in vacant or in pensive mood

Any form of performance art is tough. You need to get on stage every time and be the best you can be. As stand up comedians often say - you are only as good as your previous show. There's a percent of skill and a ton of practice involved in this art form. It's only those who grow every day that reach the greater and uncharted heights. Some are great performers, but aren't as knowledgeable of the art form. They are not as technically adept of their form. Their experience has exposed them to certain wisdom but they aren't learning and putting new things to practice. People don't just remember great talent - people also appreciate the knowledge one has and one's inhibition to distribute it to anyone willing to learn.  They operate from a plane of high confidence - about themselves, their know-how and their skill. They aren't insecure and that oozes in their attitude and behavior. They are great teachers - not because they want to teach - but they because they c...

Here's a few things you may have heard often if trying to post videos on Facebook Have the brand logo within the first 5 seconds Shoot with mobile in mind (vertical) Have clearly visible subtitles The video should be mute compatible (since videos play on mute by default For better effectiveness - keep the video to within 240 seconds (4 minutes)  These are the general guidelines for video uploads on Facebook There are far sharper guidelines based on your communication objective, which we don't need to get into. But this isn't a Facebook video masterclass. It's a post that made me laugh at the irony of these guidelines. In the past few years - I've been in many meetings with the client where they have had a representative from Facebook who almost preached on how ads should be "Made for Facebook". They cautioned us that long format ads will not work (90 seconds itself seemed long to them) They told us to shoot it keeping the Facebook specs in mind to ensure b...

Ad films are meant to be highly engaging. Created to make people lean in and and avoid that skip button or resist the temptation of thumb scrolling to the next video on Facebook or Instagram that most often - automatically play. Agencies hire creative talent that understand the power of human emotions and can create films that make ads memorable, and brands recognizable - and most importantly - are able to tell amazing stories in less than 90 seconds.  Storytelling is an art. We've consumed so many great stories that have an amazing cast, a beautiful and engaging script, a highly reputed director, music that play to the beats of our heart - matching tempo to the emotion conveyed, peaking at the right times, and so many other smaller yet significant intricate things that come together to make us feel something.  There are millions of such amazing campaigns where all of this can be easily demonstrated.  But how often have we seen a film that does all that with just typograp...

As individuals - fear shuts our mouth from saying the truth.  It may be risk aversion or other factors kicking in - but to say out loud what scares you - especially when you know in your heart that what you have to say is true - turns larvae to caterpillars to butterflies and lead them to their demise all in an instant in your stomach and can fuck your brain up. While most often - silence may seem the unsaid norm - there's great benefit in embracing that fear and speaking one's heart. Fear is a powerful primal emotion that's rarely used to do good. There's an interesting parallel to this phenomenon within stand up. In a podcast with SnG Comedy - Vir Das spoke about the writing arc of stand up comedians Stage 1 - Comedians start writing about things they think is funny Stage 2 - Playing to the crowd and mixing it up with what they think is funny and what they know the audience thinks is funny Stage 3 - They start writing and talking about personal things - beliefs, opini...

We assume that we have a lot to teach kids. Reality is that they learn 90% of the things themselves - and the 10% comes from what we tell and teach them. We have a lot to learn from them instead. One such thing is the art of persuasion.  And they have some really compelling lesson for media strategists, agencies and marketers. Kids have 2 ways to get their way. The first is the irritating power of pester.  They eat into your skin and sink deep into the vicissitudes of your rational mind and push your possible patience to a threshold limit until you give up. They nag you, ask you the same question again, and again, and again, and again, and again and again.... until you cave. Ýou'd do anything to shut them up from further embarassing yourself in the environment and to, most importantly - get them off your back, your skin, your now throbbing head. The other way they ask for something is in their ever sweet, high potent cuteness and purposeful innocence. They know you can't resis...

There is a scene in Karate Kid (2010), where Xiao Dre sees a lady practising her mives in front of a snake and he thinks she is copying the movement of the snake. Jackie Chan, who hears this responds by saying that it is the snake that is copying her, and goes on to demonstrate it by showing reflections on water being still and slightly disturbed. He says that when the the lady is like the still water and the snake her reflection. Have you ever noticed your mood fluctuations with your kids? Why do we lose our temper on them on certain really small things and some times, let them get away with some big mistakes with a warning? It really depends on our mood doesnt it? And kids I feel can sense it.  We react to them depending on our mood. If we are happy, we let things go by while we play with them. When we are disturbed and worried, it reflects in the way we react to their behaviour, and even a small act can set us off. They are the still water, reflecting our state of mind. If we to...

I may be wrong about it but on the little I've read about the changes being implemented in the education sector under NEp seems yo be on the surface a good step.  It is giving kids under 6 years a holistic educational approach and not focussing solely on subjects. Theres focus on multilinguism, albeit in state prefered languages as opposed to foreign languages.  MPhil is being scrapped to 4 years bachelors with research experience. It's definitely not a new system, may be German, French or even US. But implementation in my opinion is getting it closer to our education system at SAICE. Surely never same, but a good attempt overall I dont see negatives in my first viewing. The UG programs have multiple entry and exits, which is a key word if they live by that. Hopefully anyone with any background can now apply for a certificate or advanced diploma course on their preferred subjects.  Also, a focus on coding, computers with AI and ML, robotics et al is given which should ben...