Shyam's Blog

Tomorrow is Annual Sports Day at our son's school. He is in LKG and this is his first sports day. We heard that he has been selected for finals that will be held tomorrow (Nov 30 2012). Our son has not told us what he is participating in. We just know that he is doing something! All the best son!!!

I see so many Ads on TV about online shopping in India. Below is a sample list. http://www.flipkart.com/ http://www.quikr.com/ http://www.myntra.com/ http://www.jabong.com/ http://www.junglee.com/ http://www.tradus.com/ http://www.olx.in/ http://www.ebay.in/ With fast growing Internet users, customer base for online shopping is increasing. I have started to do a bit of research on this market. Few questions that need to be answered... 1. Why are there so many players? 2. What is the business strategy to attract Indian customers? 3. How is online shopping in India different from that in the West? 4. Why is Amazon not a player in India? 5. How is 'cash-on-delivery' working compared to credit card payment? 6. What will be the scene 10 years from now? I haven't done any online shopping in India. As a shopper, I am more comfortable visiting the store and getting a closer look at the product. This seems to be faster than ordering something online and waiting...

I am a customer of BSNL in Bangalore and I find that they are the best and worst telephone service providers in the city. Coming to best part first - 1. Most cost effective service. 2. Broadband is the fastest among ADSL vendors. I can go on and on with the other side of the coin. 1. Worst customer support. I had to change homes twice in one year. Each time, I was out of connection for more than 45 days. It takes a lot of effort and follow-ups to get the connection transferred. The linesman, Assistant Engineer, Executive Engineer - none of them pick up their cell phone most of the times. Once in a blue moon, the phone rings and I get to talk to them about my transfer request. 2. If a fault occurs, we have to better keep our fingers and pray the Gods crossed to get it resolved. Once, my broadband account had got locked due to unknown reason. I had to struggle for 15 days to get it re-activated. 3. Bills don't arrive, but, line gets disconnected if not paid. Due to system ...

I have been noticing road traffic offenses. Some rules that are broken regularly in Bangalore roads are: 1. Two wheelers riding without helmet 2. Riders talking on cell-phone 3. Wrong side riding/driving 4. Changing lane without indicators (it is an offense as per rules) 5. Jumping traffic signal 6. Parking in the middle of the road 7. Overspeeding 8. Driving/riding without driver's license 9. Driving with alcohol influence 10. No proper headlights/tail lights. Now, to some fancy calculations: Number of vehicles registered in Bangalore - 36,53,368. (source = here ) . This is, as of 2009. I see an offense being made at every beat of my heart! If we assume, an offense every second, total offenses per day = 86,400 This is less than 3% of the total vehicles mentioned above. Minimum penalty is Rs. 100 (For complete of penalties and offenses list, see here ). Total penalty collected per month = 86,400 x 30 days x Rs. 100 = Rs. 25,92,00,000 (Rs. 25.92 crores). If 10...

It was the same team that did the road trip in the year 2000. Then, we called ourselves ‘Santro Team’.   Now after 12 years, we did a similar road trip with one person (Sumanth) less. We can call our current team, ‘DZire Team’. Destination was Kaidala and Aralaguppe. We started off from our houses as early as 6am. By the time we were in the outskirts of the city, we started getting hungry. Without much hesitation, we had a sumptuous breakfast at CTR, Malleswaram. One plate idli-vada and one dosa kept us through the trip. Kaidala was out first stop. We reached there by 9:30am. The priest there, Sri. Parthasarathi, gave us good information about the temple. The idol was destroyed by a person few years ago (about 10 years ago) because of land dispute. It was ‘re-assembled’ to perfection within a week, largely with the help of a   Sculptor, Sri. Jayannacharya from Chikmagalur. Chennakeshava at Kaidala is a marvel. He is standing on the lotus, on which is mounted Shiva...

Recently, I was driving on the NICE road in Bangalore. It is a tolled highway and speed of vehicles is as high as 120 Kms/hr. While I was driving at 80 on a curve, a car came from opposite direction! Because the guy at the toll-gate broke the rule and allowed this wrong side driver, this happened. Blame both involved in committing the mistake. There are so many offences I notice on road that I pity the ministry for losing money for not collecting penalties. Talking about NICE road, here are some of the offences: 1. Drivers change tracks without blinkers. Strictly speaking, it is an offence as per books we read before getting a driver's license. I see this offence with EVERY driver. 2. Trucks move at 30 Kms/hr on the fastest lane. It is clearly written that slower vehicles are supposed to keep left. Truck driver don't bother to read the sign boards. 3. Stopping on the freeway - It is written everywhere - Still, people stop for taking photo, or to pee! What a bad place for ...

My music guru called me and invited me for a concert of a 12-year old student. Nishanth made his debut on stage today. Son of Dr. Subha Madhusudan and Dr. Madhusudan, the boy has good talent and showed it to maximum extent. Music guru, Vid. D V Nagarajan has trained him really well and gave a go ahead to perform today. I am sure the guru was confident that his student would perform well. Nishanth was supported on the violin by his elder brother, Tejasvi. On the mridangam, it was Vinod (son of Vid. Anoor Shivu) and Sunaad (son of Vid. Anoor Datta) was on kanjira. With three elder supporting artists, it was like a small deer in between 3 tigers. If that was not enough, there were so many musicians and experts in the audience. Hope the kid didn't feel the pressure to perform in front of such audience. The program was started off with Bharavi varna, Veeriboni in atta taala - a good one to prove Nishanth's maturity. He sang his favorite raaga, Shubhapantuvarali. The song was ...

As a Project Manager and having experience in performing Carnatic concert on stage, I find a connection between the two - both need good planning, have requirement of good delivery and are delivered to customers. Planning: Carnatic concert is neatly planned. It has a structure and rules to follow, same as project management. A project or a concert, both have historical data to refer to. Concert might have a specific theme. So does PM with a specific intent or objective. Delivery: A project is delivered as per requirements. It has specific timelines and stakeholders expectations. In performing art, there is delivery in real time. The audience is the customer. While performing, it is mandatory to maintain good quality.If this is not met, an artist will fail to satisfy the audience similar to how project manager fails in project. Risks and uncertainties: There is no better place to find risks and uncertainties than in a live concert. Right from artists not arriving on time to micro...

Day 2 of the conference was an eventful one. Dr. Harish Hande's speech on poverty alleviation with sustainable energy was great. Winner of many awards, Dr. Hande focussed on creating opportunities to the poor. Mr. Satish Grampurohit of Infosys gave a presentation on eGovernance. It gave an idea of how an IT company can create and implement a project to reduce power loss in electricity distribution. He gave examples of challenges faced by Govt. and other organizations while working on such projects. Mr. Elango R, Chief HR Officer at MphasiS, gave a motivating speech. One thing I noticed from the conference is that not all have the ability to stand in front of a crowd to convey something. Few speeches, though by eminent people, were not satisfying the audience. Such people must learn how to present a presentation. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Today was Day 1 of Project Management Practitioners' Conference 2012 here in Bangalore. It was held at Nimhans Convention Center. More than 750 attended today's event. Dr. Trivedi, Secretary, Govt. of India, Cabinet Secretariat, gave an introduction to Results Framework Document (RFD) - their website is here .This is the framework that is used to measure performance of Govt. ministries. Bhaskar Bhat, MD of TITAN, gave a speech on Industry perspective of Project Management. He gave example of TATA projects - Tanish (jewelry) that failed initially and then picked up after understanding the market requirements. He emphasized that we learn more from failed projects than successful projects. Dr. Mohan Sundara Rajan, Science Writer ended the day's proceedings with his talk on Nano technology. With lot of humor and interesting words, his speech was very entertaining (I should say, infotainment). Few quotes from the day: One person asked, "Why have train time table...

I think my wife will pass the exam next week. She has taken all the pain and spent lot of effort in teaching my son. Result: Son is in a condition where he(we) can attend the exam confidently. Our son is in LKG and he is facing his first exam in life! Syllabus: Written - A to O; a to o Written - 1 to 20 Oral - Rhymes, 1 to 60. Story telling - A thirsty crow. Drawing - coloring. His mom has meticulously taught him alphabet writing. I was happy that he can write A to Z in plain paper. But, my wife is specific on neatness - she says, "he has to write the alphabets within a given frame/lines." Initially, it was hard for her to make him follow the instructions. Slowly, she learnt his language, cars language. In order to write B, she narrates the instructions, "go straight, stop ahead; start from up, go straight, U-turn, reverse gear, U-turn." If someone had listened to her loud instructions coming out from the bedroom, I don't know what they would have tho...

It was a nice Sunday evening and I thought of having nice potato bun. I was lucky to find an Iyengar Bakery nearby. Being in Bangalore, it is easy to find one, but, hard to find an authentic one. I saw the cashier-mama and guessed that this is indeed an Iyengar. I have found few fake Iyengar Bakeries and their products are not good. wah re wah! what a bun it was! Simply awesome. People outside Bangalore really miss this. I can understand how much they miss these lovely buns and dil-pasands.

Shot this picture in our Apt complex.

1. LPG cylinder booking has been made easy by booking the refill online or via automated phone system. I did it for the first time and found it helpful. 2. I was planning to buy UPS/stabilizer for my computer and found APC UPS with the specs I wanted. Within minutes, I ordered one online. It took me 4 hours to get the UPS delivered for free to my doorstep. Thanks to online shopping! 3. Passport application in Bangalore - I was told that it has been made simple and straight forward. It is a good move after many hassles and complaints. Right now, there is no scope for middle-men or agents. The applicant has to book a slot online by submitting the application. Nobody other than applicant is allowed inside the passport office. Sorry touts.

Newspaper says, "Govt. has directed temples to perform pooja to invoke rain-god". Cost of the pooja is around Rs.17 crores. I don't know how such magic can bring rain! Rain being a scientific phenomenon, it has very little influence from supernatural forces. It will be wise if Govt. saves such money to give compensation to farmers who face crisis because of poor monsoon. On the other side of the coin, if India has to become #1 country in terms of money, let it use the funds of all the people who put money in hundi. Govt. has to open one payment method that will make 'paapa parihaaram' simple and instant. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

It had been 3 years since I got the Sony DVD/HDD recorder. It allows us to record tv programs on to its hard disk OR on a writable DVD. Till now, I was not able to get the right connections. Now, after connecting the right way, I am able to record tv programs! The manual recommends connecting TV antenna to DVD recorder. This is not required. I took the LINE OUT from my TV and connected to LINE IN 1 of DVD recorder. While recording, choose L1 as the input.

It was finally a success setting up the new wireless modem, Beetel 450TC1. After struggling for about 4 hours, I got everything right and internet was working! Our dad had been asking me to put a wireless modem for 2 months now. I had to get it done as this task was pending for a long time. 1. I took the old modem settings as reference. At this point, I could not decipher the existing password with BSNL connection. After trying out few permutations and combinations, I failed to move further. Only solution was to make the current password display on my browser. After checking out Firefox add-ons, I got one that displayed password in clear text. Password cracked! 2. Setting up Beetel 450TC1 modem was interesting. At 30 minutes past midnight, I had luck in getting the right tutorial from a youtube video. Let me give some details on setting up this modem. 1. Access modem settings by going to 192.168.1.1 2. Default username=admin, password=password 3. Go to Interface Setup tab. 4...

 

My car Odometer reading 8888! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

For people in Bangalore, try out www.bigbasket.com It is an easy was to shop groceries, fruits and veggies online. You have home delivery. Free delivery for orders over Rs. 1000 and Rs. 20 if order is less than Rs. 1000. I tried ordering Alphonso Mangoes and they were fresh and yummy! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad