Food Crisis. Surprised? No.

Vir Sanghvi is a jury member that selects contestants who appear on the new Shahrukh Khan quiz show 'Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain?' which is Indian version of globally hit show 'Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?'. (Counterpoint, Hindustan Times,27th April)

He has seen the tapes of peoples' auditions for the show and read their forms and on the basis of this he gives his version of 'Mood of the Nation Poll' albeit softened to be called 'Mood of the Middle India'. The middle class is cheerful, doesn't complain about anything and is hopeful about the future. TV and Mobile are integral parts of life and everyone wears good clothes and looks prosperous. But what about food?

You may laugh at this question. What about food, we have more pressing issues to think about than worry about something as lowly as food. You have money and you can buy food. But in this country where agriculture minister is more interested in running the richest sports body in the country (BCCI) and finance minister is bothered about rise and fall of sensex more than rise of fiscal deficit, food is still one of the biggest expenses for many Indians who don't own TV and mobile.

For many years now, agriculture growth has languished at less than 2% but continuous double digit growth figures in other sectors of economy have ensured that we shine as 'one of the fastest growing economies'. Not that this fact was not known, but for Indian media the agriculture crisis meant farmer suicides in Vidarbha only. No body talked about reducing productivity of Indian fields, more farmers moving to growing cash crops (sugar, cotton, jute etc.) rather than food grains and incoherent Government policies which would motivate farmers to sell to open market rather than Government and hence cause a supply demand imbalance.

And the usual cockiness that comes with money! We can afford to go to costliest hotels and restaurants and food was something we took for granted. We thought that we have reached stage where food security was something as natural as ... well food itself!

Western countries had their special contribution in aggravating problem. Surge in use of BioFuel ensured more cultivation and use of sugar crops like sugarcane and beet and maize and corn for producing fuel, lead to shortage of these for human consumption!

The need of the hour is to estimate our needs and necessities honestly and realistically. Think of whole country and just not focus on 'resurgent' middle class. Remember what happened to 'India Shining' campaign?

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'Paanchvi Pass' Facebook Application fails.

Now that IPL has generated massive interest across the country and is getting headline coverage across news channels, the general entertainment channels are leaving no stones unturned to ensure that their programs get viewer shares too.

Star Plus is launching new reality game show based on super successful 'Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?' hosted by Shahrukh Khan, 'Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hai?'. Star has launched a Facebook application called 'Paanchvi Pass' which promises to give you loads of prizes if you answer all the questions correcly.All very good. I played the quiz and at most times ignored the fact that questions were no where related to syllabus of fifth class. However the problem is that some questions have wrong answers!

For example, the game tells you that first novel of James Bond series is 'Diamonds are Forever'.Actually it is 'Casino Royale'. Kolar is famous for its gold mines not Copper, the right answer would have been 'Khetri'.

These are only two of the bloopers I noticed. There can be many. I wanted to,but could not find any link for feedback. Even finding contest rules is a challenge!

It is a good idea and may be I wouldn't have written this post, had there been no talk of any prize or anything. For those who like quizzing it would have been a good timepass but when there is booty involved, you must have your house in order else you are cheating your users.

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In the Nilgiris: Ooty, Coonoor, Wellington and everywhere between them!

My tourist spirits sank as I saw perhaps the first (and hence the oldest!) ATR Turbo Prop of Air Deccan whose age was in complete contrast to the spanking new Hyderabad International Airport from where it was getting ready to fly to Coimbatore. However some good photo ops in the plane and greenery of Coimbatore city cheered me up as we landed at surprisingly small and comfortingly cozy Coimbatore airport.
My plan was to take the Nilgiri Passenger to Ooty from Mettupalayam, a small town at the foothills of Nilgiris and a hub for public and goods transport to the hill towns. This train, popularly known as Toy Train covers a distance of 46 km in 5 hours uphill and in 3.5 hours on return journey. So I took a bus to Mettupalayam in the night itself, stayed there in a lodge (you can find plenty of accomodation there at very economic prices) so that I could take the train in the morning.

Buses ply from Coimbatore to Mettupalayam every half an hour from Mettupalayam bus stand which is very near to Coimbatore's main bus stand,Gandhipuram. Mettupalayam is a small town which is at the foothills of Nilgiris at the doorstep of Coonoor and Ooty. It can be reached from Chennai via Coimbatore by Nilgiri Express which reaches here at 6.30 am. Just in time for you to get the toy train to Ooty which departs at 7.10 am.

Under normal circumstances, I would have got the tickets but since this was a long weekend, there were no tickets available. Normally, the Mettupalayam railway station booking office opens at 5.30 am(!) and you should be there early to book your tickets, but if you are travelling in peak tourist seasons, keep in mind that you need to get your tickets reserved (yes, reserved for a passenger train!) atleast a day in advance.

I thought quickly (which means that after getting a non-commital answer from station master about ticket availability and a very early breakfast of idli-vada in station canteen, I sat for about half an hour!) and decided to take a bus to Ooty and then board the return train towards Mettupalayam. For the entire 1 hour journey till Coonoor I hanged precariously near the gate so that I could get a better view of the mountains and valleys. If you have been to an IMAX theater (where entire view in front of your eyes covered with screen) you would understand how it feels when all you can see is lush green forest covered slope of a hill, unmarred by any tree or telephone wires!

Coonoor is a beautiful town with major tourist attractions and perhaps the largest market among its neighboring villages and towns like Wellington, Arwankad, Kattaji etc. Nilgiri district is famous for tea. You must have heard of Nilgiri tea, which is prominent alongside Darjeeling tea and Assam tea. Coonoor is the headquarter of United Planters Association of South India and has one of the seven tea auction houses in India! The slopes of Nilgiri around Coonoor and neighboring towns are covered with tea gardens which often surround their owner tea factories.

Coonoor is just 19 km from Ooty but due to very bad (and at places dangerously narrow!) road the journey takes about 1.5 hrs. However once I reaced Ooty, all the potholes in the road were forgiven! Sitting undisturbed and unhurried on Udhagamandalam (Ooty) railway station, with Mark Tully's 'The Heart Of India' in hand I thanked God for being so kind to me as to give me such a beautiful experience!

After waiting about 2 hrs,the journey in Nilgiri Passenger seemed a bit of an anticlimax. 10 people were crammed in a space sufficient for 6 and I had much better views of the scenery from the bus (actually, I was hardly able to shoot anything!). However this journey turned out to be surprisingly memorable when one of my co-passengers turned out to be a guy I had met during SSB Bhopal, 9 years ago. He recognized me when TC called out my name (I was the only one to be called, everyone else had got their tickets checked!) and I surprised even myself with instantaneously recognizing him!

I got down at Wellington, a typical military town; crisp, clean and smart. For those who don't know, Wellington houses Army Staff College. My brother was undergoing a course there and I was visiting him. His home happened to be in a location that will make a good hotel proud! Panoramic view of entire Wellington surrounded by hills on all sides covered by endearing silence.

Around 5 km from Coonoor lies 'Lamb's Rock' on the way to 'Dolphin's nose' which is another 5 km. The road to both these extremely popular view points is extremely bad and narrow but provides amazing views. On one side you will see clouds floating in the valley and on the other you can savor the greenery of the tea gardens. On a clear day, which is VERY rare due to mist and clouds hanging around, you can see as far as Mettupalayam. At Dolphin's nose we tasted different types of tea and my pick is 'Chocolate Tea' which actually tastes like hot chocolate and has a special method for preparation. An absolute recommendation. And the famous 'Orange Pekoe' which sells for as much as 600 rs/kg!

I love the smell of tea and though I am not an avid tea conneissour, I love its rich aroma. So while our tea factory guide at Brooklands Tea Factory was showing and explaining various steps involved in the process of making packaged tea from leaves, I was trying to assimilate that wonderful smell for my memories!

Kotagiri is 20 km from Coonoor and believe it or not, I went there just because the road is good and I had a two-wheeler! Facing the gust of wind, you can feel the chill in the air if you pass under shadow of tree even for a few meters. I know I was driving a little too fast and on this road where you can turn about 270 degree without seeing the straight road, this was not wise but no doubt exciting!

There are many more places to visit in Coonoor and Ooty. But if you are a nature lover you will find beauty at every step of the Nilgiris.

Here are the photos:

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Bollywood Trivia: Om Shanti Om

(Courtesy: Picture This, NDTV 24x7)
The climax of Om Shanti Om was lifted from old classic 'Madhumati'. In this movie's climax when Madhumati's look-alike gets delayed, Madhumati's ghost herself appears to seek revenge.

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Handle With Care: India-China Relations!

CNN-IBN has a knack of surprising its viewers. They talked to Saurav Ganguly about his reaction to Baichung Bhutia's decision of not carrying Olympic Torch as a way of showing support to Tibetan movement. I wondered aloud, how the heck does Ganguly come into picture here! Bhutia hails from Sikkim and he said he is a Buddhist and wants to show his support to Tibetan movement. Ganguly is not a Buddhist, he doesn't belong to Sikkim or anyother state that has issues with China (unless you consider Left's Chinese infatuation!) and what's more he was not going to carry the torch!

However I think, had someone asked foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee his opinion about Bhutia's decision, he might have said 'Baichung Bhutia is a respected player of India and we would continue to offer him all hospitality but he should not do anything that will adversely affect Indo-China relations'.

He might have added that newspapers which publish stories about Chinese intrusions in Indian territory or Chinese building bunkers and road along India-China border and LAC (Line of Actual Control) are respected media houses but they are adversely affecting India-China relations.

I don't know if he called up Indian envoy to China Nirupama Rao to tell her that even if Chinese external affairs ministry keeps on calling her at 2 am she should happily go else it may 'adversely affect Indo-China relations'.

But I think he would not be losing sleep over German Chancellor Anjela Merkel's decision to not attend Beijing Olympics opening ceremony or French President Nicholas Sacozy's threat of France boycotting the games since that may not 'adversely affect Indo-China relations'. Also Pranab da should be terribly happy with his colleague Shivraj Patil's ministry which has downplayed Chinese threats to India and protrayed China as a superpower with a great impact on this region politically, economically and militarliy. This would have enforced India-China relations to a great deal!

I hope I won't be told now to stop writing something that 'adversely affects Indo-China relations'!

(If you are wondering what is this about read here)

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Reliance Fresh doesn't believe in Customer Care.

3 bananas, 2 oranges, 1 mango and 1 bunch of grapes. No, I am not going to give a maths question where given the price of each of them, you have to tell my total expense. The sophesticated machines at Reliance Fresh outlets can do that easily and much more!

That is how my fruits and vegetables shopping list generally reads.

Reliance Fresh was blessing in disguise of a store when it opened. The quality of fruits and vegetables was amazing! So fresh, so photo-like! I was happily surprised. It made shopping for groceries and fruits and vegetables not only convenient but also a fun activity.

But it didn't last that long. The store started filling up with general items and fruits and vegetables started taking the backseat. Mostly I buy tomatoes and they were no longer fresh or photo-like but rotten or raw! Carrots were in pathetic shape as well. But I didn't complain, though muttered silently.

Things had deteriorated. You didn't get the freebees if you didn't demand!

Lately they started a scheme where you get sprouts or cut vegetables at 50% off (so that they rot in your kitchen not at their store!). One day I found stuff that was past its Best-Before date. I complained and it was removed from the shelf, but that was not the last time it happened. After that also I found sprouts and vegetables past their usable date.

But the worse was yet to come. My friend found fungus on cut sugarcane which was not even past the Best Before date. He went to return that and complained to the customer care person.The stuff was returned but he was bluntly told that if had problems better he should not purchase from the store. His threats of complaining were blunted with 'do whatever you want to'.


But he could not complain. Because there is no where you can lodge a complaint.

Can you believe Reliance Fresh doesn't have a website of it's own? Or for that matter Ranger Farms? or Reliance Retail? They don't have a customer care email id where you can send in your feedback. You search on internet and you get just a marketing page about Reliance Retail or some unofficial pages about Reliance Fresh.

This is unacceptable and unbelievable that there is almost no emphasis on customer care. I hope Bharti-Walmart and Aditya Birla Group's more will change this scenario and if Reliance does not care for us then may be we too should care a damn for them.

Technorati Tags: Reliance Fresh, Retail, Customer Care

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Trip to BhimaShankar and Tryambak.

(Read it on rediff.com: Visiting the Holy and High Abode of Shiva!)

How I wish that title could be 'A Trek in BhimaShankar and Tryambak'! But illplanning cost us heavily and what I had hoped for a challenging trek trip turned out to be just a little more than travel trip. But nevertheless this was a memorable trip simply because I got opportunity to two of the holiest places in India. Can't feel luckier than that!

Hyderabad-Pune was uneventful, if you discount Narayan's tryst with APSRTC, and we reached Sivaji Nagar in Pune at the promised time. (You will have to give this to APSRTC, they are the most punctual luxury bus operators I have travelled with.) After a brief stopever in a 'lodge',that made us wonder if it was a 'Decent Hotel' (remember 'Jab We Met'?), we took a bus to BhimaShankar from Sivaji Nagar bus stand. This was a big mistake.

If you are planning to trek in BhimaShankar, do NOT take direct bus from Sivaji Nagar to BhimaShankar. It will take you all the way to top of the hills and leave you at almost doorstep of temple! Take the train from Sivaji Nagar railway station to Karjaat. That is where the trekking actually starts.

BhimaShankar is 125 km from Pune and the bus takes 4 hours. Yes 4 hours! The road is extremely bad in most part and the rattle of MRTC bus gave me a headache! You can also get cab to BhimaShankar if you want, though expense will be on a higher side.

BhimaShankar is one of the 12 Jyotirlings and hence I was surprised (or shocked!) by absolute lack of security in the temple. The metal detector was off, the security guys were selling laddoos and I was allowed to go in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple with my bag which was not even touched for checking. However once I was in all my scepticism vanished and I felt blessed that Lord facilitated me to have His darshan! I just thanked God for his great mercy and came out.

And though MTDC has no presence what so ever, the nature gives you an eyeful! View of Sahyadri Hills and the valley is spectacular. The heights are dangerous and enticing simultaneously. The rocks are covered with thick green and you can feel the expanse even in the air. It's a tremendous feeling being there.

You must spend atleast a couple of days here to be able to trek and explore the entire area properly. I was very disappointed that I could not roam around the place at all and tried to lessen that disappointment by taking some photographs!

Next destination was Nasik, where we had to spend the night before moving to Tryambak. After a hopping bus journey (BhimaShankar-Manchar-NarayanGaon-Nasik) described as 'hitch-hiking' by MSR and which saw great enthusiasm from Narayan we reached Nasik. The hotel seemed to be in an old building and musty smell of our room reminded Narayan of his 'ancestral home'!

Tryambak is just 30 km from Nasik and again we had made a mistake in choosing our destination. Instead of staying at Nasik we could have to Tryambak directly since there are lot many hotels and lodges there. If you are planning for trekking in Tryamabak, make sure you start really early. And it's best to stay here only for the night.

MSR and Uday had their sins washed in the 'Paap Nashini Teertham' before we went to temple. (Narayan and I washed the sins of our feet only!) You can't carry even mobile and cameras inside the temple complex and have to keep them in 'lockers' provided by local shopkeepers. There is a very interesting tradition here. Before you enter the main temple which houses the Lord, you pass through a small temple which houses 'Nandi' the faithful bull on which he rides. People whisper their wishes in the ear of Nandi and it is assumed that he will convey them to Lord himself. You see this 'sifarish' culture is embedded deep in our roots ;)

In the main temple, again I thanked Lord for his mercy on me and seeked blessings. However unlike BhimaShankar there was no time to think anything since the security whisks people away almost the instant they appear before sanctum sanctorum!

It was 11 and we still had atlest 4 hours before we needed to start for Shirdi to reach there in time for bus back to Hyderabad. I was hell bent on trekking to BrahmaGiri and though there were faint murmurs of 'not being sufficient time' and 'not being appropriate time' we started the journey. There were various versions of truth: how much time you need for entire journey? The answers ranged from 4 to 2 hours and I set the corresponding targets for our group from 3 to 1.5 hours! (And we did it in 3 hours!)

The trek to Brahmagiri is not too difficult. There are stone steps which can be a little difficult at times and at some places they are pretty steep but hot sun can be your only challenge if you start late. The view along the journey is exhillirating. The feeling of reaching and then going on top of the rock formations which look intimidating from a distance is simply wonderful. We had darshan in BrahmaGiri and ShivJata temples both on the same range about 100 meters apart.

Uday found a special liking for the Nimbu Pani being sold all along the path and he found ready partners in MSR and Narayan and these three brought a lot of cheer to some people that day!

Back to Tryambak town, we took a taxi to Shirdi which got us there in about two hours. Little more liquid diet for the trio (and mercifully some solids as well!) and we were in the APSRTC Garuda ready to start back to Hyderabad!

The photos of the trip:

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Fraternity. Chak De!

If you have seen last year's blockbuster 'Chak De! India' you would remember the match between Indian men's team and coach Kabir Khan's women's team.  The match was ok, but it is what happens after the match that made me writes this blog.

Fraternity. The one word that comes to my mind whenever I see the men's team acknowledging their opponents' performance. The heartwarming ovation from men's team for the girls is truly wonderful and the one that reinforces the spirit of sportsmanship (or 'sportspersonship' ?) since it puts the game above gender differences which is so much inculcated in Indian psyche. How often do you see such sporty moments on celluloid!

I sincerely hope we could emulate this in real life as well.

Shimit Amin and Jaideep Sahni. Thank you so much!

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Why Microsoft can't learn from Mozilla?

"It is strongly recommended that you choose "Restart now" to allow setup to finish. Some programs may not function correctly until your system is restarted."

This is the message you get when you press "Restart Later" button after "installation" of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1. And mind you this restart is system restart not IE restart! Damn it. You download a 14.4 MB exe which will again download God (and MS) knows what for five minutes and then it will check my system for "malicious software" for what seems like an eternity and then install the software. My system is slow (Eclipse is running!) but half an hour for an installation? No way!

Compare it with Firefox which will prompt you for an upgrade, a one click process will upgrade the browser and restart it with your session intact. Not even 5 minutes. And Microsoft can't even give a link to the the IE home page in the IE tool bar, forget update messages and quick updates!

What's more, on the IE home page I clicked to see the demos of new features in IE 8 B1 and guess what instead of a Flash or Silverlight video, you get a .wma file which will be downloaded on your system! Are we living in the Jurassic age still?

And guess what, I was wondering why doesn't Microsoft release this browser for Non-Windows operating systems. I don't know the answer but now I wish they never do that!

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Congratulations India!

OK, I never generally write about Cricket but this moment I really wish I was not writing this but watching the live telecast of the presentation ceremony. Reading live commentary on CricInfo.com makes it look even more enticing. Actually I could hear all the shouts and claps coming from cafeteria, when I was in a meeting with my manager and wished I could run away. But then, if wishes were horses!

With Australia's defeat it proved to be last ODI of the great Adam Gilchrist and believe me he was the only one guy in current Aussie team I loved. One of the greatest wicketkeepers of all times, he definitely would have wanted to retire on a more pleasant note. But then watching Sachin Tendulkar bat like Sachin Tendulkar from close quarters could have been rewarding experience in itself!

I am happy that this tour ended finally after all the controversies which have hogged more limelight than the game itself at times. Harbhajan calling Symonds names ("Monkey" or "Teri Maan Ki", whatever you want to believe. Guess what CNN-IBN had made a joke about Harbhajan using the latter first on "The Week That Wasn't"), Symonds accusing him of racism, BCCI flexing muscles and cornering Cricket Australia and ICC to aquit him of all charges then Haydon again calling him an "obnoxious weed" and inviting Ishant in the boxing ring. Not to forget the great Bucknor-Benson umpiring issue which cost us a match and cost them a few more! Both Indian and Australian media fought pitched battles about their respective (not respected in the other's country!) Hmmpphh that was quite tiring!

And now Indian media would cry itself hoarse praising the team and telling us how experience and youth have done wonders for this team.

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Budget 2008. Who gets what?

Highlights of the budget 2008. (Courtesy: livemint.com and HindustanTimes.com)

• Gross budgetary support rises to Rs 380 billion
• Education gets 20 per cent more to Rs.344 billion from Rs 286.8 billion
• Rural infrastructure scheme Bharat Nirman to get Rs 312.8 billion
• Textile upgrading funding to get Rs 10.9 billion
• National highways to get Rs 129.7 billion
• Rs 440 million to improve infrastructure at 22 Sainik schools
• National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) to get Rs 50 billion to refinance loans
• Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) to get Rs 40 billion to refinance loans
• National Housing Bank to get Rs 12 billion
• HIV/AIDS prevention to get Rs 9.93 billion
• Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission to get Rs 68.66 billion, up from Rs 54.82 billion
• Midday meal scheme for schoolchildren to get Rs 80 billion
• School enrolment scheme Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to get Rs 131 billion
• Rs 400 million for special tea fund. Similar funds to be set up for cardamom, rubber and coffee.
• Rs 200 billion for irrigation
• Rs 5.5 billion for minority dominated districts
• NREGS to get Rs 160 billion, more money will be provided on need
• Farm debt waiver scheme to cost Rs 600 billion. Loan waiver to benefit 40 million farmers. 3 crore marginal and small farmers and 1 crore other farmers to benefit. One-time settlement scheme for other farmers not covered by the waiver scheme
• Northeast development to get Rs 14.55 billion
• Food subsidies at Rs.326.67 billion
• National health insurance for poor introduced. 1,000 crore provided to LIC for Aam admi bima yojana
• Rs 800 crore to be spent on power sector reforms
• Rs 450 crore provided for development of textile parks
• Rs 800 crore to be spent on power sector reforms
• Govt to set up Irrigation and Water Resources Finance Corporation with an initial capital of Rs 100 crore
• Defence spending to rise 10 percent. From Rs9,6000 cr to Rs1,05,000 cr
• Rs 500 crore for corpus fund to subsidise all women Self Help Groups for LIC cover for permanent disability.
• Health spending to rise 15 per cent.

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How I got refund from Ezeego1.com

It all started in September last year.

On September 7th, I booked an Indian ticket (Flight IC 940) using ezeego1.com (Booking Ref. No.: EZR-2007-89284/A) for traveling on 12th November, from Delhi to Hyderabad. The ticket which was bought under an offer from ezeego1.com and SBI Credit Cards cost me 3215 Rs.

On the morning of 12th November, something that I had always read about and heard happening with others, happened with me. Indian had done overboarding on their plane! Simply put they had sold more tickets than the capacity of the plane. I was shocked. This kind of thing which was always associated with low cost airlines, specially Air Deccan (now Deccan) was being done by state owned full-fledged airline. I was not alone however, there were others who were dumped even though they had purchased tickets. Passengers were shouting for information and their boarding passes and both of them were hard to come by. Indian officials were deliberately absent from the counter and one official appeared after some time only to tell us that the plane was on runway and noway we could be accommodated in this flight.

He said that Indian would accommodate us on the next flight which was after 2 hours. However I had a training to attend in Hyderabad and I didn't want to wait two more hours on the airport. I asked him for refund, which he agreed to give most willingly. He signed on my ticket and told that my money would be refunded through my travel agents (in my case ezeego1.com). I had to go to cancellation counter and get my Flight PNR No. set to status 'Denied Boarding'. Here I made a mistake which could have delayed the refund process if not jeopardize it totally; I had taken official's signature on the ticket but there was no official stamp from the airline!

And as (bad) luck would have it, that morning (which was the Monday after Diwali weekend) there was no seat available in ANY flight except SpiceJet, who were selling it more than 6000! Immediately I cursed my short tempered decision of not taking the next Indian flight. I was just going to pay the double of my flight cost. But I had no other option and had to board the SpiceJet flight. I reached Hyderabad at 11 am only to be greeted by my manager's SMS that training had been postponed to next week!

Now began my efforts of getting refund from ezeego1.com. I followed the steps mentioned on their website and sent them the scanned copy of the ticket, signed by Indian Official at the Delhi Airport at email address specified by them: cancellation@ezeego1.com. (According to their rules, the ticket should have been stamped by flight official from the source airport, which my ticket was lacking. And I was afraid of this!)

I got no response from their side and mailed again at complaints@ezeego1.com telling them the whole case and also at enquiry@ezeego1.com asking them the status of my complaint. No responses again.

I also filled the cancellation request form given on the site and got an automated reply acknowledging my request. After this a few days later I talked to their customer care person who asked me to fill the cancellation
form again (even though I told her that I have filled it and got acknowledgment also). She told that it will take 21 days to refund the money and I waited for about a month again after filling the form again. Talking to their customer care is an achievement in itself since you keep on getting message 'All out executives are busy. Please hold the call'. I held the call for 15 minutes maximum before my patience ran out. (During those days only I read a complaint in TOI, Hyderabad that he was made to hold the call for 80 minutes!!! However now this problem has reduced to great extent.)

When I got no response again I talked to the customer care and repeated whole story and was promised that I would be contacted in 48 hours by ezeego1.com, but that did not happen. The same thing happened when I
called them up again on Friday 21/12/07. I sent them a mail again threatening of dragging them to court, but got no reply.

Finally I registered my complaint with CORE (Consumer Online Resources and Empowerment) center, telling them whole story. An endless wait started again as CORE website doesn't give you facility to track your complaint. Then on Jan 17th, a mail addressed to "The Managing Director, Ezeego1 Travels & Tours Pvt. Ltd" and copied to me appeared in my mail box.

And when I had nearly forgotten this mail, on Feb 2nd a mail came from an Ezeego1.com executive informing me about refund of the money!

Finally I had succeeded in getting my own money back.

PS: Just now I got a call from ezeego1.com. The executive had read this review and inquired if my issue got resolved and apologized for the inconvenience.

Good. But I would have liked if they were responsive when I needed them most.

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No surprises in Maharashtra!

Neha wanted me to write about what is 'happening in Maharashtra'. She is surprised that a 'goonda can so easily take on a democratic nation' and feels that 'you have to pinch yourself to believe that it is actually happening'!

Frankly I didn't want to write about this because:
1) This would be playing in the hands of this frustrated political nobody called Raj Thakeray, who did not seem to have any political future till two weeks ago. His 'political' party has failed to make any dent in the vote bank of bigger parties. Even the idea of this violence is a hackneyed plot enacted so many times by Shiv Sena against South Indians, Muslims and North Indians over the years.

2) I am not surprised by any of these happenings! Across the world politicians/goons/crooks have encashed this opportunity to gain power by inciting violence against migrants, however significant their population/contribution to economy may be. E.g. Indians were the target of Idi Ameen in Uganda where they were living since many generations and had earned lot of wealth.

Many in the country however believe that it was media's coverage that gave Raj Thakeray a larger than life platform and hence a motive big enough to hold state to ransom. He was on national TV on primetime and front page of dailies across the country! The man who was nothing more than Bal Thakeray's unhappy and unsuccessful nephew was being talked about in editorials and panel discussions! Ain't that an achievement?

Though to be fair I would say that media (I am not aware of Marathi media) did not try to paint him in positive ever, but his goal was achieved and how!

Vir Sanghvi has written a quite insightful column in this week's Counterpoint (Age of Intolerance, Hindustan Times, 17th Feb, Sunday) about the that is happening daily in this country under different garbs. Be it beating North Indian workers or destroying theaters showing 'Jodha Akbar'. He himself asks questions about media adding fuel to the fire by letting these hooligans gain their five minutes of fame.

But these 'Editors' keep on asking such questions while their correspondents keep on forcing mikes in the faces of grieved and injured asking for bytes, and keep running behind every Raj and Rakhi who cares to give them something to fill the gaps between the ads on their channels.

So unless media stops this policy of running with hare and hunting with hound (by giving ample coverage to such crooks for gaining TRP and criticizing them for being self righteous), don't be surprised by such acts.

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The One that Won!

This photo is of the glass dome of Cyber Towers, an I.T. Park in the busy HITEC City area of Hyderabad. Taken from the ground floor with an Olympus FE 120.

Title: Symmetry

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When Red Gives Blues

This is that time of the year when I wish I could run away and hide somewhere in the caves of Afghanistan or atleast in home of Bal (or even Raj) Thackeray. Anywhere where I can get respite from the carpet bombing that's going to take place in next ten days!

During next week and half, every TV channel, newspaper, radio station and web portal is going to mock my lonely existence on this planet! Valentine’s Day is coming.

The newspapers will have articles about origin of Valentine's day and the modern trends of its celebration along with obviously cooked up financial statistics of card and gift companies. OK, you don't read those but how do you ignore all the full page mushy ads of restaurants, hotels, malls and every other business establishment which will either allow only couples or have special discounts for them!

Stories of all the TV serials will take bizarre turns to include a valentine's day celebration. And you can expect nothing else but romantic Bollywood numbers playing in the background and roses and hearts on the screen. Anyways they don't have much of a story! News channels will cover it with special 'urgency' and will telecast the 'happenings' live from across the country. Nobodies from BJP, Shiv Sena, MNS, VHP etc. will give warnings to couples and ‘perform’ vandalism in front of cameras.

Radio Stations will take on callers and air their stupid romantic messages and play their dedications. (I just wish they do that only for that day and not during whole week!) I have always hated those online ads (made in Flash 7) which fly in from nowhere and now they will come at me with a vengeance with their balloons and hearts and background music. Is any online privacy group listening? Please rescue me.

Some one please save me from this onslaught. On second thoughts (only for girls): be my valentine!

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Right and Wrong!

End of an illustrious career

I hardly ever write about anything related to cricket. Even if it is something as 'big' as Sydneygate. Due to essentially two reasons. Firstly there is hardly anything left to write after reams/TBs have been written/spoken on every conceivable aspect of the issue, and secondly there is a fatigue that grips me due to overcoverage of Cricket!

But I am making this exception to salute one of my most favorite and respected cricketers who said farewell from the game last week, and ironically while all of us were busy lambasting bad behavior on the ground the retirement of one of the most gentlemen cricketers hardly made any news, atleast in India.

I believe you will echo my feelings for Shaun Pollock, who showed us that you can be aggressive and competent without engaging in verbal slur. His records speak for themselves but, it was his onfield persona that made me his fan.

Good bye Sir. The game certainly owes a lot to you!

Correct Me!

A few months ago The Times Of India had a discussion on their edit page on the topic: Is it ok to allow SMS language in exams? The main argument supporting the issue (that yes it should be allowed) was that it is more important for examinees is to write correct answer. What use it is if someone writes a wrong answer in correct English? Fair enough! Only if I could find this supporter I would make him/her read all the crap that we Indians have started pasting all over the internet.

Don't get me wrong. (if you are getting me wrong in first place, that is!) I don't mean to be preachy but reading really terrible language even on technical forums is not a very enriching experience. (Read the comments on Rediff.com if you want to see really ugly face of Indians.) Instead of question you have to interpret the SMS words that poster has used. (Vaibhav and I have tried to be strict about language of questions posted on our C/C++/Java community on Orkut, and have had some success.)

And I am not even talking of grammatical and spelling errors here. Don't they have good old language writing classes in schools anymore? Or the students submit their answers through SMS only?

I think Firefox should start using something more than red dotted underlines to show people that perhaps the word they wrote does not exist in English!!

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Trying 'M-Blogging'

I have never tried blogging from phone. Can't say if it really is mobile blogging. My set doesn't support many blog and mobile specific software like Yahoo GO.I guess this also should be a criteria when selecting a phone when you want to be able to do everything!

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Aditya Birla Group does 'more' to Trinethra

After aviation industry, it's consolidation time in India's retail sector. And if the former has been heavy on our pocket the latter should be friendly to it. Aditya Birla Retail, an Aditya Birla Group company acquired 'Trinethra Super Value', a chain of retail stores owned by India Value Funds.

Trinethra has got a huge footprint in South India with stores named Trinethra in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and Fabmall in Kerala and Karnataka. It has got warehouses in various cities as well.

The new stores have been named 'more' and sport an orange and light green colours.

To be honest I have found 'more' not very different from 'Spencer's Daily'. It is too early to tell how will 'more' diversify. It could be on the lines of Spencer's which has got different names for different size stores:
4000-7000 sq ft: Spencer's Daily.
8000-15,000 sq ft: Spencer's Super
25000+ sq ft: Spencer's Hyper

Ofcourse as the size of stores increases, the variety of items also increases.

Second style is the one pioneered by Pantaloon Retail and followed by Reliance Retail. Having a different brand name and look for different products. Both the retail giants have a flagship store (Big Bazaar and Reliance Mart respectively) and multiple stores which can be termed as niche stores. Reliance has been making lot of noises in this segment with it's Reliance Fresh stores which enjoy deeper reach due to their numbers. Reliance has started a footwear store chain called Reliance Foot Print, a health care store chain named Reliance Wellness and are soon going to start an electronics chain as well. Pantaloon retail however is miles ahead with about 15 brands which include an e-Commerce company (futurebazaar.com), a shopping mall (Central), a medicine chain (Tulsi) and loads of stores having apparels targeted at different age, income and size bracket!

'more' has lots of competition on hand already and coming months are not going to be easier for sure!

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Slogan of the Year 2007: The year that was Part 1

Hathi nahin Ganesh hai; Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh hai (It's not an elephant, it's Lord Ganesha. It is Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh.): Mayawati won simple majority in the politically most important state of India (simply because it sends maximum MPs in Lok Sabha) and formed a single party Government in the state after 17 years!

This slogan puts in 1 line her entire strategy of getting the extremes of Indian society: Dalits and Brahmins under one umbrella.

Consider the about turn that BSP has taken since its inception, its former slogan was: Tilak, Tarazu aur Talwaar, inko maaro joote chaar (Brahmins, Vaishyas and Rajputs should be slammed!).

She won and has her eyes set firmly on Delhi now.

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A question for Gujrat

I don't know if this is the right time to ask this question, now that voting has finished in Gujrat. This question is to open to not only Gujratis but all those people who believe that Narendra Modi is the right choice for leading Gujrat once again.

The most common arguments in favor of Modi are:

1) He is an able administrator who has made Gujrat one of the most developed states of the country and brought unparalleled investment in the state.

2) Barring the attack on temple, there have hardly been any terrorist acts in the state during his stint.

The reason that Modi supporters mostly give for no terrorist attacks is actually a sham and I believe that it has been coined just to suppport Modi's anti-Muslim stance and in a way glorify it. They say that Islamic terrorists don't strike Gujrat because they are afraid of retaliation against Gujrati Muslims.

Why do I call it a sham? Because that's precisely what terrorists want to do! Any state supported (with Modi at the helm of affairs you can be sure of that!) retaliation against minorities ultimately creates more supporters and more breeding grounds for terrorism. So, it is actually an open invitation for terrorists to attack the state. But if this does not happen, I think better thank Gujrat Police and Intelligence rather than Modi!

Now, my question. I won't go in details about how able administrator Modi is and how much development he has brought in Gujrat (however many people actually raise those questions, which Modi supporters tend to brush away with disdain).

Is all that development and those investment dollars worth the communal harmony that Modi's reign of divisive politics has taken the toll of? Everyone can sense the communal divisions that he has created in the state but there is more.

Not much has been reported in the media about his speeches where he address the central Government as 'Delhi Sultanate' and declares Gujrat's economic independence. He challenges the 'Delhi Sultanate' not to take a paisa from Gujrat and Gujrat won't need any thing from 'them'. So now this 'us' vs 'them' is not only with reference to 'hindus' and 'muslims' but also between state and country. Whenever any one raises any questions about Modi's acts or the 'development' either he is declared as a traitor (if he is a Gujrati) or one of 'them';an outsider who is envious of Gujrat's achievements.

Simply put Modi is doing precisely what George W Bush has done: create fictitious enemies and assure people of safety to prove yourself their best bet.

I repeat my question once again: Is communal harmony the price that Gujrat has to pay for its development? And do Gujratis really understand how immense this price is?

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