Annu's PJ of the day

What do you call a stick in a particular drink?

Fanta-stic!

Men are from mars? Women are from venus? People are from earth!

So many of them, here, there, everywhere. Men say they don’t understand women. Women try hard to understand men. In this gender conflict, we fail to realise that it’s not about men or women; all in all, it’s tough to understand people. If someone tried to understand completely each one of us, or even a few of us, take my word the person will go berserk.

Sweet as some appear to be can be really ruthless. Those who you find unapproachable can be great fun after some time. I tried to figure out at least the basic categories as I mention below.

A. I know a guy who appeared to be quite unapproachable. He used to be terribly unorganised. His huge build, tall frame and ‘oh-I-am-so-cool’ look made me feel – God, will I actually interact with this man? Today, he’s one of my closest friends and my rakhi brother too! I know I can confide in him and he’s my guide and role model in certain circumstances that life throws upon me. He’s one of the sweetest people I know (yes Jitesh it’s you!).

B. And then, there are those ‘always-a-smile-on-the-face’ people. These are the ones you meet and feel ‘oh-so-nice-of-them’. But as the hourglass continues its work, these people come out of their camouflage of goodness. They become memories that make you wary of trusting people and their appearances.

C. But then, real people too exist, those who are as good or bad (alright it’s a relative term) as they appear to be. Thankfully, these people by their sheer existence and sweet / harsh deeds make our existence meaningful and interesting.

I see it this way: men are the way they are, and so are women. Count men and women together and you’ll see different individuals. Hold on to those who fall in the A and C categories. And the left out category, well don’t you have a delete contact in your cell phone? Simply erase them from your memory and you’ll have more space for better people!

It's a new life!

It’s that time of life when everything is new or appears to be so, everything looks beautiful and I see goodness in everything around me!

Is it the special four-letter word in my life now or my new job? Well, who cares! All I know is I am content now, in fact quite happy! And while you are reading this, please touch wood.

The word ‘committed’ has transformed from ‘just another word in the dictionary’ to ‘The Word’ in my life. I never realised the depth of its meaning until I used it as an adjective for myself. It may sound filmy but yeah flowers do seem more beautiful than ever, red is the colour that catches my attention, I indulge in shopping more than ever, I take more care of myself, I have contacted long lost friends recently, I love the moon, the stars, the sunrise, the weather … I hardly miss noticing love birds around, I have a more positive outlook towards life and I love to tell the world that I am in love with the sweetest person in the world!

About my new workplace, well I was a bit apprehensive when I made a shift from mainstream advertising. The idea of ‘no more ads’ made me skip a heartbeat at times. But, until now, the work seems to be pretty interesting here. I am learning a lot and have made new friends here. Also, my recent campaign (from my previous workplace) got released and I can see my hoarding everyday while commuting. Can’t explain the feeling in words!

Another new thing in my life is that I have become a Maasi again! Congratulations Varsha and Kishore, am so happy for both of you.

I hope life remains good for ever. I will try my best to keep it so. Trust me, life’s really good, it’s just that we see the not-so-good things more often.

And yes, “Smile and the world smiles with you” – this is really true!

Guess who collects money while my advertising speaks!

It’s nice to work on ads. But it’s definitely nice to see your work being displayed, I mean the good work ;), the kind you can boast about.

SIA Art Jeweller: Launch ad created by yours truly
You see it in newspapers, magazines, websites, direct mailers, leaflets, kiosks, posters, standees, banners, hoardings and television (not yet for me though L), and you love to hear it on the radio! All this while your client makes a great deal of money and while you get your monthly cheque that almost appears like a big zero after the taxing tax and all the possible deductions!

But guess who else did I see collect money in one of my works. One fine day, I was in a hurry, as usual, to reach office. My rickshaw stopped and I could see the regular beggars trying their ‘selling’ skills. Among them was a tiny tot, a 3-year old girl clad in a ‘must-have-been-pretty’ frock, who was looking into a polythene bag and checking how much coins has she earned yet.

The bag was the one we designed for one of our good clients. While it clearly advertised the logo and the positioning line created by us and did the sufficient ‘visibility’ magic for the client, it sure did some magic for the girl who could ‘make’ some money in it. For once, I felt somehow, somewhere, something that I worked on is remotely (very remotely) of good ‘monetary’ use to someone.

What's with the football?

I never understood one thing about football (apart from the rules of the game). How can people watch some 22 players kicking a football for it to eventually enter some rectangular net? And all this for over a good (boring) 90 minutes. Okay, I can understand about the players, they are busy defending / hitting the football, and so they do not get bored. But the spectators… where do they get all the patience from. I always feel like a patient if I watch the game for over 5 minutes.

I mean cricket is fine, someone is scoring a run or taking a wicket or getting caught or whatever, almost at every ball (that too I find bearable for a one-day match, test matches are still unbearable for me). But soccer!!!

But things changed a bit recently. Thanks to my being in advertising. Got a brief for an ad that had to do stuff related to soccer. Now what… soccer-ignorant Annu had to do some basic research to understand the basic fundas! So I went to the FIFA site. Edgar, Ravi and Chintu, like some football experts, explained me the basics. I discovered some unknown-to-me facts. Like the yellow, red and green cards. Like the historical goals. Like there are millions of soccer-crazy people. Like 36 countries are participating in the World Cup and people are trying really hard to get a hotel booking. Man… people do have great deal of patience.

And now, I am getting impatient to watch a match or two and see if I can be more patient in life. Who knows tomorrow I will become a soccer fan too, who knows I won’t. In any case, advertising helped me learn something new, once again.