The De's Blog

A De for the black

2011-11-22T07:48:00.001+05:30

As I looked at the paper this morning, I couldn't help reading the headlines on the front page and feeling that cold, fuzzy feeling of... well... sadness. A few of the articles in question:

Rupee at all-time low of 52.15, to impact everyday life

Black money offenders may escape prosecution

Govt plans Rs.30,000cr bailout for Air India

Maha govt has spent Rs.16cr on Kasab so far

In the last decade, over 4 died in custody daily

How are these all linked? Well, it all starts with a question... how can I increase the amount and value of the black money I've got?

Before we begin, here's a little background.

A while ago, news reports told us that Sonia Gandhi went to the US for an operation. There's been no official statement (to my knowledge at least) as to what operation this was or what it was for. Most folks would rack this up to a personal privacy concern - which I would think of as the right thing to do. Illness in the family is hardly something you want splashed all over every form of media as 'breaking news', however, quoting from an article from Zee News:

Confirming the news, Congress spokesperson Janardan Dwivedi said, “Sonia Gandhi has been unwell for quite some time and the doctors attending her had advised her to undergo a surgery, for which she had flown to the United States recently.”
Briefing the press reporters on her health, Dwivedi said, “The abdominal surgery performed on her has been successful and she had been advised to take full rest.”

I've heard that her trip out of the country was to handle some 'money matters' - this could be related to the operation costs. I've been told that there were reports of Rahul stopping by in Switzerland on his way to the US to visit his mother after her surgery - this would seem a little cold. I'm off to visit my mom - she's just had an operation... heeeeey, wanna stop by in Switzerland on the way? When I tried searching for articles related to this, I only found articles suggesting that neither of them had gone to the US at all and were both in Switzerland. I haven't linked to any of these since they weren't mainstream media sites. Other subsequent reports say she's got some form of skin cancer or something. Maybe she should either tell the media to shut up or set them straight in reporting the truth.

Anyway, it's generally accepted in India that there are lots of people in the country with lots of black money. It's also accepted here that the people with the money are the ones in control. I read an article a while ago which suggested that the government would make it easier to bring back black money without having to pay anything in way of penalty. Just the regular tax would be deducted. It figures that people with large amounts of black money would want to go easy on people with large amounts of black money, and allow them to bring it back without prosecuting them for having that amount of undeclared money.

Which brings us to the first article I've mentioned in the post. Some news papers and channels have suggested that the government could have done something to control the sliding rupee before, but now it's going into freefall - and there's not much that can help prevent that. Heck, if I've got US Dollars and Euros, my cash is now worth 10% more than it was a couple of months ago. If I've got enough that I'm planning on bringing back to India anytime soon, I'd like it if the Rupee slid further. With all this talk about all the black money stashed abroad, if/when it DOES come back, there's a significant drop in the loss to the owner of this cash.

The next article is about how black money offenders may escape prosecution. The Income Tax department, which normally manages to worry even the most well connected people in the country would appear toothless when it comes to larger deviations from the rules. If they haven't paid tax on the money stashed abroad, they should at LEAST be made liable to have that tax deducted - freeze their local bank accounts if necessary. Any 'unexplained' assets should be made property of the country. The ED (Enforcement department) in our country is (to my understanding) only involved when it comes to prosecution. If the details can't be shared between the IT department and ED because of the Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty (DTAT), then handle the prosecution of these people once Germany gives clearance - the country would benefit, in the meantime, from infusion of a huge amount of cash. Our president went to Switzerland and Austria to talk about the issues of the DTAT, but so far the only mainstream media report I could find on this was this one, published before the trip. This would suggest that the trip didn't go well for the Indian public so details weren't published by the media. The BJP has jumped on this with the input that since the people on the list didn't EARN the money abroad, they aren't liable to pay taxes abroad - sounds straightforward enough.

With all this behind-the-scenes activity, we, the people of the country have to be thrown a bone once every now and then - with all the reports of all the scams, it's getting hard to see what rules/laws/amendments the government is coming up with to protect themselves from prosecution. It's in the interest of most political parties to protect the corrupt. This dance would appear to be for the benefit of the Indian people so that when people finally DO get caught, they get a slap on the wrist, spend 6 months or so incarcerated in luxury, then get out to spend their ill-gotten gains - the rules still don't allow for recovery of any of the money stolen.

So what's up with our national carrier? How does that tie in? As far as I see, it's just one more set of scams. The airline industry in the country's not doing particularly well - and for all the rubbish people have been coming up with like 'they're badly/inefficiently managed', or 'Indigo is doing well', I have this to say to you - inefficiencies can make a difference, but not THIS much of a difference. Indigo (or rather Interglobe) is making profits FROM the other airlines rather than from it's airline service. I understand the owners were smart enough to book a large number of aircraft which are being delivered - and sold/leased out to other airlines since delivery schedules are in terms of years for aircraft manufacturers. The politicians have been known to use the national carrier (Indian) like their own personal charters - the Civil aviation ministers (and lots of other folks apparently) are guaranteed a lifetime of free tickets. Not that the rest of the government pays in any case. Now they're giving them a 30,000cr bailout rather than paying their dues. No wonder they didn't want to give it back to the Tatas to run - they'd have objected to letting so many folks fly everywhere for free.

Rs.16cr (Rs.160million) on Kasab. This has gone on food, drink, accommodation and security over the last 3 years. That's on average Rs.1.46L (Rs.146K) per day. I thought he was in jail! Okay, so lets assume he's got prime property in Bombay. Lets peg that at 14K/day on just space and electricity - there are much more expensive hotels, but hey, this guy doesn't get room service does he? Take a few (5 or 6) of the higher pay-scale cops and pay them a little more - that's another 14K/day. Food? What the hell - lets get him 5 star rates - that comes up to (with difficulty) 10K/day. One full rate return trip to Pakistan per month (which I'm sure he doesn't get) - including rental car and security detail - Rs.2L/month (averages at 7K/day). Where's the rest of this money? Court fee/lawyers? 100K/month? We've got pictures of the guy shooting folks up. We've got an admission of guilt. There are enough eye witnesses AND he's been found guilty already... I'm guessing the rest is something to do with someone making a lot of money on the side... like by providing him with food at the price of gold, while 4 people die in custody because they've been mistreated/manhandled/not been cared about enough.

The sad bit is that all this political 'VIP' nonsense is the root of all these headlines.

De multifold coverup

2011-07-30T20:44:00.000+05:30

Take this scenario:

A large bunch of (not particularly intimate) criminals have evidence of each others crimes. They'd rather not be prosecuted at all, so in the interest of their own safety do not 'rat out' any of the others.

Now, lets thicken the plot a little - one of these criminals gets caught for one crime in which a few other folks are involved. He's going down... there's no escape for this guy at all... he's in a particularly bad mood because he gets the feeling that someone took him down and doesn't feel like he should take the rap alone. He rats out the other folks involved in this particular crime.

We now have a few folks going down - some of their enemies decide to kick-em-while-they're-down assuming that they don't have proof of any of their own crimes. Things start getting more complicated now because now all of them have started thinking along the lines of 'if I have to take a fall, I'm pulling everyone else in with me.'

Suddenly, there's chaos in parliament. All the thievery, murders, scams, embezzling, laundering, kickbacks and lies have started hitting everyone, but the politicians have started warring... none of the parties are covering their 'friends' let alone their enemies. Some of them think that by starting one more controversy they can lessen the scope of their own prosecution by diverting attention away from their own issue. In most cases, this next controversy involves more people. With any luck, most of them will kill each other (metaphorically if not literally) and we'll be left with the few misfits in our government with some form of ethical standard. I'm just hoping there's not going to be a truce call between the 'dons' before the bloodbath's finished. It's a little sad that the only time the Delhi police have averted a full on terrorist strike, the terrorists were planning on doing us a favour - destruction of the parliament building would have been upsetting, but the place could definitely use a good fumigation.

De Shopping Experience

2011-02-04T10:57:00.000+05:30

With e-commerce set to jump out of the bag with the coming of actual broadband and 3G in India, you'd think it's safe to get out there and buy stuff online here...

WRONG!

It's neither safe, nor prudent to give any of these web sites too much of a chance till they start respecting privacy and/or up the security on the data that you have to give them. I've had some pretty sad experiences with spam happening from places I'd have least expected it to come.

The Setup
It all started with me getting so much spam on my old Hotmail account that I more or less stopped using it altogether. It had been relegated to that old account where I had a few subscriptions, or that I gave to any website that required registration... and my personal address? Well, that's personal... why let anyone see that at all?

Unfortunately, I found that I was getting more spam in my inbox than in my "Junk mail folder", and the spam management and amazing search functionality on Hotmail just didn't help at all (searching for the word "dentist" yielded no results despite the fact that bulk of my inbox was filled with mail with the same word in the subject). I needed another way to sort through that account - frankly, I only wanted to keep it since it's one of my first e-mail addresses and if anyone still uses it they should be able to (eventually) elicit a response from it, so once a month I check it.

I've found that the best (and easiest) way to track spam is to use your own domain with a mailbox there for every site you may have low trust issues with. It's quite convenient for companies (like amazon.co.uk@mydomain. com) so you remember the login details (since if you reached the website, you're bound to know what email address you've passed them). I've managed to take it to a level where it takes a matter of seconds to setup an account for someone, access it automatically with a password shared across accounts, and with limits only on the collective size of inbox, I've found I'm relatively sorted on this part. Once you're sure that they're not evil spammers, you can give them your proper e-mail address.

So there I was... I felt comfortable with this system of distributing email addresses. It confuses people and gets funny at times as well... I've been asked a few times if I work with Dell (while on the phone with support).

I'm guessing majority of the leaks start at customer care. We need to educate the call centre employees on privacy and ethics. Most of them wouldn't think twice about giving anyone their own addresses and phone numbers out and wouldn't think of it as a breach of agreement or even privacy. I don't think anyone would bother trying to hack into many of the customer databases... it's easier to hang out outside the call centre (I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to get the location/address through the phone) and offer someone a couple of hundred rupees for all the email addresses.

To help or not to help
It's really sad where all I get spam from. Oxfam India was responsible for my receipt of mail offering to "Make it stronger. Last a lot longer." It should be good enough that I contribute to their causes in cash - why would they sell my data?

Travel issues
You want to book flight, train or bus tickets or a hotel room from/in India online? Yatra delivers quite a good experience on the actual business side... on the side business, I've received spam from LIC (which IMHO is just about acceptable seeing as it's a respected Insurance company - just the source of the email address and the option to opt out should be included in the mail). One thing I DIDN'T expect from them was to get a Facebook invite from Shalini Ahuja - you're thinking this would possibly be a bot or a very lonely person? The invite said :

Lowest Fares on www . EaseMyTrip . com Just Compare Fares Once Before Issuing Tickets Online.... Also Earn Upto Rs.50,000/Month or More by Joining EMT Franchise Network !!

Sounds like a competitor to me... does this mean all Yatra customers were sent FB invites from EaseMyTrip?

A company that wanted to sell projectors and services related to projectors has contacted me on my Yatra account. This information also seems to have reached an "offers" website, who have offered me "Resort homes" in India.

Does this mean that Yatra sells user data? Probably not - one rogue employee or someone may have given this data out. I don't get too much spam through them... a total of 4 emails that I've managed to track - it's a little bit of work. In fact, I'd spoken with some pretty senior people (at Yatra) about this and haven't received any more spam on that address.

Khojguru has managed to get my Dominos pizza email address and send me mail about it. They even included a link to allow me to unsubscribe from their list - I didn't want to click on it since this would confirm that it's an active address and allow the spammer (Khojguru) to validate this as a "good lead". The next mail I got on this address (some insurance comparison site) actually said that it was being sent from kgurumail.com, so at least when Khojguru sends my mail address on to more spammers, they keep me in the loop.

An online auction site sent me spam at my book my show address, and were nice enough to include a coupon just above the (unused) unsubscription link.

There's an email provider here who (apparently) pays you back for using their email service and in the spam they've sent to my Dominos account (again via Khojguru), they've even mentioned a donation they've made to charity, aside from offering me great deals.

Dominos gets the prize for versatility though... from email that pays you to use it to "Compete in yacht size? Nowadays it is of no use - boost your bed energy!"

The Bad
Okay, so now the story gets a bit murky... an internet provider (Spectranet) sent my Ferns and Petals account a flyer about affordable long distance calling... heck, if an internet provider buys/obtains this data illegally, who's stopping them from sharing their customers data or even spying on the actual data that's being exchanged by users online?

My Ferns and petals account also received junk from The Economist offering me a subscription - hey at least they're keeping it classy! Or maybe not... IndusLadies sent me a newsletter, and offered to take feedback/unsubscription requests which lead to a "sendfnpemail.com" url, but then ALL links do... it's almost like they're running campaigns for people who want publicity and using their customers mail addresses to send all of this crap out. Bad, bad FnP! No Froyo for you!

All of these so far are just standard sites or organisations that are either too stupid/enethical to hold my data with a degree of respect. They're not really very big on the online shopping front.

I've had so much spam at my Ngpay address it's not funny. Ngpay is a service which partners with online retailers, travel sites, gift sites, movie sites... it's an aggregator of sorts, but it's mobile! It delivers a near seamless experience (or had in the past when I used to use it), but since they have to pass on your contact details to their partners, someone or the other (read: fnp.in) would start sending you spam. I don't hold this against them, but would like them to try it the Google way... not pass the actual email address, but a time limited alias which could be deactivated on confirmation from the customer.

The Ugly
Shop Your World... this one actually deserves a separate post, but hey, I'm not here very often :)

I got a flyer from one of my banks telling me I could now shop on Amazon.com or bestbuy.com in Indian Rupees, have the product shipped to India, and get to see the complete cost (delivery to my doorstep) upfront... they'll handle purchase, shipping, customs duty and delivery, and I get what I bought at the US price plus a bit on shipping and tax. It winds up a lot more cost effective for me to buy this way... it also winds up a lot more convenient - at one point, if you bought something from a US store and had them ship it here, they'd give you a call when it reached customs and you'd have to go pay and get it out.

Great concept! Ebay.in has a similar concept, but they only handle particular suppliers from the US and ONLY ebay listings. Now I can get stuff from the US or UK at a reasonable price (Services here are cheap and involve cut-throat competition, but many products are generally much more expensive here), and I don't need to have an address abroad or have anyone pick it up, or have anyone bring it down... it reaches my door for a few rupees more.

A serious shopping site is the LAST place I'd expect to get spam from... one that my BANK recommends? I registered, left my mobile number, email address, house address, "spam" mobile number; a freely distributed number, and a phone in the shopping cart. I got spam from MTV. The spam was addressed to "Dear Sunil", so they hadn't just sold the address... the name was specified as well. I managed to catch an online agent to chat with and asked if they sold information. When I was told that this was against policy (as I'd already seen on their website), I persisted and was told that they didn't. If they're not selling or distributing my data and someone else has it, there's only one other natural assumption that springs to mind... they're low on security and/or have been hacked into, and data stolen. I don't really think I want to use an e-commerce site that's been hacked into, especially with the response I got from the agent... I had the transcript emailed to me. So far no one has gotten back to me - heck, maybe they lost my data :-D

The transcript of the conversation:

info: Please wait for a site operator to respond.
info: You are now chatting with 'Aditya'
info: Your Issue ID for this chat is LTK166010377008X
Aditya: Welcome to Shop Your World
Aditya: How may I help?
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: Hi Aditya, I'd registered on your site and had considered buying some things from there. I created a specific email address for your site
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: I received spam on this email address yesterday
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: I would like to know if you are distributing/selling my data
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: because this goes against the privacy policy mentioned on your website
Aditya: We do not share our Customer's Database with any other Company
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: then your system has been hacked into
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: which is even more of a concern
Aditya: I will pass this Information to the IT team
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: the only place this email address has ever been typed is on shopyourworld.com
Aditya: Ok
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: not good enough
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: I'd like you to have your management team contact me as this is a rather serious issue
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: I'm just glad I didn't buy anything from you or my credit card details might have been floating around the internet as well
Aditya: Like I said, I will share this Information with the IT Team to look into the matter and check if there are any gates open for the hackers to peep into our database.
Aditya: As of now we haven't received such Complaints, but considering this is the first, we would like to do something about it and avoid such complaints in future
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: if I don't get a revert from your management team in the next three days I'll blog this.
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: I don't think you're getting how serious this issue is
Aditya: The Credit Card Details are not stored in our database any which way as we use a 3D secure payment gateway
Aditya: You will have to go through VISA or Mastercard verified gateway for every transaction
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: I'm not going to waste any more time chatting with you. Please make sure someone contacts me about this in the next three days
Aditya: So security of your Card details shouldn't be a concern at all
info: Your chat transcript will be sent to shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com at the end of your chat.
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: selling the data would be enough of an issue - I got spam from rishik85@gmail.com with the subject MTV GANG NEXT 2.0 Auditions, which would suggest you've sold my information to an MTV affiliate.
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: the mail was sent from a Tata Teleservices internet account
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: 114.143.128.162 was the IP
Aditya: We will have this checked
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: please have whoever contacts me at the given mail address provide a contact number
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: I will call back
Aditya: I have passed on the Information to the concern team
Aditya: We have your contact details registered with this Email ID
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: now you're getting my point - I've given you more details than I'd typically give to an untrusted site. So you can have them call me on my mobile.
Aditya: Sure
Aditya: You should get a call within 24 - 48 hours
shopyourworld.com@mydomain. com: thanks
Aditya: Cheers!

It's been a week and a day... should have been enough time for them to get back to me... they haven't. Maybe HDFC (and ICICI) should consider security of their partner sites - the sites themselves don't seem to care too much.

De genius without

2010-04-09T15:33:00.003+05:30

The inspiration for this came partially from a TED talk which I'd encourage you to watch before reading:

De genius without

and paranoia rears its head

and lays it on the comfy bed

the sounds of silence scream and whine,

the experience was all mine.

The genius with me, writing down
the words bombarding me, which begin to frown

I did it all! He says, you see,
it wasn't you, it was only me!

The writer then, put the pen down
and turned to the genius, who began to frown

So tell me this, who brought the path?
I took the turns, and faced the wrath!

Creativity is a form of life
which doesn't take this kind of strife.
The writer and the genius
without each other are not quite us.

Pushing of De Tao

2010-02-08T06:54:00.002+05:30

So I'm sitting on the plane, thinking about what a great time I had over the weekend in Hyderabad and decide to write something. Life came to mind, so I thought I may as well write about that.

While I was writing, I was listening to music on shuffle and ironically a song I haven't heard in a while played. Ironically, because it's called 'Wasted years', so the pome sounds a little sad at times, but ends on a positive note.

I think I've realised I need to push now, but despite spending most of the last 15 years attempting to embrace change, it still psyches the hell out of me.

This 'Pome' is my way of explaining to myself that second chances exist. There is always hope, but planning in life is what I've missed doing in my endless quest to live in the De. I now plan to be the oldest kid alive :-)

For DD & Jo

My eyes are open.
I am awake.
I thank you both
for the gentle shake.

Pushing Tao
------------------
The brook flowed on
He went with the flow
The rush of life
The best way to go

His life was full
His vision strong
The way it flowed
His time would be long

In his state of bliss
He flowed with Tao
Laugh lines on his face
Ran over his brow

The world was youth
Those lines set in
Laughter and joy
Friend and kin

The stream flowed on
Cutting paths through time
Life was the joy
Of song and of rhyme

Childhood came
With the people less grown
The time was ripe
He yearned for his own

The forks in the stream
He never noticed
They must have existed
But they were all missed

The river flowed on
Cutting ox bow lakes
Comprehension crept in...
He'd made his mistakes.

The flow of the river
Began to slow down
The delta was nigh
He longed to see ground

He had no choice
And into the ocean was thrust
A new beginning
This time Tao will be pushed.

De return of Des

2009-10-11T10:35:00.003+05:30

So I've had writers block for almost two years now. I used to love writing, and think I still do, and even though I've had enough material to write (with all the stuff that's been happening over the last couple of years), I just haven't gotten around to writing it.

Bad excuse. I got on a reduced work week, so for four months in the past (and a few months in the future, depending on how busy work gets over the next few months) I've been putting in four days a week instead of five.

What would you do with the spare time? The one day a week on a weekday that you've got to yourself? Home improvement? Extra work? Consulting? Setting up a business? Getting on the stock market?

So what I've done so far is think about setting up a solar panel fabrication plant (small scale, low efficiency, lower cost solar panels). I thought this would be a good way to do something interesting while helping people (would be ideally suited to rural areas where electricity transmission isn't really upto reasonable levels), while keeping me busy and employing a few people to get the work done. It's also a very green thing to do. I did a little research on it and found that it would be cost effective, but I've been just too lazy to execute. The excuse I've been using was the lack of funding. Getting space anywhere near home would involve pots of money that I just don't have, which brought on the next plan...

The fact that I'm on a four day work week helps out in that for one weekday, I've got time to get on the markets and see how they're swinging... and they're swinging... I'd get addicted and wind up losing most of the money I have (and probably some I don't) if I didn't put a cap on what I'm putting into the markets, so I decided that if I have money that I can afford to throw, I'll throw it in and see if I can make some more... if I lose it all, I won't feel too bad about it since it was "extra" cash. Enter the 1 lakh cap.

During my purely experimental stage, I managed to pump in the entire amount on stocks that dropped... and they dropped pretty far down. I was left with roughly 70% of the value that I'd put in... in such a situation (where you're sure they're going to go back up), you normally wait. But hang on... this was investing where I wanted to trade! So I decided to up the ante a bit and put in another 100K, only this time, I'd try day trading... managed small profits, went on a holiday to Turkey and saw my "investment" shares pick up like mad. Cashed out as soon as I could (on hindsight, this was probably a mistake since they went up by quite a bit more after that). I was left with 250K and a holiday (mostly) paid for by the markets. I decided then to up the total to 250K on investments and 100K on trading recently - after I realised that annualised, my profits stood at 98%. I don't expect anything like this if I trade one day a week on a regular basis, but a little extra cash never hurt anyone... much...

Okay, so I got carried away. I always do. I lost sight of the goal. I wanted to make a bit of money on the side so I could carry out the plan. But then land is expensive, and this money; although it's not exactly small, is nowhere near enough to cut it. I refuse to gamble more money on a market that goes up and down more on emotion than facts, so what next?

How about using the day off to do what I enjoy the most? Enjoyment? I'm now the sort of person who's not truly happy unless I'm partying as many nights as possible - and a few days as well. I decided to overdo it a bit and wound up pulling late nights every night of the month for a few months now. I've taken 4 days off in the last couple of months or so when I wasn't out drinking at night, and at a friends wedding recently, drinking in the day time wasn't set aside either.

I do enjoy a drink or six, but then I'm not getting the sort of exercise I should be getting. Podgy isn't a word I'd like to be associated with, but at this rate, that's where I'm going to be in a couple of months.

So this one day a week I'm thinking I'll start using for the markets (for a couple of hours) and exercise, to compensate for the wilder portions of my hedonistic lifestyle. It would probably also be a good idea to get my room setup. Having thrown most of the furiture out of here, I think it's time I get off my beanbag and paint my wall or something.

Come to think of it, maybe I should start using the time to get some writing done :-)

De great infinity

2009-09-19T09:43:00.002+05:30

I've been here long enough. There's lots to do, but that will to do it has dropped dramatically over the years (as it invariably does).

I always start new things with a vengeance... then the intensity begins to drop as I realise I can complete it. This applies to just about everything I've ever done (and possibly to everything I'll ever do). Let me give you an example or three. I switched schools relatively regularly in the early part of life; trying to get three kids in the same school at the same time in Delhi couldn't have been very easy for my mom. Every time I shifted schools, I'd be one of the class superstars. Things were new and interesting so I had the thrill of change to spur me on. The same thing happened at college where I started out with the seemingly effortless ability to do well. The marks started tapering off almost immediately because I realised that the subject material was all stuff that I'd learned; exceptions were handled erm... well... exceptionally.

I'd grown up thinking of everything as simple. Getting a machine to do what you wanted (no matter what you wanted it to do) was easy. At some point early in my experience with computers (in the early 80s) I came accross an article on Elisa - the first NLP program. Getting a machine to pretend it was human seemed to me to be the next step, so I started (a few years later - was always really lazy) working on an NLP program, only to realise that I had no idea how humans would react to situations and questions.

A 16 or 17 year old kid standing back and looking at his life and realising that he'd spent so much time understanding machines that he'd neglected one of the more important things in life. Life itself. This scared the living daylights out of me. I wasn't a machine, yet I could write a program to "emulate" me. I was at the time a relatively anal guy (yep... that's the word I'd use now). I had no problems with lending people stuff in college as long as they put them back... in the same place they found them... in EXACTLY the same place that they found them. I'd optimised my life to the extent that if anything was out of place it hurt because it was sub-optimal. At the time I was also neat to the point of OCD.

Then things began to rapidly change. While I was breezing through college, I took time off from talking to machines to actually interact with the scariness of people. I made it a point to get out and meet as many different types of people possible to get an insight into how they work. What they would do given a certain situation, how they'd react to external forces. I tried to change myself in the meantime into something less predictable. Someone yet. I discovered life. I moved over to chaos and (I didn't know the name at the time) the chinese concept of Tao - going with the flow. My neat and tidy room became, in second year, the place that it is now. Clothes thrown in what appears to be a haphazzard manner.

So here I am... drifting through life, allowing all earth shattering decisions to take care of themselves. Every now and then, there's a little push I put in, but life seems to be most enjoyable when you run with it. I'd turned what was an introverted technogeek to an extroverted philosopher. It's sometimes really difficult to get me started on a conversation, but it's usually very difficult to get me to shut up once I start. A mass of confusion topped with rigourous planning of my social calendar.

This story's far from complete... it just keeps going... it's life after all, so I'll publish now and consider part II sometime later... it's been over a month since I started on this post.

Lazy life...

De Ferns’n Petals Fiasco

2008-10-20T11:16:00.003+05:30

Here's a really innovative way of conning people. Start an online flower delivery service which caters to remote locations. If someone sends you flowers, how often do you call them up and thank them (mentioning exactly what the order received was)? Do you think anyone would really complain that they've received an order of flowers from you with a poor quality gift? They'd sit there saying "How considerate... what lovely flowers..."

Okay, so here's the deal. Place an order for some flowers (with maybe a gift attached to it). Pay a premium on the delivery (since it's timed so well). When the wrong arrangement arrives (with slightly wilted flowers), you, the orderer, would never really find out as they'd be masked through the "niceties" of society.

Let's give you an example of this. I'd ordered the Exotic Life Size Arrangement from fnp.in. The description?

Mind blowing arrangement of 100 Seasonal and Exotic Flowers..3 to 4 ft high…for someone very special in your life..

This was supposed to be sent to my mother (who coincidentally lives in the same house as I do at the moment), so when the delivery arrived I was at home to receive it.

Okay, so now you're thinking "So what actually got delivered?"

The order note said Life Size Arrangement (which is 25% cheaper incidentally) and is described as:

Your feelings reach new heights with this expression of LoveÃ‚Â….An arrangement of over 100 Red n Yellow Roses of around 4 feets high.

What actually arrived was however quite a few (definitely more than 70) pink roses about as tall as my dogs (how does 2½ ft strike you?). It was quite nice in a few ways, but nowhere near what I'd ordered.

The order process itself was difficult enough. Yatra.com advertises a partnership with a discount of 25%. They even give you a promo code to enter on the fnp.in site to avail of this discount. When I tried using the promo code I got a "Sorry!! Try again" repeatedly. I thought it may be a problem with the code I was given, so called up Yatra (where a customer service person asked for my user names and passwords on both Yatra.com and fnp.in – I even provided them in the interest of getting this worked out). They acknowledged that there was a problem with the fnp site.

I tried using an alternate promotion (for ICICI bank account customers) which gave me the same error, so called the fnp customer care and was asked to "please try again in half an hour as there may be a technical issue". Strange that 22 hours later it's still not working with ICICI.

I got a little fed up with speaking with the person on the phone so left a comment on the website about the it not working properly and was surprised (quite pleasantly) by a call from Ashish the webmaster who informed me that he could help me with my order if I could order it on my ICICI card (and get a 20% discount instead of 25%) as they'd stopped the promotion with Yatra for Diwali (but still hadn't contacted Yatra with this information).

I mailed him the order details (along with my ICICI bank debit card details – I was wondering how he'd get the payment through with this info, but he'd asked me for it so I sent it). I got a call back a few minutes after sending the mail saying he wanted a credit card rather than debit card. I don't have an ICICI bank credit card, so gave him my HDFC credit card information for him to use, which he said would be okay.

I'm still sitting here waiting for the correct order to be delivered. The instructions for delivery at 9am sort of went down the tubes when the incorrect order arrived at 10, followed closely by a phone call from the "head office" which I passed on to the delivery man. I'll possibly update this if the correct order arrives.

It's arrived... and just as I was getting on the phone with the company again. They've added a top to the original one they sent, not quite what I'd ordered, but it' still nice.

I don't think I'd have written this entry if this was the first time I'd had such problems with them, but then I didn't get to see the last order they'd dispatched and assumed it was a one-off mistake. Hope they're not doing the same thing with you.

Ode to De living

2008-10-04T19:29:00.003+05:30

My life is a lie...
DON'T TOUCH THAT KEY!
Behind that door
is the truth you see!

I am who I am
but I won't tell you
Who knows what you'd think
or indeed what you'd do.

The pain of knowing
just what I've become
may unravel those lies
till they're completely undone.

Where would that leave me?
At the beginning I guess.
So just let me be
in this wretched mess.

I'll wallow in misery
I'll live in doubt
I'll try what I want
but you'll never find out.

On my judgment day
you'll look at me
You'll likely be shocked
by what you will see.

My life is a lie
but you'll never know.
I'll keep it from you
till the day I go.

This one's dedicated to the one who knows.

Your life is yours
and yours alone
Let nothing sway you
(not even this "pome")

Stand tall, stand high
like a might oak.
spend those lies
till your conscience is broke.

Tough as it may be
people want to know YOU.
In this huge web of lies
this much is true.

No ill intent is meant by this pome. It's inspired by the hypocrisy of our culture symbolised by the most open societies, which went to war to hide the openness.

De-pression before in-De-pendence.

2008-05-25T11:30:00.000+05:30

I started this article on the 15th August 2007 (our 60th anniversary of independence) and didn't have the energy to complete it.

Most people (for some reason) don't realise how much I love my country. India is a place filled with people with completely different outlooks, backgrounds, concepts, religious beleifs, sensitivities, intellectual abilities, blah... you're probably sitting there thinking "all countries would have this". There's diversity in geographic topology. There are so many different types of places with so many interesting things to see, but the thing that really builds this place is the people.

Heck if that's not enough of a sales pitch, how about this one:

India is home.

I have the option to live and work abroad (it'd be somewhat easier for me since I don't need a visa/work permit to get a job in the UK since I've got "Right to abode" there). India has spoiled me. I'm lazy. There's a maid who comes in the morning, cooks, cleans, washes the clothes, irons them, answers the phone when there's no one around, handles the house by the day so to speak. Then there's the odd job guy who washes the car, walks and feeds the dogs, takes care of the garden, repairs stuff around the house, cleans the outside area of the house.

Essentially, there's someone to do anything you don't want to and it's usually not too much of a problem to get the stuff done because labour is cheap here. Does this make me a hypocrite though? How independent could I be if all the stuff I've got to get done get done by other people? Am I dependent on them? I'll put it this way. I know the "how's" of getting most things done, but don't ever need to actually implement anything myself as long as they're around. When they go on leave, I don't exactly shrivel up and die, but I DO have a bit more to get done.

That having been said, let me ask this. How can I afford this luxury? Having two people spend quite an amount of time getting my work done for me should be an expensive deal right? The truth is that these people work on a monthly basis for a combined amount that I'd make in a few days. And no - I'm not earning a particularly large amount of money. These are the gaps.

This divide isn't terribly healthy. The people who work in junior positions in government jobs - the paper pushers or gate keepers (depending on what your work in that department is) get salaries that would allow them to buy a small TV in a month if they didn't spend anything on anything else. Add a wife and a couple of kids to that equation and you get a materialistically challenged family who look around and see all these rich kids in their designer clothes, driving flashy cars discussing how much they spent last night at that nightclub.

What do these guys do then? How about making life a little miserable for all these rich kids. If he comes here to get some work done, let me pull all stops to irritate him to even things out just a little bit. And what's the response? Rich kid pulls out a few notes and passes them to the guy to "smoothen" things out a little. (newly) Corrupt government man decides this isn't a bad way to make a little extra money, so winds up hassling anyone who comes through the door expecting money and when he doesn't get any starts demanding it.

A cousin is registering his company here. He'd given our house address as his correspondence address, so when his registration letter arrived by registered post (recorded delivery), the post man came home to deliver it. Registered post requires a signature, so it wasn't just dropped in the post box. The maid didn't know my cousins name or the name of his company, but offered to sign for it. The postman gave her a phone number and left with the letter. My mother called in the afternoon and offered to pick up the letter, but was told that my cousin would have to make a personal visit to the post office as it must be some paise ka mamla (money matter). My cousin was in town the next day for a few hours, so had planned on picking up the letter in the morning, running to interview someone and leaving. At 10 am when we called the post office, we were told gyarah baje tak aajao (come by 11 o'clock). It was 10 so Ma offered to reach there in 5 mintues and was told nahin gyarah tak aajao (no come by 11). I'm not sure why, but this went up and down a few times before Ma finally said "We'll be there at 11" and put the phone down. At 11 we went to the post office, expecting to pick up the letter, feel a little happy and leave. We were called into the office where one man took the letter, held onto it and sat down at a table telling us (I couldn't continue writing after this, so I took a short 9 month break) that he needed to see the letter of registration of the company before he could give us the letter (which incidentally was the tax registration letter a requirement for registration of the company).

An hour before my cousin had to catch a flight we were slightly pressed for time so my cousin pulled him to the side and asked him exactly why he was doing this, to which the blatant response was "300 rupees". There are two options at this point. Pay and get it done with or leave, let the process get delayed by another few weeks and pray that you have the contacts to squash this bug - who'll land up in another post office and do exactly the same thing there.

Look at it this way. You have a company to register where the registration process gets stopped at a few thousand different places where each person demands x amount of money - all the amounts are individually very small, but they sort of add up when there are so many people to "handle". What solutions have been devised to get around this?

Enter the tout! You can actually HIRE people to do the running around (read bribery) for you. They will give you a "99% assurance" that all your work will get done for an amount that would be a little higher than the amount you'd have to bribe people with. Why is it only a little higher? Because it's like a nexus. The tout would be running a "revenue-share" concept with the officials (and their office boys) he's dealing with.

So now you're sitting there with the concept of the services industry and corruption being tightly linked, the plot gets thicker...

It's possible here (and on many occasions necessary) to have someone NOT hassle you for a fee. There are a massive number of cabs operating between Delhi, NOIDA and Gurgaon.
A friend struck up a conversation with a cab owner and got the dope on why they drive as badly as they do (that's not exactly how the guy put it, but it's quite evidently the reason).

For each cab owned by the cab company plying on a regular route, the company has to pay the DELHI POLICE a particular amount per intersection to "look the other way" for all traffic offenses. Most cabs tend to jump red lights, stop in the middle of the road to pick up and drop passengers, jump lanes at will (is there a car in that lane? Too bad... he's going to have to move away), tamper with the speed governors (they're supposed to be limited to 50KMPH) and generally increase the chaos on the already chaotic roads. They've got amnesty. They'll do what they want, but when they start killing people I'm almost certain the price goes up... price? PRICE? There have been instances where actors/influential people/wealthy individuals and/or their children/relatives have been involved in well publicised manslaughter/homicide (driving, shooting, blah...). They've been all over the national papers (gossip rags). They've gone to court. They've come back out of court. They're resting at home happy to be free having (possibly by mistake, but never the less) killed someone.

Is this independence?

As long as people HAVE to pay someone to get basic work done we're not free.
As long as the government votes itself to power (by buying polling booths and peoples identities) we're not free.
As long as the people responsible for removal of corruption are the ones ASKING for bribes WE ARE NOT FREE!

De Cleanup Job

2007-08-18T13:41:00.000+05:30

I live in Delhi. A place I've always thought of as home, but also a massive mess. There's the standard attitude of "I'll mess it up - the people paid to clean should do their jobs properly". I still remember a while ago (when the BJP came to power) seeing this strange man sweeping the road in front of our house. My mother asked him a few questions and found that this man had been responsible for sweeping the road outside our house for a few years now - only now he was actually doing his job. The city cleaned up quite a bit with all the people who'd been employed to do their jobs for years actually starting to do them.

At some point of time, the government got smart - there's only one way to make sure the job gets done properly (and continuously) without having someone sit on all the cleaners heads...

OUTSOURCE!

Hey, if I give you assurance that irrespective of whether your job gets done or not, I'm not going to fire you/cut your pay/irritate you at all in any way and you're a slacker, you're not going to get your job done. On the other hand, if I call a contractor and tell them to clean the place up, then as soon as they screw up, I jump on them and tell em I'm not going to pay them - I become king... yay! Plus, I get to pay them less by putting out bids for the job of cleaning the place.

So there you have it. I drive to work every day - occasionally see a very hip looking cleaning truck trundling along the side of the road whipping up all the dust, dirt, plastic, excrement, blah into it's large belly. The roads? They're squeaky clean in Delhi now.

But back the truck up just a minute (pun intended). Where do these trucks empty their guts?

Well, it would seem to me that they dump the stuff quite a distance from where they pick it up - a few inches perhaps? This is a picture I took yesterday when I was heading back home from Nehru Place (a sprawling commercial complex in Delhi) just accross the road from the famous Kalka Mandir.

Hang on... lets get a little closer...

So THESE are the guys cleaning up the roads. Yesterday after I saw (and photographed) this, I thought of two things - going to the Kalkaji police station (about 100m away) and telling them (I actually went, but was in a bit of a rush to get home, so thought I'd just blog it and send it to the papers). The second was that I hadn't really looked at the sides of the roads for quite a while - they're dirtier than ever before - I guess now I know why. Maybe these contractors are planning on asking for a contract to clean the sides of the roads as well.

I drove up to the truck and motioned for the driver to push back his window - he motioned for me to drive round to the other side of the truck which I did. His "co-pilot" gave me a big grin while he pushed his window open. I asked one question "is this the rubbish dump?" to which his immediate reply was "yes".

I'm thinking I should send this around a bit more than just to the papers. Lets see what happens.

De forté of Airtel... customer service???

2007-08-12T13:58:00.000+05:30

If you've ever wanted something done that you can't do yourself, what's the first thing you do?

Find someone who can get the job done right?

What happens when it's your job to do it? Picture a customer care person who's being asked a question on the phone. Now picture the question as being the metaphorical equivalent of the question of the meaning of life, the universe and everything.

You sit some poor kid who's fresh out of school following which they're given diction and voice training for a while and a crash course in how to read scripts from a screen at one end of the line and erm... a customer asking a few questions beyond the scope of the script at the other end. The result is either a very frustrated kid or customer.

I'd rather spare most of these guys from such ordeals... I've heard them squeak "we'll have to get back to you on that" before asking me if there'll be anything else I can maim them with. Airtel (conveniently) provides a mail address where you can write to them if you have any queries, so I thought since there's no real time exchange of information, no one has to be embarrassed by their knowledge (or lack of). Also, in case they don't know the answers they can either look them up or ask someone who might know.

I thought wrong.

This is my mail exchange with customer care in Bangalore (I've got a roaming number from there while I'm sitting in Delhi - Delhi customer care maintains that they can't give me any information since I'm a Bangalore customer and I need to contact them directly).

Me:

Hi,
My number is 9xxxxxxxxxx.
I'd found information on your page which says I can get EDGE services on my Airtel mobile for Rs. 299/month. The link to this page is at
http://www.airtel.in/Postpaid_otherservice.aspx?path=1/6/7/9&cid=4
I have the following queries:
1. What is the monthly download limit on this?
2. Are there any other charges?
3. Will I have to pay extra while roaming in Delhi on Airtel's network for EGDE access?
4. What sorts of speeds could I expect assuming I use an EDGE enabled device?
5. Are any IPs/domains or ports blocked?
Regards,
Sunil

Airtel:

Dear Mr. Sunil,
You have inquired regarding the EDGE services for your Airtel number 9xxxxxxxxx,
We would like inform you this will achieve the delivery of advanced mobile services such as the downloading of video and music clips, streaming, full multimedia messaging, high-speed Internet access and e-mail on the move, multiplayer games etc.
EDGE provides three times the data capacity of GPRS. Using EDGE, operators can handle three times more subscribers than GPRS; triple their data rate per subscriber, or add extra capacity to their voice communications. EDGE uses the same TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) frame structure, logic channel and 200k Hz carrier bandwidth as today's GSM networks, which allows existing cell plans to remain intact.
It will be possible to view live TV streaming on an EDGE enabled phone ? the Nokia 6230. It will not be possible to view it on any other phone, as there is no other EDGE enabled phone that supports streaming today in India.
? The service can be subscribed and accessed from the Airtel Live portal, and can be seen under ?Live TV? on the wap portal
http://live.airtelworld.com/
? Service will be chargeable per channel per month.
? To begin with, CNBC News channel will be offered, subsequently Aaj Tak, Sports and other entertainment channel will be added as we continue to strike agreements with other TV channels.
? The CNBC channel will be offered free of cost for the time being
To access live TV, a user must have subscribed to Airtel Live portal. If not, then he needs to be provisioned for Airtel Live portal before he can access live streaming.
The settings will also be made available over the website. In a nutshell, the APN is??airtelfun.com, proxy is disabled, and the UDP port range is from 1024 ? 65535.
Currently Nokia 6230 is the only phone which supports video streaming on EDGE. Please note that by using this setting, you will not be able to access the Airtel live portal (to down load rich content like Games. Wall Papers ring tones etc) He needs to alternate between the settings as he normally does between Airtel Live (earlier called Airtel Masala) and Airtel Online.
Alternatively, you could also contact our 24 Hours customer care service by dialing 121(toll free) for same.
Regards,
Renuka Devi
Customer Support Service
Airtel

erm.... Okay Renuka... whatever you say. Not a terrible advertisement for the Nokia 6230, but you could have used a little targeting on that one.
Me:

Dear Renuka,
Thanks so much for the detailed response. I would however like responses to the questions I've asked which were:
1. What is the monthly download limit on this?
2. Are there any other charges?
3. Will I have to pay extra while roaming in Delhi on Airtel's network for EGDE access?
4. What sorts of speeds could I expect assuming I use an EDGE enabled device?
5. Are any IPs/domains or ports blocked?
Please assume I do not have a Nokia 6230, do not want to stream TV on my phone and do not want to download any content from Airtel's portal - I just want to surf the internet on my phones - one Nokia N91 and one O2 XDA Atom Life.
Thanks again,
Sunil

Airtel:

Dear Mr. Sunil,
You had inquires about the EDGE facility on your Airtel number 9xxxxxxxxx.
What kind of speeds will be available?
2 dedicated time slots will be available for EDGE. Depending on the air interface, the quality of coverage, other people in the cell area, speeds will vary between 40kbps-200 kbps. The bandwidth will get shared among as many users as present, who are using GPRS/ EDGE in that cell at that particular instant.
Live TV: (available on both Post and pre paid)
Live TV streaming is still a new concept in most countries (in the few networks where it has been deployed), the experience depends on the bandwidth available. Equally important is the RF tuning and optimization done at the BTS level, which can perceptibly change the user experience.
Typically, streaming is done at 5-10 frames per second (a TV shows 30 frames per second), so it is important to have the right expectation even before you start to view a live TV stream on a phone.
? It will be possible to view live TV streaming on an EDGE enabled phone ? the Nokia 6230. It will not be possible to view it on any other phone, as there is no other EDGE enabled phone that supports streaming today in India.
? The service can be subscribed and accessed from the Airtel Live portal, and can be seen under ?Live TV? on the wap portal
http://live.airtelworld.com/
? Service will be chargeable per channel per month.
? To begin with, CNBC News channel will be offered, subsequently Aaj Tak, Sports and other entertainment channel will be added as we continue to strike agreements with other TV channels.
? The CNBC channel will be offered free of cost for the time being
? The service will be available to both pre paid and post paid customers.
To access live TV, a user must have subscribed to Airtel Live portal. If not, then he needs to be provisioned for Airtel Live portal before he can access live streaming.
The settings will have to be given to the customer over a telephone call, and will also be made available over the website. In a nutshell, the APN is airtelfun.com, proxy is disabled, and the UDP port range is from 1024 ? 65535.
On a Nokia 6230, the detailed steps for providing the settings are as follows:
1. Click ?Menu?
2. Go to ?Media? and press ?Select?
3. Scroll down to Media Player and press ?Select?
4. Scroll down to ?Streaming Sett? and press ?Select?
5. Select ?Active Connection Settings? and press ?Activate?
6. Now Scroll down to ?Edit Active Connection Settings? and press ?Select?
7. Enter Connection Name as ?Streaming? and press Ok
8. Scroll down to ?UDP Port Range? and enter 01024 ? 65535. Click Ok
9. Scroll down to ?Connection Settings? and press ?Select?
10. Scroll down to ?Proxies? and press ?Select?
11. Scroll down to ?Disable? and press ?Select?
12. Scroll Down to ?Data Bearer? and set it to GPRS (default)
13. Scroll Down to Bearer Settings and press ?Select?
14. Select ?GPRS access point?, enter Airtelfun.com and press Ok
15. Set Authentication Type to Normal (default)
16. Set Login Type to Automatic (default)
17. Leave ?User Name? and ?Password? blank (default)
18. Go to Standby Screen, and access the Airtel Live portal now.
19. Click on Live TV link on portal, and select the channel you have subscribed to.
20. After this, you will receive a SMS with the link to view Live TV.
21. Save this link as a bookmark (by entering it manually in ?New Bookmark?)
22. Once this bookmark is saved, select it to connect to the TV streaming server.
Regards,
Yuvaraj B
Customer Support Service
Airtel

Hmmm... are we getting a little better now? Yuvaraj could have left the info on speed and skipped the spiel (sic) on the 6230 and Live TV though.

Me:

Hi Yuvraj,
Again, I would like to ask for responses to my queries rather than hear the sales pitch on Live TV. I have received a response only to the 4th point.
The queries were and still are:
For Edge services @Rs.299 /month as mentioned at
http://www.airtel.in/Postpaid_otherservice.aspx?path=1/6/7/9&cid=4:
1. What is the monthly download limit on this?
2. Are there any other charges?
3. Will I have to pay extra while roaming in Delhi on Airtel's network for EGDE access?
4. What sorts of speeds could I expect assuming I use an EDGE enabled device?
5. Are any IPs/domains or ports blocked?
Regards,
Sunil

Airtel:

Dear Mr. Sunil,
Regarding your mobile number 9xxxxxxxxx
You had inquired about the EDGE phone for your Airtel mobile number 9xxxxxxxxx.
We would like to inform you that there is no limit for downloading in the EDGE phone and charges as per the downloading items.
The games will be chargeable on a per download basis, and will be priced at Rs. 99 per game. The game will expire after 6 months.
Further, we would like to inform you that 2 dedicated time slots will be available for EDGE. Depending on the air interface, the quality of coverage, other people in the cell area, speeds will vary between 40kbps-200 kbps. The bandwidth will get shared among as many users as present, who are using GPRS/ EDGE in that cell at that particular instant.
To access live TV, a user must have subscribed to Airtel Live portal. If not, then he needs to be provisioned for Airtel Live portal before he can access live streaming.
The settings will have to be given to the customer over a telephone call, and will also be made available over the website. In a nutshell, the APN is airtelfun.com, proxy is disabled, and the UDP port range is from 1024? 65535.
Further, any clarification you can contact our customer care center 121(toll free) for the same.
Regards,
Karthik
Customer Support Service
Airtel

Okay, I forgot to tell Karthik that I wanted to use this facility to connect to the internet - I was slightly bugged with this entire conversation by now though - the series of mail was going back and forth for quite a while by this time (yep - I made sure the entire series went back each time).

Me:

Okay... one LAST time before I post this hilarious conversation on my blog.
You DID respond to one question on the first mail and two on the second.
How about trying for the remaining two this time?
The queries were and still are:
For Edge services @Rs.299 /month as mentioned at
http://www.airtel.in/Postpaid_otherservice.aspx?path=1/6/7/9&cid=4:
1. What is the monthly download limit on this? (answered - no limit)
2. Are there any other charges? (answered - charges are only for downloading games etc from Airtels site)
3. Will I have to pay extra while roaming in Delhi on Airtel's network for EDGE access?
4. What sorts of speeds could I expect assuming I use an EDGE enabled device? (answered - low speed or high speed dependent on network availability and usage at the time)
5. Are there any IPs/domains or ports blocked?
Please note : I'm still NOT interested in hearing about Live TV.

Regards,
Sunil

Airtel didn't respond to this mail at all for 8 days, so I sent them this reminder.

Me:

Any update on this? It's been quite some time since I wrote to you asking for this information.
Regards,
Sunil

Lokesh (the person who finally responded the next day) didn't really feel like getting chatty like the other customer service people did, so sent this mail.

Airtel:

Dear Mr. Sunil,
You had expressed concern on Live TV for your Airtel number 9xxxxxxxxx.
We request you to kindly contact 7070 (toll free) from black berry hand sets for all the quiries about the Live Streaming.
Regards,
Lokesh
Customer Support Service
Airtel

There comes that Live TV thingy again, but a Blackberry???? What's the story on that one?

This guy really didn't want me to get any info, so pushes me off to the Blackberry and email tech support people at Airtel specifically telling me to call from "black berry hand sets". Damn... maybe he read the series and figured since I'd shelled out so much money on the two phones I've got that I wouldn't be able to get my hands on "black berry hand sets" and wouldn't call. Problem customer that I am, I tried anyway, and was instructed by the IVR to dial 121 - back to the old drawing board.

I fail to understand from all this why they would offer a service and not tell any of their customer support folks about it. I checked the link and the content of the page and it still says the same thing. One customer support person even assured me (on the phone) that there were no other charges for this service - at Rs. 299/month I would have high speed internet and would only have to pay for downloads from the Airtel portal. I'd feel a lot safer if I got this in writing in a mail or something since I've been burned in the past (and the only unlimited data card plan is 899/month for corporate customers).

Anyway, I'm sending a link to this entry to some folks at Airtel in hopes that I'll get some response (possibly even a comment) to my queries (if you'd care to check, my last reference number was 92083120782).

Later,
De.

Life is De sale

2007-03-14T15:40:00.000+05:30

I haven't seen nearly enough of life yet... there's so much to see and so little time. The aim at the end is to maximise the amount of life you've truly lived. I've narrowed it down on occasion to dabbling in everything I've had a feeling I might like.
What is confusion? Is confusion a state where you're going for one thing, get halfway there and jump? That's not so much confusion as it is mess. Confusion is heading somewhere till you realise that there's something else - perhaps even better out there to head towards.
I've dabbled in lots of things -
music to metals,
cooking to wood,
As a bartender I'm told
I've been really good.

Building a car
out of Lego parts
won't take me far
even after it starts.

Creation's the pleasure
that makes it worthwhile.
I'd be obvious to you
by my permanent smile.

To get where you want
is a sale a De.
From this place to that
do whatever you say.

Communication begins
with a human out there.
Saying "thanks" in Japan
may get you a stare.

In Norway a fluke
may be amazing play.
You must have respect,
it's the people's way.

No dirt and no lies
is the only way to sell.
Praise it as perfume,
but get rid of the smell.

Computers are easy
to sell a concept to.
They understand only logic,
they haven't a clue.

Humans are beings,
they're hard to understand.
You need a good guide
to take you by the hand.

You learn one at a time
but learn you must.
And to you dear reader
this blog I entrust.

Ya ya! I know... It didn't finish with the general "pome" ending... realised that it's 3 in the am and aside from having to "wake up" and get out in another 4 hours or so, I've got some work to handle... love the work but it takes some time out of my life... good excuse for the delay in blogging n'est ce pas?

In the true spirito of "ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies" let me finish by saying:
I fully intend to finish this post in the next post, but may not get around to it given the fact that I'm dabbling in way too many things at the moment to commit any amount of time to any particular thing.

Damn... I just felt a tremour... Think maybe I'll get up early and finish the work.

3:10 now... good night all.

The end of De error

2007-01-13T01:28:00.000+05:30

People come
people go.
It happens faster
than you could know.

The ones who stay
are too around.
The ones away
are hardly found.

You live through both,
the ones who care,
The ones who're there,
The ones nowhere.

The ones who last
you hold too close.
They're in the past
along with most.

In all the places
you have been
The stars have gone,
or lost their sheen.

The one you wanted
was always there.
Tied up in life,
going somewhere.

The path ahead
has many a thorn
upon which we walk
till the feet are torn.

People, places,
come in a word.
There is no meaning,
it's all absurd.

So change I must.
I always do.
I see the foot
in the other shoe.

And time screams on...
as it really must,
leaving memories
and lots of dust.

Clickety Clack went De keyboard

2006-11-17T09:17:00.000+05:30

You must have seen those days... the ones where everything just went click...

Things fall into place better than they should yet you know there's something missing. Something wrong somewhere... a darkness around the aura of the place you're considering.

I got a call from a friend a while ago. I was sitting in a movie hall during the interval that had just begun.

"Sunil, would you be interested in a job?"
"Not really... I'm enjoying my job right now"
"but would you consider it? It's a business analyst position in my company"
"send me the profile... what sort of pay are we talking about here?"
"I'll send you the profile"
... 2 minutes later I almost fell of the seat...

Massive amounts of money. I wouldn't have to think twice about taking that house loan, but then what did the job involve?
Documentation (yuck!)?
Not exactly - the other folks'd handle that part.
Team management and mentoring of a team of Business Analysts... in a financial software product company.

Back the truck up a minute... did I just write financial software there? Don't I need a bit of experience in that domain first? I mentioned that repeatedly during the interview process... in fact, the interviews were more monologous - with me asking most of the questions. I expected to be able to get the job, but still didn't know if I wanted to leave my current job what with the release happening early next year... these guys called me to Bangalore to "meet someone who's come down from the US to meet the team".

I went there with a strange feeling. I felt bad that I didn't want the job and was landing up there for an interview, but then kept thinking that I might just take it.

click clack...

Reached Bangalore - quite coincidentally a friend (Bells) was down from the US in the Bangalore office that was in the same building as the company that'd called me. Though it made sense to stay with Bells while I was there (two days that were holidays in my company during which I was planning on being in Bombay, but didn't quite make it).

I reached the office and didn't really get a pleasant vibe. Coming from the company that I'm currently in, that doesn't surprise me much. I don't think I've ever worked in a place where the people I've got to interact with are so... nice doesn't seem strong enough a word, but it's the first one that comes to mind.

Bells told me about his plans to set up a business and I got pepped at the prospect of coming to Bangalore. At any rate, I met the guy who'd come down from the US and sat down with HR to discuss bizzniss...

I think one thing that helped me through the entire process was the I didn't really need the job. It was an option - not one that I particularly wanted, but an option never the less. I'm quite sure I'd have been great in the position and I think I made that clear with every talk I had with them.

I did manage to party a bit while I was there - hit a few of the "regular joints" on the second afternoon, picked up my offer letter in the evening, ran to the airport thinking I'd missed the flight, reached to find that it had been delayed and I was just in time. Managed a window seat despite being the last guy to check in, swapped it for an aisle seat when I got to the plane to let a guy sit next to his girlfriend (sweet aren't I?), then opened the letter.

I've never been so confused in my life. There I was thinking "no matter what happens I'm going to make the right decision anyway..." I wound up listening to about 50 different friends give completely contradictory opinions on what I should do. The most reasonable advice I got was to make a list with wieghted values on pros and cons. I got to it and had a <1% difference in the result. Dad was telling me to go... Ma was telling me to do what I thought was right...

Eventually, I decided to take it and called up Scrooge (one of my closest friends) and asked him if his flat was available - he's got a flat in the same complex as the other company office. The tenants were expected to leave at the end of the next month - clickety clack

Bangalore sans traffic? A new venture to keep me from getting bored? A new life of party opposite TGIF? Where was the block?

In my current organisation, the job's far from done. If I ever think of leaving it's going to be after my product's up and people are using it. I don't think I'd have done myself justice till people are downloading my work and putting it to good use.

With all the clicks
that have come in time
the clock still ticks
while the words still rhyme.

You pick and choose
what you have to do
and when the shoe really fits
that's when you find you.

This is De Life

2006-11-16T20:32:00.000+05:30

There's something to learn
from everyone
that goes irrespective
of whether they're 'smart' or 'dumb'.

People have innate knowledge
whoever they are
the means and ends
are never too far.

For all the products
that have been bought or sold
the lives involved
are filled with gold.

Infinite clarity
of mind and soul.
The body rests
I'm on a roll.

Money goes from Shiti bank in De most mysterious way

2006-10-18T09:36:00.000+05:30

When's the last time you got pickpocketed? I lost a phone (two in fact) in Namibia a little over a year ago. I remember getting back with lunch in hand not really realising that there were two phones with all my contacts somewhere on the streets of Windhoek. I realised when I wanted to make a call that I couldn't find my phones... either of them... it's not like the person who pulled them out of my pocket was kind enough to stick around and acknowledge the fact, inform me or even leave me a note to tell me that he or she had grown richer at my expense.

Things have changed in the last year it seems. Technology is much better and theft being more polite now comes with intimation - LOTS of intimation.

I'm usually pretty scared of signing stuff, so make sure I read whatever's been put before me before I think about signing it (one exception was a housing loan agreement that didn't really come through - I put two signatures per page on some 60 pages that time). I'm such a worrier that I read all correspondence that looks even remotely legal. That includes incidentally credit card terms and conditions that were sent along with my "pre-approved Gold card" that was offered to me on the basis of my "Excellent transactions in your savings account".

I'm also quite finicky about looking at bills before I pay them (ever since a slight issue with Airtel where they were charging me a monthly roaming fee every time I got out of the city - that got sorted pretty quick though). Because of all this I've never thought of setting up a direct debit from my account for anything really. If there's a mistake on your bill it's easier to withhold payment till the matter's resolved rather than get the money back right?

For this reason I was quite concerned when I noticed a transaction on my savings account one day debiting some Rs. 2000+ from my account in favour of "SI" or some other such transaction. Not sure why, but this amount looked kind of familiar. I called up the bank and they confirmed that it was a "Standing Instruction" transaction to debit the minimum due on my credit card bill.

I eventually wrote to the Head of customer care... but waitaminit... why'm I telling you this? I'll paste the "slightly modified" (removed references to the bank and account mail below - read away:

My name is Sunil De. I've been through a little bit of mental torture over the last few weeks so thought I'd share my experience in the hope that at least some action will be taken to prevent this from happening to anyone else. I have a (type removed) Gold card which was provided to me based on my "excellent transactions" on my savings account (no. xxxxxxxxxx)

It's a long mail, but please ensure that you read it - after such an experience I do expect some action to be taken and will publish the same (minus the account and card info) on as many blogs as I can put it on if I find that it's done no good.

The following resources in terms of time and mental stress have been consumed to cause the cancellation of an illegal (no request was made or acknowledged for the same) standing instruction to debit my savings account of the minimum balance irrespective of amount paid by the due date (in my case well in excess of the total DUE amount):

40 minutes of phone calls with customer care representatives who STILL maintain that the standing instruction can not be cancelled as the card was provided to me on the basis of my "excellent savings account transactions"

2 requests logged on the net banking system - the first was a polite request to cancel the standing instruction - the response to this was "this is a standing instruction" followed by a 10 line explanation of what a standing instruction is. The second request was a little more impolite - an eventuality I would prefer not to resort to. The conversation in its entirety is attached for your reference at the end of this mail.

One call back from a "Supervisor" who made the same claim as the two customer care representatives offering me the choice of "take it or I'll transfer you to the cancellation department", which he did.

28 days after the first request I get the second response confirming that the instruction has been cancelled. The threat of legal action possibly did the trick (as in the second net banking query). Why should I have to make such threats? The bank officers I spoke with all told me to "check the terms and conditions sent to you". I've been through them with a special eye out for anything that may tell me that you'll take the minimum balance from my savings account yet found nothing. In fact, the letter that was sent says "If you have given us a standing instruction for payment towards the balance on your Card, it would be valid for reissue/swap to a new Card."

Add a few minutes to type this mail complaining about the pathetic levels of service that make your old (bankname removed) service look good (was pathetic before, but is scraping the bottom of the barrel now - at least there were ill informed people who were willing to admit their ignorance rather than haughty supervisors willing to allow the bank to get into a legal wrangle)

Incidentally, I'm assuming my issues with this card have been resolved. I'd suggest you check with whoever you need to to ensure that they are.

First attempt:

Your Query

There appears to be a standing instruction to pay my credit card bill on the 14th of each month. I did not set or authorize this standing instruction. Please cancel it immediately.

Our Message

Dear Mr. Kumar, This is with reference to your query dated Augus

t 22, 2006. Your credit card # xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx is given to you

based on your (savings) account. Standing instruction is maintaine

d in your account towards payment of minimum amount due in your c

redit card. Hence, Rs. 2633.81 has been debited from your accou

nt on August 14, 2006. We wish to clarify that the Standing Instr

uction towards payment to card will be executed irrespective of w

hether the payment is done by you or not. Kindly note that it is

a automated process. The excess payments made towards the card wi

ll be adjusted towards future bills. We assure you of our best a

ttention at all times. Thank you for accessing (bankname removed) Online. W

arm Regards, Officer - Customer Care

Second Attempt:

Your Query

CANCEL THE UNAUTHORISED STANDING INSTRUCTION WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT. I have neither authorized nor accepted this. I would appreciate that such service be discontinued to avoid legal action.

Our Message

Dear Mr. De, This is with reference to your query dated September

09, 2006. As stated earlier, your card # xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx has

been issued to you in appreciation of your (savings) account held

with us. As requested, we have deregistered the Standing Instruct

ion to debit the Minimum Amount Due from your (savings) account. H

ence, October 2006 onwards your (savings) account will not get debi

ted towards Minimum Amount Due for your card # xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

Thank you for accessing (bankname removed) online. Warm Regards Officer -

Customer Care

The joke was on me... I got a call 15 working days after sending that mail (the bank says they'll get back to youwithin the next 14 working days in an autoresponse) asking me if I wanted to cancel the standing instruction.

Needless to say I've blogged it...

De vs. Nokia - what happened toDe?

2006-10-04T00:17:00.000+05:30

The N91's a rocking gadget. It's got a 4Gig hard disk. Wi-fi enabled. aka iPod Killer...
Apple's not going down any time soon if I've got anything to say. The primary function of this device is something to do with getting and recieving calls. The last time that happened (just now as a matter of fact) was a call from a friend asking me for another friends number. Seems he couldn't get through and the number that I gave him was the one he'd been trying for the last half hour or so.
This gadget's a rocker - I told the guy to hold and made another call. Quickly asked friend number 2 if he was avoiding calls from friend number 1 - an unlikely event, but possible in any case. Then I decided to conference the two calls.

BIG mistake. At the moment those two are talking to each other and I'm sitting here wondering why my phone crashed when I tried conferencing the call. It was kind enough to freeze then blank out and show me the "Nokia" startup screen.

Let me give you a little background on this device. I read about it in the last quarter of 2003 - it was set to be launched in 2004 (the second quarter I think - could have been third). I'd read about it just after getting a Nokia 6600. Here's a bit of a comparison between the two phones:

6600	N91
6 MB phone memory	30MB phone memory
Upto 1GB MMC	4GB Hard disk
VGA Camera	2 Megapixel camera
Connectivity over GPRS, Bluetooth, iR, pop port	GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth, wi-fi, USB

Hang on... I'm stopping the comparison. There's no point. The 6600 was around at the end of 2003. The N91 was released in April of 2006. There should be no need to make a comparison at all. The features on this phone were enough to convince me just after I got the 6600 that this would be my next phone. I didn't quite count on dropping my phone and someone stealing it before I could pick it up off the road.

Was depressed enough to walk into a shop the next day and buy a 6230 at a criminally high price. It was a good phone - a series 40 - Nokia hasn't had too many issues with them. They've always been relatively stable. This phone came with a VGA camera again and an inbuilt MP3 player. Was decent enough till it got stolen.

I thought I'd just wait till the N91 was released after that - the site kept telling me that its release was imminent. I waited a few months borrowing phones from friends. Then got sick of borrowing so got me a 1108 (the cheapest phone I could get with an added headset). That was a phone. It's never quit on me. It's battery life was beyond anyones expectations. Features were very reasonable - there were those little things that you'd have to experience to understand. I at one point of time wanted to add a number to my phonebook. I type out the number, select save and instead of an empty text box asking me for a name, there was a name already there... the name that I'd already stored the number as. I made corrections and attempted to save. It asked if I wanted to replace the old number or make a new entry.

This hasn't happened on any other Nokia phone I've used (or the Samsung one for that matter). At any rate. The N91 was released in April of 2006. I bought it 2 days after it was released for 34K. That's in INR. In USD that'd be just below $740. I didn't care. I wanted the gadget. I wanted something to play with. I wanted something I could install software on - I'd been using a mentally challenged phone for too long by now. I figured I'd at least be able to replace my MP3 player, camera and phone with this device (I was carrying them around everywhere till then - quite a pain having three devices when one should suffice). I was sure that 2MPix should be enough and 4Gig was more than all the memory cards I had for my MP3 player.

The camera was a big disappointment. There was no scope of replacing my camera with this crap. Hell - my 6230 gave me better quality pics. The sound recorder's limited to 60 seconds. The hard disk is slow and unreliable - I've got bad sectors, but the OS doesn't seem to understand that so keeps trying to write to the bad areas. The phone crashed 2 hours after the first startup without fiddling too much.

All in all, the gadget wasn't terribly stable. There were issues with pretty much everything. I'd tried to set it so that all messages went to the hard disk rather than the phone memory and every time a message came in, I found I couldn't open it. Could see the first few characters from the inbox, but it would refuse to open. I formatted the hard disk and tried again and it seemed to work. THEN I saw a link to the Nokia UK site telling me I could flash the device with the new firmware if I wanted. It came with warning after warning to back up the device which I did. It also gave reasonable amounts of input on what could possibly go wrong. I got into it thinking "if it works and I get a phone that works well I'm okay. If it doesn't work, I give it back to the guys and they do the job right for me".

Okay, so I went back to using the 1108 for a few days after that... big deal. Got the phone back after a week (the new firmware was a major release so I'm assuming lots of bugs had been fixed). Thought I'd try the phone memory for messages again and found the same problem. There are issues with changing settings with the browser - once you change them, there's no way to change back other than resetting the phone - so now I had it all working and restored my backup... POOF! there went all posibilities of using the browser the way it was supposed to be used... reset the phone myself (a key combo I got online) and found I had all my numbers and stuff - only it'd automatically (without asking me that is) copied all numbers from the SIM card to the phone - now I get calls from numbers (names don't show) when there are 2 copies of the names registered in the phone book.

There's loads of issues that Nokia needs to fix with this device. I don't think it's right that they sell you a phone for 34K, the software of which shouldn't have passed to beta release...

I've always been anti Sony (anyone who knows me gets quite shocked now when I tell em to get Sony Ericsson rather than Nokia). I think I can safely say that any high end phone I get will NOT be a Nokia unless it's been in the market for at least a year first - by which time it's not really going to be high end any more... sad. I have respect for their UI, but it's like the difference between Windows and Linux. I'd take Linux any day if I didn't need windows (I need it for work and frankly, I've got too much stuff on Windows and got too used to the interface to consider the change).

The last gripe (don't take my word for that one - there are going to be more) I have with this phone is that it's a Symbian v3 operating system. That means I can't run any of the old apps I have on this phone unless there's a port available for them. Themes, programs, blah... there's very little I can do with this phone that I could do with my 6600.

At the end of this post let me recommend the Sony Ericsson M600i. Seems like a decent enough phone without a camera and their pricing is justified. The other ones with cameras are good enough to use for JUST that. This one's a business phone. It's got the features, the stylus, the size, the wieght... it's a neat machine and a gadget to boot. Those guys make sure there's enough software available for free - no trial versions on their site (Nokia has an "expense" program that's a 14 day trial). A friend just got one of these phones. I'll have a look at it and validate this recommendation. Till then, tata.

Ghosts from De's past, information overload and social networking with an ad to boot

2006-10-01T11:37:00.000+05:30

The amount of information you get online these days just isn't funny. It's helped me enough to catch up with old friends, but as I wrote to a long lost school friend I found recently, if I mentioned just how much information I'd got (history of work numbers, home numbers, mobile, mail addresses, home address, work address, education (places of, degrees, awards, scholarships), blah), folks'd probably think I was stalking them!

All of this was in under 5 minutes of searching.

It does reflect of course on just how well people who associate with me wind up doing :)

Hell, why not make this an ad for my school - not many people who went there gave it too much respect. There were teachers who weren't liked, concepts that no one liked, lots of snooty rich kids who actually thought they could buy other kids (and some did as well). I even remember an incident where there was a bit of a fight between two friends with one threatening the other with dire consequences of some form or the other. The next day two thugs landed up outside the gate with guns pulled out. I've got lots of great memories of the place (who doesn't have good memories of school?), but lots of these other ones that sort of make me not want to step through those gates till I've sorted out those demons. On the upshot, even folks who no one beleived would make anything out of their lives are doing amazingly well. I'm in touch with very few folks from those days (it's been 13 years since I finished from there and I didn't really get too many numbers from people - there were too many and I sort of didn't realise I wouldn't be seeing them for so long), but like I said before. There's the net and search. If you've written a paper, reviewed a book, given a musical instrument for repair, been registered on the electoral roll in India, asked for or given help on a public forum or written a blog, chances are it's not going to be too difficult to contact you.

It's been a month of "ghosts from the past". Met up with an old school friend who I haven't heard from/contacted since school finished. He's changed quite a bit, but he's just the same. Googled him, found out he's working with a US univ, that he's got his doctorate and he's doing research work. Met him after 13 years and it's pretty much like meeting a good friend after a year - with a lot more to catch up on and of course different types of drinks from those days.

Things were already starting to kick in with so many people getting on social networking sites. Orkut in particular has been growing in leaps and bounds (at least for me). I don't really get along with the concept of having 2000 friends on the list of which you'd know maybe 200 on decent enough terms to say hi to them and would have met maybe 10 of them.

Currently I've got 100 people on my friends list (it grows by one or two every week or so) of which I've never met 4. The rest are on my list because they're friends.

I always enjoy getting back in touch with old friends and it's great to know most of them are doing so well. You choose your friends - I've got proof of my impeccable taste.

You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned the name of the school here... I decided to cut the ad out.

Furniture and shoes... shifting Des

2006-08-06T02:15:00.000+05:30

The time has arrived. At least that's what I've been telling myself. The end of this 2 hours plus of driving a day.

Working in Gurgaon and living in Delhi isn't really helping my social life at all.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE the drive. It's a challenge a minute.

How fast do you think you could get from point A to point B (28KM away) while being constantly menaced by mad drivers eager to give you a practical "crash" course in road rage, experienced ones trying to prove that they paid for their licences to drive, brave little girls sticking like GLUE to the fast lane while speaking on their mobile phones, no doubt complaining about all the noise of "those horns blaring behind me", simultaneously skilfully tapping out an SMS and checking their lipstick in the rear-view mirror angled just so as to show them their big pout while a certain needle drops below a mark reading "30".

I make it in a little over an hour on days. It's an entaining trip there and almost as interesting on the way back, but this guaranteed 2 hours of driving a day has robbed me of what little social life I might have had in Delhi.

Solution? Shift to Gurgaon. I'd decided this soon after I reached here I think. That was in February. I've been searching for a place since. It was Bangalore all over again!

First thought I'd buy a place - Dad had already expressed his disapproval in renting a place. Discouragement would have been if the place was good and costed 70Lakhs. How about a low quality construction in a close to downmarket area costing that much? I'd rather risk Dad's temper.

ProspectiveLandLord:"Bachelors? Erm... we DID want a married couple, but you seem okay."
Ten minutes later: outside
Broker:"He's saying he's getting an offer for 60Lakhs to buy the place, so may not be renting the place"

I think that's the closest we got to getting a place till Gautham was lucky enough to be shown a floor in DLF Phase-I. It's big, airy, good quality. I've finally got my wooden floor. There's greenery and trees everywhere you look when you're on the balcony (which almost wraps around the place). A park's the next plot. It's quiet. Unbeleivably, 500 metres to the nearest mall, 7KM to the office and the closest residential area to the Delhi border by road.

You can probably tell I'm happy with the place.

Furniture? Now that's a bit of an issue. Whatever little I had in Bangalore was either given away or sold. I figure we'd need sofa/bean bags/computer table, chair, dining table and chairs. Toss in some kitchen equipment, some curtains, a bar trolley, some stuff to populate the trolley with, a mattress, bed, erm... what's the budget again?

You mean there was a budget? All of this isn't coming in for free? At any rate, saw some mattresses, a few computer tables, a coffee table (did I not mention that already?), a really neat bar trolley, some really bad dining tables, one of those cushion things that folds to make a low "sofa" type thingy or opens to be a bed. Reached Gurgaon, bought a tape measure to see about the curtains - think those're coming from home. There's lots of spares out here. Installed modem, got a download going and headed out to a mall (THS has an "upto 80%" sale on). 5 minutes later we were waiting in line to get into the mall - weekend mall goers seemed to have learned their lesson and get DROPPED to the mall rather than go through the 30 minute wait we did.

THS was a mess. They didn't have anything labeled. Price tags were under some products, not mentioned on others. The staff had no idea of what they had - asked the guy if he had Corelle dinner sets and he gives us a categorical "no". We bought two things from there. One dinner set (of the brand which they didn't have) and a bathroom shelf (could have SWORN I'd mentioned that before). The manager seemed to think that having a guy "help" people was smarter than labeling products with prices. 3 generations of women (a lady, her daughter and her daughter) brought about 5 artificial flower stems of which 2 weren't "bar coded" to the checkout. The lady behind the counter having sent 2 people to get the "codes" for the uncoded twigs went for a coffee break. As we waited, another customer trying to get the bill so that she could get out of the shop (the guard demands to see the bill before releasing any goods from there) asked how much we paid for the dinner set and congratulated us on "such a good purchase" and set off to see if she could find a similar set - we didn't have the misfortune of seeing her pulling her hair out trying to get the one lone "Reggie" to admit that he had them after all. We were quickly "manual" billed and with a smile from Reggie, the guard stood aside while we exited with a bit of paper with some numbers scribbled on it and the goodies.
Next stop was supposed to be a Reebok shop. I've been trying to buy trainers for the last 4 months or so. They haven't in the past had:
1. My size
2. A sober colour
3. A comfortable fit
all together yet. I'm not paying a massive amount of money to be told they don't have anything without that gold and silver trim on red, yellow, white, grey and brown base in my size because "that model was discontinued last month" and "this is the new one".

Anyway, was headed down to face the same thing again and Ma noticed that there was a 30% sale on Clarks. I'm a big fan of these shoes. Have been since I ruined a pair I stole from Dad while I was at school. Half an hour later I walked out of the shop with Ma, feeling quite happy at my purchase of a nice pair of black shoes.

Off to the Reebok shop. Didn't feel too bad that they didn't have the shoes I wanted because they "went out of style last month" and they've only got "old stock in sizes 3 to 7 and 9" in that style, which is why if I DID buy that pair that was a size too big for 6K, I'd get 3K worth of extra spending for FREE!!

Shall see about some more furniture tomorrow.

Life toDe

2006-06-24T01:38:00.001+05:30

The party starts
the alcohol flows
the friends part
the difference grows.

The past is gone
the future's here
sit around with friends
and drink more beer.

The crowd moves on
upwards and away.
The friends that're left
are there to stay.

You stop and think
"is this really me"
there was no more
for folks to see!

The future's here
the future's now
The past's all gone
HOLY COW!

Couldn't be chowed to finish this 'pome'... too drunk? Maybe...
too far gone? Definitely...

too lazy? - Crap... you GOTTA know me!

Weddings Ahoy!

2006-01-10T12:01:00.000+05:30

They're all done at last. I've had an insane amount of fun in the last few weeks. Lots of weddings to go for and one or two that I missed. Was good getting back in touch with old friends and meeting lots of new ones.

Now I need to get back to work to get a bit of rest :)

Here's what's been up.

Wedding in Hyderabad - couldn't go for that one, but landed up at the bachelorette party before she left to get married. The reception was in Bangalore, so landed up at the reception knowing Mallesh (a good friend from the office who I went with) and Radhika (the bride who didn't want all the fanfare - and I don't blame her either). Drank a bit. Tried to mingle a bit. Drank a bit more... the usual. Next scene was when Bells got married.

Bells wedding was in Mangalore. After cutting lots of sad "Wedding Bells at Bells Wedding" one liners I met up with Karen (Mrs. Bells now) for a drink at Cosmo Village - it's been done up quite nicely now - not half as bad as the last rennovation. I still prefer the way it was before though. Bells landed up from the US on the 21st I think.
Met up with him and Lacy - a friend who'd come down from the US for the wedding - on Saturday (24th Dec) morning (just about afternoon) and went to Pecos for breakfast. A few beers, good conversation with the guys whose table we piled onto and quite a bit of food later we left. Had to rest up, pack and get ready for the trip to Mangalore. Was supposed to leave at night and still hadn't decided if I was driving down or taking the "Shaadi bus". Finally decided on the Shaadi bus or I'd be driving alone - NOT my idea of a good time. The bus was supposed to leave at 9pm. Two of his friends from the US (Mat and Deep) were supposed to land up from Delhi at 1. The flight got delayed. Arrival scheduled at 5. The flight got delayed. Arrival scheduled at 9. Decided I'd take the car after all if it got any later - which it did. Bells left by bus and I went to the airport to pick them up. The description that I got was "A tall white man with a short indian woman". I have no clue how I recognised them - don't think I would have if Deep hadn't looked all confused when she came out... hardly looked indian and she wasn't all that short - hey, I'm 5'5.5" (that .5" is kind of important when you're my height). Picked em up, took em home, made myself a drink and passed out.
Left the next morning at 7ish armed with a map of Bangalore, a map of Karnataka and a navigator (Mat) who despite never having been to Bangalore at all seemed to flawlessly point out the right directions (I've tried using the map since then and it just doesn't work). We reached the highway and the drive started. Brilliant roads. Good company. No decent food on the way, but hey, we were going for a wedding - plenty of food out there right?
Found one joint on the way that we stopped at for a "lite snake". The treatment we got was beyond great. Must have been the effect of a white man who spoke hindi :)
You wanna know how great? Before we'd finished ordering, half the stuff (whatever we'd ordered till that point) had arrived.
The drive down was pretty peaceful. Reached Mangalore just in time to make it for lunch with Bells.
Would you beleive it... all the pubs I knew in Mangalore have shut down! There's no Knightrider any more :(
Landed up at Hau Hau - a good chinese joint out there and stuffed our faces a bit.

Bin awhile

2005-11-24T18:11:00.000+05:30

Long time no blog. What else is new?

Funilly enough, I've had tonnes to write about. Every time I thought I'd blog it, I realised I didn't have net access at home... I'd put in one of those "Angry smileys" at this point of time, but I"m too lazy to do stuff like that.

Lots has happened
Lots to write
nothing's been uploaded
though I wrote lots last night.

I may as well just put this up as a reminder of what I've got to blog when I do get net access at home...

There's the Bangalore internet issue.
There's the Mauritius trip - if that's what it can be called...
The Citibank debacle
Asian Paints Home Solutions - Delhi edition
Friends who know more about my life than me (should I correct that to 'I'?).
Alcohol and cocktails - a whole new twist.
The De the Documents died... trouble with the machine every time I touched one of them.
The De the Music died... and took all the pics with it :(
The wedding season.

I think that's about it. I'll write these things sooner or later - probably later - but I'll push for sooner.

Interesting times?

2005-11-23T23:44:00.000+05:30

May you live in interesting times.
- Old Chinese curse

I've seen the most interesting. It's said that most mundane story of any man on the earth would be more interesting than the most exciting novel ever written.

This could be true. I’ve come to realize that anyone who wishes can make life a bore or make it score. Where do you look for your way? Do you turn to life? Do you go out and look for a wife? What are you scared of? Is the threat of pedestrian so far a dread?

The lines I write are mostly golden.
The people I fight are mostly lost.
The response I get when I open my heart
Is the same as the one as when I break a fart.

The story continues.

The jerks that happen
Are gaps in the flow
Of the music play
Of the way to go.

Random thoughts
They come to mind.
The first ones that decide
That I should find.

Documentation is not where it’s at
The farther you get,
The more you get fat.

There’s not much happening
In the head these days.
The work that’s done
Is all in a haze.

I need a change now
I need a change fast.
All of my thoughts
Are stuck in the past.
People who came
Folks who left.
The ones that went on
Have left me bereft

Of any cold reason
Of any clear path
Of things left unsaid
Toss it now… I’ll go to bed.

Blog it all…
I must I must.
And it is to you my friend
This URL I entrust.

Stranger De by De

2005-03-18T17:45:00.000+05:30

What do I do?

There's lots of work.
There's plenty to handle.
Maybe I should get to it.

Everything's going so well... so smooth... this hasn't really happened for a while. Down to all the petty little things I generally write about (or have once or twice on this blog). I just haven't had much to complain about.

Have a look at the previous post (Even AirTel toDe won't stand in my way)

Even the phone guys seem to be against hassling me at all...

Maybe I should put that in a separate post.... hang on... I just did that.

Don't get me wrong... I'm enjoying the "smoothness" of the way life's going, but then it's sort of eerily quiet. Everything's going right - more or less. I'm happy, but depressed...

There. I've said it. I'm depressed. Things are probably going to screw up sooner or later - I'd rather later. I'd hope for later, but this is like the calm before the storm. I've got a feeling that somethings about to blow up. Some THINGS in fact. There's not too much I can do about em - the ones that I know of that is - it's going to happen, I'm going to be miserable for a few days then I'm going back to "happy" happy mode (as against "depressed" happy mode)

Weirder yet... I'm looking forward to the storm. It means things'll get ruffled up, change'll happen. I love change, but I'm scared of it. I think I can confidently say I've been through quite a bit of change and all the change I've been through has been for the better.

Even AirTel toDe won't stand in my way

2005-03-18T17:28:00.000+05:30

This ain't no gripe! I've been getting more and more impressed with the service of my mobile/landline operator... here's a story.

I'd called my phone companys customer care in Feb sometime from my mobile to ask about something to do with my landline. They told me I'd have to call on the landline customer care number. Since customer care is a free call, and I felt like messing around a bit, I said "but you're one company, you shouldn't tell me to call on another number. You should transfer the call rather than make me pay for being kept on hold for 20 minutes", to which I got a response "Sir, it's a free call from your mobile".

I jumped at the bait she'd dangled in front of me, put her on hold, told her I'd just start recording the conversation and started. Got her to repeat what she'd said before and told her that if I saw the call charged on my bill I'd use the recording. She said that was just fine and I put the phone down, got my issue with the landline sorted and relaxed.

I forgot about the whole thing till I was cleaning out my phone data (coincidentally, the same day the mobile bill was delivered) and heard the conversation. I called up and asked why the call had been charged when I was told it would not be, to which the response was "Very sorry for the inconvenience sir. We'll probably have it reversed in the next bill, but we'll get back to you on this." I asked for a docket number, got it, noted it against the name of the person I was speaking with and put the phone down.

A couple of days later (today) I got a call from them saying "since you've already paid the bill, the amount will be credited to your account in the next bill. We're very sorry for the inconvenience."

Today's DEFINITELY my day!

lots of Des

2005-03-09T03:00:00.000+05:30

Been a long time since I wrote a blog...
been on holiday, bloated up like a hog...

Lots of food
coupled with drink
can't swim for a while...
I'd probably sink.

Going mad moving around
with family and friends
can think of no more,
so this rhyme ends.

Half an SMPS

2005-02-23T16:02:00.000+05:30

It's happened. I got home last night and found my computer sitting there dead. The hard disk light was on. The power light was off...

Was feeling a bit bad about its demise - I didn't think there was too much wrong... the SMPS again...

This morning, I was about to leave for work and decided to give the SMPS a whack or two. Post-whack SMPSs tend to work for a while it seems. It died as soon as I tried to access my office mail though :)

Smart SMPSs yet!

This is the first blog I've written here that doesn't involve the word "lunch"

Oops! Now it does :D

Lunching munching

2005-02-21T13:54:00.000+05:30

Hunger hath struck.
I need food.
Nothing to eat upstairs...
and that guy's really rude.

Going to Maharaja.
Lunch I must have.
Prashanth and Rags.
paid through Jayanthys' bag.

She lost her phone,
her card as well.
A digital diary
her balance's going to hell....

Now my phone's gone too...
I'll get it back.
If she decides to keep it..
I attack!

Lunch time...
later folks.

To De or not To De

2005-02-20T10:27:00.000+05:30

Tis a half past sometime somewhere in the world. Right now is the middle of the night out here. 10 o'clock on a Sunday morning brings me to the computer... to do what? Does it really matter? Yesterday sort of blended into today - strains of a song come popping into my head "... and yesterday's todays just fade away". Was up till 6 again. No party this time. A few good friends online.

It's funny. The number of friends I've got in the US should be incentive enough to go. Hell there had to be just one or two of them out there for the reasons to be enough. Might even be a good idea to go there to work - maybe if the job market picks up a bit I will.

Sundar had called up this morning - hang on... that was yesterday morning. We had a nice long chat. What's really great about my friends is that they're always there. I'm a lazy bum. I don't make the effort to stay in touch - bad excuse for not staying in touch with such great friends, but hey, I'm me - they know how much I really care.

So many thoughts dropping pomes in my head...
time to switch to the anonymous blog instead...

I'll be back - I always am.

Experiments with truth - and Dominos pizza

2005-02-17T16:44:00.000+05:30

Has anyone (in India at least) noticed that if you get a set pizza here, you wind up paying more than if you order a plain cheese with the same toppings?

I got a bit hungry by 3, so called Domino's. This is the info I asked for along with the responses:
Small Hawaiian Pizza cost: Rs. 130
Toppings on the Hawaiian: Ham and Pineapple
Small Cheese Pizza cost : Rs. 50
Ham topping cost: Rs. 30
Pineapple topping cost: Rs. 20
Golden Corn topping cost: Rs. 20

I got that far and asked the guy if I could order a Small Cheese Pizza with Ham, Pineapple and Golden Corn toppings and he tells me "That will be 150 plus tax", so I walked him through the math - it seems not all indians are good with it... he put me on hold for a while and was talking quite animatedly with someone else out there in kannada (I don't understand more than a few words, so didn't have a clue as to what he was on about). He gets back on the phone and says "okay sir, 120 plus tax". Whew! 15 minutes it'd taken me to order a pizza!

What I don't get is why would they charge you MORE for something that's not customised? So I take 10 minutes more on the phone explaining why I want it part by part and they charge me less. It's the same with most of their combos. Try ordering topping by topping to get a lower price out of em. It's only bad if your battery's low :)

Another De another time

2005-02-17T14:04:00.000+05:30

Sitting in the office. Getting set for lunch. Not much to do right at the moment. Work's weird. It starts. It stops. I'm either flooded with it, or there's nothing to do.

Maybe I should set up the new machine...

Next blog soon.