Ananth's Blog

There was a time when Hindustan Unilever used to take over YouTube and force everyone to watch this video..What this video is telling is for you to get knocked-up, have lots of children so that Unilever can stay in Business. Marketing is a dirty business. Convincing people to buy something that they might not need is not necessarily a vocation. However when you think you can be one step ahead of the audience and outsmart them is a little unnerving. Somehow i could never get convinced of Unilever's Project Sunshine ads. It smacks of self-reverential goodness. It is like you show cute cats, cuter puppies and then show your product in the hope that people will buy it. It insults one's intelligence. Sorry maybe i am just cynical but Project Sunlight's #brightfuture just does not cut it. #AdsThatSuck

Selling sugared water does not sounds like a great call-to-arms. But this ad is really good. It is funny. It is cunning. It is pragmatic. One heck of a brand-recall. The best part of the ad is where Aamir dances to the pahadi remix of the jingle "Thanda matlab Coca-Cola". The ad oozes out authentic Indianess which is something Coca-Cola really wanted: Making Coke into an Indian brand. #AdsThatRock

You are my baby sister that I never had. You are my daughter that I will never father.. You are my mother that I had lost forever… Let the throes of my folly remind.. Let the rapture of your embrace sustain… The scheming vagabond that I am, For all my incessant intellection, You are the perfect foil…                      The cool breeze that sweetens the long toil.               How did you smite me? I know not. The unruly curls of your tresses – a part of your plot? What happens now… Now that I have decided to partake in this little game? Your bewitching mane.. Will I ever tame? How long will I be absorbed in the uncharted crevices of your body? Comfortably numb, Will I fall on my face? Let the throes of my folly remind..        ...

Original Painting done by Megan Duncanson A Tree across the window. Thoughtless Death on the pillow.. A Week later… Is it the same tree across the window? Strange dreams cooked up over the same pillow? Cold Winter Sunshine on the glass pane Tries to cool my Fevered Flesh All in Vain. P.S: Feels weird that I want to thank someone for turning my world upside down.... Hmm... Ok. Thanks!. :)

I am generally not a big fan of Javed Akhtar. (Especially after his unwarranted show of  pigheadedness during a discussion with Sadhguru). But I think he nailed it when he wrote those poems for  Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara . This particular one resonated with me for obvious reasons that I was feeling very very lonely during this Diwali. The moment seems to flow like a molten sapphire and there’s deep blue silence, Neither there is earth below, nor sky above, The rustling branches, leaves are saying that only you are here, Only me, my breath and my heartbeat,  Such deepness, such loneliness and me…only me, It all makes me believe in my existence.   It is indeed embarrassing to admit that in this world full of life and color, one does indeed feel lonely. That one has the need to seek the comfort and solace of somebody whom you can call your own. Sometimes seething misguided anger ensues. I have been struggling with this for some time now because I ...

I had already made this trek once and the experience from last time made me consciously savor every step along the way. It was somewhere during this day that I remembered that all the days of walking till now was towards this. The anticipation of meeting Kedar filled   me. It was not an anticipation filled with love alone. It was an anticipation filled with love, rage, joy, madness, gratitude, dance. There was a part of me wanting to die in gratitude there. Gratitude for so many things: the rain, Maamaji, the old sage who was walking beside me barefoot etc etc. I was also very angry with what was happening in my life. I was angry about all the drama, the betrayal, the lost paradise, friendships severed, the frickin’ uncertainty which loomed in front of my life. I wanted to say a word or two to Him about all this. So many things were played out in my mind as I was inching closer to Kedar. Till now, I had just walked sometimes even forgetting where I was walking towards. The wi...

Left triyug Narayanan at first light. The walk was a steady descent till we reached the National highway. We met the NH at a point where there was bridge across the raging Mandakani river. Crossing the mandakani, it was a climb along the road. At one of the several hair-pin bends, there was a bandara set up by UP traders. It was raining in torrents and I was shivering severely. I had long given up on trying to keep myself dry. I had one rain coat but it was not meant for this kind of rain. Somewhere before Triyug Narayanan I figured out that I was running a slight temperature. But taking a break and rest for a few days was just not an option. We pushed on and suddenly Maamaji stopped and pointed to a temple on the left side of the road high-up up the hill. He mentioned that this was the place where Shiva playfully cut off the head of Ganesh as he was on the lookout for intruders while Parvati was having a bath in the Gauri Kund. (Incidentally it was at this point that I realized th...