Strands of thought

AT NRich Software, we regularly advertise our products in Nanayam Vikatan magazine and of late we had also advertised in another mag called ‘Valar Thozhil’.

Y’day, I received a call from a person who suggested that we put up a colour banner with lighting in Tiruvannamalai on Full moon day where lakhs congregate to do ‘Giri valam’ (or go around the mountain by foot).  He mentioned a rate per square feet and felt that it would be a good visibility and exposure for our product.  And just as he called suddenly, he thanked me and broke off the connection.

I am really impressed by his display of initiative and imagination!  That is the stuff that entrepreneurs are made of!!

It was in 2002-03, that I came across a wet flour brand called “Thaayaar”.  Traditionally, south indian households grind their idly or dosai flour at home or get it ground at shops that provide the facility.  I remember taking the rice and dhal mix to a shop near our home in lloyds colony and picking the ground flour after a couple of hours.

There were also some resourceful and enterprising ladies who sold wet flour in plastic packets near temples in mylapore but that was the maximum stretch.  Nobody that I knew attempted to retail branded wet flour until Thayaar came along.

The pricing was ok at around 12/-, the packaging very ordinary but neat, the quality decent and the availability was good at all nearby shops.  Thus it addressed all the elements of marketing mix adequately.  There was not much of advertising (in fact none that I can recall) but the satisfied users like us became repeat customers.

Things started to look up when that organization got an ISO certification to tone up its systems and dramatically improved its packaging with an attractive colour scheme.  The quality of material and the sealing used for packing also improved.  At this time, we moved from Mylapore to T Nagar but we continued to patronize this brand.  While there were other brands that had come up, none could challenge the supremacy of “Thaayar.

Somewhere mid 2007, I noticed some early signs of a decline such as increased pricing, unreliable quality and also poor availability in the neighbourhood stores.  And then suddenly it vanished from the shelves of a super market near our residence.  The store keeper recommended another brand that was not only cost-effective but also was of good quality.

When I asked the shop keeper about “Thaayaar”, he said that  they have become overconfident and arrogant.  The  person who would deliver the bags would leave them strewn near the entrance of the shop rather than arrange it properly inside the fridge.  And when the shopkeeper told me that the HLL sales person who supplied materials worth a few thousands a week to his shop, took pains to stock it properly and display the materials in an attractive manner, the analogy stuck with me.

Perhaps, the management of “Thaayar” brand got complacent and lost focus of their immediate customer the shop keeper as well as the end customer like me.  Or possibly, they have much too business than what they can handle!  For their sake, I hope it is the latter!!

I no longer look for the earlier brand and now pick up the second brand by habit, possibly until they too become lazy.

All of us are habituated to look at what we are receiving or what we are not receiving but seldom do we even glance at what we are giving or sending!

Simply put, we look at our inbox for the  emails that others have sent us but how often do we even open our “Sent Item” folder?

While we get irritated at the chain mails or the mails with huge attachments, rarely are we present to how many bulk mails or mails with sizable attachments we ourselves are sending.

We do not like being a part of 50 ids when we get our mails but we do not think twice in putting our entire address book in the to and cc fields when we want to inform something!

We frown at misspelt words in the emails that we receive but frequently send our mails without doing the basic spell checking with the available tools!

One can go on and on but the message is clear!  We need to take responsibility for the communication that we send if we really want to receive quality contents from others!

Do unto others what we want others to do to us!

It is so surprising that considering how much business spends in promoting its products through ads, most people do not want business.  In fact, many people go to the extent of even spurning business that comes their way.

And it is not public sector alone that reacts this way but also entrepreneurs and private enterprises.  I recently had an experience of calling a private bank in response to their ad in a leading business newspaper seeking their FD forms.  I got the forms but they were meant for existing customers which I was not.  When i tried calling them again, they had switched the cell phone off.  And when i managed to track their branch, the concerned person said that he will have the relevant forms sent across immediately.

2 days passed but no sight of the forms.  And when I called them up, one executive had the temerity of asking me to confirm our address so that they could send the forms.  fortunately they had my address right with them but were sitting tight on that, for reasons best known to them.

With this attitude, why bother spending on ads at all? 

Jaya Bachan nee Badhuri, the famed actress, wife of Big A, mother of small A and m-in-law of middle A, has made a series of remarks which showed that she still retains the sense of humour that she she displayed on the silver screen!!

I am not aware of the background of the interaction she had with the media but one thing is very clear that she has the makings of a very seasoned politician. Perhaps queried about the Shiv Sena renegade Raj Thackeray, Jaya has reportedly said “I do not know of any Thackeray except Bal (Shiv Sena Chief) and Uddhav (his son)” and in the same breath has reportedly mentioned “I have heard that Raj Thackeray has huge land Kohinoor mills”

For somebody who is ignorant about a person, Jaya Bachan is remarkably astute about the property owned by that person!!

Wait! The tamasha is not yet over! She is also reported to have said “If he is willing to donate land, we can start a school in the name of [daughter-in-law] Aishwarya here”

Whoever has heard of politicians donating land especially when they own it! They only grab others’ lands!! But that is not the joke!

If Raj Thackeray (of whom she does not know anything except that he owns huge property in Maharashtra) donates the land, Jaya Bachan will start a school (very noble indeed) in her daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai’s name!!!

If she wants to start a school in A Rai’s name, she should donate the land that her husband farmer (another big joke) had bought(??) in Mahrashtra and UP!

And why A Rai’s name, of all?

Funny!

Thank you PTI for carrying this wonderful piece of advice from Jaya Bachan to Raj Thackeray (he deserves this and more) and ‘The Hindu’ for carrying it, both online and offline.

Cheers!

It was a Tuesday evening and I was in a group meeting at a friend’s place, when I got a call on my mobile from my aunt about my grandma’s worsening condition.  I immediately rushed to the hospital and saw my patti struggling to breath and soon a team took her to the ICU.

While I was pacing outside the ICU, I recalled that she was first admitted into Isabel Hospital on 18th Oct 2006 and had been in and out 5 times already in the intervening 3 months or so, which included a couple of stints in the ICU as well.  So I thought that it would be another day for her in the ICU before being moved to the special ward.

But when the Doctor came out and asked if I was her relative, I felt uneasy.   And when he said “I am sorry!  She is no more”, I was literally clueless for a moment because I thought that my grandma was ageless and immortal.

And as I waited next to her body while it was being prepared to be taken home, I was feeling totally numb and could not even express myself through tears.  Here was a person who had been more than a mother to me and I was devoid of any emotion.  I called up our family priest and informed him so that we can perform the obsequies, sent sms to a few friends and relatives about the passing away of my patti.

Even at that late hour, I was looking to do what was required for the next day like collecting the death certificate, giving an insert in the newspaper (in fact, went immediately to the office of The Hindu but was told that I was probably late by an hour).

I wrote a post in this blog immediately and mentioned that I will write more but did not.  Now, almost a year later, I am still trying to come into grips with the loss.

And this evening, the family members are organizing a musical tribute in her memory by rendering some of her divine compositions.

I am intending to write more about that soon …

Often, we hear jokes or stories which are a rehash of something that we have already heard or read. Sometimes, there is a small change or twist but generally they are the same. And when that person is claiming authorship to that joke or story, what do you do?

Usually,  when I sense that I am hearing something that I have already heard or known,  I immediately lose interest and do not participate.  But if by chance the other person claims ownership, I would boil inside and sometimes even erupt in public, pulling him up for his act of plagiarism.  Ditto when I read an article that is a total copy with a new author’s name.

Of late, I am behaving differently in such circumstances.  I now feel that this person needs to be complimented because he / she has taken the effort to share something he / she heard or read somewhere else but I also pity him / her because he / she is so cheap to take credit for someone else’s contribution.

In response to an invitation, I recently attended a  speech by someone from Mumbai which was followed by a DVD presentation, that he claimed was his work.  It was so beautifully and slickly made and I wanted to compliment the speaker for his great work.  Then a good friend pointed out that this particular DVD was a work by an Hyderabad-based company and that it was for sale.  I checked out the website and found that it was true and there was no mention of this ’so-called’ ’self-styled’ author!!!!

I was struck by two thoughts.  The  first was, how could one so easily and shamelessly put his name atop someone else’ s hard work and the second was how did one expect to get away with this, esspecially in this information era where it is possible to check up any story instantly!!

I had an urge to share this with the host of the presentation but controlled it because the host had done it with all the best intentions and this revelation might  stop from organizing any such interactions in future.

I had always held the auto drivers in Bangalore (and of course Mumbai) in high esteem, especially compared to those in Chennai, my home town.

So it came as a rude shock when on alighting from the train at Cantonment station, I was approached by an auto driver who said he will take 3 of us to Garuda mall behind Brigade road and demanded 70…75 rupees.  In fact, he was sizing up my colleague and the size of his wallet when he upped his demand to 75!  so much so for the degradation in the standards of auto drivers in Bangalore! Even my friend said that”Hey! these guys seemed to have got some coaching from Chennal”

But there was a silver lining to the entire episode in the form of a pre-paid operation run by the traffic police or the Corporation.  For Rs.1, you get a slip with the vehicle number destination and the amount and immediately vehicles are available.  Regardless of the distance, the drivers do not crib and ply without a murmur and do not demand any extra money at the destination.

Still, there is some level of sanity in Bangalore left!

Mr.Ratan Tata appears to have pulled off the impossible by launching the ‘1 lakh car’ at the Delhi car expo.

We must surely thank Mr.Ratan Tata for garnering the world’s attention onto India and its technology skills. Its no mean achievement, especially when India’s holistic design and manufacturing skills in automobiles are not considered world-class.

But when asked about the price, he has said ‘A Promise is a Promise. The Dealer Price of this car will be 1 lakh” and it was well applauded. While it is good that he appears to be sticking to his promise, let us recapitualte what his exact promise was when he said it first or even subsequently. Not once, even as late as December 2007, was it referred to as ‘1 lakh dealer price car’. I am not trying to read between lines but Mr.Tata has also pulled off another coup which is ‘appearing to be a man who kept his promise when he has not’.

I am also amused by the media’s defence that prices have shot up since his first announcement 5 years back and yet he is sticking to his priceline. As one of the leading industrialists of the country, Mr.Tata and his team ought to have anticipated and provided for cost escalation when they knew that it would take that long a time to deliver. If they did not, they will now have to sell at a loss. More vehicles, more loss.

And let us not forget that it was Mr.Ratan Tata’s Vision to build a People’s car at Rs.1 lakh and while we must salute him for making that vision a reality, this is no charity business. He is not doing any favour to anyone by saying ‘tik hai! Dealer price Rs.1 lakh”.

I am really keen to know what the on-road price of this car, say in the least expensive place New Delhi (where the taxes are low to pamper the inhabitants of the Capital).

Whatever it is, that will what the car ought to be known as? Not the ex-factory or the showroom or the dealer price!!

And it is too early for either bouquets or brickbats for the performance of the car. We will reserve the judgement until the car is available on the roads.

The latest news is that Bucknor has been dropped (along with Benson) for the series and Singh has been allowed to play pending decision on his appeal.

The storm has blown over, for the moment!

Let’s continue with our lives, after this brief interruption!