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Lynnisms
stray thoughts about stray subjects
Priorities... [ edit ]
August 09 2006 (07:56:00) ( 2 views )

... should never conflict with principles.
Or should they?

Comments

hi lynn don't knw if u've managed to see Rang de Basanti till now. priorities over principles. one of the best illustrations of recent times. the conflict in the movies is because of this one proposition. its coming on Star on the 20th incase u want to catch it on TV. At the risk of thumbing down my bread and butter, the ads will kill it on TV. In this case, I guess, I'll go with principles over priorities...haha
Posted by svety on 08/10/2006 01:58:45 AM

I have the DVD too Svety. Actually I didn't find the film that good, which must make me very strange - I preferred Fanaa! My dilemma was solved yesterday - and principles won out - but only because I fought like a tigress fro them....
Posted by lynnisms on 08/10/2006 04:06:42 AM
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August Six, Two Thousand and Six [ edit ]
August 07 2006 (05:41:00) ( 2 views )

A significant day.

1. The heavens blessed us with 254 mm of rainfall, paralysing a city that was thankfully closed for the Sunday.

2. Being the first Sunday in August, it was celebrated as Friendship Day. I received lots of text messages from business associates, and none at all from my friends. Those who need to, do, and those who don't need to, don't.

3. It was the 15th anniversary of the foundation of the World Wide Web by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, bless his innovative spirit. He and Bill Gates have truly changed the world. In honour of the occasion, I reread "The Road Ahead" while the rains made a lot of noise outside - a book gifted to me last year by business associate and friend, Kartik - who didn't text me, thank God.

4. It was the 61st anniversary of the horrific Hiroshima bombings. From destruction arises the maximum creativity and productivity.

5. And it was the fortieth birthday of a fascinating gentleman, who introduced me to people and concepts that changed my life forever. And showed me what it would be like to talk to rivers and listen to trees.

A day to commemorate nature in her element, friendship, communication, human arrogance, and unconditional love.

A significant day indeed.

Comments

hey lynn, i love reading your posts, cause they're well.. so honest! I have taken this post of yours (duely acknowledging it) and posted it on my blog http://theressomethingaboutsandra.blogsource.com/ hope that's ok keep blogging, burt
Posted by burt on 08/17/2006 12:07:37 PM
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Retirement [ edit ]
August 04 2006 (08:19:00) ( 0 views )

Someone I met at the Lodestar Universal launch yesterday said that she was told that I have announced my retirement, in a year from now.

Ah the rumour mill again ... it never stops spinning its adulterated atta.

Anyone with a modicum of common sense should know that people like me can never retire....from anything. I may have the occasional battle with my health, but so far I have always won.

So all you wimps out there waiting for me to retire.....it's going to be a long long wait.
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Growing up..... [ edit ]
August 03 2006 (09:00:00) ( 0 views )

...is so much more difficult than growing old.
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Brand New Week [ edit ]
July 31 2006 (08:35:00) ( 2 views )

Every single day of the last week sprung up a new and totally unexpected challenge. I am reasonably satisfied with the way they were all handled. But... I still haven't managed to see Pirates. After wallowing in all that promotional material at Inox Goa last weekend, playing with the bandanas and the treasure chest, this omission must not be allowed to continue for long. Unless ofcourse, more surprises await me this week - with the stars in Leo, can a simple Scorpio like me ever expect things to go smoothly?
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THE MYSTERY OF THE VANISHING AGENCY [ edit ]
July 27 2006 (10:41:00) ( 2 views )


(Published on exchange4media.com for two weeks starting July 28, 2006, immediately post the release of the AC Nielsen advertiser perception study of media agencies, fieldwork period anyone's guess)


My colleagues and I sat around the coffee table this morning, pondering recent events. We spoke admiringly of a little prince who chased a rat into a long deep hole, and then emerged from it almost unscathed two days later. We reminisced about what we were all doing on 26/7 last year, and wondered if we would be flooded out again next month. And then the conversation led to a mysterious development closer home.

An agency operating out of Signature Towers in Gurgaon with 60 hardworking employees and over twenty clients, including “the car maker to the nation”, had been secretly spirited away – wiped clean, kaput. Dropped out of the charts without a trace. What could have suddenly happened to them? Did they all run down a long deep hole chasing an army full of rats and will hopefully emerge sometime soon? Or did the bean counters lose their beans – did they simply forget to contact any of Vanishing Agency’s clients while counting?

“Wait a minute”, someone said. “Just two months ago, this agency was rated Number Four by the country’s number one business newspaper, and just two weeks ago, the world’s largest media agency measurement service proclaimed them Number Three in the rankings. Dear me, we must go find them, they can’t just disappear like this!”

“Ah, here they are,” responded another, “Found them way down there at Number 10 in Mumbai. But isn’t that the PM’s official residence in London?”

“Yes it is. Must be some kind of mix up. I got a call from a tv channel just now asking what is the going rate for a perception score? They wanted to know if it had anything to do with the going rate for tv ratings”.

“This is nonsense talk,” I interjected, before the conversation took an unprofessional turn.

And then I asked the group if any of the vanishing agency’s younger siblings in Mumbai and Bangalore were found in the bean counter’s bag. One had heard that together, the entire family were doing rather well, with measured 40% growth figures for the year. Alas, they had all gone missing too. A dark mystery indeed.

One that begs solving of course. But till we go find Sherlock Holmes, I do want to say clearly to one and all, that the Lintas Media Group (yes, that is our name, and we wish the august AC Nielsen would not try to rebaptise us to suit their subscribers and colour up the beans) continues to be immensely proud of and deeply grateful to its people, its clients, and its values. Ultimately, that’s all that matters.




Comments

Need not worry at all as the opinion of few small clients - namely the car maker of the nation were not even taken note of (nobody even called up). And I would presume that the clients would have the maturity to understand the "designs" of such studies. So, need not fret. The more of that (fretting) happens, it only completes the "design" a bit further. Am sure you have seen much more of it in the race of the rats. Better still - if you completely ignore, then the rats just might feel very neglected and again be upto the next prank to draw attention...
Posted by Shaswati on 07/27/2006 11:24:43 AM
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Still here [ edit ]
July 19 2006 (07:05:00) ( 2 views )

Couldn't open any of the blogspot places I usually visit today till I learned from a post on blogsource that the Govt of India has blocked out blogger! Well, we are still here, a much smaller newer community, with hopefully no terrorists around - however, there are one or two blogs that sceam and shout anti- whatever stuff, and there is the odd lewdity, which blogger would have screened, but other than that, this is a nice place to be - the templates are much better anyway.

Comments

Lynn, thank you for your comments on my blog. I was very depressed, attacks on my character hurt worse than the ones on my body. I have since responded to this person letting him know I thought his comments were harsh and out of line, but we'll see what comes of it. I don't think I want to remain friends with someone who feels that way about me. Anyway, I've been extremely fortunate in my 16+ year Vet career, only been bitten once -knock on wood-, last year, relatively badly. I like to think I can read most animals well and that I stay cautious enough to not get hurt. Apparently I need to learn the same skills regarding people. I was always closer to animals growing up, and we moved a lot so I never really got close to people the same way. Plus I was picked on a lot as a kid for various reasons, so I learned to be very grateful when anyone wanted to be nice to me. Kinda like a dog who'd been beaten but still yearns for human contact. As for your comment on how I would handle a dog that bit out of anger/fear, I'm just not sure how well putting a muzzle on this person would go over! For the record, I don't like muzzles and only use them when necessary (with lots of praise), but have learned over the years that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. What an interesting life you have, I was reading your blogs... wow. I was especially touched by the one titled "Iris". I just worked with the Vet all this week, filling in for someone on vacation, and though I had been dreading it, it was actually a great week. She's a housecall Vet, so no hospitalized cases, which is really nice to not have to see and deal with. I'm glad people like you exist to fill that need. Used to be me, but my carefully constructed emotional wall tumbled years ago. Thanks for your comments...
Posted by sommersend on 07/21/2006 01:42:28 PM

why haven't u been blogging ?
Posted by svety on 07/27/2006 03:13:41 AM
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Not home [ edit ]
July 17 2006 (07:13:00) ( 2 views )

Thank God for radio. At least all the FM channels play music all day long, not very good music, but music is music. The tv channels and the newspapers can't seem to get away from the blasts - clues, lack of clues, good samaritan stories, survivor stories, hospital stories, real spirit of Mumbaikars, pretend spirit of Mumbaikars, it goes on and on and on. For thirty two years, I have called Mumbai home. Now I am absolutely sure that I am going to leave this city - I just don't have the famed spirit to stay on much longer. With a laptop, a cell phone, an internet card, and a clutch of supersaver tickets, surely I can run my empires from anywhere I choose?
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HEADBANGER'S BALL [ edit ]
July 11 2006 (07:42:00) ( 2 views )

(published on Indiantelevision.com from July 12, 2006 onwards for a week)


Usually my Sunday afternoon siestas are broken by Barking Boxer. He lives in the building behind ours and his weekly treat is playing cricket with his human friends on the street. He cheers loudly and unreservedly. Last Sunday, he went ballistic. The size of the ball in the narrowness of the playing area confused him and drove him ecstatic at the same time – that’s right, the kids next door had switched to footer.

As had the whole country. Not just Kerala and Goa and West Bengal. Finally, cricket fever is abating. Forgive this terrible indiscretion, but I never could understand what millions saw in twenty two men in long pants chasing a tiny ball around a wide open field, every thirty excruciating seconds, and could keep at it for hours, even days, together.

By now, the evidence that football fever has overtaken cricket is all over the place – the viewership figures speak for themselves. In a couple of weeks, Intellect will tell us how much out of home television viewing occurred as well, and I would not be surprised if that added a good 50% to the overall.

Last Sunday gave us the unusual and perhaps unlikely occurrence of two awesome live telecast finals almost back to back. Not middle of the road pop music cricket, but the intense mastery of stroke making jazz music tennis at primetime, and the ultimate headbanger’s ball later that night. From the classy Federer sporting a pristine white jacket bearing his family insignia, to the crassness of a skirmish that a hero will regret all his life, the evening kept audiences glued to their sets.

In sheer numbers, the total home viewing audience on July 9th in the top six cities went up by 33% - to touch 5.2 million - over the average Sunday (the average Sunday itself including a live telecast ODI cricket match between home team India and the West Indies at prime time on May 28). One and a half million more viewers were added, with the audience post 11 pm alone shooting up from 2.1 million to 4.1 million viewers. Average viewing minutes post 11 pm nearly doubled from 56 to 92 minutes.

The maximum increase percentage wise was observed among male children aged 4 to 14 years – at 43%. Boxer’s friends sure had a well filled day that day. While the maximum increase in volumes was observed among the 35 plus. 3.75 lakh more men tuned in to watch television on Awesome Twosome Sunday, up from 9 lakh men over 35 in these six cities on an average Sunday in summer. Plus a whole lot more in pubs, clubs and friend’s places.

And hold your breath – 3.34 lakh more women over 35 too! (One of them being me.)

All in all it was a sports lover’s treat, of course, but not just limited to the sports lover. And that’s what makes this story all that more interesting. It holds out promise for all the other deserving but so far unsupported sport in this country. Add plenty of eye candy to the promotion of the sport, speed things up a bit, pour in millions of dollars, globalize the players keeping up with the worldly new definition of ‘home’, and who knows – twenty years down the line, Barking Boxer – or his progeny – could well be keeping time to hu-tu-tu.

(with grateful thanks to aMap for the data and Deepa Menon of Intellect – LMG for the analysis).

This is for indiantelevision.com from July 12 onwards for a week.
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Iris [ edit ]
July 09 2006 (08:51:00) ( 2 views )

Eight years ago, I went down under - literally - in an attempt (a successful one I now realise) to fight off extreme disillusionment the only way I knew how - through the service and study of suffering animals.

At the Chelmsford Veterinary Hospital in Brisbane, music therapy was used well. Concealed speakers played fm radio in the wards and the consulting areas all day long. At that time the Goo Goo Dolls' Iris from the movie 'City of Angels' was top of the charts.

Meticulously wrapping up surgical drapes and instruments for autoclaving, crop feeding a cat-attacked magpie, cleaning up after a dog with an upset stomach, while listening to

"And I don't want the world to see me, 'cause I don't think that they'd understand"

made me fantasise that the song spoke directly to me. Back home the business papers were reporting that I was in France working for Mindshare. The anonymity in Brisbane gave me the opportunity to work out my value system for myself.

I learned that there is more dignity in wiping clean an epileptic cat's mouth than in walking up to collect an undeserved award before hundreds. That consoling an elderly owner after her companion of twenty years had to be put down needed far greater emotional strength and empathy than handling an irate client. That the inner peace that comes from savings lives and and easing pain can never be compared with the temporary high of a pitch well won.

"When everything's made to be broken, I just want you to know who I am".

Iris Murdoch, an award winning authoress, spent her last years battling the indignity of Alzheimer's disease. Unrelated to the song, and yet more apposite.

I saw Ronan Keating's cover of 'Iris' this morning on VH1. A pretty boy video shot in a prettied up Dubai sung in a pretty boy voice. What a rotten shame! The only redeeming feature of the entire sorry mess is the bay Arab stallion, with his characteristic flared nostrils, roman nose, wideset eyes and handsome gait.

The Goo Goo Dolls, Iris (wherever she is) and I are not happy. Ronan, you don't want the world to see this video, 'cause I don't think that they'd understand. When everything's made to be broken, you've just broken a great song.
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