Education is good, but not necessary to be successful

Well this post has nothing to do with travel or photography. It has to do with entrepreneurship.

True story. In 1980s, there was a young school-going boy in Kanpur. His father, an ordinary government officer, aspired that his son become a doctor. The boy, being very good in studies, thought it was for the best. When he completed his schooling with great marks, a friend of his father came visiting. When he learnt about the boy's performance he dug into his pocket, took out 5 large notes from a whole bundle and rewarded the boy. Excited and happy, the boy went to his mother to show her the money, which was quite a lot in those days (maybe even more than what his father made in a month). The mother tells him his "uncle" is rich because he is a businessman and is the "maalik" (owner) of a company. The boy, impressed, decides he'd rather be a "maalik" than a doctor!

Few years later, the boy has grown into a young sales agent for polythene bags in Kanpur. One day he observed that a pan wala sold pan masala by taking a little from the original cylindrical container, wrapping it in a newspaper and selling it "loose". Everyone ate pan masala, but wanted to buy a small amount only rather than a complete box in which it was sold. That was the "eureka" moment, and the young man sold the concept of small flexible pouches for pan masala to Deepak Kothari, the boss of Pan Parag.

The small pouches were a super hit. Everyone could buy a small pouch for "one use". Today these pouches have revolutionized retail, specially among lower and middle classes, because they can buy lots of products - from detergent to shampoos, which were beyond their reach in larger packaging. The young man is now old, and goes by the name of Ashok Chaturvedi. The company he started is called UFlex, and is among the largest flexible packaging companies in the world, worth over Rs 6000 crores today.

Another entrepreneurial success story, courtesy my mom who works for this company. There may be minor factual errors here, but the essence of the story is that a man from a very ordinary background, who still doesn't speak very fluent English, today owns many private jets! Cheers to the passion of entrepreneurship. :)

Rediscovering Delhi – Part 5: Qutb Minar Complex

Its been a long time since the last post (the rant about tobacco ad was just a lame filler). I’m home alone for a few days, so I thought I’d check out some heritage site in Delhi, and settled for Qutb Minar.

This monument and its complex was built by the first Islamic rulers in India. Qutb Minar was Qutb-ud-din Aibak’s solution to allow his princess a clear view of the Yamuna. He succeeded in completing only the first floor. The next three were added by his son-in-law and successor Iltutmish, and the monument was completed by Firoz Shah Tuglaq. The British also played around with the tower, adding and then removing a Europian dome structure at top now called “Smith’s Folly” and installed in the lawns.

Apart from the awe inspiring structures, what I liked most was that the entire experience of visiting a heritage site has become painless. The washrooms were excellent, the audio guide totally worth it and the entire complex sports ramps for accessibility! I’ve never seen this in any other heritage site so far. (I’m even including a photograph showing the ramp). Also included is an interesting feature missing in any mosque – columns with intricate carvings. This mosque (the first ever in India) was built over the remains of a temple and due to shortage of time and local skilled workers of Islamic style, the columns were retained in the final structure.

I’ve decided to go to the place again when the lights go up after sunset. Unfortunately I shot the photos when sun was at its brightest, hence no amazing shots. Comments are most welcome. :)

Tobacco is injurious to health

I was watching an interesting movie on HBO at night, and I saw a long advertisement about throat and oral cancer. There's a doctor talking about the cancer and visuals show sickening images of victims. The ad runs for quite a while (more than 30 seconds I think) and the last visual says "Stop Chewing Tobacco: Tobacco causes cancer" (or something to that effect).

Interesting things to note: The advertisement message in the end is in English, and is being shown to viewers of HBO at 10 pm in the night. Now I don't want to sound class-conscious here, but ad-slots cost money (comes from us tax payers), and I have great doubts about this advertisement's target audience the way it ran.

Shouldn't it have been on other channels and in local languages where most people watching it are likely tobacco consumers? HBO or Travel & Living has a different kind of viewership! But who cares - the Govt. has enough money to waste!

P.S. This is out of tune of the general theme of content that comes to this blog, but its been a long time since I blogged here, so anything goes!