[Gul's ~ A Book with the Fragrance of a Flower]

Thanks Asma! Here I go =).

Four Movies Drama Serials I Could Watch Over and Over

Angan Tairha
Un-Kahi
Tanhaiyaan
ABC

Four Places I Have Lived

Four TV Shows I Love To Watch

Four Places I Have Been On Vacations

Lahore [twice]
Muree [twice]
Sukkur [too many times]
Quetta [ too many times]

Four Websites I Visit Daily Whenever I Come Online

Four Favorite Foods

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now

Four People I Tag Next

*sniff*

Prasoon Joshi calls it the “moment of his life”. He was at the Hapur railway station waiting anxiously for the train to start. Sitting inside his air-conditioned compartment, Joshi says he could almost touch and feel the searing heat outside. Just as the train was leaving the station, Joshi saw a porter sound asleep, covered by the shadow of a mountain of gunny bags stacked next to him.

A few days later, Coca-Cola went on air with its new commercial that showed a man sleeping peacefully on a busy pavement, with a pile of coke bottle crates protecting him from the blazing sun. The one-line caption with the ad said: “Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola”. The ad, whose idea Joshi got from the fleeting glimpse of a porter at Hapur, went on to win the Golden Lion at Cannes in 2003, writes Business Standard.

It’s a Sunday — the only day when Joshi can spare some time, as he has no shootings to attend and has only a couple of client meetings at Taj Land’s End at Bandra, which is close to his home.

Running against time is obviously quite natural for a man who belongs to so many worlds: that of poems (he has already authored three books and is now finishing the fourth one); film lyrics (he won the Screen award last year for Hum Tum and has just finished penning the dialogues and songs for Rang De Basanti, the next Aamir Khan movie; and songs (he sings most of his ad jingles).

As if these aren’t enough, he is also the south-east Asia creative head of McCann-Erickson — a role he relishes the most as it “pampers the child within him,” Joshi says, as we take the elevator to Vista to enjoy what he says is the restaurant’s delicious Sunday brunch.

Conversation, however, is difficult as the restaurant is full of noisy children and noisier parents, but Joshi’s familiarity with the staff helps as we are offered a corner table at a relatively quiet spot and served draught beer at lightning speed.

Joshi says his many roles help him to remain in a “confused state of mind”– essential for a creative person like him. “Finality kills creativity. I want to be confused, by choice.”

There was, however, no confusion in his mind about the career he was to choose for himself. He did an MBA just to please his parents, spurned the many “conventional” job offers he got during campus interviews and started doing the rounds of ad agencies for “copy tests” — something his parents and friends didn’t quite understand.

The search didn’t last long. He remembers the then creative head of Ogilvy & Mather tossing a picture of Sera tiles at him and asking him to write a descriptive copy within two hours. Joshi submitted his papers within 10 minutes.

Seconds later, the only thing the creative head said was: “Man, you are hired.” The two-line copy that Joshi wrote in Hindi roughly translates like this: “You have to be really rich to own these tiles. Rich in your imagination.”

The affair with O&M lasted for over 10 years — much of it under the guidance of creative geniuses like Piyush Pandey, whom he considers to be a huge inspiration. He joined McCann in early 2002, only to be “fair to himself and give some independence to his creative instincts.”

Barely three years later, McCann has become synonymous with some of the most memorable ad campaigns in Indian advertising — NDTV India (“Sach dikhate hain hum”), Saffola (“Abhi to main jawan hoon”) LG, Marico, Perfetti (Alpenliebe, Chloromint), and of course, his crowning glory — the paanch rupaiya campaigns for Coke with Aamir Khan.

We have just finished our second round of beer and Joshi says we must rush towards the buffet table if we want anything more than crumbs. The food is the usual five-star fare — competently laid out and nothing more — but Joshi doesn’t mind it.

He is in a good mood as he has been invited to be part of the jury for the AdFest in Pattaya — another recognition of Indian creative talent. The other reason for his good mood: a day earlier, McCann regained the General Motors account, which it lost a couple of years ago.

The winner of over 200 ad awards all over the world considers novelist Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay one of the greatest copywriter of all times. Reason: Sarat babu had a fantastic power of observation and could write about real human emotions in the simplest possible language.

“These are the only two attributes that go into making great ads,” Joshi says and recounts how a truck driver who was drinking water from a pitcher with his head held high became the inspiration for yet another memorable campaign — Piyo sar utha ke –or Coke.

“Everybody wants to hold their head high. For the truck driver, it was a compulsion as there was no other way that he could drink water straight from the pitcher. But it’s our job to make a virtue out of necessity,” Joshi says.

Or, take the latest Tata Indicom ads featuring celebrity couple, Ajay Devgan and Kajol. Joshi claims the company’s sales have shot up by 60 per cent since the ads went on air with the catch line “People buy phones to talk”. The inspiration came from his driver, who one day sought his advice for buying a phone, which offered no other facilities except “talking”.

His background as a small town boy who stayed in places such as Rampur, Almora and Ghaziabad has been an immense help, Joshi says. “If marketers want to crack small-town India, they have to learn to speak their language,” he says.

And give voice to their emotions, too. Joshi, who is now responsible for all McCann creatives from the south-east Asian region, says, “fundamental human emotions are the same all over the world, only expressions are different.”

Example: he had gone out for dinner with one of his junior colleagues in Beijing. After a couple of drinks, the young man got emotional and started talking about how his grandmother used to feed him roasted cockroaches while telling him bedtime stories.

“Replace cockroaches with rasgullas. Our memories and the bond that we share with our grandmother are the same,” Joshi says, adding the secret to a creative guy’s success all over the world is fairly simple: once you’ve made somebody emotional about your product, you’ve won him forever.

The dessert seems to be the best part of the lunch and Joshi looks quite pleased. He is quite excited by what Lata Mangeshkar told him a couple of days ago during the recording of a song he penned for Rang De Basanti.

“I was humming the tune which Lataji was supposed to sing. She heard me and wondered why I am not getting into playback singing. Imagine…,” an emotional Joshi says. Another world seems to be just opening up for the 36-year-old creative ad guru.

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I thoroughly enjoyed every moment while this glimmering interview with this young guru. Priorly, I couldn’t help myself to explore that why all Indian ads have perfect message at the end, that treats the brand is all about and make the viewers ‘ to come out with brimming praises.

Anybody watched latest indian ads of Naukri.Com, Bru Cappuccino, Cadbury flavored chocolates, Coca Cola, Nokia. Aren’t they ABCD[in advertising] oriented?! how aspiring. A=> Attention, B=> Brand Link, C=> Communicate, D=> Dicriminate.

Diet Cola: See! How much other vehicles are mad after my figure!
Cola: How sleaziest are you, stop showing off. OKAY!
Diet Cola: hahaha…! my nostrils are giving me signal that someone is burning under jeolusy.
Cola: Look! I’m going to nag about ur lame driving to teraffic guard.
Diet Cola: I’ve enough charismatic personality to mesmerize him even .

LOL!

Mee: Hay! hello, kaisi ho?
Ara: Hay you, yaad agai! Main theek.
Mee:LOL nai yaar I was bizzy with exams na.
Ara: aaaan, so howz they went?
Mee: Too obscure to comment. Aur sunao?
Ara: nuffing much, I’m grabing changes came by this semester, to aaj kal to mazay ho rahay hoon gay na?
Mee: Nahi yaar, Watching T.V for a whole day is authentic boredom one can imagine for.
Ara: Aray TV say yaad aya, did u watch that bullshit program on Hum, thats about resolving family issues and problems publicaly entitled Maachis. They take the family into public on air through this show and make them to discuss all these obstacles publically without being hesitated. OMG, Gulllllllllllllllllll…….. I just watched its first show, its was based on saas bahu ki tu tu main main and believe me it was a big curse over our own family values made by elders.
Mee: paused*, so how they really bring all that in one show, I mean is there any outcome they conclude with at the end.
Ara: Not exactly bcoz most often the intensity from opposition side is too high that after 1 hr it seems that all were crying over the spilit milk. Bhala koi faida aisay ghatya program ka?! Do u know who’s the anchor. Its ZQ, before doing this job I was in a thought that she’s really one of the dynamic figures in the fashion alley, but she’s another garbage in herself bcoz she always promotes and supports the wrong and weak aspect of issues and problems taking under discussion into that show. I just hate Maachis, Hate it, Hate it, Hate it!

After this 6 months ago call to my one of the closest friends of college times who made my eye upon this very show. I’ve watched every episode named Maachis exclusively presented by Hum TV. A highly volatile talk show, focusing on real life family issues that are a bone of contention in many homes. Will this talk show resolve the issues or further ignite them? Moreover I dont even think that guests of this show belong to any respectable class of society. Their body language, their selfish and self centered favors, their dual and frequently changing natures, their attitudes towards rest of the family potray that they come for money, only this need urge them to do so. Over and above the audience involvement is so much open and vulnerable that sometimes cause to damage any guest’s self-esteem value. They critisize without being aware of their position in that program sometimes may it cause to humiliates parents sitting over their, they simply dont care. ZQ, herself speaks for the side whoes kicking their own selves without beign bounded by culture, religion and teachings. She doesn’t even hesitate to insult any father on air right away without keeping his age infront of her ego.

I’m not saying that the idea of doing this show is incorrect, majority of people agreed and appreciated the central idea of Maachis. But, the way they bring this show on air is truely a devastating indictment and offensive for the growth of family respect into the eyes of youngsters.

Last month my most eminent and open to critisize uncle Z was here from U.K. on visit with his wife. He is too purely disagrees with this show and team behind this endeavor. He said that he dont disagree with all the disputes highlighted through this show all know over here and abroad that they exist in a wide veriety. Moreover in his thinking it is a pure 1 hr drama they creat under the context of reality in order to entertain the crowd. Might be true.

Not putting every issue into light, I’m just placing one to prove the flaws. Which was one about two daughters being invited there with parents to make them convince by the public to allow them to work for showbiz. Is it really a reason to make them agreed?! I must say in end that world is round and they must be lunatic members of this round world. I hope you all will also consider it as stigma.

Check out the promos here.

ROFL!