to my future work.

Life has been comparatively relaxed for the last two-three days, but work is going to pick up again, sooner or later. Wellness has not been a top priority these days and am seeing the results now, will go to office with a very stiff neck. Cervical pain. Also trying to get my social life back in order. Two upcoming parties at home will surely help me with this.

Rest I really need to get back to the blogworld. And I’ve a surprise for you guys. Maybe in a week or so I’ll unravel it. So you better keep in touch.

Till we meet again, c ya!

-adee

check the complete list of finalists here:
believe me, this is manna from heaven 🙂

http://2008.weblogawards.org/site-news/2008-weblog-awards-finalists/

-adi

It is 11pm on the Wednesday that I leave office for the last time this year. I’ll be going to my parent’s house tonight, as I want to greet the New Year with them around me. They live only 15 minutes away, so I decide to take a walk. The office, which normally is full of night owls like me, is almost silent. I pack my bag, switch off my room’s light, sign the ‘out’ register, greet the guard on duty and open the big glass door leading out of the place. It was a year and a month ago that I walked in through this door for the first time. And after two rounds of interview, had joined in as a copywriter for this biggest healthcare advertising firm in India.

It is cold outside. I tighten the jacket around me while descending the stairs. The fog is much less tonight. For a moment I think about all the people out there celebrating the New Year’s Eve, some of them my friends and colleagues. Then I return to my own, thought world. I cross the outer parameter of the office complex, and step out into the outer world.

Just outside the complex is a jhuggi-jhopdi cluster, a group of 50-80 ramshackle dwellings, home to many people from the poorest sections of society. Mud or bricked walls, loosely jointed, roofs made with tarpaulin and then stacked over with the refuse of many, better off homes. I see children walking barefoot, their mothers washing utensils beside shared hand pumps, the male members huddled together around makeshift bon fires of twigs, trash and old newspapers.

I move further. Every Wednesday evening, a street market is held on the main road and pavements near this place. This is a common practice in this city. And am sure it happens throughout the unending weeks and roads of this country. In this part of the city, it is called a budh-bazaar, that is Wednesday market. These bazaars are held all over the city on different days, so there are Sunday markets, Monday markets and every day markets. Because the city is so big, am sure there would be similar bazaars happening simultaneously all over the city, on any given day.

The bazaar has ended by now. Vendors are packing up their merchandise. Shoes, snacks, toys, clothing, bed linen, lingerie, spices, dry fruits, pirated CDs, Chinese watches, plastic flowers, anything that a lower middle class family would need. It is cold and getting late, in half an hour these temporary shopkeepers would disappear into their respective corners of the city, happy or sad with the day’s sale and getting ready for another market in another part of the city the next day.

As I move on, towards my part of the city, I wonder about the futility of a New Year celebration. For the majority of people, it’ll be just another day that will end struggling for the most basic provisions of life. For the slightly better off, it’ll herald another year of drudgery, of paying the bills and saving the expenses that’ll mould their lives. Even for the most well off sections of the society, how much a difference it will make. They are partying tonight; tomorrow they will be up against the enemies of their good fortune. And they’ll be ready to lie, steal, and kill to protect it from the world.

With my head bent down against the cold I reach home. Ma is asleep, Pa waiting for me. I greet him, change into warm, comfortable clothes, snuggle up into a quilt and while having dinner, switch on the TV. Many countries have already greeted the New Year. I marvel at the thousands of dollars being spent on the fireworks, at least it doesn’t happen here. Australia, Korea, New Zealand, Japan… these too will have their share of poor people on the streets and in decrepit homes. I realize how similar the poor, and how alike the rich are, all over this world. I switch off the TV.