June'08 Musings


Bangladesh Musings

Getting Started We conducted a research for a youth beverage brand in Bangladesh in late May this year. We had failed at trying to wriggle out of work with a feeble refrain, ‘we don’t know Bangladesh’ and other dastardly options like reminding the client of our competitors well established in Bangladesh. The client persisted with simply, kindly and firmly saying, he was well aware, and can we please complete fieldwork by 2nd June? It dawned on us that a swift Operation Sonar Bangla had to be launched in the two-week window! We had to begin with finding a field partner, organizing travel, resourcing two researchers and getting visas for their travel, developing a country context, and finally concluding the multi-centre fieldwork before the due date. Little wonder that I had recurring dreams around the ‘two’ theme!

The 360° Approach - It helps to be curious and fearless, realize one knows nothing and have the passion to understand and absorb the cultural context, to listen deeply and interpret what is being spoken. It also helps understand body language and silence. Eight of us on the project, broke up into teams leading different project management tasks. One team managed field identification and operations management, one team managed travel logistics, the KM team pored over maps of Bangladesh, the Tourist Handbook, Lonely Planet, and over twenty websites, pulled out links to films on Bangladesh on the Net and put together a country understanding note for the researchers.

In Bangladesh along with respondents recruited for the research, we spoke with field partners and their staff, concierges in the hotels, store staff; visited friends working there, and read local newspapers. Like ‘ferret-sponges’ we hungrily collected every visual, auditory and olfactory tidbits that came our way.

A cultural immersion warrants a look inside the soul of the people. Alongside fieldwork, we read the poetry and literature. Case in point is a brilliant anthology, ‘Under the Krishnachura’ of Bangladeshi writing. We listened to the amazingly soulful Baul music, the popular Bangla band, James, who has scored the music for the Bollywood film, ‘Life in the Metro’ and Maajhi songs which so inspired S.D Burman. There are about ten CDs that speak of our musical journey.

Historical Context - Over 90% are Muslims and speak Bangla, and fluency with in the English language is no where near an Indian metro. Linguistic tradition rather than religion define this interesting society which has experienced much turbulence in its social, economic and political fabric. The consciousness of the people of Bangladesh deeply influenced by the three transitional life-stages spanning five decades - once as part of a 5000 year civilization, then the ‘eastern wing of Pakistan’, and from 1952 to 1971, living a struggle to preserve ‘Bangla’ as the backbone of their unique culture. Bangladesh is less ‘Muslim’ and more ‘Bangla’.

Youth & Change - The Bangladeshi youth has experienced a smattering of modern urban living with an expansion of mobile telephony and communication access. New malls in Dhaka like Basundhara City fuel aspiration, and a seemingly unrelated act like relaxing of University hostel timings for girls in the past two years has meant more possibilities for freedom and exploration. Young people tend to study till their ‘Masters’ and live with their parents. There is little opportunity and encouragement to earn while they learn. The age for marriage is slowly rising from 18 - 20 years to 24 years for girls.

Careers in marketing and management are gaining in importance. Studying abroad, especially in the US and in Australia is aspirational. The most highly educated people hold positions requiring literacy and mathematical skills, such as in banks and government offices. Contradictions abound and there is no mention of Mohammad Yunus and the internationally recognized Grameen revolution.

Youth & The Family - Bangladeshi youth in Dhaka, Chittagong or Khulna, live in a fairly conventional, duty and norm-bound society with strong kinship ties, where obedience to elders is a virtue. Youth have a high sense of responsibility towards family and clan. One is taught to trust ones immediate family. Though open to accept the new, parental influence and even interference are evident. Key choices of education, career, and marriage are strongly determined by parental influence. Filial ties are very strong and immediate family members are the biggest role models cherished for their qualities of hard work or their admirable character.

Youth & Dreams - An opportunity to study and work abroad or to work in a multinational in Bangladesh is the family passport to a better life. They are as concerned about the country and are socially conscious, as they are about their personal growth. They take both as inter-linked. ‘Build yourself. Build your nation’ is the most resonant sentiment. The youth is affected by the situation of political instability and the resultant uncertainty. Politicians are mistrusted and traders are seen to hold the country to ransom. Dreams of the future are built on idealism and hope touched by realism. There is immense pride in the country coupled with huge concern for the economic, social and political situation. The youth want to be free from the threat of vicious inflationary cycles. They dream of working for the upliftment of the poor and downtrodden. While there is aspiration for economic prosperity, they do not seek to break away from the conservative social, cultural and religious system. Their aspirations are, linked quite closely with preserving and promoting “authentic” Bangladeshi culture.

Societal Fabric - While Dhaka appears more open with greater freedom to study and work, Chittagong and Khulna continue to be more strictly governed by familial norms and codes of conduct. Women in Khulna come across as more self-reliant. They feel education is a pre-requisite to change the current situation of inflation and political instability. Khulna also faces natural calamities possibly building resilience in the people and making them gritty survivors.

Youth Hot Buttons - There is large exposure to Indian television and youth enjoy watching Hindi serials and movies. Sony is a favourite channel and ‘Jassi’ has been a very popular. Watching Hindi movies, buying cheap movie CDs at taka 75 is a common practice. Shahrukh Khan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Priyanka Chopra, Kajol, Katrina Kaif have a big fan following.

Cricket and football are the main sports and watching and playing these is a pastime. Sachin Tendulkar and Shoaib Akhtar are the biggest cricketing stars. A highly emotional people, the personal highpoint is the enjoyment of festivals and reunion with family members who visit during festivals. Getting together, eating and drinking, relating and reliving happy times from the past are simple joys of life.

Conclusion - The warmth and gentleness in the Bangladesh spirit is unmistakable and brand marketers who build respect that comes with understanding will succeed in this market. The visit to Sonar Bangla leaves one feeling like one has gone back in time where things outside are far from perfect, but the gentleness of the spirit preserved perfectly. The warp and the weft of this cultural fabric may have a rent and tear here and there, but the exquisite embroidery makes one want to hold in up to close inspection and admiration.

Deepa Soman & Sagarika Sur Roy
June 16, 2008

May'08 Musings


In a fast-paced, ever-changing world, we are constantly on the move. Home, family, kids, work and social commitments dominate, as does the proverbial race from home to work and back on weekdays. Late nights at work, long hours of commute, outings on the weekends, friends and family commitments and catching up on chores and rest has become a way of life for many people. Sadly, with such a busy lifestyle where we are multitasking and meeting deadlines, our health gets the short end of the stick.

Nutritionist Malavika Khanna’s session to team Lumière in May ’08 brought perspective. Malavika firmly believes that even minor changes in our hectic lifestyle can bring about major changes in our health. This was the key message in her presentation on nutrition facts and easy tips to incorporate a balanced diet into our busy lives.

We all know that a balanced diet is important. But how many of us make a conscious effort to follow one? Incorporating a healthy mix of food groups right from an early age helps to prevent the need for tablets as age advances, says Malavika. Not to mention that a balanced diet will enhance one’s quality of life immensely. Unhealthy eating habits over a prolonged time period result in hypertension, diabetes and other complicated disorders. More often than not, individuals realize the importance of a diet only when a family member or someone they know falls prey to a condition that could have been easily staved off by adopting some simple eating policies.

Malavika cites several instances when we consciously or subconsciously overlook our diet and attribute our health setbacks to advancing age. We fail to take a hard look at our lifestyle. Women especially are prone to overlook their own needs while taking care of the rest of the family. A mother who makes sure that her daughter drinks a glass of milk and gets her daily dose of calcium will invariably make slight of drinking a glass herself. Despite the need for the same nutrients, women will ensure that their husbands or in-laws eat various kinds of beneficial fruits and vegetables while being content in popping pills to gain the same. Malavika emphasizes the need for dietary attention among women given that they play a critical role as mothers, wives or career-women.

Malavika explains that adopting a good diet is not as hard as it may sound. She points out that many essential nutrients are available right in our kitchens – we only have to actively include it in our day-to-day lives. The Indian thali is already balanced in nutrients and a small twist like adding functional foods such as ginger and garlic and squeezing lime to our food, greatly enhances our nutrient intake without sacrificing flavor. She recommends changing the type of oil we use regularly. An interesting idea to make a fussy child eat is by adding vegetable puree to the dough to make chapattis for thereby transforming the cereal and making it doubly nutritious.

Diet, exercise and lifestyle are the 3 ingredients of Malavika’s recipe for health. One cannot be effective without the aid of the other two. Exercise especially, is more important today than ever before. With our increasingly sedentary lifestyle - sitting at the computer and working long hours - we are not involved in too much strenuous activity. Exercise is important to burn the calories our bodies consume and Malavika strongly urges us to engage in physical activity at least thrice a week. Even simple acts as walking for 15 minutes on one’s way to work or back, getting off the autorickshaw or bus two stops earlier, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator helps to work out the body. These can be easily adopted by any individual regardless of a demanding lifestyle.

Malavika suggests we keep a few pieces of dark chocolate at the work desk to ease stress and keep one happy, and eating a fruit and one bowl of salad (or at the very least, two washed tomatoes if one is too busy to slice and dice) and drinking 8 glasses of water everyday. The last one is significant as many people never hit the required minimum in a day. To help remember to drink water, Malavika suggests setting a “water-alarm” at 2 hour intervals or posting reminders on the computer. However, she points out that aerated beverages or coffee/ tea cannot act as substitutes for water and should be avoided.

Finally, Malavika clarifies many myths about food and eating habits. Firstly, she points out that there are no such things as fat burning foods. If they existed, nutritionists would be out of business fairly soon! Caffeine rich foods boost one’s metabolism but it is only temporary – moreover, they exacerbate problems such as acidity and constipation. Secondly, skipping a meal to compensate for a heavy meal or for losing weight is rarely effective. The body has already digested and converted the food from the previous meal into fat. Many also tend to skip breakfast, which is the most important meal of the day, as the body receives much-needed nutrition through this meal after a fast of 8 hours. Malavika informs that fat-free food is not the same as calorie free and so it is very important to read food labels.

Attending Malavika’s presentation, was a reaffirmation that adopting a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle is rather effortless. Too often, we let our excuses and laziness get the better of us. However, with the easy switches suggested by Malavika Khanna, it is possible to cross that seemingly vast chasm between us and good health, one step at a time.

Deepa Soman & Amruta Hunnurkar
May 10,2008

March'08 Musings


There is a special woman in each of our lives, some one we want to think of and celebrate. While the list of women celebrities grows by the day, there are millions of invisible ones. Whether in our homes, our work places, on railway trains, in small huts that one drives past, there's something in every woman that calls for a standing ovation. Be it courage, resilience, tolerance for physical and emotional pain, patience and endurance, there is need to recognize, respect and acknowledge this extraordinariness. A business school started a dialogue for women students at business school to engage with women professionals and entrepreneurs with a view to preparing them for life after getting into the work world.

It's useful to have a road map of broad goalposts, a life map while discovering and learning from life. This teacher gave me a life map and put inside of me an anchor and lighthouse. And it is to her that I'd like to propose a toast this Women's Day. Geeta, a story-teller par excellence, was an inspiration. She spoke softly yet emphatically and never once did she raise voice nor hand. She had pithy maxim stacks of her world view. Brutally honest, she dissected her foibles, choices or lack thereof critically so others would learn from her mistakes. She taught lessons on delayed gratification, the need to study hard, and even the basis for finding a life partner. She was “midwife” enabler helping knowledge inside emerge. Grit and determination personified, she encouraged the taking of ones own decisions and taking responsibility for ones life.

Geeta taught an important lesson that one needs to make the most of ones gifts. She was about building on strengths and working on those areas to win. When physical fitness wasn't quite the trend it is today, she insisted on physical exercise and the importance of grooming. She was always smartly turned out. The inner strength was all draped around a fragile form. She was driven to be very good at whatever she did. Her advice would resonate with each 25 year old for she said, ‘ do what makes you truly happy '. Geeta wished she had been brought up to be a professional and a career woman.

This feisty, multi-faceted woman, Geeta Brahmavar (1943-1993), was born on the 15 th of January to Shankarrao and Nalini Brahmavar in Dharwar, Karnataka. A second girl child born a year after the first, Geeta grew up quiet and willful, with a mind of her own. She studied in different schools across districts of Karnataka given her father's transferable job. One among four siblings she believed she was the most neglected and unfairly bore a grudge against her parents for the longest. She did well at school.

A turning point in Geeta's life was being sent away to boarding school in Pune in her 8 th standard. The Huzurpaka Girls High School laid high emphasis on self-discipline and the quest for perfection, two qualities Geeta respected and imbibed. She loved Marathi literature and poetry. After completing her schooling, she moved back home to Belgaum to do her Bachelors in Marathi in RPD College. Daughter of the Deputy Superintendent of Police, she was brought up to be married comfortably to a man within the clannish small Chitrapur Saraswat community.

Geeta's mother, Nalini was a convent educated matriculate. Nalini supervised the girls' dance and music lessons and trained them in domesticity. The girls learnt embroidery, sewing and cooking. An important influence was Geeta's cousin Sunanda, ten years her senior. Sunanda read English novels and was exposed to English films. Every summer vacation that Geeta spent in Bombay, she soaked up Sunanda's cultural context. Sunanda got married and moved to UK with her husband to live there until her death, but the influence stayed.

The Brahmavar sisters were the toast of RPD College. They were extremely attractive and talented. Geeta met a handsome student in RPD, the talented Vasant Samant. He excelled in dramatics, directed and acted in one act plays, and held magic shows. Vasant was a sailor and he did a year of college before going back to sea and earn enough for the following years tuition. Geeta recognized strength of character, determination and the yen to succeed. The seven-year age gap didn't quite faze her. In this period there were marriage proposals from highly educated, well-placed boys from the community. Geeta the quiet rebel, was obstinate that if she would ever marry, it would only be this man who had neither an education, nor job or home. She chose a hard life for the man she loved.

Her father retired and the family moved to Bombay, after which Geeta's parents relented and the couple married in 1964. The ensuing years were a period of struggle, of finding a job, a home and the bringing up a child born a year after they were married. Geeta applied to the employment exchange soon after marriage and received a call from the Income Tax Department. She began with a clerical job and realized that she was unable to relate to work and to colleagues and knew the only escape was to work hard and get promoted. In they meanwhile they got lucky, winning lots for a housing board colony flat, a one room kitchen with a tiny balcony that doubled up as bedroom.

Geeta was a practical realist, a believer in gender equality, a woman with drive and the need to excel. She believed in Puritan values of hard work, honesty, and fierce loyalty to her spouse and family. She drove these hard and led from the front. Life led her to discover that she had enormous patience and perseverance. Geeta was a skilled time manager juggling home and work and became adept at multi-tasking. Geeta and Vasant kept an open house. They had relatives from out of town come and stay for extended periods of time in the small one room, kitchen apartment they lived in for the first 12 years of marriage. These family and friends lived here, found jobs and moved on.

These were hard years, of studying, housework and bringing up two daughters. Geeta's parents helped look after the children till they were about three and a half and ready for school. After this she had them sent to a crèche in the neighbourhood.

Geeta fueled ambition and helped Vasant complete a diploma in advertising management in the early years of their marriage. She made copious notes and helped him with his studies. For herself, she took Departmental exams and each exam meant burning the midnight oil. It needed tremendous determination to study after the day's chores were done. Interestingly, Geeta didn't put life on hold. She loved shopping and window shopping and would watch a movie in a theatre by herself if she had to. She was funny with an interesting touch of irony. She read novels and sewed and embroidered. All the clothes the children ever wore were sewed by her or by her mother.

Within a year of being in the Department, Geeta studied for the Inspectors exam, topping the country in Maths. She was soon Inspector and in some years Officer, and around 1989, Assistant Commissioner. No mean achievement for a woman, a mother of two, and a person afflicted with an allergic bronchiactis due to the Bombay pollution. She hated any sympathy and mentions of her illness so I'll keep this part of the story brief. Suffice to say there were at least two major hospitalizations every year and minor illness all year round. When the going was good, it was great. She gave great cooking instructions that even a 10 year old could follow easily. She told stories of her work day, lessons she had learnt from colleagues, overheard train conversations. Through her lessons she taught the importance of standing for ones beliefs, of not succumbing to pressure and never compromising ones values. Simply spiritual and never idolatrous, she believed religion to be a deeply personal and even private matter. She encouraged me to write poetry, essays, movie reviews and to paint.

A meticulous planner and good communicator she was direct in speech, albeit sharp-tongued. She was hopeless at being politically correct or diplomacy, but ironically was highly sensitive about the smallest slight. She seldom forgave and never forgot. It was better to stay on the right side of her. She fought bitterly for what she believed in. She was pragmatic. Geeta loved winning and my winning made her happy. All the pennants pinned onto her made her illness more bearable. I hung on to every word, mulled over each phrase and saved every letter she ever wrote me.

Stoic and unrelenting she battled her illness and claimed she had “negotiated” during one near-death experience to live until had brought up and taught her daughters to be independent. She died the day she decided they were ready to be on their own, days after her 50 th birthday after the birth of her first grand-child and a day after her younger child got her first job. I raise my toast to this woman, my mother, who taught some of life's timeliest lessons.

I look forward to your your views and comments to this piece on deepa.soman@lumieresolutions.com Best,

Deepa Soman
March 8, 2008

January'08 Musings


December to January marks the time for 'discover' or 're-discover India'. Its not difficult to cherry-pick wide eyed newbies at airports, ashrams, management school campuses, malls, temples and streets. Each one of us here has played host at some time or another. We take our cultural prescript “athithi devo bhava” seriously. It makes playing host pleasurable and rewarding, especially if the guest is curious, happy to explore, open and receptive. Playing host to people from “outside” our culture poses a creative challenge of planning and executing to deliver maximum “experience value”. The trip must be authentic, memorable and a learning.

Despite the plethora of information one can find on the Net, making meaning of a new country needs time, patience, resources and a “guide”. Mid January we faced a challenge of taking a group of 70 students and five professors for a “consumer immersion” in Dharavi. The students studying Entrepreneurship at Rotterdam’s Erasmus University were India on a 9-day trip to experience and participate in a social entrepreneurship. The trip was to culminate with the students solving business cases. The output was to arrive at ideas for projects that will bring about social development at the bottom of the pyramid. While 80% of group was Dutch, there were students from multiple ethnicities viz., Egyptian, Haitian, German, Indonesian and Chinese.

The class had pre-selected Dharavi is their request for study and had contacted us to help design a two day program to experience communities and life at the bottom of the pyramid. Planning involved designing a program for two days and the logistics for managing safety and security in a very small, densely populated and congested area.

The students began their two days with a classroom orientation into observation, and set off for their field-visit to Dharavi. The students were briefed that it was Makar Sankranti, the auspicious day of new beginnings following the harvest festival. They were informed that they would find people dressed nicely on the occasion. Cleanliness of the home, and personal care and grooming is important to Indians it is not uncommon to find people in tiny huts having clean, bright and shining utensils. They will wear clean clothes and women might even wear small pieces of jewelry. The students found this in contrast with poor people in Europe who might be careless about their appearance and upkeep. As a people, we like adornment and our persons and our homes rise above the squalor in the community, quite like the proverbial “lotus in a filthy pond” of the Buddha's teachings.

A “moderator-translator” led each of the 20 groups comprised of 3 to 4 students into the pre-selected homes. We used a discussion guide to understand life’s context, pain-points, aspirations and joys in their life. We observed their homes, their kids, the appliances they used and the basic amenities they had access to viz., water, electricity, sanitation and housing. Most moderators were unfamiliar to the 'gullis' and 'mohallas' of Dharavi. Unless one has good reason to, most locals in Mumbai will have driven past 90 feet road and 60 feet road.

The demeanor of the consumers, their dignity, happiness despite their lot was a surprise to the the students. There was much discussion about what might lie behind the smile. The spirit of enterprise, creative effort and stretch, and belief and support to children for education is what is the positivism in Dharavi. Shanti got married to Praveen who has lived in Dharavi since he was born. She has two daughters aged 8 and 4 years. She works as a domestic help and has the permission to take her younger child to work. The husband works as a daily wage earner at getting work from time to time at local small time construction sites. They live in a rented room paying Rs. 700 per month and a deposit with a 11 month lease.

Housing and the uncertainty of not knowing where they move next is the biggest stress of this couple's life. There is an every day struggle of earning enough to bring home the day's provisions. The 10*10*7 room is the kitchen & dish wash area, sitting room, bedroom evokes a mix of shock and admiration for Shanti. There is a wall rack lined with small steel dabbas with provisions. There are at least 30 one litre PET bottles filled with drinking water. There is a tap inside the room and a bathroom in an adjoining but “private” area, making the place very promising. Shanti's utensils are shiny and neatly stacked in her rack, and, large covered utensils with stored water.

The 14” TV set, the only source of indoor entertainment, does not work. There is a wooden two ft wide shelf on two sides of the wall at a six ft height. Bags possibly with clothing and mattress rolls are stored. Most homes like these do not have cupboards and every day clothes are stored in trunks or bags. A bright red an blue school bag on a peg on the wall is the high point of this visit. Shanti proudly tell us that she spends two hours each evening with her eight year-old making her do her homework. The child purposefully pulls out her notebooks and hands them to us as if for inspection. The writing is neat and the teacher has put in encouraging remarks. Shanti, who has studied up to class VII and more educated than her II class educated husband, is the mover and shaker in the home. She drives her kids hard and says she does not hesitate to hit the children when they don't study. She basks in the reflected glory of her child's marks, the intangible that is her sense of purpose.

Education is a primary barrier that keeps people currently Dharavi, some of whom had lived there for over 30 years. The residents are “education-locked”, “opportunity-locked” and “credit-locked”. Parents like Shanti recognize that education is the only “eject button” for people outside their lot. Engaging the children in education is also a way to keep them out of trouble and going astray. The Dutch students can now see tangible evidence of the conundrum India is at the bottom 1/3rd of the development index but among the top countries on the happiness index. The hopeful, hardworking couple with two daughters and their quest to keep on going despite their pitiable present makes an impact.

One student quips, ‘why are people not angry? In Europe people would turn communist. We tend to take our democracy for granted. Why is there no rebellion? Some students feel that people here might make positive efforts to bring about change if they were less accepting and not complacent of their current condition. The students observe with surprise the possible lack of grass-root level community initiative and action.

Over the two days we organized thought-provoking lectures, made presentations on corporate initiatives at the bottom of the pyramid, and a field trip to a mall in Central Mumbai and a visit to Mumbai Central station. Many students were disappointed and were unable to connect the dots between the mall visit and the lives of the people in Dharavi. The visit to the mall was intended to demonstrate the potential of market place in bringing about community transformation.

Shanti works in two homes and knows how “rich” people live,. Her husband has helped build some of these homes. Both these places they render a service; they do not visit to be served. In the new market places where Shanti and her family will visit in the near future, discover with surprise that she can keep her footwear on in the store, will shop with her simple dignity intact and delightedly discover that she has saved a small amount. Perhaps she can treat the kids to an ice cream and take them home in an auto rickshaw.

Shanti and Praveen will begin to explore creative ways to earn more and stretch the rupee further. Perhaps this is how these new marketplaces will contribute in transforming community. Shanti will have renewed confidence that her children will study and get jobs; they will improve their life with hard work and industry. It will make her want to find creative ways of doing more things so she can earn. She will learn embroidery from a neighbour and attend a tailoring class and make time to take tuitions for small children in the neighborhood. She will begin keeping her garbage in a covered dustbin and handing it over to garbage van that comes every morning. She and her neighbors will become more conscious of keeping their lane clean, demand tarred roads, covered sewage and sanitation. And they may no longer be satisfied being passive vote banks repositories of unfulfilled election promises.

Marcia De Graff one of the student organizers writes me a mail, 'I can only hope that I will make a (humble) contribution by investing my future in entrepreneurship in the BOP. I will already start of by writing my thesis on this topic. I hope that we stay in touch to discuss issues and I also hope to return to India soon to do my research'. The India experience has ignited Marcia into becoming a social entrepreneur.

I look forward to your views and comments to this piece on deepa.soman@lumieresolutions.com

Best,

Deepa Soman