Marketing the Green concept!!

This article comes on the backdrop of the just concluded UN Climate summit at Copenhagen. Given all the hype which had surrounded the event, it BASICally boiled down to an informal deal between the US and the 4 countries under the banner BASIC namely Brazil, South Africa, India and China. During the summit, a lot of negativity surfaced out of the negotiations which happened between countries. With each country and each block looking after its own interests, the global warming concept and the marketing of a greener world took a backseat. So why did all the massive marketing for the green concept end in a non commensurate result at Copenhagen?

Firstly, from pure marketing terms, what happens when the product you are marketing doesn't really strike a chord with your target segment, a segment which has enough power to provide you that push or destroy you completely? Simple, your product will fail or it will take an enormous amount of convincing that the product will affect their lives. A similar analogy can be presented here. There is no doubt that if there is going to be a climate deal, the US will have to play a big role. However, given the fact that the President and the US Congress are 2 power centres and the the President not having power to commit anything without the consent of the Congress, it becomes a difficult proposition to envisage a gloabal deal. Moreover, when the US people are not experiencing any climate problems attributed to golbal warming, there is not enough pressure on the government to even think of a deal seriously.

The global warming and the rise in temparature is a simple product which is marketed well to push for carbon emission cuts from the developed and the developing countries. But therein lies a problem of customization. When a company launches a particular product and different sections of the public find different problems with it and ask for appropriate changes which will destroy the core values of the product, the product eventually fails to click and becomes a deadlock. Doesn't it seem so familiar with what happened at Copenhagen? A sharp contrast with Kyoto reveals that countries then were negotiating their stand properly and saw a common path that they could tread on. However, at Copenhagen, no country was ready to listen and there was more or less one way communication. The Green concept never really emerged in all the secondary politics and vested interests. The product eventually failed for the time being.

There is always a conflict between the short term and long term. A similar thing can be said about the price. There were always huge costs to be involved when discussing a situation such as global warming and carbon emission cuts. Rich countries had to decide between the costs of technology transfer and the long term emission cuts. They invariably went for the former as illustrated in the Kyoto Protocol. However, what the world needs to learn is that thinking about the long term is crucial now. Burdening the future generations with the faults of the present one would be catastrophic and irreversible. Countries such as the US who have thought only about the short term benefits and losses as far as climate change is concerned need to seriously do a rethink as future climate changes can severely hamper economic performace of each of its trading partners.

To conclude, one needs to hope that better sense and a concerted global effort prevails at the next summit in Mexico. Although the colour green is associated with slow paced and decsion averse personality, one needs quick results at the next summit. The green marketing is not only a campaign, its a value proposition which cannot be ignored, a product which cannot be allowed to fail else the price which we and the future would encurr would be massive. Let us be good sons of the country, Lets be good marketers, lets fight Global warming.

3 months from Home!

Hello people,
It's been a long time since I wrote an article on my blog. 3 months to be precise. My last post was regarding the time spent in Engineering and about the few days before life in IIM. When I write this article today, 3 months later, I am engulfed in the vicious circle which has managed to capture everyone's eye. I am done with 1/6th of my MBA at one of the premiere (if not the best) institutes in India, IIM Calcutta.
It was difficult in the first few days. The weather was unbearable. I had never experienced so much heat in Mumbai. not a good start with the weather. To add to that, I had stomach aches, cold, cough, fever (No swine flu, thank God). Moreover, it was the first time I would be away from home for studies. So it was a bit difficult with my parents leaving for Mumbai.
But life became more brighter with each passing day. I initially had the view that life in IIM's would be very cut throat with colleagues behaving like total strangers, not helping each other out. This is a perfect example of why seeing is believing. Things went very smooth here. Each and every person here had and has been very helpful. The faculty has lived upto its reputation and has been awesome. Life in IIM's has been interspersed with very hectic days and days where you can relax and explore the streets of kolkata.
1st terms has got over and the second has already begun. I go to the land of everyone's dreams, my city, Mumbai this friday for a relaxation of 10 days. So, my friend, after a good long but enjoyable 1st term at IIM Calcutta, it's time to rock and roll in Aamchi Mumbai. Cya then.

Back to the Summer of 2009

Hello to one and all. As I write this article, I embark on my next voyage which is to sail through a 2 year rock and roll course of MBA at IIM Calcutta. But you know what, the excitement of going to IIM C has been totally engulfed by the sadness at leaving DJ Sanghvi, more specifically, the batch of 2005-09. This is the one reason I wish I could always go back to the summer of 2009, pretty much the defining moments of the batch.

I can say for sure that the 4 years of engineering were the best years of my life. I made friends who will remain friends for life. I never felt this way after leaving school( where I spent 10 years) or junior college (where I spent 2 years). The worst thing is I never knew how time flew by these 4 years. It just feels I joined college yesterday.

First year was pretty much a lonely feeling. I used to spend my time just studying. You would laugh at this if you saw me now. Second year was a period when the bonding and gelling actually started. The concept of 'Shiv Shiv Shiv' took place in this year. I am really going to miss this in life. Third year was a time when there were a lot of group work to be done such as Skits and presentations, mini projects. This was the time we really kicked off on the friendship. Add to this the Silvassa trip which projected us in 7th heaven, even though it was for 2 days. Fourth year, more specifically 7th sem went in preparation for CAT and GRE. The summer of 2009 i.e. the 8th sem really saw everyone reaching their hearts out to one and all. The GOA trip was the perfect finish to the 4 years of engineering. The trip exposed the true characters of quite a few people and it was great to see this. The awards ceremony, traditional day, mismatch day and the farewell all added a whole new dimension of colour to the life of every student in this batch.

It would be difficult to give each and every detail in this article as there were many. They say a picture speaks a thousand words and I believe we have quite a good collection of pictures and videos right from the second year. When I, or for that matter, anyone in the batch of 0509, will look back at this, we will have a heavy heart. All the people who went into MS will think of creating a time machine and the MBA graduates will think of funding this machine to go back as soon as possible to the summer of 2009.

Do you give a damn?

Quite often, we have encountered the phrase, ' Take it through one ear and let it out through the other'. To simplify further, you don't need to pay attention to the words hurled at you. Well, let us ask ourselves a question, does this really happen most of the times or is it just used as when required according to one's convenience?

Unless one is quite reserved, pretty much an isolationist, whatever one does is bound to raise some questions. It may be anything. It may be your attitude, you dressing style, the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you kiss(hmm hmmm), the career you choose etc etc. But the important thing is, when you do something quite out of the ordinary, and you get views to the contrary, is it imperative that you reverse the process or do you stick to your guns and let the current situation roll?

I have heard many people say that under no circumstances would they change their style and their direction, but fortunately or unfortunately, it culminates in them doing just the opposite. Most of the time, it's not that they chose to change but society and its views made them to opt for the change. Let's face it, everyone has got to adjust with the society. No one can live life by avoiding others and turning a deaf ear. About the change, it becomes pretty monotonous and dull, when one gets the constant push on to go for the change. The mind then actually starts thinking to look at the change as the postive option, and in the end, it may, MAY, result in doing something which was not really required. Well that brings us to the question, is listening to people always the best thing to do?

Not quite, if I may so. There are quite a few people who have solely gone on what they have thought as right for themselves and stuck to their decision. For eg. let us take the case of the world's going-to-be cheapest car, Nano. As soon as Ratan Tata announced that a car of 2,500$ was to be launched, it received feedback saying it was impossible, and TATA's would encur a loss if it went ahead. But then as we know it now, the Nano has already been completed and true to his word, Ratan Tata, managed the extraordinary price.

There are quite a few stories such as this. It's not that, good decisions are spearheaded by a strong mind and it's also not true that weak minds make bad decisions. It's that sometimes the society forces us to view things according to what it views as perfect. It takes courage and grit to actually do something different, even if it means going against everyone else, as long as you know what your doing is right. But of course, not everyone is great. So what's your take, or in other words, do you give a damn or not?

Next stop, Imagination station!

Hi there, This is Shiv writing an article for the blog, Blogger's park, in reality. Of course, the last few words were not required and they are never used as such, but it was required for this article. So let us ask a question to ourselves, how many of us have imagined something at some point of time? Now, the magical hand of Shiv will come out of the screen and slap if you answer in the negative. Of course, every one of you out there has imagined something at some point of time in your life.

According to me, imagination is as essential to a human being as oxygen. As the air enters through the nostrils, reaches the lungs, with the lungs getting the oxygen extracted, and infusing it into the blood stream, the entire body gets energized and revitalized. Likewise, imagining good situations does bring some badly required freshness into the being.

Frankly speaking, no matter in which wonderland you might be, reality sometimes, does become a bore. It's not possible to encounter reality time and time again. The same going to school, homework, college, office, work pressure, wife pressure, family management(I mean handling children) etc. People take a break from reality by engaging themselves in social activities. They play sports, watch a movie, catch up with friends etc. But nothing better than imagination, especially if your alone.

Through imagination, a person visualizes scenes which he/she may never have performed, or may not perform, but has an innate desire,passion to achieve it. It can be anything. For a school chaps, it may be beating up the class bully, for college people, it may be becoming Mr. Popular, or ahem... ahem... you know what. For the office duds, it could be kicking the treacherous boss in the ass. It depends on the individual. But the common thing is, what each one imagines in somehow related to their lives. It has been nurtured since childhood, and it may grow so big that one might actually start to believe in it. The best thing is that, this kind of imagination always brings a smile to the face as it's almost like reality, almost that is.

The sad part is that the competition has become so fierce today, that one does not even have the time to eat food, let alone imagine. I would like to assert that we should not lose touch with our creative instincts, read imagination. Otherwise, we would be just manual working robots. Do you want to be seen as some machine? Obvious, No. So close your eyes and get ready people, coz next stop is imagination station. Aah... I can already see some chicks waiting for me.

What's your opinion?

It's been a long time, hasn't it? Writing a blog after sometime now, so the writing is bound to be a bit raw, but please bear with it. Okay!

It's a common phrase you hear time and time again. 'The world is full of people with different thoughts, differing opinions and so on.....'. To tell you the truth, the weight of this statement never struck me until I had actually experienced it. Although, you and me may have a clash of opinions, I can safely say that this may be the case for you as well. Whooosh... me going into flashback mode.

Well it all started a couple of months back. I had this sudden impulse, this sudden craze for growing my hair. Throughout my lifetime, this kind of passion never bothered to cross my mind. So, I had this thing for growing my hair long, and following the footsteps of MS Dhoni's erstwhile hairstyle. So it went on, the feedback and the expert opinions started flowing in from my classmates and colleagues. I don't know why, but I have this popular tag to myself in my class. I have to attribute to my classmates, who are all very good people. So, whatever I do, somehow spreads around and thats how the opinions started pouring in.

As the hair grew from medium to slightly longer, people started noticing it. Immediately it was almost as if there was an imaginary stage, with an imaginary debate taking place. Few would support it while others would call for the axe( Hey, for the hair, not for my head, he he). Even within each group, there was a split of opinion as to why it looked good or bad. People used to say I would like this or that, or i should try this and that. The growing thing didnt go down well in the household as well. But I decided to go on. The hair grew further. Some people from the pros went to the other side, as it would always happen. Not everyone is strong minded. Me too, as revealed later.

When it did grow to the point of no return, it did start to look a bit ugly. Only a few staunch supporters remained. Comments flew thick and fast. It was like 1 good opinion to a 100 bad opinions. The bad opinions would be filled with all sorts of adjectives in teenager dictionary, and also with expletives. It would definately force one to have a rethink. Considering the bad ratio, I eventually succumbed to the difficult decision on cutting it off. Well, now it looks good. But i learnt one thing, people will say what they have to. Everybody has a right to voice what they feel like, but even more important is how you should be more strong minded and consider opinions of either sides carefully before arriving at a conclusion rather arrive at it by a careless and fast examination of ratios. So, this incident was an eye opener, or should I say, Hair opener for me.

Spot The Reference!

Hi there. Sometime back, say .... a decade back, you would have engulfed yourself into the intricacies of a subject called 'Art'. As a kid back then, you may have generated a liking for it. That interest may still be at the back of your mind now. But who has the time now? That's a different question. Have you ever spilled a drop of paint on a white paper? Of course, you would have. What happens to it? Let's find out.

When that drop of thick paint falls from the strand of your paintbrush to the flat surface of white paper, or any other paper of different colour, that drop of paint ceases to spread as long as the paper is stationary. Once the unwanted external force, in the form of moving the paper, or using the paintbrush, is applied to the drop, only then the drop spreads in the resultant direction. You all would be thinking me to be some kind of art freak who wants to show off his basic arts knowledge. Well the crux of the matter is that such a thing can be easily visualized in real life. Well think about it. Suppose we have an epidemic of the sort of, say..... Bird flu. This is the drop of paint. If not controlled well, this unwanted lack of responsibility could result in the bird flu spreading in all directions. Well, what is suggested as an example is negative in nature. That gets us onto the next point. Is that drop good or bad?

Firstly, the idea of writing this article struck me, when I entered my bathroom, with dirty feet. For the record, my bathroom, has white tiles. So as you would have guessed, some amount of dirt was spread on the clear white background. Generally, all drops on the background, would be considered as negative, as they are an intrusion into the stability of the system. But to place the drop as negative or positive, would depend on the surrounding. Like for example, spilling coffee on your important drawing sheet, would really make you act as Jim Carrey in Liar Liar, while adding a drop to enhance the surrounding on your ingenious painting, would obviously make it better.

Then, the question which arises is, when do you consider the surrounding presently as bad or good? Nothing can be decided without a reference. You can only judge whether something is good, if you have not seen anything better earlier. If I could make a parallel to real life, you judge a situation as good or bad, if you have seen a similar or an inferior one earlier. Likewise, you judge a person only if you have met a similar, better or worse character earlier. You would be thinking then, that how would you judge the first person you meet in this world. Well the solution to that is, your reference is your mother, who is the ultimate symbol of goodness. If luck be your way, you will have people by your side, who share similiar goodness as your mother ( And I am glad to say that I have lots of them in DJ EXTC ).

Well that gets us to the close of this discussion. How was it? Whiich reference do you use to rate the articles?

There Will Be Blood!

Hi there, this article is not about the film, 'There will be blood', which receieved an oscar this year. Well, this article is just to portray the importance, a drop of blood still possesses in the society. If you can take some trouble to go down the memory lane, 5-6 years back, in school, you would have slogged to learn the subject of Biology. As is true, the blood is an integral part of the human body. So it had to feature in all the pages, no matter which organ of the body you were studying. But apart from the biological axiom, blood has featured in so many areas external to the human body. let's take a peek.

Blood has presented itself in so many Bollywood movies. Leaving aside the bloodshed in films(which have increased over the years), many catchy phrases have been designed using blood. Frankly speaking, in the realm of Bollywood, whenever I think of Blood, the first frame which shoots to my mind is Shahrukh Khan in the film, Darr, in which he uses his blood, as an accessory to convey his love to KKK.....Kiran. The power of blood has become so significant, that it is used as a form of guarantee for any deed. If you thought that, that agni pariksha was the 'in-thing' earlier, it's now khoon pariksha. Or how about, Blood being used as a drink, as in the words of Dharmendra, " Kutte, Main tumhara khoon pee jaoongaa" (Dracula would definately borrow some from Dharmendra jee). Or to express strong payback or to torture someone by saying, " Main tumhe Khoon kii aasu rulaoongaa". Blood, over the years, has been used to portray the character of the person in picture. The catchy phrase of " Gandaa Khoon" is used to indicate bad blood, or person with bad character.

Films aside, involvement of a person with blood has increased. The importance of a drop of a blood is underscored in Paul Bryant's statement, "There's a lot of blood, sweat, and guts between dreams and success". Blood is invaluable is justified by the increase in numbers of people donating blood at blood donation centres nowadays. Blood in itself is very attractive as it possesses that dark red colour which is very difficult to neglect, even out of sheer ignorance.

The title of the film, "There will be blood", has conveyed a hidden message. No matter how many peace organizations come up, there will be a war somewhere in the near future. With arsenals in countries increasing at an exponential rate, it's no surprise if a big brother bullies the rest. The Iraq war is the ideal example to justify. Or how about the increase in terrorist activities which have shook nations across the globe. It would take some time to prevent the blood from spilling.

So that ends this bloody session. So how much blood have you spent in reading this? Interested in donating any knowledge?

Bumbai Transport

Greetings to you, my fellow commuter. If you are a Mumbaikar, you are gonna love this article. Infact, you would be knowing all this beforehand. Even if you are not a Mumbaikar, it's my pleasure to welcome you, to the inside stuff of transport in Mumbai, or in short ........ Bumbai transport, as they call it.

Let's start with the best option of transport, the local train. It's not big by size, but by the sheer number of the people who use it. Running the local train transport in Mumbai means big bucks, as millions............. yes, millions and millions throng the station daily. When it's monsoon, you have got to expect rush and jam packed crowds in the compartments because the trains get delayed as they need to slow down on wet tracks. A couple of years back, I went through a similar experience. I was eagerly waiting for a train on Andheri station, so that I could reach Matunga. As fate had it, I waited for an hour( If you have travelled on trains before, you know this kind of waiting spells doom). So it was my luck that I could manage to get my foot on the train when it arrived. There was absolutely no chance of going inside at that point. One hand on the bar and just one foot, out of the two, on the floor, my entire body was outside the compartment. As the train swung, my body, with my bag at the back also swung. It was almost a borderline between life and death. Luckily, that time I had no glasses otherwise they would have gone with the wind. A couple of stations later, I decided I had it with adventure, so I pushed my way through, only to find out, that double the amount of crowd had entered the compartment, and made it impossible for me to move. When my station was about to arrive, either it was intuition or common sense, but I decided to start off pretty early towards the exit of the compartment. What can you do when you are sandwiched from all sides? I couldn't move my body, even an inch. I finally reaped the fruits of going to the gym, as I managed to push and punch my way through 50 people.

Let's move on to the local bus transport., known as the BST Bus. The big problem you can encounter here is, if the frequency of the bus is not good. It's really maddening to wait at the bus stop for more than 5 minutes, especially if you don't have company. The bus would eventually arrive. Do not be shocked to find it packed, again. Some of them aren't, it just depends on the route. If it's packed, be ready with the money before you enter because I assure you, once the bus moves, it's pretty difficult to go for the change and cling onto the hanger at the same time. The deadliest moment is when the bus driver brakes. It's as if some hefty hoodlum has pushed you from behind. You must be a lucky chap if you get to sit on a crowded bus. You can almost visualize the phenomena of completing a 100 metre race, when a fellow passenger leaves a seat vacant. The seat is the gold medal, for which a dozen people, aspire to accquire.

Frankly speaking, there are no problems with the Taxis or Autorickshaws. You get them almost everywhere. You can share them with other people, if they are going in the same direction. Only problem is, you would have to shell out much more than you do on a train or a bus, but that disadvantage goes away with the shared autos and taxis.

If you do not have the propensity for local transport, then you better have your own car. A couple of problems come along with the A/C and music in the car. Traffic is increasing at an exponential rate. A few months back, I was driving from Churchgate to Matunga. If you have time to waste, try what I did, or travel in the reverse direction in the morning. A 20 minute journey went on for a shocking 100 minutes. In the previous paragraph, if you thought Taxi and autos were your friend in need, they are your worst enemies, when you are behind the wheel. Add to that, the gundagiri of the bst buses. What can you do, they are bigger in size. The biggest problem, which irritates even the most patient of all, are the people walking on the roads, when they have a nice footpath available. For some strange reason, people like to walk on the road. For the past few months, they have also been displaying some antics. Once I was just driving around 20kmph, and suddenly a couple of kids who wanted to cross the road, cross it just as I was going to pass. On the way, they show their hand, instructing me to stop.

Well, that's about it. I can't go on and on, but yes, Mumbai transport isn't all that bad. These were just a few occasions. Otherwise, it is really fun to experience it. In the years or decades to come, no matter what the condition is, Mumbai is always going to remain close to my heart because as the song goes, " Aye dil, hai mushkil, jeena yahaan, zara hatke, zara bach ke , Yeh hai Bumbai, meri jaan" .

Roller Coaster Rides!

Wow! That sure was a bumpy ride. Oh! Hi there. In case you were wondering what was that first line for, well, I have just got off a Roller Coaster. Amidst all the fun and thrill during the roller coaster ride, I happened to enlighten myself upon a few facts of life. It's just amazing what a simple Roller Coaster ride manages to portrays, to the one, who has an eye for detail. Now, during the course of this article, you must not think I am some kind of maniac, who has nothing to do in this world. My sole purpose of sitting on a roller coaster is to have fun and nothing else. It's just for the blog, that I decided to sink in deep into the intricacies of an average, yet spectacular, roller coaster. So, enjoy the ride.

Firstly, I consider an entire ride on a roller coaster, analogous to life. The obvious truth you all must have chanced upon by now is, there are many ups' and downs' in life, as in a roller coaster ride. If you would have noticed, neither does the coaster remain entirely up or down. Every down is succeeded by an up, and vice versa. Of course, the really successfull manage to keep it up, for most of the time. But the fact is, nothing is permanent. If you have the mind for it, you can convert your downs' to ups'.

The above truth, I am sure, you all would have been aware of, but hang on, there is more. Let's concentrate during the phase when the roller coaster is slowly moving upwards. If you would have noticed while sitting on a roller coaster moving up, your eyes slowly light up. You can feel that increment from the bottom every second. At the same time, there is that lingering thought at the back of your mind, about the journey after you reach the top. At present you would be having no idea whether the coaster would go down or remain up for sometime. The same applies to life. When climbing the ladder of life, you never know what's going to happen in the future. So while climbing, your mind is in the hybrid state of excitement (or happiness) and anxiety. Let's see what's the situation is,when the coaster goes down. When you reach the top, and you stare at the depth from which you have climbed out of, your immediate reaction is to open your mouth, in happiness for achieving the feat and in fear or shock to brace for the steep fall. Same thing happens in life. When you know you are going to go down, that shock hits you. But as said before, every down is succeeded by an up. So don't worry. As they say, "Darr se mat daro, uske aage bado".

So far, we have discussed stuff external to the roller coaster. But there are facts to be extracted from within the coaster itself. This is applicable if you are in a roller coaster train.If you are sitting in the front, then you get to experience all the ups' and downs' firsthand. For you, it comes as a surprise, while for the rest, they know what's coming after seeing your position. If I could juxtapose it with life, then I would term you as the leader of any organization, because, the leader has to face all the hurdles firsthand, experience it, find out some solution, and only then can he direct his sub-ordinates on the correct route.

Another interpretation is, when the first car of the train, goes down, there are a quite a few cars behind, to take the powerful vacant postion. They are all waiting for that car to go down so that they can get a taste of the real stuff. Similarly, in any organization, once the leader steps down, there is immense competition for the successor. However, like in a roller coaster, only the next powerful postion can succeed. In life, people wait for the leader to go, so that they also can get to experience the dream of leading the company.

However, all this starts the empty coaster comes on to board the passengers. In a normal coaster, the person, who wants to sit in front, wants to enjoy it firsthand. Likewise in life, when the empty bus of oppurtunity comes, the person who wants to be the leader, will willingly board the bus first and sit in front.

So, after a lot of twists and turns, the roller coaster ride has come to a screeching halt. I hope you enjoyed the ride. In case, you have sat on a different coaster, it would be great for you to share any speciality, which you have witnessed in your coaster. So, let's have it from you, my friend.