Couple of realizations

A friend once told me, "You have very little control over what is going to happen." Well for many things this is true but I refuse to accept it as a blanket rule. I believe one has sufficient control over own actions to decide how one intends to spend his time and these decisions largely affect the outcome if not entirely.

I plan a lot in life; I dream a lot. Many of my plans go bust because I have always missed out on some or the other parameter even misjudged my abilities. I have realized that you have to take life as it comes. You are probably too in-experienced or in-competent to determine in advance with total accuracy how things are going to unfold. You invest in most promising stock and six months down the line you find out there is hardly any value left in it.

Life is about problems in opportunities and opportunities in problems. It depends on one's abilities to spot the opportunities or make the mess of it. Early in his career Amitabh Bachchan was rejected at All India Radio for his rather deep voice and later that voice contributed to the making of superstar of millennium.

Though uncertainty is a fact of life, certain amount of planning is necessary because plans give you directions. Moving without directions, you would be surprised with the destinations you reach. And yes not all surprises are pleasant.

Delving further on this line of thought there is another important realization of life that is to keep looking ahead. What one can pick from the time gone by is the experience and not repent about the lost time or resources. Life is indeed too short to crib on things left behind.

What makes life enriching and fulfilling is dreams, efforts pursuing them, company of loved ones, assurance of being accepted, transformation of self in that journey and the rewards that come along. There is so much to achieve in life, so much to take from it, I feel one life is too short for living it fully. So why waste time in repenting instead make the most of things at hand.

Success and failure are part of game. Till date it has not happened to anyone who has never tasted failure. Fear of failure should not stop one from dreaming or taking the next step. It is essential to have a goal and to keep walking towards it, other things will surely fall in place.

And an ad that left me speechless

[Source: GreatBong]
Couple of days back I came across an ad by Israeli defense firm Rafael to woo the Indian Army with their missile technology. The ad left me speechless. Do whatever but do not miss this ad. I just can't think how one can imagine to sell missiles with such marketing. I hope it is a spoof, it better be a spoof.

Top three ads this season

I watch lot of TV thus end up watching lot of repeatable stuff that happens to be advertisements. Most of the ads are useless, they definitely don't serve their purpose and waste our time.
But, few ads are cut above the rest, they make me watch them again and again. At times I even wait for them to show up. :-)
Here I am listing three such ads that have aired in past six months, all three of them have wonderful tune to support them, excellently shot and very creative.
Third on my most favorite ads is Visa travel happy campaign. Nice tune, intelligently shot, core theme of product is maintained in tact and soothing in the wild world of loud ads. Here is the you tube link and you can download it from here.
Second ad is from Vodafone campaign of 10p sms, "sabko pata chalega" theme. Vodafone folks always come out with suit of ads and they are always decent. Remember the "Happy to Help" campaign. One issue with these guys is, they just don't know when to shut up. They keep playing the ad again and again so however good the ad may be, after a while you want to turn it off. My favorite ad from their suit is of a middle aged (bald) man buying a ring, passing through all the looks he never got and approaching his girlfriend in a restaurant. Nicely shot, very good tune in background and again sticking to the idea. Here it is on you tube and download link is here.
My most favorite ad this season and many more seasons to come is of Limca "Fresh Ho Jao" featuring Sushma Reddy, the ad is wonderfully shot with a very good song playing in the background. If you have not watched it, you can get it here. The young couple trapped in traffic jam get refreshed with Limca and playing pranks on each other. Very nicely created ad with the focus right on their product.