Google search: What else would I want it to do

Google Guru, as I call it, is probably the best thing that happened to us in this life. The Gyaani Baba knows it all. It is the one who clears all my doubts across various subjects. I don't even need to say, "Open Sesame," and it opens a treasure box of information, entertainment and just envy thing you can possibly think of.

But, as it is with us humans, we always want more. So while I love Google unconditionally, I would appreciate if it could find some more things for me:

• The remote control which I always misplace when my favourite television show is about to begin.
• My glasses which I just can't find when I desperately need them.
• A good househelp who will not leave abruptly, not demand unnecessary things and increments every now and then, and not bunk whenever she feels like.

Failure: From Frustrating to 'Fort'ifying

There are two types of Failures: Tiny ones and bigger ones.
The tiny ones are so tiny that for this post I will not focus on them ;) The bigger ones are those that alter our life or way of living to some extent.

Coming First in the school exams was what defined my first set of goals in life. I just had to come first in exams. If not, even if I stood second, I would be really disappointed with myself. I would focus more in my studies for the next year and mostly fare quite well. Yes, I know I sound nerdy here, but I turned out to be just a fun loving person later in life. So I don't mind being a geek in school ;)

Eoin Colfer and the world of Artemis Fowl

The are two people who brought me back to reading books - my husband Mrinal and the author Eoin Colfer.

After college, I became a copywriter and in a span of 12 years, I worked on several brands across categories, across media. And as it is with advertising and online marketing, life got too busy to read books. Whenever there was any time, I would read about the latest advertising ways and media. And then I discovered blogging and tried my hand at it as well (thank God for that!). So, for me it was reading just a couple of non-work-related books in a year.

Dark Light and The 3-Point Analysis

They follow each other everywhere. It's a never ending chase. As if darkness and light are running in circles. When light brightens something, it leaves a shadow too. And sometimes the shadows are more dramatic. Like when we create those shadow figures / animals with our hands!

Figuratively, the dark times in our life are followed by lighter moments and vice versa. For some of us, the dark times are much longer than the brighter ones. We do try to convince ourselves that the sad phase will be followed by a happy phase. But the truth is that we are so tightly entangled in the sad phase that we actually end up increasing its length. 

Consider the following 3-Point Analysis I came up with (my very own debut theory... hehe):

Point 1 - Pre-Dark: Often, we sense the depressing / upsetting time as it is on its way towards us. And so, even though the sorrow has not arrived yet, we let it overpower our happier current phase. It's the anticipation that spoils it all. 

Creativity or Complications? Too many Cs out here ;)

Correct me if I am wrong - as we grow, life seems to be getting complicated.
Childhood fun times keep disappearing while deadlines take over. 

Cancelling the morning alarm no more makes sense.
Catching the bus or train to work is the first target for every day.
Can we reach office on time and leave before it's too late?
Can the boss be less bossy?

BTW

By the way, as I continued exploring new blogs via the A-Z blogging challenge, I came across a ghost story. I am not a big fan of horror movies, but I like some ghost movies (yeah Casper). So I challenged myself to write one someday. I guess I might have to do a lot of thinking and since I was getting late for work, I decided to write something easier this once.

But often when you discard the tough path to take an easier one, someone up there doesn't like it. And my Internet connection went off... Just like that when I had just hit the New Post tab on blogger!

Then it hit me, it is Tuesday! Sometimes we have load shedding on Tuesdays and this time the broadband provider had a power cut before it affected our building. But I was damn keen on completing a short post before I leave for work. So I called up the Internet guy. Thankfully, he said there was no powercut at his place. I requested him to come and check my computer. And as luck would have it, he was in the same complex monitoring a new internet connection. He arrived in 15 minutes! Looked like I would complete the post for the day in time.

A: Why is it the first letter?

I must confess, it took me a great deal of thought to decide what topic I should chose for my first ever A-Z challenge participation. Thanking Arlee Bird for initiating the A-Z Challenge four years ago. It's a challenge of sorts and has our brains working!

I started writing about my profession Advertising at first - Ad Mad World. But then, I reached the fifth paragraph only to realise that I might go on and on and then no one will visit my blog again and again ;)

So, I did you a favour (alright, it was for me actually!). I have kept it in Drafts and will touch it when I am completely lost for topics.

F?@k Knows Book Review: Fast and funny train to self discovery

Title: F?@K Knows
Author: Shailendra Singh
Publisher: Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd.
Price: Rs 195/-
Language: English
My rating: 3.5/5


I received the book by courier and when I removed it from the envelope, I said, "F?@k, this is one cool title!"

I wondered if I should actually read this book by Shailendra Singh in the ladies compartment of a Mumbai local train at non-peak hours when only teachers, students and a copywriter like me travel in the furnace-hot dabba? When they see me reading this book, will the teachers think I am too bold to pick up a book and flash the bold red F?@k title on the yellow cover... what's with this generation? Will the college girls think I am doing so just to show that I am still too cool and young?

Visibility for what's Invisible

There are so many social causes in the world that I am sure if someone decides to list them all, it would be a really difficult task. Is it possible, the entire listing that covers everything? I seriously doubt.

Are the solutions possible? I believe so.

There are several known causes we are aware of right from the day we got educated enough to understand things in a broader sense. As we grow, some of us try to do whatever little or more we can to support some causes. To start with, we do not litter, we save water, save electricity, help the needy, plant some trees... Some of us have the will power to fight corrupts / corruption and some of us do not bribe or buy things in black.

But until something appears in big bold letters in the leading newspapers followed by major media coverage OR until we are directly affected by a thing, we do not know about certain causes that genuinely need attention and solution.

Like the Invisible Illness called Fibromyalgia. Yes, it is known as Invisible Illness for obvious reasons, I did not coin the term! Simply type it in the Compose Mail field in GMail and the red crooked line under the word tells you that it is still an unrecognized word out there!

Highlight of the budget: We will be healthy!

They say health is wealth. And while this year's budget is not letting us increase our wealth, look at the 'brighter' side - It's gonna ensure that our health (ignoring stress here) stays good.

Cars expensive, diesel dearer, auto-cab (and now train) fares keep increasing anyways. So we will walk a lot. 

Eating out in an AC restaurant or coffee shop will attract more taxes. So we will cook and eat at home.

Cooking gas is limited now, so we will cook lesser, eat lesser. That's how we will lose weight and stay healthier.

PS Positive thinking seems to be the only hope now