Friday, February 10, 2006

Heart-shaped Habits

It's Valentine's Week and marketers are working on overdrive to take advantage of lovesick Indian couples. Everywhere I go, whatever I read & wherever I log in, all i can see are pink hearts and red hearts and purple hearts. The teddy-bears carry hearts and so do diamond rings.

Not that I'm the "Velenstines is against our sabhyata" kind. Nor do I believe that the festival is over-rated. I was smitten by the concept of Valentine's Day when I was eight. And over the years I've had Valentine's Days that've ranged from depressing to infuriating to surprising to dreamy.

But as you get older and arm yourself with an MBA in marketing-kinda-sorta-stuff, you realize that V-day isn't about hearts and teddy bears and greeting cards. Or about culture and values and courtship. I just wish marketers would leave some stuff untouched. Ditto for political parties.

It's just not special anymore.

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Here's a paradox though.

Went bowling today. It was damn fun. (Anj sums it up brilliantly here.) Fun Republic has a fairly decent alley, except for pins that go mysteriously missing. And terrible background music.

As we sat outside McDonalds sipping the post-game drink, I realized that it felt awesome to be in post-lib India. Where you can eat pizza, go bowling and buy martini shakers (even if not Martinis) and do a lot of things that a New Yorker could do, even in a pseudo-metro like Ahmedabad.

A for the marketers.

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We hit Diu this weekend. My second trip in three months. All girls this time. Things to do include any 3 of the following: Getting a friend drunk, Photography, Exploration and Skinny Dipping.

5 Comments:

Blogger A said...

hehehehe make the first of the 4 options a constant, and picking 2 from the rest will be easy as "pie" :D:D

February 10, 2006 11:24 PM  
Blogger the One said...

Please to excuse. Pseudo-metro? Madam, Amdavad is having population of forty-five lakhs as per 91 census and is one of Biggest and also Best City in Whole World.

P.S. Fun Republic is first Fully Integrated Multiplex in Whole Asia and is also having Advanced Bowling Facilities with Latest Superhit Pop Music.

February 11, 2006 7:55 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey deepa
well i can so relate to the getting a friend drunk option in diu now u know who i am

February 13, 2006 11:23 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Getting a friend drunk, Photography, Exploration and Skinny Dipping.

The explorer's creed:

Take nothing but pictures.
Leave nothing but footprints.
Kill nothing but time.

I think by choosing options 1, 2 and 4 (preferably together), you're automatically satisfying 3.

-- The usual suspect.

(PS. After a long while I'm holding a quiz this weekend on campus. I'll send you the questions some time next week if you're interested).

February 13, 2006 4:10 PM  
Blogger DeepBlueSea said...

A: I shall forgive you for pornographic comment.

The One: I suspect The One is a former Amdavadi, who choses to remain loyal to the place, even while One acknowledges the pseudo-ness of the place. (It's a metro with vegetarian Pizza Huts, Lounge bars with non-existent bars, multiplexes that show goodEnglish movies about one year after they hit Bombay, and favourite family weekend hangout being Big Bazaar.)

Pseudo-ness is still not as bad as Pseud-ness (of the Delhi kind). I shall blog about that sometime.

u know who: I really don't.

The Usual Suspect: 4 didn't happen, but 1&2 did. That added up to a decent 3.
Yay... I want questions. Went for a quiz today and discovered I was terribly out of form. Lemme also know if you want Qs from some quizzes I set earlier this year.

February 16, 2006 9:12 AM  

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