To err is human .To erase ,er..divine

Having been brought up in old school advertising, there was a shibboleth that was drilled into every one of us who had strayed into the agency business. It went something like this – a Doctor's mistake is buried six feet below the ground, a lawyer's hangs six feet above and , hold your breath , an AE’s is there in the morning paper for the whole world to laugh at .

Yup. And am referring to that four-letter abbrev which sent shivers down every self respecting AE/AD/Copywriter/CD of yore. The TYPO. So what’s the big deal? You may well ask. Today correct spelling is perhaps as antiquated a concept as Kores Whitening fluid. (Sniff, sniff, miss it so much).

Anyway to cut a long story s, there’s one in the Mango blog. And was pointed out politely by a well wisher. (He is now officially entitled to one more drink!) . Since he was kind enough to do it offline, I am tempted to thank him offline. When pointing it out, he also (gently, mind you) pointed out that we bloggers (that’s right, we) don’t quietly use the aforementioned Kores product, but actually use a pen, and scratch it out or overwrite on it. (Now I know why Kores went kaput). So, without further ado, I correct the error of my ways. Thank you, Mr. Anant Ranagaswami. ( But spelt Rangaswami !)You are the wind beneath this pig’s wings.

In Edison, will there always be Light ?

Edison , New Jersey. Yes ,it is true. You can pick up a handful of soil here and (gleefully) sing "mere desh ki dharti".Its Sunday , August 12. And the main street is closed for India Day Parade. Banners and posters herald 60 glorious years of Independence, urge patriotic ( L1 's , B 1's married to H1B's also welcome ) citizens to turn up and participate in the parade and make the community proud.And since there is no free lunch in these parts , a tryst with Urmila Matondkar and Manish Malhotra is promised as a token of appreciation at the ensuing Carnival. (The Henderson's will dance and sing as Mr Kite flies through the ring , don't be late ").

The Parade was quite entertaining. Lots of Floats. And music . And the usual costume drama.

Along came the kicker . A Float titled "Shivji ka Rath " . Chants. Clangs. Clamour et al.And riding on the float was the erstwhile resident of Kailash . Looking distinctly uncomfortable (and perhaps regretting having traded his Carbon-neutral abode for the Garden State) was what looked like a blue-painted young lad. The neo-Liberal in me was angry . This is not India . Especially not 60-glorious-year-Independent-India ( Even a school kid knows, the India we we want to showcase is Carter Road Coffee Day ). "How will this look if NYT or Time cover this?", I muttered under my breath.

I stop for some beer.

And make my way to the Carnival . Which is being held in a nice open yard. At the corner of the yard , under the shade of an Oak tree is a statue . Of St Cecilia. A plaque on the statue politely notifies us that the yard belongs to the Roman Catholic Church , Edison. And offers ( in addition to salvation ), free use of its yard. Parked next to the statue is The Float. Leaning against the float ,under the shade of the Oak tree ,next to the statue, is a blue-painted young lad. Gurgling a ( Large) Coke.

Hang in there ,Cecilia .

Apples and Oranges..and Mangoes for good measure

Last weekend, I am at the Fresh Produce section in a supermarket - Somerset, NJ - helping my friend get his groceries. I notice heaps of golden Alphonso's ( read as Alphonsos). Happily cushioned in confetti . Stacked next to these mangoes are these bright red and yellow cartons emblazoned "Indian Nectar" with pictures of Mangoes looking like something a 6-year old would draw. ( Yup, that's our branding for you). But that's not the point. They were being retailed at USD 6/- per dozen . And Granny Smith apples from Washington being sold at USD 10 per dozen !! So the Indian mangoes grown in the bowels of Maharashtra ,trucked and air freighted 8000 miles across the globe sells lower than apples grown in NJ's backyard ( OK, figuratively speaking) . My wise friend tells me that's market forces at play . Well, I return ( to Bombay), wiser .

We go shopping to Spencer's in Bandra. ( I know what you're thinking. Between visits to grocers , I do go manage to go to office ). And Washington Apples are being sold at Rs 80/Kg. And Shimla apples - Rs 120 /kg ! More market forces at play !

Bananas , anyone ?

Sorry Amar.Sorry Akbar.Anthony is the Chosen One

Every now and then there is the e mail that does the rounds...x % of Microsoft employees are Indians, y % of Intel scientists are Indians , Z % of IBM are Indians, w % of NASA scientists are Indians.....blah blah. New age jingoism ,I suppose. While the numbers look decidedly suspicious its effect on the products they develop is iffy. Sure Microsoft spells it Chennai ( not Madras) , Mumbai ( oh ,you get the drift ,don't you ?) ,Kolkota . Hmmmm...not surprised if there are allegedly so many Indians out there. Now Nokia T9 . That's another story. It 'spells'John. Paul.George.Mary( And yes, Anthony). So the dictionary is preloaded with these names. But try spelling Ramesh, Suresh,Ganesh,Ali,Ahmed,Yusuf.... And you need to start using your ingenuity to spell them.Hello, Nokia. 60% + share in India. And one would have thought spelling the names of customers right is Direct Marketing 101 ! By the way neither does Blogger /Google spellcheck recognize any of the 'Asian' names. No Indians there or wot ?

It's the music, stupid

Over the weekend the Aquaguard service engineer came over to renew the AMC. He inspected the Aquaguard, cluck-clucked a bit on opening the device. And made some comments on the state of the water supply. According to him the Municipal Corporation should clean their pipes more often . ( More often ? Dude, after the Brits built it 200 years ago ,no one has even given it a looksee. And besides what will you clean the water pipes with ? Water ? Aquaguard water ,I suppose . Nice .) Now he continues to fiddle around with the device and pronounces that the musical ring tone chip needs to be replaced as its gone kaput.

We've had the Aquaguard for about 15 years ,I think. Most of our friends ,relatives, office pantries ...all have this contraption. A friend of mine sold these as a part-time job while still in college .And that was 20 years ago. The point I am making is that in all these years I have not come across anyone who has used the music button .

That button ,when pressed gently, belts out a tune. Is it a famous tune ? Beethoven ? If it is , its a pretty watered down version :) . The tune is at best a few notches lower in irritation quotient than the "Attention-Please-This -Car-is-Backing-Out" that was so popular among the Puppies' Marutis not so long ago .

What is the music there for ?
It doesn't turn itself on/off when the water overflows .
It doesn't go off when the AMC is due .
It doesn't chirrup when the water supply is back.
Ok, it lets out a dual-chirrup every time the power goes on and off. So I know when the power is back. Thank You, Aqua.
But still ,why ?

I await the eureka moment.

Kursi ki peti baandh lijiye...

In the good old days , there was only one domestic airline. Indian Airlines . And naturally everything they did ( and still do) followed Government diktats. Right down to the in-flight magazine being Hindi-English, the dog-eared-wrinkly-laminated- safety- leaflet being Hindi-English and ,needless to say ,the in-flight announcements being Hindi-English. Fair enough ( stupid, but fair).
A couple of months ago I flew from Coimbatore to Trivandrum. By Air Deccan. The aircraft was virtually full. And the buzz - clearly from many excited first time travellers - was hard to ignore. I smiled. It was one thing to read all those articles about the airline revolution in the Press . And another to actually experience it. Rows of eager faces peering through the windows. Delightful clamour of various dialects of Tamil and Malayalam and the odd broken English. Till it was shattered by the air stewards announcement. "Namaskar .Air Deccan aapka swagat karta hai ..." . Needless to say the opening line and what followed ( ironically the safety announcements)was completely lost on the passengers.
I realized on subsequent flights -Jet , Kingfisher, Sahara - in AP - also do only Hindi-English announcements . And I suspect the same holds true in the rest of India as well ( Aizawl-Kohima ,for example. At least the folks over there understand English. So what are they cribbing about ! )
Now why would all these savvy airline marketers do such a thing ? Indifference ? Unlikely.
Is it a guideline from Civil Aviation ?
What use are safety announcements in a language no one understands ?
Methinks ATC communicates to pilots in Hindi first and then in English ! Now I know why some of the Russian pilots flying with the private airlines landed on the wrong airfields !
Enough . Time for some dahi-chawal .