Thoughts @ Amit Gupta

How to stop telemarketing calls

I just come across an Interesting email doing rounds.

Ten ways to stop those credit card sales, mobile companies, insurance calls from irritating you: 

 

1 After the telemarketer finishes speaking, ask him/her to marry you. 

 

2 Tell the telemarketer you are busy at the moment, and ask him/her, if he/she will give you his/her home phone number so you can call him/her back. 

 

3 Ask them to repeat everything they say, several times. 

 

4 Tell them it is dinnertime, BUT ask if they would please hold. Put them on your speakerphone while you continue to eat at your leisure. Smack your food loudly and continue with your dinner conversation. 

 

5 Tell them that all business goes through your agent, and hand the phone to your five-year-old child. 

 

6 Tell them you are hard of hearing and that they need to speak up…. louder… louder… louder! 

 

7 If they start out with, “How are you today?”, say “I’m so glad you asked, because no one these days seems to care, and I have all these problems………….” 

 

8 Tell them to speak very slowly because you want to write every word down. 

 

9 Cry out in surprise, “Helen, is that you? I’ve been hoping you’d call! How is the family?” When they insist they are not Helen, tell them to stop joking. This works especially well if the telemarketer is really MALE. 

 

10 Tell the ICICI call center guy to call on your office number – and give him the HSBC call center number. 

 

TRY THEM OUT… 

Tags: customers, icici, Marketing & advertising, Mobile, telecalling, telemarketing

One Night @ terminal

My fascination for the city Kolkata ended as soon as I found myself struck in an unusual Traffic jam to airport. A normal route of 30 min took me close to two hours. And for the first time in my life I missed the flight. Now that’s a bizarre feeling of helplessness. It took me another 30 mins to convince the duty manager that in all my good intention I never wanted to miss the flight. Fortunately I managed a  ticket in the first flight out which was next day morning @ 7:00 AM

So I was there at the terminal (The first thought struck me was The Terminal, starrin g Tom Hanks) . But I thought it was only couple of hours before I could return back to my good old Delhi. I decided to catch some sleep at the lounge before airport start buzzing with travelers for the first flight @ 5:00 AM.

 

But, as the fate would have within 30 min there was tsunami of people who captured the terminal all geared up with stuff for night stay. There were people all around trying to capture every bit of space possible. I have never experienced this before; the airport looks like a railway platform. I had to move to a chair in corner for respite.

 

But this was only the beginning, best was yet to come. At around 2:00 Pm a airport official woke me up. I was just amused when I saw him equipped him with old age mosquito repellent which throws a lot of smoke. He practically filled the complete airport with heavy smoke to ensure a mosquito free airport.

I just managed to get a two-hour sleep before getting into my flight back. I am happy that my stay @ terminal got terminated after just one night.

Tags: Airlines, Kolkata, Travel

The City of Joy – Kolkata

I clicked this on my way to Kolkata office. The city seems to be slow and peaceful and very different from the fast paced Delhi. I am here for two days and both have packed schedule of training and evaluating few options for Property show in Kolkata.

 

Let’s see if I can visit few places and if possible ride tram.

  

Tags: Kolkata, Property Show, Taxi, Transportation

Food @ 29000 ft

After a usual delay of 2 hours I took off to Kolkata (City of Joy).  By now you would have realized how much I hate air travel. This time I am traveling Jet Air, which is one of the finest airlines. Thanks to web check in facility, I managed a first row seat in economy class (Advantage to spread your legs and relax a bit).

 

So I felt like being from upper middle class where all the middle class cramped in their seats. And like all upper middle class who are aspirant to become upper class (Business Class travelers) I wanted to feel the luxury they have.

 

And as the luck would have due to the wardrobe malfunction (Not the one at Fashion Ramp but the curtain diving the two sections in aircraft) the last row of Business class was straight in my line of sight. I envy the way they were pampered with choice of cuisine.

 

Though the food served to us was excellent but the pastures are always green on the other side. So, I dig into my breakfast thinking how soon I’ll be part of the upper class.

Tags: Airlines, Delhi, Flight, Jet Airways, Kolkata, Travel

Fun @ work – Offsite to Daman

Fun @ work takes a new dimension when People Group engineering team has strolled out for the picnic last week. The gyaan sessions seemed to be the coolest thing around. Day one: We headed for resort in Virar (Suburb of Mumbai) for tech presentation to be made by engineering teams.  The event gave opportunity to everyone to come on stage and speak up about the work they’ve been doing and their learning’s. We achieved the very purpose of the get-together KNOWLEGE SHARING. And we end the day with jump in the pool and late night cricket. 

 Day 2: We headed for Daman after a light breakfast. The three and a half hour long journey seemed nothing with everyone having fun on board. Many of us were singing and dancing while quite a few catch up with Ajay Devgan’s flick “Halla Bol”. After having a filling lunch at the beachside in Daman we all rushed to the water park. It was amazing to soak our self and enjoy in thrilling rides of the park. The evening attraction was the wave pool and the rain dance. The day ended with dinner against the vast Arabian ocean as a backdrop with live orchestra playing the hit numbers. We shook our leg till we drop.  

 

Day 3 : It was the day to relax and chill out. After a lazy morning breakfast everyone wanted to take maximum of the last day of our trip. We headed back to Mumbai after the lunch. The spirit doesn’t seem to die though all of us were dead tired. We reached Mumbai late in the evening and everyone carried sweet memories of the trip with them.        

Tags: Daman, Makaan.com, Mumbai, offsite, Travel

Talent Search 2.0

Every child has heard this umpteen times. Every time there is a guest parents insist child to recite a poem or sing a song. A latest song hummed by the child makes parents proud of their child’s talent. Child gets rewarded through lots of praises. Now the stage has grown and children perform in front of live and TV audience. Various talent hunt shows has make this bigger than ever and the rewards has grown too. Few days back , one such show held a finale at where contestants performed and whole nation seemed to vote for them. The winner takes 20 laks of cash, a brand new car. Now that’s something really big for a teenager. Infact the youngest winner who takes 10 laks as reward was not even in his teens. Its amazing to see the talent getting rewarded in style.

Tags: Childhood, talent show

Indian Redifined

India has evolved and so does Indian. Hey, I am talking about Indian, the state owned domestic airlines. I was scheduled to fly today morning to Mumbai by 8:00AM flight. As expected the flight was delayed (Still waiting for the final departure time to be announced, As I am writing this at airport).

 

This has now become a standard and not the exception for all airlines to delay departures. But I was talking about something else.

 

I got an unexpected call at 5:45 in morning. This was from call center of the airlines announcing the delay of 1hr 45 Min. I was pleasantly surprised to hear from them (Not because flight is delayed because they saved me from waiting unnecessary at the airport lounge hearing announcements). But my team was not fortunate enough as all of them has already started from their respective places.

 

They but of course were cursing me as I met them at airport at 9:15. But these delays surely exhaust persons before they actually start the day. Fortunately we have planned for the delays and actually we are traveling A DAY IN ADVANCE for our presentation tomorrow

Tags: Airlines, India Insight & Beyond, Mumbai, Travel

A Year That Was…

These line are generally written on the turn of the year. You might think that I am possibily two months late. But I am talking about completeing a year with Makaan.com

Now when I look back at this amazing year it gives me a feeling which can’t be expressed in words. But whats so amazing about this year and this job. There has been complete transormation from the kind of work I’ve done in the past. I have lived my dream of creating an online business.

On the day of joining makaan team strength was three including Aditya (Business Head) and (Chetna). Now we have grown over 125 as a team. Aditya has shown immence confidence in me and handed me  an additional responsibily of Managing the software team along with my Product Management responsibility. 

And we have done our best to proove him right by delivering a best in the category product within the short span. We have worked for 10-12 hours in a day for 4 months in a strech. We launched the site on August 15, 2007, Independence day of India in less than 6 Months of my joining.

And I must say that I have got an amazing team to support Saleem, Deb, Veeru , Amit , Sandy and Nikhil. 

Tags: Amit, Internet & Mobile, Makaan.com