Let Her Go!

Rockers rejoice! Iron Maiden is kicking off their 'Somewhere Back In Time' World Tour '08, beginning with India, tomorrow (1st Feb 2008).

Maidenheads couldn't contain their euphory last March when Maiden had performed live at Bangalore. Well, they're lucky enough to catch their fav Brit band twice just within a year's timing. Isn't it amazing?

Speaking of Amazin', Aerosmith had been to India last year. Also Sepultura and Scorpions lined up for concerts at the end of 2007. I've heard that Megadeth will be visiting around March this year and today's Bombay Times' front page announces that Def Leppard, too, is coming in May.

So, is India's turning to a head banger's ball? With so many ardent rock & metal fans at present, it surely makes sense that these bands mark India as the destination for their tours. Earlier it took a Michael Jackson, Shakira or Akon to have a concert here. Looking at the multitude of the fans of rock genre, even Beyonce couldn't lure a decent crowd for her recent concert. Yet, she and the 'others' get superfluous media exposure.

Most of the college going people will be saving on for the tickets and other expenses (say traveling and booze!) Last year for the Maiden's concert it was like 'Chalo Bangalore'. More than half of the turnouts had been donning a black tee or/and long tresses.

However, there are some who would be despondent due to their inconveniences to be part of this swarm of revelers. Some of them may be preparing for their exams (its almost term end and dates of board exams are at hand), some tied up with important work, some are short of money, some under-aged kids not given permission, someone suddenly fallen ill, etc.

Honestly, I've recently been to MMRDA grounds when Joyce Meyer had come there a couple of weeks back and while returning we couldn't get even a rickshaw to drop us to station. And it being a religious gathering, most of the crowd contained families which almost cuts down the possibility of some untoward incident. On the contrary, a female attending a concert possess risk with a handful of troublemakers hanging around (apart from the mosh pit). Given the mentality of the people here, they are ready to pounce on the victim by saying, "Who asked them to go to such horrible concert in the first place?" Even the caretakers of law will publicly criticize her for 'staying out of her home so late' and thus inviting trouble! This is truly absurd. Curbing the freedom of a woman by stating such reasons for no fault of theirs is utterly idiocy.

Anyways, all those who are going to have the time of their life, make the most out of it. Though I'm not much of a metal head, I've been a bit influenced by this genre with the credit going to my sister. She, too, can't make it to the concert. So, I've got three words for her- Still Keep rocking!
This one is for you sis.
Here goes her fav Iron Maiden song:

I'm waiting in my cold cell, when the bell begins to chime.
Reflecting on my past life and it doesn't have much time.
'Cause at 5 o'clock they take me to the Gallows Pole,
The sands of time for me are running low.

When the priest comes to read me the last rites,
I take a look through the bars at the last sights,
Of a world that has gone very wrong for me.

Can it be that there's some sort of error?
Hard to stop the surmounting terror.
Is this really the end, not some crazy dream?

Somebody please tell me that I'm dreaming,
It's not easy to stop from screaming,
But words escape me when I try to speak.
Tears flow but why am I crying?
After all I'm not afraid of dying.
Don't I believe that there never is an end?

As the guards march me out to the courtyard,
Somebody cries from a cell "God be with you".
If there's a God then why does he let me go?

As I walk my life drifts before me.
Though the end is near I'm not sorry.
Catch my soul, it's willing to fly away.

Mark my words believe my soul lives on.
Don't worry now that I have gone.
I've gone beyond to see the truth.

When you know that your time is close at hand,
Maybe then you'll begin to understand
Life down here is just a strange illusion.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...Hallowed be Thy name
Yeah, yeah, yeah...Hallowed be Thy name
Yeah..................................

Ad Mad 2007.

The National Creative Directors have taken their pick. The year 2007 had some brilliant ads. I've listed down their top favourites for the year and added my opinions to the chosen ones. Source: See here (I wish that some of my ad lands up in this list somewhere in future.) The following list of ads are in no particular order.

I-pill TVC, Network Advertising- The topic of contraception has been woven around subtly. The execution is very nicely done.

Airtel 'Border' TVC, Redffusion DY&R- Lovely ad. Two kids, barbed wire border, a football... simple things to show breaking barriers of communication.

Vodafone Alerts TVC, Ogilvy & Mather- Mobile alerts cannot be put more competently than this. Hutch had a very good brand recall. The branding of Vodafone with the same Hutch pug wasn't that convincing. But here, O&M again grabs your attention with a brilliant 'alert' campaign! The best I like is the Astro alert one with the guy in the elevator and the song is again beautiful.

Reliance Infocomm TVC, Mudra- I'm a bit confused wondering which ad this is. But recently Reliance ads are worth watching. Especially the kids in the ad are adorable. Reliance ads have come a long way since their 'Sehwag ki maa' ad (which I never liked!) to their latest ones.

VIP briefs 'Adjust' TVC, Lowe Lintas- Innerwears ads used to be the worst. But this one makes some sense and does not even have some person just modeling the product and girls going ga-ga over them! Well done.

Airtel 'Indiana Jones' search TVC- It's a creative concept. But for some reason I prefer the Hutch 'Eskimo' search TVC over this one. However I like the concluding part of the ad wherein Jones says he's retiring.

Happydent TVC, McCann-Erickson- There are hardly any words to describe this one! This award winning ad is surely unforgettable. 'Tera dil roshan... tera mann roshan...'

Motorokr TVC- Abhishek Bachchan surely can sway his head well. Excellent execution.

Tanishq Diamonds, Lowe Lintas - Beautiful ad. Lovely track (Badan pe sitare...)

Havell 'Shock Proof', Lowe Lintas- Though I haven't seen this specific ad, but went through the storyboard on Agencyfaqs. Fairly done.

ABN Amro One 'Transparent Credit card TVC, Publicis- A banking institution ad never had funny twist to it. A refreshing change!

Madhya Pradesh Tourism, Ogilvy & Mather- I don't remember this ad.

Neo Sports 'T20', Ogilvy & Mather- Neither this one.

Idea TVC, Lowe Lintas- The concept is nice. Trying to portray casteism as social evil and also shows the reach of network in villages.

Bingo Launch Campaign, Ogilvy & Mather- Truly hilarious! One of our professors said that she was taken aback that O&M had done such work, while we disagreed with her. Honestly, I loved the Bingo launch campaign.

Tata Tea 'Jaago' TVC, Lowe Lintas- Surprisingly glad to have a different concept for a tea powder ad. Liked it. Jaago sounds more refreshing than the done-to-death taaza.

Nike's Street Cricket TVC, JWT- Sports brands have had great international advertisements which, I guess, were never related to the India's most beloved sport. This ad is one of my favourites.

Surf Excel's Traffic Fight TVC, Lowe Lintas- Kids in ads grab your attention any day. Earlier it was the kid bashing the puddle and here we have two little boys picking a fight with each other to stop their fathers from arguing. Aptly the ad ends with the baseline- Daag achhe hain.

Greenply's 'Courtroom TVC, Lowe Lintas- Good ad. Justifies the USP of the product by conveying the message of long lasting wood.

Tata Sky 'Einstein' campaign, Rediffusion DY&R- Wonderful to have so many Einsteins in a school by mere installation of Tata Sky at home. Concept is unmistakably good, but I don't like the baseline! (Isko lagaa dala toh life jingalala! :X)

Fevikwik, Ogilvy & Mather- Again one of the ads I haven't watched on TV, but seen the storyboard on Agencyfaqs. It seemed okay, not some mind-blowing concept. Satisfactory. O&M had better ones earlier.

This sums up the year 2007 favourites. Hope 2008 churns out even greater concepts.

The Racial Row.

My father is surfing channels on TV. He pauses on TIMES NOW, watches it for sometime until there's a commercial break. The next moment he's watching Aaj Tak, later CNBC TV18, after that Zee News and so on. Reason? Indo-Australia test match (or rather controversy) updates.

I would love to quote this- 'A gentleman's game no more a gentleman's game'. Seriously, all these years cricket enthusiasts boasted about the manner of the game and today the world is talking about how ungentlemanly the game has turned into, and the credit goes to the Down Under guys. The issue has got much more attention than even the infamous 'Zidane head-butting Materazzi' incident. Do actions really speak louder than words? Well, but here, the word 'monkey' beats a 'head-butt'!

Racial abuse surely is coming under light with the help of the media. Most of the cases heard are from sports which show the un-sportsmanship of the players. But why do people have to racially abuse each other? These abuses are actually a tactic to weaken your opponent's mind. The person loses concentration and even his/her cool. Or may be they have some better reason to do it, right? I don't study human psychology (neither animal psychology), yet I believe that abuses can be of any kind. In India itself we have people describing some dark skinned person as 'kalia' (and if I'm not mistaken, there's a movie too going by that name.) Now, does this count as a racial slur? Not to forget that a firangi (foreigner, preferably white skinned) gets so much attention and has a good demand in the country (remember Yana Gupta).

I remember I had seen some show on TV years back when I was a little girl. I have a faint memory of it. But I'd like to share whatever I remember. The story goes as follows:

A small village scenario. Some family is happy about their son going to abroad for further studies (or he's got a job there?). Later they receive a letter from him conveying that he met a girl (a foreigner), fell in love with her and they exchanged vows at the altar. Now, they were coming down to the village as the girl wanted to meet her in-laws. The whole family as well as the village goes berserk. They are preparing everything possible to welcome the new bride especially that she is not an Indian. The D-day arrives when they come to India. Everyone is so excited to see the bride that they wait with bated breath as she alights from the car.

The smile on their faces vanishes within the next second as the bride steps out with her palms joined and says 'Namaste'. She is dark skinned! The guy's mother angrily walks away and locks herself in her room to show her disapproval. The son follows his mother, obviously crossed with his mother's behavior. He knocks at the door questioning the reason for her attitude. She opens the door and angrily yells back saying that everyone were so excited to meet the 'foreigner bahu' whereas he brought home a dark skinned girl. Their month old excitement had died away.

The son explains her that she's so wrong. The bride is a very lovely girl and asks what has it got to do with the color of one's skin? He tells her that while she's regretting over her efforts getting wasted, what about the girl who took pains to learn a bit of Hindi and traditions to please her new family. She even wore a sari especially for them.

At this, the mother realizes her fault and sends in for her new daughter-n-law to come into her room. The new bride enters and bends down to touch the mother's feet and says, "Pai lagoo maaji" her accent intact. Everyone was happy.

And the story ended there.

Isn't this the real picture in India? There are even more issues that are as worse as racial abuse. Aren't the Sikhs the butt of jokes even when they protest against it? Is the nation free of all the caste system and does not differentiate between upper castes and lower castes? Why do communal riots take place in India while we claim 'Unity in Diversity'? Holy places being razed down, priests are murdered, common man being targeted during violence, innocents killed... Are these just minor examples?

Having said all this, I would like to point out that before we raise a finger against anybody, why don't we keep in check the vices that lie in our own backyard?

The bottom line is- ‘Fight against racism and every kind of discrimination that differentiates a man from a man.’

Black Eyed Peas- Where Is The Love:

What's wrong with the world, mama
People livin' like they ain't got no mamas
I think the whole world addicted to the drama
Only attracted to things that'll bring you trauma
Overseas, yeah, we try to stop terrorism
But we still got terrorists here livin'
In the USA, the big CIA
The Bloods and The Crips and the KKK
But if you only have love for your own race
Then you only leave space to discriminate
And to discriminate only generates hate
And when you hate then you're bound to get irate, yeah
Madness is what you demonstrate
And that's exactly how anger works and operates
Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight
Take control of your mind and meditate
Let your soul gravitate to the love, y'all, y'all

People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)

Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love
The love, the love

A Virtual World.

Spending time is easy these days. Thanks to social networking sites, once you're connected to the internet, you've got loads of things to do.

I first had got an invitation to join 'Tagged'. Unknowing what actually was it, I created a profile. I hardly went online then, and found it very boring. Later my mailbox had many other invitations which I overlooked viz. Hi5!, Orkut, Yaari, WAYN, Shelfari, Desi Martini, Facebook, Minglebox, etc.

I logged onto Orkut. It was fun getting in touch with old friends and the communities were the reason that I got addicted to it. I had vowed not to join anymore networking sites. But then, after certain time Orkut got monotonous. Sometime later one of my friends told me to sign up on Facebook and claimed it was much better than Orkut.

Being often congenial, I believed her and joined in. She had already warned me that it may seem too cluttered at the beginning. And it surely was an eyesore! But when I explored the applications, it turned out to be pleasing to me. There's so much to do on it. I simply can't stop playing the 'Never ending movie quiz' as much as I had got hooked to the 'Music Trivia'. Christmas was wonderful as I could set up a Christmas Tree on my profile and also give presents to friends for the occasion. Worthy to mention are the points I get for cheering for Manchester United and I created my own team for the Fantasy League.

All I can say is that Facebook as for now is fascinating. I understand this will be short-lived. But then, I assume, something else might keep me wrapped up.

They say technology has made the world a smaller place to live in... and I wonder how even more smaller is it getting? A virtual world- something we dreamt of?

Jamiroquai- Virtual Insanity.

Futures made of virtual insanity
now always seem to be governed by this love we have
For useless, twisting, our new technology
Oh there is no sound for we all live underground

Living - Virtual Insanity
Living - Virtual Insanity
Living - Virtual Insanity
Living - Virtual Insanity

Virtual Insanity is what we're living in!