as I see it: 2010

So, I think its apt to expect the many fans of Salman Khan or Dabangg or Malaika Arora Khan remembering the lyrics of the current blockbuster item number Munni Badnaam Hui Darling Tere Liye. If not, they surely do remember the use of a brand 'Zandu Balm' in one of its lines (a total of FIVE times in the song). Here is a recap just in case:

Munni badnaam hui, darling tere liye
Munni ke gaal gulabi, nain sharabi, chaal nawabi re
Le zandu balm hui, darling tere liye
Munni badnaam hui, darling tere liye
Munni ke gaal gulabi, nain sharabi, chaal nawabi re
Le zandu balm hui, darling tere liye
Munni badnaam hui, darling tere liye

So, the movie became an instant hit, beating 3 Idiot's record of biggest opening on box-office or something and quite expectedly, a super duper hit Salman Dude Khan's movie with an item number featuring Malaika Arora Khan had to be a HIT. And so it did.

And here came in the twist, Emami sues Dabangg for using ‘Zandu Balm’ name in ‘Munni Badnaam’ song (http://goo.gl/uLFQ). This is just one of these links. You can see how this news spread like wild fire all over (http://goo.gl/VfOz).

The company has reportedly sent a notice to Arbaaz Khan Productions Private Limited, claiming that it's the sole copyright holder of "not only the product, but also the name Zandu Balm"and asked the producers to withdraw the song or delete the name of the product from it, failing which it might take action against them.

And then? Less than 10 days later we see this - New Zandu Balm ad to encash popularity of Dabangg's song Munni Badnaam (http://goo.gl/UJT3)

After reaching an out-of-court settlement with Arbaaz Khan Production for the use of words in its chartbuster Munni badnaam hui, Emami is now ready to cash in on the popularity of the song with a new TV commercial to be aired within two days

Interestingly, 2 days before the above news story Arbaaz Khan posted the following two pictures in his tweets:

http://twitter.com/arbaazSkhan/status/25589184855

http://twitter.com/arbaazSkhan/status/25601957447

And not much after this we did see Zandu Balm's new ad with a clipping of the song Munni Badnaam and a voice over saying something like "Munni Ka Favourite Balm, Zandu Balm... etc etc."

Mere coincidences? A brand like Zandu Balm who hasn't used any TV Commercials for really really long now all of a sudden grabbed upon an "opportunity" in an "out-of-court settlement"?

Who knows? Maybe it was a well planned out strategy (Abhishaik strongly advocates it).

A prospective super hit item number using a brand name 'Zandu Balm' in its lyrics (a total of FIVE times in such a way that it features more than once in both 'Mukhda' and 'Antra' of the song)
Zandu Balm suing the producers and gathering Muft ka Prachaar across news channels and on the World Wide Web
Out-of-court settlement of Malaika being the brand ambassador and a new Zandu Balm ad to use the song's clips!

The sequence of steps seem to smooth and quick to sound true!

Kya khela hai! Waah! Marketing ka Mayajaal!

Consumer is caught unaware of how brands are being placed in their heads. Is it the right way? They say, everything is fair in love and war. Yaha kaunsa love aur kaunsi war? Maybe, we should change it to 'Everything is fair in love, war andprachaar'.

By the way today, I saw yet another ad of Zandu Balm featuring Virendra Sehwag, Dinesh Karthik and Amit Mishra. Any connection with Delhi Daredevils now? Prospective sponsor? And does this also mean that these 3 players would remain with Delhi Daredevils even after the new auction process?

Maybe, soon we may see a new ad - Munni Badnaam Hui Delhi Daredevils ke liye

Waise Munni Badnaam bhi hui to kya hua, woh kehte hain na

Badnaam huey to kya hua, Naam to hua!

PS: We all would also have noticed Chaini Khaini using a clip of the same song for in its campaign. Badnaam hui Munni, kaam hua Marketing Departments ka

He loved riding and was gushing through on his Electric Blue Yamaha R15 from his workplace at IFFCO Chowk, back home. Steering through the road filled with Santros, Pulsars, Wagon Rs, Accents, Passions and what not, he was enjoying riding under the cloudy sky. Though he knew he would get drenched, but still he periodically looked up to see the clouds, to see if it could pour. Riding his bike was this one thing that for the duration of the trip, took away all the worries of his life and filled his inner self with a feeling of joy.

Not soon after, he noticed a Ravishing Red New Karizma ZMR right next to him, possibly just out of Ambience Mall or one of the various MNCs near Shankar Chowk. No words exchanged, the two riders just exchanged glances, at each other and at the bikes. It didn't take much time when the two seemed to be experiencing an adrenaline pump, intensity of which was being made vocal through their bike's engine sounds.

What happened next is easy to guess. Steering through the roads, you see the R15 just behind the Karizma and in the time that passed by when you blinked, the R15 stood ahead with the Karizma not far behind. Signal after signal, the two seemed to be tied with a rope or maybe the bikes experienced some magnetic force of attraction.

What appeared a bit unusual was the act by the Karizma rider, who was trying to pull out his phone from his left pocket and at the same time signaled in the air, seemingly to everybody, but directed to the R15, that he has a call and would halt. Why? What was the intention and what was the need? Nonetheless, the R15 acknowledged the signal and counter-signaled that he would go for a fuel refill at the Petrol Pump 50m ahead. Fuel filling was done and the R15 rider smiled to himself, thinking about the short trip that was over.

But it wasn't. As soon as he came out of the pump, he saw the same Karizma waiting out for him. The two started again, but this time together, with no thought of staying ahead of the other. Enjoying their ride, moving past the heavy after office traffic they were joined by another teammate. A CBZ Extreme. What unseen force was bringing them altogether? And though they were on their super than usual bikes, they weren't even over speeding. In fact, with the roads densely populated with vehicles and the inner thought of riding safe and responsibly, they didn't even cross 60 km/hr.

They continued their ride, together, one signal to another, being separated by cars, buses due to space constraints and coming out ahead, back again, together. All this continued for another 30-40 minutes when at the Jhandewalan Hanuman Temple, the CBZ slowed down and signaled that he would go right. The R15 and Karizma were to go to the left. But this wasn't the first junction they were crossing. All this while they kept moving, one after the other and together, crossing signals, small turning lanes and intersections. Then what suddenly made the CBZ feel that it was NOW that their paths split. Here, on this junction. Strange.

Through their helmets they exchanged smiles, a thumbs up gesture and they continued. CBZ on its way to the right and the other two on the left. Another 15 minutes and at the Karampura Chowk the Karizma signaled its intention to take right and slowed down to halt before the turn. What again got this sense of different direction? They had crossed another few junctions after the departure of their third team mate but the thought of possibility of different paths didn't pass by their minds. Why?

Again an exchange of smiles, a tap of fists, the Karizma steered right while the R15 continued straight. An unsaid, unplanned bond or a sense of belongingness did exist here. A sense of understanding when it came to different directions was on display here. When humans try hard to sail through relationships, maintain a level of understanding, talk out unwanted problems and knowingly make efforts to scrap out rough patches amongst them, even in blood relations, what created the unplanned link between the three strangers? Where did the understanding creep in from? What constructed, transformed and developed 'The Connexion', the connexion between strangers, between strangers who didn't even exchange their names?

To start with, let me declare that this is not a April Fool's Day Joke. This is something I saw today and found weird.

So how many of us have heard of the brand Tasty Treat? And how many of us know that it is actually a brand introduced by Food Bazaar itself?

I just went to Food Bazaar today and was surprised to see this:

Its their own brand. Why do they have to show it like this? MRP was set by them and "Our Price" is again them. Where from the savings of Rs. 20? I am not really aware if the Tasty Treat brand products are available outside Food Bazaar but even if they are, this display is weird. Both "MRP" and "Our Price" are indeed Food Bazaar's price. Are they trying to fool customers?

In any case, outlets like Food Bazaar and Star Bazaar are coming up with their own in-house brands for almost every category now (especially food) and in some cases the packaging is so similar to the other popular product in the category to easily deceive someone to actually be the 'popular' brand.

Now, on top of that, doesn't a display like this make the consumer feel that it actually is something which is otherwise expensive and on discount here? Nice tactic, but is it right, given that both prices are their own. They could have easily written 500 instead of that 75 also then. What do you think?

Suddenly, the computer fever is back. Its all back again as during my engineering days. Lot of time being spent with my computer :)

All of a sudden, there is too much of Internet Internet around me. Never before have I received so many comments on my blog posts as now. Mostly SPAM. So many, that I was compelled to turn on Comment Moderation (I didn't really want CAPTCHA).

The enthralling wave or rather the 'keeda' of having my own domain name got me www.prateekkhurana.in just before my final exams and yes I spent more time with it than studying! And what about it? The 'keeda' to put up an 'Under Construction' Page. The 'keeda' to use SEO and get it on the first page of Google Search. And tada! 15 days since I bought the domain and its up there - Page 1, Result Number 3 (I hope it stays there or rises even up by the time you click it)

So, anyways, not much of Twitter happening, but am playing a lot with Photoshop, once again and experimenting with a lot of softwares (as I used to) and they do some fantabulous jobs. Moreso, connecting the phone with the laptop and playing around. An old, almost dead phone with some jazzy software.

I am loving it all over again. Yes, I am. :)

But right now, what I have to do is work on my website and get rid of the under construction page before the countdown ends :)

The title of this post is a very disappointing attempt at expanding the acronym NEWS but then I guess it is better than what is being delivered to us in the name of NEWS. As me and a lot many have seen it from their very own eyes, heard it using their very own ears, news items like "Commisioner Sahab ka kutta khoya/mila" or the "Chajje pe billo rani", we very well understand and often ridicule the horrendous use of a medium (TV Channels) to showcase ridicule! Maybe, it makes commercial sense, maybe a large set of people love such items for the entertainment quotient or anything else, but weren't you supposed to be a NEWS Channel, a channel that I assumed will give in important happenings around the world or was it that I made baseless assumptions.
Anyhow, as if the 'Vishesh's and the 'Breaking News's and more such unintentional humor wasn't enough we enter another era. As we all very well know the virus like spreading infection of joining Twitter, especially amongst the celebrities and well-known public figures. No, I have no qualms against this, absolutely not and I myself follow quite a few of them including Shahrukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Pritish Nandy, Gul Panag, Shashi Tharoor, Barkha Dutt, Riteish Deshmukh and some more. Now they are here for whatever reasons, its there business, I can choose to follow them or not.
Now a point here. Undoubtedly the small list of the much larger pool I gave above have huge fan following, love, respect from people on or not on Twitter. Of them, those who actually are on Twitter are likely to follow them so they are expected to have a large following. And as it was, it perhaps is a very big thing (a dream come true for many of us) if a celeb actually replies you and addresses you with your twitter alias in his tweet. It was big even for someone like Barkha Dutt who re tweeted (forwarded) someone else's tweet mentioning that she was the first one whom Shah Rukh Khan himself replied on twitter.
It is Barkha Dutt's personal account, she felt like and she did it. Fair Enough. But there are news channels on Twitter as well including CNN IBN, which I duly respect and liked. A recent update on CNN IBN has the headline "SRK tweets in support of 'unpaid' hockey player".
Now this is just too much, these channels are now following whatever celebrities write on twitter and are making news items out of them. There just doesn't exist any other news or what? Is it the most interesting and most important thing. An opinion by SRK, though well respected, but should it become a NEWS ITEM? And its not for the first time, I remember news items about celebrities joining Twitter, one update after the other.
Even if I try to justify the news story on Shashi Tharoor's 'cattle-class' tweet or the Chetan Bhagat's FPS-3Idiots opinions, which in itself was lame, I don't think I can justify this SRK one. How can you just make news stories out of ANYTHING, EVERYTHING or rather NOTHING!
I just don't understand where we are heading. As if the Kutta Billi stories weren't enough that now a less than 140 character tweet from a celebrity is molded into a full fledged news story. Ridiculous.

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