Walk and Rest

It's how it has been for years

And shall be for the rest.

Your walk for some miles

And then you rest.

There's dark after day

And pause after play

Those who sit at a desk,

Run in the gym or a park

And ones who toil all day

Lay down before the dark

If there's just work

or even just rest

You'll soon leave

to make way for the rest.

(Felt nice writing a child like poem.

Why grow up :) )

TPoH

 

So i ask him,

why do u do this all

he scratched his head..

as if thinking.. but he knows

he knows exactly.

what he goes through..

He is lazy

but still he wakes up early somedays

he goes against his wishes

he lets it go

 

whats another hour gonna hurt neone ha ?

so he go through that extra hour.

all throught that hour

he wishes,

wishes it did hurt someone

and he could go

even the last few mins of that hour

he could go and do his thing

his thing

what he wants to do

but he stays the whole hour

hell, he stays a couple of mins more.

 

Ok so he's supposed to feel good

so he smiles

may be fake smile

but he is smiling

But theres a thing about fake smiles

after a time,

they just stop lasting.

 

But then theres mathematics

100 fake smiles is greater

than 1 real tear right..

so lets go on.

lets start from the top

all over again

 

but wait why did this all start?

aah the question

why does he do this all

its simple, same as everybody

The pursuit of happiness.

I feel good

I had a nice sleep.

I had a good breakfast with some nice people.

I took my time with how I spend my morning.

I listened to some good music.

I got some chores done.

I have no where to be where I don't wanna be all day.

I took bath. I am wearing comfortable clothes and I smell great.

I have some amazing thoughts in my head.

I have wonderful people around me to share this good day.

I am happy J

 

I see stuff...

I see something cooking up.
I see "wake up sid" and " 3 idiots".
I see children more sure about what they want to do.
I see people wanna be designers and not engineers.
I see people throwing away IT jobs.
I see a banker, a writer, a singer - all in one person.
I see parents more liberal.
I see the left brain conquered.
I see the right brain being sharpened.

I see a new India.

Coke Studio

Coke studio

A music lover's Perspective :

A music lover always feels delighted when he comes across a good piece of music. I had the same feeling when i came across “Coke Studio “ some days ago. I knew, I had found something great to listen to, for years to come.

Coke Studio is a phenomenal show being aired in Pakistan which takes its viewers right into the heart of a recording studio, where they have one of the most legendary musicians performing.

The philosophy of this show is "Fusion music" where they pair up the very famous modern pop/rock singers with classical/sufi singers to bless us with a really beautiful amalgamation of music. They also have in place one of the most handsome bands with instruments ranging from the modern rock instruments to the most traditional instruments like the toomba, dholak, table, sitar and many more which are anonymous to me.

The show is purely magic. The music is exquisite, the singers are mind blowing, the jugal-bandi's are a treat, the songs are made immortal, the atmosphere is electric and the performances nothing less than legendary .

In the Eight episodes aired till now, the coke Studio stage has seen more than 15 musical geniuses including Ali Azmat, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan , Strings , Ali Zafar, Shafaqat Amanat Ali (Fuzon), Josh and Atif.

Fusion music in itself may seem like a known concept of music but in the world of Coke Studio where the artists are masters in genres ranging from Bhangra, to pop, to rock, to folk music, to sufi music, to gazhals , to retro and even jazz ; “Fusion” has immense possibilities.

Some of the top notch performances like the Ali Azmat and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan version of “Garaj Baras Saawan Ghir aayo” are poised to receive a new lease on life at the level of the Eagles, “Hell Freezes Over” version of ‘Hotel California.’ The best of all this is that, Coke Studio has the whole collection on its website free for download including songs, videos and behind the scenes stuff.

Nevertheless, I would plead the SIIB community to abstain from putting more load on our already deceased internet network by downloading videos from the coke studio site. The whole collection sums up to roughly 3 GB which u can easily get from ( MBAIB-0911-Div B : Abhijit, Karan, Abhishek Deobhakt; MBAIB-0911-Div A : Samarth Gupta).

So, I hope everyone enjoys the musical voyage of Coke Studio and hopefully I will see some comments about your favourite songs from the collection.

A Marketer’s Perspective :

Being a management student I attempt here to provide some insights about the marketing repercussions of this show. It should not be forgotten that the name of the show starts with a word called “Coke” and this particular company is known to be one of the smartest and best marketers in the world. Starting with Coke’s association with this show, as we all know , Coke can hardly be counted as a mere “fizzy drink” brand. It goes beyond that. It’s a premium brand. It’s a lifestyle brand. It’s much more closer to its customer’s hearts than a mere cold drink and so is the music showcased in this show. Both these entities match; they complement each other.

Coke, being the ace marketer it is, has not failed to leave a mark on the show. Its the one and only sponsor of the show and brand can be seen everywhere one’s eyes can look.

I think there is some level of addiction attached to good music and when a brand attaches itself to good music , the addiction is transferred to the brand too. We all know how much Airtel and Hutch (Vodafone) have cashed in on their respective ad jingles which were basically very good pieces of music. Here, in Coke Studio, Coke is not only associating itself with these songs but recording them under the brand name of “Coke Studio”. This gives a very powerful branding opportunity as all these songs are stamped with the “Coke” trademark.

Another interesting factor of this show is, its very exclusive. It has produced just 9 episodes (roughly 40 songs) in 2 years. At the same time, it should be noted that the show is broadcasted simultaneously on around 15 different channels at the prime time of 7 to 8 PM. This ensures that a very high amount of people tuned into their TVs are going to watch this show, and history shows they have.

Pakistan, like India is a very young country adopting the western phenomenon like rock concerts and the whole rocknrolla fanfare. So the show is definitely something that appeals to the target audience, The young generation. And as it turns out, the young has shown all its support and appreciation to this show by flocking in numbers to fan clubs and blogs on sites like Facebook and Wordpress.

Another very delicate factor here is that, Pakistan has its own share of Fundamentalists who have raised their voice against this show , circulating hate smses , calling this show “Americanised”. But the show itself has stood this test, the major factor being inclusion of the traditional and highly respected maestros.

What has attracted me most is the novel idea of sharing the complete collection of music to the whole world free of cost on the coke studio website. I somehow relate this to the open sourcing of software done by great brands like Google, Mozilla, Linux, etc and would take the liberty to call this step taken by coke as “Open Source Music .“ Analytically, it does make sense for coke to do so, cause this would allow the music and brand image of Coke to flow out of Pakistan to the world, specially countries like India and other Arab countries. For an omnipresent brand like coke, this is nothing but an icing on the cake.I would invite the readers to share their insights on the marketing side of the story too.

That I Would Be Good

Aamir Khan's Ghajini is out in theatres and me and my friends religiously got a first day first show ticket.

I happen to be a self proclaimed movie buff and most of the times i have some comments about the movies i watch.

This time too , as the movie unfolded , i had 5 words shouting inside my mind.

Surprisingly there was an NDTV crew waiting outside the hall to get comments from viewers. I passed by them, unnoticed. Offcourse, comments from a pack of pretty girls makes more sense for a news show. But if they had approached me, i would have said those 5 words straight to them.

" Whats with all the Negativity"

This is all that caught my mind after the film. Somehow it happened to overshadow the immaculate performance of Aamir khan , potraying the lovelorn/hunky short term memory loss guy, and one of the most crisp performances in recent times by a female lead in hindi movies (Asin).

All i went home with was a troubled heart and mind, thinking, where are we going with these kinda movies.

Movies which give so much importance to the villain that they are in fact named after them.
Movies which show a man gone crazy , killing everyone in his way , to avenge his love's death.
Movies that tell us, muscles and blood is the answer when someone does wrong to you.
Movies that show a man giving away info about two girls to goons , just for a mere 10 bucks.
Movies that in a nutshell tell us - Somebody scratched you, well then you gotta scratch back.

This somehow disturbs me.

Ghajini is going to be the most watched movie of the year , and what message does it give to the millions of people.We are talking about the same people who are currently battling through tough times of economic crisis , mounting prices, terrorist attacks and what not.

Is this what the hundreds of relatives who have lost their loved ones in the mumbai terrorist attack do ?

Hunt down hungrily the terrorists and kill them , also killing many more in the process.

When mr. Aamir khan, probably the most admired, respected and sought after personality , whom a lot of us look as an idol in terms of perfection , meaningful and thoughtfull cinema puts out this kind of message, it is really gonna go deeper than just a movie.

Also lets look at another recent widely watched movie, The Dark Knight.

It is supposed to be a movie where a superhero saves the people from The Joker.

What The Dark Knight has ended up doing, to a large extent, is celebrate this insane Joker character. Just notice the hoardes of people who have "The Joker" as their avataar in online forums and the anormous popularity of The Joker wallpapers , and you will believe me.

It idolises this perfect villain who has nothing to lose, who doesnt want money, who kills for fun and who doesnt kill his arch enemy, The Batman even when he has a chance, just because he likes fighting him.He loves the chaos and the anarchy.

Doesnt this joker sound somewhat similar to the mumbai attack terrorists? The terrorists too had absolutely nothing to lose. Their sole goal was to kill as many people as they could. They had no ransom demands, no demands about releasing their comrades, not even a plan to get out safe after the attack.

To all us who are affected by this negative media swarming around us , i would like to remind ourselves of some other great learnings which we have learned in the past, from movies itself.

Gandhigiri, though the concept was aprreciated and even practiced by some, its time we revisited those ideas.

There are many more reasons to smile, many more reasons to help others, many more reasons for hope. We just probably have to dig deeper.

If theres dark around us , theres light too. If theres Black , there is white too. And its upto us how we mix this black and white and form a grey , depending on our own understandings and sentiments.

I would leave this decision to the readers, ending by adding the video of a song and quoting my favourite lines

that I would be good even if I lost sanity that I would be good whether with or without you

That I Would Be Good - Alanis Morissette

That I would be good even if I did nothing
That I would be good even if I got the thumbs down
That I would be good if I got and stayed sick
That I would be good even if I gained ten pounds

That I would be fine even even if I went bankrupt
That I would be good if I lost my hair and my youth
That I would be great if I was no longer queen
That I would be grand if I was not all knowing

That I would be loved even when I numb myself
That I would be good even when I am overwhelmed
That I would be loved even when I was fuming
That I would be good even if I was clingy

That I would be good even if I lost sanity
That I would be good
Whether with or without you

Short Story

On a sultry Bangalore afternoon, A boarded a shared cab to reach office.

Minutes later, B joined in. A helped B close the door.B said "thanks".

A smiled.

B sat facing A at the back of the Tata Sumo Cab.

B dug into his pocket and started taking the blue wrapper of a 5 Rupees Dairy Milk.

The shiny substance caught A's eye. A thought to himself : "I was nice to him, hopefully he'll share the chocolate".

He didn't.

A saw him throw the blue wrapper through the window.A's eyes followed the wrapper on the road , as the cab raced ahead of the lone-blue-wrapper lying on the road.

The gold wrapper was still left on the chocolate. B passed the final obstacle before he could enjoy the small bar of happiness.

B was about to throw it out same way. Right then , something struck in A's mind and he lurched forward and said, "Can you give the wrapper to me? I ll throw it in a dustbin when i find one."

Both A and B stood frozen for a moment, finding it hard to believe what just happened.

A though a smile would help, so he smiled.

B kept the wrapper in his pocket, and went ahead with his chocolate.

A spent the rest of the ride thinking about writing this blog and how this small incident has made him more motivated towards keeping his city clean.

How about you ?