Lines ...........

Two advts caught my fancy recently - Tata Safari Dicor on TV and KBC on radio. Though the products the companies they peddle are very dis-similar though the line of thought is similar and thought provoking. Even though the products does not have much relevance with the advertisement's thinking.

How we Indians have been caught in the so called clustered web of being in "LINE" . There is a queue where ever you go - lines at the wedding first to wish the lucky (?) ones then for the food later for the exit. Queues at the mall for first parking your car for paying that bill and then at the exit. In office at the lunch counter first to get the coupon, get food , drink water and even for the customary mouth refreshment. Lines every where and boy they are getting longer by the day. the best example I can think of how a line is formed without any chaos is in a lot of bus stops in mumbai- folks are so programmed to do that for an outsider to Mumbai's madness its simply incredible how people can be so disciplined and also animals while getting in and out of a local train. You name and there is a queue of waiting people - be it at the doctor's place, hospitals, at all kinds of courts at your local grocery shop etc.

This has even manifested itself in the long traffic jams in most of our big cities - ultimately they are also lines of car trying to utilise the same road resources. I keep thinking how wonderful opportunity if anyone manages to get into a business where you constantly have a queue. Always working at 100% capacity. Though there is a flip side which I have observed in Big Bazaar - possibly the biggest retailer in India today - customers get tired with the long queues at the billing counter and have stopped going to their outlets.

Though there are a lot of random thoughts - not able to articulate them right now