Tied to History

During the Prussian wars of the 17th century, Croatian mercenaries tied a scarf around their neck to hold together the opening of their shirts. To celebrate their victory over Turkey, the soldiers were presented to Louis XIV as glorious heroes. It so happened that the scarf around their neck struck the fancy of the monarch who was known to have a keen interest in personal adornment. He adopted it and made it a sign of royalty. It was called 'cravat', derived from the French word for Croat. Soon every gentleman who considered himself well dressed was seen sporting some sort of cloth around his neck, the more decorative the better.

Thus evolved what we now see on most businessmen, and some wannabe trend setting singers - the neck tie.

Guess this is just another similarity between the corporate world and a battlefield.

That Was It

After a break of more than 10 years, the legendary King of Pop was to return his rightful place and it was to be legendary. It was about 2 weeks before his first concert at O2 in London and the stage was set; the tickets sold out; 'This Is It' was to make history! Little did MJ know that 'That Was It'! He suffered a cardiac arrest on the afternoon of June 25th, 12 days before the first of his series of concerts.

The first official release post his death, the film, a documentary rather, encapsulates his last moments as the King of Pop. This Is It shows all the recordings from the rehearsals for the much awaited concert, right from choosing the dance troupe to rehearsing on stage to recording for the video vignettes to be shown on stage. Though its release faced criticism from his family and fans, because it was wrong to profit from his death, others merely considered it a befitting tribute to the King of Pop and a inside look for his numerous fans. The film is currently the highest grossing concert movie in history.

What immediately caught my attention was how involved he was! He was present at the dance auditions and was seen personally choosing his dancers. What an achievement to be personally approved and chosen by someone who was definitely an idol for most present there! People traveled from across the globe to audition for the show, one even managed to fly down from Australia a day after hearing about the auditions! It was by far, the most awaited show of the year.

The documentary went on to record Jackson mentoring his team for the shows. What left a lasting impact was the video sequence for Earth Song, which shows a young girl walking through the forest and taking in the beauty and serenity of nature itself. What made me sit up and notice wasn't the strong message being sent through the song, but how they planned to get that message across. The girl and the excavator on the stage at the end, made sure that the message was conveyed.

In the end, the film left me in awe at the concert that would have made history and would have once again established why Michael Jackson is the reigning King of Pop. To quote director Kenny Ortega "and Michael's back on the cherry picker!" His fans didn't miss his on-stage comeback - This Is It was exactly that!

Kid Talk

Those who know me, know very well that kids amuse me. What amuses me the most is the way they unintentionally imitate adults. Yesterday while attending mass, I was witness to innocent male-female attraction at a young age.

A 4 year old boy was playing with his Noddy key chain when he saw a girl approaching him. In typical male fashion, he flaunted his key chain as if he were an older guy trying to impress a chic by revving the engine of his brand new sports car. Like many girls who are attracted to shiny, new objects, this young girl too responded and walked towards him, the whole while staring at his fascinating possession. They came closer and just as the boy started to talk, she walked away! Ouch! Rejection! Call it sadistic, but it really made me smile! It was perhaps out of empathy.

But of course, as many men say "there are plenty of fish in the sea", this boy too staggered on and kept flaunting his key chain at other children who passed by, as if it were the only way he could attract people. After a while the girl returned (can't stay away from new objects for too long, can they?). Unfortunately, the girl just sat there and watched him, as he played with his key chain. And like every girl who craves attention, she tried to distract him from his fascinating play thing, but alas, was not successful.

Seems like boys are just as attracted to new, shiny objects.

10 questions I want answers to

1. Why do people feel the need to honk when they're stuck in a traffic jam?!
2. Why does it rain on the only day you forget to carry your umbrella?
3. Why are the trains always delayed on the day you need to reach work early?
4. Why is the grass always greener on the other side?
5. Why do people get hiccups?
6. After you've gotten out of a relationship, why do you see happy couples around everywhere?
7. Why do you never get your shoe size when you've found the perfect pair?
8. Why is there a difference between how you and others hear yourself?
9. Did people actually land on the moon?
10. Why are people the furthest away the time you need them the most?

To brighten up your day

10 COMPLETELY USELESS FACTS (and my conclusions)

On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year. (switch to ink pens)

It's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs. (why would someone even try that?)

The electric chair was invented by a dentist. (now I don't blame people for being scared of the dentist!)

No word in the English language rhymes with "MONTH". (everyone who reads this will still try to find a word to prove it wrong)

Coca-Cola would be green if colouring weren't added to it. (absinthe, baby!)

The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. (did they invent it when they ran out of lighter fluid?)

Some lions mate over 50 times a day. (what stamina!)

A cat's urine glows under a black light. (?!)

There are more chickens than people in the world. (so don't feel bad the next time you're tearing into a juicy chicken leg!)

Earth is the only planet which is not named after a God. (meant solely for mortals eh?)

Terror Trial

Yesterday, Anjali Waghmare decided to represent sole captured terrorist responsible for the Mumbai 26/11 attacks. Did she do the right thing?

A couple of days back, the Supreme Court directed lawyer Anjali Waghmare to represent him in court. Of course, that was followed by attacks on her house by the Shiv Sainiks. "How can she defend a terrorist, who has caused us such loss" is their argument. While the people of Mumbai feel that he doesn't deserve a hearing, the law states otherwise. Every criminal has a right to a lawyer...only from India.

That's the catch! Kasab is not allowed a lawyer from his home country on the other side of the border. Previously, 3 individuals had shown interest in representing him, but the Shiv Sena activists got to them, and they backed out. Anjali Waghmare, wife of police officer, Ramesh Waghmare, has indeed done a heroic thing. In the face of all the opposition, she has braved forward, something the other 3 lawyers were not capable of.

I too am of the opinion that Kasab doesn't even deserve to live, much less a lawyer to represent him! But the Indian law is such. And I for one, will not ask for any exceptions to be added to this law, for I believe that with exceptions come loopholes, and the last thing we need is people finding more loopholes in our system.

At the end all I want is that he gets what's been coming to him for a long time, and by Anjali taking this step, he is just that much closer.

Lifecycle

As a baby, your day merely consisted of waking up, crying (or screaming rather), eating, pooping, laughing and sleeping. If you’ve been around an infant for long enough, you would be able to figure out their routine. It remains the same for some months, with some instances of being sick interspersed in between.

As a child, when you grow up, your schedule seems to be less rigorous, mainly since school has entered our daily life, and the time reserved for going out and playing with friends is often screwed up by an overload of homework. This schedule just gets worse as you further yourself in school. Remember studying for your boards?

And then comes college! I believe, that for every day studies has taken a front seat in life, you are repaid with several times more “free time”. There is absolutely no fixed schedule - you don’t wake up at the same time every day (which could be because you don’t sleep at the same time), you don’t have lunch at the same time and early evenings are normally spent deciding how to spend the rest of the evening and night different from the previous day.

Post college and university, your life tends to decline back through the same phases. When you just enter the corporate world, work completely fills your days and you are left with very little free time. Days when you have a huge workload, leave you with very little time to yourself (similar to the days of senior school).

As you grow in the business, you tend to dump your work on your subordinates and you are left with a lot more free time (similar to the days when you first started school).

Then finally, when you retire, your life is back a regular cycle - waking up, eating, pooping, laughing, sleeping, etc. Your day doesn’t tend to change a lot, other than when distant relatives come to visit with grandchildren, or when you’re sick.

And that’s it. Our life cycle. Don’t frown, it’s gonna happen to you too!

A Tribute...

For knowing that I needed to be left alone instead of being comforted
Thank you

For traveling miles to see me when you were the only person who could brighten up my day
Thank you

For knowing I could accomplish anything, instead of just congratulating me when I did
Thank you

For telling me when I needed to improve, instead of just telling me I’m the best
Thank you

For falling in love with everything about me, instead of just loving my friendship
Thank you

For knowing when I needed your hugs even from across the miles
Thank you

For knowing me so well that you know exactly what advice I would give you
Thank you

For acknowledging and accepting me at my worst
Thank you

For understanding why I do certain things even when I don’t explain it
Thank you

For looking after me instead of just calling to see if I was fine
Thank you

For being that person I need in my everyday life
Thank you

And most of all, Thank you for being you.

Facebook - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

What started off as an innocent poke, has now evolved into full fledged wars! From changes in the design to the gazillion odd applications to the countless new features to the most-useful-and-ever-blessed-ignore-all-requests button, Facebook has definitely evolved.

As much as Facebook activists believe that it helps you and connect and share with the people in your life, I do not feel it helps me connect with people anymore than Nokia does. There are people who I keep in touch with through my trustworthy Nokia handset, and those are the very same people I connect with on Facebook. Being on Facebook doesn’t ever make me want to just go to a school friend’s profile and poke her/message her. Seems hypocritical. “I would have probably not even thought about you had your status message not appeared on my home screen, but hello, how are you? Read you are doing your exams.” (sure, that could be seen positively too, but I choose not to).

And while on the topic, what is this need to constantly update your status message? People have messages saying that they have uploaded pictures of their birthday/some crazy party they went to the other night. I mean, isn’t that what the news feeds are for?

So and So: I have uploaded those crazy party pictures…check them out! followed by So and So has added a new album “That crazy partay” a couple of lines down the page. Do I really care?

And since when have people started wearing their heart on their sleeves so often?

So and So is missing her baby and its only been 2 days!

Trust me, I know long distance relationships (or even trips your bf/gf take without you) can be hard and heart wrenching, but is that reason enough to publicly declare it to the world? Do the people really care? The only person I see ever commenting on such a comment is the other half themselves with “Baby, I’ll be back soon. Counting the days.”

Not everything is right with facebook (and the people who use it 24×7 for that matter), but I must admit - occasionally finding out that an old friend is now in a relationship he said he would never get into does give me a kick, definitely makes my day! Life doesn’t change with the added knowledge (or gossip rather), but it gives me something to laugh out loud about. And who can say that we don’t need that every once in a while?

And there is hope after all...

Ever since yesterday I have been thinking about what people do and their motives behind it. While I was leaning towards the fact that there may actually be no selfless good deeds, I saw a glimmer of hope in todays Bombay Times newspaper. Akshay Kumar's six-year old son, Aarav was also watching the NDTV-Toyota Greenathon, and was intrigued by the fact that villages in India don't have the basic amenities like electricity and that children of his age do not have light to study and play under. He immediately wanted to know what he could do to help them...and voila! He sponsored a village to become the youngest sponsor of the campaign.

It doesn't matter that he is only 6 years old and it wasn't his hard earned money. It's the thought that counts...and his was truly selfless!

PR stunts

Recently, NDTV had taken a very 'green' initiative, by organizing the Greenathon, India's first 24-hour live event. This was mostly in support of Teri's Light a Billion Lives campaign, wherein the money donated would go towards providing solar powered lamps to light up the villages. They also initiated drives to clean the beaches of Mumbai and the Yamuna river. It had a very noble beginning, and was a huge success collecting more than Rs. 2.4 crores.

I have grown up learning that donations should be made as private as an affair, very much on the lines of 'your left hand should not know what your right hand is doing'. I thought it was fine that the organisers chose to have the names of those who donated scroll at the bottom of the screen - as a sign of appreciation. While it was also fine that the Bollywood stars were openly recognised for donating money and supporting villages, it should not have been used as a publicity stunt!

At the very onset, Preity Zinta adopted a whole village and donated a generous sum of Rs. 3 lakhs. While I believe that it was truly generous, what I considered unnecessary was that she bought it on behalf of her IPL team Kings XI Punjab. With the IPL about 2 months away, I strongly believe that it was a publicity stunt. More publicity for the IPL came from Shilpa Shetty (who recently bought a stake in the Jaipur team - Rajasthan Royals) who donated a whopping Rs. 1.2 million, which supported 4 villages. And then the King of Bollywood himself, Shah Rukh Khan donated Rs. 1.5 million to the cause, supporting 5 villages, and becoming the highest donor (of course)! With his upcoming movie Billu (Billu Barber at the time) just around the corner, what better publicity, don't you think?

Don't get me wrong, I truly appreciate their donations. I would just like to believe that the thought behind the donation was as clear and unpolluted. It's not right that they use such a noble cause for their own publicity. What's more, is that Shilpa Shetty has pledged that she will donate Rs. 6,000 for every six that a Rajasthan Royals player hits. It seems like both Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty are aiming to show their team as one that is concerned, charitable and of course, RICH!

Joey (of the popular serial FRIENDS) had once said that there was no such thing as an 'selfless good deed'. Could he be right? Is it possible that there are no selfless good deeds - that for every good deed that one does, he always wants something in return?

Promotional gain

Those living in Mumbai (who keep themselves even remotely updated with Bollywood news) will definitely have witnessed the massive promotion for the movie Ghajini. Be it the posters, sponsorship of major brands, interviews, the hype around Aamir's 8-pack, and of course the "Ghajini haircut" sported by the cinema staff.

Their promotions definitely paid off, regardless of the critics thrashing the movie. "A second rate movie" is what one critic had to say.

But not only have the producers made their money, other brands are also cashing in on the hype. Kingston, known for its memory storage devices, have used the plot of Ghajini to their advantage. How? Let me give you some background into Ghajini (those who have seen the movie can skip this para). Aamir Khan who plays Sanjay Singhania, an owner of a major cell phone company, witnesses his lady love (played by Asin) being murdered. Unfortunately, the killer has also hit him on the head, because of which he suffers from short term memory loss. He forgets things every 15 minutes, and helps himself remember by tattoing important information on his body and by keeping reminders and pictures.

What's the common factor between Ghajini and Kingston? Memory, of course! While Aamir loses his memory, Kingston proudly says "With Kingston, never lose your memory".

Maybe Aamir should have had a Kingston memory device with a little yellow sticky - "Open"!