Tip of the Week : Not everyone will like you, But that is their problem, not yours

Some time ago the roads near Cinemax Versova were suddenly given new painted poles which had something small written on it, not visible to naked eye with even a 20:20 vision.

Over the next couple of weeks, my wife, daughter & driver enlightened me that it was all Pay and Park notices & traffic was slowly getting regulated. Good!

On Tuesday late evening we went to visit our Sharmaji’s Chaat for a bit of pani-puri. Now Juhu area near woodland has always been a Pay and Park, but I was pleasantly surprised to see freshly painted boards & boys in Khakhi coat moving up and down guiding cars & whatever they do.

Stepping out, one of them briskly came up to me with a machine asked for Rs. 10/- & gave me a receipt, which I pocketed, had our stuff & came home.

Bombay Termo Sensitive Paper Parking Receipt

Cleaning my money clip today, found the receipt, which got me thinking to find out who gets conned, who is the culprit - BMC; Sub Contractor, Consumer?

• The Receipt is issued from Hand Held machines
• They are on Thermo Sensitive paper
• They do not have amount written on them
• They do have in time; date; vehicle last digits & type
• And of course contractor name - Akhtar Enterprise - who seems to be every where
• PLUS of course “Parked at owner’s risk”

The freshly painted boards that are not visible do not give you a clue of the pricing structure.

Now do not get me wrong, I am not objecting to the price, on the contrary…..

• When we keep comparing Bombay to New York, Singapore & what not; why not Parking Charges?
• Why is it at owner’s risk when there is a charge being levied?

I know there are no answers to these questions, but if you have any, would welcome them.

In the meantime I console myself that at least here we keep the Keys of the car with us, unlike DELHI!

Soon after moving, studying, working across the country, we relocated back to Bombay as I remembered it and continue calling it.

Having settled down in our Palace (that could fit into our bath or kitchen back in Calcutta, Baroda) my wife went on finding spree, which being a Bombayite fluent in Marathi posed no problems, not that it gave her problems in Calcutta also.

Finding a dhobi, vegetable vendor (honest, good but important would give her the kind of vegetables she wanted) and finally the milkman. Our requirement was minimal on this front, nuclear family and all that jazz.

Found one at 4 bungalows - Sharma Dairy Farm - tied up & the delivery started. He grew his business, obviously not because of us, though thru references & neighbours did help.

A couple of years down the line, our nuclear family exploded, parents shifted to stay with us, we shifted houses yada, yada….the milk man followed…..

Some 5-7 years ago, one fine day, after the advent of mobiles, got a call from my wife to pickup some extra milk since some unexpected guests had landed. Asked the driver to take the road past the Dairy & park.

For the love of God I could not locate the dairy, but dreading the “kuch kaam ke nahi” tag if I called my wife up; braved the stupid looks people were giving me in my suit avataar marched up to an restaurant & enquired with a young pleasant looking gentleman on the counter.

Prompt came the answer ” You are standing in Sharma Dairy!” Then the man we knew came out, insisting that I have something kyon ki aap kabhi aaye hi nahi; bhabhiji knows & wished us etc. etc. Upon further enquiries, turned that his eldest son had completed his studies & so “thoda sa expansion kar liya”. Promising to visit them sometime again went away.

Over the years, found myself passing by, with a smile on my face whenever I passed the location. The delivery boys changed, older ones started sitting on the counters, became managers at the dairy. My wife also said his younger son was studying.

Today morning, on receiving a notice,

Milk Management Notice

I concluded that his younger son has completed his studies even MBA since I could see PPP implementation (Price, Productivity, Penalty) implementation happening at my old Sharma Dairy Farm….that was surely turning into a conglomerate, maybe a small one but still!

And this generation is bound to give headaches to the New Organized Retailers! They have everything going for them:

• Location
• Operation Capabilities
• Loyal & Trained Staff
• Structured Finance
• Ownership
• Focus to grow

Do let me know in case I have missed out something

Opp. Law Garden, Thakur Bhai Desai Hall, Ellisbridge, Paldi, Ahmedabad

The food, consistency, quality does not change & does not let you down. But the service & ambiance is like your yo yo that keeps going all over the place, which nobody seems to control.

A pity, but guess everyone still goes for the food..

Amrapali Shopping Centre, JVPD Scheme, Vile Parle (W), Mumbai

Sab Chaat - mast hai

Sharmaji created gluttony for the JVPD residents I guess. Start with the authentic ragda pattice, followed by sukha bhel, pani puri & round it off with hot sev kurmura. Try the sev puri with the batata masala in blown puris & instant nirvana!

But his branches at Avon Arcade Vile Parle; Woodlands Garden Cafe; Prithvi Theatre do not have the same taste….

As Sharmaji confided “Saab, yeh Haath ka kamaal hai”

And I told “Oh Sharmaji, Yeh Haath mujhe de do!!!”

I have been having these conversations, discussions, arguments with these young learned friends of mine on Twitter as well as some learned experts on social media whom I follow to understand or rather simplify the theory of social media.

What I see are just links of blogs, articles written by americans, british on case studies done in their countries for their consumers, speaking their One language. AND yes there are some few indians amongst these experts who also talk about such case studies only.  Perhaps taking pity on me Vijay Rayapati sent me a message yesterday “Hi @anaggh, We do have many Indian brands using Social Media for engaging with consumers - U can find info at”  http://bit.ly/D38WW

Full of optimism I visited his blog Social Media Marketing in India and poured over the case study list.

First, having understood and remembered the name opened Sunsilk gang of girls . Case study is brief with just some numbers etc. I could not make sense of  how the numbers came about, what caused the constant stickiness, how much money was spent on offline advertising to drive people to the web etc. which is most crucial was missing.

Secondly, I visited Indian Brands & Businesses on Twitter written by Santosh Maharshi who has been clear in informing his readers “This is the list of (now 75) Indian brands and businesses on Twitter. However, the ownership of these brands is not verified. For example, satyam computers which is a news update account for the company and not by the company. Some of the media brands are actually extending their services through twitter and not necessarily communicating with their users. Some of them can also be bots. Enjoy the list and please feel to add the ones that you come across in the comments section.”

Now nowhere are these case studies as promised but I decided to make a case study of these & share my findings with you: Read the rest of this entry »