Disturbing incident

eM draws attention to Mangs post on her blog.

While complimenting Mangs for her courage in protesting at the outrage, one is shocked to note that society has little empathy for those who have undergone such a traumatic experience.

Instead of delivering (speedy) justice, the system bogs the person down with red tape and even tries to make the affected party feel guilty for making such a 'fuss' about the whole thing.

Expressing myself towards Airtel

"Express yourself" urges Airtel. So, here goes:

For a company that prides itself on being a world-class telecom company, Airtel has an appalling record in processing mobile phone bill payments from the Citibank website.

After I received a bill with a due date of June 21, I logged onto Citibank Online and made the payment on the Net through my Citibank credit card. Even after the payment was made(on June 21), I continually received SMS messages from Airtel stating that the amount was due. When informed, Airtel asked me to ignore the messages as it took a few days(upto 4) for the payment to reach them.

When the messages persisted even after 4 days, I called up on June 27 and lodged a complaint. The operator listened to my rants and then obliged me by raising a complaint request and assured me that the matter would be looked into within 48 hours.

Today, my wife(who uses the Airtel phone) found that she was unable to make outgoing calls or send SMS messages.

Airtel, which has proven to be thoroughly incapable of processing Internet payments, has, however, perfected the art of deactivating customers whose bill is reported 'overdue'. A phone call to customer care today rectified the situation with the operator giving me the usual bromides of "We are extremely sorry", "Regret the inconvenience caused" etc etc

It must be noted that I suffered a similar incident with Airtel, barely three months ago. At that time, it took more than a month for the payment to be reflected. Not willing to go through the agony again, I wrote out cheques and put them in the dropbox for the next 2 month bill payments. This time, I resorted to the Internet payment option believing that Airtel would have cleaned up their act. But it appears that my optimism and hope were misplaced.

Airtel's website states that its vision for the mobile business is "To be globally admired for telecom services that delight customers". But, if they are unable to win the admiration of a customer in Chennai, I dont see how they can win global admiration.

Perhaps Airtel has grown so big that it really does not care a damn about servicing the needs of a single customer.

Of books and bookworms

Looking to fill that big gap in your bookshelf ? Check out Amazon's offer of "The Penguin Classics Library Complete Collection", which features 1082 titles for just $7,989.99. This is a 40% saving on the list price of $13,314.74.

Speaking of books, the BBC reports that Indians are the 'worlds biggest readers', spending, on an average, about 10.7 hours every week.

Miracles for money

He flies in on a Gulfstream private jet with a large retinue including bodyguards. He is received at the airport in a motorcade of Hummer jeeps and other expensive cars.

Is it Michael Jackson ? Richard Branson ? Nope..its Benny Hinn !

And when all this expenditure didnt yield the expected results, what does he do ? Turn the miracles crusade into a ranting event, shouting "Four million dollars down the drain" !

Healing ? Other 'miracles' ? "Show me the money", seems to be Benny Hinn's refrain. Read the article here.

Child marriage ends in "child divorce".

A 14 year old girl, from Andhra Pradesh, has got her two-year marriage annulled. What next ? Off to school, of course. Read the article here.

Beautiful Ugly...

...is the title of the movie that Ashok Banker is making. The movie is about the life of Shiela Ray, a model in the '70s who was gang-raped at a high-society party, and who later died in 1990 aged 44.

What makes this movie particularly poignant is that Shiela Ray was Ashok Banker's mother.

Read this "intensely personal note" penned by Ashok. (thanks to Amit Varma for pointing out this one).

Batty over Batman

Well 'tis really the season to go ga-ga over Batman and Forbes has an article with a slideshow that details what it takes to be a real-life vigilante a la Batman.

Here's a quick estimate :

The Training: $30,000
The Suit: $1,585
The Belt: $290
The Car: $2,000,000
The Cave: $24,000
The Alter Ego: $1,109,574
The Butler: $200,000

Final Cost: $3,365,449

Speaking of rich guys and money, here's a list of the Forbes Fictional Fifteen.

Micheal Jackson is toast....

...says this BBC article. Also available on eBay, Elvis and Yoda toasts.

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain.....

Has the monsoon come at last ? Or is it that the rain gods have, at long last, decided to give Chennai a break and let loose with some showers from heaven ?

Whatever the reason, its raining, RAining, RAINING !!

......For the rain it raineth every day ?

Batman Begins...in right earnest !

Saw "Batman Begins" at Sree on Saturday with Shanthi. The movie was rather good. Christopher Nolan has done a good job in taking Batman back to his dark beginnings. Christian Bale fills out the Batsuit admirably, while Cillian Murphy does a splendid job as Scarecrow.

One of the things that irked me was the fact that the identity of Bruce Wayne's alter-ego becomes almost public domain knowledge. Quite a few people learn it - Alfred, Ra's Al Ghul, Lucius Fox and Rachel Dawes. This information was sacrosanct in the comic books, but movies seem to treat this identity thing in a rather cavalier manner(draw parallel with "Spiderman 2" where Spidey looses his mask altogether during the train sequence with Doc Ock).

Ranting at MPL Hyundai

MPL Hyundai has a sprawling workshop at Tambaram Road in Velachery and since its close to where I stay, I decided to take my Santro to this workshop for its periodic service.

Tunings, tweakings, minor repairs and a bill of about Rs.3300 later, I got back my vehicle on June 14 evening. As I was driving it home, I honked my horn at a straying cyclist only to find my vehicle producing only about 50% of the sound that it usually made. Assuming that some water had got into it during the wash, I let it be.

But when the same half-tone sound persisted today, I took the car to the workshop and asked the service technician to check why I was getting only a half-tone now, when I was getting a full-tone from my horn earlier. His explanations(in order):

1. "Sir, this model has only one horn. The new Santro models have two. " (After opening the bonnet, he could locate only one horn, hence this gem of an explanation. So, how was I getting a full-tone earlier ? Only God knows.)

2. "Sir, while doing the service yesterday, we have tuned the horn." (What ? So, after tuning, the horn goes from full-tone to half-tone ?)

3. "Sir, you said to keep the costs below Rs.3500. Thats why we let the horn be."(By this time, this ace technician has located the other horn which was located behind the left headlight).

Not only did he come up with such ingenious explanations to cover the gaping holes in MPL Hyundai's customer service, but at one point, he actually turned and walked away from me in mid-conversation !

High on rudeness and abysmally low on customer service - appears to be MPL Hyundai's mantra. Shame ! All those posters in their customer's lounge about how valuable their customers are, seemed like an awful waste of money and a mere eyewash.

The incident ended with me shelling out an extra Rs. 169 for a new hi-tone horn assembly. Note that this horn was fully functional before MPL Hyundai's mechanics began the so-called service.

Incidentally, the car's AC seems to emit some sort of odour after the service. Must be the effect of MPL Hyundai's "Magic Hand of Service". I am too exhausted for another fight today. Will take a rain check on this.

Harry Potter, Batman and a "busy" day

Things I did on June 13 :

1. Booked the latest Harry Potter at The Corner Bookstore in Spencer Plaza. On offer was a 20% discount plus free home delivery

2. Went to Landmark to buy some Batman comics. Curled up with same later in the evening.

[Aside : What is it about Batman that makes him my favourite comic book hero ? Its probably because he is entirely home-grown(unlike Supes), doesnt have any "special" powers(unlike Spidey) and can still kick ass like no other.]

3. Bought some yummy cookies at "The Cookie Man" in Spencers Plaza.

4. Was "busy" waiting all day to talk on conference call with customer, only to find out after just 5mins that customer had already got the product info and wasnt too keen on listening to me talk !

Milky (High)Way

Location : Sholinganallur junction on the IT Highway

Scene : Traffic jam due to absence of traffic policeman(despite the presence of a police checkpost in the immediate vicinity)

Event : Milk spurts out of an Aavin milk lorry(Regn No TNH 6911) that is headed for the Aavin factory located on the IT Highway at Sholinganallur. By the time the traffic jam clears somewhat and we begin to move, almost a litre of milk has spilled on the road. I shudder to imagine just how much milk has thus been spilt in the lorry's entire journey.

Holy Cow !

Whilst zipping across the IT Highway in Chennai, one is required to expected to keep a sharp eye out for the cows that walk leisurely across the road.

Time for measures like this ?

Kerala temple's pee fine edict reversed

The BBC has this article about a man asked to pay a fine of Rs.1001 for cleansing because his baby son urinated during prayers at the Vadakkunathan Temple at Trichur in Kerala state.

The parents of the boy(whose father earns less than Rs.3000 a month) have won an appeal and the fine has been reversed.

When I had been to Guruvayoor recently, I noticed a signboard that states that parents must pay for 'purification' rites if their child pees or defecates within the temple premises. The Guruvayoor Devaswom website urges parents not to detain babies for a long time within the Nalambalam, perhaps fearing such a mishap.

Incidentally, Shanthi, I and our six-month old daughter stood in the queue at Guruvayoor for almost 3 hours. Thank God for Pampers, otherwise we would have ended up paying for the cleansing !

Oops, we did it again !

CNN Money mentions in this article that CitiFinancial told its customers that personal information on 3.9 million consumer lending customers was lost by UPS while in transit to a credit bureau.

Apparently, in recent months, a number of institutions(banks, retailers etc) have reported that personal information has been compromised.

What can the aggrieved customers do ? Grin and bear it ? Or institute a class-action suit against these companies ?

Tagged ! Now, I am it !

Navin does the honours by tagging me and therefore putting me in a spot of bother. Would I be able to confess about the skeletons in my closet ? I take a shot :

How many books do I own

Very few, really. Only about 100 or so.

Last book bought

State of Fear by Michael Crichton

Last books read

In reverse chronological order:

1. Age of Kali by William Dalrymple
2. Q&A by Vikas Swarup
3. Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

Books that mean a lot to me

1. Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth : For impeccable research and the ability to make fiction virtually indistinguishable from fact, there is no one to rival to Forsyth.

2. The Annotated Sherlock Holmes by William Baring-Gould : Not just the stories about the Doctor and the Detective by Conan Doyle, but the excellent, meticulous notes and articles by various Sherlockians and Holmesians make this well-worn tome a worthy addition to my book shelf.

3. Yes Minister/Prime Minister by Jonathan Lynn & Antony Jay : For some reason, I am totally bonkers about this book. I have read, re-read and re-re-read this book about a zillion times(I had just finished reading one episode, when I came online and found the tag from Navin).

Persons tagged

Amit Ray

No smoke without fire

Debate rages on whether the Indian government's decision, to impose a total ban on smoking scenes on TV and the silver screen, is correct or not.

The Hindu's editorial feels that the Health Ministry, headed by Dr Anbumani Ramadoss has over-reacted and even goes on to say that the ban "is a direct infringement on the freedom of the media." The no-smoking-on-screen law does have its supporters and most notable among them is Dr.Ramadoss, founder of the Pattali Makkal Katchi(PMK) and father of Dr.Anbumani Ramadoss.

In an another news item in The Hindu, Dr.Ramadoss Sr. welcomes the ban and believes that such a ban should be extended to the consumption of liquor as well !

Dr.Ramadoss Sr. has a long history of criticising on-screen smoking and had earlier taken on Rajinikanth for depicting/glorifying smoking in his movies.Now, his son(Dr.Anbumani) has been instrumental in passing a law banning on-screen smoking.

Although cigarette tricks have always been an integral part of Rajini movies, his latest flick "Chandramukhi" has substituted the cigarette with chewing gum !

Looks like Dr.Ramadoss has had the last laugh, after all !

My, my !

"Longhorn" is the code name for the next version of Windows. The latest, greatest and best operating system from the Microsoft stable choc-a-bloc with lot of cool features(Never mind the fact that its ever-stretching release date would put Mr.Fantastic to shame !).

The latest addition to those features, this site(link through Slashdot) says, is that Microsoft will drop the "My" prefix. So, prepare to bid farewell to "My Computer", "My Music", "My Pictures" et al. Apparently, there is no longer a need to create a 'bonding' between people and their computers.

Wonder what they'll think of next !

A trip, a book and a wedding

Trip - To Guruvayoor with Aditi on May 26
Results - Aditi wasnt too impressed with the whole thing - the 3rd AC coach on Alleppey Express, the 3 hour wait in the queue at the temple, the stay at Mayura Residency. She signalled her displeasure in clear, strident tones ! Shanthi and I are dreading our next trip with Adi which, thankfully, is nowhere in the near future !

Book - Q&A by Vikas Swarup
Review - Quite a riveting read ! The book has an interesting concept and presents a sometimes -amusing, sometimes-poignant look at society.

Wedding - Navin(NOT this Navin) weds Archana on June 1
Impression - A whopper of a marriage ! Got a brief glimpse of how the rich people do weddings. A massive mandapam(Sreevaaru Venkatachalapathy Palace), tubelights on the road leading to the mandapam, designer clothes(by Chaitanya Rao) and a general show of wealth all around !