No More Bite"- Nail enamel did work brilliantly only for a few days though. I used to find it so bitter in those early days that anything I ate with my fingers would taste bitter. So nothing was Finger-licking good! Now it doesn’t taste as bad and I have started to like the taste which of course is duly defeating the whole purpose of why I apply it.
I started biting nails when I was in high school. My dad would bite nails whenever he sat in front of his PC and back then best imitation always was a talent well appraised . So whenever mom asked me to show ‘how dad does at his desk’, I would promptly-proudly show off my skills by actually biting my nails off.
Ever since then I have been biting nails and have been successful in reducing its size to half. Sometimes I bit it so hard that blood would ooze out of the edges and I couldn't eat anything hot or spicy with my hands. People say that you bite nails when you are scared. But I bit it for no reason. while watching television, listening to lectures, talking to friends, before dinner , after dinner. every time. It is more of an involuntary action in a comfortable position, which is usually my desk where i can rest my elbow on the desk and bend the arm in such a way that it is right next to my mouth. So usually one can find me with one hand on the mouse and the other in the mouth. eeeshhh!!!
At times I get so engrossed in biting I don’t realize that my head would have bent in a way cats do while eating fish! How horrible I must have looked and how disgusting it must have been for people to watch an ugly chewy head. Whoever has caught me biting nails might have thought a 100 times before ever shaking hands with me! So many a times mom has hit my hand when biting. Relatives, friends, neighbors everybody asked me not to bite and I never gave heed to what they said. Still after years, the count of which exceeds the count of my abominable nails, I still do bite. I have promised to many people and taken resolutions on the beginning of every new year ! But I have agreed so far with the fact that resolutions and promises are meant to be broken!
Two years back I met with an accident and just before falling out of the vehicle in which I was seated, I hit the handle rod that gave a internal crack to my front tooth. The tooth was quite sensitive for some time and I could not drink too cold or too cold,if I ever did then it would pain excessively. But even then I never refrained myself from chewing nails!
When my engagement date was fixed, I panicked and was overwhelmed with self-disgust! I was scared and ashamed to show my ugly filthy fingers to my would-be hubby. That’s when I decided to grow my nails and let myself out of this self 'infliction of pain'. But I had to do something about the nails for that D-day. I purchased artificial nails and glued it to the base of my nails , pretty confidently that it would stay unperturbed on them during the whole course of the event. It looked like a wig on a bald ugly mannequin. But the world was against me using false nails, I presume. Just before I stepped on the stage my would-be mother-in-law was supposed to take me by my hand to the podium and Bam! there it was ! She held my hand and all those pieces of plastic fell off my fingers and my nails were bald again when I reached the stage. !!
Recently my friend who is averse to my nail biting habit got me an Revlon nail enamel that is too bitter to be brought anywhere near the face. But the bitterness did not stand strong against the years of hard work and efforts my tooth enamel has been bearing to keep my nails short and trimmed always!
Well, that’s it. looking back and over the years and bestowing glory upon my feats, I have finally made up my mind to stop biting. It is a conscious effort willingly applied to fulfill the wish-list of my dear ones.! Hope I do succeed in this deed to show that I have a strong will-power and also that I do care for myself as well as for those who care for my nails. My nail’s well-wishers.
Ad-Hawkers
Sometimes what you have in abundance can make you fall prey to failure. Anyways,
One ad which really was very captivating in the recent times is the Happy Dent ad where in they show that chewing the gum makes your teeth so white that they can replace a bulb in the night! The concept, visualization is so very well framed and of course backed by a fabulous sound track. The same goes for the Vodafone ad which features the cute kiddo and the pug.. happy to help. Ad making is not an easy business. When a 10 second of ad can cost lakhs and in that minimal time period the whole concept of the product, usage, value of the product, how it is different from other competitors, punch line everything has to be brought in in a very effective way to capture the audiences’ eyes and mind.
I bet that 65% of the buyers of the product in the market are those who are sold to the product’s advertisement. These people are the total Risk Takers who are so much appealed by the ad that they instantly buy the product because it is new. Sometimes buyers buy the product because of recommendations by their friends, neighbors, colleagues . thay are the safe players. they also go through the product review published in newspapers, internet , user experience etc.. they are Choosy! There is another class of buyers who buy because their kids or other family members are forcing them to do so.
To make a product appeal to the audience, the ad maker has to (I’m not an ad maker but say probably I would ) think of so many varied stuff.
1. User / target audience
a. Teenagers, adults, senior citizens
b. Upper, middle, lower class (though the definition of the class has changed, I still use it to broadly classify between the Ambanis, Bachchans, Tendulakars, Wadias, Premji,Revankars Prabhus etc by their annual earnings)
2. ad jingle
3. The visuals (I can think of Lipton Taza where all green and white in the ad)
a. Shooting location (it has to be the tea mountains of Darjeling)
b. Colors used in the ad(a gal dressed in green and white salwaar) has to match with the product wrapper(green coloured tea plants on)
4. The audio
5. The concept – story line, dialogues, punch line.
6. Comparison with other competitors in the market
7. Product Company’s stand in the buyer’s market and share market
8. Already launched successful product by the same company
9. Brand ambassador for the product. l
10. The cast ..kids or gals or guys or both or all
Sometimes a beautiful face can sell anything and sometimes they don’t.! Jogger’s Park starrer Perizad zorabian advertising for cement ad is one thing which I loathe. How can some pretty faced model can add any value in a cement ad when the competitors use elephant to convey the strength of the cement?
The soft-drink ad makers seem to make their ads with the theme of their competitors. When Coco Cola came up with blue coke, Pepsi never left a moment to mock coke about it, in their next ad.
Also remember Wheel washing detergent powder? Well, another detergent ad made this very clear in their ad- ”wheel se mukti paavo, lo trishul apnaaoo”. However, Surf always seem to come up with original innovative ideas.
Master card ad is so wonderfully made..”There are something money can’t buy for everything else there is master card.” How inspiring that ad was.How can we not think of “Sar Utha ke jeeyo” of HDFC standard life insurance where an old man gets down a train rejecting the offer his son gave him. I remember when my FIL wanted to take an insurance, and when the company people came to tell about the various offers, he asked them tspecifically what was the plan which says ‘sar utha ke jiyo’ and he took that up. See how each mad makes an impact on the viewers mind. The Master card ad had me and the latter had my FIL buy it.
Finally I like to sign off with this Monster ad ! Cheers to all those creative thinkers who bring out a new dimension and value add to the products and services we use daily, making it a matter of pride to consume them.
“Caught in the wrong job, log on to Monster”
One ad which really was very captivating in the recent times is the Happy Dent ad where in they show that chewing the gum makes your teeth so white that they can replace a bulb in the night! The concept, visualization is so very well framed and of course backed by a fabulous sound track. The same goes for the Vodafone ad which features the cute kiddo and the pug.. happy to help. Ad making is not an easy business. When a 10 second of ad can cost lakhs and in that minimal time period the whole concept of the product, usage, value of the product, how it is different from other competitors, punch line everything has to be brought in in a very effective way to capture the audiences’ eyes and mind.
I bet that 65% of the buyers of the product in the market are those who are sold to the product’s advertisement. These people are the total Risk Takers who are so much appealed by the ad that they instantly buy the product because it is new. Sometimes buyers buy the product because of recommendations by their friends, neighbors, colleagues . thay are the safe players. they also go through the product review published in newspapers, internet , user experience etc.. they are Choosy! There is another class of buyers who buy because their kids or other family members are forcing them to do so.
To make a product appeal to the audience, the ad maker has to (I’m not an ad maker but say probably I would ) think of so many varied stuff.
1. User / target audience
a. Teenagers, adults, senior citizens
b. Upper, middle, lower class (though the definition of the class has changed, I still use it to broadly classify between the Ambanis, Bachchans, Tendulakars, Wadias, Premji,Revankars Prabhus etc by their annual earnings)
2. ad jingle
3. The visuals (I can think of Lipton Taza where all green and white in the ad)
a. Shooting location (it has to be the tea mountains of Darjeling)
b. Colors used in the ad(a gal dressed in green and white salwaar) has to match with the product wrapper(green coloured tea plants on)
4. The audio
5. The concept – story line, dialogues, punch line.
6. Comparison with other competitors in the market
7. Product Company’s stand in the buyer’s market and share market
8. Already launched successful product by the same company
9. Brand ambassador for the product. l
10. The cast ..kids or gals or guys or both or all
Sometimes a beautiful face can sell anything and sometimes they don’t.! Jogger’s Park starrer Perizad zorabian advertising for cement ad is one thing which I loathe. How can some pretty faced model can add any value in a cement ad when the competitors use elephant to convey the strength of the cement?
The soft-drink ad makers seem to make their ads with the theme of their competitors. When Coco Cola came up with blue coke, Pepsi never left a moment to mock coke about it, in their next ad.
Also remember Wheel washing detergent powder? Well, another detergent ad made this very clear in their ad- ”wheel se mukti paavo, lo trishul apnaaoo”. However, Surf always seem to come up with original innovative ideas.
Master card ad is so wonderfully made..”There are something money can’t buy for everything else there is master card.” How inspiring that ad was.How can we not think of “Sar Utha ke jeeyo” of HDFC standard life insurance where an old man gets down a train rejecting the offer his son gave him. I remember when my FIL wanted to take an insurance, and when the company people came to tell about the various offers, he asked them tspecifically what was the plan which says ‘sar utha ke jiyo’ and he took that up. See how each mad makes an impact on the viewers mind. The Master card ad had me and the latter had my FIL buy it.
Finally I like to sign off with this Monster ad ! Cheers to all those creative thinkers who bring out a new dimension and value add to the products and services we use daily, making it a matter of pride to consume them.
“Caught in the wrong job, log on to Monster”
Knowledge is not power it is fear!
I booked a flat yesterday. After a lot of “site”-seeing, I bought an apartment in Nandi woods finally. I did not have much knowledge about Vasthu except that the house should not be south facing. I never considered vasthu as a major factor for buying a site but I was very specific about the light, wind, spacing between the 2 buildings. This flat is a corner flat with 3 sides open and east facing. So I immediately booked it. now I’m studying Vasthu and reading about the concepts and applicability of it. South east kitchen and east facing house constitute 80% of vasthu compliance blah blah… !! So applying this the flat that I have booked has some 3-4 main key points which are perfect vasthu compliant but the other 30% is not. Now that I’m quite knowledgeable about the vasthu concept the fear and regret has conquered me. So knowledge does not always mean power!
Anyways, I discussed this with my mom and she convinced me that a vasthu pooja before occupying the house would do good and definitely negate all the negatives that could have been caused because of non vasthu complaince.
So I have got my knowledge-power back now! Any new house surely I’ll apply my vasthu knowledge and then buy/build it.
Internet made me powerful !!!
Anyways, I discussed this with my mom and she convinced me that a vasthu pooja before occupying the house would do good and definitely negate all the negatives that could have been caused because of non vasthu complaince.
So I have got my knowledge-power back now! Any new house surely I’ll apply my vasthu knowledge and then buy/build it.
Internet made me powerful !!!
Bengal Porridge (chane dal kichdi)
One day I happened to go home late from work and decided to take takeaway instead of cooking and apprently my FIL thought of helping me out and he had cut vegetables for stir fryand also kept rice and dal in the cooker. That was really sweet of him but since I had got take away dinner we decided to save the veggies and dal for the next day and stuffed them in the refrigerator.
Next day I saw that rice and chana dal were kept in the same bowl and cooked together. I did not know what to make out of it. For pongal or khichdi we use moong dal(split green gram). I could have tried making chanadal payasam out of it but the proportion of rice should be less than chana dal but here it was the inverse proportion. so I asked him what do I make out of it. he asked me to prepare spicy khichdi out of it. I was lost. As usual I called up mom for help! she asked me to use the same ingredients as pongal (pepper corns, ginger and cumin seeds) and mix the seasoning with the cooked rice and heat the whole mixture. However while cooking I added spices/garam masala items along with the other items to it and it came out very well. And these days I make more of Bengal Kichdi than Moong kichdi and love it. Accidental discoveries!
Ingredients :
Rice - 1 Cup
chana dal(bengal gram) - 1/2 cup
green chillies slit length wise - 3-4
Chopped ginger -1 tsp
curry leaves - 7-8
Bay leaf -1/2 leaf
Cinnamon- 1/2 inch stick
cloves 3-4
Pepper corns 7-8
grated coconut 1/4 cup
chopped coriander leaves
Wash rice and chana dal and drain .
Heat oil add bayleaf, pepper corns, cloves and cinnamon. fryfor 1 minute. Now add green chillies, chopped ginger and curry leaves once it is fried add the drained rice and dal. Fry for 2 minutes and add water and salt and close the lid of the pressure cooker. leave for 10 minutes.
Once cooked, add grated coconut and coriander leaves and serve with hot ghee. If needed squeeze half a lemon to give it the tangy taste.
Since in my case, the chanadal and rice was already cooked I added the seasoning to the cooked grains and then mixed well and garnished with grated coconut and coriander leaves served with ghee.
Next day I saw that rice and chana dal were kept in the same bowl and cooked together. I did not know what to make out of it. For pongal or khichdi we use moong dal(split green gram). I could have tried making chanadal payasam out of it but the proportion of rice should be less than chana dal but here it was the inverse proportion. so I asked him what do I make out of it. he asked me to prepare spicy khichdi out of it. I was lost. As usual I called up mom for help! she asked me to use the same ingredients as pongal (pepper corns, ginger and cumin seeds) and mix the seasoning with the cooked rice and heat the whole mixture. However while cooking I added spices/garam masala items along with the other items to it and it came out very well. And these days I make more of Bengal Kichdi than Moong kichdi and love it. Accidental discoveries!
Ingredients :
Rice - 1 Cup
chana dal(bengal gram) - 1/2 cup
green chillies slit length wise - 3-4
Chopped ginger -1 tsp
curry leaves - 7-8
Bay leaf -1/2 leaf
Cinnamon- 1/2 inch stick
cloves 3-4
Pepper corns 7-8
grated coconut 1/4 cup
chopped coriander leaves
Wash rice and chana dal and drain .
Heat oil add bayleaf, pepper corns, cloves and cinnamon. fryfor 1 minute. Now add green chillies, chopped ginger and curry leaves once it is fried add the drained rice and dal. Fry for 2 minutes and add water and salt and close the lid of the pressure cooker. leave for 10 minutes.
Once cooked, add grated coconut and coriander leaves and serve with hot ghee. If needed squeeze half a lemon to give it the tangy taste.
Since in my case, the chanadal and rice was already cooked I added the seasoning to the cooked grains and then mixed well and garnished with grated coconut and coriander leaves served with ghee.
Hopes or Nopes
Ver well said - "Hope is the reason for living" !!! I always wake up in the morning with a hope that the day will go good. does it end at that? No. Hope continues to rule my day over each activity. I hope that the pancakes I prepare turn out good, I hope to reach office early,I wish to get less work atleast on friday so that I can leave early. All is hope for this living.
But it is also said that "Desire - the reason for unhappiness" ! I equate hope to desire. If I dont hope that the pancakes I make to turn out good and if it goes bad, then I would feel really bad ; true ; but had I hoped for it to turn out good and if it went bad then I would have felt really reallly bad!! so that is the toll hope takes on us. It is better to fall from a chair than from a wall and even so from a building. So the take is - Higher the expectation, higher is the disappointment for not meeting the expectations.
Is it as simple as it sounds? Dont hope. live life as it comes. No... it is really a hard thing not to think of one thing that makes me feel happy about. But just imagine the joy you experience when you do not expect anything and it comes to you on its own.. ! It is like somebody giving to you the most costliest designer wear you always wished for, dreamt of, spoken of , for FREE. Isnt' that overwhelming joy boundless? Yes it is!
So the moral is "Always start with a hope that you would not start hoping for the best start!"
[:)]
But it is also said that "Desire - the reason for unhappiness" ! I equate hope to desire. If I dont hope that the pancakes I make to turn out good and if it goes bad, then I would feel really bad ; true ; but had I hoped for it to turn out good and if it went bad then I would have felt really reallly bad!! so that is the toll hope takes on us. It is better to fall from a chair than from a wall and even so from a building. So the take is - Higher the expectation, higher is the disappointment for not meeting the expectations.
Is it as simple as it sounds? Dont hope. live life as it comes. No... it is really a hard thing not to think of one thing that makes me feel happy about. But just imagine the joy you experience when you do not expect anything and it comes to you on its own.. ! It is like somebody giving to you the most costliest designer wear you always wished for, dreamt of, spoken of , for FREE. Isnt' that overwhelming joy boundless? Yes it is!
So the moral is "Always start with a hope that you would not start hoping for the best start!"
[:)]
Politically political
Vote is on my mind... vote is in my soul... !! Ever since I found out that my name is on the voters list, I am really excited about the whole idea of ballot, voting machine and of course getting my nail painted black!
Now that the voting day is closing in, I'm getting kinda frantic about who is the most deserving candidate, which party I should be voting. I cannot ask anyone for their opinion because that it is a totally private info and should not be revealed. I checked over the internet about the various candidates and all I could get was a sheet with age, name, party and home address of the candidates from my part. Also the soft copy of the affidavit signed by each of the candidate, the copy of the receipt for the payment they have done to get some form etc etc. Why do I need that information? whether they have signed some affidavit or not or whether they have paid the dues or not how would I be benefited? government would have already validated that information and given them the ticket to stand for election. By posting those docs I do not get any information about the ability of the candidates to be an able leader in future.
what am i gonna do with their address? I wont go marching to their house and judge whether he deserves my vote or not by gauging the size of his house and the no of car he owns.
It would have been such an easy task for voters to choose their leaders if govt would publish in one place name and place of all the candidates and their qualification, achievements politically or otherwise, good work done for the area they represent and a small write up about what their plans are for their area if they get elected as the leader.
I do not mind the hoardings of party leaders or the series of party flags lined along the street what I do mind is bursting crackers in the middle of the road in the name of party publicity there by creating traffic jams in the city known very well for its jams. I do not like the fact that villagers are lured with alcohol to come to the city for party demonstration. They are brought in local buses stuffed even atop buses and made to spend the night on road sides. Poor guys agree for all that cause they get alcohol as compensation.
Anyways the whole election process is a big budget movie with good actors and confused,fooled and disappointed audience!!!
Now that the voting day is closing in, I'm getting kinda frantic about who is the most deserving candidate, which party I should be voting. I cannot ask anyone for their opinion because that it is a totally private info and should not be revealed. I checked over the internet about the various candidates and all I could get was a sheet with age, name, party and home address of the candidates from my part. Also the soft copy of the affidavit signed by each of the candidate, the copy of the receipt for the payment they have done to get some form etc etc. Why do I need that information? whether they have signed some affidavit or not or whether they have paid the dues or not how would I be benefited? government would have already validated that information and given them the ticket to stand for election. By posting those docs I do not get any information about the ability of the candidates to be an able leader in future.
what am i gonna do with their address? I wont go marching to their house and judge whether he deserves my vote or not by gauging the size of his house and the no of car he owns.
It would have been such an easy task for voters to choose their leaders if govt would publish in one place name and place of all the candidates and their qualification, achievements politically or otherwise, good work done for the area they represent and a small write up about what their plans are for their area if they get elected as the leader.
I do not mind the hoardings of party leaders or the series of party flags lined along the street what I do mind is bursting crackers in the middle of the road in the name of party publicity there by creating traffic jams in the city known very well for its jams. I do not like the fact that villagers are lured with alcohol to come to the city for party demonstration. They are brought in local buses stuffed even atop buses and made to spend the night on road sides. Poor guys agree for all that cause they get alcohol as compensation.
Anyways the whole election process is a big budget movie with good actors and confused,fooled and disappointed audience!!!
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