How to sell? well we can make a salesman’s job easy by doing some marketing, right?

Since we do not have much primary research in this country, we have to depend on USA and assume that the same things are happening in India too.

The amount of time that people are spending on cooking must be going down in India too. In the 1970s when we were growing up, eating out used to be an expensive option. We were surely upper middle class – we ate out maybe 5 times a year – EXCEPT when we traveled and were forced to eat in hotels. When we visited somebody for 4 hours it meant we went there for lunch or dinner. When we visited somebody (stayed with them while traveling) we ate in their house – and an occasional visit to the hotel was made.

Now marketing has taken over. First we told the women that cooking is a drudgery. Then we told them that the men are confining you to the kitchen to lock you there for the rest of your lives. Then we told them how women can make a career. Then we changed the rules of the game. The woman who earned more was considered to be far more successful than the woman who cooked well. Obvious right, our Gods changed. Saraswati the Goddess of skill gave way and Lakshmi the Goddess of Money became more important. Fair enough.

In the USA the average cooking time is down from 117 minutes to 27 minutes. And cleaning the vessels time is down to 4 minutes.

Honestly in 27 minutes it is difficult to make a full meal – from the basics. Yes you can take the left over pizza from the refrigerator and put it in the microwave. Yes 5 minutes. You can uncork a Pepsi bottle. You can lay the plate!

Then we told the women that cooking is a Macho thing – look at those handsome dudes who run cookery shows. Wait a minute is hotel cooking same as home cooking? No. that’s a joke. Hotel cooking is about showman ship. Home cooking is about nutrition. Huge, huge, huge difference please.

In 4 minutes what vessel cleaning can you do? even our super efficient maid takes 17 minutes. Well that was a bluff, I have not timed it, but it is surely way  above 4 minutes…

So now you know how we sell packaged foods, cookery shows, travel plans, …to the young 12 year old girls right?

Do I sound like a ranting old man? well if you find cooking a drudgery, you are in the wrong blog.

Investing is far more boring, and a greater drudgery. Gimme vegetables (cut), a little oil, and all the spices, I will try to create some poetry…

the guy who started the “cooking is drudgery” deserves a Nobel prize from the food, travel, diet, pharma, gym, gym equipment…….who else?

  1. Subra sir, what are your thoughts on the sector – hotel businesses, travel and tourism. Is it expected to pick up? Investor prospects

  2. Subra sir, Context: this blog mentions about travel, cooking etc. Without product quality, even good marketing cannot fly for long. The post struck to me about some sector which came to mind.. As investor, I try analyzing and invest in tourism related stocks. I feel there is a very long way to go for us (opportunity).. There are tons of our countrymen – taxi, auto drivers, tourist guides, hotels, tourism promoters, airlines, railways and even State themselves (by Tax) who stand to benefit. Apart from monuments, temples and palaces that kings in past built as tourist attraction, the need for modern ones like Disney lands, sea aquariums, arboreums, flyers or even promoting Ayurveda, spas, medical tourisms etc.. Some of us, ourselves long to go to Paris, Switzerland and Singapore (demand) than Goa, Agra and Madurai (no supply). Tourism in Singapore 17 million in 2017, Whole of India all put together we had just 10 million.
    What we have now is a big disappointment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee5Bq_eBlYM. In its present form Tourism sector is at big loss for India. Will it present itself as opportunity, will it be worthwhile to invest in tourism linked companies (Hotel chains (Tatas), Resorts (Club Mahindras), amusement parks(Wonderlas)) etc in India? Some of Governments are trying hard to promote it.. Or we will be like this only?

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