Treesforfree

Trees for free . Wonderful initiative . See the website and the blog .

Plant a tree.

What are we building ?

Visited The Gateway of India today. As I stood there with visiting clients who were seeing it for the first time and rapidly clicking pictures I look at the Gateway and then at the old and new Taj. The old Taj which had faced a horrific attack in Nov stood strong and regal . The new Taj in comparison looks dilapidated from outside. 

Most of the monuments we visit , cherish , marvel at are structures built 60-100 years ago . Many even older than that . The Gateway , Taj at Mumbai , the Taj Mahal at Agra , the palaces of Rajasthan , temples of South India , the Louvre and Eiffel Tower in Paris....

With all the progress we are supposed to have made as mankind it's worth reflecting why there aren't many (or even several) structures built in the last 20 years that inspire . 

Emperor's New Clothes

Recipe to run a fashion clothing store in Mumbai ... pick a reasonably prominent location , call it whatever you want ( name is irrelevant ) , get a good PR agency who ensures your name is in newspapers every few days and that you get invited to page 3 events , befriend few celebrities. Do this for a while and then the 'Emperor's New Clothes ' phenomenon unfolds and you can sell poor quality , badly designed merchandise as high fashion with price tags that look like randomly generated 5 digit numbers. 

Visited stores today which I normally don't frequent . Some I visited for the first time today . Am still recovering from the quality of merchandise , the design (or rather the lack of it ) , the psychedelic colors and the rubbish being peddled as hand embroidery . 

Making allowance for the fact that color and design are subjective one can focus the attention on quality . On products retailing at Rs 37,000 and upwards one does not expect to find loose threads , missing sequins , loose stones . And hear that being marketed and rationalized as 'hand made' .

There's a virtual cottage industry of 'designers' who seem to be individuals with access to a few tailors and some embroidery makers . Passion , ideology , attention to detail are alien to this grade of designers and the stores that market such wares. One does hope that the current economic situation will force this group to completely rethink their offering .

I + my surroundings

I am I plus my surroundings , and if I do not preserve the latter , I do not preserve myself .

- Jose Ortega y Gasset

Mobile saga

Few weeks ago my phone (Sony Ericsson P900 series)  of nearly 4 years started to get erratic . Though it was old and looked old - it was a brilliant phone . Easy, intuitive functions . When it finally stopped working I had to start using my alternate phone Nokia E90 which until then I was using primarily for email .For 6+ years being used to a stylus phone I found it difficult to use the E90 for sms communication. 

Anyway , finally I had to get a mobile phone to activate my mobile number of more than 10 years. After visiting several stores and internet research I zoomed in on a Sony Ericsson G900. Features seemed to be similar to my earlier phone with added features like Sudoku games and FM player . 

Am in the phase where I have yet to befriend this phone . Something akin to the Stockholm syndrome is at work . I actually like the E90 better ( for now ) and end up using that phone and number more these days . My earlier Sony Ericsson phone was a handful . In comparison the new one feels like an anorexic toy ( I suppose the design and marketing folks at Sony Ericsson would call it 'compact' ) . 

The process of the phone buying offered fascinating insights into retail establishments that stock mobile phones and phone companies . 

For instance , the CD that comes with the phone to sync it with a computer will work only on Windows based computers . No download for this model on the Sony Ericsson website for Macbook users . This kind of myopia alone will result in ensuring iPhone sales to Macintosh users whom other phone brands have decided to alienate or ignore . I strongly suspect that part of the hysteria re iPhone must have it's origins in frustrated Macintosh users who could not find phones that synced well with their beloved computer. I must confess I would have seriously considered the iPhone if it was offered by the service provider of the number I have for 10+ years . 

I was amazed by the seeming lack of ability of some of the stores to attempt converting a prospect into a customer . One of the stores which advertises that 'we help you buy' did 'help me buy' by enabling me to see various phones one store . But they 'could not sell'. When i called them a week later they could not answer some queries re the phone and did not have it in stock . No attempt to note down contact details to check if it can be procured or to offer alternative options . No initiative to offer the telephone number of their other stores to see if they had the phone in stock . With this level of ability to covert a prospect into a sale the economic situation is quite irrelevant . A sale can happen only if the customer is determined to buy . Organizations and individuals it appears take labels seriously. A help line is just a help line . They don't see it as an important avenue to generate sales.

Mobile phone is an important consumer product in most parts of the world today . In a key segment the myopia and and the lack of service represent an opportunity for companies that choose to focus on the consumer experience vis-a-vis just the product .

Less Plastic More Life

Powerful and articulate message . Pl view the site and the blog .

Journey to a cleaner India

Travelled by the local train in Mumbai after ages . The lack of civic sense coupled with the lack of accessible dustbins at stations , in the train makes for a garbage lined track though most parts of the journey . Some compartments have mesh like grill windows . Intended I suppose for protecting passengers from assaults they were subjected to by objects being flung at the trains . Inadvertently it protects the environment to some extent by making it impossible to throw stuff out through the window .

The apathy of Indians towards public spaces and objects is mind boggling . The lack of civic sense is not limited to train journeys . Folks in autos to expensive cars throw stuff on roads as though it's the most natural thing to do . The apathy extends to corporations too . Outside many retail stores , banks , commercial establishments there are garbage piles of varying degrees .

While driving between cities it's appalling to see the country side littered with plastic bags , paper cups and all sorts of rubbish by travelers . I remember a spot en route from Pondicherry to Chennai . It seemed to be a picnic spot. A group had left their papers plates , cups pretty much intact at the spot . A forensic investigator from Japan would have thought that the entire group was abducted . There would be no other rational explanation for an entire group to leave behind plates and cups as is. 

In many parts of India today there is an urgent need to foster civic sense and a sense of pride in keeping public spaces clean and beautiful . Campaigns on TV , radio , internet , in schools , colleges , public transport vehicles , public spaces , through mobile phones , blogs , newspapers , magazines . Unless citizens are mobilized and amend their behavior a clean India will remain a faraway dream.

To paraphrase the Jaagore campaign......aap raste pe kachra phekhenge to yeh desh kaise saaf hoga ?

Pl help to make and keep our public spaces clean . Your individual resolve and effort matters way more than you think it does. Resist from throwing stuff on the roads / any public space , if you see someone littering a public space do request them to stop , if there is garbage outside retail/food /commercial establishments /stations/ bus depots/residential building then pl take a few minutes to speak with the supervisor / manager of the establishment to request them to install dustbins and to make the effort to keep the area clean . Many retail , food establishments have feedback forms . Pl write on them asking them to keep the area clean. Appreciate those that already do it . And especially those that do so post the feedback/ request. If you run a retail/food/commercial/any establishment pl take the initiative to keep the area clean . Teach children that garbage is meant to be thrown only in dustbins...

Pl choose to make a difference .