Infinite thoughts

A powerful thought - make your customer to stay with you by choice and not out of compulsion!! One of my fellow colleagues spelt it out so well, it covers the basic principle of maintaining/increasing your customer base. The other day I needed to buy some sweets from the franchisee of a well known sweet mart. When I placed my order, I saw that the sweets, the pedhas, were all broken. I brought this to the notice of the salesperson, who outrightly rejected to change the broken pieces. To my surprise, same was the reaction from the shop owner. I decided to leave the shop without taking anything and proceeded to another franchisee few kilometers down the road. Thankfully, the salesperson was good and gave me good pedhas and some othe stuff. Looking at this whole episode now, I realized that I was visiting the first shop out of the need of a shop closer by and not as my choice. That fellow definitely has lost one customer now. If he'd have provided me with good sweets, I would have vis...

After a long wait of 9 months, the little angel has arrived in our life. Mrunmay, that's how he would be known, made to this world on the evening of 24th of January, 2007. As you might have guessed, that is the main reason for this long gap on this blog. His arrival was marked by one of the coldest days in this winter season and hence the angel decided to keep quiet for a long time. Now that the mother Nature is turning a bit warmer, our prince has started showing the signs of activities and keeping us awake till late nights and throughout the days. Albeit, it's fun to have a baby in your life, taking all of your attention, forcing you to change all your priorities, forcing you to reconsider your schedules/tasks everything. Everything in the day is centered around this new person and all that is paid off when you see a cute smile on Mrunmay's face. Although this reward is quite rare as of now, it's worth a watch :) This blog may still see some not-so-unusual breaks, but...

Yesterday, we're watching a Marathi film - "Manini", a recent one. Not so new concept, but a well thought script, good dialogs. The lead character, the female named Shalini, has been shown from a town of Ratnagiri, a straight, simple girl who gets married to a guy staying in Dubai. He, as expected, is full of bad habits and is also involved in some other female. The story is about how Shalini gets rid of this guy and becomes independent. Shalini has been shown to be very forthcoming, truthful and honest, a person who can't lie or hide anything. I always wonder, is it really that easy to speak truth? I find it difficult many times, for the sole reason of not hurting the other person, person whom you love. Sometime back, I had read these lines from "KaThopanishad" at hotel Sheryas , wasn't remembering the exact lines, but google helped me as usual :) Both good (shreyas) and pleasant (preyas) approach the man, The wise on examining chooses the Good. Wonderi...

Finally got my new Nokia E61i last week and vodafone mobile connect yesterday. I am posting this from mobile. luckily at the same time, I came across another software - fring from Santosh's blog. This app allows you to chat/call your skype/MSN/google contacts. One can also make VOIP calls. I'm yet to explore the later part, but looking forward to it. fring - www.fring.com Santosh's blog - blog.sukshma.net

Had heard about this network for quite some time, finally today got registered with them. I am yet to explore the full strength of this networking site, but, nonetheless I am looking forward to a better experience. While talking about the social networking sites in Indian context, you can't miss Orkut . But unfortunately, it has failed to keep my interest over a period of time. I still login to Orkut check my friends' profiles, do some profile hopping but that's it. It's not keeping me hooked on to that service any more. Hoping to get some good things from this linked in service. Here is my profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mandarbehere Related links: Hatred

Doesn't seem so. Have a look at the latest report in Outlook India - Was It All Track-II ? (Registration required, else pick up Sept 20, 2007 issue of Outlook). Last year I had quoted a story from Outlook India, on Lalu, how has he turned around the future of railways, in an article - Revisiting past belief . I was very curious to know the details of how was this achieved. All of the media was zapped by the numbers thrown by Lalu's ministry. But as this report reveals, most of it is just a play with numbers than actual profit. In addition, he has succeeded in extracting more money from "Aam Aadami" in various ways. Unfortunately, no one from media seemed to have followed up on this huge success and revealed the truth, except for Outlook. This latest report details out how all these figures were tossed up to show a huge profit. Some examples: Declaring trains superfast without any reduction in the time taken Mangling with the "TatkaL scheme"...

Yet another feather in Dhoni's cap. His young wagon has won the Twenty20 world cup in a spectacular fashion. What a start for Dhoni to begin his captaincy career!! No one else would have had such a chance so far. Just like I wrote in my earlier post, this match also showed lousy body language at crucial times. When Misbah was riding the wave and pitting our bowlers to the stand, you should have watched them. Getting tensed is one thing, but displaying it so openly is not good. To some extent Dhoni was keeping his cool. He was talking to his bowlers after every bad ball and helping them to cope up with the pressure. The worst body language was coming from Jogi. His confidence had gone for a complete toss and everyone could see it from his face and his ever-fallen shoulders. But finally, it was Misbah who gave up under pressure and awarded a victory to Indians. Few good things happened in the end as well. The "cool" captain thoughtfully instructed to team to take a round a...

Yes, I am talking about yesterday's Twenty20 match between India and Australia . Given the recent history of Indian performance in one-day world cup, Indians were definitely not in the favorites for this Twenty20 world cup series. But the young wagon of India has done everything to reach the finals under the ever-improving leadership of M.S.Dhoni , the Captain of Indian Team. With the full support from the young and energetic team, MS is carving a good record on this new horizon of Cricket. Yesterday's match was not just a game of bat and ball, but it was of mind as well. The game was definitely rich in terms of Twenty20 cricket, huge sixes and sudden wickets, but it was also full at the mental level. Kangaroos are known for their professionalism and their "jigar" to pull the match even in last few balls. At the same time, Indian are known for loosing the battle even when it appears like a easy win. But yesterday was different. After not-so-good start by the openers...

Finally some positive action is coming from state home minister - Mr. R.R. Patil. Handshake with Sanjay Dutt proves costly for constables Policemen bear the brunt for Sanjay Dutt handshake Can we expect something more of this sort?

With the news of Sanjay Dutt getting bail again , common man is definitely surprised. Just few days back, court of law had re-instated the faith in law by a clear decision that Sanjay Dutt is guilty and should serve the sentence. And now, on some grounds he has been granted bail and is out of jail now. Given the complexity of the judicial system, I would not comment on that. But what I am really worried about the comments and reaction coming out from the bollywood fraternity. Since the time, TADA court started announcing the results of the trial, there was an increased number of appearances of Sanjay Dutt on the media at various occurrences. Be it a show - Coffee with Karan or be it his visit to temple . As if there is some conspiracy going on against him and he needs to be supported by his fraternity. There was increased number of his interviews flashing across the channels, increased number of his movies being showed on various channels. Media and Bollywood started crying about the...

Seems to be a season of additional taxes. Everyone is talking about some additional tax. PMC is considering adding vehicle tax to reduce the number of vehicles coming on road everyday. On the similar lines even the state government is thinking of adding congestion tax Mumbai residents. Every individual is already paying up a huge amount of tax for each and every thing that he/she uses/purchases. Here is a list that directly affects a salaried person: Income tax - largest portion on the salary goes under this head Sales Tax - on every legal purchase, you pay this tax Service Tax - Many of the services are under this head. VAT - This was supposed to reduce the tax we're paying. However, what I have observed is I have started paying VAT even on the food items purchased in restaurents, which was not there earlier. Education cess - Many of the tax categories are levied with this cess. One time road tax - when you purchase any vehicle, you pay a lumpsum amount. Road Toll - At various pla...

Started with a new blog - adsameeksha . Many of the advertisements, commercials catch my eyes and wanted to share with you all the things that I observe in those ads. It could be a good thing or something that I don't like. Since I felt there are too many such ads about which I would like to write about, decided to start a new blog itself. Hope you all like it. Cheers!!

During my recent vacation, I happen to have my first experience with the telescope and I must say it was astonishing. The hotel, where I was staying, had a beautiful lawn just next to the beach, which essentially meant a fully open sky and that too without much illumination around. As part of the guest entertainment programme, the hotel had invited one of the astronomy enthusiast to help the guest with stargazing. The person had brought a good telescope for this purpose and was using it to show the planets like Saturn and Moon. Unfortunately, we didn't have a clear sky that day because of the impending monsoons. It had rained just a day before and the sky was still a bit cloudy. However, we could see the Moon and the Saturn very easily. The Moon had a beautiful hallow with diameter of around 20 feet and at the edge Saturn was shining. The person started with showing Saturn through the telescope. Initially he used lesser magnification as the queue was long. Now, you would say what...

Finally I am coming out of estivation after a gap of more than 3 months. I didn't use the word " Hibernation " deliberately, since I just relaized that I was inactive on the blog for the whole of this summer. Nothing much has changed in past 3 months except for a few good news. Work kept me completely busy. So even though it was dormancy on the blogging front, it wasn't the case on professional side. Currently enjoying the pre-mosoon showers at my new home: On a beautiful evening I captured this from the balcony (my builder calls it terrace :) ) "नभ मेघांनी आक्रमिले...." Hoping to have frequent blog update in coming days. Watch out for this space ...

This one is on infrastructure. 3.a. I heard people cannot use the lane reserved for BRT. How will this be ensured (unless there is a divider on both sides of the lane)? If there is no divider, then I think its not possible to prevent people (at a basic level we have a problem people not obeying signals) from using this lane (at times of peak hours and traffic jams). How is this aspect taken into care? 3.b. Are safe cycle stands planned at the bus stops so people can literally ‘get from anywhere to anywhere in Pune’? 3.c. Now a days buses are flooded beyond their limits, is there any increase in no. of buses during peak hours? 3.d. BRT lane is in the middle of the road, a person has to cross the road and come on the Bus Stand. Is't it risky? 3.e. Having signals etc is fine, but would the duration be sufficient for senior citizens and the el derly to finish crossing the road comfortably? 3.f. Now that the road is being dug up for expansion, any chance of having good ...

2.a. AG: Assuming that the BRT is a success on Satara road, how will it be implemented for narrow roads? (Satara road is probably the widest of all, what about Karve road, JM road, the old Mumbai-Pune highway, and so on.) 2.b. JI: Is the BRT planned to let me get from anywhere to anywhere in Pune? Meaning how well covered is the network going to be that will not warrant me needing to take my vehicle out so I do not have to be at the mercy of rickshaw wallas? 2.c. PK: Why waste money on a system when it cannot be implemented across Pune? Only 1-2 roads in Pune can support exclusive lanes, then why run a pilot project which anyway will be scrapped or limited to 1-2 roads? It is a waste of tax payers money. ------------------------------------- A typical BRT road needs: a footpath, a cycle track, at least one "other vehicles" lane, one bus lane, a bus stop - all this on both sides, plus an optional bus lan e for overtaking other buses. This infrastructure needs a road width of 3...

Acknowledgements first! :) The questions were sent by: Amarendra Godbole, Gopal Phadke, Jhumkee Iyengar, Mahesh Ambi, Neeta Garud, Prateek Kaul, Shambhavi Borkar, Ujjwal Joshi. Many thanks! We have grouped the questions in 9 categories. We cover category (0 and) 1 today. ------------------------------------------------- 0. Main objectives of BRT: ( Do read the Prologue ) ------------------------------------------------- Create a "metro on tyres" on the roads to increase throughput (no of persons carried per hour by the entire transportation infrastructure), to keep pace with growing needs while providing an alternative to discourage personal transport in order to prevent congesting the roads and reduce pollution. Provide footpath/cycle tracks in the road design to sustain/ encourage non-motorized transport. All in all, provide cost effective, sustainable transportation to all sections of society. 1.a. GP: How is it different from good o...

There's lot of discussion going on about BRT in last few months. There seems to be more confusion and that too based on some prejudices and self-made-assumptions. In an attempt to answer few of those queries and create a better environment to understand the whole BRT system, few of my friends has started a series on BRT FAQ. All of us belong to a movement which is named as 'Save Pune Traffic Movement' and more details about this movement could be found here . I thank Harshad Abhyankar, Rajendra Sidhaye and other folks in the movement for allowing me to re-publish the FAQ that they are putting together with a lot of effort. BRT Prologue: What is BRT? BRT is not just high quality clean fuel buses moving in dedicated lanes at high speeds. Not just clean and well-designed bus stations, ticketing and passenger information boards, route maps etc. All these are of course important and need to be executed to the highest standard possible, but this is only part of the total pict...

It was not a that good experience to see SRK hosting KBC event. He spent almost all the time in either mimicing the Big B or deliberately showing him down. It all started with the opening statement for the KBC episode, after almost a year since Shahenshah left the stage. Every statement was indirectly challenging Big B's. Unnecessary criticism over Amitabh's 'shuddh hindi', his suits, his lingo everything. The bad part was even if it was SRK on the show, I could always see Big B everywhere - on the stage, in the movements of SRK, the gestures, the hand movements, the dialog delivery everything. Yes, I am pro Big B but I liked SRK in Don 2. I really liked that movie. Probably because many years were passed since the original Don. There were places where SRK was totally under the influence of Amitabh, but overall, I could remember only Farahan Akhtar and SRK at the end of Don 2. I couldn't do that with KBC. With the supposed background of political feud between Big B ...

Saturday evening. After a hectic day (meetings from 11 AM till 8:30 PM and off course a free lunch - courtsey: my builder) we decided to order pizza. Smokin' Joe's Kothrud was the obvious choice as they are the only ones who deliver pizza at my place near chandani chowk. 9:10 PM - Placed the order. Smokin' Joes confirmed the order to be delivered in 45-50 minutes. Last time it got delivered in dot 45 minutes. So it was ok. 9:55 PM - the delivery boy has not arrived yet 10:00 PM - Meghana calls up SJ only to know that the delivery boy has left just 5 minutes earlier. That was shoking. 45 minutes to prepare pizza .... simply unbelievable!! She decides to talk to the manager. After following a linked list and repeating the casette at each node, finally she reaches the manager 10:05 PM - The delivery boy is nowhere to be seen yet. SJ Manager is getting kicked every passing second. He also tried to use the lame excuse that the delivery boy might not have found the address. The...