ExpertDabbler

I have been seriously contemplating buying a small car for my wife for sometime now because her work place is about 20kms from home and her office timings are from 8.30 till 2.30, hours unknown to the software folks in India.

For starters, she is still learning how to drive a car, so obviously I was looking for an entry level car which does not cost a bomb. The first car which came to my mind was Nano. Okay, here was a small functional car which was cheap, and did it’s job well, or so I thought.

Whenever I mentioned this to my friends, the response has always been unanimous - NoNo.
No one ever has recommended Nano to me till date.

The reasons given are aplenty - cheap build quality, poor after sales service from TATA dealerships, Nano catches fire, Nano sounds like a share auto, etc.

And not surprisingly the sales of Nano, which costs about half of the Maruti Alto lags behind the sales of the latter by a whopping 70-80%.

I personally think that a good percentage of the issues are more related to the perception than to the reality. But if perception leads buyers to run away from this product, then perception indeed has the same effect as reality.

What has really surprised me is the way TATA Motors has been responding. Rather than addressing the issues - changes to the product features and design so that the car does not catch fire, bring in more variants - electric, etc, better pricing strategy, improvements in the interiors, improvements in the after sales service experience, etc, TATA motors seem to be still hell bent on the ‘cheapest’ tag. Cars in India have an aspirational value. People want the products to be cheap but no one ever wants a car which is so cheap that there is no respect for it.

For all we know, the Nano diesel may be a clincher. However, I think the car in its current avatar is average, but the way these people have managed the product really is pathetic. They have lost million customers like me.

I might opt for the Hyundai Eon - it looks decent, the reviews are good, does not cost a bomb, and hopefully Hyundai gives a better after sales experience than the TATA service centers.

Good bye, designer!
Seeing your company website today morning with your BW photo was a shattering experience. Thought to tell you since you cared so much for customer experience.

Thank you for everything.

By
One of the 30 million delighted iPad customers.

It is not often that I am impressed with a debutant music composer’s efforts. And it is even rarer to find the ones I liked liked by other people

But the music of ‘Vaagai Sooda va’ seems to be an exception. First my thangamani strongly recommended the songs, who in turn was referred to by BIL. I chanced upon a review by itwofs KARTHIK, who was clearly impressed with this musician. I listened to this album today. The first thing which really bowled me over is the orchestration. For e.g., it is not often that you will find an orchestration like ‘Aana Aavanna’.

I think it is not easy not to sound Rahmanish in this age. This music director passes that test comfortably.
Congrats and warm welcome Ghibran!

Thangamani’s other earlier rocking recommendation was Yann Tiersen’s tracks for the film ‘Amelie’.

Here’s what YouTube offers for vaagai sooda va

And Amelie

Listen to this, i felt the same emotions i feel when i listen to old IR’s songs.

Ah, after years of playing the role as an angry stupid young man in a demented corporate environment, I realize I am playing the wily old man role now.
Yes, for once the accuser has become the accused. The once upon a time nemesis of all design team damagers has become a damager himself. This is an interim measure. My ex damager told me I am too upright and lack diplomacy, and yet referred my name for the post before he left. Perhaps he saw the potential in me to become demented and cunning.

If I survive the next six months, I would easily be seen as the most straight talking damager in our org. Let us see.

Thanks to surya for reminding me about my eight year stint as a blogger:)
I do not know when I wrote my first post. No, it is not as easy as looking up to my archives.

I had lot of pent up anger and frustration in the initial days. That anger is not there anymore. In the last so many years, I have gained and lost readers, got in touch with and again lost contact with blogger friends - a good percentage I interact with them more over phone and email than via this blog.

I had quite strong opinions about various problems and my solutions in the earlier days. After reading the likes of Charlie Munger, I am much more skeptical of my own solutions. I was very aggressive and impatient in the career front then. Now, my only career goal is early retirement in 2012 end.

I still dress almost like a rag picker, but have learnt to spend time in Pothys and Chennai Silks and select sarees and Churidhar materials, and someone at home appreciates this new skill.

In short, I guess I am a wiser older man now than what I was when I started this blog. But I will continue to write here albeit more irregularly because no other habit of mine forces me to think long and hard as much as writing - no matter what crap one writes in a blog, the payoff is huge for the writer.

So readers, thanks for reading my blog and helping me get better. Apologies if my rants are not to your liking.

We had a team lunch in kebab factory inside the GRT Radisson with office folks. We had a budget to spend on stuff like this, and people were encouraged to consume. ‘If you don’t spend now, you will not get this money next quarter’ type of encouragement always works wonders.
And consume they did by having glass after glass of ‘Long island iced tea’ for 800 bucks plus taxes, not to mention sizzlers and wide variety of kebabs. The bill? close to 50,000. I was wondering if my mom will get a heart attack if only I reveal the amount spent by normal folks on a group lunch + liquor.

Just then, my wife called me to inform that one of my friend who runs a voluntary initiative, has helped her student with some funds for the student’s semester fee. The student was short by 50,000, and my friend with a group contribution has managed 25000. I could not help but think that one group lunch in a five star hotel is worth a budding dentist’s annual fees.

Whoever said the world is fair.

My aunt (mother’s younger sister) passed away in a village near Aruppukottai on Wednesday. She was not keeping well for some time.

As is often the case with death and funerals. Logistics became a total nightmare. Force of circumstances made me land in the village at about 1 AM in the night. And after multiple rounds of tea, and walking the entire stretch of the village thoroughfare-cum-only-road, it became apparent that I had nowhere else to stretch my back but on the wooden pavement on this roadside shop. This is bang on the Aruppukottai-Tuticorin main road.
Fortunately, they have widened this road, and the by-pass goes nearby.

The only saving grace was Radio Mirchi’s non stop music played by a happy but busy Taylor nearby. Indeed it was a different experience.

It made me more aware of the fact that millions in India go to sleep in this way all through their lives.

For all the talk about a budding metro, the attitude of some of the old time business folks in Coimbatore seems amusing and petty minded to say the least.

Sample this, I was in Coimbatore this weekend, and booked a room in HOTEL THAAI, part of the RHR restaurant. The room was not for me, I stay in my friend’s place as usual. But I had some guests coming from nagercoil. The guy at the reception immediately asked ‘how many will stay?’. I told him nobody is going to stay overnight, all would leave in the evening, and yes there will be three people. Apparently, these guys charge not on room sizes but based on the number of people in the room. Now, I can understand if some extra money is charged for the extra person, if they are providing extra bed. But keeping the room tariff flexible sounded new to me. What followed was heights, or depths.

I made the full payment, and went ahead to receive the guests from the Railway Station just opposite, the guests had just arrived in Nagercoil Coimbatore express. It turned out one of the guest had one known person to receive them, and clearly I was not aware of. the plan was to have all if them ready after their baths, so that we can get some work done outside. and so we all proceeded to the hotel. On seeing us, this guy literally stopped us from entering the room under the pretext that we are trying to hoard more people while claiming only three. I clearly told him that we(me and the other friend unison to me) are locals, and the room is only for three people, and we just need to take the guests out as soon as they are finished bathing. The moron claimed they have video cameras installed by the management, and if more people enter the room, the management will vacate the guests, and so we, the non-guests(local) should stay in the reception while the geusts are done with their bath.

I don’t know about others, but after paying close to 2000 bucks for a 12 hour stay, restricting entry to guests friends under some narrow minded pretext sounded way too cheap to me. There was a minor altercation as some of the folks got offended and offered to cancel the reservation, to which came the stock reply,’ sorry we cannot refund you the money’.

When all came out of the hotel in the next 60 minutes after getting ready, this idiot came running asking for room key. Apparently, they take the keys with the hotel guests, to do the house keeping chores. When asked who will take responsibility for any loss of valuables, all we got again was a response given by lunatics.

I know one of the owners of this establishment ever since my school days in Coimbatore, this guy was my school senior. I thought of using this name, but decided that was not of any use. If this is the way HOTEL THAI, coimbatore wants to treat their customers, then to hell with it, and to hell with my school senior. They do not deserve my business anymore. These guys still have that old ‘naicker land lord’ mentality not fit for a modern Coimbatore. I won’t be surprised if they say, ‘dude you have used the toilets 3 times in a day, and so should pay 200 Rs, more besides the agreed upon room rent. So much for a prominent looking hotel which charges almost 2000 bucks and is located bang opposite the Coimbatore junction railway station. I guess it was my mistake, I should have stuck to the usual THE CITY TOWERS.

——

On the contrary, the new Mercedes Benz plying between Ernakulam and Chennai by Parveen Travels, clearly rocks. The bus was at Hopes college stop, CBE at 11.45PM in the night, but I alighted before 6.30 AM in CMBT the next morning. Thats about 6.45 minutes journey for a 500+ km distance, with real push back seats, AC, good foot rest, comfy bed sheets, water, snacks etc. If one is prepared to spend 750 bucks on a Cbe-chennai journey, and if no train tickets are available, this one is worth a try.

I really don’t remember the last time I visited Ooty before my trip last weekend.
I remember going there during my +2 days. I vaguely remember going there once with my uncle’s family when the entire family except me vomitted their stomachs out while coming down. I also remember a photograph I took of my mom and dad together with the botanical garden lawn in the background. So yes, these were very old times.

In the meanwhile, I did not hear many positive things about Ooty. People have been unanimous in their feedback that kodai rocks and Ooty sucks.

But our experience was different. Probably the time of the year, or the group or the fact that everything went according to a plan did the trick. We had a blast in Ooty. We started in the chennai Coimbatore intercity on Friday afternoon, got down at Tiruppur, and took a privately arranged TATA 407 to Ooty. We reached our hotel at 1.45 in the night. En route the gang managed to catch a glimpse of the elephants roaming near the Mettupalayam Ooty highway in the night.

The next day morning, we moved towards 6th mile, 9th mile spots, and PYKARA.
The weather was perfect. We had slight drizzle, and less crowd than what one encounters during the peak season. The folks, especially those who had never seen Ooty before enjoyed every bit of this.

The next day was saved for the usual Botanical gardens, and doddabetta. Nature was at it’s breeziest best in doddabetta. It is not usual to have the rain drizzle and cloud come and hit you from below. Throughout the journey, I managed to watch the much talked about Santhanam comedy in Boss engira Baskaran. I laughed my heart out.
In the afternoon we started our return downhill. We reached Mettupalayam and had very well made Raagi Pakoda at our friends place in Mettupalayam. The dinner was at People’s Park Annapoorna in Coimbatore.

Since the trip was planned in short notice, getting a return ticket from coimbatore on a Sunday night was out of question. We decided to risk it with Parveen travels yet again. We boarded the Coimbatore - chennai Delhi registered DL15 9730 Volvo at 10.30PM. Out of the four times I have boarded a Parveen in recent times, thrice I have taken this precise bus. And Parveen did not disappoint. We started at 10.30 pm from Coimbatore omnibus stand near GP signal, and I was at Koyambedu Rohini bus stop at 6 in the morning.

All in all a satisfying Ooty trip complete with Varky ( at the Indian Bakery in Coonoor) and the Sambhar Idly at Sree Annapoorna, Coimbatore.

Whoever contemplating early retirement should read this book called ‘The 4 hour workweek’.
One, you will get a morale boost.
Two, it gives some perspective about life can atrophy to post retirement and what to do about it.
Three, entrepreneurship is not rocket science.

And so on..lMO worth reading.

Implicit associative test:

Try this video first:
http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/anthony-greenwald-on-the-psychology-of-blink/

Try this URL and the subsequent tests to see the stereotypes.
http://implicit.harvard.edu

Try the demo test.

With all the terror attacks and bombings,I found it hard not to biased in Islamic/middle eastern names test.