My friend baba says they go wherever there is public interest. They did it with WW-1, WW-2, Nam 1962/68, 9/11, now Iraq, Afpak is left. Anyways, I wanted to share final results about the Oscars, 2010. There were many first’s this time. War movie “The Hurt Locker” stole the thunder on Sunday by winning six of the film honours which includes the best movie and director. Kathryn Bigelow the director of “The Hurt” happens to be the first woman to win. Icing on the cake? The film also took credits for the best original screenplay, film editing, sound editing and mixing. It was all in the family, ex-family whatever you mean it. Ms Bigelow was at logger head with her ex-husband, James Cameron, whose Avatar was a hot favourite, before the final announcements at the Kodak theatre, LA.

Sandra Bullock gets an Oscar in the best actress category in a lead role for The Blind Side, she plays a motivational lady.

Jeff Bridges is the Best Actor of the world, he wins the Oscar in a leading role for “Crazy Heart”, Jeff plays a laidback country singer, whose life changes somehow after meeting someone.

Actor Christoph Waltz who plays a Nazi officer in Quentin Tarantino film Inglourious Basterds took home the best supporting actor.

African American actress Mo’Nique bagged the best supporting actress for role as an abusive mother for “Precious” based on novel Push, at the 82nd annual Academy Awards, Los Angeles.

Geoffrey Fletcher wins the Best Screenwriter award for film “Precious”

Balloon adventure “Up” of Disney Pixar won the best animated feature.

The Best Original Song for ‘Crazy Heart’ went to Ryan Birgham and T Bone Burnett

Logorama won the Best Short film.

Director Gregg Helvey’s short film “Kavi” lost to the New Tenant in the category of live action short.

Prudence music won the documentary short subject award.

The best make up Oscar award went to Star Trek.

The best costume award was bagged by Sandy Powell for “The Young Victoria”

Avatar finally for its due for outstanding art direction and Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg won the award for Outstanding Art Direction for “Avatar” and  Mauro Fiore won Best Cinematography Award. The sci-fi alien masala also won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, very true. I always felt Avatar was one of the 1980’s Dharmendra pot boiler, it had everything action, romance, comedy, drama.  Anyways, let us proceed. Micheal Giacchino won the Best Original Score Award for balloon adventure “Up” and the “Cove” won the Oscars in the Best Documentary Feature section.  The best foreign film went to Argentinean film “The Secret in their eyes” The movie is on a retired prosecutor.

The pearly rays of the sun played on my eye lids and woke me up to a fine morning. It took only few steps towards the window pane to see and feel the difference. The air smelled earthy and the dry and drooping plants were now boasting of their new found youth. It was coming of the age; but yes in the reverse order.

Adjoining the plants were their new neighbors, slick, curly, twirling bougainvillea and spring weeds. They almost looked up to the tall trees, wishing to grow as tall someday. They gyrated with the smooth wind, letting their leafs dance to its tune;  like Cinderella with her prince charming.

The beetles with their polka dresses had come out too. The preying mantis had stopped praying as God had answered their adjuration. There was plenty around to have and see.

I could see from a far the Bee-Queen summoning her army of lecherous male bees, who were willing to die to have their chance. She was making the plans for their new hive. I could almost hear her say, ‘Sparta! Today we dine in our hive’. The eave dropping dropped only when I heard their spy swarming over me, keeping a watch on my gleaning eyes. I smiled anxiously and got the point. There was no need to fight with my stingy ‘la surveillante’. And while, the wind took the bee away, my eyes were booked by the over all verdure. It was green and beautiful all around.

Hammad

The sunshine doesn’t bother you on spring mornings. It pampers you. As flowers begin to blossom, so does your mood. As you walk on the lively grass, the surroundings become kaleidoscopic. Undoubtedly, mornings of this season breathe vibrancy.

Ankit

Can you hear the little sapling nudging its tiny head out of the ground to get the first glimpse of the season changing? The enchantment of spring inundates my senses with new life, with the new hope of new beginnings. The freshly minted sunshine thaws out the edges of despair and I am once again ensnared in the gossamer web of life.

Romila

Welcome Spring to my window sill,
To brighten my greens with colorful preens,
Don’t you know you are awaited?
For my greens long to smile, bloom and dance in the wind!
Early morning, I open my windows to beautiful vistas of open green meadows: fresh, dewy, gentle and soothing. Interspersed by colorful beds of tulips and roses, red, white, pink, yellow…, it is truly a sight to cherish! I venture out into this captivating beauty to touch the blooms, feel the breeze, watch the fluttering butterflies, listen to the humming birds, and treasure and capture this moment forever in my mind’s eye!

Raji

I step out of my house and take a deep breath. It is a fine spring morning, with flowers abloom, the sun bright and the fresh smell of jasmine. Rays of sunlight shimmer through the dew drops that slide down the blades of the lush green grass.

Priya

The colour is green and the English say it’s Autumn..
They say the king of seasons; I say it’s close to my heart.
They say harvest, I say, transition, change and freshness.
The birds are flitting and the flowers show off
The morning dew over the fresh new leaves has to give me a new found high.
Is it freezing there? No baby, it’s the Spring outside.

Palash

Spring Morning: Arise and Awaken Your Emotions
The advent of spring brings with it profuse colors and arouses a myriad of emotion.
Spring mornings, joyful and pleasant, are filled with hustle-bustle and commotion.
From the able-bodied young to the young-at-heart elderly, everyone wants to immerse themselves in the splendor of spring.
Be it meditating in the balcony or strolling in the park, spring is no wonder called the season of blooming.

Vidya

Spring Morning
A warm, yellow radiance gushes into the room and embraces every object within its reach as soon as the curtains are drawn. Twittering vibrance fills the ears and multi-colored blossoms greet the eyes. The earth has cast away its morose wintry blanket and welcomed the season of revival and happiness with open arms. The sense of luxury and plenitude in the air fills every heart….

Debolena

Spring Morning Greenery

Find me

Who I am?

Hint: I am Someone

Ans: Ofcourse, I am a living being and am someone but who?

Hint: I love beaches and a widely travelled person.

Ans: Okay, what else?

Hint: Mmm, I was conferred with a BIG award recently..

Ans: Okay, so? Every get’s that these days, the world is populated by awards now? What else go ahead..

Last Hint: I am not what I am..

Ans: Hmm, that’s interesting, does that mean you look old now?? or you do not do what you do?

Readers? Guess and Shoot…

President of the Federal Republic of Germany

Visit of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany to India

The President of the Federal Republic of Germany Horst Köhler arrives in India on 1st February for a six-day state visit and he covers three cities. The President will meet with top political leaders, hold discussions on the global financial crisis with the RBI Governor and meet also key industry representatives as well as Indian intellectuals.

The key objective of President Köhler’s visit is to open up new avenues for Germany and India to work together in developing a 21st-century world policy based on mutual cooperation. It is his first official visit to India that underlines the increasing importance of the strategic partnership between Germany and India. It is expected to further strengthen bilateral ties, including the forthcoming ‘Year of Germany in India 2011 – 2012’, which will showcase areas of mutual interest.

President Kohler will be in Delhi from 1st – 4th February.  President Köhler will then travel to India’s automobile hub Pune to tour the new Volkswagen plant in Chakan and the Indian environment and energy company Thermax. President Köhler concludes his India tour with a site visit to a watershed management project implemented under Indo-German development cooperation at Darewadi, Maharashtra.

‘India Visit

A brief about Mr. Horst Köhler who was elected as the ninth President of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2004. In 2008, he was re-elected for another four-year term. Earlier, from 2000 – 2004, he was Managing Director and Chairman of the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund.

I will carry out his visit and other info from this platform.

Glücklicher Aufenthalt – It means we wish you a happy stay.

Content source: German News, special thanks to Mr. Jens Urban

Cheers, we are entering in the last year of the 21st century, after today. I wish you a happy new century. A phone call from my residence made me think a little about this celebration. For your information (people who do not know) there is a lunar eclipse on the 31st December 2009. The earth will cast its shadow on the moon tonight prime–time (9:30 to 1 AM). Most of the Delhi clubs, restaurants and discotheques will be full and hic, spirits will be high.

But a word of caution comes from my mother, “son, during a lunar eclipse people should not eat anything.” I said, “What do I do now?” She says, “try and have your dinner before 9:30 and celebrate (if you want tomorrow).” There is no sound on the other side of the phone, Ma hung up. Our astronomers today can predict when such an event will occur, I read it’s 2018. This magnificent clockwork of the heavenly bodies have displayed signs of grandiose time to time, at the same time encouraged conservatism and superstitions throughout the globe.

Let me tell you some popular beliefs associated with lunar eclipses. Apart from the most common belief which is terrible that protracts that an eclipse of the sun or moon is associated with destruction and the end of the world. The world would have destroyed a million times by now, if that belief was true. There are some more….

• Pregnant woman should be careful and not touch her belly.
• Ancient Chinese call the eclipse as lunar yueshi (lunæ devoratio) and ascribe that to the plotting of a dragon. The Chinese believed that the dragon was eating the Moon. To scare away the dragon they will shoot cannons.
• The people of India still hide inside during the eclipses, because they believe the moon allows bad rays to hit earth.
• People in India break and bang pots and lot of other noises to keep evil forces at bay. The evil forces are taking away the moon, they believe.
• Some noises are still being made by various instruments in Persia and some parts of China.
• Some Americans believe that the sun and the moon are tired.
• The Indian credence is that a snake eats the sun and moon when they’re eclipsed.
• Eskimos will turn their utensils over to avoid them being contaminated.
• Some Hindus believes that a demon devours these heavenly bodies.
• Babylonians somehow believed that the Moon being hidden was a bad omen and some place in the world is doomed for sure.
• One of the extracts of bible says that when a moon turns red Apocalypse or catastrophe will come. (Genesis 1:14-19 DAY 4)

Cant say about mama, but I look forward to see this once-in-a-blue-moon event tonight. Join me if you want to be a part this awe-inspiring and wonderful heavenly enigma which we are about to witness. Happy new year, friends, see you next year.

International Anti-Corruption Day- 9 December

When I think about Corruption in India (check the links), I think of a friend, S Jolly his name, who was so pessimist that corruption in India cannot be eradicated. He accepted that corruption is the cancer, but also believed that this is inseparable from the system. The corruption is all-invasive, systematic and ubiquitous. The MOST corrupt people in India come under different spheres the politics, military, religious institutions, NGO’s, everywhere. Cash is the oxygen where corruption thrives.

The top performers

• Lawyers/ judges
• IT officials
• Excise officers
• Attenders and Nurses
• Customs
• Police
• Government clerks
• Anti corruption officials
• Municipal officers

You’ve got money, you get education, fake degrees, and the police will encounter innocent people and hide their inabilities. Under the table syndrome is so popular and apparently it has turned into regular practice. I am sharing a personal story with you. Just today came to know that my aunt cannot sell her legitimate property without the order/permission of local goons. The goons read local politicians and real estate middle men have stated a simple dictate. Give them 30% of the total deal or sell the property to them (their price). Atrocious!

FYI Kerala has the highest literacy rate in India and according to the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) it also happens to be the least corrupt state in India. Will this imply that education has the capacity to remove corruption? Not necessary, because educate people are also corrupt.

I believe that transparency in the system can remove this cancer. India needs really good, capable and educated leadership in India. India needs dedicated foot soldiers. India needs their basic requirements completed food, shelter and jobs. We cannot think of a ‘corrupt-less’ society with hungry stomachs and mind. A corporate campaign by Tata is noble thought….What do you say?

Before some grand disaster in the form of Tsunami, earthquake, plague, hurricane, some pandemic or for that matter alien invasion, that can wrap up the entire civilization, we should start taking responsibility of what we do today. In the overall scheme of things, this post-apocalypse narrative could be a piece of fiction, but why should it stop us from not polluting the world anymore and taking a noble initative to plant few more trees. Save Earth

Finally end of the world- 2012 strikes gold at the box office on Friday the 13th, shattering the myth, cinema screens all across Delhi ran a sold out show this weekend. The film is about pre and post deluge imaginative mise en scène where three high-tech, state-of-the-art picked from the book of Genesis’s portrayal of the Noah’s ark headed ‘no-where’ to rescue remainder of the human civilization launched from the roof of the world. Roland Emmerich’s translation of the Mayan calendar prediction that world is coming to an end on 12-21-12 is massive blockbuster already. Scientist’s at NASA and elsewhere can corner the story as a piece of fiction but for the urban goer it is a future imagination running wild in your head sci-fi flick. Ofcourse the computer generated special effects team is to be blamed for this temporary deluge in our minds. Danny Glover does well to interpret, the whole cause of cataclysm which threatens to disembowel human race majorly the solar flares that burns up earth’s core to an extent that earth’s crust becomes unstable and shifts, violently, leading to mother of all, thousands of Tsunami like effects. Okay, all this story telling business, I am leaving upto the readers, because I have something else to talk about.

For me, the film had a lot of topical reasons to watch, the opening shot is in a mining field in the Eastern India (2009), where an Indian astrophysicist Dr. Satnam Tsurutani, played by UK-Indian actor Jimi Mistry, tips his fellow American scientist friend Adrian (Chiwetel Ejiofor) about a doomsday and reasons why he and others should start checking their clocks more often. Apparently, Madhu Koda, the Chhattisgarh CM accused of laundering millions of money from the Iron and copper mines undergoes intense interrogation by sleuths.

The earthquake scenes, in the film, the African-American president Thomas Wilson aka Danny Glover decides to stay in the Capitol Hill alongside fellow Americans. Whereas the Air force One, heads towards Tibet. Nobel Prize winner and current US president Mr. Barack Obama, is in China today to discuss peace and business, I guess.

In the film, Tibetans monks were shown getting back to the working mould to construct a ship read (Noah’s Ark). Last week, Dalai Lama, the supreme commander of Tibetan cause was asked to restrict his movements from Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh) by the Indian government.

Does all that sound, funny? Maybe yes, I am not sure, but watching the whole of California sliding in the Pacific’s, the Yellowstone completely destroyed by an hydrogen-bomb-like explosion, LA skyscrapers twisting and tumbling like a pack of cards, the White House, engulfed by a fighter war ship, the Vatican crashing into the ground and finally gigantic tidal waves swamping the Indian peninsula is a visual treat. I am not a wise spender, I know that and I am working on that front, but I also do not contemplate spending 500 bucks at PVR near you. My paisa is wasooled.

“Some are destined to succeed, some are determined to succeed !” - H. H. Swami Tejomayananda

I and some of you should believe on the latter one. Fortitude to minimize gaps in what we want to achieve thinking about a larger picture in mind is what it is required today. I have learnt about energy within and I also know that energy is neither negative nor positive. Our own personalization of events and the thoughts coming in and out determines the character of the energy.

Do not complain- Can you start practicing this for a week. Take this habit to work, family and other interpersonal relationships. Swami Vivekananda has said once, and the central idea of Bhagwad Gita is “to work incessantly”. I was watching this video where Nick without his arms or limbs trying to recreate a pack of school girls and at the end of his speech he tell everybody how to stand up “on his own”. In one of the lines he also mentions, “It matters how you finish, and you gonna finish strong.” You know it is true.

We have a purpose in life and that purpose has been predetermined already. It is different case if you realize your true purpose today or tomorrow. The crux should be, perform – failed? Perform again- failed -do it again.

I know a new golfer (at least his twitter account) defines him somehow. I also know how passionate he is about this sport. I have never played this game, but what I come to know from him, largely is that a golfer tries to focus on ‘that great shot’ and keeps improving. He will never remember the bad shots. He will recreate the good pull he made at that moment and better it. Same with life, people are busy really busy. Can we recollect that great conversation we made today, or a nice sale or for that matter that great meeting with one? If you start looking for it, you will be surprised that there are more in store.

Unattached and zero-expectations from life. Possible or not possible? Try a little charity without expecting something. Vivekananda has said, be cheated million times and never ask a question. Can we give selflessly without expecting gratitude? Rather we should be grateful that we have an opportunity to practice charity somehow.

Please see this Video..Thank you

Want to share this person’s thoughts, which I agree mostly.

I wish I could be with you today, in the flesh as they say. Unfortunately, I’m in India. Ever been in India? It’s very hot. If you don’t mind, I’m going to take off my coat.

You know, in the advertising community today, there are two worlds — your world of direct response advertising, and that other world, the world of general advertising.

These two worlds are on a collision course. You direct response people know what kind of advertising works and what doesn’t work. You know it to a dollar. The general advertising people don’t know.

You know that too many commercials on television are more effective — more cost effective — than 10 second commercials or 30 second commercials. You know that fringe time on television sells more than prime time. In print advertising, you know that long copy sells more than short copy. You know, that headlines and copy about the product and its benefits sell more than cute headlines and poetic copy. You know it to a dollar.

The general advertisers and their agencies know almost nothing for sure because they cannot measure the results of their advertising. They worship at the alter of creativity, which really means originality, the most dangerous word in the lexicon of advertising. They opine that 30-second commercials are more cost effective than two-minute commercials. You know they’re wrong.  In print advertising, they opine that short commercials (whoever prepared the teleprompter presentation goofed, obviously he meant ads) sell more than long copy. You know they’re wrong. They indulge in entertainment. You know they’re wrong. You know to a dollar. They don’t.

Why don’t you tell them?

Why don’t you save them from their follies?

For two reasons:

First, because you are impressed by the fact they are so big and so well paid and so well publicized. You are even, perhaps, impressed by their reputation for creativity, whatever that may mean. Second, you never meet them. You inhabit a different world. The chasm between direct response advertising and general advertising is wide.

On your side of the chasm, I see knowledge and reality. On the other side of the chasm, I see ignorance. You are the professionals. This must not go on. I predict that the practitioners of general advertising are going to start learning from your experience. They’re going to start picking your brains. I see no reason why the direct response divisions of agencies should be separate from the main agencies. Some of you may remember when television agencies were kept separate. Wasn’t that idiotic? I expect to see the direct response people become an integral part of all agencies. You have more to teach them than they have to teach you. You have it in your power to rescue the advertising business from its manifold lunacies.

When I was 25, I took a correspondence course in direct mail. I bought it out my own pocket from the Dardanelle Corporation in Chicago. Direct response is my first love, and later it became my secret weapon. When I started a Ogilvy & Mather in New York, nobody had heard of us, but we were airborne within six months and grew at record speed. How did we achieve that? By using my secret weapon, direct mail.

Every four weeks, I sent personalized mailings to our new business prospects, and I was always amazed to discover how many of our clients had been attracted to Ogilvy & Mather by those mailings. That was how we grew.

Whenever I look at an advertisement in a magazine or newspaper, I can tell at a glance whether the writer has had any direct response experience. If he writes short copy or literary copy, it is obvious that he has never had the discipline to write direct response. If he has had that discipline, he wouldn’t make those mistakes. Nobody should be allowed to create general advertising until he has severed his apprenticeship in direct response. That experience will keep his feet on the ground for the rest of his life.

You know the trouble with many copywriters and general agencies is that they don’t really think in terms of selling. They’ve never written direct response, they’ve never tasted blood. Until recently, direct response was the “Cinderella” of the advertising world. Then came the computer and the credit card, and direct marketing exploded. You guys are coming into your own. Your opportunities are colossal. In the audience today, there are heads of some general agencies. I offer you this advice; insist that all your people, creative, media, account executives, that they’re all trained in your direct response division. If you don’t have such a division, make arrangements with a firm of directing marketing specialist to train your people. And make it a rule in your agency that no copy is ever presented to clients before it has been vetted by a direct response expert.

Ladies and gentlemen, I envy you. Your timing is perfect. You’ve come in the direct response business at the right moment in history. You’re on to a good thing.

For 40 years, I’ve been a voice crying in the wilderness, trying to get my fellow advertising practitioners to take direct response seriously. Today, my first love is coming into its own. You face a golden future.

David Ogilvy’s interview

Lie often told eventually becomes a truth- Said by V Lenin.

Last time when I saw “Delhi-6″ and then to some extent “Mumbai Meri Jaan” where rumors took shape of facts, I felt that the filmmaker actually picked facts and tried to say-what he felt. Nowadays, we do not look informative and public interest programmes or capsules too often, forget about being creative enough. I came across a video -perhaps produced by the FTII guys- which I liked a lot and have faint memories of watching them on our B/W Binatone TV at home. It came on Doordarshan. With Diwali just around the corner rumors mongers can just be on prowl. Beaware of them and do not let rumors get in your head.

I can also relate rumors with unpolished and non-credible news coming through wires. It reaches TV stations and news hungry editors without confirming the veracity or source of the news is ready with a 3 minute breaking news kind of an arrangement to feed we-the-people.

I know I deviated a little from my topic but this is also which I wanted to express, somehow.

Please do watch this Video