everybody loves zoozoo!!

Isnt it?.. each sporting event is taxed with drab dull bland ads..while "this year in televisions near you".. we got a beautifully crafted series of ads by Vodafone which I just love.

companion-de-catharsis

Those who matter just a ring away, away they are…
the ring is tall and ring is strong, ring we got into and spectacle is on

With each applaud, jumping through the hoop
like blind folded trying to complete a loop
The circle of pleasure refuse to get a closure

trails to mirage never leave a trace for other
Each has to walk his own journey be the king or pauper

pushed the envelope too long, now collapse within
Like a star who forgot to shine
or a cursed genius of classic old time

At least a shooting stars fulfils a wish
Here I create and forget a thousand piece
each so complete but sum total a big miss

I pocket my pen, deep in thoughts once again
Have been my companion-de-catharsis,
no new yet no one knew its pain

Remorseful I write, I sing when in delight
In doubt I shut up, And then I bottle up

The lucky ones get happy with the map for the world
Rest cook a private hell and live like no rules hold

Another rip off, now in brand design

Both got similar tag line, both got yellow, black and white. One a news channel trying to find its place in the crowd (although they got some good chat shows) and other world leader in antivirus.
I dont understand whether it is a chance occurance in the probabilistic world of Brand identity design or Is it another desi rip off. The resemblance is uncanny, isn'te ?

discounted refinement

Sometimes I feel you can be either articulate and feel happy or escape to be a poet and seek refuge in the discounted refinement of thought and stay perpetually thirsty. I hate to become nevertheless becoming a clipart junkie who is trying to put together a collage.

hit and duck in the game of blow
be a meek or simple its way to grow
power play is on try and understand
Pawns we are, you sit or you stand

I have been a gifted fool sofar
see dejection in ashoka's eye even before the war
piggy bank the pain know not since when
shatter it into raptures to start the count again

endure we must

The filth and degenration all around me..
am losing my ability to disgust
what have become of this collective dream
aint a perfect world, its all we got and endure we must

Have you voted today?

This post is like a ideas put in the bottle and thrown in the sea.
Polls are around the corner. We live in the biggest democracy of the world and to make it work in its true sense we should vote. IDC, my design school, I am proud to say, was instrumental in designing the electronic voting machine.
Today we need a ad-push like Jaago-re or we need people coming down to our doorsteps to create that necessary stir that is a driving force if the things got to change.
Through 'jaago-re', I understand one can register on web, provide ID proof and residence proof and automatically your old voting card gets cancelled and new one gets delivered at the given address. For the mobile population like us, who like to throw empty rhetorics from the AC cabins of IT companies and post blogs filled with angst (like this one), who are 'supposed' to be worried about the running the nation than any other guy on the street, such convenience of 'getting hold' of voting card is not enough. We want more.
Here are some ways to make voting a faster, secure, cheap and all-inclusive.
1. Make voting machines talk to server in real time (if it is not already), if tampered with will black list all the entries uploaded.
2. Use ATM machines as a means of voting or online authentication followed by a voting interface. Since postal ballot is allowed for 'army bhaiyon' ko, then we might as well adapt the new ways of picking options. (Can a government body rent out / ask for already existing privately owned infrastructure by raising the issue of national forum and cooperation / participation?)
3. Mobile banks concept is picking up fast to connect the last mile 'the grassroot', so this can act as polling booth in villages as well where ATMs are not there.
4.Telephone based interface for authentication and voting. So one can start with any proof like PAN, DL, Passport, and land into the voting options. This sounds like a best option since today the connectivity is snowballing and Poll can be another prime mover to this 'telephony based economy'
5. The issue of lack of secrecy and possibility of coercion is significant in all the above discussed options, I agree, but some work around can be found and such thing evolve on its own if let develop. Atleast the chances of coercion is far more if the people are made to wait in a que in the scrotching heat where a free distribution of cold-drink can also sway the lesser minds. I am not trying to over-simplify but atleast the next poll should be far different than this one in its intrumentation is what I want.
6. how about social softwares to facilitate the voting or a quick app on facebook/orkut? May be tehre is quick links to party manifesto and 'whats there for me' comes filtered based on your demographics. Assume I login to facebook and decide to vote, it says, this party is offering tax reliefs, while this one is notching up the reform expenditures, etc... and I would be rational enough to vote with a reason than becoming a victim of tailered propaganda.

थोड़ा सा रूमानी हो जाए

उन दो निगाहों के साए
जब से इस ज़िन्दगी मे आए
सो न पाऊ मैं इस डर से अब कभी
सपना ये टूटे गर आँख लग जाए

Designing for India is like designing font for ransom letter

I dropped into Pune after a gap of few months. When I left, the whole city was undergoing construction and road widening.
The deal was to have the city (some parts of the city) ready for the youth game events. But the city municipal corporation in their usual style kept missing the milestones and then somehow on the eve before the d-day fixed the ‘stuff’ to adorn the roads; even the paint was wet when guests arrived.
Think of a bachelor’s house and girlfriend drops in unannounced, how the things are shoved under the bed, tucked under the pillow, forced into overflowing cupboard, giving a temporary look of tidiness; it’s the same.
But it is a city, a larger living space we are dealing with. It affect the mind and psyche of its inhabitants and it feels bad when you look at such gross misuse of power to decide in what kind of place 'we' live in.
When I look at the graphics and visual identity designed for the youth games; it’s like crude, unfinished makeshift thing. Giving insights into how bad we are at detailing or how insensitive we have become to the visual and the visible aspects of the things around us. I am not a kind of person who believes in real design is what comply with the taste of Europe or few cartelised bunch of people. But it takes deep dive into the collective consciousness of the people, which we forgot about as a design community.
I remember we discussing kitsch as a way of ‘filler’ design back while studying design, think of how meters in the auto-rick are adorned or small town furniture are detailed by stuffing the motifs and elements with no regards to the end result.
Our lack of taste or lack of ‘consistent’ taste with definite personality is visible in every aspect. May it is a result of the fact that we are not a homogeneous society anymore, we are one 'big layered cake' if they like to call US as 'melting pot'; or it reminds me of one sanskrit song we used to taught in texts about 'Sthala-pistatakam' a dish like theple (guju) where all ingredients maintain their tastes . We are bad at discovering the values and mores that are so much authentic and original. The days are of fusion and not khichadi.
In our childhood, we used to hear “Pune thethe kai une” (rhetorical – “what on earth you won’t find in pune?”) now i guess i know the answer. We lack good designs.

What Goldmans and Lehmans did to aspirations...

Sandstorms

One believes in beauty of dice, the other in conscious act of creation
whichever shore I stand, freaking other looks a perfect illusion

conviction in either erode as scheme pattern irony make a crisp gestalt
when the humblest and the earnest bend down to the tragedies of lie and fault

thoughts lie down stranded and stare me in face,
eyes pleading for higher scheme to this maze,
but when..and then I go aghast
sandstorms in time altering the scapes of my past

Best ever attyachar..

DevD was a treat for eyes and ear. Amazingly fresh and original fusion music and beautiful frames with artistic compositions one feel like taking big images of each frame and make mood-board in your room typically for booze-party or a bunch of wallpaper slideshow. Remember the close-ups of the 3 faces of the pub-dancers or the wedding singers or the frames in the sugar factory. It is well thought and well executed to the whole visual rhythm of the movie.
Songs and lyrics come and haunt me much later once you go home and listen to music. I mean what Gulzar started with “personal se sawaal...” here it is taken to next level...”bol bol why you ditch me ....”. The master – piece what I feel is not the much hyped ‘emotional attyachar” or instant catchy “nayan tarase:... but “Yehi meri zindagi... “
Abhay is good.. but he is being silent observer of the script and the proceedings and thats what the best part of actor in him. He hardly tries too hard to act. That makes it natural in the bollywood crowd of ham actors. I watched coupla of his movies, ‘Manorama 6 ft’ ... ‘Honeymoon travels’ and now I can blindly go if he is in there. That’s a hell of a feat in recent times where movie start with promise one has to endure through second half.

Paro’s character does change in the course of a movie making one feel is it intentional or accidental. This is felt throughout the movie. Earlier attempts on Devdas are like Chinese riverside paintings of extreme simplistic take on life and uni-dimensional characterisation that is typical of bollywood extravaganzas.

Anurag Kashyap looks like enjoys strong and intense realistic way of telling a story. He is a urban ‘Yo’ version of vishal bhardwaj the master story-teller. Nothing is spared and nowhere realism is over-emphasised or goes overboard as in some of the recent RGV’s flicks. Nobody could portray sexuality as it is done it in here, and it is definitely not a rip-off of west or out-of-place like the one in ‘Dil kabaddi’ where it feels far-fetched and too western.

Small is beautiful...Green is elegant

11th hour is part 2 of inconvenient truth.. Al Gore’s impressive documentary which makes you feel ashamed for being lifelong consumer of fossil fuel and raises hazar questions on the life style we got getting accustomed to without even having the pangs of irreversible destruction we are causing.
We all know Leonardo de Carpio, the man who has a public image of being sensible and earnest about things he does. And after Al gore he is the right choice of voice that binds these plethora of freewheeling interviews. Tthese sound bites are just long enough and crisp enough to communicate what a one whole book worth has to say.
I mean 2008 is heating up with the so many sane minded people coming out and making their voices heard. Obama appointing Steven Chu as a energy advisor, makes one hope for some path-breaking changes in world in which we live today. We have seen millions of people getting affected by food shortages like never before , unprecedented floods and storms and draughts.... all the result of haphazard use of fossil fuel, trapping of too much of green house gases in biosphere, leading to rise in average temperature causing arctic ice to melt. Its caouse and effect even 4th standard kid can understand took us wiping clean of half the O3 umbrella and 3/4th of rain forests to learn. Right now we are witnessing a tipping point and if we don’t stand up to that, we will not live to see the future. It’s basically you are not saving the environment , it will continue to live but then human won’t be there to see the aftermath 'cause it won’t be a livable anymore. There are so many catchy lines in this: Introspecting US academicians quoting Churchill, “Americans often do the right thing, but only when they exhaust all the other possibilities”. (make sure you turn the subtitles on even if you are watching it English. Made me remind of, not long ago, we have George Clooney’s Batman, in which a middle aged environmentalist woman was portrayed as a villain and laughing stock of the whole party. Seriously, we have come a long way from there.
Central theme of this documentary is nicely punctured with 3-second video-clips of natural events and somber voice over that adds to amazing effect. Hearing about what we notice and but chose to ignore sometimes makes us be conscious of the gravity of those things
‘Go green’, but how? Kindly package it for me, for the masses.. what can we do at my level.... may be run a blog/website where people suggest tricks / hacks / strategies to reduce ones carbon footprint. Unlike Americans we are not big fan of SIGs special interest groups possibly because we already have so many cults and sects and are a divided society. Of the top of my head, we should make a PIL in consumer court to start putting carbon values (how much green house gas this product led to into the environment in its making) on the products and we stick to buying those which are the least...market forces are the strongest, there is no denying once it comes into effect. All you need is right push in right direction and it will self-evolve. So far the oil lobby driven the geo-politics and the wars and the tensions in the second- half of the 20th century, but Obama promises some change in the time to come. As an Indian we should be ready to gear up ourselves with the values of frugality and 'small is beautiful’ and ’green is elegant’ attitude. Gosh, it worth a Tantra T-shirt slogan. 
Otherwise our politicians will sell us off as a dumping ground of the greedy and set-in-their-ways so called immature developed countries.

Lurkers... any thougths... what can be done to drag the hand s of clock backv inot the time frmo the 11th hour...

Assassination of Jesse James

A beautiful movie in which characters come alive and a legend is re-enacted and revisited. Based on a novel in which characters speak slang of American English of the turn of 18th century…I watched it without having gone to tomatometer or imdb, ‘cause I was sure Ridley and tony Scott coproduction should hardly disappoint. It s a story about a legendary robber, a persona build to such a minute details and his disposition described so well, it is easy to guess it is written and directed by same guy who has finesse in narration, nowhere there a hurried or mushy mashy portrayal, or underdeveloped shots, each scene each shot is polished to an extent that one would feel the level of a slowly finished oil painting by some laid back artist. Recreating the times and the mood of that era has become a mere technicality now-a-days for most productions, but it should not escape a mention. Oh and the background score, It lingers long after the movie is over, there is no denying how much intensity it adds to the whole scene. Remember the screeching siren sound so well used in the sequences ‘to peak’ in Dark knight whenever there is ‘spat’ between the opposites …joker and batman,… I look forward to some gems from rehmanin the flicks like Gajhini…coming back to Jesse.. Brad Pitt coproduced it, he looks like choosing big frame portraits ..earlier achilles In troy and now jesse james… then we have almost 20, bob ford, a guy highly impressed of jesse’s persona to an extent he imitates every gesture, watches every move, moves around slyly in most of the frames, portrays a meek who faces the conflict , a deep desire and need to be applauded and be somebody …and a suppressed loathing for his own demigod he is slated for some trophies for his performance.. and some of the angst and private confessions of Jesse are so well said, “ I go on journeys out of my body, I wonder about that man that’s gone so wrong, I’ve been becoming problem to myself”… There are no significant female characters and it’s to be watched for the performances in some of the well scripted shots. It’s a long one (2:40) by any standards for an English movie, but it is canvas well used and rich with subtleties. Don’t watch if you are in a mood for a quick snack. It is a multicourse French gourmet cuisine to be savored till dawn.

suicides and blasts

Reading Hindu after Times of India is like resuming a serious news channel after a commercial break. I have never seen such an irresponsible agenda driven so called national daily as TOI. Yesterday in Hindu I read a shocking piece of statistic: The number of deaths by suicides among farmers is mammoth 1,82,000 since ‘97… last four years Maharashtra, supposedly developed and progressive among the states, has been breaching 4000 figure in farmers deaths…. that is in spite the so called India shining and air of progress, recent influx of FDIs, creation of wealth and opportunity by IT and services sector. Deaths toll by Naxalites in the ‘interiors’ of tribal India in central regions is far more and especially more brutal and leading far more ‘loss of trust’ in government which virtually does not exist in those areas.

But what is taking center stage in media is killing done by mercenaries sent by our neighbor and that to me is as good as giving wrong signal to unhappy elements in India. It is like, you want your issue to be taken seriously, go and shake up urban India and hit where it hurts. Politicians in India have got habituated to delaying tactics knowing public memories are very short term and under the name of patience they can and have been avoiding definitive actions.

The whole episode makes me think common principles of prioritizing issues are being forgotten by so many those who are responsible for our society’s mental well being. And we don’t seem to be doing anything substantial on any front either. … let that be national security, intel, inclusion of marginal social sections, …looks like we are busy addressing the symptoms too much that we completely lack a long term solution to any of these problems. Watched “Charlie Wilson’s war”, Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in a very realistic political drama, around the tumultuous times before the US was coerced to intervene in Afghanistan invasion of USSR by a single person’s will and efforts then in 80s. 28 years later we are paying the price of trusting this most insecure neighbor and trying to keep peace process going in spite of repeated back stabbings. This movie is must watch as it shows how the wars are fought and how their financial backbones are spread thin across the globe. ...When we are in our retirements there will be movies made on How indian parliament attck was plotted or How bunch of brain washed mercenaries were sent on suicide mission to Mumbai..By then lets hope both countries mature enough and look back as mistakes of the past.

Why do we like designer stuff... or do we?

I have been pushed to see something bizzare by the subject line of the fwdee...






interesting isnt it..!!
Don't tell me that its hard to quickly say what's the time. I know its not that usable. but thats not the point. Its a design with personality and may or may not get thumbs up for being usable. Now here lies the tricky part which involves how a designer steers through such moments of decision where he has to drop fancy attribues of her designs and make peoples lives easier but mundane and less interesting. Thats the reason Mac designs have a definite personality. I heard they don't bother too much when they go ahead with their usability studies. There is One maxim that a camel is a horse designed by committee; I would extend it further, using a a overly normalised product by bunch of designers is worse; resulting interaction must feel like romancing with a family and not a person.

Alas, there are moments when the inner designer get immensly satisfied...

the other day in a similar mindless browsing spree landed at IDSA awards... here is one winner from IDEO : Heimspiel (german for "home play" ) .. so many amazing subtle design changes ..Ideas such as bringing a light element to a door edge that allows the light to spill into the room as the door rotates around the hinge, a radiator control knob that begins to illuminate in response to the radiator's warmth, door knob allowed to 'sink-in' if it has "do not enter" sign ..like a disbaled button... feels like a smooth fusion of Product Design and interaction design...


going through it made me conscious ...like a suddenly-vision-corrected-person-coinmg-out-of a-spects-shop.

the whole thing reiterates what a real design effort can turn into rather than a I-wrok-for-bread-n-butter work one gets accustomed to and start getting habituated to.

Some works are really outstanding.. check out ... IDSA awards

The Robbie Williams Show (Something Beautiful)

I just love this song ... I like robbie williams music...its so much in your face... I started listening to his mucis in my design school.. in fact that is when I started listening to eng pop music... lyrics is good,

Digsby : all in one

tired of maintaining hazzar networking sites,....we all have our reasons "hey, 'cause I have been using it from start, ...this, I started since I liked the interface,.. this one...oh..I just have coupla friends there, this id is just to provide whenever asked in typical web form for registering " .... We had meebo earlier for consolidation, here is one more Umbrella client which will take care of your messengers, mail clients, networking sites in one place... digsby... worth a try.... i liked the homepage as I could find one character of Family guy in their avatars... you never what thing you will like in an app.

21km in 2:10 ....Just did it

After having heard so many times about the marathon run and the 'zing thing' in it from Saand, just to make him stop teasing me, I finally registered - with a slight doubt in mind. The deal is 21km and his dos and don’ts involved 'eat lot of carb... samosa, kachori.... etc, have a good rest before the day of the run, don't push too hard, get yourself into a rhythm,... tried to do just that.... somehow got a week’s time to 'train' my poor legs. So this Hyderabad run is an annual event here.... and mood of the city is to have it filled with gala events where there is live band (making sure some gals are there to jam and dabble with electric guitar), singers who hold you in the tired moments after the ordeal, then some eye-candy parachute landing manuvers, ... Unlike usual Hyderabad beaming sun over your head, we got a surprise hill station-ish weather and slight drizzle. Amidst the recent terror events in Mumbai, the mood was sombre but people were brimming with patriotic fervour and groups with different agenda's and motivation for the run were also there, a group of displaced Kashnmiri pandits, green movement groups, some loksatta volunteers with placards raising the right questions about the security lapses etc.... The IST was followed sacrosanctly and we were flagged off at 6:20 .. 20 minutes late than the scheduled start. First 14km were breezy, me and my buddy could cruise smoothly looking at each other and pushing ourselves, then things started to slow down, on the psychological tiredness than physical, eagerly watching out for the intermittent sight of the board showing distance left. Somehow got past the finish line. The last 7 km took as much time as first 14km. Lessons were learnt, got richer by experience and promises were made to make it for the next time even better. Let us the sea. Did I mention, this is by far the most well organised event by any city administration I have seen. I am starting to admire the outlook of the city as a whole. She knows she is not as big to be in the leagues of Mumbai and NCR ...but she is getting there.

Edge of Heaven (German/Turkey)

So far have not watcvhed many German movies, but of those I have watched (gigantic, Im july, etc) there is always a mention and fascinating reference to India. Feels good to be perceived by a different culture this way. Reminds me of one exchange student from Germany we used to have in IDC, she was just amazed by vibrancy and clamour we live in. Being a Fine arts grad, she succinnctly put, back there in germany its all shades of gray. She liked in here. And she actually rode a bicycle with her friend from Mumbai to Kanyakumari. OK...I was digressed to some distnat memories. I was talking about movie.
'Edge of Heaven' is a movie lying on my hard disc for some time and I kept wondering what could it be about. Never wanted to land into another supernatural or crappy version of period movie. And at one assuming moment I happend to open it finally to watch it. The movie has multiple perspectives at a turkish population living in germany, stigma a migrant family generally has to go through. Migrated alienated and living in some country trying to fit in and once that phase gets over, what remains is a longing. The plot is annotated with two deaths..thats what connects the dots in this movie. In fact two chapters of the movie open with titles and like reading a novel which gives feel of "while this was happening..". Nejat (pronounced neshat), A turk who teaches German in German university who speaks less but means lot, his brutish but loving, old-school father living in Bremen who manages to save from his pensions and tips from horse racing to get another turkish "woman of loose virtue" to be his live-in wife in old days. Her name 'Veter' that means "that's enough" in turkish, being the seventh daughter in family. Veter's daughter, Aayten, a student of sociology back there in Turkey involved into political activities against the tyranny of state regards to freedom of speech, right to education. Now as the story unfolds Najat is led to his quest for Veters daughter in turkey while Aayten to germany in serach of her mother.
Its all about loving your parents, tag line go well than Johar's melodramatic mutlistarer. In new country, ties with family becomes so significant. These days near and dear are all a phone call away but that feeling is what keeps us going. When Nejat tell the story of Ibrahim and the God, the message of the movie comes to effect. Movie is about telling a story that leaves it mark than a quick shot of entertainment. If you share the same mood and expectation then this is a good watch.

nothing personal about loans... :)

कर्जे जो उठाये हमने बाज़ार से
हमारी जान की दुआ करने वाले बढ़ गए....
बेहिसाबो मे रहना सीखते गए यूँ ही
गिने गिनाये जीने मे क्या ख़ाक मजा था