The Business Of Ideas

One of the best thing about advertising is that it is a business of ideas,

That is also the worst thing about it.

You have to be constant in your work.

You are not allowed to get a writer's block in advertising.

If you do get one then it's a big blot in your career in advertising.

Another thing that I like about advertising is that, in advertising rules don't apply.

If there are rules you are meant to break them, find new ones and break them again.

You don't work in advertising to be rich, you work to be famous.

But then success is not always a guaranteed factor in this industry.

People here don't remember you for all the campaigns you made that rocked,

They remember that one campaign you made which still gives you nightmares.

This is the part of the big life you get in advertising.

You either are a one hit wonder or you become the greatest ad man others look up to.

In this business no classroom or person can teach you how to do stuff, its you and you alone who has to work it all out.

Here many Morpheus's can willingly show you the door but the door you go in and what you do is all up to you.

You get promotions too, from a creative to a creative director, from client servicing to an executive and so on.

There are times when you get fired or quit for a better job.

Rarely do you work in the same agency your whole life, if you do you really must be lucky and hardly know anything about advertising.

The work timings in advertising go beyond the normal work timings.

Advertising is not a 9 to 5 job, its a 24/7 process and if you aren't willing to give up your social life for it then you must choose a different industry.

There even comes that part in your career when you work without having been paid for months, luckily that's not a permanent situation.

You have to work for clients that are dumber than your 5 year old nephew's or nieces and cannot understand creativity but sadly pay your agency nice money.

Then are those clients who do understand you and like your work but don't possess enough cash to make your work come to life.

In fact you have to work with art directors or copywriters who aren't able to understand your creativity and reject your work.

But it's a part and parcel of the advertising life.

People come to advertising after having studied glorious courses on it and memorized everything to do with advertising only to have that illusion shattered on their first day of work at the agency.

You get to work with bosses who are enthusiastic about your work and good motivators while at times can't remember who you are or if you work for them until you remind them.

Most of the creative work you do comes when your outside your office rather than inside.

You play, travel, party and mahn! in advertising do they party hard.

This is your life in advertising, if you aren't having fun then you aren't supposed to work here.

If your agency wins a pitch of a client and you were a part of it, the people worship you as their heroes, make a bad work and soon you're the villain and possibly jobless.

Here you smoke, drink do whatever as long as its creative and works for the agency.

Advertising is not for those who look for money or a steady job, its for those who love what they do and take pride in their work.

Those who can come up with the next big idea and accept whatever consequences they end up with in advertising, 
I have only one thing to say to you,

Welcome to Advertising!

Love Thy Neighbor

Neighbors are those people you see in any TV serials as those  who come to your house when you have just moved in, to greet you or simply at times to butt in your personal life and create havoc.
In reality neighbors aren't like that,
If you do have memories of your neighbors like the ones I described then I feel bad for you,
Well in truth I don't, but the feels..it's something,
 Luckily the neighbors that I have aren't bad or intrusive but nice and seldom do I get to see them
It's not that I don't socialize with them, I do but not too much,
I do have friends beyond the ones in the society where I live but then I don't get to meet them every time I go out.
I have unfortunately watched some Bollywood movies where the neighbors weren't that friendly at all but the only goal in their life was to make yours miserable.
I didn't get what they achieved through it but i'm sure the feeling wasn't quite that orgasmic as they expressed in the movies,
In real life neighbors are a funny breed and unlike your family members they don't ask too much personal questions that'd make you blush and avoid it,
In India the meaning of neighbor is quite different really,
Here they are supposed to be the unofficial members of our family and are even proud to claim so
Unless you're loaded then your best friend is none other than your neighbor,
In some places your neighbors are actually your relatives, who couldn't bear to stay away from your family and to show that they support you live as your neighbors,
Some people buy a home far away just to escape those members of their family but it doesn't work as those relatives are quite rich and can move to any place in the world they want but prefer to settle next to your home.
Another thing is that you can't pick your neighbors, unlike an arranged marriage where you do have an option of choosing your other half.
But having a neighbor whether noisy or not is much better an option than living in an isolated place with no neighbors or any life forms,
People claim that they don't need neighbors and live on their own but really miss the company of anyone, mostly to complain about something.
The best thing is that in reality no neighbor will come up to you and tell you how to live your life better, as if we live a miserable life.
If someone does come up to you telling you how life works and how yours should be better I think a certain type of violence would be a good example of the consequences of telling people how to live their lives.
Then there are times when you can't live without your neighbor and vice versa.
Those are the times when your neighbor is your best friend and or a really hot chick you always dreamt of dating.
They are really lucky, those people, they'd never leave their homes unless that chick is out,
And there are some movies based on these type of neighbors and whatever happens in it is never going to happen in real life, 
If it does happen, then wow they have achieved their purpose in life, which until recently was to get a nice paying job and a duplex home.
Well, in the end your neighbor is either your best friend or enemy or a relative or a hot girl, they are your neighbor and will remain until either of you get a new house (in the case of that hot chick, you won't move until you find out she is already dating someone) and find another neighbor.   

Let There Be Rock!

I've been a fan of rock music for quite a long time,
In fact more than the time I've been playing the guitar.
This is one genre of music that really clicks with me
Majorly i'm a fan of grunge and punk rock but sometimes i do listen to hard rock or soft core.
Summing it up, I'm a fan of rock and boy do I roll!
So does it influence my guitar style?
Well, I do like to play some of the songs but most of them I prefer to listen
 A lot of people ask me if I play Bryan Adams or some local music they prefer,
My reply to them is no, I play what I like.
As a musician I prefer to play the music that I like, rather than what others like.
It's not that i'm looking for a fan base by playing covers of artists that others like,
It's just that there are bands that aren't as well known in India as they are in other countries and I look for those types of bands which haven't got the recognition they deserve.
So obviously when people ask me which song I've been playing and I name a band that they haven't heard of, their reply is pretty obvious.
Then there are some oldies who think they know classical rock but the only song that their dull minds could remember over the years is 'Smoke on the water',
Some of them don't even know the name of that band and some have only heard the opening riff of that song and claim that, 'they have heard it'.
Yeah right!
But really there are some good rock bands that haven't achieved that status, mostly because they didn't wanted to and some because they couldn't afford to.
Sadly most of these bands died (disbanded), before the internet made music more openly available to people.
There are times when people ask me why I don't play any local music.
I just say that I don't like it,
That's an answer they don't want to hear but why bother,
Anyways, the title of this blog post is the name of a rock song by a popular rock band called 'AC / DC', many haven't heard their songs but just know that name.
It's a good song to listen and really amazing to play too.
Today, rock music is dying a slow death, bands aren't getting the recognition they want,
people losing interest in that kind of music, Dub-step and Pop music is getting more popular day after day thanks to YouTube.
Ever since Nirvana, people are waiting for the next band to come and rule the world of music, there is a chance that the band might have arrived but due to not getting the recognition they wanted, have called it quits.
In earlier days MTV and VH1 were popular in promoting new talent but now all they do is to promote idiots using the concept of reality shows.
Even radio does try it's best to showcase new talents but it's not doing enough to take it to the next level.
Live shows are dying as people don't want to stand out in a hot sunny day and listen to music.
While there are some who try hard to save this but if the music industry isn't taking the initiative then who else will.
All those money hungry morons look for is an idiot who will 'illegally' download their music so that they could sue them for everything.
I do hope a day will come when rock music will rock the world again, till then a few lines from this song

"In the beginning, back in nineteen fifty-five
Man didn't know about a rock 'n' roll show, and all that jive
The white man had the schmaltz, the black man had the blues
No one knew what they was gonna do but Tchaikovsky had the news
He said-
'Let there be sound,' and there was sound
'Let there be lights' and there was light
'Let there be drums' and there was drums
'Let there be guitar' and there was guitar
'Let there be rock' "
  

Mumbai Rains, A Guide To Survive (If You Don't,It's Not My Problem)

Here are some what not's, to do's for surviving this never ending pain in the ass called rains, applicable if you're a Mumbaikar.

Also note that whatever I write here may not be much help to you but what the hell! read it anyways

#1. It rains only when you have to go somewhere or come back home.

My advice, don't go anywhere, I mean you just had a shower why bother taking another. The rains spy on more people than the NSA, they may not know what you do at home but know when you leave or return.

#2. Umbrellas isn't enough to protect you.

You thought umbrellas are enough, well the rains don't think so, whenever you think you can get away with the rains using an umbrella, a little breeze is all it needs to catch you off guard and loosen your grip on the umbrella as the rains now attack your head.

#3. The rains decide the timing of the locals and not the officials.

The rail officials don't have any power during the monsoon, it's that time when the rain officials take charge and decide when a train departs and arrives, if you're a central railway traveler then may the gods help you.

#4. Don't trust potholes
Those little holes you see in the road filled with water is called a pothole, Mumbai has more number of potholes than the number of craters in the moon. If you feel like stepping on those which according to you look shallow, DON'T, it's a trap, they are all bigger from the inside kinda like the T.A.R.D.I.S.

#5. "It's sunny outside...I don't need to carry my umbrella today"
That is the most stupidest statement I've ever heard, you live in Mumbai, you don't trust your maid then how can you trust the weather or the MET department, if it's not raining in the morning it will rain in the evening, it's not raining in your area it will be raining in other places.

Well that's all I have for now, If I do come up with something more wacky it'll find it's way here in the list.
Till then......Curse the goddamn rains......Go on curse them.......