Creativity at its best..

Its amazing how branding has grown in today’s world.. be a jingle like “kuch khaas hai hum sabhi mein” or then a tag line as simple as “daag aache hai” we could actually relate the companies and the advertisements associated with it..

I was always awed by the way the advertisement companies worked and would not hesitate to say that I have always dreamt of being associated with one (though I carry no experience in it).. but these companies somewhere touch those chords of people with their brilliant showcasing of products.. be it the insurance ad (life ke saath health bhi plan) where they show a boy dreaming of owning a small car and by the time he can afford it he cant fit into it.. to the dairy milk ad where the girl comes dancing on the pitch after her boy friend hits a six and they win the match.. or the Act-II popcorn ad which is purely text but conveys the meaning.. to the very recent (cant recollect the company name) where they have started this conference calling facility and all friends are trying to explain one friend how to tie a tie-knot.. I could just go on and on..

But its not that all the branding campaigns are great though.. like this one for ponds where they showcase Saif ali khan & Priyanka Chopra.. come on guys.. its just going on and on and we still have ‘coming soon’ being displayed.. Anyways a few odd exceptions are allowed.. and it doesn’t take off the credit from the companies that are actually forcing people like me to be a part of it.. hands off to your creativity guys.. :)

Envious.. naah look at it this way

Travelling on a bike to office when it is pouring outside, have you ever envied the people passing by in a car?? Hmmm.. lets make you a little more jealous.. here are the wonders or should say comforts that a car gives during rains..

a) all your body parts are on a continuous workout.. legs trying to juggle between the break & clutch.. hands constantly being used to either change the gear or then clean the window.. eyes that try hard to first see thru the wiper and then through the rain drops on the window pane (just incase you missed hitting some one) and yes constantly try to gauge the depth of the puddle right in front..
b) you actually enjoy a slow steady drive (even if you are getting late) as you just cant drive fast.. thanks to the cycle wala who would drive right in the middle of the road to safeguard himself from the water clogged on the side of the road.. and a little credit to all the en number of two wheeler that cant drive beyond the speed of 20 with the fear of loosing balance..
c) you can never be caught if you hit someone on the road.. thanks to the two wheelers whose tires ooze out enough of muddy water to cover your number plate and then to your own car which splashes water to cover the rearview number plate too..
d) you enjoy the pure fresh air of the AC as you cant keep the windows open with a fear of letting water drip in and spoil your fav covers.. and the AC actually makes your nose freeze no matter how hard you try.. (and if you think why on earth do you need a AC, then let me tell you it’s the suffocation and the smell of your shoes that got wet trying to get in..)

hmmm.. need I say anything more to make you feel better.. :( I hate this and trust me I would have rather enjoyed my bike ride with the rain drops making me feel the freshness of the season.. and making me fall in love once again with the beauty around..

Mentos helpline

I generally like popping in a mint anytime of the day.. while doing so I happened to look at the back cover of Mentos and my curiosity led me to see this site www.mentoshelpline.com.. its difficult to say anything on the concept they have put forth.. I would say see it for yourself..

This site is totally hilarious and I loved the expressions of their anchors.. amazing job done.. one visit to the site and you could roll around laughing.. trust me Mentos isn’t paying me for being their site ambassador :) this opinion is purely from the heart..

Gone are the days.. but not the memories

For the first time I felt Crossword ran short of books coz I could not find something to suit my craving to read.. being the kind I am, I thought of taking a stroll through the kids book section too.. what surprised me was this section which hosted all kinds of comics.. tintin, archies, batman, and the indian favorite chacha chowdhari..

God!! it has been ages since I had read them and just their sight brought a smile on my face.. for a few seconds I was carried back to the days when I hid comics behind the huge school books and pretended as though I am studying.. haha..

I couldn’t resist buying a few copies and feel they excite me still the same as they did a decade back.. there ought to be something with childhood likings, you just cant get over them :)

Gang of Girls..

I am sure to run short of space when I mention the times and the characteristics of this lot of girls (aptly named ‘The Gang of Girls’ by Munmun).. so here i go sharing little snippets of all of them..

Priti is amongst the ones who just doesn’t accept her mistakes.. I mean who says ‘Sundar Bhaji aahe’ for a vegetable that tastes good.. and it would be counted a wonder if she ever accepted the fact that her Marathi needs to be improved.. I heard some very weird marathi from her like ‘Rode’, which means thin, ‘nal ala’ which means water has come.. uff.. I could just go on.. but other than this she is an amazing person to be with.. totally loving and an amazing cook..

Manisha – I think we shared loads of moments of fun.. she is known for the email forwards and the ease with which she could mark the peculiar characteristics in people.. the one thing I still remember about her is Meghna’s video that she managed recording without getting noticed.. an amazing person at heart and a total enthusiast.. that’s all I have to say.. love you..

Anita’s paratha’s better put at Ghee wala paratha’s were the ones we craved for.. (think only she mastered the skill of making them such well).. of course that’s not it.. she is known for the high decibels she talks in.. we generally landed up in tiffs and need not say she always won.. Anita is the perfect ‘politically right’ kinds.. something I never learned..

Do not go by the way Geetha looks, her appetite would keep the ant’s also hungry.. haha.. jokes apart an ever smiling person I met.. I totally adore her saree draping skills and the ease with which she carries herself.. The one think I remember about Geetha is her buying of a blue watch to match a blue saree.. :) a gem of a person.. love you for everything..

Though I have spent very less time with Jayashree sorry should be Dr Jayashree, I always looked up to her.. she symbolizes a perfect balance between maturity and fun.. it is her cubicle space in the office which ensures everyone visits her atleast once a day.. haha.. but everything aside a great person by heart.. wish you the best..

Meghna – the general chatterbox outside office.. in office you just cant figure out if she exists.. as they say big things come in small packages so does Meghna.. keeping aside her height and weight she is a total freak.. it’s her people observation skills that amaze me the most.. and need not say her mimicry of the same.. we share one common bond and that is our craving for chocolates.. she just doesn’t get bored posing for pictures and get over excited over the smallest of things.. I think lessons on ‘keeping the spark alive’ need to be learned from her.. :)

Himani – if girls are meant to be delicate, soft spoken and shy.. she is totally opposite.. (no offences) I think its her this quality that makes her stand out from the rest.. a child by heart and lady with determination that’s all I could say for Himani.. wish you loads of luck..

Megha is the youngest in the lot but yet the most amazing.. be her designing skills or then her dressing sense she knows he perfectly well.. you’ll never find her complaining for anything.. (even when she is overloaded with work).. a person truly worth having around..

And the list would go on and on.. Aruna, Meenal, Snehal and Nidhi whom I have already spoken of in my initial blog.. and then Khirabdi, Poonam, Supriya whom i will write about soon.. so ladies love you all and be the same always..

Murphy

Have you ever got late to work/meeting and on the way have had a flat tyre? Or then have been struggling for an important presentation for days and the computer crashed or the CD corrupted just before the presentation?

Never understood how situations always worsen when things are going bad.. we always say its murphy.. and I never understood how he knows exactly when to join us.. strange but wish murphy could be an excuse which my boss understood.. :(

I could pen down ample experiences where I wished I had a least 1% intuition that Murphy possessed.. life would have been so very perfect then..

An interview worth a talk..

Interviews always bring in jitters and specially when you are as unprepared as me.. I never learned how to say ‘no’ and so when was asked whether I could make it to the interview the very next day I just said ‘yes’.. (the biggest mistake had just happened.. for that split second I had forgotten that I was out of town for a meeting and would return only by afternoon the next day.. giving me no time to go thru the profile or the company website either)

Too confident that I could nail this opportunity with all my charm, I sat at the visitor’s lounge of the company admiring all the posters and certificates on the wall.. I had nothing to worry as I had never heard the company name and knew I could make up some story last minute to convince my situation.. But as they say never be too early to be happy.. ( I realized that these saying were for sure someone’s experience in life)..

So here I was sitting in front of the department head of the strategy unit in the company.. I always believed that to reach the top in any organization a person needs either of the two; one baldness or then a ponge.. (this person possessed both.. and so did he have intelligence..)

Like every other interview that starts with a tell me something about yourself and give a brief of your experience, I too expected mine to follow the same pattern.. I kept rehearsing my well thought answers in my mind.. but then its never the way you plan things.. atleast not with me.. my interview started with “so Namrata tell me what can I do for you??”.. For some seconds I thought that was just a statement but then when he kept looking expectantly for an answer I could just manage a smile.. so here I was a) for an interview I was totally unprepared for, b) out of all the people in te company, my first interview itself was with the strategy team head (a job I always dreamt of), and c) the first question that was asked made me look as silly as I could..

Yup I did answer the question and for a change where I thought I would be thrown out in 5 min the interview lasted for nearly 4 hours.. I wouldn’t term it an interview because that was the only question asked to me, the rest was just discussion over where I could fit in..

I don’t say its my intelligence that got me through the interview I would say it was just my day.. :)

Embarrassing yet funny

How many of us have experienced a situation which is funny and embarrassing at the same time.. and despite the feeling to murder the person who put you in it, you just couldn’t help laughing..

We had this party in our factory for motivating the workers, and ignoring all my pleas to be excused my boss forced me to the floor.. this would have been a very common situation if a) I was not the only lady in a lot of around 200 employees and b) if it was not my very first meeting with all the people in the factory..

So the music was nice and there were plenty of people already dancing to the beats.. I stepped on the floor and I could see a slight movement among the dancing lot.. (initially I felt they were just trying to make way for me to join them..) but when I made my first move and happened to look around that I realized I was all alone and everyone was staring at me.. so here I was the only lady on the floor, with a few dozen of people staring at me, and my boss grinning in the far end of the room.. All I felt was to kill him.. but the sudden realization made me forget that I had just stood still for a few seconds and the entire crowd burst out laughing..

It didn’t seem hilarious until someone from the crowd said.. “whether or not we remember anyone else from the regional office, Namrata will always be recognized”.. what a way to be remembered is all I had to say to myself..

Weekend mood!!

Its been ages since I have actually just lazed around on an weekend.. now I know its just 1/6th of the week complete and not the time to talk of an weekend.. but that’s currently the only thing that’s keeping me in the spirit to work..

So whats the plan for this weekend.. late morning, then sipping bed tea just gazing out of the balcony for hours, late lunch and then slip into the blanket with a book in hand.. wow.. the thought of it itself makes me feel so refreshed..

Hope all goes as per the plan and then I can jalao people with the bliss of a perfect lazy weekend and write a review of my newly read book.. till then it me and my weekend thoughts

Big Beary Hug..

I have been smiling ear to ear writing this.. na na nothing is wrong with me.. it’s the after effects of meeting a very cute friend after a long long time..

I always wanted to know how it feels when someone wakes up early for you and then gives you a surprise visit.. not to forget a visit with red roses.. hmmm..

I did experience something similar when my friend travelled all the way long to give me a surprise visit.. of course there were no roses.. and I was getting late for office.. so our meeting ended just saying good morning and bye bye..

Haha.. yes that’s it.. and yet it meant a lot.. all I wanted to do was give him a big beary hug.. but before I realized it, it was too late.. so here is one for you, though its virtual its still from the heart.. :)

Weekend trek..

I am known to give bahana’s for any kind of physical exercise.. and my weight which is probably totally propotional to my height say’s it all.. (I am 5.7 inch’s) and I aint ashamed of it a bit.. haha.. so coming to the point, this time none of my EB (emotional blackmail) tantrums worked and I was pulled for a trek to Lohagad..

For all those walk lovers its an amazing 10kms one way walk with beautiful scenery, lovely waterfalls and the perfect weather to compliment it... and for the rest of it.. it’s a huffy puffy drag along walk to the top just to realize its time to walk back..

Ok I know I am exaggerating it a little too much but my trip was amazing.. we started off our walk right from the Malwani station and think paused every 2 min’s to click pictures.. (some of which are in the blog itself)..

I have been always wondering that why did all these ‘Raja’s’ build forts at such weird locations.. half the enemy would be dead trying to even reach 1/4th the distance of the fort.. anyways cribbing apart.. for all those who have not seen this place, it’s the view from the top that makes this entire walk worth every step.. Sitting on those rocks at the tip of the fort with the chilling breeze and water droplets brushing your body, it feels immensely peaceful..



Whats also worth a watch is the fog settling down on the fort.. you could hardly make out people in front of you and thus making the walk to the other side even more adventurous..

phew!!

So finally I am done with the presentation and awaiting my bosses ‘positive response’.. this leaves me enough time to pen down my experiences over my weekend trek..

Trichotillomania..

“Trichotillomania” (meaning being : an abnormal desire to pull out one's hair).. that’s the exact way I feel now..

I have been struggling to make sense of a totally messy presentation.. its messy not for the way it is made but for the contennnnnttt.. sometimes I get amazed with how people could complicate the simplest of things.. its like instead of saying ‘its an apple’ you say ‘it’s a red colored fruit with loads of vitamin blah blah blah..’ yukkkk

Anyways so this explains my current frustration and the so called immense liking I have towards my job.. let me get this thing fixed so I could write a little more of the non office things I have done lately..

PS: thanks to Nidhi for the perfect word to suit this feeling.. :)