Niharika's Phibits

Political incorrectness gone mad!

2010-04-19T00:54:00.000-07:00

One good thing that came out of the Tharoor – Modi controversy which ultimately led to the resignation of Tharoor from office is the realization of the importance of the ubiquitous but underestimated public relations manager.

Political / social opinion cannot and should not be expressed in 140 characters. Political correctedness serves a very important purpose i.e. to minimizing social and institutional offense.

But this is exactly what is happening in the country today. Social media like twitter are unintentionally destroying diplomacy and leading to thoughtless accusations, comments and pop philosophies and our politicians, celebs and social figures aren’t the only ones falling prey to this new system of ‘thinking in 140 characters’. It seems to be the end of thoughtful dialogue and perspective, because how much perspective can you really put into 140 characters.

It also seems like a most irresponsible use of a media which is currently not censored and which gives a false sense of security to the expresser since he is only physically aware of his own personal motives and feelings and the Blackberry or I-phone in his hand.

What is now considered ‘new school’ propaganda i.e. Twitter, is actually becoming a lesson in what not to do for politicians, most of whom wouldn’t have a public persona worth a penny if not for their public relations managers.

Only bad things can happen when politicians and other public figures loose their mouths and get into a very public fall in grace by engaging in self indulging ego clashes. When thought itself is limited to 140 characters what more can we expect. The only thing left to do is censor twitter, god save us if that happens.

Honestly now!

2010-04-15T03:22:00.000-07:00

Before I begin, let me say one thing. I love advertising. Being a marketer myself I am pretty much a sucker for advertising, its almost like a misplaced comradeship; “If I don’t fall for this ad, who will fall for mine!’ So for me it's like a moral obligation to try out any new product which has a great advertisement (as long as it doesn't make a huge dent in my pocket).

Something similar happened when I saw Minute Maid’s ad for its newly launched lemonade. Well shot visuals captured the days of youth when your mom made freshly squeezed nimboo pani after you returned from your neighborhood sojourns. Ahh…I was transported back to an imaginary childhood where I was a boy, playing cricket in the neighbour hood field relishing the nimboo pani my mom so lovingly made for me. (Of course the fact is that I am a girl and have never been too great at sports! But so was the impact of this ad). That was that, next day I was at Dadar station sweating in the ticket line when suddenly my eyes fell on MM’s Lemonade and I made a spring for it (not before reserving my place in the line of course!).

Well, I am sure you can all imagine what happened next. I discovered to my great anguish that this is not the nimboo pani my mom used to make after I came back from my imaginary games in the imaginary neighborhood, but lemon concentrate mixed with ‘natural’ flavours and some other stuff like calcium and vitamin c, sugar, etc.

Suddenly the picture of the sunny field and the fresh nimboo pani and ‘maa ka pyaar’ all disappear from in front of my eyes only to be replaced by a factory worker adding capfuls of lemon concentrate & a few pills of vit C and calcium followed by loads of sugar to water. (ok I am sure that’s not how they do it…but u get the point) I was disappointed to say the least and not because I didn’t like the drink. They probably had a customer in me if they had not tried to mislead! But the fact is I hate them for having got me!

Btw…the next product I plan to try is ‘smart chips’!

What if I am…

2010-04-14T05:43:00.001-07:00

too rational to be brilliant,
too sensible to have sense,
too clear to be muddled,
too efficient to be improved,
too correct to be right,
too exact to be perfect,
too adult to be childlike,
too smart to unlearn
too careful to be free…

How would it feel to completely lose control? To take the actual physical leap, to be answerable to no one specially not yourself…Would you go wild, would you dance in the streets, would you paint crazy psychedelic paintings, would you make up new worlds, would you tell people exactly what you feel about them, would you really truly feel anything, would you make love to everybody, would you go slap that bitch, would you make a movie, would you disappear, would you eat your guts out, would you shout from the top of a building…

What would you do if you completely lose control?

You are free.

2010-03-17T07:58:00.001-07:00

We are lucky to have Freedom of thought. To live in a world of diverse opinions and debate. To be able to express oneself and one’s thoughts. To be given the opportunity to see them turn into actions. To be free to THINK!

It can only be true that the fact that we are free is so incomprehensible to some people that they cant understand the full meaning of how blessed we are. Why is it then that we want others to be like us? Why are we looking for ‘like minded people’? Why do we want to conform?

Its all in the mind – you can choose to be bound by circumstances or you can choose to create your own realities. You just need to believe that this life was meant to be just like it is. It will then become perfect and all internal conflicts will disappear. Easier said that done right?

When you are 7, you know you will be an astronaut!

2010-03-10T03:03:00.000-08:00

When I was a child: Dreams had no boundaries and anything was possible. I used to read books and imagine myself as an astronaut, or a famous writer, sometimes even Nancy Drew! I have given imaginary Oscars acceptance speeches, been on the Oprah Winfrey show, discovered new scientific truths, re-written history, won the Nobel Prize, etc. etc.!

Back to the Future: Today, I am in a constant struggle with my mediocrity! I realize that maybe I am NOT cut out to re-write the world’s history, maybe I’m already too late to be on Oprah, (and honestly I have grown out of the whole Nancy Drew thing :-)) but don’t get me wrong, I have not given up hope.

When I look around I see many e.g.s of excellence all around me in my friends and colleagues. From pro photographers, to budding entrepreneurs, to journalists, to artists, to people doing things for the larger good; the passion to go that extra mile is visible in their work and that’s what makes it truly remarkable in my eyes.

Therefore, I plan to keep struggling to be excellent in small and achievable ways, struggle to keep the passion alive, struggle to keep the belief intact and definitely struggle to persevere…

Start small, but keep walking; is my pop philosophy now-a-days. Let’s see where it takes me…

Stumbling upon an Independence struggle

2010-03-08T01:12:00.000-08:00

Had some time to kill between half day of work and a Saturday night party at a friends place. Didn’t want to go home so I headed over to Nehru planetarium (one of the places in Mumbai where you can literally get star struck and not by the Bollywood kind!) They were showing, ‘Hide and seek in the sky’, but unfortunately the show was sold out, it being a Saturday, when some school or the other decides to herd their kids off to such ‘picnic cum educational’ tours. This left me with an option to head to a nearby mall to window shop or generally roam about. So I choose the later. I wandered off towards the exhibition area of Nehru centre. Dissapointment again, found out that the exhibition was about educational institutions. Having no inclination to venture there I had a plate of samosa at the ‘very ok’ canteen in Nehru centre and thought of what to do next. My eyes drifted to the upstairs’ balcony where I saw rows of shelf like cupboards with exhibits of all shapes and sizes. So I headed up. On reaching the landing I found myself face to face with the exhibit on the Indian Independence struggle and something drew me in.

I am not going to bore you with the details of what I saw in there, but it was like revisiting our history text books, with pictures and recreations of major events, famous leaders, fake jail cells recreated to resemble the size and facilities of the jail cells the freedom fighters spent a majority of their time in, etc. But what struck me was this quote by Gopal Krishna Gokhale put up in one of the exhibits, it goes something like this, “We, the present generation of India, can only hope to serve our country by our failures. The men and women who will be privileged to serve her by their successes will come later.” It was amazing to imagine the vision of these people. They could foresee a future worth working towards and dedicated their lives to it. It’s up to us the men and women of the ‘today’ to live up to their dreams.

Ni.

Of some inspiring and some not so...

2009-01-20T05:09:00.000-08:00

20-01-09

Chk out these lyrics (love the english translations) courtesy www.lyricsmasti.com :-) dont the lyrics makes you wonder if the song came first or the music?

{Masakali is name of Dove featured in song}
{Hey masakali Maskali }
Aye Masakali MasaKali
{Fly matakali matakali }
UD MataaKali MataaKali

{Hey masakali Maskali }
Aye Masakali MasaKali
{Fly matakali matakali }
Ud Mataak Kali Mataak Kali

{Hey matakali matakali }
Aye Masakali Masa masa MasaKali
{Fly matakali matakali }
UD Mataak Kali Mataak Kali

Masakali MasaKali
Ud Mataak Kali Mataak Kali

{Just flaped wings}
Zara Phank jhatak Gai
{n swing ssome where around}
Dhool Atak aur Lachak Machak Ke Duur Bhatak

{fly lane street area cities}
Ud dagar dagar kasbe kuche nukkad basti
eXclusive LyricsMAsti.com

Mein yeah e yeah e

{turn with style}
Itdi se Mud Ada Ud
{fullfil ur heartly wishes}
Kar Le Puri Dil ki Tamanna
{join with air,fly with attitude}
Hawa se Jud Ada Se Ud
Purr Bhuur bhurrr Phuurrr
{your diamond n emerald}
Tu hai Hera Panna Ree

Masakali MasaKali
Ud Mataak Kali Mataak Kali

Masakali Masa masa Masa Kali
Hey Matak

{home ur sweet)
Ghar tera saloni
{Clouds your Area}
Badal ki colony
{Thumbdown to those who dont know flying}
Dekhade thenga In sabko jo udna na jane

{fly dont scare}
Udiyo na dariyo
{do wht u want/wish}
Kar manmani manmaani manmanni
{keep goin dont turn back do be childlike}
Badhiyo naa mudiyon kar nadani

Udiyo na dariyo
Kar manmani manmaani manmanni
Badhiyo naa mudiyon kar naadani

{take place ,take smile}
Bas Than le muskaan le
{sing sa sa sananana }
Keh sana nana nana hawa

Baas thaan le tu jaan le
Keh sana nana na na na hawa

Aye Masakali MasaKali
UD MataaKali MataaKali

Aye Masakali MasaKali
UD MataaK mataak

re re re re re re
ra ra ra ra

Hey hey hey hyyy
ho ho hoo hoo

{no need to be sad your friendship is with }
Tujhe kya gum tera ristha
{ flute of sky }
Gagan ki basuri se hai
{talks of winds}
Pawan ki guftagu se hai
{ light of sun }
Suraj ki roshani se hai

Udiyo na dariyo
Kar manmani manmaani manmanni
Badhiyo naa mudiyon kar nadani

Udiyo na dariyo
Kar manmani manmaani manmanni
Badhiyo naa mudiyon kar naadani

abb Than le muskaan le
Keh sana nana nana hawa

Baas thaan le tu jaan le
Keh sana nana na na na hawa

Masakali MasaKali
UD MataaK MataaK MataakKali
Masakali Masa Masa MasaKali
MataaK mataak

re re re re re re
ra ra ra ra

Hey hey hey hyyy
ho ho hoo hoo

re re re re re re
ra ra ra ra

Hey hey hey hyyy
ho ho hoo hoo
Hey heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

I am really looking forward to Dilli Cheh (ya i like to call it that), after the spate of better-missed movies that have come and gone recently.

I, for one, am so sick of all the publicity that trashy movies generate! I mean, you have seen your product, you know it sucks, you knew it while you were making it...so what in the world makes you release a spate of PR stunts upon the public! I havent seen CC2C but from what i have heard about it, i cant help but wonder...are film makers really that dellusional about the 'superhit formula'? After so many examples to the contrary do they actually think big stars, big budgets and loads of PR stunts will get them through. I can't recall a single movie in the recent past which became a hit solely because of Pre release publicity stunts, more often than not, too much publicity is a sure sign of loss of confidence in your own product and a last ditch effort by the producers to salvaging some...ofcourse there are exceptions, read Aamir Khan - and i feel markerters can learn a thing or two from him, solely because he gets involved right at the product stage, while most marketers are busy painting a brown cow purple!

Coming back to the issue of terrible movies and even worse PR stunts, there is another section of people i pity even more than the celebrities who have to participate in these stunts and that's the media! These poor souls not only have to turn a blind eye to all these 'tactics' but have to also add to the confusion and create some more tamasha of their own and that too on a daily basis. So much so that in this whole delusional scripted-to-the-T world they actually start talking the talk and walking the walk. After all one can't live without the other right?

Who gets caught in all the cross fire you ask? No one! We love our stars like the next person. We love what they wear, we love what they eat, we love their antics...hell, we even love their dogs! Specially if they are named SRK!

So who scores the maximum brownie points? Well, Everything's made up and the points dont matter!

ni.

Im back!!

2008-06-13T00:43:00.000-07:00

Ya thats it....just thought ill drop in a quick message saying 'im back' :-) ok i have said it...now am committed!! So ill be back!

bye
ni

:-)

time machine.......

2005-10-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

This is a take off from my last post....so if u havent read that...this will make a lot of sense ;-), hey for anybody who doesnt know whats going on, what i really want is for you to come up with some theories of yr own, so here goes....

imagine this, if this world was two dimensional, like a piece of paper, and also imagine something 3 dimensional like a sphere falling on in, the 2 D ppl living on that paper will first see a dot which would grow into a circle as it approaches, and finally pass through the paper and again become a dot in some time, they will not be able to fathom that that was actually a sphere coz they do not understand the concept of 3D, extrapolate this to our world, we can fathom 3 dimensions, so imagine something 4D or 5D or something crossing our path, we wont be able to understand it,
expalnations for supernatural phenomenons!! u tell me!

taking the concept of dimensions further, we have heard and spoken about the 4th dimension time, but how do u explain that dimension, i have an interesting analogy to put forward,

imagine a slide projector, where each slide represents a moment of life, a micro part of a billionth of a sec....(that was coz there is really no way to describe a moment :-)), so our life is a continuos series of slides, and they all exist in the dimension called time, now the easy part is that life generally moves forward and we have no problems with it (sometime we do, ;-)), but can u fathom that maybe we can go forward OR backward at our own wish....i mean its right there in the 4th dimension for us to use, also imagine due to some technical fault in the slide projector the slides dont move in order, then what? Deja vous?? hmm interesting isnt it? maybe we can learn to control the projector or ourselves to be able to move forward or backward as we please......

also maybe all the dimensions lie in each other......it starts from 1 dimension, organisms living along a line, than 2 dimensions, like the paper i spoke about, than 3 dimension like our planet, etc etc....and they keep building and building with no end like a never ending loop.

its all a matter or awareness......all we need to do to travel to a different dimension world is be aware of the dimension.....

continue on the quest........
untill the next bout of inspiration,

bye,
ni.

Calling EArtH from the 'n'th Dimension........can u hear me?

2005-10-18T04:03:00.000-07:00

hi,
I am back after a long time, coz i decided that i will post things here only when i am truly inspired. :D so here i am coz i cant wait to share something with you, just to see if there are more people who think like this....well getting to the point,
Its amazing to hear all the thoughts people have about evolution, life and things beyond.
And its even more amazing when u are telling someone some arbit thought that just happened to cross your mind and you actually see comprehension on the person's face...
lets just say an innocent meeting regarding some work ended up in a discussion about some unforgettable thoughts with some unforgettable friends.....i will post all that i can remember.

first THE questions:
why are we here?
where do we come from?
who controls us?
what are the rules of existence?
and finally are there any rules?

So basically im jumping straight into it, dont hold anything against me, its just 3 friends thinking aloud....

Is the universe (that we know of) a series of amazing coincidences? are we all here because things went really right and landed us in this amazing world where all the forces seemed to combine at the same time to help us evolve?

OR

Is this all a part of a pattern, i like to believe it is, Someone, something, (beyond our comprehension at the present) controls it all.
This is a far more interesting concept to think about, well the possibilities are endless and i can really let my wander and so did the other two i guess....

Well think about all the laws of nature, who defined them, what was that first instance of comprehension or reality which meant something. e.g. when the first molecule was born, who made the rules about its qualities, dont you then wonder whether there is some force which makes all these rules for us (some of us like to call it GOD).

I feel we lead a meningless, ignorant life, because we can just about guess the purpose for which we are here. I dont think we are any better than say a particle of sand or chemicals in an experiment, imagine our universe, can anybody comprehend whats beyond the universe....is it just a crystal ball in the hands of a child in some different time frame? Imagine a scientist conducting an experiment in his lab, the chemicals that he mixes, every tiny particle could be a planet, and the whole universe following the rules of this guy!! so why are we even trying to find meaning, are we an experiment gone wrong, particles which have suddenly found intelligence, like a robot out of control....

ok if we can just park that thought for a moment, lets talk about that supreme force, that one thing that binds us as humans, lets call it a Soul (just for conveniece), why are most people so similar? why do people generally have the desire to be happy, and the like? there must be something common about them, is it the soul?

Richard Bach in 'One' puts forward an interesting concept, he says people reach a lot of forks in thier lives, imagine everytime they turn right there is an alternate part of them which turns left, so therefore there are a lot of lives being led by the same person simultaneously, i.e. parallel or alternative lives, imagine all these lives as a pattern and if u try to track the root, they all lead to the same person (soul) therefore ultimately there is only ONE soul, all of us are different decisions taken by that one soul....beautiful isnt it, i think he was attempting to expalin that common thread that i was talking about.

I hope by now i have given you enough food for thought, counter thoughts, debates, ideas are all welcome....though hardly close to the end, there are a lot of other things and ideas....but i will keep those for a later date...considering this already resembles a mini book:-D,

Till then,
Keep Dreaming,
ni.

from abstract to reality......II

2005-10-04T15:07:00.000-07:00

Im back with some more pics of our beautiful campus, some sights which can be seen only here.......enjoy.

Fingers of God

A walk in the clouds

Far Far Away....

Reflections

Niharika.

from abstract to reality......

2005-10-04T14:25:00.000-07:00

hi,
After a long hibernation, the photographers of IIM Indore rose to the occasion of a photography contest...the topic: the regular and the mundane - converted into something cool through a photograph, hmmm....interesting. Let me show you what i came up with.....

This one is a pic of my shoe, clicked in my room, i love the play of light through the crevices, and the depth due to the focus towards the far end of the shoe.

I literally stumbled across this one, was walking on the long winding road of our campus with my camera, and heard some music coming from the auditorium. Our coll band - Diet Smoke was practicing there, i went in.....got hold of the light technician....and did some experimentation.....this is one of them, i love this one, the light is just perfect and kinda nullifies the strong black and white contrast of his t-shirt, Ashwin's (the guy in the pic) expression is great, the guy loves being photographed, totally comfortable in front of the camera...true rock star :-D,

Another one of my abstract pics, taken in my room again, with soft yellow light, from the night lamp, this one is in because of the richness of the colors, and the beautiful pattern.

and finally a fourth one which did not make the cut, but will definitely feature here, a beautiful sunset, shot with low exposure, to get the beautiful blue sky and the orange of the sun......enjoy...

Niharika.

notes from an insomniac...

2005-09-21T17:06:00.000-07:00

hi,
thought would sleep early tonite but cloud'nt, ever the insomniac!...so i thought i might write something here.
Just finished watching When harry met sally, hmmm, ya i know..very romantic movie, best friends and than lovers, etc. etc. But you got to hand it to the guy, he totally nails it. All his sadist talks about relationships and where they are going most of the times, (no points for guessing...downhill ofcourse), totally true. Ofcourse like all good romantic movies it had the perfect ending, with the best friends falling for each other and living happily ever after. Left me goose bumpy and all gooey about finding someone myself....haha typical girl reaction, im sure.

But when you start to think about it.....can you ever be sure about what love means. Most of the times its just some confused state of mind that you find yourself in. Wondering always if this is it? Scared about moving away from the status quo. Hundreds of reasons for that i guess.

Maybe you believe that you actually are in love. Maybe you believe that there could be no one better or maybe you think, i cant break up again, what does that say about me??!! (aka Ross in Friends, with his divorcing thing), but where does true love begin and end? and what is wrong with looking for these answers...unfortunately here in India, its marriage before you have even begun to think about all this. e.g. Has anyone seen Pyar Main Twist with Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia?.....the clear message that film sends is, If you go for dinner with a single man, than you gotta marry him.....hehe...or atleast thats what we gathered (Me and Supriya) when we were watching it!

But on a more serious note, its quite true, the 'going around' scene is not as prevalent here as compared to the west. I dont want to sound like a complete critique (because i recognise exceptions to all cases always) when i say this, but love marriages, atleast successful ones are no different from arranged marriages here, most of the time its your first girl friend or maybe second or third, that you marry! So why the whole 'Hangama' about love marriages. Its definitely not like When harry met Sally, they decide that they love each other after 12 years of knowing one another (in the mean time seeing different people). By this time, any girl's family in India would have packed her off to someone else :-).

All in all, Love is Ironical. That's all i can say. But when it hits you, you can't help feeling all goose bumpy! and yess i repeat, it hits you, one fine day you discover you are not normal, and things are crazy around you, haha thats the cue ....you are in love.....whatever it is...

with this i think ill go to sleep.
enuf phibits for now....
ni.

phibits???

2005-09-19T12:26:00.000-07:00

Hey ppl,

While racking my brains for a title for my blog, i invented Phibits...thinking it didnt make any sense and that it was perfect, BUT, my good friend had to spoil it all by saying, "yah thats a nice name, philosiphical bits!"....and here i was thinking it didnt make any sense...well anyways, Phibits it is .....Philosophical bits or whatever....he scared me though...he said "it has to be something you will enjoy even after a year"...haha imagine that.....!! im sure SOMEONE will enjoy it after a year.....at my expense im sure! so just to kid myself i will keep this name and change it before i get too comfortable with it.

enuf for my first blog ....will post something later......
have a lot of interesting ideas too.....now that im under pressure to perform i promise you i will....but beware....now and then and most of the times i wont feel like making any sense.....so if thats too hard for you to accept......im not sorry! :-)

ni.