When I entered the virtual coffee house today, a heated discussion was going on whether Walmart should be allowed to enter India. Naren seems to be a fierce opponent of Walmart. He does not like the idea of Walmart being allowed to open in India.
"They will kill all the small businesses and will push more people below the poverty line", Naren said at the top of his voice. He continued in the same high pitch "Lot of people in India still thrives on small business by selling rice or other goods of daily use. If Walmart is let in, that unemployed young man in the Kirana store will either hang himself or join a militant group."
"Naren is right", said Mudit. He is also not in favor of Walmart. Mudit has been following Walmart for quite a while now. He is not very hapy with the labor policies of Walmart. But
Mudit has another point.
He says "Walmart can never be successful in India. Walmart needs lot of supplies. In India supply is not concentrated in one place, it is distributed among lot of suppliers. Walmart will find it difficult coordinating with all of them. There will be chaos. It will cost them lot of money"
"Well, I do not agree Mudit," Swapan quipped after taking a quick sip of latte. "What might happen is a new line of business might arise out of this chaos. Brokering business will thrive well in this situation. Brokers , who will be a localite and knows the locality well can obtain the supplies from different suppliers and Walmart will have to coordinate with that broker only"
"Well I do not think that will happen", said Mohit. "This will be costly for Walmart and they will lose the opportunity to bargain with the actual suppliers. Walmart is never going to buy this idea, their aim is to keep the price as low as possible and the profit margin as high as possible. Walmart might try improving the current infrastructure of India so that they get access to the remotest parts of India. They can get things very cheap from those areas. I know Tripura is the largest producer of pineapples, but most of the produce cannot reach the market due to inaccessibility. I have seen pineapples rotting in the road side. Walmart may try to reach those places to get the produce and in turn they will help improve the infrastructure".
Their gossip gradually turned to some other topic. But I was still occupied with the Walmart topic. There is definitely going to be a change once Walmart joins the 250 billion dollar retail market of India. Whether that change is going to do any good to India is something that future can tell us.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Restless Mind
Today coffeehouse is almost empty. I ordered a cup of latte and grabbed a chair at the corner. Suddenly I saw Nameet. I waived towards him.
"Hey Nameet, over here", I said
"Hey Arka, whats up", Nameet replied.
"Nothing much man , Life is boring. I am not getting the kick out of it", I said
"Same here man..Arka, I do not know what it is , but recently I find myself very restless. I am not sure whether it is happening to me alone or if it is a normal thing that happens to everyone when they touch thirty"
"What is it?"
"Well, I feel I have lot of potential in me but I have not been able to make use of it for the past thirty years. It seems I have not achieved anything at all in my career so far. I want to do something. I want to make a difference. But do not know how?"
"You are not alone with this feeling Nameet, I feel the same myself. In my 8 years of career I feel I have not achieved much. I have done my masters in comp science, but now I think I should have done MBA. I do not have any job satisfaction. I want to do something of my own, I want to make a difference as you said. But I am not getting any idea what to do. I feel I am wasting away the time. With each day passing by , I am one day nearer to death."
"You are right, we must do something, may be we can start a business of our own. India is a booming market now. May be we can start a business there. What do you think?"
"Well, I am in if you plan to start something up. But what is in your mind?"
"I was thinking of starting up something like financial advising, we can study the market and then advise people on investing their money. To begin with we can publish a monthly magazine and encourage people to subscribe for free. The magazine will have articles on finance. The people who subscribes will form our client base and once we have a good number of clients, we can approach them to buy our financial advise for a fee."
"That is not a bad idea, let us start planning for it."
"Looks like a plan. I got to go now .will catch you later".
Nameet left. I started thinking about this idea. It is not a bad idea. If we succeed ,that will be an achievment. That will probably bring some satisfaction .
"Hey Nameet, over here", I said
"Hey Arka, whats up", Nameet replied.
"Nothing much man , Life is boring. I am not getting the kick out of it", I said
"Same here man..Arka, I do not know what it is , but recently I find myself very restless. I am not sure whether it is happening to me alone or if it is a normal thing that happens to everyone when they touch thirty"
"What is it?"
"Well, I feel I have lot of potential in me but I have not been able to make use of it for the past thirty years. It seems I have not achieved anything at all in my career so far. I want to do something. I want to make a difference. But do not know how?"
"You are not alone with this feeling Nameet, I feel the same myself. In my 8 years of career I feel I have not achieved much. I have done my masters in comp science, but now I think I should have done MBA. I do not have any job satisfaction. I want to do something of my own, I want to make a difference as you said. But I am not getting any idea what to do. I feel I am wasting away the time. With each day passing by , I am one day nearer to death."
"You are right, we must do something, may be we can start a business of our own. India is a booming market now. May be we can start a business there. What do you think?"
"Well, I am in if you plan to start something up. But what is in your mind?"
"I was thinking of starting up something like financial advising, we can study the market and then advise people on investing their money. To begin with we can publish a monthly magazine and encourage people to subscribe for free. The magazine will have articles on finance. The people who subscribes will form our client base and once we have a good number of clients, we can approach them to buy our financial advise for a fee."
"That is not a bad idea, let us start planning for it."
"Looks like a plan. I got to go now .will catch you later".
Nameet left. I started thinking about this idea. It is not a bad idea. If we succeed ,that will be an achievment. That will probably bring some satisfaction .
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Jaaneman
Navneet "Last night I watched the movie Jaaneman"
Prasun "How do you like it. Is it worth watching ?"
Navneet "Man, I was almost feeling sleepy in the first part. The movie was not in any angle well-directed. I do not know what was in Shsishir Kunder's mind when he directed it.The story however was good and with that story even I could have made a hit:). Even the songs were pathetic"
Prasun " What is the story?"
Navneet "Well the story starts with Agastya Rao(Akshay Kumar) narrating the story of his friend Suhan(Salman Khan) to his fellow astranaut(a blonde female whose identity is revealed at the end of the movie) in a space capsule orbiting round the earth. I initially thought it might be a science fiction type of movie where there will be a rendevous with the life forms from other space. But later it turned out to be a love story. From the space it directly goes to a flashback on earth where Suhan wakes up to a bad news. His divorced wife Piya(Preity Zinta)sent a notice to pay her a final sum of Rs 50 Lakh in lieu of the alimony which Suhan could not pay for the last one year due to his poor financial condition. Suhan then consulted his Chacha(a dwarfed Anupam Kher) and both of them started thinking of a solution when like a Farishta(angel) Agastya walks in. In his college days Agastya was very attracted to Piya and was in love with her. He could never express that love because Piya was in love with Suhan and Agastya, used to be called Champu in college was not very impressive for her.He was a simpleton but was sharp in studies. But now he has changed, he is an astronaut now and his physical apprearance also changed a lot. He looks pretty smart. Suhan and his dwarf uncle hatched a plan to help Agastya get his lost love back ,in that way Piya will get remarried to Agastya and Suhan will not have to pay the alimony per the laws of Indian Marriage act.
With this plan in mind Suhan and Agastya flies to new york where Piya moved to be near her parents after the divorce. Agastya started making efforts to impress Piya using Suhan's words and style. Suhan helped him in every step and in the process he came to know that he is a father of a daughter. This finding changed Suhan's mind and now he wants to start a new life with Piya and their daughter. But things have gone far enough and Piya got engaged to Agastya. All this time Agastya was not aware that Suhan was Piya's divorced husband.
Then follows a sentimental, emotional series of events, a story of love and sacrifice.
The second half was relatively better than the first half.
Prasun "So do you suggest watching the movie"
Navneet "It is probably worth a watch at home. At least you will come to know who the fellow astranaut of Agastya was. That was a surprise revealed at the end of the movie.There are few commedies which were very well acted by Anupam Kher and was enjoyable. You can also see Salman in the guise of a female. He does not look bad as a female."
Prasun "How do you like it. Is it worth watching ?"
Navneet "Man, I was almost feeling sleepy in the first part. The movie was not in any angle well-directed. I do not know what was in Shsishir Kunder's mind when he directed it.The story however was good and with that story even I could have made a hit:). Even the songs were pathetic"
Prasun " What is the story?"
Navneet "Well the story starts with Agastya Rao(Akshay Kumar) narrating the story of his friend Suhan(Salman Khan) to his fellow astranaut(a blonde female whose identity is revealed at the end of the movie) in a space capsule orbiting round the earth. I initially thought it might be a science fiction type of movie where there will be a rendevous with the life forms from other space. But later it turned out to be a love story. From the space it directly goes to a flashback on earth where Suhan wakes up to a bad news. His divorced wife Piya(Preity Zinta)sent a notice to pay her a final sum of Rs 50 Lakh in lieu of the alimony which Suhan could not pay for the last one year due to his poor financial condition. Suhan then consulted his Chacha(a dwarfed Anupam Kher) and both of them started thinking of a solution when like a Farishta(angel) Agastya walks in. In his college days Agastya was very attracted to Piya and was in love with her. He could never express that love because Piya was in love with Suhan and Agastya, used to be called Champu in college was not very impressive for her.He was a simpleton but was sharp in studies. But now he has changed, he is an astronaut now and his physical apprearance also changed a lot. He looks pretty smart. Suhan and his dwarf uncle hatched a plan to help Agastya get his lost love back ,in that way Piya will get remarried to Agastya and Suhan will not have to pay the alimony per the laws of Indian Marriage act.
With this plan in mind Suhan and Agastya flies to new york where Piya moved to be near her parents after the divorce. Agastya started making efforts to impress Piya using Suhan's words and style. Suhan helped him in every step and in the process he came to know that he is a father of a daughter. This finding changed Suhan's mind and now he wants to start a new life with Piya and their daughter. But things have gone far enough and Piya got engaged to Agastya. All this time Agastya was not aware that Suhan was Piya's divorced husband.
Then follows a sentimental, emotional series of events, a story of love and sacrifice.
The second half was relatively better than the first half.
Prasun "So do you suggest watching the movie"
Navneet "It is probably worth a watch at home. At least you will come to know who the fellow astranaut of Agastya was. That was a surprise revealed at the end of the movie.There are few commedies which were very well acted by Anupam Kher and was enjoyable. You can also see Salman in the guise of a female. He does not look bad as a female."
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