This is another of those tagline posts, and, yeah, I am obsessed with taglines. I somehow get very excited when I update my GTalk with some tagline that I perceive to be witty, either mine or stolen. For instance, my most recent stolen witty tagline (with due credits to ‘A Suitable Boy’ by Vikram Seth) goes like this:
“I know that I am indecisive, but he takes the cake. Or, rather, he doesn’t even know whether he should.”
I am not just smitten with my own babies, as I call them, but also painstakingly read through the taglines of each of my friends on GTalk. And I respond to them in different ways depending on the person and the tagline.
• If it is a close friend and if the tagline is happy or sad or witty or K-Max, I ping them and tell them so.
• If it is a close friend and I am in a mood to play, I reply to the tagline with a tagline of my own and the game continues.
• If it is an acquaintance, I just put a tagline which is a response to his/ her tagline and find it very entertaining that the other person has not realized that I am having fun at his/ her expense. For instance:
Acquaintance’s tagline – What to do when there is lots to do?
My tagline – Err.. not capable of much, uh?
• If the tagline has grammatical or spelling errors, I do not care whether it is a close friend or an acquaintance. I just ping them and tell them. It just breaks my poor, little heart to see wrong English up there.
The tagline world is a world by itself. It is a world that comes to my rescue when I have totally given up on life, whether out of boredom or out of ‘running away to the Himalayas’ level emotions. It gives me the opportunity to talk something with people I just want to keep in touch with but do not have a particular subject to talk about except for the same old monotonous things like “How is work?”, “How is life?”, “How is Delhi/ Bangalore/ Chennai/ Singapore/ Switzerland/ whatever treating you?”
The other day, I had “105!” as my tagline and people were pinging me trying to guess what it could mean. Someone said I was running a temperature; someone else thought it was a countdown. Good fun it was. I was actually trying to show off that I had to read a 105 page document in very little time and evoke some sympathy for the same. But, when the explanations were made, my friend just said, “That’s why you are screened through CAT. The RCs test whether you would have the patience to sit and read so much.” :-(
For the past few days, I have been hunting for a nice tagline that would suit my personality. Yes, I firmly believe that one should not copy – paste taglines just for the sake of trying to sound cool. The tagline should really reflect the kind of person one is. For instance, I would never be able to bring myself to put “Winners do not quit and quitters do not win”, for I do not believe in it. I feel that I should quit when I am fairly certain of not winning. And, even more importantly I would not want to put a proverb that has been around for ages. What kind of “value add” am I providing to the society blah blah! Well, putting something like “105!” is not much of “value add”, I agree. But, it at least provides other incentives like catching up with people etc. (Like many others, I put an etc. when I am not able to come up with any more tangible benefits, examples etc.).
Coming back to the topic, as a part of my hunt for taglines, I had put a tagline saying, “And badly in need of a nice, witty tagline”. Three people took the pains to figure out nice, witty taglines for my sake. Thanks all! And, I am not going to share the taglines here for fear of losing exclusive rights on them. I have made the mistake before with 15 odd taglines given out for public consumption. These days, I am marginally smarter. I can maybe share the fourth guy’s idea which was that I should just put a plain K as tagline. K2U, Vinay Vasan Badri.
Taglines rock!
Update:Vikrant wants due credit for being one of those three guys who took pains to give me a rocking tagline.. sigh.. the perils! And let me also give due credits to the other two who gave me rocking taglines, Jags and Denzil! Thanks guys!
“I know that I am indecisive, but he takes the cake. Or, rather, he doesn’t even know whether he should.”
I am not just smitten with my own babies, as I call them, but also painstakingly read through the taglines of each of my friends on GTalk. And I respond to them in different ways depending on the person and the tagline.
• If it is a close friend and if the tagline is happy or sad or witty or K-Max, I ping them and tell them so.
• If it is a close friend and I am in a mood to play, I reply to the tagline with a tagline of my own and the game continues.
• If it is an acquaintance, I just put a tagline which is a response to his/ her tagline and find it very entertaining that the other person has not realized that I am having fun at his/ her expense. For instance:
Acquaintance’s tagline – What to do when there is lots to do?
My tagline – Err.. not capable of much, uh?
• If the tagline has grammatical or spelling errors, I do not care whether it is a close friend or an acquaintance. I just ping them and tell them. It just breaks my poor, little heart to see wrong English up there.
The tagline world is a world by itself. It is a world that comes to my rescue when I have totally given up on life, whether out of boredom or out of ‘running away to the Himalayas’ level emotions. It gives me the opportunity to talk something with people I just want to keep in touch with but do not have a particular subject to talk about except for the same old monotonous things like “How is work?”, “How is life?”, “How is Delhi/ Bangalore/ Chennai/ Singapore/ Switzerland/ whatever treating you?”
The other day, I had “105!” as my tagline and people were pinging me trying to guess what it could mean. Someone said I was running a temperature; someone else thought it was a countdown. Good fun it was. I was actually trying to show off that I had to read a 105 page document in very little time and evoke some sympathy for the same. But, when the explanations were made, my friend just said, “That’s why you are screened through CAT. The RCs test whether you would have the patience to sit and read so much.” :-(
For the past few days, I have been hunting for a nice tagline that would suit my personality. Yes, I firmly believe that one should not copy – paste taglines just for the sake of trying to sound cool. The tagline should really reflect the kind of person one is. For instance, I would never be able to bring myself to put “Winners do not quit and quitters do not win”, for I do not believe in it. I feel that I should quit when I am fairly certain of not winning. And, even more importantly I would not want to put a proverb that has been around for ages. What kind of “value add” am I providing to the society blah blah! Well, putting something like “105!” is not much of “value add”, I agree. But, it at least provides other incentives like catching up with people etc. (Like many others, I put an etc. when I am not able to come up with any more tangible benefits, examples etc.).
Coming back to the topic, as a part of my hunt for taglines, I had put a tagline saying, “And badly in need of a nice, witty tagline”. Three people took the pains to figure out nice, witty taglines for my sake. Thanks all! And, I am not going to share the taglines here for fear of losing exclusive rights on them. I have made the mistake before with 15 odd taglines given out for public consumption. These days, I am marginally smarter. I can maybe share the fourth guy’s idea which was that I should just put a plain K as tagline. K2U, Vinay Vasan Badri.
Taglines rock!
Update:Vikrant wants due credit for being one of those three guys who took pains to give me a rocking tagline.. sigh.. the perils! And let me also give due credits to the other two who gave me rocking taglines, Jags and Denzil! Thanks guys!
7 comments:
K max.. K is all powerful and it means a lot and can convey a lot too.. So K2U2
u need never acknowledge fr all the crappy tagline i suggested to u :D
by the way u r really gifted with the art of writing.. u wrote such a big article on so trivial n issue :P
hehehe..
way to go!!
taglines are sometimes the only activity that happens on gtalk...and i luv it..
luv ur taglines.. hav had fun deciphering them, and luv u for returning the same to me :)
Haha... thanks for the acknowledgment kavi... had i known u wud be writing a post on it... i cud have suggested sthg more memorable.
Although my name appears only in your post which may not be the same as being cited in The New York Times or our very own THE HINDU, nevertheless the feeling is "priceless", so much so that it had rejuvenated my spirit that i no longer care about the project which is due tomorrow. :P
Screw the presentation, im in kavi's blog !... lol :D
And about your theory of "Taglines reflect personality ". I absolutely second that..
Keep them coming
Eyes wide open
- Denny :)
Good post..I too enjoy reading other's taglines and trying to decipher them. Taglines are also a way to gauge the mood of the other person and decide whether to initiate a chat or not and what kind of chat..My taglines though are always mundane as I am not witty as you...Naveen recently sent me a blogpost by Ashwinikumar Patil on gtalk taglines..one of the memorable blogposts that i read in recent times..here is it: http://apinion.blogspot.com/2008/09/gtalk-status-messages-at-741-pm-10-sep_10.html
and yes..the guy who commented on 105! and RC is really smart and has understood what CAT is all about :)
@vinay: K^infinity
@jags, rams and denzil: thanks :)
@mani: neeye sollika koodathu nee smart nu, naanga sollanum :D
neeyum sollala..comment panna matha naalu perum sollala..adhaan naane sollinden..
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