Bare Minimum.

Like relationships, smart phones can never be perfect and no matter how hard you strive to make it better, there will always be times when you’d get bogged down by reasons completely beyond your understanding   :D

Just Like every other guy, claiming to be the most sensible, intelligent, different, eligible bachelor, every smart phone on the display and during launch is projected to be the next big thing. You put your heart and soul into the relationship..  hmm.. well your hard earned money in case of a cell :P only to gradually discover that all that glitters is not gold. During launch and in ads they only put their best foot forward  :D. The WOW feeling when you fall for it, slowly fades as days, months and years pass by :D :D

So, with an internal memory as low as 160 MB, how do you expect your baby to enrich your experience? More than the cute good morning and night messages from friends and strangers :P, you slowly start getting used to these ‘Low internal memory’ messages not allowing you to store your favorite apps, texts, videos and your own stuff. Most of the applications, by default, get installed on system memory which is quite bizarre. Please let the users take a call on this. And the worst part is when your phone supports extended memory up to 32 GB but it’s actually of no use as the SD cards just refuse to work with your beloved phone.(Isn't that supposed to be a serious quality issue?). Unrooting and factory reset are definitely not a solution and the ‘force close’ errors eventually crash your mobile.

Easy to use or Ergonomics?

Have never understood why,

• Mobiles have speakers at the back. You don’t want to put on the headset all the time and drop your hearing capacity by a few decibels when you are an oldie. With a video running in the front and audio output at the back, the sound is not even properly audible, forget about enjoying it.
• The volume control /back/on-off buttons too hard to locate in the dark. Can the designers make these more appealing please?
• Don’t all smart phones come with a built-in magnetic charger. This is something very basic and will be a big boon, come on.
• Firmware upgrade is allowed only on wi-fi or 3G?
• Android versions <3.x are even sold, when performance and compatibility are issues. And for dual SIM features, it would be better to copy a Chinese mobile, I bet :D.

Wait. Did I mention that there is no way you can compromise on the call-quality. Calls dropping, breaking, going on automatic hold, not ending when you press the end buttons on TS or the physical one, phone hanging during incoming calls (no, no don’t blame it on network as the SIM works well on  ‘cheaper’ brands :)) – are definitely not what you would like to experience after spending a few thousand bucks.

Can write an encyclopedia but already had a long day. Need to recharge the battery now. Phew.

Connecting People. Yeah!

With over 15 million users only in India, Linkedin, for sure, is the most popular professional social networking site in the world. Almost every person who is into a job or business has a profile there. You can seek a job, promote your brand, enhance B2B or B2C activities, join groups that interest you and even discuss professional topics.

There could be two ways of benefiting from it:

One is that you only add people you know very well or have personally met. This for sure is a safe bet but then chances of you expanding the network, promoting yourself professionally, hunting for job become very limited plus you don't want to talk to same people with whom you have already spend 10-12 hours in office or meet very often. You would like to explore new people and opportunities. Brainstorming with unknown people could be very interesting and refreshing as well. 

Second is that you accept or sent invites to professionals whom you do not know well but feel that the person could be a great prospect in future or may be at present. You get more exposure plus since business/job conditions are very dynamic now-a-days, you always have new people in your network to provide you with fresh opportunities and updates.

Now let's talk about what I would really like to say J- The flip Side. 

Find it strange when, out of the blue, an unknown person sends a request for recommendation and you have no clue what to write. Get a life people! J

Find it strange when professionals who have a kick ass profile, send you casual chats like ' Hey wass up' ,' Nice pic' , 'Are you single', ' Let's catch up sometime',' Tell more about you'  on your personal chat ids and expecting you to reply humbly like an answering machine. Such people would break all box office records of Salman Khan movies, on dating sites, I guess :).  And they would not even bother to check their watch before sending it. They will send it at a time convinient to them even if it is at 1 am, 2 am and so on when you are busy sleeping after a long day! Yes, we do have smart phones and we do forget to switch it off at times, before hitting the bed. Such professionals forget that there is an inbox facility on Linkedin too and they can drop in an official mail and see if things can be taken forward professionally during office hours. It's like you randomly stumble upon a contact in yellow pages("randomly" most often is a girl with picture, #PunIntended) and call on the personal no. to check what's going on. :)

Happy Networking! (The font colors are inspired by the new T20 Jersey for Team India.)

JJJ

Nature, at its best.

Presidential Election OR Political Humor ?

He doesn't favor any political party per se. He is not corrupt. He is a man of substance.

  

Apart from playing a crucial role in India's missile program, this self made person is the only one who has the potential to inspire and lead millions of people. He has done it in the past when he held the position of  President of India and also while not being on the post. He not only has the ''right" ideas to turn India into a developed nation but also the ability to execute the ideas successfully. And despite all these accolades, he's very simple and grounded!

  

Yes, the man is none other than Dr. A.P.J. Kalam.

   

Congress and Allies have failed. Opposition did not do it's job properly. The nation is in a bad mood. One of the ways to do damage control is by electing the right person for the most important office in the country.

 Congress is backing Mr. Pranav Mukherjee strongly. Fair enough. But the honourable Finance Minister first needs to take care of the  rising inflation, falling rupee and straighten out the economy while holding the current profile. If that happens, the nation will be more than happy to have him as the President.

 I can't think of any other candidate who is at par or even close to what Mr. Kalam has achieved for India or has the energies and a vision to do that in future. Can you ?

                                                           

                                               The Right Choice

KKR

  :  Turning rags to riches.. Ahem, In terms of performance. 

While everyone is hoping for an edge of the seat entertainment in the finals of IPL5 tonight, there is no denying the fact KKR have emerged as the most effective team this season by making some really smart moves like getting Trevor as the coach, McCullum and the super talented Narine in the team. Without Gambhir's impeecable captaincy and tactics, the team wouldn't have reached this far. While CSK has been the biggest bet and steady in IPL right since the inception,  the Knights have proved that all a team needs, is a good leader to make the right choice of players and right decisions and Gambhir has indeed lived upto that. Regardless of who wins, I'm all praises for this man for getting the best out of his people despite all the hiccups and setbacks in the previous seasons!

I N D I A N I S M S - More in WE,  the  Indorians.

Free delivery - Spring 2017 Collection

We all are Indians (rather proud Indians!) at heart and can go to any length to prove our love for the country in different ways. Some of us do so by becoming doctors, engineers, lawyers, business-men, managers, social workers, officers, professors and so on. However, something that can really spoil the whole  impression at the workplace is Indianisms or Indian English which everyone tends to use while speaking or emailing, which is the most popular form of exchanging information whether it's inside the office or outside- with clients, customers, vendors etc. At times, it really leads to a funny situation even when no pun is intended.

Would like to share some of the most common Indianisms which I can recall from my own experience with different people at different places:

One of the most common questions that people ask you in Indore (and  in metropolitan cities too) when they meet you for the first time is 'What's your good name?'  which is a direct translation of  'Aapka shubh naam kya hae ?' A name is just a name- It's not good or bad. So the right sentence would be 'What's your name?' or 'May/Can I have your name?'

Another turn off is the line - 'Please do the NEEDFUL'. One sounds like a jerk when using this term in emails. It's quite outdated and yet we come across this line in almost every mail. It sounds even worse if your client is US/UK based. Alternatives could be - 'Please take appropriate action or do the necessary or action it accordingly.' I remember the mails from a UK Client in which the standard template had 'Please do the necessary' instead of needful.

'Please revert back' - Avoid using revert in the first place as it denotes a state. If you still happen to use it, at least avoid the word 'back' with it. 'Please reply' is the best. 

Similarly,'A few minutes back or sometime back or a week back' is also inappropriate. 'Back' should be replaced with 'ago'.

Using Cousin-brother or Cousin-sister is a big no. Of course, informally you can with your friends while talking in Hinglish, to have fun, but not when you are trying to create an impression or image in front of your boss or colleagues or clientele (especially if they are too meticulous or may be good looking, and you just don't want to take any chances ). Just use Cousin.

Unnecessary use of 'only' in sentences like 'We are based in Bangalore only.'  or 'I'm here only.'

Using Mr./Ms. with the first name of someone. It's always 'Mr. Jain' or 'Ms. Jain'.

Darn easy. Isn't it? There are lots of sentences like the above. However, the idea is to discuss the frequently used ones and not impart any 'gyaan'. After all, nothing in this world is perfect and no one has ever attained perfection.

Democracy : A Joke?

People choose congress they don't deliver, so next time they elect BJP. Even they fail. In the next elections, it's Congress's turn ..and it goes on... And they live happily forever. The ministers just get richer by leaps and bounds regardless of who reins. Oh darling, yeh hae India. #DemocracyFails.

Then there is a set of people who care about India and who often ask - "Suggest something to break out of this trend."

Yes, ofcourse! Afterall, you can't just get away by elaborating problems and making a mockery of the largest democracy in the world.

So here is a set of proposed measures for the beloved countrymen :

1. By not voting blindly on the basis of popularity, wealth,power etc. Many a time, ignorant people tick on any options just for the heck of it while casting vote or sccumb to temptations such as cash, liquor etc. for vote.These people need to be educated.Most of the people don't even step out of their houses to vote, primarily, because of two reasons- lack of faith in politicians and lack of knowledge about political surroundings.Faith will automatically build once they start electing the right people over and over again and knowledge will come only if they become alert about the candidates and see what have they actually done in the past and whether they have the 'character' to shoulder the responsibility of people in their community. Two types of checklists should be prepared for evaluating the best person.One, on broader parameters having questions like "did A/B reduce inflation" , "Did A/B control corruption cases","Did A/B practice favoritsm for party,relatives etc" and similar questions for terrorism and other burning issues.The other checklist should be local having questions like "Did A/B build roads", hygiene and questions related to local issues/development.This should be distributed to those whose names are in the voter's list.It will give people a fair idea about the performances before they actually caste the vote.And once they have the facts in front of them they will gain confidence and more and more people will start taking interest in the election process.

 

2. An audit of these politicians having the details of their expenses,assets and other financial transactions should be conducted and made public before any election takes place.
Any candidate who has a dubious record , criminal record or involved in any scam should not be allowed to stand in elections no matter how big or small he is.

3. Big corporates and elite class and educated people in the country should rise above their strategic corporate and personal interests and raise their voices against corruption and other issues instead of merely watching.Charity work is good but if they become more proactive and participative and have the same fire in the belly toward nation too, the need for charity will also reduce.
Support and help people who fight for a cause. It takes a lot of courage to do that!

These are the basic measures and practices that need to be taken care of in a democracy.Once this gets properly executed, there would be more amendements and improvements pertaining to EVM, generating the right voters list and eliminating other loopholes in the election process, from time to time which would be comparatively easier to implement.

Jai Hind.