Rich Dad Poor Dad
I went to Big Bazaar yesterday on Sabse Sasta Din promotion. The only place where I could set foot was the book store. I thought when I have taken so much trouble, lets buy something too. They had "take one get one free" promotion on the fiction, I was happy. I went on mission to buy books and here it was, Rich Dad Poor Dad, the book I have heard a lot about but did not buy yet. I bought 3 more books authored by Ayn Rand, Shoba De and some politician. And now after one day, I have finished half of the Rich Dad Poor Dad. I have found such a interesting book after a very long time. The timing couldn't be more perfect. I have spent one year in USA corporation after my PhD and now I am stuck in Mumbai for past many weeks with visa trouble. I had been fighting with my boss on many things thinking he was cause of all my problems. Last one year had been terrible for my personal life. The book spoke to me all the reasons for them. I got my biggest lesson of life in a day. Let me share it with you. The problem was that I had fears such as loosing out in competition, getting less money, what will happen if I lost my job etc. The root cause of these fears, as described in the book, are that we work for the money. Its a matter of thinking. It is just attitude. The book persuaded me to think what will happen if I start working for free i.e. I will work even if my company doesn't pay me. I set aside the book and thought for a second. I felt my first moments of bliss after one long year in my company. I realized if I instead work for gaining experience or learn something, things will be very different. I will stop focusing myself narrow on promotions, raise etc. I will look for opportunities and will not hesitate to work harder if I see greater learning. Most of all, I will not fear anymore. I will choose my path based on what really want to do instead of who will pay me more. This path has a capacity to grow me. I am still reading the book and it seems I will finish it tomorrow.

Trip to Big Bazaar in Kandhivali, Mumbai on the promotion day "Sabse Sasta Din"

I went to Big Bazaar today on one of their "Sabse Sasta Din" promotion. It was an experience in itself. There were two reasons for going there, first I had recently read the book from Kishore Biyani- It happened in India and second, I was getting bored at home waiting for my visa to come. In the book Biyani had divided Indians consumers in three section which he called India I, India II and India III. The India I were people in good job with good amount of disposable income, India II were people who service India I and India III were even poorer. He pointed out that most of the big retailers in the big fancy malls attract only India I which is tiny part of the pie (India I makes 14% of consumers and India II consist of 55%). Big bazaars were made for the India II which might also appeal to India I. I was curious to see it was true. I took the local train to Kandhivali and went to Big Bazaar. I did not know where it was located so I asked as many people as I could on the way (I have learned in Mumbai that nobody would ever say "I do not know this location". They might say go straight if they were not sure but they would always tell you something. So I had got into the habit of asking at least two people for the same location, just to make sure.). When I was approaching Big Bazaar, I found a big line (almost 1/2 km long) outside it. I cursed my Gods and waited for some time but eventually I mustered all my strength and went into the line. After half an hr standing in the line, I was inside the store. The store was jam packed like local trains of Mumbai during weekdays. People were literally looting the stuff. For me at least, stuff was cheap but it certainly did not deserve this much trouble. However, I was happy that I did not come with shopping as my primary reason. I saw, it was true that the bulk of the crowd made of people who service the India I i.e. family members of policewall, panwalla, dhobi, bai etc. I was glad to see them here. I felt that other retailers must have taken hard lessons from the success of Big Bazaar model and it probably would dawn upon them to open open Super Bazaars where it would not be so hard to spend our hard earned money.