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Monday, February 28, 2005 Good News IndiaJust in case, if you haven't heard about Good News India, please do take few minutes of your time to visit the site. It is a site run by a one-man-army - a 63 year old Shri D V Sridharan, whose mission is to show-case the heroic efforts of thousands of little known men, women and institutions, while skirting celebrities, politicians and publicity-hunters. I have been reading this site for close to 3 years now and till date he has been doing an excellent job. To sample one of his works, just check out the story of a man who over a period of 25 years changed a rocky hill site to a full-grown forest. What more do you need to get inspired? The main aspect I liked about the site is, Sridharan focuses on the individuals who are ignored by the mainstream media. Do support the site by visiting it, spreading the news about it and also by clicking the unobtrusive Google adverts. What I am about to say would go against the very name of the website I talked about earlier. But in the realistic world, good & bad comes in equal share and one must be aware of both. I thought quite a few times before adding this paragraph, as I thought that this might go against the spirit of GNI, but nevertheless I decided to go ahead. Sometime in December last year, there were no updates in GNI. A month later, GNI came back to life and Sridharan explained the reason for the lack of updates. Read it yourself to get the full picture. I don't want to make a generalised opinion that all the whistle-blowers meet the same fate. But it pains. Whats your thought? Posted at 2/28/2005 10:47:00 AM Link Friday, February 25, 2005 Mushy boy's website - yes, the guy who is the President of Pakistan. In terms of the design, it looks very impressive and fares better than his Indian counterpart's. But in terms of contents, the site looks more like Mushy boy's personal site rather than an official Government site. Well, that is not my problem and one can't expect more from that fella. Apart from the usual rhetoric about 'freedom fighters' and why Pakistan is great, the site does provides some light entertainment with jokes like "President General Musharraf is a sincere believer of democracy", "Kargil war taught India a lesson" etc. It is like covering the shit with silk. Couldn't think of a better phrase. :)Posted at 2/25/2005 10:41:00 AM Link Thursday, February 24, 2005 A specimen called LaluRajya Sabha MP & BJP member Hema Malini, has gone on record that she is Lalu's fan. Lalu returned the compliment in style. "If she is my fan, then I am her air-conditioner". Check out this article for more funny stuff on Lalu. Thanks for the link, PVS. Posted at 2/24/2005 11:11:00 AM Link Wednesday, February 23, 2005 Customer ServiceAfter wearing my new Hush Puppies formal shoe for less than 2 weeks, the thread in the shoe came out and the shoe was in the danger of giving up any moment. I wrote to Bata India, from whose showroom I purchased the above shoe, asking whether they could do anything if I take the shoe to Bata showroom/office in UK. Following was the reply I got. Dear Mr. Chakkarapani Sampath Thank you for your email of 11th February 2005, and thank you for being a customer of Bata. We apologise for the inconvenience caused to you while wearing our shoes. Quality of the products we produce and sell is one of the most important factors within our Company. We pride ourselves in providing total customer satisfaction. We are constantly striving to improve on quality and to improve the service to all of our valued customers. As a valued customer, it is our job to give you the highest level of quality and service. In your case, we have failed and I apologise once again. Sir, Bata India is an independent Company and we do not have any business connections with Bata in London. Hence it will not be possible for us to have your shoe inspected and replaced in London. Please do let us know when you will be visiting India, so that we can have our local representative call on you, inspect the shoe and give you a replacement. Please provide us with your local address and telephone numbers. We await your reply. Yours very truly MANAGING DIRECTOR 's Office, Bata India Ltd. Kolkatta, India. Though I have got the shoe mended through a local cobbler, I am pleased with the way Bata responded to my mail all the way from the Managing Director's office - apologising for the bad quality and offering to give a replacement. Now, this is an example of what I call a good customer service. I promptly wrote back to them appreciating this. Posted at 2/23/2005 10:26:00 AM Link Tuesday, February 22, 2005 JokersI don't know what the guys in "dhamil nadu" Congress think when they talk about Kamaraj rule in TN, but it does provide us a good laugh, though its very difficult to match what is being offered by our Captain in his movies. Posted at 2/22/2005 10:28:00 AM Link Google results by email If you wanna reeive Google search results through e-mail, just email google@capeclear.com and with the text of your query in the "Subject" line. To get the web contents of a particular URL, send an email to web@pagegetter.com with the URL in the subject. I tried both of them and it works great. The only problem is with the latter, if you request the frames page you end up receiving numerous mails - one for each frame. Would be useful to those in offices that only has an e-mail service but no Internet access. Cool one, huh? Posted at 2/22/2005 10:26:00 AM Link Monday, February 21, 2005 Glamour & MGRFew weeks back, I was reading an article on MGR written by an old director (or may be producer) in some Tamil website. He was talking about movies of those days, current day cinema, glamour etc and said "MGR always took care that there was no glamour or lewd scenes in his films. His films could always be watched by everyone in the family....blah blah...". Well.. it would have been a lot better if he had stopped at this point. He went on like, "If at all there had to be a glamorous scene or song in his movie, MGR made sure that it is only part of a dream sequence". What a brilliant logic! A scene couldn't be considered vulgar if it happens to be in the dream sequence. I was simply bowled over by his profound wisdom. Perhaps, he wrote something and thought that the readers would remember those deep-breathing sequences by the female leads & skin coloured translucent dresses in the yesteryear movies, including that of MGR's. I do apologise if I sound more like Selvaraghavan, but you get the point, right? Posted at 2/21/2005 10:10:00 AM Link Friday, February 18, 2005 Air passenger rightsMany times in the past (or at least once), I have argued for clear & unambiguous rules regarding compensation claims related to flight cancellation/delays. While we have to write a fat cheque for paying the airfare, it is ridiculous that the airliners would walk away without any fuss whenever there was any delay/cancellation. Though I haven't been that badly affected by these delays, I know of several unsuccessful but genuine claims by my friends & relatives, who have been on the receiving end. Now that European Union has come up with a new set of rules, I am doubly happy that things have moved in the right direction. These new rules doesn't address the baggage damage/loss claims, as that is one another vulnerable area of concern. Understandably, the airliners are upset and are crying foul. Quite obviously, the airfare would increase in the near future as the cost incurred due to the compensation claims would have to be passed on to the passengers. Even then, as a passenger, this gives me enough satisfaction that if they mess it up, they would have to clean it up. Had these rules come into force about 2 months earlier, I would have been richer by few hundred pounds, courtesy Kuwait Airways. ;-) Yesterday, a shoe repairer waived off his service charges (£4) when he couldn't get my shoe repaired on time. Few days back, I saw the manager of a catalogue shop offer the customer free gift vouchers equal to the value of purchase (£20 or so) since the customer had to wait for about 30 minutes more than the estimated time to collect her order. When small businesses could honour their commitment & consider customer as their king, isn’t it time that the owners of these big birds do the same? Posted at 2/18/2005 11:18:00 AM Link Thursday, February 17, 2005 Screen Keyboard
Yes! This post is related to Citibank. No! I am not here to complain or whine about its service. I have got used to their levels now. :) In the recent times, Citibank & few other banks in UK have implemented a new feature in their online banking system. The user would have to use their screen keyboard for typing in the password in its place. Apparently this new measure has been put in place for security reasons and I trust the technology behind this, though I don't know the nitty-gritty details involved. Suppose if someone checks his account from a public computer, don't you think that it would be easy for an evil minded to gather the password just by glancing at the monitor from a reasonable distance, as one would have to move the mouse pointer over the corresponding characters in order to key them in. Isn’t the new system more vulnerable than the old? I know that crap about technology being a double-edged sword, rose with a thorn etc. Don’t want to hear that again. Just tell me, am I missing something very basic here? To try this, visit this link and click the Citibank Online link below the One Click Sign-In. You don't need to have an account to check this! Posted at 2/17/2005 10:27:00 AM Link Wednesday, February 16, 2005 News TodayNothing can beat the spice of local news. When I lived in India, I always made it a point to glance at the headline posters of Maalai Malar & Maalai Murasu - the two popular Tamil eveningers in TN. Amidst the 'thideer paraparappu', 'adhiradikku edhiradi' kind of headlines that would normally be dished by these two, there would be one soft & suave News Today - probably the only English language eveninger in Chennai until few years ago. Accidentally stumbled upon its website today and its a nice read. Feels like reading a neighbourhood newspaper in Chennai. I haven't read this long enough to judge on its neutrality or the lack of it. On a totally different note, I received a very useful invite from an unknown person to join 'Jothika-Ajith' Yahoo group, which I chose to decline. May the Lord forgive this sin! Posted at 2/16/2005 10:42:00 AM Link Monday, February 14, 2005 IronyI happened to meet an obese man in the bus today. He was so fat that when he sat next to me, he made me look like a Lilliputian. I picked up conversation with that guy and among various things that we talked during that half an hour journey, I could understand that he gets angry with people who don’t practise what they preach. Later, when he was about to leave the bus, I asked what he does for living. He simply said, "I own a health club. I have been a fitness coach all my life". Posted at 2/14/2005 09:57:00 AM Link Friday, February 11, 2005 Vals day card
Posted at 2/11/2005 11:36:00 AM Link Thursday, February 10, 2005 Chennai at its bestFew days ago, my sister lost her purse while travelling in the train at Chennai. Apart from 1000 quid (INR) in cash, few railway tickets, the purse had her ID cards and other paraphernalia that you normally find in a girl's purse. One good samaritan had picked that up and handed over the same to Railway Protection Force in Mambalam station. From one of her ID, they had rung her up at home and on finding the number busy, they took pains to contact one of her friends (she had had a tiny addressbook inside the purse as well) - got her mobile number and contacted her and informed about the purse. When she went to collect the same, she was handed over her things and was given advice on how to be careful in the trains, over a cup of tea & snacks. Having heard so many unpleasant things about Chennai & the money minded cops, this experience was refreshing altogether. Posted at 2/10/2005 10:14:45 AM Link Wednesday, February 09, 2005 75 year old Indian bloggerIn the days when 50+ year olds tend to think computers as something exclusive to the latest generation, it is really heartening to see a 75 year old adapting himself to technology & trends and start blogging. Since I do not know him in person, it might not be right to say "adapting to", but nevertheless it was very interesting to read Sri Partha Krishnaswamy’s posts, especially his experiences in the yesteryears at our good, old Srirangam. Welcome aboard Sir & hope to see more of your posts in future. Posted at 2/9/2005 11:16:51 AM Link Tuesday, February 08, 2005 Relief from Holland, red tape from IndiaTUESDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2005 WAGAH: Nine trucks with relief from Holland for tsunami hit people are stuck at this border checkpost, with Indian authorities unwilling to let it through until Rs 1 million ($23,000) is paid as duty. I hate to belittle India in any public forum, but it pained to read the above news item. To read the full story click here. Where lies the problem? - I don't fault the official at the post. If he let the trucks in, he would be an easy scapegoat, should any problem arise later. After all, he is trying to cover his ass and that is quite natural. But what irks me is, why there isn't anyone approachable in the middle level, who is empowered to take such decisions? Should the orders come from Delhi for this? Even if the orders have to come from Delhi, why is there such an inordinate delay. Finally, when are we gonna learn the right lessons? Posted at 2/8/2005 11:36:19 AM Link Monday, February 07, 2005 Career choiceRead this article folks. This is how party politics & 'democracy' works at the ground level in India. For the record, I would like to say that in the eve of 1996 general elections, I was approached by two of the few 'kazhagams' in TN offering me the post of 'Maanavar Ani Seyalaalar' (Student Wing Secretary) & few other incentives (believe me, they were really good!) - all for a few dozen votes in the apartment we lived, they thought that I could swing them in their favour. For some reason I ignored them all, thus ending what would have been a rewarding career as a politician. I chose to be with campootars instead. Posted at 2/7/2005 01:05:42 PM Link Friday, February 04, 2005 50 pounds & a Telecom advertWhenever I happen to get any money that is not mine in the first place, not only would it go away immediately but would also charge a penalty on the way. Once I boarded a bus and found a 5 pence coin in the seat where I was about to sit. I picked it up with the thought that I should leave it as it was while leaving, but I eventually ended up pocketing the coin and promptly forgot about it. On the very day, a one-pound of mine got stuck in a vending machine and I couldn’t help thinking about the 5 pence I picked up earlier. This might have been a coincidence, but incidents like these has happened to me quite a few times that I never dare to pick up even a penny, if it doesn’t belong to me, risking the superstitious tag. Not that I am a super-honest person, I would rather prefer to collect that and get rid of it by donating it to charity, but most of the times I forget it and eventually end up losing the money. Today, as I was walking to the office in the cold weather, I found a crumpled but valuable 50 pounds lying near a bus stop. What do you think I did? Completely off the topic, watch this advert featuring our very own Mohandas for an Italian telecom company. Very strong & very nice, isn’t it? Posted at 2/4/2005 09:45:18 AM Link Thursday, February 03, 2005 Punch DialoguesRemember the following dialogue in Badsha? "Nallavangala aandavan sodhipaan, aana kai vittuda maataan. Kettavangalukku alli alli kudupaan, kadaseela kai vittuduvaan." I heard a similar one amongst the college crowd in Chennai. "Kettavangalukku aandavan beedi kudupaan, aana vathi petti kudukka maataan. Nallavangalukku aandavan Kings kudupaan, adhayum patha vechchu kudupaan." Needless to say, I am still nostalgic about the trip. :) post script: Apologies to those who can't understand Tamil. Hope Dr Ramadoss & Thirumavalavan wouldn't mind this apology. Posted at 2/3/2005 01:15:40 PM Link Wednesday, February 02, 2005 If you can't beat them, join themAs Kollywood continues to shower encomiums on Amma about the abolition of video piracy in TN, I found on first hand experience that the piracy industry still thrives there. The differences being that the video shops have either been shut down or are being run with few original VCDs/DVDs. But the key thing is that the neighbouring shops (esp. saloons, pharmacies) act as the storage warehouse of pirated CDs. Not that the police mamas do not know this. But then, you know how it works. As things don't work that way in UK, I was wondering what the modus operandi would be for the pirated video (Indian movies) guys here. Take for instance, Tamil movies. The only people who would be affected by/worried about the video piracy in UK would be those who have the distribution rights in this country. They seem to take it cool. Speaking to few of the video shop owners, they said that once they receive the pirated CD/DVD, they would record it in a cassette (in UK, as far as Tamil movies are concerned, more people tend to rent pirated video cassettes rather than CDs) and make as many copies as they can, depending on the demand for the movie. All of these guys are very ethical in that they wouldn't start renting out the cassettes before the movie gets screened in the local cinema, though not all the movies manage to hit the big screen here and even if they did, they don't last long. Well, What then is the catch? Wouldn’t the distributor complain to the authorities concerned? The answer is they wouldn’t. The backhand agreement that the distributor has with these people is that, these video shops would have to “buy” at least 5 (sometimes 10) “original” pieces of each cassette that gets released. Of all the things, I wondered what they would do with the cassettes. "Oh, we copy them over with the new movies and in some rare cases (comedy/song collections), people do buy original cassettes too", was the casual reply. This works out to be a win-win-win deal for all the parties as from the point of view of video shop owners, sometimes they make up to 300 copies of the video and they need trouble-free environment. From the point of view of distributors, they do stand to gain in this as they manage to sell as many cassettes as they can. How else, could they sell numerous copies of "xyz amman" movies? Needless to say, from the customer’s point of view, isn’t it cool to watch a movie for £1 on the day of its release or perhaps, the next day. Posted at 2/2/2005 02:37:33 PM Link | |||
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