1. How to Increase the Value of a Loaf of Bread
Suggestion from Hyderabad, India
A Hyderabadi Suggestion to Increase the
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Value of Bread

2. 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.
A Hyderabadi Suggestion to Increase the
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Value of Bread

3. 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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Value of Bread

4. “Out with the Muslim Mayor who Bans Bread!”
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Value of Bread

5. 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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Value of Bread

6. 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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Value of Bread

7. Results of Step 1
• 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.
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Value of Bread

8. Results of Step 1
• 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.
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Value of Bread

9. Step 2
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.
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Value of Bread

10. Results of Step 2
• 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.
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Value of Bread

11. Step 3
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.
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Value of Bread

12. Results of Step 3
• 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.
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Value of Bread

13. Results of Step 3
• 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.
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Value of Bread

14. Results of Step 3
• 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.
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Value of Bread

15. Step 4
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.
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Value of Bread

16. Results of Step 4
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.
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Value of Bread

17. The Bread Art I created,
and thus made a charity
contribute, on
http://www.breadartproj
ect.com/
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Value of Bread

18. Other Ways of Creating Value for a Bread Loaf
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.
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Value of Bread

19. What the internet Has on Creating Value for a Bread Loaf
Presented as research done (not counting the many edible uses of it)
A Hyderabadi Suggestion to Increase the
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Value of Bread

20. Thank You!
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Value of Bread