Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Jayant's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
10:12 pm	Tour De Seattle “A memorabilia trip” are the words I would use to describe my sojourn. I embarked on the tour last Thursday after my debt-markets finals. Landed at the beautiful Seattle airport and waited for Sandeep who was stuck in the traffic jam which seems to keep chasing him be it Bangalore/Hyderabad or Seattle. He rode near the airport arrival zone on his glittering blue Honda Civic and we reached his house in an hour. Sandeep lives with his 2 roommates- Shyam and Pradeep. Shyam thrives on white rice and gets good at the games he plays. Pradeep is a soft spoken guy who has a knack for getting into trouble. Friday was the day when I relaxed and made some tomato onion curry for the boys. After 10pm, Sandeep’s house gets transformed into a poker arena with about 8 friends join and play for real bucks. Saturday we were off on the SFO voyage. We first hit the serene Canon Beach in the State of Oregon. It’s a cold picturesque beach with 2 gigantic cliffs in the midst of the water. We halted at Comfort Suites Inn for the night. In the morning, we continued our journey and stopped at Eugene. We were off to meet after about 11 years an old schoolmate, Divya Bheda who is pursuing a M Ed. degree in the university. After sharing some old nostalgic school moments, we left for SFO and landed at Sandy’s cousin’s (Dhiru) house well past midnight. All of us(Sandy, Pradeep and me ) were so tired that we just crashed in the bed. Next day were off to see SFO in Sandy’s car. Our first stop was at Muir Woods, an area filled with breathtakingly tall Red wood trees. After trekking for an hour through those dense forests, we were off to see the famous Golden Gate Bridge. Once in SFO, we parked the car and lo behold we were standing and clicking pictures on the Golden Gate Bridge. It was St. Patrick’s Day. As a result the Irish pubs were overflowing and there was a long queue for the Cable car. The cable car was a joyous foot- boarding ride on the winding and steep SFO roads. It was a fun ride reminiscent of KLE college days. In the evening we were off to San Jose to catch up with Anand and Darshan. We drove to the Yahoo office, picked up Anand and were off to an Indian restaurant. It was good catching up with Anand after almost 5 years. We then drove to one of my best buddies Darshan’s house. After spending an hour there with him and his parents, we started back to reach Dhiru’s house again well after midnight. Next day Dhiru took us for a ride to a nearby stream in his BMW cover and also showed us his Yamaha R1 bike. After parting our ways with him, we were back on the road to Seattle. After driving for almost 7 hours , Sandy started hallucinating about freeways and trucks. We decided it was appropriate to take a break. Since it was holiday season most of the inns were full except Shilo Inn where we decided to spend the night. The hotel looked shady at first but was pretty decent. In the morning when we were planning to depart, Pradeep banged his head in the bathroom and his head was bleeding. After an hour , the bleeding subsided and we were off to Seattle and reached Seattle at about 1 pm on Wednesday . Current Mood: tired (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 18th, 2007
9:29 am	First day at USA Day began with my mom’s delicious parathas. The tasks for the day were getting the student ID card, opening up the bank account and embarking upon a university tour. Kavitha’s father and mother accompanied me on this little journey. We started off by crossing the Mississippi river by walking on the Washington Avenue street. As soon as we finished walking across the bridge, we entered a building called Coffman memorial. After going to level 1 using an escalator we entered the place where an Ucard (student ID card) is issued. As soon as I reached the place, I was greeted by two good looking female staff of TCF bank who made me sign some forms to open an account. After that a photo of mine was taken and I was given the Ucard immediately. As soon as I got the U card, I had to walk further to make a deposit of $50 so that the bank account could be activated and also to collect a free sweatshirt. I completed the bank formalities and also deposited the cheques. Then on the way back I went to the Boynton Health centre and dropped off the student immunization form. Walked back again on the Washington Avenue bridge and reached the apartment. In the evening went off for a really long walk on the highway, crossing a bridge yet again. On the way I saw the factory PillsBury. In India we buy the aata of this company. After this Kavitha’s father took me near the river and showed me an engineering wonder. There are 2 levels of water- one higher and the other lower. The problem is when the ships want to cross from one level to another. Solution to this problem is an artificial tank with 2 doors is constructed. If a ship wants to go from low level to a high level then it comes into the tank the door at lower level is shut and so water gushes in from higher level and the height of ship rises and reaches the same level as the higher water level. If a ship wants to go from a higher level to a lower level, then it comes into the tank. The door at higher level is shut and then the door at lower level is opened so that the ship reaches the lower level water. After seeing this wonderful engineering mechanism, I passed by the downtown of Minneapolis where there are pretty huge buildings, theaters and park. After a long walk of about 1.5 hours reached home and hit the bed. First day up at the US of A. Strangely I was not feeling the effects of jet-lag :). Current Mood: energetic (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 17th, 2007
2:16 am	Journey to USA ... The departure time neared. My father was very anxious, mom was chill and sister eager to know the intricate details of the trip .After a week of permutations and combinations with the weight issues of the baggages, we hit upon the right formula on the penultimate day before the trip. Kiran had come to my house in his car. We loaded a suitcase in his car and together with him and Paapu, Darshan and Mahesh we set off like the pancha pandavas to the airport. My parents and sister followed in another car with some more luggages in it. At the airport after talking to all present there and bidding farewell to Bangalore, I went to the Air India counter. I checked in my extra bag (I had taken a prior permission from the Air India office), along with the two other bags. I took my bag-pack that was filled with imp stuff such as my degree certificates, I20 forms and Carlson admit letters. After this I was given an immigration form at the Air India counter and had to fill it (very basic questions) so that I could submit the same to the immigration officials. After this I was in the waiting area ready to board the flight. But then the dreaded news came. My flight was almost 2 hours late. After making incessant calls to my house and troubling my family members, I boarded the flight at about 5. I reached Mumbai at about 7 and was told to rush off the plane. I caught the flight just in the nick of time to Frankfurt. For the first time I saw good looking air hostess on board in Air India. I happened to catch the movie “Bhagam Bhag” which was a ok kind of a movie. I also managed to see “Kya Masti Kya Dhoom”- a Sonali Bendre hosted show which I had seen long time back. On the flight I requested for coffee and help many times :P … I reached Frankfurt, the place I had visited last year, after about 9 hours. After waiting in the waiting room for two more hours, the flight to Chicago took off. On the Chicago flight the only snacks available were bread, bread and bread. After having a good dose of bread, I again slept for most of the time. Then saw the movie “Norbit”, a ok movie again. After that I was given the Customs form and I 94 form which I filled up. After the flight landed at Chicago airport, I submitted those forms to the immigration official who stapled the I 94 form onto my passport.I had to then wait for the luggage and as my luck would have it, my baggages were among the last to arrive. I dropped the forms at the customs and was off to the domestic airport. To go to the domestic airport, I caught a metro but it was too difficult to handle three baggages without a trolley. Some how I managed to transfer the same with the help of some security officers. And after that there I was standing in front of the United Airlines booking counter. The booking counter guy frowned and asked me to reduce the weight of the check-in bag. After doing that and in turn increasing my hand baggage size, I boarded the flight with a cabin baggage and a shoulder pack. The flight took off and I reached Minneapolis at local time 925 pm. Kavitha was there at the airport and we took the baggages and shyam was in the car. We put the baggages in the car and then reached the apartment. After leaving the bags in my apartment, we reached Shyam’s house and was greeted warmly by his in-laws. After eating the dinner, here I am typing this mail  … End of the journey from India to USA or rather the journey has just BEGUN … Current Mood: tired (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, July 10th, 2006
8:38 pm	Rome Pisa Venice Trip was planned on Saturday and Sunday to Rome and Venice... But on Friday to catch the Ryan Air Flight we were surprisingly held in a traffic jam ... Started off at 4.30 and reached airport at seven and then ran uphill all the way to the terminus building and just about got into the flight ... Flight in Ryan air was gud but the landing of the plane not so gud ... Reached Roma Champioli Airport and took a bus to Roma Termini which cost 8 Euros. Planned to stay in the station for the night but at one we were shoved off by the polizei and then a man met us and told he would take us to a dormitory. Unsure of the man we decided to trust him and he took us to a dormitory but on the way we had our imaginations flying like a gang would attack and rob us ...But fortunately nothing of that sort happened and we got up freshened ourselves and we were off to see the Collosseo. Took the metro which costs 1 euro per person. There we were in front of the Collosseo ... Imagining how the gladitiators would have fought we were in dream world seeing the huge structure. From there started our padyatra we covered so many buildings and squares (hard to recollect those names) ---Pantheon with its awesome dome , Piaza Novana with its 3 fountains and spelendid squares. In the afternoon we were in front of the Vatican and spent an hour being there at the center of Christiniaty. In the evening we saw the famous Spanish steps and we caught an Euro star train to Pisa, the train aka the one in ddlj... Reached pisa at eight walked fast and reached the leaning tower an amazing showpiece spent an hour there and we were off to Venice ... Took a train from Pisa to Firenz Main and from there to Venice at 1.47 in the night. Sunday ... reached Venice at six in a drowsy state but still awake bcoz we have heard stories abt pickpocketting and stuff ... Took a pass for one day for 12 euros and spent time in the boat seeing the famed St Marks Basilica and the square surrounding it. Spent the entire day in the boat amazed by the plans and executions of the same gone into making Venice ...The entire city is connected by water instead of roads and there are one ways for boats and boat taxis and boat numbers to different boat stops. Left Venice at five by Ryan air and came directly to heidelberg to watch the last of the football matches ... and then slept a fulfilling experience ... Current Mood: refreshed Current Music: Gajini-Oru Maalai (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 4th, 2006
2:01 pm	Monday 3rd july ... Morning was a big drag as we were tired after the swiss trip but office beckoned... so we left for the office with tired legs and heavy eyes... did a lot of work and thts when Ramesh's lead Tobias invited us for a Middle aged European traditional style party... It was in Britten around 20 kms from Rot ... We went around the old European styled camps and tents, took snaps and then we entered a dancing arena... A music is played and the group was split into males and females. A male had one female for dancing and the circle formed would rotate thus getting different dancing partners after a rhythm is over ... had a whale of a time there dancing for around an hour with the most gorgeous gals of Germany... Then we hit a disco in the nite ... A happening place and danced again for around 2 hours ... Left at around 4 in the morning and could start seeing the first rays of light and we knew it was going to be a very short sleeping duration for us ...Going to Mannheim to see the futball match on the giant screen today ... (Comment on this)
Monday, July 3rd, 2006
6:33 pm	Swiss Trip swiss weekend ... Left for switzerland on Friday nite itself by car and hit Basel at around 12 where we had to pay 60 € per person for getting the visa ... After paying the amount with a heavy heart we set afoot on the heaven on earth country... Drove all the way to interlaken and were guided by a person to a tourist information center which is just below Hotel Metropolis, the only big building of Interlaken... From there we went to Hotel Alps, where we had a quick round of freshening up and we were on our way to the Alps.... Stopped on the way in front of a bakery where we ate the most delicious croissants one could eat ... Then we were in front of Trummelman(Hope i got the spelling right)falls which was a beauty ... Various view points from within the inside of the cave to the glorious waterfall. The atmosphere inside the cave was cold... From there we were on our way to conquer Alps, the most famous mountains of Switzerland. We took a cable car(real beauty to see the mountains below and u flying admist them ) and stopped at various points like Murren, Birg and at last we reached Schillton (around 10000 feet high), one of the high points of Switzerland from wherein we could get a 360 degree view of the Alps, brown with mud on one side, snow on the slopes of one side and green grass on the other side. Dumbstruck and dumbfounded we stayed on the Alps for almost 3 hours enjoying the feel of the Alps... Came down and we were in Murren and thts when Ramesh saw a map to Flower trail.Expecting a barrage of flowers we started walkin in search of the flower trail but it was too far and we walked uphill for about 3 kms and then started to retreat and tht was when we saw the famous Swiss cow ... After taking snaps with the cow we were on our return route ...After the Alps we were all tired but when we came back we saw the Portugal england match and after portugal won the match there was mayhem and people running all over the street screaming and honking horns ...After this drama we went to the Thun See one of the most pictureque lakes of Switzerland. Staying there for around an hour we returned to catch the England Brazil match on the big screen at the city center ... Hit the bed after that and slept like a log .... Sunday got up late and left hotel at about ten to Lucerne... On our way we saw the most beautiful place of Switzerland , Lungern ... A scene from the mountain top with green grass and white water forming a scenic background ...Lost in the spell we sadly departed to Lucern... Lucern is a commercial place unlike Interlaken and we roamed around Streets but it was a Sunday and everything was closed ... Saw the Chappel Bridge and Water tower and some Paintings (i am never able to appreciate them) ... We were on route to Zurrich ... landed there at the railway station gave some Shah rukh khan poses of DDLJ and we were off to see Swiss bank... saw the imposing building and the twin towers and walked our way around Zurich... Mahesh Raghupathy missed the parking ticket and after some circus we managed to retrieve the car and head our way back to germany nam ooru ... Current Mood: contemplative (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 30th, 2006
7:29 pm	Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday ... Tuesday ---- Had lunch with Mirjam , Mervi and their friends who was quite a bombshell. Then continued with the work. In the evening went to Aquard Swimming pool which had hot and cold water swimming pool ... Swam for 2 hours before getting exhausted and then made a trip back to the hotel , dreary and sleepy. Wednesday--- Worked worked worked the whole day .... Thursday--- Had a team outing here with entire A1S team. Reached office at 9. And then went by himanshu' car to the canoeing place in an hour. After that got into a bus and then took a boat to canoe up the river with Markus Penn and Mahesh .toppled just at the beginning itself and we were in the ice cold water ... could now experience how leonardo would have felt in the titanic ...Got the boat upright and then we set sail aka 3 musketeers canoeing which was real fun. After canoeing for abt 2 hours and increasing my bisceps size we hit the banks at around one ... had some buns and then the soccer fever gripped the entire team . After arranging 2 benches as goal post , the CRM team on one side and the other team with Clas Neuman the director of SAP labs. It was gud fun and i scored the first goal and got an invite to the next year soccer games at SAP Germany... Playing football made me so tired that while coming back from the drive from the place i only slept and next moment in the hotel i continued to sleep off from where i had left ... (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 27th, 2006
12:27 pm	Paris sojourn in the weekend---(27th & 28th June ) The plan was to go to paris on Saturday but plans changed and we left on friday nite fully equipped and geared in a ford fiesta ... After a thrilling journey of abt 3 hrs on the autoban in the nite , we arrived at a petrol bunk, Auto Grill and slept there for abt 5 hours... Starting off on Saturday morning at seven we reached Paris at 10. But we were lost inside Paris, a confusing city of roads... Then we saw a formula one hotel which was full but the manager was kind enough to give us a map and guide us to the next formula one hotel at port St Ouen. We arrived in St Ouen at 11 . After a quick round of freshening up , the Mahesh, Ramesh , Ganesh(thts me Jayant Ganesh) gang left for the effiel tower. We went to the tram station purchsed the ticket for 5.20 € (ticket to catch any metro anytime to anywhere for a day) and left for effiel. Since there was no direct metro to effiel we got down at a station called Miromesil and then took a metro to trocadero... Got down at trocadero came outside and lo behold the majestic effiel tower rite in front of us ....Took a few snaps actually quite a few and after that left for Arc de Triompe, an arch said to be one the biggest arcs ... It was a beautiful place with great sculptory and i had the prinouts of the webpage with me so got to know the significance of it ...The place was also different since it had twelve roads intersecting at a circle.Then walked through the Champ- Elysses Street, the MG Road of Paris or rather 10 MG roads in this one road of Paris... A road remembered because saw all the designer dresses of Versace, and also so many gud looking people that it was like a bombardment to us ... After walking down the street and doing window shopping we reached a bridge across River Seine wherein we saw a couple getting married rite on the bridge ... A sight so romantic that it is entreched in my memory... By the time it was evening and the plan to go and see Moulin Rouge had to be abandoned as we planned to see Effiel by the night with all its lights switched on ... Waited in the line for around an hour , got an elevator to the topmost floor ... on the way to the top floor saw the gigantic effiel tower with very close proximity and was stunned to see the amount of iron that had been used to construct this tower. Went to the top floor and there we were on top of the world seeing the glorious Paris from all directions---buildings on one side, gardens on one side and river Seine on the other ...After spending close to 3 hours on top of effiel we returned with a little tinge of sadness that we had to leave such a beautiful place ... As we stood for a moment at the bottom of Effiel to our amazement flickering lites were on thus adding to the beauty of Effiel ... it was on for only around 10 mins and got switched off again ... Trudging back on our way to the hotel and still trapped in the spell of Effiel we knew it was going to be long nite ... Got up at seven, set to go to the Louvre museum, a museum renowned because of 'Da Vinci Code' at least i think so ... Took a quick shower at the very clean formula one hotel and left the hotel at nine ... It was an unusual day since it had been sunny yday and it started raining today... So when the rainfall subsided a little we were on our way to the Louvre ... Took a tram to Tulipperies , and got down there... It was drizzling continoulsly at the tulipperies a common garden to us Bangaloreans... And in the corner of my eye could see a tall glasslike structure, the Louvre museum ...The inside of museum resembled Forum Mall of India. After purchasing tickets of 8€ per person we went to see the Mona Lisa, the most famous piece of Louvre... After taking snaps in and around the museum , we climbed the staircases and then we were right there standing opposite Mona Lisa , the painting not as big as expected ... The paintings in and around the museum were mostly depicting either war(a cruel torture) or love and i think in those days only these emotions existed... Managed to grab a pic of Madonna of the rocks and we were back hunting for the diamond studded crown of the kings and queens. After glancing at these ornaments we were on our way to see the Inverted Pyramid.the pyramid suspened from top and almost intersecting the other pyramid with a small gap in between ... was totally frozen at this moment and i felt i was in a trance.After spending some time there we went to a restaurant had a heavy lunch and we were on our way to seeing St Sulpice Church, the church where Silas of 'Da Vinci Code' dug along the famous rose line to find he had been duped. The church was majestic and resembled Notre Dame to within the inches. Also the famous Rose Line but it was just a brass wire depicting the flow of sun and demonstrating that earth was round. Then realized that all the hype about the church was a myth in Da Vinci Code . Returned back to the hotel at 4 and we were on our way back. After a long continuous drive of about 5 hours with a break in the middle of autobahn to enjoy the scenery of France, we returned to Germany on Sunday nite , thrilled , satisfied and in a state of euphoria ... Current Mood: pensive Current Music: Thambi-Sudum Nilavu (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 23rd, 2006
9:50 am	tirin day ... felt the after effects of watching the match ... worked in office for a long duration and some german colleagues sharing their experiences of visiting various places ...cooked some dal in the night and slept till 9 in the morning and rushed to office reachin there just before ten... Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 22nd, 2006
8:02 am	The futball experience ... came early to office yday at about 8.30 am ... but was frustrating since the server was down and could not proceed with any of the tasks ... so by the time, it was evening ... went to Frankfurt with my manager Pravin in Mahesh Raghupathy's car ... parked the car in some street aka Indian style and started walking down the river Rhine ...Had got this email fwds wherein the big screen was right in the middle of Rhine ... so wanted to check it ... After walking for 3 kms and almost an hour we were rite there bang at the middle of crowd to watch the Holland vs Argentina match with crazy supporters from both the sides ...took snaps and videos and crowd behaving like our typical local crowds ... Then went and sat in a very high rise giant wheel and the city looked beautiful from the top... Consider myself very fortunate to be in Germany at this time of the year and yeah it looked like a once in a lifetime experience ... walked back to the car and reached the hotel at 2 am ... too tired to go to the office today but life shld go on ... Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: Fanaa-Chand Sifarish ... (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 20th, 2006
8:26 pm	19th and 20th June ... yday morning was a day of patience ... my friend mahesh raghupathy and i patiently waited for the car to arrive but the car didnt ... the next moment we are on our way to office at 10 ... Caught a tram to rohrbach and got down there speaking some mixed german and english to a gentleman ... took a tram to haubanhohf at heidelberg and there we were at the main station of heidelberg ... now we had to purchase tickets at the railway station an adventure ... somehow we met an aussie who was at the station and got the tickets to rot malsch -- the forest admist where SAP is situated... reached office at 11.had lunch then had a discussion with Dietmar the colleague in germany and in the evening had coffee with Thomas, the colleague who i had worked with earlier ... Coming from the coffee shop i met mirjam, the most beautiful woman i think i have ever met and was surprised she could recollect me from the indian visit she had undertaken a year back ... In the evening the same circus of catching trams. Happened to catch one mr douglas who gave us an extensive overview of the prevailing climactic conditions not only in germany but also in india . mahesh and i were surprised since none of us itself knew so much abt India ... Came back to the hotel cooked rice and slept... today no circussing directly took the cab to SAP and was in office at 9 ... had some meetings and some strict deadlines fixed ..in the evening watched the match at an audimax(auditorium) between Germany and Equador the former winning comfortably 3-0 ... electrifying atmosphere with all germans shouting liking indian supporters with flags and whistles ... for a moment the thot of being in a cricket stadium in India ... came to hotel just nuv , thks to dietmar who dropped us and lo behold the car we were waiting for had arrived ... Current Mood: bouncy Current Music: Shakira ... (Comment on this)
Monday, June 19th, 2006
4:34 pm	Stay in Germany ---Part 1 Weekend was great ... Saturday went to a place called Trier ... supposedly the oldest city of German ... went with a colleague there ... a 2.5 hours drive and a distance totalling 250 kms ... Wen through the autobans (highways) where speed is not a deterrant at all ... awesome roads and touching high speeds upto 160 kmph ...Reached Trier at abt 12.30 pm and saw an ancient gate built by the Romans --- the first gate of Germany it is believed ... Then went into the busy shopping area of Trier and so many ppl with all fashionable clothes i think ftv descended here ... Went to St Basilica Church after crossing the street --- a very picturesque one with pink stones and great wood work . A colorful garden opposite the church only adding to the picturesque view ...Then went to the amphitheater from there saw a maria sharapova lookalike there or was it her ??? amphitheater had some caves and an oval shaped arena and not something to boast i felt ... then went to another church which was quite big ... went underground and a cold shiver ran down my spine all popes graves were rite there ... and it was quite cold inside compared to the hot sunny day outside ... Sunday went cycling in the morning got accustomed to places went to a place called leimen centrum ... nice area ... in the evening went to heidelberg by a tram (a first tim diff exp) and then roamed abt in the market place---Bismarck Platz ... wherein sat down watchin the brazil aussie match on the big screen with a whole lot of brazilian fans and few aussie fans ...came back at around ten ate some mom' super onion sambhar and hit the bed ... Today waited for the cab to come didnt turn up so went to the tram station again took a tram to rohrbach and from rohrback went to heidelberg main railway station --- haubhanhof ... took a train to Rot Malsch and then walked to SAP nice exp ...My first weekend outside India ... Current Mood: energetic Current Music: Swades--- Yeh jo Desh hain mera (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 12th, 2006
9:33 am	Change of teams After working for a team for 7 months i m back in the former team . Feeling a bit nostalgic abt tht but no qualms. Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: Taxi no 9211--Ek Nazar mein (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 1st, 2006
9:22 am	Early to bed early to rise From today i get to witness both the sunrise and sunset ... Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: RDB-Paatshala (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, November 28th, 2005
10:27 am	Technically Superior Was watching South Indian films for a last couple of weeks and realized one thing that south indian films are technically superior to bollywood films wherein only a lot of hype exists . I think photography and music of south indian films rocks . A lot of bollywood films are remakes of south indian hit films. Current Mood: energetic Current Music: Gajini-Oru Maalai (Comment on this)
Friday, September 9th, 2005
7:19 pm	Trip to Hyderabad Last weekend i was in hyderabad. Awesome trip is how i could describe it in few words. Was there with Sandy. Roamed Hyderabad for the entire two days. First went to imax and purchased tickets for iqbal (a very good movie). it started to pour heavily in the afternoon . So took shelter @ big bazaar wherein sandy bought two super cool pants for 600 bucks. After tht went to Golconda and saw a spectacular light and sound show with amitabh's voice as the background. Next day went to sandy's office, an imposing structure and saw a movie there by sandy's friend. After seeing tht thinking of becomin a director. Afternoon saw iqbal and nite dozed off in the bus only to be awakened by the horse ride of the bus on Bangalore roads :)... Current Mood: productive Current Music: Anniyan - Kathal Yanai (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2005
9:06 am	How to answer telemarketers ... 1. If they want to loan you money, tell them you just filed for bankruptcy and you could sure use some money. Ask, "How long can I keep it? Do I have to ever pay it back, or is it like the other money I borrowed before my bankruptcy?" 2. If they start out with, "How are you today?" say, "Why do you want to know?" Or you can say, "I'm so glad you asked, because no one seems to care these days and I have all these problems, my sciatica is acting up, my eyelashes are sore, my dog just died . . ." When they try to get back to the sales process, just continue on with telling about your problems. 3. If the person says he's Rajeev from the XYZ Company, ask him to spell his name, then ask him to spell the company name, then ask where it is located. Continue asking personal questions or questions about the company for as long as necessary. 4. This one works better if you are male: Telemarketer: "Hi, my name is Julie and I'm with XYZ services.... You: "Hang on a second." (few seconds pause) "Okay, (in a really husky voice) what are you wearing?" 5. Crying out, in well-simulated tones of pleasure and surprise, "Julie!! Is this really you? I can't believe it! Julie, how have you been?" Hopefully, this will give Julie a few brief moments of terror as she tries to figure out where the heck she could know you from. 6. Say, "No," over and over. Be sure to vary the sound of each no, and keep an even tempo even as they're trying to speak. This is the most fun if you can keep going until they hang up. 7. If MCI calls trying to get you to sign up with their Family and Friends plan, reply, in as sinister a voice as you can muster, "I don't have any friends . . . would you be my friend?" 8. If they clean rugs: "Can you get blood out, you can? Well, how about goat blood or human blood - chicken blood too?" 9. Let the person go through their spiel, providing minimal but necessary feedback in the form of an occasional "Uh-huh, really, or, "That's fascinating." Finally, when they ask you to buy, ask them to marry you. They get all flustered, but just tell them you couldn't give your credit card number to someone who's a complete stranger. 10. Tell them you work for the same company they work for. Example: Telemarketer: "This is Ajay from XYZ." You: "XYZ!! Hey I work for them too. Where are you calling from?" Telemarketer: "Uh, Delhi." You: "Great, they have a group there too? How's business/the weather? Too bad the company has a policy against selling to employees! Oh well, see ya." 11. Tell the Telemarketer you are busy and if they will give you their phone number you will call them back. If they say they are not allowed to give out their number, then ask them for their home number and tell them you will call them at home (this is usually the most effective method of getting rid of Telemarketers). If the person says, "Well, I don't really want to get a call at home," say, "Yeah! Now you know how I feel." (smiling, of course...) Current Mood: awake Current Music: Zombie-Cranberry (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 2nd, 2005
10:50 am	Trip ... will be going to mumbai this weekend and will be there for the rest of the week. A welcome change from work :) ... Current Mood: happy Current Music: abhijeet-lafzon mein (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 24th, 2005
9:19 am	Morning ... I can't close my eyes for more than a second, because I know I will fall asleep. And it's 9 am. Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: Lafzon Mein-Abhijeet (Comment on this)
Friday, May 6th, 2005
9:22 am	A Passing Thought ... When one is alone, the rain coming down makes a desolate sound. But when one has company, the melancholy strain transforms itself into a cheerful beat. Current Mood: thoughtful Current Music: Chandramukhi-Devuda Devuda (1 Comment |Comment on this)