The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption

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Riddhi Shah, who has earlier done two stories (1 and 2) on my off consumption experiment in Hindustan Times follows them up with a story on some other young people who are trying to find happiness by going off the work-watch-spend treadmill –

There are some really interesting stories in here, stories that tell me that I’m doing too little myself. I know one or two of these people, but I wish I had the time to know the rest of them before I left.

The Buck Stops Here

India may be in the throes of consumerism, but a growing number of young people are making a conscious effort to stay away from the high life.

By Riddi Shah, riddhi.shah@hindustantimes.com
Hindustan Times, Mumbai, Sunday, August 3, 2008

Hindustan Times was the first newspaper to do a story on my off-consumption experiment, almost three months back. Last Sunday, Hindustan Times followed it up with another story.

I have been through many photo-shoots of late, but no photographer I have been shot by has been as inventive as Anand. It’s a mind-blowing experience to have two professional photographers shoot each other shoot you. The photograph below, taken by my new friend Kaustav, shows Anand shooting me, with Rana in the background.

The article itself, especially the headline, was a little misleading, and my mailbox is flooded with e-mails on how I’m giving away my fully-furnished house. As you know, the house is not mine to give; I’m only giving away (most of) the stuff inside the house.

I’m going through the mails, posts and comments now and I’ll post a compilation of the entries on my blog tomorrow. I don’t know yet who I’ll gift my stuff to, but I do know that it won’t be an easy decision.

The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption gets its first interview in Indian daily Hindustan Times.

Last Tuesday, when Riddhi called me to say that she had read my blog and wanted to do an interview, my first (very audible) reaction was –

Ah! Finally the first interview! It has been fifteen days since I started the experiment and I was beginning to wonder why nobody has called for an interview!

To her credit, she didn’t sound shocked at all.

The interview was published yesterday on the front page of the Delhi edition –

– and the city section in the Mumbai edition –

One interesting thing I learned yesterday is that different editions of a newspaper may publish different versions of a story.

The Mumbai Edition published the full story — see text below — complete with my rules and URL.

The Delhi Edition published a much shorter version of the story — also available online — but it was on the front page and I’m not complaining at all.

Now, I’m waiting for the television crews to land up on my doorstep.

The Simple Life