Movie and reality konnection

After a long time, i enjoyed watching a Kannada movie made
with original story. In fact, last week has been lucky for me with regard to
the kind of movies i watched. All have entertained me upto my level of
expectation.
There is a reason why we indians are so much attached to
movies. Well, i'm not going to discuss about those fanatics who build temples
for their movie stars or do milk abhisheka of their stars cut outs on the day
of release. for that matter, i should not have even made a mention of them in
the above lines also.
TZP, Lagaan, Ghajini (ok ok, i dont want to be branded as
AK's fan) most recently Desi boyz, and namma Vishnuvardhana., if we consider
all these famous movies, there is some element or factor which makes us get
connected with the movie instantly. We love it. Though we dont admit it, there
is something in these movies which connects with some elment of our past, in
the back of our mind, in sub concious. Or may be conciously itself. And why we
like them?
Not long back, i was watching the people connect program
that the renowed director of kannada serials, Mr. T.N Seetaram used to conduct
at various parts of the state, when his serial Muktha was getting telecast.
Anyone who has watched the serials being made by him will first remember the
court cases in them. A lawyer by profession himself, his serials used to have
atleast two court cases in it. All of them, made to look as indigenous as
possible with the witness trials, cross examinations, defence etc., used to
have happy ending, with the director, who always used to be the lawyer for
unfortunate victims, winning the case. During one such connect programs in
Mysore, a person asked him how come there is always a happy ending for the
court cases in the serials, and always he will win. He justified it so
beautifully saying, all of us know how tedious the court cases are in our
country. many a times, the victim may never get the justice due to the delay [Our
courts love to send out the message "justice delayed is justice
denied" with frequent examples]. This has ensured that none of us have any
faith in judiciary. In the serials, contrary to the true case, the justice is
delivered to the victim at the end of the legal battle. And watching it happen,
we all feel happy. we feel happy because we see ourselves in the victim,
thereby feeling victorious ourselves. This ensures that we get connected with
the serial!! what we dont get in reality, we love to see that happen in screen.
But if we look out of movies, the other place where we can
see this kind of connection with reality was (I use the word "was" here
for a reason which i explain later) in Cricket. Rahul Dravid recently delivered
a speech at Don Bradman oration thus becoming first non-aussie to do the same. The
speech brought out the several interesting facts about cricket and history that
the two nations share. India's association with the Australia started as long
back as world war, when the two countries were british colonies, fighting for
the common enemy. Thus Sir Don Bradman easily became the favorite among Indian
cricket fans. At the peak of freedom struggle, each innings that Don bradman played against England was
like a war against them for Indians. The slaughter of Gora's bowling attack
bought joy and smile in our face.
Coming back to movies, there are several examples of
Movie-real life in southern part of our country. Tamil Nadu has seen a temple
being built for each of their movie star, at any available gap in the crowded
chennai city. This Blog will be highly incomplete if i miss to mention the
superstar of Indian cinema, the one and only Rajnikant. Shivajirao gaekwad, as
he was called before getting renamed by his debut movie director, Rajnikant
came up from grass root level without any godfather support. We indians condemn
racism when it happens on us in foreign countries like UK, US and Australia.
But back home, it is daily practise of Northis, who are comparatively fairer
than southis. This has ensured a complete dominance of fair skinned northis in
Bollywood. Thus, when a black guy came up in the industry, there was immense
support for him from people. As my colleague puts it, people saw themselves in
Rajnikant. Most of his movies are about fighting against oppression on black(ugly),
downtrodden, poor people ,which got instantly connected with the masses. he
reinforced the lost hopes in millions of poor people. The another reason for
his immense popularity was the fact that he never broke his connection with the
people, even at the peak of popularity. He made it a point to keep in touch
with common man thru several social works like building kalyana mantap etc.
There has been several examples where people indeed worshipped him like a god
in their homes, not because he was a superstar, but they were all beneficiaries
of his social service.
During 1950's and 60's, when the nation was tired after the
freedom struggle and trying to cope with new challenges, the new lover boy of Bollywood Dev Anand offered a
fresh set of romantic movies to then younger gen. People enjoyed by immersing
themselves into the romantic chartbusters churned out one after another by Dev
Saheb. But when the different social crisis like unemployment, socialism vs.
capitalism etc started to reach peak during 70's and 80's, people's taste
started to change. Enter Angry Young man - Mr. Amitabh. Labour unrest was at
peak during that period, and movies that sympathized with the labour class like
coolie were instant hits. Thus for those two or three decades, movies talking
on the National issues(against the usual trend of rom-coms) were also coming
out, which no longer is relevant now (except for one or two movies like peepli
live, no one killed jessica, etc.)
Taking my own example(no, i'm not a movie star), a couple of
days back when i was returning home by car after attending a function, there
was a minor accident. I was coming straight on my lane when a car that was
standing still on the left lane(to my left), suddenly took to its right and
brazed mine. The honest me didnt wanted to stop the car right in the middle of
road and block it. So i moved to left side, got down and checked the damaged
side. By the time i did this, the scoundrel fled the scene in his car. I
managed to note the number. But in that hullaballo, i forgot to write it down
on paper and eventually forgot also. I was clueless what next to do. I couldnt
even find him anywhere later. I was so helpless, i wanted to find that guy and
hit him black n blue (not sure if I would've really done that). I felt so
ashamed of myself. A surge of emotion, anger, helplessness started to cause so
much trouble inside. That time I realized how good it feels watching a hero
tackling a situation like this in movie. If it was a telugu movie, after the
scoundrel flees the scene and reaches his home gate (feeling how lucky he was),
he will see the hero standing at the gate waiting for him. A few punch
line-dialog from the hero and the dishum dishum starts. The scoundrel learns
his lesson.
Tailpiece : I always get comments from my friend that my
blogs ends very abruptly. Well, all i can say is that people get so engrossed
reading my blog that they hate it when it ends :)

Birth(burden)day

Birthdays have always been a difficult to manage affair for
me. Not just my birthday, my near and dear ones also comes under this ambit.
Well, what is so difficult? To put it in one simple phrase - “”Expectations management””.
Lord sri Krishna says that, Desire (synonym of Expectation)
is cause of problems (well I don’t know the exact line, atleast I don’t know to
put it in English, but I guess the summary of it will be this). But no human
can totally live like a saint. And as I realized, life teaches us a lot of
things, changing us over every day, just like how a sculptor shapes the statue
he works on. Only difference being the sculptor of the real beings is the
almighty.
Well, coming back to my topic of birthday. This birthday was
kinda eye opener for me. “Don’t make anything special ma, lets just bring the
ready made jamun tin from nandini outlet and have it……..” “Restaurant?????? No
pls….. Mom, y waste money on things like this which comes every year????
Anyways, we go to restaur irrespective of whether there is any spl occasion or
not, so y again specifically tomorrow on my bday…. Lets not……” “Gift?? Ummmmm…
well, I Don’t want anything as such, just got a new mobile and laptop for
myself, there is nothing specific I need as of now… so let it b… I don’t want
anything…. “
And then 2 days later my bday came.
“Just chapathi for bf??? Err ok””ma any gift for me????
Well, yeah was just like that asking, not serious….. “
Evening - “are we
going out for dinner??? Oh you have already cooked?? Phovu? Ummm… yeah I myself
asked not to go out to any restaur, but felt like asking, never bother, lets
have phovu only“ (the last two phrases came out without any sound)
The saint inside me who gave out weighty declarations just
the two days before, had died and was replaced by the person, whose character
was dead contrast to what Lord Krishna preached. He made it sure that whatever
decision I had taken two days before, come to haunt me on the D day. It was very painful to accept the reality. I
learnt how easy it is to say something but, follow the same in practical.
Well that was about my birthday. Now coming to my near and
dear ones. Well, there is nothing as such to say what is difficult here. But I
strongly like the expression on the face of the person when I call him/her up
on the D day and wish. People become really emotional and senti when they
realize that their best buddy not only remembered the spl day, but even took
time out of the busy day to cal and wish as well. At the same time, it is too
painful for me when I forget the day and wish them the belated bday wishes.
Asking sorry wont do any help. So I always abstain from using sorry if at all
if I happen to wish belated bday.
Good Night J

Evil vs good

It has always been my practice to write blog when my mind is
flooding with thoughts and interpretations of certain things. But I’m going against
the trend today since, I don’t have anything particular in mind, nor I’m
feeling like writing anything in particular. It’s just that I didn’t wanted to
finish the day in usual manner as I do always. Let me write up something, said
my mind. Well, that makes the saying “Change
is only constant” stronger now.
People are up against FDI in retail market. There are protests
everywhere in the country lead by several “Leaders” who go unnoticed other
days. Bal thackery, the self-proclaimed protector of Marathi
Manoos, growled in his party’s mouth piece “samna”, saying he would kick
the new jnanapith awardee of Kannada- Mr. Kambar for his references on Belgaum.
Vinod Kambli (the ex-indian cricketer, if any of you have forgotten already)
suddenly remembered that he was part of 96’ world cup match. It would have been
good if his memory worked only till that point. But unfortunately (for rest of
team india players), some cells overworked in his brain to remind him that it
may have been fixed.
All this happening around me, used to invoke genuine
questions in mind. Like why this protest? Why Mr. Thackery said like that….e
tc. I was honest to such a extent that I used to read the whole content of such
news headlines in newspapers. But over a period of time, Ëxperience – the teacher,
is teaching me “lessons of life”. I don’t want to discuss anything in detail
here, since the teacher inside each of us would have explained all these in a
unique way. But to put it in a simple way, all this is jus part of the system
where everything is based on greed & need. We put different masks to others
need projecting it as greed, and honest mask to our own need. For media to
survive, they have to be top on TRP charts. For Political parties to survive,
they should not fade out of Public memory. For opposition party to come back to
power in next elections, they should be carrying out protests against Govt
policies, good or bad. It is all part of system. Everything happens for its own
survival and need. The perception differs.
Why we are part of such a system where everything seems to
be bad. Everyone is chasing his own need. Does that mean everyone is greedy? Being
greedy is evil? Here I’m. I started with blank mind, and I’ve a big philosophical
question hauting me now.
Mr. Amish did a wonderful job of explaining evil in his Shiva
Trilogy book. As per my understanding, he tries to say that the universe is
always balanced with evil and good. What does a person do to be a evil? Just
because he murdered/ looted some one cannot be judging point. What made him to
do that? He has dropped into a mind-set which lets him believe that its okay to
loot someone for his own survival. Punishing him may seem to be possible way of
giving justice to victim. But what needs to be done is to make such person
detach from such evil thinking. Though it is impossible to do so practically,
it does help you to understand that a person should not be seen as evil, it’s
the evil principles to which he his attached, which has to be seen as real
evil. Think this way, and I’m sure you will be more calm in dealing with such
people in your daily life. After all, he has got attached to some evil
thinking, lets help him overcome that – think this way.
Gaining publicity seems to be ultimate motive of people I illustrated
above. I’m unable to see anything evil in that. Since it is very much part of
their profession. Everyone cannot be expected to work in a 9-6 job, get paid,
shut- the- mouth- and –lead- your- life kind of life. But if it starts causing
problem to aam-admi by halting traffic, disrupting basic services etc., then we
need to do something. Lets help them realise their attachment to evil thinking
that disrupting public life wont do any good to either him or anyone. I’m sure
many people can come with many more solutions for this on similar lines.
Well, that is it. My mind has done a wonderful job today by
unloading something which did not exist inside it. Was it evil???? LOL…. Time to
sleep.

Monsoonomics

How nice it feels when it showers at evening after a hot day. Of course it depends on which side you are when it rains, inside your home or rushing back to home from office. But nevertheless it is a nice feeling to smell the mud when the rain drops fall on ground. I’m sure that, given a chance many of us would feel the urge to sing and dance to some song, jump and splash the water on the small pools that gets created when it is raining.

But today when it was raining, I was travelling in company bus back to my home. My mind sailed through all the different thoughts about monsoon. I couldn’t help but to think about the people for whom the rains are very important aspect in their life. Their livelihood depends on the monsoon. Yes, I am talking about the Farmers. If we are struck in rain at the time of going to nearest supermarket to buy groceries or vegetables, we may curse our bad luck or even the rain itself for coming at such ‘bad time’. But the very same Rain is essential for producing the goods which we buy from there.

Over the last decade (ever since our country welcomed the globalization) there has been increasing trend in the growth of economy. The GDP has always reached the target of financial planners. But have we done enough for the improving the life of farmers who strive hard in any climatic conditions to produce the food for us? Politicians champion the farmer’s movement till they win elections and then the same people will exploit these farmers by inhumane and unlawful land acquisitions. Movie makers who have tried to highlight the plight of farmers in their movies have seen the movies running in near-empty theaters as people are more interested in new expletives and cuss words teaching movies.

While there are plenty of challenges facing the farmers today, almost all of them could be linked to either literacy or financial independence. Getting subsidized fertilizers and seeds, compensation on land given up for SEZ’s and other projects, support price for the crops etc, depend on the education level and access. Access is a broad concept. Reducing the number of middlemen between the farmer and the market solves many a problem for the poor exploited farmer. This is nothing but the access to fair market. Likewise the access to financial source is also very crucial. A farmer cannot be expected to handle everything that is required to get his produce to market directly (precisely the reason for which he is still dependent on the ever-exploiting middlemen). Forget about the marketing the produce, getting an agricultural loan from bank itself is herculean task for an average farmer. This in spite of the fact that RBI mandate that all public sector banks should give 40% of their total loans to priority sector which include the Agriculture.

It’s very high time that the financial inclusion exercise by RBI meets the desired target. A financial inclusion is a program launched by RBI to help every person in country to at least have a basic saving account with him (and gradually the access to credit facility – at least the micro finance). The advantage of this could be plenty. The government gives the subsidy on fertilizers to the manufacturer (expecting him to pass on the benefit to farmers by lowering the M.R.P) instead of the farmer himself oblivious of the fact that it leads to illegal selling of fertilizers in open market. Same goes with the domestic LPG, diesel etc. But if the financial inclusion is achieved, and the other innovative efforts like the AADHAR (Unique ID for every citizen) these illegal rackets can be curbed or minimized(I abstain from using “stopped” word keeping in mind the IQ power of the mafia people in our country). The savings account of the farmer can be linked with his UID and the government can transfer the subsidy amount to his account directly (with the help of local panchayats and SHG). Though the method is not foolproof, it is effective in long run.

The Anna hazare’s fast proved one important point if nothing else – the youth are not oblivious to the problems plaguing the country. They can be mobilized for social cause provided the leader is creditworthy. Jaago re movement, janagraha NGO etc add to the list of proof. Whatever be the problem, if the govt shows the commitment to work towards it, the citizens will welcome such move with open arms. If there are any loopholes in any plans like the one discussed above, NGO’s and other youth groups are more than happy to help. We’ve the right mind and right energy, what is required now is a leader who can show the right direction to them. I hope the coming monsoons in our country are welcomed by more and more farmers with smiling faces rather than those with frustration and disgust in their face.

And the 2011 cricket champions are...........

A straight six to long on by the leader of Indian cricket team, and the dream of billions of cricket fans in country came true in a memorable way. Unlike the emotional Yuvi who came running to hug his captain after the winning shot, the captain was calm, composed and picked up the wicket with a charismatic smile on his face. Like the one billion ppl of India, even I was too dumbstruck to realise that we made it. It was not getting registered in my mind that we are now world champs. We made it to the top by beating all the great teams(By great team, I consider the cricket team as well as the nation which they represent, except for one – pak) in the KO’s. It took unusually more time for me to come in terms with the situation and exclaim with happiness. What remains etched in my mind is the style which the winning sixer-shot was hit by the captain. He just watched it fly high in the sky of coastal city and reach the stands, rotated his bat in style in air, pulled the wicket from its position behind him. Anyone, any great person would have either jumped in air, thumped his fist into air multiple times or atleast ran towards the other teammate in non-striker end. But this guy, displayed unusual calmness and just had a smile on his face to display the happiness inside. It was just incredible to see such quite-celebration in him. I was instantly drawn towards his style. What a way to celebrate. How incredible his rag to riches story is. And surprisingly, unlike others, this guy’s rag to riches story was hardly known till this day. I was unable to believe that this guy, who managed the TRP-crazy media, the billion ppl’s fanatic dream, the money-powered cricket board, came from a simple-middle class family and worked in Railways for 3 years as TC!!!!!!!!!!!!!! By the time I complete this blog, I guess a Bollywood director would have already finalized a biography-script on the ‘captain-cool’.

Now it was time for our so called socialst inclined political-world champs to chip in and announce the awards for the 16-member squad. Some states gave away the top award – Ratna, some announced land gifts (read BSY), some gave cash awards. The conservationist Momota Banerjee acted like a true Indian (political) “DIDI” by announcing lifetime-free-first class-travel passes for the squad. All this happened and the taxpayer seemed hardly bothered. A politician from our own “namma Kar-nataka” went on to say “People would love to see their heroes being honoured for what they have achieved for them. So its good to give away awards to them”. I wondered what would pass thru the minds of millions of people in govt hospitals, slums, awfully poor rural areas etc., when they watch these Big-hearted politicos announce these expensive gifts on already rich players.

I know that this is rare moment and they certainly deserve this. I even know the fact that it is virtually impossible to eradicate the poverty and uplift the backward class with any number of social welfare projects. Recently the newspaper had published that even if the govt plans to build high rise apartments for those living in slums, it has to build some 100’s of them with each tower having 30 floors and certain number of flats in each floor( I don’t remember the number) for rehabilitating Bangalore slum dwellers alone!! Definitely a near to impossible task.

But my idea is why not spend that award money in some useful way. We can kill two birds in one shot if –

1. announce the award for the squad


2. but utilize the money for the people.

It looks like a puzzle but infact very simple to understand. The state govt can start some social welfare projects in the name of the cricketers. One each project in the name of each cricketer would mean 16 different projects. It can be as simple as building some 100 govt schools in a district, Setting up scholarships in rural schools, building parks or playgrounds in semi-urban or urban area, providing goodies on this day of every year for govt school students (to pull students in rural areas to school), etc. I’m very confident that this will be the more effective way of recognizing the winning team members and every person in the team would accept this whole heartedly. Who would not like to see a social project being run in their name, benefiting thousands of needy people?

We are still a developing nation not because we are not capable. But there is no direction or motivation for the people to come forward and do their bit towards it. The education being top most item in the list of action items. The 1983 sikh riots, the godhra incident and numerous other incidents are the examples of the atrocity the politicians have committed on the people by taking advantage of their illiteracy. A educated man would atleast, think 2^nd time before doing anything – be it casting votes, being taken for ride by “neta” during riots . Several innovative measures by govt such as RTI act and all are still under-utilized, even after years of their start. There can be no other better example than the misuse of NREGS by the “babus”.

The fact that one of the member of the winning team, Munaf patel is almost illiterate ( I refrain from calling him illiterate since I have strong feeling that his teammates would have atleast helped him to read and write his name by now. Look at the Bhajji’s Pinglish (Punjabi+English) speech these days. A remarkable journey from Hindi-answers-to-english-questions to the confident Pinglish replies) tells us the poor literacy rates acting as dampener to our movement towards the development path. It’s sheer luck that this poorly educated guy made it to the elite Indian cricket team. But just think about the millions of other Munaf’s in our country who would wait for one such silver line in the cloud to bring about the change in their life. It’s nothing but the education which can deliver it.

As I walk back from Gym to home, I pass thru the modest slum which is sprawling at the backside of our home. Guys and girls in their 20’s something, dressed in the company uninforms such as Reliance fresh, Spencers, Total, Big Bazar etc get ready to go to their respective work locations some of which are located in posh malls. The only fact that they can manage to speak moderate English has helped them to get these decent jobs which pay them fairly without any problems. Its good that the boom in economy has brought in several global supermarkets to Indian metro cities and thus ensured the employment to these moderately educated people. But not all of them are educated enough to plan for their future. Its not surprising to see them come out of their slums in bikes such as Apache, pulsar etc and dressed in jeans and T-shirts. This applies to both guys as well as girls in the slum. This is due to the fact that they are not educated enough to plan for their future. There are several factors for this. The temporary job which has enabled them to earn in 1000’s, a place to stay in slum where they don’t pay for water, electricity etc, irregular bonuses in forms of several elections that happen in our country etc are some of them. But these are nothing but symptom. The root cause is lack of eduction which has created this irresponsibility and ignorance. They desperately want to overcome the inferiority complex which they suffer when they see the economically stronger section of people. But in this process they hardly realise that they are the ultimate sufferers due to their erratic and vision less spending.

India won the world cup after 28 years. But what have we achieved in our country in these 28 years so that we can celebrate it without any cause of worry? It’s ironical to see the lack of pace with which the country has progressed in these 28 years when compared to the pace with which cricket has developed. Its high time that our leaders, the media, the educated people, the corporate, the civil servants stop fancying the idea of awarding the cricketers “in tandem with people’s excitement” and start acting towards reality. We have proved to the world that we are a great cricketing nation. And it should not stop at that. We should prove that we are good in development too. We need to win a world cup in this competition of development also. As of now, I would give that world cup of development competition to JAPAN.

CUPA

At morning 7 am on Saturday of 19^th Feb, the question that was refusing to go off my mind was “Am I really serious about going to this NGO?” But there was not much I could do now to think more and take some turning decision, after getting up at unusually early hours on weekend. Having finished the breakfast with the mind in confused (or rather surprised) state, I found myself in the BMTC bus, traveling the next 1 and half hours to reach the destination – Bang3. I was pleasantly surprised at the arrangements there and the bus from there left to CUPA sharp at 9.15 am.

Since this is not some picnic/outing, I had this apprehension in my mind that how I can make this article more interesting to read? There are no exciting games we played, no trekking, no muoth watering buffets….. How am I going to add spice to this piece of article? But the same questions were popping up in my mind as soon as the bus entered the CUPA campus, off Airport Road, Bangalore. This was not a team outing, so how am I going to keep myself interested for next 3 to 4 hours? But the wonderful NGO didn’t really disappoint me.

To tell more about this NGO, CUPA – Compassion unlimited plus Action was started in October 1991 in Bangalore by Ms Rogers at the age of 85. From two tiny rooms in her house, CUPA today operates from three centers and occupies a total land area of ten and a half acres. More than 10,000 wild and domestic animals pass through its portals, and activities range from urban stray dog control to load bearing animal relief centers; from a veterinary hospital, emergency care centre, and 24/7 animal shelter operation to rehabilitation of wildlife in their indigenous forest zones.

The interesting thing about this place is, if you are good at assessing analogy, it will strike you that whether you have visited some home where the animals are treated on par with their counter parts – the Homo sapiens. You can find friendly dogs roaming anywhere anytime, be it the office room, kitchen, pantry etc. workers and staff talk to them same like how they talk to each other and ironically they seem to understand the reply coming in forms or barks or meows. Go around visiting the different rooms – ICU, inpatient ward, general ward, kitchen etc. and you will see dogs which have tragic tales to tell, Dogs with one leg severed, dog which was nearly butchered for just giving an unexpected–low volume–bark at the daughter of its owner, cows rescued from slaughter house, parrots rescued from astrologers, eagle treated for some unknown fatal disease which has rendered it motionless, the list goes on. What is more surprising is that the place has got so many regular guests that even the animals seem to recognize them so instantly. As I was listening to a volunteer narrating some story about an animal, a family with cute little daughter walked in. The kid immediately shouted “Charlie”, and a small dog which has lost both its back legs and now walking around with the help of two wheels tied mechanically around its back side, came running to that kid. It was so heart touching to see them play like as if they were friends of same species.

I would have hardly got a chance to witness and know about the care shown towards these lesser-privileged animals had I not visited the NGO. But the more useful lesson that I learnt was that there is a special God to take care of these special animals which are abandoned/tortured by their more privileged owners. I got answers to many questions on that day. And more importantly, my ways of assessing the successful weekends got changed totally.

[Title courtesy: Children of Better god, a book by Susmita Bagachi]

The Indian Consumer

It was a hectic day in the office and I was absolutely glued to the monitor in my workplace even ignoring the self-imposed-strict-instruction to have a glass of water every 30mins. None of the things happening around me were sensed or processed by my brain than the information coming out of the monitor.

My close friend cum colleague dashed to my desk looking agitated. “Dude why don’t you atleast attend to your mobile phone? I’ve been trying to call you from past 25mins. Its good 1 hour 30 mins past our usual tea break time. What has happened to you man”. The sudden twin shocks of being abruptly brought back to the real world and the accusation of not answering to the mobile phone created sudden panic and I was clueless for a moment. My involuntary reflex was that of checking the mobile. I didn’t want to be accused as a workaholic who even forgets to answer his mobile. And the mobile network service provider didn’t let me down either. It was dead. There was no signal. I switched it on and off, took off and inserted the sim, cleaned the dust off over it…in short, I attempted all sorts of manual operations that came to my mind, to make it work. But it didn’t want to help me for 2^nd time. There was no sign of the signal getting restored. My friend also tried to do his bit to make it work. But the network refused to enter my mobile. Frustrated, I threw it on my desk and gave a blank look at my friend. He just locked my system, switched off the monitor and dragged me to the cafeteria.

From the next day, as expected, I had to pay several round of visits to the so called “Customer Relationship center” of the service provider. The day1 I visited, the person at the counter checked the sim card and declared it was dead. He informed me to buy the new one which would cost 50 bucks. I was agitated. “Dude, it wasn’t my mistake”. He didn’t care to listen. Upon persistence he bluntly told me that his instruction manual says that every sim should be sold at the cost price of Rs. 50 and he is simply following it. If I’ve any more questions I need to contact regional head. I had to make a decision here. I cannot afford to stay communicatively immobile for so many days as it may take to get the sim card for free from that reginal head. And basically it was not the money that mattered to me. It was my conscience which was telling me that I will have to pay the penalty for no mistake of mine. I paid the money, got the new sim card with an assurance that the connection would get restored in next 4 hrs, and left the center. My heart, brain and all the muscles in my body was filled with so much of anger that, by chance if the regional head happened to appear before me (of course with a placard hanging over his neck declaring that he is the regional head), I would have crushed and melted him under my feet.

From the next day onwards I initiated my fight against the company. I had two complaints – the first one is the issue that I discussed above and the 2^nd one was about the assurance “connection will be restored by 4hrs” which in practical took good 1.5 days. Except for the foot note “I will approach consumer court tomorrow”, I don’t really remember what story I wrote in the mail. Promptly a reply came within next 4hrs or so that I will get my 50Rs back in my next month bill. I replied again asking what about the 2^nd complaint. There was no response.

The anger had cooled down. Not sure whether it was due to the fact that I would get back my money or whether it was the same old medicine – “TIME” which did the trick. But I lost the zeal to go ahead with my fight. But that didn’t stop thoughts to overflow my mind. How this corporate world would act bullish over its customers. Untill and unless there is high degree of competition, customer concern would hardly fall on any responsible person’s ear in the company. The other day I was reading a news bit on the dissolution of JV between Hero and Honda which had ruled the Indian two wheeler market for decades under the brand name Hero Honda. It seems during 60’s or 70’s, when Hamara Bajaj Scooter became blockbuster hit, the wait period shot upto 12 years for getting one scooter delivered!!!! (Alas, even today you need to wait 90days for an Activa or Unicorn). I wondered what if the customer had passed away or had short term/long term memory loss etc. The person (the then CEO of bajaj) continued saying how the term “Marketing”, “Marketing dept” etc sounded alien for him then. Cut to present – there are loans with EMI as cheap as the cost of one Kg of Onion, ready to help you buy one two wheeler.

Competition does help make the company work efficiently in two areas – 1. Sales(with never-heard-before kind of offers) 2. Service. In one of My previous blog I had mentioned about the story of getting the BSNL phone connection in our home when I was in std 8^th. Now, majority of households in India doesn’t have a fixed phone line connection, thanks to the penetration of mobile phones. Though the mobile connection companies were aggressive in sales, they hardly bothered about the service. There main area of security was the fact that 60% of people didn’t want to change their mobile number owing to the difficulties associated with it. And to cash in on the benefit, Airtel started charging 50paise for every 3minutes for talking with their “Customer (un)care Rep”. Thanks to the newly launched MNP service, the mobile companies are listing after-sales services benefits also in their product catalogs. Several ads addressing the common complaints of mobile phone customers have replaced the cola ads in TV now (did you read Idea? What a wrong idea sirji, I never mean to hurt any person/company thru my articles).

My views about competition in any area were too de-motivating. I always pitied the people who will be subjected to the pressure that comes bundled with competition. This was the case until I grew up to stand on my own legs (in Indian terms – to earn and spend your own money). I realized how difficult it is to stay awake with all your eyes open whenever you stepped outside your home to buy something. One small neglect, and you will be made to pay price for it. The pain of seeing your hard earned money getting wasted on wrong things could make your life hell. Thus my views started changing gradually. Competition and Change are the two friends who always walk hand in hand. Both are inevitable by laws of nature!! (Didn’t Homo sapiens win the “survival of fittest” war, to become supreme power species, when god created the universe?). There should be more aggressive campaigns regarding consumer rights. But unlike any other initiatives, this campaigning also will meet the success only if the literacy rate in our country improves. Which again will depend on our political leadership. Which again depends on bureaucracy. Which again depends on…………