Beat the Traffic Blues

Traffic and India have been inseparable… With India rapidly marching towards its “Developed nation” vision, so is its traffic  A decade back, traffic jams are a rare phenomenon , now if we don’t get struck in a jam… its a rare phenomenon  In fact, it has become a part of many people’s prayer… to reach without getting struck (Don’t give me that look now… Bit of exaggeration is required for interesting posts  )

Thanks to the angry drivers (Indian version of Angry Birds soon  ) and impatient passengers who keep raising their blood pressure levels as well as that of others around during such jams… Result : Arteriosclerosis with narrowing of the coronary arteries, the culminating event being a thrombosis (clot). The main change is death (necrosis) of myocardial tissue that leads to Acute Myocardinal Infarction ( Don’t call up a doctor for explanation… In other words its Heart attack   )These medical terms are more complicated to understand I suppose 

Anyways, so instead of getting tensed during traffic, we can deal with it in a better way. In such traffic pile up, there will be many different people around and of course, funny incidents are bound to happen that can entertain you for a while.

Once, when the traffic started moving, everybody was impatient and wanted to wriggle out first… So when it was a turn of an auto to move… A typical Indian (I call him typical as he crossed during a wrong signal) walked majestically across the road, causing the wrath of this auto driver… The auto driver turned towards the man and started scolding “Can’t you see and walk… I really wonder how people see somewhere and walk somewhere especially in traffic” The auto man was so engrossed in turning towards the man and scolding that he forgot his hand was driving the auto simultaneously….TTTHHUD… We heard a sound in 2 minutes… The auto driver had hit the lamp-post…   The auto driver pulled his auto back… embarrassed 

In another incident, an Audi car just appeared from an invisible street and took off to the main road right royally blocking all the vehicles… Now struck in between, he (I assumed him to be an NRI or something) didn’t know how to proceed… Horns were blaring, our angry drivers started pointing their hands at the poor guy… The guy was helpless, his face was paling with every second… I thought any moment he might shout … “Muuummmmmmyyyyyyy”  and start crying  Finally, a traffic police arrived, the guy got down and rushed to the police inspector like a lost child running to his mom and desperately explained his situation…. Finally, somehow the traffic was cleared… The reactions given by that Audi car owner was hilarious:D

I have this alienophobia…  When my bus stops in traffic and when some other bus stands at a very close proximity… I’ll feel everybody in that bus is giving weird looks as if am an alien  I’ll never dare to look up at the bus… Once, I tried giving such looks to passengers inside the next bus ( as I was bored to always be in the receiving end ), but I got a more intense set of looks… so I had to give up and look down 

Another thing I do is, there will be some heated argument going on between the drivers, I’ll mute their volume (plug in headphones and raise the volume of the songs) and observe their reactions with the BGM… Trust me, it will be very very funny 

Another nice passtime will be to observe people standing in the traffic… Each will have their own mannerisms and well, we’ll be entertained  If you look around… you can make out such usual people… One businessman or some official sitting in an AC car and continuously looking at his watch every 2 minutes, a girl in car fanning herself with magazines and grumbling, a guy in bike continuously correcting his hairstyle looking at the bike mirror, a middle aged couple arguing with full energy, Angry drivers blaring horns and using “pleasant” language to scold, IT professionals (including me)  peeping out of the buses every now and then to calculate the intensity of jam….of course with headphones in their ears, then… two friends in bike seriously discussing about the cricket/soccer match…. so on!

Next time, when you are struck in traffic, observe these little things, follow my tips and stay cool! And yeah… If you are a blogger, you can also think about your next post (like how I did now  )   

Ads that add up your smiles

“Meet you after a short commercial break!” Where’s the remote? Where’s the remote? Tak…Tak… Tak… Channel change….change…change!!!! LOL   I know this is what happens in every house. Leave alone advertisements, we hardly have patience to watch TV these days… Inspite of this, there are advertisements that have grabbed our attention.

While my mind was running through ads (my brain got influenced by smart phones where all the contacts and other lists just run down till you touch one…All ads ran in full 1000x speed ), first few were “Washing powder Nirma”… A girl with white frock dancing, then “Aaya naya Ujaala, chaar boondhon waala” , Titan ad… The bride playing piano(titan tune), Amul’s chubby little girl in frock with her sarcastic one-liners, Raymond ad…where the children bid farewell to their teacher, “Am a complan boy” ad… etc etc

Cadburys  have always been my favourite… hey not only chocolates, for a change, am talking about their ads  The initial ad, when the girl dances her way inside the ground, eating cadburys dodging the police, when a boundary is hit… Another ad, where with mehendi on both hands, the girl still finds a way to relish her cadburys. Then came, Amitabh’s  ”Pappu paas ho gaya” ..where Pappu is a middle aged uncle who clears off his exams…Kuch Meeta ho jaaye tag became famous after that and continues till today with Shubh Aarambh. Each and every ad is so cute and brings a smile always.

Then with pepsi and Coke entering India, many celebrities started featuring in commercials. Shah Rukh Khan ad, where he runs and is chased by dog… Finally, the dog outwits him. Then came series of Sachin ads and Hrithik’s dance ad.

Pepsodent ad… where the kid imitates the way his mom scolds  ”Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate…”, orange ice cream spills on the sardar kid’s school uniform and the kid says his mom loves his teeth more than him…”pepsodent kids don’t lie” ad.

Remember the surf exel ad? where the brother and sister walk back home from school, sister falls and brother fights with the mud and water that made his sister fall…”daag achhi hai”… Everybody talked about this ad as soon as it was aired first.

Not to forget the Fevicol ads, all were innovative ones. The hero would be about to fall from a mountain and be clinging. When looked up, fevicol bottle would have been placed on top of the TV preventing him from falling.

The initial ad of airtel where A.R. Rahman composes the evergreen Airtel song from airport. Then, Madhavan- Vidya balan airtel ad series…Each of them was one of a kind. The Hutch dog ad , happy to help you and of course not to forget our zoozoos who came running to entertain us during world cup. Many watched world cup only for Zoozoos 

Till now I was talking about national ads, I just can’t miss few of these regional ones too… (people who don’t understand tamil…. I guess the true effect will be lost if I translate. So spare me this time  ) . “Adhigama saapta… Gunda aiduva! I don’t care”… Some soap ad, I suppose.. “I don’t care” with the same modulation became famous one-liner after that.  Hamam’s ad  ”Papa ku ulla bayama irukadha… Papa solludhu amma evlo nallavanga…Evlo? Adha sollalayae” The dialogues between the mom and kid still linger in my mind. Next, the ad where the mom shouts “Kulikaaadha….” and runs to the train… Lol  Coffee ads are very special here…The first is “Sa Sa Sugar boy…. Aanandham Bru udan Arambam”… Bru ad where the girl hesitates to tell her dad about her love. The next is Narasus coffee “Besh Besh! Romba nanna irukku”. Then, the Leo coffee, Aravind Swamy ad… Very nostalgic, isn’t it?  Remember Trisha’s 1st ad in Horlicks before she became a heroine…”Mannu… Naan romba busy”, mom of that “busy body” Mannu  Ahhh!!! How did I forget? “Ennachu? Kozhandha azhudhudu…” Woodwards Gripe water ad.

I guess I’ll continuously keep going on and on. There are many more ads, few recent ones like… “Teacher sollitharala…Shaaaring!!!!”, Karthi-Kajal agarwal bru ad, Johnson baby products ad,”What an idea, Sirji” series… Simply superb   Though these were just featured for few minutes, but the impact created by them lasts for years 

The Sailor who Sails in our Memories

Well its been a while since I posted… So thought of blogging today!  While I was wondering what to blog today…. I came across this pic…

Do you remember him? Popeye , the sailor Man! He was (is) my super hero… I used to sit glued to the television… I remember 8.30 pm was when popeye was telecasted in Cartoon Network. I used to sit waiting for it right from 5 pm. Since I didn’t know to check the time by myself( I guess I was in KG),  I used to ask my mom every now and then whether it is 8.30… Till she gets irritated and scolds me! 

“Popeye, the sailor man… Am popeye the sailor man! Am strong to the finich, cause I eat my spinach… I’m Popeye , the Sailor Man! Poo Poo..” would get me running to the TV wherever I am! The amount I liked Popeye was directly proportional to the amount I disliked Brutus  If somebody had asked me that time… “whom do you hate the most?” My answer would have been Brutus without a doubt!

My friends and me literally grew up with Popeye! We used to jump when Popeye smashed Brutus and felt very sad when Popeye was hit. The best moment is when Popeye says “That’s all I can stand… And I can stand no more” and opens his Spinach can with the BGM complimenting it. Still a smile appears on my face thinking about it!

In fact, it was just because of Popeye I started eating Spinach! I used to ask my mom to make spinach every day. One day, after a Popeye special marathon, in full josh, I entered the kitchen and took a handful of spinach (uncooked and just cut)… started munching it ( singing the BGM on my own), I became Popeye in my own world and was checking out my arm muscles that might appear any moment in different shapes(Popeye gets it everytime he eats, right…So logically I too should get  ) Just den PHATT, I turned back after having another mouthful and shouting “You dirty Brutus!”… One more hard hit and I spat the spinach out… My mom was standing, ready to thrash me for eating the spinach raw! I was completely confused at that time, why is a reverse effect happening? I ate spinach and my mom got power?  I declared that its a duplicate spinach 

While watching movies, I really used to wonder at the stupidity of the heroes for not carrying a spinach dabba handy. So that whenever villain hits, heroes can eat that and punch the villains! 

Though there were many other cartoons that were famous at that time like Scooby Doo, Tom and jerry, Johnny Bravo etc… Popeye was very special  Each and every character was so beautifully sketched and the voice dubbed was so very appropriate. Like Olive shouting “Poopeyye…” in her skreetchy tone, Brutus’s hefty look and Popeye’s pipe that stays in his mouth even while fighting, Popeye’s 4 little nephews and his friend who keeps eating a ham burger 

Even the little detailing stays fresh in my mind… Such is the impact  I really wish they start retelecating Popeye with a new enhanced concepts ( version 1.1  ), so that Popeye and his spinach don’t disappear from our memories!

The Warrior Prince

My joy knew no bounds to see India’s best captain walk out and stand for the toss….. Yes! its none other than Sourav Ganguly !!! First of all, let me first say… it was my childhood dream to write about Sourav Ganguly when I grow up…. Today am all smiles while fulfilling it as a blogger   I really don’t know what made me become a Dada fan… I was in 2nd class and there was a match going on…. Sourav and Sachin were opening! My dad was watching it… I immediately started asking questions to my dad about the game and the first shot I observed was hit by Sourav… Six on the off-side  From that day onwards, there was no looking back… I started following his game and his approach  I still remember this incident…. My friend had a doting elder brother, so she used to always irritate me as I didn’t have one! One fine day, when she teased me telling “My brother got a new bat and thought me to play with it too” I got very pissed off and told “ Your brother knows to just hold the bat… My brother plays for Indian team ” 

 Thus, as time went by, I started observing the game more closely…. When Sourav took over as a captain in 2000, when Indian team was in a very bad shape, my joy knew no bounds.During 2003 world cup, I was in my 8th class… We used to write slogans and wishes everyday morning on the day of match… The entire class(including my class teacher ) became Sourav’s fans (Thanks to me  ).

Since am watching him from my childhood, I imbibed many characters of his. I always admire his skills as a leader and the way he manages his resources. No matter what the others tell and felt, he’ll stick to his decisons. He always takes the blame when the team loses but gives the entire credit to his team if they win! I learnt that, a leader should be like this… ready to take responsibilities 

I guess Gangulians are the ones who face heights of critisicm! Always… whenever there is a match, I’ll be surrounded by anti-gangulians who bombard me with their comments. At first, it used to affect me a lot! But when I read in a book that, as you scale higher, the number of critics also grow. So after that, everytime I find a person criticising, I used to smile to myself  But, I really learnt to deal with criticisms more gracefully… It helps me a lot even in day to day life   

 His will power to bounce back and emerge as a phoenix , has made me look up in awe. Being such an experienced player, he was dropped from the team and in fact was made the 12th man to carry drinks for a match. He never gave up! Started playing and practising from scratch…right from Ranji Trophy, he started all over again. Many asked me, what is the need for all this? I always replied…Why shouldn’t he? Sourav once again proved it… He bounced back and retired with dignity. Similarly, even IPL saw the same phase… But am sure Sourav is proving and will prove by leading Pune Warriors from the front   

I found a tweet very appropriate “Once a Gangulian, forever a Gangulian”. I found it very true 

My most memorable day is the day when I met Dada and got his autograph in 2003, when he had come to Chennai  Of course, this is by far my favourite post