Reality bites as future is approaching.

Indeed its approaching faster. Via Quentin Photo.

Getting ready to move again. Next destination unknown. Feel like a travelling caravan. Guess the last nine months have done wonders to my life. Be back soon. à bientôt.

Back Again

Back. Yes finally am back to blogosphere exactly after one year. Honestly these 365 days have been one big roller coaster ride for me. I am doing okay. Though not everything is all right but what the heck, I can’t get everything I cant, right? Well, I travelled a lot. From June to Sept last year spent time travelling all over India. In October relocated to Paris from Bangalore. Joined Ogilvy. Set up my apartment in October (setting up apartment in Paris – another story for another day). Started discovering Paris and France the next two months (too many things to write, maybe another day – don’t want to bother myself and you with all the details on the first day). Spend a lovely Christmas in the Alps. And finally the New Year arrived. Things started falling apart (don’t ask me what) and I kept fixing them.

From Jan till now, I spent some time traveling to Italy, Switzerland and but mostly working mercilessly. Enrolled myself for French lessons. Made new friends. Lost some of them. Discovering new places in Paris, which are not mentioned in the Lonely Planet. Still in the process of discovering the museums, the monuments, the lovely evening walks in the boulevards, the wine, the cheese, the books, the music, the street music, the metro, the café, bars and restaurant, the language, the french people, the french food, their culture, their sub-culture, the youth, the old, the middle class, the rich, the homeless, their society, their fashion, their lives, their behaviour, their complaining attitude towards everything, the endless debates on anything, their raising of voice to prove a point or being heard at a conversation during lunch or dinner, their pseudo-intellectualism, their arrogance, their criticism and raison d’accepter, their sweetness, their politeness and impoliteness, their apathy towards Sarkozy and govt…, the endless delay in handling paperwork in all Govt. dept, the late arrivals to feel important… I am observing and learning. Yes I do love this city, do love the people but haven’t exactly made Paris my home yet. And I miss my dog.

Have plans to visit Spain, Portugal (in the west) and Germany, Austria, Netherlands and Poland in the east… So I might take off again very soon. Depends on how much money I’ve in my pocket too. Always a poor planner, you see.

Yes, I could have done one of those ‘My Life in Paris’ blogs… with pictures and all in the last 6 months. I was accused of becoming a ‘Digital Recluse’ by Charles. He kept asking me what am I doing and when am I coming back? Rob kept in touch sending me mails once in a while asking how am I doing and if everything was alright… But I haven’t forgotten anyone. All this time I have kept myself updated on what happening in other blogs. Discreetly though. So I guess it’s not that bad being away. Kinda gives you a feeling of starting things all over again, afresh. Having said that I think this webpage needs a facelift - don’t you think so???

Alors. So here I am back again. Have some plans about my life, my career, my future and ofcourse this blog. You know mostly boring things which make no difference to anyone’s life… things like what I want to do next? What are the things I really care about? What are new things I am learning? What are new things I am doing?

Well, enough about myself. How have you guys been? Well, do anyone read this blog any more? I guess not. Anyways, do write back and let me know, how things are going at your end. Let’s begin a new journey together from today.

Cheers.

Seeking Freedom

Will be away from blogosphere for sometime. How long, I don't know. But I'll come back soon.

Coffee, Plantation and Walk in the Wilderness

Coffee Flowers

We (myself, Lucille and her mom) went to Madikere, a visit to one of our client's coffee plantation in Coorg to be precise. For me it was working in pleasure, for them it was holidays. And what a three lovely day it was. When your client deals with coffee, it's always better to see and know where and how the coffee beans come from. How is planted, sorted, handed picked, roasted and the whole gamut of it. Enriching - yes, indeed.

We spent the last three days walking through different plantations, wild jungle trails, songs of birds, running behind butterflies, getting drenched in heavy rain and identifying different spices, flora and fauna. In the end, the whole experience was much more than enjoying a hot cuppa. The aromas and after taste gave me answers to so many questions I had in my mind. Clients give you a brief but the way you interpret the problem makes a whole lot of difference. And I just couldn't help but make this trip to understand his problem better. Well, cannot give you more details of what we've come up with but be rest assured, it's kickass.

Traveling Caravan

Finally, I could take out little time for myself last weekend. So I went to Mysore with a friend of mine on my beyond-repair bike. And I covered the 130 kms in just an hour and 27 minutes. Whoooo. A great feat given my bike is in bad shape.

We had loads of fun. Managed to click tons of picture, check out my flickr for all the fun we had. Next weekend we might (still on papers, ha) head towards Pondicherry - the french colony but this time on the TRIP bike.

Happy Birthday Choco

Its Choco's birthday today. The four legged lazy bastard is 1 year old today. Horrible creature to live with but at times I simply can't do without him.

smells like team spirit

A small news about my new role at Bates Asia got published in Media Magazine, Singapore. It is a tough job to be a Change Agent and an Intelligence Manager for such a diversified country like India. Common, now doesn't it sound more like an undercover FBI Agent shadowing millions of consumers to dig information, insight and interesting stories?? Am loving it, which means double the dedication and passion to create better work, that works.

Carandiru and other stories

Last 7 days, I did nothing earth shattering except write a presentation for a new business pitch, got drunk twice in the week and watched three DVDs. But somehow I managed to keep myself busy, therefore, no time to blog.

I guess you can't put all your effort and time to keep your blog alive with a new post everyday. So I decided to blog less. Anyway.

For those of you who haven't watched 'Carandiru, The Movie' yet, you should do it now. Directed by Hector Babenco and co-authored by Fernando Bonassi, Carandiru is one movie which I 'll remember well. I watched it three times consecutively and by the end of it, I was literally speechless.

Carandiru is a story of the prison massacre which took place in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Honestly, I haven't seen such a prolific script and movie direction before. Like the native American saying goes, It takes a thousand voices to tell a single story . So many stories built into one story and captured in such a beautiful manner.

Do watch it. Am sure it will leave you with lots of food for thought.

When Piyush dropped by

Today, Piyush Pandey dropped in our Bangalore office and gave us few motivational talks. What I like about this man is his simplicity.

Renilson managed to take a picture of me with him. The 2.0 megapixel camera in my Samsung E250 is not that bad. What say?

He said, "Let your work do the talking. That's the only way you'll make others notice you and take you seriously. Take a small step. Start small. You'll realize how each small step helps in building that bigger picture. Don't throw away any idea because the client didn't buy it. Keep it, nurture it. Someday you might sell it to someone and he'll see immense value in it."

Well, he spend nearly an hour talking to everyone. He shared his story on Fevicol, how he created a radio spot for Fevitite and later the client asked him to make a TVC of the same for Fevicol. How he sold his advertising idea of Voltas to Kelvinator. Wise words from the man with many feathers in his cap. Its truly inspiring.

In the end he said, "Rock n roll, just rock n roll." And that's all I do, rock n roll.

Not well but hey how about lil Hoopla

I honestly don't love these rainy nights. Running a high temperature. Blocked nose. Bugged with bodyache. Bored to death. Cannot do much except fall flat in bed. Read book (eyes are straining). Listen to music (head is heavy). basically in a bad situation.

Anyway, I picked up "Hoopla" last week. Authored by Porter, Bogusky and Warren Berger. All about how the great agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky works. Their internal ethos. The idea generation process. The secrets of the agency. How they run their factory (not agency mind you). Lovely colourful book. Just started reading it and let me assure you it's damn interesting. Get yourself a copy too. By the way, all you digital advertising freaks and gods, visit CPB here and see how brilliant interactive work they created for VW. Truly interactive. Truly inspiring. And that's the way the digital medium is supposed to be used.

I've an important presentation coming. Not prepared anything. Need to write a brief for the same and have a sitting with the creative folks at office. Man. But am sick. No going to work. No taking calls. Just sleep and snore.

Immobilised

It had to happen one day. Unfortunately that day was yesterday evening. Vanished just like that. Stolen right under my nose. Well, I am speaking about my 5 years old Nokia 1100 'Made in India' phone.

My fault to leave it on the window near the entrance of my apartment in sheer excitement of the India/SL match. By the time I realised, it was gone. That lil black Nokia indeed stood for me (I changed the phone jacket twice in five years) It waked me up diligently at 6.30 every morning. Allowed me to be in touch with the world and listen to the voice of my loved ones. Though recently the battery was creating some nuisance, I must admit it was a tough toy. It survived several fall and Choco's bite. My real loss is my phone book. I don't have a backup. What a fool I am. So, I guess you understand the trauma and pain I'm going through at the moment.

Infact, this phone was performing so well and given my technophobic nature, I actually never had the desire or aspiration for any of those fancy gadgets out in the market. Mobile phone is just another phone, the analogy I always gave to my peers. Mine was a basic device which allowed me to make and receive calls, send and receive message and I was happy. It also allowed me to keep my monthly rental, nominal. Now do I sound like a laggard in the chasm curve?

The good news - I gifted myself a Nokia 6270 this morning. Don't know why. As I am writing I'm trying to justify my purchase decision as a consumer. Why did I buy this phone? Firstly, few of my friends recommended me this phone before. Word of mouth. Secondly, I'm loyal to brand Nokia. Checked out all that is available (even though I am loyal to Nokia) in the market and settled for 6270 at a discount of 10% from a friends shop. Loyalist but a value seeker. Thirdly, I wanted a phone with a decent camera to shoot all odd things on the street. Upgradation.

If any of you had to ask me what was that one reason that made me buy this phone, my answer would be, becoming techno-progressive from being a technophobic.

Since I don't have a backup of my old numbers (my itemized bill helped me in recovering some numbers though), I would be grateful if you can mail me your contacts once again. And I promise to keep a backup this time onward.

Ok, I'm off to fondle my new phone.

New beginning

This was pooR-Planner's corner till today afternoon. Time to move on. New office, new people, new clients and new challenges awaiting for me. Last one year at TBWA\ was truly a roller coaster ride. Pitches, pitchers, powerpoints and late night pizzas were fun. Some fond memories, few bad ones but then we rocked day-in day-out. Will miss my green chair though.