Red Carpet: Why you need a face Lift

Glamour of The Red Carpet

We have grown up seeing red carpets rolled out for VIPs and celebrities at every occasions. But, is the Red carpet red enough or it’s time for a change? I went about digging its past to propose a new future.

The earliest known reference in literature according to Wikipedia is found in the play Agamemnon by Aeschylus, written in 458 BC. Clytemnestra, the vengeful wife of  Agamemnon offered a red path to walk upon his return from Troy. Agamemnon, was wary of disrespecting Zeus and his fellow deities by walking on such luxury and responded:

"I am a mortal, a man; I cannot trample upon these tinted splendors without fear thrown in my path."

In 1821, President James Monroe was honored in South Carolina with a red carpet laid out to the river. Red as a color has long been associated with prestige, royalty and aristocracy and royalty with the passage of time gave way to film royalty. Walking the red carpet became most glorified when the movie stars and singers started to walk on it during awards ceremonies, particularly Oscars, Academy and Grammy. Unfortunately much of its exclusivity and lustre has been lost since stars from mediocre television programs started their own versions for their fans and paparazzi.

But what made red so exclusive? BBC quoted Sonnet Stanfill, senior curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum told BBC saying “Scarlet was among the most prized dyes as it was the most difficult to make and the most expensive.” Cochineal dye is made from the cochineal scale insect and this process could be traced back to the 15th Century when the Aztec and Maya people from north and central America used this for coloring fabrics.

Gone are days when Queen Elizabeth could forbid anyone except close members of the royal family from wearing scarlet, red or purple. On the contrary, with industrial progress, expensive materials of yesterdays are affordable to everyone today leaving virtually nothing for exclusivity.

While I am convinced that something should replace the Red carpet, I still could not figure out what it ought to be.

Happy Holidays

Last weekend we went to see a musical concert. The show was named "Under the Mistletoe", where musicians from Qatar performed to a packed auditorium. There were orchestra, wind symphony, singers and choirs performing separately and then coming together in unison for the grand finale.

This was extra special for us as our daughter was one of the performers. It's the second consecutive year she had performed in the Christmas show as part of the choir and we were probably among the first few to book our tickets.

I have uploaded the performances of the Choir and the Grand Finale in YouTube and invite you to get into the holiday mood for 2016.

Where are you father Christmas

Joy to the World

Tap Tap Tap

Tiny Little Baby Born in Bethlehem

The grand finale was particularly enjoyable as everyone got cranked up for the festive mood.

Demonetization - Black, White and many shades of Grey

In democracy, there is a strange feeling when it turns out that the person or motion you did not support has won. A feeling that resonates among thousands of Americans today after Trump’s triumphant win. Many Indians had similar feeling after the last general election and more recently after the demonetization of currency. As a result of that they are still burning inside with frustration.

Let us not take a bipartite approach to life or belief as Mr. George W Bush’s dictated once upon a time ..  “you are with us or with the terrorists”, he said. Let’s look at the bigger picture and try to accept the good even if it is with the customary “Umm!” and “Uuuh!”

Life offers multiple shades of grey between black and white! One doesn’t necessarily has to sweat in making THE decision as there are abundant opportunities to be selective while cherry picking own likes and dislikes.

Now that enough bytes and energy has been expended in support, opposition, criticism and debates on various aspects of  demonetization, it’s time in my opinion to accept Demonetization as a reality. Com’on it's not going to go away .. no matter how much inconvenience or discomfort it might cause, the country is abiding by it. It would therefore be nice of the economists, analysts, academicians and so called experts to bring in some suggestion to improve the implementation process rather than being judgmental, critics or simply sarcastic commentators.

Even one optimistic layman like me would not doubt that the cash crunch will remain in the short to mid term and perhaps the economy will also shrink to a certain degree. But then people will also start getting used to the new way of life with less cash dealings. It is therefore time to shift focus from wasteful discussions and embrace the new style of functioning. History has taught us that every change brings along new opportunities and this time it will be no different. 

So Rise and Shine people, let's rejig our lifestyle as we explore  the new opportunities that are going to unfold and be prepared to grab those as they surface. If you are of the opinion that thousands of crores collected by the banks will be given away only to rich businessmen or large corporate, you are going to miss an opportunities to start your own enterprise just by  being prejudiced.

A few points to consider :

• If you think that Indians will not cope up with bank cards or E-commerce, think about mobile phones and remember our life during the past decades.
• If you think our government will not succeed with cash regulations, remember how  merrily we smoked in our planes, trains and public buses not so long ago.
• If you feel a grudge that few selected industrial houses were tipped off about demonetization, you will be naive to think they keep unlimited cash stashed in a pit or inside a cupboard. Their money work and grow outside and that's why they are rich.
• If you think that dirty money is a myth, then look at the images below of desperately destroyed banknotes.

Amar Jawan - We are indebted to you

We are a country of 1.25 billion and since gaining independence from the British Raj, only a small percentage of Indians have served the armed forces. Even a smaller percentage got wounded in action or have been martyred.

But these small number of shoulders protect Our Freedom, Our Dignity, Our opportunities and carry Our Dreams and Hopes. They spend sleepless nights guarding our cities and borders so that we could sleep in peace.

This post is to honor all current as well as ex-service men-women who served our nation during peace, war or natural calamities at great cost to themselves and their families.

We Salute you!

Men are Obsolete

“Either war is obsolete or man is. To not evolve beyond war is to choose oblivion over utopia.”

My heart bleeds every time the news of the death of civilian or soldiers come in. Useful lives of our country are being wasted and families are getting devastated by mindless killings.

The idea above is of R Buckminster Fuller, a great American Architect and it was discovered on his desk after he had passed away. In my opinion he was a true dreamer in his own rights, otherwise  who in his right frame of mind would have dared to dream of a world without war. After all it's the arms industry that keeps the economic engines of so called great nations lubricated. They have made wars their birth right and seldom hesitate to bestow one upon others!

. ….. and of course we cannot undermine how much craving so called great people with ego have for absolute crude power and wealth.

Or else we all would have lived happily ever after!

Zero ka Funda

Most of the time Zero is considered more negative than any negative integer and we seldom hesitate to say “he or she is a big zero”.

While the size of a zero definitely doesn’t matter, there are some excellent lessons one could take home from Zero.

We learnt that one can add colossal value in life by positioning oneself in the RIGHT place. When 0 (zero) collaborates with 1 (One) in the right position they make 10 (Ten).

Zero (0) degree, where the water starts to freeze, could give us immense warmth once arrived from a minus 10. We learnt that in spite of being the smallest, Zero does not carry any negativity.

Though careful usage Zero could be encouraging, as a manager once appraised someone. “He has improved tremendously” the manager wrote. “His English has now become zero from totally non-existent”.

How is my driving

I believe in parallel universe: Multiple versions of us are living in alternate worlds that interact with each other. Nah! I am not going to bore you with quantum theories to explain "multiverse". Rather, it’s quite simple for us to perceive.

One world exist in our home, offices, parks or movie theaters while other one could be viewed in its full glory on our roads. Once behind the wheels of those moving metals, each actor has a different character ever ready to clank at the slightest opportunity.

I once encountered a driver, who started his argument by accepting he was an idiot while questioning if I did enough to prove my genius. He must have been a lawyer of the Road world and the realization dawned on me that in this parallel world all professions exists.

The Professor: When they happen to observe someone break the law, they make every effort to let the errant know that it was wrong. Given an opportunity they give a lecture on it.

Makeup Artists: They consider cars as moving parlors with drivers’ seat their dressing couch. It’s brings in lot of convenience with many mirrors allowing them put everything from foundation or lipstick to nail paint. Usually they don’t mind a honk or two to remind them that the traffic lights have gone green.

Late Risers: To complement those who could not manage makeups before leaving are the ones who missed breakfast. They are expert in completing a full course breakfast with sandwich, coffee et al and all without losing control of the steering wheel.

The Correspondent: Always interested in what happened along the road, slowing down to stick the neck out of the windows if there is an accident or there is a gathering of any sorts More often than not they will try to put their camera on duty.

Peeping Toms: These Toms spares no effort to find out what’s going on inside the car next door.

The learner: Someone who will frustrate everyone with their cautious driving and worst part of their behavior is they slow down even if the traffic light is green.

The Manipulator: They are expert in manipulating the situation and finding a way to arrive at the frontend of long queues most of the time exploiting the kindness of others or flouting the rules.

Multitasker: One mother of Multitasker was a colleague of mine who could put all his limbs into action. A cigarette in one hand, a mobile on the other while one foot took charge of the steering wheel while the other worked on accelerator and brake. Beating all odds, he is still alive and kicking!