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 –
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
Now that we know why I have gone off consumption, it’s time to lay out the rules for my year-long off-consumption experiment, list down what is allowed and what isn’t.
The intent of the experiment is to spend an year — from Mar 23, 2008 to March 22, 2009 — without buying anything that is not a necessity.
I have deliberately avoided defining what is a necessity because one of the most interesting aspects of the experiment for me is to “discover” what I think of as a necessity and how it changes with context.
Filed in FAQ, What Is Necessity?
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Also tagged Accessories, Books, Clothes, Eating Out, Entertainment, Experiment, Gifts, Groceries, Investments, Magazines, Mass Media, Movies, Music, Necessities, Never Eat Alone, Radio, Rules, Shopping, Television, Ten COmmandments, Tolietries
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Why would a twenty-something, single, eligible, IIM-educated, upwardly mobile marketer on the corporate fast-track in India’s business capital decide to go ‘off consumption’ for a year?
Will a year off consumption (no eating out, no going out for movies or music or plays, no television or newspapers, no shopping except for necessities) leave him ill-equipped to handle life and work in Mumbai?
Or, will it leave him with invaluable insights into what drives us to consume, or not, into the nature of consumption, into human nature itself?