For your eyes only

I am sure every guy harbors the dream of walking down a crowded street wearing aviators. You can be assured of a few stares and a whole lot of glances. Ask a man and you can be sure that a pair of aviators is on his wish list.
The trend today is to wear sunglasses that are 3 or 4 times the size of your eyes. Are we getting so ugly today that we have to cover our entire face? Jokes apart you have to move with the times. I admit I too have a pair of those oversized, overpriced glasses.
I wonder if a lot of people have seen the picture of General Macarthur wearing aviators during WW2. It you haven’t I suggest you do so. That photo was a pioneering moment in the use of sunglasses.
The fact that sunglasses have become an essential part of every person’s repertoire cannot be argued. The summer season is upon us. Time to pick up a pair…

To wear or not to wear...

I ask for forgiveness if I get into a preachy tone in this post. I must admit, I am a staunch supporter of helmets. Wearing one while riding a 2 wheeler is a must for me.
I remember the time when the 'compulsory helmet' rule was imposed in Bangalore. Endless debates followed between me and my friends over that ruling.
The one question I ask any opponent of helmets is whether they are Lord Ganesha. I am sure that if we lose our head while riding, we are not going to be ‘fortunate’ enough to gain a new one. Although a donkey's head would be the perfect fit for helmetless riders.
I have seen lots of people carry helmets on their elbows while riding. Why carry one in the first place??? Ask any professional biker and they will tell you that the helmet is essential to the bike as it is to the rider. Safety is something that happens between your ears, not something you hold in your hands…

Tic Toc Tic Toc

As a kid, ‘My Grandfathers Clock’ was my favourite nursery rhyme. Now however I have lost my charm for it. Partly because a friend of mine removed one of the alphabets from the word ‘clock’. The rhyme takes on an all new meaning altogether.
Until recently watches have never been a fantasy of mine. However the older we grow, the more brand conscious we become. I have come to learn that the watch is a status symbol and the more expensive it is, the higher your position on the social ladder.
Imagine a world where watches didn’t exist. We would have no notion of time. If you think about it, it might not be such a bad thing. Our bodies wouldn’t be restricted to this caged world where we eat, sleep, talk, walk at designated times.
Watches have been used and abused over the years. In ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ an engineer developed a clock that ran backwards. It was done in the hope of bringing back the men who were lost at war. No doubt it was a novel and ingenious idea. But these things are best left to the movies. I wouldn't be able to live in a world where watches didn’t exist. I need my time and I need the notion of it. Its 6:50 now. Time to leave office…

One coffee please!

I had read in some magazine that ‘a morning without coffee is like sleep’. I am South Indian (a proud one) and I love my filter coffee beyond anything else. Coffee is the most consumed beverage across the world. My guess is that people like the high that caffeine provides. The high notwithstanding, I can’t remember a seed that sold for $600 a pound. Yes, you heard me right. The world’s most expensive coffee bean is worth that much. And believe it or not, it is sh**! Literally. These coffee beans are derived for the droppings of an animal called the luwak (civet). I am not making this sh** up (pun intended). I applaud the man who had the brainwave to look through an animal's dung. I wonder if he was looking for gold.
But in all seriousness coffee has surpassed alcohol as the world's best conversation starter. The explosion of café outlets across the globe is unquestionable. These coffee chains have millions of people coming in and going out every single day. I am undoubtedly part of this ‘chain gang’. And I am sure you are too. If you aren’t I urge you, be a coffee drinking individual- Espresso yourself!

Wow!

Victoria’s Secret is a man’s best friend! Actually it is a desperate man's best friend. Boy! I just got off the website and I am still mesmerized. I do apologize if this blog is not up to the mark. But to be fair you should blame Tyra Banks for that.
Seeing all those models in bikinis made me think. It is truly amazing as to what one can do with such little material. But enough said about models and bikinis. I am writing this blog to give kudos to Hugh Hefner and Roy Raymond. These guys were truly ingenious. Did you know that Roy Raymond started Victoria's Secret because he was too embarrassed to buy lingerie for his wife at a public store. There are umpteen criticisms towards them but I am sure that none of those so called critics could dream of having a brainwave so as to create institutions like Playboy and Victoria’s Secret. Yes I said ‘institutions'. From each and every man (and some women) across the globe, I salute you guys. I have said what I had to say in this blog. Now back to playboy.com…

The Keyboard is mightier than The Sword

Since the advent of computers and the World Wide Web, the use of pens have diminished to a large extent. Those who swear by a pen say that the world has become lazy. They claim that the art of writing has been lost.
I have known how to write for a considerable number of years but this ‘art of writing’ has never dawned on me. At face value the art of writing can only signify ones ability (or inability) to write with the hand. Good writing isn’t determined by the ink or keyboard used. George Orwell, in one of his essays said that phrases and metaphors hold no meaning and should be banned. I would be a hypocrite if I agreed with him but I have to say that the above mentioned one must be banned. Or it should be changed into the ‘art of conveying’. Whether one writes, types or speaks a bad story remains a bad story; a bad poem will remain a bad poem. Just as man has evolved, the pen too must evolve. The pen is no longer mightier than the sword. A keyboard is.

Ravishing Reva

It is said by someone that 'great things come in small packages'. As a true cynic and more importantly as a man I have to disagree with this unfounded statement. For me it has always been the mantra of 'larger than life'. This too is a contradiction in itself as I ask the question, 'Can life be actually measured by its size'? But the second phrase sounds cooler and I am going to stick by it.
Now if i go and ask the above mentioned person to prove his point, he would just point me to a Reva. For all uninformed souls the Reva is the first electric car launched in India. It is about as big as an auto but using another cliched phrase, I felt 'love at first sight'.
It was only today that I got down to actually reading about the Reva. As the case with everything else it has its pros and cons. But it is truly fascinating that four grown adults can fit into a car so small. What is even more amazing is that a car this small exists today in the world of big cars, big bucks, big people and big dreams... Despite its unassuming nature the Reva catches the eye and a stare or two as well. This electric car was launched in India with an electric dream. Whether this dream of our country becoming 'resource efficient' materialises remains to be seen. But a start has been made. This small package has set the course for great things to come.