The People's car-A Perspective across different era's

Recently a lot has been said and written about the Tata Nano-which has been projected as the people's car and mainly targetted at the masses

However,It seems that the sales of the Nanos have not been able to match
with the expected targets set by the producer.I would like to analyse the
product first.The Nano is mainly targetted at the rural masses and the
families who could not afford the standard car models.Priced at a
modest 1.5 lakhs,It has been targetted at the masses who could not
afford to look beyond the two wheeler.

However,The original People's car in India-The Maruti suzuki was targetted
at the middle classes and upper middle classes when the car was still a
premium product.It had a far more ambitious mandate.The maruti suzuki
was an ideal product and reached its targeted masses making it a
big hit.However the nano does not seem to have made such an impact
inspite of the pre-release hype.Whether it has been targetted at
the rural masses or the urban two-wheeler users as an alternate seems
unclear atleast as shown by the marketing campaigns.

A few mishaps happened in the middle like a product catching fire.
The product also seems a bit too sensitive for the bad rural roads
and the Indian potholes.So what needs to be done seems to be a
more renewed marketing campaign and a bit more of customer segmentation
and targetting of the desired market.



The original people's car-The Volkswagen Beetle was produced by Porsche
as per Hitler's desire to have a "people's car" for the masses.The simultaneous design of the Autobahns made the people's car the right product for the
highways for the upwardly mobile families.Thus it was a people's car that
met with success.

Thus the ultimate people's car would be a conveyance that can be used for transportation,leisure and enjoyment with safety without being a pain on the purse strings.The Maruti-Suzuki and beetle seem to have attained this to an extent.

A people's product can have great significance for the manufacturer and its success can propel the manufacturer to great heights.A bold innovation and attempt nevertheless by the Nano.

Relevance of the Magazine

News frequency has increased over the time.
We have now news by the minute,second and hour,
You have live news,online news,TV News.

Under such circumstances the weekly news magazines have become antiquated.
Their purpose needs introspection.Are the merely going to summarize the news,
or present the same in the form of propaganda.The task of the editors of the newsmagazines have become all the more complicated.

They have to double up as an editor,creative editor and production manager.
I find current Indian magazines becoming moribund and cliched.
I find websites like NYTimes and TIME more relevant to the times.

Would one day want to be a guest editor in a magazine to see how it functions,
OR add my version or ideas on a competitive manuscript.

The Vegetable Vs The Rebel

There are two Protagonists:



The Vegetable:
-He just exists doesn't live
-Blindly accepts society and circumstances
-doesn't question or introspect
-follows the standard line
-is afraid of treading the untreaded line
-Waits for things to happen,is not pro-active
Bottomline-he vegetates doesnt live




The Rebel:
-Deeply introspects
-isn't always seen as right
-goes the untreaden way
-doesn't alwayslook at safety and comfort as prime goals

Modern society seems to be gravitating towards the vegetable way,
but the rebel is the one who sets the ball rolling.

Gotta move more towards the "Man of Action"

The new "time"-An enigma

I have always fascinated been time-an enigma,an mystery a phenomenon which needs deeper introspection.Are we stretched between the limits of time.From birth to death.
From youth to old age.from creation to destruction.



I recently came across a new term-Internet time-This is what an search engine says-
"
internet time was a common catchphrase that originated during the late-1990s Internet boom.[1] In this period, people who worked with the Internet had come to believe that "everything moved faster on the 'net", because the Internet made the dissemination of information far easier and cheaper. In layman’s terms, “Internet Time” involves efficiencies inherent to digital transactions that are produced by the virtual reality of one product, one product type, or one service provided to consumers from one virtual cash register residing on one server. The amount of time required to conduct simultaneous transactions is reduced to irrelevance, as everything is occurring at one compressed—albeit virtual—location."

We are already struggling to cope with biological time,now we got to tune ourselves to the new internet time which has stretched our time limits too far.
Is time running out??Wish we could control time.



Things are going so fast,and hey presto,It all seems over:-
No not so fast -We will look at alternate means.
A "time machine" or atleast modify ourselves to suit the new time barriers.
Anyways I gotta manage time more smarter whether biological or "internet time"!

I found the "ELIXIR"

Throughout history and mythology,people have been continously searching for the "elixir" or "amrit" or the divine potion to give them everlasting youth and strength.Does such a thing really exist?.In the puranas the devas and asuras churned the ocean to obtain the divine urn of amrita.

Their are references to the everlasting "water of youth" in some modern fiction
too.An imaginary stream of water which transforms weakness and oldness to youth and strength.Wish our technologists could discover something similar.

Whether such a thing exists or not,we certainly do need some real or
atleast psychological elixir to pep up and energize our lives.



Some people claim to get a high through intoxicating spirits.
Recently,I had a juice of a certain fruit in a beverage shop in my city.
I felt extremely energized and pepped up.It was the "passion fruit" juice.

This is what i found in the search engines-

"The purple passion fruit is native from southern Brazil through Paraguay to northern Argentina. It has been stated that the yellow form is of unknown origin, or perhaps native to the Amazon region of Brazil, or is a hybrid between P. edulis and P. ligularis"



I just tried it for the heck of it,but the passion fruit really contains some passion ingredients.Maybe its just imaginary or intutive,But thats not the issue,
We do need to keep ourselves happy,energetic and strong through either real or psychological aids for a more productive and vibrant life.

Anyways ,I will continue to have more "passion fruit" juices from now onwards,
and to all of you out their-

------------------------"CHEERS"-----------------------------------------------

The Flower Movement-An refreshingly positive Agitation

I had a stroll through the countryside this weekend.
I felt a refreshing blast of peace and happiness through me.
Ask me why.....??.I was amidst a place filled with wild flowers.
Water lilies,Hibiscuses and a few more flowers which I am unable to name.
I guess blooming flowers in their natural state emit peace and happiness
vibrations which few other natural events can compare with.
The therapeutic and emotional effect of blooming flowers have little
comparisons elsewhere.

I look at the current athmosphere around me.Lots of frustrated,angry,
hedonistic and arrogant souls around me who have lost their touch with
nature and life.

I look back---40 years back.
Their was one movement which helped people to connect with their roots,
The Hippie or the flower children who questioned the ethics and foundations
of the contemporary society.We need something similar even now--As an observer recalled-""The cry of 'Flower Power' echoes through the land.
We shall not wilt.Let a thousand flowers bloom."

We need to fill our concrete jungles with more flowers and flower plants to
remind people of their dreary lives and the unbridled mechanical routine they
have sunk into.

As an old song goes'"If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some
flowers in your hair". We need to improve the flower quotient in our cities.
More gardens and more urban gardens in skyscrapers.
We need that therapeutic effect to sooth the distressed minds.

We need to bring back the flowers in our souls and allow our happiness and true spirit of our lives to bloom.Viva...The flower movement.

Where have the Birds gone?

I looked at the sky yesterday.It was bleak and filled with smoke.
The one thing that struck me was the "EMPTINESS".

Now the flashback-I look back on my childhood.
I studied in a defence cantonment.I remember the myriad birds which filled the sky.

I remember seeing mynahs,parrots,sparrows,bulbuls,cuckoos,drongos,
thrushes.Their used to be a lot of birds other than the common crow.

I even remember seeing carrion birds like the kite and eagle.
But Now...,I am a bit puzzled,have all the birds been rusticated from the cities
due to the extreme pollution levels and excess urbanization..??!!
I occasionally see crows!!.kudos to the resilient bird.

Anyways I wish bird watchers do more to conserve urban birdlife rather than just bird watching in remote bird sanctuaries.

As i pondered.."Where have the birds gone??"..I reply to myself..."Wish they were back...".

Receding Forests-Environmental activism needed..

I was searching for a furniture piece recently.I was amazed to see the cost of basic furniture shoot up enormously.The reason was-Wood scarcity,No natural teak and rose wood available in much of the country.Even though our population is shooting up to almost a billion,we have not cared to increase the forest cover over our country.

The end result,mass plunder and destruction of our limited forest resources to satiate an insatiable appetite for wood and allied products.

We need more NGOS to work at the grassroots in afforestry programs to solve this problem.We need an performing environmental ministry rather an namesake protagonist.

Environmental activism is needed,However what is happening is an ostrich like approach,Burying the head in the sand and failing to see reality.

Meaning of life-???

What is the meaning of life on earth?
When do you feel you have attained satisfaction?

Is it attaining unlimited money,fame,power,unlimited pleasure?
What is the meaning of life...I keep thinking...

If i have left behind children,property and charity,Have i attained the pinnacle?
What about the person who could not obtain property and wealth?
Is his life in this planet meaningless??

is it unrivalled charity?

Or is it destruction which is the ultimate aim of creation?
the "death goal" as a sociologist put it.
But anyways on a lighter note,I will postpone these serious issues to another day...

and till then............??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eat,drink,party and be merry-uncontrolled hedonism

Rising Fuel costs

What is the solution to the rising fuel costs?

option1- Switch over to renewable energy sources?

option 2- force the government to issue artificial subsidies by organizing strikes

option 3- Ban all vehicles more than 10 years or with outdated combustion systems from plying?

option 4- Improve public travel systems.ban unlimited vehicle production and distribution.Maybe we need to be a dictatorship for this to come in force.

option 5-Force all single people to use only cycles...lol

Wish some people find some innovative solutions to this terrible problem and save the natural resources of our planet..... .

Johnny gone down-Book review

Verdict-Good, Rating-3/5

A good attempt by Karan Bajaj.

The Novel is an adventure novel and is a combination of James Bond meets Phileas Fogg meets Manmohan Desai.

The Novel traces the life of its Protagonist an Indian MIT student-Nick,who keeps stumbling from one mishap to another across different troubled spots on earth.

Nick who is on a vacation with his chum in Cambodia finds himself accidentally hurtled through the clutches of the Khmer rouge.He survives this and lands in a Monastery in Bangkok.He seems to discover a vision of life here.

He moves to the Rio branch of the monastery to indulge in evangelization to find himself trapped in the vicinities of the Rio underworld.
He himself becomes the gang-lord and eventually move to the las vegas through another whirlwind of circumstances.He develops an online gaming software worth billions when he returns to India to become a bait in an indian satta version of Russian Roulette.

This is when he realizes the whirlwind his life has taken and tries to sort out things.The author attempts a surreal psychedelic view on life.
The book is a good entertainer and opens the floodgates for an indianized version of James Hadley chase.

Some of the instances seems cliched and resembles bollywood potboilers of the 1970's,especially the last minute reunion with his college chum.

The book is a good one time read,could have been a little more down to earth.

Save the tiger

"Tiger tiger burning bright in the forests of the night" wrote William Blake,
But time seems to be running out.

In these days of mega-cities,holiday resorts and commercial farming-Wild life conservation seems to have taken the back seat.With powerful commercial interests pitted against conservation efforts,the conservationists seem to be on the back foot.

Wish their were more people like Valmik thapar around.
We need to save our forests and their ecosystems to save the tigers.
It is a complex symbiotic web.We need to build a national people's environment movement like the chipko movement.Just preaching and cribbing will not do.

Wish something happens like in Michael Jackson's earth song.
All the uprooted forests and killed wildlife spring back to life with a prophet like Michael restoring them.Miss you Michael Jackson.
You were a visionary entertainer.

Bhopal Gas Tragedy-A Leviathan tragedy

The Bhopal gas tragedy has been in the news nowadays.
It has been one of the greatest industrial disasters ever to take place anywhere.

The tragedy has been compounded many times by the inaction and lack of proper settlement for the victims.

The fact that the victims got such a paltry sum for such a gigantic industrial disaster thrust at them by the callousness of a global MNC shows how far judicial activism has to go in our country.

The fact that the key player Warren Anderson was allowed to leave the country without making Dow chemicals pay its dues for the leviathan tragedy it thrust on the innocent Bhopal people is pitiable.

The case has been stretching on endlessly in courts without the hapless victims getting adequate relief and succor from the protagonists of the industrial disaster.

THIS RIGHTLY JUSTIFIES THE ADAGE-"TOO LATE IS BAD"-"JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED".

The Leader who had no title-Book Review- Verdict-Good

This is Robin Sharma,s latest book on personal development.
I have been a great fan of Robin Sharma one of the best author
of self development books.

The book is a fictionalized account of a Man in search of his destiny in life.
He meets a stranger who has known his father and agrees to mentor the protagonist.

He is introduced to four different people who show him how to lead life.
The four people are four extraordinary people who have accomplished much
even within rather dimunitive work profiles.

The four people lead the protagonist through their life and ultimately
make him discover four golden truths which would lead the protagonist
to discover the meaning of life and ultimately see through life's intricacies
in depth.

The book is a pretty good self development fable and ultimately delivers on its premise.It is a good one time read.

But the book seems to be based on utopian circumstances and utopian people
and hence sounds a bit ultra-glamourous.

Would want Robin to bring more down-to earth people characters in his
future works.

The world is in a great paucity of genuine leadership and hence this work is right on the dot.A world with more responsible people donning leadership mantles in the need of the day.

Anyways my final take would be -A great one-time read which makes readers evaluate their principles in life-Go for it.

Book Review-Zero Percentile-Missed IIT Kissed Russia

A good effort by debutant writer Neeraj Chibba.

The book traces the journey and struggles of an Indian student
in Volgograd Russia,the struggles and finally the learnings through it.

The writer gives an authentic firsthand account of life in the
erstwhile Soviet Union and the tough life for overseas students there.

The humour is subtle and realistic.The narrations about his romantic
interludes with a teacher in his institute is interesting and the
book progresses to a interesting climax.

The situation reminds one of Raj-Kapoor's Mera Naam Joker.
The book is narrated in a fashion similar to travel writers like RK Narayan and
Graham Greene.

A commendable debut effort by Neeraj Chibba.

Devil in Pinstripes-Book Review

Ravi Subramaniam has hit the bulls eye this time.

His new novel is an brilliant drama which offers an insight into the dark world of corporate politics,boardroom intricacies and the high profile world of international MNC banks.

The Novel is through the eyes of its lead protagonist who has to deal with the wiles of an established banking honcho whose entity has been merged with the global bank.

The novel starts with a slow pace and gradually meanders towards an intense buildup as the protagonist's better half joins the same organization and is caught in the crossfire between the two heavyweights.

How the protagonist diplomatically tackles the challenges faced by him with panache and through flank attacks to move up the corporate ladder forms the rest of the intense drama.

But the crescendo of the novel is the gripping climax,where the cliched phrase "the survival of the fittest" holds true with the advantage falling on the protagonist with the most skills rather than the most connections.

With this novel Ravi has heralded himself to be India's answer to John Grisham!!

Eagerly waiting for the next work from ravi's quiver.

IIM Eligibility Criterion

Recently the IIM board has decided to bring in some additional criteria for IIM entrants:-The Probable entrants should have scored 70% throughout their schooling.
This is other than the 99% cutoff.I suggest that some more criteria be brought in to
find the "Perfect Managers".
1.The CAT aspirant should be able to run a 10km marathon race.
2.He should be fluent in atleast two indian languages and should know one foreign language other than English.
3.He should be knowledgeable in Indian epics like the mahabharata,ramayana and the arthashastra.
4.He should have climbed a mountain peak above 5000 mts tall.
5.The aspirant should have participated in some adventure sports like bungee jumping or white water rafting.
hmmm..i will think of some more criteria to find the perfect manager...lol

German Bakery -Pune

A really tranquil peaceful place outside the Osho ashram.
I have been their once.The place is always buzzing with activity
with people from many nationalities.
The Bakery has an exotic menu list.
A good collection of continental and indian bakery products and beverages.
Sad to hear the place has been firebombed with a huge casuality list.

Their was tremendous opposition to Osho too....
But he prevails.Hope the German bakery will prevade too,inspite of the terrible mishap.

I bought the Monks Ferrari-Ravi Subramaniam-Book Review

A catchy oxymoron from the title of Robin sharmas original novel.

Ravi Subramaniam takes a shot at achieving big in life.
Drawn mainly from his own experiences in the banking sector.

The book is about achieving the "ferrari"-the dream sports car,
a metaphor for achieving big possesions which very few people
actually reach.

So,here we have the route to reach the ferrari by a professional who has
succesfully tread the conventional path to get his ferrari.

The book is interesting,nevertheless gets preachy at times,and
ends up taking the cliched route which many motivational book authors take.

A good pick for a one time read nevertheless.