Here are some of the quiz questions which I would like all of you to try without googling. :)
1. What is the strategy called, when a company targeted for takeover launches a counter offer and actually ends up buying the company trying to acquire it?
2. This one is for comic book fans. Where will you find a fish tank, a glass of a favorite pirate drink, an opium tincture, and a collection of books?
3. Who said "Tom, the playing field is being leveled" to whom about outsourcing?
4. How do we better know a technology that promises ‘best resolution audiovisual’ and also has an Integrated Architecture for it?
5. According to Thomas Friedman, there are two responses to Globalization. One is Infosys, which is the other?
6. The 2006 Light of Truth award given by the Dalai Lama for significant contribution to public understanding of Tibet was given to Desmond Tutu and who?
7. One for rock fans. The album cover for Hotel California features which real-life hotel?
8. Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, ____. Fill in the blank.
9. Who was Respondent #8 in a case of RBI against P. M. Sahakari Bank of Jalgaon in 2003, when the bank had illegally waived off interest on many loans?
10.What do the following banks do together, twice daily? Scotia-Mocatta (a part of Bank of Nova Scotia), Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Societe Generale.
Will post the answers on 3rd October. Happy Solving!!!
Tuesday 25 September, 2007
Friday 14 September, 2007
A 'Kaya'tic Experience
Its a typical lazy Friday morning at home during the vacations for Tiger Saajan.
11 am.
Tiger's slouching on the sofa, remote in hand, flipping through the crap. His mom walks by, asking if he's finished his breakfast, which btw is in his other hand, for a while then.
He looks at the plate, its indeed empty. Magically he's finished everything without ever really noticing it. Mom comes around again and he answers yes. Then, back to channel-switching.
His mom, unable to bear all the inaction asks Tiger his plan for the day. He just nods his head in some arbit direction.
She tells him, "Well, I have this free voucher for a hair loss checkup". (A few days back, he'd mentioned to Mum about his sudden hair loss problem.)
Hearing the word FREE Tiger springs right up, all his Marathigiri instincts kicking in. And, its not like he's going to the dentist or something!
Its a Rs.1000 worth FREE consultation at the Kaya Skin Clinic, Lokhandwala. Kaya's a relatively new brand of skin & haircare services & products from Marico. Haven't we all heard about it innumerable times - Marketing cases et al.
So he tells Mom "I wouldn't mind going", and asks her to fix up an appointment.
Its scheduled to be at 3.30 pm.
After fiddling around with the lappy and TV (interchangably), Tiger sits down for lunch at 1.30, conveniently forgetting that he's not yet had a bath.
Nevertheless, the lunch is fabulous as usual and he heads to the couch for a quick nap.
"I'll wake up at 3, have a bath and leave for THE KAYA SKIN CLINIC at 3.20".
As usual, he misses the alarm, and wakes up at 3.20, groggy and disoriented. A pair of jeans and he's off. He reaches at 3.30 dot. Its on the first floor of a quite swanky building. (Its Lokhandwala, its gotta be swanky!)
Tiger feels the cool metal handle on the glass door. At that exact moment he feels a twinge in his spine. Something's not right, sixth sense? MAYBE!! He walks in nevertheless.
The place smells nice. But the color, its, errr.. Pink-ish, or is it? Again, that twinge in the spine. Hmmmm...
There are two hot looking chicks behind the table. Tiger proudly walks up, FREE consultation coupon in hand.
"I have an appointment for 3.30." The chicks are not that hot, Tiger decides on further 'examination', ones a chink, and the other he can't figure out. Both are like plastic dolls who've been given some weird sort of polish, the light actually seeming to reflect off-of their faces.
"Please have a seat sir"
Tiger takes a seat, its seems rather hard on the bottom, but he lets that pass. The chink comes up and gives him a form to fill.
Name, age, yada yada yada... Err.. then, "When did you last shave?" The twinge in the spine, again... He looks up quizzingly, the chink come over again and asks politely, "Sir, may I help you fill the form"?
Tiger declines, he says its ok, and fills 'Yesterday' for that rather odd question.
He gives up the form. The other chick then tells him that a Dr. Manisha would see him in a while.
As he's sitting around twiddling thumbs, a couple of women walk by, through the door and out. Tiger wonders, "Hmm.. This place is nice..." But he's actually still a little uncomfortable, the place is quite claustrophobic, the Pink on the walls seeming to get brighter with time.
Dr. Manisha, finally arrives and escorts Tiger to her room. She's a sweet lady, dressed crisply in white and looks professional.
In the room, she gets on the topic right away. Tiger discusses about his sudden hair loss, and gives details about how much he sleeps, eats, drinks etc etc.
"Would you like to get your skin also examined, sir??"
"If its part of the package, I'd be happy to" Tiger responds amicably.
So she turns on this machine and asks Tiger to place his head on it. THere's a mirror inside. Its dark, but he can see his teeth and a whole lot of orange dots on his face!
"These dots that you see are oil pores, and they can be removed with treatment"
Tiger wonders to himself, "Who the hell can see these things without this machine, how does it even matter!!"
"You can enrol for a face massage" blah blah blah... Tiger's lost. He politely declines, and reminds the doc, "What do you suggest for the hair loss?"
"Well this is a typical andro-genetic hair loss." (or some sh*t like that...) "Its seen in males in the age group 25-40 and is also called male pattern baldness" yada yada yada...
"Err, what do you suggest I do for this", Tiger quickly asks.
"You can go for our special hair oil, apply it daily, and then use our special hair shampoo, twice a week".
As the doc says this, another chick walks in, looks at Tiger and hurriedly retreats!?!
Thats it! Tiger realizes his worst fears coming true - The Pink color walls, the fragnance, all the 'hi-fi' technology which can show you your otherwise invisible pores, which only women can lose their sleep over - The place's TOTALLY for them!
Tiger tries to keep conversation with the doc as brief as possible. By now, she's pleading with him to get a facial, use their toner, get his back treated, etc. etc. etc. He gives her his Mum's number as his own number, says his polite thankyous and rushes out.
At the reception, four of the hottest chicks in all of friggin' Lokhandwala are sitting their, waiting their turn for the doc.
And as Tiger rushes out, he wonders to himself "What on earth are they doin here, they don't need to see them orange dots and go ballistic.." Its all ok, they look good as they are!!
He smiles at the chink and is quickly past the glass door.
He heaves a sigh of relief as he sits in the rick to get back home. Boy, that was one hell of an experience. At least he got to see some good chicks for FREE, okay he paid 30 bucks for the rick, but itna to chalta hai na!?
11 am.
Tiger's slouching on the sofa, remote in hand, flipping through the crap. His mom walks by, asking if he's finished his breakfast, which btw is in his other hand, for a while then.
He looks at the plate, its indeed empty. Magically he's finished everything without ever really noticing it. Mom comes around again and he answers yes. Then, back to channel-switching.
His mom, unable to bear all the inaction asks Tiger his plan for the day. He just nods his head in some arbit direction.
She tells him, "Well, I have this free voucher for a hair loss checkup". (A few days back, he'd mentioned to Mum about his sudden hair loss problem.)
Hearing the word FREE Tiger springs right up, all his Marathigiri instincts kicking in. And, its not like he's going to the dentist or something!
Its a Rs.1000 worth FREE consultation at the Kaya Skin Clinic, Lokhandwala. Kaya's a relatively new brand of skin & haircare services & products from Marico. Haven't we all heard about it innumerable times - Marketing cases et al.
So he tells Mom "I wouldn't mind going", and asks her to fix up an appointment.
Its scheduled to be at 3.30 pm.
After fiddling around with the lappy and TV (interchangably), Tiger sits down for lunch at 1.30, conveniently forgetting that he's not yet had a bath.
Nevertheless, the lunch is fabulous as usual and he heads to the couch for a quick nap.
"I'll wake up at 3, have a bath and leave for THE KAYA SKIN CLINIC at 3.20".
As usual, he misses the alarm, and wakes up at 3.20, groggy and disoriented. A pair of jeans and he's off. He reaches at 3.30 dot. Its on the first floor of a quite swanky building. (Its Lokhandwala, its gotta be swanky!)
Tiger feels the cool metal handle on the glass door. At that exact moment he feels a twinge in his spine. Something's not right, sixth sense? MAYBE!! He walks in nevertheless.
The place smells nice. But the color, its, errr.. Pink-ish, or is it? Again, that twinge in the spine. Hmmmm...
There are two hot looking chicks behind the table. Tiger proudly walks up, FREE consultation coupon in hand.
"I have an appointment for 3.30." The chicks are not that hot, Tiger decides on further 'examination', ones a chink, and the other he can't figure out. Both are like plastic dolls who've been given some weird sort of polish, the light actually seeming to reflect off-of their faces.
"Please have a seat sir"
Tiger takes a seat, its seems rather hard on the bottom, but he lets that pass. The chink comes up and gives him a form to fill.
Name, age, yada yada yada... Err.. then, "When did you last shave?" The twinge in the spine, again... He looks up quizzingly, the chink come over again and asks politely, "Sir, may I help you fill the form"?
Tiger declines, he says its ok, and fills 'Yesterday' for that rather odd question.
He gives up the form. The other chick then tells him that a Dr. Manisha would see him in a while.
As he's sitting around twiddling thumbs, a couple of women walk by, through the door and out. Tiger wonders, "Hmm.. This place is nice..." But he's actually still a little uncomfortable, the place is quite claustrophobic, the Pink on the walls seeming to get brighter with time.
Dr. Manisha, finally arrives and escorts Tiger to her room. She's a sweet lady, dressed crisply in white and looks professional.
In the room, she gets on the topic right away. Tiger discusses about his sudden hair loss, and gives details about how much he sleeps, eats, drinks etc etc.
"Would you like to get your skin also examined, sir??"
"If its part of the package, I'd be happy to" Tiger responds amicably.
So she turns on this machine and asks Tiger to place his head on it. THere's a mirror inside. Its dark, but he can see his teeth and a whole lot of orange dots on his face!
"These dots that you see are oil pores, and they can be removed with treatment"
Tiger wonders to himself, "Who the hell can see these things without this machine, how does it even matter!!"
"You can enrol for a face massage" blah blah blah... Tiger's lost. He politely declines, and reminds the doc, "What do you suggest for the hair loss?"
"Well this is a typical andro-genetic hair loss." (or some sh*t like that...) "Its seen in males in the age group 25-40 and is also called male pattern baldness" yada yada yada...
"Err, what do you suggest I do for this", Tiger quickly asks.
"You can go for our special hair oil, apply it daily, and then use our special hair shampoo, twice a week".
As the doc says this, another chick walks in, looks at Tiger and hurriedly retreats!?!
Thats it! Tiger realizes his worst fears coming true - The Pink color walls, the fragnance, all the 'hi-fi' technology which can show you your otherwise invisible pores, which only women can lose their sleep over - The place's TOTALLY for them!
Tiger tries to keep conversation with the doc as brief as possible. By now, she's pleading with him to get a facial, use their toner, get his back treated, etc. etc. etc. He gives her his Mum's number as his own number, says his polite thankyous and rushes out.
At the reception, four of the hottest chicks in all of friggin' Lokhandwala are sitting their, waiting their turn for the doc.
And as Tiger rushes out, he wonders to himself "What on earth are they doin here, they don't need to see them orange dots and go ballistic.." Its all ok, they look good as they are!!
He smiles at the chink and is quickly past the glass door.
He heaves a sigh of relief as he sits in the rick to get back home. Boy, that was one hell of an experience. At least he got to see some good chicks for FREE, okay he paid 30 bucks for the rick, but itna to chalta hai na!?
Tuesday 11 September, 2007
Zero sum
The world we live in is full of zero-sum events. Maybe law of conservation of energy can be one of the foundation stones in that direction. Even in fields like economics or market share or anything, taking a larger or a more holistic view it often is a zero sum.
Consider a economic system in which various parameters (say prices, or purchasing power parity of different people or sets of people etc.) are x1, x2 etc.
So we have,
x1 + x2 + x3 + ... + xn= 0, for all transactions in a fairly large system.
Now if we say that economy is growing at some rate say r.
[r can be dependent upon rate of inflation or GDP growth rate or some parameter which can be calculated as a weighted average of various factors]
So, for the bigger economy, we have
r * [x1 + x2 + x3 + ... + xn ]= 0.
Thus, economy still remains a zero sum game.
Various changes be it social, political or technological, it effects r, but the variables within the bracket may not be effected.
Qualitatively, economy is growing, but on one hand rich are getting richer, and poor are getting poorer. Both qualitative and quantitative appear to be in sync somewhere. So it doesn't matter in the system as whole, and it remains a zero sum game. Same may hold true for other fields also.
Consider a economic system in which various parameters (say prices, or purchasing power parity of different people or sets of people etc.) are x1, x2 etc.
So we have,
x1 + x2 + x3 + ... + xn= 0, for all transactions in a fairly large system.
Now if we say that economy is growing at some rate say r.
[r can be dependent upon rate of inflation or GDP growth rate or some parameter which can be calculated as a weighted average of various factors]
So, for the bigger economy, we have
r * [x1 + x2 + x3 + ... + xn ]= 0.
Thus, economy still remains a zero sum game.
Various changes be it social, political or technological, it effects r, but the variables within the bracket may not be effected.
Qualitatively, economy is growing, but on one hand rich are getting richer, and poor are getting poorer. Both qualitative and quantitative appear to be in sync somewhere. So it doesn't matter in the system as whole, and it remains a zero sum game. Same may hold true for other fields also.
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