Lewis and Tide presents - Dirteen!

Team "Old Monks" (Erwin Dmello, Anil PR and Sourabh Magdum) entry for Addendum,a SPJIMR event.

Its a challenge to link two of the given brands and come up with a new product. Also prepare a print Ad and a 450 word writeup explaining the product!

Here is what we did -

Let’s relive your worst nightmare!! An important date...You take the pains to wake up early … take out your favorite Tee, take a shower , and just when you thought nothing could go wrong , You find your favorite jeans , all cleaned up lying spic and span , thanks to your mom!!

Your whole world turns upside down; disappointment sinks within…..Just one of those days when cleanliness ruined the day….

Some things don’t mix!! like Jeans and cleanliness never go together…and you now sit there in despair wondering how on earth mom would ever understand that!!!.......but not anymore!!!

And just in case you are one of those people who are of the belief that

Clean looks are charming ….Clean looks are elegant …..Clean looks are graceful……

THINK AGAIN!!!

Isn’t cleanliness overrated!! Think of it…if there were no dirt, there wouldn’t be anything to clean! We at LEVIS the leaders in comfort fabric and TIDE , the pioneers in detergents  come together as we look to reconnoiter that positive that dirt is, give it the space that it truly deserves and acknowledge it for the charity it has done to the world of fashion!!

Introducing, the revolutionary new age solvent that will make you love the dirty look…

The new age dernier, the evolution from the ordinary call it the dawn of the dirty… Levis and Tide proudly present DIRTEEN, a solvent for the youth!! A novel and unique solvent that adds to your clothes that ubercool look that you have always dreamt of!!

In a few simple steps, oust the simplicity from your clean jeans and give it the stature it deserves. Add a sachet of DIRTEEN to a mug of water, and sprinkle it on those areas of your jeans where you would love to have the dirty look. Once that’s done, then hot it up by ironing the particular area. Watch in amazement as the magic of DIRTEEN takes over and the snazzy makeover it gives to your fabric. Before you know, your jeans is back to its former glory, whatever look it might have been, rusty , bad boy , mechanic, greasy or painter white ,we have it all.

We at LEVIS and TIDE understand the likes of our customer, especially those they never talk of, like the cool look that the dirt on their jeans gives, and nothing gives us more pleasure than to assure them that they can now take their cool looks for granted!!

Dirt is here to stay... it’s for the brave, for the bold, for the ones who have the guts to reveal their imperfections, so go ahead and embrace it, GO HIGHLIGHT THE DIRT IN YOU!!

From Chennai to Dalhousie via Delhi!

I had been visiting the Youth Hostel website and the Dalhousie winter trek brochure since quite a few days. I badly needed a break and was wondering if I could somehow make it to the trek amidst my college schedule. I was delighted to see the holiday notification email and began planning and thinking of the trip while people around me were studying hard for the exams. I invited all my friends; Krishna a.k.a. Pabba and Abhishek a.k.a. Abs decided to join me. We did all the bookings (including the trek booking) in tatkal or just in time.

Krishna and I departed from Chennai on the New Year’s Eve just in time for the tamilnadu express. While Krishna survived the train journey eating bread jam, I tried different unhygienic stuff on most of the railway stations! The fog played spoil sport and our train got delayed by 7 hrs. It was moving like a road-roller after Mathura, stopping at every other station where tens and hundreds and thousands of people poured in. Even a 24/7 sleeping kumbhakarna like Krishna couldn’t sleep in the commotion and chaos.


We reached Delhi on 2nd Jan afternoon, where abs was waiting for us. In Delhi, we could never figure out what time of the day it was. It was foggy all over and seemed to be 6 am while it was actually 2 pm. We quickly headed to the Interstate bus terminus and booked our tickets to Dalhousie. Then, we did some woolen-wear shopping from a Tibetan monastery market nearby where I and abs taught Krishna the art of bargaining. Krishna tried his level best but was tricked by the cute little chinki lady salesperson. He also had his dream come true as we satiated our taste buds with a few rounds of Aloo-tikki and chat near the Kashmiri Gate bus terminus before getting into the bus. It was not among the best chats in Delhi, but we had to manage…


My observation about Delhi: It’s the best city in the country when you sit in the underground metro. It is the dirtiest city when you come out of the metro!



True to our reputation, we reached Dalhousie late. Although I had put on all the warm clothing I had, I was shivering like never before. We searched for a while and found the Youth Hostel Building at last.

The first thing we did here was to rush to the restrooms to relieve the pressure accumulated during the overnight bus journey. We missed the early morning warm-up session which I was anyway not interested in. The lady who was our campus leader yelled at Krishna for inadvertently kicking a box full of coal in the tent and dirtying the whole place. Krishna had no regrets as he felt she was very sweet. I and Abs couldn’t agree more!


It was a bit disappointing to see a lot of good looking females in the previous group but none in ours. It was not new to me though. I have always had such experiences. Nevertheless, ours was a diverse  and fun-loving group of 42 from different states of India including Maharashtra, Andhra, Karnataka, Delhi, Jammu, Gujarat etc.


At around 9 am, we started our acclimatization walk in the hills. It was up, down and again up with stunning landscapes, gigantic mountains, dense forests and cunning monkeys.

We took a chai and Maggie halt at Panchpula (meaning five bridges). A monument/Samadhi was built in the memory of freedom fighter and rebel Sardar Ajit Singh, who breathed his last on the Independence Day and in Panchpula. It was quite a long walk for the first day and reached the hostel exactly at lunch time.



What I saw after lunch was something I had never seen.. I'll update about it very soon! Stay tuned...

But then its fair enough...

I woke up early today, after so many days. I guess the last time I woke up early was on the diwali day, after a lot of nagging by my mom. So I went to the terrace of the hostel and sat there for a while, looking at the spectacular sunrise over sarvana stores :) I agree it would have been more beautiful without the sarvana store, but then it’s fair enough. God has his own ways to remind you where you are, even amidst nature’s stunning creations!

I came to my room to get the cam and went back to the terrace. By this time the sun was hiding behind the clouds… I waited and waited but he simply refused to show up… But it’s fair enough; even I am showing up on an early morning after so many days…

Then there was a flock of birds tweeting (although they don’t have a twitter account), chirping and flying in all directions. They seemed to be quite busy. As if they had to catch the 6:45 fast local train to CST and rush to work, lol. I know that doesn’t go well, it’s quite unromantic. But then it’s fair enough… I am neither a writer nor a poet :)

Then there was this revolting crow, who kept bugging me for quite some time. He was later joined by his friends.

By the way, there’s an animal kingdom here at the mambalam hostel. And she is one of our most recent guests.

But then its fair enough.. There are another 50 odd unusual creatures, staying here since the commencement of PGDM Batch 10 at IFMR:)

Lakshmi Bal Mahotsava – A one of its kind event!

Have you ever imagined a kid’s carnival or mela at your institute?

A Hundred and seventy innocent kids involved in interesting activities, events and competitions?

A colorful noisy campus with a lot of dynamism, energy and excitement?

That’s exactly what it was at the Institute for Financial Management and Research, Chennai as it celebrated the 2^nd edition of Lakshmi Bal Mahotsava (LBM) on Sunday, 29^th November 2009. For starters, Lakshmi Bal Mahotsava was launched an year ago in memory of Lakshmi Iyer Appu, a beloved student of IFMR’s Batch of 2010. The event is organized by Samarthan, the social service club of IFMR and aims at providing a day of fun and learning for underprivileged kids. This year, the event saw participation from 171 children representing 4 different NGO’s Exnora, Sevalaya, SRS Sarvodaya Girls Hostel and Nesakaram (Seeds).

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The little guests at IFMR had a blast as they indulged in activities like painting, balloon blasting and quizzing. They also played unusual games like coin trajectory, maths relay race, potato hunt and hoopla among others. They won instant prizes in the form of toys and chocolates in these games. Then there was the Merry-Go-Round and a Juice stall for their refreshment.

The afternoon session saw a puppet show, a pot making contest and ended with a sizzling dance performances by the kids on hindi and tamil desi beatsJ. It was pleasing to see all the kids intermingle with students, volunteers, guests and kids from other NGO’s. The kids spread their contagious enthusiasm and delight throughout the campus and eventually one could see smiling faces all around!

Samarthan would like to thank its friends and partners- Business Standard, Radio One, makemytrip.com, WPC, Adayar Ananda Bhavan, Arun Ice-creams, IFMR trust, IFMR Research centers for their unconditional support, which made the event a grand success.

(L) Drawing & (R) Singing competition

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(L) Merry-Go-Round; (R) Balloon bursting event

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(L) Aiming bulls eye; (R) Quiz event

Do you wanna change the world?

As an electronics engineering graduate and having worked at India’s second largest software technology firm, I strongly believe that technological inventions can drive social change in a huge way.




During my graduation, I developed innovative electronic gadgets for the visually impaired, exhibited them at national level competitions and also won some accolades for the same. After graduating, I designed a model for carpooling for the corporate world, which was shortlisted in Asia’s largest business plan contest among the final few. I always regret that I could not get the prototypes in to production. Nevertheless, it is pleasing to see that several individuals and companies are able to do it today – use technology to design, implement and market products that solve various intricate global problems!

Amitabha Sadangi of Delhi-based International Development Enterprise (IDE) has leveraged technology to invent simple and affordable gadgets for the farmers. For example, he has developed a treadle pump that can draw water from depths up to 25 feet and costs just $10 (Rs. 500). This foot-operated pump is a boon to the farmers in a country like India, which ranks 133rd in the world in terms of water availability. IDE also manufactures low cost drip irrigation kits which are priced at $100 (Rs 5000), one tenth of traditional systems. These irrigation kits have eventually raised the income of its small-scale farming customers by an average of $400/year.

Similarly, Five B-School grads took up the challenge to design highly cost-effective LED lamps that have eliminated darkness from thousands of Indian households. About 18000 remote Indian villages (more than 50% of Indian households) today, have no access to electricity. DLight Design’s LED lams are certainly making an impact as an economical and ecological alternative to kerosene and oil based lamps. In the last 2 years, DLight has sold 200,000 units and expects to sell 20 million by 2020.




Rajeev Kher has started Shramik Sanitation System using his engineering excellence and product design skills. Shramik System leases and sells cost effective portable toilets. India is ranked as the 2nd worst country for sanitation by WaterAid and 55% of her population i.e. 660 million people defecate in the open. Thus, low-cost and well designed portable toilets are a need more than a want. Today Rajiv sells over 1000 toilets and expects to sell over 5000 in the next 3 years, thus making an impact in a country where thousands die of diarrhea everyday!

In another remarkable venture, Sulax Shah manufactures only one of its kind microprocessor to weighing scale and fat-testing machines which have revolutionized milk industry in south Gujarat, India.

In Mumbai, Anurag Gupta of A Little World uses mobile networks to enable banks, financial institutions and governments to conduct financial transactions with over 3.5 million people spread across 8,300 gram panchayats in 22 states. Apart from the little world, there are several other players like Fino and Ekgaon technologies which exploit technology for cost effective micro-finance transactions.

There are hundreds of other social entrepreneurs around the globe who are making an impact and eventually changing the world! Having said that, there are still ample opportunities for applying technology to solve everyday problems. Every techie needs to observe the world around him and use his creativity and skills to develop innovative solutions to combat the several global challenges. While technology has drastically improved lives of the wealthiest 14% of the world population, there is a lot to be done to make an impact in the lives of the remaining 86%, 4 Billion strong base of the pyramid!

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Ashoka: Innovators for the Public are hosting Tech 4 Society, a conference exploring technology, invention and social change, in Hyderabad, India, in February 2010. Find out more about the conference here. This blog post is an entry in their competition to find the official blogger to travel to and cover the event.