Wrap Up - March

March is suppose to be the best month for me.  End of cold and start of summer times. And yes, it's my birth month after all.

Was expecting some good things to happen during this month and it surely didn't disappoint. Will write some of the events that happened during March.

1. Contribution to Rangde :Did my regular contribution to Rang de. Hope someone will benefit from my small investment and help getting our country get better.


2. Results of MICAT, CMAT & KJ SomaiyaNo, I did not qualify for any of the given exams/institute.  The worst part is I don't regret any of my performances and I have forgotten how to feel fear about not getting good colleges for my PGDM/MBA. 


3.  Birthday Celebration17th March was a good day. Holi was celebrated all over India and I has the good fortune of celebrating my new year. Celebrated with friends from my engineering days. 


4. Helped Aam Aadmi Party.
   Did my bits for the new party by collecting tickets for Inner/Outer Manipur from their main office (CP HQ) and sending it safely to Manipur. Wasted quite a lot of energy and time but I do sincerely hope they gain some popularity and help our country.


5. Visit BangaloreWill visit Bangalore for giving GD/PI for XIME. Had the choice to visit Pune but thought Bangalore was better. Last time I visited Bangalore was way back in the year 2003. Hope to have a good time and get selected. I am almost running out of colleges :D

That's it. It's hard to maintain consistency of blogging every week. I guess I have to step it up like I did today.

Simple lesson a soap taught me

A simply product can teach us many things. This is one of them.

Me at a shop.

Me: "I want a Fiama Di Wills bathing bar".

Shopkeeper: "Out of stock. Try another brand".

Me: "Which one? Is it good?"

Shopkeeper: "Yes, it is. Denver for men. Take it."

Hesitatingly I took  it as he wanted me to try out something different. The shopkeeper even refused to take money as the product I wanted was out of stock and he did not want to disappoint his customers. So I came back and tested it for a week. The product was good. The smell was fine, shape and size were fine. But there was something that didn't click with me. I didn't feel like I was bathing. You know the feeling, right? It was like not having the feel of mint after brushing the teeth for about 3 to 4 minutes.

After a week, I went back to him and asked for Fiama Di Wills again. Fortunately this time it was available.

Me at the shop again:

Me: "The Denver soap you gave me was fine but didn't click like Fiama Di Wills used to do. It must be something with me but now I would like to have only my choice of soap."

I continued.....

Me: "The thing is....I like only the brands I have been using and no matter what happens to other brands....whether it's given for free or cost a premium I don't want to use it."

That moment he interrupted and worriedly said....

Shopkeeper: "Please don't misunderstand us like that. I did not charge money and gave to you....not because it was a bad product but I because I wanted you to try a good brand so that you might like it in the future. This is embarrassing. I guess I will have to stop giving free stuffs to my customers."

I pleaded with no no no.... I didn't mean like that.......but then the damages had already been done.

Lesson Takeaway:

1. In anything you build or produce, build brands. It matters. It's always going to be Fiama Di Wills for me. I don't really care whether Dettol, Lux, Dove or Denver exists or not. For you, it might be different.


2. Think and Say. Very important lesson.  I thought I was saying some cool things by blurting out "whether it's given for free or cost a million..."  but no....that silly dialogue made my shopkeeper look bad in front of his customers.

That's it folks. I learned the hard way. Don't forget to grab the last two takeaways. It will surely come in handy one day.

BigRock event httpx - Delhi

I almost forgot to write this blog. Heck, better late than never.

On 12th Sept I went to an event (httpx) hosted by BigRock at The Lalit, Delhi. The focus of the event was about web industry. Here are some details:

• 8:00 am: Woke up early and boarded the metro train for Rajiv Chowk. Reached The Lalit after half an hour.

• 9:00 am: Registered for the event. Got my participation identity card .

• 10:00 am: Seated in the middle of the hall waiting for some good knowledge.

• 10:15 am: The guys from ixigo.com, Rajnish Kumar and Ernesto Cohnen started the proceedings with their The Appy Hour presentation. As much as I want to say good things about them, I can't. For me they were bad, boring and their information were pretty useless. It almost seemed like both of them were the only people inside the hall and were talking to each other. One thing to take away from their presentation was "The browser is the new OS" . How true!

• 11:00 am: Next was Amit Somain of Makemytrip. He spoke very well, engaged with the audience and made sure #httpx was just not another free event. Many in the audience liked their(MakeMytrip) approach to customer driven innovations. The 'AHA' moment of the day was when he disclosed about Video Testing Analytics from the backend.

Amit Somani -- Photo credit: BigRock

• 12:00 am: Next was the Secrets of Online Marketing by Akanksha S and Abhinav of Google. Secrets? Yes, they were. Google Re-marketing was a new term for me. Hope to research and learn more about this in the near future.

Akansha S -- Photo credit: BigRock

• 1:00 pm: Lunch. By this time I was about to die. It's been long since I seated for a continuous 4 hrs. I did not have a good lunch as there was too much of waiting. I got to eat only 1 Roti after standing in a queue for half an hour.  To make matter worse it was followed by waiting of another 15 minutes for Ice-Cream. That's when I decided to leave the event and sleep peacefully back in my room.


• 2:00 pm: Went to the main hall of The Lalit to take some rest. I was feeling very tired and sick. Left the event sensing something was wrong with my body.


• 4:00 pm: Reached room. Heart's beating very fast. Leg's dead. Head ache. Fever. You named it I got it. Could it be Dengue?

UPDATE:  Finished all the regular check-up. Just viral fever and weakness. No Dengue. YaY!

Overall, the experience of BigRock event httpx, Delhi was really good. Couldn't blame BigRock for my unfortunate turn of events. I wish I was healthier and could have attended the rest of the program. It was really surprising to know there were many web designers and developers from Delhi and nearby regions. Hope to attend such kind of events in the future also.

Note: Thank You to all the speakers who took their time out and shared their knowledge.  Thank You BigRock, Verisign, The Lalit and other sponsors.