THE Y-AXIS by Rajesh Kumar

We were at Mysore last Sunday and among other places, we visited the Mysore Royal Palace too. There were three types of tickets available : Adults Rs 20/- Children Free Entry Foreigners Rs 100/-   So, it has been publicly firmanned that foreigners visiting the palace are neither adults not children. (Somewhat reminded me of my OB teacher Raji Philip who described the boardroom of a company  as having three types of toilets, one each of the ladies and gents, and one for the Directors!!) The Mysore Palace is grand, and the only downer is that you are not allowed to take your camera inside the palace. The palace looked absolutely dazzling during the evening lighting though (thankfully, nobody- adults, children, or foreigners needs to buy any tickets to see the lighting), take a look at the picture taken from my phone(the picture hardly does any justice to the real thing but nevertheless). ...

When highly respected Subroto Bagchi was speaking on TV the other day, I was amused to see his title. It read as Gardener . I could relate somewhat, a business leader of his stature can only be expected to nurture what's around. How appropriate, I thought. Cisco likewise, has a Chief Globalisation Officer . Ron McDonald, the mascot of of McDonald's , is believed to be called as Chief Happiness Officer by McDonald's. Not every position in the world has such undergone such a profound thinking exercise. At a later day, I was reminded of the old days of the Soviet Union. A person could be called Fourth Assistant Secretary to the Chief Vice Minister or something equally weird. There was no way you could perhaps understand what such titled gentleman (gentleperson?) could be doing for a career. Can you believe, the top boss of AOL match making service is called CEO of Love ! Also, that the main organiser of the highly awaited Berkshire Hathway's annual meeting is belie...

My wife remains quite annoyed by my daughter's addiction to Pogo channel . She remains even more annoyed by the fact that much against her rightful protestations, my daughter is joined by me in watching shows such as M.A.D and Takeshi's Castle (Oh, have you heard the hilarious voiceover provided by the very talented Javed Jaffrey? !). And just btw, even now my TV is showing a Harry Potter movie and I am the only viewer in my house!! If that generates your sympathies for my wife, read this. I recently noticed a Hitachi AC ad on Pogo. Now kids don't order ACs, which means someone told Hitachi (or provided somewhat credible viewership data) that dads and mums watch the channel too!! And hey wait, they just showed a Tanishq jewelry ad. Pogo,thanks for making it easy for me to accept this reality!!!

Buying behaviour can be crazy and difficult to comprehend.Look at this one.The fat lady was uttering frighteningly within my earshot," This Patiala wasn't good. I want a larger one ". The guy serving her was stunned, and all he could mumble was,"This was the best we have sold. We will see how we can make it better". Then he vanished behind the counter only to return after five minutes with another stack of salwar suits- yes, you guessed it, yet more Patialas. Till I went to shop with my wife this Dussehra, I erroneously believed that large Patialas represent a serving of a certain type of liquid, which only the connoisseurs could partake in the company of their best friends. Neither did I know how happy a shopping experience could be, for a husband, when the wife is busy buying dresses. I never knew ladies stores have become so advanced, that they have figured out the need and the mantra to keep the man happily engaged, while the wife keeps on telling the shop ...

Voice & Data reports that a furniture store in South Africa till recently used to lock up its employees in the workshop so that they focus on their work. Nothing too much till you realize that the workshop did not have appropriate rest room facilities so when the workers needed to go to the rest room, they had to send in their p-petition to their managers via SMS, who would come and unlock them. That gives rise to the horrendous possibilities: Imagine worker X 's phone has weak network coverage. Worker Y ran of his phone's pre-paid charge, now how does he discharge? S'pose worker Z's phone battery drains out - now how will he! However, all this will pale, if you think the possibilities if the manager's phone suffers from any of the above. What a blast. PS: The govt moved in to stop this, naturally.

(Of late I have been receiving incessant emails from 'children' and 'widows' of former presidents of some countries in other geographies, who require my business advice, acumen and assistance in salvaging the treasure which the late dictator bequeathed upon them..My response to them, once and for all , is below) Dear Great Grandson of Dr Laboomba, I am in receipt of your email dated 6th October containing the urgent and confidential business proposal worth a sum of dollars 10,00,000. I am also in receipt of a kind email from your great grand mother indicating the importance of the international business proposal that you wish to pursue with my humble self. However, I am not exactly sure if the said wife of the late Dr Laboomba is your exact great grandmother. After all, your great grandfather, the late Dr Laboomba was a rather prolific specimen of mankind, and traces of his combination of x-y chromosomes is found in the genome structure of children who came ...