Monday, April 28, 2008

Zoom into the outer space

Following up the news of India's space expedition, I am here to tell you that the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in the state of Andhra Pradesh saw the successful launch of PSLV C9 into space, followed by ten man-made satellites entering earth's orbit.

India in space again with a ten

Tomorrow morning at precisely 9:23 am IST, India will be creating history of sorts by launching ten satellites into the space carried by its PSLV C9. Eight of these satellites are non-Indian, lightweight nano satellites. The other two are the remote sensing 690 kilograms Cartosat-2A and the 83 kilograms Mini satellite.

With a payload of 824 kilograms, this launch will be the heaviest of its kind. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) expects the 2 billion Cartosat-2A satellite to aid geological infrastructure development. The satellite will be equipped with a highly-advanced camera.

Read more about the launch in the Economic Times, India: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Ten_pack_launch_for_Indias_polar_rocket_on_Monday/articleshow/2988226.cms

This blog will follow the news closely.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

The technosexual woman of today

Sometime ago, cars, bikes, gadgets were considered boys’ toys. If women made a style statement with clothing, jewelry, shoes, and purses, men made it by displaying their happening possessions. Lately, however, the fashion scene seems to be changing. With men becoming metrosexual, women are becoming extremely obsessed with possessing gadgets, thus showcasing yet another side of their individuality.

What do we call this new woman? Technosexual? That’s the only term I can coin now. Fashion has evolved with time, and with the current technological times, can women’s fashion be bereft of it?

Technology must have invaded fashion ages ago when they set up schools and institutes that impart years of education in ‘Fashion Technology’. For the lay man, the term may have sounded like a misnomer. Defining the technology of fashion is beyond the common man’s aptitude. However, in today’s world, with terms like fashiontronics doing the rounds of the fashion industry, technology and fashion are evidently great pals.

Earlier, mobile phones, laptops, and other gadgets were just a necessity. However, they soon started making fashion statements. Colors and shades have always mattered not just in clothes or lipsticks but in cars, home appliances, and personal gadgets. With fast changing trends, it was only obvious that personal gadgets became as important to the fashion-conscious souls as the color and texture of their attires, hats, shoes, belts, wallets, and purses.

The fashion-conscious, technosexual woman walking on the street is no longer just showing off her newly acquired Gucci footwear but also her latest Bluetooth and the savvy laptop popping out of her big Prada purse. And, no, it’s not just the high society ladies who are becoming technosexuals, your next-door girl too is.

She may be the taskmaster or the workaholic at work, but the technosexual will rather invest in a good-looking laptop than a ‘geeky’ one. The urban woman does not want to be known as the bimbo but the intelligent, tech-savvy, know-it-all woman.

A search for the term ‘fashiontronics’ fetches me 827 results in Google today. In a few months or a year, the number could rise to a hundred thousand. But then, we know the woman of today is not waiting for a term to define the trends in fashion. The technosexual woman already knows it all.

Friday, April 25, 2008

World’s 100 Sexiest Women: The list has either left me confused or caught me blind

What is wrong – my eyes, or the four different news reports I saw on the list of world’s sexiest women 2008 that has been released by FHM? Why do the reports differ from the list published on the FHM website?

FHM’s website (http://www.fhm.com/site/100sexiest/topten/one.aspx) lists the following as the top ten:
1 Megan Fox
2 Jessica Alba
3 Keeley Hazel
4 Elisha Cuthbert
5 Hayden Panettiere
6 Scarlett Johansson
7 Cheryl Cole
8 Hilary Duff
9 Angelina Jolie
10 Keira Knightley

Though all the four news reports I read this morning are right about the winner, Megan Fox, the rest of the lists seem to come from somewhere else. Or, is it my sleep-laden eyes? The most remarkable thing about these incorrect-in-my-eyes reports is that they are consistent! Yeah, if they were wrong, they could not be so consistent. I need your help here. I checked the 2008 list, not any other year’s. I also made sure I saw the date on the news reports. All say April, 2008! Then, what is wrong?

Here are the highlights of the differences as I see them.

CNN – Reported by Associated Press
1 Megan Fox ---------- Bingo!
2 Jessica Biel ------- I found her at 13
3 Jessica Alba ------- I found her at 2
4 Elisha Cuthbert ---- Bingo!
5 Scarlett Johansson - I found her at 6
6 Emmanuelle Chriqui - Did not find her in the list!
7 Hilary Duff -------- I found her at 8
8 Tricia Helfer ------ I found her at 73!
9 Blake Lively ------- Did not find her in the list!
10 Kate Beckinsale --- I found her at 12
100 Britney Spears --- I found her at 31. Holly Willoughby was at 100.

Other news websites have similar reports, with some declaring Victoria Beckham at 99. I found her at 98. Am I looking at the right report? Here are the other three news links for you to verify against the FHM list (http://www.fhm.com/site/100sexiest/topten/one.aspx):


Let me know if I need to see an ophthalmologist.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Controversy and cricket: The new drama off the field

Where cricket is concerned, controversy always comes along as the escort. The Indian Premier League has started with a boom on the field. But there are some controversies doing the rounds off the field, the latest being the promotional video of IPL.

IPL's Karmayudh video has been created by Ogilvy & Mather's Prasoon Pandey. However, it is said to be a copy of an ad telecast by Fox Sports five years ago. Prasoon Pandey, in conversation with the Economic Times, India, acknowledged the similarity but is of the notion that the two ads are different in soul and the similarity is only in terms of the picture treatment.

The Fox Sports ad has been posted on YouTube by someone called ripoffexpose who seems to have come on YouTube for the sole purpose of uploading this video and letting people know about the coincidence.

I looked for any statement by Fox Sports on this but did not find any. The controversy seems to have arisen from the post by ripoffexpose. One niharsaqib has posted a response from Prasoon Pandey. I don't know if it is him, but it does sound like him. Here's the response:

I am the one who directed the IPL Karamayudh Commercial and my name is Prasoon Pandey.

The use of the splash in the baseball commercial, I must confess is uncomfortably close to the one in the IPL Ad. When we cut the actual footage together and gave it to my animators to paint on top, they having painted on top also put a splash on a shot and showed it to me. I loved it and I am the one who asked them to go ahead with it.

But I hadn't even seen this baseball commercial till you put it on You tube, and have just confirmed with my animator E. Suresh of Famous Studios, neither had he.

At the same point of time, the splash can neither be anybody's property nor is it the idea of the IPL commercial. IPL'S idea is in the Veer Ras audio track. The splash is only a visual punctuation in the larger imagery.

This decent part of my reply is for all you guys who are genuinely worried about where Indian advertising is headed.

Now for the nameless coward who wrote the indecent limericks- Son, if you put your creativity to better use, one day you could make your mum proud by being able to put a name to your work.

Prasoon Pandey
Corcoise Films

I am waiting for the debate to spice up!

WHAAAAT? Another blog?

I know friends and acquaintances will react this way when they find out that I have added another blog to the blogosphere and to my own list. While browsing through Dreaming is irresistible and The Bihari Bawarchi, I realized there is no space there for a post on the latest gadget I noticed through a shop window in Akihabara(the world's biggest electronic city), the politics over sex education in India, the controversies that accompany cricket in the Indian subcontinent, the state of things in Saudi Arabia, or the rising plastic consumption in the world. My personal blogs are a reflection of my experiences, things that touch me personally. However, there are a dozen other things that I notice or think about but do not quite feel like blogging in my personal blog. This new blog will help me express anything and everything about the world, life, the universe in general, without being philosophical or personal about it. That should make this blog informative, or so I think!

Watch out for informative (well!) posts here.