Rantings

Quotable quotes from the Conventions..

Quotes from the recent Democratic and Republican Conventions..

Democrats : Bill Clinton “People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.”

Republicans : Sarah Palin “‘In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers, and then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.

Good/Bad Customer service and it's effect

Scenario 1 : I am waiting in line to check in my baggage for an international United airlines flight. A couple in front of me is trying to check-in their baggage. There is some conversation going on between the agent and the couple regd the weight of their baggage. While the conversation is going on, the agent decides to check in the couple baggage and puts it on the conveyor belt..And here is what happens next

Agent : Ma’am, one of your baggage weighed 69.5 lbs and the other 70 lbs, the extra charge is $150. We charge $50 for baggage exceeding 50lbs and up to 70 lbs, and $100 for baggage exceeding 70 lbs and up to 100lbs.

Couple : !!!%^%&&^.. Ma’am, the second baggage is only 70 lbs, why are you chraging $100.

Agent (in a nasal tone) : Ma’am, the rule says 70 lbs and above.

Couple (intimidated) : Yeah, but is it only 0.5 lbs more than the first one and up to 70 lbs is only $50 right?

Agent (in I make the rules tone) : Ma’am, I am not going to argue over this.. It  is $100 for 70 lbs and more.. period.

Couple (nearly in tears) : OK, can we at least take out the 0.5 lbs of weight form the baggage so that we don’t have to pay $100 for it?

Agent (in you dare to speak back to me tone) : Ma’am.. the baggage is already checked in, you cannot take the weight out, you have to pay $100


..
Couple end up paying $100 because one of their bags was 0.5 lbs extra!!!

Does anyone find this sad? I understand the need to put limits and charge for excess baggage. But shouldn’t the agent have used common sense and made the call not to charge the couple $100 for 0.5 lbs!!! This is a good case of where employee stick to rules and are not given the freedom to make meaningful judgments.. Read Joel Spolsky‘s article about his recent experience at Starbucks and his reaction to understand what I mean :). No wonder United is in a death spiral!! 🙂

Scenario 2 : My second leg of the international trip was on a Lufthansa flight. There was a strike by the ground crew in Frankfurt and Lufthansa couldn’t get the required food into the flight. And here is how the crew handled the issue

  1. Made multiple announcements prior to the boarding that only 1 meal would be served in the journey and that special meal requests cannot be fulfilled.
  2. Provided vouchers to customer to get food from the airport vendors if required.
  3. Make multiple announcements in the flight (pilot, head air hostess and individual air hostesses) and apologized for the inconvenience.
  4. Apologize while serving the first meal and again when we were getting off the flight..

I don’t remember a single passenger complaining about the lack of the “second” meal. And I will fly Lufthansa again, despite this issue. the lesson here is not to apologize multiple times, but how all the crew in the flight (ground crew, flying staff, serving staff) were informed of the issue and ensured that they provided the customers with an alternative and followed up on the issue..

Disclaimer : The united agent, might be an exception or might have been having a bad day..but somehow I sense the issue is bigger than that :)..

$1550 more to go!!

I raised $250 out of the $1800 I pledged for Asha, without sending a single e-mail or making a single phone call!! By just adding a signature in my e-mail with the link to my 2008 marathon training.

Thx Sis, Hafsa and Sudheer anna.. Thx for supporting the cause of educating poor kids guys.

George Carlin : Philosopher, Comedian and a Genius

George Carlin, probably one of the most intelligent comedians around, passed away on Sunday due to a heart attack. If you don’t know who he is, check out his page on WikiPedia and his website.

In addition to being a great comedian, George had a “thing” for languages.. Here is a snippet from his website

Some favorite oxymorons:

  • assistant supervisor
  • new tradition
  • original copy
  • plastic glass
  • uninvited guest

Some favorite redundancies:

  • added bonus
  • total abstinance
  • young children
  • exactly right
  • subject matter
  • revert back
  • true fact
  • honest truth
  • sum total
  • join together
  • ferryboat
  • free gift
  • general public
  • bare naked
  • unique individual
  • new initiative
  • end result

RIP George..You will be missed.

Literacy in India : Some stats

The official meaning of a literate person per UNESCO is

A literate person is one who can with understanding both read and write a short simple statement relevant to his everyday life.

Such a simple sentence, but think what it means to be an illiterate person and how much impact an illiterate person has on the progress (or lack of progress) of a country and the world in general.

Here are some stats about the literacy rates in India

  • Only 61.3% percent of the adult population are literate. That means more than 296 million people!!! are illiterate. For comparison, China has a literacy rate of 90.9%.
  • India is the 12th largest economy in the world and growing at a blistering pace of 9% a year (for the last few years). Imagine what would have happened if there were more literate people in the country?
  • The largest number of illiterates in the world are in India

As you know, I am running this years Chicago Marathon with a mission. I am raising money for the Asha Foundation, a non-profit helping to educate the underprivileged in India. Please take a moment to donate some money to the cause by clicking on the button below.




My first rugby game..

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure to watch my first rugby game. I always thought that rugby was a rough game, but after watching it in person, I realized that there is more to it then brute strength. There is a lot of team work and coordination involved. And you do need to be TOUGH to be able to play rugby :). Click here for some pictures from the game.

Rocking in Rugby

Google : Earth Day

Screenshot of the Google homepage showing solidarity with the Earth Hour effort. To quote from the Earth Hour website

“On 31 March 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour. If the greenhouse reduction achieved in the Sydney CBD during Earth Hour was sustained for a year, it would be equivalent to taking 48,616 cars off the road for a year. ”

This year, a lot more people signed up and it was a global event.  The stats are yet to be calculated, but I am proud that Chicago played a big part in this :). I did my part by turning down the heat :).

The Few..The Smart.. The Kudithipudi's

Alright.. I blatantly stole that tag line from the US Marine Corps. But for the folks that know me, you know that I am extremely proud of my family name, even though it is so difficult to spell :). Here is a scan of an article from the 26th Feb edition of the “Border Mail“, a Australian local news paper. It is an article about some local high school kids that got a scholarship for their college education based on their overall merit. And right in the middle of them is my niece, Kavya. Congrats kiddo..

Kavya Kudithipudi

Restrooms and subliminal messaging..

On my recent trip to India, I had a layover at the Schipol airport in Amsterdam. We had a long layover and while we were whiling away the hours, my friend Hareesh asked me, if I noticed anything about the restrooms in the airport. I told him that I thought they were unusually neat for a public restroom. He went on to explain that this “neatness” was the result of a fake “fly” in the Urinals.

Here’s a long shot and a close up of the fly.

Apparently, the Airport administration got a lot of complaints in late 90s about the state of the restrooms and did a study on how to improve the cleanliness. And lo and behold, they came up with this idea of a “fake” fly. Apparently, when people see (on purpose or subliminally)  the fly, they try to “clean” it up :).. I think the real reason is a that men just need a target to piss on :). So there are less spills and the restrooms end up being cleaner.

I noticed the same thing at the MindTree offices in Bangalore. But here the message was a bit more direct and blunt :). But it got the job done. The restrooms in that office were also spotless.

On a larger scale, subliminal messaging can be used to bring around huge changes. There is a whole wing of the US military (and am sure in  governments around the world) dedicated to Psychological Operations. Check out the WikiPedia link for some interesting projects this unit worked on.