rant

Gmail Vs Airtel. A Sorry Regret !

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I spotted this on the Gmail Blog.

And that set me to contrast with a letter that i received some days back & set me on this post. To me the Gmail blog’s post was example of building brand promise. Step by step. Even when the warts show up. The essence is to stand up and say ‘ we goofed up, we are sorry and it wont happen again ‘ ! Thats adds to the bottom line.

Big time Here is the post on the blog.

Title : We feel your pain and we are sorry.

Monday, August 11, 2008 6:05 PM
Posted by Todd Jackson, Gmail Product Manager

Many of you had trouble accessing Gmail for a couple of hours this afternoon, and we’re really sorry. The issue was caused by a temporary outage in our contacts system that was preventing Gmail from loading properly. Everything should be back to normal by the time you read this.

We heard loud and clear today how much people care about their Gmail accounts. We followed all the emails to our support team and user group, we fielded phone calls from Google Apps customers and friends, and we saw the many Twitter posts. (We also heard from plenty of Googlers, who use Gmail for company email.) We never take for granted the commitment we’ve made to running an email service that you can count on.

We’ve identified the source of this issue and fixed it. In addition, as with all issues that affect Gmail and our other services, we’re conducting a full review of what went wrong and moving quickly to update our internal systems and procedures accordingly. We don’t usually post about problems like this on our blog, but we wanted to make an exception in this case since so many people were impacted. In general, though, if you spot a problem with your Gmail account, please visit the Gmail Help Center and user group, where the Gmail Guides are your fastest source of updates.

Again, we’re sorry.

I felt an air of sincerity in this note. And he stands up and says : SORRY ! Explicitly.

Twice ! This endears customers to organisations. And all of this, when there has been a disruption for about 2-3 hours !

To stand up and say ‘sorry’ along with articulation of all whats being done to ensure non-recurrence ( including conducting a full review etc etc ) is reassuring. Thats building brand promise. OK they goofed up. But i know, the chances of a recurrence are far dimmer if not remote !

Contrast this with Airtel. I had written about Airtel & the atrocity they inflict in the name of service in Mumbai. There was a fire at the Airtel office and hence services were disrupted across Mumbai. You can read my views here. To rub salt into a wound, was a letter mass mailed to all subscribers signed by Manu Talwar, CEO of Airtel, Mumbai Circle.

Heres how it goes.

Dear Mr.___________ You being an integral part of the Bharti Airtel family, i would like to personally share with you the recent ‘fire incident’ at Penisula Chambers, Mumbai on Friday, 16th July.

As one of our offices is housed in the same complex, our servers were damaged which affected our network services in some parts of south & central Mumbai. The access to the building was blocked for a considerable http://healthsavy.com/product/doxycycline/ period of time because of the fire blah blah blah

100 % of the affected part of our network services are now up and running thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our engineers and technological partners – Nokia Siemens …….. However, some of you in the affected areas could still face congestion in he network. A few value added services may also be impacted during this period.

Let me assure you that we are doing whatever it takes for you to enjoy flawless services at the earliest. We regret every inconvenience caused. We understand how difficult it is to go through a day without being connected and not being able to stay in touch with family and friends. Meanwhile we request you to continue the support you have shown through these times.

Thank you for your understanding. Yours is a relationship we cherish. “

Sd/- Ok !

a. Sh.Manu wants to ‘share with you the recent fire incident’ at his office. To what end ? To explain ? And who cares ? The moment i pay for a service, it better be played with a full hand including disaster recovery plans et al.

b. You will notice a whole lot of ‘blah blah’ about whats happened. And nothing on whats being done about whats happened. ‘doing everything that it takes’ is as vague as a weatherman’s prediction.

c. A line of particular intrigue “100 % of the affected part of our network services are now up and running ……………….However, some of you in the affected areas could still face congestion in the network. A few value added services may also be impacted during this period”. If 100 % is up and running, then why would we have difficulty ? Dont customers of the modern day know these things ?

d. You will also notice that in the entire four – five paragraphs, there is an apology of a regret, given the gravity of the drop in service. (2-3 days of loss of connectivity can wreck havoc)! To me that appears insincere !! And contrast it with the post on Gmail’s blog !

A customary line about ‘yours is a relationship we cherish’ does not connect to a customer, especially after he is being put through trouble. I wonder why there is such a great hesitancy is standing up and saying ‘sorry’ !! I would imagine it stems from a disdain for customers ( and not laying the blame on competence or something of that ilk) !

Will Airtel not charge rental for those dates on which the service was down ? Will Airtel pay compensation for the trouble they inflicted ( and continue to do so with impunity in Mumbai ) ? Atleast a token compensation ?

Am not sure if they will do any of those.

One thing that they sure need to do is to learn to apologise & write a decent note to that effect ! I havent seen a single decent apology. An earlier press note quotes them as, “We would like thank our customers for their understanding and support” ! What understanding ? What support ? They sure do have hopes !!

And of course, if they want to see how to draft a letter that shows that they genuinely are sorry, they sure can learn from Gmail !

And by the way, they can continue working on their connectivity!

Equipment = Equipping ?

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An article in the Times of India caught my eye & kept me shaking my head for a good minute. A quarter in mild amusement, another quarter in concern and a good half in plain frustration !

Imagine a software on your system that has been installed, without you having any clue of whats it all about or how it has to be used. And without the ‘help’ menu ! And then being told that the operation of that software is critical to your organisation’s network safety !!

‘Houston, we have a problem’.

Except that this Houston is in Ghatkopar, Mumbai !

Read the full article here.

Turns out that the station master claims he that hasn’t been educated on how to use the CCTV that has been installed ! ( the news article goes on to state : ‘the purpose of a CCTV is to prevent crime and aid investigations as the data can be collected….). I hope they know !

It turns out, that the station master has FBF ( found by fiddling ) that only three cameras work and one of them is pointed towards the ceiling. Someone or something had to throw up his hands look in the direction of the Gods ! I guess it was this camera’s turn !

I slap an imaginary image, as i type this. This is but an example. And a prevalent way of life in both the government and many corporates too !

‘Equipment’ does not always lead to ‘auto equipping’. It requires effort. In Training & learning!

Child Sexual Abuse & You !

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Picture Courtesy : Out of harms way

Sitting in a workshop on child sexual abuse, as much as there was intake of knowledge about this sensitive subject, there was also exhaling of anger. On where mankind has got to. Abusing children, sex with dolls, murder for money, bombs in the name of God, parochialism in the name of native pride..etc etc. The list is endless.

I cant fathom who in hells name would abuse a child. It transpires that 55 % of children are abused in India. This is the story in South Africa. I can almost hear you say, ‘what crap’. Well, that was my first reaction as well. But go ahead, go do the research. But be sure to come back and read the rest of this post.

CSA is defined thus. The stories that got discussed were gripping. And, by the way, we were told that graphic portions were censored !! I squirmed. Wringed my hands. Ran my hand through my hair in despair. Is this what civilisation has come to? Apparently it has.

It turns out that i had been looking in the other direction, like most of you. Perhaps aware that such a situation existed, but not perhaps comprehending the gravity of it all. Some facets stand steady in my mind, long after the workshop was done.

When you hear that disabled children are prone to more sexual abuse ( approx four times more) or that an abuser offender is an uncle or a father or a grandfather, these thoughts are not leaving your mind in a hurry !

The ways of combating CSA were discussed & therein lay answers. One of them was to be emotionally connected to your child. To talk to him or her ( yes, boys get abused as much as girls do). It was indeed a revelation to note that bathtimes and bed times are the best times to have conversations with children. ‘Bed time’, i knew. ‘Bath times’ was new.

Picture Courtesy : Mediline Plus

The other more important element was to create language for communication with the child. For instance, it is indeed a common practice that children dont know the exact names of their private body parts. If we teach children ‘hand’, ‘legs’, ‘nose’ etc, why not ‘penis’ or ‘vagina’ ! When children look at parts of their own body with mystery, abuse is an easy fall out.

Why dont we do that ? That was a question that i still am searching for answers. Perhaps the answer is closeted in the culture cupboard. All the same, it is going to make it difficult for the child, to describe / report abuse ! That definitely was a learning !

The exercise left me with a lump in my throat. These things, like a bomb blast, seem to occur only on the TV screen. If we indeed are not careful, we are sure to see, our own back yard on the TV screens! Crying the hoarse cry of the unfortunate, innocent victims that we see on our screens today.

To parents: The writing is on the wall. Please do not CSA lightly. Abuse has known to have begun as early as week after birth & extend through all of childhood. Girls & boys. So.
Thats a heavy message. But thats as light as it can get!

And by the way, did you know that there arent any special laws against Child Sexual Abuse currently in India ?!?! Huh !!!! None at all.

There is Sec 375, that deals with Peno Vaginal Sex ( which deals with rape & such other )
And there is Sec 377, that deals with unnatural sexual offences ( including homosexuality )

Between these two, Child Sexual Abuse will survive to fell another child. So, as parents, it is a solemn duty to ensure safety of children. And if you arent one yet, please dont be an innocent bystander who turns his head in another direction.

For more details & help understand this better / conduct a similar workshop at your school, housing society, organisation, do write to Shobha at shobha.sreekumaran@gmail.com.

The least that you could do, is stay on gaurd !

Poles Apart.

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The last few weeks in the gym have been trying. Trying on the limbs. Trying on the mind. All that trying harder has simply meant harder effort & a focused mind. And no visible result.

Strategically placed on the walls, are photographs of some six pack or eight packs or their incremental variants. The enlarged images are supposed to give you inspiration. They, on the contrary, end up giving a huge complex !

The one huge pack that stares back at me from the mirror is firmly placed and has been built over the years. And that geography is not changing in a hurry ! Tectonic shits can happen with continents. But, i guess, this is one body mass that has far deeper roots.

Fleeting glances have rested on well toned abs and muscles of appropriately clad men and women. As their muscles get flexed and the machines get worked on, the complex grows. The rate of growth of this complex is in no way connected to inflation or such other ‘growth’ trajectories. It outbeats all of them !

When the six packs on the wall descend to come alive in people next you, there almost a prayer that escapes the lips for the earth to open up !

Eating ‘naachini’ roti and drinking strange ( read karela and amla ) juices and sweating it out, is perhaps having a deeper impact on global http://healthsavy.com/product/lexapro/ warming and the macro economic picture, than on my body.

The trainer says the result will come. Focused questions on ‘when’ ( subtle indications that the ‘results’ better happen, in the ‘here and now’ ) have had the trainer suggest liposuction and such other subterraneous methods in the past to fellow ‘one-large-packer’s! That hint registered. Long back.

Many crunches, presses, lifts, bends & stretches later, the formidable single pack remains as formidable as ever. But the efforts continue in right earnest. Hope, they say, springs eternal. Some day, the concentrated capitalistic, single pack, acquired & amalgamated over years, will slowly dissipate. The mountains are broken stone by stone. No. Thats not a metaphor !

And then, comes this news. That the Chinese are taking to pole dancing. What was once done in dimly lit back strip joints is now seen as a ‘social’ activity.

If all of the current regime doesn’t work, pole dancing. Yes. That will do the trick for me. Thats the assurance i have given myself. And the prospect of heaving my lopsided body around a pole inst a sight to relish for my own eye.

But that is the whole idea. My grand plan. That is the thickly veiled threat ! That is the threat that looms large at me.

I haven’t abstained from sweets or sweated out better, ever since this emerged as an ‘alternative’ !

Kismet Konnection. Movie Review

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Perhaps writing this about the movie experience in Adlabs would help. About the Rs.55 a packet popcorn would interest many readers. A little bit of whining about the absence of parking space. Some sarcasm about the ‘natural’ folding of hands and saying ‘namaskar’ by multiplex staff would, am sure call for some interesting comments.

Perhaps some quips about how movie going has changed over the years and tracing the evolution of the Indian movie goer’s experience would bring some contrasts to the fore. The role of multiplexes. Big budget advertising & marketing etc would all warrant a post. And how about this movie…kismet Konnection. Well, the less said the better.

The essense of the movie is to find people who are ‘lucky charms’ for others. In this movie, Vidya Balan happens to be the lucky charm for our hero Shahid Kapoor. The moment she steps into any facet of his life : be it playing an ‘unplayable’ stroke at the snooker table, or winning the contract to redesign club house etc etc all happen ‘matter-of-fact’ for him, when she is around. But she is engaged to someone else & some other cause.

How our heros life meanders through the cause thats so dear to his lady love essence of the movie. And ultimately, alls well that ends well. For our hero and heroine, that is. The movie goer walks out with a stupefied look !

Romance requires chemistry. Onscreen romance requires higher order chemistry ! And that chemistry cannot be overridden with commerce & marketing. Don’t ask Me why, but the film is set in Canada. Of this fact you will get reminded of every 3 rd ( or 5th or 2nd or 7th etc) minute, by a shot of the CN Tower in Toronto in multiple moods. Lit, unlit. 45 degree angle. 75 degree angle. Landscape. Portrait etc. (And thats good relief)!

The movie did open at a brisk pace. Somewhere it faltered early on. And never recovered after that! Shahid Kappoor tries hard to act and emote. And to be true to truth, he indeed has made a good effort. And it shows. Therein lies the problem ! Class acts make you think you are watching real people. Not ‘actors’ & their effort ! Juhi Chawla as a crystal ball gazer shows up, now & then. A role, i would imagine, she would like to forget in a hurry !

That apart, the movie has some pluses. There are no ‘stunt’ sequences. Some comedy. In patches that are quite apart from each other. But those scenes poke the funny bone and evoke laughter. Well, atleast a giggle. And then, there is Canada!

If you are the kind that is concerned about Global Warming etc, well, there is one speech, especially thrown in for you as well. Aziz Mirza’s reputation suffers a dent with this movie. So does every body elses. so does my wallet & time !

Sometimes, the battle with fate is lost even before it begins. Like when we chose to watch this movie.

I would like it to blame it all on Kismet. On fate ! Somehow, that seems a better option than leaving you infer about other faculties of the brain. Like Decision making, intelligence etc. We did chose to watch the movie, didn’t we ?!!

So there. Watch it or dont watch it, one thing that you can do is to, Blame it on fate !

Phew !

Passive is Active !!

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Sweating out in the gym, and trying to lift that extra pound, i wondered what would make it all the more worthwhile. My mind raced back to the ad for the Passive excerise device.

It was sometime back when i saw this ad. It reappearance ensured that it caught my attengtion between channel surfing. Its recurreance ensured i got to see the whole ad in bits and pieces !

Yes. It was for some belt. I think so. Or some beads or oil or t-shirt or whatever. The instrument doesnt matter. The concept does.

I wonder, how in hell is it possible that you wear that belt and it jigs up your belly fat & that would put Mallika Sherawat to shame. You are exhorted to wear this belt and keeps jigging all fat ( you decide the place of the fat please ) while you read the newspaper or sleep and Lo & behold you have a frame like John Abraham.

Atleast its that kind of dude who exhorts you to buy the product on TV. With a wierd accent and a hindi translation !

The very idea that people fall for such stuff could indicate many things.

a. How incredibly ‘hopeful’ & ‘optimistic’ people are. Imagine, that you an chomp away at butter chicken, Aloo Paratha and Butter roti only to wear a belt and have it all worked away !?!

b. It could also indicate how lousy Television programming is, for somebody to watch some incredible evangelism like this.

(But consider this : The news channel are focussed on the imminent solving of some murder case or the Manmohan Singh government’s imminent fall. And then there is Sauna belt. And the imminent loss of weight. The sauna’ belts’ imminence seems far more alluring )!

Hmm..what else.

c. Perhaps its an indicator…that the future is here !

The passive future, is here. Active !

My mole appears !

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If the title of this post leads your mind to race towards James Bond, his boss – M and of course, cavorting beautiful women, well, er…have patience.

Read on.

When you are face to face with your mole, life is so different.

This mole arrived unannounced at home. And appeared right in front of me. Just as I was combing my hair. There was a brief stare in disbelief from my side. And a peering close. Real close to check, if indeed this was my mole !

The understated yet powerful arrival, in true Warren Buffet style, took me by surprise. Quite a surprise. I looked all around. Part in disbelief. Part in surprise. Part in…I don’t know what.

The knowledge that I was presented to my mole http://www.buyambienmed.com/ambien-comparison/ without fanfare & the permanence of the presentation still unnerves me.

Only my maker, and he alone, knows how many more such moles I am yet to get acquainted with. For he made them all. And as I stare into the mirror every time that I comb my hair or wash my face, my mole stares at me.

That which was kept well within the ‘border’, for all these years, has come out in the open . As the hair line goes on recession mode! Its on a perpetual recession mode for some years now.

For me, there is obviously more face to clean and less hair to comb ! For now, the mole has arrived. And continues to stare. Oblivious to face wash and moisturisers !

Dasavatharam. The 10 Avataars of…

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When Kamal Haasan says he has made a movie with 10 characters, the world sits upto take note. When he has Jackie Chan saying something to the same effect, it indeed catches attention.

So, we did land up at the theatre on the first day. In the so many months in Mumbai, this was the first time that no empty seat stared at me. House Full !!

I try and listen to what audiences say, post the movie, for it gives me an indication. So there was an young man who said, “it’s a technically well made movie”. There was another with a ‘try me’ T-Shirt who quipped to another: “This was Hollywood style”.

I was lost. When comments are this incongruous to my opinions, well, it provokes thought. Did I miss something? Was there more? Am I getting too old?!? Am in uncool?!?

Kamal Haasan stars in 10 different roles. (And one of them as George Bush. Goodness gracious me!) The fact that tremendous amount of physical work must have gone into plastering the different masks on the face is well acknowledged. Digital rework & multi-media magic is doubly acknowledged. Some ‘daredevil’ stunts… hmmm perhaps noticed. Every rookie filmstar claims a trapezoid linkage to Tarzan these days.

Imagine. You are loaded with cash, and you want to buy a car.

Imagine a crystal adorned dashboard. Throw in the best of designer leather trim and fabulous bucket seats. The best of 18 inch radials and alloys. The slickest of gear shifts. Get the best possible German powertrains and shock absorbers. The best of gadgets. Including an ashtray with remote control ! ( God help you to understand how you would use it from the rear seat. ).

And then in a ‘masterful’ stroke, put in a 600 CC engine inside the boot. What are you likely to see? A wonderful concept that offers all possibilities to your imagination. Until the time you crank the engine put the car in move.

I have long held the belief that a movie’s heart lies in its story. In the plot. If that is weak, everything else becomes irrelevant!

Dasavatharam is something similar. A very weak story line and 10 different Kamals. If there was any role which still holds my attention, it is the characters of Balram Naidu, the RAW officer & Vincent, the activist. Every other character is forgettable.

Some make ups are tacky and seemed to suggest a disfigurement perhaps due to steroid overuse rather than a make up !

Stunt sequences show up in predictable intervals. BMW. Helicopter. Motorbike. Local train. Lorry. Tempo Traveller. Jeep. Cargo plane. US roads. Agraharams. Sky rises. All provide backdrops to some loud noised bashing up of somebody on screen.

The intensity of my own dislike for the movie is clear. It was a shoddy piece of work in weaving it all together!

Amongst the many other scenes, which I stared in disbelief, was the ‘love’ conversation happening with the Tsunami suffering in the backdrop. To me that was insensitive and appalling. And by the way, if you have throat cancer & you get shot, the bullet can dislodge the cancer and you can be fit as a fiddle !

That was Dasavatharam for you. Despite all the technical wizardy ( of having scenes with four Kamals in the same car etc), carrying a plot without substance. Faces without meaning. And meaning far suspended from reason!

And this billed as the most expensive film ever made in India, I was already yawning when KS Ravi Kumar dances to ‘ulllaaaga – naaayaganea’ in the end.

A cryptic comment from somewhere floated in the air. “Dasavatharam: The ten avatars of pain !!” That summed it up well.

Draft To Display

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I wrote this sometime back. But this stayed on draft mode for some reason. I was reading to delete posts on draft. This post seemed to hold intense emotions and captured a very important time in life. It warranted a move from draft to display. Unedited. So here it is.
Its been a while ! Notwithstanding the quick Diwali post! The reasons are aplenty. But, they are at best that : reasons !

We have had support and kindness from innumerable sources as we progressed through a tough & chaotic time. As we traversed through different contours. But we are here. And that’s what counts !

Colleagues. Friends. Mumbai. Bangalore. Family. Old neighbours. New neighbours. Tenants. Landlords. Classmates. Everybody! Stood firm and stood by. And we are greatfull.

So now…we have new house to live in. A new city to call home. A new set of smells, sights and sounds. A new set of colleagues & of course a brand new job! The list of ‘new’ keeps increasing. But certain things endure!

Like the old values! The approach to life and living. And of course, this blog ! Which lived to fight another day. This day ! The last couple of months I have had occasion to review a few priorities of my erstwhile life in Bangalore. Blogging and this space didn’t come in for review. This was always on!

In the space between then and now many events / activities that could be posted here came and went. I have mental notes of them all. Will write about it someday. Some theme(s) / topic(s) include

Finding a house in Mumbai
Dealing with prospective landlords & real estate agents
Dealing with packers & movers. Why not to choose Agarwals.
Finding a tenant.
Of friends: Trust & mistrust
Driving in Mumbai
The Mumbai monsoon
A South Indian wedding
Devotion & God.
The Ganpati Puja of Mumbai
The Durga Puja of Kolkatta
Post Monsoon blues
Rain Water Harvesting
People! People? People.
Of passion & Reason
Catching & living with Mumbai’s common cold
My new phone
The comeback post
The power of friendships
Missing Mountains. An inconvenient truth
Chuck they !
Full & Half Full. Perhaps Empty. MINDs
Children & education in India
Sitaphal & vada paav !
Of physical stuff. Fit to be unfit.
The airport view

Do let me know if there are preferences ! (In the era of Musharaff’s emergency, democracy still rules)! And the topic and themes would also give you an idea of all what I have been seeing / hearing / doing !

I may be irregular to your pages for sometime, but I will make up for it ! And more!

A ‘Thank You’ rant.

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Been busy. Extremely busy. Mentally occupied. Physically tired. Every second has made its presence by its sheer fleeting nature ! Time for ‘Kavis Musings’ is becoming a luxury. But then, thats always been the case. And then there are some serious technology constraints that have shown up…!
As i dodge negative thoughts, fight apprehensions, climb imaginary walls ( & real ones too), i sometimes wonder what life is all about. But then, thats what life is all about. Isnt it ? Fighting your own self in the mind. Climbing imaginary walls. And scratching your hair as to what all this is about..?
And oh, by the way, smiling, picking up the pieces, staring into the future with hope while trying the best to live the present moment to the fullest.
And so, this blog lives. To fight another day !
I have been tardy in visiting your spaces and connecting up. Your coming here is valued and encouragement treasured. I will read too.
Soon. Very soon ! Promise.
And thank you.