Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Proud member of 'True-Blue' team !!
Patronizing none other than my "true-Blue" team..Yes..none other than Chelsea FC.
Now am proud to be a e-member of the team !!! If you are excited, do visit www.chelseafc.com
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Crudity to the crux - Mumbai terror drama !!
How many chances should a nation get to get this rehearsed to take care during the future incidences?? We cant stop terrorist incidences but we can get ourselves equipped. We wouldn't have lost 2 chief police and ATS chief who led the assault against terrorist first with basic armors!! It was pity to see the callous politicians doing the blame game and gain poll mileage than be united to fight against terrorism and united with the citizens!!
Why should police personnel risk their lives and politicians and bureaucrats holed up at safe bungalows?
I share my serious condolences to police and ATS chief who lost their bravely for our lives and pray for god to support their families!!
Its my sincere view that these so called "white ghosts" must be shot at, for being trivial to our country well being. Lets declare emergency and youngsters rule !!
Lets give our heart to our brave men !!
Lets see a change!! This is our country!! This is India !!
I am united for it !! I game for a change !!!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Its the turn of cuties again...Madagascar 2 !!
Cuties on the run!! Now in Africa!! Thats the crux. Thats what you will enjoy in this sequel. Those who had a chance to watch the first part might be aware of the pranks the big boys played in NY and sub. The story starts from Africa.. and ....
I do not want to reveal the cute story. Do not miss to watch it when the sequel releases in India...Till then enjoy the game of big boys !!!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Law & not-so-order next gen !
Dil Chahta Hai speaks of it !! Main Hoon Na portrays it !! College blues was filmed on it !!
Hey people...our own "Thala" Ajith latest starrer "Aegan: speaks of it.. What am i speaking about? What's our matter of contention is not the films alone. the theme behind of these films is not blockbusters!! Please spare me..Am not a critic..Let me not digress then..Am trying to talk of the crux in all of them. Yes!! That's "friendship"
Tell me people one thing!! Does these films are released to rake moolahs by producers and earn hefty paychecks by actors..Doesn't they give out something for the society. After watching Dil chahta hai 11 times to be exact, i learnt the "true" value of friendship who were close!!!
Does audience who watch enjoy them for 3 hours at the theater seats munching popcorn and sipping colas is for entertainment? If you ask parents of last generation on movies, their immediate answer would be that children gets poisoned by movies. If that's the case, then why friendship not taken seriously?
“If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself” - Hesse
The reason for saying is why the hell students had to show so much hatred towards their fellow mates in college. The scene created at the Law college in chennai is a "Black day" in humanity!! Does elections and argument over girl love turn them so bad? I seriously wonder if the education impart them? If you ask psychologist, they argue the history subjects speak of atrocities by various rulers like Hitler, Napoleon, Aurangzeb etc. Hence the result. Not to mention Power rangers, TMNT etc.
It is heart-struck to see such a barbaric act by students. That too students of law upon whom the nation trusts that they are next gen CJI who would maintain law&order in the country. I doubt if that can happen! Another turn to events is the political tinge. I don't know from where these people come in. May for vote banks.
I was shocked to see the senior policeman speaking casually over mobile while the acts of hatred was going in the background even though the public persuades!! It was a decorated event with police vans parked outside for a cup of coffee
Seeing these events, I feel we are no where near to say that we are liberated. Democracy explained in an explicit way to the world stage.
"Hail the future Law & not-so-orderly future genex" sadly :((( !!!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Chrome - a new browser chromosome!!
Living upto expectations is not easy!!
Many do it in style sometimes!! But some do it many times!!
One firm who always live up to this phrase is undoubtedly Google!! Its not easy to be on top who is thriving on ad revenues alone!! That too make profits YoY!! Also tantalizing the NASDAQ with "not of a kind" IPO in the history of US market!!
One of their latest offering is the new web browser called as "Google Chrome"!! Its damn good!! Its a saying from a horse's mouth like an ardent fan of Firefox..Yes thats me!!
To me 90% akin to Firefox on OSD application !!The website speaks of so many tech jargons which is like grammar to a LKG kid!! It seems to contain stuff!! We will know only when we start exploring the browser!!
I had a chance to download and use it!! It seems fine. This blog is penned in chrome.
Lets see how it goes out to users down there!!!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Chelsea Blues does 'Firestarter' !!
It rains..It shines..Sometimes quakes..I was not talking of Mother earth!! I am referring to the Blues opening match against spineless Portsmouth in the Barclays premier league. It was "raining goals" by my "sweet blues"!! Who expected that the defenders would have to settle for a draw with New castle? But the back-to-back champs with a new crazy team and leader had a vision. They are determined to cheer the true fans like me throughout this season. After a long time I could see natual smile in Abramovich since the times of mourinho.
What I could cry for is to win league and champions this year. Also continue the home record for another season!! Its instant victory for Scolari!!
All the Best !!!!
Friday, July 18, 2008
WOT?
But I have a solution...rather..there is a solution. There is a firm calling them as "Web Of Trust"(WOT). Yes..They are truly trusted firm..They have a wonderful add-on for firefox fans like me. If you are not gifted as such and still use IE,no sweat! You can still add them and make surfing somewhat secure!!
Once installed the WOT color code appears on the sites wherever you go. Based on that you would be rest assured that the site is genuine or malware!!
Isn't it worthwhile to blog? U Decide!!
Monday, July 7, 2008
What an Idea!!!
Nowadays how many people are racing against time and people to be in queue to get tkt to fdfs? Creativity takes a backseat in movies in the way that the competitive products had to have upper hand over others. Sometimes ads do make things itchy!! Most of them show great zealous and ingenuity.
For example, Master piece ads like FEVICOL is most famous for its famous line "yeh fevicol ki jode tootegaa nahi". Depicting in different forms of unbroken egg, full loaded bus is the most creative. I wondered how the creative writer would have thought of depicting this which is so much "real life adaptable".
Other one I like is the HAPPYDENT WHITE. What on earth would anybody think in the way that chewer of the gum would radiate light cos of shiny teeth and give lighting to a palace? Hats off!!
The more educational product which is not so sleazy in TV was MOODS..The latest ones. What they are trying to depict is the positive way of using the product which otherwise takes all the disgrace of clandestinity. Its very much applicable in today's world and no need to change the channel!!
Also the ad on VIP was splendid in displaying the problem of "adjustment" in public places and the embarrassment eventually. This was so neatly devised.
On top of all this, I loved this new series of ads on IDEA CELLULAR. The initial series of calling people by numbers to forego casts. Then the wonderfully crafted dialogue between guide and a dumb female. Wow. It was so heart touching!! With the kinda music at the background, one would like to cry out emotions!! Then the latest on schooling in villages by conducting classes through mobiles!! Though seems simple but very effective!!
If given a chance, I would definitely love to do a short ad myself!! Am sure somebody would help to unearth the creativity of humans!! Or is it me?
Friday, July 4, 2008
Part of world record!!
Iam happy and proud to be part of the world record set by Mozilla Firefox for the software getting downloaded by most number of users in 24 hours. I was always a fan of firefox since it was free-launched and this effort was no instigation for me to participate.
You are most welcome to spread the fire and "Firefox"..That too for good cause!!
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Expectation!!! Is it fair?
Does this exist in office place too? Is it the same feeling one experiences in school or college? I see it the same way in whichever situation one may be. I find it difficult to understand this feeling with males and females in office env. I am not sure how others feel. May be they didn't had a chance to voice out.
I had 'not-so-good' exp with one of my colleagues. I have the behavior of not moving so well with all people so easily. But when I find people to be of my kind, I go with them closer and treat them like self. For these long years of my age I always won friends and not heard of them saying that I got "irritated"! Though the words come from heart (at least for me in some situations), I couldn't take it lightly. I am sentimental when it comes to friends. I don't wanna lose the ones I like. Is it right to be possessive of them? I say yes!!
Now back to the issue with this colleague. I do understand others feelings and accommodate them. Bitterness comes when they don't understand my way of dealing with them. The "cold war" started and we did not spoke to each other. I was frustrated. The crux was that this colleague did not able to answer to the question I asked. This happened when this colleague was on way to home. The colleague gave a different answer saying the colleague is struck in traffic. I asked for answer to my first question. This caused the temper to rise. But silence remained.
Does silence portray to me that the colleague is angry or upset? Or the behavior in asking the second question when stuck in traffic is wrong? Hmm. To me I tried to be informal being considered as a best friend. Hence I expected a reply saying I am tired or stuck in traffic or I will reply later. But none happened. Only silence. I do accept my mistake that I tried to "over expect". If any one of the reply had come, everything would have been in place. I am not trying to blame the colleague but trying to put across my justification. Is this right behavior to be silent? Or I was over expecting behavior on others?
I was confused in behaving with this colleague. I am getting worried whether to expect more or be formal by creating boundary! But one thing to mention that the colleague is a very good type and able to use brain a lot(like me..of course). The colleague is of my kind and hard to lose.
I tried ways to break the ice and spoke. One thing is true from my experience is that being friend with a male is completely different and less challenging than with a female.
Lets see how this colleague reacts.!!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Indiana Jones in new avatar !!
The movie was set in a tome which is trademark of Spielberg. Who would do screenplay and directions of 50's set in 2008 better than him? This guy has a real talent and is true to be in the bigger league of directors..
I don't remember at what age I saw the last version of the film. Either the story I could recollect. But this ver was real example of tech and history meeting ends.
The story goes this way..Ford was a professor Mr. Jones but the real name was Professor. Henry. He was captured KGB(No wonder russians were at cold war with US in 50s) psychiatric doctor villain played by Kate blanchett. I don't put my money on the role of blanchett playing negative role. But she did justice to it. positive roles is the best for her. They captured jones and wanted to know the secret of the corpse inside box which was stored for years in a military godown. I had my laugh when it was shown that the 'crystal skull' had huge 'magnetic powers'. What int he hell would make a crystal skull to have such powers? ..Hollywood is the place where creativity in nonsense rules More than the reality in acceptance. But we still watch them for the urge to know how well they go 'out of the ordinary'.
Ok..coming back to movie,they wanted ford to lead them to the place of 'city of gold'. Is it a reality that "ELDORADO' exists? It doesn't matter to me whether its there or not but I liked the disney ver of "Road to eldorado". To my view ANIMATION STILL RULES!! As usual ford escapes and runs. Then how would the movie lasts 1hr and 45 mts? He meets his son (which he doesn't know) in the run. they team up and stumble on the idea of legend of city of gold. they unravel the riddle with ease (ford is a hero man!!)..He utters some dialogues saying "God can only read from top as they are above all of us!!! (I can recollect the translated ver of it from Indian Tamil superstar Rajnikanth) they travel to peru and again meet the villain. He meets his pal who had become nut and meets his wife!! (what a scenario). They all go to the city of gold to return the skull..The logic being whoever returns the skull will attain all the powers. Hence all wanted to have it. Great racing scenes, fighting in age old jeeps with modern weapons(whats happening) Tribes arrive and they escape..One thing i found baffled is flesh eating ants move away from so called 'magnetic skull' but eat the villains!!
The most interesting is the climax which really amazed me!! I think Spielberg got spoiled by Night J who gives surprises in the end..
Iam not going to give away the climax..Its left to stakeholders to watch the "legend in technology" movie and 'understand it'!!
Ferrari 1-2..Rules magny cours!!
Great qualifying by both ferrari stalwarts!! Kimi was especially too good but Felipe was not left out either!!! Scarlets rules magny cours for years together!! Schumacher was the king winning it in 3 continuous occasions. Other team to win at this circuit was Williams and Renault!!
The race day was no different at circuit which is play ground for scarlet. Kimi and felipe started in style!! 2 horses were galloping without any trouble till 35 laps. Mclaren fans had heart attack and scarlets were relishing when drive through penalty was imposed on lewis for missing a kerb. To my view it was little harsh but rules are rules right!!
Kimi fans( including me who is die hard) had troublesome moments when his horse was slowing with exhaust pipe loosened risking the engine itself.Engineers could not do anything during 2nd pits. As destiny has it, kimi was able to get great lead time and could afford to gallop slowly with felipe racing ahead to numero uno.
Felipe raced to his 8th podium and kimi could able to finish 2nd. The good thing is that lewis couldn't able to get any points and robert had less points to him. Lastly, trulli for toyota had a dream race to hold robert and heiki for a well fought 3rd place which was really great driving for the veteran who is driving the slow car and holding much faster car behind.
It was a great race for Scarlets and happy moments for "anything would do for scuderia" fans like me!!!
Friday, June 20, 2008
Deutscher into last 4 !!!
They were favorites at the start of the innings..Started in style against Poland..But mistakes happened against the match with croatia.. Mistakes happen in life and people go heavenly when they learn from mistakes..Germans did the same and came back with 1-0 against Austria.
Last 8 match with portugal was the best one. It was high voltage match and was in fast forward mode with 3 goals for germany and 1 for portugal in first half. It was oscillating one and portugese came back again. It was anxious and heart stopping moments for german fans. But they held ports till 90th minute.
Now into last 4 and have to compete with best team, its a real challenge and live up to betting odds.
It will be celebrations on german soil and for me in India if they go into finals!!!
Praying and Hoping to see deutscher in the FINALS!!
Monday, June 16, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
Good Customer Service made simple
Good customer service is all about bringing customers back. And about sending them away happy – happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others, who may then try the product or service you offer for themselves and in their turn become repeat customers.
If you’re a good salesperson, you can sell anything to anyone once. But it will be your approach to customer service that determines whether or not you’ll ever be able to sell that person anything else. The essence of good customer service is forming a relationship with customers – a relationship that that individual customer feels that he would like to pursue.
How do you go about forming such a relationship? By remembering the one true secret of good customer service and acting accordingly; “You will be judged by what you do, not what you say.”
I know this verges on the kind of statement that’s often seen on a sampler, but providing good customer service is a simple thing. If you truly want to have good customer service, all you have to do is ensure that your business consistently does these things:
Earlier to my current assignment, I was a Branch Manager at a leading Private Life Insurer in
I would like to highlight one of the best experience I had with an unhappy customer. This customer was aged and had a problem in his auto-debit facility. He was getting transferred to different parts of
I roped in and took charge of the customer from the executive. I made him comfortable in a separate room and offered him water as it was shining outside. I already analyzed the problem before meeting him and not asked him on his problem. I was listening to him and not uttered a word when he was talking. I made him comfortable by introducing myself and assured him first that I will be able to give him a solution. I asked him that the problem requires some more time and asked for it. Few days later I called him, updated the status of the problem and made him understand we are here working on the problem. That made him feel happy as this was out of the bound. On the day before the promised date, we called him though he was out of station and updated the necessary solution.
He was extremely happy for the servicing provided by us and had become a repeat customer. Even this day whenever I had a chance to meet him outside office he speaks friendly and inquires on health. As you see the customer who was unhappy earlier can be made a more loyal customer. There are some basic etiquettes which a customer might or might not expect from us. But doing them pro-actively can win customers. The important thing to note here are
Ø Understanding the customer problem
Ø Make him feel comfortable
Ø Assure him that we are here to service him.
Ø Buy comfortable time and make promise.
Ø Update status in spite of within delivery time or not.
Ø Deliver as promised.
1) Answer your phone.
Get call forwarding. Or an answering service. Hire staff if you need to. But make sure that someone is picking up the phone when someone calls your business. (Notice I say “someone”. People who call want to talk to a live person, not a “fake recorded robot”.)
2) Don’t make promises unless you WILL keep them.
Not plan to keep them. Will keep them. Reliability is one of the keys to any good relationship, and good customer service is no exception. If you say, “Your new bedroom furniture will be delivered on Tuesday”, make sure it is delivered on Tuesday. Otherwise, don’t say it. The same rule applies to client appointments, deadlines, etc.. Think before you give any promise – because nothing annoys customers more than a broken one.
3) Listen to your customers.
Is there anything more exasperating than telling someone what you want or what your problem is and then discovering that that person hasn’t been paying attention and needs to have it explained again? From a customer’s point of view, I doubt it. Can the sales pitches and the product babble. Let your customer talk and show him that you are listening by making the appropriate responses, such as suggesting how to solve the problem.
4) Deal with complaints.
No one likes hearing complaints, and many of us have developed a reflex shrug, saying, “You can’t please all the people all the time”. Maybe not, but if you give the complaint your attention, you may be able to please this one person this one time - and position your business to reap the benefits of good customer service.
5) Be helpful - even if there’s no immediate profit in it.
The other day I popped into a local watch shop because I had lost the small piece that clips the pieces of my watch band together. When I explained the problem, the proprietor said that he thought he might have one lying around. He found it, attached it to my watch band – and charged me nothing! Where do you think I’ll go when I need a new watch band or even a new watch?
6) Train your staff (if you have any) to be ALWAYS helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable.
Do it yourself or hire someone to train them. Talk to them about good customer service and what it is (and isn’t) regularly. Most importantly, give every member of your staff enough information and power to make those small customer-pleasing decisions, so he never has to say, “I don’t know, but so-and-so will be back at...”
7) Take the extra step.
For instance, if someone walks into your store and asks you to help them find something, don’t just say, “It’s in Aisle 3.” Lead the customer to the item. Better yet, wait and see if he has questions about it, or further needs. Whatever the extra step may be, if you want to provide good customer service, take it. They may not say so to you, but people notice when people make an extra effort and will tell other people.
8) Throw in something extra.
Whether it’s a coupon for a future discount, additional information on how to use the product, or a genuine smile, people love to get more than they thought they were getting. And don’t think that a gesture has to be large to be effective. The local art framer that we use attaches a package of picture hangers to every picture he frames. A small thing, but so appreciated.
And the best part? The irony of good customer service is that over time it will bring in more new customers than promotions and price slashing ever did!
Remember always “CUSTOMER IS KING”
Imagination vs Knowledge
Complexity is the walk of life. The world greets us with numerous problems which are obvious but solutions are always hidden. More humorous is the fact that solution to this question is irony. The other well-known “which came first-hen or egg” simple question is difficult to crack. More tiring than to crack “Da-Vinci code”. Why are we dealing with this now? Our argument of Imagination is important than knowledge or not is more intelligent to argue. I have the privilege to argue on it.
People have dreams. Some dreams come true. Not necessarily the “early morning” dream of becoming a billionaire. Long before anyone would have dreamt of flying, one person was exemplary. He was old but optimistic. He was aged but agile. He was musician, artist, physicist, architect, painter etc. He had the knowledge. But more importantly, he was imaginative in creating things. He was an harbinger and never ever people believed in him. Wondering whom am I talking of? He is none other than Learnado Da Vinci. Much before Wright brothers built the first aero flight, Learnado Da Vinci had a master plan using his imagination than knowledge. Do remember that there was no doctorate or PhD or modern simulation techniques or technology available during his time to aid him in designing. Imagination had precedence.
At present times, imagination is not as obvious as was in medieval times. The people uses technology as vital as breathing air. The life does not exceed the boundary of obvious circle of creative imagination which may be reality. Every coin has two sides. Needless to say, we are also good imagination put to good use. Take the example of fashion industry. World over the designers have their imaginary bird fly high than knowledge. Shirts and trousers we wear and dresses they design are the by-product of grinding work of designers' imagination and fascination of color-mix than knowledge of manufacture. Take the success story of APPLE IPOD. For years people used cassettes with walk man and then CD were used in CD man. But the trend was to store more data in a compact and reusable format. Apple had the imagination and could come out-of-the-box to design something which is more a PRODUCT than the BRAND. Now a player that plays mp3 is called as Ipod than an mp3 player. Thats an exemplary virtue of imagination. The same also applied to XEROX.
Are we trying to prove a point that imagination scores higher than knowledge?. May be yes and no! There are ways to gather knowledge step by step by way of education. One may have numerous degrees behind his name but they are trivial if not put to use in designing things by imagination. Finally, KNOWLEDGE can be attributed as an engine which is invaluable unless fitted into a vehicle called IMAGINATION. Is IMAGINATION is important than KNOWLEDGE? Now the choice is yours to choose which is obvious!
What takes priority?
Treat the other man's faith gently; it is all he has to believe with. His mind was created for his own thoughts, not yours or mine. – HENRY
I had a dream. You have a dream and everyone has one. Is it that dream can take you to what you want to achieve? Most say YES!! Some say affirmative NO!! I’m one of the “some”. The very simple reason to the defense is that supportive action must be there to achieve dream. To do that supportive action, one must have the eagerness to do. Above this, one must have the knowledge on thing to act upon. Mere knowledge would not suffice to do action. Necessary skill is required to acquire the knowledge. Knowledge is bottomless. To reach the desired milestone, with skill and knowledge, attitude is foremost importance. If you think that I’m going to stress on Attitude, then you are terribly wrong.
Let me walk through a couple of examples on what this article is going to talk about.
Charles Blondin, his real name was Jean-Francois Gravelet was sent to
The important person in the Bible was Moses who exhibited the subject matter as well as others who reposed the same. Moses was born in
As one can see there was something more fundamental bonding on the action of Colcord on Charles Blondin and by God on Moses. Many people saw Blondin walk across the gorge below Niagara Falls on a tightrope, and believed that he was capable of carrying a man on his back safely across. But only his manager Harry Colcord had enough faith to allow himself to be carried.
By now you must have got to know what I was trying to emphasize. Yes. That’s Faith!! The word seems short but the meaning is magnanimous.
The desire for things dominates the application of faith. Many of those actively applying faith to specific pathways seek less tangible things, such as love, peace, harmony, or even eternal life. Faith is an individual path. Just because it worked for one person, doesn't mean it will work for another. Faith has to be realistic. One cannot have hard faith to fly in air one day by himself. Faith sometimes make ingenuity seems illiteracy. Numerous news has been heard of scientists having faced many failures before reaping the fruit of success. The success recipe is pure faith and confidence in them.
According to the Bible, "faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see".
As we knew in real life positives always have negatives as appreciations have criticisms. One may also see blind faith. This is too dangerous. I would not like to go on this part as the subtle scene as of now goes misty. A certain number of religious rationalists, as well as non-religious people, criticize implicit faith as being irrational, and see faith as ignorance of reality: a strong belief in something with no evidence. The issue is more than theoretical. Defenders of faith say that belief in scientific evidence is itself based on faith — in positivism; yet they do not themselves defy reason by walking off cliffs out of faith in divine intervention. When one has constructive belief and faith and does his act to the full, no result would be undone.
Another interesting term in sync with faith is trust. It’s up to you and everyone to experiment on situations where they apply and derive benefits. One can be said for sure is that success comes at any stage. If one has commitment, confidence and faith to do, success is rest assured. Ask anyone. They will heed to it. Before sign-off, have faith in life!!