The great Indian MRF blimp

Oh GOD! I had never ever seen a blimp in my life! That too one from MRF...oooh wow.

Ever since I managed to get through kindergarten, I have been tortured by these questions day in and day out - What is this MRF? What do they do? How many brand ambassadors do they have? What is this pace academy they have founded? Who will be the first one to get the blimp to India? Does MRF really stand for Madras Rubber Factory? Why is MRF so great?

Now, thanks to the IPL, all the questions I have ever had about MRF have been answered and many more have been pre-empted.
The commentators are like an endless ocean of knowledge when it comes to factoids about the blimp. They can tell you who owns MRF, how many times that person eats curd rice in a day, what brand of dhoti he wears etc etc

Other than the annoying bits where they show the ongoing match every now and then, the IPL and the MRF blimp is a joy to watch.

The charming Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, seems to love the MRF blimp so much that I suspect that once the IPL gets over, he is going to take the blimp home and introduce it to his parents. Danny Morrison also seems to suddenly get excited when they show the blimp, but then Danny Morrison has the ability to get excited even if they show Mukesh Ambani on screen, so one cannot read much into his display of emotions.

Anyway here is Siva taking his blimp for a walk on a pristine caribbean beach.

I leave you with the very eloquent -

What you gon' do with all that junk?
All that junk inside your trunk?
I'ma get, get, get, get, you drunk,
Get you love drunk off my blimp
My blimp, my blimp, my blimp, my blimp, my blimp,
My blimp, my blimp, my blimp, my lovely little blimp (Check it out)

Ads people play...

Gone are those days when there would be brand new ad's on showcase only during the world cup. I still remember the Coca-cola ad during the 1996 World Cup, the kids playing cricket surrounded by red chillies left out to dry and by the Taj. That was one ad that got me craving to go play cricket.

There is almost no ad now that makes me want to buy anything.

Now with the IPL season there is a PL everywhere. There are cricket centric ads all around! HBO Premier League, Pix Premier League, the pathetic set of 'AX effect on the cricket field' ads, Oongli cricket, the irritating "Vidya Calling" ad with Sehwag and Gambhir which plays right in the middle of an over. So on and on.

The next set of ads are about summer and AC's and refrigerators. They basically tell us that the entire family is sitting around the product and living their lives around it or, if the ad has Ajay devgan and Kajol in it, then treating the product like their own family member, because oh its made their boring aimless lives so much better.Bah.

Even the zoozoo ads are an overkill. Not to mention Ranbir Kapoor in a sleeveless fake leather jacket taking on Sanjay Dutt - who looks as if he has been dressed in discarded motorcycle parts - for a bottle of Pepsi.

The number of different cell phone brands in the market have given rise to the a larger number of crappy ads. siiigh.

Gimme better ads!


p.s: Thanks to Rajiv for helping me find the link to the Coke ad

Rain and nostalgia

The second most favourite topic of the season is the weather in Bangalore. So when I grab lunch and happen to sit at a table with someone I don't know too well, then invariably the conversation starts with the heat in the city.

The city was in for a pleasant surprise last week, when it rained some.

Any Banglorean knows that when the mercury rises above a certain level leading to discomfiture, then it rains, and cools the temperatures and tempers down. However, this has not been the case for quite some time now.

I was getting back home in an Auto and it began to drizzle without much warning.

With the smell of earth in first rains, came a wave of nostalgia. Of a city that Bangalore used to be. Of walking back from school after a game of cricket in the rain. Of watching the rain outside the window while studying for my 12th standard exams. Of drinking the strongest filter coffee ever, in a restaurant called Pushpavan right opposite Urvashi Theatre. Of being obssessed with Wodehouse and Conan Doyle. Of the inevitable candle lit dinners thanks to the power cut's.

As the cool breeze blew, into my face, I was transported for a while into Bangalore of the 1990's. Unfortunately the only thing constant from then and now is the power cut.

But one thing is certain, the rain does make everything a little nicer, especially memories :)