"Kiss"aster

This is no sleaze. But plain rib tickling stuff.

1. Richard Gere (a veteran actor from a liberal culture) kisses Ms. Shilpa Shetty ("Big Brother" fame flop actress - almost western) to show that there is no harm in kissing an AIDS patient (supposedly funny way to convey an important issue)
2. Two Bollywood stars Hrithik 'the' Roshan and Aishwarya 'now' Bachan kissing uncomfrotably in Hollywood type movie Dhoom2.
3. Media having a feast at these - are the editors sleeping?!!!

Result: Our own vigilant moral police waking up to the cultural violation these acts have caused. I agree that we need to preserve our culture wherever essential (this is for sure not one) - but not with a hawkish dispose!!

I just find these hilarious!!

Cruise missile - A great inspiration!!

Time for some true inspiration - lock your seat belt, raise the windows and cruise through this road of BrahMos highway.
BrahMos (= Brahmaputra + Moskova) is a success story out of the Indo-Russian tie up on building a cruise missile. Slated to be the world's fastest cruise missile(as of today!!), is a highly sophiscated addition to our defence capabilities.
what we see in the image is a Tatra truck with the BrahMos missiles. It is launched at an angle and then the missile turns horizontal moves up in the air and travels the considerable part of the journey at this height(so that the fuel efficiency is high). As the target comes nearer the missiles climbs down so that the enemies' radar finds it diffcult to trace or atleast by the time they do it are left with not enough time to react. Same is the logic with the fighter planes - they also travel at a lesser altitude to avoid radar detection. But with the sleeker design of the missiles, detection by radar becomes a little more difficult when compared to the fighter planes.
A test was conducted just a week back at Chandipur-on-sea range and what was exciting about this was that the army had sought a complicated manoeuvoring at the end. The test was successful much to the delight of the people who put in their weight behind this effort. Some truely interesting facts:
Missile range: 290km
Payload: 200 to 300kg warhead
Speed: 3 mach (3 times speed of sound!!)
Notable among the team is Dr Sivathanu Pillai, CEO and MD of the venture and his team who have spared no effort in making this a success ( including offering prayers to their favourite deities before the launch!!) And if you by some chance wonder who named the missile i can only give you a hint - he is the supreme commander!!
Catch up on more in this article:

Then we set his hair on fire - Book Review

Advertising for many of us would be an industry where wierd eccentrics in dirty jeans come up with very creative spots - well its totally not quite so!!
Hear this and much more from Phil Dusenberry, former chairman at BBDO. Beyond the glamour and excitement of coming up with creative snippets that compels consumers to procure these products lies a thorough and hardworking team.
What i liked about the book is that it concentrates mostly on the meticulous work that a campaign pitch warrants and takes us through the planning part rather than on execution part. It talks a lot about the research that the team goes through before they arrive at that successful "insight" as the author puts it. "We bring good things to life" and "The Best a man can get" are some of these theme lines which were created during his time which has remained in consumers minds even today after decades of its induction.
There are also some exciting incidents on how it was to work with Michael Jackson and Billy Crystal. On the whole a totally different experience considering the fact that all celebrity advertisements have to be effected by working with some super-egos!!. I havent put my two cents into this - as everything i read here was an eye-opener. This is a definite recommendation from my side for an easy read. Just before i quit - may be it is worthwhile to know whose hair they set on fire... well read the book to figure it out!! ;)

Games Indians Play...A book review

With some days under my belt for good friday i decided to browse the book shops for an attractive title befitting my current apetite. I stumbled upon the title "Games Indians Play" by V.Raghunathan. What made me buy this book ofcourse was the foreword by Narayanamurthy who i have great respect for.

It turned out to be a un-put-downable book and led me into very fascinating aspects of how Indians think. It could not have come at a more appropriate time as not too many days ago i was debating within me as to what makes us litter and jump traffic signals without any guilt? Why is it that we always end up getting the wrong influences from the west? Not only did this book introduce me to game theory but also compelled me to take notice of the scientific way used to analyse behaviours. I must agree that not all experiments are very detailed but still gives a fair idea of the Indian mentality - not to diagree that it bought reminisces from my past where i have displayed lack of self-regulation and apathy towards collectivism.

On the whole i thoroughly enjoyed reading a very small but honest and mince-no-words book about Indians by an Indian. I do not know for sure how this will translate into my day-to-day life yet but then to start off i will recommend this to anyone who asks me for a suggestion on books to read!!

If the author were to read this blog by some coincidence then i offer my gratitude and best wishes for lot more titles like this to come.