Magic Moments

The last Friday, I was there to welcome the Sun and bid him goodbye.

The Sun was rising but the moon stayed back. As if hanging around to bid goodbye before leaving to the other side of the planet.

Sometime we need to pause and look around. There are so much beauty in our everyday life.

What does your brain say!

This post is not about bio science although you might have such a feeling and that's a disclaimer.

The brain which is the command center for our nervous system is the most complex object in the universe and the good news is that we all possess one inside our skulls. 100 billion neurons link to one another in a complex but a unique pattern within the lump of fats and proteins. The scientists and neurologists are still at the beginning of unraveling the incredible power of the human brain.

The brain has the power to learn new languages, perceive beauty and remember tens of thousands of individual bits of information. Human brains can also achieve amazing results by easily joining the dots even if there are some dots missing. Our brains can make out the objects, a person’s face or a sentence in a language of our average proficiency.

Let’s take the sentence above as an example. How many of us would not be able to decipher it meaningfully! But this is just a simple one sentence, whereas you have come across entire paragraph in the past with misspelled words and still managed to read it on the fly...without pausing for a moment. 

This is because we have given total autonomy to the brain and it determines the entire sentence based on the limited information based on past experience. Habituation is what brain does when it sees the same old thing day after day. In such situation the brain economizes on the attention and this is the strength of humankind.

But the challenge is to make proper use of the power of the brain as uncontrolled use could also turn out to be its greatest weakness.

We are usually prejudiced based on a few visible traits or characteristics. He looks like this therefore he will behave like that or she is dressed that way hence she is of that particular type. We ourselves have experienced similar situations in the past or often heard our friends and colleagues making such comments.

This is where we need to be rational with our thoughts. Life is full of wonders and wonderful things will happen whenever we keep our mind open and pay attention to what happens around us. We will have better understanding of our world, make new friends and probably develop new lasting relationships.

We have to remember that there is nothing in a caterpillar that tells us that it will become a butterfly. The sentence on the top could well be this without our prejudice.

Jammikunta... a daily pause for a cause

Our motherland is as diverse in its customs and practices as it is with individual and collective social values. Some people despise others’ patriotic or nationalistic fervor. Despite staying outside for two decades, I am on that side of the fence where people cherish these values and naturally the news about Jammikunta gave me a pleasant feeling.

Jammikunta is situated in Karimnagar district, about 140 km from Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana. Life comes to a halt every day at 8 a.m. as people pause for a minute to sing the national anthem. This has become a daily routine of the people in this sleepy town since 15 August 2017, following an initiative by a local police inspector.

After many centuries of subjugation by foreign invading forces, I strongly feel there is a need for a nationalistic approach to reclaim our lost identity. Without a strong identity, I am afraid there will be no we tomorrow but for our shadows.

At this point someone might bring the statement made by the great English writer Samuel Johnson’s statement to the table as a counter argument.

"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."

The context of this comment is unknown so we don't really know for sure what was on Johnson's mind at the time. His friend and biographer, James Boswell however, assures that when Johnson made this famous pronouncement, he referred only to false patriotism. As for Boswell’s credentials, his biography of Samuel Johnson, is commonly said to be the greatest biography written in the English language.

I am optimistic that as respect grows, we shall evolve as a stronger as individuals as well as civic societies. 

Jammikunta, showing the way

There I am...

Today we were strolling on a park as the Sun was leaving for the day. My wife's phone camera came handy to capture this magic moment as I left mine inside the car. There I am ready to feed my Instagram account after a very long gap.

I thought it is a good idea to introduce myself through my various social media existence. My Instagram account is sumandebray and I post photos taken  exclusively with my phone's camera. It will be a pleasure if friends from my blogsphere  comes along and joins me, I shall be a follower too. I not particularly interested in individuals who have thousands of followers while they follow a handful....in other words, I stay away from the celebrities.

My Twitter handle is @Sumandr and I am already connected to some of you.

Then there is the professional social media that I am part of as well. This is the linkedIn and you may find me here. You are invited to come and be part of my network.

A few screenshots from Instagram page.

Our World’s Toothpaste Moment

There was a campaign to convince the companies that cardboard packaging for toothpastes were a complete waste. Being one of the most common household product in everybody’s life Toothpaste have a huge multiplier. After all this product used at the least once a day by old, young and everyone in-between.   

A few days back we bought a promotional pack of three toothpaste and it’s unfortunate that we were given 3 cardboard boxes while we desired none. It’s a fact of life that most of us will discard the boxes into the bin without a second looks.

There are no doubts that by changing this habit, a substantial amount of burden on our world will be reduced.

Don’t get me wrong, I very well understand the significance of packaging and am not advocating to deprive consumer of this experience. I shall never forget remember my experience of unpacking my Tissot watch. Back in then, it was a luxury product for me long before I learnt later that it doesn’t qualify to be one. The velvet lined wooden box had the central chamber for the watch, a drawer in the lower part housed the user manual, while an independent slot was allocated for the warranty card.

There are other products for which the unpacking experience has got high intrinsic values. Some of the toys for children, particularly those for girls, values a lot for packaging. My daughter typically loves to unpack her toy in front of the camera and post them in her YouTube channel.

But these are not everyday products like a toothpaste or a shaving cream. I do not believe anyone has the time to enjoy the unpacking experience of these basic necessities. Why do we need them in that case?

I propose to start a campaign to leave the box of toothpaste and saving creams at the super market after the checkout. A message to the manufacturer that we do not need those.

Are you going to join me!

fair trade & modern day slavery

The other day I took my daughter for her choir practice where they meet two or three times every week to rehearse for an hour. I was strolling in the school corridor looking at various displays, notices and bulletin boards while they were busy inside.

The fourth graders of this Swiss school had prepared a bulletin board based on their self-research and it was very impressive. I am glad that I stood there for few minutes as it made feel more about the plight of the farm workers. Being enlightened early in life about “Fair Trade Practices”, I am optimistic that these children will grow up to be a more socially responsible generation.

They have noted down the following for the banana plantation workers who gets the lowest reward for their efforts as per the banana split.

• Work for 14 hours a day in harsh weather conditions
• Have poor working condition
• Spray fertilizers and pesticides
• Cut down the bananas
• Carry heavy loads of bananas for washing
• Wash the bananas
• Cannot usually join a union

Banana Plantation is only an example but disparity exist in all types of export oriented trade, be it farming or manufacturing. The incident of Rana plaza in Bangladesh in 2013, had shocked the entire world but there are still thousands of other businesses where workers continue to endure hardship to maximize profits.  

I looked up on the Wikipedia for information about Fair trade. Fair trade is an institutional arrangement designed to help producers in developing countries achieve better trading conditions. The philosophy and the core principles are very good. However, what is lacking is its implementation on ground. Licensing unfortunately doesn't help the farmers much, although it provides significant marketing advantage for the business owners.        

Fair trade is grounded in three core beliefs:

1. Producers have the power to express unity with consumers.
2. The world trade practices that currently exist promote the unequal distribution of wealth between nations.
3. Buying products from producers in developing countries at a fair price is a more efficient way of promoting sustainable development than traditional charity and aid.

Being a part of the CIOB, we take sustainable construction development very seriously. Construction is by far the largest industry in this world and we ensure that the supply chain selection process is rigorous. The message to the manufacturers is clear and unambiguous. Exploitation of their workforce will not be tolerated.

Will you be joining hands to stop this modern day slavery!  

Lives that Inspire us through books

This week Indi-blogger inspires us to ponder whether “we think inspiration books are really useful?”

I need to get the ambiguity out of my way and therefore the first question I ask myself is “How do we define the genre Inspirational Books in this context”?  Let me adopt the simplistic path and consider those to be a subsection of wide variety of inspirational literature that are promoted aggressively by the marketers.

Let me start with the books that made their authors not only very famous but rich as well. This genre include books like following along with their prequels and sequels.

• Chicken Soup for the Soul
• The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
• Rich Dad Poor Dad
• Think and Grow Rich
• You Can Win

I believe those became bestsellers for a reason and that being marketed differently. People have either fallen for celebrity endorsement, followed their peers or impulsively got motivated to buy it. As we understand sales make books a best seller while reading those doesn’t. Reading would have got them "The Man Booker Prizes" or something similar!

I am quite sure we will be shocked if know how many proud owners of these, actually managed to travel cover to cover or for that matter crossed the halfway mark.

My repeated attempts of motivating myself to foray into the depth of those, whether thick or thin has failed and story of my peers were not too different. Me and my friends by the virtue of being average people with ordinary brought-ups, occupy the mid region of the bell curve of population’s standard statistical distribution.

The exceptional occupy the spaces in the fringes and they managed to derive great mileage by competing the books. They shinned brighter than we average souls while others excelled and went on to create more of such inspirational books. The picture is captured well in the info-graphic.

Info-graphic 

Maybe the question is “if books that inspire people are really useful?” The would be a thumping YEAS.

Books that narrates stories of real men and women with lot of empathy, really inspires us. The story of Robert Bruce and the spider, I can vouch has inspired generations to keep trying and never to give up till we succeed. It’s the book on Gandhi’s life that taught every human being to be the change that they want to see. (Really! It Did?)

The life of Nelson Mandela taught us that “the greatest glory in living lies not in falling, but in rising every time we fall” and when we are faced with an uphill task, we hear the whisper “it always seems impossible until it’s done.”

During his lifetime, Steve Jobs has been a phenomenon of innovation and endurance which we knew without reading his biography. In his end, Jobs inspired us not to fear death with his final words “OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.” Which in my view is quite similar to Om Shanti. Om Shanti. Om Shanti.

P.S. there are many souls that inspires us and built our characters. There are no particular reason why I selected some over other although there is a definite reason why I did not mention the holy books or religious scriptures.

It’s true that stories within every religion inspires their practitioners like no other but I did not want my argument to be constricted by personal beliefs.

And finally please do not pay much attention to my info-graphics, it’s made up to drive the message home.

We Walked Along

Through the barren meadows,

Hand in hand, we walked along!

With birds shunning our trees,

Undeterred still, we sang along!

Trees around were shades of grey,

Your laughter, brought color along!

A sight to cherish it is today,

Thousand birds, came along!

Flowers sprayed resplendent hues,

Colors the leaves too, brought along!

With trust we walked unknown paths,

Love always stayed along!

The day I told her that I was leaving Google search

Two weeks back, once I switched on the laptop in the evening, I made an important announcement at home. My daughter could not believe her ears when she heard, I was not going to use Google any more.

“What do you mean?” 

“Henceforth I shall not use the Google search engine”.

“But you are still using Google” a bit perplexed.

“I shall abandon only the search engine, while I shall continue to use chrome, Blogger, YouTube as usual”, I clarified.  

“Aren’t both chrome and the search same!” still confused.

“They are not the same although it is designed to have that look and feel.” I told her and further explained,

“Chrome is a web browser similar to Internet explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Safari while Google Search is a search engine that could be used with any of the browsers. 

There are other search engines available such as Yahoo search, Bing search, DuckDuckgo search, SwissCows search, DogPile search etc.

“I have started to use DuckDuckGo”, I declared .

“The name is so funny and doesn’t sound real” she commented.

“Google too didn’t make any sense as a name when it started”

 Finally she asked “Why are you changing?”

"Google was less of a search company and more of an advertising company"

I told her that anything that we search are mined by Google and sold to the advertisers. Then the advertisers follow us all over the internet and those annoying banner ads keeps popping into our eyes.

If we search for pens for example, we will be bombarded with advertisements from pen companies. I reminded her how we have been followed by hotels, airlines etc. before we went for vacation. We feel that we are being followed, watched and monitored on our life in the internet.

DuckDuckGo promises us freedom from the prying eyes and let us search with privacy. I still have to get used to not using Google search Apps on my phones too.

Will you be joining me?

My Gmailophobia

Business Insider

Google mail started on 01 April 2004 and along with other early adopters, this time #metoo started using this. In those early days an account could only be registered via invitation and I was so much impressed by the service and progressively increasing storage space that by 2006, Gmail became my principle email address.

By launching Gmail on the 1^st of April, Google have their conscience clear! It was poor me who missed the cryptic message. I ought to have realized the fact that if something is too good to be true then most probably it’s not!

Today, all my important emails are stored within the limited storage space of 15 GB available in the Google’s mail server. The good news is that there is an option to purchase additional storage space although I am not sure who benefit more from this option. Moreover the storage space is available till one putting up the rental fees and there is nothing tangible that one can take home.

I am having a fear that is growing in strength with each passing day my intuition warns me that the day is not far when the user will be asked to pay a fees for using Google’s email service. Until that time, instead of paying the levied fees, the mail users have to be prepared to pay the price. Yesterday’s news headline is a good example of such price.

“Google is scanning your Gmail inbox to keep a detailed list of your purchases, and there’s no easy way to erase it”

Today they are scanning for purchases and soon it may expand to banking, finance and everything else. The trouble is that are we in a position to move out of Gmail….. We are already too vulnerable even to think about that!

Google ka kya kare!

Window Shopping Online

Window shopping is one common colorful thread that ties human being across the cultures. The internet has made this pleasurable experience even more fun.

What is that one odd stuff that you looked up recently at the eBay or another online shopping portal? Something that you searched for, with absolutely no intention to make a purchase.

I request you to share your experience via a blogpost and let the fun flow though the blogosphere! If you decide to make the post then please link your post to this one.

The queerest thing that I had searched at the eBay store happens to my spookiest one too. I looked for a “haunted mirror”, not for buying though but to verify if such items were offered for sale.

One variety available are “black glass mirrors” that witches use for ritualistic spell or scrying. With the correct incantation these mirror would be the medium to connect with the dead or the Satan himself....at-least, so they claim!

I was looking for another variety of haunted mirrors which unfortunately nobody was selling on that particular day. Those are the mirrors that has association with spirits, mostly evil. We have heard of many peculiar experiences that people had while looking at the mirror.

A woman once gazed at one such mirror and saw her corpse. 
There was another mirror that freaked out a woman who stood in front. 
Believe it or not, her reflection would move despite her standing still. 
Many people has seen eyes in the mirror and those eyes didn’t belong to them. Sometimes the eyes look directly at the soul and sometimes it appears they cannot see. 
I once read of a woman who saw the face of an ugly old man staring back at her and was haunted for more than a year.

One theory is that something awful happened in front of the mirrors and the negative energy got absorbed in those mirrors. Some researchers think that the spirits try to torment people as causing distress releases emotional energies from us and they feed on this.

I am not sure, I would be willing to hang one of those in our bedroom!

Newspapers – When going gets tough

During our school days internet did not exist in the form that we know it today. Newspapers and Radio was the only two source of news and views in addition to Chinese whispers. While the radio was predominantly the governments’ mouthpiece, newspapers were free to side either with the party in power or the opposition. Most of us kept a tab on both the perspectives. A breath of fresh air was however the programs aired by BBC and VOA.

Newspapers had the freedom of opinions, although it wasn’t free of costs for the readers. For the price paid the papers were a great source of inspiration for the English language proficiency, writing style and trove of new words.

As we approached the new millennium, the internet gained in popularity forcing the newspapers to go online. The digital version was an additional feature while to the printed version was their mainstay. It was a welcome move as they had their eye fixated on a slice of the online advertising pie while the printed ones remained unchanged. Unfortunately for them, the good times did not last as sales of printed version dwindled.

We then inadvertently ushered in an era of instant news as readers took over the responsibilities for breaking as well as distributing all types of news over the social media. The consumers got lost in the labyrinth of fake news, breaking news and news that are utterly stupid.

Majority of the erstwhile readers went on to devour the analysis that came via WhatsApp and based on those formed their opinions on issues ranging from current affairs to world history. The editorials and feature articles that we grew up reading lost its importance to a great extent.

The newspapers that were not state sponsored propaganda outlet or a tabloid feared extinction. One major newspaper dared to challenge the status quo in 2002 by instituting a paywall. By doing that the Financial Times made a reversal of fortune.

The FT had faith in their high-quality work and made the audacious decision to charge the consumer who valued quality of contents and recently crossed a million paying subscribers. The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and many more followed suit.

Now my question to you is should newspapers charge for content online?

A poll in the US indicated that 86% of the participants are against it. Paying for news might be a new concept for the population growing up in the era of free internet, but for us who has subscribed to printed newspapers ever since it’s a different view point.

The Legend Never Dies

The world, today is a different place. An era without IM Pei, the internationally recognized and one of the most celebrated architect of our times has begun. He died on Thursday May 16th at the age of 102.

Ieoh Ming Pei was born in Canton (now Guangzhou) on April 26, 1917 to Tsuyee Pei, one of China’s leading bankers and moved to Hong Kong when he was an infant. He recalled that as child of 9, he was fascinated by the construction and knew he wanted to build. At the age of 17, Pei moved to the US of America and in 1940, he was awarded a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from MIT.

Tributes have been pouring in from all over the world, remembering him for a lifetime of designing iconic structures worldwide. In his career stretching more than 70 years, he have amassed an impressive portfolio and the iconic glass pyramid of the louvre in Paris is the poster boy of his legacy.

My favorite masterpiece of this great Master is the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar which was completed in 2008. At the ripe age of 91, he came back from his retirement and delved in to history of Islamic Architecture to create one of his most famous cultural landmarks.

A masterpiece positioned on a man-made island and covering a vast area of 45,000 m2. We have been fortunate to spend hours in this vastness and experience the simplicity in the grandeur of the Museum of Islamic Arts. A realization of the magic that simple forms could create when stacked together in the right proportion. The interior spaces and the landscape compliments the Architecture to leave behind his legacy that will continue to inspire generations.

There are plenty of photos of the museum available throughout the internet, I leave a few of my own as well. I also share a video of MIA Park that my daughter had made a few years back.

Let’s Save Our Kids - together

A picture is worth a thousand words and hence I let them do the talking. I trust these two visuals will  highlight the human face of a global crisis created by today's Social (read evil) Medias.

"Instagram extended its sympathies to the teenager’s family, and said the company had a responsibility to make its users feel safe and supported."

Remind yourself that you were not “self-born”! You have been brought into this world with lots of love. You do not have to seek others’ approval to boost your self-esteem, seek inner peace instead. 

Go surround yourself with the best people you can find live life to the fullest. A few points to ponder..........

• Will the Social Media corporations do anything?
• Are our children & youth safe?
• Who shall coach the vulnerable?

Rethink your Weekend

You only live twice they say, once before the dream vacation and once afterwards! Who wouldn’t love to take one, but it remains unfulfilled for most and the culprit are the obvious ones - some times its lack of time or money, while most of the times its both. What they endure is continuation instead of a vacation let alone the dream one. 

With a different thinking and right approach, we might succeed in circumventing both the obstacles and reap all the benefits that comes from a vacation. 

• Improve mental power by healing
• Improve productivity & focus
• Rejuvenate body & mind
• Improve physical health
• Improve relationship with people & work
• Improve sleep quality
• Strike the right work-life balance

Research has shown that vacation is an antidote to chronic stress that builds within us slowly and destroys our body’s ability to protect itself. There are no reasons why we shouldn’t reap the rewards that a successful holiday has to offer utilising the opportunities available at hand.

We can gain the advantages of a vacation through invocation of the “placebo effect”! the remarkable phenomenon that harnesses the power of human brain to cure our body. It may be a form of deceit but that’s how powerful human brain is.

The beneficial effect comes from the expectations concerning the vacation rather than the vacation itself.

Another tool that can be used complementary or independently to achieve the effect is “self-talk”. We can self-talk to our brain and program it to align with the above but the obvious perquisite for success being our willingness to self-listen. Self-listening is also known as self-awareness.

The concept I am advocating is to use these two tools to make our minds rethink weekends as mini vacation. Not every weekend but the one we would simulate to be a vacation.

We shall plan weeks in advance, book a hotel for stay-cation and gradually built up the tempo. Once the vacation start there will be no limit to the indulgence as we will be waking up late, spend time at the pool, have late morning brunch, visit a local attraction we have been postponing, go for shopping and the whole nine yards.

After the weekend we shall return home, having enjoyed a well-deserved vacation albeit mini, fully rejuvenated nevertheless with plenty of photos in our camera and memories in our minds!

Everyone need a vacation once in a while and everyone can settle for one!

And some adjusted their sails – episode three

Western Union

This story starts in the year 1851 with the formation of a financial and Communication Company by a group of businessmen, notable among them Hiram Siley named “The New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company”.

During the first five years of existence, the company went aggressively acquiring other competitors. On 8 April 1856, the name of the company was changed to “The Western Union Telegraph Company” to signify the union of “Western” telegraph lines under one system.

During the American civil war Hiram Siley took the challenge to connect the 2000 miles of telegraph lines to the far west. He succeeded in accomplishing a task that president Abraham Lincoln termed as “next to impossible”. By 1884, they had monopoly across the nation.

As other methods of telecommunications gained popularity over telegraphy, Western Union diversified its operation. It managed to retain the position of market leader during the 1960s and ‘70s with the Telex and TWX systems.

Later in the century, the advent of high-speed digital data transmission and modern fax machines supplanted some of the company’s most important services, notably telegrams, TWX, and Telex. In the face of these rapid technological changes, Western Union Telegraph Co. was reorganized as “Western Union Corp” in 1988 to handle money transfer and related services.

As the telegrams sent dropped to 20,000 a year, the telegraph services for Western Union ended in February 2006 after 155 years of continuous service. iTelegram, bought this business and continues to provide telegram, mail-gram and telex service to 49 countries (as of March 2019).

Western Union Corporation continue to be in the list of Fortune 500 companies with around 11,500 employees.  With more than 515,000 agent location in 200 countries, their revenue is over $4 billion. Western Union allow anyone with sufficient identification to send money around the world almost instantaneously.

Is this not a spectacular story of continuous innovating and evolving?

Go reclaim your readers says Ruski

Wikipedia

Ruskin Bond said in an interview, “India could soon be facing a predicament of having more writers than readers”.

The use of “Predicament” tells us the Padma Bhushan awardee foresees a difficult, unpleasant or embarrassing situation for the publishing industry which may impact the book sales. Watching him talk would have provided the opportunity to factor in his tonality along with the non-verbal cues to make a comprehensive sense of what the iconic writer meant when he said what he said.

This post is not so much about agreeing or disagreeing with his statement, as it is about my interpretation of the “Why” and “What” of the entire interview. Being the grand old man of Indian literature, he is at a vantage point to review the Indian literary scenario and hence not many will share the same perspective.

As hinted, I will not consider this comment in isolation but review it in conjunction with others from the same interview. He also stated "Publishing has come of age and more and more writers are making a good living out of it... But, I think with so many people writing now, there is a danger of having more writers than readers."

It is a legitimate concern directed towards the publishing houses with a clear advice that if they do not take the responsibility for quality of books they publish, they are at the danger of losing out on the readers. Do not just let anyone be a writer just because publishing is easy, do it based on the literary merits of the writers. 

Go reclaim your readers is the message!

I am not implying that Indian writers should not get the opportunity to publish their works but promote only those who meets the criteria.

There is a phenomenon in Bollywood where a super-duper hit movie is turned into a multi-million dollar franchise business. Every now and then, a complete nonsensical movie makes it big at the box office and we see them churning out even more nonsensical versions of the same. I wouldn’t care much if movie lovers knowingly sacrifice their valuable time watching those or a few young directors try to replicate such successes. All who think they can fly their cars or jump over a few blocks of buildings - Good luck to them!

However, the implications are radically different when writers with poor literary skills churn out one lousy novel after the other. This has negative impact on the society from every perspective. If someone get inspired by works, they have selected the wrong example and if they try to emulate their success… it is a bigger disaster!

It is Lose-Lose Situation for everyone.

I am not the only lone who resents this, there many more who share the feeling. I suggest that you follow this link to “Quora”, to review their reaction to the question “Why are novels by bestselling Indian authors so horrible?”

You will be amazed!

I am quite certain the same question arose in the mind of Mr. Bond many a times which lead to his advice, "Confidence in the language is a must. You should have something to say and be able to research on it well. Clarity is key."

The publishing house should take the responsibility to uphold the quality and look beyond earnings. If this is not checked now, we will be mere spectators as the reading habits of younger generations spiral southwards to oblivion.

…….and then there will be no readers!

The inspiring story of a Rural Woman

This story started at the local hair dressing salon last weekend where I went for my haircut. The person in charge was a man in his fifties and it was a one man show. After initial pleasantries I asked him, “Where are you from as you speak the Ganga kinare bhasha?” (The dialect associated with the banks of Ganges). I told him that the mithaas “sweetness” that Bhojpuri language has makes it standout from all other.

“I belong to Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh” he announced and suggested I should listen to the dialect of Jaunpur to get a taste of real mithaas. The conversation went and so did the scissors, while I was in the quiet end of both. 

Learning I was from Kolkata, he revealed that during his younger days folks from his village traveled to Kolkata in search of fortune and some of his relative continue to live there after they made it real big. He then pondered “How is Kolkata it now?” Sensing  my discomfort, he confessed that people no longer head that way in search of their dreams. 

Though we both left for foreign shores in search of greener pastures, he believed there is no dearth of opportunities back home if one is willing to toil hard. He narrated few success stories of ordinary men and women from Uttar Pradesh.

I have found the story of Smt. Krishna Yadav extremely inspiring. The success of this illiterate rural women is breathtaking and also proves there are ample of opportunities in our country for those who try.

I was awestruck by the humility of a person who have managed to establish a successful business starting from scratch. A rural couple from Bulandshahr arrives at Delhi looking for a livelihood after the husband loses his job. They take to farming on other’s land, finding no other viable option. But when time came to sell their produce, the price was not good and stock remained unsold.

She embarked on the journey of making pickles with the leftover vegetables after getting trained by relevant agencies. With her hard work and vision she has established "Krishna pickle factory" which generate income for her family and employment for many rural women. They now produce Pickles, Jam, juices and whole lot of other products and she has evolved as true leader.

Aspee Foundation awarded L.M.Patel Farmer Award to Smt. Krishna Yadav. I suggest that you listen to the story in her own words in this video.  

But hers' is not an one off case, there are many such success stories across India and with strong will you too can add yours to this list!

Beagle, Sketching, Hobbies, et al

Puttush

A few months back we went to one of our friend’s house in Kolkata and were introduced to the newest member of their family. His name is Puttush and he a Beagle, six months of age at the time.

We instantly fell in love with Puttush as he was lively, intelligent and constantly vying for attention with his childlike attitude. The beagle is a breed of small hound, quite similar to larger foxhound in appearance and very popular pet due to its size, good temper and lack of inherited health problems.

Coming back, I promised myself that I shall make a sketch of his or give it an honest try at the least. For me sketching is therapeutic and dog portraiture is definitely fulfilling. After all dog is a man’s best friends and in the words of former French president Charles de Gaulle, “The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.”

Portraiture

I have more than a fair share of hobbies with stamp collection, blogging and sketching crying for attention as soon as I reach home. Hobbies are a great way to unwind after a stressful day at take our mind away from anything that bothersome. 

It is important to have a hobby and Drawing and sketching are great hobbies that can be done any time or place. Some of the useful benefits of this hobby are:

• Enhances creativity
• Improves memory
• Improves fine motor skills
• Improves mood
• Good way to relax
• Reduces stress
• Therapy for older adults
• Improves analytical skills

Thankfully I got some likeliness in the sketch!  

The Friendly Beagle with His Portrait

Beware of the Megaphone

Social Media Interaction

The “Internet is a great leveler “in more than one ways. While internet has provided the framework for a small-town store be a global business house, it also empowered every customer irrespective of their economic or social standings. Today everyone has a Megaphone.

Trust doesn’t come easy and it is particularly difficult when transaction is over the internet. We invariably fallback on experiences people like us had earlier. Today consumer does thorough research before they make a buying decision, they also leave online review and ratings to help others. Word-of-mouth has expanded beyond a customer’s immediate friends and family. As online transactions become increasingly common, consumer-generated feedback is hard to ignore these days.

During the pre-social media days, an out of town customer at any hotel, restaurant or shop had only so much importance – it was seller’s market then. Now every customer is important even if the likelihood of their return is low. If somebody’s had a negative experience, they now have a megaphone to go out and tell millions of people.  

Similar to online retail, hospitality sector too has got intertwined with the social media for conducting their businesses. Today they need to promote, communicate and stay relevant via all the available social media platforms.

Although 90% of hotels have their Facebook pages, there is a disconnect somewhere in the system. Whereas for 87% of potential customers an appropriate management response to bad review improves their impression of a hotel, a meagre 32% of hotels respond to guest reviews, negative or positive.

Ratings and feedback foster mutual respect between two parties. Sincere hotel management would typically invest time to monitor the social media (Facebook, Trip Advisor etc.) and respond to any review of their property – either to thank the reviewer or apologize.

This acts like insurance – it doesn’t guarantee new customer, but helps form losing one. Researchers claim that valuing feedback has positive effects on perceived quality.

My request to everyone is leave a verified feedback about your recent experience about a service or product and help others to make an informed decision. Please use your megaphone! 

Internet is a great leveler

Photo Reference

Would you agree that "Internet is a great leveler?" Probably you do not have much of a choice! The proliferation of the Internet has created an environment where anyone can reap the benefits of the opportunities provided by globalization.

There are no “barriers” anymore as anyone from anywhere can start with an online business without geographical considerations. The only requirement is expertise in the core area and a great business model. On the other hand everyone can refer to reviews and recommendation and make informed decision.

The internet unarguably is the game changer but limited to internet in many regions is a cause for concern.

Traditionally for a business, promoting the product or services to the world has been a challenge. Now “Digital Marketing” has opened up the horizon to everyone who had dreams of advertising. It’s affordable, it's easy and potential customers could be reached through targeted campaigns via social media.

Skeptics like me would refer to this particular dialogue from Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice”.

"If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men’s cottages princes' palaces."

However, this doesn't mean that one shouldn't try, but be cautions that it will not be easy. Potential customers will invariably head online for review and ratings. They will research and compare shops before they make any buying decision. A home business will therefore be compared and measured against the highest standard.

So the secret is to  do is to find ways to build great relationships with online customers and let them know they are appreciated and the relationship is valued.