February 2012
32 posts
Living up to a name - livemint.com →
From the Livemint article:
In Gujarati, the Tata logo is spelled with a soft T, like the one we use in tara, though we say Tata with the hard T. Which is correct? The truth is that Tata is actually misspoken now. The name was modified to make it Anglicized, though the Gujarati spelling was retained because it was original. The other famous industrial name to be mispronounced is Ambani. We use the...
“India is naturally and relentlessly dramatic: here, the narrative is of life’s...”
– Life | Q&A with Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi
In a clear darkness: when Bombay turned ugly via... →
Shanghvi writes:
So when did the love affair with Bombay start to crumble? Events need their invitation, writes James Salter in Light Years, dissolutions their start. There are three chief reasons I decided to leave Bombay: the failure of aesthetic, the failure of conversation, the failure of love. The year my father was diagnosed with brain cancer, a developer bought the bungalow next to my...
A taste of DDLJ | Life | Times Crest →
After a few more antics with the tractor, the two bring out binoculars and pretend to sight an imaginary Chaudhary Baldev Singh feeding pigeons alongside the mustard fields. For them, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge is still their kaleidoscope to the newfound vacation spot of Punjab’s villages. “Molly kept asking me yesterday on Facebook whether I was behaving like Raj, whether I had met...
Bye bank, hello salon | Times Crest →
The increasingly affluent middle class and their consumption boom has fired up entrepreneurial ambitions. About 10 million Indians - a small but growing number - are transacting on the internet spawning a wave of e-commerce start-ups. The talk about cowboy spirit, similar to the dotcom days, is back. Many careers and a lot more of money were burnt then.
THE COMEBACK GUYS
Then there are comeback...
5 of my most favorite lines from the 84th Academy...
“Watching movies is like dreaming during the day”
“You know a movie is good when it’s over & down to the sole of your shoes, you are left wondering ‘how.how.how”
“Visual effects is about creating a character using 1s and 0s.”
“I am a child of Saturday AND Sunday double, double features so being in the movies is a dream”
...
‘The Artist’ Wins Best Film at the Academy Awards... →
“The Artist,” a love letter to Hollywood, got hugs, kisses and the best-picture Oscar on Sunday at the 84th Academy Awards ceremony here. The film also took the awards for best actor and best director, in a minisweep that found the movie industry paying tribute to not just the movie but to its own roots as well.
The Cycle of Cool - ZOUCH →
VIA Zouch Magazine:
So just what is “Cool”? Cool isn’t a state of being, but an aesthetic-in-motion that changes even as we speak. You can’t grasp Cool because it will flow between your fingers like water. It can only be sensed intuitively, inhaled like a summer breeze, felt in the fingertips like vibrations of a social divining rod. As with all elemental forces of nature, Cool is cyclical. Here...
“I believe a leaf of grass is no less than a jouney-work of the stars.”
– Walt Whitman
“I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric YAWP...”
– Walt Whitman
“I think it’s because I want a new challenge. I get itchy feet (not literally,...”
– The Resident Non-Indian : Susanna Wickes’s blog-The Times Of India
An iCake for the birthday boy | Times Crest →
For her son’s 16th birthday, Neeru Bhalla wanted to do something novel. Rohan had already outgrown his Superman and WWE phase, and Bhalla was trying desperately to think of something suitably hip when an image of her son plugged into his iPod popped into her head. She knew at once that she had the answer. She popped into her neighbourhood bakery and got a two-kilo chocolate cake that looked...
Parivar on the couch | Indian families see a... →
The modern nuclear Indian family is under a lot of stress. Divorce, re-marriage, working parents, rapidly changing moral codes - a whole lot of factors contribute to this. This is where family therapists come in and they believe that answers to the many problems lie within the family as well. “There is still a lot more room for negotiation with the extended family with grandparents helping...
Tehelka - Little miss catwalk →
Are you a well-travelled, discerning 10-year-old with a wardrobe that bores you? Worry no more. Sunaina Kumar goes to the first India Kids Fashion Week
Manoj Mahla, director of Craftworld Events, the company behind IKFW, explains the need for such an event: “Fashion week brings retailers and buyers together. There is a lot of potential in this market, especially for designer wear.” Explaining the...
The Mayonnaise Jar Lesson
When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day is not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and two cups of coffee. A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and fills it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They...
Anatomy of a Tear-Jerker: Why does Adele's... →
Twenty years ago, the British psychologist John Sloboda conducted a simple experiment. He asked music lovers to identify passages of songs that reliably set off a physical reaction, such as tears or goose bumps. Participants identified 20 tear-triggering passages, and when Dr. Sloboda analyzed their properties, a trend emerged: 18 contained a musical device called an “appoggiatura.”
...
Redefining the Luxury Concept | Uche Okonkwo |... →
The difference between luxury brands and fashion brands is not only in the aspects of product quality and pricing but also applies to availability and exclusivity of the products. Fashion brands are for the mass market, whether they are of high quality or not. Luxury brands are for a distinct narrow market and are defined by high quality, differentiation and precision in product design and...
Science & Numbers Galore: YouTube Rolls Out 6 New... →
From the post:
The new educational channels run the gamut from world history to the cosmos, art, culture, numbers, science and everything in between. The channels, which you can find out more about below, have been added at YouTube.com/education.
Crash Course – A crash course in world history brought to you by John Green of thevlogbrothers, which plans to tackle 15,000 years of human...
The mard in Bollywood is back: Say bye to Raj from... →
From the article:
Watching Agneepath at Gaiety is a heady experience. The entire theatre shouts and whistles every time Hrithik/Vijay Dinanath Chauhan lands a blow or fires a shot and even Chikni Chameli’s pelvic thrusts can’t dim the fervour for Vijay or the villain, Kancha. The arrival of this Agneepath, unlike its cult original, has been timed well. Questions of artistic merit...
WatchThe next 80% by 180/360/720
The Unimportance Of Ideas - Canalside View →
From the blog:
Certainly we don’t consciously process most advertising as verbal or factual messages. But we do consume its codes and signals. All the imagery, sounds, symbols, music, references and so on of creative content are not merely tricks designed to draw attention to our message or to make it memorable. They are the communication.
And as Robert Heath has shown in his work on low...
Why French Parents Are Superior by Pamela... →
French Lessons:
Children should say hello, goodbye, thank you and please. It helps them to learn that they aren’t the only ones with feelings and needs.
When they misbehave, give them the “big eyes”—a stern look of admonishment.
Allow only one snack a day. In France, it’s at 4 or 4:30.
Remind them (and yourself) who’s the boss. French parents say,...
Super Bowl Commercials, From Charming to Smarmy -... →
From the article:
Too many commercials fell back on tactics that were too familiar from a plethora of Super Bowl spots: anthropomorphic animals, second-class celebrities, slapstick violence and riding the coattails of popular culture. Risk-taking, rule-breaking ideas were as hard to find among the more than 50 commercials as good taste in a GoDaddy ad.
ACURA O.K., asking Jerry Seinfeld to...
“Nowadays, I don’t have a plan, an exit strategy, or a career arc in mind. So...”
– Craig Finn Talks New Solo Album, New Hold Steady Material | News | Pitchfork
(via rickwebb)
The feminine factor by Madhukar Sabnavis →
From Madhukar’s article:
Sal Sandazzo in his book The Myth Makers says there are only two women archetypes. “The mother”, who represents the values of warmth, nurturing, comfort, and security, and is manifested in the maid, the teacher, the innkeeper, the gardener, the cook, the home maker, and the nurse; And “the maiden”, who is beautiful, alluring, enchanting, and mesmerising. And she is...
