Just Dial your way to money !

I was just about in school around 6 yrs back. Right from those days….for every movie theater booking , for every product that I bought , for every bloody local information that I needed about products / services / retail … there was one BIG thing common that I did ….

a call to JustDial : 2888 88 88 .

And what a awesome help that was ! Never would I have managed to get the kind of information that I did by just making a simple call to a simple number .

As a very frequent user (dialler/customer) of the wonderful services they provide …. wonderful BASIC service of Information to those who need it from those who need to provide it…. I have experienced the transition of JustDial from the small,simple information providers to the now huge Rs. 500 crore firm …. all dat over the phone !

As a regular dialer…it has been some experience looking at the changes occurring in their call handling approaches … some subtle some very profound ….

right from the days when there was a huge waiting time (over a hold tone) to the waiting time (over sponsored audio messages ) to the time when the retrieval operators talk about their sponsors (irritating) … to the time today when the call is answered and the query dealt with within seconds without any sponsored messages to hear to (awesome !)….. its been a journey that I have loved to experience as a regular caller .

And not just that … JustDial has now become a big brand with all the advertisements coming up on TV …. what with the launching of their website which offers free local information search engine … whoaa ! I am impressed !

And to top all of that …. after conquering the majority of big cities of India with a single call number (3999 9999) ….JustDial is now going global !

JustDial is planning a full fledged launch of similar services in the US !

Just Imagine …. families in the US would soon be ordering hot dogs over the phone by calling an Indian Company !!!

whoaa ! kudos to V.S.S. Mani …. the founder of JustDial …. for the resounding success starting from a meagre Rs. 50 thousand to a whooping Rs. 500 crores ! its been a journey to savour …

Any ways … feeling hungry… got a pizza to order …. time to call JustDial !!!

ps: links :

1. JustDial website :

http://www.justdial.com

2. Wall Street Journal Article :

http://www.livemint.com/2007/04/24010212/Who-are-you-going-to-call.html

numbers:

All India JustDial number : 3999 9999

Mumbai number : 2888 8888

wRite till You dRoP !!!

Mumbai University has some contract with all Pen Manufacturing Companies. Or so it seems to me.

How would anyone explain thousands of students writing journals and assignments day after day after day…

<70 students per class * 6 branches per college * 20 odd engg. colleges in mumbai( i am assuming an incredibly less number here )….. 8400 odd students>

Let me elaborate on “what” is written :

hell-lotta journals /assignments almost 90% of which is just theory which is written usually from some reference book … rather “copied” from some reference book

One journal spans roughly 30 to 50 written pages.Lets consider an average of 40 pages per journal.The time taken to write one page is appx. 5 min on an average.So that means it takes 5 * 40 = 200 mins to write a single journal (around 3 and half hours).

If there are 6 subjects in a semester , the no of journals = 6…. which implies 6 * 200 = 1200 mins =>20 hrs to complete all the journals.

Then there are assignments. Barring those related to logic subjects <which are very few and good> …. the number of assignments usually varies from 2 to 5 assignments per subject.So for a 6 subject semester, there are atleast 12 assignments on the whole.

Each assignment <unlike journals> spans around 10 to 20 pages.<20 to 40 sides> If we consider an average of 15 pages <30 sides>then we have 30 pages * 5 min/page = 150 min / assignment. => 150 * 12 = 1800 min per semester. = > 30 hours per semester

Grand total = 50 hrs per semester after a writing workout which spans innumerable days for over 8 semesters of engineering !

I think if ever there was a “bottomline” contest for mumbai university … my entry would be :

“wRite tiLL yOu dRoP !!!”

Inventory Management !

What do u do when u are the lab-Incharge of a computer lab at one of the top engg colleges of mumbai university ???

Well u do wat i wud like to call “Inventory Mangement“.

ieee-spce-spit had organised a workshop on Adobe PhotoShop. It was to be conducted in one of the computer labs of the college.One day before the workshop , as always , the required lab permissions for the workshop were taken (which in itself warrant an entire post …duly made here by sharan) . As we made way to the lab , the lab-In-charge told us that he had orders for making a completely new Inventory list. We argued dat we could use the same list dat was used the last time the lab was used… but clearly orders were orders !

So I sat down with him to make the new Inventory list.

‘How much time wud it take to make an inventory list ?’

Well I was about to find out. It started with the configuration of the PCs . Here I was writing the configuration of all the pcs (there were 40 of them) ….but the important point is how !

The lab-In charge knew the configuration of all 40 PCs …….. He went on and on ….. each and every minute detail about each PC…… and there were subtle variations in all the PCs … yet he remembered them all.

Sure, dats his job …. but really,it takes some doing to remember d configuration of each and every PC especially wen the config. are really really different…right from the make of the mouse (optical/mechanical) and brand to the type of cabinet and the RAM ….. he knew it all !

We continued with the inventory list …. not just of the PCs but also of all other stuff including the no of cables connecting various components…. the no of chairs , tables………u name it and we had it on the list…. !!!

It all got over after a gruelling 2 and 1/2 hours.

Sure, we had an inventory list.Sure, we had followed the orders…. but really for God’s sake have some trust in students !!!

GRE fiasco Vs my Destiny ???

It was January . I had just about returned from my ieee industrial tour. And it was time to begin my GRE preps on a fresh note . sixth sem terms had started and i had to decide when i wud giv the GRE.

Well the GRE pattern is gonna change from September ’07. Also my sixth sem exams wud get over by around mid- june appx. So two months of study time after d xams and i cud giv a crack at the GRE.So i fixed my eyes on AUGUST as the ideal time to giv the GRE.

Well lots was to happen after dat.

GRE dates come and go.Dates for a particular month are opened.And then filled by students.Every year. This year was no different. March dates opened and were filled up. So were April then May then June. Then I started checking for the time when August dates wud open up.

July dates came out and I looked at them pass by every day …. twice a day till there were no more . For the whole of next week, I kept checking the website for the opening of August dates.

Then came the shocker … News flashed on the ETS website : “No GRE to be held in the month of August” . All dates for July were already filled up and only few for May / April were yet available.

decided not to take ne of those as that wud clash wid my viva’s and exams . well then it was all about waiting … Hoping against hope that new dates for july wud come out and i wud snatch them as and when they do come….
well,but i was not alone in this situation… …

ets .org might have never experienced the kinda traffic it did during those few days . not once, not twice, but every day , every hour , every minute ……… every1 was checking the ets website for ne hint of more dates opening up…..

And they did . It was the February 13 . The dates didnt last for more than an hour . Such was the unprecedented rush that the ets server was overloaded and could not handle the excess requests !

Where was I ? Well, I was with my granny who was pretty unwell….in fact…she passed away later in the afternoon the same day.
In fact I came to know of the new dates only the next day.

They always talk about destiny. I always hear about destiny.What is it all about ?I dont yet know.But sometimes coincidence can be too strong to neglect !

Well, current status is that I ll be givin the new GRE in September / October. In fact, i think i like the pattern of the new GRE more. Its more understanding based and less memory oriented.And ppl who know me know how goooood a memory i have !!! They dont call me “RAM” sometimes for nothing !!!

I guess whatever happens happens for the best ! Or is dat just a consoling statement made when u dont get wat u want !!!

The fun begins … Again !!!

Well after the long time off,(started off at http://gautamcp.blogspot.com an year back !!!) I am back to the thing I love doing the most … commenting about stuff around me….

and doing dat as if someone’s gonna gimme an award for dat !

Well, as my ship sets sail into this infinite journey… all I wanna say to myself is :

“Welcome aboard Gomzy !”