I was shocked when I saw a crowd in front of MacDnard, hamburger shop.

    DharmadeepJust recently MacDonald, hamburger shop from America, has opened in Poona. I was shocked when I saw it. Indian people are so crazy. When I went to do some shopping to the market, I saw its signboard and a crowd there. I was wandering that Indians has never been so crazy about any other eating place than MacDonald, because there are lots of other famous eating places on that road, Jangle Maharaja Road, which is one of main fashionable roads in Poona like MG road. When I saw a crowd in front of MacDonald, I said myself, "My God!" It was as if Indians found Taj Mahal which is a 9th or 10th wander of the world. It was so amazing. Old and young were waiting outside in a que to get some hamburgers ,thick milk-shakes, or French fry. I have been staying in Pune for a long time, in fact I had grown up here, but I tell you I have never seen such a crowd just for some food.
    It is a success. But behind its success, there are a few factors. One of them is marketing strategy. Since they are multi-national company, they are very good at marketing. But it is a kind of new cultural invasion. India is a cultural country. It has an old cultural heritage. Indians, specially Poona people are not known to go fast, pick up fast.

I have heard Osho said,
"To me, Poona, specially Koregaon Park is Mohenjo dalo."

    I remember in the first Poona time somebody asked Osho that how many of Poona people, proper Poona people come to listen to you. He smiled and said, "To me, Poona, specially Koregaon Park is Mohenjo dalo." Mohenjo Dalo is an old, ancient city in Pakistan, and He said,"I think I am the first conscious human being in this Mohenjo Dalo, and you are the conscious listeners. " I remember He said something like: "Whole of Koregaon Park, leave aside Poona, where I have my ashram, is the richest area." All the big bungalows belongs to ex-maharajas and ex-kings. But they don't stay here, only caretakers are staying. So, He said, "I am now live Maharaja. I am live person and all these people are dead. In fact, some houses have ghosts, including our house. But don't worry, the ghosts in our house are very friendly. "
    Poona people are known to be very choosy, and Poona is a very intellectual city. It is a center of learning in whole of India. It has best institutions. Then Osho said, "why I chose Poona? It is intellectual, fine, but people are psydow intellectual. They will not tolerate me. I have come here just to provoke these intellectuals. I would like them to come and sit in front of me and ask questions. "

I thought MacDonald would be rejected by Poona people.

    That's why I am surprised when I saw a crowd in front of MacDonald. I thought it would be rejected by Poona people, but young and old together were there, came out smiling with its thick milk shake in their hand, because Americans are giving staffs as per the American standards. They are not going to make it according to Indian standards. Thick milk shake will be thick milk shake not like Lassi(Indian milk and yogurt shake). I would like to tell you one thing that just 2 days ago I went into some restaurant for some snacks. As we were looking at a menu, we saw French-fries. I said, "Well, let's try! MacDonald, maybe next time----, but this time let us try and see." It was such a shocking surprise. It was so disappointing to me. They looked like French fries, but they were made in an Indian-style, absolute useless.
    When I saw that French fries, I was standing opposite of MacDonald just to watch. I watched the people in amazement. I have been brought up in a western style, so it was interesting. I saw people coming out, young and old. Kids were also coming out. Crowd was very big because it was Saturday evening. Then more surprising thing was that lights went off. So, for 15 minutes, lights were off and people were quietly standing outside the MacDonald, as usual hoping for the lights to come back, and lights did come back. But meantime nobody went away. See the attraction.

Americans are best marketers
--Jayesh and all these people are doing just the marketing.

    So, it has made one point clear to me that Americans are best marketers. They have got a very good marketing strategy. Americans know how to market things. Marketing is the success of selling. If you want to success in selling, you need marketing.
    I mean: Jayesh and all these people are doing just the marketing part. This is what is required. Jayesh is not doing some spiritual teaching. He is just taking care of the Commune. What I see is that there is one group of three people, Jayesh, Amrito, Anand, and on the other side there are the people who were at one time in the administration of the Commune but somehow they didn't get along due to some reason. Which kind of reason we don't know, but they have fallen out and grumbling. Now what happens is that when people are in power there is always tendency of misuse of the power. There is a tendency, yes.

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