New Covid Business opportunities

New Covid Business Opportunities

As much as Covid has destroyed many businesses and industries, it has offered different business opportunities also, though not many. Hospitals, pharmacies, diagnostic centers, manufacturers of  PPE, Masks, special devices like oximeters, sanitizers etc.

In Secunderabad, one erstwhile lodging house is offering a special Covid Isolation stay facility for ten days at Rs 8000/-. Free as a part of the ten days package are: Pulse Oximeter, Spirometer, thermometer, Facial masks (10), disposable bed sheets (10) sanitizer etc (9704537965 / 6309333102).  Food / doctor / nurse / physiotherapy/ ambulance / oxygen and others are included.

As I do not want to go to a barber's shop for a haircut, a home visit barber comes with just a scissors and a comb plus a disposable apron for about Rs 350 per call. Isn't that great? 

Frequency and number of street vendors has increased. One guy refused to entertain a customer when the latter approached him without wearing a mask!

Dr P Vyasamoorthy

Why do people hide their email address and how to find them?

 Why do people hide their email Address and how to find them?

There are some people who blog, tweet, update statuses in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or other social networks and stamp their presence everywhere except give out their email address. I am sure you have come across such people. Why do they do so, I wonder.

They want to be seen spreading their knowledge / experience but they make it difficult to be reached via email. One reason could be that they do not want to fall into the hands of spammers and hackers. Hackers could send phishing mail duping you into sharing some sensitive unwittingly. Spammers will fill your Inbox with unmanageable number of unsolicited messages. Such careful people may not be IT savvy to avoid or filter spam effectively.

Or people may consider themselves very busy and important that all and sundry should not write to them; they will entertain mail only from those to whom they have given the email address – sort of super-snobbish approach, I feel.

One such example is Dr Shreya P Trivedi based in New York, who is an expert in producing podcasts for training medical / healthcare staff. She has not revealed her email anywhere?

Librarians require scholarly articles and papers published in reputed journals. Nowadays contact email address may not be easily found in some cases.  They routinely search for email addresses. So do journalists, police, donation-seekers, credit card companies etc

How to track down email address of persons to establish a genuine contact? Here are a few useful tips:

You can lookup alumni database, staff listing, commercial directories, associations where they are members, their social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and similar sources.

In the case of Shreya, I got two of them, one professional and another personal after some efforts. During this phase, I learnt a lot about her and could even locate a photo here:

https://www.todayshospitalist.com/social-media-should-you-stop-lurking-and-log-on/

I got her two email addresses via Rocketreach.co However, you need to register yourself in Rocketreach site in order to search and fetch email address. IF you are not searching for contact details on a regular basis, it may not be worth registering at all.

Unfortunately, it took so long for me to track down Dr Shreya P Trivedi that when I got it, I forgot why I wanted it in the first place! That is not funny but true.

 

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTIONS and BIODATAS

 

INTRODUCTIONS and BIODATAS

 

Today I would like to talk, or write about, Introductions. I arrange a number of meetings where people of eminence or otherwise are invited to speak. When it is my turn / task to introduce the speaker to the audience, I generally approach the speaker or his secretary to send me a brief formal biodata. The material I get varies in length, scope, purpose, language etc. Let me explain what I mean by this.

 

Some people are shear lazy and they mail a standard “one-size- fits-all” type of a biodata.

It may be so long and extensive that he might have prepared it when some chamcha suggested to him that he should apply for Bharat Ratna award. Or it may an application for some vacancy. Or something he wrote for “About the Author” cover page of a book that was never published.  Or it may be a part of an appeal to voters in some local Association elections. It may be in a language I cannot read or understand. In most of the cases the only common thing that I can safely use is the PPS photograph that helps me identify the person when he arrives at the venue.

 

Long biodata is useful to ‘kill’ time in cases of over allocation of time meant for the speaker and discussions thereafter. Some speakers are kind enough to tell you ‘frankly’ that they will finish much faster as they need to leave for another event. In one case, I had to read a very long biodata that when I ended, people started clapping either to show there were happy or thinking I have completed my speech!

 

In other cases, I have to put in some efforts to extract something interesting and useful to the audience of that meeting. Nowadays, it is online meetings. Face-to-face land-based meetings are out of question for many more months to come. I found out that when I introduce some speaker or deliver a talk myself, in an online meeting, I do not need to keep a piece of paper and read it out.  I open a word file where the text is kept.  During the meeting, while you are still facing the camera, you may open the word file and read it out. This way, participants won’t seeing you looking down to a piece of paper again and again when you are presenting. You are still visible to all,  on the video screen.

 

In my case I keep different versions of my biodata, meant for different purposes, in one file. And send only the relevant part to the party concerned. Couple of days ago I received a biodata, just tailor made for the audience, brief enough for intro-time specified, formal and just enough for the purpose. That was great gesture from Sri JR Gupta, Executive Chairperson of ISU3A. But such cooperating speakers are rare.

 

When a famous dignitary was arrogant enough to tell one meeting official to be very brief when introducing him, saying:” If someone who does not know me is here, he need not be here”. The official rose to the podium he said: I am very happy to introduce Mr X. He is” and sat down.  What he meant was: “He is – He is alive – Don’t understand why!”  I am not sure if this anecdote is real or fiction.

 

   

 

 

Advantages of Online Webinars and meetings

                           Advantages of Online Webinars and meetings

Covid situation has imposed on all of us to conduct or attend all our meetings online. Whether it is a small meeting of 5-10 members of a Managing Committee of an Association or a webinar where hundreds participate or online classes for regular students, video conferencing has come to stay. Hardly a year ago skype meetings were a luxury meant only for the sophisticated! When something becomes common, we tend to take it for granted and go about without appreciating the plus points. Let me try listing out benefits of online meetings so that we feel blessed.

 

1.      For organisers or host it is simple, easy and almost free of many charges. No rentals of the meeting hall, refreshments, honorarium / bouquets / mementos to speakers are involved.

2.      Participants avoid travel, pollution and save time and effort to attend meetings

3.      Participant can feign attendance by placing a placard / cut out etc on the chair or have a good photo on his google account which is shown when camera is off.

4.      You can switch off camera at will and have coffee, tea or snacks or go for a break without embarrassment or disturbing others seated next to you.

5.      You can avoid the embarrassment of having to sit next to someone with foul breadth or body odour - even coming from yourself.

6.      You can chat selectively and privately without disturbing anyone

7.      You (the host mostly, others in some platforms) can record a dance, song or speech locally on some systems

8.      You may watch / observe others(womenfolk!) with impunity, without getting caught

9.      You may note the event in (Google) calendar and get reminded automatically

10.  You can read the list of all participants in one go; At times in a physical meeting, if you are in the front row, you need to be turning back every now and then to see if anyone you want has come.

11.  You may place positive comments and appreciation about topic, speaker etc without waiting to write the same in the register at the end of the meeting.

12.  Many meetings offer a recorded version when meeting is over. You may watch this in case you have missed some portions.

13.  Generally online meetings close following the time booked during scheduling it. You can budget your time accordingly.

14.  You may leave without being noticed after you have heard your favourite speaker

15.  You may attend to email or make a phone call after muting your mike or switching off the camera.

     

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Coconut Fruit Falling on Your Head

                                          Coconut fruit falling on your head

We have a coconut tree in our garden, for well over three decades. It is in the pathway from front to back doors. The tree yields about 60-70 fruits per year during the season. It is a pity that we do not take care of it well. But it is very forgiving and friendly, despite termite infestation, lack of adequate water or enough space to grow.

My neighbor’s son, school kid, is afraid of jumping over the compound wall to fetch the ball that crosses the boundary wall and lands into our space. Not that he is wary of being chided by me but he is afraid that a coconut may fall on his head.

What are the chances of a ripened coconut falling from the tree on your head? Well that depends upon several factors such as: the ripeness of the fruit, how many times you walk past its trajectory, how many coconuts form the yield, time of the day, wind velocity if it is windy and perhaps your luck.  

There have been a few studies to determine this, both bogus as well as really good results. The often-quoted statement that “There are about 150 deaths per year due to coconut falling on the head”, has been de-bunked. The latest guestimate of a death occurring on account of being hit by a coconut is about 1 in 270,000,000. You have better chances of winning Australian Saturday Lotto.  Interested? Look up: https://www.lottoland.com.au/magazine/what-are-the-odds-of-being-killed-by-a-coconut.html

As per my observations, coconuts fall more during night than during the day. They fall in my garden space, into my neighbours’ yard or on my terrace. Monkeys play a major role if more nuts happen to fall down. We never engage a person to bring fruits (pluck) down. Whatever falls on its own, at its destined time, is enough for us. I will consider that I am lucky if they fall in the terrace. One, because, they don’t disappear through the hands of the servant maid. Two, because, if I am hit, it will be better than being hit if I am on the ground, directly under the tree – impact will be less!  

 

Observing Participants in Videoconferencing and Online Meetings

 

Observing participants in Videoconferencing and online meetings

 

Like many of you, I also participate in a good number of online meetings, webinars and video conferences. I use platforms like Zoom and Google Meet extensively. Lesser used platforms are Cisco, Skype, GoToMeeting etc.  When the speaker is not inspiring (read: boring to death!), I observe participants who dare to expose themselves via their cameras. Very interesting questions and answers come up but I shall share with you only the questions and not the answers. Here we go with a select set of dirty dozen questions!

 

1.      By looking at the ceiling fan, can you guess whose house it is?

2.      Whose wife prepares different snacks for her hubby in every meeting?

3.      Who is the participant that braves presenting himself in cut banian?

4.      Who is the guy feigning attendance by placing a card board cut out on his chair?

5.      Whom would you select as “the widest yawning member”?

6.      Who is the one who manages to sneak in during Vote of Thanks?

7.      Who is the one who focuses his mobile to the screen making you sit alert & straight?

8.      Who is the one who refuses to mute his mike by switching it back again and again?

9.      Who is the one that has an unmanageable external camera that frustrates him?

10.  Who is the one that allows his pet dog to overrule him?

11.  Who are those participants interested in showing hairy nose, donkey ears, dirty hands, bald head etc instead of their faces?

12.  Who is the one that lazes in his “undone bed” in slouching “Sriman Narayana” posture?  

 

What is your take on this topic? Let us have some fun! I am sure you are equally experienced.  I admit I am also the answer to some questions listed above!  

 

 

Image Credit: Mohammed Hassan

Book Review - Knowledge Junction of Ailments

Book Review: Knowledge Junction of Ailments by Chepuri Shankar Rao

This book is about ailments afflicting the human body. Rightly titled: “Knowledge Junction”, it reminds us that all of us are at a junction in our lives always wondering “which road to take”. This is more so when our failing health is concerned. 

Sri Shankar Rao has compiled a veritable compendium of titbits, articles and extracts. The book provides basic information on 1] diseases like dementia, cancer, Parkinson, BP, heart attacks, diabetes, jaundice, arthritis, renal failure, colic, thyroidism, glaucoma, paralysis, ILD, haemorrhage 2] medical procedures like endoscopy, colonoscopy, angioplasty   and 3] tips on food, diet, nutrition etc. Both English and Telugu extracts, short and long, have been included.

As there is no grouping or categorisation of topics you have to go through the entire book to find out what is there on the subjects of your interest. On the whole this book is useful to the common man and it is not targeted towards any specific group of readers. A number of colour photographs in cover pages show his activities and other interests like singing, speaking, skit-play,  honouring others, getting facilitations to himself etc

Shri Shankar Rao writes stories, poems and titbits in Telugu and English, sings popular and patriotic songs, organises donation camps to the underprivileged older persons, volunteers in the activities of Senior Citizens Associations. This author-published book shows another face of Rao – compiler, editor and author – in that order.

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