Happy Birthday Dad

Today is my Dad’s 76th birthday. After last years grand birthday celebrations, this year was a low key event. The big question facing us was his birthday present. What do you get someone who already has all that life has to offer?

The answer - Convenience. Although computers arrived long after his time, Dad has managed to catch up pretty quickly. He has a laptop and a desktop. And uses e-mail and messengers very effectively. Recently he’s been having some difficulty with them. The desktop had outlived its life after 4+ years. And the laptop with its small size did not make Dad comfortable. And so we concluded that getting him a nice desktop with a large screen would be a good idea.

In our family if any technology is involved, then there’s only 1 person whose views prevail. And that’s my cousin, Claudian. As is usual, Clauds was asked for his recommendation. And getting a recommendation out of Claudian is similar to pulling teeth out from a child. He requires to start with a 100 options and then start eliminating them on various parameters, such as performance, value-for-money, style, support, features, … It doesn’t end there. Once he has his short list, he then needs to check out all the various options. And like all good consultants needs to be pampered.

On the Friday preceding the birthday, My sister, Mabel and I drove Clauds to Phoenix Mills. The search started at McDonald’s. as Clauds puts it, “You can’t take decisions on an empty stomach”. After fuelling up, we started the search at Staples. Saw several computers, but Clauds was not impressed. We moved on to Croma. A HP All-in-One caught our eye. Yes, good option, opined Clauds. But we need to do more research. The 1 touch button did not work well. The Croma staff and specialists were questioned and cross questioned. At the end of it what emerged was that they had no idea. The next stop was the Tardeo e-Zone. Once again poor choice of PC’s and laptops. We were in and out in under 3 minutes. That’s how sad their collection was. Next stop Vijay Sales. Good collection of PC’s and desktops. Poor customer service. Poorer knowledge of products. And we have to leave before they lock us in.

At the end of this hectic recce trip, Claudian promises to research based on the new information now available. He writes and talks to Dell and several other PC / laptop manufacturers. And finally a winner emerges. The HP All-in-One. Hey, it  wasn’t that the first one we saw. It was, but then without the journey, the fruits of labor would not be as tasty.

Finally, yesterday, we went to the Juhu Croma and purchased the All-in-One. It came with a free printer. And we purchased an additional 2 year warranty at Rs. 2900. Making the purchase a great deal, guaranteed to work for 3 years.

Dad loves his new toy. He can now add Skype to his e-skills. Dad does not leave his Colaba house very often. Unless its to visit his favorite child, Mabel. The new computer allows him to interact, see and talk to all his other grandkids, who live in far away places like San Francisco and Powai. And maybe even chat with his prodigal children.

Happy Birthday Dad. You may or may not know it, but we all love you. In 1992 a postcard said it. In 2011, a blog says it. Have a great year ahead.

Ta Ta AIG – With you always. Until you need us.

A colleague of mine recently made a trip to the US and as usual we took his Travel Insurance form our no. 1 choice TataAIG. So far we’ve never had reason to actually call back after having paid the initial premium and so assumed that they offered good service.

This time around, my colleagues trip was extended by 3 months. And so we wanted to extend the insurance. And that’s when the nightmare began. I would never have believed that a company of the stature of the TATA’s would ever come across so poorly. But let the facts speak for themselves.

My colleagues initial trip dates were between 29th April and 27th July. Around the beginning of June, the client requested that the trip be extended by a couple of months. Hence we wanted to extend the travel insurance by 3 months. We called TataAIG in the first or second week of June on 3 or 4 occasions. Each time they said a representative would call back and let us know the formalities. These calls never happened. Finally on the 5th try around the 25th of June, TataAIG informed that we needed to fill an extension form. The same was e-mailed to us on the 28th of June. 3 weeks after we started the interaction.

This form was completed and faxed to TataAIG around the 29th of June. We were told that they would process the same and let us know in 48 hrs. We checked with them every alternate day in the 1st week of July. Every time the response was that the same is being processed. And that someone would call us in 24 hrs. That call never happened.

Around the 7th of July, I called and was now told the fax was never received. I asked to be put on to the supervisor. I was kept on hold for 15 odd minutes and then miraculously the fax was found. I was then told that they would process the same and someone would call back in 24 hours. The one positive about TataAIG was their consistency. Once again, nobody called.

On 11th July, I once again called to find out the status. This time there was an arrogant person called Pooja who came online. She tried telling me how this was a complex process that takes time and we should be patient. When I enquired how long, she after great deliberation came up with the magic number of 48 hours. I explained that in my limited knowledge more than 1 month was definitely more than 48 hours. I asked for the supervisor. Once again a Wall. But no supervisor. Finally Ms. Pooja agreed to walk across to the department where the processing was happening and find out the status. She reappeared with the now standard information that someone would call in 1 hour. When I reconfirmed, it became maximum 2 hours. Once again TataAIG was consistent. Nobody called.

On 12th July, I once again called. This time I was told, that it would take them 2 hours to find out why Pooja had not called in 1 hour. And the once again standard line, “Someone will definitely call in 1 hour’. 2 hours later, no call. Call once again. This time a new line. My system says, the extension is being turned down because it has an existing claim. Surprise, Surprise. There was no claim. The line then changed to “We’re surprised our supervisor hasn’t yet called. She’ll call within an hour”. And finally a formal e-mail, the very first communication from TataAIG declining the extension. 40 days after our first interaction. And more than 2 dozen calls, e-mails, et al.

We wrote back to find out the reason. An automated mail promising a response in 2 days. No response. Yet another mail. Yet again no response. When the Government ignores a citizen and refuses to respond we have the RTI. When a private company, one as renowned as the TATA’s displays this behavior, what does one do? I guess, find another provider.

Mr. Tata, I now subscribe to TataAIG, Tata Power and Tata Sky. All because I believed that the Tata's were and will continue to be a responsible and customer sensitive group. My latest experience seems to indicate otherwise. I do hope that somebody, somewhere looks into the callous attitude and behavior and stops it before it becomes systemic within the group.

Link to e-mail exchange with TataAIG

Police Verification for Passport

As part of the passport application and granting process, a police verification happens. The passport office sends your form to the local police station for verification. And that’s the beginning of yet another opportunity for corruption.

My understanding is that the police is supposed to verify the facts. And see if there are any reasons such as pending criminal cases why the person should not be issued a passport. That’s not what happens. The police visit the applicant’s house and gives a long list of documents with which the applicant is instructed to visit the police station. This list is much longer than the 1 asked for by the passport office. And hence makes no sense. But ours not to question why. Ours is but to do and cry.

A colleague recently had this experience. Once you visit the police station, comes the twist in the tale. The police goes through the originals and photocopies and then asks you to get all the certificates attested by a Gazetted Offficer. The police know fully well that very few people know or have access to a Gazetted Officer. A  Gazette Officer is a Senior Officer in the Government Service like a Commissioner of Police or a Secretary in the Government or a District Magistrate.

If you knew a Gazetted Officer, then you can get your passport even before the police verification in a system called “Tatkal”. Since you are here, the police knows very well that you do not have access to such a person. And in any case you are providing the originals, so he can verify. But then the opportunity would not exist. So here’s how it plays out. Most people say, “Sir, I don’t know anybody, can you help me ?” And on payment of Rs. 500, miraculously no documents are needed.

There was yet another colleague, an upright no nonsense army officer, Col. Pandey. His daughter required the police verification and the same story unfolded. Fortunately for all of us, there are some people who do not only practice honesty and integrity but have ensured that their families also believe and practice the same. She tried to find out why this was required, without any luck. Fortunately her brother like her father is in the Army and a Gazetted Officer and was in town. She got all the certificates attested and submitted them. The policeman was not happy. He had failed to extract his pound of flesh. And so coincidentally, the verification stated, “Permanent address not known” or some such.

She was summoned by the Passport Office, which wanted proof of a permanent address. Her pleas that because her father was in the Army, and had been transferred a dozen times, she has lived all over the country. He has a house in Delhi, and now lives in Mumbai. So what exactly do they need ? And what more proof do they want ? No luck. Get a permanent address or you cannot get a passport.

Finally my colleague helped draft a letter that stated all of the above facts, and also highlighted the fact that it seems to be a crime in this country to dedicate your life to the service of your nation, since you will not have permanency and cannot get a passport. This time around the Passport Office reluctantly accepted the letter and have said they will process it. What happens, time will tell.

Not enough of us are standing up and willing to go through the harassment if we do not bribe the authorities. But until such time as enough Col. Pandeys don’t stand up and take a stand we shall continue to attract our place of (dis)honour amongst the “Most Corrupt Nations”.

p.s.: Interestingly Col. Pandey has batch mates and friends who are very senior officials in the External Affairs Ministry and could have got his daughters work done with 1 call. But then, he believes in not only preaching about Doing the right thing, but practicing Doing the right thing. Can you also practice what you preach ?

Theory of Relativity

Very few people understand the “Theory of Relativity”. And I’m not amongst those few. However I recently came across a very interesting phenomenon, which revolved around relativity. And so decided to come up with my very own “Theory of Relativity” that everybody could understand.

Theory of Relative Individual Happiness
The anticipated state of happiness is
a. Directly proportional to the immediately preceding  situation
b. Dynamic and will keep changing with the changing situation
c. The only constant will be the requirement of “Relatively More”

Theory of Relative Social Happiness
The anticipated state of happiness is
a. Directly proportional to the immediately preceding  situation relative to your social circle
b. Dynamic and will keep changing with the changing situation of the social circle
c. The only constant will be the requirement of “Relatively More” in comparison to the social circle

There are very simple examples that will illustrate the points above. Take your stock portfolio. Around a  month ago, when the NSE Index Nifty was at around 5,250 (June 20, 2011), most people were praying that they would be very happy if the stock market rebounded to 5,600 and they would recover their losses. Around 15 days later, the Nifty was at 5,729 (July 7, 2011) everyone had forgotten about their previous prayers. And were now strutting around making predictions about how the Index was soon going to cross 6,000. Each of these individual numbers are meaningless. But they affect our happiness.

We don’t measure how much or how little we have lost. We measure our losses against the maximum theoretical profit we could have made, and hence always end up unhappy with our perceived happiness, a few hundred points away.

The exact same theory applies to our social interactions. Our happiness is typically not based on how much raise we get during our annual evaluations, but how much have I got vis-à-vis my colleagues. And even if my salary doubles, I’ll still be unhappy if my colleagues salary has gone up 2.5 times.

The fact is that relativity has very little to do with reality. And it would help if we are able to set our goals and targets based on our needs and aspirations, independent of other extraneous factors. This is neither trivial nor simple. But if you are able to achieve it, you would have achieved True Hapinees, irrespective of Relativity.

Coming to think of it, maybe it was a good thing that most people don’t understand the Theory of Relativity.  Einstein’s and mine. Else life might not be as exciting, since excitement comes from tomorrows aspirations.
And don’t you think my theory of Relativity makes more sense than Einstein’s. Oops, there I go again.

Opinions and Editorials – MyDailyColumns.com

Jasjit Chhatwal, a Hyderabad based entrepreneur runs a hugely successful  venture called News Access. Jasjit is a merchant navy officer, an alumni of the T.S. Rajendra. Jasjit is one of those highly intelligent and reflective persons who’s a thinker par excellence and reminds me of a modern day Socrates. He put his 2 skills together and came up with the concept of News Access. Making News available to seafarers.

Today, you may wonder “What’s the big deal?!”, but a decade ago, the big deal was that ships had no access to news, except when they touched port. And then too, they would get the news of the country in which they were. And only of that day. Hence there was no connection or continuity. News Access solved this problem by sending a summary of India related news daily. The concept took some time to catch on, but when it did, it became popular very quickly. Today it covers well over 500 ships, and has been growing from strength to strength. The current avatar covers customized portfolio, multiple countries, multiple sports, city editions, ...

Interestingly, today news is much more easily accessible on ships. And one would conclude that News Access would lose its relevance and popularity. However, the exact opposite is happening. Its becoming even more popular. My guess is its presentation. Most of us love to go through a News Access kind of paper. A summary of important news in 1 page. You don’t have to worry about going through reams of paper or websites and search for what could be important or interesting.

Recently Jasjit has a brand new idea. Migrating the concept to the world at large. And since news in a summary is easily available on TV, his idea revolved around “Ops and Eds”, which is the cool version of “Opinion and Editorials”. Jasjit and his team goes through editorials of several newspapers and magazines every day. They then send a summary of these with a link to the original article. The mail arrives in your inbox, and when you have 5 – 10 minutes to spare, you can go through the mail, click on those Ops and Eds that seem interesting and quickly read them.

 

I’ve always wanted to read opinions and editorials. Not only are they the most meaningful part of any newspaper, they are also the most interesting. They show perspectives and views of a wide variety of people. From journalists and editors, to politicians and businessmen, to spiritual leaders and conmen. In short, all shades of society. And since mydailycolumns has been launched, I’ve managed to read quite a few editorials. Not as many as I’d like to, but I’m getting there.

Its an awesome site and the service is very valuable. Best of all, it’s Free. I have no idea why Jasjit is investing time and money and giving us such a useful service. But I guess, that’s what makes him a visionary. You should check it out. Go to mydailycolumns and sign up. And if you like it, please send Jasjit an email telling him so. I guess at the very least, we should appreciate the things we like. It might keep him going, and we can continue to enjoy our daily cuppa with MyDailyColumns.

p.s.: An article appeared in "The Hindu" about News Access on August 4, 2001. Check it out.

p.p.s.: August 14, 2011 - mydailycolumns pulls the plug. :-( RIP. :-((