BRAToSPHERE

Author: Bharat Jhurani

  • IIPM – and its wonderful suing saga

    Four years back, I was travelling across the country attending different interviews, and group discussion processes for various B-Schools, seeking an admission there.

    This also took me to Delhi, aspiring for a seat in DOMS, IIT-Delhi. After the interview, as is the habit, I set out walking around the city near the campus, and I bumped into the IIFT campus (one more dream place to join) and IIPM. Did it attract me? Absolutely. Long cars, hot chics, an auro of richness in and around the place, it just seemed like a page out of a Hindi movie college campus.

    No doubt, Arindam Chaudhuri  played very well on the middle class Indian sentiment of providing a “good” education to their children no matter what, and how much ever it costs. Whether affordable or not!

    I first heard about this “great campus on this planet” in their full page newspaper ads, across newspapers. INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT (IIPM) – Dare to think beyond the IIM’s glared the newspaper, with a pony tiled comic looking guy smiling with his shining white teeth flashing so very obviously.

    One more instance put IIPM into my mind – coming up with 4 magazines and in vernacular languages too. The cover pages of the magazines were no doubt attractive and provoking, and only after buying it does one understand that it is just all jazz with no real matter!

    Was it over? No! Rok Sako toh Rok Lo – the movie Arindam produced marking his entry into bollywood, very unconventional for an academic. Totally serves the purpose! Middle class Indian now treats him like a celebrity. Rok sako toh rok lo, he literally seemed to say.

    Nah! My man, Arindam is still not happy. The students are still not flocking in the numbers that he would have ideally wanted for his campuses across the country. So what if the promised swimming pool is present only at one campus? So what if all that is shown on the ads, are not really present? So what if the institute claims of having tie-ups with international institutes? Nobel laureates being passed as IIPM faculty, top rankings above the IIM’s, and many other marketing initiatives still seemed less for this “visionary”.

    He pulled the biggest coup of them all – SHAH RUKH KHAN, undoubtedly the biggest brand in the country, would endorse IIPM, and become a quiz master for the IIPM quiz competition. ( SRK’s association with the institute is now being questioned by the court)

    Now, why am I ranting about IIPM and its kartoot across the years today? This ridiculously funny piece of news, that IIPM has sued a magazine, a publisher and GOOGLE for Rs. 50 crores!

    Why? A cover story published by the Caravan magazine in February 2011 issue, titled ‘Sweet Smell of Success: How Arindam Chaudhuri Made a Fortune Off the Aspirations—and Insecurities—of India’s Middle Classes’, which has been excerpted from Siddhartha Deb’s upcoming book published by Penguin, has allegedly caused “grave harassment and injury’ to the brand IIPM.

    The funnier part,  besides the point that google was also being sued, is that the suit has been filed in Silchar, Assam! Why? No idea! IIPM is based out of Delhi, Caravan is based out delhi, and Delhi should have been the obvious choice!

    The IIPM filed the case at the Court of Civil Judge in Silchar district, through one Kishorendu Gupta( a commissioned agent of IIPM), who operates Gupta Electrical Engineers in a Silchar suburb, and is the first plaintiff. IIPM is the second plaintiff.

    This is not the first time Arindam Chaudhuri is up against the publishers. A good couple of years back, in 2005, the IIPM filed a case against Rashmi Bansal, a blogger and editor of Just Another Magazine (JAM), who published a similar article questioning many of the claims like accreditation, made by the IIPM in its brochures and advertisements. The IIPM filed a case against Bansal from Silchar, Assam, even though she runs a small independent outfit based in Mumbai. Even Gaurav Sabnis, A blogger, was implicated in this case.

    Again in 2009, Careers360 magazine, carried an article titled “IIPM – Best only in claims?” investigating the authenticity of many of the claims made by the IIPM in their advertisements. The IIPM, again, filed a case against the magazine and the publisher in Silchar, and obtained ex-parte restraint against them. The IIPM also filed a criminal case against Maheshwar Peri from Uttarakhand, which was subsequently quashed by the High Court.

    The cases against Rashmi Bansal and Careers360 are both still underway at the Silchar courts, as the IIPM seems to be interested in dragging the matter out now that their purpose has been served by obtaining interim restraints. Public memory is limited, and greed and gullibility – unlimited. Arindam is the perfect Marketing manager to capture this insight and use to his complete advantage.

    What purpose does it serve IIPM? The court in Silchar has ordered an “ex-parte injunction”, asking the magazine to take down the posts, similar to what it has done with JAM magazine six years back! Apparently, the legal system in India allows for this.

    Would Arindam win the case? In all probability no! but who needs to win anyways. He has got his way, the articles are down, and the case would be pending in that remote court for ever, as happens with court cases in india. Till then, Arindam would have minted much much money from the innocent gullible parents, to be able to fund his Bentleys and other pursuits.

    One observation in this whole issue – Why did Arindam have to wait till now to sue caravan and other, when the article was published in February itself? Oh! Admissions time, you don’t want bad publicity. Caravan magazine would be read by a handful of people, and you suing it would give the article a more wider reach ( like it has done now!). So, wait for the admissions to be done ,let all the money reach your safe, and then suing can keep happening. Silchar courts, am sure would not object to it ever!

    Only that this time, Arindam has probably undermined the effect of social media, and its reach. Getting an article off one magazine does not ensure that it is completely off the internet. Shutting the mouth of newspapers by dangling the full page ad wala carrot in front of them, will not shut normal junta from sharing it on twitter, and facebook and let everyone know about it.

    Link – The original article on Caravan magazine

    Now just hoping, blogger does not feel intimidated, and take it down. Else, there would be a hundred other places again where it would be reposted.

  • Love marriage in India

    This has been happening for quite sometime. Wake up in the morning, log on to your facebook and you see one more notification of someone getting engaged, someone getting married, someone getting laid! (Probably mark should add this functionality too!).

    And obviously so, this is the marriage season on in india, and I belong to this group or this age, where people do generally get married. So, it is nothing but obvious that my friends are all getting hooked.

    Interacting with many of these recently married, or soon to be married couples, gives me one good insight. Get an arranged marriage, and it is just an affair. Dare an affair, and there are lots of things to be arranged. The biggest of them all, convincing parents.

    More the differences, more time consuming it is.

    1. Different caste?

    The most common problem. Everyone, right from the mom and dad, to the door ka uncle, whom you meet only during weddings, and also the kaam wali bai, who needs to know why are you getting married to someone outside your caste. Understandable if you are a parsi, and your community population is dwindling, but not otherwise, they say.

    A reddy girl, cannot marry a choudhary guy. Final. Why? Both the families celebrate the same set of festivals, have similar rituals, follow similar traditions, and even look quite similar. So why? You may ask? A No, is a NO! unless you want your limbs cut off, by one of our factionist brothers from Telangana. (Anyways, the nosed man is not very active these days!)

    2. Different language?

    Again a big obstacle, and a very common one! Come on now, India has about a 1000 languages ( 18 official languages), and liberalization has allowed us to travel across the country. It is obvious that a Tam-Brahm girl would fall in love with a Punju guy ( remember 2 States, by Chetan Bhagat), or a rajasthani girl being pataaofied by a mallu guy! But well, parents on either side would sure be dead against it. Why? Dude, you want your father to be able to atleast communicate to your father in law!

    Living in both Chennai, and Delhi, the difference in life style could not get more starker. They could have been two completely different countries all together. Iraq and America would have more similarities, in every walk of life!

    How do you convince you parents? Show them the beauty of multi cultural interaction, and tell your punju father how it is very important to be learning to save more money from your Tamilian filter coffee drinking, Hindu paper reading father in law!

    3. Different religion?

    All hell breaks lose! WHY? Why? And after many more doubts on proper downloads of sanskar, the mother still asks WHY? Why on earth you, a pious Brahmin boy, who does not eat good things like chicken and mutton at home (and hogs the same like a pig in a hotel with beer!) want to get married to a muslim girl? WHY?

    In this case, the occasional kashmira shawl sales man also needs to be convinced. After all, a muslim girl is going to come next to buy his shawls.

    Remember Veer-Jaara, convince your parents that you are doing all this in for the betterment of the Indian society, and to ensure cross-cultural exposure to your kids! Or maybe, you can just tell them, it is necessary like IIPM has a necessary international exposure!

    Beware, they might just slam you back with Sonia Gandhi’s example, and try showing you logic that only if Rajiv Gandhi had married a hindu girl, the country would have been a lot better now! No Italian dope to the dying BJP!( yeah, and who know, No Bofors case for the CBI. No Q)

    4. Rich – poor divide?

    Now this is a very serious difference.  How can a Raja bhoj, let his daughter get married to a gangu telli? Remember Dulhe Raja? But well, the dulha needs to be determined, and push his way through to the riches and the coffins of his soon-to-be father in law. Whatever it takes.

    This particularly reminds me of a friend, Raju, who recently had to meet his rich girl’s parents to convince them for their marriage. After the initial pleasantries, the soon-to-be father in law (FIL) guided Raju to the study room to get to know him better.

    “So, Raju, What are your plans?” FIL asks Raju

    “I’m an software engineer at Acer, working for the last four years.”, raju replied sheepishly knowing very well that his meager salary of 3.3 lakhs per annum was less than FIL’s daily income.

    “Well, that’s admirable” FIL replied. “But what will you do to provide a nice house for my daughter?”

    “I will work hard, and God will surely provide for us” Raju explained.

    “And how will you buy her a nice engagement ring?”

    “I will work hard, and God will provide for us”

    “And children?” asked the father.  “How will you support children?”

    “Not a worry, sir, God will provide” replied Raju non-chalantly.

    The conversation continued for about 10 more minutes in much the same fashion.

    After Raju left, his girl asked her father what did he feel of Raju?

    “Well, he has no sound job, income and no plans either”, he despairs with the girl looking at him with tension written all across her face.

    “But, the good news is that he thinks I’m God”

    “You can marry him!”, egoistically.

    They are now getting married in June.

    This brings me to the next divide, EGO!

    5. Ego clashes?

    Mohabbatein! If you remember seeing the SRK romantic movie of early 2000’s, you would realize that there is no solid reason for the father Amitabh bacchhan to reject SRK’s candidature. ( This is what marriages have become, one more job opening!). It was just his ego, that he could not let go!

    I wonder, why are most of the parents against the overall concept of a love marriage? I know of a friend, who loved a girl from his same caste, and everything. If he would have applied for an arranged marriage, a good possibility that his parents could have selected the same girl! But they were against this alliance? Surprising!

    It is more to do with the inherent right that parent seem to be losing than anything else. At the birth of a child itself, the parent takes this ordeal of selecting a bride for their son, as their inate right. Now when you, the son, gets a girl on your own, your are stealing them of this right, and they do not want that.

    No parent would accept this, but this seems to be the inherent truth!

    Again, here, persistence is the only way guys!

    6. Age difference?

    Guy elder to girl by any number of years, still okay! Girl elder to guy? Unpardonable. It is an age old custom without any sound logic. In the olden days, it was considered normal for the guy to be atleast 10 years elder to the girl.

    In the good olden days, the men fought wars, while the women filled bindis of water from far off places. In this milieu, it was necessary that the guy crosses a certain threshold of age to get married, and parents of girls have always been desperate to get their daughters married off as quickly as possible.

    A recent study says, that girls tend to age more quickly than guys, and thus to maintain compatibility and also to ensure that the couple looks good together it was necessary that the girl is younger to her husband. A different study also says that women have an average life expectancy atleast 5 years more then men. By this logic,  to avoid the woman from spending more years as a widow, she should be allowed to marry grooms five years younger to her, to ensure death at the same time.

    Ultimately, whatever your parents give as a reason for this, there is no way in which you can overcome this. The girl, if elder to you, is always going to remain so, and the only way to overcome this is to die hard convince your parents.

    I personally think, this norm that guys should be elder to their wives, stem from the inherent need of every male to be dominating, and ensuring younger wife gave them a free license to do this!

    And if this was not enough, Let me remind you that God’s wife is elder to him! (er! Sachin Tendulkar)

    7. Boy – Boy?

    This is something that is very much in fashion of late, and the Indian constitution has recently also legalized it. Now this is one case, where the issue stems due to the lack of a difference, unlike the remaining reason where the issue is due the reasons. Now the basic reason for this issue,  is lack of awareness and an inherent tendency against change that each of us have it within. You father would say, “You marrying a boy? Which boy gets married to a boy? I have not seen anyone being happy after doing this!”

    Probably, our generation, after seeing many a happy gay couples would allow our children to pursue the sexuality and the orientation of their choice!

    Whatever be the reason guys ( and girls!), if the voice within you shouts that yes, “She is the one! She is the one!” No reason or difference( or maybe the lack of it) should stop you from relentlessly pursuing it. Nothing on earth can come between us should be the motto, and watch titanic to gather inspiration.

    Okay! Need more inspiration? Watch any hindi movie, and this would be the theme plot. Want more realistic inspiration? Watch a telugu movie, sans the fights!

    This post is dedicated to Srinivas Jarkula, who is getting married this Sunday in the district capital of KHAMMAM! (Well, it is some obscure place in Andhra!) Wish you guys a very very happy married life!

  • Everything in jars

    When I started out blogging about 6 years back now, I had one thing in mind – what is this blog going to be about? After a lot of deliberation and thinking, I could just come up with one thing – whatever runs through my mind. The basic objective of this blog is to let me write, something that I inherently enjoy, and in parallel if it helps others in any which manner (maybe by the occasional laughs alone), I would die a happy man!

    After spending my entire working career till date in FMCG, it is more, but apparent that I should write something about it. I am a marketing person at heart, and am sure would remain so.

    Yesterday morning, in my conversation with A, an interesting insight was revealed. Every FMCG item is now eyeing to come up in a jar. Traditionally only toffees came in a jar and rightly so, it needed some place to be sold out of the pan outlet where it is generally sold from.

    I remember last year in feb, bubblegum sales was not really picking up, and then a new variant was launched in jars. The sales zoomed, much beyond the demand that was estimated. What difference does a simple jar make to a product which remains the same?

    Similarly, parle biscuits. Traditionally parle biscuits are low priced sku’s meant for a quick bite. It was apparent that a Rs. 5/- sku comes in the market. (a 3/- sku is also doing rounds). After the initial launch of this magic figure 5 priced sku too, the visibility aspect of the product was not very high. And as they say in sales (especially in impulse category products like chocolates, biscuits, chips, etc..) “ Jo dikhta hai, who bikta hai!” Parle sales suddenly started zooming upwards, and again just with a small interference – jars! Biscuits in jars you may think? Yes! This is what provokes the retailer in storing ( and displaying) the product in the front.

    Why is this phenomena? And why are companies willing to spend that extra on jars? Simple. More acceptance among the retailers. Higher volumes can offset the marginal price increase that would be borne for the jar.

    Also, the perceived value of the jar among the retailer is much higher than the actual cost of the jar to the company. So, it is a complete win-win situation. The retailer looks at the sku as the inherent products as well as the jar. for instance, if a candy costs Re. 1/-, and the margin to the retailer is 10% i, the company, would have to give him a jar of 100 candies at 90/-. (90.9/- actually depending on mark up or mark down!). The retailer does not see much benefit in selling it, and bargains with me for more in-built frees (like 100+8 free units at the mrp of 100/-) and stuff. Now the same sku, filled in a jar turns the dynamic completely. The retailer now looks at the margin of 10%, and also the price in which he can sell the jar( or maybe how much it would cost hi if he were to buy a jar for his outlet to stock something!). The perceived value of the sku instantly goes up, and there, the salesman has a winning story.

    Also, the company realizes that the jar is like a permanent branding the company manages to get in the retail outlet even after the contents of the jars are empty. I, as a brand manager, would love to see my product jars being filled with other items too and stocked in the outlet – I save huge money on posters and banners, which anyways have a minimal shelf life!

    Of late, many more categories like sunscreen, setwet hair gels, ponds cream, wafer biscuits are all now in their avatar of jars. Would not be too long, before condoms also start selling in jars!

  • CampusPreneurs – Article in Management Compass magazine

    It all started on quiet Tuesday when I was chatting with varun reddy, my friend from L, on the phone when he told me about an article he had recently written for a magazine. I instantly got interested, and asked him the details to which he enthusiastically obliged.

    About two weeks from that, he was in Bangalore for a short trip, and we again spoke about the article. I then expressed my interest in contributing for the same. Varun referred me to the contact in the magazine, and lo! I got my first assignment – An article on entrepreneurship!!

    Submitted the article on two days flat, and got a confirmation that the article has been accepted an would be the lead story in the april issue of the magazine. As promised, the magazine was couriered along with the cheque( YIPPEEE!!) last week.

    For the benefit of the BRAToSPHERites, I am publishing the article here.

    Campuspreneurs
    With a booming economy and India shining, entrepreneurship is the new in-thing for the young graduates from premier B-schools

    By Bharat Jhurani

    “16 students deferred their placements in pursuit of entrepreneurial ventures.”
    – March 15, Times of India Bangalore edition

    This and many similar stories have become more and more common with each passing year, and the number of students opting for entrepreneurship is only headed upwards. Every year, more students are opting out of the comfort of campus placements, and venturing out to set up their own enterprises. Campuspreneurs, as they are commonly called, has become an everyday buzzword.

    Seminars, conferences and workshops are being organised across the world, emphasising on the importance of entrepreneurship for the country, the society as well as the individual. The US startup, Visa, a much debated legislation that aims to slow down the brain drain of skilled workers from US and incentivises them to create startups (and American jobs), has been updated to be friendlier to H1B visa holders as well as foreign students studying in the US. Every government has now realised that entrepreneurship alone would help in boosting the economy, and bring in the much required growth.

    Every B-school campus worth its salt is looking for potential students who would create jobs for themselves and others rather than ask for a job at the end of their graduation. Today, entrepreneurship is regarded as one of the best development strategies for a country’s economic growth; it sustains the country’s competitiveness in facing the increasing demands of globalisation. With all this, India is already recognised as the land of a billion entrepreneurs the world over.

    Benefits
    In my entrepreneurial journey I have been asked many times, “Is this the right time of your career to be taking such a risk?” The answer is, yes. There is no better time than right now. Instead of wondering at the age of 50 what it could have been like, I will like to take this one chance to find out. Besides, there is nothing like starting out young. One is raw, fuelled by passion to prove things and set new standards.
    Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple, the biggest names in the corporate world, were all startups found by young students in their pursuit to follow their dreams. It is now India’s turn to give such leaders to the world.

    Starting out straight from the campus has many advantages. To begin with, when you go around speaking to your seniors and alumni (who could be possible competition), they are more generous with their advice than they would ever be to anyone in their own age group. When I asked my batchmates, seniors, and alumni that what made them quit promising jobs, or give up lucrative pre-placement offers and prompted them to take the proverbial plunge into uncertainty, I found one commonality in their replies; their definition of risk and their attitude towards it. An entrepreneurial ecosystem has been set up over the past two-three years across premier institutes. Incubators at IITs & IIMs have managed to give student entrepreneurs an access to early stage funding through grants from government departments, alongside venture capitalists, who are hunting for the next big ideas within college incubators. Funds such as VenturEast, Nexus Venture Partners, and SeedFund are increasingly backing companies from such college incubators.

    In 2008, during my second year at IIM (Lucknow), looking at the entrepreneurial zeal and drive among the students, a full day was reserved for “entrepreneurial ventures” for the first time in the history of premier B-schools, as companies queued up to hire summer interns at the institute. The move was aimed at helping students who would like to start their own ventures rather than accept offers with salaries below their expectations in a time of meltdown. Even now, with the economy back to normal and the job market booming like never before, the start-up days have many takers with the numbers only growing every year.

    Can Entrepreneurship be taught?
    Many say that entrepreneurs are born not created. But everything needs polishing and this is what good education does to an individual. The context changes the perspectives; entrepreneurship education has taken a huge leap towards achieving this. It has moved on from its days of helping small and medium enterprises (there is the consulting club to do that), to setting up new-age incubators and helping in employment generation. Entrepreneurship education is now more in tune with broad innovation education.

    Even more striking than the vast increase in the entrepreneurial activity levels is the practical approach to teaching entrepreneurship. Professors have realised that a good entrepreneur needs not know various models, and theories behind it, but should gain more knowledge about the finer aspects like hiring the first employee, setting up the office, getting the first client, and making a brand out of it. The students are no longer kept trapped in a classroom and led by the faculty alone. The entrepreneurship elective is no longer synonymous with only commerce and management literature. In fact, there are many institutes like Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, which offer two year courses in entrepreneurship. Nurture Talent, a startup by an IIM alumnus, is also into the field of entrepreneurial education. There are many more executive programs provided by management institutes related to training people in management education.

    What are the risks?
    The higher the risk, the higher the benefit.

    This is the basic statement by which any investment is decided, any action is calculated & any activity is pursued. This is the fundamental truth of management, and anything related to do with it. There is no doubt that giving up the certainty of a monthly cheque and job security is a major risk. But then, so is taking up a 20 year home loan with the belief of a steady income for the next twenty years or the folly of not using a business loan calculator. As a rational human being, one should not just calculate the risk in taking the entrepreneurial step, but should also calculate the risk of not taking the risk at all.

    Dheeraj, my globetrotting batch-mate, who is working for an FMCG major in Singapore, just decided to give it all up one fine day and setup an Internet company in India. Does he miss his job and the perks? He said, “Sure, you do miss those five star hotel stays, business class international travel, and plush offices but I guess it all seems too trivial when compared to the kick one gets in working towards conceiving what you really believe in!”

    Realising that many students fear venturing out on their own, and instead take the comfort in opting for campus placements, the IITs, IIMs and many other premier B-schools have come up with the concept of deferred placements wherein a student can opt out of the placement, start his own venture and can appear for the placement process anytime in the next two to three years (the number of “cushion” years varies from B-school to B-school).

    In the last few years, entrepreneurship has started gaining acceptance from the society. The social taboo is diminishing and failed startups are no more looked down upon. These days, family, friends and the society at large, including potential employers are more welcoming towards people who have tried setting up an enterprise.

    The E word is in!
    With the older generations, securing a government job was considered to be the best way to retire in peace – you join a company, grow through the bureaucracy and then retire with the promise of a handsome pension. In the present capitalistic world, this kind of culture does not exist. Darwin could not have been more correct in saying “survival of the fittest”. Companies that follow their American counterparts just believe in HIRE AND FIRE. And rightly so, we are all here to make profits, aren’t we? It is the NGOs that are there for charity.

    With the economic uncertainty rising, job security is as uncertain as the assured success of any startup. Who knows what will be your job profile tomorrow? Or, who will be your boss in the future? There may be a hundred reasons to quit a job, but your employer will surely have a thousand more reasons to fire you. These reasons have fostered ideas in the minds of the youth to create opportunities and capitalise on them. Now-a-days, most parents (I would not say all yet) do not complain if their child walks out of a premier B-school to pursue a personal project from his/her engineering days and dreams big from the very beginning. For example, one of my seniors from IIM Lucknow dropped out 3 months after joining the campus, and now he has the opportunity to fly – he makes engines for Hero Honda, develops Unmanned Arial Vehicles (UAVs)!

    What if I fail?
    Most companies face failures initially. It’s an unsettling fact for the student entrepreneurs, but old news for start-up veterans. But the good news is that running a failing company may actually help a career, but only if the entrepreneur is willing to view failure as a potential area for improvement.

    As a parting note, I would like to propagate a thought that our mentor once shared with us – “You become an entrepreneur by choice, and not because you are not doing well professionally”.

    — The author is an IIM-L alumni from the batch of 2009, and after selling chocolates for two years, is about to commence his entrepreneurial journey

     

    The link up to the article is presently at http://www.mediamates.biz/management_compass/lead_1.html

    It can subsequently be accessed from the archive section (april 2011) of the “management compass” section of the parent website – www.mediamates.biz

    HAPPY READING!

  • lissten.. sunoooooo

    Quite an eventful april it has been so far. I was home for my birthday, and needless to say, had a blast. India has won the cricket world cup after a good long 28 years. Anna Hazare chose my birthday ( april 5th) to start his fast at jantar mantar, taking away all the limelight from me!

    In all these distractions, I did manage to spend quality time with my younger cousins,  and from them, got a very interesting insight.

    Guys, rather kids, as young as in 6th standard have a facebook account, a twiter handle and a girlfriend!

    Teens, in 9th standard have it clear about their relationships!

    Adolescents in first year college are drinking, smoking and do everything that I started doing only when I was nearing the end of college!

    Young adults, freshly out of college, have a great sense of clarity of what they like, and what they dislike in their relationships!

    This post forms its genesis in one such conversation. What does a guy wish in his girl?

    Unlike girls, we are a very simple species, with a very elementary operating system fixed in our brains. Not complicated at all. Some simple wishes here and there is all that we crave for.

    Listen up ladies: We know you’re keeping secrets from us. And even though you think you’ve got men all figured out, we’re hiding a few things ourselves. There are a little more than a few things, which we would want you to know.

    • Don’t invade our privacy – My cellphone, gmail account and facebook account is something mine. I would not want you to peep into it at the first given moment.
    • Please tell us how you would like us to please you, and trust me, we would not feel dumb! We would try to do everything possible within the limits of time, finances, influence and feasibility.
    • We like you to be a little jealous! A little is the word here. Overtly possessive is not necessary. we need definitions! Jealousy is an ugly thing which only gets worse.
    • you are allowed to be late, we are not!! Why??If you are late it is because you wanted to look great, and if we are late we just don’t care is what you believe. Ever heard of a thing called traffic??
    • Guys love neck rubs and if he lets you keep doing it, means that he really likes you
    • Calling us cute – okay! Puppies are cute, and so are small little teddy bears. That is the last thing a man would want to be called, and the small man all the more hates it. Now you know we we hate our aunts so much!
    • Licking our ears – My girlfriend is going to hate me for this. But seriously, Ears aren’t cleaned out as often as they should be. Licking them might feel good for a few seconds, but then your tongue just tastes like earwax.
    • Emoticons – seriously. We would just prefer to get a call, and hear you kiss and say I love you, rather than looking at funny pictures in yellow!

    These are just some random things that people have been telling me for ages, and I have just done the chore of pinning them down.

    To all the ladies, these are not my thoughts alone but those that are spoken by a majority of men. I am a firm believer of unconditional love!! No strings attached!

    And all you beautiful women out there, you don’t really need to pay heed to any of these. These are for those other guys, who would want these qualities. For me, I would just fall for you if I hear you listening to the latest daler mehandi song – “listen, suno mere bhai..”