Pennywise

"Pennywise and Pound foolish" ... goes the old English proverb ...
But thats what most of us are these days !
There is a store in Bangalore by the name Pennywise whose main USP is the "upto 50%" discount it offers. This is enough for crowds to throng the place.
Ofcourse the discount we realise is not 'flat' 50% , but a variable one with max of 50% for a few select items of clothing which no one wud buy even if it was given 100% discount. But then many ppl since they took the effort of stepping into the store , decide to buy something or other at a discounted price. Though in reality they may not actually need the stuff, just because it is available at a discount price ppl end up buying it !
Infact some stores have this tag line "Buy more,Save more!" what an amazing logic!!!
This seems to be a sureshot success strategy for all brands , though a good price for certain item of clothing wud be 'X'Rs , hype up the brand and put the price tag at '2X' or more and make it appear that the brand is out of reach for mere mortals.
The more highly its priced (though quality wise it may not be worth it) , the more awe it creates. But thats not all , the clever bit comes in when u sell it , you can't obviously make much money if u sell it at the marked price of '2X' Rs.
So u sell it with a special banners indicating some reason like "end of season Sale" (only the season lasts the whole year! ) and sell it at a discounted price of 20-40% over the hyped up marked price !
Which still means u make much more than the correct price "X" for the product !

Now Im firmly of opinion that the culprit here is not the clothes manufacturer but the end consumer who is more than happy to pay 1.2X for some brand which offers supposedly 'huge' discounts over its marked price rather than pay the correct price for another brand which makes same stuff and which has proper marked price 'X' and no discount but in reality 20% lesser (correctly priced infact)

In Tamil Nadu at this time of the year we see something called "Aadi Sale" with clothes vying with each other to offer tempting discounts and consumers enthused with the prospect of saving more with each purchase and loosening the purse strings ! The trend started with textiles and now have extended to Electronic goods shops also offer steep discounts during this time and volume of sales makes this the best season for them.Infact shopkeepers say that their sales see a 50 to 75% inc during "Aadi" month when compared to ordinary days.

Though I may be mistaken, but from what i remember 'Aadi' is an inauspicious month for Tamil ppl and hence in olden days ppl were not buying anything during that time and so the shop owners had to resort to the discounts and freebies , but today its the busiest season of the year !!!

Minority Report

Politicians are one class who never cease to amaze you , though they do the same stuff over the years. Its the way they keep refining it which takes you by surprise.
Even Robert Langdon can't crack their code.
How else can you explain the banning of Da Vinci code movie in a few states in India on grounds that it cud hurt religious sentiments.that too when it is released in all Christian majority countries (even vatican too , I believe ! )Now the film is based on a book which was a best seller in all (christian dominated) western countries...
Now the book was just plain fiction and nothing so great that ur faith cud be challenged...
something so trivial was enuf for some netas to bend backwards to ensure the minorities (read their votebank ) are not hurt .
Since the movie is not shown for free/shown on television , if you want to watch it you have to go to a cinama hall (or rent a vcd/dvd) on your own free will. So where does the hurting of minority sentiment come in ?
Obviously just a gimmick to 'please' minorities !
now what next will they confiscate our copies of the 'Da Vinci code' book also ?

On a related note , there was a big controversy over women entering Sabarimala temple. whether its real or not is debatable. But this had prompted a TV news channel to come out with a debate on whether the practice is rite or not. It was an age old practice and there were reasons for why that was followed. Whether it is correct or not is another issue
But what irks me is the fact that a couple of politicians alleging that the temple is violating constitution by nott allowing women to enter....
But no such allegetion will be levelled against minority communities whose treatment of women is well known.

So why the apparent double standards in handling majority and minority ?
Now who is majority and who is minority ?

Latest update(13-7-06): After Mumbai blasts , SIMI a muslim student organisation was one of the prime suspects. In comes the UP chief to their defence , saying u cant accuse them (minorities) without evidence . Now the question is why shud UP chief be involved in an incident in Mumbai ... well apparently in a few months there is gonna be elections in UP and muslims form 10% of poulation and hence a valuable votebank !
When will they learn to treat all ppl as equals ? Why do we still vote for those who still see ppl as hindus , muslims and all ?
(Will be updated pretty frequently...)

Afterthought :

In Kerala , we have a holiday for "Avani Avittam" what that means most ppl in TN wud probably know ( its an annual ritual for us Tam Brahmins , where we change our sacred thread) but believe it or not , though there is no holiday in TN or any other South Inidan state. There is a holiday in Kerala which I believe has the least no: of brahmins in whole South !!!
Now this is precisely my point in Kerala , Brahmins are a minority and hence are a consolidated votebank , so too woo them (their votes) the state govt had to declare a state holiday for festival which has meaning for 1% of state's population !
That is the power of minorities in this country !!!