యీడు కూడా ఇంతే!

Mike mechanics is playing on my blackberry. I actually search for it and set it to repeat. You should listen to it too...

I didn`t know when I was lucky
Discontented feeling bad
Filled with envy
For possessions other people had

I found my pride had always hurt me
Fought the world to gain control
Not realising
I was sitting on a beach of gold

Oh lord I`m a poor man
With all the riches I can hold
I`m a beggar
And I`m sitting on a beach of gold

The problems I encountered
Gave me strength helped me sustain
To know the pleasure
First I had to cure the pain

When I was searching for solutions
I found the answer lay in me
I`m a drifter
But I`m drifting on a silver sea

Oh lord I`m a poor man
With all the riches I can hold
I`m a beggar
And I`m sitting on a beach of gold

I didn`t have courage
My life was as dark as night
When alone in the darkness
I saw the brightest light
Let the light shine down

Read on here.

What's in a Title

Invasion of the Big, Scary, Long Film Titles has changed the entire scenario at the movies. This is explained in more detail here.

Top 10 in Hollywood

This weekend's top 10 is as follows:

1 - "Shrek Forever After," $71.2 million.
2 - "Iron Man 2," $26.6 million.
3 - "Robin Hood," $18.7 million.
4 - "Letters to Juliet," $9.1 million.
5 - "Just Wright," $4.2 million.
6 - "MacGruber," $4.1 million.
7 - "Date Night," $2.8 million.
8 - "A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)," $2.2 million.
9 - "How to Train Your Dragon," $1.8 million.
10 - "Kites," $1 million.

Nice to see Kites in the list.

Tanishq bowls me over

25 years and still learning?!!! True.

Thanks Mom

Saluting all the mothers in the world, especially the one I love most. Do I need to say more?

Pic is from here.

Fruits anyone?

That's right. Was floored with the idea and the response. You would find this tela near Cubbon park, Bangalore. The placement is too good and so is the offering. A bowl of fresh cut fruits with a coat of salt and honey served for you for just 15 bucks. We were there around lunch time today and within 15 minutes saw some 100 plates being sold. Leaving the calculation in your good hands, let me speak about few learnings that you can take away.

• Don't complain that there are no jobs
• Food, health and education are evergreen
• Place, price and positioning accentuate the offering
• You don't need advertising if your product is good and you are reaching the target clientele
• Never feel ashamed of what you do for a living
• If there is a will, there is a .... (you know)

Next time you are around this place, go nuts... oops... go fruits!

Love you

Her heart beats for me, every moment. I am damn lucky to have someone like her in my life. We speak for over an hour every day and still have things to speak about the next time the mobile rings. The discussion moves from a dress to something that happened on the way to the new window we want to make in the house and so on. Her being a good listener and yours truly being an ardent speaker matches perfectly. She is never tired, even if she is, never bored even if she is, never angry, even if she is and never hurt, even if she is. What else can you expect from any one? Thank you Mom for being there, always and caring, loving. Love you.

Spare the rod

When the risk is high, you get to take things seriously. When the risk is not so compelling why should you? Now I know why Bible says about sparing the rod in Proverbs chapters 22, 23 and 29. The need to be firm on few things is often necessary even with adults. What makes you learn things in the childhood is the fear of failure. The fear that you would be an outcast, a left behind and a walkover is what pushes you to read and learn things in a certain way. Not that you need to learn everything but to learn it fast, quick and in such a way that you are ahead of you peers. Not that goes missing in your life when you reach a certain stage when everything is fine and you don't feel motivated rather compelled to do certain things. I have seen that to be motivated to do certain things in life, you need to realize the high risk associated with not doing. This is a case of high involvement and corresponding loyalty with the same.

To make consumers realize that they need your product, you need to tell them what they are risking. This gets more tough when the competition is high and especially when the need isn't realized. Picking up habits is even more tough after a certain age. Linking that to a loss might help. Especially if that is something substantially threatening. Vaccination advertisements use this to great success. Fuel price rise speculation ensures beeline to all the outlets. Think about it.

As a marketer I would make you see the need, if not I always can go back to the cane.

Cozy code

I am back in Kozhikode from along trip to Bangalore and life is back on track. Somethings don't change. Back to the same office, friends and food. Went to Top Form and had Kerala rice, prawns fry and drank hot water and it is a refreshing experience. A drive on the beach, long walk with your fleeters being washed by the waves in the cold of the night after a particularly hot day cannot be explained in words and confined to a blog post. Kerala is rightly called God's own country.

At Top Form we had a different experience. The place is serving since 1975 and is one of the prominent places in Kozhikode for Biryani and other seafood. The furniture was what attracted me most. Colonial type chairs and tables with nice finish was interesting invite. Though it was Wednesday and not supposedly the rush hour, the place was full of people and we had to wait a long time to have a seat. The delay was worth it as we tasted friend prawns being served in utmost relish, piping hot and sizzling. If you are in Kozhikode, you got to try this place.

I retire back to my den at night after the long walk and life is back to normal. I miss few things but then life goes on.

Built for hunting

Go right! Stop! You are going too fast! There is a bus ahead of you. Watch out!

Have you ever faced this from your pillion rider? My guess is you would have. If you have, then you would have explained that you have been driving for a long time and that you know all these things happen but the anxiety of the rider behind you is not relieved. You end up doing the same thing when some one else is driving and you are in the back seat. It is human tendency to comment and suggest. What is the solution? Is there an explanation for this?

Well here it is.

MEN are generally better than women on tests of spatial ability, such as mentally rotating an object through three dimensions or finding their way around in a new environment. But a new study suggests that under some circumstances a woman’s way of navigating is probably more efficient.

The theory is that the male strategy is the most useful for hunting prey; chasing an antelope, say, would mean running a long way over a winding route. But having killed his prey, the hunter would want to make a beeline for home rather than retrace his steps exactly. Women, by contrast, would be better off remembering landmarks and retracing the paths to the most productive patches of plants.

The research suggests that in certain circumstances women are better at navigating than men. Which might lend some comfort to a man desperately searching for an item in a supermarket while his exasperated wife methodically moves around the aisles filling the shopping trolley. He is simply not cut out for the job, evolutionarily speaking.

Want a simple explanation? Give him sometime and see how he drives. Either he would slow down(when you are riding with him) or you would get used to it. What say guys?

Limca Part II

Continuing with the Limca Book of Records, here is a small interview that appeared in Eenadu on 17th April. You can click on the image and see the actual size.

Meticulously thoughtoutness

The problem with too much thinking is that there is no action involved. Mere thinking isn't going to take to you anywhere. I am talking about plans we make in daily life and how they change with time and how we settle for something or should I call conclude and finalize. The reason I am quoting this is because thinking of loopholes and what usually happens is that you would end up with things that tell you why you shouldn't be doing it.

While it is good to think, it is equally important to put things on paper in to practice, be it in life or at work. One of the people I pay attention keeps telling me, nothing works like clockwork and it is true. Many things happen and come up when you set out to implement plans that seem water tight and sure to happen.

What is the point in telling me all your plans when you don't even step out and do something in that direction. Leave all ifs and buts and actually get out and do something. Being lazy and finding excuses has become a fashion these days. Don't be one of these this May.

What is life without risk? But isn't it foolish to sit down and relax, waiting for some miracle to happen yet unwilling to take the risk. Can I hear some ayes?

Pic is from www.explodingdong.com