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Thanks to Mudit Chandra for this arcane info. See this video and see the similarities with a recent song with lines going like ‘Emo Scenal Ati Achaar’.

I agree with Mudit when he says that if you are taking inspiration and that too for a whole song, at least you should remark about it in one of the dozen interviews. Now I really want to see this movie, if any of you know how to get hold of a copy kindly tell.

update: It seems he did blog about this here. I am sorry Anurag jee.

The ‘to’ journey was pretty uneventfull. But the return was awesome.  Sunday morning we decided to bike around near Chail and then return to Delhi. We had already been to the Kali ka Tibba (kali temple).  Still we landed at the base of the climb to the temple. One way was going up towards the temple and another one was going downwards. We decided to go on the one going down.

The road went on without we coming across any other travllers, or people. After around half an hour we saw a guy and asked if this was the way to shimla. He tells us that it was indeed but we were headed in the opposite direction. Not wanting to go back we asked him if there was a another way. ‘Ashvini ghaat’, he says, and we keep on going. The road soon turned into a dirt track with rocks falling off the sides. The next guy we saw was after one hour. There were moments we stopped to look at the amazing scenery. Also saw a big bird, probably the biggest I have seen with my eyes, which was probably the himalayan griffon vulture.

The real filmi moment was when the road ended into a stream. On walking along the stream we could see tyre tracks up ahead. So the stream was used as the road it seems, until a bridge was made. This was one of the highpoints of the trip. And this place was called ‘Ashvini khadd’ which we had heard as ‘Ashvini Ghat’. Anyway this track can be used as a practice or demo for people who want to bike to ladakh.

Arty pics here :P.

Lord Ganesha is the son of Lord Shiva and Parvati devi. He goes by other names like Vinayaka and Vighneshwara.

If we look in the etymology of the name “Ganesha”, it is formed by Gana + Eesh, where Eesh is short for Eeshwar, which means Lord. So Ganesha means lord of Gana. Gana means body of attendants, here referring to the huge retinue of Lord Shiva. And remarkably the Ganas are also known as Bhutagana, because Shiva is the only god anybody can go to. So all the rejects of the society get attracted to the matted hair and smoking dope god. Quoted from wikipedia,

the gana or bhutagana are attendants of Shiva that reside in chthonic and liminal locations such as cemeteries and charnel grounds.

In fact it is not long when Lord Ganesha was seen as Vighneshwara. Which means lord of obstacles. And he was seen as the god who creates obstacles if not pleased. So if you don’t appease him before any endeavor he might as well create obstacles. Which in time changed to the feeling that he protects you from obstacles. Quoted from new world encyclopedia,

As the “Lord of Obstacles,” Ganesha is responsible for creating obstructions of both a material and spiritual order. It is he who places obstacles in the path of those who need to be checked. Thus, Ganesha is thought to be the gatekeeper of shrines, and he is said to corrupt all those who are unworthy of entering such holy places by further deluding their minds with desires. [96] Ganesha can also remove obstacles for his devotees just as easily. Ganesha’s diametrically opposed functions as both obstacle-creator and obstacle-destroyer are vital to his character, giving it significant depth as he is venerable for both negative and a positive reasons.

This change in emphasis from creator of obstacles to protector from obstacles is accompanied by change in iconography. This is a painting from the 15th century, notice the number of weapons, and the fierce expression :

What can the marketer learn from this? That a brand identity can be changed, and in fact to exactly something diametrically opposite. How many marketers in today’s economy can claim to have achieved such a feat?

I can go on to other lessons you can get from Lord Ganesh, like the fact that the Ganesh Chathurthi celebrations in India was engineered so that, quoted from wiki

Lokamanya Tilak visualized the cultural importance of this deity and popularised Ganesha Chaturthi as a National Festival “to bridge the gap between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins and find an appropriate context in which to build a new grassroots unity between them” in his nationalistic strivings against the British in Maharashtra.

Do you see any parallel between this and the many Days the greeting card companies have started promoting, from Mother’s day, Daughter’s day, Father’s day, and so on?

Should I delete all my accounts on social networks? For one I have never used them proactively, so it is not that I will loose something on that front. The only benefits I have had is that I could get in touch with long lost friends. But the world has become a small place now. I can find the contact of anyone I want to; I am not talking about personal phone numbers of bollywood actresses, but my circle of friends, including long lost ones. And most of them can find me. At least 99% of them know someone who can contact me.

What else would I lose?
The anxiety to check on facebook if someone has uploaded any pictures or what did someone take a quiz of. But is that bad? Isn’t that anxiety a minor sort of addiction?
or if someone has made any comments on other people’s statuses? Why do I need to know what other people think of my friends statuses? Maybe it helps me to know the social relationships of people around me. And how does that help me? Does it even? It sure gives food for thought. But is that food the most nutritious for the mind?

What about professional social networks? From what I know of myself I would never use one of those. I would always keep them on the outside chance that I would need them someday. If I am so sure I won’t use them, what is the use of keeping them.

Update on May 04 - I have deleted both my orkut and facebook account. It seems a design critique of different deleting and deactivating schemes is needed. Facebook doesn’t doesnt allow deleting the account, only deactivating. Which means you can relogin anytime. Also that other facebook members can still see your pages, photos etc. So I manually deleted everything.

It is an ad for scrabbles.

Rarely do we see such twisted stuff in ads for seemingly benign products.