9th January 2013 - Our little princess is born.

I was in office in Chennai, Tamil Nadu that day. My wife was at her home in Changanassery, Kerala. We were awaiting our baby :). It was in afternoon that my wife called up and said that she has started feeling pain.. I had to make quick decisions to find a way to reach hospital on time. Well, I called her back and came to know that, she is already booking flight ticket for me with the pain!

We were lucky enough to get the ticket for flight scheduled for 6.10 pm. It was 4pm already. I drove with the maximum speed possible back to apartment in Chennai to pick up my bag. Since I knew the two places where the speed guns are placed enroute from Siruseri to Thiruvamiyur, I slowed down and revved the car below 60 Kmph on those two sites. While driving, I called up 'fast track' car service and booked a cab to pick me up as soon as i reach our Chennai apartment. Back in home, the cab driver was on the way; 10min late and I had to run to the main road taking the bag so that I can catch him on the way. It was 5.30pm when we were 5-7kms far from airport. In heavy traffic of Chennai, car was just making its way like a snail and I was getting uneasy. I called up the customer care of airlines and came to know that the flight was 30min late. That time, I really thought that the flight has been delayed by god for me to catch it.

When I landed in Kochi, I grabbed a cab and told him that my wife is hospitalized for delivery and have to reach there at the earliest. It was 7.30pm then. He understood the urgency and started speeding in the heavy evening traffic of Kochi. In seaport-airport road, we were hit with an unexpected block. Some tanker has turned causing gas leak and there was evacuation in progress and roads were blocked. We had to take an alternate winding root and that included a railway crossing also. Well, the crossing was closed and we had to wait for 30-45 min there. Even after this delay, the driver of cab was determined enough to drive me to the hospital. I recognized his promptness in a decisive way apart from the fare.

When I reached hospital, it was 10.15pm. The delivery has happened already and my wife and baby were healthy. When I saw Ritika for the first time, I cried. Tears of happiness. God gifted us our princess that day :).

It wasn't much of an ordeal to get to hospital from Chennai that day. God has just eased it a lot - in form of ticket availability in last hour, delay of flight and finally in form of the cab driver.

Our Ritu on 10th of Jan 2013

What makes them do this?

I was late that Friday when I started from Thiruvanmiyur home for Chennai central railway station. I was in obvious hurry and it was drizzling. The normal auto rickshaw charge from Thiruvanmiyur RTO to Tidel Park Suburban railway station is 40 rupees. As usual, these guys ask 50 rupees for this trip; quoting hike in petrol price (even if their vehicle has LPG label stamped on it). 

This driver saw me walking (literally running) towards the RTO road. Sudden thoughts of 'Ha, yet another prospective customer' sprung onto his mind. I got into the auto and told my destination. As though a thunderbolt has struck him, came the reply.. 'Sir, 60 rupees venam'. I knew it was way too much. I didn't want to argue since time was against me. I just told him that, he knows clearly my situation and that is the reason why he is demanding me. Also, I told him that, normal rate is 40 and the max is 50. He then said that, it was heavy traffic. I replied saying that, next time, when another person gets into his auto for same route, ask him only 50 and requested him to drive little fast. This guy, as if to avenge my words, started driving slowly. I didn't speak until it was 100 meters away from Tidel railway station. The red signal was on and traffic had already piled up. The guy started murmuring something that time. The inferiority complex has settled upon and played lot of damage to thoughts of these guys. That is what which makes them do all this.

I stepped out of auto and paid him 70 rupees mentioning 'you can still drive with speed'. And, I told him this:  'As I told you, do not ask 60 rupees from next person who gets into your auto in same route.' Turning back, I saw him by the corner of my eye; nodding his head as if he got what I meant. 

Well, good for him if he understood. Because, we cannot take what is not meant for us.

The way the world is...

I was travelling to home town for the weekend that Friday. I usually buy something for dinner from French Loaf counter at Chennai central railway station.

On that day too, I reached the shop by 7.20 pm. I finished my purchase when I saw a poor old lady (by looks, she was over 70), requesting to the shop attender for a burger. She was holding 10 rupees in hand. The attender was telling her it cannot be given for 10 rupees. Then, she started searching the knot in her saree patiently; counted and handled over 5 rupees in coins. The attender mocked at it and started shooing her away. I was irritated at this and asked him, how much more he need. Suddenly, laughs died down on his face and he said 50 rupees. I handed over the extra money to him and asked him to give the food to her.

This is the way the world is. We see instances like this in our daily life. We never know what circumstances make people beg. Ignore them; but never mock or make fun at them.

Journey to Guruvayoor - Happenings on a day

We had a trip to Guruvayoor temple on 5th Nov 2011. This was a trip which was arranged with both of our families. In fact, something which was planned a month back. Radhika had to leave to home wotn a week before for an appointment with her dentist. I had my ticket confirmed on Patna express from Chennai central at 3.45 am on 5th Nov. I arranged a taxi for 2.00 am to take me to Chennai central railway station. Reaching station at 2.45 am, I was taken aback by the departure board displaying 12.00 pm as departure time for Patna Express. Train was delayed by 8 hrs! Many things came to my mind together with the much renowned lack of punctuality of Indian railways. I ran to the information center confirmed the obvious! Only option left out for me was to catch the Bokaro (aka Tata Alleppey) express which is scheduled to depart in another 45 min. 

I didn't have a ticket for this train and found reasonably long queue (considering 3.30 am) for single counter opened in ticket counter of a major railway station. I managed to reach the counter at 4.03 am. When I asked for a sleeper ticket, Mr Counter Man said that sleeper tickets are sold in 1st floor. I didn't see any board in that site which conveys such an information (Put this way, for Mr Counter Man, the age old computer would be interested only in generating general class tickets Or, it might be that, he cannot guarantee a colored sleeper ticket because the color cartridge is out; what else!). Left with no option, I took the so called 'open ticket'; a word which I am hearing/experiencing for first time. Before taking the ticket, I checked with this guy, who was joking behind me until that moment, whether I could board Bokaro express with this ticket. To my surprise, he started acting very busy to get his ticket from the counter. I got the matter. He simply doesn't want to see a 'good thing' happening to a fellow human being. What else could I perceive out of this? (I recollect seeing this guy in the same train and was heading to Coimbatore. He never saw me.) People are un-predictable all the time. That was an experience indeed.

I had to get into sleeper class with open ticket. Getting into general compartment was equivalent to throwing yourself into death by suffocation due to lack of space and oxygen. I met couple of aged employees returning to Erode after work. Here I met a person who was working with Indian Railways for on contract basis for over 15 years!. He gave me good company and we inquired each other on work and life. Time passed and I had a decent nap of 3-4 hrs in train. My new friend woke me up when the train reached Shornur as he was getting down there. 

All through till now, I missed to mention that, our 'working' union of kerala has called a 'hartal' in protest of petrol price hike from central government. Even though state government had cut on its taxes by 27 paise the previous day, hartal was something which would be celebrated without any change. 

I reached Thrissur at 4.00 pm. Earlier in the noon, my wife called me and said that they were lucky to get a KSTRC transport bus heading to Guruvayoor as they managed to reach the Thissur railway station. I was in the hope of another such magic happening for myself. I stepped out of railway station's side exit and saw many auto rickshaws there. I approached one Mr.SeemToBeGoodGuy and asked whether auto would go to transport bus stand. He said that it is transport hartal and no vehicles would run on road. When I told him that KSRTC buses are plying, this person said that KSRTC buses were stopped a while ago. It was in matter of seconds that Mr.SeemToBeGoodGuy turned out to be a Mr.ReallyReallyBadGuy for me. Because, he was plainly lying and I knew that transport buses were plying with police protection. I often wondered why these gentlemen get dressed up in morning and stay put in such places to disrupt normal people's living. Why couldn't they just stay back at home and support the so called hartal; staying out of road?

The world, as it goes along, turns bad; 
and gets tougher to live with...

Epilogue: I walked to main exit of railway station with my luggage and saw an auto rickshaw guy (void the khakhi uniform) whom god has sent to help me. He asked me the destination and five minutes later, we reached Thrissur KSRTC bus stand. There were police squads deployed for safe travel of real 'working' class. After 15 hrs of ordeal, I managed a comfortable seat for my journey to Guruvayoor on a bus charted to start at 5.00 pm.

A heart touching incident

I recollect this incident which happened in July 2011. We normally do shopping on Sunday's for the upcoming week and we go to 'Spencers daily' in thiruvanmiyur for that. It was a Sunday. We completed our shopping and got out of the store. I collected my bike from the parking lot and started it.

Suddenly, a poor kid appeared from nowhere and stood near us; crying out 'anna anna' and 'akka akka ' with extended arms. I had change with me and took out 10 rupees for her. She didn't take it to our surprise... Instead, she said 'paise venda anna... antha bun vaangi thanna pothum...' (I don't want money brother, please buy that bun alone for me'). She was pointing to the 'Burger Man' outlet in front of Spencers daily. Those words touched my heart and I took out 50 rupees from my wallet and asked Radhika to buy the kid a burger. She was all smiles and ever happy than me to do it. We waited for the store person at outlet to prepare the burger to ensure that kid gets it. When kid got the burger, we could see the happiness on her face. She told us. 'Rumba thanks akka.. rumba thanks anna' (Thanks very much brother... thanks very much sister) and started eating it wholeheartedly.

That moment, I felt this. How many could have ignored her pleadings? How much she would have wanted for the 'bun' when she had seen parents buying it for their kids? How much her parents or 'her master' would have scolded or beaten her for asking the 'bun'? We could see the answers for all these questions in her eyes.

We silently drove back to our home. 

A Burglar's attempt on our car

This incident happened in May 2011. It was a weekend and Radhika's mother was with us on a visit. We decided to spend that Sunday evening in Thiruvanmiyur beach, People who know this beach would also know, the point where the beach road starts after the turn from Thiruvanmiyur RTO. We parked the car in the pocket road which leads to the starting point of beach road. This road is badly lit and we never knew that, this was a place where anti-social elements lurked in danger during night.

I noted this person who was sitting on a bike nearby, smoking a cigarette. Somewhere in my thoughts, I had the cold feeling that this guy was staring and when I noticed, he was turning back. We normally wont give much heed to onlookers when we come with family and so, we walked our way towards the beach. We might have spent 45 minutes there and started moving to the car. The time was past 8.45 pm. I walked towards the car, unlocked and opened the door. My wife started opening the front passenger seat door when she called out my name aloud. It was then, that I noticed something sparkling besides the seat in low lit street light. I was shocked to see that left door glass was broken and entire piece has caved into the seat. Her money purse was missing from the compartment beneath the hand brake. The nasty miscreant has broken the glass to steal the purse.
He might not have had enough time to search rest of the car. What he has gained out of that action was 700 odd rupees. We were lucky that he didn't search the back seat since there was another bag with some considerable amount in it.

Set aside what he has 'earned'; he was unaware of damage he has inflicted upon the car. Change of glass cost me 1600 rupees. I didn't get the proper shade of garware classic sun film for 4 months, which matched the shade in rest of windows; because, greedy shop keepers wanted 2000 rupees, even to fill out that single glass. I finally found a lesser greedy one who finally ended up putting a junk film which had scratches (which I noticed after he fixed it since they weren't visible with the adhesive piece on) and matched 70% to original shade for 800 Rs. The loss due to thief to the car was 3000 rupees in total.

I thank god that he didn't think of looking into back seat. Something or someone might have stopped him; of which we are not aware of; till now.

Prologue: We never parked in pocket roads after this incident. We took the car to beach road and kept it in reach of our eyesight. Always.

When virus caught me!

This happened in July 2011. I don't remember reading monthly astrological publication that Librans born in first half of October would have bad time. On 5th of July morning, at around 12.15 am, I took my wife to Menangudy hospital. Adyar; owing to high fever. The doctor prescribed a medication course and assured that there is nothing to worry.

At around 11 am, I started experiencing high temperature and shivering. The health condition of both of us were going bad and we thought of travelling to hometown since tatkal tickets were available that evening.

Next day, on 6th of July, I was lying in a bed at St.Thomas hospital, Chethipuzha. I was having 104 degree fever and was advised to be hospitalized. Call it luck, my wife was recovering with the medication she was taking. I was bed ridden for 3 days with high fever.

I would say, I didn't suffer much. But, tension was high since the season was bad and scores were thronging the hospital with malaria and viral fever. Perhaps something big which was supposed to happen was averted with such an incident...

God's play.

The 'i' charm

It has been quite some time, since i thought of changing our old car. We had a Maruthi 800. Well maintained by my father for nearly 7 years. It was getting difficult for him to drive it in the ever increasing traffic. Without so called pleasures like power steering, power windows.. etcetera .. getting along the road was real turmoil.

I thought that it was time for us to change the car. Moreover, somewhere in the news, my eyes caught the announcement from Maruthi that, they are going to stop production of their 'once flagship car'. My options were limited for a new car. Because, it will be mostly used by my father. I should be going for something which suits him better than for me. Well, I'll be here in Chennai most of year. What is the point of buying a BMW at home and then, sit here in Chennai & dream about it? (hehehe).

Jokes apart; I checked out my options and found some contestants in the market. Alto LXI, Hyundai Santro Xing GLS, Ford Figo, Hyundai i10 & Chevrolet Beat. Alto LXI was the first one to ruled out. The reason was it's cramped back seat. Santro GLS was a good contester for the position. But, the power windows option was limited to front seaters. Moreover, the car was pretty old.. by name [Parents choose to name their child 'Anton' rather than 'Anthony' or 'Antony'. Why should'nt they?]. I did a test drive of Figo. It was a Figo Titanium, top end Diesel model. It lacked power. Real drag in first and second gears. I wasn't impressed. Beat was dashing. It certainly was an eye-catcher on the road. But, 160Ltr boot for a car... Alas!.. I would call it as a bike retrofitted with extra luggage boxes...

My friend Sandeep already owns an i10. I have driven it. 80BHP under the hood is just awesome. Handling.. superb. Although the boot is 225Ltr, I would say that, it is a decent one. I decided to chip in additonal 24K for sportz version of the car. Why 24K? A company music set with 4 speakers, Rear Wiper & defogger, Boot lamp, Spoiler with HMSL, Metal finish door handles and so on... Those extras were worth for the 24K, which the company was charging.

We got the car delivered on 24-07-2010. That was yesterday. I am here in Chennai. The charm is there, at my home town. The bliss is yet to be experienced.

'I' need to wait.. till 'I' get near 'i10'... :)

A Grievance Letter To Airtel

A letter that i mailed to the appellate office of Airtel requesting the reimbursement of security deposit of my Airtel Broadband connection.

It follows like this...

Date Sent: 02-11-2008

Purpose of mail:
To address the grievance i have towards the conflicts i am facing from Airtel towards the reimbursement i am supposed to get back from your Broadband services.

Sir,
I am Nandalal Prasad R, a customer of airtel broadband service for past 2.5 years.
I took airtel connection from Adyar Airtel office on 27.05.2008. The payment of Rs3000/-(Reciept no. 324705 of 'Bharat Tele-Ventures Ltd Tamil Nadu Circle) as deposit and Rs500/-(Reciept no. 324704 of 'Bharat Tele-Ventures Ltd Tamil Nadu Circle) as registration fees was done at this office on 27.05.2008. I discontinued broadband connection on 04.10.2008 JUST BECAUSE our new rental area(Palavakom, Chennai) didnt have airtel broadband services. I surrendered the equipement on same date. The airtel person who received the equipement told that 'you will receive the pending amount (3000 - (1009 + 169)) as cheque in your billing address'.

After this, I had promptly received the bill asking me to pay the '1009+169' amount. No word came off from Airtel officials regarding my pending deposit amount. I contacted airtel curstomer care today(Nov 2. 2008) morning regarding this issue; explained everything in calls (30min duration!).
The answer i get is
1. 'You had made Rs3500/- Registration fees during that period.
2. Airtel used to collect Rs3500/- as registration fees during that period. (I know the fact that airtel collects non-refundable Rs500/ as registration fees now. Rupee has depreciated a lot; i know).

I have attached snaps of bills of deposit, registration, enrollment form part showing the registration fees collected, equipement return reciept. I can submit/send the copies of these bills if required by you for verification.
One thing i am not sure is whether Airtel is doing the same thing to all its customers OR is it to normal customers like us. I dont know on what basis an official at airtel office recognizes the slip as a deposit form and another one says that it is a registration slip.

I know that i had a 'contentable' payment record with airtel services apart from couple of occassions wherein i was outstation which might have caused delays of payment.

Kindly address this problem with priority. I felt that customer care can do no more than my money and time wastage through calls by raising a complaint there.
I want the remaining deposit amount back from Airtel.

Ps: Eventhough not worthwhile of mentioning, I am holding an Airtel mobile connection also for the past 4 years. I don't know whether i will have a least preference of consideration if i ever had mentioned this.

Expecting a reply.

Yours Truly,
Nandalal









The reponse... is 'void'; meaning no response! The letter was of course addressed to the south zone official with a copy to the north zone official. Truly appalling that there was no response from those 'higher' officials; moreover i felt that; i was a fool to write to those 'heads'.

Worthless to say, i got a call from Airtel 2 weeks back saying that i have to pay a month's bill. You could imagine what my reply was . They haven't contacted me after that.

Guys, what do you say about this ORDEAL?

The Laptop Story

Finally, i got my laptop back.

After all those calls and trips to the service centre.. i am a happy man...
The story goes like this...

06/06/2008
The warranty for my laptop expired on 6th June. So LUCKY( :-( ...) i was that
my laptop started showing problems with screen on 18th June.
I raised the complaint to Sony, my laptop was taken for repair...
The initial "finding" was that the screen is faulty and needs to be replaced.
The cost was estimated to be ~15k. I raised a request to Sony Japan and
got the concession since the warranty expired on June.
Then came the thunderbolt.

28/06/2008
The "Problem" suddenly turned out to be of motherboard. It was shocking to
hear that my mainboard was infected with Ant-Corrosion. alas! There was nothing i could do..

11/07/2008
I had to replace the motherboard. I added another 1GB RAM since Vista was slow as a tortoise in my available 1GB. A whooping 23K was registered on my credit card bill for that month.(Actual price for the mainboard of Sony Vaio VGN-C25G is ~29K). I got the part for the landing price. The story wasn't over.

13/07/2008
Laptop started showing blue screen error. I was alarmed to find that i couldnt even play a movie in my laptop after putting 23k from my pocket(Oops.. credit card to be correct).

15/07/2008 - 8/08/2008 - 3 visits to the Sony service centre...
All these times, there were reasons which weren't fathomable. With my friends over here, we found that mainboard replaced by Sony was faulty!. There say that it is 1 of 100 that such a chance will occur.. It occurred.. the odd man was me.

On 8/08/2008, i left the laptop at the service centre for detailed investigation and solution to my problem. (The situation so severe since 11/08/2008 was the last date of my support warranty, after which, i will be left wailing with my faulty motherboard). Sony took the case into concern.

23/08/2008
After 2 weeks of negotiation and bi-lateral talks(;)), Sony agrees to replace the mainboard for free.

25/08/2008, 2.30pm IST
I get a call from local Sony service centre that my laptop is ready for dispatch.
I collected that laptop the same day, leaving early from office(so that i could bypass the nasty chennai twilight traffic and reach the centre before thier closing time, which is 7.30pm).

The period 18/06/2008 - 25/08/2008 is history. The time which was considered 'doomed' for my laptop
and me. My laptop has recovered.. I am still recovering... :)

Tips to my friends from my experience:
1. If you own a Sony laptop, beware that the warranty expires after a year.
2. You have an option of extending the warranty for a year by paying 5k before the warranty expiry.(Don't go for extension on the day of expiry. you will not be considered!)
3. In case the warranty is expired, go for an AMC for your laptop. It may help.
4. Don't ever let ants roam nearby your laptop. They are dangerous enough to cause big holes
in your wallet!.

PS: The experience i have written down here is totally under my discretion. I have not intended to blame on any parties mentioned here. Only purpose of this post is to share my experience. The content of this post if used for other media will be totally under my disagreement.