Of Ms Pandey & Ms Banerjee

Thought to be on twitter for sometime and get updated with whats and hows of today but duh, whatay timeline. Full of negativity & cynicism! In fact every second tweet right now is about IPL5 & KKR tamasha. Now before I proceed further, let me tell you clearly that neither I’m IPL crazy nor SRK fanatic (oh yes, like most gals of my age group even I was crazy for him during my teenage days but then maturity prevailed; sigh, gone are those days of being lost into mush movies of Rahuls & Rajs). To be honest, I didn’t watch even one single IPL match this year; twitter micro updates on wins and losses were enough to bear. But this frenzy after the KKR win is now getting too much to handle. And surprisingly none of the hungama is actually on the final match or the players or the captain, it’s on… well let’s have a look at some of these:

• Not the win of the team but the apology of Mr. Khan.
• Not the genuine excitement of many others but the not so excited ‘I’m excited’ statement of Ms Khan – man, people had some real fun stuffs on this one.
• Ms Banerjee and her hyper exhilaration and her celebrations and her gifts and her … well, lets leave it at this!
• Match fixing sagas which till evening of the finals were being predicted for CSK but immediately after the win, got very conveniently pushed to KKR.

And not to forget:

• Ms Pandey! For past three days,  a certain Ms Pandey has been sitting tight on the trending topics list. Not only that, on the night of win it was not Gautam Gambhir but this Ms Pandey (I refuse to write her full name and add yet another page to her credit in searches) who was actually trending worldwide. For what – for her ‘dare to bare’ act, the correlation of which with cricket only a brain of hers can rationalize!

Lessons learnt– Ms Pandey needs to be officially included as case study in all marketing courses; gawddd she indeed knows the art of publicity! And when it comes to appreciation, we the human beings are masters of cynicism. You do whatever, there is always a larger set ready to criticize you and your acts. Com’on for once speak about the game or the players but nope, how could we? Aren’t we just too busy with Ms Pandeys and Ms Banerjees to focus on anything else?

The Jungle Book by Campfire

Most of us would have read / watched “The Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling at some point of our lives, then why did I pick this book again? No, no my little one is too young for story book reading as of now, its my own love for graphic novels and comic books which makes me pick up these even if the story is read earlier in text books or elsewhere. So, when Campfire sent a mail for reviewing their new titles, I immediately picked up few for review and one of those was “The Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling. Having read their books earlier, I was sure that their presentation would definitely have something new to offer. And man, wasn’t I right! It’s yet another beautiful visual treat by the Campfire team. Loved it, absolutely loved it!

The plot remains same – It’s about the adventurous journey of a little boy Mowgli who escapes certain doom at the hands of the tiger Shere Khan and lands up in a jungle amongst the wolf pack. With time he grows up in jungle and is taught the ways of living a jungle life. Though as he grows he faces lots of conflicts, the biggest one being finding his real identity amongst pack of wolves or humans – neither of whom is willing to accept him as of one its own. Yes, it’s the same story but you have to go through this book to understand why it is an interesting read for kids and adults who like reading visual books. Here’s my quick take about the book:

• As I mentioned earlier, it’s a visual treat! Have to say this about the graphic team of Campfire – your presentation is class apart, really love the way stories get illustrated at your end. 
• Language is simple and can be easily understood by kids of reading age group.
• Length of the book is also apt, neither too long for kids to lose interest nor too short for grown ups to miss their attention. 101 pages of total fun!
• Like most Campfire books, even this one comes with some interesting trivia about “Rudyard Kipling”, “The Jungle Book” story and movie at the end.
• There is a cute poster of Mowgli and his fun at the end of the book .

From my side, it’s a thumbs-up for this book. I've read their one more title during my pre-baby era and will be posting a review of it soon. Would love to read more books from Campfire and yes waiting eagerly for the little one to grow and see if he develops the taste for reading or not. Totally up to his interest level but if he does, Campfire books would definitely be on my recommendation list for him.

My First Mother’s Day

Normally I’m quite cynical about all these so called special “days” like valentine’s day, rose day, chocolate day, kiss day etc etc etc… I mean you name it and there has to be a day for it! Not that I don’t like to be wished or don’t wish my close people on such relevant days but somehow I’m quite repelled by the overall commercialization of these days. We now officially know that from marketing and promotional success point of view, Valentine’s day in India is actually a more celebrated event than Diwali or Holi. And belonging to the same marketing fraternity I can’t even say everything is irrelevant or not required, though like many other things there has to be a limit to it. Imagine a multivitamin health supplement ad being positioned as Valentine’s Day gift for your loved one? Oh yes, I did spot it in a mainline publication during Valentine's Day marketing fever. Coming to emotional events like Mother’s day, imagine banners all over web that read sentences like “click here if you love your mom”. From Alphonso Mango to Platinum earrings, everything has to “the” gift, which if not given to your mother would just not prove your love for her! 

Owing to these reasons, I actually refrain from making a big noise of any such day in our lives that are more of marketing gimmicks than anything else. But have to say that all my cynicism and skepticism went for a toss this mother’s day when I saw the little one giving me his trademark gummy smile first thing in the morning. And when Nitin asked him lovingly to wish mumma a happy mother’s day, there he started to grin and gave a further bigger smile. Yes, a four-month can’t speak but his big toothless smile was reason enough to suddenly make me feel special that day, to make me pick him up in my arms immediately and hold tightly as the most prized possession of my life. After that I received a call from my mom and when I wished her “happy mother’s day”, she replied back with a jovial “same to you”.  Wow, there was something in that “same to you”. Yes, yes I know emotional glands become hyperactive the moment you enter parenthood but you know, you have to experience it to know what I mean by feeling most special by just a smile from the little one. Remember your first mother’s day or your first father’s day? Ya, ya exactly that kind of feeling. No gifts, no overtly emotional celebrations, just a quiet lunch-out with family, sweet wishes from close friends and acquaintances, light conversations with my mom and lots of fun with the junior – ingredients enough to make my first mother’s day just so special and memorable. Must confess that motherhood is one such experience that actually makes me look forward to be wished for being a mom on mother’s day, the day after and the day after and… well didn’t I tell you that mommydom makes your emotional glands hyperactive ;-)