"Which place you belong to?"
I am sure one is confronted to this question atleast once a week. Now, in this present scenario where one is moving so much, what is the "correct" answer to the above question?
Whats the answer to this - the place where one was born and brought up, or place where one did his/her schooling from, or place where one's parental grandparents stay, or city of the current address, or the base location of the job, or the place where one "basically" belongs to, which can be easily concluded (with certain degree of confidence) from one's surname!
And more importantly why are people so interested in knowing that in the first place?! How does it matter to which place I "belong" to. Well, if one is interested in knowing my current residential address, so that one can hope to get a free stay when next time one visits the city, then ask the right question :D
I have never been able to understand this which-place-you-belong-to stuff...
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Airbus v/s Boeing
At the outset, I would like to clarify that I am not playing a aircraft manufacturing critic or something. This is just a rudimentary attempt to compare the two aircraft manufacturers based on my traveling in the recent years across various airlines, both in domestic and internationally. Also, if you feel that some of the stuff written here is FACTUALLY incorrect as on Feb 19, 2009, then please free to comment about the same.
In India, all but 2 airlines operate with Airbus aircrafts. The popular model is Airbus A320. On the other hand, Jet Airways (including JetLite) and SpiceJet are Boeing loyalists having a fleet of Boeing 777. I have always encountered Boeing 747 when flying Air-India, Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines.
And without an iota of doubt I feel that Boeing aircrafts are better than Airbus. Firstly, the leg room is much better in Boeing. Secondly, the noise level, while flying, is considerably lower in the former. Thirdly, the landing is smoother in Boeing, somehow. Ya, landing, to some degree, depends on the expertise of the pilot but there is a remarkable difference in the jerk felt. So, I am quite convinced that Boeing has a better landing mechanism or something. Also, while take off, Airbus aircrafts shake a lot which add to irritating noise of 1000 things shaking.
But suprisingly, in the recent past Airbus has beaten Boeing in number of orders bagged. This is largely due to A380, which has been under the scanner for long now. Maybe the 787 Dreamliner series is able to reverse the trend.
In India, all but 2 airlines operate with Airbus aircrafts. The popular model is Airbus A320. On the other hand, Jet Airways (including JetLite) and SpiceJet are Boeing loyalists having a fleet of Boeing 777. I have always encountered Boeing 747 when flying Air-India, Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines.
And without an iota of doubt I feel that Boeing aircrafts are better than Airbus. Firstly, the leg room is much better in Boeing. Secondly, the noise level, while flying, is considerably lower in the former. Thirdly, the landing is smoother in Boeing, somehow. Ya, landing, to some degree, depends on the expertise of the pilot but there is a remarkable difference in the jerk felt. So, I am quite convinced that Boeing has a better landing mechanism or something. Also, while take off, Airbus aircrafts shake a lot which add to irritating noise of 1000 things shaking.
But suprisingly, in the recent past Airbus has beaten Boeing in number of orders bagged. This is largely due to A380, which has been under the scanner for long now. Maybe the 787 Dreamliner series is able to reverse the trend.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Why this rule??!!
In a B-School, many competitions are floated - some by other B-Schools and some by corporates. As with any competition, there are some rules and guidelines which are laid down by the organisers. The participants are told about expectations, team size, deadlines, deliverables and prize money.
But one thing which just beats my imagination is this rule - "All team members must be from the same B-School." This is understandable for companies which generally float competitions in select campuses (from where they generally recruit) and making intra-campus team will increase work load for them. Also, they generally follow a format of campus winner and then a National winner.
But why this rule in a B-School fest??? I find no logic in having such a limitation. When a competition is open for MBA students of n number of colleges, there is no reason why there should be such a restriction. I am quite there are very limited competitions which allow only one entry per B-School and there it makes sense, but otherwise, this rule has no relevance.
Or maybe I am missing something!
But one thing which just beats my imagination is this rule - "All team members must be from the same B-School." This is understandable for companies which generally float competitions in select campuses (from where they generally recruit) and making intra-campus team will increase work load for them. Also, they generally follow a format of campus winner and then a National winner.
But why this rule in a B-School fest??? I find no logic in having such a limitation. When a competition is open for MBA students of n number of colleges, there is no reason why there should be such a restriction. I am quite there are very limited competitions which allow only one entry per B-School and there it makes sense, but otherwise, this rule has no relevance.
Or maybe I am missing something!
Monday, February 16, 2009
MTNL Woes
Our landline phone in Mumbai is a MTNL connection. But it was in the name of the company for which my father works. Owing to some issues, we had to transfer the phone in our name. This requires just submitting an application and *supposedly* the needful should have been done in 1-2 days with no hassles. But some organisations never fail to disappoint us.
Firstly, from next day, our phone just went dead. After complaining for the same and waiting patiently for 3 days and receiving no response, the issue was escalated to GM, MTNL of the region. Its our best guess that after his intervention, our complaint was finally attended to, but after a time lag of 2 days. We do receive a call from the exchange who have 'fixed' our phone. But when we called on a mobile to check if the number is working fine, we got shock of our lives. They had interchanged our phone number with some other number! And on top of that, we kept receiving calls from the exchange asking if the phone was fixed or not. We told them everytime that the phone is fine but the number has changed. One kind person finally noted our original number and got back to us in an hour or so.
He dropped the second bomb now. He informed that according to MTNL, our original number is dicontinuted (for which we have given an application) and yes, another line has been wrongly fixed for us. We explained him that its just a transfer of ownership and no application for disconnecting has been submitted. After following it up, the confusion was resolved, we finally got our phone up and running with the correct phone number :)
But, agony was not over. Morons had withdrawn the STD/ISD facility for no good reason. Again, the issue was brought to MTNL's notice and thankfully the kind lady fixed the same in like 30 minutes! Good speed, I must say.
Last icing on the cake was still left. MTNL had disabled CLIP (Caller Identification) facility now. For this, a separate had to be initiated with the exchange to get it activated. It has been more than 10 days now, this small complaint still needs to be resolved.
I fail why MTNL complicated the whole operation. It was just a transfer of ownership of the phone, something which, in my opinion, needed documentation level changes. But it turned to be a long-drawm process for no reason.
I sincerely hope that MTNL strives to improve their working style in the times to come.
Firstly, from next day, our phone just went dead. After complaining for the same and waiting patiently for 3 days and receiving no response, the issue was escalated to GM, MTNL of the region. Its our best guess that after his intervention, our complaint was finally attended to, but after a time lag of 2 days. We do receive a call from the exchange who have 'fixed' our phone. But when we called on a mobile to check if the number is working fine, we got shock of our lives. They had interchanged our phone number with some other number! And on top of that, we kept receiving calls from the exchange asking if the phone was fixed or not. We told them everytime that the phone is fine but the number has changed. One kind person finally noted our original number and got back to us in an hour or so.
He dropped the second bomb now. He informed that according to MTNL, our original number is dicontinuted (for which we have given an application) and yes, another line has been wrongly fixed for us. We explained him that its just a transfer of ownership and no application for disconnecting has been submitted. After following it up, the confusion was resolved, we finally got our phone up and running with the correct phone number :)
But, agony was not over. Morons had withdrawn the STD/ISD facility for no good reason. Again, the issue was brought to MTNL's notice and thankfully the kind lady fixed the same in like 30 minutes! Good speed, I must say.
Last icing on the cake was still left. MTNL had disabled CLIP (Caller Identification) facility now. For this, a separate had to be initiated with the exchange to get it activated. It has been more than 10 days now, this small complaint still needs to be resolved.
I fail why MTNL complicated the whole operation. It was just a transfer of ownership of the phone, something which, in my opinion, needed documentation level changes. But it turned to be a long-drawm process for no reason.
I sincerely hope that MTNL strives to improve their working style in the times to come.
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