An old conversation with some credit card customer care

Found this conversation in my e-mail archive today. Pasting it here as it is. I think it might be a good read for some of you.
.....................................................................................
me
25/02/2008 01:39 PM

To
abc@xyz.com
cc
headcardservices@xyz.com, cardservices@xyz.com
Subject
Complaint Regarding Credit Card Application

Dear ABC,

I used to hold one of your gold credit cards (XXXXXXXXXXXX2684), which I have got cancelled last week. This card was issued to me in March,07.

As soon as I received above card, I started getting promotional calls for your One Credit card, I received and answered 27 such calls in my memory. 27th time I agreed to apply for that card. Application Ref. # 080218021

I met XYZ Bank representative twice, once for filling up the form and 2nd time for collection of certain documents.

Post which I received 9 confirmation calls, asking for same details (mother's maiden name, date of birth, address etc) and after answering these nine confirmation calls, I receive following mail from cardservices@xyz.com.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date : 31/01/2008


Dear MR GAURAV V TIWARI,

This is with reference to your application for an XYZ Bank credit card - Application Ref. # 080218021

We have reviewed your application and express our inability to process the same, as we could not establish contact with you.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in the XYZ Credit Card product and look forward to a valuable relationship with you in the future.

In case you require any assistance, please feel free to call our Bank by Phone service in your city and our executive will be glad to assist you.


Assuring you of our best services always.


Warm Regards,

XYZ Bank "Active Alert" Services

This is an automated message, please donot reply to this.
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The reason for rejecting my application was stated that XYZ bank could not establish contact with me. (Have highlighted that part of the mail). After answering 9 confirmation calls and meeting your representative twice, the reason stated in the mail is as absurd as it can possibly be.

I called up your bank by phone service to enquire about the same, but since they did not have any clue, I was transferred to Mr Rishikesh, in your customer loyalty department. He heard my query and promised to get the same resolved.
Post which I received three of your Gold Cards in a span on 4 days, (XXXXXXXXXXXX7262, XXXXXXXXXXXX0266, XXXXXXXXXXXX2677), for which I haven't applied or filled any froms.

Every time I received the card, I called up XYZ bank and spoke to Mr T or Mr R in your customer loyalty department. Finally Mr R promised to process my Credit card Request for One Card and assured me, that I'll not be receiving anymore gold cards and anymore phone calls.

For next 15 days I did not hear anything or received any communication (written or verbal) from XYZ and realised how insensitive you are towards your customers and decided to end all the relationship with XYZ bank and got my original gold card (XXXXXXXXXXXX2684) cancelled.

I also got all my phone nos (99xxxxxx71, 93xxxxxx46, 022xxxxxx98 and 022xxxxxx54) registered for DNC (DNC registration provided on website is not working have tried multiple times in a span of 8 months, get that fixed asap, else if someone complains against it XYZ bank might be in trouble).

Yesterday (24/02/08) again I received one call on 022xxxxxx98 and another on 99xxxxxx71 for confirming the details for my credit card application (which I have already confirmed 9 times). I instructed the caller not to call again as I am not interested in having any relationship with XYZ bank. Still I received another call today (25/02/08) on 022xxxxxx54 for the same thing.

Request you to stop this nonsense and do not test my patience. Please don't harass me with those nonsense calls asking for same details again and again.

I am expecting to receive a positive response from you. Also hope after this mail you will change certain processes in your bank related to telemarketing and credit card processing mainly to ensure that no other customer has to go through what I have experienced.

For now, I am not recommending XYZ bank to any of my friends or colleagues as I don't want them to go through this kind of tormenting experience.

For your information, I also work in Cards department of A Bank and have an idea of how card issuance process work, so please don't send me any absurd response.

PS: I registered for NDNC on 19/11/07 (Reference No W10xxxxxx31), can anyone in your bank explain how my promotional calls did not stop post same.

-
Thanks & Regards
Gaurav Tiwari
"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered."
.....................................................................................
abc@xyz.com
26/02/2008 16:11

To: me
cc: def@xyz.com
Subject: Re: Complaint Regarding Credit Card Application

Dear Mr. Tiwari,

Thank you for sharing your feedback. I regret the inconvenience caused.

My colleague Mr DEF will facilitate a resolution in this regard. I regret that you experience has not been commensurate with our service standards and request you to treat it as an exception.

Regards
ABC
.....................................................................................
me
13/03/2008 10:54 AM

To
abc@xyz.com
cc
def@xyz.com
Subject
Re: Complaint Regarding Credit Card Application

Dear Mr. ABC,

One of your executives called me up last week, but it seemed she hadn't read my mail carefully, because she kept asking me about the same details that I have already written in my mail below.

Anyway, I got even more irritated with this and requested your executive to just stop any promotional calls to all my phone nos.

Today again I have received one call from XYZ bank (012xxxxxx51) asking for gold card application. Request you to tighten the processes at your end and stop such nonsense calls.

I have clearly mentioned in my earlier mail that I have my no registered for NDNC, have got all my nos registered for DNC with XYZ bank.

Expect some action, else I'll be forced to complain against XYZ bank to respective regulatory authorities.

-
Thanks & Regards
Gaurav Tiwari
"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered."
.....................................................................................
abc@xyz.com
13/03/2008 13:32

To: me
cc: def@xyz.com
Subject: Re: Complaint Regarding Credit Card Application

Dear Mr. Tiwari,

I regret to note your experience. I request you to share the numbers from where you have received the calls and on which telephone number to help us investigate and revert to you.

The information sought above which will help us establish the root cause and address it. I would aldo recommend that you register your telephone nos. on the NDNC with your telecom operator.

Regards
ABC
.....................................................................................
me
03/13/2008 02:43 PM


To: abc@xyz.com
cc: def@xyz.com
Subject: Re: Complaint Regarding Credit Card Application

Mr ABC,

It seems you have not read any of my mails clearly. In both my mails I have mentioned that I am registered for NDNC with my telecom operator, my NDNC registration is active from 19/11/07 (Reference No W10xxxxxx31).

There is clearly some flaw at your tele-promotions end. Either your marketing team is not bothered about NDNC and they are simply ignoring it or there are some process gaps.

I have also mentioned the no on which I am receiving these calls (99xxxxxx71) and the no from which I have received the recent call (012xxxxxx51) today at 10:46AM.

You can not expect me to remember all the nos from where I have received all my earlier calls. Only thing I remember about those nos is all of them were Delhi nos, starting with 4, if that helps.

-
Thanks & Regards
Gaurav Tiwari
"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered."
.....................................................................................

Humne Jeena Seekh Liya

जिस राह मे हम थे बढे चले, उस राह मे तेज हवाएं थी;
हम गिरे, उठे और फिर से चले, तूफानों से लड़ना सीख लिया.
थी कठिन डगर लम्बा रास्ता, पर हमने जीना सीख लिया.

चाहा गुलाब को छूना जब, मेरे हाथ छुभे थे कांटे भी;
हमने सीखा एक और सबब, काटों से बचना सीख लिया.
थी कठिन डगर लम्बा रास्ता, पर हमने जीना सीख लिया.

मेरे पांव पढे अन्गारों पर, अन्गारों ने हमे जलाया भी;
चल कर इन् आग की राहों पर, अन्गारों मे जीना सीख लिया.
थी कठिन डगर लम्बा रास्ता, पर हमने जीना सीख लिया.

Attempted to write poetry after very very long time. Hope you guys like it.

Horizon

When I was small and used to live in my village, during my visits to my farms I used to look at the horizon and actually believe that far away there is a place where earth meets the sky. At times I used to run towards it spreading my hands in the air in order to touch the sky. The longer I ran, farther the point where the earth meets the sky gone.

Now I have gone through schools and college; and have been taught that there is no such place where the earth meets the sky. Call me a fool, I am still running hands spread in the air trying to touch the sky. Although there is one thing that sometimes scares me. What if I manage to touch the sky? What will happen then? No running, no spreading of hands in the air. Will I be happy or sad? I don't have the answer. I just know one thing. In all these years I have started to love the running.

Vampire Diaries

Don't be confused by the title of the post. I am not going to talk about the recent craze love struck vampires of hollywood, neither it is about the more traditional blood sucking ones. However it is closer to the later, since it is about not a fictional creature, but a very real vampire of our time i.e. Ram Gopal Verma. After sucking audiences' blood for last few years, he has gone sanskritified and ab wo logon ka rakhta chuste hain.

What expectations one would have from a movie, which is being aired on TV exactly 3 weeks after it's release? That's how excited I was while watching this master piece, Rakhta Charitra, from master story teller, RGV, starring master actor, Vivek Oberoi. (Or is it Viveik? Someone please tell him mandir jaane se, naam badalne se ya fir jagah jagah logon se mafi mangne se accha actor nahi bante. Uske liye actually thodi si acting karni padti hai.)

The movie started with a very irritating voice narrating the story of Veerbhadra, who happens to be the right hand man of local MLA or MP or some political leader in some capacity Narasimha Reddy. Narasimha Reddy is somehow made to believe that Veerbhadra is actually using this closeness to build his own ploitical career and without waiting for a second both Veerbhadra and Narasimha are political rivals wanting to kill each other. Nagmani, who was responsible for this conflict plans for Veerbhadra's Murder by the help of one of Veerbhadra's aide Munda. What then starts is Rakhta Charitra, someone is killed in every 30 seconds by either Pratap Ravi or by Bukka Reddy or some random character. They make killing look such a simple and easy task. Matlab chai peete hue decide kiya ki Naagmani (who happens to have an army of people protecting him) ko maarte hain aur lunch me Naagmani ko hi kha gaye.

After all this blood bath our hero decides to join politics and wins the election just like that by help from actor turned politician Shivaji Rao.

We are then told that there is more about the movie, which we will come to know on 3rd of Dec, when the second part of the movie releases. By this time mere shareer me rakhta ki kami se I start feeling weak.

We are told that it is a true story and our creative geniuses have conveniently picked up all the killings and only killings in that story and made a movie out of it and subtly named it Rakhta Charitra. Very few details are offered and whatever is offered is offered in that irritating voice of the narrator. You so much want to mute your TV, while the narration is going on. The only expression of the entire movie is anger. So all the leading characters of the movie look angry in all the scenes, hence no need for a second expression. Every leading character has a dedicated irritating back ground score, which is used to suppress the dialogs spoken by these characters saving useless expense of dialog writer and leaving the audience wonder what the hell these guys would be saying to each other leading them to take drastic decisions. OR may be there was a dialog writer who would have quit because of not being able to handle the challenging task of using word Rakhta in all the dialogs.

RGV must get rid of his obsession for zooming on to the faces of his actors so often. You can even count the hair inside the nostrils of all the actors. Gross, isn't it? Exactly.

I am sure none of you would be interested in how much I rate this movie out of 10 after what I have written above. So I would not go through that exercise. I watched it on a lazy and boring Saturday, when I had absolutely nothing to do and nothing better on TV either. That is the only situation this movie can be seen.

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time there was a man named Sultan Mirja, who ruled the sea of Mumbai and he had a say in all the illegal trade across Mumbai by virtue of being the king of the sea. He was a visionary, because he knew the rout to smuggle anything inside Mumbai is the sea. He also had a heart of gold, helping every needy person around, or may be he always felt guilty about the things he did and wanted people to pray for his well beings. Anyways, people believed that he was their savior. He falls for a starlet Rehana and she is impressed by his power. The fact that both of them had a tragic past brought them closer and the promise of a brighter future kept them together.

There was a young man Sohaib who, so impressed by Sultan's life, wanted to be like him. He kept himself busy committing petty crimes and gifting the winnings from those to the pretty sales girl next door, Mumtaj. Of all the ugly things he did all his life, while dreaming to be the King of Mumbai, Mumtaj was the only pretty thing in his life. By fate he manages to get into the gang of Sultan and manages to win his trust.

Then there was an ACP Agnel, who vows to put an end to the rule of Sultan Mirja and in order to do so he ends up ignoring the crimes committed by Sohaib, believing that he is the answer to the question named Sultan. In the end, he puts it appropriately, it's easy to choose between good and evil but it's really difficult to choose between two evils. By the time he realizes that he chose the worse of the two evils, it's too late.

So that's the story of what happened many years ago in Mumbai, which changed the face of the Mumbai underworld for time to come. In the movie Ajay Dvgan plays to the role of Sultan Mirja, a role similar to that he perfected in Company. The only difference being he wore black in company and white in OUTM. Emran Hashmi plays Sohaib, but is not able to show the rawness required to play the dreaded don. Kangna and Prachi play the two leading ladies Rehana and Mumtaj. While Kangna's role is vital for the story Prachi's story seems to be forced into the proceedings of the story, however both the girls have performed well. The name that requires special mention is Randeep Huda, playing ACP Agnel Wilson, who proves that given a chance and a role, he can deliver. The story is simple and everyone knows how it unfolds. The only thing that really disappointed me where the dialogs, it sounded more like philosophy lessons than real life conversations. Don't understand why everyone has to talk in metaphors all the time. The costumes and music has the needed feel of the 70's.

I would rate this movie 6 out of 10. You can go and watch it on a lazy Sunday without being disappointed.

More Than Just a Dream

He is the world's best extractor, who can enter your mind in your dream state and steal your secrets. He did so in Batman movies. Then the idea of planting an idea in your brain came into his head and he made Inception. Yes, Christopher Nolan has that ability. Everyone dreams, everyone wants to dream but Nolan thought a step further. He analysed your dreams and created a masterpiece out of it. Yes, that's what Inception is, a masterpiece. I wonder nobody would complain even if they were made to watch this movie sitting on stools, because I don't think anyone used the back rests and whoever did would have left the theater even before the interval. What makes it a masterpiece is the fact that it involves you in the proceedings and makes your brain work throughout. The movie doesn't allow you to take your eyes and ears off it for even a second.

Cobb has the ability to extract ideas from your mind by getting inside your dreams and this ability makes him a wanted man. He is offered a chance of a lifetime by Saito, which can bring him back into legitimate life and allow him to go back to his children. The problem is, he doesn't have to extract the idea, he has to plant one. Cobb, with the help of Arthur assembles a team which consists of Ariadne, the architect; Eames, the chameleon and Yusuf, the Chemist. The problem is Cobb's dead wife Mal, who keeps on appearing inside his dreams and messes with the plan.

To be honest, first fifteen minutes of the movie I was almost clueless about the proceedings. Then all of it was explained in next almost an hour through conversations among team members. The more you learn, the more you admire and enjoy the movie. I wonder how many hours of thinking in real world and dream world would have gone into creating this story. Truly one of the most original movie I have seen.

The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Cobb, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur, Ellen Page as Ariadne, Tom Hardy as Eames, Ken Watanabe as Saito, Dileep Rao as Yusuf, Cillian Murphy as Fisher and Marion Cotillard as Mal in lead roles. You can also see Michael Caine who is part of all Nolan's movies since Batman Begins, in special appearance. All the actors seem perfect for their part. DiCaprio is in top form, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is superb, watch out the zero gravity scenes, Ellen Page looks stunning, Tom Hardy gives you some of the moments to laugh in this otherwise intense film, Marion Cotillard compliments DiCaprio's emotions. But the real star of the movie is the script. I am truly blown away by the thought process of this man named Christopher Nolan. Just when you thought The Dark Knight was the peak, he takes you even higher with Inception. The way he presents the whole story is truly amazing, there is no chance to blink. There are a lot of wow moments in the movie, like city of Paris fold like a book, how you drop someone in zero gravity, the ending.

Well I hear some people complain about the ending, but after thinking about it for 24 hours, I haven't been able to come up with a different and better ending. So I would say, it's the perfect ending to a perfect story. I would rate this movie 10 out of 10 and recommend it to all the movie lovers. Go be a part of the dream world of Christopher Nolan.

Talk to strangers

I believe I am a friendly person and do not have any reservations in talking to strangers, since it is only natural. All our lives we talk to strangers. When we open our eyes in this world we see few strangers looking after us. Most often we find ourselves in the arms of an stranger who calls herself our mother and we believe her without any question, because at that moment our minds are not corrupt. We are not used to the fact that people are not always nice. Later as we grow up we meet more strangers, some we are told are our relatives and some we choose and be friends with.

As we grow we start hearing about bad things that people do or can do to other people. Why only bad things? Because negative emotions are stronger and survives longer in our memory. If you don't believe me, turn to any news channel and find one good news reported against 5 bad news. Surprisingly most of us agree to the fact that the bad people who mean or can cause us any harm would be less that 5 in every 100 people we come across. Yet in order to avoid these 5 people we end up avoiding all 100 and loose 95 good people whom we could have known.

As we grow, such feelings get stronger and that is the reason we make better friends during school days and fewer friends during college days and even fewer during our professional life and almost none after retirement. The reason is, our trust in others keeps declining as we grow because of the negativity surrounding us.

As far as I am concerned, I take the other approach. I talk to all hundred with the assumption that they are nice people and keep my senses open to spot the 5 and save myself from any harm. If I fail to spot anyone of these 5, which I have at times and get harmed, which again has happened, I had 95 others to support me, which I would not have had in other case. I have learned that this harm is a small price to pay for meeting the nice people I have met and befriended over the years, I for that fact have made more friends during my 4 years of college than I have in my 12 years of school and having so many friends has helped me in many ways.

Recent Encounter with Credit Card People

03/05/10
11:00 AM
I get a call from Mr X, who claims to be calling on behalf of XYZ Bank and is offering me a premium segment credit card from the bank. I like the offer and agree to take the card.
11:30 AM
Ms Y calls from the same bank to verify certain details and ask me to be ready with the copies of all the necessary documents. She informs me that one of the Bank's agents would visit me at my office in the afternoon to collect the documents.
4:30 PM
Mr Z from the XYZ bank visits me at my office and I hand over the relevant document copies to him and fill the necessary details on the application from.

(The funny part begins now)
04/05/10
2:00 PM
I get a call from Ms Y and the conversation goes something like this:
Ms Y: Sir I am calling from XYZ bank regarding your credit card application and need to verify certain details.
Me: Ok.
Ms Y: Sir, you stay in a rented place in Mumbai or owned? (this was already mentioned by me in the form)
Me: Rented.
Ms Y: What is your permanent address?
Me: I have a house in my village but nobody lives there anymore, will that work?
Ms Y: No sir. Where do your parents stay?
Me: My parents live in Kanpur, but that place again is rented.
Ms Y: Sir, do you have a landline there?
Me: No.
Ms Y: Sir, in that case when you get a call from our head office confirming for details, please tell them that you live with your parents.
Me: But I don't live with my parents, so why should I lie.
Ms Y: Sir, otherwise you would not get the card.
Me: Then please don't give me the card. Reject my application.
Ms Y: Sir, there is nothing wrong in it, there is anyways no hard verification for such things.
Me: But I would not lie for getting a credit card. I already have other bank's cards and in no desperate need for additional card.
Ms Y: Ok sir.
(She hangs up.)
As soon as she hangs up, I get a call from Mr X, who sold me the card.
Mr X: Sir, this is X from XYZ bank.
Me: Yes X, tell me.
Mr X: Sir, I need a small favour from you.
Me: If it is to lie about my details, forget it. I don't need your card.
Mr X: At least you can say that you are married. (he was one step ahead)
Me: Listen X. You have a criteria to issue this credit card and it seems I don't fulfill the criteria. So you simply reject my application. I wont mind.
Mr X: No sir. You fulfill all the criteria and would be a valuable customer for us.
Me: Then give me the card. Why are you making such a simple thing so complicated?
Mr X: But sir, if you have a rented place in Mumbai, you will have to either be married of living with your family to get the card.
Me: Which means I don't satisfy the necessary criteria.
Mr X: If you could just say you are married, your application will be processed.
Me: Listen X, I don't like to lie.
Mr X: But sir, it's no problem, you don't have to produce any evidence.
Me: It's not about evidence. I am just not the kind of person who would lie to get a credit card. You are asking me to change as a person to just get a credit card.
Mr X: Ok sir, we will forward your application.
Me: Thank you.

I thought the conversation was over.

05/05/10
2:35 PM
I was just out of a long meeting and to my surprise I again receive a call from XYZ Bank. This time it was a new person, lets call her Ms A.
Ms A: Sir, I am calling on behalf of XYZ Bank. Just needed to verify certain details.
Me: Please go ahead.
Ms A: Sir, your date of birth is 04/07/1983.
Me: That's correct.
Ms A: You live in a rented apartment in Mumbai.
Me: Yes.
Ms A: For how long you are staying in this place.
Me: Almost one and half year.
Ms A: Sir, when you get a call from our office for verification, just tell then you are married.
Me: I think I have been through this before with X and I clearly told him I am not gonna supply any false information. You can happily reject my application.
Ms A: Sir then can you give us your parents land line no.?
Me: They don't have a land line.
Ms A: Any neighbors no.?
Me: No.
Ms A: Sir any friends' contact nos.
Me: Are you out of your mind. I don't understand what my friends', family's or neighbors' nos are relevant for my credit card application and I am not going to provide you any. Please reject my application and don't bother me with such ridiculous calls again.

I am hoping I don't get another call tomorrow.

India: a country of extreme emotions.

I have always been told human race is superior to other creatures on the earth, because they have got a brain which is more advanced than any other species and they understand and feel emotions better than any other living being. Well, I always believed it; but when I look around and see the way people behave I seriously doubt what we have been taught all our lives. First most of the time we do what we are being asked to do by our elders at home, by our boss at work, by our celebrity cricketers and actors, by our politicians, by our news channels. The list is endless. The amazing thing is, we don't tend to use our brains before doing any of those things.

The other fact that disturbs me much is that we always show extreme emotions to everything. We don't know any middle way. There is no grey, we either see black or white. Sachin is a great batsman, we start calling him God. Rajnikanth does good in some of his movies, we start calling him God too. Suresh Raina does well in five innings and we start seeing next Sachin in him. India fails to win a series, we start throwing stones at the houses of the same cricketers who we were worshiping couple of series back. Someone marries against our wish, we kill them. Someone refers Mumbai as Bombay, we stone their offices.

Why do we always behave in such fashion? I hope to find an answer to this question and a solution to this problem some day.

Pyar Impossible

After a lot of days from its release I finally managed to watch the much awaited Yashraj films' product re-re-re(don't remember how many)launching the home grown talent Uday also playing a new role of a script writer proving his extreme talent in various aspects of film making. Then there was another home grown talent directing the film, making it a complete family film. Trailers projected it as a beauty and the geek love story, Uday Chopra obviously playing the geek and beauty naturally played by Priyanka Chopra.

The movie opens with a college setting with Abhay (Uday) telling us that he is infatuated towards Alisha (Priyanka), who doesn't even know Abhay exists. No time is wasted here because just after a song, we are shown Abhay saving a drunk Alisha from drowning and then Alisha taken away by her father. Many years after, Abhay meets Sidhu (Dino) an investor interested in Abhay's brilliant idea of an operating system UNITY. Well actually the idea is actually crap but probably nobody dares tell that to him considering he is producer's son (may be the same thing happened with the script too). By the way Sidhu also thinks that idea is so brilliant that he steals the source code (referred as program files in the movie for the benefit of the ignorant audience, so thoughtful of the Uday and Jugal) of the OS on a pen drive.

Abhay realizes about this theft when an Indian software company, who he tries to sell his idea tells him that another company in Singapore is coming up with an OS on the same concept with an innovative name UNIFY. (we have to admire the information network of the Indian information technology company, because we are shown that Sid hadn't yet finalized the deal with the Singapore company). Abhay on his dad's advice and encouragement decides to go to Singapore to confront the thief and get what is rightfully his.

On reaching Singapore, he realizes that Alisha is also there working as a PR executive in the same company and he suddenly almost forgets about his mission and takes a new mission of winning his lost love. How he does it? Well, by playing a nanny to her 6-7 year old spoiled daughter, who is an expert in harassing her nanny. Movie starts getting sillier and sillier from this point onwards leading to one of the silliest climax ever seen. I know I am being a bit sadist here, but since I have been through it, I would want you to watch the movie to know the details.

None of the actors in the movie impressed with their acting talent. Only watchable thing in the movie was Priyanka, that too only in the few minutes of college scenes, not because of her acting though. Looks like Uday wrote the script when he was 7, or may be he has stolen it from some 7 year old. In the end, it looks like another disaster from Yashraj camp.

Eklavya: Not the movie

Continuing from the thoughts in my previous post, another thing which is crippling the creativity among us is we only learn what we have been taught, without using our intelligence. Irony is, we are also taught that we have a wonderful analytical brain unmatched in any other living species. Don't know who to blame, the education system, which is fit to produce only clerks, the society, where we have always been taught it's not polite to question your elders or ourselves, who chose to believe whatever we have been taught and decided not to question.

I have asked this question to many people in recent past, what is the most important thing you learn from the Eklavya story that has been told to us plenty of times as a kid and probably as a grown up too. The usual answers I got are, respect your teacher, if you respect your teacher you can even learn from his statue etc. Some who probably don't understand the question answer, what Dronachaya did was not right and not ethical, Eklavya should not have given in to Drona's demands.

Well, I think the most important thing we learn from the Eklavya story is that, in order to achieve anything the most important thing is the intent to achieve it and and honest effort towards the same. If you have the right intent, you can achieve whatever you want despite not getting the desired environment and support. In order to do so you will be innovative and discover something of your own, which you probably would have never achieved had you given the desired environment and the intent was missing.

Think for once, had Dronacharya accepted Eklavya as a student, all Eklavya would have learned was what Arjun learned. But with the right intent and right effort, he learned some things that he could have never learned, had Dronacharya actually been his teacher (remember the barking dog incident, that took even Drona by surprise).

I am not saying that this is the best and the only interpretation. I am just requesting you all to start thinking beyond what you have been taught and start questioning.

PS: I believe that any literature that we read has been written from the point of view of the author and sometimes has been modified from the point of view of the editor, translator or compiler and but it is written assuming that whoever reads it is an intelligent person and will derive his meaning out of it using the gifted brain he has got.

Blind Faith

I am not sure about the rest of the world but we all know that a typical Indian blindly follows whatever he/she is asked to follow, without asking any questions. Some people reading this might not agree with me. For those people here is a recent incident from my work life.

We recently shifted to new work place and till the new automated attendance system was in place we were asked to mark our attendance in a register. The register was not kept at the entrance, it was kept in the far corner of the office where many people would not go all day if it was not only to mark the attendance. Because of this many people missed to mark their attendance in the register. Since the office was not very strict about the attendance, nobody bothered and the register was kept at that far corner for couple of months.

Later the management became very sensitive about the attendance and people started cribbing with in groups about the place where the register was kept, but nobody raised a concern. I took the initiative and placed the register at the entrance so that anyone coming to office can notice the register and mark his/her attendance. But to my surprise I noticed that next day the register was again moved to it's original place.

I decided to reason with the person who was made responsible for attendance register, and was really surprised with the reason given by that person. Before going to details of the conversation, let me tell you two things. The minimum qualification of people working in my office is graduate and since it's an analyst profile I would assume they are supposedly people with good logical reasoning ability. So following was the reason given by a highly educated person with supposedly good analytical skill.

The person in question, told me two things. One, why the register was kept at the place where it was kept and two, why it cannot be moved at the entrance. The reason for keeping the register at the far corner of the office was that the unit head used to sit there and he wanted to monitor when people are coming in. I thought that is justified, but since the unit head has moved to the cubicle close to the entrance by that logic the register should also be moved. To this the person gave me a reason which I did not understand then, he said, the register cannot be moved because now people are used to it.

Few days later I was talking to some friends about the blind faiths in India and could relate that to the above incident. What is a blind faith? We start doing something because of a reason, but keep on doing it even if the reason doesn't exist any longer. Because we are not the questioning type. The above incident is a very good example of how a blind faith is born is a period of 70 days and here we are talking about 100s and 1000s years of history and tradition.

So, people start questioning what you are doing without even knowing and understanding the reason behind that act. May be the reason doesn't exist any longer.

Is Ashok Chavan SRK's bodyguard, asks Thackeray

"Is Ashok Chavan SRK's bodyguard, asks Thackeray" reads the headline on Times of India web edition today. Had I been Mr Chavan, I would have said, "Yes, I am the bodyguard of SRK and all the other people living in Maharashtra, including you Mr Thackeray. That I think is my duty as the elected Chief Minister of the state." In addition to this, I would have also added, "Had I not been the bodyguard of yours, what would have happened to the Z+ security given to yourself and your beloved son. So you better be grateful for me taking the bodyguard's job and keep your mouth shut from spitting hatred among the people."

Reality Shows (some random thoughts)

These days there is a flood of reality shows on TV and there so many types covering many walks of life. Some of them test your talent and some test your smartness and some are game shows and some are just there to create controversy. I watch a lot of TV and since I cannot relate to any of the daily soaps, I switch to some of these reality shows. Once during a training on presentation skills, I was asked to present something on a topic of my choice and was given 5 minutes to prepare. I chose to present on reality shows and will try to write down some of those thoughts here.

I have read somewhere that the concept of reality shows was introduced by TV series COPS, started in 1989 because of Writers Guild of America strike. The show is still running and is based on real life cops work. First time something like this was introduced to Indian audience in the form of Antakshari. This idea of a reality show was introduced to me by the 1998 Jim Carrey starer popular movie The Truman Show. After coming to Mumbai in recent years I started watching Roadies, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, Americal Idol, Dance India Dance, Splitsvilla, BiG Boss, KBC, many Comedy shows etc and very recently Marriage shows, Dare to Date, Emotional Atyachar, and Music ka Maha Muqabala.

Many times people tell me that everything in these shows is scripted and well rehearsed and I tell them, what difference does that make. In the end it's all about entertainment and I am more entertained if I assume that it's real, then so be it. I am enjoying.

You need to PROVE yourself to DESERVE the RESPECT. Prove, deserve and respect being the most commonly used words in the reality shows. Sometimes it's funny to hear these words misused in weird situations. While talent based reality shows are popular the more popular ones are based on group dynamics, like Bigg Boss, Roadies, Splitsvilla. What makes audience stick to these shows is their involvement in the shows. Critical decisions in many of these shows are based on audience votes. So starting episodes focus on knowing the contestants and once audience decides on their favourites, they start voting for them. Once you vote for a contestant you want to see how he/she is performing. So it becomes like a cycle, you vote for the performance and then watch the performance because you voted. This is true in case of many talent based reality shows.

Another reason behind the popularity of these shows, which is more applicable for the shows based on group dynamics, is that they make the audience relate to the characters. In my personal opinion, since there is not much social life left in urban Indian society, these shows make the audience feel closer to the society. These shows become a part of the social life for the audience.

Last but not the least you have some usual suspects who have perfected the art of being on a reality show. Himesh Reshamiya, Malaika Arora, Abhijit, Alka Yagnik, Anu Mallik, Ranavijay, Nikhil Chinappa to name a few. Then there are star appearances to promote their upcoming movies, most popular appearances being of SRK, Salman and Amitabh.

I don't read the newspaper, because they all have ugly prints

I used to read newspapers earlier but now a days the only thing close to a newspaper I read is Mumbai Mirror. There are two reasons for that, one, it's magazine sized and easy to hold when you are doing something that doesn't require eyes and hands. Other is that they claim to be a masala paper and they print what they claim.

As a kid my parents and school teachers used to tell me to read newspapers to be aware of the goings on around us. Since I always liked to read I used to read the newspaper and it was my only way to be aware of the recent events. Today there are so many modes available for the same and my favourite is internet, because of very obvious reasons.

Besides availability of other mediums these newspapers have lost what they used to stand for. What would you say when Tiger Woods' sex stories are covered in sports pages along with what Eva Langoria bought on her b'day and what is Victoria Beckham's shopping schedule and what is Cheryl Cole's holiday plan. When all you can get on the cover page is IPL auctions, film awards and celebrity b'day parties.

I think the reason for calling these so called news stories page 3 news was to restrict all these stories in one single page and that is the 3rd page and not front page. Unfortunately there are so many page 3 these days. These days journalism is not based on stories rather it's based on persons. Like sports news is not sports news, it's sport person's news. Water quality is Hritik Roshan's bathroom happens to be a bigger news than many thirsty Mumbaikars.

By the way, I would rather read Filmfare, if I had to read about celebrities. At least they use better pages and print.

How obviously fake can it get?

It's funny when Shiv Sena talks about not letting Australian cricketers play in Mumbai, because of the attacks on Indians in Australia. If anything Shiv Sena should be supporting Australians in their attacks. If we go by the ideology of the party that brought this very particular party into political map, people from other parts of country should not be allowed to come into Mumbai for job opportunities and if anyone does so they should be thrown out by force.

Not sure about the realities in Australia but even if we go by whatever is being claimed in media, they are not doing anything different from what Shiv Sena and MNS did and are yet doing to non-Marathi residents of Mumbai.

In a classic case of opportunism I heard the party leader saying, "agar IPL walon me thoda bhi desh prem hai to wo Australians to IPL me khelne nahi denge." I just want to ask one question, "where is this desh prem when your party workers beat up the citizens of the same country?"