Chp 650. Holi in Pune

So today is Holi and I am sitting in office because it is an optional holiday (which I'm planning to use instead for Good Friday next month).

It kinda sucks a bit knowing most people are spending today relaxing at home or spraying colors at each other while I'm logging my work at Jira and trying to complete my pending tasks, but at least I think I'm having a better day than this poor person who I hope wasn't fired from work.

So last Friday, I received a push notification from my Cleartrip app. Cleartrip, like most other apps I have installed on my phone, tries to utilize every festive occasions in order to boost their sales. Yeah sometimes most of these push notifications are spammy and downright irritating, but at the same time I cannot block the notification on some of these apps because I need to receive their notifications, like being reminded of an upcoming trip or a flash sale or that my lunch order has been dispatched from the restaurant.

I received a lot of push notifications from various apps regarding Holi. Here is a colorful discount this Holi blah blah blah or This Holi bring back the color of love with this amazing 1+1 offer blah blah blah. The usual lines I used to struggle with back when I was a copywriter at an Ad agency :D

But one notification really stood out, and it was this one from Cleartrip.

"Start with a b(ha)ang!"

Lolz, I was like, seriously? It's cheesy and corny, and more importantly, it was freaking bold. I immediately thought whoever sent that message was going to get into trouble. And 5 minutes later, Cleartrip indeed sent out another push notification, a much toned-down version.

Oh man, I was cracking up inside. Because I can so imagine what must have happened in that 5 minutes. Somebody from the agency handling Cleartrip's social media account, probably a new joinee or junior copywriter, thought that was a pretty cool and funny line, and sent that push notification out without getting an approval from his/her Copy supervisor or from the client side, and the moment somebody from Cleartrip received that notification, there was utter chaos and frantic calls made to the Client Servicing or Business Development team of the agency, who in turn blasted the Creative department, and they had to quickly come up with another message in the hope that people might not notice the first one.

I mean I'm just assuming it happened like that because I've been there, done that. Things like that happened a lot when I was working at an Ad agency. Angry calls from client or their branding team were quite common if the approval protocol was not set up properly. Oh those fun and memorable days. :D There was even this one time when we mixed up the mailing list of two very big clients and sent out the wrong mailers to more than 5 lakh email database.

Anyway, I could be mistaken too and Cleartrip could have approved that message, though considering their branding tone, I find it quite unlikely that they did. Also why would they send out another notification just 5 minutes later when we know brands are extremely cautious about not spamming their subscribers as it leads to high uninstallation rate. I was expecting this kind of messaging tone from apps like say, Faasos, whose communications are usually more casual and funky. Still, I do hope nothing happened to the person who sent out that quirky line. Lolz, he/she just got baptized by the fires of the cutthroat Advertising world. :D

Happy Holi everyone. And hope you all had a b(ha)ang today :)

Chp 649. Life Hack: Weighing Luggage

Some of you may already know this, but for those of you who don't, here is a simple "life hack" on how to weigh your luggage.

First of all, what does one mean by weighing one's luggage/baggage?

When my friends and colleagues from Pune and Mumbai travel by Air to their hometown or for a short vacation, they are usually not worried about the Airline's excess baggage cost. After all, they only have to carry a few clothes for that duration and that is it.

But for those of us from Mizoram, travelling back and forth is a big pain due to the meager 15 kg excess baggage limit on domestic air travel.

As a wise friend once told me, back when Mizoram was a Dry State, we had to carry many bottles of booze in our baggage while flying in, and now that it has become a Wet State, alcohol is so cheap there that we have to carry many bottles of booze in our baggage while flying out. :D Yes… a "friend". :P

All jokes aside, there are a lot of things we need to carry in our checked-in baggage while flying in, like things we don't get over there. And while flying back from Mizoram, there's the smoked pork and variety of vegetables and pickles we take back with us. Before you know it, you've already crossed the 15 kg limit, hence paying a hefty fine at the airport ticket counter.

That is why we always weigh our baggage before flying, doing some last minute rearrangement and stuff, shifting heavier objects like shoes and books to our carry-on bag (7 Kg limit there but nobody checks that, strange huh).

While it is easy to weigh your baggage with a hand-held scale, not many people own that. Most of us have the traditional weighing scale at our homes where you need to stand on top of it to see your weight.

And this is where most people face a problem. If your baggage is large, you cannot see the value! The baggage covers the display completely, no matter how your rearrange it.

What to do, what to do?

Well here is a very simple solution!

First, weigh yourself on the scale.

Next, weigh yourself along with your baggage.

After that, simply subtract the first weight from the combined weight.

There you have it ladies and gentlemen, your exact baggage weight! :D

So simple, naw? :D Hope you find this corny post useful. :)

Cheers!