A book by Ravi Subramanian, who had earlier written ‘If God were a Banker’ and ‘Devil in pinstripes’ which I liked, had me scrabbling to pre order it and once delivered, first on my list to read.

It begins with a promise, woven well with Naxalite, Foreign Banks, their aggression, deceit, treachery, credit card frauds amidst corporate politics.

But some relations have not been woven well and are abrupt - Kavya & Karan - whilst some parts have dragged, the flitting of naxal movement with banking may appear to be new to readers and the suspense may appeal; however John Grisham it ain’t.

Over all personally disappointed after the first two books but still worth a one read.

Another one from the Alumnus stable of IIM Ahmedabad, I do not know who, how, where, when this book landed on my table but in a moment of desperation decided to flip through it.

The book is an attempt to be a kind of Robin Sharma or Deepak Chopra to the professional beginners, but lacks the conviction that experience should, which probably may be true.

But, Hey I am not a beginner and hence may have not understood the book.

Nearly a fortnight ago, I was surprised to receive a mail from Puneet Gupta, the author of ‘The Suicide Banker’ telling me about himself, and that he had read some reviews of mine on my blog.

Coincidentally, I had been surfing my current favorite book store - Flipkart.com and was on an Indian author trip and had already ordered his book.

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Disclaimer: This has been written in my capacity of a consumer.

This is a question that increasingly being debated on Twitter - the platform for opinions - and have been a part to it. Whilst, the conversation have been heated at times, I have always preferred to “move on” (polite way of saying disengage from the conversation), when it becomes too passionate.

One of the chief advocates Girish Mallya believes that the above is definitely the case.

Over the past couple of years, I have had many instances of problems and negligent customer service, where I have had to use my rolodex to get action initiated. I have always used the specific escalation method, however there are times, when it jsut does not work. Read the rest of this entry »

I have been a frequent visitor to Bru World Cafe in Juhu since the time it started (probably the first day of its launch) and always loved it ambiance, filter coffee. In fact had commented on its Arabic tone of music and was pleasantly surprised to see it being replaced (I cannot take complete credit for it, though). Read the rest of this entry »

It was a Sunday, some weeks ago, a rare day when we decided to meet up with friends for some drinks and dinner.

Gathering at a friends place, after a couple of drinks, the usual questions of ‘What shall we order? Where shall be order from?’ arose and D said let’s try our China 1 but they don’t deliver, but since everyone was in agreement, somebody would go an pick it up.

However, I prevailed on everyone to go there and eat, especially since, I was trying it out for the first time and wanted to check out the ambience, service et all. Read the rest of this entry »

I had visited this more than a year ago for drinks and had liked it. We had been planning to go out for brunch and decided to try it out, as it came recommended by a couple of other friends. We made bookings for 12 by Saturday evening.

On reaching there Sunday afternoon, the place was crowded and the desk was puzzled with our reservations. The manager had no clue, whilst the waiter ‘Vikram’ tried to ask somebody to vacate/move so that our party could be accommodated. The reason given was that a lot of these tables were filled with “SnapDeal” offers. Read the rest of this entry »

I have always been hearing about people winning contests, getting invited for tours, being sent King Fisher beer and would always be amused and wonder, Why not me? Till realization would hit, by my daughter & wife reminding me “You need to enter to win”.

Ah! Well, mera bhi din aayega and it happened. A fortnight ago, some tweet of mine attracted the attention of a couple of brands who decided to take pity on me and promptly asked me if I would be interested in  some chocolates and wine. Now I am not a wine drinker, nor a chocolate lover (my daughter adores chocolates by the way) but the non intrusive way it was asked, piqued my attention and in a moment agreed to try it out. Read the rest of this entry »

Da Milano one of the fastest growing retail chain, giving a tough fight to Hidesign etc. etc. is someone who has received respectable business from me over the past year or so.

As a normal AD Policy, I do not give out my mobile number to any retailer, however they seem to have bought out the entire Airtel database and hence received an SMS from them on 11th June 2011 at 14:10 “First Time Ever!! Da Milano brings EXCHANGE OFFER. Get your ANY old bags, wallets and belts and get 20% off at Da Milano. Offer valid all across India” Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of months ago, my wife went shopping (Ok, that’s nothing new but still) and found some formal shoes that she knew I was interested in at Aldo

Having normally done shopping for me over the years, she asked the person if they had the required shoe size, quoting other brand size, receiving a reply that Yes, they had, different numbers but the same size they reassured. Read the rest of this entry »