ACP Pradyuman's Law of Solving Crime

ACP Pradyuman needs no introduction. Everyone who has ever seen any episode of CID in last 15 years knows him very well. Who have not seen CID would know him from a lot of CID jokes doing rounds over the internet and mobile world. Whomsoever still does not recognise him can stop reading further because this post is not for them.

ACP has been solving crime for last 15 years without fail with no promotions or transfers. He has not been promoted or transferred because he is indispensable. He has derived a method of solving crime, which is foolproof and has not failed him ever in last so many years. We will call this method "ACP's Law of Solving Crime".

Everyone familiar with ACP is familiar with this image of him.

Over the years people have noticed him making this gesture with his right hand and likened it to Fleming's Right Hand Rule. Very few people have actually understood the real meaning of this gesture. For the benefit of all here is the explanation. This is ACP Law of Solving Crime. His three fingers are pointing towards three different directions and they mean that you need three points to solve any crime conclusively i.e. it requires a combination of total three evidences or witness to nail the correct culprit. With two points you can reach a suspect but it always requires a third point to find the real criminal.

This three point rule is the reason any typical CID investigation is run in three parallel streams. One is normally headed by Abhijeet, second is headed by Daya and last but not the least third is headed by highly talented Dr Salunkhe. When all these three mutually exclusive lines of investigations point to same direction you finally nail the criminal.

Reality Shows (some random thoughts)

These days there is a flood of reality shows on TV and there so many types covering many walks of life. Some of them test your talent and some test your smartness and some are game shows and some are just there to create controversy. I watch a lot of TV and since I cannot relate to any of the daily soaps, I switch to some of these reality shows. Once during a training on presentation skills, I was asked to present something on a topic of my choice and was given 5 minutes to prepare. I chose to present on reality shows and will try to write down some of those thoughts here.

I have read somewhere that the concept of reality shows was introduced by TV series COPS, started in 1989 because of Writers Guild of America strike. The show is still running and is based on real life cops work. First time something like this was introduced to Indian audience in the form of Antakshari. This idea of a reality show was introduced to me by the 1998 Jim Carrey starer popular movie The Truman Show. After coming to Mumbai in recent years I started watching Roadies, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, Americal Idol, Dance India Dance, Splitsvilla, BiG Boss, KBC, many Comedy shows etc and very recently Marriage shows, Dare to Date, Emotional Atyachar, and Music ka Maha Muqabala.

Many times people tell me that everything in these shows is scripted and well rehearsed and I tell them, what difference does that make. In the end it's all about entertainment and I am more entertained if I assume that it's real, then so be it. I am enjoying.

You need to PROVE yourself to DESERVE the RESPECT. Prove, deserve and respect being the most commonly used words in the reality shows. Sometimes it's funny to hear these words misused in weird situations. While talent based reality shows are popular the more popular ones are based on group dynamics, like Bigg Boss, Roadies, Splitsvilla. What makes audience stick to these shows is their involvement in the shows. Critical decisions in many of these shows are based on audience votes. So starting episodes focus on knowing the contestants and once audience decides on their favourites, they start voting for them. Once you vote for a contestant you want to see how he/she is performing. So it becomes like a cycle, you vote for the performance and then watch the performance because you voted. This is true in case of many talent based reality shows.

Another reason behind the popularity of these shows, which is more applicable for the shows based on group dynamics, is that they make the audience relate to the characters. In my personal opinion, since there is not much social life left in urban Indian society, these shows make the audience feel closer to the society. These shows become a part of the social life for the audience.

Last but not the least you have some usual suspects who have perfected the art of being on a reality show. Himesh Reshamiya, Malaika Arora, Abhijit, Alka Yagnik, Anu Mallik, Ranavijay, Nikhil Chinappa to name a few. Then there are star appearances to promote their upcoming movies, most popular appearances being of SRK, Salman and Amitabh.

What BIG BOSS 3 has that 1 and 2 didn't?

So, after two successful seasons BIG BOSS is back with TRITIYA. While seasons one and two had more or less similar dynamics the only differences were anchors and the contestants. This time again these two factors are obviously different, but there is something more to tritiya that 1 and 2 did not have to offer.

Since BIG BOSS is all about group dynamics, what better than put a married couple in the house. Yes, this time it's Tanaz and Bakhtiyar together in the BIG BOSS's house. (I personally think they have lost their identity as individuals and are identified only as couple. They are together always. Talk about inseparable.)

You got Rakhi is season 1 and season 3 brings you Rakhi ki ma (yes, that is how she is identified). Now you know from where Rakhi got her undoubted faith in Jesus and her dancing skills.

You also got KRK. Yes, KRK is unique and cannot go unnoticed. In his own words, "KRK itna chhota star nahi hai ki itni jaldi eliminate ho jaye." I only have one doubt, they spend so many crores for the show and 2 paise ki akal lagana bhul gaye. You have to SMS KAM to save KRK and not KRK. wtf, ye KRK ke khilaf bahut badi sajish hai.

Last but not the least, you have got Rohit. There are 6 boys, 6 girls and 1 Rohit in the house. You would not have imagined people getting cinfused between which bedroom to choose in the previous two seasons.

So guys.. ENJOY...

Watch TV: What about these ads?

I don't have any educational or professional background in marketing, but i have a brain, which works overtime. I have a disease of thinking, thinking about things those do not affect me directly, but I see them around. Since I watch TV a lot, I see that half the time ad films are shown on the screen. I have noticed somethings from these ads, some of them are brilliant and some dumb, some catch viewers attention and some fail to do so, some of them are able to market the product well and some fail to do so.

1. Rediff Mail ad (It's not big it's unlimited): What does the ad mean? Don't go into the details of what is shown on the screen, the essence of the ad is, rediffmail is providing unlimited mailbox storage.
What does unlimited mean? It means that you will no longer be shown how much percentage of storage space you have already used. Instead of adding, they have removed something and marketing the product on that basis.
What a brilliant idea? Some people might actually be falling for it.

2. Feviquick ad (Catching the fish): Well the ad must be almost 10-12 second long. Only words spoken in the ad are in tamil, which i don't understand, but i still could understand what it wanted to say.
What a brilliant way of saying how quick and effective faviquick is.

3. Ads Featuring Celebrities: There are a lot many ads featuring celebrities. Have you ever thought, why these companies are spending millions to get a celebrity in the ad. Do you think if I would use MRF tyres just because Sachin is saying so. There could be many people who would do that. But I think the idea behind taking celebrity in an adfilm is not only targeting fans of those celebrities. These celebrities are famous, known faces, they are seen on TV, Magzines, Newpapers regularly,since your product is assiciated with these celebrities, they are indirectly marketing your product. They are in a way increasing the recall value of your product. If I need to replace my bike tyres and Sachin Tendulkar comes in my mind somehow, I might go for MRF tyres. The probability of Sachin coming in my mind is more than that of MRF tyres.

4. Orbit White Ad (It does not rhyme, but it is true): Have you seen the cow ad of orbit white. The ad is different from other ads, the idea, the concept, everything is different. The ad makes sure that people notice the difference by stating in the end "It does not rhyme, but it is true". Ad film maker has explicitly mentioned that this ad is different.
What is the need to make this ad different from others? The idea is similar to putting a white spot on a black wall. You will notice it easily.

to be continued....

Breaking News: There is none!

A lot many people who watch any of the many news channels will understand what I want to say here.

When I was a kid, there were no 24 hour news channels. The only news program was being aired on Doordarshan, twice a day for 15 minutes. That news used to be crisp and contained most of the events of the day, which anyone would be interested in. Now there are as many as 30 news channels, who claim to be airing news for 24 hours a day. Do you think the life is more eventful, than it was 10 years ago. I don't think so. I think the news still can be told in 15 mins, but we get to see those 15 mins in 720 (24*30) hours.

And what we get is something similar to following:
1. A boy falls in a hole and we get to see him for 60 hours. Many news channels were even showing live coverage of the rescue operations. All we got to see was repeated clips of the boy in the hole and people outside the hole praying for his life.
2. One character in a TV serial does something and we are shown clippings of that for hours. If you don't watch the complete story, you will be confused, that Smriti Irani might be going to prison now for killing someone, which was caught on tape by some news channel. Alas it was a clipping of some TV serial being aired on a news channel.
3. We get to watch programs like Hansega India, Aisi Ki Taisi on a news channel.
4. Some girl creates trouble in a wedding, the groom was supposedly her ex-boyfriend/ex-husband and we get to see a live coverage of that.
5. You get to vote (share your views) for anything and everything. I am most amazed by 5% of the voters who always vote "can't say", even though they know that they will be charged 6 Rs for that SMS.
6. Some actor is seen hand in hand with an actress and we get to see news of their marriage. And very next day, we get to hear denial statements from those involved in the story. This way they get to cover at least 2 days.
7. The water at Mahim bay turns sweet and people are there to drink that water. Once after that news I was near Mahim bay and I could not stand the foul smell there. BTW later it was confirmed by some scientists that it happens every year but since there weren't so many news channels, it never came on TV and so many people were saved from drinking that water.
8. Some God's image has appeared on some wall and people are gathering there to worship the God. Well I can show you various such images on my walls, during rains.

I wonder if things keep on going the way they are, the day is not far away when we get to watch news like these:
1. Two friends were arguing on some point and one slappped the other. They are shown live on TV.
2. Amitabh Bachchan's maid didn't turn up today. Jaya Bacchan was seen sweeping the house herself, while Aishwarya was getting ready for a party. And guess what, this could lead to a divorce between Abhi and Ash.
3. Salman Khan kicked one dog under the influence of alchohal, hear Menka Gandhi's comments on the event.
4. There was a peace talk between India and Pakistan, look for the details during our 60 Seconds headlines section.

What the hell, where is this taking us.