Seven Wonders at Ecopark

 There are replicas of the 7 Wonders at a park near us in Kolkata. Went there with guests yesterday for the first time. It's a vast park, may need two visits to see it all. Or three, if you want to play Golf there.

Anyway, here are some pics..

Keepsake Photos

 Photographs are a great way to remember people, occasions, planned events, chance meetings, and places too. Many of us have a Taj Mahal pic from our visit to the beautiful monument. I have one from the Eiffel Tower, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa too.

My grandmother's pic at the steering wheel of a car (she didn't drive) is one of her best in my collection. Another is from when many of my aunts had visited us with their kids - my Mom had six sisters and a brother. 

Another category is with students, alumni or colleagues from various workplaces. Some I meet repeatedly and some I met maybe only once. But a photo reminds me of the fun time we had. There is one with Vivek Gupta - a colleague at IIM Lucknow, which was during a hailstorm we had on campus. I went home, got my camera and we took some memorable pics. One with Avinash Mulky too, during this short time.

Many of the vintage pics from IIM Bangalore-an architectural wonder that I was lucky to be in- are now priceless. A couple with the Clemson Tiger- he was a mascot of Clemson University, or one during a break in the Football game -very colourful, are similarly priceless. 

Pics with family - particularly when our daughters were small-are gems in our collection. Digitisation has made it easy to preserve these, but I have a huge collection from pre-digital days, including a flight in a Cessna over Clemson! 

Classic Pics

 Some real classics I found recently on an excavation.

Last one has my maternal grandparents, parents, aunts, uncle and cousins of my age group.

Trump Presidency- A Look Ahead

Peeping into the future, around 2017, this is what I predict for the US of A and consequently, all of us-

1. The game of Bridge- No Trump bids will no longer be allowed.
2. Immigration- You are either in before November 2016, or out!
3. Muslims- You are out, no matter when you were in.
4. Mexicans- Go fruit-picking in Mexico, no more cherry-picking in the US. 
5. Wig-makers- will get an incentive to make strange-looking wigs. The new normal!
6. Speech-writers will get free access to all speeches ever made worldwide, no charges of plagiarism will be entertained against them. "I have a dream, too.."
7. The Apprentice (hope that's the show he starred in) will be compulsory screening on all TV channels at primetime.
8. Trump Tower will have to be the biggest one in any town he builds one in, and others will be cut to size if they are taller.
9. Taj Mahal will have to be rebuilt to look like like The Taj Mahal Casino built by him.
10. The statue of Liberty will be replaced with the Trump statue-that'll teach the French!

Brands I Grew Up With

Dalda- There was a shortage of this cooking oil most of the time.

Binny- Many clothes were made from this cloth brand.
Bata- Shoes invariably had to be Bata. Learnt much later that this was a company started by a Czech immigrant into the West.
Cadbury- the end of desire.
Chiclets- the first chewing gum that we had.

Tata- The trucks and buses we saw were either Tata or Ashok Leyland.
Godrej- They made locks and cupboards. Life's valuable possessions (few then) used to be under their lock and key.
Camlin- Oh, the excitement of a new compass box in school!

Taj Mahal- This was a Udipi restaurant in Hyderabad.
Kamat- and this too.
Modern- Mummy, mummy Modern Bread-an iconic ad.

Philips- Listened to marvelous songs on the Philips radio through the ages..Binaca Geet Mala, Bhoole bisre geet, Aap hi ke geet, Jaymala, Chhayageet, S. Kumar's ka Filmi Muqaddama, and many sponsored programs. Murphy with the iconic Baby ad was another big radio brand.
EC TV/Uptron TV- at home and at IIMB respectively. On the latter, watched in 1983 as India lifted the Prudential World Cup from the West Indies' hands.

Abids- High Street in Hyderabad for shoppers.
Chowpatty- The only one, in Mumbai. Bhel was made famous by it.

Ambassador- Travelling in it was rare, and we felt like royalty when we did travel in it.
Air India- The Maharaja was only aspirational. No air travel for the middle class, was the norm.
Jeans-any brand- The ultimate in cool.