All Entries Tagged With: "Humor"

There are days when you are the pigeon and there are days when you are the statue. The trick lies in getting an early warning especially on the statue days, so that you can take in a deep breath and last out when your head is being held underwater. In my case the pigeon days are few and far between. It happens ever so suddenly and if I do not immediately take advantage of that tiny sliver of an opportunity I have only myself to blame. Horoscopes are helpful to take a sneak peek into the future. I read them regularly. My newspaper carries two of them (written by two different blokes) on Sunday.

The morning newspaper and a cuppa chai is a ritual that is common to a large part of the human race. But people read it in their own manner. Some glance at the headlines and head straight for the sports page. So open the editorial page and shake their head disapprovingly at the affairs of the world. I head for the cartoons. I grab the newspaper and head straight for Ajit Ninan’s cartoon. I look for two elements of wit in a cartoon – the visual and verbal. Ninan excels in both. With most cartoonists one lands up choosing between the two. Ajit started his career with FD Stewarts – an ad agency in Chennai before they transferred him to Delhi. While in Delhi Ajit started contributing cartoons to Target – a magazine for children run by the India Today group. That led to an offer to join the media group as cartoonist and illustrator. Ajit’s cartoons in India Today, Business Today and Target got him noticed. He joined Indian Express newspaper in 1992 before drawing for the news magazine Outlook. He is now with The Times of India as their Chief Graphics Consultant. Ajit used to run a cartoon strip called Detective Moochhwala (and his tail-less dog called Poochh, which means tail in Hindi) for Target. That comic strip had cult status amongst readers and it was amazing to see Ajit pack in a tight storyline and brilliant graphics in about 35-40 frames.

The experience of growing up online will profoundly shape the workplace expectations of “Generation F” – the Facebook Generation says Gary Hamel – the management guru. Very clearly if you are one of those who believes that you are now with it because you now know how to use email, you do not belong to the Facebook Generation. Dear Gary, you will be happy to know that I am no stranger to Facebook. As someone recently mentioned that you haveto be on Facebook (which I am even if it is really tough) to be considered cool.Many teenagers continue to express deep angst at the enhanced age generation who have now taken over as Facebook users. When a website has like two or even three generations using it simultaneously, it clearly is a message to the youngest of the family to move on and seek online shelter for the homeless someplace else. The young and the young at heart cannot necessarily share the same cool hangout spots.