ASL please

I am not really sure when or how we humans landed in a world where we all are so damn curious to know what goes on each others' lives. A stranger whom we come across in the elevator, in the neighborhood or  in the office, as soon as we get acquainted, we instantly jump into questions about their age, marital statuses or their reasons for something they do in their personal life. I wonder why we humans have this constant urge to know the 'ASL's of people around us. People of my generation who have entered chat rooms and chatted with strangers in a quest to find that perfect love, probably would know 'ASL' - the three things the whole human race is curious to know of each other - age, sex (this is in the virtual world; maybe in real world, this could be counted as sexual preferance or relationship status) and yes L for location - which part of the world/country/city they are from; so that we can relax about knowing everything about them. The irony is not that we ask about the ASLs to everyone around; but the irony is that we ask only these and judge the rest ourselves...

The Idiot-Box

Just another day at the week long training that I am going through, and I find it's still the mid of the week. Three more days to go, W-T-F ! Well, there was some discussion in my training session today around the kind of promises companies make to their clients and then end up getting sued, for not keeping them. It was a kind of learning in the session to not document such requirements that cannot be pragmatically met, and then I came to wonder what about the stuff that the Television shows all the time. The ad-making agencies that make false promises to us and we, the poor customers, believe all of that. Few months back I had come across some news about a guy filing a case against a well-known deodrant brand. According to him, he was using the product and expected girls around him to go ‘baahm-chikka-boom-boom’ over him. The poor guy had taken all the crap shown in the Ads too seriously! Whatever happened to the case, but the whole story made me wonder who is being foolish here? Are the Ad agencies silly and stupid in creating such Ads, what with all the talented Ad gurus working for them? Or are we, the customers, too gullible to be blinded? Looking at the huge number of Ads being created on this weird concept of guys attracting girls with their deodrants or their bikes or their fairness creams (!!), it seems like I am the fool here trying to make sense out of those senseless Ads. I agree that there still are, no doubt, few Ads that are creative and funny, and yet manage to convey the message. But, unfortunately, the number is still low as compared to the bulging list of Ads making no sense to the viewer. The winner definitely seems to be the deodrant! Oh yes, there is one more, which can claim to be the runner-up. There is this story of a teenage girl topping in her board exams because she uses a particular brand of a sanitary napkin! @#$%&@##$@#&% Give me a break !! The list is endless, if you think about it. Certain fairness face talcs that would give you instant fairness, you just need to pat your face with the powder. If only they would write some disclaimer, warning you not to go out on a rainy day with that patted white face! In fact, do you know that there is a lotion in the market that if you put on, it would not only hide all the marks and spots on your face, but, you cannot even put a spot with a marker, if you tried. What is it, some plastic sheet or something? Smudge-proof, water-proof and definitely ink-proof! I would never understand these Ads and the logic behind what is shown, but I definitely understand the reason why they call it an ‘idiot-box’!