Hello friends, here we are again on the second edition of the public blog.
While thinking about what gives us enjoyment, and fulfillment? My answer was very clear- writing. I have always enjoyed writing but there was no structure to my writing. I learned that we should experiment with our lives- trying to figure out what suits us the best. Running a public blog is an experiment to put a structure to my writing and I assume that at least 10 people are out there, who would love to read what I have to offer.
So with that introduction out of the way, let’s dive into this week’s content.
What got my eye?
The world is full of competition, where for each service or product you will find at least five companies or more, fighting for consumers’ attention. What if I tell you there is one service for which there is only one company? Not just in India but in the entire world. Drum roll, please.. 
Rate gain.
It’s a publicly listed company in India, that analyzes data of consumers across different service offerings in the hospitality industry, analyzes the data, and helps the company to propose prices to its consumers.
Simply put, let’s say you travel on Thursdays on an Indigo flight to Delhi, walk into the Taj Hotel, and have a drink in the evening at the bar.
Your data from Indigo and Taj will be correlated along with your flight preferences and choices at the hotel such as beverage or lunch. So, the next time you want to travel to Delhi, it will analyze your consumption pattern of the services and offer the data to Indigo which will give you better pricing than let’s say Air India. They also offer you a discount coupon which you can utilize in the Taj Hotel. Because you are getting a discount coupon for Taj and better pricing than Air India, you will continue to be with Indigo. This happened because of the rate gain company. It correlated data from Indigo and Taj and gave analysis to Indigo to entice you.
This is a software-as-a-service company and has virtually no competition in the world. It gives analysis via subscription to companies and hotels based on user behaviors. It also has a wonderful record of more than 90% retention of its customers. Now you might think they will be minting money at their will due to no competition. However, due to the changing nature of the industry and the heavy investment in analytics and acquisitions, Rate Gain may have high revenues but profit margins are not as high as one might expect.
For more details, refer https://finshots.in/archive/weekly-wrapup-rategain/
Key happenings of the week: –
Apart from the stairs, if there is one enemy that I dread, is my weight. The number on the weighing scale just goes up and up. So to counter that I initiated a bit of a yoga few months back. But it wasn’t working effectively. Along with doing exercise what really matters in weight control is diet.
And there I had a brainwave.
2 weeks ago, I decided not to eat any artificial sugar. No sugar-free sugar as well. Whatever sugar I’ll get is through the fruits that I will have and that’s that. Being a person with a sweet tooth, this was a knockout punch. But as I mentioned at the beginning of the blog, keep experimenting with life. And I decided to pick this experiment to see if there is any direct correlation with the weight. I focused on two times or as it’s called in fancy terms – intermittent fasting. My first meal is between 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. And my dinner is between 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. This coupled with a no-sugar diet has had an amazing effect in just 2 weeks.
But before I announce my result, I wanted to let you know how difficult it is. It is very difficult to buy ice cream for every member of the family except you. It is very difficult to refuse sweets when office colleagues are offering them to you. Honest confession. I did eat one sweet at the office without realizing that I was on a no-sugar diet. It made me feel sick inside and that was enough for me to never falter on my diet.
Yeah, but it’s tough to concentrate on what people are saying when they are slurping melting ice cream from the cone.
The result came in after 15 days. I am pleased to announce that I have lost one kg of weight. Not only that, but I also feel energetic and focused on whatever task at hand. So for another 15 days, this experiment will continue and let me see who gives in first:- my weight or my will!!
What made me feel?
That minor inconvenience called the world test championship final, potentially ruined my weekend. There was an interesting match at least on the paper that happened last week. Mostly I followed it over the internet and didn’t really see it. However, on the 4th day, it happened to be Saturday. Since the match was in England, the timing of the match was as such in the afternoon till midnight. It was extremely convenient to watch. And on the 4th day, I saw something extraordinary happening. Aus asked India to bat. It looked like something special was on the cards. Indian batting looked better than on the first day. Eventually, hours passed, and three wickets fell. Actually, two but the umpire thought Shubman Gill was out, which he wasn’t. Kohli, Rahane steadied the bouncing ship. The way they were playing it gave me hope that there is something different this time. I was eager for the 5th-day play of this test match. But as it so happens so often these days, Indian batters collapsed by playing ordinary shots to even the most ordinary balls. The only good thing I could draw from Sunday is that the match finished in 2 hours. It’s such a sad thing to see that India constantly comes in the final of world test championships and simply allows the opposition to walk over them. Not a single session India has dominated in this test match.
The team combination was controversial. Did they understand the pitch correctly? Did they have the best bowlers for the pitch? Are we ensuring that batters are taking responsibility? All these questions kept on roaming in my mind for free. What made me feel extra sad is that earlier when we lost you could see the pain of defeat in the player’s eyes. Here I saw nonchalant behavior. While Rahane was batting instead of encouraging him, most of his teammates were in the dressing room except Rohit. Gill and Kohli kept on chatting about something else and I don’t think they were focusing on the match at hand. Obviously, it was only a matter of time and lost shots that the entire batting order collapsed. When the analysis starts neither the coach nor the captain talks about what improvements are required. They always circle every defeat as a one-off.
Obviously, a lot of comparison was being made by us, the Indian fans. Was Dhoni the x-factor that allowed us to win multiple ICC trophies? We also must understand that Dhoni might be an excellent captain but his teammates were also equally good. The World Cup 2013 was an example of the entire team working together. You had Sachin, and Yuvraj taking care of the batting except for the finals.
Hear it looks like everyone is playing their own game. From here on where we will go it’s anyone’s guess.
What am I reading?
I am halfway through the book called Your Money or your life. It’s a brilliant book that teaches you many perspectives about money. One of the key things I learned in the recently concluded chapter was about fulfillment.
Whether in the sense of accomplishing a goal or enjoying a moment of real contentment, fulfillment is that experience of deep satisfaction when you can say, ah. . . That was a delicious meal, a job well done, or a purchase worth the money.
Now the fulfillment comes from the sense of purpose. If you know what you want, you can feel that feeling of fulfillment.
The concept of the purpose, the book explains in a story way.
There are three stonecutters, each chipping away at a large block. A passerby approaches the first stonecutter and asks, “Excuse me, what are you doing?” The stonecutter replies rather gruffly, “Can’t you see? I’m chipping away at this big hunk of stone.” Approaching the second craftsman, our curious person asks the same question. This stonecutter looks up with a mixture of pride and resignation and says, “Why, I’m earning a living to take care of my wife and children.” Moving to the third worker, our questioner asks, “And what are you doing?” The third stonecutter looks up, his face shining, and says with reverence, “I’m building a cathedral!” (dedication to a higher purpose).
Quotes from the book that stayed with me
1. The meaning we give to action comes from within us, not from the action
2. How we act reflects our real motivations, our values are revealed by our behaviors. (parents sometimes try to sidestep this fact with the phrase “do as I say, not as I do!”) Our behavior is a concrete representation of our values. How we spend our time and money says volumes about who we are and what we stand for
There is another interesting thing that is developing with Infosys. I would love to give you an update on this next week. Fingers crossed.
With this, I am done for the week. Personally satisfied with 2/2 weeks. I hope that this streak continues. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts and views on everything that I share, I write … basically anything.