Let's reinvent the wheel


So, I keep hearing this again and again and again and again - "Let's not reinvent the wheel." I hear it so often that I often feel the urge to shove the wise-guys cracking the wheel line under the wheels of a railcar or something. Damn them, and damn the advise to not invent the wheel. Let's never shy away from reinventing the wheel. It might bring quite a few practical benefits:

  • An alternative design: A square wheel may be no good for a cart, but it may come mighty useful in a locking mechanism or some other machine.
  • An alternative material: A wheel made of cotton may be of no use outdoors, but in a hospital or something it might come very useful.
  • An alternative process: Burning a wheel may be very useful when you need to speed up the process, instead of curving it.

And, above all you can always have the joy in knowing that your superior intelligence have never depended on someone else to invent the wheel for you. Cheers.

Not much meaningful anyways

There is no meaning. There are only associations. All the concepts we use are meaningful only in the context of what we associate with them. To a kid who never seen a bird, apart from the sorry fellows living in his father's poultry a bird would not mean flight, much less freedom. In England they have a dozen words (hence a dozen concepts) to identify rain in multiple forms. In Bangladesh we have two dozen words to mean love, and all mean something slightly different from the other.

Advertising people know that. And, that's why the fight is always on to associate brands with stuff that we find relevant. Associating Mountain Dew with extreme sports and associating Lux with Aishwaryia Rai are only two examples. There are so many ways to do exactly that. Banglalink has chosen and extensively used a warm, vibrant and friendly color. Pepsi has used images of high energy fun in everything. Coca-cola has built stories around the word "thanda". Levis has used sizzling models through and through.

The problem begins when the association becomes "it" for a brand. Take Grameenphone for an example. The theme of Stay Close has become so all encompassing for them that no other value, no other story or no other image gets even the slightest of chance there. Good for a short burst. But pretty bad for long term brand building, eh? The same goes for the new Arku Spice campaign. Nice that someone is associating the color red with a campaign for chili powder brand. But, what to say when there's nothing else to it?

Why don't we remember that the audience of today are already tired of the information clutter around them. MTV has brought down our attention span down to a maximum of 3 minutes, and an average of 600 commercial stimuli has taken our capacity to retain to a new height of fragmentation. We are easily bored and we don't care to remember anything for long. Yesterday is always one year back, and the likeability for even the most popular commercials hardly go beyond 3 months. The question is simple - do we really need to overkill an association and make the audience filter it automatically out as garbage? Or do we build on powerful stories and images that are always fresh and innovative while keeping the associative stuff in the background?

It's easy to get associated with boredom and overbearing. You don't even have to try for it.

Fact and factories

I see a few different types of planning departments at work. Some of them are part of huge assembly line that we call an advertising agency. Others work as a convergent point for the a discipline we call advertising. Yet others work as a supplementary service for the core advertising practices. And, of course, there's a final type, like my very own department, that keeps shifting its role.

The assembly line planners live as part of a smooth machine that flows from client to servicing, from servicing to planning, from planning to creatives, from creatives to servicing again, then to production, events and whatever.

The convergent planners serve as a think tank for servicing, creatives, research, events and even the production departments, and the machine is laid out in a spherical format, not a linear one.

And... *sigh*... those poor planners who work in a dark dinghy corner on the factory floor, to be summoned if and when they are required... I don't even know how I'd describe their job. These shops, no matter how well running, are probably cottage industries, not destined to become any proposition of magnitude (emphasis on probably).

Strangely enough, there are planners available, as it seems, for each of the situations. There are those who would prefer to work as part of an assembly line, free of worries of exploration and always with their work clearly cut-out by somebody else (managers, service people, clients... whoever, as long it is somebody else, it's fine). Born to bear the flag of mediocrity and never accomplishing anything bigger than a pay hike, these planners probably would always remain the mainstay of the industry.

The convergence planners are a rare breed, and not surprisingly most of these people end up writing best sellers or making headline news (positive news, dude, not a dope scandal). Naturally they may face a resistance, of different magnitude, from even their own agencies. But, when that obstacle doesn't exist or is removed they tend to move on to the Olympus (Mythili Chandrashekhar, Martin Lindstrom, Al Ries).

And, the cave-dwelling planners? Well, those lazy bums are there just because their agencies felt they need planners (it's kind of fashionable too) and they applied because they were just looking for a job, any job. Now that their only experience is of planning, they are kind of stuck with it.

A towel is not just a towel

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. (Arthur C. Clarke)
How many of you have been delusional enough to believe that a towel is just a towel? How many have never considered its use beyond - (a) drying yourself; (b) covering yourself before you get dressed? If you haven't gone beyond that yet, please, try to use that little gray stuff stuffed into your topmost bone structure.

A towel can become a turban, in times of heat, and, yes, in times of cold. Better still, it can become a keffiyeh if you want (if you're not familiar with one of those headdresses look long and hard at a traditional Arab). It can remain a dress for as long as you want - working alternatively as a sarong, a lungi/mundu/dhoti, or a shawl (and, yes, the towel-shawl can be used as an over-garment too). If you're Superman or Batman or Magneto, you definitely can try using a towel as a cape.

It can also be a carrying bag for little pieces of stuff, or a stuffing for those little pieces in a larger carrying bag, especially if those little pieces are kind of fragile. You also can beat out smaller fires with a towel, or really small adversaries (more so if you have a bit of Shaolin training in you). For the faint of heart, the idea would be to wrap the killing instrument with a towel to use it as silencer.

A towel is also a sleeping arrangement. If you don't believe me ask any of those loners from the Lonely Planet. You can spread a towel on the ground to turn it into a bed, or spread it on your body to turn it into a blanket, or roll it under your head to make a pillow. If you already have everything needed to sleep turn the towel into a window drape, so that your neighbor won't find out that you're prone to sleeping unshaven. Who needs more, really!

A towel is an dining arrangement. Pour some puffed-rice or flattened-rice or crisped-rice onto it along with some mustard oil, onions, chili and, voila, you have a plate ready. For drinks, dip a corner of the towel into the drink and suck on it (for heavy drinkers, a better idea would be dipping the whole towel in). If you have the plate and the glass already there, then use the towel as a seat, or a cover for the seat. Wonderful, eh?

A towel can become a bandage or a sling in medical emergencies. You can use it as muleta (that would be a small piece of cloth that you wave in front of an angry bull, but only if you're either very suicidal or a trained matador). For a little child it can be a very comfortable hammock or a baby-sling. And, hey, in this month of Ramadan, how can I forget its amazing use as a prayer rug.

Thank you Lord for giving us this wonderful gift of a towel. Hallelujah.

Heavily inspired by Douglas Adams and Smita Aparna

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again

Sweet dreams are made of these. Who am I to disagree?
A couple of nights back I started out with a pretty simple dream - I was trying to take a few people through a trip to my home - and it turned into such a nightmare that I woke up almost with my sheet soaking wet. It took me days to go through whole maze of the dream, and I don't think I have figured it out completely yet.

I couldn't recognize my home. I knew where it was exactly, I could feel the house, but there wasn't a single landmark, a single symbol standing that looked familiar. In my dream I could remember that my home is a little 400 odd square feet tiny apartment on the fourth floor of five-story building with lots of tress around, but the house I went to was in the middle of a huge apartment building with lots and lots of other flats all around. On the particular story, the fourth floor, everything was taken down - the walls, the windows, and everything - for reconstruction. Pigeons were flying through the holes in the wall, gaping maws of window ports were covered with thick black paper, and puddles of filthy water adorned the floor all over.I went down to find the landlord, and she wasn't there. Nobody else remembered me. In fact the neighbors claimed the house was always like this, and I must have been out of my wits to claim that I ever lived there.

Pretty simple, aye? It is. But then I start to remember even in my dream that the house I grew up in, a staff quarter of Dhaka University, is lost to me as my mother retired. I have known no other place as a home till I got married. I was not even there when my mother and sisters shifted to this massive apartment building that houses some 30,000 people. I was happy in a tiny apartment in a semi-familiar neighborhood, and somewhat happy when I moved to another apartment on the top floor of a five story building in the same Dhaka neighborhood. Both the firth and the third homes had plenty trees around. Then my marriage fell apart, and the my final home as a married man was torn down to make space for a large apartment building. Through all these I made my office a second home, and right at this moment that office is being rehashed. No planning room will exist at my office anymore.

I felt so homeless in my dream. Nothing looks familiar anymore, nobody remembers my home. It's gone, more like they are gone, all of them. Only the pigeons and the thick black paper felt a bit reassuring. I know them both, only they are not to be mine. I know. And, probably I can't even talk about them either.

Somehow, when I woke up sweating and on the verge of sobbing out loud, I felt I'll never ever be able take someone through a trip to my home again. Homeless people don't do that.

Wrote this in May 1, 2010

Glimpses of World History

history is essentially a rock band. very rocky, very banned.
in the beginning, there was only darkness. then stephen king created the big bang, and separated the big from the bang. not to be outdone, god almighty zilla, the other cambridge physicist, created jesus christ. to make the story complete he also created judas, pilate and mary magdalene - apparently by order of universal studios.


in 209, chuck norris established the roundhouse. god saw the roundhouse and it was good. so he blessed it. soon the town sprouted around the roundhouse. check norris saw the town and it was good. so he killed the first mayor - scooby doo. the doo was done for good.

in 296, disneyland was taken over by santa claus inc. rudolf rednose reindeer, the spokesperson for jolly ole saint nicholas, the chairperson of the company, kept the acquisition secret in apprehension of fairy-dust producing mafiosi. but, cnn eventually found the truth out, a case that became famous as the santagate tapes.

in 361, everyone was happy. they were so happy that 80% of all strip-joints and 65% of all pubs had to shut down due to lack of business. that was the year when christmas became popular. coca-cola, red bull and guiness decided to sponsor it together.

in 461, tut-ankh-amen, senior producer for virgin records floated the infamous band peter, paul and mary. tzar peter the great form russia, paul mccartney from liver-cirrhosis and typhoid mary from the US were picked as members through the first reality show - "lend a rubber" - sponsored by micheline. unfortunately the band had more records returned than sold.

in 498, dj a-shock became the emperor of india. he had but one problem, india was just a myth and not a real country. well... a-shock was a follower of lord badass, the prince of persia and propagator of rebirths. apparently he believed that by his sixth reincarnation india will start to exist.

in 548, martini discovered the radio. he was also known as macaroni. early radios looked a bit like sashimi, only more spicy. martini aka macaroni improved his design to make them look like pasta, only less spicy. conservatives who liked the early design, and pastorals who liked the later design have been at each others throat ever since.

in 581, the town faced a real catastrophe, the nature of which is still unknown. the day was obviously saved by the powerpuff girls - jayne mansfield, dolly parton and pamela anderson. though the day was saved, the night wasn't. the night happily went comatose (alternatively spelled tomatoes)

617 was the year of the great schism. hindus and muslims finally fell apart over spiritual matters. hindus called their holy spirit the rum, and muslims called theirs the gin. the beers of netherlands (an alternative term for hell) took the opportunity to start the beer war in south of france (alternatively known as zululand).

in 678, nothing happened. it was a pretty big thing to happen. nothing was produced by hollywood mega-mogul boris yeltsin. nothing was performed by the queen of sheba, and her boyfriend king soloman (previously known as prince loneboy). nothing was all the rage for a year. then nothing died a silent death with the advent of the latest fad - something.

in 731, the marx brothers - richard and karl - met mommies, the ruling parents of egypt who replaced papas as the dominant parents. that meeting inspired a number of chart topping singles like "star spangled banner", "good bye blue sky" and "beat it". the number of mommies declined over time. they are now listed with the irresponsible union for contradiction in nature (iucn) red list for endangered species.

in 755, abraham lincoln aka washboard abs drafted the american declaration of independence which started like "all men are equal". but since that left out women and the superman from consideration, it had to be redrafted. the final version read like "all men, women, the superman and wonder woman are almost equal, you moron".

in 814, daniel learned to read. since books were not available in israel, he was reading only the writings on the wall. it's worth noting that the wall is essentially a beatles album. eventually daniel invented a book that had walls built into it. for some strange reason he called it a facebook.

in 866, the pope fell in love with the dope. christianity became the highest of religions ever since. it was declared an aviation hazard by the federal aviation administration (faa). world wild life fund (wwf) also declared it as a hazard to bald eagles and vampire bats.

in 1069, mount vesuvius erupted in rome, more precisely near the termini station. though the italians hated it, the japos really liked the erupting mountain. they immediately imported in to yokohama sub-urbs, and renamed it as mount fuji. the newly installed mountain gave birth to one of the biggest merchandising fads in history.

in 1011, leonardo de caprio painted all of his ex-girlfriends - donalisa, analisa, rhonalisa and monalisa - and posted to myspace. the girls sued leonardo. he took shelter in the trees with rest of the ninja turtles - donatello, raphael and michelangelo. unfortunately the hand of law is pretty long, and they ended up weaving woolen gloves for those hands for a long time at blackgate penitentiary in gotham city.

in 1129, the whole town was gutted by fire, burning everything and a few marshmallows. fortunately the marshmallows burned to the right consistency. and god saw it was good, and he made the three stooges - hitler, zenghis, and montezuma - the lords of marshmallows. pretty neat. only cain, the mayor or the town, was not too happy about it. so, he was banished to the world of sirens and cyclops forever. sad.

1172 was the most peaceful year in history. only 3,822 wars erupted around the world, and no more than 39% of global population was wiped off, with 44% more maimed or crippled. there were enough people left to write chronicles of peace, love and prosperity. it is believed that a few ballads were written as well.

in 1228, chuck norris pretended to die. obviously, he can't die, because the inmates of hell are not ready to take more punishment. no one was allowed to ask questions about the death. because, you don't ask chuck norris anything, he does the questioning after he kills you.

in 1348, before the black plague and after the jewish holocaust, they had three years of peace and happiness. it was only shortly interrupted by the marriage between aladin and rapunzel. they said dane girls are too meek for arab boys. thus was the circumcision invented. all hail the skin flick.

in 1414, the sun refused to set in the british empire. so the poor people at branson bakery invented the turkish empire. a pretty cool invention considering that the sun started setting in that empire every morning. naturally, tourism started booming there immediately. them british are such losers.

in 1430, robin hood joined the crusades. but since the crusaders were tired of blood and gore by that time, all the action he had was a bit pornographic in nature. the king of hebrews cut his role down to a pg13 version, and the war was lost to turkish harems. long live harems of the world.


in 1535, national autistic and schizophrenic association (nasa) discovered the moon. skeptics, agnostics and whirling dervishes claimed that it was not discovered, rather it was invented by nasa. the controversy continued over months, until they had to forget the whole issue in the face of extreme threat from killer ants from lebanon. incidentally, the moon was never seen again.

circa 1617, the kingdom of heaven, a disney franchise, went out of vogue.

in 1678, the sun finally rose in the turkish empire. the light shone through all the harems. obviously it marked the end of the turkish conquests. presumably no one was ready to to conquer the unwashed and oversized harem dwellers. not even the turks.

in 1702, the ottomans eventually moved on to make space for ottowomans. it was much celebrated by eco-feminists at the height of their bra-burning movement.

in 1765 they had three consecutive years without any january 25, the christmas. poor folks, they had to make do with the seven years war. in the end the turks won. but, they had uncle ho on their side. it was only then the magna carta decided - there would never be a year without a christmas, let alone three.

in 1743, national enquirer printed a story about the gregorian decree to start a new calender. it was found to be a piece of misinformation, but nobody cared. in fact, no body ever cared about a cleander in the whole of human history.

1812 had been a year of tragedies. that year methuselah, the ever longest surviving rockstar, got married to britney spears, peanut butter was invented by a group of albanian physicists, and the shaolin monks signed a multi-billion dollar endorsement contract with nike. effects of those cataclysms are still reflected in the stars.

in 1889, the year of the black cat, according to viking astrology, akbar the great retiered ending his reign over whirling dervishes and the witches of birmingham.then he went into theater acting. for several decades he ruled the broadway scene, and won a few awards in the process.

other people are doing this too, only they are failing college admission tests
the rest of the band member are resting in peace here
eat shit, punditjee

Dictionary Bengalensis

ABUL (noun/adjective, colloquial): A person with a callous mind, a silly heart, and a moronic disposition. Example: Abul Hussein, Abul Maal and other ministerial Abuls.

CORRUPT (adjective, transferred): A qualifier for the last government, always. And, never the current government. Also a quality never found by Anti-Corruption Committee in government officials or the police.

COURT of JUSTICE (noun, irrelevant): An institute standing as an enemy of the government, the parliament and the ruling party. Ideally suited for attacks from party members and police. Good for passing judgement on language, novels and other creative stuff.

DEMOCRATIC (adjective, hilarious): A quality to signify someone who hates freedom of speech, is afraid of a free and fair election, and has no clue of right to live, freedom of movement or constitutional responsibility.

ELECTRICITY (noun, impossible): A substance that can be taxed, disconnected, withdrawn, swindled and stolen, but can not be used, supplied, produced or accessed.

INTERPRETATION of the CONSTITUTION: Freedom of Speech applies to media other than TV news, talk shows, newspapers, blogs, facebook status and interviews. If you're trying to practice freedom of speech in any of the above media, you're an enemy of the state.

IRONMAN (noun, super): Anyone living in Dhaka, where the air is full of lead, the water is full of arsenic, the food is full of formalin. The two elements permanently missing are iodine and zinc.

PARTY (noun, happy): A political congregation mainly organized for entertainment purposes at the expense of the people, and is invariably very expensive.

RAMADAN: (noun, misleading) 1. Intended use: A month of fasting and prayer; 2. Real use: A month of over-eating, extra-bribe, heavy-corruption, increased intolerance and what not.

ROBUST ECONOMY (noun, imaginary): It means a condition where remittance starts drying up because of popular image as Islamists, RMG sector faces dire consequences because of non-compliance, farmers go bankrupt because of falling prices of their produces, industrial workers go hungry because of closing factories, the middle class suffers because of sky rocketing consumer prices, the share market collapse because of government backed corruption and micro-finance suffers set-backs because the government hates Grameen Bank.

RULE of LAW (noun, incogitable): A situation where the police beats up judges, the parliament asks the court to apologize, ruling party leaders plans a strategy to oversee court procedures, the constitution is amended whimsically, the people are killed, raped, beaten and robbed by law enforcers, and anti-corruption officers never finds an complaint to be true.

SPIRIT of 71 (noun/verb/adjective/joke): Something that is for the government to peddle for sympathy, use as an excuse for a million crimes, and has been taken away from the freedom fighters who doesn't appreciate government corruption. (use example: "Anyone who questions the government is destroying the spirit of 71" - PM)

SOVEREIGNTY (noun, oppressive): A property that belongs to the court, the parliament, the prime minister, the ruling party and the police. It can never belong to the people.

WAR CRIMINAL (noun, apologetic): (1) A title for murderers and rapists who could have been tried and sentenced by common law, but are being tried in an international tribunal that has been turned into a joke by the government; (2) Anyone who doesn't agree to the government.