Friendster to Blogspot

First of all - a Very Happy and Prosperous New year to all the readers of this blog. As you may have already noticed, all my blogs till date seem to be have been posted on the same day. It is so because I have just switched over from writing my blogs at "friendster" to "blogspot". Thus, have copied all the posts that I had written on the friendster page to blogspot page. The primary reason for the change is that most of the readers are already registered on blogspot and therefore it is easier for them to give their valuable comments as compared to friendster where they may have to register.

Anyways, Happy New year once again, and Happy Blogging

P.S. The link to my friendster page is http://nitinmohta.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited

My experience today at the BSNL office has been quite exceptional. The normal perception is

1. Very difficult to get a Cell One SIM CARD. Post paid is probably impossible
2. Long queues
3. You need to have a source
4. Complicated documentation required
5. Rude officers
6. Lazy officers
7. Fish Market

Probably a good no. of more descriptors can be added.

My experience was

1. No queue, except for the normal bill payment queue, which I guess is always there
2. Cordial officer
3. Patiently listening and answering your doubts
4. At the same time, attending to other customers as well
5. Simple documentation
6. A very good tariff plan
7. Good network
8. A Post Paid connection within 1 hour - and that includes filling the form & stuff and slight waiting because the guy was really busy
9. A no. selected by them, after asking for your approval, and such a no. that you approve without even thinking twice. (the no. is 94498 - 17157, and my home no. in Cal is 2321 - 7157)
10. An activated card within 1 hour after you get your no. That includes a half hour lunch break at the BSNL office

What more can a customer ask for. I do not assure the readers that you can expect the same treatment whenever you go to a BSNL office but can definitely vouch for the fact that it has improved by leaps and bounds.
The only test left is to see how the connection works. Hope I will not be dissapointed.

On my last article - warning

For all those who have not played AoE - please attempt to read my previous article at your own risk.

Management Lessons - From AoE

From the time I have started playing AoE, and from the time I have understood the intricacies of the game - I have always tried to justify the game - in terms of all the lessons that one learns while playing it. This article is dedicated to all those who have spent countless nights especially during their college years - farming, cutting wood, mining, making buildings, building armies, fighting armies, plundering etc. AoE actually makes you do a lot of things in life.
Coming back to the management lessons, they are listed and justified as follows

1) JIT - The first lesson that I learnt from AoE. Today, almost all manufacturing companies talk about JIT, Lean, etc. Books like "The Goal", "Toyota Way" have become bibles for these organisations. A good player in AoE, ensures that

- There is no extra inventory of Wood, Food, Gold and Stone, and if he is maintaining them, it is only because he has some bulk usage in mind
- That none of his villagers are idle
- That if he is assigning a villager for a particular work, he has to ensure that the villager walks for the minimum amount of time to get to the place where he has to work, thereby minimising the losses in time due to walking
- That he does not have armies that are idle, and if they are, it is for a strategic reason, for example
- he could be waiting till he has enough army to attack
- That none of his buildings are idle, and are working full time in generating either more villagers, or more armies, based on the requirement and resources available

2) Lateral Thinking - Sometimes, a particular player may be completely thrashed in the game and may still turn out to be the winner. My friend Adi is a mastermind in this, and you could just never assume that you have defeated him. Guess, something that cannot be learnt as a lesson, it probably is a talent which is more inherent

3) Team Work - In a multiplayer game, without team work, assuming that the opposite teams are more or less balanced, winning a game is impossible. There have been numerous instances when, in trying to achieve personal glory, some members have made the team lose.

4) Managing Width - At any poing of time, a player may have to keep in mind numerous issues, such as, amount of gold, stone, wood and food available with him, population of his civilization, no. of army personnel, no. of villagers, no. of houses, no. of military buildings and their locations, mix of the army, position and condition of the enemy etc. The list is endless. To be able to tackle such requires tremendous alertness as well as an ability to reach decisions based on multiple variables.

The Game is undoubtedly one of the best strategic games ever developed. For all those who have never played it, I would urge you to try it out.

Quote a Quote

Some of my favourite quotes
1) Lack of punctuality is lack of consideration for others - am a firm believer on this one.

2) Do a job you love and you will never have a work a single day in your life - this was written on the cupboard of a classroom when I was in class 8. We used to have our second language class in that room for only 35 minutes every day. It has been embedded in my mind since then, and I guess am never gonna forget it, and probably will not have to work a single day in my life

3) Do unto others as you would have them do unto you - Picked up from Bible, hammered in our minds by our class teacher of 9 - 10, Mr. Kochupara. Whatever he has taught have definitely been the things that have given me a lot of strength in whatever difficult situations I have come across.

4) Forgiveness is a scent a flower leaves on the heal that crushed it - Beautiful metaphor, dont remember where I came across it, but definitely one of my favourites

Yahoo Groups

Was going thru some of the oldest posts made in some of the Yahoo Groups that I am a part of. The ones that have been mostly active are my wings group at Kgp - dfe_nehru@yahoogroups.com and that of Robotix group - robotix_iitkgp@yahoogroups.com. It turns out to be quite nostalgic and even seems strange going through posts that may be 2 - 3 years old.

The following is the first post by my friend JD at dfe_nehru@yahoogroups.com

hi junta.....
this is important news.
i am in d-220, i think u must all remembr ur room nos.
there is talk here among the super final yr junta that they will move intodfe.....in the absence of we ppl.
i hav already taken room here, am settled. if u guys can make it to kgp early itwud b best....the faster the betr.
shibu (who wont b here 4 1 sem has lockd up his room)...i.e. D-214.

all said n done, there is only one fact to our advantage - our reg is on 21st,but 4 suprfinal yr it is 23rd.

guys, get the otr wingies to join this group, and decide somthin in yourpersonal capacities, n kepp everyone posted.
adios
jd

While here this guy is worried about as to whether the 15 of us will be able to live together in the wing or not, today (after 3 and 1/2 years) 4 of us are outside india, 2 in Pune, 1 in Bangalore, 1 in Hyderabad, 1 in Ahmedabad, 1 in Silvassa, 1 in Gurgaon, 1 in Bombay, 1 in Cal, 1 in Kgp and 1 in Himachal (thats me). Its really strange considering that most of the IITians these days when in India are found in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune or Gurgaon, still out of 11 of us in India, only 2 are in the same city and the rest are scattered all over. Well I do hope the 15 of us will get to be together sometime in life. Probability is definitely low, but still there is hope.



The second group that I had been an active participant of is robotix_iitkgp@yahoogroups.com. Today hardly any posts are made on this as it is now considered the parent group and therefore is posted in whenever there is some information required to be passed on to the Alumni of the group.

The following is the first post by the head Biswanath Dutta in the group robotix_iitkgp@yahoogroups.com

Guys the following pending things need to becompleted.

1. The track:(most important of all !!!)guys in charge take notea. estimation of the prices--------not done yetb. concretely determine the materials and the fashionin which the track will be fabricated----not done yet.c.infrared modulated sensors for timing of thetrack.---not done yet.,

2. The publicity.guys in charge take note.a.posters in cal----not sentb.posters in every hall and dept.----not sentc.awareness workshop----not done

3. Robosoccer teamguys in charge take notea. uploading necessary manuals and required auxillaryinfo-----not doneb. setting up the required server details.guys should send regular updates of the progress thathas been made in their respective work groups to thisegroup. This is must for all group members.

DUTTA.

Well... post was made by Biswanath Dutta - he was the head of Robotix team for organisation of Robotix 2002. I was not even subscribed to the group when this post was made. That year - we got a decent no. of participants from within the campus. It was only the second year of the event and had been quite successful. Outside participation was out of the question.
Today - the event boasts of being the largest and the most popular Robotix event in the country. The no. of participants have multiplied some hundred times since 2002. The seeds that were laid by the heads of Robotix 2001 & 2002 have grown into one big tree and is still growing.

Life in Nangal / Tahliwal

Well.. its been a week since I have come to this place near Chandigarh. Am staying in a hotel in Nangal (which is in Punjab) and the factory that I go to is in Tahliwal (which is in Himachal). The place is beautiful with greenery and freshness all around.
Life as of now is waking up at 7-nish in the morning and leaving for the plant at 8. Go through as much details as I am able to with respect to makin biskuts in the plant and come back by around 10. Spend some time reading something or the other (have just finished Harry Potter - 6) before I am off to sleep by around 12. Unfortunately, not many channels come on the TV and therefore is not such a great source of entertainment for me. There is thankfully a cyber cafe right next to my hotel and therefore am not so completely out of touch with the external world.
As of today, I am in Chandigarh, trying to do some TP. Bought a couple of more books which should atleast last for a month.
Thats it from my side.
Till then.... Happy Dussehra and Shubho Bijoya.

3rd Time Lucky - Hopefully

As the title of the blog suggests, this is my third attempt at writing a blog. Have never had much of a flair for writing. I have forgotten the password for the account that I had created at blogspot. Had created a second account but do not have enough enthu to work further on that website. This new website as well as my bro's recent blogging have inspired and motivated me enough to give it another shot.
For all those who are unaware or with whom I have not been in touch for long - I am presently working at ITC Limited, currently placed in Bangalore. And no, am not placed in Bangalore as yet - will get to know in a couple of hours time as to where I will be in the next couple of months but will be in the long run visiting Bangalore often. That is so because am in the Foods Division of the company and its head office is in Bangalore. Would also like to let everyone know that I am associated with the Biscuits category of the division - which means that I will be dealing with issues related to manufacturing of "Sunfeast" biscuits.