e-Book on Corporate Selling now on eBay

My e-Book on corporate selling skills now on eBay at http://www.ebay.in/itm/320800645163

Thanks

Nano Motor in a Single Molecule

A motor in a single molecule.

 Read on here

Ready Reckoner for Corporate Sales Executives

Hey there.
I penned down a ready reckoner for Corporate Sales Executives and you could read your copy here

or write to me for a free PDF version.
Have fun selling.

Trip to BITS Pilani

Here is a short excerpt of my trip to Pilani this weekend. I had to skip my end sem regulars at Delhi this April, actually NOIDA (where the Exam center was located) because of a family engagement, and had no choice but to plan a trip to Pilani for the makeup. I had been to Pilani last year for the same reason in the Month of April, but it was much cooler and more pleasant this time around. I was hoping to have some of the other MSSS guys accompany me but it didn't work out so I was on my way all by myself, and the driver of the cab I hired of course. This was the same cab guy I hired last year and he was quite familiar with me and the route, or so I thought. This Yadav guy, made a last minute request to allow one of his friends, who needed to find his was to a village en-route to Pilani, accompany us, to which I readily agreed. We finally started out from Gurgaon at 2.30 PM on friday the 15th April hoping to be at VFAST by dinner time.But.. The journey started uneventfully and I was trying to catch up with the ppts I had printed from the BITS VU website. It looked good till we reached a place short of Mahendargarh past Rewari. The cab slowed down and we were almost crawling on the highway, hoping for the cars ahead of us to start moving, when suddenly our cab (Indica) hurtled forward and I heard a painful crunching sound. It did not take us long to realize that a TATA 407 that just sped past us on the wrong side of the road had hit us big time. Yadav gave a quick chase to the TATA 407 and we caught up with it. This TATA driver got off and was defiant and insisted he was not at fault for either hitting our cab or for fleeing away without giving us a second glance. A quick look at the left front of his TATA made us realize the magnitude of the impact, because the entire grille had caved in about a foot. This made us quickly examine our Indica to realize that the tail light assembly and the metal that surrounded had got crushed in and the cab looked a mess. The Indica driver was furious and so was the small crowd that usually comes for free with such roadside spectacular entertainments. The TATA driver, it turns out was stoned drunk and couldn't even stand or talk, and was in for a quick vigilante justice and was slapped and jolted by the small gathering to breathe some sobriety into him, but in vain. It was just past 4.30 pm. Someone pried open the glovebox of the TATA and found the driver's license and someone from the crown proclaimed that he was from the same village as the TATA driver. He, along with his friends in a loud Scorpio, offered to drive the TATA to a Police Station up ahead to seek justice for my driver, who by now had estimated his loss to be in the range of Rs 10k at an authorized dealer and 4 to 5k at a roadside mechanic. In either case his loss was around 5k ish. In the melee that ensued, my driver pocketed the mobile phone of the TATA guy and when I found out, I suggested that it be returned, which he did later. Now we were moving in a cavalcade, a loud Scorpio, a TATA 407 and us in the Indica. While we quietly drove hoping to find the 'nearest' police station, my driver Yadav, suddenly realized that what we may be heading for, may not be a police station, but a possible village mob from the TATA driver's neighborhood. And it may turn ugly. While he was considering whether he should stick to the cavalcade or just move on our way, the Scorpio ahead of us suddenly pulled over, flagged us down and uneventfully asked us to take care of the TATA and the drunk driver and drove away. Now we were left with a drunk TATA driver, and a TATA 407 in the middle of nowhere. I asked my driver's friend to escort the TATA to a Police station while we would give a lift to the Drunk driver in the Indica since he was in no condition to drive. So we did. The driver who had hit us, was now in our cab and he kept saying 'Meri kya galati hai?'. What is my mistake? I tried to tell him that he was drunk beyond limits but his vocabulary was limited to 'Meri kya galati hai? while he swayed uncontrollably on the front seat due to his inebriated state. How could he even imagine being behind a wheel in this state and be a live and loaded missile waiting to hit unsuspecting cars on the road, I wondered. We finally reached a small cluster of shops on the highway, and soon after a crowd gathered and few dramatic heated arguments later, cops in uniform appeared in a PCR. They listened to the story of the TATA Driver who kept saying 'Meri kya galati hai?' to which the cop let loose at him and told him how dangerously drunk he was. I was in the cab watching the entire theatrics from afar on advice from my cab driver. The cops then ordered both the vehicles, the TATA 407 and our Indica to a Police station nearby. At this point, at the police station, Yadav, my driver, requested me to come out and talk to the cops. I did. I told them how the TATA guy was totally dangerous on the road and how we had got him there. It seems that the TATA guy was trying to implicate my driver in a case of theft by alleging that my driver had stolen Rs 40 k from his TATA 407. The cops did not buy the story, and the TATA driver heard the cops speak with their open hands and fists which I had no option but to be a moot spectator to. We later wondered whether those guys in the Scorpio were really his village mates or just highway looters who stole his money. We would never know. The cops asked us if we wanted to book the TATA 407 driver, to which I declined because we had better things to do and did not want to spoil the TATA driver's future. But I did request them to not hand over the keys to him till he was sober enough, for fear that he might put some other life in danger. We left the police station a little while later and soon my driver's friend took leave from us and got off the cab. We were finally on our way to Pilani, but this entire episode had eaten almost 3 hours of our precious lives and the damage that Yadav had suffered was still unpaid for. It was past 7 PM and the road was bad, exceptionally bad. We could hardly touch 10 to 15 kmph for the remaining 20 to 30 odd km. Whenever we thought that the road now looked better, there was a big pothole to remind us that it didn't. A few thousand potholes and a few sharp turns later we were at BITS Pilani gates. We entered the VFAST gates and I scrambled for booking my room since I had heard that there might be a big rush for make-up exams due to the regulars coinciding with the World-cup weekend. It was 9.45 PM and we were lucky to find some leftover dinner which I shared with my driver. A while and meal later, I retired to my room numbered 13 and wondered if all the back luck was in anticipation of the unlucky number I was going to be allocated. I tried to study a bit but my eyelids just kept dropping on me. I gave in and hit the bed around midnight. zzzz I woke with a start and looked at the time on my phone, which beamed 6 am. 30 minutes past my normal wake up time. I got up, slipped into my slippers and stepped out. It looked like a promising day. The sun was just waking up, the birds were chirping and the green grass in the lawn facing my room was inviting me to walk on it bare feet. Yes this was going to be a good day. A lost peacock then descended on the roof of the hostel. It was probably wondering what a miserable life I lived without a shiny beak and a plush bouquet of feathers. It was probably mocking my colorless life. I smiled and breathed in the wet grass through my bare feet. The peacock looked away in disdain. A few minutes later I was back in my room, I freshened up, had a shower and dug into the BITS VU power points I had a printed earlier. After breakfast I moved back to my room and continued delving into the PPTs and decided to look around BITS campus later, before lunch. I also caught glimpses of what they were showing on the 15" Sony TV with a cable connection with the volume near muted. Nothing very interesting was happenning in the world, so I could let go and concentrate on the PPTs. I called my driver around noon and drove down to the museum to discover that it was shut for Mahavir Jayanti. Sadfully I moved to the Saraswati Temple to find it shut for lunch too. So I was left with no option but to return to Vfast and after a good lunch and a quick nap, browsed the PPTs all day long. Later in the day around 6.30 pm I took a walk to the small market in the BITS campus to find every shop selling coke, pepsi and chowmein. I walked on to what looked like a Shivji Temple. It had a waterbody that led towards the Shiv figure that was in a samadhi posture and looked well kept. On coming closer I discovered that this was actually a park with a small building in the center and a moat surrounding it. The moat also served as a fish tank and there were warnings about not sullying the water or feeding the fish. I did neither. It was a nice view and I walked all around the moat and discovered a small temple which I visited and a short cut that led me on the rear side of the Saraswati temple. I walked around the temple and found the gates open this time. I was held spell bound with the majestic view of the temple structure. It was domineering and serene and made from whitest Makrana marble. I walked up the steps and soaked in the serenity. There was a lone young girl offering her silent prayers to Saraswati Devi and I could feel the strength of her blessing soaking the atmosphere. While taking a parikrama of the temple, I noticed among figurines of devis and devatas, some more recent greats etched in the walls in marble that included Gandhi Ji, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Tagore, and yes JF Kennedy, Abe Lincoln et al. I was kind of taken aback with the likenesses and wondered if the American Devatas had to do with any leanings towards the west or were merely PR exercises for visiting politicians of the US. Headed back to VFAST to find that there was a small crowd gathered at the reception. On closer scrutiny I learned that there was a bunch of people trying to get a room at VFAST but were being declined and pointed to other motels outside BITS since VFAST was already running full capacity. A little while later, I experienced my first power outage at Pilani. Everything went dark, the horizon went from gray to black and the skies lit up with heavenly bodies. This was an amazing sight since I had not been in a totally dark area in a long time. And believe me, the sky looks so different without any light pollution from our 'overly lit' cities. Even when we have power outages in Delhi, which is not uncommon, the neighborhood remains lit up due to the numerous generators, invertors and the like. I decided to retire to my room after dinner a little while later and packed all the reading material I had brought for the open book exam in the back pack I was carrying for the purpose. I tried to go online to keep up with the larger mails that do not render properly on my Blackberry and realized that though the Reliance Netconnect+ dialer signalled 'Hybrid' on the screen, the speed I managed was no better than 100 kbps or lesser. Frustrated with this trickling bandwidth I chose to call it a day and resigned from any further browsing and settled in my bed for the night. There were no mosquitoes since I had sprayed the room with HIT earlier and also had packed an ALL-OUT with me which was keeping the mosquitoes away. Took my 1st Exam the next morning. I did get dropped at the SBBJ counter and walked a good 300 metres of corridors to room 2201 on the east end of the main building. My driver was waiting for me when I left the exam hall and I headed to VFAST. The first exam, 'Pervasive Computing' had gone off well enough. I had barely entered the gate when I realized that the only chance I would get to see the museum was now or never. I headed back, paid the customary Rs 10 for the entry and entered the museum. And OH! this was not what I was expecting. I was expecting the museum to be about the history of BITS and about Pilani but this was a science museum. Remind me to ask around before I go to a museum next time. I decided to get my Rs 10 worth. :) A couple of exhibits later I noticed that my bored driver had followed me inside the museum. And found him keenly interested in many exhibits there and I found myself busy being a free guide to his curiosity. So now I had a BITS Museum returned Cab driver who looked a shade smarter. With my second exam over, my hand was aching for I had written and scribbled and written for a straight 6 hours since morning. I headed straight for the hostel, checked out, paid up, and was Gurgaon bound by 5 pm. The driver had in the meantime asked around and was advised to take the other route back to Gurgaon. This route was via Loharu, Dadri, Jhajjar and I can vouch that this was a much better road. Lined with golden wheat, swaying in the fields or recently harvested and lined in neat golden piles on either side of the road. My driver, a farmer by birth, returned my favour and explained to me many nuances about farming that I had never known. I learned that wheat is sown best in November and reaped in April. Those who rotate cotton in their fields sow wheat later in December because cotton is reaped in December. Such late wheat is not as good as the timely wheat and normally is sold for a discount. Normal wheat is sold at Rs 1000 a quintal and the seeds are wheat grain itself. An acre of land could be sown with about 30 Kg of wheat grain and 40 to 50 Kg if you were sowing late. Yadav and his brother were not in thier village and his father was too old to farm, so his entire 10 bigha farm was being managed by his wife and his sister in law. He said they made around of 1.5 lacs from the farm per annum and that onion was the most paying crop but also the most difficult to manage and protect from insects and pests. In addition he money ordered anywhere between 10 to 20K home every month from his cab business. This was apart from the 8k odd installment he was paying on the Indica. Soon, halfway into our conversation about the oldest profession (well almost), it started drizzling, then raining, then raining heavily and then hailing. The hail stones were as large as big marbles and were pounding on the wind screen with loud 'rat-a-tat' sounds. Yadav then explained how his village people must be warding away evil spirits to ward off the hail which is a curse for the crops. The hailstones destroy unharvested and harvested wheat lying in the fields by knocking the wheat grains off and losing them to the soil below. A better way to pile up harvested wheat was in big heaps so that the grains knocked off from the top, do not find their way all the way to the bottom and remain stuck somewhere in the middle of the stack and can be reclaimed when they thrash the wheat. Feeling more learned, I was trying to imagine how much wheat was getting sucked into mother earth each minute it hailed. Soon after the hail and rain stopped, I was hungry and asked the driver to look for a reasonable dhaba. We were near Jhajjar and finally saw a decent looking dhaba which turned out to be just a sweet shop so we drove on. Many miles later and many turns later we were almost in Gurgaon where we found a good dhaba and I asked this farmer turned cab driver to join me for dinner with me. He looked elated and ate heartily. His normal meal was cooked by him and his 3 roommates at the room they shared in sector 45 in Gurgaon so it must have been a welcome change to eat well. I was expecting traffic in Gurgaon when we hit Hero Honda chowk but there was none, and when we hurtled at nearly full speed towards Golf Course Road. Yadav explained that it being Sunday, he was hardly expecting any rush, which I had not anticipated. I hit home just past 9.30 and let the driver go with a small tip and a smile on his face. I recounted the day as I watched TV with Nanu (my nephew ) and discussed his school issues, and thought it was a day well spent, with 2 exams written, one museum visited and a few things about a whole new profession, farming learned, and having helped my nephew look at his 'pressing' issues in lighter vein. And also learned that next time around I would never take the Rewari route. I was soon yawning and so was Nanu, who had school the next morning so we called it a day.