Amitabh Bachchan has been my childhood hero. Although I have no illusions that I am the only one who thought like that.

I respect him, or should I say adore him for not just his acting in the 100s of movies (and millions of ADs), not just for his barritone voice as a part time singer but above all for being the very humble person that he is. In my opinion he is at a place in Bollywood that the best of best can only wish for. Despite being fully aware of his altitude, he remains firmly grounded to his roots as one could find out from the various postings written by him in his own blog. Yes, Amitabh Bachchan writes a blog too!!!

Here is the link to his blog: http://blogs.bigadda.com/ab/r>
Big Adda does not pay me for this but I happened to stumble upon this recently. I have started appreciating the writer in Amitabh Bachchan as well. He is so upright and fearless, still so humble and thoughtful.

Those who have been there may share their opinion as well. Those who haven't must visit one to get a preview of what lies within this great personality.

For those of you who've read my review on Samsung Refrigerator (after sales precisely) and my subsequent diary post, this would be familiar.

For those who've been spared so far here are the links:

My Review

and

To Samsung with love (?)


Here's the second part of the story.....

The promise made by the robotic voice yesterday was broken as expected by me earlier as no one bothered to call me up. I did not give up and called back to the Samsung call center this morning. The same robot greeted me and told me told me all my details like my name, address, date of purchase, date of birth (mine) and the complaint number. As usual I had to explicitly ask the status of my complaint, for which he had to put me on a hold for 5 minutes. I have got used to their protocol, hence had no issues.

I was told that someone would call me back in 2 hours and get the issue resolved today. Hey, hold on - doesn't it look that I have just copied my review from yesterday? Well, to me it was the same story all over again. I had to narrate the fruitless proceedings of yesterday so that I may ask if the promise today is actually meant. Robots are programmed, hence all I could get was a programmed answer "We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused and will get the same resolved at the earliest". Phew!

I was luckier today. I did get a call from Samsung's service center, only 1 hour after the promise was yet again broken. The female robot this time told me that my "Samsung washing machine" is in their workshop under repair. As if the fun wasn't over yesterday, I had to think whether my refrigerator could guise as a washing machine and fool people. Anyway, I had to share the truth with her. She politely told me to expect another call sometime later.

Another call rang. It ws the Samsung call center's robot again. I was told my name, address and sundry yet again (well I was about to forget that) and was asked as to "what was the problem with my refrigerator?".Well, I thought that we had switched sides for a moment. I was assured that someone will attend to my complaint shortly.

Another ring - this time the door bell. And there was our man - The Samsung sales engineer with a new compressor. I thought my trouble was over. He inspected my fridge as a detective would and exclaimed "This is empty!". All I could say is "This could have only been a cupboard for the last week". Unimpressed with my naive answer, he proceeded to unpack the compressor. But that's not the end of it.....

He realised that the service center has given him the wrong compressor although the model of the fridge is correctly mentioned. I had to ask him to get the correct one when he said "well, let me still try." We Indians can not stop the urge to apply 'Jugaad Science'.

Much ado abouth nothing. They would return tomorrow with the correct compressor. Another day will bite the dust and leave open the change for another diary post by me on the same topic.....

I have had a question in my mind for quite sometime now. Let me ask you guys who have followed this eventful event in my life - Why is commonsense so uncommon?

Well, this is a letter I wrote to the Samsung's operations manager today. The context of the same is given in my review :

Dear Sir,

I need to bring the heights of unprofessionalism of your service centers / call centers to your notice:

I registered a complaint about my 4 year old Samsung refrigerator on 6/3/2008 and was visited by a service engineer on 7/3/2008. It was found that the compressor need a gas refill. The service engineer himself called up the online call center and registered my complaint again and I was promised that someone would visit me latest by 11/3/2008 with all the necessary equipment and resolve the issue.

No one even called me up yesterday, leave alone visiting. When I called up today, I was told that my refrigerator has been taken to the workshop. I don't know who is the liar here, because my refrigerator is still at my house and - I repeat - no one has even contacted me to attend to it. I have been at home all the time since last week, hence
no one can even say that he visited in my absence.

Can you give me a good reason why I should not be disgusted with you folk? Your service engineers (not all, but some) are liars and spoil your brand.

I can assure you one thing today - neither me nor any of my relatives
are ever going to purchase any Samsung product in the future. I am a
known reviewer of white goods on a reputed consumer product site. I'll
ensure this experience of mine gets there for the world to read.

Regards

Read on:The Samsung saga continues.....

I am a software engineer by profession and have done nothing else in professional life so far. That's how I have been earning my living. Besides my profession, I have few other interests in life, and I believe all of us do.For example, I like to read about and explore astronomy, although am not well equipped to do that yet. That's one of my hobbies.

How do people develop specific interests and particular hobbies? This is a big question that has been going on in my mind for ages. I may find many who share the same hobby as me, but many more will not. Similarly, I may not have the slightest of interest in someone else's hobby, although the enthusiasts may go to any limit to fulfil their hobby.

It can not always be monetary reward that attracts a person to take up something. In general, hobbies do not reward monetarily (may cost in turn), but provide a higher level of satisfaction to a person.

I still have no answers on why someone has hobby A and someone else B. Possible causes could be (just my thoughts):

1. A combination of schooling, environment at home and exposure to media;
2. Inherent in grey cells;
3. Imitation / emulation of successful people.

I am leaving this post open ended to see if I may find more enlightenment through comments. What, in your opinion, are the causes of a person developing a particular hobby?

"Mutual funds are a subject to market risks. Please read the offer document carefully before investing".

I am no investor in mutual funds hence this diary post has not even an iota of information on investments. Have you ever heard the above statement in quotes? I am sure you have.What intrigues me is the fact that the same is spoken at a pace that beats normal human ears in advertisements. Have you also felt the same? This is one the many questions that have been going on in my mind forever, without answers of course.

Similarly, there are some other questions that need answers, but answers are not that easy to find.

1. Why do people write "stick no bills" on their walls, nearly covering all available area , just to prevent others form pasting posters or writing something? Haven't they defeated the very purpose?

2. Why do dogs run after speeding vehicles when they have no intention to drive them? In fact, I let a dog chase my car for abour half a KM few days ago just to see how motivated the chap could be.

3. Why are some nations richer than others? Is it due to the climate, the attitude of the people or just plain coincidence?

4. Was there a beginning to time and will there be an end to it? If yes, then what was before it? If no, then how could something be infinite?

5. Is there any boundary to space on the same lines? If yes, then what lies beyond? If no, then how could something with physical dimensions be infinite?

Well, the list can be endless. I would love to read views of other MSians on these questions, or more questions like the above. The quest for knowledge never ends.....

All of us watch movies. In general movies shown on a rectangular screen are 2-Dimensional movies (Length x Breadth). Some of us would have seen 3-D movies like "Chhota Chetan" or "Shiva ka insaaf", where the factor of "depth" also figures in and makes the viewer believe that he is inside the movie. But wait.....

We have started experimenting with 4-D vision too. The 4th dimension is the "ambience" where the audience is not only "in" the movie, but can also "feel" the movie. Let me explain this better as I experienced it in a small 4-D show at Shedd Aquarium, Chicago.

This was a short animation film, that we watched with those red/blue spectacles that are a must for the 3-D effect. We could smell the pickle used by one of the characters in his burger. We could also feel air gushing aroung our face from different directions, when we were supposedly flying at an altitude in the movie. We could also feel some creepy rats crawl over our feet at the lead character gets marooned in a jungle and is accosted by thousands of rats. Finally, a small log of wood pokes the lead character on his back, and lo, we were poked by a small knob attached onto our seats from our back.

I saw this at PVR Spice in NOIDA as well, although the show was not of that quality that I had seen across the Atlantic.

How do they do it: That's not easy as the entire set up of the movie theatre needs to be set up for that movie. the smell of pickle is priduced by an aerosol, let out in the air precisely when the movie shows it. The gush of air / water is managed by small hoses / sprinklier on the back of the seat ahead, again with precise timing. The creepy feeling of rodents crawling on one's feet is attained by using small hellical spring type of wires hidden carefully under each seat. The seat would shake when the aeroplane shakes, thus giving the viewer a feeling of being in the action.

Of course, all movies cannot go this route, but we could have this as one of the variants of cinema in the future. Just imagine yourself doing a spiderman from tower to tower in Manhattan.

This experience can not be explained in plain text;one needs to experience it to be able to appreciate. This is what "being in the movie" means. Lets see if this concept catches on and we have regular movies available in 4-D.

As I wrote my review on Sony Cybershot DSC H7, I realised that its not just the advancement of technology that I was writing about. Its about capturing visual memories, and one needs to learn how to use technology to deliver value.

For those who are new to digital photography, I found a website that has some pinpointed information to get you started - www.shortcources.com. It talks about the technology behind digital imaging, compares cameras and goes on to guide on what is good photography versus what is not.

Few of the things a digicam user should quickly learn are:
1. Safety of the camera - temperature, dust,humidity,shock etc;
2. Inserting and removing the battery and memory card;
3. Charging the battery;
4. Connecting to computer via USB cable;
5. Connecting to a TV screen using NTSC/PAL cable;
6. Cleaning the lens and LCD screen.

As I said earlier, having a good tool does not make one an expert at using it. It is an understanding of the tool as well as the dos and donts with it that help one achieve value with it. Experience has no substitute.

http://www.mouthshut.co
m/review/Sony_Cybershot_DSC-H7-
139256-1.html

I am learning to click good photographs and thus capture time and memories to be remembered later.