Skip to main content

Alternate Prompts

The hyper-connected world we live in is turning into a bunch of pre-recorded voices instructing, cajoling, pleading or demanding the caller to perform certain set of tasks, in order to achieve telephone nirvana.  India as an emerging market has also adopted its variants.

I have suggestions for the businesses that record these lousy messages to amp up their game and get in your face -

Indian telecom providers -

Today's message in Marathi speaking regions for callers to a busy telco line  -
  • Apan kelela number vyasta ahee - krupaya punha try kara (line busy please call back)
    • Rephrased version - Tumhi Jackass ahat.  Kaa pan Kaa call karat ahat?  (you are an idiot for calling, btw why are you calling?)
Indian banking entities or local operations of MNC businesses -
  • Fake British Indian accent - to indicate options to callers to access their account info - today it goes - If you are a Citibank customer press 1;  and so on...
  • Rephrased - in the voice of Deena Pathak or Nirupa Roy (assuming one of them is still around and interested in doing a side gig)  -
    • Beta - yahan call karne se pehle thoda socha hota?  Number pe number kyun daba rahe ho?  Yahan baat karne ke liye koi gadha hai nahi (Kid - you could have thought twice before dialing these numbers where no one is available to answer anything?)
If all else fails there are missed calls.  Which could subsequently lead to Gabbar's voice - threatening the mis(s)er (for not answering the call and saving 3 cents) -
  • Abe O - saale phone uthaa aur ghuma number (which is retarded given nobody ghumaos anything (other than their phone itself) but it lends an air of uncouth bravado).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On the go(zay masta) in Japan again

Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk  My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...

A few good books

 On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...

Back in DC

This time for a tech conference in the realm of what else? AI. But applied to an oft neglected space called Knowledge Management. The latter is a community of practice that focuses on analyzing, organizing and making available reams of data that have been gathered over time by various functions within an organization for anyone in the company to utilize. This function or process is ripe for applying AI agents (or agentic AI framework) and optimize for better outcomes. It was informative. More rewarding was getting acquainted with folks who practice this craft as well as learning of what they see in the corporate or public sectors. Since the venue was Washington DC it also afforded me the chance to take evening strolls albeit the weather was trying. With wind chill in the single digit it still is a glamorous place to perambulate through history absorbing what this country has been through since its founding days. I was able to visit the place Lincoln was killed along with his monument t...