Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Height of copy-paste

Though I am not really a big fan of our National Daily The Times of India, but the least I expect from this plagiarism!

But this time, they have exceeded my expectations and have done exactly that.

Article in TOI, Mumbai, Dec 21, 2010 - http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM%2F2010%2F12%2F21&PageLabel=25&EntityId=Ar02502&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T

Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachin_Tendulkar#Early_years_and_personal_life

And yes, Wiki had it up first as I had almost by-hearted the Sachin Tendulkar page :)

P.S. - Both links were last accessed on Dec 22,2010 at the time of writing this.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Luck By Chance!

Last night, I happen to meet a very old neighbour of ours with whom last meeting was more than 5 years ago. Since then, we sadly lost touch and yesterday's meeting rekindled that bond once more. More than anything else, it was pure luck which made us meet and that too on the road...quite literally. I was just coming back from a nearby HDFC ATM (which I never visit though) and didi (our old neighbour) jus got off a car on the road. I was surprised to see her and took some time to confirm if she was the same person! Finally, I was sure that she is same person and she was equally surprised and happy to see me. She came home and it was great to be in touch again.

But, why do I say that this was a pure lucky meeting...thats the best part. As I mentioned, there is no reason for me to go that HDFC ATM ever. But on Friday, my boss was supposed to collect someone's salary cheque (a person posted in Hyderabad) and hand over to someone, who would have in turn deposited it HDFC account of that Hyderabad guy. Now, unluckily this 'someone' was absent on Friday due to eye flu and since I was sitting there, my boss told me to do the needful and hence, I ended up being at the ATM at that time.

As for our neighbour, she was on the way for a client dinner with her boss in his car. But one of her friends who was in town for some work missed her flight to Bangalore (thanks to traffic!) and called up to tell didi that she will be coming to her house to stay over. This made didi abandon her dinner plan and decided to get off then and there as her house was in the opposite direction as compared where was headed!

And so, we met! I dont really remember such a lucky coincidence happening before :)

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Dynamic Pricing in Cinema Halls

In the digital era, everyone wants to beat the ‘queue’ and hence, online ticketing is such a hit in the country – be it Airlines, shows, IPL matches, trains or movies. But as the case is, not all programs are planned in advance and hence, most often than not, we see people rushing in at airports or railway stations at the last minute to buy a ticket. But this is more true for a movie ticket as such plans are spontaneous! Alas, not always there is time to book a ticket online in such a scenario. So, people rush to the cinema hall to catch THE movie but thanks to traffic (especially in cities) and Murphy’s Law, people are late. The ticket price is the same (average Rs. 150 in a decent multiplex) and sometimes people prefer to spend time in the mall or a coffee shop. What the cinema hall has not realized that it has lost a great opportunity!

Assuming an average movie length of 135 minutes, no one minds missing first 5 minutes and will be ready to shell out the complete price for the movie. But generally, after 5-10 minutes, people are not interested in going in for the movie even if decent seats are available. At the same time, if the cinema halls drops the price to say a 100 (on base of 150), I feel they can make a decent sale!

I feel there is some catch here which I am not able to figure out and hence I have not seen this approach being taken in the country. Or maybe, if it is happening then I have not encountered it till now.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Passport blues

After a horrific experience in Calcutta Passport office, I found out the procedure to apply for a passport in the Mumbai office. Apparently, it is compulsory to take an appointment in Mumbai passport office, so had to go through the same. Got an appointment for 12 noon for a date which was 10 days away (earliest available) and was advised to reach 15 minutes earlier. Once I reached there, I was astonished to see the number of people who were waiting before me. Basically, what they had done is that ‘appointment time’ enables one to be a part of the line which runs upto the required counter. Well, I got in the line but seeing the rush, I was pretty sure of not reaching the counter before 4 in the evening.

Finally, after standing in the line for 4 long hours (after seeing a 45 minute lunch break), my turn finally came. The lady started checking my documents and told me that I am short of one address proof!!! I was shell shocked as I had checked and rechecked the requirements given on the website. I told her that it is as per the website, but this fell on deaf ears and told me to come back the next day with the complete documents. I requested her to at least check my other documents and tell me if everything else is in order, which was indeed the case. But, I had to come back the next day as my one more request to consider my application did not move her!

I was also told that there is no need to take a new appointment and my old application stands valid for 10 days albeit, I need to go another counter if I am not coming on my appointment date. When I went after 2 days, I was instructed to go a general line which looked after cases of coming on non-appointed days. Here again, the wait was an arduous task as I reached at 10 when the office opened and turn came at 3:30 in the afternoon. The lady asked something in regional language which I did not understand and requested her to either talk in English or Hindi. At this, she got furious that why don’t you learn Marathi and random stuff like that. Now, why is that a problem!!! Well, I controlled my anger and told her that I will soon learn the language :P Next, she told that since my passport is damaged (which was smudged due to water), so I won’t be issued a 60 page booklet (I asked for the same instead of 36 page one) as that is a rule! I was little surprised but since it was a ‘rule’ there was nothing I could do. She cleared my application and was sent to cash counter. Here, the cashier asked for a fee of Rs. 2,500 whereas the fee is Rs. 1,000 for a 36 page booklet and Rs. 1,500 booklet! When I opposed the same, I was told that mine is ‘damaged passport re-issue’ case and hence the fee. I told her that it is a ‘expiry re-issue’ case! After some investigation, it was discovered that the first counter lady and had done a blunder in reading my application…how irresponsible are these people. Again, I had to go to the main counter and some corrections were made. Now, a new thing came up. Since she had written that my passport was damaged, now I needed an affidavit for the same from a police station which essentially meant that I need to come back again. Now, I lost my temper and told her that no-way this is gonna happen and I want to meet their senior. I went to the passport officer and had to give a small application and finally my 60 page booklet application was submitted. The whole thing took around an hour. What a criminal wastage of time I thought!

The next step is police verification in which the individual needs to go the area police station once their application reaches there. This usually takes 3 weeks but my application reached after more than a month, followed which police came for enquiry after 2 weeks at my place! I was told to visit the police station where the verification offer was working in the slowest possible speed. Since, he had to harass me, so he came up with this weird excuse that ‘road name’ was missing from my application and hence same would be rejected. I told him that there is no need to get into all this nonsense now…so in return he asked me for a ‘gift’. When I asked what specifically was needed by him, he kept quite! Well, in the meanwhile my documents were checked and I was told to meet his senior also (part of procedure). The next evening I went to meet his senior which was not a problem at all but once we came out he again asked for his ‘gift’ and again the talks went into negotiation mode. He threatened me that he is rejecting my application but then I after some more discussions, my application was finally approved!

Even after that it took more than 6 weeks (normally 2 weeks) for my new passport to come my place.

I recently read this article and was not surprised by it. When such lazy and greedy people are involved in the passport issue system, numbers are bound to come down (Verbatim from the article - in fact, last year saw a reduction in the absolute number of new passports issued). Luckily, I was not working when I had to renew my passport but for working people, it means loss of 2 full working days for standing in the line! How sad and pathetic situation is that….

Sunday, July 25, 2010

India Today!

Ya, I am talking about the magazine but at the same time, it reflects the state of our country’s attitude too.

I subscribed to the magazine using the online portal and was informed that subscription will start from 5th July onwards. When the magazine did not reach us even by 8th, I called up the helpline and asked the issue. They had no answer apart from ‘getting back to me.” Next week again, no magazine arrived at my place and this time my mother called the helpline, but got the same answer! The situation remained same till 20th, I decided to cancel the subscription and called the ‘help’line for the same.

I asked the executive on how to cancel the subscription and out of their process, he asked the issue, apologized and similar stuff. When I persisted for the refund, his reply was “Sir, you have called only once, why the cancellation??” This reply of his really angered me and gave him a piece of my mind. What do they expect, that I should keep calling them!!!

Well, the e-mail for cancellation is already underway and now the same request of non-cancellation keeps coming over the mail. I have not changed my stand on the issue and now waiting for my money to be refunded.

Such careless and insensitive attitude is really disgusting and that too from a group of stature of India Today…

Thursday, July 22, 2010

LIC Roxxx

When all payments are moving towards the online mode, it was little surprised to know that Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) had started an option to pay premium over the net. At the same time, I had my apprehensions of it working to perfection. Nevertheless, I decided to create an account and go through the portal.

It’s a pretty neat work, I must say. The menu so created is crisp and clear and the instructions are prominently displayed on the site. Policies taken in my name were added without any issues here. Then, I tried to create an account for my father too. There is a provision for creating profile for spouse and kids too in an account. So, I was trying to add some policies taken in the name of my mother but the system was continuously throwing an error and was not able to add it.

I called up the helpline and they told me to mail the issue. I sent out the mail and was pleasantly surprised to receive a reply within an hour and that too, on a Saturday! I was able to issue after this after exploiting a loophole in the programming logic :D

Overall, nice work by LIC!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

‘Welcome’ by Vodafone

I took a Vodafone corporate connection as I moved to Mumbai for my job. After all the verification was done, my number was activated in a day or so. In all the while, I did receive calls from them informing me about the billing cycle, call rates, helpline numbers etc.

But after a week or so after the activation, I received a SMS from them which read like this “Kindly call on XXXXXXXX (a landline number) and fix up a appointment so that we can welcome you to Vodafone.” Now, this was unheard of (atleast for me!) but on second thoughts, Vodafone did care for the time and privacy of its user.

Nevertheless, I did try the number to fix up an appointment but alas, was not able to get through even after trying multiple times. I thought, maybe there are too many people who wanted to be ‘welcomed’! ;)

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Amazing Grace!!!

In the last few months, my travel by auto rickshaw has drastically reduced as I drive myself now. But today morning, as the car was needed at home, I had to restore to the good old auto for reaching the office. I got one which was standing on the road in front of my building only but the driver was busy in buying ‘dhaap’(coconut water) from a road side vendor. I asked him if he is ready to go and he told me to sit. He continued to be busy in buying the coconuts and it was good 5 minutes before we started our journey as he buying in bulk and it took time to search, cut (partially) and pack them.

When we were just 2 kms away from my destination, he took a turn to the gas station for filling CNG. I protested a bit as it takes quite some time to fill the same. Moreover, there are perpetual queues at these places. Since, he had already taken the turn, I moved out of the auto and waited outside the pump (as this is the rule! – is it????)

Upon reaching the office, according to the meter reading, I calculated and told him that its Rs. 78. He was fine with it but told me that I should pay him 70 bucks only. I was taken aback a bit and asked the reason. He told me that since he made me wait initially and at the gas station (which was NOT counting in the waiting time as initially journey had not started it and he stopped the meter while at the gas station), so he was charging less as these activities wasted my time. I told him that it is fine and he should take the full fare only. But he was adamant to take less…this was something I had never faced before! So I finally told him that take atleast Rs. 75, to which he agreed and left.

In the end, I was moved by his thoughtfulness and this incident again showcased that still there are many people who are considerate in the world!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

The Irony continues...

As mentioned here, the same was the case in the final placements too. This post is not to criticize anyone or any industry/ organisation but just to let people know that life is not rosy as it seems to be!

During the final placements, few of the I-Banks also came for recruitment. But, the shortlisting criteria was a little confusing to see. If one had a bank internship, a shortlist was more or less assured. But on the other hand, a ranker (read top 5) who was not an intern in a bank (though a PPO holder from a leading FMCG) could not make it to any of the ahortlists.

According to me, its quite unfair as again the performance during the MBA is counting at all! It is not that grabbing a bank intern is an easy task but to large extent, it depends on one's pre-MBA track record...

"Strange" is the only word that comes to my mind after witnessing all this!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Traveling on the Burning Train

After shifting base to Mumbai for over a decade, I never got a chance to travel to Pune though I had an opportunity to use the Mumbai-Pune expressway for my 2 trips to Lonavla and Khandala. But when recently, I had to stay in Pune for 2 weeks for my job, I got to see the city.

Since it was a 2 week stay, I decided to come back to Mumbai over the weekend to my home. Pune Mumbai travel was done using Indrayani Express but for the return journey, I booked on the very well known Deccan Queen Express from CST. It is indeed fast train skipping some important station like Dadar with clean coaches and courteous staff. Everything was on track and we were cruising on time. Just a kilometer or so, our train stopped. Since it was an abrupt stop or something, I thought maybe its a routine signal stop. I was engrossed in the music and did not sense anything wrong but a lot of people were moving in and out of the compartment.

After 15 minutes or so, when the train did not move, I got a little curious and asked my co-passenger if there is any issue. I was shell-shocked by his answer. He told me that the ENGINE WAS ON FIRE!

Knowing that this is an unheard incident, I decided to get down and walk to the engine to see it. The thick smoke coming out from the engine had engulfed the complete area. It was more than 20 minutes already and no fire-tender was in site. Some of the pictures of the same are here.
After an hour or so, the first fire tender arrived but the fire was just too much to handle. In the next hour or so, 6 more fire tenders came in and doused the fire. After that, a new engine came to our rescue and we started our journey back on. The only saving grace was that lights and the AC was working in the compartment.

A total of three and a half hours were wasted. Add to that the delay of other trains on the same line and cancellation of local trains which run on Kalyan-Karjat line. This incident clearly highlighted the pathetic emergency handling skills of the railways. This fire did get some space in the press!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

7 Cs of Life@IIM-C

Following my post on Ps of MBA, here is my post on the Cs of MBA life and especially true for IIM Calcutta!

1. Crashers - These are basically sessions for information dissemination about anything and everything. They are generally conducted by placement team for giving out requisite information, or by Student Council for knowledge ramp up for the incoming batch, or by the seniors for juniors for the summer placements regarding CV making, subject knowledge, interview prep et al and finally by the subject experts before the exams so that whole batch is able to scrap through the upcoming rough waters..!!!

2. Competitions - For people who want to showcase their talent in any field, there is no dearth for platform to do so. All the major B-Schools in the country have their cultural and business festivals annually, which is a huge opportunity to participate in various facets in functional events like marketing, HR, finance etc and also in talent events like dance and music etc. Adding to that, there are sports meet which happen with XL, IIM-B and IIFT-Kolkata, so sport enthusiasts also have opportunities to showcase their competencies.

3. Curriculum - The backbone of any B-School! Curriculum in the first year is pretty much fixed but a lot of options are available in the second year to choose from. Also, the first year subjects keep undergoing changes according to the new knowledge generated in the outside world.

4. Case studies form an integral part of pedagogy. Though, it is not 100% case-based in C, most of the subjects cover a decent number of cases for practical understanding. On a personal note, more than anything else, these case studies add to one's general knowledge a lot! If one fails to analyse the case, the key take-away can be the GK enhancement. Also, case studies are used as a tool during examination times by some of the faculty. Exams sometimes just consist of the case and questions are related to them. Also, case can be distributed a night before or during the exam.

5. Campus life is possible because of the residential nature of the program. The sense of time table is clearly broken when staying in a campus. With deadlines sometimes being 3 in the morning to 7 am, the sleep cycle goes for a toss. Also, staying in the campus 24*7 makes it possible to have things running throughout the day and night too! One never feels lonely once inside, as always there is atleast other person who is awake at any time of the day.

6. Culture of any B-School is imbibed in every soul who has been a part of the institute. It may be the inter-hostel competitions or the intra-hostel ones to exam taking strategies or treating a sister institute ;) or dealing with a particular prof! But my personal take away has been never-say-die attitude of so many people around which made me believe nothing is really impossible.

7. CV - No discussion about MBA is complete without mentioning about placements. And, nothing holds more value than one's CV, as this is the first impression a company receives about an individual. Trust me, sometimes it is not easy to pen down your life of about 23-25 years in one page highlighting the peaks of one's journey on this planet. But, the effort put on CV is a major determinant for the things to follow...

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Height of Copy-Paste

I received a mail some minutes ago from i-mint, to which I was forced to enroll as a ICICI Bank Credit Card Holder. This was because ICICI bank transferred all the reward points earned directly to them, although after doubling them :P

Well, on reading the mail, I could not help but laugh at the carelessness of the person who was responsible for sending it! Please see it for yourself and enjoy :)

Friday, May 21, 2010

HSBC = HaraSsment Banking Corporation

Though I was pretty impressed by HSBC, the way it treats its customers, but events in the past few months have left a bad taste in my mouth and hence I have canceled my credit card with the bank!

The issue started way back in Sept/ Oct 2009 when I received my credit card statement and had to pay up by Oct 3. I dropped in the cheque by 28/ 29 Sept in one of the ATMs. Also, I dropped a cheque for credit card of another bank on the same day. The cheque of the latter got cleared on Oct 4 but strangely HSBC did not encash the cheque. I received a call from HSBC on Oct 4 informing me about the same. I told them that cheque is already dropped and they should receive the money anytime now. Nevertheless, the cheque got cleared the next day and everything was fine (atleast I thought so...)

The drama was awaiting me in the next month's statement. I was slapped late payment charges and finance charges and some interest charges on the amount, which were coming out to be a total over some 6000 INR. I immediately called up the helpline and told them the issue that the delay was from their side and I had dropped the cheque on time. But the executive told me that he was helpless in reversing the charges. I demanded to speak to the manager who was RUDE to say the least. I told them to cancel my card with immediate effect and told them clearly that I will pay whatever I have used my card for and no way I was going to pay for the inefficiency of the bank!

After this, I stopped receiving any communication from the bank and more importantly, I was not receiving any e-statements. As I was away from home, e-statement were only way to communicate with me.

In Feb 2010, I started getting calls from the bank informing me that there is an outstanding on my card. On repeated inquiry, I gathered that the fine so levied in Oct statement were going into the non-payment mode and further interest, finance and non-payment fines were getting levied. I made it very clear to person over the phone that no way I am responsible for it and I am not going to make the payment. These phone calls were coming on a daily basis and daily same conversation was taking place. Since, I was not budging from my stand, I was advised to mail the bank on info@hsbc.co.in to deal with my issue.

I first mailed them in March giving the background and detailing about everything. Also, I demanded soft copies of the statements for the past 4-5 months and to my amazement I discovered that the bank had started levying charges for Reward Points Redemption! I had no problem in paying them but I was not informed about it. Well, as always HSBC was not ready to reverse a single penny but the correspondence continued and as a 'service gesture' they reversed non-payment fine for 3 months. My mails sent henceforth were getting replied in standard manner which pissed me off to the maximum and I was forced to write a strong mail which is below.

**************************************************

I sincerely hope that my mail is read completely, thoroughly and is
first understood by HSBC. It seems that that no attention is being
paid to finer nuances here and hence again and again I am receiving
standard replies which are of no use.

I paid payment for Oct 2009 for what I had the used card for. It had
late payment charges and finance charges for prior month which are the
root cause of this dispute as I had dropped cheque on time, but bank
was late in encashing it! HSBC took a stance as if I dont know how to
make a payment and all and blatantly did not entertain any request
even though the fault is not mine. I DID NOT make the payment for late
charges and finance charges and hence the difference. If bank can do
simple additions, then one can easily conclude that I paid payment for
what I HAD USED MY CARD FOR, correct to the last paise.

Also, from where are these bonus redemption fee being levied!!!!! I
WAS NEVER INFORMED ABOUT SUCH A DEVELOPMENT. How do you expect me to
pay it! AND I REPEAT, I WAS NEVER EVER EVER INFORMED ABOUT THESE
CHARGES. I have redeemed bonus points many times in the past and I am
hearing this for the first time. Also, it seems that this charge was
levied in Dec 2009 statement which seems to have failed to reach me.
It would be great if a soft copy is sent (though I am supposed to
receive soft copy every month which I am not from time immemorial).

Kindly do not harp on reversal of some charges on the pretext of
'service gesture'. After doing a dis-service, then harassing the
customer and reversing a part of the amount is no good. Dont repeat
what I know. I have thanked for it already and will do it again now.
THANKS! But this is not solving the problem.

I am repeating myself here - Every paise for which my card was USED
has been paid back to the bank. All these outstanding amount is a
result of YOUR INEFFICIENCY beginning Sept/ Oct 2009. I am no way
going to pay these finance charges and whatever fancy names you want
to give them.

Please feel free to write to me if further clarifications are needed.

********************

After this mail, I was told to wait for 5 days and finally HSBC did reverse the whole amount :) After this, I also made the payment for Reward Point Redemption as end of the day it was a legitimate charge!

All said and done...HSBC has lost a customer!!!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

4 Ps of MBA

Anyone who is remotely interested in MBA must have heard about 4Ps of marketing and no MBA discussion is complete with this Philip Kotler framework. But here I will list the 4Ps of MBA itself. And anyone who has gone this course will (hopefully!) agree to these ones.

1. Presentations – Power point presentations become the order of the day for an MBA student. Everyone seems to use it at the drop of hat. Most of the books have their chapters in ppt format now, all (almost all) professors use them for teaching, companies use them big time for luring students to join their organisation, some subject require us to make ppts for a particular class and some profs are just too smart when they ask everyone to make it and pick up anyone randomly to present his/her presentation! At the end of the day, we become just too ‘good’ in making presentations and attending them. In the first few weeks of MBA, making a presentation eats up like few hours but by the end of it, it does not take more than 15 minutes ;) with number of slides not being a criteria. And ya, even the quality improves. At the end of 2 years, making a presentation is a piece of cake but cannot say the same for the attending part :P Just another thing here – subjects like statistics and courses in finance which are supposed to be ‘quant’ oriented also taught through this medium.

2. Projects and Peer group – Now, there should be a reason also to make a presentation...right?! Projects are those reasons in a B-School. All courses have their own evaluation criteria and more often than not, projects are a part of it, supplementing exams (mid-term or end-term or both) or case write-ups etc. Very rarely, projects are done individually and hence we work in groups of size of typically 3 to sometimes 10 also! When we work in a group, that is when the diversity part of a batch kicks in and we are able to appreciate each other’s viewpoint and experience. When working in a group, I personally realised my own strengths and weaknesses. The infinite brain storming sessions, conflict management times, crisis handling etc are all learnt in a project. From deciding on a topic to contents to be covered to work allocation to its final closure – each is a mission in itself. Working in different groups allows one to interact with some amazing individuals who are pretty sharp, peaked in whatever they have undertaken and yet so humble. I believe, it is true to say that learning is there in the classroom, no doubt about that but in a B-School peer group takes the learning to another level all-together. Adding to this, working on projects also enhances the learning. Over the course of 2 years, everyone does at least 20 projects on various functions of marketing or finance or strategy. This contributes to the knowledge gained beyond books, as it is said.

3. Placements – Let’s face it, 99.99% students come to a B-School for placements. So it is not surprising that placements, rather the allied activities, do take up a lot of time. It all starts when we enter the B-School as summer placements are the first BIG thing to happen on campus. CV making is the first step towards placements. I never realised that writing about me in an A4 sheet would turn out to be such a difficult task. Mentoring from seniors, help from our batchmates and sometimes alums from companies really helps one to create THE CV, albeit after typically 20 to 25 iterations. Coupled with that there are company presentations to attend, ‘gyaan’ sessions on sectors for internships, preparation sessions, mock interviews and what not. Of course, the placement process days are an experience in themselves. It is a test of confidence, resilience and one’s toughness (mental, physical, and psychological). The same process happens for the finals and the laterals (people with prior work experience) although it is comparatively less stressful and less grilling. This is due to the fact that some people get PPOs (pre-placement offers) or some don’t take participate for higher studies or entrepreneurship or going back to original organisations. The excitement and thrill witnessed during those days is just phenomenal and is really an experience of a lifetime.

4. Perpetual fight between I-bankers and consults – This is something which really left me amused in the complete stay in IIM Calcutta. Investment banking and consulting firms really vouch for talent in the B-School and the way it is done is really hilarious. The references made to other professions in a presentation or the way ‘take-aways’ are pitched vis-a-vis competing industries is a treat to watch.

Well, there are many facets of life in a B-School which would be covered in my next post – 7Cs of MBA!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Cleartrip knows how to delight customers

Few days back, Cleartrip sent me a mail asking to fill a survey for them on booking international tickets. Since, I have used the site for domestic airline tickets booking and did consult the same for the US Trip too. So, I could contribute to it. Also, I was supposed to receive a Rs. 500 cash voucher after completing the survey.

I completed the survey and was promised that voucher will be sent within few days. I did receive the cash voucher on e-mail but they gave a Rs. 1,000 voucher but valid only on international tickets. I appreciated the extra offering but replied asking for domestic ticket voucher as I dont travel international!

Within a day, I received a reply which really delighted me. I was offered an extra 500 rupee cash voucher over and above the first 1000 voucher!

Now, thats customer delight I must say :)

Monday, February 8, 2010

Frustrating experience for the passport renewal in Kolkata

It has been 10 years since I got my passport made and its validity expires on Feb 14 this year. Since I am staying in Kolkata for the past 2 years, I decided to do so in the city itself. Though, rules allow me to apply in Mumbai too (as that is my permanent address) but verification and all would have been a pain as my stay in Mumbai never exceeds a week.

When I inquired about the process and expected time for Kolkata, I discovered that I don't have enough time to go through the normal application route and it would be great if I use the tatkal scheme. Though it is 1000 bucks, I hoped that atleast I will have my new passport in no time! After getting all the formalities from my end (which were lotsa), I went to the passport office today morning.

Though the counter opens at 10 in the morning, apparently there is a token system for the tatkal ones which as the site suggested will begin from 9 am. After leaving the campus at 7 in the morning, I finally reached the passport office at around 0820. Upon reaching there, I was just flabbergasted by what I saw. There was atleast a 500 m long line already made for the submission of applications. I went to the main gate and tried to know about the tatkal token thing. I was told that I need to be a part of this line only and it will be done in some time. Well, I waited for 15 minutes or so when 2-3 people around me told me to go and check near the gate only for tatkal. Then I met a 'middleman' who was offering 'services' at a 'service charge' of Rs. 1,000/- and 'guaranteed' me the passport being processed itself. Well, he also confirmed that tatkal people need to be at the gate. I went there at around 0850 and found a policeman writing names of people who were there for the tatkal process.

I got my name written and the serial number was 80 and then came the revelation which left me astonished to say the least !!! There is some arbit rule which says that only the first 60 people are allowed for tatkal! So, at 9 am 60 people were let in and others were told to wait. At around 0940, 8 more people were lucky to let in as maybe some of the people let in initially did not have proper documents or something. At 10 when all counters are open, it was declared that no more tatkal applications will be accepted and they can leave for the day.

I investigated on how this token 'actually' works and to my horror I came to know token number starts from 7 in the evening of the previous day!!! And people spent the WHOLE NIGHT waiting outside the passport night.

How screwed up is that a system! A person ready to pay extra for a service and for something as critical as a passport has to go through such pains. As for me, I am letting my passport expire and will apply in Mumbai only once I am done with my course at IIM Calcutta.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

SPIC MACAY @ IIM Calcutta

After being associated with SPIC MACAY in NSIT, I was little sad to see that there is absence of the same in IIM-C. And I knew that it was pretty active till a few years back. Luckily, I found company in Justin, my junior from NSIT and was also an active volunteer in SPIC back then.

Both of us wanted to do it in our first year but paucity of time did not allow us to pursue. Nevertheless, we were able to arrange a small talk by none other than Dr. Kiran Seth in the campus. After this, there was lull in our enthusiasm levels too given the schedule in the campus.

But in the second year, we decided to make sure that atleast one performance is held in the campus before we leave in March 2010. We took this up with Kolkata chapter and after much persuasion and negotiations, we could bag a performance from Dr. N. Rajam.

Since it was a first performance in the campus, we needed some support and it was really heartening to see so many students volunteering in the arrangements for the performance.

The program was successfully held on Feb 4 with an amazing response from the audience in terms of turnout and participation.

Hope this continues now!

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Numbers do lie!

The motivation behind this post is recent recall by Toyota and Honda. And this comes an exact year after Toyota became No. 1 in the world in terms of sales.

This highlights the classic "Means v/s Ends" debate. Has Toyota cut corners in race to concentrate on sales and sales only? And this recall is NOT an one off event for a company which is known for Quality, an organisation which gave the concept of Q.U.A.L.I.T.Y. to the world. For the uninitiated, read here.

Such issues creep up when giving out various awards like best salesman in an organisation, World's No. 1 company in revenue etc. Are the methodologies adopted being equally scrutinized here? I am not pointing fingers against anyone in particular but since in these recent times, these awards have become so important that achieving numerical position sometimes overrides everything else these days.

Even 3 idiots had this dialogue when Boman Irani says that he has brought his college to the position of No.1. And Aamir replies, "What exactly is No.1?"

I feel the question still remains unanswered....

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Empires of the Mind

This is one of the events in Intaglio, the Annual International B-School meet of IIM Calcutta. It was an on-campus round with prelims and a final round.

Prelims round consisted of a treasure hunt followed by solving upto 12 puzzles. We were given 6 clues which pointed to 6 different locations in the campus. We had to find out those locations, note down the phrase written there and rush back to the place where it started. On submitting the phrases, we were given 12 puzzles to be solved then and there. And this whole thing had to be done in a maximum of 2 hours. We solved around 9 puzzles and thought it was decent enough.

And it was decent enough :) We were invited for the finals in which there were 5 more teams with us. The final game was even more interesting as it involved both game theory and strategic planning to the max! We were 6 mafia gangs and first had to bid for raw materials to make 3 types of weapons. All three weapons used 3 types of materials, though in different quantities and we had a limited sun of Rs. 20,000. Also the weapons so made had different attack and defense capabilities and total available raw material quantity was fixed too. We first thought of right 'weapon-mix' and then bid accordingly for the raw materials.

Our bids were good enough and we made the requisite number of weapons as planned. In the next round, teams were given option to buy more raw materials but a higher price or sell extra raw materials but a heavy discounted rate. The next round involved open negotiations between teams for trade weapons if the need be. We tried with 2 teams to negotiate but they failed. In the end, they did not hurt much :)

Next round was even more interesting in which teams could make alliance with 1 or maximum 2 teams. And then it was WAR time where teams had to attack each other. Points were given according to attack and defense capabilities of each team. Following this, teams were given extra cash and weapons at a fixed rate and we could buy as per need.

The final round was another war but this time no alliance were allowed as each team was on its own. The final score was the numerical sum of the attack and defense abilities and the final result is here.

Some prize money is on the way...!!!

Saturday, January 9, 2010

When Facebook was all colours

Jan 8, 2009 -> The chill in the air was less than the usual in Calcutta. It also marked the beginning of our festival. As always, I got up and got ready to attend the various competitions. But as an avid net user, I made a point to check my mail, notices and facebook. But something was different on facebook today! Some people had colours had their status messages and the only common chord was they were girls who had done this. I did not pay much heed to this and ignored it.

In the evening, however when I checked facebook again (after like 12 hours), this disease of putting-clour-status-message had spread like fire in the jungle and even had colors on gtalk statuses..!!

So, as curiosity would have it, I decided to find the reason of this. But I was lucky that a friend of mine put this link to tell the reason. Please read it and then you will understand how ridiculous the whole thing is! I mean the cause the fine but the way it is done is absolutely crappy. Using facebook to vent my feelings, I updated my status and result is there to see.

Some of the better ways

1. Having a dedicated online portal for this or open a discussion board in facebook.
2. Use print media like newspapers and ladies-magazines like Femina et al.
3. Prime-time serials attract the target women to the max and hence it would be best to do so.
4. With FM radios back in vogue and ladies equally interested in listening to it, I don't think we are far away from the people whom we want to reach out!

I feel that because we have internet and facebook, makes it imperative to USE them too...

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Newsmakers of 2000 - 2009

First of all, I don't buy the argument that decade has ended; it will end in 2010. I say so because there was no zeroth year, i.e., there was never a date like January 1, 0000. I am sure it started with Jan 1, 0001. So, if we count 10 years starting from the latter count, then decade starts from 2001 and ends with 2010. Well, since everyone is hailing it as an end of decade, so it be!

Here I have to tried to list of some of the highlights of the past decade and will try to break from the clutter of general stuff like Wall Street collapse or terrorism (read 9/11, Mumbai attacks et al). It is not that I don't feel that they were defining moments in the past years, but enough has been documented about them and I wont be doing justice by writing on them. So, here are my personal top-10-top-of-the-mind-recall..

1. Amitabh Bachchan - If the pre-2000 years were his worst years, then 2000 was the year of his comeback. Thanks to Kaun Banega Crorepati, it helped him to come out of difficult financial situation and also a comeback in Bollywood. He acted with some big names in Mohabbatein, Aks, Ek Rishta, Aankhen, Khakee and above all Black, which earned him a National Award for his performance.

2. Google- Though started in 1998, it gained prominence starting 2000 or 2001. The company has replaced the word 'search; from everyone's dictionary now. And the company is not known in search only; its other offerings have been instant hit and made life easy for millions across the globe. Be it GMail conversation or Google Talk simple interface or picasa to upload pics or Google Maps...you name it and its there.

3. Roger Federer - What started with a victory in Wimbledon 2003, no one thought that FedEx (as he is popularly known) will dominate Men's tennis as he did it till 2008-09. Though the grip seems to be loosening a bit now, I personally feel he will achieve a Grand Slam in a calendar year.

4. Twenty20 - How can we forget this new format of the sport of cricket?! When ODIs were introduced, people were thrilled to see the new format. But with fast paced life, even an ODI seemed to consume a lot of time and the interest in the game was diminishing. Since, need is the mother of invention, T20 was invented to bring back the interest in the sport. Involvement of players has made ODIs an high scoring affair and increased the result percentage in tests!

5. Airbus A380 - An engineering marvel! It made 850 people (all-economy) flying possible. Though marred by continuous delays and other issues surrounding it, no one can take away the sheen of the biggest bird in the sky today. Waiting to sit in it some time soon :)

6. iPhone - Only an Apple could have created such a hype for something like a cellphone which forced people to queue up outside its stores way before the stores were to be opened. The 'touch' experience was the USP and Apple made us aware that even aesthetics matter in something like a cellphone. On similar lines, I would say even Moto Razr took the world by storm when launched. Razr was the world's largest cellphone in aggregate terms for a long time, only to be beaten by iPhone.

7. E. Sreedharan - The person behind Konkan Railways and the Delhi Metro, seemingly impossible tasks given the constraints. Though Konkan Railways opened in 1998, he shot to fame after taking up the herculean task of building metro in a well-established city of Delhi. More than that, the project is running within and ahead of schedule and even surviving the pressure to complete a larger network before the Commonwealth Games 2010 in the city.

8. Telecom companies - Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance, DoCoMo, Idea and the list goes on and on. The sudden mobile explosion that took place in the country is because of presence of such companies. Though the industry is regulated, the prices are unthinkable when compared to world standards! 1p/sec or 50p/min is like half-a-dollar for a minute and that too for a STD call. No wonder, we have more mobile phones than land line phones and this helped many sections of the society as they are used not only for talking but also for information dissemination. For example, farmers get wholesale prices, fishermen receive weather updates and an investor can easily track market movements...the benefits are many :)

9. Capt.Gopinath - He wanted every Indian fly and most of them do fly now, if not everyone. The pioneer of Low-fare airlines in the country, made air travel affordable for many. It also made Indian Railways to improve it services and in the end, it is the consumers who are benefiting the most.

10. IIMs - This is a little biased, you can say. But if we really think of it, then media just gives too much attention to whatever IIMs do...be it CAT leaked in 2003 or opening of new IIM or the summer or final placements or the salary figures and above the online CAT...rather its fiasco :P I feel there are more pressing issues than salaries being offered in IIMs which require media attention.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

2009 - The year that was for me

Jan 1 - Party in OH with JBS performing

Jan 28 - Eveready Contest Finals

Till March first week - Term III

March second week - Delhi trip :)

March 13 - Came to know about being posted to Thailand for the internship

March 15 to April 5 - Chilling out in Mumbai

April 5 - Induction in Aditya Birla Group and flying to Bangkok in the night

Till May 30 - in Thailand

June till Aug - Term IV which which meant lots of projects and helping out juniors for their summer preps in the CV department

Aug 22 to Sep 7 - US Trip :) :)

Sep onwards - Term V with Durga pooja break and mock interviews for juniors and the summer placement process

Sep 30 - Oct 4 - Gangtok sight-seeing

Dec 5 to Dec 11 - Trip to Shillong et al

Dec 12-13 - In Surat for Ameya's marriage

Dec 24 - Watched a cricket match for the first time in a stadium and that too in Eden Gardens!

Dec 25 - 3 Idiots!

Dec 31 evening - Avatar 3 D

Dec 31 23:59:50 - Reached the party venue in the campus :)

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2010 :)