RNETRA

Barclays or Bars of Clay

noreply@blogger.com (Netra) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:48:00 +0000

Just hang up the phone after talking to Barclays bank Customer Care. I seriously wonder if the brains of guys at Barclays bank are filled with Bars of Clay, maybe which is why Barclays hired them. I have had relationships with various banks in the last 3yrs but have never encountered such a poor and dumb service squarely aimed at looting and annoying customers.

Reason for my call - To cancel the damn card/account of Barclays Bank. I want to cancel my card and wipe off my records from the database of Barclays bank. I have come to hate it so much that I dont want a trace of mine in Barclays bank. These guys will easily win Gold Medal for pissing off or annoying the customers.

1. They dont have a branch office in Chennai, but they have it in Kancheepuram(town 70kms from Chennai) . Can anyone explain me the logic? The only logic I can think of is maybe they want to be so damn faraway that customers dont flock banging their doors . Since there is no branch, you cannot make cash payments.

2. Your other option is online payment or dropping Cheque in dropboxes. So, if you want to know Dropbox locations, you gotta download a PDF file from their site and zoom it to 200% to be able to read something. I am not even sure, if clearance is regularly done at these dropboxes. Apparently my friends cheque was not taken for clearance the day he had dropped and he was charged with late payment charges and interest. Are we to be blamed if the bank does late clearance or if the banks are on leave?

3. Customer Care numbers are always busy. The call doesnt go thru itself - it simply gives a message "The Customer you are trying to reach is busy.Please try again later" and shit. I have only experienced call getting connected and then you navigate thru the Interactive Voice system and finally end up waiting for the human voice to come online. Forget all that here, the call simply doesnt go thru- you cannot even reach that interactive or whatever voice system they call. I emailed them about the probem and they very intelligently responded with this message "Please note that you can also reach us on our Barclaycard Helpline numbers mentioned below, our customer service excutive will be please to assist you". What a meaningless, dumb reply?

4. Skip a payment and you'll be tortured everyday with dozen calls from dozen different numbers from all over the country. Yes, everyday you'd get automated calls from dozen numbers reminding you to pay the outstanding. You cant even yell back. They keep bombarding you with these calls for atleast 4 - 5 days even after you make the payment.

5. And you will also receive a dozen SMS reminding you to pay up.

6. No soul would ever call from Barclays bank to check why is the delay or maybe to send a person to collect cash or cheque. You will simply be bombarded with Automated Calls from Barclays call center as though we are some robots or computer programs here.

8. If you lost a card, they dont bother to send you a new card. I made requests for it and its been a month or so and I have not received it yet. They visit your home to do hajar verifications but dont give you the card. These guys are so good at irritating.

9. Highest late payment charges for a credit card. Atleast, of all the cards I have used

10. My balance transfer request was rejected and the status was not updated to me. I had to make repeated calls for a month. Everytime they would respond saying its in process and I will receive it in few days. One fine day, they told me its been rejected and no reasons offered. I was totally appalled here.

11. I cleared my small outstanding of Rs 1200. I called up to close my account or relationship with Barclays. The response was the request cannot be taken since my new card is on its way and only after receiving the card I can place a request. What bullshit? I dont even need the card. now. They know the number of new Card. Why cant they simply block or cancel the card? Inwhich case even if I end up receiving, its just a useless plastic card. I cannot even close or end my account here despite having zero outstanding. After serious arguments, the guy took my request and said it would take 7 days to act on the request and I am supposed to call back to confirm it seems.

Sorry for this rambling. This is just to keep you informed so that you know what to do when you receive those unsolicited calls from Barclays sales rep.

Poor or Rich? Know where you stand

noreply@blogger.com (Netra) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 09:17:00 +0000

The answer lies in the table below. The table was flicked from a book How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis and customized for the Indian scenario by me. I am not going to review the book here. You can read it in Amazon.com or in this blog or about Dennis in BusinessWeek by clicking the hyperlinks. All I can say is it is not your usual get rich or self help guides from the likes of Robert Kiyosaki or feel good authors like Rhonda Bryne of the The Secret fame. Felix is a man who's been there done everything and he is anti self help. You can simply read it for its sheer fun and wit.

Table: Wealth measured by Cash in Hand or Quickly Realisable Assets

5 lakhs - 10 lakhs - simply poor

10 lakhs - 50 lakhs - the comfortably poor

50 lakhs - 1 crore - the comfortably off

1 crore - 5 crore - the so called rich

5 crore - 25crore - the rich

25 crore - 50 crore - the decently rich

50 crore - 100 crore - the seriously rich

100 crore – 500 crore - the truly rich

500+ crores - the Ambanis and Mittals

Quickly realisable doesnt mean that you can go to an ATM and withdraw. It can be a day or week or maximum a month. You see, big guys not necessarily have it all in cash. By the way the list does not include all your assets. Its simply cash in hand or quickly realizable asset.

Well I hear you guys saying I am happy being poor. The purpose of the list is to know where you stand not to put you/me down. Only if you know where you stand you can move to where you want. The list is arbitrary and may not be accepted by everyone.

Book Review: Go Kiss the World by Subroto Bagchi

noreply@blogger.com (Netra) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 17:01:00 +0000

Why this book matters?

Subroto Bagchi needs no introduction. If you need introduction, you probably dont belong to the IT scene of India. If you are in IT and yet dont know him, you are then probably not curious about the business side of IT or about the world of business as such. To start with, he is one of the notable figures in IT landscape of India. He is one of the co founders of MindTree consulting. For folks outside of IT, MindTree consulting is a highly successful software company which was started in 1999 and went public with a big bang in 2007. The title of the book "Go Kiss the World" are the last words of Subroto's mom to him. This brief is enough to be curious about this book.

How I picked it?

On a good Sunday morning, my dad passed on the newspaper article of this book and asked me to check it out. I saw the name Subroto Bagchi and was curious to know what's this new book about. I have seen and heard about his previous book "The High Performance Entrepreneur" several times but dint bother to buy, because I was not ready for entrepreneurship. I had that clarity and dint want to be disturbed.

2 weeks later I stumbled upon this book while leisurely browsing in Landmark. Going by the tag line "Life Lessons for Young Professionals" I felt it should be more apt and relatable and bought it without giving too much thought. I dint want any management buzzwords, MBA bookish fundas here. I wanted real life experiences and practical ideas. Lets see how the book fared.

The Review

Started reading with Prologue and I just couldnt go beyond the 5 pages of Prologue. The sentence formations, the style of writing, large sentences, dint strike a chord with me and I couldnt read further. This is largely because the previous book I read "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waltzein had such beautiful writing that I couldnt take anything that is less eloquent than that. Both books are similar; autobiographical in nature and the authors dig into their own lives to share their learnings with the readers. One glaring difference would be, the backdrop of Joshs book is sports and that of Subrotos book is largely corporate life.

I am not even close to being called a good writer, but a book from someone whose previous book is highly recommended one coupled with my personal admiration for MindTree, made me have high expectations in my mind. I was disappointed and took consolation from the fact that profits from this book goes to MindTree charity foundation. Later I felt, its unfair 1st to compare and 2nd to drop the book in five pages. I decided to read thru.

Here’s the real deal. Book is divided into three parts.

In the 1st part he takes us thru his childhood days in Orissa, school and college life and how he gets his 1st job in DCM Shriram as management trainee.

In the 2nd part he talks about quitting DCM, his brief entrepreneurial stint later and finally joining Wipro. Its get lot more interesting here when he talks about early days of IT scene in India, how Wipro dint have an office in US and operated out of his own house. One can also get glimpses of Azim Premji here as he was directly reporting to Premji.

In the 3rd part he talks about quitting Wipro after a 10year stint and joining Lucent before starting MindTree. These are interesting incidents people can easily relate and learn.

It starts with a boring 1st part, gets interesting in 2nd part, and keeps you hooked till the end. Lets be realistic, its not supposed to be a entertainment novel. Its a journey of one mans life from a humble background in Orissa to a high flier written in honest and candid manner.

Overall, the book borders between Ok and Good and there are enough takeaways for young professionals in IT or non IT companies especially for guys from humble or modest background. Its not a must read, but good to read one for young professionals. It definitely offers good wisdom and the impacts of such small learnings cannot be quantified.

Being an Atheist

noreply@blogger.com (Netra) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:39:00 +0000

I am an Atheist. I feel a bit odd and weird to say that. Saying I am an Atheist is as ridiculous as someone saying I am normal. It has to be a default thing. I cannot think of any other way of thinking.

Having born in a very religious family, it doesn't surprise me the way my thoughts have shaped up. Thanks to the freedom of thoughts and speech at home.

Tracing back, the only time I feared God was during my thumb sucking days. Those were days when I was told dont lie, God will poke your eyes with a fountain pen, Dont copy in exams, God is watching everyone from above using Hubble telescope. If I had fallen and hurt myself, I was told, God punished me. I was told, Good peeps go to heaven where hot angels revolve around you ready to grant your requests and Bad folks go down to Hell which is filled with zombies ready to throw you in burning oil. I was told stories of God punishing Adam for eating the forbidden fruit in school and stories of various avatars and demons at home.

Very generously, God dint punish me or my friends for lying or copying in exams. So, things dint happen and I started questioning. Questions had no answers.

Beyond the thumb sucking days, I stopped fearing. I never prayed God for anything. I never asked him any favors. I have not asked him the clichéd why its happening only to me. I used to smile when guys in college close their eyes and pray seriously to God before every exam and before checking the results online. Seriously funny. My world is no worse than those guys who pray five times or repeat slogans throught the day. Infact I am much more happier living, thinking and exploring things at my own free will. As Richard Dawkins author of God Delusion says, It frees you up to live life on your own terms. Its simply living life to its fullest.

This sort of thinking has started rising especially among people who decide to open up a bit. People have started agreeing and saying religion is just a belief, its a way to discipline oneself or the society and the religious tales and its characters are myths.

Yesterday, CERN attempted to simulate the Big Bang experiment. That is a huge progress from the days of Galileo being house arrested for saying earth is not the centre of universe to now where billion dollar experiments that will prove universe indeed began with a Big Bang.

I think the world is very slowly opening up, becoming more tolerant and moving towards Atheism or Agnosticism or spiritualism. Yes religious fanatic groups are still around creating havoc and stunting the worlds growth. Ignoring them, other people who have the opportunity or the freedom to explore are slowly changing. Karunanidhi, Kamal, myself, etc are still living happily because of the more tolerant people.

Do check out the fantastic video which shows some of the worlds best thinkers and philanthropists are Atheists. As in the video "Its far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring". The irony is as Hawking puts its the more you try to understand the Universe, the more you think about God. Well, not the regular mythical God who punishes you or grants you your wishes.

Disclosure: I am from a religious family. I do visit temples but to appease my parents. Its fun and you can do good birdwatching.

Social Entrepreneurs helping Rural India

noreply@blogger.com (Netra) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 17:59:00 +0000

Its a nice and inspirational video of a social entrepreneur helping Rural India with Solar technologies. Watching the video I am sure you are not gonna become a social entrepreneur. Atleast,

1. You will appreciate the need for such initiatives.

2. You might be hearing this already, Solar is the next big thing, but here are real examples of creative uses of solar panels.

3. Time for these solar folks to turn to the urban side as well, as I am getting sick of the daily 1 - 3 hours powercut in Chennai. Makes me feel, rural guys are better off with solar panels and stuff and we are still dependent on lousy EB.

4. Recent goofups like tying the mangal sutra to bride's friend or sister because of power cut can be avoided. Courtesy: Economic Times

Jumping on Google Chrome Bandwagon

noreply@blogger.com (Netra) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:02:00 +0000

Google announces Google Chrome. I thought Wow, a browser from Google and that was least expected. I was thrilled in thinking How was it going to look like? What surprises in store? MS reaction for it?. Shared the news with my friends. The next day Google released it prompting millions to grab a copy and I was one among them. Thankfully Google servers dint crash. So im in the cool gang of the first few millions to try it out. The coolness factor was important.

Downloaded and started using it. Read all the blogs that had something to say about Chrome. Posts like its awesome, whats the future of FF?, its no IE beater, its a threat to Silverlight and AIR, its terms of service is suspicious, I am not excited about Chrome, Chromes is not secure were all over the blogosphere. For my part I did make noise in Twitter, changed my status in Gtalk briefly to "Chrome is simple and superfast" so that I dont look uncool. Now I am even writing a post which has Chrome as the subject.

At the end of the day, after all the testing, tweeting, hype and hoopla I am back to using Firefox. Did I gain anything in this exercise? At best I can indugle myself in some Chrome discussion in Office and sound more geekier than my colleagues.

Ganesha 2.0 ?

noreply@blogger.com (Netra) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:04:00 +0000

Pic Courtesy: Economic Times

Time for Ganesha to go for a makeover, atleast for the idol makers to give him a makeover this season, reports an article in Economic Times. Funny to learn, Ganesha, the cool dude is jumping the bandwagon of being fit and trim, if possible a pack or two as well. Idol makers are bringing out this new version of slimmer and trimmer Ganesha this Ganesh Chaturthi in Ahmedabad. They go on to say people do not want a paunchy Ganesha, hence they started experimenting with a lean and mean one. I am not sure whether its the public not wanting a paunchy Ganesha or Gujju idol makers getting a bit creative here. Lets see if slim Ganeshas are available in Chennai next week, should be amusing to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi in his new avatar or version 2.0.

Steven Speilberg to direct movie on Tin Tin comics

noreply@blogger.com (Netra) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:33:00 +0000

I am thrilled. My favorite director directing my favorite comic. Steven Speilberg is directing a movie on TinTin comics. I seriously never imagined such a possibility. As the reports goes he will be directing the first of three movies that are planned. The first film, will be based on one of the Tintin books 'The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure'. I am not sure if its going to be animation or real world movie. Whatever it is, Steven and TinTin combo sure has me excited. Well, the folks belonging to the Asterix and Obelix camp are going to be disappointed to know that TinTin is gonna become a movie star.

Looking at the pic above makes me nostalgic. I was a big fan on TinTin comics back in my school days. I simply loved the character TinTin, his dog Snowy and the adventures that followed. It brings me memories of pulling out TinTin books from library, buying a few episodes of it from Landmark and bragging about it the next day in the school. I still remember endlessly gazing at the back cover wishing to own the whole series one day. Funny when I think about those days.

Seems like you cannot have "thisbanksucks" as password for banking

noreply@blogger.com (Netra) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:59:00 +0000

It was pretty hilarious to read this story in BBC about the experience of a guy in UK who had "Lloyds is pants" as his phone banking password. Lloyds is a bank in UK and pants in Britain supposedly means underwear. First, "Lloyds is pants" as password dint go down well and second his attempts to change his password to much better "Barclays is Better" and "Censorship" also dint find any favor with the bank employee in the call centre. That was real funny. Read the full story here to know how it possibly happened and the banks apologies for this amusing incident.

One Hundred Pushups in One Go

noreply@blogger.com (Netra) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:35:00 +0000

How about doing 100push ups at a stretch? Its definitely a herculean task for me. Atleast for now. But it is not, says 100hundredpushups.com if you break it down to small reps every alternate day spread over six weeks. I totally subscribe to that thought and it kinda makes it feasible. 100hundredpushups.com gives you a simple no nonsense program that can help you achieve 100 push-ups in six weeks. I must say that site is also pretty popular with 6350+ delicious bookmarks. I personally liked the site because it is pretty straight forward with no gimmicks and false promises . The program is very realistic and suits people of all ages less than 65. Well try it out, should be a great phyiscal and mental challenge.

Americans are so fond of Credit Card Debt

noreply@blogger.com (Netra) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:59:00 +0000

Check out the interesting post Why Are Americans So Willing To Dig Themselves Deep Into Debt? on Consumerist.com. The only difference is that people dont get unemployed here so often. So there is always consistent income which can be routed to pay off these cards. How many of us end up applying for new ultra cool sexy cards when we actually have half a dozen credit cards in hand and each maxxed out to the limit? I guess lot of us do and the consequence could only be slightly less disastrous than the lady in that link. The point is Banks Dont Care. All those friendly ads are bullshit. They want people to go broke and eventually they end up digging their own grave by dishing out loans and cards like free prasadam in temple. Its crazy the way these banks work.

Zimbabwe's inflation is highest in the world

noreply@blogger.com (Netra) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:17:00 +0000

This is getting outrageous was my first thought when I read that Zimbabwe's inflation hit 2.2 million percent. Infact sometime back when I read it was like 100,000% and yesterday it hit 2.2 mn percent. That was insane, ridiculous, mindblowing, whatever you call. Comparing with them I guess we are much better off with a minuscule inflation figure of 11.91%. I guess the guys are more tolerant there. Anyways, its simply beyond my comprehension and I guess its the same for most of you guys. Well dont try to comprehend then you will start appreciating the FM, RBI and the Indian Economy in general.

Did a quick conversion on the net. 1USD = some 2 Million ZWD ( Exact figures- 2031105.58 Zimbabwe Dollars)

Check out the picture. He is not some rich dude in Zimbabwe. He's going to buy his daily groceries. Infact, to make it easy for that man, Zimbabwe is planning to introduce a 100 billion dollar bank note. How, I wished setting up a printing press in Zimbabwe.

Wanna Social Network in Hotels?

noreply@blogger.com (Netra) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:48:00 +0000

Early this week I stumbled upon a blog called ChrisBrogan.com. Chris Brogan is the blogger and he passionately blogs about social media, social networking and related technologies. Reading thru couple of posts was enough to convince me to subscribe to his feeds in my Google Reader.( Mind you, I am very picky when it comes to adding feeds in my Reader. Hate information overload.)

Yesterday, he wrote an article "Should Hotels Have Social Networks". I dint have to read the post to figure out what he was going to say. Title was enough and I instantly knew there lies an interesting idea and it triggered an avalanche of potential business ideas in my mind. I did read the rest of the post and comments section which had wonderful ideas pouring in on the same topic.

Many times we travel to new destinations and find ourselves wanting to meet or interact with new people. The fact that such interactions can potentially lead to anything goes without saying. Just imagine that you opted to be on the Social Network of the hotel which makes you visible and reachable. You could end up swimming with a hot chick or dine with a potential hire or play golf with some potential partner or you get introduced to some VIPs or simply have a decent time chatting and drinking and leave with no strings attached. Then, how about meeting some long lost friend or relative in a different continent by simply being on that network. Coincidences are always possible(remember Chaos Theory). Well, some spooky things are always possible but I guess those can be ironed out.

I think I will definitely use such a service until maybe I become a bigtime celebrity that I dont want to be bothered by common folks.

Some ways to go about it

Create a small web app which can be installed in Hotels and you can make yourself available using the app whenever you check in to the hotel.
or
Maybe existing networks like LinkedIn, Facebook can be leveraged by adding some new features where you can mention the Hotel and Location you are currently staying in. Next up you can immediately view other people who have the same combination. ( Maybe these features are already there, I dont know)

Both ways has its pros and cons and there are number of ways to go about this. I dont have patience to write them and neither will you have the patience to read.

For more check ChrisBrogan.Com and the comments section.

I am on the cover of The Economist

noreply@blogger.com (Netra) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:41:00 +0000

I am proud to announce that my name is on the cover of the latest issue of The Economist. No joke take a look at the picture. Its for a new revolutionary theory called Theory of BearBull. Stock market predictions can be made easy by having a real Bear and real Bull at home. You gotta watch their moods and movements daily to predict the stock market movement. More details on that later. Ok, enough pulling you guys. Well thats a marketing material I received from The Economist basically to lure me into subscribing their magazine. I thought it was a really cool idea and gave me that "ah haa" feeling when I first saw it and my cousin almost believed until I told him the Theory of BearBull. I guess Print On Demand has really come off age cuz this certainly is not a mass marketing material printed and distributed in thousands. It requires an element of personalization. I liked it but not enough to make me subscribe. By the way Theory of BearBull works.

Fascination with ToDo Lists

noreply@blogger.com (Netra) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:19:00 +0000

I always wanted to get organized but never managed it so far. Well, I just tried only once by starting to use Remember The Milk todo list and that is 2 years back. But dint use it consistent enough to see improvements. So now more determined than before I decided to try these ToDo lists again for just one full month. Yes one full month and I would be happy doing just that. Start in a small way is my mantra for all things now. I believe if implemented it would lead to productive improvements personally and professionally.

Today, I set up a list of tasks and was thrilled to check them all off end of day. It kinda gives a accomplishment feeling when you check each task as completed and look forward to strike the next one off. This is day one. I'll update the progress exactly on August 11th. Now this goes into my ToDo list as remainder so that I dont forget to update one month from now.

For guys who are keen on bringing some order and saneness in their personal or professional life have a look at these popular ToDo lists.

1. Remember The Milk
2. TaDa List
3. Todoist
4. Voo2do
5. Toodledo
6. Vitalist
7. Hiveminder

Do try them and let me know if it helped.

Next up, I am also thinking of setting up a Not To Do List, inspired by Tim Ferris. Again one thing at a time.

Welcome

noreply@blogger.com (Netra) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:31:00 +0000

Welcome to my blog. Yeah it ends with usual blogspot.com. I did evaluate newbies like tumblr and posterous but decided to stick to the tried and tested one. Its been my long time interest and I just decided there is no better time to start than Now. I hope I apply the same thinking to many other things that really needs to be started.

So what am I going to post ?

I am going to experiment with my content, layout and writing style for sometime before I standardize them. So until then its going to be anything that I find Interesting and that you would find interesting too.

Why should you read?

If you want read something - interesting, informative, entertaining or enlightening this could be one of the places. Trust me, I am not going to waste your time and my time by posting something silly or meaningless.