Missing my mobile!!!

After 2.5 long years of using my current mobile, i have finally decided to change it, considering the huge demand from the public!! I dint want to make any further delay. I ran into the nearest "mobile store" and got a basic Nokia mobile - 3500 Classic. It all seemed fine for a week until its display was limited to "contact service" at the end of the week and it stopped detecting the sim. Wishing that it were a small damage, i went to the store where i purchased the mobile. They told me that i have to visit the nearest Nokia service center and i obeyed.

Nokia service center at Tippasandra, Bangalore.. is worth making a red mark!! I could hear a lot of people screaming at them for their bad service.. the anguish pain of various victims.. the agony in their voice..

They have taken my mobile for servicing with the complaint..

1) Mobile not switching on
2) Displaying "contact service" on the screen

Two disjoint complaints!!! and i just signed in it when i was told that my complaint has anyways been registered. I was told to come back in 2 days. I left my mobile there because i had no choice. Its a new mobile for which i have not even explored all the options completely and within a week i had to leave it all alone at the service center. After two days, i rang them up and went there when i was told that my mobile servicing has been done.. I was startled when i saw a mobile in their hand with a broken LCD screen..and was told that it is my mobile.. "Itz a hardware damage and wont come under warranty. We can try to do something if you pay for it" this is what i was told. I tried to tell them that i had given them my mobile in full condition and definitely i dont want to pay for their careless and reckless treatment of my mobile.

I told them how sure i was that neither my mobile had fallen down nor did i mishandle it at any point of time during itz stint of 6 days with me. I explained them that they have to trust their customers. The reply i got was, 'u shud also trust us'. How can people be so confident after doing a mistake. Mistakes are man made. Everyone is bound to make them. But i hate the fact that people are not brave enough to accept them, take it in a positive way and learn from them. I was completely disturbed by the whole conversation and told them that i am no more interested to carry on the conversation further with them and asked them to call the manager who was supposed to be in charge of that so called service center. He is at the head office(atleast that is what i was told). i was not prepared to leave the place without getting justice. I managed to get the mobile number of the manager and reported the whole incident to him.

He asked me to leave my mobile there and said that he would close the issue within 2 days. i wish he really meant it when he said that! Alas.. how i wish things could have been that easier.. These people are so hostile that whenever i call them up and ask the status, they say- 'its done.. please come and collect it today". And when i go there with a lot of hope, they make me wait for about an hour and finally say that its not done!! I dont know if this is some cheap trick which they play to make sure that there are always atleast some people in their center.

After repeated tireless attempts, finally they informed me that after fixing up the new LCD also, the initial problem for which i had actually given my mobile for, is not rectified. They had no expertise to solve it and hence they would request for the replacement.. how long would it take???? i was told that it would take not more than 12 working days!! my new mobile was with me for only 6 days.. and it was with them in the service center for a week and then travelled all the way to the head office on a one time basis... it wont come back to me.. itz replacement would come back.. should i be happy that i am gonna get a new mobile???? how old was my mobile???

I can now understand all the agony of other customers. I really cannot believe that a Nokia mobile.. which is supposed to be highly resistant to any amount of rough handling and is supposed to be very durable had behaved so cranky. And it is infact hard to believe that the defected piece, even if somehow manufactured, passed through the quality test sample!!! This has become a point of discussion in my team.. where people are very curious to know how i have dealt with the whole situation and how i end up facing all such peculiar pieces. Finally after numerous calls, i got back my replaced mobile after 40 loooong days.. The panel seemed very very old and worn out.. i asked them if it was a new mobile.. he said yes.. i asked him to replace that old panel with that of mine.. he said that it would take 6 working days for the replacement.. i had that statement of his written at the back of his visiting card with his signature at the bottom.. let me see to which extent he will keep up his word..

i came home and realized that the camera is not working.. it is not detecting my memory card.. what a pathetic service..!! i called up the manager and he said that i need to submit my mobile again over there and get a new job sheet assigned! now.. needless to say that i HATE Nokia!!

Picnic

The very thought of this takes me back to the good old school days where we wait for an year to get that one day 'picnic'. Yes, we have all decided...to be kids again for a day...to forget all the tensions and fears and spend a day filled with fun... to collect loads of memories to cherish throughout..

Off we start at 9:30AM in three bikes and an auto on an otherwise lazy sunday morning to Lal bagh. Apparently we ended up realizing that lal bagh has just 4 entrances and we have successfully managed to cover each of it not sparing atleast one gate. Hemanth, Mr.Confusion has accompanied Sush at the back of her bike with a huge L board on it. Sush was very much pleased by his amazing direction sense of which we shall discuss later.

Each of us having entered the park through various gates in different groups finally managed to assemble at a place called "glass house". A lil plant watching, fish washing and bird watching ;) , we dispered in various directions through which we entered with the understanding that we would all be meeting at the west gate. Sandip, Sandip's uncle, Dibu and I have reached the gate only to realize that there were no signs of the remaining people around. It only alarmed one of our minds that Mr. Confusion was leading the remaining group. No wonder they were lost..!!

We moved onto Kamat to have a sumptuous lunch. A flash news about the riots kept our go karting at a stake. Did I mention that Mr. Confusion is also THE GYAN GURU(GG), who is one of his kind? While we were all discussing the pros and cons, GG and sush marched towards the policeman whom they spotted on the road to get the latest gossip on the safety of the road we are gonna take. Who can predict that??!

Finally, we have decided not to backout. Hurray..!! we were all set to go on a long ride to go Karting. Wait.. did i just say long ride?? hmm.. i also need to say that the ride seemed even longer with Mr.Confusion taking on the driving seat of the bike. Poor Krishna.. he definitely had a tough time in marking the route map for our chap. I cannot put in words the infinite amount of fun we had in trying to trace out the missing bike at every point of our journey. Even after spotting out the lost bike driven by the GG, it wasn't an easy job trying to convince him to turn clockwise by 45 degrees and spot us there. 45 degrees clockwise for us would be 135 degrees anti clockwise for him..!!!

Tracing and retracing the path, we finally reached the venue. I dint know that go karting was so much fun. Equally memorable was the journey back home. Meetu, half asleep in the beginning cursing Dibu at every possible chance, Krishna's kid running around spreading her cute smiles around, Harshada as silent as ever :P , Rammi, the mommy's pet and the terror for Sush updating all the happenings as quick as a live telecast to her mom, Sandip and Dibu vigilent throughout never missing a single oppurtunity to crack their PJ's, MR.Confusion trying his level best to spread his talent across and ofcourse the bubbly and charming ME around.. all in all, it was an awesome day.

My dude.. where are u?

I am on a blogging spree today... but this time rather than crapping something, i would like to say something about the "dude" i am looking for..! Yes.. just like most of the people, i do have some criteria set in my mind as to how my guy should be...

I have had a couple of opinions from my friends that i am trying to be really very choosy wrt to my guy. I dont really agree with them.. the truth is that i am just trying to be selective about my better half. Cummon.. afterall u should atleast be selective when it comes to choosing your potential life partner.

1st of all, he should be good looking. I am not saying that he should be very handsome and stuff like that..ofcourse i wouldn't mind if he is ;). Well, jokes apart, i just want him to be smart. He should be taller than me(its dead common sense right?). BTW did i tell you that he shouldn't ever smoke? (even passive smoking irritates me to the maximum.. so, i definitely mind my darling holding a cigar in his hand). I don't say i am hiiiighly traditional and bla bla.. But i do give a loot of importance to culture and values. Having said this, it is needless to say that i don't want my guy to take hot drinks either.

I somehow have a turn on to guys with high IQ. I admire intelligence. I would love to have a guy with a brain of a genius...mind u.. certainly not to the level that makes me tiny before it ;) juz kidding.. :P Communication is another thing i look for. That being the channel though which we can open up, i would prefer him to be very good at it. Most importantly, i want him to be independent.. i.e, i wouldn't like him to expect something from my parents or his parents. Any relationship stands on the pillars of love, trust, care and understanding mentality. These are all implicit.

hmm.. mood swings... i do have them. But i hate to show it on others, who are not responsible for it. I dont mind sharing them.. but definitely i hate to be a victim of it. It is always good to have some1 of the same wavelength.. in aspects such as enthu level and stuff. Especially for some1 like me, who always is found charming and bubbling in high enthu level, trying to keep myself busy always.. with various activities involving fun and joy.

so.. i will end it here :P before you think i am too greedy or choosy or whatever :D, while i am just truly honest. :)

Desperation in Tashan

Two of my friends were very particular in watching a movie.. They were so desperate to watch the movie that they set out to watch the same from the house. why i am calling that desperate is because of the fact that inspite of not booking the tickets in advance, they set out at 3:30PM from the house, hoping to reach some theater and get into the hall for 4:00PM show, amidst the highly volatile bangalore traffic, by means of public transport.

One of my friends has checked the news paper in that utmost excitement and hurry for the theaters playing the show at 4, without realizing that parallax error cropped into the scenario. She realized this only after going all the way to the wrong theater, which is at 4:15PM. They ran to the next nearest theater to check their luck. But Alas, they are destined to have an adventurous evening. They ran to the counter and ask for two tickets for Om Shanti Om. The guy knocks the glass barricade before him and says "i am a legend". Startled by his answer(It was the 1st week of the release of the movie "i am a legend". Poor kids.. they are unaware of that movie), they tried again. The same reaction from the guy.

Giving up the hopes on it, they quickly inquired for the nearest theater playing the desired movie in the next show. They marched ahead quickly and realized that the next show is at 9:30PM. without a second thought, they booked the tickets. hey.. wait.. they are not crazy. But they are passionate to watch the movie that day at any cost. They thought about the implications of their action in the mean time.. and decided to pull in somebody else for safety. They forcefully dragged one guy to be their bodyguard, who has already seen the movie by then. Afterall he is obliged to go. (what else can he do when two girls call him helplessly ;) ). They spent the rest of the day cursing all their futile attempts for something which happened to be not worth so much.

hmmmmm

Am back.. back after a looooong lethargic gap..hmm.. 1st of all apologies for not being an active blogger of late. I know itz really disappointing for the active visitors to check out the same page without any updates..! But alas.. what to do? i get the flood of ideas when i am really too busy to open the page and start keying them in.. and trust me, i just wont be able to write anything when i have loads of time :) which again is a oneoff case.. and this is one such case.. i now have some time.. and i want to blog.. but apparently.. dont know what to blog on?? :P

ok.. lemme talk about the title of this blog.. "hmmm".. this is the most used word or dont know what.. these days..! Some say it is a way of telling "ok".. while some others say itz a good way of evading the topic or the person..and an yet different set of ppl say that it acts as a filler when u fall short of words. well, whatever it is, if i try to reflect in which context i use the same, i find all the above appropriate depending on the situation. I would have used it atleast once supporting each of the opinions above..! For instance this blog in itself is an example for the last opinion.

I will make sure that i am regular to this blogging world atleast henceforth... atleast with the help of other fillers when i dont really get topics to blog on at my free time.. :P

AUTOtitude

Here is what dictionary had to say about attitude

Attitude:
"A complex mental state involving beliefs and feelings and values and dispositions to act in certain ways"

Well.. I would now like to define something called AUTOtitude which my fellow bangaloreans would definitely have experienced with at one point or the other.

AUTOtitude:
Auto driver + attitude = AUTOtitude
"A highly typical attitude of the auto drivers in bangalore"

There will be a huge line of autos waiting for the passengers(God knws if at all they are waiting for sm1 or juz letting time pass by tht way). Here are the replies wch a person calling any of those autos would face..

P1: destination xxx(wch actually is juz 3 KMs away)
Driver1(looking around): 100 rupees (with a wicked smile)
Driver2(gazing at P1): One dirty look and then asks the passenger to get lost in sign language!(is he really dumb?)
Driver3(Listening to FM on his mobile): How dare u disturb me when i am listening to one of my fav songs?

Bugged at this behaviour, the passenger now stops a running auto which is not hired. The driver just slows down and upon hearing the destination races fwd in the direction of the place on the last gear leaving the passenger startled..! He is all prepared to leave his auto without any passengers to any distance..but he doesn't want to drop this poor P1. what grudge does he have on this poor passenger? as though he is gonna drop him for free..!! shucks..! these auto ppl in b'lore are really kings..!

On top of all this rude behaviour to the passengers, they want the govt to officially rise the auto prices per KM. It was raised frm 6/- to 7/- per KM recently under the condition that they don't refuse any of the passenger..! But unfortunately, the auto drivers don't seem to pay any attention to the conditional clause.

The first Offsite with the team…

Date: 7/12/2007
Venue: Savandurga



A single glance at the magnanimous foggy mountains, the beautiful flowers on the plateaus tossing and waving their heads (in our jocund company), the warm welcome by the spacious sky showering its happiness in the form of droplets of rain...no wonder made us all awestruck by the pride the nature takes at the sight of people with a eye to admire it… ;) :P






We set ahead for rock climbing with the guide leading us. Vivek with an unusual enthu raced ahead on the mountain covered by mist only to come down tumbling back at a pace much greater than the one he took while climbing. This fine example of mountaineering promptly made the rest of the bunch to run in the direction of the cave which we continued to explore with great zeal and enthusiasm ofcourse with vivek not leading us this time ;).








Poor Sandeep Nayak mistook the small streams in the cave to be his own private swimming pool dipping in and out at an alarming frequency and even in that moment of danger steadfastly holding onto his sweet heart’s bag.
The gp led by Aparna(BINGO),Abhishek, Srini,Siva and ofcourse me boldly marched with oodles and oodles of energy exploring every rock and crevice in the cave.




The post lunch session had us rappelling which added its own flavour of humour to the trip. Rajesh made us all dumbstruck with the typical bollywood hero’s dialogue before falling off the cliff – “Lavanya… I love you” echoed amidst the mountains. Sandeep, bold and confident at the beginning turned out to be a quivering mass of jelly playing hide and seek with the instructor at the precipice and finally giving a million dollar smile upon safely reaching the terra firma. At another category of the spectrum, we had Abhishek and Dibyendu who bravely walked down the cliff facing the valley beneath. At an even more different category, we had Appu and Sangeetha who chose to stay away from rappelling altogether.

Equally memorable was the journey back home with the never tiring group with enthu personified!!



Thanks to Rajeev for opting out of the conventional resorts and enabling us rock the show. Thanks to one and all who have composed our most awaited offsite with boundless memories to cherish (till we are stuffed with a few more in the one to come in Jan ;)).