The beauty about luck is that it is supposed to be random. If people did not believe they could win, they would not even try. But what drives belief? A one in ten chance to make a hundred rupees? Or a one in hundred chance to make a million? Luck is fascinating because the returns …
No, Google is not playing Cupid, but it wants to be there in the lead up to tying the knot. The search giant is getting romantically inclined, pushing its products – Google Docs, Piknik, Picasa and Google Sites as an all in one solution to the trials and tribulations before the big day. It’s free, while wedding planners are expensive. So, that could …
The success of an identity program depends on it’s acceptance among the people using it. The Indian Rupee has always been written as an abbreviation (Rs.) followed by the amount. It was a long journey to shortlisting and finalisation. Introduced in July 2010 after its approval by the cabinet, it was one of the fastest adoptions I have …
At the airport arrival area in Mumbai, a blue Innova was parked. In less than an hour, over 100 passengers stopped while they picked their luggage off the baggage belts and peered into the interiors of the MUV before they moved on. One row of seats had been removed and in its place was a comfortable 2 …
The refrain in the US is that nobody cooks anymore. Life is about TV dinners and fast food picked on the run. Jamie Oliver’s talk at TED details the descent into unhealthy eating habits, all from the race to provide inexpensive food. Everything is packaged, processed and preserved. Mark Bittman, believes real food is unthinkable now. So, how …
Humour is contextual. There are things you can say in male company and bring the house down. The same joke in a family setting can get you permanently off a guest list. Here’s one from a scholarly tome published in 1968 – Rationale of the Dirty Joke – Anybody can make a mistake”, as the hedgehog said when …
It was the first line I heard from an eminent surgeon when he spoke on bariatric surgery(weight loss) to combat morbid obesity. It opened our eyes to some serious problems in handling the social side of the problem. Obese patients hated to come through the front door, for example. They wanted private entrances where they would not …
New models of advertising are being experimented with. And agencies will be happy they have a role to play. When Harley Davidson ended ties with their agency of record – Carmichael Lynch, an agency that jumped into the fray was Victor & Spoils with a ‘creative team’ of over 3900 from across the world. They offered $5000 to their captive …
Before going in for the film, I wondered how Danny Boyle would handle a single focal incident and stretch it over a full-length feature. There’s no other character, it’s a dark canyon in the middle of nowhere. Based on Aron Ralston’s horrific experience, it can be narrated in one short sentence – man explores canyon, gets trapped by a boulder, …
Last year, just before the new iPhone was launched, an Apple engineer carelessly left the new prototype in a bar. It was picked up by Gizmodo, one of the premier technology blogs and splashed as a scoop. Whether the act of leaving the prototype was intentional or not, it created a buzz that a normal campaign …
