Bad business in crowded markets

Some business models that work very well in the US would be an absolute disaster in countries like India with almost every city, town or village approaching megalopolis proportions... 1. Dry cleaning (used to also be called Martinising and let us not get into that here) - I mean why would anyone in India dry clean? Once you travel on a local train in Mumbai you are lucky to come out with all your limbs intact - you are not worrying about your clothing being dry or clean anymore 2. Car wash facilities - again another vain attempt to showcase your assets here in the US where everyone is in a car so there is plenty of time to admire the other person's vehicle at the next traffic light. But in Mumbai where you run the risk of non human intervention with your vehicle that can cause all kinds of goop to attach to your asset you are not going to spend more money to keep cleaning it. 3. Jimmy Choo shoes - This contraption is a deceptively ingeneous way to allow dumb Americans to part with their cash. As to the question of allowing dumb Indians to part with it - have you seen the sidewalks of Mumbai lately? Or more importantly have you seen 'a sidewalk' anywhere in India? Perhaps that may not prevent the truly dumb to subscribe to a few pairs anyway? 4. Credit cards - America runs on credit. India runs on cash (or threats). Conversely the one business model that is 100% successful in India and cannot be replicated in the US is that of the local mandir or temple. I just cannot imagine a Hanuman in the middle of Times Square taking unauthorized space from the TKTS booth. Not that it cannot be done but there are just not enough subscribers.

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New England is gleaming in the fall

This autumn the weather gods cooperated as we took a family trip in the northeast to see six states that qualify or makeup what is known colloquially in America as New England. Mass, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island (tiniest state in the union). The outing helped tally up the states we either lived in, visited or have worked in to 47. Guess which three have eluded this intrepid traveling family. Any rate the drive was all in about 1,800 miles and included some memorable geographic wonders or points of interest. Easternmost part of state of Massachusetts being one. Furthest drivable road east in Mass being another. Visit to all Ivy League schools (term harkens to a collegiate athletics conference and generally regarded as elite academic institutes of some repute worldwide) is another random bucket list item of which this trip afforded the chance to knock two more of the list. Dartmouth in Hanover, NH and Brown (and its sister institute the RISD - school f

Searching for a lavish 'fill in the blank with other adjectives and gender' in bed

Many of the readers of this blog have experienced this. Strange sounding messages popping up in your text or WA or emails all day long from some exotic sounding locale with an out of this world individual looking for love, sex, money or other paraphernalia to get a high. I mean granted that electronic spamming is a low cost enterprise and all but the sheer volumes and the variety in these exhortations is beyond imagination. Having a desire to engage you in some sort of sexual payola or invest in some arcane crypto scheme must be a profound algorithm that someone from Oklahoma to Odessa is cranking on through the night and watching one in a few million fall for. Otherwise this nonsense would not exist I suspect. It would be funny to watch the lifecycle of some such persona that creates said content and that of a prospect for this invite becoming an unwilling or willing participant. Then that whole thing could go on some social channel and earn likes and subscriptions for someone else a

Lakeside frivolities

We moved to the Charlotte area not knowing where exactly our new home would be. Turns out it was by a popular lake formed by the damming of the Catawba river which flows north to south in the Carolinas. Local electricity generation utility built a series of dams along the waterway for hydro and couple nuclear plants as well to supply the state grid. The lake our house butts into is Lake Wylie. While tract home build has picked up in the Carolinas the developer often carves out parcels that they can get their hands on leaving behind privately owned lots that the individual owner may not want to sell. Our house is part of a subdivision but backs into actual lake front yardage that has always been part of legacy family owned properties who chose to build a cabin or getaway and did not sell to a corporation wanting to build in the hundreds. As such we can see the water through the year but it does not afford actual water access. That privilege is to our neighbors who still maintain thei

Brown Motion

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