On Saddle Again !!

Hi All,

It s been a long, very long time since i rode my bike (read bicycle). Back 15 years, i used to take rounds of my city on BSA Mach(Without gears). Going to school and then college and evening classes. Must not be less than 15 Km everyday. I never felt tired of riding my cycle and in fact i was in love with my Mac. I moved to Mumbai and whole thing changed, large city, long distances, good public transport and i stopped riding my cycle and used my Motorbike and public transport most of the time.

Now, after 15 years of gap, I have bought a cycle - Bike. The reason for me to buy my Bike were: one is to keep myself fit, as I am 87 kg now, which is inching towards quintol now and second is that I just love to ride the cycle. I bought a Hero Sport- MTB with 18 gears.
The purchase was smooth. I stay near to Mumbai at Thane. Popular cycles is one of the oldest cycle shops in Thane. He showed me some some geared cycles from Ranger to thunder to Totem ones. I likes Hero Sport and asked him to fix. No negotiation !!(Being a marketing guy, I dont like it) It is a fixed price shop. The bike was ready in 15 min. I started my ride after 15 years on the saddle back to home. The start was easy, I enjoyed every bot of it. Suddenly the traffic was dense, and I was looking at my rear mirror. Hahahaha. It was not there. Then, I wanted to blow my horn and things like that. I was getting used to my bike. Reahed till Manpada 6 km from Popular shop, was getting tired now. The road to my home has steep slopes up and down, making it more diffcult for me to ride. Finally, i reached. Aha. Showed my new sporty bike to Shreya(my 3 yr old baby) and pat came the reply... I also have similar one. We all laughed !!

Next day morning, I rode my Bike for around 4 km in the morning to Hiranandani Gardens. I am enjoying it. At Ghodbunder road, during rains, the place is like a hill station, mountains and cloud covers, greens and flowers, and super weather. Loving it all !! And of course I have lost 20 kgs and 5 inches in three days. hahahahahha. Actually, now i don't care as I am on the saddle again!!

Just looking forward to longer rides in a months time - Hopefully.

Biking is a way of "Being happy- Always"
Amit

" When each and every one is important"

While writing "Gift of Sight" , I was not expecting even one reply (As we all are still in our paradigms and prejudices) and here are two people, decided to think differently to bring about the change. These good friends of mine have decided to go ahead and donate their eyes.

Could not ask for a better start than this? Thanks to all of you !!
But, I would also like to know what others think as "Each and every one is important"

Award winning Ad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb1jZ3oJcCs&feature=related

The gift of Sight !!

In this world of pleasure and pain, most of us intend to help other in our capacities.
But, here are some of the revealing numbers:-

"India, as of today has over 12.5 million visually impaired individuals, roughly 20% of the world's total. About 4.5 million of them are disabled due to defective cornea. These individuals can have their eyesight restored by a simple surgery called corneal grafting. Unfortunately in India only 14000 to 15000 corneas are harvested for grafting."

Can we change that ? Yes, for sure if everyone of us decides to do the following things:
1) Decide to offer the gift of sight to two people (we need to do it first to encourage others)
2) Encourage others to offer the best gift - "the gift of sight"

A few vital points vis-à-vis eye donation are:
Practically every one from a newborn baby to even a 100-year-old senior citizen is eligible. Age, sex, blood group, caste, creed, religion do not matter.
Those who suffer from hypertension, diabetes, wear glasses or have undergone cataract operations too can donate eyes.
Eyes can be pledged during one's lifetime but can be donated only after death. Even visually disabled persons can pledge their eyes provided disability is due to other factors but cornea is in good condition.
Eyes can be pledged by filling a pledge card and sending it to an eye bank. Eye bank on receipt of pledge card issues a donor's card. For more information visit any of the following websites:
http://www.ebai.org/html/index.htm (Eye Bank association of India)
http://www.sankaranethralaya.org/eye_donation.htm ( Sankar Netralaya)
http://www.ebai.org/html/eyepledgeform.asp (Online eye pledging and eyebank addresses)

This is surily an ignored thing in India today. But, if we think we can make a difference then we we will make that difference. Charity is considered a very sacred act in Indian culture. Eye donation, especially is quite simple since one loses nothing except corneas which after death become unusable anyway. With one's eye donation, two visually disabled persons get invaluable gift of sight. Every one of us keeping aside our prejudices and superstitions must consider these facts seriously and contribute to this holy cause by not only pledging one's eyes but also motivating relatives of the deceased when a death occurs in a family or in the vicinity.

I am interested as well as committed to see this change happen !! I have decided to offer this gift so that I can help someone see the world through my eyes !!

Socrates said:
" Let him that would move the world first move himself. "

Need,Desire and Demand

Need, Desire and Demand. The fundamental of marketing is understanding clearly difference among these three. Needs are basic requirements of life like food, shelter and clothes, safety etc. they can also be identified with Maslow's primary needs or needs at the bottom most level. This is the level which is bare minimum to spend the life. Desires on the other hand are wishlist items that any human has. The wishlist can be end less. While Saints advise human being to spend their lives on needs and remain away from desires, it is the desire of products and services that is keeping the marketing alive and relevant. Imagine if everyone in this world is satisfied with needs fullfillment, who would then buy luxury products. Let us undetstand this by an example- One needs to eat food two- three times a day to satisfy his physical requirements so that he remains healthy. One may, on the other hand desire, to eat 36 varieties of food everyday. one may need only a few set of clothes, but may desire to have 100's of pairs of designer clothes. The marketing is based on the premises that one is not satisfied by fullfilling his needs only, and would buy if right kind of marketing is done to provoke him to buy. Some marketeers go to an extent of saying that they are expected to make people desire more any more. The example for this can be new age products like Mobiles, Laptops, PDA's etc. Do you think that there was a need of these products at the first place, or have these products and their features created their place in the market.

Then, what is demand? what is the difference between need , desire and demand ? we didn't ponder over this. It is actually simpler now to understand demand. The desire backed by ability to pay is demand. Let us see by an example- My transportation needs can be served by Maruti 800, I may desire to buy BMW, or Merc BenZ. Should BMW or Merc BenZ consider me into their potential customer list as of now. The answer is obviously a big NO. Even if I have desire to buy BMW, i dont have ability to pay. hence I am not a potential customer to BMW or Merc BenZ.

Now look at one of the applications of this concept in modern world. The financing option or EMI for your purchase of home, LCD, or a luxury car is basically providing you ability to purchase to convert desire to demand. the companies are gaining two fold in this, one they are creating new demand for their products and earning a commission through financing companies(Some companies have started their own fiancing divisions).

Needless to say: You may have something interesting to tell us. I have actually left a concept, related to need, desire, and demand. I expect that from you guys.

Marketing

My life and this blog would be incomplete if I don't write about marketing. I wish to add a few fundamental concept that I learn during my interaction with customers and marketing experts.Marketing and hence people who market, both are not always seen with a positive mindset. The reason of this approach is the buyer sees marketing as something which is not natural, or obvious or required. They seem to belive that marketing and marketeers are forcing products on the buyers. This mindset is substantiated with rapid, volumnous, and over communicating advertising of modern world. This is a seperate topic to discuss- I raise a question for sure on this whether marketing and markeer are getting the right respect and credit for their work , inside and outside the company. Let us discuss this now !!

Friends are forever

I met him at my current working place. we have many things in common. We are Punjabi, food freak- love Paratha, Rajma Chawal, Palak Panner, Sarso ka Saag, makai Ki Roti, the list goes on and on and on. There is in fact nothing that we dont like to eat. Talking about the common things, both of us are overweight by 10 kg , no marks to guess the reasons. look alike- all sardars and punjabis look alike- I guess. Another things in Common " Be Happy- Always", he almost remebers all the laugher challenge jokes and cracks them as part of his life. A real punjab da puttar and makes entry in life as Akshay Kumar does in Namaste London. We are still discovering more things in common ,,, Chak De Phatte !!!