The Costliest Slap in the World

The ugly incident that took place in the ongoing DLF IPL 20-20 tournament has tarnished the image of Indian Cricket and Indian Cricketers worldwide. The Harbhajan-Sreesanth slapping case has brought disgrace to BCCI as well as India. Despite Harbhajan’s controversies in the past, the whole nation backed him during the recent Australian tour in which he was involved in a racial abuse case with Australian cricketer Andrew Symonds and luckily he had a narrow escape at that time with lack of concrete evidence. But now, he was caught red handed and the question arises about the integrity of Harbhajan and also as to what really happened in Australia. The rush of blood had made him forget that he was representing a country of more than 1.2 billion people and that the whole world is watching each and every move. It is very disappointing for the fans like me, and Harbhajan has now lost the respect, reputation and huge money. Nobody is born as a professional and everybody has to learn and unlearn certain things to transform into one. Harbhajan failed to do that or rather failed to realize that. Though Harbhajan is found guilty, I feel the 11-match ban is very harsh and adding to that he also has another inquiry by the BCCI, which will make things even worse. The Reliance Group, owner of Mumbai Indians, has strongly reacted to this incident and they have even removed hoardings featuring Harbhajan. My feeling is that Harbhajan would never play for Mumbai Indians again.

Break The Rules

A few weeks ago, I was waiting at one of the busiest traffic signals in Chennai. The signal was red and I was waiting right on the stop line. Somebody honked and I turned back. I saw a white SUV approaching the stop line. I thought the vehicle was going to take left and I moved to my left so that it can take the turn. But the SUV did not turn left and the vehicle slowly moved ahead of the stop line. I peeped into the vehicle and found a familiar political face but I was not sure at that time and fellow riders on the road later confirmed it. He was reading a newspaper without bothering what his driver was doing, and short of patience, with the signal still in red, the SUV vroomed ahead and sped away on the lane meant for two wheelers. What a great demonstration of social and civic responsibility??? Who will bell the cat(s)?

Rawalpindi Express Derails Again!

Pakistani speedster Shoaib Akhtar, the Rawalpindi Express as he is popularly called, has been banned for five years by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for his alleged criticism of the Pakistan Cricket Board. His career as a cricketer has been studded with more controversies and injuries than accomplishments. In the recent times, he was seen more often in the disciplinary committees rather than the cricket field. Despite having lots of talent, his volatile temperament has played spoilsport in his cricketing career. Although Shoaib has said that he would go for an appeal, things would be very difficult for him in the coming days and the slight ray of hope that he would return to international cricket is slowly fading away….

Fly High & Succeed

I heard this story yesterday, and even though it was funny and sounded like a kid’s story, it has a very important message in it. A man was on his way back to home. While he was walking through the woods, he spotted an egg on the ground. He found that it was an eagle’s egg and as he could not place the egg back into the eagle’s nest, he took the egg to his home and kept the eagle’s egg along with the hen’s eggs. After a few days, the eggs hatched and there were about 10 chicks including an eagle chick. These small chicks started growing slowly and the eagle chick did what the other chicks were doing. It scratched the ground for its food and picked up dirt and ate small insects. One day, the baby chicks tried to fly a bit by fluttering their small wings. Seeing this, the eagle chick also did exactly the same as other baby chicks and did not fly high. Days passed by and one morning, the eagle looked up at a bird flying high in the sky. It wondered what a bird it was and how beautifully it was flying high in the sky. The eagle asked the hen what that bird was? The hen replied, “It is an eagle that flies so high in the sky and you don’t even imagine that you can fly like that in your life.” The eagle not realizing its potential listened to the words of the hen silently and believed that it too was a hen and convinced itself that it cannot fly like an eagle, and finally it died.

A lot of people are like that eagle who despite having all the skills and abilities think that they are not too good to achieve success and they are scratching for bits and pieces on the ground instead of flying high in their lives.

Dish TV DTH - Not The Right Wish

Ohhhhh… I am fed up…….its frustrating.. once again a poor customer care story….. wondering whether these things are happening only to me??? Everybody right from a small petty shop to big corporates are saying, “Customer is our main focus.” A lot of terminologies that are popularly used are customer-centric market, customer focus, customer first, meeting customer demands, customer satisfaction etc.. I think these words are just “words” that are deliberately misleading the customers or end-users. The reality is that these commitments or promises made to the customers never come to pass barring a few exceptions. It is like a politician’s promise in majority of the cases. The fact is that the customers are mesmerized or rather fooled with this keyword “customer”, irrespective of the product or service or solution, by companies that are small, big, large, etc. All that the customers get is “DISAPPOINTMENT.” I would like to relate an interesting observation here. I was out of home for nearly 11 to 12 years for job-related reasons. I used to go to mess (small food joints) for food because taking food regularly in big hotels were deteriorating my health as well as my purse. I had been to many joints in many places and invariably in all of these joints, I have seen this line mentioned on their name board “Home-made Food”, irrespective of the quality of the food they provide. So here, the “Home-made Food” connotes customer care, customer satisfaction, customer focus, demands, etc. This is one example of the much-hyped customer focus and there are lots and lots more.

Ok, let me come to the main story. It is about Dish TV, a DTH service endorsed by India’s top film actor Shah Rukh Khan. Even after renewing the subscription package at a Dish Care center, the services have been suspended. When I contacted the customer care center, they told me to wait for 4-24 hours for the service to be restored. When I asked why the services have been suspended, the reply was “We have not received any confirmation on the payment, we do not have any update on the payment in our system.” Who is responsible for this? Customer, customer care personnel or Computers?? The customer care personnel are coolly blaming the systems. If systems, computers and technologies cannot do the work swiftly then why do we need computers?

Wish Karo. Dish Karo.

Shah Rukh, I do not know what to wish now. Help me out!

Helmet - The First Line of Defence

Today morning while I was on the way to my office, I witnessed a road accident. Unusually I was driving a bit slow today (probably I had enough time) on the busiest road and two speeding motorcyclists overtook me. I was shocked by the way they both drove, and all of a sudden, one of the speeding motorcyclists who passed by was knocked by the other motorcyclist from the left side, and he fell to the ground banging his head on the road. Luckily, a bus that was coming behind the two motorcyclists stopped in time. The man who was knocked down wore a helmet and when I looked him through the visor, he was an elderly person who would be above 50 years of age. Definitely the headgear that he was wearing had averted a serious head injury, which could have also been fatal. So wearing helmets definitely helps prevent major accidents. It is good that the government has brought back the rule of making helmets compulsory for two-wheeler riders.

Chennai Summer

Heat waves have started in Chennai and it’s just the beginning of a scorching summer with the power plays left for the end of this month and the next couple of months. Power cuts, water scarcity, sunstrokes, dehydration, heat cramps and other heat-related illnesses are in the cards. Plenty of water, juices, watermelons, umbrellas, cool wears and cool places are going to be our defense. Get ready, lets chill out this summer!