JabrWoky - Following the white rabbit since...

Incredible India - A Big Psychedelic Mess of Color

The cacophony of India. That feeling of intense chaos that hits your every sense when you land in India. As an Indian (having grown up in India, but living abroad now) this is an old feeling that is elevated to new levels the moment you land back home. The colors explode at you in new ways that you had not seen or experienced before. There is a sense of newness each time. When I was living in the US, I used to tell my friends there that this is what I missed about my homeland.

Recently, reading Kiran Desai's book 'The Inheritance of Loss', this paragraph summed up that feeling in ways which I possibly could not have expressed with my limited writing skills.

It also captures that feeling of 'coming home'. When the vision is unblurred and we all can see clearly.

Mood of the Times

Lynette Web succinctly captures the mood of the times - from the fast changing world of media and communications brought about by digitization and globalization to the effects it brings about on brands, markets and people. As Darwin said "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most responsive to change."

And talking about changes, I've completed a year in McCann and it's time to embrace some change. There has been some management changes, two major business wins and not to mention the small moves to new desks and stuff within. Looking back, it's been a fantastic year sinking in the McCann way of doing things and slowly but surely getting my own point-of-view out and gaining some respect.

One year is over and out. We have gained a good footing in the scheme of things. So moving on into the second year it is time to infuse, as Brian Eno says, some africa into the scheme of things here.

Walking into office yesterday, on my first anniversary here, wearing the rasta T-shirt seems like a good enough start to the year ahead. Ignore what he's smoking of course. We're not in Amsterdam. We're in good old Singapore.

Happy Birthday!

The big day passed without much furor yesterday. Last year the birthday mood was somewhat like this. This year seems to have progressed to this below.

Not bad I guess. Wonder what's in store for next year. More M&M happiness I hope.

sex sells; bondage truly wins!!

Sometime back, I had blogged about the most viewed pictures on my Flickr photostream. At that time this picture called 'Softcore Chinese Porn' tagged with 'soft porn' clearly took the top rankings. Pretty much confirmed my belief that sex sells.

Sometime last month that picture lost the top spot to this one on the left. I had taken this one at a display showcase at the Central Library atrium for some designers as part of the Singapore Design Tour 2006. I called it 'Bondage' and tagged it 'bondage' and 'lingerie' deliberately to see how many hits or views it gets. And voila, within 3 months, it has taken the top spot in terms of views.

So the lesson learned is sex sells, but bondage outsells!!

to buy or not to buy

[Photo via Peter Orum]

We live in the urban iPodized jungle. More and more people are wading through the streets and alleys of this jungle with ears plugged in to their favorite music, sermon or whatever it is they are listening to. This helps them to unplug themselves from the realities of their everyday surroundings. For the young it’s a kind of cool to be seen with the iPods and also a form of mobile isolation from the trivialities of their everyday world.

I have never really felt the need to shut myself to the world this way. For that matter I have never purchased an iPod or any mp3 music device. I listen to music at office and at home on the comp or on the stereo or while I lived in US mostly on the car stereo. Otherwise I like the sounds (natural or mechanical or conversations) that my ears absorb from the surroundings through which I commute on a day to day basis.

Of late I’ve noticed on my Singapore public commutes in buses and trains that a lot of people tend to play their music quite loud (especially young teens). One girl I was standing next to in a bus had the ear phones on, still I could hear the death metal she was listening to like I could at a live concert. And sometimes it has become sort of like one guy plays his music loud on his mp3 cell phone in one corner and others seem to follow to outdo him in another corner, all in the confines of the same bus. You can imagine the resulting music fest.

So now, instead of the natural or mechanical sounds, my ears are forced to listen to the latest Justin Timberlake super crap or Kylie Minogue’s pop wailings. Which makes me ponder about the loss of sound space around us in public commuter spaces. We all crave for our personal physical space. Now the question is what about personal sound space for the ear?

The bigger question that has popped up is should I go and get an mp3 device so that I can shut myself out from the nonsensical music nuisance and plug my ears and find some solace in at least something I like to listen to. How circumstances sometimes sort of drives you to get an iPod and maybe look cool!!

'Aut tace aut loquere meliora silentio'

This Salvatore Rosa self portrait has the inscription on it which says - 'Aut tace aut loquere meliora silentio' or 'Shut up, or say something useful' in English.

This bloke Stephen Bayley has loads of interesting stuff to say in this article here (which also pointed me to Rosa's self portrait) about selling yourself. If you are not interested in reading his interesting stuff, you can go down and read 5 things (interesting or uninteresting all depending on which perspective you look at it) you probably didn't know about me. (Don't complain that I didn't tip you in advance that the Bayley article is a better read)

Well at least my friend Rob wants to know. Coz he's tagged me on his blog here. And Rob you have to stop calling me Mohamed and stick to Salim.

And now I don't have a choice, I have to reveal. So here you go, in no particular order:
1. When I was in fifth grade I stole money from my dad to buy Tintin comics. It was shameful and embarassing. But hey, Tintin's been my hero for life.

2. Looking back and thinking about what I could have ideally become, I would have chosen to become an architect. My father is an inspiring structural engineer/designer and I grew up in a household filled with a drawing board and structural plans of all kinds. When I was a kid, seeing a picture of Renzo Piano - Richard Water's Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris, I thought it was the most gorgeous structure in the world ever. Now don't even ask me what I think about it. But Renzo Piano, Frank Lloyd Wright, I M Pei, Antonio Gaudi mesmerized me with their profound pieces for human habitation while Rem Koolhas, Zaha Hadid & Frank Gehry have made architecture so cool. And to think I had that choice long time back and look where I ended up. What a shame!!

3. I don't really exercise much and in my last life I must have been a hardcore carnivore given my daily penchant for non-vegetarian food in this life. Thus my biggest fear is the apocalyptic scenario of having to follow a low fat veggie diet if at all I end up with a clogged artery. No wonder I smile when I see Russell's Eggbaconchipsandbeans site and sigh when I read about his running endeavors.

4. While growing up three things I hated on the telly where - watching cricket (because I saw no point in wasting a whole day watching two fellas trying to hit a ball and run), Scooby Doo (the worst cartoon ever!!) and the Muppet Shows (which I couldn't really figure out and still can't! Who was Elmo by the way??)

5. I have never played a Playstation, XBox , Nintendo or Wii game till now. I mean never. I have watched and observed kids and people play and am interested in the graphics and semiotics of the games. Other than that I never really felt the need to strain my eyes or develop my motor sensory skills or get a kick by playing one.

Now the tagging rule is I have to tag 5 more people to dig their worst kept secrets. Most of my close friends and buddies really don't blog. And the only people I can think of are people who I don't really know or haven't really met, but whose work and blogs I find really inspiring and interesting. So here is my wish list - Ajit Balakrishnan, Jan Chipchase, Niti Bhan, John Maeda and Dina Mehta. (I don't know if they have already been tagged by someone else and replied)

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Or Happy New Year the Chinese way. A brand new year ushered in today in the Chinese lunar calendar. Welcome to the 'Year of the Pig'. May prosperity and happiness rain on you. And may pigs start flying!!

the week that was (at work!!)

Just a recap of the week in terms of the random selection of coffee mugs that got picked from the pantry room at the office first thing in the morning for the much-needed morning cup of tea (teh tarik in my case!). Don't know if in some surreal way the theme on the coffee cup decided the fate of the day.

Monday Feb 12th - 2007: Crabby

It was a crabby day. Why? Monday. Back to the grind! (Coincidentally I'm Cancer the Crab!!)

Tuesday Feb 13th - 2007: Cuddly

It was decidedly cuddly. On the eve of Valentine's day, you are furrying about at the last minute deciding on what to get for your wife.

Wednesday Feb 14th - 2007: Fruity

As you can see it's the chocolate day. Rather than fruity, it's chocolates and cookies and the good sweet stuff that makes any cup of tea worth it.

Thursday Feb 15th - 2007: Symphony

The symphony is at play. Client meetings and deadlines looming large with the big idea not yet happening in the brain. Some soothing music is all that is helpful for the mind, body and soul at these nerve-wrecking moments.

Friday Feb 16th - 2007: Snoopy

With the 4-day Chinese New Year long weekend around the corner, only Snoopy can completely capture the laziness and laid-back slacker relaxation I am looking forward to on the long weekend.

10,000+ views

I've been posting on to Flickr since the day after Christmas 2005. So this Christmas I crossed my first anniversary on Flickr and around the same time my Flickr photo views crossed the 10,000 mark. Meaning my photos were viewed about 10,000 times excluding me. As of today it's about 11,250 views. Not bad I guess. I got a fair bit of comments and quite a good number of my photos got favorited by other Flickr enthusiasts. I haven't made it to Flickr's interesting bunch yet. Maybe my pictures are just not good enough. Hopefully soon.

But the interesting bit that popped up when I looked at the page of my most viewed photos is that 'sex' still tops. Or even elements that suggest or can be associated with sex or which has a sexual undertone. Here's my top 5 pictures:

This one titled 'Softcore Chinese Porn' was the ultimate topper with a record 255 views. I'm guessing the fact that I put 'soft porn' as a tag must have delivered it to people who must have searched for the same.

This one is the close-up shot of a sticker meme by the graphic artist Tish which I shot in some random street in Philadelphia. I guess it's the term 'Foxy' that must have delivered so many hits on it and made it the second most views photo with 247 views.

#3 surprised me. Lot of people were searching for Matrioshka doll images apparently. This one got viewed 130 times.

This cool girl skateboards sticker came in fourth with 103 views. I didn't tag it with any provocative or suggestive words, but still it got quite a few hits. Don't know naming it 'Cool Girl' had anything to do with it.

This picture of the local Best Western Hotel in Intercourse, Pennsylvania takes the fifth spot with 92 views. There could be high chance that tagging it with 'intercourse' made it a hit.

Anyways it was just interesting to find out which of your 3000+ odd pictures got the top views. Will have to wait and see if the top ones are going to be dethroned this year. Would be great if Flickr put together a list of the Top 100 photos based on parameters like most views, most commented, most favorited etc. I'm curious to know who are the winners in the Flickr world.

happy new year!

It's the start of a new year and I am proud to say that I managed to stay off a computer for the last one week. It was shopping and sleeping and eating pretty much the whole of the last week of last year. Relaxation reigned supreme (was also helped by the fact that we had not yet got an internet connection in our new apartment :-)

So I am back at work and it's one of those days when not everyone is yet in the office and those who are here are sort of in a post Christmas-New Year daze trying to get a hang of things.

Looking forward to the year ahead, I am full of expectations and eager to get a high out of the time spent at work. Don't know what exciting adventures lie in store in the year ahead, but at least it's a good feeling to have your hopes high for a memorable one.

In the meantime I have managed to spring up one more blog called Daily Snapshot which is about archiving one snapshot a day from the first day of this year onwards.