Tid Bit from My Diary

T his 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 sear...

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 ...

Social Media Interaction T he “ 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 l...

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 ...

"Thinking is to man what flying is to birds. Don't follow the examples of the chicken when you could be a lark." - Albert Einstein

Google driven impression of Bot As I sat with my hands folded engrossed in my thoughts, I detected mild symptoms of the illness known as “ writer’s Block ”. I told myself that it cannot be true because Seth Godin says that no such thing exist. Writer's block is a myth . Can I defy him? Probably not! "Maybe it is a starting cue that I was looking for to start my next post." I in fact had a few Ideas that could be converted to posts, like we always do most of the times. This "fingers off the keypad" phase ensued because it was difficult to find the right " balance between Benefit and Effort ". Ones that could be put together with very little effort did not look worth the time spent while those which qualify wasn’t worth the effort involved. A “catch 22” moment! Then I received an email from the desk of Ms. R of a blogging portal. It was quite similar in style to the memos that are often used in the corporate world. I was about to toss i...

Break Free - Image source A mighty elephant possessing the strength to large trees cannot gather the strength to free itself from a flimsy chain tied to a peg. It’s not the physical chain that ties the elephant but the invisible restraints that tells its brain that there is no point in trying to break free. It is the perception of this elephant’s personal reality that makes it feel weak and feeble with respect to the binding chain because it was created through earlier failed attempts. Unfortunately this is not limited to elephants. We too find ourselves restrained with our beliefs embedded through earlier experiences or teachings and we created our own reality around those. We are so strongly programmed that we cannot even distinguish between possible and the impossible. Human brain weighs only 3% of our body weight but it consumes 20% of our energy. This tells us something about its capability if we decide to put it to use, we can move mountains. Many peo...