Airtel responds

Two months back I wrote my sordid experience with Airtel. The problem was that I got to be clarified with different kinda information for a single query on "When to migrate my post paid bill plan to a pre paid one?"

Though a blogger's attitude as a last point of solace is to write at his blog site. Done that for just to cool myself off. Then days passed and out of frustration I never tried to turn to Airtel for querying on that subject.

During mid June there was a buzz from K. Srinivasan Editor-in-Chief, PR-e-Sense, a corporate monthly ezine that a seminar is being organised jointly by TRAI and Consumers Association of India on 20th June at Chennai to study on the problems faced by telephony users.

Yes, my grievance made its way to the concerned personnel of Airtel during that seminar. This happened on Saturday the 20th June and on the next working day i.e. on 22nd June there was a quick response from the Airtel. A couple of calls came for me from the local Customer Relationship Centre and from their Trichy office which is governing the Cuddalore centre.

Within the End of that Day there was a representative from Airtel arriving at my home carrying the application form and finishing off all migration formalities by 8.00 p.m. on that Monday.

Yes, I was a contended lot on seeing this lightning speed that the personnel at Airtel took my case and sorted out the things.

Kudos to Airtel for solving the issue.
Thanks to K.Srinivasan of PR-e-Sense for putting it across.

Wish that the glitch in Airtel's customer care be set right.
Some insights of the seminar is here.

Nice moments at the Silver Beach in Cuddalore

The picturesque beach in my town Cuddalore often gives me the charm and its just a 15 minutes bike ride from my home. Named Silver Beach, it is the second longest beach on the Coromandel Coast and one of the longest beaches in Asia. [[Wikipedia]]
Ofcourse its my quick destination to get a chillax and beat my boredom.


Nice photographic moments while I was there at Cuddalore beach.


Gaze at it, beat the boredom.




The reflecting evening golden rays from the Bay of Bengal making the charm..




The golden dusk.

Hope you enjoyed my clicks.

Boom Boomb Shakalaka

The cow and the calf gave a feast to my camera.


This cow was giving me some scary moments while I was clicking her in this unique costume. The picture came out quite nice. Click it to see larger image.



Both of them in their new costumes giving delights during that early morning.

My blogging life, Cuddalore blog, The district collectors

My passion for blogging started off with reading a news article which mentioned that blogging will contribute in decision making by the government. This was during the early 2005. Though, I read it and packed off that day's newspaper, that news bit gave an impetus for me "Why not try?". Those were the days neither a PC nor a broadband connection was there at home. I wait in queue at the internet kiosk to get a computer to browse and then too need to wait for minutes to see the websites open up and it did cost me Rs.30 per hour.

I had been running a yahoo e-group named cuddalore@yahoogroups.com. It was during that time a request for joining this group from a student named Madhu. After that, we became friends to be known only through the internet and we then not got any chance to get to know of our location in Cuddalore.

Those were the days, wherein blogging was getting to be heard through online and offline and Madhu had then started a blog for our town Cuddalore. My impetus to write on the web got to reality and I joined Madhu in writing at this blog. At first I had been writing about the issues / hardships faced in Cuddlaore, weather reports during stormy/rainy days and any other public events. Very few people out there would chance upon to read those write-ups.

As days passed, this blog became very popular of its kind and got to come up in top few results in Google. At one moment we got the surprise to know that the then district collector Mr.Gagan Deep Singh Bedi, IAS., was following up the posts published in this blog and taking up corrective measures. So the interest in making out quality posts got my top priority. See, nobody teaches you on how to write, you need to get out of experience and this was an opportunity to write in a better way, day in and day out. I would write less than five posts per month.

After his departure from Cuddalore, then came the new collector Mr.Rajendra Ratnoo, IAS. I was not expecting that this collector may have had the chance to visit this Cuddalore blog, but to be defeated of my belief. During one occasion, I had posted a photograph highlighting the problem of contaminated drinking water in my region. There were follow-up comments made by this district collector himself asking me to come and attend the water supply meeting. Days passed and I kept in touch with him through SMS and phone calls.

Now, Mr.Rajendra Ratnoo has got transferred to Kanyakumari district. Myself and Madhu wanted to have a short meeting with this great personality. So I sent a request for appointment through SMS and after some 5 to 10 minutest a call back from my District Collector. Such is the reach from him a generous personality...

"Hi Srinivasan, How are you…….."

And the next 2 hours we were there at his Chamber...

As already discussed with him, we got to see the sendoff meet given by the tribal people . After that, we got to his chamber, there were officials in the DRO cadre having discussions with him. After a few minutes he finished seeing off the officials followed by a few citizens who came with grievance and a college girl who aspires to pursue IAS sought his blessing and bid him farewell continued by a photo click. Then our talk started.

We actually needed an insight from this top most official. Yes we started an interview. And during the interview we were astonished on how he got inspiration to become a IAS.

His was a big family of 8 people from a small place in the Jodhpur district of Rajasthan state. His father was a revenue department official and it was his dream to see one of his sibling make it into the India Administrative Service. Our collector’s initial days of school sans much infrastructure. It had a single room and even basic amenities was then a distant dream for this small school. Such was his hardship and he further pursued his studies and came up in diffent colours and made into the Administrative services.

The interview ran for more than 35 minutes and we need to sit for transcribing the interview. Another article is there in the making.

We packed our visit with a load of sweet moments and thoughts in our heart.

And we had a click for our memories.

Good bye Sir and wishing you all the very best in your future endeavours .

Will Twitter swallow the blogging fraternity?

Many years ago there came a buzz on the internet in the form of blogging. A lot many people who had the little knowledge of Typing and Emailing became online publishers aka bloggers. They created their own Web url and expressed their views on their site.

By having a blog (Web log) you have a worldwide identity and it is available for free. The kick in this hobby is that you get back bouquets & brickbats in terms of comments to your articles from the readers of your blog site. These comments spice up for the intended networking on the internet.

Some bloggers got to monetize their blog with Ads and many “get rich quick” sort of stories cropped up. Though on the other side, more than 95% of them have still been stumbling to realize any money out of their blogs.

The downside is that, bloggers some times run out of inspiration and get stumbled with writer's block. For some of them, this online hobby took away their precious time since it required extensive research before sitting down to write an informative article.

Why not you publish a short and crispy post?
The fitting reply to this Q, came in the form of Twitter.com which snuffed off the stumbling blocks involved in writing out those longer posts. Make it short, make it sweet. How about typing out your thoughts in less than 140 characters. This has been called the micro blogging or tweeting.

Twitter ~~ What is it?
As Wikipedia tells...
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. The service is free to use over the Internet, but using SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

Since the tweets are shorter the micro bloggers aka tweeters were publishing out their posts too often as well as enjoy the fun of subscribing to the updates of their friends. But, at the same time this is taking toll on blogging. Many good bloggers who started to tweet became less involved in churning out any better articles in their blogs. So, is this new concept of micro blogging a blessing or a curse?

Yes, let us discuss



A one day unconference event to bring people together to talk about how to share information in 140 characters is happening at Chennai. The unconference was named buzz140.

When : On Sunday the 21st June 2009 between 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Where : Photon Infotech Private Ltd. Location : No. 2/102, Photon Towers, Old Mahabalipuram Road, Karapakkam,Chennai.

More about the event is here
Directions to the venue is here and here

Participation is absolutely free, though you may not bother to spend US $ 1 towards your lunch expenses.

Oh, did I miss to inform you of my micro blog?
Here it is : www.twitter.com/srinidotme

Catch you at the event.

The 18th Chennai Photo Walk

Photo Walk - What is it?

Its an interesting phenomenon wherein folks with camera take a walk with the sole purpose of capturing the interesting moments happening around and then sharing the pictures usually online.

Chennai photowalk has been happening for quite sometime and I got the chance to mingle with the folks during the 18th Chennai Photowalk that happened on 19th April'09.

The plan was to assemble @ 6:30 a.m. at the Mylapore’s Kapaleeswara Temple, walk around the back streets of Mylapore, then board the MRTS line to Fort St. George. Explore Fort St. George, Fort Museum, Clive’s House, St. Mary’s Church, the Secretariat building (which one’s not allowed to photograph) and the many things there.

I reached MTC bus stand at Mylapore and got directions to reach to the temple.



It seems that it is too early a morning for these folks. Enjoying the Sunday morning sleep while the Philips Ad in the pic says "Step into a brighter world" Haa.

Afterwards I called Chandrachoodan to know the exact point from where the photo walk starts.



In black tee is Chandrachoodan, the man who is the reason behind the Chennai photowalks.



The walk started from the spot nearer to the Kapaleeswarar Temple's CAR




There you see the folks assembled. Behind them is a old building so good to look at though not well maintained.




OK shall we start the photowalking here!!




He is the first subject for my camera. As the scribblings behind this man tells "Browse, Chat & Relax" this person was seen relaxing by puffing a Beedi,the traditional Indian cigarette. Though he puffed three or four times, he managed to hide the beedi immediately after each of his puffs. He seems upset that the day has dawned.




An intellectual florist giving the fresh news paper the needed rub. He was at first tied up with the daily newspaper, but he then realized that a swarm of photographers making a sweep around, which made him, a little tensed.




The early day transportation vehicle, popularly called the "Kattai Vandi" (Wooden Cart) is rarely seen these days. Here this kattai vandi is being used to sell bananas.




Chennai Photowalkers include its own share of foreigners.




The next subject for my pic was a street dog. I was bit scary! Should I be unlucky, should there be a return gift as a friendly bite, I do not know if there is any hospitals situated nearby, finding a medical shop open gets little probability that too early morning and the fact its a Sunday.
Remember I am using a simple mobile camera and am the only person in the crowd to click using the simplest of the photo gadgets. My camera does not have an optical zoom and so I needed to go very near to my my subject to catch his moments. But my subject gave me the needed facial expression for me. Do you know that Dogs are pet animals and are intuitive about things that are going to happen. More about the spirits in Dogs is here




One of the old buildings, which gave out the construction style followed in those days.




The temple tank getting the cool illumination from the Sun God.




Guessed wrongly? Me too!! But, they are not spoiling the place, they are seriously capturing the moments, their subject happens to be there just below that iron gate.




The Kapaleeswarar temple gopuram, the temple tank and the Sun God making a perfect combination of reflecting His rays from the pond water.




Somebody came out of the premises of the temple tank by unlocking the door. We were gifted to tresspass inside the temple tank and make a few clicks closer to the water level. By that time, somebody from the other side of the tank was shouting. After a few minutes he came faster towards us. We realised that he should be the watchman to ensure that nobody comes inside the temple tank premises. We then came out smoothly as if we were deaf but with the content of doing few good clicks.




Yes these are the moments that happen during the early morning. Some of the men having a read of the newspaper at the milk booth. Both milk and the newspaper mark the fact that morning has dawned.




I salute this hard working old man. At this old age he is having the guts to make toiling as a rickshaw puller even though one of his legs is not suitable for doing the hard pedaling needed for his profession. I recall the people who make lame excuses while they get into situations which needed them to make a little hard toil.




The womenfolk taking their turn to fetch the much needed water for their family.




Getting the first glimpse of poster being pasted, while a slumdog child taking a surprised look at the photowalkers.

Then we went to Mylapore MRTS Railway station to catch the train to Chennai Fort railway station.




The old man sitting on the seat at the railway station. Though he was finding a solace at this age at the railway station, too many photographers and a few of them clicking him made him little disturbed and he went away from this place.




The awesome MRTS railway station with awful garbage seen everywhere around. Seems little importance is given to upkeep the MRTS railway stations. One can witness filth and cob webs around the walls of the railway station.

Then we got into the train to go the Chennai Fort Railway station.




The elevated pathway at the Chennai Fort Railway station.



The road below the walkers bridge.




Then we started walking on the South side of the Chennai Fort railway station. Its pleasant to see the assets owned by the Armed forces of Indian Govt.





Photographers swarming around a big tree...



to catch this Nandhi in their cameras.




An eco friendly vehicle that too bearing a 'valid' registration number is seen parked on to the side of the road.






The traffic is so dull, you might have guessed right, its a Sunday...



Thats Shillika. Sometimes people do want to do things which they are not supposed to do that too at the middle of the road.










All these places had the presence of the offices of the armed forces. I am surprised to see the clean and tidy road and got a question, whether I am in Chennai? Usually in a road you will witness it being encroached with shops and have a swarm of garbage. But this place is an exception.

Whether the strictness and discipline followed by Indian Militiary is the reason behind the clean and tidy place.

If this is followed everywhere, Man we should be enjoying our day to day life.








One of the important roads of Chennai.



There were police personnel making a gaze on the people using this road.

We were very tired and hungry and wanted to take rest. There was a shadow under a tree and the photowalkers took rest for a few minutes to be later questioned by a lady cop. She wanted us to move away and instructions for her was to ensure that more people should not gather nearby.

Why all these rules and regulations?
Why so many police are seen around on this road?

Yes, we were nearing the "The Secretariat".



We were neither VIPs, nor did we have a valid pass to enter this high security area. But got myself satisfied of my thirst with clicking this board. Hope that little more importance be given to this board at least to make it more attractive and a bit authoritative.



The flag mast of the Secretariat making a grandeur with the national flag fluttering with the clear blue sky making an interesting combination.

As per the plan we moved ahead for visiting the fort museum. But drawn aback when the woman officer at the museum did not allow us. The reason for denying entry for us, was that they will not allow a group of people (we were nearly 40 people) that too all of them were having cameras. Then Chandrachoodan tried to get permission from the director at the museum to be rather getting unlucky that he was not available at office.

Since all of us were damn tired of walking nearly 4 Kms that too hungry, we just wanted to disband and pack off. After clicks for a group photograph and having pep talks with some folks around we packed off.


Oh, does this man gets paid from so many sponsors and is a free mobile connection available for him?



The walk was so nice and had the opportunity of getting networked with some new folks.
Happy clicking.

Airtel gives me a frustrating rollercoaster drive

I bought a postpaid mobile connection 4 months back from Airtel. I wanted to change it into prepaid for which I was told at the local Airtel shop (Customer Relationship Center) at Cuddalore that usually this change can be done after three months of activation of the number.

Here is a callous chronology I had with Airtel whenever I approach them for migrating my post paid plan to a prepaid...

End March'09 (3rd month of its activation): Airtel shop (Customer Relationship Center) tells "Network updation is in progress and migration to prepaid can not be done".

Around 6April'09 (well past 3rd month of activation): Airtel customer care executive at call centre tells “You can migrate to prepaid plan after April 16^th”

Then I decided on 21April09 to go to the local Airtel shop to convert my post paid connection into a prepaid one. To confirm that whether I could go ahead with the migration process on that day I called the customer call centre...

6.00 p.m. on 21April'09: Airtel customer care executive at the call centre tells “You CAN migrate to prepaid plan today. Please go with your passport size photo, a proof of your identity and a proof of your address, pay a migration fee of Rs.150 and within 9 Hours your prepaid connection will get activated. If in case of difficulty in getting the work done, please call customer care from the phone kept at the Airtel shop (Customer Relationship Center) and we shall help you out and get the work done. ”

So I arrived at my local Airtel shop (Customer Relationship Center) at 7.30 pm. The story is different here. They simply told that it is not possible in the first six months and since my mobile connection carries a fancy number, it can be done after one year. I then told them of my conversation with the call center executive and then asked them for calling from a phone kept there. But they simply told that that such kinda is not possible. May be such a phone does not exist for true!! Now I called the call center executive from my mobile phone and there awaits another kind of story for me.

7.40 p.m. on 21April'09: Airtel customer call center executive tells “You CAN NOT migrate to prepaid plan. It can be made only after 1May'09”

Just within 2 hours I get two different responses for the same query which frustrated me. I was quite dumbfounded to know that such is the callous way in which a call center of Airtel works and makes me run pillar to post. Is this the way they are supposed to serve a customer. Now I wanted the call center executive to connect me to his superior.

Now he puts me on waiting while the pre recorded voice plays. The prerecorded voice tells out that "Network updation is in progress, some of customer services will not be available till April 14^th". Oh man the date is now April 21^st.

After waiting for more than 3 minutes one person may be customer call center manager responded to me.

I explained to him the whole thing and made it clear that I am not satisfied with the different kind of information being given to me and making me to run like a fool. Now he confirms that my plan can be converted by May 1^st for sure.God only knows when I will get my connection migrated to prepaid plan. May be another call center manager will tell another type of story that I need to wait for another date. Let me wait for 1 May'09...

Returned home after a very bad spending of my evening time that too with my wife and toddler. Though I visited their website to express my grievance through online, I got dumbfounded that there is neither an email-id nor a feedback form to do so.

What a pathetic customer support?

Update as on 12 June’09: After delaying myself to forget those bad experience, I after a long tome went to ACRC. Now I got informed that migration from postpaid to prepaid will be done between 1st to 10th and not today. So I need to come on 1st of next month.

My younger son's first tonsure

Tiny tots get their shave of their hair during their age of 9th or 11th month followed by piercing of their ear lobes. It is said that once the hair is removed the babies get better health. This is followed by piercing of the ear lobes and then wearing ear ring. Interesting to know that the nerves passing through the ear is said to be connected with that of eyes. The presence of the metal that is the gold is said to be good for the baby's vision.
Usually this ritual is done in any of the temple. Out family tradition is to do it at Tiruvandipuram Devanatha Swami temple. We fixed the ritual for the morning on 29th March 2009 a Sunday. So we set out with family members and relatives for Tiruvandipuram Devanatha Swami Temple which is situated some 5 Kms from my home in Cuddalore. It is one of the ancient Vaishnavite temples and also one of the 108 Vaishnavite shrines sanctified by the visit of the great Alwars and Acharyas.


My little son Lokashyam sitting on my lap and being given a head shave. Great care to be taken to ensure that he does not shake his head, otherwise the sharp knife is bound to give deep cut on my little one's soft head.


At first he did not give any protest, later as half of his head was shaven, he started to cry and gave enough tensions for me as I felt somewhat difficult to handle my little baby. Alas he got few cuts and little blood oozed, what to do, could not control his little angry protests. After the tonsure is finished he was given bath and enough sandal paste is applied on the head. The sandal paste gives the needed cooling effect and also prevents infection of the injuries.


Tradition is that, the baby will be made to sit on the lap of his maternal uncle and then piercing of the ear is done. My little son sitting on my brother-in-law's lap and enough of people taking care that he does not move his head which otherwise is bound to make a little bad thing.


Yep, the stud is screwed up and the work is over.


Oh my baby do not cry da Chellam, its all over.


Usually the babies get the good shape and health after this ritual. Pray that he gets good health.

Google Bus at my town Cuddalore

The Google Bus, an initiative of Google to educate the off line Indian public on the benefits of internet had made its visit to my town Cuddalore. I have been following the itinerary of this internet bus for quite some days and awaiting to have the real experience.



Today evening I was returning from my office to my destination, the Cuddalore bus stand. While I alighted from my town bus, got to see this internet bus parked just opposite to me. Hey, this high tech bus coming to the place of the common man, that too in tier 3 town.


Check the curiosity in the eyes of the little ones at bottom left corner of the above pic. Yep, Google's initiative to educate the common people who may have lead a life without the knowledge of internet if not for this initiative by Google.


Had the chance to have nice moments with these people from Google. They recorded a short video of my pep talk inside this bus. May be it will get published on their youtube channel. If it happens, a separate post is here for you to have a feast. Hope that I have not messed in my talk.


People are quite curious of the new kinda stuff happening in the town.


The innovative bus has its own power generator and it can work anywhere, anytime with 100% internet connected through satellite network.





Some people who gazed from the outside were averse to get inside the bus. But the googlers convinced them with stressing that its free to go inside the bus.
Corporates of this kinda, turning to the less travelled path, is bound to mine precious benefits be it for them as well as India.

So What?

Yours truly.,