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B O O K S H E L F
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Why has a 24-year old, with an experience of a mere eight months in the ad world, written a book on it?
I entered Advertising as a 22-year old idealist and soon enough, the banality of the entire industry got to me. It all seemed very hollow and I thought somebody had to hang out
the dirty linen. The stupidity of the ad world had to be told; there’s very little happening but there’s so much hype around it. People think it’s the coolest profession in the world but seriously, it’s all just a money game.
Can this be a narrow-minded experience of just one person rather than a generalised one?
If it would’ve been that, then I would’ve written it as a first person account and ad gurus wouldn’t have written what they have on its back cover. Unfortunately, every word in that book is true.
How has this been received ?
There are those who took me out for drinks, then there are those who added me on Facebook and are my
fans, and the third more expected
type asked who the f*** do you
think you are. They still believe that
advertising is the route to nirvana. |
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Welcome To Advertising,
Now Get Lost
Omkar Sane, Tranquebar, Rs 395 |
Scripting
success |
It would do good to read this in a macroscopic view and relate the life of a simple slumkid, who
was lucky enough to go from total obscurity to international fame, to those of hundreds out there
who don’t know of a world beyond their slums,
live next to ‘gutters filled with black water and hopping
insects’, where they dodge muck, animal and
human shit to play their games and who look at
school as an irritating obstruction to their day-long
game playing. Though you might be baffled as to
who this under-marketed book is really targeted at
(Indians are too apathetic to their harsh realities,
while the Westerners could be flummoxed by the excessive use of Hindi), it is filled with endearing anecdotes of Rubina Ali, who played little Latika in Slumdog Millionaire. Ghost written by an Indian and
a French writer, it gives her perspective of how she
got selected for the movie, her love-hate relationship
with Azhar (little Salim), her trip to the land
of ‘fair-coloured people with golden hair’, talking
to the press who made it seem like ‘if they didn’t
speak to me right then, the world would collapse’,
shooting an ad with the ‘strange’ Nicole Kidman
and returning to the normalcy of her ordinary life.
Simply told, but cashing in on the Slumdog hype
would have looked better, had Rubina’s life before the hoopla been more explicitly described.
Dhvani Solani |
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Slumgirl Dreaming
- My Journey to the
Stars
Rubina Ali,
Random House, Rs 195 |
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| Bated
breath |
This is ancient history at its riveting best. David Gibbins, a PhD from Cambridge, uses his extensive experience in archaeology to take his readers on the trail of an ancient mystery that spans continents and empires. Painstakingly researched facts are woven skilfully into a story with excitement in every
page. Marine archaeologist Jack Howard finds
astonishing evidence of trade links between ancient Roman and Indian civilisations. This key to a monumental mystery and a magical treasure takes him to the archaeological sites and jungles of India. In 1879, Jack’s grandfather of the Royal Engineers experienced something unspeakable in the jungles that changed him forever. His mysterious disappearance years later was never solved. Can Jack race the enemy to unearth long buried secrets? The breathless excitement is sustained till the very end.
Monideepa Sahu |
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The Tiger Warrior
David Gibbins,
Hachette India, Rs 295 |
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Altitude Everest - Everest panorama |
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