juxtaposition by the haemoglobin in the atmosphere....

Is it only me or even you, to whom most of the 'about us' lines by designers/design firms on their website sound like 'You see, the whole country of the system is juxtaposition by the haemoglobin in the atmosphere....'? At least the later entertained us in Amar Akbar Anthony!
Why do we, as designers, try to claim so much? I don't mean we don't do all that work, we do! (yeah 'covering the entire supply chain' and all). But why do we become so desperate that we try to claim all that in one single line, bang on the home page itself? WHY? I go mad when I am forced to read these lines on the landing page of their website itself. Why can't we bring the simplicity we claim in our designs, to the content/text on our websites? Do we really think someone is going to give us a huge project/order after having read these lines successfully till end? Whom do the writers of this kind of content, really target?
I have even started hating some of the very meaningful words because they appear so casually on these 'about us' pages in such a incomprehensible claims! Words like, sustainability, integrate, systems, innovation, yes yes the word 'entire' too!

Came across little too many examples recently, some of them are here for you to enjoy! Please note that all the lines below are work of fiction and any resemblance to any online material is a pure coincidence! The design fraternity is doing really great work (including the work we claim!), its just these lines that irritate me!
;)

"We integrate the cultural, ecological, economic and social tenets of sustainability through collaborative design of holistically sustainable contemporary products."


"We tap the potential of design thought, and design processes, to bring about a transformative change in the business through change in branding strategies and product offerings of the clients"


"...from initial concept to manufacture, exploring the wide variety of alternative paths for Product Development while trying to harmonize the requirements of marketing, production and finance, thus offering 'total design' solutions to our projects."

welcome!

hii dearos,
hope it was not much effort to reach here (again)!
And I am really curious to know who has reached when!
so do drop a comment!
:)
except for the web url, nothing has really changed! so just change the address you have,
from
http://www.besigns.blogspot.com/
to
http://www.bhavinmali.blogspot.com/

and enjoy...
;)
bhavin

The Last Sunday.

1 route
2 Bikes
3 winters
33 months
825 happy mornings
33,000 km
3,21,750 distinct jerks to spinal cord.
Restart.


Few dreams
some wishes
many people
some friends
few relations
lot of exposure
some lessons
few realisations.
Refresh.

Stories and Trees

This was a long due post and now I don't even remember how I thought about the link between type of stories and type of trees. I still haven't thought about this in depth though. With my limited reading statistics, I can provide only 1 or 2 examples of each type! :)

Palm Stories: These are generally plain looking and not so interesting stories at first look. The story teller takes enough time to build the base for the story. It requires you to go on reading till you reach the top point (high-point as it is called), to really enjoy and understand the story. Examples can be some good humour stories (jokes?) or even some travelogues etc.

e.g. Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Bush Stories:

The story teller is an ordinary person and so is the topic of his story. The story can be woven around any routine experience or common personalities existing around. Whether the story is interesting or not depends hugely upon the creativity of story teller. There is not much firm basework and main attraction is the surface ornamentation of story (or bush!). Many blog posts fall in this category.

e.g. this post. and this too

Creeper Stories: There exists a huge variety in this little complicated and equally interesting category of stories. They can range from real life experiences to fantacy stories and love stories to murder mysteries. The interesting part is, the branches or supporting parts are almost as strong (or weak) and as important as the main stem. So even if it looks like there is not strong enough base for the story, the strength lies in the complex network of all the characters and their own lives! There are lot many twists and turns and many 'high-points' worth enjoying throughout the length and width of the story, just like flower creepers. You can actually enjoy any part of the story and will be pulled in to trace the start and end, eventually realising its the journey that is more enjoyable than the end points.

e.g. the recent good example is this story by Janaki (part 1 to 10).

Pine Stories: The composition, form, structure, details.... this is what makes these stories worth reading. They are very predictable, like love stories, but the way they are told/narrated, in a very soft romantic poem like manner, makes them enjoyable.

e.g. 2 states by Chetan Bhagat, 50 first dates , bollywood movies like DDLJ etc

Mango Stories: Biographies or even some novels based on real life. A very strong base, strong enough branches,very closely linked to each other and to the environment, very much like mango tree! The concept is very deep rooted and demands your proper involvement and interest in it. This is not just for enjoying the story, it will stay with you for a long time even changing the way you think sometimes. Very inspirational!

e.g. Closest from what I have read till now is Totto Chan, better example can be stories of raja Harishchandra.

Banyan Stories: Epics! I do not have enough words and wisdom to write about them 'in short'! Unlike mango stories, they go beyond the individual reader, to inspire, affect and nurture the whole societies, cultures. They can be interpreted at various levels of literature as well as social evolution. And they are still not boring but very beautiful examples of art!

e.g. Ramayana, Mahabharata, Odyssey etc.

Bonsai Stories:

I would really not like to call them stories! They look like they were made as per marketing demand and requirements. They have everything, but still lack something very important like the scale, gravity, rendering them more of decorative item on the shelf in living room. They simply don't feel original. It's like Bhavin writing his interpretation of Ramayana/King Lear on his blog in one post! Show off!

Ok What is This?

:)

She

In spite of her unnecessarily serious face sometimes, she had really pleasant smile. Her eyes looked confident and captivating at the same time. I really had no idea, what kind of a person hid behind this beautiful wheatish face. Yes I had already started finding her beautiful! She had little curly dark hair left open and the way they moved with the wind on the terrace was almost hypnotising.
"So what do you enjoy the most?", she asked. May be she noticed I was too busy observing the beauty around me, and just to bring me back to the conversation, asked me this question.
Her parents had arranged for this privacy on the terrace so that we could talk to each other comfortably. Privacy on the terrace! Smart!
Though I had instructed myself not to start the never ending topic about my bike obsession, I somehow ended up saying,"Bikes! I love the experience of floating one feet above the ground and moving anywhere at will!" I ended my line with a smile, and why not? I had managed to finish this topic in one sentence!
"Do you like bikes?", ohh GOD, I should have asked 'What do you like?' instead!
"Yes, we used to go for road trips sometimes... in college days.", she said.
"hmmm...", I was searching for some other topic, which she did and asked,"Where do you plan to settle?"

I was under this foolish impression that boys ask questions and girls answer, in such 'arranged marriage' meets! But this girl seemed to have done her homework well. She didn't give me enough time to think what to ask and went on asking the 'most important questions'.
Now I really don't believe so much in this concept of settling somewhere, but for the 'most important questions' you have to give 'most expected answers'!
So I said,"There is enough scope for our profession in pune and mumbai. And I will be closer to my parents also then." My parents will be so happy for this answer! Somehow even she looked happy. Truth does not possess this quality of making someone happy. Pune is good place for bikers though! But I avoided this topic successfully again.

"You don't like wearing saree?", my first self initiated question! Though it sounded little useless to me also.
"I do, but I thought it will be better to meet you the way usually I am."
Hmmm... this girl was something and her next question just confirmed it.
She asked, "Do you know cooking?"
This was supposed to be my question traditionally! "ummmm.... not really. I mean I can manage to make something edible with eggs & I make good tea, but nothing much beyond that. You also don't cook?" The last question came very naturally and from the bottom of my heart or may be stomach.
She said, "I do, almost everything, but don't get time to cook everyday. You know this work-till-late-culture in offices na? So mom cooks most of the time."
I don't know if I was supposed to suggest any solution, but I said,"hmm I know. Thats why most of the working couples end up employing cook. It's quite convenient."
"Ya but I don't find that idea so interesting. I mean you still have to depend on some third person and their time na? Do you like non-veg? I am vegetarian."
She was really good at asking questions, or atleast making simple questions tricky. I had to think a bit to formulate my answer. " ummm.. I like non-veg, but it's not something I can't live without." 'Like bikes' I wanted to say.

Like an experienced recruiting officer, she went on asking 'the most important questions' and after a while it didn't really matter who asked the question! Behind this straight forward sharp-shooter, I could see a very honest, true-to-herself girl with an urge to plan for nice simple clutter-free life. She was not so much interested in knowing which car I would prefer buying and when, whether an apartment on 10th floor or 15th, whether my dream of owning a design business is little risky or not. May be because this just needs money which even she had her own! What she was more concerned about was, making it clear the way she was and will be, that she takes her work as seriously as I do, that she thinks things like cooking are equal responsibility of both the partners, that she has her own choices no matter how small or big. And most important, that she conveys this clearly to me! Simple!

END.
I had started writing this IMAGINARY story some time back, and what made me finish it today was the new fountain pen Pogo gifted me and this very nice article on 'neeru's corner. Must read for all the boys or rather eligible bachelors.

problem

Mostly, there is a problem, when you discover it!

Solution is just a by-product of that discovery.

one picture = 1000 words and vice versa sometimes..

Some very interesting and effective 'text only' print ads.
click to enlarge as usual.

moving fingers

This post is dedicated to the 'moving fingers' of Teamea. :)
"moving fingers' was a nice blog to read and I loved all the poetic part of it. Just like every blog has its own identity and style, 'rhythm' as I understand, was the theme for this blog. Not just in the name (and the pic above ;) ), this theme was reflected in every post in some or other way, in variety of topics, in her perception of life, in memories and and the current issues, in love for her language and respect for culture. It was indeed run by 'moving fingers'!
It's beyond my wisdom to understand what it means when you stop a blog! Whats exactly that one stops? Anyway, I wish atleast fingers are moving, even if we couldn't see them dancing... :)
Don't stop expressing, He has given you something special, appreciate it in the best possible way. Do write... for yourself (and mail it to me... heheheheh ;)

Rear View Mirror

Unlike all the other mirrors, this one never shows you, ‘your’ reflection! Its not meant for seeing what you are wearing, how you look, but much more than that.
It shows you what you have left behind, where you have come from and sometimes shows what’s coming up! And all this without any need for looking back.
I find all this very interesting and essential. No matter where you are, just close your eyes for a while, and you see your own ‘rear view mirror’! Things just get lined up in front of your closed eyes. You recall every moment, just gone into past. Off course you can’t change it, but it certainly helps you decide your next move, at least till the next turn, where you will have a totally different, new scene in the mirror.
Keep going…….. but don’t forget to take a moment and look into your ‘rear view mirror’!...

Who am I?.....

Bhavin? Oh, but its just my name!, not me!.... Then who am I? A designer?, a student?, son?, brother?, friend? But aren’t these all just my relations with the external world? And there can be thousands and millions of such relations, there can be numerous ‘my’, ‘his’, ‘her’, ‘their’s, but where is the ‘I’?
Is it my body which makes me ‘me’? But still its ‘my’ face, ‘my’ height, ‘my’ colour and not ‘I’…. Or is it the virtues and vices I have, make me ‘me’? But then why does it happen that the same person finds me very good at times and very bad some time else? Or is it the situation which proves me ‘good’ or ‘bad’? Or it is other person’s expectations from me in that particular situation, which decides whether I am good or bad, even if I am the same person always? But in that case also, I must know what is being that ‘same’ person i.e. ‘I’!…
And do I have to take some efforts to keep being that ‘same’ person? Ideally I shouldn’t have to!... But then why do I have to think (consciously or otherwise) when I have to respond to a particular situation? Doesn’t that thinking involve a hidden search for ‘I’? May be my responses to similar situations change with time, experience and other people involved, but then how do people expect or predict my particular response to a particular situation? There must be ‘something’ within me, which keeps me ‘me’ irrespective of other things changing! And isn’t it very strange and unfair, that others who expect my particular response, know that ‘something’ within me and I don’t know? But when their expectation about my response proves to be false, does it mean that the ‘something’ kept me ‘me’ has changed? For that person, may be yes!.... Oh…. Then is this ‘something’ about me different for different people?..... Then how can it keep me ‘I’? Or am ‘I’ different for everybody? All this again points to my relations with others and nowhere near ‘I’!....
Is the ‘I’ illusion? Is the ‘I’ mirror? The mirror which is trying to show what’s behind it!.... I am feeling as if I am standing in front of mirror and trying to see what’s behind me!....
And exactly ‘who’ is feeling that?.......
ha ha ha ……..