2 reasons for this blog entry. 1) Thiagarajan Kumararaja – a friend and a junior colleague from Loyola Viscom won the National Award for his killer-impressive debut in Film Direction for Aaranya Kaandam. 2) The new brand of biscuits from Sun Feast named – Dark Fantasy - what a name?

In the last year, I saw many movies attempting the noir, portraying many shades especially the gray ones of human instincts. But then there were also some cool and stunning movies that added life to the world of reel. I am listing and recommending 4 movies – 3 dark and 1 fantasy – that are noteworthy attempts could make your moment of joy being a couch potato.

Paleri Manickyam (Malayalam)
Coming from ace director Ranjit’s stable is enough guarantee to watch this movie. But then you should also watch this for Superstar Mammooty who appears in 3 different roles and plays the dark shades with much aplomb. And then there is also the feeling-so-hot Shweta Menon who won the Best Female Actor award for her role of Cheeru in this movie. The movie adapted from the novel revolves around a Private Detective who investigates the first registered murder case in Kerala after 50 years.

Shaitan (Hindi)
A stunt scene with the background of a remixed Khoya Khoya Chaand. He made sure his arrival on the silver screen was noteworthy. Bejoy Nambiar was 2011’s find who made an impressive debut in Direction with Shaitaan. Equally impressive are the new generation of actors – Gulshan, Kalki, Neil and Shiv Pandit. The intertwined story of the Inspector Husband married to a Dancer Wife is a delight to watch.

Aaranya Kaandam (Tamil)
Watch it for Jackie Shroff or for Kollywood’s first neo-noir film or for yet another award-winning debut as a director or for kaalayan and kodukkapulli (shown in pic here) or for the sheer magic of film-making … this one is all applause that is well-deserved. The fact that the movie was stalled for over a year due to demanding cuts from the censor board and the Director’s persistence is proof enough of the struggle that went behind the movie’s success.

Azhagarsamiyin Kudirai (Tamil)
This is a good movie in the real sense of feeling good. Another movie adapted from a short story, Azhagarsami and his white horse made the viewer sit up and listen to this fairy tale. The story highlights on the virtues of being humane while playing light-heartedly over religious superstitions.

Not very long ago, I toyed with an idea about the new C2C in e-commerce that was emerging, thanks to Social Media. After B2B and B2C, it was time for the new C2C (community to community) segment that was catching up. And the real-life example of this was the Garage Sale by the Chennai Shopping Facebook Group on the 26^th February 2012.

I made a big mistake. I had a sumptuous lunch and then headed for the Garage Sale, only to regret after seeing what was in store there. Cakes, Cakes and more cakes. And then parathas, kuzhakattais, rolls, samosas and more. The stomach could not take what my taste buds could feel ...  full of mouth-watering delicacies.

Rock On played in the background. Coincidentally, it reverberated the minds of enterprising women who showcased their creations. From Fashion Jewellery, curios, kolhapuri slippers, sarees, to antiques, home gardens, paper bags and Tupperware ... you had them all. I found the food stall had a kind of magnetic force that attracted many.

Talk about what Social Media can do, the Garage Sale was a noteworthy success. After finding and growing fond with the Chennai Food Guide (another Facebook Group), Sarah Natasha decided to start the Chennai Shopping Group, and very soon found good company of like-minded people. Little over a month old, the Chennai Shopping Group is now nearing 3500 members and soon you can expect more shopping to happen.

So, Rock on and Shop on, Chennai!

A few photos of the exhibits are shown here.

 

 

The highway fuel station next to A2B at Thoppur on NH7 had this concrete inscription ... Kudos to the owners who decided to dedicate this to the team ...

Lantana comes from a Director who has just 3 titles to his credit in a career spanning over 25 years, this Ray-Lawrence directed Australian-movie is a must watch - for actors, directors, film-makers, producers, script-writers and technicians all alike. It was my first outing with C4 (http://www.facebook.com/groups/302259303156041/), where the screening of Lantana happened this last weekend. The movie scores on a lot of fronts, but the gripping screenplay and the depth of acting by the characters is what left me speechless. This movie went on to win awards and accolades, and has for sure inspired a stream of Directors who have taken to nouveau story-telling on the silver screen.

There is an old saying about chasing two hares and catching none. And we know many out there who have done this. Blame it on their sheer enthusiasm to self-learning or their I-know-it-all approach. They end up messing their social media presence. Often in a hurry to create a Facebook presence for their Brand, they end up with a Personal account calling it their official Facebook page. And therefore, the first name and last name becomes the name of the company that has a fictitious date of birth belonging to either the male or female sex. In some cases this Brand also went to a School, Lives in a City and Speaks many languages (Image below displays a Business Account for a leading Jewellery business that got it wrong and mixed up with a Personal Account) It is only after they get about 100, 500 or in some cases 1000 friends that they realize that what they created was not a Business Page, but just another Personal Account.

For beginners, a Facebook Page can be created for a Brand, Business Product Offering or Service Offering. Here are three key differences ...

1. Unlike the Friends on your Personal Account, a Facebook Page has Likes that reflect the fan-base that the brand or business is enjoying.
2. You can create a custom Welcome Page for your Business, and add as many as custom Tabs to your Page profile while your Personal Account does not have these features.
3. Business Pages don’t have a timeline like your Personal Account does.

If you are facing a similar issue of toying with 2 or more accounts and /or Pages, here is some solution that could help you clear the clutter.

Step 1: Converting your Facebook Personal Account to a Facebook Page
Facebook allows you to convert your personal account to a business account (Page) while at the same time ensuring all your contacts and friends are also moved to the new account. It is also recommended that you download all the relevant information within your account including friends list, messages posted, photos uploaded etc as a measure of backup.

Here is more information on this topic - http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=213602951994043
Follow this link below to learn more about Downloading your Facebook Data : http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=116481065103985

Step 2: Merging your duplicate Pages into one official Facebook Page
Having duplicate facebook pages for one brand is often a trouble. With one page scoring over with more fans and activity compared to the lesser one. It is even more difficult to do away with either of the pages, as the number of fans are considerably large. For instance, we have had duplicate pages, where one had over 80,000 Likes, while the other had 40,000 likes and both were unique set of fans. The best thing for us to happen was the possibility of merging 2 Pages into one, increasing our Fan base by over 1,20,000 in a jiffy.

Follow this link to read more on how to merge 2 facebook Pages ... http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=249601088403018&ref_query=merge. Remember that the Page with the lesser number of likes can only be merged with the one that has more number of likes and not vice-versa. This means if you have a nice username (fb.com/businessname) for your smaller fan-base, you might have to forego that when you merge it with the one with the higher fan-base.

But the good thing is going forward, you will not have the trouble of handling 2 different pages or accounts, and make sure all your fans are available at one common official page. This way you will cash in on effective social media optimization.

A chartered coach from Redbus kick starts our New Year family get-together today. After the breakfasting at Motel Highway, we spend the sunday at Queensland Amusement Park, followed by a buffet lunch from Pleasant Days!

The latest Outlook is really a mouthwatering one. Aptly titled "Chasing the Aroma", starting from kebabs in the north to sadyas down south, this is a must read. I really wish I was given the task to do this report! Now that's what I would call a dream job!

Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone

Its strange that the greatest things we ever did in life may sound really foolish as we grow and look back. This time around the usual cleaning process, I got my hands on one of the creatives that we did to reach out to potential customers. This was 1998.

We dint have a computer of our own. No office space rented. Not even a mobile or a contact phone number. The only thing we had was time, unused gray cells, energy and the Pager of a dear friend who obliged to reach out to us as soon as his Pager beeped with a message from a client.

Wow. It worked. 2 Beeps. 2 New Clients. And soon after Niyati was officially born. I am happy to share this creative - illustrations hand drawn by @Ramesh Nair

My son came back from school and reserved this question for me until late night. He asked me, "Do you know who is more powerful?". I kept my silence because I was curious to find out what he had for an answer. He then said, "Allah is more powerful." Delighted at this, our dialog went on ...

Me: Who said so?
He: Nabeel, my friend.
Me: Oh, so why is Allah more powerful?
He: Because he can beat Chota Bheem, Krishna and Balram, all together.
Me: Oh, but have you seen Allah beating Chota Bheem?
He: No, but Nabeel says Allah has 5 powers.
Me: Then, what about Ben 10?
He: Allah will beat Ben 10 also.
Me: Great. So does Allah play the Beyblade too?
He: I dont know. I will ask Nabeel.

That made me realise how our cartoon network serials are perceivably secular. I couldnt think of an islamic super hero, but my son's friend Nabeel has been guided at home with the fact that there is Allah above all who is more powerful than superman, spiderman, bheem, bal ganesh, krishna, balram and even that roll no.21 character, all put together.

I convinced my son by explaining my true belief - that there is just ONE superior power above all of us - and that ONE has no name. Now, off you go to bed and sleep! Good Night.

We have a lot to learn from Singapore …

This is not the kind of story that goes the usual rounds. That Singapore is a city that is clean and its people follow the rules sincerely. What really inspires and is done at a policy level by the government is something to reckon with. Singapore celebrates something called the Kindness movement. It is simple, down-to-earth and absolutely the easiest thing to do wherever you are. And there are these stickers in the MRT (trains) that blocks the seat closest to the door and reads Reserved with the kindness sticker that has the illustration of a Pregnant Woman with a small message that communicates – Thank you for being kind enough to lend this seat. Here’s a picture of another one in the taxi. Let’s say Thank you.

You will be surprised if you are a first-timer. Any shop you go, any place you go, any cabbie you speak to are all courteous beyond compare. Starting from a Hello … Welcome … How are you today … to Can I help you … Thank you… have a nice day … you hear it time and again. It’s very much in the culture. It’s very much in the system. From top to bottom. I wasn’t just flabbergasted, but inspired to behave the same way back. I told myself that it just needs to be expressed, and no one (in the best of their senses and sobre-ness) is going to deny respect.

Niyati Technologies Pte Ltd … it’s now official.

Here’s the other important part of my travel to Singapore. Niyati is now a registered company in Singapore. We now have a bank account and our clients can start to pay in the Local Currency. I also had a chance to meet couple of new prospective clients and we should soon be signing off and making our presence felt in this beautiful and inviting market.

Going up 54 floors in 60 seconds flat

Marina Bay Sands is an architectural marvel. It gives a picturesque panoramic view of the city at heights that can just drive you crazy. And the infinity pool at the rooftop just ends at the edge of the building … but is open only to the guests of the hotel. I would have to spend quite a golden dime to experience … but then I promised to return and set aside 228 SGD to drive the Ferrari on the F1 Race track for 15 minutes. For now, I just settled on a photo finish next to this beauty of a car.

Maxx and I

A 2 day stint at Singapore saw me grow an unsteady kind affection towards Maxx - Akank’s pet love and best pal. I say unsteady because I wasn’t too sure if Maxx wanted to pounce on me and handle me a love bite. But whenever he was around, I built myself up and prepared to pamper and cajol him. His eyes are very intense and the looks always made me feel that there was a deep story he wanted to share with us. Maxx was too good to be hugged and play around with and was most obedient and very friendly – quite like the Singaporeans. If he felt bored, he would retire to lie around the corner with no complaints.

The Limo Taxi

Experience Mercedes Benz and Chrysler in as much the same or a meagerly higher price as a normal taxi. As soon I stepped out of Changi, there was this big black limo – and a cabbie who smiled and opened the door for me. I was hesitant and went closer and asked him how much would he charge me. He said you pay by the meter. So I asked him - How much to Ridley Park? And he said - 30 SGD. Almost the same price I expected to pay for a normal taxi. I quickly jumped into the luxury that came in at an affordable price. We spoke a lot on the way and I soon had a new friend.