They always find a way to make quick money!

I went to a petrol bunk to get emission certificate for my car. This guy took the reading, gave me the certificate and asked for 80 Rs. I promptly asked him for the bill. Initially he told that they don't give the bill for this. I insisted for it and asked him to call the owner. Then he showed me the price list and took only 75/- which was the actual listed price. Felt triumphant for a minute :) I dont know if I should have done anything more, like alerting the owner?! He would have lost the job unless the owner is also part of it.

 

Guess he usually charged 80 Rs and pocketed 5 Rs..

 

hmm.. poor people.. they find a way to make quick money.

Posted via email from Second Thoughts!

My HP camera works again after 3 years!

I had bought a 4.1 MP HP camera - R 607 when I was working in HP for around 12k. I am sure nobody have heard about it. HP later shut down that product line. It was a pretty good camera and it worked. 

When in SA, I had dropped the camera on a rock and somehow the lens had got struck and it would not move. Its like it died with its mouth open. The camera stopped working. I was pretty sad. But, later that year I bought a Nikon D80 and was soon in love with it. I put this HP camera somewhere on the shelf and soon forgot it. 

Yesterday, I suddenly remembered that there was a memory card inside this HP camera and thought it could be of some use. I took it out and tried the memory card. Don't know why, but the laptop did not detect it. Anyways, now that there was nothing to lose, I decided to give this camera a couple of whacks and see if it works. To my greatest surprise, the camera started to work again!! And there was some battery power left as well - after 3 years. Now thats what I call a solid battery. I took couple of photographs and saw the saved pics in the camera - all good. Happy Happy :) 

Moral of the story - if something does not work, give it a couple of whacks and then try again. Its of no use being nice all the time :)

Posted via email from Second Thoughts!

Hello Airtel, why are you stealing my money?

I had a Airtel internet connection (USB modem) which was so hopeless that I disconnected it. However there was a initial deposit amount of 1000 with them and also I did not receive the final bill. I was wondering as to what has happened and if I had missed any payments to be made. 

So I called up 121 - I thought that its a toll-free number. But now they are charging 50 paisa for 3 minutes. Anyways, the executive informed me that the final bill was 991 Rs and they have adjusted the security deposit towards this bill. So, I asked 'what about the balance 9 Rs, thats my money'. Then he says that if the balance amount is less than 25/- then they will not bother to return that. Very funny. 

Is this not stealing? I understand that the amount is small. But, its not their money!! I have asked for a full and final settlement which details all this. Lets see. 

Posted via email from Second Thoughts!

The world is a playground. Somehow we forget to play as we grow up

Its Diwali/Deepavali time. I want to share some sweet memories of these festivities in my childhood. 

Without fail, we used to celebrate all the festivals in our village with loads of our cousins. It used to be huge, for us. We used to bother our grand-pa/uncles/aunts for 1 or 2 rupees (yes, money was very valuable then) and run to the cracker shops to buy crackers. Absolute joy.

On the evening of the festival, the villagers used to make a huge fire on a ground and bring their decorated oxen (mostly with marigold flowers, balloons on horns, bells on foot and neck etc..) to cross the fire. There used to a hidden competition as to whose oxen looks the best. It was much fun. Sometimes we used to lit the crackers right below an ox and watch it jumping wild. Sadists we were :)

The best part used to be the day after the festival. All the crackers we had bought would have been over by that time and nobody would give any money again. We would walk into the streets early in the morning and see if we could find any unlit crackers on the ground - those crackers which just refused to go off. There were precious because they were free :) We used to have lot of fun again.

Suddenly, festivals have no meaning for me.

I was watching the movie 'Yes Man' yesterday and one line from Allison got me thinking for sometime:

'The world is a playground. Somehow we forget to play as we grow up'.

So true, so bad.

Posted via email from Second Thoughts!

So, what about other contracts (other than CWG)?

Poor CWG chaps! I think all govt contracts are full of bribery, favoritism and commissions. These guys just got caught because CWG was in the limelight. They were just doing their 'work' honestly. So, what about other contracts (other than CWG)? There are tons of other govt-funded projects!! Who should monitor them. The media is not interested in these because there is not much masala in them. 

Posted via email from Second Thoughts!

ICICI - Part 2

My blog actually helped me to get the mobile alerts on my account cancelled. They also reversed the charges for 2 months. Not bad. 

I also want to narrate how ICICI marketing people sell their products - In this case: current account. 

One fine day 2 ICICI people(from Vijayanagar branch) came to my place to get all the formalities done for the opening of the account. I told them of my concern that I have to come all the way to Vijayanagar to drop any cheque. There is an ATM near our place (near Ambedkar college) but there is no cheque-drop box. The guy confidently told that the drop-box has been installed recently and he actually uses this drop-box regularly as he lives nearby. As I had not been there recently, I thought that this was true. But later (after opening account), I saw that there is no drop-box in that ATM. It was just a plain marketing lie by the ICICI guy.

I don't know why they do that - lying to customers. I visited the Vijayanagar branch sometime after this and met the same guy ( supposedly the manager) and told him that there is no drop-box at that ATM. He smiled uncomfortably and told me that there will be a branch coming soon near my place and that should solve all these problems. Another lie. One on another. No signs of any branch here yet. (I think this guy should become a politician)

I think these people have sales targets and they just want to achieve that - by hook or crook.

I had also signed the application form without reading all the contents. Definitely these people must have ticked mobile alerts ON. 

Lesson learnt: Never sign any application form without reading it fully. 

 

 

Posted via email from Second Thoughts!

e-Stamp charges in India - ridiculous

I had to renew my rental agreement and so went in search of getting an e-stamp paper.  I had to fill in an application form and gave 50/- : the value of the e-stamp. The guy told that there is a service charge of 10/-. Now thats 20%. Isn't this too high? The e-stamp that they give is just 1 printout on an ordinary sheet of paper. No pre-printed stuff. Definitely the govt is making a lot of money here. Amazing.

Posted via email from Second Thoughts!