This Thursday when I made a visit to Ameerpet Bigbazaar which houses Adlabs on the top floor, I was stunned to see a serpentine line in front of the Ticket Counter. The advance booking has just begun and people started thronging the place like some mad gold rush.

People have really accepted the Multiplex Cinematic Experience. But the saddening thing to be noted here in Hyderabad is the presence of only 4 Multiplexes with combined screens of 17+1 (IMAX). Unless you book tickets in advance or thru Internet, it is really impossible to get your hands on the tickets for a new release.

The demand has really picked up. Recently Prasads has opened up another screen taking his tally to 6. The market has also made a Popular Cinema (Narshimha) to use his 2 adjacent stand alone theatres as Multiplex and branding them as “TALKIE TOWN”.

Still I find the infrastructure to be lagging the demand. And today when I visited Adlabs again to get my tickets which were booked from my mobile, the same scenario!!. It took me more than 30 mins.

Is Adlabs enjoying the collection due to its prime location? We cannot be judgmental so early. Getting tickets in Prasads is even tougher. And so are PVR Cinemas. The impact of “PLACE” can be answered with the opening of CINEMAX at Banjara Rd # 1 and the one at the GVK ONE. But I feel people here won’t really mind the distance if the probability of getting tickets is high.

One thing which I am still unable to understand is why this culture/experience so slow in the city where more than 400 movies release every year, city where the favorite time-pass of majority of the crowd is watching movies and most of the students who bunk classes prefer watching movies. Taking their purchasing power into account and the presence of more than 20 engineering colleges and Post Graduate colleges there must have been hundreds of screens across.

So is there some good real opportunity in this Business field here in Hyderabad? Well there are 30 screens ready to mushroom across the city and their fate could decide the further existence of Multiplexes and the business related.

Year on year we keep on updating our Resume/CV but only the Experience List and not the Hobbies. One deep look into that and you will realize that those were the ones which you picked in your Childhood. Why haven’t we picked up any during these days? Leave about picking up a new hobby or interests we aren’t even trying to find some time for the old ones. Too busy, huh?
I realized this after watching the latest TITAN “Be more” ad and more recently “Rock ON!!” movie. In that movie Farhan Akthar (Aditya Shroff) didn’t even realize that he was leading a Mechanical life, discussing Work even on his surprise birthday party!! His mind gets it when his wife hints him. It connects to our life too. He along with his friends was part of a rock band “MAGIK” where he was the Lead singer and a gr8 poet. But 10 years down the lane, he doesn’t pen down lyrics but Stock Prices and the Investments in the country.

As an Investment Banker he is the regular guy who just feeds on the Stock Prices, but it is his passion for music and his creative writing (lyrics) which makes him to stand out in the crowd. The characters in that movie are lucky as life gives them a second chance.

One of my friends has joined Guitar Classes now after landing on a job. During our college days she was just amongst us but today she stands out; why? She knows how to play a guitar!! Standing out doesn’t mean that you have to become a Abhinav Bhindra or a Dhoni or a Celebrity. Even a small difference from your friends/colleagues makes you special.

One way to stand out from the crowd is to take time to do the little things right. The old saying goes that if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Well, that’s not necessarily true. What about me? Did I join the Guitar classes or the Swimming Classes? There are some easy things most people don’t do because they just don’t think that these could make any distinction.

Do the things which other people are not interested in doing it. What do you normally do when one of your friends is down? Motivate him, right. If given a chance would you do it in a large scale; to a big number of people with talent but down with motivation and lack that drive which would catapult them among big leagues? I bet that 80% of the answers would be a big “NO”.

One would need motivational skills to do that and everyone is not fit for that job. But the skills that we possess might compliment to those of his. Help him, appreciate him and his work. We all know that he wouldn’t become a Shiv Khera but atleast he is doing his part. /*LIVING LIFE*/
Some people are content just to be another face in the crowd. And those who want to stand out from the crowd find themselves cruising through after some initial hiccups. We neither had the commitment to stand out nor the appreciative attitude towards the people who want to get out of the crowd.

The funniest part of all: What do I do to be little different? I don’t buy things which are very common among the crowd. Nokia is always out of my list (b it N96 or the E series). So are Pulsar and Hero Honda bikes. And the list goes ON and On

I saw it last month, but I thought 1^st July is celebrated as “TRAFFIC VIOLATION FREE” Day. But today on my way to office when I saw these PLACARDS again, I asked the cop standing carrying a sandwich ad. He replied that this was a new initiative taken by the Hyderabad Traffic Police in spreading awareness regarding the traffic Rules.

Hmmm.. I couldn’t stop giggling. Back to my office I explained the reasons to one of my colleagues. Here they go:-

First of all, we all are aware of the Traffic Rules. Aren’t we? We just don’t give them a damn. After all we are living in a democratic country yaar. We have that right to drive as we wish.

The other thing is that we cannot curb this Traffic menace by being very soft to the violators. You just can’t give a rose to the violator saying “thank you for breaking the rule”. Was Kamaudi (Traffic Commissioner, Hyderabad City) inspired from Munnabhai? Could be… The fact is that we need to get harsh on them. Serious punishments have to be imposed.

During my MBA classes I was taught about NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT. Why that model cannot be applied here. After all we are making the offender not to repeat the offence he has made again and again, right?

 The other thing which I have noticed is that these constables are not serious about the work they are doing. I was asked to mind my own business when I pinpointed a guy who was violating the rule just in front of the constable. Even if the constable gets hold of that guy, he manages to win over him in a verbal duel. So if you are too soft to them, will they able to realize their responsibilities of proper citizenship? I don’t think so.

We are just worried about our own transport and really don’t care how we do that

It will take years or to be more specific decades in improving our road infrastructure, and millions of generations to improve the mindset of citizens.