Ghumakkar's Diary

Since a long time, TV commercials or advertisings or simply ads have been more watchable to me than the ghostly serials around them. Brought up through the changing dimensions of televiewing and off course advertising, I feel to have developed a taste for them. Though it may be very personal taste; in most of the cases, I found the people agreeing to my likes and dislikes on the advertising matter. Watching, observing, thinking and criticizing ( the very Indian way ) I always felt to write about contemporary advertisements on Indian tube. So, here I’m writing my first post, Talking Ad(d)s ! Justifying the title, Ads is for advertising that are made to Talk with the audience to Ad d more to their conscience about a particular product. So, it’s Ta lking Ad(d)s ! I will try to recall/talk about few ads/ad-series I liked or hated, with a few reasons and expectations that those Mighty souls who have landed to these posts somehow will share their feelings in form of comments at bottom ...

Every ride has its own story, own roads, own riders and unforgettable memories ~ Ghumakkar Most of the rides I had with Rudra, has been planned and executed within a day or two. Way back in August, it happened in similar way; we did the reconnaissance, finalized the ride to Bheemashankar, asked a few mates, and got on to the road. We were 4 guys on 3 bikes, me on my TBTS – Achtung, Rudra on his Pulsar 220, Palzor on his RE Bullet Standard with CMS as pillion. Rudra on Pulsar220, Palzor on Std 350, Me on TBTS-Achtung Bhimasahankar is some 200 kilometers from Mumbai and about 120 km from Pune. The Temple is located in the Bhorgiri village, near Khed, Pune. It is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas . Interestingly, three out of twelve Jyotirlingas are located in Maharashtra at Bheemashankar, Trimbakeshwar and Grishneshwar . Bhima River originates at Bhimashankar and flows south east to merges with the Krishna near Raichur. This region falls under the Bhimashankar Wildlife S...

" Great soul: Mahatma Gandhi and his struggle with India ” by Joseph Lelyveld, is the recent entrant to the List of banned Indian Books . What’s interestingly peculiar about this Pulitzer prize-winning author’s book is that probably none, who justified the ban, have read the book; and this imposition is all based on some British tabloid review. I haven’t read the book, but a few reviews of learned Indians who read it, plainly talks about a homoerotic relationship between Gandhi and Kallenbach as seen by the author through Mahatma’s letters. To some, the term may appear as a gamble of words, my question is what’s wrong even if Gandhi ji was a bisexual. Now, when we are changing into a nation that allows homosexuality, wouldn’t it be dramatically non-sense to question Gandhi ji’s inclination ? In fact, don’t we adore our same-sex friends for their beauty, figure or physique? Does all that mean we are sexually inclined towards them? Bullshit! Regarding the racist comment,...

A few days back only, I noticed a rock pigeon incubating on floor in my balcony. It had laid two white eggs. A friend has advised not to disturb them, as if scared it may abandon the eggs; so we took special care while watching the India’s semi-final match. On the day of Cricket World Cup Final, we saw two very cute and subtle squabs . A treat of basmati rice was kept for the Mother pigeon. Here are a few shots: Mother rock-pigeon incubating a squab (Note the cere on the beak, and white squab beneath her)   Interestingly a rock-pigeon lays eggs, two in numbers, on cliff faces or the artificial cliff faces of buildings’ roof spaces. Note the cere on the pigeon’s beak, which plays a key role in respiration as well as in indicating the reproductive stage. Sadly, squab or squab meat is included in exotic cuisine. Two cute Squabs :) Will try to update the post as they grow.... :)