Sunday, December 31, 2006
The Year That Was
A rambling discursive and wholly subjective view (having attempted and failed to get any sort of desciption going )
1) On Beauty-Zadie Smith
2) Never Let Me Go-Kazuo Ishiguro
3) The Hungry Tide-Amitav Ghosh
4) Red- Irwin Allan Sealy
5) The Kite Runner-Khaled Hossaini
6) Cuckold-Kiran Nagarkar
7) Memories of My Melancholy Whores-G G Marquez
8) Taj-Timeri Murari
9) The Master-Colm Toibin
10) The Master of Petersburg- J M Coetzee
11) The Gin Drinkers-Sagarika Ghose
12) Sun after Dark-Pico Iyer
1) Ludmila's Broken English- DBC Pierre
2) Panchatantra:Parables for the 21st century-Gautam Bhatia
3) Bookless in Baghdad-Shashi Tharoor
4) Kanthapura-Raja Rao
5) Fury-Salman Rushdie
6) The Lemon Table-Julian Barnes
1) Sehar-(Dir. Kabeer Kaushik)
2) Gosford Park
3) Rang de Basanti
4) Khosla ka Ghosla-(Dir. Dibakar Banerjee)
5) Dhoop-( Dir. Ashwini Chaudhary)
6) Shark Tale
7) Gangster-( Dir. Anurag Basu)
8) Pyaar ke Side Effects
9) Taxi No. 9211
10) Woh Lamhe
1) Corporate
2) Chingaari
3) Don
4) Bluffmaster
5) Dhoom 2
6) Krrrrrish
7) Phir hera pheri
8) Zindaggi Rrrocks
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Best Books Read in 2006
1) On Beauty-Zadie Smith
2) Never Let Me Go-Kazuo Ishiguro
3) The Hungry Tide-Amitav Ghosh
4) Red- Irwin Allan Sealy
5) The Kite Runner-Khaled Hossaini
6) Cuckold-Kiran Nagarkar
7) Memories of My Melancholy Whores-G G Marquez
8) Taj-Timeri Murari
9) The Master-Colm Toibin
10) The Master of Petersburg- J M Coetzee
11) The Gin Drinkers-Sagarika Ghose
12) Sun after Dark-Pico Iyer
Worst Reads of 2006
1) Ludmila's Broken English- DBC Pierre
2) Panchatantra:Parables for the 21st century-Gautam Bhatia
3) Bookless in Baghdad-Shashi Tharoor
4) Kanthapura-Raja Rao
5) Fury-Salman Rushdie
6) The Lemon Table-Julian Barnes
Films Liked in 2006
1) Sehar-(Dir. Kabeer Kaushik)
2) Gosford Park
3) Rang de Basanti
4) Khosla ka Ghosla-(Dir. Dibakar Banerjee)
5) Dhoop-( Dir. Ashwini Chaudhary)
6) Shark Tale
7) Gangster-( Dir. Anurag Basu)
8) Pyaar ke Side Effects
9) Taxi No. 9211
10) Woh Lamhe
Films Disliked in 2006
1) Corporate
2) Chingaari
3) Don
4) Bluffmaster
5) Dhoom 2
6) Krrrrrish
7) Phir hera pheri
8) Zindaggi Rrrocks
Monday, December 18, 2006
WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK
Yet another advertisement ostensibly jogging the extra mile in favour of the rapacious customer has me cringing. Two versions from the stables of a renowned financial services institution do the rounds—a comely lady is hitting the high strides in the wee hours on a jogging track and while she turns heads easily enough, recurring thoughts about existing customers keep plaguing her run; and in another a professional keeps interrupting the delicate task of bouncing his bonny baby with stray ruminations on his clients.
Not that good for the infant !
It is natural that work and its associated paraphernalia occupies most of our waking hours but that it should intervene in our private moments is unthinkable. Be it as it may, that a leading firm would purvey a message such as this makes me wonder if the generation of discerning customers who expect themselves to be waited upon hand and foot is already upon us. And if so, what does it do the Work Life Balance that those knowledgeables so fervently espouse ?
For now, I do not yet believe that all customers want much more than uncluttered, quick, efficient and transparent service. And a surprising majority of service providers fail by a distance in ensuring even this rudimentary standards. We shall leave the Moments of Truth glory and the Herb Kelleher brouhaha for later.
(Ed—Whatcha mean Work Life Balance ? Does that mean one is at the expense of another ? If it does, I’d go for the Life bit and nix the Work part ! )
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Not that good for the infant !
It is natural that work and its associated paraphernalia occupies most of our waking hours but that it should intervene in our private moments is unthinkable. Be it as it may, that a leading firm would purvey a message such as this makes me wonder if the generation of discerning customers who expect themselves to be waited upon hand and foot is already upon us. And if so, what does it do the Work Life Balance that those knowledgeables so fervently espouse ?
For now, I do not yet believe that all customers want much more than uncluttered, quick, efficient and transparent service. And a surprising majority of service providers fail by a distance in ensuring even this rudimentary standards. We shall leave the Moments of Truth glory and the Herb Kelleher brouhaha for later.
(Ed—Whatcha mean Work Life Balance ? Does that mean one is at the expense of another ? If it does, I’d go for the Life bit and nix the Work part ! )
