Credit limit aka status???

On a Sunday afternoon, I got a call from Gurgaon which surprised me. It could only mean that Percy was in office, what for? But alas, it was a practiced voice validating my details before they can execute a option. How cheeky!! the guy on the phone was selling a crediit card. 

Why cant they just say I am selling a credit card, it will deliver value to you?

Instead the guy went about how good is StanC for giving me an option to enjoy my life on credit. 

I needed a card and so I went about asking usuals 

- Is it free?

- What do I need to provide to get it?

- What is the limit? 

and I had the longest conversations with a stranger for extending my limit as I thought I deserved much more than the guy was offering. But why?

I don't use card that often and the limit he was offering was many times my monthly bill. Now that the weather is cooler and I have nothing else to do than writing a blog, I am thinking why did I insist on a higher limit. 

I think its got something to do with my own perception about my self worth. or maybe its just something I need higher that my peers !!!! (aka mine is bigger than yours)

Whatever the case, I am going to be cautious with this time wasting habit of arguing that leads to no useful result. And yeah, I will diligently take out printouts for that guy tomorrow. and maybe i will get my Manhattan card soon. 

Pimp my ride....

...or atleast advise me on what to buy. I am (or was) looking for a car to own. A new one. So how do I start, with the wallet on the table. I was looking for what is available in the price band and then identify what is the best car for the price range in consideration. So, here it goes. 

Band of Rs. 3 - 4 Lakh. 

- Santro Hyundai (Petrol/CNG)

- Maruti Wagon R

- Chevrolet Spark

- Maruti A Star

- Tata Indigo CS (Diesel)

We have a Santro already and dislike Wagon R. I took a test ride of A star, it rides fine except that the car is crampy. Spark did not spark any excitement (trying my witty side). 

Tata Indigo CS gives the cheapest option of a sedan (I like sedans) but the drive is pathetic. It drives as if the hand brake is pulled midway. 

Band of Rs. 4-5 Lakh

- Maruti Swift Petrol

- Hyundai i10

- Tata Indica Vista

Everyone's been telling me that if buying swift, then only diesel makes sense. It takes 6 (SIX) MONTHS for Maruti to deliver this. That too during the economic slowdown. i10 doesnt look any better than Santro. Indica Vista has got some decent reviews from Kash. Waiting for a test drive of Kash's Vista.

Band of Rs. 5-6 Lakh

- Maruti Swift Dzire

The stretch is only for accomodating Dzire. I really like the car. 

Band of Rs. 6 - 7 Lakh

- Fiat Linea

This is courtesy the pseudo bengali from my B school. The limit has been extended to fit Linea into consideration.

As of today, me not buying anything. And yeah, after all this consultation Percy is buying A star.

Discovering myself

No introspection, no analysis. I was browsing on Facebook when I saw an invite from a friend for "WHAT DO PEOPLE THINK OF YOU AT FIRST SIGHT?" quiz. 

Normally, I would just ignore such a request but yesterday night I was really looking out to do something. And I took the quiz. And here is what it did to me by putting up a posting on my wall. 

Now this is an analysis which I want to show to my boss who always opines that I am not aggressive. 

He, and my last boss always used to add to my appraisals that I need to be aggressive.

The possibilities could be as follows: 

1. I am not aggressive: conflicting opinions

2. I am aggressive: conflicting opinions 

3. I am aggressive selectively: possibily, as I tend to aggressive with people I am comfortable with as I think they tend to understand my view point without getting bothered with the verbiage

4. I was not aggressive and have become aggressive: possible, as my hunger for success and recognition has crossed a threshold

I need more opinions on the same and will surely be observing people for their reactions to me

cleaning up my closet

... literaly. Today was a activity filled Saturday. I had a bath. and there is a reason for the same. Somehow I felt like cleaning my books closet today. And I have found it as an interesting task. When you clean your books closet after a very long time, lets say, 5 years. There are some books that I always wanted to read and bought but could not. And there were some books that I read that I am now ashamed of buying in the first place. That makes me realise that there must have been changes in me since that time.
One very interesting thing that I found in the closet was a old flannel bound diary. It was given to me by dad since it was last years and of no use. I was in Standard VIII then. This diary was special because I used it to write poems. I am not a prolific poet or anything like that, but I liked to pen a few words in a rythmic fashion to express what I observed around.
That made me realise that I have changed, I dont like to read leave alone writing. But, I want to write. Something tells me that I will be lighter if I do.
So, beware if you are reading this because you will be hit "poetry". Excuse if you dont like it.

Trust !!!

Its just 5 alphabets but means so much when not honored. I am thinking about this with a backdrop of Satyam's fraud that has horrified every shareholder in India. My nature of going overboard made me devise a rule never to trust a person who has done anywrong at any point in time or has not shown integrity in a situation of commercial loss.
This makes me go back to the B School class of Prof. Vinod Kalia. Prof. Kalia is an ex-VP sales and marketing of Escorts Farm Equipment. He gave us a case study which went as:
- A productive worker was found cheating the company for his commercial benefit.
- His supervisor is pressing charges against him and requesting for his dismissal from duty
- The implications of his dismissal are that the Union may go up in arms against the management and there would be some loss of production incase the person has to go.
Question for the management: Should he be let go?

We recommended that he should be let to continue as there would be a loss of revenue but should be given a stern warning. We were surpised by Prof. Kalia's verdict that the management should take a stand on either side and there is no mid-way when it comes to integrity. Although, we were not happy then as it costed us grades but in the hindsight the suggestion was good, to say the least.
It s the responsibility of the management to instill the belief in integrity, even at the cost of commercials loss. This is something that may be hard and harder to keep up with time. But, when you look in hindsight with an example of Satyam, unless you do that you have to make a bigger lie to cover the last lie. This lying will end only when the position will become absolutely unrecoverable. This may lead to loss of face, reputation, and disruption in the lives of many workers who have spent their time and sweat for the company.
So, in essence Integrity is not an option. Its a virtue that will make customers comfortable, employees loyal, management alert. So be it.

SaaS Gold Diggers

Every peroid has its "El Dorado Gold Rush". Its a period when everybody is "irrationally optimistic" about his chances of finding gold and arriving home as a winner. The current gold rush in IT business seems to be a concept called Software as a Service or SaaS. If you dont understand what it is, its a service where all your business applications are delivered like Gmail delivers your email to you. And I did not mean free. Imagine this. You dont have install any software or hardware or networking. Identify the software (over web) that is good for you and buy (using credit card) an internet connection. Done. 

Now the gold part - since its a web based service, all you need to do is to get a team together and write your own version of the software that a customer has been using for donkeys years. Be it a simple accouting software or a diary keeping software. You can create a business plan to achieve as much as you want. The calculation looks like this, there are X million users of this software @ Y $ per annum. I am providing the same service at 80% discount (since I dont have a massive marketing and sales engine) I can get atleast 1% of the market. Even this market will turn out to be in millions of users. And voila, you have numbers touching many millions. GOLD RUSH, incase you forgot. 

The people who actually found gold were the people who were selling tools for digging, or hotels for diggers or even "professions soliciting services for relaxation". If that is true (assumption), then who are the probable gold finders in this scenario:

- Infrastructure providers:

- Data centres:

- Software: Billing and reconciliation

- Payment services: credit card services providers

- advertisers: I think Google 

Leaving the thought open to explore who are these in today's world.

 

Cloudy, grey and cold

I havent started about Delhi weather yet. But I am talking about the conditions around. You dont understand, ok here's a clue. Go to news.google.com and find the top stories in India. Look what I got:
- something something 26/11
- 'cash-for-trust-vote' scam
- Terror camps in Bangladesh
- IAF starting preperations for attack on Pak
- Mumbai terror attack
I should stop now, adhereing to the madrasi rule of 5 (read paanch with your palm out and fingers away from each other).
What's this to do with the year end that it has always started to be so gloomy? I really cant solve the problem of terrorism except for not sniggering when they check my bag thrice (THRICE) while entering PTI. I really cant solve problem of economy by buying an extra pair of jeans or something like that. I really cant solve the problem of jobs except for finding one that pays me a bit more. . . . So what should I do?
I think that I should imagine the good times and what I should do today to enjoy those good times even more. I blindly believe that the good times will come. Imagine this, after some time when you click again on news.google.com you may see something like this:
- Sensex at a record high in last 25 years. PM Mannu says that India is poised to run the world.
- Britney Spears suit "malfunctions" at the show in Delhi
- India Inc. still short of 110,000 IT people. Special focus for middle level managers.
- Indian does a clean sweep at Commonwealth Games
- Domestic flights become even cheaper

With a imagination like this in my head and a promise of JD to myself on a cold winter night, I am looking forward to go through these times.