Paris! How I long to be back there!

At the threshold of my first year anniversary of my maiden trip to Paris, my desire to visit this beautiful city, again, has prompted me to put up this post and attempt to relive some of my finest memories.

It was April 27, 2013 that I landed in Paris, the city of love. Despite much reading up and enquiring, I wasn’t prepared for the cold onslaught as I got out of the airport. Paris was just stepping into summer and she was at 5° C then. Intermittent rains throughout the day reduced the temperature even further!

My dear husband was my travel companion (& more importantly, the sponsor) for the 3 week Europe trip that started in Paris. With some accented English and much broken French, we managed to find the local train that took us to our host Maguy’s (via http://www.airbnb.com) apartment. Her place was a good 90 min ride away from CDG and we took in some city sights on our way there. Once we alighted from the train, as we made our way to our host’s apartment, we stopped over at a little grocery store on the way and our first purchase was a 2l can of water. As we reached the apartment, freshened up a bit and took the first sip of water out of the can, we realised it was not still water, but sparkling. Well, so much for the hygienic bottled water..we were now convinced tap water is just as safe.

Anyway, with our host providing us with some maps and some notes to travel around the city, we set off for nothing less than the Eiffel Tower as our first pitstop, like any other dutiful Paris tourist.

Day 1:

Eiffel Tower: It was around 2.30 pm when we reached the foot of the tower and were greeted by a long line of people. There were anywhere between 300 & 400 persons ahead of us in the queue and it was a good 45 minutes later, in the slight drizzle but extreme cold, that we got to the head of the line. Buying our tickets to the top of the tower, we quickly scrambled towards the elevator. The first elevator took us up to the second level of the tower, and another one till the top of the tower.

What a magnificent sight it was! The numbing cold, especially at that altitude, was troubling us to no end, but the view from the observation deck, 906ft above ground level, was spectacular. With the multitude of bridges jumping across the River Seine, the immaculate greens across the river at Trocadero gardens and  the statues at the Palais de Chaillot, one forgets the biting cold and is mesmerised by the lovely sights. I wanted to soak so much of it within me that I did not even wish to visit another place for fear of forgetting how beautiful this view was. It was a good two hours before I unwillingly started my descent of the tower and towards other sights in the city; after all, I’d to get to other places in Paris over the next 4 days before heading for Amsterdam 😛

A few shots of the city taken from my camera are here below. Over the next few days nay months, I hope to write more about the 21 day Europe extravaganza, in parts..until then..

Eiffel Tower across River Seine

Singara Chennai

Now I am actually back in Bangalore! Took me more than a year to complete this post! Anyway, would like to finish this before moving on to another post. So here it goes…

Sometime in July 2012: Recently I moved to Chennai.. from Bangalore.. Though this is not my first time in Chennai, neither my first stay here..this time around I am more critical of Chennai and its offerings.. My post today is going to talk about how I have seen Chennai the last few weeks.. how I am in a different place today, how Chennai goes through her days one at a time, what Chennai has to offer and how I am eager to grab all that I can! I moved to Chennai when the so called ‘peak of summer’ was ebbing away and more pleasant days were on their way to Chennai! Now this means multiple things to multiple people.. To me this only signals ONE thing and that is the waning of hot hot hot days and entry of the Chennai rains. Yes, I specifically call them the Chennai rains because they are like nothing I have even seen before! The downpour starts early in the morning before u get out of bed and goes on incessantly till you make your way through clogged roads to work, finish your work and make your way back home! If there is no company to jointly crib about this, I’d say its quite depressing to stay in the middle of such gloomy weather!

Moving on, as my husband & I kinda settled in, the humid weather, the disgustingly dirty roads, the overcrowded buses, the busy streets, the conning rickshaw drivers, the overpriced realty, the overpriced groceries, the haughty maids, the bustling sari & jewellery stores, all became part of the Chennai that I saw. My daily struggle was to sweat the least, be out in the sun for the shortest amount of time, get bitten by the least number of mosquitoes and not get trampled upon in the overcrowded local train.

This went on for 6 months until the day arrived when I had to make my way back to Bangalore. My 6 months stint in Chennai was coming to an end; my husband was transferred back to Bangalore and I followed him simply.

In my attempt to conquer the daily challenges, I failed to notice the melody of vibrant carnatic music that drifted into my house through the kitchen windows every evening or the earnestness of the ‘madisalu maamis’ making their way through small crowded streets of Triplicane to the Parthasarathy temple or the simplicity of scores of labourers who manage sound sleep on the pavements by the road side, out in the open and under the star light sky fighting Chennai humidity. An year after my return to Bangalore, I sometimes still miss the breezy walks along the Besant Nagar beach or the insane crowd at the movie theatres or the enticing aroma of wet sand after a heavy downpour !

Whether I end up going back to Chennai again or not is yet to be known, but did living in Chennai bring about some change in my life, did it turn me into a different person, did it add a little character to my persona – Oh Yes!

Visiting Uganda!

Been a pretty low key day today.. got back from work with sufficient daylight.. had time to cook a decent meal..and got around to surfing the internet.. done with a movie (Midnight In Paris), a few office videos, read a couple of blogs which is when I got reminded of the blog that I once maintained and prompted me to write something this evening. So here goes..

For lack of a more interesting subject to write on, I would like to talk about my current trip to Uganda.. what the picture was in my mind before I got here and how that drastically changed once I landed in ‘The Pearl of Africa’.

True to its name, Uganda is a real pearl! Its a beautiful country, home to some of the finest people I have met so far, not to forget the rich fauna present here. Geographically, Uganda is a land-linked country, that is surrounded by Kenya, DR Congo, South Sudan, Rwanda & Tanzania. Before getting here, when I looked up the map to spot Uganda in it, I noticed that Lake Victoria was one of the bigger water bodies in Uganda. It is only when I landed in the Entebbe airport here in Uganda that I sighted the lake for the first time and could vaguely take in the mammoth size of the lake. Its huge! But what a pretty sight it offers! The airport is just off the banks of the lake.

A picture of the Entebbe airport from within the flight

Entebbe Airport

The drive to Kampala, the capital city of Uganda and the place of my stay for the next few weeks, transported me back to the older times. Older times when back in India, the roads weren’t as choked with vehicles, when the sky was not hidden behind a thick forest of concrete, when every street was not dotted with huge advertising billboards and when life was just simpler. Yes, Uganda reminded me of India from the 1990s.

Below are some snapshots of my drive to Kampala; Lake Victoria kept me company for some distance along the way till well maintained highways took over and led me into Kampala. A few snapshots from the drive below

Beautiful sight

The streets radiated a rustic beauty that I had not seen in years and which somehow instantly attracted me to Africa and brought a smile to my lips.

Kampala-Entebbe highway emanating rustic charm

Kampala-Entebbe highway

Been close to two months that I have spent in Uganda now. Exploring new parts of the city, meeting new people, trying out different cuisines, everyday has been exciting. No complaining at all. The day I have to return to India is very near now. I will be writing more about my African safaris I took in Uganda. So long…

Oh so mighty gogolpoy!

There are a few sites which have created a business model out of feeding the ‘MBA degree hungry‘ aspirants tidbits of info regarding their prospective schools. They have been constantly gathering info from various sources (authentic or otherwise) and posting it on their sites.

Of course, not to undermine their efforts, they even take the steps to bring in a Dean or a Placement Director here & there and interview him to gain ‘insights’ and pass them on. And the nervous aspirants take in every little thing as if it were their pathway to the school (life?) of their choice.

And not leaving out the roles played by the colleges in this melee, the colleges do put up an attractive front to these sites to reach out to the students. Agreed this is one way of branding the school and creating a positive image in the minds of its customers (or victims). But how do we explain when these sites exhibit their highhandedness and ridicule the colleges for really trivial things, when they assume they are the masters and it is the college’s duty to dance to their tunes. Just because they have the power to reach to people, they magnify small shortcomings of the schools and run the extra mile to etch this negative feeling about the college in the minds of the students (prospective and otherwise). In MBA parlance, is this acceptable in value creation for the whole ecosystem?

This is a classic case of when the fence thinks it is more important than the farm itself!

It will not be long before everyone is put back into his/her place!

P.S: If u are an ex/present/future MBA aspirant and are following the right site & not leaving out the important posts, u should know what I am talking about!

The MAKING of Obama

One of the biggest political marketing successes so far has been the establishment of BRAND OBAMA. Experts agree this was an excellent case of integrated marketing that incorporated viral marketing,  digital marketing, social media avenues, event marketing, online advertising, direct marketing, print advertising and numerous other channels. This is one of the most astonishing political transformations ever. Effective, intelligent use of Web 2.0 strategies has ensured victory in the most expensive U.S. presidential campaign ever.

The Obama campaign had two goals to be accomplished: expand the voter base by reaching out to broader segments and at the same time, hyper-target specific audiences. This is a great example of a fully integrated campaign which saw both paid media and free media and offline channels and online channels coming together in the quest for developing the ‘Change’, ‘Hope’, ‘Obama’ and many more such brands.

The strategy simultaneously drove all the messages at the audience, never leaving anything behind, thus resulting in all round marketing. Thus this ensured wider reach, broader electorate, reinforcing but not repeating ideas and increased conversion. Campaigning happened simultaneously on all the various kinds of media available. At the same time as one on one connections with the voters was being established online, traditional media was also put to use to reach out to the not so net savvy voters. This shows a concerted effort on all avenues simultaneously.

Obama’s digital footprint-his website www.barackobama.com led users to find a part in him that was common in them and helped them indentify with him.Other media like sports channels and sports radio stations were also not spared in the pursuit of branding Obama. In addition to numerous advertisements running on television and radio, print ads also increased the reach and hence the voter base. And the much hyped about Social Media also was instrumental in catapulting Obama to success.

Now after close to one year in office, Brand Obama continues to live on, albeit small beatings here and there. The message has been clear and consistent. Though role of social media has come down, other avenues have continued to project Obama as before and the masses still identify with him and look up to him. The current campaign Organizing For America (OFA) provides a fresh impetus to his campaigns and continues to keep the citizens involved.

Do u know customers can get fired?

I was recently reading this article about how some stores run promotion campaigns and accord privileged status to their customers who cross a particular level of spending. Well this we all know..But what was surprising was that when these customers do not maintain this level of spending, they get demoted! Yeah u heard it right, demoted.. Sounds funny alright..but then nudging a little deeper gave me a few thoughts to ponder upon. Finally I thought it made sense to not only demote your customers, but if the situation demands, fire them as well.

No one would like to cater to a less than profitable customer, who always whines about the prices, who cashes in on every discount opportunity, who is hardly loyal to your products and basically who never brings in any money (that u want to make obviously). In such scenarios, it is natural and wise for the stores to serve customers who are not as price sensitive and whose purchases do make a difference to the business. These customers do not go elsewhere when u slightly increase your prices or are not the first in the line when u run a discount campaign.

One of the latest practices in business that focuses mainly on identifying such customers and turning usual business more profitable is the CRM practice. CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management and is one of the most popular buzzwords in the world of management. With CRM, firms can have a better idea of the likes and dislikes of its customers, their needs and wants, their shopping preferences, etc. Some softwares capture more than just the likes and dislikes: they have algorithms that calculate the ‘Life Time Value’ of a customer which is essentially an estimate of how profitable the customer might be to the firm. So based on analysis of customer data, promotion campaigns, products/product categories to be offered for sale, timing of the stores, timing of the promotions, tricks that appeal to customers, and many more such things are designed. The customer is keenly watched to note his spending patterns. Everything goes into his file and any wrong move on his part in terms of bargaining for discount or choosing to buy cheaper products might not be well received by the store. He will be categorized a costly customer and who knows might not merit any service in due time!

So next time u go shopping, loosen your tight fist..u might want to spend more to avoid being asked to return your Club West card!

And next…?

This is my first post donning the role of a (yet another) management student..

It is again one of those days with the exams approaching and scores of assignments pending..I am swamped with too much work, confused what to work on..And as always I’m taking the easy way out – pick a new activity totally unrelated to studies – just to ‘unwind‘ ..or whatever..

Its been over six months here – half way through a one year program.. that was fast.. I still remember my reason for coming here..it was mainly cos its a one year short course, and the first day here I actually felt even one year, away from family, was way too long.. But lo! The countdown has already begun! These six months have sped by and now the most critical time of every mba course – placement season, is fast approaching.. And after that, its done! I will (very likely) graduate!

One year is definitely short! There’s so much to learn and so much unexplored! Sometimes I wish I had gone in for a 2 year course! Confessing my desire to enroll for a second MBA sometime in the future..

However now its time to recall my ‘effective time management’ lesson and get back to the routine!

U too Brutus

Well.. the name of the blog has got no accusatory implication like Caesar’s original words..
Its just an exclamation at myself..I have just distinguished myself by being yet another indistinguishable person!..By catching up on the trend..or getting lost in the crowd.
Whatever..finally my blog has arrived 🙂
Finally I give in..
I enter the world of blogging..
I throw in my penny’s worth of thoughts..
and wait for someone to take it in and return with a comment for my posts..
I would like to thank two of my friends Yogesh & Prem because of whom I finally overcame procrastination and jumped into the wave of the moment..