The Road to FMS – Murphy’s Law : What you least expect, happens - Part 1

Mon, Somewhere between 30^th and 31^st May 2005

Oh boy! The chronological order of the posts on this blog is in one BIG mess. Anyone who can still make head or tail of what I write surely deserves an award! This is going to be another loooong post like the laptop one, but then I guess it deserves every bit of it. Everyone who thinks FMS is a tough one to convert should hear me on this one. I think I’ll break it up into multiple posts.

FMS – The Perception

FMS, an institute about which the only thing I ever heard was that there are only 60 seats and too tough to get into. And to top it all, the test is conducted in Mumbai! Everyone I know who took the FMS exam, took it with a pre determined mindset that they would not make it. An institute, to which when I was applying, my Dad told me “Don’t apply just about anywhere son!”. Took him quite a bit of convincing to let me fill that form. An instructor at a coaching institute told me to skip the test, so that I could attend a mock interview for the SP Jain and ISB calls I had! Rumours also of a reservation for Delhi students were all over the place. All this, not because its not a good institute, but people think chances are too less! Guess the only thing left was God himself telling me not to take the test. But He had other plans.

FMS – The Night Before

It was 15^th January 2005, 10 pm. I had just returned from office, dead tired. Had the test the next day in Mumbai. Was in no shape to go. Got a call from Vikrant and Saurabh, don’t know whether they qualify as friends or brothers. They were not taking the test. But when 3 guys get together to plan a Sunday, ideas go wild. And so they did. We decided to drive down to Mumbai the next morning. Inspite of our vehement protests Saurabh said he’d bring the guitar. Ok, so now atleast yours truly decided to go for the exam!

Rest will follow soon!

-S

Customer Service at its best

Mon 30th May 2005, 1847 hrs

Well we have always heard of instances wherein non Indian (did not feel like using the term foreign) companies have gone out of their way to address customer complaints, and a typical reaction to that would have been "India mein toh koi aisa kabhi nahi karta!" (No one would have ever done this in India!)

I beg to differ. Had a bad flight experience with Jet Airways on a flight from Delhi to Pune. And they are supposedly the best airline amongst the Indian Domestic Carriers today. (Dont know abt the new airlines yet!) Sent them a stinker via email, never expecting a reply.

And reply they did! A point to point explanation of every complain or issue I raised. And very convincingly and also a replacement for the damaged baggage! Though the replacement is not important, what I appreciate is the pains taken in investigating the entire matter and sending such a detailed response.

From someone who said "I will never fly Jet again" they have surely won my confidence back in the airline! Well done Jet Airways!

A few excerpts from the looong response i received:

I am concerned to note the cold, abrupt and unresponsive manner in which
the concerned cabin crew handled your repeated request, as at Jet Airways, our crew members are trained to serve passengers in an efficient manner. The matter
has been brought to the attention of our Inflight Division and the
concerned cabin crew has been counselled to ensure that our passengers are
promptly attended to.

Once more I apologize on behalf of Jet Airways for the inconvenience you
had to go through.

Based on your feedback, our staff have been briefed at Delhi and Pune
Airports once again to facilitate our passengers and to be careful when
handling checked in baggage.

Mr.Agarwal, thank you once again for having taken the trouble to have
written. We look forward to your support and continued patronage of Jet
Airways and to welcoming you and Mrs.Meenakshi Agarwal on board soon.

Sincerely,


Vijay Sethi
General Manager
Service Quality & Client Communications

-S

India’s Dream Co. Kicks Off …

Thu, 27^th May 2005 11:54 am

After a very long and unavoidable delay today I start work on a software consultancy assignment I picked up recently.

Though a very small step forward I am only too excited about this, which probably is the first one towards me setting up my own enterprise.

So for now, its back to the same old stuff I have been doing for 6 years … software design, client interactions, late nights … but this time its not for some huge company … its for myself … and so its going to be fun!

-S

Life

Thu, May 26 2005 10:27 AM

Received this in a mail today ... so true ... so well written ... so hard to follow ...

Today before you think of saying an unkind word
Think of someone who can't speak
Before you complain about the taste of your food
Think of someone who has nothing to eat

Before you complain about your husband or wife
Think of someone who's crying out to God for a companion
Today before you complain about life
Think of someone who went too early to heaven

Before you complain about your children
Think of someone who desires children but they're barren
Before you argue about your dirty house someone didn't clean or sweep
Think of the people who are living in the streets

Before whining about the distance you drive
Think of someone who walks the same distance with their feet
And when you are tired and complain about your job
Think of the unemployed, the disabled and those who wished they had your job

But before you think of pointing the finger or condemning another
Remember that not one of us are without sin and we all answer to one maker
And when depressing thoughts seem to get you down
Put a smile on your face and thank God you're alive and still around

Life is a gift
Live it.
Enjoy it..
Celebrate it..
And fulfill it..

-S

This is the piece moi been raving about :)

Tis a Material World!

Mon, 23 May 2005 4:50 pm

Well this was one long overdue post. And it is about my laptop. Now before people start wondering as to why I am announcing about my laptop, the intentions are not those. The idea is only to recognize the efforts of each and every one who was involved in this beautiful piece being put together and making sure it reaches my table for me to be able to type this out!

It all started one December night when one of my closest friend Preetesh was visiting India and told me about the amazing deals that Dell offers on its laptops in USA. A passing reference was made to www.edealinfo.com, a site that lists deals on various products and has a page dedicated to Dell.

Once decided that I was going to B School this year, owning a laptop was almost the next natural step. That’s when the above conversation, by now three months old, flashed across my mind. Very next moment I started checking out the deals on a regular basis until I came across a laptop that seemed to be the perfect combination of both my needs and pocket. And now all those who got involved in the saga!

Preetesh (Location: Somewhere in USA) and Heena (Location: Atlanta, USA)

After a lot of laboring I finally managed a handsome discount from Dell and decided to order it. I was just about to make the payment online when boom! I realize they need an American Credit Card. Ok, the Americans are not that dumb! It was urgent. These deals do not come very often and even when they do last only for a couple of hours before being called off. So I called up Preetesh. It was 8 am. The dude was in another city and leaving for an interview in 30 mins. Still he managed to get in touch with Heena and pass on all the required information for it to be ordered, with the discount ofcourse. :)

Sukesh Jiyaji and Aarti (Location: San Jose, CA)

Fine the laptop was ordered and was supposed to be shipped by the 9^th of May to my sister, Aarti’s place in CA. Jiyaji was due to fly down to Japan and then India on the way back and he could have carried it with him. But he was leaving on the 8^th of May!!!! What if Dell works like our Indian companies? No way would they deliver one day in advance! Well, here in India, we only know Customer Delight on paper you see!

But, the piece got delivered 10 days before time. Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!! I was so dead sure they had goofed up that I asked my sis to check the piece a million times. Luckily I still haven’t found any goof up.

A close acquaintance (Location: New Delhi)

The laptop was on its way to India from Japan. But there was one problem. The Indian Customs. It was then that this person managed to help me out deputing a person right there at the airport to make sure there is no problem faced by Jiyaji in India.

It all worked out great and the piece reached India! Woh! The toughest part was over. And now getting it to Pune.

Sukesh Kaul (Location: New Delhi), Madhur Mausi (Location: New Delhi), Geetika (Location: New Delhi to Pune)

As luck would have it my cousin Geetika was flying to Pune from New Delhi just a couple of days after his thing arrived here. And I got impatient. Never again would I get such an opportunity to have it transported to Pune, and waiting to get to Delhi myself seemed like eternity.

I called Sukesh. He works in Gurgaon. He most willingly picked up the piece from Gurgaon and dropped it to Karol Bagh from his house in Noida. Anyone who has even a rough idea about the distances in the capital would I am sure realize the pains Sukesh took. I really wonder how many people would actually do that, even for a blood relation. Thanks dost!

From Karol Bagh, Madhur Mausi, took it all the way to the airport to hand it over to Geetika. Geetika was to come from Chandigarh to the airport and a delayed start resulted in her missing her direct flight to Pune.

She took the late night flight to Mumbai and then came to Pune the next morning!

Anyways here is a big thank you to all these people for all the efforts and pains taken by all of you. I still cannot believe the number of people who got involved in this entire episode!

And this is the beauty I have been talking about …

You too wanna buy a Dell. Check out EDealInfo.com for their deals.

-S

Sir William Wallace

Mon, May 24, 2005 12:30 am

Just saw Braveheart today. Wondering why inspite of all my friends insisting I never found the time to see it earlier.

An exceptional movie. Truly. Covers every emotion a human being can go through and every quality one can possess.

True Love
Betrayal
Conviction
Belief in one's dreams
Leadership
Fear
Foresight
Loss of loved ones
The never say die attitude

the list is endless...

Couldn't stop myself from looking up on Sir William Wallace.
Read more about him:
http://www.scotlandspast.org/wallaceID1.cfm

-S

Pune Simmers!!

Sat, 21 May 2005, 1600 hrs.

Peak summer has arrived in Pune. The mercury levels having touched 41.7 Deg. C. the anyways sleepy Pune has started staying indoors even more! If only Pune had good roads we could easily have been an F1 circuit during the afternoons here!
Yeah, Pune is no where close to its big brothers Delhi, Ahmedabad, Nagpur etc. etc. with most of them having breached the 44 mark! But then what the heck! Pune was supposed to have the best weather in the country ... whatever happened!

Anyways for me, the heat has yet not gotten to me. Guess I am just mentally preparing myself for the onslaught that Delhi is going to have on me in a couple of months ...

Latest on Pune's Weather: http://www.imd.ernet.in/section/nhac/dynamic/mhpun.htm or Click Here

-S

Why do people blog?

Wed, May 11 2005, 10:30 am

Blogging – the latest ‘in’ thing on the hobby list. And no one wants to be left behind. At the first mention of the term one goes and signs up with one of the numerous blog sites available online.

Hours are spent pondering over a nice name, choosing a template (my blog should look the best!), adding links to ‘Sites I Visit’, ‘Blogs, Books I read’, ‘Songs I listen’ etc etc. The list is endless. The time spent, almost seems infinite!

No I am no blogging critic. In fact I am no exception to what I just described above. But unlike others once the initial enthusiasm faded out, updating my blog seemed more like a task than a hobby, for reasons I will shortly enumerate.

Many of my friends, more commonly girls, have always maintained personal diaries, their companion, the one thing which knows all those dark secrets about their life. I thought at one point even I should have one. But then I always preferred my memory to remember those parts of my life than a book which would mean an additional responsibility of protecting it. That’s it. My diary stopped at the first page itself. And it never went beyond.

Then came blogging. Once again just to be a part of the ever increasing ‘gang’ of bloggers, I signed up. But this only filled my mind with more questions.

There are billions of bloggers around the world. Why would anyone read my blog? Or rather how many blogs of people I don’t know have I read?

Then why does one blog? What would you want to post on your blog that you want to share with the entire world out there? Would you want to share your personal life and happenings with the rest of the globe?

Have got different answers for this too!

No blog I have seen till date relates to one’s personal life. So I guess that is where personal diairies and blogs are fundamentally different. Following are the different kinds of bloggers I have met - online.

Those who blog to share their opinions and thoughts about various issues, social, political whatever! Maybe they hope that someday someone with the same views would read their blog and then they could have an online community!!!!!

Some blog to portray an image of themselves which they want that special someone to see. And yes, that someone special is the most common visitor to the blog! No it need not be a wrong image. Just a facet of their personality which cannot be directly gotten across but only through this medium of indirect words, supposedly targeted at the entire world!

Then there are those who write a looooooong blog when they have nothing better to do. They want to relate their everyday experiences on their blog. What they eat, where they went etc etc. Stuff which no stranger will ever be interested in. But stuff which might make interesting reading for their friends and acquaintances. I guess they see their blog as a ‘mass mailer’, a convenient way of keeping in touch! I belong here.

Welcome to my blog!

-S