IndianMaze

I may not agree on some points of the author but a worthy reading none the less. Sandipan Deb Fri, Feb 6 04:35 AM What does it feel like to be on the way home from work one evening, preparing yourself to tell the family that you don't have a job anymore? I have friends who have been through this, yet I can only vaguely imagine what goes through a man's mind in the moments before the inevitable confession to wife, child, parents. No one who hasn't gone through that moment possibly can more than vaguely imagine the feelings: the anger, helplessness, guilt, shame, fear. If one had a choice, one wouldn't want anyone to go through that experience. But I am also a person who has personally sacked perhaps two dozen people during my career. In the last three months, I have let three people go, on grounds of incompetence. But today, we know what the reality is, what the rules that run a market are. I have known young software engineers switching jobs thrice a year just for...

I could not but put this great quote that may have been heard a number of times but as relevant now as anytime before. Yesterday is a cancelled cheque; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is the only cash you have, so spend it wisely. - Kim Lyons Good luck

It was an interesting chat at home while making a shopping list before going to a local supermarket. My better half, as usual, was in command and said "we need to be careful in spending money as there is a slowdown in the economy". I politely nodded my head and toed the line. Men are very impulsive buyers and I got lured by an attractive offer on bathing soaps. On putting the same in the shopping basked she looked at me as if I was the biggest fool in the world. "Are you even aware that how many soaps are lying at home?" There was a serious message in there. Most households (by and large in India) hold a lot more than required at home. This, in my opinion, emanated from old experiences of shortage. I dug a few old notes and my past experiences from FMCG market visits. On doing a bit of survey (to camouflage inefficiencies of our house), the results were startling: On an average (of 4 households that I checked in Metroplitan, nuclear family with two kids, uppermiddl...

It was an interesting time at Holi last month. This festival is celebrated with full involvement of participants but with two view points. There are ones who celebrate it with a religious fervour and so wear new clothes etc. Then there are the ones who play with colours with same amount of intensity but use old clothes as clothes need to be discarded after all the colours that are used. This led to a clear thought as to how Indians are apt at recycling almost everything at home. This is not accounted for the carbon credits but is quite a phenomenon in both urban and rural India. It has become a part of the social norms as well. In a random manner, I recall instances where this has become a thread in Indian fabric. - ALL Indian households are visited by a कबाड़ीवाला ( a trader in discarded goods). Old newspapers, magazines, clothes, utensils, plastic goods are all sold and subsequently recycled - Every city has specialist tailors who have mastered the art of making clothes of children fr...

India has always been a country where the spread of wealth is skewed. Last decade or so made middle class become richer at a rapid pace. Interestingly, it is this very "rich" middle class that is treating the downturn differently. In my travels across the country this week combined with visits to some shopping malles on the last weekend have given me this insight. The shopping trip to a mall and supermarket saw very thin crowd and the long queues were missing on the checkout counters. This was the case at Spencers, Big Bazaar and Reliance. Even Bikanerwala that is always buzzing with activity was quiet. PVR and DT cinemas have started a Rs 50 cinema ticket that was unthinkable for a multiplex till recently. Airlines claim that low fares in January did not entice anough travellers. Contrasting this with a monday morning flight of Kingfisher to Mumbai and that was absolutely full. Airport terminal was rather busy in Delhi. I must hasten to add that Kingfisher has removed "...

India has become a significant market for the screen oriented products - mobiles, TVs and PCs. India has already become larger than US household market with more than 110 million houses with TVs. As far as mobiles are concerned, it is the fastest growing market in the world and as far as PCs are concerned - it is in the middle of the road. But the story is about convergence. It seems all converging towards dual screens - mobiles in hand and TVs at homes. It is changing the consumer habits in a manner that could not be envisaged. SMSs in India created a kind of world record in terms of numbers sent per annum apart from creating a new language altogether (very nicely used by Vodafone in their campaign in India). TVs have created a complete new era of knowledge, entertainment, talent hunt et al. Though a great event in a corner of India (Tilottama in Kolkata organised by a Bengali magazine called Sananda) has given many Miss Indias but it is music talent hunts like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa on Zee T...

This is a unique feature of Asian (and particularly Indian) that what is communicated may not necessarily be what is meant. This becomes even more complicated when combined with the expressions and body movement. I have been utterly confused at times when the answer is yes but the head movement is from shoulder to shoulder which to my understanding depicts a no. Is it because of subconscious disagreement or is there another issue that is linked to more social issues? In any case, yes or no is also a function of the context of discussion. As is an old adage in Sanskrit मौन स्वीकृति लक्षणं (silence is an indicator of agreement). Is it a universally acceptable practice? Psychologists, NLP specialists, please decipher for my benefit!