Growth, Comfort and heavy stuff

Did it ever seem to you that growth and comfort are two words that never coexist? I ask as it did to me. Every opportunity that promised growth has without mercy dragged me out of my comfort zone. The distance I was dragged depended on the difficulty of the task that I set to do. Some of these experiences were super fun, and some were not so much. For me it all depended on how quickly I could see and feel the harvest. Doing things that don’t promise quick results is not really my forte, and as it dawns upon me that is where I need to grow.

I figured out the part that a compromise is most likely made between what we want, and how much we want to strive for it. Passion is a driving force in making these decisions. Without enough of it, the inner scale tends to dip towards the comfort zone, and the growth achieved is a but a mere shadow of the grand vision. Now this doesn’t really seem like a win-win situation, but compromise is not a bad thing. It shows that we care, and caring is a good thing. But if all that we care is about just being comfortable, then are we going in the right direction?

Road Side Assistance – Thank you very much.

Did you ever hear or read about AAA ? It is a conglomeration of autonomous automobile clubs offering multiple common services to its members, widely popular in the North America region. Their services include vehicle breakdown (both mechanical and electrical), flat tyre, dead battery, key lock-out, running out of fuel etc.

In its site AAA mentions that it currently has a member count of 51 million. All paid members.

Talking about India, we definitely have more vehicles than in total North America because of our huge population. With a google search I could find multiple motor groups offering such services, but they aren’t under single roof, and many don’t offer all the services that I mentioned earlier, and most of them are road side assistance offered by car showrooms not extending their services to older vehicles and other brand vehicles. Now some people have already thought about forming an organization such as AAA in India. Check this link. But I don’t see any online presence for this initiative even though they mentioned they have funds worth 5 million rupees. Even if it materializes, in a big developing country like India, having a competitor would help keep the organization on its toes.

What I was thinking about is a developmental approach similar to Flipkart with a strong online and mobile presence, and services being second to none. Talking about parameters such as the costs involved in starting, running and growing a new business, ROI, financial investors, legal issues. marketing etc, I don’t know much about them. But if a multi-million rupees brand could be established with selling books online, then with the involvement of right people and enough funding I believe this to be an idea which will work. After all there are more people who ride vehicles than who read books in this country.

Guntur

After more than two years I visited Guntur. My home town. It still has the same cramped roads, but with more traffic. An indication of the prosperity of the people in the town. Did you know that Guntur has a Walmart store? But this prosperity also shows the inefficiency of the government for not taking measures to accommodate the needs of the people. Something not new to us. And because of this the town has the same roads our grand parents used ( seriously!! ) with insane traffic, and absolutely no order. The only good thing is despite the traffic you can reach almost any destinations within the town in 20 minutes. Something which is a dream for people living in Hyderabad.

Infrastructure wise Vijayawada seems to be doing better than Guntur. I visited their Shoppers Stop on the lanes of the Bandar road which was surprisingly very well maintained and people seemed to follow traffic rules here.

Talking about development, these towns have all the shopping malls and brands that we do. Also these towns are numbered to be the top two places in Andhra Pradesh to buy gold. Which goes to show that people have lots of money in these towns. Thus making these spots ideal places for mass market.

And when you talk about mass markets, the first thing to come to my mind is food. In Vijayawada their is a KFC outlet on the Bandar road. I went there on the sunday evening and it was insanely crowded. I asked Arshad, a waiter at KFC if this was the case daily, and he said yes.

Now if you are someone looking to invest some 4-5 million rupees in a business, I’d suggest opening a KFC or McD outlet in Guntur, as they already don’t have one yet. And from what I hear, you’d be minting money withing an year.

Trip to America

I have been to America in December’11. I have a few planned ones in the pipeline, but for now I would rate this trip as my best one till date. In the company of tight family, good friends, mere acquaintances and total strangers I have done some crazy shit which I can’t be talking about on a public domain, but apart from that I went to casinos, pubs and bars, movies, hockey game and did ice skating in two cities, music recital, ford museum, brewery, ford factory, wine tasting and visited many places of importance. And I walked a lot. I visited Boston, Cambridge, Nashua, New Jersey, New York, Detroit, Atlanta, St.Louis and Chicago. That is 9 cities in total, and in each of them I was there for a day and longer and visited the down town. Boston is my pick amongst these. I stayed in a few suburbs around these cities, and most of them are awesome.

Comparisons are made on a lot of parameters, but with most of them considered, American is hands down a better place to live in than India. Especially for bachelors. The opportunities it presents are humongous, and irrespective of your nationality you always have a chance. You just have to shed your inhibitions, and you are all set. I tried my luck with a few things and it worked big time for me. The food like the infrastructure and the girls, is amazing too. I tried authentic cuisines of Chinese, Japanese, Thai, American, Italian and Mexican.

Talking about alcohol, they have some amazing drinks to offer. Draft beers especially are hard not to like. Not to mention the wines they have. Lucky me, I have been to a wine tasting as well.

some pics from the trip shared here

where are they ?

Not counting Hollywood, most of the most beautiful ladies in America are in A&F, Hollister and Aeropostle’s stores. I have come to this conclusion after visiting their outlets in three different states. If you are someone who is living in America then you already know what I am talking about. The next time you go to a mall in America, now you know which store to visit .

ambitious, how ?

The ordinary are often overlooked. Unless you are a special case who likes being a loner, humans in general are craving for company and attention, and rightly so we are called the social animals. To be in the spotlight doing what others can’t is the norm. If we were a species other than humans then just by being strong you’d be switching on the lights, but as we are not, we have to follow the trend by over-achieving. Now doing that once or twice is fine, but when you make an habit of it, you become ambitious.

Panja

A spirited and catchy title track, which I’ve already made my ringtone, and a decent music album, and a sincerely stylish new look for pawan kalyan. If this movie is even half as good as kushi, then this might end up being the biggest blockbuster this year.