Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The real way to play chess@@@@

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Sunday, August 17, 2008

Ducks Quack, Eagles Soar!

Ducks Quack, Eagles Soar
Poasted at http://raghudonspeaks.blogspot.com/


No one can make you serve customers well.

That's because great service is a choice.

Harvey Mackay, tells a wonderful story about a cab driver that proved this point.

He was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey .

He handed my friend a laminated card and said:'I'm Wally, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement.'

Taken aback, Harvey read the card.

It said:  Wally's Mission Statement:
To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.

This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, 'Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.'

My friend said jokingly, 'No, I'd prefer a soft drink.'

Wally smiled and said, 'No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice.'

Almost stuttering, Harvey said, 'I'll take a Diet Coke.'

Handing him his drink, Wally said, 'If you'd like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today.'

As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another laminated card, 'These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you'd like to listen to the radio.'

And as if that weren't enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him.

Then he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day. He also let him know that he'd be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts.

'Tell me, Wally,' my amazed friend asked the driver, 'have you always served customers like this?'

Wally smiled into the rear view mirror. 'No, not always. In fact, it's only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer , on the radio one day.

He had just written a book called You'll See It When You Believe It .  Dyer said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you'll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, 'Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don't be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.''

'That hit me right between the eyes,' said Wally. 'Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.'

'I take it that has paid off for you,' Harvey said.

'It sure has,' Wally replied. 'My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I'll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don't sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can't pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action.'

Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab. I've probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn't do any of what I was suggesting.

Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles.

How about us?

Smile, and the whole world smiles with you.....The ball is in our hands!

A man reaps what he sows.  Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up...let us do good to all people.



 

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"Bachna Ae Haseeno"

This is some movie review!!!!!!

Posted on http://raghudonspeaks.blogspot.com

 

My thoughts on Bachna Ae Haseeno

Posted: 16 Aug 2008 03:21 AM CDT

Warning: This is not a review.

When you walk in to a Yash Raj Films movie, you're expecting three hours of street-smart humour threaded into an unconvincing plot with fabricated drama. Bachna, for the record, gives you all three.

At any rate, this might just be a one time watch, not because it's watchable, but probably because God Tussi Great Ho is utterly horrible. Ranbir does well, except when he tries to emote, which, incidentally, applies to atleast two of the women as well. The story goes thus: Raj (Ranbir) first meets Mahi (Minnisha Lamba) in Switzerland, who is so smitten by DDLJ that the very title track playing in the background brights up her eyes and makes her run towards the source of the melody. She misses her family and the train, he jumps off it, walks up to her and they ride, through the scenic locales of Switzerland, to Zurich where Mahi's family wait for her anxiously. On the way, they fall in love with a song thrown in, only to realize that Mahi is engaged. A goodbye-kiss at the airport later, Raj reveals his true intent: he has little long-term interest in Mahi anyway. And heart number one, a cute little punjabi one dripping in DDLJ, crashes.

Fast-forward to Bombay, where Raj is now working for Microsoft, X-Box Halo 3 to be precise, and is in a live-in relationship with Radhika (Bips). Only just that he *thinks* it's a live-in, and he *thinks* she's that modern-type-ki-ladki, the stereotype model, who doesn't believe in marriage, who puts her career ahead and whatnot. As a result, you can feel for Ranbir who, like the audience, is surprised when Radhika, after hanging out in all those shorts that define 'short', says she wants to marry him: red-saree et-all. But where is Raj? Oh, a timely Microsoft transfer to Australia, mate.

And what there? After hanging out with — and being thrown out by — a number of 'firang' girls that he himself can't keep a track of, Raj meets Gayatri (Deepika Padukone), who isn't as feminine as Raj is perhaps used to. She drives a cab, makes secret notes of stock tips as she overhears them, works at a retail store and studies for her MBA. The independent expat girl in Oz, and what's more, she's likable enough for Raj to actually fall in love with her. He fetches a few hundred candles, and at a fountain, goes down on his knees and proposes. But Gayatri, minutes before the interval, says she doesn't believe in marriage, that it's not economically practical, and a host of other stuff that make you go - 'hey, she really makes sense - now is this really a YRF movie'?

The joy, unfortunately, is short lived, for it really *is* a Yash Raj film. Because our hero, God bless his golden soul of pure intent, decides to go back to girl 1 and 2 and apologize to them. Which he does, obviously, and why wouldn't he, armed with a name and dancing steps like the 'real' Raj we know. The second half is as predictable as a sunset, except that watching it doesn't give you the same kind of pleasure.

Ranbir is good, he can dance, he can walk the talk and while he does look clumsy at times, that's just another added dimension to his character. Minnisha Lamba has an infectious smile, but she really could work on her dialogues. Bips plays the smart, seductive and the arrogant bitchy heroine rather well. Deepika is also a treat to watch, and she sounds very Bangalorean when she speaks English, dripping wet in the Mount Carmel accent when she goes 'dood' for dude, and for her second flick does quite well. But the film-makers really need to give her better names: from Shantipriya to Sandy to Gayatri. Right.

Director Siddharth Anand, unfortunately, has gone downhill since Salaam Namaste. That movie worked because the characters were all so likable, and the inimitable Javed Jaffrey thrown in. Ta Ra Rum Pum bombed, and rightly so, although there was a bit of a storyline in it. Bachna, however, is really extended. It's too long, or it feels that way, with a number of unnecessary songs pushed in.

Incidentally, there's another way of looking at Bachna Ae Haseeno: an extended commercial for Microsoft X-Box Halo 3. Last I recall, Microsoft Australia didn't pay its game-developers enough to rent a classy apartment in a prime location in Sydney *and* Porsche SUVs. And they surely don't grant a six-month vacation for their lead developer to go back and apologize to two of his ex-girlfriends. And there really aren't tuxedos and overly sophisticated people at a Microsoft product launch party. Nope — I'll tell you what happens at a Microsoft launch party: the software crashes.

And while we're at it, Yash Raj and co. have to stop borrowing from their old films. They've borrowed the music from Dhoom, from Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, and possibly the same fashion-sense of JBJ as well which is, to put it mildly, questionable. In fact, throughout Bachna Ae Haseeno, there is this serious DDLJ hang-over ('Raj', the title track playing in the background, Switzerland, the train, and I could just go on). Now, DDLJ is a classic, and I bow to thee.

Bachna, unfortunately, is far from it.

[RJ] Posted from www.Mutiny.in

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