Second innings- Another life challenge!

We all have laughed heartily about it. We have all made fun of the incident.

But it wasn’t definitely fun for me during those moments. It wasn`t definitely fun for my wife waiting outside the ICU impatiently for the doctors to say that I had a chance to come out alive. It wasn’t fun for my parents sitting a thousand miles away feeling helpless and waiting for the visa to be issued. It wasn’t fun for my brother to keep it altogether till he saw me alive. It wasn’t fun for my cousins, uncles, aunts, in-laws, wasn’t fun for friends with whom I had grown up. It wasn’t fun for me either because it was all very painful (especially when anaesthesia doesn’t work on me that well). 

My fault was to carelessly try to save a friend- something I am not embarrassed about.

I know it would have been embarrassing dying in the pool. But dying isn’t fun either.

In 2006 they said IIT was out of my league. I had given up but when I looked into the eyes of my parents, I knew I had to do it for them. I fought it out.

I was completely written off by people, in everything I have tried- Techfest, job, business school entrance etc. But somehow I have managed to fight back, of course because of bunch of people- family and friends.

Now, life has thrown one more challenge at me- To prove there is much more to me than that pool incident.

Bring it on! I am ready to laugh at the incident and fight back.

कहते हैं तारे गाते हैं- Harivansh Rai Bachchan

कहते हैं तारे गाते हैं

कहते हैं तारे गाते हैं!
सन्नाटा वसुधा पर छाया,
नभ में हमने कान लगाया,
फिर भी अगणित कंठों का यह राग नहीं हम सुन पाते हैं!
कहते हैं तारे गाते हैं!

स्वर्ग सुना करता यह गाना,
पृथिवी ने तो बस यह जाना,
अगणित ओस-कणों में तारों के नीरव आँसू आते हैं!
कहते हैं तारे गाते हैं!

ऊपर देव तले मानवगण,
नभ में दोनों गायन-रोदन,
राग सदा ऊपर को उठता, आँसू नीचे झर जाते हैं।
कहते हैं तारे गाते हैं!

Harivansh Rai Bachchan

What India needs? (our peculiar consumer behaviors)

To begin with, what really inspired me to write this piece?  Is it because I am an employee of Bayer MaterialScience- a chemical company with a very rich heritage and a long drawn history of innovations? No!  Or is it because I am a part of Industrial Marketing team which day in and day out, has been trying to change the way we conventionally have been looking at the businesses? Definitely No! Then what is it?  Well……

Let me just get you a sneak peek into my life. I recently got wedded to my childhood friend (& not childhood love interest). She is a complete gadget freak. My usual day starts with, her playing music on our newly bought home theatre system. She is at times (read most) very careless with her gadgets, throwing them around all the time. C`mon!  You got to make scratch resistance screens with stronger bodies… We can`t buy a new gadget every day. My brother, who is staying with us for the time being, on the other hand is obsessed with automobiles. He can literally identify the model of the car just by seeing the tail light from far off. Back home, for the past 7 years, my mother has been complaining about the poor construction at our house. There have been issues with one of the corners and it leaks badly in each rainy season.

My life almost entirely revolves around these 3 platforms, literally. As soon as I step into the office and log into my computer. I see a mail mentioning the platforms and how we need to align our strategies with these platforms. I along with many other colleagues face difficult time trying to figure out what the customer needs? Organizations spend millions in understanding what customer needs, often not realizing that during the office hours and before & after, as well, they have consumers all around them. In fact they are the consumer themselves.

Without doubt our life is dependent too much on housing (construction), mobility & IT & electronics and other consumer products.

Let me now, take a pause and ask myself a question, what is it that I want to achieve out of this piece? Is it to tell you that customers are all around us? May be up to some extent it is true, but not entirely. What I am trying here is to understand the 3 platforms from a slightly different perspective.

Often, my start to Mondays is slower than the other days. I usually take the office bus rather than commuting by own vehicle. There are 3 reasons to it: first of all, the fuel prices are soaring high. Secondly the traffic is a menace and thus you would always want to refrain from driving yourself. C`mon!  You are already half drained out because of Monday Blues and then you want to exert yourself by driving? Thirdly, I am one of those kinds who are always worried about energy conservation and yet in our quest for survival rarely do anything about it. This is the least I could do, right? Why adding more CO<sub>2</sub> when you already have a bus going that way? These are the problems that I face as a consumer. Now, zoom out, some more and more and more. There it is. You have a bird`s eye view of the whole situation. You now have a macro view of the entire situation.

Fuel Prices: There has been an acute rise in the prices of the fuels in India in the last decade (Petrol & diesel rose by 250 %). When I did a simple guestimate of how much do India as a nation spend on just commuting, I was surprised to see a mind boggling figure. The figure, as the guestimate yields, is somewhere near 71 billion INR daily or 400 billion USD annually. It is inclusive of both public and private transport. Though, I feel the figure is on the conservative side. (It is not inclusive of transporting goods etc.)

Traffic congestion: The current status of local commuting is completely wretched because of the level of masses that they handle. The mobility infrastructure is under a lot of stress. The new cars are faster than ever but choked traffic means you are commuting slower than ever. It is indeed an irony. The roads don’t seem to change overnight. So I did a guestimate again. In Mumbai alone, 200 cars & 300 bikes are added daily. The number in 2012 totaling additional 73000 cars and 109500 bikes on the Mumbai roads mean the number of vehicles would rise to 2 million. So, the result is more congestion on the same roads. Which means the probability of you getting stuck on the Mumbai roads goes up by .036. Thus, it makes me think if India is yet prepared for so many private vehicles on the road. The question is what is government doing to address this issue? What are the automobile companies doing about it? What are we as material & polymers company doing to address this issue? The change is ought to happen in the current trends. Are we prepared for this change, when it happens? Do we have the solutions for these issues?

Sustainability: India still contributes very less to the global mobility emission. The developed nations contribute 66% to the total (16% of world population). But still, there is a long way to go in this regards for India. We are already facing a lot of issues because of emissions due to inefficient engines. The pollution related diseases and ailments are on the rise and this has strained the economy (because of higher medical expenses.  So, we could quantify the losses here as well?).

Now, when the entire scenario is zoomed in and zoomed in further, I see myself as an individual customer again. When I see the situation around myself, I certainly do not want faster cars. They will not solve any purpose. I want to see limited number of cars and more of public transport. I want to see a better door to door connectivity. I want to see higher capacity public transport to reduce the congestion on India roads. I need more fuel efficient vehicles on the road. Because that is what Indian mobility needs and not fancy fast cars. Probably that is something that EMEA, NAFTA needs but India? A Definite No!

Tomorrow will be another day, another challenge that I ought to face, as an individual consumer and as a society. Keep following!

panne...

Panne
Fati hui si copy ke purane panno par,
apne haseen palo ko mai kaid karta tha,
kabhi likh kar, kabhi chitra bana,
mai rekhao se khela karta tha…
Kabhi bbhai se lad, maa se ruth kar,
Angan ke amrood ke ped ke peeche chip jata tha,
Kabhi papa ki daant se bachkar,
Padosi kaka ki rasoi me ghus jata tha…
Balla utha maa ko ansoona kar,
maidon me bhaag jata tha…
raat ko pooja me der se aane par,
papa ke gusse se bhai bachata tha,
mai roos kar chandani me,
phir panno me kho jata tha….

Kuch bada hua to,
andhi daur me jut gaya,
Pata nahi kab, panne fat gaye,
kab kalam kahi choot gaya,
mai daurata raha,
par kabhi kahi pahucha nahi,
mai jeetata gaya,
khushi panno me raha gayi wahin….

Aaj bhi sochta hu ki,
Panno me jindagi thi ya jindagi ke panne,
Aaj bhi kahi yaado me dhundhta hu,
Dhundhlati aankho se wo panne…..

Kyu tu pareshaan hai?

Kyu tu pareshan hai?-2
Naino me bas ja mere,
Chup ja tu mujhme kahin,
Rango me ram ja mere,
Bas ja tu ab to wahin….

1. Teri hansi ko tarasi,
Meri har-ek pal ki dua,
Boondo me rab ki barsi,
Aansu me lipati sada…
Tere jo dil me ho,
Khul ke tu bata de mujhko,
Maun na aise ho,
Teri khamoshi sataye mujhko…

2. Yaad hai mujhko,
Kabhi mai bhi aisi royi thi..
Simat ke tujhse,
Maine jindagi sanjoyi thi…
aaj tu chup sa hai,
chod kaise du tujhe,
saath ki jarurat hai,
aa chupa lu mai tujhe….

Shahar Shahar ki kahani....

Mumbai-
Q- bhai sahab ATM kahaan hai?
A-(In marathi) saala marathi nahi bola... maaro...
Delhi
Q- bhai sahab ATM kahaan hai?
A- 100 rs de to bataunga...
Kolkata
Q- bhai sahab ATM kahaan hai?
A- ATM to udhar hai par paisa nahi hai... Bank ki hadtaal hai...
Patna
Q- bhai sahab ATM kahaan hai?
A- Kal tak to yahaan tha...aaj shayad netaji ke bangle me le gaye hain....
South
Q- bhai sahab ATM kahaan hai?
A- This is land of rajnikant.. we need no ATM...yanna raskala....

Ki maa tu meri dost hai…

Gam me. har khushi me…. Sang apne tujhe pata tha
Darr ke ya jhagad ke tere anchal me chup jata tha
Pyara na hai tujhsa… tujhsa bhola nahi hai koi
Kaise mai batau kaisi tujhse ajab dosti…
Ki maa tu meri dost hai…
………………
Meri halki chotein teri ankhon ka aansu bani,
Badal tera anchal, chahe jitani ho dhoop ghani,
Tere dil me mere jeetane ki alag khwahishein,
Mujh par ho sada hi tere pyaar ki ye baarishein…
Ki ma tu meri dost hai…