I subscribe to two magazines at home: Forbes India and Reader’s Digest. I took up Forbes for a two year period because of the amazing introductory price that was offered. And with Reader’s Digest (RD); well, who wouldn’t want to read RD, even more with the way they keep turning out annoying ‘confirm your address for the luck draw’ mails in the post.
Forbes India shows up at my door step on the first and the third week of the month. RD shows up when ever it likes. For many years I was forced to read magazines that were ordered by the adults at home. Barring Tinkle and the occasional center page poster from Sportstar, there was little to choose from in terms of taste. There was always plenty of variety though: The Week, Outlook, Gruhashobha, Overdrive, Top Gear, Women’s Era, Competition Success and names like that. As age caught on and the teenage years kicked in, Tinkle and Sportstar were replaced by the auto-car reviews by Adil Jal Darukhanawala’s crew. And the distress columns in some other publications, but we won’t go there.
The longing was always to subscribe a magazine that I wanted, for subjects that I cared about and I paid for. Given my taste for things and my constant pursuit to up my IQ points a couple of notches, Forbes was an obvious choice. I was also told that people who appreciated jokes that made you tickle and longed to feel included in this world read RD. So, I couldn’t say no to that either. But little did I know then what I know now: that when one decides to start subscribing to the RD, the editors there sense it in the ether and start showing you ways of getting rich quick overnight in a lottery where every number wins.
I gobbled up every word of almost every article in the early editions. When the new editions arrived, I carefully took the expired one and placed it in the book rack and as the months rolled by, I ensured the chronological order was maintained. All this collective wisdom could just come in handy, you never know! I wasn’t the one to sell this off for its weight.
And then, marginal utility showed up. Like with all good things in life except one, this too came to end. I soon realized that I had stopped reading the editorials in either of the magazines. Soon after, articles on China and Health care were being skipped and the Word power column was for my one and half year old cousin sister. And then, it got to a stage where I read only what interested me in the publication, and most of them half way through. These are busy times, and the world knows it. Before I knew it, there were magazines that were untouched. The weeks would go, and the new edition would arrive. But the plastic cover had still not come off the previous edition. And I like reading my magazines in chronological order for I like to know the sequence of events. I learnt that a long while ago in school, the importance of chronology. They always taught us history before current affairs.
So with this obsession for reading magazines by their date of publication, I soon found myself in a position where I had magazines piling up and time slipping away. Soon my subscription period would end and they’d stop sending me the stuff. I began to feel obsolete as such; how sharp can I possibly be reading June’s news in July? This was like buying French Fries from McDonalds and taking it home to stuff it in the cupboard to eat it someday when you felt hungry. “What sense did that make?” I asked myself. It was me at the vortex and the magazines in a swivel. I had bitten off more than I could chew; chewed more than I could digest, and digested more than I could … you get the point.
I found a way out luckily. All the months of reading the magazines had rightly up’d my IQ a couple of notches. Instead of trying to read and assimilate everything from both the magazines, I now decided to focus on getting just one point out of each magazine. Any one good article that makes me laugh, or teaches me something useful and makes me wallow in misery is all I aim for. This ways there’s no pressure and my IQ continues its upward march. In 12 months, I would have 24 (Forbes) + 12 (RD) new ideas that worked/will work for me. Over a period of 5 years, that number would be 180. So if my projections are right, I’m well on course to winning the title of Global Leader of Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum in Davos by 2021, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry by 2030, and the Oscar the following year from then. Not to mention a couple of bravery awards between now and 2020.
My current challenge is to apply the same principle of ‘1 idea per magazine’ to the 2 newspapers that come to my house each day, and the hundred thousand online publications I read every hour.
Showing posts with label Ideation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ideation. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Controlled power cuts
For the last couple of weeks, Bangalore is under power cuts: 2-3 hours a day. Now I know that this is nothing compared to many other parts of India where it’s more like 9 to 10 hours daily. So what I say here may not really apply or make much sense if you’ve got more than, let's say 5 hours of power cut in a day. 5 hours is the maximum number for this idea to have any relevance.
At the first place, it’s even embarrassing that I’m thinking along the lines of power cut convenience instead of coming up with ways to increase our power output. But forgive me, if you will, this one time. So here’s the point, folks: there’s no power in my house every morning for one hour, every afternoon for one hour, and every evening for one hour. The trouble with this, as you know, is that power cuts usually happen when electricity is most needed. So in the end, knowing that we can’t do much about it anyways, we end up planning our work around the dark hours. Like you might take an early bath, or finish off the paper work before sunset, or any of those. And kids in school are having it tight these days with exams around the corner.
We end up scheduling our work around power cuts. How about the other way round? Why not plan the cuts around our schedule? This means, the local electricity board gives every household the option to choose which 2 or 3 hours in a day they can stay without power. These hours could be broken apart, or done in one shot. The minimum duration for a one time switch off however, can be set at say 15 minutes. So I take it that there’s the main switch and plugged in along with it is a device that records the time of power cuts initiated by the household (just like the meter records units of power consumed, or a punch card that records times of 'in' and 'out').
For example, I might decide to go out between 3 and 6 in the evening. So I might as well have the ‘power cut’ at that time. As I leave, I turn off the main and the ‘device’ records the start-time of the power cut. I’m back at 6 and turn on the mains, the device records the end-time of the power cut. A condition attached here would be that if every household is required to cut 3 hours of power per day, they do not get any additional benefits for cutting it for a longer time. Going back to the above case, suppose I leave home at 3 and I turn off the power as I leave, and return at 7, that makes it 4 hours of the power-cut. But only 3 hours were stipulated by the electricity board. Then, I don’t get to adjust the extra one hour of today by reducing one hour from another day. Cutting power for less than the stipulated hours can attract a fine leading up to disconnection in cases of regular faltering. I mean, the policies could look like this.
It strikes as a convenient and a win-win solution to a problem that's not going away anywhere in the near future. Now obviously, it’s very linearly thought out without taking a whole lot of other factors into account. But what do you think of this idea?
At the first place, it’s even embarrassing that I’m thinking along the lines of power cut convenience instead of coming up with ways to increase our power output. But forgive me, if you will, this one time. So here’s the point, folks: there’s no power in my house every morning for one hour, every afternoon for one hour, and every evening for one hour. The trouble with this, as you know, is that power cuts usually happen when electricity is most needed. So in the end, knowing that we can’t do much about it anyways, we end up planning our work around the dark hours. Like you might take an early bath, or finish off the paper work before sunset, or any of those. And kids in school are having it tight these days with exams around the corner.
We end up scheduling our work around power cuts. How about the other way round? Why not plan the cuts around our schedule? This means, the local electricity board gives every household the option to choose which 2 or 3 hours in a day they can stay without power. These hours could be broken apart, or done in one shot. The minimum duration for a one time switch off however, can be set at say 15 minutes. So I take it that there’s the main switch and plugged in along with it is a device that records the time of power cuts initiated by the household (just like the meter records units of power consumed, or a punch card that records times of 'in' and 'out').
For example, I might decide to go out between 3 and 6 in the evening. So I might as well have the ‘power cut’ at that time. As I leave, I turn off the main and the ‘device’ records the start-time of the power cut. I’m back at 6 and turn on the mains, the device records the end-time of the power cut. A condition attached here would be that if every household is required to cut 3 hours of power per day, they do not get any additional benefits for cutting it for a longer time. Going back to the above case, suppose I leave home at 3 and I turn off the power as I leave, and return at 7, that makes it 4 hours of the power-cut. But only 3 hours were stipulated by the electricity board. Then, I don’t get to adjust the extra one hour of today by reducing one hour from another day. Cutting power for less than the stipulated hours can attract a fine leading up to disconnection in cases of regular faltering. I mean, the policies could look like this.
It strikes as a convenient and a win-win solution to a problem that's not going away anywhere in the near future. Now obviously, it’s very linearly thought out without taking a whole lot of other factors into account. But what do you think of this idea?
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Hump ahead
From the previous post, Anoop’s comment with the phrase ‘Hump ahead' was just too tempting to my vanity of thought that it had to find its way into the title of this post. We all know what it means: the first meaning to do with road safety and the second being a teenage vernacular to imply that there are 'exciting' times ahead. But I thought I’d draw back my focus and of those who’d be interested towards the third meaning of hump ahead.
But before that, here’s a category-A recommendation. If you’re interested in reading a small story, I have one just for you. My good friend Narayanswamy has authored a story called The chicken that never crossed the road. Any aspiring writer can take away several key elements from this story – just in the way the simple idea is narrated and how it strikes a chord with the reader. Good job, Dobby!
In playing the devil's advocate, I have taken hump ahead to reflect on some of the flaws in the cigarette snipper that were overlooked at the time of design. This is based on feedback I’ve been getting from a couple of smokers; and it’s meaningful enough that I share it with you.
Here are the points in no particular order of importance:
1) There’s always the cigar cutter. They come small and handy. Big deal if they’re meant for cigars. I’m sure the cigarettes won’t mind it.
2) For someone trying to quit smoking, he needs to_feel_the_pain of throwing away half a cigarette. That’ll remind him that he’s throwing away money and hence stands a far better chance to quit smoking out of guilt (but not all cases, of course)than by snipping and saving for an hour later.
3) A smoker friend demonstrated that you can actually put off the burning end by crushing it against a wall without damaging the remaining portion. That was some ignorance on the inventor’s part!
4) Competitive products like nicotine gum, nicotine sticks and so on make more sense than a snipper and lighter with petrol tank in your pocket.
You’re welcome to append to this list. But I’m not sure if anyone’s got the time and mind space to pick faults with a cigarette snipper that'll never see the light of the day.
But before that, here’s a category-A recommendation. If you’re interested in reading a small story, I have one just for you. My good friend Narayanswamy has authored a story called The chicken that never crossed the road. Any aspiring writer can take away several key elements from this story – just in the way the simple idea is narrated and how it strikes a chord with the reader. Good job, Dobby!
In playing the devil's advocate, I have taken hump ahead to reflect on some of the flaws in the cigarette snipper that were overlooked at the time of design. This is based on feedback I’ve been getting from a couple of smokers; and it’s meaningful enough that I share it with you.
Here are the points in no particular order of importance:
1) There’s always the cigar cutter. They come small and handy. Big deal if they’re meant for cigars. I’m sure the cigarettes won’t mind it.
2) For someone trying to quit smoking, he needs to_feel_the_pain of throwing away half a cigarette. That’ll remind him that he’s throwing away money and hence stands a far better chance to quit smoking out of guilt (but not all cases, of course)than by snipping and saving for an hour later.
3) A smoker friend demonstrated that you can actually put off the burning end by crushing it against a wall without damaging the remaining portion. That was some ignorance on the inventor’s part!
4) Competitive products like nicotine gum, nicotine sticks and so on make more sense than a snipper and lighter with petrol tank in your pocket.
You’re welcome to append to this list. But I’m not sure if anyone’s got the time and mind space to pick faults with a cigarette snipper that'll never see the light of the day.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
To help you quit smoking
Since moving back to my lovely hometown of Bangalore, I’ve seen myself making several dozen trips to Hallimanne on a weekly basis for the legendary coffee they serve. Off late, we’ve (Anoop included) cut our coffee intake by half. So instead of buying a cup of coffee each, we just buy one and split it. Here’s the funny thing: the feel-good-factor (FGF) after half a cup is the same as that after one full cup. When I buy one full cup of coffee, the caffeine addiction part is satisfied in the first couple of sips, and then I’m just drinking the rest to finish it off.
If you’re a smoker, I’m sure the same analogy extends to you as well with respect to nicotine. The first couple of drags sends in the buzz, and then you’re just finishing off what’s remaining, right? If you think about it, cigarettes which are half the length as the ones currently available in the market would be good enough for the average smoker to satisfy his one time nicotine cravings. Hence, if you smoke 5 stubs a day, only about 2 to 2 and half of those are actually satisfying your urge while the remaining is merely accelerating the lung damage.
So here’s something I’ve been thinking about. It’s called a Cigarette Snipper. The idea is that of a device which lets you snip off the ashes and the burning edge and retains the remaining un-burnt part. So, you may now smoke the same cigarette in two sittings (or standings or which ever way you like it).
Let’s say that the average smoker finishes a cigarette in about 10 drags. Using the cigarette snipper, he ‘cuts off’ the fire after 5 drags and saves the remaining for the next smoke.
About the device:
Look at the image here.
The device has three main parts: The Snipper compartment contains the snipper which could effectively be a small pair of scissors, or a set of blades aligned to face each other. The Cigarette Holder is where you store the remaining portion that you haven’t smoked. There’s provision for a lighter to make the whole deal seem complete.
You could even get a key ring fitted at one of the ends, and have cool colors and graphics on it so you’re convinced that as someone trying to quit to smoking, such a device will never embarrass you when you pull it out the next time you’re at a party.
Send me e-mail to order your personalized patent-pending Cigarette Snipper today.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
How coconut sellers can improve customer satisfaction
I’m told being underweight is just as bad as being overweight. I’m not too sure about that, but since the last week I’m on a programme to add some “good fat”. This constitutes proper eating habits, good sleep, exercise and nutrition supplementation. One of the requirements is to take tender coconut water daily. If you’ve had tender coconut water in the south, you’ll know that the coconut seller can tell the quality of the content inside just by looking at the physical characteristics of the green coconut. I don’t understand how they do it. After you finish drinking the water, the guy typically splits open the hollow coconut and scoops the ripe tender pulp that can be eaten. But if you don’t really like the pulp, you can ask for a coconut that is rich in water only without much of the pulp content. And the seller, like I mentioned, should be able to spot the one from the pile that suits your requirements.
I figured that the guy who sells these tender coconuts near my workplace is a bit of a novice. On one occasion, I asked for something with a lot of water and almost no pulp. He did give me ‘something’: turns out it was exactly the way I didn’t want it – very little water and thick layer of fruit. I got thinking of designing a machine that would not rely on the judgment of a human, but would rather go the old fashioned industrial way. It’s a scanner like something used to check baggage at airports. The farmer is the target customer here. Every coconut plucked from the tree is put through this scanning machine, and comes out on the other side with a blue stamp mark of the percentage content by weight of water and pulp.
Talk of a better way coconut sellers can improve customer satisfaction. If you're in the tender coconut business, I'd like to get to know you better.
I figured that the guy who sells these tender coconuts near my workplace is a bit of a novice. On one occasion, I asked for something with a lot of water and almost no pulp. He did give me ‘something’: turns out it was exactly the way I didn’t want it – very little water and thick layer of fruit. I got thinking of designing a machine that would not rely on the judgment of a human, but would rather go the old fashioned industrial way. It’s a scanner like something used to check baggage at airports. The farmer is the target customer here. Every coconut plucked from the tree is put through this scanning machine, and comes out on the other side with a blue stamp mark of the percentage content by weight of water and pulp.
Talk of a better way coconut sellers can improve customer satisfaction. If you're in the tender coconut business, I'd like to get to know you better.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Look who's talking
Crowded lifts are fun. Notice how ten people in a lift will stay perfectly silent; they’ll look up at the display counting the floors, look at their shoes, and look at the walls of the lift. There’s a cold silence and something tells you that everyone inside prefers it that way. Isn’t it funny how people can stand next to each other and go up 23 floors without making an eye contact? And that sight when the floor has ‘arrived’. I’ve noticed how men and women will literally rush out of the lift as soon as it lands, almost like a Ferrari in a pit stop whose crew took a second too much to refuel. Men will steal glances, searching around for the best assets and women will punch away into their cell phones like that’s the last hope for survival.
How do I know this? I ride up and down five floors each day looking at assets. We are men, and that’s how we are wired.
* * *
“I think she should start hanging out with single men more often”, I thought to myself, as I stood in the lift.
Her hands were folded, shoulders slightly stooped and the hair tucked behind the ears suggested that the she had been complimented on her ear rings earlier in the day. Her glance was fixed to the floor and the corner of my eyes was fixed on her.
“But you know girls. They like committed men.” my alter ego said.
“Yeah, but what good is that? If she gave single guys a chance, it would be good for all 4 of us.”, I couldn’t help but think to myself.
“Who four?”
“Herself, that guy, his wife and the single men. It’s such a win-win-win-win situation if she only decides”
The lift reached the ground floor and we all moved out.
* * *
I like Mel Gibson’s movie What Women Want. In the movie, by a stroke of circumstance, he gets the ability to hear what a woman is thinking. I visualize a device that can give each of us the power to do this; and I don’t mean masculine and feminine. I mean everybody can hear what every other person is thinking.
Here’s the catch: This device will work only inside lifts.
I wonder what she must have thought had she heard what I was thinking inside that lift. Probably something like, “Jerk!”
But the device is still an idea. Until lifts are equipped with this ‘thought hearing device’, I still maintain that she needs to give single men a chance.
How do I know this? I ride up and down five floors each day looking at assets. We are men, and that’s how we are wired.
* * *
“I think she should start hanging out with single men more often”, I thought to myself, as I stood in the lift.
Her hands were folded, shoulders slightly stooped and the hair tucked behind the ears suggested that the she had been complimented on her ear rings earlier in the day. Her glance was fixed to the floor and the corner of my eyes was fixed on her.
“But you know girls. They like committed men.” my alter ego said.
“Yeah, but what good is that? If she gave single guys a chance, it would be good for all 4 of us.”, I couldn’t help but think to myself.
“Who four?”
“Herself, that guy, his wife and the single men. It’s such a win-win-win-win situation if she only decides”
The lift reached the ground floor and we all moved out.
* * *
I like Mel Gibson’s movie What Women Want. In the movie, by a stroke of circumstance, he gets the ability to hear what a woman is thinking. I visualize a device that can give each of us the power to do this; and I don’t mean masculine and feminine. I mean everybody can hear what every other person is thinking.
Here’s the catch: This device will work only inside lifts.
I wonder what she must have thought had she heard what I was thinking inside that lift. Probably something like, “Jerk!”
But the device is still an idea. Until lifts are equipped with this ‘thought hearing device’, I still maintain that she needs to give single men a chance.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
An !dea can change your day
It's purely coincidental that Sagar (I prefer referring to him as Psygrr.. the psychotic tigrrr.. lol!) features in this post too.
Minutes
9:30 a.m: We are in the Dynamics of Machinery class- Nagraj's lecture :-). We've been mass bunking classes for the last 3 days in a row. And he's mighty pissed at that.
9:32 a.m: Two minutes after Nagraj's frowning entry into the class, Psygrr's phone rings. The Sweet Child o mine ringtone can be heard from a kilometre. And the 1100 is stuck deep in our man's tight pants; pants that can put Enrique Iglesias to shame. The seconds that follow are nervous. The whole class keeps silent. All eyes are on Psygrr, including Nagraj's. Everyone's watching as Psygrr wrestles his pant pockets to free the phone and turn it off. This is not exactly music to the ears. It is torture to the eyes. Everyone knows that someone can help Psygrr; but no one knows how to. And then the white candy bar pops out. His nervous fingers nimbly shuts out the ringing. He must have felt like a kid in diaper put on a dark stage, and suddenly the spotlight is turned on this little kid and a thousand people in the audience are awestruck.Applause.
9:32:05 a.m: Nagraj is quick to jump in and diffuse this awkward situation. He chooses to send Psygrr and his phone out of the class. Seriously, what is it with this guy getting thrown out every now and then, I wonder?
1: 18 p.m: At the mess table, I ask him cheekily- "So who called at that time?", though my question could have very well been phrased - "Was it your next girlfriend who called then?" But I thought that would be insensitive.
" Cut it called, da. Pain in the ass.", he replies.
"Oh! you mean chuck it called. " I say, laughing my ass off.
Cut it
For the uninformed, here's a brief description of cut it :
Also called chuck it, it is the phone call that one gets from an unknown number. When the call is answered and the receiver says hello!, he's greeted on the other end by a pre-recorded voice(asl: 22, F, who cares) that lacks the basic courtesy of responding to the greeting. She (or it?) yaks on for the next couple of minutes about everything from the latest Bollywood music downloads to mobile dating. The calls from this number are almost always made when the subscriber is in a board meeting/ at a class/driving/ in the bath tub/ making love/about to bungee.
Psygrrr is to be thanked. He observed that these calls were made from one or two numbers consistently. These numbers never changed. So the numbers were saved in his contacts as cut it (and in mine as chuck it). The days of answering these calls and feeling pissed/stupid are over for us. As a matter of fact, these calls are welcome more than ever. Every time cut it calls, the very sight of 'cut it calling' can send you into peels of laughter. Or it could be a source of entertainment for you (thanks to The Rat). Here's how:
STEP 1: cut it calling.
STEP 2: laugh like crazy looking at the cellphone.
STEP 3: phone continues ringing.
STEP 4: gather people around you and make them stand in a circle.
STEP 5: hold out the phone such that everyone standing in the circle can see it.
STEP 6: hit on 'answer' (put on the loudspeaker, if the facility is available).
STEP 7: in unision, shout - "FUCK YOU!", at the phone.
STEP 8: cut the call.
STEP 9:another round of laughter.
STEP 10: wait for 'cut it' to call again.
There you go - 10 easy steps to turn an annoyingly pesky phone call into an entertaining mid-day activity for you and your friends. Go try it. And let me know how well it worked.
Minutes
9:30 a.m: We are in the Dynamics of Machinery class- Nagraj's lecture :-). We've been mass bunking classes for the last 3 days in a row. And he's mighty pissed at that.
9:32 a.m: Two minutes after Nagraj's frowning entry into the class, Psygrr's phone rings. The Sweet Child o mine ringtone can be heard from a kilometre. And the 1100 is stuck deep in our man's tight pants; pants that can put Enrique Iglesias to shame. The seconds that follow are nervous. The whole class keeps silent. All eyes are on Psygrr, including Nagraj's. Everyone's watching as Psygrr wrestles his pant pockets to free the phone and turn it off. This is not exactly music to the ears. It is torture to the eyes. Everyone knows that someone can help Psygrr; but no one knows how to. And then the white candy bar pops out. His nervous fingers nimbly shuts out the ringing. He must have felt like a kid in diaper put on a dark stage, and suddenly the spotlight is turned on this little kid and a thousand people in the audience are awestruck.Applause.
9:32:05 a.m: Nagraj is quick to jump in and diffuse this awkward situation. He chooses to send Psygrr and his phone out of the class. Seriously, what is it with this guy getting thrown out every now and then, I wonder?
1: 18 p.m: At the mess table, I ask him cheekily- "So who called at that time?", though my question could have very well been phrased - "Was it your next girlfriend who called then?" But I thought that would be insensitive.
" Cut it called, da. Pain in the ass.", he replies.
"Oh! you mean chuck it called. " I say, laughing my ass off.
Cut it
For the uninformed, here's a brief description of cut it :
Also called chuck it, it is the phone call that one gets from an unknown number. When the call is answered and the receiver says hello!, he's greeted on the other end by a pre-recorded voice(asl: 22, F, who cares) that lacks the basic courtesy of responding to the greeting. She (or it?) yaks on for the next couple of minutes about everything from the latest Bollywood music downloads to mobile dating. The calls from this number are almost always made when the subscriber is in a board meeting/ at a class/driving/ in the bath tub/ making love/about to bungee.
Psygrrr is to be thanked. He observed that these calls were made from one or two numbers consistently. These numbers never changed. So the numbers were saved in his contacts as cut it (and in mine as chuck it). The days of answering these calls and feeling pissed/stupid are over for us. As a matter of fact, these calls are welcome more than ever. Every time cut it calls, the very sight of 'cut it calling' can send you into peels of laughter. Or it could be a source of entertainment for you (thanks to The Rat). Here's how:
STEP 1: cut it calling.
STEP 2: laugh like crazy looking at the cellphone.
STEP 3: phone continues ringing.
STEP 4: gather people around you and make them stand in a circle.
STEP 5: hold out the phone such that everyone standing in the circle can see it.
STEP 6: hit on 'answer' (put on the loudspeaker, if the facility is available).
STEP 7: in unision, shout - "FUCK YOU!", at the phone.
STEP 8: cut the call.
STEP 9:another round of laughter.
STEP 10: wait for 'cut it' to call again.
There you go - 10 easy steps to turn an annoyingly pesky phone call into an entertaining mid-day activity for you and your friends. Go try it. And let me know how well it worked.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Potters on vaccuum cleaners
Once up on a time, there lived a boy wizard named Harry Potter. He had a scar on his forehead and wore round frame glasses. Like other wizards of his age, Potter loved flying on his broomstick. He spent a lot of time in the open fields flying all around the place. He flew into the clouds and out of them. He flew past windows and flag posts. He kept flying on his broomstick.
Soon, Harry Potter decided that he would fly past the the boundaries of Hogwarts, his school, and explore the world. One fine morning, when the sky was blue and the air was crisp, Potter took off from the grounds at Hogwarts towards the morning sky. He was to make his way towards the realms of the new world. “I shall return by dusk” he said to himself while he left, “and I will comeback and tell my friends just how good my new Thunderbolt broomstick is.”
So off he flew, beyond the castle walls and across the Great Lake. As he turned around, he noticed that Hogwarts was a tiny statuette placed in the midst of nature's abundance. As he flew past the picturesque town of Hogsmeade, he knew that the only direction for him to go from here on was forward; there was no looking back.
For hours at a stretch he flew on his broomstick. The wind was in his hair and the world was beneath his feet. He had experienced the joy of flying before, but this time it was different. He felt like a small speck in the ocean of the sky and also like the King of the world at the same time. This inner conflict of feelings drove him to get a little more adventurous. It was past noon and as he sat munching on his jelly sandwich while on his broom, he realised that it was only a few hours to sunset. He should be turning around now, he thought to himself.
“But aren't I supposed to be brave and explore the big world as Professor Dumbledore had always said.” , he thought. After a short tennis match in his head, he decided that he would take a shot at going a little further. But he promised himself that he would return by the following sunset, lest Ron and Hermione got worried and went looking out for him. He flew through the thick fog and braved the cold as he made his way through the night. Nor owls or the OWLS could stop the adventurer in him. And so he flew.
Early next morning, he landed in a little green village. As he walked towards the lake to fill his can, he noticed a man with long white hair standing by the lakeside. He had bushy eyebrows and was dressed in denims and a red Tee that said 'Virgin' on it. He had a strange looking box with a thick black pipe attached to it by his side. Since Harry had been brought up in the muggle world, he was quick to identify this box as a vacuum cleaner. But what was this man doing with a vacuum cleaner on a fine day by the lake side?
“Good day Sir, my name is Harry Potter.”, said Harry as he walked up to the man.
“Good day to you. My name is Richard Branson.”, said the man.
And right there, they sat by the lake side and spoke for hours over donuts, coffee and more jelly sandwiches. Harry explained to Richard how he had wandered away from Hogwarts on his broomstick while setting out to explore the world. Richard meanwhile told Harry that he thought broomsticks were too outdated and slow to travel on. Vacuum cleaners were much faster and convenient, he said.
But Harry argued by saying that broomsticks had always been the traditional mode of flying. They were more affordable. Sir Richard felt that was true but also felt that people wouldn't mind paying for luxury, as flying on vacuum cleaners was a lot less strenuous and a luxurious experience as compared to the raw thrill of a broomstick. And thus, they spoke all day long. Harry was interested in knowing how vacuum cleaners could work in the air. And so he test flew Richard's red vacuum cleaner. And boy! how different to the traditional broomstick was this! Sir Richard flew around on Harry's Thunderbolt for a while, and concluded that it was the most exciting ride he had had after his hot air balloon experience in Africa.
And thus a deal was made. In a style so typical to the Branson stable, Virgin Broomstick was born. And Harry was made the CEO of the company, the youngest CEO in UK. He will be joining in a couple of days, now that he has finished his 7th year at Hogwarts. And as for the vacuum cleaners, Harry has decided to float his start-up along with three of the Weaselys, with Sir Richard Branson holding a 33% stake in the company – Quick Snitch Travels. Will this venture succeed? Stay tuned to this page for cutting-edge updates.
In real life, Vijay Mallya plays the role of Sir Richard Branson in the story; something he is used to. The vacuum cleaner is his pet project- Kingfisher Airlines. Harry Potter's role is played by Capt. Gopinath. Air Deccan is the broomstick. And the rest is yet to come. Will the Kingfisher-Air Deccan deal hold through? Stay tuned to this page for cutting-edge updates.
Soon, Harry Potter decided that he would fly past the the boundaries of Hogwarts, his school, and explore the world. One fine morning, when the sky was blue and the air was crisp, Potter took off from the grounds at Hogwarts towards the morning sky. He was to make his way towards the realms of the new world. “I shall return by dusk” he said to himself while he left, “and I will comeback and tell my friends just how good my new Thunderbolt broomstick is.”
So off he flew, beyond the castle walls and across the Great Lake. As he turned around, he noticed that Hogwarts was a tiny statuette placed in the midst of nature's abundance. As he flew past the picturesque town of Hogsmeade, he knew that the only direction for him to go from here on was forward; there was no looking back.
For hours at a stretch he flew on his broomstick. The wind was in his hair and the world was beneath his feet. He had experienced the joy of flying before, but this time it was different. He felt like a small speck in the ocean of the sky and also like the King of the world at the same time. This inner conflict of feelings drove him to get a little more adventurous. It was past noon and as he sat munching on his jelly sandwich while on his broom, he realised that it was only a few hours to sunset. He should be turning around now, he thought to himself.
“But aren't I supposed to be brave and explore the big world as Professor Dumbledore had always said.” , he thought. After a short tennis match in his head, he decided that he would take a shot at going a little further. But he promised himself that he would return by the following sunset, lest Ron and Hermione got worried and went looking out for him. He flew through the thick fog and braved the cold as he made his way through the night. Nor owls or the OWLS could stop the adventurer in him. And so he flew.
Early next morning, he landed in a little green village. As he walked towards the lake to fill his can, he noticed a man with long white hair standing by the lakeside. He had bushy eyebrows and was dressed in denims and a red Tee that said 'Virgin' on it. He had a strange looking box with a thick black pipe attached to it by his side. Since Harry had been brought up in the muggle world, he was quick to identify this box as a vacuum cleaner. But what was this man doing with a vacuum cleaner on a fine day by the lake side?
“Good day Sir, my name is Harry Potter.”, said Harry as he walked up to the man.
“Good day to you. My name is Richard Branson.”, said the man.
And right there, they sat by the lake side and spoke for hours over donuts, coffee and more jelly sandwiches. Harry explained to Richard how he had wandered away from Hogwarts on his broomstick while setting out to explore the world. Richard meanwhile told Harry that he thought broomsticks were too outdated and slow to travel on. Vacuum cleaners were much faster and convenient, he said.
But Harry argued by saying that broomsticks had always been the traditional mode of flying. They were more affordable. Sir Richard felt that was true but also felt that people wouldn't mind paying for luxury, as flying on vacuum cleaners was a lot less strenuous and a luxurious experience as compared to the raw thrill of a broomstick. And thus, they spoke all day long. Harry was interested in knowing how vacuum cleaners could work in the air. And so he test flew Richard's red vacuum cleaner. And boy! how different to the traditional broomstick was this! Sir Richard flew around on Harry's Thunderbolt for a while, and concluded that it was the most exciting ride he had had after his hot air balloon experience in Africa.
And thus a deal was made. In a style so typical to the Branson stable, Virgin Broomstick was born. And Harry was made the CEO of the company, the youngest CEO in UK. He will be joining in a couple of days, now that he has finished his 7th year at Hogwarts. And as for the vacuum cleaners, Harry has decided to float his start-up along with three of the Weaselys, with Sir Richard Branson holding a 33% stake in the company – Quick Snitch Travels. Will this venture succeed? Stay tuned to this page for cutting-edge updates.
In real life, Vijay Mallya plays the role of Sir Richard Branson in the story; something he is used to. The vacuum cleaner is his pet project- Kingfisher Airlines. Harry Potter's role is played by Capt. Gopinath. Air Deccan is the broomstick. And the rest is yet to come. Will the Kingfisher-Air Deccan deal hold through? Stay tuned to this page for cutting-edge updates.
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