Madam "wok" (vogue) le lo

Everything becomes a business in seconds in this place and everything shuts shop in even milli seconds in Delhi!

So I live in Punjabi Bagh, a place primarily renowned for its filthy rich people with every car possible and the stamina to eat/pay for good food. There has been no such ice cream brand that has not targeted this region. So in a line of shops you'd find cocoberry, hoki poki, baskin robin, gianis, 24x7, nirula's and of course not to forget the existing hawkers of mother dairy, amul, etc. I mean yes the people like ice cream but how much can they eat! That's what I thought. But was surprised to find later that yes, they can eat A LOT and something new every night. Its crazy how none of these brands claim they've had a dry sales time ever in this place!

Target market/group analysis has such a widespread application in everything India does. Its almost like marketing skills have been drilled in all of us. Think about it - the vendors on the traffic lights know exactly who will buy flowers, magazines, car chargers, books etc. Now they did not study anything its just experience that talks loud.

At this red light recently, this tiny guy selling magazines comes to my window and suddenly changes the order of the magazines. Says - madam "wok" (vogue) le lo. I told him while pointing at a hindi publication and said - woh kyun nahi dikhaya? He started giggling and said "firangi type Indian  log toh "wok" hi kharidte hain". So this barely 8 year old guy knew the exact market for what he was carrying to sell! Similarly, this girl selling flowers at the signal tells Dev (a friend) - "phool le lo bhaiya, madam khush ho jayengi". Yet again they knew that a guy and a girl sitting together would be ideal for selling something like flowers.

There is this word called - "jugaad" that exists in a lot of our dictionaries, at least it does in mine! I absolutely love how people here have a gut feeling that if something is not possible, there has to be a sidelined way to get it done. We do not take NO as an answer very easily. If we go to a shop and do not find our size of say a pair of shoes, it would be 99percent that we would say - "please check in the stock." I mean why is it so hard to believe something when told once. Its probably because there is such a high probability of being cheated in every sphere! Even the sabzi wala will try and quote wrong prices so you can imagine how big decisions would be so tough to take. How do I know that if someone is telling me the right thing so I just haggle until I know that I've done my best. From the auto drivers to desi sharaab places - all cheat us and we still keep believing we made a good deal! That's the beauty of business here.