Archive for November, 2007

Tweets On 2007-11-30

I don’t know why, but many visitors to my blog have this annoying (and completely mistaken) habit of thinking that:

I am the Branch Manager for Bharti-Airtel, Chennai who has the [mystical] power to cancel Airtel cellular connections.

I am the Head of the Billing Department at Bharti-Airtel who can solve all billing related problems on an […]

Interviewed by Being A Blogger

Read the interview: Use Your Blog as a Personal Branding Tool - Vinaya, Business Consultant and Blogger.

Drop a comment with your thoughts.

Tweets on 2007-11-29

I’ve been patiently waiting for a video of the Hyundai i10’s television advertisement to show up on YouTube. So far it hasn’t. It’s a shockingly pathetic ad with a mind numbing musical score in the background (sounds as if they are taking the i10 out to burn it down). The ad seems to be selling […]

Lame Financial Products: Would You Trust Your Money With These Funds?

It pays to conduct due diligence before you dump your hard-earned money into any of the harebrained NFOs (New Fund Offers) from Mutual Fund houses in India.

For example,

ICICI Prudential Real Estate Securities Fund

The fund manager says that this is the first of a kind offering in India and with back of the envelope calculations he […]

Lame Advertising: Fanta — What Happens When You Consume The Actual Product While Making An Advertisement For That Product

This is another ad that freezes up my neurons (but not as much as the Airtel ad, which makes me feel like a toad on a hot pan) and is a great lesson on why you should not consume the actual product while making an advertisement for that product. Drinking too much Fanta probably screwed […]

Tweets on 2007-11-23

We have seen two different patterns; the Japanese investors are still sending in the money, the Korean investors seem to have pulled out some money.

Source: Moneycontrol India.

Either the Japanese know something [about the Indian equity markets] that the Koreans don’t or the Koreans know something that the Japanese don’t. But what about you, the retail […]

Problem: What Are The Steps To Be Followed After Closing My Personal Loan?

All that is required is a bit of diligence from your side. Follow these simple steps and you are good to go.

Step 1

Ensure that you have received all the canceled post-dated checks that you had issued — as guarantee — to the bank/finance company when you took the personal loan.

Step 2

Ensure that you have received […]

Problem: What Are The Steps To Be Followed After Closing My Car / Vehicle Loan?

In October, I paid the final EMI (Equated Monthly Installment) on my car loan from ICICI Bank. Back then, I wasn’t sure about the steps to be followed next. Now that I have figured out what exactly needs to be done once you’ve paid off your car loan, I thought I’d document it here.

Step 1

Ensure […]

Know Your Rights: A Case Study On Lt. Col. Rajesh Yadav’s Fight With ICICI Bank

Lt. Col. Rajesh Yadav who had a savings account with a Delhi branch of ICICI Bank was erroneously billed by the bank for an amount of Rs 45,623 on a “renewed debit card” that was never issued to him.

Read the complete story on Lt. Col. Rajesh Yadav’s fight with ICICI Bank at An Interview with […]

Tweets on 2007-11-21

All that’s left of Taylorism among management consultants today is a pretense to scientific precision in whatever it is that consultants do, which generally involves parachuting into some situation, being smarter than everybody else, coming up with a solution — or at least a PowerPoint presentation — and then leaping into onto their horses and […]

Lame Advertising: Savera Mustard Oil — When Personal Fantasies Come In The Way Of Advertising

Do I need to say more? I haven’t actually seen this advertisement on television. Must be one of those crazy ads that are inserted at the beginning/middle/end of rented movie VCDs.

Related Post(s):

Lame Advertising: Lux International - When Personal Fantasies Come In The Way Of Advertising.

Lame Concepts: Amway — Have You Been Prospected?

Amway’s multi-level marketing scam is alive and kicking in Bangalore. A close friend V recently experienced a “recruitment attempt” by an existing smooth-talking Amway distributor/prospector/agent/whatever at The Forum Mall. S tells me that the situation is no better in the United States of America. She’s experienced a “recruitment attempt” just days after landing in the […]

Lame Advertising: Airtel — My Neurons Are Frozen

Each time I see this ad, a couple of my sense organs stop sending messages to my brain for a few minutes. There’s certainly no doubt that advertising in India is surely headed down an abyss. But what about corporate management? I wonder who at Airtel approves these ads for broadcast?

What do you think?

Dangerous Financial Advice: What Happens When You Start Playing Diwali Inside Your Head?

You get a truckload of expert, but totally lame, advice. For example: This Diwali, invest in equity without risk (a must read).

To summarize: I start with INR 500,000. At the end of three years I still have … surprise … INR 500,000. In between, I speculated (actually, gambled) INR 88,000 by dumping it in a […]

Lame Branding: HCL Leaptop — When Branding Fails To Keep Up With Advertising

When I first heard about HCL’s Leaptop range of laptops, I had this to say:

You don’t know who’s embarrassed more — you for possessing a Leaptop or your friend for asking you what’s a Leaptop. I don’t know about you, but I already feel like Leaping from the Top.

Fast forward a year and you now […]

Lame Advertising: Acer — Why You Shouldn’t Believe What Hrithik Roshan Sings

I am not a fan of Acer laptops (see here and here) although I own one — unfortunately. I couldn’t help but find and publish this advertisement featuring Hrithik Roshan singing praises about Acer products.

It’s glaringly obvious that Hrithik Roshan has never booted up an Acer laptop in his life. He wouldn’t be singing “Life […]

Lame Product: Lotus India Agile Fund — Another Great Opportunity To Play Diwali With Your Cash

I am not managing the fund, the model is. There is no fund manger required for a fund like this.

You’d be handing your cash over to a mathematical model running on a computer if you decide to invest in Lotus India’s Agile Fund — a quant fund currently doing its NFO (new fund offer).

So how […]

Bad Jargon, Lame Product, Lame Advertising: Bharti AXA’s AspireLife Unit-Linked Insurance Plan

From a full-page advertisement in today’s edition of Bangalore Mirror:

Bharti AXA Life Insurance presents a unit-linked insurance plan that guarantees you return of your first year premium of up to 175% at maturity and invests up to 100% of all your subsequent premiums.

What kind of financial misguidance is that? Incredible. I am being guaranteed the […]

Recommended Product: Where Can You Buy An Inverter/UPS Solution For Your Home In Bangalore?

If you need an Inverter/UPS solution for your house in Bangalore check out

benson Services
No. 37/5, Meanee Avenue, Tank Road,
Bangalore - 560 042.
Phone: 65705444, 65705445, 25511853, 25511854, 25547631
Web: bensonupsservices.com

I have been a customer with benson Services for close to seven years now. The quality of their Inverter/UPS systems is top-notch and their service record is impeccable. […]

Tweets on 2007-11-02

© Vinaya HS; Shot with my PowerShot SD850 IS.


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