Reality Show | The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption

Category Archives: Reality Show

A Saturday Night Movie Marathon With a Twist

Friday, May 16th, 2008

Regular readers of the blog would recall that I started hosting Saturday Night Movie Marathons last month in the hope that they will become an interesting social context to meet new people.

What happens in the movie marathons? Well, basically, we meet up on a Saturday night at someone’s place and watch four back-to-back movies, from dinner to brunch.

However, this week’s Saturday Night Movie Marathon has ~~a twist~~ two twists. The first twist is that it starts at three in the afternoon, and the second twist is that it is followed by a house party.

Also filed in Conversations, Weekend Report | Tagged Before Sunset, Everything is Illuminated, Rana, Saturday Night Movie Marathons, Sideways, The Motorcycle Diaries, Y Tu Mamá También | Permalink | Comments (1)

Weekend #4: Three Movies and a Book

Monday, April 21st, 2008

The Saturday Night Movie Marathon turned out to be exactly what I needed after working all day on another big presentation.

To begin with, fewer people turned up — and, while twenty is perhaps the right number for a party — five works better for a movie marathon.

Then, GK turned up with a few DVDs of his own and we decided to leave aside my lineup of classic World War 2 movies and watch ‘Into the Wild’ instead.

Also filed in Free Culture, Other Experiments, Popular Culture, Weekend Report | Tagged Ang Lee, Bangalore Royal Challengers, Chenin Blanc, Film, Gavin Hood, Indian Premier League, Into the Wild, Johny Walker Black Label, Judith Levine, Lust Passion, Movie, Mumbai Indians, Not Buying It, Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping, Rendition, Saturday Night Movie Marathon, Sean Penn, Sula, Twenty20, Wankhede Stadium, Wine | Permalink | Comments (3)

Introducing Saturday Night Movie Marathons

Saturday, April 19th, 2008

Perhaps the biggest challenge of being off consumption is the difficulty of maintaining an active social life.

When you take away the context in which social interactions happen — eating or drinking out, or going out for a movie or a play — you basically make it really difficult for people to spend time with you.

A home-cooked meal, or a walk along the sea, works well once or twice, but, eventually, your friends are likely to tire of such simple pursuits, even if you don’t.

Also filed in Popular Culture, Weekend Report | Tagged Alfred Hitchcock, Dial M for Murder, Films, From Here To Eternity, Movies, Mr and Mrs Smith, North by Northwest, Rear Window, Saturday Night Movie Marathon, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List, Stage Fright, Strangers on a Train, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, The Guns of Navarone, The Rope, Vertigo, Von Ryan’s Army | Permalink | Comments (7)

The Problem With Being Off Consumption Is That You Can No Longer Buy A Treat For Yourself

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

The problem with being off consumption is that you can no longer buy a ‘treat’ for yourself in order to snap out of a bad mood. Being off consumption means no comfort food, no self-gifting, no temporary postponement of pain by the rush of adrenalin triggered off by that perfect purchase.

But I knew that when I went off consumption. I knew that, to resist the temptation to buy, I’ll basically need to be happy all the time. I also knew that I’ll face my first big test as soon as I hit a bad day.

Also filed in Self-Gifting | Tagged Alfred Hitchcock, Amul Kulfi Icecream, Happiness, Himesh Reshammiya, Laptop, Marine Drive, Mumbai | Permalink | Comments (10)

I Ate Four McDonald’s Paneer Salsa Wraps Today

Friday, April 11th, 2008

I ate four McDonald’s Paneer Salsa Wraps today.

No, I didn’t break down under the weight of my withdrawal symptoms and take a taxi to McDonald’s Colaba outlet and order myself four of them. In fact, I didn’t even have one of my usual craving attacks for them today.

My ex-girlfriend bought them for me, and I couldn’t not eat them.

For context, she’s the same ex-girlfriend who had asked me last year if I had thought about where I’ll keep her, before breaking up with me. As she pointed out to me after she read my post, it was only breakup number 7 out of our 171 breakups, and I was the one who initiated the last one.

Also filed in Conversations, Food Cravings, Zero Dollar Dating | Tagged Are You the One for Me, Barbara De Angelis, Books, Break-up, Conversations, Ex-Girlfriend, Gift, Gifting, Kanishka, McDonald's, Paneer Salsa Wraps, Relationships, Rules | Permalink | Comments (2)

John Mayer’s ‘Something’s Missing’ is Now My Official Off Consumption Song

Thursday, April 10th, 2008

I have spent the morning listening to ‘Something’s Missing’ from John Mayer’s truly delectable album ‘Heavier Things’.

I always find it amazing when a song resonates so well with whatever state of mind I’m in. Replace ‘guitar’ with ‘laptop’ in the second last paragraph, and this song could have been written for me.

I’m not alone, I wish I was
‘Cause then I’d know I was down because
I couldn’t find a friend around
To love me like they do right now
They do right now

Also filed in Popular Culture | Tagged Heavier Things, John Mayer, Off-Consumption, Official Song, Something's Missing, Song | Permalink | Comments (1)

Weekend #2: Free French Play + Date With Merlot + Dinner With Friends

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

On Saturday evening, I walked over to Alliance Francaise to watch Rimbaud’s ‘Enfer et Illumination’, a French play that is part of the month long ‘The French Touch’ festival.

The play basically involved a man (Rimbaud) and a woman (his muse?) reciting Rimbaud’s poetry in French, and enacting it in the Kuchipudi tradition (painted faces et al), while English subtitles were projected onto the screen.

I hardly know any French, haven’t ever read Rimbaud, and have no interest in Kuchipudi. The only reason I went for the play was because it was free and therefore allowed.

Also filed in Weekend Report, Zero Dollar Dating | Tagged Alliance Francaise, Avantika, Cuffe Parade, Enfer et Illumination, Festival, French, Girgaon Chaupati, Kanishka, Malabar Hills, Marine Drive, Merlot, Poetry, Rimbaud, Social Life, The French Touch, Weekends, Wine | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Beginners Guide To Zero Dollar Dating In Bombay

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

You’ll recall that, ever since I have gone off consumption, the number one question I have been asking myself is: what can you do on a date when you are off consumption?

Friends, readers, well-wishers: I’m delighted to tell you that, in spite of my fear that my year of abstinence may spread to more areas of my life than I had planned for, I had two perfect zero dollar dates last week.

Also filed in Zero Dollar Dating | Tagged auto-rickshaw, Bandra, Beach, Bombay, Carnival, Churchgate, Date, Juhu, Juhu Beach, Mumbai, train | Permalink | Comments (14)

My Insatiable Craving For McDonald’s Paneer Salsa Wrap

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

I have a confession to make.

I have an insatiable craving for McDonald’s Paneer Salsa Wrap.

It hits me at the oddest times and places, more often than I would like to admit.

- X - X - X -

Sometimes, I’m running on Marine Drive and, suddenly, my stomach ties up into knots and all I can think of is a McDonald’s Paneer Salsa Wrap.

I have to stop, bend over, take a few deep breaths, look out over the sea towards Malabar Hills, wait for the craving to slowly subside.

Also filed in Food Cravings, What Is Necessity?, Zero Dollar Dating | Tagged Bombay, Business Meeting, Colaba, Dating, Indigo Deli, Malabar Hills, Marine Drive, McDonald's, McDonald's Paneer Salsa Wrap, Mumbai, Paneer Salsa Wrap, Pasta in Wine Sauce | Permalink | Comments (10)

Quick Poll: Is ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’ A ‘Reality Show’?

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

I’m totally amazed (and a little embarrassed) by the amount of conversation generated by my laundry situation both offline and online (especially on Twitter).

Now, some of my friends are suggesting that I get myself some life-casting equipment and convert this blog into a video reality show!

First, I never intended this experiment to become a reality show; a year of my life is worth more than that. Insights into why we consume? Yes! A new way to live a simple(r) life? Yes! A multi-million dollar book deal? Yes! A reality show? No way!

Also filed in Book, FAQ | Tagged Book, Consumer Behavior, Insights, Lifecasting, Marketing, Paris Hilton, Reality Show, Video | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'm a marketer by profession and a poet at heart. For more, read my about page or connect with me on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

'The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption' is my year-long book-as-a-blog experiment in why we choose to consume, or not. Subscribe to my full feed in a feed reader or by e-mail.

All the views on this blog are my personal views and not the views of the organization I work for.

The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption