Food, brands and rickshawallas…

… just some of the interesting stuff I’ve come across online in the last few days. I tweeted and retweeted the links, but on Twitter things can be so momentary. Now you see… now you don’t. So sharing the links here with a small gist.

1. STOP THROWING FOOD. No I’m not sympathising with the millions of people starving across the world. But just the thought of 13000 absolutely edible slices of bread thrown out because it’s the first and last slices of a loaf makes me want to yell STOP THROWING FOOD. Here’s Tristram Stuart talking about his hobby… “unofficial bin inspection”… on TED.

2. Another interesting piece I read on TED was about 10 brands doing unexpected things for their customers and employees. Some of the ideas were simply brilliant! Like Interflora that  launched a campaign that monitored Twitter for customers who expressed that they were having a terrible daysent them a surprise bouquet. Or Semco which allows it’s employees to set their own hours and salary. Yes, salary! And they’ve been doing it for 27 years now. Another company, Frog, holds speed meetings to ensure there no divide between older and newer employees. Talk about going on a date! Simple but effective ideas and there’s more where these came from.

http://blog.ted.com/2012/10/08/10-brand-stories-from-tim-leberechts-tedtalk/

Ok enough of TED for now. The next two pieces are from a really well-written magazine, The Caravan which I have started following recently. Here are two stories I enjoyed most from some of the pieces I’ve read.

3. The first one is a peek into the lives of Mumbai’s rickshawallas. I have to admit like many other Mumbaikars I’ve cursed them many times because they refuse a fare with so much arrogance as if we are at their mercy. Unfortunately that is true to some extent. Rickshaws and taxis go on strike and our daily life is disrupted. But this was an interesting read about what their lives in this city is like. Where do they come from? How much money do they make? What hurdles do they have to overcome? Is it really a worthwhile profession? http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reportage/hard-road-travel

4. How a college dropout pulled together the India’s indie music scene? With a line like that it’s very hard to not click on the link and read further. This is a piece about the NH7 Weekender and it’s a very interesting story about the boys behind one of the best music festivals we have. http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reportage/when-loud-get-going

Well there you have it. Hope you’ll enjoy reading these as much as I did. Happy reading!

One response to “Food, brands and rickshawallas…

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