Interview
Q. So Ms/Mr. , please tell us briefly about your positive qualities.
A. I have a dashing personality and love to take challenges, my name spells of courage and innovativeness and my ‘friends’ have voted me the geek of the group.
Q. Can you justify all the qualities that you have mentioned above?
A. Well, my facebook quizzes tell me so and they have to be right, right? And thanks to the quiz feeds, there is a record of the same and all my ‘friends’ can vouch, that all of it is true.
Interviewer almost faints.
Q. Is there anything else that you would want us to know?
A. Yes, I will die of a shark attack when I am 42, which by the way is cool by me because I am a COOL ZOOZOO.
Eke ke ke ke !
****
There is a thin line,
between the brave and the fearless.
Both may put their everythng at stake, yet the fearless does it knowing that loss will not make any diffrence.
The brave on the other hand puts everything at stake, knowing that losing may make all the difference.
What I miss …
Green green grass to lay my back on
Giant floodlights to click that picture
Winding roads along a lake
Towering malls with loads to take
Forests in the city for beautiful hikes
Joy rides dampened by rain
Pictures of an Island that I have never seen
Beautiful people serving anchovies
Breathing fresh air through AC coaches
Long walks uphill and carrots and celery at breaks
Milo mixed in a bag of ice and milk
How much for a bite of food?
One of the aspects of eating out that aggravates me is the ridiculous pricing that some joints indulge in.
Over the years elements like increased spending power, rising raw material prices coupled with a craving for ambience and quality had led to the mushrooming of coffee shops and deli’s in the larger cities of the country. The prices here though exorbitant, were justified with aspects of quality food, quality service and an almost guaranteed quality time.
However, this trend triggered a price rise in the street stalls and the not so ‘posh’ coffee outlets. Once the owners realised that the customer did not care very much for the price and was simply looking for satiating her/his hunger, the prices saw a upward trend.
It is true, that I am willing to spend an additional buck for the quality of experience, but what I not willing to do is be cheated into spending more for an inferior product.
After all, not all 100 Rupee Dosa’s are created equal.
Which factor is more important?
While establishing a new business or thinking of revamping an old one, it is essential to run through a list of factors that can be used as strengths for the business.
Although each of the factors will be instrumental in determining the success of the business, some factors are over-rated while some are unjustifiably not paid much attention.
For example: To me, the factors of reliability and stability far outweigh the factors of product and price.
A classic example is the McDonalds burger, while the product is not culinary genius (though the price is competitive), what makes me go back is the stability and reliability of the food I get there. I do not have to rack my mind over a lengthy ever changing menu, and I know that the food will have a consistent flavour profile, despite changes in the kitchen – perfect for a fast food joint.
Of the top of my mind, I can think of the following factors that should be considered for a fast food joint, which of these will you give more importance over the others and why? ( Do include factors that I may have missed out)
1. Product
2. Price
3. Quality
4. Selection
5. Service
6. Reliability
7. Stability
8. Location
9. Appearance
10. Expertise
11. Advertising
12. Image
“How is everything?”
Rating the restaurant experience is probably one of the most under rated of surveys. Most diners, while being fussy eaters and despite a bad meal, end up giving ratings that hover at average when providing feedback of their dining experience.
It is also amazing how often restaurants choose to ignore the indifferent replies that fill the survey cards. While, being polite is the easy way out for the staff and the diner, it also almost guarantees another night of mediocre experience (if the diner chooses to return).
The wise thing for the diner to do is to stop the tantrums and just tell the staff just how good/bad they were – and more importantly how they can improve. The wise thing for the staff to do is to not give any scope for the customer to complain, and if they do – find out exactly why.
After all while feeding keeps the restaurants busy, a feedback would add an extra ka-ching to the cash counters.
European Union English- the German’s conspire
This is one of the mail forwards that has become timeless. Being circulated since 2006, I have received this multiple times in my offical mail ID and I still smile glancing at it.
Heregoes:
‘ The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as “Euro-English” .
In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of “k”. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where! more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.
Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent “e” in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as
replasing “th” with “z” and “w” with “v”.
During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou” and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.
Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas. ‘