Ceci est ma Vie

Had just finished with the previous post when I got the following SMS from the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO)....

"Free, Confidential & Reliable HIV test at the Integrated Counselling & Testing Centre at your nearest Govt. Hospital - Ministry of Health and Family Welfare"

Just wish they did not do any segmentation of the target audience before sending the SMS :-)

It was a day off from the office today. All I did the whole day was laze around and skip through channels.

I have been a great opposer of the glorification of news that our own "popular hindi news channels" undertake... but for the first time today I think I saw them make a fuss of an issue that was very relevant. The historic win in the world cup means that the team is getting a warm reception... people braved the rains and came out on the streets to cheer on the the team on their victory procession... and then during the ceremony, we see that the team gets to sit on the third row of the dias behind the great Mr. Sharad Pawar, Mr. Rajeev Shukla and other similar clowns...

Appalling as it was, I think it reflects the state of mind these clown still have. I mean, can you even fathom what would happen if this happened in any other country.... cricket being run by politicians and a victory celebration being used for political mileage...

Another news piece doing the names is that while all other states have declared generous amounts of prize money to players from their state... Modi and the Gujarat government have decided not to reward the Pathan brothers... the IHF is complaining that the hockey team was not showered with prizes after they recently won the Asia Cup...

All this throws up some serious issues.... these clowns (read politicians) who run our sports bodies seem to suffer from serious lack of common sense...

I mean if I was a 6-7 yr old boy now, I would immediately go up to my dad and tell him to buy me a cricket bat and not a hockey stick.... Surely the governments need to do something to promote the games that don't automatically get publicity...not just follow the herd....

"Please indicate your travel plans for S'pr" is what the mail said !!!

I think its understandable that for a brief moment I got excited and thought its Singapore. The bubble was momentary though....I quickly recalled that it was Solapur :-)

My 4 days in Solapur were perhaps the best among the few I have spent in this company. Anyone who thought, like me, that retailing is about retail designs, planigrams and Fitch reports is pardoned...

Most of our time was spent negotiating with Octroi officials who were creating unnecessary issues 'cos our nearest competitors happens to be the local MP, policing the plethora of people who wanted to enter the store after hearing about the opening day offer and running to agencies trying to get the press releases for the press conference ready. And yeah...there was the occasional walking right behind horses and camels in the middle of a road show :-)

The beauty is that this is not a one off experience...we will be opening a store every week from now on.....

Does life get better :-)

I think I can claim to be gainfully employed now... I mean its not just about having a place to go to in the morning na...Its about getting up everyday and knowing what you ought to do, enjoying it yet cribbing about it... and at the end deriving some satisfaction out of it... guess I am doing just the same...

While most of my last 3 months have been spent in rural TN in places I did not even existed in India...it has been a wonderful experience all in all...

Some of ther "perks" of a marketing job are that if you are lucky, you get to go to photoshoots :-)

I got a chance too.... I must admit, as much as I have admired good photographs, be they from NGC or the Pirelli Cal, in the past, modelling and photography are not professions I had a lot of respect for .... Boy ! I was wrong...

As is usual with me, during the 2 days I spent there which included both product shots and mood shots, I got all curious about everything from how models prepare themselves, how do they bring the FAKE expressions and ... yeah.... 39 megapixel cameras which take photos each of 170 mb odd.....phew !!!

It took roughly 20 hours for us to take some 55 shots... man...thats a lot of work ... and to top it all, by the second day.... I found myself giving tips to the photographer :-)

It was a truly wonderful experience, something so so different from all that I'll ever do in my life.... The first campaign that I have been involved in rolls out in a week...fingers crossed !!!

Like Kumaran says... WE CLICK, TOGETHER !!