Skip to main content

Vanishing act

I was on a drive to wilderness with my grown up children and they were amazed to see the change in the lifestyle just 100 kms from Delhi, a metropolitan city and we got talking about old times. Later I realised that old times have not been such old times at all. In the history a time of 25 years is not too much but still within the same time how much has changed.

It got me to sit uptight and count that how many things have kind of vanished from a metropolitan life in Delhi in the last 25 years. The list surprised me completely. Read for yourself ( in a random order)

- coal stove (अंगीठी )
- kerosene stove
- electric water heating rod
- mercury thermometer
- traditional weighing scales
- horse carts (तांगा )
- audio spools
- audio cassettes
- video cassettes
- floppy disks (of all sizes)
- fax machines
- film cameras
- photo processing labs
- wet photocopying machines
- carbon papers
- slates and chalk
-  rotary dial phones
- mechanical hand wound alarm clocks
- fresh milk
- small scale flour mills
- local biscuit maker
- sandwitch blades
- knife sharpeners
- hand woven sweaters
- custom stitched shirts/ trousers
- washing soap
- home made sweats
- steam engines
- snake charmers
- marriage albums
- post cards
- postal oders
- telegrams
- operator assisted long distance calls
- trunks (steel variety)
- marble playing (कंचे )
- गुल्ली डंडा  (sorry can't translate)
- masseur
- sewing machines at home
- home made butter

and I am sure there are many more but do I want to live all those nice memories and feel the void.....

ah no.

Yes I miss all that

But I am happy with what is available now.





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Power of observation

Mr Topiwala observed his niece being very interested in dressing up. He engaged in a discussion and came to understand a pain point of large number of Indian women. Something that women are very passionate, possessive about and have a very strong emotional bond, almost unbreakable bond. He created a new product that solved a huge effort and a recurring problem. And this was a self sticking, in varying sizes and design and in colours preferred by women, red and maroon. Since its launch in 1985, the brand is a huge dominant one in the market. Almost synonymous with the category. Companies would envy such a dominance. Over the years many innovations were brought about like iodine enriched, dermatologically tested and many more. 'Shilpa' bindis. An amazing story of a dominant brand that solves a real problem through acute observation. Would love to know of more such stories. #bindingmachine   #observation   #consumerneed   #businessmaze   #indianmaze 204-1-20

The biggest concerns - how we tackle?

These days, there are two topics of discussion. One about the national security and issues related to it and second, economic scenario and its impacts on individuals (own and in the organisations they work in). Jobs are difficult to come by. Packages are not as great as they used to be. How do students in B schools etc tackle it: - toppers are more worried about how much money will they make - others are looking at beyond placement cells - companies that were shooed away till last year are being treated with great honour - some students have resorted to contacting their freinds, long lost uncles, relatives etc to seek a favour On talking to a few CXOs, it was clear that making contacts to seek favours actually works to the detriment of the candidate. They all agreed that people is the key concern for them to run a business. They clarify quickly that it is all about RIGHT PEOPLE. How many students are actually writing to the organisations specifically demonstrating how they can add val...

Are you ready?

Scaling up? How about doing it in a short time? How about when demand is much beyond your plans? How much is much? Let us look at how such enormous challenges have been met in a matter of a few weeks. India was found awefully incpacitated to meet the demand of masks, PPEs and sanitizers. Demand soared by 1000X (and perhaps even more). In a matter of under 8 weeks, we started manufacturing all three in reasonably required quantities. Adjacent skills were deployed. Licences granted at lightening speed. And by 12th week, we had more than enough capacity and stocks. So much that we are exporting all of the requirements to the needy across the world. And costs and prices have gone down by 3X if not more. Can you do a simulation of your business for such a scenario? How quickly can you pivot? It's an amazing case study of entire industry standing up to the challenge. #covidopportunities   #businessexpansion   #pivoting   #businessmaze