Saturday, July 15, 2006

Interesting guy - Prathees

This post is about one of my colleague named Pratheeswaran ( name not changed as nobody requested ). I find him a bit interesting. He is a cool guy and will take everything in a sportive manner. No matter, how much we make fun of him, he will never lose his cool nature. He is very lively and friendly. He was also nicknamed as the spammer and virus of our company. Still, he keeps on moving around as if a great privilege or honour has been placed on him.

The most striking quality that i find very interesting in him is his bad luck. May be i am sadistic to describe about ones bad luck, but on reading this you might also do the same. Because, most of the things that he tries, ends up in failure. Its not just a small failure that affects only him, but a gaint one that it affects thousands of people. I think you will be confused as to how a small mistake by one simple normal guy will affect a whole lot of people. Here are few instances justifying them...

Instance 1 : It was around an year ago. This hero got settled in our company and began to earn well. Just as every other human being, he struck with the idea of saving the hard earned money and invested in the nearby bank. You may ask what is wrong with it. Yes, his intentions are good. But, the bank which he invested was "Global Trust Bank", which was closed soon after he invested the money. There he stood outside the bank with hundreds of other poor fellows who lost their money too. :'(

You may say that this is just a coincidence. Infact everybody of us, thought the same. But the following incidents told us that its not so and how unlucky our guy is.

Instance 2 : This guy is like a phoenix. He didnt give up. He then thought of making some investment by getting some gold. He did that too. Alas, the rate of gold which has been in a steep increase till that day, began to fall down for the next few days. Though the rate of fall in gold prices was marginal, it did fall and good thing ( rather bad thing for him ) is that it didnt raise.

Instance 3 : This guy then decided to change his area towards the share market. The one which was booming and one which seemed to be a safe option considering the market uptrends. This over enthusiastic guy wanted to set his foot firm on that too. He did some investment in the form of some mutual bonds, shares. Within a week, there was a big commotion and all the channels flashed the news that the share market has been freezed for a couple of hours. Nobody can believe this. The share market, which was consistenly on a rise for the past few months, faced a sudden fall. Some of his cubicle mates, the fellow investors began to lament as to "how could this happen? how can the market fall like this?". None of them knew that our hero, who was silently sitting beside them is also the reason for this.

Dejected at all this, he then decided to watch any good movie to cool him down and to think of any other new areas to enter. But, he wasnt able to do that. The reason behind this happens to be the next instance.

Instance 4 : This guy took a resolution that he will become very selective in watching tamil movies and that he will watch only "Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu" and "Imsai arasan" for this year. But, despite the fact that both the films were completed, they were not released by that time. Even the kollywood is affected by our guys resolution. :-D ( Imsai arasan got released by this time,but our hero decided to skip that movie)

After going through all these, you might have come to an conclusion whether all these things are just coincidental or any divine powers ( rather devils power ) this guy has got. Do let me know.

Now we are all keeping our fingers crossed as to what this guy would try next and what might be the impact of it. O:-)

He has now bought a brand new Hero Honda Passion Plus. Dont know what is in stake for the Hero Honda company. In one way, i m the reason for him to choose this bike. So, i am pretty much tensed now. ;-)

PS 1 : Based on the feedback, i may write about someother guys as a sequel to this post.

PS 2 : I have posted this after getting consent from the concerned party

Monday, June 19, 2006

Living to the name

Today i dont have anywork. I am very idle and just dont know how to kill the time. I have tried all the ways possible. I even went to the extent of going through the blogs that i have posted till date.!!!! ( Now you would have known how vetti i was ;-) ). The very few ones who have visited this space, know it pretty well that i have made a very few number of posts. Out of those very few, i have lamented in three of them. I dont know why, but nothing came to my mind, other than these stuffs. I know it that, writing those stuffs in the blogs wont do any good or bring any change. Atleast, i am satisfied that i try my hand in doing some writing stuff. Afterall, Its my space and i am allowed to write anything and everything. There are some prolific writers, who does the same thing in the newspapers or the blogs, and they get the right visibility and their concerns are addressed, atleast one or two.

I feel like one old freedom fighter ( the ones portrayed in some old tamil films ), who submits the petition complaining about the lack of facilities to the local Collector or any of the politicians, only to see his petitions dumped in the dustbin. I am no different from him. wait wait. did i tell that i am not different from him.....now i revert those words of mine... here is my statement....No. i am a bit different.. just now i noticed whats the difference. If you look at the title of my blog space, which has been aptly named dustbin ( the reason for this, i have already mentioned in my very first post ;-) ),u will find the reason.

The way i am different from the freedom fighter is his petitions or writings will go to the hands of the officials and then will fall into the dustbin, but mine it directly goes to the dustbin ( my blog's name ) :-D .

Now, u would have understood.. why i have named my blog with this name.. n i could see you feeling that this post too deserves the same place....anyway, i am happy that i have aptly named my blog and writing some truly deserving stuffs...ha ha ha......

Thanks for being with me.. bye till my next post.... :-D

Monday, June 05, 2006

Customer service at its worst....contd

this is in continuation with my previous post about the kind of customer service that i faced at the hands of Airtel.

It was nearly a week since i lodged a complaint against Karthik and Irfan of Airtel. I completely forgot about it, when one Riaz called me up on a saturday morning and enquired me about the problem i had, and what prompted me to lodge a complaint against these two. I explained all that happenned, starting from my first request for the plan change to Irfan's indifferent attitude towards me. Riaz listened to all these patiently and asked me to specify the date on which i first made the request to change the plan. He told that he will get back to me after checking with the previous records, and if he can ensure that i have already made this request, then he said he will waive off the excess amount charged for the period from the time of request to the time of processing that request. After a couple of hours a lady called me and informed that, they did check the past records and confirmed that my request was spotted there. Also, she felt sorry for the poor response from their side and negligence and also made sure that they will try their level best to avoid it in the future. Also, they will be adjusting the excess amount in the next bill. To be frank, i didnt expect even this kind of response from them.

Still i have a lot of hard memories with the customer service persons there and the poor service that they offer. One related to the activation of GPRS service for me, which wasnt activated even after 7-8 activation requests through messages and over phone. The other one related to surrendering of the post paid connection of my friend, which is worth to be posted in a separate blog. ( But dont worry, i wont ponder again. I know that if i do so.. even the very few ones reading this, will stop visiting my space ). I have heard that Airtel is well known for poor customer support. Now, atleast they are trying to wipe this stain off them. Good signs.

When i called them the next time, they asked me "Sir, are you satisfied with the interaction you had now?" and also they do send us a message asking for the same. They are doing this for all. Good that they try to improve on their customer service front.

Hope that they keep on improving it.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Customer service at its worst

This post is about my experience with Airtel recently. Somewhere around the last week i called up the airtel customer care and asked them to change my billing plan from Rs.225 / month to Rs.349 / month. The efficient guy named Karthik who picked up the phone told me that " Sir, i have opened ur account in my monitor and i will instantly change your plan sir." I believed his words. he also mentioned that I will be intimated about the change in the plan, and revised call charges will take effect from the sameday midnight. But, i didnt receive any message for nearly one week. I finally put an end to my wait and called up the customer care again and enquired them about the billing plan that i am currently in, only to find that the efficient guy didnt do his work properly. He didnt process my request. I was still in the old plan. Again, i asked the gal who attended me to change my plan, and within an hour, i got the confirmatory SMS. Cant understand why that guy took nearly 7 days and still not finish the work, if that can be done within an hour. I just got it confirmed and then left this matter.

The next day, a guy by name Irfan, who claimed himself as a member of the airtel group called me on my mobile and just enquired me whether i was satisfied with the service being provided by Airtel and the coverage and all other details. I informed him that i was not at all satisfied with their customer service. When he wanted to know the reason, i just told him all the background details. But, this guy didnt even let me talk continuously for a minute. Whenever i started speaking, he interrupted me and asked me some irrelevant questions. Finally i just asked him to give me some time to talk and then let out all the above mentioned things. He said that, " sir, we will see to it that mistakes like this wont happen in the future". But, i dont find any purpose in this. The damage to my wallet has already been done. I just asked him "whats the point in preventing this mistakes. What am i going to gain. Will u waive off the call charges that were charged additionally". Then he did the GREAT thing, which no person with a good customer interaction manner would do. He just hung up the phone. I got infuriated and then tried calling him from my mobile. He simply cut the call. Then i called him from my office landline number, still no answer from him. Onething i dont understand is, why the hell should they call and ask for feedbacks, if they are not ready to face the negative feedbacks. They are allowed to hide the mistakes or say any false reasons to convince their customers, but hanging up the phone.. is just TOO BAD.

Then happenned the biggest joke. When i visited their website, i found the following line in their homepage.

To be globally admired for telecom services that delight customers.

We will meet global standards for telecom services that delight customers through:
• Customer Service Focus

Some more complaints about the same provider.. buts its very late and me signing off..

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Thank you Edward

After a long time, i have come back to this place. Thanks to my friend Dheepa. If not for her.. i would have completely forgotten that i have a blog account. I just visited my blog ( ofcourse.. the only visitor ).. and read thru the very few posts that i have made.. just as i was reading my last post.. titled "frightened".. something struck me....i just cant believe what i saw....i wiped my eyes twice.. just to check whether i am seeing it right....

enough of suspense... what i saw was.. there were some comments to my blog post.. ya.. that too two comments.. out of curiosity.. i clicked the comments link ...n i was very disappointed to know that the first comment is a spam one.. that too a porn stuff......i just thought that the spam industry has grown big.. n it has hands and legs in all areas of the internet.. just like the GOOGLE.....

I then switched my attention to the second post.. expecting another spam stuff... but to my astonishment.. its not a spam.. n its a real guy by the name Edward Gibson.. who took the pains to read thru my blog and also bothered to make a comment about it.. n he has quoted the work "inquistive" in his comments.. dont know whether he is making fun of me.. but anyway.. i would like to thank Edward Gibson for his efforts....coz, he has proved my wrong belief that i am the only visitor of my blog....

so, taking a cue out of this...i have decided to visit this space often.. n wil try to post something or the other......

Lets c.. whether Edward visits me again.....


N.Shankar

Friday, June 24, 2005

frightened...

Hi all,,,, I am back.. not with a bang as they usually say for some legends,,, let it be modified as back with a bore... thou not sure what others feel about this... i think it is a bore thing... to just post a blog for the sake of posting one... nothing special or worthy to be mentioned or posted....but still there is a need for me to post something .. as it is a long time since i posted something and moreover.. i am in the office now.. after a heavy lunch... and my main aim is to see thru these sleepy hours.. by engaging myself in something or the other... here the project related work is a strict no-entrant... so just do something different by letting my situation be known to many of the fellow-bloggers...

Ok.. now into the topic... just after i came back from my lunch..and browsed our local blogs... i was shocked to see a blog post in which one of my colleague met with an accident but escaped unhurt... thanks to the helmet he was wearing.. though he was hesitant to wear one.. he did it. which eventually saved him from heavy damage. This is not the first one i hear within the last few weeks... particularly over the last three weeks.. i have been hearing of various accidents involving my friend, relation... or colleague.. someone or the other.... most of the cases is due to the bad roads or the arrogance of the lorry drivers... beaming their headlight just like a light house...

I usually drive from my residence, in East Tambaram.. to my office Velachery, in my two wheeler... i was comfortable so far.. but over the past few weeks, after hearing such incidents.. now i am more concerned and want to be at the safest side as far as possible..and moreover the bad roads.. and the occassional short spell of rain.. which is enough to fill the potholes in the road... adding to my voes. The road near my office, used to be a good.. wider one.... but that was 4 days ago... today on my way to the office, i noticed that it has shrunk to nearly half its size, due to the work on the storm water drain.. i was shocked to notice that, the yellow line which was drawn in the middle of the road, is now at the border of the road.. quickly losing itself to the sand accumulated in the sideways... and all these two wheelers and four wheelers have made it as a parking lot.. to consume much more space... The good broad road doesnt solve the purpose, it was meant for.!!! what to be done.. everyone says that all these will be only for another two years, and after the infrastructural work... everythin will be fine...but i couldnt find any.. spent nearly 23 yrs in this earth... still everything remains the same....


stop... stop.. stop.. why am i saying all thes things... what is the purpose of this blog.````` yes.. i got it ... it is not about the bad roads ornot about the recklessness of the drivers... and not even about the incidents that i came to hear in the past few weeks......... infact it is to drive away my sleep... not that it has been done... i am stopping it here.... dont want to confuse you further... ( though no one will be reading it )..

now i got fresh.... its time for you to get afreash after going thru this confusing, idiotic words of mine for the past few minutes..... if anyone is patient enough to read till this last line...its a big THANKS . have a hot cup of coffee and get back to work.. if u r soooo patient, then look at this link atleast occassionally.. u will be fed with another interesting!!!!! thing like this.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Top 21 Things an Indian does after returning from US

The stuff I am posting here is just a mail forward. Not intended to hurt anybody. If at all anybody happens to read this, plz read it and enjoy and dont try to relate it with any of the real life incident. Everything is meant only for fun!!! fun!!! fun!!!


21. Tries to use credit card in road side hotel.

20. Drinks and carries mineral water and always
speaks of health
conscious.

19. Sprays duo such so that he doesn't need to
take bath.

18. Sneezes and says 'Excuse me'.

17. Says "Hey" instead of "Hi".
says "Yogurt" instead says "Curds".
Says "Cab" instead of "Taxi".
Says "Candy" instead of "Chocolate".
Says "Cookie" instead of "Biscuit".
Says "
Free Way" instead of "Highway".
Says "got to go" instead of "Have to go".
Says "Oh" instead of "Zero", (for 704, says
Seven Oh Four Instead of
Seven Zero Four)

16. Doesn't forget to crib about air pollution.
Keeps cribbing every
time he steps out.
15. Says all the distances in Miles (Not in Kilo
Meters), and counts
in Millions. (Not in Lakhs)
14. Tries to figure all the prices in Dollars as
far as possible
(but deep down the heart multiplies by 43
times).

13. Tries to see the % of fat on the cover of a
milk pocket.
12. When need to say Z (zed), never says Z (Zed),
repeats "Zee"
several times, if the other person unable to
get, then says X, Y
Zee(but never says Zed)
11. Writes date as MM/DD/YYYY, on watching
traditional DD/MM/YYYY,
says "Oh! British Style!!!!"
10. Makes fun of Indian Standard Time and Indian
Road Conditions.
9. Even after 2 months, complaints about "Jet
Lag".
8. Avoids eating more chili (hot) stuff.
7. Tries to drink "Diet Coke", instead of
Normal
Coke.
6. Tries to complain about any thing in
India as
if he is
experiencing it for the first time.
5. Pronounces "schedule" as "skejule", and
"module" as "mojule".
4. Looks speciously towards Hotel/Dhaba food.

Few more important

3. From the luggage bag, does not remove the
stickers of Airways by
which he traveled back to
India, even after 4
months of arrival.
2. Takes the cabin luggage bag to short visits in
India, tries to
roll the bag on Indian Roads.

Ultimate one

1. Tries to begin conversation with
"In US ...." or "When I was in US..."

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

justification for the name

I think many of you willbe confused as to why have i kept such a name to my blog ( Just a hype, not sure whether anyone else will be visiting this page, other than me. But thats the way people normally say.). didnt i get any other good stuff to name my blog. the fact is that, even i am confused with the same thought. I think I have changed the name of my blog thrice before even making my first post. Iam not impressed with the previous names, even though its all my choice.

I am a very poor writer. Infact this is the first time i am trying something like this. I am sure, my writings are worth enough to find a place only in the dustbin. so, if anyone say it, i can say them thats the reason i have named by blogspace as "Dustbin". So i am justifying the name of the blog by filling it with some worthless stuff.

Let me see, whether i gain something by writing this stuff and go on to become atleast a normal writer.

neway, for the ones who get to read it by chance, thanks for your patience and will update you with some funny stuffs and a very rare useful forward.

Till then, its bye .

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

test

HI all,
this is just a test posting.