I went home(Ludhiana) this weekend.While returning back to Delhi at about 1:30 am in the night the bus stopped at a Dhaba (a small resturaunt)at Pipli in Haryana.It was real hot and i felt thirsty.I went to the drinks stall and asked what all were available He said sab hain!I just saw the dew,the mountain dew bottle in the showcase from a little distance.I asked him,”"Thandi hai kya DEW?” He said,” hai 25 rs“

I took out cash from my pocket and gave him the money.I took the bottle and had first sip.I was thirsty so first sip was refreshing but its after taste was not that good.and one more issue was that the bottle was not that hard.It was squeezing in my hands(very unlikely of the PET bottles which are ued by coca cola and pepsico).I just had a look at the bottle closely.I was shocked.It was not Mountain Dew but it was Dadu Dew.Ha ha What a name Dadu Dew.Now why on the first place i couldnt recgonize the difference.Have a look at the label closely.

The original looks something like this.

I didnt have it more.I went to the guy and asked him what the hell is this?.He said ,”yahi milega!!”I said i want my money back he said now the bottle is opened.No chance.Atleast 10 more people standing there realized their own blunder(they too were having the DADU DEW thinking its the mountain DEW) and we all had a laugh.
But what exactly was that ?
According to Kotler(guruji),this is a type of competition which every well known brand faces.Sometimes its good for it,sometimes bad.
According to him,there are 3 types of fake products.
1) Look Alike : kinda clones,brand name,color scheme and packaging resembles the orignal brand.
2) Spell Alike : fakes which are knowingly mis spelt or spelt alike and packaging is copied very nearly.
Our dadu dew falls under this category.
3) Duplicate : Exact replicas,color by color ,word by word.

These are mainly found in rural markets.

All know they are there,but are they really good for the market or the main brand or does it increases the loyality even more?

Arey waah mere brand ki to copy bhi aati hai ?

The Questions that arise from this are :
is such a Fake product ok until it is not toxic or harmful to us?
Is this an interesting Marketing Strategy to follow if you are a small firm to earn quick profits?
Anyways Whatever  it is,Please guys keep your Eyes open until its too late and you have opened the bottle.

in nutshell a Hello Tune is a song ir tune which is played when someone calls you instead of the normal ring(tring tring).The hello tune normaly reflects your personality,your style and blah  blah.

Now the main point,you pay for this service ,its  not free.

Normal tarrifs for this are

Subscription charge Rs 30/month

Download charge Rs 15/month

You might be thinking then what this is normal to whats this blog for?

In the past few months i have seing this trend which is on the rise .

Hello tune Copy karne ke liye * dabayen!!!.When you call a person who has hello tune activated on the system,you will first listen ,”Agar aap agle gaane to copy karna chahte hain to * dabayen nahin to # dabayen nahin to apna sir dabaye!!,Masik Shulk saamanya hain”(If you want to copy the hello tune,press * on your phone and pay us more money).Nice marketing trick but how good is it actually is?

When you call a person,the average time he takes to pick up the call on majority of the occasions is 5-6 seconds 0r 2-3 trings trings.

e.g. if a person has kept his hello tune as Singh is King ,then the chances of his friends to listen the full sentence is very less because you would b e picking up the call even before the ‘copy karne ke liye * dabaye’ line.The friend didnt listen your hello tune so what was the purpose of paying 45 rs for this Singh is King Tune?

I was sitting in my office adjoining the courier office and i observed this he was calling many numbers for his work and he had kept it on loudspeaker,60 -70% calls started with the same irritating line and 60% of people actually picked up the call even before the actual song started.

The question is what is going on?

A customer is paying money(45rs) for the hello tune and he wants that when his friends call him,they should hear his cool hello tune atleast for 5 6 seconds but what many are hearing is Blah blah ke liye * dabaye.So 45 rs going down the drain.

Telecom companies brough about a nice method to attract new customers for hello tunes VAS but i think they will end up irritating their customers and all would be back to their old TRING TRING.

The Ad shows all people (assume all 100 crore) doing same thing like yawning ,scratching year,playing laughing drinking tea and all.And then they show all reacting the same way to cricketing shots ,happy with a six frowning on wickets and vice versa. According to the ad all 100 crore Indians react similarly to a single wicket or a six.(Make a note of it) So the basic positioning is that IPL is something that joins people and all people follow the same player or team. The Ad is brilliant and would have been great if IPL would have been some tournament featuring India and other countries as teams such as Trination series or world cup tournaments. But when the campaign comes to IPL,it doesnt fit.

When Mumbai Indians is playing against Delhi Daredevils.What do you think?

Let us assume:

1) if these are only the two teams in IPL and all 100 crore watch cricket

 2) Assuming equal fan following so 50 crore support Mumbai and rest 50 crore support Delhi.

3) Now for every 6 hit by Jayasurya(Mumbai Indian Player),50 crore Mumbai Indians fans would rejoice and 50 crore delhi fans would frown.

So where does the funda of 100 crore doing the same thing go?.

The main positioning of IPL(and ICL too) was based on the inter region rivalry. i.e. A Punjabi would love Kings 11 players and hates(in good spirit of course) other teams’ players. Now the new campaign is confused what to convey.

1) They want all 100 crore to support all teams.(We just love good cricket who ever displays it)

2) They are confused about what they mean by saying 100 crore doing the same thing.

The brand identity has been totally dissolved by this new campaign.Last years campaign displayed IPL as a war in which all are warriors (Dharti Par Karmyudh) Watch it here

That was a better campaign in conveying the brand identity.This year the brand image which has been created is that IPL is no more about Inter State Rivalry.Its india vs others in South Africa.It doesnt matter which team you support or who is you favourite player.You like others will follow what everyone else is doing.

Please do write comments if you think I make some sense.Write comments even if you think its nonsense.

Interesting Video of how a guy ,Piyush Singh, tries a trick on a cat.Cat is one step ahead always.

Lets see who wins!!

The old man understood nothing and asked ,”what you want me to do son?”The son asks his father to sell extra chairs,increase prices to normal,downsize the helpers and workers etc etc etc etc etc.

The old man does so.

Eventually due to lack of chairs people have to eat while standing.They fel uncomfortable.Due to this people start to less often visit the place.Due to increased prices,still less customers.

Due to lack of helpers and workers the old man is not able to handle the few people too.All this ends up in closure of business.

The next day Old man says to his son,”you were right!!Recession has really hit our business”.

The son smiles back with utter confidence.

On discussing with roommates its still not clear whether we are in recession or in economic slowdown.Still we all conclude we are in slowdown not recession in real terms.but still slowdown is known as Recession these days.Lets assume we are in Recession.

We daily read newspapers spitting recession venom on us.Daily when i wake up.XX company lays of 40000 people becuase of Recession.XX Brothers bleed to death due to recession.XX B school not confident of placing even 50% of grads due to ,you know it???

What i see as Recession is just Fear .Thats it.Its the fear that has set into our minds.Companies have fear of losing demand,People have fear of losing jobs and falling real estate. News channels and papers daily print more pessimistic views of economists,CEOs of failed companies etc to add fuel to fire.

After days of dismay today a fresh air came with an article in TOI”Economic upturn in two mths: Management guru”Who management guru? Eliyahu M Goldratt author of The Goal (the book i need to read for book review too).I just was woken up seeing the title of article just two months is he mad??? All biggie wiggies are banking on the fact ” NO RECOVERY TILL 2010″ What is this guy saying?  “Fears of recession are completely unfounded,’’ says the man described by Fortune magazine as a “guru to industry’’.Goldratt says the Indian economy, particularly manufacturing, is already showing sign of an upturn. “In the next couple of months, barring a few sectors like real estate and automobiles which are dependent on retail financing, it will be back on the growth path,’’ he adds. He, in fact, feels 2009 will be better than the previous year for manufacturing. “The negative growth in the industrial production in India in December was because of fear of demand falling in the future and not because of a lack of demand,’’ says Goldratt.

 To go through his article follow the link

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOI&BaseHref=TOIM/2009/02/23&PageLabel=19&EntityId=Ar01900&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T

Now this article really made me fresh.Hopeful of good days ahead.Then i though to themselves.If one simple article in TOI can give me such good hope and kill my fear (may be for some time before some other great economist gives a article pessimistic to core just to show his supremacy).What effect will a week full of such feel good articles will have on mind of people.

Under normal circumstances all biggies agree that in india recovery will begin anywyas in 9 months from now.This guy comes in with 2 month theory and kills fear of few people.In starting i established that Recession is nothing but fear.

If all start to talk and feel good and write such articles as todays,what would be the effect.CASCADING ofcourse.

lets consider a hypthetical situation.a simple business man ABC reads such feel good articles who was thinking of dumping people and clearing inventories due to RECESSION phew!!.what will he do ?He will be hopeful of times to come will go against his previous decision and will start his production again with optimism (enemy of fear). and OEM and vendors dependent on him also get business.They also produce.Now the most important person Customer who was also afraid and was clutching on to his money and not buying will also read such articles.he also thinks of buying a house hoping that prices will rise quickly due to good times ahead and also buys product of  our friend ABC.All happy where is Recession?

Just a feeling of goodness can turn things around.So if such feeling sinks in recovery that was to come in 9 10 months with dull faces will actually come in next 6 months and god willing 2 months  as per Goldratt.

So Recession is nothing but a fear in our minds.Kill it at once!!!! because you would be doing it for yourself and not anybody.so be selfish and hit it hard!!!!!!!!

Keeping them as status messages in gtalk.simple? hehe

The question is kya likhun (what to write????).

there is lot to write My MBA,Bloodbath in the financial markets,terrorism,football,girls,college life,corporates what not .

Disclaimer: I am 3 beers down so even i dont know what i am writing.Sorry for that.(and listening to Himesh song)

Sitting some time back i was thinking whether Man makes a religion or religion makes a man.For me it was as complex as thinking Anda pehle aaya ya Murgi?

I was just watching TV.I saw a song from DON “Laut ke tujhko aana hai” picturised on Shahrukh Khan.I was thinking when in reality Salman Khan celebrates Ganpati at home a Fatwa is issued against him againt Eid.Kya farak padta hai.Shahrukh khan is dancing and calling Ganpati.Does it make any difference whether he is Muslim or Hindu?

Harbhajan Singh portrays himself as Ravana sings a song in good spirit,Both SGPC and VHP are after him for disgracing both religions.Why ?

Koi kaam nahin hai to chalo kisi ko bhi pakad lo Cheekho chillayo poster phaad do TV pe 2 3 lines bol do mast.Ho gaya protest.

If you have to protest ,there are lot to protest.

Protest against terrorism not issue a Fatwa against Salman if he celeberates Ganpati,Protest against decreasing Sex Ratio in Punjab Mr SGPC not against Dancing Bhajji,Protest against killing of innocent Christians in Orissa rather than raising slogans. 

What i think is Human Beings need a refresh of sorts.Or in better IT words FORMATTING.

Jahan dekho Bakwaas,Barbaadi,Bloodbath.

Are we Humans anymore?Yes we actually are as in HOMO SAPIENS a species thats it.We are just fighting with everyone.Even i fight with my roomies,my GF,my classmates

but why?

Where are we heading to ?

Kabhi socha hai religion nahin hota koi bhi kaisa bhi to Kitni problems kam hote.(i am not sure aur kya naye problems aa jaate).

In Krantiveer movie there was a wonderful scene in which Nana Patekar actually mixes blood of a hindu and a muslim and asks to separeate it.How willl you morons?

You cant I am amazed on the fact that how even doctors are associated with terrorism.Yaar tumhein pata nahin hai kya ki koi farak nahin hai?

if we go on like this as things are going.We are gonna witness a WW 3 soon.Anyways Full world is frustrated with financial crisis.A common man is screwed from all sides.Just 2 3 lines came into mind

Bazaar mein paisa nahin,

Sadak pe bharosa nahin,

Ghar mein sabar nahin,

kahin bhi pyaar nahin 

hum insaan hai bhi ya nahin!

i sound like a pessimitic too much use of No and nahin but thats the reality of the world right now.Jise dekho laga hua hai bhaagne par kahan bhagoge bhaiya?

When i was small Elder people used to say,”Aina paise da ghuman karda hai naal thori na lai ke jaavega utte”(why are you so proud of your money , you are not gonna take it with you when you die)

the crux is try to be a good person so that people remeber you.Let money be a by product rather than THE PRODUCT.

i was reading a line in a war based game yesterday by some great “I dont know how WW3 would be fought but WW4 would be fought with sticks and stones”

hehe what a line!! But actuall this is gonna happen.

If aliens exist(which i firmly believe they do),they would be watching us and laughing like Navjot Singh Sidhu seeing us caught in the self created Viscious Circle.

Even God would be sttiing with the Aliens and laughing and thinking mazaak mazaak mein kya ban gaya?(Read God as the Power who created us not Ram,Jesus,Nanak or Allah).

Ab i am not able to think what to write aisa lag raha ahi frustration nikala ho

Ye main nahin bol raha bhain di takki beer di botal bol rahi hai shayad (RDB style).

But i no longer feel proud to be a human.

When i was a child i used to see stars and think Universe is so big and where am i caught.School,homework RS Patial(my principal) still i think the same when i bychance get time to see stars.I think yaar where am i stuck? Subah utho akhbaar dekho Vahi mari hui headlines sensex itna gir gaya utna gir gaya,college jaao fate hue chehre kya hoga kya nahin hoga,1 doosre se aage bado.I am not saying that i m not part of it.I get scared of lectures,i wrry about my placement,i was worried about my summers internship placement.

but i try to maje things better for me, i try to laugh and make others laugh.

But haan hamara main mudda kya karein yaar hum Humans ka?

paisa nahin banaya hota to aaj nahin rote,religion nahin banaya hota to aaj nahin ladte par ab to ye sab ban gaye to ab kya karein.

One thing can be done is that please trust.Once i heard Shahrukh Khan saying on a show

He has to tell his kid that

har Hindu Musalman se nafrat nahin karta

har Musalmaan terrorist nahin hota

sardar kirpan(the holy dagger) logon ko maarne ke liye nahin rakhte!!

So what did he mean ?

What we should do ?

just start trusting!!!

it feels good

Just outside NMIMS gate i see a full line of autos.I go to an Auto

Me: bhaiya teligali(where i live in andheri east) chaloge?

AR1: nahin

2nd auto

Me :bhaiya teligali chaloge?

AR2: nahin

Me: kyun

AR2:Bola nahin na

Me: @#$$#@@##

now the third auto

Me:bhaiya andheri ease chaloge?

AR3: nahin

Me: tum mana nahin kar sakte!

AR3: kyun nahin kar sakte bahut paas hai aur traffic bhi hoga!!

Me: vardi pehni hai tumne aur public transport chala rahe ho mana kaise kar sakte ho haq nahin hai tumhein!

AR3(smiling):gas nahin hai aur koi pakdo!!

now the nth auto

same story

This is my daily ordeal after i get free from my MBA classes.I asked many people of my college and aslo adjoining mithibai colleges.Many face the same issue.

According to the rule of law an auto driver cant refuse to ply even if it doesnt suit his requirements.He has to go at any cost.But majority of autowallahs are either are not aware of it nor they bother to obey even if they know.

But what are we people doing nothing.We keep on moving to next auto till one farishta comes and takes us to home.We will wait there for 15 odd minutes cursing our luck but will not do anything

According to Mumbai police,if some auto wallah refuses to ply we should complain.but how many of us as ever even seen the website where to do it.because like those auto wallahs even we dont bother.

is there a way out?Yes.The following link actually is a complaint form in which u can raise a complaint against a auto wallah who tries to act smart with you and refuses to ply.

http://www.trafficpolicemumbai.org/Complaint%20Form%20aginst%20ART.html

So even if you think this would be harsh on the auto walla,just make him aware that such system exists where you can complain against him and his license can be cancelled and note his number in front of him.

so even if you dont complain you leave a mark in his mind making him aware of his mistake or may be forcibly only he realizes.

So please from next time guys just dont stand and frustrate but take action and take control.

1) Charminar

2) IT

Now when i go i dont have count of the same.There are countless things which i am gonna miss.

First and foremost people are who make or break a city.People of hyderabad are too amazing and fun loving much as Punjabis.The main ear catching thing is the language which you will hear and latently learn over the course of your stay at Hyd.

I will give you some instances

“Kya Baatan kar rahe miyan ?”

“Kidar ku ja rahe?”

Auto person will ask for extra money with his favourite dialogue,”Khali jana padta bol ke main thoda jyada maang raha miyan!Gussa kayeku ho rahe?”

This language is so catchy and great that you just cant stop yourself from learning it.

Aap logan bol rahe honge kya badi badi baatan kar raha ye pota(boy).But truth is that you cant dodge this.I will recommend everyone who are coming to Hyderabad or have any link with hyd to watch “Angrez” a movie which captures soul of Hyderabadi spirit.Everyone in hyderabad knows about it and knows all the dialogues of it.

so miyan you tube pe jaaku aur search karku dekhna shuru karo.

The other thing you cant miss in Hyd is the cuisine.For non vegetarians its heaven.Initially i was not much mobile and aware about those things but eventually i became fan of it.

The cuisine includes Biryani(mutton biryani),Nihari(paaya and mutton curry),Sheermal(bread),Paaya,Mirchi ka Saalan(inseparable comapanion of Biryani),Khubani ka meetha(Apricot Murraba with cream),Double ka meetha(bread sweet dish).

One more dish which deserves a special mention is Haleem.Its available only during months of Ramzan.It is made up of mutton,flours and lots of ghee.One bowl of it and you are full.

If you want to enjoy these delicacies you can go anywhere and have them but still if you wanna have all of it as they should be.Go to Old city try Madeena,Shadab Hotels.Paradise Biryani is also quite available.

Now i have left Hyderabad am going to Mumbai for my higher studies but will never forget a Nawabi city which had given me many stomachfull sweet memories and has touched me deeply.

Aadab Hyderabad !