Although I don’t how happy it is or how far we’ve come if the day brings news of some woman hitching her wagon to Sanjeev Nanda of the BMW case‘s star while yet another ties the knot with a 13-years-older-Rahul Mahajan of the cocaine case and wife-beating fame. Are they deeply in love or so deeply desperate?
And since I’m in a cranky fault finding mood anyway, let me nitpick further – what do you think of this ad? I mean sure, I get the point, if you own a house you can do anything you want in it, but hell, own house or rented I’d not be encouraging my kids to scribble on the walls. It’s just discipline, not fiscal issues, you know. Couldn’t they have found a better way to make their point? Gah.
Edited to add: On the other hand, aren’t you grateful you weren’t around during this time? Got it from Bluespriite.
The Mad Momma 
Hi MM,
While on the point of cheesy ads – there’s one with Varun Badola asking a friend – ‘what happens to ur family if you don’t return ?’….while it is not as bad as the earlier ones where this 6-7 yr old tells her father that they can take money from their mama (mom’s bro) for her higher ed or the one where the uncle asks a child ‘what if ur father doesnt return?’……the point that hdfc standard life seems to missing out is that insurance is not sold by being regressive or by scaring / insulting people (and then topping it by saying ‘sar utha ke jiyo’)…..
and while i’m ranting, there’s another one which deserves a kick on the backside…icici bank’s recent ad, where a relationship manager patiently listens to an account holder’s personal story (about her son)….for the whole day and even after everyone’s left for the day….seriously, does icici think that we are morons?
THANK GOD someone feels the same way. Most of these advts just insult your intelligence and yes, the ‘sar utha ke jiyo’ and the what if they dont return lines are just plain annoying. why cant they sell a good product and tell us why its better than the next? India truly is a nation of emotional fools and we all just play into their hands
how did they write the stuff they did, MM??!! har…har…’should your husband suggest a congress’!!
sad, unfortunate and absolutely puke-inducing. no wonder the feminism movement of 60s-70s took off when it did, and rightly so.
on the other hand, this text may exactly be the way teenage girls may be being taught in India’s hinterland..to obey and serve !
you’d be amazed, dude! 😀
oh we were having the same discussion at home last night….. so stupid, the icici ad is…. gosh….
and yes, happy women’s day!
Just yesterday I was thinking along the same lines about two of the stuff (I did not know that that Nanda fellow has found an idiot girl for himself too). How could sooo many women want to marry that sickening Rahul Mahajan, I completely fail to understand. I thought they would get no takers for the show and withdraw it! Have you hread his laugh? If he his not repelling enough I think the laugh should have done the trick and made the girls flee.
The ad is also mindless. I mean why would you encourage your kid to destroy her own house?? Shows that the ad people have lost it too. Sanity in today’s age belongs to the mad moms and their clan!
errrm…. u r going to hate me for this one.. but i allow ishaan to put grafitti all over the house if he wants to. the walls can be repainted anytime, but the kid wont make memories forever, na? Anyway he will stop in a few years time.. so let him do this now… anyway there are so many dont’s in their lives..
LOL! well we have our own personal lines to draw in terms of discipline. Why should i hate you as long as he doesnt scribble on my walls? 😉
i will do a post on the pride the kids take in our home, one of these days. remind me if i dont do it soon. okay?
I know Sanjeev Nanda through a friends friends friend…. the gal and he have been together since ages…I think from bfore th horrible incident ! So lets not judge too quickly ! What happened to him cud have happened to anyone…
Through a friends friends friend? isnt that too many degrees removed to really ‘know’ him?
As for judging – whats not to judge in a hit -and-RUN case? the operative word here being RUN as opposed to stop and help. For those who dont know what I am talking about – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanjeev_Nanda#The_BMW_hit-and-run_case
They then later got involved in a missile scam. One cant live in Delhi and be part of the media and not know what the truth is, Chica. Atleast enough of it to know where you stand on it. The wiki entry is right. Many of us are losing faith after this as well as the Manu Sharma case.
How can we not judge stuff like this? Nothing happened to HIM, that could have happened to anybody. He happened to kill a couple of police officers on duty. Thats not something we do often, neither do we try and cover up evidence and buy off witnesses. So no, its not something that could happen to anybody… Come on babe, its educated people like us who cant afford to excuse this kind of stuff.
I was jus talking abt the wedding in particular… !
🙂 Well I still hold my ground on that. I know love is all etc – but I still dont know what to say to a woman marrying a man who killed cops, hid the evidence, bribed witnesses and then promptly got involved in a bigger missile scam. I understand you have a tenuous connection to them and feel some sort of loyalty. But to general junta like me, well, i guess this is the way it looks.
he’s got the money honey. Money smoothens over all this.
what was i thinking when i married a grey haired man with no money?
someone slap me
In response to MM’s reply below
It is called lurve my dear and it makes us do all sorts of things. But I know that you already know that.
FYI hamare bache hi hamare asli dhan hai. Trying to develop a corny add line
the scribbling on walls got to me as well…i can understand “how do we know” take on the issue, we all have our List…but its just the ” attitude towards property” which gets to me in the ad (and others), somehow most ads with kids encourage bad behaviour as something cute, there is another where the kid swings from the fridge door.
The Rahul Swayamvar had me flabbergasted when the promos first appeared…yes the voyeur in me watched Rakhi’s show but this was really obnoxious…imagine you can be a cocaine sniffing, wife beating, bisexual and still have a long line of women battling it out for you. Kiya baat hai.
there’s a market for everything apparently aneela. we’re just too stupid to realise it!
But the woman is pretty. Is she the same one on the Aircel and cake add?
Well you can see how the male mind works!
Washable paint? Nerolux?
*bangs head on wall*
uff. the male mind is something I give up on!
It is mutual. Can’t live with each other and can’t live without.
Well, as long as a child has the sense to scribble on his/her walls. The child in the ad doesn’t listen to her mom, so I wouldn’t want her in my house…specially not with her daddy!
Happy Women’s Day
LOL! exactly. I’d give the OA something for his troubles if he encouraged them to scribble after I spend time and energy trying to give them a beautiful home. you can build a warm home without encouraging destruction
i watched one episode of this new rahul mahajan drama and was shocked to see what all they can package and telecast under the banner of “reality show”…
he had “cooked” for his to be brides coz they had cooked something for him, he wanted to care for them the way they did.. F*&^…. and one of the promo showed him being careful and affectionate to almost every girl…
here, here’s my heart. please drive a stake through it. i’m done living on the same planet as these shows
And what about that ad where this child comes running home, happily declaring that he has come first in class. The parents start this one-upmanship trying to claim that the son has taken on them. The child sadly clarifies he has come first in drawing and the parents’ faces fall.
I cringe every time I catch this ad. I have a 5 year old at home who absolutely loves drawing and colouring, so much so that at one point she wanted to become a mehendi and tattoowali when she grew up. Me being me, I beamed with pride every time she said that 🙂
I KNEW there was a good reason i dont watch TV. now i’m going to have to tell the OA to call me when he sees this advt. just so that i can shoot myself in the head after i see it 😦
I thot the parents’ faces fell coz they realised they were being so stupid !
LOL! good point
I thought so too
I think the ad ends with the wife remarking to her husband – ‘Tumhare family mein koi artist to hoga’ or something to this effect – the reason why I thought the parents did not ‘get’ they were being stupid 🙂
Been deprived of bad desi ads for a while now, but theres an awful one here that gets my goat everytime. Its an air asia tv spot, and theres a little kid, 5-7 yrs, who’s checking out stewardess’ ass…and says something like “granny thought the air hostesses were hot, but i wouldn’t know about that because i’m just a kid.” 9the granny part must the confusing, but did i mention, this ad was TERRIBLE and STUPID) SO inappropriate at SO many levels. Just hate ads with kids and any sort of sexual innuendo.
Ya, I’ve thought this ad was strange too. Even my husband whose kind of laid back about this stuff thought it was inappropriate, particularly the checking out the stewardess’s ass part.
That must mean you are in Hong Kong too? Don’t they just have the worst ads on Star World out here? MYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEG…..and “excuse me, did u brush this morning? your mouth is full of life-sapping germs”
Well, I agree with “painting on the wall” add…We recently shifted and hence are now living in a rented place. In our own home , my daugher had a graffiti wall and she could do whatever on that wall..but now in a rented place I have to ask her not to do it, for fear of offending the landlords….
🙂 well as i said – the ad doesnt work for me. and we all have our own rules
I’ve had the walls in my rented house painted and plan to paint over it before i vacate the house. but i’d not allow the kids to do it here or in our home because i expect them to respect the house rules.
A solution would be to put up a blackboard or something for kids to scribble on. A friend of mine had this when we were growing up and I still envy her for it. Course one needs space for that sort of thing.
not really – you can hang it on a door or anything. i have one for my kids.
a friend of mine has a black board paint on the 4 walls of the nursery.u can write on it with chalk and wash it off I think its a reat idea. My daughter skethches and doodle all the time even when she is sitting on the potty. yet she hasn’t scribbled on a wall ever. Thanks to her dad who thinks like you. I wouldn’t have minded though if she did.
i thought of the blackbaord paint but the OA said that if you let them scribble on one wall, they move to the next because to them its all the same. and by the time they’re old enough to know, they dont care to scribble on walls. they want the blackboard.
i think my objection is a very basic one. why do we stop at walls? why not let them spit out food, stamp on books or anything else? i think its because we start early, to teach them what is not acceptable. this is not criticism of your choices.. its just me thinking aloud
Unbelievable!!! i can’t believe the sex ed book was published in the 60’s. found myself laughing at the part – should your husband want to do something unusual – register your reluctance by silence…lol!!
speaking of ad’s…i hate the ad of some stupid mobile company – where one kid is showing off abt his aunt being in London and the other says so what if ur aunt is there..i went there sometime ago…!!! and something about “london jaana is not unusual or some nonsense of that sort!
Good God! she actually got married to that guy?!! i don’t believe this! i mean… the lengths people go to for fame! ridiculous!
and i read abt this nanda guy on wiki. *shudder* the things power can do! scary!
Also, i read the article on sex ed for women in the 60s.
and unfortunately, i feel like this has not changed for an alarmingly large part of the population even now.
*sigh*
if we are on the topic of kids, tele and inappropriate behaviour, who is this girl Saloni? I thought it was safe to watch the Filmfare awards yesterday what with the Bachchans and none of Ash ” love Maa Pa” tears and charan choona..but there was this eight year old 9 (or so the wikipedia entry tells me) squeezed in a fitting red dress and given some god awful lines…major Operation Potty Mouth. I dont think Im being prudish but really 8 year olds shouldnt be using the word Balatkar, or telling bipasha basu to get john abraham on the line. Yeh kiya ho raha hai?
what? where? do you have a link?
that said i heard of this mutual friend’s little girl who kept her grandma updated on the daily soaps. a 4 year old who told her that XYZ in a particular daily didnt get married to her fiancee because the villain ne ‘uski izzat kharab kar di’
Since the awards are sponsored by ToI (BCCL) I will chalk it down to their level of finesse and refinement if nothing else.
Confession – I used to work there.
@nuttie natters: naheeee that ad is just to bring the Mausi in London kid down a peg. Or was that just my school where having a relative Abraad was one’s claim to fame and fan group. ab tau bacha log thoda travel kar leytey hain..or at least kids dont find a relative abroad the height of coolness.
Let’s choose another planet. Chalo.
And am with you on the walls thing. Where do you draw the line? What if my kid starts to scribble on someone else’s walls or even the walls of the Taj if I take her there tomorrow – then what should my stand be? Okay to do this at home but not anywhere else? And only when you are under age X, not later?
I’d rather stick to one rule – paper is for scribbling, walls are not.
precisely. this just keeps things simple. no scribbling on walls. end of matter. never mind whose house it is and whehter we’re paying EMIs or rent
yeah MM, I am with u on the “no scribbling on walls” rule…. it is a RULE out at my home and we all follow it… 😛
*Taj Mahal
I am ecstatic. So I’m not the only one who gets annoyed at that scribbling on the walls ad. And also the child becoming a dog for his teacher one – that one is plain disturbing. Please tell me you hate that one too, I’ll be back to thinking I’m normal. Really.
About the “women of today”, I yesterday saw 2 full hours of Rahul Mahajan’s shaadi through which the 3 contestants for his true louuu smiled at each other, and never once wondered whose pants he is most keen to get into. They danced for him, got their haldi and mehendi done, wore choodas, wedding lehengas and waited – for a moron to give his verdict on who he really fancies. It’s disgusting how these girls didn’t think that they have reduced a wedding and all the little symbols – even if you’re not religious – to the status of cheap props! And how come the various Senas guarding the youth of today from immoral western culture don’t think that this is the biggest abuse of Indian culture? Just the pits.
Happy women’s day, regardless 🙂
well in a world where you need a MAD momma’s approval.. 😉
I HATE that ad with a passion. each time i see it, i think of the brat and i KNOW its made with the best of intentions but it breaks my heart and i start crying like a fool. they’ve messed up with this one. i loved the rest of their ads.
for those who dont know what we’re talking about
as for the wedding – i dont watch TV so i only realised it happened when i saw the paper this morning. but now from what you tell me, i’m glad i missed it.
this one I saw during our visit. R and I looked at each other with disgusted faces..>WTF are they trying to say?! I certainly think the ad maker/copywriter was smoking something when he thought about this.
but did you hear the comments from the mommies of the “not chosen” brides – to – be? tat was more hillarious and reminded me so much of the grapes being sour……
Hi MM, Happy Womens day.
I agree with you about about Rahul Mahajan.
PS: As per your advise, I could finally get some one to do the vegetable cutting and stuff, your reply inspired me though I was thinking about it for quite a while, thanks dear, 😉
That extract from the sex education book is exactly what I was told by an aunt on the night of my wedding!
nooooooooooooo!!!!!!
*laughs helplessly*
i can just imagine the expression on your face!
I caught parts of the rahul mahajan wedding on TV- it was hilarious- what disturbs me is not that its just plain idiotic- but just that what people have become- Rahul Mahajan of course doesnt ven deserve to be spoken about- but whats with the women? to want to marry him and fall all over him, make a fool of themselves, get their families involved and standing on stage like dolls waiting for him to choose from them? wtf? they even said stuff like rahul mahajan is so brave because he could tell his mother her husband was no more- dude, we’ve been there, done it…it is a huge task but didnt know its equivalent to getting a bravery award???
shhhh sshhhh.. calm down. If I were you I’d have switched channels instead of torturing myself with this nonsense ..*shudder*
it’s a little thing Andy Warhol called fifteen minutes of fame 🙂 fame ke liye kuchh bhi karega
OK so that UK Sex-Ed thing, I’m going to print it and show it to R
ROFL…if that had to be the fate of educated women in the UK as recently as 50 years ago then Thank God for Women’s liberation. I finally get what the word means hahahahahaha!
Am I the only one who thinks maybe my husband would have been ecstatic if I followed a few advices from the article? 😉 Happy Women’s day to you too MM.
The ad? Where do I even begin ranting? Did you notice that the dad also negated the mom’s authority by helping the daughter do exactly what the mom had told her not to do?
yep – that bit made me want to slap him
You know I like that wonderful slice of history you’ve posted here. What a well written precursor to Cosmo 🙂 And I love how your question approached it too — aren’t you glad that you weren’t around when that was written. As opposed to, “wtf were they thinking, those doormats.” every generation of women has a new set of rules for themselves. I am sure my daughter at 30 is going to laugh at something she finds in my junk from now :)that said, that explains a whole bunch of frustrated women from that era no?
about the tv ad: totally agree. but what gets me most is the bloody indulgent expression those non-parent actors try and wear when they are pretending to be parents to those snotty-faced kids.
some other ads — banana czechoslovakia. i can’t put my finger on it. but it irritates me.
rosie miss’s dead doggy proxy — daag achhe hain. way too disturbing for my liking.
any ad with darsheel safari and his braces-flattened teeth.
btw, isn’t that child labour as well? all those little kids in front of those strong lights and staying away from school and their friends for more than a couple of days? (and getting precocious as hell)
i am still wondering whether to allow shyama a scribble wall or ban it altogether. she’s all of 20 months and tests her limits all the time. any suggestions on how i can stop her from scribbling the house down without actually saying no or confiscating her tools? 🙂
i have a little blackboard for them and chalk. at 20 months if gave them crayons or pencils, they’d usually be next to me. but 20 months is too young to expect her to know better so I’d watch her like an eagle and not freak out if she did write on the wall. if you keep up the no walls rule gently and firmly you end up with slightly grubby walls, but on the whole a kid who doesnt go to town on them!
sorry about hogging all that comment space. your posts make for such smashing discussions. happy woman’s day
It’s completely liberating to live in a place where women’s day is ignored because it’s irrelevant.
Woebetide the husband who promptly falls asleep. happy Women’s day to you. 😉
Happy Womens day MM!!
cant some one just ban these swayamwar stuff..Rakhi, Mahajan next wonder who…
Abt the article published in 60s this..not sure if things have changed completely..despite all the womens movement etc..a good part of our country still falls in this category…
On the occasion of Women’s day conversation between a Red FM RJ (who had been continuously talking about Rahul Mahajan) and a lady
Red FM RJ : Hi Lady. So you are from Panvel, how are the property rates there now? Risen or Fallen?
Lady : I have no idea
Red FM RJ: Ahh yes I should ask you some thing you would know. What is the price for a kilo of potato?
Felt like burying the guy under tons of potatoes!
Thakfully the Lady atleast said :
I have no idea about that too. I am an architect you can ask me anything about architecture.
She should also have added : But of course I am sure you know nothing about it. So why don’t you ask me something about Rahul Mahajan, because that seems to be your sweet spot..
i have a huge problem with RJs. which is why i didnt take up an offer I had. the job description seems to be “The ability to talk nonsense and a desire to put down every one who calls you up”
what a smug, chauvinistic RJ
On the kids and TV part, you know there’s this Reality dance show for kids, in Telugu- and the judges (or mentors) are the winners of the last season. So here you have 5 year olds telling the other 5 year olds – you didn’t do that move right, where’s your expression, and beat this- you need to look “sexy” doing numbers like Babuji! WTF? My parents in law are big fans and don’t miss an episode. They actually wanted to take Chinni for an audition next year. I was like, no way is my daughter going to wear itsy bitsy strappy gowns with slits and gyrate to item numbers. THANK GOD I moved!
1960s, MM? Are you kidding me? Is it a typo? Was it meant to be 1860s?
“a small moan is encouraging and quite sufficient…” Eeks!
Let’s talk about good ads.
I love the Bank of India ads.
A boy scolding his younger brother for getting out to a googly
The insurance ad with the song “Hum jab honge saaat saalke”
Oh so this is the one. My smart-pants came to me yesterday and said, ‘Mama, but on TV I saw this girl who was drawing on the wall. Why can’t I?’