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What entertains you?
If you go to a small town or relatively large village in India, you are likely to find a fair ground – provided that you are not out of luck. I stayed for a week in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh for a research work and the local fair at night was indeed like a cold, fresh ...
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Use of Multiple Mobile Phone Numbers (part 2)
Continued from part 1…. There are several tactics to use multiple phone numbers. Four notable solutions are listed here – please keep in mind that at the time of this research (2007), there was only very few mobile phone models that had the dual SIM feature. Solution 1. Carrying two or more SIM cards but ...
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Use of Multiple Mobile Phone Numbers (part 1)
I recently visited a shanzai phone market in Shenzhen, China. Due to its proximity to the main production hub of mobile phones of all brands and manufacturers, it is a true showcase of all kinds of mobiles you ever imagined to exist. As with the timing, there were a lot of design copy products of ...
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Being prepared : Service mindset
Preparing small notes and changes often becomes the responsibility of consumers in India – based on what I have experienced so far, which is different mentality compared to Japan or Korea especially. If you only have 100 or 500 rupee notes, be prepared for delays in getting your changes back, or even the risk of ...
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Blue is (the leading color to) white
While the perception of color is culturally dependent, blue and white are known to be one of the most popular for logos and national flags. In India, the color white is particularly important for clothing. It is typical for male politicians or authoritative figures to wear all whites. Dhotis, always white in color, are essential ...
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Mobilized comfort zone
A mesh cover with a baby sound asleep inside – spotted in a farming village in Tamil Nadu. Would you call this a baby net or flying insect net?
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HIV prevention awareness
A signage for warning the danger of HIV and promoting the use of condoms, found across in Uttar Pradesh. Getting condoms however may not be an openly accepted behavior. In rural health centers, they try to distribute condoms for free, but people may not visit the center while others can see. One solution to the ...
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Standby affordance
A change in the plan of the fieldwork trip – we decided to take the train from Delhi to Bareilly. My suitcase was obviously a wrong form of luggage in the jam-packed Delhi train station on Sunday. We could not even dare to find the platform through the wall of people. A ‘coolie’ was found ...
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pleasure principle
This rural neighborhood, Horsu, in Tamil Nadu near Bangalore has seen a growing number of green houses for flowers. As the city provides relatively constant consumption of flowers, they make a relatively low-risk yet high-margin business. The wise farmer we talked to said: “It will be the mobile entertainment service that farmers will adopt first. ...
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new home in bangalore, india
I took on a new job to lead a research team since the beginning of this year. Along with it I moved to a new homebase, a city often referred to as ‘silicon valley of India’, or formerly as ‘garden city of India’. Compared to any other places I had taken on as my home ...