Thursday, August 24, 2006

Something to wait for!



Conferences don’t excite me anymore, although I may consider the next India Today Conclave—if they invite nicely and not just send over the invitation package. Which too they have neglected to do these last four years.

But I learnt about this conference called (September 9 and 10, 2006) and can’t wait to get there. It’s unlike any conference that I’ve heard of, but not unlike how people often work when they are having most fun!

And I’m blogging about it? You can guess how excited I must be because I hardly ever blog about anything. But your guess would be wrong because I don’t blog about the most exciting things in my life.

So I’d give you a clue. This is history being made and I want to claim that I saw it coming.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Makes no sense

Visited my blog after a long time.

So far it's a set of disparate, infrequent posts that have little in common. And the blog as a whole lacks purpose.

When I realise that, why does it exists?

For one, I realised this only now.

Secondly, realising where it fails, and why, is progress. Always a good reason to do something.

Thanks to you for dropping by. Have a good day!

Friday, January 06, 2006

The Swift Pace of Online Business

The people over at Amazon.com are swift.

As I had discovered earlier, ordering and downloading an e-document on Amazon is a breeze, even though I received something different from what was offered.

Well, they have sent a quick and polite promise of refund:

I've requested a refund of $6.00 to your credit card. This refund should go through within 2-3 business days and will appear as a credit on your next credit card billing statement.


(Thank you, folks!)

Have they fixed the error that led to this situation in the first place?

Not yet. As I write, the digtial edition of the book at $ 6 is still on offer: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684841479

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Perils of Buying Online

On January 2, 2006 I was looking for Michael E. Porter's book "The Competitive Advantage of Nations" on Amazon.com.

Amazon described the product as:

Hardcover: 896 pages
Publisher: Free Press (June 1, 1998)
ISBN: 0684841479

Among "Other Editions" was indicated a Digital Download in pdf format for $ 6.00.

I need the book for my own dissertation and thought it would be nice to obtain a digital copy because one can search for information, bookmark for later reference, and quote the original text accurately.

The whole process of ordering and downloading the book was a breeze. But to my horror what I received instead was a 1990 article from the Harvard Business Review—bearing the same title and from the same author.

Understandably, Amazon has a "no return" policy on downloads of pdf files. Nevertheless, I've written to the folks at Amazon.com for a refund because what they provided isn’t what they offered.

As I wait for their response, two questions pop into my mind:

  1. Should I actually ask for a pdf of the book that I want rather than a refund? After all, they accepted the order and charged my credit card, which makes it a contract.

  2. What if I had actually ordered the paper and got the book instead?

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Easy and difficult ways

On first day of yoga, we sat in the last row and tried to copy the movements of the class. This wasn't as easy as you may think, because I couldn’t help laughing!

Yes, it was silly, but I was helpless to act otherwise.

As I realised later, the laughter was a result of two opposing forces: one, the desire to explore this exercise form and the other, an unwillingness to be seen associating with the doctrinaire worldview of yoga.

Okay, try sitting still with your back straight and neutral. Such a posture should require the least effort, but it can be extremely uncomfortable and tiring for someone not used to it. Even a few minutes are hell. What is happening here?

Let me give you another example. Some blog effortlessly: expressing their viewpoint in simple language and yet communicating the subtlest of ideas. Others, perhaps more erudite, get tied up in knots saying the simplest of things.

When there is dysfunctional body tension, it is difficult to sit in a neutral, upright posture, something that should otherwise come naturally. It’s the same when a blogger’s output is impeded by conflicting tendencies in his mind.

Practice, with maybe a little bit of help, can correct these faults. As unnatural tensions disappear, body movements become fluid. (Or the writing flows.)

As I close my eyes to exercise these days, laughter is the farthest thing from my mind.

A lot of what the life’s has to offer remains blocked because of our own dysfunctional behaviour. We only need to discover the blocker.

Sometimes it could be conscious thought itself...