Customer Service

The other day my wife and I went to this popular pizza place. Both of us are pizza fans and hence decided to go there. We ordered our favourite pizzas. We are vegetarians and my wife does not like mushrooms so she ordered her pizza with no mushroom topping. After a few minutes we both got our pizzas and i started devouring. Her pizza had mushrooms. She was reluctant to have it. She called the waitress and said she ordered a pizza sans mushrooms but she got one with mushrooms. The waitress took back the pizza. The manager came to our table and apologised for serving us the pizza with the mushrooms. He offered us a deal. He said he would  get us a pizza with no mushrooms and asked us to take the other pizza with the mushroom in a to go box. On the one place he could have very well not charged for one pizza but instead gave that for free and gave us the right pizza.

I tried to analyse this from a shop owner's perspective. The cost of not charging for the wrong pizza was $12 and the cost of making a new pizza was $3. He has effectively lost only $3 for making the new pizza when he could have lost $12 for not charging us for the bad pizza. In the end it was a happy customer with the right pizza .  Clever tactics i say... 

Mahabharatham

I have been following Mahabharatham serial in Vijay TV. I am quite impressed with the direction and screenplay. Though the story has been interpreted differently, a fair amount of justice has been made in the presentation. All the characters look ostentatious, the men have maintained their figure, they are well groomed all tending towards the 6 pack look and the ladies look flashing.

I am really fond of this story. My grandma exposed me into the world of mahabharata during the late 80s when they used to telecast it in doordarshan. I could hardly comprehend then. Only thing i remembered then was when Arjuna shot one arrow a zillion arrows flew across to kill the soldiers and in the beginning of the episode a strange sound used to say " Mein Samay Hoon " other than that nothing was vivid. I later read C. Rajagopalachari's Mahabharata. That was a very good interpretation by Rajai.

Mahabharata has some of the most complex twists and turns in its story. I personally liked 2 aspects of it 1.  " Yaksha Prashna" that part when Yaksha questions Yudhistira. The conversation has some of the most philosophical thoughts made simple.

“What is weightier than the earth itself? What is higher than
the heavens?” What is fleeter than the wind? And what is more numerous than
grass?” Yudhishthira's answer, “The mother is weightier than the earth; the father is
higher than the heaven; the mind is fleeter than the wind; and our thoughts are more
numerous than grass." These are just some of the questions.

and 2. Bhagvad Gita . I am not an expert in BG but little bit of what i learnt impressed me profoundly.

Coming back to the serial that is being telecasted ... There are some larger than life portrayal of characters. Technology has been used to a very good extent. I felt the guy who is playing Krishna is doing full justice to his role but director is compromising a lot to fit the story into the screen . That is what happens when you cut short an epic.

I cannot stand suspense. It has been a while since i read the book so i forgot he storyline. Everytime they show what is going to happen in the next episode i quickly take the book and read what would come next . I need to get rid of this but can't help it.

This epic has been interpreted in different forms by different people. I quiet like Mani Ratnam's take in Thalapathi. Boy what a contemporary interpretation.  With the advent of Social Media there are lot more mashable interpretations. I want to bring in some concepts of probability and interpret it differently ...
for example Shakuni and Stochastic Process ..... may be sometime later ...  after all it is just a myth ...

The Half Marathon Experience .

After a year of preparation, i finally got to run the half marathon. I did not train for 13.1 miles but finally managed to finish. More than the finish it was the experience that i cherished. I did not sleep well the previous night  so was not sure if i would finish. The best part of the run was i got to see those localities of Atlanta that i would have otherwise missed. I started very cautiously, 1 mile into the race i wanted to pee , 3 miles into the run i wanted to poop. I thought this was the end of it , my race is over. I slowly got into my zone... moved with the crowd and was totally immersed into the race.
It was early spring ... the race started at 7 am ... there was gentle breeze ... perfect weather for running ... there was some early blossom on the cherry trees ... with the wind the petals were gently moving in the air just like the scene in Kung Fu Panda where master oogway bids his final adieu to po ... it was surreal but true ... back to the race ... i got hydrated in every water station ... sometimes it was water ... sometimes power aid ... finally after 8 miles i decided to pee ... i lost 12 minutes waiting outside for my turn ... then i felt light and continued ... i maintained a constant speed of 5 miles/hour.  After 11 miles my body was not cooperating ... but the crowd was awesome ... the best part of the race was the crowd... the signs ... funny banners ... cheering ... loud music ... just  awesome. I managed to pick up some speed and finally inched towards the finish line ... on the way i did pose to every possible photographer on the way ... this was my chance to show off  ... after 13 miles and 176 yards i managed to cross the finish line ... i felt good ... received my finishers medal ... it was truly a great feeling ... i was tired ... happy ... excited ... dehydrated ... palpitating ... all at the same time ... but in the end i felt i did achieve something ...

planning to take rest for sometime ... then start training for my next race....