Yatra.com impresses

I recently attempted to purchase 4 tickets from Delhi to Srinagar, for a friend of mine . While scanning through the various travel portals out there yatra.com was offering a good deal. We immediately went on to purchase the tickets. However I had to fill out the lengthy personal details of all the 4 travellers. When I completed the form and hit the submit button the site claimed that the tickets I was trying to book were no longer available :(. Worse still it also mentioned that since the credit card was precharged for the tickets I would see a deduction on my card and it would be reverted at the earliest. This ofcourse got me all fumed up especially since I had a hefty bill from the previous month itself. I just thought I'd wait for a day or two and see what happenes and this is what happened.

The very evening this occured I get a call from their customer care rep. detailing and apologizing for what occured. He went on to ask me if I still needed to book the tickets so that he could check and let me know whats available. I said I didnt need them anymore. He then specifically told me that the amount debited from my card would be credited back within 3-5days.

Now thats customer service. Keep up the good work yatra.com. You have my vote for splendid customer care. Thanks

Update: Can you believe it. I actually got my refund back in 5 days, as promised.

Jay Walking Rudy Giuliani

I just read this article about the comedy show at the republican presidential debates starring New York's ex-mayor and now a Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani.

This is typical Jay Walking material. It always stuns me to find out the sheer lack of basic common knowledge in Americans. For nearly a decade now they have been facing the ire of extremists and fundamentalists from the middle east who have openly proclaimed war on their nation on the singular premise that the "infidels", aka the Americans, have infiltrated and occupied their holy land, ie the middle east beginning from the Kuwaiti occupation of American troops.

Now this has been shouted off the rooftops by these terrorists. A simple withdrawal of troops from the middle east would nip the menace right at the bud. If this is done these terrorist organizations will cease to have any reason for existence and if nothing else their sources of funding and ability to recruit new blood will definitely drop to minuscule levels.

The fact the Rudy Giuliani had no clue about this, even though he has been riding the high wave with the 9/11 attacks, and the fact that the crowd cheered at his dumb explanations is even more comical. How about some common sense courses for the American curriculum. Try being a good global citizen before attempting to be a global superpower.

Technorati Tags: Rudy Guiliani, Terrorism, America, Jay Walking

Freedom of Expression - Do we have it in India?

It has been a shameful spate of events occurring at Vadodara. The thugs of the VHP, lead by a particular Neeraj Jain, who claim to be representatives of the majority of the country have vandalized and illegally imprisoned a college student. All this hooliganism based on their restricted and uneducated point of view of the paintings of a few students.

It's sad to see that in a country like ours where our forefathers paid artists generously to adorn their palaces and temples with deities and beautiful women alike, today's artistes don't have the freedom that is symbolic of a diverse and educated society. They respected these artistes as they held the ability to put into form what all of us just could only dream of. The palaces of Rajasthan, the temples of Bellur and Halibed all show beauty in its true form. It's just sad to see that a handful minority is ruling the vast majority in our country. These hooligans are openly flaunting their control over the police and the nauseating elements of our society.

Paintings are a medium of self expression. The person who paints is free, free even by the Indian Constitution that we so proudly cite, to express himself or herself in any way that he or she wishes to. This is something that is very personal. If you dont like it you should move onto the next painting and if you are someone from the VHP, BJP or Sang Parivar just move along to the next garbage dump and park yourselves there.

Am Old Skool already

The recent ads on Star show that there will be some Old Skool programs on the telly starting the 14th. Some of which include Wonder Years and Dougie Houser MD. These were the days when cable telivision wasnt that widespread and the few english channels that we had were always the talk of the next days lunch breaks in school. I still remember all of us talking about Winnie Cooper and how Kevin tried to kiss her unsuccessfully and all that. It was totally awesome. Will be fun catchin up on these classics or as they are calling it ... the old school stuff :)

impeDiments

The untimely demise of my creativity and enthusiasm can be greatly attributed to the presence of the hierarchial egos.

Good 'ol 70s and 80s

Heard some of these beauties on Yahoo Radio

You've got a friend (album:mud slide slim and true horizon) - james taylor
I'll have to say i love ya in a song - jim croce (time in a bottle)
You are so beautiful - joe cocker(ultimate collection)
I cant make you love me - bonnie rait(luck of the draw)

Now I feel like diggin up my oldies collection... Oh the beauty of romancing it with the blues, some jazz, some slow music and just swaying... considering that I dont know how to dance :) haha

Consciously Numb!

Getting out of the city is always a dream during our hectic schedules. Managing a break from the rigour of our mundane routines is just something that most of don't manage to do as often as we'd like. But whenever I get such a chance I make sure I enjoy it. Other than the pleasure of it all there is so much that you learn about some different people, our own country and most importantly about oneself.

Where ever I have gone throughout India there is one thing that I have noticed. The poor or the underprivileged are actually always more honest than the urban junta that I encounter on a daily basis. For example take the cost of a cold drink out here in Gurgaon. It would be really rare to find someone selling it at MRP, cooling charge is what they term the additional charge. I have been lucky to see many smaller villages along the routes to different cities and never at such places have I been asked to pay a dime more than the MRP.

Also take the temples in these smaller villages. The villagers actually get together and put in their savings just to build a decent temple to come and worship their deity. And we've seen this in Kerala, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra.. and I am sure it is the case everywhere else. Now compare this to the tens of lacs spent by people like the Bachans to get a glimpse of the deity at Tirupati.

How is it that people tend to loose sight of the simpler things in life? How can we keep forgetting about basic decency, honesty, integrity and if possible a little bit of selflessness at times? Why is it so hard for many of us to reach into our pockets and put in a cheque to a cause that we care about? All of us with our big degrees and fancy gizmos just seem to have forgotten so much about our country even though we are reminded of it at every signal or crossing in all the cities. How do we manage to turn a blind eye towards so many ghastly things that happen around us? Are our consciences that numb of feeling?

Appy Fizz Jingle "Welcome Back" Rocks

After a fundu Nike "Just do it" commercial for the Indian cricket mayhem, that turned dry with an eary exit, for the world cup 2007 there is an even better Appy Fizz "Welcome Back" jingle doing the rounds on radio. Dunno if they have a telly ad for this as well.

(a lil that I could remember go along these lines)

well its not all that bad
atleast now you have time for one more ad
welcome back welcome back home boys in blue
you went as men
but came back with no clue

find another scapegoat who you can blame...
find a reason something to cheer... there's always next to next to next to next year
welcome back welcome back home boys in blue
you went as men
but came back with no clue

Absolutely fab. Am sure they mustve got this done cheap too since the ad companies are sitting empty handed too. Creativity at its best. Thanks Appy Fizz made my day.


The media company now has the ad on YouTube... Alti-Kool :)

Indian Cricket needs sportsmen

It may sound cliche coming from me but when India was thrashed out of the world cup 2007 the only thing I could say is "I told ya so". So now that the losers are back in the country there is a whole hue and cry as to what is to be made to get Indian cricket back on track. Here are my suggestions

Cricket, if it has to be called a sport, needs sportsmen and not cricketers who kinda grace the field with their presence and fat bellies (read Shewag and Tendulkar). People who can bend their backs and pick up a ball (read Kumble and all of the current team) and guys who can actually run 100m in less than 20 seconds. Ya i dont think anyone in the Indian team can run 100m even in a minute.

So all the crap being laid out by the crappy BCCI is good news for me. For sure other sports are bound to benefit. I hope they do and I can bet they will flourish even if they get 1% of what goes into cricket.

Democracy is overhyped

Living in India I've heard the "we are the largest democracy in the world" slogan over and over again. This line has been beaten to death by everyone. The fact that the statement hold mainly because we are the largest country in the world by population doesnt seem to bother anyone using it.

Anyways today I heard about Ian Murdoch joining Sun Microsystems. For those who dont know Ian is the founder of Debian and is a strong leader in the open source communicty. He leaves the FS to joing Sun as a person who would guide Sun in its open source manouvers. In his recent interview with a tech site he clearly states that the reason why Debian lost out was because of a democractic process. This process though theoretically ideal leads to a lot of dilly dallying and in most cases a lot of time is lost for useless purposes. I am totally in agreement with this fact.

Take for instance the case of Linux and Linus Trovalds. The main reason why there is a good and steady stream of work in the linux kernel is because come what may it is Linus who decides what is going to be put in or left out. Ofcourse the so called community exists but there is noone who would dare question Trovalds. When push comes to shove Linus Trovalds has always won.

Coming back to the topic of democracy. As in the above cases I think that democracy has its merits but like any other form of governance has its limitations as well. It can be used as a tool to further the cause of the people and many a times in India it is used as a tool by the rich and the corrupt to further their own agendas. Take the case of the problems faced by the Tatas in Orissa and West Bengal where unnecessary delays are being faced by a project that could very well change the entire social and economic map of those regions.

Or for that matter take the case of the past 60 years of Indian Independence. The theory that India should be ruled by a dictator for its inital few years of Independence has been debated bt many of us and usually shunned. Indulge me for a few minutes and consider if such a thing were to happen. Yes there are many pitfalls associated with it but just consider it for a moment. Using a strong leader we could have anhialated many of the evils that plague our society. Corruption for one could be rooted out with enforcement of extreme punishment. Civic sense and order could be bought about through the use of a stronger police force, giving them more powers. A strong sense of community and nationality could be inculcated into people all across India. This would lead to the weeding out of anit social, criminal and even terrorist elements otherwise hidden in our country. The possibilities are endless. Yeah democracy is great and all but some restraint needs to be imposed, afterall we are simply a higher breed of animals right.

Yeah yeah the caveats are huge as well. But well you need a high risk portfolio for maximum gains in a minimal duration right?

And the Mayhem Has Begun...

Everyone who knows me, knows that I don't count cricket as one of my favorite sports. To be a bit more abusive I would say that I wouldn't count it as a sport at all, I would list it as a game along with scrabble and karaoke or charades. Now this would be considered totally shrink-worthy behaviour for an Indian and it may be diagnosed as life threatening too.

It is hard to ignore the fact that this game is somewhat of a religion in this part of the world. The people out here are fanatics and will hold huge prayers for their team so that they will bring back the 2007 World Cup. There again since there are only 16 teams playing this World Cup I think the use of the term World Cup out here is bit aggressive.

But yeah one of the good things that comes out of this mayhem is the tides of contests, cool offers, and sometimes some great advertisements on the telly too. Take a look at this fantastic Nike ad that sweetly sums up what cricket is all about in India. The sweat, passion and the magical road-side camaraderie that the game brings. So from my side Good luck to the Indian team. Win the cup or give us all the ad money back.

There goes my chance to win the google blogger cricket contest.

Healthcare Crisis

Unfortunately for me I have had to visit quite a few hospitals and clinics in Mumbai over the past 8 months. But fortunately the good lord made sure he kept me company and all went well. Really appreciate it big guy.

This brief encounter with the health care industry has left me with a dry throat, after all the yelling and screaming, and made me a supporter of euthanasia as well, for god forbid I have to depend on these people to keep me alive. So let me get started

1) Cleanliness definitely is not paid as much attention as it deserves
2) Professionalism is absolutely absent
3) Doctors are still considered kings and well they act like emperors doing just about whatever they wish
4) Lack of transparency. The patients are not informed about why medications are being given and why treatments are continued for extended periods.
5) The nurses in most places are truly under trained and sometimes downright incompetent. And to have to trust your lives in these hands is a tall order to place on a patient.
6) Earlier the best thing about hospitals was the awesome food that they provided. I think that too doesn't exist anymore.
7) Total lack of coordination between the health services and the insurance companies.
8) No accountability at all for these so called doctors of life.

We hear a lot about the next wave of medical outsourcing that is hitting India. I wonder how come foreigners, especially these Americans, manage in these sordid conditions. I guess they sallow a bit of their pride and Americanisms considering the low costs. But well give me a bottle of sleeping pills any day instead of a room in any of these hospitals.

Oh there is a silver lining to this dark cloud to. Low costs, great doctors (if you are patient enough to find them). So I hope the dark cloud shrinks in size soon. I ain't getting younger anyways:)

Who is this "aam aadmi" ?

( aam aadmi is desi parlance for the common man)

Come elections or come budget time there is all this blabber by these politicians about how the "aam aadmi" is being given special focus and how all the policies and decisions being made are so good for him/her. My question to these nuts is who the fuck is this aam aadmi?

I am a middle class salaried citizen of this country. We as a class contribute the largest towards the GDP via direct and many a times indirect taxes being levied on us. We often face the brunt of reforms and market adjustments, of changing governments and re-elections, of bad policy decisions and illiterate ministers. If anything needs to be solved its the middle classes are made the scapegoat.

Now I am not questioning the contribution and the existence of the impoverished classes of Indian society. But how come I (read middle class salaried employee) am never considered for during the budgets or elections. Why am I not taken into account as as being a victim in certain cases.

Why aren't there any special sops for me once in a while. Is there no benefit of being a law-abiding tax-paying citizen here? I don't get the respect of the law-makers or the help of the law-enforcers. I need to be in long queues everywhere and travel by the overcrowded public transport. My cooking gas bills are consistently increasing and electricity bills cant even be questioned. I am enjoying low telephone and broadband bills but I cant seem to ever afford a good car and even if I can I am scared of the unstable fuel prices, paltry roads and the maniacs driving on them.

Nowadays even when I take a so called low-budget airline flight I pay a surcharge on the ticket that's even more costlier than the damn ticket itself, as a landing tax, fuck just keep me in the air and give me a parachute.

So even if I don't qualify as an "aam aadmi" please stop fucking my life up and give me some respect. I think I've paid my taxes towards earning some of that.

read I/we as middle class, law abiding, tax paying citizens
the colours are intentionally upside down... symbolic to the topsy-turvy state of affairs