Pranay's Wallpaper

I used a combination of Picassa and Photoshop to create my new blog logo. This is the o/p of the picassa collage tool. An amazing collage of some of the most beautiful sights in India.

Njoi,
Luv,
P.R.

Chelsea Rules

Chelsea Wins the FA cup by a goal of sheer brilliance from Drogba and Lampard. Chelsea w/o Ballack, Scheva and Carvhalo managed to beat ManU. Chelsea won the match the moment they were able to stifle ManUs pace.
Mourinho seems hell bent on moving elsewhere next year. Question is will he take his stars with him? or will he stay on and reinforce Chelsea hopefully with some good defenders.

Waiting for an even more exciting UEFA Champions league final

Luv,
P.R.

A Kolkata sunset

This is a Kolkata Sunset as viewed from my office building. The Golden sunset across the green maidan in front is beautiful. You can see the Howrah bridge right in the centre of the picture.

Luv,
P.R.

Life in a metro

Every few years you have this movie which holds you and shakes you. Life in a metro is a movie which unsuccessfully attempts to do just that. This cross between Page 3 and Yes boss starts with the lives of different characters in the city of Mumbai.
So you have a married couple (KK and Shilpa Shetty) unhappy with their married life. Irfan Khan and Konkana Sen desperately trying to find life partners. Irfan Khan as usual plays his role to perfection, though I really didn't find out whether he was Punjoo or Hyderabadi till the last scene. He makes attempts at speaking in a north Indian accent while dressing up as a Hyderabadi Tapori. We must also not forget Shiny Ahuja and Nafisa Ali and of course Kangna Raut, looking deliciously cute and Sharman Joshi.
Sharman Joshi has this side plot where he desperately wants to build his own hotel (remember SRK in Yes Boss) at any cost. I just wish somebody had given him the number of a property developer, which would have solved everything. Anyway Kangna Raut is sleeping around with KK while being the roommate of Konkana Sen who has a crush on a Radio DJ who is gay. Watching Konkana Sen's wierd initial costumes you do have a sneaking suspicion that she could be responsible for him turning to the other side.
Anyway if matters werent confusing enough, Shilpa Shetty (SS), has this dancer teacher Nafisa Ali(NA) who gets correspondence from her ex-flame and believe it or not in walks Dharam Paaji. You almost except Paaji to shout 'Basanti, In kutton ke saamne mat naachon', with her being the dance teacher and all.
Anyway after a lot of sleeping/messing/fooling around all the couples fall back into place. Dharam Paaji's liason with Nafisa Ali results in her conking off. so much for jaat romanticism. Thankfully Paaji doesnt climb on top of Rajabhai towers and shout 'Mausijee'.

Moral of the storie(s): 1. If you mess around with young chic, your wife messes around with other guy 2. BPOs appraisal formats are verri different 3. fooling around post 70 requires medical advice.
The end though is thankfully nice and light with multiple humorous chases where the movies saving graces Konkana S and Iran K unite and so do Kangna and Sharman. Shiny Ahuja though is left holding his schoolbag while SS returns to KK.

Verdict: Worth a watch just for Irffan Khan's amazing acting.

-P.R.

Customer is King

Kol has this amazing array of restaurants, with every possible kind of experience catered to. Just say you and your friends decide to have a dinner and then starts experience Kolkata. Firstly Kol restaurants still have seperate family areas (remember the 80s) , hence there may be a zillion tables empty but since me and my all male group don't look like a family you have to wait. Ideal service marketing says that a table, a room, a seat(airlines) empty is value lost forever. Doesn't make a difference if you have super duper business on a particular day, each minute must be optimized. The lunch buffets, happy hours etc. etc are all steps in that direction.
Ok considering you are really lucky, you might just enter a restaurant and you'll have to wait and wait till some waiter graces you with his presence. The service is very impersonal and grudgingly offered. This is in fact the only place in India (and I have traveled a bit) where the McDonalds served me cold burgers, the Domino's Pizza guy used his bare hands (no gloves) and thats just fast food. I attempted to ask for a mild alteration in seating at Peter Cat, a decentish restaurant and was very rudely told that they wouldn't do it. Hardly had I finished upbraiding the quite unaffected waiter about his manners when a elderly woman gave him a mouthful for acting too smart.
Iacocca writes in his autobiography (read it if you haven't), about how his father would always ask a waiter not providing good service to stop doing their job. In service one bad experience puts you off forever. You spread the word and that's that.
Kol restaurants do have an advantage of a demand far outstripping supply. But that was the case with Mumbai restaurants too, before the move of the efficient service Udipi restaurants into high class restaurants. They provided service with style and efficiency. Restaurants were forced to change. It is way better to be prepared.
The lack of service orientation is also prevalent among many other outlets across Kol, though there are the few exceptions. I live in a guesthouse in Kalighat, and have this small store below my place. Sheer disgust with the persons total disinterest had me scouting lake market where I found a very good self service store where the staff were very helpful. I now willingly take the extra 5 minutes to walk uptil the shop where I find good service.
So if you are a customer in Kol or anywhere in the world and have a bad service experience, make sure he/she knows that such behaviour is not appreciated/ take it up to the owner/ just stop frequenting the place. Do remind him that Customer is King.

Luv,
Pranay

P.S.: Kol could be a gr8 place to do some project on customer experience. Any1 interested??

A taste of heaven

Just got this link from an alcom member - http://verdance.blogspot.com/. It is the link to a photo blog on IIMK. K is supposed to be the most beautiful campus on earth and it is I must say quite beautiful.
Luv,
P,R,