Taking Customer Service on a ride

A year or more ago I got into this cab from Matunga to Andheri. As I entered I noticed that the cab had a magazine jacket attached to the back of the front seat. It had in it the some of the morning dailies and a couple of film glossies. I was for a moment taken aback, because it was not something I had walked in to expect from a cab in Mumbai. I began talking to the cab driver who also happened to be the owner of the cab, complimenting him on having newspapers and magazines for his passengers. He simply smiled and thanked me. It was a neatly maintained cab and had been apparently for over 20 years on the road. It looked not more than two years to me.

As I kept admiring the cab, my eyes turned to switches placed one on either side of the back seat window, and I inquired what these were. He just mentioned that the one on the right was for English Music and the one on the left was for Hindi music. My jaw dropped, never in my wildest dreams had I imagined that I would have a choice of music channels to choose from that too in a cab. Being a doubting Thomas that I was, I couldn't help trying them out only to get what I was told. He also told me that he had a well stocked first aid box, which is a rarity in cabs these days.

He later told me that he was also covered in some of the local dailies for the innovative methods he had applied to satify his clientele, some of whom had his phone number and would call him to reserve his cab. As I got down from the cab and paid him his fare, I thanked him for the ride and the time we shared on this journey. I realised that this probably not so educated cab driver understood customer service more than what the students of the best B-Schools would learn but not know how to implement.

Personally, it just drove me to believe that no matter who the individual is, there is so much to learn from what they do in their daily lives. How they get innovative in their own worlds and make a difference to themselves and to the people they come in contact with. I don't know the name of the cab driver, but I would like to thank him for giving me a lesson in customer service in a little less than an hour for a sum of Rs.150, not forgetting the ride ofcourse.

Skirting the issue - The Long and Short of it

Imagine how would you find Sania Mirza wearing long sleeve shirts and long skirts and scamper across the court trying to get the volley across the net. Well you may well be faced with reality if the religious fundamentalists have their way. Oh yes they are proud of her achievements of scaling new heights, but they can’t gulp down the show of skin with the short skirts et al.

To each his own and if that means going back 75 years to the time of Suzanne Lenglen then so be it. But they would always want to go backwards. Obviously isn’t that a way of life for them.

As Sania continues her journey upwards in the women’s ranking beating higher seeded women, well she has also to improve her play to combat fundamentalist men who will be there playing off court with her in every round of a tournament. It’s going be a long time before we hear Game-Set-Match Sania Mirza, in the meanwhile we will be watching them lock verbal volleys at deuce.

Start of the Star

So Sania Mirza the Indian teen tennis sensation’s dream run in the US open ended when she got a wake up call from Maria Sharapova the top seed. Straight sets defeat et al. The success story has ended only to repeat itself in the next tournament for Sania Mirza. She is a talented girl I must admit, no one just moves 250+ rankings up in less than a year without being talented and lands up at a seeding of 42 on the WTA tour. By the time this article gets published she would have gone into the 30s with her 4th round exit in the US open.

All those statistics apart she has now become the latest pin up girl and the darling of the Indian masses. Good for her I must say and good for India, finally we have other sports other than the religion of the country ‘cricket’ that are getting mileage. We have other heroes as well in Narain Karthikeyan (Formula 1 racing), Pankaj Advani (Snooker), Raghavendra Rathore (Shooting), who are non cricketing stars and there are more I have not mentioned about.

Mind you they are stars because of their own effort and not something that the sport’s governing body enabled them to be. They needed a lot of sponsorship and self funding to get to where they wanted to be. It has required a lot of zeal and dedication and the urge to do what they wanted to do, to be where they are today apart from their talent. They have paid the price to be a star today.

I’m sure in a country of millions there would be thousands who may be as talented or more who have not made it. They have lacked something these people have in plenty – perseverance. They may not be the best in the world as yet but they will get there, sooner than later, becasue they know where they are going. There is an anonymous saying that Johnnie Walker Whiskey uses in it's Keep Walking campaign - "The Whole world steps aside for the man who knows where he is going". The rest like you and me will be left sitting back on their couches and just left with having opinions about everything without having done anything.

Risking Change

There have been times in life when I have looked back and wondered if I needed to change some things. These may have been changes that could have taken my life in a very different direction. Personal life apart, I think from a professional stand point, this day i.e. 05 September, holds a lot of importance because that was the day 11 years back in 1994, that I made my entry into this field called eLearning as it is more popularly known today. I have stayed on for 11 long years going with the flow from one organization to another.

From the multimedia shop that I was in to online learning solutions, a relatively unknown field then, was a big leap at that point. As I look back today I don't know if I will be able to do an encore of that kind of a leap. It's a funny situation that age and experience brings you into, the ability or inability to take risks - calculated or blind. Come to think of it, its also been a little over 11 years that a job interview that I gave led me to accept the job offer given to me.

There is a strange feeling inside of me today as I reminisce that day and I can’t explain that feeling. I’m not able to qualify myself as risk averse or risk taking or someone stuck in his comfort zone. This thought is as incomplete as I’m feeling right now and I’ll let it be that way. I’ll just go with the flow.