Karthik Writes..

We do need simple solutions but they've got to be ingenious too. The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh. The Japanese did not like the taste of stale fish. To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish. The frozen fish brought a lower price. So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, ...

Dealing with any clients in services is an art. In the case of IT, we primarily deal with American clients. It is useful to know how the English language works with them. Some of us may hesitate to speak to the client.Beacuse we are not confident. When we practice the following tips, we can boost our confidence. Interactions with American clients - Useful tips 1. Do not write "the same" in an email - it makes little sense to them. Example - I will try to organize the project artifacts and inform you of the same when it is done This is somewhat an Indian construct. It is better written simply as: I will try to organize the project artifacts and inform you when that is done 2. Do not write or say, "I have some doubts on this issue" The term "Doubt" is used in the sense of doubting someone - we use this term because in Indian languages (such as Tamil), the word for a "doubt" and a "question" is the same. The correct usage (for clients) is:...

Finally the grade separator in Kathipara, Guindy has been thrown open to traffic. Its really a wonderful piece of engineering and first of its kind in the whole of india. Gone are the days when traffic comes to a standstill in the Guindy junction with the vehicles turning their ignition off and wait patiently for the signal to turn green. This grade separator has a butterfly style design and stands tall spreading its wings across the guindy circle. The six-lane flyover, constructed at a cost of Rs 250 crore at Kathipara junction, a gateway into the city that has been a traffic bottleneck for years, is expected to eliminate delays on account of signalized intersection and result in savings on vehicle operating cost and travel time. It will also help reduce fuel emissions that occur due to idling of vehicles at the junction. Great Work...Chennai's asset..!!!

India would not see recession, even if the international situation remained uncertain, said RBI governor D Subbarao on Saturday. But the stocks keep tumbling today also in BSE and as a Diwali gift to its investors touched below 8000 points. Though justifying RBI's cautious credit policy announced on Friday, Subbarao said that as a central bank, it had to balance growth and financial stability with price stability. Between October 6 and 20, the RBI injected Rs 1,85,000 crore liquidity into the system and "the one per cent repo rate cut was aimed at getting the financial markets going. If the situation warranted, RBI wouldn't hesitate to infuse or withdraw liquidity from the system. Nothing seems to work for now...lets keep our fingers crossed.

I was reading today the book "one night at the call center" by Chetan bhagat. Basically it was a story about the BPOs in india andthe incidents that happen over there forms rest of the plot. There was a mention about a rule which the call agents are told about during their training namely 10-30 rule. Having not heared of any such rule in the past, my curiosity made me read further and I was quite astonished to find out this rule is really one concept, which helps the Call center folks to remain calm when interacting with angry american customers. Interested in knowing what it means ? Read further...It says though not in the exact words as in the lines to continue, it means that the IQ of an avg american of 35 yrs is equal to that of a 10yr old Indian kid....So stay calm and explain the technicalities as you would do to a 10yr old kid. Not sure if this is true but definetly a bold satire at the US...!!

In chennai the flyover culture seems to be the solution for all traffic problems as percieved by the goverment. When there is a traffic congestion in any area in chennai, the pancea for this problem is - build a flyover. Ofcourse there are some real scenarios where this provodes the solution , but not in all cases. The authorities should look at other areas like widening the roads, removing encroachments which have a permanent effect and see how best the available space can be used. One good option is to use the space vertically , which has caught the attention of the authorities and they have started projects on multi tier car parks. Another area which requires immediate attention would be creating path ways for free flow of rain water. The flood water drains require immediate attention and should be expanded, cleared of all the clogging that has happedned over the years and measures to ensure that this clogging does not happen hence forth. If these are done at a war footing we can d...