I just remember reading a few days ago that Ministry of Civil Aviation and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security recently refused to exempt the service chiefs from security checks at the airports, stating that this would encourage other officers and bureaucrats from other departments to ask for the same privilege. So this means our three chiefs from Air Force, Navy and Army are frisked at the airports whereas Priyanka Gandhi and Robert Vadra are not. This means these chief marshals and commanders and generals who are supposed to protect the country are not trusted but a common businessman is, just because of his political connections.
The problem is not whether the chiefs of the services are frisked and Robert Vadra is not, the problem is with the attitude and with the logic of the whole thing. I mean in whose hands is the country safer: all those VVIPs who are exempted from security checkups (frisking) at the airports or the military chiefs who make sure that we can sleep peacefully, totally secure? This is really absurd and I think it is also an insult of every common person who respects the country’s armed forces. Would you trust the VIIPs who are perpetually hiding behind their security commandos or the military chiefs who would tackle the attackers and the terrorists head on? To add insult to the injury there are many bureaucrats who are exempted from security checks at the airports in India even when their ranks are lower than the military chiefs.
This is a very serious issue and the people who are responsible for such an outrageous decision should be taken to task. I think if our military chiefs cannot be trusted then nobody should be trusted. In fact if the security risk is so high then as a general rule everybody, and this means everybody, should be subjected to security checks no matter what his or her rank in the government or politics is.
I had planned to write a post like this a few months back but at that time I thought, “Well, what the heck,” and had abandoned the idea. I’ll narrate here how Airtel — the company that provides mobile phone connections in India (and an assortment of other connectivity-related service) fleeces money out of unsuspecting consumers. The latest incident first.
For a few months I didn’t have a mobile handset so my prepaid number remained inactive during this time and consequently it was deactivated, which means neither incoming nor outgoing calls were allowed. The day before yesterday when I purchased a new handset I decided to recharge my prepaid connection. Since I couldn’t go to the shop I had sent the driver of my cab to get my phone recharged and using his best judgment he got the phone charged with a plan that gave me the maximum talk time for the amount paid.
Even after charging the phone I couldn’t use it; it remained deactivated. I was out the whole day so I couldn’t figure out why the phone wasn’t working. When I came back in the evening I called up Airtel service and the service executive there told me that even if my phone had been charged the tariff plan under which it had been charged didn’t activate the phone and in order to get it activated I would have to recharge my phone under another tariff plan. I asked him what would happen to the amount that I had already paid and he informed me that the amount would be automatically added to the new amount. I called them again to confirm this because somewhere I had an inkling that the entire amount would be reset, and even the second executive told me that the amount would be added: I just needed to recharge under another, lower tariff plan to keep my phone working for another month.
So today again when Alka got the phone recharged we thought that finally I would be able to use my new handset. When she came home and I tried to make a call I was again met with silence. Upon checking how much call time I had, to my great shock I just had one rupee left whereas I should have had around Rs. 296. I called their customer service to find out what happened to the amount I had paid yesterday? The wise executive on the other side informed me that I was given wrong information because when you recharge your phone while your phone is deactivated, and when you recharge it again to activate it, your previous amount is not carried forward that means it is reset to zero. There was no point in arguing with him because he was just giving me the information he had and he had no role in formulating the recharge policies of the company.
So the question is why was my phone recharged and I was allocated talk time when I couldn’t make a call? Isn’t it cunning on their part, especially when they are smart enough to make such a screwed up rule that resets the amount to zero when you recharge your phone while it is deactivated the moment you get it recharged in order to activate it? The executive that told me that I was given the wrong information wasn’t even apologetic, he just matter-of-factly told me that I was given the wrong information and was screwed in the process (he didn’t say the last part but his tone conveyed it). Before charging the phone why doesn’t an error message flash on the retailer’s computer screen that this prepaid subscriber’s number is deactivated and he or she should be given an option to recharge the phone under a different tariff plan that first activates the number and then allocates the talk time accordingly? What is so complicated in that?
I think this is a blatant rip-off and if many consumers are going through the same troubles than some consumer forum must take up the issue and sue this company. For instance if I wasted Rs. 333 for a recharge that was never destined to work then there must be thousands of people doing the same thing because they either don’t have the right information or the software that accepts money for recharges that are never going to work isn’t properly written. I am sure this has been done intentionally. This is pure stealing.
I don’t want to continue with my Airtel connection but Alka just reminded me that even the previous company (Hutch, now Vodafone I guess) from where I got my phone number wasn’t that great and there was a reason why I had shifted to the Airtel connection.
And now the second, the previous incident.
I use Airtel’s broadband Internet connection to do my work. I had the same broadband connection plan at the previous place where I lived — Sarita Vihar, in New Delhi. When we shifted to NOIDA I called the Airtel customer care to transfer my connection to the new place since this area too is covered by them. They instructed me to send a formal e-mail with my customer ID and all in order to get the connection transferred, which I immediately did (I was in a hurry because I needed the connection at the new place to carry on my professional commitments).
The wise guys promptly “transferred” my connection. The problem was, transfer means that my connection at Sarita Vihar should have been discontinued — that didn’t happen. They kept sending the old bill at the old house and whenever we visited the old house I used to call them up and tell them that since my connection had been transferred the old connection should be discontinued. Every time I was told that I was getting the bill due to some technical glitch and I shouldn’t bother. They also kept telling me that they would make sure that the bill wasn’t sent again and again.
Then one day after more than a year I got a call from them that I had an outstanding bill amount of around Rs. 5,000 and I needed to pay it immediately. They said that I never got the old connection disconnected. I asked them to check their old e-mails and see that I had requested them to discontinue my old connection and they told me, again, matter-of-factly, that they don’t store e-mails that are more than six months old. I was obviously quite pissed off and flatly refused to pay the amount. The guy on the other side said that legal action would be taken against me and even my present connection would be discontinued. I dared them to do the same and I also told them to send the legal notice and I would take the appropriate action but I would never pay them for the connection that according to me should have been disconnected a long time ago. Since a few weeks after this heated discussion my old handset broke and I stopped using the phone number they had in the database (the same number that I am trying to get activated now) they didn’t or couldn’t bother me again.
These are the tactics they use to exhort money from unsuspecting consumers. A few years ago I had read in the newspaper that the mobile phone companies (not the companies that give handsets but the ones that provide the connectivity) quietly add one or two rupees to the bills they send to their subscribers and consequently earn millions of rupees more in the process.
I cannot advise you to stay away from these companies because there is no other choice but I think the issue should be raised by as many people as possible so that more people are aware of these companies’ stealing techniques. They seem like a bunch of corporate crooks.
Technorati Tags: airtel sucks, airtel, mobile connection
(With due respect to the dogs of course) I just read that Taslima Nasreen has been sent to Rajasthan by the West Bengal government because the Muslims over there want her expelled from the country. It’s shameful to be in a country where the law cannot protect people, whether in Delhi, or in Gujarat, or in Nandigram and Kolkata regarding Talima Nasreen. While other developed countries invite writers and provide them protection not only from minorities but also from whole countries our country is so pusillanimous that it has to chase the threatened person away instead of punishing and persecuting those who threaten. It is an extremely scary case scenario and it paints a really grim picture of the country’s future.
In another news I read about the imminent ouster of Dr. Venugopal as AIIMS director. A bill has been passed in the parliament with the instigation of the health minister (with the help of the Left, but of course) that is going to pave the path of Dr. Venugopal’s removal. Ever since the health Minister has joined his office he has just pursued against is personal vendettas and has them nothing positive for the world-class institution; in fact he has, with his bellicose and stupid attitude, managed to sully the image of the hospital. This is a sad state of affairs.
Yesterday we ordered two mid-size pizzas (pepperoni, extraveganza, one garlic bread with white sauc and a small bottle of Pepsi) and the bill was around Rs. 835. I was shocked when the person on the other side of the phone told me the total amount that I’d have to pay, and just to confirm that I had heard right I asked him again. I didn’t cancel the order because the money was — at that point — not the issue, but both Alka and I felt outraged for having to pay so much for so little junk food; we also felt a bit embarrassed because a family can eat food for many days with this much money. I don’t mean to sound apologetic but spending 800 plus just because you want to eat something different is really stupid. Even insignificant, fundamental things are turned into a luxury just to make a quick buck in our country. Although we can afford such exhorbitant pizzas (at least as of now) it repulses us to spend so much money on them, so we are not going to have them at least for a few months.
Sometimes my days just fly-by and I don’t even realize how many days of the week I have skipped; for instance last night I thought it was Wednesday but when I checked the calendar on my computer I discovered, to my great surprise that it was Thursday. I had no idea where the Wednesday had gone. This happens quite often — I skip one or two days without realizing and it is often on the Fridays that I realize that it is not Wednesday. Life has become so fast that I cannot keep track of individual days.
Yesterday we saw a really nice movie called “Click” featuring Adam Sandler and Christopher Walken. Adam Sandler is a busy architect in the movie and he has no time for his family. He is always preoccupied with completing his various projects and getting promoted to a partnership. He’s always absentminded and in a perpetual state of hurry. There is another thing that nags him constantly: his inability to figure out what remote controls what gadget. One night he gets so fed up that he goes to the market to purchase a universal remote (I have been planning to get one of those but right now they’re really expensive). In one of the stores he meets Christopher Walken — a strange looking scientist who gives him this universal remote control (for free and with no-return policy) that controls the universe. His joy and troubles begin from this point onwards.
He discovers, initially to his great happiness, that he can control every aspect of his life. He can mute people he doesn’t want to listen to, he can switch languages, he can change the color contrasts, he can jump to different parts of his life, and he can fast forward events that he finds irritable. He can also fast forward when he is too impatient to wait for things to turn up. For instance when he doesn’t want to make love to his wife he fast forwards the moment and gets done with the thing quickly. Similarly when he doesn’t want to take a bath he fast forwards himself to a time when he has already taken a bath. The problem is that the remote control has its own intelligence and stores his preferences in its memory, that is, his life fast forwards whenever he tries to make love to his wife or whenever he goes to take a bath, or does whatever he had fast forwarded in the past. Things look pretty good until he decides to use the remote to alter his destiny and afterwards everything goes topsy-turvy.
One day he discovers that his promotion is going to take a few more months. He wants to fast forward himself to that period of his life. Christopher Walken, who appears like a ghost every time Adam Sandler needs support for the remote control, advises him against taking such a drastic step hinting that he may not find what is looking for at that point. But of course he cannot resist and in a moment of passion fast forwards himself to his day of promotion. The promotion happens after a year. So he skips everything that happened during that year which means he also skips the moments that led him and his wife to seek the help of a marriage counselor. His dog too dies during that period. He is so upset with the turn of events that he wants to give the remote back but as is the policy he cannot return the remote. As much as he tries to get rid of the remote, the device keeps coming back to him.
While he is trying to cope with things that happened to him but he didn’t witness them his boss talks about another promotion. Now, since the remote control has programmed itself to fast forward whenever a promotion is on the anvil, the life fast forwards even when he doesn’t want it to. The remote fast forwards 10 years of his life. This way he keeps fast forwarding his life and before he can get the hang of things his life is over. During his last days, to his great dismay, he realizes how he neglected his parents, his wife, and even his children. In just a few fast forwards, he is quite old, his wife has left him and married another man, his children are fully grown, his father is dead, and he himself is going to die. In the hospital, almost on his deathbed, he sees his grown-up son, a very successful architect who is ready to skip even his honeymoon to attend to an urgent business call, and sees the history repeating itself. Totally terrified, he runs behind his son to tell him that when it comes to business and family, the family should always come first. He tells this to his son while taking his last breath.
The universal remote control is a great metaphor in this movie and I think at one point or another we are all using this psychological remote control to skip days and even months in order to pursue careers. In this pursuit we forget that we have families and other passions. I know the money is important, and in fact it is very important for the happiness and financial security of our loved ones but sometimes even when we have crossed the threshold we don’t realize when to stop and this is then we start losing the life trying to get it.
Moments spent with your family and friends are priceless and in fact they are the most important aspects of your life; but of course this philosophy cannot be applied universally. It depends on what matters to you — there have been great writers, painters, politicians, social workers and scientists who couldn’t have achieved what they have had they opted to spend more time with their families and less time doing what they wanted to do. The plot of life is quite complicated and there are no simple solutions or black and white deductions. One should just do the right thing.
Or rather one country-centric. The e-mail services of Hotmail and Yahoo have been stopped in Iran and this means you cannot use these e-mail services even if you have got nothing to do with nuclear or Islamic politics. Of course one may argue that very often you have to pay for living in a specific region or a particular country; but that is not the argument. It’s really stupid that just because America does not agree with Iran’s nuclear policy the citizens of Iran cannot use Hotmail and Yahoo (not that they are greatly e-mail services but they are quite prevalent). This means if one day the American government has some differences with the Indian government all the Hotmail and Yahoo users won’t be able to access their e-mail and I think that is pretty shady.
I think the Internet is too America-centric and the other countries should develop ways to access the Internet in case the American government decides to block those countries. Regarding e-mail, it is better to use either a private domain or you should take regular backups and also have an alternative ready.
I understand that international restrictions and embargoes are meant to force the citizens to speak up against the policies of their respective governments but only those people suffer who have got nothing to do with the problem — the real troublemakers are anyway not affected because they can easily avail alternative means.
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