Never a dull moment

We observed the nineteenth death anniversary ceremony of my dad last week. It has been a long time since he left all of a sudden with no inkling of bad health. He left abruptly with the speed with which one vacates the seat in a local bus on reaching the destination. I always wonder whether it would be possible to meet him once for an hour and what I would pack into that hour while sharing my life experience in the nineteen years which have flown by. I will not tell him any of the jolts and shocks we suffered during this period. it would only be the positive / happy tidings in the family and life in society in general. Where would I start ? Will I start with my life partner Geetha whom I took in couple of months after he left or with our kids whom he had never seen ? Yes, that would be a good point to start as he had a way with kids and youngsters. He always used to carry a roll of Poppins on him and would even offer it to relatives who are in college. Our daughters would occupy the ce...

I was reading an article about Viveks, the organization with a large consumer dealership network in South India now. Viveks which now has a turnover of Rs 400 crores per annum had a humble beginning in 1965. Viveks started the unique discounted sale on New Year from 1977. The owners of Viveks recollect that the only item which was retailed in good numbers was radios in initial years with even Sumeet mixie having a waiting period of two weeks. It was sellers market then. Everything was in short supply. Customers used to conduct pooja in their house after taking delivery of the consumer goods those days! Viveks have revolutionized consumer product sales by getting into after sales service thereby providing all encompassing sales and after sales service under one umbrella.This earned an excellent brand loyalty for Viveks on its own besides the brands of products they hawk. Viveks experience over the years has a parallel with my family’s possession. It was lack of ability to pay rather tha...

Terrorists ran amok in 2009 in our north western neighbourhood. There were more terrorist strikes and suicide bomb attacks despite the presence of armies of USA and other countries being on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq. Unmanned drone attacks have also been used to target terrorists ensconced in tribal areas of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan. Suicide bombers are striking daily in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan seems to be facing the brunt of the impact of suicide bombers. For long periods of time during 2009 it was Swat valley which was the battle ground. Lahore was an unaffected place until terrorists launched an attack on Srilankan cricket team bus which was taking the team from hotel to Gaddafi stadium. The players had a providential escape due to the presence of mind of the alert bus driver. Karachi has seen suicide bomb attacks of sizeable magnitude every now and then culminating with the suicide bomber attack on day of Moharram. The year also showed the world how a viol...