Consequences of looking beautiful

[following content is for matured readers only]

Last Saturday night I got some spare time out of my busy schedule. Watching TV in my free time is one of my favourite activities. So, I started surfing the TV channels. There was one show that drew my initial attention. The programme was named as, “Another Beauty in the World”. The idea about the programme is that a gorgeous looking person would come at every episode. Then he or she would talk about his or her self-proclaimed beauty. The interviewer would ask questions to him about his early years, career, life and about the beauty, fashion & sexual attraction that the person possesses.

Since, nobody calls Bishnu Kumar Ganguram (that’s me) a handsome guy, I have a natural curiosity for how to become more attractive. By listening to their talks on beauty secrets, I try to find tips that I can use to improve my looks. So, I felt a natural curiosity about this programme.

On last Saturday’s show, the guest was Mr. Milkshake Sikhwal.

Host: Welcome to the show Milkshake…

Milkshake: Hi Romit. It’s good to see you again.

Host: Milky, tell me about how your ‘good look’ has caused impact on your life.

Milkshake: It all started when I was born.

Host: What happened? I guess you were born at night and at that time, there was power cut in the hospital. So, nobody could see your beautiful face…

Milkshake: No, no I was born in the morning. Actually, there was another beautiful baby in the same maternity ward. Today she has become a successful film star with international fame.

Host: And you have become just a beauty sensation (and nothing else)?

Milkshake: Hmmm. But the fact was everybody in the maternity ward wanted to see me but not to her. So, it seems to me that I stole the show from her.

Host: But she has stolen the show in the long run. She has more admirers than you now.

Milkshake: I also have had many admirers. When I was a kid many women tried to get cozy with me.

Host: Like?

Milkshake: Like when I played in the garden, many cows whistled at me (in their own language).

Host: So, you treated animals your lovers?

Milkshake: Why shouldn’t I? Even today I am called a sex animal.

Host: We shall take a break and then shall come back for more talks with Mr. Milkshake.

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[back to the show]

Host: Welcome back to our show. So, you were telling me that something happened in the school? What was that?

Milkshake: Well the girls in my batch fell for my beauty. But they feared to propose me. After all, we were only kids. They waited until we were in the class XII.

Host: What happened then?

Milkshake: One day, they stood in a line after the classes and one by one they came near me. Each girl told me that she was in love with me.

Host: What you told them in return?

Milkshake: I said, rather than Romance activities, I was more interested in “MMS Clip” kind of activities.

Host: What happened then? Did the girls like your concept of attraction?

Milkshake: Well, they became furious. They beat me up with their best possible strengths.

Host: Many bad things people like you have to suffer in the name of Sex.

Milkshake: Oh no. That was in the name of Beauty.

Host: Anyway, have you found any positive side of your physical beauty?

Milkshake: Yes, plenty of them. The lady teachers of  Maths & English gave me 80% marks in all through my school life. Because I was always very cute looking. So I guess they also fell for me. Otherwise, I could not have passed in those subjects after class V.

Host: Okay, let’s proceed with other matters. How was your experience with foreign girls while studying at a foreign university?

Milkshake: Well, I tried to impress girls with my different hairstyles. In the first year, my friends used to call me “Bowl-head”, in the second year, “Towel-Head” and in the third year, “Gargoyel-head”.

Host: But you were still successful to impress them, right?

Milkshake: Yes, of course. In fact, I take their comments as compliments about my beautiful hair.

Host: You must be kidding…

Milkshake: No, I’m not.

Host: Let’s move on to other topics. We have heard that you sported moustache and beard sometime in your life. What was that for? Did you tried to reduce your handsomeness?

Milkshake: No, actually before keeping my beard and moustache, girls understood me as half-man-half-woman. I used to receive hot proposals from trans genders and bisexuals. To bring a feeling of masculinity I grew hair on my face.

Host: What happened after that?

Milkshake: My foreign job was not renewed. Seeing my bearded face, employers treated me as some kind of terrorist. Being jobless, I tried my luck in the adult film industry.

Host: What did adult filmmakers say?

Milkshake: They said that they were looking for some strong looking men. I am a thin man weighing just 64 kg. My films would promote a thief or beggar having sex with a gorgeous lady. That thing they didn’t want.

Host: What did you say?

Milkshake: I fought back with my arguments and histrionics. I said, at 64 kg., I was nimble like a cheetah.

Host: And how did they respond to that?

Milkshake: They said, at 64 kg. of weight, I was more like a monkey to them. They told me to get lost. So, I came back to India. Here, astrologers of Bongaon (my birth place) predicted that even a malnourished person like me would become a future sex siren in India. They gave me their reasoning that fat Indian girls prefer husbands like me because they can dominate my thin body with their overweight torsos. 

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[back to the show]

Host: We have heard that you posted your proposal on Sasural.com (India’s popular matrimony site).

Milkshake: Yes, just after I posted my marriage related bio, all girls started looking at my profile and so, the site got crashed.

Host: But a cyber crime data shows that a hacker group was trying to hack that site to access people’s personal phone numbers and emails. They made the site crashed. Anyway, I would like to ask you a final question. How are you planning to attract more women in this Summer?

Milkshake: Well, I plan to move here and there by wearing a skin-tight thick Blue Jeans trouser.

Host: Man, Kolkata’s temperature has just crossed 39ºC and you are planning to wear such outfits in this season!

Milkshake: That I have to do for being too attractive. You see when people like Samantha Brik and me do something attractive and trendy, you guys just become “jealous” and you guys criticize us.

Host (with a smile): May be we are not jealous about you, dear Milkshake. I wear my cotton outfits, do decent behaviour with women, plan to have a body like Salman Khan, John Abraham or Hrithick and somehow manage to get my own women fan following. Why should guys like me envy you?

Milkshake: Well, I’m not sure. But I insist that you guys are jealous of me.

Host: Well, without going to further controversy, we end our show here. Thank you for being with us on “Another Beauty in the World”. We wish great going for you (and your histrionics, too).

The show ended. I switched off the television set. I don’t know about others. But at least I don’t need to be like Mr. Milkshake Sikhwal. May be treating myself as a human is a better option than treating myself as a piece of sex meat. 

Travel: Picnic at New Digha or Bag Danga

Nature is not close to our cities. To have a glimpse of perennial beauty of nature, you have to visit the rural side of West Bengal. Fortunately, I got a chance on 15.1.2011 to go closer to nature. In simpler terms I got a picnic to enjoy for a day in the vicinity of nature.

The picnic spot was at New Digha (Bag Danga), governed by Hoogly Zilla Porishod. The picnic was organized by my language learning institute.

On the evening before the picnic, our team of 5 students went to market. It was not a very nice experience as we had to carry lots of vegetables from the market to the institute and our bags became really heavy.

On the very day of the picnic I had to get up at 5 pm. It was not possible for a lazy guy like me to wake up on a winter morning unless my mother took the responsibility. Our reporting time was 7.30 am. I reached in front of the institute much before that and saw nobody. Thankfully, the wait for others was not long as my brother-like Bonodeep came early. We went inside the institute and others started coming. Two cars arrived just at 7.30 am. By 8.00 am, we were all inside the car and our two cars got traffic-free roads as morning’s natural advantage. Sitting in the car and watching the pitch-filled road running backwards from the window was a nice experience altogether.

Our cars quickly touched places like Dunlop, Konnogor etc. until we reached our destined ground of New Digha. If you are familiar with the place, ‘Digha’, you must be wondering about the sea. But you are wrong this time! Because New Digha near Chandannagar has nothing to do with New Digha sea-beach. They are two distinct places.

Anyway, we got off our cars to witness a long queue in front of the picnic spot. The entry fee was Rs. 10. It was a large area near river-side divided into several picnic spots. We approached towards ours. Generally, I prefer to choose a picnic spot that is very calm and quite. But New Digha was full of chaos as lots of picnic lovers gather up to the same place. It was like many birds put inside a small cage  - all chattering in their highest scales and making cage look like a parallelopiped of noise. The situation got worse as some other picnic candidates came next to us and they started their booming sounds of music boxes. 

The students got distributed for various activities. Some played cricket and badminton, some started helping the cooks, some started move here and there to get an idea about the whole place. I was among the last people. We came outside the picnic spot (out of the whole chaotic place). The lovely river was flowing beside it. We moved towards the other side of the river. In the other side, there were bushes of bamboo trees. We went through the path filled with dry leaves. It was a kind of adventure for urban people like us. The look at the picnic spots from bushes of bamboo trees was not a picture perfect one. We saw that lots of dishes were dumped on the sides of the river. “Can’t authorities make a better disposal to human wastes?”, I thought to myself. 

Anyway, the bushes of bamboo were not filled with so many abandoned dishes. Me and one senior student, Ranju-da spent quality time there. I suddenly saw one big black bird was in the leaves-covered-boroughs of bamboo trees. I meantioned that to Ranju-da. He also looked at it and said it might be a crow. Upon close observation, we understood that it was not a crow. The bird had red eyes.

I certainly related the bird’s identity with mine. The bird was very away from noisy picnic spots. Here amidst the calm flowing water of the river and in the yellowish greenery of bamboo trees, it had found its supreme abode. Also, it was certainly lonely like me. I had the camera to take photos of that bird. But I did not intend to do that. Not every beauty of nature should be caught by camera. Let mind have its own camera to catch something. That was the best part of the picnic.

We returned to our picnic spot. The lunch was right on time. The Bengali / Indian menu included Bhat (white rice), Muger Dal, Alu-Kopir torkari, Beguni, Murgir Mangsho (meat of Chicken) and chatni. Some said, Beguni could have been more crispy and Alu-kopir torkari could have been tastier, but I really enjoyed all the items. After having my lunch, I served others with my limited capabilities.

After lunch, we stayed long to our allotted spot. We packed up our remained goods and reached to our institute by 7.00 pm. The things that were biting me were not only fact that humans are polluting the river sides but also the chilly wintry wind of an evening.

Hope, you enjoyed my picnic virtually.

Wish list for 2012 : 10 wishes I want to become true

I wish the following things to happen by end of 2012:

Mobile handset with ereader: I wish that all handsets of mobile providers come with default ebook reader that will be able to read .MOBI, .PDF and .EPUB files. If they can read .DOC and .DOCX files that will be an added plus.

Tablet: I want all Android based tablet prices to come within the range of Rs. 5000-7000 from big companies like HP, Amazon, Samsung, Apple etc. I want number apps for Kindle Fire to be doubled, tripled or more by end of 2012.

Windows 8: I want Windows 8 to be released on 2012 with a sleek tablet version. I also want apps developers for tablet gives much importance to develop applications for Windows OS tablet version.

Laptop: I wish all major laptop makers bring down the laptop prices below Rs. 20000.

Touch based smartphones: I wish all touch-based smartphones are built with both keypad and touch based technology. I mean, every smartphone should contain both the options.

Apps compatibility: I want apps built for one OS should smoothly run on another OS. Apps built for iOS should run on Android and Windows 8 also. There won’t be any different version for the same app file irrespective of the OS. .

Free international contests: I want to participate in free international literary contests and want to win any of them with prizes. I want plenty of literary writing competitions to be occurred in India where competition entry free will be nil and submission can be done online.

DSLR cameras: I wish the DSLR camera prices to be dropped under Rs. 15000.

Sweepstakes: I wish lots of tech gadgets are offered as sweepstakes in India.

Job: I wish that I get good job offer from top companies and get a handsome salary of 5 figures.

In Loving Memory of late Steve Jobs

Happy Durga Puja Festival 2011

Victory of Mamata Banerjee

Along the sea-shore of humankind,

On 20^th May she marches on,

Crowd rejoicing her victory,

Crowd feeling her power,

Crowd cherishing the fall of Red fort,

Crowd accepting the change,

It is your change, my change, our change,

Change because losers became winners at last,

Change because winners’ winning streak ended  -

Unimaginable blitzkrieg in Bengal’s political sky -

As it’s called;

And few drops of humanity falling political sky

Compensated for a thirst of 34 years,

Congratulations Mamata

For being the Rainmaker

And bringing monsoon early

Through a historic political change

In a ‘pre-historic’ West Bengal. 

[I have written this from a common man's viewpoint. Views expressed are personal.]

Reckless car driving and Innocent pedestrians

It is difficult to change the past. Some deeply painful past we can’t change. Like, I can’t or we can’t change the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear radiation tragedy of Japan. True, we can’t change the past tragedies of people. But we can alter present to form a future perfect.

Car accidents are too common a topic to discuss. Many have been injured by car accidents, many have died due to reckless car driving. But drivers are good fellows who never seem to learn from their past mistakes. The last victim of car accidents whom I have seen or heard of was my own mother!

On 23^rd March, 2011 when she was going to drop the telephone bill at Salt Lake’s Lalkuthi that unwanted incident happened. A white car while taking a turn with full speed in the ‘Foot Bridge’ place (near AE and AD block meeting point), lost its control. The car collided with a cycle rickshaw. The cycle rickshaw lost its balance and it fell straight on my mother’s body. My mother’s left hand got immensely injured. Some section of her hand got blackened immediately. Warm, fresh blood came out from three regions of her hand showing degree of injury. And the criminal’s car escaped unnoticed! Police in Salt Lake stands near Tank No. 4 when nothing bad happens. When that day their service was much required, they are nowhere near Foot Bridge or tank number 4 in Salt Lake, Kolkata.

Some rickshaw puller told my mother that they can lend their kind service by giving her a free lift to our home. At least those illiterate rickshaw pullers were more humanic than the educated, civilized, organized police force of Salt Lake!

If you penetrate inside this matter, it will reveal many naked facts of Indian society. First of all, I believe that everybody in India should NOT own a car. Only people with civic sense should drive a car. And for speed demons, I would like to say whole Kolkata’s streets are not purchased by you guys. Streets of Kolkata are not your racing tracks! Kindly spare innocent citizens from becoming your victims.

Indian government and our transport ministers have taken a wrong step to bring down the price of cars. Many people without proper driving skills and knowledge drive on Indian roads. This is the reason why the traffic accidents in cities are increasing in an alarming rate. Also, few corruptive officers allow many devilish drivers their much awaited driving licenses in exchange of small amount of bribes. These speed demons then show off their evil speeds on city streets.

Through my blog, I request Indian government officials and ministers to do the following:

1)      Hike the prices of cars such that not everybody can purchase it (when people buy a car at a higher price they will naturally drive it in a risk-free way, with a moderate speed)

2)      Implement tough punishment system like sending the miscreant drivers to jail as well as monetary compensation in favour of the victim’s family

3)      Implement 24 x 7 police posting in important sections of every city and policemen should have the authority any challenge any car owner whose driving speed is unnecessarily high.

4)      Driving courses must be monitored by the government such that only good, matured guys get car or two wheeler driving licenses.

Finally, let me say a few more words about my mother. Every old fashioned mother is an expert in hiding her tears, physical / mental agonies in front of her son or daughter. My mother is no exception to that. If I asked her (on 26^th March, 2011) how she was feeling about the accident, she said, “Oh, it was just a minor accident! Although, I have not used any medicine ( except white colored Boroline )…  (I am) giving some hot water pack on the wounded spots and you see, I can move my hand just like before.” I have taken some images of her wounded hand (on 26^th March, 2011) just to show you and the rest of the world about what was a ‘minor accident’ according to her. Please take a look at the following pictures (I think all the spineless, coward, journalists who repeatedly ignore to publish news of such accidents on newspapers, might be ashamed of themselves by seeing these pictures.):

Moon photo

19st March, 2011 was the day when the Moon, earth's natural satellite came closest (356,577 kilometers or 221,567 miles in 18 years) to us. I have taken a few pictures of it. Here is one picture which you may like to see:

Later, I have modified it using photo editing and here is the picture giving Moon a more mysterious look in the night sky.

 I expected something strange will happen to earth. However, except irregular wind I experienced nothing.

Welcome Year 2011

Durga Puja 2010

FIFA World Cup 2010

Football lovers love Maradona as much as they hate him. When he was a player, football critiques spent thousand of printed lines describing his football playing genius, coaches tried to find his weaknesses and strengths. Opponent teams cursed him for his amazing goal scoring ability. Now that he has become national coach of Argentina, he is again in the spotlight! He was never away from fame, though. Maradona did not play this world cup as a player. So what? He drew attention than any of the present Argentine footballer. His admirers said that the God had come back to take the charge of his dynasty, the world of football. His enemies said (before that Argentina Germany match) that he has grown a ‘devilish beard’ with his age (they found no other fault in him!). After that shocking match, his critiques and enemies have found at least 10,000 errors of coach Maradona. Maradona was partly responsible for Argentina’s miserable loss. But main reason was Argentine defenders who failed to defend their goalpost from German blitzkrieg. Just like old days, coach Maradona is hiding his footballers from media attacks that he once did as captain of his national football team.

Germany started their world cup journey with a 0-1 loss to Serbia. They failed to reach the world cup final with the same 0-1 loss to Spain. In the middle of playing these two games, they knocked out two big teams, namely, England and Argentina. In the previous world cup also, they made Argentina’s exit. Neither they can win the world cup, nor they will let Argentina to win it. That’s a bad game approach. 

What will happen in the final?  Netherlands and Spain are facing each other in FIFA World Cup 2010. Both the teams have consistently played well in the whole tournament. The way Netherlands defeated Brazil was exceptional. The way Spain dominated Germany was extraordinary. Both the teams deserve to win in the final. 

Spain defeated that Germany who swept away Argentina in this world cup. Naturally, Argentine fans will support Spain. Also, Messi’s playing at Barcelona may be another cause for supporting Germany. On the other hand Netherlands beat Brazil to reach in the final. So Brazilian fans may not support Holland. They may indirectly support Spain. But football is an 11 versus 11 game. More support does not mean the game is going to be in Spain’s favour. I am waiting to watch an interesting battle between Spain and Netherlands which may be unpredictable till the last whistle.  

   

Who will star in the final? From Netherlands’ point of view, it will be superstar Arjen Robben. Along with him Holland boasts off Wesley Sneijder, Robin van Persie. In Spanish side, excellent footballer David Villa, Fernando Torres may steal the show. But I don’t understand why Fabregas was not given much opportunity to play in this tournament.  

Despite the exit of big teams like Portugal, Germany, Argentina, Italy and Brazil, this world cup is special because it has given us new finalist teams. Also, I am happy with the performance of Asian team Japan and African team Ghana. New powers are emerging in this world cup. FIFA World Cup Final between Dutch and Spain is a proof of that.

My only condolence is for coach Maradona and that psychic Octopus named Paul. In this world cup, whatever the psychic Octopus predicted became true. Germans are planning to fry it up in a frying pan. If that happens that will be a bad news for football astrologers! But think about that creature’s unbelievable predictions. Doctor Octopus should hire Paul as his assistant and should check his own fate in his next tussle against that amazing Spiderman!  But that’s another story and has nothing to do with football.

Maradona, Maradona, Maradona…

Your left foot had the power

Of a great painter’s brush,

You made the football

To talk to your

Body’s changing moves.

Defenders all over the world

Tried to scare you, tackle you, fowl you,

Could they snatch your external body part,

A football?

You moved like a white lighting

In the dark cloud of opponent’s defense;

Other strikers saw opponent’s goal post,

You aimed to shoot there,

There was one word that fed you

In your entire football career –

Goal, goal, goal.

Not only Argentine fans

But football lovers worldwide

Were crazy because of you,

You were crazy for them, too.

You risked and sacrificed your body

For the enjoyment of millions of fans

Who saw unarguably best skills of

Dribbling and body movement

In entire football arena.

Some say, you are the football God,

Some say, you are the prince of football,

I say, you are a tiger

In white and Indigo stripes

Who started hunting with a ball

In the slums of Buenos Aires,

Who made his mark

In his play for Boca juniors,

Who eventually became

Greatest football sensation

Because of his creativity, fighting spirit,

God gifted football skill;

He was the ‘God’ in world cup

Not because of his hand

But truly for his excellence

In football dribbling with magical left foot,

And don’t forget his contribution

In club football like Napoli and Barcelona,

But there lies his fall from grace

Although that can’t erase his passion for the game,

And all his achievements

Are well preserved in the hearts

Of millions of emotional followers

Who kissed football instead of lover’s lips

And loved shouting –

Maradona, Maradona, Maradona…

Apple vs. Google vs. Microsoft: Apple’s success secrets and possible strategies Microsoft should take now

Apple’s iPod. Apple’s iPhone. Apple’s iPad. And now Apple ‘overtakes’ Microsoft. The picture of a fast moving company’s latest example. Looks like an apple does not fall on the ground due to acceleration due to gravity, but it can fly high in the corporate sky, too. But what’s the inside story?

Is it Steve Job’s magic that made it possible or is it the example of a good corporate strategy?

In my opinion, Microsoft has wrong strategy. It has always concentrated on software and operating systems. Although, Microsoft’s has vast business products, but it main business always revolves around software and Windows. There lies the wrong strategy. Let me discuss the wrong strategy of Microsoft and right strategy of Apple in detail:

Product: Apple’s iPad and iPhone are all tangible products and costs at a ‘reasonable price’ in developed countries and ‘high price’ in developing countries. Windows 7 or MS-Office is reasonably priced worldwide. But Windows 7’s pirated version is widely used and code breakers around the world feel a special fun to generate ‘crack’ or ‘patch’ of the original software developed by Microsoft. Compared to that, I wonder, how many enemies Apple has. How many people or organization have dared to ‘duplicate’ iPad or iPhone? I guess, none! That is the reason where Windows loose profit and Apple gains it.

Branding: all the terms iPod, iPhone, iPad seems like brand names. But ‘Windows Mobile’ does not sound like a brand. Tell me how many Microsoft’s tangible products (if there are any) are branded like iPhone or iPad?  You will get less popular answers.

Target audience: Windows OS is targeted at all computer and laptop and Window’s mobile users. But iPod is targeted at music listeners. Apple’s iPhone is targeted at mobile phone users and iPad is made keeping in mind of laptop users, gamers, ebook readers etc. So you can see rather than product upgradation, Apple is more focused on launching different products for people’s varied needs.  That relates to better understanding of consumer lifestyles.

Buzz: Everything Apple does, create buzzes. One can remember the long standing queues in front of mobile stores before the launch of iPhone. That happens because of buzzes. Buzz marketing is great for tapping the ears and eyes consumers. Before, launch of any great Apple’s products, you will see, television, web, radio, print media, everywhere Apple is in news headline (and such buzzes last for 1 week to one and a half months). Except the launch of Windows 7, how many times you have noticed buzzes around Microsoft. 

Pricing: I use my Nokia phone. In India, the lowest price of a Nokia handset can be still under Rs. 5000/-. Because Nokia, Motorola, Sony has products for all income groups of the society. A good iPhone handset costs around Rs. 30000/-. So when six low-cost Nokia handsets are sold, the profit margin only covers the sale of one iPhone! This is the reason iPhone or ipad sales have such a hiking profit. Also, in India, upper class and middle class’ income is growing. And western country people hardly suffer from loss of money. They are buying Apple products frequently. That way, Apple sees no reason for their products’ price reduction. However, a large market in developing countries remains untapped by Apple.

Has Apple conquered everything on web? Are they the new world leader in IT world?

I think there is no reason to panic. Apple’s does not possess biggest search engine (well, it is Google of course); Apple does not run incredibly popular portals like yahoo.com or MSN.com; Apple’s does not have any nice developing software like .NET or VB6 or C#. And cool graphic icons on iPhone can be designed in Adobe Photoshop or any similar image editing software.  So the web world is commonly shared by many big companies. Nobody is actually the leader (not even Apple!)

Apple vs. Google?

Both the companies are extremely innovative. But again, while Google’s products are majorly web based ‘intangible’ applications, Apple is focused on iPod or iPhone like ‘real-life gadgets’.  Google has launched its online store like Apple. But that does not mean these two companies should be compared unless they have similar identical products in web world and in real life.

What strategy Microsoft should take to regain its position?

Open new windows: No, I am not talking about new Windows OS (say, Windows 8, 9, 10…), I only mean new windows. That is new segments of business. It is time for Microsoft to have their own real life gadgets.

Buzzes: Consumers love buzzes. Before launching of any new Microsoft ‘branded products’, there should be buzzes. All types of media should be fully utilized. It is very essential in today’s world that when you are launching something, every newspaper should give your product a good rating in their product reviews. I mean reviewers New York Times in USA, Daily Telegraph in UK and TOI or The Telegraph in India must have similar words of applause for your product. That may create buzzes in consumer world and can lead to word-of-mouth marketing.  Microsoft must think like that.

Branding and pricing: If users of iPhone get a similar functioning phone with Windows 7 in it, they may give it a try. If Microsoft can innovate their product line with cost effectiveness, a number of consumers can try their products.

Hire lifestyle analyst: All the electronic fairs that are held around the world, bring new and changing consumer trends. If Microsoft and Google are planning to bring electronic gadgets in the market, they should hire some gadget savvy representative. I call them ‘Lifestyle Expert’. These lifestyle experts should attend gadget fairs and prepare reports. Companies should come up with new products based on that research.

Please don’t name your product in a dull manner. Look at Apple. Follow their way of naming the product. It’s not a mobile phone, it is an iPhone. It is not a ‘laptop-kind’ of device, it is an iPad.  Position your brand like that.

Bring new faces: I have seen Bill Gates and Steve Jobs on television. What do you think, when you see Bill gates? And what comes on your mind when you see Steve Jobs? I see Bill Gates as ‘an IT guru, who is calm, soft-spoken, techie’. And I see Steve Jobs as my ‘SMART, next-door, tech-savvy neighbour’. These are two different approaches. Consumers always like to identify themselves within the demonstrators. They like the approach of Steve Jobs who demonstrates Apple’s products standing on the stage and interacting with audience. Microsoft has to catch this trend. They need to bring an excellent tech savvy guy, who is young, smart, wise and possibly good looking (Don’t take good looking as a silly phrase. That ever matters at times!)

According to my personal belief, these are some of the simple steps that Microsoft or any company of that caliber should take to stay on top.