Digging for Meaning

 and why not claim to be diarrheatic, malarial and other more plausible conditions? " Plastinated Human Body Worlds San Diego " by Pattymooney - Own work . Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons . body v/s  mind shame. Blame it on Christianity, blame it on conservative idiots around the world - body is just not what it used to be. Covered with clothes, body is the eternal source of shame. So when a body system goes haywire, the instinct is to hide it. concrete v/s vague Body, by virtue of being available to touch, smell, see to ourselves; is real to us. It's existence is concrete and finite. Reality is solvable. Reality is boring. The working of mind remains a delicious enigma. A mystery that is for the most part, unyielding to human curiosity. Or even when it does yield, it peels out in confusing different directions. old v/s new Conditions of the body have been known to us from long ago.. well atleast that is what we assume. Awareness of...

The heat has been oppressive. Four month long, uninterrupted oven of a city. Well, a sauna actually. a sauna that uses hot sand and car fumes instead of steam. Gurgaon is a fucking pollution-powered sauna in the summer. We are sure to face water shortage this year. Inflation is going to skin our appetites. and then the most amazing thing happened today morning. Grey clouds appeared. After weeks of evading rains, Gurgaon is finally hosting the gray clouds, albeit reluctantly. Its been quite a few hours since their arrival and yet, no rain is forthcoming. (excuse the sad excuse for a sprinkle a little while ago.) I imagine people and animals would spontaneously erupt in joyous break dance when the rain come to stay. McDonald's and KFC will serve only pakoras and chai. I imagine the collective gazes of a million expectant eyes on the clouds would punch little holes in the clouds through which water will pour out. and then I overheard a girl complaining about the impending rai...

or more precisely, why so many bloggers (me included) like to call their thoughts as random? Random means a lack of order... that the writer of blog is not attempting to restore order to meaning. Even if he/ she is writing her thoughts down.. the act of writing is not an act in search of meaning. its in the opposite direction. it is to spill out the elements in our lives that are forcing you to move in different directions. For them, the blog is like a woman's purse.. with countless things inside. to find the think/ thing you really need, you need to turn over the damn thing. Random means freedom..  To be random is to be not answerable to expectations. To be random is to be not answerable to the reader. The onus of finding meaning is not so much on the blogger as it is on the reader. "What did you think? its a random thought. and since it is random, there is no explanation for it." Random means without precedence... To be random is to be born new. To come into...

" Goldenes-Zeitalter-1530-2 " by Lucas Cranach the Elder - Unknown. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. All our acts, our thoughts, our conversations are steps towards the ideal world we want to live in. Isn't it? Consciously or sub consciously. Actively or passively. Violently or placidly. Everything is in service of our dream worlds. someone litters the roads because in his ideal world, everything is available at arm's length and the world revolves around him/her. Another person who sees this and shouts obscenities to the litterer, views his ideal world as clean and one where individuals are aware of their duties, not just their rights and entitlements. another, person who sees these two individuals mid-banter, rolls his eyes and windows and speeds away, wants his world to be free of arguments, he wants his world to be wholly agreeable and sanguine. Kundera's Ostriches   A group of ostriches are trying to tell you something. moving the...

Myntra is asking us to 'live for likes'. But should it? and should we? I will come to that in a bit, but first the ok enough parts. Imagery. The imagery seems alright for a fashion brand (myntra = fashion brand?). Beautiful young people shot in various circumstances. The operating insight for the imagery was 'selfies'. Sure the brand world has discovered that insight now.. at least 2 years late. Error #1. Missed the zeitgeist bus.   This is a lazy interpretation of a powerful insight. If it is late, it at least should be powerfully executed or reinterpreted in a new way.Why are people taking selfies? How does it relate to their self esteem? How can Myntra inspire consumers through selfies? ok. so it was just an ártistic device'. But why have divergence in device and tagline. Error #2. Misunderstanding the function of branding  I want to talk about the misplaced insight behind 'live for likes'. My assumption is fashion advertising is aspir...

Why should a reader in India read about the Iraq crisis as it relates to US and not us? Because lazy journalism, thats why. And being so used to publishing straight from US PR / propaganda.

askme's commercials here. There are 3 of those. Firstly, its an ad for an app that has a celebrity endorsement. Secondly, its also an ad for an app that apparently does many things. Thirdly, its a headon competitor to leading single purpose apps. But the real question that one is left asking askme is 'WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY DO?' Error 1: Lack of proposition in a fucking launch commercial. :O which makes me wonder why askme is burning cash with these ads. Why would someone posture, instead of actually communicating? Perhaps its a desperate dash to get the name out before the owners go out to woo investors. But which investors would put their money on such shallow proposition?  Error 2: wrong insight. The apparent insight around which this campaign is strung together seems to be - "people are fed up with having to manage so many apps on the phone". What utter bullshit. who in India is 'worried' about having to manage their cell phones. We,...