An Overdose of Promotions

There is a shop in Bahrain which has had the 'Flat 50% Sale' signboard for well over 2 years. After I returned to Bahrain after a period of 2 years, I was surprised to see the same signboard. I noticed it but my folks said that this sign board has been there for the past 2 years.

In fact, there are many such shops.

1. The whole reason for promotions is to create a  spark, make the cutomer notice, entice him and initiate the sales.

2, Hopefully, after his awareness, he makes that most difficult step and enters your shop.

3. Once he is in, well it's up to you to seal the deal.

But if your shop has a sale sign for two years, no one will ever enter. why?

1. They stop noticing the sale sign. It has become a part of the infrastructure.

2. Customer doesn't believe you and starts to distrust you. He also, more dangerously starts to think you have just marked up the prices and then given a sale which is a 'make the customer a fool' ploy.

Once he starts seeing it as a ploy, it is next to impossible to get him to even enter the shop even if you are giving freebies.

There was a time when everyone eagerly awaited the sale season but now with this over dose of promotions, it has become passe. A customer rearely if ever is enticed into a purchase because of promotion. Now it is either convenience, or low price which factors in a purchase.When you have used a tool to frequently, it does become blunt.

Another irritating thing one notices as a marketer is the 'Upto 50%' deal.

Now the 'Upto 50%' deal is pretty useful bait. Very useful until it pisses off the customer, when he finds out, the discount is only for a very select few materials that cannot be sold to a sensible customer.He will accept it for sometime, until he brands you the shop that never gives discount on the items he wants to purchase.

I understand marketing is a very difficult task, but when you actually drive away the customer, it is just nonsense marketing.


Will post some solutions soon. It's easy to be back seat critic.

Is this the way?

I let you go,

Let you fly,

Even though I know

I should have tried

Seemed the right thing

Didn’t know it will bring

So much of hurt , so much of pain

Can’t get you out of my brain

Seeing you disappear, going far away,

What am I to do, what am I to say.

Wish I could, you know I would,

But life before me, has to clear

I have to be free, have a career.

Does that sound insane? 

Is it my bane?

What a way, what a life,

Every time I hear you, it causes strife.

It hurts now, but the pain will recede,

The pain of the future, I have to erase

Forgive me, I hope you will

Can I forgive myself, that won’t fit the bill.

What does it matter, in the end

Cause I have a cause and I won’t bend

You fought for me , I pushed you away,

Now in the end, I don't even know what to say

I made my bed, now I must lie in it too

Problem is no one can replace you.

The Drop

He had the look.

Eyes glinted a mad belief. He walked with a sole determination. The wind bayed and the trees swayed. The incline was getting steeper. As he walked briskly, he realized he wasn't panting. No more gasping for breath. As if the lungs knew. Little by little the flora and fauna receded.


It was dusk and the sun cast a gloomy outlook on the hill. Shadows formed as if welcoming him into the unknown. He couldn't help get the feeling that they were almost embracing him. The shadows they knew. Little by little, as he trudged up the rocky path, life forms decreased.


In maniacal rush to the top, he tried his best to block all the images. But it was futile. He kept replaying the scene over and over in his head. Like a broken tape recorder that played the same few lines, he kept repeating the scene. It was so vivid, he was still sweating. How could he have made this mistake. In one single step he had destroyed his career. He had done the operation innumerable number of times, yet never faltered. In medical school, he was as cool as ice, when it came to surgery. Yet here he was, a doctor in shame. A single mistake that defines you. He knew he could fight the battle in court and save his career. But the boy was dead, which meant he had lost the battle with himself.


He gritted his teeth and increased his speed. He remembered how the head nurse warned him that cutting the A line would send the boy into shock. The ego never listens does it. He was the doctor and there was no questioning him. In a million attempts he wouldn't have cut the A line as it stops the blood flowing to the brain. But it was as if fate was forcing his hand. Cognizant of the mistake he was about to make, yet it was as if he was stuck in his own body. He kept screaming , frustrated at such a simple error in judgement. He willed it, pushed it , forced it yet his hand went forward. Cutting across his degree, his career and his mental balance, he cut the A line. The patient immediately went into shock. In minutes, before the machine could tell him, he knew. They all did.


In the court case of life, he had lost. He didn't want to be forgiven. He could never forgive himself. There was no going back. Death was the final and ultimate truth. There is no bending it. No deceiving it , no dodging it. No undoing and no exit strategy. He reached the top of the hill.


His one mistake had changed the course of so many lives. The mother, father and siblings of the patient. His family, his children. Everyone's life was connected to that one moment of insanity. It was almost as if he cut off the light to so many lives with that one incision of his surgical knife.

The wind was strong and every molecule in his body shouted against it. He closed his eyes and tried to recollect all that he was leaving behind. He had hurt everyone , there was no forgiveness. No redemption , just cold, hard death.

In that realization, he let go. Of life, of happiness, hope, salvation , suffering, agony, tensions, sickness, health, despair, hope, greed, modesty, wealth , poverty. Everything there was and everything there wasn't.

He let go of it all and dropped into the truth.

Equation out of balance

Being a nerdy geeky  guy,  I tend to analyse most things.


Our life is or life in general is one big equation like say life L,
                              L= A+B+C


If any of the factors A, B or C changes, life L changes  big time. At every stage of life , I try to anlayse what has changed. The changes can be minute like getting drenched in rain or significant like losing ones' job.


But one can console oneself by believing that L is constant. If A decreases then B has to increase.
My L remains a constant no matter what. So I have been assigned an L, that's all I will get. No more no less. If one were to live life with this philosophy, one would be very happy.


But like me if you believe that one's L is just not good enough, we try our best to increase the A, then the B and its never ending. Being content with the L that one is given can be described as a characteristic. Something if you think about it, a useful trait to have. I see some of my friends possess this trait and they are genuinely happy with L and the L given.


Others like me are in constant search, a never ending one of finding the right variables to reach the 'L' I aspire, dream and one day hope to possess.