Of Myths and Alcohol

A 2 day workshop conducted by Devdutt Patnaik, renowned mythologist, for United Spirits Limited on Mythmaking and Branding.

The proposition itself sounded like a paradox to me. It just didnt seem to go together. Mythology and Selling Alcohol. Devdutt Patnaik and USL. Agency and Client. Mythologist and Marketers. Deconstruction of Communication Codes and Mythological Narratives as a backdrop.

The first day of the workshop was quite interesting. The kind of stuff that I was interested in hearing. The kind of stuff he was most comfortable with. I enjoyed it thoroughly, especially because I have recently gotten interested in the broad topics he was talking about. Extremely knowledgeable, and even more amazingly simplistic in his explanation. He makes his thought flow seem so seamless that even a child could understand what he is talking about. It all made perfect sense.

After reading his books on Vishnu, Shiva, Devi, Myth = Mithya and Jaya, I have now decided to read more of his books. 

The second day, as I had feared, and as is the case with other such eminent personalities who have tried to club such topics with branding, was a let down. There was not much that was helpful for any branding professional. There was not much that was giving us a direction to follow or any paths to explore.

Another issue that seems to happen in most such forums where a group exercise happens, is that the place is filled with north indians. Even though we were sitting in a South Indian city, working on a brand that is based out of South India, with a large part of its empire in South India, we still had to depend on North Indian stereotypes and references from Bollywood to understand the social context as well as the category context.
Well anyway, pretty used to it by now.

But I guess Myths are absolutely fascinating, and decoding and simplifying these myths are even more fascinating. The commercial application of the same, well, I guess that is a different story altogether. It falls under the broad term 'Maya'.

Kahlil Gibran verses : one of my all time favourites

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.


Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.


Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

A movie, a performance, a book...

A Memorable Movie: Memento

A movie that made me stay in the movie much beyond the actual screen time of the movie. Piecing together bits of the puzzle, questioning, answering, solving, requestioning, re-answering, re-solving, feeling intelligent and then feeling dumb all over again. At times questioning whether the movie was really that intelligent after all. But thoroughly enjoyed the process.

A Memorable Performance: Sakhi
An experimental bharatnatyam rendition which stitched together various stories about different kinds of friendship, from around the world, from different eras, from different styles. The dancers and the singers narrated the story as well as performed. They connected with the audience. People across ages could follow every single bit of the performance. A great Saturday morning.

A Memorable Book: The Moor's Last Sigh
A wonderful literary experience that makes you go back and forth, in and out, in time/ of characters and stories. At times flipping back to the initial family tree flowchart till you get thoroughly acquainted with the several characters. For once you dont feel like skimming through the words, because here every word and every phrase seems to deserve your undivided attention. Each sentence is art and each description is beauty.

12 was good. Looking forward to 13

Last year was different. Nice. Interesting. Changed my life, its tone, its pace.

One of my closest friends and I decided to vow to remain the closest companions for life. We had a simple small wedding and we have just about started our journey together.

I realised that personal and professional lives are not necessarily one single seamless whole, but could be compartmentalised for a better living at both places. I used to feel bad if I did not find likeminded people at work, who would understand me, accept me, like me, take care of me, share thoughts and plans with me and become important parts of my life. But now I feel it is better I keep them as two separate pieces. Of the same jigsaw puzzle. If someone comes along who can fit in both, its fine. But if not, I dont necessarily need to panic. So now I have colleagues at work, and friends in life, and life could be wholly beyond office, if need be.

I continue to find out about the story of Colours. I am still fascinated with colour symbolism, colour semiotics or whatever this vague field of interest is known as. I am currently figuring out Colour Symbolism in Buddhism.

Yet another pleasant surprise last year was that I can actually cook, not just to save my life, but also pretty regularly. I have been experimenting a lot in the kitchen. I have successfully gotten over my kitchen fright, and have managed to understand the simplicity in creating dishes.

I travelled to Spain and fell in love with art all over again. I could say there was almost an overdose of Dali, Gaudi, Picasso, Miro, Goya, Velazquez, Tapies and many more. I never imagined that I would go to Spain, especially in winter. Madrid and Barcelona, a very special chapter indeed.

Unlike most other times that I have joined the gym, this time I seem to be more regular. It has not been too long but still, I feel this is the most regular I have ever been so far.

12 was good. Looking forward to 13.

Lotus Sutra

Some years back a friend of mine gave me this book called The Buddha in Your Mirror. She told me to read it if I felt like reading it.

For many weeks I didn’t read it. Then I did. And it helped me a lot. To become a little more calm. To look at things in an objective manner. To not lose my temper. To not blame other things and other people. To take responsibility for what was happening to me.

As days passed by and life went on, I forgot about the book and what the book had to tell me.

I remembered the book only when I was extremely unsettled and upset. I went back to the book and felt better. I read about the Lotus Sutra and about how the lotus can be the cause as well as the effect. I tried to understand yet again, that I am the cause as well as the effect. It was difficult. Indeed it is difficult to take responsibility for everything that goes wrong in your life. It is much easier to blame. To believe that nothing is your fault. To swear that you are a poor helpless soul and wonder why all the horrible things are happening to you. From there, to believe that it is actually because of you. Because you let things happen to you. Because you did not do something about the way things are.

The very few times that I have managed to take responsibility, to decide to take control, to accept my own shortcomings; life has taken wonderful turns, and I was left smiling. 

Genius on Genius

Read a very interesting book on Leonardo da Vinci by Sigmund Freud. Apart from it being an extremely engaging piece of work, it took me back to the works of both these geniuses. I had a long conversation about the book’s hypothesis, about the works of da Vinci and then about Michelangelo, about Renaissance in general. Today I am reading up more about da Vinci.

It is a very small book. To think that people spend so much time in researching about specific topics, however simple or complex it seems, and write books about these topics… interesting. Thank god these geniuses took the pains to write. We would have never got to experience such thoughts ever otherwise…

In the world of Padmarajan

Padmarajan, a malayalam film director, screenplay writer and author. I have rediscovered his work, fortunately. Been watching his movies and spending time with the plots, characters and styles of narratives. Watched about 12 of his movies in the last two months. The stories are invariably about something that you cannot really pinpoint. There are layers to each narrative. Powerful female character, unlike the ones usually depicted in movies of those times. Real emotions, nothing artificial or drastic. Real relationships, real conversations, that which do take place, but are preferably not shown in popular culture.
I keep wondering how he would have come up with the story. Which part of the story would have been the initial trigger. Which character is the central one. Sometimes you cannot even find out which is the central character, or relationship, or conflict.There are many, each one equally faschinating. And there seems to be varying styles of direction or storytelling. Still exploring. Wish he had not died under strange circumstances...we could have had many more of these movies...