The Credit card woes I highlighted in Impulsive Shopping earlier is still haunting us,
“All Cards accepted, minimum bill values 200”
Many at times when I read this, I would think, what is their problem? Why don’t they simply accept cards for lesser amounts? They are loosing out potential revenue. I’ll blame it on poor business strategy and walk away.
And one fine day, I acknowledged that it was indeed a great strategy.
Last Friday, after a long day’s work I was on my way back and felt very hungry. I wasn’t sure what was available at home and didn’t want to risk disappointing my hungry stomach.
I parked my bike outside Trinetra, a big Retail store near my house and went in for some purchase.
As I was wandering the aisles picking junk food, I realized I only had 50 bucks in my wallet, I read the board, “All Cards accepted, minimum bill values 200”, but I’d already picked stuff worth 70 bucks. Keeping them back was never an option, so I went on to buy some stuffs hear and there, some wanted and some not so wanted, and finally the bill came to around 400 bucks.
I happily swiped the card, ignored the 700% increase in bill value and walked away!
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Spend Vs Invest
We’ve read/heard many instances like
“Please spend some time learning something new”
Or “Spend time doing something worthwhile”.
Although Spend seems to convey the message, it could well be undermining the potential of the English language to express the point.
Today, 21st June, incidentally, World Music day, I was listening to Big92.7FM, where Speed Dheena was doing a program with playback Singer Sujatha. On her final words for the listeners, she was advising young and aspiring singers to “Invest” sometime everyday practicing their music. This statement just took the wind out of me!
How true, commoditizing time makes our work accountable to us. It tells us to wisely use every little time we have and reap its benefits. However subtle the statement may look, it wraps within, millions of words that says how determined one must be.
Ennaku Pull arichidu!
“Please spend some time learning something new”
Or “Spend time doing something worthwhile”.
Although Spend seems to convey the message, it could well be undermining the potential of the English language to express the point.
Today, 21st June, incidentally, World Music day, I was listening to Big92.7FM, where Speed Dheena was doing a program with playback Singer Sujatha. On her final words for the listeners, she was advising young and aspiring singers to “Invest” sometime everyday practicing their music. This statement just took the wind out of me!
How true, commoditizing time makes our work accountable to us. It tells us to wisely use every little time we have and reap its benefits. However subtle the statement may look, it wraps within, millions of words that says how determined one must be.
Ennaku Pull arichidu!
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Confessions of a Software Professional
I got a forward from a Software professional friend, who was sharing a common confession, it read,
The Software Engineer's Preamble
We, the unwilling, lead by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful.
We have done so much for so long, with so little knowledge that we will one day qualify to do anything knowing nothing.
I thought, let's cut the euphemism and get to the crux, and so came my one line,
We, the unsatisfied, lead by the uncaring, are being paid the unthinkable for doing the unwanted and still feel underpaid!
And thought its worth sharing with the rest of my cult!
The Software Engineer's Preamble
We, the unwilling, lead by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful.
We have done so much for so long, with so little knowledge that we will one day qualify to do anything knowing nothing.
I thought, let's cut the euphemism and get to the crux, and so came my one line,
We, the unsatisfied, lead by the uncaring, are being paid the unthinkable for doing the unwanted and still feel underpaid!
And thought its worth sharing with the rest of my cult!
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Is India truly Independent?
On the Road to our 60th year of Independence, lets look back to see where we really stand.
Is India truly Independent? Mahatma Gandhi once said that only when women wearing all her jewels can go out safely at any time of the day, is India truly Independent. Yet 59 years after India got freedom from the British rule, she is yet to find her path to true Independence.
We talk a lot about India’s growth and achievements in the last six decades, we have at our disposal an array of Industries in every known sector and we’ve proved time and again about our potential to excel in all fields we lay our feet on. Our GDP has grown, we have become economically self reliant, and by all means we changed the way the rest of the world looks at us, and you bet I am proud of this. But the big question is “Are these just smoke clouds concealing the harsh reality beneath it?”
Let me illustrate, On 15 August 2006, in view of the Independence day celebration, the national capital was declared a No fly Zone (height of insecurity), Public coming to watch the parade were not allowed to bring their mobile phones, radios, and worse even water, the Prime Minister was on his way to address the nation, the whole area is fit with signal jammers, he travels in a bullet proof car, and his escort convoy was as dramatic as the parade itself. Are we calling ourselves Independent? Whom are we trying to fool?
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, respectfully known as Mahatma Gandhi, is the father of our nation, although I don’t subscribe to many of his Ideologies, he is definitely a National Icon in my eyes, but is the country anywhere closer to accepting his ideologies? Easier or hard, Gandhi was Instrumental in a non-violent freedom struggle and in creation of an independent India 60 years back, but on this very day every year, our Prime Minister accepts a Military Guard of Honor! Except on October 2nd when the youth remember him for many reasons but for his birthday, and our leaders garland his otherwise crow-befriended statue, we hardly recognize him and his much talked about contributions. Is Gandhi good enough only for the currency notes? A recent ad-hoc interview by a leading news channel of few of the members of our honorable Parliament revealed a lot of disheartening facts. Many didn’t know who wrote “Jana gana mana” or “Vande Matham” and more horrifying the full name of Mahatma Gandhi. When a question was asked to a sitting MP as to who wrote our national anthem, the MP said “There are many who wrote it, I am getting late for the parliament session, we’ll sit one day and I’ll tell you in detail who wrote what”, another MP was asked, “what is Mahatma Gandhi’s full name” and he replied “I call him with respect as Bapu, how can I spell out his name” and when he was insisted all he said was “um…mm…um…”, and we entrust these morons (forgive me for using an un-parliamentary word here) to decide our fate? Is this what we envision for Independent India?
India is the world’s largest Democracy, and we get a pat on the back for being “Of the people, by the people and for the people”, and till date the only contribution this democracy has give us is, over 900 political parties split across every division of Religion, caste, creed known to India. On an average every state in India has 30 political parties and more are coming up for every friction in ideology. Interestingly, close to 90 parties have the word “Congress” in their name in some position or the other. Surprisingly almost all of them will have a huge turn over when they make public speeches; it’s a shame when crowd is gathered for Rs. 25, a pack of Biriyani and a bottle of local liquor. The members who get elected may know nothing about economics and development but are masters of vote bank politics. It has more than just co-incidence that in most of the electorates, tickets are given to a person belonging to the religion or caste that has a vast presence there.
This was in news some days back, The Home Ministry ordered all the states to crack down a banned outfit that was linked to many terrorist activities in the country, but still one state gave a deaf hear to the order since election was round the corner. More recently when a death sentence was passed against the primary accused on the 12/13 parliament attacks, a section of people of Kashmir, many leaders and even the Chief Minister of Kashmir requested a Presidential pardon. When a minority religion after 60 year of being Indians suddenly said they won’t recite Vande Matham since the words meant worship the nation, the ruling party was more than happy to make it optional. Is this only because all of them belonged to a Minority religion? Is that community and votes bigger than the country itself? How many more days are we going to tolerate this cheap politics to woo those votes? People who know nothing about history and economics can write white-papers on hypothetical minority oppressions, demand for reservations in every place they know public have access to, and can talk hours together about (pseudo)Secularism, but still have no privy to what this polarization can cause to the nation. While India continues to fight anti-Indian Terrorist attacks in the north, anti-government militant attacks all over central, south-central and eastern regions, underworld dons controlling the western region, our humble representatives would be busy (just) playing blame games on one side and having high-tea on the other. Is this what Independence gave us? Did we free ourselves from the clutches of a lion only fall prey to a vampire?
Yes, India has grown multifold, its is an emerging superpower, we did have over 8% growth for the past five years, but we still are fighting our battles and until every Indian starts to think rationally, every step we take towards a better tomorrow, we will be finding far more powerful issues to deal with. It is as the saying goes, “It’s the duty of science to make better mouse traps, and it’s the duty of nature to create smarter mice”.
Jai Hind.
Is India truly Independent? Mahatma Gandhi once said that only when women wearing all her jewels can go out safely at any time of the day, is India truly Independent. Yet 59 years after India got freedom from the British rule, she is yet to find her path to true Independence.
We talk a lot about India’s growth and achievements in the last six decades, we have at our disposal an array of Industries in every known sector and we’ve proved time and again about our potential to excel in all fields we lay our feet on. Our GDP has grown, we have become economically self reliant, and by all means we changed the way the rest of the world looks at us, and you bet I am proud of this. But the big question is “Are these just smoke clouds concealing the harsh reality beneath it?”
Let me illustrate, On 15 August 2006, in view of the Independence day celebration, the national capital was declared a No fly Zone (height of insecurity), Public coming to watch the parade were not allowed to bring their mobile phones, radios, and worse even water, the Prime Minister was on his way to address the nation, the whole area is fit with signal jammers, he travels in a bullet proof car, and his escort convoy was as dramatic as the parade itself. Are we calling ourselves Independent? Whom are we trying to fool?
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, respectfully known as Mahatma Gandhi, is the father of our nation, although I don’t subscribe to many of his Ideologies, he is definitely a National Icon in my eyes, but is the country anywhere closer to accepting his ideologies? Easier or hard, Gandhi was Instrumental in a non-violent freedom struggle and in creation of an independent India 60 years back, but on this very day every year, our Prime Minister accepts a Military Guard of Honor! Except on October 2nd when the youth remember him for many reasons but for his birthday, and our leaders garland his otherwise crow-befriended statue, we hardly recognize him and his much talked about contributions. Is Gandhi good enough only for the currency notes? A recent ad-hoc interview by a leading news channel of few of the members of our honorable Parliament revealed a lot of disheartening facts. Many didn’t know who wrote “Jana gana mana” or “Vande Matham” and more horrifying the full name of Mahatma Gandhi. When a question was asked to a sitting MP as to who wrote our national anthem, the MP said “There are many who wrote it, I am getting late for the parliament session, we’ll sit one day and I’ll tell you in detail who wrote what”, another MP was asked, “what is Mahatma Gandhi’s full name” and he replied “I call him with respect as Bapu, how can I spell out his name” and when he was insisted all he said was “um…mm…um…”, and we entrust these morons (forgive me for using an un-parliamentary word here) to decide our fate? Is this what we envision for Independent India?
India is the world’s largest Democracy, and we get a pat on the back for being “Of the people, by the people and for the people”, and till date the only contribution this democracy has give us is, over 900 political parties split across every division of Religion, caste, creed known to India. On an average every state in India has 30 political parties and more are coming up for every friction in ideology. Interestingly, close to 90 parties have the word “Congress” in their name in some position or the other. Surprisingly almost all of them will have a huge turn over when they make public speeches; it’s a shame when crowd is gathered for Rs. 25, a pack of Biriyani and a bottle of local liquor. The members who get elected may know nothing about economics and development but are masters of vote bank politics. It has more than just co-incidence that in most of the electorates, tickets are given to a person belonging to the religion or caste that has a vast presence there.
This was in news some days back, The Home Ministry ordered all the states to crack down a banned outfit that was linked to many terrorist activities in the country, but still one state gave a deaf hear to the order since election was round the corner. More recently when a death sentence was passed against the primary accused on the 12/13 parliament attacks, a section of people of Kashmir, many leaders and even the Chief Minister of Kashmir requested a Presidential pardon. When a minority religion after 60 year of being Indians suddenly said they won’t recite Vande Matham since the words meant worship the nation, the ruling party was more than happy to make it optional. Is this only because all of them belonged to a Minority religion? Is that community and votes bigger than the country itself? How many more days are we going to tolerate this cheap politics to woo those votes? People who know nothing about history and economics can write white-papers on hypothetical minority oppressions, demand for reservations in every place they know public have access to, and can talk hours together about (pseudo)Secularism, but still have no privy to what this polarization can cause to the nation. While India continues to fight anti-Indian Terrorist attacks in the north, anti-government militant attacks all over central, south-central and eastern regions, underworld dons controlling the western region, our humble representatives would be busy (just) playing blame games on one side and having high-tea on the other. Is this what Independence gave us? Did we free ourselves from the clutches of a lion only fall prey to a vampire?
Yes, India has grown multifold, its is an emerging superpower, we did have over 8% growth for the past five years, but we still are fighting our battles and until every Indian starts to think rationally, every step we take towards a better tomorrow, we will be finding far more powerful issues to deal with. It is as the saying goes, “It’s the duty of science to make better mouse traps, and it’s the duty of nature to create smarter mice”.
Jai Hind.
BACK or KCAB ??
If you were wondering whether I’d said that I was back or was I showing my back after my over hyped “I’m back” article way back in August, we’ll I am not to be totally blamed. My office in India blocked all blog sites and message boards and my home system was down with viral fever for a long time giving me no access to the site. I just got past one hurdle and wanted to show my attendance.
Expect more soon!
Expect more soon!
Monday, August 21, 2006
Tryst with Technology
Yesterday my brother had left Chennai on a pilgrimage tour, and couple of 100 kms on his way he tried to contact my mother back home. He kept calling but all his tries to the land line and the mobile were in vein and the only message he got was “Network busy”.
So, called me up and told me that he’d been trying to reach her but couldn’t and wanted me to call her and pass the message. Ok, what’s so great about this? Well I was just 10,000 miles away in Toronto and his call came to me as an uninvited wake up call at 6-ish on a Sunday morning. I called my Mom and the line connected, I passed the message to her and told her to call him.
It may be a desperate move or sheer audacity, but for making the world smaller it’s definitely “Bravo Technology”.
So, called me up and told me that he’d been trying to reach her but couldn’t and wanted me to call her and pass the message. Ok, what’s so great about this? Well I was just 10,000 miles away in Toronto and his call came to me as an uninvited wake up call at 6-ish on a Sunday morning. I called my Mom and the line connected, I passed the message to her and told her to call him.
It may be a desperate move or sheer audacity, but for making the world smaller it’s definitely “Bravo Technology”.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
I am back!
I am back!
Yes, after a particularly long deserved hibernation, I finally gained enough courage to face the blog-ing world. While I was out, the world had a lot of interesting things happening to keep readers busy even while my blog was asleep, viz:
Government got ready to reserve seats of OBCs, Vote bank showed its power,
It had to increase seats, pay and infrastructure, Government goes under cover.
Amma and Kalaignar changed seats,
They have also changed seating arrangements.
7 years back in Kargil Indians fought,
7 years later, Indians forgot.
Mittal’s bid good enough for Arcelor takeover,
Still, Arcelor delays Mittal’s makeover.
The Sensex crashed like never before,
It crashed again.
To increase accountability RTI (Right to Information act) was enforced,
The act was deflated as the government was getting exposed.
Israel goes on war with Hezbollah,
Give me a break, says Nasarallah.
Indians lost to WI in the one-days,
India does came back to win the Test some days.
In 2006 F1 GP, Alonso as yet won six races,
Schumacher too made the best in five chases.
I am back and I am back for good,
I am here to give my thoughts some food!
Yes, after a particularly long deserved hibernation, I finally gained enough courage to face the blog-ing world. While I was out, the world had a lot of interesting things happening to keep readers busy even while my blog was asleep, viz:
Government got ready to reserve seats of OBCs, Vote bank showed its power,
It had to increase seats, pay and infrastructure, Government goes under cover.
Amma and Kalaignar changed seats,
They have also changed seating arrangements.
7 years back in Kargil Indians fought,
7 years later, Indians forgot.
Mittal’s bid good enough for Arcelor takeover,
Still, Arcelor delays Mittal’s makeover.
The Sensex crashed like never before,
It crashed again.
To increase accountability RTI (Right to Information act) was enforced,
The act was deflated as the government was getting exposed.
Israel goes on war with Hezbollah,
Give me a break, says Nasarallah.
Indians lost to WI in the one-days,
India does came back to win the Test some days.
In 2006 F1 GP, Alonso as yet won six races,
Schumacher too made the best in five chases.
I am back and I am back for good,
I am here to give my thoughts some food!
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