For traffic solution road widening’s are temporary though we may require in lot of area’s for widened-ed roads, create cycle lanes and Pedestrian Zones. When it comes to Vehicles on road, We are growing city and vehicular traffic will only double in next 5 years. In that scenario, no road widening will help. What we need is a comprehensive plan. My suggestion incorporates 2 major world cities which decreased car usage. In London city, the city implemented toll to enter major city areas (excepted for electric cars) that itself made a big difference. For a growing city such as Hyderabad this alone is not sufficient. In Singapore, city with same population density manages traffic very well. Thats because every year Singapore allows limited amount of cars on city roads for which they have buy 10year Licence board permits and price’s of open Auction and this is only valid for 10years. So every year, if one wants to buy a car they have to spend at-least 50,000$ on Licence boards for 10years. All this money goes to spend on Busses, trains, priority lanes for busses. This makes singapore roads very empty with regular bus services (including Air-conditioned). Still Taxis permits are cheap and readily available. This makes taxi rates lower and comparative to world cities. The argument here is people coming from offices don’t spend 30$ on taxi while the Air-conditioned bus cost 1$. Such a system eliminates large traffic conjession, pollution and sound. We are not a city state, so we should have Singapore model together with London model on vehicles coming to city. Some road widening’s may require but it is not a long term solution. Long term solution is to kill the demand. All real estate and businesses get advantage with this solution, because lower cars mean lower parking space. Parking space is an important expenditure for houses and offices. Together with this allowing electric cars without such a licence requirements (non polluting still are expensive, limited mileage) , pedestrian and cycle friendly. We need a transport system which works. That is immediately, our roads need to take more buses later on we have build in much wider scale a metro and sub-urban transit systems together Pedestrian zones and Cycle’s area’s. We have to decrease cars on road by at-least half. And replace existing Motor cycles with cycles or electric power cycles. Then our city can be made beautiful with walkways, clear roads, trees and greenery.

A couple of days ago, I published a blog post with some feedback to Zoomin titled – “To Zoomin, with love”.

Click here to read the post, if you haven’t already been there.

I sent the link as a message on their facebook page, as I couldn’t directly post on the wall. And they responded.

I really appreciate your response, ZoomIn!

Here is the complete message thread.

-*-*-*-*-

Vivek:

Couldn’t post on the wall, so sending you as a message.

To Zoomin, with love.

——

ZoomIn:

Hi Vivekananda,

Thanks for sharing your blog post with us! Feedback from loyal customers like you is invaluable to us as it allows us to continually improve the ZoomIn experience. Some of the suggestions you had are in the pipeline so we were happy that you affirmed them (business cards, photo frames, monthly coupons) – stay tuned for those launches/changes!

The shopping bag idea is great! Will make sure to pass it on to our product team.

A couple of the other suggestions you had like the offline builder and FedEx tracking are a bit more challenging to implement but we do believe they are important to address so we’ve been working on those fronts as well. Hopefully you’ll see those improvements soon.

With regards to the referral program, have you checked out our affiliate program? You can earn 3% on camera store purchases and 10% on all other items. http://www.zoomin.com/affiliates.

Again, thanks for taking the time to provide such well thought out feedback and for being a loyal customer. 

The ZoomIn Team

——

Vivek:

That’s a quick and positive response for my feedback. Few of my associates were hoping you check and consider this. Would you mind if I post this reply on the blog?

They’ll feel happy that you care! 

——

ZoomIn:

Thanks for asking! Yes, please feel to share our response.

-*-*-*-*-

Dear Zoomin,

Thank you for taking care of all my printing needs for the past year or so. If it weren’t for you, I seriously wouldn’t have printed these many photos, flipbooks, photobooks, photos on coffee mugs etc. May be one or two as gifts, but not these many for fun for sure.

I’ve made use of many offers you rolled out, starting with the initial free 6″X9″ free flipbook, to less than half of regular price 8″X10″ matte/ luminous/ glossy prints, to XX% off on photo mugs etc.

I printed for myself, my family, my friends and my colleagues too.

We even bought a Canon Digital IXUS Camera on Zoomin Online Camera Store. I think a few of the goodies we received with the cam are still valid. (free shipping coupons, etc.)

I even printed a complete set of pictures for a photo exhibition. You sent the shipping a day late, but it eventually worked out anyway.

I’ve also introduced more than a dozen friends to Zoomin and few of them are addicted now. It might be hard to believe for you when I say people call me, ping me on chat and send me email once in a while with questions about zoomin. I only get back when I can, but still.

With this relationship between you and me, I think I can take the liberty of making some recommendations:

• Affiliate marketing: The referral program you currently have isn’t a proper affiliate. The least you could do is provide a personalized link and track new introductions through that source. It shouldn’t be very hard to implement that. I’m thinking you can penetrate into the market even more with the right affiliate program. You’re doing good now, but I seriously think you can do better.
• Business cards: I see you have greeting cards too, good. I should try those sometime! Can you also print business cards? I love the way http://uk.moo.com/ or http://us.moo.com/ do this. May be you can start something similar here, um? Take a look at those amazing ideas and designs when you get a minute.
• Shopping bags: I was discussing about making these few recommendations to you and a friend jumped up at the idea of a shopping bag. Can you print a photo on a shopping bag? Or a collage may be! A paper bag to actually present gifts could be a brilliant idea, don’t you think? It works like a personalized gift wrap. Sounds exciting to me!
• T-shirts: I see mouse pads, magnets etc as gifts but not T-shirts; one of the very popular personalized printing merchandise. Is dealing with size the concern?
• Monthly coupons: You promise to reward the spends with points and then convert them into money. I like the fact that this money can be used as a discount in the next order. However, I don’t like the way you convert it (all points, ever month, mandatory) and the duration it is valid for (generating a coupon and expiring in a couple of weeks). I would like more control on when I want to use it and how.
• moo: Are you both related? Now, there is a difference of color but earlier even the color (along with the layout and template) used to be same. This is not a recommendation point, just curious!
• Photo frames: They are too expensive, I think.
• Offline builder: For some reason it takes me more than a few hours to even design a simple flipbook of 20 pages. I would appreciate the idea of an offline builder. Similar to the desktop photo uploaders you use. We can install the application on PC and use it to design photo products offline. We can upload the resulting ‘project’ when done, for printing. I’ve heard there are applications and vendors that do this. Why not Zoomin?
• Tracking: It almost never works. Every time I click the link to view status, the resulting site either shows “no info” or “invalid number”. I know your FAQs address this by dropping the ball in vendor’s court, but it would make me comfortable when things work as expected when I branch off a link from your website. Actually, when I contacted FEDEX with my most recent order, they told me they had no clue what I was referring to!

When I unpacked my recent flipbook, I saw that ‘thank you’ card asking for feedback. So, I thought I’ll send you few of my thoughts.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, am off to prepare the new zig zag mini. As I have to do it online-only, I need more than an hour.

Cya!

Update:

Read the response from ZoomIn here.

If you spend more than an hour online everyday, it’s your Internet! You are an active Internet user!! And, that is a very powerful tool!!!

As it is said- “With great power comes great responsibility!” it’s also your responsibility to ‘maintain’ it.  :)

More than anything, it’s easier than you would think!

I see Internet usage broadly in two ways:

• Give
• Take

While most of the Internet users just ‘take’, it’s only fair enough we ‘give’ once in a while.

Consumption:

This is what most of us do everyday; ‘take’ content from the Internet.

• We login to Gmail, process a few email and sign out.
• We open a news website and read a few articles.
• We open YouTube and watch a video or two.
• We open Facebook and scroll through the feed for an hour.
• We open Flickr or Picasa and check out a few pictures in an album.
• We search in Google when we are looking for something and skim through the sites for information.
• …

All these are the ‘consumption’ activities. Users that do just this can also be called as passive users of the Internet (leech might be inappropriate, heh?).

It’s as good as watching a regular TV.

To keep the Internet active, fresh and lively, it’s important we contribute as well. Make it interactive!

Contribution:

It’s possible we contribute at the same time we consume the content from the biggest ever pool of information.

• Upload pictures of an event/ travel/ pets/ occasions etc., to Photo sharing sites or personal galleries.
• Upload videos to  YouTube or any other online location and share.
• Add comments to pictures and videos we watch.
• Participate in discussions where possible.
• Interact.
• Add comments to facebook updates, pictures, videos.
• Share articles, pictures, videos etc., on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.
• Write blogs, add comments, or share the ones of value.
• …

Unless we add more content and just keep consuming the existing one, the Internet experience eventually becomes stale; a long way to go but still possible.

Craft:

Along side consuming and contributing to the biggest library ever, we can even ‘fine tune’ the Internet to serve better on what you want/ feel/ need/ like/ prefer etc. Most websites/ tools that we use today use intelligent algorithms. So, our feedback is actually put to use and the content is refined.

I personally think networks like Facebook are a huge hit and addiction because they allow us to consume, contribute and fine tune- all at the same time!

• When you receive a spam email, mark it as spam instead of just deleting it and moving on. Spam filters learn by your action and do a better job in the future.
• When you see content on the web that you like, “Like” it if there is an option.
• When you think some content might be useful to somebody else, do not hesitate to “share” it.
• Sharing content can be through email, or social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.
• Find a balance between creating original content and sharing. When we share too much stuff that is useful to nobody (like a picture with just quotes “Hit Like if you think love is beautiful” or “Hit Like if you think cats are cute”) will make Internet think we are all idiots.
• We are not idiots; tell Internet that!
• Share personal experiences, reviews, preferences; as you benefit from other’s content, let others find some content to weigh their options.

Like everything else, there’s a line between doing it and over-doing it. So, of course know how much is too much and consider your privacy preferences before you post your bank statement or bad appraisal letter snapshot on facebook.

If you already ‘contribute’ enough- adda boy! You and I are making Internet a good place!

If you don’t, and want to, you can start by expressing your thoughts on this very post and/ or by sharing this post with others!

“We used to have such programs in a Star Hotel earlier. Any reason why we are not doing that now?”

“I’ve heard that the Induction program used to be all week long, with awesome lunch provided. Why is the duration reduced to just 2 days? And, why isn’t lunch provided anymore?”

“My team members say that the first few days after they joined, they played a lot of interesting games. We want to play too!”

I hear the above way too often. Some questions come up as soon as I walk-in to the session to address a new batch of employees; some come up after the scheduled session for a day or two is complete. And, some come up out of the blue, in lunch lines, coffee breaks and lift lobbies.

Unarguably, some are rhetorical questions. People take solace in asking those questions when they are well aware of the answer. It’s just that they are not happy with the answer.

Team Building Session

Here is why I think the first few days are important for an employee at an organization:

• When the Induction program is conducted in a better environment (eg., a Star hotel), with luxury treatment and free lunches, the impression that is made of the organization is of a high standard. It shows the employees that they are cared for. Even when the times turn bad at the organization, these are the employees that think of ‘good times’ and hope for better everything, but stick with the company telling these tales they were part of.
• When you are high up the ladder making financial decisions, saving money counts up to your effectiveness, efficiency and all those factors that make you look good. So, cost-cutting is a natural choice that is of course explored in every possible area. The more money you save, the greener your graph looks. Unfortunately, it’s evident. It shows that you don’t consider your employees important.
• “There are no free lunches” works better as a metaphor than as a literal statement in situations like this. Believe me you can impress people with a free lunch or two!
• I personally think that the impression that is created matters more than the cost involved. I’d rather you consider it as an investment, and not cost. When the employees are impressed in the first week or two, it goes a long way. They feel that they ‘belong’ and not just work.
• When a later ‘batch’ attends the same Induction program in-house, in a cramped over-crowded room with a few cookies/ eclairs, it doesn’t set the same high standard impression. There is already little discomfort inducted that will only get worse with the time.
• The initial time we ‘invest’ in grooming the employees, especially campus recruits, does a lot of good in the long run. Time and money invested in helping those individuals to get accustomed to the corporate environment is directly proportional to their relationship and stay with an organization.
• Something that appears as trivial as a organization handbook that an employee receives on Day 1 has an impact too. That’s the direct sales promotion of the company’s image! Imagine a photocopied and stapled two page document left at your table, versus a printed brochure in color on hard paper, that comes in a ‘packet’ along with a small notepad and a pen – get the idea?

This list is not definitely exhaustive but a start of how the first few days can be perceived by employees at an organization, and why the first few days of the employee are important for an organization.

Whatever you aim for, or settle for in the first few days, makes or breaks the deal.

About 2000 kms over a weekend- now, that’s a long drive!

The first weekend of April was well spent in the Eastern Ghats. It was a lovely drive through the forest patches and the never ending Ghat roads. There were of course a few river streams, waterfalls and beaches in the mix. This is also my first visit to Araku valley and Vizag.

The schedule seemed a little too tight; and the itinerary looked a little too uncertain when we began, but it was a fun trip overall.

Sequence of the places we visited:

5th April, 2012

• Hyderabad – we started here on Thursday, 3.30 pm.
• Eluru – night halt.

• Rajamundry – had breakfast, checked out the Kovvuru Rajamundry Bridge and set off to the Alluri Sitaramaraju forest.
• Rompa Rampa Waterfall – We have very less water flow because of the summer heat I guess, but a place we checked out anyway.
• Maredumilli – Had a very early lunch around 11am as we might not get anything to eat further in the jungle. This is where we tasted the Bamboo chicken.
• Mothugudem – The Shabari river that acts as a border for Andhra Pradesh.
• CLAP Waterfall, Polleru – I wonder why they call it CLAP. Water flow was better than Rompa here. We even got into water and had a chilly shower.
• Chintapally – This is one of the bigger towns in the Agency. We stopped here for evening snacks and inquired about the coolest place nearby.
• Lambasingi – Apparently, the coolest place in AP where the temperature falls to as low as 2 or 3 deg. C. Google this name and you can also see a TV9 report telecast a month or so ago, available on Youtube.
• Paderu – Dinner and night halt.

Click on it to interact and zoom the map to get more details.

There is a difference between literacy and education.

There is a difference between driving and operating a motor vehicle.

There is a difference between a snapshot and a photograph.

There is a difference between communicating and talking.

There is a difference between living life and being alive.

There is a difference between communication and knowing how to use a mobile phone.

There is a difference between hearing and listening.

There is a difference between undergoing training and learning.

There is a difference between reminding and remembering.

There is a difference between enjoying and cherishing.

There is a difference between a smile and a laugh.

There is a difference between writing and expressing.

There is a difference between an award and a reward.

There is a difference between being responsible and being accountable.

There is a difference between having a drink and getting drunk.

There is a difference between being the head and having the authority.

There is a difference between using email and living in Inbox.

There is a difference between being powerful and having power.

There is a difference between working out and being fit.

There is a difference between practicing and being in touch.

There is a difference between being the best and being our best.

Some differences are huge, and some might be negligible; the dividing line could be thin, or they could be miles apart; neverthless, there are differences.

If you’re wondering, THIS, what am doing here now is called rambling.

And yes, there is a difference between rambling and composing a blog post.

Yet another calendar year has come to an end. Overall, it wasn’t great for me; but that’s ok, there’s a new year around the corner!

I wasn’t even able to post a lot on the blog, just a few random scribbles here’n'there. Of these few, here are the Top 10 of this year.

The best part of my online activity this year was the Project 365!

Before I list the Top 10, take a look at the lists from the last couple of years:

Top 10 posts of 2009.

Top 10 posts of 2010.

And now, the list for 2011:

1. Telangana agitation – The Bad: The actual face of the agitation at the time. This post outlines few things that come to my mind those tag the agitation as bad. Some serious concerns, some pun intended and of course a little sarcasm too! More than the post itself, the comments and discussion is what matters more on this page.
2. Telangana agitation – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: An introductory post for the Telangana agitation series. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly are also individually on the top 10 list. This post was my attempt to examine the agitation from those different angles.
3. Telangana agitation – The Good: While the agitation itself was mostly bad/ ugly, I forced myself to understand and see if there is any ‘good’ in it. A few reasons protesters quoted for why we need a separate state are discussed here.
4. Close call with phishing on facebook: A close encounter that almost made me give out the credit card number to the ‘disguised’ friend on facebook. If you face a similar situation, please be more careful!
5. Hampta Pass Trek – Reality Check: A wonderful experience in The Himalayas! A reality check to anyone else who’s dreaming of the trek. What to carry, how is it there, good things, not so good experiences, cold, water, energy levels, scenery, photography, etc are discussed in detail.
6. Telangana agitation – The Ugly: In a nutshell, the agitation that changed the face of Hyderabad, to Ugly! This the THE actual post I intended to write about the agitation. Vandalism, mob mentality, bandhs, traffic issues and impact to common man are all discussed here.
7. Review – LG Customer Care: Feedback to the LG team after a terrible experience with their service that took 22 days to fix a broken refrigerator. For the record, it broke twice in two months after that repair too!
8. The Airport Bhoot: A funny incident that left us awestruck all night in the Hyderabad airport. May be it’s the time of the night, or may be there really is a bhoot, but our experience IS something I couldn’t resist sharing.
9. Pearl YAMAHA – Feedback about your service: An escalation to the Yamaha Motors India about their service centers in Hyderabad. You gotta let people/ organizations know when there is a scope for improvement!
10. Project 365: While the post itself on the blog received quite a good amount of traffic, the independent site where I post ‘pic of the day’ received quite a good response. Head to the site and check the clicks for yourself!

If you have enjoyed any other post and that’s not in the list above, please let me know in the comments!

I say, not bad!

This was my new year resolution for this year: 2011: Leave airtel and quit Orkut.

If you do the math in 3 secs, it would come to 50% complete. Let me explain a little further and make it 75%!

Leaving airtel was half of it; and the orkut quitting was the other half. I already wrote multiple times about airtel here, here and here.

I just deleted orkut account moments ago and immediately started composing this post, so that’s 50% complete already! (I know I should have deleted the thing a long time ago, but I had thought I already deleted it, until somebody sent a scrap two days ago. AND, I confirmed there is no way to change login email before I deleted, one of my primary reasons. Of course, copy-pasted the few testimonials I had in there.)

Coming to the other half: leaving airtel. I use(d) two services from airtel: mobile and broadband. So, 25% contribution each towards my resolution.

Now, I’ve cancelled the mobile connection very early in 2011 and moved to DoCoMo. So, another 25% of my total resolution target is complete.

The remaining 25% is incomplete. And here are the reasons:

• There isn’t any other provider in my location to offer broadband connection.
• When I told airtel my problems and requested to cancel, they offered a new plan at discounted price for a quarter. Nice gesture!
• Didn’t want to be stupid and cancel the connection anyway when I have no alternative!

So, that’s my progress!

75% complete.

What about you?

Dear @HDFC_Bank,

Normally when I write a post with an intent to get to somebody, I spend some time, do a little home work, have a point and then roll it out.

Am doing this post in a hurry; because, you know, you’re trying hard to assist me on twitter but are unable to.

If you remember this tweet, read on for the response.

While I already replied to the tweet immediately and we’ve been having a disconnected conversation over twitter, this is just a sample to let you understand what I’m referring to, when I say “issues”. I repeat, it’s plural.

And, no kidding, but the terrible service you provide deserves more than 140 chars.

Story background:

A while ago, I contacted your branch where I unfortunately have my salary/ savings account. I requested them to stop an ECS request from Reliance Capital. I was surprised to know that I couldn’t do that! I have no control over my account? I didn’t dare to ask if I can at least block cheques anytime in the future; I kinda know what you’ll say.

Hold on for a moment now. I know you’re thinking “there is a way to stop ECS, all you have to do is get a declaration from Reliance Capital that requests you to cancel the ECS”. Now, take a deep breath and try to understand what’s going on in my mind.

If I come to you with a request to block a cheque (hypothetically, because a cheque is stolen, let’s say), you want me to find the cheque and submit it to you in original, along with my address proof, original passport, valid VISA, telephone bill, ration card, Voter ID card, 2 color passport-size photographs, and, may be my office ID card in original?

Think about it- if I can convince Reliance to cancel the ECS, why the heck would I come to you again and request you to cancel/ dishonor the request? I’m sure you have your dumb policies and bunch of forms at your finger tips, but can you at least get into my mind for a moment and look at the situation?

Here is an email that made me aware of your policy.

Current issue sample:

Again, this is not one of my primary concerns right now, however, as I told you, showing you a sample of why I hate HDFC so much and trying hard, in every way possible to kick you out of my life.

Your recent messages to me on twitter were talking about me visiting the branch to address the situation.

Well, that’s been on for about 6 months now and may be you call it “Retail Asset Branch” to sound/ read good on websites, but I refer to it as “Headquarters, Organized Crime, HDFC”.

Anyways, unable to bear with your pathetic Customer Service, being not in a position to explain every Tom, Dick and Harry, what assistance I need, and simply fed up with HDFC because no one can help me as it’s never “something you can take care of” (there’s always somebody else to address the concern and he/ she has not surfaced in 6 months!), AND more than all of these, not willing to pay huge penalties that arise due to your inability to solve a problem & you impose a fine everytime your kids need new school shoes, I chose to finally visit the “Headquarters”, and you wouldn’t believe, foreclosed the loan with credit card! *Sigh!*

That sounds pathetic even to read it, haan? I did it. Because, that’s how much I hate you now.

But, that’s not the point here, take a look at the letter below I received when I paid the total outstanding to foreclose the loan (yes, school shoes included).

Now, you tell me what do I do with this next ECS that’s referred to here. If I contact the branch, they will want a declaration from the “Headquarters” a.k.a Retail Asset Branch, with cancellation request.

While am not planning to deal with the “Headquarters” now, they gave me a letter that the loan is completely closed! AND STILL, you’re thinking of an ECS presentation.

The loan guy wants me to stop the ECS but the bank account guy won’t allow me to do it. For heaven’s sake, both are part of the same dumb organization!

Let me remind you again, immediately, that both these (the loan fellow and the bank fellow) are from HDFC. If you’re unable to stand on one word within your organization, imagine my plight to deal with HDFC and Reliance Capital in combination! By the way, if I have not mentioned already, they’re your tough competition for Customer Service; they rock as much as you do, but more on that later.

As I said, I don’t even have patience to explain all other such issues with HDFC. I understand you’ve charged me on my loan, as well as Savings account in the name of penalties because two divisions within your own organization don’t understand/ work with each other; but who can put a price on kids’ shoes, huh?

Thank you for all the attempts you did/ are making to address my concerns. Just to let you know the status: the reps who called me so far are useless; they ate up lot of my valuable time; and charged me heavy penalties on top of that.

I’ll pay for the uniforms too, could you please, please leave me alone?!!

Additional recommended reading: http://viveeonline.com/blog/category/hdfc-suck-cess-stories/