Jagadish Gandhi's Blog

A trip to my native village!

2010-01-24T15:48:00.004+05:30

I went on a very short trip to my native village near Tiruvannamalai this weekend. So, what's great about it? I went there after 2 years, even though the place is just around 180 KM's from Chennai! Came back with mixed feelings

Lost an uncle to a freak accident. He fell down while picking guava and got hit in skull a few days ago and succumbed to it yesterday. At 74, he was too energetic and an inspiration for us to stay fit
Happy to see the saplings I planted in my school days grown in to tall trees. Like a kid, I was telling people that I planted these
Saw my new born niece & Got to meet whole family after ages
Had a good darshan at Tiruvannamalai temple

Moved to a new home!

2010-01-20T22:55:00.001+05:30

Its been more than a year since I updated this blog. It was in death bed. This blog opened up a new world to me and showed me a lot of things. I never wanted to let this die down like that. Probably, Twitter made things worse. Its simple, chaotic, conversational and stupid. But, thats what drives people to become crazy about it. And I did become one among them.

However, I think blog is still the best medium to express your views in a structured manner. Hence, I have given it a new life with a newer identity to this blog. Yes, this blog has moved to a new home @ http://blog.jagadish.net. Update your blogrolls!

The Hindu's Readers Editor responds to my mail

2008-12-15T20:19:00.003+05:30

The Hindu's Reader Editor K. Narayanan has responded to my mail regarding the missing attribution for the photograph taken by me published on 13th December, 2008 Chennai edition.

Mr. From: readerseditor@thehindu.co.in [mailto:readerseditor@thehindu.co.in]
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2008 4:06 PM
To: Jagadishkumar Gandhimurthy
Subject: Re: Missing Attribution for the photograph used

Dear Mr. Jagadishkumar Gandhimurthy,

The News Bureau says the event was only for bloggers and the picture was provided by Krupa Shankar, the organiser of the event.

There was no indication of any credit to be given.

K. Narayanan
The Readers' Editor,
The Hindu,
Kasturi Buildings,
859 -- 860 Anna Salai,
Chennai 600 002
India
Ph: +91-44-28418297 (11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday)
Fax: +91-44-28552963
Email: readerseditor@thehindu.co.in

I'm not happy with the tone of this response. It sounds a little insincere and exposes the unwillingness to acknowledge the source. I understand that there was a communication gap and I do not want to blame “The Hindu” entirely for this. However, as the source of the picture is established now, it would be nice if "The Hindu" could add credits to the picture atleast in the online version. I uploaded all the event photographs for the use of others and I did not expect any monetary benefits from this. It’s all about acknowledging the effort put in by someone.

May be since the photographs were a pictorial coverage of an "event", it looks like no one takes this as an individuals effort. I'm not going to lose anything in this. It is the credibility of an establishment like "The Hindu" which would take a beating, if they don't correct a mistake even if the fault is not theirs completely.

I have responded to the Readers Editor clarifying my stance on this. Lets see how they respond.

The Hindu publishes a photograph taken by me, without attribution

2008-12-13T14:04:00.006+05:30

The Hindu in 5th Page of its Chennai Edition today has published a photograph taken by me, without any attribution to the source. I'm sure they would be equally concerned about plagiarism and this might have happened accidently. It's most likely that they might have recieved the photograph without any details of the source. And since the news article which carried the photograph was about Wikipedia Academy launch by Jimmy Wales, one of the events organized by our "The Knowledge Foundation", I'm not going to cry foul. I'm happy that they found a amatuer photographer's photo good enough to publish in a national daily!

Crackers and Fireworks

2008-10-27T23:24:00.004+05:30

Lights & Colors of Diwali fireworks look great!!! But, should we pollute our environment like this? Why do we forget civic sense when the festival comes?

Vodafone Woes

2008-08-20T23:20:00.003+05:30

Well, The curse still continues for me. I'm just fed up fighting with these service providers. I wonder whether have the their brains in their asses. I took all the precautions to avoid the shit I went through in the past. But, they have not improved even a bit, they still F**k up the same way.

The scenario is this. My employer tied up with Airtel and Vodafone and got couple of exclusive plans for the employees, which was more than tempting to switch my prepaid to postpaid. Well, the good things ended right there.

I took all possible precaution and gave them maximum documentation I could provide while applying for the migration, since I have had first hand experience of how these guys screw up and how they are pesky about their f**ked up processes and their fit for nothing customer care. I wonder what else I need to provide them to prove that I'm genuine.

I have provided all proofs for my existing prepaid connection, which was verified by Vodafone already
Latest Vodafone bill of another mobile connection I hold and which has the same address in the records
Photocopy of Driving License, PAN Card and Employee ID Card

In spite of providing all the above documents, Vodafone disconnected my number because there was negative address verification note from the address verification agency it has hired. The reason is that I didn't answer their call when they called up for welcome visit. It has triggered a negative address verification note, though they have verified the address with my neighbours and apartment security. These guys never bothered to contact me again.

My Questions to Vodafone (and other service providers):

Can't you inform / warn the customer about impending deactivation in a scenario like this through a call or SMS and ask them to act on it?
I have provided all the documents while buying prepaid connection and the same was verified by you, isn't that enough?
I have provided a Vodafone bill of another connection I hold which has the same address. Isn't that enough? You did verify my credentials for that connection as well. Why do you have to do it again?
The verification process is outsourced and these vendors are paid based on numbers. Naturally they don't follow up on a customer, if they aren't able to reach them the first time. Do you have a process in place to check this?
If you are so serious about your processes and TRAI rules, why don't you provide the connection after making all the mandatory verification and documentation work?

The bitter truth is "The customer is King, but only till customer acquisition in a growing market"

iPhone in India - Not a worthy birthday gift

2008-08-20T09:18:00.006+05:30

When Airtel and Vodafone announced the impending launch of iPhone in India on August 22 (which happens to be my birthday as well), I though I could gift myself a new iPhone 3G. But, I cannot afford its exorbitant pricing. Even if I could afford it, I don't think it is worth it at this pricing.

Anyways, others who want to send me a Birthday gift can still consider iPhone!.

88888 Lights Out

2008-08-08T19:38:00.003+05:30

I'm going to chip in to arrest the Global warming by participating in "88888 Lights Out" Campaign. Do join us and show that you care for nature and you want to leave a healthy environment for the next generations. Turn off your lights on 8th of August (08-08-2008), from 08:00:08 PM to 08:08:08 PM.

BTW, Did you shut down your office PC today? I did, its my simple contribution towards energy conservation and stop global warming.

Heading to Parvadhamalai

2008-05-31T06:42:00.003+05:30

I will be starting to Parvadhamalai in a hour with Chennai Trekkers Club. Its a long pending wish, which is going to come true. I will post about the trek next week.

(Image from Arvindram's Picasa Stream)

It isn't just Indian roads..

2008-02-10T10:08:00.000+05:30

... Chicago city too has its share of pothole problems.

Off to Chicago!

2007-12-22T23:01:00.000+05:30

In couple of hours from now, I will be leaving to Chicago on a business trip. I will be there for a couple of weeks. During my school days I used to tell my friends that I would one day go to Chicago where my Uncle used to live then. Chicago is one in the list of cities I want to see in my life time. In that aspect it is kind of a dream come true to me.

But I'm not so excited about my trip now, because of the horrible weather there. I'm geared up to face it. You would see frequent updates here from now on, if I'm able to cope up with the weather. And for those who are in the windy city, drop me a line to jagadish[at]jagadish[dot]net. Lets catch up.

Mylai Kabali is back

2007-10-07T00:12:00.001+05:30

Vanakkam naina,

Kabali pettai’kae thirumbi vandhutaen. Mogappair area romba galeej'a keedhu pa. adhaan sari padaathunu namma pettai'kae thirumba vandhutaen. Mylai Kabali is back to Mylapore. I have shifted back to my old apartment in Mylapore. [Kabali'kum Inglees theriyum pa]

Inimae Mylapore’la edhana prechanai’na nammalaanda sollunga mudichudalaam. Naan vootla illana Satyam / Inox cinema kotta'la thalaivar padam paarthukinu irupaen. Illaangaati Marina beachaangarai’la sunda kanji adichikinu irupaen. Illaangaati maangollai'anda edhaachum katchi meeting'la kalaainjukinu irupaen. Eppovaachum aapice’ku povaen.

Varta

Mylai K.Bali

P.S: Kabali konjam old'a keedhu pa athaan K.Bali'nu maathitaen

The Curse continues

2007-10-05T01:12:00.001+05:30

Looks like I have been cursed for life to have bitter experiences with customer care people of telecommunication companies. First it was Sify for a year, then Tata Indicom (Though not a big one), then Hutch Essar (Now Vodafone Essar) and now its the turn of Bharti Airtel.

Initially I stayed away from Airtel, because I felt they are stretching themselves too thin by expanding rapidly. I opted for Airtel half heartedly when I moved to Mogappair a year back as I have already seen the worst of Cable Internet and Wireless Internet Connections from Sify and Tata Indicom.

Airtel people trenched and laid a new line and got me the connection in three days flat and impressed me. And they were prompt in fixing faults and had no issues till I shifted back to Mylapore and asked them for phone shifting.

They took a request and informed that it will take 6 working days to complete shifting. No one turned up for 4 days. I was asked to wait till 6th day, whenever I called up the customer care.

Friday 21st September, Day 5: A guy turned up without any prior intimation when I was about to start to office. As I was leaving, he said he will come the next day 11.00 AM and asked me to be at home.

Saturday 22nd September, Day 6: No one turned up and I spent my weekend at home waiting for Airtel guys.

After making repeated calls over the weekend and on Monday and Tuesday, they informed me that a faulty component needs to be changed. And bought 3 more days to fix it.

Friday 28th September, Day 11: I kept calling them for updates and a senior supervisor informed that faulty component has been fixed and assured me that my connection will be up before sunset as the rest of the work would hardly take a hours time. I got damn pissed as no one turned up the whole day and didn't even get a call from them.

Saturday 29th September, Day 12: If I don't get my connection today, I need to wait till next Wednesday as it was an extended weekend. I decided to put pressure on them and informed them that I will go on a sit in protest at Airtel office if I don't get my connection before 3.00 PM.

3.00 PM: No one turned up yet.

3.30 PM: I reached Bharti Towers in Santhome. The securities stopped me and said there is no Customer Care office and I cannot meet anyone and I need to talk to customer care over phone for any issues. Few guys came and took me inside to avoid attracting the attention of others when I called up and started shouting to customer care.

They were keen on sending me back when I told them that I won't move out till I get my connection up. They immediately sent a technician to my home and got my line fixed in about a hour. Now they started giving me updates like the technician has started the bike, reached Kutcheri road and so on.

Suddenly few security guards came and surrounded me and started questioning me. Apparently they have seen me having a camera and MP3 player in CCTV. They made a big scene that I have breached their security and a legal team has been informed. They backed off when I said there was no warnings at the entrance and its their mistake of letting me in without checking. They kinda tried to send me back by threatening me using this. Its sad that they don't know how to behave to a customer.

Things which made angry:

Every time I had to call them to know the status. I wouldn't have cared about it had Airtel kept informed me about the delays and reasons
The technician's didn't care to inform me before visiting my place
The irresponsible answers of the customer care executives

Bitter Truths:

This has once again proved that you won't get a good customer support till industry stops growing. Till then the focus will be on customer acquisition than retaining
Fierce competition is needed to make customer care a differentiating factor
It's the service providers who put the SLA's and customers can't demand anything

Will Nawaz Sharif return home from exile?

2007-09-09T22:56:00.000+05:30

Do you want to know what will be Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf's reaction to Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's dare to deport him on return home?

Watch this video!
[Luckily this video has English Subtitle. Skip the first one minute]

This clipping is from a famous Tamil movie Run, staring Madhavan & Atul Kulkarni.

Colours of Nature - PIT September Contest II

2007-09-08T14:22:00.001+05:30

My Second Entry for PIT September Contest

Colours of Nature, Originally uploaded by Jaggys

Vannangal - PIT September Contest

2007-09-08T13:59:00.001+05:30

My entry for the PIT September Contest.

Ardhanareeswarar, Originally uploaded by Jaggys

Hyderabad Blasts - Terrorising Media

2007-08-25T23:49:00.000+05:30

I'm increasingly getting irritated at the way TV media builds a hype around things. They make news out of nothing and try to sensitize people even on very sensitive issues. Its very much clear that they are worried only about TRP and money. No wonder, they didn't spare Hyderabad blasts. A sample of how various TV media covered the issue. Its sad that even the government officials make irresponsible statements to media.

Between 7.30 and 8.00 PM: Blasts occur at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat

9.00 PM: News Channels have started showing some footages taken from regional channels

Within minutes the channels start putting views from various people and they add news from So-Called "Sources". [Well, the sources and the way the news channels catch hold of them in few minutes will always remain a mystery]

AP Home Minister: ISI hand suspected
[Blame it on Neighbor: This is the ritual for every bomb blast in India]

Madhukar Gupta, Union Home Secretary: Every possible angle is being probed
[Wow! So swift in Investigation. He has a report of investigation within a hour of the incident]

YSR, CM, Andhra: Act of terror
[Thanks for the info Mr. Reddy, I thought its a fallout of street match betting]

News Snippets from various Channels:

NDTV: Police says powerful explosives have been used
[I thought, terrorists use "roll cape's" for these kind of attacks]

NDTV: HuJI & JeM hand suspected
[You see, obviously that comes next to ISI]

CNN IBN: Traces of RDX found and mobile phone is used to detonate the device
[Great! CNN IBN has got the forensic report within a hour]

My request to these TV channels is "Stop terrorizing people, act responsibly". Things like showing helpline numbers, details of people admitted in hospitals and blood requirements in each hospital is what needed at this hour.

Orkut celebrates Indian Independence Day

2007-08-15T12:20:00.000+05:30

Next to Brazil, India has the highest number of users for the social networking site Orkut. No wonder, it has painted its logo with the tri color to mark the occasion of 60th anniversary of Indian Independence.

Suddenly there is lot of activity in Orkut. I suppose it is feeling the heat from the fast growing popularity of Facebook in India. Since its launch there is not much change or improvement in Orkut's service. May be because Orkut is not famous in US and doesn't contribute anything significantly to Google. On the other hand Facebook, is growing fast with lot of cool features getting added to it everyday.

I checked other sites for their logo for Indian Independence Day. As usual Google has come up with a very nice logo and Yahoo has a neat one. MSN and AOL didn't bother about it.

Looks like Indian sites are not much worried about it. Rediff has a very mediocre logo. And in the Indiatimes logo you need to assume that its to mark the special occasion.

Tamil BlogCamp

2007-08-05T19:36:00.000+05:30

Tamil BlogCamp, an UnConference focussed on Tamil Blogging happened silently at Marina campus of Madras University today. Unlike the Unconferences happened in the past in Chennai there was no hype around this UnConference.

I missed it, because of my laziness. Looks like it turned out to be an interesting one. I'm just going through the updates of the event from blogs.

Event Updates:
IdlyVadai - For session by session update
ChellaOnline - For Images
or Check this page for more links

Is it called reusability?

2007-08-04T09:43:00.000+05:30

I was recently going through the internet booking facilities of the airlines under the new formed National Aviation Company Of India Limited. Something odd stopped me at the Air-India Express site, the low cost carrier of Air India. When I took a closer look, its side bar resembled the side bar of some other airline I have seen already. I started checking the sites of other airlines . As I suspected it looked exactly the same as the side bar once used by Air Deccan.

I explored both sites a bit more to understand, how both the sites got the same template. The link between the two is InterGlobe Technologies, which maintains the Air India Express e-Ticketing System and maintained the Air Deccan's e-Ticketing system till February 2007. InterGlobe maintained the Air Deccan system from 2003 till early 2007. Air Deccan terminated the service on the grounds of deficiency of service and migrated to Radixx system when InterGlobe launched its own airline Indigo. Now InterGlobe and Air Deccan are locked in a legal battle over the termination of contract and payment disputes.

Air Deccan has masked its side bar and now redirects to the booksecure.net platform of Radixx. Open the images to have a better clarity.

Air India Express site has exactly the same side bar and menu bar templates used by Air Deccan. Is it called reusability? I wonder how Air India has approved this design reuse by InterGlobe.
No wonder, InterGlobe stills calls Air Deccan as its client in its site 6 months after snapping up ties.

Yahoo FareChase gives a "Fair" Chase

2007-06-24T11:04:00.000+05:30

Recently Yahoo! India has launched the travel search engine FareChase. I got to know about this during PodWorks, for which Yahoo! was the lead sponsor. When I tried it, the advertisements caught my eye than the results. Travel sites like ClearTrip.com, ezeego.com, makemytrip.com and indiatimestravel.com were the more prominent advertisers in it.

Yahoo! FareChase is not exactly a travel site, its just a travel search engine. It searches, sorts and shows the results and on selection it will take you to the airlines internet ticket booking facility for ticket booking. It doesn't take care of booking, it just provides the information.

Even if you consider the difference in business model, it looks like campaigning for competitor. Are they the target advertisers for Yahoo! FareChase? Whatever be the case, Yahoo is giving a "Fair" Chase for its competitors too.

Lets hope for better service

2007-06-23T21:53:00.000+05:30

Hope this will change and passengers get r*e*a*l value for money. I feel this consolidation is better for the bleeding airlines and passengers as well.

Note: Photo taken at Delhi Airport during my Himalayan Trip last year.

Encaenia

2007-03-17T01:04:00.000+05:30

Like my friend Barath, I'm also bit excited about the convocation going to be held in few hours from now. Here is the reason for why I am getting bit excited about it.

I take immense pleasure to announce that I have got university rank. I have got 2424th rank out of 2425 who enrolled for the programme. Note:The other guy didn't appear for the exam. (Dude, the actual reason is: I wanted to give others a chance and moreover I don't want to see my photograph getting published in papers)
Its hard earned, if you consider reading (Note: Not "Studying") 3 out of 5 chapters on the D-Day is really an achievement
I have topped the university ranks in sleeping and snoring electives. I believe exam halls are the best place to sleep without any disturbances (And disturb others by snoring). And I have utilized most of the examination duration for the same
I was consistent in scoring the minimum pass marks every time in those four long years

(Photo: Google Image Search)

Jokes apart. Getting invited for the encaenia itself has given me a sense of achievement, though I won't be walking to the the stage wearing academic regalia (robes) and mortarboard (Square academic cap) to get the degree conferred on me.

Happy Birthday Janani!

2007-03-04T00:50:00.000+05:30

My dear friend, college mate and fellow blogger Janani is celebrating her Birthday today. Join me in wishing her a very Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday Janani!!!

Tolmolbol.com - Get Local, Be Vocal

2007-02-10T14:15:00.000+05:30

The recently happened Proto.in conference has helped a lot of new startups to launch their products. One such is Pennywise solutions Limited, started by a group of BITSians. It’s very special to me, because its VP Mr. Pavan Pochu is very close to me. I have seen the company through its different phases. Only few have the guts to quit their jobs in MNC’s like Morgan Stanley, CTS and etc.., to take up the challenges of a startup. Pennywise has launched a community based neighborhood portal, Tolmolbol.com.

The hottest trend in internet now is friendship networking and community based sites. The tech savvy users now have graduated from the level of using generic terms in search engines to being specific about what they want. They demand more and more specific and local information. This trend has opened up the gates for local search engines. Tolmolbol is a Web 2.0 product positioned as your neighborhood site and it makes use of the community model.

What you can do @ Tolmolbol?

Find what is so great and not so great about local Businesses and Services in your city (Like restaurants, shops, theatres)
Know the opinion of others from the reviews
Bookmark the reviews you like, for future reference
Know what is cooking in your city from the Events section
Search and Post Classifieds
Post and get answers for your questions
And also it adds up as friendship networking site to stay connected with your buddies

Things I like Tolmolbol to do

Maps, Businesses and services listing accompanied by maps of the locality, like what you have in yelp.com. Google Earth even pops up yelp review from its site for local business
A two column one instead of the three column design they have now, which makes it look a bit congested. And it looks like they wanted to have as many things as possible in a single page.

Its success depends on how far it can tap in to community model. Most of the net users are just consumers of information; people become lazy when it comes to contributing to the community.

I wish Tolmolbol won’t end up as Desi Yelp. Most Indian sites which tried to replicate the US success stories have become mere Desi clones. They try to differentiate themselves from yelp, with lot more options (Like Classifieds and Events).

It’s in Beta stage now, and it is looking for your feedbacks and comments to improve. I wish all success to the Tolmolbol team.

Update 1: Tolmolbol team informed me that they are working on maps. Let’s wait and watch as it would be really challenging, since Google Maps for Local business is not available for India and there is no proper maps for most of the Indian cities, like US or other countries.