10 fun ways to stop annoying telemarketing calls

Excerpt from here.

1. After the telemarketer finishes speaking, propose marriage to him/her.

2. Tell the telemarketer you are busy at the moment, and ask him/her, to give you his/her home phone number and cell number so you can call back maybe very late at night.

3. Keep asking the telemarketer to tell you his spiel all over again. Do this several times.

4. If you receive a call during a meal, tell the telemarketer that it's lunch time, but ask him/her to hold. Switch to loudspeaker mode and eat your food in a languid noisy fashion, chomping away and continuing with the conversation.

5. Tell the telemarketer that all business goes through your representative, and hand the phone to your five-year-old.

6. Say that you are hard of hearing and that he/she needs to speak up -- louder -- louder -- louder!

7. Tell the telemarketer to speak really really slowly because you want to write every word down.

8. If the telemarketer starts off with "How are you today?", say "I'm so glad you asked, because no one these days seems to care, and I have all these problems..."

9. Cry out in astonishment, "Rani, is that you? I've been hoping you'd call! How is the family?" When he/she insists it's not Rani, refuse to believe it and say, "Stop kidding me!" This works especially well if the telemarketer is female.

10. Tell the telemarketer to call at your office number and give him/her the number of a rival telemarketing organisation instead!

The Difference between Development and Consulting

Excerpt from here:

This topic is part of my Personal Manifesto. What makes a great IT consultant is different and also the same as being a software developer. What do I mean? I mean that you can be a great developer and not be a great IT consultant. To be a great IT consultant you must be a very good developer. Not a great one but just a very good one. The key to consulting is listening, understanding and then finally modeling.

The first thing a great consultant must do is listen. I do not mean just to be in the room and hear what your client is saying. You must fully listen. Listen to their passion. Listen to their hope. Finally you must listen to what they dream. In the end you are not the Dreamer but the Dreammaker. You must take the dream and make it reality. Not an easy job for most projects. You will get the project where the client needs a report or a data repository which you could do in your sleep. What happens when a client comes to you and asks for a Purple Cow? What happens when they want to transform their business and entrust you and your team to make their dreams come true. That is pressure and what we true consultants live for.

To give tour client their dream, you must understand their views and business. You must do it in days and weeks when the client has taken years to understand it. You do not have to have a 100% understanding of the client’s business. But you must get to the 80/20 level. 80% of their business must be known cold and the other 20% must be able to be quickly gathered from known people, departments or teams with the client’s organizations (I will cover the Law of Knowing in a later posts).

The last key to consulting is to be a great modeler. Now I am not talking about the model airplanes that we built as kids or UML models (but these do sometimes play a part). What I mean is that you can build a model of their business that can lead your team and also confirm to the client that you fully understand the dream. This can be done with use cases, functional requirements documents or even storyboards. In the end, it just matters to show the dream back to the client as a picture of reality.

If you master these 3 keys to consulting, the development of the clients dream is for the most part the easy part. Technologies around software development have given developers the ability to build most of the common pieces of software (such as database development, business objects and UI construction) quickly and efficiently.

Here is an initial short list of books (more suggestions coming) that should be required reading for consultants:

1. The Trusted Advisor, Maister, Galford, Green
2. Blue Ocean Strategies, Kim, Mauborgne
3. Consultant’s Little Instruction Book: 101 Rules to Guide Consultants to Better Business, Payn

My encounter with ebay.in

I had listed my mobile on ebay.in for selling.
Though the highest bidder didnt complete the transaction, I had a pretty good experience for waiving off the listing charges. ebay.in follows a very systematic process for handling selling related unpaid item's disputes. Infact, there is an exclusive link named "dispute console".

Here is what happened in my case:
1. I listed my Mobile on ebay.in for selling.
2. At the end of the selling period, a bidder had met my reserve price and hence was legally bound to pay for the item.
3. The buyer didnt respond.
4. I raised a unpaid item dispute.
5. After 8 days, I was eligible for Final Value Credit Fee. (i.e. the listing charges will be waived off. ebay's business model is that ebay charges sellers a fee depending on the selling features used by the seller.)
6. Even after waiving off the listing charges, my account balance was rupees 34.74 (That is, I had to pay ebay rupees 34.74)
7. I started a live chat session with ebay.in agent and he assisted me in waiving off the balance amount also.
(The link for live chat session is in the invoice generated by ebay.in)

Overall, I was satisfied that standard processes are in place at ebay.in

here is an excerpt of chat session with ebay agent:

Your chat session started.
aleem4u: hello any one there?
aleem4u: helloooooo
Nitesh: Hi, welcome to eBay Live Chat! My name is Nitesh.
Nitesh: How may I help you today?
Nitesh: Hello Good Afternoon.
aleem4u: I had started a chat session with another agent, but that session ended abruptly
aleem4u: I will paste my previous chat conversation, plz read it and respond
Nitesh: Sure.
aleem4u: aleem4u: hello any one there? Suraj: Hi, welcome to eBay Live Chat! My name is Suraj. Suraj: How may I help you today? aleem4u: Hi suraj Suraj: Hello. Good Afternoon. aleem4u: I had listed an item on ebay aleem4u: (# 200093705022). Suraj: Okay. aleem4u: I had raised an An Unpaid Item dispute on April 13 2007. Reason given for Unpaid Item: The buyer has not paid for the item. Buyer actions reported by seller: The buyer has not responded. aleem4u: Now I was eligible for Final Value Fee credit Suraj: Okay. aleem4u: I closed the dispute aleem4u: I have been given a Final value fee of Rupees 220 aleem4u: suraj, u there? Suraj: Yes, I am here. Suraj: Our systems are facing problem due to technical issues, due to which there is a delay in responding. Please bear with me. aleem4u: Now my current account balance is rupees 34.74 Suraj: Okay. aleem4u: since i was not able to sell my item, i shouldn't be charged any amount. Suraj: While I check from my side, we will need to verify your ebay account. Kindly provide your Name, Address, Zip Code, Telephone number and your User ID. aleem4u: user id: aleem4u aleem4u: name: Mohd abdul aleem quadri, aleem4u: Address: Mehdipatnam, Hyderabad aleem4u: Zip: 500028 aleem4u: Mobile: 9886788631 Suraj: Thank you for providing me with your contact information. Just a moment please while I review your account to verify the information you've given me. aleem4u: ok aleem4u: suraj, u there? Your chat session ended.
aleem4u: my question is since i wsnt able to sell my item, i shouldnt be charged any amount
Nitesh: Allow me a moment while I read your chat session with Suraj.
aleem4u: ok , but plz make sure the chat doesnt end abruptly
Nitesh: Definitely.
Nitesh: I have checked with the Billing Team and they would crediting the listing fees to you.
Nitesh: This reversal would appear in your Invoice in next 24 hours.
aleem4u: i have already told u
aleem4u: that i have been credited a Final Value credit fee of rupees 220
Nitesh: However please understand that this is one time courtesy credit given to you.
Nitesh: We are crediting the listing fees also which is charged to your account.
aleem4u: even after that my account balance is 34.74
aleem4u: so, do u mean my account balance will be zero, after you credit the listing fees also
Nitesh: We would be crediting these fees and your account balance would reflect 0 balance after 24 hours.
aleem4u: oh gr8!
aleem4u: Thanks a lot
aleem4u: Thanks a lot, Nitesh
Nitesh: You're welcome.
Nitesh: Is there anything else, I can assist you with?
aleem4u: No, Thanks
Nitesh: Thank you for contacting eBay Live Chat. I appreciate the chance I had to assist you. Have a great day!
aleem4u: Thanks and u 2 have a nice day.
Nitesh: Bye and take care :)
The agent ended your chat session.

Building the civilized workplace

Nasty people don't just make others feel miserable; they create economic problems for their companies.

Read the complete article at The McKinsey Quarterly

• It’s a bigger problem than you might think—jerks and bullies in the workplace. Research shows that they not only hinder recruiting and retention but also raise levels of client churn, damage reputations, and diminish the confidence of investors.
• Companies that harbor jerks may also suffer from reduced levels of creativity and innovation, as well as impaired or dysfunctional cooperation, within and outside the organization. That is no small matter in an increasingly networked world.
• The author of this article, a Stanford University professor, argues that companies can take specific and interrelated steps to root out jerks and bullies and build a more civilized workplace.

To Orkut or not to Orkut, that is the question

I came across this interesting explanation at this blog.
Very simple and clear explanation corroborated with a hadith. Gr8 work!

Scene 1 (on orkut)
Boy: hi, wanna be friends?
Girl: sure
Boy: so where do you live?
Girl: Chicago, how about you?
Boy: London
Girl: wow I’ve always wanted to go to London
Boy: oh really? you should visit then, I could show you around ☺. By the way is that your picture on the display?
Girl: yes it is, and is that you too?
Boy: wow you are pretty, do you have a boyfriend?
Girl (blushing and feeling happy): no I don’t.
(The chat pursues for a while and they end up exchanging chat ids)

Scene 2 (at a party, a guy walks up to a girl)
Boy: hi, are you enjoying the party?
Girl: naah I’m getting bored.
Boy: me too, so what do u do? Work or study or both?
Girl: I just finished my bachelors in -----, looking for a job, how about you?
Boy: I work at ------
Girl: Wow, that’s a great company to work for.
(the talk goes on for an hour and they end up exchanging phone numbers)

The two scenes have the same end, the boy and girl after a few interactions realize how irritating the other person is and they move on to the next person on orkut or another party or club .

My question is, aren’t the 2 situations alike. How different is orkut from a club? Yes you do not have people drinking or dancing on orkut, but every person is out there showing off his/her personal info. People put up their pics or videos for the whole world too see. Every person checking my profile knows how I look like (if I have my pic), what I do for a living, what I do for fun and what movies I like without even interacting with me. Isn’t that like giving away bits and pieces of yourself to everyone out there? Shouldn’t we be sharing those things with friends and people we are close to?

Girls like me, who’ve always believed that dating is wrong, talking to guy unnecessarily is wrong and hanging out in mixed gatherings is wrong do not think that doing the same online is wrong. And it is only because the other person cannot hear us or see us face to face.

Networks like orkut, facebook and hi5 are the biggest fitna these days because they lure people who are anti-dating. They make us feel that its ok to interact with guys as long as they can’t see us or hear us. I agree that watching someone or hearing their voice plays a major role in attraction, but according to me chatting with someone and finding out the other person’s thoughts and beliefs plays a bigger role in instigating attraction.

Here are some reasons why I believe chatting with someone online is worse than meeting someone (and when I mean meeting someone, I mean just meeting without getting intimate):
1) People can put on a different face on chat very easily. (We’ve heard of 60 yr old men pretending to be 20). You cant do that when you meet someone in person.
2) It is easier to lie online than it is in person. A person chatting can write with confidence that he has never dated any woman in past but would feel a little hesitant to lie about it face to face (although there are some people who have mastered the act of lying online and offline)
3) You can never judge a person’s character online. When you meet someone in person, you can assess the person’s character (in some way at least) by the way he/she looks at you, treats the waiter, walks and talks. Again you cannot be completely certain about a person’s character in just one meeting or a couple of meetings but you get a better picture of it.
4) People are more blunt and open online. For example an average decent guy wouldn’t really go up to a girl and talk to her for no reason but would not hesitate to do so online. The other example for this openness can be seen in scene 1 where a guy does not hesitate to comment ‘you are pretty’ the first time he chats with a girl.

The point I’m trying to make here is NOT that it is better to meet someone and date. I am trying to prove (mainly to myself) that chatting online is not as ‘ok’ as we have made it out to be. This blog maybe misunderstood or rather not understood at all by a lot of people who think differently than I, but I am sure there are one or two souls out there who will agree.

I will conclude with a hadith- The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, is reported to have stated that “Whenever two strangers of the opposite gender are alone with each other, Satan becomes the third one between them.” (At-Tirmidhi)” I have always thought to myself ‘As long as I’m not physically alone with a guy, I am fine’, but now I realize that this hadith would also apply to being alone with a guy online.

Times have changed; technology has advanced, and unfortunately, so have our values. I feel like I have lost myself in the swarming online world…..I need to find a way back

I cleaned my Wallet

Strange thing to write. But I want to share this on my blog.
One day I realised that my wallet had become quiet fat (lol! not coz of currency paper, but coz of unnecessary visiting cards, bills etc.)
I noticed that 60% of the contents were waste and most of the things were NOT supposed to be in my wallet in the first place e.g. Courier bills, ATM slips and what not.
So pple who are reading this blog clean your wallet and I bet in your case also atleast 40% of the contents will be waste or stuff which you don't need to keep in your wallet.

One day to go for ICC World Cup

The wait is over. All cricket crazy fans wait impatiently for this event which is organised every four years. The ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 was officially opened on Sunday, March 12, 2007 with a colourful ceremony in West Indies.
The hosts take on Pakistan in the opening game in Kingston.
I wish I was at home to watch the matches live. Currently, I am in Bangalore and I don't have a TV at my room.
My favourite team is of course India followed by Australia, Pakistan and England.
I wish all the best to the Indian team.
Get the world cup guyz...blue indians.

Crazy: IIM-B student turns down big bucks for music

Chasing your heart's dream and having a corporate career can be tough. But this student of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, may succeed in having the best of both worlds.

Manasi Prasad, second-year PGDM student at IIM-B, let go of an opportunity to work in New York with Goldman Sachs for a handsome salary, simply because she wanted to pursue her first passion music.

"It was a difficult decision to send that email rejecting the offer. People called me crazy to give up an offer to work in New York. But ultimately my happiness was important for me," the 25-year-old told TOI on Thursday.

She bagged the job offer during her summer placements and spent two-and-half months in NY. "It was a fantastic experience for me. It was challenging to be working for one of the best banks in the world. But then, I had to get back. If I want to be a musician, I cannot do that in New York.

I must be in India. And what better place than Bangalore to have a corporate career and live in a place with vibrant art?" Manasi said. Naturally. Manasi was just four-and-half years old when she began learning music.

"Music is in my family. My mother is my first guru. I have been performing for the last 10 years, both in India and abroad," she said. An engineering graduate from BMS college of Engineering, Manasi grew up in Gulf and completed her Classes X and XII in Singapore.

"That's when I decided I will live in India only." Denying that the salary offered by Goldman Sachs was Rs 1 crore, Manasi said, "It was a substantial package. I have not mentioned any figures. I will sit for placements and take up a job in Bangalore."

And Manasi has charted her career path. "My short term goal is to juggle between the corporate world and my music. But in the long run, I want to use my management skills and set up an institute like IIM for music. My experience in the corporate world will help me do that, which is why I want to work for sometime," she said.

Excerpt from Times of India

Cars: My Passion

iPods set the tempo in currency

Those who have studied Finance might be aware of this index PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) index. The price of a macdonald's burger is also used as PPP index known as Big Mac Index . Now, As a sign of the global reach of the iPod, an Australian bank has opted to use the music player as a benchmark to track currency values worldwide.
Great going Apple ipod! keep it up!

Freedom from studies n exams! Hurray! I passed MBA

Alhumdulillah, by the grace of Allah SWT, the almighty, the All-knowing, I have completed MBA in Information Technology from Symbiosis, Pune.
After completing B.E. and working for a few years, it was not that easy grabbing the books, spending nights before exams (yeah, sometimes i spent the whole nite studying, poor me!). But the course at Symbiosis was interesting, otherwise it wud be like doing MBA just for the heck of it.
Currently, I am doing Internship at Sonata Software, Bangalore. (www.sonata-software.com) After my internship I will join as Senior Systems Analyst.
I have joined the Business Intelligence division. I am working on Microsoft SQL server 2005 . My work involves studying the client's requirements and suggesting the rite solution. For suggesting a solution, one needs to know bout the technology himself. So, currently dirtying my hands on BI tools and other concepts. Long way to go, but I like to learn new n interesting things and I am a quick learner too.
Any one interested in BI can share his/her knowledge and views with me at mohdabdulaleem.q@sonata-software.com or comment on my blog.

Saudi Gets Its First Woman Pilot

Keeping in line with the reforms sweeping Saudi Arabia, the kingdom will soon see its first woman pilot taking over the skies.
Capt. Hanadi Zakariya Hindi will begin her flying stint with one of the jets belonging to Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed ibn Talal, founder and chairman of Kingdom Holding Company, later this year as soon as she completes her advance pilot proficiency training programme.
Though this is a path-breaking achievement for the 26-year-old first accredited female Saudi pilot, she will still need to be driven by a male chauffeur to the airport, the Arab News said. Women are still not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.
“I am busy building my flying hours and will be attending a shortterm course to equip myself with more intimate knowledge of the jet owned by Prince Alwaleed,” Hindi said.
Hindi, who wears the hijab along with her pilot’s epaulets and trousers, was the only woman in her flighttraining course in Jordan in 2004. But, she said, one of her trainers, Lena Al-Rabdi, was an Arab woman.

Dada Returns!!

Sourav Ganguly staged a comeback.

Dada is back in the one day squad.

gr8 going dada, I knew u will cme bak one day!

and its just a matter of time u will be the captain of Indian Team.

All the best.

IBM Tops List Of Patent Recipients In 2006

For the fourteenth year in a row, computer maker and tech services giant IBM is the U.S.' top patent holder, according to a list released Thursday by the patent office.
IBM received 3,651 patents in 2006, easily surpassing second place finisher Samsung Electronics, which received 2,453. Optics and electronics manufacturer Canon was listed in third place, with 2,378 patents, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
More than half of the companies on the list are Japanese, with Matsushita, Sony, Hitachi, and Toshiba joining compatriots Canon and Samsung in the top ten. IT companies are also well represented, with Hewlett Packard, Intel and Micron Technology finishing 5th, 6th and 10th, respectively.
IBM has long been the nation's top patent generator, but has drawn heat from individual inventors and small companies for frequently patenting what critics say are routine innovations. IBM, however, is taking a number of

steps to place more of its research into the public domain. A year ago, the company offered up a host of patents -- from methods for encrypting data to network-monitoring techniques -- free of charge for use by open-source software developers.
Under the plan, IBM contributed 500 patents to what it hopes will become an industry-wide "patent commons," from which commercial and private developers can mine commonly used code and programming techniques. In December, IBM unveiled the Open Collaborative Research Program. Under the program, results from some work undertaken jointly by IBM scientists, university professors, and students will be released as open-source software code. Subsequent intellectual property based on the research also will be open sourced or made available royalty free. Universities participating in the program include Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Rutgers, and UC Berkeley.
On Thursday, IBM announced plans to host an online "Inventors Forum" to let researchers debate ways in which the patent system can be improved. The forum is scheduled to launch in the second quarter, and IBM says it has reached out to small- and mid-sized businesses to encourage their participation.

Apple launches new iphone

iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device.

iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone.

for more details check out: http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/09/the-apple-iphone/

Warren Buffet's four Rules

Warren's investing theories have been talked about ad nauseum by almost every business/finance writer and is a cottage industry all by itself.
But one he finds closest to reflecting his views is a book written by Larry Cunningham - 'The Essays of Warren Buffett - Lessons for Corporate America' is required reading in a one of a kind course start at the University of Missouri School of Business.
The course is called Investment Strategies of Warren Buffett. It turns up Buffett is hot on campus too.
The Buffett playbook is taught, analysed and written about but it is best summed up like this.

Number one - Don't lose the money
Number two - don't forget rule number 1!
Number three - look for unique companies that are hard to replicate - he calls that a moat around the business.
Number four - he talks about the circle of competence, which means in simple English, do what you know.

Annoying colleagues at your workplace?

Very useful article on rediff.com also available on the following link:

http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2006/dec/26coll.htm

With most of us spending 10-14 hours at work everyday, our workplaces have become our second homes. As a result, even the slightest of hindrances here tend to blow up into vexing issues, particularly if they are not tackled in time. Very often, these issues relate to our colleagues' behaviour. It can get a little awkward when it come to addressing some of these directly, as a lot of them concern subtle aspects of behaviour that are difficult to articulate.
Let's take a look at some of the most annoying aspects of workplace behaviour and what we can do about them.

Groupism
This is by far the most annoying aspect of a workplace.
"It can absolutely turn you off," says Revathi M, assistant manager -- sales, with an IT security company. "It takes a heavy toll on productivity because, if you don't belong in a certain group, you tend to feel left out. Then, you don't enjoy going to work anymore."
The snide remarks and covert glances that result from groupism are not only thoroughly unprofessional, they can also result in emotional hurt which is often difficult to express. It eventually leads to frustration and may result in people leaving their jobs.

Casual chatter
"The most irritating thing at the workplace is groups of women chatting endlessly about clothes, cosmetics and jewellery. Some of them even trade in these items at work. I think it's really unprofessional," says Purnima Gupta, a teacher at a reputed Mumbai school.
While casual conversations are fine when one wants to make small talk, one needs to realise extended chatter at the workplace disturbs other people. It also looks unprofessional.

Hypocrisy
This is widely touted as being omnipresent and is universally detested.
Sugary sweet behaviour in front of a person and backstabbing comments behind their back are known to prevail in virtually every kind of human interaction. The natural fallout of hypocrisy at the workplace is lack of trust, which greatly affects work relationships and productivity.

Discrimination
"When we are angry with something our boss does, we try hard to control our emotions and behave in a subdued manner. However, if a peon goofs up even slightly, a lot of us don't think twice before yelling at him. Is this justified?" wonders Revathi.
Dignity of labour and respect for all kinds of work is a prerequisite for a healthy work environment. We must appreciate that people at all levels provide value with whatever work they do. It can be discouraging if they are not treated with dignity, considering they work to the best of their ability, given individual constraints.

Messy cubicle partners
Another trait that can really upset people is messy surroundings. Eating at the workstation and dropping tidbits of food, or having heaps of papers and files that spill over to your neighbours' desks can be very bothersome.
A lot of people are fussy about cleanliness and are used to a certain standard of hygiene around them. If those standards are not met at the workplace, it can be very demotivating.

Undue inquisitiveness
While it is common for colleagues to turn into good friends over time, a certain level of formality is expected while one is at work. When this formality is breached, not everyone may take it well.
"When colleagues are unduly concerned about where I went the previous evening, with whom, why, etc, I really feel like telling them it is none of their business. If I wish to share personal thoughts with someone at the workplace, I need to be comfortable with that person. It has to be voluntary. The concept of personal space and privacy is rather alien to our culture," observes Purnima.

Taking credit
It is but natural that we want to be appreciated for the work we do. However, since most of the work we do in an organisation is team effort, it is important credit is accordingly shared.
"When it comes to getting work done, the higher-ups often give pep talks on how team work is important. However, when the results come in, each individual and department wants the credit. Typically, in any organisation, the frontline sales people take away the appreciation. The back-end operations group is conveniently forgotten, even though they contribute significantly to the success. This can be extremely frustrating for the people who have worked behind the scenes," says Revathi.

Talking loudly
"I wish some people had silencers fitted into their throats!" says Purnima exasperatedly. "At work, one must realise formal, subdued behaviour is called for. Etiquette demands we keep our voice low so others are not disturbed. The most annoying bit is when people excitedly almost yell over their phones for no reason. I'm sure it's equally annoying for the person at the other end of the line."
Talking loudly is often associated with rustic behaviour that lacks sophistication. It is advisable we keep our tone and pitch low when we are around colleagues.

Tackling annoying behaviour
It is indeed difficult to keep your cool and focus on productivity when behavioural factors affect performance at work. But it is necessary to be assertive if one has to solve the problem.
Of course, assertiveness is different from being accusatory. Assertiveness is all about talking in a factual manner without being judgmental. It involves conveying facts and their possible repercussions without getting emotional, or rude, in the process. Though it is easier said than done, professionalism demands one remain objective while dealing with such situations.
At the organisational level, the HR department -- and managers and supervisors as welll -- need to have a keen eye for observing team dynamics. Active intervention and counselling go a long way in smoothing ruffled feathers.

Avoiding annoying behaviour
As individuals, there are a few things that may help us avoid being in the bad books of our colleagues:

Avoid backbiting
At the workplace, never discuss a person in his/ her absence. This simple rule goes a long way in maintaining a healthy environment.

Seek feedback
If you think a colleague has been shying away from you for a while, casually enquire to find out if your behaviour has upset him/ her. If that is the case, patiently listen to your colleague's feelings without getting defensive. Once the person has opened up, it can be easier to resolve the issue.

Respect everyone
Imagine the situation if the entire housekeeping staff goes on strike. We often take a lot of people for granted simply because they may not demand attention. But that does not mean their work is any less important.

Observe formality
A lot of your colleagues may become good friends over time. However, work ethics dictate you remain sensitive to the feelings of everyone at the workplace. Hence, over-friendly behaviour ought to be avoided.

Alhumdulillah, It wz my elder brother's wedding (24 Dec 2006) n I am very happy for him.

May Allah (SWT) give him health, barkat.

I wish him and my bhabhi a happy married life.