When Buddhism meets Cola - Oil on Canvas

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Holy Smoke - Oil on Canvas

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Black Swan- Oil on Canvas

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I love you - creativity

The only world worth living in, is of art, paints, music, dance, literature all in all a world where you create and not destroy. Creating a piece of music, filling a canvas with beautiful colours, writing an essay which touches others' heart is the most beautiful feeling and leads to a very pure, uncomplicated and simple life. Every time  I successfully publish a blog the feeling or happiness makes that day worthwhile, it counts. Every time  I finish a beautiful painting or a sketch I get the joy of having given birth to a child. Every time I hear good music I get lost in my thoughts and imagine the happiness that the lyricist, composer and singer felt on successfully recording the song and the satisfaction they got when audience applauded for it every time it got played.

I wish this world would encourage more and more individuals to crave for these joyful and happy feelings, but that is Utopia, in a world led by the green. Only if every parent could encourage their children to take their hobbies seriously and if only every adult could leave the temptation of enjoying luxury and enjoyed the feeling of satisfaction of creation. What many do not realize and what I realized lately that not all individuals in this world have been given the power to create and so the ones who have, should cherish and fight for creating beauty in this world.

Here's why I realized the joy of creativity -

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Time to adopt storytelling in mobile/online ads more closely

Most online and mobile ads, specially the mobile ads are quite invasive in nature where an ad interferes in the space where we are playing a game or browsing through some interesting content. As I watched the television tonight I realized that traditional advertisements are invasive in nature too. Advertisement is inherently invasive in nature, what matters is how you strategize to design the ad to engage your users. Sometimes, I think it is a bigger challenge to direct an ad which engages users within 10-30 secs rather than other content in the television space which last from 20 mins to more. What makes commercial ads on TV stand out is the story-telling technique which involves good ideas being churned out by creative teams and then translated into video by involving matured film producers. An example is the latest ad by ICICI bank called "Love Surprises?".

The story behind the ad or the concept is seriously awesome and it has been executed very well. The settings, characters and the background score actually captures the joy of surprises and rewards. Its a simple story, told very well. Vodafone had also captured the surprise concept very well through a series of ads called "Vodafone Delights".

From a consumer point of view, when such ads interfere your movie or tv-series watching, the irritation of having been intervened is far lesser than a poorly conceptualised or executed ad.

My opinion, if we are able to adopt such innovative ways of storytelling on the mobile and online space then the ads would not appear so invasive and may have higher returns as well. This however does not mean hosting video content in the ad space. The online/mobile advertisement players have to innovate to think of ways to tell their brand-stories in an interesting manner without making their content too heavy. Technology has a big role to play in the online/mobile advertisement segment and it needs to be integrated more closely.

Dangerous Affair

Her eyes fluttered open and she gasped for breath. She gulped in some salty water before she realized that she was trapped below the sea. The corals were around her and there were tiny fish swimming by her but she had no time to admire; she was short of breath. As she struggled to untie her hands from the strong sailor knot, she kicked in every possible way to start swimming. The water was all green and blue, in some places they were extraordinarily dark, almost black. There were bright white light cutting right across all the green, blue, black in a lot of places showing her traces of sun and the direction in which she had to move in order to survive.

Only if Suzy would have been free she would have taken moments to admire all the nature's play with colours under the ocean. Right now, all she could think about was her need to untie her hands so that this does not turn out to be her last sight. If she had to choose her last sight she would rather see her daughter Mary playing happily with her ball in their lush green Romanian garden. She would want to nest in Tom's arms just one more time rather than freeze in the cold waters. Alas, people have no choice for their last sight. All they can do is think of  all the things that they love and that was exactly what Suzy was doing. She was sailing by all the faces that mattered in her life and re-living all the happy memories. But no, she can't be readying herself to die so soon. She brushed away all these thoughts and converged all her efforts into swimming to the surface of the sea. She kicked and pushed herself through the water. She didn't like the taste of salty water and she didn't want it to be the last thing in her stomach. She is a foodie, if she had to die now, she had to have warm nice food cooked in her absolutely fabulous kitchen that she had set-up so carefully through those years. If she had to die, she would rather have a nice hot roast chicken and fresh baked pie before saying adieu to the world. This was not the correct way to leave the earth, not yet.

The chill of the water was starting to get to her and she was starting to panic as she had too much water to drink, the salty acrid water of the sea that dotted her small town. She started to accept that this might be those dreaded last minutes that she didn't want them to be. But, giving up was not her nature. She pulled and stretched the rope but it only seemed to have gone tighter on her pale fragile hands. She kept cycling in the water like she had been taught in her swimming classes which she never took seriously and she did float up a bit but the ocean seemed to having an unending depth. Unless she unties her hand in the next few seconds she knows she will never breathe air above the waters again. She knows she has started crying now but cannot feel her tears as they obliterate in the brackish dark water.

Her throat seems to be choking up and her heart is beating so loud that she cannot hear anything but the continous loud thump against her chest. The water seems to be getting darker and darker and her eyes are too swollen to open anymore. She puts in her last bit by pulling her rope once more and kicks her legs sharply while trying to cry out loud. No one heard her cries as a few bubbles surfaced at the ocean surface where Clara stood to make sure that Suzy doesn't escape. Just an hour or half more and then she would grieve with Tom as he slowly becomes hers, forever.

© All Rights Reserved by Siddhangana Karmakar

An old sketch - Man with his horse

Persepolis

The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the first serious graphic novel that I have read, Tintin, Asterix wouldn't fall in the category of serious, I am guessing. It's very engaging, far greater than probably a non-graphic novel essentially because the characters are already personified and you don't have to struggle about putting a face to the character.
The novel itself gives a true reflection of a common person's life in Iran, through the years of struggle that the entire country went through and the escape that most people with financial back-up would have made.The later part of the novel where Marjane feels lost between Iranian and European culture can be well understood and I wish I could know what happened to her after her return to Europe.

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Sini's Life - 2

She got immersed in the movie while the neighbour's dog took advantage of her open door .... Oops

Sini's Life

The morning reads and coffee kept Sini going

For whom do you write?

I am not a regular writer but I am a regular reader. Yet I can't easily think of the next best thing to write. I am  mostly caught in the dilemma which is the name of this post, "For whom do you write?". I am frequently guided by my brain and that has never helped anyone in liberal arts or the fine.

My brain says this blog post needs to be positioned for a specific genre or niche set of readers. Else, there is no way to gain readers. This is so well-thought through by my experienced marketing brain. Yet my noble heart says that this blog was meant to be my path to express and give meaning to my love for books and stories. Both my heart and brain fight for a while and the brain comes out triumphant. What a pity!

I wish I could make the brain understand that it needs to support my heart as no great read has ever come out of a brain. It is always the pourings of a heart that strikes another and hence gains love from readers.

Dear Brain,

Why don't you rest once in a while. Why don't you think a little less, judge lesser and let me rule, once in a while. Science praises you not the arts. Let me lead sometimes! I have all the right to live and win.

Yours Beloved
Heart

So, then I can only wish that once in a while from now on I will pour from my heart because I write for the reader as well as my heart. Who do you write for?

Story-telling without words ~ The Artist

A daring act. Telling a story with minimal words. When the entire world of directors are using technology, colour, dialogues to tell their story in films. Michel Hazanavicius has done the unthinkable. He has gone back in time and created a no-dialogue movie in black & white. What a perfect story he has told. He has achieved to keep his audience hooked for nearly 2 hours and grabbed all the coveted awards.

An incredible way to capture & express joy, tears & emotions. Its the history and love-story mixed well and presented well. 

It is not a movie meant for everyone but certainly meant for the ones who like stories being told in a different way. I loved it!

I'm Addicted

The latest buzz in social media is about the image sharing site called Pinterest. Every one is using it and talking about it. Its a board where users can like and share the image which other users have liked or post a new image. Its addictive for users and an excellent tool for showcasing one's business specially if your business can be represented in images e.g. food, fashion, architecture. It is directing huge amount of traffic to sites whose images are pinned and repinned hence become the most popular pins in the site.

Just when we thought sharing on Facebook or Flickr is cool Pinterest has taken sharing to the next level of fun. For that matter this site has made sharing within the site and from outside far more easier than any of its predecessors in the social media space. A "Pin It" button on your browser makes it easy to share any image of liking and comes along with signing up with the site rather than a separate app. What more I just discovered that video sharing and e-commerce is integrated within the site. So as you browse through and like something you can also order some in. Not sure if its available for all the countries but am sure as it spreads and becomes popular more and more companies will jump in the gun and embrace Pin-commerce (just coined the term for fun:))

I have certainly got addicted to it and I hear many others say the same. It is a pool of images connecting people who like the same kind of art or food or clothing. I am sure some people must be networking over this platform as they comment over the same image and realize the similar likings whether they are in America or Africa. As many bloggers and social media experts swear and bet that this is the next best thing to FB and Twitter; I place +1 to those comments simply because this is refreshing and am loving it!