Indian General Elections 2014 with Social Mobile Apps

The government of India was very concerned about the low turnout of voters especially among the youth and called all the country’s IT Moguls and told them to collaborate together to come with some mobile Apps to encourage voting. A special Voter Awareness Development Authority of India (VADAI – not to be confused with south Indian delicacy that goes by the same name) was set up for this purpose. The country’s best talent was recruited and they set to work. They worked for six months without a break and finally came up with three types of Apps and Plugins – Detective, Preventive and Punitive.

Detective

These are apps to detect if user has voted or not.

1. Polling Officer Bio-metric – This will replace the current practice of putting ink on voter’s finger. Instead polling officer will record his or her finger print on the voter’s mobile phone biometric app to confirm person has voted.

2. Location based identifier – This will track user’s location and record if person has been within 5 meters radius of a polling location for more than 15 minutes on an election day.

Preventive

These are apps to prevent user from not voting.

3. All Roads Lead to Voting Booth Plugin – A specially designed plugin for Google Maps that will ensure every time user tries to use Google Maps, it will lead him or her to the nearest polling booth.

4. The Howler Arnab App – An App which has voice of Arnab Goswami that keeps exhorting the user to go and exercise his franchise till a vote is detected by a detection App.

5. Angry Voters Game – A game where voters will get to launch missiles at politicians hiding behind complex structures.This will build up the rage to go and express anger through the polling booths as well.

6. Parliamentville Game – A game based on parliament on the lines of Farmville wherein one has to manage a government within the game. They would need to enroll friends who have voted into various game campaigns to open up new levels. That will get people to put pressure on their friends to vote.

7. E-Tube App – Special movies made for elections that can be viewed on one's mobile phones only when within 10 meters radius of a polling booth.

Punitive

These are apps to penalize users who have not exercised their franchise.

8. Giraffe Update (not to be confused with Google's Penguin Updates) – The profile pictures of all defaulters will automatically be changed to that of a giraffe on all social media app till the next elections

9. Himesh Reshammiya Ringtone – The ringtones of all defaulters will automatically be set to patriotic songs sung by Himesh Reshammiya.

10. MLA Wallpaper – The background of mobile phones of all defaulters will be set to a close up mug shot of the winning MLA of their constituency so that they can remember who they helped win for the next 5 years.

Adventures with my best Friends - 2

A shred of cloth, a tuft of hair, a bottle, a cigarette packet cover and a strange shaped stone! That is where I left the tale of my adventure with my friends. In case you are starting with this one, I suggest you go back and read this first.

We had the clues – now it was time to join the dots and come up with the picture. I was the most imaginative of the lot. So it was up to me to come up with the hypothesis. So this was how I interpreted. The bottle indicated a drunken man. The tuft of hair seemed to have something brown on it – could be dried up blood. Torn piece from Sari – a woman was involved. So if I put these three together my hypothesis was a man had murdered his wife in an inebriated state by striking her head with a sharp object and then buried her in the grounds of his house and made his getaway. This also tallied with the rumor of the house being the favorite haunt of a female ghost. Why would she haunt the house unless she was murdered there? It was up to us to bring her murderer to justice.

Now again we were short of two things – suspects and murder weapons. Ideally we could again get into the house and look around for the murder weapon but somehow we did not feel too keen to enter that house again after our last experience. So we decided to shift our investigation to a more accessible location – the local park. We had seen lot of suspicious characters lurking there. Maybe it was one of them. But how do we identify the murderer? Of course, the packet of cigarettes! The criminal was the one who smoked that brand of cigarettes. One clue was still left unaccounted for – the stone. It was kind of star shaped. I had a theory that it was part of meteorite or from a distant star. But no way could we fit that with our case. So Deepak decided to make it our team’s logo and as the boss retain its possession.

Somehow our search for the murder weapon seemed too fortuitous. It was out there staring us right in our eyes. There was a screw driver driven into a tree and flies were buzzing around. What else do flies buzz around but blood, eh? So there it was: the murder weapon. However we could not retrieve it as it was too high for us and it was not one of those climbable trees. But the police could always retrieve it later. This had however given us another clue about the suspect: he was a tall man. So we had to watch out for tall men who smoked.

But let me tell you from experience: it is not a great idea to go stalking tall men who smoke. One day as I was intently observing a suspect, I suddenly found pain surge through my shoulder as my right arm was forced close to my back.

“What are you hooligans up to? Last few days I have noticed you people following me suspiciously. Now you are after that other gentleman. Trying for some easy money, eh?“

My hand hurt as he twisted my hand hard. I was trying hard not to cry. It did not suit my tough image to be seen crying in public, eh? Deepak would disown me as a sissy.

“I will take you to the police station. A few months in juvenile prison will set you right.”

Now this was getting serious. I did not want to go to jail. I was really scared. I prayed to God that I would give up the investigation if I got out of this safely. I closed my eyes and started fervently chanting the name of God as I was being dragged away.

God seemed to have suddenly answered my prayers for I felt the grip on my hand loosening.

“Run!” said a familiar voice. I needed no further persuasion. With a strong tug I freed my hand and ran like hell without looking right or left.

“I won’t leave you boys. Next time I catch you, you will regret it.” The man was shouting furiously. I did not stop to hear. I just ran out of the park across the street into Deepak’s house.

Phew! What an escape. It was hardly a minute before my friends were there too. For it was they who had rescued me my throwing stones at that man. We hoped he had not seen us getting into Deepak’s house. We decided to remain underground for the next few days. We avoided the park. We did not even come out into the streets except to go to school. We suddenly discovered a passion for indoor games and books. As far as detective work was concerned, it was meant for television and story books. In real life, it was better for one’s health to stay away from such stuff.

But I was really overwhelmed by my friends’ gesture of putting their neck out to rescue me. Our friendship was cemented. I felt a kind of close bond even with Ragi from that day. A few years later, when I read this line in Harry Potter, “There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them”, I knew exactly what J K Rowling meant.

Picture Credit: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7291/10074677025_0ed011a02f_b.jpg

Adventures with my best Friends

Abandoned House

I do not know about children of current times but in our times we had a lot of fascination for abandoned houses. When I was 10, we had one right up our street. Various rumors were circulating about the house and the reasons for its non-occupancy among the children of the street. Another aspect that added further aura to the mystery of the house was the staunch opposition of the adults in the neighborhood to any attempts by children to enter the premises of this house.

We were literally a gang of 4 – Deepak, Ragi, Kulla and yours truly. Those days Doordarshan the only TV channel in India, used to screen a serial called ‘Ek Do Teen Char’ on Saturday afternoons. All of us used to religiously watch that serial. It was a story of 4 school boys who would double up as amateur detectives and help in crime detection. We were also 4 and we fancied ourselves as amateur detectives. Only thing was we had no case to solve and no dog. After all what is a detective without a dog? We solved the dog problem by laying claim on a stray that bore a strange resemblance to Snowy from Tintin Comics. Not that we tried to take the dog captive or tame it or anything. In fact all of us were scared of dogs. So we just decided to call the dog our own and leave it at that. Except for the notional master- dog relationship, we minded our own business, the dog its own.

For the other problem of the case - the house presented an interesting option. We were sure something fishy must be going on in the house. We had to secretly enter the house, collect clues and solve the case. We could not directly enter through the front gate, for it was locked and always someone would be watching it. That left us with three options: the three compound walls. We had to break into one of the neighboring houses and scale the wall. The house to the left was occupied by a hostile gentleman who enriched our vocabulary of R-rated abuses in the Kannada language whenever he caught sight of us. So that house was ruled out. The house to the right was occupied by Nagaraj the notorious, the gang leader of the street boys. We were not too keen to discuss the case details with him. For one, he would not believe us and scoff at us. And he would definitely not allow us to use his home as the launching base for our crime investigation activities. So the only option that remained was the house behind. But again there was a complication. The people there had a dog: a huge black mastiff. None of us were too keen to run afoul of this ferocious animal. But an animal adversary did seem a better bet compared to human adversaries.

Now the question arose who would bell the cat or in this case the dog. Each of us in the team had a role. Deepak was the leader, I was the brains, Kulla was the kid. So the logical choice for dangerous field work was Ragi. He did not at all seem keen on this role that had been thrust upon him. I was delighted at an opportunity to show the boss’ right hand man in bad light. When he finally chickened out, it was my opportunity to grab the coveted position and I raised my hand. I could see a new respect in Deepak’s eye. I had shown my prowess in matters of the brain: now was the time to show my mettle as well. Once I accomplish the mission, I would be the undisputed second man in the gang.

We began to plan my adventure carefully. We spent the next two days carrying surveys of the location and studying the habits of the dog. We discovered that the dog was generally taken for a walk between 5.00 and 6.00. That was our window of opportunity. Ragi was literally glowering when he realized there was going to be no direct encounter with the brute after all. But he was by now thoroughly discredited in the gang’s eyes. Even Kulla was already deferring to my new found authority.Finally the D-day arrived and I entered the house as per plan. Clearly there was no sign of the dog. I bravely scaled the wall and dropped into the abandoned house. I began to look around for clues. Having no practical experience in detection before, I had no clue what a clue would look like. I just went about grabbing anything that looked interesting; I mean suspicious. Suddenly I heard a whistle. My friends had stationed themselves outside the house to warn me in case our four legged foe returned to his base before the pre appointed time. The whistle was the signal. I scampered towards the wall, scaled it and was about to jump when I heard the creak of the gate followed by a blood curdling growl. The dog had already arrived. We had not timed it right: a clear case of strategic planning failure.

I jumped back into the abandoned house. I wondered what to do. No way was I going to brave the mastiff. The dog’s barks and howls had taken away all my courage. I no longer wanted to be Deepak’s right hand man, I no longer wanted to play detective. I just wanted to be back at home: safe and sound. I silently sent out a prayer. What was I to do? I then calmly considered the options. The dog definitely was not an option. If the man in the house to the right side caught me, he would haul me to my parents. On the other hand what could Nagaraj do to me? At worst he could scoff at me and ridicule me. I could take that. So I quickly went to the right side compound wall and jumped. I landed with a thud.

“Hey what are doing here?”

It was Nagaraj’s younger brother Vinayak. We used to call him ‘Loose’ for his stupidity. I quickly built up a story of me getting spirited into the house by the ghost that resided there and how I had escaped and made my way into his house. He was simpleton who drank it all in. I was sure Nagaraj would not believe a word of it. So having secured myself, I walked out with my head held high: now a hero of the gang.

My friends were still waiting anxiously outside the 'doghouse'. I walked up to them and waved at them. They were so surprised and relieved to see me. We were soon at Deepak’s house going over the treasure trove I had managed to retrieve. The was a piece of cloth, presumably torn from a Sari, a tuft of hair, a bottle, a cigarette packet cover and a strange shaped stone.

I think this is becoming too long for a blog post - I’ll keep what we inferred from these clues and our next steps for another post, hopefully a much shorter one at that.

Click here to read the remaining part of this story.

Five Gifts for my Newborn Son

If there were five things I could gift my child to secure his or her future, what would they be? Interesting question! I would like to give him the five things that would make the entire world his and make his future secure for eternity: five of my favorite sets of lines from Rudyard Kipling's poem ‘If’

GIFT - I

If you can keep your head when all about you

  Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

  But make allowance for their doubting too

There is so much negativity in the world. No matter what you do, you are going to be blamed, doubted and hated. Isn't it indeed a gift to be immune to all this negativity and just be oneself?

GIFT - II

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same

Today’s competitive world puts all the more premium on success and shuns failure like plague. Wouldn't it be a gift to not be a rat in this mad rat race?

GIFT - III

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

  And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

  And never breathe a word about your loss

In these uncertain times, one is scared even to take the smallest of decision. Wouldn't it be a gift to be able to just stake everything you have and not be concerned even if you lose it all?

GIFT - IV

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

  Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

People are judged by their clothes, their net worth and their positions. Wouldn't it be a gift to interact with all kinds of people as just people: listen to them, know them and understand them but still not become them?

GIFT - V

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run

With so many distractions in today’s world, an hour saved is an extra hour lived. Wouldn't it be a gift to be able to get the maximum out of every minute of our lives?

This post is a part of the 1001 Gifts Activity by HDFC Life in association with BlogAdda.

Misadventures with Tablets

Well, apparently I need to write about my misadventures with a tablet for a contest. Misadventures, yes – they are easy to write about – my life itself can said to be one big misadventure. But where does tablet come into the misadventure? Pondering over my situation brings to my memory the boy who went into his exam, well prepared with an essay on cow and encountered an essay on an aero plane instead.  Unfazed the boy had started out his essay thus, “An aero plane is a vehicle that can fly our cities, jungles and country sides. When it flies over the countryside if one were to look out of the window, one can see many a cow grazing in tranquility.” Taking on from there he had gone on to rattle out the essay he had prepared on the cow. Not sure how amused the teacher was on finding this essay or how much marks he got. Nor do I know how amused the sponsors will be with my entry and whether I shall win anything. But then the boy did show some initiative, eh?

Well, so what about the tablet? I am no stranger to tablets. I was not a very healthy child and have had had more than my share of tablets at a young age itself. I also used to be fond of tablet covers which I used to call tic-tac for the sound they could make. I remember trading all the colored chalk pieces my grandmother had gifted me with my friend for tablet covers. I used to love trading stuff with my friends, often against my parents’ wishes and every one of them can be considered a misadventure in itself. I can remember so many instances of smuggling away all the good stuff my parents had got me to trade away for trash like bubble gum covers, tablet covers and discarded lottery tickets.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away and daily Yoga can keep tablets away. So far, so good! So I can conclude that Yoga is a better way to maintain health and complete my essay, sparing my readers any further torture. But then the catch is, the Yoga here is itself a tablet, a different kind of tablet, a tablet that does Yoga. And I have to write what misadventures I had with other tablets that do not do Yoga and how all that can be avoided with a Yoga tablet.

The greatest misadventure I can associate with my current tablet is buying it for I hardly ever used it. And I can avoid this in the Yoga tablet by choosing not to buy it. I can’t even imagine what other kind of adventures or misadventures one can have with a tablet of all things. As they say a dog is a dog is a dog, a tablet is a tablet is a tablet. In fact, one can have plenty of adventures and misadventures with dogs. I have even written a post about my misadventures with a dog and a story based on my adventures with another. Come to think of it, it would have been revolutionary if Lenovo had manufactured a computer in the form of a dog. All they have done in this Yoga tablet is added a stand to the tablet and they are touting it is as if it is the next biggest revolution in computers.

Talking of computers in shape of dogs, it is in not really such a ludicrous concept either. I remember reading a story in school of the love between a boy and his robot dog. There is also this famous robot dog Juno created by Tamil Science fiction writer Sujatha. Also it is not a concept confined to science fiction. Sony in fact manufactured a robot dog called Aibo way back in 1999 itself. But unfortunately the product did not turn out to be commercially viable and had to be discontinued in 2006. Guess people don’t find such products exciting. What they find more exciting are things like tablets with stands, mint with holes and soap powder whose molecules vibrate when put in a washing machine. Well, that’s the real world. Thank God, there is at least science fiction.

Well, while you are about it, check out this link for this innovative product.

Riding the Wave

Riding the Wave (Jun 2011 - Dec 2011)

High intensity can be sustained only over short bursts. Soon the intensity of writing had begun to tire me out and it was becoming stressful to keep up with the various prompts. So I had to slow down. But I had picked up good momentum in the previous two months and had picked up a good repertoire of blog post types. So in this period, blogging was completely effortless. There was no stress to write anything within a timeline. On the other hand, when I wanted to write there was no dearth of topics. I could just pull out a blog post like a rabbit out of a hat. It was around this period I became active on IndiBlogger.

Meaning of Real Beauty
I generally tended to keep away from IndiBlogger contests as the themes seemed too commercial. But I was inspired by one of my friends' take and finally put my hat into the ring. I did a thorough philosophical analysis of the concept of beauty. But to my disappointment, my entry was not even considered for a consolation prize nor my friend's while the winning entries were so mundane and superficial. Welcome to the world of blogger contests.

Adding more Color to our Lives
This was another IndiBlogger Contest post. Here I attempted a humorous cum philosophical take on the topic of importance of color in our lives. While my friends seemed to love this article, contest sponsors did not seem too impressed. This sealed things for me - decided contests were not the thing for me.

How to Write a Story
Given my mood to write essays, I wrote yet another essay - about the art of writing. Though many of the things I have said look obvious, it is difficult to practically follow in your art. I have been struggling to actually do some of the things in my stories.

Infatuation
Got back to taking poetry prompts - a haiku on infatuation.

Curse of the Last Swan
This was my fourth and last post in a genre I loved to write - stories of exactly 777 word size based on a picture prompt. After this one the pictures in the prompt failed to inspire me and eventually the prompt website closed down.

Mask of Life
This was poetry for a weekly picture prompt. At that time I was fascinated by what I had read about packrats. So I used that in my poem. Actually this poem and the previous story had inspirations from the book by Jared Diamond's book 'Collapse' I had recently read. Otherwise a general philosophical poem. It was also an attempt at poetry form called vilanelle.

Revenge
This was another experiment with poetry - this time a ballad. I have tried to express in poetry form, a story by Anton Chekov I had read in school. I have also used 3 poetry forms for the 3 parts of the story. This was for the monthly Blog-a-ton prompt.

Old
A combination of 2 poetry forms - Haiku and Acrostic with a philosophical theme.

Chrestomanci Series Review
A review of one of my favorite children's fantasy book series.

Legacy of Bharatavarsha
A piece of poetry on what India meant to me on the eve of independence day. This was for a contest organized by a fellow blogger. Poem was well appreciated. However did not win. It was a kind of semi ballad on Mahatma Gandhi.

Dune Series Review
This is a review of my all time favorite science fiction series. I somehow always find lesser comments on book review posts. Don't know if people don't read them or find little to comment about.

In Search of Freedom
I have attempted to retell an ancient story in modern settings. This story was well appreciated and won me my first Blog-a-Ton.

Ender Series (Bean Saga) Review
Yet another science fiction series review. I liked writing these despite low number of comments on them. One good thing about these was they brought Google traffic.

Bombay Duck is a Fish
This was the first free book I got for review. It really excited me to be given something free as a blogger. Tried to give a more professional review rather than the dreamy ones I give for my favorite book.

Technologies to beat Fuel Hikes
Finding a contest that afforded me scope to indulge in zany creativity, I entered into IndiBloggers Contests again. Had goo dun coming up with crazy ideas to save fuel.

All in a Day's Work
This was a post for a contest about the life of tree. Topic was somewhat like a school essay. But I enjoyed writing this and won a prize for this as well.

What if we don't go Organic?
This was again a straightforward topic. But I tried to use pictures and write in simple language like explaining to a child. Though different from my usual style of writing, I enjoyed it.

Fifty Grand Worth of Apparel
This was not meant to be a fun contest - a purely commercial one with little scope for creativity. So I decided not to give a damn to winning and have fun with the topic.

Not Totally Unbelievable
Another free book for review - This time from a close blogger friend. Could not be really critical with this one though given my personal friendship with the author.

A Tryst with Death
Another contest for which I have attempted a comical take. This time a kind of mythological spoof commercial.

The Latest Addition to Endangered Species: Leaders
This is the kind of post that is most popular in blog-o-sphere and what I like writing least. But at times when I feel strongly about some current political or social issue, I end up pouring my feeling as a blog post. I do it very rarely though, as I see writing more as an artistic expression.

A Corporate Parable
This was an attempt to adapt an ancient tale from Aesop's Fables to modern settings.

Paradox of Middle Class in Indian Democracy
This is again a political opinion post. I usually like to write such topics in an abstract sense to avoid emotional baggage and preformed notions associated with specific events and people. But then people do not relate to a purely abstract and theoretical post.

Salamander - A fiery Adventure Tale
Once again for a contest, I gave full expression to my creativity and came up with a zany tale right out of Calvin and Hobbes. It was a kind of free flowing tale written in an exaggerated voice.

In Quest of a Steed
I felt it was a long time since I had written a post about some comical personal experiences like the bride hunt tales that had catapulted me to the next level. So decided to try one of those again.

Miss Minoes - Review
Movie reviews is a popular topic for bloggers. Somehow I was never into this. But after seeing this particular movie, I felt like writing about it. Maybe one day I might even write beauty, tech and cookery posts.

The Revenge of Kaivalya

This book is something I have wanted to read since a couple of years back. This book was self-published way back in 2011, when the author Sumana Khan used to be one of my closest friends. I met her at a fiction writing contest in 2010 and her encouraging words about my entry really helped me develop confidence in my writing abilities. I fondly remember those few months when I interacted with her and 3-4 other writers about all things writing – when I really felt like a real writer rather than just someone scribbling on one’s blog for time pass. We even planned to do an anthology together. Unfortunately that project was shelved but the idea that was seeded then remained in my mind and is nearing fruition now for me with a different group. I however could not pick up the book then as I was a bit hesitant about online transactions and not having anyone at home to receive mail. But I am happy I was finally able to pick up this book now when it has been taken up for publication by a reputed publishing house.

Coming to the book, it is a genre that is not attempted much by Indian authors – paranormal thriller. The premise of this story in itself does not have much novelty as such but it is the execution that makes this work special. The narration is just immaculate and each character has been etched with care. The descriptions are vivid: the author works on the five senses of the reader and draws the reader into situations being described in the story. I seriously felt as if I was in the jungles of Sakleshpur while reading the story. Another thing I loved about the book was the authentic scent of local Karnataka culture that wafted from almost every page – be it the descriptions of the local cuisine, the locations, flora and fauna or the history. I liked how the story was linked to real events from history. That made it feel more real. Somehow the reader tends to respect an author who has done a bit of research rather than someone who pulls history or mythology out of his posterior.

I do not want to go into too much details of the story for the fear of giving out any spoilers. Of course this is not a cliff hanger whodunit where telling who the killer is will ruin the whole story. But it is more fun discovering events along the way rather than things being revealed before their time by a spoilsport reviewer. Also this story is laid out like a jigsaw puzzle where different seemingly unconnected pieces come together as the story progresses. So I would like to just share my impressions and leave the reader to discover the story.

Characterization is another aspect of the story that is superb. The book has so many characters and each character is so well etched that one can distinctly remember as many as ten characters at the end of the book. This is a big achievement as I have read quite a few books where even one character did not manage to remain with me till the end. However I felt some of the minor characters need not have been etched to that level of detail.

Given that it is a thriller, one can’t miss the aspect of pace. For a 377 page book, it remains quite taut and there is no point at which the reader feels like putting it down or skipping through pages. Something keeps happening all the time to keep the reader’s attention.

I did feel that the plot could have been a bit stronger and the narration a bit scarier. I don’t know if the author meant this book to be a horror. Things get disturbing at times but the reader will definitely not end up wetting his pants. But overall for a first time author, I would say it is a great attempt and way better than most of the books in the Indian market. I would definitely recommend this book to any reader looking for a light read with good language and narration.

Ad Mads - Comical Endorsements

We used to have this contest called Ad Mads at school, wherein a team of 5-6 participants would be a given a product and the team has to come up with a small advertisement skit for 5-10 minutes. Often the teams were rated highly for humor in the content and creativity than the effectiveness of product promotion.

When I saw so many blogger contests that required bloggers to directly or indirectly endorse products, somehow the idea did not appeal to me and I kind of felt readers would enjoy these kind of posts only as much as television viewers enjoy commercials. But I still wanted to give a shot at these contests. So I decided to treat them like the ad mads at school and come up with something comical that readers can enjoy and still technically meet the requirements of the contest. Who knows - if the brand folks have a sense of humor, I might even end up winning something.

Following are some of my posts of this kind:-

Technologies to beat Fuel Hikes
Here the contest itself required one to come up with outrageous ideas to save fuel. I have come up with 10 really wacky to save fuel.

Fifty Grand Worth of Apparel
This was a contest requiring blatant commercialism wherein you had to select fifty thousand rupees worth of products from a website with reasons why I would pick up the same. I found this topic so boring I decided to have some fun with this theme.

A Tryst with Death
 This was for a contest sponsored by Surf Excel stating what you would do if you could save 2 hours per day due to use of the product. I attempted a spoof on a grand scale in the classical Ad Mad style.

Cloud Black and the Seven Sardars
This was for a contest sponsored by Lakme Sun Screen. Once again I did a double spoof on product advertising as well as the old Snow White fairy Tale.

Greek v/s Geek
This was one more take for the same Lakme contest where I attempt a more caustic take in dialogue format having fun at the expense of the product branding and the contest theme.

A Brief History of Washing
This was again more a traditional Ad Mad - where I have attempted to present an exaggerated presentation of the product positioning through a tall tale.

The Great Indian Braid Hunt
This post was not for any specific product or contests. It was just my take on the various blogger contests on hair products. Here I tried a funny take on the format of the contests rather than taking on the product.

Yet Another Untold Story
I felt people were beating the old fairy tale of Rapunzel to death for contests related to hair products. So I have attempted an offbeat take on the story with a slight dig at hair product endorsements.

The Blackberry Crush Way
This post is for a contest that requires bloggers to endorse flavors of a drink. This is my attempt at lighthearted pun around the name of one of the flavors.