Hello reader,

A few weeks back, a bunch of enthusiastic souls ran across the never ending parking area of India Bulls Finance Centre (couldn’t hold their excitement and mostly because they were running late :P) with the will to mould themselves into more empathetic and considerate designers. It’s surprising to see people from diverse backgrounds in one class room, working towards a similar goal and to create an impact. So here we are, trying to type down our experiences and document our journey while also sharing our key learnings, here at the Indian School of Design and Innovation, Parel.

Let me take this opportunity to introduce myself, my name is Shraddha Ganesh, a student of PG in Design and Innovation. I have worked as a Brand Strategist for over a year and during this journey, I happened to realise that consumers are people and people tend to get way too emotional at times. Studying these emotions can be challenging and precisely understanding what does this person want/expect is the most important before moving forward with any business plan. While understanding people needs has been practised for decades, a couple have plunged into understanding the unstated and unrecognised desires/wants of this person which is helping brands and products be more human centric.

We, as the students of PG in Design and Innovation, 2017–18 will be writing on multiple areas of concerns/learnings as and when we get exposed to the same. Hope you have a great read :)

This post is on ‘Human Behaviour’ and why empathising with people is progressively becoming a hygiene in any aspect of consumer experience.

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Right from day one of our birth, do we ever really survive on something 100% of our very own? We are born with absolutely nothing in our hands and with each passing second, we learn to depend on the two who give birth to us. For almost 2 decades or more, we hog on resources given by our parents but is that the end of dependency? If we actually consider, each minute of our life is a created moment by someone else. Do we tend to realize that dependency is way beyond just relaying on someone? Apparently getting your own job, earning your own bucks and feeding your own self is independence. That’s messed up because the very meaning of independence is standing firm on your own feet and identity with absolutely no reliance on anyone but your own self. Then, do we not seek emotional solace from family and monetary satisfaction from our employer? Isn’t that not exempting ourselves from burdening ourselves onto someone? When are we even not SEEKING from anyone or anything? Ever? Never. We survive to please others. The era is such that no matter how passionate we are about something, until we manage to please or convince someone else to invest in our passion, we pretty much are wasting time. Independence is a fairy tale concept which is beyond attainable. None of us are independent at all. Funny how English language can play around with our brains.

Mumbai local trains can teach you how to craft one’s own life and value other lives. This woman, I quite recently came across in the local train, made me think of the flawed concept of independence that we all have been spoon fed for years together. She was shabby, filled with dirt and was wearing torn clothes but she had to do the hamster cycle so here she was, at 10.30pm in a Mumbai local, selling packets of roasted nuts. Each packet cost 5 bucks and the basket she held had not more than 20 packets. Hypothetical scenario, she manages to sell all 20 packets, how much does she earn? Is 100 bucks enough for the day? Let’s consider she goes through this cycle 5 times a day. She earns 500 bucks but she has to continue with this vicious cycle all over again the next day? Assuming the initial cost price of each packet as 3 bucks, she purchases 100 packets which means she spends 300 out of the 500. Now she is left with 200 bucks.

This whole calculation seems vague, doesn’t it? At one glance this woman seems independent, trying to earn a living, fighting against all the odds and surviving on her own feet. But is she really even close to independence? The state of poverty is defined as a state of scarcity of resources, which this woman was trying to overcome by selling nuts. Who was she depended on? The train travellers to buy the packets, the shop keeper to not hike the price, her destiny to be in her favor and I don’t know what not. It’s this kind of handicapped feeling that keeps us wanting to depend more. Even if we wish to, we can never really be independent of all the societal and natural norms of leading a life.

The current generation of India is progressively craving for indulgence which is fuelling the need to depend on someone or something. Right from a state of scarcity (when Britishers had left us with nothing) to wanting to earn one’s own bucks (post independence, service economy) to working towards creating one’s own identity (the current generation and the wave of self-made/entrepreneurship), Indians have come a long long way. While the entire population wants to stand out and be unique, what’s the scale of measuring one’s success? Money, professional position, emotional wellbeing or mere survival?

We initiate and cheer for the hamster cycle and it does dominate our livelihoods. We could only wish for this to not complicate our lives any further. Until money rules our actions, our actions can never ever be self created and independence will forever be an illusion.

Thanks for reading. Hope you have a good day :)