Posts

Happy Birthday Gunda!

Image
One year back, around this time there was a champ struggling to get into our lives. From being Mumbai-cha-mulga arriving in a tub, he will soon be namma Bengaluru Hudga . It's been an year and today while looking at his serene face while he was sleeping (which is only serene when he sleeps :P), Shweta and I kept wondering where did the year flew by! I had this pang in the heart right at that moment, where-in all I could think of how I wish I could bottle his smell and these moments forever. He has taught me more in one year, than I will ever be able teach him. He has dragged me back to being human. Happy Birthday Ansh! To the first year of your life. May you stay child-like forever. May you stay hungry. May you stay foolish. We at Lonavala

Deodorants are going to be next innerwears in India

Image
Advertising Executive Sam Balsara summed it up all, when he said in Anupama Chopra's show "A baniyan is a baniyan is a baniyan!" (see from  10:40 to 12:40) The non-differentiation in the inner-wear industry made sure that every single brand owner found an alternative route. And that route was bollywood star endorsement. From Shahrukh to Salman, from Saif to Hrithik, every so called "100 crore star" made sure, to remove his shirt for one  inner-wear  brand or other, so that Rupa can be  differentiated  from Amul Macho. (though don't think they succeeded) Now another industry is getting inflicted with the same endorsement bug- the deo industry. And not for anything - In last 5 years, the deo industry has grown from Rs 5 billion to staggering Rs 23 billion. If you look back only a couple of years back, the only value prop, deo companys used to bring was to attract girls (really?), on the lines of HUL brand Axe. It all change

Happy Birthday Robin. Happy Birthday Toto.

Image
Once upon a time, Mummy went to hospital. As any other kid, I was shit scared since I to had stay away from Mummy and hey! she was going to hospital :( But then my Jaae Ji (Dadi) told me (we were born and brought up in a Sikh neighborhood, so though she was technically not my Dadi, but emotionally and spiritually she was much more than that), that she had gone to get a gift for me. And Lo Behold! Mummy came back not with one, but 2 gifts. Two cuddly cuddly mouse like brothers who become to me and my elder sister, a reason to come back home, smiling, from pretty "boring" school. They both were unique from the day they were born. Robin, believed in being skinny dipping all the time.  Toto believed in chewing only the exotic stuff, and only rarest of rare - like - Papa's earlobes! Today is their Birthday! Thank you Papa, Mummy for the most wonderful gift you have given to me, to us. Happy Birthday Robin! Happy Birthday Toto! You ar

How too much of comfort zone hurts you

Image
There are loved ones in most of our lives who love us more than anyone else. They are our parents at times, our spouses at times, our siblings, friends at times They always think best of us and with that thought process, they harm us most. They want to protect us - from not letting that loose that extra 3 Kgs of weight, from taking that risk of moving to a unknown city, to start something of our own. The key is to love and the key to love is to let go - to let your loved ones do their own mistakes and learn from them. Be there for them, not let them drown but in that bid don't stop them from swimming altogether...

Are you a looky-loo?

Image
David Hickey , the famous american art and cultural critic, once wrote a brilliant essay in his book Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy . It's called " Romancing the Looky-Loos ". The essay was published in 1997 and basically talks about various different kind of audiences in music. A  recent post  by Seth Godin reminded me of the essay and "looky-loos". It was a term invented by Dave's father, a musician, for a particular audience who had come to the performance only to consume or as Dave Hickey says in his essay, "nonparticipants....They paid their dollar at the door, but they contributed nothing to the occasion - afforded no confirmation or denial that you could work with or around or against." Being a participant is different. It is as if your presence matters - you matter. Being a participant means, you give feedback. Being a looky-loo means you consume/absorb and go away. Groundswell has taught us that a wholesome c

What is a Process

Image
Enabler OR Disabler? When I started working, my first job was with a services based organization and process was the Queen there. I had just started and somehow started developing this misconception (like many others around me) that processes are bad. The reality was, in fact, that the organization was able to put food on my table because of these processes only. You see, in any service based organisation, you need matrices to tell current and prospective clients that how your organization is executing projects and if it is justified to hire and pay freshers like me. These processes help you with those metrices and since they are employed industry-wide, they help clients too, to do comparative studies of useful parameters like quality and productivity. Its only when I went to start working with an acquired product organization of another organization, where processes are loosely implemented (not always though), I came to appreciate their holistic importance. And f

Mobile Apps: Content Vs E-commerce

Image
My experience with the mobile apps has been mixed both as a user and as a product guy. Most of the organizations, whom apps I have used, have created the apps more as an afterthought than as a planned strategy. As a result, these apps have become more like a broken and hanging limb off their body than a part of theirs. Usually, these apps are created thinking the target users being people who are connected with the Social brand. Now the intent is great, but the direction is flawed. The mobile apps are indeed are a part of your Social business than Social brand and hence there is a huge divergence in the way people look at it. I personally believe that with screen size of phone getting larger every six months, by 2015 we should see a movement more towards mobile websites from apps, since they don't need to be installed and with a bigger screen size and HTML5 adoption, most of their current limitation will get away. However, in this blog, I am dealing with one of the most c