First time, ever since the day I saw the super-cool desktop of Windows XP, I have fallen in love all over again with a Microsoft product-MSN desktop search-I tried it twice before (Beta versions) and they sucked big time, slowing down my machine and every search taking longer than a manual search. But the latest version just rocks-I have indexed the whole of my hard disk (80 GB) and my email and still it is able to search stuff in seconds-almost akin to a web-search.
The link for downloading it is here. However remember that patience is a virtue, just hold on till it completes indexing your stuff before expecting results.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Monday, January 16, 2006
Bharat Hotel Mahabaleshwar- A bad experience
This piece is written purely with the intention of warning tourists going to Mahabaleshwar about the experiences of our group with one particular hotel called Bharat Hotel at Tapola Road. I have attached some pictures of the hotel as well. You can ignore this post until you plan to visit Mahabaleshwar.
First of all since we were 11 people travelling, these guys had initially promised us 6 rooms each with 2 people and then changed it to 3 rooms with 4 people in each at the same rate which perplexed us from the start. When we finally reached there they showed us one room with 11 cots-to say I was enraged would be euphemistic. Then finally they settled on 3 rooms but refused to alter the rates.
If there is one thing I really really hate about business establishements, it is apathy towards customer experience. When I told them that we are from 4 different software companies and we could give them good publicity among friends if they treated us well, the reply I got was this-"This hotel is there for the last 52 years Sir, we dont need any publicity". I didn't need much time to find out that they have been in existence for 52 years, for pretty much nothing seemed to have been altered in their rooms in those fifty-odd years.
The sole sources of light for the room were two weak bulbs, which looked like relics from stone age.
And the biggest shock was the state of the toilets, I dont want to go into the details here, for the sake of decency, but I would leave it with the observation that I have seen public latrines which are maintained better.
The chairs looked like they had been used as Pan spitting booths at one time and the the wood on the cot was peeling away.
They advertise about presence of "Indoor and Outdoor games"-I am not sure about the outdoor stuff, but the "indoor games" were a TT table and a pool table-one photo would describe their disgusting state more than I can in words.
I was seriously surprised and almost laughed out when the manager casually asked us on being informed of our decision to leave a day early-"Why sir, is anything wrong?"!!!
And for all this BS, we had to shell out Rs 660 per head per day (came to 7260 for 3 rooms one night stay). Luckily on taking a stroll around the city we landed in MTDC hotel, which was amazing. I had never expected such commitment and customer service at a government establishement. The very next day we shifted to this hotel and the cost for the next night stay was 2678 (243 per head) without food ofcourse, but the difference between the two was a whopping 357 per day and any one of us can vouch for the fact that the food at Bharat hotel was not worth more than 150 per day.
First of all since we were 11 people travelling, these guys had initially promised us 6 rooms each with 2 people and then changed it to 3 rooms with 4 people in each at the same rate which perplexed us from the start. When we finally reached there they showed us one room with 11 cots-to say I was enraged would be euphemistic. Then finally they settled on 3 rooms but refused to alter the rates.
If there is one thing I really really hate about business establishements, it is apathy towards customer experience. When I told them that we are from 4 different software companies and we could give them good publicity among friends if they treated us well, the reply I got was this-"This hotel is there for the last 52 years Sir, we dont need any publicity". I didn't need much time to find out that they have been in existence for 52 years, for pretty much nothing seemed to have been altered in their rooms in those fifty-odd years.
The sole sources of light for the room were two weak bulbs, which looked like relics from stone age.
And the biggest shock was the state of the toilets, I dont want to go into the details here, for the sake of decency, but I would leave it with the observation that I have seen public latrines which are maintained better.
The chairs looked like they had been used as Pan spitting booths at one time and the the wood on the cot was peeling away.
They advertise about presence of "Indoor and Outdoor games"-I am not sure about the outdoor stuff, but the "indoor games" were a TT table and a pool table-one photo would describe their disgusting state more than I can in words.
I was seriously surprised and almost laughed out when the manager casually asked us on being informed of our decision to leave a day early-"Why sir, is anything wrong?"!!!
And for all this BS, we had to shell out Rs 660 per head per day (came to 7260 for 3 rooms one night stay). Luckily on taking a stroll around the city we landed in MTDC hotel, which was amazing. I had never expected such commitment and customer service at a government establishement. The very next day we shifted to this hotel and the cost for the next night stay was 2678 (243 per head) without food ofcourse, but the difference between the two was a whopping 357 per day and any one of us can vouch for the fact that the food at Bharat hotel was not worth more than 150 per day.
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