Infinite thoughts

For once, I do not agree with this decision by Maharashtra State Government. As per the decision, multiplexes cannot stop viewers from carrying their own food inside the multiplexes and consume it there. This was in a response to PIL filed with the Court and comments by the Court. There are some fundamental flaws with the PIL and this decision. First of all, the multiplexes are neither charity nor state-run operations. These are legitimate businesses run by businessmen to earn the profit.  These multiplexes are given the food licenses, which allow them to store and sell food items. If the product doesn't have MRP mentioned, the business owner can decide to sell it at whatever price she deems fit. No one should be dictating it.  These multiplexes are for entertainment purpose and do not come under the purview of Essential Commodities Act. Why should the government control the prices of items and services sold by these establishments? If someone has a problem with th...

I have been using Uber for quite some time now to commute from home to office and office to home. Initially I used to alternate between Uber and Ola, but after a while I realised that the service that OLA drivers give is way below than what Uber drivers give. At times I had doubts if same drivers alternate between these two aggregators. But that is a different topic to think. Today morning when I boarded the cab, I sensed that I give same instruction to every cab driver - Please push the seat towards front. The driver would then ask me which route to take and I always specify a specific route. Then at a certain point, I'll ask the driver to start the A/C. This is typically at the University circle where there is traffic jam. On way back, I choose a specific point to board the cab, and instantly ask to turn on the A/C. All these things could easily be personalised. Either a customer herself can put these instructions in the App, which could be displayed to the driver when trip ...

Over past few years, eating out has become very common. With the rising number of restaurants all around, Meghana and I keep on trying different places from time to time. And we are seeing some common problem across the restaurants. Lack of good service is the most recurring problem. Recently we visited Melange by Four Seasons  and had a not so good experience. The person looking after our table, was completely lax and lacking basic hospitality skills. When there's a buffet, customer asks for soup and starters, it is a common sense to serve soup first followed by starters. But no. We were served the starters first and then soup. The starters had higher quantities of salt and other spices as compared to the soup, which made the soup taste absolutely bland. As usual Meghana called up the manager. The manager and the waiter were perplexed - both of them had no clue why we were upset. After much deliberation amongst themselves, finally manager approached. We explained the proble...

Being in the services industry for over a decade and then into consumer focused business for last few years, I have learnt how difficult it is to satisfy the customers on many occasions. Services Industry Software services, as it emerged as a major growth sector, the competition also grew exponentially. The software companies started mushrooming everywhere and each one trying to get a piece of same pie - i.e. US market. It also changed over a period of time and people started focusing on EU and Asian markets as well. But the bottom line remained the same - competition. The Outsourcing companies initially had tough time in outsourcing for several reasons (unproven capabilities, lack of confidence as well as lesser number of options to outsource). As the services companies grew and as it became evident that outsourcing is the way to move forward, all these companies also started hunting for better deals - essentially it started with fishing for lower prices instead of demanding qua...

Last few days I have been hearing the radio ads by Jay-Vijay motors on various radio channels in Pune.  First one is for persuading the Volkswagen owners to get their vehicles to Jay-Vijay motors for servicing. The punch line is that "you" get your vehicle to their service center in the heart of the city and do not rely on some unknown person to do pickup and delivery. Unknown driver may cause damage to your Volkswagen car.  The second one is for availing attractive discount on the Volkswagen cars between 21-Jun and 23-Jun (yeah, for three days and it looks like the ad started running today morning itself).  Jay-Vijay motors is located near Managla Theater and the service station is very much at the same place.  AFAIK, Jay-Vijay motors has only one competitor in Pune area and that is B.U.Bhandari, whose showroom is located on Pashan road near Abhimanshri Society and the service station is near Wakad on Pune-Bangalore Highway. So every Volk...

It was time to meet one of Meghana's classmate - Deven - while we were in Bengaluru. We decided to meet at CCD in Jayanagar. The store was easy to find and nicely located on a first floor at a junction. When we entered the store was almost full except for 2-3 tables. We occupied one that was comfortable enough for three and close to the main door so that Deven could locate us very easily. Within few minutes Deven reached and we got involved in conversations varying from Meghana's school to Deven's profession (Merchant Navy) and shopping in Bengaluru and many others. In due course, we ordered some coffee and snacks for ourselves. While enjoying those snacks, something very weird happened. Suddenly two kids - one boy and a girl - entered the store. No, they were not customers. Each of them started approaching every table and started begging. Being very close to the main door, we were the first ones to be approached. The boy was not so persistent and at a wave of a hand ...