One reason the JLF 2011 event might have been important was because it was followed in a little over a month by the disaster that occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, after an earthquake-tsunami, on March 11, 2011.
What was generally not known was that the Seven-Eleven convenience stores in Japan, run by a company called York Seven, established in 1973, had opened its first 24-hour store in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, sometime in 1974. Around 1978, it changed its name to Seven-Eleven Japan; by 1979, it was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Around 1987, when the London-based PR firm was being set up, Seven-Eleven partnered with Tokyo Electric Power Company to enable electricity bill payment in its 1,600 stores. Why electricity bill at convenience stores? The answer may have been provided by Delhi: from 2014 onwards, Antara's neighbourhood had a guy in his 50s, collecting electricity bills and cash from households, then riding his bicycle to the electricity supply office to pay those bills. It had infuriated certain US Democrats, the President sorts. Physical bills and payment fell out of favour and online payment became the norm, that would be around 2015-16.
Thus, the supply of electricity and the payment of its bills had been connected to the lease, both in Japan and London, by 1987.
By April 2005, the Seven-Eleven authorities had established a holding company called 'Seven & I' holdings, because there was an "imbalance in the parent-child relationship" within Seven-Eleven. (Just asking, did the London-based PR firm check with Agit whether he was uncomfortable with Antara?)
By September 1, 2005, the holding company (Seven & I) had been established as well. By that time, Antara was at ACJ Chennai, her birthday that month. For her birthday, she ate a paltry meal at a restaurant, in the company of only two of her classmates, one from Kerala and the other from Assam, Antara "couldn't afford" buying meals for anymore of them.
So that was the legit lease in India as per the London-based PR firm, DC supporters from Kerala and the Bengali families of Guwahati?
Did the London-based PR firm check with the rest of India how they felt about the above situation? Or was one immigrant to the US now speaking on behalf of 1.5 billion people of India?
In such a case, Antara would appear unwanted, out-of-place and aggressive at JLF 2011, since it had far more people working with her than Kerala and Assam.
March 28, 2025.
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