Janhit Mai Jaari

Hi All,
Sharing my grotesque experience for today at the Madiwala Police station, went there to file a "complaint" for a case of a bicycle theft (rockrider 5.1) which occurred b/w 10:30 PM dated 09/09/2013 and 7:00 AM dated 10/09/2013 and unfortunately that bike was mine, it would have completed a whole month today but then there is more to share.

When I came back from my friend's today morning, we figured out what has really happened. First I thought, Decathlon(the store from where I bought my bike) might be able to help me out but then they do not provide the tracker in India <fail>, I suggested them to explore this aspect while returning.

And then, the eventful journey begins, recently the H.S.R Police Station because of renovation was temporarily shifted near Sharjapur(you will find it on your left hand side if you are traveling to Marathahalli just before taking the right turn towards Sarjapur). Initially, they just didn't listen to what I was complaining about having heard the "cycle" word and then after all the drama they asked me to go to the Madiwala Police Station, which covers Sector 7 of HSR layout, my place of residence.

When I came to the concerned authority (Madiwala Station), they again were hula-balloing "about me complaining for a theft for a cycle". But for the monetary value of the bike they were not at all taking it seriously and it was only after they
heard price value they entertained my request.

They asked me to write an application for the same which I had to write 4 times just because they did not find it in "the correct format" only after buying papers for the same, they asked me to bring coffee for few of their men from a nearby inn, get 4 sets of the FIR from another place. After all this and nearly 3 hours, they asked me to wait for another hour or so. Again, went to some clerk who copied the whole FIR from a printed form( I didn't understand why they needed 4 sets of FIRs and then suddenly they needed a hand written one ). Finally, around 8:00 pm, I had a copy of the FIR for which I was running halter-scelter since 4 pm.

There goes my not so serene experience. Remember to ~
1)Go to the right Police Station that actually covers your area.
2)U need to have some orating skills in order to persuade the officers to entertain your request.
3)Buy papers to write in your application.
4)Write the same in the correct format, you can ask the officer in advance to avoid re-writing the whole thing again n again.
5)Get photo copies.
6)Get coffee/chai for the entire thana, don't ask for the reason. Just Do It.
7)Get a copy of the invoice of the product lost; a picture, possibly, can be of great help.
8)Wait endlessly!
9)Above all, listen to their gibberish n non-sense talks.

Hail the Indian Police Services!

Something About The Wall : Rahul Dravid

What according to you makes Rahul Dravid special?

Dravid says - If no one does it, I will do it, which a leader must possess. He showed that during the 2007 CWC,India's nightmare.

The way he carries himself, his conduct both on and off the field.That is SPECIAL :)

People back home deserve a fighting team, from the man himself!

If you had the chance to ask Dravid one question, what would it be?

I had asked what was going on in his mind during the India chase in the 2003 World Cup final against Australia?

India was in deep trouble and he was in the middle having a paper in his hand.

These two questions were part of an ESPNCricinfo quiz contest to be answered in less than 250 words each,lucky winners of which were to get to be a part of Google hangout with the man himself and an autographed Timeless Steel : Rahul Dravid, how awesome is that. Lets see if I am amongst the lucky ones :) fingers crossed. 

1402

For this Valentine, I decided to put a collection of what I feel are the most endearing poems in the history. Poems are one of the greatest mediums of passing on one's feelings. Here is the list of my favourites, dedicating to the one whom I adore like anything.

~She Will Be Loved~

She Walks in Beauty
by Lord Byron
 (1788-1824) 
SHE walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that 's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)
by E. E. Cummings (1894 - 1962)

i carry your heart with me

(i carry it in my heart)

i am never without it

(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)

i want no world

(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

I loved you first: but afterwards your love . . .

by Christina Rossetti (1830 - 1894)

I loved you first: but afterwards your love
Outsoaring mine, sang such a loftier song
As drowned the friendly cooings of my dove.
Which owes the other most? my love was long,
And yours one moment seemed to wax more strong;
I loved and guessed at you, you construed me
And loved me for what might or might not be –
Nay, weights and measures do us both a wrong.
For verily love knows not ‘mine’ or ‘thine;’
With separate ‘I’ and ‘thou’ free love has done,
For one is both and both are one in love:
Rich love knows nought of ‘thine that is not mine;’
Both have the strength and both the length thereof,
Both of us, of the love which makes us one.

Valentine
by Carol Ann Duffy (1955- )

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
It promises light
Like the careful undressing of love.

Here.
It will blind you with tears
Like a lover.
It will make your reflection
A wobbling photo of grief.

I am trying to be truthful.

Not a cute card or a kissogram.

I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,
Possessive and faithful
As we are,
For as long as we are.

Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,
If you like.
Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers,
Cling to your knife.

A Glimpse 

by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)

A glimpse through an interstice caught,
Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room around the stove late of a winter night, and I unremark’d seated in a corner,
Of a youth who loves me and whom I love, silently approaching and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the hand,
A long while amid the noises of coming and going, of drinking and oath and smutty jest,
There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word.

I Wanna Be Yours
by John Cooper Clarke (1949 - )
I wanna be your vacuum cleaner
Breathing in your dust,
I wanna be your Ford Cortina
I will never rust,
If you like your coffee hot
Let me be your coffee pot,
You call the shots,
I wanna be yours.

I wanna be your raincoat
For those frequent rainy days,
I wanna be your dreamboat
When you want to sail away,
Let me be your teddy bear
Take me with you anywhere,
I don’t care,
I wanna be yours.

I wanna be your electric meter
I will not run out,
I wanna be the electric heater
You’ll get cold without,
I wanna be your setting lotion
Hold your hair in deep devotion,
Deep as the deep Atlantic ocean
That’s how deep is my devotion.

Another Valentine
by Wendy Cope (1945 - )

Today we are obliged to be romantic
And think of yet another valentine.
We know the rules and we are both pedantic:
Today’s the day we have to be romantic.
Our love is old and sure, not new and frantic.
You know I am yours and I know you are mine.
And saying that has made me feel romantic,
My dearest love, my darling valentine

Sonnet 116
by Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

The Good-Morrow
by John Donne (1572 - 1631)
I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?
’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.

And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love, all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.

Love after Love
by Derek Walcott (1930 - )
The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

And finally, this piece of writing is just a raw feeling without much effort,there can be umpteen improvements put into this but I like it the way it was originally penned.I tried to put some of the emotions from Day1 to the present.So, here is the exact writing from my earlier diary entry.Hope you all appreciate it.

I NEED YOU

I saw you,

didn't know the meaning of love at first sight.

And the next day,

something was wrong,I realized.

I needed you.

Longing for you,

springs passed.

             I know you,you know me

             and we do not talk.

So many times,I cry

this has happened

please talk to me,I can only try.

I want to tell you,

how much I love you,

how much I care for you

-that your existence

-that knowing just the fact that you exist

 makes me live another day.

A Case Study : Customer Retention For A Video Rental Retailer

I was supposed to prepare a case study for the final round of selection by a Bangalore based start-up which specialized in CRM solutions.The following data was provided to me and I came up with this case study.

NetFlicks is a DVD and video rental retailer operating in India, and other countries. NetFlicks has several databases:

1. A customer table, containing names and addresses for all their customers and when they joined, and other information.

2. A product table, containing the descriptions of all products stocked. The products stocked include videos, DVDs, computer games, and also snacks and drinks.

3. A transactions table, containing all films, DVDs and games rented by each customer and when they were rented. This also includes sales of any snacks and drinks.

Currently they treat everyone the same - could and should they do anything differently?

In order to grow further and compete they have identified that they need to take a more structured and strategic approach; putting customer data at the core of their decisions.

How would you use this data to get an understanding of NetFlicks customers?

How would this understanding help NetFlicks in marketing to the customers?

What else, besides marketing could this information help NetFlicks with?

How should they analyse the market to assess where they would be able to expand into?

“How Data Analysis Can Help NetFlicks To Have A Better Understanding Of Its Customers and Thus Give A Marketing Push To Increase Its Sales”

                                                               A Case Study by:

                                          Rohit Kachhawaha

 

Client’s Info

NetFlicks is a DVD and video rental retailer operating in India, and other countries. 

Their products stocked include videos, DVDs, computer games and also snacks and drinks. 

The target consumer base is mostly teenagers and youngsters.Also, keeping in mind the other age groups as well, kids and senior citizens etc.

The stores have data recorded at customer, product and transaction level.      

Data Available and Its Application

Data is available for customer’s info, inventory info and transaction info. This available data can be combined to form a single compounded dataset.And, we can look for the meaningful patterns in data using analytical tools.

Based on the data, products could be segmented as per their respective demand; this would help in efficiently managing the inventory. Large stocks for the products that are in high demand. And, also clearance sale for the products not in demand.

Effect of sales of one product on another could be studied through data which would help in identifying the customer’s buying patterns. For example- People who buy more computer games tend to buy more drinks as well.

Based on the data customers could be segmented into categories as: 

a) Frequent visitor with high quantity

b) Frequent visitor with low quantity

c) Occasional visitor with low quantity

d) Occasional visitor with high quantity

These categories could be depicted on a mock graph as:

Customer Quality

 I quadrant depicts the (a) category customers, these are loyal and buy in high quantity as well. These are the most favorable customers.

·     II quadrant depicts the (b) category customers, these are also loyal but don’t buy in high quantity.

·     III quadrant depicts the (c) category customers; they contribute least to the sales.

·     IV quadrant depicts the (d) category customers, these visit occasionally buy in high quantity.

Marketing Measures Based on Different Customer Segments:

  

Customers in category (a):

These are the top priority customers,they bring maximum business, loyalty programs and incentives (in the form of discounts on bulk purchases or discount coupons for referring their friends) should be given so that they don’t migrate to other retailers.They must be informed in a timely manner about the new videos,movies.

Customers in category (b):

These customers come in second priority, they are high potential customers. Promotional offers with attractive discounts should be launched for these customers to convert them into category (a) customers.

Customers in category (d):

These customers come in third in the priority list; they are also high potential customers. They should be given regular updates about new product launches via SMSs, emails etc. Social media sites and promotional mails could be used for this purpose.

Customers in category (c):

These customers visit occasionally and thus have little information about the product range available with the retailer. They could be given promotional pamphlets describing the available product range with the retailer and also giving information about loyalty programs and promotional offers.

Based on Customer’s Buying Patterns:

By giving special discounts on snacks and drinks for bulk orders for DVDs/Computer games.

By launching festive season discount offers to give further push to sales which are already high during these times.

By arranging for special gaming sessions for gamers both online as well as in house which would attract new customers as well.

By having the facility of free home delivery to the most favourable customers.

Miscellaneous

Market survey to get an idea about what kind of product is in demand, services expected and if they are satisfied with the current service provider.

Having a dedicated service portal for customers where he can raise his query or call for any help, which must be immediately looked into.

Being Proactive – asking about how a customer finds a particular service. For eg, the store can ask him about the quality of the DVDs, videos rented to him.

What a brand asks for is a happy customer. Free advertisements are always welcome.

If a customer is buying only action movies, then on release of an action movie, he can be targeted.  Same goes for movies,videos of other genres.

If someone like to try movies of different genres then he can be targeted by non-popular yet good rating movies. So, if targeted suggestion system works out, customers starts becoming loyal to Netflix, it can then really boost sales.

The address of the customer is another important data type. We can easily find out from where the major chunk of the customers are coming.Lets say the majorly are located in southern India, then we can communicate those customers about the regional movies.

If a customers rents a movie, lets say, every 6days and he hasn't rented any movie for the last 10days, we can assume he has started renting movies from any different store/site, so before he becomes a dormant or inactive customer, he can be easily pulled back by giving an aggressive offer.

I have had a lot of help in making this case study ,especially from Puneet Chouksey, who almost co-authored it, Gaurav Agrawal - without him I would not have had the opportunity of having such an amazing selection experience, Ishan Jain and Harsh Vaidya for being the mentor. Thanks to you guys for making it possible for me.