Lack of Ad sense shown by Air*el

1. A Close up of the Advertisement

The iPhone 4S which was launched in USA on 14^th October, 2011 finally made the Indian debut on 9^th December, 2011. Ironically, this was the last product that was given the final touches by Steve Jobs. Though his sense of touch will be seen in all future apple products, this was the last product that Steve Jobs reviewed.


Let’s get to the core point. IPhone 4S is sold in India through two Indian mobile carriers, Airtel and Aircel. Let’s denote them as Air*el. Going with the tradition of previous launches, Air*el published page full advertisements in leading Indian newspapers. Let’s keep aside the pricing of these phones as they cost a bomb and an Indian will think twice before purchasing it.


The 9^th December ad in my paper made me think that Air*el can’t print local content in the ad. In short, they needed to do localization of ad before spending huge money on the ad. What does localization of Ad refer to?


If you refer to the first picture from the top, the one that appeared in the newspaper, I have noted some points which the company could have rectified so that it can appeal to local audience. Let’s start from the predominant phone screen displayed it the ad:


1. The area around the network signal strength bar: Air*el could have displayed their carrier name around the top corner left area instead of leaving it as only 3G. By displaying their carrier name in the ad, they would have added credibility that iPhone 4S works in India after that famous #4Snwglitch that trended in India.


2. Local weather: Instead of displaying the weather of the distant Cupertino, it would have been better if they would have displayed the weather of any damn city in India. Again the issue of localization of content for people leaving in India.


3. The market indices status: Instead of displaying whether the share market is up or down in Dow Jones, they would have displayed our very own Sensex or Nifty. Again, why would an Indian be interested in seeing whether the market is up or down in USA when he has invested money in Indian share market. Though global markets affect Indian markets, he would primarily have Sensex displayed on his home screen rather than Dow Jones.


4. Foreign names: It would have been better if Sachin Tendulkar would have given you a missed call instead of Jack Symon. Again Indian names appeal more than foreign names which some Indians can hardly pronounce.


I am comfortable with application displayed on the screen and the reminders stuff. Thank God!


If the Indian mobile carriers can spend huge money on printing these ads, can’t they localize content for Indian people? Air*el officials and PR people had the iPhone 4S in their stores for at least one week prior to their launch. Can’t they insert a micro SIM card in the phone, activate it and show the local content instead of global content? This takes hardly any time and a good photographer will enhance the beauty of the phone and appeal to Indians.


‘Glocalization’, giving global things a local feel would have greatly benefited the two mobile carriers. Glocalization is relatively new term borrowed by me from one of my friend and local names appeal more than any other thing to a local person.


I wish the two mobile carriers had some Ad sense after spending huge money on ad campaign.

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Driving in the fast lane

Picture courtesy: Wikipedia

Driving habits of Indians don’t wean out easily, even on a state of art Mumbai-Pune six lane expressway. This state of art highway was built to showcase driving skills of Indians and not to lessen time of travel. After driving on this expressway for six times, my observations about Indian drivers keep on increasing like a series of numbers in Geometric progression.

1. No one follows the 80 Km/hr. limit displayed at regular intervals. I followed it as my dad sat beside me on all the six occasions. :P

2. The first lane is dedicated to cars and SUV’s who want to cruise at an excess of 120 km/hr. Even state transport buses cruise in first lane at a very high speed. Government was mooting of installing speed limit breakers on the buses but it is still not implemented putting the lives of passengers at risk. If you move to first lane at a speed of 80 Km/hr. you will be honked to death.

3. If you are plying at a speed of 80 Km/hr. on the second lane, cars and SUV’s will overtake you from first and third lane, from both sides scaring the shit out of you.

4. Lane cutting: This is the favourite pastime of Indian divers. This quality is possessed by instinct and young people like me learn it and try to implement it if they are in a hurry to reach the destination.

5. Queue: The toll centre on expressway has around 10 booths collecting a hefty toll. Cars in the first lane make it a point to cut the lane and go to the toll booth which has minimum queue. A car in first lane, at very high speed has the will to go to the extreme left toll booth to avoid queue. Law of queues: ‘If you are standing in a queue , the other queue always moves faster than the one in which you are standing’ . Indians lack patience. They try to leave their own queue and try to penetrate the other queue prompting heavy honking and abuses by the other driver.

6. Ghat section: Truck drivers make a mess here. When the old highway joins the new one after crossing half the ghat, the problems start compounding. Heavy trucks move at a speed of 10 Km/hr. and when illiterate Indian truck drivers move their truck in the first lane trying to overtake other truck, it creates a trail of cars behind truck. While climbing uphill, there is an S shaped curve under a bridge which comes after climbing 3/4^th of the ghat. Before the S shaped curve, you will always see a car or truck in broken (failed) state. This stops the traffic completely in one lane and a bottle neck gets formed. You will always find a towing vehicle and a mechanic before the S shapes begins. The mechanic is always waiting for a truck or car to fail and on all three times while climbing uphill; I have seen a mechanic repairing a car with harried passengers standing by the car. The mechanic might me making good money daily. This fact of many cars getting stalled before the S curve was verified by my relatives, who also have observed the same phenomenon. My relative explained me that cars having poor maintenance have their clutch get jammed while climbing uphill and continuous pressing them going uphill aggravates the problem and hence the car gets stalled mid-way.

7. Cars coming at high price have a roof top mounted on the top. I have seen people coming out of the roof top to enjoy quick breeze. Newly married couples take advantage of this roof top to enjoy cool breeze and distracting drivers like me.

8. If you are driving at a high speed, it requires immense concentration. The expressway is banked for cars plying only at 80 km/hr. Try to increase your speed on a curve and experience the force that pulls your car. This increases the risk of accident with a car coming in other lane.

9. While driving downhill, don’t increase your speed beyond 50 km/hr. Gravity takes care even if you are not accelerating and a few 100 meters of path covered can increase your speed by 20 km/hr. The dividers are risky at some places and it requires hard barking if you over speed. A high speeding car can swirl from first lane to third lane while coming downhill! Be careful to look on both the sides of the lane while coming down. Newbies find downhill tough than uphill as the speed increases without even pressing accelerator. This scares the shit out of anyone who is driving the vehicle. I too have experienced it first time when I was coming downhill.

Be ready for sudden change in climate while going downhill or uphill. Khopoli area is heavily polluted at night. And lastly always engage in safe driving. The older driving license had a message on the back, ‘Driving is privilege given by Government and not a right’.

Jago Grahak Jago! (Wake up Consumer!)

Today around 8 a.m., deep in my sleep, I heard commotion and people talking loudly on the street below my building. My neighbourhood is generally a serene one where people are quite nice with each other. The sudden commotion aroused me from bed on a cool morning to look out of my room’s window.

A group of 20 men were discussing in a loud voice over the extra two Rupees that they were paying to the shop keepers for a daily basic necessity, milk. A vigilant consumer, Mr Sachin had called the distributors to personally distribute milk pouches to people at maximum retail price (MRP) to the residents of our locality. The local shop owners charge us two Rupees more than MRP. Reason: Refrigeration charges.

The main distributor had set up a kiosk on the street below us at 6:30 a.m. and was selling milk at MRP. Consumers seeing that they are saving two Rupees less flocked the kiosk and started buying from the kiosk. In one hour, the shop keepers of the locality recognized that they will end up in loss today started arguing with the kiosk and Mr Sachin K. To verify things personally, I bought Amul ‘Taaza’ milk at INR 30, which is at MRP, while regular shop keepers have sold it to me at INR 32 from last one week. I was fleeced two Rupee daily for the last one week. Moreover these shop keepers have been charging me one Rupee per litre as refrigeration charges for the last 10 years. This increased to two Rupees recently. A vigilant customer, Mr Sachin K. an estate agent took matter into his hands, personally called distributor, and gave them space in his own shop to sell milk at MRP.

This whole situation irritated the regular shop keepers in our locality, seeing that their milk sales have dropped in one hour, started arguing that this is unfair that they have right to ask customers two Rupees extra over refrigeration charges. This lead to commotion on the street, in front of my home.

I thought, what is unfair in this? Government of India has framed a law that no company should sell products at a price higher than the MRP. Still, I was being fleeced by the shop keepers for the past 10 years. On further enquiries, I learnt that distributors provide one Rupee commission and the refrigerators that local shop keepers house are sponsored by companies selling refrigerated products. You can see the Amul advertisements on the fridge. A vigilant consumer has called the distributor who is selling milk at MRP and alerting regular consumers like me about the fleecing. People realized that they are incurring a loss of 60 Rupees per month if they buy a litre of milk daily and that amounts to 720 Rupees per year

This situation is present all over Mumbai and consumer courts have passed orders in favour of consumers and selling milk at MRP has begun in few places at Mumbai. Aarey dairy has set up direct kiosks at few places which sell milk at MRP. Unfortunately, my locality doesn’t sell Aarey dairy products.

The local shop keepers in my area are already under losses as Big Bazaar and other retail chains have set up shops in my locality. This has severely impacted them and now the milk scenario will also impact their business. We have read in many newspapers how big retail chains have impacted local ‘Kirana’ store and whether more FDI should be allowed in this sector or not. Two ‘Kirana’ shops have been closed in my locality due to opening of retail chains in my locality who offer discounts. Globalization is a part of our daily life and local shop keepers should either adopt it or face consequences like the one which happened today. Complaining that this is unfair and creating commotion is not a solution to this problem.

The local ‘Kirana’ is an integral part of our country. Common people have depended on the local ‘kirana’ store for quick needs. People are short of money at month end and they take essential goods from ‘Kirana’ store owners as a loan or debt and return it at the start of new month. Can big retail chains in India provide this kind of facility?

Let’s not forget that consumer is the king of market.It will be interesting to watch situation here in my locality tomorrow and whether shop keepers are selling us at MRP.

Value Education

We had a subject named Value Education in our school. What values it imparted on us need not be discussed here. At the end of each semester we had to present in group some type of activities.

Tenth Std. (2004-05)

Everyone was at the height of craziness. Studies had taken a backseat and we were enjoying our last days of our school life till the value education activity came in our path. Mine was the last group. In today’s lecture, we had to sing a patriotic song on which our final grades would be decided. The activity started and slowly all the groups sang patriotic songs. Mrs Mini Mathew, our teacher who would be evaluating us sat on our bench. She was visibly pissed off due to our erratic behaviour in the last year of school and was ready to take revenge of harassment that we had given to her. She got this opportunity via a non-academic subject. Some seven patriotic songs were sung by groups preceding us. When our turn came, all the members of our group knew songs that were already sung. We didn’t want to repeat the same song once again as it would bore the class. We kept wondering that only seven patriotic songs were taught to us from our school life and tried hard to come up with something.

Then Aakash T. mooted the idea of singing ‘Mera Rang De Basanti’ from the recently released movie ‘The legend of Bhagat Singh’. This song was unanimously decided to be sung as a part of activity. We started the song completely out of tune, out of sync, in our broken puberty voice. It was just short of donkeys singing odd at night. We barely completed song singing just four lines and stopped. We began to look at each other, we had no idea what are the further lyrics and sung again the same old four lines. This is analogous to writing same answer two times in engineering exams which I did ‘n’ number of times in my four year of engineering life. 

The song ended with a big thank you. Our class was speechless with what we had sung. The teacher was busy correcting books of students unmindful of what we had sung. I bet she didn’t know Hindi properly and she was doing her duty of painfully correcting books and hardly listened to what we had sung. Then a boy went up to the teacher and said it was a Bollywood song. Then the whole class started to shout in chorus that it is a Bollywood song. The teacher, Mrs Mini Mathew raised her head to realize what has happened. She sensed that we had taken her advantage once again and quietly told us to take back our seats and the bell rang and she left the class.

24^th June, 2005: Our results were out and all people in our class had B grade written on our mark sheets while rest all were A. I even had an A grade in Physical training (P.T.) which was the weakest point in my non-academic subjects. She had taken a sweet revenge and I have no qualms that I sang ‘Mera Rang De Basanti’. 

:D

First class offenders

Ticket checker (T.C.) is one of the few human beings in the world who easily catch the anxiety on your face when you are traveling ticketless and he is PhD in face reading without actually earning it. His prized big fish catch, the first time offenders traveling in first class compartment of Mumbai local trains.

In the past few years, I have seen many people being caught traveling ticketless in first class compartment. Below are few categories of people that I have segregated, who are first time offenders. The use of offender to a person traveling ticketless sounds a bit harsh here but the railway court pronounces you guilty as offender putting you in the same category of people who have done sexual crimes.

1. Newcomers to the city:-

They are those types of big fish who are easily identifiable due to the luggage they carry on their shoulders and back. Seeing so many trains in a matter of 15 minutes that they haven’t seen in their lifetime leaves them perplexed and the crowd drives them crazy that they jump off to a compartment that they get to enter only to find a smiling TC waiting greedily for a prized catch.

2. Newly married couples:-

I have literally seen couples in FC asking TC that is this first class after entering it and how do you come to know this is first class? The TC shows them the red stripes outside the compartment and the cushion seats and asks them to shell 600 INR. My mom and dad were caught in a similar manner way back in 1987. Every newly married couple getting caught in FC reminds me of my mom and dad.

3. The whole family:-

This family had gone to attend a wedding and now they can’t find a place to enter the local train due to huge evening hour rush or due to odd mega blocks on Sundays. The train comes and in a split of time, the head of family sees a door of a compartment relatively empty and asks the whole family to get in the compartment only to find it first class. If they get caught, then it’s a huge catch. Call it a bumper crop! Sometimes the whole family is standing at the wrong position on the platform. People can’t interpret the first class stripes painted on the platform at regular intervals.

4. The ‘Bhulakaad ’ category:-

They are regular commuters in the first class compartment but one day their daily pass expires and unfortunately, the TC lands in the compartment. They show their expired pass, only to be caught by the sharp eyes of the TC, the expired date. The disappointment on the face of the ‘bhulakaad’ category is clearly visible. They repent wasting their money on a silly mistake.

Out of 100 times you are traveling ticketless, 99 times you will be caught by the TC. The one time you got saved can be summarized as ‘Every dog has his day’

(P.S:- Please share your experiences getting caught traveling ticketless and if any new category can be added to this post)

Snooping

After getting a hard fought seat in TNA-VA local in morning, I settled with last minute revision (You can’t revise today’s subject due to its huge complex nature but I can pretend to revise) for today’s exam. A man in age of 25-30’s, well dressed, stands in between the space of two opposite facing row of seats.

Slowly the action starts to unfold. He starts to break free the numerous knots in the headphones that were crumpled in his breast pocket. He takes out his blackberry whose screen had a big scratch (:D) He starts to talk when the train starts in motion and the conversation with the other talker goes on.

Here are some titbits of the interesting conversation.

It turned out that the person was ‘Gujju’ (Gujrati speaking) he was talking so loudly that all my concentration to do revision transpired and I started to listen to this guy. He was complaining about something, here are the two complaints that I remember.

First one, ‘I bought a new trouser worth 1500 INR from Big Bazzar and she washed it in washing machine destroying the fine texture of the trouser. She could have at least asked me before washing it.’

Second one. ‘She buys stale vegetables from Big Bazzar and doesn’t go to buy fresh vegetables from Thane station area‘

He was complaining about his wife and looks like he was newly married. And guess who he was complaining to, his beloved mother. Looks like an arranged marriage and when something goes wrong in the marriage, you can hold your parents responsible for it. (You can’t complain if you have a love marriage) He had a bad night with his lovely wife and was venting out his all frustration on his mother.

Luckily for me the call dropped as we were in a fast moving train(Why a call drops is a mobile communication concept which only telecom engineers can understand :P ) and then he sat with glum face all throughout the journey and I happily started my so called revision. 

End Semester days

Back counting started from 27^th December. The day we finished our last paper of seventh semester and the back counting has intensified due to 100 ton load of Lab work and assignments being compounded on us like a geometric progression series. The frantic days of end semester are the moments that I enjoy the most. A single paper lost here and searching it among your batch mates is like searching a needle in the hay. I have been observing this for the last seven semesters and this semester will off course be a no exception it. This tradition will go on for ages to come.

Copying assignments is one thing that I dread the most and try to write it on my own as copying some wrong and shit answers written by others is not the turf that I deal with. In extreme cases, when professors who don’t have mercy on poor engineering students and give us too many assignments that can’t be counted on finger tips, in such cases, I have photocopied faster than a zerox machine. At the end of semester, tracing the original source of assignment is difficult and questioning him why have you written this answer is a complete waste of time. Also you will get replies like, ‘Copy karne ka kam kar’.

Lab work==Donkey work. Okay, I made some observations and have thoroughly understood what’s going on with the experiment, then why to write and waste pages. Save trees and ‘Go Green’.

This is high time of year when you get to see the human nature of all your batch mates and it’s a rat race to cross the maze first. A tiresome process which drains a lot of energy and after crossing the maze first, you have achieved really nothing. At this time of year, you come to know some real friends who help you sail peacefully through a rocking sea.

As you queue microprocessor instructions in the stack, so do we stand to get our files checked. How can a professor sign so many pages in one day? I have seen professors stocking up red ball point refills before the checking assignments season starts. They too know that they are in deep trouble over piling work. I have heard professors who tell students, ‘Please check file before Friday, I am going to my native place on Monday’. This pushes panic button among students and everyone tries to complete that subject’s file by Friday leading to again a long queue. And on Monday, he is still there in the college. He used it to fool us so that he is free on Monday. A clever ploy indeed! But I did no fall to this silly ploy in the semester when he came second time to teach us.

When you go to check your files, try to remain innocent about all the misdeeds you have done in your file. The Professor is also in a hurry and tries to ignore it unless your luck runs out and you had a very bad semester with the concerned professor. Never take ‘panga’ with any professor in your life time while doing engineering.

Hope these last days of our life as an undergraduate student go peacefully and let us enjoy this last end semester days.

(PS: Dedicated to BE- EXTC batch of A.Y. 2010-11)

Trek to Harishchandragad

Trek to Harishchandragad is a dream trek on the itinerary of every avid trekker who loves Sahyadri’s and likes to explore the beauty of nature around him. This trek was on bang on schedule due to some advance planning and the enthusiasm that creeps in when you go for the first time for a two day trek.


29^th and 30^th December, the dates that were fixed as we wanted to avoid the new year partygoers rush and wanted to trek only in winter to avoid any risk of getting slipped on a treacherous rocky path that we will shortly be encountering on the path to summit.
Pre-planning- Scanning google earth for all the information and landmarks as we were going without a guide. Get a big bag such that you have enough supplies for two days. This made our bags really heavy. No plans to cook on the top (we are not bad cooks) Necessary enquiries from friends about their trek to the same place.


29^th Dec:


5.30 a.m.- I and Sushrut arrived on time below our building and still no news of our third companion, Angad. This is usual thing. His bag was small and packing it was proving tedious job for him. Finally, we left our building at 6.05 a.m.
We got a 2*2 semi-luxury bus to Kubhi phata much to my satisfaction and I took extra precaution not to sit with Sushrut in the bus.


8:35 a.m.- The conductor of the bus forgot that there were passengers on board to be dropped at Kubhi phata and when I informed him about our presence, he dropped us at the middle of NH-222. We walked down to the wall of the dam. It was a long walk, four kilometres to Kireshwar. We were praying that we get a lift from passing vehicle but it was difficult even to spot a man walking on the wall of Pimpalgaon dam. This is the place where ‘Bingo’ effect took place on me. Cold wind was blowing over the dam and I was sweating profusely due to sweater and the heavy back pack. Couldn’t decide whether to remove my sweater and monkey cap as the wind was harsh and the sweat was trickling inside. A perfect recipe for getting cold on the trek. After completing more than half way, we got a lift from a tractor. The ride was bumpy, Angad and Sushrut bore the brunt sitting on the top of tractor. I tripped while getting down the tractor. Not a big deal! A slightly peeled off right hand. We ate ‘garam’ poha which had not so hot green chillies which tasted fine in the cold morning at a nearby hotel.


10:49 a.m.- The trek started bang on time. The gradient of slope was not so steep and time passed quickly till we reached Tolar Khind. Khind is narrow strip of land between two mountains. We had refreshing lime juice here.


12.45p.m.- we started to climb the rocky patch after Tolar khind. It was the most challenging part of the trek. The rocky patch is steep at some places coupled with loose soil at some places. Never look down while climbing this patch. 600 feet plunge awaits you if you take a wrong step anywhere. Villagers have installed iron poles on the patch but they too vibrate due to heavy gush of wind due to narrow gap between the mountains. Be careful in every step that you take while climbing this patch. It requires effort and concentration while climbing this patch. It took one hour to clear this patch.


2.00 p.m.- We cleared the patch and ate boiled eggs on a small thatched roof shelter with the view of dam and Kireshwar village form the top. Awesome view from here! We took a wrong turn and we were a bit lost as the path ended and frantic use of GPS and GPRS made us realize we took a wrong turn and turned back and here we wasted our 20 minutes. Back on correct path, shouting ‘arrow baba ki jai’ we were cruising towards the main temple on Harishchandragad. We knew that we had to climb seven small mountains but the magnitude of going up and down four times drained our whole energy. A small pit stop on the route and we got clear view of temple complex around 3:45 p.m. and we were so relieved to see the caves in which we were going to spend our night. We misjudged the time required the time required from rocky patch till the temple complex and were really exhausted climbing the small seven mountains


4.00 p.m.- We ate our home packed lunch and visited the temple of Lord Shiva. The temple is beautifully carved and artistic impressions of Hindu mythology were clearly seen carved on the rocks. One group of around 8 people was stationed inside the caves of the temple complex. We dropped our plan to see sunset on Konkan Kada as we were tired and decided to see it the next day’s morning.


6.00 p.m.- Hot tea by a cook who was stationed near Ganesh guha, the cave at which we were staying for the night. We were surprised to see a family of four with whom we would be sharing the cave. The family consisted of cute little twins. The time passed quickly looking at the dark sky above our head. The stars were shining brightly and we were unable to guess any of the star formations. Wish we had an Android phone and the cool app that points out the star formation when phone camera is pointed at the star formation.


9.00 p.m- We took to sleep. The cave has a bit rough surface and adjusting our bed sheets on the surface was a big pain. I tried very hard to sleep but the rough surface was not the normal one that we sleep in our home. Really the tiles of your home are more comfortable to sleep than the surface at the cave. I slept at around 1.00 a.m only to be woken up by hard surface 3 times. Finally the next day dawned.


30^th December:


7:30 a.m.- We set off to Konkan Kada. We trekked all way to see Konkan Kada. Missing this point is like your 5 hour trek is worthless. A small 25 minute walk takes you to this beautiful point. We were breathless seeing the concave mountain and we looked like small specs on the huge concave mountain. The sheer depth of the valley below us was simply awesome and a must see place on earth. You bend and look how you are standing on the patch which is hollow below you. Amazing place to be on this huge round earth. The experience standing here was extraordinary and the feelings can’t be described here. We could also see the tough ‘Nali chi vat’, another trekking route to Harishchandragad. We bid adieu to this place here and started to trek down towards Tolar Khind. One last look at the temple area and started our way back. We ate bread jam and bread butter near a small stream before rocky patch.


11.50 a.m.- We started to descend the rocky patch. It required lot of concentration and the loose soil at some places made the matter worse. Though I was afraid at some places on the rocky patch, I managed to go past all the tough patches where we all were really scared. Finally we made it to the bottom of the patch and I was overwhelmed by joy that I did it!


1:30 p.m.- We started to descend with very good speed and were at the base village by 3. We had a small lunch and walked back to NH-222. Luckily we got a 3*2 bus whose fare was 18 Rs. cheaper than the 2*2 bus.


We headed back home with a bagful of memories and loads of experience to be cherished in our mind.


Photos of the trek can be viewed at
Harishchandragad