Contemporary Gyan

There Is Only One Thing Stronger Than All Armies In The World;

An Idea Whose Time Has Come.....

- Victor Hugo

And Things Will Never Be The Same Again

I was 'scheduled' to write this post like months back, ohh sorry, I was 'skejuled' to write this post like months back... After all we as Indians have been trying hard to convert ourselves into pseudo Americans from pseudo British, takes a few months you know ;)

And then you may ideally go 'flat' hunting in a new city, but then again, go for 'apartment' hunting instead. ( I hope people don't turn you down because they shall not be able to rent the entire 'Apartment' to you. Dude! You can't like go around asking for an entire hundred flat apartment! )

And then, nobody really wants to make the 'social faux pas' of using the word 'lift' instead of 'elevator' in India today. Another move from British to American. But, they would still use 'telephone tariffs' and not 'telephone call rates'! Why hang on to the British usage here?? Its more and more apparent that we as a race of Indians love complicated words whose usage can be made even more complicated. The cooler is sounds, the better your social standing is, the more you can tongue twist the traditionally taught pronunciations, the more educated and professional you appear to be. The phenomenon hardly appears to be shift of loyalty from one usage of English to another, but the idea that keep the 'most complicated' of both worlds :D

Don't know where this particular usage came from, its an interesting observation nevertheless: I am working in XYZ Co. Ltd.--> I am working with XYZ Co Ltd. :) Increased coolness or the illusion of it? ;)

We prefer standing in a queue (British) than standing in a line (American)

Yet don't wish to use the 'pavement' (British) to using the sidewalk (American)

And the best part of this all is we, as Indians don't know WHY we are doing this, and wouldn't really accept our nature to complicate things as a status symbol

Contemporary Gyan

The Best Day of Your Life Is When You Realise That

Your Life Is Your Own

And You Alone Are Responsible For The Quality of It!

Back then....

Dedicated to all my dear school friends

Back then in school we were so uncomplicated, so simple and silly sometimes, took pleasure in small silly events, little jokes, rainy days, playing in the sand, missing the bus to home, missing the bus to school, losing pencils and erasers, jumping on bus seats, polishing PT shoes with chalk, breaking little rules and taking pride in them, hand fighting, chalk fighting, pellet fighting, thumb fighting, pen fighting, book fighting, class fight..... And then book cricket, pen cricket, dictionary cricket, hand cricket, we have done it all and how.... We loved our days, loved the Sundays, loved the Fridays before the Saturdays, loved the labs and fudging the readings, loved the classes titled 'last period'.... giggled through classes, frantically copied homework, got caught, apologised and repeated the same the next day, ate lunch from friends' lunch boxes, paired people with one another, teased them like hell, carried bags and baskets, skipped the baskets then and stuffed lunch boxes into bags, skipped the water bottle, struggled with the water cooler, escaped teachers outside of school, tried out the cheapest coffee at coffee day, bought Lays packets for the tazoos inside them, exchanged these tazoos and 'traded' the rarest ones.....

And now the only thing we trade is our conscience

The only thing we lose are our friends

The only thing we miss is friends birthdays

The only thing we love is money

The only behaviour we have built our expertise at is manipulation

The only thing we take pleasure in are rewards

The only days we like are dry ones because rainy days disrupt our plans

The things we fight about have become more and more complicated

Our cricket discussion is limited to analysis of tournaments

The only places we eat at the most expensive ones as an image management stint

The only coffee we drink is the over 100 bucks coffee of coffee day

The only thing we collect are contacts

The only things we love are our computers

And we do this as a reflex.........

But we have no time to stand and stare, do we ............

Contemporary Gyan

Winning Is a Habit,

Unfortunately, So Is Losing

- Vince Lombardi

How Consumers' Fancies Can Ruin Markets

The picture is just to catch your attention. :)

But yes, another thing which should catch your attention is the fact that consumers like you and me, who don't particularly have answers to consumer behaviour surveys do actually make or break the market. Lets take simple cases like the car 'Nano' designed, manufactured and marketed by the TATAs.

It was us who created the hype, (OK maybe we were drawn into the hype created by the media and the seller). It was us who went on a spree of advance bookings for the tiny little 1 Lakh car years before the manufacturing operations actually started. It was us who. by word of mouth made our neighbours/ friends/ colleagues believe that it would be the perfect car if we wish to keep the budget low. It was us who were convinced that even as an 'extra' car car in the family for children , wives etc. Nano would be a cute option with low investment. It was us who thought that it would be easy to park a Nano in the midst of cities like Bangalore where your average speed of travel from any point A to any point B at any time of the day, at any location is just about 10 kmph. And yes It was us who made Nano 'the best invention of our times' because it was so consumer friendly.

And then suddenly after the melodramatic manufacturing of the car, we suddenly don't hear ourselves speaking about ' The Nano' anymore!! It doesn't seem to be interesting anymore. We suddenly feel as though buying that car is a negative status symbol! No one is talking about it, no one is planning to buy it either, no one is recommending it to others. Is this hype and disappearance of the same a 'Classic Case of Public Memory Is Short' ??

We sure can go on to analyse the issue, but the fact remains , We as consumers might have caused a Huge Loss to the Company just by waning our interest in an issue we once hyped and which gave incorrect signals to the Company of Public Euphoria!!

Contemporary Gyan

The Only Thing Preventing You From Believing Me,
Is Not The Presumed Lack Of Logic In My Reason
Or The Practical Impossibility Of Its Implementation,
But the Very Resistance Of Your Own Belief....