Buffalo Jeans : Creative Ads...

I have a T-shirt with the message printed on it - “Great Ideas feel right in the Gut...”

I completely agree with the above statement. Any intelligent or meaningful idea appeals to me and moves me. The advertisements, be it on T.V. or Radio or in the Newspaper or on the Sign Board on road or anywhere in any form, are no exceptions. I always enjoy Hat ke Ads.

I came across these very creative and innovative kinds of Ads across Ville Parle railway station of western suburbs of Mumbai today morning. All the platforms carried these big hoardings of Buffalo Jeans wear which set me look at them carefully and thinking for a while. There were three-four different concepts. I would like to discuss them with reasons why I found them interesting, different than the rest of the ads and why I liked them.

Each of these Ads had a big Hindi letter written along with a word starting with that letter which was the concept of the picture. One ad had " श - शुरुआत ". It displayed five-six youngsters jumping from the fence of a field/fence (as if showing they are trying to run free from all the day-to-day tensions of the world and enjoy their youth!) All of them wearing Buffalo Jeans wear.(It reminded me of the movie ‘Rang De Basanti’, specially the scene where all the heroes remove their shirts and run freely along with an aero plane flying from just above their heads).This picture clicked with me instantly!
Another hoarding shown a Bengali lady sitting with her family including an old man, enjoying their meals as their hosts – three-four youngsters, wearing Buffalo Jeans were serving them the food. It made a nice picture of an Indian Tradition of greeting the guest like God! Appropriately it bore the letter-word combination:
“ स – सत्कार ”

Third Ad was a beautiful picture of five – six youngsters singing and dancing on the roof of a Bus wearing Buffalo Jeans and they all had this typical rock-star types hippy look with curly long hairs, white kurta and colourful muffler and with musical instruments like guitar, manjiras (cymbals), keyboard etc. (This picture resembled the scene in bollywood number ‘Chal Chhaiya Chhaiya…’).The theme here was “ भ – भक्ति ”

The last hoarding was a touchy picture of two-three youngsters wearing Buffalo Jeans and all drenched in the pouring Rain water and teaching football to two street children. It displayed the Hindi letter – word “ प - पाठशाला ”
Though these ads would seem very ordinary at first glance, yet they were classy and had a meaningful concept behind each theme and there was this Indianness in them with which I guess we all would connect. It appealed to me very much.

Advertisements like these make deep impact on the minds of the audience, if not consciously then may be subconsciously. ‘Buffalo Jeans’ has surely got a new customer – Me!

Exuberance...My First Set of three Books Got Published...

Exuberance was the word I read a few months back in a magazine, on which readers were supposed to write narrating the most exuberant moments of their lives and there were many interesting stories I read as part of this contest. One such occasion in my life also came recently when I felt most exuberant - when for the first time my work got published...and I got a bonus! It was not just one book...but a series of three books!
The books are compilation of the articles, stories etc. published in the regular column called 'Internet Corner' I write every Saturday in supplement 'Mahek' of Gujarati Daily called - 'Janmabhoomi'. After I joined NSE.iT some six years back, I started receiving these emails of lots of types from various sources. I read and enjoyed them a lot and one day I thought why not share these good thoughts with thousands of my Gujarati readers who don't/couldn't access Internet. After all Good thoughts should spread across as far as they can. And in Gujarati a poet has said - 'Gamta no karie Gulaal...' (meaning the things we like shall be shared with many).With this objective I started this column in Janmabhoomi 4 years back.
I translated varieties of emails like stories, humorous articles, inspirational speeches of personalities like Narayan Murthy, Azim Premji, Subroto Bagchi, Dhirubhai Ambani etc., and some very nice touchy thoughts on love, life and many things in general. These articles were read and appreciated by many guajarti readers who gave me their feedback through post, emails, phone calls etc. from time to time. It was this encouragement that kept me going (and still I write every Saturday with same enthusiasm!) and has made me reach so far.
Mr. Rohit Shah of Gurjar GranthRatna Karyalay of Ahmedabad, Gujarat saw and read these articles and thought of publishing them in the form of books. I accepted the offer without a second thought and got this opportunity to spread the good thoughts to yet a larger set of audience through this Tri-series of books. Mr.Rohit suggested to divide the articles in three broad categories - Short stories , the first book named 'Katha Corner',
Inspirational and other types of articles ,the second book called 'Mahek'(means Fragrance in English) and one liners, quotes etc., the third book called 'Karandiyo'(means flowerpot in English).
It gave me immense joy when I actually saw my books published! I hold them in my hands and felt the pleasure which can't be described in words! Exuberance is the word that probably describes how I felt then.
The cover page design was the concept developed by one of my very dear friends Devendra Purbiya. He is an amazing personality with lot of creative talent. He is a very good photographer and a designer too. He had clicked the picture of foam holding it between his hands and edited this picture in some image editor with nine different colours. Now literature or any art form also has nine different types of Rasas (like Shaant, karuna, haasya, veer, bibhatsa, shringar etc.)So I thought why not use Devendra's beautiful picture which I had seen on his flickr profile, as a cover design of my books - as a symbol of Nine rasas depicted by each of the different coloured cube. And the same nine coloured square box was used as a common element on each of the covers of 'Internet Corner' series..
It really clicked well and the books look very elegant and attractive due to Devendra's concept. Thanks Dev!
My favourite poet, my guru and a great personality Mr. Suresh Dalal agreed to write Preface for my book and my happiness knew no bounds! I was over-whelmed when such a genius wrote a few words about my books and my work. Mr. Kundan Vyas, CEO of Janmabhoomi group also obliged me by writing his kind words for encouraging me and my work.
When I wrote Thank You note for all those who had directly or indirectly helped me in making me reach this far, lot of sweet memories of my childhood days, school days, college days and such old times came vivid.
The response I got from various people whom I didn't even know, after the books reached market, made my heart skip a bit! The first SMS I got from a Doctor in Ahmedabad, the call I got from the editor of a Well-known Gujarati website (who has also published the review of my second book Mahek - see the link http://www.readgujarati.com/sahitya/?p=1601) and comments of many people on his website regarding my second book 'Mahek', the feedback from the people whom I gifted the book etc. has increased my passion for writing and sharing good thoughts manifold. One more thing I learnt in life through this experience is that one never gets success in an instance. There is lot of hard work and time behind any success. One needs to be perseverant and passionate about things in life. Positive outlook and optimism surely leads to success.
                    
And last but not least, the words from Mrs.Chetana Dave and VanalataDidi (who had published my first small item in 'Balko ni fulwadi' in Mumbai Samachar in 1990) that in Life one has to keep moving and not stop at one point or one success. I will always try to remember these golden words of advice.

[

You will get these books at -

Online on - Website 'www.rediff.com' (Rediff Shopping)

In Mumbai - Navbharat Saahitya Mandir
134, Princess Street,Mumbai - 400001
Phone - (022)22017213/22085593

In Ahmedabad - Gurjar GranthRatna Kaaryaalay
Opp. Ratan Pol Naka, Gandhi Marg,
Ahmedabad - 380001
Phone - (079)22144663

Also In Gujarat across most of the CrossRoad Book Stores and other book stalls
]

Swimming...

I have taken yearly membership of Swimming at Kandivali's S.V.P. Swimming pool. Though I can't go on a regular basis whenever I get the chance to swim, I must admit - it gives me immense pleasure!

Yes - Immense pleasure...I have not joined it only for the body-building or exercise purpose but I have been renewing my membership at the Kandivali swimming pool since last 3-4 years just because swimming gives me a kind of joy which very few other activities would give!


During Summer I enjoy swimming more regularly. During winter I avoid going because it's already cold and I have allergic cold problem so cold water and cold weather combo would play havoc with my health if I continue swimming regularly in the winter. And monsoon has its own charm as far as swimming is concerned! You are already in water and there is a shower from the sky also and you feel water water every where!
The climate is so good during monsoons even when it's not raining and clouds hide the sun. The colour of the environment changes. The evenings are orange or yellowish and the mornings are also dull - not the usual bright sunny. In such climate, I love swimming like anything! And when the rain is just starting, the rain drops are big and fall on you giving you a completely different kind of experience love to capture these raindrops on my body when the rain just starts and then the rain starts in full swing.


I try different styles while swimming: Frog style, Butterfly style, normal swimming style, underwater swimming, back stroke et al. I love the back stroke style the most where I lie on my back in the water and either by moving both my hands from above the head towards the waist in the same direction together or in the opposite directions (that is one hand from above the head to waist and at the same instance the other hand from the waist to the head).And while swimming in this manner I directly face the sky. What a feeling! I simply love this style of swimming. I feel as if I directly connect with nature, with sky, with the clouds or birds flying and talk to them! Sometimes even those dragon-fly insects pass by and I talk with them too! I sing also at times while swimming in back stroke style. (Of course silently with my lips closed! Otherwise people swimming around me will surely think I have gone mad!)This style gives me a feeling of freedom. Freedom from all the worldly tensions, stress etc. for those moments at least! I feel liberated when swimming in this style. The world seems to have lowered its pace. But when someone who is also swimming in the same style but in the opposite direction, bangs with you, you come to your senses back! And then you have to get into proper posture for maintaining your balance in the water!

Diving and jumping are also two things associated with swimming. The former is entering the water with your head down towards the water and the latter involves the jump in the water with your legs entering the water first that is jumping straight in to the water as you are standing. I have tried diving from the height of say 1st floor of a building. It is scary but it is fun! When you are standing on the dive-board and about to dive into the water, you get scared like hell but you don’t think much and dive! And in a jiffy there is a splash! More the height you dive from, deeper you go in to the water. And you loose the sense of direction, depth etc. for sometime but immediately you have to come back to the normal state, gain balance and move upwards to come to the surface. Believe me it is a great experience to dive or jump from a height in to the water!

I also enjoy underwater swimming a lot. It is a different kind of fun. You can experience the kind of feelings the fishes might be living all their lives I have bought swimming goggles also so that I can see the sight under water. I can not stay for very long underwater. But for the time I am under water, I enjoy!
!

I still have to learn how to go right at the bottom of the swimming pool and remain there and swim there for longtime. I remember my Friend and colleague Sunil doing this very well when we had gone to Manas Resort for my office picnic. I tried hard to learn it but till date I have not been able to learn this style. (Any body reading this Blog and knowing this style can please share some tips about the right technique! I would be thankful!)


Whenever we go for office picnic, I am the one among first few who dive into the pool! The hectic schedule and the daily routine activities keep you so busy most of the times that you can’t pursue your hobbies or enjoy the activities like swimming or gymming regularly but one must engage in such activities more often not only for the health sake but also for making the life more interesting. I wish I can be more regular in my swimming sessions in 2008 as I love swimming...!!!