The Bare Soul

Importance of Communication Skills

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:45:00 +0000

A lot has been said about communication skills and their importance. However as is true with other areas of knowledge, a first hand experience is definitely a real learning experience. My learning experience happened last week during a visit to the pediatrician for my ailing son. The hospital, to which we regularly visit during such needs, has two pediatricians. For the sake of simplicity let’s say Dr. A and Dr. B. In the past, we have always visited Dr. A and were very satisfied with the treatment and advice he had provided us. However, on this particular day there was an unusual rush at the hospital. I presume, it was due to the change in season combined with the children returning to school after the winter break.

At the reception counter when we requested the receptionist to get us an appointment as early as possible, he lined us up for Dr. B. Since this was a reputed hospital, we assumed that the other doctor would also be equally competent and did not insist to see Dr. A. In spite of the heavy rush, in approximately 15 minutes we were in Dr. B’s chamber. He gestured for the kid to sit on a stool placed near him and looked at us expecting us to describe the problem. We noticed the absence of the warmth immediately. He neither smiled nor waited for us to finish describing the problem. While I was still speaking he was already writing the medicines. It seemed as if he eager to move to the next patient. We had some queries about the ailment and the medicines prescribed. However from his gestures and body language it was conveyed to us non-verbally that we should rather be leaving.

It was evident to us why there was a big queue of patients who wanted to consult Dr. A and hardly any who wanted to see Dr. B. We also felt that probably it was worthwhile to wait for Dr. A rather than see Dr. B again. On the way back my wife and I discussed the contrasting behaviours of both the doctors and recollected that Dr. A would always smile and say something interesting to the kid as soon as he entered the cabin with us. He would listen to us and upon his diagnosis explain the reason behind the ailment. He would also instruct the kid in a friendly tone if he/she has to cut down on the sweets or stop putting his fingers in his mouth etc. He would explain the medicines and pause if we had any additional questions.

We realized, how big a role communication skills played in the success of the Dr. A. The ability of Dr. A to listen to the parents and give them his undivided attention was his biggest asset. He was able to allay the anxieties of the parents and make them feel comfortable. And because of this reason, the parents were even willing to wait longer for him rather than going to some other doctor.

Sitting On The Fence

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 04:57:00 +0000

Sitting on the fence is an art and not everyone is capable of doing it. But when we speak of perfection in this art it is difficult to beat Congress. Let me explain. Right now India is facing so many issues but you will not see any action from the congress be it at the regional level or the national level.

In Andhra Pradesh, the Telangana Bandh has been going on since a week but the Congress has done nothing to either counter it or speak in support of Telangana. It seems to be in a state of indifference, as if the Bandh is not happening at all. Everyday the bandh is impacting thousands of people as schools, colleges, govt. offices, bus service, railways services are closed and causing loss of thousands of crores to the govt. (Loss more than 4000 crores as per the reports in a newspaper yesterday). But the govt. chooses to sit on the fence. Because if it says anything it is going to make one section of the population unhappy and it will lose it’s vote bank for the next elections. So sitting on the fence is the best solution – this is what the congress thinks.

Now at the National level, other than making a few statements about controlling the inflation, the govt. has not taken any steps to control it. If the RBI wants to do something let it do. But I, the govt. will not do anything. A lot has been said that only curbing the demand will not be able to control the inflation but steps have to be taken on the supply side too. It’s been more than a year since the monster of inflation has been let loose and till date the govt. does not have a plan to tackle it. Why? because if it takes any hard steps then it is going to impact the vote bank somewhere.

Same is the case with Terorrism. The govt. will not take a stand. The most it can do is read a statement that it condemns the attacks and praises the citizens for being resilient. It will not not take a stand on Afzal Guru or Kasab because it cannot displease those who make generous donations to the party fund. After all without the party fund how are they going to win the next elections.

Till they were pushed to a corner by Anna, they tried to be indifferent towards the whole issue. If the permission to hold the fast was not given it pointed the finger to the Delhi police and said we do not have anything to do with it.

They just don’t want to do anything. Status quo is so nice. If somebody is doing something let him do, we do not want to do anything about it. If the members of the party are looting the public wealth, let them do the PMO will just issue a statement that I was not aware of it and wash it’s hands off the matter. So simple. And what can the common man do? Where does he have time to stop earning his daily bread and get his hands dirty with these issues? Any anyway we have made the bread all the more costlier so he has to struggle harder.

And you know what if they take a stand, they will either be Left or be Right. Then they will no longer be “secular” so how can they take a stand. Sitting on the fence is so good.

Update: Here is another fallout of this issue - Two years ago the Global Fund managers were rushing to invest in India. Today, they can't wait to get out.

Useful software available Free (Part I)

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 09:31:00 +0000

These days plenty of softwares/applications are available for free on the internet. There is more variety of any given application that one can possibly review and choose. And to make matters worse, in many instances there are no credible reviews available, which could possibly help you choose among the plethora of applications available.

The other problem is of Trust. Not every freeware available is trustworthy. By trustworthy, I mean, there is no way to ensure that it is doing only what it is supposed to do and must not be secretly sending out your personal information in the background or unleashing some virus or trojan on your system.

To counter these issues I decided to share a list of good applications that I have been using so that at least my friends and relatives benefit from it. Also during the course of our lives we forget to count our blessings. So I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all those who are responsible for making these applications available free for everyone.

Also for the benefit of everyone I wanted to list out the benefits of using free software. First and foremost it saves you money. In the last couple of years I have seen even Organizations switch to some of the freeware. For example many organizations replaced Winzip by 7-zip.

Since you get the same functionality free you can avoid using pirated versions of software for the same purpose and make your conscience guilt free.

Unlike the pirated ones you can always stay on the current version with freeware and use the latest features instantly.

The list of softwares or applications that I am going to share have been tried and tested and have been in the market for a long time and have established their credibility over time with the loyal base of users.

So without any more gyan here is the first set of applications –

AVG Antivirus – I have been using this anti-virus for more than seven years now and have found it extremely effective. It also has a feature to automatically scan any USB devise that is plugged into your computer. Highly recommended.

Browsers – Apart from Internet Explorer which will be available by default on your machine. You can switch to it’s faster counterparts – Google Chrome and Firefox

Media Players – For your day to day needs you can use Winamp and VLC Media Player

File Compression – Use 7-Zip instead of Winzip

I will publish more in the subsequent lists but meanwhile if you are using any free software and you would like to share with others please feel free to add that in the comments section.

Google - Useful Services

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 17:01:00 +0000

I am aware that we are all amazed with Google as an Organization and for constantly churning out innovative products and services. So just out of curiosity when I started to create a list of all the Google’s services that we commonly use, I was not only amazed but also felt a little insecure. Probably most of us do not realize how much data about the various aspects of our life is stored within our Google profile. Our lives have got so entwined with Google’s apps and services that it is difficult to imagine a world without Google. I shudder to think how catastrophic it can turn if things go wrong and by that I do not mean just the system failure but also data exposure to external parties.

I am listing below 28 of the most commonly used Google applications and there are so many more there to be explored like Google Sketchup. And here I am just talking about the free applications and services. There are many more applications and services which Google provides for businesses like Google AdWords and there are services that Google charges for like web hosting etc. But I am not even touching those here.

While these are all popular Google applications, it is possible that you may not have explored some of these yet. So if you are a Google fan like me, go ahead and explore these and comment back if you know of useful applications that are not listed here.

India & Pakistan in Semi-Finals?

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 10:56:00 +0000

If I look at the ICC Cricket World Cup from a pure commercial eye (by which I mean that from the view point of the sponsors, the company which bought the telecast rights, the companies which bought the slots to air their ads, the company which is hoping to sell the tickets to the semis and the final, the theatres & hotels who are telecasting the matches on the big screen and so on) the following equation would be most favourable -

Pakistan wins the quarter final against West Indies
India wins the quarter final against Australia (obviously that won’t be so easy)
And consequently India and Pakistan clash in the Semi-finals. (This itself will be a mini-world cup in itself)

If the above happens the sponsors et al can be sure of a thriving audience of more than a billion people and there can be no doubt that the revenue counters will surge. On the other hand if India crashes out in the quarter finals then more than half of the eyeballs will be lost. Definitely not a good economic scenario!

Now let me bring another element into the story called “match fixing”. With the amount of money involved and the potential earnings from these matches - to me it looks like there is big potential for the outcomes to be scripted in the way I have mentioned earlier. That’s how TRPs are gained, crowds pulled and entertained – and if you had a good time and if your country won who cares if it was scripted. Right?

Anyway by Thursday evening we will come to know if this theory will hold good. It might be possible that I am proved completely wrong but If it happens as above, please don’t blame me, I haven’t bet any money on it.

Forgotten Dreams

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 05:58:00 +0000

In a recent group activity in which about 15 of us participated, an ice-breaker was posed to each one of the participants. Each one of the participants was supposed to describe what they wanted to be in life when they were younger and why? One by one each person described their childhood dreams and we could see some people getting nostalgic, while others mentioned some funny things and everyone in the room was in splits. And then people went on to describe what challenges they faced and the decisions they took which shaped their career the way it is today.

On hearing everyone talk I realised that almost everyone had a dream to start with and some of the people were confused and wanted to be or do multiple things when they were younger. But the hard fact is that hardly anyone was able to realize their dream and become what they really wanted to. The reasons for the disparity between their dreams and the reality are different for different people. For example someone wanted to pursue research in Physics and get a PhD but his family persuaded him out of it because they feared that he would not be able to earn enough to support his family. Somebody wanted to be in the Army but could not clear the physicals.

In a nutshell, i would like to say that your current situation is the result of a series of decisions sometimes voluntary and sometimes situational. And these decisions (sometimes compromises) are also the reason why we reach somewhere else instead of the original destination that we dreamt of when we began the journey.

Realizing your dream is not so easy. If it was, we would all be doing our dream job now. It requires a lot of perseverance, hard work, often tough decisions and even sacrifices. And above all, the conviction to move ahead in the direction of the dream.

Usually, once we get into “the daily grind” of our lives, we hardly ever get a chance to step back and reflect on where we are headed and if any “course correction” is required. Our daily routine just becomes more of responding to the situations that life throws across our path then actually treading on the path that would lead us to fulfilling our dreams. After a while instead of nurturing our dream we lose sight of them. Once we get used to this situation, we start accepting the next best option as our goal. And thus we start deviating from our original route. The pursuits change and the dream is forgotten till probably one fine day someone reminds us of that cherished dream...

If You Love Your Books, Set Them Free

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 11:13:00 +0000

Once you have read a book, what do you do with it? In most cases, it gather’s dust in your bookshelf. There are very few which we re-read or refer over and over again. But the majority of them just lie there on the shelf waiting to be picked up again. Ron Hornbaker of Idaho came up with the idea of this site for the book-lovers. He urges them not be “shelf”ish with their books and invites them to share their books with other book lovers. How? Now that’s the interesting bit.

Users can log in to this site and create a unique ID for their books, label it and then “release” it. By “release” it he means give the book to a friend, relative, colleague or just leave the book at some place like a coffee shop, park or any other place where it is likely to be picked by another book-lover. When the book gets picked, the reader can report on this site that the book has been “caught” by entering the unique ID. Sometimes this cycle can be repeated many times before the trail is lost. And the journal entries created in the process allow you to track where your book has travelled – and it can be quite interesting.

However interesting it may sound but this concept is in vogue only in the western countries because we are mostly a country of savers and do not like to part with our belongings (for free) even if it is of little use to us. And the stats of the top 10 BookCrossing countries from the website also confirms the same.

The top 10 BookCrossing countries

1. USA 29%
2. Germany 16%
3. United Kingdom 13%
4. Netherlands 11%
5. Finland 10%
6. Canada 8%
7. Australia 5%
8. France 4%
9. Portugal 3%
10. Spain 1%

Whatever may be the case, we can still take a leaf out of this and probably come up with our own innovative ideas to promote the sharing of books within our own communities/groups/social circle and share the treasure of knowledge with others.

Books 24x7 - The Problem with Plenty

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 09:44:00 +0000

As a user of Books 24x7, I have seen that week after week they keep adding scores of books to their existing database. But the problem with Books 24x7 is that there is no way to differentiate the best from the worst. Books 24x7 does not provide any review/rating of the book or not even a link to another website like Flipkart or Amazon. And obviously it is out of question to search each and every book manually, unless you are so desperate.

In essence, either you should know the correct book to refer on a topic and hope that it is available on Books 24x7. Or should be willing to refer whatever throws up in the search results.

Skillsoft, the company behind Books 24x7 has to go one step ahead and do this for its subscribers rather than just stopping at adding the books and considering that its job is done.

Gift Exchange

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:58:00 +0000

Gift exchange is one of the excellent team building activities. It is fairly simple to play and not much preparation is required to conduct it. However, it requires to be planned in advance so that the participants get time to choose interesting gifts to bring to the game venue.

Planning for the event

1) Decide on a date & time, venue and the minimum value of the gift.

2) Give enough time to the team members so that they can search and bring interesting gifts to the venue.

3) Communicate the rules of the game to all participants

A word of caution

It should be emphasized that the game will lose its’ fun if people end up bringing gifts of lesser value than what was agreed or if they bring unwanted stuff lying at home. This is because the game gets as interesting as the gifts are.

How to play ?

1) Bring a Gift of the agreed value which is wrapped up in such a way that it could not be determined what is inside.

2) Place all the gifts in the centre of the room preferably on a table.

3) Each participant pulls a number from the Bag that will determine who opens the gifts in what order.

4) Once everyone get a number, the participant who pulled number one will start the game by selecting any one gift package of his choice, opening it and displaying it to the rest of the participants.

5) Participant Number 2 will have a choice to either “steal” the already opened gift from participant number 1 or open up a new gift of his choice.

6) If participant number 2 steals the package from participant number 1, then participant number 1 gets another chance to open a new gift.

7) Now participant number 3 can steal the Gift from participant number 1 or participant number 2 or open a new gift.

8) If participant number 3 steals the package from participant number 2, then participant number 2 can either steal the package from participant number 1 or open a new gift and so on.

9) Any Gift Package can be “stolen” only three times i.e. the participant who steals the Gift that has already exchanged hands two times will finally take the prize home.

10) Game is over when the last gift is opened.

Too Many Accidents

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 12:54:00 +0000

I stay very close to the highway – close enough to hear the siren of a passing Ambulance. The number of times I hear the siren is way too high and leaves me shocked. I wonder if this is what I hear on just one road then what about the entire city. I shudder to think of that.

Hyderabad city boasts of good roads throughout most part of the city. And there are some stretches of roads, especially the ring roads and National Highways that offer a ‘deadly’ combination of being wide & smooth and offer long straight stretches without much inhabitants (read interruptions) on either side of the road for kilometers altogether.

It is easy for any person to be seduced by these set of conditions to step up the gas. Sometime or the other, every driver on these roads is guilty of trying to see if the speedometer of his vehicle can actually touch three digit.

This and some other reasons like careless driving, talking on the mobile while driving, unexpected pothole, poor lighting on the roads, buffaloes on the roads, slippery roads, drunken driving and many other factors contribute to the high number of road accidents.

Thank God that there are some excellent Ambulance services like EMRI but as always prevention is better than cure.

तत्काल (Tatkaal)

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:41:00 +0000

The “Tatkaal” (meaning Instant) scheme of booking railway tickets was introduced to help people secure a reservation when they needed to undertake unplanned /sudden travel at a very short notice like in case of the death of a relative or appearing for some interview in another city etc.

Earlier, true to its name, the Tatkaal tickets booking would “open” just one day prior to the departure of the train. People would be really thankful that they could travel peacefully in times of stress. However, in its new avatar the Tatkaal bookings open 5 days in advance, which by no means is Tatkaal.

Life is such that it always keeps throwing unexpected situations across our way. So if anyone needs to travel tomorrow due to some sudden requirement, he cannot even hope to get a reservation as all the Tatkaal quota seats would have already been booked 5 days ago. So the only option left is to fly (provided one can afford it) or travel in the train without reservation creating a lot of inconvenience to self and fellow passengers.

Would the Railway Minister please tell how should the common man travel (without inconveniencing self and fellow passengers) in case of urgency?

What I miss from Bangalore

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 11:26:00 +0000

I have very fond memories of my stay at Bangalore, some of the things that I miss from Bangalore are (in random order) -

A walk down Brigade Road
Almond Fudge at Corner House
Shopping at Commercial Street
Drive on the outer ring road
Factory outlet shops at Marathahalli

हिंदी मैं भी...

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 09:38:00 +0000

अरे वाह ! हिंदी मैं ब्लोग्गिंग - बढ़िया है !!!
Check out this page to know how you can also do it..

Saas, Bahu, Ekta & CSR

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:15:00 +0000

A lot has been talked about Saas, Bahu, Ekta Kapoor and about her soaps beginning with the letter ‘K’. There is little doubt about her popularity, especially with the housewives. And very few seem to be bothered about what values they and their family members are imbibing by watching these serials daily.

When there is objectionable content in a movie, there is a lot of hue and cry about it in the media and the censor board is ever ready to clip it but she has designed her soaps such that she manages to get the audience hooked on everyday year after year and at the same time she skillfully manages to dodge the censor board and the moral police for the kind of underlying content and message that her soaps carry.

Though I know a few families in which it is taboo to see any of these soaps, I sometimes wonder if Ekta herself is aware of the deeper and long term impact of her soaps on the Indian society esp. the middle class which forms a majority of her audience.

Being the creative head of Balaji Telefilms, she ought to be aware of her social responsibility or more specifically her Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

According to Mallen Baker “Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large".

One may call Ekta Kapoor successful. But the definition of success itself varies from person to person. For some it may mean more money, more fame, more power. To some success may be the ability to reach out and help others or contribute to the society. I am not sure which definition of success she chooses for herself but from where I stand I see it this way.

To me it seems that she does not realize that she is at a very enviable position, where she has the power to transform a society and influence their thoughts in a very positive manner. Look at the countrywide debates ‘Lage Raho munna Bhai’ generated on Gandhigiri and the way it swept the audiences irrespective of their age groups.

May be she is too much bothered about getting the TRPs and creating value for the shareholders of Balaji Telefilms. But I hope eventually this realization does dawn upon her and may God give her the courage to take the steps in this direction so that she is remembered not only as a successful business woman but also as a great human being.

Review of Motorola RAZR V3i

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 11:59:00 +0000

I purchased this phone a month or so back and once I started using it, I started discovering the usefulness of its features. I must congratulate the team which has designed this product. Amazing. Not only the looks are excellent but in usefulness of the features - nothing can beat this phone (in the same price range). It has almost everything you would look in a phone and more. I felt so strongly about it that I wrote a product review on it. Read it here.

The Milk Miracle

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 03:36:00 +0000

For those who believe, an explanation is unnecessary.
For those, who don’t believe, an explanation is impossible.

These are the beginning lines of the site dedicated to this miracle which happened over 10 years ago on 21st Sept. 1995. There is a video of the same and lots of other information on the site. For the curious it’s worth a look.

It's Raining Miracles

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 03:27:00 +0000

It’s raining miracles in India.

First came the news of sea water turning sweet in Mumbai and then the news about idols drinking milk yet again spread like wild fire across the country. And now the latest miracle to happen is the image of Sai Baba is visible on a building wall in Surat. Read here for more details.

Orkut Profiles Misused

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 13:41:00 +0000

Whenever any service becomes popular on the web, some people always find a way to misuse it. This time around the casualty is the popular online community Orkut.

Recently there have been cases where people have created profiles on Orkut with some other person’s real name and filing the profile with data such as to slander them. Some have even gone to the extent of posting the doctored photographs of the victims. It goes without saying that the first victims are females.

The Telegraph reports here about the details of the same.

People have to be aware that whatever information they are posting on any such online communities is no longer private. Not only their friends but any other person who can navigate to that page has access to that information.

May be I am sounding over-cautious but the prudence is in letting out only that information online which you are comfortable in sharing with strangers. Even I had some not-so-experiences after which I decided to remove some pages from my website which gave details about my family members.

So as the saying goes “Learn from other people’s mistakes because you won’t live long enough to commit all of them yourself”

Update - Crime on the net has become a reality. These incidents should not be discarded as one-off cases. Increasing number of crimes are being committed. Read this one for example. And here's another one - a very recent one where the CEO of the Indian portal MouthShut.com was threatned for extortion. Read the details here.

World's First Online Book Fair

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 06:17:00 +0000

World's first Online Book Fair has started on 4th July 06. About 1/3 million e-books are available for free access / download between 4th of July to 4th of August.

There are eBooks from nearly every classic author on variety of subjects. One can find books on a variety of topics viz. Literature, Philosophy, Wisdom, Fiction, Religion, Politics, and Electronics etc. The website even lists MP3 books. All the books can be downloaded free of charge.

For people who are used to reading e-books it definitely is good news and I am sure they would try to download as many as possible during this period.

However I am not a fan of e-books. They are good to have but I am still more comfortable reading the good old paper book rather than the e-book. In the past I have tried reading an e-book but could never get past 20-30 pages.

I have seen people read lot of stuff on their handheld or laptop especially during travel time but I feel they can’t beat the fun of reading from an actual paper book.

One can read a book practically anywhere where there is sufficient light without bothering about the battery getting discharged or plugging it to a power source or the fear of damaging your expensive gadget. And they are relatively easier to carry when on the move.

Apart from these there are a few disadvantages too with the paper books –
# One can’t download them for free

# Usually they are pretty expensive especially if you but the original (non-pirated version)..in terms of the Indian currency usually the MRP is higher than the number of pages in the book in most cases

# Storing them requires physical space in your house and usually requires some care in the long run.

But if you are willing to take these in your stride then books are one of the best companions you can get.

The Amul Topicals

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 15:10:00 +0000

The people who create the Amul advertisements are sure a creative bunch...they have kept more or less the same format and theme over the last 30 years and still have never failed to deliver.

Whether it is a burning issue or a new movie or anything else that is currently in news, the Amul advertisement team has something to say about it.

I am reproducing some of the rececnt ones here. For a complete collection of all their "Hit" topicals since 1976 click here.

These people sure deserve a huge round of applause.

Whom Does Rural India Bank On?

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 05:45:00 +0000

This article in The Tribune reconfirms what most of us are vaguely aware of. It speaks about the penetration of Banking in India, especially rural area.

Some of the astonishing facts about Banking in India -

# India has 6 bank branches per 1,000 sqkm as against 15 in Brazil, eight in Indonesia, 10 in Malaysia and 31 in the US.

# Only 31 pc of Indians have access to banks - others depend on moneylenders who charge them interest rates varying from 48 per cent to 120 per cent

# Chandigarh tops with 12 lakh accounts

# Penetration least in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, MP, NE

The article also brought up another surprising insight into the accessibility of loans to the rural people. The article quoted that "rural borrowers have to pay up to 42 per cent of their loan amount in bribes to officials. It takes an average of 33 weeks to get a loan approved in rural areas."

Ramp to the Lake

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Wed, 10 May 2006 06:30:00 +0000

One of the recent snaps that I clicked. This is the ramp to the lake behind our office building.

Jeopardy

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Fri, 05 May 2006 21:28:00 +0000

Usually during long presentations or meetings when one person is speaking at length, sometimes many people in the audience just drift off. Though they are present physically, but their mind is somewhere else. It’s as if they are in a trance.

Usually in this scenario, when their mind comes back from its loitering, they sometimes find it hard to follow the speaker because they missed the connection between what was being said earlier and what is being said now.

That is why presentations have to be more interactive if you really want the attention of your audience. However, there are cases where the topic is such that it is difficult to make the presentation more interactive. In such scenarios, at my office they use an innovative way to keep people interested. During the presentation at regular intervals, when the presenter hits the keyboard to go to the next slide, a slide called “Jeopardy” shows up.

At this point the audience is shown a slide containing an answer and they are supposed to frame the question. The interesting part is that the answer shown is actually a significant number or word or phrase from the previous slides. So the people who have been attentive have a take on it and the first person who gets it right gets a prize. This way the attentive person get a gift and it makes other people pay more attention to the speaker.

When I came across it for the first time I wondered, why in the world did they choose to call it “Jeopardy because Jeopardy means “danger”. So I did a little Googling and my best guess is that this is why it has been named Jeopardy.

123 - The IT Industry Funda

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 16:13:00 +0000

I came across a very cool and very realistic funda on which the IT industry seems to function. The funda is called 123. That’s strange you would say. Ya, the name looks very strange but it can’t get simpler than that. The funda says –

Hire 1 person, pay him the salary of 2 persons, and make him do the work of 3 persons.

If you are software professional working in an Indian IT company or if there is one in your family, you would be nodding you head in agreement by now.

The perils faced by the IT professional have been highlighted time and again but I am not sure if anyone is listening.

Harshad Oak points out some very relevant points about the same. Read them here.

How effective is your spam firewall?

noreply@blogger.com (Anand Surana) — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 12:00:00 +0000

Recently our company installed a Spam Protection firewall. And ever since on an average everyday the firewall blocks 2-3 spam mails per person. Before the firewall was installed there used to be stray incidents of spam getting into the inbox. But I clearly remember that I never used to get so much spam and that to on such a regular basis.

This has left me wondering that, is it possible that the company which provides the firewall, is responsible for the increased spam.

The reasoning behind this - at the end of the evaluation period, the firewall providing company has to prove that the software has been very effective and it has to provide various numbers like How many spam mails were intercepted? What was the cost saving to the company etc.

Makes sense??