Suddenly, one day you ask yourself!

Suddenly, one day you ask yourself: "What is this adding to my value as a person and as a professional?" If you ask this question consistently and the answer to this question is "Nothing" consistently, then its time to sit down and review.

I found myself asking this question consistently during the IPL (even though I saw it almost in full). The answer to the question was also almost "Nothing" always.

Okie, Lalit Modi achieved one of his dreams through IPL. Yes, Preity learned how to do business. Yes, Shahrukh films might just sell a little more in Bengal now. How does all this help you as an individual?

Who will watch the matches then if everyone follows this line of thought? To start only, only a few will even think about this. Even less would actually try to do anything about it and only some would actually do something. Those some would probably add some value to themselves as a person in most of the things they do.

Ways to improve customer satisfaction for the
Real Estate Industry

I bought a flat in Ferrous in Faridabad. I have been interacting with them for the past 2 years and as a customer I have learnt things which I feel they miss and can improve upon. All of them are generic, so should help in improving Customer Satisfaction for anyone belonging to the Real Estate, provided they are willing to do these small things.

1. If a customer has taken a Construction Linked Plan, make an Excel Sheet for the customer with a breakup on how much each installment would be. Provide this Excel Sheet to the customer and if anything changes in the sheet, provide a new one. I do not believe the company does not maintain such a sheet and if they do, then how much would it cost them to send it to the customer. Zero bucks.
   
2. Send them a monthly update (kind of newsletter every 1st day of the month) on how things are progressing. It gives customer satisfaction and costs Zero Bucks. Sometimes even the news that not much progress has been made but we are on track can satisfy customers.
3. Provide a tentative plan to the customer on when the next installement would be due. It helps the customer to organize their finances. Customer is not generally aware how much time it would take to meet the next milestone for the next installment. For ex. How will I know when the first floor is ready and after how much time 4rd floor would be ready?

How IPL can help Indian Cricket?

By now, probably everyone realizes that IPL will bring loads and loads of money to BCCI. Thats fine! But the question to be answered is "How will IPL help Indian Cricket (apart from financial power)?". In my opinion, IPL will help in the following ways:

• Indians have been nuts under pressure (specially the old force). Everyone remembers how they lost to Pakistan in Chennai when Sachin got out. Its just one example. Yes, some in the new generation are changing it fast. IPL will only make this process much faster. Indians cannot handle pressure for long. That is why they are not best in Test, close to Best in One Day and Best in 20-20. With 20-20 success, Indian players will learn fast to handle pressure for longer durations and intelligent players will quickly carry it to the longer version.
  
• Platform to perform. With each player winning matches for their teams in IPL, intelligent players will start doing it for India also. And with time, players will realize that it is a team game after all. No dependency on only Sachin or Dhoni or Yuvraj.
• Lots of options. It will keep players always on their toes i.e. if selectors are intelligent enough to use the options.
• Gives more power to the buerocracy. This does not sound good because people sitting outside the field will start calling the shots. Something which ICL scores over IPL. With so many players to choose from, things happening outside the cricket field can spoil it all. And thinking about how things work, this has more than 50% chance of happening.

Sometimes even small things suck!

You can only sip from a cup full of tea but sometimes a cup full of tea can suck also. If you are leading a team and people look upon you as their lead, then even small things can matter sometimes. For ex. what will you think if the leader of the team is served with a cup of tea and then after 10 minutes tea for everyone follows? It is mere symbolic but in one way reflects the personality.

Blogger has lost its colours - An update!

It sometimes helps to be an engineer. You can think about troubleshooting things which have no concern for you or should not have concern for you. But an engineer will remain an engineer and anywhich which does not concern needs to be troubleshooted :)

As I was writing my last blog, the colours on the heading came. Troubleshooting it a little further suggests that when I click on "Publish Post" blogger is first giving an error while posting. Also it removes the colours from the post heading. Then when I publish again after painting it back in colours, the colours stay.

Blogger guys, if this helps, then solve it! I am using Opera by the way these days.

Blogger has lost its colours

I have been noticing for the past few posts that Blogger guys seem to have lost the colours. Everything is black or white for them these days. I used to mark all the headings of my blogs in Bold + Red. I still continue to do the same but the geeks at blogger.com have changed.

How the water department works in Delhi?

I went to pay me water bill (it is the only one left where I still have to go, stand in a line, swear at the heat, pay 10 Rs. extra everytime hoping that not many people are interested in paying the bill after due date only to be disappointed). This is how the department works:

Step I) You give the bill along with the money to a person sitting at the counter in Window One
Step II) The person returns you the remaining cash and passes the bill to a person sitting on his right
Step III) The person on the right makes an entry in the register and passes the bill to the person on his right
Step IV) The person on the right stamps the bill and looks for a person on this right

Oops. Thank God there is no person on his right. So devoid of any choices in life, he follows the last option. He passes the stamped bill to the customer waiting on Window Two.

I think there is only one week in two months where those three persons think it is worth living a life and they want to make the most of it. Who hates attention?

Anyways, from the window outside they look like the three monkeys of "Bura mat suno, bura mat dekho, bura mat karo" fame.

One Night @ The Call Center

In the earlier post "The Three Mistakes of My Life", I had put some paisas on the cost of One Night @ Call Center. And yes, it is Rs. 95. Good that these guys are not getting affected by inflation worries and have kept the price the same. The main reason for it could be that Chetan Bhagats fan following is increasing at a rapid pace and so more quantity helps in more profit at the same cost price.

I have read more than half of it in the past 2 days and Chetan Bhagat certainly has the knack of keeping you glued with his simple way of telling the story.

But it is not One Night @ Call Center with all the dates at different places in NCR for Mr. Shyam.

The Three Mistakes of My Life

Its a novel by Chetan Bhagat. Read it in 3 days. Story was great, maybe because I was reading a novel after quite some time, maybe because our TV describes every picture in this world as a single horizontal line these days, maybe because it came at a price tag of JUST Rs. 95, maybe because the story was really great. Any of the above reasons could hold true, but whatever I enjoyed reading it.

I bought it from Big Bazaar and it was a casual buy. However it emphasizes how important the display area is near the place where your pocket becomes lighter i.e. the billing area. If used properly, it can make your pocket become even lighter. I was lucky enough to escape with just Rs. 95 and at the end of it, I think it was a good buy - the best of the lot of things we bought that day.

After reading the novel, I brought out Five Point Someone which I had bought some time back but had never read it till finish. By the way, it also costs Rs. 95. Is it superstition, Mr. Chetan Bhagat? Maybe not, but definitely on the cheaper side and quality is also good. Maybe they go by quantity and keep their margin less. Whatever, I also need to buy A Night at a Call Center now. Any guesses for what its price would be! My 10 paisas on Rs. 95. 

He will still be an employee!

A casual discussion between friends and what better topic than the currently going on IPL. The conversation slowly went into King XI and Team Mohali and their owner Preity / Ness. The majority believed that Preity was slowly getting closer to Yuvraj (we all have opinions and what better topic to have opinions on than something which combines cricket with entertainment). With all the hugs she gives him after every match and it being highlighted in different newspapers everyday, it only made sense. And of course, Yuvraj would earn and get closer to Ness in coming years. But suddenly someone from somewhere in the coversation came out with this:

At the end of the day, he will still be an employee!

Chalo Hello Karo!

A colleague of mine has a kid around 2 and a half years old. One day after office when he reached back home, his kid was playing along with a friend in the society park. He decided to go up to take some rest. After some time, the kid came back up to the flat along with his friend. As soon as he entered the house, he told him:
Papa, yeh arshit hai. Chalo Hello Karo!

Bedtime Stories

There is a legend about a prisoner who was given his choice of punishment, either a hundred lashes or eating a hundred chillies. He opted for the latter, thinking it would be easier to bear. Part way through the ordeal he pleaded for the whip instead. When his back started bleeding he yelped that he preferred the burning in his mouth. This cycle was repeated until the poor man had endured both a hundred lashes and a hundred chillies.

The moral of the story is that

Learn to stick with your decisions, but do not apply fevicol kyunki "Fevicol ka mazboot jodh kabhi tootta nahin"

Couple or De-Couple

There have been lots of coupling and de-coupling theories doing the rounds of stock markets in India. Everyone is taking a bet on whether Indian Market is coupled or de-coupled with the US market.

My two cents on this:

If US rises, then Indian market is de-coupled and if US falls, then Indian market is coupled.

You might be tempted to call me an internal pessimist, but the past week has been like that.

Why I am a big fan of Sachin Tendulkar?

If cricket is religion, then Sachin is God. These superlatives apart, why am I a big fan of Sachin Tendulkar. Is it because he made India do the Impossible? Partly yes. But that part is only a drop in the ocean.

On Republic Day this year, Indian team was in Australia for the Tour Down Under. The national anthem was played and the cricketers stood as respect to the National Anthem. TV footage showed that only Sachin Tendulkar was the person who was standing in Attention AND SINGING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM.

Now this makes me bow down in respect for that person. Of course he would not have assumed that someone is watching. Otherwise all would have been standing in Attention. BUT HE WAS DOING THIS FROM HIS HEART.

What do you do if your income is between 10 lakh and 10.3 lakh?

Indian Government applies a surcharge of 10% on the total tax if your taxable income crosses 10 lakh. So if your taxable income is 10,001, are you screwed?

Well, the answer is NO. And the government takes care of you. Even though this is a fact not known to many CAs (at-least two I talked to), this is how the calculation will work.

The surcharge cannot exceed the amount being the difference of the total income and ten lakh rupees. So if my income is 10,001 the surcharge cannot cross Re 1.

I was troubled by this for almost the whole of financial year, until I saw last year ITR form which tells how surcharge needs to be calculated and the RELIEF the government providers to corner cases like me.

WHAT A REAL RELIEF IT WAS to read it in the ITR form!

This is my interpretation of the ITR form along with help from a book my office CA was carrying, so I believe it is right. But life has no guarantees and so does this particular piece of information in the blog I shared.

Arz Kiya Hai

Badi mushkil mein hu
Kaise izhaar karun
Tu to khushbu hai
Tujhe kaise giraftar karun

Peanuts at the cost of the customer!

A friend of mine opened an account in one of the largest private banks. The minimum balance he was told to maintain was 5000 and he gave a cheque to the bank along with the application to open the account.

After a few days of his opening the account, he checked his account and to his DISMAY found only around 4000 left. What happened? His enquiries with the bank revealed that
a) Bank charges Rs. 111 per year for the account as maintenance fees
b) If the balance in the account goes below 5000, then the bank penalizes Rs. 750 + service tax.

Now when 5000 was credited to his account, the bank cut Rs. 111. His balance became Rs. 4889 which was less than 5000 and they immediately slapped him with Rs. 750 fine + service tax.

Ooops! The bank gained peanuts at the expense of their customer who lost 20% of this wealth he had associated with the bank. Whos fault is it?

Some Black Lies!

Well, I wonder. I sometimes really wonder why people speak Black Lies. My definition of Black Lies is that the black hidden at the back of grey is so BLACK that you cannot see the grey in front at all. I received a call from a friend in the morning. I was supposed to help him in finding a job in the NCR. For that, I needed his resume and he said he would be sending it to me a week back. I gave him my E-Mail id over the phone. Today, I received a call and he said he had sent it a week back. I said I had not received it. The conversation went like this:

Friend: Oh, I had sent it a week back.
Me: I did not receive it. Maybe you can send it again.
Friend: Can you give your E-Mail id once again?
Me: Its vaibhav.madan@gmail.com
Friend: Can you spell it out for me?
Me: V A I B H A V . M A
Friend (Interrupting): Oh, is there a DOT in between. I forgot lost time.
Me: Okie, its fine. Mail Id is V A I B H A V . M A D A N @ gmail.com
Friend: Okie. I will send it again.

Now wheres the lie in this conversation! Google actually has the feature where the DOT in between VAIBHAV and MADAN is redundant. So according to gmail,

vaibhav.madan@gmail.com ===== vaibhavmadan@gmail.com

So even if he had sent the resume and forgot to walk on the DOTTED line, I should still have received it. So why did he tell me a black lie when I have absolutely nothing personal in it and I would be taking someone elses help to help him out.

I WONDER WHY :)

Some stock market stuff!

I trade using ICICI Direct. I trade for having a safe future (yup with all the risks involved, still I want to believe indian stock market will help me have a safe future) and to increase my knowledge about stock market. I had tried to understand what is meant by Stop Loss Trigger Price but had been unable to do so till I burned my hand and then learnt it.

I had bought 94 stocks of OnMobile for 440. When it listed yesterday, I wanted to sell 30 stocks if the price touched 439. With this intent, I decided to put my Sell Order. At the time of placing my order, OnMobile was trading for around 455. As I did not know what Stop Loss Trigger Price is, I left the field as empty.

The intent was right, but the execution wrong. This order was interpreted an a sell immediately at whatever was the market price and my stocks were sold at 453 which was the market price when the order was accepted.

I learnt from this and this is the right way to do it.

After putting the limit price, I entered the Stop Loss Trigger Price as 445. Now the intention as well as execution were both right. The order was interpreted as "Turn this order into a market order as soon as stock price touches 445" As long as the stock price was more than 445, this order was a passive order. It was turned into an Active order only when the stock price touched 445.

All said and done, I am still unable to understand whats the use of limit price when I put a Stop Loss Trigger Price. The reason I ask this question is because in the above example even though I specify a Limit Price of 439, the stock would be sold if the value of the stock touches 445. So why enter the Limit Price! Maybe I will learn it again with another mistake. As they say, Learn from other peoples mistakes because your life is too short to make all the mistakes. So if anyone knows the answer to my question, please send me the answer before I make a mistake.

Taking Interviews - Part II

In my last blog on Taking Interviews, I had written about few parameters that I use to test out different things in the candidate. In an update, I am sharing a few more new learnings I have had in the past few days:

Stupidity Handling Quotient: Anyone and everyone in this world has been stupid at one time or the other. It becomes very important for the person I am interviewing to have a High Stupidity Handling Quotient. To test it, I act stupid. Sometimes I do not need to :) If I am acting stupid, I would be very interested in seeing the reaction of the other person. Is he / she still smiling and offering me the answers or has the lid blown off? For ex. I will ask them "Tell me the port number on which RADIUS packets are received". Of course I do not expect them to remember it, but if they tell me its easy to find it out in RFC, then they can handle stupids like me :)

Listening Skills: I came across this last week while I was doing a telephonic interview with a candidate and it happened twice in 30 minutes. After asking him a question which he did not know, I explained him the answer. In an over enthusiastic tone, he repeated what I had said, with the only difference that what he said was completely opposite to what I had told him. Now I would have given him the benefit of doubt but it happened again within a few minutes. This was enough to press home the fact that he is not listening properly to the conversation.

Milk to the count of 10

What has the count of 1 to 10 got to do with a glass of milk? If you are somewhere around my age and without a kid (around 30s) then the answer would be impossible to find. But if you are somewhere my age and with a kid, then the answer could be more easy to fathom. One of my friends son has joined school a few days back and so now he gets up early every day to GO TO SCHOOL. My friend has been entrusted with the job of "Making him drink milk every morning". Sounds easy. For me, it does as I have no direct experience but ask my friend.

Every morning, my friend has to count from 1 to 10 and the 10 should not come before the last sip in the glass of milk is down the kids throat. Otherwise, the count begins again.

And wonder what, the kid yesterday taught his mother the count from 1 to 10. So if you believe you have learned the count from 1 to 10 early in your life, then just wait till you are the PROUD PARENT of a kid. You would definitely need to Unlearn to Learn the new count.

Can you fine-tune it before tuning it?

Consider the case where you do not know the frequency of a FM station and you need to find out. What would you do?

Step A: Do automatic tuning
Step B: Do fine tuning to get to the exact frequency

This is the most efficient way of doing it.

But what if you Skip Step A and go off to Step B straight away. In that case, you will get the results but GOD knows when.

So can you fine-tune anything even before tuning it?

My guess would be NO. But you guess it. Managers always have a new trick in their bags. He told one of my colleagues that we will fine-tune the design later. My colleagues reaction was: Boss, when did we tune it in the first place?

Welcome 2008

Yes, it came 29 days back but by BLOG New Year has just arrived. 29 days into the new year and no new blog. It means not lots of things are happening around me or maybe I am not noticing the lots of things happening around me till today. Yup, a thing about which I wanted to write came into my mind and 1 free with 1 blog offer hit me. New year needs to start with a blog dedicated to the NEW YEAR and so here comes the free blog. The actual blog which I wanted to write will follow this one.