Gorkhaland Awareness Campaign- One man’s selfless endeavor to realize a million’s dream.

 

I promised to put this up on my blog a week back but he knows how “entangled” I am. I know him for about 2 years now and I know he “breathes”, “talks” and has only one deepest belief and “unfulfilled” dream- the creation of Gorkhaland. We argue on how unfeasible the creation of this state may seem. But, I still believe we need aspirants like him- selfless and innocent. This has been put up for you Bhai- can’t express how much we love you !!

 

Hello….hi
Again I’m here to bore you…..but this time it would be a short write up regarding the prevailing situation of our future Gorkhaland !!.. ….I know you all are great readers and reading a few extra characters wont tax you..hola….smiles again!!
….Last letter of 10th March was overwhelmingly welcomed by our readers..Our constructive criticism worked to some extent. While we also had few complaining our writings .Anyway we too accept all kind of feedbacks from you all. What matters is that end justifies the means…Our end should be Gorkhaland after all and thenceforth new dawn of overall and collective progressiveness.
Back some days we have witnessed a lot of happenings …Veteran leader kanu Sanyal , once the flag bearer and initiator of Naxalite Movement epicentring in Naksalbari (once partner of Charu Majumdar ) died ..He used to support Gorkhaland Cause and right to self determination of oppressed people. May his soul rest in peace.
We sometime tease BG’s commanders being fatter with ongoing movement …but perhaps pressure for them is also huge…Inward and outward pressure..lol . Mr. Bimal Gurung though did not end his life on march 10 but did surprise people of Kurseong’s Naya Busty on April 1st 2010 by surprise visit…Interestingly leaders are connecting to people somehow…..Good thing is that BG is people friendly… having uncanny knack for getting people’s support..(hmm ..doesn’t need MBA in HR/PR)
Yesterday Lepcha youth Association has come with violent protest against the newspater , The Statement’s false reporting..The Stateman reported that Lepchas were happy to be under the rule of WB Govt and they don’t want Separate state…and so sparking huge n somehow violent protest in kalimpong bazaar…!! Important lesson to be learnt is Unity…If different communities can unite why not different Hill Leaders from different political background…GJM, AIGL, CPRM,GNLF,CONG, etc all should unite and work single handedly.. “Mr Giri, Mr Rajen Mukhia , Mr Madan tamang, ..are u listening??...people want that…and so on please do that..!!”… We should have kind of Joint Action Committee by now…We should have JAC comprising of all parties..
Recently::Last Official Tripartie meeting in Delhi saw the talks on demarcation of territory for autonomous region…negotiations still going on….More autonomy?? But Getting Home Deppt wud be just fine but tis difficult to get …
State is always best solution…Union territory also is win win solution for all…Interestingly we have come to know that there is a possibility of state within a state like Meghalaya was in Assam for some time….
"The solution, perhaps, lies in adopting a model similar to the one tried through the Assam Reorganisation (Meghalaya) Act 1969 [ARMA, 69]. This legislation was made possible by the Constitution (Twentysecond Amendment) Act, 1969, which, by inserting Article 244A, intro-duced a rather original idea into the Constitution in relation to the State of Assam. This Article made it possible to establish an “Autonomous State” within the State of Assam. Not many may remember that before Meghalaya became a full-fledged State, it was constituted as an “Autonomous State” within Assam with its own Chief Minister, Cabinet and Legislative Assembly. Under ARMA 69, Meghalaya was constituted 40 years ago, in January 1970, as an “autonomous state” within the State of Assam. Full-fledged Statehood for Meghalaya, came somewhat later under the North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act 1971, when the States of Manipur and Tripura were also established. As the 1969 law, which established Meghalaya as an “autonomous state” within Assam, was not worked for long, being overtaken by the 1971 legislation, the ARMA 69 approach in resolving some festering disputes has not received a full trial and has not been adequately explored.
…Go tell ur dad, uncles and perhaps to GJM members that Gorkhaland Awareness Campaign
Had some valid ideas…Ideas are free here..hahas..!!
Another Good news is that a large no. of contract teachers might just be put in regular pay roll..After all they deserve that for working for so long with peanuts-salary! ..Thanks to JSTO..!!
Lastly we wish you great Easter weekend and thank you for your precious time reading with us!!
Regards
GAC

BSNL 3g in Bangalore and configuration on HTC Touch

 

If you have a 3g compatible phone, why not go for 3g service? That was the thought which suddenly crossed my mind when I saw the offer pamphlet at BSNL office, Banaswadi.

The process to get one(especially postpaid) is like not too simple and I had to wait for 3 hours before I got the card. And since I had forgotten to carry my 3g phone, I could not test the connectivity there itself.

Back home and it was a “deja-vu”. The customer care folks aren’t aware of what needs to be done for 3g to work and I had to research enough before getting the actual settings from a blog.

Further, like the customer care, I did not know what the symbols “G”, “E” and “H”(coming at the top of the mobile display) stood for. For the unaware, G stands for GPRS, E for EDGE and H stands for 3.5 G.

And guess what? I am getting 3.5g signal at my apartment. I tried the internet yesterday using the SIM and it comes at a whooping .97 Mb/second download speed. After using it for a few minutes, I switched off the data connection as 3g connection comes with a price: 250 Mb free and thereafter per 10Kb, 1 paise is charged.

The two drawback is that the 3g signal is not caught everywhere. For e.g) While at work in Whitefield, the signal changes to EDGE. The second drawback is that there is an amazing number of call drops. 

But it does feel good to have a state of the art technology at your hands.

MobileStore India cash-back offer: A story of how internet helped me get my money back!

 

Read comments in the end to find out how I got my cash-back…

 

Mindless blogging….

 

It is 8:05 pm IST and I am waiting to go out. It has been a “normal” weekend.. and suddenly Kalpana interrupts. It is escalation time again and I quickly attend to Sanishcha’s needs. BURP she goes and it is mission accomplished. That took about five minutes and am back to blogging again.

I am still seeking for excitement. I don’t know why there is a sudden rush of energy in me and I would want to spend my weekend doing something worthwhile. Tomorrow starts a hectic on call week till Tuesday next week and though I am excited to get behind the steering of my new i10 on 25th of March, yet I don’t still have the same feeling of fresh happiness.

Why is there a feeling of incompleteness? I don’t know why am blogging about this state of mind. I would call it Mindless. Perhaps I need a break from the never ending wants… Perhaps  I need to read a book.

The other thing that crosses my mind now is to setup BSNL broadband in the new house. I have been twice to the office and now they have been telling me that there is no DP box for the building and it would take a week to come. And as I am on-call, I need to get some arrangement done.

Okay…now I need to go out and will write this post once I am back (8:19 pm)

Back at 9:02 pm

I wanted to have an evening ride on my old Activa Honda. She has grown old.. 3+ years and 33k kms done, she is still the champ though not with the same power and pull. Still reminds me of the picture I took on her after the buy at 256/15- proud owner and with a distinct L on the front and the rear. She reminds me that priorities keep changing in one’s life. She was ever there and though it was scary to ride a two-wheeler in Bangalore, she was irreplaceable. And now with Sanischa coming to our lives, she has to be play a second fiddle to the car.

Anyways…So what is next for the week? Hmmm… Get a wireless internet connection or wait for BSNL. If I wait for BSNL, then I have to be at office from 6:30 in the morning to 6:30 in the evening. It is difficult but manageable. Set up the “final”(?) bit of wood-work for the new house(the Puja altar and the bookshelf).

Here are some exclusive pictures for my audiences:

 

Call the cable guy again and get the cable connection done(I thought the deal from Hathway at 220 channels, 1 free set-top box, 2 connections at Rs. 200 was damn good).

What else?

Start hitting the gym… Will I …Won’t I .. . ahm…..

Eureka Forbes customer feedback.

 

Here’s another one and the only one where I possibly went wrong in the end and tendered an apology.

I purchased a water purifier system(WPS) sometime in January directly from the Eureka Forbes(EF) office in KR Puram. Though there are lot of  WPS companies available, yet, I chose EF simply because of the number of its service centers in India and the brand name. The team lead Satheesh PM(name unchanged) promised me a free re-installation anywhere in Bangalore within a period of 3 months. This was my pre-requisite for buying the WPS. My experience with customer service from people over the past few months has/had been dismal so I thought of getting it hand-written on the purchase invoice.

So, when my new apartment was almost ready, I called up Satheesh and politely asked him for a free re-installation. He informed me that I should be calling him a day before I shifted. So when the day arrived, I called him up. However, even after twenty odd tries wherein the phone rang, I received no response. The next day, I received a message saying he was out of station. I was fine with it and since it was already weekend, I thought it would be best to call him on Monday. On Monday, I called him again and this time he picked up the phone and noted the new and old address. Also, he seemed to remember his promise of a free reinstallation and informed me that the technician would be notified and gave me the number of Narayanamoorthy(NM) who could be contacted to get the details of the technician. I called up NM the following morning and enquired about when the technician would be arriving. He gave me the date and time and then informed me that it would NOT be a free service that Satheesh promised but a paid one. I argued that Satheesh had promised me a free-reinstallation and that I had the written proof for the same.

Now Mr NM informed me that he had spoken with Satheesh who said that he had never promised any customer and possibly the technician(guy who installs) might have written that on the invoice. So, I called up Satheesh again but could not reach him(Phone rang but he doesn’t pick up). By this time, I was already pissed off and so called up Mr NM and asked him on who should be contacted for escalation. Mr NM directed me to Mr. Ali who also had a similar line of NO-FREE reinstallation. I blasted him about Satheesh’s broken promise, EF’s service and threatened to create a ruckus and report in the internet if they made me come to their office. I believed this had no impact on them.

So, I sent an SMS to Satheesh informing him that I would escalate the issue to his higher superiors and that I had a written proof and would report in the internet about EF’s failed promise. Thereafter, Satheesh replied stating he was in a conference somewhere out of station and that he would look to ensure that a free reinstallation is done.

The SMS had worked and the next day, the technician was there at my old residence to shift the WPS. I had also asked for a clamp stand for the purifier’s wall mounting and of course, I was ready to pay the price. Since I was caught up with some other work, I directed the technician to my residence and became busy. After about an hour, when I returned home, I was informed that the base of the WPS had a crack and that the technician had left in a hurry after installing the wall mount without testing if it was working fine. By this time, I was furious and sent an SMS to Satheesh who replied stating that Mr. Raju, the service manager should be contacted.

Raju was quick to act on the request and I could hear him shout at his technician over the phone on the second line. After several calls and in about 2 hours, the technician was back and he cooled me off with a single line. “The WPS was full when I emptied the contents at your old address. If there is leakage now, then its my problem and if there is no leakage, then it was already in that condition”. That made sense and I waited for him to pour water on the empty WPS. And as he said, there was no leakage. It appears that Protec+(the WPS) has a hollow space between the actual system and the base. So, even though the base had cracked(God knows when?), it hadn’t leaked.

Immediately, on realizing my fault, I apologized to the technician who bore the brunt of his manager’s wrath and to his manager Mr. Raju himself who had done the work with great sense of customer support.

The entire episode ended with mixed feelings for me.

Raju did a great job but Satheesh-the architect of the chaos failed me repeatedly. The technician was just and deserved a pat for his thought.

Cane furniture(including cushions) for SALE, Banaswadi, Bangalore- 2+2+1

 

For immediate sale. Price: Rs. 8000/-. Contact mailforsachin[AT]gmail.com.

The faulty booking system of Makemytrip.com and lessons learnt

Situation: You are in urgent need of an airline ticket and you think of using one of the supposedly famous ticketing service to get your bookings done. The journey  between x and y is long and since your kid and wife is travelling, you are looking forward for a) a direct flight b) a direct flight with one stop or c)a break journey(in that preferred order). Login to the booking portal and select the flight. Proceed to the payment gateway and do the booking. Then, comes the message- the transaction FAILED. Now you need to wait for 7 days to get the refund back and what’s more worse, you don’t get back the money you paid for the insurance.

What actually happened:

The search was for a flight from Bangalore to Bagdogra. Though there were other options available, the fact that the flight was a “one stop direct flight” attracted me to do the booking. Note the lure in circle.

 

Then, I proceed to the gateway and for the second time in six bookings, the transaction failed with a generic message.

Customers can never understand why transaction fails because the company never tells you why it failed. All that I know is that my money is gone for a week. The last time I had a failed transaction, I had to make a last moment effort  and was forced to get my dad a train ticket instead from CCU to IXB.(See snapshot above). To my ill fate, one out of the two flights for the destination failed in the payment gateway.

I could neither cancel the successful one because the cancellation fees is quite a sum nor did I have the courage to do a direct booking because the price was exorbitant. Was the system faulty right from the onset? I would never know! A jet flight from CCU to IXB at Rs. 1800 during festive season- AMAZING. Reminded me of the Air Deccan days!!

Now, let me come back to the investigation of my most recent failed transaction. Bewildered after being a victim of the faulty system for a second time, I checked Yatra.com if the flight existed. Yatra didn’t list the flight at all. I grew suspicious and then went and checked the airline website.

And if I am to believe it, there is no direct one stop Spicejet flight from BLR to IXB. (Snapshot below)

Imagine if my family was travelling for the first time with an infant and I put them in the flight because it was one stop same flight.

The story doesn’t end here”-

I receive a message that the refund will be done in a week’s time but the money that I “purchased” insurance with will not be refunded. I would have understood if  I had cancelled the flight but how can the stupid company with a faulty payment gateway and its third party CANNOT have a SIMPLE mutual understanding? Common folks, a FAILED transaction is not the same as a CANCELLED transaction. Leave aside the TOC’s if the clause is specified there but for heaven’s sake, you cannot charge insurance money to a customer for a failed transaction.

I wrote to the customer support and through my interaction, I have come to realize that the insurance money will not be refunded.

Valuable lessons learnt:

a) Use services such as makemytrip.com ONLY to find out which is the cheapest airline and why not?

b) Never book tickets from online booking portal such as makemytrip for flights from A to B where C is the stop-over and journey from A to B involves changing the plane at C.

c) Booking directly through the airline website seems to be the wisest choice.

How soft can we get? What India should learn from China?

Whereas the Indian Government is spending crores to keep Kasab alive, I was amazed to see the treatment meted to criminals by our neighbours at the other side of the Himalayas. China undoubtedly has the most feared judicial system in the world with the convicted getting a death sentence even for cases like tax fraud, corruption, theft and small-scale drug offenses. And ours continues to be a case of appeasing diplomacy and freewheeling for the guilty. Take Kasab's case for example, I don't understand what other vital information our government needs to extract from him. And per the last report, the bodies of the rest of the 26/11 terrorists have been lying in a morgue with the government again shelling out a couple of crores for preservation, leave aside the stench the hospital folks have to bear.

We need to learn from our immediate neighbours. China is ruled by a patriotic government. A government that is respected and feared in equal measures. Time and again, we have been proven to be a soft state. Now, let me not raise a debate here but isn't this statement a known fact:-

We DONT claim what is rightfully ours but our strong neighbours have time and again claimed what they believe is rightfully theirs.

Yes, people have exploited India's goodness and warmth to the fullest and they still get away with it whereas our neighbours know how to punish the offenders. From their own Drug and Food director to a British national arrested on charges of drug smuggling, they haven't spared anyone convicted of breaking the law. The vehement criticism from UK for executing their citizen had a strong answer from the Chinese embassy which stated that judicial sovereignty of China shouldn't be questioned. Innocent or not, the execution sent a strong message to the world. There is no one above law in China.

On a random scan of the list of mass murderers and their fate, the Chinese have always ensured execution for the wrong-doers whereas some countries have even spared these criminals on grounds of insanity.

Now, let us get back to our country and the review the number of executions that have been carried out. The last person hanged was Dhanonjay Chatterjee for raping a minor and that was way back in 2004. Official reports confirm that only 55 individuals have been executed since Independence. The unofficial numbers go to a maximum of 4300. In comparison, reports point out that our neighbours China have hanged at least 5000 in the year 2007 alone.

By figures, the acquittal rate in India is amazing: 1,163,450(51.9%). Assuming that 51.9% of the accused are innocent, shouldn't there be one individual from the convicted who could qualify for capital punishment?

By this pie-chart, I believe Dhanonjoy should be behind bars and not hanged.

We certainly breathe well in India because we can pee at will on our sidewalks, break traffic rules whenever there is an opportunity, evade taxes wherever possible. This is because we do not fear our government and our law and this has always been exploited by the perpetrators. I believe this is not going to change because we have learnt to live a corrupt lifestyle. If change might come, then it might take more than a century for us to change our country's image.

Okay(am I sounding very pessimistic?)- Our government should give it a try..

Hang Kasab at the earliest!!

Grungy Morphins from India for the “Metal Fest Open Air 2010”- An appeal!

 

The Metal Fest Open Air 2010 in Austria is round the corner and there is but only one nomination from India-Grungy Morphins. The “voted” top three out of 296 bands from all over the world will be given a chance to perform with the Gods of Metal like Sepultura, Deicide, Testament, Death Angel, Behemoth and Bolthrower to name a few.

 

This is an appeal.

The Grungy Morphins need our support and yes, our votes to send them to Austria for the Metal Fest.

And how do we do that….??

Log on to http://www.at.metalfest.eu/votes.html?lang=en and

Go to band voting on the left6 hand side.....u\'ll get a list of bands ...Please move down and and  go to India....and click on Vote next to \"Grungy Morphins\"....
Then u need to enter ur name and e-mail address......and send......and then open ur e-mail address that u have provided u\'ll receive an e-mail from Metal Fest where u\'ll receive a link....and now all u need to do is click on the link and its done...it will open a window saying \"Ur Vote Was Counted Successfully\"

Please note and this is IMPORTANT:: No False voting as all votings has to be Genuine and if there are false e-mail address given than the nomination for Grungy Morphins\" will be Terminated...

 

In the meanwhile, here are some videos from Grungy Morphins that you can enjoy….!

 

 

 

PUNDITATION: EPL GAMEWEEK 11 LINEUP IN FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE

FIXTURE FOR GAMEWEEK 11

Arsenal	V	Tottenham	31 Oct 12:45
Bolton	V	Chelsea	31 Oct 15:00
Burnley	V	Hull City	31 Oct 15:00
Everton	V	Aston Villa	31 Oct 15:00
Fulham	V	Liverpool	31 Oct 15:00
Portsmouth	V	Wigan	31 Oct 15:00
Stoke City	V	Wolves	31 Oct 15:00
Sunderland	V	West Ham	31 Oct 15:00
Man Utd	V	Blackburn	31 Oct 17:30
Birmingham	V	Man City	1 Nov 16:00
West Ham	V	Aston Villa	4 Nov 19:45

Image courtesy:MorgueFile

MY TEAM FOR GAMEWEEK 11

SasoniansBACK! has the following lineup:-

Given, Faye Ab, Collins, Shawcross, Lampard, Essien, Lucas, Fabregas, Lennon, Drogba(Captain), Davies K

Substitutes:

Sorensen, Assou-Ekotto, Zayatte, Zamora