ad mad world

Continuing my writing workshop experiences, I will be posting the articles / short stories that I churned on the spot (a feat I never imagined I could pull off). The articles will be preceded by a short note on that particular exercise for those who want to know the details. Thanks AD for this idea.

Ok, this exercise was related to the advertising world. We had to take any brand (existing or fictional). pair it up with the tag line of another brand and come up with the body copy. Here’s presenting 2 of my ideas…Ad, Vincy, Jayesh, Tilak please don’t gun for my life if it hurts your creative sensibilities …

Product: Kamasutra Condoms

Tag line: Just Do It (originally belonging to Nike)

Body Copy: Day or Night. Hide & Seek or Catch-me-if-you-Can. Handcuffs or Scarves. On top or Down under. On the kitchen platform or the dining table. Against the wall or Between the sheets. Chocolate or strawberry. Ice cubes or Champagne. Dotted or Ribbed.

Whatever your fantasy…Just Do It…Kamasutra Condoms.   

Product: Mother’s Recipe Pickles

Tag line: Finger lickin good (originally belonging to KFC)

Body Copy: Mother’s Recipe pickles. Selected by a mother’s loving hands, tempered by a mother’s love and pickled with a mother’s patience. Every bottle of Mother’s Recipe pickles is guaranteed to take you back in time. To the kitchen where you stealthily brought down the jars while your mother was asleep. The tangy, sweet, sour, spicy taste on your tongue, the smell of home ground spices and the soft succulent pieces of mago, lime, karvanda or carrot. Ummm…we’re sure your mouth is salivating (at least mine was while writing it:-)) and your finger automatically finds its way to your mouth. And so today even after all these years when nostalgia strikes you and you crave for a bite of your mother’s love, you reach out to Mother’s Recipe pickles.

Available in cut or whole magoes, lime (sweet n sour), karvanda, carrot and amla. Need we mention that it’s finger lickin good.

thou shalt write

Hello after a long hiatus, I am back. Apologies for being such a lazy bum and thank you for giving me such flak for not updating my blog. Well it sure has worked. So here it is…

Last weekend I had been to Khandala for an overnight writer’s workshop. It was the most amazing break I had ever taken. Over a period of 2 days all we did was write. Write on mundane topics, write musing memories, write nonsense, make rhyme, coin our own phrases and the works. But it was liberating. Everytime I wrote I felt a nerve in me relax. I didn’t think of work at all. To top it all since it was Khandala, the climate was superb. We sat outdoors amidst the deep valleys, waterfalls that formed a small pool at the bottom of the valley and breeze that threatened to sweep us away. It indeed was serene, the perfect setting to open your mind and let your thoughts flow unhindered.

And flow they did. Brevity not being my strong point, my short stories were about 5 pages long . Thank God, I’m not a journalist…would never be able to crunch my articles . The feedback given to me was, “you write well but you must learn to control your thoughts as they tend to get too long”.

Patricia Chandrashekhar (a freelance journalist and visiting faculty at Mass Media Colleges) had organised this workshop. An amazing woman, a complete bundle of energy, she was instrumental in getting the best out of us. Even those who were not into the habit of reading or writing managed to come up with whacky stuff. The workshop itself had a motley crew of people from ages 16 to 60yrs. From college students, journalists, media professionals, businessmen to government employees (we had 3 of them – one a civil engineer with Konkan Railways, one an Asst. Commisioner with Income Tax and one with Indian Oil). But out there we were all budding writers.

Well thanks to this workshop, I have a reservoir of articles, so I don’t have to tax my grey cells for the next few days .

If you are interested in being part of this workshop or the writer’s club (that meets twice a month on sundays at colaba), write in to pat.writestuff@gmail.com or call Patricia on 9821986924.