Don’t wonder. Ask.

Man is a social animal. Woman, more so.

Life today is no longer a simple sequence of events – more often unknown and unexpected, as it used to be. The modern day ‘metrozen’ leads a life that is planned down to the last second. There are plans made, plans executed, and plans re-planned. Not being prepared for an eventuality is no longer a luxury that can be afforded. It is not just about what one is doing, but also about what the others are, and the desperate attempt to make the best of all worlds. This translates into a task that involves a fair amount of meticulous planning and preparation, which is carried out based on facts that are obtained from ‘reliable’ sources. Aunty next door knows where to get the best veggies, the watchman downstairs will tell you where to take those clothes you want ironed, and chottu upstairs may not be sure about his geography lessons, but will certainly be well informed about what movie to watch – and where. Most of it is second nature to you – you know precisely who to ask what. Indians have, since time immemorial, been brought up on a culture of advice and guidance. There is always someone to turn to when you have a question – a living, breathing someone, who you know has the answer to your question.

Being used to such a mode of modus-operandi, it is not surprising that this wealth of information which resides in the neural nooks and crannies of the social fabric has not been readily available to the seeker. This mega-mass of information is something that seems to have a life of its own. It does not reside anywhere but in the minds of its possessors, and it does not reveal itself, unless you corner it. It is to the task of making this information readily available – as readily as leaning over and tapping your friend over the shoulder to ask a question, that we at Asklaila have committed ourselves to. We ask ourselves the questions you would ask yourself. That way, we are ready with answers, whatever be your question.

Having put together this elusive goodie bag for you, our next task is to make the bag readily available – whenever you need it! After all, what good is a hammer if you don’t have it when the iron is hot and ready to be struck! (Unless you are the violent sort of person that is – in which case you are bound to come up with many more creative uses for the hammer, which we shall not delve into here, for reasons obvious). The utility value of an object – be it anything right from a tangible physical object to a piece of information, is multiplied hundredfold when it is made available at the precise moment of its requirement. Have you not often looked at that nice LCD television on sale, and wished you’d seen that ad in the paper when you were frantically searching for it, instead of now, when you’ve spent all your hard earned money on another model, and you’re accompanying your friend who is triumphantly picking up the piece, grinning at you every five minutes, rubbing it in at every occasion possible?!

Coming back to the point – what we’d like, is for you to get you what you need, when you need it. This has been the primary impetus behind our attempts at ensuring that you can reach us anytime, anywhere. There are multiple access channels that you can reach out to us on – Web, SMS and WAP. Another milestone in our journey has been the team-up with Airtel, to power their local city search experience. Airtel subscribers can now access City search on WAP, SMS, USSD and DTH TV, completely free of cost!. This partnership is no mean event, as it extends the reach of our services to over 70 million Airtel customers! We are proud of this association with the premier mobile services provider of the country – the vision of making available, at zero cost, all information the satisfied customer may require – clear in the minds of both partners. Setting ourselves apart from the traditional breed of “information dealers”, we have instead, chosen to ride the wave of technology – leveraging the best technical solutions available today to bring to you an unmatched consumer experience. As always, the more you familiarize yourself with Laila, the better and brighter are the ideas that you will come up with, in order to help us serve you better. Write to us with any suggestions or queries that you may have, and we will be happy to get back to you.

We are in the business of answers. Ask away!

One comment

  1. Well, I am from Delhi (originally) and now in USA. “We are in the business of answers. Ask away!”….It just reminded me of my time in Delhi…

    If you ask anyone a question, people always tell you that this shop is here or there (even if it is not right)…
    I think it is important to answer RIGHT so as to instill a feeling of confidence in anyone who asks you and convert these people into
    advocates.

    I see that you have listed a lot of restaurants in Delhi NCR region, but hardly any comments by users. I am a big Yelp user (a site in usa), and I have given them a lot of suggestions. What are you doing to have more user generated contents and harness the power of social networking to drive traffic to AskLaila?

    I went through the comments by some of the featured users, and I wondered if there was a way so that I could slice their comments and see only reviews on restaurants rather than seeing comments on museums etc.

    Do you also think that people will have time to read articles? If I am hungry or I want something, I want a quick overview of finding out which is a great restaurant near by in my price range..and then read comments of the users. I think the space that you use to display articles can be put in another category of articles or something, and at present compressed business review can be given more space along with advertisements. In fact you can
    have these articles as well forum for user generated contents. But unless users advocate AskLaila.com, it is least likely that you will have more contents.

    I also think that (2 comments, 3 ratings) is confusing…and a user also has to see how many stars…

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