A little thing!

Cant resist myself posting this picture here. God's gift man!!! And you guys run behind Shriya and Asin.....

Diaper Technology

Sometime back I had a discussion with my friend about baby-diapers. The basic function of a diaper is to collect the baby's output and make him feel comfortable always. But our discussion was, what will make the mom know that it has become wet, so that she could clean up the baby?

My Friend gave a suggestion out of his wildest thoughts. His notion was -how about fitting LED's in the diaper such that the bulb glows when it comes in contact with the wetness. By this way whenever the diaper becomes wet the LED will glow , and the baby will move here and there with the LED glowing. And mom will naturally know that she has to replace it with a new one!!!

A reason to celebrate?

India is awaiting a reason to celebrate. Well its not Diwali time. Nor did India win a match against Australia. Its Ash-Abhi's wedding ceremony.

This again is their private occasion and why do the public and media blow up the same? Right from their wedding invitation till the marriage hall decorations everything has become a news. Most of all they are cine-actors and not gods. People should be intelligent enough in differentiating the same and not make an idol out of them.

ROTFL...

An ultimate comedy show in 'Star Vijay' television channel.....

Jeeva, Manohar and Swaminathan steal the show and make everyone glued to their seats in front of the small screens on Friday nights. Director Rambala knows the formula of mixing comedy with 'nayyaandi' (tease) double-meaning dialogues.

The crew has not left any actor for that matter when it comes to imitating. Well, that's the crux of the show.The show basically imitates a movie and guess what they make a real flop movie hit here by their witty dialogues. Three cheers for this young chap Jeeva whose hard work is clearly depicted in every show!!!

Mere business! Target to freshers!

X had applied to a number of companies and waited for months to get proper replies from them. In the meanwhile X got an offer for the post of Consultant in an 'ABC' leading training institute in the city. It took X just one week to understand the nature of the work. Yes, X quit the job in a week's time.But why?

Primarily, X had applied for the post of 'Hardware Engineer' seeing an advertisement given by the institute. After four rounds of interview X was selected and was called for getting the offer letter. And was told that this is a hardware-engineer job wherein X will have to also counsel(bribe) people. First day, a mentor there helped X to learn the nature of work. It was a small place divided into many cabins. And each counselling would take place in one such cabins. The counsellor will have a discussion in the name of an interview with the applicants. And guess what, this interview was not for a job but for pursuing a course in that institute paying a lump sum amount of money. And this is kept as a secret till the candidate meets the interview panel. Well, the advertisements given for such interviews as mere eyewash for the educated people. To be more precise these are called training-cum-recruitment programs.

Actually the plan lies in calling graduates for interviews in the name of Hardware Engineer, but end up in canvasing them to join a course worth 30k-40k. And the worst part is they call engineering graduates who could afford a better job for the effort they have put in their studies for four years. They give additional assurance of placing the candidates once the course is over.In recent days these institutes give daring promises of 100% job guarantee. My first thought is would any 'A' class employer opt for such candidates trained from these institutes? If no, then what is the purpose of these training-cum-recruitment programs. Is this another method to earn money? Wont the victims ever think before investing? Hope 'director Shankar' picks up education bribery as his next subject!!!

BPO calling…….

Once out of college, everyone wants to hold a job of their own and not expect anymore pocket money from parents. Ten years back, the scenario was different when our brothers and sisters were out of college. It was very difficult to get a job. But now its not a tough task for any graduate to get settled with a comfortable job, especially for an engineering graduate.The controversy is about whether all of them work on what they have studied and slogged for years together. If there were twenty thousand engineers passing out of college, hardly five percent of them land up with their 'study-related' work. Whereas the majority of them were and are still bound to work in an area which is nowhere related to their degree. For instance a mechanical engineer does marketing, a production engineer creates complicated codes for some 'XYZ' bank in the UK or US. And if it is a non-engineer, he/she has to spend months for getting a decent job.

The growth of call centers have thrown a huge opportunity for freshers. A call center agent has to do nothing much but to handle a foreign customer in 'our' odd hours. We can't conclude that as an easy task because, the variety of customers who call up the centers are immense. And handling each one of them in their own way is a tough job. Most of the call center processes deals with the US and UK people which gives a difference of minimum five hours. So one has to work in a complete night shift or in UK hours(2.00 p.m. to 10.p.m Indian hours). Apart from this they also have a graveyard shift which usually starts at 4.00 a.m. Naturally then the alarm should struck by 3 a.m.Funny to even think about.But this is what is happening.

Coming to the qualification part of the employees,there is no particular degree required for this job, except for well versed English knowledge and great communication skills to handle various customers.There are intensive training programs offered by the company themselves to train our people to understand and communicate with the foreign customers. 'Bite your lower lip' for a ‘V’(Vee) and 'kiss the air' for a ‘W’(Dub u) are the techniques by which an Indian takes a transformation. Naturally it takes sometime for us to get used to their accent. And the immediate reaction of the customer while attending a call is whether the agent is from India. They are clever enough to differentiate through the accent no matter what the Pseudo-Name is. Pseudo-Name is a unique name given for each agent, where-in Ram becomes Raymond, Sai as Sam, Hari is known as Harry and so on. This way the first step of customer satisfaction starts were-in we give them a feel of non-foreigners.

Now the question arises of what exactly is the work about.Basically troubleshooting or online sales.In the former the customer calls up the agent for any problem with their computer or 'any' product; whereas the later deals with marketing and selling of products through tele-calling.Nothing much about the job, except for a thorough study of troubleshooting techniques and to follow the various call-flows which deals with the techniques to handle tough situations.The most difficult part of it to handle the customer especially when a computer illiterate. There are wide range of customers. A very common group are the 'irate' ones who get irritated when their issue is left unresolved.These customers are the ones who escalate calls to supervisors.Secondly we have the 'flirting' customers who make a call to the agent without any issue but to just flirt and kill time.A common method adopted to handle such customers are to usually warn them and cut the call.

These days the youngsters are very keen in earning a handsome amount of money.So without much hesitation and delay they chose their first job, whatever comes in hand.There are a few people who feel 'Why a call-center?' But outsourcing has a lot of scope.Whatever job they choose, job-satisfaction and dedication is what needed for a successful career.Happy calling!

On the Ramp...

Recent news about the banning of FTV has created tremors in many young hearts.No more secret TV hours, no more night-out TV watching, no more fluctuating curiosity levels. Mr.X comes home from his college,throws his bag to a cornered area and curiously enters his room and locks it to watch semi-nude models.Another Mr.Y disturbs his wife's sleep by watching late night fashioning with the speakers on. Somewhere else a group of young girls gather at a home and watch new age models displaying(their talents)! Mr. Z ,60 years old forgets his age looking at the ramp on the monitor.Now that the government has banned the channel what else will replace it.

If people think ,by banning such channels will create a 'cleaner' mindset among the crowd; they are wrong! These days televisions are not the only mode of such entertainment. Banning such channels will increase the curiosity of the young minds and they will search some other mode. We have our very own search engines, wherein a click of a button will display the whole history of whatever we need.Now will the government put a ban on the Internet sites too? If that is the case then what are books and magazines for? So will the vicious cycle continue?If corrupting young mind is what the government is concerned about then first thing which is to be banned are cinemas.

The amount of violence shown in movies are a sure stopper of a youth's well-being.The provoking scenes again create a lot more curiosity for the young minds which in turn make them surf the net for more information.Instead of arousing their curiosity, sex education should be imparted to them at the right age.None other than mother could better explain about the topic. Discussing the same at schools will again not be a better idea especially at a young age when pupil of same age are together. Mother should take the sole responsibility of imparting sex education at the right age such that the child will not grow with a curiosity of what sex is all about.

Children should be taught that sex at a younger age will spoil their entire life ; as when they reach a level they will be bored of it. They should be taught in a right manner which will make them feel that sex has got nothing to do with them at this age.The more information they give the more will their interest deteriorate on sex at that young age.Children must understand that young age is meant to build a stronger foundation to use their creative minds in a right manner.If this happens there will be no need for them to watch adults only programs in televisions. And this in turn will create a 'neat' mindset for the young minds. Which in turn makes FTV available for adults-only.

On the contrary, when looking at the models and their 'display' another big time question is that 'Are they used in an improper manner?'. Well,fashioning is an art and fashion-shows are conducted mainly to display the talents of the designers rather that exposure of the models.There are many blooming designers who have immense talents.One should look in that perspective rather than blaming the art. Even the sponsors should take utmost care in not misusing the models.If this happens there will not be any such banning.

Hungry Kya???

The big problem with "fast" food is that it slows down when it hits your stomach. And it just parks there--and lets the fat have time to get off and apply for citizenship.There has been immense improvement in food industry,especially in the urban areas. Due to the wide increase in technology and related areas ,the population has been overflowing in the cities.And ultimately if you look at what everyone is working for is - Food. Food has taken various dimensions in reaching people; right from 'Multi-cuisine' restaurants, Fast-Foods to Banana-leaf meals(one traditional method of serving food in South-India).Do they all supply quality food with hygiene is another question.

At times people don't have time to dine in to a restaurant and have their meal. To help them all even roadside mobile 'food-vehicles' are serving at their best. And where is the place for these mobile services? Anywhere and everywhere is the solution. Recently i saw a few 'food-vans' placed near garbage dumps serving hot and spicy food. And guess what right from bachelors to school kids throng around that area to satisfy their taste-buds. Of course yes for taste but absolutely no for hygiene. But where does this taste come from? The so called roadside chefs mix in a number of 'masala' stuff along with 'red-brown-black' sauce to satisfy your taste-buds. Once this mixture enters your stomach a chain of chemical-reactions occur inside and who knows what will happen. Either immediate effect or silent killing will be the result of such tasty food.

Once I experienced a bad service from a restaurant at a busy area. I ordered a coffee and he took fifteen minutes to prepare it. It was served in a tumbler and guess what, i could observe white noodles in it. The inference of my observation was , the same tumbler was used to serve 'Payasam'(a Semi-Solid dessert made of milk and Vermicelli) to a customer previously.The only thing i could do was leave the place immediately. One of my friends who is a complete vegetarian discovered a 'mutton-piece' in his 'vegetable-briyani'. Such things happen widely in cities where people throng at food-places.

According to me the first aspect to look at while starting a food-chain is hygiene. And for people whose lives revolve around outside food have to also look upon the same.After all 'Health is Wealth'.

Drama-Prem Kahani!!!

Day1:Ann experiences her first day at office.
Place:Meeting room
Members: New joinees,Ann,Raymond

Ann: (to herself) Man, when are they gonna start the classes? And why is everyone giving a weird look
Raymond: (to his friends) why aren't there any nice chiks man???
Ann: (heard to what Raymond said and turns back and gives a stare at him)
Raymond: Wha....at ma'am? any problem?
Ann: No, nothing........
Raymond:(to his friends) Why do aunties come to work? (looks at Ann and comments to his friends) This aunty should have got at least two kids and she comes to work here for time pass.....
Other members: (laugh!)


Day2: Ann experiences her second day at office.
Place: Cafeteria
Members: New joinees,Ann,Raymond

Ann: So........please introduce yourselves. I am Ann, and i have completed my engineering from St Joseph's
Raymond:Oh cool! then continue......
Ann:(looks at a thin guy with spectacles): Whats your name?
Raymond: Raymond!
Ann: Where do you come from?
Raymond: From home........! Where else?
Ann:Grrrr...........(thinks as if we all come from Zulu forests.....)
Ann: Very funny!!!


Day3: Ann experiences her third day at office.
Place: Car Park
Members: Raymond,Ann

Ann:How long have we been waiting for you guys?
Raymond: Oh sorry! we made you wait. Shall we proceed.....
Ann: Yes!
Raymond: Ma'am are you very sensitive?
Ann:(raises her eyebrows) Wha......aaaat?
Ann: Nope not really.......Well, what made you say that?
Raymond: You wear a red bindi on your forehead.....so, maybe i thought you would be.....
Ann: (says to herself) Is this guy trying to get closer or what?
Raymond:Shall we proceed.....
Ann: Yes!

Not a bossy boss...

I met a person recently.Something must be special about him that made me scribble here.This short guy has a lot to be mentioned. Of course there are people like him;but one in thousands. He is an absolute knowledge bank! This guy seems to know in and out of mainframes.Not just mainframes he is well versed in many other tools and topics. You name it he knows it!There are many people who are masters in software industry. But this guy is a little different. Man! added to this he is one renowned chatter box in my floor.

Within a short span he has become so popular.He says his friends count is more than a crore. Did your eyebrows raise? So did mine.And where is the time for this little guy to communicate with all of them.God knows if he really sleeps.Adding to this he knows 13 languages.Is he a replica of Manmohan Singh? At times its nice to listen to his conversations amidst coding and testing.But others feel bored listening to the same voice again and again. As far as the topics are new i am fine with it.

A year completed......

Last year same day i joined a new Unit in my company. And guess what, when i got a mail from the HR about this; for a moment i thought whether this was a prank played. Coz it was dated April 1st......

One successful year with a wonderful team has completed. Hoping to work in more challenging projects.......