Give Credit where Credit is due - Dahi and the men behind the scenes

If you have lived in India or well, any place where the mercury has expanded beyond 40 degrees, you can jump to the next paragraph now. But for those of you that haven't - its hot here in India. And by that I don't mean 'its-warm-today-so-lets-head-to-the-park-and-bask-in-the-sunshine' type of days I looked forward to for the past 6 years. I mean show-stoppingly, can't go out in the daytime, can't sit for 2 minutes without a fan or an AC HOT. To reiterate its H-O-T!

So its in this climate I have forced myself to write the second in this series of tribute posts (I told you there would be more). This one is for two things. Let me start with the second and end with the first!

When I said it is show-stoppingly (is this not a real word? well it ought to be!) hot I meant that for the normal mortals amongst us. I was not including the guys who actually make the real show go on - the construction workers, the little shop owners (no AC or fans in these makeshift little things), the rickshaw wallahs, even the policemen! I say that because the upholders of the law in this great land are known more for their incredible lethargy in all climes. But to just be out there standing in the heat, even pretending to care two hoots about the traffic (pun intended!) is a super human effort. Those poor security guys standing in front of buildings, how they must yearn to duck inside the air conditioned interiors of the buildings the guard. Construction workers take the cake (a solely proverbial one mind you) for doing hard labour in the baking heat. I hasten to add that these people are only the tips of the iceberg (extremely proverbial!)... a few instances that I have observed and felt a surge of sympathy for.

But then that leads me to my other credit-ee! Yoghurt. Just plain and simple tasty old yoghurt. No pretence, no fruits necessary, just that awesome better-than-ice-cream stuff. I honestly could not write that last sentence without my mouth watering; that's how much I love the stuff. Have it with your rice (like 96.25% of all South Indians - based on a survey I conducted in my head), have it with parathas (like 73.84% North Indians - similar sources) or even churn it a bit and have it as butter milk or lassi (everyone in India has had that) and its great. It is the base for a million different recipes, helps blend a variety of spices and yields another plain yet wonderful classic - the humble raita! Man I need me some yoghurt!

Anyways so my contention is that in its many beautiful forms it energises and keeps the masses going on one of these aforementioned HOT summer's days. Through most of my childhood I would have connected summer's gastronomical highlights with mangoes. Trust me its still up there, but with age comes maturity (or so they say) and with it the realisation of the true queen of summer cuisine - DAHI!

The twists and turns of Hero Honda

I want to document the thrills and spills of one of the most consistent(ly annoying) advertising campaigns on our televisions. I believe it all began with this hideous monster of an ad.

(Did you notice the way Irfan Pathan, all charged up to ball the ball of a lifetime, delivers a red hot juicy full toss?!)

Since I was not in the country I cannot tell exactly how popular it was or how long it was shown for. Mind you, there were some pretty harsh words being said about it so I guess it was big enough to get under the skin of some.

I started taking an interest when they changed track from that Bollywood-Cricket crossover rubbish and started promoting the Hockey world cup. For our international readers, contrary to EVERYBODY’s notion, cricket is not India’s national sport – hockey is. But when this old powerhouse of hockey was to host the Hockey World Cup, God knows it needed some bigging up! Here’s my favorite from that lot:

I dare say that one was nice and effective. A popular cricketer going out in support of a sport that desperately needs it and doing it well. Hooray. The ones featuring Priyanka Chopra and Rajyavardhan Rathore get a lot more sinister with a subtle and not-at-all-subtle threat to go watch the matches! But hey, at least the idea was right.

But then they went and put up this ad:

Apparently this genius concept has been on for a while now.
‘Thinking is such a waste of time’??! Yuck. What were they think… no I’m too pissed off to even make that joke!

Seriously though this is the kind of dangerous crap that produces lunatic daredevils who more often than not harm not only themselves (not such a big loss!) but innocent bystanders too. Irrespective of the disclaimer they hastily put up saying only idiots should try this, such an imbecile notion being displayed to a young, developing country spells nothing but trouble.

So subliminal message? The campaign creators are evil geniuses who realise that some decent ads endears people to the brand who are thus all the more distraught when you put up the ads. But distraught or not, it stays in peoples minds and what’s that they say in Marketing 101 – No publicity is bad publicity eh?!

3 little questions about me

Now that I've had triple digit visits and double digit followers of this blog (shock horror!) I think its time to tell you guys a bit about myself. The whole 3 of you that haven't been forced to read this that is!

Where am I from? My dad's family are Tamilians who moved to Kerala a few generations ago. My mum's family is from Udupi which is in Karnataka but they don't speak Kanada, the state language. They both themselves grew up in Delhi. With me so far? Well it gets tougher. I myself was born in Pune and have lived there, intermittently, for a total of 9 years. But in between and around those stays I have lived in Calcutta, Roorkee, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and most recently for 7 years in the UK. So in the process I have a British passport but a very middle class Indian upbringing.

What have I studied? I did a combination of Chemistry and Physics for my under-grad. Then circumstances meant it made good sense for me to change and so I did a Master's in Mathematical Finance. Then this little thing called the recession hit and I took the first decent job that came my way so now I work in Online Advertising!

What are my interests? If you think of a sport right this second, there's a good chance I follow it and like it (unless you thought Gaelic Football or Kobudo or something!). If you think of a music artist (here the non-obscurity clause is key!) I either like them or like another band from the same/similar genre. Progressive Dub-step does not qualify as a separate genre in my book! I read, I write (sigh huh?). I sometimes (very rarely) strum a guitar (badly). Oh and I sometimes watch some TV and always scrutinise the ads I see!

My mixed and mobile childhood means that I am a fan of most things but the master of absolutely none. In fact I proclaim myself to be not a jack of all trades but a 9 or a 10 of many! But hey that's me and I'm pretty proud of it!