Crime Seeing (aka When looks can kill - a true story)

People always say that its harmless to look. But guess these days thats not a good thing. You can be punished for looking. Well the government is getting ready to punish you for breaking the law if you look at porn on your computer. And now the spouses of those keeping the law are punishing people for the crime of looking. In this case at their behinds.
She was pretty and good looking married to an equally good looking, rich criminal lawyer who had a successful career defending those who lead a life of crime.
He was a poor boy from the outstations coming to make a living in the city. He was a trainer at the gym I go to and was popularly known as Kalu Jagath. He was dirt poor and was trying hard to make ends meet. Living with his wife in Ratmalana in a little room he used to travel to Colombo 5 by bus sometimes at 4 in the morning to be at the gym by 5.30.
His wife became pregnant recently adding to his concern about his financial stability. He was good in his work. And was liked by everyone.
Infact lots of ladies at the gym used to get him to do their streching because it was believed that his streching was very good due to his experience as a masseur. Some of these ladies used to wear short shorts, And there is plaenty of opportunity to touch and feel when you are streching someone dressed like that. However no one reported anything negative about this boy. So this is the background to this story...
I had not seen him for a couple of days when I was informed that he was sacked. What is really startling was the reason why he had to go. Because he had been staring at a client's behind as she was jogging on a treadmill. Sadly this client had been an expat wife of a lawyer and they have threatened to sue the gym if this poor boy was not sacked.
To say I was floored was an understatement. Now if you have been to the gym you would see that the treadmilles are right in the front of the hall. Behind sthe treadmills there are a row of striders and behind the striders there is a couple of feet of free space and then a glass door. Apparently this boy was staring from behind the glass door at the lady and she saw him looking at her bum through the mirror in front of her. I must say this lady is amazingly alert. For her to notice someone staring at her from so far away. Well sadly due to her position he was sacked without even an enquiry after all they say money talks and bullshit walks. Well I dont know about this boy being a bullshitter but he sure had to walk away from a job thanks to the idisyncracy of some mad woman who thought her behind was worth looking at.
This is the gym I go to virtually six days a week. Next to work I spend most of my time here. After you start visiting the place a couple of days you tend to realise that all is not what it seems to be. That beneath the posh exterior there lies a complex web of competitiveness, jealousy and undercutting just like you would see in the political arean. And just like as in politics the main reason behind all this is money. You see all the trainers here do a business on the side which is called "PT" which is the short form for personal training. Most of the trainers get a very basic salary which would not be sufficient for them to lead their lives and it is the personal training which gives them their actual income. The gym is a place where you pick up clients. And now the place has been named Bodybar the pun seems more appropriate.
Well this situation has resulted in two things. One is that you can never get a trainer to assist you unless you have money or you have boobs. I believe the reason for this is that there are a higher number of ladies using personal trainers than men. So when someone new comes into the gym and if he gets PT jobs it is at the cost of someone else loosing his income. This has resulted in the second aspect where there is an insane level of rivalry between the trainers.
Since KJ was popular among the ladies I believe another trainer thought he would be a threat to him and somehow set this entire thing up.
But what I am really sad is about the people who own the gym... they are filthy rich. So rich that they have forgotten what it is like to be poor. They just dropped him like a hot potatoe without giving ear to his side of the story even though I believe he would have been proved innocent in a normal court of law. What a shame.

Twelve years...

12 years...

its been that long since you were snatched away.

I can still remember you lying on that hospital bed.

tubes all over you.... looking deeply into my eyes...

the feeling of helplessness that came over me...

not being able to do anything other than pray...

I can remember praying.... looking up to the cross at infant jesus church...

not just praying... crying... pleading... begging.

sadly my prayers fell on deaf ears...


I still wonder why? How?

why you? What have you done to deserve this?

was it my sins that you are paying for?

would it have been different if we took you to another doctor?

I remember 12 years ago today...

leaning over and whispering into your ear...

its ok to go darling.... its ok....

I still have the memories...
of you running down a corridor.... smiling

of you holding my hand....

one day you wanted me to move the sun

to stop it shining into your eyes...

you know I would have if I could...

and it still hurts as it did then

12 years ago...



in memory of little S who departed on 21/08/1997

A License to lie?

I had to go for this evening session today where some of the leading figures in advertising along with a sudha were presenting some activation campaigns. One of the ideas which were show cased was the reebonn t shirt campaign where the public were informed that three popular DJs for radio stations were abducted by white vans. This created a huge uproar and people were quite worried. Infact the tamil DJ who was supposed to be abducted for three days had to come back early because the pressure was too much. I really felt sorry when a tamil listener had actually called and offered a reward of one million rupees for any news of the DJ (This stinks of a set up)

Now I have been to many presentations here and abroad where activation ideas have been portrayed as the new miracle of communication. But what I find quite uncomfortable is that most of them are based on a lie. Infact if at first if people knew that it was a truth it would not be popular in the first place.

Us in advertising have been tarnished as sophisticated liars anyway and I believe by doing this we are actually telling the world yes it is true and digging our grave deeper and deeper. Already there are jokes linking linking prostitution and advertising and I really dont want my children to be ashamed to say that there dad is in advertising. Yes we are in the business of grabbing eye balls but it does not give us the right to do anything purely to achieve this.

In fact I was glad to see most of the case studies which were presented at this function concentrated on ideas which did not hide to the people that it was not a commercial venture. And if they were good I raise my hat to them. One which comes to mind of a great activation idea is the lead india campaign which was done for the times of india which I thought was excellent. Well I am looking forward to the day when i can do something like this for one of my clients.

An amazing read.

Saturday night. It is nearly midnight. I was sleepy but I had to read few chapters of a book for church the next morning. The first eight chapters were less than twenty pages. I had been on my feet the entire day and was feeling tired. But I thought I should read these pages anyway the only problem could be that I might fall asleep.

He he actually that was the least of my problems. The fact was I could not fall asleep and ended up reading the book to the very end.

My adventure in faith. Wow what a powerhouse read it was. I thought the book might be full of hell and damnation and boringm But it was not. It was simple and easy to read. But the story was so powerful. I go to the same church that Pastor Colton founded. But even I did not know his background and story. Some would say to have such blind faith would be foolish. But I say it is absolutely brave.

Doesn't it feel great to be in power?

Here I am sitting in my car and typing this little note as I wonder what it must feel like to be in power. I had the misfortune of attending a dance recital where our beloved first lady happened to be the chief guest. I should have known better and avoided attending the event today alltogether even at the risk of throwing away good money. On the bright side I console myself thinking that it could have been worse.
Well anyway to get back to the story firstly to get to the Lionel Wendt took a huge amount of time. Thanks to the roads being closed for our dearest first lady to get to the event. Secondly we had to park further away than usual cos the parking area in front of the wendt has been cordoned off for her escort. So I get to the Wendt after a long walk and sweat pouring down me. Alas I realise that this was not going to be the end of me having to suffer for her security. Women and children were lined in one side while the men were asked to line on another. And all of us were searched. Quite thoroughly I might add. So thoroughly I might have enjoyed it if I was the other way inclined. I sometimes wish that it were the females that had to search the men. Sadly that's not going to happen anytime soon. Anyway I finally managed to make it to my seat. Actually I must say one part of me was quite relieved that such a thorough search had been done. Because I felt so much safer. Infact the thought did cross my mind of what could happen if she was targetted. How many children would have died. Of course one could argue why did she come at all? Firstly by not coming she would not have endangered the lives of nearly sevenhundred people who were at the event. Secondly the economy could have saved quite a bit of money. If you saw the amount of vehicles which were part of her convoy you would have agreed with me too. I saw at least one Mercedes Benz S class. A couple of Landrover defenders. Then the brats too had come with their own escorts along with their own BMWs. All together there would have been more than twenty vehicles used by these three NIPs (Non Important People)
On the other hand I was wondering if it was as wonderful and enjoyable as one would imagine. Firstly not knowing when you would be attacked. Secondly the inconvenience of not having a moment of privacy. Doing everything in front of your security. I have heard people laughing about our second in command - who is well known for his weakness for women- having to get a pharmacy opened in the middle of the night so he could by Viagra and this is in full view of his security.
Coming to think of it I would rather have mylife whcih is not as complicated.
This was written on Friday night

I should be sleeping..

... but I can't. So here I am tapping in some words trying to gear myself up for another hectic week ahead. The past few days have been stressful. Also it has been frustrating. Whilst things have not seemed to have improved much I can feel that the sun is going to come out of the clouds very soon. I only hope that it is not too late and we would not have drowned by that time. My Saturday was busy. And for the first time I actually missed taking my Saturday afternoon nap. He he not that it is a big thing. But well a man must have his little luxuries. Well the good news is that I when I came back from work in the evening I took my daughters out for a small round. I had to go and get a suit adjusted and thought I will take them along. It was quite nice to hear them chattering away as I drove.
Sometimes I cannot believe what I have become. I never saw myself being a father when I was young. He he though I sure would not have led an opportunity to father a kid slip by. But recently at a client meeting (on a poya day) I was reintroduced to Dominos. And amazingly it was better than what it was those days. So after dropping in at the Hameedias show room in rajagiriya I took the kids and went to domino's and ordered us some Pizzas. Well they said it would take fifteen minutes. And we walked out of the place 35 minutes later quite happy that it has taken longer. It made me smile at my sri lankaness how most of us would put up with people not keeping up to their word with a patient smile. Well the pizza was fabulous and the kids loved it though they wanted to go to Pizza hut at first. In fact they loved it so much that we ordered pizza again this evening because we were feeling hungry. A perdinner snack. Well once more I ended up eating way more than I should and am feeling stuffed. I still cant believe that I have actually managed to post a couple of articles on my blog in the past few days even with the work being hectic. And other commitments taking pride of place as well. But I have made a promise to myself to see if I can at least do one post a day. The main reason is that I want to be able to write. I have so many things I want to say. But the moment I am in front of a keyboard I am stuck. In fact I think that I might be better off writing with pen and paper and then typing it in.
When I see people who can say what can be said in one word in ten I cringe with envy. But well I am sure if I keep typing away one of these days I will be able to make the words gush and let it pour forth. I read two interesting books in one day and I am trying to see in my mind if I should mention them in another post. After all the title of this post is I cant sleep. Well the words are indeed pouring out. And I think it is time for me to head to bed and catch up on some Zzz. I am sleepy and tired. Not only because I missed my Saturday afternoon nap. Also because I stayed up till nearly two in the morning reading when I should have been sleepy.
Sadly I am not looking forward to the week ahead. Firstly there are so many minor issues I need to look into it is not funny. Also a certain colleague is not pulling his weight. I have one charity project already and I really cant afford another one. Well I made the mistake of hiring him and even a bigger mistake of confirming him (as well as giving an increment) when I should have extended his probation. Well that is what I am the eternal optimist. And now thanks to that I am pushing a bus uphill. Well well I am hoping for a miracle. Cos I sure do need one.

Mirror mirror on the wall whose the biggest copy cat of them all?

Recently a friend sent me a commercial which was done in Indonesia by Toyota which I thought was very good and had lots of wow factor. just a few minutes ago I turned on the tv and was watching SLRC when I saw the same commercial being done for Ceylinco VIP. I just thought I should put it up on here. I looked for the new "on the spot" commercial but could not find it yet. But the moment I find it I will post it here so that you can see how closely they have copied it. Virtually frame for frame.
What really saddens me is that this is done by a top agency who has a proud heritage. And what makes this even worse is because this is not the first time they have done such things. Well I think this is because of foreign Creative Directors who really don't have a great sense of responsibility for the company they work for. Because in less than three years they would be posted to another location. So by the time their crime is discovered it is too late. Well I think its sad. What really saddens me further is that while a lot of agencies and advertising associations are talking about scam which is still original creativity no one in the industry or related bodies are doing anything about copying which is a crime which is far worse. Well guess this is Sri Lanka.