The Great Indian Property Show

Now here’s a thought – something that surely has the potential to become a blockbuster business.

It's always the middle-class who enjoy being empowered these days – from the dubious Right to Information Act (don’t get me started) to unrealistic mortgages (I can’t imagine paying off anything in 25 years!) and mall-hopping (the most repulsive new-age trait of them all).

In a country like ours, the poor are always deprived of financial inclusion. Yet, it is these people that dare to dream the most. There’s a number of initiatives which are being ‘driven’ (not very diligently, I might add) by our honourable government, and there are a number of initiatives by non-profits and banking institutions alike to promote micro-credit in the country, but what I see as an equally large problem / opportunity is not just about the money. It’s got to do with the age-old, tried and tested roti-kapra-makaan.

I’m sure your fingernails have been reduced to pretty much nothing by now, but here’s what I’m getting at.

The basic premise is that the poor in India dream. Nothing new there. They dream about buying property – invariably land – and this is all self-financed through ‘internal accruals’, family savings and soft loans.

The problem is that these people are largely creditworthy (much more so than the salaried middle-class, who seem to think that everything is free and that they have some kind of divine right to be first in, last out – read, stocks and shares, et al….heylow?)

But I digress.

These people are creditworthy, and are RIPPED OFF all the time – they do not have access to professional advice, they have no access to credit, they have no access to conveyancing or legal support, and they have to BRIBE everyone from the top down to get the land registered, deeds transferred, etc.

So much for the government’s much touted e-governance projects which have soaked up, at last count, many thousands of crores of the TAXPAYERS money.

Why not get together and set up a private-public partnership which empowers poor people when they make property transactions?

Set up the infrastructure, give them the support, enlist stakeholders such as banks to also offer advice, etc (I know banks do this with their ‘business banking’ and ‘commercial banking’ clients) – and spread a little feel good fuzzy warm feeling amongst a community that is ignored, neglected, deprived and yet, consistently exploited?

If you’re interested in learning a bit more or want to contribute your time and expertise to this project, let me know. In the meantime, spread the word – and yes, its not a charitable venture – there’s money to be made in it, all of it legit.

Parting thought: if there are, say, 1 million transactions per year, and you levy a fee of 1000 Rs per transaction, then you could say that the size of the addressable market would be in the region of 1 Billion Rs. That would make any VC salivate, but then he’d turn around and ask you about execution – but I’m not telling (for the moment!).

Oh yeah, and if you could get a 1% share of the addressable market, then your turnover would be 10 Million Rs in the first year – if you could then demonstrate growth over 6 consecutive quarters - say, 30%, then I estimate that your market cap would be in the region of 100 Million Rs sometime in Year 3.

Not bad, huh?

oRiOn

transliteration

आप को पता था की आप hindi मे भी ब्लॉग कर सकते हैं?

its called transliteration, and offers users the ability to spell words phonetically in english, which is then miraculously converted into hindi in real time...

not sure what my hindi teacher would make of it all, but I thought I'd share this neat trick with you.

oRiOn

Cool Tool

Ever wondered about what people are searching for in the world wide weblog (blog) world?

Here's a nifty widget that shows you, in real time, what your peers are looking for.

Check it out!

oRiOn


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On a Date!

Sometimes, special dates and times pass us by - we're usually too caught up in the whirlwind of our daily lives and associated chores to notice.

An example?

03:04:05 06-07-08

Passed by a couple of days ago - did you notice?

:)

oRiOn

Make sure you set your alarm for 04:05:06 on 07-08-09...which is more than a year from now!

A drive in the neighbourhood ;)

Lonavla on a rain-drenched wind-swept July afternoon...




Rion 'soaks up' (sic!) the fresh greens




Revelling in Rion's home-coming

Is LOVE just a decorative emotion?

If you think your husband is cheating on you, it's you who needs to visit a shrink and not your husband or his girlfriend. They are perfectly fine with the arrangement. They are happy about what they are doing and don't think there's anything wrong about it. It's you who thinks your husband is being unfaithful to you and hence, you are not happy with his behaviour. So, it's you who needs help and not them.

Did you ever look at life this way? Profound, eh!

Cheating spouses seem to be the order of the day. Or maybe, they were always present and my eyes are opening to them only recently. Honestly, the more I meet people of late, the more I hear about unhappy marriages, philandering spouses and subsequent break-ups or patch-ups.

So I set about trying to find out what makes them behave the way they do. Some of the explanations that came my way:

i) I go back to my exes every time my husband goes out of station. Incidentally, he needs to travel quite a bit on work. So what do I do with my time? This is kind of my security blanket and also this way I miss him less. But my husband is very sweet and pampers me after he returns from his tour.

ii) Well, I don't think sleeping with other women amounts to cheating on my wife. I love her just as much, believe me. So, they are completely separate chambers of my existence. (But, thankfully, by some divine intervention, he's gotten off his philandering tendencies. Today, he admits he has a truly nice wife.)

iii) I must admit to you: the one year I lived in with my girlfriend is the best of my life. Yes, my wife and I are mutually calling off the divorce case because I really can't let go of my wife. She says I am the best thing that happened to her and I too realise how she's stood by me through it all. I know she will always be there for me. But yes, I am not sure if I can resist my ex-girlfriend if I happen to run into her again. I just hope my wife never gets to know about it. Afterall, I am human!

iv) My parents want me to marry this girl who belongs to the same community as me. But, you see, I can't live without you. So, I have postponed my engagement just to be with you. (A friend comes and asks how she's supposed to react to such a confession from her boyfriend.)


Phew! I feel like a grey-haired wrinkled up agony aunt, gulping down all of this with a pair of knowingly piercing eyes! For some, I am happy that their relationship is working out. But with others, I can actually see them hurting their supposedly innocent spouses all over again. Because, as somebody said the other day, no one changes. Given time, you are bound to go back to your old ways - the real you lusting after your 'freedom'.

To quote: "Man is born free but everywhere is in chains." And believe it or not, we love being in chains. We love to belong to somebody. It gives us an identity, a sense of belonging. How much ever we crave for our independence and freedom, as humans our ultimate happiness lies in the hands of the person who fulfills us; satisfies us. So, for once, let us be true to ourselves and be brave enough to stand up for our happiness. Even if it might hurt somebody in the process, it would be a lesser heartbreak than when he/ she finds out that you are cheating on them.

But then, where does love fit into the scheme of things? Does it really exist or is it just a decorative emotion?