#Trends: Rudra Hanuman Vehicle Stickers

More than a year back while visiting Bengaluru, I noticed a unique sticker on almost every third vehicle. The sticker of Lord Hanuman, apparently in an angry facial expression. It was attention catching. The design was so perfect for vehicles. I wondered where it came from. 

In due course, the same vehicle sticker has reached nooks and corners of India. It can be seen in Delhi-NCR area as well, on cars, bikes and scooters alike. The other day while talking to a colleague, I mentioned that the sticker is slightly scary. But the colleague said, "No, it is good!" Apparently everyone likes it. 

The other day there was a campaign on Twitter with hash tag #BajrangiTwitter. When I checked what had happened, I found this sticker at the center of the trend. Then I got to know about who designed it. 

The 'Rudra Hanuman' sticker was designed by Karan Acharya, a designer and graphic artist working in Mangalore, Karnataka. He hails from Kasargod in Kerala. He had designed the sticker in 2015 at the event of Ganesh Chaturthi when his friends asked him to design something new. 

Karan mentions that he wanted to design something for which he can be remembered. I am sure, this Hanuman Sticker is definitely one of those. 

• Checkout some of his art on pinterest here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/575194183642131318/
• Follow him on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/karanacharya7#

You can find these interesting articles about Karan and his Hanuman art here: 

• The mystery behind why Bengaluru is covered in stickers of ‘angry Hanuman’
• Meet the man who designed this wonderful Hanuman sticker

Best wishes to Karan. More power to his tribe.

- Rahul 

[#Fashion] The Tilting Heads Phenomenon: Why Women Tilt Their Heads in Photos and Selfies

The latest fashion trend amongst women is an interesting tilt – women are increasingly seen tilting their heads sideways while taking photographs or selfies. It seems the conventional pose of facing the camera straight has been left for the bewildered men while women have started tilting their heads at varying degrees and looking at the camera in some mischievous ways which others can’t understand at all. Men are totally baffled about what has gotten into the female head. They could understand the ‘duck face’ as well as the ‘fish pout’ but now these tilting faces? It does not make any sense at all!

I tried to read what others think about it. Majority of observers say that it is just a body language which sends out a message of being ‘non-threatening’. But I think this is an 18^th century explanation to a 21^st century phenomenon. If women needed to indicate ‘non-threatening’ sign this way, they would have invented the ‘tilting head’ pose hundreds of years ago. Why wait for the Selfie cameras to arrive? Also, who are the girls sending ‘non-threatening’ signs to while they tilt heads in ‘selfies’?

When we tilt our head, it naturally makes our face appear leaner. So can this ‘tilting head’ phenomenon be attributed to a cover-up act by those with round faces which in turn indicates a ‘healthier’ person? (Btw, in the world of fashion, looking ‘healthy’ is a sin. To fit into those latest dresses, you need to appear a bit sick to get closer to your skeleton which is ‘size-zero’. When your mother or grand-mother starts worrying about your health you can be assured that your friends and peers would have started envying you.)

I used to believe in above theory until I saw my nephew. He is a cute little angel but when he appears in a photograph he tilts his head at one side and gives an expression of immense love and affection. Learning from his pose I came to conclusion about why women would tilt their heads. They think that the ‘tilting head with a smiling face’ pose sends out love and affection! But then why didn’t women of previous generation invent this pose? May be because they were too conventional – and looking straight in camera is a conventional pose.

For women of previous generation, the most important priority of life was to appear and lead life of a ‘good woman’. And hence even a slight tilt of head could be seen as digression and better be avoided. Women of this generation are least bothered about what others think of them while most bothered about how they are looking (which may appear ironical but it is not).

We can also look at it this way. Once upon a time, women lived under strict discipline and kept their heads ‘low’. Then came a generation of well-educated career women who kept their heads ‘straight’. And now comes a generation of women spoilt with choices like never before and hence they are tilting their heads ‘sideways’.

In the end, I think the most convincing answer would be – it is just a stupid craze. That is what most fashion trends are. After a while women would get bored tilting heads and they would start looking straight again. And then life would be simple again for some time.

- Rahul