There are a lot of involuntary contributions to this blog... Thanks to all those who have shared, willingly or otherwise.....


For all those who visit, Leave a Comment...... be nice to know what you're thinking.....



e-mail ettiquette

Email communication is a critical part of our work and there is an urgent need to ensure that every email sent communicates the right things to necessary stakeholders. Hence effective communication has become the need of the hour for better results. A few practical tips to achieve this are listed below.....

  • Try to keep the email brief (one screen length).

  • Return emails within the same time you would a phone call.

  • Avoid discussing private concerns and issues.

  • Avoid using reply to all while responding to an email.

  • Match the subject heading appropriately with content

  • Send email only to individuals from whom you require an action.

  • The individuals marked in CC list should be for information only.

  • Type the message in upper/lower case not all caps.

  • Break text into logical paragraphs and keep sentences short.

  • Avoid blaming statements.

  • Avoid ambiguous statements.

  • Do not surprise the receiver by listing the concerns you have been harboring for a long period of time.

  • Your message may be misunderstood, please resist the urge to send, Review the content before it is irreversible.

  • There are times when you need to take your discussion out of the virtual world and make a phone call.

  • If things become very heated, a lot of misunderstanding occurs, or when you are delivering very delicate news then the best way is still face-to face.

Heart Stroke.....


Remember The 1st Three Letters. . . S.T.R.


STROKE IDENTIFICATION : During a Barbecue, a friend stumbled and took a little fall. She assured everyone that she was fine and had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. (they had offered to call paramedics). They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food and while she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening. Ingrid 's husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital. (at 6:00 PM, Ingrid passed away).


She had suffered a stroke at the Barbecue. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today. Some don't die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead. A neurologist stated that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.


RECOGNIZING A STROKE : Remember the '3' steps S. T. R. Read and Learn! Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke. Now Doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:


S* Ask the individual to 'Smile.'
T* Ask the person to 'talk,' to 'speak a simple sentence in a fluent manner . ( i.e., It is a sunny day today).
R* Ask them to 'Raise Both Arms'.


NOTE: Another sign of a stroke is this:Ask the person to 'stick out' their tongue. If the tongue is 'crooked' that is if it goes to one side of the mouth or the other, it is an indication of a stroke. If they have trouble with 'any one' of these it is an indication of a stroke.

Barbarianism!!!

I came across this very moving message.... please please please spread this to wherever and whoever you can, even if it helps in saving one of these animals....

____________________________________________________________________

This is me.... A Baby Seal..


Norway and Canada have a new kind of tourism. Killing baby seals!!!! They call it 'hunting' and it's a sport.....


You want to call this sport ?? Is he a sportsman???


Why??? What have we done to you???


You're our only hope !!!


Please make it stop. This barbarism shouldn't be possible in our society!!!!


Don't turn your back on us, we are so defenseless, we have no guns, please please help us..!!!


What gives him the right to kill us. Who is he to decide about our life and death ??


What kind of sport is this..?? I didn't harm anyone..!! I was just swimming around doing nothing, now I'm dead...!!!!!


Please help me and my friends...!!!


Please help us...!!


Please don't leave us alone...!!


After all....don't we have a right to live as much as you??

Vanilla Ice Cream that puzzled General Motors

Many of you, unlike me, might have come across this long ago, as it is in circulation for years now. But I just received it today and was spellbound by the incident. For those who are not aware of it, it goes like this –

Never underestimate your Clients’ Complaint, no matter how funny it might seem!

This is a real story that happened between the customer of General Motors and its Customer-Care Executive. Please read on…..

A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors:
‘This is the second time I have written to you, and I don’t blame you for not answering me, because I sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of Ice-Cream for dessert after dinner each night, but the kind of ice cream varies so, every night, after we’ve eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it. It’s also a fact that I recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem….

You see, every time I buy a vanilla ice-cream, when I start back from the store my car won’t start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine. I want you to know I’m serious about this question, no matter how silly it sounds “What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not start when I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?” The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical about the letter, but sent an Engineer to check it out anyway.

The latter was surprised to be greeted by a successful, obviously well educated man in a fine neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinner time, so the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn’t start.

The Engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, they got chocolate. The car started. The second night, he got strawberry. The car started. The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start.

Now the engineer, being a logical man, refused to believe that this man’s car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged, therefore, to continue his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem. And toward this end he began to take notes: He jotted down all sorts of data: time of day, type of gas uses, time to drive back and forth etc.

In a short time, he had a clue: the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other flavor. Why? The answer was in the layout of the store. Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup. All the other flavors were kept in the back of the store at a different counter where it took considerably longer to check out the flavor.

Now, the question for the Engineer was why the car wouldn’t start when it took less time. Eureka - Time was now the problem - not the vanilla ice cream!!!! The engineer quickly came up with the answer: “vapor lock”.

It was happening every night; but the extra time taken to get the other flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. When the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapor lock to dissipate!!!


Even crazy looking problems are sometimes real and all problems seem to be simple only when we find the solution, with cool thinking.

Management Case Studies

Management Case Study No.1

The manager of a large corporation got a heart attack, and the Doctor told him to go for several weeks to a farm to relax. The guy went to a farm, and after a couple of days he was very bored, so he asked the farmer to give him some job to do. The farmer told him to clean the shit of the cows. The farmer thought that to somebody coming from the city, working the whole life sitting in an office, it will take over a week to finish the job, but to his surprise the manager finished the job in less than one day.

The next day the farmer gave to the manager a more difficult job: to cut the heads of 500 chickens. The farmer was sure that the manager will not be able to do the job, but at the end of the day the job was done. The next morning, as most of the jobs in the farm were done, the farmer asked the manager to divide a bag of potatoes in two boxes: one box with small potatoes, and one box with big potatoes.

At the end of the day the farmer saw that the manager was sitting in front of the potatoes bag, but the two boxes were empty. The farmer asked the manager: "How is that you did such difficult jobs during the first days, and now you cannot do this simple job?"

The manager answered: "Listen, all my life I'm cutting heads and dealing with shit, but now you ask me to make decisions!"

Management Case Study No.2

A man goes into a pet shop to buy a parrot. The shop owner points to three identical looking parrots on a perch and says, "the parrot on the left costs 500 dollars". "Why does the parrot cost so much," asks the man. The shop owner says, "well, the parrot knows how to use a computer".

The man then asks about the next parrot to be told that this one costs = 1,000 dollars because it can do everything the other parrot can do plus it knows how to use the UNIX operating system. Naturally, the increasingly startled man asks about the third Parrot to be told that it costs 2,000 dollars.

Needless to say this begs the question, "What can it do?" To which the shop owner replies, "to be honest I have never seen it do a thing, but the other two call him boss!"

Weekend Crazies!!!!

This is normally what happens on a Friday and a Monday.....Check this out...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cevs63S5XLo

Applause for British Airway's - What a story!!!!!!!

This scene took place on a British Airways flight between Johannesburg, South Africa & London.A white woman, about 50 years old, was seated next to a black man.Very disturbed by this, she called the air hostess. "You obviously do not see it then?" she asked. "You placed me next to a black man.I did not agree to sit next to someone from such a repugnant group. Give me an alternative seat."

"Be calm please," the hostess replied. "Almost all the places on this flight are taken. I will go to see if another place is available."The hostess went away & then came back a few minutes later."Madam, just as I thought, there are no other available seats in Economy Class.I spoke to the captain & he informed me that there is also no seat in Business Class. All the same, we still have one place in First Class."

Before the woman could say anything, the hostess continued. "It is unusual for our company to permit someone from Economy Class to sit in First Class. However, given the circumstances, the captain feels that it would be scandalous to make someone sit next to someone so disgusting." She turned to the black guy & said, "Therefore, Sir, if you would like to, please collect your hand luggage, a seat awaits you in First Class."

At that moment, the other passengers, who'd been shocked by what they had just witnessed, stood up & applauded.

WELL DONE, British Airways !!!!

A place above the Clouds.....

A friend told me about this place called Kalavaara Halli and the mountain is called Kalavaarahalli Betta (also called as Skanda Giri). It is near Chikkaballapura (70 km from Bangalore).

The pictures look fabulous...Maybe 1 day soon I will go here for a holiday...


























FACT Files : ( Thanks to Pinaki Roy)
This place is called Kalavaara Halli and the mountain is called Kalavaarahalli Betta (also called as Skanda Giri). It is located near Chikkaballapura - a small town under Bangalore rural district. Height -- about 1750m from sea level.
Distance .. . From Bangalore 70+ kms From Nearest Town/Medical Help : Chikkaballapura Nearest Airport/ Railway station: Bangalore
The Route(Getting there): There are 2 routes to kalawara betta. One is take a turn towards Nandi Hills and go further to Kalawara Village crossing Muddenahalli. This is shorter route than the one from Chikaballapur. Second one is to go to chikaballapur and then to kalawaraVillage. From KalawaraVillage ask for Omkara Jyoti Ashrama / Papagni Mutt. There is a shiva temple and vehicles can be parked there. This is at the base of the Hills. Nandi to Kalawara to Papagni Mutt is 6 kms Chikaballapur to papagni Mutt is 3 kms.
Level of Trekking: Moderate