Lessons from "Rocket Singh"

Normally, I don't watch movies, but I do watch specific ones, specially when they are aired on TV.

Well, they are free to watch, you can watch from comforts of your bed-room, pop-corns free, snaks free, tea coffee free, no need to change and get ready, no travel, no traffic jams, no parking fee, you don't endup buying 10 unwanted things because they had buy 1 get 1 free offer, no lost and found mobile calls "where are you - where are you I am here I am here", no queue at ticket widnow and also, you have a choice to go for toilet every 10 - 15 minutes... there are so many advantages of watching movie at home on cable TV.

Ok, coming to the point, that day, one of the channel was telecasting "Rocket Singh". I had nothing special to do and I had received good review of the movie, so I decided to watch it.

That investment paid off. I made some observations from it. Here they are:

• Rocket singh was selected because he DID NOT GIVE UP. Never give up.
• Biggies have no value of start ups (people who give less business, but ask many questions) / customers. Rocket singh took every order seriousy and provided 24x7 support. Take everyone seriously, take care of ppl who trusted you.
• A manager can convert all the situations to his/her advantage. Think twice before going against your manager.
• Rocket Singh's boss insulted him in front of a potential but currupt client. People will insult you if YOUlet them do so.
• When sales manager caught Rockete Sales Corporation group, no one could say anything, the smallest guy, who was made a director in RSC opend up secrets of the sales manager. Give due respect to everyone. Even the lowest employee in the hierarchy can take initiative and turn the game on your side.
• When Rocket Sales Corporation received very large order, Rocket Singh insisted to source parts from from the dealer who sold him his first computer. Never leave people who supported you you were a startup. It is about growing together.
• Even zero has a value. All you need to do is add 1 on the left. If given a suitable job, even the least perfoming employee can give you the best results.

Well there may be many more points, but all I remember are these. If you have more, feel free to add your comments!!

An unexplainable feeling

Yesterday we visited Ahmedabad for a day. For those who don't know, it is around 100 KM north of Vadodara, the city where I live. Some of our relatives live there and many of them I had not met for around 3+ years. So, a visit was long due. We had plans to meet 3 of our relatives in that trip. Target time to leave from Ahmedabad was 5 pm. But we could leave only at 7 pm and that too after so many "stay overnight, stay overnight, why you came only for one day, next time we will not allow you to come" arguments.

We had so much talk, so much fun, we returned only because we had to return. By 9 pm, we were at home.

Today is Sunday. But what is this? I don't feel like doing anything. Tried doing some or other activity. Cleaned balcony. Threw some old cardboard pieces that I had kept aside to do some or other "best out of waste" thing. No.. something is missing... I checked emails twice, thrice.

Today was not just like another Sunday.

It was the Sunday after the Saturday on which I had met my loved ones after many years and had a lot of fun with them. And today, I miss them a lot.

Son has gone to play with his neighbourhood friends. It is raining. They all will enjoy in rains. Wife went to buy panipuri even if it is raining, because son has requested for panipuri. I am alone at home. I love watching TV, but I don't feel like even turning it ON.

So, I just blogged. Now I feel better.

When we are unhappy, we should share unhappiness with our loved ones. We feel light. They feel good.

Powerful economy vs. Powerful country

Disclaimer: I am not a graduate in Economics.

India is witnessing something that was never seen before. Markets are full of products. People are spending. We have learnt to get bored and so we spend even more. We change mobiles, cars, TV, furniture etc, whenever we get bored.

India is buying. Sellers are happ The world is happy. They say "India is powerful economy". We feel "lifted".

Suddenly of articles start appearing predicting "India will become super power by the year XXXX". They give statistics of how many Indians are young, opportunities of new jobs, how much Indians spend, how much money goes into economy, etc etc. They also don't forget to praise our values and culture, family system, etc etc.

Now lets do an exercise. Define "super power". People say (I don't) USA is superpower, right?

• They have more land and less population.
• To feed hungry citizen, they produce a lot of food in large farms.
• To keep memories alive and learn from history, have a lot of museums and memorials.
• Their universities are less of teaching centers and more of research centers.
• Best technology used everywhere.
• Allowances for the unemployed.
• (I have never been to the US, but), people say, a US common man is hardworking and honest.
• For re-creation and entertainment, they have amusement parks.
• For the sick they have big hospitals. (I am talking of basic healthcare).
• One number for all sorts of emergency. Citizen feels secure.
• They make their own war-tools. They don't depend on any country for rifle or a submarine or an aircraft career.

List can go very long.

The country in which money flow is maintained, it is "powerful economy." But superpower is something totally different.

Wish you a great "thinking" week-end!!

Rs. 855 and me

My day started with a bad note. My laptop was out of order which I had given for diagnosis and repair. Service station was to charge Rs. 565 for diagnosis. And Rs. 850 if it was repaired. Even if they did no repairs, they charged me for "Serivce" forced me to cough up Rs. 855 for a laptop that was a "discontinued" model in August 06, and I had purchased it in Jan 2007 and almost never used it for these 3 years.

As usual, I could not take it lightly. Qestions kept on coming in my mind Right from "why did I puchased a loptop in the first case, to why I did not use it, to finally, Why me? I have not hurt anyone? Why this happens only with me?" Luckily I had a lot of discussions lined up in the work-day which kept me too busy to again think about my loss of Rs. 855. But yes, that thought kept on peeping "why me? Those guys are bad. They fooled me. The world is bad". etc.

Later in the day I came to know that one of my loved and his family had met with an accident few days back while traveling in an almost brand new car. "Opps!!!" Accidents are bad. They change life for ever. But good part was, all passengers of the car had escaped unhurt. Car did recieve a lot of impact, however. Nearly a couple of lakh's expenditure.

But he kept on saying, we all are unhurt, that is what matters. A couple of lakh rupees is nothing compared to family.

And then I thought hey!! Why he?? Why his mom, dad, wife?? Why his car?? And all because of someone else's mistake? He did not hurt anyone either??.... And still he thinks they all were lucky to have escaped unhurt!!

His pain was 5000 times more than that of mine. Still he was happy because family was unhurt. Money lost who cares.

Now, I was also happy. My son had gone to play with his friends. In the kitchen, wife was frying crisp crisp sakkarpara (a Gujju namkeen). I was watching TV. And Rs. 855? Who cares? I removed that faulty DVD drive out of that "thotha" laptop, turned it on and see, I am writing my very first blog. ('thotha' means something that is not working properly) will last long and long. :-)

Yes, I did mail my complaint to my laptop company's customer care and forgot about it. After all, I can't forget that Rs. 855 that easily...