Is Airtel Management pointy-haired?

I was a *very* satisfied Airtel broadband customer till I moved house in May this year. To my dismay, I found that I was now in Airtel "no-network" area and would not be able to transfer my broadband connection. (I had moved to one of the fastest growing and most well laid out parts of the city, Airtel connections were available a kilometre from my apartment complex -- but hey -- if Airtel says no-network, then no-network it is).
My "only" choice was to surrender the Airtel connection that I had directly with Airtel, and -- this gets really weird now -- take an Airtel broadband connection through a third person who was also responsible for the intercom of the apartment complex. Hoping to continue my broadband with Airtel, I took on this roundabout connection.
Then began my problems. Aside from the fact that the connection was way way WAY more expensive than getting one directly from Airtel, it was also *extremely* shoddy with HUGE amounts of downtime, *very* poor customer service (from about 11 am to 5 pm, M-F, as opposed to 24*7 with a direct Airtel connection) and extremely s-l-o-w speeds. Work from home was effectively eliminated as an option since Internet was usually down on weekdays or crawled.
Unable to stand it for more than two months, I cancelled this "Airtel-through-a-third-person" connection and, with HUGE apprehensions, applied for a BSNL connection. To my surprise, I submitted the form on a Friday evening, and the ball was set rolling for the connection on Monday. To date, I have been *very* satisified -- good speeds, fantastic uptime, and prompt customer service. Now, when I shift home, I am going to transfer my BSNL connection and not bother with getting back to Airtel any more.
Turns out that I am not the only one to shy away from an "Airtel-through-a-third-person" connection. Others in the apartment either surrender their Airtel connection and go in for BSNL directly, or, after enduring the torture of  an "Airtel-through-a-third-person" connection, cancel it and move to BSNL.

So, here's my question -- is BSNL doing some *very* smart marketing here, or is Airtel management pointy haired? In trying to make a quick buck through some dubious third person, Airtel is actively working to LOSE existing customers who would have otherwise been happy to stay on, but now have no plans of returning. Or don't retail customers matter anymore to a company that recently crowed about having a million of them?

Beauty, not Utility

I just got back from the Kala Madhyam arts and craft mela today. It was a treat for the eyes -- gorgeous handicrafts from all parts of the country.

While there was immense beauty all around, there was *very* little utility to most of the items on display. To illustrate, the Warli stall from Maharashtra had lots of paintings, and (almost as an afterthought), a few wooden keychains. A stall from Bihar -- full of Madhubani paintings of all sizes and little else. Curios of all shapes, sizes, colours and textures. Tempted as I was to buy *lots* of stuff, I steered clear of most shopping. I wasn't looking to add more curios or paintings to my home. If, on the other hand, there had been items of utility, I would have probably picked up more stuff.

Which brings me to my point. Although India has a rich heritage of art and craft, art for its sake alone enjoys the patronage of a select few, which is not a sustainable model for artisans in this day and age. There needs to be some serious innovation to bring utility into beauty. IMO, this is the *only* way that the traditional arts and craft of India will not just survive, but also thrive.

Innovation is also required to bring some newness and change. I *always* try and pick up some traditional toy for my son. However, I see the *same* toys year after year. In 6.5 years, he has collected *all* the possible variants and now there is nothing more to buy! I promise him a buy and he usually ends up getting yet another "lattu".

Some might argue that there are items of "utility" -- bedspreads, cushion covers and the like. Pretty as those are -- they are *very* difficult to maintain (they usually run colour) and spoil quickly (3 washes is the upper limit for a bedcover to sustain its looks). Which means that the utility quotient runs low.

Innovation to bring utility, newness, and change will go a long way to making Indian handicrafts a thriving industry instead of a subsidized afterthought.

I hate garbage chutes

Given that the maid has been MIA for the better part of a week, I have had to step in as the (unwilling) substitute. This means doing stuff that I don't normally do such as sweeping, mopping and biggest of all -- taking out the garbage.

Now, I live in a fancy apartment complex that -- among other things, has elevators that talk in an American accent and -- garbage chutes.

When I was in the US, I used garbage chutes -- that were on the same floor that I lived, smooth enough to open easily, springy enough to close right back, and big enough to throw decent sized garbage bags.

It seems to me that the people who designed the chutes here have neither used a garbage chute in the context of family living, nor have they run a home in India. The chutes here are on every alternate floor (so you have to walk up or down a flight of stairs with your heavy garbage bag(s)). They are hard to open, and have to be physically closed (no springy auto-shuts). And worst of all, they are SMALL. In the context of  a very modestly sized Indian home, it's VERY hard to get the garbage bag down the chute! I broke a couple of glass bottles that I had junked today, in the process.

Not surprisingly, even the maids don't like using them and the complex has garbage bags showing up at odd spots. Not to mention the fact that chute remains open unless explicitly closed, causing the stairways to stink.

I understand that garbage chutes are probably a very "cool" idea, but can we study an Indian household and then design them accordingly?

Poor reporting

I just got done reading a news article about the Bandra-Worli sea link of Mumbai. It has the be the *worst* article I have read in a while.

The article talks of how there have been multiple crashes on this sea-link in quick succession, and then proceeds to furnish trivia about when and how the sea link was built. There is *no* mention of what caused the accidents, or what can be done to prevent them.

All in all, the write-up seems like something transcribed from a third rate 24*7 news channel by a brain dead journalist!

Weird!

Conversation I had today:

She: What school does your son go to?
Me: Sons_School
She: How is the school?
Me: I like it.
She: Oh, I've heard it's terrible.
Me (suppressing raised eyebrow): Well, people have differing opinions about schools. What school do you plan to send your child?
She: Oh, Run_of_the_Mill_School or Sons_School.

Duh?

My two bit on the Tiger Woods saga

Been watching all the brouhaha over Tiger Woods' personal life lately. Firstly, isn't it his *personal* life? Secondly, I can't understand why the *other* woman (women?) owe Wood's wife an apology. Other women are not in a "for-better-or-worse" relationship with Wood's wife. He is (was?)!

My point is, when people are in a marital relationship, then the onus of staying "honest" to that relationship is on them -- the people who took the marital vows. AND if they do choose to cheat, then it is THEIR decision -- why blame the footloose, fancy-free third person who went along with them?

I am not trying to justify extra-marital affairs here. All I am saying is that the person who is in a committed relationship owes apologies and NOT the un-attached "third" person.

Indianize Cutlery

How many times have you looked at a standard cutlery set and wished there were fewer forks, more spoons and NO knives?

I have a standard cutlery set on my dining table that has 6 small spoons, 6 (too) big spoons, 6 forks and 6 knives. I *love* the cutlery set, in that is a very convenient way to have spoons on the table. *Spoons*. Just *spoons*. The forks get used when we run out of spoons -- and the knives? Never used! The reason the knives are useless is that vegetarians have no meat to cut.

I would pay a premium to buy a cutlery set that has more small spoons, a few big spoons, maybe some forks and DEFINITELY no knives!

Here's a market opportunity waiting to be filled ;-)

One woman against sexual slavery

I saw Sunitha Krishnan's very disturbing and hard-hitting talk about sex slavery last night. It's shocking to see the extent to which people can demonize themselves and then de-humanize others. What completely shook me were the sad stories of girls as young as 3 being exploited. Why do we have monsters walking among us :-(?

http://www.ted.com/talks/sunitha_krishnan_tedindia.html

Education for the "under-served"

What caught my eye about the Parikrma Foundation campaign all over the city is their tag-line. They talk about education for the "under-served". Usually, social workers deal with people who are "under-privileged", which makes the work done with them seem like philanthropy or charity, and there is a huge feel good factor for the people who "help out" in any way.

Parikrma, by calling it education for the "under-served", has turned the paradigm around. The image created by the campaign is that of a certain section of society being *denied* their rights.The ones who do have access to such "rights" are then obliged to ensure that we do not avail our rights at the cost of others, and to make sure that the "rights" are available to all.

This seems to me like the right approach -- all of us, irrespective of our background have a *right* to decent education. Just because some parents are poor, should children be denied quality education, or even education at all?

More about Parikrma.

Metrics drive behavior!

My 6.5 year old son was routinely losing stationery at school. I tried the usual mommy tricks to get him to be more careful -- coaxing, cajoling, encouraging, scolding, denying, making him manage with less, giving him a free hand with ALL stationery in the house, but nothing worked.

Finally, in desperation, I instituted a reward. I said that if he managed to get all his stationery back home *25* times (no, not necessarily in a row), I would take him to a toy shop and let HIM choose whatever he wanted. The first few days I would diligently check his stationery and give him smileys or sad faces on a tracker, depending on whether everything came back.

After a few days of adjusting the the new "structure", he became fairly enthusiastic and his stationery started coming back regularly (to the extent that he now even has eraser "crumbs").

So far, so good.

BUT... he was SO focused on making good on the stationery metric that he started losing other things -- things he had NEVER lost before like his water bottle and snack boxes!

This completely brought home for me the oft-repeated but seldom fully-understood point of "metrics drive behavior". Here was a smart, intelligent 6.5 year old focusing so keenly on the incentive structure I had set up, that other (more important?) things began to fall through the cracks.

As Paul Graham says, "Merely measuring something has an uncanny tendency to improve it. ... Corollary: be careful what you measure."

Metric driven behavior in action!

:-|

If given a chance...

The organization that I work for is on a hiring spree -- which means that I periodically conduct interviews. We look to hire fresh college graduates with a "spark" whom we can train and have work with us.

Interacting with young job seekers today shows me two (very disturbing) trends.

The first is the complete inability to "apply" any kind of knowledge. We routinely tell folks who come and interview with us that they should expect to be asked about the open source test automation tool we use. We are not looking for expertise (obviously no one can be an expert with 3 days' notice). We are not even looking for a "correct" solution to simple automation that we ask them to do. Instead what we look for is their ability to "use" the tool for simple tasks, and for *some* demonstration of  problem solving skills. Sadly, without exception, EACH candidate who has walked in the door has not even tried to *install* the tool and play around with it. (We are careful to determine if they have access to a PC/Internet on which they can install and play around with it.) Instead they memorize and repeat details like the one-line tool description, the name of the creator and other trivia. So naturally, when asked to write a small script (on a laptop -- we aren't paper meanies ;-)), they don't even know where or how to begin!

The other disturbing trend is complete amnesia towards what they have learned, irrespective of discipline. Some say things like -- "Oh, that was 6th semester -- one year back, I cannot be expected to remember it." Really? I have had a candidate tell me -- "Oh, I don't know the answer to what you are asking me, but I remember studying it and look at my grades -- I did really well in the subject!"

The situations above are usually followed by the plea "if given a chance, I will prove myself." But hey, you WERE given a chance. You were given a chance at demonstrating problem solving skills in a simple open source test automation tool. You were given a BIGGER chance when you went to college and got yourself a degree!

What is the "chance" that you expect *me* to give you now?