The ever growing web of advertisements

After a tiring and a stressful week long office schedule, finally came the Sunday to give me solace. With no pressure to speed up things to meet office check-in deadlines, I sat in my balcony with a cup of coffee and today’s Newspaper. Admiring the beautiful morning skyline of Mumbai, I took a sip of coffee. A sense of calmness spread across my mind.

I took the newspaper to read the latest news. Much to my amusement, entire first page was filled with the Reliance Fresh advertisement displaying varieties of products at the discounted rates. With the sense of frustration, I turned my page hoping for the news articles. To add to my anger, 2^nd page was filled with a Hero Honda’s commercial ad displaying their newly launched motorcycle. Virat Kohli was promoting a shaving razor brand on the 3^rd page. Just when I was putting the newspaper aside, few pamphlets came out from the newspaper. Apparently I was again fallen prey to the promotion of a local retail store, a local food chain and two other local businesses.

After the annoying newspaper reading encounter, I decided to go out and meet a friend. As I stepped outside my house, Sunny deol was staring at me wearing his lux cozi and Salman khan was offering me a Thumps up bottle. Within a few steps distance, two more road side hoardings came to my sight. I boarded a local bus and sat at a window seat. A moment later I noticed a small television attached at the upper corner. Sharma English teaching academy and Carron Saari promoted their respective businesses.

Soon, I realized that my whole world was filled with Ads. Local radio channels, trains, taxis, TV channels, my mobile inbox, emails, websites, everywhere. Youtube also makes you watch 20 seconds of Ad before allowing you the access of your favorite videos. IPL makes you watch 2.5 minutes of Ads twice per inning under the name of Strategic timeout. Even our Facebook walls nowadays are more filled with suggested or promoted posts than your friends status updates.

Ever wonder, what our world has turned into. It is the web of Advertisement and it is constantly growing. The fact is that, every business, doesn’t matter how small or big it is, needs publicity to sustain and scale. In doing so, they are in constant search of newer means and dimensions of marketing. Ads have started to go into many chattered territories, reaching never-seen-before places.

The day is not far when this spider will reach your dreams. 

Work can be fun

Work can be fun

by Amit Ananda Nimonkar

on 10/8/2013

My friend and I were waiting for our coffee at the CCD counter. The CCD guy announced “Tropical iceberg” and placed one glass in front of us. I asked him, “Where’s the second one? I ordered for two!” “You ordered for two?” “Yes!” I replied, a little irritated. Smiling, he brought out the other glass from behind the counter, which we hadn't seen before. “Ah, there it is! Thank you.” I left the counter smiling.

I realized from the guy at the counter, that work can be fun if we want it to be. Probably someone else in his place would say, “I have such a boring job. All I do is make coffee every day.” We could very well apply the fun aspect to our life as well. We often find ourselves doing similar work, day in and day out. So what is it that we could do to make work fun? We certainly don’t need to hide some poor person’s coffee every time.

I think the easiest way to make work fun is to interact as much as you can with your own team mates, people around you. It would not only give you a fresh perspective on things, but also would be a welcome break from say coding at a long stretch. It also ensures excellent co-ordination, because you could easily explain something to someone with whom you share a good rapport.

Playing sports, going to the gym, taking part in events; we could use everything at office to make work fun. Effectively managing our work to do everything we love is important to ensuring work is fun. Nay, it’s also the key to happiness.

Truly 'Sir' - The legend of Ravindra Jadeja

There are cricket-crazy nations and there's India. Crowned as the world champions, country has seen the most ardent cricket followers in recent times. Wherever the team went to play the Gentleman's game, fans turned up in huge numbers bringing lots of cheers, excitement, roars, exuberance and hope.

Hope is a dangerous thing. To perform when everybody is hoping you to do well can sometimes leads to your downfall. It delayed a legend reach his 100^th International century mark for a year. It delayed arguably the best player of tennis 6 times from winning a French open.

Indian team has always played under the burden of expectations of their passionate supporters. One such day was 14^th June 2009. India was up against host nation England in ICC World T-20 2009 Super-8 clash. England batted first and set up total of 153 for the Indian team to chase. Tagged as defending champions, Indians were under huge pressure to win this game and stay alive in the tournament. India was 62-3 when Ravindra Jadeja walked in to bat ahead of Yuvraj Singh. He scored 25 runs in 35 balls which eventually proved costly. India lost that game and crashed out of the world cup.

Since his performance in that match Jadeja has been a consistent target of sarcasm and mockery by numerous cricket portals and Indian cricket fans. On Twitter and Facebook, he is jokingly referred as ‘Sir’ Ravindra Jadeja since an online joke calling him the same went viral. Not a lot has been known about his past by the people who mock him.

Ravindra Jadeja came from a lower middle class family. His mother worked in a hospital and his dad worked as a watchman, who saved money from their little income to buy cricket kits for Ravindra. He was devastated when he lost his mother at the age of 17. After death of his mother, Jadeja became a completely different person to keep alive his mother’s dream of his son play for India.

Since then he played quite brilliantly. Jadeja scored three triple century in domestic cricket. He played vital role in India U19 team’s victorious campaign in 2008 and rightfully earned his place in the Indian team. Agreed, he didn’t play well in early part of his cricketing career but everybody deserves a second chance.

Jadeja is currently the backbone of Indian spin bowling in all forms of the game. He recently made his test debut and played a very handy role in India’s 4-0 whitewash victory against Australia. He is become a go-to man for India and captain Dhoni.

In recently concluded Champion’s Trophy, Jadeja bagged 12 wickets including a 5-for, scored useful 47 from 29 balls against SA and a brilliant cameo in the finals to lift India to a respectable score and fielded stupendously. He was the man of the match in the finals. Well, Jadeja has come a long way and is making every moment count. Truly, he performed like a champion. He will earn lot of name, fame and legend if he continues to play in this manner but as of now we can proudly say that he has certainly lived up to his ‘Sir’ tag. 

Why Sachin Tendulkar will never retire !

Legend! Genius! Champion! Maestro! Many of the sports personalities are associated with this adjectives but none of them were ever worshiped as the 'God'. None of them ever carried the expectations of 'Billion' people on their shoulder. Possessing exceptional talent is one thing but converting it into performances consistently over 24 years is another. Such is the Legend of the 'super' man from India.

Yes you guessed it right. I am talking about Sachin Tendulkar.

Not many gets opportunities to live their childhood dream. Certainly not when you fail in your 10th Standard board examination. The person I would like to thank the most is the paper setter of the English subject in the year of 1988. Country lost a potential Doctor or Engineer but a 16 year old boy got a chance to do what he loved to do.

One year later, that boy was making his debut against Pakistan on the green top wicket of Rawalpindi to face one the finest bowling attacks in world cricket. Pakistani cricketers laughed when they saw a 16 year old school going kid walking to take the guard. Imran Khan, the captain of Pakistan, told Waqar "Thoda dheere se daalna, bachhe ko lag na jaye.". Two balls later, Waqar bowled a bouncer which got hit on Sachin's nose. It started bleeding. Many thought that he would go back to the dressing room but he stood there fearlessly and scored a fighting 50.
An interviewer asked him "Were you not feared to face Wasim and Waqar?" He replied "Yes I was but that fear got me going."

After end of day's play, Sachin locked himself in his hotel room and cried. He thought he would not survive in international cricket. But when going gets tough, the tough gets going. He woke up next morning at 5 am and practiced for 3 hours. "If you never failed, you never lived. The key is how quickly you can bounce back from your failures." were the words of Sachin Tendulkar after recollecting that incident.

In the era where sports was not considered as a career option, Finance minister Manmohan Singh was yet to reform the Indian Economy, Pepsi was yet to sponsor Indian Cricket Team, Sahara group was yet to promote major sports in India, a man driven by his passion became the biggest superstar of Indian sports. He became the role model for the generations to come.

Sachin's batting technique became copybook for cricket. His steady head while playing straight drives, his balance while playing cover drives, his wristy flick while playing balls on the pads, his footwork against the spinners, his every cricketing shot was making a manual for younger players. He perfected the art of batting and went on to pile on runs in every international cricket destinations.

In this journey he played some of the all time great innings. 'SandStorm' against Aussies in Sharjahah, first man on the planet to reach 200 in ODIs, emotional 100 in 1999 world cup a day after his father's death, 98 against Pakistan in 2003 world cup including a six of Shoaib Akhtar's bowling over 3rd man, emotional 100 in the run chase against England giving tribute to 26/11 Mumbai attacks victims. The list goes on and on. His records alone can make a 300 page book.

There were days when entire Indian cricket team's batting was dependent on Sachin. The entire country remained closed for 2 reasons. One to watch Mahabharat and second to watch Sachin's batting. He carried the burden of the nation for more than 2 decades giving million of joyous moments. Who can forget the night of 2nd April 2011 when India won the world cup and Sachin was carried on the shoulders of his team mates. Entire country shred tears of joy for one man. It was a dream comes true. Entire team played for him.

"We owned India, British conquered it. British owned cricket, Sachin Tendulkar conquered it."

Surely cricket is a religion in India and Sachin is his 'God'.
Since God is Immortal, Sachin will never retire.