The New Anthem

This is the latest offering of Rahman and BharatBala to the spririt of the nation. This has been released on the 60th Anniversary of Indian Independence. These guys manage to make great music and videos celebrating the unity of India.

Video Courtesy usthadh007

Rahman as always rendered another version of our anthem, albeit the score has not changed much, it is the arrangement etc. which has done the magic.

His earlier video, a version of "Vande Mataram" was a runaway success, where the both lyrics and the music score was different from the original one. But that too was superb. It gave patriotism a youthful shade to it and made Vande Mataram hummable by one and all giving it a "cool" feeling. 

Video Courtesy arrahmanfans

Hope to get more of such ones from Rahman..

Enjoy..

Cool ad..

Advertising is such a creative field... This ad talks about a bank but uses a seemingly different prop and models to convey the message. Pity not all ads are so good...

Cool ad..

Video courtesy subhasisbeura

New mungaaru male

Found this new version of the hit song from Munagaru Male.. in churmuri...


hilarious...

Faceless Banking

Faceless
Originally uploaded by museum of dirt

Tring...

[Automated Message]
Welcome to XXX Bank
Enter your Credit Card or Debit Card number
787988799366313308
Thank you, enter your PIN
6532
Sorry, that is an invalid entry.. Please enter ur pin
6523
Sorry that is an invalid entry.... Transferring you to a customer service executive.
[beep] [beep] [beep]

All our Customer Service Executives are busy.. Your call is important to us.. Please hold the line, a customer service executive will be with you shortly..
.
.
.
.
.
All our Customer Service Executives are busy.. Your call is important to us.. Please hold the line, a customer service executive will be with you shortly..
.
.
.
.
All our Customer Service Executives are busy.. Your call is important to us.. Please hold the line, a customer service executive will be with you shortly..
.
.

[Executive]
Welcome to XXX Bank, this is YYY speaking, how may I help you?

[Customer]
Hi,
My account number is 28284239.
I would like to know my balance

[Executive]
Surely, before that can I verify credentials

[Customer]
Yes..

[Executive]
Your date of birth?

[Customer]
mm-dd-yyyy

[Executive]
Your address?

[Customer]
343, aaa road,
BBBB

[Executive]
How often do you get statements?

[Customer]
That is the problem, I don't get statements. So I am calling for the balance

[Executive]
Sir, as part of verification, you will have to tell what is the frequency?

[Customer]
[Angry] Nil...

[Executive]
But sir, that does not match with our records.. please tell how often you get statement for us to verify you..

[Customer]
[At the edge] I DONT GET STATEMENTS.. I WOULD LIKE TO LODGE A COMPLAINT

[Executive]
Sir, I would have to transfer you to a different department which handles complaint. Can I put you on hold while I transfer..

[Customer]
[Sighs].. Ok..

[Executive]
Thanx, have a nice day...

[beep][beep][beep]

[Executive]
Welcome to XXX Bank, this is YYY speaking, how may I help you?

[Customer]
I would like to lodge a complaint regarding non receipt of statements.

[Executive]
Surely sir, before that I would like to know some details? What is your account number?

[Customer]
I already gave it.. anyway... it is 28284239

[Executive]
Thank you, Your Date of Birth?

[Customer].... Not again...

.........

-----------------------------------------------------------

How many times have we not gone through these kind of calls.... Banking today or for that matter many of the services have become faceless. There is no more personal rapport involved in most of these services. It is almost like one is just talking to some other machine everytime as we go through the same drill as above..

Many times it is so frustrating that one has to relate a certain problem to each of the executives and god forbid, if the call gets cut in between or the call gets transferred to a different department.. One has to repeat the same problem 'n' number of times to 'n' different executives.

But even though it is sometimes irritating.. It gives the ultimate convenience of being able to achieve most of the things just over the phone instead of actually visiting a bank which is a great achievement in itself compared to the olden days when one would have to go to the bank talk to the counter clerk, or the manager to get the work done.


But the present 'call center' based services though is a great thing, it has become so error prone either due to lack of commitment just from the fact that customer and employee are not face to face or lack of proper information furnished that many transactions invariably needs follow up either due to the delay in processing or due to some error in the processing.

How many times have you faced this?

Over Cautious

Found this post in the blog of my blogger friend Keerthi. Very interesting capture.. Translating for non Tamil audience


Munjagirthai Muthanna (Over cautious Muthanna)

This guy seems to have all the following on his cycle
2 Rearview mirrors,
2 Bells
1 Horn in the middle
1 Baggage Container in the front
1 Baggage hold at the back

To top it all a "helmet"

:-)

Smack that..

Hooked onto this song..

Get this widget | Share | Track details

Farewell Emails

Now that we have been seeing quite a few farewell emails at work, how about this one.

I always used to think when people write farewell emails, do they really mean it? All the nice goody goody words. Do we really tell what we want to tell?

Having said that, being optimisitic, I can also assume that may be the guys who write goody goody farewell emails really felt only goody and moved only for better career prospects or for other priorities in life. But is it always true. The above post and also an attached comment show how it may not be and how somebody has written what they wanted to tell.

As a matter of fact, I have written only one farewell email till date, and I must confess I wrote something similar to the posts I have sent link too but not really that harsh and not with names etc. It was not goody for sure. I tried to ensure that I communicated to the management and the "stratosphere" (this is my friend's usage for senior management), what I felt and why I was leaving the company. And guess what, there was immediate action on my email which I learnt later from my colleagues whom I had left there and also from a phone call from the top HR of the company. It is a pity that I don't have a copy of that email. I seem to have lost it.

But the posts above are carrying it a bit too far.

To end this how about this song for saying bye..

Get this widget | Share | Track details

Enjoy..

Multiple Intelligence Tests

I have been a fan of the Tickle tests and have taken many of their tests.. Now they have new thing call post results... so trying it out..

Tickle Tests.. - Multiple Intelligence Test




You're a Logical/Mathematical Intelligence!


The Multiple Intelligences Test

Brought to you by Tickle

Whats UP?

Amazing forward I received.. Read on and enjoy

Lovers of the English language might enjoy this.....There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any othertwo-letter word, and that is "UP."

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP thesilver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing:A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets UP the earth.When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP,for now my time is UP, so.............Time to shut UP.....!

Of Spirits and Liquors

Indian Government bans the ads of the spirits, liquors and cigarettes on the television and radio channels. This I guess is a measure of trying not to promote the usage of these products by the people in general.

But then, if that was the noble reason of the government, why would not just ban these items of the market and production. A large portion of the revenue to the government's exchequer are from the production and sale of these products. So they cannot do away with them.

But then that is how it is. Coming back to the ads, these companies come up with outrageous coverups for actually advertising their products. Just because they cannot show ads of a brand of liquor or cigarette, they advertise some other products which have nothing to do with their main business, but only the brand name stays.. Some examples, Wills Lifestyle Clothes, Bacardi Blast Audio CDs, Master Stroke Audio CDs and what not. A spirit company making Audio CDs ;-) funny indeed..

So how are these going to be policed..

Brotherhood

I just saw a video on National Geographic "Amazing Videos" about how a gorilla saved a child.

Apparently, in the Brookfield zoo in Chicago, a boy once fell into the Gorilla enclosure. The boy was only 3 year old. Even as the rescuers tried to rescue the boy, who had fell 20 feet and become unconscious, an 8 year old female Gorilla, actually extricates the child and takes him to safe place where the zoo rescuers can be come and take him away to safety.

The Gorilla, Binti Jua, was celebrated as a hero for saving the child from other gorillas.

An amazing incident of love and care shown by an animal to a human in the times of when man does not do something similar to his brethren.

Winning and Losing

Yesterday as I was watching the Formula 1 race, at the end of the race during the podium ceremony, the commentators were talking about winning and losing. A comment was made about what Mario Andretti, a legendary car racer said. Mario, by the way, is such a great driver that he has driven almost all types of competitive car racing from Formula1, NASCAR, Indycar, Touring Cars, ChampCars etc. and even the 24hr Lemans endurance race. And the greatness is that he has been world champion in all the above disciplines.

Now coming back to what he said, "Second place is nothing but first among losers". Though the commentators made this as a passing comment, to me it is a very profound statement. This just gives a completely different perspective of winning and losing. Many people would have different perspectives like "Winning is not important, how we play or participate is" and so on.. But, I am more inclined to what Mario said. I believe, it is just the attitude of the person when he approaches a problem, a situation or life in general. The "fire" of winning or excelling governs our execution to a large extent.

But then it is also a paradox. Can everybody be winners? No.. because for every winner there is a second place and a third place and so on. But I feel that one cannot be the winner or even come close to it without the constant urge to be one. It is the continuous motivation which is fanned by this urge helps one to be.

Yesterday's Wimbledon Final was another example. Roger Federer, the champion, had to dig deep to be able to defeat the ever improving and powerful Rafael Nadal. If he had not believed that he had it in him and he should be the number one, I don't think he could have withstood the onslaught of Nadal, who by himself is a great fighter.

This attitude is I guess very much what is called as "killer instinct" when it comes to sports and especially talked about with regards to the Indian team for the lack of it. In stark contrast, the Australian team, always fight to the last moment.

What say you?

Auto-parking

I guess one of the most difficult things of driving a car is parking and that too parallel parking. I am sure many of the drivers find it extremely difficult to do it. How about this for parking help? 

Watch this..

The technology is amazing. I am sure we will one day have "auto-driver" cars. 

Squirrels - Chip and Dale

Have always wondered how cartoons like Mickey, Donald, Tom and Jerry etc. actually were actually thought of. As the story goes, Walt Disney came up with the character of Mickey after watching a mouse nibble on some food. I bet this would have been quite an inspiration.

Coming to think I can very clearly see Chip and Dale have come from. I have these group of squirrels in my garden which seem to be well fed by the left overs which our maid leaves for them every morning. I guess they have become so used to it that they do not go in search of food else where. They have a ready made breakfast served on the table everyday. Some days I have even seen them eating their breakfast with Lays chips to go with :-).

The squirrels are amazingly quick and I just love the way they nibble away in their perched squat on their hind legs. It is a treat to watch them. And they are so timid creatures that a small movement or noise scares them away. They scamper away as quickly as they can into the trees and bushes. 

I clicked quite a few snaps these fellas. For that,  I had to do lure them with the bait at the middle of the garden and quite a long wait to get them come and pose for the snaps. :-)

Some of Disney's Chip and Dale goody's..

Recycling

Some ads are really innovative especially when they try to tell a message. Have a look at this.

Safety in Formula 1 cars

Gone are the days when car racing as a sport was dangerous. I guess they are much more safer than the driving on the present day roads in India. Have a look at these videos. This was an accident which happened to Robert Kubica in a  Formula 1 car in the Canadian Grand Prix.  The accident is so spectacular and one would assume the accident would have been fatal or the driver would have been injured seriously. But guess what, Kubica just walks away with a sprain in the ankle.

Shows the safety of today's Formula 1 cars. :-)

This is the official explanation of why Kubica survived the crash.

Color Conscious

The other day we were having a discussion regarding the skin colors of people. Nature has not made all human beings to have same skin tone. We have people in some parts of the world, with the deepest of the deep browns bordering on black, to some people who are so fair that one could even see the blood through the veins near the skin. And in between these there are people of various color tones.

Are these skin tones just the color or do they signify more in our socio-economic structure and more so in the attitude of the people? It is not rocket science to conclude that they are more than just colors. These color of the skin has created histories and also have altered the outlook of the people in general over the thousands of years of our civilization. Biologically, there seems to be no difference between one human to another which can be addressed to the color of the skin, but socially it is much different.

We all know the most (in)famous fall out of the color discrimination - apartheid. It has been one of the most despicable, events in history of mankind where the color of the skin has been used to segregate the people and more so the natives of the land. Also closer home, it was similar but though it was not named so. I am not sure how this kind of social order crept in... was it just the power held by people with a certain color of skin which caused this or is it more. But I think this started much before apartheid actually was practiced at least with that name. I feel this kind of social order has crept in to mankind, where this kind of racism has been ingrained into our genes.

Has it really been eliminated? I don't think so. They still are very evident albeit in a more subtler way. The subtlety can be seen in the way we choose our housing neighborhoods, the way we interact with people with a different color and so on and so forth. In many cases in India, even though as a race, the skin tones range from fair to dark, there can be many instances of this preferential status to people with fairer skin. It is funny to see people advertise oneself to be on the fairer side in matrimonial ads even though one is not. For example, a person with brown complexion, would advertise himself/herself as fair and a real dark person would advertise himself as brown. On the lighter note, the matrimonial ads should have an entry, just like ones age, a quantifiable measure of ones complexion.. may be in wavelength of these colors.. LOL !! BTW, people have invented a word called "wheatish" complexion, to signify a color similar to wheat.

Even surprising still is the reaction of a person on the street, to another person who is fairer.. I am talking of people, say a roadside peddler may show a slightly higher amount of respect to a fair person, on first sight until he/she has conversed for sometime when the perspective could change. But the initial reaction is something which is to be noted.

The more interesting part is the constant craving of "becoming" fair. The youth especially see that being fair instantly adds a charm in the eyes of the opposite sex and they stand a better chance of landing a date or friendship. And actually in many cases I guess it is true as the opposite sex is also from the same culture and thinks the same way. The cosmetics and marketing industry are one of the other bunch of people who cash in on this notion of the people especially the youth. Each company boasts of creams and gels and what not which can make one fairer. Some even talk about 100% satisfaction in 30 days etc. One other company markets a product only to the men folk. The ad says "Don't use creams which are meant for women, use this.. This is meant for men" LOL !!! This is a huge industry.

The ads for these products removes any subtlety I talked about earlier. They depict very clearly, how being fair was advantageous and hence their product needs to be used. There was this add for one such cream, where a girl was going to audition for the role of a commentator for cricket matches. The add shows that she was selected just because she used their cream and became fair and hence was selected. I never knew one had to be fair to be able to comment on a cricket match where the commentator is hardly shown on the television screens. :-) Such is the message which is told by the industry.

While a country like India, manufactures tons of creams to make oneself fair, there are all these people in the "fairer" part of the world, who want to become dark :-). People in Europe and America's wait for the summer and go and lie by the pool or on the beach next to being naked, wanting to get tanned. And in winter or if they cannot access a pool or a beach, they get hold of the ultraviolet or whatever based indoor tanners, where one lies down in a box with a weird light all around him/her. This supposedly gives an even tan to the whole body. This is hilarious. All of us are never satisfied with whatever skin color we have. The fair wants to become dark whilst the dark wants to become fair.

To end the post, another funny dialogue from a movie.

Son : Mother, why did you give birth to me dark?
Mother : So that you will not become dirty.

ROTFL !!!!

Big Picture

People in the present day corporate are always told of one thing.. "See the big picture". While it might be a very good thing to do.. not sure how many would have really seen this big a picture :-)

Muscle Power over Electric Power

Heard about this.. Muscle power over electrical power. We have heard that cars or road vehicles need a push sometimes when they are low on battery or some such things... but ever heard that a train had to be pushed. This bizarre incident happened in Bihar.

Apparently a passenger train was stopped by pulling the emergency brakes. When the train came to a halt, it stopped in the neutral zone between two electric poles. When the train was being resumed, the engine would not fire up. Ooops. Irate passengers started making noise.. The driver then instead of facing the wrath of the passengers, requested them to give the train a "push". The train apparently needed a push for 4 meters.

The passengers heaved and hoed to finally move the train by 4 meters in half an hour. This is really hilarious... never heard of something like this.

Now just one thing is left, the captain of a flight comes on air just before take off, while welcoming the passengers on board.. also says "Welcome aboard XXX Airways, Today we are embarking on a flight from A to B. BTW we request passengers to lend us a hand in starting this journey by giving a push" !!LoL!!

Yellow Fellow

Flowers are great subjects to be photographed. I am fond of flowering plants, and have a small garden though just in pots. How about this yellow hibiscus blooming away?