Let's Make a Difference!

I hate waking up early... even if that means getting late for office...
Yet, i wake up early every weekend.. so I don't get late for my guitar lessons...

Every saturday morning... when i'm up & having my tea or reading the morning news; there is a bell that goes off... sometimes i ignore it.. sometimes they go away... other times they ring a bell again... sometimes i just scream whose there... at other times i answer it... i inevitably always know who it is going to be... yet, sometimes, i just go & see & from the balcony of my 1st floor, i look down upon an orange singlet clad Shani Maharaj.. I look at him in anger & scream "kitni baar bola hai humari ghanti mat bajaya karo! (how many times have i asked you not to ring our bell)"... it angers me how an able-bodied man can go door-to-door begging... for God's sake, his belly is bigger than my dad's... this begging thing, really gets on my nerves!

If you have your hands & feet intact, why resort to begging? there are a million things you can do... pull a rickshaw... polish shoes.. mop the floors... you can even do nautanki.. at least you will entertain people in exchange of the money... what about selling balloons, or books on the roadside.. or even home made candles & agarbattis... there are so many things you can do apart from begging! I know people say, don't say you understand, cuz you don't, you are not in those shoes... but the fact is... i have seen poverty.. & begging is no way to emerge out of it... there is no pride in it.. there are a million who are poor... just go to the villages of Kerela (my home town) or Bihar or you know what, i can count multiple poor places.. & none of them take pride in begging... they take pride in their culture & stand for themselves... just check out Raghurajpur... the people there are poor.. but they don't beg... in fact, they have created a legacy & made Raghurajour the heritage crafts village of Odisha.

Isn't it a wonder that a poor farmer started a legacy? he turned the whole village into a sea of artists.. have you ever witnessed such fan following of a poor farmer that the whole village aspires to be him???

Can you imagine, that to ensure his legacy continues, the village has a Gurukul that is free of cost??? Here in Urban India, we pay tons & tons of tuition fee for vocational trainings for our children that they are least bit interested in pursuing as career... & there, they create employment opportunity absolutely free of cost... they create their own motifs.. natural colors... & their own artwork.. it is creativity at its best... & what makes them happy is the awe-d look on your face when you see it... buy it... that is the real passion for work... isen't it? & how fair is it that these artist put in all their creativity.. all their passion... all their hard work into a piece of art that they create in time ranging over days & weeks & sometimes even months; to get not a fraction of the real value of the master piece that they so rigorously created? How fair is it that the middle-men pocket almost all of the profit? How fair is it that these people do not fall down to begging but the middle-men fall down to stealing from them? Of course this is stealing... mark ups are not supposed to be more than 17%!

It's not fair & it's not right... If these artist are in the lines of utmost dignity, nobody should have the right to leech off them... there should be a way to surpass these middlemen so these artist can get what they righly deserve... Let's give them a platform that they rightly deserve... a platform that can help them showcase what they have to the world.. & it does not take a lot.. all it takes is a website that links them to the whole world (of acknowledgement & opportunity)... These artist with their everyday moves makes our lives colorful... let's return the favor & make their lives just as colorful! Let's make a difference!

This post has been written for the "Do Right!" contest.
#DoRight helps many such causes... Want to help the poor stand for themselves... visit DoRight!

You Make Me Smile!

"Hi, this is Diana"
"Hi"
"I need to speak to somebody by the name G! who has a blog called geets13.blogspot.in"
"This is me... my name is Geeta" I said with a chuckle!
Diana had called 2 days in advance to reconfirm if I was coming to the Indiblogger meet... & I sure was going!

A day before the event... i had a mail sitting in my inbox imploring me to share my travel pics... so there is a contest before the event even starts.. in fact, the event starts with with the results of a contest... great way to have people come to your event in time... & a stupendous way to make your hash tag a trending hash tag.. woah #skyscanning... a successful hash tag helps you build thousands of followers within a day.. imagine if the same hash tag was being promoted by 400 people at one time!!! woah... huge!!!

You may think what a weird thing to mention.. but the fact is.. as a marketer.. i tend to notice such things... so when i reached Le Meridien (dot on time)... there were a handful of people... as it was my first time at the meet... knowing anyone here personally... was sorta impossible... so I just struck a conversation with a lost soul.. she looked like an introvert... so i asked her what is it that she blogs about & travel it was.. i was like... cool.. a travel enthusiast & blogger at a meet that has been organized by a travel search engine... I many be a misfit... but we continued talking & she asked me how many people will be coming.. i said, this is my first time here.. but my guess is even if there is a 3/4th drop ratio.. it still should be around a 100... that's the ratio we marketers in the IT field use... so it was my estimate!

By the time the registrations opened... the place was flooded... my estimate of a 100 was definitely surpassed.. I was surprised to see that apart from the singlet bloggers... there were couples & families.. commendable, i thought to myself.. on one hand.. my family does not understand what i keep keying into my computer.. & other hand, there are families that are doing it together... so cool... I was so amused by this... so amused, that I was amongst the last few to key in my name into the registration lappies in front of us...

By chance, the lady in front of my registration lappy was Diana & I asked her if she could let me know how this event will pan out... (she remembered me... as the somebody by the name G!... i must say commendable.. to remember the people who registered with your event for the 1st time! I was pleasantly surprised!).. she guided me to Karthik.. he first offered me a lanyard & then we walked & talked... the man is patient... with the no. of things he was supposed to do (including the transfer of gifts from lobby to inside the Sovereign ball room, which he had right there in his hands), he still answered my questions... till he got a call... he suggested to have fun.. well.. that was my intention in the first place!

I recced the ball room.. a round table set up with 7-8 chairs per table... a big podium... the stage was at least 1 feet high... 1 backdrop.. 2 screens... 2 each of 3 uniques standees.. the white & light blue colors (a standee also had a green).. so soothing to the eyes... i noticed that gift wrapping was in silver.. it all felt joyous. I have been in the same room before.. last year I attended a CII Infrastructure Management Services based event here... they only used half the space though... the funny part is... I don't recall much more about the event except that even though it was in the same location, that one was dull... but it did bring a sweet memory.. The Le Meridien fish! As I turned my head to the food area.. my sight was flooded with people... Alright.. I remembered... we start the meet with lunch... Oh yea.. the foodie in me was exhilirated! The fish there.. & the jalebi.. if I would have died right then.. I would have gone in peace!

But because I did not die... I made friends.. The networking guy in me made me wanna meet as many people as I can... within 30 mins of chit chat I had found 4 people who were connected with me via IndiVine... I got to know that the most common form of blog is the "Personal" blog... people tend to find their niche basis their passion off the same... travel.. technology.. food.. fashion.. they are a subset... that become your niche basis your knowledge!

There were about 400 unknown faces there... but somehow.. it still was so warm & welcoming... you could just walk up to anyone & start like with a fresh page... I even made blogger friends in the little ladies room.. actually, I made a red pants blogger sister team with the IndianHomeMaker... She had been to 4 - 5 blogger meets before.. so she assured me it will be fun... & was it fun!!!

I mean.. we started the meet with lunch.. followed by the contest results (the tripod selfie guy won the domestic travel tickets... hmph.. So Jealous man!) hmmmm, i thought now will be some serious stuff.. so I seated myself... I sat with a bunch of 4 boys.. we introduced ourselves... 2 of them were tech bloggers... 1 was a love & relationship blogger & the 4th one had a personal blog... 2 more guys joined us.. both of them were tech bloggers too... this table has too many engineers I thought to myself... Note - I am an engineer too! & you know what engineers do when they are in a class... They Sleep... So bring on your salesy pitch Skyscanner.. we are ready to sleep it off... But Indiblogger surprised us... there was yet another contest... The selfie contest!!! more hash tags for skyscanning i thought!

If you know me.. you would know that I am soooooooooooo not a fan of the selfie... unless it is the coveted selfie I take at my photographer friend's studio (click Aman Shaw if interested in a folio).. who is it that I wanna go with on a domestic vacation here??? you know who I chose? The bhoot.

My tag line - Merepe travel ka bhoot chada!

you know who won?
ofcourse... not me...
it was the honeymoon couple...
they are happy & gay... (sheer pun - nobody sue me, okay!)

we had the power to choose which 2 people go for the domestic tour... & off the 4 pictures selected... maximum votes went to the honeymoon couple.. if only Barney Stinson was here.. he would have witnessed the Indian bromance!

This was followed by a very brief session about Sky scanner... when.. where.. how... I am in love with everything English.. so I was interested in the story... the fact that Skyscanner was formed by 3 Scottish men because 1 of them was having troubles finding cheap flights to ski resorts.. makes me believe "in every trouble, lies an opportunity" (if nobody said that already, I'd like a copyright)... such an inspiration... We simultaneously had the tweet about your International travel dream destination contest (more hash tags.. btw.. i won a cool wrist band USB for my tweet - if I find it cool as a marketer... imagine how the non-marketers feel)... Then we moved onto actually learning about the Skyscanner app.. okay, so.. I have been to multiple events.. trust me when I say, this was the most fun!

I mean who does a Treasure hunt to teach someone how to use an app... this was sooooo much better than doing a regular demo.. there is something about direct interface... & skyscanner got it bang on.. by giving us a treasure hunt... they were able to teach us how to use the sky scanner app... it is a user friendly app... I can say so.. because i was the designated find out the cost as per the permutations of travel from location X to Y in my team... This also helped skyscanner learn the thought process of their end customer & they may be bring in some tweaks to suit their Indian customers... we din't win this one.. but it was great fun working with so many people for the first time.. & there was no fighting or screaming.. or expectations... we all wanted to win... but it was pure fun & games! I even got the Indiblogger photographer to take a group picture of our entire team!

This was followed by hi-tea (how english :)) with the croissants & the pastries... oh sweet delight... but what was sweeter was the fact that a fashion blogger walked upto me & said "you're a fashion blogger.. right?".. She was a quite sure that I am... & complimented me quite a bit for my style.. I told her how my sister is a fashion merchandiser & just hates my style... but she re-assured, that i look awesome... now c'mon... let me bask a bit in this... all women like to be complimented... even if it is fake.. & this one felt damn real!!!

It had been a good day by far... & then started the share your travel stories... I was grinning ear to ear when the doctor couple (wife) told about their their sweet love story... it sounded like travelling binds them! i was all "aaaaaaaaawwwwie" in my head... & must have laughed at something when the Indiblogger photographer took a solo photo of me.. I am photogenic & I think the picture came out cute... so thank you!

Then we had a open panel on the safest places... you know.. which is the safest place.. SINGAPORE!!! Like Singapore.. seriously?? In 1945, (right after the war - Battle of Sgp & Japanese Occupation) Singapore had shortage of food... no electricity... no water supply... & hence... extreme crime & violence.. & India preached non-violence in 1947.. & Singapore is the safest country??? It is... It really is!! In 2011... Law of Index ranked Singapore in the top countries surveyed for Order & Security.... If Singapore can do it.. so can we.. right? We also discussed about the safety of women.. I have already penned down my thoughts about the same here. That was some brainstorming I must say.. but the fun wasn't over... Becuase.. I have never seen a 400 people single shot picture taken before... & it happened right there... woah... what fun... & a great meet came to an end...

So... we all walked outta the door... in a line as suggested... it amused me that 400 people actually cared enough to follow instructions after a meeting.. I mean my experience tells me that after a 1/2 a day event... everyone rushes at the door like it will magically expand & allow everyone through!!! hahaha... but not here.. this sorta discipline... just fabulous... & it had a perfect reason... as we all moved outta the room... we were handed 2 tee-shirts each (both skyscanner & indiblogger - i love the fact that I now have a tee shirt that I can proudly wear & which clearly states that "no animals were harmed in the making of my blog"... we moved along & were handed a pouch & a tag... I loved the tag... as marketers... we like to give souvenirs that people will keep & use... I mean.. if im travelling & have an skyscanner tag on my luggage... not only is it easier to locate... but also draws attention of fellow travelers... & the pouch opened up into a bag.. so damn cool!!!

The day ended at that & I got home to unwind.. thought about adding a few fellow bloggers i met onto my Indivine network... & got to the indiblogger page.. & voila.. the pictures from the event were uploaded already... I mean none of my vendors has ever given me the photographs/videos of my event before 2 days & here.. it was a matter of few hours... & there already were likes & tags & comments.. & a fellow blogger asked me if I had struck a deal with the event photographer for taking solo pictures of me (I got 2, you see).. & all i had to say was, oh dear boy... I'm photogenic... a photographer's delight! He's delighted & so am I.. hahahaha!!! & the day ended on this high note.. I must say.. this Indiblogger-Skyscanner meet made my entire day an absolute delight!

Thank You - You Made me smile!

How Airtel Wrongs its Pre-Paiders!

I am a marketer... & I've been working for over 5 years now... my work involves long hours, late nights & traveling... all the things that people dread.. but i still love my line of work! a key thing about being a marketer is we always need to be connected.. to work... to colleagues.. to vendors... to partners... to clients... we hapta be available online 24x7.. not that we don't have time for ourselves... but what happens if you have a delivery time line for 12 midnight today & you expect the vendor to send you the .tif file at 9PM... what do you do? do you stay in office till 9 for a .tif file? Do you come home & sit on your lappy till 9? or do you just have the outlook installed on your iPhone so you can receive the .tif file & forward it to the printers in Singapore via a touch while you are partying out with friends???

The last one sounds like a good option eh? I do that... I am always online... even when I am on leave.. the mail exchanges never stop... hey.. can you share the no. of the vendor who made the travel backdrop... contact shared via iMessage... vendor shares the layout of the eDM... it gets finalized over BBM.... what a great event we hosted.. posted on twitter! Boss gets awarded the leader's choice trophy... picture posted on facebook... Wanna make the picture look vintage.. Instagramed it right on my phone... have a meeting at a location i don't know.. hey you "google maps"... during the meeting the vendor suggest why not use flash banners like ABC company did at their website... google ABCcompany.com... Friend calls between the meeting to check on tonight's plan.. *call disconnect.. whatsapp sent - In a meeting.. will call you back..

The life of a marketer is exhausting.. so what do we do to relax? I love listening to new music... so i tune into Jango from the phone while heading home... sometimes i go for a run... i track my distance & calories burned with mapmyrun... i also unwind by running around (i mean temple run).. sometimes i watch movies.. thank you so much bookmyshow app... sometimes i jam with my club... or house party at my photographer friends' studio... we take a few pictures.. share them via whatsapp... omg.. the no. of whatsapp groups that I am on is not even funny man! but, the fact is... all these are the things that make my exhausting life exhilarating!

one day... one of my office colleagues asked me for my phone to make a quick call... as soon as he disconnected the phone & was in the process of returning it back to me, he noticed something amusing... "Last call charge - Rs 3.42, current balance amount - Rs. 286.39".. i think he was more like in a shock than amused... he handed me the phone & said (like I am not aware of this fact) - "you have a pre-paid" (it sounded like i gave him my phone a post-paid & he did something to it that made it a pre-paid... i said "yes" & he just looked at me... absolutely befuddled!

See, the thing about working is, most people carry a post-paid... & the thing about iPhone is.. there are so many things (read updates) that keep happening (read installation) to it automatically... that carrying an iPhone without an Internet pack would mean you must be the kid of Tata/Birla/their equivalent... see.. accessing the outlook... exchanging iMessages.. chat over BBM/whatsapp... twitter/facebook updates.. using instagram/google/google maps/mapmyrun... tuning into Jango... playing temple run... all these things require a tap into the world of the Internet.. not to forget the numerous app updates & software upgrades... all these things require the Internet... it is obvious that anyone who knows how much I use the Internet would be more than shocked on knowing that I am on a pre-paid plan..

But this has a reason.. my dad is on the post-paid plan & neither him nor I can ever understand what the extras are that he is billed for... Did you know that these telecom companies thrive on their post-paid clientele & bill them for VAS like it's nobody's business; they actually think post-paiders are too ignorant too check their bills... The fact is.. pre-paid is safer than post-paid because -

a) you see an immediate update for every deduction that happens

b) you are not on the radar of these telecom giants, their focus really is minting from the post-paiders

I have kept both a pre-paid & a post-paid connection... & I know for a matter of fact that when my pre-paid billed me INR 500-700/-, my post-paid charges were INR 2200-2500/-

I have been a loyal customer of #Airtel for over a decade now... & I noticed this pattern on the 2 - 3 times i shifted from pre-paid to post paid.. Though, i never could figure out how my 500 became 2500, the fact is... i know it did... & i guess i have a rough idea how.

Recently, (the last week of December'13), I got a message from #Airtel saying "your Internet pack will be renewed within 3 days".. I checked my balance & it said 150 something... so I relaxed... suddenly just before New Years, I was unable to access my FB or send any whatsapp/BBM messages or even send regular text... What the hell... i check my balance & at 11 in the night, it says, 0 balance... 0... i had not seen a 0 balance in ages.. i could not even connect with the customer care cuz you have to pay 50 paise for every 3 mins, you know. So i got myself a recharge & called the customer care the next day... they told me that as I did not have enough balance.. my Internet plan was not renewed & hence all my balance was used up  for Internet usage.. They said I had 120 & needed 125 for the recharge... My obvious question was.. should I not at least get a message from you saying it has been deactivated???

That's when the customer care mentioned that the renewal is showing as pending hence I did not get the deactivated message... They suggested that now as my no. is recharged, the pack will get auto renewed & I should relax... so... anger subsided.. I thanked them for resolving my query & disconnected... 3 days later I was unable to Google something... I tried facebook, didn't open... whatsapp, the network just dint come... & then I did the *123# & to my horror.. it was 0 balance again. Oh the hell! How on earth is this possible. I got another recharge along with the Internet pack & called the damn gold care thingy in the glory of my anger.. "namaskaar.. #Airtel me aapka swagat hai.. mai XYZ aapki kya seva kar sakta hu"... Hi, Im Geeta... i called about this before.. my Internet pack dint get renewed... pending... recharge... will get auto renewed.. 500,.. now 0..." i told him my entire story... "ji, madam, mai aapko batana chahunga ki aapnay Hindi IVR mei call kia hai... kripiya apni samasya hindi mei bataye"... this had it for me... I am angry & the ass is asking me tell him my problem in Hindi, instead of English... so, here's is the concern with that.. As I am born to a Malayalee father & a Sindhi mother, the language that comes to me naturally is English... & its a known fact, that when people are extremely angry or extremely loving, they converse in the language they are most comfortable with... so, when i am shouting/fighting.. it is english... my hindi just fails me there!

so i tell the guy transfer my call to someone who knows english... he tells me he will arrange for a call back within 4 hours... I get a call back the next morning & we reach a conclusion that #Airtel will reimburse the 620 hit that I had to take as my Internet pack was not renewed & i did not get a deactivation message either. I casually also told them that I need to be connected to the English call center instead of the Hindi one next time on... they told me how to change my selected language... I told them my selected language is English, they asked me to try this one more time & then call back. I tried & called back & someone said the same "Namaskaar, #Airtel mei ...." script. I asked him if he knows English, he said yes... I told him that I was just checking if changing my IVR language worked or not for changing my call center preferences... & then disconnected.

A month passed & i forgot about this incident... & then I got the Internet pack will be deactivated message.. I called the customer care saying I want this to be auto renewal.. "yes... autorenewal... i do your Internet pack... autorenewal.. yes.. no" I was connected to the Hindi call center again.. i told the guy that I need to be connected to the english call center.. he said "main aapko batana chahunga ki apni bhasha ko badlanay ki liye.. kripya XYZ karay" I told him my language is preset to english.. so he pretended he did not hear that & hung up the phone in my face... I got irritated, but as the Internet pack was done, I did not bother calling again!

Another month passed, we are at 28th Feb 2014 now & I got the Internet pack will be deactivated message again... what the hell on this earth??? I called up #Airtel again to ask what this deal is.. some guy (think his name is Abhishek) answered who knew English.. he told me "maam, I can do an Internet pack on your phone which will be auto renewal based... but I will advise you to rather call back after 2 days & get this done on March 2nd, as you have enough & more balance on your current pack"... satisfied.. i hung up.. I would have even recommeded that this is the best Gold care executive of #Airtel that i have spoken to in the last 4 - 5 years, if i would have gotten that survey #Airtel used to send before... I personally feel their quality of Gold Service Advisers has drastically dipped... I wonder if they are even trained in the processes... & i wonder if that's the reason why that "give your valuable feedback" thingy has been stopped... Guess #Airtel already knows how much their current Gold care advisers suck!

so, 2 days later when i call.. its the same fight.. OMG... somebody talk to me in Enlish.. "I will make you call back.. my supervisor.. u dont understand.. I dont understand" at 9 in the morning, while trying to make the guy understand my complain... i wanted to bang my head on the wall so hard that it smashes... I called 3 - 4 times as the advisers kept hanging up on me.. I was told how to change my language (which wasn't my complaint).. i was told that someone will call me back (nobody did)... so i got pissed & wrote #Airtel a mail... & guess what response I got from Mr. Santhosh Rao.K

Dude... Did you even read my mail... it clearly said my language is preset to English.. & thanks to you, now I know that #Airtel charged me an extra 36 for Hello tunes... I always suspected you charged me twice/thrice for the Neon ringtone I have had for years now.... how many 36s is that 1 accountable for?

The #Airtel dude tells me the steps to change my IVR language to English, when my mail clearly stated that your "brainless gold care executives" tell me the process of changing my IVR language instead of registering a complain that I am being connected to the Hindi call center instead of the English one... This is something that #Airtel has to look into not I...

Most of the times I call #Airtel... its gold customer care has trouble following me as they do not understand English... they conveniently pretend that they cannot hear a thing & they hang up... if it were a one off incident... I would have ignored... but I think its a part of the Airtel strategy... If you cannot understand the customer & the conversation is becoming a drag for you our darling gold care executives, feel free to hang up the phone in our pre-paid customer faces.. they do not mean much business to us any which way!

All I wanna ask is -

Hey you.. #Airtel... is that really the way you are planning on treating your loyalists? Really? If this is how you treat us pre-paiders... i can't even begin to imagine how you loot your post-paiders.

Signing off!

An infuriated-wronged pre-paider.

P.S. Am I only the one who has noticed this?