There have been many articles and news releases in the past about customer harassment for non payment of loans, or about recovery agents threatening to screw up your life if you missed one EMI for whatever reasons. ABN Amro and ICICI have been involved a lot in these scandals (if I may term them so) where many customers have been repeatedly threatened by recovery agents (read as goondas) who abuse these customers and use foul language and sometimes even use sexual harassment tactics.

No matter how much ICICI and ABN Amro tried to deny these happenings the public outcry was too huge for ICICI to bear and battle it out. This only proves the Indian public are not taking anything sitting down quietly these days. ICICI today released a full one page ad in the Times Of India, saying they understand the importance of their customers and detailing a process they follow on how they alert a customer on pending payments and how many levels they ping the customer before the rowdies arrive on the scene (of course the last part was added by me! :D)

What’s even more interesting is that even MNC banks such as ICICI wake up only when events like this start to hurt their image among the public. If the famous Shah Rukh Khan, who is now advertising for Pepsi, Hyundai, Compaqand what not has to be called in for this ad by ICICI, one can only imagine what the situation really is w.r.t to their public image.

Take the poll, tell me what you would do if you were in this situation?

Have you been cursing your bathroom shower for the slow stream of water it pumps out onto your head? Have you felt bad on your investment on the shower when it makes you sulk in irritation each day? Worse still, have you got showers that have only been gathering rust each day at your home? Isn’t it time to pump up the force on that shower water?

Grundfos, a famous company manufacturing water pumps has a solution to this precise need of yours! A shower booster for all those slow-water-flow homes. In today’s Times Of India, they provided an ad, which I replicate here to keep note:

As you can see for yourself, you can call 1800 345 4555 or SMS ’pump’ to 55050 to get more details on this pump. Get it installed at your home and go enjoy that super force shower you always wanted to in peace. Every day, each time. With water becoming such a scarce commodity, and flowing in such small streams into every home, the best we could do is install this pump and feel good about the same water scarcity !

Technorati Tags: Bengaluru, Grundfos, Water pumps, Showers, Shower boosters, CH booster

The title is a little hint of what debate is to follow. Is training going to put into your head what you could not acquire so far in life as knowledge? Or is it a necessary procedure only to learn new topics? Can we get trained again and again on the same topics yet learn something differently each time? Lets talk it out a bit….

When we got recruited into a large services oriented MNC in India for the first time after graduation, we were pushed into a world which required guts to survive. The expectation and responsibilities in a service organisation are considerably higher than a product based company. The reason is straightforward – faster knowledge acquisition, better hands on experiences, leads to more efficient output and hence directly contributes to more earnings for a company. So to achieve all this the company trains its people sometimes rigorously enought to shackle the limits of the individual. When we joined in, training was more of a challenge to overcome rather than a session to acquire knowledge out of.

Our final employment depended on how we performed in the training ordeal. I say ordeal simply because of the logistics involved in that program. 36 of us were bundled into one conference room with 18 PCs, one each for two of us. The schedule began at 7:45am (which means we had to leave our homes even as early as 6:45am) and went on upto 7:45pm – a full 12 hours per day. It included the weekends as well most times, and continued this way for two months – a full 60 days. If you calculate the logistics in number of hours put in it comes to 700+ hours on knowledge acquisition which is a record in itself.

We had all sorts of topics covered right from C, C++ all the way upto even hardware diagnostics and real time operating systems. At times even aerospace engineering and a bit of mechanical engineering, mathematics, forumlae, theorems, DSPs, and what not! Perhaps in my entire career of four years before, I had not been exposed to so much in so little a time. So was this a learning or a torture? Well the question itself has many answers depending on the type of learner in question.

There are two types of learners – one who learn in a training room, another who learns outside it. I was of the latter category and hence found this training to be a bit of torture. However since I was leading this training from a trainee perspective, I found this to be more of a business challenge to horde a group of 36 people to listen to me and my organisational skills. So do all of them get to learn what they intended to in a training? Not really. Trainings prepare you for better challenges, they don’t make you a super hero in terms of knowledge.

A real life problem is still a real life problem. But we can always relate to the knowledge gained at a training and perhaps appreciate having got trained when we are sitting with a situation to deal with at this moment. So having said this, I think I have personally seen more challenges in actual situations than gained anything out of that early age training that I underwent. Also training a person on a subject makes more sense after a person has sufficient experience on the job to appreciate the training better. The quality of the training itself becomes better if the trainee is able to ask specific doubts on the subject (which he already knows about). It needless to say also improves the quality and personality of the trainer himself too.

A case in point is that after eight long years in the industry I am able to better appreciate a set top box processor chip, at this point after having known all about its applications so far. So when I am trained on processor fundamentals at this stage, its easy to relate to what you already know beforehand of attending this training. The bottom line is this: Bite as much as you can chew, else it becomes an overload on your processor! Attend trainings for englightenment about a subject not just for the sake of it! And always ensure trainings are of optimal hours to ensure better efficiency and alertness during the session. After all we are all humans and have limits! Work within the limits to achieve the best.

Technorati Tags: Services, india, IT industry, jobs, mnc, bangalore, training, session, learner, attitude, knowledge, set top box, processor, chips

Wondering what this post is about? Well its about the transition the people within the industry have undergone since the yesteryears of 1990s until now. When we first joined a huge services firm, a team of four were assigned work on a project involving cable modems and drivers for the modems. The prospect itself was so thrilling for us on the first day.

At the induction lunch gathering, the four of us went and met our would-be project manager and told him, “Sir, we will be working UNDER you on this project”. The very tone of that statement gave us away as innocent students treading into office culture and as a bunch unable to bear the culture shock and the sudden difference. “No one works under anyone, you can say we are going to work with you, thats enough” said my project manager.

Since then in the past ten years, this industry has seen so many cultures, so many changes, so many upheavals and so much downfall that today its a matter of either existence or excellence, nothing in between. Nothing goes on without teamwork, no matter who it involves, whether engineer or manager. Boundaries have been shortened, and managers are slowly turning into mentors for youngsters. The entire strictness associated with projects has now been simplified to such an extent that today its a matter of saying “Hi Mister X, I ll be working with you on this project from now on”.

In those yesteryears though we had confidence to take up a given task and do it to the best of our ability (when straight out of college), we lacked the maturity and guidance on our approach towards any given problem. No one ever corrected our courses were they to go wrong. Thankfully that’s not the case now. Not only has the approach of juniors changed radically, the experience of senior mentors also compliments the requirement of guiding juniors towards good solutions for complex problems in the projects.

From even thinking ten times before saying anything to the project manager in the yesteryears to sharing business concerns over a cup of coffee, or just on a mere one-to-one talk, life sure has changed a great deal. A few guys from the colleges in Bangalore were recruited to my company, and on the first day, when they were assigned their new roles, their excitement was at an all time high – “We will work hard on this project Sir, and achieve success on assigned tasks”, they said. Life sure has travelled a full circle isnt it ?

Technorati Tags: Manager, india, IT industry, geek, services, leadership, technical, mentor, recruitment, jobs, projects, software, hardware, experiences, induction, excellence

Today morning, I woke up a bit late, and decided to go to office by car, and the drive was getting cooler than ever. Its then that I realized the best reason to live in Bangalore city was showing its true colours – Winter weather! The fog was too good to miss and having my windows opened up it was such a cool breeze all over.

Over the past few years though, Bangalore has been getting unduly hot during winters too so much so that people sweat during winters. Call it global warming or whatever, but it is evident that the increasing pollution and smoke is warming up the city to a great extent. This snap was taken at 7:45am, ten minutes after which the situation was entirely like summer!

Anyways, all that matters is the spirit of Bangalore weather and it was surely a welcome change!

43 Things Tags: Bangalore.Technology.Life, Bengaluru, Bangalore, Winter, Fog, Temperature, Weather, Summer, Heat, Cool

This had to happen. The Set top box (STB) market was too crowded, and competition was, is and will be hotting up in future as well. So lets analyze in depth who were the providers who were there, and what change Sun TV has brought in with this Direct DTH launch. Erstwhile when the government opened up the possibilities for competition in the Direct-To-Home sector, there were only few takers.

Of this one of the early adopters of the service was Hathway and DishTV. While Hathway milked money from its customers without giving anything at actuals, DishTV was truly supposedly into the DTH market in reality. Hathway had subscribed to the DTH at its CO (Cable operator) end, and multiplexed the output along normal cable lines to homes. Just to add fizz to the drink, they screwed up the Analog transmission considerably making users feel that digital is the way to go (sic!) Without much option for thought as to why this is happening and due to little competition from others, the customers choice was to only agree for a set top box from Hathway that would bring in “DIGITAL” content into your homes. At that time it was a one time Rs.3999/- per set top box (~ $90+) which was a hideous pricing in itself. Generally in markets outside the world, STBs are sold even for as little as $10 – $20 range. However we live in “Incredible India”, so everything had to be incredible about things. I always never liked Hathway due to many reasons, they even overhyped their 64kbps (yes you read it right … 64kbps!!) internet as though it was the most ultimate thing on earth and internet could never be delivered beyond that speed and again charged Rs.3000/- a month for this nonsense of a service.

My STB from hathway even had a “Smart Card” except that it was just smart enough to boot up the STB and be there doing nothing more about it. So much for fleecing customers saying “Hey now you are proud owners of a Smart Card STB! Being in the STB domain in the industry, having seen everything about the set top box, these terminologies and explanations and assurances seemed only more like bullshitting (pardon the language) about flimsy technology. The problem with Indians has predominantly been paying too much for technology even before it was already there in full form. Which means something like buying a CD writer for Rs.10000/- when today a PC itself costs Rs.15000/- !!

The situation did change. In came Dish TV and DD Direct to home – the former was a private player from the north and quickly established lots of centers all over India and business flourished. Yet the cost of the STB was still 2999/- about 1k lesser than previously. Hathway began to feel the heat now. Dish succeeded to a great extent but their User interface graphics, and menu systems left a lot to be desired. So was Hathway graphics system as bad as ever. For those who dont know about this, there is a company called News Digital Systems (NDS) who operate out of Israel and Bangalore, who write the software for most boxes in Europe, UK and even for Hathway! This was a company of the STAR group owned by Rupert Murdoch and James Mudroch.

DD direct on the other hand was offering free DD channels of all languages and offering their own STB for a smaller pricing compared to Dish TV more or less. Their reach was more to the rural areas and the poor who always had loyalty in the government undertaking – Doordarshan.

This situation did not change for sometime until the great Ratan TaTa decided to do something about his own fortunes in this segment and launched the much famed Tata Sky DTH service. The prices were similar, the boxes were better, facilities in the box was even better, the user interface and graphics (menu systems) were more adorable though this was still done for TaTa by NDS. So money and strict requirements makes a superb change to a better viewing experience.

Needless to say Tata also tom-tommed about its STB and DTH all over the world and India, saying it has the best Digital experience like never before etc,etc. Little did everyone realize that the public at one point will understand that its just digital content that is transmitted over every STB and DTH and the quality of this content will be pretty much the same irrespective of the provider. Providers like Hathway and Dish started offering hefty discounts on their boxes and services some even giving away a six month free viewership deal due to this onslaught.

So what were the problems with TaTa sky? The billing was fine, the customer service was great with too less a turn around time. But the issue was with the channel boquet and packaging system. While there were many north indian channels in most packages, most of south india were either not familiar or happy with their channels in the list – they were too meagre in number to be compelling enough to go for the tata sky service. If TaTa had woken up on this beforehand, something could be done, but alas – the best was yet to surface.

Enter the Sun Direct DTH service. Sun TV was a rags to riches to rags again story in its umpteen years of existence. During its glorious days, it was the cause of envy of many a Tamil broadcaster, due to the ultimate patronage it enjoyed from the Karunanidhi family. Quality content, great picture and sound quality made it a true domain player. When MK came to power, it also got an unprecedented upsurge in viewership while it pitted itself against Jayalalitha’s JJ TV (man how much lower can people stoop to by naming a TV after them!).

All this was fine – until Dayanidhi Maran did one fatal mistake, that of discussing who would don the mantle of tamil nadu politics after MK – ie., which of his sons would make it as CM ? Unfortunately he used Dinakaran news paper as a means of conducting this poll, and due to the anger and violence it caused in tamil nadu, MK bore all the brunt of mud slinging – the end result – him deciding to kick Sun Network on its ass. And this he did with great pomp and splendor. He openly aligned with Raj TV, favouring them over Sun, he poached Sun’s acting cast to Raj and he even launched his own Kalaignar TV (now isnt that fit enough to comabat JJ TV – oh god!). During these days Maran lost his plum job as Communications minister, and the country perhaps lost a visionary too – remember he was at the forefront of lowering mobile call rates, ushering in 2Mbps broandband, and sort of creating exponential reforms in the telecom segment.

Of course he did divert Motorola and Nokia to our own yours truly Tamil nadu in the meelee, but in the general context he did much more than any communications minister ever did. With his flamboyant english speaking skills and business attired attitude, he caught the fancy of many people around the world. True to his professionalism, he even kept quiet when his entire TV network was being pulled down by none other than our own Kalaignar.

Media barons in the making surely have their own strategies up their sleeve and Dayanidhi and Kalanidhi Marans were not far behind either. Yesterday they upped the ante and contiunued their onslaught over the digital broadcasting domain with the launch of Sun Direct DTH – a direct to home service with a difference addressing all of previous bad learnings, finger burns, and market issues. The result – a service with a FREE set top box (common oldies, wake up now), a FREE dish – yes no catch here. – upto 90 channels of entertainment (radio and tv) – for just (hold your breath) Rs.75/- a month (~ $2.00). Holy cow. Interestingly TATA sky is now offering 1 million minutes free, I begin to wonder why!!

Click on this image to see the Sun TV Direct DTH plans and costs

Is it not clear that Sun intends to hit the volume segment and make its revenues. And DTH is not a business where Mr.Kalaignar can poke his nose or alter the business dynamics. Sun just shut him up with offering his own tv over their network and so also jaya! now this is called an even playing field. So now the set top box that I bought for Rs.3999 is invalid and is an e-waste ! Damn the growth of technology. Millions of peoples Rs.3999 is now down the drain.

So now the box and dish are free. Whats left? the service itself going free? Remember the great RELIANCE group is still there waiting to hit the market with Reliance Bluemagic. And with their recent Reliance Insurance, Reliance Fresh, and Reliance Mobile plans they have done well, atleast the pricing part. Its understood that Reliance will launch the IPTV (which connects the STB to your computer). With STB, PC and content available, you can watch everything on demand now, maybe with or even without advertisements! So where will your money then go? It will go to content. Anything that you get as an offering on the content side (serials, movies, songs) will be paid. The box will remain free. And content is like food. You cant live without eating food. You cant live without seeing movies, or entertaining yourself with music or playing games. And your kids will be most influential in asking you to buy these content – for which you will continue to pay. So Reliance, welcome to the club – all the best – prepare for the onslaught and it will be the survival of the fittest, fastest, cheapest and best! And dont forget adult entertainment is yet to make a big hit and that for sure will be the real money earner.

So do we see DishTV and Hathway pack their bags? Well mostly yes! Tata might make its box free in the shorter run and start offering IPTV along with Sun and Reliance. So this will then be regional dominance if not anything else.

We would then say – consumer is going to be benefitted the most – but a word of caution here. Dont buy technology when its too costly. Wait till it falls in prices. Wait till there is sufficient competition. And then the consumer will be the one who rules.

If you like this article, please comment.

Technorati Tags: Bangalore.Technology.Life, Sun, Sun Direct DTH, Sun TV DTH, Sun TV direct DTH, Tata Sky, Dish TV, Dish TV India, Reliance Bluemagic, Reliance Fresh, Reliance Insurance, Karunanidhi, Kalaignar, Jayalalitha, Dayanidhi Maran, Kalanidhi Maran, Dinakaran, Sun network, Rupert murdoch, James murdoch, Hathway, Subhash chandra, Doordarshan, Madurai, Azhagiri, Stalin, Million, DTH, Set top box, STB, Remote

For a long time I wanted to write this post, but somehow put this off until now. Now its time and I thought I’d finally get onto writing it. Having said that this post is about the different types of ultrasound baby scanning available today and what perspectives and insights they provide on your baby. Currently there are three types of scanning, 2d, 3d and 4d. of this the 2d scanning is a foetal profile on just x and y axis showing the baby as a 2d image in black and white. when this is extended to include the depth axis, we get a 3d image as shown below. when a collection of 3d scans are rendered with respect to time (time axis), what we get is a 4d real time moving scan video of the baby. Seeing your baby move in real time within the womb is a great experience to bond with the baby even before its born and every mother and father in the making have a thrilling experience seeing this scan.

Today India, and in particular Bangalore is in the news for all the right reasons with respect to complex medical surgeries that have met with astounding success. The scene is no different with respect to baby scans too. Advanced 4d Scanning is now available where you can take home either a CD or DVD with moving video of the entire scan to see at your privacy at your convenience at your own home! And to share the joy with others as well. There are many clinics that do this scan in Bangalore, and I visited the Bangalore Foetal Medicine Center, located as part of Sharadambal Nursing Home, behind Devatha Plaza on Residency Road, in Bangalore. This is to the right as you get down from the Richmond road flyover, onto Residency Road. Appointments generally are delayed atleast by an hour, and they are hard to secure too. Dr.Prathima, is an experienced hand at this scan and a very nice person to talk to, too. She has the courtesy of explaining everything you need information on with utmost ease. To get an appointment you can contact them at this number :

+91-80-22214081.

The cost works out to Rs.1000 ($20+) for a CD with still images off the scan, and Rs.1400 ($30+) for a moving video DVD. The same scan can cost as much as more than 200$ outside India which is horrendously expensive. The scan is worth the effort and in my opinion, no expecting parents must miss it! However be advised of two things:

1. the scan can expose body abnormalities of the baby which would present anxious circumstances/decisions for the parents
2. the hospital will not reveal the gender of the baby as it is prohibited in India, due to the high incidence of female feticide.

For more information on the different types of scan and what they mean, refer this link.

Technorati Tags: 2d , 3d , 4d , ultrasound , images , GE , philips , scan , baby scan , pregnancy , childbirth , child , foetal scan , foetus , sonogram , bangalore , india , karnataka , hospitals

There is a saying: Behind every cloud there is a silver lining. Of course this applies to most things in life too. Whenever we see a cloud (of problems) coming towards us or blocking us in what we do, what we fail to see is the silver lining (a solution or a window of opportunity) behind this cloud. Many of us even doubt the veracity of this saying itself just because we are unable to be smart to find solutions to our daily problems.

Nature has its own way of making us understand this point. As I was traveling back home from work, I could not help noticing this wonderful beam of sunrays coming out of the clouds which loomed large around the city. The rays were so brilliant that the light thrown around shone like a diamond ring.

So the next time you are faced with problems, remember this photograph, there is always something bright and exciting behind the dark black cloud! If you can spot this silver lining, you will easily conquer all your problems and be a winner in life!

Technorati Tags: Cloud, silver lining, winter, bangalore, bengaluru, sunlight, sunrays, bus, evening, sunset