A dedicated fiction reader, who once upon a time used to complete a 400 page book during a Bombay - Delhi - Bombay flight including the waiting time at the airports; over the past year or so found my reading habits breaking away completely, more maybe from the fact that I do not travel at all these days, a little less from the fact that have been watching more movies, tweeting?

Having said that had decided to rectify the situation this year. Flipping thru Flipkart sometime a fortnight ago, saw some Indian authors, whose books sounded simple, in terms of story & price both. Ended up ordering the following:

Love, A rather Bad Idea….All it gives is a lousy hangover by Anirban Mukherjee
Zero Percentile..Missed IIT Kissed Russia by Neeraj Chhibba
Nothing can be as crazy by Ajay Mohan Jain &
The Dork by Sidin Vadukut (heavily tweeted on twitter by his well wishers)

Whilst this was in transit, I made a trip to Malvan and picked up a book at the Goa airport - Devil in Pinstripes by Ravi Subramanian having read his earlier ‘If God was a Banker’

Then overcome with work, did not even glance at those till, last week, when glancing through them, saw that most of them were 200 pages easy to read font & decided to go for them & so began:

Devil in Pinstripes - A good book taking a look at the Banking & financial segment, boss, mentor, couple relationship etc. nudging & offering some insight of what it is all about in a superficial way.

Dork - A good enough book, that gives an insight into Management placement, Consulting industry, taking a swipe at the perception & hype created vs how actually it works.

Zero Percentile - Halfway decent writing, that takes a look at lower middle class home, destiny mish mash. A book that can be missed without missing anything

Nothing can be as Crazy A decent book on the Banking Industry with neither a complete coverage on banking or institutional politics. There but cannot be there.

Love, A rather Bad Idea - A breezy book trying to convey that IIT has everything that the world can show and friendship, love, loyalty overcomes everything.

Having said that, some common factors which are not so surprising:)

Out of the 5 authors 2 are from IIT & 2 are from IIM or combination of both.
All the books can be called “ILIT” that has sex, loyalty, destiny, family & happy ending with of course IIT or IIM as background.
A bit of superiority “we were there, we are better, and now besides we can write” comes through.
The cost of the book is sub 200/- something like ‘chiclit’ take it on the flight & throw it.

As the DNA & Sunday Midday of 22nd February says that 1000 copies is enough to break even all of them have broken even, if nothing else but through their network, loyalty, friends & relatives.

What is painful is that such intelligent (obviously with IIT & IIM tags) people have chosen extremely mediocre, flat subjects to write their novels on, truly hope that they come out of their comfort zone & contribute more.

The Question this raises now is - “Do Indian Authors need to be IIT or IIM”

BUT in the end Hey they have written, published & people read, whilst I have not, so whilst this may sound, it is NOT sour grapes.

A couple of weeks ago RTNE invited me to look at what they had achieved in the past one year.

Whilst I would have loved to travel on the Highway from Bombay to Goa, paucity of time forced me to follow their instructions and so my journey began.

If flew from Bombay to Goa where I was received by Prathmesh a young local from Kudal who has been trained as the DMC (Destination Management Company) Officer who does the local level liaison.

We drove down on NH 17 passing Kudal, Sanatwadi before reaching Malvan at around 4.30 pm. Once checked into an RTNE trusted Stay Swami Samarth a nice stay right on a private beach, was taken around to meet other home stay owners, recce their property as well as understand the philosophy.

I was stunned to see the number of home stays that had evolved and more importantly, the kind of numbers that were bandied about by the owners.

The stays were well done, clean, with nearly 3+ star category at the most economical rates possible. Amongst the ones I visited were Omkar Deluxe, God’s garden, Satguru Kripa, Sidhivinayak (of Pednekar bandhu).

Having completed the recce, went to see the sunset at Devbagh Sangam. Then a spot of relaxing, before dinner was called around 9.30 pm.

Mind you, the dinner is cooked specially for you after asked about your choices & imagine eating on your private beach with the waves crashing, bit of wind whistling & distant light. (In Goa during my previous avataar we used to charge Rs. 15,000/- ++ for something like this). The menu was amazing - Sol kadi; Golpa; Halwa rassa & fried; warm chappati; rice.

I could barely keep my eyes open after this repast. After a long time, I was fast asleep at 10pm opening my eyes at 8 am the next morning.

Some amazing kande Poha, accompanied by fresh coconut water, though I gave the malai a miss started the day just right for my drive back to Goa & then back to Bombay. With no camera, but my trusty Nokia, managed to take some photographs, unfortunately do not do justice to the place.

With the new airport coming up soon, this place is going to just take off. I recommend that you visit the place before this happens. To read more about this, click here & to book here

After a lot of discussions, debates, advice I had opted for a custom DELL XPS M1330 in March 2008.

Except for a couple of small glitches (more to do with my being a technical retard) the order placement, delivery etc. was all seamless.

I loved working on it (though at times I did miss the finish of my Sony VAIO) but you cannot have everything.

In June 2009, I had done some editing for my daughter’s presentation, but before I could copy it for her, the screen went black:( And the next day we had to leave for Pune with it.

In desperation called DELL, quoted all the numbers etc. was assured that by 12 noon the next day, a technician would be there to ensure that it would work soon.

So whilst the old copy was there & started work on it again, hoping against hope that DELL would deliver. Mind it! They did - promptly at 11.45 am their technical support came with a large box & upon enquiry was told that “Sir, you had opted for 3 yr on site warranty, so I need to change the panel, including the motherboard” Wheee, it took him an hour & half but the complete new DELL was ready & raring to go!

Now only if they work out a super NETBOOK, I do not have to opt for Lenovo or Asus!

Sometime in February/March 2009 after MTNL had finally connected my WiFi, in an attempt to curtail costs, I went on a lookout for a dongle which would connect my daughter’s desktop in the adjoining room.

Croma, Vijay Sales; etc. were checked out & prices were not exciting enough. Visiting Hypercity for something else found a good deal nearly 15% cheaper than others on Linksys.

The installation was a breeze, worked fine for the next couple of months, when one fine day, just stopped.

Called Hypercity & got the details, logged in created an account, complained online, called the number in Tardeo & were told to bring it the day after.

Being away, the wife went with the old modem & printout. Unfortunately, there was a mistake in the number, asked her to rectify it on the spot, replaced the dongle with a new upgraded one, wished her all the best & that’s it.

Smooth, minimal people interaction but WOW service. I like it very much!

During the past 1 year have had occasion to travel by Rail a couple of times.

My experience with their website has been good & bad, more to do with connectivity, traffic issues, I would guess. But I was thankful that at least the booking could be done from the safety of my office/home with options that I could play around with.

However, the call center service really blew me off on all counts.

• Picked up promptly every time
• Pleasant modulated voices
• Knew answers or how to get them
• Helpful when you sounded confused

All those which maybe some years ago were not expected from the Railways. Did Laloo Yadav do it, I do not know, neither do I need to know.

The fact remained that they consistently delivered what I required. On the other hand my Cell phone company, credit card company are supposedly more sophisticated hire only MBA’s yada yada but do not please me!

I had written Why Independent Directors are ineffective here sometime in May 2009.

Some time ago I read about Relics in Board rooms, where the types were categorized by a Prime Database study that classified in 4 broad types

75% Home directors - known personally to promoters - relatives, friends. Several loopholes exist in the Companies Act allowing their induction.

15% Value directors - people that either bring knowledge and expertise to the company - lawyers, technocrats etc. or provide it with a strong network.

5% Celebrity directors - inducted to add an aura of respectability & news value to the company including film stars, sportsmen etc.

5% PSU directors - typically appointed by political high command or ministers concerned, most are either politicians or bureaucrats.

So finally except 10-15% do Independent Directors really add value? And why does the Companies Act not get modified? Everyone I spoke to really had no answer.

Yesterday morning a friend from the Press, made my day by sending this lovely photograph early in the morning.

Opening Ceremony BWSL Mumbai Ishtyle

This has been tweeted, long hard & fast….renamed PeeLink etc.

I had been on Twitter for a couple of months, attended a minor tweetup organised by Netra before I saw a tweet from @90di that got me thinking.

Trying to find out the methodology got me nowhere, but I decided to run an experiment myself rather to amuse myself and if possible understand what makes Twitter tick here.

From the 5th May 2009 to 13th June 2009 whilst the experiment continued I was No Rank - 90’s - 60’s - 20’s sub 10’s with a final high of sub 03 for nearly 5-6 days.

As @90di commented that “Usual Suspects” contained ShaaqT Gul Panag Keeda Shashi Tharoor amongst others; so was in real august Indian Tweeter company.

Now here is where I presumed the following:

• Some of the names on the list came up, due to followers talking about them
• Some of the names on the list came up because they followed norms laid down by twitter:)
• Some of the names came up the list because they were trend setters/followers like Keeda

Doodle by @keeda on Twitter Trend

My experiment was divided into 3 parts:

1)  Break into the first 100 Indian Twitters

2)  Break into the first 30 Indian Twitters

3)  Finally, break into top 10 for a period of week or more.

1)  Break into the first 100 Indian Twitters

• After analysing my tweets - used some of the applications - but could not make head or tail out of it so finally relied on myself.
• Realized that Twitter advocates being yourself, which is fine but so does Indian Democracy - then why in spite of cribbing et all we elect the same politicians - because in spite of voters changing the politicos remain the same.
• But, how do you be yourself - if the nick is something else & your name is something else - luckily that did not affect me.
• Having been a hoarder of some text; thoughts; jokes or all bundled as gyan decided to share this with the tweeters, of course hoping for a couple of shoutdowns.
• Parallel started following some known names that looked good from their bio - this helped in retweets
• From April 3 to May 25 I jumped from 150 to 400 odd followers that included a whole lot of bots & people based out of India who did not have any kind of interaction with me.
• Slowly I found myself inching up the scale to speak till I finally broke in on the 5th May

2)  Break into the first 30 Indian Twitters

• Then it became tougher to break in with a wide variety of variations floating around.
• Started tweeting seriously - bit of gyan; news with comments; interacting; replying.
• Finally I thought I was ready to conclude the experiment around the 30th May & so the final push began.

3)  Finally, break into top 10 for a period of week or more.

• Had prepared a fair amount of interactive tweets for different days
• Worked on the background that would make people want to RT
• Some completely new thoughts that could be shared with a variety of groups
• Heavy interaction in terms of replies; help; DM everything.

And, hence managed to conclude it successfully. My personal findings:-

• Irrespective of how “be yourself” you are, perceptions matter
• Most of the followers do not read your bio, go thru your blog before deciding to follow you. Only your Tweets matter.
• A great Blogger may not be a great Tweeter & vice versa
• Common searchable knowledge is tweeted by everyone; try something that is personally relevant.
• The pareto principle applies here also.
• Whilst PR; Advertising - online & offline; media; brands talk about Social Media & recently Twitter, fact is how relevant to daily life, work environment are the top 100 twitters that is crucial
• If a chunk keep talking about just technology, crib about government & civic the feeling is ‘Hey we read & listen to this all the time’ Tell us how Twitter can help us.
• Irrespective of whether you may live it, love it, hate it fact remains that it is MLM, with of course no transactions involved.
• Everyone eventually manages to create a pyramid or a banyan tree which helps them & all their connections, mostly always in a positive manner.
• Embrace it as another channel, medium - it shall deliver results. Remember as somebody said “The use of electronic networks and associated technologies is to enable, improve, enhance, transform or invent a business process or business system to create superior value for current or potential customers.”
• AND Finally remember with the right approach, attitude & bit of hardwork you can overcome the System i.e. Twitter:)

Approximate data has been taken from Twitterholic & 90di I hereby acknowledge that I have not been guided by any Social Media Agencies, Gurus; but am thankful to the everyday tweeters who made this possible.

I have been a admirer of Mr. Kishore Biyani since the time I first met him some 7 years ago. Over the years, I have had the chance of sitting with him in a group, hearing him speak at close quarters and agree with some of his comments about consumers.

Whilst I am not privy to how the group functions, what are the SBU and who makes what money, I am definitely sure that Big Bazaar after constantly being fine tuned has turned into a good money making machine which probably at times is supporting some of the smaller SBU’s.

Recently Big Bazaar celebrated its Anniversary Sale. Whilst at the Gym in Mega Mall last Monday, I received a call from my wife, requesting me to pick up some stuff. In my enthusiasm I replied in the affirmative & proceeded to the basement where it is located.

No 1 - There was a sea of Black Humanity extending right up the escalators. Looking at my confused state, one of the gaurds asked me if I wanted to Shop - ‘Of course, otherwise why am I here’ ; he gestured to me to use the right side & come down. On reaching there, I understood that the Q was for Gelato (Special offer Rs.9/-) Chaat (Rs.10 -15/-)   Learning: It is still possible to bring in people with a lead in that has no/little relevance to actual business done. Here the marketing write off may just be the space!

No 2 - Going inside, saw families treat the store as an Pre School Outing. Clothes, Stationery, Linen, Groceries all where ever there was a deal - it was being dumped - in trolleys with shouting across aisles ‘Kaun sa color’ ‘4 ya 6 lena’ Learning: Timing - Anniversary, school opening, related offers, price points, complete volume & value game.

No 3 - The vegetable & fruit side was nice & cool with practically no body really shopping. Answered soon enough by the staff - Wednesday everything will go off with the offers.                                                                                              Learning: Specific, Constant, Consistent ensured people & staff were clued in & ready.

No 4 - There were some good to great deals going on - some from the FMCG companies, some from Big Bazaar it self that are definitely not available anywhere else.                                                                                                                             Learning: Whilst Private Labels introduced & were gaining ground, the volume game or marketing tactics ensured that other Brands did not suffer, but were still in play.

No 5 - Cash Counters manned & opened all across, with Express ones making exceptions also.

Some Negatives that can be overcome immediately -

• Cleanliness - No housekeeping visible at any place whatsoever.
• Customers allowed to drink water, soft drink inside leading to problems.
• Staff whilst friendly, need to be neatly dressed or rather cleanly dressed
• The internal banter amongst staff, gaurds need to be controlled.

However, all said & done the consumer pulse & reaching into their pockets is what matters at the end. AND here Big Bazaar straddles the right spectrum, integrating itself completely with the needs of the consumer. It bridges the gap from the small, neighborhood kirana store & a hypercity, something which Subhiksha was also keen on doing, but failed. It provides half or more of what common man aspires - AC environment, in a mall, ability to look, touch things, decide on their own without push - all at probably less than the Kirana store (OK not all items). This leads to most of the consumers focusing on Value that they end up buying Volume, thus helping Biyani laugh all the way to the bank.

Eventually, some of these consumers would graduate to the next level and try Hypercity, Star Bazaar and be replaced by others - very similar to Gopinath’s Deccan Aviation and what I love to call the “Funnel Theory”

An article written by Namita Bhandare forwarded by Kapil Joshi set me thinking.

• Even today more than 85% households in India still believe that a male child is preferable.
• So called Reservation in education takes care of everything including girls, but where is there a followup.
• Politicians appointed as HRD ministers have no clue about what to do? Yes, talk about IIM/IIT & remain in the news is right there on their agenda.
• Yup Girls schools, colleges, are great photo op, after which we meet next year.
• Earnings, Savings are decided by the father & later husband even though they may have no clue of finances.
• They need to constantly thank their father, brother, husband…..is this a trade off to allow them to study? work? In which case why not their mothers, sisters, daughters??
• Can we not portray girl with her mother in advertisements that are relevant & not cosmetic.
• And to top it all, the regressive serials that enjoy high TRP

Expecting Manmohan Singh to do something about it is pathetic. It has to be initiated from every home, every individual for it to gather momentum.

Having worked 80% of my life with lady bosses and enjoyed working with them; superbly supportive wife & daughter (who always join forces to keep me in control) I can say that the first couple of times it is difficult, then it becomes a way of life.

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