'cos i'm never gonna stop falling in love with her

man its 13 years! i fell in love with The Corrs, their music and of course the lead singer Andrea when i first saw this song :) how time flies! am sure i would have shared this with dee if i'd known her then.



i remember waiting for love to come to me, spending almost my entire early life in this desperate search, making many false starts, stumbling through love that i felt (then) was true, and finally when i did find her... it was as if my whole life was meant for that one moment, to be shared with her, no more searching, no more aching... just living every moment filled knowing that there is somebody whose heart sings to the same tune as mine. and if there is one song by The Corrs that i would have dedicated her then, that i want to dedicate now, it is this one... 'cos i'm never gonna stop falling in love with her

Delhi, Goa and the six-pack

In a world where everything has been explained and discovered, some part within us still craves the feeling of adventure that comes from stepping into the unknown. Perhaps this is the sole reason why people travel, to experience something new, to be out of the routine of their lives, and maybe in the process discovering something new about them.

Little wonder that when the bosses at Delhi McCann Healthcare asked the team “who would like to go to Goafest 2011” many hands shot-up in the air instantly! After a few meetings, huddles and approvals, finally a list of six was prepared. I call them the six-pack, aligning more to a certain refreshing drink than to a set of perfectly formed abdominal muscles.

Taking the metaphor of drink a little ahead, let me introduce the six to you. First comes the senior most member of the pack, Mr. Peace, who continues the glorious traditions of the flower children well into the new millennium, he is the age old, classic Guinness. Then we move on to the other ‘senior’ amongst us, Mr. B. Although his name also kind of links to peace, I’m choosing the alphabet B for him as he loves the words starting with it, like beach, beer, babes and yeah, you can let your imagination build on from here ;) He is the ‘Fosters’ amongst us. And now we move on to the ladies. First up, the always chilled, sophisticated Ms. Dusk, let’s name her that demi-goddess of beers, Heineken. Next amongst the women is our earthen Ms. Brown, never to be the one caught slipping off the stairs. She is the Carlsberg of our pack. Ooooh, and the next one is well, wait, I don’t think Punjab has a beer brand associated with it, so what do I call this bubbly, vivacious Ms. Sunshine amongst us. Ummmm, let’s call her the party special Tuborg! And in the end, let your humble narrator call himself Mr. Blue, based on his always brooding countenance, a preference for the Blues and this being his favorite color! So he becomes the Kingfisher Blue of the pack.

Let me tell you something about Goafest, the Indian advertising industry’s biggest awards festival. It is the meeting ground of the best minds that our industry has to offer. This year, it was the sixth edition of Goafest, I’ve been there before in 2008. The five other members of the six-pack were attending it for the first time, so naturally the overall excitement level was high. Apart from the fun one has there, Goafest is also famous for the many sessions conducted by industry leaders. You get to meet a lot of your friends from different regions and agencies, many a new friendships are built over drinks and you emerge with a broader perspective of life and work in Indian advertising. And of course, the overall appeal of the fest increases manifolds due to its location, Goaaaaah!

Our journey started early on Friday the 8th morning and ended earlier on Sunday the 10th. All in all, we got to spend less than 48 hours in Goa, but the sheer amount of fun we’d in such little time was amazing. We learned, we interacted, we danced, we drank, we traveled, we cheered those who won, felt sad for those who didn’t (especially for our TAG teammates), we met most of our Mumbai mates and they made this whole time so much more enriching. Thanks to Ulka, Puro, Ganesh, Sanjay, Yogeeta, Prasad, Rohit, Deepa and all others! Back to our desks and mundane lives, I’m sure all of us will cherish the moments we spent together at Goafest 2011. And because the girls are after my life to upload the pics, I won’t say much now, and let the pictures below do the talking :) Do read the captions to travel the journey with us! You can watch it in full screen here: click click! Here’s to Goafest  2012!!!

news flash: my first published article

"As a part of my New Year resolutions, I decided I’ll start writing a diary about my favorite sport - cricket. You see, while growing up I was dubbed the ‘Rahul Dravid’ of my mohalla cricket team. Though my playing career didn’t go any further, I feel am as much a student of the game as the esteemed Mr. Dravid. And now that life has brought me into a position where my main job is daydreaming and writing advertisements that not many like to read, I can devote ample time to writing about my passion that cricket is."

So here it is, my first cricket related article in a mainstream website.

Childhood Memories

Do click on the title and leave a comment or two at the page. I'll be really glad if you share it with your friends as well :) Hope you'll like it enough!

Remembrance

They are talking about people from the past. A young, male relative who one day made such delicious and evenly fried pakodas* that even the ladies of the household couldn’t stop envying him; a long forgotten neighborhood aunt whose clothesline was the embodiment of middle class organizational skills; their always grumbling mother/mother-in-law and how she was not happy with the way the young male relative made those pakodas.

They are talking about them, remembering them from their last storehouse of memories, because when they left home, their relatives and snapped ties with that old life forever, they ceased to make new memories about it. So now until they themselves cease to exist, the now old male relative will always be young, forever cooking delicacies for the extended family, freshly washed clothes will continue to drip proudly in the backyard of that neighborhood aunt and the now (presumably) dead matron of the house will continue to grumble away forever. This is the fate shared by everyone who has left something behind in a hurry, more so of the refugees of fate itself.

As if time is a river which though doesn’t stop for anyone, it is we who drop the anchors of our memories and linger on, sometimes for a moment, sometimes forever.

A *Pakora (पकोड़ा; پکوڑا; பஜ்ஜி;); is a fried snack found across South Asia. Pakoras are created by taking one or two ingredients such as onion, eggplant, potato, spinach, cauliflower, tomato, chilli or occasionally chicken and dipping them in a batter of gram flour and then deep-frying them. ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakoda 

a day at the Pacific

no, not that Pacific! i'm talking about the Pacific Mall in the eastern part of the city. a few weeks back both of us met a friend there and did lots of masti together.

the Pacific Mall is located near the Anand Vihar, inter-state bus terminal on the eastern border of delhi. it was a saturday and Nidhi (our friend) had to shop for our birthday gifts, with we in tow! i went there directly from my home in kalkaji, south delhi and dee came from her school. Pacific is one of our frequent hangouts and we've roamed around these area so many times that nothing interests us anymore :)

anyways, while waiting for Nidhi to come, we decided to do some serious window shopping. and in the middle of our expedition came across Spencer’s food court. Located on Pacific's ground floor, Spencer Hypermarket is your usual middle-class shopping destination, full of organised chaos. We really liked its food court though. A bright ‘n cosy place or perhaps because it was early afternoon (and not a Sunday), it was more or less vacant and thus appeared to be so.

That apart, it has a nice little menu of food options from Indian snacks and mini-meals to Western snacks and desserts. We’d a Rajkachori first, spicy and really fresh. Then after Nidhi arrived, we ordered some ‘moong ki dal ke pakode’, ‘pao-bhaji’ and ‘shahi dhokla.’ All this from the Rajdhani counter within the food court. This is the same Gujarati Rajdhani which has popular eating joints in CP, Gurgaon and NOIDA. Had a light lunch and clicked some pics too. Then we went a floor above to Westside, where Nidhi got me a nice, light warm, grey and black striped tee. After that, we went over to look for a kurta for Dee. Normally Westside's Indian ethnic collection is quite appealing to the senses, but this time round the collection was a disappointment. So we went to Globus instead. And there Dee struck a goldmine. With one beautiful pea-green kurta as a gift from Nidhi, she also got two knee-length dress tops (one white and one beige) from me. Somebody was happy and grinning from ear to ear :) All this simple shopping took us about two and a half hours (god knows why girls take so much time shopping for dresses!) and as we were feeling slightly hungry again, one more time we scampered to the Spencer food court. This time we had only liquid nourishment though, juice and cold drinks. then as the curfew hours for the girls were coming into effect, we said hurried goodbyes and i came back home.

it was a nice day overall. i was apprehensive how it'll go, 'cos i was quite unwell but we'd already promised Nidhi so couldn't cancel the program. in the end, everything went well. have realized one thing, shopping does lift my mood *lol* especially, when i shop for her!

take my advice guys, the next time you are feeling blue, grab your better half, throw in a couple of good friends in the mix and go out for an impulsive shopping spree. there's no better joy than seeing your loved one smiling with all the spoils of the day. ofcourse, you'll get so much more love in return for the next few days ;)

here's my shopping queen! and till next time, stay away from the blues!

Ritika's Birthday

we celebrated a dear colleague, Ritika's birthday on the 20th. here are some of my favorite pics and a little video wherein our in-house mimicry artist Mr. Shiv Shankar Sharma (aka Shiv Ji) is well, errr, mimicking our office administrator, Mr. Rajagopalan aka Raj.


very risky business, as Raj is thought to have links with the kerala underworld. and he controlls the account flow within the healthcare department. so, well, brave job Shiv ji.



you can see me bouncing up and down with joy, while eating a delicious piece of dhokla. ah, the joys of gossip with good tea-time snacks!


hope you had a good birthday celebration Ritika, i certainly enjoyed my day :)

delhidreams are blue today

bachpan - kuch shabd