42 years ago....

I have very little answers to the question - why am I posting this picture now? Actually, I have none.

That doesn't stop me anyway, does it? So here it is - a 42 year old picture. From a bygone era that will never return?

Do I want it to return? Keeping all notions of nostalgic diarrhoea aside, I actually don't want that time to return. I think I have a good life just now....

But look at the innocence on the faces, (including mine!) How much has changed in 42 years :-)

The laws of cooking

• First law - The first one always sticks to the pan. Don't get depressed.
• Second law - Hunger levels of the cook and consistency of dosa diameter are inversely proportional.
• Third law - If you are really hungry, dosas of any shape taste equally nice.

Stumped - completely.

Last night, I sat working till late. Very late. At about 4:00 as I went off to make coffee, all of a sudden, thoughts about Bahadurshah Zafar just dropped into my head. That's the only way I can describe it. Usually we say that a thought popped out of the head. But the feeling that this thing dropped "into" my head was just too distinct. No confusion there. I walked back reinforced with the coffee and decided to read the Wikipedia page on Bahadurshah. I also heard his immortal ghazal "लगता नही है दिल मेरा उजड़े दयार में". Out of the long and detailed Wiki page, only two sentences stayed in my head. In fact, only two words out of those. The sentence was -
Bahadur Shah died in exile on 7 November 1862. He was buried near the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, at the site that later became known as Bahadur Shah Zafar Dargah.
And the two words that I refer to were SHWEDAGON PAGODA. There was just something in the way the words sounded. At least I imagined it that way.
All this took five minutes and then I was back to work. Before I realized, it was past 6 and the newpaper boy's footsteps made me get up. As I opened the Pune DNA, my eyes fell on THIS piece. Right at the top of the first page.

After Cadbury's - Havells follows suit?

Some days ago, I wrote about Cadbury's TV ads going from bad to worse. over the years. Now another company which had caught people's attention with their catchy ads seems to be going the same way. I am referring to Havells of course.

The ad I am talking about is doing its rounds on TV currently. I am sure you have all seen it, but just in case, here's the summary.

A hangman 'delivers' the criminal to the noose and walks back distraught to his home. As he enters his dark home, he switches on the light and the voice over says "जिंदगी में हम सबको पाप करना पड़ता है, तो क्योँ ना पुण्य कमा ले ... बिजली बचा के. Havells CFL ज्यादा बिजली बचाए." We all have to commit sins in our lives. So why not also do a good deed. By saving electricity. Havells saves power etc etc etc.

I am quite stumped by this ad. I do understand the need to save power and am all for it. Really. ALL the lamps in my home are CFL. Its another matter that they are not Havells! 

Is it really necessary to twist this issue to such extent to make people understand it only in the light of (sorry, pun not intended) sin and virtue and morality and all that? The chasm between sin and virtue in the ad is far too stretched, I think. On a silly note, are they saying that the hangman won't feel guilty pulling the lever once he has fitted  his home with CFL lamps? It's somewhat like bathing in the Ganga once a year. Commit all the sins that you want to for 364 days, then visit Hardwar once.

On a parallel note, there is a strange link between this issue and my earlier posts about punishment. Particularly death sentence. Does the hangman really commit a sin, or is he doing his duty? I can understand what a hangman must feel like. No matter how duty-bound one is, it surely must not be easy to pull the plug on someone else's life.

Be that as it may, please convert from using conventional bulbs to CFL if you haven't already done so. It makes sense. Sins or no sins.

For the inquisitive ones, the ad has been made by Lowe Lintas.