Truely an inspirational One

A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light. An angel appeared, showed a large rock in front of his cabin and asked him to push against the rock with all his might.

This the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock.

Nothing happened. And he decided to make it a matter of prayer. “Lord I have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even been able to budge that rock. What is wrong? Why am I failing?”

The angel appeared again : “My friend, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. And now you come to me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so?”

“Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewy and brown, your hands are callused from constant pressure, and your legs have become massive and hard. “Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. “You learned the importance of discipline and training,

” This you have done. Now it is my turn, my task.”

And the angel moved the rock, showing to the man a beautiful path ahead.

A Lesson learnt about Credit Cards

Many of us (including me) at this juncture doesn't own a credit card, but we probably might consider one once we start working. Some of us might be concerned about which bank to go for, the type of card, what's the late fine etc etc. I happen to come across a situation which I thought worth sharing.

In my first post I had mentioned that my sis is an avid shopper and probably one of her very close friends is her HDFC credit card. She is also holding her account with the same bank. She always paid her card dues before time itself e.g. if the payment date is 25^th of the month, she always used to deposit the cheque by 22^nd or max 23^rd of that month. But still the monthly statement showed Late fine Rs. 500/-. And this had been happening for the past 4 months. Calling up the customer care officer repeatedly didn't help much since their promises to look into the matter were nothing but a hoax.

This month the latest CC exec told that it takes atleast 4 – 5 days to debit the account and take money. This was never known to us and thus they used to charge that late fine. This has been happening irrespective of the fact that the account from where they have to debit is with HDFC only and the money is already there in that account. People are really busy these days even to take money it seems…. But when it comes to upgrading the card from 'X' to 'Y' status they have all the time in this world to call 3 – 4 times a day. What a crap…. The best part is, the CC exec said that the money would be refunded within 4 – 5 days but that's not a commitment. So it might or might not get refunded.

Finally after talking to the manager it has been assured that the amount would be refunded in 4 working days. I found this event worth mentioning as we all need to know a little more about these cards and the kind of traps we get into. At the end of the day, it's our hard earned money.

MBA Life coming to an End

I still remember the day when I first came to SDM campus. It was 13^th of June 2008. The very first batch mates I met were the two cool dudes, Bawa and Bhatiya. But now its 15^th of February 2010 and I'm left with another 4 days on campus. These two years seems to have passed by just at the blink of an eye. It seems 13^th June was just yesterday and I didn't even realize that. My working two years seem to be longer than SDM two years and now the situation is I don't know how to react.

Fortunately because of luck probably I have got a job and it will start very soon. I don't know if I should be happy about that or feel differently for leaving the campus. Honestly these 2 years had been the best years of my life. Despite having workloads, assignments, presentations, tiffs, I have enjoyed every moment of these 2 years. Every bit of it…. Thoroughly….I'm lucky to have got friends who are for life and I'm going to miss them. I'm really going to miss my college days.

As usual I'm running a little short of words. So I'll end with a small note to all my friends out here. Every good thing in life has to come to an end just the way it begins. But it's we who can ensure that the bond remains forever. Wherever I am, whatever I do, however busy I am (at least pretend to be busy at work), I'll make sure that I stay connected with you all.

All I have to say is 'keep in touch….'

Will miss you all…. All the best….

Memorable Event in Kolkata Spencers

Spencers, I believe needs no introduction in today’s world. Today I’m going to cite my experience there. This store is located in South City mall in Kolkata. Well, South City Mall is supposedly the largest and the best and goes without saying the most expensive mall in Kolkata. I think the most pronounced word in all our MBA life is customers. And that’s the word that really goes well with South City Mall too. Somehow they managed to attach the tag for their customer services. But spencers today aptly proved how this particular and probably overused word remains as a part of B – school’s jargon only.

My sister is an avid shopper and I’m just the opposite. I feel really scared at the idea of waiting at the counter with my sister trying out a thousand outfits only for a few hours and me smiling at the person sitting on the counter like a fool. The good thing is as a matter of courtesy, she never fails to smile back. Probably mujh pe taras khake.

But this time we went to get a suitcase replaced which we bought from there. There was only a few hapless customers like us who has come for some replacement. When I said that we want to replace the suitcase, the face of the customer service officer dripped like local ketchup, which drips with the minimum inclination. Looking at him I thought if I have just said that I’m planning an escape with his wife? All he had to do was to prepare a Credit Note. And believe me it’s so damn difficult to prepare it in a computer with an MIS installed. You actually have to do so much typing. He told us to wait as he was wrapping somebody else’s purchases. We only had to wait a little over 20 minutes. Now that’s really a very short time to wait, isn’t it? The credit note had to be signed by some authorized signatory which took another close to 15 minutes. During that short time all I had to do was to get back to my old useless time pass i.e. smile at people. Probably that’s the most optimal utilization of time rather than staring at people like an owl. Finally it was done and we got the suitcase replaced.

But then my mom had to buy some crockery for somebody. My heart started pouncing like AR Rehman’s beats at the idea of getting it gift wrapped and going back to him. Ultimately we had to go for it. When I asked the person to get it done, then came the golden words we don’t do gift wrapping. Being an ideal son and an ideal brother, I couldn’t take the fact that my mother’s words are not fulfilled. So instantly I protested and said that I have seen you wrapping just sometime back. Then again came another magical word “wait”. Since it was a Sunday, I couldn’t find the store manager as I demanded to talk to him. But I promised them that I’ll come back the next day and meet him. When that fellow was doing the most difficult job of the world i.e. gift wrapping our purchases, he had a damn valid question which he asked his colleague. “Why do people have to gift wrap items with us and why can’t they do it themselves. Everyone says this is a gift and that leaves us with so much of pain”. It was this wonderful line which prompted me to talk to the manager, but alas GOD was not there with me this time. So I have to go again and talk a heart out to our very dear manager of spencers. Believe me; I’m waiting so damn eagerly to see him. And during all this time he had that great dripped face which I mentioned earlier.

This made me sincerely realize one thing; we always talk about customer service and customer satisfaction in the area of retailing and marketing. But is it actually being followed properly? Can we really expect this kind of lackadaisical behavior from such a prominent name like spencers? Is it our fault to shop from Spencers?