नैना तेरे कजरारे हैं, नैनों पे हम दिल हारे हैं!

Kudos Cleartrip!

Customer Satisfaction is one thing. Customer Delight is a different level altogether!

Folks at Cleartrip.com have pleasantly surprised and even delighted me recently with the user experience on their site and their innovative features. After quite a while in my personal experience have I come across an application of technology which I would have been proud to call ‘My Creation’ as a software engineer!

I first took notice of Cleartrip when they launched Train Reservations recently. I was so fed up of the IRCTC’s painfully unusable site (you really have to use it to feel the pain!) that I was sure cleartrip would be better – that was expected. However, cleartrip exceeded my expectations with its simple, clean, clutter-free and fast interface. Here are just some of the things I liked about the interface:-

• As already mentioned, it’s Clean, Simple, Clutter-Free and Fast
• You don’t need to register to be able to book a ticket (unlike irctc)
• Even if you decide to register, registration is simple requiring you to provide only a valid email-id to start with. All the other profile details are optional and you can fill them up later, out of band
• The ‘All Stations’ option in the station selection drop down (wish they added “All Classes” as well)
• Availaibility Calendar for train bookings is cool
• Air Fare Calendar for flights

Then, a few days ago, they bowled me over again with the Cleartrip Chat-Bot for train bookings. I immediately invited the bot to gtalk and played with a few commands and queries and voila! It was simple, fast and fun!

I also discovered that they exposed web api’s for Flights and Hotels. I guess they are probably the first Indian travel services company to do so.

Frankly, I did not expect such sophisticated and innovative application of technology from what I thought was, primarily, a travel services company. (And was I wrong! How could I forget Amazon!)

Kudos Cleartrip! Keep it up!

P.S.

Even as I was typing this, cleartrip came out with Dynamic Fares. Haven’t tested this yet but sounds like another cool feature.

A Letter to Anne

Dear Kitty,

You might find it silly but I couldn’t think of any other way of reaching Anne. I imagine she is somwhere in heaven, among angels and fairies (I like to think she was always one of them ) and I’m sure she still talks her heart out to you (In fact, I kind of envy you! I wish I was in your place!). I’m writing to you in the hope that you’ll convey my message to her. You will, right?

Here I go:

“Dearest Anne,

I have some confessions to make to you today. Some personal and some otherwise!

Perhaps you already know by now – Germany was defeated in the war and some innocent people were liberated from the camps (hope it brings/brought you some relief). Your father survived and from what I know, led a good happy life. He might have never said so, but, Anne, believe me, he loved you a lot. He made sure that your wish was fulfilled and that you, his daughter, received the affection of millions, that she so deserved!

Anne, I know it’d pain you but I must tell you that we the people of this world have still not learned our lessons. The Hindus, the Muslims, the Jews and the Christians of the world continue to hate and kill each other and no one trusts no one. We all take turns at playing the ‘Nazi’. It seems the holocaust did not end with Germany’s defeat in World War II. Perhaps some of it leaked from one of those gas chambers and it seethes and simmers to this day in different parts of the world. An invisible mushroom cloud hangs above the entire planet, threatning to choke all of us to death but we continue to fuel it with hate, corruption and fascism of religion, race, culture and thought.

Going to school and getting promoted to the next grade; Enjoying delicious dinners with family; Watching the kids grow up; Reading and writing books; Listening to and creating music; discovering and inventing new things…

Why do people forgo these simple joys of life and instead turn into fanatic murderers? Why is there hate?

I have only so much an answer as perhaps you did, but I do have something precious that you have given me  (and perhaps the millions, who now know you) – your innocent courage and vivacity in the face of adversity has given us hope! For two years in that annexe, with your courage and spirit, you fought an entire hysterical, war-obsessed, brute humanity. They killed and wounded millions but they couldn’t touch the child in you. That child continues to inspire and spread cheer in the world despite everything. I wanted to tell you this beacuse I knew it’d make you happy and proud and I’m glad I could make you smile.

Anne, you are a beautiful person and the more I come to know you everyday (I’m still reading your diary and I don’t really want to finish reading it! I don’t want it to end!), the more I wonder how things would have been had I been in the secret annexe with you! Perhaps we would have played and studied together (of course, you would beat me too at short hand ). Perhaps I would have hugged you close to my heart whenever you felt sad or afraid. (Not that I wouldn’t have been afraid myself, but together we could have been each other’s strength!).

Perhaps I am falling in love with you! With your childlike innocence, with your honest emotions, with your undying hope and faith in goodness. Yes, I am falling in Love with you!

Yours,

T.”

P.S.

Thanks Kitty

Miep and Bep and everyone else who risked their lives to help their friends and strangers – people like you are the ones who keep faith in a saner humanity alive amidst all this madness. Thanks.

The Making of the Global Financial Mess!

Here’s a very good read on “behind the scenes” making of the global financial crisis we are in today and how it all started with the U.S. home loans market and spiralled into a worldwide phenomena.

On a different note, I believe this whole crisis and the recent happenings have removed all doubts, confusion and hesitation, if there were any, about the rules of the game in the “Flat” world we live in today.

I can no longer ignore or be oblivious to what happens in a remote part of the world, 12 hours away from me, because whether or not I can earn my daily bread depends on that!

So, now that our fates and lives are so closely entwined, can’t we, as citizens of the world, use this as an opportunity to come together and resolve not only the current financial problems but also the problems that mar humanity once and for all – poverty, hunger, illiteracy, global warming, terrorism…

Perhaps this is our chance?

Help, my earphones are entangled! Again!

Ever since my phone decided to go quiet and I became dependent on my earphones, I end up being frustrated every single time I have to attend or make a call!

No matter what I do, however neatly I fold the wires, every time I take the earphones out from my pocket, they are horribly messed up, with the wires entangled into such complicated knots, that untangling them is, I’d say, at least as challenging as, if not more than, solving a complex mathematical puzzle.

I wonder how these knots form!

One plausible explanation that I can think of is Entropy. My line of reasoning is similar to the one generally adopted to explain why things tend to break: There is only one way for the earphones to remain untangled but an infinite number of ways for the wires to be entangled.

I find it a bit strange, and funny, and yet awe inspiring!
Think of it, as if it’s God – the ultimate developer – proclaiming that all the chaos in the universe is ‘By Design’. Imagine if the developers at Microsoft (used here as a placeholder … it could have been Google or Adobe or Yahoo… ) could say something similar. Something like, “All the chaos in the software is by design, and it will only increase over time!” (Some people may argue that it is, in fact, already true, but I am discounting those protests here ).

If everyone realized that ‘chaos’ was unavoidable, the ultimate truth, God’s doctrine; we could perhaps save trillions of rupees, dollars, euros etc which are being wasted on futile efforts to overcome chaos like forming governments, putting in place ‘Law and Order’ systems, recruiting (and this includes the medal winners at the Olympics from Haryana!), transferring and dismissing policemen….
These funds could then be put to more meaningful uses like feeding the hungry and designing and manufacturing better earphones which don’t get entangled easily.

Coming back to my original problem, while it gives me some comfort to know that it is not a targeted attack to frustrate me but just another manifestation of a universal phenomenon, I wouldn’t mind somebody gifting me a pair of retractable earphones or a bluetooth headset. It is at the top of my wishlist as of now!