Life is De sale

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

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

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

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

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...