Case in point: Courier Indésirable. You know what we call that in English? SPAM.

The reason I bring this up is because, in the past week, a few different customers have emailed me saying

“What is wrong with Online Bookstore A, B, C? No matter when or where I mention Flipkart, this Online Bookstore A, B, C pops up and adds its 2 cents about how I should try their bookstore. What makes them think that by annoying me— your customer — they’ll get converts? Whoever their marketing/sales person is, he/she deserves to be fired.”

The little snippet on top has been paraphrased and condensed by me, just to TONE IT DOWN. You may think I’m making this up, because I need to spew bile and didn’t find a better place. NOT. I spew enough bile everyday on my Flipkart co-workers; ask them. I am always annoyed about something or the other; once everyday, twice on Sunday.

And if I’m annoyed, well, you should go have a chat with these people who mailed me. People on Twitter and Bloggers.

Again, I am not an authority on an issue such as this, so feel free to correct me or contradict me. All I ask is for you to approach this with an open mind.

There are primarily 2 ways to acquire customers:

1> Find those who have never before tried a product/service such as yours, and get them on your side.
2> Target those who try a product/service similar to yours and get them to switch to your side, because you have the “better mousetrap”.

The way you are going about your No. 2 (pun unintended) is what is annoying people.

If someone was using Vodabone and you advertised that your Fairtel was cheaper, hence getting Vodabone customers to switch to you, that is acceptable. However, when you find Vodabone customers and plaster their house walls with Fairtel marketese (blogs), or their scooter and car with Fairtel bumper stickers (Twitter), then it annoys them.

Maybe it was a bad analogy, but you know what I’m getting at.

No one said marketing and customer acquisition was easy, and for the most part it’s an all’s-fair-no-holds-barred-gloves-off-fight-to-the-death contest. There are a lot of things both you and me do, and we both know we do it, and we both let it slide. It’s my left hook for your jab. We both understand the rules. We don’t cry foul, until of course, now.

Knowing where to draw the line — or spotting a line already drawn, so as not to overstep it — that should have been mentioned by Al Ries & Jack Trout.

If overstepping was bad news, allow me to break the worse bit to you: These people are complaining to US about YOU.

a> These same customers are telling us about you. They were under no obligation to do so, neither do we send probing emails out to people. They volunteered to give me that information.
b> And if it has annoyed them so much that they’ve taken the trouble to tell us, I will hazard a guess that they’ve already told all their friends.
c> You’ve succeeded in losing customers you didn’t even have.

British Airways did a similar thing with Virgin Atlantic and we all know how that story ended. I know, you are not BA and we’re not VA.

There is this term — will be familiar to those who read Clausewitz / Art of War, or are into gaming — “Fog-of-War”. It is used to describe uncertainty, dark areas, the unknown etc. If Indian e-commerce was a battlefield in a MMORPG, you would see a few little fireflies on a canvas covered in Fog-of-War.

Those little fireflies are us. You and me. We.

My advice to you, kindly rethink your strategy. I’m saying this not as a competitor, but as one of the people involved in making Indian e-Commerce a bigger better happier place.

Lest you forget, we are all on the same page.

PS: My apologies if I took too much of your time or sounded too preachy. Now if you will excuse me, I have bags to pack and a flight to catch.

It was just reported to us by Ance in Customer Support that the order placed by Sachin Bansal, THE Sachin Bansal (Co-Founder and CEO of Flipkart.com) has not yet been delivered. The package was shipped through a reputed courier service (we will not mention names but it rhymes with FlewDart), and the above screenshot slipped under our door 5 minutes ago, further corroborates the claim.

This is further proof that e-Commerce in India — particularly those portals focusing on physical goods — faces many struggles, but is very much alive and kicking. This article in TechCrunch about MakeMyTrip.com (also mentioning Flipkart.com) sheds further light on the issue.

Back to the main story, however. The delivery of the said article will be delayed. Although Flipkart CEO Mr. Sachin Bansal was unavailable for comment, we did manage to contact the other Flipkart Co-Founder CEO Mr. Binny Bansal, who had some stern comments to make and did not mince words. Here is what he had to say:

“No Comments”.

EOM.

Flipkart’s an online bookstore, and the basic premise of which includes being online almost all the time (not unlike other jobs.) We’re also big proponents of FOSS, and all of us tote around laptops running Ubuntu 8 or so.

Except me.

I tote around two Ubuntu 9.10 laptops, with a third backup. Why do I need to carry around so many laptops. Because I’m an important man and I need to seem unnecessarily busy while looking like a Trader with my LIBOR on one screen and the Hang Seng Index on the other. There is of course a simpler explanation.

One fine evening — without as much as a warning — my Dell died on me. It went blank, and then refused to boot up. As the saying goes “the blue lights all kept blinking, but there was no one home.” Something had to be done. So I rushed over to the nearest desktop and contacted Dell over their Chat … and soon enough a friendly Ethel_Silo came on and got started on the diagnosis.

We tried a few things, all of which went nowhere. Still, the process of elimination is a critical aspect of anything — Flipkart could have started off selling everything under the sun, but I’m not sure we would have made much headway were we to start that way. By the process of elimination, we narrowed down to books and that has I think held us in good stead. We can now start to explore other categories perhaps…

But I digress.

So by a process of elimination, we realised what the problems weren’t. Now all that was left was to figure out what the problem was — and then it happened. The power went out, and the PC I was on was not sufficiently high up in the desktop food-chain to deserve temporary backup. My desktop gave up the ghost, and with it went Ethel_Silo (whose hand I was convinced I would ask in marriage, were she to fix my Dell).

I resigned to being counted as a Laptop Widower and thought I should grieve, but there was no time. I had to move on pretty quickly.

It was going to be a long night and I needed discomfort food. Domino’s took my call and said they’d be there in 30 minutes. I hung up and realised a few minutes later I had forgotten to order the dip. I called Domino’s back and requested them to send the dip along as well, if their guy hadn’t left yet. They said sure.

Out from the cupboard came the spare Lenovo ThinkPad and I went about installing and upgrading and transferring and salvaging all that I could. So there I was under a dim light — The deceased Dell to my left asking me to be brave, the Thinkpad to my right being loaded and wondering if I will ever love it as much as I did the Dell, and my trusty old Compaq in the middle finishing the artwork so that I could make the Printo deadline.

Domino’s guy came around and handed me my Pizza and Garlic Bread and Fanta. I asked about the dip, he had no idea. I said fine, no problem, paid him and went back to my troika of screens.

From Here On Is Where All The Customer Support Kicked In

20 mins later, another Domino’s guy turns up. Bells went off in my head — it can’t be. But sure enough, there he was— 20 minutes after the order was delivered and 5 mins after I had finished off licking the crumbs from my keyboards — with a tiny container of Dip.

Now ,

a> I’m not necessarily a longtime or loyal customer of Domino’s (though I would like to believe I am)
b> It was my oversight, I was the one who had forgotten to order the dip
c> I did not threaten anyone with dire consequences or swear I would go to Consumer Court

Yet,

There he was, making the solitary trip only so that I got the dip I had forgotten to order. When he saw I had finished the Pizza, he said “Oh well, i don’t think you need this dip anymore!”. I insisted I’d pay of it, it was the least I could do. He smiled and asked me not to worry about it, got back on his bike and rode off.

I have a feeling he did this on his own initiative. Not because of company rules or protocol or getting stars on his shirt; because he thought he should do what he felt should be done. Given a choice between doing things right and doing the right thing, he chose the latter.

After a long night of installations, upgraded and reboots, I woke up late the next morning. Walked into the office and someone handed over a phone message left for me. Delll had called, they were wondering if all was fine because I abruptly went offline. I smiled, but I had too many other things to do.

Sometime the same evening, someone came up to me saying there was call from “one of my foreigner friends”. That struck me as odd, but I didn’t know the half of it. It was Dell again, saying I had abruptly logged off and they had left a message for me but I hadn’t called. Was all well?

I apologised, said all was well but that I was a little tied up to get back on chat support. I would probably get back online later in the week. We hung up.

2 days later, I got a mail from Dell. “Is everything Ok? They would really like to have my problem resolved, but I was always unavailable. When would it be convenient for me to get back in touch with their Tech Support?”

There’s this one line I’m very fond of: “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem”. Looks like with Dell, that line applied to me. They really wanted to help me, but I wasn’t co-operating!

Like it happens with most people who know me long enough and well enough, they soon realise they will have to take unilateral action and I will just go along with it. I think Dell did just that, with a Voodoo doll.

Someone from the office was fiddling around with the deceased Dell, and it booted up. IT CAME BACK TO LIFE, ONE WEEK LATER. So Ms. Ethel_Silo, if you’re reading this, my problem has been resolved, with no intervention from you and even less from me. It has self-healed. I will get in touch with you soon.

To everyone at Domino’s and Dell, I salute you.

PS: This blog post is currently being written on the very same Dell, now with the added flavour of Ubuntu Karmic Koala. Karmic, how appropriate.

We’re at Stalls #183 and #184, just down the lane from Blossoms and opposite ICFAI.

As best as I know, Flipkart probably the only Indian Online Bookstore to participate at any such event. Also, as best as I know, we’re probably the only one to have ABSOLUTELY NO BOOKS in our stall. Moreover, as best as I know, we’re probably the only ones to have a 102cm Big and Widescreen TV in the stall, with 5 computers to boot.

It’s looks like a Sports Bar and a Library Bar had an offspring that was decidedly a cyber café. Now if we can only get the interior decorating right …

The idea is for us to not only meet and greet other Publishers, Distributors and Retailers … but also for curious customers to have an up-close-and-personal look at Flipkart. Maybe even have a “Live Tweet From BBF09″ (not sure what that will be like thought, probably like running commentary at a Chess Tournament showcasing the Nimzo-Indian Defence). Looking forward to it!

Spent a lot of time generating order from chaos, so didn’t actually get to see the complete list of all participants. As Jaya mentioned on the Pothi Blog, they will of course be there, Stall 288. My only interaction with Jaya/Pothi has been in ping-pong sessions between them, authors and us. Sure hope we get to see them and get some ball rolling.

What was heartening to see was a lot of Kannada literature on display. Regional languages (in my opinion) don’t get as much exposure as they ought to — or maybe I’m wrong and they do — in which case I’d like Flipkart to have something to do with them getting better exposure.

Looking forward to bumping into you there!

Hi Tapas,

In your blog can you please write about the security standards which you follow if anyone orders the book using credit/debit card from your site. I am telling you because today I wanted to buy some book and I was browsing through your site [...] and one of my friends asked me not to do that because he suspected that once I give the card number it might be misused. Many people might have inhibitions like that and you can clear it either telling something on the site or on your blog.

Regards,
Rakesh

A very valid concern. One of our main challenges was to get Payment Gateway integration, but that was a cakewalk compared to the challenge of finding customers and getting them to pay online. Hope this helps:

Flipkart.com does not store/save any of your information

When you click on the Pay By Credit Card / Debit Card / Netbanking link, you are redirected to a Payment Gateway like www.ebs.in or www.ccavenue.com. All your details are processed through them and the only thing we receive is a transaction ID against your Order, as confirmation that payment has been received.

All your details get processed and verified by the Payment Gateway and your Credit Card Company / Bank.

As far as how secure the Payment Gateways are, here are some details:

• Payment Gateways are PCI DSS 1.1 Standards Compliant
• They are registered and authenticated by Verisign, and use 128 bit SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)
• They also implement the Verified By Visa and the MasterCard Secure Code Protocols

EBS uses seven server architecture model which helps in better encryption of data which protects the clients information. All credit card authorization is done using the high-tech Axis, HDFC and Citibank’s secure servers and the same is encrypted before it is transmitted over the Internet to the Acquiring Banks. Additionally EBS servers are behind security firewalls to ensure maximum protection of our customer’s information. This guarantees that your information is inaccessible to any third party. EBS uses the best industry-standard Verisign Technology, which ensures the security of the data

CCAvenue uses secure servers throughout and adopts stringent security measures to ensure that sensitive information such as customers’ personal details is protected. Customers enter all their personal information and Credit Card details on ICICI’s E-Payments(Payseal) and Citibank’s secure servers and the same is encrypted before it is transmitted over the Internet to the Acquiring Banks. Additionally CCAvenue’s server is behind security firewalls to ensure maximum protection of your customer’s information.

Modes of Payment - Distribution

This should allay all fears of paying online. Most of our customers do in fact pay online (as opposed to Cheque / DD / Money Order) and in the past two years that we’ve been up, we have had not one instance of fraud or misuse of details.

Online payment is safe. Payment gateways are secure.

The troops just came home — Shivku and Binny and Mekin and Abhishek and Vishal and Ashwin and Vijay.

For those not in the know, they spent this morning at NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore for a Startup Saturday Showcase. Given that “Online Retail” was the agenda, the presentation time was shared between Flipkart.com and Picsquare.com (an Infibeam umbrella brand).

The panel members were a Who’s Who of Indian online retail; Mr. Vaitheeswaran (Indiaplaza.in, turned out to be a no-show though) and Mr. Subramanian (Infibeam.com). Flipkart, Indiaplaza and Infibeam all on the same stage, if that’s not a great party I don’t know what is!

(On a more serious note) For those of you who were present, how did it turn out? What were the hits and the misses?

Was it worth you while?

Do chime in.

a> It’s been there since the first time we had offers through some campaign or the other, co-branded ones, usually. Some of those codes are still valid, which is why we haven’t “disabled” the promo code box.
b> We also have other social initiatives on, where certain NGOs we’ve tied up with get additional discounts.

We also know for a fact that people have managed to get hold of these codes — the same codes that were meant for donations to these NGOs — and ordered books using them, but not for donations to the NGO but for personal use.

So for the record —

i> There is no Flipkart Promotional Code that any of the employees or the customer support have
ii> When we do send out the Promo Code, it is usually as part of a co-branded campaign (with a Cellular Service Network Provider, for example) or …
iii> … as part of our CSR initiatives with certain institutions and NGOs (meant essentially for people who donate to these very causes).

On a related note, we get asked very often about discounts mentioned on Flipkart vis-à-vis that of other online retailers.

First off, competition’s great! I’m not saying that because it’s the politically correct thing to say. It’s just part of any organism’s genetic code — survival of the fittest and dog eat dog and all that. You should either be chasing someone or running away from someone, else you will atrophy.

So all things being equal, here’s how we decide on discounts (this was part of an email I sent someone):

We essentially price discounts based on what we think is the best possible we can offer, while keeping margins for ourselves.

This is also why we don’t have loyalty schemes and so on … because we believe that service should eventually set us apart, and that quality (coupled with price and everything else) should be at par for all users. Whether you are 4 books old or 40 books old, you shouldn’t be treated any different … the quality and price offered to the first timer should be the same to someone who’s been with us for a few months.

Now of course there are exceptions and edge cases and bulk orders and whatever else (like this reflection of a bystander). All said and done though, the above pretty much encapsulates it.

We’re bigger than we used to be, but we’re still a small Indian startup in the grand scheme of things. It’s great when people refer to us as the “Amazon of India”, the flip-side to which is that we are expected to give Amazon like discounts! We cannot, for a couple of reasons:

*Amazon has been around for over a decade and is a monolith. Their relationships with Publishers and Distributors allow them to do what they do at the price points at which they do. Flipkart doesn’t have that kind of clout — not yet.

*Amazon also happens to be in the same country as a variety of US publishers. Flipkart on the other hand happens to be on the other side of the world. We need to bear a lot of the import costs and things that go along with, which is why we cannot offer the same discounts as Amazon — not yet.

In closing, we do not explicitly have any Promotional Codes or Flipkart Promo Coupons laying around spare. We’re doing the best we can at offering as much of a discount to you as possible. It may seem counter-intuitive, but the only way you can help us give higher discounts is by buying from us!

Help us become the Amazon of India (although if you ask me, I’d rather they be called the Flipkart of the US!).

I’ll leave you with the tables turned:

Ramayana by R. K. Narayan on Flipkart — Rs. 190 ($4)

Ramayana by R. K. Narayan on Amazon — $ 15 (Rs. 760)

Have a good one.

via Varsha181

From Arun:

You know honey, you owe me some money,
i want to see it, each and every penny,
we all like flipku, why dont you like us,
please take the book वापुस, Where art thou Tapas?

From Me:

It is truly fecund, we’ve reproduced the refund
My beloved, as you remember - on the 5th of September
It’s not a case of fright, or complete BS
I’ll check again with FirstFlight and then with goddamn EBS

We’re a poet and we don’t know it.

In my skewed worldview, here’s why I think startups are like rockbands.

They both essentially start of with one unit (could be one founder, two founders with a single goal etc.) I see this as a lone singer, either singing acapella or singing with an acoustic guitar/piano or just a solo instrumentalist.

This single unit then goes on to put up an online presence. In the case of most startups, that is of course a website that is hacked together fairly quickly. In case of that lonesome singer we spoke of, it means populating myspace, a profile on facebook, uploading videos on Youtube.

A small fan following begins, family and friends mostly.

Then suggestions and requests start pouring in. In case of the singer, songs to cover, gear, recording techniques, ways to advertise and the like. In case of the startup, features to have on the website, expansion of catalog, coding and usability, and of course ways to advertise and market yourself.

Both the startup and the singer realise they need more help. A singer looks for additional members. A startup looks for additional developers.

This is where most of the hit and miss happens — When you need to get a whole bunch of competent people together fairly quickly. The singer realises that the guitarist can’t tune a string. The startup realises that the developer cannot reverse a string. That two Grade Two pianists don’t make a Grade 4 pianist. That two Level 2 Developers do not make a Level 4 developer.

Some more chopping and changing happens. The lucky find their sweet spot sooner, rather than later.

Then comes the backend. While the rockband can wait a while before it gets its roadies, the startup needs its roadies fairly quickly. Especially if its a physical business like Flipkart is in.

But the rough edges get ironed out. The rockband gets a few gigs, more people hear them, they get a few more gigs. The startup starts expanding its customer base. People say good things about them and they get more users and customers.

Soon the rockband is touring around the country. Soon the startup is shipping books around the country.

(Hopefully) Eventually:

The singer has his hair gelled. The website has its UI slick.
The guitarist plays blistering arpeggios. The website is blisteringly AJAXIfied.
The piano player is absolutely fluid. The layout is absolutely liquid.
The drummer is precise at keeping time. The backend is precise in its loadtime.
The roadies setup and pack like clockwork. The supply chain packs and ships like clockwork.
The rockband gets its groupies. The startup gets its VCs.

The only question on everyone’s mind: “Where’s the bassist?”

Here I am, and I’m starting a Flipkart band.

We’re calling ourselves, “The Bookmarks”!

You read it here first, ladies and gentlemen.

Of all the things that have caught my attention, this one ranks right up there. While it had Shivku jumping up and down, I’m still trying to work it out.

All things point to this entrepreneurial gentleman here. Even more fascinating, he seems to have something also to do with Tempostand.com, an Indian startup that promotes Independent Indie Indian Bands and Musicians.

We need more of these, for sure. Would love to lend a hand.

What makes me an authority on such matters. Well, I’ll have you know that I was once the Bass-Whore of Bombay. (What, it’s an honest profession! … and I didn’t do it for the money, just so you know. )

Shall now send off a mail to him, and one of two things will happen:

a>My stalking will pay off and I’ll be jumping like Shivku was
b>My stalking won’t pay off and I’ll be hauled off by the cops

Bets open at 5:3 odds. Any takers?

Grace Under Fire, Grace Under Pressure

This is essentially what a “stress test” looks to calibrate. Your ability to keep your head when others are losing theirs; your ability to keep your cool when the heat’s turned up; your ability to think on your toes … you get the picture. More often than not though, stress tests are fairly ’scripted’ — inasmuch as you can script a show like Whose Line Is It Anyway.

Apart from you, everyone in the room knows what to say, how to say and what to do. The good cop / bad cop routines are fairly set. All the interview panel has to do is play it by ear, depending on the candidates responses and based on kinesic feedback. They then go on collate all that information, have discussions about your Type ‘A’ Type ‘B’ personality, map out your comfort zone, look through your Johari Window and hopefully at the end of it all, they come to an informed decision.

I’m right now on our front porch enjoying the pleasant centrally aircon Bengaluru weather. We’re down a leafy Koramangala bylane, the birds are chirping, a dog’s barking … and there’s very little or no traffic sounds at all.

Sitting a few feet away from me on another one of those cheap plastic chairs (give us good chairs, Flipkart!) is someone who’s applying for one of the open positions at Flipkart … and the candidate is filling out a form of some sort with the paper awkwardly positioned on the lap. Not two minutes later, candidate got called in, while someone else from the team came out. He then went on to call another candidate over the phone and have the initial “breaking the ice” conversation.

Barking dogs can become annoying at this point. As can the occasional auto rickshaw that barrels down the dead end road, hell for leather. Of course, none of this is intentional. We have started realising though, that inadvertently, our non-screening stress test has become what it’s not.

It partly also has to do with preconceptions of 2 things, largely — the idea of an Office and the idea of a Startup.

Offices are meant to look and be a certain way, with a degree of formality, with receptionists and with cubicles. When you’re sitting on the porch and you see the CEO dressed in jeans and a T-shirt sitting on the floor trying to get faulty generator fixed … it shakes the confidence of some people. Which brings me to this …

… Startups are cool. Ok, sure they are … but people are all the same slogging their asses off. And with most startups like Flipkart (that are bootstrapped), you are slogging your ass off in conditions that would be considered “developing” anywhere else. (Aside: “Let My Dataset Change Your Mindset” is worth a watch.)

Startups are fueled by hard work, and in the case of Flipkart, fueled by both hard work and hard physical labour. We are as much a physical business as we are a .com — books are physical, tangible, need to stocked, shelved, packed. And Sachin and Binny have done it the hard way; the only way, really. Back in the beginning, they used to schlepp around books from all over Bangalore back to their house, sit and pack, bill and label, and carry the packed books out to the courier office.

Even today if one of us complains that a book can’t be packed a certain way, they’ll gladly sit down and show you how it can. This is more or less the case with most of us who’ve been here in 2007 and 2008. We have all sat on the packing floor and packed books, stuck labels, carried cartons up and down floors … you name it. Not like we’re through with it either. If ever we find ourselves short staffed (people on leave), we jump in and find a spot on the assembly line. What matters is that the books get packed.

Fortunately or unfortunately, with some people - this isn’t the “cool” they expected to find in a startup. We weren’t wearing chinos and sipping ginseng tea or using “Web 2.0″ as punctuation (although, I use “HTML 5.0″ whenever I get a chance).

We’ve had to shoo dogs from the staircase because we knew a developer candidate was coming over. We’ve worked in candle light in the days before we could afford a power backup. We continue to work in the sauna that is our Delhi office.

Don’t be fooled. The Flipkart interview is the easiest part.

It’s the work that’s a stress test.

5> Flipkart funds food

It’s true, and not in the Sodexo Coupon way. Flipkart pays for most of the meals of most of the employees. Breakfast, Tea, Lunch, Tea, Evening Snacks, Tea. Flipkart also caters to the discerning tastebuds; adrak chai, badam milk, turmeric milk, black coffee, con leche, sans lait, food without roots and tubers, fast food, food from Kareem in Delhi, kulchas from the guy across the street. It’s like a wedding every day. Almost.

4> Flipkart provides funding for my shelter

I’m a leech. I have slept in Flipkart’s old office, I’ve slept in Flipkart’s new office, I’ve even slept in Flipkart founder Binny Bansal’s house. I now sleep in Flipkart’s guest accommodation suite. And I’ve been a guest for a year now, so that should give you a good idea.

3> Flipkart is funding telecommunications

I don’t use a cellphone. So they bought me a cellphone. I then went on to lose the cellphone (in Binny Bansal’s house, oddly). Now they are after me to get a phone. Here’s my plan: If I delay it long enough, they will be forced to get me a phone.

Meanwhile, Nandu the office boy had his phone stolen. The other Flipkart founder Sachin Bansal gave him his own cellphone.

Nandu then had his cycle stolen, which brings me to the next point …

2> Flipkart is funding transportation

A few SELECT employees get travel allowance. Fuel allowance. People like Nandu also get a cycle. Which then unfortunately gets stolen, again.

But the most important thing Flipkart is funding is

1> HOPE

Hope to all those who never had access to books they needed, and though not necessarily cheap, making it affordable to these same people.

Hope to all those independent authors who can never go through traditional channels, by making it less cumbersome and by getting them to their audience.

Hope to International authors, by giving them access to Indian markets which they would never have had before.

Hope to other Startups and would-bes, by being an example. It’s not easy and the hurdles are immense. But a lot can be done by two people whose sum capital investment is the price of a Hyundai Santro.

Flipkart Review On Amazon

While Robert Langdon was probably running around finding clues where none existed (all over the course of 12 hours), we were doing more or less the same - packing the 600 or so backorders as fast as we could! That’s 50 books an hour, no matter how you slice it.

Not to mention all the other orders that needed to be processed.

Dan Brown Bounty

I wonder how some people found time to pose? Oh yeah, I forced them to.

Sachin Bansal (Flipkart Co-Founder) for Scale

Sachin’s in a conservative fatherly / elder brotherly arm around. He’s probably thinking “All of you Lost Symbols will be shipped to all parts of India by the end of today … I wish you all the best in your new homes.” Very Father-of-the-Bride like.

Mekin For Scale

Contrastingly, Mekin’s is a long-lost friend / cousin approach. “My my, look how fat you’ve become! Too many pizzas and beer, this is what happens.” Even Nandu on the left corner of the frame looks more than a little concerned with Mekin’s unorthodox approach.

Shivku's Head For Scale

Here’s my favouritest of them all, a decapitated Shivku. If I had a buck for every time I imagined a floating Shivku head …

But we got them ready and out in time, some in gift wraps, some with notes. Almost all of you will have received them now, and if you haven’t yet bought one and plan to - here’s a good online bookstore to buy Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol in India.

I’ve heard they can ship it out in 24 hours.

What?? Shameless plug, of course.

Turns out, you can now download Flipkart on Rapidshare … I could never have guessed!

I’m mostly misinformed about such things like iPods and xBoxes and Guitar hero and … I don’t have an account with these people either. If anyone out there does, could you please do me a favour and download this, only to let me know what it was. Much appreciate.

As for me, well, live and learn …

But of course you knew this. Good luck to all Indians searching for Playboy, Savita Bhabhi and other assorted pron.

PS: No, Flipkart still cannot send all you lovely people books in your email id(sic) or have PDFs available for free download - just because Google can.

UPDATE: Google Brought To Book Over Digital Library

Ask any Tabloidish newspaper journalist about how much Editors hound them for “witty, attention, eyeball grabbing headlines”. Most of them get churned out like the one above.

PPS: See, here’s why we can’t offer you free books in your inbox no matter how much you plead.

May I call you Sam? Please allow me to introduce my good self. Myself Tapas R. I know what you might be thinking, “What is this R.?” You see Sir, I am from a South Indian family where it is customary to add a lot of initials either preceding or following one’s name. It is also possible this is so because our names are impossible to spell in the Roman script (even the best approximates do not capture the pronunciation and inflections of the said name). What can I say, we R. like this only. (I apologise for the silly pun, Mr. Sam Miller Sir.)

I sell books for an online bookstore in India called Flipkart.com, whereupon I chanced upon your marvellous tome, Delhi: Adventures In A Megacity. At once, it was as if the Gods were communicating with me - I had this intense feeling that this book of your esteemed authorship might be of adventures in a megacity, perhaps even Delhi. Throwing caution to the wind, I picked it up then and there for my personal perusal.

You see Mr. Sam Miller Sir, I don’t think it was mere coincidence. I had only just come to Delhi from our offices in Bangalore, a city which also happens to be my birthplace (although I left it no sooner than had I turned 3 months old). “How wonderful!”, I said out aloud … this book shall guide me, a stranger in a strange land.

I must interrupt my own train of thought here, if you will kindly permit. You see Mr. Sam Miller Sir, I have a colleague here who has been chauffeuring me in his Maruti 800 even since I got to Delhi, so I have not really had the time to discover the city on my own. What further coincidence then, when the day I picked up your book - mere happenstance - was the day this said colleague had other appointments to uphold faithfully, thus leaving it wholly upon me to traverse a considerable distance in this new city, all by my lonesome.

Shutting our premises, I gingerly made my way out the bylanes of Ansari Road - effectively my starting point - heading due west for Karol Bagh, my temporary domicile. I planned to seat myself comfortably in a rickshaw and imagined 7-8 kilometres passing by, just like a fleeting sneeze. This was (un)fortunately not to be. The sums the auto-fellows quoted would have bought one the Kingdom of Travancore, I kid you not. “120 rupiahs, 130 rupiahs”, they said! “Daylight robbery”, I said! One of the auto-fellows kindly pointed out it was past daylight, the time being 8 o’ clock pm.

I thanked him for the semantic correction, and asked him to kindly show me the direction. I would walk it if I had to, but not pay these thugs and lumpen louts a single naya paisa. “Thataway”, he pointed. And I walked.

As I faded in and out of the umbras and penumbras of dim-lit street lamps, I could not help and notice peoples’ stares. Now you might be guessing Mr. Sam Miller Sir, that a South Indian in Delhi would stand out like an Englishman amongst the Irish, but please allow me to correct your misconceptions. It was nothing of the sort. It was not because I was South Indian that people stared - it was more because I was a South Indian with long hair and a goatee and tattoos. That you must admit, is a little, how should I say, a little “left of the middle”.

I also had a burdensome laptop and large noise canceling headphones crouched on my neck. The combination of this put my Innate Indianness in ambiguity.

My coping mechanism is such situations always has been to make like the ostrich. I promptly pulled out your tome from my holdall and immersed my nose into it. And wonder of wonders, you advocated walking in Delhi! By the time I reached home, I had read half your manuscripture!

Admittedly, the 7-8 kilometers whizzed by less like a sneeze and more like whooping cough, but I am not one to split hairs. I enjoyed myself immensely, which is when I first decided to write you a letter. But providence had more in store for me, praise the heavens. I was kept delayed by a lot of petty tasks that ate into much of my time.

This same colleague who has continued to chauffeur me has left unexpectedly for Bangalore on work, leaving me to fend for myself once again. I am now a veteran of the streets … I have I imagine started looking less like a South Indian and more like a Sikh who has just returned from England. So much so, I have even given directions to strangers, strangers who are inhabitants of Delhi I might add. Their license plates betray them.

I was determined to send you this letter by the Monday after the Independence Day weekend … so Monday the 17th I woke bright and early, bathed twice, put on freshly washed and ironed clothes and decided to get to work early, so that I may find some time to compose this letter to your esteemed self.

Stepping out onto the footpath of Karol Bagh, I searched eagerly for the autos that circle like vultures over carrion. Strangely, not one was to be found. I stepped out of the bylanes and onto the main road … still none. I briefly contemplated taking the metro, but abandoned the idea for reasons now clear to me.

I searched further … still not one to be seen. I passed Karol Bagh and inched closer to Jhandewalan. Then further down to Ramakrishna Ashram Marg … no auto yet. I continued heading further east, approached CP where the metroline plunges underground, made a left … still no Auto.

I was getting frantic. Where are all the autos who chase me like boys chasing girls?

Went on down below Minto Bridge (which is still in the process of being widened) and walked up to the “thulla” at the intersection. “Where can I find autos today?” I politely asked. He laughed in my face. “Where have you been?? Don’t you read the papers … there’s an auto strike called, today and tomorrow. No auto!”

Aah, the tubelight went off in my head. In my haste to leave home so that I can catch an auto, I had ignored the newspapers that would have informed me that no amount of haste would get me an auto.

So I walked on down, passed a couple of roundabouts, reached the Delhi Gate across from the Kotla … went further down still and made a right at the “Lohe Ka Pul”, and I was at last at work. 90 mins after scheduled.

Post 7 o’ clock pm, I assured myself, I would indeed get time to write to you. Not to be! The workload from the 3 day weekend had caught up, and I was tied up till 10 o’ clock pm. It was ten past ten by the time I locked the office up. Even the watchman was visibly upset; “You people disturb my sleep when you leave so late” said the watchman. A sleeping watchman. I missed the irony at that time, because I had other things to look forward to. Like my 8km walk back home.

You see Mr. Sam Miller Sir, the metro counter shuts by 22:22 (so I am informed), and by the time I’d get to Pragati Maidan, the barn doors would have been locked with the horses long bolted.

So with a smile on my face, I retraced my steps … not entirely so, because I’m used to the route my car takes. Although I fully understand that one-ways don’t apply to humans, I am bound to comply by them.

It is half past 11 when I get home. No one is worried (mostly because I live alone). A cold shower and a hot dinner later, I finally sit down … to write you this letter.

Alas, it’s 2am Tuesday. I have missed my deadline, Sam. I hope you will understand and forgive me accordingly.

Till Then I Remain,

Yours Faithfully,

Tapas R.

Title : Delhi: Adventures In A Megacity
Author : Sam Miller
Published by : Penguin Books India
Published : January 2009;
Imprint : Viking
Special Price : Rs 424.00
Cover Price : Rs 499.00
ISBN13 : 9780670082315
Edition : Paperback
Extent : 304 pp
Classification : Non Fiction

For the record, I haven’t participated. Inherent bias or some such thing. How much would I pay to peek at the results though, that’s the question.

In the spirit of all things Caesarian: Mean; Median; Mode!

Some meet in cafés and camps

We just come to work.

With my assurances that our quality of work far surpasses the quality of the above Haiku, have a good one.

I have just transplanted myself from Flipkart Bangalore to Flipkart Delhi, and I wasn’t the least bit prepared!

I joined Flipkart when we had but one office, the one in Bangalore … it was also the office Flipkart had relocated to from its earlier home, a room in the house of first one Bansal, then the other. Since then, we relocated again to another part of Bangalore … and also went on to set up an ancillary center in Delhi.

We are in the heart of the Indian Publishing Industry, on the main artery which is Ansari Road. I had often heard the fairytales from others; Oppressive heat and books as far as the eye can see. Finding myself there now … I see the earlier comment as an understatement. The heat is not oppressive, it’s crippling. As for the books, well, you can shut your eyes and throw a stone on Ansari Road, you’ll hit a book. You walk into a random office on Ansari Road, 10-1 it’ll be stuffed with books. You trip on Ansari Road … it’ll be because a book stubbed your toe … and it’ll be books again that’ll cushion your fall.

I was unprepared on all counts: the scale of Ansari Road, the Delhi heat, and one crucial factor … the address of Flipkart Delhi!

Now I don’t use a cellphone (but I’m not a Luddite either) and had no contact details of anyone … apart from the Customer Service number. And it was past 6pm, around when customer service shuts shop.

So I found myself at an STD booth soaked through, calling CS, hoping they were around. They were, but are one persistent bunch! They kept insisting it was pointless going to our warehouse in Delhi - we don’t really have an over-the-counter section. All orders are placed online and get processed so.

I follow, completely. But I persisted … I have come all the way from Bombay (which I had, I did a Bangalore-Pune-Bombay-Delhi route), I’m sweating here in Delhi’s Darya Ganj, and I really need to get to the Flipkart office.

Customer Support was sympathetic, but didn’t let up. We don’t sell books at our warehouse. Period.

Fair enough. I’m glad they stuck to their guns … but as a Flipkart employee traveling to Delhi on work, I HAD TO GET TO THE OFFICE. I’m glad they finally realised it was me! I was promptly given the number of someone here, who I called next.

He was in splits when I told him what happened … and he asked me where I was. I searched for a suitable landmark, which turned out the be a huge board of one of the biggest Publishers around. A second round of laughter at the other end of the phone … “Why didn’t you just walk in to their office and ask for where Flipkart is, they’d tell you!”

Ha!

10 minutes later I finally found myself in Flipkart. Which is where I find myself now.

And the phrase “Same Difference” comes to mind.

What is truly amazing is that the “Flipkart Culture” has taken root here is well. Phenomenal, really! It’s hard to explain, but If you worked at Flipkart, you’d know exactly what I was talking about.

What has also followed is the damned power cuts! Someone* just sent me a link that he thought I should take a look at.

*Is there a better word to replace “someone”? Essentially, a customer who is now less of a customer and more of a friend. Or I could just call him Ravi.

Bezos is talking about Amazon in a nutshell, and later a bit about Zappos. Some of the anecdotes he recounts are common ones (if you follow stuff like this). What brought a smile to my face was the bit at the beginning where he talks of setting up Amazon in a room with a bunch of computers and a tangle of wires - and power surges and cuts if you tried connecting a vacuum cleaner.

It was exactly the same in our old office! I have a feeling Sachin and Binny researched this and took notes: “We must start small just like Bezos and must have enough computers and not enough power. We will then rule the world!” For Bezos and Amazon, it was a hurdle. For Bansals and Flipkart, it was reality. We are in India, and power cuts are common.

… and about the UPS, I can’t explain it better than Fly, You Fools and the UPS Power Supply

Here’s the whole video:

We started cracking down on comments left from this here earlier post on remodeling Flipkart from the bottom up and soon realised there were more skeletons in our system that we first thought. We called in this Yahoo! called Shivku - wasn’t enough. We need more young Turks.

We are looking for people like you to work with us on an array of computer science problems. If you are a designer, UED, architect, frontend Engineer, Backend developer, Database administrator, Hacker, Builder and if you are great at it, we ask you to work with us.

We are small, but we plan to offer all that big companies do - Competitive salaries and perks.

Honestly, we want to get money out of your head so that you can concentrate on your free will and creativity.

We distribute goodies every now and then. For starters, we give free books to our employees. We also jam on our front porch with guitars and juggle through our hallways.

Right up your alley? Mail in a quick one to careers@flipkart.com - you won’t regret it.

PS: Feel free also to Tweet/Retweet about this.

Shankar Ganesh Twittering About The New Look

There is more on the way, our developers have a lot on their plate! Any thoughts so far?

PS: Yes, yes, we know…!

One of the Twurls (Truncated Twitter Urls) pointed at us the other day was by this epicurean blogger. The post is self explanatory, Oneofagrind’s 30 Day No Sugar Challenge. The carrots at the end of the tunnel happened to be Small Batch Baking and Molecular Gastronomy.

I thought out loud - “We should sponsor this thing” - and Sachin (Flipkart co-founder), who was sitting next to me remarked “What?” ( … and then got a call and was occupied elsewhere). Don’t know about you, but that’s a green-light in my book! I sent the young lady an email … and that was it. The pundits call it guerilla marketing, I call it a whim.

Evidently, there’s no “T and C” or fine-print. Once I publish this, the Bansals are going to have a word or two with me, I presume. Laissez-faire and this is what happens.

They will admonish: “What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander!”
I will plead: “Is there any use crying over spilt milk?”
They will slander: “You are a bad egg, a bad apple”

Have I flown from the frying pan into the fire? Is my goose cooked?

That’s not the point. Wish the young lady luck!

Image:Calvin and Hobbes Strip ©Universal Press Syndicate (Artist: Bill Watterson)

I just placed the first order for Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys To Creativity.

For those not in the know, you can buy Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys To Creativity by Hugh MacLeod on Flipkart

My shameless pimping notwithstanding, here’s a cross-sell: You might also like Seth Godin’s The Dip.

Studies show that cool quotient increases by 50 basis points if both books are bought together.*

*CAVEAT EMPTOR: STUDIES MAY BE FICTITIOUS AND HAVE NO GROUNDING IN REALITY.

I’m bloody excited!

I don’t get excited often because there are not a lot of things that excite me…but this genuinely has me BLOODY EXCITED!

Gaping Void is just one of those things. It’s like Beavis and Butthead. You either get it or you don’t. Either you get it and get hooked or you lose the plot and with a pregnant pause smile politely - perhaps add a “that’s witty” or “how cute” - mostly because the person who introduced you to Gaping Void has his/her hand on the mouse.

It’s probably a good 4 years or so that I’ve been following GapingVoid.com. The best way to time-stamp the beginnings of my infatuation are by the “cartoons drawn on the back of business cards” I used as desktop wallpaper. I still have all those wallpapers. It was about the time that this one first came online:

"I'm not scared of commitment, I'm scared of you"

This is also one of the very few I can upload … the rest are mostly PG-18. About bloggers and pie-charts and alcohol and love and the one that says “I’m in advertising - aren’t we all”. Also about conversations being forgotten by the time your head hits the pillow. Incidentally, the initial 10 odd commandments also went up on GapingVoid at around the same time.

If you now happen to be smirking, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Go buy Hugh MacLeod’s Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys To Creativity in a week’s time.

If you still aren’t convinced, here are a couple more links:

The 12 step Program to Ignoring Everybody (It’s the same as the “10 odd commandments” link above, but just in case you missed that one)

2 Sample Chapters from “Ignore Everybody”(PDF)

Those with a thing for Moleskines (I know you have it) or Art, here’s Hugh MacLeod’s Moleskine Artwork Archives

“There’s Peters and Drucker and Senge … there’s Kotler and Bernbach and Ogilvy … there’s also one Von Oech … and there’s Adams (Scott) and Godin (Seth) and MacLeod (Hugh)”

Oh, you agree?! Glad to have you on my side!

Now go buy Hugh MacLeod’s Ignore Everybody.

Hugh MacLeod's Ingnore Everybody

Book: Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys To Creativity
Author: Hugh MacLeod
ISBN: 159184259X
ISBN-13: 9781591842590
Binding: Hardcover
Publishing Date: 11th June, 2009
Publisher: Portfolio
Number of Pages: 176
Language: English

PS: I can’t be the only one in India who wants to buy “Ignore Everybody”! What about this lady artist here and this other lady artist here, both with GapingVoid widgets?

Image: Hägar the Horrible Comic Strip
©King Feature Syndicate, Inc. (Artist: Chris Browne)

Question: “Why does the same book show up with different prices. What’s the difference?”

The Fairly Short Answer: There are many reasons for price differences, but primarily it is owing to the following:

1> Different Publishers: The same book can be and is printed by different Publishing houses with each publisher setting his own price. So Random House may price the book at INR750 (Execution) while Crown may choose to have a list price of INR1460 (Execution).

2> Different Editions: One might be an Indian edition printed in India, while the other is the International Edition printed in the US/UK.

3> Format: This essentially refers to the binding - Hardcover/Library Binding/Prebound/Paperback/Trade Paperback/Mass market Paperback - and so on. Each style of binding indicates a certain degree of quality, and accordingly influences the list price of the book.

The Fairly Long Answer: For the purpose of illustration, let’s take another title - “Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco - and compare 2 of the results side-by-side.

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

The Name of The Rose - Umberto Eco

Rs. 405 -: PRICE :- Rs. 847
9780749397050 -: ISBN-13 :- 9780156001311
Paperback -: Binding :- Paperback
2004 -: Publishing Date :- 1994
Random House -: Publisher :- Houghton Mifflin
512 -: Number of Pages :- 552
English -: Language :- English

A few things become immediately obvious. Although both books are in English and are both Paperback Editions, the similarity ends here. The covers of the two books are different and the one on the right is priced at more than twice as the one on the left. Here’s why:

Books are over the years printed by various Publishers in various formats and bindings, each one having a fairly unique price.

ISBN13: The International Standard Book Number is a number assigned to every edition of a book and is unique to that particular edition. This 13 digit number is used for cataloguing and identification purposes, pretty much like humans and finger prints. By and large, a 13 digit number will belong to just one particular edition of a book (although some Publishers are notorious for recycling ISBNs!)

Since the edition on the left is different from that on the right, each of them have a different ‘unique’ ISBN number. The two editions are also printed 10 years apart (One in 2004 - the other in 1994) by two different publishers - Random House and Houghton Mifflin.

There is also a 40 page difference in the two books, although the content in both books is the same (for all practical purposes). This page difference is mostly dependant on the size and typeface used. Think of it as font and font size. Different typesettings and formatting styles mean different ‘lengths’. The 2004 will also have a forward or a preface that the earlier edition did not contain, and all of this adds up.

The edition on the left is an Indian Edition while the one on the right is an Imported Edition.

All these factors and everything else combined eventually adds up to different prices. In most cases and for all practical purposes, the content is the same. Except of course, when, let’s say:

* One is abridged while the other unabridged
* One is a pocket book while the other is not
* One is a newer updated edition while the other is the older one

That’s pretty much it. I’ll post updates as and when other things strike me. You guys are equally free to post comments and corrections.

Now we don’t yet have it up on the UI officially, but we do gift-wrap books as and when the occasion calls for it. Sometimes even when it isn’t specifically asked for. We get a mail saying “this book is a gift, so please make sure no bill goes along with it” and we comply as best as we can, throw in the gift-wrapping as well. Dressing up a box in fancy shiny paper is the domain of one man, Nandu Biswas. The modifier “territorial” applies here.

In the midst of all the chaos, Nandu creates a space of serenity for himself.

He sizes up the book, the box and the destination. If it’s Tripura, he will need to reinforce both the wrapping paper and the cello-tape holding it, he calculates. Will the gift wrapping paper match the colour of the book, he wonders, or should he choose another colour…?

He will then do the mental maths necessary … FSI, carpet-area, built-up … just as architects might. There are times we get requests at the last minute and realise we don’t have sufficient wrapping paper, but we apparently know nothing about it - if you ask Nandu his opinion.

That thing about craftsmen - look at a block of stone and chisel away everything that isn’t a sculpture - well, Nandu is a master at Tangram then. If you aren’t familiar with Tangram, here is an illustration. The Tangram bookshelves on the right are courtesy Italian Design Studio Lago / Daniele Lago

Imagine the 7 triangles to be 7 scraps of gift wrapping paper and he will still try and create something near as elegant. There’s no such thing as “almost well-done” with Nandu. 90% done isn’t well done at all. 100% is.

All things have to be done, all things have to done well … and all things have to be done well consistently. The Zen of Gift-wrapping is a lesson we witness every other day, but seldom learn.

The rest of us at Flipkart can only stand back and appreciate.

Budding musicians want to know which guitar books are best for beginners, parents to be want to know what to expect when they’re expecting and those focused on career want to know about the BSNL TTO and JTO.

Not only does this mean you have to be clued in to what’s around and available, it also helps you broaden your horizons. You get calls and mails, each one with a specific area of interest in mind. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, and then something like this pops up.

here’s email 1:

On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 1:09 AM, V——- <***********@gmail.com> wrote:

-v—–

Now I’ve got to know V—— fairly well over the days. He dropped by one evening and we had a long chat, mostly about cool bikes and a fantastic bike store in Bangalore, one he’s closely associated with. We also discussed Jeffrey Deaver and some of his books, about online identity impersonation and theft and about how someone knows where you are and what you’re doing at any given point if you Twitter often, can shadow your blog and know your likes and dislikes - can even enter your circle of “friends” through Facebook.

If this chap happens to serial kill for a living, victims are easy pickings.

V to me doesn’t seem like a serial killer. For one, he rides around on a Lightweight Road Bike and looks like an eco-friendly James Bond meets Batman. His utility belt includes a metal chain which tethers his bike to immovable objects, a face mask to beat pollution and a motley collection of tools, including Allen keys. Oh wait …

He wanted books on crime and kinesics. Sure, why not. (Perhaps he wanted to commit a crime and alter his body language at the same time?)

I naïvely did what I could - here’s email 2:

Hi V—–,

Tapas

I thought I had covered things well, until: email 3

Oh gosh!! you didnt realise the joke!! ??

-V—–

Riiiiiight … so I’m an ass.

He leaves me no choice.

I see him on Twitter and know where he is on Saturday afternoons. I just have to figure out how to get him to add me as a “friend” on Facebook….

Hmm, conflict of interest.

So we decided to take a stroll around and try hunting it down. We passed a couple of streetside sellers, none of them with anything as eclectic as an LP Korea - well, one guy did have a second-hand Lonely Planet South India in French - which made us stop for a bit. Turned out he also had a bunch of books in foreign languages, all at the going rate of INR25 per book / 5 for 99 . . . here’s the five I picked:

FRENCH

Les Annees Saddam

Les Années Saddam - Saman Abdul Majid

The author, Saman Abdul Majid was Saddam Hussain’s personal translator (English and French) for over 15 years. He was thus privy to most conversations Saddam had with Diplomats and reporters alike. In “The Saddam Years”, names like Jean-Marie Le Pen and Dan Rather get dropped with reckless abandon. The dust having settled, Mr. Majid is now with Al-Jazeera Qatar.

Shameless Plug 1: Flipkart has one in Spanish - El Verdadero Sadam, and I’m not sure if it’s the same one. The book’s also out of stock, which means I’ll never find out.

L'obsession anti-americaine

L’Obsession Anti-Americaine - Jean-François Revel

“To measure and explain the gap between vision and reality is the objective of this book”.

Even in my weak French wouldn’t I doubt this objective one bit. Having briefly flirted with Jean-François Revel’s Ni Marx Ni Jésus - Without Marx or Jesus (she was deep - I was shallow and way out of my league), this would definitely be a better approach. Given that French Fries were renamed Freedom Fries in the name of patriotism, who better to shed light onto The Anti-American Obsession than a Frenchman.

Shameless Plug 2: Flipkart has Anti-Americanism (English Edition)

ITALIAN

Il partigiano Johnny

Il partigiano Johnny - Beppe Fenoglio

I barely speak or understand any Italian, and Johnny The Partisan will keep me occupied for the better part of the next two years. At a 500 odd pages, these are odds I just can’t beat. I plan to read just a page a day, make annotations, slowly grasp words and conjugations and hopefully things will sail smooth once I touch page 251. How hard can it be, I did once sing Bella Ciao with this fine troupe of performing artists.

Or maybe I can just try renting the movie and pretend I read the book. We’ll see.

SPANISH

Libro de Buen Amor

[El] Libro de Buen Amor - Juan Ruiz

An autobiographical book about the sexcapades escapades of an Archpriest, moreover one that was written in the early 14th Century? I’ll be damned (maybe I’ll get to meet Juan then). My Spanish can barely stand, even when it gets support from French … I’ll probably end up gifting it to someone Spanish I know. And to think she was suggesting I read Poet In New York / Poeta En Nueva York. Federico Garcia Lorca doesn’t stand a chance.

Shameless Plug 3: Flipkart has The Book of Good Love, but for an English Translation, why is the description in Spanish??

POLISH

Dziennik Bridget Jones

Dziennik Bridget Jones - Helen Fielding

This one’s a bit of a wild card, for:

1> The only diary I recall having read is that of Anne Franke.
2> My Polish is limited to one word - Dziennik - meaning “diary (of)”.

To be fair, a Polish friend of mine from Bielsko-Biała once tried to give me a crash course in Polish so that I could better appreciate what everyone in Poland has been splitting their sides over. If you must know, it involves a YouTube video of Polish President Lech Kaczyński. Now the video is a montage of their President to the soundtrack of Rammstein’s “Ich will” with Polish subtitles.

Hmm, learn Polish through German in 3:58.

Apparently, I’m not the only one who found this challenging. So along came the YouTube video of Polish President Lech Kaczyński with English Subtitles! Bet you didn’t see that coming…

All you have to do now is compare the Polish subtitles to the English ones. Heil, mein Führer!

If you’ve made it this far and are still wondering “Whatever happened to the damn Lonely Planet Korea??”, well, didn’t find one. If anyone has a copy that you no longer need, kindly send it across to the below address:

Flipkart.com, 1st Floor,
No. 447/C, 1st A Cross,
12th Main, 4th Block,
Opp. BSNL Telephone Exchange,
Koramangala,
Bangalore - 560034
Karnataka, India.

Any Polish language teachers are also free to drop by at the above address. Unless you are a supporter of President Kaczyński. In which case I’d rather you called first.

Till then, as they say in Seoul - Kombei!

Even with my Flipkart perks (whatever they may be) I couldn’t get hold of one till the 15th. Our pre-order stocks had already been spoken for and I had to wait my turn. Once I did have it though, I was hoping to:

i> Read it through the night, so I’d be more clued in when
ii> I met him Saturday at the meet-and-greet in Bangalore.

Only one of the above two materialised.

Caveat Emptor: As clichés go, no one gives a damn about anyone - until the point where someone attains some degree of fame - which is when long lost friends and relative unknowns begin to surface from the woodwork. I am about to do not just that.

Back when I was a Mumbaikar, I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of a certain Shindig. Sure, Shindig has a regular name (like an Anand or a Mangesh) - certainly one that is more common than say a ‘ Jamie’ or a ‘Sambit’ - but Shindig has a nice ring to it. Shindig started of as a reporter for one of the noon-dailies in Mumbai and primarily covered local sports. He then moved on to bigger and better things, which eventually led to him introducing me to Amit.

Some audio had to be recorded, edited and podcasted . . . Amit was the voice, which means Shindig and me were the ensemble of Producer/Sound Engineer/Audio Technician. That was almost 3 years ago, to the day. And we did a splendid job too.

If I remember correctly, the three ponytails probably painted a pretty picture. Per se.

Having read “My Friend Sancho”, here’s one of the things I realised: In a parallel universe, Shindig could very well have been the person that we now know as Abir Ganguly.

These are more or less the sum of all languages spoken at Flipkart. Well, not so much ’spoken between us’ - more like ‘one of us possesses some degree of fluency in’. Almost everyone speaks at least 2 languages and understands at least 3; seems like utter chaos to the everyday outsider, mostly because only we possess the blueprint to the method behind the madness.

For one, communication is never a problem. Whether on the phone with customers or dealing with day to day operations, the person most fluent in the language takes charge. Admittedly, there are times when it turns into a game of Chinese Whispers and Connect The Dots, but by now I think, we’re all very familiar with the rules.

Presenting Some of the Players:

The Bansals: English, Hindi, Punjabi
Sujeet: English, Hindi, Haryanvi
Iyyappa: English, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, garnishes of Hindi
Nandu (Our Man Friday): Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, smattering of English
Yours Truly: English, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, French

I can’t wait for the day we get into the regional language publications market!

Taking a leap of faith online is not as hard as it looks but is much harder than you think. Our brains are hardwired for the senses - see; smell; feel; touch; taste. The main challenge of a Click-’n-Mortar store is bringing credibility to anonymity. We certainly didn’t have that way-back-when, which is why we owe a lot to quite a few people - one of them being Mr. Chandra.

Mr. Chandra is the FIRST EVER customer that Flipkart had (the rest were mostly family, friends, friends of family and families of friends) and also subsequently went on to interview Flipkart. There is no way we can quantify what that post did for us - nay - continues to do for us. At the most basic level, it validated the feedback trust loop that Sachin and Binny had put all their hopes on. Here is a guy who having logged on to Flipkart has:

a> Found what he wanted
b> Taken out his card
c> Made an online payment on a site no one knew of
d> And waited for his book to be delivered

Here is a good time for me to make a declaration: I had not yet joined Flipkart. True, I have no idea what any of them were thinking at the time or what the motivations were that lead to this momentous “first real sale”. Of one other thing I can be fairly certain - the Bansals thinking “We have a customer afterall, let’s not make a mess now!!”

It’s been over a year since that day, a lot has changed and we’re making fewer mistakes now. Many more trust us, and of large number of those that do stay very loyal. We probably do let some of them down, and not just the first timers either - I just hope that these isolated incidents do not reinforce the mental blocks people have with e-commerce in India.

If there’s one takeaway I can garner, it’s this: Be grateful to the VVK Chandras in your life - and every once in a while - try being one yourself.

It’s been a while Flipkart.com has been online (a year and a half), and we should probably have jumped onto the blog bandwagon much sooner. To be more precise - The ‘official blog’ bandwagon.

As it turns out, we have infact had a blog on wordpress all along, since the 6th of November. Hmm. Might imitation be the sincerest form of flattery… and does it equally matter who the imitator is? You be the judge. Let me go on record and say the blog.flipkart.com* is the only official Flipkart blog.

And hopefully, we’ll have slightly more interesting content as well…watch this space!

*contains no fruit juice or pulp. contains added flavour.