After constant nagging of my folks, I finally surrendered and decided to visit the extreme east. 
Although being my birthplace it was kind of a once in four years routine which we (I and my younger sibling) looked forward to with great dubiousness.

Remembering our old visits (mostly during the great Indian monsoon) where we were ambushed inside a pishi, mashi or mama's house, to keep us safe from flood, mud, gutter stench, mosquitoes, goons and the list goes on........... and where we would suffocate ourselves for the rest of our so called fiesta.

Only this time gladly the whole experience proved us wrong (had to do something with autumn and we finally got to roam around on our own without putting up much drama with our folks).
I wonder if independence has something to do with the "Feel Good" experience, seems as if the factors are directly related.

Assam got its name from Asoma meaning Unparalleled, which it really is.
The whole trip refreshed our senses to the core, be the picturesque sights of tea estates, sounds of bamboo bushes, exotic fruits, warm and cosy wooden houses with gardens to name few.....

Camping in middle of valley surrounded by tea estates and up flowing stream (seemed we were part of Enid Blyton or Ruskin Bond's creation), learned an ancient technique of cooking special kind of rice (biron chwal) inside the bamboo, combining peace and fun.

Visits to Kamakya temple and sights of  Brahmaputra leaves one in a trance state. And before we knew our leisure got over. Its been quite some time now, memories are still fresh with strong desire to visit again.

Beauty of Desert......

Desert, the hot arid intolerable heat scorching and burning the skin into darkest possible tan and equally matching hot wind blew my hair as i stepped out to witness the beauty of the Desert!!

While in car with air conditioner on maximum i could only feel the heat by touching the glass....... But when i stepped out i felt like desert embracing me with the warmest possible embrace..........

The trees at roadside seem like lifeless lovers who have lost the hope of meeting their love interest the" Rain"!! On the other hand date palms near the oasis gleams proudly with the full bunches of juicy dates and squirrels playing around..............

Desert is a strange combination of attraction and repulsion............. its serene, arid beauty is breathtaking but the scorching heat constantly urges your brain to keep away from this arid world......... yet its been mesmerizing travelers for many centuries.......... mesmerized me too............

The heat, thirst, blaze, burn all swept over me, but sometimes pain is so fascinating & reviving and so is the feeling of being in an orphaned beach "The Desert"

Quoting the lines of Philip Camitses from DESERT SONNET

"Oh desert I call out to you;

Your clear dry air reveals clarity of distant places my eyes see and hands touch;

Your quiet desolation so stark it screams to me;

Your hidden life to a casual observer is revealed to the patient;

Your dryness allows my whole body to breathe;

Your colorful mineral soils are not hidden by trees;

Your trails and roads offer access into respite..............

Your sage and creosote out number the diamond stars in ink black skies;

Your snapshot images a pronghorn leap a tortoise snort a rock fall;
Your etchings of ancient others from early times past;
Oh desert I call out to you."

Encounters with Kosha Mangsho!!

As a bong i am a complete foodie!! Love Ma r ranna, I had always wondered what magic she does specially with rui (rohu), ilish, pabda and not to forget my favorite chingdi (prawns) and all other fishes (cant remember the names now) , but I felt really proud the day when my Ma said she loved kosha mangsho which i made some days ago........

10th August was my Ma Baba r marriage anniversary, Me and my assistant aka my gundi aka my sis were planning from a week. Everything was perfect except one call the day before ruined everything. My folk's got an appointment ( baba with an endocrinologist and ma with an ophthalmologist) on 10th evening.

I hopelessly urged my Baba to postpone the appointment but all went in vain.....

So finally me and my sis decided that she will decorate the place and I'll cook the dinner while my folks were out to see the doctor. While coming back home in evening i bought 1kg patha (Indian mutton) , i knew the recipe but never tried it alone, so for improvisation i googled!!! ( If this would have been a chat with someone i would have surely written LOL)

Got so many results made me real confused!! Time was running out!! Putting the volume of the sound system to highest level and letting the woofer scream and my sis dancing in drawing room I started off.........

Washing, Cutting, Marinating, Mixing, Final touches made...... Kosha mangsho was far from just a blow of whistle!! Oops I also had to make fried rice and only half n hour left!!! Rushed the vegetables, rice, spices in cooker and kept it on burner.

Initially reluctant and unsure to taste the mutton I wondered whether this will turn out at least edible or not but when the aroma of the flavors flowed to the other room it allured my sis to the kitchen!! She pleaded to taste it, but in return i asked her to help me do the dishes!!

Well in the end Ma Baba really loved it!! I can never match my Ma's level of cooking but certainly can set my own mark and create magic just as my Ma!!

Daddy's Greatest Fears

A father passing by his teenage daughter's bedroom was astonished to see the bed was nicely made and everything was neat and tidy. Then he saw an envelope propped up prominently on the centre of the pillow. It was addressed "Dad". With the worst premonition, he opened the envelope and read the letter with trembling hands:-


Dear Dad,

It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you, but I'm leaving home. I had to elope with my new boyfriend Randy because I wanted to avoid a scene with Mom and you. I've been finding real passion with Randy and he is so nice to me. I know when you meet him you'll like him too - even with all his piercing, tattoos, and motorcycle clothes. But it's not only the passion Dad, I'm pregnant and Randy said that he wants me to have the kid and that we can be very happy together. Even though Randy is much older than me (anyway, 42 isn't so old these days is it?), and has no money, really these things shouldn't stand in the way of our relationship, don't you agree?


Randy has a great CD collection; he already owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. It's true he has other girlfriends as well but I know he'll be faithful to me in his own way. He wants to have many more children with me and that's now one of my dreams too.


Randy taught me that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone and he'll be growing it for us and we'll trade it with our friends for all the cocaine and ecstasy we want. In the meantime, we'll pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Randy can get better; he sure deserves it!!


Don't worry Dad, I'm 15 years old now and I know how to take care of myself. Someday I'm sure we'll be back to visit so you can get to know your grandchildren.


Your loving daughter,
Rosie.



At the bottom of the page were the letters "PTO".

Hands still trembling, her father turned the sheet, and read:


PS: Dad, none of the above is true. I'm over at the neighbour's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than my report card that's in my desk centre drawer. Please sign it and call when it is safe for me to come home.

Unending Love.................

I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times...
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,
That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,
In life after life, in age after age, forever.

Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, it's age old pain,
It's ancient tale of being apart or together.
As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge,
Clad in the light of a pole-star, piercing the darkness of time.
You become an image of what is remembered forever.

You and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount.
At the heart of time, love of one for another.
We have played along side millions of lovers,
Shared in the same shy sweetness of meeting,
the distressful tears of farewell,
Old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever.

Rabindranath Tagore

Brand Name Decision

While currently working on the presentation of brand equity, came across the creative area of how the organizations become successful in making a new identity for them, their product, ideas and services.

When speaking of brand "Consumerism" is what firstly comes on mind, which is dominating this ever changing global market. And in todays world "One is definitely known by what one portrays and not what one really is".

Now technically speaking Brand can be defined anything from a name to symbol, a sign to a design which helps in differentiating the product from its competitors and also establishing a budding crescent identity of its own. The Brands not only represent the symbol of the company or product but to a larger extent define the general life of a person.

So the brand name decision thus is quite an important decision to arrive on for the manufacturers and service companies because associating a product or service with brand name has become a part of pop culture. This actually describes power of brand.

There are many strategies for arriving at the right brand name for the product or service.

Individual Name: The name of the organization becomes a brand. Its major advantage is that the company doesn't have to tie its reputation with the product, if in any case the product fails, company's name or image is not hurt. For instance watches by Seiko or Titan, if it introduces a low range watch its reputation remains the same.

Blanket family Name: This is also quite an effective strategy. Advantage on its part is that the cost behind the new brand name like advertising expenditures to create brand recognition, and sales is also high if the manufacture's established brand is powerful. For instance the new range of laptops under Dell, new range of soups under Knorr etc.

Separate Family Name: This policy is adopted when the company follows quite a wide range of products because then its not desirable to blanket name. Companies generally conceptualize family names for different quality lines within the same product class.

Corporate name combined with individual product name: The company name legitimates and the individual name individualizes the new product. for instance Honda, GE etc.

Once the company chooses which strategy or policy to go with it faces the real task of choosing the brand name. It can name in many styles like name it behind a person like Disney, place like Cisco or Fuji film, acronym like IBM and Amul, foreign word like Volvo, completely made up new words like Kodak etc. Here the real catch of creativity is tested.

This was a very little glimpse of what goes behind the emergence of a new brand name.

Real Fascinating Incident

A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked timidly without an appointment into the president of Harvard's outer office.

The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in Cambridge.

She frowned. "We want to see the president," the man said softly. "He'll be busy all day," the secretary snapped. "We'll wait," the lady replied. For hours, the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away.

They didn't. And the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted to do. "Maybe if they just see you for a few minutes, they'll leave," she told him.


And he sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously didn't have the time to spend with them, but he detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office. The president, stern-faced with dignity, strutted toward the couple.

The lady told him, "We had a son that attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. And my husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus."

The president wasn't touched, he was shocked. "Madam," he said gruffly. "We can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery". "Oh, no," the lady explained quickly. "We don't want to erect a statue.

We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard." The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical plant at Harvard." For a moment the lady was silent.

The president was pleased. He could get rid of them now. And the lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it costs to start a University? Why don't we just start our own?" Her husband nodded.

The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. And Mr. And Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established the University that bears their name, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.