Last Monday we shifted to GLT 1.0. I knew I would be allocated a place in some passageway lined up with workstations given the crunch for space in this building. But to my pleasant surprise, not only was my place not in a passageway but my cubicle was one of the most spacious! Others in my team didn’t share the same good fortune as me. They were being put in a cubicle meant for 4. Nothing wrong with it until you add three more people to it. That makes 7 in cubicle meant for 4! How would they sit? I will tell you how. Put one person each in between two people and you get one of the most elegant looking combinations of people in one cubicle. There is a very small problem though – If someone has to get out, he/she will have to push the chair of the person on either side to get out. However, given the super advantages of such modern design, we can comfortably ignore this problem.
Super Advantage No 1: Looking from outside of the cubicle, it seems that the employees are sitting on the top of one another. That is just an illusion created by this fantastic arrangement of people. In reality, every person in these cubicles has his/her own computer and everyone has got a chair to sit! Isn’t that an efficient utilization of office space?
Super Advantage No 2: The arrangement of people is so very ergonomically brilliant. Employees can lean and place their elbows on their colleague’s chair, which is at a distance of about 2-3 inches or sometimes touching their chair. And employees are really loving this.
Super Advantage No 3: Two people share one phone. That means one person can’t keep talking for hours on the phone! How well thought of!!
Super Advantage No 4: This one is really good.These cubicles should be called Green Cubicles. Why? Coz they save energy and in turn reduce greenhouse emissions. Let me explain…. You see, the three squeezed… err…efficiently arranged people in between the normally comfortable four have got wonder monitors. Their monitors immediately turn OFF whenever there is a power outage. The monitors turn ON when the generator kicks in. Normally the time period is 3-4 secs. But as you know monitor consumes almost 80% of the energy. Multiply that with some 100 odd monitors like this in this building and imagine the energy saving! I think this ingenious idea should be incorporated in offices worldwide! This would really take care of Global Warming.
Super Advantage No 5: Apart from saving energy, the guys on the green machines can enjoy a break for 3-4 seconds. This way the guys can quickly take break from work and relax. I call it a quick refresh method. Much better than having a smoko/coffee break. No wonder the guys in these cubicles don’t get out much! Hmm that adds one more advantage – Productivity!!
Super Advantage No 6: Teams in such cubicles don’t face a problem of communication and their interpersonal skills are automatically improved. Employees are so close to each other that it naturally harbingers a feeling of unity and warmth (pun intended). Brilliant innit?
I never thought that so many advantages were hidden in these cubicles. Someday next week we will be shifted again to a different level in this building and I will be a part of such cubicles. Or I might be sitting in some passageway where I can meet lots of people on their way to the rest room or pantry. How exciting! I am feeling wonderful now at this opportunity of social networking!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Sinhgad – A trek on the weekend.
I hear the rain outside. It must be around 5 – 5:30ish in the morning. I start drifting off to sweeeet sleep when my mobile ring wakes me up. It is Kshitija calling. As decided the previous day, we were gonna depend on this foolproof method of waking each other up. That way we wouldn’t fall prey to the Snooze key and end up getting late or not going at all!!… I look at the mobile and it is nearly 6am. I wake up rather sleepy eyed thinking about how would I have loved to laze around in my bed for some 4- 5 hours more. That thought really holds on for a while and I start cursing myself for saying ‘Yes’ to Sinhgad trek this week. But just after a cup of hot tea I think I am ready to go. After a quick shower, I get down to the parking. Me mate, Hemant comes down and just as we sit in my car, it starts raining heavily. We proceed to pick up Rahul who is sheltering himself from the rain under a shop. After that we stop by a bar/café in front the majestic gate of good ol’ Bharti Vidyapeeth where I did my Electrical Engineering some 5 years back.
The girls come and we decide to go in one car. We reach the base of Sinhgad in about 35 mins.
We start our uphill climb. I notice that the weather is perfect - drizzle and gentle breeze. We walk through a dense canopy of trees – lush green. The view is refreshing. We click a half a dozen snaps on our mobile handsets. Just then we realize that we had taken a wrong turn! We head back and see the familiar stony path leading up the way to historic fort.
As we climb to a higher point, we stop for a breather and look around. What a view! The mountains are all green. At a distance, we can see the Khadakwasla Lake. It is still drizzling. The fort is hardly visible with the clouds covering it. We resume and suddenly, Rahul and Kshitija notice a short but steep climb. They decide to go that way. Others, including me proceed by the normal way. After about 10 mins, we get to a point where we think, Rahul and Kshitija would emerge. We wait for 5 mins but no sign of them. We continue our climb. The only sounds we hear are of rain, waterfalls and the wind. On Sunday, this would have been impossible with hoards of people going up. Glad, we are trekking today.
On the next turn, I look up and see Rahul waving at us from the top. They had reached their some 10 mins earlier. There is makeshift shop selling snacks. We stop by under it. Kshitija meanwhile is busy in taking pictures on her mobile for the ‘Pattern’ theme photography contest. I am again amazed at the view…. it seems that view gets better the higher we get. I had never enjoyed Sinhgad trek so much!
There are rocky climbs all along the way now and though I would say the difficulty level is low on any other day, today it was a medium coz of the rain factor, which had made it more slippery.
As we near the top, I am thirsty, but others advise me against drinking water until we reach the top. We begin the last phase of the climb. Sinhgad is visible from here. This last part is steepest and there is another way to go past it…but we decide to take this one just for the fun of it. The path is so narrow and slippery that even if one of them slips, he/she would cascade the effect downstream. Not that we would end up in a gorge or something, but nevertheless, we would be hurt badly. Arite so we proceed to the top. Rahul then Hemant and then me followed by Kirti, Kshitija and Neha…As we climb through the narrow path surrounded with vegetation, I realize, it is time to close the umbrella and climb with two hands otherwise it would near impossible to get through it.
We stop once on the way to negotiate a slippery climb and that’s it, we reach the top! It is foggy up there but the view is so beautiful. It is almost mystical. There is another group at the top…about the same age as us. They are clicking pictures of a snail. Others get busy clicking it too. The snail is famous now. Some others are enjoying “Butta” which is baked corn.
We see a fort map by the side. It shows all the major points on the forts. As we enter the fort through the old and dilapidated remains of Kalyan gate, it gets even foggier. The visibility reduces to almost 5 feet. It is awesome.
There is sudden rush of people heading down. Some are regular trekkers and some are like us.
We get to first point and decide to go over the edge. It starts raining and gets windier…We get to the edge and see only clouds! The rain gets heavier and we disappear inside a small shack cum eating point. We are freezing cold now and decide for a cuppa hot tea and what else but hot Bhajis! Coming to Sinhgad and not eating Bhajis is a sin! It is so windy that we are worried that the roof of the shack might get blown off! But it doesn’t. As the steaming hot tea arrives with a plate of Bhajis, everyone digs in! Ummmm…delicious! You hafta come here to taste em! …We give our lunch orders Zunka Bhakar (Jowar Bread) and Pithala (thick paste of gram flour).
As the food is getting ready, we explore the fort and come to one point where we couldn’t help stopping. It is not specific point. But today, there was something about this particular place that we all decide to stop and enjoy. The wind is so strong that we can literally lean against the wind and not fall!!All of us become kids and jump around trying to click that one perfect snap where all of us would be in air. We managed to capture one after a dozen attempts but one of them is still on the ground.
As we proceed further, a small path would lead us to wind point. This path is foggy but beautiful all along the way. We come to the wind Point. There, apart from the wind, the view to be enjoyed is that of the deep valley. But today, we can see only clouds!
We come back to the shack cum restaurant and have a delicious Zunka Bhakar meal.
It is almost 1:30pm and we decide to head down. We take a decision to go down via jeep The downhill ride by the jeep is dangerous due to bad roads and our driver made it even more dangerous. All the way, he drove like he was playing a video game. As we reached the base, we had to walk back almost 3 kms to reach our car!!
Finally, all in the car and we reach Pune by 315pm. Never before had I thought that Sinhgad would be so beautiful. I had always imagined it being a sweaty climb sans fun. But today was just perfect thanks to the weather!
The girls come and we decide to go in one car. We reach the base of Sinhgad in about 35 mins.
We start our uphill climb. I notice that the weather is perfect - drizzle and gentle breeze. We walk through a dense canopy of trees – lush green. The view is refreshing. We click a half a dozen snaps on our mobile handsets. Just then we realize that we had taken a wrong turn! We head back and see the familiar stony path leading up the way to historic fort.As we climb to a higher point, we stop for a breather and look around. What a view! The mountains are all green. At a distance, we can see the Khadakwasla Lake. It is still drizzling. The fort is hardly visible with the clouds covering it. We resume and suddenly, Rahul and Kshitija notice a short but steep climb. They decide to go that way. Others, including me proceed by the normal way. After about 10 mins, we get to a point where we think, Rahul and Kshitija would emerge. We wait for 5 mins but no sign of them. We continue our climb. The only sounds we hear are of rain, waterfalls and the wind. On Sunday, this would have been impossible with hoards of people going up. Glad, we are trekking today.
On the next turn, I look up and see Rahul waving at us from the top. They had reached their some 10 mins earlier. There is makeshift shop selling snacks. We stop by under it. Kshitija meanwhile is busy in taking pictures on her mobile for the ‘Pattern’ theme photography contest. I am again amazed at the view…. it seems that view gets better the higher we get. I had never enjoyed Sinhgad trek so much!
There are rocky climbs all along the way now and though I would say the difficulty level is low on any other day, today it was a medium coz of the rain factor, which had made it more slippery.
As we near the top, I am thirsty, but others advise me against drinking water until we reach the top. We begin the last phase of the climb. Sinhgad is visible from here. This last part is steepest and there is another way to go past it…but we decide to take this one just for the fun of it. The path is so narrow and slippery that even if one of them slips, he/she would cascade the effect downstream. Not that we would end up in a gorge or something, but nevertheless, we would be hurt badly. Arite so we proceed to the top. Rahul then Hemant and then me followed by Kirti, Kshitija and Neha…As we climb through the narrow path surrounded with vegetation, I realize, it is time to close the umbrella and climb with two hands otherwise it would near impossible to get through it.
We stop once on the way to negotiate a slippery climb and that’s it, we reach the top! It is foggy up there but the view is so beautiful. It is almost mystical. There is another group at the top…about the same age as us. They are clicking pictures of a snail. Others get busy clicking it too. The snail is famous now. Some others are enjoying “Butta” which is baked corn.
We see a fort map by the side. It shows all the major points on the forts. As we enter the fort through the old and dilapidated remains of Kalyan gate, it gets even foggier. The visibility reduces to almost 5 feet. It is awesome.
There is sudden rush of people heading down. Some are regular trekkers and some are like us.
We get to first point and decide to go over the edge. It starts raining and gets windier…We get to the edge and see only clouds! The rain gets heavier and we disappear inside a small shack cum eating point. We are freezing cold now and decide for a cuppa hot tea and what else but hot Bhajis! Coming to Sinhgad and not eating Bhajis is a sin! It is so windy that we are worried that the roof of the shack might get blown off! But it doesn’t. As the steaming hot tea arrives with a plate of Bhajis, everyone digs in! Ummmm…delicious! You hafta come here to taste em! …We give our lunch orders Zunka Bhakar (Jowar Bread) and Pithala (thick paste of gram flour).
As the food is getting ready, we explore the fort and come to one point where we couldn’t help stopping. It is not specific point. But today, there was something about this particular place that we all decide to stop and enjoy. The wind is so strong that we can literally lean against the wind and not fall!!All of us become kids and jump around trying to click that one perfect snap where all of us would be in air. We managed to capture one after a dozen attempts but one of them is still on the ground.
As we proceed further, a small path would lead us to wind point. This path is foggy but beautiful all along the way. We come to the wind Point. There, apart from the wind, the view to be enjoyed is that of the deep valley. But today, we can see only clouds!We come back to the shack cum restaurant and have a delicious Zunka Bhakar meal.
It is almost 1:30pm and we decide to head down. We take a decision to go down via jeep The downhill ride by the jeep is dangerous due to bad roads and our driver made it even more dangerous. All the way, he drove like he was playing a video game. As we reached the base, we had to walk back almost 3 kms to reach our car!!
Finally, all in the car and we reach Pune by 315pm. Never before had I thought that Sinhgad would be so beautiful. I had always imagined it being a sweaty climb sans fun. But today was just perfect thanks to the weather!
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Review - MyN73 Music Edition!
Rewind: A month and half ago after countless taunts from my chums on my Nokia 6230, I finally decided that it’s time to go for a new phone. And yes, I had reasons to dispose my faithful Nokia 6230. Trying to switch Bluetooth ON would switch my phone OFF or it would just go into Freeze mode! The other one was very fricken irritating. I just couldn’t charge the phone! It was a matter of luck and not time to see the charger finally fit my phone right and start charging.
I love gadgets and so I wanted a mobile which could do more than just make and receive calls. Of course smart phone would be my choice. So when I started looking, it got confusing even though I am pro-Nokia. There were some super phones in Nokia N-series and E-series. Apple iPhone and iMate were appealing too…Specially iPhone was really tempting with its looks and features. But $ 565 USD was a bit too much now…Hence after a lot of thought, I finally zeroed in on Nokia N73 Music Edition. And after reading innumerable N73 reviews for 2 weeks, I decided to buy it…And I am so in love with it…Here is my review
Cost: 16450 INR
I will start off with the most impressive feature of N73.
The camera of course…3.2 Mega pixel Camera with Carl Zeiss Optics, Tessar lens!! Do I have to say anything about the picture quality now? Photos come out just superb. With 20 x Digital zoom for pics and 4x for Videos, the zoom does work well. Videos are good too at 15fps.There is Review button at the side of mobile. Quite handy that one. It gives a quick access to the images and videos in the Gallery.
N73 has to be the best camera smartphone of the N Series at least as of now.
Plus you have got options like -Adjusting the White Balance, Exposure Compensation, Color Tone, Light Sensitivity and the Scene modes like what you get in your digicam.
Although there is no difference in hardware in N73 and N73 Music edition, the latter comes with enhanced features for music. It ships in with 2GB Mini SD Card filled with some 100 songs out of which 95 are crap. Try deleting them on your phone and it won’t work! The way out is to connect the phone to the computer and simply CUT the 90+ rubbish songs and paste them on you computer. It frees up a lot memory on the card. N73 does support a lot of music formats (mp3, WMA, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+). I haven’t tried listening to all the formats on the phone but MP3, WMA and AAC sound very good indeed. The phone has got Integrated Stereo speakers and the Stereo does sound very well. The Music Edition comes in all black looks and it does look very sinister.
Smart phone that it is, it comes in loaded with all the applications like Office stuff – Word, Power Point, Spreadsheets, Viewing PDF files, Visual Radio, 3-D Tones, Movie Director, Real Player, Life Blog et al.
The 3-D Tones is nifty little utility to enhance your tones by adding effects like Circular, Fly By, Zig Zag, Meander, Doppler Effect etc.
Next thing to like about N73 is the large 2.4-inch QVGA screen of N73. It makes pictures and videos look clearer on them than other smart phones. The screen resolution as given by Nokia is 352X416 pixels makes the pics look excellent on the screen.
I have heard some people saying the saying the keypad is smaller and it makes texting harder. Yes, the keypad is smaller but for a person like me who texts a lot I got used to the keypad after just couple of days and I don’t find it a problem at all.
There is a dedicated music key on the right side of N73 ME for quick access to all the music on your phone. Music is neatly organized by Song Name, Playlists, Artists, Albums, Genres, Composers just like your iPod.
The light sensor at the top of the phone near the secondary camera adjusts the brightness of the screen with respect to the ambient lighting. And this light sensor also blinks (flashing blue light) when the Phone is in ‘Sleep’ mode. This flashing blue light is irritating at times and can be turned Off by going to Settings->Phone->Display->Sleep Mode-> On/Off. Mind you, switching this Off will eat into your phone battery.
Let’s now come to the GPRS part of it. Holding down the 0 key will get you connected to the World Wide Web. When I activated my GPRS connection from my service provider, I was unable to connect to the net for the first few days. I thought it was a problem with N73. But then after repeated calls to my service provider, I realized that that they had goofed up. They reset my connection and now GPRS works fine on N73. There is nothing to be done other than just saving the Configuration Settings sent by your service provider.
Net Applications: I have downloaded Google Maps and S60 Internet Radio. They work like charm. Especially Google Maps with its powerful Satellite imagery looks very good on the large screen of N73. Internet Radio is bit slow at times. But that is all dependent on data transmission rates. With a faster EDGE connection, it should work good.
There is an option to upload Images directly from your phone to the Web Album of your choice.
Games: My N73 came pre-installed with Sudoku and Snakes. The Snakes on my N73 is in 3D. I was amazed to see it. Nokia has come a long way from the Snakes that it had on one of the older phones. This 3D Snakes is not only good to watch but surely will help you kill time.
Battery: The battery is pretty powerful. With normal use (10-15 mins of calls a day, 15-20 mins of surfing, taking pictures and videos for 5-10 mins and playing music for 10 mins a day on the phone speakers) will make the phone go on for 2.5 to 3 days. But with heavy use of the screen (like seeing the images and videos on and on again) will suck your battery. My battery was out of charge in just 1.5 days when all I was doing for those 1.5 days was keeping the camera on and shooting pics and videos and playing them over and over again.
The only two things missing in this phone are – WiFi and GPS. I would have really really liked to have them on my phone. But I had to buy a phone within a certain budget and hence had to settle without these features. Although GPS was really tempting, I had to think my way out of it by asking myself – Do I really need GPS? The answer was ‘No’ coz I do not hike every other day and neither do I get lost everyday coz I know my way around the city.
For the Wi-Fi part, I had to be content with my GPRS connection. I know GPRS isn’t the solution to Wi-Fi but then again there are some compromises to be made when your budget is tight. So for me the only thing to be disappointed was no WiFi in this Phone.
Now comes the most important part – The bugs!
Ofcourse with a smartphone like this, there ought to be bugs and I had expected it. The question is how many bugs and do they really impact the way you use your phone. I do not think so. Here’s why
Bug 1: When a song is playing and I click ‘Next’ in the Track Menu, it doesn’t start playing the Next song. Instead the current song is stopped. I have to go back to the Song List and click the new song again. Maybe this is just with my handset. Does it bother me? Not at all…
Bug 2: Sometimes, when I open the Gallery to see the pic or a video or start a game, I get a message – Memory Full. Try closing some applications.
This is irritating. I have to either go back to the phone menu or switch the phone Off and start again. But this has just happened twice until now in 3 weeks. Hence, not much of a problem.
Bug 3: Sliding the backcover of the phone starts the phone camera. Once, I got a message – Hardware failed. Please restart the camera. I came back to the Phone menu and the phone just froze up. I couldn’t switch the phone off. I had to remove the battery and put it back again to restart the phone. Fortunately this has happened only once.
These are the only bugs I have come across until now in my Nokia N73 ME. Chances are these are specific to my handset only. But in no way do they lessen my pride and joy of owning N73 ME!
All in all, I am happy with my choice.
I love gadgets and so I wanted a mobile which could do more than just make and receive calls. Of course smart phone would be my choice. So when I started looking, it got confusing even though I am pro-Nokia. There were some super phones in Nokia N-series and E-series. Apple iPhone and iMate were appealing too…Specially iPhone was really tempting with its looks and features. But $ 565 USD was a bit too much now…Hence after a lot of thought, I finally zeroed in on Nokia N73 Music Edition. And after reading innumerable N73 reviews for 2 weeks, I decided to buy it…And I am so in love with it…Here is my review
Cost: 16450 INR
I will start off with the most impressive feature of N73.
The camera of course…3.2 Mega pixel Camera with Carl Zeiss Optics, Tessar lens!! Do I have to say anything about the picture quality now? Photos come out just superb. With 20 x Digital zoom for pics and 4x for Videos, the zoom does work well. Videos are good too at 15fps.There is Review button at the side of mobile. Quite handy that one. It gives a quick access to the images and videos in the Gallery.
N73 has to be the best camera smartphone of the N Series at least as of now.
Plus you have got options like -Adjusting the White Balance, Exposure Compensation, Color Tone, Light Sensitivity and the Scene modes like what you get in your digicam.
Although there is no difference in hardware in N73 and N73 Music edition, the latter comes with enhanced features for music. It ships in with 2GB Mini SD Card filled with some 100 songs out of which 95 are crap. Try deleting them on your phone and it won’t work! The way out is to connect the phone to the computer and simply CUT the 90+ rubbish songs and paste them on you computer. It frees up a lot memory on the card. N73 does support a lot of music formats (mp3, WMA, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+). I haven’t tried listening to all the formats on the phone but MP3, WMA and AAC sound very good indeed. The phone has got Integrated Stereo speakers and the Stereo does sound very well. The Music Edition comes in all black looks and it does look very sinister.
Smart phone that it is, it comes in loaded with all the applications like Office stuff – Word, Power Point, Spreadsheets, Viewing PDF files, Visual Radio, 3-D Tones, Movie Director, Real Player, Life Blog et al.
The 3-D Tones is nifty little utility to enhance your tones by adding effects like Circular, Fly By, Zig Zag, Meander, Doppler Effect etc.
Next thing to like about N73 is the large 2.4-inch QVGA screen of N73. It makes pictures and videos look clearer on them than other smart phones. The screen resolution as given by Nokia is 352X416 pixels makes the pics look excellent on the screen.
I have heard some people saying the saying the keypad is smaller and it makes texting harder. Yes, the keypad is smaller but for a person like me who texts a lot I got used to the keypad after just couple of days and I don’t find it a problem at all.
There is a dedicated music key on the right side of N73 ME for quick access to all the music on your phone. Music is neatly organized by Song Name, Playlists, Artists, Albums, Genres, Composers just like your iPod.
The light sensor at the top of the phone near the secondary camera adjusts the brightness of the screen with respect to the ambient lighting. And this light sensor also blinks (flashing blue light) when the Phone is in ‘Sleep’ mode. This flashing blue light is irritating at times and can be turned Off by going to Settings->Phone->Display->Sleep Mode-> On/Off. Mind you, switching this Off will eat into your phone battery.
Let’s now come to the GPRS part of it. Holding down the 0 key will get you connected to the World Wide Web. When I activated my GPRS connection from my service provider, I was unable to connect to the net for the first few days. I thought it was a problem with N73. But then after repeated calls to my service provider, I realized that that they had goofed up. They reset my connection and now GPRS works fine on N73. There is nothing to be done other than just saving the Configuration Settings sent by your service provider.
Net Applications: I have downloaded Google Maps and S60 Internet Radio. They work like charm. Especially Google Maps with its powerful Satellite imagery looks very good on the large screen of N73. Internet Radio is bit slow at times. But that is all dependent on data transmission rates. With a faster EDGE connection, it should work good.
There is an option to upload Images directly from your phone to the Web Album of your choice.
Games: My N73 came pre-installed with Sudoku and Snakes. The Snakes on my N73 is in 3D. I was amazed to see it. Nokia has come a long way from the Snakes that it had on one of the older phones. This 3D Snakes is not only good to watch but surely will help you kill time.
Battery: The battery is pretty powerful. With normal use (10-15 mins of calls a day, 15-20 mins of surfing, taking pictures and videos for 5-10 mins and playing music for 10 mins a day on the phone speakers) will make the phone go on for 2.5 to 3 days. But with heavy use of the screen (like seeing the images and videos on and on again) will suck your battery. My battery was out of charge in just 1.5 days when all I was doing for those 1.5 days was keeping the camera on and shooting pics and videos and playing them over and over again.
The only two things missing in this phone are – WiFi and GPS. I would have really really liked to have them on my phone. But I had to buy a phone within a certain budget and hence had to settle without these features. Although GPS was really tempting, I had to think my way out of it by asking myself – Do I really need GPS? The answer was ‘No’ coz I do not hike every other day and neither do I get lost everyday coz I know my way around the city.
For the Wi-Fi part, I had to be content with my GPRS connection. I know GPRS isn’t the solution to Wi-Fi but then again there are some compromises to be made when your budget is tight. So for me the only thing to be disappointed was no WiFi in this Phone.
Now comes the most important part – The bugs!
Ofcourse with a smartphone like this, there ought to be bugs and I had expected it. The question is how many bugs and do they really impact the way you use your phone. I do not think so. Here’s why
Bug 1: When a song is playing and I click ‘Next’ in the Track Menu, it doesn’t start playing the Next song. Instead the current song is stopped. I have to go back to the Song List and click the new song again. Maybe this is just with my handset. Does it bother me? Not at all…
Bug 2: Sometimes, when I open the Gallery to see the pic or a video or start a game, I get a message – Memory Full. Try closing some applications.
This is irritating. I have to either go back to the phone menu or switch the phone Off and start again. But this has just happened twice until now in 3 weeks. Hence, not much of a problem.
Bug 3: Sliding the backcover of the phone starts the phone camera. Once, I got a message – Hardware failed. Please restart the camera. I came back to the Phone menu and the phone just froze up. I couldn’t switch the phone off. I had to remove the battery and put it back again to restart the phone. Fortunately this has happened only once.
These are the only bugs I have come across until now in my Nokia N73 ME. Chances are these are specific to my handset only. But in no way do they lessen my pride and joy of owning N73 ME!
All in all, I am happy with my choice.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Thoughts on the wonderful last week
I loved last week. It was interesting and relaxing.
Relaxing - For a change, we were not as busy as we were since past 5 months. Reason: There was a processing delay as some data validations failed. It meant less work for us and a much needed breather. Yes, there was some Test Execution and rather boring statistical stuff to be done. But I welcomed it with a big smile. After all it was a refreshing change than those last few months, which were spent busily worrying in front of the black and green Z/OS world. There were no stressing deadlines and few -infact only one strenuously long to compose observation/query email. So it was “Leave office at normal time” nearly everyday! I had almost forgotten that we work 9 – 6. How good it was to leave office when it was not dark outside. Nope! I am not afraid of dark! But it reminded me of those wonderful times of last year when we were new in the project minus much responsibility. A lot has changed since then. Anyways, lets not delve into that now.
Now towards the interesting part -There was a buzz sometime back that they were gonna reshuffle the people around various office building of ours to get so called best business combination. Dunno what that means exactly and I am also not curious on finding the reason behind it. Maybe, their idea is to align Development and Testing teams together so that Testers and Developers could argue or if they want, fight with each other physically on the floor rather than in Quality Center...I am kidding....Aight…so last Monday it was confirmed in the Weekly Team Meeting that we were moving to GLT 1.0 next week i.e. Tomorrow. That really upset me. I had started liking GLT 4.0. The campus is neat and the cubicles are spacious (heard that the cubicles in 1.0 suck big time). More than the campus and cubicles, I was gonna miss my crush @ GLT 4.0. Yeah that beautiful eyed girl on some level. Hence the news of the shift was really upsetting until Friday when I learnt that their team’s moving too! That really got me excited and anxious. Oh those hypnotizing eyes of hers are killing to say the least… And, we are not moving tomorrow. The shift is delayed by 2 weeks! YAY!
Also, after much research I bought Nokia N73 Music Edition. This sexy black smart phone rocks. More on that later…
Sometimes, a thought sweeps across my mind. What if the last week was a lull before the storm? What if all hell breaks lose this week? What if tomorrow’s again a Manic Monday? Manic or Merry Monday – all the questions will be answered this week.
Plus that beautiful eyed damsel on my mind is not helping me relax as I hit the sack now. Good Night World.
Relaxing - For a change, we were not as busy as we were since past 5 months. Reason: There was a processing delay as some data validations failed. It meant less work for us and a much needed breather. Yes, there was some Test Execution and rather boring statistical stuff to be done. But I welcomed it with a big smile. After all it was a refreshing change than those last few months, which were spent busily worrying in front of the black and green Z/OS world. There were no stressing deadlines and few -infact only one strenuously long to compose observation/query email. So it was “Leave office at normal time” nearly everyday! I had almost forgotten that we work 9 – 6. How good it was to leave office when it was not dark outside. Nope! I am not afraid of dark! But it reminded me of those wonderful times of last year when we were new in the project minus much responsibility. A lot has changed since then. Anyways, lets not delve into that now.
Now towards the interesting part -There was a buzz sometime back that they were gonna reshuffle the people around various office building of ours to get so called best business combination. Dunno what that means exactly and I am also not curious on finding the reason behind it. Maybe, their idea is to align Development and Testing teams together so that Testers and Developers could argue or if they want, fight with each other physically on the floor rather than in Quality Center...I am kidding....Aight…so last Monday it was confirmed in the Weekly Team Meeting that we were moving to GLT 1.0 next week i.e. Tomorrow. That really upset me. I had started liking GLT 4.0. The campus is neat and the cubicles are spacious (heard that the cubicles in 1.0 suck big time). More than the campus and cubicles, I was gonna miss my crush @ GLT 4.0. Yeah that beautiful eyed girl on some level. Hence the news of the shift was really upsetting until Friday when I learnt that their team’s moving too! That really got me excited and anxious. Oh those hypnotizing eyes of hers are killing to say the least… And, we are not moving tomorrow. The shift is delayed by 2 weeks! YAY!
Also, after much research I bought Nokia N73 Music Edition. This sexy black smart phone rocks. More on that later…
Sometimes, a thought sweeps across my mind. What if the last week was a lull before the storm? What if all hell breaks lose this week? What if tomorrow’s again a Manic Monday? Manic or Merry Monday – all the questions will be answered this week.
Plus that beautiful eyed damsel on my mind is not helping me relax as I hit the sack now. Good Night World.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
…And now cometh 'The Monsoon’
Friday, 22nd June 2007: Thunderstorms and heavy rains were the order of the day, at least for the latter half of the day on Friday. It was raining so heavily that when I looked out of my office window, I couldn’t see anything but rain! The IBM building in our campus was barely visible. The raindrops were crashing horizontally, vertically, diagonally and in every possible direction on our office facade! Inside, it sounded like some thousand drums were being beaten about at the same time. It was an awesome feeling to be in the cozy comforts of the office and watching the heavy rains outside. The view outside was so spectacular that most of my colleagues were soon lined up near the window and with all the blinds pulled up, they enjoyed the sight of rain, a welcome change from the scorching hot sun. Some just stayed in their seats and admired the view from their cubicles. It rained like this for 30 odd minutes. Then it stopped. The view outside was fantastic. Everything was spick and span. The buildings were shining, the trees looked much greener and brighter and the cars parked outside were shining clean in the evening sun.
It again started at 19:30. Rains were much heavier this time. And it was very dark outside. Some were waiting to get back home. But the phone calls from home were stopping them. Every phone call was the same.... "Don’t come now – It’s flooded here and the power supply’s gone!"
I had work to do and I smiled at the thought that at least today it worked out right. It was always better to work in office that night than be outside in the rain.
We left around 2200 hrs and boy, were the roads flooded. As much as it was good to watch the rain from inside, it was worse outside. It is a typical sight in monsoon, in nearly every city in India -The streets are flooded and the footpaths are muddy, sometimes even under water.Walking is a pain and driving becomes a nightmare especially if it’s a two wheeler. Most of the city is powerless....On our way back home, I watched all of it…As I neared home, a part of road was under water and the traffic was diverted to the other lane.
Monsoons are the toughest times to be in India specially places where it rains the heaviest.
No surprise, the next day’s front-page news was about the rains. It rained a whopping 40 mm on Friday! There were losses of lives and property too. Very sad to read about it.
And the weekend was ...well... washed away in rains. That heralds the start of rainy weekends for some four months now…..And just as I say this, I hear the rains again! Monsoon has surely begun in India.
It again started at 19:30. Rains were much heavier this time. And it was very dark outside. Some were waiting to get back home. But the phone calls from home were stopping them. Every phone call was the same.... "Don’t come now – It’s flooded here and the power supply’s gone!"
I had work to do and I smiled at the thought that at least today it worked out right. It was always better to work in office that night than be outside in the rain.
We left around 2200 hrs and boy, were the roads flooded. As much as it was good to watch the rain from inside, it was worse outside. It is a typical sight in monsoon, in nearly every city in India -The streets are flooded and the footpaths are muddy, sometimes even under water.Walking is a pain and driving becomes a nightmare especially if it’s a two wheeler. Most of the city is powerless....On our way back home, I watched all of it…As I neared home, a part of road was under water and the traffic was diverted to the other lane.
Monsoons are the toughest times to be in India specially places where it rains the heaviest.
No surprise, the next day’s front-page news was about the rains. It rained a whopping 40 mm on Friday! There were losses of lives and property too. Very sad to read about it.
And the weekend was ...well... washed away in rains. That heralds the start of rainy weekends for some four months now…..And just as I say this, I hear the rains again! Monsoon has surely begun in India.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Indian Reality TV - Song shows....Absolutely disgusting!
Televised reality singing shows have become as ubiquitous in India as the Personal Computer! Nearly every soap channel in India have their own song shows/contests.
Some bring their participants from the streets and some are classically trained. However esoteric the source may be, the shows are no less of any well-directed drama these days. Take for example the stupid Idol series, which had its roots in Pop Idol of UK. It soon inspired American Idol, Australian Idol, New Zealand Idol, our very own Indian Idol and many more. I have watched a few episodes of the Idol series….some out of compulsion some out of curiosity.
Talking about Indian shows apart from Indian Idol, there are nearly half a dozen shows telecasted on almost all popular TV Channels. …
Zee TV 's got their insane Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge series going for sometime now. The Sa Re Ga Ma Pa series got so famous that Zee has introduced it on its regional language channels too for e.g. on Zee Marathi. What’s more they even had Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Kids Challenge!
Sa Re Ga Ma brings singers/mentors in the form of some big names from the Bollywood or Indian music industry. Each mentor has his own participant on the show and the participants battle it out in the middle. Sometimes instead of the participants, the mentors battle it out and criticize/argue each other like school kids. In addition to the singing skills of the participants we also get to witness some brilliant altercating skills of the judges. It adds spice but it gets hell boring after a while.
One of the prime reasons, I hate Sa Re Ga Ma Pa is irritating Mr Himesh Reshammiya. He is one of the judges on the show. Boy,this guy sucks big time. He makes my skin crawl.I just love to hate him and his songs. He sings through his nose most of the time and his songs are a torture. I guess they should be used in prison cells or courts. The accused may instead prefer to live in solitary confinement rather than listening to such annoying crappy stuff. His so called songs have got a very few lines and he sings them over and over again in a song which is very irritating.
The other reason I hate Sa Re Ga Ma Pa is that 99.99% of the songs being sung are Indipop or Bollywoodish. And Indipop = mediocre. Same goes for modern Bollywood songs. No one even attempts to sing different.
Coming back to Indian Idol…The only good part about this show is that the first coupla rounds are at least interesting in the sense that there are some crazy candidates coming in and demonstrating something more than singing skills. They dance, act, cry, beg, dress wierdly and do all things possible! Well, at least that makes me laugh.
There was this guy on some Indian Idol show….He starts to sing…Ahem!! ….I mean he was making an attempt to sing but was miles away from melody. Anu Malik stops him in between and says,.” Dude, this is Indian Idol. You can’t sing. There is no way you can even participate in any competition.” The guy goes “ Who’s here to win or participate? I just wanted to see and meet you”. LOL! That was funny.
One more...A guy in Indian Idol 2007 walks in with a disheveled look. He starts singing and Alisha Chinai asks him to stop. The guy doesn’t. He keeps on singing. Alisha goes nuts….And to add to the humor…Anu Malik and Alisha Chinai tell the other judges that they would go for a short walk until this guy keeps singing. They literally walk out and come after a while and the guy is still singing!!…Anu Malik goes “अरे तुम अभी तक यहीं हो ?” (Oh, Are you still here?). Then they pass their verdict that he can’t go to the second round. This guy walks in to shake hands with all the judges and just as he finishes shaking hands with the judges, he grabs the Indian Idol Ticket for the next round and runs out of the room! The security stops him. Anu Malik comes out running and snatches the ticket from this guy and says “ Indian Idol कोई मजाक नही है” (Indian Idol is not a joke)!!
Incidents like these make it more interesting. But after the first few rounds, when most of the participants are short listed, Indian Idol gets monotonous like the other song shows. They all sing the same stuff - Indipop songs and some ridiculous tunes from Bollywood.
I hate Australian Idol and American Idol for the same reason. They all sing pop songs! Come on ppl. Where is Rock? Nope, we won't get to see that in India atleast. All the telecasters/producers want is TRP ratings. And audiences in India want popish tunes all the time. That means there are going to be more useless disgusting shows like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and Indian Idol. Hell with that...I will stick to VH1. A true music channel playing all kinds music ranging from Rock, Metal to Hip Hop, RnB and Trance… except of course shitty Indipop. Thanks VH1. You Rock.
Some bring their participants from the streets and some are classically trained. However esoteric the source may be, the shows are no less of any well-directed drama these days. Take for example the stupid Idol series, which had its roots in Pop Idol of UK. It soon inspired American Idol, Australian Idol, New Zealand Idol, our very own Indian Idol and many more. I have watched a few episodes of the Idol series….some out of compulsion some out of curiosity.
Talking about Indian shows apart from Indian Idol, there are nearly half a dozen shows telecasted on almost all popular TV Channels. …
Zee TV 's got their insane Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge series going for sometime now. The Sa Re Ga Ma Pa series got so famous that Zee has introduced it on its regional language channels too for e.g. on Zee Marathi. What’s more they even had Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Kids Challenge!
Sa Re Ga Ma brings singers/mentors in the form of some big names from the Bollywood or Indian music industry. Each mentor has his own participant on the show and the participants battle it out in the middle. Sometimes instead of the participants, the mentors battle it out and criticize/argue each other like school kids. In addition to the singing skills of the participants we also get to witness some brilliant altercating skills of the judges. It adds spice but it gets hell boring after a while.
One of the prime reasons, I hate Sa Re Ga Ma Pa is irritating Mr Himesh Reshammiya. He is one of the judges on the show. Boy,this guy sucks big time. He makes my skin crawl.I just love to hate him and his songs. He sings through his nose most of the time and his songs are a torture. I guess they should be used in prison cells or courts. The accused may instead prefer to live in solitary confinement rather than listening to such annoying crappy stuff. His so called songs have got a very few lines and he sings them over and over again in a song which is very irritating.
The other reason I hate Sa Re Ga Ma Pa is that 99.99% of the songs being sung are Indipop or Bollywoodish. And Indipop = mediocre. Same goes for modern Bollywood songs. No one even attempts to sing different.
Coming back to Indian Idol…The only good part about this show is that the first coupla rounds are at least interesting in the sense that there are some crazy candidates coming in and demonstrating something more than singing skills. They dance, act, cry, beg, dress wierdly and do all things possible! Well, at least that makes me laugh.
There was this guy on some Indian Idol show….He starts to sing…Ahem!! ….I mean he was making an attempt to sing but was miles away from melody. Anu Malik stops him in between and says,.” Dude, this is Indian Idol. You can’t sing. There is no way you can even participate in any competition.” The guy goes “ Who’s here to win or participate? I just wanted to see and meet you”. LOL! That was funny.
One more...A guy in Indian Idol 2007 walks in with a disheveled look. He starts singing and Alisha Chinai asks him to stop. The guy doesn’t. He keeps on singing. Alisha goes nuts….And to add to the humor…Anu Malik and Alisha Chinai tell the other judges that they would go for a short walk until this guy keeps singing. They literally walk out and come after a while and the guy is still singing!!…Anu Malik goes “अरे तुम अभी तक यहीं हो ?” (Oh, Are you still here?). Then they pass their verdict that he can’t go to the second round. This guy walks in to shake hands with all the judges and just as he finishes shaking hands with the judges, he grabs the Indian Idol Ticket for the next round and runs out of the room! The security stops him. Anu Malik comes out running and snatches the ticket from this guy and says “ Indian Idol कोई मजाक नही है” (Indian Idol is not a joke)!!
Incidents like these make it more interesting. But after the first few rounds, when most of the participants are short listed, Indian Idol gets monotonous like the other song shows. They all sing the same stuff - Indipop songs and some ridiculous tunes from Bollywood.
I hate Australian Idol and American Idol for the same reason. They all sing pop songs! Come on ppl. Where is Rock? Nope, we won't get to see that in India atleast. All the telecasters/producers want is TRP ratings. And audiences in India want popish tunes all the time. That means there are going to be more useless disgusting shows like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and Indian Idol. Hell with that...I will stick to VH1. A true music channel playing all kinds music ranging from Rock, Metal to Hip Hop, RnB and Trance… except of course shitty Indipop. Thanks VH1. You Rock.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
An alrite weekend
Friday night: Like a normal person, I love Friday nights. This Friday night was at ZKs- A popular restaurant/lounge/sports bar owned by the cricketer Zaheer Khan. Retro music after a long time made it a fantastic night out.
Saturday Morning: It started with its usual shock value when my alarm went off at 7 am on Saturday!! I am going for Java Classes since the last month and half on Saturday. That spoils my binge on sleep. Can’t help it. There’s no other time suitable on the weekend for my teacher and weekdays are very unpredictable for me. Being in Software industry where almost everyone loves working late hours, I don’t know my ‘back home by’ time. It varies everyday and most of these days it is consistently beyond 8:30 pm. Thanks to Test Execution phase. So had to settle for 8-12 slot on Sat morning.
Yesterday’s lessons were on the String class. It was as usual…we (Ashish and me) asked fewer questions than expected. That incited our teacher and we got a kind of a dressing down you can say. And incomplete assignments, rather untouched assignments had already annoyed her. You see, every week we have these assignments to do. We write them down with great pleasure on Saturday. But when it comes to doing the assignments at home, we don’t even manage to open the book to read the assignment. We normally open our books the next Saturday at 8am! We call that “A weekly review of Java” :D.
There is one more guy, Shripad who comes in at 10 am for Advanced Java.
We have sort of a break when he comes. Yesterday was no different. We discussed the current hot question in the software industry…Which is better? Java or ASP.net? Now this kind of a question is very similar to the “Manual Transmission vs. Automatic Transmission” in Automobile industry. You know that it’s a never-ending debate and it was same here. Although I am not an expert in either of the technologies, I can safely say…both are equally excellent. But hard-core Java supporters will always find more than one thing in ASP.net that can be done in a better way in Java. …Pro ASP.net guys aren’t behind. They manage to strike back with equal force. Anyways, I am not going into the technical details of each language. If you want more details on these, check them out here…or here ...
We have sort of a break when he comes. Yesterday was no different. We discussed the current hot question in the software industry…Which is better? Java or ASP.net? Now this kind of a question is very similar to the “Manual Transmission vs. Automatic Transmission” in Automobile industry. You know that it’s a never-ending debate and it was same here. Although I am not an expert in either of the technologies, I can safely say…both are equally excellent. But hard-core Java supporters will always find more than one thing in ASP.net that can be done in a better way in Java. …Pro ASP.net guys aren’t behind. They manage to strike back with equal force. Anyways, I am not going into the technical details of each language. If you want more details on these, check them out here…or here ...
Here’s a distinct advantage of being a Software Tester. Who cares about the technology? It might be coded in Java, COBOL, ASP.net,C++ or any other language. We just love to see the application crash. Creative destruction is the right way to put it. I so love the term Black Box.
Siesta: I absolutely love this part. I try to make for my lack of sleep accrued over the last 6 days in part one of this Siesta. Part two is on Sunday. Oh yesterday was sweet…Slept for 3 hours straight.
Saturday night: Saturday nights are sin if we don’t go out. Hemant, Abhi and I went for quiet dinner to a nearby popular restaurant. There I came across one of the weirdest species of Maitre d’ restaurant. We ordered the appetizers and waited for 20 mins. This guy, Maitre d’ hands us the menu for main course. After 5 mins he asks us “ So what about the order?”. We, almost unanimously ask him “ What about the appetizers? It’s been ages since we ordered and there’s no sign of it.” What does he do? He walks away with an unconcerned look without even bothering to offer a simple apology. We decided right then – No tip for this idiot. He was one of the weirdest human beings I have ever seen. Not once, did I see him smiling to any of the people there in the restaurant. Maybe he was a robot. But robots do have some basic etiquette. And this guy was miles away from etiquette.. So that rules out the possibility of a robot. Maybe he was just like that. Anyways…the dinner wasn’t so bad. We discussed love life and how unlucky it is to fall in love in India. Some stupid things you might say.
Coming home we decided to sleep on terrace coz it gets bloody hot at night in the flat. When I came up on terrace, Hemant and Abhijit were busy watching “The Girl Next Door” on Hemant’s laptop. Nah, it’s not the movie that we were interested in. We just wanted to watch the lovely Elisha Cuthbert. Anyways we fell asleep midway thru the movie and that was mostly due to the soothing cool breeze at night.
Coming home we decided to sleep on terrace coz it gets bloody hot at night in the flat. When I came up on terrace, Hemant and Abhijit were busy watching “The Girl Next Door” on Hemant’s laptop. Nah, it’s not the movie that we were interested in. We just wanted to watch the lovely Elisha Cuthbert. Anyways we fell asleep midway thru the movie and that was mostly due to the soothing cool breeze at night.
Sunday morning: Started with Sunday Times and classic music on VH1…Me, directly opting to read Sports news and my favorite Bacchi Karkaria and Swaminomics column. After being online for a few hours, I realized it was time for lunch. Oh yeah, I managed to download Java Docs on the third attempt. The previous two somehow managed to fail brilliantly at 60 %. Blame my ISP for that.
And then came Part two of the Siesta. Wish I could do the same on weekdays. Listened to heavy metal on Sunday evening while blogging this one...and went out with for dinner...alone! None of me mates were free and there was no one at home. So had no other option but to eat out alone. I would say, I enjoyed it. More on this later.
That completes my this weekend. Not a sensational one but satisfactory nonetheless. The thought of Monday morning is giving me jitters now.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
I gotta get myself organizized
I have to write my pending diary for two whole weeks. I have to reply mails. I have to practise Java. I have to buy toiletries… and I was gonna join the ‘elusive’ gym. And all this has been accruing for sometime now thanks to my lazy self. Last 5 months have been a whirlwind of activity, mostly office activity. I work for almost 10 hours a day and adding the traveling time makes it 12 hours. That’s half a day lost in work! That makes it 60 hours a week…I was thinking for the past 5 months that I am the only soul in the world whoz got no time to go to the gym or study Java after working like this.
Today I realized that I am the only one to blame. The ‘whinging’ me should do some lessons in Time Management… Oh yeah, I was also gonna appear for ISTQB this March, but you see…me and my procrastinating self made it impossible for me to even for apply for the exam.
And so the title of the blog…'getting myself organizized' which was borrowed from young Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver when he said - One of these days I gotta get myself organizized.
And I announce with big pleasure that today is that day:D
I have studied Management during my Engineering and hence I know that the first step in starting any activity is ‘to plan’.
So, I have devised a very simple (cough cough) foolproof plan to get myself in some bloody action. It’s a five-point plan and here it goes…
1) I need to stay off the computer - I come home after work and the first thing, I do is go online for reading articles and writing stuff…mostly personal blogs like this one. I need to stay away from it and do pending stuff. (Something inside me is saying...You are gonna have a real hard time giving this one up)
2) If I must be on the computer, then it will be only for coding/studying or updating me iPod. Or lets put it other way - I will code one program each day. It sounds hard. But I will give it a try.
3) I am gonna get up half an hour early and exercise. (Oh my sweet sleep)…Nah, I shouldn’t complain…. Oh yeah, I should sleep half an hour earlier for that... There I go, I solved this one right here right now.
4) I am gonna plan the whole week ahead on Sunday every week. (What did I just say...Plan the whole week!!!...HAHA...I am gonna have real tough time this Sunday)
5) Lastly and more importantly, I am gonna follow this plan strictly. (I can't stop myself smiling as I typed the last one)
Lets see, how it goes….At least, I made a plan. So that deserves pat on the back and I will do that myself for time being.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
…Power Saving, Again!
I love this topic. (Refer my earlier post on Power Cuts)… And the reason for this post is an excellent article that I read on web on power saving that can be achieved by simple shut down of the ubiquitous computer… Think that shutting down computers won’t contribute much to the grid…think again! You’ll be shocked at the amount of electricity wasted just for doing nothing…. Have a read. Worth your time.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Ah, those buggers - Telemarketers - डोक्यात जातात रे हे लोक
It’s about 3ish on a Friday arvo and I think of getting a Latte, as work’s busy like anything since morning and I need a break…. Just as I was about to CTRL+ALT+DEL and make a quick dash to the coffee machine, my mobile starts playing Eye of the Tiger – Survior song (That’s my ring tone). It’s an unknown number… I was expecting a call from my friend, so thinking that it was him, I answer the call with a very excited ‘Hello!’. My excitement turns to utter disgust when the voice at the end says “Good Afternoon Sir, We have a new special Credit Card for you”. Without letting her completing her sentence, I say politely, “M’am, I do not need any new special, ordinary or extraordinary card. Thanks”. I also remember telling her to take me off their list for the 101th time. They (X bank) had called me about 100 times before and I had told them to take me off my list. But nothing’s happened for the last 100 attempts. So I had given up…. Anyways, I get back to my workstation with a Latte. The phone rings again. This time there is no one talking. I hear unintelligible noises in the background. Then a lady says, “ Sorry for the wait, Sir, Actually we have a very special Credit Card scheme from X Bank”. Furious at the second call in just 5 mins, I cut her midway before she starts throwing crap and this time, I decide to be a little rude. I go “What the hell is going on? This is the second call in 5 mins…Call your manager”. The lady says ‘Sorry’ and hangs up. My colleague, Rahul, gives me a bemused look and asks, “ What’s wrong?”. When I tell him about these bugging calls from a call center.…he gives me a big smile. He knows that everyone working in our software company have been a victim of such calls.
I recall a funny incident a long time back when I had just joined the company. We were in some meeting room in Viman nagar Office. My Project manager and my TL along with my team are discussing the weekly updates and the meeting room phone rings. No guesses here. It’s the same bloody old call center calling again to sell some Credit Cards! My Project Manager calmly responds back saying that we are in a meeting. There’s a smirk on his face and we all are smiling. The call relieved the heavy duty project related atmosphere in the room. But that was then when it was the first call I had experienced. Now, it’s quite different. These days, I get a little more than irritated when I get the calls. Can’t help it….There has to be some law to be able to stop these bloody call centers calling again and again offering the same old foolish stuff on phones-Credit Cards and Personal Loans…
I am also impressed with the new innovative ways (Pure lies) of selling employed by some call centers….Thursday morning, I get a call from a liar…err a telemarketer…She goes ‘ Good Morning Sir, Thank you for applying for a Y Bank’s Credit Card”! I was stunned….I mean, I can’t remember to the faintest of my memory if I had ever called Y Bank or visited their website, leave alone applying for a credit card. I go, “ I never applied for a Credit Card!” and she replies plainly “ Sorry Sir” and hangs up!!….A preposterous reply, which makes it very clear that she lied ...
I never used to hate telemarketers/cold callers so much as I have started hating them off late. In fact I worked for a call center in the spring of 2003 in Melbourne, Australia and let me be honest here; I had my worst stint there selling phone cards. I was there for a brief period of 2 weeks. From day one, I realized, that’s selling’s not my cuppa tea . I am cognizant about the fact telemarketing isn’t easy at all. Harsh targets and the flak that these guys get from the customers make telemarketing and cold calling a mentally stressful job. But that doesn't mean using‘lies’ to get your way. I never lied when I was making calls for those two weeks. Neither did any of me mates. Anyways, I am not going into the ethics of telemarketing.
…But it’s about time I come up with some brilliant ways of tackling these pesky callers.
Maybe I should try that Jerry Seinfeld line next time I get a telemarketing call
I can't talk now, but why don't you give me your home number and I'll call you tonight". When the telemarketer hesitates, he continues "Oh, do you not like getting calls at your home from strangers? Well now you know how I feel" before hanging up. "
I guess, humor should work!
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