Drinking the wild Aer !!

Wow is the word which first comes to you instinctively, when you step onto the open terrace bar at the Four Seasons, Mumbai. Knocked my socks off; totally, what a view - super awesome. The unobstructed panoramic view of the Maximum city, with the stark juxtapositions of the glitzy skyscrapers and crumbling down mills, is more like essence of Mumbai, in a nut shell! Such is this dream city. Aer had been on my wish list since I visited Mumbai and thanks to one of my best friends; Vernica who took me there.

The lead up to this open air, über cool bar, builds a preamble of sorts to what one can expect beyond the flight of staircase leading up to the terrace. This place is an architect’s delight. There is just so much to absorb and due appreciation is necessary. The dim light flight of stairs is flanked by a stunning feature glass wall. The lighting is tantalizingly dim.

Aer gave the feeling of a perfect place where all I want to do is listen to the music, engross in the beauty and just relax. It’s divided into 2 pars giving you the view of 2 different sides of Worli. One with sea is facing and one with non sea facing. But obvious we preferred the sea facing one. Sitting arrangement is modern keeping in the young crowd. What we loved about this place is view. Sea, building, road, bridge, It has everything. At night it gives a feeling of you being outside India. The Crowd Here Is Upper Class Business Elite's. All About the Place Is Ambiance

Contemporary low level white sofas, an egg shaped bar manned by trained bartenders add to its exclusivity. What struck me the most is the funky seating contours in white, as against the conventional bar / lounge seating? There is a whole minimalist approach to design. The terrace is framed with glass which gives one a seamless view to the city lying yonder. The price here is befitting a 7 star property but you can pick your food/drink options wisely

This is a lovely place for those special occasions, the view is priceless and I am sure so will be the moments. Visit Aer with your special someone and I am sure it’ll be totally worth every buck.

The Delhi guy !

So, enough of umpteen posts being shared on Facebook which ridicule Delhi boys for being jerk. It might be very difficult to believe but there are indeed some perfectly nice gentlemen living in Delhi. There have been protests, candle night marches, face book communities deriding all kinds of stereotypes but this is one stereotype that has stood the test of time without anyone raising a voice. Imagine what a nice guy in Delhi goes through when his own sister or best friend puts on her wall – “All Delhi men are losers, assholes etc”. So at the outset I would like to declare to all the folks around the world in SRK style –

“Dear All, I am a Delhi Guy and I am not a rapist” (I feel all guys in Delhi should put this as their Status Messages as a sign of protest)

What no one understands is that being a nice guy in Delhi is a damn difficult task. At every point in their life such guys have to suffer humiliation and indignation. A polite, gentle, chivalrous guy will most likely be branded as a wuss very early in his life. And after that his entire life is a struggle.

In case some guy is stupid enough to give his seat to a lady in metro out of genuine goodness, he will have to hear backbiting in not so repressed voices – “Sala, ladki ko impress kar raha hai”. To avoid this most nice guys stay miles away from the ladies section of the Metro Compartment or the left side of DTC buses. This means all the females only encounter the “Not so nice” people standing near them. narrow-minded in their viewpoint, the ladies generalize and “rape every guy’s character”.

Because of the “Delhi image”, the nice ones tend to overcompensate by being over polite. Somehow they feel that the entire burden of enhancing the image of the city is on their shoulders. I remember I have missed my bus stop many times because of some girl with headphones blocking my path to the door. Of course she was too busy to hear me and I was too polite to touch her. I know of a friend who controlled his nature calls for two hours because he was sitting on the window seat of the airplane with two chicks sitting to his left. Had he tried to go, the girls would have given him “Die, You cheapster” look. Damn, all the niceness!!

Another baseless accusation against Delhi boys is that they abuse a lot. I know that they use BC, MC in almost every sentence but ask anyone who uses it and he will tell you that “Oh BC” is a major stress reliever. I have never understood why a person using the F-word is considered cool while the one using the B-word a vernacular. It’s all down to our imperial hangover. Harvard, Wharton or any other American B school should do a research (Only they have time for such stupid researches. Indian Bschoolers prefer social work :D) and compare the stress reliving powers of the two words and I am sure Bc will win hands down over the English counterpart. So next time some guy exclaims “Oh BC!! You are looking amazing” in front of you please consider it as a very genuine compliment, one coming from the bottom of the heart.

Apart from the apathy towards females, Delhi people are also blamed of being cold on Delhi Roads. What people must know is that almost all of the cab and bus drivers hail from the neighboring H State( ironically  my forefathers belong to this very H State). And that state is most famous for producing Olympic Wrestling Champions. Need I say more??? When you hit a car or commit an accident on Delhi Roads, YOU RUN, and not wait for the opposing driver to come up and smash your windscreen. Years ago, I was travelling with my friend and he hit a biker. Instinctively, I tried to come out and help the biker. My friend pulled me back into the car and fled. I had missed the quickly gathering mob comprising solely of bus and cab drivers. Even today my friends pull my leg and have a good laugh at my stupidity. Unfortunately, I have to agree to their opinion.

Stride so Steep; Sugar so Sweet !!!

“The Cloud is Open” that’s what SugarCRM say. Indeed the cloud is open for SugarCRM now as according to The Wall Street Journal, IBM is planning to replace its Siebel based customer relationship management (CRM) products with software owned by open-source software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendor SugarCRM (an 8-year-old company backed by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and two other venture funds), HP recently revealed that it too would be replacing Siebel with products provided by SaaS.

These days, more and more companies are adopting SaaS applications which is sometimes called Web-based software, on-demand software, or hosted software. Whatever the name, SaaS applications run on a SaaS provider’s servers. The provider manages access to the application, including security, availability and performance.

IBM was the world's largest deployment of Siebel applications, and this replacement is an indication of the pressure on Oracle's application business. The contract demonstrates how quickly a relative startup (SugarCRM) can establish credibility in the fast-moving market to provide Web-based software, frequently referred to as the cloud. Within such a short span of time, Sugar already has more than 10,000 customers globally and The contract, which IBM was shopping as far back as two years ago, also shows how rivalries between technology giants can impact business relationships.

For SugarCRM, the IBM deal gives the company more legitimacy and shows its ability to secure key contracts against larger foes. SugarCRM is building a business aimed at delivering management services around a core of open-source software that clients can deploy in a private or public cloud.

SugarCRM continues to distribute its software through 350 partners worldwide and generates revenue by offering services wrapped around the open-source code.