Read this post on the website: Ad from 1979: Look, that’s Rekha with a Lakme face

Apart from a few Lakme ads an the Lux ads, that is almost mandatory for any Bollywood actress of note to feature in, I haven’t seen the enigmatic Rekha in many other advertisements. Though I am quite sure, that given her popularity she would’ve appeared in a atleast a few more.

At her peak in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, Rekha was the face of Lakme, then a Tata company, and this print ad by daCunha is from 1979.

What’s shooting?
Rekha in Lakmé

Lakmé
Sating Glow Liquid Make-Up.
Ultra-Silk Face Powder and Compacts.

Rekha used only imported make-up. The best. Then we gave her Lakmé. ‘Too much!,’ she said. She couldn’t tell the difference. Nor will you. Look, that’s Rekha with a Lakmé face. Find out what Rekha discovered. Find yourself a Lakmé face.

The beauty maker.
Lakmé.

I was reminded of this particular Lakme ad by a sultry Rekha (from Utsav (1984)) the cover of Bollywood: A History by Mihir Bose. Bought the book this Sunday from the Daryaganj Sunday Book Market. Though some reviews don’t speak very highly of the book, I don’t mind reading as long as it gives me additional insights to the cinema that is close to my heart.

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Bringing to you vintage Indian ads, tech, movies and more since 2005.

Read this post on the website: India Public Domain Movie Project in the Sunday Mid Day

The recently launched India Public Domain Movie Project is getting some much needed publicity. Today’s Sunday Mid Day has a story on the story behind this Cutting the Chai project.

HE MAKES INDIAN CLASSICS CLICK

Ghaziabad-based blogger Soumyadip Choudhury has started a project to upload old Indian films — no longer under copyright — online for free and legal viewing. On view currently: 1944 film, Kismet

- Kareena N Gianani

WITHIN seconds of browsing through Ghaziabad-based web journalist, Soumyadip Choudhury’s blog, cuttingthechai. com, it is clear that the man has a penchant for all things vintage and cinema-related. A charming 1979 advertising poster of Rekha modelling for Lakme, and another grainy photograph of Rajesh Khanna in an ad poster for Fabina Suitings and Shirtings make that amply clear.

Among these is the post with a YouTube link to the 1944 Ashok Kumar-starrer, Kismet. As part of the Indian Public Domain Movie Project, which he kickstarted earlier this month, Choudhury will put up films that are now out of copyright in the public domain, on his blog.

According to Indian copyright laws, particularly the Copyright Act, 1957 (which was amended in 1992), films come into the public domain on the first of January, 60 years after their release. So, Indian films released before January 1, 1952 are now a part of the public domain — an opportunity Choudhury is most excited about.

No Bollywood archives

It was when Choudhury read the book, Bollywood’s Top 20 Superstars of Indian Cinema, that he came across a write-up on Kismet. By sheer chance, he remembered that he had an old DVD of the film, and the Indian Public Domain Movie Project was conceived.

“After I watched Citizen Kane back in college, I desperately began to search for classics. All I found were Hollywood films archived online — there were barely any Indian films.” Ever since then, Choudhury wanted to make old classics accessible to people, which he wants to upload for free and legal viewing on Internet Archive, a US-based non-profit digital library which offers free, universal access to books movies, music and 150 billion archived webpages. You’ll also find a YouTube link to the films on his blog. However, not all films will be as easy to get a hold of. “I have friends who are film aficionados and who, like me, are always on the lookout for classics. They will lend me DVDs from their collection. I also plan to visit Pune’s National Film Archive of India to get some old films,” says the 33 year-old.

Trivia and history

Choudhury plans to upload a film every month, and says he will do so in style. “It isn’t just about getting an old films and uploading it. I am a trivia buff and love to add quirky details about the films, too.” That includes nuggets of information like the fact that Kismet was the one of the biggest box office hits of its time, in which Kumar played an antihero, something Hindi cinema wasn’t used to at the time.

On April 1, Choudhury will upload Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra (1913), one of the finest silent films of Indian cinema. He wants the viewing to coincide with the 100th year anniversary of the film and is researching for more material to go with the viewing. He found the film footage in a French film montage uploaded on US-based university’s website.

Choudhury says he is aware that not many seniors in India are Internet-savvy, but hopes they will log on to watch films from their time. “This project is as much for young movie buffs. They’ll know where great cinema first came from,” says Choudhury.

I hope this will encourage more users to contribute to the India Public Domain Movie Project.

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Bringing to you vintage Indian ads, tech, movies and more since 2005.

Read this post on the website: Great ads, Michelangelo’s David’s penis and The Times of India

To celebrate its 153 years of existence, the Old Lady of Bori Bunder published a Lintas created advertisement that many, including the Advertising Council Standards of India, thought to be unbecoming of the Old Lady.

The ad that stirred a controversy was published in a celebratory supplement in the November 3, 1991 issue of The Times of India.

The advertisement showed a closeup of the crotch of Michelangelo’s masterpiece sculpture David, that stands at the Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence, Italy. The copy beneath says, “Contrary to popular belief ads, too, don’t need to be big to be effective. You noticed this one, didn’t you?” in an obvious reference to David’s penis, one of the world’s most famous phalluses. The size of David’s member has been a matter of discussion and debate over the centuries.

IT’S LIKE A GREAT AD
Contrary to popular belief ads, too, don’t need to be big to be effective.
You noticed this one, didn’t you?
A big happy birthday to The Times of India

The great Leonardo da Vinci is also believed to have suggested that David’s nudity be covered up.

Following protests, The Times of India apologised for publishing the advertisement. The ad was also termed as sexist and was accused of trivialising Michelangelo creation.

Morality apart, this was a good copy. It definitely did catch my attention and also elicited a chuckle.

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Bringing to you vintage Indian ads, tech, movies and more since 2005.

Read this post on the website: Raja Harishchandra 3D story in Amar Ujala

The Hindi daily Amar Ujala (April 23, 2012) carried a home page anchor story on Cutting the Chai making Raja Harishchandra 3D 99 years after its first screening. Ravi Buleiy’s story repeats much of what is mentioned in the Raja Harishchandra (1913) on India Public Domain Movie Project (and in 3D) post, but adds an important claim by Prashant Pathare, director of National Film Archives of India (NFAI).

Pathare says that Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra (1913) is with the NFAI in its entirety and not only the first and the last of the four reels as we believed for so long. Surprisingly the NFAI websites states the contrary.

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Bringing to you vintage Indian ads, tech, movies and more since 2005.

Read this post on the website: The Amul girl isn’t 50, yet: Trivia, an awesome image and a movie

Utterly, butterly, ignoramus!

I am a sucker for anniversaries. They give an opportunity to celebrate something that you want to and the occasion guarantees that readers notice (and also appreciate) your celebration.

Was a bit surprised to find that the Indian media was marking the 50th anniversary of the Amul moppet, whereas her golden jubilee year is a good four years away. Many of the stories that appeared are self-contradictory. While the headlines announced that she was 50, the text mentioned a year that doesn’t total up to 50 in 2012. Given that the Amul mascot is female, we ought to be extra careful in the matters of age.

The reason behind this recent interest is because of a book (that I bought almost a month ago) – that some of the reports erroneously stated was a coffee table book.

Given the popularity of the Amul girl, we wanted the book to be accessible to a larger audience and decided to do an affordable paperback instead of a coffee-table tome.

The book in question is Amul’s India it was the subtitle that caused the age fudging – ‘Based on 50 years of Amul advertising by daCunha Communications’.

This post is a five in one – a myth buster (read above), a trivia list (begins immediately after this paragraph), a book review, a 50-megapixel mosaic and an 1 hour and 36 minutes long ad film. Ek ke saath chaar free! Free! Free! Free! Free!

That I am also a sucker for lists. Here is a little list of interesting facts about the Amul advertising campaign that I think you should know (just in case you don’t already). A little review of the book follows the list.

1. The Amul brand was actually registered eight years before the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, which now markets the brand, was established.
2. Amul butter had been selling in the market for 10 years before the Amul moppet was conceived.
3. The ‘Utterly’ tagline was suggested by author Nisha daCunha, who is also the wife of Sylvester daCunha, the man behind the Amul butter advertising and chairman of daCunha Communications that has been handling the Amul Butter account for 46 years.
4. The Amul girl was born in 1966 (that makes her 46 and not 50).
5. The moppet was created by Eustace Fernandes, who was then the art director at daCunha Communications. Fernandes passed away in March 2010.
6. The first of the ads featuring the girl in the polka dotted frock and a matching ribbon were not the huge hoardings that we are more acquainted with, but were put up on a few lamposts in Mumbai.
7. The first ever hoarding featuring the Amul girl had her saying a bedtime prayer (see the ad below). Interestingly, in her first major appearance the Amul girl wasn’t in her trademark polka-dotted frock.
8. Before the ‘Utterly, butterly, delicious’ tagline, Amul was positioned as ‘processed from the purest milk under the most hygienic conditions by a diary co-operative in Gujarat’.
9. The Amul Management (including Dr Verghese Kurien) did not interfere in the making of the ads and daCunha Communications did not even need to get their approval before putting up the ads.
10. While Amul ads are not known to trigger a controversy, but there have been a few ads that many objected to. The most controversial Amul butter ad of all time was perhaps the one after incidents of UK authorities conducting virginity tests on Indian women arriving at London airport. The text said “Indian virgin needs no urgin’!” Following protests Amul came up with another billboard apologising for the ad (See below)
11. There have been over 4000 Amul butter hoarding till date.
12. Indian TV’s funny man Cyrus Broacha worked as a trainee copywriter with daCunha and of the many Amul hoardings that he helped conceive was the famous “Lara, kya mara!” following Brian Lara smashing Garry Sobers’ record for the highest score in Test cricket.
13. Jagmahon Dalmiya had tried to sue Amul for Rs 500 crores for a hoarding that said “Dalmiya mein kuch kala hai? Amul Maska khao, paisa nahin’ but had other thoughts when the courts required him to deposit 10 per cent of the amount. 915
14. The Ramalinga Raju (Satyam, Sharam, Scandalam) ad following the Satyam scam drew the ire of the Satyam board and they sent a letter demanding an apology else Satyam employees would quit consuming Amul products in protest.
15. In April 1995 the Election Commission got an Amul Butter hoarding painted black. The ad showed Congressman in a tug-of-war with the hand symbol and the Commission interpreted it as a political advertisement.
16. Pia Benegal, Shyam Benegal’s daughter had as a kindergarten student lent her voice for the ‘Utterly Butterly Delicious’ ad jingle.
17. The present Amul Butter cartoons are drawn by Jayant Rane.
18. There are 90 Amul Hoarding locations across India.
19. Amul Butter ads are also printed in 22 newspapers.
20. 120 different Amul Butter hoardings were produced in 2011.
21. A number of Amul ads have been based on other much-discussed ads. Some samples:

Much of the above Amul advertising trivia is from Amul’s India: Based on 50 years of Amul advertising by daCunha Communications (Rs 299). The book’s available for Rs 179 at HomeShop18, Rs 209 on FlipKart and Rs 237 on Indiatimes Shopping.

The best part of the book is of course the ads and the piece by Sylvester daCunha. The problem with so many people writing, speaking on the same theme is that there tends to be repetitions and there are many in the book. What is surprising though is that of the 17 contributors no two listed the same ad as their favourite. Maybe it is because of the variety or is it on purpose?

Alpana Parida’s (President, DY Works) verbosity was actually unnecessary and they should’ve put in eight pages of more ads instead.

The big let down was the captions accompanying the ads. Amul ads are topicals and usually refer to specific incidents. The caption writer seemed to be clueless for most of the time and the generalisation killed the pun for readers. For example the Suresh Kalmadi ad, has to do more to do with reports of Kalmadi suffering from memory loss than with what the caption read – “Suresh Kalmadi had to spend time in jail for his role in the Commonwealth Games scandal.”

I had personally expected the book to throw more light on the anecdotes of the people involved in creating the ads rather than what celebrities think about them. I wished they added more ads in there. Nevertheless, this book is a recommended buy.

46 years of Amul advertising, 1,432 ads, one 50 million pixel mosaic image (also a movie)!

The book mentions that there have been over 4,000 Amul ads and I have got hold of 1,432 of them (a couple more have been added while I was getting this post ready and haven’t included them). Such a huge cache automatically lends itself to some interesting usage. And here’s what I did with them.

The image below is a mosaic of the Amul moppet and is made up of all the 1,432 individual Amul ads. Some of you might want to do a huge print of this to put up on an empty wall. This 50 megapixel image (9426 x 5303 pixels at 300 dpi) weighs 28.4 MB and can be downloaded from here [ZIP 28.4 MB]. Zoom in (hover over the image, use the controls on the bottom right or simply click).

And as promised there’s a movie too. In a feature length (1 hour 35 minutes and 40 second) glory made up of all the 1,432 images present in the mosaic image above.

I don’t know if these qualify as categories but the mosaic can set the world record for the largest ad made up of individual ads and the video could hold the title for the longest video advertisement. This is Cutting the Chai’s little tribute to this loveable series that also happens longest running outdoor campaign.

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Bringing to you vintage Indian ads, tech, movies and more since 2005.

Read this post on the website: India Public Domain Movie Project in Cine Blitz July 2012

The attention that The Indian Public Domain Project is getting in the mainstream media sometimes seems a little disproportionate to me given that I’ve posted only a couple of movies here.

Here’s what the film magazine Cine Blitz has to say on the project in its July 2012 issue:

Rare Gems

What an idea, sirji! Soumyadip Choudhury, a blogger based in Ghaziabad, has kicked off a project to upload old Hindi films, which are no longer under copyright, for free, legal viewing. As part of the Indian Public Domain Movie Project, Choudhury will put up films that are now out of copyright in the public domain, on his blog. According to Indian Copyright Act, 1957, films come into the public domain on the first of January, 60 years after their release. Which makes Indian films released before January 1, 1952 part of the public domain! The 1944 film KISMET is currently available for viewing, a film that Bhaichand Patel called “unequalled” in its success, “before or after in Indian cinema until SHOLAY came thirty-two years later. It ran for over two years in Bombay and Calcutta. Ashok Kumar played a debonair cigarette smoking anti-hero, a pickpocket who had run away from a wealthy home when he was a child. Reformed by a dancer who had been disabled and was on hard times, he reunites with his parents at the end. The songs, written by Pradeep and set to music by Anil Biswas, were part of the film’s magic.” Another treat for HiFI fans is RAJA HARISHCHANDRA, directed by the father of Indian cinema, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke. This, India’s first feature film was first screened on April 21, 1913. The complete film (3700 feet) no longer being available, up for viewing are the first and last reels. Savour the experience!

Meanwhile I am very much on the project and have managed to acquire copies of quite a few Indian films that are now out of copyright and they’ll find their way to the collection as soon as I finish my research and do the necessary cleanups.

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Bringing to you vintage Indian ads, tech, movies and more since 2005.

Read this post on the website: Dara Singh beats Blonde Tiger: 60-year-old news clippings from the late wrestler’s heyday

In the final bout, death got more points but Dara Singh won.

The loveable wrestler turned actor died today aged 83. A few days ago I was reading Vir Sanghvi’s wonderful tribute to the man in The Greatest Show on Earth: Writings on Bollywood, unfortunately can’t seem to locate the piece that originally appeared in Hindustan Times online. But did manage to dig up some newspaper items from sixty years ago when Dara Singh’s reputation has started to take the shape of a legend.

Dara Singh Wins in City Wrestling

MADRAS, Nov. 12.

Dara Singh made a fine start in the International Wrestling Tournament for the Championship of Bharath, when he knocked-out Ron Harrisson of Ireland in the third round on the Salt Cottaurs ground yesterday evening.

In an earlier bout. Tiger Joginder drew his return fight with King Kong, the Hungarian ‘Man-Mountain’, each securing a pin fall. King Kong won on the first occasion.

All attention was centred around Dara Singh, who made his debut in this tournament yesterday. True, he gave a good account of himself, but one felt that the opposition pitted against him was not good enough, Harrisson, a much lighter man, started impressively, but as the fight went on there was little doubt of the Indian’s superiority. Dara Singh won the tight In the third round when he knocked-out the Irishman with an ‘Aeroplane Spin’.

A big crowd turned up to witness , the King Kong-Joginder bout, but they were disappointed. For one thing the arts and graces of wrestling were sadly absent, and for another both men Indulged in a lot of gallery play.

King Kong secured his fall in the third round using a body slam and body press. Joginder equalised in the sixth round with a shoulder charge and body press.

In another bout, Tarlok Singh knocked-out Sarban Das after a series of body slams. There was little interest in the bout and the knock-out, which came in the second round, was a big relief to all. In the first fight of the evening under Indian style, Bhima Rao of Kholapur, beat another international wrestler in Puran Singh, winning in two minutes 40 seconds. Last week Bhima Rao defeated Sarban Das.

(The Indian Express – November 13, 1953)

King Kong beats Dara Singh again

MADDRAS. Nov 23. King Kong the Hungarian Hercules, beat Dara Singh for the second time In the present series last evening In the International wrestling Bouts at the Salt Cottaurs grounds. King Kong’s victory was by two falls to one

The Hungarian was the first to score. In the third round, he won a pin fall with a body slam and a body press. Dare Singh however equalised In the sixth round with a reverse body press. The fight still being undecided the Indian requested an extra round in which the contest could be decided. King Kong accepted and in a thrilling round in which both fighters went tooth-and-nail at each other, the man-mountain converted Dara’s flying tackles into a body slam in his favour and won the round and fight with a body press.

In another thrill-packed bout, Flash Gordon knocked out Bill Verna, the Blonde Tiger, in the third round. The mystery man won again with his now-famous judo hold. and Verna, in spite of his strength and technique, fell a victim to that crippler.

Alf Greer was disqualified for continued fouling in the fifth round of his fight with Stanley Andrews, when the srcore was one fall each.

Earlier, in two bouts in the Indian style, Kanakasundaram beat Madras collegian Ramendrakumar Singh and Vasant Singh and Tarlok Singh fought a 10-minute bout to a draw.

(The Indian Express – November 24, 1953)

Dara Singh beats Blonde Tiger

WRESTLING AT SECUNDERABAD

SECUNDERABAD. Nov. 28. Dara Singh, famous Indian wrestler today won the main bout defeating Blonde Tiger, champion of Europe in International American Free Style Wrestling Championship being held at Mehdi Jung Stadium. Having drawn the first four rounds, Dara Singh lifted Blonde Tiger bodily over his head and after continuous circling threw him down with “Aeroplane Spin.” Tiger was counted out and declared defeated. The fight was tense but clean, both displaying rare mastery in the game. Earlier Angelo Pepin of Italy beat Puran Singh by two rounds to one. Marciano Couthino of Spain defeated Sarban Das, Champion of Borneo by two rounds to nil, after the first round was drawn. Excise and Revenue Minister Mr. K. V. Reddy was the Patron of the evening and was introduced to Dara Singh and Blonde Tiger before the main bout started.

(The Sunday Standard – November 28, 1953)

FREE-STYLE WRESTLING: DARA SINGH CROWNED CHAMPION OF BHARAT

Tiger Joginder Disqualified in Seventh Round

(From Our Bombay Office)

BOMBAY, June 12. IDOL of the mat game Dara Singh was crowned champion of Bharat and Tiger Joginder disqualified for repeated fouling in the seventh round on the concluding day of Free-Style Wrestling Tournament at the Vallabbhai Patel stadium or Saturday.

The 10,000 odd spectators who gambled with the monsoon and came to stadium had plenty to satisfy their appetite for a fight to a finish final had all the thrills expected with an abrupt ending in the seventh round, when Joginder earned the displeasure of referee Rashid Anwar.

The two of India’s grapplers in action the standard of the various holds display was seen to good light and there were many who felt that Tiger Joginder was the better of the two mat men on view.

After the wrestlers had won a round each. Dara Singh attempted the flying tackle in the seventh tound and fell through the ropes out of the ring. He was quick on his feet and made a bee line for the ring as he was attempting to get over the ropes Tiger Joginder rushed up and used an arm jolt to send Dara hurling on the ground again. Rashid Anwar warned Tiger Joginder but instead of taking heed he persisted in doing the same thing twice not giving Dara any chance of entering the ring. The referee thus did the only logical thing possible and that was to disqualify Tiger Joginder and award the match to Dara Singh. The verdict of the referee was received with thunderous applause by the spectators who were happy to see Dara Singh claim the handsome Maharaja of Kashmir trophy awarded for the champion of Bharat for the 1953 bouts.

After using his head to good purpose Tiger Joginder lifted Dara and slammed him on the mat thrice before he used the deadly Cobra hold to win the second round. Dara was at the receiving end in the rounds of three and four but staged a rally in the fifth to win by a submission fall, the result of a Boston Crab. Round six was even and both wrestlers escaped narrowly from difficult holds whern about to be pinned. In round seven Tiger started promisingly but marred his performance by fouling and thus earning a disqualification.

(The Sunday Standard – June 13, 1954)

Dara Singh’s wrestling may have been more of entertainment than competition (quite like the WWE) but Dara Singh is a legend of a kind that the WWE wrestlers can only dream of.

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Bringing to you vintage Indian ads, tech, movies and more since 2005.

Read this post on the website: Plagiarism and the Indian media: Absolute apathy

For a plagiarised paragraph, Fareed Zakaria was suspended by Time and CNN. A journalist of repute, Zakaria accepted that he “made a terrible mistake” and apologised “unreservedly”.

In India there have also been a few incidents ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]} where journalistic plagiarism stood exposed. But then I haven’t yet heard of any unreserved apology. Only excuses.

In many Indian newsrooms copying content from elsewhere is an accepted practice. No batting of eyelids, only copy and paste (Also Wikipedia is treated as the most credible source. Seasoned journalists are taken by surprise when told that all that there is in Wikipedia isn’t necessarily true.)

Many of us are guilty of inadvertently reproducing content that we might have read/heard elsewhere (this however will never stand as a valid excuse). But deliberate copying happens all the time. We have to constantly reprimand interns and new joinees that content available online isn’t just waiting to be lifted. But there are organisations (or individuals/groups of individuals within) that seem to encourage such activity, even ones of considerable repute.

Here’s an incident from my own experience:

Many years ago, one of my responsibilities included managing the website associated with a television tech show. In the little face-to-face and email interactions I had with the team producing the show (headed by a known name in Indian tech journalism tech show host), I could very well gauge their abilities.

So when I came across a script (I never watched the show, only read the scripts they sent me) on how to secure your home network, I was quite sure that the reporter whose byline accompanied the piece was incapable of putting together such a story. A simple web search revealed that the entire text of the story was ripped off almost verbatim from a website.

I immediately shot off an email, highlighting the fact. But received no response. My boss later assured me that he had a word with the producer of the show and they had promised that they’ll try to be more original. Further investigation revealed that many of the feature stories aired in the past on the show were actually only videographic reproductions of content put together by someone else on some other website and the on-air credits went to some lazy journalist.

Later, when another suspicious script landed in my inbox, I did a cursory check and discovered that the ways hadn’t been mended. Sent a token email, knowing fully well my complaining will not force any change. All that I could ensure in my capacity that none of the copied content was published on the website. Something I continued to do till I quit.

I assume that no action was taken against the journalists, and since the practice continued unabated and the journalists appeared on-air, I can conclude that it was in fact encouraged. “TV mein kisko pata chalta hain?” (Who’ll know on TV?) is the common refrain.

I don’t yet watch the show (in fact I watch very little television), so am not sure if anything has changed. Also TV is hardly the right medium to follow technology.

Since I’ve been a web professional for almost all my career (barring a little stint with a couple of magazines) and being a borderline-recluse, I don’t have many juicy plagiarism stories to share. But I am very sure there are lots. Here’s another personal anecdote:

A few years after I passed out, a friend, visiting the university we had studied in, discovered a dissertation by another journalist-in-the-making (albeit from a different department) that was almost a copy of what I had submitted about three years ago.

That journalist-in-the-making is now perhaps a full-fledged journalist frantically copying content from elsewhere, while her boss looks on approvingly.

PS: That tech website, now run by a different team, nowadays occasionally copies content and ideas from the website I work for. I, for now, am taking it as flattery.

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Bringing to you vintage Indian ads, tech, movies and more since 2005.

Read this post on the website: Kohinoor Maxim Sex Survey questionnaire reveals the deceptiveness of sex surveys

Came across this questionnaire for the Kohinoor Silk Condoms Maxim Sex Survey 2012. You may choose to take a print, fill it out and send it across (and Maxim may give you a free subscription or a naughty gift), but if you are a woman (straight, lesbian or bisexual) or a man (gay or bisexual) many of the questions will leave you scratching for answers.

The veracity of such sex surveys is revealed in such questionnaires. On the face of it, the survey can be taken by men and women with whatever sexual orientation (clearly indicated in page one of the survey form). But the questions (on page two) are all targeted towards heterosexual men. Wonder what the findings will come up with?

[Download]

This from a September 2005 post on how sex survey issues are put together:

A simple opinion poll will suffice. Round up a random sample of gullible idle respondents, some real, the rest concocted (I speak from first hand experience here). Get them to fill up a dreary questionnaire (Just tick, don’t think). Total, average, correlate, deviate and come out with figures which startle the reader. If the deviation from the accepted norm of social behaviour is not of a shocking degree, no problem at all. Some other sleazy story can occupy the cover – the innards can always be filled up by numbers, bars, diagrams, graphs – a little tweaked – for that sensationalistic value. The empty spaces (there’ll be lots) adorned with nudes.

.

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Bringing to you vintage Indian ads, tech, movies and more since 2005.

Read this post on the website: 1962: Newspaper front page from 50 years ago when China attacked India

It’s been 50 years since the ‘Himalayan Blunder’ of 1962 when the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) unexpectedly rampaged into Indian territory and reached the outskirts of Tezpur in Assam before making an unexpected retreat.

The war was fought much before I was born, but being born into North East India, I heard a lot of stories and sometimes as a kid imagined where would I be and what would I be doing if the Chinese had captured the entire North East, including Shillong, my home town. I, who was struggling with my Hindi writing, in my imagination, was dreading the idea of mastering the complex Chinese script.

50 years later, the Chinese have indeed captured India (and much of the world). It is not PLA’s doing, but that of cheap labour and big factories. The laptop I am typing this post on is made in China and so is so much of what is in my home and also at work.

This reminds me of a joke that my brother shared with me, when my son Googool (Advay) was born:

A boy goes to meet his new born sister at the hospital. On seeing the sleeping infant he starts looking for something, lifting her sleeves, closely analysing her feet and when he tries to turn the baby over, his father interrupts and asks, “What are you looking for?” “A tag, to check if the baby is also made in China,” the boy replies.

The front page headlines in The Sunday Standard dated October 21, 1962, announcing the other kind of Chinese invasion that happened half-a-century ago.

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Bringing to you vintage Indian ads, tech, movies and more since 2005.

Read this post on the website: Illustrated Weekly cover: Varadarajan ‘Nayagan’ Mudaliar, the ‘most feared man in Bombay’

The Bombay underworld, is full of stories fit to be made into movies and they have been – lots of them. One of these films unfailingly finds a place in the list of the best movies ever made in India – Maniratnam’s 1987 film Nayagan based on the life of Varda Bhai (Varadarajan Mudaliar) who [...]

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Bringing to you vintage Indian ads, tech, movies and more since 2005.

Read this post on the website: Why what’s trending on Twitter in India is largely inconsequential

Now that the mainstream Indian media has discovered the wonders of the Internet, anything that is remotely out of the ordinary online tends to make headlines and triggers studio discussions. One of the most misused words in the mainstream media is of course – hacking. And the other most followed and reported on is Twitter [...]

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Bringing to you vintage Indian ads, tech, movies and more since 2005.

Read this post on the website: Bhaag Milkha Bhaag: The actual newspaper headlines in September 1960 were quite different

Indians would have surely been disappointed by Milkha Singh’s legendary defeat in the 400 metres final at the 1960 Rome Olympics, but did the disappointment turn into actual anger as depicted at the start of Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Milkha Singh biopic – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag? I had my doubts. One, the tone of the headlines [...]

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Bringing to you vintage Indian ads, tech, movies and more since 2005.

Read this post on the website: Download for free: 40 HarperCollins India ebooks on Google Play

Disclosure: I am an ebook evangelist. Update 2: As expected, Google and HarperCollins India seems to have been alerted of the leak and the free fest is now over. I hope the early birds got their worms. Update 1: The free ebook count is now 40 (up from 39). Thanks Amit! Also URL structure changed […]

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Bringing to you vintage Indian ads, tech, movies and more since 2005.

Read this post on the website: Announcing India Shopping Search: A custom search engine for online shopaholics

I do a lot of my shopping online and always have an eye open to catch the best diaper deals (We have a 22-month-old son). A big gap in online shopping in India is that there isn’t one search engine to fulfil my online shopping search needs. Google India doesn’t have a shopping option (which […]

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Bringing to you vintage Indian ads, tech, movies and more since 2005.

Read this post on the website: At Rs 100/issue buy e-versions of Filmfare magazine from 60 years ago

As regular readers of this blog (if there are any) would know, I have a thing for vintage magazines and I just discovered that vintage Filmfare issues from 1954 onwards are now available for purchase in a digital format online. At Rs 100 an issue, some people, with whom I shared the news, thought that […]

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Bringing to you vintage Indian ads, tech, movies and more since 2005.

Read this post on the website: Et tu, Dadamoni? How Ashok Kumar fell from grace in Suraiya’s eyes

There are a lot of distractions while reading eBooks on the phone and Twitter is one. As I was swiping through the pages of Raju Bharatan’s A Journey Down Melody Lane: The Making of a Hindi Film Song on my phone, I occasionally switched to the Twitter app to follow what’s tweeting. In a strange […]

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Bringing to you vintage Indian ads, tech, movies and more since 2005.

Read this post on the website: Filmfare magazine cover dated April 2, 1954 featuring the first Filmfare Award winners

60 years ago on Sunday, March 31, 1954 the first Filmfare Awards ceremony (for films released in 1952-53) was held at Bombay’s Metro Cinema and the subsequent issue of the fortnightly film magazine (dated April 2, 1954) had on its cover three of the winners from the night posing with their trophies. On the cover […]

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Bringing to you vintage Indian ads, tech, movies and more since 2005.

Read this post on the website: The unofficial Khushwant Singh Google doodle

This is from a few days ago when the man whose pen wore no condom fell one short of a century. The unofficial Khushwant Singh Google doodle. And an animated GIF tribute to the ‘Sardar in the Lightbulb’ that I created suring my day job at IBNLive.

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Since 2005. By Soumyadip Choudhury

Read this post on the website: 25 world newspaper front pages with Narendra Modi and BJP’s victory headlines

The elections in the world’s largest democracy (that is also a prominent emerging economy) is obviously an item of importance in the world media. Here’s a snapshot of how newspapers around the world covered the news of Narendra Modi and BJP’s emphatic victory in the elections to the 16th Lok Sabha. Modi might have won […]

Cutting the Chai - India's original potpourri blog. Since 2005. By Soumyadip Choudhury