Differences

People are different. It’s these differences that make us so interesting or we would be just bland as British cuisine. These differences dictate our beliefs, our tastes, our partners, our opinions and even our fights. The fights have been quite prominent enough that the masons of society tried to use universals to segregate us or rather restrict our differences. This led to basic segregation based on gender, religion, race, colour and so on. These segregates then developed rules and practices. Crude segregation like this was done to rein in the chaos that arose out of these differences. Simply put, rules keep us alive or we would just kill each other at the drop of a hat.

This worked well for some time because these rules have evolved with society and now as we believe it, constitutes the civilized society. The evolution was not without its hiccups, some really bad practices and rules led to unnecessary stifling of individualism, like casteism and subjugation of women. However, as society evolves, it corrects its mistakes and such practices would eventually come to an end. That’s the beauty of evolution.

Howard Moskowitz, a psychophysicist, on his quest to find the perfect Diet Pepsi (he was consulting for them to find the perfect blend for their new product ‘Diet Pepsi’) stumbled on the fact, that there can never be the perfect PEPSI only Perfect PEPSIS. He realized that people have different preferences so the perfect Pepsi is a delusion. The best way is to get people into clusters of preferences and develop products to satisfy that particular clusters. Even though, Pepsi just went with only one diet Pepsi, his later clients took his advice and bought out different choices for their products. This unwittingly started the revolution of choices.

Today, the ruling dogma of all western industrial societies is that “if we are interested in maximising the welfare of citizens, then the way to do that would be to maximise individual freedom. The way to maximise freedom is to maximise choice.” This was explained by Barry Schwartz the writer of “The Paradox of Choice”. This contradicts our accepted segregation.

This was ground breaking; the advent of choices and cheap customised servicing with the help of technology has changed the way we live. We are spoilt with choices today. Individualism rules over collectivism. It’s our very own differences that are being harnessed by marketers to sell products. Product lines are being horizontally expanded to service everybody’s needs. Life can’t get any better.

The downside for all this is something called as ‘opportunity cost’. We are so spoilt with choices that we can’t make up our minds on anything and is always bothered by the missed opportunity. For example, when we order something at a restaurant, we always wonder what it would have been to have the other dish, it’s the same with men choosing partners, and why else do you think men cheat? ‘It’s all because of choices’. So inadvertently, we end up with regret or anticipated regret, its opportunity costs, an escalation of expectations and self-blame which all spiral into being miserable.

Everything seems to be a good idea the night before.

Halo ed Cars

I usually hate marketers, they always twist facts and if you are at the receiving end of it, you are sure to be screwed (e.g. how they made me join ABS) but I am very grateful to them because of creating a term called Halo cars. Halo cars are those models that are developed to create positive associations to a brand. Companies tell their pot-smoking engineers to go nuts and develop something so berserk and impractical that car nuts like me would drool over it and have wet dreams.

And look what it created, the Sergio Scaglietti-designed 250GTO! That’s one beauty(the red car) that just oozes passion. There are several others too, like the 250LM, 288GTO, F40, F50, the Mercedes 300SL gull-wing, Ford GT40, Aston Martin db5, Jaguar XJ220, Lamborghini Miura, Diablo. More money was made from selling merchandise of these cars than the cars themselves.

These cars were downright bonkers. The gull-wing Merc had the dubious status of frying your balls, literally, it was that hot inside. The Miura for instance, asks in its manual to actually open the door and sit sideways to look outside to reverse it. All of these cars always put up tantrums. If it was out in the rain it won’t start, if you haven’t driven it for a week, it won’t start, if it’s not the right fuel it won’t start, if someone else drove it with a heavy foot, he would have probably messed up the timing and that’s a visit to the mechanic. It would also kill you, if you did not treat it properly. But, I would have loved every moment of it.

The Japanese then came along with their halo cars, like the very iconic ‘Nismo-Nissan Skyline GT-R’. These things were crazy, they had tons of power and handling ability all this with Japanese reliability. That meant you can burn rubber at the track and on the way back pick up the kids from school. Sure, they weren’t anywhere as pretty as the Italians but the GT-Rs started filling kid’s and dorm room walls.

The Italians then embraced the ‘vulgar’ electronic aids and developed some pretty interesting cars. The latest of the crazies are the Ferrari FXXs (the black car; the glow in the front wheel arch is the semi molten disc brake due to immense braking friction) and the Merc 722s, both cars push the boundaries so much that it creates new ways for you to die. It has so much grip, that if you get over zealous at a turn, the g-forces could snap your neck like a twig.

Oh! God bless the marketers!

Breakpoint

What’s eating China and Pakistan? Why do they hate us Indians? Did we, by chance, make fun of their really small wieners or is it that they aren’t getting any. It’s a bloody mystery.

Last week, when we inked a deal to promote free trading to ASEAN countries, the bloody Chinese acted like a bunch of third graders. A Chinese ‘scholar’ from a state-run ‘university’ declared in his infinite wisdom that India was a “Hindu Religious State” and that Hinduism is a “decadent religion” and that apart from annexing Arunachal Pradesh and working with countries such as Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan to secure the separation of Assam and Bengal from the Indian Union, should encourage Tamil separation and divide the country into 20-30 nation states. That’s not all; they have been spreading such ‘insights’ to countries which we trade with thereby trying to erode our ties with them. The cheeky bastards

During the dreadful 26/11 acts on Mumbai, Jiabao picked up his cheap Chinese-made phone to called his frat buddy (in the small wieners club) Giliani, to extend his support. While the world sympathised with us, these bastards were thinking of breaking us up. No points in guessing who was against extending sanctions on Jammat-ud-Dawa, the Chinese again. They have also been constantly upping their naval presence in the Indian Ocean and also been very cooperative to enhance the Pakistani fleet.

You know what, fuck them; I challenge the yellow bellied assholes to do as they please. We won’t take this lying down. I know one thing for sure; they are shit scared of us, otherwise they wouldn’t go for such underhanded tactics. I know, we Indians have our differences and can’t stand each other, but when it comes down to the shits we are a bloody force to reckon with.

Identity Crisis

My previous post sucked. Yes, sucked per se. After some painful reviews, I realised what I have done. I went out of character.

On the trepidation of losing my readers, I decided to understand my blog. I reread all my posts and my first thoughts were that it was a manifestation of an angry young man lashing out at the savageness of this world.

No, it was too clichéd! This ain’t the freaking 80’s! Nobody likes a freaking one-man-against-the-world plot. These are the years of the sweet-talking metro-sexual and I know for the fact that I’m not one. I still think mousse is something you eat and not for your hair. I still believe in treating women with respect and not slapping them around (strangely they seem to like it).

Maybe that’s it. The blog has an old-worldliness character to it strewn with a newfangled attitude toward issues. Its like ‘The Hindu’ and ‘DNA’ (the newspaper) coming together with soft porn and economics on the same page. Maybe that’s what my readers like.

I hope this self-diagnosis hit the sweet spot and I promise that I’ll never lose sight of the character again.

Reinventing the Wheel

“In business, you have to reinvent the wheel every day; once you stop doing that, you are finished” said an acquaintance of mine. Considering that he started from scratch and now owns 18 golf courses, there must be some truth to it.

Fundamentals in business schools are just generalisations of the real thing. An entrepreneur is required to learn, evolve and customise business processes, often learning important lessons on the way.

The above mentioned gentleman was a regular at my brother’s hotel. His insights into business were marvellous. I often used to share a bottle of wine with him, during which we would discuss a business opportunity and how to go about it, scribbling on a piece of paper while doing so. I would have to say that those pieces of paper have given me more insights in running a business than I have learnt in the past one year at Alliance.

We would also come up with a plan to do some cost cutting or utilise some resource more efficiently in our respective businesses. Something as trivial as getting a better deal on the disposable cups for the coffee machines or getting slot machines were discussed at length often scouring the yellow pages and doing phone calls, justified by saying “Every penny counts”.

Lessons lie in the rough, obscured by the annals of banality. Understanding it and implementing it requires skill and fortitude.

Coming Out of the Closet

A landmark judgement by the Delhi High Court striking down Section 377, which criminalises consensual sex between two individuals including same gender(for the perverts, goats are still a No No), was the cause for a bittersweet moment for me. It was actually like watching a kid growing into adolescence; you are happy for him growing up but sad because he would lose his innocence.

India is finally growing up, accepting certain facts of life to which it was in deep denial. Don t get me wrong, I believe gay sex is as unnatural as Michael Jackson’s face, both creeps the shit out of me, except for lesbianism (wink!).

This verdict has changed everything, the truth that homosexuality is no more a closet truth and the sheer number of people involved puts a new perspective to an otherwise naive and innocent India. On the other hand, I am proud of India being mature enough to take such a decision. I view this as a step towards becoming a country that values freedom and faces truth than deny it.

I just hope the fanatics, that this country is so famous for, grew half a brain and join the programme.

Adieu to MJ

MJ passed away. I mourn for him. Like all great artists, he is more remembered for his scandals than his achievements. A misunderstood soul, he always tried to come to grips with his life by outrageous acts.

In his life time he has achieved unprecedented worldwide fame and recognition, every kid in the 80’s knew who he was. I remember jumping on the bed to his tunes, the Van Halen solos that he interlaced with his high energy performances, just brilliant.

I will remember him along with the greats Jimi Hendrix, Freddie Mercury, Jim Morrison, Cliff Burton, Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain, Tom Fogerty and others.

I mourn for him.