How to increase the value of a loaf of bread edited

A Hyderabadi Suggestion to Increase the Value of Bread

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How to Increase the Value of a Loaf of Bread

Suggestion from Hyderabad, India


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Arrange a series of meetings with the Mayor of Hyderabad, with an unorthodox plan for developing the city with commercial and tourism potential, political buzz, free media publicity and even raising the citizens’ political consciousness. Present to the Mayor the following plan.

Step 1

The Mayor of Hyderabad, India, bans the production, sale and consumption of loaves of bread in the city. Reason stated: bread is not harmful in anyway physical or even symbolic, but people are eating more bread loaves than the traditional sheermaal (a handmade variation of bread with almost the same ingredients and taste, mostly made and consumed by Muslims in Hyderabad), which is adversely affecting the livelihood and even the culture of sheermaal makers.


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Results of Step 1

• There will be a huge commotion in the Assembly, with the opposition demanding the Mayor’s resignation. This turns the spotlight on the Mayor, and people will want to hear him out. The Mayor starts benefiting from a loaf of bread.

• The media will rush to cover and mock the bread ban. This would be played on TV, newspapers, magazines, radio and the internet. The media corporations and its employees (their families, and the shops they visit due to their purchasing power) start seeing more value in a loaf of bread, with program segments like “Breaking news”, “talk shows”, “vox populi”, etc. The media will raise the news consuming public’s curiosity about a loaf of bread. The bread loaf will be a national discussion point, and people around the country will attach a higher value to bread, and even buy more.

• Nutritionists will argue through the media why bread is good, getting people to get more knowledge regarding the same, making both the nutritionist and the news consuming public to see bread in a new light.


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“Out with the Muslim Mayor who Bans Bread!”


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Results of Step 1

• The sheermaal makers will be in the spotlight. The media will highlight them, and the public will actually start looking out for sheermaal shops, which many from the non-Muslim part of the city are not exposed to. The sheermaal makers (and their families, and the shops they visit) get more value, because of a loaf of bread.

Handmade sheermaal


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Results of Step 1

• Bakers will protest the bread ban – and be in the spotlight by the media. They start attaching more value to a loaf of bread, than before.

• Regular bread customers will show solidarity by buying more loaves of bread then usual at higher prices, in support. This raises the value of bread of the customer, as they are supporting a cause instead of just buying bread.

• The price of bread will go up. This will benefit bread’s competition items on the breakfast table to benefit from the bread loaf.

• Illegal sale of bread will rise, making bread even a premium product, if the ban is continued for more than three weeks. Bread could be smuggled in from nearby cities and even states, thus raising its value for stakeholders from other places too.


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• The Police – especially the corrupt - will see an increased value for a loaf of bread, as would lawyers and all associated with the legal trade.

• People will start baking bread at home. They will consume more of it, and attach a higher value to it because they did it themselves. And because the neighbors are baking bread, we will bake it too though we don’t have anything against the Mayor or are not politically active.

• More innovations in baking bread will come out, as more people start baking.

• Bread will be the premium dish at parties, between friends, family and lovers, increasing its value.

Results of Step 1


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• Citizen’s forums will arise against the bread ban, making people assemble under one umbrella, regardless of caste, class, religion and politics. This will foster better community relations in a city which sees engineered communal clashes once in a while.

Results of Step 1


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The Mayor revokes the bread ban.

Reason stated: The Mayor understands and respects the people’s intimacy with even such a thing as bread, so that the choice of the people might prevail. The mayor promises to give official support to a loaf bread, along with doing more for sheermaal. He promises to build bread-only restaurants to celebrate the people’s affinity for bread, and make it as a tourist place the whole of the city, and even those from other states, can celebrate.

Step 2


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• The opposition party in the Assembly will claim this as their victory. The Mayor will claim this as his party’s openness to stand corrected, unlike the opposition. The opposition can use loaves of bread in their future election campaigns to remind people that they can vote for change; the Mayor’s party can use the bread in his election campaigns to remind people that they have a government that listens to them. Both parties benefit with a loaf of bread.

• The stocks of listed Indian baking houses rise. All those dealing in stocks and shares appreciate the value of a bread loaf.

• The media celebrates the story again, after it had died out. Same procedure repeats with all stakeholders, who are reminded of the value of bread.

• People buy more bread, celebrating their victory. It starts to become staple diet in most houses.

• Illegal bread bakers and smugglers are identified, and action can be taken by the police.

Results of Step 2


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The Mayor builds a bread themed restaurant in the city, called the Bread House, in memory of the people’s love for bread – with not many opposing it. This will be promoted as a tourist destination, bringing in money to the city. The bureaucrats, contractors, architects and everyone else on the building project benefits (and the shops they visit with their spending power), because of a loaf of bread.The whole building will be in the shape of a bread loaf. The walls could have the texture of bread. The tables and chairs could be shaped like slices of bread. The plates also would have the same shape. Each table will have a real loaf of bread used as a decorative tissue paper holder (with the tissue papers stuck inside the bread), in the middle of the table. The coasters could be made of hard slices of bread from a real loaf. Loaves of bread can be carved to be a cutlery stand, table lamp and even a phone stand at the table. All the decorative items raise the value of the loaf of bread it is created from, and also the viewer’s general perception of any loaf of bread, understanding that bread also has non edible uses.

Step 3


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• At the moment in Hyderabad, India, there is no restaurant offering slices of bread to go with the curries or starters – it is always variations of pita bread like naan, rotis, chappati, kulcha, kubboos, etc.

• The Bread House will not serve any pita bread varieties, but only freshly baked bread – varieties of it, priced differently (all loaves of bread served in this restaurant will have a higher value attached to them, than received anywhere else. The value will be perceived by the eater, mainly, and also by the restaurant owner who could charge higher for premium varieties of bread.).

• Celebrities and political heads could be invited to have bread here, raising the value of a loaf of bread at the Bread House. People could also be invited to have bread with these important people, thus raising the value of the loaf of bread they are having. Bread bitten by movie stars can be auctioned, as a charity event.

• This concept will be borrowed by other restaurants in time, even in other states, raising the value of a loaf of bread even in those places.

Results of Step 3


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• The restaurant should have the bakery smell – get the live bakery to function periodically. If that is not practical, they can import the bakery perfume, or develop a bread perfume locally, as an attar (a strong handmade perfume, found in Hyderabad also). This attar, if locally made, can be further branded and marketed – the buyer will further appreciate the value of any loaf of bread he will have at any special occasion with this attar sprayed. The local attar-maker’s family whose work got branded will also increase his appreciation that a loaf of bread made in his life.

• This branded bread attar would be marketed to supermarkets and stores which stock bread. This would create value for the store owner and the buyer, as normal food stores don’t have any aroma. This would also make the buyer want to buy a loaf of bread – creating more value for the baker, storeowner and even the buyer.

• Eggs and curry powders can be given away with bread loaves, to increase cyclic consumption, and value.

Results of Step 3


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• The supermarket & stores could also have a large poster where bread customers can post their reviews. It will raise the value of a loaf with the person who posts, and the people who read it in making better bread choices.

• Bread-on-call: The restaurant should also be able to home deliver fresh baked bread. They could offer special rates at night, when people normally don’t have bread. This could in turn promote bread as a dinner product.

• The Bread House would also promote ways of storing bread for long. They could do this as part of their corporate social responsibility, which every company is expected to do in India. This creates more value for every loaf of bread.

Results of Step 3

http://www.wikihow.com/Store-Bread


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The Mayor can also build an art center next to it, called Bread Art, if the Bread House is a success. This will also be a tourist attraction.

As decorative items, hard loaves of bread could be made as book holders, paint tube-and-brush-holders and even, dice, which are strategically placed. Toasted bread art can be exhibited, and taught here. A gift range based on bread can be started from here, as could designer wear based on bread.

The Mayor can also commission a music video to be made on bread, something with funny dance moves involving bread, like Psy’s Gangam Style. Effort should be made to make this video go viral, with the help of internet publicity agents. The value of a loaf of bread increases for all those involved in the commissioning of the project, producing, airing, and consuming it, via the internet on the comp, phones and TV.

Step 4


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The government could partner with the online charity The Bread Art Project, to create a local variety of it. It can be promoted through kiosks with computers– people get to make their own digital art on virtual slices of bread and post in the social media, and each completed work gets a charity donation, by donating a dollar to the underprivileged. The Mayor could start a Hyderabad chapter of it, or tart another independently on the same model.The visitor gets to play with a virtual loaf of bread, increasing the value he held bread in earlier; the charity gets more activity to show on their board, thus getting more funds from contributors they run on; more underprivileged get loaves of bread.

Results of Step 4

http://www.breadartproject.com/



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The Bread Art I created, and thus made a charity contribute, on http://www.breadartproject.com/




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1. Breaking bread – the Christian symbol of the body of Jesus Christ is partook by the congregation, to remember that though we are many, we are one body. This act can be extended to non-Christian gatherings, especially corporate and family parties, where the bread is broken (not cut) to symbolize that all those who are gathered are part of the same family, though they are different.

2. Feeding the hungry – no one understands the value of a loaf of bread, like someone who is hungry.

Other Ways of Creating Value for a Bread Loaf


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What the internet Has on Creating Value for a Bread LoafPresented as research done (not counting the many edible uses of it)


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Thank You!

How to increase the value of a loaf of bread edited

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