Aditya’s Blog

I am Thinking...

Inception + Up! trailers mashup

via youtube.com

The credit to the link AND the line below goes to my friend Aviraj Saluja.

Holy mother of EPICNESS!!

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Filed under  //   videos  
Posted July 31, 2010
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Eleanor

Eleanor (pronounced /ˈɛlɛnər/, except in North America where it is usually /ˈɛlənɔr/; also spelled as Elinor, Elenor, Eleanore, or Elynor) is a female given name.

The first known bearer of the name was Eleanor of Aquitaine. She was named after her mother, Aénor de Châtellerault, and called Aliénor, (from Alia-Aénor), which means other-Aénor in Occitan).[citation needed] It became "Eléanor" in the northern Langue d'oïl and in English. Therefore the meaning of the name is sometimes given as "The Other." Aénor is a Provençal name whose meaning is not surely known, maybe coming from Latin lenire ("to heal"). In English the name is sometimes connected to Elena, Ellen or Elaine (Helen, Helene) as well. It could be connected to the Greek eleos ("compassion") as well. There is however an earlier Eleanor on record. Eleanor of Normandy, William the Conqueror's aunt, lived a century earlier than Eleanor of Aquitaine. The story of her might be apocryphal.

Cognates of the name in different languages include Leonor (Portuguese pronunciation: [le.o.ˈnoɾ])(Spanish and Portuguese), Eléonore (French), and Eleonora (Italian). The similar Hebrew name Elior means "God is light".[1] The similar-sounding Arabic Allahu Nuri also means "God is my light"; the modern version is Nurullah (Noorullah) ("light of God").

via en.wikipedia.org

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Posted July 26, 2010
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Sales 'Train'ee

Its been a long time since I have blogged about marketing or sales. Its been a long time since I have blogged actually. But something happened today which must be shared.

Most of you by now know that I am currently working with HCL Comnet as an Account Manager in the India Sales division. Being practically 'in training' for the past month and half, my eyes and ears are beginning to get attuned towards anything sales. Being a resident of Thane as I have often mentioned in my earlier posts, any place else in Mumbai is far away. Today I chose to come back home by train having had enough of traffic on the road. 

I am predominantly a train traveler and would prefer trains over buses anytime. Most of you who have traveled in the Mumbai local trains - otherwise called 'locals' - would be aware of the frequently annoying salesmen who travel along. Selling everything from pens to pens that are torches. Anything you buy normally costs 10 bucks. They come with loud noises making limericks and poems which makes you feel you would be robbing HIM if you buy his product for only 10 bucks!

However, today I saw a very different kind of salesman in the train. He boarded the compartment at the peak hour of 9 PM and stood in the most crowded part between the seats. Standing there, he started talking as if he was talking to his friends. It felt like he was giving a discourse! Extremely calm and extremely patient. He started explaining home remedies for common ailments that anyone in a family can suffer with. For some time I could not understand what this man who has the attention of everyone who can see him is trying to sell. His way of explaining was unique and his concern for the well being of my family seemed quite genuine. Finally, after almost 15 minutes of his well practiced and articulated speech, he started talking about a book which has everything he just spoke about and more! And guess what the price of the book was!

This guy according to me is brilliant! He came in calmly with a product which would be difficult to sell by just yelling out to everyone who does not want to hear. He surprised everyone by calmly talking about problems that everyone has had. So much so that people were leaning in to listen to him! In the end he sold 9 copies, made 90 bucks in 20 minutes and moved to another part of the compartment.

This guy:
  1. Knew the problems you have
  2. Knew how to tell you about those problems
  3. Had simple solutions to those problems
  4. It was cheap
  5. He made sure you noticed it was cheap. After all you spend 2 bucks a day on news, why not spend 10 for your family (says he, not me)

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Filed under  //   HCL   Mumbai   Sales  
Posted July 13, 2010
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SIMSR through my phone

Yes, I know I have not really taken a LOT of pictures. But WTH!

                                                     
Click here to download:
SIMSR_through_my_phone.zip (4948 KB)

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Filed under  //   Pictures   SIMSR  
Posted July 10, 2010
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I wish I was a....

Remember all the essays we used to write back in school? I am talking about the ones in Hindi or Marathi. The autobiographies.

No no, these were not autobiographies of famous people. Far from it! These were autobiographies of objects. Inanimate ones. I think it was a brilliant way to test our imagination and the extent to which we can push our vocabulary. After all we pretended to be an umbrella, a coin, a worn out shoe, a torn note and many more things. However, most of us just read a bunch of these from books and reproduced them in the papers. I guess it did help somehow nevertheless.

Moving on, I am all of a sudden got this urge to write those kinds of essays again. Obviously it has a lot to do with my curiosity. And this time it will not be like a day in the life of a coin or a shoe. It will be about how I wish I was a coin or a shoe and why. So from now on I will be writing some of these posts. Let me see where this leads me to.

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Posted June 29, 2010
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10 things about the Delhi Metro

If some of you do not know yet, I am in Noida right now for the foreseeable future. So, being here for a week now, I have been finally able to get an internet connection and I have been itching to blog!
 
Here are 10 things that I thought of about the Delhi Metro.
 
  1. It is awesome! It really feels great to be in it. It is quite an experience when you get into it for the first time.
  2. It is Air Conditioned! This definitely a boon anywhere in India. More so in Delhi! They have somehow managed to keep the inside of the trains at quite a cool temperature in spite of the 45 degrees outside!
  3. It is really affordable! It has to be. But for an air conditioned transport it is surprisingly so. The distance which will cost you Rs. 5 in the Mumbai local train costs just Rs. 10 here. No wonder no metro transport anywhere in the world has been profitable. Neither will this be, otherwise it wont be affordable.
  4. Fully loaded! With all the jazz of escelators and automatic ticket entry and announcements in the train regarding which side the station will come (this kinda gets irritating sometime). All of this is great though.
  5. It is an equalizer. Where else will a businessman and a normal worker get into the same train using the same facilities and sitting in air conditioned comfort? No matter who you are, no second class or first class here!
  6. It is awesomely maintained! Everything looks clean. Minimum littering. Constant cleaning. Helpful staff. Great!
  7. It has some weird stickers. I saw one which wanted to say that this seat is reserved for pregnant woman. So it has a 3 figures. One was the pregnant woman, second was a man giving the seat to the shown woman. The third was what bothered me a little. A small boy holding the woman's hand. Why show a boy? Why show a second kid? Errrr, family planning?
  8. The entire system looks great from the outside. I mean beautiful! The steel cars with lighted windows whizzing overhead every 5 minutes! Then going underground. Some places have two levels of stations underground! The huge stations above the roads. I like it!
  9. I have absolutely no idea how the people living in the national capital managed to commute in the city before 2002! Absolutely sad!
  10. I love it! Just like I was in love with The Linker, I am in love with the Metro as well. It represents the same things for me that The Linker does. I cannot wait for the Mumbai Metro to be up and running!
 

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Filed under  //   10 things...   India  
Posted June 9, 2010
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Seth's Blog: The circles (no more strangers)

via sethgodin.typepad.com

Sometimes I LOVE the way Seth Godin puts things across. Most of the things he blogs about are not at all path-breaking. It just can't be considering he averages more than one post a day! But just the way he puts across things that are taken for granted is what he is all about. You should read this post if you are remotely attached to marketing or sales.

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Posted May 17, 2010
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The Google Job Experiment

via youtube.com

Respect dude!

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Posted May 14, 2010
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Guys are always....

via random.aviraj.com

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Posted May 13, 2010
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How cool is HE?

via bspcn.com

Ok ok! I know you are laughing! But let us give this guy a chance at the least!

After all, he knows 15 guitar chords and has blue ray's something in his big TV! How often do you come across 100% real guys who have never gone to jail? I surely cannot think of anyone!

Oh, did I mention he shook Obama's hand on TWO occasions? Now how cool IS he?

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Posted May 6, 2010
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