Sacred Hindu vs. voluptuous TOI

Many of us would have been highly amused at the recent and on-going war of ads between the two newspapers – the venerable “The Hindu” and the king of media - “Times of India”.

Times of India has been trying to penetrate the bastion of “The Hindu” in Tamil Nadu. The marketing and brand manager would have done his 4P exercises and realized that Hindu has an image of being somewhat cerebral and therefore deemed dense by the segment eyed by TOI. This is when they came up with this ad

TOI has been getting a lot of flak on social media for this ad for being tasteless. I am not a fan of TOI but I think that this is a smart ad. TOI is not targeting the reader who wants to read an analysis of the Syrian situation or how Chavez is transforming Venezuela. The typical TOI reader is the type of reader who would read a typical tabloid in London. This is the reader who wants a twitter style news. TOI gives it to them and these readers would give attention to this ad

Coming to “The Hindu”, I have loved their response to this. If TOI had mocked the brains behind the editorials of Hindu, those same brains have come out with an aggressive ad response that completely turns around the logic of the TOI ad. These were the ads…Hilarious!!!

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King of Delhi roads – Lambo and Alto. The battle…

 

The grim reaper, as has been told to us repeatedly, is the great equalizer. Poems have been written about this final eraser of differences, philosophers have sustained themselves with writing dense tracts about the how in front of him, the king and the pauper alike look the same.

All this is fine. I realized something a couple of days back with the result that I would like to nominate the addition of Delhi roads to the list of the great equalizers.

Ill tell you how I came about to this realization. I was turning to drive down Lodhi road, in my workhorse – my Alto, when I see coming on to my side a sleek black Lamborghini, probably modelled on Batmobile for all that I know. You could hear and feel the power of its engine, which like a sleeping giant, was just waiting to wake up to flex itself. And all that I had on my side was the 800CC of pure layman engine.

Who in their right mind would even think of racing that monster? Well, considering that my sympathy always lies with the underdog and in this case, I was the underdog, I was game.

I am no fool however – I was game because I know that the modern city of Delhi with its modern roads was with me. And this is how the race went…

When Batmobile drew level with Alto, there were two vehicles in front of both of us and both of the drivers were of the thoughtful variety who seem to be driving on the roads looking for some unfathomable solution in life. Anyway, Batmobile and Alto were both of the minds that they had better things to do and needed to get ahead. Now Batman would be mortified to learn that drivers in Delhi driving parallel to each other give only that much space to allow a bug to get through, even after incessant honking. And the best insect to travel across Delhi roads is of course the Alto. So a horn blast and nudge and a swerve later, I was through the gap. Looking back, I see Batmobile still trying in vain to get its whole big ass bulk between the philosophizing cars. In the meantime, I was on my way. About ten seconds later, I look back and I see that the black bulk had finally broken through. Then it pressed its only advantage – its awe-inspiring engine. Within a second, Batmobile had grown from a dot in the rear-view mirror to a detailed study in engineering. Another second, it would have overtaken Alto and would have said an insouciant farewell to the red dot (my car is brick-red, you see).

Just at that moment, Delhi roads again came to the rescue of the underdog. Just in front of us was the ubiquitous tin-sheets-put-together-carrier-on-three-wheels. A little on the side was an Esteem parked on the side of the road. And there was only so much space on the side. I touched my finger slightly on the steering wheel and the whole small mass of Alto neatly fit into that space and out through the gap. Batmobile on the other hand had to hastily apply brakes and put to test its 200 to 0 Km/hr in one second claim. While it was trying to rally back, the red light in front had turned yellow, with a car in the right lane, waiting. Alto pushed through in the last moment (isn’t it a nice game all of us in Delhi play – beating the yellow light, what pleasure we get!!!) and was over the line just as the light turned red…

Now, navigating through another traffic mess ahead, I looked back. Batmobile, chastened in defeat, had settled into second place behind another car, as they all waited for the green light. Batmobile, the sleek black monster, in all its gleam, stood defeated by a better master – the roads of the capital.

I felt a little sorry for it. I mean Batmobile will attract the attention of all the starlets in the world and the drool of those who worship metallic lustre. But my good man, I am still reaching someplace faster than you!!!!

 

del.icio.us Tags: delhi,delhi roads,funny,humour,alto,lamborghini

The proletariat dog – will rebellion come?? :)

 

Will the sleeping dog rise and claim his right to equality??

I saw this scene in Khan Market today…outside a posh pet shop (see the sign on the shop window), which I have gone into once (courtesy Bulbul who has two dogs – a lab and a pug, lovable house dogs). The shop is a place for the privileged class of dogs who are fed vitamin bones, given toys, are fussed over and are taken to dog salons where they their nails are chipped (and god knows what else!!!)…and indeed the shop is stocked with things that maybe even i didn't get when I was a child!!! lol (in the human variant, of course)

A classical feudal system as any, something that existed before the revolutions a couple of centuries past. A revolution is nigh you ask? A time to bring down the throne of the house dogs who wrinkle their nose up to the dog on the street maybe…

But the proletariat dog is sleeping yet…hmm…I guess we need a canine Marx to spell out that “All street dogs of the world unite..you have nothing to lose but your fleas” lol…

Technorati Tags: Humour,dog,canine,proleteriat,funny,Delhi,Khan Market

The ultimate sexist divide

On our recent trip to Goa, I came across the following picture...I am sure some very helpful soul wanted to make life easier for us ignorant handwashers!!! They sure got the attention of one of them!!!

I wonder what the feminists would think about this one?

Methinks thinks that since behind every feminist is a closet hygiene freak, they might actually welcome the move...push over old style apartheid, your new avatar might just be here!!!

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