BUY IT, FORGET IT!

Hi everyone,
Its been quiet a while since i wrote my last blog. The last few months went so fast and the decade too!

I have a habit of observing people and understanding them by their behaviour. And any shopping mall is an ultimate place to observe all kinds of people. The idea of this blog hit me today morning when i failed to get the tickets for the 11:15 am show and instead bought the tickets for the 2:00 pm show, so i had lots of time for observing and understanding the Indian consumer behaviour!


How many times has it happened with you that you bought a pair of jeans or sunglasses or any mobile device on a split second decision or purely based on instinct and then later regretted over it?
I guess most of us have had that kind of a experience once in our life. And that feeling is really bad. So then why buy the wrong thing in the first place?


I have categorized shoppers into the following :

1. The ones who just want to shop to spend time/ they'll die if they don't shop every weekend/if their friend buys a new phone they'll buy the next model of that phone..i think you got it.

2.The ones who are cautious shoppers/ they'll save money if they don't have it but eventually will buy the stuff they want/they'll buy the things which they need not the unnecessary stuff.


3.These are the ones who like to check the price tags of everything/ usually just curious, most probably they won't buy anything/like to spend time at the malls without shopping.

Lets call these cat1,2,3.



This blog is about understanding what goes into the mind of a cat 2 shoppers when they go out to buy things because the cat 1 people don't think much when they buy things because a month has 4 weeks! The cat 3 people are out of the picture here.
Confusion, money, quality, quantity, liking, need, greed are some qualities related to cat 2 shoppers.

Interesting thing is a cat 2 person can sometimes behave as cat 1 and viceversa!

Lets face it, we all want to be content with the things we buy because crying over spilled milk is no good right? So if we shop smartly and logically we will end up buying the right thing.

Recently i was planning to go home for holidays and was not getting the bus tickets so postponed it but then this agent called me and told me that the bus leaves in 2 hrs. So that gave me just an hour for packing.
But theirs more, i was so disappointed to find that i had no travel bag(old one got ripped off!)!
So i decided to buy one and then come home and do the packing.
And when it comes to buying things i always go for quality not quantity.. Its like if my dad gives me a 1000 bugs and tells me to get myself 2 T shirts i would go for 1 T-shirt worth a thousand bugs.


OK, coming back to the travel bag thing, so i went to this Nike store and i saw what i was looking for. I found a huge travel handbag. It was awesome but then i also saw the travel sacks and found them cool as well. So there i was all confused whether to go for the huge bag, the one which i needed the most right now or to go for the sack, for which i now feel i was infatuated to. And i had to make that decision in about 10 mins.

And guess what i ended up buying the sack, came home and to no ones surprise it was too small to carry all my clothes and i was in a hurry, so a friend of mine helped me out and i borrowed his bag.

I still don't know why i bought that bag. When i came back, i exchanged the sack and got the handbag i needed (Thanks to Nike!). I felt so content after that and that was because i could exchange it.

I have learned some things about shopping which are:

• Think a thousand times before buying anything and not after you buy that thing.


• Don't let the temptation get on you.


• Go for quality.


• Don't let the shopkeeper/ sales guy influence your decision, listen to what they are saying but in the end buy what you think is right for you.


• Study all the features/ specifications of the product you want to buy before actually buying it.


• And last but not the least, ask for the bill!

So that's it people, hope you have liked this blog, and hope it will help you when you go out for shopping! If you would like to add something then please point it out in the comments. Cheers!

KYA KHOYA KYA PAYA?

The title might seem stupid but if you just keep saying it a couple of times, it will make you think!
Well thats what i did when i read it on my friend Omkar's pouch back in II year. When i first read it i found it stupid but when i actually kept repeating it, i found it interesting!

And why am i telling you this?...read on..you'll find out in a minute!

So it was the 'Kojagiri Poornima', a Saturday, and it came during our prelims.

Now before i tell you this story i would like to tell you something about our college..

Have you ever heard of a test?

Sure you must have....OK then what about a "re-test", now anyone with an average common sense would be able to guess that too but here i am talking about a "re-re-test", yes thats SKNCOE(our college) for you!

And it doesn't stop at that, if we fail in the "re-re-test" we are supposed to "donate" a couple of thousands of rupees per failed paper!

Now i don't know how serious other engg. students are about their internals but we at SKN take it as a war!

So as i said it was a Saturday and the next war was on Monday with VLSI(Very Large Scale Integration) so we had a Sunday in between..

And theres this thing about every "normal" engg. student. I'll call it the Rocket Science concept. So the concept of Rocket science is that until a rocket gets fired at its bottom it just won't take off, similarly until and unless the 'derriere' of a "normal" engg. student is on fire he/she just won't study!

So on the Kojagiri eve i was at home doing nothing when my Friend Swapnil called and told me about the Kojagiri night out plan at Omkar's bungalow. So we all gathered at his place around 10:30 pm. There were 12 of us. Classmates and a junior.

Now only an engg. student can understand what happens when 10-12 "normal" engg. students get together on a night out...they follow the famous '80/20 principle' i.e. 80% of the talk comes from 20% people in a group and it is those 20% people who make engg. so damn fun when one gets tired of mugging! Take the example of the famous Chetan Bhagat novel '5-point someone', now imagine the novel without Ryan. I think you got what i am trying to say here.

Wondering who were the 20% in our night out?......there was just one....

KYA KHOYAA KYA PAYAA!

Looks LEGEN-WAIT FOR IT-DERY doesn't he!

I mean just look at him the guy has 'KOLHAPUR' written all over his face! And when he gets going even the tough start laughing like hell! We adorably call him 'BABA'. That means if during a lecture someone says BABA, the whole class reciprocates by joining in and chanting "BABA BABA!!"

So after some Gyaan by our BABA, some of us were playing poker. And if you come in BE E & TC classroom and say Poker, you'll be directed to the left corner bench of the classroom where our LEGEN-WAIT FOR IT-DERY Poker master Alok sits. The guy reached some 10s of millions of dollars in the facebook Zingaa poker. It was like for months Poker was his life, his girlfriend, he literally was 24*7 on facebook playing Poker...so thats Alok for you!

US PLAYING POKER

The highlight of the night out was the prank we played on our friend Bhusion. BABA called him pretending to be a neighbour and told him that he had lodged a complaint against us making a lot of noise late night and said the Police were on their way to check....poor guy Bhusion went out at 3 am to meet the victim whom we called Nitin Gaikwad only to find that he was fooled!
The next thing i still remember of that night was the sweet milk that two of my friends, both named Mahesh, had prepared.....

MAHESH IN ACTION

So after the Poker, the sweet milk, the prank and the hilarious BABA jokes it was around 4 am when we went for breakfast at an exclusive students place called 'Sweekar'. The place opens at 4 am everyday and students are there at 3:45am. And believe me, the breakfast we had there was awesome.

After the delicious breakfast everyone departed...

It was Kojagiri night, none of us slept the whole night, so when the Goddess Laxmi came asking "Who is awake?", She must have showered some wealth on us and some knowledge too cause on Sunday most of us woke up like in the afternoon and the remaining had gone for a movie and guess what , we won the war on Monday!

So when i ask myself 'Kya Khoya Kya Paya?', all i remember is BABA's smiling face and the good time we all had that night!Cheers!

SUIT UP!

Hi friends.
Meet Barney Stinson, the dude from 'How I Met Your Mother', or shall i say Tedd's "best" friend!

The reason i showed you the video was to introduce you to Barney. So what was your reaction when you saw him? You most probably must have thought that he is an idiot, a guy who is obsessed with suiting up or he is just a grown up child!

Yes, you are right, all that is true!

But, according to me there is only one word that can describe him-'winner'.

The video must have raised a question in your mind, why does he keep telling everyone to suit up? And guys there is a story behind it. What you saw in the video is today's Barney who is full of energy, who is passionate about suits, loves to have fun, but did you know that Barney was once a big loser?

Yes, he was and a big one at that! Back then he used to look something this....

Hope he didn't scare you!

So in his hippie days Barney had a beautiful girlfriend named Shanon. He used to work with her in her coffee shop. They were in love. Barney had even committed to her! Barney used to love her like anything. She was like a sweet drug for him!

Once they decided to go on a peace tour, it was Barney's idea and Shanon agreed. So they decided to meet at the railway station an hour before they were supposed to leave. Barney bag packed and was all ready for the wonderful experience. But guess what Shanon didn't show up. So Barney went to the coffee shop and what he saw there broke his heart into a million pieces! Shanon was kissing another guy and he was old enough to be her father..

So Barney confronted her and begged her to return to him, he told her how much he loved her, adored her. He tried to convince her in every possible way but she won't budge. She told Barney that he was over enthusiastic and poor. The guy she was in love with was rich, he always dressed in a suit and he had a boat!

So our poor Barney after losing his only beloved girlfriend and 'would be' wife started walking towards home with heavy steps. He felt sad , he felt like a loser!

Just then someone handed him a pamphlet which said 'SUIT UP!', so Barney goes to this store, buys an expensive suit, gets a cool new watch, a classy haircut, posh shoes and voila, here is the new Barney...

looks LEGENDARY doesn't he?

Barney didn't just change physically, i mean of course he did, but more importantly he changed mentally! He totally got over Shanon, left the job at the coffee shop, educated himself, got a job and more importantly got great friends!

Guys, in our life we all have been losers at some point and some of us still are. Reasons for being losers are many. Some of us were ditched by our girlfriends, some didn't crack the entrance to get into the college they always dreamed of or the recession is making us feel like losers!

Its not bad to be a loser after all losing teaches us lots of things!

It is bad if we don't get over it.

If Barney would have carried on like that he would have ended up being a loser throughout his life. But he changed or I'd rather say he transformed!

So guys if you are wondering about the things you should have achieved and you didn't believe me its never to late. So just SUIT UP!

In life all of us have our ups and downs, those who transform become winners just like Barney did and those who don't, well for you I'd just like to say that "Life is too short and we are too selfish to end up being losers!"

So don't just change transform!

And if you are still thinking about Shanon then heres her story...

CAN WE BE LONELY AND HAPPY?

Play it before you read........




'Pursuit of Happyness' is an all time favourite movie of mine which in turn made me a big fan of 'Carpenters'!


There is a background song in the movie called 'This Masquerade', its a beautiful song, written by Leon Russell and it was included in the Carpenters album 'Now & Then' released in 1973.


The song has a beautiful line in it-"Are we really happy with this lonely game we play...."(hope you have turned on the speakers), and i loved that song the moment i heard Karen Carpenters voice!(I guess that was a BLiNK effect!).


So this blog is inspired from that line! It made me think why do we feel lonely? Why do we feel happy? Can we be lonely and happy? and if being alone is loneliness then why do we sometimes feel lonely even though we are in a crowded place?


Sorry if i confused you all with those questions!


I think loneliness is a state in which we have no one to talk to though we desperately need to talk to someone, so in this case we avoid being lonely or it is a state in which we just want to isolate ourselves from everything around us, so in this case we choose to be lonely.


What about happiness?


In his book 'Shantaram', Greggory D Roberts has given an interesting definition of happiness as 'Happiness is a myth which was invented to make us buy things' (Girls are gonna hate this!!).


I think happiness is like a switch in our mind which goes On and OFF!
Some people are happy because their switch is ON most of the time while its the other way round for unhappy people. The best part is we can control that switch but do we know how?


So is being lonely a good thing? Of course not, after all man is social animal!


But at times we are forced to be lonely by the circumstances then what to do? I think we should be comfortable with it!


How?


By talking to ourselves.


When i was in school, a teacher advised us to develop a habit of talking with ourselves.
She told us every time before sleeping we should ask ourselves questions like:


How was my day?
Did i make any friends?
Was i rude to anyone?
Did i commit any mistakes?
What did i learn today?


She used to say by asking these questions we are actually analysing ourselves and more importantly improving ourselves!


And the best way to talk with ourselves and to be comfortable with loneliness is to write a diary.


Our brain has two minds one good, the other bad.
Put yourselves in a situation wherein you are in a shopping mall and your eyes caught a 1000rs note(genuine) lying on the ground.
First to speak is the bad mind, it tells us to grab it before anyone else sees it.
Then the good mind tells us to return it somehow to its bearer.


The best thing about writing a diary is that when you write a diary the bad mind totally shuts off! So the good mind guides us and helps us to understand ourselves.
I once read a quote by Mac West(I don't know who he is/was!) it said,


"Keep a diary & someday it'll keep you."


So true. When we write a diary we are not only saving our memories but we are also saving the time! And time is money(no you wont save money by writing a diary!).


One of my new year resolutions for this year was to start writing a diary(I was inspired by Sanjay Singhania!) and i do it almost regularly. Believe me its a wonderful habit. When i turn a few pages and go through the good times i have spent with friends i actually live those moments again!


Someone has said,"It's so lonely when you don't even know yourselves."
And friends when we write a diary we actually start getting all the answers to all those questions we have been avoiding asking ourselves, and we start understanding ourselves!
And yes we can be lonely and happy.... just try to keep that little switch of yours ON for most of the times..




So that's it friends....
I appreciate you as you had the patience to read this long blog.
The views expressed in this blog are according to my perception, comments are welcome!

THANK YOU TEACHER!

Hello friends,

It was 5th September '09, the Teacher's Day.

It reminded me of all my teachers in school( New English School, Miraj). In the evening i called Dixit teacher, who was my class teacher 3 times(6th, 7th & 10th), and when i heard her voice on the phone i realised how deeply i missed her and all the teachers in my school. My whole school life flashed in front of my eyes when she asked "Kaise ho betaa?".

Someone has said "Nine-tenths of education is encouragement" and i think that describes Dixit teacher and everyone who knows her will surely agree to that!

Simplicity was her power, thats how she was.......

I remember she always used to take the first lecture so that she could make us meditate in the pleasant atmosphere of the morning. Her lecture used to start with the Pratigya "Bharat mera desh hai, saare Bhaartiya mere bhai-bahan hai......", followed by the Pasaydaan, then a prarthana for the Guru and finally the meditation. And believe me guys we used to love doing all that. All those prayers used to transform us into some other world altogether, a world where she would speak and we would listen, understanding every bit of it!

She taught us Hindi and she used to do that without touching the textbook. So fluent and rich was her Hindi that we used to get spellbound.

She treated all of us like her children, her friends.

From 6th std itself she used to make us write 5 lines from the textbook at home, failing to do so the number would go to 20 the next day. At that time i didn't understand why she used to give us that homework i mean i used to think what difference would it make if we didn't do it?

But when i was in tenth, one day i was going through my old books(yes i have a habit of keeping all my old things!) and when i saw all my Hindi homework notebooks from 5th to 10th i clearly saw how my handwriting had improved!

This was just one example there are so many about her.......

Whenever i used make any mistakes, get into a fight with someone or something like that she used to call me and explain my mistake to me and so powerful were her words that tears used to automatically roll down my cheeks.

I still remember we were in tenth and it was our sports week, our class had the best cricket team and we had convincingly won the first match and reached the finals. Our final match was with a weak team supposedly an 'underdog' and guess what we lost that match. I was the captain of our team and i was so embarrassed after the loss that i was avoiding facing our class teacher.

But she came to us, we were standing on the ground feeling ashamed, depressed and she said "Even though you lost the game, you won as a team!"

I really feel fortunate to have had her as my teacher. We all loved her.

Friends everyone of us has a teacher in our life who really loves us, guides us. We are who we are today because we had teachers like Dixit teacher. So when you have time just make a call and talk with them and i think thats all they want from their students!

Thank you teacher for being there always, love you!!

GOOD LUCK!

Hi friends,

Attending the last lecture and that too on a Saturday is really boring and specially so if it sounds something like 'Embedded Systems Design'. I was trying really hard not to sleep and was trying to do everything except paying attention to the lecture. I was thinking about my friends and that's when i got the idea for this blog.

Every group of friends has their 'hangout' spots.I was wondering what makes these hangout places so special?

Take the case of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, all of them used to crack up at the 'Central Perk' cafe. Remember the shiny, coloured coffee mugs?, Joey's love for the Muffins?, Feebees singing?, the logo of 'Central Perk' cafe ?, sure you do!

When i was in school we friends always, (and by that i really mean always!), used to go to a restaurant called 'Rahamatulla' in Miraj near our school. It was like a second home for us.We used to love the chicken 65 and numerous ice-creams, mastanis and faloodas they served.

When i came to Pune i was missing Rahamatulla....

Then one of my friends told me about Goodluck restaurant on F.C road.

We went there for breakfast one Sunday morning and believe me the minute i saw the place i was like this is it!

Its an old Irani restaurant built way back in 1937. To put it in a nutshell i'd say its the 'Leopold' of Pune!

We had 'Bun-Maskaa' and tea that day and friends believe me everyone of you must try the tea of Goodluck at least once before you die!

There is something special about these places that the very thought of going their takes all our stress out and we look forward for spending some quality time with friends. We enjoy the ambiance of the place.

When i first saw their menu card i was amazed as it had the names of dishes i hadn't even heard of. They serve biryanis, varieties of chicken and delicious desserts(caramel pudding my favourite!).

Even when you are alone and all the tables are occupied you can just ask and share the table with anyone and i bet no one will say no. That's how the Goodluckers are!

The place has two sections, one exclusively for snacks and the other for snacks/lunch depending on the time of the day. We prefer the latter coz the tables there have tissue papers on them!

Over the past 2 years i have observed that every group of friends coming their is just so happy.

I think the reason we hangout at places like these is that the best part of us resides there!

So friends when you want to chill out or if you are feeling low always remember that you have friends and places like Goodluck to go to!!

Cheerzzz!!

RANJIT'S BLOG: BLINK

RANJIT'S BLOG: BLINK

BLINK

Hi friends,
I just finished reading a book called 'Blink' written by Malcolm Gladwell and i would like to share with you his views.
Now what was your immediate reaction when you read the word blink?
You probably must have related it with something fast,quick, something which happens in a split second or like the blink of an eye. This book introduces us to the concept of 'thin slicing'. Now let me explain to you what thin slicing is with an example (assuming that most of you like watching cricket!).
Do you remember the T20 match in which Yuvraj hit 6 sixes? I bet you do because you must have watched that video like a million times! Most of you might even remember the name of the bowler (Stewert Broad). So how many of you thought that Yuraj would hit 6 sixes when he had hit the first three? i guess not many including me. But when he hit the fourth one most of us had the feeling that he would hit the next two balls to 6 as well and he did!
Now blink, as Malcolm G says, is about those moments when we 'know' something without really knowing why, and how this ability is one of the most powerful we possess.
If i asked you how you got the feeling that Yuvraj would hit 6 sixes you probably won't be able to explain it but you know for sure, at the back of your mind that you 'know' it.
This thinking which takes place at the back of our mind is something we 'know' but cannot explain in words.
The author says this thinking which takes place behind the locked door in our brain is what makes this book so special. He says the snap judgements we make are not just blind guesses but it is the outcome of the thin slicing we do when we are in any situation. What happens is our brain actually analyzes the minute details about the event and leads us to the right direction and does all this in couple of milliseconds!
The book has loads of such examples which are very interesting.
So friends i suggest you all to read this book and we can have a discussion on it.
Kindly forgive me if i have made any mistakes(gramma/er) and hope you like my first blog.
Happy reading!!