I am a Hindu & I don't eat beef...

I am a Hindu and I don’t eat beef because the cow is our holy animal. People who eat beef are a shame to our country and should be banished from here. I tie up cows to trees for their entire life. I feed them hay regularly and even take them grazing twice a day. This act of kindness bestows great blessings upon me and will send me to heaven once I am dead.

Treating the cow with such kindness makes me its owner, gives me the right to press and squeeze milk out of the cow’s udders - milk that is meant for the cow’s newly born baby calf.

I follow other intelligent practices like not eating meat 3 days a week. I fast every Thursday & visit the temple every morning.  On my way to work, I eat the prasadam and throw the plastic it came in outside my window. I also spit on roads and pee on the sidewalk sometimes; unless, of course, there are pictures of Gods & Goddesses put up. In that case, I find the next suitable public place to spit and pee.

I do not eat fish for a month every year since it is their breeding season. I give up on meat and eggs too during this time. A few days later, I send out toxic colours, plaster of paris, plastic and other harmful substances into the ocean - all in the name of God. The newly hatched fish babies need some toys to play with, right!? Which baby doesn’t like to choke & die after all?

I am an ardent believer in God and my God is pretty unorthodox so I blast my speakers, dance to the loud music mostly playing raunchy songs while worshiping my God. I get drunk too which gives me the authority to molest the next girl I spot because the roads are crowded and I can get away with it.

I have attacked people with plastic balloons filled with water, color & what-not; no one’s ever taught me that it’s wrong! I burst crackers while celebrating my festivals - crackers that not only kill countless dogs, cats & other animals every year, but human beings too. Oh wait, did a cow just die because of me? Never mind, I am a Hindu and I don’t eat beef!

P.S. This post is not intended to hurt anyone's religious sentiments and is purely a description of how I am as a person.

Life is Easy!

Yes, you read it correctly - Life is easy for me. No, it’s not a sarcastic statement!

Life is not easy in itself, but I realized how easy it was for me or rather us (city people) when I recently went for a trek to Harishchandragad. I would like to begin with a brief description of our trek.

Harishchandragad is a hill fort in Ahmednagar district. We took a private vehicle from Mumbai to Paachnai village (which is a journey of approx. 200 to 250 km). Paachnai is the easiest route to trek upto Harishchandragad. Other notable routes are via Nalichi Vaat (the most difficult) and Kothale village.

So how did this realization of life being easy occur? That’s when I saw the locals. Although, I was an avid trekker during the years 2006-2012, I never trekked after that until last month’s trek to Harishchandragad. So we decided to take a local guide along-with us. The guide told us it shouldn’t take more than 1.5 hours for us to reach the top (since the guide’s 85 year old mother covers the entire route in around an hour). It took us 3 hours (with a couple of halts for tea and pictures).

Not just the trek duration, other things praise-worthy of the locals are that they cover the entire distance barefoot or wearing chappals (flip-flops) and the ease with which they climb. Some of them carry a wooden stick in hand. And here we are armed with water bottles and expensive trekking gear.

No doubt it comes with practise since a very young age just like us Mumbaikars being adept at local train travel during peak hours ;)

The locals at Paachnai village rear cattle and work on / own paddy fields. They travel 8-10 km to purchase vegetables and other essentials. They burn wood to cook and sometimes use kerosene.

All in all, it was a soul-stirring experience. It is a very picturesque location and a must visit for trekkers. Sharing a couple of pictures taken by us below:

This is the beautiful view of the mountain:

View obstructed by fog:

Mini waterfall on the way:

Ancient well which was used for water consumption during earlier times, but it is too dirty now even to swim due to pollution caused by tourists:

The famous Konkankada cliff:

View from Konkankada (usually this spot is famous as you can view the entire Konkan region from here; however, owing to monsoon, we couldn't see a thing other than dense fog):

Relax, tension-free mode - ON:

That's all folks!

Taj Mahal Replica

It is a well known fact that the Taj Mahal mausoleum was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife Mumtaz Mahal. It is also equally well known (but unproven) that after the Taj Mahal was built, Shah Jahan ordered the master craftsman's hands to be cut off.

It is said that Shah Jahan decided to take such a drastic step as he did not want the Taj Mahal to be replicated. But did Shah Jahan ever think that someone may create a replica just by studying it closely? 

Has anyone been successful at creating a replica of the Taj Mahal? What was the result? This post talks about that, so read on to know more...

When travelling on the NH4 towards Kalyan Phata from Kalamboli, you can find this structure:

Although incomplete, it is astonishingly beautiful! You can find this structure in a place called Dahisar More Pimpri in Balegaon which falls under the district Thane (not to be confused with the western suburb Dahisar). This is how the Google Earth image looks like:

The similarity of this structure to the Taj Mahal is so evident. The design and attention-to-detail is amazing.

As per the locals there, the construction was halted mid-way due to unknown reasons. The structure now houses a few people who live there in peace and harmony. All they want is to be left alone without any media attention and publicity.

Here are some more pics:

The Amazon-Hachette Battle

As an avid reader, it was quite shocking for me when I read about the Amazon-Hachette controversy.

Hachette is one of the top 5 publishing companies for English language books whereas; Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer. So does it make sense that Amazon decided to stop selling books by Hachette?

Hachette publishes books by 2 very famous authors - J.K. Rowling (a.k.a. Robert Galbraith) and James Patterson. Amazon’s decision also resulted in certain readers saying it's time for a total boycott of Amazon.

The reader in me is able to relate to the feelings of these people. I, being a huge J.K. Rowling fan, could never support this decision by Amazon. I have practically grown up reading the Harry Potter series and I was one of the many people who were eager to get their hands on “The Casual Vacancy” when it was released. At present, I am nose deep in “The Cuckoo’s Calling” and eagerly waiting for the book Silkworm” by Robert Galbraith.

Amazon's main concern is prices for e-books; Amazon wants them lower than what Hachette will agree to. Demands not being met, Amazon stopped taking pre-orders for Hachette books altogether. This step by Amazon has lead to many of its customers running to competitors.

Although this has disappointed the reader in me, the digital marketer in me can somehow sympathize with Amazon. After all, the following statement by Amazon does make some sense:

"Negotiating with suppliers for equitable terms and making stocking and assortment decisions based on those terms is one of a bookseller’s, or any retailer’s, most important jobs. Suppliers get to decide the terms under which they are willing to sell to a retailer. It’s reciprocally the right of a retailer to determine whether the terms on offer are acceptable and to stock items accordingly. A retailer can feature a supplier’s items in its advertising and promotional circulars, “stack it high” in the front of the store, keep small quantities on hand in the back aisle, or not carry the item at all, and bookstores and other retailers do these every day. When we negotiate with suppliers, we are doing so on behalf of customers. Negotiating for acceptable terms is an essential business practice that is critical to keeping service and value high for customers in the medium and long term.”

They also said that they will be informing their customers once the matter is resolved and they start selling Hachette books again.

Hopefully, Amazon is aware that readers are not at its mercy. It doesn’t really matter which retailer we buy from and at what price as long as we get to read our favourite book at the right time. And there are tons of retailers out there who are ready to take advantage of this Amazon-Hachette dispute.

Hindustan Unilever Installs 'Jump-Pumps'

Continuing on the topic of last time... HUL!!

I was in for a surprise when I saw it in the paper early morning on May 6, 2014. But this was a good kind of surprise. I got to read what HUL has done as a part of its promotion for its brand Lifebuoy.

The Mid Day Meal Scheme is a great programme by the Government of India which provides free meals to school children on working days. But most of these kids were not engaging in the healthy habit of washing hands before lunch. This was the case despite the easy availability of soap to them.

The reason behind this being the heavy and cumbersome hand pumps the children had to operate in order to obtain water. What HUL did to overcome this obstacle is worth noting down.

HUL transformed the old and ugly pumps to the more fun-filled 'Jump-Pumps'. A specially crafted rocking horse was installed on the handles of the hand pumps. This was done in around 1500 schools across India. The ‘Jump Pump’ game was explained to the kids, which made washing hands a more interesting activity for them.

HUL has even released a video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hazUOVzqoMs

Every year, nearly 2 million children under the age of 5 die of infections like diarrhoea and pneumonia. This was a great awareness campaign launched by HUL keeping in mind the fact that every 2 minutes a child dies of diarrhoea in India.

India is awaiting more such philanthropic activities. So all other multinationals, are you listening??

Unilever’s Project Sunlight - Is There Really a Ray of Hope Here?

You take a famous celebrity, babies and play upon the emotions of people by recording the reactions of to-be parents. Seems like a pretty good recipe for an advertising campaign. What do you get after mixing all these ingredients? You get thousands of likes on social networking sites, more than 3 million views for the ad and still counting.

So, what exactly is this “Project Sunlight”? The website claims that it is a movement towards sustainability, a movement that has already started.

But I see no movement here. What does Unilever exactly plan on doing? It would have been better if they would have stated their goals on the website clearly. So, they plan on helping 2 million children through partnerships. They plan on providing school meals, improved hygiene and clean & safe drinking water. This will be done with the help of the World Food Programme, Save the Children and UNICEF. The question here is how are they going about their goals, where is the clarity on that? We all are waiting to hear some answers.

Unilever has also made pledges like using 100 percent cage-free eggs by 2020. They have also stated that their Lipton tea products will come from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms by 2018.

Will all these good things they plan on doing override the unethical stuff they’ve been doing all these years. Will people ever forget about the rain forests Unilever keeps on destroying? Unilever purchases palm oil in large quantities from suppliers who are responsible for the depletion of rain forests. What about the association of Unilever with unethical companies like Wilmar?

Unilever also uses harmful substances like BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) in its products. BHT is a toxic carcinogen which also causes many allergies and respiratory problems.

Unilever is responsible for destroying Indonesian villages and contributes majorly towards Indonesia being the third largest emitter of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Closer home, the Indian subsidiary Hindustan Unilever is responsible for harming Tamil Nadu by dumping highly toxic mercury waste.

All this boils down to one simple thing. You can’t just make a fancy advertisement and tell people to buy your stuff to save the environment. Yes, there are people out there who are asking: How do we save the environment by stocking up on soaps, deodorant sprays, fairness creams et al.

Mumbai BEST / NMMT Bus Services

Why don’t these AC bus drivers halt at the stops where they are supposed to? And then the authorities say that AC buses are going into losses.  There are passengers out there, but these id**ts are not ready to halt for us.

And when you somehow manage to get into one of these buses by standing in the middle of the road without being run over by a passing vehicle, you may feel you are lucky. But the real question is whether all the effort was worth it? The answer is - No.

You wait for hours on end in the heat or rain and what you get in return is nowhere close to the whopping amount you pay for the journey. And just in case you are planning to catch up on that new movie and decide on travelling by an air conditioned bus, your bus tickets may even cost you more than your movie.

For those of you who always seem to hit the snooze button a couple of times and don’t find the time for a shower before leaving for office early in the morning, just get into one of these AC buses in monsoon. The leak in the roof will keep you feeling fresh all day long. If you have travelled by an AC bus in summer then you must be aware that it does nothing to keep the heat out. There’s always a gap near the window or some other place to keep reminding you of how hot it is outside and how lucky you are to be sitting there.

Lastly apart from the regular strikes, there are these ever so important holidays, like Janmashtami last month. So if you had a day off and planned to go meet that old aunt after long, if you thought of doing so by travelling in an AC bus then all your plans went down the drain.

So what should the authorities do to serve their passengers better? There’s a long way to go. Why not start with following simple rules like not talking on the phone while driving, halting at designated bus stops etc.