Grenoble city and Alps

Fanta ad: More Fanta, less serious

In the series of new ads for cold drinks, Fanta's new animation ad is interesting. Fanta has been doing most of the ads in animated version possibly going with their theme "More Fanta, less serious". The ad is seriously addictive. Initially, one does not care to watch or listen this ad. Although the animation is fantastic, it does not catch your attention as things are happening at such a faster speed, confusing you for an instant what's actually happening in the ad.

But then slowly the catchy music starts getting attention, and even though you don't understand a single line, you start humming with the ad. Once the music grabs your attention, you start looking at the ad more carefully. As said, animation is fantastic. Ad has an instant of a story where a girl has Fanta and people around are ready to exchange their favorite things against Fanta with the girl. The ad act as a slow poison and once you are into it then the music and the lyrics (if you can understand) will keep hovering in your mind the whole day. I tried to understand the lyrics a lot but did not succeed completely. Here is what I could understand and rectify if you understand better:

---------------------

Orangi naughty babu, orangi naughty
Hai, ye le mera skateboard
Fanta fenk meri aur
Bhau bhau karta re
Bolele par fenta de de
Fenta de de
Fenta de de
Mera bhopu vala van
Tere fanta ka fan
O!
Dekho orenagi taste hai
Fanta mera best hai
Jitna chahe utana piyo, dil hi bhare na
Fanta, fanta, fanta se bhare
Orangi baba, mast mast mast fanta ke
-----------------------

Light Festival in Lyon

Every year in the month of December, Lyon organizes four day light festival called Fete de Lumiere. Whole city glows with different colors and different forms of light.  

A still from Place Bellecour with the statue of Louis XIV at the center

Thums Up: Aaj kuch toofani karate hain

A new ad by Thumbs Up has started airing on TV recently. 

USP of this ad is solely the Salman Khan

Thumbs Up has been advertising on the lines of  "Aaj kuch toofani karate hai" for past some time.But it did not really caught attention of the audience as expected.

Now, with Salman Khan as the central character, these words have got some weight.

Frankly speaking the concept of the ad is really ridiculous.

Salman and his friends go to a shop to buy Thumbs Up, which apparently is out of stock because the truck carrying Thumbs Up is stuck in traffic.So, Salman in his unique style thinks different and hires a helicopter to pick up the truck out of the traffic and drops it in front of the shop.

So, in short, its easier to get a helicopter than a Thumbs Up bottle.

But as they, anything sells under the name of Salman Khan. Even, this concept.

The picturization  of the ad is also not very impressive.

The music and the lyrics of the song are catchy though.

The lyrics are pretty much like this:

--------------------

Sine main hain chingariyan 

Jo thodasa barood bharate hain

Khudse hi hum hairaan hon

Hungame wo kar gujarte hain jo

Aaj kuch toofani karte hain

Aaj kuch toofani karte hain

----------------------

Towards the end, Salman in his Dabang style tries to relate the concept of the ad with the words:

"Toofan sabke andar hota hai, bus dhakkan hatane ki der hai"

which I must say sounds rather impressive in his voice and style.

Have fun with Thumbs Up....... Taste the Thunder

Sahyadri

Mahindra XUV 500: Hum hain Rawan

A breathe taking ad for nature lovers, wild life lovers, trekkers has been brought by Mahindra.

An ad for Cheetah inspired  Mahindra XUV 500.

The ad depicts a group of three friends sitting at home when one girl in the group while going through a book of  wild voyage stumbles upon a page that instinctively make the group go on  a Safari.

What follows then is a beautiful encounter of  Wild Life, while travelling in XUV 500.

After searching a lot and disappointed, just when they were loosing hope, they encounter what they initially started their journey looking for, a free spirit Cheetah just in front of XUV 500.

This is one of the most amazing ads I  have come across recently.

I find every thing perfect in this ad.

The group of friends instantly reminds you and takes you back to the days of "Dil Chahta Hai" and their instinctive trip to Goa.

Back ground music piece is amazing.

Its a dream of every nature lover or wild life lover to be able to go on such Safari and encounter something otherwise unbelievable.

I don't remember, when was the last time, I was mesmerized by beautiful lyrics in a ad before.

Here are the lyrics as I understood:

-------------------

Hum hain rawan

Dil hai jawan

Nai rah hai

Naya asman

Udate pankhon ke nishan

Karte hain hamse ye bayan

Hai  sun ye dastan

Yeh dastan-----------------

Kya pata kaisa ye jadu

Hawaon mai halchal

Gungunati jamin hai

Ga rahe badal

Ye dastan----------

Haan ye dastan

Hum hai rawan

ho--, Dil hai jawan

hai jawan

Dundhe jisco hai nazar

Har jagah har mod par, darbadar

Na milte milte woh mil gaya

Mil gaya-----

Haan voh mil gaya

----------------------

The ad has actually been successful in not only grabbing the attention of the audience towards its product but also in igniting an urge to probably go and buy XUV 500. If not for any other reason, I will probably end up buying XUV 500 because of this ad and the dreams it has portrayed in front of my eyes.

The ad beautifully depicts what it mean with the tag line for Mahindra, "May your life be full of stories".

Misty Morning

Mumbai Monorail

Few days back, to be specific, February 18, 2013, many people witnessed the trial run of the Monorail that would start running regularly in coming few months between Chembur-Wadala- Jacob Circle, a route of nearly 19 kms.

People who either reside in this area or who often pass through this region get really curious while watching those tall, slim and parallel  routes that passes over their head. Everybody must be eagerly waiting for Monorail to start running on the track. 

Monorail will provide Mumbaikars with another option to travel and will try to ease burden on the local trains in Mumbai. 

But how much ease it will provide is a matter of question. I read somewhere, that the number of people who travel in Mumbai local trains during peak hours of a working day is equal to the population of Belgium. With relatively less capacity and many restrictions to follow, how much support it will provide to local train is yet to be understood.

The trial run of 1 km on February 18  discussed few issues. Apparently the AC system has still not been standardized. But it is not a big issue and will surely be sorted out.

The trip as suggested by some reporters was little bit shaky and so possibly little uncomfortable. 

The cost of travelling is apparently cheap. Minimum ticket is just Rs. 8 while the maximum is Rs.22 which means Monorail is easily accessible to normal people and there might be heavy crowd turning towards Monorail who wants to avoid crowded trains.

How Monorail will try to tackle that situation.

Since Mumbai people are used to travel in anyhow situations in locals, they might bring the same habits while using Monorail. Is Monorail efficient enough to cope with those habits or will it try to break those habit and set up a new system.

Finally, do they have plans to extend the facility on other routes earlier designed or they plan to put a halt on the extensions as rumors are suggesting.

Time has all the answers.

Little bird waiting

I say no to sab chalta hai

My earlier post ended with  a suggestion of having compulsory lessons to groom the concept of "Say NO to sab chalta hai" attitude.
I actually happen to come across something displaying an ad about a contest with the name " I say NO to Sab Chalta Hai".
I went with the title of the contest without exploring what this contest is all about, while I mentioned the contest in my post.
Later on I decided to explore it with a thought, that the contest might actually be doing what I just mentioned in the post.
Guess, I was wrong. You may read more about the campaign here:
http://www.isayno.in/rules.php
Contrary to my imagination, the contest is restricted to the choice of different consumer products.
This campaign has been started by the Performance Materials Division of Merck. The theme behind the campaign is to make consumers aware of the fact that they don't have options in choosing the products they need. What ever options are provided to them, they are restricted to use them.
It indirectly means that consumers do not have the control on the quality of the product and as a result they end up using products with low and unsafe products.
The campaign urges the customers to say "NO" to such products and in turn demand for the products with good quality.
The main target fields of the campaign are the beauty products and hazardous chemical based products.
More information about the basic theme behind launching such a campaign can be found at:
http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/Merck-India-launches-SAY-NO-To-Sab-Chalta-Hai-social-campaign/5582276161
I think with in its range the campaign has thoughts worth appreciating.
But I wish to urge people to extend the theme of this campaign "SAY NO to sab chalta hai" in all different runs of life.
It is our this attitude that is keeping us behind. whether it is the case of terrorism or development or poor governance, we are all responsible to this and only by changing our attitude of sab chalta hai we can bring some change.

Setting Sun hiding behind the clouds

                                    Have a Happy and Blast free Weekend

Hyderabad blast: and here they go again

After a break of 6 silent months, the new season of bomb blasts is back in the Country.
6 months back, the target was Pune, that unfortunately turned into failed attempt, thanks to the nature toning down the bombs efficiency.
Over last 6 months, we thought, OK, we are back on the path of peace.
We involved ourselves in our favorite time pass, Cricket.
We got so much relaxed and assured in everything is alright now, that we even invited Pakistan to play one day series. And as soon as we put  the hands of friendship ahead, we were back stabbed with infiltration and brutal killing of our 2 soldiers in our own land.
Few good things did happened though.
Finally, our two uninvited guests Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru,who were enjoying Government facilities at our cost were hanged till death.
While rest of us considered it as a day of celebration, we heard some voices against this act. The curfew like situation in the state of Kashmir is beyond my ability to think sanely.
And now this Hyderabad twin bomb blasts is nothing but the after effects of those two big decisions.
While our Home minister is busy classifying terrorism in different colors of the spectrum, terrorists are busy in planning out different terrorist activities across the Country.
I don't understand how our system works,or does it at all work.
Apparently, an information of possible attack was provided by the intelligence 2 days back itself. But our security personnel were lethargic as usual.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Hyderabad-blasts-Despite-alert-police-fail-to-protect-people/articleshow/18620814.cms
May be next time, the information from intelligence should be directly provided to the public cutting out the police. This might create some chaos in the beginning. But considering the fact that our Country gets so many threats at regular intervals, the public will get used to it and learn to be careful on their own and take necessary steps and precautions when any such alert is provided.
I am amazed to read this news, where the police instead of  taking immediate action on the blast, are fighting over the jurisdiction.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Hyderabad-blasts-Police-fight-over-jurisdiction-after-blasts/articleshow/18620635.cms
Are the rules related to Jurisdiction so much stringent that Police prefers to sort that issue before taking any action. Can they not just handover the information and clues obtained?
But what can we say? We are also a part of the same society and all of us have this attitude of "Chalta hai yaar".
We seriously need a compulsory teaching on "Say no to sab chalta hai" and not just a campaign. 

Pepsi ad: Jina hai abhi

With the Summer, knocking at the doors, different cold drink houses have started airing catchy advertisements on TV.
Pepsi has a new ad running for almost 1 minute 30 seconds with some big names like Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, M. S. Dhoni  as attractions.

Theme of the ad: Jina hai abhi, abhi ke abhi.
Ad begins by introducing the theme in Ranbir's voice:

dil ka kaha sunana, to jarurat kya hai dekhana
jeene ka maja lena ho, to muhurat kya dekhna

followed by 2 lines by Priyanka Chopra:

jis waqt jo dil kare vo tabhi kyon nahi
isi waqt, isi jagah, abhi kyun nahi

And then it continues with following lyrics ( As understandable to normal human ears) :
ho jaye abhi, abhi ke abhi
ho jaye abhi, abhi ke abhi
ho jaye abhi, khwab sabhi, isi waqt, isi jagah, yahin pe abhi
oh yes abhi
haan, bas abhi abhi
khwab sabhi
le jine ka maja, abhi ke abhi

And while all this is said and sung, a football player is dying to go on the field and hit a goal, a girl wants to get a makeover, another wants a tattoo, Priyanka is desperate to go on the stage and perform, Ranbir is stuck in Traffic desperate to move and eat Bhel, panipuri while Dhoni is hitting the last six of World Cup 2011.

The ad goes on boast about the "go, get it" attitude of the young generation.

It ends with transfer of Pepsi bottle and hence the message from Ranbir to some other guy

"jina hai abhi, pina hai abhi"

The ad doesn't seem to be making a mark on viewer's mind in spite of all the big names. Somehow, the Pepsi ads with  Indian Cricket players in Blue dress has been more appealing.
In this ad also, Dhoni's dance is the best part and surprisingly his act appears quite natural.
On the contrary, the actors Ranbir and Priyanka's performance is shallow.
While Ranbir's run looks erratic, Priyanka doesn't seem to be fitting in the role of  singer. She could not bring that attitude.
Though filled with big names, this ad fail to grab attention of viewer.

Bharti axa insurance ad: Suraksha ka naya nazaria

In the series of ads based on old songs as back ground, another interesting ad comes from Bharti Axa Insurance.
The classic melody "Aap yahan aai kisliye?" attracts your attention right from the word "Hello". The back ground is somewhat like a Government office, possibly a jibe at another most successful insurance group in India.
An old kind of guy comes in the office with some letter received from the insurance office. And then with every new line coming from the song, events are unfolded revealing all the cumbersome activities you need to do under the name of formalities. It  looks really good how the ad tries to connect the activities with the lines said.
The ad goes on explain how Bharti Axa insurance provides an alternative route to this unnecessary and cumbersome activities.

Using their tag line, "Suraksha ka Naya Nazaria", it offers the option of dedicated client handlers.
So, you won't need to run around offices, but their client handler will come at your door step and help you with the client settlement process.

The ad is worth watching for many reasons. First of all, comes the old melody.
Second, the way ad is portrayed on the lines of the wordings of the song makes it interesting.
Finally, the expressions of actors and events makes it a good ad

Women's Cricket World Cup 2013 Champions - Australia

Women's Cricket World Cup 2013 final was held on Sunday.
The two finalists Australia and West Indies had just met each other in previous match, which West Indies won and qualified for the finals to play once against Australia.
For Australia, it was pretty much a practice match and to weight their potential final competent. Though they lost that match, but apparently succeeded in finding out the weaknesses of West Indies.
On Sunday, in the finals, Australia won the toss and elected to bat first.
Their decision was right with 2 initial half century partnerships which they managed to build up with a strong batting performance by Cameron (75 runs).
The final score of  259 was a competent one.

West Indies was not able to fight back. They don't had a good start and the wickets kept falling at very short intervals. Even the star player Deandra Dottin could not help West Indies to get going.
Finally, whole team collapsed at a score of 145 runs.

Australia won with a big difference of 114 runs. Australia is Women' Cricket World Champions

Jess Cameron (Australia) was the player of the match while
SW Bates of New Zealand was the player of the series.

I am not sure how many people followed this Cricket series. But I believe even if half of Cricket followers who are eagerly waiting for India -Autralia Test Series starting on 22nd of this month, have followed this series, it is a success.

I hope by next World Cup Women's Cricket will take a better shape and it will have a bigger fan following.

Drinking water fountain - Geneva

SBI ad: Valentine's day centered

I wrote about an Idea ad, based on Valentine's day. Guess I opted for a wrong ad that day. Instead I should have talked about this ad coming from the SBI Life Insurance.

If we compare the two ads, background is pretty much similar. While the old man in Idea ad brought a rose as a gift, here, its diamond.

While the old lady in both the ads criticized the move by the old man, what's different in the two ads is how they end.
The Idea ad ended with the old lady still in the negation mood preferring a Cauliflower over rose, in this ad, the old man persuades the old lady to accept the gift giving a very sweet reasoning
"but how is the diamond to know your age"



With this reasoning it beautifully tries to connect the situation with the theme behind the ad and the scheme offered by SBI.
So, SBI is offering a scheme

"SBI Life Insurance's Lifelong Pensions Plan"

which supports the theme,

"So that the lack of money doesn't come in the way of love"

I think it is a very beautifully captured advertisement and should surely connect with the audience immediately.

Meteor fall in Russia

Did you hear about the Meteor fall in Russia?
Apparently a meteor of the size of  a Bus entered the atmosphere of the earth at a speed of nearly 33000-40000 miles/hr (~ 54000kms/hr). It exploded about 30-50 kms above the surface of the earth which was fortunate for the residents of the city of Chelyabinsk with a population of ~ 1 million people.
The force of this explosion was as large as 20 times that of Hiroshima bomb.
In spite of the fact that it exploded nearly 30-50 kms above the surface of the earth, 1100 people were injured because of the after shock wave generated out of the explosion. In the same explosion would  have taken place a little later more nearer to the surface, the devastation would have been severe  as that Hiroshima or Nagasaki bomb explosion.
The force of this explosion was as large as 20 times that of Hiroshima explosion.
Apparently there was an asteroid which was supposed to pass Earth around at the same time, but these two planetary motions have no connections.
Seems people had relaxed a bit considering that 2012 is over without any natural calamity other than Japan's earth quake. But this incidence had once again brought in attention the destructive nature of the nature's forces.
Read more about the incidence at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/meteorite-falls-in-russias-chelyabinsk-region-damage-and-casualties-unclear/2013/02/15/7041c0c8-7732-11e2-b102-948929030e64_story.html

Check a Hollywood level video of Meteor falling:

Lise Meitner: An Unsung Scientist

I happen to read a Marathi translation by author Vina Gavankar  of a book name "Lise Meitner, a life in Physics" by Ruth Lewis Sime.


Its about an Austrian Woman Scientist Lise Meitner.
Have you heard  this name before. I am pretty sure not, unless, you are closely related to the field of Atomic Structure and Radioactivity.
Some body suggested me to read the book mentioning about a scientist who was really responsible for the world to know "Nuclear Fission" and a Scientist who was nominated for Nobel prize 15 times but never received it.
  Though am closely connected to the field of research, even I had never heard of this lady and so I decided  to give it a read.

Although I am not sure how much justice the translated version has done to the original book, the translation was easy to read through. Sometimes, it feels like confusing for the reader and some times appeared contradicting words mentioned earlier. But that is a personal opinion probably coming out of failure to understand the context and loosing continuity. But, it was a great opportunity to read the book and known an important yet pretty much unknown Scientist.

Life of Lise (originally Elise) was full of struggles and mostly a fight to get a recognition. In spite of her great talent, she wasn't allowed to enter college because she was a girl. She started taking higher education at the age of 23, after a gap of almost 9 years. But her interest in Physics and Music helped her to continue working.
 After finishing Ph.D, she was struggling to get a position, because it was not common then for a woman to have a position. Until the age of 35, she was pretty much working on her own with financial assistance received from her parents.
She made some major contribution in the study of alfa and beta radiations and if we decide to believe the book, She was the first one to reveal the concept of nuclear fission.
She was praised by Albert Einstein  as the "German Marie Curie".
All her life she had to struggle either for being a Jew, or for being a Woman, or for being a guest in a Foreign land. She dedicated nearly 30 years working in Germany but had to run away to Sweden at the beginning of World War II. Her one time best friend and colleague Otto Hahn, a Physical Chemist, unable to understand the concept of Nuclear Fission, and explained to him by Lise, was in the end given all the credit  for Nuclear Fission. Even the instruments designed and developed by Lise were kept in Museum under the name of Otto Hahn. It took year 1990 to arise  when due credit for the instruments were given to her.
Lise did made some mistakes which possibly are partly responsible for her struggling life. She had an opportunity to move to Copenhagen, Denmark, when many German Scientist  like Einstein were moving out of Germany against upcoming Natzi government. But she denied moving out of Germany giving preference to her ongoing research work.
Later on, while in Sweden, when she was struggling with position and facilities, she had an offer to move to England, but she wasn't keen to again shift to a new place.

In later part of her life she did received lot of felicitations and  awards, but in spite of big recommendations, she  never received Nobel. Though, every body knew her contribution to Nuclear Fission, it was always denied to her, while Hahn got one in 1944.
But some where down the lane, she was rewarded better by giving her name to a new element with atomic number 109, Meitnerium.
So, anybody ever come these books, do give it a read and understand the difficulties she faced and inspite rose to such a height.

Meritnation.com: top the scores, pop the laddu

I came across this ad for meritnation.com airing on TV for some time.
May be some people will find it appealing but it did not impressed me. Let then it be its presentation or content or concept, nothing attracted me.

What is the concept of this ad?
In their words,
"to have the laddu, score more.
log on to meritnation.com and get help on your daily studies through multimedia tutorials, interactive exercises, practise tests, expert help.
top the scores, pop the laddu"



The ad shows a cut-throat competition among students to be a topper in merit list and portrays this top position in the form of Laddu. Now all I could understand out of the ad is, it is ok to demean others success and snatch their joy (aka laddu) even out of their mouth.
While many of the states in India like Maharashtra have stopped releasing the merit list to avoid the unnecessary competition and suicide of the students who fail to make it to the list, how is this ad helping?
While we watch movies like "3 idiots" and understand that its not about being a topper, but understanding the subject is more important, how is this ad helping?

I think the ad fails to portray the concept and intentions of meritnation.com properly.
If you again read their words, its the second line (orange) which actually should be forcefully put, but all efforts go on to highlight the third line (yellow) telling you to snatch the joy out of others mouth.

Agreed that their is cut-throat competition in the world and you have to be on your toes all the time, but, what good is it going to do by imbibing this idea in kids mind.

Some thing to think over for every body.

Idea ad: Valentine's day special

Idea has brought a new ad considering Valentine's day in mind.
"Umar jo bhi ho pyar ka izhar karana ek achha idea hai"  is the theme of this ad.
It shows an old couple getting into a conversation when the old man offers a rose to the lady. It goes on to show how Idea message gave the old man an idea to express his love for the old lady although his body language and his responses in the conversation doesn't follow his actions naturally and makes you realize, it is his first ever attempt to express his love for the old lady.

The ad ends with a funny note where the lady wished to have received a Cauliflower coming at the same price as red rose.



The ad does try to give a different perspective and so it falls in its tag line's range "What an idea Sirji".
But somehow it does not ring a bell. It has nothing to make a viewer watch it again. People might even miss fact the that this ad comes from Idea, if they miss the shot showing message from Idea wishing Valentine's Day. After a successful ad campaign of  Honey Bunny (though it was not an inspiring one), this ad is not good enough to be on same level and so would fail to attract viewers. I would personally skip this ad.

But for those who are looking for some really good ideas, here are some:

Renault Scala: Its time to step up

        A lot of new ads with old movie song as a background have started airing on TV now a days. Among these, the ad for Renault Scala tops the list.
        This ad has a remix version of an old song, "Yeh Dosti, hum nahi chhodenge". I must say it catches the attention of anybody in the hearing range of TV and makes them take a look on the ad. I think this song is the USP of the ad.
        After the successful attempt of gaining attention of the viewers/listeners, the theme of the ad is slowly revealed through 4 characters in the ad. Three kids see a new student in the school arriving in Renault Scala. They apparently are too much impressed by the look of the car and thus starts a series of instances giving him preference over themselves right from offering their ice cream to him to giving their number in cue in toilet to allowing him bat in spite of his pathetic abilities.
       And what they get in return is to enter in Renault Scala and and  enjoy a ride.This basically is the theme behind the ad, which is revealed in the end,

 "The world will do whatever it takes to get into the new Renault Scala. Its time to step up."

        The ad clearly explains the first line of the theme, but the second line, which actually is its tag line, does not come out clearly.
        Personally, I watch or rather listen this ad because of the 45 seconds melody it has. I just have a feeling though that it doesn't go well with the theme. But, it succeeds in showing the magic of the car that can make a person do anything just to enter into the car.

Mars Rover Curiosity: new milestone achieved

                                         Artist view of Mar rover Curiosity on Mars. Picture taken from :
                                    (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/building_curiosity.html)

Every body is aware of Mars rover Curiosity by now.
Its a Car sized robotic rover which was launched from the surface of earth in November 2011 and landed on the surface of Mars after travelling  563,000,000 kms in a period of approx. 9 months. The location on Mars where the rover landed is known as Aeolis Palus in the Gale Crater.
It in itself is an achievement that the Scientists succeeded in landing an unmanned vehicle on a surface so far away from Earth.
It is expected that Mars rover Curiosity will successfully deliver its goals that revolve around gaining information related to the geological and climatic features of Mars, possibility for life sustaining environment and existence of water, to name a few.
You can read more about its design and constructions and other details related to  Curiosity at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_(rover)

Few days back Curiosity made a history by drilling a hole on a surface other than Earth. Though its first drill is not deep enough ( 2.5 inches deep and 0.63 inches wide), considering it being a first and test drill, it is a big step in human history.
Curiosity carried out some steps in previous weeks and then decided upon the place to make its first drill. The selected rock is called "John Klein". This rock is interesting to the Scientists as they believe this rock might hold the evidence of the extinct wet environment on the surface of Mars.
Curiosity uses a very sophisticated technology to suck in the the dust out of the drilled hole through the flute within the drill and stored in the chambers. This dust then undergoes different processes to remove any contamination, big size particles and then a very fine dust which is screened out and the particles in which are smaller than six thousandth of an inch is used further for analysis with its X-ray machine.
This is just a beginning. Curiosity is supposed to accomplish a lot more in coming days and enrich our knowledge about unearthly elements.
You can read more about this achievement here:
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-02/mars-rover-curiosity-first-robot-drill-another-planet

Gillette ad: "Soldier for women"

Gillette had started a new ad campaign on TV with a tag "soldier for women".
The ad looks appealing. It gives a message:
"Soldiers wanted, not to guard the borders, but, to support the most important battle of the nation, to stand up for women, because, when you respect women, you respect the nation".

I think, the USP of the ad is its back ground music.With in a period of 30 seconds, it manages to garner the attention of the viewer and for a moment forces them to give a thought about the issue of women protection.

Another positive thing about the ad is the way its moments are captured. I don't know why but the way ad is shown in black and white creates an impression. It makes the ad stand out of all the ads running along with it on TV at that moment. It also makes it clear that there is a soldier hidden in every body who can take up the task of protecting a woman in need at any instant any where. He may be Gym teacher, a corporate guy, an artist or a barber doesn't matter. Each one of us is a soldier.

What didn't go well with me about the ad is it does not represent the whole spectrum of women in it. All women shown appear to be from well to do back ground with good professional background. In 5 clips moments showing women, none of them comes from lower working class.
   It then gives a feeling that the ad seems a bit biased. Apparently, people who use Gillette, does not come from lower working class. And so if those Men are targeted through this ad, then it is a good idea to show kind of women, these men deal with in day to day life. They might then understand the kind of insecurity, the women they deal with regularly, might be feeling.

The ad makes a good impression when you watch it for first few times. But then if such things are noticed unknowingly, then, one might start wondering, are they actually sincerely trying to bring a revolution through this ad, or is it just an attempt to gain some advantage and actually advertise their product under the name of current hot issue of women's freedom.



Well thats an opinion made out of repeated observation and probably drifting away from the topic.

But two lines mentioned towards doesn't really go well with the theme of the ad.

First, " Gillette salutes the soldier in you".
For what? I doubt the soldier in us has really tried yet to enter in to this battle.
Probably, it should be more like "Gillette appeals the soldier in you".

Second, the tag line of the product.

"Gillette, the best a man can get"

So, finally, it boils down to the wishes of man !!

2013 Pyeongchang Special Olympics World Winter Games

Did any body heard about 2013 Pyeongchang Special Olympics World Winter Games?
I just came across the news about India's participation in these games and realized that India did fairly well in these games.
India won 46 medals with as good as 13 Gold medals.

These are the games for differently-abled athletes. I believe these are the other part of Summer Olympics that took place in London immediately after the London Olympics at the same venue. At that event Girisha had performed well and won a medal for India.
It is unbelievable that India performed so well in these games and there was no news about it anywhere.
If you are interested to read about it, follow this link:
http://www.jagranjosh.com/current-affairs/india-returned-with-46-medals-in-2013-pyeongchang-special-olympics-world-winter-games-1360322068-1

Afzal Guru hanged

A big news of the day: Afzal Guru has been hanged !
With in a period of 3 months second big news has appeared. Its still a news that Kasab has been hanged and now is the turn of Afzal Guru.
With this a big burden on the shoulders of the Government is over. Now, India can save some money which was earlier wasted on their protection.
We must congratulate our President Pranab Mukharjee, since he showed that even President matters by taking 2 bold decisions.
As many would speculate, a little doubt do arise, whether these decisions were taken considering upcoming elections.
I wonder why is it required to increase the security in Jammu and Kashmir. Are we scared of Public outrage there or some militant activity?

Well, now at least Indians can take a sigh of relief for some time before some new unwanted guest arrives to enjoy Government facilities.

India @ World Cup 2013

    I wrote about Women's World Cup 2013  in a post few days back. Many people read this post. Interesting thing is most of the visitors were from out of India. It  hardly received any visitor from India. More interesting thing is it received not a single female visitor. That is a pity.
    If I am not wrong India is  a country with largest fan following for Cricket. People here remember records by heart. But same interest is not reflected towards Women's Cricket. And now that India is out of the race for the championship, I doubt that interest will grow sooner. May be by next world cup we will see some changes.
  So, what is the progress card of Indian team:
India played four matches. It started off well when they won their first match against West Indies. We had a century and half century followed by some fantastic bowling performance. But then India lost its track. They lost 2 consecutive matches against England and Srilanka. Defeat against England was acceptable as England come in the tournament as former Champions but Srilankan team is not that strong.
In both matches, our Bowlers performed badly. While batting was not up to the mark against England except for the century of Harmanpreet Kaur, it was pathetic against Srilanka. Against Srilanka's score of 282, the highest scorer of India was Reema Malhotra (38).
  In spite of this India would have made it Super Six, but one great performance against 2 bad ones by West Indies changed the whole scenario.
West Indies lost to India by 105 runs, and they were bundled up for only 101 by England, but they scored a huge 368 against Srilanka. Even the highest scorer from West Indies, Stefanie Taylor (171) scored more than whole of Srilankan team (159).
This huge victory put their run rate much higher than India putting India in the last spot in the group and so out of the race.
 India played their last match just to avoid the embarrassment of being last in the whole set of teams in the series. They defeated Pakistan by 6 wickets with a century by the Captain, Mithali Raj.
With this poor performance, not only it is out of the race for the championship, but also, it will have to play qualifying matches to be able to be a part of next World Cup.
I hope, like Men's team who after a dismal performance in 2007 (loosing out in first round itself), went on to be the World Champions in 2011, Women's team will also rise to clinch the World Cup next time.

Apart from India's poor performance, out of the six teams qualified for the next round, I believe, the strongest contenders are Australia and England. But this being pretty much similar wicket  to their home, Srilanka might turn out to be dark horse in the competition. I don't expect much from West Indies and South Africa, but New Zealand might play the role of party pooper for a strong contender.

Wait and watch, lot of excitement in coming few days.

Tata Docomo: Luck works sometimes, only sometimes

Tata Docomo is airing two ads on TV recently with a theme "Luck works sometimes, only sometimes".
They have turned out to be interesting.
The first ad has a guy withdrawing money and a robber asks him on a gunpoint to withdraw 25k. Luckily, ATM machine runs out of cash and he is saved from being robbed. Though, this ad doesn't go convincing, it makes its point and makes you smile.



The other ad is interesting. A guy showing off his nunchaku skills to his friends and girls sitting nearby misses a grip. The girls who were earlier making fun of him are just then impressed when his nunchaku avoids a ball directed towards girls, just in time.
 This ad exactly brings out the point "Luck works sometimes, only sometimes."



Though, an experienced can not avoid feeling that the ball after hitting nunchaku is now directed towards few other guys sitting nearby.Guess their luck wasn't running high that time.

Blogspot Vs Wordpress

This might be pretty immature kind of comparison but as they say " First impression is the last impression".
So, this comparison between Blogspot and Wordpress is totally based on my first attempts to open an account under respective domains and then trying to just set up a blog.

I started using Blogspot quite a while ago. Back then, it did not offered too many options as today to make your blog look good. It even did not offered any easier way to upload many images at a time. But the first impression of Blogspot was it was "User friendly". All the options were easy to find. It was really easy to set up the blog. Creating pages, adding widgets, changing templates, settings was quite easier. And there always was an option to preview your blog while you are editing it. Probably that was the reason why I remained stuck to blogging. Had it been too clumsy to understand and to work with, I might have given up.
 Then I started hearing about Wordpress. I started realizing that people are migrating to Wordpress. I even checked some Wordpress blogs and really some of the blogs were fantastic with no comparison from Blogspot. Recently, with a specific field in mind, I was planning to open a new blog. I thought, may be using Wordpress is a good idea. So, I signed up with Wordpress and my first impression was "No, this can't be true".
      Wordpress's Dashboard seems to be going through some crisis. There are so many things on it, it would surely make a newcomer run away. Even before setting up your blog, it offers to write your first post. It has a tab for Pages. If one wants to add Pages to his blog, what he expects is once he opt to create a page, he will be asked about a title for the page, some description and a button to create a page. Once you click on create page, you should be able to check a view of  how it appears. It is expected that the new page is created with a tab to move from one page to another in the blog.
Unfortunately, it was not the story with Wordpress, there was an option for Title for the Page, option for Description but no button to create the Page. After some search and no success, I just hit enter. Apparently, the page was not only created but published as a post. There was no tab created for the page, and it appeared to me as if the separate Page I wanted to create had ended up being a post in "About me" page of the blog.
Now, Viewing the blog again is a big problem. I struggled a lot to have a glimpse of my blog and I can't even explain how I managed to do.
After struggling for almost half an hour, I thought to gave up my idea to work with Wordpress.
This was my impression of Wordpress which surely is pathetic if compared to one with Blogspot.
Surely, I will work out a way to understand and with Wordpress. But, anybody, from Wordpress, if at all come across this post, one request, make Wordpress Dashboard "User friendly"

Aircel Ad: Thoda Extra milta hai to achha lagta hai

A new aircel ad has started airing on TV in last couple of days.
In contrast to what I wrote about airtel ad few posts earlier, this ad  I feel hits the nail.
The ad shows a classroom full of students desperately trying to finish their paper in time when the teacher asks them to keep the pen down.
Apparently all the students need some extra time to finish their answers and just then the teacher changes her mind and allow all of them 5 more minutes changing the expressions on students face.
It goes apt with what they want to convey:
"Thoda Extra milta hai to achha lagta hai"
Aircel is providing some free calls along with the internet package.
This advertisement is simple with a moment out of our day to day life and possibly that is why it instantly pluck the right chord.
Thats why I guess this is one ad to look out for.

Searching Tata Photon+

Title might be a bit misleading. Its not really about Tata photon +, but about my today morning's experience.
I was travelling yesterday and had kept my Tata photon + dongle in my bag. This I remember very well.
Today morning when I wanted to work on Internet, I confidently opened my bag and started looking in the pocket where I remember I kept it. But to my surprise it was not there.
I started wondering where can it go? Having Internet connection at that moment was pretty important. So, in desperation, I emptied my bag and checked through all the pockets but with no success. I was left wondering about its absence, because one thing I surely remember is when and in which pocket I kept the dongle yesterday before travelling.
All then I could do was to assume  that what I think I surely remember I did yesterday was just an imagination and I forgot to take the dongle before the journey, or may be I took it, but it might have fell some where en route or somebody stole it may be. Whatever may be the reason for the dongle not being with me, I was left to do any other thing than using internet and finish all internet depending business.
So, I was sitting with all the stuff around me emptied from my bag and one thing attracted my attention. It was a  mini book light lamp that I brought with me in the bag. Mini book light lamp is a very small lamp which you can stick to your book and its light fell just on the page that you are reading. It is very useful when you are the only one awake with everybody around you sleeping and you want to read a book without disturbing  them with light.
I thought lets get this lamp started. It works on 3 button cell which are normally used in our wrist watches. At the bottom of the lamp, there is a place for the cells. It has and positive and negative ends within which the 3 cells need to be placed one next to another. I tried to fit the 3 cells in that notch. 2 cells had not problem but fitting third one was little problematic. Ultimately some how I managed to push the third one in to the notch. The lamp started working and only thing left was to cover the lid over the cells. And there I was once struggling. The third cell was really a problem because of which I could not cover the notch. So, I thought lets take out all cells and try to put them back again. Bare hands were not enough to do this task, so, I searched for a right kind of sharp object. And while I was doing that, because of the tension between the cells in the notch, two of the cells suddenly popped out of the notch, fell on the floor and started rolling. I knew it will be difficult to find them, so I observed their trajectory of motion. As it always happens, one cell rolled down the bed where it is pretty dark, uncleaned and less space to move hands and search for cell, while other cell started rolling down in exactly opposite direction. The first cell was already under the bed and no idea where it might have gone. The second cell camouflaged with the carpet texture and I lost sight of its trajectory too.
Here I am sitting in a mess I emptied from my bag with a mini lamp in hand trying to avoid third cell from felling and also trying to keep track of the two cells wandering some where in this mess.
 I thought lets first try to search for the cell under the bed, because it is more difficult part. Searching other one should be easier. Initially I tried using bare hand, but all that touched hand was dirt settled under the bed.
In disgust and desperation I tried cleaning hands with what ever was easily accessible which turned out to be the carpet. I tried to pull the bed and check if the cell has rolled down to the other end. All I could find was dirt. I thought, before messing up more, first try to get the other cell which was lost on the carpet. Fortunately, that one did not took long, though it had followed totally unexpected path.
Looking at all the dirt, I thought may be brooming will not only clean it up, but also, it might also help me find the cell. So, I broom the whole room, cleaned the carpet and then just to add even mopped the floor.
But I suppose the cell was never to be found. After all the attempts I gave up. Cleaned up all the mess I had taken out of the bag, made the bed and picked up the cushions lying around.
And there under one of the cushion, there was my Tata photon + dongle !
After spending 4 hours, making me do all undecided business and loosing one cell, I had my internet
connection.
Apparently, what my memory had missed out was I had tried to access internet much earlier in the morning. I had taken out the dongle out of my bag (implies my memory of keeping the dongle in the bag on previous day was right), but just when I was about to connect, I was directed to go and get some milk and in hurry I guess, I might have left it on the bed which went under the cushion sometime later.
Well, all is well that ends well. I finally have internet and also got a story to post on the blog.

ICC Women's World Cup 2013

While a lot has been happening and talked about Women's freedom, liberation, empowerment across the country, one big event related to women is pretty much going unnoticed and that is Women's Cricket World cup that started only yesterday in our own land with Mumbai and Cuttack as venues.
Probably every Indian know the dates of the Men's World Cup, not just for upcoming one, but even for the one happening after 8 years, but I am sure hardly anybody including me till last week had any clue about Women's Cricket World cup happening in India.
It so happened that I came across an ad which also is based on the logic that how people are ignorant about Women's Cricket. So, I decided to take some time off and watch first match of this world cup which took place in Mumbai between India and West Indies.
I had a thinking that like Men's World Cup, even here there will be an opening ceremony. But I am not sure if that at all took place.


When I started watching the match Indian openers Poonam Raut and Thirush Kamini had already scored their half centuries. Unknowingly, I started recollecting when was last time did this happened for Indian Men's opening pair!
I was amazed to see the way two players  were playing. To my surprise, their shots were strong enough to cross the boundaries and Kamini even hit a six which was fantastic.
Poonam (left) scored half century while Kamini (right) went on to score a century.




As a first down, Jhulan Goswami entered the ground. Her game and her body language reminded me of Kapil Dev. Her strokes were really strong and she looked in total control of her game.
In later part of the game, I watched her bowling and it confirmed that she is Women's version of Kapil Dev.
Her bowling is fantastic, it swings and it has a pace as good as crossing 120km/hr.
I have seen many of our present time bowler's bowling at 125-128 kms/hr.
I think Jhulan is good enough to qualify for even Men's team.

Overall, India was at its best and defeated West Indies by 105 years.
West Indies team didn't seem to be in shape. Apparently, they haven't got settled down after long journey from Caribbean islands and big time difference. But the team showed some sparks when Deandra Dottin hit 4 huge sixes and for some time brought India camp under pressure.

While India's field was ok, West Indies did badly in the field. I guess that is the part of Cricket, where Women's team are lagging behind Men's team.

As I expected, there hardly was any crowd to watch the match. I happen to see few girls who came to take a quick view of whats happening on this ground today.

I feel it is the responsibility of women to make it a point that they take interest in Women's cricket, or for that matter any women's game. Like Boys do for Men's cricket, if girls start taking interest in Women's game, openly discuss it, make their own views, talk about women players, their good game, their weaknesses and their statistics, it will start creating a buzz about Women's Cricket. If girls themselves are always fan of Sachin Tendulkar or Virat Kohli then why would somebody care about Mithali Raj or Poonam Raut or Jhulan Goswami.
I once was listening to a debate in my class on some topic related to Men Vs Women freedom, priorities etc.
All the girls had handful of things to talk about how girls are not given chances, how they are less preferred criticizing men for all the things. At that time, one of the boys put a point which really made sense and all girls went mum. It was a time when Football World Cup was on. He asked everybody and specifically girls some questions about its venue, favorite players and latest scores. Almost every girl in the class had a favorite player and were aware of the latest updates of the event. Afterwards, he told that at the same time Women's football world cup is also taking place and what updates do girls specifically and then every body else have about that event.
This changed the direction of the debate and left everybody thinking about ignorant we are about women's sports.
I request every body to spare some time and take little interest in Women's Cricket World Cup to begin with.
Here is the link from bbc giving all the fixtures for the event.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/20714464

Support Cricket, Support Women

P.S : Guess we need some serious thinking to put in

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/women-cricket/icc-womens-world-cup-2013/news/World-Cup-begins-but-wheres-the-crowd/articleshow/18289335.cms