King of Bad Times
Cheap wine is only a little worse than expensive wine, but a whole lot better than no wine at all. In this recessionary time people might not afford to indulge in expensive luxuries. Naturally cheaper substitutes will do good business. Here are few Businesses that I feel will do well. The list can be quite bigger than below one:

• Movie DVD: Watching a movie in multiplex is an expensive affair with additional expenses other than high prices tickets like petrol, parking charges, pop corn, beverages, etc. With DVD prices falling everyday it’s an exciting option.
• Cookery Books: Cooking at home can be fun as well lot more cheaper option. With sophisticated cooking assistance & semi processed food ingredients available in market cookery books can act as that much needed guide.
• Condoms: Child comes at a price, condom is cheaper option. Maternity is expensive affair & people may not want one more extra expense.
• Comics: It has been observed that in all the past recessions sales of Comics zoomed up. Needless to say everyone wants some time away from headlines of newspaper screaming bad news.
• B-Schools: Many corporate biggies feel that it is the best time to go for higher education. Not only it will equip an individual to face the challenging times but also give him window to make max learning from this time.
• KFC or McD: Who can beat McD in terms of zero inflation business model of McD. Their base Burger is at same price since past so many years. They serve good affordable food & hence will be first choice for many who don’t want to shell out huge sum.

Fashion Weak

“Dressing Down for Dressing Up” till sometime back was the mantra of rated Hollywood flicks only. But now Fashion Weeks all across borrowed this attraction (read cheap thrill) from it for good. Let it be Lakme Fashion Week or Wills Lifestyle Fashion Week, wardrobe malfunction makes its news much before any commendable fashion work out of it.

As per widespread perception Fashion Designers are the ones who have got best knowledge about fabric, fitting, accessories, etc. Also the fashion divas who walk the ramps wearing these fashion works; bears perfect body and practices day & night before making it public. Then how come two perfect parties work together and always end up in an imperfect show. Or they are designed to default so that it will eat reams of newsprint and earn some cheap publicity to the organizers. Fashion shows without wardrobe malfunction will be forgotten tomorrow but the one with that in it might be remembered till next week.

Have you ever wondered how our Indian Women managed to wrap herself beautifully & creatively in simple rectangular cloth of few (4 to 9) meters (sari) and maintaining her anatomical dignity for past so many years? Have you ever seen her Sari tucking out while walking on the road, while working at home, even while holding a kid in her arms?
This leaves us with a simple question: Are ramp walkers fashion victor or fashion victim?

Passing Humor: Why Lakme could never become world’s best cosmetic brand because the name itself says Lack-Me

Whose Marketing is it anyway?

Other day I went to Juhu Beach in Mumbai. First thing that comes in most of minds is Juhu Chowpatty. Juhu beach is flooded with countless numbers of Bhel Puri, Chaat, Ice Gola, Pav Bhaji stalls. I never tried eating anything over there because whenever I go near any stall all food items screams at me, “Hey, I am Typhoid, who are you”, “I am Cholera, you are looking healthy” & noises like that.

But to my shock and delight during this visit I saw a Message Board displaying “Mineral Water Pani-Puri”. Also the person who was doing the servings was wearing transparent hand gloves (also he was using spoons for all food serving activities).

Another Ice-Gola shop had written “Mineral Water Ice Gola”. The shopkeeper informed me that he uses only natural color and high quality sweetener for Golas.

I am happy to see that without reading Kotler or attending any MBA programme they know what their customer wants. What is eating their market share? What are gaps in the market? Now Fast Food is not just baby of Food Courts of Large Malls only. Bhel wala Bhaiya is gearing up too.

Lets watch, what is waiting in queue “Diet Bhel, Low Cal Pav Bhaji or Sugar Free Kulfi”. Keep looking around. The day is not very far.

Endnote: A Cynic is a person who in land of sugar and honey worries about calories

Let’s Cell-ibrate

When fathers of biology made the statement that “Life is made up of cell”, they would not have realized that this statement would hold true is some other form in future as well. Yes the tiny mighty cell phone (mobile phone) has become integral part of lifestyle, despite initial skepticism.

A decade back the object which was mere an idea or limited to privileged few, has become a reality now. For many, it’s a tough idea to imagine a life without a mobile phone. It has become a life, attitude & fashion statement now-a-days. As per a popular maxim “The best way to judge a person is to look at his shoes”. Now one need not have to look that down to a person, just look at his cell phone and judge what kind of person he is. A person with black & white cell phone with bare minimum function is highly objective oriented person. A person using chat messenger, with music in background and talking to his friend loves multitasking in life. Some talks minimum (I am fine, how are you over & out), others talk Short, long and too long. That’s why there are million handset types and zillion mobile service packs are available in market. Jodi packs, CUG, night calls, etc.

But “as every silver lining has a dark cloud (pun intended)” there is a flip side to I-can’t-live-without-this-thing as well. Cell phone addiction is new age peril. Some people just want to talk to others all the time over the phone. Max time per day talking over phone reported to be 18 hours. Kids are taking that as positive challenge and want to raise bars everyday. Some people just keep on reading same SMS’s, check call registry or play games if no one else is on other side, just to devote some mandatory hours to their micro god called mobile phone. There are few ones who also feel lonely and depresses when no body calls them or they try to reach someone who is either busy or not reachable. Also extent of its usage has grown so much that new riders are added to existing list of To-Do’s at office, school and public. Keep phone at silent, no SMS in lecture, talk gently at lower decibels, etc.

As per one of the study this small wonder has made 34 (and counting) products and services obsolete. Some examples of affected ones are…….
• Pager
• Calculator
• Land Line Phone
• Audio Devices
• Video Devices
• Radio
• Voice Recorder
• Alarm Clock
• Camcorder
• Digital Camera
• Gaming gadgets
• Daily Planner / Digital Diary
• Telegram
• Internet browsing PC

The list is not exhaustive as technically it can do any work today which can be expected out of a soft technology. It won’t be an exaggeration to call it a micro world with endless possibilities.

So who are the next ones ready to get thrashed by this Digit-All-Mighty; a printer, scanner or even your close friend because cell phones will now automatically play songs to revive your mood, send you SMS to make you happy and even chat with you on the topic of your interest.

Endnote:



Lord of the Rings

Life is calling, where are you?

We all are often confused between ‘means’ & ‘meaning’ of life. Of course work provides us ‘means’ (food, clothing, shelter, health, education & communication) of life but there is a greater ‘meaning’ to life beyond all these.

There are some high involvement careers (extensive long hours in office) which pay fortune but don’t give time to spend that. Some gives chance to travel or meet interesting people but that become monotonous after some time. Just for a salesman who walks 5 kilometers everyday to sell his products can’t be regarded as good substitute to morning walk; similarly the repetitive fun at workplace can’t be looked upon as good life. So what the heck LIFE is all about….

People have left their high paid careers, sold everything they had, abandoned their families in search of this greater meaning. But one need not have to become Monk and sell his Ferrari and go to Himalayas to do that. We are social, material-loving, simple human things where both people and products around us are our necessities. So we can still be a God wearing a Gucci outfit.

Majority of people believe that their boss is not letting them enjoy their life. He treats them like they are lifeless robots who are around just for working. But is it a right idea to expect boss to plan our life schedule juts like he prepares our work schedule. Majority of people stay late because they don’t know what to do with life. Given the break of one week they might go blank on what to do for themselves. To avoid all above situation we need to have short, medium and long term recreation plan for ourselves.

• Short term: Read book, watch a play, meet old friend, go for bowling, etc.
• Medium Term: Learn Guitar (its cliché but better options are also there), jungle hiking, join NGO, etc.
• Long Term: Bag pack to Africa, 15 days on island, one month teaching in village school, etc.

Life is all about Body, Mind & Soul. Each one has to be dealt in its particular way to balance it.

• Body: Exercise Daily, Yoga, Eat Healthy, etc.
• Mind: Read Books, Listen Music, Solve Puzzles, etc.
• Soul: Meditation, Selfless Serving, etc

In short we have to keep doing things which will bring us closer to life. We feel satisfied when we will be healthy, happy & successful.

Illegal trading might give success but doesn’t make one feel happy doing that. Similarly those who work in night shifts might feel happy & successful but they don’t feel healthy doing that. That’s the example of unsustainable lifestyles. We have to deal life in the order of health, happiness and success only.

Stop believing in Work-Life balance think of Life-Work Balance because LIFE comes first. Stop existing, Start living.

Endnote:
Interesting Abbreviations-
GOLF: Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden
TIP: To Insure Promptness

Catch them live

On the final match of Twenty20 World at South Africa stadium was full with Indian spectators. Even the captain of opponent team said, I am feeling as if we are playing in India. Although the initially excitement for such new type of low but it caught up the heat as the success kept pouring in. No denial of the fact that it bolstered the motivation of playing team too.

It’s a human tendency that we perform better when somebody is watching us or just be there while we perform. That’s why we wanted our parents to attend Sports day or Annual Days in school days. Sportsmen are no different than us. How many sports other than cricket are attended by audience while playing on ground? So how can we expect them to perform like World’s best team when they bring so much of fan following.

Watching a sport or game live will have following advantages:

1) It will increase the motivation of the performing team.

2) Money earned by selling tickets will fund the particular sport which is ‘must have’ for any activity to survive.

3) It will also give advertising revenue to the performing sport stars & in turn a kick to other team mates to perform better.

4) We as a nation can have one more pastime activity rather than just sitting at home and watching Sob Operas (Saas Bahu). It is a great fun to go to a match with friends. It gives all of them a great time. We cry and smile with their performance.

5) As per one of the study when we shout watching sports at stadium, it helps in fighting depression and frustration. (Try that, it works)

6) When the match is in critical state I gives a kind of adrenaline rush in the body. It is very good for health. It happens otherwise when we engage in some adventurous activity. Just like without having engaged in Adventure sports one can experience such nirvana.

In short, it has got more benefits than we ever thought consciously. In many countries people tent in front of stadium 1-2 days before the match day and have a good picnic with their family and friends. They worship their team and wear their colors while watching them on stadium. They talk love to talk about them and feel proud of them. Next time when we see that Indian football team, basketball team or for that matter any other non popular sports team is not in spotlight, just think what more you can do. Success and Happiness are plural word, that’s why both end with alphabet ‘s’. “Check them” India…

Endnote: Mum-Bai: Treat her like your Mum not like your Bai.

Surrogate Addiction

Other day I was sitting with my friend at Mocha. Air in the room was already filled with smoke. My friend ordered Hookah. She offered me as well but I didn’t feel the need as I was already doing great deal of passive smoking sitting there. She championed the idea of having hookah, as she felt there is no tobacco in that and its just a kind of flavored air which goes in and comes out without causing any damage to you. She nicely put it this way “See it’s like trying death without actually dying”. I remember similar response was given by one of my junior at some party while sipping Bacardi Breezer.

As a matter of fact, there is no tobacco in flavored hookah but it is consumed in same way cigarette or cigar is done. Also, how-so-ever little it may be but there is some content of alcohol in Breezer as well. As per one of the study, people who keep guns for their personal protection are likely to use them for murdering others or suicidal purposes. Isn’t it like people who don’t know how to inhale flavored smoke or never knew a little bit taste of alcohol less likely to consume it in great quantity when they will feel low or in abnormal conditions?

It is just like they are preparing themselves for all such addictions when they consciously don’t want to be addicted by anything of that sort. Think twice next time.

Endnote: Price of anything is the amount of life we exchange for it.