The City Slicker

Yes, all South Indians are Madrasi

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:50:00 +0530

Although, I’m not guilty of doing that, but I find several south Indian folks get offended by the use of the loose term - Madrasi - for them. Of course, they are not Tamilians, all of them, and want their Mallu, Kannada, et al identitites.

It’s not ignorance, but history. Under the British rule, for a long time, Madras Presidency included most of South India including parts of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, and Karnataka. A reference to that people from that region, hence became Madrasi. It’s culturally intact since then.

I’m not defending the geographicaly or culturally challanged individuals, but attempting to save offence. This is not a flame. Stop the jokes, already.

So Long, Microsoft!

Mon, 30 May 2011 02:47:00 +0530

FAQs

Have you quit Microsoft?
May 30, 2011 is my last day at Microsoft. Yes, I have. I joined on July 30, 2007.

Really? You were always a fan!
I still am. I love Microsoft. I’ve met some awesome folks and participated in some delicious discussions that have made me learn so much and given me some great perspectives.

Then why leave?
I leave in no grudge. And their is no love lost. I had to do something new that gives me greater value, and here I am. I need to make more money too to counter the fuel-price hike! I might shed a tear or two as I surrender my Orange badge.

Exit from the MVP group?
Well, technically, yes. I’m not in the Microsoft MVP Award program team anymore nor an MVP. However, I’ve made some great friendships and a fine network of like-minded folks within the group which would stay forever. I’ll continue to work with the same people, and on similar things.

So, what will you do?
I want to start things on my own. Do some consulting jig, some social media or online marketing strategy, web content assignments, and some technology trainings. Either or all. Now is the time to work on the framework of freelance worker.

How can we help?
Think of me when you have the requirement of hiring a vendor/contractor for any of the offerings. Beer would be on me. My profile et al is at www.baxiabhishek.info.

We’ll miss you at the next tech event!
Wait! Communities are my forever indulgence and I’ve loved to participate, moderate, and mentor several of those since my college days. I will continue to participate actively in online and offline communities, with the forever evident bias for Microsoft!

Brooklyn Meets Bollywood

Wed, 11 May 2011 10:16:00 +0530

Brooklyn Meets Bollywood

Amazon: Building Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company

Tue, 03 May 2011 00:15:51 +0530

The title of this post is actually the email signature of the Amazon Kindle support representative that I communicated with. I think I agree.

Here’s the story…

On my recent trip, my Kindle’s display went kaput. After some chest pain, and mild heart-attack, I called up Amazon Kindle support. Customer details, and a couple of questions later…

‘I’m sorry your Kindle isn’t working. I’m sending you a replacement Kindle via Priority International Courier to get it to you as soon as possible.’

Wow! In less than five minutes? Blood pressure returned to close to normal.

A replacement order was created with charges and immediately refunded. The charge for the order was $204.93 ($139 Kindle + Custom and import duties), and the refund was the same amount. Essentially, no charges to me.

3 days later, in India, the replacement Kindle was received. A little dance happened.

I now have to ship the conked-off Kindle back to a Kentucky warehouse within 30 days. Okay, will do. But Amazon wants me to do a small extra bit.

‘Please indicate the cost of shipping you paid with your return. We’ll use this amount to reimburse your return shipping costs.’

Holy schmoly! After I’ve shipped out the malfunctioning unit, I have to go to a provided link and claim refund of shipping costs back to Amazon. Blood pressure shoots up in glee!

If you’re floored by the awesome customer service, here’s the icing on the cake and choco-chip on my waffle… I bought the Kindle in US. At the time of purchase, I paid $139 only, and no Custom or import duties. Amazon chose to pay those for the replacement!

Vote for Gurgaon

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:38:35 +0530

Vote for Gurgaon

Air India vs. Kingfisher vs. Jet Airways

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:09:00 +0530

I’ve always been a Kingfisher loyalist, and always had reason for preferring it over Jet Airways. Recently I flew Air India (DEL-BLR), and can now give more positive reasons for the Kingfisher loyalty.

In-flight Entertainment: Jet goes down here! I flew Jet Airways (DEL-BLR) last year, and realized that the aircraft doesn’t have in-flight entertainment. I fail to understand why a premium airlines wouldn’t have in-flight entertainment when the rival airline Kingfisher has the same on each flight. With Air India, the options are limited while Kingfisher has the broadest repertoire of movies, music, and shows in-flight.
Food: Incidentally, never flown Air India, I was advised to book AI since the food was better than Kingfisher. It wasn’t, and the platter was an unimaginative combo. Also, no welcome drink (lemonade). Jet Airways is par with Kingfisher I guess, but I wouldn’t know since I didn’t take the meal only time I flew Jet.
Crew: Kingfisher and Jet Airways have friendly staff, and smiles thrown at you all around. I like that as a customer. With Air India, I wasn’t treated to a smile at the baggage check-in, while entering the flight, or at the exit. Nobody checks on you in the flight for extra bottle of water or another cup of coffee. Thank you Kingfisher for treating me as a guest, not a luggage.
Extras: The cutlery at Air India is very basic, while Kingfisher and Jet Airways have very fine cutlery and dishes. Air India didn’t put those plastic zip locks on my checked-in bags. Isn’t it the usual practice? All my KF bags have always been zip-locked.

Remembering papa...

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:22:12 +0530

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away to the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
That, we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way
which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect.
Without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolute unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you.
For an interval.
Somewhere. Very near.
Just around the corner.

All is well.

Sent as a remembrance message by my good friend, Akhil, on dad’s first death anniversary.

Missing Girl Found: Social Media Put to Good Use

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 12:26:04 +0530

What an awesome social media success story!

A young girl ran away from home; daughter of a Microsoft employee.

The internal discussion lists spread the message and then social media took over. Several Microsoft folks tweeted and posted updates about the missing girl.

A manager at Fairwood Safeway saw her picture and recognized her, called it in and the family immediately went to pick her up.

Big props to the entire Microsoft community who tweeted, posted, shared or otherwise spread the word about this little girl – what a fantastic bunch of people you are!

A message from her mom:
A manager at Fairwood Safeway called us and thought she recognized her- we drove over and it was her- we ran in and got her. She is so tired, dirty and scared- she slept on a sidewalk outside the library last night. She is home, she is safe- thank you ALL for your thoughts and prayers and well wishes and sharing the information, I know that it was all the immediate help, love and care that brought her home.

I’ve avoided taking names of the people involved in the post. Let’s respect their privacy.

Let the Games Begin!

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 23:25:00 +0530

So, here we are. A few days to the XIX Commonwealth Games 2010. This post is an emotional and optimist piece, because in sports and all things India, that’s how I live. Also, I’ll keep aside the corruption and criticism marred face of the Games for the aforesaid reasons. Not that I’m in denial, but I’m in hope and in spirits.

Look at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium or the refreshed Connaught Place. Magnificent. Look at the slowly and steadily getting better roads, better signage, and extended Delhi Metro network. Look at all the good things that have come along with the Games.

Hospitality is a hallmark of Indian culture, and I find it unreasonable when Delhites crib about the segregated lanes or traffic crawls. Make way for the guests, no?

In a period, where Indian sportsmen are conquering the world and we have a bunch of medal hopefuls, I find it unreasonable for people to skip the Games and take a vacation out of Delhi. Cheer for the Games, and India, no?

When the media and all arm-chair critics are criticizing the irresponsible authorities, organizing committe, and the Government, I find it unreasonable that you do not follow traffic arrangements, refuse to be civil, and be nice. Be a good citizen, no?

Let’s give the Games a chance. And much cheer and applause. For all the toiling workers who worked out the infrastructure despite the rains, and the corrupt processes. For all the traffic personnels who are out there on the roads trying to keep the mess to a minimum. For all the labourers who are painting or tiling the sidewalks as you drive past by them mumbling niceties at the Games. For the players. For the sports. For India.

I’ll be watching a few games, and following the Games. Hi5!
If you’re a Bombay guy reading this, you know #DelhiBeatsMumbai ‘coz we got the Games! :)

Times of India surprise with a great editorial portal!

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:40:00 +0530

Times of India surprise with a great editorial portal!:

After the recent refreshes of Times of India and Economic Times sites, Times Internet Limited (TIL) has just launched a fine content portal.

For all the years, I hated Times’s efforts on the Web, but guess they’ve progressed by leaps and bounds now. Now hoping they’ll take pop-ups off the TOI homepage?

Hat tip to @urbaneye.

iPad vs. Kindle. Not.

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:19:00 +0530

A few days back, around the Kindle 3 (not official version name, but third generation in releases) launch, I tweeted saying the Kindle is now tempting me, and I might just take a dive into the world of eBook readers, and add another gadget to my bag.

Surprisingly, several folks on my social networks advised me to go for iPad (with the Kindle app), which is ’obviously shinier and better.’

And then I wondered. Not just me being an Apple anti-fan, I still think this advice was wrong on many counts, probably swayed by Apple’s ‘magical’ hype.

Price: $139/$189 Kindle vs. $499 iPad
Whie I specified, I was intending to go for the Wi-fi Kindle, at $139, it is clearly a case of apples vs. oranges, or maybe even cashewnuts vs. oranges.

Battery Life: 3 weeks vs. 10 hours
Kindle’s battery life with wireless always on is a claimed 3 weeks. On a long trip, 10 hours is all you would read?

Reading experience:
There is a reason why no eBook reader in the market has a colored screen - LCD, LED, or any other display technology. iPad, or any other handheld device, does not offer the paper-like screen or the optimum contrast and sharp display to read indoors as well as in sunlight.

Thoughts? iPad is a great consumption device, but I prefer my Dell Mini notebook, which also allows me to do ‘real work’ and run regular Windows apps.

P.S. I did explore other eBook readers like Nook and Sony Reader, but they don’t work in India.

P.P.S. A couple of Indian eBook readers have also been launched - Infibeam’s Pi and Wink. No verdict on them, as yet.

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep; Watch some porn, and go to sleep."

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:09:00 +0530

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep;
Watch some porn, and go to sleep.”

- A single man’s nightlife. Original quote.

25th Eye Donation Fortnight

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:09:09 +0530

I’m happy to be invited by Dr.Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital for ‘Amarjyoti’, an eye-donation function/campaign, organized on the occasion of 25th Eye Donation Fortnight observed from 8/7-9/8 in India. The objective of the event is to promote the message of eye donation.

Dad was always ahead in social initiatives, with female foeticide and pulse polio campaigns really close to his heart, and I’ll be proud to represent him for his eyes that helped two corneally blind people see the world.

The families of donors would be honored by Dr. Kiran Bedi.

P.S.
More than 12 lakh people in India are waiting for cornea in donation.

Photo

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:57:52 +0530

Kotak: Lies and Fraud

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:47:00 +0530

Please read this, and share with your network to avoid being duped.

Over two months back, I did a small investment with Kotak after a telemarketing call with Ashish Gupta (9278865096).

I was promised:

Life Insurance in name of my mother
No exit load
Partner offer (with Apollo Munich) of medical insurance for my mother of the value of INR 100,000

The agent - Narendar (9953870604) - visited me at work and got the paperwork done. After two weeks I recieved the policy document, and the pain.

Issues:

Life Insurance was in my name
Exit load was applicable
No information on the medical insurance

Repeated calls to Ashish Gupta on the number went without response for three weeks. He was usually out for lunch or meetings, as I was told.

Once I connected with him, and he said he was travelling (for lunches?) and unavailable. He promised me to get the life insurance name rectified and get me the application number for Apollo Munich, which then I can follow up as well. I ignored the exit load promise, as I understood it was just a false claim by the agent.

Meanwhile, my sister enquired from another Kotak agent, Rahul (9899996634), who said there is no such partner offer running. However, he offered to get the life insurance thing rectified and took the policy document promising a week’s turnaround time. Since then, he’s gone untraceable.

It’s been over six weeks, and I have no communication from Ashish. Repeated calls to his number have had calls taken by his colleagues who say they’ll pass on my message.

Pooja said she’ll call back in five, and never did. Subhash Yadav, the supervisor, said he’ll get Ashish to call and sort this by 5:30 that evening, hasn’t responded as well.

If you get a call from these agents or numbers (in brackets), please do not make any investment. Better still, tell them that you’ve heard of my experience.

I’ll write to Kotak’s grievance cell soon since the customer support has not been helpful. Next stop would be a complaint to IRDA.

Delhi Traffic Police on Twitter

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:20:45 +0530

@dtptraffic

If there’s one social media effort from a government agency that I’d really appreciate, this is it. They even made it to the popular blog, Mashable, for booking traffic offendors through Facebook photos.

Delhi Traffic Police is on Twitter giving traffic updates all the time, and in a burst in rainy and traffucked day like today. If you don’t use Twitter on mobile, make sure you subscribe to their updates via SMS.

*salute*

http://economictimes.com

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 23:27:52 +0530

http://economictimes.com:

Times Internet Limited, the internet arm of the Times of India group, has been a pioneer in Web business under the Indiatimes brand. Sadly though, I’ve forever hated the portals/services they’ve introduced, much because of the shoddy Web development and user experience they offered.

The Times of India site did a refresh some time back (@urbaneye, the CEO of Indiatimes, tells me that another revamp of TOI is coming next week), and yesterday ET’s site did a major revamp, and finally is a fine news portal, fitting to it’s status as the leading business daily in print.

Maaza Milky Delite - Coke's New Thing

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:15:00 +0530

Coca-Cola India has launched Maaza Milky Delite, a blend of mango pulp and milk. It is priced at Rs 15 for a 200-ml pack.

Coke would test market for two months in Kolkata before launching it nationally.

Wipermen! Cyber City, Gurgaon

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:44:43 +0530

Wipermen!

Cyber City, Gurgaon

http://paisa.com

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:14:56 +0530

http://paisa.com:

A financial portfolio management service.

Although I’ve never used it, but I guess http://moneycontrol.com also has a similar service. Incidentally, paisa.com allows you to migrate your portfolio from moneycontrol to paisa.com.