he made my day..

As a part of a small celebration.. Chetana invited me for a treat @CCD. She is completing 2 years with Accenture.

By around 3:30 pm today we both went down... first she took me to the vodafone shop to pay her monthly rental for her 3rd vodafone mobile number.. I still wonder why girls often change their mobile numbers. Any ways.. as usual there was a long queue near the counter.

I took a seat and started going tru today news paper. Near me sat one kid of around 12-15yrs of age.. a tamilian to be specific.. with unclean dress and brown hair. I thought he is a helper in that shop. But to my surprise.. he was waiting for his turn to meet the vodafone executive.

Initially i didn't look at him that much.. but in that crowd it was hard for me to notice him. When the vodafone executive called his token number.. i was surprised.. what is this guy doing in this shop. Majority of the people there were well dressed IT professional...talking loud in some western slang.. but this guy looks like a poor kid..seemed to me like an uneducated kid..every one kept a distance, a strange and puzzled look with a big question mark in their face.."what is this chap doing with an old Nokia 1100 mobile in the with vodafone shop". Obviously he had some problem with the connection.

I started noticing him..he started explaining his problems with the vodafone executive. He was calm while he explained his problem to the person in white shirt and red tie. Unnaturally the executive started asking him so many questions.. like, "from where did he took the connection" to eventually asking him to remove the SIM from the mobile to check if the SIM is a valid one or not. I think the executive also might have thought... what is this guy doing here. Even when the executive start firing with tons of questions.. he sat there composed and replied very politely.

This was not an usual tamilian. To me, local tamilians shouts louder if they are having a problem and they create a mess out of it. But this was so different.

Chetana called me.. this was a sign for me get up and move to CCD. I looked at the kid for the last time.. and left to shop.

After 5 mins.. we were at the CCD. We ordered for a cool blue and a chocolate frappé and started chatting..gossiping.. and to my surprise the I saw the same kid, who was in the vodafone shop, entering the CCD.

The CCD down my office is one of the hot spot for lovers.. business man and all the NIFT beauties... Today CCD was deserted and the usual A.R Rahman song was playing in full throttle.

The CCD employees had a puzzled look at the kid and my senses fully turned to that boy. In-fact we both stared at the same unwanted object at the CCD.

He stood near the counter, with his head raised, asked for a coffee. Every one had a laugh initially and we too. Initially no one cared about him and we got our orders and started having it.

The kid again and went up a bit and started again...
"Coffee.."
Every one started noticing at him.

They asked him.. "are you coming here for the first time".

He politely replied, "Yes..".

They looked each other and shared a common smile.

This kid asked for a coffee again... and they asked him to sit outside. To my surprise.. he replied back:
"I wanted to have a coffee from here and cant you serve it here itself. Why should I go out and sit?"

This was not expected from a kid who dressed like that and wearing normal slippers and at a place where you cant get anything less than Rs. 50.

They asked him to take a seat. He sat in a place which is at the center of that room so that every one can see that kid and he was calm and quite.

He didn't had any shy... rather no fear.. nothing.. as normal as every one.

Rather I felt something abnormal. I pinched my self to check if I am seeing a dream.

after every 2 mins he raises his head and give a sign for his coffee.. Yes, even we used to do the same when it takes more time for our orders.

I started thinking.. how can he behave like so normally.. how can he be so disciplined.. is he an avatar or someone.. is he from someone from big family.. is he educated.. I started asking so many questions to myself.

Chetana and I started observing the kid very keenly and started commenting.. see this.. see that.. how he is behaving.. wondering how can he do that.. kinda...

This kid started noticing us.. so we just thought lets not gave him an embarrassing moment. Let him have his time and let him be happy.

After few mins.. he got his capechino with 2 sugar sachet.

Adding to my surprise.. he started tearing the sachet... put the sugar in to the big cup and started stirring enjoying the flavour of the coffee.
If I was at his age, trust me guy.. first point I would never visit such an expensive shop for a coffee. Also I wouldn't be knowing what is there in the packet and I might realise this as sugar sachet only after tasting the coffee.

He started tasting the form at the top and we just sat there to see what gonna happen next. In between i took a photo of that guy too. It took his almost 5 mins to drink the coffee and after that... guys.. u wont believe.. how did he learn the table manners.

He put the torn sachet beneath the cup and wiped his lips using the tissue paper. And after some time he drank few drops of water from the bottle which is kept at the table.

Chetana started worring.. now they are going to charge the kid for the water bottle too. I waited till he gets the bill. He stood up...went to the counter.. and took some 100 ruppee not from his pocket and handed over to the waiter. At this point of time... i am not doubting his integrity or his veraciousness... Again from his look, i wonder from where he got that much indian currency.

When the kid asked for the bill.. they said.. "you dont have to pay for this". Again he showed his money..they didnt accept the money and gave the kid a fresh bottle of chilled mineral water bottle too.

He liked thier response and like a Rajani Fan, he just jumped, with his head twisting to the left.. waving his brown hair.. and left the shop feeling satisfied.

To me, that kid gave me so much of insight... i cant express or explain how good I felt. I thanked the CCD guy for offering the kid free coffee.

And the kid might have felt so happy there by.. he made my day too.

Uncovering my Dream.. I mean Dream Project :) - Part 1

Objective:

A Customer oriented service where in a city local search result can be received by an user through just dialing our toll-free customer care number free of cost.

Our service will try to answers the very common user Queries such as:

> What
> Where
> How
> When
> Booking
> Payments…

Major Vertical Segments which will be covered by us are:

> Arts & Entertainment
> Automotive
> Business & Professional Services
> Clothing & Accessories
> Community & Government
> Computers & Electronics
> Construction & Contractors
> Education
> Food & Dining
> Health & Medicine
> Home & Garden
> Industry & Agriculture
> Legal & Financial
> Media & Communications
> Personal Care & Services
> Real Estate
> Shopping
> Sports & Recreation
> Travel & Transportation

With the above said verticals we would be including all the possible horizontals which are very much required by the users. We would be covering the entire possible horizontal for each operating city. The unavailability of certain verticals/horizontals will be communicated to the users as and when required. Depending on the city we operate the horizontals mentioned in the appendix varies. Please refer the Appendix for the detailed division of the above said verticals. The Name given to the above said verticals and horizontals are up the international standards but it can vary from city to city which we operate on.

Our mode of operation will be only through telephone which we will provide a toll-free number for the users to call us any time of day free of cost. By the first 6 successful month of this service we would be able to the user queries through SMS free of cost. We are also thinking of supporting our service on-line which allows users to get the required information, which are spread under different verticals, free of cost.

Currently we are planning to work 7 days and 16 hrs. daily in 2 different shifts (7:00 – 3:00 & 3:00 – 11:00). (The above said timing won’t be affecting the users who are accessing our free service).

Why do we need to start a service like this?

The growth of a city is majorly fuelled by the increasing life standard of people living in cities/ people migrating from various villages to cities in search of jobs in IT/ people migrating from many of the north Indians places to stay for a while in cities for jobs/ major players like IT, real estate, tourism etc... And people visiting major cities for commercial reasons. The net effect is, a city is getting saturated with more consumers of various kinds and with different tastes. In such situation consumers find it very hard to fulfil their interest/wish or rather get satisfied with what they got. This will result in consumers searching for a better place to visit the next time when they buy a thing or when they took a service from any of the clients/shops.

Our service will be a solution to the thousands of consumers who are in search of any common thing which he wished to buy/experience. We would be able to provide the best possible shop/service which a consumer wishes to buy/experience for free of cost. Also with our service the suppliers are benefited more since we are projecting what are they actually providing rather than giving their phone number or location. We help suppliers/vendors to sell their products or project what they have got though our free service. The suppliers will have a chance to directly interact with the consumers who wish to buy/experience their products.

Why do we go for telephone/mobile?

Thousands of classifies which are in the form of paper or hundreds of on-line classified which are presently out there are not picturing out what a consumer wants to view to fulfil his/her interest. From the various observations we made, the traffic inflow for an on-line classifieds in very low and with the number of repeated users to use the same service is very limited. Same as the case for a paper classifieds, with a huge price tag and the huge size of the classified, consumers are not interested to use it for their frequent search. And the major number of users using the on-line services or who are aware of these kind of on-line services in limited to an age group which is within 20 – 24, and the rest of the populations are hardly using these services or rather aware of on-line classified.

With our service we would be able to reach out the huge mass of population within and out of a city. Since the mobile population in a city is almost the 2 -3 times than the average internet users, it’s obvious that anything which is available over a telephone/mobile and which is free of cost will be very well welcomed by the huge mass. Since there is no specification required for a handset to be used for communication, any common consumers can access our service with ease.

When would I use this?

All human beings are very well depended on others and one or the other way all humans are consumers. With this point let me explain this session by giving different scenarios were we all can user our service.

Scene 1

In the afternoon we are receiving a call from a WORKING WOMEN. Let’s see what she wants to know from us.

Working women: Hi

Hello City: Hello madam

WW: Today when I was about to leave from my house, I saw that water pipe which is located outside my house is leaking and due to this heavy rain fall n thunder these days my daughters PC has got some problem which I cannot look in to it. Since am a working women am not able to find it out any plumbers or PC technicians nearby for almost a week now. Could you please help me on this?

HC: Definitely mom, we could understand you problem. From what you communicated to me, you would require a plumber and a PC technician.

WW: Yes

HC: We would be definitely able to help you madam.

Would you like to access the service from a vendor near your house or would like you like us to search any authorized dealers for you.

WW: I would be glad if you get me plumbers from somewhere near my house but I definitely would like to contact the shop from where I took the PC.

HC: Could you please specify the name of the place where you stay and the PIN number.

WW: I stay near YYYYYY and the PIN number is XXXXXXX

HC: Kindly hold on madam as we are queries your request with our database.

HC: Madam, there are 3 plumbers near your place. They are A, B and C. Which one would you prefer?

WW: Oh! Great!! I would prefer the plumber C.

HC: Would you like us to call the concerned plumber for you or is it enough to give you the contact information.

WW: Give me the contact information. But I would like you to connect me to the PC technician.

HC: kindly note down the contact information for the Plumber C: QWERTYY, UIOPASD. Phone number: XXXXXXXX

HC: Kindly tell us what type of service you expect for you damaged PC.

WW: I wouldn’t be able to tell you that. I would be happy if you could help me out in connecting me to any of the authorized ACER showrooms in this city.

HC: Definitely madam. Kindly hold on.

We would be connecting you to ACER showroom @YYYYY in few minutes now. Would you like to note it down the same information?

WW: Yes, Please speak out.

HC: Kindly note down. The address is QWERTYY, UIOPASD. Phone number: XXXXXXXX

Kindly take charge as we transfer the call to the ACER showroom. Kindly disconnect the call yourself after talking to the customer executive of ACER.

WW: Will I be charged for the call which is transferred to the ACER?

HC: Absolutely No charges are applied.

WW: That’s great. Thank you for the information.

HC: My pleasure to help you. Call us later @XXXXXXX for more helps on your city.


Scene 2

DEGREE STUDENT: Hello City

HC: Yes, Hello City! How can I help you?

DS: I would like to know any shops selling any of these Degree subject X, Y n Z second hand text book.

HC: Where are you currently located. Could you give us your current location and pin number.

DS: I stay near YYYYYY and the PIN number is XXXXXXX.

HC: From what you communicated to me, you would require a second hand degree text book. Would you like to access the service from any of the shops near your house or from the city near you?

DS: I would like to get it from near my house.

HC: Kindly hold on sir as we are queries your request with our database.

DS: ok.

HC: I am really sorry sir; we couldn’t find any shops selling the degree books near your place. Would you like to go for the city search?

DS: hmm... then do search in the city for the first hand book too if second hand books are not available.

HC: Definitely sir! Kindly hold on madam as we are queries your request with our database.

DS: ok.

HC: Lucky you sir. We found out 6 major publishers selling the degree books. Would you like to choose A, B, C, D, E or F?

DS: I would go with the D shop but can you check if there is any discount offers going on in of the shops. Can you please give me the contact information so that I can call them and ask?

HC: Definitely sir. But there is no promotional offer in the shop D. In shop B, there is a book fair going on where they are selling degree book at a rate of 15% discount. Would you like to go for shop B?

DS: Oh!! That’s great. I would definitely go for shop B.

HC: Can you please note down the contact information for the above said shop, Sir.

DS: Could you please connect me to shop B.

HC: Sorry Sir, at present we don’t have any tie up with this shop for connecting your call.

DS: Oh, if that is the case kindly give me the contact information of Shop B and Shop D.

HC: Definitely sir. Kindly note it down.

DS: Ok.

HC: Would you like to know more information?

[If the user ask more information, we would be giving the similar kind of information and we will be providing all these service @ free of cost.]
…
…
…

DS: That was a great help. Thank you for the information.

HC: That’s our duty sir to help you in best way we can, you are most welcome. Call us later @XXXXXXX for more helps on your city.