Month: February 2014

Categories
Bombay, bas

Why I don’t mind when the lights turn red

Nobody likes being stuck in Mumbai traffic, but it actually gives time for introspection or a few minutes of relaxation.
by Dr Pooja Birwatkar

As a new driver, whenever cars which had been level with me suddenly zoomed past, I would wonder what the matter was. Now, after considerable driving experience, I realise that they’ve spotted a traffic signal that is green and are trying to rush past it before it turns to red

Despite the amount of driving I’ve put in already, I still slow down seeing the green light from afar. Most vehicles rush ahead while I wait for the signal to turn red. You must think I am mad. After all, who would actually seek out a red light at the signal? But I do it for various reasons. I have developed a sort of life of my own at the traffic signal. It is now an important part of my daily commuting life and I have learnt to make the most of it.

Firstly, stopping at the signal provides a breather. Your feet, hands and brain all get temporary relaxation as you sit back and actually listen to what the RJ on the music channel is saying. There are some people who still honk from behind you and as you glance at the rear mirror to see what all the commotion is about, you catch a quick glimpse of yourself. This prompts me to readjust the mirror to look at myself more closely. But don’t do this if you are even a little bit insecure about your looks – car mirrors are notorious at telling the truth about your face, warts and all. My rearview mirror reminds me if I need to make a salon appointment or touch up my face.

While I am waiting, I also check for fuel reserves, readjust the seats and mirrors, and make a mental note of cleaning the car.

A great thing about waiting at the signal is that you get to know which fruit is in season, and what its current rate is. I am sometimes sorely tempted by the sight of luscious mangoes and red strawberries, but thanks to a movie which showed these sellers actually polishing the fruit with spit, I have learnt to resist. I do, however, resolve to visit the market and buy some fresh fruit.

I also check my cell phone for calls and messages. But a piece of advice here – do this quickly, because the moment your call is connected or you’ve almost finished texting, the light changes to green and everybody starts honking at you. And don’t try making calls while driving. Your loved ones are waiting for you at home, and the people on the road also have families and homes to go to.

The wait at signals also gives me time to mentally tick off the tasks I’ve finished or add more tasks I need to get through. What I should make for dinner is usually decided at the signal nearest to my home.

If you’re waiting, you should also look around. You’ll learn which new movies, TV serials, products are in your city, as also which celebrity is arriving soon. I’ve always been updated about the next phase of polio drives through hoardings. I also try to see how many of the cars around me I actually know – this knowledge helps me keep up with my five-year-old who knows more car names than me and frequently tests my knowledge.

Waiting at the signal also reminds me of my civic duties. Of course, there have been times when I have tried to cross the signal and the lights have turned red. It has been too late to reverse, so I’ve just waited and kept an eye out for a traffic cop, who, sure enough, jumps out at me from behind a tree.

The wait also makes me introspect – I compare my life with those of the people living on the city’s streets. Little boys and girls who should be in school are either out begging or kids at street signalsselling stuff. I always use this time to teach my son about gratitude and empathy, even as I learn a lesson or two. I don’t mean to sermonise, but if you can, do buy something from those street urchins.

I also get idea for most of my articles like this one while waiting at the signal. And I am not the only one who appreciates traffic signals. Several movie plots have liberally used traffic signals for important turning points in their stories. In the movies, many romances have played out at traffic signals, and bichhde hue bhais and behens have also come together.

I really like waiting at traffic signals. Do you?

 

(Pictures courtesy election.rediff.com, in.reuters.com)

Categories
Become

Luxe styling at your doorstep…every month

Authentic, global brands arrive in a bag at your doorstep every month. For the fashion-conscious Indian, Fab Bag spells delight.
by Ritika Bhandari Parekh

There is a new bag in town and unlike the faux Chanel tote you may be flaunting, every item in this bag is authentic and luxurious. This bag – FabBag, for the uninitiated – comes from a startup that relies on creativity and hard work to deliver in a fast-growing Indian beauty industry.

FabBag was conceived as a beauty and grooming discovery service based on the subscription model. One can sign up online to receive a monthly bag of the best products from top global brands right at their doorstep.

Vineeta and KaushikWho started it?

When IIM-A alumni Vineeta Singh (31) and Kaushik Mukherjee (31) were enjoying their evening coffee at a Powai-based café, little did they realise that the idea of FabBag will be a major talking point among fashion lovers. The idea grew on them, and they decided to launch operations in 2012 with a 13-member team handling sourcing, customer delight, operations, technology, marketing and accounts.

Lancome, Sally Hansen, Burt’s Bees, Clinique, and Dior are just a few brands that have joined hands with the FabBag team. Members are entitled to receive both full-size and travel-sized products worth more than thrice the value for as low as Rs 333.

FabBag’s appeal lies in its simple promise of making expensive or hard-to-find niche brands more accessible to prospective buyers. “With newer global brands entering a fast-growing Indian beauty market, we just felt that we were in a ‘right-place-at-the-right-time’ situation that had to be taken to the next step,” says Kaushik.

“Both of us had a very different view of the business – while Vineeta was excited about the beauty and grooming angle, I was supercharged about building an Internet product that could revolutionise the way brands reached out to customers in India,” adds Kaushik. The company was started with an initial investment of Rs 10 lakh and managed to raise funding in its first year of operations.

Their prior experience of working on startups helped fine tune FabBag and garner the support of over 1.2 lakh fans on Facebook. Its member base is increasing on social media platforms such as Twitter (2100+ followers), Pinterest and Instagram.

Putting the bag together

Whoever thinks that procuring the cosmetics for each month’s FabBag is a simple task, should meet Vineeta to get the clear picture. She says, “Planning a FabBag involves more January fabbagscience than one can imagine. If there’s anything we’ve done in the last two years, it is learning from every box and every bag that we have shipped and collecting data points from our members for every new product that we have shipped.”

While signing up, each member fills up a fun quiz that tells the company a bit about their beauty preferences and helps them deliver products they are most likely to love. The team’s planning process starts two to three months in advance, where they take a look at the last three months’ collection of products, the audience segmentation and the brands.

Vineeta says, “We don’t repeat products, and hand-pick specific problem-addressing products from members who flag a beauty need. Lastly, we’re very selective about which brands we allow into a bag. Each brand is rated on multiple parameters of price-point, SKU mix, quantity, exclusivity, before we decide on that.”

The fashion-conscious Indian

The bag which includes a skincare product, a beauty product and a fragrance or bath product. While a large share of their subscriptions come from beyond the metros, they realised that despite being value-conscious, the Indian female is fiercely loyal and a vocal evangelist of anything she finds happiness in.

Kaushik explains, “A flip-side is that, since purchase decisions are largely emotional, a breach of service is treated akin to a breach of trust – in a way, this is good for young companies like ours. It teaches us the discipline of being sensitive to every member’s needs.”

They believe that the Tier II and Tier III cities’ demographic is a tough nut to crack but has already shown enough proof of the fact that a huge market exists for products that fall in to the ‘prestige’ and ‘premium’ brackets.

On challenges and future plans

The FabBag was earlier known as Velvette; the re-christening happened when prospective members found it difficult to locate them in the first attempt. “Our product has been fairly viral and when our members told their circles of influence about us, it was tedious to spell out the brand name every time,” Kaushik says, “By October 2013, we knew that we had to rebrand it to an easy to remember name and with ‘FabBag’ – we knew it was exactly what we had been looking for.”

The team now offers a Men’s FabBag, too. With the emergence of men’s grooming products in almost every brand and research that indicates 40 per cent of beauty salon revenues are attributed to men – they decided to run a pilot for a smaller batch of men’s bags. “Sure enough, we sold out in four days flat,” says Kaushik.

So why should everyone have a FabBag? They explain through one of their member’s words – because “it’s like receiving a carefully-selected surprise birthday gift every month of the year!” And a gift is always welcome!

(Pictures courtesy Fabbag)

Categories
Kharcha paani

Activists fume as BEST decides to give free passes to corporators

32 city-based activists have written to the BMC chief asking why the running-in-losses BEST is being burdened with this largesse.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking has, financially, been in the red for several years now. The Undertaking has tried to make up for its losses (on all its bus routes in Mumbai) by regularly increasing ticket fares, but to no avail.

And now, surprisingly, the BEST has decided to award free travel passes to the BMC’s 241 Corporators and Committee members on its AC buses. There are 227 elected corporators and 14 nominated corporators. This idea has upset activists in the city, two of whom – Gaurang Vora and Kamlakar Shenoy – have shot off a strong letter of protest to BMC Commissioner Sitaram Kunte last week. The letter is supported by 30 other Mumbai-based activists.

The letter reads, “We, the residents of Mumbai, would like to lodge our strong protest against wastage of scarce public funds to grant free travel to 241 Corporators and Committee Members on the AC buses of loss-making BEST undertaking.

“We fail to understand the logic for this largesse by the BMC administration. The demands of our representatives are ever increasing with no collateral accountability. The Corporators have no responsibility for providing better civic conditions – like pothole-free roads, un-encroached footpaths and public open spaces, choked drains and nallahs, clean drinking water supply, better maintained gardens and maidans, etc.”

Gaurang says, “The Corporators already are entitled to free travel on the BEST buses. They were given laptops worth crores of rupees but how many use them? Do they use them to receive complaints from citizens or their feedback? Do they hold regular meetings with the residents of their constituency? Then what right do they have to demand more and more freebies at the cost of tax payers’ hard-earned money?”

The letter urges the BMC to revoke the decision, on the grounds that the “BEST is already bearing losses of up to Rs 748 crore” and further burdening it would result in fare hikes for the ordinary citizen.

“Though we have asked for a hearing on the matter, we have not been given a meeting time yet,” Gaurang said.

(Picture courtesy www.indiastudychannel.com)

Categories
Watch

In pictures: The Big Door

Vivek and Sunita Gupta’s decor and jewellery store at Pali Hill is an opulent tribute to Indian art and heritage.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

It’s a place that’s really hard to miss – located at the foot of Pali Hill, it stands behind a massive door that opens on knocking with an old-world brass knocker. Inside, its plush interiors take the breath away.

“We opened operations in September last year, and the response has been phenomenal,” says Amrita Kakka, Marketing Manager, The Big Door. “Most of our clientele comes from the nearby areas, and there is a fair smattering of expats doing the rounds of the store, too,” she says.

Presented by Vivek and Sunita Gupta, the store tries to make “art and grandeur a part of life.” Spread across 7,500 square feet over two floors and a big terrace space, the store houses Mughal, Nizam and Rajput inspired jewellery from Ravi Jewels, Jaipur, apart from precious and semi-precious jewellery, set in gold, silver and silver-gold plated metal, to Victorian, polkis and jadau pieces. The silver jewellery pieces are a huge hit with customers, says Amrita, since they are pocket-friendly and come in stunning designs.

Apart from these, the store also houses a huge collection of interior pieces. Interestingly, the highlight of the store is its washroom – a treat for the eyes, every item in there is on sale, too! 

See the pics below for a glimpse into The Big Door:

 

The store's best feature - its imposing main entrance door.      The store is becoming popular for its jewellery collection.The artifacts on display come from the store's warehouse in Udaipur

Most of the furniture pieces comprise silver plating over teakwood.This tall storing cabinet with shelves is actually a boat!No two pieces or sets of jewellery are alike at this store.Most of the furniture pieces comprise silver plating over teakwood.Living room pieces

Categories
Overdose

Mumbai’s unruly taxiwallahs

The city’s taxis refuse to ply more than they agree to drop you at your destination. What can be done?
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma | @jatiin_sharma on Twitter

In the 1990s, the Mumbai Regional Transport Office (RTO) had a rule. Every day, before they started plying on the roads of Mumbai, all rickshawwallahs and taxiwallahs had to go to the RTO and get their cards signed. Again, at the end of that day’s business, they would have to go to the RTO and sign to close the day’s register. This rule was kept a check on autos and taxis plying on the roads daily, but was later done away with due to the inconvenience that was caused to the auto and taxiwallahs.

But this rule resulted in one very positive thing: it became the reason that the city’s passengers received some good service from these men who ran part of the transport network. The drivers of the city’s taxis and autos had a higher authority they were directly answerable to, and this helped check errant behaviour.

Cut to the present day. Recently, I saw a woman at Bandra East asked a cabbie to take her to Bandra West. Now, since most of the city’s autos and taxis believe in a long distance relationship with their customers, this guy refused to ply. To add to her ire, he also gave her a bit of gyaan when she asked why he refused to ply. “Jao kanoon padh kar aao, hum aapke naukar nahin hain (Go study the rule. We are not your servants),” he said.

Naturally, I called up the taxi union and asked them to take action against this particular rascal, supplying details of his cab number. But even while doing so, I realised that the city is constantly reeling under the atrocious attitude of these hooligans behind the wheels, who are only increasing in number. Most of us will fondly recall the Mumbai of yesteryears, when such blatant violation of rules was never seen – was it because taxi and rickshawallahs were constantly reminded that they formed a part of the public transport system, and that they were, essentially, public servants?

These days, too, these auto and taxi drivers wear badges and uniforms designated for their type of vehicle, just like old times. But on a daily basis, there are several unregistered asking for cabauto and taxi drivers who take the vehicles out for business without the required uniform, badge and registration papers in place. Most people are , to this day, unaware that they can turn a cabbie or autowallah over to the cops for the slightest violation of rules. Astoundingly, a lot of people are content letting unruly behaviour from auto and taxi drivers slide, if it means that the driver will deign to ferry customers to a certain spot.

What is needed is immediate intervention from the Government and the RTO, which should put in place a system of swift penalty and punishment to auto and taxi drivers who refuse to ply. It is not enough to merely supply a helpline number (that citizens can complain on – all calls must be received and immediate assistance provided. If traffic cops do take action, it is days after the actual offence has been committed – and auto and taxi drivers know this. No wonder then, that their brazenness increases by the day, and they feel it is their birthright to hold Mumbaikars hostage. And this, despite the steep fares the city shells out just to travel from Spot A to Spot B.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else. ‘Overdose’ is his take on Mumbai’s quirks and quibbles.

(Pictures courtesy www.stockpicturesforeveryone.com, news.rediff.com. Images are used for representational purposes only)

Categories
Enough said

Of blackouts and divided States

What could have been a crucial political debate was blacked out on Lok Sabha TV. We can only wonder why.
Humra Quraishiby Humra Quraishi

It was a crucial moment in the country’s history – a debate preceding a process to carve out a new State in the country. The Lok Sabha TV, which has monopoly rights over the telecast of house proceedings, would have shown the country what transpired during those 90 minutes set aside for the exercise.

And what happened? There was a blackout!

At the end of it all, the expected result still stood – there was to be a partitioning of the erstwhile State of Andhra Pradesh. Yes, the Congress party managed to secure the Lok Sabha’s nod for the creation of Telangana State, albeit amid an unprecedented TV blackout. Lok Sabha TV went mysteriously blank during the crucial 90-minute long debate.

Amidst the fury that citizens expressed over the blackout of the proceedings, also stood the rather apparent support of the BJP in the passage of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill. Or did you not notice this? 

Any such division is like a divorce, causing innumerable fault lines to surface. And what stops others from demanding separate States – Vidarbha has been clamouring for a separate State from Maharashtra for a while now. Even before the actual divisions are announced and marked, we stand to divide people who earlier shared a common geography, as well as a history, as contentious as it may be!

There are too many loopholes in the system, which the top brass of leadership seems to take easy advantage of, but which common citizens like you and I can never hope to touch. It has never been tougher than the present time to fight the establishment, and tougher still is to fight it from outside the system.

You would have to be an Arvind Kejriwal to take to political recourse. I admire Kejriwal’s idea of moving away from Anna Hazare and getting right into the thick of politics. This paved the way not just for his own success, but his ability to attack popular notions and emphasise his opinions. As an apolitical citizen, he couldn’t have moved ahead – he would have been sidetracked for years to come, until at last he would run out of steam…

We’re all still waiting to see what Kejriwal does next, now that he is no longer CM of Delhi.

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

(Picture courtesy www.livemint.com)

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