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Showing posts from February, 2007

SMS Fraud

It was only inevitable and has now happened... Yes, the first SMS fraud in India has taken place. Two brothers from Mumbai cheated the public with some 400 million with the help of mobile phone and its most recognized user-interface, the SMS!! Read more

Anniyan Cell?

I rubbed my eyes again and again and was thinking it's another spoof till I tried it out myself... Believe it or not, Govt. of India has an online Grievance Cell wherein one can go and specify the problems, and can even mention the Department. This initiative is taken by Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances, under Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Goverment of India. Superb Initiative... Hope they really do follow up on complaints! Here's the link - http://darpg-grievance.nic.in/ Link via: Rajiv

The History of SMS in India!

Continuing with the flavor of the season, the mobile phones, let me do a retro of the growth of the Indian mobile market as I've analyzed and understood.... My first intro into a mobile world was some 5 years back when I bought an off-the-shelf Nokia 3310 for a then hefty sum of Rs. 8k. BPL Mobile used to rule the roost in Coimbatore and other parts of India and there were very few takers for prepaid cards. Remember, this was the time when even incoming calls were insanely charged. A mobile phone was a luxury at that time, with people flaunting it [including me :-)] as a fashion statement. Then the first revolution happened when incoming calls were made free. The second revolution happened when somebody had the brains of marketing prepaid cards effectively!! Instead of monthly rentals plus call charges, one could go buy a small prepaid card, thus helping him/her to control her budget also!! Whosever idea that was, brilliant!! Then the tectonic shift happened when the Big Brothers d

Family Prison!!

Aranjuez Prison, in Spain, is the only prison in the world with cells for families!! The spacious units, dubbed "five-star cells", come with cribs, Disney characters on the walls and access to a prison playground. The idea is for children to bond with their convict parents and for the parents to teach parenting skills!! Now, that I will say is reason enough for anyone to commit a crime :-)

Oye Sardaarr!!

Here's a few more one-liner Sardarji jokes to laugh upon... Interviewer: What is your birth date? Sardar: 13th October Interviewer: Which year? Sardar: Oye ullu ke pathe _ _ _ EVERY YEAR Interviewer: Just imagine your in 3rd floor, and it caught fire. How will you escape? Sardar: Its simple. I will stop my imagination!!! Teacher to Sardar: Write your best friend's name in English. Sardar wrote: 'Beautiful Red Underware' Teacher: What? Sardar: His name is Sundar Lal Chaddi After returning back from a foreign trip, sardar asked his wife, "Do I look like a foreigner?" Wife: No! Why? Sardar: In London a lady asked me, "Are you a foreigner?" One tourist from USA asked to Sardar: Any great man born in this village??? Sardar: No sir, only small Babies!!! Lecturer: Write a note on Gandhi Jayanthi So Sardar writes, "Gandhi was a great man, but I don't know who is Jayanthi." Sardar was doing experiment with cockroach, first he cut it's one

How Valentine's Day Works?

I don't want to sound like a nerd over here, but there's sound business behind all these special days of ours - valentine's, fathers day, mothers day, brothers day, sisters day, friends day, and what not! Esther Howland, the woman who produced the first commercial American valentines in the 1840s, sold a then mind-boggling $5,000 in cards during her first year of business. The valentine industry in the United States has been booming ever since. Today, over 1 billion valentine cards are sent in this country each year -- second in number only to Christmas cards, according to the Greeting Card Association. Around 85 percent of all valentines are purchased by women. In addition to cards, there are millions of boxes of chocolates and bouquets of roses purchased (mostly by men) for the February 14 holiday. When did the Valentine's Day frenzy begin? Scholars tell slightly different versions of the history of this popular holiday. To know more, click here

Crazy in Love!

Romantic love can trigger a chemical storm in our brains akin to addiction!! Yes, you read it right. A new research has come to the conclusion that love can lead to addiction vis-a-vis smoking, drinking and doping can!! Read this report , which talks more about this. It says "Science is beginning to pay more attention to the chemical storm that romantic love can trigger in our brains. Recent studies of brain scans show that being in love causes changes in the brain that are strikingly similar to serious health problems like drug addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder." PS: So, this Valentine's Day, think b4 u act! :-) Written by: An old bachelor!

Tibre makes it big!!

All of you would have seen half page ads in leading English dailies yesterday from Gangotri Textiles Ltd., the Coimbatore based makers of "tibre" branded shirts and trousers. Gangotri Textiles has opened a fully integrated textile complex on a 52-acre land, bringing every stage of cloth development under an umbrella. This 7 lakh sq. ft. mammoth facility will have everything from turning yarn to a final product. I wish our backyard majors all the best!!

Wal-Mart Woes!!

The future of Indian Retail, which was set for a revival, with scores of Supermarkets on the anvil looks gleamy thanks to political pressures. Sonia Gandhi has sounded alarm over fears that big "phoren" firms looking to enter the country's retail sector could force millions of mom-and-pop stores to shut. She has called on the governmetn to "consider having the relevant issues properly examined before further decisions" are taken giving Intrl. Retailers more access to the Indian market. All this spells doom, as Mike Duke, Vice Chairman of Wal-Mart is expected in India on Feb 22 to formally announce its partnership with Bharti. According to AFP, India has nearly 15 million "dusty, chaotic and cramped corner shops". The worry is that big, AC-ed stores with Swish, shrink-wrapped produce will drive them out of business, despite industry figures which indicate that there is a large enough market to accommodate virtually all players. Now let's wait and wa

What will happen...?

Vodafone, world's largest mobile telephony player has successfully bid for the Hong-Kong based Hutchison Group's pie in it's Indian subsidiary Hutch Telecom for a whopping $19.3 billion dollars!! Arun Sarin, the Indian-born head of Vodafone will be a happy man to finally have found a foothold in the most happening mobile market in the world. $19.3 billion is a hefty valuation, considering how hot the indian telephony market is. And as days progress, the media frenzy around this deal will only be upped as there are rumors surrounding that Hindujas infact bid more than $19b, but couldn't ink the deal. As you may know by now, the Aditya Birla owned Idea Cellular is going the IPO way today with a price band of Rs. 75 to Rs. 85, which definitely is going to increase, thanks to this billion dollar deal. Now, behind all these numbers, what's there in it for us subscribers?? With Vodafone's full roll-out in India, one can expect more telephony based services and an expe

JLT @ Jenny's Club!

Ah, finally!! Yeah I know you guys feel like hitting me, but please pardon me this time for delaying to put up the snaps of our JLT (the Just Like That) Party snaps so late... reasons were aplenty, but let's get down with the business.... Go ahead and click over here to get all the snaps from the January JLT held at the posh Jennys Club in Coimbatore... Let me reserve the comments on snaps for another time... Signing off as it's too late for me to hit the bed... Cya!

Love Story of a Call Center girl!

This is a true story of a young call center girl who passed away last month. Her name was Priya. She was hit by a lorry. She had a boy friend named Shankar. Both of them are true lovers. They always hang on the phone. You can never see her without her cellphone. In fact she also changed her phone from Airtel to Hutch, so that both of them can be on the same network, and save on the cost. She spends half of the day talking with shankar. Priya's family knows about their relationship. Shankar is very close with Priya's family. (just imagine their love!!) . Before she passed away she always told her friends "If I pass away please bury me with my cellphone". She also said the same thing to her parents. After her death, people couldn't carry her coffin. I was there!! A lot of them tried to do so but still couldn't. Everybody including me, had tried to carry the coffin, but the result was still the same. Eventually, they called their neighbour, a "bomoh" fr

Kahani Mein Twsit!

Kahani mein twist Bollywood-ishtyle.... here's a reel to real life story of a couple who exchanged their kids when they were born (obvioiusly, unknowingly thanks to Hospital authorities)... And after ages, they found out the truth... OKay, hows that for a trailer?? Click here to read the full news Link via: Seema

Outsourcing @ Simpsons

Simpsons , the longest running Sitcom in TV history is one of my fav programs in TV. After the outsourcing story became hot in US, they introduced an Indian character into the story named Apu Nahasapeemapetilon . Apu is an immigrant from India who runs Kwik-E-Mart. Now, here's a little pice from Simpsons where they make fun of outsourcing...

Dell @ Dell!

The best salesman in the world, Michael Dell, is back in business, doing what he does best! Kevin Rollins, the current CEO of Dell is resigning from his position, after his reign saw Dell dropping to No. 2 PC maker from No. 1, giving way to HP. “There is no better person in the world to run Dell at this time than the man who created the direct model and who has built this company over the last 23 years,” said Samuel Nunn, presiding director of Dell’s board.

Tata gets Corus!

Good job Mr. Ratan Tata... Though Rs. 50,000 crores for an acquisition sounds too much, I think it's a risk taken in the right direction .... “I believe this will be the first step in showing that Indian industry can in fact step outside the shores of India in an international marketplace and acquit itself as a global player.” - Ratan Tata said.

Call Center Bloopers!

Just in case you think you are TC (technologically challenged). The following is an excerpt taken from a Wall Street Journal article: 1.Compaq is considering changing the command "Press Any Key" to "Press Return Key" because of the flood of calls asking where the "Any" key is. 2.AST technical support had a caller complaining that her mouse was hard to control with the dust cover on. The cover turned out to be the plastic bag the mouse was packaged in. 3.Another Compaq technician received a call from a man complaining that the system wouldn't read word processing files from his old diskettes. After trouble-shooting for magnets and heat failed to diagnose the problem, it was found that the customer had labeled the diskettes, then rolled them into the typewriter to type the labels. 4.Another AST customer was asked to send a copy of her defective diskettes. A few days later a letter arrived from the customer along with photocopies of the fl