mother's pride does not have any pride!

We got our daughter to take part in her first baby show, the much marketed and "acclaimed' Mother's Pride baby show, held on 22nd March, 2009. We went to the Galleria branch (Gurgaon). What a load of crap! Mother's Pride has completely lost it. They don't even have any regrets of chasing money like crazy, at the cost of little babies...here are my 2 cents of how bad Mother's Pride Baby Show is, and how they are taking unaware parents for a ride..
- The contact numbers so wonderfully advertised in all leading publications were never reachable hence the only option was to visit the premises and register for the show
- Once at the venue, everyone was stuffed in a basement hall and kids made to dance with some prizes being given...imagine how comfortable kids will be with 50 kids and 30 mothers all present on a small stage trying to dance
- This was followed by an "evaluation" round which took place on the 2nd floor. A 10 question list was to decide the most aware parents. I still do not know if 20 parents got the same max marks, then how will they decide?
- There were enough hints being given throughout the ordeal that parents should meet their counselors of mother's pride to know about the registration formalities
- The "doctor" checkup followed, and the medico only asked 4 questions to the parents, without really bothering to look at the kid even once. weird.
- Now comes the killer. The evaluation, which was supposed to determine the following: most active baby, sunniest smile, sparkling eyes, friendliest baby, most attractive baby, healthiest baby was all over in 15 seconds. A 20 something teacher, wearing 1 kilo of makeup, getting my child to play with blocks for 10 seconds, decides all of these categories? Give me a break, Mother's Pride.
- When i called up the next day to know the results, i was not surprised that my kid had not won in any category. Had read earlier too that those who register on the day are the ones who win the prizes. MP is taking everyone else for a ride. And one more thing, when i asked for the evaluation criteria, i was told by the attendant that "councilor" was one of the criteria!!
- Of the total 1.5 hours i wasted at mothers pride, 45 minutes were spent in the councilor room. Being shown an album which is a collection of 50 photos accumulated throughout the 1 year stay of the child. And guess how much they charge the parents for that? 7500/- :)
- I would have heard the councilor say at least 5 times that they are giving me a discount of 7000 bucks valid only if i register today at the show. And many do get fooled by this. The marketing hype they have created has resulted in many many gullible parents being fooled into submission, thinking that they are getting the best for their babies. But i beg to differ, mother's pride. You are simply a money minting machine, and you do not care about babies at all. There's a nice post here if you want to read more about how they are taking everyone for a ride.

IIPM has been ruining enough careers, thriving on the basis of marketing and PR alone. And enough has been said about it, with the gaurav sabnis saga. Now its mother's pride who has taken the cue, and is out to bombard us with marketing and PR to drive home the point that they're the best. And btw, they also get all records from MCD for all new-born babies in delhi. Wonder how? You'll get the answer if you read the post above.

There are many many better options. Shikshantra is a good school in gurgaon. Anand by career launcher shows very good promise due to their philosophy and so on. As long as a play school realizes they HAVE to care for the babies, rather than have making money as the sole objective, we will not see a repeat of what mother's pride is up to. More than the brand name, for a baby who is so young and impressionable, its better that parents follow these simple steps when evaluating a play school:

1. Look at distance from home as the 1st criteria
2. Ensure the teachers are well-qualified and loving enough to handle crying babies. A 20 something 12th pass cannot handle babies. It needs more maturity and love.
3. The school should ensure not more than 10-15 babies are handled by a single teacher
4. The books and toys/games should be adequate and fun, and do not necessarily have to be branded...mother's pride charges 4000/- for books claimed to be written by the parenting expert sudha gupta... :)
5. Meals should be hygienic and the helpers should be capable to keep the baby clean and fresh while the baby is at school

Trust me, everything else is just gimmick, and more of a means to give parents one more reason to do their own ego massage by proclaiming in society that their baby goes to mother's pride. A 2 year child does not understand brands or money or ego. The babies just need Love, not Pride. As a responsible parent, please ensure they get that adequately.

a simple facebook testing in place!

just checking if my post gets added to my facebook wall automatically..if yes, fb rocks. if no, it still rocks!

a simple facebook testing in place!

just checking if my post gets added to my facebook wall automatically..if yes, fb rocks. if no, it still rocks!

bravo, sachin!

to say the least, i was thrilled when sachin paddledsweeped to his century, and made india win one of the most engrossing test matches i have followed. absolute perfection, the way india chased this seemingly improbable target. i was perhaps even more delighted that the match referee made viru the man of the match...what an innings of absolutely genius proportions it was...stunning assault to give india a very very realistic chance. in an hour of bliss and magnificence, the match was taken away from england....much has been written since last night, about this match bringing back smiles, specially to people of mumbai which suffered so much in the last fortnight...each and every word is true, and my hats off to the spirit shown by indians..led so so beautifully by the immortal sachin. thanks for making us proud, yet again...

Are they trying to kill cricinfo.com??

I have been religiously trying to visit www.cricinfo.com for the last 3 days, and the site just refuses to open!
I have seen this problem surfacing again and again ever since it was bought over by espnstar.com....are they trying to kill the site, in the hope visitors come to www.espnstar.com instead?

Foolish, i must say. The Coca Cola company tried desperately to kill the Thums Up brand...and what do we have? Years after the takeover, Thums Up continues to remain India's highest selling aerated drinks brand...

So my request to you, espnstar.com, do something about the site you have so famously bought. As we love that site.

They're at it again!

kab sudhrenge ye log!
i wud love to know, do people continue watching these channels as they dont have better options, or do they keep watching them since their IQ has dropped to such abysmal levels that they have actually started enjoying them?

A couple of nights back, there was a story on star news, "CBI ki team pahunchi dactar durangi ke ghar" in relation to the aarushi murder case...that bugger kept repeating the same sentence, tweaked each time, but managed to say exactly the same thing for 20 odd minutes...it has stopped being frustrating...its more of a nuisance now!

PC World: You surprised me!

I read a shocker yesterday night...
A once respected web awards (PC World Web awards) has chosen hdfcrealty.com as the best real estate website, and has said that indianpillars.com was # 2.
I am shocked at the way the analysis must have been done. if i look at the website, the following jumps out at you instantly:

1. You can search for properties in only 7 cities
2. Even in these 7 cities, you can search only in a limited set of localities. For example, in NCR, only 15 odd localities get listed, and none of them is in delhi (ghaziabad, gurgaon and noida only)
3. If i do a search of gurgaon sohna road, where a lot of action is happening, only 9 properties get shown, when i select a range of 30 lacs to 80 lacs. odd?

If you think this is odd, how about talking about indianpillars.com

1. The site is primarily AP/Hyd based, with little to show in any other city
2. Can you believe that there were ZERO properties shown when i searched for gurgaon residential properties?
3. The site design is horrible, to say the least

I am sorry PC World, you have disappointed me today.

--
Thanks,
Puneet Goyal
Brand Manager
www.Makaan.com
99905 50666

hot male served!

what a funny ad!

A brand is made....

I do not know how well India is going to take to IPL. I do not know how much sustained interest viewers will show, for 44 days. I do not know how the rampant commercialization of IPL will affect the cricket lovers/experts. I do not know whether all the hype and hoopla is warranted or not. I do not know whether IPL will be a superhit, or a superflop.

I can only pray for its success. And pray i must, as IPL is where my brand will get made....I want every Indian to watch IPL today, and everyday for the next 44 days. I want them to get totally entertained. I want them to enjoy every moment of cricket that they watch. As associate sponsors of extraa innings, Makaan.com has a golden chance to catapult to the top of the league, atleast as far as the category is concerned. All the best, www.Makaan.com. I hope and pray for our success....

Makaan.com's TV Commercial

How do you like it?

at times, the police does help the citizens!

http://www.chilloutzone.de/files/08040701.html

a very very funny video clip on this link! enjoy!

an old story...but worth mentioning again!

There was this old man who lived alone. He wanted to spade his potato

garden, but it was very hard work. His only son, who would have helped

him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and mentioned

his situation.

Dear Son,

I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my

potato garden this year.I hate to miss doing the garden, because your

mother always loved planting time. I'm just getting too old to be digging

up a garden plot. If you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know

you would dig the plot for me, if you weren't in prison.

Love,

Dad

.........

Shortly, the old man received this telegram:

"For Heaven's sake, Dad,don't dig up the garden!! That's where I

Buried the GUNS!"

The next morning,

A dozen CBI agents and local police officers showed up and dug up the

entire garden without finding any guns.

Confused, the old man wrote another note to his son telling him what

happened, and asked him what to do next.

His son's reply was: "Go ahead and plant your potatoes, Dad. It's the

Best I could do for you from here."

*******

- Moral Of the Story

NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE IN THE WORLD,

IF YOU HAVE DECIDED TO DO SOMETHING DEEP FROM YOUR HEART, YOU CAN DO

 

What do I do with this e-mail?

Dear sir, With due respect, we want to introduce www.yesuncle.com as one of the leading online e-mail marketing advertisers of many reputed portals of all kinds. We have strength of 35540 potential costmers for whom success our team works day'n'night. Although they are big corporates or one man organisation. As you know how fast internet industry is growing & many many new tribes/people are joining this day by day & it is becoming the need of all of them. Now this is our intelligency & smartness how we extract better & more effective results from this boom. If you think this e-mail marketing stratgy is economical as compare to other ways of marketing & is suitable for success of your portal. Than visit our website www.yesuncle.com . Hope and pray for your success. With regards Brian Boor.

Someone, pray tell me if one gets a mail like this, what is one supposed to do?
Rather than taking a business decision, I can only laugh. and laugh out loud. :)

Billo Rani.....

Hats off to these folks...they can dig up crap from all corners of india, and have the balls to air it live as breaking news!
i shudder to think what will happen to all such billis in the next 45 days, when IPL is on, when so much other action is happening on TV...
khali ka kya hoga?
billis ko kaun cover karega?
raju srivastava ke ghar roti kahan se ayegi?
bla!

Young Frankenstein: Brilliant!

After a fairly long time, i watched a movie which really made me laugh....
This brilliant movie is a black and white classic, "Young Frankenstein".
It's a perfect movie to watch. It has moments of brilliant humour, is filled with perfectly etched out characters, and there are enough instances when youw ant to pause the movie, so you can laugh. Really laugh...And it's not slapstick humor!

I strongly advise people to get a copy of this movie, load up with a diet pepsi, nachos and popcorns, and get ready to enjoy 100 minutes of pure bliss!