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रिते रिते मन

  तुला भेटल्यापासून

  जसे वाचलेले सारे

  कुणी जावे विसरून

आता अंतरात माझ्या

  

गच्च आभाळ भरून

तुझ्या होकाराची वाट

  बघ पाहतो दुरून

तोड बंध सारे

  जाऊ दे पाऊस पडून

  कशी होशील हिरवी

 थोडी भिजल्यावाचून?
-यशोधन

Mausam

I watched "Mausam" and wanted to write a film review. But then I came across this and instantly knew that this is exactly what I wanted to say. Even more than what I wanted to say.

I insist everybody out there to watch this movie. But don't go there with wrong mood or expectations. Read the review so you know what you are going to see there.

For those who are dumb enough to not to realize that the word "this" in the very second sentence was the link to the review, here is the same link again. And to make it work, you are supposed to click on it.

http://news.worldsnap.com/entertainment/movie-review/mausam-movie-reviews-shahid-kapoor-stands-tall-110665.html

The Art of Banner Ads

Banner ads have become more and more important from past few decades. If you place a proper ad at a proper place, it may be very helpful in boosting your business. And on the face of it, it looks like we are thinking enough about those. But it we examine it in result oriented fashion, we see the scope for improvement.

I never could understand why people strive so hard to put their ads in the crowd of other ads? I mean, when you go to a mall, or a busy street, you see endless stream of ads. In many cases, two rival products are boasting about their quality while hanging together. What’s the point? If we talk about malls, there are too many lights and too many other “physically present” products, to make your two-dimensional advertisement really matter. And these ads are costly too.

And when it comes to a busy street, well the banners become even more illogical. For God’s sake, that’s a busy street! People are supposed to be busy there! People don’t WANT to see your ads there. For them, those are just obstacles and a reason to make that place look more cramped. Even when people stop on a busy road, all they want to see it open space, which they can see only in upward direction. But your ads block their view. What do you think this makes them think?

There’s another (though not so serious) mistake we tend to do. When it comes to place the banners, we prefer posh areas (again malls) over the slums. But again, we forget something. When the surrounding is as beautiful as (or even more) than your banner, why would people look at your ad? And again, you are creating a slightly negative impact by standing in the way of their beautiful view. And on top of it, this option costs more!

But if you erect a banner in a dirty area, say a slum, people are just looking for something good they can stare. If your ad happens to be the most beautiful thing in the eyesight, naturally it will get some long stares and the small details you so painstakingly have put in your ad will get noticed. And this package costs cheap. I did a small research and found that ugly sites earn more through Google ads than their pretty counterparts. And this is for the same reason. When you land on an ugly webpage, you just want to get away. And of an advertisement happens to be the neatest thing on the page, you tend more to click on it!

So when next time you want to place a banner for advertisement, make sure you are getting long enough stares from a person in right state of mind for your product.

The Art of Creativity

Oversimplification kills the fun.

But who will tell this to our Bollywood people? They just don’t realize that people like it when they have to think while watching the movies. They like to decipher, to solve the mystery. They like to interact.

Any experience of art should be both ways. It’s not just about the artist reaching out to the viewers. But also, it’s about the viewers reaching out to the art. And the ultimate height of any experience of art is when all three points artist-art-viewer form an equilateral triangle.

This is why computer games, puzzles, fantasy novels are so popular. In each of these cases, you have to interact. But all we have to do while watching the typical Hindi movies is to dumb-down your mentality. Let alone taking efforts for thinking, we have to take efforts for not to think!

If you want your piece of art to be heart-touching, make sure that you hit the point of perfect balance. After all, travelling to the Disney Land is also part of the fun!

मसण्या उद

उदमांजर नावाचा एक प्राणी आहे. त्याला मसण्या उद असंही म्हणतात. कारण तो स्मशानात जाऊन पुरलेली प्रेतं उकरतो. माणसांत सुद्धा मसण्या उद असतात. प्रेतं उकरण्यातच त्यांना रस असतो. भोवताली असण्या-या असंख्य सजीव आणि चैतन्यमयी गोष्टी सोडून ते स्मशान धुंडाळत फिरत असतात.

अण्णा हजारे आंदोलनाला बसले आणि काही दुर्लक्षीत प्राण्यांना चर्चेत येण्याची संधी दिसली. राष्ट्रीय पातळीच्या वृत्तपत्रांपासून गावपातळीच्या स्वत:ला प्रसारमाध्यम समजणा-या हँडबिलांपर्यंत सर्वाना आपली अक्कल पाजळण्याची आठवण झाली. अरुंधती रॉय पासून गल्लीच्या कोप-यावर बसणा-या रिकामटेकड्यापर्यंत सगळ्या बेरोजगारांना अचानक सुवर्णसंधी दिसायला लागली.

या लोकांची एक सवय असते. यांच्या समोर काहीही टाकले तरी हे खायला तयार असतात. मात्र, खाण्या आधी हे लोक भोकं शोधत राहतात. अर्थात, भारत नावाच्या "जो जे वांछील, तो ते लाहो" या तत्वानुसार चालणा-या देशात त्यांना भोकं मिळतातही. वारा कसाही वाहत असो, आकाशाच्या रंग कसाही असो, उन असो वा पाऊस, थंडी असो वा गरमी, या लोकांना सतत काही तरी टोचत असतं. कोणी काही करायला निघाला की जीवाची बाजी लावून मध्ये बोटं टाकणारी ही मंडळी एरवी एक बोटही हलवायला तयार नसतात.

काय चुकलं हे सांगण्यात सगळ्यात पुढे असणारे हे लोक. पण काय करायला हवं हे विचारलं, की काही तरी गुळमुळीत बोलून सुटणार. यांचे घोडे नेहमी वरातीमागुनच धावतात. चौ-याहत्तर वर्षांचा म्हातारा आपल्यासाठी हे करतोय याची त्यांना लाज वाटत नाही. पण अण्णांसाठी रस्त्यावर उतरण्या-यांना मेणबत्ती संप्रदाय म्हणून हिणवण्यात यांना पुरुषार्थ वाटतो. एरवी हे लोक घरातल्या सर्वात आतल्या खोलीत डायनिंग टेबल वर बसून बायका पोरांसमोर पुढा-यांच्या ढुंगणावर फटके मारण्याच्या वल्गना करत असतात.

बोलण्यासाठी पैसा आणि अक्कल दोन्ही लागत नाही हेच खरं.

Options – Do we have enough of them?

Choices, alternatives, options. Call them by any name you want. If you live in a competitive world, you are familiar with them. And as you are reading this post, I bet you live in a competitive world.

With a little thinking, we can easily reach to a conclusion that we work mostly for having more and more choices in our lives. For us, choosing anything is not as important as having the option of choosing something else. Even if we know that the thing (or person) is precisely something we want, we don’t go for it unless we have some other options to choose from.

This looks very natural when we keep a way out. Something to fall back on. Or “Plan B”, as they call it. But do we stop there? Won’t you like to have virtually unlimited options in every field of your life? Even nowadays, this seems to have become the catch line of many advertisements. All the companies want to provide their customers maximum possible number of choices. “Now choose from 99 colors”, “Pick your favorite from thousands of designs” and so on.

But how good it is? In my opinion, having choices kills your creativity, focus, determination, stamina, and most importantly – your killer instinct. When you are obsessed with having more options, you get diverted from doing what you wanted to do with your most preferred option. When having an option to retire, less people choose to work. When having an option to lose, most people won’t go for that last winning punch.

Too many options make you too comfortable for living a good life. And yet, they don’t seem to be enough. Life is not about what set of choices you have, but it is about what you choose from it.

Self help books - they just don’t help.

Self help books - they just don’t help.

Yes, accept it. And no, you cannot win.

The heroes of all the stories you read in such books never read such books.

You cannot think big. You don't think at all, remember?

If you don’t have respect for your own words, how will you respect those printed in a book?

You cannot change your habits. Not even one, forget seven.

This may sound like a self-help article, but it is not.

Chicken soups are only for your taste. Tongue or mind.

Accept it. You better spend your bucks on a real soup.