The Scent of the Woman

Estee Lauder is a name synonymous with perfumes. Her success comes from understanding human psychology to build a brand.

“Estée Lauder's playbook - understand human psychology, create an experience, and make your weakness your strength. She would use the same strategy again and again to build a multi-billion-dollar empire.”

The year is 1963. The most prestigious department store in France, the Galleries Lafayette had a policy that they would never sell American products, especially perfume. After all, what could an American company teach them about fragrance??

Estée Lauder managed to get into the store, not to meet the buyer, but to show her fragrance is to a sympathetic Sales girl.?

It is said that she dropped a bottle of a perfume - Youth Dew on the floor. The scent began to waft through the air as customers stopped to take the divine fragrance. Estee Lauder had broken through the glass sealing!

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Are you one in a million? Or even one in 8.9 million?

This is from LinkedIn <click the link to read more>

1. Younger professionals with fixed salaries and job insecurity prefer fewer work hours because they have personal demands and fewer growth opportunities.
2. On the other hand, mid-to-senior professionals are willing to work more if it means earning extra income, improving their careers, or having fewer personal responsibilities—though they risk burnout.
3. Younger and retired people prioritize free time, while those in their prime career years work longer, even if it doesn’t always make them happier.
4. Business owners who try to balance work and life equally may still find that it doesn’t bring the most satisfaction.

Read more from this post <click this>

Governments innovate with RTPS

Money is hard to find. It is all becoming digital and invisible. Governments have been innovating with Real Time Payment Systems (RTPS).

India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) launched in 2016 has revolutionized a cash dependent economy like India. Cash accounted for 78% of POS value in 2016. Using digital wallets like PhonePe and Google Pay, UPI now dominates with 58% of POS and 64% of e-com transaction value in 2024. Cash use stood at just 15% in 2024 and is forecast to fall again by half, to 7%, by 2030. UPI has already spread beyond India. Read more

Thought for Food

Why do so many people go hungry? Is it a production problem? You would think so. But actually it is a problem of wastage. It is also about getting the right amount of calories and about creating a food supply chain. Even when people get enough calories, they’re often missing the right nutrients and so malnutrition is another problem. Better storage and packaging, smarter supply chains, and flexible pricing models could significantly reduce spoilage and excess inventory.

"Some of the world’s biggest food producers have the highest rates of undernourishment. Globally, we produce around 3,000 calories per person per day—more than enough to feed everyone—but a staggering one-third of all food is wasted. (In some rich countries, that figure climbs to 45 percent.) Distribution systems fail, economic policies backfire, and food doesn’t always go where it’s needed."

Costco (which might seem like the pinnacle of U.S. consumption) stocks fewer than 4,000 items, compared to 40,000-plus in a typical North American supermarket.

Bill Gates has written a gushing review of Vaclav Smil's new book that addresses this precise problem It is called How to Feed the World.

Dig Deeper

Necropolis, Manganiyars and Cenotaphs

That literally means the city of the dead. The word necropolis comes from Ancient Greece. It combines nekros (νεκρ??) meaning "dead" or "corpse" polis (π?λι?) meaning "city". Did you know that the word nectar refers to the liquid that helps overcome death.

I bumped into this lovely first hand account of a necropolis in Hyderabad, India <read it> Pradeep Joshi's photo captures the reflection in a bawri (step well).

See a closeup of the calligraphy seen from an unusual angle at the Taj Mahal. Discover the music of Manganiyars. Here is what I wrote

Read this https://abhijitbhaduri.com/2025/03/12/masusoleums-and-manganiyars/

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PS: Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won't come again

And don't speak too soon

For the wheel's still in spin

And there's no tellin' who

That it's namin'For the loser now

Will be later to win

For the times they are a-changin'