They walk around the city with a huge cloth bundle slung over their shoulders. It’s their mobile showroom.They live with their competitors in seedy hotels and carry a small diary that lists every single one of their customers. From their villages in West Bengal’s interiors, they make the difficult journey to the borders of Bangladesh …
Seth Godin pointed me to BA Magazine( Before & After) helmed by a quiet, introspective designer called John McWade. It concentrates on the nuances – something that evolves only after years of experience. In the primary years, most designers are too busy looking different, wanting to blaze a new trail, try out colours and typefaces that leap out …
Which camp do you belong to – the one that changes ringtones every month, or the one that doesn’t bother to change the one that came straight out of the box? Listening to phones going off in restaurants, malls, and cinemas, Nokia’s default tone is the one that I hear most often. I suspect navigation …
Gyrating wildly but completely out of synch with the music were several frenzied partygoers. It didn’t matter because, in the haze of created smoke and laser lights, everyone was having a ball. It was a funny experience raising lighted candles and singing ‘auld lang syne‘ with strangers, just before the countdown clock kicked in. A …
The distance between the new airport in Hyderabad and the city has created problems and opportunities. The old airport was plumb in the middle of the city and it was like getting off a bus and joining the mainstream. This is a good 20 km’s away. The taxis are priced at the normal rate, but …
Landing on a cold and foggy morning at Hyderabad airport, I was astonished to see some sprightly sparrows hopping and chirping about. They haven’t taken well to the urban spread. In apartment blocks, pigeons nest and liberally spray dung over parked cars, but sparrows are a rare sight. They don’t have the natural aggression of …
About 3 years ago, Chennai’s billboards disappeared. A government ban came into effect and erased every single vinyl from public view. Old, dilapidated and unfamiliar buildings appeared magically. Like dirt under the carpet, Chennai’s skyline was glamourous when it was unseen. Today, the only outdoor medium that survives in Chennai are the bus stops. Splashed …
Ever since getting an Android phone, I have started downloading a lot more applications, using it to check mail and updating to-do lists. It never happened with my earlier phones. There is a comfort that touch screens provide. Zooming in and out of web pages means that you can increase type sizes to legible levels …
Driving past an upmarket marriage clothes store for men – Manyavar, I did a double take. I’ve seen mannequins in all kinds of shapes and poses, but this one had a slight paunch! It is obviously deliberate. The brand managers have seen that their customers are not sculpted gods and are out to make them …
An article in the New York Times explains how superstars tend to dominate the markets they cater to. Starting with sports legends like Pele, who earned $150,000 when he was at his peak, there now athletes, actors, TV anchors and bankers who earn the lion’s share of the cake. While this works wonderfully for the persons getting …
